Only 27 more days....

Till my sister Wendi comes home!!! I just got a text that she bought her ticket this morning! I'm super pumped!! For a while it didn't sound like she would be home till Christmas so it will be great to see her sooner than that!! She goes to school in Lakeland, FL and has been gone since the beginning of August. She actually just bought a one way ticket and will be driving my Grandpa back. He winters in Hobe Sound, Florida, so it works out pretty well! Can't wait to see Wendi for Thanksgiving!!!

This is a picture of us from this past summer!

Serving

Every year our church honors the volunteers. So yesterday was "Volunteer Appreciation Sunday". Pastor Mike said that it takes about 60-70 people to run a Sunday morning service! He also noted that he was meeting some pastors the week before and they were talking about how it is so hard to get volunteers and that 10% of the people do 90% of the work. He said he just had to keep quite because there are so many people who serve in our church, which I think is AWESOME! They passed out these chocolate bars to each of the volunteers that said "Thank You" (in many different languages), with their picture on the back and a quote that said:

"If we know we are created to be who we are, and called to be who God knows we can be, we can reach higher and farther as we rise to God’s call.Thank you for hearing “His Call” to serve at New Covenant! We count it an honor to serve together with YOU! -Pastors Mike & Janis Carmody"

Kyle & I feel very blessed to have the privilege to attend such an amazing church.

Here is a picture of the chocolate bar...in b&w!

A Pumpkin!

Kyle & I are trying to save money and not spend it on things that we really don't "need"! So unfortunately we didn't get any pumpkins this year. And at lunch on Sunday with the Miller's we were discussing this! So about 8 o'clock last night our doorbell rang and when we answered it we saw a car zooming down the road and a pumpkin on our steps! Thanks Mark & Kathy!

Weekend

I was supposed to go shopping this past weekend with some of the girls from work. Unfortunately I came down with a nasty sore throat and decided it would be best for me to stay home and get better. So that is what I did and I'm very glad, I feel much better today! Since I was supposed to be gone, Kyle was planning a guys night on Saturday night so I just joined them! It was fun, a few guys that Kyle works came over, along with his brother, and our neighbor Chad. We grilled out and then the guys watched the Penn State vs Ohio State game on one TV and then on the other TV they set up the xbox and played some games! Overall I think it was a fun night! (sorry didn't take a pics that night)

We had a nice relaxing Sunday. Went to church and then out for lunch with our friend's, Mark, Kathy, and their son, Adam. It's always good to hang out with them!

During lunch I got a call from our neighbor, Chad (who works for Mid American) and he was on call working all day (lots of wind damage...it was VERY, VERY windy) and asked if we would keep an eye on his dog, Jaxs who is a 7 month old Boxer. So we brought him over to our place for the day. He is about 32 lbs, so quite a bit bigger than Abby! They don't play very well together yet, but I think slowly they're getting used to each other! Abby is very defensive, anytime Jaxs gets too close she yelps and knips at him and I think he is just trying to sniff her, so hopefully she'll chill out a little bit as time goes on!

Kyle playing with Jaxs. I think Kyle likes that he can play rougher with Jaxs compared to Abby.

Abby kept her safe distance from Jaxs when he was on his chain. I know it's hard to see 'cause of the shadows, but you can see that Jaxs is down and ready to play (i'm not so sure about Abby though!)! He's so playful!

I just love his face...so cute!
Here Abby thinks that the fire pit will save her from Jaxs...what a little "scaredy cat"!
After being outside in the wind long enough we decided to come in and relax. And Jaxs decided he liked this chair!
This is about the closest they were all day/night and it probably helps that Jaxs was sound asleep! He acutally snores, it cracks me up!!

Halloween Costume

Since Halloween is less than a week away I thought I had better get Abby's costumes out to make sure they still fit. They are just a few that I got after Halloween last year on clearance. They were a little snug, but I think they'll work! She isn't too fond of the antennas, so I think she'll just wear the costume part for beggars night! The antennas are actually already partially chewed...big surprise!

Abby the "Bumble Bee"

Abby the "Ladybug"

Wednesday Night

So "hump day" (middle of the week) is about over and it's almost Friday, thank goodness!! For some reason, I'm always looking forward to the weekends!!

We decided it was finally time to give Abby a bath, she was getting a little stinky! Bath time with her is always interesting! Sometimes she's really good and sits there and lets me scrub her and doesn't mind the water at all, but for some reason last night she didn't want a bath. I think it had something to do with Kyle, before we started he was playing with her and got her all "riled" up so she wasn't very interested in sitting in the tub for me!

