Playing tourists in Chicago

Ryan in front of U505 in the Museum of Science and Industry

The crazy bird that attacked me (and got stuck in my hair) while we were waiting to go on the architecture tour.

On the Ferris Wheel (before I started freaking out about how high we were and how much I dislike heights.)

Checking out the Transformers filming.

One of my favorite views of Chicago - from Adler Planetarium.

Another favorite shot - also from Adler.

The Magic House

Mom was in town this weekend and while we were watching Lily and William one afternoon, we decided to venture out to the Magic House since neither of us had ever been. Lily enjoyed playing tour guide for us and we discovered William is actually getting big enough to take part in some of the activities!

Lily and Memaw having a water fight.

Lily making a giant bubble around herself.

Look how big I am playing at the water table.

Keeping a watchful eye.

Taking the boat for a cruise.

So excited to be driving on his own!

A contagious laugh

Carl, Kathleen, Lily and William came over Monday for a little BBQ. William prefers to be in a standing position whenever possible and when he coupled that with the joy of pounding on our coffee table, he was in heaven. Gotta love his laugh!

Fun Fridays

The swings were a little too low for adults, but William seemed to enjoy it anyway.

Doing it on his own!

Just lounging on the table while Aunt Ingrid and Mom chat over a Whole Foods lunch.

On a hobby hunt

I've been feeling anxious a lot lately and I think much of it is due to work stress, but I also think it has something to do with my idle hands. I've decided I need to find some activities I really enjoy to keep me occupied and feeling more accomplished.

There are plenty of things that I enjoy and plenty of things that need to be done (that I don't necessarily always enjoy), but I think I'm looking for something that's:

1. relatively easy for me to do at home
2. doable in shorter spurts of time (an hour or two here or there)
3. doesn't cost a ton of money
4. doesn't result in lots of items that I'll have to figure out how to get rid of (aka 50,000 crocheted doilies)
5. is something I really like to do

I'm having some trouble coming up with the best hobby for me, but here are some thoughts I've been having.

•  Woodworking. The pros: I really enjoy working with my hands and I love working with wood. This also could potentially double as a useful hobby as we work on house projects.  The cons: there's some significant cost involved in tools/wood, there's definitely a learning curve that may be frustrating at times, our garage is freaking hot in the summer making it not that fun to hang out in.
• Cooking/baking. The pros: I love baking and kind of enjoy trying new cooking recipes. This can also be good because, well, we have to eat. The cons: the potential increase of the waist line if I do more baking (which is really what I prefer), having to get rid of excess food and heating up the oven in the summer. While I enjoy cooking, I'm not sure it's something I enjoy enough to really call it a hobby.
• Web design. The pros: I enjoy working on websites, it's a marketable skill and it's easy to find space to do it. The cons: I work on a computer all day, everyday. I would really like to find something to do that doesn't utilize a computer!
• Sewing. The pros: again, I think it could be useful, it can be done indoors with not too much space needed. The cons: I can see lots of things adding up that could be hard to get rid of, I'm not particularly skilled at sewing (based on previous experiences) which I think could be frustrating as well. 

So, I'm open to suggestions and additional thoughts. I guess I may have to try some things out to make a decision. Unfortunately some of these things are a bit costly to just "try". And of course, there are other things that I'm going to get back into working into my daily life to round things out a bit more - and I guess some of those are technically hobbies as well, but not exactly what I'm looking for in terms of a new hobby.

I think for sure I will be starting a new exercise class at least once a week, we're still working on obedience training with the doggies (that have advanced to level 5 by the way!), I need to do more reading (and less TV watching), and trying out new healthy recipes to find ones we really like.

Hopefully this will all keep me busy - in a good way - with less time to stress about work and feel "unaccomplished". I know it's a bit of a dream for many of you to actually have this problem, but it's not much fun for me. Here's hoping I'm on the right path!

Vacation favorites!

