Old Friends and new memories

9 Friends

+2 Nights

+1 Cabin

=Priceless Memories

Some Photos to recap last months Renssy girls and sig. other trip to Brown County and Nashville, IN.

Resa and Marie, and Kim and I enjoying the brewery in Nashville

Resa on the road

Yes, this is an actual air conditioner ducktaped in the window of a van

And John's favorite was the air pellet gun that he bought in Nashville for $5, spend the rest of the weekend doing target practice on beer cans with the guys and James is kindly holding for his return!

It was a great fall weekend and actually a lot warmer than expected, and lots of laughs as usual!!!

Recent Activities...

I've got some catching up to do on posting pics of recent activities! First, John and I went to Nantucket and loved every minute of it! It was a very relaxing trip and much needed!

This was one of the seals that we saw on a daily basis at the beach, he seemed to be making laps back and forth along the coast.

A pretty rainbow we caught at the beginning of the week.

This is on a side of one of the buildings downtown. I thought it was pretty cool the different locations that are listed on here.

I love this picture, so simple, but peaceful.

I got pics of some pretty flowers on the island as well.

And last but not least....John took me to a restaurant on the beach for my birthday. Was a very great night!

Stay tuned...I'll be posting pictures from our Whale Watch tour with Travis and Lauryn in the near future! What an amazing experience!!!

4th of July

Okay, so I'm a little later than everyone else with 4th of July posts. But we all know my tardiness on blogging. We were able to check out some of the massive Boston fireworks display in person and not on national tv coverage from someone else's back yard/driveway.

The heat wave/humidity has been really up there the past week, but to be completely honest I'm not complaining one bit. I would rather have this than the barely there summer we had last year that probably only lasted a couple of weeks.

On a good note, out of the two cherry tomato plants I have there are four little tomatoes sprouting and I'm hoping more on their way. It's the little things in life..... :)

Girl Time

I was so fortunate to have one of my oldest and dearest friends, Kim, come to visit me over a long weekend. I think it was much needed on both sides for some quality friend/girl bonding time. We spent our days shopping, eating, walking, talking, hitting up the beach, eating, shopping, talking, and more walking:) (However not necessarily in that order, we did do all of that!!!) And we even managed to fit in making our own rasberry jam at the end of her trip. Here are a few pictures from our day at the beach,

Thank you Kim for coming out and spending time with me. I know that the little ones at home missed you tons!!! Also thanks for the lessons with the jam! :) See you soon hopefully!

Rhode Island

I know I've been MIA so I've got a couple of posts to catch up on . Now that summer is here there will be more outings out of hibernation so that I can take more pictures to post!

So here's the first.... a couple of weeks ago John and I took a trip down to Rhode Island and saw some amazing scenery......

The Seagulls on the very end of the peninsula were flocking all over the place.

A path along the way...

The house #'s alongside the road posted on broken wood or boards.

A view of the beach...

A quick photo-op in front of a pond....

This weekend to do's....

Since I don't have any new pictures to post right now, I thought I would tell all of my friends and family what my weekend to do's are...

1. Meet friends tonight for dinner and drinks


2. On Saturday, go to Home Depot, buy herbs, plant said herbs


3. Buy flowers to put in new barrels recently purchased at The Christmas Tree Shoppe for $8 (very good buy)


4. Send Mother's Day cards and gifts out


5. Enjoy 80 degree weather coming east


6. Call friend Molly and congratulate her on their new baby Liam, pictures can be found over at Sullidad Chicago.


7. Call friend who's b-day is coming up on the 3rd and get card to send (which will arrive after said friends birthday....good job me)

And that's about it, who knows what else will come up, maybe a little Bed, Bath, and Beyond if I can fit it in.... :)

Have a great weekend everyone! Enjoy the spring weather!

New arrivals at Target

I know, I know...two posts in one day who would've guessed but since John's in NYC I've got some freetime. If anyone of you is looking for some cute pieces to add to your spring/summer wardrobe at affordable prices then give Target a looksy. Liberty of London and Mossimo both have new lines or items in Target stores now (I saw them tonight!) Dresses, shirts, skirts, boots, swimsuits, coats, and many many more things!

Skirt by Mossimo

The Butler Way

The Butler Way demands commitment, denies selfishness, accepts reality yet seeks improvement everyday while putting the team above self.

