Someone went to the eye doctor over the weekend...

...wonder who it could be?

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my dad's birthday! To celebrate we had my mom and dad over yesterday for lunch. We had some barbeque chicken sandwhiches, cole slaw, macaroni salad, and a green salad. I realized today that I forgot to make the baked beans but my mom is probably glad that I forgot. Then we had some present time and we (the four kids) got him some micro speakers/radio for his office. He was saying how it was too quiet in there so he was glad that he can now have some nice background music or even a Cardinals baseball game. He is very funny when it comes to presents, it was the first thing he noticed when he came in our house and he sat in a chair with the box tapping it, feeling it, etc until lunch time (now I know where I get my love of presents and impatience in waiting for them from ). Then after lunch, we decided he had waited long enough so he could open his present. He was very excited! Then it was time for dessert, a home made ice cream pie (with home made ice cream). We didn't get to sing happy birthday because he was already in the basement watching the recorded Olympic marathon, so we just had to bring him his piece with two candles on it. He was so wrapped up in the marathon that he didn't want to blow his candles out but thankfully Nelson could pause it so that he would have time to make a wish and blow out his candles. All and all it was a good celebration. Here are some pics that I took afterwards since I kinda forgot to take them while they were still here.

So long, farewell...

To set the mood for this blog post, please start singing this Michael W. Smith song:
"And friends are friends forever
If the Lord's the Lord of them
And a friend will not say never
'Cause the welcome will not end
Though it's hard to let you go
In the Father's hands we know
That a lifetime's not too long
To live as friends"
So now that we got that settled, tonight we had to say goodbye to some friends who were here for only a year but who will always remain a part of our lives. We are sad that they are leaving the Lou but know that the Windy City will be a better place because of them living there (no pressure or anything). Here are some KG pictures from tonight (sorry Matt and Kelli, we really wanted you here for the pics, we were going to do cardboard cut outs but we just didn't have a printer big enough).


Opening up their going away present- a print of the St. Louis skyline


beautifully made and decorated cake (all credit goes to Janet)


The girls


the boys


we will miss this little guy


adorable

Since I like to copy off of other people's blogs, here is something I found today that I will do too!

Since I like to copy off of other people's blogs, here is something I found today that I will do too!

A Game of Fives

What were you doing five years ago?
I was in my sophomore year of college-at home for the semester, taking classes and working.

What were five things on your to-do list for today?
1. run
2. get ready for a going away party
3. work on our institution review board renewal application for our research project
4. laundry
5. make my lunch

What are five snacks you enjoy?
1. cottage cheese and chicken in a biscuit crackers
2. carrots
3. a snack size candy bar
4. trail mix
5. a piece of cheese or lunch meat

What are five things you would do if you were a billionaire (in no particular order)?
1. Go on a really long Eurpean vacation with Nelson and James and Steph
2. Give more to Covenant College
3. Give more to our church
4. Put some in savings for our kids educations
5. Give some more away

What are five of your bad habits?
1. Not finishing my sentences/talking about many things at one time
2. Laziness
3. TV
4. Facebook
5. Picking my nose (just kidding, I just couldn't think of anything else)

What are five places where you have lived?
1. St. Louis, MO
2. Birmingham, AL
3. Lookout Mountain, Ga
4. Haven't lived anywhere else
5. Haven't lived anywhere else

What are five jobs you've had?
1. camp counselor
2. babysitter/nanny
3. life guard
4. swim coach
5. occupational therapist

Our new doorknocker!

Some friends of ours gave us a doorknocker as a house warming present, and we finally put it up today. Here it is!

His and Her's!

Nelson recently got some new running shoes (that could have been a whole other blog entry) and then about a month later (this weekend) I needed some new shoes. It was perfect timing because I also had just gotten a 25% off coupon for Sports Authority. So we went and there were some Brooks that matched his that he just got. Forget things like comfort, support and stability, they matched Nelson's so I had to get them. We ran today and they are comfortable and very nice so they ended up being great but they are even better for the fact that they match Nelson's. Here are our his and her's shoes!

Homemade Ice Cream

We got an ice cream maker for our wedding but did not have much luck using it when we lived in our apt. See, you have to freeze the inside bucket, it has some special liquid in it that gets really cold to make the ice cream. So you freeze it until you shake it and can't hear the liquid anymore. Well, in our apt in the summer time (the most desirable time for ice cream of course), our freezer had difficulty freezing things. Our apt never got really cool and as a result, our fridge and freezer probably didn't get as cold as they should have been. So freezing the ice cream bucket didn't really work. It was quite disappointing. But, now that we have a house with a new fridge, cooler temperatures outside which are resulting in an A/C that barely has to run to keep us cool, I thought that it was time to break out the ice cream maker again. So I put the bucket in the freezer and a few hours later, it was frozen solid, no liquid to be heard. Then I made some ice cream. I used a mixture of heavy whipping cream and half and half and then whole milk and two percent. I added some Reese's Pieces and twenty five minutes later, we had some delicious ice cream. What a tasty sweet bite!