A Happy Christmas!

I'm so thankful I started this blog!  I have a BAD memory, so I think this will serve as a great help as I get older and my memory goes from bad to non-existent.  :)

Speaking of getting older - I hit the big 32 to this year!  I have to admit, I love a good birthday!  :)  How can you not, a day where people call, text, write, FaceBook, send cards to say Happy Birthday and they love you!  Yes, please!  :)

I'm usually at work, but decided to take a couple of days off before Christmas break, which was perfectly lovely.  The house still had a lot of settling to get done and Nick LOVES when I put the tree up.  I think my batting average is like 5 out of 13 years... so, not great, but the good news is I've gotten it up the last 3 or 4 in a row!  Yea me!!  :)  I think it comes from not having kids.  There's no real catalyst to get you moving to get it done.

Mom agreed to make me a cherry cheesecake for my b-day like when we were kids!  So, with more free time then normal and a cake to get to we headed to A-town!  Mom cooked a yummy dinner and it was nice to spend time w/ my family.  Amazingly an hour drive can make that harder then it should be.  So... we partied!  AND also, Mel and I went thru the house taking pictures of all the unique things my parents have in their house. They love finding them some unique treasure.  We've not always agreed on the word "treasure" but "unique" has never been called into question.  So, I decided to showcase a few of them here:

I wonder how Nate Berkus would feel about a shark preserved in formaldehyde as a piece he needed to find a spot in his interior decorating for?  That being said, he is a big organization person, so I'm sure he'd be happy the shark was clearly labeled.

Dad gave this to mom one year for Christmas.  I still remember her opening it.  My mom is one of the most gracious women I know, but I remember thinking, "uh oh, Dad's going to get it for this one.  What was he thinking!?"  But then we all looked over and saw she was getting all teary eyed over the thing... I guess they were meant for each other, what can I say. :)

It's hard to know what unique thing is on display here, but it's the UFO lamp (not the series of hands that clamp together to hold notes or the cute picture of my dad as a kid).  The lamp is apparently from a 1950's movie... maybe War of the Worlds??

Don't most people have a life size metal peacock in their living room?  

Awwww... a teddy bear.  Made out of mink....

A staple of my childhood.  Love this.  When we were younger we'd always run around claiming everything mom and dad brought home by proclaiming "I get this when you die."  lol.  For some reason we claimed a lot of neckties (my dad has very good neck-tie taste), hopefully I remembered to claim this. 

What can you say about this... I think it speaks for itself. 

I'm at a loss... 

That gives you an idea.  Sitting here, I'm remembering a few other things I should have included. :)

We could NOT get the cake lit to save our lives.  Luke wanted to help and there was more than one mishap, but I think this pic is the one right before he dropped a lit match in his mothers lap, which caused her to jump up and scream and the lit match to sit on the chair burning.  Luke laughed harder then I've ever seen him laugh.  It was pretty stinking funny.

Awwww... a nice pic of pops and I. :)

So, now I'm 32!  And then it was Christmas! 

What a great Christmas!  It was so nice to spend time with family.  

Uncle Jim and Aunt Cathy!  We always love seeing them!  Uncle Jim made his famous caramels!  Delicious! 

Playing some hardcore Boggle.  Mel was schooling everyone.  It was nice to see my cousin Dougie too! :)   

From there it was off to Christmas at the Cath and Pops!  Nick's from a family of 3 boys and I'm from a family of 5 girls... needless to say this never happened at one of our Christmases.  :)  The Timmerman's are strong boys; fortunately, they're gentle souls.  :)  For the record, Doug schooled Nick.  :)

LOL!  So cute. 

Hey!  It's us - the Timmerman's!  

Christmas day we headed back to Dubuque to see Grandma and Grandpa Welu!  

Grandpa Dick in his new bathrobe!  Looks good w/ the hat!

Grandma Dixie got a new puppie!  Her name's Bre -- a mini yorkie.  Such a cutie!  24 oz! 

The little ones are always so lionhearted -- She's trying to fight the big bad teddy bear. :) 

From there we headed off to see Grandma Margie!

Not only did I hit the jackpot when I married Nick, but I got his family as an added bonus when I married him.  I feel blessed to have added so many great people into my life.

From there it was off to Christmas at Mom and Dad's! 

I started not feeling well Christmas Eve and by the time I got to mom & dad's  on Christmas I wasn't feeling well at all, nor was Mel.  SO, I think that's what caused me to miss taking a picture of everyone for the first year in many many years!!!  Makes me mad.  Hopefully, I get a chance at a redo soon. I'll make mom leave up the tree until we can all get back together. ;)

lol. Love this pic of Doug.  He's got his eye on you!

As soon as she pulled that tutu out of the box, she had that thing on and danced the night away. 

We did a lot of this!  :) 

Hope all of you had a Merry Christmas!

New House!!

First a correction note!  I said in the last post Nick and I had been married for 15 years next year... it's 14.  :)  Oopsie.  I've worked at Rockwell next year 15 years!!  

