Rough Week

Its really been a rough week for us. After an accident on Tuesday night, we found out that our wonderful brother in law lost his battle with cancer after an amazing fight. He will be more missed than he will ever know. Chris and I spent the holiday in Bloomington, enjoying some quality family time. Hope you are having a great and safe holiday season.

The Weather Stinks!

Remember a couple blogs ago when I said it was cold, but thank goodness the roads weren't bad. Well... I take it back. This afternoon I got freezing rain & sleet for my 70 mile drive home, the entire way. It was like an ice rink every where, then add a nice 20 mile per hour wind against the Expedition... and I had a little accident. The Expedition just has a small ding in the back and a tail light broke. The Suburban that ran into me got it a little worse, but no bad. No injuries. Needless to say it took me nearly 3 hours to get home. Then once I pulled into our road, I couldn't even make it into the drive way and we live on a completely flat street. Ugh. This stuff was the worse I have ever seen. They were shutting down parts of the highway all over the place.

A little yoga when I got home helped. I'm thinking I'll hit the bottle next.

Hope you are all safe and sound! And not on the roads.

Brrrrr... Its Cold Outside

Current outside temperature is a whopping 3 degrees. Wind is whipping through to create wind chill temps in the negative teens. Wishing we were some place much warmer right now. I went out shopping today and my nose hairs were starting to freeze. On the bright side, at least the roads are clear.

Had a nice dinner with Kim's work mates on Saturday night. Good food, great games, and wonderful company. Wish you could have all been here.

Hope you are having a wonderful holiday season. And I do hope its much warmer where ever you happen to be!

Day 7 Bathroom remodel

stage 4 on shower redo

So this is day 7, I never knew how much there was to do some of this stuff, first they had to move the drain to the center of the floor, then they had to put the slope in so that water funnels to the drain then put this plastic like coating down and this is before the do the shower pan.  No other good pictures today.

Day 6 Bathroom Remodel

All the stuff is on top of our new corner tub area

The floors got poured today with heating coil inserted

Another big day this was day 5, with the floors being poured it starts to take shape more and more.  The coil was weaved and cover in the pour so we will have heated tile floors when it is complete.

Day 5 Bathroom remodel

The hole where the tub used to be

The walls stripped to the stud

The tile below

This whole process has been very exciting and interesting, before the remodel there was a step up in our bathroom to get to the tub, toilet and shower area, they did this because this area was not intended to be bathroom area in the original design.  This room used to be a closet with a tile rug design which you can see in the picture above.  They raised it up a step to hide all the plumbing, they also hid all the scrap stuff from construction in there instead of throwing it away.  This is day 4 Monday.

Bathroom Remodel - Day 3

So far so good on the bathroom remodel. First three days have been deconstruction. Its amazing what you find under the floors when you start pulling them up. Under the tub there was a whole other level 12 inches under the current level with some really cool tile that was in pretty great condition. No clue why they found it necessary to put pink & green decor over the very nice white marble.

Updated bathroom will have black travertine floors with light brown travertine walls. I can't wait to see the finished product.

Attaching a couple pictures of deconstruction thus far.

Inside the shower:

In the tub area:
Location where the old vanity was (and new one will be)

Sugar Cookies at Break Neak Speed!

Yes, Chris is now officially the best (and quickest) sugar cookie decorator ever. He did four batches of Aunt Janice's sugar cookie batches in a mere 1.5 hours. We also got a batch of cranberry orange biscotti and chocolate rice krispie treats complete.

Weekend Plans

We're off to Illinois this weekend. A little last minute, but something we really want to do. Got some cookie dough chilling this morning after an early morning workout. Will finish the cookies off on Sunday night. Everyone at work loves the sugar cookies of course. Going to try a new chocolate rice krispie cookie recipe.

Oh, and we get to go pick out new cabinets and tile for our master bath remodel. Looking forward to the finished product. I can honestly say that I'm glad I didn't tackle this project myself.

Hope you are all having a great holiday season.

