Here I am. I make fire. uuugggghh! I thought it would be a good idea to have a bonfire, which pretty much made me the candidate to build it! Thank goodness I was a royal ranger growing up! I had to build it to withstand the wind from the lake and all I had to use was damp wood. I got it going though, and I must say I was proud!

Lake Michigan. Believe it or not, that's actually one of Amber's bosses trying to surf.

Amber and I were invited to hang out with some of her co-workers at a beach house on Lake Michigan. The setting was beautiful. We didn't have the best weather, but in all we had lots of fun enjoying the view. These women here are a couple of Amber's co-workers.

Some of my co-workers teeing up. I think next time I golf I'm going to just start with a score of 100, count down, and try to finish with a positive number.

Our annual Germanfest and golf outing happened last week Friday for my (Jason's) work. We had a lot of fun although it was very muggy and hot. I won a bag of suckers because I suck so much. Oh well, I had fun! FYI: The last time I played golf was at last years event)

The reception! There was a great DJ - we had tons of fun dancing. And, you know you're in Wisconsin when there are deer everywhere! :-) The club where the reception was at had a great view of the city. I think that everyone had a great time.

Thanks again, Dawn & Bill! And, best of luck with the upcoming move and new job! Keep in touch!

Dawn's beautiful train and Dawn and Bill walking down the aisle as husband and wife!

Congrats and Best Wishes Dawn & Bill!!!

Dawn was a beautiful and radiant bride On August 12th! We are so happy for you both and were honored that you chose us to share in your special day!

Here are some of the pics! Check out Dawn's ravishing gown and Bill's snappy zoot suit!


Dawn's Dad, Les walking her down the aisle.

Dale's car of choice for the weekend. Andrea, maybe take a look at the back end of this car, because there may be one just like it sitting in your driveway someday!.....J/K I had a great time seeing these cars race! It's amazing at how technical they can get with all the cars. Now I just need to convince Amber that we NEED a sports car! =)

Don't tell Amber, but I bought this for her for Christmas! Hee,hee. All I had to do was sell my soul......Yes, it is that expensive!

The Ferrari.

Nothing like a Mercedes and a Neon playing in the sandbox together....awww. Actually it was an accident...we got to see it happen too

Yellow Vette in action

Another Corvette. They sure had a unique sound when they passed you on the track

Porsche

Corvette waiting to be unloaded. It was amazing at the amount of money being dumped into racing....Where can I sign up?

Pace cars.

Dad & Dale are eyeing up the area, so we know where to go when we bike on the track at night.....too bad the security people caught us!

Dale's famous gourmet dinner on Friday night. It was so good I had to take a picture!

Road America 2006! Our campsite. Thanks for the fun weekend Dale!

Pics from the Johnson's visit

We had a fun time with the Johnson fam when they came the first weekend in August. Here are the pics!

Yummy Dairy Qeen cake - the BEST!!! Happy Birthday again to Jason and Hannah - July birthdays rule! :-)

I miss my hubby!!!

Jason is attending a car race thing with his brother-in-law, dad, and a few other guys. He left around noon today. So, I kissed him a big good-bye this morning before work and will have to wait until tomorrow night to see him! It was really hard being away from him (especially sleeping without him) while I was in Chicago last month. I am sad to go home to an empty house - he is what makes the house a home!

so, I miss him already and am sending him lots of telepathic love and kisses and hugs! And, of course, shooting extra prayers up to God for him!

Here is a cute pic from Dawn and Bill's wedding of us!

How do they do it blog...

It must have been the crazy bird making us crazy, or possibly the lack of sleep and our crankiness, but Amber and I found ourselves laying in bed wondering how all the people in the world "make it". By make it we mean how do they manage to pay for the houses they are building, how they manage to afford moms staying home with the kids, how they have 2 brand new cars, and a new home, and so on. I then told Amber I was going to start another blog dedicated to finding out exactly how people "make it". It would be a blog where people breifly explain how they manage to "make it". Don't get me wrong, Amber and I are content and happy with where we are in life, but we sometimes wonder about other's stories. So if you've ever found yourself asking the question, "How do they do it?" this blog would be stories of how they do. I'll start if off.....

We make it because Amber and I both work full time, buy all our groceries at Wal-mart, and use coupons whenever we possibly can. We paid for our cars with money from saving like crazy when we lived in an apartment, and we only eat out once in a great while. We have no kids, no credit card debt, and we buy things on sale.

So that's how we do it....and trust me, it seems like sometimes we can't. But to any of our blog readers that would like to contribute, let me know if you think this blog idea is worth pursuing....

If I had a BB gun...

If I had a BB gun, then there would have been a dead bird in our yard yesterday!...

Since we were out of town all weekend sleeping on crummy hotel beds, I was hoping for a great night's sleep Sunday, but I didn't get one. So, I thought for sure I would sleep excellently on Monday night. I was off in pleasant dreamland when suddenly in my dream I was chasing a bird, trying to attack it. I awoke to realize that the reason I was chasing an annoying bird in my dream was because there was an extremely noisy and annoying bird right outside our window!!! We have had bird issues before, but this was definitely the worst so far!

