Happy Birthday Dad

Happy Birthday Dad! Thank you for always being there for me and supporting me. I love you very much and can't wait for vacation in Hilton Head (your version of Disney World).

Happy Birthday, Love Jenny and Louis

Royal Wedding

The media frenzy is almost over people, the media has gone insane about this wedding. I know how difficult it was for Louis and I to coordinate our wedding and our stress levels at times, this is like that but on speed. I honestly could never imagine having to live your life under that microscope, for their sake I hope they secretly eloped two weeks ago. I will admit though that I do want to watch the wedding day fun and see what she is wearing, luckily I wake up early each morning for work.

To William and Kate--- hope your honeymoon is camera free!

Jenny vs. The Plants

Anyone that knows me knows that I cannot keep plants and flowers alive to save my life. (This doesn't bode well for baby Malic) Last year I bought flowers for the front and back of our house and sure enough, I forget to water them a few days in a row and they die...haha oops. So last week when Louis and I were at Wal-Mart and I saw this pretty plant I wanted it. I figured for only $4.98 even if I killed it, who cares at least we would have had something green in the house for a day or two. I have remembered to water the plant everyday so far and its been one week and three days and we are still going strong. Not only is it pretty and adds height to the table but it makes me less depressed about this crappy rainy weather. Maybe I will be able to take care of baby Malic after all.

No More Monkeys Jumpin on the the Bed

This weekend Louis and I received a present for the bambino! We love when this happens because everything baby related is super cute and causes me to say "awwww". We got this cute basket that has a stuffed monkey, a banana rattle, a blanket and a door sign that says "Shhh the baby is sleeping". The theme of the basket is "No more monkeys jumpin on the bed" which I find adorable and gender neutral since we don't know yet if the bambino is a boy or girl. :)

October 18th

On or around October 18th, Louis and I will become parents!!!!

Book Review: Water for Elephants

Since every blog post should have a picture I included the movie poster :) When I was at Target a few weeks ago wandering around I stopped by the book section and they had this book on sale for $5.99 in paperback. I figured if it was turned into a movie and Reese was in it (I heart her) then I could give it a whirl. I honestly was not expecting much from the book but as it turns out I really enjoyed it. The book centers around a young man who finds himself on a circus train and how his life is forever changed by learning to survive and work in the circus. I really like how the book goes back and forth between the present and past (a la, The Notebook). I read some information the author put at the end of the book and she said that she did lots of research on circus acts and people and even incorporated a lot of true stories into the book. I don't want to give away details or ruin the book for anyone but I will say that how the love story line developed was a little strange and forced at times but overall I recommend it for an easy, fun summer read. Don't go watch the movie though and then read the book-- BOOKS ARE ALWAYS BETTER THAN THE MOVIE!

Three Oaks Recreation Area

Today Louis and I had our monthly date with Cheryl, Justin and Aubrey. I am really glad that we have been able to maintain our friendship and see each other on a regular basis :)

Since this is the first month in forever that it has actually been nice weather when hanging out together we decided to go to the new Three Oaks Recreation Area in Crystal Lake. First though we went to Culvers (I got a kids meal to get the free ice cream!) because the Culvers at the park doesn't open until next weekend.

The park was really nice, there were tons of paths and places to hang out. You can rent fishing boats, paddleboats and kayaks. There is also a beach area and a playground/splashpark for kids. It was extremely windy but we still had a really good time-- the best part was we got Miss Aubrey pretty tired which is the goal for all parents.

Aubrey LOVED walking on the bridge

Cheryl tried to get Aubrey to play in the sand but she wasn't having it-- not to mention the water was ice cold

I was offered many slobber filled Cheerio's from Aubrey

I can't wait until it gets consistently warmer outside and we can rent some boats and have fun on the water.

Hitting you with some culture

For those of you not in the know, I work at Hewitt Associates (I still don't like calling it AON Hewitt) and a large part of the company is located in India- specifically Gurgaon. As a result myself and my team have a lot of counterparts in India. Sometimes these associates are allowed to travel to the United States and currently we have two associates, Taresh and Jitender here with us. As part of their customs, they always bring gifts (hey, no complains here). These are the lovely gifts that I received. First up, was the gift from Taresh (which he admits his wife picked out and wrapped for him). He told me that the building design with the window is what princesses have designed for them-- so heck if its good enough for a princess count me in. The gift was also wrapped in the local newspaper which I found fascinating. I couldn't read a single symbol (its symbols, not letters) and Taresh was telling me what the newspaper said. Super cool! The next gift was from Jitender. My naive butt asked him if the elephant represented anything and he had to explain to me that it wasn't just an elephant but it was a god in Indian religion named Ganesha. Clearly my world culture knowledge is limited! He explained that this god is who they worshop everytime they start something new and Ganesha keeps away the obstacles when embarking on a new journey. I thought it was perfect for me :)

I have also heard many stories about India-- all of which almost dying in the cabs/cars due to the insane traffic. Apparently no one there obeys any traffic laws, and they regard them as "guidelines". If you get pulled over you can just pay off the cop and go on your way.

The world Cricket games also took place about a week ago and India won, which is a VERY big deal-- like think the Superbowl on steroids.

I really like learning about other cultures and find it good to help expand my world views.

Handy Hubby Strikes Again

Over Christmas Melanie sent us a new thermostat. You see, when she came to visit us for our wedding shower we were having some furnace issues and since the Winslow's are the experts in heating and cooling she helped us fix them. Mr. Winslow told her that our original thermostat was crap and we needed a new one. The reason that we (and when I say we, I mean Louis) hadn't installed it right away is that we were fearful that if we screwed it up we wouldn't have heat in the dead of winter. This past weekend with the nice weather Louis took the plunge and decided to install the new touch screen thermostat. He did a great job and it took under an hour. Plus he got to use his power tools, which is a great day for him.

As you can see the new one is super cool, and we still have to do some patching/painting since our old one was so much larger. For now we have a slightly ugly wall and a pretty thermostat. Now I just need to learn how to use the thing!

Spring Cleaning

We have lived in our house for about 2 years now and frankly we are collecting way too much stuff. I decided that it was time to do some spring cleaning and clean out the closets. My rule was if I haven't used/worn it in over a year, then it must go. Now, I started this little project while Louis was sleeping on the bed but when he woke up I convinced him to join the fun too. After all he has a slight hording complex (thanks Bill) and I need to try and manage :)

All of the stuff for Goodwill.

Louis is the person who collect shoe boxes (see, he is a horder) and I finally convinced him we don't need the boxes so lets get rid of them!

Trash pile. Lots of crappy t-shirts and ripped clothes

All bagged up. The white bags were for goodwill, as well as the brown bags. The black ones were trash or recycle.

Overall, it was a super productive Saturday. Not only did we manage to purge and clear our closets but we also dropped off the stuff at Goodwill the same day-- that way there was no way the stuff could simply sit around our house and collect dust waiting for us to drop it off.