Remember When

As the holidays approach... Kim starts missing her family even more than normal.  Thought I would share a little nostalgic picture of the family.  I believe this is taken in 1985 in front of Aunt Thelma's house at a family reunion.  I'm in the very front in the nice purple shorts that were a little to short for my own good.  Check out the long hair on my uncles Dave & LeRoy.  Wow.

Back Drama Continued

This is starting to feel a bit like a saga.  Chris had #2 back surgery about 10 days ago.  And... we found out this week that it might not have worked.  His disc may be hierniated once again.  So, he is trying a round of steroids (maybe it will bulk up his muscles too).  Then if that doesn't work we are on for surgery #3 which will be full disc removal and fusion of the bones.  Keep your fingers crossed with us that the steroids work so we can avoid another surgery.

On a happy note, Kim had a great trip to South Carolina for work this week.  Off to Cincinnati for meetings tomorrow.  Oh, and we are remodeling our master bathroom.  Should I say, we are paying someone this time to break their back instead of us.  We get to pick out new cabinets and tile on Saturday which will be fun.  

Recovery

Chris is on the road to recovery. Surgery #2 went a lot harder than planned, but day 2 & 3 were better than expected. He is back working 8 hours a day and is managing some off his feet time as well. Work is a little crazy for Kim, but managing. We are working on our thoughts are prayers for Steve, Jodi and Karli now who are dealing with things families should just shouldn't have to deal with. This morning it was 15 degrees on the thermometer. Definitely cold, but the at least the roads are still drive so I have a safe commute.

Hope the holidays are going well for all of you.

Surgery #2 for Chris

Chris went in Monday for the second surgery in the last two months to repair a hierniated disc. Surgery #2 was much more painful than #1. He had a few more of the negative side affects this time as well. But hopefully it will heal properly this time and it will be his last back surgery forever.

Its snowing in Indianapolis. Looks pretty, until you get out on the road with all the crazy drivers. Probably won't stop now until about March. Good thing we got the Christmas lights up already.

What a Great Thanksgiving

The Thanksgiving weekend was wonderful.  Great food and great company for Turkey dinner.  Everyone brought a lot, ate a lot, and took home a lot.  We played games, searched and planned for our Black Friday shopping adventure, and ate some more.  

Girls searching the paper preparing for the shopping day ahead

Jodi and Steve - don't they look great!

The girls playing a little Mad Gab.  Merry was awesome!

Happy Thanksgiving All!

Just a quick note to tell you all happy Turkey Day. We are heading to Illinois for the weekend to enjoy time with all Chris' family. I anticipate lots of good food and even better company. I've already got the turkey brining and a mint chocolate cheesecake ready to go. Jodi will be making ham and sweet potato casserole (which I'm really excited about). And Merry will be making her famous Texas cake along with some pumpkin pies. We are looking forward to seeing everyone.

A note to our far away family and friends: we will sure miss you this weekend. Whether you are in Oregon, in Idaho, in Utah, in Wisconsin, in Florida, in South Africa, in England or where ever you may be, we will be thinking about you. Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

Wonderful Weekends

What a great weekend. Friday night we had date night. Went out for good food and a great movie back at home. Saturday we ran errands, went to the library, had our good friend Larry over for dinner and watched another good movie. Dinner was fantastic. Chicken Marsala and then a great new lemon bar recipe for dessert. Hope you are all having a nice weekend too.

Bad News

We found out this week, after a lot of added pain, that Chris needs to have back surgery a second time. He re-reherniated the disc that he originally had fixed in September. Bad news for both of us. Him because he has to deal with all the pain. Kim because she has to deal with him. Just joking. We can't wait for him to start feeling better. Poor guy. Keep your fingers crossed that this next surgery actually works.

Pictures of our best friends babies

These are pictures of our best friends, Mike & Ahren's little babies.  They are all grown up now, but thought we would show you how stinkin' cute they were (and still are of course).

Here's Macy

And here's Cole

We miss you Chris Cremer

For those of you who don't know, our nephew/cousin, Christopher Cremer had an incident with an ATV last month and broke his collarbone.  He grows so much that the doctors are convinced it will heal quickly.  He has a doctors appointment in a week to see if he gets to start basketball practice.  By the way, I think our influence on him over the summer is going to pay off with him going out for the tennis team this year.  He bought himself a new tennis racquet already.

