Merry Christmas!

We celebrated the four days of Christmas this year. Now that it is all over, I can look back and think it was a success. There were a few moments in there when I just wanted to crawl back into bed and sleep a little longer. I'm really glad I didn't!

We started our holiday celebrations at my parents' house on Saturday. The Watts Family Christmas was a good time. I'm still amazed at how we all fit into my parents' living room; but I do love the coziness of the experience! I also really like the time to spend with my sisters and my parents. It's not often you can get all six of us in one place!

Of course, every family gathering has its casualties. This year poor Cathy was the victim of a monkey to the forehead. She had recovered by Christmas day though, so all is well.

Next up on the Christmas Countdown was the Barrett Family Christmas. This year we had Steve's Dad, Anne, Shayna, Dick, and Shane all over to our house for brunch. I love brunch. There's just something about fruit, eggs, coffee cake and orange juice that just makes me happy.

We were visited by the Red Power Ranger for most of the day, which was very entertaining. Steve also got to use his foosball table with someone other than his talentless wife. Although I don't think he was much more forgiving to Shane.

That celebration capped off nicely with a Bears win over Green Bay. I'll just leave it at that. You can fill in your own Green Bay joke.

Christmas Eve took us to the City (that's right... all the way to Chicago!). We picked up Steve's Mom and met our friend Kurt and his girlfriend, Amanda, for dinner. What says Christmas Eve better than endless plates of meat. Fogo de Chao was awesome even with my ever shrinking belly. They also have the best ginger ale, which isn't actually ginger ale but something very similar only better. I don't remember the name, so you will just have to go to a Brazilian restaurant or store and ask for ginger ale.

Christmas Morning was nice and quiet at the Barrett Compound. I made coffee cake; Breyer and Steve relaxed; it was a very nice morning. We also realized that next year at that time we would probably be doing the same thing, except it would be after a morning filled with opening presents and Santa amazement. We spent Christmas evening at my aunt and uncle's house in McHenry. The Unger Family Christmas is always exciting. This year, the Carlson's got a Wii, so there was much video game playing. I think they even broke a glass while bowling.

So that is the Christmas update. I know this reads like a Christmas letter, so I put all of the pictures first. If you have actually read to here, thank you. You would think a journalist could keep these entries a bit shorter and more to the point. However, I'm a bit wordy and can't always distinguish between which details are necessary and which aren't.

Short Update

We've done it again. We celebrated Christmas early. I already posted about the camera Steve bought me for Christmas. But this weekend, my parents and I gave Steve his Christmas gift.

My family helped me out (all sisters and parents included!) in buying Steve a Foosball table. Our basement is a little bare. There are the loveseats and the baby strollers, but we didn't spend too much time down there since there wasn't much to do other than sit and push an empty stroller. I thought it was time for Steve to have a little fun.

I found the Tornado table at The Great Escape, but I knew I couldn't get it by myself (weight limits or not, that box is unwieldy!). So my parents were nice enough to meet me at the store to help me make the final decision and then get it home.

Steve was pretty excited. He and my dad got the legs put on while I showed my mom the baby furniture upstairs (and it doesn't take very long to look at a crib and gilder!).

We played the inaugural game this morning. Steve won even though he spotted me 8 points (you play to 10). In my defense, I did make him play to 11 since I scored once and you have to win by 2. I have some practicing to do.

Well, I will post some pics later. Right now, I'm exhausted. I've slept most of today, but I'm still pretty tired. I also think Jack doubled in size today. I'm looking forward to carrying him on the outside. All of this weight around my belly is beginning to take its toll! Not to mention that it would be way more fun to see him kick on the outside when I can see him smile or coo.

Baby Linens

In our birthing class this Saturday, we learned details about the 1st stage of labor. It was really informative. I never realized exactly what happened during dilation and effacement. And no, I am not going to relay that information here. If you are really interested, feel free to pick up a book and read about it, or get pregnant and take the class. What I will tell you a little more about is the relaxation techniques. It's basically yoga, which is nice since I already like yoga and know some of the basics. We learned how to tense and relax different limbs this week. It turns out I am not so good at relaxing. Steve was not surprised by this. We're going to practice though.

Last week, we learned about signs of labor, one of which is nesting. I thought nesting meant getting ready for the baby: setting up the room, putting away clothes, playing with the toys, etc. It turns out nesting also means an intense desire to clean and organize your entire house. I have decided that once this nesting instinct occurs, both Steve and I will be ecstatic. I feel like I am pretty useless lately and I certainly do not have any desire to clean.

