Owning my Destiny

The local watering hole

2009-07-18T09:45:00.000-07:00

When Darren put bleach in our backyard fountain (i.e. the local watering hole for all things furry & winged) to clean it out, This squirrel got resourceful!

Family Update

2009-05-18T10:54:00.000-07:00

As much as I've been putting it off, I felt I should write to update everyone on what's going on with Darren and I. First off, If you have not heard, Darren's mother Donna passed away unexpectedly April 7th. She drown in Hawaii while on vacation. It was a terrible shock and still unbelievable at times. She was an amazing woman, the most generous and selfless woman I've ever met. She was loved by many, a fact that was evidenced by the sheer number of people present at the memorial service/wake. Four days after Donna's death, my mom suffered a heart attack. Again, shocking and made even scarier by the fact that we had just lost a mother. Thankfully, there was no permanent damage done to her heart so as long as she improves her lifestyle she could easily go on to live a long and healthy life.

Unfortunately since then we have also lost two of our four legged companions. Peppy, Darren's childhood dog we put down a couple weeks after mom's death. He was old and suffering and mom was going to do it when she got back from Hawaii. And on Friday we had to put down our kitty Hiro. He has had feline lukemia since birth and we found he had a large tumorous mass in his chest cavity which was pushing on his lungs preventing him from breathing. Darren and I were both very upset as Hiro was not yet 2 years old. But his quality of life was deteriorating and he had stopped eating/drinking during his last few days.

On the upside, we all feel very blessed and fortunate to have such a wonderful and supportive network around us. Our family and friends have been very thoughful and helpful during these difficult times. We appreciate all of your cards, calls and kind gestures. Times like these help to reinforce the bonds we have with those around us.

Darren is still in school, in the midst of his toughest semester yet! He is working nights (5-10ish) at the golf course down the road cooking for their patrons. I am still looking for a job. I have expanded my job search as my unemployment expired a couple weeks ago. I am now considering non-teaching jobs in our area. We are considering the idea of buying mom's house if we can find good employment in the area. Either way we have to go through the house, clean it up and get it in order in case the kids do decide to sell it. We have moved into Donna's house for the time being and I am busy cleaning, sorting and organizing.

I hope you are all well, happy and healthy. Give your loved ones a hug & tell them the things you never get around to saying. You never know what will happen tomorrow. We love you all and take care.

Ashley & Darren

Valentine's Getaway

2009-04-05T07:13:00.000-07:00

We went up to Traverse City over Valentines weekend to get away & hang with our friends Kate & Gregg. We had a blast sledding, shooting guns & playing games! We've now been up there once last summer & once this winter and have decided it's one of our favorite places to go! Oh and uncle Jeff, the truck pic is for you, we saw it on 75 on the way up!

Come out and Play

2009-04-04T18:43:00.000-07:00

I drug Darren outside to build a snowman sometime in early February but the snow was too cold & wouldn't pack. Instead we used chunks of snow left from Alex plowing & a gutter-cicle to make a snow sculpture. And we wrestled with Marley in the snow.

Places Hiro likes to be

2009-03-25T13:34:00.000-07:00

I see you!

Hiro hates pink

but he loves boxes!

and bags!

And apparently dad's jammies

Sometimes he thinks he's a gift

or laundry

he likes mommy & daddy's bed

and sinks?

Darren and I have caught Hiro in many a humorous place. So I thought I'd chronicle them here!

Bruce's 50th Bday

2009-03-23T09:33:00.000-07:00

We went to Darren's uncle's 50th birthday party last weekend and had a blast with Darren's family. I filled up on Randy's (with goofy glasses) sushi & other appetizers before we even made it to dinner.

2009-03-23T09:32:00.001-07:00

So, I'm behind again. Happy (late) New Year 09' everyone!

Candy Anyone?

2009-01-27T09:11:00.000-08:00

My friend Coot came for a visit from Chicago after Christmas & we went to see a "life size" gingerbread house at a hotel in Rochester.

