Wendi’s 21 Hour Visit

Wendi flew in to Des Moines Monday morning around 11am. She came back to drive Grampo to Florida. Dad and I picked her up at the airport, did a little shopping, and had lunch together.

We dropped Dad off at the farm and then helped Grampo get all packed for Florida. We also got to see our cousin JoAnn and her 2 boys who were visiting from Wisconsin. Afterwards we headed back to town, cleaned up a bit, and then went out for supper to Sport’s Page with Grandma, Dad, Kyle, and Kyle’s sister Laura. It was a fun dinner!

Wendi had some friends over to our place after supper. It was fun to hear all about their Christmas’. One of her good friends even got engaged recently! Midnight was quickly approaching and we hit the hay. Morning came too quick, that is for sure!! We headed to the farm and got a few last minute things together for Grampo and they were off! I talked to Wendi last night and they made it to Chattanooga, TN. Pray that they continue to have safe travels today. It will be another long day on the road for them.

I know Grampo will be happy to get to Florida, but I sure wish Wendi’s visit could have been a few hours longer! ;) I’m sure I will get to see her in March when I make my annual trip to Florida over my time off over spring break.

Mark & Jenna Visit

The weekend after Christmas Mark and Jenna came to stay with us for the weekend! It was a good time. We did a little shopping on Saturday and then met up with some of their other friends at the Cellar for supper. Then out for a night on the town! Afterwards everyone came to our place to watch Kyle’s new favorite movie, The Hangover. The next morning we whipped up breakfast for the four of us and then parted ways. :( We miss having these guys in town!!

Mel even came out for the night!   

We played a new card game and this was our team, “Sparkle”!! Of course…we won!! 

Mark & Jenna’s friend, Kalla. She was fun!! :) 

"Team Arnold”…they didn’t win. :( 

Mark likes to steal people’s cameras!!

Christmas Eve At the Bangert’s

The weather man was right and the rainy slushy mess turned to snow right when we hit the road for Pocahontas, but don’t worry, that didn’t stop Kyle! I don’t know if anything could, I think he likes the adventure of going out in the storm! Mom B made homemade pizza for supper and then we opened gifts and played games the rest of the night. It was a fun evening!

Just like any other family Christmas we weren’t lacking in the sweets department!! 

 

Opening Presents!

                 

Steve and Kyle messing around! Not sure if I want to know what they were doing! :p 

Kyle wanted to get Abby to jump through the “hoop”!! It didn’t work too well!

 

Merry Christmas from me and my favorite lil furry friend!! :)

 

It was a white out blizzard that night, but of course we braved the weather and made it home just fine! We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! It was definitely a different one with the weather affecting plans!

Merry Christmas

 

From us to you…a very Merry Christmas!

This was our Christmas card this year. Some, which, may still be “in transit” so no worries if you haven’t received yours yet, it’s on the way!

I’m Late!!

For some reason this year I am SUPER far behind on my Christmas cards & letters. Today is Christmas Eve and I’m still working on them! But hey, better late than never, right?!? So here is a sneak peak since a lot of you won’t have your card before Christmas day! Merry Christmas (Eve!) everyone!

An Icy Christmas

Central Iowa has been hit with quite the storm over the past day or so and according to the weather man it’s supposed to continue through late Friday/early Saturday morning! Everything is dependent on the temperature, whether we get ice or snow! So far it’s just been ice and slush, not much for snow. But from what’s predicted it’s supposed to switch to snow later today or tomorrow.

This is a little tree outside one of our kitchen windows all covered in ice!

Hope everyone has a safe and very Merry Christmas!

Chocolate & Abby

Obviously from the title you know this isn’t going to be a good post! Monday I came home from lunch and found this in my craft room:   

Early November Mom gave me and all my sisters an Advent calendar. Each day had a piece of chocolate. Well I misplaced mine. It got stuck with some of my scrapbooking stuff and put in my craft room. I couldn’t find it, but Abby did! And she ripped off the outer plastic, then all the cardboard, and ate ALL 25 pieces of chocolate! So I called the vet to see what I should do. They said to give Abby some peroxide to induce vomiting. Not a good thing for me because I have a weak stomach!

So I took my little fur ball outside and used a syringe to give her the stuff. The vet said she wouldn’t like and I could tell that she didn’t! I felt so bad for her!! So pretty quickly it started working and she threw up a LOT! I think about 10 little piles of chocolate, some pieces were still whole! Well she stopped throwing up, but was still gagging. By this time I’m tearing up, feeling bad for her and my stomach is turning!

She finally stopped and I took her inside for a bath! *Sigh* I’m happy to report she is still alive and kicking today!! Hopefully she learned her lesson and won’t eat chocolate again (I’m guessing not though!).

