Trip Home to the Bend (and Beyond)

What an eventful weekend! I went home to South Bend to visit my family, and had a great time. My mom, my sister and I all got pedicures, and now my toes look like barbie toes. :)

Here's Julie getting her tootsies done:



I got to meet some of my parents friends and go sailing with my dad, mom, and my brother Eric.

I also got to meet Miss Lilly Podjan for the first time. She's so cute and so small! :)



Yesterday, I went up to Michigan for my cousin Kayla's graduation and got to see a lot of my family. Here's some photos from the day:

Our First Anniversary

Well, its official! BJ and I have made it to our second year of marriage! We celebrated our first anniversary this weekend! We went hiking at Red River Gorge, where we went when we first started dating (five years ago), and where we spent out first dating anniversary. We found "our spot" (a hidden away cliff) to have a picnic lunch and eat our wedding cake, but the place had been taken over as an illegal campsite. We thought for a second about having our anniversary lunch amongst the trash and drying socks, but decided against it. :)

Instead, we managed to find a similar spot (with better shade, so it all worked out) and eat there. We broke out our wedding cake, which BJ's mom had saved for us in her freezer for the past year, and it was actually good! We might even eat the rest that we didn't bring with us. Here's our first look at the cake out at BJ's mom's house:





Here's BJ taking a first bite of it at the gorge:



I've also posted some of our favorite gorge photos, if you'd like to take a look you can use the link to the right (under "Photos"). I've also added some more of our wedding photos into our Wedding Photos gallery. :)

After hiking and finding some cool new spots at the gorge, we stayed in Lexington and then spend some time with our good friends Tim and Erin. We've missed seeing them, so this was a special treat. :)

Weddings, Babies, Etc.

If you know of anyone in the market for baby announcements, wedding invitation designs, etc... I've started a new business. For more information, you can visit www.modernannouncements.com.

Super Monkey Ball

For all of you who have played Super Monkey Ball Deluxe at our home... you are most welcome. Seems because of it you'll be smarter and quicker! Actually, we haven't played in a while and I have noticed myself being a little bit dumber... Hmmm... Check out the article "'Super Monkey Ball' could help train surgeons". :)

Art Museum

This is a little delayed, but I thought I'd post some photos from this weekend's visit to the Cincinnati Art Museum. The museum was within a really nice park, and also had a view of the city (sort of). We had a really nice time, and I loved seeing the Impressionist work, especially Degas' ballet statues!



We also saw the preparation of a wedding there, which looked like it was going to be beautiful. They were going to have the museum to themselves when it closed.



Here's also a photo of Sidney from this weekend.



Hope you're all doing well!

Cute Photo of the Day

From MSNBC: "Goslings try to chase away a swallowtail after it tried several times to land on the young Canada geese May 16th at Occoquan Regional Park in Lorton, Va."

Also, thought I'd share the site I found out about called Freecycle (www.freecycle.org). It's a place to share stuff you don't want/need anymore, if you're willing to give the item away for free.

My 20th Birthday... I mean 26th. :)

I had a great birthday! It was nice to be able to take the day off and spend time with BJ. We had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory (and I discovered a new favorite dish!), and went shopping at Kenwood Towne Center. There are some really cool stores in there, like Pottery Barn (my "if I had a million dollars" store), West Elm, and Williams Sonoma.

I was SHOCKED at some of the prices in that mall, like a very simple dress (I believe it was from DKNY, or the Gap, or something like that) for $125 (I have a very similar dress, and I paid $19 for it). Maybe in New York that's not a lot of money, but even if I was a billionaire, I would have trouble spending that much money on clothes. That's like how much a prom dress should be, not a simple cotton dress.

I wish I had thought to bring my camera with me for our lunch, but I didn't... BJ did take a few pictures when we got home later and had some birthday blueberry muffins (with decorative food coloring dots)! :)





I got some great gifts from BJ... including a beautiful lamp I had asked for, a Georgia O'Keefe print, and high-quality scanner. I also got some money from my Mom and Dad to go clothes shopping! :)

It was also nice to hear from my family and friends, I feel so loved!

