news

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

I've had a busy week and a half, but it's about to slow down; the store opens today! I'm ready for the opening to be done, and it just go to a regular retail job.

Since going back to work I've missed getting up, drinking my coffee and watching the Today show. I feel like we are getting old enough we should watch the new. I'm also interested in what the President's doing and the whole economy crisis.

The local news is horrible, since we live in a "3rd world state". :) The daily paper is the size of one section of the J&C, so we don't even bother with it. The local TV news is for the "tri-state" area, it consists of Hannibal, MO, Quincy and Macomb, IL, and Keokuk, IA. Yes, that's Iowa. Keokuk in about an hour away from Hannibal, and I got to thinking if Lafayette shared new with Indianapolis. It wouldn't be possible! I guess it's good we don't have bad news around here, but no news.....

it was kind of like christmas

Monday, February 16, 2009

Today was my first full day as a Bed, Bath and Beyond employee. It was pretty good, nothing too extraordinary happened. But the highlight of the day was getting to sit on the floor and put together one of everything for display purposes. Now, obviously we didn't get every item today; but I got to do it for about 2 hours. If you know me, you know I LOVE to put things together. So yes, it was kind of like Christmas (except I don't get to keep any of it).

So I got home from work and played around on the computer for about a half hour; until about 6. I then went and got in the shower. I got out about 6:20, went in to my bedroom to get my pajamas on and guess what I saw.......outside my window there were 2 spot lights aimed straight at my house. I went to the window, and there are about 4 firetrucks, 3 police cars and 1 ambulance out there. My heart skipped a beat! I threw on some clothes and went outside. The house next to ours caught on fire! Luckily no one was there, and it was put out quickly. It was a small fire in the bedroom.


But back to the part where I was in a towel and home alone! (yes, Mike's gone this week) The top picture is of the lights! I know it doesn't look like it, but they were very bright. My bedroom was glowing when I got out of the shower.

jeans shopping

Sunday, February 15, 2009

We had a pretty good Valentine's Day. We started the day out with a couple games of bowling. Mike and I haven't been bowling since we got married, and we used to go once a month for Lindstrom family bowling. I won the first game and Mike won the second; we had a lot of fun.

After bowling, Mike got his first taste of jeans shopping with a girl. :) He couldn't believe the price difference between men's and women's jean. It took about 4 stores, but I found some jeans. I normally buy my jeans from Old Navy, but Hannibal doesn't have one. Quincy does, but we were trying not to take the drive there and save the gas.

We then rented a couple of movies and ordered a pizza; which was a real treat! Since I got out of cooking dinner, I wanted to make dessert. It was really good!

wabash vs. mississippi

Friday, February 13, 2009

Today was my first day of work! I was only there for about an hour; we just went through the handbook and did all the tax papers. It was nice to see the faces of who I will be working with. At the beginning, they told us we were 35 out of 500 applicants. It really made me feel good about myself. With the economy the way it is, I really am lucky to be able to get a job. Something was wrong with the water pressure in the sprinkler system in the building, so we aren't able to start at the store until Monday. This means I get tomorrow off! I'm so excited to be able to spend the entire Valentine's Day with Mike. Since I was supposed to work, I'm not sure what we're going to do, but at least we will be together.

As I was driving to work today, I got to thinking about how many times I'm going to be taking this drive. It is interstate driving the entire way. I also am going to cross the Mississippi River twice a day. I used to cross the Wabash to get to Borders, but the Mississippi.... I feel like the Mississippi is such a prominent and famous river (as rivers go anyway), and you should maybe cross it, in the car, just like four or five times in your lifetime. I guess I'm just one of the lucky ones that will get to do it almost every day. :)

5th valentine's

Thursday, February 12, 2009

In a couple days, Mike and I will be celebrating our 5th Valentine's Day together. I'm not a big believer in this holiday. I like low key Valentine's Days; dinner at home and just a movie. I just like spending the evening with Mike. I do have to say I'm excited to buy my first "husband" card! I've always glanced at them when looking for a boyfriend card.

On our first Valentine's, I had a physics exam at 7-9 p.m.; which ruined Valentine's for about 2,000 students. 9 p.m. was too late to go out to eat and really even make dinner. So, Mike got take out Chinese from our favorite restaurant and waited outside my apartment door until I arrived back from the exam. It was so nice!

This years Valentine's I have to work, but only until 5 p.m. So Mike and I have decided to just order out and rent a movie. I know this doesn't really sound exciting, but it is to us. We haven't ate out in about a month, and we haven't rented a movie since we've moved (4 months). We haven't decided what we're going to eat yet; it's in between pizza and wings from BW3's. Since I'll be in Quincy for work, I'll just bring home the wings. If we decide to go that route.

It's kind of poetic how your first married Valentine's Day mirrors our first Valentine's. At least to me anyway. :)

I may post again before Saturday, but Happy Valentine's Day to everyone out there. ♥

books

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

I almost forgot...

I finally finished my book, The Virgins Lover by Philippa Gregory. It's a historical fiction about Queen Elizabeth I. I liked the plot, but the book had too much "filler" for me. I'm onto the next in order, The Other Queen. It's about Mary, Queen of Scots. I really like historical fiction, it's "bones" are true but it's an awesome story.

