Election response

This is a little bit late because I've been a little swamped at work recently, but I wanted to post this link to a blog a friend of mine who is a priest sent to me as it perfectly describes my thoughts on America right now.

http://lethoperise.com/2012/11/07/grieving-and-hope-after-the-election/

OPRAH!!!!!

Oprah and David Letterman came to Ball State (where I work, of course) and the place went wild. David Letterman is a Ball State graduate and does quarterly interviews on campus with famous people in media. I lucked into his Oprah visit being during my tenure. Students waited in line for HOURS in the cold to get the FREE tickets. The tickets were sold out before they were available to non-students so I didn't have any hopes of going and I was BUMMED. (Only students could get in with student tickets...they ended up selling them to each other for over $300 in some cases!!!) You can imagine my surprise when Monday afternoon my BIG, BIG boss called me into his office to thank me for all of my hard work and gave me a 12th row seat's ticket. I was JAZZED! I've always been fascinated by Oprah and her marketing power so seeing her in person was just awesome.

Christmas decor

Grace trimming her tree and Jackson mockingly trimming ours

We packed our Christmas stuff and had to decorate Susie's with hers (obviously) which just isn't quite the same...TEAR. To rub it in, Susie sent us a photo of Grace decorating a non-tiny tree.

Fair Santa

We bought this Santa for Susie when we were in Savannah vacationing once because she was watching MacKenzie. We put him out on the shelf (along with 9,000 other Santas. Puke. I HATE Santa!) and enjoyed the memory of picking him out. When Susie came home from visiting Kathi she looked at the Santa and said, "Gosh! I don't know where I got that one, but he sure is UGLY!" I laughed so hard that I simply could not breathe. Jackson told her she "hurt our feelings" and let her know that we'd purchased for her. Boy was she embarrassed.

Anyway, it was funny and now she'll never forget that Santa. I bit the bullet and even made our tiny tree Santa themed. Who am I?!

Christmas in November...

This year we're difficult to buy for when it comes to Christmas since we're (for all intents and purposes) homeless and therefore do not need any household items. We've already gotten a few very creative (and early!) gifts.

I'm finally going to try a cruise...

Jackson has finally convinced me to go on a cruise so Susie picked up the tab for us to go over Christmas. We're going to depart from New Orleans on December 23rd (LOUISIANA? CHECK! Woo hoo. I love marking off states!!) and go to Costa Maya, Mexico, Belize City, Roatan and Cozumel before spending another 1.5 days in New Orleans. I'm a little nervous to be on a cruise and will be bringing my own lifejacket. (I'm not kidding.) 

We're dining with Damon Bailey

Kathi and Grace got creative and got us a chance to meet Damon Bailey (a former IU star) for lunch and then sit in his seats at a December 8th Indiana HOOSIERS basketball game. We've joked that the best place to eat in Bedford (a small town outside of Bloomington where Damon lives) is going to be the Golden Corral. Stay tuned to find out where we actually dine. Now is the the time to get us any memorabilia that you'd like autographed as we have "unlimited" access to him during lunch and would like to tire out his arm. We're super excited to get to be in Assembly Hall again. It has been too long. Thanks, K & G, for such a thoughtful gift!

iRecipe

It cracks me up to watch Jackson cook with his iPad instead of real recipe cards. Steve Jobs would be so proud. I'm always proud of the things he find to make as tonight is Italian wedding soup that we're hoping will give Mama Carrolla's a run for their money! ;)

Thanksgiving 2012

We signed up for the Evansville Turkey Trot again this year and lucked into a gorgeous morning. Jackson and Kathi were racing each other for the best time while Gracie attempted to run the whole thing (didn't happen) and I walked with Susie. I shaved over 4 minutes off my last year's time. JACKSON WON! He came in at 26 minutes 59.7 seconds. I was so proud of him. He was so excited. Kathi cam in at just over 28 minutes which is a great time. Jackson says trying to beat Kathi was his motivation. It is good to know that siblings don't ever really stop competing. ;)

Jackson pre-race

Susie, Kathi, Grace and Jackson ready for a race

Monty and MacK waiting for us to return home- so cute!