- Jessie

Fixing Flash

Okay, I realize this is a real techie thing to say, but I've found the answer to embedding Flash and ActiveX objects! This has been a big problem ever since Microsoft lost the lawsuit against EOLAS.

If you're interested, the solution I found to actually work (and work easily), can be found here.

Lost Preview

Looks like one crazy episode is coming up next! (Click the PLAY button.)



Also, I thought I'd share BJ and I's favorite video (the best is the last one):

Jasmine's 6th Birthday

Had a fun time last night with Jon Lawrence, his daughter Jasmine, and Jasmine's sister Kayle. It was Jasmine's birthday, so we had cookie cake, and then we played a mix of beauty shop / doctor / school / watching the Red's game. BJ was the bad kid in school -- he kept coping off of Jasmine (and Jasmine was quick to let me [the teacher] know all about it).

Here's Kayle eating her cake.

And here's Jasmine later in the "waiting room" of the doctor's office:

Your Future Self

You know how sometimes you think back to when you were young, and dream about all the things you would tell your young self?

Things like hair styles NEVER to go with, clothes never to wear, friends to spend more time with, places to put your keys so you wouldn't lose them (where ARE they?!), or (greedily) companies to invest in (Microsoft, Google)?

Do you ever wonder what your future self wishes he or she could tell you right now?

Deep... I know. :)

Stuck at Home

So this morning I was in the car about to leave for work when I realized that I didn't have my car keys with me. I went back in the house and started looking... and looking... and looking... and either 1) they're not here 2) the cats hid them in some very tight space, or 3) I'm just going crazy.

So this is why I'm stuck for the day at home (I really hope they're in BJ's car because if not I really have no idea). I'm just thankful I have my hard drive with me so I can get work done from home. I would normally enjoy being able to work from home, but today I just feel frustrated. There's one big file I need and its at Xavier!

In other news, BJ and I should be getting our land contract in the mail soon - we're excited to be able to get the ball rolling. :)

- Jessie

(Almost) Land Owners!

Well, this weekend BJ and I made an offer on a piece of land, and our offer was accepted!

About a month ago, BJ and I went to talk to a builder (Richard Schmidt) in our continuing search of home. We weren't sure at that point if we wanted to build or buy. We just knew that we wanted to find something with some breathing room (i.e. some decent sized land). We told the builder about this, and he let us know about some unadvertised lots in New Alsace (Indiana). His own extended family had bought up quite a few, and the others were going fast.

We went out that day to see the neighborhood with Richard, and it was soooo nice and peaceful. Each lot in the neighborhood has five or more acres, so everyone is really spaced out. BJ and I decided to focus on a lot near the back of the neighborhood. The highlight of the lot was its ring of full-grow pines, and the opportunity to redevelop the pond that once was in the center of them. One other thing we really liked is that the neighborhood will be made up of mostly young families, so hopefully once we have kids there will be plenty of friends around. :)

Here's a drawing of the neighborhood, with our lot highlighted:


After much consideration and visits to New Alsace, BJ and I decided that this was where we really wanted to be. We went out to the land this weekend with our builder and the developer, and we made a deal - part of the deal is that the developer is going to complete the pond for us!

The neighborhood is not ready for homes yet (the roads will go in within the next two months), so we have a while before we start to build. This is kind of nice, because it gives us time to make decisions about the home itself and save.

Here are some photos from this weekend. we spent about an hour out there after the builder and developer had gone.



Our house will probably be built between here and the trees:


Here's a shot of our lot from the back of it (the bottom shows about where our property lines will be):


It's so nice to finally have some home decisions made! Plus, we really like and trust our builder, so we feel really good about the whole thing. :)

Orchids Wilting... is this Normal?

Help! A few of the buds on my orchid are beginning to wilt. Maybe this is just the natural progression of things.... or maybe I just really do not have a green thumb. Most of the buds are doing fine:





Here are the ones not doing so well...





Chrissy - Is this normal, or am I a bad orchid parent???

