Steve's Showcase

When most people have visitors in town, they like to show them the best parts of their city. They take them by beautiful houses on tree lined streets, show them historical landmarks and treat them to meals and drinks at quality establishments.

Not Steve.

Steve spent the majority of Saturday driving Julie, Josh and me up and down The Paseo, Prospect, Troost and a variety of scarier streets looking for decrepid houses, piles of trash, chicken-fish restaurants with both chicken and fish in their name, street walkers and such. We were successful with all of the above.

In the afternoon, Steve took us to the basement of Buzzard's Beach which had a smell like no other, shuffleboard and 75 cent draws.

I've known this for a long time, but what I've described is truly Steve's idea of a successful Saturday. And he was successful, because we all had a great time!

The Newest Member of our "Family"

Congratulations to Wendy, Brandon and Jack!
Finn Michael was born yesterday morning. Luckily he came two weeks early as he was over 9 lbs.!
As you can see, everyone is healthy and happy.
We'll be there in exactly one month to meet the little guy, and we can't wait!

Saturday Night at the K!

Saturday night, with Josh and Julie in tow, we headed out the The K to watch the Royals get demolished by the Indians.

I think there were around 16 of us; with a good portion of them 3 or under so there was a lot of activity and entertainment just where we were sitting!


Quin and Nate "patiently" waiting for the game to begin.


Josh and Julie happy they are in their 20's with no kids!

Why do Julie and Steve always look like they're up to something?

A Night Out At Arrowhead.

Last night Steve and I enjoyed the Chiefs game from my company's suite.


A view of the game in the suite with Allison, Ashley and me.

I was watching this...

While my hubby said he was watching this...

That's amore'.

Aunt of the Year

On Friday my mom and I went over to see Barb, Luke and Ty.

Julie and I joke from time-to-time about who is the boys' favorite aunt. So I asked Luke if his favorite aunt was Ju-Ju or me.

Luke looked down, gave it serious thought for maybe two seconds, looked up at me and non-chalantly said Steve!

Ahh...Auntie Steve wins again.

Girls' Night Out

My moms and me.

Thursday night my company had a Girls' Night Out grand opening celebration at our first location in Des Moines.

It was unbelievable! I feel very lucky because friends and family came for the event, a big group of my mom's friends came and I even ran into two girls from college I hadn't seen in a decade.

The Seiler girls.

My dad and Julie. My dad was there when the first girl arrived and almost outlasted the last girl!

Our neighbors from growing up, the Tuckers, came, too!

Ann's close friend from college (who has become a friend of our entire family), Jenny, stopped by, also!

Afterwards, my dad took my mom, Barb, Julie and me out for dinner and drinks. He obviously couldn't get enough "Girls' Night Out"!

P.S. Meredith - I'm sorry I missed you at the event!

Another fabulous wedding.

Our friends Joe and Angie tied the knot last Saturday. A meaningful ceremony preceeded a fantastic reception!

It was one of those times when we were with a variety of friends from different parts of our lives in one place. It was very cool to be with everyone at the same time; and even more cool to have these different friends meet (and like each other!).

Colleen, Lisa, the beautiful bride and the Rainbow Brite Girls.

More girl group pics!

The Sig Ep guys minus the groom. They are very brotherly. They share suit jackets and everything.

I think they must have been playing "And When the Saints Come Marching In".

Ah, Ted... Enough said.

Happy Birthday, Wendy Sue!

Happy Birthday to Wendy, one of my life-long closest friends, today!

Wendy is not only celebrating her birthday in the dog days of summer, she's also preparing for the birth of her second son in just two weeks!

Wendy has mentioned multiple times she wishes we were planning our trip to South Beach for my bachelorette party like we were a year ago.

I do, too. But since society frowns upon post-marriage bachelorette parties(!), here's a photo to help get Wendy through the next two weeks.

Cheers to you, Wendy!