Jackson getting ready to carve the turkey

Jackson driving Susie nuts. Please note the deviled egg dish missing a few eggs. HA! ;)

We got up at like 3 a.m. to do the race and since people wanted to cook ALL day I hardly got to nap. That was only mildly annoying. (I don't mean the mildly part.) Kathi had her new boyfriend and his kids to dinner, too. We had to wait until about 10 p.m. on Thursday to eat due to visitation schedules (ok, more like 6 p.m.), but we all survived. Barely.

Taking a break during Black Friday

Grace talked us into going to the mall before 8 a.m. on Friday. It was insane. We were supposed to go at midnight but we all fell asleep. Oops. ;)

Jackson's reaction to Black Friday

Gracie, on the other hand, loved the madness! 

We got a few deals and left the shops before 1 p.m. as we were exhausted from the lines and the masses.

Monty (totally alert- LOL), Jackson, Grace, Me and MacK

We left town a little early because Jackson's Jeep started acting a little funny. MacKenzie prefers to ride in the Jeep because she can bring her own bed and snuggle in. Life is so rough for her.

Hello minions 

BAD GIRL!

MacKenzie went on a little adventure the other night without asking. She got in BIG trouble for taking off on a mission without her parents. I was so mad at her that I wouldn't really speak to her for the rest of the evening and the next morning. She really knows when you're mad, too. She eventually sent me this little photo begging for forgiveness. I begrudgingly forgave her. You'd think after a coyote attack she'd learn not to wander away. SIIIIGH.

Family Time...

We headed down to Newburgh, IN for Thankgiving to see our sisters' families. We are fortunate that they live within 2 miles of each other...4 hours from us. Sigh. We hate the drive to Southern Indiana. HATE IT.

Monty, Jackson and MacK catching up

Susie, Jackson, Grace, Monty and MacK bonding on the couch

We ate dinner with Jackson's family Wednesday evening before heading over to Kylie's to see her family.

Can you imagine getting to eat like this and not be obese? #lifeisn'tfair

The puzzle that nearly beat "Aunt Ninny"

"Let's do a puzzle!!"

"I'll dump it out..."

Then I'll throw the hard blocks at you and laugh when the puzzle is difficult for you

Uncle Jack trying to eat Alex with Kylie looking on

Nick helping Alex to "fly"

Alex wanted me to draw a bunny. Kylie's bunny made mine look like crap. Alex thought that was hilarious. You can kind of see her bunny and her making fun of mine.

Alex has gotten so big and BUSY! We enjoyed getting to see the tall guy before they headed to God's Country (Upland) for Thanksgiving while we stayed in Newburgh to celebrate with the Petefish side of the family.

#6

We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary this weekend by having kind of a normal Saturday morning. Our normal Saturday now consists of boot camp (UGH!) and 5k training (ugh). MacKenzie is about over this 5k training- HA!

MacK loves to sun herself

Do you look this good after running a 5k?

Or do you look like this? ;)

After we finished our "Saturday duties" we headed to downtown Indianapolis to spend the night at the Conrad. Our hotel upgraded us to a suite and it was awesome. The Conrad was already 400 times nicer than the hotels we generally stay in so to get a suite was just icing on the cake! 

The 1/2 bath. Yep. Our suite had TWO bathrooms. LOVE.

Our lounge which had an awesome view of downtown Indy

Our hallway inside the suite

We loved the Conrad. It was a great stay. Jackson also got reserved a spa treatment for me at the hotel spa which was phenomenal. It was the best massage I've had. Ever. We had dinner at Fleming's Saturday night (a fancy steakhouse- thanks for the gift cards, Susie!) which was a lovely way to celebrate six years of wedded...sometimes bliss. HA! ;)

What celebration is complete without cheesecake?!

Sunday afternoon we make the long (20 minutes- ha!) trek back to the Northside for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. I love that place and will use any occasion as an excuse to go. ;) (Now you see why it was important for us to workout so much on Saturday morning!!) We did a little window shopping at the Fashion Mall which is super fancy now and then headed for Fishers. I walked another 5k that evening with my friend Amber because after all that eating I needed to burn some calories. One of my favorite things about living in Indy is all of our friends. I enjoy being able to text a friend and meet up for a training walk. It is the little things, you know?

