Our romantic Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day, Mark and I decided it would be fun to go to the beach. And so we went.

Don't believe me? I have pictures to prove it. :)

Oh, you don't believe we were really there today? Here's the sea behind us.

Mark says his face looks like that because it was so frozen that was as close to a smile as he could get. My face had been wrapped up in my scarf so it was still thawed (mostly). The high today was supposed to be 18F, but I guarantee it was NOT that warm on the beach!

Happy Valentine's Day! Hope yours was WARM! :)

Base ball, base ball, and more base ball

This weekend was one of Mark's vintage base ball festivals. They played pretty much all day on Saturday and then Sunday afternoon. The kids and I went and we tried out the new canopy that we bought at Walmart a couple of weeks ago. We have a few base ball fields without a lot of shade so now we have guaranteed shade with us wherever we go. The canopy worked great and the kids enjoyed helping set it up and take it down.

Saturday night after showers everyone went to bed and NO ONE MOVED from the spot they first laid down in. They crashed and crashed hard after all of the playing! :) Since they'd played so hard on Saturday and had a busy week coming up we only went to a couple of games on Sunday then went home to relax and calm down.

My mom came up briefly this weekend which worked great! The kids were so excited to see here and she was able to babysit while Mark and I went out to dinner for our anniversary. It's been eleven years, and while it hasn't always been easy, there is no one else I would rather be married to than Mark. :)

Date night

Last night Mark and I went on a real, live date.

I can hear the gasps of shock. :) :)

Mark had a drawing at work for some Cardinals tickets. He didn't win, but the girl who did gave him her tickets and insisted that we go on a date. We found a babysitter and went to the ballgame last night.

It was great!

The weather was perfect--the storms they were predicting never appeared and it was a perfect temperature. We were just to the left of home plate and only a few rows off of the field. I had fun getting to actually sit and talk to Mark instead of spending time fielding questions from the kids. Instead, I asked him lots of questions. I know baseball, but there's all of these little rules that make no sense to me whatsoever. Why should you have to wait to run if someone hits the ball? That's just silly. And why can't baseball players run fast?

Anyway...the Cardinals were down 9 to 5 at the top of the eighth (which was a great improvement over the 9 to 1 after the top of the sixth!), so I leaned over and suggested we sneak out and go get some ice cream. However, they did a quick up and down in the bottom of the eighth and then managed to pull in one more run in the bottom of the ninth so we stuck it out to the end (they still lost, obviously, but it was entertaining).

Then we went to Ted Drewes (on Grand, mind you). :) I had a hot fudge sundae with marshmallow creme. I'm sure you're very interested but it was absolutely delicious. ;)

Pray for Mark, please! :)

Mark has a very big test today--one of the 6-8 hour kinds. He is taking a specialization test for physical therapists (the orthopedics/OCS for those of you familiar). He has been studying many long hours in preparation for the test today.

Please join me in praying...

• that he will feel confident and be protected from doubts
• that he will remember what he needs to know for the test
• that he will not grow fatigued
• that he will have steady focus the whole time
• that he will pass :)

He won't find out the results until this summer, but I know we will all be glad when this test is over!

Catching up

I'm much better; thank you for all of the well-wishes. I haven't felt that bad in quite a while.

On Wednesday I took Emily to the pediatrician. I couldn't figure out where else I would have gotten strep so I assumed it was her. After all, she has had an ear infection and a cough recently. :) Her strep screen came back negative, so I was once again in the dark as to where the strep had come from.

On Thursday, I returned to work to try to cram everything into one day that needed to get done before I was out for the rest of the year. I didn't really have that much energy and didn't feel very good (my throat still hurt a lot) but I did get things wrapped up.

Friday was great. The kids and I made butter from the cream from our raw milk and meringue cookies for a tea I was going to that night. But Friday morning I got a call from the pediatrician--Emily's strep culture came back positive! We started her on amoxicillin that evening. She never seemed to be feeling bad and hadn't had any troubles eating or drinking, so I don't know if it wasn't a bad case or if she was just starting to come down with my strep.

The weekend was pretty calm and we spent time at home. Mark put in a new window and Saturday night I made his birthday dinner. It was a few days late but still delicious (I made a cake on his birthday) and we had it after the kids were in bed, just the two of us.

