Memorial Day Weekend

Our first camping trip of the season and wow, it was absolutely gorgeous. We took our camper up Thursday night, so when we got off work on Friday, we could just pack up and go and not have to worry about setting everything up.

Friday I got off work at 2:00, we got an email that said our building will be closing at 2:00 due to the holiday weekend. We were all excited, because it was a very slow day and it worked out perfect because I got to go home and get the rest of the stuff packed and have everything ready for when Tom came home. He ended getting home around 4:00 or so and we put everything in the truck and off we went. We got up to Whitetail around 5:30. Here's a picture of patches on our way up:

she like to have her face outside, it's so funny to watch her. She's such a good dog, we just wish her hair would start growing back.

Andy and Bill Ryan were camping next to us. Actually, they reserved 2 spots and asked if we wanted one of them, as long as they could put up a tent because Gordon, Lorlie, Gary, Erica and Taylor were all coming up. So it was nice to enjoy the weekend with all the Ryan's.

Saturday, we enjoyed the day at the pool, I didn't get any pictures of us in the pool because I didn't want to risk taking my camera up there and it getting wet, but here are a few pictures of us "after" the pool.

Playing some beanbags.. notice Tom's red belly. He's still sore, today! Here, me and Tom are taking on Gordon and Lorlie - We won!

Me and Micayla taking on Brandon and Tom. I think the girls one, but the guys beat us 2 out of 3, so I guess we would have to say the guys won.. Until next time!

Tom had to wear his Hawkeye shirt all day because he didn't need anymore sun, these pics are taken on Sunday, another great day.


Later on the day on Sunday, the kids bought a Whitetail shirt for $5 and they got to tie-dye it. Here's a few pictures of them tye-dyeing there shirts.

Here they are preparing to tie rubber bands around there shirts.



Here they are dunking there shirts into the different colors.




The finished product! They look really neat.. Brandon wore his today and it looks really neat now that they are dried.



And a picture Brandon took, his motorcycle. He got to ride it most of the weekend.

We got home about noon on Monday and its another beautiful day, but it was just a relaxing one. I did some laundry and now Tom and I are watching a movie, Saw 5 - weird movie. Tomorrow I start my new hours for work, I will be working 7:30 to 4:00, it will be great for the summer, but I will have to book home after Jazzercise, shower and head back down the hill. That's the only thing that sucks. I might start taking my clothes with me and shower at work. We'll see.

Tom's on 1st shift again this week, but he's not sure whats going to happen after this. Oh and some bad news.. I have to take another dose of Clomid starting on Wednesday :( It sucks, I thought maybe this time, but nope! Oh well, next time right?

Hot, Hot, Hot

Summer has finally hit the midwest and it hit hard. Today was 90 some degrees out and so was yesterday. Although yesterday, we got to spend the day on the river so it wasn't so bad, but when we came home, we came home to a hot house. We decided not to turn the air on yet, just because we thought it would cool off, but it didn't. No one got a real good night sleep. Micayla just told us she got like 2 hours of sleep, and Tom and I tossed and turned. I had to get up for Jazzercise and when I left this morning, it was still so humid. So when I got home from Jazzercise, I decided to turn the air on. I can't remember the last time our air was on in May. But thank God for central air. It's much better in our house now and I can't wait to snuggle into my bed and not be so sticky.

Tonight after work, Tom and I went to The House of China. We split an order of crab meat ragoons, I had the 3 delight and Tom had some beef hunan or something, all I know is it was hot and spicy. We both brought left overs home for lunch one of these first days. Tomorrow we have sandwiches made for lunch.

Well, I really should have learned a new Jazzercise song, but dancing with the stars was on and now I'm watching 24 with Tom. Today is the last day for 24, it's the season finale and final show. It's pretty good, I love keifer sutherland.. yummy! He reminds me of The Lost Boys, my favorite vampire movie. Well, until Twilight.. Can't wait for June 30th - Eclipse comes out. I'm now finally reading that book, since work has been pretty slow, the only thing left to do besides surf the net is read a book. So I'm reading Eclipse.

Wedding update

Well, it's been over a week since my last blog, probably longer, but I have been busy! My brother, Chris got married to Kristi, Luke Steph and Leah drove from California to be here for the wedding and well Tom's on 1st shift this week, so I just have been busy.

