girl power

ok then. i still can't believe that dana has another baby. yet she does. making yet another 'neman' female for the world. I don't really have anything of importance to post about, I just felt like I should post. I've been sick the last couple of days, which is never exciting. Got a flu bug of some sort, but I think I'm on the mend now.

I hear that Erin is coming to town dec 23-29th which makes me super happy, although i know she will be gone like the whole time to go up to her grandmas house, so thats no good.

December 30th I have plans to go bridesmaid dress shopping with heather and the ladies. How quickly that wedding is going to sneak up on me. Sigh. Our little heather is growing up so fast.

that was from our wonderful day at oprah. I so wish I could go to samoa with Shawn, but oh well.. what can I do? hm. no really? what can i? debt sucks!! as does having a job... must get more vacation days!!!

This weekend I'll be videotaping yet another wedding in attempts to create more revenue for the ol complete productions. The 'new berlin west 97' 10 year reunion video is wrapping up. Should be finished tonight, so those will be available for a very small purchase (to cover costs).. possibly by tomorrow!

Tonight Jesi and I are going to a stress yoga /stretching class or something of the sort. I'm excited. I do enjoy that type of stuff.

oh my. I see I lost MISERABLY in fantasy football last week. putting me down to 5th place. harsh. But Mike is in 9th. so at least I'm still beating him - thats all that matters, right? ;)

Thanksgiving is next week. Mike will be going up north hunting with his dad. I'm going to uncle steves the day of, then on saturday i'll go up north - since I still have to work on friday (boo). And thats about all of my updates.

sleepless in seattle

I have just returned from my weekend in Seattle. I went to visit Suzy Tobin and Geoff Kizer. Alicia few in from San Deigo. I left right from work on Friday night. I hadn't even looked at my ticket, and noticed on the way to the airport that I had a layover in Minnesota. And it was 2.5 hours long. Well I arrived at the airport about 12 minutes before departure, so I was in a bit of a hurry, but once I landed I gave my cousin Sandy a text. She just happened to be free and conveniently located to the airport and she came and picked me up and we hit up a local bar in St. Paul for dinner and a drink. It was possibly the best layover ever. I had good food and drink, and we got to laugh at some halloween costumes and lost in a game of darts and then she took me back, I checked back in through security and got back to the gate right on time for boarding.

I arrived in Seattle approx 11:30 western (I don't know if that's even what its called) time. So thats 1:30 Waukesha time (I prefer to make my own time, rather then have cst). But I had slept a bit on the plane, and I was so happy to be with Alicia and Suzy so we went over to Geoff and Suzy's place and then we went out for a lovely dinner across the street from Geoffs place at the bistro or something of the sort.. That place is seriously magnificent. He lives right in downtown, near the aquarium I guess you could say, and he's got a super sweet condo with unbelievable views of the city as well as overlooking the puget sound and the mountains and the ferrys. Simply spectacular. As well as the sunsets and rises are just unbelievable. Definitely up there as one of the most awesome things I've ever seen as far as nature views.

ok. so while I'm thinking about that. For Joe - I'll make a quick top 5 most wonderful scenic views I've ever seen.

6. central park
5. niagra falls
4.dunns river falls
3.seattle from geoffs house
2.paris et nuit
1.jamaica / the ocean from the kayak


jamaica still wins my heart. just because I seriously remember that moment with kressin and the utter joy that I was in because I was in jamaica with so many people that I love and the ocean looked so blue you couldnt help but be in complete bliss.

And apparently I just have a thing for water like scenery. Mt rushmore shouldve probably made it up there, but what can I say - it's just not as amazing to me as its more man made. although paris is too, its just so beautiful that its acceptable to me.

Anyways. Back to my recap. We had a wondeful time that night. It was my first time meeting Geoff Kizer and he was even more remarkable as everyone had raved he was. Simply a joy. So we partied well until the morning. Somewhere after 5am in this foreign western time I simply passed out on the couch, really with no recollection of it happening. But as far as me staying up late... I don't even remember the last time I stayed so late and even better, it wasn't like the constant - I'm just trying to stay awake as long as possible, the time just flew because drunken singing is just delightful.