Today I sent Emily to preschool so I could take the three big kids to my work holiday party at a bowling alley. They had a blast (as did I!) thanks to one of my wonderful co-workers who helped me help the kids bowl. While I would have loved to bring Emily, she would not have enjoyed it nearly as much as the other kids and she had a great time at preschool today. She made a super-cute angel ornament for the tree that she is very proud of. :)

Living large

Sunday afternoon was our fall band concert. Mark and I both play for the Meramec Symphonic Band through Meramec Community College. The wonderful friends of ours who came to sit with the kids asked us how we have time to do this.

We don't.

The original plan was for one of us to play this semester, but then they were desperate for another euphonium so Mark ended up playing too. It's too hard to get babysitters every Thursday night, so we alternate rehearsal nights and then beg people to come sit with the kids at the concert. :) The kids love the music and usually do really well...plus they get bribed with cookies after the concert if they behave. ;)

After the concert all of the kids got their cookies (they all picked M&M cookies--M&Ms are a current favorite among the kids...I think they just like saying "MmMs" which is how it is pronounced by all of them) and they also got some "juice". I didn't realize until I tried mine that it was juice plus some kind of clear soda. I warned the kids that they might not like it because it was "spicy" (their word for carbonated) and that if they didn't like it they could have water. Alex and Emily both tried it and although Alex said he liked it they both asked for water instead. Tim and Danielle both drank it and seemed to like it.

The expression on Tim's face was priceless when I had told him what was in it. He took a sip, got a big grin on his face and said, "There's SODA in here??" I love that it's a super special treat when they get soda. They know it doesn't happen often so it makes it that much more of a treat!

We have a mouse. His name is George.

I think George is a nice name for a mouse, don't you? (No offense to anyone out there named George).

A couple of weeks ago I noticed some things that looked suspiciously like mouse droppings in the house. I only saw a couple, so I kind of dismissed it. Then this weekend I saw several more on top of the dog kennel, and I pointed them out to Mark.

It wasn't until Monday night while Mark was at a coaching meeting that I actually saw the mouse. I was in the dining room and a bit of motion in the kitchen caught my eye. I watched the mouse run back and forth along the south wall of the kitchen until he squeezed out the tiniest of holes formed at the corner of the door and the door jamb.

I wouldn't have believed he could have fit through there if I hadn't watched him do it!

Last night, Mark and I were sitting at the dining room table. I was getting ready to head upstairs for bed and he was finishing some computer work. All of a sudden, our very slow golden retriever jumped up in the air and leapt towards the bookcase. In very short time we had two dogs running back and forth from one side of the bookcase to the other. We had pretty much decided it was the mouse, and then I was able to see him underneath the corner chair with the flashlight. He couldn't figure out which direction to run, as it seemed (to him) that there were dogs everywhere he went.

We didn't really have a good plan for catching the mouse (nor any plan whatsoever of what we would do with it once we caught it!) but much hilarity ensued as we attempted to catch the mouse. Mark set up a box on one side of the bookshelf and then started moving the chair out of the corner and things off of the bookshelf to coerce the mouse into our box. I was no help whatsoever as I was really trying to get a picture of the cute mouse. The "catching" ended when the mouse turned tail and ran back towards Mark. In the resulting peals of laughter and dogs going crazy and Mark jumping up to make sure there wasn't a mouse in his shorts, the mouse escaped.

Not only is he cute, but he provides lots of entertainment. Thanks, George. :)

Mouse hunting

Here's George! (you can just see his little head peeking out from behind the bookcase)

Ten years

Happy anniversary to us!

Today marks ten years since Mark and I got married.

A couple of nights ago, Mark was working on the computer and he looked up. I had the instantaneous thought that he has such beautiful eyes. It makes me happy that I still think things like that about my husband. :)

I also realized the other day that while 10 years sounds like a long time, if things go well Mark and I could have another 60 years together ahead of us.

That thought makes me smile. :) :)

One year ago

One year ago today we were heading out to fly to Ukraine. We had a really uneventful travel time--we flew from St Louis to New York and then from New York direct to Ukraine. I remember being really happy I'd been reading so many adoption blogs--Aerosvit wasn't listed on the terminals, but someone else had posted which terminal it was in so we hoped on the tram at JFK and started riding around. Sure enough, we found it!