The Perfect Cup of Coffee

2009-01-24T11:52:00.000-08:00

Me, Darren, Kelly, Anthony and Jon were at my mother-in-laws playing cards after Christmas and enjoying some coffee when disaster struck. We ran out of Coffeemate creamer. Now, if you know me, I mean REALLY know me, you know I'm a bit of a coffee snob. I mean, I don't need $6 lattes from Starbucks or anything. In fact, I prefer to brew my own. But I HAVE to have a tasty creamer to go in it. Well, Donna normally has a steady supply of Coffeemate creamer both in regular flavors and sugar free, but I don't like sugar free. And that's all there was. So I had to figure out a way to doctor up my coffee so I could drink it. I found a bunch of random ingredients hiding in my mother-in-law's fridge & cupboards and ended up having the tastiest cup of coffee ever. Here's what I used, should you decide to recreate my masterpiece.

any kind of coffee will probably work because all the other ingredients will surely mask the taste anyway.

coffee
1 shot of Baileys
splash of chocolate milk
splash of sugar free Original Coffeemate
1 packet each of splenda mocha & french vanilla coffee flavoring
dash of sugar

topping:
whipped cream
chocolate syrup
Cookies n' Cream sprinkles

Xmas Fun!

2009-01-21T21:07:00.000-08:00

Darren and I went bowling with some friends December 23rd. One of our friends had a pair of fake sideburns that she got out of a "bubble gum" machine at the grocery store. I know! What kind of weird stuff are they giving away for prizes these days. Oh by the way, I've seen all kinds of odd stuff in there like "mini homies" which are little African American figurines dressed in pimp outfits, gold chains & all kinds of get ups. There was even a physically impaired homie in a wheelchair, very "pc" of the homie manufactures. Anyway, so they wanted to put these chops on someone and Darren's always up to making a fool of himself so voila! And a match made in heaven I might add, the color matched his hair almost perfectly! They actually looked quite good on him & the moment I saw them I told him he had to grow in his own. Unfortunately genetics disagreed, he just can't seem to get that hair to grow in. Darn. Darren liked them too, so much so that he wore them around for a couple days for shits & giggles until the glue wore out.

Oh! And I had to show this picture of my brother-in-law Mr. Clean, oh I mean Scott!

Catchin Up

2009-01-21T20:30:00.000-08:00

Of course, after Thanksgiving came Christmas! And let me tell you, I was spoiled this Christmas. Among a ton of other awesome gifts, my honey got me a bomb diggity new digital camera AND a white gold chain that I love! This year was a perfect set up, I think. We did Christmas Eve at Darren's mom's, Christmas Morning with my family at home, Christmas Day with Darren's family & the day after Christmas with the Costantini side in Kzoo. I thought It was perfect because we didn't have to leave town Christmas day like we do sometimes and we got to see both of our immediate families with no rushing.

I didn't get many Christmas pictures but I did get a few of Hiro kitty in a cute little t-shirt I bought him from Target. Unfortunately, without him there to compare, I grossly underestimated the size of my cat and got him a too small t-shirt. The first thing I thought of was Tiger from An American Tail with Feivel the mouse, I know gram & gramps will appreciate this one. Remember? Fat cat in a little shirt? If you don't remember, just google "an american tale tiger". I was laughing so hard my belly ached! I put it on him, with a little difficulty, and he gave me the most evil look. It's as if he was so angry at me for causing him such humiliation that he was trying to stare me to death! Then I put him on the floor & he WOULD NOT MOVE! He wouldn't walk, he wouldn't run, he wouldn't even breathe...I'm guessing it was lack of mobility. Eventually he got used to it and I might even venture to say he was strutting it proudly. But I took it off before the rest of the guests arrived so as not to scar him for life. Isn't he a cutie!

gobble gobble

2009-01-21T20:14:00.000-08:00

So it looks like I'm falling behind again, I'm now about 2 months late posting for Thanksgiving. Sowwy, I try. Anyway, I absolutely L O V E thanksgiving. It's definitely my favorite holiday after Christmas. I just love spending time with the family, cooking together, I love the smells, and everyone's just...happy. Here's some pictures of our happiness this year. We hit my aunt Carol's first then went to Darren's moms.

That's the bird!

my mom, aunts & I cooking

me & my cuz

I think these boys ate too much turkey!

Epic Fail

2009-01-21T16:51:00.001-08:00

On Attack of the Show, Darren's video game/tech program, they have a segment called "Epic Fail" which shows U-Tube videos of people attempting (and failing) lots of things. This is my homage to the segment.

Baby Party

2009-01-04T14:41:00.001-08:00

I threw a very casual baby shower for two of my girlfriends in early December. They are both pregnant and we have a pretty close group of friends so we invited all the girls over to celebrate. We played games, ate some food and had some drinks. Oh yeah, and had some jello shots! The night before, my girlfriend Chrissy and I got together to make cookies, jello shots and I even did henna on her belly. We had a lot of fun. Here are some pics of the party & the henna.

