An angel on the bus...

Today I saw an angel on the south loop bus.... and then there was a cat in the elevator. Did I mention that I almost hit a (real) squirrel this morning, too? Wow - it is Halloween!

I hope you're all enjoying the Halloween spirit. It's my LEAST favorite holiday, but Jared and I do like handing out candy to trick-or-treaters and eating the pumpkin shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's. We also watch witchy movies... Sabrina's Halloween episodes, Hocus Pocus, Halloweentown Series, Beetlejuice...etc. We love staying in with candles lit, movies on and pizza in our bellies. But as for the whole get dressed up, being scary thing... it's not us!

But there's a huge Freakfest tomorrow in Madison and OAR is headlining. We were so excited to see OAR but then we realized that we already had plans to be in Chicago for a family get-together. We're going on a coffee tour, a Frank Llyod Wright house tour and out to dinner. Then we're heading home late Saturday. It should be fun, but a busy day.

What else, what else... oh, today is the first ever fall Open House at Butler. I'm actually sad deep in my heart that I'm not there... planning it, working it and just being there for it. I know that it was time for me to move on when we moved here but I still miss my old job. Someday I'll have a new job that I love as much as I loved that one.

Happy trick-or-treating!

What a wonderful world...

And I think to myself...what a wonderful world...and a wonderful week...

Well, I'll say, it has gone from a bad/sad week to a great week with the help of some extremely amazing and supportive friends. I am so blessed to have such amazing women in my life!

The sun is shining, the colors are rich and beautiful, the flavors are strong and vibrant, my relationships (from all over the world) seem to be flourishing, I've been able to start spreading joy in and around Madison, I feel so supported from my husband, friends and family, I feel like I'm starting to find myself all over again in this new place I call home. It's funny how a move makes you redefine who you are, what you like ... etc. I don't think I expected that but I'm definitley embrasing it.

Hope all is well, wherever you are!

Reunited and it feels so good...

It might not be quite that corny, but my last night I saw my long, lost sorority sister/old roommate/mom in the house - Mandy! She lives in Alaska now but she was home doing some recruiting for her company at UW-Madison. While she was home she gave me a call and, luckily, I was free! I spent a few hours with her and her family at her parent's home in Verona! It felt so much like being with my own family. They were all so welcoming and loving and just overall so much fun to be around. It's been a rough week for me and I think it was just what my heart needed yesterday.

Also, I want to say a quick word to anyone from Butler's Admission Office who may be reading this... GOOD LUCK! The Fall Open House is on Friday, October 31st, and it is the first of its kind! I'm just hoping for record numbers and smooth sailing for the event ahead. I wish I could be there but at least know I'm thinking of you all!!!

Walking in the Whispers of Snow

Walking to my car yesterday felt like I was walking in the whispers of snow. There were little snow flurries all around and I couldn't help but just smile... well, more like beam. Again, no snow stuck, but it was beautiful. It's what I always want on Christmas morning. Thousands of tiny snow whispers dancing through the air! It was a great way to start my evening.

Also, for those of you who know how indestructible my laptop is, I think it's nearly done. The milk, mountain dew, routine drops and hard wear and tear has finally caught up with it. Yesterday it took me FOREVER to get online and several of my keys quit working. In the past they've stopped working and then started again but all last night I could get them to start again. Jared keeps trying to get me to use his Dell so last night I did and I kind of liked it. It was really fast and it seemed to hold up with my wear and tear - aka Phinneas on top of it!

I wonder if its snowing in Indiana...

The First Wisconsin Snow

Oh yeah, I wanted to be sure to document the first snow of the year. Of course, nothing stuck to the ground, but it still snowed. I'd forgotten how funny the dogs got around the snow. Benton wants to fight it. When I let him out to potty while it was flurrying, he kept running in circles and looking up at the snow like he was going to fight it! It was the cutest thing ever.

The visit with Nick and Steph was even more fun than I expected. We had a great time hanging out, enjoying each other's company, exploring the Dells and bringing our baby turtles home. I was really sad to see them go yesterday, so were the boys. Oliver is still upset today. We'll see them in a few weeks for Thanksgiving... that's what I keep telling myself!

Phil the Turtle

We got a turtle. His name is Phil!

He's awesome. He's about the size of a silver dollar. He lives on our kitchen counter for the moment until we make sure all of his equipment is working (filter/heater). He loves walking around out of his tank but he is afraid of Phinneas (who I think wants to eat him).

I'll post a picture soon!

