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.