He's a Pinball Wizard

Last night we went to Newport (pretty much Cincinnati for you non-locals) to celebrate Sylvain's 30th Birthday!! Rachael pulled out all the stops and hosted an awesome evening!! We all gathered at Game Works for a pinball tournament and food and cake and prizes. As is fitting, Sylvain won the tournament - though I only got a picture of him playing air hockey - which he also won.

the birthday boy!

First round of the tournament, Pete was up against Joyce (Rachael's mom)

she definitely had the hometown advantage with the WHOLE family there to cheer her on,

but luckily Pete pulled it out in the end!!!

and Joyce was, of course, a gracious loser. :)

Then it was time for the delicious cake!! Rachael made beautiful cake pinballs!!

and last, but not least, were the FABU prizes!!!

(not pictured: bubbles, bouncy putty, grow creatures)

Happy 30th Birthday Sylvain!!! Thanks for including us in your celebration!

The Round and Round Chair

...has been resurrected!!!

The round and round chair has been around as long as I can remember (I'm certain it's older than I am). When my parents were moving from Texas at the beginning of my sophomore year of college, I came to Abilene to pick it up and we had it in our dorm room. I kinda think my brother was ticked that I got it, but we'll have to ask him (pete? any thoughts?).

I love reading in the round and round chair -- it's the perfect size to cuddle up in and read a novel, or a textbook. In our last house it lived in the t.v. room for a little while, and then in Pete's office when we got some 'real' furniture.

When we moved to this house it really didn't have a home anymore-- we got rid of all our college furniture and furniture that we inherited when we moved to this house. Except the round and round chair -- I couldn't part with it so it lived in my office when we first moved.

Then one day I was driving to work (via a new route) and passed by a store called Fabrications by M. I stopped in later that week to see if she could recover my favorite chair. She said sure! All I had to do was bring in a picture and pick out some fabric -- she'd call us when the fabric arrived and we could drop off the chair. When I brought in the chair I apologized for its condition - covered in dog hair (of Lord only knows how many generations of dogs), deteriorating from age, it wasn't exactly a nice chair to begin with.

BUT YOU SHOULD SEE IT NOW!!!! M just called an hour ago and I went to pick it up!!

So here's the before (when the room was lavender):



and here's the after(!) - in the now yellow room:


Don't you just love it?!?!?!

(I'm off to read all those articles waiting for me by the chair - hope you've been enjoying this lovely weekend!)

yipes!!

it's almost tomorrow and I haven't blogged yet!!

we just got home from Christa's birthday party @ Ben and Emily's where there was Apples to Apples and Karaoke -- my kind of party.

this blog won't be too long because I just realized I didn't email my supervisor my session plans for next week yet (she's supposed to have them by noon on Friday) so I need to write those ASAP.

Today was a busy day -- worked in the morning, got a haircut this afternoon (just a trim, still growing it out) and had our annual session with Melanie this afternoon! We didn't know if there would be any leaves left on the trees this late in the year but we lucked out and had a nice fall-themed session.

In 4-5 weeks we'll have proofs to share!!!

that's it for now, I'm off to drink some tea and write session plans -- tomorrow night is Sylvain's 30th Birthday in Cincinnati. It's pinball-themed and I'm excited! I might be blogging from by Blackberry so stay tuned!

The Leader of the Pack

We have two dogs, Hannah and Fiona. Sometimes their playing gets a little rough and we have to break up a fight. A few weeks ago their playing got so rough that Pete had to take Fiona to the after-hours emergency room and she got 5 stitches on her face (for which she had to have general anesthesia). So we were afraid we'd have to get rid of Hannah. We cannot have a dog that bites, it's just that simple. But we didn't want to get rid of Hannah, we love Hannah -- she's our first pooch! So we looked around online for a solution -- and we didn't thing that taking them to a once-a-week pet obedience class would work -- they only get rough at home (usually in the basement). Enter Barkbusters.
Kendra came to our home two (three?) weeks ago for an initial, 3-hour training session. By the time she left I was giggly and HANNAH AND FIONA WERE WELL-BEHAVED DOGS!!! It wasn't quite that automatic, but we are on the road to reprogramming their pack mentality. Turns out Han and Fi had sibling rivalry for head status in the household 'our pack'. Now they're learning that Pete and I (and any other adults around) are the leaders. The whole way the dogs are allowed to act around the house has changed -- we lead through doorways, we are the first ones to get to the door, we lead the way up the stairs, and they have to wait for us to give the okay. They can also Sit and Stay!!

