Saturday, December 18, 2010

It's Missouri Christmas Day! :)

Today is December 18th.  Big day on many levels.  First, it's my beautiful niece Olivia's first birthday today.  I just finished skyping with the family to watch her eat cake (which she wanted nothing to do with) and then open presents...which kind of bored her once she found a box to climb and sit on.  It was cute.
But today is a special day because it's Missouri Christmas day.  Today is the day my hubby and I celebrate Christmas in Missouri.  Instead of lugging all our presents home to PA for Christmas with our families, we just celebrate Christmas here before we go home.  That way its less to travel with, and we get to open presents a little earlier.  :)  I got a lot of good things this year.  I must have been a very good girl. :)  But, we will get to that another time.
I wanted to blog about the gift I made J.  He half kidding (I think) made a statement two weeks ago that he wanted a Philadelphia Phanatic Christmas Stocking.  No sooner than he got the words out, the creative gears in my head kicked in.  So, I made him a Philadelphia Phanatic stocking.  The only store we have here in town with craft stuff is Walmart.  I didn't have enough time to run to Hobby Lobby in Columbia, but that is okay.  I found stuff that worked perfectly. 
First, I got some grey fleece fabric, which my friend Jenny G will be so proud of, because it was on clearance!  Perfect.  Then I got some felt, fabric glue, googly eyes, and some pom-poms.  I found a stocking pattern online, and I had to draw the Phanatic by hand because I couldn't find a large enough photo to trace.  All in all, it cost me maybe $10.00 for everything, and a couple of hours of time.  The face my hubby made last night when he saw it was priceless.  Which is exactly what I was going for.  Take a look at the pictures of my stocking making. :)  Hope you all have a very Merry Missouri Christmas!

The finished product :)







Sunday, December 5, 2010

Ah, Christmas Time

I love Christmas time!  We have already decorated our tree.  It's so pretty.  We got a big tree this year because we finally have room for it.  We used to have a little 4 ft. tree, which we have now put in our bedroom. 
Today, my hubby and I went shopping.  It was so much fun!  We got almost everything done!  This is the earliest we have ever been done shopping!  It's nice.  Tonight I even started wrapping his presents.  See here in Missouri, we celebrate Christmas Deceber 18th.  Well, that is the day we are celebrating it this year. We celebrate a little early because we always go home for Christmas.
I am excited to go home for the holidays.  One, I get to see my family and my beautiful niece, who is turning 1 in two weeks.  And two, I get to see all my wonderful friends!
It is for those two reasons I love Christmas the most!  Nothing is better than spending time with family and friends and eating all the yummy food and cookies my mommy makes!  :)

Friday, November 12, 2010

Time

Time to get posting!  Sorry, I know you have all missed me.  I have been slack-a-lackin' on my blog postin' lately.  For that, I apologize. 
I have been very busy lately.  Between class, assignments, observing and other random activities, its just been a whirl wind.  I love to volunteer, my hubby tells me I volunteer too much.  It makes me feel good to volunteer.  I just love helping out and spending my time doing things that hopefully help others.  I have met a lot of great people doing this.  Just recently I was on a planning committee for our big fundraiser event.  It used to be linked to American Heart Association, but we pulled away from them this fall, and the fundraiser was to raise money for a project that will stay in our own community.  There is an organization in town that is trying to bring 50 AED's through our county in the next five years.  I am not a life saver person, not a nurse or a doctor, but these things are really pretty neat.  And they can really help to save someones life who goes into sudden cardiac arrest.  An AED is an automated external defibrillator.  The ones that they are investing in are really pretty dummy proof.  You attach the "paddles" and turn it on.  The computer does an assessment of the persons heart beats and decides if they need to be shocked or not.  It continues until EMTs arrive and take over.  Its really pretty cool.  So I helped to put on the event to raise money.  Its a formal event, so I had to dress up for the evening.  Thanks to my friends getting married, I already had a dress to wear.  :)  Perfect.  We have a silent/live auction, dinner and dancing.  However, when you volunteer you really don't get to "have fun", as you are really working behind the scenes to make sure everything goes well.  We had a great committee, the evening was perfect, and it being November...the weather was awesome as well!  I am not sure of the final total, but our goal was $40,000.00 and I am pretty sure we came close to $53,000.00.  Which is awesome.  What helps is we live in a smaller community, with a TON of medical staff (we have a medical school right here in town). 
Here is the coolest story of the night.  There is a doctor here in town, who also owns a winery.  Not only did he donate all the wine to our event, but then during the live auction he was bidding on the child's play house we had up for auction.  This play house was awesome.  I could easily stand up in side, with a good foot above my head.  It had a front porch and mail box.  It was just so cute.  I could have lived there, if it had a bathroom and a kitchen. :)  Anyway, he and another Dr. were going through a bidding war.  Well, the wine doctor won it and then GAVE it to the other doctor who was bidding against him because he knew they had young kids and he did not.  AMAZING right?  I mean, I just thought that had to be the coolest thing ever!  It just gives me the warm fuzzies knowing there are those type of people still in the world today.  :)
On another note, I hate this time change.  I am so tired.  I know you are supposed to gain an hour of sleep, but I feel as though I lost sleep somewhere.  It gets dark at like five o'clock now and that means winter is fast approaching.  I hate cold.  Well, if spring starts in March, I guess I have only five more months.  Ugh.  :(

