Monday, April 20, 2009
Louie's New Love
What on earth could be moving him? Well, turns out he's Louie's favorite new toy. Louie will pick him up (which is hilarious since the pig is the same size as Louis) and drag him about the house. At first I thought it was just he liked stuffed animals so I bought him a cheap stuffed animal from Meijer so wouldn't damage an "heirloom". Unfortunately he wasn't interested in it at all. So began the Louie/Snorky relationship. In order to show Lois (Mike's mom) how loved the pig is in our household, I videotaped Louie with his favorite toy. Warning - the video is disturbing but I promise there is no nudity.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Recovery Day
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Easter Egg... scramble.
Friday, April 10, 2009
J.T. Arrives
Two pretty unexciting days. Thursday was a bit more exciting because I went over to my friend Kristen's house to help her with her wedding invitations. She lives under the illusion I have nice hand writing =) I wouldn't say it's great but it's better than most. I was able to help her complete most of the invitations but I wrote kind of slanted on some... I was upset about it but Kristen took it in stride. She's a very laid-back bride - wish I could say I was the same during my wedding!
Thursday night after Kristen's house Mike was working late and I watched an Independent Film called "Once." It was kind of interesting. It was about two people living in Dublin, Ireland who randomly meet and decide to make an album together. I thought it would be a romance movie but it turned out to be something different. I still enjoyed it though. Independent films are always a toss up.
Friday, April 10th
Today we were very excited to travel to Indiana to pick up my nephew J.T. for a weekend with us. We picked him up around noon and returned to Michigan for a busy afternoon. First we made a stop at McDonalds for lunch. After eating J.T. played around in the McDonald's playground for a while before it got boring. There weren't any other kids in the building which was very odd so I think playing alone wasn't fun. Obviously Mike and I are too busy to play in the playground with him so we had to leave early.
After getting back to Kalamazoo we made a quick stop at home before taking off to watch "Monster's vs. Aliens" in 3D. It was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Not to say I expected it to be terrible but there weren't a lot of choices at the theater this weekend and J.T. had zero interest in Hannah Montana. "That's a girl's movie!" I believe was his exact expression =) However, it ended up turning out well because J.T. said he never watched a movie in 3D before and the show was a lot funnier than Mike and I expected.
After the movie we made a quick stop to the grocery store and picked up a pizza for dinner. J.T. was super patient with us while we shopped and ran a few errands. At home we ate pizza and watched the end of "Star Wars" the cartoon version. Currently Mike and J.T are watching "Underdog." It's the best of both worlds - J.T. likes the show because it's geared toward kids and Mike is loving it because it has talking animals (those who know Mike understand his strange love of talking animals like Babe, that cat from Sabrina the Teenage Witch, etc).
Pretty soon we're going to get ready for bed. We have a very full day tomorrow starting off with an Easter Egg Hunt at 10. Mike and I are not completely old yet... 10 a.m. seems ridiculously early for such events. That means we need to be dressed, fed and out the door by 9:30... on a Saturday!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Spring Snow
Today we woke up to a very irritating snow fall. The wonderful days of 50 degrees or higher had suddenly changed to low 30s. I understand this is a common Michigan thing but I'm not sure I like it. I would like my spring days back - especially since it's Easter this weekend!
After work Mike and I made the trip to Battle Creek to help them out. It was an interesting time for us all =) Mike is green with envy over the new 42" flat screen TV and new DVD system. It wasn't the easiest to set up but eventually Mike figured out all the cords and we got everything set up how Mom and Dad wanted it.
After it was all set up Mike did a quick tutorial run on all the new remotes and set ups for Mom and Dad. Unfortunately we were running short on time so we couldn't program the remotes to work under one universal one so we had to show them how to work all three (TV, DVD & Cable). It was a bit complicated so I had mom label the remotes and put down what settings they needed on the back. I hope the new system works out for them! We'll see this this weekend to finish setting up the new equipment and troubleshoot any issues.
For those of you who remember G.B. (Grill Baby Bird), I took a photo of him while we were there. I tried to get him talking on camera but he shut up the instant I had the camera on record. He's quite the chatterbox whistling like my mom, saying he's a pretty bird, smart bird, calls for "Momma" and I'm sure a number of other things I can't remember right now =) It's really doing well for a wild bird turned domestic! =)
July 2008
April 6th
Today!!! =)
Sunday, April 5, 2009
We are far too social...
Today was a pretty neat day. I'm currently looking at my future at Stryker and despite the dire economy, I've had great support from my boss and finally, HR. My new HR advisor suggested I try job shadowing in a few new departments (i.e. ones I haven't looked at before). My first shadow was today with a Marketing Communications Manager. I didn't even know Stryker had a MarCom area. Basically Sally, the lady I met with, does everything but travel with Marketing. She's responsible for the brochures, local and national advertising for the various divisions within Instruments and any media for products. I followed her around to some meetings and her job is just so busy and exciting. By the time the day was over, I didn't want to go back to my job =) Not that my job is bad but just that I really liked this new area.
Unfortunately there are no open positions within the department yet but it's growing so I'm very hopeful something will turn up. Since I have capped at my current job, my bosses are very supportive of a future move. It's better there isn't a position now anyways because my boss is pregnant and I need to help out with her position until she comes back in August. At least things seem to be lining up well =) Wish me luck!
