Sledding 2009

Two weeks ago we got a ton of snow in just one morning. It was perfect sledding weather. I had to call up my friend, Stephanie, because sledding is one of the things on her list that she wants to do before turning 30. So, she and her husband joined us. We headed out to Blackwell Forest Preserve and found a nice little hill right at the frozen pond.I tried pushing Ben down the hill a few times. In this photo, I think Ben and Brian were racing, but I obviously wasn't getting Ben a good start.
A nice man and his sons were also at the hill and let us use their sled and snowboard. So, I tried my hand at snow-boarding, but didn't make it very far.
Next time I think we'll head back to our house and make some homemade sugar donuts like my mom would do for my me and my sister after ice skating on the pond down the road. Ooohh.. the memories...

Glow and Behold!

Stephanie didn't turn 30, she turned 29. But, she had a party anyway because she wanted to start her last year in her 20's with a BANG! She invited a few of her close girlfriends over for a "glowing" dinner and dessert. The formal invitation requested that her guests wear something that makes us feel like we are glowing! So.. I wore my golden bridesmaid dress from my best friend's wedding over 5 years ago! I was holding on to this dress wanting a reason to wear it again. So, how perfect! Yay that I still fit into it!!

The party was so much fun! The theme was "Glow and Behold." We played a Family Feud style game where the subject was Divas. Who knew that a diva's favorite nail color is hot pink!?

Steph made a fantastic pork tenderloin dinner and served up some little pizza appetizers with drinks. She also gave all of us gifts!

Thanks, Steph, for such a wonderful party! I adore our friendship!

Return of Jack Bauer

Hip Hip Hooray!! Jack Bauer is back! Night one of 24's two night premiere just ended and we are pumped!

Knapp Christmas

My parents and little sister drove here last weekend on New Years day and stay for a few days. We celebrated our family Christmas while they were in town. It was fun to see my family and just hang out with each other. We didn't do anything extremely exciting, but just enjoyed being able to relax after the hustle and bustle of Christmas.

We did go see the movie, Bolt, at the cheap seats. What a cute movie!

Christmas in Maryland

[Heather & Nikki]

Merry Christmas! We spent our Christmas weekend in Maryland with Ben's family. We forgot to bring our camera, so the only photo I have is the one above that I stole from Heather off Facebook.

The "boys" went on their annual Gladd hunt with the dogs. The gals stayed behind and shopped. I got to hang out with some of Dana and Heather's friends, then Ben and I had the rare chance to catch up with Ben's long-time friend, Dan, before catching our flight home.

The following week (this weekend) my parents and little sister visited us to celebrate the new year and do the Knapp Christmas (minus Ang... we miss you!!). They actually just left a few hours ago. I'll post pics of our weekend later... It's time for bed!

Now in Print

Ben's dissertation is now published. We found out months ago that it was accepted for publication with a very respectable publisher, Walter de Gruyter. Now, after his hard work of putting all the finishing touches together, the book is in print and available on Amazon. Surprisingly, you can also purchase it on Target's website. Can you tell I'm so very proud of my dear husband?

We Put Our Tree Up Today!

Thankful for New Friends

It took a little while for me to decide what to blog about this year for Thanksgiving.  We're thankful for so much, but I didn't want to bore you with listing it all... from family and friends to Ben's graduation to good health to having food on the table to having an affordable place to live to find a church we love, etc.So, I chose one of these to post about today.  We are so thankful for all of our friends.  I'm thankful how I have become good friends with Ben's friends and Ben has become good friends with my friends.  But, this particular post is about the friends we have made as a couple.   It's about the friends neither one of us brought into the relationship, but the ones we developed together.

When we first got married and lived in Wheaton, it was a struggle to find friends.  We found a few, but not many that we just "meshed" with completely.  We were starving for the type of friendships we had (and still have) in our college friends who live across the country.  

Now, a little over three years later, I can say we have finally filled that void.  We love our new friends!

So, through out this post are photos I've found of our new friends.  Please remember, we love all of our friends from college, too, but this particular post is about our new friends.  And, if you are a "new" friends but there isn't a photo of you on here...it's simply because I don't have one!  :)  

Thank you, friends, for being like family to us.  Thank you, friends, for loving us.  Thank you, friends, for all of the fun.  Thank you, friends.

Of course, I can't talk about friends without posting this fun photo from a couple of years ago:

Sewing Buttons

Shamefully, I can not sew. Not even a button. Someday I'll learn, but I really have no desire to...especially when Ben happily does it on his own. I've got to say, I'm ecstatic.

Ice Skating with Pat & Jessica

Pat and Jessica had us over for some delicious chili. Afterwards, Patrick pretty much begged if we could go ice skating next door to their apartment. He was the only was so enthusiastic about going, so we flipped a coin, heads we would go ice skating, tails we would not. He flipped tails, and was so disappointed that we let him flip it again... but it was tails again!
Because of his disappointment, we decided to go anyway. Glad we went because it was so much fun! Thanks, Pat, for making us go!

Rachelle, Colorguard #3

Rachelle is taking after her two big sisters footsteps. She's in the colorguard. :) Although, Angie and I were in Belding's colorguard, Rachelle is in a much more competitive colorguard, Rockford.

I had the privilege of watching Rachelle's band compete in the state finals this weekend in Detroit at the Ford Field. My parents and I spent the entire day there watching all the bands march. It was fun to see how good these bands are and the types of props they use on the field.

Rachelle is a very good spinner. She did an awesome job, and it's only her first year! I'm proud of you sis!