The next day we slept a while, then got ready for the kaiser/tobin halloween party. Costumes mandatory. Suzy, Alicia and I were going for the 80s rock/air band look, and some how in our costume hunt ended up migrating to Jem dolls instead. We found some wonderful wigs, and we ended up having random wig swaps that made for even more interesting costumes of the evening. It was a wonderful night. Our fav costume was 'dick in the box'. But I think our favorite drunken person of the night was Austin Powers. Who was a great dancer to madonna living like a prayer, and yet still had the middle name of danger.

Sunday we woke up early to attack that Princess Cake. Sometimes you just need to buy a birthday cake because its huge and has disney princesses. But you can't share it with the party, or alicia would be very upset ;)

We veg'd out that day. Recovery was definitely necessary. We watched lots of great mtv and vh1 shows as well as some heros marathon. And joe-I'm sure you'll be happy to hear that I believe I've gotten hooked to that now.

Well we took off for the airport around 7 that night for alicia's 8:45 flight. But mine wasn't until 11:15, but I didn't want to make Suzy drive us there twice in like 2 hours, so I just went early. I stayed with Alicia until her flight left. And then I wondered through the seattle stores. That airport is quiet nice, even with the annoying shuttles. Then I had a 4 hour flight to cincinnati that was on the planes with the tvs in the chairs. Its a sweet plane that I do love. I'm a fan of any plane that lets me watch the cosby show. But then I landed in that damn cincinnati airport. Where you get to take a nice bus to your concourse (sarcasm in that statement). It was about 3:30am western time. I could barely move or function, but I stumbled over to my gate. I was all excited to lay down on a couchie type thing and sleep. But there was nothing. Not a bench. Not a big chair. Just stupid little plastic chairs each with arm rests so that you couldn't lay down at all. So I found a corner behind the phone booths (because seriously, who uses those?) and laid on my bags and slept. I awoke around 5ish when the annoying inter com lady was announcing delays. My tiny hopper plane got delayed about 20 min. Finally I arrived home about 10am waukesha time and made it home.

I attempted to take a nap today, but the dog wouldn't have much of that so about 2pm that was over. and currently now it's Packer time. and that's my story. Thank you so much Suzy, Geoff & Alicia for a wonderful weekend of goodness.


side note: my boss and i have an obsession with useless travel gifts. its always our goal to find the best ones. i like the game. its been good. i buy no souvenirs for anyone except him. but he allows me to go on these trips, so i suppose that is only fair. but anyways. i bought him climbers soap. made in washington. specifically for climbing. you can use it with any water. completely biodegradable. and it rather smells like a$$. now my boss chooses to never move or be active at all. hes very against any activity what-so ever. so i gave him this gift and he is very much in love. good times.

