Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Are you fans of "The Office?"

I made this for my little brother Brian (who gets a kick out of "The Office") and his soon to be wife Suzanne. Should I market them? (hahaha/hohoho)

Sunday, February 21, 2010

The Week of 2/15-2/21

On Monday, some of our friends had their baby. I went to the hospital on Tuesday evening for a brief visit. I got to hold their baby, and the funniest thing happened. He was totally flipping the room off. I was laughing so hard. After laughing I tried to rearrange his hand so that he wasn't doing that, and he wouldn't move his fingers any other way.

Before I went to visit them, I was in somewhat of a baking mood and so I made these and took them some...

Wednesday was pretty uneventful. Thursday evening we took some dinner over to our friends, and Tom was able to meet the baby for the first time.

I think that Tom will make a great dad. We can't wait until it is our time to have kids.
On Friday morning, we woke up and it was FREEZING in our house. Our heater had stopped working, so we had to get someone in to come and fix it. We are so grateful that it was something really minor and that our heat once again works.
On Saturday we went to Olathe to have our taxes done. It didn't turn out as bad as I thought it would and it was way fun to hang out in the Draper's home and chat. After taxes were done, we were all VERY hungry and we went to this place called J. Alexander's. It was a very delicious restaurant. It was very pricy, but I don't think that anyone was disappointed with their meal.
We then carried on to Costco. Costco is always fun. I am proud to report that I got out of Costco under $100.00, but, just barely.
Then this morning I tried out a recipe that I had come across online. This is a Coconut - Key Lime Cupcake with candied Key Limes on top. They are SOOO good.

Church was cancelled this morning due to inclement weather that is supposed to get worse as the day goes on. We are supposed to go over to our friends the Alexander's for a potluck this afternoon. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

December Part II thru February 14th...

Well, Tom and I were lucky enough to be able to fly to California for Christmas 2009. We enjoyed a picnic in the backyard with the kids....

We had Christmas Eve over at Tom's Uncle Paul and Aunt Sharon's house.




Christmas Day at my parent's house.




Got to meet Brian's fiance Suzanne for the first time.
Tom and Erin excited to meet Suzanne

Suzanne chillin' on the couch while Brian plays with Wyatt.

Went to the beach with Brian and Suzanne to see if we could get any good shots for their wedding invitation.


Wedding Planning Meeting @ In-N-Out

Celebrated my mom's 60th birthday.

Had to transition from this kind of weather....

to this kind of weather....

We kind of kept New Year's Eve low key this year. We had a few people over, watched a movie and ate good food. People left at around 12:30, and I went to bed.

JANUARY
We had quite of bit of snow in the beginning of January. More snow than Tom and I have seen since we moved to Kansas.
Fun Weather:


Icicles:
During the month of January, I was able to come up with the dress that I will wear to Brian and Suzanne's wedding. I already had it in my closet.

FEBRUARY

On Tuesday, February 9th at 10pm, I got a rather scary phone call. I had already been asleep for about an hour so when I answered I wasn't totally coherent. I answered the phone and it was Tom telling me that I needed to come and get him in Kansas City. He then relayed to me that he had been in a car accident, both air-bags deployed and the car wouldn't start. At the KU Edwards Campus (where he was) you have to go through a round about to exit the campus. Tom was going about 15 to 20 miles an hour when our 1997 Honda Accord hit some black ice. This in turn caused the car to lose traction from the street and bump in to a parked car that was parked in the round about. Well, he bounced off of that car and proceeded to hit a second car. Our friend David Anderson drove me to the Edwards Campus which is about 30 to 35 minutes away. On the way to the Edwards Campus I called a tow truck company (thanks Amber Anderson for looking that information up for me) and got that all lined up. Dave and I got to the accident scene and hadn't even been there for about 5 minutes when a 2010 Camaro came around the same bend that Tom came around, hit the black ice and then ran into the back of our already dead Honda. That poor car. Here are some pictures of that mess:





Well, needless to say we were back down to one car. We ended up getting quite a bit of money from our insurance company and were able to put a nice down payment on this car:
2008 Dodge Caliber

I really do appreciate all of the advice that was given to us about what we should buy. Tom and I talked a lot about what to get and this seemed right for us for several different reasons. One of those reasons is that since we own a duplex and need something that we can get larger purchases back here with, this car actually has some cargo room that we can work with. We feel very comfortable with our decisions and truly value the opinions that were offered to us.

That leads us to today....Valentine's Day. Tom got me some pajama pants and a wireless mouse for my laptop. I got him some chocolate and gave him some money to put towards some running shoes that he wants. Well, I guess he doesn't want those shoes anymore, so he will spend it on whatever he wants now....
Our weather today was:

Tom and I enjoyed the day nice and warm in our home with our fish Walter while there were two 30 car pile-ups on I-70 which shut it down about 20 minutes east of us for many hours:

I made this dinner (we don't usually eat like this):

We had this for dessert:


It was a great day.

You are all caught up on the last 6 months of our lives...Thanks for reading. I really hope to blog more frequently.

I'm Going For The Record....Finally A Post After 6 Months...

Well, this will be a long post. I am only 6 months behind. It will mostly be pictures. Not a ton of reading. =) Here we go...
AUGUST
In August we decided it was time to become a two car family. We needed two cars so that both of us could perform our jobs effectively. We added a 2003 Nissan Altima to our family.

2003 Nissan Altima
SEPTEMBER
In September my cousin Tom and his wife Becky and their son Paul came to Lawrence to visit us. While they were here, we experienced chocolate covered bacon...not my favorite thing, Worlds of Fun and some church history sites.
Tom and Paul and Becky on the carousel.

Erin and Tom on the train taking cover from an afternoon rainstorm.

Tom and Paul on a ride.

OCTOBER
In October, Tom and I traveled to St. Louis with our good friends the Baker's. We went to our church's temple, visited the arch and ate at a really good place called Pappy's Smokehouse. We did have to buy my dad a shirt while we were there because the grandkids call him Pappy!
St. Louis Temple

The Arch

Tom and Erin at The Arch

At Pappy's Smoke House. The food was mighty delicious. This place was on that show...Diner's, Drive-Ins and Dives.


Tom and I celebrated our 8th Wedding Anniversary by going to the Cheesecake Factory on the Plaza. For dessert we ordered Stephanie's Ultimate Red Velvet Cheesecake. Thank goodness we only got one and shared it. It was mighty rich and delicious.

NOVEMBER
For Thanksgiving, Tom and I drove to Jenks, Oklahoma to spend the holiday with Tom and Becky and Paul. We are so glad that we have some family in the area that we can spend time with. It takes about four hours to get there, and it is worth every minute of travel time to hang out with them. We had Thanksgiving at their home with some people from Tom's work. They were a couple from South Africa who had a really cute little girl. They had never tasted root beer before, and I SO wish I would have had a camera to take a picture of the first sip...it was priceless. Other items on the menu for our Thanksgiving feast included:
Sour Cream Rolls

Brownie Pecan Pie

Turkey & Pumpkin Pie

and many more glorious dishes that were so good.
We also visited the Tulsa Aquarium while we were there.
My cousin Tom feeding the stingrays:

My husband Tom behaving in his usual manner:

WE ARE ALMOST ALL CAUGHT UP!
DECEMBER
Tom and I got to experience our first ever KU Basketball Game in the Allen Field House. It was so worth the experience. I think if the opportunity presented itself again and the price was right...again, we would probably go... again.
Tom and I in the car on our way to the game.

Baby Jay

KU B-Ball Players

Final Score of the KU vs. Alcorn State Game

I have just decided that Christmas time - February 15th will be in the next post.