BBQ Crawl

Our friends Erik/Colleen visited us this weekend from Chicago. They wanted to experience KC BBQ. So along with our friend, Joe, who was also visiting, Steve set us out on a KC BBQ Crawl Friday night.

Some would say a "normal snack" does not consistent of a full slab of ribs, rings and fried mushrooms. However our first stop at Rosesdale BBQ was just that.

We then headed downtown to the Original Arthur Bryant's where Wonder bread was our plate for our BBQ sausage and beef. Erik went to get us plates but came back empty handed after seeing them. BBQ joints may not be for a clean-minded person but along with a pitcher of Boulevard it's quite tasty.

After having to run for our lives through the parking lot of Arthur Bryant's we really showed our guests the pretty parts of KC on our way down to BB's Lawnside BBQ for a BBQ Sundae, buckets o' beer and all sorts of interesting KC folks.

We think we've found Steve's calling as well as a non-existent niche for KC. I would have never been able to pull Friday night off...but Steve's got a way about him when it comes to dirty eating and dirty dining. And you can always count on him to finish his plate whether he's on pound one or pound four. The Food Network could have created an hour show just on watching Steve and the guys eat!

I would be remise...

if I didn't wish my better-half the happiest birthday today!

Otoplasty Partner!

This morning I was casually talking with a new co-worker about hairstyles (you can do that and make it look like "work" in the beauty industry).

As we were talking about styles, she mentioned she used to have big ears. My heart literally skipped a beat when I heard this. The next words out of my mouth were, "Did you have your ears pinned back?". Yes, she had.

An immediate bond was formed.

Through all of these years I had never met another person who was born without cartilage behind their ears causing their ears to protrude. Or another female who has experienced growing up without being able to wear their hair in a ponytail or in a headband because kids call them Dumbo.

My parents took me to a doctor in middle school about having the procedure done but I guess we decided it would be a difficult time to have the surgery since I was involved in sports. Finally during one summer in college I had the surgery. It changed my life physically and most importantly increased my self-esteem immensely.

My co-worker said she just had her surgery last year and was married with big ears!

While it took over 20 years to remedy a non-life threatening (although it seemed like it sometimes) condition, at least I can look at my wedding photos and see my wonderful husband and not my ears!

Groupies

After being under the weather most of the week and having a low-key Friday night, Steve and I met our neighbors out Saturday night at the bar down the block because a co-worker/friend of mine was playing with his "disco" band.

Normally the guys outlast us. Not Saturday night. Kellie and I quickly became front row groupies, did a shot(!!!) and became friends with people who would probably scare us 12-hours later!

A visitor in your own town.

My mom and her friends went on a shopping trip in "the set" Friday morning. Although they have all lived there for decades and some for their whole life, when they run errands on the square they probably don't look at all of the quaint shops like the tourists do.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been stopped by two sets of tourists on the plaza.
The first foursome were two UK couples who were the Brittish counterparts of my parents and Robinsons. After explaining that the plaza area they were standing in was indeed not an indoor mall, I proceeded to walk them through the map and explained to them that KC is the American "City of Fountains". I ended up walking them down the street to ensure they were walking the correct way because I'm not confident they understood what I was saying since they again stated they were looking for that indoor mall.

On Saturday another couple stopped me asking me to acquaint them with where everything was. They were from Louisiana and their accent was much heavier than the Brits. But they kept laughing so I followed their lead. They went on and on about how lucky I was to live in a city with a place such as the plaza.

Steve and I luckily both work on and next to the plaza, and we made the decision to purchase a smaller home (one that needs TLC in every room, inside and out, from the floor to the ceiling) so we can live in the city near what's important to us at this point in our lives. I feel we do a good job taking advantage of most of what KC offers. It's unfortunate to me the number of people who do not take advantage of all the wonderful things that makes their city what it is whether it's a town of 5,000 or a bigger town of over a million people.

Happy Birthday to my FAVORITE Brother-In-Law!