Chrissy is due January 12th, 2 days after Darren's birthday. So far I haven't heard any news about a baby and she said she'd call, but I'm expecting a call any day.

Malena isn't due until April but she's as big as a house already!

Hollow Weenie

2009-01-04T13:27:00.000-08:00

So for halloween this year we were invited to a costume party so for the firs time in several years we went all out. After just having seen and loved The Dark Knight, Darren was hell bent on dressing as the Joker. But fearing that there would be lots of people dressed as the Joker this year, plus the fact that the Joker costumes at the store were cheap and chintzy, we decided we'd put a twist on the costume. Darren decided to go as the Joker dressed as a nurse as in the scene where the Joker dresses as a nurse to get to Harvey Dent in the hospital. I found a nurse costume (meant for a woman), a red wig and bought a pair of white boxer briefs to keep Darren's jewels safely hidden and we were in business! Then I did his makeup, complete with raised scars made of hot glue and, WOW! It turned out great! We were quite proud of ourselves...until we got to the party and realized that no one there had even seen the Dark Knight yet! Do you believe it? Most people got the Joker part but wondered why Darren was wearing a nurses outfit! LOL! But we had a good night, we drank and played rock band and laughed at everyone's costumes. On our way to the party we stopped at my mother-in-laws to take pictures and see my sister-in-law's costume. Here are the pics. You know Darren's costume, I'm a vampiress, Kelly is a blue angel (a little play on words) and our friend Alex is Harry Potter. Oh, and our mom, even came up with a costume for Hiro. He was a wizard! The hat stayed on all of 3 seconds and we gave up but he didn't seem to mind the collar part. There's a shot of us at the party playing Rock Band, from left to right you have Peter Griffen, Darren, Jesus and a firefighter. Our friends Brian & Emily were Mario & Luigi.I also threw in a pic of my cool punkin.

Happy Birthday Nicolie & Chels!

2008-12-13T07:31:00.000-08:00

So, I have to inturrupt my regularly scheduled post (ok, it was going to be my halloween pics, told u I was behind) for an important announcement. Since I happen to be on here blogging on 2 of my cousins birthdays I might as well wish a great one to Nicole & Chels.

My girlfriend Chrissy & I got together to make cookies yesterday. We just had the baking bugg I guess. I made some sugar cookies & I thought, hey, why not make some for Chels since we're going there tomorrow. So here they are... BTW, sorry I didn't make any cookies for you Nicolie. It's hard to enjoy them from across the country.

Happy Birthday to Us!

2008-12-09T14:14:00.000-08:00

For the past several years, on my mom's side of the family we've been having a "group" birthday party. There are so many birthdays between september & December that we just celebrate everyone's at once. So this year we hosted at my mom's & she had a great idea to gather the gang & go corn mazing. We had a BLAST! Pretty much as soon as everyone arrived, we bundled up & drove down the road to a local corn maze. Once there, we chose teams to go out with, grabbed maps & chose which of the 3 mazes we would tackle first. Me, Darren & my cousin Bethany started out together but soon ran into my mom, dad & aunt Karen. So we wandered around the largest of mazes for about 30 minutes trying to find the "checkpoints" to stamp out little card. There were something like 20 checkpoints hidden throughout the 3 mazes and the object was to find each one & stamp our cards. I thought this was a fun twist to the traditional corn maze. Well, our group was hopeless. We happened upon 1 or 2 checkpoints while aimlessly wandering the maze. Oh, did I forget to mention that NONE of us had a map? Don't ask me how that happened! After a while Darren, Beth & I ditched the old folks and set out on our own. We eventually found our way back out and at that point Darren had lost all interest in our expedition. So we lost an explorer but remembered to pick up a map! We headed to the smallest of the mazes. We were about 5 minutes in when we came across Evan wandering by himself. Little did we know, we'd just found the corn maze equivelent of Sacajawea. Evan apparently is a master map reader & was able to efficently lead us to about 15 checkpoints before the rest of our party became bored and we decided to pack it up & go home. I had so much fun, I was sweating & trudging up & down the cornfields with an enthusiasm I haven't had since...since I don't know when. So if you're looking for something fun to do next fall, grab some friends or family and head to your local corn maze. Might I suggest looking for a maze with the extra challenge of finding checkpoints. No matter which one you choose here are a few words of advice...grab a map if one is available, wear layers AND boots (cough,cough clarkston whites) and find a friend who is proficient with a map!