First of all, I want to say, Chris and Kristi, you 2 had a beautiful wedding. We had so much fun! The boys looked fantastic in there tuxes and Kristi, you looked beautiful in your dress.

Not much went on this week, but it was so nice to have my husband home when I got home from work. I really miss it when he's on 2nd. I know I can't get used to it, because after this week, he will probably be back on 2nd.

Tonight, we just got back from our friend, Jody's house. They were having a fish fry so she called us and since we were in the area, we stopped by. Deek was cooking up the fish and he had several different types. First was catfish, then he came out with tilapia and the last thing he had was crab. Everything was made in his "homemade" batter. It was so good. I wasn't to thrilled with the crab, but everything else was delicious. Earlier in the day, Me Tom and Micayla went downtown to Dubuquefest. They had an art and craft fair and of course, the good vending food. We didn't see too much, but we did enjoy the fresh squeezed lemonade and "potato chips". After that, we walked down bluff street and just went through a few of the stores. I ended up buying a new shirt and Micayla got a new jewelry holder, for her necklaces. After that we went to Target, went home to get Brandon and back down to the ball field. Oh and Micayla was doing all the driving, in "her" car. She's doing so good at driving, we are so proud of her! Brandon won his ball game tonight and he went 2 for 3, he's getting so much better and it's so much fun to watch at this age.

Tomorrow we might go out on the river, with Tom's dad and his pontoon. Not for sure yet, but since its the first time out you never know what can happen, but we will probably all go out. It's suppose to be like 90 degrees tomorrow. I can't wait, today was one of the first beautiful days of the summer. I just hope it's this nice next weekend, our first camping trip. We are head up to Whitetail. Andy, Bill, Gordon, Lorlie, Erica and Gary are all going as well. It should be fun. I'm just excited to get a 3 day weekend. I know Tom is too!

So that's all I got to talk about today, but here's a few pictures from the wedding.

The newlyweds.



The Hillebrands. It was such a beautiful day.



All the boys and there tuxes.. aren't they handsome?


Steph and Leah - I love this picture!


Tom and Micayla enjoying a father/daughter dance. I love these moments!


Luke and Leah



Brandon and Micayla before the wedding in our backyard.

Patiently waiting

yes, we are patiently waiting for Luke, Steph and Leah. They ended up driving from Sacramento. I'm just so excited they are almost to Iowa! I'm sure it's been a long trip, but once they get here, it will all be OK.

I haven't blogged in a few days so I guess I will start with Mother's day. It was a beautiful day. We had Tom's mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, boner, sandy and danny and barb. We had brunch up at our house. We made eggstrada, Linda made a french toast casserole and Boner made an egg bake, with lots of meat and eggs. Everything turned out great. Here are a few pics. I got all the "moms" a washcloth and a little candle. I think they all really enjoyed it. I was happy to be able to host all of our wonderful mothers.

Here's the bouquet of flowers I bought, aren't they pretty?
Before everyone got here - see the washcloths and candles?

And one after eating.


Bone man, I have no idea what you are doing here.. don't post this on facebook!

My sweetie!


A Barrett family picture - where's John?


There he is!


After we got all cleaned up, we sat outside for a while, it ended up turning out to be a beautiful day, but when the sun went under a cloud, it got chilly. Later on in the day, Tom and I went to my aunt Andy and uncle Bill's house for BBQ chicken. Oh man it was so good. We got home pretty early and called it a night.

I got my hair cut and colored tonight so I'm all ready for the big wedding. I'm so excited for Chris and Kristi, we are ALL going to have a great time!

Women of the night

It was called something like that, I don't remember the "theme", but the theme at our table was Polka dots and petals. Thanks to Julie, Jazzercise instructor, who decorated the table. I wish I had pictures, because it reminded me of Leah's 1st birthday party!

Tonight, we were spoiled by men. Me, Mom, Shelly, another Jazz instructor, her mom, Julie and Joleen. We were asked to go by Shelly a couple weeks ago and it's a dinner that's catered by Fried Green Tomato's out of Galena and it was delicious. We had chicken breast potatoes, an excellent salad, oh and the dessert was to die for. It was a lemon cake and it was very refreshing, plus a couple bottles of wine.

