Granddaughters

Ah Becky. Remember when you were a little girl. You could play in the pool without a shirt, watch TV while laying on a table (or is Raleigh tired from the pool?), no worries about work, traffic, boyfriends, pop, showers, decisions etc. Your dad could "fix you up" and everything would be fine. Yet I still find that a good nights sleep helps everything quite a bit. Ask Raleigh. Love, Dad.

Thank you

Thank you everyone for the help with the window, etc yesterday. Ryan and I took the skyway and had much more success getting home than we did getting to Holland this weekend, so that's good. I was a little disheartened to come home to find that our shower was still broken, and after a pop can exploded all over me, I was glad that my sheets were still dirty and that I didn't mess up brand new clean sheets with my stickiness. I am thankful, however, that there is a shower at work and that I was able to get clean before the craziness began.

Chicago...

6 years ago today we were married!!! And today we are in Chicago celebrating. We popped in the Mac store, and decided to make a post on the blog.

So, hi.

American Idol's Live Review

So yesterday was the big night of the American Idol's Live Concert. Dad and I sat in the very top & last row. It was a night for the memory books. Things of note:
1. 2 people dressed as poptarts tried to rev up the crowd by motioning with their arms for the crowd to scream. Unfortunately, because of the costumes, their arms could only move a little bit and the crowd responded even less.
2. Dad felt sorry for Katharine McPhee- not because of her struggle with bulemia, her "strained" vocal chords or her broken ankle, but because (as he put it) she sang the same song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and could never live up to the one moment of glory she had on the show.
3. I was the only one in the crowd of 10,000 who was cheering for Bucky- because he was so bad (and Dad confirms) that you just knew by this time next year, he would be flipping burgers at Sonic.
4. Before the concert, Dad pointed to a teenage girl in front of us and fortold that she was a "Chris the Rocker" fan. And sure enough, not 10 miunutes after Dad prophesied this, the girl screamed out "I LOVE U CHRIS!"
5. Taylor Hicks was great- a reckless dancing/singing/guitar-wielding kind of crazy that just made you enjoy it. Kellie Pickler didn't sing that well, but Dad and I enjoyed her because she sat on the stage and thanked the poptarts. Also, Lisa Tucker turned out to be a hidden gem as she played the piano and sang, sounding Nora Jones-esk.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYAN!

Happy Birthday Ryan!!

-James, Carrie, Raleigh, and Sydney

Stupid People!

If you've been wondering how the second house-showing went on Saturday...the realtor called today and said there was just not enough room...FOR THEIR HUGE BOAT. And that's not something one would notice on a first visit? No, what we were told is that the house was, "on the top of their list." I'm so glad Dave and I spent 5 1/2 hours cleaning the house on a gorgeous Saturday, all the while making Ellie watch movies so she wouldn't mess anything up. I GIVE UP!

Hank Aaron 5K

Well, it's no marathon, but Liz Claudio, along with 30 other staff from SSCHC ran the Hank Aaron 5K on Saturday. We crossed the finish line at 30:27 meaning that we ran sub 10 minute miles, so we were pretty excited. Later that day I spent the afternoon paintballing, and then it was on to worship in West Bend. It's been a long weekend, but a lot of fun. Ryan and I are looking forward to coming to town next weekend. We're planning on staying for dinner on Sunday and then coming back to Milwaukee. See you soon!

FYI

This is the house where I grew up with my brothers and sisters. When Jackie and I drove past there the other day she noticed that the tramp is still in the back yard.

Thank you from RALEIGH

Raleigh wants to say thank you for all of her birthday presents - and thank you to all who came to her party (Missy, one of these years you won't be camping!)
Raleigh has been coloring, playing with her doll house (a lot!), playing Hi-ho Cherrio (we still have all the cherries), reading books and magazines, hanging pictures on the fridge with the new magnets, and on and on and on... anyway, thank you again for everything.

Oh, and for a Sydney update...she is crawling everywhere - so fun to see her get around!

Pictures..and blah blah

JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!



Things have been going well in Milwaukee. Ryan took me to the Wisconsin State Fair tonight. We found out one IMPORTANT THING...I think that I'm actually allergic to animals!! We walked past the animal stalls and I broke out itching all over. That part wasn't fun, but the cream puff was good, as were the cheese curds and bratwurst. I think that I'm actually turning into somewhat of a Wisconsonite. However, we did avoid the breweries, so I suppose that I can't reeeeeallllllly ever be a full-blooded Wisconsonite, so don't worry. :) Here's a couple of pictures from the past couple of baseball games I've been at with Ryan. The first is at the Tigers game with our sweet seats. The others are from the Reds game that we went to a couple of weekends ago. The other girl in the picture is my current roomate.