What a Surprise!

So, you will have to forgive me for not having pictures to post on this one, but a camera would have gotten in the way of the fun! For my 30th Birthday, Adam surprised me with a trip to Las Vegas for the weekend. The only way for me to remember everything we did is to put it in Itinerary format for you!

Friday Dec. 5th
6:30 am Our flight left from Omaha to Denver, then on to Las Vegas. We arrived at approx. 9:30 am Vegas time. A limo picked us up from the Airport and brought us to the Palazzo, which is the newest hotel on the strip connected to the Venetian. After checking in we made our way to our Suite which was larger than our first floor in our house! It was amazing. We were on the 23rd floor and had a beautiful view of the mountains surrounding Vegas. Once I was over the shock of our room we went up the concierge lounge for "continental breakfast" which was far fancier than any continental breakfast I had ever seen before.
12:00 pm We made our way back to the room and got a little cleaned up. We decided to head downstairs and gamble away the $25 that the hotel had given us. After that we went out the strip and just walked around sightseeing. It was a beautiful sunny 65 degree day. On the way back I was feeling a little hungry so we stopped off at McDonalds (which apparently costs $20 in vegas!) We came across Madam Tussauds House of Wax! I had never been in one before, nor had Adam so we decided this might be fun. It was so much fun, but kind of scary how real some of them look! After this we made it back to the room to grab out coats.
5:30 we made our way across the street to watch the outdoor Treasure Island Performance. I was most excited about this since the last time I was in vegas it was too windy for the performance!! It was an OK story, but great pyrotechnics and special effects! After the show we went back up to the lounge for appetizers and open bar!! Then back to our room to get much needed sleep.

Sat. Dec. 6th (happy birthday me!)
6:00 am Still being on Omaha time we were up rather early. We decided it was a waste of being Jackless not to sleep in so we dozed off for another hour or so!!
8:00 am We decided to finally get up and moving. After getting ready for the day our room service breakfast arrived and it was wonderful. It's hard to imagine that some people live like this all the time! After breakfast I went down to the spa and had a "peppermint pedicure". It was amazing and my feet and legs tingled for the next several hours! (which was just what I needed after walking so much the day before) We decided to head back down to the strip and again but this time down to the other end so we could find a black jack table that didn't have a $10 minimum! We landed at the Monte Carlo and played blackjack for about an hour or so. I would love to say that we won tons of money here, but the reality is we lost! It was still fun!
5:00 pm We headed back to the room to get dressed up for the big event of the weekend which up to this point was still a surprise to me. We headed downstairs and called a cab and once Adam told him to head to Caesars Palace I knew we were off to see one of my all time favorites, Bette Midler! We had seen her billboards all over vegas, and I was really hoping that was in our plans! Once at Caesars we sat about 15 rows back, center stage. They were phenomenal seats! The show was amazing. I do have to admit, I got a little overwhelmed hearing her sing "Wind beneath my wings" in person! Anyone who knows me though would expect that!
After the show we decided to walk back to the Palazzo and stopped off at Ghirardelli Ice Cream shop for my "birthday cake" Hot fudge sundae! It was pretty yummy and I couldn't resist buying some chocolate to take home! After that back to the hotel for the night.

Sunday Dec. 7th
8:00 am We must have finally gotten on Vegas time since it was easier to sleep in today! After packing our bags we went back up to the lounge for one more outstanding continental breakfast!! Then off the airport for the marathon trip home from Vegas to L.A.for 4 hours, then to Phoenix for one hour, then finally on to Omaha with a midnight arrival time. Lucky for both of us Adam planned ahead and also took Monday off work!

Thank you so much Adam for making my 30th Birthday a weekend I will never forget!!! Also a big thanks to Shelley and Joel for Taking Jack for the Weekend (and the rest of the week) It was nice to be able to relax on Vacation knowing our little man was in such good hands!

Halloween memories

Halloween is officially over. I can say that now that all of our decorations and costumes are put back into storage. For the first time in my life I can truly say that I had the "cool" house on the block. I would love to say that this came easy, but it took many weeks worth of prep and decorating, and redecorating when I thought things didn't look right, a million batteries (plus a lot of promised back rubs to Adam for helping) but when Halloween night came, I couldn't be more happy with the results. My Halloween village was the highlight for most adults, but the fog machine and fortune teller were the hit for the kids.

Jack on the other hand couldn't be happier now that our garage is back to normal. He liked all of the decorations at first, but as more got added, and things got batteries and practice tests before the big night, he grew more and more wary of everything. He developed a love/hate relationship with our Halloween house. He would scream (and sometimes cry) at the decorations he thought were scary, but when Adam or I would remove them to make him happy, he would cry and scream until we brought them back out. Even now he know what boxes contain the halloween decorations and will point to them in the garage and start wining to take them out. Needless to say, I think we need to find storage outside of our house to ease him back into the garage!! Here he is looking into the garage on Halloween night, a little uneasy!


We were fortunate enough to have Adam's dad here on Halloween to help hand out candy and keep an eye on Jack so we could walk around the garage and talk to all of the neighbors. I don't know what we would have done if he wasn't here.

Adam, Thomas the Train and "Umpa" (Adam's Dad)


the famous fog machine was much scarier once it got dark!


would you like a fortune?


The completed Garage, again looked very spooky in the dark but no pictures turned out

Here are some other pictures from Jack's birhtday week!
Jack eating breakfast the morning he turned 2!!


Our little Train Conductor


He wanted to wear his candy bucket as a hat for 2 straight weeks. I couldn't argue!


He loved the pumpkins at Vala's Pumpkin Patch!


Overall I am so pleased with how the whole week turned out. I certainly need to thank Adam for all of his hard work and for not being upset that he married a Halloween junkie. And yes, I have started counting down to next Halloween!!

Making a little boy the happiest ever!

For Jack's 2nd Birthday, we decided it was time to get him a train table. We found the one we wanted, which has all the bells and whistles you could dream of. After several days of putting it together, getting the track figured out and securing the track with both Liquid nails and Silicone (it has to be 2 year old proof) we were ready to give it to Jack. My sister and her kids came to visit over MEA and we thought it was the perfect opportunity to have a small party and give him the table. We invited our new neighbors, both next door and across the street, one of which is Jack's newest best gal pal Abby over for the impromptu party. After dinner and cupcakes, which my niece Kyla made all by herself, we were ready to surprise Jack. I walked him into the living room and the look on his face was priceless. There isn't a greater feeling than making your child the happiest two year old ever (at least for the moment!!)


"is this really MY train table??"


Getting help from cousin AJ to find out what noises it makes.


Giving Mama a Thank you kiss!


Singing "Happy Birthday"!


He didn't even mind sharing!

Halloween house!

I just thought I would post some pictures of our house now that it's decked out for Halloween!


OUR HOUSE IS WATCHING YOU!!!


What our house looks like coming up the street at night.


The ghouls in the front of the house.


Our new visitor looking out our living room window!


The spiders are the reason Adam says we're getting so many real ones.

The following are pictures of my Halloween village collection! It's getting pretty big! If you look close enough you will see a cemetery, a torture factory, a spooky barn, a haunted pirate ship, Frankenstein's Lab, a monster dance, a phantom train station, a ghost mine, an Island of Doom, and many more. Enjoy!

Halloween came early

I HATE SPIDERS!!!!

I just wanted to get that clear before I describe for you the wonderful 8 legged creatures we have crawling around the outside of our house (just trying to find a way in, I know it). First off, there are tons of Wolf spiders. If your not sure what those are, picture brown tarantula looking fuzzy spiders. They live in mulched areas or grassy areas. The only recommended way to rid them is to remove mulch from around your house. That would be fine, except our housing department won't let us remove the decorative mulch from around our house so we have to make friends with the wolf spider. Luckily, all web sites say they are non-aggressive. (I'm not so sure)

Next we have the yellow Garden Spider. It's body is roughly the size of a half dollar, only oval shaped with bright yellow markings on it's back. It's pointy legs are approx. 2 inches long and look like something straight out of the movie "Arachnophobia". This lovely spider was making itself at home on our fence in our back yard weaving a nice little Egg Sac! Again, the internet says they are non-aggressive and non poisonous, but if you get bit by one seek medical attention immediately. (What??) We didn't want to take the chance, so after being sprayed with Wasp killer and mutilated by the weed wacker, I was confident it wasn't coming in my house!

Adam teases that if I didn't like Halloween so much, the spiders wouldn't want to come to our house to help decorate. I say, "BRING ON THE EXTERMINATOR!!"

the following link is a great place to see pictures of our uninvited guests!
http://lancaster.unl.edu/pest/resources/NESpiders.shtml

I would have put pictures of these uglies in my blog, but copywriting prohibits me from doing so.

Where have 2 years gone?

The past 3 days I have been doing a lot of remembering of my mom. I can't believe how fast the past 2 years have gone, and yet some of the events from the past 2 years seem like they happened 10 years ago. I'd like to write down a little story about my mom from when I was just starting college that always makes me smile.

The day my parents drove me up to college started off with me and my mom crying all the way from Apple Valley to Buffalo, where my mom finally turned to me and said, "well this is going to be a fun drive!" That at least stopped the tears and started some laughs. The rest of the trip was spend with her telling me "how to" things, like laundry, keeping on a budget, etc. which I rolled my eyes at everything she told me telling her, "I know Mom" but secretly glad for her little reminders. When we got up to Moorhead and finished unloading the car mom thought it would be a good idea to take me out to dinner, since there weren't many people on campus yet and she didn't want me to eat alone (at least that was her excuse). After dinner it was time to bid them farewell. After promising to wave out my window and a very long tearful hug, they left. I went to the window like promised but within 1 minute there was a knock on my door. It was mom saying she forgot to remind me which was detergent and which was fabric softener (or something silly like that). Another hug and goodbye and I was back at the window. Again a knock on my door. This time she wanted to make sure I had cash incase the dining hall wasn't open for breakfast. Again a hug and goodbye and again a knock. This continued for about 6 more times, each one more and more of a silly reason to come back up and delay the inevitable. My dad finally dragged her into the car, and 4 hours and 2 minutes later (it's a 4 hour drive) my phone rang for the first of many daily phone calls with mom!

That's the thing I miss the most is the daily "checking in" phone calls with her.

Happy October Everyone!!!

this was taken about 5 months before mom died when she was visiting us in Detroit.

Weekend rituals!

With Sunday here I thought I would jot down what our weekend rituals have come to be. It starts on Saturday, where Jack usually wakes us up much earlier than either of us would want, and we all lay in our bed and watch a little Baby Einstein video. We then decide on breakfast, or at least which one of us is getting dressed to go get breakfast, and have a leisurely meal! After this, Adam will get geared up in MN Gopher stuff and head to BW3's to root for our favorite college football team. Depending on the outcome he will come home either happy as a clam, or rather ticked and annoyed! Either way Jack cheers him up and helps him forget his sorrows. Then the rest of the day is devoted to Jack Time! (This usually involved a lot of wrestling on the living room floor or playing in the park behind our house.) Finally we all settle in for a family night at home.

Sunday is much of the same, but replace Gophers with Vikings, replace BW3's with Roman Coin Pizzeria, and replace ticked and annoyed with irritated and disgusted! The picture at the top of this post is actually from last season, at our house in Detroit, but I love it so much I had to put it in here.

Other than that, for today anyway, we are keeping our fingers crossed that the Twins pull off a win, and give themselves a chance. We will also be putting up the remainder of our Halloween decorations. For those that know me well, it is a little late in the season for me to be doing this (as I like having everything done by Sept. 1st) but with a new house and finally a decent yard, I want to do it right. More pictures of that to follow!!

Life in Nebraska thusfar!

Let me start by saying thanks for taking time out of your busy day to catch up on our lives. I figured (with the suggestion of my good friend Christina) this was a great way for family and friends to keep up with what we are doing since we still live pretty far away.

I guess the best place to start is tell a little about where we are living. We are in Bellevue, which is a tiny (mainly military) suburb of Omaha. Luckily we are not so small that we have everything we could need on a daily basis within 10 miles of our house. We opted to live in Military housing and from what our neighbors told us, we lucked out. Apparently some military bases don't have the greatest housing, but Offutt (our base) recently went privatized with it's housing. We live in a brand new duplex in a great cul-de-sac and have fantastic neighbors in all directions. We are not directly on base (but are considered part of base) so we don't have to go through any gated areas to get to our house, which will be nice for visitors. One of my favorite parts of where we live is that we are so close to base that in the morning, if your up early enough, you will hear Reveille, at 4:30 every afternoon you will hear the national anthem and at 10:00 every night you will hear Taps. Needless to say, I have not heard Reveille yet. It's also quite funny come 4:30 to see everyone running into their garages since the rules are that once the anthem starts, you must stop what your doing, and face the nearest flag, or base. (Unless indoors)

Jack adjusted the quickest to moving to a new house, but I think all the traveling we did while living in Detroit helped him become a pretty flexible kid. We are lucky enough to have many kids in our cul-de-sac, including 3 other 2 year olds. His favorite new buddy is a little girl named Abby who lives directly across the street. I think that has been the most helpful thing for him with this move, as he was so used to spending every day with Brianna in Detroit. Although we all miss the Pelligrini's terribly, I am thankful that he has someone to play with besides his mommy.

Adam is in full swing at his new clinic, and not too surprisingly being a Doctor in the military is just like being one outside of the military (except for the uniform). His patient population in comprised mainly of retired military or dependents. Offutt has a giant family practice residency program here and active duty members are seen by them; Adam would only see them if they had multiple issues. I think it was a pretty difficult adjustment period for him when he first started, having to learn about life in the military and adjust to being an attending, but now that he's more into the groove I think he's figuring it out!

I am still trying to find a routine to get on. We still have a few random boxes to unpack and I continue to procrastinate on those, but once that is done I won't have an excuse any longer for being in Slacker mode. I am anxious about finding a new workout routine, and play schedule to get Jack and I on, right now we're kind of taking every day as it comes.

Overall, things in Nebraska are going well and I am looking forward to seeing how my family will grow and change while we are here.