Each table was decorated differently and they were all decorated so neat, some were decorated with bird houses, other decorated with flowers and butterflies and so on. There was also, of course, some shopping and different girls modeled clothes from different clothing companies. All super cute of course so now, I want to go shopping. There was this one dress I loved and it was from Gotta Have It and it would be so cute to wear to Chris and Kristi's wedding. Even though I already bought a dress for the wedding, this one was just so cute. Maybe I will have to take a drive down to bluff street tomorrow on my lunch break. Oh what a great idea.

We ended the night about 8:45 and now I'm here, after sorting out my jewelry, blogging! Yeah that's right, I got the jewelry from the party I had 2 weeks ago. I'm not mentioning the candle party because I don't want to ruin my night.

One other thing I did tonight is went to a "home interior" party. I know it's not called that, but it's something like that and like I said before I'm not happy with the 2 shelves I have in the living room I'm not digging anymore. I don't know if it's because I don't have much on the shelves or what, but Erica had a party tonight that I went to before the dinner at the Cathedral, because I really wanted to look at the stuff, so the demonstrator came early just for me. Well, I found the nicest, is that even a word, but I found a really neat picture, with a couple of sconces. I can't wait to get it and then figure out how we are going to hang it up. She drew out a few pictures for me so I have a few ideas. It will look really nice on our big wall. Now all I really want are new blinds, for our room and the living room. I'm so sick of "mini blinds" they are bent and they just drive me nuts.

So I'm so ready for the weekend!

Wednesday update

Today was a good day other than one thing.. I got my period :( so now I have to start another dose of Clomid. I did find out from the doc that my progesterone was excellent, so now I'm on the right dose of Clomid and well, we just have to keep trying. That's all we can do for now.

After work tonight, I went golfing with my friend, Hilary. We used to work together at TFS and we played volleyball together as well. She's starting a league next week and asked about going golfing and since Tom's working 2nd shift, I have lots of free time. The kids didn't have anything going on, except Micayla, who had driver's ed, had a ride to and from and Brandon hung out with his friend, Tyler. I ended up picking him up after golfing and came home. We played up at Bunker and played the back 9. I did pretty good. I have to say I hit the ball really well for the 2nd time out.

Tomorrow night, I'm going with my mom to a dinner down at The Cathedral, it's a woman banquet or something like that. We got asked by another Jazzercise instructor, Shelly. She called last week and said this is something her and her mom does and it's just women. The food is catered in by Fried Green Tomatoes from over at Galena so it has to be good. I think Tom and I have ate over there once and it was good. I will blog more about it tomorrow since I don't really know what to expect. Before the dinner, we are going to Erica's house, she's having a "home interiors" party or something like that. Not sure the name of the company, but I want to stop out, because I would really like to find something for my living room. I'm not thrilled anymore with my shelves I have up, so I want to look for something different, but again, I have no idea.

I feel so bad, Micayla just came up to me and said she was going to come home tomorrow after school. Tomorrow is her 17th birthday, and I had to tell her I had plans. Normally, she's with her friend after school or she's at driver's ed. Normally, she will have class on Thursday and this week, she had to go on Wednesday instead of Thursday. I knew going to this thing with mom was on her birthday, but since she has driver's ed, I made the plans. Well, anyway, she said she will go with her Grandma and they will go shopping or something. Micayla wanted to go camping this weekend for her birthday, but the weather is not going to be all that great and we weren't sure what she wanted to do, so we decided not to camp. Plus, we have lots going on this weekend. Kristi's graduation and Mother's day, so that puts a damper on dinner or anything. It sucks Friday nights that Tom works but like I said, we do what we have to do. Hopefully, he will be on days for the next couple of weeks, especially next week because I really want him with me at Chris and Kristi's wedding.

So, I have nothing else to blog about... so ta ta for now!

Monday night softball

Yeah, you read it right, tonight I played softball. It seems like forever since I have played, but I get a game in here and there about once a year. But tonight was the first game of league this year. No I'm not playing every Monday. It was a lot of fun. I have to admit, I didn't think I would be able to hit it the way I did. I ended up 2 for 2 so I had to hit and I got out twice. I actually had a triple, I don't know what got in to me, but man it felt awesome!

Micayla had her first day of driver's ed. She starts driving next week with her instructor, so she can give him grays. Just kidding, she's doing awesome.

