My Top 8

I got this idea from Michelle. My top 8 in 2008 are:
8) I left Illinois on Wed. to fly to NC. When I left Illinois there was 1/2 inch of ice on the ground. When I landed in NC, it was 70 degrees! =)
7) David's truck driving experience last 8 weeks, when he abruptly decided to move on. However, now he stands a pretty good chance of getting hired by the NC Police Dept., something he's talked about doing for years.
6) This year, we get to play Santa!!!! (I'm very excited about it.)
5) And again I say, everyone should go to a Club Med.
4) Hannah is at this great stage where she is mildly independent, yet stills loves to cuddle.
3) In saying goodbye to Italy, I realized what wonderful friends I have, and how living there changed me forever.
2) I FINALLY received my associates degree.
1) David separated from the Army in August, and it wasn't the end of the world, for him or me.

Patti's Settlement in Land Between the Lakes

Last night, Tom, Amy and I drove to Land Between the Lakes, which is about an hour into Kentucky. I had heard about this restaurant, Patti's, that is supposed to have excellent food. When I mentioned it to Amy and Tom, they said that there was also a Christmas Village there. So we decided to drive down for dinner and to look at the lights. We got down there a little after 5 and were seated immediately for dinner. The restaurant was gorgeous, with lots of foliage and decorations inside. We were served bread in flower pots with strawberry butter, yum! Patti's is known for their pork, so I ordered a pork chop with tropical sauce. I was served a pork chop, 1 to 1 1/2 inches thick, covered with diced strawberries, mango, pineapple, red pepper, lime juice, and cilantro. It was so good, and so juicy. After eating to pork chop, I didn't have room for anything else but that was the best pork chop I've ever had. David's a little upset that his Honey Mustard pork chops have been bumped to second place! Now I'm on the hunt for that tropical sauce. Hannah still isn't feeling great, so she was restless. Amy and I took turns eating, and walking her around the gift store. After we ate, we walked around the settlement, which is where the pictures are from. It was absolutely gorgeous, with all the lights. I wished Hannah had felt a little better, but I'm so glad I got to see it before I left. The best part about it is that the entire area takes part. It's all set up like a settlement, with lots of shops. Had Hannah felt a little better, I could've spent a lot more time there. So, if anyone finds themselves in Kentucky, head to Patti's Settlement in Land Between the Lakes. You won't be disappointed.

A Christmas with Friends

This past Friday, Kelly and Jay drove down to spend the weekend with us and have a little Christmas exchange. They're already off this morning and my house is way to quiet! Kelly got Hannah another loud toy, she likes doing that to me. And the book that I'm holding is from Kelly, the title is Living Successful with Screwed Up People, how appropriate is that! You can also see another photo that Hannah took, I think she's turning into quite the little photographer! Yesterday, Amy offered to watch Hannah and Jay so that Kelly and I could go off by ourselves for a little. So we dropped the girls off and went to the mall to window shop. We sat and had coffee and went into a couple stores, it was really nice. While Hannah and Jay were at Amy and Tom's they went and fed the horse carrots and apples, and made Christmas cookies. I also introduced the Wii to Kelly, she was up until 11 pm last night playing the Wii fit. So now it's a little more relaxed here, but definately way to quiet.

That time of year

What Hannah did in Chicago:

Took her very first picture, all by herself. (the top left photo)

Saw a giant Christmas tree, and Mrs. Clause. (the top right photo)

Ran herself crazy at the children's museum. (middle left photo)

Played lots with Jay, who she loves so much! (last two photo's)

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was good, a little hectic, but good. I tackled downtown Chicago, for the first time ever, on my own. And I only drove around lost for about 15 minutes, which could've been much worse! I met up with my mother in laws family before they ate, and showed off boogerhead for a little. They loved her! And she loved being the center of attention. It was the first time I'd been around any of them since my wedding, so it was a good chance for me to get to know them a little. I ate dinner with my girlfriend Kelly. I helped out a little with the cooking, and I made some hot, spiced wine. I think Hannah's favorite part of dinner was the mashed potatoes, who doesn't like those though!

The Children's Museum of Naperville

The day after Thanksgiving, Kelly and I took the girls to the children's museum. It was great. It was huge, we were there for about 2 hours and still didn't get to see everything. Hannah enjoyed the bubbles and water play area. She liked the lights area and the music area. The best part about it was that I enjoyed it too. I really wish David could've been there with Hannah. He would've had so much fun running around with her. After we left, Hannah took a nice long nap!