Kendra is coming back on Wednesday for our next installment -- I think this time we will work on behavior in the yard and on the leash. There are no treats or choke chains -- just a verbal "Bahhhh" when they look ask though they might misbehave. Sounds so simple, but totally works! Carl (my father-in-law) arrived for a weekend visit while Kendra was wrapping up her session and he was astounded! He has already investigated Barkbusters where he lives in Sarasota.

I'll try to give an update next week after our follow-up session, maybe a video of them rocking out on their sit-stays in our still furniture-less living room.

darn World Series

Wednesday is my night to watch GLEE!!!!

There are so many reasons I SHOULDN'T love this show.....
- stupid plot
- REALLY stereotypical characters
- that Jane Lynch person is in it (I don't care for her that much)

BUT I JUST CAN'T HELP MYSELF!!!
...probably has something to do with all the choreographed musical numbers (one of my favorite things in the whole world!!!)
- and I love the counselor's wardrobe - emma? is that her name? I want to wear all those necklaces and flower pins and little belts!
- and Kristin Chenoweth has already been a guest star!!

I was skeptical at first, but this number definitely hooked me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z55qlGXA09I

So every week we DVR it (I miss the actual airing because of class) and Pete obliges me by watching by my side...

but now I've been deprived for TWO WEEKS!!

Ever wonder what I'm doing in school?

some people do!! (not Pete -- he's so steeped in it that the other day when I nearly laughed BBQ sauce out my nose he said, 'it's not my fault you can't get a proper seal on your velopharyngeal port')

This evening (during my 6-8:30pm class - blech) I have to turn in the study design of a research proposal. The clinical question I'm seeking to answer is:

Does "Aural Rehabilitation" in the form of perceptual auditory training with pre-lingually deaf adult cochlear implant users improve their speech recognition ability?
- I know I'll have to more clearly define 'improve' (will it be by test scores, quality of life, generalization to everyday tasks?) but it's a work in progress....

NaBloPoMo

so it's national blog posting month and I've registered to post every single day for a month. I'm already thinking of potential snags with this (thanksgiving, etc) but thought it might be fun to try. I hardly ever write on my blog anymore, because school has me so busy, so some days I might write only a few lines, but stay tuned and we'll see what happens!

Favorite line from a trick-or-treater last night has he walked along the sidewalk in front of our house, "Let's go get some candy from Mr. Crab Face over there."

a sneak peek at our new home

Living Room:

the brown print will be the sofa, the cream/sea glass print is the armchairs, the textured cream fabric will be a tufted bench, and the paisley will be pillows (2)

Basement:

we already have the sofa -- it's khaki, and the loveseat will be brown leather (not sampled);
the stripe will be an armchair and ottoman, the others will be pillows (2 of each)

Charlotte's got A Lot!

oops! I thought I posted this a couple weeks ago, but I had saved it in drafts -- oh well, better late than never...

Last Thursday (8/20) Pete and I drove to Charlotte, NC for one last weekend away before the fall semester started. On our way to Charlotte we stopped in Asheville for lunch and a tour of the The Biltmore Estate
It was so much fun and we learned A TON - those Vanderbilts were really ahead of their time -- heated indoor pool, Napoleon-obsessed, St. Bernard-breeding folks.

After the Biltmore we finished driving to Charlotte, checked into our hotel, and met our friends Adam and Sarah Bitters for dinner!! We ate at a yummy pizza place called Brixx.

Friday morning we got up early to head to the U.S. National Whitewater Center. It's the main reason we chose Charlotte for our mini-vaca! We started out our morning on the rock climbing walls. (SO much fun, but MAN did our arms hurt -- and our hands were blistered)
After the rock climbing we went to the Mega-Zip Line that goes over the rapids. Then we signed up for a 12:00pm adventure raft ride. We went down the Wilderness course twice (which is more family friendly) and the Competition course twice (it was class III and IV rapids).
The rafting was done around 2pm by which point we were starving!!! We ate at the restaurant there and then went to the climbing wall again! After that we had just enough energy to do the Cimb2Zip, where you climb up a telephone pole (basically) to zip-line back down the ground. It was a little scary -- don't know if I could've jumped off the platform if Pete hadn't been there to count to three and jump the same time I did.

We were SO TIRED after our day at the whitewater center -- we went back to the hotel, showered, and had dinner at a local restaurant called Zada Jane's - yummy!

