Recap

There is actually so much that has happened since I last blogged. Not really big things, but so many activities that I could have blogged about and have pictures to show. I am going to attempt to catch up on a few things! I'll start with last night. (This was actually several weeks ago now - but I never got around to publishing this post...) Josh and Anna and Brett and I went to downtown Bloomington to a chocolate festival :). We basically walked around and visited different stores and businesses that offered a variety of chocolate treats, truffles, miniature cupcakes, chocolate covered strawberries, hot cider, and more. In the museum there was a competition for desserts and we got there at 7:45 when the judging was supposed to happen and then we were to get to try the different desserts there - but they were gone already... I have generally avoided downtown Bloomington but after last night Anna and I decided that we need to visit more stores there and generally walk around and see new things. There was this cute little music/guitar store that we quickly walked into just to look, we'll have to go back. Another plus to last night - it was free! We're all about free things around here. I don't have any pictures from last night. Afterwards we came back to our place and played a rousing game of scrabble.

Now lets go back to December. I was able to get some time off from work thanks to some great coworkers who switched dates with me and a flexible schedule. We took both cats with us back to Iowa over Christmas. Parker basically hid the entire time like he did last time in the truck and at the farm. Marshy explored the truck a little bit and also explored the farm a little too. We split our time back in Iowa with both our families and had lots of meals and lots of family time. A few pictures to follow!

Brett has been busy like usual at school with teaching labs and doing research again this semester. He is getting ready for a trip out to California to present some research and attend some seminars, etc at the end of March.

Claire in her apron helping me make cookies one day at Mom and Dad's. She was a really good help with putting all the ingredients in the mixing bowl! (and eating M & M's) :)

There were a few toys at Mom and Dad's that didn't quite work right. The batteries had been in them so long that they had corroded. Claire brought them to Uncle Brett to fix - and she was quite interested in everything he was doing!

Claire and Natalie playing the piano and singing together. I have so many pictures of the girls from our time in Iowa that I could fill this blog with them - but I'll just share a few. Miss these girls!!

We have had such a mild winter here in Illinois and I love it! I have not shoveled once this winter so far, and Brett has only shoveled a couple times. The high is supposed to be 51 today, the 22nd of February. Today is kind of a lazy day, although I have been awake since 3:30 this morning - couldn't sleep. ugh. I work tonight so I went to the gym early this morning and I will nap this afternoon before work tonight.

Our 5 year anniversary is coming up in May. I really can't believe 5 years have gone by already. Wow. I would love to take a week long vacation to a warm beach somewhere to celebrate but I don't think I will be able to take that much time off work, or afford a vacation to a beach.....oh well I can always dream right? Time to take a nap with my kitties today! And since a blog post on here wouldn't be complete without a picture of the cats - here is one from our trip back to Illinois after being in Iowa.