Mr. Nelson, Indeed!

Remember this handsome fellow?-

This is Mr. Nelson, College Instructor. Today was his first day teaching his first college class. He wasn't a bit nervous in front of his attentive audience of mostly female freshmen, and within less than two hours he had went through his syllabus, collected information about each student, and introduced them to the world of philosophy by asking them what they think they know and how they know they know it. I am so proud. I made him pancakes when he got home.

Idaho Trip

Okay so we still don't have central air, but Jonathan says my fans are getting antsy so I thought I better give an update. Fortunately they gave us another window air conditioner so our house is an average 78 degrees instead of 85 and we have moved out of the bedroom. I was also able to get some housecleaning/organizing and laundry done which was really piling up so that was good. Anyway let me get on to the good stuff.

We had a really fun time in Idaho. It was so nice to get to see all our family and be able to spend some QT with them.
Here are some of the highlights from our trip-

On the way to Idaho we had a six hour layover in Minneapolis. I found out there was a tram that runs from the airport to Mall of America. So I dragged the reluctant Jonathan out of the airport to see the biggest mall in the U.S. It's not that great. It's just a big mall. Oh and there is an amusement park in the middle. It actually had some of my favorite rides from the Western Idaho Fair like the Swings and Falling Star. Being the nerd I am my favorite part was the Lego store with huge Lego creations.


I freaked out when I saw my brother face to face and was looking him in the eye. He's thirteen and my height. Yikes! I like this picture because he looks like the punk he is.
We swam in the pool a lot. We also played a very violent game of pool basketball. Here is my sister-in-law Jennie going down the slide sideways.
Jonathan took this shot four times and each time one of us had our eyes closed. Such a photogenic family. I was fresh out of the pool hence the wet rat look.

I learned to cook virtual style on the Wii with Brooke.

I also went bowling with Brooke and David and some girl David likes. It was weird to see my little brother flirting with a girl. We also bowled on the Wii. Let me tell you, it's not that realistic because I am a thousand times better at bowling on the Wii then in real life.
Of course we followed our old tradition and played the game Pit with the Nelsons.

I made this delicious hunk of chocolate for a belated father's day present. I will post the recipe sooner or later, don't worry


Watched my awesome mom play awesome tennis and win at our old stompin' grounds Julia Davis Park.

Nice view up David's nose, huh?

Our second to last day we drove three hours to Red Fish Lake. We saw the Sawtooth mountains, swam in the lake, ate dinner, then drove home (Jonathan and David also squeezed in some paintballing). All in one day. Dang that lake was cold. It was a lot of fun. And so beautiful.

My adorable husband. Isn't he Cute?

I also did two other things I hadn't done in a long time.
First I cut about eight inches off my hair.

(This how I feel after working on this blog all day :)

Then my sister took me do something I haven't done in an even longer time. Like 15 years long. Brace yourself... try not to laugh.... We went to the RollerDrome and went roller skating. Fortunately I do not have any pictures of that.

Well I think that's about it. Getting all these photos up here has been a nightmare so I've got to quit. Later I'll put up a slide of the photos Jonathan took of the mountains.

A Welcome Back Present for Us

Sorry about the lack of updates. I know you are all dying to hear about my vacation to Idaho, but I am waiting until it's a bit cooler in here. You see, after waking up late and nearly missing our flight and spending our entire day in airplanes and airports... this is what we came home to on Saturday when I all I wanted to do was take a shower-

Some pipe had busted in the bathroom and was shooting water everywhere. The water had been going long enough and strong enough that it broke the light, the fan, soaked the hallway carpet, and soaked all of our toiletries in the bathroom cupboard. Plus water dripped through the vent into the basement and ruined our air conditioner. So our house was 89 degrees, very humid, and we had no way of cooling it down. With some force Jonathan got the 24 hour maintenance guy to come on a Saturday night and fix the pipe. Fortunately, he also gave us a window air-conditioner for our bedroom. So basically we moved into our bedroom where it is cool and are staying there until the air conditioner is fixed. And that is when I will give you lots of juicy details and photos of our vacation.

Charlie : Candy Mountain

Goodbye Blog.... For Now

Yay! In approximately 12 hours we will be landing in good ol' Idaho. Since 97 percent of my readers reside there (oh yeah, don't even think I don't know where you live) they can hear about my wonderful life in person instead of just reading about it. So blog, goodbye for now and I will see you in about two weeks.

My Goodwill Adventure

Wednesday I did not have to work (no surprise there) so I decided to do something I rarely do alone- get out of the house. I admit it. I don't like going out without Jonathan. Before going somewhere I get a bit nervous and want to back out at the last minute. At 9 am I wrote a note to Jonathan telling him where I was going and that I left at 9 am. After systematically planning out my route using our Microsoft Works Suite Streets & Trips program, printing out the directions from each stop to the next and leaving a copy for Jonathan so he knew where I would be if I went missing, I was ready to go. Then I felt my tummy grumble so sat down to eat a snack and started having second thoughts. Maybe I should just sit here on the couch and watch Good Morning America and explore daytime TV all day. But after flipping through the channels and landing on the show with that stupid blond girl acting really stupid with that stupid old guy, I got sick and barfed from watching too much daytime TV, and was out the door by 930 am. Phew!

Anyway it paid off. I had the most fun I've had in a long time (out by myself, that is). First stop, my school to do some errands (boring) and then to Northwest Coffee Co. for a small Americano, half full, and a poppy seed muffin. Unfortunately I was still a bit anxious about my big trip out on the town so I just scarfed the muffin down and took the coffee to go, so didn't get to savor it much. Then following my systematically planned route, I hit Goodwill on Forest Park Ave, the St. Vincents across the street, Goodwill on Olive Blvd. (it took me awhile to get there after I missed my turn), the junky no-name thrift store across the street, the Scholarshop (uppity thrift store), Goodwill on Manchester, and last but not least the grocery store. I got home at 3:30 p.m. I didn't even get to two of my stops either- Goodwill on Morganford and the Scholarshop on Big Bend.

I was seriously pooped after digging through junk all day on an empty stomach, but it was worth it. I saw a lot of good stuff that I wanted to buy but couldn't afford (stupid Goodwill and their high prices!) but did end up with some pretty good loot. I got a big pile of books for my future classroom (gotta start collecting early) all which cost about less than 2 dollars total, one of those bags that lets you hang clothes in it without them getting wrinkled for Jonathan for when he goes to conferences, for 3 dollars, and the Star Wars Trilogy on VHS (the original version) for 6 dollars, and some other junk which I can't remember right now. I also saw a lot of St. Louis that I have never seen before, which isn't much of a surprise, but it was a nice change of scenery. I got some good books. Here they are-




See any you like?

Water Lilies

I love water lilies. I did not discover water lilies, however, until we moved here. About a week after we moved into our house we set out to explore Tower Grove Park and found them in the manicured pond amid giant lily pads. They don't fully come into bloom until around this time but we have been anxious to see them. Early Monday morning I remembered the water lilies and had Jonathan take me to there so he could take pictures for me. It was fun. The frogs were croaking really loud. And a weird guy was going around clapping his hands... without stopping. Here are some of his best shots. (Jonathan's not the crazy man's)

And please stop by my older post- two year olds are pretty darn cute to see their adorable faces. The picture wouldn't load for some reason when I wrote it, but I got it to work now. I couldn't rave about how cute they were and not have the evidence to prove it, could I?