A Newfound Favorite

I thought my husband was crazy when he put a bottle of grapefruit juice into the shopping cart. I don't think I have ever liked grapefruit juice although I hadn't tried it in years. He convinced me to have some a couple days later and I ended up polishing off the bottle. It's funny how our likes and dislikes change as we get older. I've already got it on the shopping list for our next trip to the store.

Speaking of Bills

My 3 day hospital stay at the beginning of February yielded a bill of just about $10,000.00! Thank goodness for insurance!

Hot air rises...

I feel the need to complain about this on my blog, because if I complain to any of my parents or grandparents I will get a big fat "I TOLD YOU SO" (rightfully) from them. When we built our house we opted for 9 foot ceilings rather than 8 foot ceilings everywhere. As an added bonus we have 13 foot ceilings in our dining room and living room. We have about a 25 foot ceiling in our foyer and our bedroom maxes our somwhere around 13 feet as well. Sure we love the open floor plan and all of the space we have, but man does it suck to heat it in the middle of winter. With many nights hitting below zero and the thermostat at a constant 70 degrees, our latest gas bill was $397.00. Who would think that it costs more to stay warm than to make a car payment! Oh well, at least we didn't hit $400 (yet) - I sure hope it warms up soon.

It's been a while...

So it has been a while since I have posted on my blog and a lot has been going on since then. To fill you in here is a brief run down.

My new business, Westbrook Consulting Services, is up and running and doing well. I sent out a formal announcement the last week of January to as many people as I was able to in the moving and storage industry to let them know of my departure from Canton Street and of my new beginning at Westbrook. I was overwhelmed with emails and phone calls of support, encouragement, and praise. I don't think I have ever felt so good about myself before! Surprisingly, I also received at least a dozen, if not more, phone calls from clients (and some candidates) letting me know that they felt I really made the right decision by getting out of Canton Street. These calls really gave me some positive reinforcement about my decision to leave. So far, business is good. I have more than enough clients, job orders, and candidates to keep me busy. On Jan 19th, we saw the musical Alter Boyz - It was pretty funny. If you are Catholic or if you know a thing about the Catholic religion and if you have a sense of humore, this show will have you laughing out loud. We got tickets for Christmas and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. If you are looking for 90 minutes of entertainment downtown, this is a great show to go to at the Drury Lane Theatre at Water Tower.

At the end of January we also celebrated my brother-in-law, Greg's birthday by having a family bowling night. Lot's of fun although we posted some pretty unimpressive numbers.

My father in law and brother in law - enjoying some greasy pizza at the bowling alley.

My husband and his mom - he now has longer hair than she does!

My brother in law Greg and his wife, Linda - how cute.

Among exciting events for the rest of January, we finally took our Christmas tree down! We also celebrated birthdays for Rusty and BamBam. Rusty turned 5 on January 12 and BamBam turned 7 on January 13. They are loving this winter weather, especially playing in the snow!

Speaking of Birthday's I turned 27 on Feb 3rd. Dennis and I spent the weekend at the Grand Geneva Resort and Spa in Lake Geneva, WI. While we had a great weekend there, we did experience something a little bit odd. When we arrived on Friday, I went to the spa for a wonderful body massage and manicure while Dennis went snowboarding. Who did I run into at the spa, but my old boss and his wife? How weird is that? As I was perusing the front of the spa I noticed a woman looking at me. Her husband soon joined her, and who was it but Tom & Gail Myers! I would have probably approached them to say hello, but they took off in the direction of the locker rooms when they saw me. (Tom fired me for interviewing at Canton Street in May, 2006 - what a cut throat industry I am in!). Having never run into them in IL, it was a bit odd to see them in WI. Anyway, the weekend was nice. Dennis and I had some wonderful meals and a really good time around town. We have been to the Grand Geneva several times and we plan to go back many more times in the future.

Here we are getting ready to go out and enjoy the town of Lake Geneva! We were lucky we were here the first weekend of February. The second week, they got 20 inches of snow!

Dennis got me a silver 80 gig ipod for my birthday along with some silicon protective cases. I haven't used it yet but I have a long list of songs and pictures I am ready to import!

The entryway to the Grand Geneva Resort!

On my actual birthday we watched the superbowl with my sister, dad and Diana, and Grandma. We were all very happy with the outcome of the game and we had a lot of fun eating chilli, crab cakes, and of course cake and ice cream and watching the game together.

Unfortunately the day after my birthday, I landed myself in the hospital! At 4pm on Monday night I started to have stomach pains and by 6pm I could barely stand up. With my husband still being at work, my father in law took me to the emergency room. They took good care of me and I was there for a couple of days. It turned out that I had a cyst (that I didn't even know I had) that ruptured! Very painful - glad it's over!

Since I have been home, I have just been working, working, working and catching up on everything. So there, now you are all caught up on me - I will try not to go an entire month without posting again!