Lisa (my sis), Julie and a noodle fight!
Bam and Russ with their Momma
Tony and Auntie Julie
Bam going in for his first dip.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Finally Swimming!
It took about 5 days from install to swimming. The pool was put in on May 22. It filled most of the day on the 22 and 23. We shocked it on the 24th and started swimming on the 25th. It was a great Memorial Day Weekend! Thanks to my dad and my father-in-law (and my husband) the fence is now all the way up around the pool and looking good. Sunday I had my sister and 2 nephews over swimming. Monday, my best friend Christen and her fiance, Mark, came over. Russ and Bam also really enjoyed the pool. Russ is a good swimmer, but Bam is a little uneasy, which is why Bam has on his puppy life jacket. Take a look! Hope you had a great Memorial Day Weekend! :)
Lisa (my sis), Julie and a noodle fight!
Lisa (my sis), Julie and a noodle fight!
Saturday, May 26, 2007
A Great Salesman
Being in sales myself, I found this story somewhat amusing.....
A young man from Minnesota moves to Florida and goes to a big "everything under one roof" department store looking for a job. The Manager says, "Do you have any sales experience?" The kid says "Yeah. I was a salesman back in Minnesota."
Well, the boss liked the kid and gave him the job. "You start tomorrow. I'll come down after we close and see how you did."His first day on the job was rough, but he got through it.
After the store was locked up, the boss came down. "How many customers bought something from you today?The kid says "One".
The boss says "Just One? Our sales people average 20 to 30 customers a day. How much was the sale for?" The kid says "$101,237.65".
The boss says "$101,237.65? What the heck did you sell?"
The kid says, "First, I sold him a small fish hook. Then I sold him a medium fishhook. Then I sold him a larger fishhook. Then I sold him a new fishing rod. Then I asked him where he was going fishing and he said down the coast, so I told him he was going to need a boat, so we went down to the boat department and I sold him a twin engine Chris Craft. Then he said he didn't think his Honda Civic would pull it, so I took him down to the automotive department and sold him that 4x4 Expedition."
The boss said, "A guy came in here to buy a fish hook and you sold him a BOAT and a TRUCK?"
The kid said "No, the guy came in here to buy Tampons for his wife, and I said, 'Dude, your weekend's shot, you should go fishing.' "
A young man from Minnesota moves to Florida and goes to a big "everything under one roof" department store looking for a job. The Manager says, "Do you have any sales experience?" The kid says "Yeah. I was a salesman back in Minnesota."
Well, the boss liked the kid and gave him the job. "You start tomorrow. I'll come down after we close and see how you did."His first day on the job was rough, but he got through it.
After the store was locked up, the boss came down. "How many customers bought something from you today?The kid says "One".
The boss says "Just One? Our sales people average 20 to 30 customers a day. How much was the sale for?" The kid says "$101,237.65".
The boss says "$101,237.65? What the heck did you sell?"
The kid says, "First, I sold him a small fish hook. Then I sold him a medium fishhook. Then I sold him a larger fishhook. Then I sold him a new fishing rod. Then I asked him where he was going fishing and he said down the coast, so I told him he was going to need a boat, so we went down to the boat department and I sold him a twin engine Chris Craft. Then he said he didn't think his Honda Civic would pull it, so I took him down to the automotive department and sold him that 4x4 Expedition."
The boss said, "A guy came in here to buy a fish hook and you sold him a BOAT and a TRUCK?"
The kid said "No, the guy came in here to buy Tampons for his wife, and I said, 'Dude, your weekend's shot, you should go fishing.' "
Friday, May 25, 2007
Common Sense
I received this in an email from my mother-in-law and through it was worth sharing.
Obituary - Common Sense Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as knowing when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm, life isn't always fair, and maybe it was my fault.
Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you earn) and reliable parenting strategies (adults, not children are in charge). His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.
Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job they themselves failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer Aspirin, sun lotion or a sticky plaster to a student; but could not inform the parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.
Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar can sue you for assault.
Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement. Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason. He is survived by three stepbrothers; I Know my Rights, Someone Else is to Blame, and I'm a Victim. Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.
Obituary - Common Sense Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as knowing when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm, life isn't always fair, and maybe it was my fault.
Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you earn) and reliable parenting strategies (adults, not children are in charge). His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.
Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job they themselves failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer Aspirin, sun lotion or a sticky plaster to a student; but could not inform the parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.
Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar can sue you for assault.
Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement. Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason. He is survived by three stepbrothers; I Know my Rights, Someone Else is to Blame, and I'm a Victim. Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Promises, promises
So I know in my one and only April post, I had promised to post some new pictures I had taken once I finaly got my new digital camera. Here you are! Enjoy!
Jen and Julie with their new Coach purses!
Nathan being "Knighted" at the Mideival Times for his 29th birthday dinner!
The family room and kitchen painted in "fresh clay"
The bedroom painted - sage green on the walls, mustang brown on the plant shelf, and a light moss on the ceiling
The dining room and living room painted in "castle walls" blue/grey
The top piece of our wedding cake! mmmmm...
Adam's awesome MahiMahi with mango/fruit salsa served on rice pilaf...MMMMM...