honk

This story is blog worthy. I may be in the middle of posting my Jamaican trip, but this just needs to go up while it's freshly in my mind.
So Monday night Shawn and Charlie pick me up to take Charlie to her play practice downtown. We start driving down the express way and while we're passing the ridge I see a rainbow and point it out. Shawn says to Charlie that grandma would definitely think that's a sign for Joe - and it was amazing that it looked like it was coming right out of the ridge! Well then the horn starts honking on the excursion. A little honk here, a long one here. But all random honks. And then it's getting longer honks and looooooonger LOUD honks. Shawn is getting real scared and Charlie and I are laughing our butts off. I mention that this seems very joe like as well. Since he loves to honk his horn at people and pretend he didn't do it and laugh his head off when I look at the people. No one really understands his honking business. But he does it always. So I definitely think he's somehow haunting us. Now the windshield wiper fluid is squirting randomly and the wipers are going. It's currently poring rain. So Shawn calls Chad. and the conversation goes something like this - shawn says, "Chad I HOOOOOOONK caHOOOOONK geHOOOOOOOOOOOONK carHOOOOOOOOOOONK stHOOOOOOONK. " and chad says "SHAWN I CANT UNDERSTAND ANYTHING YOURE STAYING" Finally he figures out what is happening and tells her to turn off the car. Maybe the panic is freaking out. So we pull over along side the express way. She turns off the car. Presses the panic button a hole bunch of times. Then she starts again - and there is silence. YAY we seem to be good. We start talking again suddenly the HONKS start sneaking in again. Gradually at first, then longer and louder. Dana calls, not wanting to meet us out for dinner. but with the continuous honking she can't hear a word shawn is saying and gives up and says FINE ill go. Now we're on 894 heading to 94, and traffic is slow and massive. Shawn says - should I go home? I say no, just keep going. So we keep going - attempting to ignore the honking and the angry looks from everyone around us. Now we're on 94. STUCK in very slow moving traffic with a continuous HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK that never ends. We're in the left lane so can't pull over or turn off the car. Charlie is laughin so hard she says "I'm gonna pee my pants". She also comments on each person going by "they just looked at us" "that guys looking the wrong way" "ooooh that guy is giving us a mean look" laughing hysterically. Shawn is getting really nervous and freaked out. Driving in this poring rain with HOOOOOOONK occurring while in stop and go traffic. She's trying to get Charlie to stop, but Charlie insists that it's just to funny!!! I told her "Haven't you ever played the honking game with joe? You pretend that it's not us! Everyone look around and find out where that honking is coming from. Look around now! " We do this, while the windows are tinted so no one can see in anyways, but it makes us feel better and laugh more. Charlie is STILL laughing her head off. Shawn says - "aren't you going to be embarrassed when we pull up to your play practice with all your friends there with this honking?" She says "NO ITS SO FUNNY they will laugh there heads off." We're just pulling off into down town and hit the stop light. Shawn quick turns off the car. It goes HOOOOOOOOOoooreopppphhhhewtogfdgnnkkkkkskss. and dies. She restarts the car, no honking.... We drive past where dana is and try to honk - nothing. The horn has died. The windshield sprayers and wipers are still going occasionally. But that awful loud never ending honk has subsided. And that is the end of the honk. Charlie says "this is the best trip to Milwaukee EVER".

Day 4 - in da club

Day 4 - Sept 9th, 2007

We did some snorkeling inland. Did I forget to mention the first day Erin, Brian, Alicia and I stepped in the ocean, Erin stepped on a sea urchin. She got it good. Apparently the beach there SUCKS for swimming. But for snorkeling its good times. Colleen & I did some water aerobics with Peg in the morning. Then me and the girls went snorkeling off the boat. It was really delightfully magical. We saw lots of fish, and jellyfish. Nothing really amazing. But it was really neat to be out there in the middle of the ocean swimming with the fish. But in our little beach area I went snorkeling with the guys. It was much scarier. We saw a sting ray and I was scared for my crockadile hunter life. We saw eels and swordfish. Millions of sea urchins. It was hard work to swim above those and not accidently hit them when you're only in 2 feet of water. Eventually I had enough, but the guys kept going. They saw lobster and an octypus.

Dinner was the the Japanese restaurant tonight. Another reservations only place. We had the entire restaurant to ourselves since we had all the reservations. Everyone loved this place much better then the french, just because it was a wild and crazy time...
Afterwards we hit up the 'club'.

Day 3 (con) The Wedding

Day 3 - Sept 8th, 2007

The Wedding

Dad and I cried like babies when we walked down the isle.

We had a cake reception and then went to the french restaurant for a fabulously elegant dinner.

Day 2

Day 2 - Sept 7th, 2007

Swimming, eating & drinking was our theme for today.
The boys started by getting mani pedis.




We swam in the pool and waited for the Albrechts to arrive. Our bartender Sanyia made us do lots of shots.

The girls took a break. We went kayaking and shopping.

While the boys continued to drink with the Albrechts. By dinner Dave and Mike Albrecht had reached their limit.

Day 3 - before the wedding

Day 3 - Sept 8th, 2007

Saturday - The wedding

The girls had a spa day. We had massages, and mani/pedis and facials and scrubs
and wraps and everyting you could ever imagine.













The boys woke up for an early ATV adventure.
The went up Murphy's hill. And then down to
Dunns River Falls.




















After everyone got back from the adventures Bob and Missy started taking the 'getting ready'
pictures. Around 4:00 Sheryl came up to tell us it was time to go. We almost forgot my ring, and
door key, and would've locked ourselves out of the room - but luckly Dad had left the door wide open.
Mike says we didn't arrive until 4:10 and he was afraid I backed out. ...

Going to Jamaica

So here is my blog recap of my entire trip to Jamaica.
Day 0 - Sept 5th, 2007

We left our house about 9pm, and unhappily left our puppies. It was our first trip away from them and it was very hard for us to leave them for that long. Luckly we had Mike Chianese's sister Rachael to stay there and babysit for them the whole time we were away.
Mike Albrecht, Mike Chianese and I stayed at the Super 8 across from the airport. We woke up at 3:30am and couldn't sleep any longer. We were all to excited!

Day 1 - Sept 6th, 2007

4:45am we took the shuttle to the airport. 6:46 Northwestern plane with Mike A, Fred & Jayne Albrecht, Kathy & Gayle Shenkenberg, Dave & Mike O'Day, Don & Peg Kressin and myself. We had shirts made for the wedding party that said Suzie & Mike's wedding 09/08/07 on the back, and Jamaica on the front. Bright yellow, and we wore them on the plane. Therefore I'm pretty sure my Mom had spoken to every single airport worker and traveler before we got there, because everyone knew who we were when we arrived. Mike Chianese and Brian Conant were on the 7:15 US airlines plane. Erin & Alicia had left from San Deigo the previous night and Colleen was on her way from Germany. We had a short layover in Memphis and at 1:15 we arrived in Jamaica. We went through customs and ran into Erin & Brian and Mike Chianese in customs. Then we met Alicia on the bus over.



It was a one hour bus ride to the hotel. We checked in, went to eat at la pasta, and the drinking began...

Weekend at Bernies (WAB) 2007

So all last week I meant to get a post in here with the pictures from Ellas birthday party, but I was uploading the movies for joe last night, and I just ran out of time. And I did try and put them all up on myspace, but that thing is just to slow! so from here on out, all videos are on you tube and all pictures I'm putting on kodakgallery. But if you want to watch some clips here they are. I'll put up some pictures later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9cZpIKwc0o
http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=16783896 (Joe especially enjoyed chad in this one)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwvEmhohRwI (I call it 'no! the other way!')
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePsf53yyTF4

But because of course everyone keeps asking and there was much more to say about it, I need to get in a post about WAB. (bernie and sofie pictured below).




This year we had our shower party on Friday night, 15 more days before our real wedding.






















But of course it has been raining for 14 days straight, give or take. So we had a lot of family members not wanting to come or stay because of the rain. We did get one blast of downpour for a few minutes, but overall the weather was quiet nice. The mosquitoes were out, that's for sure, but it was good. Grandma lou bought us a cake, and Aunt Tammy brought out her knife and cake topper from her wedding. Aunt Sharon made tons of food and we got wonderful gifts. It was very nice. Oh, and I am sporting a beautiful dress up veil in these pictures. Sometimes I forget I have these things on.



















Caitlin, Heather, Mike Boldt and Mike Chianese were our awesome friends that were able to make it out on short notice and bad weather. So we love them much. Mike, Mike, Cait and I got in the first canoeing in that first night.








The (fox) river was the highest its ever been due to the crazy rain we've had. So it made for good fun. Mike was only able to come on Friday night because he had to DJ on saturday. So it was just me and the dogs for the rest of the weekend. But we got awesome tenting beach spots since the river came right up into our resort...

Macey has a new fishing pole. So sometimes she fishes in puddles... she is only 4... who knows what fish could be living in that puddle!?



