Procrastination Sunday

I have a million and one things to do for work and I didn't complete a single thing today. Instead I sat in my sun room feeding my new addiction. EBAY! I know I'm a little late since it's been around for ages, but it's amazing how you can find anything on Ebay. Recently, Sami needed a new cord for her computer. Miss Lily chewed a hole in her current one. She called it's manufactuer and they were going to charge her close to $100.00 for one! Ryan got one for her for $22.00 on Ebay! Other than that, I actually made dinner, worked on a new painting, and watched the Bears game with Ryan. Oh well, I guess my list will have to wait until tomorrow. Ugh......

A visit from an old friend..........

One of my best friends from college came this weekend all the way from Chicago! Michele and I have been friends since my junior year of college at ISU. We were both in eachother's weddings and can mentally and verbally finish eachother's sentences. She came in late Friday night, we watched The Office, (the second time for me that night) and girl talked until we were so tired we couldn't function. Saturday morning we went to the Egyptian Revival for facials and then to Melange for lunch. Instead of the usual chicken salad I finally tried something new. Aren't you proud Katie? The shrimp salad is definetly a front runner for my new favorite! Then we came home, showered and then went to the Southern Illinois Wine and Art Festival in Ina. After trying ever single wine in Southern Illinois and looking at some amazing art we left with a couple of new favorites. Michele loved and bought two bottles of Black and Blue and Red and Blue. We then drove back to Carbondale to eat at the Newell House. It was so nice that she sacraficed one of her few free weekends to come down. Love you Mich! Thanks again!

Renee your next! When are you coming down!

I didn't take any pictures of us but this stupid one!! I can't believe it!

There was a tent of these rare Butterflies from Costa Rica. Sorry for such a lame photo!

Can you believe this is real!? It looks like a Zebra Tiger!

An Office Party

Thursday night was the season premeire of The Office. Katie and Bronson love it as much as we do so we had an "Office Party". Ryan cooked tons of food and Katie brought a wonderful taco dip that we ate our weight in. The episode was so hilarious. I could possibly say that it was one of the best I have ever seen!!! I loved it so much that I have watched it 4 times since Thursday!

While the guys were cooking we did a mini photo shoot

I had to take this photo because Jack was totally catatonic

at dinner. I think it was the Michael Buble playlist I had on.

He's down for the count
The show begins...... Notice my picture above my couch is crazy crooked. I've never noticed!

My Aunt Barb came home for a visit

My Aunt Barb came home this week. Although I wasn't able to spend enough time with her, (due to being on "homestudy" for my 2 new drugs) we still had fun enjoying her visit. We went to Thai Taste on Friday night. It was sooo good! Glad your home safe and sound Aunt Barb. I love you! Send my love to Pat and Cedar!

My grandpa and his daughters

My mom and Aunt Barb

Me and my Poppy
Mom and Poppy
We were all starving so to pass the time I took a lot of pictures.

My Aunt and Grandpa
Fried Tofu!!! With amazing chili plum sauce.

Adventures of Painting!

Tonight we met for our Tuesday night painting class. I don't have a single creative bone in my body. So tonight truly surprised me of how good I can really be with the right direction. Our class is starting off by painting all the same picture. It's a picture of a landscape with a few barn like buildings in the background along with some mountains. I ran home and showed Ryan my picture and he truly was surprised and impressed with my "work". Can't wait to go back next week!

The 3rd grade painting I successfully created

This is it up close. I love the hills and my one "fallish" looking tree on the right side. If you look closely you can see the outline of my moutains and my light blue sky. I still have to do a lot more layering work.

Sami and her AWESOME painting. We all said it looked like a Hallmark card.This is Sami's upclose

Random Pictures

I have a new favorite place to eat in So. Il. It's Melange in Carbondale. If you haven't been or haven't been in a while you HAVE to go. It's wonderful atmosphere day or night in warm or cold weather. The best part, aside from the wonderful food, is that you can eat outside during all seasons. They have fans everywhere for the summer and a fireplace and heaters all over for the cold months. If you like chicken salad, you'll love their California Chicken Salad. I have 4 people already addicted to it like I am.

Ry and I at Melange

Ashley, Sami, and I Here are some Sista Pictures

Sami and Jessie

Jessie, Me and Sami at Walts

Jess and Sami
Me and Jess at Walts last week

Jeromy and Taunya's Reception

Last night was The Fricke's Reception. It was held at the Murphysboro Event Center, which by the way is beautiful! They got married in Mexico last week and threw a wonderful reception celebration!

