Birthday Weekend

Well, these past few days have been Cody's "Birthday Weekend." Some of you may ask, "Birthday Weekend? I thought your birthday was just one day." Well, not in St. Louis and not with Cody's friends. They have "Birthday Weekends" and even "Birthday Weeks" - quite the celebratory crowd, I assure you (more to do with finding any excuse to go out and drink then celebrating one's birth, I'm sure).
Cody's Birthday Weekend began with his day off on Friday. He worked too many hours this past week and since they no longer have overtime, he went ahead and took Friday off. Being the great guy he is, he took it upon himself to get a ton of our "chores" done Friday while I was working -helped out a lot to clear up the weekend. :) We started the celebrating with a not-so-birthday related celebration - a going-away happy hour for two of our great associates at work. Most would think happy hours last from about 5-7pm, maybe even 8pm, well, not this crowd - at 10pm most were still alive and kicking. We had a blast with everyone and it was a great kick-off for Birthday Weekend!
Saturday we took our first day in forever (literally) to just hang out and relax and veg - we did absolutely no work. We rented Cinderella Man and watched that and went to dinner at one of Cody's favorite restaurants - King and I. It's a Thai place in the city and they'll make stuff as hot as you want. Cody was quite impressed with the degree of hottest prepared for his birthday - he drank at least a gallon of water just trying to eat his meal - I have no idea how he can stand that stuff. :) We had his "cake" after dinner - though Cody doesn't eat cake and isn't a particular fan of sweets at all, he really likes the Jell-o No Bake Cheesecakes with Cherries for his birthday - his mom would always make them for him but since our families are so far away these days I've kept up the tradition for him. They're really yummy pies and take about five minutes to make. Then of course we went out - first to Tejas (bar in Clayton with $1 drafts, though the selection on draft is quite limited) and then Columbo's (south city bar near our house, open until 3am). Quite a fun time - though Kyle fell asleep on the bar at Tejas well before 10pm (I've got pictures I'll post later).
Today we concluded "Birthday Weekend" with a paddle boat ride in Forrest Park, a walk around the lake and then some light errands (for chili making supplies so Cody can cook his famous chilli tomorrow). Overall, I'd say it was a nice, relaxing, laid back Birthday Weekend.

p.s. I have just been informed Cody put the treadmill back together and now it won't work again. Some connector is all screwy so we might have to cut it off the circuit board and solder it directly to the board - sounds fun, eh?

It's Alive!

The treadmill is alive!!! It broke sometime last week and Cody has worked his vodoo electrical engineering magic to make it work again!! While we got it for free so didn't have much economically invested in it, the prospect of having to buy a new one isn't exactly feasible at the time being with our tight budgeting (blame it on the World Cup, property tax increase, income taxes, wedding, etc.). Anyway, I need the treadmill because I can't yet run outside after work (still too dark too early) and I need to run (see above list for reasoning - property tax increase, etc.). I'm training for another half-marathon in April (the Spirit of St. Louis again) and then plan to run a marathon in the fall (either the St. Charles in September or the Chicago in October) so in order to make this plan work, I need to run - a lot - and the only way to do that is to join a gym (minimun $30 a month) or use my free treadmill. I prefer the free treadmill option and now that has again become a viable option as Cody is the most wonderful, smartest person on this earth and has fixed the machine! And yes, he's the most wonderful, smartest person on the earth for more reasons then just fixing the treadmill. So, folks, back to my training because my treadmill is again alive!

Christmas in February?

As many of you may have heard my tirade in December, we got our first live Christmas tree in St. Louis this year and I was shocked to get to the tree farm and find spray painted trees! I had never heard of such a crazy practice! Anyway, we ended up cutting down our painted live tree and decorating it in the house. We took the tree out of the water right after Christmas and put it in our compost/log pile in the backyard to later cut it up for firewood for the fire pit. Today I let the cats out to play outside and they decided to go play around the tree. I went outside to watch them and was quite disturbed that the tree is STILL bright green! It's been dead now for over two months and is still errily bright green! I'm thinking that we can probably use it again next year if the spray paint doens't wash off - we should probably just put it in the basement for storage and then we won't have to bother with cutting down another tree next year. The Midwest is a strange strange place! Welcome to Corn Cold County!