HIgh School Musical 3 and Other Fun Activities

My nephew and my sister are visiting this weekend. They are actually arriving today around 3. I'm actually looking forward to it. As I said before, I've tried NOT to plan but I have a little bit anyway! :)

Here's what we've got...
Tonight we'll go out to dinner, show them around town and just hang out. Then tomorrow, I'll let them sleep in. We're meeting Jared for lunch at Epic and going on a tour of his office since its so unique. After than I think Nick and I will take Ben and Fin on a walk to the park near our house for awhile. Then I think we may go out to dinner and to see HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL #3. (I told Jared that he could go see something else.) Saturday we're going to the Farmer's Market and we're going to see if we can get some less than face value tickets to the Badgers game... fingers crossed. If so, we'll go to the game or we may go to a pub and watch the game. Usually that's a lot of fun anyway! But both Nicholas and Steph LOVE football so I thought it would be fun! We may go up to the Dells on Saturday as well. I know Nick would like some of the stuff up there and it would be a nice day trip. We'll see what we end up doing... Then Sunday we'll get up, have brunch, get them loaded up and then they'll head out pretty early. They lose an hour going home and Nicholas has school on Monday.

I think it'll be fun!

Visiting Avenue Q

Jared and I visited Avenue Q last night and we had a blast. It was really hilarious. I made sure to get a magnet for my magnet collection! Jared got this mousepad that says, "The Internet is for PORN," to proudly display at work. If you've seen it you know how funny the Trekkie Monster is.

Anyway, today we're back at work but I accidentally overslept. The pups must've been sleepy because I had to force them up at 7:33 a.m. today! At least 45 minutes later than they normally wake me up. Today it's kind of gross here, but that's OK. I don't have much on the agenda I'm just going to spend some time getting the house ready for my sister and nephew's stay this weekend. They'll be here by the time I get off work tomorrow! I'm going to roll with the plans (which you all know is hard for me) so I don't overschedule them while they're here. That reminds me, I need to call her tonight... note to self!

My parents left for Arizona yesterday. They called me around 7 pm and said that were stopping for the night in a small town on the far side of Oklahoma City, OK. They're hoping to make it to the western edge of New Mexico tonight so that they only have 4 hours or so tomorrow morning. They've had rainy weather along the drive but they have been able to fill up for $2.25/gallon and $2.19/gallon so they aren't complaining. I'm excited for them to get there because I know how much they love it. I'm already excited for some new old people stories.

Oh, by the way, Heather, Jason and our Goddaughter, Aubrey, are coming to visit for nearly a week over New Year's. I am so thrilled. This way we can just hang out, stay in, do whatever we want and just catch up. Everytime I see her it seems to fly by TOO quickly. This visit should give me some much needed catch up time.

Happy Hump Day!

My favorite, Lemon

It is with a sad heart that I must inform you that my fish, Lemon, passed away sometime during the night between Saturday and Sunday. I discovered him early Sunday morning as I let the pups out to potty. I woke Jared to have a quick service around the "porcelin God" because Jared is in charge of getting the fish out of his tank. I get too emotional if I try, plus I was crying and it was hard to see. I was extremely sad to see him pass on, but as I told Jared, God must have needed a beautiful, loyal and loving Betta to add to his own aquarium.

Lemon (as the title of the post mentions) was my favorite Betta. I had been able to being him back to good health after two major illnesses. The first was bloat (or dropsy). It's unlikely to cure a betta from this, but we did. After a few weeks of special water treatments, cleaning and medications, Lemon was as good as new. Then, a few months later, the pups were running around the house and their toy flipped up and smashed Lemon's tank. He, his water and glass shards went all over the floor and the end table. Luckily, I was able to find him flailing on the floor and get him into water before it was too late. He seemed to respond quickly to the water and he acted fine except his back fins had been torn or cut off by impact and he was bleeding. I don't know how bad the bleeding was because of the size of him. Anyway, by evening the bleeding had subsided and he was OK. Months later, the fins had begun to grow back. By the time he died, they were 3/4 back to the original size. He was a remarkable fish, pet and friend.

I get attached to my pets (as silly as it may seem) and I was very upset all day on Sunday. Jared said he would get me a new one but it wouldn't be the same. I said that once I was done grieving that maybe I'd want another one. Only time will tell. I do miss him every morning. I used to talk to him every morning and night when the pups were outside pottying. He was a great fish.

The Art of Threading.