So of course the best part of vacation was not having access to my work voicemail or email for a full week, but some of my other favorites were:

The island (and the reef) about 150 feet off the beach of our resort. There's just something really fun about walking through the water to get to a little island that you can hang out on all day.

All the fun fish swimming around the reef (and having a waterproof camera to take underwater pictures with.)

The beautiful sunsets.

The beach, the sun, the sand, the warmth.

Hanging out with Allyson for a week! (and climbing Dunns River Falls which was way fun!)

The random Jamaica inspired Cubs hat at one of the stores.

Doing some makeshift snorkeling with my underwater camera.

And my least favorite part of the trip was getting a major sunburn on our last day there because it was about 70 degrees outside, very breezy and completely cloud covered. I had a long sleeved shirt and pants on, so thankfully the rest of me was fine, but the raccoon eyes definitely got me some looks on our way home!

Fondue Fun

I'm not sure why, but I take a strange pleasure in introducing Lily to my favorite foods. Before I left for vacation, Ryan and I went over to Carl and Kathleen's for dinner and some babysitting while they went car shopping. I was in charge of dessert and had a great time doing a make-shift chocolate fondue. Lily first insisted to me that she didn't like melted chocolate, but once I pulled out all the supplies she countered with "OK, let's have some of this first, but then I have a list of games for us to play."

The spread. Strawberries, pineapple, bananas, pretzels, melted chocolate and the extra special whipped cream topping. I think Lily would eat absolutely anything if it had whipped cream on top.

Going in for the dip.

Her creation.

We rounded out our evening by playing tag, painting her toes and finally settling down for a movie.

Skating with Lily

We took a little skating adventure while Dad was in town this weekend. Lily wasn't sure about wearing skates, but once she was on the ice she definitely took to it. By the end of the session, she was even doing it a little on her own. While my neck/shoulder is killing me today from keeping Lily upright yesterday, it was a lot of fun!

And well, this wasn't at skating, but it was a super cute picture of William that definitely needed to be shared!

Weekend with William

Mom was in town this weekend and we got lots of Lily and William time in which was great. And I FINALLY got a decent number of pictures of William. Here are some of my favorites.

Me and William. I know, I know - he looks scared.

Lily gets in on the picture action. Gotta love that look!

William is already such a big kid he can already hold his own bottle!

Stop patting me - I'm going to hurl!

Oh, much better!

And just a good all around classic.

Christmas and home improvements - celebrations abound!

I've been very delinquent in blogging and catching up with people in general these past few weeks. As there was for many I'm sure, there's been a lot going on including multiple Christmas celebrations. Our first stop was a quick visit in Logansport with my mom and Grandma Murphy and then we headed up to the farm for celebrations with Dad and Zander and the rest of the Deetz clan. We had a great time baking, watching lifetime movies, eating way too many sweets and working on Ryan's car (well, that part was more necessity, but I think Dad and Ryan enjoyed it too.) Unfortunately Ryan and I came home feeling... well, bloated from all the food we consumed over the trip. But we've been behaving much better since we've been home and I think we're both feeling a lot better!

Ryan with the pups in their Christmas pajamas at home before we left.

Zander opening up some gloves. We just don't get many pictures of Zander so I had to throw it in there!

Dad and Ryan working on the Jetta.

When we got home we got to celebrate Christmas #3 with Carl, Kathleen, Lily and William which was, as always, fun and entertaining. Ryan had to go back to work, but I was lucky enough to have last week off as well, so I got to spend some time working on some home improvement projects as well as spending some quality time with my niece and nephew.

Lily really tearing into her presents!

This is sweet William all bundled up and smiling in his sleep.

