11.29.09

We got a new car! holla! It's been a long time coming. We have been lazily shopping for cars for about 6 months. I always knew that one of the times we went out, it was just going to feel "right" and it did! We checked out this car on Wed night right before they closed, had the paperwork filled out and picked it up on Saturday when we got back in town. The salesman we worked with was just about the nicest guy I have ever talked to also - and that's saying a lot for a car salesman I think.

It's so awesome. We feel all fancy in our new ride since we both have been used to driving old cars. We still have one of those old cars obviously though, so we are crossing our fingers, knocking on wood, thinking positive thoughts, saying a little prayer and everything else that she can hold on for another year at least. Here's hoping!

11.28.09

This is Meghan's niece. I want to pinch her cheeks and steal her away, she is so cute! Not to mention, a very fashionable 2 year old! I loved her pierced ears, sweater dress, tights and tall boots.

11.27.09

Jon and I went to dinner with Meg and Taylor on Friday night. Meghan gladly obliged to be my subject for my pic of the day after this little project came up in our conversation.

I mentioned I still needed to take my pic that day and that maybe Meghan would like do be in it. She was all, "but you don't have your camera here"...and I was all, "who do you think I am? I have that thing with me ALL THE FREAKING TIME!" We then busted out with a kind of obnoxious series of pictures in a somewhat crowded restaurant. Some of the funniest ones were blurry because I was laughing I think, so this one won out.

As a side note, this is the first year in a while that we haven't gotten up super early for Black Friday shopping! Our partners in crime, Gina and Todd, weren't in town for Thanksgiving this year, which I think is the main reason we didn't go. It was pretty nice to sleep in...but something tells me we'll be back at it next year.

11.26.09

Jon's dad carving the turkey on Thanksgiving!

The meal that Jon's mom and dad make is so good. Probably the best I have ever had. I contributed with a vegetable medley casserole. We needed a little something to warm our bellies while we were watching the Packer game before the big meal also though, so I made some Tastefully Simple artichoke dip as an appetizer too...which is always a huge hit.

After our 1:00 "dinner" at Jon's fam, we headed to Milwaukee for round 2. This is not new. We always make it to both Thanksgivings, but this year I really over did it at round 1 and was so full when we got to my aunt's. Oh well...seeing the fam was more important than the meal anyway.

11.25.09

What a yucky day! I much prefer the rain to snow though - although, it did snow a little bit on Wed night - but nothing stuck. Wouldn't it be awesome if it only snowed like once this winter?? I would love that.

11.24.09

Someone I know who reads this (ahem, Meghan), told me that she does not appreciate when there is no story to accompany a picture. Sooooo.....let's see.....Has anyone started watching Dexter yet? You should. It's soooo good.

11.23.09

I am making my big return to the field after 10 years, so I dug my cleats out of storage. This team I am playing on is coed and has very mixed skill levels. It shall be interesting. No matter what though, I am pumped. Here's hoping my knees stay intact :-/

11.22.09

Another installment of my images of Madison: Octopus car wash.

11.21.09

So this is exciting. This restaurant used to exist on East Wash. Jon and I went once a couple years ago after I saw a write up about it and their wood fire pizzas. It was super tasty, despite the fact that they served their sodas in glass bottles. (the glass bottles are cute in theory, but not that cute when there aren't free refills and they aren't out of a fountain. ya heard?) Anyway, it shut down for reasons that I do not know, but recently reopened at Hilldale Mall!! Wahoo! The restaurant is in a pretty cramped space, but I think my margerita pizza made up for it - despite the fact that they STILL don't have fountain soda...this time it came out of a can. Jon might beg to differ though. He did not enjoy the close quarters or his panini.

11.20.09

11.19.09

I dug a vest out of our closet that I haven't worn in a few years and found this treat in the pocket! (That's always so much fun, isn't it?) Payton and Riley are two girls I babysat for in college. A few years ago, their mom had another baby, so I went over to see the fam. Payton slipped this note to me during my visit. So sweet.

11.18.09

I stayed the day in Green Bay on Wednesday to wrangle Cooper mostly while Todd was at work. The two of us went to Sesame Street program at the library where we saw Elmo and Cookie Monster....and wooo boy, was that exciting. The look on his face was priceless when Cookie Monster touched his hand.

Once Coop was down for a nap, I tried my hand a little photo shoot with Fisher. Look at his tiny little sleeping face!!

I headed home after dinner, but we'll be back in a couple weeks so Jon can meet him too!

11.17.09

I took the trip up to Green Bay on Tuesday after work to see my new nephew!

Fisher Kenneth was born on November 10th, weighing in at 6lbs 12 oz and 18 1/4 inches long.

Oooooo, he is so cute! He smells so good, he has loose wrinkly skin and I love him and miss him.

11.16.09

11.15.09

our long day out the day/night before called for Culver's on Sunday.

11.14.09

This chica is celebrating the big 3-0 in a couple weeks, so in celebration her husband, Mike, threw her a surprise birthday/Badger tailgate celebration. A fine way to ring in one's 30s if I do say so myself. We had so much fun! Sometimes I really do love this town.

I am breaking the rules for only the second time this year and include 2 pictures for this day...because on our way downtown, we stopped to get gas and witnessed a truck blow up! We saw the small fire starting up under the truck, then watched it go up in flames, then the gas tank blew up and the ground literally shook. Before it was completely in flames there was a guy up in that crane and jumped out of it to escape the flames. It was a really intense 5 minutes until the firefighters showed up and made it all better.

