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The Arrival of Baby K!

Announcing.... Elliot Kenneth!
Born on 2/22/2006. He is perfect and Mom and Dad are doing great!

My new ride

After many years of loyal service, it was decided that I had to say good-bye to my beloved 'JC' (my Jeep Cherokee). I was concerned it was getting just a little too old to be reliable, had over 200,000 miles and started leaking lots and lots of oil. Sorry to all of you who had JC leave his mark in your driveway.

So, I got a brand new car - a Mazda Tribute. I really wanted it to be black, but then I would have had to get a beige interior and I wanted a dark interior - so I went back and forth and back and forth and decisions have never been my strong point. I got the Stormfront Gray with the dark interior.

All was well for a whopping 5 days until on my way to work one day I was sitting at a stoplight and got rear-ended! So much for having a brand new car.

So, it doesn't look like too much damage. But it took over a week to get it fixed. Luckily the other guy's insurance covered the repairs and my rental car.

My new..... finally fixed.... car.

Jesse's birthday!

The girls got together in the Quad Cities to celebrate Jesse's b-day (although we were a month late). We had lunch at the Olive Garden and then went shopping afterward. It was nice to see each other before Christmas and to see how cute Jess and Tam look being pregnant.

I managed to stop someone to have our photo taken - although it was a risk since it was cold and she was yelling at a car driving by. But I had the feeling seeing us would make her think of her girlfriends and I was right - she even took a couple of pictures and was very friendly.

We'll be getting together later on for at least one toast for Jesse's b-day that involve alcoholic beverages - but that will wait until after Baby K arrives.

A Warm Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we traveled to Florida to see Mom and had a great time. The weather was beautiful and we were able to do a little swimming every day. As usual Country Meadows was entertaining with all residents scooting around in their golf carts. Jeff and I were greeted with an enthusiastic "Einstein Skipping" once we were walking. After thinking about it we realized it translated into Happy Thanksgiving.

We had a lot of fun the few days we were down there. We have a Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving, followed by lots of games and cards. On Friday we went to the zoo and then tried to go see some water and beaches in Tampa. Somehow that did not happen and I have finally calmed down from being the driver in the whole experience.




Here are a couple of pictures. The first is the pool, which I know I will get a lot of use out of whenever I visit mom!












The second is Mom, Nancy and I standing out front at mom's place. Florida is SO sunny - we have to squint in every picture.

Take note of the golf cart in the background - the mode of transportation in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see anyone 'walking' their dog while they were driving their cart.

The 30th and 40th birthday celebration!

We had a fun time celebrating Jeff and Don's 30th and 40th birthdays at the Vine on the Coralville strip. We had reserved the upstairs and it worked very well. We had our own little area, a little game room, our own waitress and even our own bathroom! (although there was a little problem with the paper towel dispenser... my thumbs might still hurt!). Diane made two wonderful cakes - a brownie cheesecake and a 1/2 chocolate 1/2 white cake with a tigerhawk on it! Both were delicious!

Here is a pic of the boys doing the poses we know and love. Make sure you check out Diane's cakes in the picture.




I think the boys had a good birthday and everyone had fun. Afterwards we headed back to our place for a Cranium tournament, followed by a never ending Trivial Pursuit game. Poor Jeff - I will probably always remind him that alcohol CAN affect your ability to play Trivial Pursuit. He kept saying that night that either you know the answer or you don't - alcohol has nothing to do with it. Let's just say his answer to a question about an 'Arab nation' was Australia. The next day he admitted that maybe alcohol was hindering him....

Here's a pic from the Cranium game - having the guys do puppeteering is always fun.


Check out more pictures here