Week Awesome: Part II

Bryce and Theresa have left.  :(  Boo

We miss them already.  Why do we have to grow up and move away from each other?  Ok...enough sad.  We had a great time while they were here and can't wait until them come back to visit again!!

The first full day they were here was one of my Logan days...we wore him out pretty early!

On Shawn's birthday, Eric's band had a show downtown at the Red Eyed Fly.

We got some swimming time in with Logan a couple of times too! 

Out to dinner on Shawn's birthday.  A bunch of his friends from work came out for dinner and drinks!

Bryce had never been here before, so we took him to a bunch of the best places to eat.  We also floated the Comal River in New Braunfels, which none of us had done before.  It was really fun.  Now that we've done it once we learned some stuff that will make it better next time.  We are going again...for sure!  We had a couple of really awesome game nights and I got a new game that was really fun!  Kind of like Balderdash (please tell me you've heard of that game...) but about each other instead of using word definitions.  It's called Truth be Told.  Super fun.  Bryce made his mission for the week to try not repeat a beer.  He tried a bunch of the Texas beers and some other beers he had never had.  I think he only found one he didn't like and so did Theresa.  Not too bad!   On Wednesday we played trivia at The Highball.  It was really fun!  We didn't win, but we learned a lot :)

Shawn's birthday was Thursday and he had just a tad too much fun.  Well...more than just a tad.  He won't be doing that EVER again.  But he had a great time and I did tell him it was his last birthday to really let loose.  Time for him to grow up.  Last birthday of his 20's and he'll be a dad next year.  I don't think he's excited to have to grow up...I don't know who I'm kidding though.  He'll never really grow up :)

Now back to real life again.  Back to work and cooking and such.

It seems to be impossible for us to get a good picture together anymore :(

Finally...Sue's Marvy Cheesecake Squares!

When I was a kid, I spent every summer with my dad.  During my early years, he was married to a woman who made the most delicious snack-style dessert of all time!  Sue's Cheesecake Squares were was she would call "marvy."  They sure are marvelous and once you get a taste you definitely will want more!

I have made them over the years for friends, coworkers, family functions...and they are always a hit!  My little sister, Sara, used to request them for her birthday.  My husband's coworkers love them so much that in the Christmas White Elephant Gift Exchange this past year we gave a card with 3 vouchers for Cheesecake Squares as a gift and people were fighting over it!  I also made some for a friend when I visited her and her baby and she has been asking for the recipe, so Bree, this is for you!  These are very easy to make so get baking!

Cheesecake Squares

Ingredients:

2 - 8oz packages cream cheese, softened

2 - 8 count Pilsbury crescent rolls (the generic don't work quite as well)

1 cup sugar

1 egg yolk

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

cinnamon/sugar mixture

optional:  chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Grease 8x13 baking pan (I use some sort of cooking spray).

2. Lay 1 package crescent rolls along bottom of pan.

3. In medium mixing bowl, mix cream cheese, sugar, egg yolk and vanilla with electric mixer until smooth.

4. Spread evenly over crescents in baking pan.

5. Lay 2nd package crescent rolls over cream cheese mixture.

6. Sprinkle top with cinnamon/sugar and top with chopped walnuts, if desired.  I hate nuts on my desserts, so I never use the nuts.

7. Bake for 35 minutes.

8.  Cool completely then refridgerate before serving.

A visit with some precious babies :)

Anyone who knows me knows how attached I can get to my babies at work.  Especially babies that spend a long time in our NICU.  The ones we are closest to, especially if we get to be friends with the parents, we keep in touch with and it is wonderful!  I love being able to watch how a baby that started so small and at such a disadvantage can do so well, partly due to all the things we do for them!

Recently, I have been able to catch up with two NICU graduate families!  These two moms were not just my sweet baby's moms...they truly became my friends and I miss being able to talk to them at work!  This past week was the 1st birthday of my favorite twins!  

Alyssa & Brooke

Brooke in on the left of the pic, Alyssa is on the right.

I missed their birthday party (I had to work) but their mother invited me over another day for a visit.  It is so great to see how big they are and how they are developing!  They are doing so many things!  Crawling like crazy and starting to walk holding on to things.  I love it!  Alyssa has the most beautiful smile and Brooke was so social and friendly!  She loved playing with my necklace.  I can't wait for another visit!