So, I promised updated pictures of the nursery. Here they are! I took these tonight. I tried to get a belly picture of myself in there too, but that didn't work out well. Either there would be a weird shadow in the background or I would be incredibly unphotogenic (too many double chins, weird smile, awkward stance, etc). So, no pics of me tonight.







Okay, so beyond baby stuff, here's what's happening.

Steve is quite handy around the house. Today, he removed the sinks and counter top from the hall bathroom. We are one step closer to getting that renovated. Really, the vanities, the tub and toilet need to go and then it's time to rebuild!

He's also been busy with grad school planning. I think the plan is to have applications done pretty soon.


Me, I've been sleeping and working. I thought I was doing better with grading, but it turns out I have not. I've really got to buckle down this week and get back on track though. The last thing I want is to give birth before all of the grading for this terms is finished. That would be a huge stressor I just don't need. Of course, in order to do this, I have to stop spending energy on other things, i.e. socializing. I feel like one of my students. I'm spending too much time having fun and not enough time getting my work done. I'm going to try to be a better example though.

Well, I think this has gone on long enough. It's almost nine, which is my desired bedtime. Until next time!

Baby room update

The baby furniture has arrived! Well, actually, it arrived last Thursday, but it's definitely here! and put together!

Last Thursday, Steve and I had some fun (although I think Steve was humoring me, but I'll take it!) washing all of the bedding and putting it on the bed, putting all of the stuff away in the dresser, and taking turns trying out the glider. I was nesting. Now I'm even more excited for Jack to get here.

Other than that, we've been busy with work. I collected research papers yesterday, so I am starting the biannual fun of grading large essays. As usual, I do have a plan.

The typical third trimester symptoms are hitting me pretty hard lately. For instance, right now, I'm totally exhausted and can barely think straight. This is after 8 hours of sleep last night and a 2 hour nap this afternoon. If you've spoken to me lately, you have probably heard about the heart burn. If not, I'll summarize... it sucks. I'm also not finding very many comfortable positions to lie down in. I'm still trying though!

Okay, so here's the fun part. Here are the photos of the baby's room. This is before I "nested" because right now the room is a little trashed with empty boxes and wrappers and stuff all over. I'll get around to cleaning it and taking new photos soon though!

Way past my bedtime

It hurts to sleep at night right now. The heartburn is just killer. So instead of sleeping, I'm updating my blog.

It's been a busy holiday weekend and I've got some cool photos to share. We started with Thanksgiving, our first party in the new house! We had 14 people for dinner and 23 for dessert. However, everyone kept commenting that it didn't feel crowded at all. Steve lit a nice fire that kept us toasty all evening.

From there we went on to Christmas preparations. The Nustra Family was very kind in letting us join their holiday tradition this year. We went to Richardson's Farm in Spring Grove and chopped down our Christmas tree. Well, actually, Steve did the cutting. I did help by pulling the tree while he was cutting, but really, it was all Steve. So the tree is up in the living room. I'm going to try to get it decorated this week some time.

We finished off the weekend with a baby shower for Susie and Peter. My mom and Cathy did an awesome job of throwing a party. Cathy made chocolates for all of the tables and guests, and they were a hit. The present Bingo game went over pretty well too as soon as we figured out what a toy bar was and that blankets are not Rocking Horses (sorry Aunt Jen!).

Overall, I am exhausted. It was a lot of fun packed into four days. I just don't know how I'm going to do all of this once Jack gets here. I'm having a hard enough time right now!

Well, I think the heartburn is starting to let up a bit, and I do have to work tomorrow. (For those of you who are worried, don't be. I got a nice long nap this afternoon!).

Enjoy the photos!

This is for you, Susie!

So my sister has become a way better blogger than me. She has been awesome about updating those of us who love and adore her about her pregnancy, the new house she and Peter just bought, and all of that fun stuff.

However, I am not one easily defeated. So I am returning and hopefully rising to the challenge, at least for a little while.

So this weekend, Steve bought me my Christmas present early. It's a long story as to why, but I am excited, and who am I to turn away an awesome, early Christmas present. He bought me the Nikon D40, the digital camera I have been wanting. So, now I have pictures to put up here, which makes blogging way more fun for me and more interesting for you.

I am not so good at regular mail, so we never sent out change of address notes. That would have been cute and nice, but I was bust getting and staying pregnant. Of course, that also means that we haven't had an official house-warming party either. So I took some photos of our house yesterday for those of you who haven't been out to see it yet. We've redone all of the bedrooms now (we're just waiting for the baby furniture) and we've furnished our great room.






My personal favorite part of our house is the screened-in porch overlooking the north end of our backyard. It's awesome to sit out there in the spring, summer, fall and eat dinner or grade papers or just sit.













Now on to the more fun stuff... our pregnancy!

We were officially 29 weeks this past Friday. At our last doctor's appointment (last Monday), we had our last ultrasound photo taken. He smiled for us, which was cool. However, he's getting a little big for good ultrasound pics. His umbilical cord got in the way of most of the good shots, and when that wasn't in the way, his put his little arm in front of his face. I think he's like his dad: he just gets sick of pictures after a while.

Anyway, we have tons of great ultrasounds from earlier in the pregnancy. Here's one of my favorites!















As far as pictures of me, well, I have an old one. But I think I look different now. This afternoon we are going to celebrate the engagement of my cousin Rob to his girlfriend (now fiancee) Vita. I'll try to get a good photo there and post it later. I also have a really good story about our prenatal class (good as in the class was awful so the story is funny). I'll post that later too.

Well, Susie, I hope this updates you enough for today. And look out, I have a camera and I am going to be good at this again!

The Belated Update...

Life has been REALLY busy lately. Steve and I moved into our new home at the end of April. Then, I finished out the hectic, crazy school year. Then we lead a very successful Relay For Life. And then we went on my dream vacation, Ireland. To say that life has been hectic is actually an understatement.

Oh yea, and we're pregnant!!

That's been the coolest part of the last few months. And I use coolest in a very contextual way. See, morning sickness has been brutal. As excited as I am about being pregnant, the first trimester is hard. I was sick the whole time (literally sick several times a day), and I don't look pregnant, and the due date is still really far away. We are due Jan. 26, 2008.

Now that we are moving into the second trimester, things are getting better. I still don't think I'm showing very much; it really depends on what I am wearing. But I'm no longer getting sick several times a day. In fact, I have gone several days without getting sick. It's a wonderful thing.

Okay, so that's the big news. I'll try to be better about this. But we all know I always say that and I still go through my good phases and bad ones. We'll just keep our fingers crossed.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I think we are gluttons for punishment.

Steve has started his GMAT preparation class on Sunday evenings. Those of you who know my husband, know exactly what a big deal it is that he is giving up his Sundays to go to class, all the way downtown, for three hours. It's taking a little getting used to, Steve going to class and me staying home, but I think we're getting a handle on it. I'm super excited that he's moving forward on the grad school stuff... it's nice to share the stress of grad school with someone.

Speaking of grad school, I'm busy working on my journalism project class. Two weekends ago, Steve drove me around Chicago to visit and photograph 4 parks. Despite the dumping of snow the night before, we put on the boots and made the rounds. It went pretty well despite the white blanket on everything. Now, I wait to go back after winter has really left us.

Work has certainly not let up any since we buckled down on the studies. There's really not much to tell here; we feel like we work all of the time. If there's not something to grade, there's something to plan (although, there is ALWAYS something to grade). And Steve is busy doing that computer stuff that he does.

So we thought, grad school and work, that's really not that much. There are lots of people who work and go to grad school. We need more to do. So, Relay For Life planning is picking up. The informational kick-off went off well on Wednesday. Now, we have to make sure the event plans all get done. We signing up teams now, so if you are not on a team yet, or haven't signed up your team... do it now at Relay For Life of Wheeling.

Since Relay isn't actually until June, we thought we'd add one more thing to our list of activities: House hunting. That's right, the Barretts have begun looking for a new, larger home. We at the beginning of the process, so there is no rush on a decision to move. That's making the process fun. We've already seen a couple of houses that we like, so we're getting an idea of what we want in a house. We're also exploring different areas to get a better idea of where we really want to live. Since the getting the Nustras to Palatine is looking like a long shot, we're keeping our options open. We've also started the process of getting the townhouse ready to sell. So, if you know of anyone who wants a really nice townhouse, have them call us.

So I think that's it... Until next time!

What happened?

The last month has been a bit overwhelming. It started with the passing of my Memere. While that was somewhat expected since she had been sick for about 2 months, it still was not easy. The family went down to Texas to say our goodbyes, and it was overall a positive experience considering the circumstances. It is always nice to see my cousin and her boys. They are so much fun!

From there, I returned to chaos at work. And it hasn't really relented since. I have considered finding a new job. For now I am staying though. I like my students and my colleagues too much to let one little month of chaos ruin it all. I also started my new grad class, which just adds to the work load. Steve took his GMAT test, and in my opinion did very well. However, he wasn't completely pleased, so he has started a GMAT class in order to do better next time. To say we are busy is an understatement.

On a positive note, we celebrated my dad's 60th birthday this weekend. It was a nice little party on Friday night. I think he had a pretty good time. I also went to dinner with my sisters this weekend. It's been a while since we've had a Watts girls night, and I REALLY enjoyed it. There's just something about hanging with my sisters that puts everything into perspective and makes the world right again.

I think the crowning glory of the last month has been the garage door. Steve installed a keypad garage door opener this weekend. It is really pretty cool. I no longer worry about forgetting my keys. And in a strange way, it makes me feel like an upper class home owner. I think Steve is pretty proud too.

Not much is new

The winter doldrums have set in. Steve and I are happily keeping up with life right now. Our most exciting venture lately has been Steve's attempt to install a new thermostat (we couldn't get the unit to turn on though. Hopefully Peter can figure that out!).

Basically, we are doing all of the "new year" activities. We are trying to eat healthier, to work out more, to spend more time with Breyer, and to watch the Bears. Go Bears!

Our life sure is busy though. Relay For Life is starting to heat up. Kick Off is at the end of February. Finals week at Wheeling is next week, so I should be grading right now (I'm just taking a break though). Steve is going to take the GMAT at the beginning of February, so he is studying for that. And my next grad class starts at the end of January. Although, I have to finish my last grad class before that (I got an extension on a story).

Actually, now that I look back on what I just wrote, we don't have the winter doldrums. We are enjoying ourselves! And I was wrong about the thermostat being the most exciting thing... We have booked our trip to Ireland for June! That's way more exciting than a programmable thermostat any day. So, maybe I just need to make sure I keep up with this blog so that I don't lose sight of all of the fun things we are doing :)

Holiday Update...

Christmas was fun and not very stressful this year. Actually, I really loved the way we did Christmas this year. We started on Christmas Eve Eve (if you don't count the Christmas we did for my dad before he left for Texas!). Steve and I joined my sisters and brother-in-law and cousin at my parents' house. Susie made her lasagna (which I still want the recipe for her homemade sauce!) while my mom made everyone feel at home. She made Christmas cookies and lots of tea. We had dinner, then opened presents. The Livingstons came over too for dessert and more gifts. I'm still not sure how we fit everyone into the living room for gift opening, but it worked and it was fun! Then, Susie and Peter organized a family outing to Cubbie Bear North to see Pat McCurdy play. I think the highlight of the night was my mom singing and dancing to Sex and Beer. Of course Connie gave it a good run for the money by wearing granny panties outside of her jeans.

To balance out the 2 a.m. night with the Watts/Nustras, we had a very adult Christmas Eve. Actually, I prefer to call it the Moms Christmas Eve. During the day we went to Steve's Dad's house to celebrate with him, Anne, and the Mortensens. Shane was awesome. He opened a video game gift from Papa and Grandma Anne saying "I knew I wanted this for my whole life!" He was so excited about opening presents he was practically floating when Steve and I finally got there. After the Barrett Family Christmas, we headed back home for a quick nap before the Moms Christmas Eve. We had dinner reservations for Steve, me, Kathy B. and Sue W. at Franscescas in West Dundee. It was so nice to sit in a nice restaurant and enjoy just talking and eating with our Moms. This is a tradition I could see keeping in the future!

Christmas morning was very nice at the Barrett Family House. We woke up leisurely (well, as leisurely as Breyer would let us!). We had a nice Christmas lunch of Macaroni and Cheese and frozen pizza. While this may not seem like a big deal, this was the first time in about 4 years that either of us had these foods. I was pretty excited! We then headed out to McHenry to celebrate with the Unger Family. Steve and I got there first (which is pretty unusual since we are usually traveling around to lots of places) so we got a tour of the Carlson's new house (the location for Christmas 2007). It was great time in McHenry. We played lots of games (it turns out that I am not so good at Charades, thank goodness Vita is awesome!). It was just nice to hangout with everyone.

Of course, the holiday season is not complete without a little disappointment. Our disappointments were missing The Reilley Family Christmas and not seeing my Dad since he was in Texas with his mom and sister. However, as far as disappointments go, I think we got off lucky!

Why there are no pictures

For me, the whole reason blogs are fun is because I can post pictures and "show" everyone what's going on in our lives. However, my digital camera is currently "sick." I can't get any of the photos off of it. I've tried using the card reader, I've tried plugging the camera into the computer with the USB cable. Nothing seems to work. I'm a little concerned that something has been corrupted. While we were in Nashville, the camera acted goofy when I tried downloading some of the pics. A few of them were then corrupted and wouldn't open. Ever since then, I haven't been able to download anything like normal. Steve is trying to figure it out for me. Hopefully he'll be able to get it fixed. I'm feeling very empty without my camera. Today, I hosted Beth's baby shower and I didn't take any pictures because I didn't have my camera. In fact, no one had a camera, so there are no pictures of the shower today. That makes me sad.

Anywho, as soon as I have a working digital camera again, there will be photos on the blog again!

Memere

Just a quick update on my Memere. Memere is my Dad's mom (the name is French for grandmother). She lives in Bullard, Texas. A few weeks ago, we found out that she has pancreatic cancer that has metastasized to other areas of her body. Luckily, she is not in any pain. My dad is now in Bullard with her and my Aunt Jane and Uncle Dick. They are doing their best to keep her comfortable and get her everything she wants. This means running quick trips to church and shopping.

So, Memere is in our prayers.

We love you Memere!

Home Improvement

It's break time! Steve and I are both off for the next two weeks. I am so excited! Our big plan is to lay ceramic tile in the guest bathroom upstairs. We've been checking out tiles for a while. We even bought a how-to book from Home Depot a few weeks ago. Steve has already read through that.

Steve is getting pretty into this. Yesterday he went to a tile store in Schaumburg and found some inspiration. Now he wants to try retiling everything in the kitchen (and I mean everything: counters, backsplashes, the dog). He also found a class there for next Saturday morning. So before we go celebrate Christmas with my mom and sisters and brother-in-law, we will learn how to tile.

Of course, Steve likes to do projects, so right now he's working on creating a chalkboard wall in our kitchen. I'm pretty excited about this one too. I think it will be pretty cool looking, plus it will be fun to leave notes on the wall.

Baking Cookies

Okay, so I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I would write a few separate little posts to update.

First up... Christmas Cookies!
Last weekend, I baked 6 different kinds of Christmas cookies. It was so much fun! I made the old favorites: the Hershey Kiss cookies, the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup cookies (Auntie Jen's recipe), Grandma Unger's Christmas Cutouts. I also ventured out a little. I made the white chocolate coconut snowballs and gingerbread cookies from the RealSimple magazine recipe. These were a hit! Finally, I tried making another of Grandma Unger's recipes, the white snowballs, basically a butter cookie surrounding a Hershey Kiss. I'm not sure I made these correctly though. They were pretty flakey.

Anyway, I ended up with about 100 cookies in my house. Now, this would normally be very dangerous in the Barrett household. I don't have much will power for avoiding cookies, especially Christmas cookies. However, I had a plan. Most of the cookies went to school for parties and Spokesman student gifts. Another plateful went to my neighbor Karen who always brings us wonderful homemade goodies. Overall, I don't think I ate more than one batch myself (I'm not sure Steve even had any!).

Overall, a lot of fun!

I don't have a good title...

We made it through Thanksgiving! And I think we found the trick to enjoying ourselves. We cleaned on Wednesday night. Thursday morning, we woke up early (8 a.m. is early for me on a day off) and started the turkey after having some homemade coffee cake. We had the table set and everything ready to go by the time people started arriving around noon. It was awesome.

We served 14 people dinner in our modest townhome this year. The tables stretched from the dining room into the living room. But I think this was a plus for Joey, he got to keep an eye on the football games. This was the first year we were able to all sit at one table, which was pretty cool. I really enjoyed being able to talk with everyone at dinner.

