A few photos

Had a few photos uploaded that I hadn't had time to post yet.

The first 3 are from the weekend Katia and Ian were here. The boys fell asleep on the couch watching Finding Nemo.

Chris and I had been wondering what to get our nephew Marshall for his 1st birthday. Daddy said Marshall would like a sports car, preferably a convertible so he could, and I quote, ride like the wind. Oh yeah, and red would be good. Do Uncle Chris and Aunt Renae deliver or what?!

Check out Marshall loving his new ride! Photos are courtesy of Grandpa Nicholson.

Marshall and Grandpa

Marshall in his convertible

Marshall and Daddy cruising

Marshall loving his sports car

More smiles from Marshall

A final photo of the 1-year old!

Off to Florida

Haven't been feeling very inspired to blog lately. Here's a little update.

Had a great weekend visiting my sister and her husband and meeting Ryan. He was even cuter in person! We also got to see my cousin Tommy and his wife Sarah and their little guy Sam. They live in Sioux City and Sarah and I started talking about scrapbooking and how we need to get together and work on our scrapbooks. The guys weren't too excited about that until we figured out that both Chris and Tommy are big sci-fi fans. So now we're hoping to plan a weekend in Sioux City with Tommy and Sarah soon.

On our way home Saturday afternoon, we headed to Council Bluffs and saw Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Curse followed by dinner at Ruby Tuesday's. The movie was good, not outstanding but it was fun.

I spent half the week home sick with a sinus infection combined with bronchitis. I'm finally starting to feel better. Which is a good thing since I have to jump on a plane at 10:00 tomorrow morning. I'll be in Florida through Friday. I am looking forward to the conference (annual work one that I go to every year) but Florida at the end of July?! Hmm, two things come to mind - hurricane season and HOT! And I though I'm feeling better, I'd kind of rather stay here to finish recuperating, not push my luck by flying across the country. But no matter, I'll be on my way to Florida in the morning and Chris will be baching it for the week.

Hope you all have a great week! A few pictures...

Ryan wasn't so impressed with Tommy!

Ryan with Mommy & Grandpa

Who wouldn't love to get this in the mail?

That's my nephew Ryan! And I get to see him TOMORROW!!!! Yeah! Can you tell I'm an excited aunt?! And Chris and my brother-in-law Rob get to meet for the first time! Yeah! Although, Roma and I talked and decided this could be a mistake since both the guys are so mischevious and full of trouble. We'll see how the weekend goes.

So it's county fair time here. Which means HOT weather - and thunderstorms. We're in a warning right now and, although hail and lightning might not be good for the crops, it would so kick the humidity we have just hanging over us. It is blasted hot and humid here! And we are going to enjoy a little of it while we watch the fair parade tonight with our friends and their kiddos! But the sky is looking a little scary right now. Hmm.

Not much else happening here. Just excited about seeing the fam tomorrow, working only 1/2 day (YEAH!) and finding lots of AC over the next 72+ hours.

A Quick Rant - And a Praise!

Just a little update

First off, I have to say I LOVE short weeks at work! I so don't mind working and I really do love my job, but it sure is nice to have a super-short week! 4-day weekend followed by a 3-day workweek - oh happy me!

Chris and I have had a great week. He has been superbusy at work, as have I, so when we get home it's all about relaxing and together time. We have a little nightly game of bocce ball and it's fun to just get out there and play and tease each other and watch the crazy cats try and steal the balls. Hello Kitty - get out of the way! Last night he kicked my tukus! At one point I was down 17-3. I rallied back and only lost 21-10, I think.

Tonight we get to hang out with our friends Josh and Renee. We are bringing dinner with us and will eat and play games at their house. We are so looking forward to it. We've all be swamped the past few months and haven't really had any time to spend with them. So tonight we get to catch up and have fun.

Now to go back to the title of the post.

The Rant
So this morning I'm calmly driving to work - doo duh dooo. Just driving along. Then I reach a corner where another county road intersects the county road I'm on. And a mini-van decides they must pull out in front of me. No problem. I slow down - WAY down. Because they are not driving my speed (about 7-10 over - it's a county road!) but they're only about 2-3 over the limit. Now I can respect that someone, especially with children in the vehicle, wouldn't want to speed. So I slow down. So we get to the edge of town where one of the town's big daycare places is. And the mini-van flips on its turn signal - and flicks a cigarette butt out the window! GRRRRR! I so don't care if I offend anyone with this - if you are a smoker and smoke in the presence of your children - BITE ME! I would like to ring the neck of Little Miss-I-won't-speed-but-I'll-expose-my-little-darlings-to-noxious-gases-and-fumes! Grr. Grr. Grr. I know - there is nothing I can do about it. But I can rant about it on my own blog!