What a great game last night and this message above is a great explanation of how the Bulldogs played. They gave it their all and played their hearts out. It was so close throughout the whole game and so exciting. Duke might have won the game but Butler won the season and the hearts of basketball nation with some good fundamental Hoosier basketball. Nice work guys. Looking forward to 2010-2011 season already and also season tickets! Why not come home for those bigs games they'll have on the schedule! Thanks to everyone that was txting during the game and giving their support throughout the tournament! CONGRATULATIONS DAWGS!

One more game...

It's just going to take one more game of solid defense, key shots/plays, and hitting those shots from the charity stripe for a victory tonight. The Bulldogs on playing on home turf, it's theirs to win.
Go DAWGS!!

Hoosier Hysteria!!

Defense, Defense, Defense! The Butler Bulldogs were the first team to get into this years Final Four thanks in majority to their great defense this week. Now they're going to the big games downtown in our territory, the only better would be playing the games at Hinkle! :)

Conratulations Butler. Go Dawgs!

Elite Eight is GREAT!....

no...make that FANTASTIC, AMAZING, THRILLING for my alma mater Butler University!
Last night the men's Butler Basketball team made history making it to the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament. What a ride it has been to follow the basketball program for years (even before I went to Butler as a student) and get to enjoy this accomplishment with the rest of my alumni. The text messages were flying like CRAZY last night between all the BU grads. Lots of "HE** yahs" or even less PG were said. I have to admit I was impressed with the defense in the first minutes of the game and actually made the statement that if they can keep this up then they can upset the #1 seed Syracuse. AND THEY DID..great defense, great penetration by Mack that led to good shot choices, Haywood stepping up in the second half, and many more things by the whole team that really elevated them above for the win. The key to Butler Basketball is that it is a team effort, they might not have the first or second pick of the NBA draft, but they have built a great program around having a team executed win for years that started with Berry Collier, whom is now back at BU as the athletic director.
As you can see even though I've never met these boys personally, I'm very proud of the program that they are representing and think that they can continue this longest winning streak they are currently holding in the nation. Taking from Sullidad's blog (which you can access at right) do you think it's a coincidence about the actual floor for the Final Four being at Hinkle? Is it Karma? Is it all about the underdog dream, best represented by the story of Milan (or Hickory as name in the movie) that all of us Hoosiers have grown to love in the history of basketball? Butler wants to win this in our place, in our home.
Lots of people have asked...will I be taking the trip home for the final four, that is TBD. I am coming home the following weekend, so I'm not sure if two in a row is doable. But not out of the question quite yet....
Stay tuned on Saturday as they take on K-State. It will be a good matchup and as Sullidad said, the basketball nation has yet to see Butler play at it's best. They will be cranking it up for Saturday.

Sweet Sixteen is sweeeeeeeeeeeet!

The Bulldogs have once again made it to the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Div. 1 Tournament. I am proudly sporting all of my BU gear during the tournament, cheering loudly for them, catching the games that aren't shown on tv through csbsportline.com. The Bulldogs will be headed to Salt Lake City to face off the Orangement of Syracuse. The BU nation will be all be tuned in anyway we can be!

Also, those Boilers are also refusing to leave the tournament and continued on to the Sweet 16 round of the bracket. Goooo Boilers (until there's a chance they face my Bulldogs).

Vacation Picture Recap

Everyone that I've talked to has been asking how vacation went so I suppose it's time to post some pictures of vacation after being back a week already. Geeeeees time flies....

This is a view of the rooms that had a private pool outside their balcony. That would have been nice, of course it came with a SMALL fee so we went with a regular size room.

This is the pool that was in front of our building. There were two pool areas, this seemed to be the quiet pool as the other one had numerous day activities for all ages. We stayed at the quiet one needless to say.

And this is John resting in his usual state that he did most of the day.

This is actually a view that is right in front of the lobby area and I thought it was a really pretty cascading pool affect.

And here we are..matching sunglasses and all :)

We were very glad to go and get away for a few days of peaceful vacation. We are very glad now that we are back that we've had some spring weather lately (minus the flooding rains) and more in the immediate future! I can't wait for the beach this summer already!!!

Welcoming Carson James into the world...

For all you Renssy folk, here are pictures that Sara sent over today of the new little bundle of joy. And here are the stats:

Carson James Clouse

Born Feb 21, 2010

7 lbs. 4 oz.

19 inches

Big brother is being very helpful says mommy. Wants to hold and play with little brother multiple times a day.

I can't wait till I go home in April and get to meet Carson and celebrate Kyle's 4th birthday with him! He's getting so big!

Weather...

