Dinner with co-workers (current and old) and friends (tweeters/bloggers/runners: Lynn and Jennifer)

We met up at BCC and then went to Sapporo on 4th Street. I tried a new type of sushi (I can’t remember what it was called, but it was shrimp and it was fried.. and it was a little spicy). Based on Holly’s recommendation, I tried the Candle Apple martini and it was great. I thought it would be sour, but wasn’t!

Birthday breakfast:

The afternoon at the pool:

A cookout with family. My mom knows how to grill!!

I didn’t want a cake. I wanted a strawberry dessert with whipped cream, angel food cake….. and white chocolate pudding. It tasted much better than it looks:

I hadn’t posted anything about it yet, but we’ve been thinking about it for a little while. We’re relocating for my husband’s job. He’s been traveling up there a lot since the summer.

He was up in Boston this week and was able to look at a few apartments. We’ve spent the weekend trying to decide. It’s difficult because there was no place that had all positives and no negatives.

We’ve spent the last 2 weekends just going through the house: throwing things away, making trips to Goodwill, putting things that we’re not taking into the basement, and making stacks in the living room of things to take. We’re not selling our house since this isn’t a “forever” move. We’ll be back, just not sure exactly when.

I’ve been doing research about areas, restaurants, and local blogs. There is so much to do and there’s not much time because we’re looking at signing a lease for the beginning of February, so like in 3 WEEKS.

I’m trying to decide what to do with my blog. I know I’ll want to do a blog for family and friends, but I think I want to keep it separate from this, but keeping up 1 is hard enough- so we’ll see!

Hope you had a good weekend!

Family Wall Red Christmas Card

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I just ordered 50 cards, for free from Shutterfly.com. The promo I had even covered shipping!

Recap: Went to my mother-in-law’s for lunch on Thanksgiving. There were 11 of us.

I love her kitchen. Her brother did a lot of the work- the painting, trim, flooring, tile, and lighting. They had someone do the cabinets and countertop. It’s gorgeous!

Her neighbors don’t have any family in town and couldn’t go anywhere since the wife is having cancer treatments, so we made them plates and took them over! It felt so nice to help them out.

Notice the lima beans? Yuck!

Here’s Kay and her kitchen:

Here’s our aunt Missy and great-aunt Pudge.

Dealing with my cat- trying to get her to take her medicine without forcing it down her throat. If she only liked it as much as eating MY strawberry smoothie:

Birthday Party for my step-father-in-law’s mom in Tell City, IN. I got to meet 2 cousins:

Went to India Day:

Put out the Fall Decorations:

Celebrated my 5 Year Anniversary where I work with cupcakes and a pizza party:

Went shopping with my mother-in-law:

Volunteered 2 days for Junior Achievement:

Went to the St. James Art Fair:

Went to the Louisville Mega Cavern:

Got my first LASIK evaluation on Tuesday and I’m getting another one this morning!

She is adjusting well. The first night was the worst. She acted like she hadn’t slept in days. She hardly moved. I felt sad and guilty- although the Vet recommended it for her!

But, by the morning, she had improved. Each day, she had gotten better and has more of her personality back. She just proved it by sticking her head inside my husband’s glass of orange juice- before we could catch her!

Today is my grandmother’s birthday. My mom and aunt are taking to her dinner. I have class tonight, so I can’t make it. I made her some baked goods and put them in a cute box, I made her a card, and got her a gift card to Panera Bread.

I took them over to her last night and stayed about an hour. I think she enjoyed our visit together much more than of any the actual birthday presents.

I can’t even remember the last time I went over just to say hello. Normally, I just see her at my mom’s house for family get-together. I really need to make it a habit just to stop by. I think it’s strange to just stop by, but I need to get over that.

I got to see her deck expansion with all her plants (although end of the season) and also her new flooring.

I realized that I need to take the time to do little things like that- because they really do matter. I worried and thought for over 3 days, what to get her for a birthday. Does that stuff really matter?

I can’t even remember what my last post was about, so I had to open up the homepage to see what it is- okay, I posted about the KY State Fair and also dinner with my dad’s side of the family- and I learned how to post a picture from Flickr.com

A few weeks ago, we had a “birthday party” for Ben’s grandmother, but it was in the hospital. It was a little sad. They had decided to put her into an assisted living community after a year and a half of family staying the night with her and a nurse aide during the day. She has had Parkinson’s for several years, but has gotten worse and now dementia and the medication for dementiaParkinson’s- she’s just not herself and it’s difficult to witness.

A week after moving there, she had a minor fall. And another fall the next day. They took her to the hospital for some tests, observation, and rehabilitation. She was there for about 2 weeks and then her birthday came. They were able to reserve a “Family room” for us, so they brought her favorite type of cake- an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen.I was glad that we all could get together- but seeing her and realizing what shape she was in- was difficult and it had been heart breaking on her children. It’s been about 2 weeks now, and they have moved her into a nursing home now. Well, that’s terrible- I just went to Flickr to grab a picture of her and I couldn’t even find one! Ack!

Now, on to something not so sad. I did the Fiesta Run 3 Mile race with Lynn and her friend Jenn.

It was a night race and was pretty neat. It was still hot and humid- but it was fun- but a challenge!

We had some visitors from Ben’s work from the Ukraine. They arrived on a Wednesday evening and we picked them up from the airport, drove them pass Churchill Downs, the UL football stadium, and took them to dinner at Cracker Barrel. We also took them to Brendan’s for a tech meet-up and then to Graeter’s for ice cream. They enjoyed trying the different flavors and settled with a scoop of chocolate chip in a waffle cone.

We went to the Bats baseball game on Friday night, with the rest of the Louisville team.

We dropped them back at the airport on Saturday morning. I was sad to see them go!

and then Ben and I went to the KY State Fair. He doesn’t go on the first day with the rest of my family, so we normally go first thing on Saturday morning!

Here’s Freddie and me:

We also saw some of the Horse Show:

Okay, what else? Oh yea, school started back. It’s on Tuesday nights from 6 to 8:45, so it’s nothing like my last summer class that when until 10:45 and then I had a 25 minute drive home. I’m taking Marketing, so it’s interested to me, but there’s a lot of reading!

Last weekend we went downtown to see some of the Iron Man competition. It’s just awesome. Can’t really say much else about it. Last year, I knew someone doing it, so that made it more fun to try to track them down. This year, we just went to 4th Street Live, where it finished with them completing the marathon portion. Here’s all our pictures, but here are a few favorites:


I’ll say this- sports photography is hard- so much to capture!

Then, we went to the Louisville Zombie Walk. I just realized that I still haven’t uploaded any pictures from that. I guess I’ll have to make it a separate post! Sorry it’s been so long!

During one of my runs, I started thinking about priorities and realized that things have shifted around lately- or maybe I just have realized it, but anyway- Priorities matter, so make sure what you have made a priority really is a priority. Cheers!

I don’t know for sure, but I think that this is the correct address:

271 Omega Pkwy
Shepherdsville, KY

They had 50% off the lowest tickets price. They had tons of shoes, but a lot of them were NOT my style. I ended up with 4 pairs and Benjamin got 3 pairs- all for $200. He had a pair of black leather loafers, brown leather and canvas casual, and a pair of Simple hemp casual shoes.

I got pairs of Brooks and Nike running, and 2 pairs of naturalizers- brown wedge and black flats for work.

I wore the Nikes this morning on my run and the wedges to Westport Village. My feet were hurting by the time we got done!

The in-laws came to town and we got a good picture of Kay and I.

This post was started earlier today on my WordPress iPhone app, but got lost somehow. I spent a while on it in the car on the way to a funeral. Ben’s great uncle passed away earlier this week. He had been in a nursing home for a year or two. He had gone downhill and we never made it out to see him- I really regret that.

Today was very emotional.

Uncle Louie was amazing- his personality is indescribable. He had been married for 63 years to Aunt Pudge.  I remember celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary. They were both so happy.

His smile was contagious. He was the best storyteller- even if I had already heard him tell it before. My mother-in-law wrote him a letter that was read during the service today and I realized how special he was to everyone. The church was packed- so many people there to pay tribute to him.

I really wish that we had spent more time with him.

Benjamin’s grandmother moved into an assisting living center last week and this just reinforces the need to spend more time with her. And for the rest of our family that we take for granted. I’m again reminded to take time for our family, because they are what is most important to us.