Unfortunately for us, Aerosvit doesn't have online checkin, so you have to stand in line to check in. As we stood there, our flight was delayed several times. We were originally supposed to leave at 6pm...we finally left close to 9pm. Mark and I had a great time waiting in line and people-watching. Nearly everyone else in line spoke Russian, and the outfits...well, we felt like we were already in Ukraine. ;)

TDIClub

When Mark and I were in the market for a new car in 2000, we test drove several. I was adamant about getting a new car--we had been doing repairs on his Subaru for a year and I was tired of it. I wanted a new car with a warranty. We really liked the Prius, but it was the first year they were here in the States and they didn't have cruise control--a huge issue to me since we travel so much. The other car Mark really liked was the VW Jetta. I liked it just fine, but I wasn't about to pay that kind of money for a car that got worse gas mileage than his old Subaru. Then, while reading through the dealership literature, we came across a note that said the Jetta was also available in a diesel engine. Sold! We bought our first Jetta TDI sedan in 2000, and then sold that and bought a Jetta TDI station wagon in 2002.

In the process of trying to sell our sedan, I came across the TDIClub website. Lo and behold, I found family. People who were just as passionate about their fuel efficiency (most of the time) and their VWs as we were. Michigan had a fantastic group of TDIers. They had regular get-togethers (GTGs) and we made a lot of new friends. Even better, many of the people in the TDIClub love to work on TDIs, and they love to share their knowledge. Glen (aka MOGolf) actually changed our timing belt for our first Jetta and our second Jetta. We trust many of these people more than we would a dealership, as they've been working on diesels for decades and they know these engines inside-out, and can literally take them apart and put them back together (I've watched them!).

When we moved to St. Louis, I really missed (and continue to) our TDI group up there. There doesn't seem to be a strong group in St. Louis, although there are GTGs held every year down in Poplar Bluff and we have made it down there. The MI group got together every couple of months for just fellowship, tinkering, maintenance, and sometimes major repairs, and I miss that. Point being, I've been a little out of the TDIClub loop lately, which is why it took me a bit to think of that on Sunday night. Once I did, though, the TDIers came through like I knew they would.

I posted on the forum what was happening with our car, and as mentioned, within an hour Brian called to check on us. He's been working on diesels forever and we are so happy to have him as our mechanic here in St. Louis. We are incredibly picky about who we let work on our car as diesels are significantly different than gasoline cars (one mechanic told a TDIer he needed new spark plugs...diesels don't have spark plugs). Brian is amazing (as is everyone else at Car-Doc!) and takes great care of our car. But he didn't have any tools with him in Cincinnati, so while he was willing to come up and take a look at the car, he thought it was best to call in Glen.

Glen drove over at 7:30am on Monday just to take a look at our car. It's about a half hour drive for him each way. He spent about an hour with Mark, and took him to get a new battery, and then installed it. What a guy! Thanks to Glen, the only schedules that were disrupted that weekend were the two guys who stayed an extra day to help us (they crashed in our hotel room that night--ask Paul about that adventure sometime ;)) and his.

I love my TDI, and I love my TDI family. :)

Happy birthday to me!

A year ago, I wouldn't have been celebrating too much, as I was a 31-year-old without kids. There's nothing wrong with not having kids, but it's rough when you want to have kids and all of your friends have kids! Birthdays just remind you (as do Mothers Days) that you aren't where you want to be. At that point in our process, I was wondering if we would ever have kids. Now I'm the proud 32-year-old mom of a 5 and 6 yo. I feel so young. :) :)

I got a great birthday present yesterday when one of my coworkers pointed out that I can go home for lunch! The thought hadn't even occurred to me--I've never worked close enough to go home for lunch (working on campus in college doesn't count). So today, on my birthday, I am having lunch AND dinner with my wonderful husband. Since my love language is quality time, today should absolutely fill up my tank! I'm picking up lunch and meeting Mark at the house (he has Thursdays off) and then we're going out to dinner tonight at a Japanese steakhouse in Illinois. Some wonderful friends have volunteered to babysit and the boys will already be in bed before we go.

Happy anniversary to us!

Today was our 9th anniversary, and since it's a little hard to get away in the evenings, we both took off of work and spent the day together! We dropped the boys off at school and then had breakfast and played Settlers of Cataan with some good friends from church. Then it was lunch at PF Changs and an early afternoon showing of Indiana Jones. We had a great time and it was so nice to be able to spend the day together.

Here's to many more years with my best friend by my side. :)