We had a great time with him this summer and miss him a lot.  You can see the picture above of Venita, Christopher & Chris in front of the Field Museum in Chicago.  Look how much taller than Chris he looks.  Wow!

Memories from traveling

One of our favorite spots to travel to is Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I think for me it is so incredibly beautiful I enjoy it every time. In this picture you can see a herd of buffalo and the Teton mountains. There is something about seeing things as they are meant to be, it is really relaxing there and a recommended time to go is about first week in Novemeber. Sking has not begun so deals on food are better but it is getting colder so wildlife is dropping down into the valley to be seen. The first time we went we saw a herd of about 3000 elk.

Relaxation 101

Hey we are having a great weekend, Kim is in the kitchen cooking up some cookies and dinner for tonight. We have done some shopping and made it by the library and watched just the right amount of TV and movies. Sleeping in is a treat and we made it until almost 8am, that is rare for us. The weather has turned to snuggle from fall and snow is in the forcast soon. Anyone intersted in raking some leaves, we are allowed to put out 40 bags a week and I am sure we have more than enough.

I'm a little worried that Chris is taking pictures of himself while I am away during the week. Maybe you guys need to check in on him more often when I'm out of town.

Santorini (Greece) Donkeys

So on our trip to Greece and Turkey I had my own camera, Kim and Mike are close to professional photographers and Ahren and I are what you call point and clickers. Well I seemed to wake up a little before everyone else in Santorini and I got to take some unusual pictures. Seen above is the construction donkey, the paths are very narrow and have lots of turns and steps so the only way to get material to a site is use the donkeys.

The same holds true for getting stuff out, here you see the garbage truck donkey.

How's the back?

So the as you can see the scar is small.  My back is getting better everyday and I am almost entirely off anything for pain except ibuprofen.  It takes time to heal and I am not even allowed to rehab yet.  I have been walking on the treadmill and following Kim around the yard as she continues to do all the work.

  And before any of you can start in yes below my hand, the curve, yes that is a love handle and with Kim's cooking I get as much love as I can fit in.

Hello from Monterrey

Kim is in Monterrey working this week. Monterrey is actually a city of between 1 - 2 million people. It is quite large and quite developed in areas. The people are truly wonderful and its a nice place to have a plant to visit.


Chris is holding the fort down at home. Can't wait to see him on Friday.

Weekend Relaxation

This is the second weekend we have gotten to hang out together and relax a little. Friday night we had date night. Went to a new restaurant, got dessert, and watched a movie at home. Saturday was filled with errand running. Got a few more Christmas gifts, had lunch out, went to the library, then came home and relaxed. Might I just say that the public library here is amazing!

Sunday we had to get up and rush to clean up all the leaves because a potential buyer came to look at the house. But Sunday afternoon we got to watch football, workout and bake about a weeks worth of food. Homemade pizzas, burritos, and a couple apple pies.

You also might be interested to know that Chris and I have successfully kicked our caffeine habit. We are both down to 1 soda per day only. It took a couple days of headache's, but it worked.

For those of you who haven't seen Chris in his graduation gear... here is one with his original TMBA team.  Peter Lee is right next to Chris to the left.  A great friend.

Cookie Decorating

Chris and I had a great weekend. One of the first in a long time that we felt somewhat normal. No place to go... So we had fun just spending time together. Date night on Friday night complete with take out Chinese. On Saturday: Lots of lawn mowing (or should I saw leaf mowing). A little haircut & color & highlight for Kim. And Sunday: Some football for Chris. Some exercise and yoga for Kim. Then cookie decorating (Chris is good). And then a final wrap up with a dinner of Osso Buco (lamb shanks). I could definitely use more weekends like this!

Beautiful Fall Weekend

Saturday we drove to see the leaves changes in Madison, IN (near the IN, KY border) along the river.  Madison was beautiful  The area looked more like Tennessee.  The city was having a soup festival.  Too bad we weren't hungary.  

