Graduation Day

As I stated in the last post I have been very busy!! Two of the nights last week were spent with activities of high school graduation. It's times like these that make you realize how old I'm getting. As I pointed out at these events I graduated high school nearly 10 years ago!!

Last Monday night we went to Lindsey's Senior Awards night. Her councilor at school told her it was very important that she attend. So we started off with dinner at Olive Garden which is so very tasty. I love that place. Then we headed over to the high school.

It's weird being back in the high school I went to so long ago. Some things have changed, but some things never will. I was talking to my mom how this is the last school event she'll go to at Lindbergh... for being a part of that school district since 1989... I bet that feels a little surreal.

Anyway back to the star of the evening... Lindsey ended up getting a scholarship that she applied for!! I believe it was the Don Jones's scholarship. She's probably going to hate me, but here she is with her certificate.
GO LINDSEY!! YOU ROCK!!

On Tuesday night I attended my step-brother Connor's graduation, which funny enough took place in the very place I graduated (Connor doesn't go to the same school as Lindsey). It was interesting to attend a high school graduation... after all it's been 5 years since I went to one (that's when Chad's brother Ryan graduated) It always feels long, especially in the case of Connor's graduation where I only knew him and not any of his friends or past friends (like if I were to attend Lindsey's ceremony.)

But it's always a good feeling around high school graduation... your life is just beginning and it's an exciting exciting time. I am also excited because Connor has decide to follow in my and Keith's footsteps by attending Truman State! Lindsey is staying in St. Louis and attending UMSL. I'm happy for both of them, they have both turned into such great, interesting people. I'm so happy they are both part of my family.

The best of luck to both of you, Lindsey and Connor!!

Prison Trip

So I've had like a week of non-stop busy-ness... it's been crazy. I guess at a point life just speeds up... but this past week it's been one thing right after another. I'm looking forward to this next week not being nearly as busy.

The Saturday before last my mom, brother and I went to Jefferson City to take a tour of the old Missouri State Penitentiary. My mom had heard they were giving tours of this place and it sounded interesting to me. So we decided a day trip would be nice and luckily Keith was done with school so he was able to join us.

Now I'm not sure if anyone reading knows the history of this place - I didn't... but it has some serious history. For one, it's dubbed the "Bloodiest 47 acres in America." I guess it was quite the violent place! You always hear about Alcatraz as being a famous prison, but this place was bigger, opener longer, and contains a LOT of history. It opened in 1836 (and finally closed in 2004) and at one point housed over 6,000 prisoners. I mean look at this place... it's pretty epic looking...
The tour was given by a gentleman that was a guard in the prison for 30 years. You could just tell that he was very involved with what he was saying and had so many person stories. He really gave life to the place and if you could hear him talk when he didn't have PG it up, I can't imagine all the stories he has. He said at one point there's not a place in the prison that didn't involve a death of some type... a pretty violent place!

Onto some of my mom's pictures from the day... here's Keith in what I believe they referred to as the privilage cell block (mom or Keith remind me on that one.) What you can't tell is Keith is on the fourth story... heights don't really get to me that often, but something about this place was making my knees wobble... maybe b/c it was a little worn down... But I did walk across the cat walk... I just didn't look down...
And here I am exiting on the the cells. This cell has the only original doorway on it. As you can tell the old doors are very small.
What I didn't have a good picture of, but in this cell block in the basement next to the showers was a dungeon... like a serious dungeon. They would put the misbehavers down there with the lights off... it was so dark, like no light what so ever... I can't imagine what it would be like to be down there for days/week/months/years... and in one guy's case decades...

Here is another cell block... a newer version. It's kind of hard to think that this place only closed 7 years ago... with the peeling paint and such... but it's true.

And finally here's the gas chamber building
And here's Keith and I sitting in the gas chamber... behind those seats on the ground is where the gas was created and those windows are were the witnesses, press, and family would sit to watch the execution. I'm going to say the picture was blurry b/c of the ghosts... but I'd be lying if I said that was the case.
We took the four hour tour and I cannot say enough good things about it. There's also a four hour tour as well as a ghost tour at night. If you are ever in the Jeff City area you really should consider taking the tour. There's so much history right here in our very state. The land the prison sits on is in prime real estate area. I think they are considering tearing this place down. I'm planning on writing a letter to express how awesome I thought the tour was... but be sure to get there and see it for yourself! I bet taking the tour again with a different guide would provide even more interesting information... and there was a lot of places we didn't get to see... I bet they take you to some of those areas on four hour version.

To round out the day in Jeff City we ate at a old diner type of place... Oliver's? And then we got ice cream from none other than Central Dairy. It was great ice cream... just as how I remembered it.

Overall it was a great day trip to Jeff City!! And we had some great weather for it too!

Getting to Know Us Monday

Onto the next five questions!!

What is your favorite color?
Jenn: I love colors, I would probably say my favorite is pink but I love color (as in I own lots of clothes of array of different colors
Chad: Black, obviously, or blue.

Who is your best friend and how did you meet?
Jenn: This is a tough question, b/c I really don't know who my best friend is... I would say Chad and my Mom are my best friends, and it's pretty obvious where I met them.
Chad: Used to be Pat Kuse, and we met in Mrs. Cappizzi’s 3^rd grade class. Nowadays I don’t really have a best friend…

What is your favorite home cooked meal?
Jenn: There are lots of good home cooked meals, my favorite would probably have to be our chili
Chad: Oh so many choices! I love my grandmas fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, and gravy.