Lisa and Julie - the pink moped rides again! Whoo hooo!
Adam having fun playing baseball with the Wii
Logan playing Wii bowling
Nic and Rachele at Nic's Confirmation
Julie & Den - Julie's new haircut (with bangs) and Dennis's hot sexy curls!
Julie, Christen, and Lisa - April 6th - HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTEN!
A tired Rusty Noodleman!May 22 - We got a Pool!
YAY! I have been waiting for this day for a long time. Back in March we decided to put in a pool. When we arrived home from vacation, the company called me and said that they would put it in on Tuesday! Here are a few pictures of it.
It is a 27 foot round above ground pool with a heater/filter etc. Today is May 24 and we are still working on filling it. It is almost all the way full now. We will post more pictures once we have a chance to enjoy the pool over memorial day weekend!
It is a 27 foot round above ground pool with a heater/filter etc. Today is May 24 and we are still working on filling it. It is almost all the way full now. We will post more pictures once we have a chance to enjoy the pool over memorial day weekend!
May 20 - Where's the green bag?: Heading Home
So today we woke up and got ready to leave. After turning in our rental car, we checked in for our flight, went through security, had lunch, and waited to fly home. Our plane was delayed for mechanical reasons so we had to wait. At 3pm when we were suppose to board we picked up our bags when Dennis looked and me and said "hey, where's the green carry on bag?" At that point the freaking out began.
The green carry on bag contained our video camer along with all the videos we took over the past 10 days as well as our glasses, contact lenses, Dennis's cell phone, and some other miscellaneous things.
We opted not to get on the plane, and to instead freak out and run around the airport retracing our steps looking for the bag. We went back to the restaurant where we had lunch, back to security, back to check in, to the airport lost and found and to the Orlando police. Alas, no green bag. We found another flight home and thanks to my tearful story, we were not charged for it. I continued calling the Orlando airport lost and found about 20 more times and each time was told that no bag was handed in.
By 10pm we landed in Chicago and I realized our checkbook was also in the green bag. I had already made peace with losing the bag and ordered Dennis a new cell phone. realizing the checkbook was gone, I freaked out all over again. By 11pm we got home and there was a message on our answering machine from the Orlando airpport lost and found. Someone handed our bag in at 11am and they called our house at noon! They had our bag the whole time but just were too lazy to look for it when we went in.
Tragedy avoided!
The bag is now on it's way to our house - According to the lost in found, all of our stuff is still in the bag and we should have it this week!
It was a close call, but all is well that ends well!
:)
The green carry on bag contained our video camer along with all the videos we took over the past 10 days as well as our glasses, contact lenses, Dennis's cell phone, and some other miscellaneous things.
We opted not to get on the plane, and to instead freak out and run around the airport retracing our steps looking for the bag. We went back to the restaurant where we had lunch, back to security, back to check in, to the airport lost and found and to the Orlando police. Alas, no green bag. We found another flight home and thanks to my tearful story, we were not charged for it. I continued calling the Orlando airport lost and found about 20 more times and each time was told that no bag was handed in.
By 10pm we landed in Chicago and I realized our checkbook was also in the green bag. I had already made peace with losing the bag and ordered Dennis a new cell phone. realizing the checkbook was gone, I freaked out all over again. By 11pm we got home and there was a message on our answering machine from the Orlando airpport lost and found. Someone handed our bag in at 11am and they called our house at noon! They had our bag the whole time but just were too lazy to look for it when we went in.
Tragedy avoided!
The bag is now on it's way to our house - According to the lost in found, all of our stuff is still in the bag and we should have it this week!
It was a close call, but all is well that ends well!
:)
May 19 - Our 1 year Anniversary!
As of today we have shared 365 days of wedded bliss! hehe. To celebrate our anniversary, we started the day by sleeping in. I mean really, can you think of a better way to celebrate?
Anyway, we went to Universal Studios Florida for the afternoon. We went on some awesome roller coasters, earthquake and twister simulations, and spent the last of our cash on a couple of drinks and had a toast to us. Once we were ready to leave the park we headed to the giant parking structure. We thought we had parked on the 5th floor in the "E.T." section. After about an hour and a half of wandering around we found our car in the "Spider Man" section on the 4th floor. What a day!
To celebrate our anniversary we had made dinner reservations at "The Vineyard Grill" at the Ritz Carlton in Orlando. It was one of the most beautiful places we had seen in Orlando. The people were exceptionally nice and the food was out of this world. I started with a french onion soup and a tomato and fresh motzarella salad. Dennis started with a ranch lettuce wedge salad and lobster bisque. We split a shrimp cocktail, a bottle of Danzante pinot grigio and we each had a small filet and a half of a lobster tail and claw along with white asparagus. It was an excellent meal, cooked absolutely perfectly! For dessert I enjoyed a chocolate mousse while Dennis had a mango souffle. I am getting hungry just thinking about how great it was! It was the perfect way to celebrate our anniversary, and a great ending to our trip.
