Whatever Works

Kurt and I watched Woody Allen's Whatever Works today with Larry David. I loved it! It has my two new favorite movie quotes. Kurt says Larry makes him nervous (he said that when we watched Curb, too). I smiled through the whole thing. It reminded me that we need to get the next season of Curb that we need to watch.

Yesterday we when bowling for someting different to do. It wasn't as fun as I would have hoped. I whacked the ball into my knee on one of the releases, my underwire was poking me in the upper arm (now i have a bruise), and our lane didn't work well so I ended up getting screwed out of a frame.

I've made some kick butt chicken and noodles for supper. I used no yolks to keep it healthy (ha!).

We're doing Lighten up Iowa again. One week is down and I'm down 2#. Yesterday it seems like all we did was eat.

The Blind Side

Kurt and I went to The Blind Side tonight. It is a TERRIFIC movie! I can't believe how good it was! As a side note...the real life guy has got to be impressed that Tim McGraw was playing him.

Today is Day 2 of the lifestyle change/shift. I'm kinda hungry but feeling good! We only got water at the movies tonight.

I did the dreaded grocery shopping today. I came in under budget at WM but went over budget (since there wasn't one) at Targucci. I think tomorrow is going to include some house cleaning. I got a sewing machine for Christmas. I need to get it out of the box and attempt to fix my swishy pants pocket.

So another exciting weekend around here.

Long Time No Blog

Wow I can't believe it's been so long.

Happy New Year!~

Kurt and I stayed in last night. We played with the Pooper dog and watched 6 or so episodes of Big Bang Theory. Love that show! We were supposed to go to a wedding reception but we were tired and felt a little under the weather. Then -10 degree weather wasn't much of an incentive to go back outside either.

Today we went to OG and had soup, salad and bread sticks (with $2 off thanks to my coupon!) and then we went and saw It's Complicated. It was great! I found myself smiling thorough out and having some deep belly laughs. I just love Meryl Streep. She seems like a nice lady. I'm not a huge fan of Alec Baldwin but he was good too. Plus how can you not like Steve Martin? We really enjoyed it. The theater was packed (with middle aged people). We quickly walked over to the mall and bought some 50% off calendars and then went and looked at diamonds. Now it's 5:30 pm and we're in for the night and we're perfectly happy!

We had a lovely Christmas. We had Eve Eve at Mom and Dad's with the Steins. We had a special visit from Santa in miniature. The 24th I made shrimp cocktail, shrimp scampi, and lobster tails for the four of us. I have some leftover lobster so I'm going to attempt lobster pot pie. The 25th Mom and Dad and all the kids came here. We had a lovely ham lunch, then presents and a movie in the afternoon. That evening Kurt and I went and saw Sherlock Holmes. It was fun. RD Jr is HOT. I didn't follow all of it and thought it was a little long but it was worth the $5.

A Christmas bonus was seeing/lunching/hanging with an old friend (who is new again). We reconnected on FB and have picked up where we left off. Tara was home from San Francisco so we had lunch. Then she and the fam were at the movies and then I ran into her the next day at Walmart (the center of the smalltown universe doncha know!)

The 26th we left for 3 days in South Dakota with Kurt's side of the family. South Dakota was in the middle of blizzard of a century. We made it out there just fine. We had 4/6 meals the were frozen pizzas, $2.99 lunch of 15 at Long John Silvers, another ham dinner and much snacking, laughing, and game playing. All in All it was a great holiday. As was 2009 a great year!

A Prairie Home Companion

Mom, Kurt, Marn and I attended the live broadcast on Saturday. It was pretty neat! We definately brought down the average age in the room! GK was much taller than I expected. It's cool that it came to DSM so that we don't need to go to the Twin cities and have all that extra expense

The house looks like my great grandma's with the lighting and the porch.

Afterward Mom treated us to dinner at Centro! I had the Seafood Fra Diavolo. It was VERY yummy :-)

West Ward Ho - Conclusion

Where in the World is Wall Drug? Right where it's always been on I-90. It was fun to poke around.

I remember this Jackalope being HUGE...I must have been tiny!

The World's ONe and only Corn Palace! Can't drive through South Dakota without subjecting the kids to the rite of passage! It was raining so I only have a shot from inside.

Who can forget the Badlands?

Thus concludes our trip. we drove 4, 000+ miles. We spent the night in Sioux Falls with Grandpa and Grandpa and then headed for home sweet home...where a happy puppy and piles and piles of laundry awaited!

West Ward Ho X

These guys don't change much!
The visitor's center and flags are new since...hmm....1980? I think that's when I was last there!

Bear Country USA is much improved!

Christy carrying on the family tradition!

One last Elk for the road!

West Ward Ho IX (i dont' think that's the right # for 9)

I've always wanted to go to Devil's Tower!

It's just a big rock but it's pretty awesome!

We hiked all around the base of it.

West Ward Ho VIII

We drove down through the Grand Tetons and spent the night near Jackson Hole. However the mountains were shrouded in clouds so we didn't get to see the spectacular views.

This cutie was at our resort. His little tushie and feet were sticking out the other side!

We drove through snow at 9,000 feet on June 7th!!

The balsam root was everywhere! Bears like to eat its roots.

West Ward Ho VII

Mammoth Hot Springs was about the last thing we visited in Yellowstone. It was totally surreal!

This is another of the pools near Old Faithful.

West Ward Ho VI

At Castle Geyser. It erupted almost continuously.

One of the many plentiful boiling pools

The bald eggs were nesting

She was crying for her baby (notice it in the hot spring)

West Thumb of the Yellowstone Lake and an Elk in the Mist

West Ward HO ....Where were we?

The Falls at Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (looks fake doesn't it?)

Bison are everywhere!!

The only traffic jam we were in for the entire trip. It lasted about 45 min and hundreds of bulls, cows, and calves went by!

Grazing in fresh green meadow. The sun even came out for a bit!

Castle Geyer near Old Faithful.

Wahooooo!

I passed my licensing exam today!

I am a licensensed nursing home administrator!

I am soooooo relieved!

National Equality March

We spent the weekend in Washington, D.C. where we took part in the National Equality March. We flew to DC with our friend Rikki, Amy, and Sherry. Randi and Matt also joined us. It was one of the coolest, most meaningful experiences of my life. I'm so proud to have been a part of it. We all must continue the fight so that ALL people are treated equally EVERYWHERE.

John Oliver from the Daily Show was there. The segment aired last night Oct 13th.

We marched from the White House to the Capitol.

Here's our Iowa group!

There were so many great signs! There were only a few haters along the way and we peacefully and respectfully drowned them out!

Heading up Pennslyvania Avenue. The estimate of the crowd was 200,000!

We marched right past the White House.

To learn more to donate or to learn how to lobby for equal rights check on http://www.nationalequalitymarch.org/ on the web or on Facebook.

Westward Ho V

We have our National Parks passport book that we like to fill. Another stop we made was at Grant Kohrs Ranch in central Montana. Rain was threatening and we still had a long ways to go, but it was a nice place to get out, stretch, and have yet another ham sandwich!

The ranch has a ranch house and out buildings, cattle, teepees, and a railroad running through it. It is a working ranch.

We peeked in here.

The blacksmith lady made us nail puzzles which kept the kids occupied for a while. Then we piled back in the truck and continued on our way to Idaho where we'd rented a cabin for the Yellowstone portion of our trip.