By Saturday there were 7 dogs, about 25 adults, 8 kids and 2 crabs (caroline brought crabs!). We all missed Anna, Luke & Gracie very much. And the new building of this year would be the outhouse (located in the very right of the picture below). It's a double holer. That is a very luxurious outhouse indeed. We did only have one call to the coast guard needed. Katie and her friend got blown away by the current in the canoe at one time and Uncle Bernie had to go trudging through the river to go save them. Needless to say I think they won't be canoeing anytime soon.

So thats about it. DJ Vito V played for us on Saturday night. We had Max's fireworks show. And we'll have it all again the week before labor day next year.




And that is pretty much that. So we're down to like 10 days until Jamaica. I seriously can not believe that it has came so fast, and yet this last month it seems as though every second is trudging by as slowly as possible.

So in the spirit of top 5's I'm going to name my top 5 favorite vacations. And when I say top 5, I mean top 10. Because I just have way to many good ones!!


10) San Francisco with KZ and her parents. it was a toss up between here and florida. but i think that san franciso with kz being afraid of bridges was a classic. plus the long hours of rummy and room service were just fabulous.

9) prairie du chien with chad, shawn, patty, ron, dana, jacob and joe this summer. with detours, dnrs, forgotten wallets, broken down boats and anything that could go wrong going wrong, it was still such a wonderfully pieceful night sleeping on the island. i cant wait until we can go again.

8) Seattle 05 . one month with the conants. long car rides through no-where land. renting 8 movies a day to overcome our bordom. mrs. conant blowing bubbles to 'friends'. seeing leaving on the jet plane in rounds on our many long car rides. waking up early and eating yogurt and granola with mrs. c. rollerblading while erin ran. her bee sting on her eye. spending time with rinny and beej. it was delightful.

7) florida 98. a million hours in the car with my parents and erin. manatees, ET, mgm, our melted lollipops and everything else made for a trip i'll remember forever.

6) Arizona. i actually do have a trip with mike for the list. if it wasnt arizona in 120 degree weather it mightve made it further on the list ;) it was my first meeting of travis, chrissy, dave and karen. and it was delightful. makes me want a pool! and want to act out dirty dancing with karen.

5) San Diego. 06? my first meeting with shasta and fonzo. disney land! erin working at best buy and joe and i in the hot tub. allllll the food and going to tj. the chula vista was heaven.

4) New York Alicia. christopher's wedding. beautiful. sex and the city tour. soooo fabulous. taking the bus from harlem in the middle of the night. and the bus driver making fun of us looking for the 'red line' priceless.

3) South Dakota. 15 hour car ride with just joe and myself. puking my guts out for the first 4 or so hours. we made it. camped out every night in different lands. mt rushmore. devils towers. cryoming. buffalos at night, along with the bear farm. we're heading into the best trips ever filled with activities and travel and we didnt even kill each other.

2) New York Joe. my 18th birthday. driving to manhatten and having the car break down in manhatten. going to david letterman. ellis island. seeing the twin towers. setting off the alarms at the boarder in canada. fireworks on the 4th of july. walking 104 blocks to see them.

1) Disney World. the happiest place on earth. 90 degree pool at nightime. nuf said.

did I forget any good ones?

Congratulations Heather!

I'm starting to understand how Joe's posts get so long. Yet, I think this year he is telling the truth about him not being able to post so often. It's been a while, hasn't it?


I spent my lunch hour at the post office, there they told me one thing. Then I got on the phone with the passport agency pretending to be my mom, they told me another, then I was Jayne and I got another. Ah yes, it's been a great passport filled day! I think I may have actually got it all worked out for now. And I even got the 'secret passport code' to dial at the prompts to get to a representative. I'm proud of that.


My part of the financials is done (at work), for now. That is also a miracle and a huge weight off of me, which is why I got to spend time with the passports.