Anyway, we went to Universal Studios Florida for the afternoon. We went on some awesome roller coasters, earthquake and twister simulations, and spent the last of our cash on a couple of drinks and had a toast to us. Once we were ready to leave the park we headed to the giant parking structure. We thought we had parked on the 5th floor in the "E.T." section. After about an hour and a half of wandering around we found our car in the "Spider Man" section on the 4th floor. What a day!
To celebrate our anniversary we had made dinner reservations at "The Vineyard Grill" at the Ritz Carlton in Orlando. It was one of the most beautiful places we had seen in Orlando. The people were exceptionally nice and the food was out of this world. I started with a french onion soup and a tomato and fresh motzarella salad. Dennis started with a ranch lettuce wedge salad and lobster bisque. We split a shrimp cocktail, a bottle of Danzante pinot grigio and we each had a small filet and a half of a lobster tail and claw along with white asparagus. It was an excellent meal, cooked absolutely perfectly! For dessert I enjoyed a chocolate mousse while Dennis had a mango souffle. I am getting hungry just thinking about how great it was! It was the perfect way to celebrate our anniversary, and a great ending to our trip.
May 18 - Universal Studios: Islands of Adventure
We spent most of the day at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. We really enjoyed the Dr. Seuss world. It was like stepping into a Seuss book. The rides there were very fun and luckily we bought an Express pass and got on all of our rides right away. Feeling a little "vacationed out" we spent the rest of the night back at our hotel.
May 17 - Orlando : Cirque do Soleil La Nouba
We spent most of the day today driving back to Orlando. We had dinner at The House of Blues and then went to see Cirque du Soleil La Nouba in Orlando. The show was incredbile. If you ever have a chance to see a Cirque du Soleil show, we highly recommend it. We would like to see some of their other shows in other locations. We weren't permitted to take any pictures of the show, but we did buy a program. There were trampoline acts, trapeeze, cyclists, gymnasts, highwire acts, balancing acts - all sorts of things. It was so colorful, perfectly choreographed and very entertaining.
May 16 - Key West : Sailing
Today was a great day! We spent the morning lounging in our hotel's pool. We stayed at "The Inn at Key West" which was really nice and had an awesome pool. We booked a trip on the "Danger" cruise for the day. At 3pm we boarded the Danger sailboat and headed out on the ocean. We saw many of the other key islands out there and actually got off of the sailboat to go kayaking around one of the islands. We learned that the Keys are all made from Red Mangrove trees - interesting. After kayaking, the sailboat took our group further out to go snorkeling. We saw a lot of coral, sponges, fish, and lobsters in the water. We watched the sunset from the sailboat, saw many other boats out there, and even saw a couple getting married on a saiboat. We met some great people from Charlotte while on the boat and later that night went out to dinner with them. It was a spectacular day!
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
May 15 - Key West: Relaxing
Today we spent the day in Key West. It started out a rainy day which wasn't so great. We headed indoors to the museum of history and art and then to the Mel Fischer museum to see the treasure he had discovered from a 1600's shipwreck. The art museum was cool because there were 3 dimensional models of paintings that you could step into and be a part of. The museum was pretty neat too. I was shocked by how heavy a gold bar weighted! Once the sun came out, we stopped by the Southernmost Point in the US (90 miles to Cuba) and then headed to the Beach. It turned out to be a nice day. We had a fantastic dinner at the Westin Resort on the edge of the ocean, sitting outside at sunset listening to the music from the Sunset celebration in Mallory Square. What a perfect way to end the night!
May 14 - Heading to Key West
After a sucky lunch at Planet Hollywood, we decided to get in the car and drive down to Key West. It was a Looooong drive. We left Orlando at about 2pm, hit Miami around 5pm and then Key Largo at about 7pm. The drive from Key Largo to Key West took 3 more hours, putting us at our hotel in Key West at 9pm - It was a long day of driving - in the rain most of the time. We were happy to finally get there. Something of note - there was a "Chicago Title" office in Key Largo!
May 13 - Disney World: MGM Studios
Today we went to MGM studios. It was Mother's Day and the place was nearly empty! We got on each ride with less than a 5 minute wait. The Tower of Terror was great as was the Aerosmith Rock and Roller Coaster. Since we got done so early, we headed back over to the Magic Kingdom to go on everything we had missed the first day - The Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Pirates of the Caribbean. I was driving the Mustang and I ran over and dragged a cone across the parking lot there. Other than that though, it was a great day! That night we went to the Downtown Disney area and had dinner at Fulton's CrabHouse, which is on a big boat in the water. Our waiter Steve was awesome and it was one of the best meals we had ever had. We highly recommend stopping by Fulton's if you are ever in Central Florida.
May 12 - Disney World : The Animal Kingdom
We spent the next day at the Animal Kingdom. It was insanely crowded and impossible to find anywhere to eat. We ended up paying $40 for a breakfast buffet only to find out that the reason for the high price was that is was a character meet and greet breakfast. So here you can see us with Mickey and Donald - yippee. I do not recommend going to Disney on a weekend. All the locals were there and the place was packed! Thank goodness for the Fast Pass. We got in and out and went on all the rides we had hoped to go on. We had been so impressed with Epcot the night before that we made dinner reservations for the 12th at the Bistro in "France." It was a fantastic dinner!
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