Christmas in Indiana

Christmas was an adventure. Stu and I drove from New Orleans with a car full of presents and two dogs. The day we left NOLA it was 78 degrees and eleven hours later when we pulled into my parent’s driveway our thermometer read a frightening one degree. Brrrrrrr!! I forgot how cold Indiana was.

We spent 9 days in Indiana visiting ALOT of family. We tried to get in as much time with everyone as possible because we knew it would be awhile before we saw everyone again.

It was so good to see my niece Sophia who is now 20 months old. Leaving her 6 months ago was so tough on me since I’d been living with her since she was born. To my surprise she recognized me right away and reached out for me as I was walking up the steps. Stu and I had so much fun playing with her and staying with my sister and brother-in-law. This was the first time since we’ve been married that Stu got to spend time with Joost. They are two peas in a pod.





We spent the 23rd with Don and Terri and of course Cosmo and Louie (the doggies). Good food, good drinks, good company, and a little Wii playing made for a good time. After designing our Wii profiles on the Wii fit and having it tell us how out of shape we were we have now joined a gym for the new year and are determined to prove the nasty, but very honest, Wii fit wrong next year. I have attached a picture of Don and Teri’s unique Christmas tree and no this picture has not been altered their tree was really upside down.






The 24th morning was spent at the HUGE Flannery get-together in Batesville wherein we ate too much and left too soon. This is my favorite get-together of the year. Stu’s uncles and aunts are the funniest most loving people I’ve met and there are just so many of them. “Brunch” which defined in Flannery terms means - so much food you cannot see counter space anywhere in the kitchen - was at Bill and Ginger’s house. We ate, celebrated, chatted with family, watched Kung-Fu Panda (no Rummikub this year) and headed to Greenwood to spend the evening with Nancy and Dave.

Stu’s brother Nic and Jenni and their kids met up with us at Nancy and Dave’s house. We ate and then went to church for the Christmas Eve service and back to the house to open presents. Apollo and Noah loved the Nerf guns we bought them…probably more so then Nic and Jenni. The boys fired away the Nerf guns as the adults opened their presents.














Christmas day was spent with my family. I was so excited to see Sophia open her presents. After we opened presents we had lunch at my parent’s house and Uncle Jim and Aunt Edna celebrated with us. Stu and I again ate way too much and afterwards took a nap. We raced Julie and Joost in Mario Cart on the Wii and watched a few movies and enjoyed everyone. (I will post these pics soon).
I just want to thank everyone for the presents, good company, and hospitality while we were in. We enjoyed every minute of being home.

I've neglected my Blog

I know...it's been awhile since I've been on here and I apologize to those who actually read this and keep up with us. This blog is going to kinda be all over the place so hang on:

Stu and I are very busy....we both are waiting for things to calm down and I just don't think that day is coming any time soon. I know I'm getting complaints from friends who are not receiving phone calls, but lets face it if you are my good friend you already know getting me on the phone is almost impossible...I'm the email queen, and I'm sorry...shoot me an email and I promise I'll write you back. Ever since I got down here our careers and lives have just taken off, which is wonderful, but exhausting at the same time. This is by far the busiest city I've been to. There is always something going on and Stu and I both like to explore so every second we are not at work we are exploring this city or we are at home planning our next adventure. We both know our time here is limited so we are trying to get in as much as possible before he gets transferred again.

Next Saturday, October 18th, is the Crescent City Classics BBQ and Blues Festival downtown New Orleans. (I will post pics after the 18th). The company I work for (New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation) runs all the behind the scene stuff. Like T-Shirt sales, advertising, registration to run in the 10K, basically we work our butts off to raise money for the local police districts, who are really hurting right now. With the date closing in we are over the top busy and I'm just worn out. I can't wait for race day to get here. Stu and I are helping at the membership registration booth.

Stu and I have officially booked a vacation. I have convinced him to take a week off work...a year ago this never would have crossed his mind. We are taking an 8 day cruise out of New Orleans, how convenient I know, and we are heading to Belize, Guatemala, Costa Maya, and Cozumel. It's a Norwegian Cruise, which I have never been on. I've been on Royal Caribbean and Carnival a few times. I hear Norwegian is nice...so we'll cross our fingers and hope for the best. The beach is my favorite place in the world....I can't wait to jump in that clear Caribbean water and snorkel. The sea is the most amazing place. I keep telling Stu we need to get scuba certified. We will have to put that on our list of goals.

GUSTAV

Stu and I left Friday, August 29th and headed toward Texas. Traffic wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be. We got held up in Baton Rouge for awhile, but it was smooth sailing after that. We weren't sure how bad the storm was going to be so we packed for a month. The dogs loved the fact they were going on a road trip.

TOFU

So Stu and I decided since we are both to busy (some might say lazy) in the morning to make breakfast we were going to make breakfast burritos (enough for the week). We have been on a health kick lately and decided to make these burritos as healthy as we possibly can. We both love sausage and realized that in order to maintain the healthy burrito we envisioned that sausage was a big no no. Sad. As I'm pushing my grocery cart through Rouses (our local grocery store) I see it...across the aisle there it was on the shelf....TOFU!!! Hum...I thought to myself could they possibly have tofu sausage....sure enough they did. Second thought....how was I going to convince Stu to eat it. 

I got home and introduced Stu to the tofu...to my surprise he had no reaction. We set up our burrito assembly line and began cooking our tofu sausage. Neither of us knew what to expect or how to cook it. Then the big moment came...which one of us was going to taste it first and make sure it wasn't too disgusting to put in the burrito...so...we did what any normal person in a conflicting situation would do...challenged the other one to a game of paper, rock, scissors....best 2 out of 3 loser had to try the tofu first. YES!!! I WIN!!! Stu had to try the tofu.

 

Settling in

After three weeks of going through boxes and boxes of each other's things...this is how the apartment turned out. We love it!!!

Obviously the dogs find it quite comfy too!!!