After the MAZin race, we came back to the house where we ate and relaxed for a while. And of course, got in some Rock Band!

Pic 5: All the cousins on mom's side, oh and alex
Pic 4: the whole fam damily
Pic 3: I think we're lost
Pic 2: This is the guy to have with you on any expedition
Pic 1: Darren, Leah & Evan rockin it out

Traverse City Trip

2008-11-18T11:04:00.000-08:00

So, let me preface by saying, I love Traverse City. I have had many exciting and exotic vacations around the country and the world, and loved them all. BUT, there is something about Traverse that is just so damn relaxing. Both vacations I've had there have been wonderful and recharging. So my mom won 2 nights at this cheesy little motel on the strip in Traverse, and asked if Darren and I wanted to come. Now, money is tight but mom's paying for the room so ... SURE! I called a girlfriend of ours from high school who now lives there with her husband and asked if we could crash a night or two with her. Yay, a family vacation & friend vacation all in 1 week. We stayed the first 2 nights at the motel with my fam and had a great time! We rode bikes, rented a boat, went kyaking , went go-carting, shopping, hung out with our friend Vince who owns a jewelry shop there...all kinds of fun stuff. Then we went to our friends Kate & Greg's house ten minutes down the road and were planning to stay 2 nights there. At Kate's we had even MORE fun! Darren and I had the days to ourselves while our friends were at work, we explored more of TC, went hiking, kyaking again, shopping and putt putting and then spent the evenings with Kate & Greg. We drank, went boating, went to the casino, the club, and had a BLAST! Sooooo, instead of staying 2 nights like planned, we ended up staying 4! We are hoping to make it back this winter to try our hand at a little snowmobiling! Here are some pics of our trip, this might take 2 posts also with all the pics I got! Thanks to mom & dad & Kate & Greg for making this trip so much fun!

Pic 1: Darren & I mini golfing at Black Beard's

Pic 2: Darren & I hiking at Sand Lake Trails. Watch out for that Road!!!

Pic 3: Darren & I in front of Sand Lake

Pic 4: Sand Lake Trail head

Pic 5: Kate, Greg, Darren & I hangin out on their deck

Pic 6: Tubing on Long Lake

Pic 7: Look mom, no hands!

Pic 8: Me & Al boatin it up

Pic 9: Mom's cold after her turn on the tube

Pic 10: I was born for this life

More Chicago Pics

2008-11-14T12:19:00.000-08:00

Ok, I have to narrow down the rest of my chicago pics cause I don't want to do a 3rd blog on the trip lest I bore you all to death! So here's some more...

Pic #1: For some odd reason there are all these HUGE colorful rockets all around this area called "boys town"...hmm, I wonder if they're some sort of symbol. Either way Erin and I thought It was a great place to stop & get a game plan for the rest of the morning. What do you think Erin, pretty comfy huh?

Pic #2: We discovered this quaint little leather shop (giggle,giggle) while out shopping with Erin. We SO almost went in to get something for darren but I decided on an alabaster soap dish instead.

Pic #3: Coots adorable apt. where she was living in (I hope I got this right) the Wicker Park area of Chicago.

Pic #4: Me & Coot bein girly!

Pic #5: Darren & I out for a Sushi dinner with Coot & Eric.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a whole lot of pics from my trip. Ya know, I lug the damn camera around all the time, you'd think I'd bust it out more often! Anyway, I wish I had a pic of Erin's cute apt she was living in at the time. But since she's moved since anyway I guess the point is moot! Keep an eye out for my upcoming blogs, I hope to have them up in the next few weeks; Traverse City trip, family bday party, halloween & maybe even my first thanksgiving dinner, even though I have no pics of it.

Love ya,
Ash

Trip to Chicago

2008-11-14T11:48:00.000-08:00

So I know I briefly blogged about our Chicago trip before, but I wanted to get some pics up. Guess what I spent 4 hours doing today...downloading the last year and a half of pics from my digital camera! I've been meaning to do it for a while but haven't gotten around to it. So here are some pics I got & some background about them.