Nate, Tobey, Kalen, Falan, Me, Ryan, Lacey, & Joe

Nate and Tobey
Beth and Ryan
Me and Beth
Ry and I

Weekend at U of I

Last weekend we went up to U of I to enjoy a game and meet up with Ryan's college friends. The game was amazing. The stands were packed with orange! U of I is such an amazing campus! Here are some pictures from the weekend.


The student only section. This is only the
half of it. It continues over to the right side of the stadium!

Go Illini!
Jenna and I
The half time show is always fantastic!! Here is a guitar!
If you were sitting on the other side this would spell Illini
Jason and JennaAren't we an attractive pair? Five U of I Engineers
Jenna, Joe, Jason, Ryan, and Tim

This is the same bunch back in 2003! Can you believe it?

Can you believe that's Ryan in the front??

The Little Black Dress Party

The Little Black Dress party was held on September 12th (I know I'm behind on my posting!) at Starview Vineyard to support the Womens Center in Carbondale. Although it was hotter than Africa that evening we had a blast! We already can't wait until next year! We heard that over 1,000 women were in attendence. If you are a fan of Blue Sky's Niagra try Starviews, Silver Star. It's made with the same Niagra grapes and I think I like it more! It was so cool to see hundreds of women in LBD's celebrating with friends for such a wonderful cause. Thanks to those friends who made it such a fun night for me!

Happy Birthday Evan

Today is Evan's birthday. I know that he is laughing and playing in heaven right now. Happy Birthday Evan. You are so deeply missed by so many people. Thank you for giving us the best present our lives could ever be graced with, you. As a four year old, you taught us more than what we as adults could have ever comprehended. We love you. Can't wait to see you again.

September 11, 2001

Go get a hobby!

Ryan told me a couple months ago that I needed to get a hobby. I'm always onto him due to the fact that he has so many hobbies that he needs another 24 hours in the week to complete them. I told him he needed to cut down on his intrests and he told me to get a few of my own! So I did just that! I'm currently taking a photography class, a watercolor class, and a core workout class. When I'm not in "class" I am doing my other hobby which is making bracelets. My friend Katie made me a beautiful bracelet for my birthday and I had her teach me how. Hello my name is Melissa and I am addicted to making bracelets!!!! They are so easy to make although they do get a little pricey! My sock animal intrest has fizzeled since I can't find any gloves just yet. I'll post a couple of bracelets I've made. So there Ryan, hows that for a couple of hobbies!!

A Blogger Tip

I have been having some issues with my archiving within my blog. I pre-set my main page to have 300 posts because for some reason my 2006 archives won't appear. So I pre-set all of my post on the front page. I just read on the blogger help desk page that once in awhile you need to clear your cache and cookies. The page addressed this as follows if you too are having some archiving issues!

Clearing Your Cache and Cookies
Most browsers hold a saved copy of visited webpages. Clearing your browser's cache and/or cookies can resolve a number of problems you may be experiencing while using Blogger or other sites on the web. Instructions for clearing your cache and cookies are different for each browser type.
To clear your cache and cookies, please follow the steps below.
For MS Internet Explorer:
Click Tools at the top of your browser window.
Select Internet Options from the menu.
Select the General tab, if it's not already selected.
Locate the Browsing history section and click Delete.
In the Temporary Internet Files section, click Delete files If a pop-up window appears, click Yes.
In the Cookies section, click Delete cookies If a pop-up window appears, click Yes.

The End of an Era.............

When I was around 4 or 5 I took up twirling. I was a "half step" in Stephanie's Stepettes. I don't think I did much twirling, I just liked the itchy costumes and marching in parades. Years later I found out that my friend Courtney was also a Stepette (much longer than I was). She called me this week to tell me that the Stepettes were ending and they wanted alumni to march with them in their last parade at the Carterville Free Fair Parade. Lynn, one of the founding sponsors, has done so much for me in the past years while I coached so of course I said yes. It was so fun to get together again. Most of the alumni had kids of their own. Of course I cried a couple of times due to the fact that I always cry at parades (weird, I know!) and because this is an organization that has been around for over 30 years! I was proud to be apart of their last horrah! Here are some pictures.

Me in 1985, not much twirling seen here.

Same parade, I don't look very enthused.
The Founding Sponsors, Stephanie and her mother Lynn
Courtney and Madalyn marching
I pushed strollers while the alumni carried their children. This is

Court and Madalyn and her cousin Allison and her son Jackson.