15/25

Petals on the Wind is the sequel to Flowes in the Attic. And it was as strange or even stranger than it's predecessor. The book for me was slow at times, but toward the end it really picked up. I find it weird that the author will jump through periods of times in a matter of sentences, I guess I'm not use to reading books that span so much time. It might be that the author will spend so much time describing a certain event and then skip through 3 years in a blink of an eye. I believe there's another book in the series, and I might read it. Overall I enjoyed the book, and it was interesting (although bizarre at times.) You never know what's going to happen and that does keep you coming back.

2010 in review

I thought it would be fun to do what I did last year, although I'm not sure how many pictures I'll have, I didn't take as many pictures this year, something I hope to change in 2011... check back Saturday for my New Year's resolutions.

January:
I had my first large (over 100) person conference in San Diego, CA. It rained the entire time we were there which I guess never happens.

We celebrated 3 years of having Stitch in our lives. It also marked 5 years since I adopted Pretty.


February:
I celebrated one year working for the government, 3 years living in our house, one year with Rowdy and two time winning the VA trivia night.
March:
I celebrated my 26th birthday - my friends really made it amazing this year. (note this picture is from a party in 2009, but I didn't take any good pictures at my birthday)
April:
I went to Indianapolis for my (second) big high profile conference.

We went to Cardinals Opening Day.
We also celebrated two years of Bozley

May:
I traveled to Tampa for work. It's the first time I was the on-site contact. And I ate at PF Changs for the first time - LOVE.

June:
My mom joined me on a work trip to New Or-leans. It's such a great town that I would love to visit again!
July:
We traveled to Virginia to visit Chad's parents for Fourth of July again. Since my brother was also in the DC area, we also got to visit with him and his girlfriend.

We also accomplished a series of home improvements.

I also traveled to San Francisco for work.

August:
We continued the home improvements.

Started the competition (which check back Saturday for an update on that)

I also traveled to Atlanta for work.

September:
We celebrated two years of marriage!!
I also traveled to Los Angeles for work.

October:
I traveled to Washington, DC for work.

And although I never blogged about it, I got a wonderful yearly appraisal at work.

November:
I traveled to Salt Lake City for work (final work trip of the year!!)

We also road tripped to Virginia for Thanksgiving with dogs in toe.

December:
Rowdy had to get surgery.

We celebrated Christmas.
And some other big news that I'll give more details about in another blog.

All-in-all 2010 was a pretty awesome year.

NFL Week 16 Pick

Carolina Panthers vs. Pittsburgh Steelers

Dallas Cowboys vs. Arizona Cardinals

New England Patriots vs. Buffalo Bills

New York Jets vs. Chicago Bears

Baltimore Ravens vs. Cleveland Browns

Tennessee Titans vs. Kansas City Chiefs

San Francisco 49ers vs. St. Louis Rams

Detroit Lions vs. Miami Dolphins

Washington Redskins vs. Jacksonville Jaguars

San Diego Chargers vs. Cincinnati Bengals

Houston Texans vs. Denver Broncos

Indianapolis Colts vs. Oakland Raiders

New York Giants vs. Green Bay Packers

Seattle Seahawks vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Minnesota Vikings vs. Philadelphia Eagles

New Orleans Saints vs. Atlanta Falcons

Chad

Jenn

Both

I can't believe it... I'm not FOUR games behind Chad... boo

Chad: 139 - 87

Jenn: 135 - 91

First Book

Today I heard an interesting fact on NPR - one in four children's first book is a Dr. Seuss one.

It got me to thinking that I believe the first book I could read cover-to-cover was Green Eggs and Ham. I'm not positive if that's really true, but that's what sticks out in my mind as by first.

In our family, when we learned to read we got to pick out a special book. My special book was The Eleventh Hour by Graeme Base.

