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!

meet our new addition...

this is chloe, our newly adopted kitten from the humane society. on a saturday afternoon, we decided to stop at the humane society but promised not to fall in love with a kitten that day. chloe was the first kitten we saw and needless to say, we couldn't pass her up. she has been so much fun most of the time! she likes to explore every square inch of our house and is very playful. but best of all, she is a great cuddler.

i started my job almost two weeks ago and things are going great. the people i work with are very nice and the campus is really pretty.

joe is doing his family practice rotation and is enjoying the 8-5 routine. i am too!

yippee...i got the job!

i am excited to report that i got the job as a career counselor!! i am so thrilled about this opportunity! i feel fortunate to have found a job so fast and in my field! i'm definitely looking forward to it!

joe is also excited to be done with his first week of rotations! he had a full week and was exhausted by friday. he bought a palm pilot today to keep himself organized but he is still trying to figure out how to use it.

we also hosted more company on thursday night. my cousin, bryan, and his girlfriend, jessica, came to visit. it was fun to catch up with him and also his family. we like having company...who wants to come visit us now?! :)