Monday, October 18, 2010

Just another Monday

Today is Monday.  I am not a big fan of Monday's, means the weekend is over, and well...that just sucks.  Even worse, no Phillies game to look forward to, so Monday is just another Monday.  I started my first class tonight for school, well my first "I have to actually go to campus and sit in a classroom class".  It was okay, the professor went over our syllubus and then let us go.  Nice.  :)  Then I went to my Zumba class...and it was canceled!!!!!  I couldn't believe it.  The one thing I look forward to, and it was canceled.  BOO.  So I had to actually work out the non-fun way today.  Boo!
But, I did get to the post office today.  Put a cute little package in the mail for my beautiful niece.  :)  Its a cute little something for Halloween.  I cannot wait for them to get the package.  :)  I miss seeing my niece, it has been way to long.  By the time I see her again, she might be able to talk.  I am not sure, because well I am not sure how this whole baby thing works.  When they can talk, and walk...who knows.  It's such a science.  :)
On the bright side, tomorrow I get to leave work early to watch my Phils.  Let's Go Phillies!!!

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Fall Fun

I love October.  First, playoff baseball happens in October.  Which, for me has been exciting as the Phillies have made it to playoff October for the past few years.  They are there again this year!  Second, I love Halloween!  It might be my favorite holiday, next to Thanksgiving and Christmas of course.  :)  And lastly, it cools off enough that I finally can cook.  I love cooking! 
I have been seriously back on weight watchers for a few weeks now.  So last Sunday, it was a whole weight watcher day.  I made two new recipes, mac & cheese and banana pancakes for breakfast.  The pancakes were awesome!  I also made Krusteaz fat free fudge brownies.  They were also very good.  I highly recomment them!  Here are the other two recipes.
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2010/09/banana-nut-pancakes.html

and for the mac & cheese

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2010/05/lighter-baked-macaroni-and-cheese.html

Then the next day, keeping with the healthy theme...I made ziti.  Here is that recipe, because it was awesome!
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2010/09/low-fat-baked-ziti-with-spinach.html

Now tonight, its back up in the 80's here, so we are grilling.  :)  Chicken and rice for dinner. Yum!

LET's GO PHILLIES!  I love October!

Friday, October 1, 2010

I Love A Parade!

Today was officially the end of our softball season.  How do we finish, well we have a parade of course!  It is Kirksville's homecoming tonight.  So as middle school softball team, we must line up with other sports/clubs/classes and go straight down Franklin street.  Little kids line the street looking for candy, and waiting to wave to my co-coach, Coach Dub.  They just love her!  She teaches Physical Education at the Primary in Kirksville.  She must be one heck of a teacher.  The kids eyes light up when they see her.  Almost like they are seeing Santa.  Or the castle at Disney World for the first time.  Most wave, some give fist bumps or high fives, some taking a run leap expecting Coach Dub to catch them (which she does).  They almost always jump up and down and yell "Coach Dub".  Then today, they told her they saw Coach Wagner up there.  The soccer coach is her mentor and co-teacher.  He was ahead of us with his soccer team in the parade.
I always think I will dread the parade.  Today was fun.  Our girls were pretty calm actually.  They were getting cars/trucks to honk at them on the way from the school to the parade route.  They actually made signs that read "honk if you think we are hot".  Surprisingly, not everyone honked.  :) Then they got upset.  But would cheer when the next car driving by would honk.  They are crazy. 
It was fun, but sad.  My 8th grade girls who I have been coaching for the past three years are all moving on.  I will still have most in the summer, but it is still sad.  I cannot believe they are going to be freshman next softball season.  Makes me feel old.  :)  Especially because they remind me they can all start driving next year.  Great! :)

Here is a picture of our team on the float today.


And me & coach Dub.