Softball was really fun to watch this week. BJ's team came back and won it in overtime! Also, during the game I helped take a player's adorable daughter to the bathroom. She asked me "what kind of car do you drive?" and I was wondering... what kind of answer is she looking for? She's four. She probably doesn't know what a CRV or a Prism is. I said, "We have a Honda". She returned with "Oh... We have a green car". Aahh yes. Ok. So I told her, "We have a red one." :) The kind of car we drive is a red one. :)

Also, on our way back we passed a stay 2-year old child. She looked at him, and then looked at me and said, "Is that your baby?". Um, no.

(PS - I finally downloaded some of the photos from last week off of my camere, here's a funny one of Cory.)

Nothing to Say...

Okay, again nothing new to report... just thought I'd write so you all know we're still alive. :) BJ got a bad migraine so he's home from work sick today... poor guy. Hopefully he'll start feeling better so he can still play softball tonight.

Anyway, really, that's all. Work and more work.

- Jessie

Photos from BJ's Birthday

This is a little delayed, but thought I'd post some photos from BJ's birthday. He got his new suglasses in, which he's proudly displaying here like buddy jesus. :)

Besides a few t-shirts and Bronson Arroyo's CD, he also got a new slot car track (which he's been hinting at for months...) :) This one has four lanes and runs 25 feet long (50 feet with 2 lanes).

Happy Birthday BJ!

Today is BJ's 25th birthday! For the next month, we will both be the same age!!! BJ - I love you very much! Happy Birthday!

To commemorate, here's a drawing of BJ's from when he was little. It's a very *boy* illustration. My favorite part is the guy throwing the airplane from the balcony and the guy on the bike doing a wheelie. :) It's too bad about the people in that car though...

BJ's 25th Birthday

BJ's 25th birthday is this week (the 19th), and we'll be celebrating at our house this Saturday night at 7:00pm! If the weather is nice we'll be grilling out, having a fire, and playing games outside. If its raining we'll hang out inside, play games and ping-pong, etc.

This is an open invitation so (if you know us) feel free to stop by! If you need any more info, let us know!

- Jessie

Lazy Day at Home...

Well, so far on my day off (yea for Easter), I've painted my nails (yes, this is Jessie writing), cleaned some of the house, got the Internet finally working (thank you Suscom), and had fun watching the cats watch the rest of the world. With the back door open they can hear, feel, and most importantly smell the outside world, and it has them hooked. Their noses twitch like crazy, and every little thing has them in a trance.



Thankfully, they are too scared to actually GO outside, so we're saved from having them run out when we open the doors, etc. Our goal is to keep them indoor cats, because indoor cats have fewer health risks.

I was glad to snap this photo because it documents a ritual that occurs daily. Sidney, after awaking from a nap (notice the large yawn), will walk over to Annie, lay right in front of her, and Annie dutifully starts cleaning as commanded. This adorable display of affection occurs until one or both of them gets bored and decides to pick a fight. We can almost count the seconds between the first lick and the first bite. (Man, Annie's tongue looks freaky in this photo.) :)

Bright Site Completed.... Almost

I've finished Bright's site (with just a few minor changes and content completions to go)!

Here's the previous version:


And the new:


Check it out online at http://www.brightchristian.org.

- Jessie

Congratulations Kate & Matt!

I'm so happy for Matt and Kate! Their little one, Lilly Blessing, has finally arrived (she was born yesterday)! I can't wait to meet her! I can't believe that Kate has a baby!!



Love you Kate!

- Jessie

Opening Day

Despite a depressing loss (Dunn, we still love you) and bitterly cold weather, BJ and I had a great time at Opening Day. It was neat to be able to see George W (from about a mile away at our vantage point... but that's what binoculars are for). BJ and I enjoyed playing "try and spot secret service". There's one of them in this photo... can YOU spot him?






We got to the game around 10:30 and watched batting practice, which was really cool (it also meant that we got to avoid what turned out to be 2 hour lines to get in, due to increased security). It was strange being so close to the players that we could talk to them. Here's BJ while we watched batting practice:



Here's my favorite photo from our day (BJ took it):



The helicopters flew overhead during the national anthem. Being sky-high was pretty cool in this case. :) We had a great view of their underbellies.