The weather for the past two days has been constant rain, wind, snow, or a combination of all of those at different AND the same time. Today I woke up and the sun was shining... I thought it was going to be a great day and that this storm was going to pass us by once again. Then I looked out the window at 11 and it was a white out with snow. 10 minutes later all clear. Now we are in heavy downpour rain and winds again like last night. Crazy, Crazy, Crazy. This is what the doppler looks like, it just keeps circling and circling and circling. No plans of exit yet...


And all I keep thinking about is this is what I will be in this time next week while I'm laying on the beach at the Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda in the Mayan Riviera, doing nothing, reading a book and maybe a margharita here and there.



Soon...very soon!!!

Too ambitious sometimes?

Do you ever feel like you start on a project and then stop to think that you became a little too ambitious to take it on all by yourself and knowing that you want it done quickly? Monday night after my parents left from a long weekend visit and John was still traveling for work I decided (for some reason) that it was just time to take down the disgusting, nasty, nicotine enhanced wallpaper in my living room and then paint it in only two nights time. Oh yes, two nights I said. Halfway through painting last night I almost quit, put the lid on the paint can and said the rest can wait. Then I talked myself through it (out loud) and asked "When?"..."When would I finish it?" At times I can be quite the procrastinator, so I gave myself that extra push (shove) knowing that the finished product would not only look better than it's current state, but my help the place smell a bit better too. If you go back to one of my first posts

http://kbinthecity.blogspot.com/2008/08/house-pictures.html, you can recall pics of the of the lovely wallpaper that was here (even though it was hard to tell it was wallpaper) and I know I've mentioned to most of you that the apt does tend to give off a smoky smell for a couple of reasons 1) previous resident (my landlady) and 2) people that smoke in apts below me even though someone in this building is also living with an oxygen tank (great).

Anywho.. here is the finished product. Looking much better I think. I picked a color called "Wishbone," and yes the name is what solidified the color decision. Don't judge...

I also updated the kitchen from the pictures from the original post...I will get those up to. That was 1 year ago...again procrastination....

Also, I decided to try out the "As Seen on TV" product "Point and Paint", http://www.asseenontvproductsonline.com/Point-N-Paint--As-Seen-on-TV-Paint-Accessory_p_39.html

I did find this tool to be very easy to use, both big and small versions were applicable for different areas of the wall/trim. In some cases it was very hard to get right up to the edge of the ceiling or trim where a brush was needed for fill in. I would use this again the next time take on a project. And in case you were wondering, the pole to attach to the bigger edger so you can reach in high places does NOT come with the set...apparently it is understood by those familiar to painting that you should already have one or buy it separately. Just recommending....

Vermont

We had taken a trip up to Vermont before Christmas that was full of shopping, local restaurants and pubs, the hotel mixing up our reservation and accidentally walking into a rehearsal dinner, and a long drive home in a snow storm. Here are a couple of pictures of the mountains, I'm beginning to play with the iphoto software and editing features.

Photo below is unedited so I think that there is something to be said with using the software.....

Calling Italian Beef lovers...

okay family and friends...looking for some great Italian Beef recipes so that I can bring this midwest favorite to the east coast b/c everyone I talk to here in Beantown has never heard of this delicious dish. I've never personally made this and would prefer not to google a recipe unless one of you stands by it...so bring it on! Would love for any of you that have a great recipe to send it over this way and share the love.

Thanks a million!

What I've been up to...

I've been busy with work lately, lots of travels and just the regular day to day grind. If you would like to take a look in my latest travels for work please feel free to click on the following link. This was my life for 5 days this month....

http://www.realtree.com/realtreeonline/index.php?ID=381

Enjoy it!!! Also enjoy all the duck calls in the background....

Days in Korea

I made it home on Friday afternoon after being in Korea for a week. The day after my coworkers and I got there I came down with a severe head cold. The office there helped me as much as they could with getting medicine, kleenex, nose spray, and even hot fluids. It still wasn't fun being sick in a foreign country and away from home. The last day there we had a free day. One of the girls from the office took us out for lunch and then to one of the local Buddhist temples, pictures below. We also went to the pharmacy together to pick out some meds that work wonderful...turned out to be Tylenol Cold and Flu :) Oh by the way, we happened to be in Seoul the coldest week there in over 100 years. What are the odds....

This is the temple when you first walk in .

One of the prayer buildings.

The outside prayer building.

You can attach your prayers to these latterns, of course for a price ($100).

And off to vegas in the morning for a week. Will post when i return!