Here are a few of Alyssa...I tried to get a smile up close, but she's too fast for the shutter on my phone!

Now for Brooke's turn with the paparazzi!

I did not take any pictures at my other visit...boo!  But mom took one and I will have to see if she will text it to me (So Bree...if you're reading this please text me the picture of Lila and me!).  Lila is a more recent NICU graduate but I am confident that her mommy and I will stay good friends so surely I will be able to watch her grow!

Late addition to blog: Bree came through and emailed me this picture today!!  Thanks!

Next post:  Recipe for cheesecake squares :)

A Special Visit...

...to Stacy & Ruby!

We have been trying to make arrangements for a visit since Ruby was born, but you know how life gets!  Finally we made it happen and I am SO happy that we did.  It was so great to visit Stacy, but plus I got to hold her sweet baby.  What a beautiful little lady!  Stacy took a picture of me holding Ruby, but here are a couple I took.

We had a really nice time.  I can't wait to visit again :)  I also got a tour of all of Ruby's cute things.  Her room is so cute...Stacy did a great job painting the jungle on the walls.  Plus she showed me a couple of super cute bathing suits for Ruby...adorable!  I can't wait to have little girls to dress!! 

I also got to play with Stacy's dogs, which was so fun!  She has a beautiful Great Dane, Drake, and a maltese, JJ.  They were great!  I love dogs, as you all surely know, and so I always enjoy anywhere that I go where I get to play with a dog (or two!). 

Drake

JJ

Stacy has told me stories of JJ and his obsession with plastic, squeaky balls...so it was so hilarious when I had been there like 5 minutes and JJ come running up to me with his red squeaky ball in mouth!  haha!  Stacy was worried about how the dogs would adjust to the new baby, but she said it was gone well.  They are getting used to Ruby and Ruby is getting used to the dog hair and slobber already too :)  I hope you're reading this Stacy, because I'm gonna come over again!!  You can't stop me ;)

Hollywood & Santa Monica

Thursday was our second day in California, and we were gonna make the most of it!  We started out the day with breakfast at iHop then headed to the Paramount Studios for another studio tour.  The tour was not nearly as good as the WB Studio tour, but it was still interesting. 

This is the original main gate of the Paramount Studio...called the Bronson Gate.  This is the gate that Charles Bronson got his name from, not the other way around.

This is the actual bench from Forrest Gump...awesome!  We both got to sit on it!  The back lot of the studio was pretty small compared to the WB lot, but there were a lot of sound stages.  There was a section that used to be owned by Lucy & Desi that was created to look like her LA home and her NY vacation home so that reporters could make it look like she actually had a home life and wasn't such a workaholic. 

After the studio we went to Hollywood & Highland.  There is a pretty cool outdoor mall there as well as the Kodak Theatre and Grauman's Chinese Theatre.   We made sure to look at all of the footprints and handprints.  There were quite a lot...although some of the people who have a spot were surprising.

Across the street is the El Capitan Theatre, which is the Disney Theatre.  There is an old fashioned soda & ice cream shop there too, so we decided to stop in and have a sundae.  It was yummy...and I found the Disney Vault that hides all of the Disney movies that we aren't allowed to buy right now ;)

We also wented to the Hollywood Museum, which was pretty cool but not great.  There were 4 floors of movie props and costumes, as well as movie posters.  It was pretty cool.  There was a cool statue of Marilyn Monroe outside though.

We also went to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, but I will discuss that later :)  We have more pictures that I need to sort out..  Thursday night we went to Burbank to have dinner with a friend of Shawn's named Brandon.  They grew up together in church and Brandon has been living out in the LA area for a couple of years I think.  We went out to dinner with him and his girlfriend, Cambria.  We went to a place called Barney's Beanery.  It was pretty good, huge menu, but we had terrible service.  It was nice to have the extra time to chat though.

Friday we decided we wanted to go to Santa Monica.  Bryce didn't have to work so he came with us.  It was a terrible gloomy day...raining off and on and pretty chilly.  We still had a great time though!  Shawn had to touch the Pacific Ocean of course!  We walked around for a bit, found a comic book shop, then went to Happy Hour at a Mexican place.  It was a good day. 

We went to bar that night near Bryce's place, which is just by UCLA.  Shawn drank too much.  That was our last night...and we ended our trip to LA with a bang!