This post is way overdue but I thought of it as I was walking to work this morning so I thought I should still share it with you.

Well, it was the day of my mom's 60th birthday party. I needed to get an eyebrow wax, which I frequently get. Anyway, my mom suggested threading and she assured me that you barely even notice that the woman is doing anything. She just spins the thread in between her fingers and mouth and it moves so quickly that you don't have time to feel anything. Long story short, I agreed to go. I went ahead and had her do my whole face so that I wouldn't have any face hair fuzz anywhere. I wait as my mom gets done and then its my turn...

The MOST PAINFUL EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE! I was in tears and the problem with the threading is that it just keeps going. Waxing is so quick, although the arch may not be as perfect, it is instantaneous. The threading took easily 10-15 minutes for everything and I promise you it just keep getting worse. In between pieces of thread she would dab my eyes with a cotton ball so my tears wouldn't slip down my cheeks. It wasn't like I was crying but that my body was producing tears in my eyes constantly due to the pain and the length of time it took. The worst were the itty-bitty hairs right around the lip/mouth area... OH MY!

Anyway, it's going to take a lot before I thread again... I may just be a wax kind of girl. Sacrifice the arch for the lesser of two evils!

Avenue Q

How sweet is my husband?!? He surprised he this morning with tickets to see Avenue Q next week... just me and him and a room-full of puppets! I've wanted to see it for a long time and it's pretty out of the ordinary that it came to Madison, so I'm thrilled! So, next Tuesday, we will be enjoying ourselves on Ave. Q!

Otherwise, it's Friday and you can tell... there isn't a sole out on this campus today. I guess the cold, dreary weather coupled with the Friday morning of Homecoming = a lot of people oversleeping!

Alright, well I have a meeting at an area hotel in a few minutes so I need to get going.

Wishing you a happy weekend.

Morning Routine!

I almost forgot. I wanted to share with you my morning routine. This is actually saving my life... I feel much more organized, my house is cleaner, I have more time to spend with Jared and with the boys! It's great!

Here it is:
Get up
Let out the boys
Throw in a load of laundry
Work out on the eliptical for awhile (15-45 minutes)
Unload dishwasher
Feed the dogs
Feed the fish
Feed me
Give dogs medicine
Give me medicine
Reload dishwasher
Reboot laundry
Shower
Ready (make-up, hair, dressed)
Hit shower cleaner
Swish and swipe the bathroom sink, mirror and toilet
Make bed
Put boys in their beds
Grab lunch and coat
Go

I love having my morning routine in place. I feel lost without it. Kind of silly, I know, but I do. It gives me stability and I love having the place picked up and fairly in order when I get home from work.

So much to talk about...

I feel the need to give you a long laundry list of an update about the visit from my parents, the cheese days festival, brussel sprouts from the farmer's market that are easily my favorite food right now, last night's debate, the election night party Jared and I are hosting, a job update ...etc. But, really, what I want to tell you the most is that I learned how to make coffee today - all by myself. Who knew that I'd have to move to Madison, WI, to learn to make coffee. I did. But anyway, it was easy. I was kind of proud of myself. :)

Also, I have joined goodreads. It's like facebook but for readers... if you're on there, add me as a friend so we can share reviews of books. I told Jared that it is serving as motivation. You can list what page you're on of certain books and I feel the need to constantly read to keep moving it ahead. I have 18 books on my "to-read" list and I alerady own 16 of the 18!!!! So I shouldn't need to purchase a new book for a long while although I did purchase 3 new books last night alone. I shouldn't be allowed in Half Price Books... jee whiz! But, two of the books were only $1.00 each and they were authors that I've wanted to try but were leary of. So I thought a buck was an easy start with the author. Not a lot wasted if the relationship doesn't end well. :)

This weekend we have a free weekend so we're going to hang out, carve pumpkins, get more brussel sprouts and, hopefully, sleep in. Alright, well, I need to get going. Work calls. But things are going well this week. Kind of a busier week than normal but that's OK.

Make sure you take time to enjoy the beautiful colors of the falling leaves.