We had thought we would go to the whitewater center two days in a row but were so tired we knew we needed a different plan for Saturday...the forecast for Charleston was rain or we would've tried have a day at the beach. :(

We decided on this outdoor 'safari' ranch - The Lazy 5 Ranch. It's one of those places where you pay a few dollars to drive through with a bucket of food and all the animals come your window and eat out of your hand, etc. It was kinda crazy -- HUGE heads in our windows, GIANT longhorns rubbing against our car (pete was NOT happy).




It took much longer to drive through the Ranch than we thought it would, and it was starting to rain a bit, but we squeezed in a round of mini-golf at Queen's Landing before the downpour. (p.s. I totally kicked Pete's butt)

Back in Charlotte proper it wasn't raining at all so we called the Bitters to see what they were doing -- they were at the whitewater center!! Luckily they were just there watching other people kayak and raft so we headed back over there to join them and eat a late lunch. That evening we went to Charlotte Mills and did some outlet shopping and saw The Time Traveler's Wife -- no, it wasn't exactly the same as the movie, but I really liked it nonetheless.

Sunday morning was time to drive home - we split the drive, went to get the girls from the kennel, and called it a day!

Join me and my team on 9/12/09 as we honor those fighting and lost to blood cancers. Visit our team page to join or make a donation: http://pages.lightthenight.org/ky/Lexingtn09/SallyJean

does anyone else think it's weird that my brother used to look like this



and now he looks like this?!?



I'm just sayin'......

such cuteness...I just might swoon!

So my birthday is on Monday, and Melanie being Melanie naturally got me one of the cutest gifts I've ever seen. It arrived in the mail today...


...it's a cupcake kit!! Complete with 3 different cupcakes, 3 frostings, and sprinkles!! Thanks Melanie -- can't wait to try one!






...and just for fun, a pic of Fi being scared of the camera:

Happy Birthday Pete!!

love you!!

So apparently some of you actually want me to continue writing a blog. Okay, well not some of you, but Rachael; Rachael wants a new blog entry, so here goes:

Nothing too exciting going on around here. Yes, we did move into a new house 2-3 weeks ago, and that is VERY exciting, but we're not done yet so I'm waiting until we're all unpacked to post pictures of our new abode. (we did get some topiaries yesterday to go on either side of the front door that I'm pretty excited about, maybe i'll post a pic of them soon)

Josie is keeping up with her habit of hacking up strange and colorful things during the night so I recently purchased my new favorite thing: The Spot Bot! Put it on a stain, press the button, and walk away! Come back in 3 to 6 minutes and it's gone -- thank you Bissell for changing my carpet-scrubbing life. (we've had it for a week and have used it 6+ times)Other than that, it's been all school all the time for me -- and I just got a GA position today so that means I'll see even LESS of Pete (but YAY for an extra job that will look good on my resume!)

For Pete his weekends have been all Tour de France all the time -- Mike and Matt came over Saturday and Sunday morning to watch le Tour in our basement - you know it has to be good for all these guys to be up and about at 8am on the weekends. On Sunday Sylvain and Rachael came over around 11am - the tour was already done for the day so the boys entertained themselves playing video games. Once they tired of video games they came out side to supervise me mowing the lawn -- that's right -- ME! -- Pete got me an awesome reel mower so we can mow the lawn in an environmentally friendly way now.
Anyway -- this paragraph isn't about me mowing the lawn, it's about how the boys FURTHER amused themselves. I'll just let you watch:

What can I say.....

Awesome Potato Salad Recipe

I'm not typically a fan of potato salad -- I don't like mayonnaise -- but this recipe uses goat cheese instead! Made it last night to go with our first burgers of the season, it's from last month's Cooking Light (link here). I didn't have fromage blanc so I used an extra ounce of goat cheese and a little bit extra sour cream to make up the volume difference. SO yummy!

i've been really sad all week -- but mom wouldn't have wanted that, so i'm trying to suck it up and do all the things i learned from my mom...i'm singing and dancing around the kitchen while cleaning and making cookies and trying not to recognize the pit in my stomach that is there every day.



Thank You for the Music, Mom.

Sorry 'bout that -- fixed the video so you should be able to view it now. It's my first video upload using YouTube -- I have previous experience with GoogleVideo, but as Google bought YouTube, it is no longer available.

Been a slow news week here at our house

but here's an example of how we manage to entertain ourselves on a Sunday afternoon:



It's 3 minutes long -- only watch the first 45 seconds or so (I don't know how to cut with the new video editor, sorry)

She did this until we turned it off -- it was hilarious!