And, I love being goofy with you.

Surprise Ben!! You're 30!

Ben's birthday weekend was full of excitement. We had our 4th annual BYOP party and later I had a surprise party planned for him that included racing RC cars. I was able to rent a room in our church, then Ben's good friend, Patrick, built a race track out of PVC pipes, including ramps and all. About 15 of our friends were there to surprise him. Even Devin and Marlena were up from Nashville for the weekend and were able to participate!Ben was definitely surprised and grateful for the friends who came. After the party, we headed to our landlord's house to have carrot cake and watch the UFC fight.

BYOP 2008

We held our 4th annual BYOP (Bring Your Own Pumpkin) event again at Kelly Park in Wheaton. This park is right down the road from our house and includes plenty of space for football, carving pumpkins, basketball and even has a really nice children's playground. It's the perfect setup for our party.There was a great turnout this year. Unfortunately, some people already left before I remembered to take a group photo (the one above wasn't the best photo, but I like the candid shot, especially Marlena's face). The weather was polar opposite of last year. Last year we were in short sleeves and shorts. This year, we couldn't bundle ourselves up more! It was COLD! Nonetheless, everyone had a good time and it was fun being able to have it on Ben's 30th birthday. Little did Ben know, though, that I had plans for him later that night with some more friends!

Click here to see more BYOP 2008 photos.

Check out some of the food I served on my food blog here.

Happy 30th Birthday, Ben!

Ben's 30! Below is a slideshow of Ben in the last year. Since he allowed me to go to the NKOTB concert on the eve of his 30th birthday, I thought it was only fitting that NKOTB sing him a birthday song to the slideshow... :)

Happy birthday, Sweetie! I love you!!

NKOTB! Reliving the Past...

When I heard that New Kids on the Block was reuniting and touring again, I immediately emailed my girlfriends and asked who was dying to go see these five, once young and hot, guys get back on stage and relive a 13 year old dream once again with me! It didn't take long for the gals to respond. A few didn't think paying $75 was worth seeing them, some said they were the ones who grew up making fun of NKOTB, others stated they would love to go, but just couldn't make it to Chicago, but...then...finally, responses from the ones who were just as excited as me! There were five others who were giddy and would pay whatever price to see these hunks try to dance across centerstage again, singing in their falsetto voices, making the ladies swoon.

And swoon we did... We couldn't have even imagined how great of a concert this turned out to be! I've never been in a place where there were so many women in their 30s (soccer moms, if you will) screaming at the top of their lungs, dressed in their 90s gear and dancing like 1999 hadn't even happened yet.I've been to many concerts, and I'm not ashamed to say that this was the best of them all. Maybe it was the hype from reliving a childhood dream, or maybe it was because the not so new "men" on the block could actually put on a great show!
Yup, that's Donnie.

It was fabulous because they sang all of their old popular songs (which weren't many to begin with) and then they did quite a few of their new songs from their new album. And, I have to say, I'm hooked on the new album.

My five girlfriends and I wore t-shirts that said "Team Joey" or "Team Donnie", etc., depending on who our *crush* was back in the day. Marlena wore crazy eye shadow and tied her shirt like we did in the 90s. I wore torn jeans, like Donnie did when the group was first together. Other women there also wore 90s clothes, big NKOTB buttons, big bangs, and shirts that said "Before Justin, there was Jordan". Loved it!
Call me crazy...call me nerdy...call me what you want. But, this NKOTB experience will never be forgotten.

Wisconsin Apple Picking & Golf

Last weekend Ben's parents were in town, so we drove up to Wisconsin to also see Joel & Dana (Ben's brother and sister-in-law). Friday night we spent the night in Madison and "da boys" went hunting in the morning.Our friends, Pat and Jessica, came up on Saturday afternoon. The guys headed on out to hit some golf balls while the gals went apple picking at an orchard called Epelgaarden.We spent Saturday night at the House on the Rock Resort, then the gals visited the House on the Rock Museum (you can see it sticking out in the trees below) while the guys went golfing.
The trees and fall colors made for a beautiful drive!

Welcome Fall!

Today is the first day of Fall! Yay! To Ben, it means it's time for me to make him some pumpkin bars. He begs for them all year. To me, it means new decorations to go with the change of season!

We had our first small group session meeting in our home last week. I wanted to warmingly welcome in the fall season and our new small group. So, I went out and bought a new doormat, wreath and chair for our front porch. Before, there was nothing, making it a cold entrance. Now, it's a lot more welcoming. Come on in!

Ladies Day at The Races

We made it to the races last Saturday. The weather couldn't have been nicer, and our day couldn't have been more fun!! If you read my earlier post, you knew that some girlfriends and I got together to decorate derby hats for ladies day at Arlington Park. The day finally came to wear our hats!

We had a fun-filled time with $2 bets, VIP tour that included visiting the sound booth and judges suite, hat contest (I got third place, yay!) and just enjoying the horses and the sun!

Click here to see more photos of our fun day!

Who am I?

My mother-in-law just emailed this video to me from You Tube. So cool!

Branson - Labor Day Weekend

We met up with some friends, the Roods and the Carlsons, in Branson, MO for some Labor Day weekend fun! After eating a lot of BBQ and challenging each other to mini golf, bumper cars, pool volleyball and basketball, we each had to part our ways back to our own homes. The Roods came from Seattle and the Carlsons from Dallas.
It was fun to be with them again, during a relaxing and exciting weekend. Our hotel was amazing, too!

Click here to see more pics.

And here to see even more!