The two best coaches around! :)

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Rained out

This weekend, I was supposed to be in Pittsburgh for a friends wedding.  I was supposed to be with my husband who is in the wedding.  I was excited, because well, I think he looks mighty fine in a tux.  :) 
Unfortunetly I had a softball tournament rained out two weeks ago, and they decided to make it up today.  The day of the wedding.  So off my hubby went to Pittsburgh without me, I stayed to coach my wonderful adoptive children.  :) 
Today started out great, one win for both 8th and 7th grade.  The way the day was going, it was possible for us to be playing eachother for the championship.  Something both teams were very excited about.  Who won?  We will never know.  After our first games, the rain came.  Well it started during our first game.  And didn't stop.  Finally around 1:00 coach and I decided to call the games.  It was cold, and miserable.  And raining.  Hard.  The field was a mess, the bases were slick, and no one could grip the ball anymore.  We were done.  Okay because I didn't want to get wet anymore, sad because I missed a beautiful wedding for something that ended up getting rained out anyway.  But, that is okay. 
Tonight, I got to hang out with some friends and we went to eat at the good italian place here in town.  So all in all my day worked out just fine.  I cannot wait until tomorrow when I get to pick my hubby up at the airport.  I miss him a lot.  Distance makes the heart grow fonder.  Our whole relationship has been build on distance...I just hoped when we were married we would never be distant again.  But sometimes, things just don't work out.  Thank god it wasn't for very long.  I would not survive by myself for long.  :)  Amazing how being married changes that. 

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Ten bests...

I am sitting here missing my hubby.  He has left me, to go to a wedding in Pittsburgh.  I was supposed to go too, but my softball schedule kind of got in the way.  We had a rained out tournament and now we are making it up this weekend.  So instead of being with my husband...I will be here with 29 13 and 14 year old girls.  Its okay.  :)  So tonight, I will go through the 10 best places we went in Disney.  It will be hard to pick only 10...but I will try.

10.  ESPN Zone and the Phillies game.  Normally this would be higher...don't get me wrong the game was awesome and we had awesome seats...but there was so much awesomeness in Disney...I think that pushes this down.  Plus it was only spring training, and the Phillies lost.



9.  Animal Kingdom.  This park was really cool.  The Bug Life show was a 3-D show and it was really pretty cool.  The safari was really neat, we saw some really cool animals!


8.  Magic Kingdom.  The Magic Kingdom was so cool.  Especially at night, when it was all lit up!  The castle looks amazing.  I want to live inside the castle.  Now I know why all the little kids are so in awe when they see it.  I was 28 years old, and I was in awe the first time I saw it!


7.  We went so many good places to eat too!  My favorite will appear later on the list.  We went to this cool place called the Brown Derby.  Their food was sooo good!  Yum...I loved it.  Then after we saw this really cool show called Fantasia.  It was on the water, in Hollywood Studios.  They used the water falls like big projection screens.  It was really neat!

6.  We got to meet so  many characters.  And, I got all their autographs of course.  Let's see there was Stitch and Lilo, Chip and Dale, Donald. Pluto, Mickey, Rafiki, Timon, and I got to meet my favorite character of all.  Stay tuned on that one.


Mickey was our first character that we got to meet! :)
5.  Oh, the top five.  Getting exciting now isn't it?  This would go to the parade in the Magic Kindom at night.  Its called Wishes, and Tinker Bell comes down from the top of the castle.  Its pretty cool.  All the characters are there and there are awesome fireworks!  :)


4.  Downtown Disney.  Downtown Disney was really nice.  It wasn't far from our hotel (just had to take a ferry accross the lake).  Nice.  And they had some really cool shops, and lots of lego's.

3.  My second favorite (maybe even a tie for my favorite) park was Hollywood Studios.  They had so much neat stuff there.  We spent the whole day there, and even had to go back twice because we didn't get to finish it all.  This is where I saw my favorite character.  It rained the whole time, but it was okay because they had a lot of stuff to do inside.  We saw Indiana Jones stunt show.  We went to this really cool Animation show.  Oh, and my favorite two rides.  Toy Story...my moms favorite.  She likes to shoot things.  And Aerosmiths Rockin Roller Coaster.  Seriously the best coaster I have ever been on.  My dad and I went on together.  Its in the dark, and they play Aerosmith tuneds really loud...and it goes super fast.  Oh, its inside.  I wanted to ride it over and over, but we ran out of time!  Its really cool.




2.  MEETING MY FAVORITE DISNEY CHARACTER!!!   TIGGER!!!  HOO HOO HOO HOO!  Tiggers love to bounce.  I LOVE TIGGER.  He is the best.  And I got my picture taken with him. I got his autograph.  He was with Eyore.  I told Tigger he was my favorite and he gave me an extra hug!  Awesome!  And the line guy let me be the last one in line.  He was going to close it right when I got there, but he let me be the last.  J thinks its because he was a young college kid and he was trying to hit on me (J wasn't around me yet).  But so what!  I got to meet Tigger!  :)



and finally....