Tuesday morning, approximately 4:30 a.m. the bird nightmare began.

Now, without a sound clip you won't REALLY understand, but I will try to explain. This bird did not have the nice fluttery "chirp chirp" melodious call of most birds. Instead of a random little song, this bird was doing a rythmic series of about 5 or 6 "honks!" Jason and I both irritatedly jumped out of bed and slammed both bedroom windows shut, but we could still hear the unpleasant honking clear as day. We both like to sleep no doubt, but I really cherish my sleep and NEED it! We both tossed and turned lying there actually anticipating the next bird's call and then mocking the rythym in our head. We refused to talk to one another, even though we knew the other was awake, becuase we were just so frustrated and annoyed.

So, what do you do with an annoying honking bird???!!! Jason shut the windows in the middle of the night last night in an act of "prevention." It is too nice to have the air conditioning on and nothing beats a nice cool summer sleep.

Early this morning we did hear the usual birdie sounds, but our honking pest was no where to be heard. It is going to be a busy and stressful couple of work weeks, so he better stay away unless he wants me to stop at our newest store in town, The Sportsman's Warehouse and pick up some ammo...

House Pics

Here are pictures of our backyard, formal living room, dining room, kitchen, and our bedroom. We hope to paint the kitchen "granny smith apple" green very soon! I will take some pictures of the family room and post - we spend the majority of our time in there! We have two spare rooms, too. But, they aren't much to look at!

Jason's Birthday - July 23rd

Jason holding his birthday bar. I was an idiot and thought I was video-taping him blowing out the candles, but it didn't record. :-( But, here he is after the candles were out!


Here he is opening some of his gifts - tools from Mom and Dad and clothes from me!

I think that he had a nice birthday. I love you, honey!

Sick

Glad to see that my hubby made an update! We both have been really busy at work and neither of us choose to stay late to blog!

I am still quite busy at work - I have two programs starting in two weeks and I am also recruiting for 1 other fall and 4 spring programs... To make it all worse, I am sick! I have a raging sinus infection and feel pretty badly. I stayed home from work yesterday to rest and am now on strong antibiotics. I sit at my computer wondering if my head is either going to just tip over and land on my desk, or if it is simply going to explode! Believe it or not, I am feeling some relief, but there is a long way to go.

Jason keeps asking me if I can have a surgery or do something to eliminate all of my sinus troubles. As far as I know, there is nothing that I can do. I snort Flonase - a nasal decongestant every day, but I do still have pretty constant sinus "issues" and pressure. My sinuses actually felt great in Mexico - maybe we'll just have to move there!!! I try to just ignore the pain as much as possible and treat myself with over-the-counter decongestants. But, in times like these when I want to be shot in the head to relieve the pressure, I suck it up and take antibiotics.

So, there you go. I am not feeling well, but I am surviving. I know that so many other people deal with worse pains and ailments, but it helps to share my story!

What else is new...

We did go to the county fair. We each had a corndog, but it started to rain and we left before we could eat any more fair food. We stopped for Blizzards on the way home, though!

I will try to post pictures of Jason's birthday and from this last weekend with the Johnson's visiting.

These are some pics that Jason's mom, Sharon, took on Jason's birthday.

We'll see if they show up or not - I am having some troubles!

Our friends Tessa and Michael from church had their baby girl! Welcome to the world, little Madeline!!! Mom and baby are doing fine – I can’t wait to have the chance to visit them once I am feeling better!

We had a fun time with the Johnson’s – they brought their little dog, Max along. He is a Schnoodle – Schnauzer and Poodle mix! Very cute! We spent the day on Saturday browsing some local shops and then ate at one of our new favs, Texas Roadhouse.

A friend of mine that I worked with in college is getting married this weekend, so we are heading to my college town to attend the wedding. It will be fun for us to get away – another reason I am glad that I am on the antibiotics – I wouldn’t be much fun if I am still miserable with headaches!

We’ll have to post some pics of the wedding!

Bye for now, faithful readers!

~Amber

Busy, busy, busy...

Hello family and friends! I know, I know, here we started a blog, and now it seems like we can't even maintain it. Truth is Amber and I have been pretty busy at work, which is when we update our blog. But just to update everyone on what's going on...

The month of July was pretty busy at work and at home. We celebrated Amber's 25th birthday on June 29th, had the Anderson's over the weekend of the 4th, celebrated my birthday the weekend of the 23rd, and went to the county fair, did some shopping for a wedding, had the Johnsons over last weekend, and etc. We're probably not as busy as a lot of people we know, but that's the way we like it. Our home projects have been on hold for awhile due to family visits and the extreme heat. We plan on tackling the kitchen with some paint in a couple weeks, so stay tuned for pictures on that. One cool thing this last month though was that Amber received a small raise at her job and I also received a raise and a promotion. Nothing we can retire on, but very helpful when it seems like everything around us keeps getting more and more expensive! Other than that nothing that new and exciting going on.

We hope you are all doing well, and we welcome you to leave us comments or send us emails to let us know how you're all doing. Until then...