Addendum

Just to clarify, I'm not saying ordinary is necessarily bad. Ordinary can be very good, especially in the at-times hectic life Cody and I tend to live where there always seems to be something going on or something to do. Ordinary can be very refreshing. It can be a break from the whirlwind of our normal running here and there lives. Some days I pine for an ordinary day where I can come home, do chores and otherwise basically relax and not think about my calendar or "to do" list. Ordinary can be bad though as well, at least for my high-energy, high-paced self, where I live off the energy and hecticness of life. So that's it, ordinary just is.

p.s. Cody is in the background yelling "Du bist blogging" to impress me with his quality German skills. :)

What to blog about when there's nothing to blog about?

Today was ordinary. Obnoxiously ordinary. Woke up. Went to work. Worked all day. Went to the denstist (I went to get a crown but they weren't able to do it because the root canal I had two years ago still hasn't "healed" so now I have to go to a root canal specialist - sounds fun, huh?). Went to the grocery store (been out of milk for 5 days now - a tragedy in Cody World). Came home. Did laundry. Did the dishes. Did more laundry. Did more dishes. Did more laundry. Did more laundry (a total of four loads). Cody came home. Ate dinner (Mac & Cheese). Hung out a bit. Now should start getting ready for bed to sleep and wake up and do it all over again tomorrow. This weekend is Cody's birthday so that should be fun. Guten Nacht!

Sprechen sie Deutsh?

Wow - what a class! We had our first German class in preparation for our hopeful trip to Germany this summer to see the World Cup. It's a good thing Dude is in the class with us so he can answer all my crazy questions! I think the class is going to be really good for all of us - though it's way below Dude at this point. The teacher does a lot of talking in German to get us used to the language but also makes us do a lot of speaking as well. Just in our first class we learned over 10 verbs (and how to conjugate "sein" the word for "to be"), more then a dozen nouns, a bunch of random words (which I'm not sure what part of speech they fall into) and a ton of phrases (over 50 useful phrases). I'm already back in school mode (you miss it when it's gone) rewriting all my notes and organizing everything. I'm pretty excited because I did pretty horrible at foreign language in all of my former attempts (basically failed 2 years of Latin in high school along with one year of German and then another three semesters of Latin in college) but I figure now that I'm older I might have something I was missing before that will allow me to pick it up (like paying attention in class and some common sense). Well, off to finish up around the house before bedtime. Auf Wiedersehen! Guten Nacht!

German class

We're about to go to our first German class! We've enrolled in a German for Traveler's course with the local community college so we can at least somewhat understand what's going on when we go over there for the World Cup this summer (provided, of course, we get tickets). How fun . . . .except I'm the worst person in the world at foreign languages. We'll see . . .

p.s. The treadmill still doesn't work - though we now have a schematic for the entire electrical system of the machine.

Treadmill

I love my treadmill. Cody got it for free on the Boeing Classifieds when we first moved into the house and it's perfect for running when I can't run outside (i.e. all winter since it's dark by the time I get off work). Today I worked late (after 7pm) and just wanted to come home and run to let off some steam, except the treadmill went nuts on me. The belt would turn but the display that tells me how fast I'm going (or not going as the case may be) and how long I've run, just wouldn't work. So when Cody got home from work (even after I did), he went to work on it. I helped get the cover off (I am a master of the power drill), but once he got started messing with electronic stuff, I was useless (except to hold the flashlight). So now I'm writing about his mission while he has my treadmill pulled apart all over the floor. I hope it survives. Good luck 'ole pal (the treadmill, not Cody).

By the way, Wiggles (the co-dependent kitty) squeaks every time I pick her up - I hope she didn't eat a squeaky toy (or someone didn't feed her one at the party).

I should probably go do something productive now while Cody operates.

Party Time!

Well, we finally did it! Cody and I finally had our house party! We've been intending to have this party for months now, but first it was summer activities and then it was football season and then the holidays - but we finally picked a date, told everyone to show up, bought the keg and had our party. And in my humble opinion, I think it turned out great! We staged it so our friends with kids could come earlier in the evening to hang out before the not-so-tame crowd showed up later that night. All in all it was a success! We had a great time meeting and hanging out with our friends' kids - they were so cute and wonderful - and then an equally good time draining the keg with everyone else. We even got in a few rounds of flip cup! I'm so happy that so many people were able to make it - quite a great crowd! I've put the pictures on the website if anyone wants to check them out. :) Thanks to everyone who showed up!!!