It was a beautiful book, with these amazing illustrations. The story was wonderful too. One of the charecters (I believe the elephant) is having a party and invites all of his animals friends. They participant is all of these party activities and when they get together for lunch - the entire feast has been eaten. Then the reader must figure out who ate the feast. You do so by re-reading the book and looking at all of the awesome pictures to see what charecter might have time to eat the feast. After you figure out your guess you can read the sealed solutions section to find the surprising answer. Once you know whodunit it is interesting to look back and see how the correct answer what there all along. This is a wonderfully memorable book. I actually want to find my copy and reread it. I really hope to share it with my kids if/when we have them.

NFL Week 15 Picks

San Francisco 49ers vs. San Diego Chargers
Cleveland Browns vs. Cincinnati Bengals
Washington Redskins vs. Dallas Cowboys
Houston Texans vs. Tennessee Titans
Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Indianapolis Colts
Kansas City Chiefs vs. St. Louis Rams
Buffalo Bills vs. Miami Dolphins
Philadelphia Eagles vs. New York Giants
Detroit Lions vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Arizona Cardinals vs. Carolina Panthers
New Orleans Saints vs. Baltimore Ravens
Atlanta Falcons vs. Seattle Seahawks
Denver Broncos vs. Oakland Raiders
New York Jets vs. Pittsburgh Steelers
Green Bay Packers vs. New England Patriots
Chicago Bears vs. Minnesota Vikings

Chad
Jenn
Both

Chad is now up by two... stay tuned for our tally - Right now I've made the prediction of Ravens vs. Falcons in the Super Bowl - Chad agrees with me :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I actually decorated for Christmas weeks ago - but I've been a bad blogger... maybe that will be my New Year's Resolution... anyway, we have all 6 of our Christmas decorations up. I did it all by myself - Chad did help me carry up the Christmas tree. We only have one new item this year and that's our wonderful, sparkly, gold wreath.
Isn't it pretty? Last year my totally awesome wonderful Grandma got me this adorable Santa lamp.
I also have this awesome snow globe Chad got me a few years ago. This is actually the picture I took when I got it. It changes color and glitters - so much fun.
And finally here's the centerpiece of our holiday decorations - the Christmas Tree.
Sadly there weren't any Christmas presents underneath it yet (there are a ton now) You also can't tell that it's lit, but it is I'll take another picture later to prove it. Here are some of my favorite ornaments this year (seems like it changes from year to year)

First my new ornament that I bought with on a work trip.
Yep, that's right, it's a robot!! Also above you can see our pickle. Do you have a pickle on your tree? If not you should!! Do you know the story behind the Christmas pickle? So go out and get one if you don't have one. I didn't realize that people didn't know about it.

Here's the one that catches my eye every time I look at the tree - maybe because it's a eye level when I'm sitting on the couch - either way it's a skiing penguin.
You can also see in that picture our new Mark McGuire ornament Chad's mom got us. Chad didn't want to hang it up, but I'm over the whole Mark McGuire steroid thing...

I love the color and the glitter pattern on this one -
And finally I love the colors and circle glitter on this one. I also have this one in pink. I also love the black small one with silver glitter lines. I have a few of those on the tree as well.
So there you have it, Christmas time at our humble abode. Stay tuned for better tree pictures and of all the presents (there might even be one under there for you!)

Merry Christmas!!

NFL Week 14

Indianapolis Colts vs. Tennessee Titans
Cleveland Browns vs. Buffalo Bills
Green Bay Packers vs. Detroit Lions
New York Giants vs. Minnesota Vikings
Cincinnati Bengals vs. Pittsburgh Steelers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Washington Redskins
Atlanta Falcons vs. Carolina Panthers
Oakland Raiders vs. Jacksonville Jaguars
St. Louis Rams vs. New Orleans Saints
Seattle Seahawks vs. San Francisco 49ers
New England Patriots vs. Chicago Bears
Miami Dolphins vs. New York Jets
Denver Broncos vs. Arizona Cardinals
Kansas City Chiefs vs. San Diego Chargers
Philadelphia Eagles vs. Dallas Cowboys
Balitmore Ravens vs. Houston Texans


Chad
Jenn
Both


Finally took thetime to add up the scores... Chad's ahead by one...
Chad: 117-77
Jenn: 116-78

Roller Derby

I have a new obsession - okay it's not really an obsession, it's more of an infatuation and that is roller derby.