Fun read!

My only class on Tuesday was canceled, which was good because I had a case study due in Aural Rehab on Friday that I hadn't started yet and I needed finish reading medical journals so I would have something to cite in my paper.....

Then the mail came and the book I ordered on Overstock arrived before its release date!!!


A Little Bit Wicked by Kristin Chenoweth is such a fun read!! I dove right in and had it halfway finished by Tuesday night. I put the case study off as long as possible, but did have to get that done, so I finished the book yesterday when I got home from work. It's full of stories starting from her childhood and finishing sometime last year when the book went to the publisher. I laughed out loud on several occasions, in reaction to sections such as:

Let me just say right now and for the record that I, Kristi Dawn Chenoweth, do solemnly swear that I will never hack through a Kevlar door and stab a pilot in the neck with my tweezers. I will never seek, nor have I ever sought, to overthrow the government of the United States of America by force of tweezer. Anyone who knew me back in the eighties can tell you, I am far more dangerous without my tweezers. Jimmy Kimmel once whipped out a photo of me from my pageant days, and I thought those eyebrows were going to leap right off the matte finish like a couple of centipedes. I had a whole lotta Brooke Shields going on, except Brooke somehow manages to carry it off, all of which is to say I need my dang tweezers.

(Rachael, I'm going to loan this to you the next time I see you because I think you'd love it, then maybe you can pass it on to Emily)

So... I recommend this to anyone who needs a quick (almost) summer read...especially if you like musicals because then you'll get all the song references, but even if you don't, it's still pretty darn funny.

Happy Weekend!

it's no wonder why i love this guy....

here we have pete making his "you would SO date me!!" face

Happy 4th Anniversary (of sorts)!!

Four years ago today, Pete and I closed on our first house... and camped out on the floor in the bedroom... and Pete surprised me with a set of plates he'd bought off our registry so we could eat the Whole Foods dinner he'd bought.

So it seems like a good time to share....

We're Moving!! In two months we'll be closing on our SECOND home (which seems crazy for how young we are, but I'm trying to get over it) It's a bigger house in a nicer neighborhood, and Pete says we need the space. I'm still wrapping my head around leaving our first home which I love, but am excited about our new place as well.

It's still occupied so I don't want to put pictures of other people's things all over the internet, but here are images of the front and back of the house. It has a 2 car detached garage and a finished basement, and a master suite on the second story. The only changes we'll make right away are adding a garbage disposal and putting in a new sink/faucet (a girl's gotta have a good kitchen). It has a great swing set in the backyard with a SLIDE -- so come on over for playtime!

almost missed it!!

thank you Fabulous K (a blog I stalk) for reminding me!!!

Earth Hour is tonight from 8:30pm to 9:30pm -- all you have to do is turn off your lights for one hour -- TONS of cities around the world are doing it to show how much energy can be saved in an hour to combat global warming. It's so simple!

Last year Emily and Christa came over and we played board games by candlelight -- I don't know what we'll do this year, since I've only got 4 hours to plan -- maybe Pete and I will do what we had originally planned -- shrimp kebabs on the grill -- and just dine by candlelight.

If you are wondering where I'll be for the next two years....

I'LL BE IN GRADUATE SCHOOL!!!

My letter of acceptance arrived last Wednesday, I've just been behind in posting. I'm excited and nervous and scared all at the same time, but am hoping I will be able to work to deserve the spot I've earned in the program (130 applied, 25-28 were accepted).

So, the next time I'm in the workforce, (fingers crossed) I'll be a Speech-Language Pathologist!!

taking a break

I'm about halfway-through writing the first-draft of my Graduate Writing Requirement research paper (due tomorrow). I've been terrible about updating this little 'ole blog, but it's because I've been super-busy -- honest!!

I even have some little pictures and things all ready to go from when I was going to blog a few times this weekend but remembered it would be a better idea to study for my Diagnostic Procedures midterm (which was this evening at 6pm and *so* didn't deserve all the stress it caused me).

We are on the verge of Spring...I can just feel it. When I got out of my class this evening, it wasn't quite dark yet -- and all my catalogs and magazines are showing the cutest Spring/Easter things:

chocolate umbrellas and little feather duckies -- almost makes me WANT april showers!

...and on sunday I read the sweetest post-secret:

Alright, I guess I better get back to Evidence-Based Practice in Health Care and its Importance in Guiding Clinical Practice in Communication Sciences and Disorders (exciting, I know)