Thursday night Mike and I went out with some of my coworkers to celebrate the birthday of one and the official hire of a temp at Stryker. We all ate, drank and were merry until pretty late. Then Mike and I took off for an exciting rest of the night of cleaning cat boxes and putting away laundry. Chores...
Friday, April 3rd
Friday was another typical day at work although I felt like I accomplished a lot. Friday night was pretty low key. I did some shopping and Mike worked late.
Saturday, April 4th
Today Mike and I had another appointment for Anya. She's doing so well. We're really hopeful this it the last visit we have to make to check her dosage of medicine. We think this is it but then again, we thought that last time. They took blood from Anya and will send it out Monday. We'll hear back on Tuesday how she did. Cross your fingers... Mike and I are just as tired as Anya of these monthly trips to the vet.
Saturday night we had a housewarming/keg party at a friend's house. We brought a dish to pass and ate way too much of the potluck food. Our friends have a lovely home and have done a lot of work to it. We all watched a college basketball game and Mike was excited Michigan State won because he now won a pretty big pool at work. He's planning to use the money for his birthday later this month at the casino.
One funny part of the evening was when we tired to make smores. Our friends had bought an environmentally friendly log that was supposed to burn for 3 hours but wasn't really warm... Forgetting the fact it probably wasn't safe to roast marshmallows with some a chemically constructed log, it was almost impossible to get them brown. We did manage though and were able to make some pretty tasty smores. Our other friend, Nishit from India (although I would have guessed he was British how well he speaks English and with his accent) had never had a smore before. We were all shocked so I made sure to get some great photos of this pivotal moment in his history. After tasting the smore he said, "This is good...This is fabulous, actually." We all laughed at this description.
We continued to roast some marshmallows until Mike and I decided it was too cold and went back inside. I did get some great shots of Nishit and Brent blowing out the marshmallows on fire. I also got some humorous shots of Brent trying to heat up our fire by sawing wood with a 6 inch saw and a huge log. It was an impossible task so he soon gave up and decided to let the wood burn through by placing the log straight on the fire pit. Not sure if that tricked worked or not because we left soon afterwards.
After the housewarming party we met up with Melanie and Bruco for a quick drink at the Hanger in Kalamazoo. I've never been there before but I wasn't very impressed. It was a very smokey bar atmosphere and all the waitresses worse Daisy-Duke shorts. Very tacky.
Sunday, April 4th
Today was cleaning day. I spent the entire day doing laundry, picking up, and trying to get the house back to normal. We've been out of town or busy so much lately the house really suffered. I also gave the cats a bath because their constant shedding is really killing my allergies. They all did very well. Anya and Bo are used it but Louis acted like I was trying to kill him through most of the process. After their baths, Anya and Bo had the right idea and immediately started bathing themselves to smooth out the ruffles. Louis did no such thing. He was upset at being wet but made no effort to clean himself up. He's currently drying with tufts of hair stuck together. I will have to brush him well later so he will at least look normal.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Mike is my hero!
Well, tonight Mike suggested we go to the movies to see "Knowing." I wasn't crazy about the idea because one I heard it was a terrible movie and two I had a feeling I would find the same bad luck as before and sit in front of rude people. Being a Wednesday, however, I thought the chances of having a crowded theater were pretty low so I agreed to go. We arrived at the theater and found great seats in a relatively empty theater. The movie started at 7:00 p.m. and at the beginning of the movie, there were only three other people in the theater besides us and everyone was evenly spaced. Thank the Lord!
My excitement was short lived when at precisely 7:05, four teenagers paraded into the theater with dramatic flare. Lots of giggling and stomping up the stairs and falling over each other to sit in their chosen seats - directly behind Mike and I but thankfully about 10 seats down. At first, they were kind of quiet. Then my luck returned and one of them spilled a bag of skittles. Oh they giggled and laughed and used their phones to light up the area so they could push them away from their feet. After this distraction I thought they would calm down. Oh no... we had more skittles in the bag which just happened to spill all over the floor - again. This time we laughed harder and started texting our friends to let them know how "stupid" so and so was to spill the candy all over the floor.
Throughout all the giggles and distractions, I held my cool. Even when the boys started tickling the girls and the girls started kicking the seats in front of them (my row, mind you) quite hard, and my seat shook a little, I kept my cool. I think what really made me lose my cool was during a particularly intense point of the movie they started giggling and making fun of the show - loudly. Umm, okay, don't like the movie but SHUT UP about it. That was strike number one for me. Strike number two came almost immediately later when they continued their peanut gallery comments and in unison started using the row in front of them (still MY frigging row) as a dancing floor and my seat was shaking continuously through two scenes of the movie.
My patience was thin and the constant string of bad luck had finally caught up with me. I turned to Mike said, quite seriously and not at a whisper, "I am going to shoot them!" Mike thankfully stopped a possibly bad situation involving myself and an altercation with 13 year olds by firmly but politely telling the said delinquents to quiet down and stop disturbing the rest of the theater. I was stunned speechless. I was so impressed I wanted to cry tears of joy. He may not have armor or ride away on a white horse (that's a funny thought though, isn't it =) ), but tonight, Mike is my hero and I'm so happy to be married to him!