Taking the Plunge

That dreaded milestone birthday is quickly approaching, the big 4-0 in late April. I'm actually not feeling bad at all about it though, which is really, really nice. Part of it is just coming to terms with some things in my life over the past couple of years, and being at a place where I am really, truly happy with myself and my life. Pretty awesome feeling. And, the other part is that I share the same birthday with my hubby - which has made it extra special. Plus, he's a few years (I won't say how many, but it rhymes with "sticks") older than me, which also makes me feel a little better... Ha! Although he looks pretty great, and no one ever thinks he is as old (!) as he is.

For our birthday last year, we bought a tree for the back yard - a really cool, unusual tree. This year, we're planning a trip to Roatan, Honduras, and I am so excited. Dave broached the subject by telling me that he had considered a surprise party for me, but wondered if I might like to go on a trip instead... a lot easier to plan (for him), and several days of relaxing for the two of us, versus one big night of fun? Not too difficult of a decision for me, I'll take the vacation, especially over a bunch of black balloons, Ex-Lax and other gag gifts! Hello, sandy beaches and relaxing breezes, here I come!

Here's another part of my plans for my 40th:

Yep, I'm starting scuba lessons next week. While I'm not a big adventurer, scuba diving is something I think I'll really like. Dave has been diving for years, and I had considered getting certified when we were married in Jamaica almost four years ago,. But I just didn't want to spend the 3+ days getting certified during our time there, with all of the other stuff to do. This way I'll be able to take the class work and pool work here in Springfield, and then finish up my open water portion at the resort.

More soon about our trip, the location/resort comes highly recommended by good friends Shawn and Lucas, who have been there twice in the past 18 months and loved it.

That's all for now, but I'll try not to let another 3+ weeks go by without posting.

Christmas at the Ranch

What a wonderful Christmas and New Years' celebration! It was awesome to have almost all of us home for the long weekend ... we missed you, Rob, Michele, Sam, Eva and baby Henry. Happy 2011!

Christmas 2010

Our holiday celebrations started with our family Christmas on Thursday night before Christmas. Paige finished finals earlier in the week and headed home for her month-long winter break. It will be great to have her home, and we'll hopefully be seeing her quite a bit before she heads back to Kansas City in a few weeks.

After dinner and gifts, we were able to take a family photo; actually we took several family photos (thank you to Gail for coming over and playing photographer, so I didn't have to try to put the camera on a barstool and use the timer, as in previous years), and Dave was cracking us up in most of them! I did manage to find one where we were all smiling and fairly serious, and had it developed in sepia tones for our New Year's photo card.

But this one below, with all of us cutting up, was one of my favorites:



Jace's favorite gift was an iPod Touch - we surprised him with Dave's old iPhone, converted to an iPod. He promptly downloaded a few of his favorite songs, several games and screen savers, etc. and has been playing it non-stop for the past week. It is hard to know what to buy Neil and Paige, but Dave did it this year, with GPS units for both of them.

On Christmas eve we went to the candlelight service at church, and then said goodbye to Dave and Neil on Christmas Day when they left for Florida to spend a few days with Dave's parents. Jace and I headed to St. Clair last night for a weekend celebration with my family... more soon, with some great pictures. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

A moment on the lips, forever on the... well, you know.

My sis Tara sent me a text earlier this week "No DQ peppermint chip blizzard this year. So sad!" That's her holiday weakness, we talked about it last year. Thankfully (or NOT) they still have mine, out there everywhere, calling my name:



I don't know WHY I like these Candy Cane Hershey Kisses so much - I think part of it is the texture... as I'm eating the fourth, fifth, six one of the day, I just CANNOT get enough of the creamy white chocolate and those little peppermint chips mixed together in one perfect little bite! Now, if I just had any stinkin' willpower, I'd be ok. But I've bought more than one bag so far this holiday season... ok, more than even two bags. I'm not telling how many I've bought. I finished a bag last week and now I haven't had ANY this whole week. Progress! It is a good thing they're only a seasonal thing, I guess.