Alright, well

The Visit

Thank God it's Friday! What a week! And.... drumroll please... my parents come tonight!!!! I couldn't be happier -- think the song from Wicked! They should arrive just as I get off of work and they're staying through Monday morning before heading home. Then, a week from Monday, they leave for Arizona. I don't think that we have much on our agenda but it should be a beautiful fall weekend here in Madison and I think we'll take advantage of that. I know we'll be at the Farmer's Market on Saturday and I think we may go to a pumpkin patch with horse-drawn hayrides! I love carving pumpkins and last year Jared, my dad and I all carved pumpkins the night we brought Phinneas home from the shelter in Ohio! He was so tiny and I had no idea he'd be my best friend and kindred spirit. (Last night we watched Sabrina the Teenage Witch - The Movie together!) Anyway, I thought it might be fun. All I want this weekend is a cup of hot apple cider and a lot of hang out time with my mom and dad. We might even paint the garage... we'll see!

By the way, no luck in finding Dan last night... we'll look again on Monday.

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Today's Sour Lemonade

I knew it was inevitable... the first time that I really didn't like it here... it happened last night and it has been carried over into the funk of a mood that I have right now. Blah! Anyway, we have this neighbor, Dan, who came over last night around 7:15 pm. He asked us if we could hear our dog. He was talking about Benton because Phinneas and Oliver were both asleep near me on the couch. We said yes, because we could hear Benton outside playing and barking and he told us that if we couldn't keep him quiet he'd have to resort to calling the police because of our dog's obvious distress. I don't know the rules here in Wisconsin yet but he was safely within the privacy fence of our backyard, the times of barking was between 5:15 and 7:15 pm. The dogs are well taken care of, sheltered, fed, bathed...etc. I understand that he isn't happy about it, but Border Collies like to herd, protect and bark. I don't know that Benton cannot NOT bark, you know? Anyway, it just put me in a sour grapes mood that I can't shake yet. Jared and I are going over to Dan's this evening now that we've settled down to see what would be a compromise. We thought that not letting them out later than 9 pm and not putting them out any earlier than 7:30 am was pretty considerate, especially when the noise ordinance doesn't start until 10 or 11 pm. Hopefully I'll feel better about this whole thing tonight but right now I just wish I were in Indiana, working at Butler, in my old house with my neighbors who love(d) the boys and their barking habits. I told Jared that if someone did manage to take away our dogs he would regret the day he ever moved us here. I'm just sick about the whole possibility. Blah blah blah.. like I said, today I have some sour lemonade.

It's Official - We're Godparents!

Little Aubrey Lynn Selmer was baptised on October 5, 2008, at a small church in North Judson, Indiana. Jared and I were there to hand her over to the pastor for the actual baptism. After she was baptised and her parents had promised to lead her to God and teach her of God, she was handed back to Heather and Jason. After the service was over, we had a full blown photoshoot with the whole family and congregation. Then we had a gathering over breakfast and baptism cake! Aubrey was so blessed with wonderful fellowship, support, love and even gifts! Jared and I are so honored to be Aubrey's Godparents and it was such a beautiful thing to be a part of her baptism. She even wore the handmade christening gown that Heather's grandmother made for her when she was a baby. It was nearly 26 years old! What a cherished family hierloom!

The best 60th birthday party!

Above is a family of my immediate family surrounding my mom and her birthday cake at her party! It was a huge success with over 65 people there. My decorations and the cake and corsage I ordered all turned out perfectly. I was extremely pleased by the whole evening.

There was so much love cramped into our party area that it was simply overflowing. My mom was just radiant. I was so full of joy at the success of the party. I did get her a few gifts, but like I told Jared, the party was 200% better than any other gift I could have given her for her 60th!

In the 40's...

It's kind-of unbelievable that it's been in the '40's the past two days. I wore a sweater and a scarf yesterday morning only to find that I was FREEZING! I felt like such a sissy, especially when these college kids were still wearing shorts or t-shirts with jeans. Today was just as cold so I whipped out the fleece jacket and the scarf...mittens in the pocket...just in case. :)

I started my new job yesterday and it's going well. I'm learning a lot about their new system...peoplesoft meets RP... not too hard but different. The people seem nice and parking (go figure) seems to be my only major problem. Who wants to pay to park??? Especially $8-10/day?? See my delima? I'm thinking about riding the bus but I have to get up the nerve to try it one day. It would save me a lot of money though because I get a free bus pass with my UW ID not mentioning the gas I'd save... so I'm debating.

I head to Indiana TONIGHT and I couldn't be more excited. I have my mom's 75 person 60th birthday party tomorrow night, followed by Nicholas's football game Saturday morning, a close family friend's wedding Saturday afternoon and my god-daughters baptism Sunday morning. An overall whirlwind weekend but it will be so nice to be surrounded by my family for the whole weekend. And I hope my mom loves her party. I'm already so anxious that I hope I make it through the day!!!!