Anyway, all in all we had a nice, low-key anniversary weekend. CHEERS! 

Weekend recap

We had kind of a busy weekend even though we stayed close to "home." Friday night we had dinner at Mama Carolla's (my favorite restaurant these days) and it was delicious. We had to eat inside due to it being late Fall and all and the tables are pretty cramped. We sat next to the craziest couple who were having heated arguments about having children and how both of them stepped out on their marriage with the same person. Yep. It was intense and odd. I was actually kind of happy to leave the restaurant in the end. HA! 

Saturday morning we had boot camp as I've already blogged about once. I still maintain that it was intense. I met my friend Megan Parton for lunch in Carmel that day, too. It is so nice to have her back in the area after her husband ended his military service. We chatted for over three hours. That was the second time this week that I'd sat with a friend chatting for over three hours as I did that Monday with my friend Amber. I guess I have a lot to say?! After lunch I had to run over to get a Notre Dame shirt as a joke for a dinner we had that evening. 

I have a real hatred for Notre Dame football.

We had dinner with two other couples (the "triple date") at a restaurant that was on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives called "Zest" in Broad Ripple. My friend set the time as 8 pm and mentioned that it would interrupt my ND football viewing (he is an alum of that fine institution). I wrote back, joking, saying that I'd be there in my blue and gold. I decided it would be REALLY funny to show up in blue and gold so I went and grabbed a shirt. I don't think everyone else thought it was as funny as I did. I hate when that happens. This will be a good shirt that I don't like and can wear to nasty boot camp. ;)

Fish Tacos

Anyway, Zest was a bit disappointing. The prices were insane. I had the fish tacos and they were actually really good. We also shared a side dish of mac-n-cheese that was quite tasty. Jackson went with chicken and waffles. It was not amazing by any means. Those three things cost us $53! HOLY COW! I hate expensive food. We finished dinner just in time to watch Notre Dame win their game. Tear. It was still nice to see our friends, though. The weather was gorgeous and I enjoyed one last day of convertible driving. I'm sure my top won't drop now until 2013.

The fanciest chicken and waffles ever

Look at that form... :)

Today was another gorgeous day so after getting a pedicure (life is good!) I met Jackson at the driving range to "coach" him through a practice session. He was rusty for the first 5-10 hits and then he was back in the game. That is SO unfair. I know. I was rusty and wasn't able to shake it...I don't know that I'll ever shake it off.

What a cute little golfer

An action shot! Check out those sleeves and the ball in the air- COOL! 

I am always jealous of how quickly Jackson returns to awesome golfer status after not playing for long periods. He said hitting the ball helped him recover from boot camp. We've both been pretty sore today. I met my friend Shaya at yoga this evening and that stretching seemed to help my pain. Jackson had to nerve to go with me to the gym and run a 5k. Show off. ;)

Now I'm finally curled up with my little dog watching some football and preparing for another busy week at work. (My Mom would be shocked at how relaxed I am right now!)

P.S. We're both expecting some big career news this week and would appreciate positive thoughts and prayers.

Boot Camp

We bought a Groupon for SIX (!!!!) boot camp classes at Survival Fitness in Carmel. It was a big mistake. HA! Boot camp is pretty much the hardest workout we've ever done. Honestly. It is SO hard. I  threw up during the Saturday morning workout. It is over an hour of non-stop working out harder than ever. We're hoping that it pays off and we both lose some additional stubborn pounds.

Jackson is insane enough to think that he wants to continue these classes once our Groupon ends. He'll be going alone. ;)

New dog friends

Our friend Carla got a new dog, Beta, who is a Schnauzer mix

Isn't she a pretty girl? She's MUCH bigger than MacKenzie!

Doesn't MacK look like a puppy with this haircut? I love it!

MacKenzie is 6!

MacKenzie turned SIX years old today. We had Boomer (MacKenzie's "boyfriend") and his parents (Bob & Judy) over for dinner. They had a great time and we think MacK had a great birthday.

Birthday puppy! 

Boomer came over with a new ball for MacKenzie's birthday!

Birthday cake for puppies!

"Just sing and give me cake already!"

CAKE!

YUM! 

"Plates are a little too refined. I'll eat on the floor."

MacK, Jack and Boomer