Party Planning a Precursor for Wedding Planning???

Okay, we've been in our house over 7 months now and are just getting around to having our first party. It's actually turned into a house warming/ engagement/ Cody's birthday party - all rolled into one. So you would think we just pick the house up a bit and tell people to come over, right? That's what we thought. But gosh there is so much more to it - who to invite, what to serve for food (chips and salsa or something more), what to serve for beverages (just a keg, keg and mixed drinks, etc.), what times to have people show up and what times for different people. So much to think about and ponder - and this is only a party!!! I can't even believe the decisions and preparations we'll have for the wedding!
But before we can even have people over, we first must get our house "picked up a bit" - this is not an easy task - we're constantly in the middle of some project or another so it is always torn up to some degree. On top of that we haven't finished unpacking from the move. So this past weekend we went to town unpacking and "picking up." We had high goals - of which we did not reach, mostly because we woke up around 4:30 pm on Sunday and then went back to bed at 1am, having only been awake about 8.5 hours total, none of which we spent cleaning the house. So this week, the house has been divided into parts with a part to be done each day. Yesterday was Boy Room and Kitchen. Probably one of the things I love best about Cody and I is the way we work as a team. Though we were both dead tired yesterday, we attacked our rooms with a determination and teamwork unmatched by many. While I cleaned and picked up, Cody handled the "decoration" in the "Boy Room" - he hung up all his beer signage, Gator stuff, etc. Then while he cleaned the kitchen I handled the decorating and picky cleaning stuff (cleaning extra paint of the counters). Both rooms look great and we're on our way to being prepared for the party. Tonight is Dining Room and Living Room.
At least the wedding won't be at our house so that's one saving grace there.

Word of the Day

sesquipedalian - the word is indicative of it's definition

Progress! Finally, some progress!

Cody and I closed on our house on June 10th. I started painting the living room right away and then moved onto the kitchen. I put up blue painting tape all over the kitchen sometime around June 15th. And then stopped. Cody's parents were gracious enough to come help us paint the first of July and totally painted our upstairs spare room since it was a more immediate concern. Cody and I had high hopes of finishing up the rest of the house shortly thereafter. But then there was summer and bike rides and float trips and general outdoor/summer fun. So time passed and passed and before we knew it fall was upon us, then Christmas and now the New Year. All this time the blue tape adorned our kitchen - like when you fall asleep with a face mask on - for 7 months! So since we got back from Tally, I've been on a mission - finish the kitchen and get that ugly blue tape off our walls! Well, last night around 11pm, we pulled off the last of the blue tape in the kitchen!! It's finally painted!!! I still have to put on one or two socket covers and paint the trim and picture indow sills, but the walls are at least done and we have no more blue tape - we've made progress!!! This is big for us. Now it's on to finishing trim and moving on to the dining room. But for right now we're basking in our progress. . .

New Website!

I know I've been bad about blogging but I have a good excuse - our new webpage!! My brother Bo got me a webpage for Christmas - www.cody-missy.com. So instead of blogging I've been working to get it going. I want it to look nice since it our site instead of some stupid thing through Charter. Hopefully I can get it FTP'ed to the internet before the end of the game tonight - gotta get back to my web development!

It's been forever and a day . . .

Wow - it's been forever and a day since I've written! I'm such a bad blogger! My only excuse is it's been insanely crazy busy around here. I haven't gotten home from work and/or errands before 10 pm since November! By the time we got back from Thanksgiving we had to hit the ground running on Christmas stuff and then catch up on all the stuff that got behind over Thanksgiving. I just unpacked our bags from Thanksgiving over this past weekend - only to have to repack them sometime this week - but alas, the laundry from the trip needed to be done first. Then there's holiday parties, holiday happy hours, holiday cards, and of course, holiday presents! Through all of this though, I love Christmas time - it's one of my favorite times of the year (or at least it used to be when I was in Florida and it was warm, now that Christmas = cold, it might fall on my favorite list). For some reason though this year just seems harder then most - maybe it's all the traveling, or all the work, or just the cold - I'm not sure yet, but it seems more insurmountable this year then most. But alas, today around 10:30 am while I was busy at work, it suddenly hit me to get excited about Christmas and get over the stress. So hopefully I am now officially over the stressed part and onto the fun part. :)

A week of firsts . . .

