Brown County Weekend

So to Kate, and whoever else might have noticed… sorry for the lack of blog entries. : ) We’ve been pretty busy! This past weekend I went with the girls in BJ’s family (Wurzelbacher side) to Brown county and had a great time! The weather was beautiful!



One of my favorite parts of the weekend was hiking in the state park. We hiked around a lake, and the water was so still it looked like we were looking up into the sky – here’s one of my pictures of the water. It’s hard to tell where the trees end and the reflection of them begins.



While I was gone BJ hung out with Dave and Blake – disk golfing and regular golfing. : ) BJ also continued to demonstrate his new found cooking prowess by baking a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake (I would never have been so brave to attept a recipe had 26 steps!). I’m so amazed at how well he cooks – I never knew!



Here’s a cute shot I took of BJ last night with Sidney…. Awww…



And here’s BJ slowly confusing Sidney’s sense of stability.

Happy Birthday Matt Podjan!

¡Tenga un gran cumpleaños, Matt!

Cornhole Project

BJ and I had a pretty fun weekend. We saw Nacho Libre on Friday night, which was really pretty good. It was made by the same people who did Napoleon Dynamite and it was filmed the same way. The guy sitting behind me thought the movie was so funny that he would convulse with laughter... and kick my chair over and over. That was awesome. :)

On Saturday I went to BJ's cousin Heidi’s baby shower, and it was really nice seeing some of BJ's family again. On Saturday evening, BJ and I got cracking on our latest project --- a Purdue cornhole set (for those who aren't familiar, its a popular Cincinnati game). :) BJ finished one, and he's waiting to finish the other until I'm done painting it. The only bad part about this project was the large amount of mosquito bites I accumulated.... around 10. The worst one is on the bottom of my foot (this one literally kept my up all night last night scratching).

Here's some of our production photos... We'll be sure to post more when its all done.







Yesterday after church, BJ went disk golfing with Dave Miller, and I went to an Auction with BJ's mom and Carl, which was just down the road. I only spent $11, and I got so much! I won an axe for BJ, three antique books, a beautiful blue vase, a camera that I thought was cooler than it actually is (price tag: $2... so no big loss), and possibly my best win ---- a never used (still in the box) kitchen sink for $2! Maybe we'll use it if we finish our basement down the road. :)

Weekend of Fun

Just thought I'd give a short update on our weekend. On Friday BJ and I went to the Bright Carnival with Jessica, Jeremy, John, and John's daughter Jasmine. There were so many kids there is was like sensory overload. Jeremy joined in the fun of a sack race (I'm pretty sure he was the tallest one to race that day). :)

On Saturday BJ and I played tennis and later went to BJ's cousin Shelly's graduation / end of military term party, and yesterday we went out to eat with BJ's dad for father's day and saw the movie "Cars", which I highly recommend. I didn't know if I would like it because it was about cars, but it was really cute. Also, it’s the kind of movie that it would be good to watch more than once, so that you could catch all the small details and jokes.

One great thing -- after our tennis game on Saturday, BJ and I drove out to check up on the progress of the land development, and progress had been made! A section of trees had been cleared for the road, and that section of road had been carved out. It was great to see that work is being done, especially since this whole process takes so long. With the weather being so warm, its weird to think that we'll actually be moving into our house when its cold and probably snowing.



See how the road bends to the left and the right? If you go towards the right, that's the start of our road... :)

Another cool thing, my great friend Jessica and her husband Ryan are moving to Columbus this week from Raleigh, NC. She's been so far away for so long, and now I'll be able to see her easier (only 2 hours) & hopefully more often. :)

That's all the updates I have. Enjoy your Monday!

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

I just heard this yesterday, and I think its really great, that Bill Gates is stepping away from Microsoft to do charitable work with his wife full time. I always get so depressed watching shows like "The Fabulous Life of...", and see how some of the richest people in the world spend their money. $300,000 on a hotel stay, $1.5 million on a personalized car, etc.

I always think of how many lives could be changed with that money... especially when it takes so little (According to the World Bank, 1.2 billion people live on less than one dollar a day). I was shocked the other day when I read this article about child labor in India. The article states, "[Sarojama] has barely been able to feed [her five grandchildren] so she was forced to borrow money from a local factory owner. Unable to pay back the loan she sent her young grand-daughter to work. Parimeeta was taken out of school and has been working 12 hour days for two years." Here's the shocking part... "The debt is less than $20."

Really, the good thing about shows like the "The Fabulous Life of..." is that I can't criticise the obundantly rich without thinking about how I am with money, and I how I could also be better with it... do more important things with it.

Anyway, I guess that Bill Gates had to ask his children if it would be okay for their inheritance to be dramatically reduced. They agreed (I'm sure they won't be hurting), and so he's off (or soon will be) to focus on the fight against Malaria and AIDs, amongst other things. This makes me happy.

Holycrap-arama

Well, I lied. I don't have any really fun photos from the shower or Chad's visit... We did have a great time, and it was great to spend a little time with Kristi. I opted out of the game on Saturday because of the rain (so far I've been to three games -- we've lost all three and two of them it rained). I was glad I skipped Saturday's game because we lost and it rained.

Yesterday BJ and I went to Buca di Beppos for lunch (with a gift certificate from Discover - thank you cash back bonus), and then went to Homearama, the luxury (i.e. mansion) addition. We saw some pretty cool stuff - our favorite parts being the basements and the amazing patios. We even saw one home that had a complete glass wall that opened to the patio.

Here's some of our favorite stuff:

A room in a basement -- I loved this "Hotel" hall entranceway. It reminds me of an entrance to a Pottery Barn store, or something like that.



An outdoor fireplace and fountain:



A Ginormous shower:



The patio / outdoor room, notice the wall from the house that opens up completely:

The Reds are #1

Since BJ really never posts anything, I guess I'll be the one to say with glee that the Reds are in first! Woo Hoo! I would have never guessed I'd get this into baseball. My girl thing to say about it is that I really like Ryan Freel. He always tries really hard. Sometimes the other guys don't give it their all, and that's really annoying because they make a kajillian dollars.

Our friend Chad Campbell is coming up this weekend to hang out and go to a game. Hopefully the Reds won't lose on Saturday night! I've been to three games, and they've lost each one. Boooooo... Actually, maybe I should just stay home.

My friend Kristi's bridal shower is also tomorrow, and it will be great to see her. :) I'll post some photos from the weekend next week, so stay glued!

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. :)