The Praise
I have got some of the best co-workers! Tomorrow is my birthday and when I got in the office today, they had up a big banner (we do this for everyone) over my desk. They have kind of forgotten the past 2 years so it was awesome that they remembered this year! Plus, Marolyn (she made our wedding cake so you know she's a great baker!) brought me a whole container of chocolate waffle cookies with a note that these are for Chris and I! Yeah! And then she baked me a fruit pizza and wrote Happy Birthday Renae on it for all of us to share. And then I got told that they're taking me out for lunch! Yeah! They make me feel so special.

And tomorrow, Chris is going to help one of the guys with a project during the day so I will have some downtime. I'm planning a quick workout followed by a relaxing bath and catching up on a new book I'm reading. I'd also like to get caught up on some of the housework while Chris is gone. In the evening, we're planning on heading over to Omaha and one of the funplex type places with go-karts and mini-golf. We both thought that sounded like fun.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Happy Independence Day!

Yeah! I love the 4th of July - not only for the fireworks and great food and fun times, but because it's only 4 more days until my birthday!

Katia and Ian came and visited for the weekend. It was so fun to have them here! They got here later on Friday so we just relaxed and ate once they got here. We took our time getting going on Saturday but ended up shopping in Omaha. We found a pirate costume for Ian (his current obsession! Have you ever listened to Veggie Tale's "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything over and over and over - try it sometime!) and some other fun stuff. We even had time to stop by the Just Desserts place - yum! After we got home, the boys, Chris and Ian, had quite the water fight outside while Katia and I threw together a quick dinner. Sunday was church and then the swimming pool - it was the perfect day to go swimming. Just the right temperature and not too crowded. We came home, changed and grabbed a snack and tried to rest before heading to our friend Cherie's house for a barbecue and fireworks. It was a very nice and relaxing evening. Ian crashed on the way home and it wasn't long before we all headed to bed. Poor Chris had to work on Monday but I had taken the day off to see Katia and Ian off. We got them packed up and on the road before noon. I was able to get in some quiet time, a good workout, a library trip and grocery shopping before coming home for a quick nap. We made homemade pizza for supper and crashed pretty early.

Today we've taken it pretty easy. We both slept in and kind of putzed around this morning. This afternoon we headed into Harlan to the laundromat. We have a washer and dryer, but we have these huge quilts and blankets that almost don't fit in our washer - and they don't dry well in our normal size dryer either. So we loaded them up and took them into town. We had the place all to ourselves and squeezed in a game of Trivial Pursuit while we waited for our stuff to dry. We followed all that excitement up with a round of disc golf at the park and then headed over to Westphalia for their annual Parish Picnic and chicken dinner. Now we're home for th evening and relaxing. It's nice that we have such a short work week ahead - Yeah!

This weekend we're taking it easy again, hoping to spend some time with friends on Friday night and spending a quiet evening at home on Saturday (seems like we don't have many of those lately). Then next weekend we'll be in Sioux City to see my sister Roma and her husband Rob and little guy Ryan while they're back. We're so excited about that! The following weekend after that, I'll be crazy getting ready to head to the NOPHNRCSE conference in Orlando. I fly out Sunday morning and get home on Friday. I'm very much looking forward to seeing my friends and co-workers, but honestly, Orlando, in July - if a hurricane doesn't sweep me away, there is a good chance I may just melt!

I just realized that it's already the first week of July and my thesis still isn't done. I MUST get to work on it! It's been difficult to really sit down and write. I am definitely not feeling inspired but I'm thinking I may just need to inspire myself - like now! My thesis is a bit different from the typical thesis as it's not a research thesis but a creative thesis. Yep, I basically get to write 60+ pages of my own poems and stories. Not a bad thing normally, but I am not feeling creative in the least, even my crocheting and scrapbooking have suffered. I would so love to have the majority of the work on it done by the time the fall semester starts up so I don't have to worry so much about deadlines. We'll see how much I can manage to apply myself.

Anyway, things are pretty ho-hum here in Renae-land. Hope you are all doing well!