In a world where it sometimes seems day after day life does the same thing over and over again, I thought I'd write about all the things we did this week or things that happened this week for the first. I know I still have to write about Thanksgiving but that post will be soon as will the great pictures on the website.
After our first tornado siren on Sunday, Monday Sabrina and I ran errands for our first celebration of Mike's birthday. We bought him some dishes so he could entertain ladies since he didn't have any, but he wasn't particularly thrilled with them, though they are really nice dishes. They were quite manly and black and we thought it was a nice gesture. Go figure, he's a boy. :)
Tuesday, for the first time in a while we did nothing. We both worked really late, came home, sat around for about an hour and then went to bed.
Wednesday, we went with Mike and Sabrina for their first trip to Fast Eddies (we've been there dozens of times) to celebrate Mike's birthday.
Thursday I went out to Meghan and Danny's house to see their beautiful 10-day old baby girl, Elizabeth, and Ms. Martha (Meghan's mom). Elizabeth is absolutely precious and Meghan and Danny are doing so wonderful with her. It's great that Ms. Martha is able to be there with them right now to help them out with getting used to everything.
Friday I went to a happy hour with the work crew because an associate is leaving and then we went out with friends to bowl at Tropican (first time there) and then the Cheshire (no where near a first).
Saturday we slept in, worked in the house, and I carpet cleaned our spare room for the first time. We also went to a Gator Club friend's holiday party (first for this year). :)
Today we got our first Christmas tree for our new house and as an engaged couple. We went with Sabrina and Dan and drove to what felt like Kansas and cut one down in 22 degree freezing cold. I was, and continue to be, shocked and appauled that they SPRAY PAINT Christmas trees here to make them more green. I have had real trees most years in my life from a variety of tree farms and have never seen a spray painted tree. That was definitely a first! Then we set the tree up -I had to run to the store to get a better stand - and decorated our first tree. We put the traditional German pickle on the tree as well as all these great German traditional ornaments from Cody's sister she got us as an engagement present. It's really a great set of ornaments - I'll have to write later about each ornament and their significance.
Oh, we also got our first Christmas card this week from my Aunt Kay, Uncle Frank and their kids, Fransico and Ignacio.
Well, since we were awakened this morning at 10am (probably a first since weekends we tend to sleep well past noon) it's bed time now to catch up on sleep.

Another Corn Country First

Well, we got back from Tally late last night, only to arrive to a torrential downpour, complete with hail and wind that about knocked me over. Right as we were about to lay down to go to sleep the wind, rain and hail really kicked up and all of a sudden alarms just started going off everywhere. They were incredibly loud and seemed to be coming from every direction. I, being from Florida, had no clue what was going on so Cody clued me in and told me to get to the basement. Apparently a tornado had been sighted so the tornado alarms were going off all over the neighborhood. So we got the cats and the laptop (hoping to get an update on the internet) and headed to the basement to hang out until it was over. Luckily we were only stuck there a few minutes and then a loud voice told us it was over and to tune into the radio for more information. It really reminded me of the drills in elementary school though I never knew I'd actually hear the siren for real. Another corn country first. I'll write about out Thanksgiving whirlwind extravaganza later - too tired now.

Adrenaline Overload

Wow - what a three days I've had! First was the ring on Saturday, then the football game on Sunday (not near as exciting at the other two but it still sorta fits), and then a baby on Monday! No, not my baby - Meghan finally had her baby! My friend Meghan who I've known since I was a wee little 2 year old midget, just happens to also live in St. Louis - strangely enough her husband got a job up here not too long before Cody did - totally unrelated twist of fate. Anyway, they have been expecting their first child who was due on November 24th or December 1st (depending on who you ask). Well, about 12:30 am yesterday, I got a call saying her water had broke and they were heading up to the hospital, so I headed up there to help in any way I could. To make a very long story short (every baby birth story from what I can tell is a very long tale), she had an absolutely gorgeous 7lb 10oz baby girl at 11:39 am. We went up to see them last night and she really is an amazingly perfect looking baby. All three of them (mom, dad and baby) seemed to be doing very well and all were very thrilled. I really am so happy for them to be starting their family. I can't wait to see what great things she does with her life.
Which brings me into my next thoughts - other kids I can't wait to see what great things they do - our three nieces and one nephew in Tally Town who will we be visiting very soon! Tomorrow morning we are leaving bright and early to drive the 12-13 hour drive to see the family in Tallahassee, Florida! I can't wait to see everyone and eat turkey and share the exciting news!