And here is my clean (chocolate free!) little pooch!! I gave her some extra loving last night since she had a rough day!

An Early Family Christmas

Kyle came home from work Saturday with a cute little box of delicious Christmas goodies. The owner of Wendys and his wife do this each year for the employees at both of their restaurants. And there was a layer of individually wrapped fudge and caramel pieces on the bottom! 

Saturday I spent the day cleaning and doing last minute things. We had my Dad’s side of the family over for Christmas. We usually do it Christmas Eve, but Stef and Geoff are going to Oregon and Mindi and Preston are going to California. So we decided to do it early. It worked out nice.

Grandma, Uncle Kenny, Aunt Patty, Christine, Brian, Randy, Angela, Dad, Stef, Geoff, Mindi, Preston, Grampo, and Kyle & I (15 people!!) all fit around a few tables put together in our basement for supper! It was tight, but nice to have everyone together.  When you are the hostess it’s hard to get many pictures, but I did get a few when the kids opened their gifts! 

 Check out Angela’s face!!! She was quite excited when she saw that it something “Strawberry Shortcake”!!!   

Someone must have snapped this one! I wanted to post it though to say thank you for all your prayers for my Grampoo!! He is doing great and I was SO thankful to have him there. I know he would much rather be in Florida right now, but I’m glad things are going well and he’s continuing to recover from the surgery!

Christmas is coming!

Are you ready???

We are getting closer to being ready: our house is all decorated, the gifts are wrapped, and we only have 2 more gifts to buy. We are still working on our Christmas cards though!

I wasn’t sure what to do for my staff at work this year, but decided to go “local”! I’ve been hearing a commercials on the radio about the 3/50 Project. Make sure you click on the link and read about it. Kyle told me that it’s my excuse to go shopping…but I truly think it’s important to support your local businesses! And the Apple Orchard is definitely something I would miss, I did my Christmas shopping for my staff at work there!

The gift basket that I made consisted of English Toffee and Sweet Corn Salsa, both from the Orchard, and then a bag of chips and my new favorite thing, reusable shopping bags!

10 years ago…

December 17th, 1999 Kyle asked me to be his girlfriend after my basketball game at TRV!!!

This past Thursday we celebrated our ten years with a simple afternoon together with our favorite food and some good movies!! Can’t wait to see what the next 10 years bring!

Wendi Graduates

Last Thursday Mom and I traveled to Florida to celebrate Wendi’s graduation from college!! We got in late Thursday night! We stopped at a 7-11 to get something to drink and I tried my first slurpee! It was great!!! 

Wendi had graduation practice Friday morning so Mom and I did a little shopping and then we met up for lunch at Abuelos. A delicious Mexican restaurant. They had an AWESOME queso dip!! Afterwards we did a little more shopping. This was the Christmas tree in the middle of the area we were shopping at…it was HUGE!! I love the palm trees in the background! 

That night we went to downtown Lakeland (the town where Wendi lives and went to college). We stopped at Pizza Palace for supper, a favorite of Wendi and her friends!

Wendi and her roommate!   

There was a little festival going on, so we walked around as long as we could stand the “cold” 50 degree windy night! ;) I shouldn’t be complaning ‘cause it was WAY warmer than Iowa!

The swan is kind of like the “symbol” of Lakeland. They are all over the place in all forms!

 

Saturday was the big day!!  

Wendi and her bff, Becky, since 1st grade! 

Thanks Mom and Dad for not letting me be the youngest Grettenberg Girl!! Don’t know what I would do without my little sister!!!  

So proud of you Suzie!!!   

Pomp and Circumstance! Grandma - “That song makes me tear up every time!” 

The church was huge where the graduation ceremony was held and was decorated VERY beautiful for the season!         

Wendi got her degree!! (or at least holder for it!)        

When Wendi was walking out she knew I was going too miss her so she popped her head back to get in the picture! Kind of a cool picture!  

Grandma, Uncle Kenny, and Aunt Patty made a little vacation out of Wendi’s gradation being in Florida and stayed and their timeshare in Orlando for the week! 

Wendi and friends!       

After the ceremony and lunch, Wendi gave us a tour of the campus. Mom and I had both seen it before, but the rest of the family hadn’t. It is a gorgeous campus! This is one of the newest buildings on campus, it’s their cafeteria!! 

Wendi had to work at a basketball game Saturday night so I went along! It was fun to meet Wendi’s friends. Afterwards we went to Coldstone for some ice cream!!

Sunday we got up and headed to Orlando to meet up with Grandma, Dad, Uncle Kenny, and Aunt Patty for brunch. And then we did a little shopping and flew out around 4pm. We enjoyed our time in Florida celebrating Wendi’s accomplishments and enjoying the warm weather, but it’s always good to come home!!