A few months ago Chad and I went to our first roller derby match - the Arch Rival Roller Girls. It was so much fun. I really didn't know much about roller derby. The only things I knew was they were on roller skates and it involved hits and blocks. It was pretty easy to figure out how the scoring worked. It was just a fun time. The announcers were great (it was almost as if we were watching it on TV) and the atmosphere is electric.

Last weekend Chad and I went to our second match... and it didn't disappoint. This time we sat in the 'splash zone' which is the area that surrounds the track. We had a wonderful time. I'm really excited to go back for the third match in January.

What also has fed into this infatuation is the movie Whip It. I really enjoyed this movie, just light and funny and interesting and truly an enjoyable movie. You should watch it if you haven't seen it... don't let Drew Barrymore's directorial debut fool you - it's pretty awesome.

Honestly, I wish I had the skillz to be a roller girl. I think the main thing I'm lacking is aggressive-ness. I've never been an aggressive person - which I think is why I didn't do too well at team sports (track doesn't involve one-on-one aggressive interaction.) And if I were a roller girl, I would definately need to be aggressive.... ho-hum. I also don't know if my skating skills are up to snuff. I haven't been in roller skates since probably middle school... and the last time I had roller blades on it didn't end so well. And plus I don't scream roller girl style.

But man it would be fun and different to do... so I'll day dream about it...

Poor Row-dizzy

You might recall that we took the dogs to Virginia for Thanksgiving... They had a ton of fun... they got to run and sniff and run and wander and run and pee on things (that was mostly Rowdy) and did I mention run?

Well, while we were there Rowdy managed to injure of all things... the tip of his tail. We didn't even realize it happened until we found blood all over (on the walls, furniture, floor, himself) We bandaged it up, and hoped that it would get better. Mostly he had trouble keeping a bandage on his tail... that dang thing just moves so fast.

We gave it a week to heal, but he just kept breaking it open, so last Friday Chad took him to the vet. They cleaned up the wound and bandaged it good. They said that it should get better in 10-12 days. Then Friday night late (I had a wedding to attend and Chad was at work) Chad noticed a big chunk missing from his tail, which was worrisome. We cleaned it up again.

But on Saturday while we were out he really did some damage. He pretty much chewed off the end of tail... disgusting I know!! Since our vet wasn't open until Monday we kept his tail clean and covered and made sure he didn't mess with his tail.

On Monday Chad took him back to the vet and we got the bad news... Rowdy will need to have surgery on his tail... he will have to get about 3 inches removed. The bone or whatever is in the tail is exposed right now. It's just too far gone at this point to do anything else... poor guy.

The good news is while they have Rowdy under for the surgery, he will also get neutered and chipped. No more balls for this guy!! Sadly, we'll have to keep him from being active for a few weeks, which seems very difficult. This guy is always going, going, going... but it will only be for a few weeks. He'll also have to wear a cone, which will be sad and funny all at the same time.

I just hate when the animals have to go into the vet or get surgery or we have to leave or anything that we can't explain to them. He won't really know what's happening to him, and that's sad to me. I know he will be ok, and this is all for the best... but it still sucks for him.

I hope that he gets better fast and everything heals correctly and easily!!

Look at that innocent face!!

NFL Week 13 Picks

Houston Texans vs. Philadelphia Eagles
New Orleans Saints vs. Cincinnati Bengals
Chicago Bears vs. Detroit Lions
San Francisco 49ers vs. Green Bay Packers
Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Tennessee Titans
Denver Broncos vs. Kansas City Chiefs
Cleveland Browns vs. Miami Dolphins
Buffalo Bills vs. Minnesota Vikings
Washington Redskins vs. New York Giants
Oakland Raiders vs. San Diego Chargers
Dallas Cowboys vs. Indianapolis Colts
St. Louis Rams vs. Arizona Cardinals
Carolina Panthers vs. Seattle Seahawks
Atlanta Falcons vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Baltimore Ravens
New York Jets vs. New England Patriots

Chad
Jenn
Both

I'm behind on adding them up... Chad is still in the lead and that's all that really matters