1.  EPCOT!!!  Epcot is the best park in Disney.  Hands down.  There is so much to do there.  There are a ton of rides.  A really cool and yummy restaurant...Coral Reef.  There is a gigantic aquarium inside.  Plus, Turtle Talk with Crush.  Which is cool.  :)  And Nemo of course.  But there is a whole other side to Epcot.  The rest of the world!  You can drink your way through Epcot (which we did one night).  Have a different beer in different countries.  Its awesome.  My favorite place was the Beirgarten....in Germany.  And they have a cool firework show called Illusions.  Its pretty neat.  I would live in Epcot.  Its so cool!



























Tuesday, September 21, 2010

October

October is my favorite month of the year...well almost.  Halloween is my favorite holiday!  I love getting dressed up, and since my favorite color is orange...well I get to decorate everything in orange and black.  Which excites me.  Seriously.

But the second best reason for the month of October?  Well play off baseball of course.  I (incase you forgot) am a HUGE Phillies fan.  I love baseball.  And I just got done watching the Phillies, so I thought a quick post would be awesome. 

I was having a really crappy night.  But then I got home, my husband ordered pizza (yay!) and I watched the Philles.  Who won!!!  Against the Braves.  If you know anything about what is going on.  That means the Phillies move to 5 games ahead of the Braves, and the "magic" number (the number of games they need to clinch the NL East title) is now down to 6.  Oh I love fall baseball...really I just am in love with Chase Utley and the rest of the Phillies.  :)

I also got 100% on my first paper turned in for my class I am taking.  I was super excited, it made my night!  :)  Simple things excite me.  Now...what to be for Halloween???  Any suggestions?

Friday, September 17, 2010

Who is chasing you?

Hello everyone!  The question above is something that my dad asks me every time I tell him I went running.  I told him today that I ran 3 miles yesterday, his response?  The same as all the other days...oh yeah, who was chasing you? 
I always have the same answer, no one.  Three years ago this October, I decided to go on an adventure.  A weight loss adventure.  I started weight watchers, and a little exercise here and there.  I just started out walking, as I couldn't run...well, I guess I could physically run, but it was hard to carry all that weight around.
Last night on my 3 mile run I thought about all my accomplishments.  I remember when I couldn't run one block without getting out of breath.  In high school, we were always supposed to run for softball.  I hardly ever did.  I was a little lazy when it came to conditioning.  I hated running.  Too much work.  If I wanted to run I would have played a sport that involved running, like soccer. 
Now, I love running.  Well its more a love hate relationship...but more love than hate.  I never feel like going, but once I hit the open road, its great.  I always feel so much better afterward.  I love that running takes away my stress.  I love that running clears my mind.  I cannot believe how I have fallen in love with running.  If you asked me 10 years ago if I would ever run, I would have said "HECK NO!".  Amazing how times have changed.  I love just putting in my earphones listening to some good music and going. 
I am not fast by any means.  I just am  happy that I can do it.  I am proud of the fact that I keep doing it.  And it helps me stay in shape so I can eat at my favorite Mexican restaurant and not feel guilty.  Well, maybe a little guilty since I usually add beer to that equation.  :)
I think the running has paid off.  Maybe the answer for my dad should be "the old me" is chasing me.


Me, on the right in the red shirt, about three years ago.



Me, in my friends wedding...almost 1 year ago.


At Disney in March, 2010.
 

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Take one for the team

Hello my peeps!  Today we have no softball practice.  So, I thought, what should I do with my extra time?  Oh I know write a blog.  Perfect!  My hubby went for a run, so just waiting for him to get back so we can have dinner and watch the Phils!
Yesterday my softball teams had games in Hannibal MO.  That is one hour and a half away from here.  So on the yellow bus we went.  The first game was great!  They won by a lot.  They hit the ball well, and played well in the field.   8th grade always plays first, then we take a little break and play 7th grade game next.
In between the 8th and 7th grade games, the pitcher/catcher were warming up by the first base foul territory area.  I was standing (foolishly I might add) behind the catcher, talking to the other coach.  Next thing you know the other teams coach is yelling for me to look out.  A little late, the pitcher threw a wild pitch and it hit me right on the side of the head.  It was so hard.  It hurt a lot.  But I didn't cry.  You know why?  There's no crying in softball.  There is NO CRYING in softball.
It did knock me down a little bit.  But a little ice and some ibuprofen and I was good (after an inning of sitting on the bench).
It is a little scary getting hit in the head.  But, I think I am fine.  It seems more times than not there are some life lessons to my little stories of randomness.  Today's lesson, don't stand behind the catcher when the pitcher is warming up.  You never know where that ball is going to go.
Well, off to watch my Phillies!  And of course my boyfriend Chase Utley.  Let's Go PHILS!