11.13.09

Jon has been sick.

again.

I am REALLY trying to avoid him as much as possible because I DO NOT want his germs to get in the way of me going up to Green Bay on Tuesday to see my new nephew!

11.12.09

Ex-cuse me, but will you please look at these amazing invitations!

A couple weeks ago, Nancy and I went to Archiver's to get some supplies to make invitations for her holiday party. You see, for years Nancy has wished she could attend one of those chic, fun holiday parties you always see in magazines, but that no one ever really has in real life. (No one we know has them anyway) Completely bummed, but not discouraged, she decided to take matters into her own hands and throw this very kind of party herself! And since this is going to be such a classy affair, an evite just wasn't going to cut it. This is where she commissioned my help to put together a super cute invitation to mail out.

We have to extend some credit to tiny prints for some of the inspiration. Most of it was all us though. Actually, it took us longer than I'd like to admit for us to arrange those dots in the perfect way. And you can't tell in this pic, but those dots are fun shimmery paper. Isn't it the best? And you should see them with in their black shimmery envelopes and coordinating labels! We were so proud of ourselves.

11.11.09

work stuff. boring

11.10.09

We had an event at work on Tuesday morning and my boss asked me to get a few pics. I didn't take any other ones that day, so I had to creatively crop this so as not to reveal any identities.

This was right before I almost passed out during the meeting, btw. I had to get to work at 6:45 (!!!!) that morning to set up for the event. When I got there, I immediatly began running around setting up for the event, I didn't eat anything yet that day, the night before I had done this really hard stair workout, so I was exhausted and sore from that, the room was super hot AND I had to stand in my heels for the entire 1.5 hour long meeting. About 10 mins before it ended, I was trying to figure out an exit strategy in case things got really bad. Thankfully, I didn't make a scene and excused myself to sit down and eat a bagel immediately after it was over.

The good news from this day though: my new nephew was born! I'll see him on Tuesday! Pictures to follow (obvi).

11.9.09

I have a lot of boring work pics coming up this week...

11.8.09

When Tom went to school here and we would hang out from time to time, I would always pass these greenhouses on the way to his place. I have been meaning to go there all year to take a pic of them at night. They look so cool all illuminated and everything.

11.7.09

Last weekend I took some pictures for some friends of ours. This is their daughter. I told her to stand by this tree and she went all America's Next Top Model on me.

11.6.09

This place is popular around these parts for their take out - mostly their fish fry I think. We finally decided to try it out last Friday night. It was asi asi. I've had better.

11.5.09

This stuff is so awesome. You put it on under your eyeshadow and you can say goodbye to oiliness and creases that tend to show up later in the day. Pair it with Model In a Bottle and your eye makeup will.not.budge.

11.4.09

11.3.09

I started reading New Moon in the beginning of summer. Why can I not get into it? I still have about 100 pages left and I really want to finish before the movie comes out. Also, why am I sort of on Team Jacob? Maybe because in real life I am more on Team Taylor Lautner than Team R.Patz? I feel like I am on an island on my own on this one...

11.2.09

11.1.09

These are our pals, Mike and Michelle. They are all over the internet - you can find them here and here. They asked if I would meet them downtown to take some quick pics for them...and I mean quick...we all had a Packer Game to watch soon after I met up with them. I liked this fun outtake.

(The Packer game was so upsetting. I decided my love/hate for Brett Favre is very similar to my love/hate for Britney Spears. Yes. Hear me out. Sometimes Britney does things and I am all like, "what is wrong with you, Britney? And what are you wearing??", but then she busts out with something amazing like Womanizer and I cannot help but love her and remember all the great years of entertainment she has provided for me. And then there is freaking Brett Favre. Again, I am all like, "Brett, what is wrong with you? You are breaking my heart!", but then I see him interviewed or watch him play and I can't help but kind of like him a lot.)

10.31.09

I headed downtown right before game time on Saturday in hopes of getting a great pic showing how many people come out for the Badger games and all the red you would see if you were around Regent Street on a game day.

So here's the thing. I got some pics. I took some looking down Regent where there are people walking toward the games for blocks...I got some of the crowds of people waiting to get into Camp Randall...and I got a few looking down a block of tailgaters. None of them did anything for me though except the one above...which does not show the scope of Badger Saturdays at all. I need to work on backing up off the subject and showing some context. How fun is this little dunebuggy though?? I love Badger Saturdays...

Grace

Taking a break from my regularly scheduled 365 picture postings to get the word out about Grace Weber. Grace is Meghan's cousin, but we also went to the same grade school/church and her family are friends of ours, so we go way back.

The point of all this? She is an amazing singer. So amazing in fact, that she was picked as one of the 8 semi-finalists on Oprah's Karaoke Challenge! How sweet is that?! She will be singing on the Oprah show this Thursday, Nov. 5th in an American Idol type contest. You know the drill - they'll sing, there are judges, you vote and they crown a winner!

So, set your DVRs, watch if you are home and VOTE FOR GRACE! If she makes it through, I'll be back to remind everyone to vote again. Don't worry :) There is also a Facebook event group that everyone reading this should join and invite all their friends to join. It will give updates about the voting, etc. also. What are you waiting for?? Get that DVR set and join the group here!

Here is the video she submitted: