Meet the Schulte's

Just a little update of my life

2011-03-07T10:24:00.000-08:00

Well I've known for about a week now but I was officially accepted into the Nurse Practitioner Program at Unviversity of Evansville! Guess I won't be starting until next January though. I may need that time to mentally prepare....and to get Reese potty trained by then! Reese finally got over her ear infection after 2 rounds of antibiotics. Now we are just dealing with Reagan and what seems to be a bit of the flu again. This makes 3 times for her this winter:(
I just got the news that I'm having another little neice or nephew (Kev says definately a boy!). Jessica and Kent are finally having a baby! Just in time too cause Jessica is also going into the nurse practitioner program next Spring. Good luck guys and Congratulations!

More animals

2011-02-15T18:34:00.000-08:00

We ordered 25 baby chicks awhile back and were expecting them to come sometime during this coming week. To our surprise, we recieved a phone call at 9:30 p.m. Saturday night from the Effingham post office saying that they had arrived! Kevin and Reagan left to go get them while I stayed back to prepare their bedding. Reagan was so excited about getting them and wants to hold them all the time. This will be the second time we've raised baby chicks but we have never done this many. 9 of them are meat birds for us to butcher and the rest are an assortment of ones we want for pets and eggs. Kevin also went to get some more goats on Saturday. So far they are my favorite. They are very pretty and super friendly.

Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T18:34:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's to everyone. Had to post a picture of one of my cute valentine's!

We made it through

2011-02-02T19:34:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone made it through the storm uneventful. I didn't get stranded at work like I thought I would have and I was able to get all of the shifts covered from call ins so I'm greatful for that. Our electricity was out for about 24 hours...just came back on this evening. It was fun at first...Reagan thought we were camping and loved all the candles and sleeping in her sleeping bag on the living room floor. But by morning when the temperature had started dropping, it became a bit of a bother. I had stocked up on non-parishables and plenty of lunch meat just in case we would have become stranded or without power for several days. Luckily it looks like I can forget about that! And Reagan is happy we are getting to stay the night at Grandma's house. We had packed up to stay for the night due to no power. But when the lights had come back on at our place around 7:00, there was no getting Reagan to go back home. So here we are, sleeping over at Grandma Schulte's!

She's crawling

2011-01-22T15:16:00.000-08:00

Reese had a big week this week. A few of her top teeth finished breaking through...puts her up to a whopping 5 teeth. She just learned how to grind her teeth too....eey! She's been bouncing on her knees for a good week or two and finally took a few paces on Wednesday. By now, she is crawling all over! It's sweet that she's met this milestone but I know it's only a matter of short time and I'll be losing her around the house. Time to put up the baby gates I guess!

Bucky

2011-01-09T15:54:00.000-08:00

This is Bucky, the 6 month old male goat Kevin got this weekend. He's such a cute little guy....for now anyway. Apparently male goats get rather ugly when they get full grown so I'm not looking forward to that. The two girls, Lucy and Ethel have been kind of mean to him and injured him so we moved him in with the chickens temporarily. I also had my first experience with trimming hooves of an animal. I sort of winged it, not knowing what I was cutting but he survived and can still walk so I must have done okay!

Happy Christmas!

2010-12-26T19:30:00.000-08:00

Whew, Christmas is over and I'm exhausted! We did the Schulte family Christmas on the 18th so it was nice to spread things out a bit. On Wednesday, Kevin and I went to Reagan's preschool and we helped her make a Gingerbread house...I had to keep on Kevin to quite eating the candy until the house was completed! On Christmas eve, we spent the day at my mom's house and was visited by Santa (Reagan was just fine and dandy but Reagan still has a complex about getting anywhere near Santa). Christmas morning was soooo exciting for Reagan. Every present she opened, she wanted us to open so she could start playing with it. Make note..next year Santa won't bring so much because interest is lost by the end! I took a picture of her in her new housecoat and her dressup wig. She got a moxie girl doll, barbie doll head to fix hair with, dresses, books, cowgirl boots, and dress up costumes to name a few. Reese got some of the necessities and a baby gait to keep her from crawling up the stairs (which she may be doing soon!) I took a picture of Kevin's new hat that my uncle embroidered-he has started a business doing all kinds of things like that. That afternoon we went to Beecher City for a Christmas and then went to Belleville on Sunday for the last Christmas. What a fun time. It's always sad to see it go knowing we are facing the winter with nothing but Spring to look forward to. Merry Christmas everyone!

The big 3-0 is finally here

2010-12-19T12:53:00.000-08:00

Sorry to all my faithful followers for going 2 months and no posts. I had almost given up on blogging, you know...never enough time it seems like. Not even sure where to begin or even what has happened in the last two months. Reese is growing up so fast, has 2 teeth already and just started eating some rice cereal about a week ago. Reagan is loving preschool and is so excited about Santa coming to her (she wants EVERYTHING she sees on commercials). Yesterday was my big 3-0. Yep, it's official, I'm old. No exciting party or anything but we did have Kevin's family Christmas yesterday so that was just as good. Also to kick off me being 30, I applied to graduate school yesterday to start my Master's for Nurse Practitioner. This is something I've thought about for a few years but never thought I was in a good position to do it (still not sure I am). But I just did it quickly before I had time to think about it. My sister-in-law Jessica is doing it too so we can carry each other through it for the next few years. Wish me luck....think I'm going to need it!

Halloween

2010-10-30T18:43:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone had a great Halloween. Ours was pretty broken up. We started last weekend at West Union getting that side of the family. By the way, congratulations to my sister for announcing that she was 10 weeks pregnant on that day!! On Friday evening, I stayed at the nursing home for the evening to help out with the trick or treating event while Kevin and the girls helped pass out candy at Grandma Schulte's house. Finally on Sunday evening, we went around Newton to a few places to finish up. We had planned on going to the Halloween parade on Saturday night but Kevin and Reagan ended up with the stomach flu in the middle of the night on Friday. Despite that part in the weekend, we still had a good holiday. Happy Halloween everyone! Now we can focus on Christmas:)

Finally!!

2010-10-17T19:54:00.000-07:00

Well, anyone who is close to us knows that we've had goats since last April. We weren't exactly ready for them yet...no house, no fence, no hay. But Kevin convinced me that it would be okay to keep them with the chickens for a short time. Well that's just been a big mess. They poop and pee everywhere and are always jumping up on the fence around our coop which certainly was not meant to have goats leaning and pushing up on it. It had gotten so bad out in the coop that we just stopped going in there period. So for the first time in over a year, I had to start buying eggs from the store. We were just saying that we were suprised that none of the eggs have hatched out yet when last Tuesday, we found 10 baby chicks running around! To make things even better, our fence guy finally came out and installed the fence out across the pond (which Kevin has been working on endlessly for months to get ready for this). So Saturday was the move in day for the goats (one of the best days of my life). I had to get a picture of Kevin standing next to the fence that we, and Patrick, did...all by ourselves! We were quite proud of it along with the building that Kevin and Dad built over the summer. Then I got the chicken coop all cleaned out and we are back in the egg business!

First time for everything

2010-10-06T19:27:00.000-07:00

I will have been married 8 years this year and believe it or not, I've never mowed a lawn since we've been married. I don't know why...I always mowed growing up and enjoyed doing it. When we rented our first house, all we had was a push mower. After a few laps around the yard the first time I tried a push mower, I was completely exhausted and decided push mowing definately wasn't my thing. Kevin and I have taken on the traditional household responsibilities...he does the outside work, I do the inside work. Well then of course we had kids so now I never have the opportunity to go out and mow because I watch the girls while Kevin is outside working. I was called in to work Sunday evening and decided to take Monday off. The girls went the the sitter and I spent the afternoon mowing and planting grass seed. I didn't get too crazy on making cool strips in the yard but I do have to admit, I should be mowing more often for as good as it looked!

My girls

2010-10-01T19:43:00.001-07:00

Here's my girls...aren't they adorable! Reagan still loves holding Reese and sitting by her in the chair. I absolutely love this picture of them together! Reese in almost 3 months old now. Where does the time go? We've had a few nights of her sleeping 7-8 hours but nothing consistent. I'm still adjusting to life at work. It's amazing how spoiled your body gets when you go 8 weeks without working and without anywhere to be. Is it too soon to be pregnant again just so I can have more time off work?

Preschool

2010-09-07T19:31:00.000-07:00

Reagan's first day of preschool was today. She was sooo excited about it. We went last week for the open house and she got to see everything and meet her teachers. Kevin is taking her to preschool each morning and the bus is taking her to daycare afterwards. I just can't believe my little girl is old enough to start school. Hopefully the homework will hold off for awhile... I'm not ready for that yet!

Tea party

2010-08-20T13:16:00.000-07:00

Lat Thursday I went to the annual "college roomies" get together. Well, it's not necessarily annually....more of a matter of when we decide to try to arrange 4 different work schedules to find a time we can all get together. I think each time we get together, there's a new kid in the mix. This time we went to Lisa's house in Charleston for a tea party! We all had chicken salad croissants and sweet goodies to go along. Oh and of course the tea. Crystal and Kylee both went to high school with me and were in the class graduating ahead of me. I met Lisa when I moved in with the three of them after my first semester at Eastern and we took several classes together. The two of us started painting as well. Yep, my first semester at Eastern when I lived by myself was spent learning how to paint with Bob Ross (those of you that aren't aware, he was a hippie artist who painted "happie little trees" in his landscape paintings. Unfortunately, I haven't seemed to have had the time to keep up with my painting hobby since I've been married:(

Just Dance

2010-08-14T08:37:00.000-07:00

Reagan has been in a 6 week dance class over the summer. She's really enjoyed learning how to be a ballerina! Last night she had a dance recital at the Parish Center here in Newton. I couldn't have been more proud of her. She really is a shy girl and we've always had a hard time getting her to get up on the stage at church. A few weeks ago she had to get on the stage at church for vacation bible school and she did an awesome job. She repeated again last night. She went up there with no problems, smiled, and did all the moves! The dance class is over but we intend to start back up on the tumbling again in September.

Swimming

2010-08-08T20:39:00.001-07:00

Reagan took swimming lessons this summer and has got a lot of enjoyment out of using the new Newton City Pool. Recently, Jessica's mom and dad bought a house just a few doors down from Kevin's parents. They have a really nice enclosed in-ground pool in the backyard. Needless to say, we've spent a lot of time there lately. Reagan's swimming abilities have really improved this summer. She can now jump in by herself while holding her nose. In the last few days, she has started to swim under water a little bit after jumping in and before she comes up! She's also gone down the slide by herself at Jessica's moms. At the beginning of the summer, we could barely get her to go under and she would sort of flip out anytime she got water in her eyes! I'm hoping to get Reese in the water soon but plan on waiting a few weeks. She is now exactly a month old already. Where does the time go?

Twilight

2010-07-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

I've turned in to quite the book listener (book on tape is the way to go) over the last few years. It all started with my long trips to Union Hospital and trying to find ways to stay awake. I've listened to a lot of murder mystery and eventually got into some of the romance novels. It would just depend on my mood at the time. So now I only have a 15 min. drive to work but I seem to have this addiction and I almost panic if I'm going to be driving even as little as this and don't have a book to listen to. I just can't stand the boredom! So when I was at the library the other day, I realized they have the twilight series. I have never watched any of them and I've always wondered what the big deal is?? Anyway, I'm still in the early part of the book but so far, I'm really liking it. Can't wait to get it finished so I can watch the movies!

maternity pics

2010-07-20T17:24:00.000-07:00

I had my maternity pics taken at 37 weeks with my friend Lisa (http://www.thepicturepatch.com/). I remember I was in such a hurry to get them done because I had procrastinated and was also worried I'd be going into labor at anytime. Turns out I had plenty of time since I ended up being induced after all:) Anyway, just thought I'd share a few of my pics! We did things a little different and had the pictures taken at our house. It had to have been the hottest day of the year. Not to mention I have this sweating problem that is exacerbated by the heat intolerance of being pregnant. I had to keep going inside to cool off and wipe off all the sweat about every 5 minutes! I especially liked the family pictures we had taken. Reagan was really a good sport that day...at least she was after being bribed with ice cream!

I'm hooked

2010-07-20T16:55:00.000-07:00

I was once an avid watcher of the tv show "ER." I realize it was unrealistic but it was still addictive. Maybe it just made me feel smart because I knew what they were talking about in their medical jargon? Anyway, now that I'm on week two of my maternity leave, I've found that there is absolutely nothing on TV during the day. Not to mention, the average of 6 hours a day I spend breast-feeding has left me bored. Last week I watched a rerun of Grey's Anatomy (first time I've ever watched it) on Lifetime and liked it. So I continued to watch a few more episodes. However, it was frustrating because they were out of order and I was having a hard time keeping track of what was going on. I got the boxed set from Jessica over the weekend and have started from the beginning. I'll admit, I've become slightly obsessed with the show. I did have to cheat and watched the season finale from last May. If you haven't see it, it was a good one....very intense!!

Baby Reese Hannah

2010-07-09T19:50:00.000-07:00

Precious little Reese Hannah was born on Wednesday, July 7th at 12:44p.m. at Olney Hospital. She was 8 lbs, 3 oz. and 20 in. long. I have to say that I feel I was extremely lucky with this delivery experience. We went in at 6:30 a.m. to be induced. By 7:30, the Pitocin was started. To my luck, the anesthesiologist showed up at 8:45 at which time I was barely having contractions and having no pain. Shortly after, the doctor was there to break my water. As time got closer, the nurse had me go ahead and start pushing to see how quick things would move. When she saw that it wouldn't take long, she called the Doctor who was on her lunch but reported she would be there soon. We continued on with the pushing and before we knew it, she was telling the nurses to call Dr. again because baby was coming fast. She actually came so fast, she had to call in the other nurses and they actually delivered Reese!! They had just cut the umblical cord (well, Kevin did) when the Dr. finally came in. The whole process of the delivery only took 20 minutes!! Reese is dark skinned with very thick, jet black hair! My dad said she looks just like I did when I was born. Anyway, we're all doing great, just came home from the hospital today. Reagan loves her new sister! She keeps kissing her and touching her. She's going to be so good to Reese!

Baby time

2010-07-05T19:54:00.000-07:00

Well the day has finally come for us to have this baby. After being told at 36 weeks that I wouldn't make it to my due date, I quickly began getting everything prepared. I've spend every day at work as if it was my last. I've tried to keep up things at home such as the cleaning, laundry, dishes, etc. and Kevin keeps his phone with him at all times. But each week has gone by with no signs of baby coming. It was the point that I decided I was going to dilate past the point of being able to get an epidural before I ever even go into labor! So today at my appointment when I was told that I was a good "4" I just asked the Dr. if we could go ahead and induce tomorrow. She was totally okay with it and told us to come into the hospital at 6:30a.m. I figured I'd be pushing it to ask for an 8 or 9'oclock appointment for this so we agreed. Next time I blog, I should have some exciting news!!

Happy 4th

2010-07-05T19:46:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July. We spent the day in West Union for all of their festivities. There was a parade at 2p.m. and then we went to the park and particpated in a cornhole tournament. Wasn't exactly planned...I would have preferred to have spent the afternoon swimming as originally planned but we found out last minute that my dad was hosting this tournament so it was sort of a requirement. Kevin and I came out in 3rd place so I supposed we didn't do too bad. That evening we watched their fireworks. It's always suprised me that a small town like West Union can put on such a popular fireworks display. We opted to sit back further this year since Reagan was burned pretty bad last year and spend half the display in the back of the ambulance. However, we chose a downwind area and still had firework pieces landing on us!

2010-06-25T05:57:00.000-07:00

BeforeAfter

On Thursday, June 10th our patio project was finally started. We wanted to get the patio done so we can move on to our constructing the deck. We decided to go with a Walnut two-toned color with a stamped finish. The concrete people came out and poured the concrete on Thursday and came back the next day to spray off the layer of powder that they put on after pouring. We got a little nervous because the evening after they poured it, we got a pretty good down pour of rain. We just sat and watched nervously knowing there was nothing we can do and just hoping that the concrete was dry enough not to get all messed up. Luckily, everything was fine. One week later they came back to put on the sealer and viola...our patio is complete! Once the goat barn is done, we'll start on the deck to go over the patio.

Gotta love summer!

2010-06-20T19:55:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day

Newton Pool

Drive-in Movie

Well, I know with the heat it may be difficult to say you love summer but there is so much opportunity for fun things in the summer. I've lived in Newton for over 7 years and live less than 5 miles from the Newton drive-in and never been there. We all went on Friday night (Reagan's first time too) to watch Toy Story 3. Once the sun went down, there was a nice breeze...turned out to be a beautiful evening. To top it off, Reagan and I watched a falling star from the sky! On Saturday, my dad came and over and we started on the goat barn. It had to be the hottest day of the year so far! We went to the new Newton Pool later in the evening to cool off. Sunday, we went to church in West Union and had a father's day dinner at my mom's house. Happy father's day to all the father's out there!

36 weeks and counting

2010-06-15T18:28:00.000-07:00

I went for an ultrasound and my 36 week visit today. The ultrasound confirmed that the baby is still a girl...much to my relief. She weights approximately 6lbs 14oz. I didn't bother posting a copy of any of the pictures because they weren't very good. I could see a little profile of the face and the 4D visual just looked like a blob unless I could point out where the nose is. After the ultrasound, we headed over to the clinic for my appointment. The doctor states I'm 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced! She didn't act like I'd go anytime in the immediate future but said she was certain I would not make it to my due date. Guess this was enough to get me motivated to do some things to prepare cause I came home and finished picking up the babies room and throwing some things into the laundry. I decided maybe it was time to think about getting the car seat ready too. Hopefully I'll be able to get my maternity pictures taken in the next week or so before it's too late!! It's funny how you spend 9 months thinking it seems like it's so far away and here I am basically ready at any time and feel like I'm still not ready. Normally I'm very prepared and organized but I'm sure not feeling it this time!

Jessica's wedding in Kentucky

2010-06-14T17:50:00.000-07:00

We made a trip down to Lexington, KY over the weekend...(well actually Georgetown) for my friend Jessica's wedding. This is a picture of her and my other friend Lynna who have been my best friends since I can remember. Despite the distance between all of us, we've been able to keep in touch and get together a few times a year. The wedding was a beautiful outdoor wedding with a reception in a rustic barn. Luckily there was no rain like was predicted but the humidity and heat made it a little rough...especially with me being 9 months pregnant now! Needless to say I wasn't feeling up for much dancing but did manage to dance with Reagan for a little while. Reagan absolutely loves "bacation" as she calls any vacation or aka hotel room. We got down there early enough on Saturday to do some swimming in the pool. Reagan also had a blast at the reception hanging out with the flower girl and running around outside. Congratulations Jessica and enjoy your trip to Ireland!

Happy Birthday Reagan

2010-05-23T18:23:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Reagan's big 4th birthday this last week. Her birthday was on Wed, May 19th. Kevin and I had really debated on whether or not to spend the money on this Barbie jeep....they're certainly not cheap. It comes with a working radio and everything! But we figured she's going to have a sister that can get enjoyment out of it too and with summer coming, Reagan is always outside so she'll get plenty of use out of it. Reagan loved her jeep and always has her baby doll as the passenger. On Saturday, we had the immediate family over for supper, gifts, and cake. I got this Barbie cake from Wal-Mart and have to say I was quite impressed. It took all I could do to keep Reagan out of it while it was sitting on the table half the day. Happy Birthday Reagan!

Happy Nurses Week

2010-05-12T19:18:00.000-07:00

Happy Nurse's week to all my nurse friends out here. Hope you all celebrated in some way or another. I did a little spa hour for my nurses at the nursing home. We had a lot of Beauty Control products and did the whole foot soak thing, warm neck wrap, lip appeal, cucumber eye pads and relaxes to some music. Then we painted fingernails and toenails and indulged in some sweets! I even had a massage therapist lined up to come in but things sort of fell through on that. We also had gift basics made up with a bunch of bath and body type products. It was a nice day to kick back and relax. Right now we're overlapped with nursing home week so we have all kinds of activities going on this week.

Guttering finally

2010-05-07T18:48:00.000-07:00

After 2 years, we finally got guttering put on our house. Yeah, I have to blog about this for lack of anything better:) Now we're just waiting for one of Kev's friends to come out and do some trenching so we can lay down some tile to get the water away from the house. THEN, next spring's project will be to do all of the landscaping around the house and in the circle drive. We had wanted to do that this year but with the deck and pation coming this summer, it wasn't going to happen. Not to mention I have this issue with my belly size increasing along with the decrease in ability to bend over.

Lucy and Ethel, our newest addition

2010-04-24T14:40:00.000-07:00

Kevin's dreams of owning goats has finally come true! We went to the 4-H goat auction last weekend and bid on 1 goat but we didn't get it. But while we were there, a guy Kevin works with said he knew of a guy wanting to get rid of his two goats. So Kevin and his brother went to pick them up on Saturday. Their names are "Lucy and Ethel" named after the characters on the I Love Lucy show...supposedly because they are mischevious! The goats are beautiful and very friendly, and they loved being brushed. Right now we have them in the pen with the chickens while we're working on more permanent placement. The goats don't seem to mind being with the chickens but I don't think the chickens care for the intruders. We're still trying to figure out what kind of small shelter to make for them but I did find a hay feeder construction plan on the internet I felt that was do-able. Luckily it was raining and Kevin didn't have anything else to do so he offered to help. Worked out well for me to be his boss and tell him what to do and he did all the manual labor! It turned out really well, now we just need to find someone who has some hay they can sell to us....

Can't say I didn't try

2010-04-23T20:18:00.000-07:00

I think I might be the last person on the earth that doesn't have a facebook account. After some convincing, I finally did this whole blog thing which suprisingly I've sort of kept up with. So all I wanted to do was get on facebook just to even see what it is. I was suprised that as soon as I logged in, who all showed up automatically...I guess they link it to your email account? I had people showing up that I didn't even know (a lot of dog customers). I did spend about an hour one night looking at things and was shocked at the faces I came across just by looking at some of my friends accounts that had 300 friends and then into their freinds! The whole time I'm thinking, how does a person keep up with all this?! I soon starting getting many emails regarding those wanting to be friends. Apparently you can't just get on facebook to see things, you're information is automatically posted out there for all to see. Tonight I just deactivated my account for now since I really don't plan on using it and didn't want anyone to think I didn't accept them as my friends. So sorry Jessica and all those others that have been pressuring me to enter the facebook world. Maybe some other day.

The Wizard of Oz

2010-04-18T19:36:00.001-07:00

We went to the Newton High School's "The Wizard of Oz" play on Sunday afternoon. Reagan and I went with Kevin's mom and grandma, cousin Jaiden and Aunt Ashley. Reagan has watched the movie a few times so I was hopeful that she'd have interest in the play. She was really pumped up for it. It was difficult explaining what a "play" was. I think she thought that we were supposed to wear costumes! She did really enjoy it and behaved even better than what I would have hoped for. Of course it helped that her Great-Grandma was giving her candy most of the time! At intermission, we had a chance to stand with Dorothy and get pictures taken so her and her cousin happily stood next to her. It was another first for our little Reagy!

New improvements

2010-04-15T19:46:00.000-07:00

Kev had a guy come out to our land this week to do some clearing and land leveling in the prospective goat land. He's been busy for months it seems like gradually getting the woods cleaned up so we can get some grass to grow and eventually get some fencing put up. We're hoping in the next week or so, we'll be getting our guttering put up on the house and garage finally! We're also making final arrangements on the patio to go back by our walkout basement. It's so exciting makin home improvements!

Happy Easter

2010-04-04T17:25:00.000-07:00

The Easter Bunny came to see Reagan this morning. She got a book/sketcher pad, plato, a chocolate bunny, and of course an easter basket with candy. Reagan loved her dress today! We had gotten her a pink dress and she's had this white hat that I've had for awhile. We even took a little time to put some curls in her hair. Needless to say, she was a little darling. We went to church this morning and then to my Grandma's house for easter lunch and and easter egg hunt. Then we left and went straight to Kevin's families' easter dinner and another easter egg hunt! It was a beautiful day outside again and we spend the afternoon sitting outside. Happy Easter everyone!

2010-04-03T17:02:00.000-07:00

Knowing we have a baby coming this summer, we wanted to take a little vacation while we feel its still possible. Not wanting to take too many days off work, we decided to spend our vacation in St. Louis. We left on Thursday and checked into the Drury Inn. I have to mention that Drury Inn is the BEST hotel you could possibly stay in (it's the only place we ever stay). There is a whole meal (appetizers but like a meal) and free cocktails all provided complimentary every evening along with popcorn and soda from 3-10. And of course a hot breakfast every morning. Now they have free DVD rentals too on recent releases! Anyway, enought about the hotel. We just hung around there relaxing and swimming the first day. On Friday we went to the zoo. I think Reagan liked it but she kept asking when were were going to go back to vacation! Needless to say, she would have had just as much fun had spent all of her time swimming at the hotel! This was the first time she rode the carousel there. I think Kevin liked it as much as her! After the zoo, we went out to eat at the boathouse located nearby in a park. It was a beautiful day outside and we enjoyed sitting out on the lawn relaxing on a blanket while waiting for our table. We came home Saturday and spent the rest of our day working on some landscaping. It was a great few days to get away from work and all the stresses of the world.

Welcome to the world

2010-03-29T17:10:00.000-07:00

Liam Reeve Root entered this world on Saturday the 27th. Here's Reagan next

to his big sister Jaiden. We got to see him for the first time tonight. He's a little darling. Congratulations Eric and Stephanie and Jaiden!

Stain gone wrong

2010-03-25T15:00:00.000-07:00

So Kevin and I went to Home Depot last week and got some stain to redo our front porch. Kevin is on vacation this week so this was on his to do list. He calls me at work and says that stain is too orange. He went ahead and put it on a board at the side that wouldn't be real noticable to see what it would look like. I question him and say that maybe after it dries, it will look different. He still insists that it is too orange. So I happen to be in Mattoon when we are talking about this and I decide to go back to Home Depot and get something different. As I'm there I'm thinking that maybe we grabbed something other than stain (we also grabbed a "solid" rather than a "semi-transparent". When I get home to look at the board, I'm shocked to see this!!! I told Kevin that I think I'd of stopped after sticking the stir stick into the stain! Anyway, I guess we'll be stripping the stain of this board but hopefully we'll have better luck with the next gallon.

Puppies

2010-03-23T19:24:00.000-07:00

Ellie had a rough labor but her puppies are finally here! It all started with premature labor on Sunday which lasted several hours. Her true labor started Monday morning. She labored all day, into the night and had some difficulties with the last two puppies which were stillborn. She was taken into the vet for an ultrasound today just to be sure she cleared everything from her uterus and everything appeared fine so we were happy about that. We have 2 males and 1 female from this litter. We're still undecided as to whether or not we may keep the female and eventually use her for breeding. If we don't keep her, we'll be in the market for another female. This of course is Ellie's final litter and she will be retired from the business.

Just a little weekend fun

2010-03-20T16:23:00.000-07:00

We had an Easter Egg Hunt at the nursing home on Saturday. Since I had to go early to help, Reagan got to come along and help throw out all the eggs. We did a practice run the evening before so she was pretty excited about this. She also got a chance to mingle with the ol' folks while we were waiting. Reagan got 30 eggs and one of the eggs had a "prize" ticket in it. She got one of the twirly yard ornament things and carried it around with her all day. Her name was also drawn for the basket raffle and she got a cute basket with a barbie, jewelry, and fake nails! Afterwards we went out with Jessica shopping for home decorations to Grandma's place in Effingham and Arndt's in Newton. Also had lunch at the candy kitchen. I got Jessica all pumpted up on decorating and got her talked into coming to my house to hang some stuff up that I had been putting off. I had to take her picture along with her creation in my living room. Great job Jessica!!

Cat Makeover

2010-03-08T19:09:00.000-08:00

Sonny had his first haircut today, I've posted before and after pics. This cat doesn't really enjoy hair brushing time like my previous long haired cats have. I've literally had to put on gloves to even be able to attempt to brush him because he thinks I'm playing and really starts digging his teeth into my hands. As soon as his hair started to get matted, it didn't take long for it to get out of control. We decided to just have his whole body shaved so we wouldn't have to worry about it for awhile...plus we think he may be going outside real soon. Reagan got a good kick out of his "new look" along with Kevin who was pretty much on the floor laughing.

It's a Girl!

2010-02-19T17:08:00.000-08:00

Several long weeks of waiting to find out the sex of our baby is finally over. Yep, it's another girl!! I swear I had a feeling all along that it was a boy. This pregnancy has been a little different from my first (craving different foods mostly) so I thought that was a sign. Reagan of course always says she wants a little sister. Last night we asked her what she thinks its going to be. Seriously, we think she's telepathic.....anyway, she said she thinks it is going to be a brother. So even though I was really hoping for a girl because I know Reagan really wanted one, I was prepared for the boy. We were so excited to hear that we were having another little precious girl. It was so fun telling Reagan. She instantly started yelling that she was having a girl and she had fun telling everyone!! She's already decided that she's going to name her Kaley or Allie.....but of course you all know that we won't be releasing the true name of the baby until the day she arrives:)

Valentine Party at the "Home"

2010-02-12T04:59:00.000-08:00

We had a Valentine Party for the residents at the nursing home on Wednesday. The staff signed up for different tables to decorate up special. It was the whole nine yards. We brought in the tablecloths, plates, cups, silverware, decorations, and of course a little treat for the residents from their secret Valentine. This is a picture of my table. I loved the tablecloth! We were supposed to have an evening Italian dinner with a live band. Due to the snow, we had to reschedule so we did it at lunch time. Since the band was unable to reschedule for that time, I burned a CD with Italian love songs. Mostly Dean Martin songs. The whole party was a success. We crowned a King and Queen and Prince and Princess to finalize the party. Friday we did a party with the staff. Meanwhile, we sent Reagan off to her babysitters with the Valentine's she did herself. She doesn't know how to put letters together to spell but she is getting good at just writing down letters or trying to copy a word that I write. She is so into tattoos that we got Valentine's that had butterfly tattoos in them. Of course, she had to have one for herself...the first of many I'm sure. Friday evening, Kevin was called off work so we all went over to Terre Haute and did some shopping. We ate out at the Road House and had an excellent supper. Reagan was the best she's ever been when we've eaten out....the little angel that she is.

Back in business

2010-02-06T20:00:00.000-08:00

Last month we had Ellie bred to a new male stud. We went through a lady we had run into a few years back when we sold her one of our puppies. She is big into showing dogs and really knows her stuff. Kevin and I remembered being very impressed with "Norman" when we first met him a few years ago. He is a Champion dog with a beautiful body and excellent temperment. We got lucky when I called her inquiring of anyone she may know of with a good male stud. Although she's never let him breed with any other dogs than her own, she decided to stud him for us. We loaded Ellie up in the middle of January and brought her over near St. Louis where she lived. Ellie of course loved it because she got to be indoors the whole time and was fed "real" food. This lady is so into her dogs that she actually cooks meals for them and makes her own homemade dog treats. Ellie was still glad to come back with us but ever since, she wants to spend 90% of her time indoors, sleeping in her crate! Our website is www.hunterskennel.net. But don't look too soon because I'm working on updating everything with all of Norman's information and pictures. Hopefully it will be ready in two weeks max. Meanwhile, we'll be looking for March puppies!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

2010-01-07T17:48:00.000-08:00

Reagan has been so anxious for some snow to play in. She was ready to go out first thing this morning and make some snow angels. Although we didn't have time, she still had a chance to run around in it for a little bit before we headed to the babysitters. I ended up leaving work early today to suprise her. Kevin, Reagan, and I bundled up and went out to play! We sledded around the yard (really missing that 4-wheeler, Jessica) and made snow angels. Even played with the chickens for awhile.

Princess and the Frog

2010-01-02T15:48:00.000-08:00

I took Reagan to the movies for the first time today to watch Princess and the Frog. She's been talking about the movie this last week and wanted me to go to the store to get it for her. I decided maybe she's old enough now to sit through a movie so we headed over the Effingham. She was all smiles from the time we sat down in the theater. Reagan got alittle restless 3/4 the way through but then settled back into her seat. Afterwards, we shopped a little and walked past a Princess and the Frog PJ set and a matching wand and she just HAD to have it. So of course I gave in and we came home with more PJ's. It was a great afternoon and I loved spending time with her today just mom and her baby!

In Loving Memory...

2010-01-01T14:29:00.000-08:00

June 6, 2004 - January 1, 2010

After a long battle with Blastomytosis, Hunter was laid to rest today.

We'll miss you Hunter. Our condolences to Kent and Jessica.

2009-12-27T17:26:00.000-08:00

We had a very busy Christmas this year (which isn't much different from any year). You know the routine....run, run, run. We started out on the Sunday before Christmas at Kevin's moms house. We played Italian music while we cooked Italian supper-Lasagna, Chicken Alfredo, caesar salad, and breadsticks. Of course we opened presents later in the evening. On Christmas eve, we went to my mom's house. My dad helped all the kids make Christmas sugar cookies and I helped them ice them all. After we opened gifts, mom and dad played Christmas carols on the piano while we all sang along. Christmas morning began at 6:45 a.m., Reagan was SO excited. Kev was excited that Santa brought us both fishing poles! After we finished with our gifts, we headed over to Barb's for more. One of Reagan's favorite gifts was a ZuZu pet. That afternoon we went to Kevin's Grandma's. Saturday we headed to Belleville for the day and had a suprise visit from Santa. On Sunday, we went to my Grandma's for dinner and gifts. By Sunday night, we were exhausted. But over all, it was a great Christmas.

Kaylynn Nicole

2009-12-21T17:58:00.000-08:00

This is my new niece that was born on Dec. 16th. Her name is Kaylynn Nicole (named from me and my mom's middle names Kay and Matt's mom and sister's middle names Lynn). She was a whopping 8lbs 14 oz. and 20 and 1/2 inches long. Kevin and I got to go see her on Sunday. She's so cute and adorable! Baby and parents are doing great. Good luck guys!

Baby's first picture

2009-12-13T18:40:00.000-08:00

Guess I slacked at putting this up here sooner but this is the ultrasound that I got when I was almost 9 weeks (I'm now 10 weeks but am showing like I'm quite a bit further). The main news we recieved is that there is in fact just 1 baby in there and everything looked well. We were able to see the little heart beating and little formations of arms and legs beginning to form. It was of course too early to tell the sex of the baby but I did the needle and the string thing the other day and it says it's a boy soooooo we shall see! Due date is right around July 13th!

Exciting news!

2009-11-28T19:19:00.000-08:00

The moment you've all been waiting for....we're finally having another baby! We're about 8 weeks right now. Hadn't planned on saying anthing for a few more weeks but I'm definately starting to "show" sooner than my first pregnancy. This last week especially, all of a sudden my pants aren't fitting and I can't tolerate sucking in my stomach all day long to where my formed fitting clothes don't show anything.

We had Thanksgiving with my family Thursday night and had a family dinner with Kevin's family Saturday night. For both families, we had Reagan wear a shirt that said "I'm going to be a big sister" and we thought we'd see how long it would take them to notice. Kevin's family was Johnny on the spot by my family took about 5 minutes for someone to notice. Everyone was happy about the news but almost everyone suspected it either because they say I've looked very tired lately, or I look like I've been gaining wait, or as my sister pointed out, my hair has looked more oily the last few weeks!! So I guess it really was good we decided to tell everyone a little sooner. Reagan keeps saying she's having a baby brother since she knows her cousin is expecting a baby brother too. But I wonder if Reagan really grasps the idea of what is going on. I have an ultrasound scheduled this Friday to set the date for sure but right now I think it's around July 13th.

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-27T20:03:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We spent the day visiting both sides of our family and of course, eating lots of food. Kevin has off 4 days in a row so we're having a great time together. I know I haven't blogged for a record of 3 weeks but I've not had much going on. Working on putting up my tree this weekend so hopefully I can post some pics of our Christmas decorations after this weekend!

Medical question for all the nurses out there

2009-11-04T18:20:00.000-08:00

So this little blog message is for my nurse friends out there....a little healthcare discussion. I KNOW we've had this discussion (back in the good ol' days of working nights at Union hospital). And to my knowledge, I'm not sure if we came up with the textbook answer. As the picture shows, the topic is on pitting vs. non-pitting edema. Obviously we're all aware that pitting edema is graded 1-4....but what about non-pitting edema? I've always graded my non-pitting edema based on my visual assessment of the amount of swelling I'm observing (whether this is right or not). I've looked on the internet but can't find a flat out answer to this. But to me, you have to have some sort of measurement or the next shift wouldn't know if it's better or worse! So what is it girls??

Trick or Treat!

2009-11-01T12:42:00.000-08:00

It was a good Halloween weekend. I hadn't planned on dressing up this weekend but at we had a Halloween party for the residents at the nursing home on Friday and they were encouraging staff to dress up for them. Somehow I came up with the idea to be a mime. I had planned on doing the entire face paint but decided against it since I was worried that some serious situation may arise and I had to talk to a family looking like a mime. I even looked up some mime acts on the internet to go along with the outfit. During the halloween party, I "skated" out on the floor and "pulled the rope" and finished up trying to "get out of the box." Somehow I ended up getting 2nd place in the costume contest! But I was told that I put on a good show. Reagan was a little Indian girl and a cute one at that. We went to West Union to trick or treat on Friday night and went out to eat at mom and dad's restaurant. They have a cigar store indian that Reagan posed with. Then we went by our church where they had a maze and some treats. We went trick or treating in Newton on Saturday and afterwards, Reagan helped pass out candy to the trick or treaters at her Grandma Schulte's house-one of her favorite parts of halloween.

Halloween is here

2009-10-28T19:07:00.000-07:00

We started our Halloween festivities this week. Reagan and I made cupcakes to take to the kids at daycare yesterday. They were all chocolate with sprinkles. Tonight we carved a jack-o-lantern. Reagan helped with punching the holes through the design while I did most of the carving. She's been asking for awhile when it's going to be Halloween and we finally told her this week it's here! Friday night we're going to a weiner roast/hay-ride at our church in West Union. Then Saturday we'll do the trick or treating in Newton. Pictures to come....

Picture time

2009-10-20T05:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we got some family pictures taken, hopefully for our upcoming Christmas card. If you're seeing these pics and you end up getting one later, you can act suprised! We knew we wanted to get a picture with our chickens since that's been our big thing this year. It took a little bit to get the chickens rounded up but we did it. Reagan even did really good holding hers! Then we decided that we'd better get a picture with our pups since they'll all be gone by this weekend. I loved these pictures, they turned out so good. I also do a yearly scrapbook and try to get a good family photo for it. I was really good and did one specific for Reagan for my pregnancy and for her first year but that was where I stopped with the scrapbooking. Then I decided I could surely keep up with doing one page per year. I get together my favorite photos throughout the year and write up a paragraph about things we did, places we went, where we worked, and sometimes little things like how much a gallon of milk or how much gasoline costs.

Covered Bridge Festival

2009-10-12T19:14:00.000-07:00

Survived another trip to the covered bridge festival again this year. My mom, sister, and I made are annual outage to the festival again. It was pretty cold when we arrived bright and early at 7am but it turned out to be a pretty nice day by afternoon. I wouldn't say I got anything big and exciting in particular (last year my big item was a wooden trashcan), but I did come home with several home decorations. And as always the food was spectacular. We all had ribeye steak sandwhiches for lunch and we couldn't pass up the kettle corn and roasted almonds. It was pretty crowded at lunch but didn't seem as bad as last year. I'm not near as tired as I expected to be after being on my feet all day but I'm still looking forward to the massage I scheduled myself tomorrow evening!

Fire Drill

2009-10-08T16:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was an exciting day at the nursing home. I was sitting in my office when I heard the fire alarms sound. Usually I'm told ahead of time when there is going to be a drill but I wasn't aware of any drill this time but yet I didn't think too much of it. I go down one of the halls and start checking rooms and closing the doors behind me. After the other staff and I had gone down the whole hall and hadn't found the flashlight (that's the fire you're supposed to find during a drill), we returned back to the dayroom to see if anyone on the other hall had found anything. As soon as we crossed the threshold, we smelled smoke. Then we realized that there was smoke coming from the ceiling! The decision was quickly made to evacuate all the residents. Knowing that there was a real fire was very scary and we immediately began running. The first room I went to, the resident refused to leave her room. She said staff had told her several times before that there was a fire and evacuation was needed but every time it was just a drill and she was not going to do it this time. No matter what I said, she planted her feet and said she wasn't going. Just as I was about to leave and come back to her later, I pressed on to say that the building was on fire, there was smoke, it smells, and she has GOT to get out of the building! She finally agreed. We got all the residents into the parking lot and luckily it had stopped raining by that point. The fire department arrived and after about 45 minutes, they told us that we could return into the building and that some "dust bunnies" in the duct work got too hot. We returned the residents to the building and went on with our day. At least we got our yearly evacuation drill completed! Most important, I'm just glad that the building and the residents were okay.

I finally did it

2009-10-04T12:24:00.000-07:00

Well after 7 years of having dial up internet, I FINALLY broke down and got the high speed internet. Can't say I'm over the initial shock of what it costs to get it started, not to mention my internet bill tripling! But it is making my blogging and uploading of pictures actually possible from my home computer. Jessica says she expects to see more blogging from me so I'll do my best. The whole process of this wildblue stuff is a little ridiculous though. I didn't know they couldn't install it on our fascia and I certainly didn't want holes in my roof so the only other option was this $150 pole they wanted to put in the yard. Kevin has specifically made a point to say before that he did not want this dish in our yard. And since he was asleep when the installers came out, I was the one who got to make the decision. They kept pointing out spots in our yard that would be the best for a good signal and all of these areas were right smack in the middle of the yard or right by the front door, yeah right like I want it to be a decorative piece of my lawn! We had finally decided to place it out on the far side of the garage and they were getting started on it. I called my brother (my computer adivsor) and he told me I would never get a signal that far out. So as they were starting to drill a hole on my garage and had half dug the hole, I had to go running out to stop them. After another 15 minutes, we finally found a spot that would work. The only other thing I wish they'd told me is that I needed outlets next to where the modem would be on the inside of the house. We ran it into the bathroom closet and now I have cords strung across my bathroom to get to an outlet! All I can say is that this high speed better be worth it!

It's time for Covered Bridge!

2009-10-02T21:05:00.000-07:00

On Oct. 12th (Columbus Day) my mom, sister, and I are making our annual trip to the Covered Bridge festival. We're so excited! But I'm guessing this year will be interesting between Mom's bad back and Jodi will be 7 months pregnant. Lucky for me, I've scheduled a massage to be done the next evening! Last year I got a hand-crafted wooded trash can for my kitchen which I absolutely love. I wish I'd had a camera for that one...we had to carry this trashcan clear from one side of the festival about a mile to our car! I also got a lot of pottery pieces for my kitchen and I plan on getting more of those again this year. There's nothing else specific I plan to get but hopefully I can find some cute things to decorate my house with and maybe get some Christmas shopping done. And of course there's all the food I'm sure we'll be sampling. We enjoy eating lunch and listening to the live music. Can't wait!!

Here's Sonny

2009-09-20T08:25:00.000-07:00

Here's the newest addition to the Schulte family. He's a 6 week old Persian/Himalayan kitten. Last Thursday when I went into work, I was sitting in my office and I heard someone whisper "Is Krista in her office?" I continued to do my work without much thinking. Then one of the managers brought me in a card and left. I opened it and it was a "thank you for all you do" card and all of my coworkers had signed it. Already I was close to being teary eyed when I heard more whispering in the hallway. I yelled out for whoever was there to come in. They entered with this kitten as a gift from all of them. I could hardly believe it and was 100% caught off guard. Reagan LOVES the kitten. When we suprised her with it, she kept saying "Where'd that come from?, Where'd you find my kitty??" We decided to name him "Sunny."

Pond Dock

2009-09-12T09:51:00.000-07:00

So finally after over a year that our pond dock has been in place, we finally have it finished. We had to end up building in an extra 8 foot extension so that it would be fairly level since we made it a floating dock. It was quite a challenge getting this part connected to the existing dock. Once we finally got it all anchored, we realized that we would need another float in the middle of the walkway. Kevin and I were the only ones left by then that were willing to get in the mucky water's edge to get the float underneath! Reagan thinks the dock is her "dancing stage" and she loves going out there. We're working on the pond edge right now and hopefully will be done with that landscaping after this weekend.

2009-09-12T09:28:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of my fall decoration display. At first was thinking it's way too early to start this fall stuff. But I was planning a Premier Designs Jewelry Party (which I had last night) and it got me motivated to start decorating. For the party, I used several of my sister's new Tastefully Simple Fall foods and drinks (Carrot Peacon Bread with Frosting, Apple Crisp Cheeseball, Nana's Apple Cake, Chai Tea, and Hot Amaretto Cocoa)!

I did this outside display in our circle drive .

I also took a few pictures of the house today, including my front door. I was just thinking of how well my flowers have done up there the whole summer and it's probably just a matter of time until they start dying off.

We just finished up the fascia and sofiting on the porch a few weeks ago. Now all we need is the guttering which we'll hopefully do this winter. Then next Spring we can finally do landscaping up around the house and in the circle drive. In the next week we're working down on the pond dock area...pictures to come in another posting soon.

2009-08-29T17:41:00.000-07:00

Reagan has been talking about getting her ears pierced for quite awhile now. We finally decided to do it today. After we got done watching the harness races at the Cumberland County Fair, Reagan and I headed up to the Mattoon Mall to Claire's. Reagan was all smiles and talk as we headed into the store. I sat her up on the chair and she held the bear as they both happily looked over the selection of earrings. As soon as the store clerk came over to start the process, Reagan became her usual shy self and put her head down with a glum look on her face. She wouldn't speak or even make contact with the lady. I knew they were thinking that I'm one of those moms who force their child to get their ear pierced. I assured her that Reagan was just shy and that she was very excited about getting this done. There were 2 girls to stand on each side of Reagan to do her at once. She sat very still as they pierced her. It took just a second for Reagan to start to frown and I was sure she was getting ready to cry. But she stayed tough and never did. As I was standing at the counter with her, she finally sneaked in a smile and tried to hide it from everyone. We left the store and Reagan couldn't stop smiling and talking about her earrings. When we were in Wal-Mart she kept saying, "I'm am so excited I got my ears pierced!"

EGGS!!

2009-08-23T10:54:00.000-07:00

The day we have been waiting for since March has finally come. Last week we got our first Chicken egg. We've been going out to the chicken coop every morning and finding 1 egg each day. Once they all start laying, we could have up to a dozen eggs a day!

2009-08-16T16:03:00.000-07:00

The big weekend finally arrived, Kent and Jessica's big wedding. Friday morning all the girls went out for a pedicure in Mattoon. We then went to the Hilton Garden Inn for a lunch and Jessica passed out gifts for the bridesmaids, it was like getting Christmas early! The Rehearsal was at the St. Marie Church on Friday evening and we followed with a dinner at the Wilderness Lodge. If you ask Reagan about the evening, she'll go into a sob story about how her and Jaiden were washing their hands and between the two of them, her baby ring (which she was wearing for only the 2nd time since birth and was only on her fingers for about 3 hours) slipped off her finger and down the drain of the sink. Both girls were screaming and crying about the disaster. It was a nice relaxing evening besides that. Saturday morning my sister cam over to Barb's house to do our hair. We then went toJessica's moms house to get our makeup done with the Mary Kay lady. All the girls headed off to the church to start getting dressed and get our pictures. The wedding ceremony was beautiful. We go pictures at the church afterweards and then went to Sam Parr and out to our CRP land to get some more outdoor photos. We finally arrived at the wedding reception in our limos to start the evening. Dinner was great (chicken, green beans, potatoes, salad) and the strawberry swirl was an awesome cake. We danced the night away, and Reagan ha a blast. My favorite part was getting to spend the evenng hanging out out with my Terre Haute friends whom I miss dearly! The wedding reception wrapped up and we headed home. Sunday morning there was a brunch at Jessica's moms house and we watched them open up all their gifts and kicked back for the afternoon. It was the best weekend I've had for a long time. Great job Kent and Jessica and a big Congratulations!!

Girls Night Out

2009-08-02T11:15:00.001-07:00

Kevin and I had a good weekend partying with our friends. Kevin had all the guys out to our house for Kent's Bachelor party while I went out with Jessica and the girls for her Bachelorette party in St. Louis! The guys had a good time hanging out but since it rained, they were unable to have a fire like they had planned. They grilled out burgers and hung out. Us girls left in the morning and went to Fairview heights first to eat at Houlihan's and then went shopping in the mall. We got some accessories for our "dress up" planned for that night. We then went to the Casino Queen hotel to check in and start dolling ourselves up. It was to be a "wear your favorite black dress" night. Jessica got to wear a sparkly "Bachelorette" princess crown and a pink sash while the rest of us wore Bridesmaids pins on our dresses, talk about drawing attention to yourself:) We took the Metro to the Landing and went to the Spaghetti factory for Supper. After that we went to The Big Bang Piano bar and hung out there for the night singing a long and watching the entertainment. One lady told us before we left that we "were the classiest bachelorette party there!" There were SEVERAL bachelorette parties there that night. The piano bar was getting very crowded and hot and we were ready to dance so we went to another place (can't remember the name) to dance for awhile. Then we took a taxi back to the hotel. We had great plans to gamble for awhile but after we sat down to eat a snack at the Casino, we all realized how tired we were and decided it was bed time. It's was a great girls night out and a much needed getaway. Can't wait for the wedding Jessica!

Vacation Bible School

2009-07-26T10:07:00.000-07:00

We spent all week going to West Union in the evenings for the Vacation Bible School program at the West Union Christian Church where we attend. Jaiden came along for the ride and my other neice and nephew, Alayna and Nathan attended too. Reagan really enjoyed being with the other kids. She was always shy during the music program but really let it all out every time we got in the car to go home. Today at church, they had the closing program. I was just suprised Reagan got up on the stage. During the first song, she lifted her dress up over her head and the song leader had to go up and pull it down for her!! It was cute watching them. Maybe by next year, they'll be over the stage fright.

Meet me in St. Louie, Louie......

2009-07-21T21:04:00.001-07:00

Butterfly Garden and Grant's Farm

Zoo

Last weekend we took a little mini vacation to St. Louis. On Saturday we went to Grant's Farm and the Butterfly house of the Missouri Botanical Gardens. Our favorite part of Grant's farm was bottle feeding the baby goats. We had never been there before and weren't sure what to expect and suprised to find out that you have to ride the train car to get from the entrance to the area where all the action is! We watched an elephant show there and looked at all the farm animals (the Clydesdales are the big attraction there) and ate lunch there. In the afternoon, we went to see the butterflies. After relaxing at the Drury Inn that evening, we went to the St. Louis Zoo on Sunday. Reagan's favorite was the "Giraff-es." What a beautiful weekend we had!

Good Ol' West Union Dining.

2009-07-12T10:20:00.000-07:00

Chilton's Carry-Out Pizza

My parents are a bunch of go-getters when it comes to running a business. Luckily the town of West Union and those who pass by will never go hungry because of them. They built this Carry out pizza building which is next to their house and serve pizza and breadsticks Mon.-Sat. evenings 4-8pm. This August will be their 5 year anniversery.

Chilton's Cafe

Last winter, they decided to take on a new restaurant which was then called the Illinois 1 Cafe also in West Union. The building became Chilton's Cafe and a total makeover of the building was completed. They completely repainted everything inside, hung up decorations, new curtains, light fixtures and tablecloths, and revamped the menu. On the outside, they stained the stone, added shudders, log siding to the old addition, and tore off a little entrance that used to be on the front (a new roof is still to come). It's amazing how this place can always be so full of customers in a town of this size. My favorite menu item is the fried fish dinner. The Beef Manhattan is also very good. The just recently added a milkshake machine and just prior to that, they got a charbroiler.

Mooooooooove Over!

2009-07-10T18:02:00.000-07:00

Kevin’s dreams of becoming a cow farmer have finally come true. He’s “cow sitting” this week for our neighbors. Every day he drives up to the farm and honks the horn so the cows know it’s feeding time. We’ll usually beat them up to barn and sit while we watch them come running and mooing. Kevin puts food in both troughs and they just go to town. There are about 8 large herfords/angus herfords and 6 baby ones. Reagan absolutely loves going to see the cows. Someday maybe we’ll have some of our own!

Happy 4th of July!

2009-07-05T14:44:00.000-07:00

Well I'm sure everyone else can say the same thing but 4th of July was rough this year! It rained all day long and the parade in West Union was cancelled in the afternoon. We spent Saturday morning at my mom's doing a garage sale and had maybe 10 people who came. There was a lot of food at my mom's and we just sat around visiting and eating. We drove back to Newton later in the afternoon and had a cookout with some of Kevin's friends. Then we headed back to West Union again for fireworks at the park. It was sprinkling when we got there so the fireworks were delayed for about 45 minutes and we had to sit with umbrellas in the meantime and listened to the live entertainment while eating popcorn. There was a big tree kind of in our way so we decided to move up closer. We're basically sitting right underneath the fireworks when they started and we're almost looking straight up to see a lot of them. It was a great view!! Some of the ashes were falling from some low fireworks and one landed on Reagan's neck. My mom took her over to the ambulance where my uncle was on duty and sure enough when he wiped away the ashes, there were 3 burn areas on the back of her neck and a burn hole in her jacket, and she never even cried! They dressed everything up and the fireworks were over. Reagan still talked about how much she liked them and didn't seem too bothered by her "owie." Overall it was still a nice 4th, I'm just glad the fireworks hadn't been cancelled but rest ssured, we will not sit that close again!

Swimming lessions

2009-07-04T09:07:00.000-07:00

Reagan is going to be starting her 2nd week of swimming lessions this next week. Her and her cousin Jaiden have been going to Mallory Bollander's house every day for lessions. Reagan can put her face in water and blow bubbles, float on her back, jump in the water and go under, and swim on her belly (with assistance of course).

More Chickens!

2009-07-04T08:28:00.000-07:00

Another exciting addition to the chicken farm this weekend. We all had Friday off so we drove to Brownstown, IL to look at some chickens and rabbits from a couple who shows them in fairs. The rabbits were adorable but Kevin could not be convinced that we needed any of them. We went with intentions of coming back with 2 particular chickens but of course I can't resist and we came back with 4 more. We got all hens: Australop, Silkie mix, Buff Oprington Cochin, and a Gold-Laced Wyandotte. Here's what our beautiful chickens will some day look like....

Australop and Buff Orpington

Gold Laced Wyandotte and Silkie

Landscaping

2009-06-09T18:05:00.000-07:00

Kevin and I worked hard over the weekend to do a little landscaping. We want to do a big project in the center drive and up around the house but we’re saving that for next Spring. My mom gave me a bunch of transplants so we planted a lot of perennials around this tree that is in our side/back yard next to the woods. We have a rose bush, purple coneflowers, peonies (which don’t look so good right now), snowball bushes, rose of sharon’s, and something that is yellow and spreads (can’t remember the name of it). Then I planted a bunch of Hostas around another set of trees.

When our pond was dug, we found this huge rock in the bottom. Works perfect for our landscape and hopefully we’ll get it engraved sometime. There’s really too many things in this garden so when we get something else started, I’m going to move some of it out.

Memorial Day

2009-05-24T17:06:00.000-07:00

We had a fun Memorial Day celebration at my Mom and Dad's house on Sunday. My Aunt and Uncle from Ohio and my cousin Katie and her Husband Joel (and baby Libby) also came from Chicago. After church we had lunch at mom and dad's restaurant and had a cookout for supper. The weather was great and we spend the whole day outside just relaxing and playing the good ol' cornhole game. I got the chance to try out the Tastefully Simple KeyLime Cheesecake recipe and it was spectacular. See my previous blog for more information on how to get your own keylime cheesecake!

Introducing Jodi, Certified Tastefully Simple Consultant

2009-05-24T10:14:00.000-07:00

This is my sister Jodi who is now a Tastefully Simple Consultant. She is the best, most knowledgable tastefully simple consultant there has ever been. If you buy products from her, it will taste better than any food that has ever crossed your lips. She is available for both private and corporate events or can do a party in your home or you can do a catalog party with her assistance. Tastefully Simple has products ranging from main dishes to desserts, offering a wide variety of gourmet foods and gifts for every day and every occasion. Please contact me if you wish to get in touch with Jodi.

Tastefully Simple: The food you love, the time you deserve

Chickens

2009-05-23T18:17:00.000-07:00

Here's the 3 different kinds of chickens we now have....

Rhode Island Red Light Brahma Barred Rock

Reagan loves to hold her chickies. Everyone is getting along great!

The whole family went the Mikeworth's flea market today. We went to get a few Mallard ducks for our pond. We also went prepared to come home with a goat if we found one we liked. We decided that our chicken run is big enough to go ahead and put a goat in until we can get our pasture fenced in for our prospective meat goat business! Although we did not come home with a goat, we did come home with 2 more chickens. They had some Light Brahmas which are a white and black chicken that actually have feather down to their feet. I also talked to a guy there that says he can bring me a Wyandotte which is one that I have been looking for. He also has Mallards that he says he can bring to the next flea market.

Happy Birthday Reagan!

2009-05-17T16:53:00.000-07:00

Reagan turns 3 on May 19th but we went ahead and had a big birthday party for her on Saturday. We had our first big party in our new house and invited both sides of our family. We wanted to have a weiner roast but it was kind of wet outside so we just had an indoor party. The party was a "barnyard" theme with pigs, cows, ducks, etc. and since we had chickens, it was a live petting zoo! Reagan was such a good little girl and loved all her gifts. Some of things she got were lots of clothes (I have a picture of her in a dress that she got), fishing pole, ball glove, Dora DVD's, a monogramed lawn chair, and a Dora Doll House which I captured all the girls and Grandma's playing with.

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-10T14:08:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day out there to all the mother's. This mother's day we got my parents a new grill. Well, it was really a combination mother's day/father's day/dad's birthday/Christmas!! We had a big lunch cookout at my mom and dad's house to kick off the grilling season. My sister had news that her and Matt were having a baby! She is 8 weeks pregnant and due on our wedding anniversary on December 28th. Congratulations Matt and Jodi!

We have sidewalks!

2009-05-10T11:33:00.000-07:00

After almost 11 months of having our home, we finally have sidewalks. Actually they were done a little over a week ago. We started out walking on pieces of scrap wood and eventually moved up to some brick stones that were so far apart, Reagan couldn't reach from one to the other. When the guy came out to start the sidewalks and had everything dug and ready, it started raining and we went almost 2 weeks without anything at all except for mud. We're really happy with how the sidewalks turned out. It is a was brick color concrete and a charcoal powder was sprinkled over it. Then he rolled it with a big roller that has a slate-type look to it. The next day he came back and washed off the powder and sealed it. It's hard to tell from the pictures but it looks two-toned and looks like slate. Reagan loves to go out and run or skip back and forth on it. We haven't let her use the sidewalk chalk on it yet but I'm sure it's a matter of time.

Fun in the Sun

2009-05-06T18:15:00.000-07:00

We just got back from our first big family vacation to Fort Walton Beach, FL. The weather was great and we really had a good time. We stayed at the Ramada Plaza that was right on the beach and had a great room overlooking the courtyard gardens and pools. Reagan loved the ocean but would have been equally content with spending all of her time in the baby pool! She did like the ocean too, mainly playing in the sand. She liked to stand down by the water and jump up in the air when one of the waves came in so it wouldn't get her. We spent 3 1/2 days there just relaxing and enjoying time in the sun. There was one big pool with a waterfall and a swim up bar underneath and another heated pool area where Reagan liked to swim with the other kids. There was also a beach bar with live entertainment over the weekend. It rained one day so we went shopping. When I was checking out at Old Navy, Kevin poked at me to look at Reagan. There was a bunch of fake model people with clothing on and one was a little girl Reagan's height and wearing a similar shirt. Reagan was standing there talking to her and touching her pigtails. We got Reagan to pose next to her new friend for a picture! After a lot of contemplation, we did decide to return to our home in Illinois and back to reality!!

2009-04-27T18:47:00.000-07:00

So my friend Jessica finally got me convinced to start a blog. I love reading hers and Stephanie's but I don't expect to be as on top of things as they are. Lots of things going on right now with us. I just started my new job last week as Director of Nursing at the nursing home in Greenup. Off the a rough start but I'm starting to get my feet wet. I do enjoy having an office but it still needs a lot of TLC to get it personalized.

We've been very busy working on the chicken coup. Yes, that's right...we have chickens. Four weeks ago we bought 8 little baby chicks. Since then, we've been preparing the outdoor coop getting it painted, filling it with nesting boxes, and putting up a fence. The whole thing ended up being a lot bigger than we originally planned. The chickens aren't as cute as they once were but Reagan absolutely loves her "chickies" and we're looking forward to farm fresh eggs.