Of course, we busted out the board games later for more fun. We tried out Wheel of Fortune first. I think that's a hard game to play with lots of people. I don't think Eric and Julie really liked either. Maybe if there was a "Hot Sauce" puzzle it would have been more fun. Susie, Peter and Kathy Bdot won that one.

We moved onto the more traditional Trivial Pursuit after the Wheel. This went pretty well, but seemed to go on FOREVER. I think it was 11:30 by the time we finished. Steve, Aunt Colleen and Nan won that one.

I have some cute pictures, but due to technical difficulties with the digital camera, I can't post them yet. The Canon has trapped my photos!

So Friday Steve and I slept most of the day. We did get up early to take Breyer to the vet. She hurt her back right foot. The pad was cut up. She got a nice little bandage though and had to wear her booty for a few days. The booty is so cute; I wish she would wear them normally. She usually just kicks it off. She was great about the whole thing this time(except the removal of the bandage, but who likes taking a bandaid off of a hairy spot?). She was pretty healed up by Sunday, and she's finally back to her normal self today. Lots of energy, lots of head shaking.

This is turning into a long blog, but I was waiting to blog until I downloaded my pictures. Since that's not going to happen anytime soon, I decided I better get this stuff down before I forget it all.

I started Christmas shopping early this year. I've already bought three gifts! I think Steve has started his shopping too. I had a lot of fun shopping with my mom, Cathy, Susie and Nancy on Saturday. I forgot how tiring shopping gets though. Thank goodness Woodfield wasn't too crowded on Saturday. I don't think I could have handled all the crowds with the pushy sales people too.

So now we're back at work, trudging through until the winter break. Yea break!

Thanksgiving is almost here...

Thank God!

I am so ready for an extended break I can hardly stand it. Of course, the long weekend will go by way too fast, but I am fully aware of this and still want it anyway.

This weekend was pretty nice after another hard week. I think the trip to Nashville took a lot out of me. Friday night, Steve took me out to dinner and we went to the bookstore in West Dundee. It's called Steeplejack, and the owner, Kim, is awesome. Being the book-nerd that I am, I really enjoyed going in there, smelling the scent of old books, and just talking about the fun things we've read. We also got a great deal on two books to add to our pile of reading.

Saturday was pretty fun too. Gena came out and we went shopping at Huntley. I found a bunch of cute new stuff, and I didn't spend our entire savings! We (me, Gena, and Steve) also went to see Ike Reilly play at the Double-Door. There, we met up with Kurt and Alex and ran into Michelle and Joseph. It was a really fun show.

Today, Steve and I went to Alex's christening. It was a really nice ceremony, just really long. There was knocking on doors, some water pouring, lots of standing up and then sitting down. I think it went well though. Alex didn't cry at all; she is such a great baby!

Now, it's back to work. I didn't get much work done this weekend. I have a ton of stuff to do for grad school; I have a grading piling up; we have our family coming over for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. I think I'll focus on dinner, that's way more fun!

A tough week

I thought this week would be a little easier. Finals were over, the grades were in. I knew I had grad class on Monday and Pasteup on Tuesday, but I thought if I made it to Wednesday, it would be smooth sailing.

For the most part, it was. I've got school somewhat under control. I have new methods for keeping myself organized and staying on top of grading. I've still got my student teacher working with one of my classes too.

It was still a long week. Wednesday, I got my hair colored, and Steve and I had dinner at Emmett's. We saw Tim Burns, and he let me give some menu suggestions. I don't know if he'll actually take them into consideration, but it made me feel really good! After dinner, I was in bed pretty quick.

Then Thursday came along. After work, I thought I had no plans except to go to the bookstore with Steve. But I forgot that I had promised Cathy I would help her find a digital camera. So once I finally left school (at about 4:30), I went with Cathy to Best Buy. It was a successful trip; she has a really cool digital camera now. So I came home and met up with Steve. He was pretty tired, as was I. So it was off to Luke's for a gyro and a hotdog. Then back to the couch.

Steve has been a little bit more productive than me this week. He's run twice and walked the dog a lot since I had late nights early in the week. He also had to man the candy bowl on Halloween.

Tonight, my mom is over and we're scrapbooking. And by "we" I mean my mom. We ordered a pizza, chatted a lot, and then finally started around 7:30. I decided to blog instead. I don't really know where to start with my scrapbook at this point since I have so much to do and no organization. The blog is much easier. My mom, on the other hand, is much more organized. She's made a page for Susie and Peter's scrapbook. And she's done several pages for her scrapbook of my and Steve's wedding. She's pretty awesome.