Superbowl Sunday

Today is the Superbowl.  Shawn is so excited for another Colts victory!  We're gonna head out to my Elgin to watch the game with my friends Brent & Soriya plus my friend Aaron from college is in town so we'll get to see him too :)  I don't want to speak too early, but I think the Colts are gonna win!

Catch Up

I guess I've been slacking on my blogging the last couple of weeks.  So...where to start with the catching up.

Most importantly...Mimi is pregnant!  She found out that it will be a boy (she is about 21-22 weeks along right now) so I am going to have my first little nephew!  I am so freaking excited!  She is due on June 2nd, so it looks like I will be taking a vacation to Texas in June.  Well...I hardly think it will be very relaxing since helping a new mom get settled at home with a new baby and helping with house work, cooking, getting the dogs settled, etc will hardly be easy.  I am excited to do it though!  Yay!  Here is my favorite ultrasound picture so far.

Another exciting, but somewhat scary news is that my friends from college (Sarah & Ian Bundy) were pregnant and due to have a baby in mid-March. Well...that baby decided to arrive early and was born about a week ago. Isabelle Bundy is healthy but was only born at 31 weeks, so little bit more than a smidge early. She is doing very well, but will be in the hospital for several more weeks. Luckily Sarah went into labor early enough to get a dose of steriods to help little Isabelle's lungs and she was also born quite large for a baby only about 7-1/2 months along. So far everything looks good and Sarah is doing well too. Although Isabelle is doing well, there are many complications that can arise from prematurity so please keep the Bundy family in your thoughts as she continues to grow and develop and hopefully she'll be home before we know it! Here is a picture of baby Isabelle with her happy mommy!

I have been doing Weight Watchers for the last few weeks too.  So far it is going well!  I haven't been getting to the gym as much as I should (it has been so cold to walk there...I know that is a lame excuse though) but the changes in my eating habits has been working.  So far I have lost about 8 lbs.  Yay!  Quick loss early really helps with the motivation to stay focused!  I think the hardest part is the cooking at home.  It is hard to find things for me to cook and also be able to eat that Shawn will also enjoy.  I don't need him losing a bunch of weight either.  Luckily the Weight Watchers website has a TON of recipes and you can alter then if you want and it will recalculate the point value for you.  Nice.  I hope that I can continue following my plan!

I have been working a lot lately because we have been swamped at work, but that is good because it is extra money for us.  We are planning a trip out to LA in February to stay with Albert and of course we will finally be able to visit Andrew!  All reports from his family sound great...but of course he still has a long recovery ahead still.  Because I have been working so much Shawn decided we needed a date night, so that is tomorrow.  He won't tell me what we're doing though.  Boo.  I hate surprises!

What 2008 brings...

For those of your who did not know, I have been toying with the idea of doing traveling nursing for a few months now. I have never really traveled much throughout my life and I feel like if I don't know it now I never will! I hate to leave my current job because I have made some great friends and I LOVE what i do, but there is a whole world out there that I have not been able to experience! I'm very excited to tell you all that I have been offered my first assignment! The assignment starts January 21st (but I will be moving Jan 18th), it is 13 weeks long and I will be working at the Inova Mt. Vernon Hospital in Alexandria, VA. There are a ton of perks to traveling, one of which is that I will have my own fully-furnished apartment (so any visitors would be welcome!). It is only 10 minutes to D.C. (which is really cool because I've never been to D.C.) but is a decent size city itself as well. Mimi knows a guy who used to live near Alexandria and he said it is a really nice area. I was a little nervous at first about going to a new city, especially one like Washington D.C along, but that problem was resolved because Shawn will be coming with me! Now I'll have company for the drive and someone to galivant around D.C. with! Every 4 months or so I will have the option of changing to a new city for a new assignment so if anyone has suggestions on where I shoud go, let me know!

So, this new development in my life has prompted me to join the world of blogging. I will be using this blog to keep everyone updated about what I've been up to. I will try to update it weekly with pictures and such.

The first event of the year was New Years 2008. Some of my best friends came to Muncie to visit and we had a blast!

Theresa, Al and Shawn came to visit and Edward hung out with us as well. Plus...Shannon and Brad hung out with us at the house before we went out too! It was a great time. I'm not gonna lie, 2008 has been pretty awesome so far :)