Pure joy is...

a few laps around the neighborhood with the top down.

Furniture

Let it be known that I was not defeated in the furniture store this time around. Nope. Not at all. I was able to find a couch that both Jackson and I liked and it was 50% off. Woo hoo! We also got a great deal on a lovely kitchen table. We're starting to get pretty excited to move in to our new place. For those who are wondering, the world's ugliest couch is going in Jackson's "man room" on the 2nd floor. Out of sight, out of mind.

We'd be really excited if getting a mortgage was not like working a second job. Seriously. I'm not sure how some people make it through this process. I am the most organized financial person ever (Honestly, I take care of our finances with rigor) and even I have been a bit stumped on how to pull some of the information requested of us with much ease. Anyway, we are less than two weeks away now. Woot toot! :)

Yes, we are back to blogging. Many of you readers came out of hiding to stay that you still tune in. Try commenting sometime, I like to know what you think.

Rib Fest 2k11

Last night Bill Trinkle (the CPA I work with during tax season) and his family hosted Rib Fest. Jackson had heard about prior year's fests and was pretty excited to be able to attend this year. It did not disappoint. The food was excellent. The weather was perfect. The company was superb. Even MacKenzie got to come along and play. Bill's 3 grandsons were there (ages 4-5) and played and played and played with MacKenzie. She was loving life. Susie was able to come with us and I even had a few drinks. She was beside herself and insisted that she drive home. It was funny. Anyway, they surprised me and had a birthday cake for Logan (Bill's daughter's boyfriend) and me. I loved the question mark for my age. I just love the Trinkle family! :)
Some neighbors had a 6 month old schnauzer named Greta. She was so stinkin' cute. We loved her. MacKenzie showed her the ropes a little bit, too. (Please notice my tan line from my seatbelt across my chest. I love when that happens. Not.) Anyway, Greta made me want another pup, but I refuse much to MacKenzie's delight.

Glowing morning

Jackson snapped this shot one morning while working his weekend shift doing ground crew duties. He loves his quiet mornings with his mower. It doesn't hurt that he gets in 9 holes of golf after putting in a few hours on the mower, but whatever. I thought it was so pretty. I am not usually up early enough to see sun rises...especially on my non-tax season weekends! :)

Wrigley

Jackson got to go to a Cubs game on my birthday. He got a couple cool photos from the rooftop party that he attended. We want to go back when the Cubs play the Rockies (my team), but that won't be until next season. It is always "next year" for the Cubs anyway, right?! ;)

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We do not think people read this anymore so we're taking a break.

The big 2-7

Well, it happened. I aged. I'm now twenty-seven years of age. Sigh. I am going to take it in stride, though. Susie took us to the Cheesecake Factory on Sunday to celebrate. It was soo good.On my actual birthday (the 14th) I headed to Upland to have dinner with my parents and my Grams who was in town from Florida.
MacKenzie was pretty excited to be there because we also celebrated Macy's birthday and had a puppy cake.
Macy was so excited while Madison was just intense. Typical.

It was so nice to be able to get up to Upland to celebrate my day. Jackson was in Chicago for work- at a Cubs game no less. I know. I felt really bad for him, too. Oh wait. No. :) Anyway, it was a nice day, but nothing too exciting as getting older is for the birds!

G & A

First, I forgot to post the photo of the guest room. Come stay- one and all. Before you ask, yes the orange is a bit bright for me, but I am going to try to embrace it.

On to the good stuff: Alex is hanging out with Grace today. From the looks of things he has decided to kick Monty out of his bed. I got a good laugh at this photo.

My Mom thinks Alex looks like Kylie in this photo. I think he just looks too big! WAH!

I love this picture of Grace and Alex. Two of my favorite little loves in one photo just steals my heart. Grace is so stinkin' tan from her time in Hawaii. I'm jealous! :)

Housing update

We had our home inspection today and all went well. We were pretty excited to spend some more time in the home without our realtor rushing us through. We have one room to paint and some paint to touch up. We want to replace all of the door levers (knobs) to an oil-rubbed bronze color from bright brass. We also want to replace the wood balusters with iron. We also will install a "magic door" (storm door) for MacKenzie pronto. We will eventually get new countertops (black granite), but that will likely wait. It has solid surface countertops already, but I love the look of black granite with white cabinets. Jackson, of course, wants to finish the basement. I think we have plenty of space already! :) I have attached a couple of photos of how the home looks right now.

This is the office. I wish she would just leave all of her furnitute. :)

I love the master bedroom's dark floors.

The lights above the bar are some of my favorite things!

This is the entry with the stair spindles that I mentioned we wanted to change.

The great room is my favorite place in the home. I love how open it is.

And last but not least- the master closet. LOVE! :)

Can you tell that we just a little excited to move in?! And yes, we will have a lot of extra room for guests so start planning a trip to Fishers now!

NEW HOME!

We bought a house! Woo hoo! More details to come soon.

Before you think it: I know, I know we change our minds a lot. Leave it. :)

My loss of my brother

I have been putting off writing this blog post since Wednesday evening when I got the news mainly because I don't want it to be true.

My older brother, Brian, passed away Wednesday morning at home in Jacksonville, Florida. He was only 35 years old, but had been born with spina bifida at a time when that was not a treatable as it is today. He was in a wheelchair or walked with crutches all of his life, but he never let that keep him down. He outlived his project life expectancy by about 20 years and I think that is awesome.

I always admired Brian for his positive attitude. I have also felt a particular appreciation for the use of my legs and the ease of my life because of him. I remember telling him after the first knee surgery I ever had how hard to was to get around with crutches. He said, "tell me about it!" It was not until then that I had a true appreciation for how he never complained or felt sorry for himself even though his life was not nearly as easy as mine.

All four of us siblings lived together for a time and it was a lot of fun. (For clarification, Brian and Aaron share a father with Kylie and & me, but not a mother so we are their "half-sisters.") I remember Brian got to stay up late and watch M-TV and I was so jealous. He also got his own room! He would always let me watch the "Enter Sandman" video by Metallica right before bed so I was good and scared. I thought that was so cool. :) He was in high school when we lived together and got to go to the mall on Friday nights to hang out with his friends. Again, I was so jealous because that was a cool thing to get to do. He even let his little sister follow him around one evening. That is a big deal when you realize I would have been all of 7 or 8 and surely a pain in the butt! He was surrounded by friends- especially girls- who did not even seem to notice that he was not up walking around. I found that so inspiring back then and find even more inspiring now.

He would let us play in his chair and I remember many time going down the hill of our driveway and crashing into the garage door with it. Oh, we had a blast! I remember him assuring us that Dad would be OK after he got attacked by pit bulls on his mail route. I have a lot of happy memories of my time spent with him.

I think the most difficult part of his sudden death for me is the guilt I feel for having not been closer to him in recent years. We caught up on Facebook and he was really excited to see the photos I would post of our nephew Alex. He had been on my mind a lot recently because I just drove through Rocky Mount, North Carolina, a place that he called home for a couple of years. I intended to send him a message to tell him that I thought of him during my trip and then I just never got around to it. Now he's gone and I wish he would have known that he'd be on my mind and in my heart. I will never let that happen again. If you're on my mind and on my heart, you're going to know about it darn-it.

I never do well with people passing, but this has been especially hard on me due to the sudden nature of it all. My office graciously gave me all of the time that I needed off to deal with being a tear-filled mess. There will not be any services held for him at his mother's request. I never realized just how much funerals really are for the people left behind and not those passing away. It all feels so open without a service to really say goodbye so I am using this post as my way of saying "see you later." I will always think back on his life with love and admiration. Always.