Abby begging to plese let her out of the tub!!

When I get her out of the tub, I put a towel down and then she just goes nuts rubbing her face/head against it. I heard once that they don't like water in their ears so that's how they try to get it out!

Abby after drying out her ears!

And then once she calms down I get out the hairdryer and start to dry her off. She's not too fond of this part either. Since her hair isn't very long right now it doesn't take too long.

And here's the "finished product"! All clean, smelling nice, and fluffed up!!

And she thought she was getting a treat from Kyle here in this picture, but he was just teasing her. She always "dances" in a circle on her hind legs for treats. (just so you know though, she did get a couple treats for being a good girl during her bath!)
After Abby's bath, Kyle & I made supper. We had some smoked chops in the fridge we wanted to grill, but it was too windy to use our big grill on the patio so we used the small one that we take when we're tailgating and used it in the garage. It worked out pretty well and now our garage smells good too! My friend Michelle and her baby, Graeme, stopped over to pick up a few crafting things for her Stampin' Up party next week. It was good to see them and catch up. Graeme has grown so much since I'd seen him last. He's almost 3 months now and a very happy baby! So, of course, I had to get a few pictures before they left!

Almost a smile!! I think it looks like he is doing the "Itsy Bitsy Spider"!

And then he got mad!

And then once he got his hat on & his binki he was a happy boy again! Such a cutie!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Just wanted to do a quick post to wish my Dad a Happy Birthday!! He's probably working in the field all day since rain is predicted for our area for the rest of the week! Happy 52nd Dad, we love you! (This is a picture from last summer at the lake!)

Sunday

I don't have any pictures in this post...sorry!

We had a nice day on Sunday. Went to church in the morning. Laura was heading back to school so we said our goodbyes to her. We did our weekly grocery run to Hy-Vee afterwards and headed home. We knew that if we sat down we wouldn't get much done. So we put away the 4 loads of laundry that I did on Friday, cleaned up the house, had some lunch, watched the Vikings game (unfortunately they lost), and had our afternoon "siesta"!

When we woke up we found that two of our neighbors had gotten their yards cleaned up (leaves). So we knew we couldn't leave ours. So we got the mowers out and got to work. Kyle mulched the leaves up and then I went back over and bagged them. It acutally worked out great and the leaves took up much less space!

Sara & Vahn stopped by on their way back from Iowa City. It was ncie to see them. Kinda crazy that we both have season tickets and we don't always get to see them at games!

We ended up helping our neighbor, Chad, with his leaves too. We filled his trailer to the brimm between our two yards! Thank goodnees Grandma has a big burn pile for us to get rid of them! So we took the leaves out to Grandma's and then wen to Tico for supper with Chad. It was such a gorgeous day, a perfect fall day for working outside. I hear it may be our last nice day for a while, sounds like cold & wet weather is headed to Iowa again.

I hope everyone has a great week. Hard to imagine that October is quickly coming to a close!

Iowa vs. Wisconsin

The Hawkeyes are back. So is the Heartland Trophy.

The University of Iowa used a record-breaking performance to defeat Wisconsin 38-16 on Saturday afternoon in front of a 35th consecutive football Kinnick Stadium sellout.

Our friends, Mark & Kathy, came with us to the game. They planned to "scalp" tickets instead of buying them prior to that day. When we got there we walked around and checked our what people were asking and they decided to wait and thought maybe closer to game time the tickets might get cheaper. So we went back and set up our tailgate area. We talked, grilled our food, played some bago, and just had a good time. Then Mark went out to look for tickets again and he ended up finding tickets that were SUPER close to us, about 10 rows up and 10 seats away! We thought that was pretty cool considering he bought them that day and it wasn't planned!! We cleaned up our tailgate area and headed to the game. It was an AWESOME game! The Hawks played great and got another win! Iowa is now 5-3 overall, 2-2 in the Big Ten.

Mark & Kyle grilling

Herky!

"Here Come The Hawkeyes" - They walk down the tunnel to "Back in Black" by AC/DC and it always gets us pumped up for the game! Kyle loves that song, his sister burnt it for him & its his ring tone, along with the Iowa fight song!!

Iowa Hawkeyes!!

Every game they have this little video with a billboard that says who we play, with the date and game time and then the Hawkeye semi drives by it and then another sign that says "The Badgers (or whatever team we're playing) stand in our way" and at the end it blasts through their logo!! It's pretty cool!

