Family time... Labor Day weekend

Some of Skot's family came to visit. Mom and Dad (EJ and Bob) and Bro/Sis-In-Law (Robbie and Kali) came up from Georgia. It was a nice visit... a few pics.

At the Hancock building overlooking the city.
Celebrating Robbie's BDay.
Me. Happy visiting the Smart Home on the campus of The Museum of Science and Industry. It was awesome. Skot and I have been looking at what and how we want to build a home in our future. One of our favorite housing websites happens to be mkd-arc.com and it just so happens that this house at the museum was designed by the same Michelle Kaufmann. Way cool. 
My way cutie boy. Not the best picture choice seeing that he is in the middle of a sentence... but still, he's my cutie.
The way coolio house. I love it, love it, love it! Check out msichicago.org for more info on the Smart Home.

House and Work

We have been doing a lot of work on the house lately. There are so many projects we have worked on over the past four years. Some have taken a back seat for quite some time. Now, they are getting finished! Thank goodness!

I bought Skot a laser level. He is using it, and well. I was totally impressed by his little grouping of pics on our bedroom wall. I tend to be a perfectionist and was slightly scared about what the results might be. Who could complain? This is great (although the picture I took is slightly distorted because of the angle). Good job Skot!
Living room. Finally finished. Happy people get to check this off the To Do List.
Kitchen leading into the dining area... mostly finished. I am repotting the plants in the dining area, adding something taller to the sideboard on the back wall.

Hello....?

Did we have an anniversary? YES we did!!! How could I neglect to post on the most important day of our year? Crazy. Must be the hectic schedule. So, here it is. The lit-only-once-yearly candle (yes it is in the shape of a wedding cake) and the fingers. Just count them. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Here's to six awesome years, baby! Just as a side note, the 16th is our happy day. :)

Final criterium race - Downer's Grove

Skot is the rider all the way to the right in the picture. He raced in a category 3/4 race. He usually races in category 4, so this was a really fast and difficult race seeing that he was racing with guys that were a whole category ahead.

Me, doing my wifely duty... taking lots of pictures.
My sweaty boy post race.

Go outside and ride your bike

My favorite buddy was in a cycling race this past weekend in Grayslake, IL. He came  in 13th place. Pretty good work Skot. He hung in there the whole time. (No wreck!!!) I have decided I want  a new camera... a better camera... a faster camera. It is hard to take pictures of these guys when they are racing by at 30 miles an hour.

Where did she go? Where did she go?

No where.  :( :( :(

I was supposed to go out of town last weekend. But my plans fell through. :(

I was going to go to Vancouver.

Oh well. Not the end of the world... maybe next time.

Did you see that?

OK. It can be hard to impress me at times. What am I saying? That sounds so snotty. Let me try again... I'll just get to the point. I was severely impressed by the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. I was wowed, I was stunned, I was blown away. They put so much money, time, effort, and discipline into the entire presentation. This one won't be topped for a long time. What I found funny was that Chicago's Mayor Daley was interviewed and he immediately said that there was no way Chicago could host the Olympics the way the Chinese have. Ha! No kidding! 

-Christi- :)

Plant lady

So, instead of being dubbed the "Cat Lady" by neighborhood kids I will be called "Plant Lady" for the mass of flora I collect.  Foliage is my weakness.  Tropical blooms are an even greater weakness of mine.

This one is called Tillandsia.  AKA the "air plant." It is an epiphyte and survives in the wild by living in trees. It absorbs water and nutrients through the leaves. Last year it produced an amazing plume of purple and fuschia.  It was wild to look at.
This is a basic Phalaenopsis orchid "Anna." It is blooming now and, as you see, is gorgeous.
This bad boy is an orange tree!!! It was a gift from the Warr's. They bought it last January while vacationing in Orlando. It was just a tiny seedling and now it stands over 12 inches tall. I can't wait to see what happens to this little guy over the next 20 years. Yes, we will be long time friends.

What a view

So basically we have an amazing view behind our home. This has just about ruined us. We have no idea how we will ever survive a move. We must have something to look at like this for the rest of out lives. It is beautiful the entire year. Not green, usually covered with a blanket of snow actually, but beautiful.

 

I Need A Vacay.

I have been telling Skot that I don't know how much longer I can go without a vacation. I'm going a little crazy. Our trip to the Chicago Botanical Garden held me over for a week, that's it. So last Saturday we went to the Dundee park district pool. I know, community pool. Some people say no way. I say who cares, I need a place to chill. So we were there just a couple of hours and I got the sun I needed, a little dip in the pool, and temporary freedom from my hectic and busy life. It has held me over for a good full week. I will report back on this weekend's activities later. Let's just say I'm doing something fun.