What a hectic few weeks it's been!  :)

Christmas service, Christmas, busy work schedules AND a move!  :)  A night a couple weeks ago I woke up at 3am fretting about all the things there were to do and after much debate finally just decided to go into work instead of trying to sleep.  You know!  One of those months. :)  So, it's been tired but I've had a great couple weeks.  I've been able to see and squeeze a lot of friends I love!  I love the new house.  The Christmas service wasn't extravagant, but the extra work seemed to have paid off and it was nice service. 

Looking forward to the next few weeks!  More seeing family and friends!  I'm excited!!

I thought I'd share a few pics of the new house!

There's a real fire place!  We were laughing today that we'd probably never use it as we get up and go to much on the fly and then we'd be worrying about logs burning.  

 

Awww... so cute.  Jack's acclimated pretty well!  He's lovin' the fenced in back yard.

 The kitchen is a smidge smaller then our last place, but I really like it.  You have to keep it clean tho -- everything is so wide open, things can look pretty messy quickly.

 The master bedrooms a little weird.  It has this long entrance that comes into it... (Jack's kennel will go downstairs eventually, just haven't made it that far :).

 Then this long entrance that empties into the upstairs bathroom.  Used to be laundry upstairs to the left, but that got moved down.  The storage upstairs is nice.

 My closet!  Poor Nick, he took the office closet.

The messy office!  It's my holding pen for now.  Time to take inventory and figure out what I need to keep/get rid of.  :)

My sweet friend Angie that I love!  We worked together in a previous job and we had some good times.  She literally could make me laugh until I cried.  Fun, fun, fun. 
She just had her third midget!  We met at our favorite place (Fiesta del Sol) and I got to have lunch with my sweet friend and squeeze the baby.  He's such a little dolly.   She's a master at beautiful babies, but no surprise, she's a goddess inside and out.

 We had dinner a few weeks back with some other friends we love!  Nick worked with Christy (girly on the left - her fiance Ryan is far left and their midget Abby) and Brad (guy on the right with wife Michelle) met thru the gym they work out at.  It's been a fun few years getting to know each other.  We had a great night telling stories and laughing and playing games. As we like to say in this group, "you don't even know me man."  Nick's little brother came too, but he managed to leave before I got my camera out.  Darn him. 

7th Times a Charm

Well... this Thanksgiving break was MUCH needed! It's been tooooo busy lately!  'Tis the season!  :) 

Nick turned 33 and I did a terrible job taking pictures of it!  :)  He had a fun week tho.  My sisters decided a family stop by was in order to wish him happy birthday.  Mom brought wild rice soup -- yum!-- so we all benefited. :)  Later that week he headed off with his family and watched Lisbon win the championship of football for their class??  He was talking pretty fast when he got home... always a sign of a good time. :) Then Sophie came and stayed Friday night and we headed to Olive Garden one of the places he loves.  He had him a cup of birthday coffee and we called 33 a success!

SO, we're getting ready for move #7!  The things about moving frequently, is you don't accumulate a lot of junk. :)  The last move we got rid of a ton of stuff, and I think this next one will about push us to the necessities... with the exception of my clothes closet... but I look at that as a two fold thing... necessity and hobby.  So, obviously it deserves more space!  :)

That being said, we decided it was time to stop carting around my wedding dress from place to place.  Nick's a little more sentimental about it then I am, but it's a little sad for me too... but not sad enough to move it again. :)  BUT, for posterity purposes, I thought I'd try it on one more time!  Here's the good news... I can still get in it.  The bad news... I can't breathe while wearing it.  lol. Guess that's what happens when you get married at 18. 

Nick's been making me laugh my head off all weekend... 

Next year will be 15 years and to my recollection (grant it my memory is bad) I've not had a day yet that I haven't been thankful that I married who I married.  He has integrity, handles me and others with love and loves God.  That being said, I think there are moments when he's "suggesting" I clean up my clutter or stop buying so much crap at Goodwill that I might come across less thankful. :)  Poor boy.  :)  How has he made it this long?

We didn't have many good pictures from our wedding (our own fault) and most of the ones we did have the tulips by the pulpit ended up coming out on either side of Nick's head.  In several pictures he looks like he has ginormeous ears.  lol.

Anyway!  We had a lovely Thanksgiving at Pop and Cath's.  It was a lovely low key day!  I talked Evie into taking some pictures with me.  I love midgets, they're cute and uninhibited.  How can you beat that?  :)

My sweet brother with Berlin -- the 100lbish German Shepard. :)  Also sweet.   

We also did a little dog sitting!  Frankie (a girl) has stayed with us before, so, this time seemed a little more fluid.  She's SUPER cute and cuddly.  Come Friday she was ready to go home and Jack was ready for her to go home too.  :)  He's an old man set in his ways, but he did pretty good.

Moochers mooch... 

Cath and I went and saw "Mouse Trap" at the Old Creamery Theater.  I grew up on Agatha Christie so I was happy camper.  :)  They did a great job AND it was funny.  It's apparently the longest running play in England.