Congratulations Heather!!!! I found out last night that over the weekend when Mike & Heather were in Door County he proposed. She has been waiting a looooong time for that, so it's great news for her! I can't wait to be able to pass her the torch of all the wonderful goodness's of planning a wedding off of me and on to her (and I had it easy!)!!! Not to mention each and every day of stress that leads up to it.

Shawn once told me that the days after their wedding were so amazing, because they could just relax. It was such a stressful time for both of them that once its over it's an unexplainable feeling of relief and such a huge event that you go through all the ups and downs with together, thinking and planning and excitement and worry every day. That when it's all said and done you then have a special bond that no one else could even imagine. Now personally I don't know if Mike feels ANY stress at all from this wedding, as he certainly doesn't show it, but I can not wait for those days after!!! :) I don't think my wedding itself has much stress, as there really wasn't much to plan, but trying to plan a vacation with 30 people is like the first episode of home alone! ;)

Oh and btw. Our vball team did awesome last night, even while enduring the fact that we didn't have the ultimate player Jesi on our side we managed to get a great 2 our of 3 wins... taking home the pitcher of beer, thus a wonderful evening. Only one more week left of the season, but we're ending with a bang!

I'll leave you with this quote....

In this world, shipmates, sin that pays its way can travel freely, and without passport; whereas Virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all frontiers. -Herman Melville

PASSPORTS

Seriously. This passport situation is ridiculous! My parents applied for theirs in April, they passport agency said it was shipping on July 2ND. Guess what? They never got them. Mike's parents applied in May. The passport agency says Mike's dad's was shipped, but Mike's Mom's they can't find.

This is what the website says
"We are currently experiencing a very high volume of calls. Please expect delays if you wish to speak to a customer service representative. You may have to call several times before reaching a representative. However, please note that representatives are available from 6:00 a.m. to 12 midnight, ET, Monday-Friday, except federal holidays. Representatives are also available for limited weekend hours for emergency situations in which travelers are leaving in 7 days or less. " blah. What a joke.

Guess who gets to deal with all of the missing passports, since no one is apparently able to do it themselves? Oh yes. This bride. I'm sure she has nothing else to do right now.

OK. That was my rant. But seriously. Passport people really just need to fix it all or just stop making them required until like next year. Is that to much to ask? Obviously the passports are getting stolen so obviously this 'mandatory' passport thing is just making things worse then they were before. Delightful.

ANYWAYS. 23 days til Jamaica. Mike cleaned our entire house yesterday - that is delightful!! KZ's last weeks packer pool was NOT won by me. We got our wedding bands and I love mine so much that I'm already wearing it. Is that wrong? Everyone tells me I'm not allowed to but I tell them I can do what I want ;) We're having a 'pre-wedding party' at my family's annual camp out on August 24th ( a week from Friday). It's very last minute, but if you want to come you should! We'll have lots of food and Mike's DJ stuff and all that, so it should be quiet the little shindig.

Back to the old reconciling the financials at work for me....

Religious discussions

I did want to touch on the fact that the Catholic Priest that did Grace's Baptism I found quiet compelling. And if you know me at all you know my religious beliefs. But a few things he said I found quiet interesting. He started with the fact that he doesn't like to get to preachy. He only does a homily that he himself finds compelling and gives him his own guidance. If it does nothing for him, or he doesn't truly believe it, then he's not going to provide any meaning with it when he says it. I thought that was interesting because most Churches that I attend, the sermon tends to be very 'biblical' or word for word readings right from the bible. He put it all in today's terms and his own language, and something about the way he spoke made it much more easier to listen to and not zone out as I usually do (and I do try real hard to always pay attention and understand what they're saying, but my own ADD sometimes prohibits that from happening at all).