Playtime at Barnes and Nobles

For the last week or so the weather here has been pretty crappy; rainy, windy, cloudy and just plain cold! And Hannah has been hanging onto a cold for about two weeks, so between the weather and her cold she hasn't been outside much and she's starting to get a TAD restless. There are no indoor play areas around here so today I decided to take her to Barnes and Nobles to play in the kid section. We went after lunch. I got a coffee and sat down with some math problems and let her go to town on the train set, which she loves! It turned out to be a great outing. There were some other kids there for her to interact and I didn't get a lot of studying done, but I did get some done. We stayed for about an hour, then rounded up our stuff and headed home. We actually had such a good time, that I'm planning on doing it again. Who knew that Barnes and Nobles was so functional!

Fall Leaves

It's gotten pretty darn cold here, and the leaves are all fallen off the trees by now. Last weekend, raked up a big pile in the front yard, and then we threw Hannah in the middle. She wasn't quite sure what to do at first, so I jumped in with her for a few minutes until she understood what jumping in leaves means.....playing! She had fun, until her clothes got damp from the damp leaves.

Trick or Treat

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Welp. this one is only a week and a couple days late, right?! Halloween was fun, and mildly disappointing. David was not able to make it home in time to take Hannah trick or treating, which we were both disappointed about but Hannah and I still had a good time. I took her to our church, which had trunk or treating. It didn't take Hannah long to catch on to the concept of grabbing her candy. THe church had a couple of big blow up things for kids to bounce around in. I felt bad for Hannah, she realy wanted to climb up in one of them, but there were a lot of older kids in them and I think she would've been run over. After hanging out at the church for a little bit, we went over to the mall. I chose these two places so that Hannah could have a little more freedom. She grabbed a litte more candy at the mall and then plopped down in front of a fountain and had a snack. It was really cute. Tonight she finished the last of her candy. Which reminds me of a cute story. On Thursday morning, I found her plopped down on the kitchen floor, in front of the dishwasher, which I use as a giant breadbox and where her candy was. She had figured out how to get into the and was sitting there eating her candy, at 7 a.m.!

Hannah's amazing music

David has pondered for some time now picking up the guitar and learning to play it. And following the advice of a wise man, we took one from his mom that's pretty worthless in order for David to determine whether it was something he actually wanted to do. He still hasn't done anything with it, but Hannah sure has. I now have it sitting out with Hannah's stuff so that she can continue to play it. It's really cute to see her strumming it. The other photo is one we took this morning before church. We all looked really nice, so I made David conform to a family photo. Hannah had a good time at church, and finally adjusting to the time change. On Tuesday we're going to story time at our local library.

I am really on a roll!!!

So I carved my first pumpkin ever!!! The pumpkin in the very last picture is the one I did first. I didn't realize that the patterns had difficulty levels on them until after I started the spider web. I really didn't want to finish it, but I did! Today, Hannah and I carved one together. Well, I carved, Hannah made a mess. And ate a lot of pumpkin and pumpkin seeds! So here's some pictures of our finished product, and a few from in between. I'm going to roast some pumpkin seeds in a little, and tomorrow I'm going to tackle homemade pumpkin pie!

Wow, another post. I'm on a roll!!!

So yesterday David got his own truck, woo-hoo, a week early. He was in Iowa, and the company decided to go ahead and let him test out because he already had the required amount of miles to test out. So he passed, and got his own truck two days ago. The company had to do some maintenance on the truck, so he didn't get on the road until yesterday evening. I talked to him around 10 pm and he was having a rough night. He'd already stabbed himself with a piece of glass and something else I can't remember. Around midnight I recieved a text message from him saying he had hit a deer. I looked at the message and went right back to sleep. This morning when I talked to him he told me the full story. He hit a big buck, and as a result the radiator smashed into the fan. Which basically meanted he couln't run the truck. The truck was at a service center, and he didn't know what was going to come of this. In short, he has to get a new truck and he's got to go to Louisanna for it. Which means he's not coming home this weekend. Which would be alright except that there's so much that needs to be done around here and between school and mothering, I just don't have time to take care of much of it! Thankfully, he was about an hour outside of Chicago. So he's spending the weekend his family. And that's the story of David's first day of solo driving.

Duck go quack quack

Hannah said her first sentence this past Sunday. Kelly and I took the girls to the park on Sunday to feed the geese. It was Hannah's first goose feeding experience and she did pretty good. She threw a couple pieces of bread at the geese, then decided she'd rather eat it herself! So she watched Jay and I feed them. Kelly kept saying "duck go quack quack" and Hannah eventually repeated it back to her. I totally missed it though! Hannah had a blast with Jay. Whenever I see her interact with Jay, I know she must miss Vivian and Lem. In the picture of Hannah and Jayden holding hands, it was Hannah who reached for Jay's hand. Like I said, it was a much needed girl weekend for both us. This weekend, David and I are looking forward to a relaxing weekend.