Almost Forgot about the Rams . . .

Wow - with all the excitement of yesterday and the pondering of what to write about the engagement, I almost forgot to write about today!!! My mind really is going these days! Anyway, today we went to our first St. Louis Rams game - I had really been looking forward to it, but after yesterday it was rather anti-climatic. It was still a really great game, even though the stupid Rams lost. They play in a domed stadium - so it was the complete opposite of our Green Bay experience last year in 10 degree cold, wind, and snow. They played the Arizona Cardinals - so it was pretty much two of the worst teams in the NFL going at it. Kurt Warner (the QB for the Rams when they won their Super Bowl) is now with the Cardinal's so that added a bit of excitement and twist to the game. Even though it was a great game and a fun experience, I don't think anything will be able to compare to yesterday for quite some time.

Happiest Day of My Life - Thus Far

It's been over 24 hours since the happiest moment of my life but I've held off writing because I just couldn't figure out how to put the enormity of my emotions into words. I've since realized there is no way to express the occassion in mere words, but here's a shot.
Well, yesterday it was actually over 50 degrees (a small miracle these days), so Cody and I being the outdoor souls we are, decided to ride our bikes over to Forest Park (a huge park - 3 times Central Park - across the interstate from our city home) and hang out. Of course, I had two shirts, a hoody, and gloves on while riding the bike, but it was a nice ride (my ear muffs were in my backpack just in case). We had never been paddleboating at the Boat House so we decided to check it out. We paid our $15, got in our paddleboat and paddled our way around this intricite lake system they've made in the middle of the park. It was a beautiful sunny day with just a bit of chilly wind to remind you that it was November, but all in all a great day to be out on the lake. I, being the camera freak I am, took a million pictures of the cute bridges and the views from the lake of the Art Museum and we just had a great time laughing and hanging out. Well, on our way back to the Boat House, Cody leaned over and said "I have a question to ask you" while he was reaching in his pocket. At first I thought he was just teasing me and was going to ask me to pass the water bottle or something, but when I realized he was serious I freaked out! I was crying and screaming and saying "Oh my God" over and over again (probably at least 100 times). So he asked me if I would marry him and at first I said I would have to check with Mr. Pickles (aka Nala the cat) to tease him but did finally say yes. My hands were shaking so bad it took me a good five minutes to just put on the ring. It was gorgeous - I couldn't stop looking at it. Poor Cody had to paddle all the way back to the Boat House by himself because my legs felt like jello. Once we got out of the boats I about fell down and had to go sit down so I could catch my breath - I was so overwhelmed - I never thought I would be that emotional about the whole thing but I guess I was. The rest of the day was sort of a blur - riding the bikes home (my legs barely made it home I was still shaking), calling family, eating lunch at Subway (one of our faves), and going out with friends to McGurk's to celebrate.
Wow - I'm still so overwhelmed. I keep looking at my hand and can still barely believe it. I'm still trying to soak everything in - Cody's doing much better then me since I guess he had the whole thing planned and thought out. :) I'm including one of the pictures he took after I got the ring when I was freaking out. The rest are on the website. I can't wait to get to Tally next week to show my family and spread the good news! There is no way I'm going to be able to concentrate at work tomorrow - that's a given. :) It really was the most perfect engagement for the two of us - it incorporated so much about us into the whole thing - outside, on the water, fun, relaxed and laid back - it seemed so perfectly Cody and I.

Flowers

On the ground floor of our building there is a great flower shop - they "donate" an arrangement each week to our security desk and at the end of the week they draw a name for the flowers. This week the arrangement was great - so I put my name in. Well I didn't win but a friend at work won, so he "donated" the flowers to me. I thought they were pretty so here's a photo. Lilies are as big as my hand. The cats found the flowers quite intriguing.