The Last Five Months....in pictures

Jess's friend Emily & Andrew's Wedding:

Co-workers:


First Pedicure: (Yes, my toes are very short, but this picture is upside down)

Summer Vacation: NYC, Philadelphia, & Jersey Shore

DAY 1: EARLY MORNING into NYC

Excited for the day.... ...5 minutes later & I'm asleep (we got up at 3:30 am!)First stop: New York City Fire Station for Jess :)


Text from Kate: "Send me a picture of something random in New York". Okay.Bicycle buggy tour through Central Park. Friends fountain
Birthday present from my family - Lion King tickets! AMAZING!! (I cried during the opening number...don't laugh at me!) LOOOONNNNGGGG train ride home :( Got on the wrong one. Stopped for 1/2 hour on tracks, had to go backwards. Trip took at least twice as long as it should. So we entertained ourselves while we waited :)
DAY 2: Philadelphia

Traffic was poopy. 10 miles an hour. Stop. Go. Stop. Go.....you get the idea. 1st Stop: The Eastern State Penitentiary Yes, we are awesome.


Jess tried to escape.
Can you see the sweat? It. Was. Hot.2nd Stop: Rocky Stairs! Well, the Museum of Art.
3rd Stop: Tour of the Olympia warship & Becuna submarine.

4th Stop: The Liberty Bell5th Stop: Philadelphia Fire Station.
The above open garage door was for the engine pulling in just as we tried to take a picture. (We were looking around the corner trying to see what was inside....oops.)
Jess being bold & making new friends :)

DAY 3: Megan & David's Wedding

(Recounting the fireman story)
Roomies
Sisters
Yummy, yummy dinner
Cake topper Married
Bride

DAY 4: Jerey Shore!

Seagulls

September - Adam Lambert Concert on the bridge

Spaghetti Works for dinnerAllison Iraheta
Adam Lambert


Ocbober - Best Bachelorette gift-giver: Me :)

Minneapolis: SYTYCD Season 7 tour

w/ a mini bar :) (We did not use this)
Jose & Dominic
Kent & AllisonBilly & Robert Group danceLauren & KentThat's all for now!

Do you know anything about dream interpretations?

So, I don't believe much in dream interpretation, but it's interesting to think about especially with recurring dreams.

Mine of late has been animal attacks.

We'll be at some family/friend type gathering, just hanging out, when all of a sudden we discover a gigantic grizzly bear or some other beast (gorilla, hippo-type animal, etc.) chilling nearby. It's always come upon suddenly & the animal is usually sleeping or minding its own business. I usually run for cover and the bear's attention is caught from the attempt to shut a door or get cover. I've never actually been attacked, I get to the point where I see the animal charging full speed at me but I've shut a door and am just waiting to see if it busts through when I wake up.

According to random websites some interpretations are:

1 - Bear is significant of overwhelming competition in pursuits of every kind.
2 - If a bear is pursuing you in your dream this is a sign that you will experience some financial losses in business.
3 - A young woman who dreams of a bear will have a threatening rival or some misfortune.
4 - A bear in a dream often symbolizes a mother figure. The behavior of the bear, whether it is uncaring, possessive or devouring, can indicate how you feel towards your own mother.

SO INTERESTING!!

(And Mom, I don't know what that means for us :) )

I think it started recurring after Christmas Eve when we watched some Discovery Channel/Animal Planet show that showed some really intense & close encounters between researchers and polar bears. I've never actually dreamed about polar bears yet. I've had variations of the dream at least 3-4 times in the last month...what could this mean?? Any of the above? Who knows :)

I'm just thankful I wake up before anything really bad actually happens!!!

It's a Winter Wonderland!

Jess & I were closely monitoring the first major winter storm for Boone - and the ENTIRE state of Iowa, for that matter, on Tuesday night. We were anticipating 10-15 inches of snow, 40-ish mile an hour winds the next day. So at 10:15 pm, we decided to step outside to measure the damage up to that point.

We opened the front door and saw the snow piled up on top of our garbage can.

Using the ruler method we saw on the news, our front step had about 5 inches of snow at that point.

Jess and her boots braved the measuring of our sidewalk.

It measured about 7-8 inches.Our landlord's son had come sometime earlier in the day to plow out our driveway as best he could, so it had only accumulated about 3 more inches.

The drift by our mailbox measured about 11 inches.

Our neighbor Rose (who lives downstairs) had not done any shoveling yet, so her step had about 9 inches or so.

My car didn't get much more covered than what you see here - the drifts accumulated with about 1-2 feet away from my car, so it wasn't too hard to shovel her out in the morning. The right side you see here had about 1-2 feet just piled against the side of the car, but the top wasn't too bad.

Jess & I outside braving one of the worst storms in 20 years (according to the NOAA).

Heading back into the house.

Picture update

So, once again, it's time for a photo update. I haven't been very good about keeping up w/ my blog. So here goes:

Nelly & Deniss came in August & started joining our weekly poker nights until Deniss headed back to Latvia. They tried to teach us some Latvian & Russian, but we (I) did not do so well! Jess's NY roommate Megan was also visiting for the weekend.I finally won Der Meister (sometime in September)! After about 4-5 months of weekly poker nights, I came out a winner. Twice, in a row. Haven't won again since then! Nelly's 19th birthday was in September & we had a party at the river - roasted hot dogs, made smores, & had some homemade cake from Nelly. A rousing game of movie charades ensued.
Nick, Katie, Lindsay, Meghan, Jess, Nelly, & Deniss.September also brought the Pufferbilly Days parade - I haven't gone since high school. It was a fun day with family. Kelli & Marcus brought Miya & Isaiah and they were really fun to watch.Isaiah had fun & took off a little down the street to check out the marching band. He kept us all on our toes!For Mom's birthday in September, we took her to see Wicked in Des Moines. We made an evening of it & went to dinner at Centro before the show.We also entertained ourselves with Mom's camera while we waited for the doors to open.

And this one is totally random - but I got a high score on my electronic Yahtzee - notice I had a total of 4 Yahtzee's!! (My previous high score was 535!)For Halloween I made my own costume this year. I like to call it "Shark Attack". I found an actual costume online, but it was $50 so I made my own out of a sleeping bag, some cardboard, styrofoam & paint.The rest of the Halloween party crew (minus Cloudy w/ a chance of rain, a cowgirl & Facebook -Trisha, Emily & Janelle)

Back row: Harry Carey, Sarah & Todd Palin, a cowboy, zombies, & static cling (Sean, Katie, Richard, Tim, John, Brooke & Meghan)

Front row: a pair of blue jeans, shark attack, Rocky, & Troy Polamalu (Nick, Katie, Lindsay, Baldus, & Chiggins)Jess & I took a 2 day trip to Omaha in November to see the Season 5 SYTYCD tour. It was A-MAZING!! (Sadly, no pictures) but we spent the day at the Omaha Zoo before the show. This little guy was too cute. The woman had fur around her shoulders like the skin of a momma gorilla. We watched her change his diaper & feed him. And the best part of the zoo.....they had elephants! We tried to see them a couple years ago, but it was March & they weren't there. It made my day. (Then the tour made my night!!)We were literally standing about 5 feet back from this little embankment & we were straight in front of the elephant as he started walking right toward us. I began to hyperventilate a little & quickly moved away from him. The picture wasn't taken in time, but he extended his trunk to grab some leaves next to that bush. I had no idea how close he could really get to us, but I didn't want to stay there to find out!!I love elephants!!