So the general theme of this week has been eating out. I'm feeling very unhealthy and sluggish. Next week, I really want to make sure I eat better, just take better care of myself. I think that's a pretty doable goal.

So I think that's all the excitement for this week. Next week we head to Nashville for the journalism convention. That should bring some excitement for us.

It's only a flesh wound

Happy Halloween! I'm actually at work, so I'm not feeling very halloweeny right now. We did celebrate, though, on Saturday at Tim and Melissa's. You can see by the photo to see how fun Steve and I were. (We're not the doctors/nurses!) Steve was the creative one who found our Monty Python costumes. I think they were a little wasted on the party though; not many people knew who we were.

Run away! Run away!

I don't feel like I've done much in the last week. I feel like all I have done is grade papers. That could be because all I have done is grade papers. Final exams really stink. Steve really got the raw end of the deal though. I wasn't much company. He managed to have some fun anyway. He went to Home Depot and bought the corded drill he's been eyeing. Then he used it to hang a shelf above the desk in the loft. It's very nice. It made grading on Sunday much easier since I had a place to sit and work.

So now I am looking forward to nice quiet evenings at home with my husband. Hopefully starting tomorrow.

Winding Down...

Now that my sister is married, Steve and I are starting to get back to our normal life. This week seemed a little hectic still, at least until we got to the weekend.

Work has been a little more stressful lately than I would like. However, I am working on separating my work life from my personal life, so I'm not going to go any farther on that in my blog. I did take my students on a fun fieldtrip on Friday to the University of Wisconsin in Whitewater, and that was enjoyable.

Relay For Life is moving right along. Steve and I went to a goals setting meeting Thursday night with my co-chair, Kathryn, and our team development chair, Patty. It was a pretty effective meeting, so that was a nice use of time. Plus, we got a some free stuff to take back to our committee members, which is always fun.

I got my haircut this week. That may sound a little miniscule, but it was huge for me. I hadn't had it cut so that it would be a little longer for the wedding (that way I could get an up-do). So it was so nice to have it cut off again and be easy to do AND nice looking. I'm very happy.

Our weekend was definitely the highlight. Friday night, we made dinner and watched TV while relaxing on the couch. I love when Steve grills steaks, so I was pretty happy. Saturday, we went to a wedding celebration (the wedding was in June) for some family friends. It was nice to have a low-key party! Then, we headed out to DeKalb for NIU Homecoming. The Huskies won, but we didn't go to the game (we were at the party). We met up with TJ, Tim, Melissa, Eddie, and Delena at Stanley's to see the Footstompers play. It was a pretty fun night despite the soaking rain.

Steve's 10-year high school reunion was also Saturday night. We didn't go. Steve wasn't too excited or motivated to go, and we didn't feel like spending $150 to go to Sluggers. He did get a phone call from his friend Tina. Other than that, we still have to hear the full report from Phil about what we missed.

Today has been a wonderful Sunday. Steve is relaxing on the couch watching TV; I'm grading papers and updating blogs. We don't have to be anywhere or see anyone. It's our ideal way to spend the day.

So that was this week. Here are a few pictures from Stanleys! GO NIU!

Karen

This is fun!

I am enjoying blogging. I think this might have something to do with people actually looking at my blogs. I'll let you know for sure after I've kept this one up for a while.

Anywho... I thought I would add a few more pictures of Susie and Peter's wedding. They are such a cute couple, not to mention lots of good looking people were at the wedding too!

I also thought I would put it in writing that my husband is planning to take me to Ireland next summer. That's right, Steve has started the flight search. I'll update you more as this progresses. I just don't want him to get out of it this time!

Okay, here are the pictures, enjoy!

The Nustra Wedding...

Okay, so Nustra may not sound like Barrett Family Life... but it is. My sister Susie is now officially a Nustra. Yea! I also have another brother in law - Peter! Yea!

So I thought I would post a couple of pics just for fun. The rest will be on Walgreens, so email me if you want to see those. I have a total of 345 burned to a DVD. So please enjoy these representative few!

Love you!

Karen

Finally, more pictures of Nan's party!

Sorry for taking so long to get this up here. This is taking me a long time to do, I know. However, here are some more, so please enjoy! I'll keep adding until I have them all posted or my fingers fall off; whichever happens first!

Karen