For this homily he discussed the first two paragraphs of the catechism (now this is all from my own memory, so who knows how off I actually am, but this is what I got from it). He talked about how Karl Marx says said that people pray to god and need a god when they themselves need it. They use him when they have nothing else to go to and need some sort of hope. They also tend to use him to 'wish upon' and pray that god will just fix things instead of doing it themselves. I don't know if I even knew this about Karl Marx, but it's pretty much right on to my own beliefs. His argument against this was that being a catholic is the exact opposite. You don't have a need for god to do anything for you, he is just there to love you unconditionally like a mother. That there may come a time when you have love and family and money and you just find an emptiness in you that you're unsure how to fill. And that is where your faith should reside. That you should have time for your faith. not just praying and going to church, but whenever you can read about something that touches you, or gaining knowledge from somewhere that you find really hits you, that is your time with faith and you need that to be whole and feel whole.

Now maybe he said or meant something completely different then that, but I found that to be a very interesting concept that I had never really thought about. And even though I'm against most 'rules' of the catholic church, I think if I didn't live 3.5 hours away from Marinette I might be tempted to see what else that guy had to say ;)

What do you think? Does anyone have a good church that they go to that isn't so 'preachy' but just inspiring? I do love my Unitarian Church, but as the one is Mukwanago has closed and is moving further away, I haven't really decided if I want to drive all the way to Brookfield Unitarian one for church, when I have to drive there everyday for work, but I also don't want to go all the way to Also I'm a big fan of having church on weekdays. No offense, but I hate to have to loose my weekend time for church! But there is only Unitarian services on Sundays, and in Delafield they don't even have them every Sunday! :(

The Baptism

Friday I had a wonderful evening at the Salters, after a long and torturous day at work. We played the Grey's Anatomy game that I bought for Chad for his Bday. Pretty fun. If you're a Grey fan I recommend it. But it took a loooong time to play. I enjoyed it though. I can't wait for the TV shows to start back up! I'm always jealous of the relationship that Shawn and Chad have. Even on their crabby, annoyed and unhappy days, they always seem to love each other so much that you know they'll make it through anything. I don't know if Mike and I have what they have, but I make them my role models and hope that our relationship will be as strong in 10 years as theirs is now.








The Baptism this weekend went wonderfully this weekend. Grace was super good and was baptised with another baby girl and neither cried or fussed at all. And I did all my godmotherly duties of 'drying off the baby and placing on the bib thing'. So now I am a professional godmother. Gracie's almost 7 months now so she's getting big! She's a funny little hyper-active thing. With a terodactyl scream just like her big brother. I ended up going up with Mom and Grandma. Tara, Zack, Sophie, Tia, Jesse, Macey, Aunt Tammy, Uncle Bernie and everyone else was there. So it was a busy day/night with bunches of kids. Marinette is a happening town.....

The picture below is of Macey (my cousin Tia's daughter), Gracie & Luke (Anna's Kids). They're so cute.

Joe says I need a top 5. I am so not doing the top 5 people I miss the most, that just seems like a depressing list. I think I'll give the top 5 things I'm looking forward to.

5.) The possibility of having a day off this week!
4.) Weekend at Bernie's
3.) Seeing Alicia, Colleen, & Erin!!!!
2.) Our Wedding
1.) 11 long and glorious days in Jamaica

What do you think? Is that so wrong that I want Jamaica more then my wedding? Ella's birthday party almost made it on that list too. She gets a shout out because I hear she's now potty trained ;) And Dave Nagel's wedding is coming up, which Karen will be at - so that will rock the hizouse.

27 days

OK. As Joe always says - this will be short. But I mean it! Just wanted to do a quick update. My work has me SWAMPED. For whatever reason they've decided they want all the financial statements of the company balanced and in order by Thursday. So let me tell you, that is no easy feat, as they have never been balanced since I've started working here... but because it keeps me busy and I really don't hate the task, I really don't mind it. But it prohibits me from emailing people and having time for lunch and such frivolous things. And not to mention it also prohibits me from doing ANY IT work, and any IT person will know that their work is never done or never slows down. If you're not an IT person, think of it as having kids and taking care of them. You can't just stop. Or they don't eat and they die. That is what happens when I just stop taking care of IT stuff. Now, technically that is not my job here, but as soon as I stop computers start dying and as soon as they start dying, soon I have to many dead ones to try and revive that the good ones start dying. Sigh. oh well. not my job. I'll just let it be.