Monday, September 13, 2010

Take a little trip...take a little trip

As I sit in my living room listening to the pouring rain outside my window, I only wonder if yet another game will be canceled.  It is raining now, 9:43 pm and it is supposed to rain tomorrow.  I have a feeling that our game will be canceled.  I wish we could just play some games.  AHHH.

Anyway, lets take a trip.  Back to Chicago where my hubby and I celebrated our 4th anniversary together.  We did so many amazing things!  We stayed at this nice hotel (used price line to get cheaper rate) and it was a little outside of the "city" but nothing a bus or train couldn't fix.  We stayed at a Hyatt actually, it was pretty.  We took the train from Quincy IL up to Chicago.  Cheaper than driving and parking our car all weekend.  And it is such a nice way to travel. If you ever get the chance to travel by train, I say go for it!  Just be careful of the hobo's.

There is a hobo (that is what J thought anyway)


We took the train up Thursday night.  Spent the whole day on Friday in museums.  We went to see the Field Museum, which houses the most complete T-Rex in the world, I believe.  I know its the most complete T-Rex in the country.  Her name is Sue.  We also went to see the Aquarium, which was awesome.  We checked out the Planatarium and the Museum of Science and Industry.  I fell in love with Chicago.  Friday night we got all dolled up and went to eat at the Signature Room.  Its on the 195th floor of the John Hancock building.  The site was amazing.  We didn't get a window seat, but you were surrounded by windows it didn't matter where you sat.
J's friend at the aquarium, he thought he smiled when he took his picture.

Jay, me and Sue



This is in the Signature Room, the city is behind us.


On Saturday, we went to watch our beloved Phillies v Cubs!  It was the first time I was at Wrigley, I loved it!  The field is so cool.  I couldn't get over the fact they have no Jumbo Tron.  Seriously.  But we had an awesome time and had awesome seats.  Then on Sunday it was back home and back to reality.  Here are some pictures from the game.  Oh and the Phillies came back to win!  Lets say the Cubs fans were not too happy.  But I almost hit some kid in the face with my purse because I was jummping around and cheering so much when the Phillies came back.

This is my boyfriend Chase Utley









They had awesome Chicago Deep Dish Pizza! Yum.










If ever given the opportunity to go to Chicago, go!  It was awesome :)  I told J I want to live there, I will let you know how that goes.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Memories

Since my softball tournament for today was canceled due to all the rain we got last night, even though today has been sunny and 75 degrees (perfect softball weather), lets take the extra time I now find myself having and take a trip down memory lane.
I love weddings.  I love everything about weddings.  I especially loved my own wedding!  There is something so special about marrying your best friend.  I love every minute of it.  We were married on a beautiful June day 4 years ago!  I had the best bridesmaids, and I think J had great guys on his side too.  Our priest, we will call Father Bojangles, might be defrocked shortly for having an affair (with an age legal female), but that doesn't stop us from having a fantastic day.  In fact, if our priest getting defrocked means we are no longer legally married, I would without question recreate this whole day!  Only difference, my wedding gown would have orange in it.  They have those now you know?  Crazy.
First, my dress was beautiful.  I loved it the minute I tried it on.  It was the last one I tried on, at the second bridal shop I went to.    It was not really anything I had in mind, but I loved everything about it.

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Us with our priest after the ceremony





We had a great photographer.  I feel he captured so much of our fun stuff.  Like I said above.  I had awesome bridesmaids.  I love them all to pieces!  I had two maid of honors, which is a little different...but they are both so close to me, I couldn't choose one over the other.   We also carried daisies.  I had each maid of honor carry different colors (one yellow, one pink) the other bridesmaids carried orange.  Then, I had all three of their colors in my bouquet.  I LOVE daisies.  Oh, and my favorite color is orange (incase you didn't pick that up).  So my wedding in June was perfect, the girls wore black and we carried bright summer colors and all my decorations at the reception were bright colors as well.

Who wouldn't want these girls standing next to you on the most important day of your life?


The best part of weddings, the dancing.  I LOVE TO DANCE.  I was on the dance floor all night.  Surprisingly so was my hubby!  And everyone we invited to our party. 

Looking at these pictures reminds me of the perfect day we had!  I wouldn't have it any other way.