Touchdown! I think I cut out the guy who scored...sorry!

Kicking the field goal
Hawkeye Huddle Another touchdown by Shonn Greene!The Hawks celebrating with Shonn!
It was "Be Bold, Wear Gold" Saturday. Can you tell?There were a couple of "Badgers" in front of us!
A picture of us in our Hawkeye gear, with the Explorer all decked out!This was Kyle when we got home. He was all excited to watch the Texas vs. Missouri game and he didn't quite make it to game time! It's quite a long day when we leave in the morning and then also come home that night! And finally, a picture with my favorite "hawkeye"!!

It's a bye weekend next week for the Hawkeyes and then they head to Illinois. Right now we are seriously contemplating getting tickets! It should be another win for the Hawkeys!

Getting Ready to Tailgate

Last night Kyle and I started getting our things ready to tailgate this weekend. We know that if we don't start on Thursday night, Friday night is always TOO busy! So I made a double batch of puppy chow and Kyle worked on putting together a grill that we are borrowing from his brother. And all the while Abby didn't really care what we were doing, she was too distracted by this balloon she found in the basement! It was so funny to watch her run around with it. She is such a goofy dog, gotta love her! And it's TGIF!!!

Birthday Present

Mindi & Preston got Hawkeye Bago (a fun game) for me for my birthday this year. I kinda forgot to take a picture to share...so last night while we were painting I made sure to get one! I was super pumped. Kyle and I talked about making one for a while 'cause my neighbor did and he said he would help us. But then Mindi gave us this one and we love it! It even has black & gold bags and a zipper pocket on the inside of the board to store the bags. Kyle even put up a bracket in the garage to store it! Thanks M& P!

Another Garage Update!

So since we got the garage all organized and cleaned out we had a great idea to paint it "hawkeye gold" and then somehow paint a hawkeye on it! So we brainstormed and came up with the idea of using an overhead projector, tracing the image, and then painting it! So instead of playing games when Laura came over, the three of us painted the garage! We had a good time and the result is AWESOME!!

A "before" picture. The part that is white on the wall is where the previous owners had some shelving and we didn't really like or use the shelving, so we tore it down and it left those paint lines. So it's nice that we can finally cover it up!

Kyle taping off the doorway.

Laura working on taking a few things down off the wall. (Another weird bracket thing left by the previous owners that we hadn't done anything with)

Our "Hawkeye Gold" color for the wall! I went to Sherwin Williams and took one of our gold car flags for them to match the color. When I walked in the guy at the counter must have seen the flag and asked if I needed "Hawkeye Gold" and of course that's what we needed. So he got to work matching it up and when I went back to pick it up, this is what he came up with. I have to say that I was pretty happy with the color. While Kyle and I were looking at paint chips we didn't want sunshine yellow or an "organey" yellow...so I was a little nervous to see how it would turn out. But I thought this was perfect!

Kyle & Laura getting the gold on the wall! (By the way...thanks for all your help Laura! Definitely made the project go faster with three people!)

The finished "hawkeye gold" wall! I think we need to paint the door now! Black or gold...what do you think?

And then once the wall was dry we projected the hawkeye onto to the wall to trace!

Me measuring to make sure it was "centered". And then we decided we didn't want it centered!

Laura starting to trace the hawkeye on the wall! She's such an artist! (no really, she is!!)

Kyle had an idea to tape off our tracing lines so that we would have crisper lines! It took a little more time, but it was a GREAT idea! And made it easier to paint too!

Kyle & me working the hawkeye

Done with the first coat....waiting for the 2nd!
Since we have a TV in the garage sometimes Kyle gets a little "distracted". But that's ok! The debate was on last night...so that was important to watch! Laura and I actually watched some of it with Kyle in between coats of paint!
We also painted the electrical box...that way it went along with our black & gold theme!

And since the outlets just happened to be right where we wanted to paint the hawkeye we had to paint them too! Sisters!
And now done with the 2nd coat of black. Just waiting for it to dry!! Kyle wanted to take the tape off right away to see the finished product, but I convinced him it would be best to wait till morning!
And here is the finished product...just took this picture this morning! Kyle took the tape off before he went to work! I think it looks great!
Another view! So once again....I think we need to paint the door....what do you think: black or gold? Let us know!

Hope everyone has a good Thursday! I'm just glad 'cause it's one more day closer to the weekend! We have a home game this weekend against Wisconsin...hopefully it'll be a win for the Hawks!