Joey called me yesterday. It was great to hear from him, no doubt. It did set me off on a Suzie spell though. I miss him so much and wish that he'd just decide to come home. But deep down I wish that for Colleen, Erin, Alicia, Joe & Karen Brady everyday. And I also know that they're all doing wonderful things and living their lives the way they want to, so I can not be selfish and whine to much about them coming home. And email and phones are wonderful and I probably keep more in touch with them while they're gone, then I would if they were here... but for whatever reason, just not being able to be with them in person really sucks some times.

Mike received his wedding ring yesterday! It's beautiful!

I am going up to Marinette Wisconsin tomorrow. It's my cousin's daughters baptism and I'm becoming her godmother. The mass is at 4, but since it's like 3.5 hour up north I'll probably stay over night. It stinks though cuz Mike has to DJ, and all my friends are gone, and the few that are left are all out of town this weekend. How convenient. So I think I talked my Mom into going up with me, although she really didn't want to, and truthfully I'd much rather go up with a friend... oh well, at least I won't have to go alone. And if anyone happens to be in town and wants to endure a 3.5 hour car ride up to Marinette Saturday, and then a catholic mass, and then a 3.5 hour car ride home on Sunday, let me know. I know that pretty much sounds like the greatest time ever!!!! ;)

bloggin

Ok fine. Since Joe doesn't seem to be starting his blog anytime soon I feel like writing in my own. Although it's been so long since I had one, I lost it, but here's a new one. And the 'Sconi' is in honor of Rinny and Joe. Since I'm not cool enough to be in Samoa, I like to make Wisconsin way cooler by calling it Sconi.

29 more days until I'm in Jamaica. Just in case you were counting. Mike and I ordered our rings on Monday. He should be getting his today and mine probably next week, hopefully sooner. We went to Zales and they were just to ridiculously priced, then we went to Kohl's and our fat fingers can't make it in anything that they had sitting around, so we had to special order online if we wanted to order. But they didn't have their normal 75% off sale going on, so we ended up getting them off of amazon.com. Mike picked up his tailored pants and he's ready to go. I go in for my final fitting tonight on the dress, and we shall be ready to roll. Also I've been attempting to tan the best to my ability. I'm going to maui tan over on bluemound by my work. I got the plan with the 'special' tanning machine that doesn't ommit as many burning rays or something. I'm on week two. and with my weekend off, and then they up'd my minutes yesterday - my back is burnt again. Ugh. Oh well. pale skin rocks.

My work rather sucks lately. I mean I can't really concentrate much on anything to begin with, but with everything going on it's just taking over my brain. We're having major spam attacks and computers are dying left and right so I don't get anything done. The big bosses are on vacation for the next two weeks though, so hopefully that'll help ease my stress.

My volleyball team won there games last night!!!! It was the first time we won more then 1 game in like 6 weeks or something ridiculous. We've had some unmotivated games, to say the least. And it's been sooooooo hot. Well last year we lucked out and had an easy team to play so we won all 3. And I guess it put us from like 12th place (out of 14?) to like 9th. So hopefully that'll be a boost for our fun. Unfortunatly it was Jesi's last game for the season because she'll be travelling for work and there is only 2 weeks left. We're almost thinking about joining a fall league. Anyone know of a good one?

I reaaaally miss Joey already. You'd think after all my friends coming and going all the time I'd be used to it, but in my opinion it never gets easier. Soooo I'm going to post a Joey picture in his honor.

There. Beautiful. That was at Kim's wedding.

Ok, other then that there isn't much more for me to say. I'm thinking of going to Noah's ark either this weekend, this Monday or this Friday if anyone is interested. or maybe mt. olympus. Which is better? We've never done the water park at Mt. Olympus yet due to someone's infected leg (I heart Reedsburg Memorial Hospital), but I hear it's better. Yet I might want to be on the safe side and just stick to the one I like. Also - does it still get busy there on the weekends or what?