My big home project last week was venetian plastering our downstairs bathroom. This was a bit more of a task than I really understood when starting it and not really at all what I expected. I'm not sure why, but for some reason I thought it was going to be more like painting, but really it was more like plastering. Go figure. :-) After the first coat I was feeling pretty confident that I had this down, but after waiting for it to dry and doing the second coat, I realized I had no idea. I could not figure out how to make a "thin layer" cover all the white spots that the first coat had left behind. After some consultation with Ryan, I opted to put a third coat on and now it's looking much more like it's supposed to (I think.) Unfortunately, I think I caked the plaster on a bit too thick in a few areas so there are a few places that the plaster has actually cracked a little. Ryan says he likes the look it creates, so I think we're going to leave it as is for the moment and know that I can always sand down and re-do those sections later if we want. I'm actually pretty proud of the results. We'll see how it holds up.

After the second coat. Not looking so hot.

It's hard to see, but this is looking much better after the third coat.

This is an up-close shot of the wall texture.

Now this coming weekend, Ryan's parents are coming to town and we're going to enlist their help in re-tiling the bathroom floor and replacing the toilet. Doesn't that sound like fun??? I'm just excited to have it all underway and close to complete. It will be nice to have a functional (and not gross) bathroom downstairs.

And as we're finishing up this project, we're doing some groundwork for the next which is putting in two new sections of fence in the backyard. Though for this one we plan to hire it done and will probably not have much involvement. I can hardly wait! I think once it's done, I'll be much more willing to do some landscaping back there. Let's hope anyway - it needs some help!

A lot to be thankful for

I was contemplating sending holiday cards (and I still may), but then I decided I have lots of things that I'm particularly thankful for this year that I'd like to share, so then I though how about a holiday letter... but I'm just not sure I'm quite to the point in my life that a holiday letter seems age appropriate. So instead... or for the minute anyway, I want to share a little recap of some of the things that have made this year... memorable.

Ryan and I have officially been in St. Louis a full year now. And I think it's safe to say, we like it here. We're still figuring out what our favorite places are, and what all is here, but we're enjoying the process.

In addition to living in St. Louis, Ryan and I have been living together for a year now and it has been great. Having never lived with a significant other before, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but I truly love living with Ryan. I even enjoy the silly things we bicker about from time to time.

And in addition to living in St. Louis and with Ryan, I am also very thankful for the purchase of our new house. The house has been a constant source of entertainment and stress and joy. I love, love, love this house. And all the weird eccentricities of it. And I love that there are so many things we want to do with it, even if that does lead to some stress over what to do when and how to pay for it!

Though my job can drive me utterly insane, I'm very glad to have it and to be employed by a place that is doing something I believe is important and to work with co-workers who are truly great. Especially in light of the economic difficulties and unemployment so many are facing, I do feel blessed, for lack of a better term.

I feel very lucky to have been introduced to a great organization here in St. Louis called Stray Rescue that, in turn, introduced us to our new pup, Tuesday. I can not believe that Tuesday has only been with us about 10 months as she has become such a main stay of our lives. She is so happy and excitable and loving and even Irie thinks she was a great addition.

And speaking of Irie - she may not be something new this year, but I still adore her! I've really enjoyed getting back into agility class with her and teaching her new tricks like rolling all the way over this year.

We've had some sad events this year too, like the loss of Ryan's Grandma last spring, but we also welcomed my nephew, William, to the family. There's nothing quite like a new baby to make me smile and feel all warm and fuzzy inside. With new babies comes cute little outfits and warm snuggles and getting to know a whole new little person.

And Lily continues to amaze me. She's so much her own person these days and while she can be trying to entertain from time to time, I just love spending time with her and seeing her mind work. Simply amazing. I'm so glad to live nearby and be able to take her on little adventures.

I am also so very thankful for the new friends we have made in St. Louis as they have made it so much more enjoyable! Finding new friends takes time, but I so enjoy the ones we have found so far.

Of course, I am even more thankful (if that's possible) for my old friends who, though I don't live nearby anymore, still take the time to call me and tell me they miss me and work with me to find time for us to get together. Life would not be the same without you.

And last, but certainly not least, I am so grateful for my family. Every family has their share of issues, but I am so happy to be a part of mine. There's so much love and support and humor there. I can't wait to see so many of you this holiday season!

Irie and Terra with Santa Clause