christmas time in sd

tayson opening presents (yes, in his wrestling singlet!!)

bryn opening her new cash register from us! tayson and bryn couldn't get enough of the microphone feature! lol

so, how pathetic is it that it's been almost two months since my last post! it's been a busy couple of months! here's a little update on what has been happening in our lives...

joe started an out rotation in late october in lacrosse, wi. he was gone for a month. i missed him so much and i was so glad to have him home right before thanksgiving. we started the residency interview process a couple weeks ago. joe has 9 interviews set up. i have been to two of them. he has 3 in the next week and a half. i just can't believe joe will be graduating in may! what an exciting time!

we are also getting so excited to leave in two weeks for ITALY! joe's family is taking us there and we will be there for a little over a week! venice, florence, rome...i can't wait!

this last weekend we were in sd for early christmas on my side. it was lots of fun and so good to see my family again! lots of laughs, food, and fun all weekend long!

chloe is still providing us with lots of entertainment! she is not enjoying us being away for interviews though. hopefully the neighbor will keep her company while we're in italy!!

fun times

i was able to get away after a conference for work in des moines and go home to sd. yay! i got to spend time with my favorite people! here is a picture of our pumpkin carving on saturday...the kids' interest really didn't last that long but the adults had fun carving away!

trip to sd

over labor day weekend, i went back to sd for brock and na's wedding reception. it was a lot of fun but of course, the time went way too fast! it was great seeing my extended family! congratulations brock and na! i am so happy to have na in our family!

summer summary

so, surprise surprise, it's taken me over a month to post more pictures! i know some people get frustrated with no recent posts (sorry, na!) :)

i thought i would include pictures from the highlight of my nyc trip and summarize the rest of our summer! i still can't believe it's coming to an end...:(

so, the highlight of my new york trip was...

meeting giada de laurentiis at the today show! i am a huge fan of the food network and very much enjoy giada's shows. it just happened to be her first day back from maternity leave! what are the chances? so, i thought i was lucky enough just to see her but i decided to be loud and keep yelling her name. at first she made eye contact with me and said she didn't have time to talk right now but she would return after the next segment. so, as soon as she was done, i started yelling for her again (i'm so persistent!) and she started coming my way! i got to shake her hand and she signed her name on the script that the anchors used earlier in the show. i was completely starstruck! of course, all of this happened so fast and joe was held responsible for taking a picture. let's just say it's still a sore subject here in the stolp home. so, here's a picture of giada and here's a picture of me with the autograph!

the week after we got back from nyc, i went to chicago with a friend from work for a shopping trip. i had never been in the actual city, just the suburbs. besides the rain, i enjoyed my time downtown. i actually really liked the city. and of course, the shopping was good too. here is a picture of us at the grand lux cafe (yummy!!) right off of michigan avenue.






july 8th was our 2nd anniversary so we had a nice dinner out at a local restaurant that we love. here is our anniversary dinner picture.





joe also recently found out that he passed the exam that he took in philadelphia. we are very excited! step two written exams are next in september. joe is busy studying for those and hopefully all goes well.

i also had a chance to visit sd for a while. i had lots of fun with family and friends. joe's mom and dad had a mini-stay here in august as well. it was fun to catch up with them. we always realize just how much we love our families when we spend time with them and we realize how much we miss them when we part. hopefully, we'll be closer to friends and family in a few short years!

summer time...

i can't believe it's been almost two months since i have posted anything. this summer has been busy with lots of fun stuff! joe recently took an exam in philly and so we decided that was a great excuse to go to new york city and celebrate our anniversary. it was a full three days in new york but we managed to see everything that was on our list. i posted some pictures and will post more later because i think blogger isn't able to handle them all at one time.

this picture is of george washington's house at valley forge near philadelphia. valley forge was the site of the camp of the American Continental Army over the winter of 1777–1778 in the American Revolutionary War.

this is shea stadium, home of the mets. this game was part of the subway series (yankees vs. mets) and the rivalry was evident! this proved to be a LONG game with a 53 minute rain delay.

the empire state building

a random fountain in nyc...so many parks!

joe and i ate at big wong in chinatown...others recommended this little place. yummy!

this is ground zero...an eery place to visit.

tiffany and co., where joe bought me two anniversary charms for my bracelet. :) i heart tiffany and co.

joe and i at central park. t - 2 minutes before it downpoured (i had my umbrella ready as you can see).

times square at night...a pretty impressive and crazy place!

top of the rock (rockefeller center)

i will post more pictures and stories soon...including my highlight of the trip!

random

joe and i wanted to make the area in front of our house look a little nicer. there are several shrubs out there and some have just gotten out of hand and are totally overgrown. as i was "pruning," joe asked if i wanted to get rid of one of the rediculously large shrubs. i said sure and was amazed at what i saw happen next...joe pulled up the ENTIRE thing with his hands...all in one big pull! so, here's a picture of joe and his handywork!

friends

so, this afternoon as i was cleaning around the house, i could hear a weird noise coming from the living room. i figured chloe had gotten into something. i came out and found chloe sitting in front of the door "talking." i looked out and saw a rabbit all sprawled out in our front lawn close to the door. both chloe and "thumper" just kept looking at each other--thumper kept sniffing and staring...chloe kept talking and staring. i just had to take a picture of the two friends.

live from the quad cities...it's saturday night...