In other (related - ha!!) news, I'm back to the gym, at least in much more of a routine way than I have been the last couple of months. I tried my first step aerobics class this week. That always sounds like such a lame cliche to me, I've never really wanted to try it. But I can't get out of work in time to hit my cycling class I was doing, and this one doesn't start until 7:00 M-W. So, despite my two left feet, I tried it and liked it. A great workout, and hopefully in time I won't be fumbling around in the back of the room (if you position self directly in line with the instructor, then you can't see yourself bumbling around in the mirror!)

Off to the grocery store this morning and then cycling class at 10AM. Hope everyone is further along on Christmas shopping than me - if not, we're all in trouble!

Giving Thanks in Popular Bluff

That's what my youngest brother always called it when he was little - after all, what seven-year-old knows what a poplar tree is? So "popular" it was... and now that we're all grown, we just don't get there often enough.

So it was a special treat to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving in Poplar Bluff this past weekend at our grandparent's home. We had a smaller than usual Thanksgiving gathering, with Ann, Tara, Thomas, and Rob and families unable to make the trip due to work, other family gatherings and distance; but none had a better reason than Michele & Rob, since she's due with baby #3 any day now. (Can't wait for that phone call, when we find out if it is a boy or girl!)

So it was just Susan and her family, Dave and me (Jace was with dad's family) and Mom/Dad and Grandmother and Grandpa. But even though it was a small group, we had such a nice visit, and loved the warm, cozy beautiful home that Grandmother and Grandpa have lived in for the past couple of years.

Grandmother promised she wouldn't go overboard trying to cook everything, and she kept her word but still put together a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner - Dave helped with the ham, and made some sweet potatoes.







Dad enjoyed the fire in the living room, relaxing and reading the paper, and soon it was naptime.

The Zartman boys enjoyed their time, since they had the Wii to play games, but they're looking forward to hangin with Jace in just a few weeks for Christmas.

Grandpa presented Grandmother with a very sweet card for their 57th anniversary on Friday morning, and they then celebrated with all of us at Myrtle's Cafe. Now that Grandpa is retired, this is his daily morning routine to see all the other guys in town and have some coffee. I like to go with him early when we visit, and enjoy a cup of coffee with him and the guys.

So Myrtle's was how we wrapped up our Friday morning before heading home, and I understand that Grandmother and Grandpa got in the car a few hours later and headed to the Branson Landing for a romantic anniversary weekend. (Are you taking notes, Dave and my BILs? A romantic weekend, after 57 years of marriage!)

It was a wonderful weekend, and I was so glad that we were able to celebrate at Grandmother and Grandpa's home, thankful to be with what family could be there, and ready to see the rest of the family at Christmas.

A night of "Remember when...."

Last weekend was a blast from the past for my husband, as we attended the wedding of a one of his college friends, Busby, who was getting married for the first time. I had heard stories about college days with Shawn, Hartman, Fish and Kidder over the last couple of years, and it was great to finally meet Fish and Kidder and their wives. I had already been fortunate enough to meet and spend time with Shawn, and his awesome wife Lucas, who live in St. Paul; they were down to the lake with us a couple years ago, but that was the last time we'd hung out.

Lucas is a photographer, and I always love seeing all of her photos on her blog. This one below was just with her little point and shoot camera, but she makes pictures so fun, both the ones she takes AND the ones she's in. And Dave liked her tip of always shooting self-portraits from a higher vantage point- like the pic below- no extra chin!

We enjoyed the wedding and reception at a renovated historic firehouse in downtown Springfield, and then a party afterwards at one of the guys' home - and all with the convenience of our own chaffeur, 16 year old Neil, who was happy to collect the cab fare to schlep us to and from each location!

Enjoyed Thanksgiving yesterday with family and back home today. Hope everyone has safe travels and wonderful holiday.

Unpacking and Relaxing

It has just been one of those times where there is so much going on that the last thing on my mind is take time to sit down and write about it. That sounds so negative, like everything is bad, but it isn't. All is good, at work and at home. Long story in a nutshell, we found an incredible deal of a home, right down the street, almost twice as much room, and we were going to rent our current home to a friend. We had a contract on the other home for almost 90 days (and no, I didn't talk about it in the blog, wanted to wait until it was finalized) and then it didn't work out - after packing up our entire home, hiring a painter for the new home, and all that jazz. So the last three-plus weeks have been spent UNpacking all of our things, putting new carpet in our bedrooms, and trying to juggle all the normal everyday life stuff at the same time.