After I get done with this book and one I'm in next in line for at the library, I think I'm going to go back to "chick-lit". I go back and forth between the two genres, with a couple odd balls in the middle.

This is totally off subject, but this is the first time I've blogged twice in one day! Granted, it's just because I forgot something, but I did it!

schwan's

Since I start work at the end of this week, I figured I should start getting up early again. I used to get up with Mike and then go back to sleep when he left for work. But for the last couple weeks I haven't even been doing that. :( So, I started on Monday; I get up with Mike, make him some toast for breakfast, and I'm staying up. I need to get back on this normal schedule! I'm doing pretty well now, but Monday was rough I have to say.

We had a Schwan's lady come by the house on Saturday and gave us a booklet. They're starting a route here. I got so excited! I haven't had this in forever it seems like. I told Mike about it, and he was excited too. Both of our parents used to order from there, so we are both familiar with it. He found a couple things from his childhood he wants to get. I'm just excited for the ice cream cones this summer. Well, the lady came back by yesterday to ask if we wanted anything. I told her the truth, that we were interested but we want to wait a couple of weeks to a month to start, because I'm just starting my job. I'm sure she thought I was just feeding her some line, but we really want to order! I don't think we are going to go crazy, but a few things would be nice.

geocaching

Monday, February 9, 2009

Mike and I went geocaching yesterday. We both didn't know what this was 3 weeks ago, so if you didn't either, you're not out of the loop. What it basically is, is a scavenger hunt with a GPS. People have set these up all over the U.S. and even the world. At the end of each geocache, there should be a log to put your name in, or a container to put a little toy or talisment(sp?) in. There are at least 40 around the Hannibal area, and that was just on one website; there may be more.

When Mike was looking up on the Internet which ones we wanted to go to, he found a word he wasn't familiar with. He yelled from the computer room, "what the hell is a muggle*?!?" I just laughed and laughed. :) He was finding it being used like, "There's a lot of muggle activity around." I explained it and he thought it was nerdy. I do agree, but it was funny!

*For Sarah or anyone else who hasn't read the Harry Potter series, a muggle is non magic folk. You know, just normal people.

We went out to Huckleberry Park first, and we could not find it! We were probably out there for at least an hour, looking for a clue in a 30 foot area. We went through our numbers over and over; still, nothing. So, we decided to come home for lunch and try a different park. We then went to Riverview Park. The first one was easy there, which renewed our spirits. But we tried 2 more and could not find them. We knew we were in the right spots, but there was nothing. We wonder if they just aren't there anymore. We finally gave up on them. :(

We had a really good time, I hope we can continue this new activity. It's a nice way to go for a walk/hike and have a purpose in it.

last weekend of freedom

Saturday, February 7, 2009

It's another gorgeous Saturday. It's 62 degrees, and it's only 11:30 AM. The Internet says it's supposed to only get up to 65, but I think it may get close to 70!!

This is our last weekend before I start work. We don't really do a lot on the weekends, but it's nice to have two straight days with Mike. I only have two weeks of my schedule, and all the shifts are opening ( 8-5)! I hope I don't jinx myself in saying this. :) I do have to work Saturday mornings, but this gives Mike some time alone in the house. Since we've moved here, I'm always home with him. The first time he was alone in the house was when I had my second interview a couple weeks ago, and it was only for about an hour.

fleischhauer pasta factory

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Here's a little back story: Mike gave me my Kitchen Aid Mixers two Christmas' ago, I love it. It's green (my favorite color), and I call it green bean. Not really, it's more like a joke. But it always brings a smile to our faces when I say it. Well, this year for Christmas, My parents gave me my first accessory for the mixer, a pasta maker! Last night, we finally "broke" it in. It was definitely a learning experience, the pasta came out well, but we had a couple trial runs with the cutter. It just wasn't cutting the pasta all the way and we were pulling them apart, individually. Mike was a lot of help; he wasn't originally supposed to help, just take pictures. For some reason, he is the only person that can calm me down when I'm frustrated. Anyway, here are some pictures of our adventure last night.

Rolling out the dough


Since Mike was such a big help, I let him roll the last one. :) I tend to take over in the kitchen.

PASTA!


These are the little "nests" of pasta. We only ate 5 nests, with leftovers. We froze the rest, we should get atleast 2 more dinners out of them. YUM!

Making my "nests".


The finished product!

This was just an egg noodle recipe. I'm really looking forward to trying a semolina pasta recipe. I hope I'll beable to find this specialty flour in Hannibal.

groundhog day

Monday, February 2, 2009

I cannot believe it's February already.
We had a good time last night watching the Super Bowl. We were kind of rooting for the underdog, the Cardinals, but we really aren't fans of either team. I wonder if anyone else heard this during the Arizona Defense introductions, but one of them said he was from "West Lafayette, Red Devils". You know, when they say which College they're from, in this case, High School. Mike and I just looked at each other, we couldn't believe that someone from the Lafayette area was in the Super Bowl. It was kind of exciting.
After the game, we got to watch an Office episode, which was hilarious, as usual. I love that show! Oh, and we're really excited for the Amy Poehler show about the Indiana parks service. I loved Amy on SNL, and I love that it's going to be shot "mockumentary" style, just like The Office. It's going to be on Thursday night, like The Office, starting April 9th.
Anniversary