What is your favorite grab and go meal?
Jenn: I would say those tuna lunch things... they are easy to have around and don't have to be microwaved or refrigerated so it works out nicely.
Chad: Can’t beat a good sammich to go.

Do you prefer to wear pants or shorts/dresses?
Jenn: I love dresses... they are my favorite to wear in summer, I like jeans a lot too
Chad: Pants. Or more specifically, jeans.

Getting to Know Us Monday

We're back for our second installment of 'Getting to Know Us'. Here are today's five random questions and answers... enjoy (and let me know if you are enjoying this or if it's just stupid - I don't know unless you tell me!)

What is your strongest talent?
Jenn: I'm going to say my positive attitiude or giving advice to my friends
Chad: Pleasing people.

Do you play a musical instrument, if so which one(s)?
Jenn: I don't play any musical instrument - all of the music ability went to my brother and sister
Chad: Saxophone in school – nothing now.

What do you usually do when you have leisure time on your hands?
Jenn: I usually watch tv or do crafty things like cross-stitching. I also like to read.
Chad: Play XBOX, ride my motorcycle, work on computer stuff.

What is your favorite season and why?
Jenn: Either Spring or Fall... I love the cooler weather that's still mostly warm, it's the perfect time to sit outside
Chad: Summer – best weather to ride.

If you could go anywhere in the world where would you go?
Jenn: There are a ton of places I want to go... Australia, Greece, all over Europe including Italy, France, Great Britian, Ireland, maybe Spain. Tropical places like the Dominican and Puerto Rico would be amazing too... gosh I'm really dying for an actual vacation!!
Chad: For vacation, someplace tropic. To live, Canada.

Happy Mother's Day

I am truly blessed to have a lot of mother's in my life... I've got Janet, my wonderful step-mom and I've got Chris my fantastic mother-in-law (I totally lucked out) just to name a couple.

But I'm truly, truly blessed to have my own mother in my life. She is amazing, and my very best friend. I really do believe she's one of the greatest mom's in the world. I share just about everything with her and she always gives me the very best advise. She helps guide me in the direction I want to go. I have so much fun spending time with her, and while Chad's been working this weekend schedule I've been spending quite a lot of time with her!

Someday if/when I become a mom I hope that I can be as amazing as she was for me. I have a great example in her - so hopefully it won't be too difficult :)

Mom, I love you so much, thanks for always being there for me - you mean everything to me, you helped me become the person I am. You did a great job!

Winery "trip"

For the last couple of years we've been making a yearly trip to the winery - Villa Antonio Winery. Here's where I blogged about the trip two years ago... I guess I didn't write an entry last year. Either way... it's been a yearly thing since 2009.

As I remembered from that blog entry, two years ago is was SO SO hot... we went in late June and it was pretty miserable. Last year we went in May... and this year we planned for April 30th. I was hoping for some pretty perfect weather, sitting outside, chatting, snacking and most importantly - drinking wine!!

St. Louis has been under nearly constant (okay, probably not constant, but man, it sure feels that way) rain/storm/generally craptastic weather. While I don't hate storms, they don't pair well with a winery trip. So we were eye-balling the weather like crazy once April 30th came into the forcast... and guess what? They forcasted rain... go figure.

We held out until Thursday to decide what to do... we didn't have a huge group together. We ended up deciding not to go ot the winery, but I offered to have everyone over at my place. That way if the weather ended up being nice we could still sit outside and if not, well, I had an inside area too.

So we did just that... I had Erica, Carrie, Jen, and Carrie's friend Lauren over. It was the perfect small group. Everyone brought tasty food to snack on, and yummy wine. I broke out my Mikasa wine glasses we got for our wedding. The weather ended up being perfect (figures again) but we got to enjoy it on our patio - and we had the convenience of the bathroom and kitchen close by. So in the end it may have worked out even better than going to the actual winery.

I love relaxed girls day... and I never drink during the day, so that was fun too. I had a great time and I hope the girls did too. We talked about doing a girls trip somewhere and I think that sounds like an amazing idea... I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it actually happens.

Getting to Know Us Monday

For a long time now I've wanted to start a weekly blog series. I have been trying to come up with a good idea now for quite awhile and nothing was sounding good. That's when I got an idea of answering some random questions. But that didn't seem quite interesting enough. So I kindly asked my awesome husband (here he is)

...if he would also answer the questions... and amazingly enough he agreed. So here's the first installment of getting to know us.

What is your favorite childhood book?
Jenn: I would have to say either Goodnight Moon or Green Eggs and Ham. I love all Dr. Seuss books.
Chad: My favorite childhood book would have to be Chicken Little.

What was your favorite subject in school?
Jenn: I would say I most enjoyed art classes, however I was probably best at science.
Chad: Probably chemistry - got to blow shit up and light things on fire.

What is your favorite flavor of jelly beans?
Jenn: My all time favorite is Juicy Pear, I also like watermelon
Chad: Strawberry Cheesecake

What flavor of ice cream do you prefer?
Jenn: My favorite is vanilla with hot fudge... mmmm
Chad: I would say chocolate chip cookie dough

What do you think is your very best feature or characteristic?
Jenn: I think my best feature is my positive, upbeat attitude. I've always been happy and positive.
Chad: That's an extremely broad question - I'm extremely patient is one of them, the only one I can think of offhand.