Pic #1: Darren and I outside the Museum of Contemporary Art. We made it pretty much all the way through before we had to leave due to starvation. Pretty good museum in my opinion. And I got an educator discount, even better ;)

Pic #2: Darren looking up at the John Hancock building, which made both of us dizzy. When completed in 1969, it was the tallest building in the world outside New York City. It is the third-tallest skyscraper in Chicago and the fifth-tallest in the United States, after the Sears Tower, the Empire State Building, the Bank of America Tower and the Aon Center.

Pic #3: Me & my girlfriend Coot in the Signature Lounge of the John Hancock building where we paid $12 for a plate of chips & salsa smaller than a nacho's belgrande!

Pic #4:Don't really know what this is all about but I spotted it near the bus stop outside the Museum of Contemporary Art. Thought it was kind of neat.

Pic #5: Darren & I in front of the Chicago Water Tower which is rumored to be haunted by the ghost of the pump house keeper who died there in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Some incorrectly believe that the tower was the only building to survive the fire, a few other buildings in the burned district survived along with the tower. But the water tower was the only public building in the burned zone to survive, and is the only one of the surviving structures still standing.

Ok, I hope these captions are in order because they loaded differently than I chose them. I have more pics that I'll be posting on a seperate blog. Why does it limit me? That really grinds my gears!!

More to come!
Ash

My First Successful Geocache!

2008-09-24T13:21:00.000-07:00

I had my fist sucessfull geocache today. For any of you who don't know what geocaching is I'll briefly explain! It's basically a treasure hunt using a GPS unit. Cachers hide trinkets & a log book in some sort of weatherproof container usually in a park somewhere. Then they post the coordinates online and crazy nature lovers like myself brave misquitos, poison ivy, mud and other natural obsticals to find it! When we do, we take something, leave something & log our names & date into the logbook. To learn more & a better description go to geocaching.com. Anyway, my friends Bryan & Emily told me about it & I've been wanting to try. We went to the renissance festival this weekend and tried one up there in Holly Michigan but we couldn't find it :( Anyway, we attempted 5 today and 3 were sucessful! I left (fake) gold coins in 2 and a lego batman toy in 1. I tried to take pictures to post but realized when we got there that the camera's batteries were dead. bummer. Oh well, there's always next time!

My Stolen Birthday Party

2008-09-21T08:49:00.000-07:00

So here's the story of how I stole my birthday party this year. My friend Ezra is in a band called Red White and Booze. They're crazy! Their shows, for me anyway, are more of a performance thing than a music thing. Don't get me wrong, they're all very talented musicians but they sing comedic/parody type songs with titles like "trick from Ypsi" and "F'ed in the A". They look like a an 80's rock/metal band on steroids. Check them out on myspace, just search for Red White & Booze or do a Google search with the same. Anyway, I was asking Ezra earlier this summer when his next gig was. He said they were playing for some girl's birthday on Sept. 5th, to which I replied "Well, that's MY birthday!". He suggested I come out to TC's Speakeasy and celebrate with them. I proceeded to ask how much the girl had paid them to play at her birthday party. Ezra wasn't sure, he hadn't handled that part of the engagement. Well I thought, why don't I just make it my birthday party too, since it IS in a public place, right? Who wouldn't come to that conclusion? So I started spreading the word to all my friends to come out to see Red White & Booze for my birthday party.

We had quite the turnout for my stolen (and free, might I add) birthday party! In fact, I think we brought the party. I'd guess there were about 20 of my friends there that night plus we'd made a few more before we left. And I didn't pay for a drink all night! We played pool, had some beverages, watched our friend's band play AND...To top it all off, they announced the birthday girl's names (still don't know what her name was) and called us up on stage! We danced on stage to one of their more popular songs "show me your titties". But don't fret, the birthday girls were quite lady-like and were showing no skin in the middle of a bar. Now, I was too into dancing to notice, but I was told that I was having way more fun on stage than the other birthday girl. What can I say, I was in the limelight! I mean, by no means can I dance well and I would never be asked to be a background dancer in any self respecting music video. But hey it was my birthday and I'll dance if I want to right? I've included some pics so you can see the fun that was...My Stolen Birthday Party. Can you see me rockin out behind the singer? Btw, the one with the crazy red hair is my friend Ezra aka Dr. Keytaro! RED WHITE AND BOOZE BABY!!!