Not much to talk about today, so I guess that's it for tonight! Now off to finish watching Dancing with the Stars!

Quick weekend

The weekend went way too fast. It was so nice to get to spend the 2 day's with my husband and Brandon. Well Friday night, was a night and I'm was glad it was over. It started out great at work, no complaints there, but then around the time I was supposed to pick up Brandon from school, because he was supposed to have a detention, but I guess it was canceled because of the weather, it started really raining and thunder and lightning so they told him to get on the bus so he did. He called me right away, thank God, because it was really bad out. So anyway, we told Brandon that he couldn't do anything this weekend, because he's been getting in trouble at work, so needless to say, he ended up getting a ride from Micayla's friend, without telling me, and when I found out he was at his friends house, and we told him no, he really made me mad. I had to call Tom and I hated to do that, but I'm not used to this yet. I just hope since it was the first week that Tom was on 2nd shift, from now on, I hope it gets a little easier. It's an adjustment for all of us! So anyway, on my way our of work, Linda, Tom's mom called, and asked if I wanted to go to the "19th Hole" so I told her I had to pick up my glasses and Brandon and that we might be over. As I was driving to get Brandon, I started to get hungry so we decided to go eat with Linda, Tom, John and Juanita, Sandy and boner. Once I got over to the 19th hole, I got a call from Linda asking where we were at. I said I'm here, we got a big table and I had a beer. Well, here she said they were at Neighbors Tap, OMG, I about died. I don't know how I got the 2 mixed up, and they are no where by each other, but I ended up at the wrong place. That's how much my brain was shot Friday night. But once we got done eating, we came home and Brandon and I tried to stay up for Tom, but we watched a movie and we both ended up falling asleep. We watched Paranormal Activity, it was stupid! Oh I forgot to mention, after supper, we came home and Brandon had to clean his room, so I went over to Kristi's for a while, to clear my head. It was nice, we talked about what was going on with my Candle party, long story, too long to blog about, but she was making dinner for Saturday night and we talked about the wedding and everything. I still can't believe it's less than 2 weeks away! It's going to be so fun. Tom should find out this week if he's going to be able to come. The only way he will be able to go is to switch shifts with someone on first shift, so his boss is working on it. If it works out, he will get to work first shift all next week!

But Saturday, with Tom home, it was awesome, it was so nice to get up together and make breakfast and just hang out. We got some stuff done around the house and I finally got to hang out our sheets on our new clothes line. Here's a few pictures! I know, I'm a dork.




They are so nice, I love the fresh air on our clean sheets. I tried doing a few towels today, but I don't think I will do that again because they end up hard and I like a soft towel, but I thought I would try it anyway.

Brandon had 2 ball games this weekend, one last night and one tonight, Sunday. He lost Saturdays game, but won Sunday's game, he ended up hitting the winning run in. It was awesome. Saturday night after his game, we went down to Tom and Linda's for a steak fry, umm, it was so good. She also made hash browns and Tom's aunt brought some Morels. OMG, they were so delicious. I know when Luke and Steph come home, mom's going to get some. Thank God for Luke and Steph, because we get all the good stuff when they are home. LOL

Tom and I finished our garden today, we know have tomatoes, habaero peppers, red and yellow and green peppers, zuchinni, peas, carrots and onions. I think I got it all. I also planted out big pot out in the front with some flowers so hopefully they will look good once they come up. After Brandon's game, we went up to mom and dad's for supper, she made a roast on the grill, with asparagus and baked potatoes.

Like I said, it was a great weekend and both Tom and I said it was too fast! Since I haven't posted any pictures lately, I finally loaded the pictures off our new camera. So here's a few pics.
Brandon and I, we decided to take a ride up through Eagle Point park and here a few pictures we took.

Brandon riding the lawn mower down the rode. Since he got in trouble riding his motorcycle, he decided to ride the lawn mower down the street.

Oh and Grandma would be so proud of this. Brandon Aculyting at church this morning. Isn't he so cute?

Micayla starts drivers ed tomorrow! Watch out Dubuquers.. Micayla's on the road. Her are a few pictures of her driving her "new" car. She's so serious here!

Actually, this is her driving Tom's truck.


Just a random picture of a beautiful spring tree. I love this time of year, everything is looking so green.