My First Heirloom Tomato

One day I will be a part-time organic farmer. Just you wait and see. This is the first green zebra tomato from my very first heirloom tomato plant - organically grown, of course. It's not very big as you can see, but it was yummy and I think very pretty, too.

Skot's High Adventure

Skot survived high adventure... barely.
Skot is the President of the young men's organization at church. He loves those guys. He also loves torturing them with 25 miles of cycling - all hills. Ouch. Apparently they cursed his name for a good part of the ride. 
I can't believe he did this.  Skot is deathly afraid of heights. I think his manly competitive spirit wouldn't allow him to not do it. Amazing what a healthy dose of testosterone does to a man's brain.

Comments anyone?

Oh my GOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh, oh my goodness, I can't believe it!!!  I had no idea that you could leave all these comments on people's blogs!  I am so stinking excited!  OK, I need to calm myself for a moment... and deliver my confession, a moment of truth.  I think one time I left a comment on someone's blog.  I don't know when it was. I don't even know if it worked.  I have never read the comments that others have left on my blogspot. I don't know why, maybe I am truly dense in the head.  Whatever, WHO CARES, I FINALLY READ THEM!!! YEAH! And now I have people to connect with that I haven't been in contact with for forever because they left comments! I am slightly elated.  :) Very happy to say the least! Deep breath, calm down (I'm talking to myself), you can stop freaking out and start responding to your sweet friends.  OK, all better now. Ha!  

Lots O' Love -Christi- :)

A Visit to a Not-So-Secret Garden

The Chicago Botanical Garden.  Our first visit.A beautiful example of an Illinois prairie.
Papyrus... I can't wait to grow this one day.

Don't know what this is, but it is dry, prickly, and green all at the same time.  Plants are cool.
A sea of hydrangeas.
Ha!  Skot had a blast. :)

My sweaty boy and his dirty bike

I should have made a greater effort to capture the yucky sweat on his face and dripping from his hair. Yuck.  His funny faces are too cute for me to pass up. 

Skot would not like me calling his bike dirty.  He cleans it... a lot.  It takes him forever. He spends more time cleaning and doing detail work on his bike than he does cleaning the cars.  

The Beauty of the Earth

Some pictures of the beautiful swiss chard a girlfriend from church gave to me.  I love fresh vegetables.  I love greens!  Look at the gorgeous colors... Just another one of God's lovely creations.

Old Hair, New Hair

Had this hair style (sorta) for a while... maybe 6 months or more.

I've had this one for a week or so.

An Evening at the Ravinia

The Ravinia is an outdoor park concert venue. This was our first time going. We spent the evening with Jason S, Nancy (the evening was compliments of sweet Nancy) and some of her friends. The Temptations and the Four Tops played and they were great!

Skot, Nancy, and Jason S
Guess who?
Jason S, Skot, and Christi :) Uhh... anyone who knows us well does not even need to ask if that is a brewski in Skot's hand.  Just to satisfy the curiosity of others - it is, in fact, root beer.

Six Flags Great America with the Warr fam

Skot, Amalea, Christi on a dizzy ride.
The Warrs
Monica, Isabel, and Jason - what a cutie baby.
Isabel, Skot... we watched the girls for a bit while Jas and Mon took a break and rode The Dark Knight ride. :)

More pics from the wedding

The bouquet
Cutie Tay
A naughty little princess
Yummy and beautiful cupcake tower.

Heidi got married!

Boise, ID temple... Heidi married Christian McMullin.  They are so cute together and enjoying their honeymoon bliss. :)

Skot and I after church...

My mommy and three sisters...

and the offspring on Easter Sunday.

 April gave birth the next day to Charley Olivia Trent. She has a ton of super soft thick hair. What a cutie pie!  She was hard to put down.

Our friends, the Warrs

These cool peeps are our buddies. Monica, Jason, Amalea, and baby Isabel. Jason and Skot look very similar (especially because they have matching glasses) so people at church are constantly getting them confused. They say "Amalea, go to daddy..." except daddy is not in sight, only Skot.  Ha Ha! It's pretty funny, definitely entertaining.

Some more creativity...

This is the e-card Skot designed for our 30th birthday party.  I know this is totally old news, but I thought people would get a kick out of his stupendous creative abilities.  What a fun guy! 

Creativity, I love to PLAY!

So here is an attempt at some flower arranging.  The unfortunate thing is that it turned out looking like a wedding arrangement and this was in fact a normal birthday party.  Oh well.  You win some, you lose some.  I will try again in the future.  I realize my mistake was color choice.

Oops...

O.K.  I have been informed by my sweet sisters that people are sick of seeing a post from forever ago.  They no longer care about Skot's 30th birthday.  I assure you things have happened since then.  I just haven't shared the information yet.  I apologize and will today prove that I am truly repentant by adding some pictures.  The pictures will have captions to describe each event fully.  I hope this will calm your minds and put a smile on you face... new pictures are on the way.