Overdue Update

2008-09-21T08:22:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know...I suck. So I haven't posted in a W H I L E. Thanks aunt Noreen. Well here's the update since last time I posted...

First for the bad news. Since my last post was about my cousin bethany delivering her baby I guess I should update on that situation. Carter had many problems upon birth including but not limited to a very rare genetic disorder. After a few months of fighting for his life he was unable to fight anymore and passed away. While it was heartbreaking for bethany and the rest of the family, everyone was at peace knowing that Carter would not suffer anymore and that he was in a better place. The silver lining is that Bethany has decided to go to nursing school in memory of Carter! I know this profession will be perfect for her, she is one of the most nurturing and empathetic people I know and I am so proud of her.

In our lives, we've had some big changes as well. I'm sure most of you know this but Darren and I were both laid off in April. It came as a shock to both of us. I had just started my teaching career and loved my first position as kindergarten art teacher in Saline. Darren however, had just reached 5 years (and a 5 week vacation!) at his position. But, this is Michigan afterall and we're seeing a lot of layoffs happening.

As far as Darren goes, I'm looking at this as a blessing in disguise! He loved his job but was at a point where he couldn't really advance anymore. So he is taking this opportunity to go back to school full time towards a bachelors. While he is still unsure of what he wants to do as a career, he is almost finished with a sales/marketing certificate at WCC and is thinking of transfering to EMU for a bachelors in journalism. Either way, he is finally loving school and is getting straight As! I'm very proud of him and have learned something about my husband recently...he's a FANTASTIC writer! Better than me in fact!

My situation, however, just plain stinks. I've been looking for a teaching position all summer to no avail. To begin with there are not a lot of full time art positions here in Michigan. Most of the positions I've found are part time or less. I probably sent out about 20 applications this summer, and had 2 interviews but nothing has come of them. I will continue to search through this school year but don't hold out much hope because most of these positions have probably been filled by now. I will search again in the spring here in the surrounding area and if I don't find something quickly, will begin to search around Michigan and probably then, out of state.

Ok, so that's what's going on in our lives! yay! I'll update more regularly in the future (I hope) and try to post some fun things too!!

ashley

OFF the BALL

2008-04-17T08:56:00.000-07:00

Ok, so here's my nice pretty blog spot with.....uh...NOTHING on it. I had a wonderful spring break in Chicago, a couple art shows at school and I haven't posted squat yet. Well...that changes now...(why do I have a sense of anticipatory dissapointment much like when I make those New Years resolutions which quickly become forgotten)! As soon as I get a few minutes alone in front of my computer, I'll give you all something to read about! Maybe even a few pictures! Soon I promise!

Here's a little Costantini side fodder for the mean time. My beautiful cousin Bethany delivered her son Carter on Tuesday! Carter was born at 6:29 a.m. weighing 1 lb 15 oz and was 13 inches long! Everyone was quite concerned because Carter wasn't due until the end of July, but as of now he is holding his own in the NICU where he will remain until his due date. Bethany started having contractions thursday night & friday morning and was sent to the hospital where she was put on bed rest and on her back to try to stop the labor. At that point her immediate family was on spring break in Florida, so my mom, aunt Carol and myself drove out to Kzoo on Friday around 3pm to stay with Beth until her family flew in at 11pm. By the time we left they had her stabilized and she hadn't had a contraction for about 4 hours. She held out on her back bored and in pain for 4 more days before Carter decided he wasn't going to wait any longer! Images of baby Carter to come when I'm home on my personal computer!

ta ta!

my classroom

2008-03-21T21:13:00.000-07:00

Well, I knew it was official when they finally put up a plaque with my name on it in late September. Yes, I finally have my own classroom. It's actually a really nice space, it's a corner room with lots of windows and natural light. There's plenty of cabinet space stocked with just about all the art supplies I could ever need. I only wish I had a scanner. I'll try to get some more images up for ya to see.

thanks for readin

Into the great unknown

2008-03-21T20:54:00.000-07:00

Ok, according to uncle Jeff and aunt Noreen, EVERYONE has a blog...even grandma! Sooo, I guess I took that as a challenge. I don't feel like I have anything interesting to share like motorcycle adventures, culinary masterpieces or exciting trips...all of which I lack; but I'll give it a shot. This first one will be eye gougingly (<--is that a word?)boring cause I'm tired and creatively spent.Maybe I'll have some fun stuff after my trip to Chicago next weekend! Night night all, thanks for readin!