I do love our house, and we have both agreed over the past few weeks that it all turned out for the best. With the uncertainty of the economy, it absolutely is the best financial decision to stay put right here, and not to have two mortgages or homes, even with one being a rental.

This weekend is the first time I'm feeling like I am back to normal at home, can just sit and breathe and relax - things are, for the most part, back in place. One of our projects as we have settled back in has been to convert the third bedroom into what I'm calling the "game room". As I just wrote that phrase, it made me think of the Seinfeld episode where George's dad converts one of their bedrooms into a game room so he and friends can have a man room to play pool, but it is such a tight squeeze that they can't even extend the pool cues to play without hitting the wall! Our's isn't like that - no pool table, just a new leather loveseat and flat screen TV for Jace and friends to enjoy X-box and TV. A good compromise for a second living area, which was one of the things we really were looking forward to gaining in the other home. But this works well, and Jace really likes it.

It has been a whirlwind week, we were out of town last Sunday and Monday (more on that in a minute) and then getting the house back together in time for my parents' visit this weekend. I was glad that they came to visit, it certainly did help me put things in high gear to get everything unpacked and back in order (we just didn't let them into the garage to see the boxes and other stuff that isn't yet put away!). Paige also came home this weekend, her only trip home this semester - she is so busy every weekend with studying, so we were very lucky that she did have time to break away, and Jace and my parents were thrilled to see her. She and Dave made their curry and rice recipe last night; it actually isn't a spicy Indian curry, but rather an Asian curry that Dave's mom taught Paige to make.

After enjoying the curry and rice, Jace got the chess board out and Paige sat down to play a game with him. He joined the chess club at school a couple of weeks ago, and was happy to have someone to play him. Now that baseball season is over, he's signed up for a couple of after school programs - he did cross country after school for eight weeks this fall, and now chess club runs for the next two months. He's already looking forward to challenging my brother Thomas at Christmas, since Thom is who taught him to play chess a couple years ago.

Speaking of Thomas, Dave and I went to KC on Sunday last weekend and met him for lunch along with Paige and her boyfriend, Ryan. Thom was off work for the day on Sunday, and we were in town to see the Zac Brown Band that night at the Sprint Center in the Power & Light district. I didn't get to see his new apartment since we were crunched for time, so he and I made plans for me to come back up after Christmas one weekend, and get together for a day/evening.

He did stay with us until early evening, and met our friends from Dave's work, Dawn and David, who organized a group of us to see ZBB.

I'd not been to the Power & Light district, and it really was a lot of fun. We had a room at the Hilton there by the arena, and started the evening out watching the Chiefs play the Raiders at McFadden's. The boys had a couple of drinks early on, but since the other guys had to work the next day, they were pretty low key with the cocktails the rest of the evening.

The concert was great - one of my favorite things, to see live music. I'm not a huge country fan, but do like a few singers/bands, and the Zac Brown Band is one of them. Some great musicians, and a lot of fun to hear live. Dave likes their "beach music" which is along the lines of Jimmy Buffett, one of their influences. For me, when Zac Brown talked about growing up in Georgia, playing guitar and listening to James Taylor's Greatest Hits when all his friends were listening to Nirvana - that had me clapping and cheering, and our young friends (Dawn and David) laughing at me. Call me old, I guess, but JT is a classic.

We both enjoyed the evening, and have already bought tickets to head back this summer and see Kenny Chesney and the Zac Brown Band at Arrowhead Stadium - AND we bought an extra pair of tickets as well, should any family or friends want to join us!

I'll finish up now, so I can settle in and catch up on my DVR'd Thursday night TV tonight, while Dave and Neil are out in the living room watching a DVD on fly fishing and preparing for a full day of fishing tomorrow. I'll be cozy in bed while they are up and out the door at 6:30 AM - as luck would have it, in our first REAL cold weekend of the year.