Friday night we attended an anniversary party planned by Kim to honor those in her work group that were celebrating milestone anniversaries (20, 25, 30, 35 years of service with the company).  We started with drinks and appetizers.  Then moved on to a nice sit down dinner and desert, complete with a funny presentation on each person being honored.  After dinner was drinks, darts, pool, etc.  Chris schooled a few people in darts.  Then everyone got to stay the night at the company "farm" (more like a hotel really). 

Christmas Early

Yippee! Chris ordered an iMac for us today. I can finally edit my Greece & Turkey pictures and download music.

Weather is beautiful in Indiana today. Mid 70's and very sunny. I cleaned garden pots and planted fall flowers. The house looks ready for a Thanksgiving celebration now.

Weekend of Separation

Chris is still in Las Vegas and Kim is in Indianapolis. These weekends stink... But the house is still in one piece so I can't complain too much. Weather in Indy is great. Its been a long week of work for both of us. Chris in class and me trying to keep up with my work load. Glad its the weekend. I got Christmas Cards on the table, my laptop out to do a bunch of work, and the lawn mower ready to go. (I haven't mowed the lawn in 2 weeks, ugh!). May do a little Christmas shopping. Hope all is well for all of you.

Hello from Las Vegas. What a fantastic day we had. Got up early while everyone else was just going to bed. The streets were empty and the weather a bit cooler. It hit 97 today in the afternoon. Had a great breakfast at Caesars. Walked for about 5 hours. Made Chris' back feel great and Kim's feet a little sore. Took a quick rest. Had dinner at Spago. Then went to see O (a Cirque De Soleil show) that was incredible. Here's a few pictures.

Inside the Venetian

Waterfalls enter the Wynn Hotel

Weekend in Bloomington

Friday night at Chevy's there was cause for celebration. Ronnie is a year younger at 67! And Karli made the pom's squad. Mom isn't so "FAST" anymore, but finally she caught on to the surprise cake and presents back at the house. Weekend was filled with making sugar cookies and carmel corn and some awesome pork for bbq dinner thanks to Chad. Hope those cookies are almost gone. By the way, were was everyone when we were frosting cookies anyhow. Since when is homework more important than cookie decorating. It was a great weekend. Thanks to the entire Dixon, Smith, Aeschelman clan for all the excitement.

Next week... Las Vegas here we come.

Chris & Chad Elk Hunting in Eastern Oregon

What a great week hanging out with the bro and the in-laws. Lots of camo, lots of cribbage, and a lots of poker. Chris even won 2nd place in the Eagles Texas Hold'Em Tournament on the way home. And I can't forget to mention all the awesome food. Norma and Nancy were amazing.

Chad Posing with Bull Elk (not his)

The hunters (Chad, not Chris)

Eastern Oregon Scenery

Michigan and the UP (Upper Peninsula)

Chris and I got to be tourists again in the midwest and spent Labor Day weekend camping in Michigan. First night we spent near Higgins and Houghton Lakes. Lots of deer, maybe a little too many on the road. Second night we migrated clear up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan staying in St Ignace and exploring Wild Life Refuge and State Parks. Final night we stayed in a campground just walking distance from Pentwater. We got the chance to see 3 of the Great Lakes: Michigan, Superior & Huron. Which feel more like oceans than lakes. The weather was perfect and the time away from all the other stresses of life was well needed. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Upper Peninsula. Painted Rock State Park.

Wildlife Refuge on Upper Peninsula. Lots of birds, no bears or moose.

Mackinac Bridge (Route to Upper Pensinsula):

Background

Yes it is true we are a bit more mobile and flexible on where we live so if you are just catching up we now live in Indianapolis. The funny thing is we have always found something fun or interesting about everywhere we lived and treated every place as temporary. The constant tourist approach we have found we do more stuff the places we live in a short time then most people who have lived the for many years.

Life is never boring and time flies by, we keep an active calendar so if you want to keep up this will be the place.

We just got back from a weekend trip over to Illinois to visit family.

Next up Michigan for Labor day weekend road trip and camping.