on saturday night, joe and i and another couple went to see seth meyers who is one of the weekend update hosts on saturday night live. he is hilarious! it was only a little over an hour long but it was great fun. the guy sitting next to me was a writer for the college paper so he wanted to interview me about the event. i asked if he wanted a student's response and he said yes. i informed him that i worked there and was not a student. i guess he didn't care and asked me questions anyway.

random acts of kindness...

last friday, joe and i were so excited about the rascal flatts concert. we got our tickets shortly after they went on sale but even the tickets we got were in the upper bowl of the arena. when we arrived we started walking up the stairs of the upper bowl, and kept going, and kept going and sure enough, we finally found our seats...the very top row--farthest from the stage. after telling each other that the seats were "really not that bad," a teenage girl came up to us. she asked if it was just the two of us at the concert. we said yes. she then asked if we would like her tickets because she was picked to be part of the pit in the center of the stage. obviously the tickets had to be better than ours so we asked where her seats were. she said well, the seats are in the 7th row on the floor!!! she said that when she found out she would be in the pit, she wanted to give her tickets to people sitting farthest away from the stage. needless to say, she found those people and we are very thankful for that!!! we ended up being about 15 feet away from the stage but at times the singers were probably less than 10 feet away. we had a great time and we think we need to pay it forward with another random act of kindness. we were in shock and the girl hurried away after giving us the tickets so we didn't even get her name...thanks anonymous girl! the pictures are of our views of kellie pickler and rascal flatts.

happy valentine's day!

happy belated valentine's day! this day has always been a favorite of mine for a couple of reasons. it usually means that spring is coming soon...but i'm starting to wonder if spring will ever get here this year! and of course, i love it because it's so easy to find pink everywhere i go. i love pink! :) joe and i started a tradition about 3 years ago of ordering chinese take out on valentine's day and enjoying the evening at home. we had fun last night and are really looking forward to this evening as well because we will be going to the rascal flatts concert across the river! joe totally surprised me yesterday with a special delivery that arrived to my office...two dozen roses...12 red and 12 pink. i was completely shocked! i just love fresh flowers and the scent they fill the room with.

snow day!

joe and i both got a break from work today! there is at least 7 inches of snow on the ground and more to come. when will spring ever get here? oh well, we are enjoying the day off! do you ever outgrow the giddy feeling you get when you see your school is cancelled? i don't think i ever will!

as you can see, i haven't been doing a good job of keeping the blog up to date. i have no excuses! anyway, we've been keeping busy and added a few things to the house. i painted a wall in our living room red--i told joe that i really must be in the mood for spring--i needed more color...the greys and whites of winter are getting old! it turned out well and we both like it. we also bought a new tv stand and a much needed area rug from crate and barrel.

joe is doing his rural family practice rotation now. it's not his absolute favorite rotation.

he is constantly studying and learning!

my birthday was last week but it definitely didn't feel like it. i got the wonderful flu for my birthday and was home from work for three days. yuck. i feel a lot better now so i am thankful for that.

chloe still keeps us entertained and we are constantly laughing at her playfulness and cuteness!

here are some recent pictures of the house and of course, chloe!

the adventures of flying

it's been so long since i've posted! maybe one of my new year's resolutions can be to post more! we had quite the interesting holiday break. we had a great time in south dakota visiting family even though it was very short. santa and his elf stopped by grandma's house and visited us and my nephew, tayson, got to tell santa what he wanted. my cousins and i all decided to go out one night and thought it would be fun to all ride together. twelve of us packed into a van and had a great time. we also celebrated with joe's family on sunday night. time just goes way too fast!

the day after christmas, joe and i flew to florida for a wedding. little did we know, it would be an interesting trip that tested our patience, endurance, and faith in the airlines! of course, the day after christmas is the busiest travel day of the year and that's when we were flying! our flight was late taking off and that meant only a 35 minute layover in chicago-o'hare. joe and i ran from one end of o'hare to the other and did make our flight. we then flew to charlotte and finally to fort meyers. we arrived but our bags did not. this was the first time in my flying history that i did not pack an extra outfit in my carry on! great timing. we made a trip to target to get some necessities and waited and waited. after calling, swearing, yelling, and drinking to cope with the situation, our bags finally showed up two days later! the weather was absolutely perfect while we were there--85 degrees. we went on a mini cruise and got to see several dolphins and the naples bay area.

our journey home started on sunday when we left fort meyers at 12:55 p.m. we were looking forward to longer layovers so we wouldn't have to run through the airports. we got into charlotte at 3 and were supposed to leave at 5:25. well, at 7:45 we were just leaving the gate which meant we would have another close call when we arrived in chicago. joe and i made it to our gate in chicago and were feeling good about almost being home! we took off for our 29 minute flight but it seemed a little weird we were still in the air after 40 minutes. finally the captain said that we were over the quad cities but it was very foggy so we would need to circle a while to see if the fog would lift otherwise we would need to go back to chicago. we thought he was joking but obviously he was not---that is exactly what we had to do. once we arrived back in chicago, we had to get a hotel room and then fly out on monday morning. what a trip!

flying is quite an experience and you're surrounded by a whole host of different people--it seemed we saw it all. for example, on one flight we were surrounded by synchronized crying babies and on one flight we were right across from a couple who just couldn't quit making out and touching each other. wonderful. i still absolutely love flying but i have promised myself not to fly out of chicago-o'hare unless it is the very last resort. what a mess that place is! is anything ever on time there?!

anyway, happy new year and hopefully less drama next time we fly!