Last Birthday Hurrah!

Saturday night we celebrated my birthday with our friends Jack and Beverly. As usual, they went all out and made my final birthday celebration for the year fabulous!
Good times...

Julia Anne

Congratulations to our friends Mark and Barb (and to big sis Nina) on the birth of their beautiful daughter, Julia Anne, on Thursday!

Velvet Dog

Friday after work I celebrated March birthdays with some friends from work at the Velvet Dog.

Out of the eight people in this picture, five of us are originally from Iowa and one more married someone from Iowa. Ask any KC native and they'll tell you Iowans are everywhere...

I know better than to drink martinis and drive, so I left my car in the parking garage at work.

After a long day of traveling for work, Steve got home around 6p and was beat. But by 7p he had called to inform me my car was no longer at work but instead in Steve/Ann's driveway. And by the time the cab dropped me off at home, my car was back in our garage. And this all happened without me asking.

I could get use to this.

Sleep Study

Steve sleeps very little. I like to sleep quite a bit, so most of the time I'm asleep (or at least I have the light off) when he comes to bed. And he's always long gone by the time I wake up in the morning. This system works well.

Actually, if he says he's going to bed before I'm ready to go to bed, I literally beg him to wait. It's strange but I cannot get to sleep if he's already in bed when I go to bed.

So Wednesday night I went upstairs to put the trash can back in our bedroom. And there was Steve in bed. I know he was extremely tired, but c'mon it was like 9:30p. He never goes to bed that early regardless of how tired is he. I knew I was doomed.

After an hour of laying wide awake (but very tired) in bed, I tapped his pillow a few times to see if he would wake up for a minute, so maybe I could get to sleep. Of course, if he hears a noise two blocks away he jumps out of bed, but no cigar with the pillow thumping. Finally at 11:45p, I broke down and took a Tylenol PM. That didn't work either.

I don't know what time I finally fell asleep, but Thursday morning had definitely come. It was not fun. And it was VERY boring. The next morning on the phone I told Steve Seiler that it was not cool what he did to me. He laughed, but he knew exactly what I was talking about. :)

In Memory...

On Monday and Tuesday we celebrated the life of Steve's Uncle Bill.

We already knew this, but when we arrived at the visitation, it was evident the generosity and kindness that Steve's mom possesses, was also possessed by her brother.

We estimated over 1,000 people came to pay their respects to Steve's aunt Sally and their entire family.

It is an unexplainable loss for Steve's family and the community. Steve's mom, grandpa, aunt, cousins, uncle and everyone else will continue to be in our thoughts.

DR. WILLIAM G. BARTLETT
West Des Moines
Dr. William G. Bartlett, 62, of West Des Moines and Orange Park, Florida, passed away unexpectedly on Saturday, March 15, 2008, in Orange Park, of cardio respiratory failure.
Dr. Bartlett practiced pediatrics in Des Moines from 1974 until his retirement August 30, 2007. Born September 16, 1945, in Ames, Iowa, Dr. Bartlett grew up in Algona, Iowa. He was graduated from Morningside College in Sioux City, and from The College of Osteopathic Medicine and Surgery, now called Des Moines University, and served as the Directory of the Pediatric Residency Program at Blank Children's Hospital from 1992 to 1999.
He married Sally Bay of Algona on December 30, 1969. Dr. Bartlett was a member of Lutheran Church of Hope, an Eagle Scout and former Scout Master, an award-winning wood carver and a nature enthusiast.
Beloved husband, father and friend, Dr. Bartlett is survived by his wife Sally, daughter Melissa Kathryn, son John Hamilton; his father, Wes Bartlett of Algona; a sister, Barbara Seiler (Jerry) of Storm Lake; a brother Don (Deb) of Spencer, and hundreds of patients.
The family will host a visitation on Monday, March 24, from 4 to 7 p.m., at Lutheran Church of Hope in West Des Moines. A Celebration of Life Memorial will take place on Tuesday, March 25, at 2 p.m. at the church. Private burial of the cremains will take place at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorials to: Boy Scouts of America, The Nature Conservatory, Lutheran Church of Hope, the National Park Service or West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing, 2345 Broadway, NY, NY 10024.
__________________________________________________

The physicians, staff and volunteers of Iowa Health Physicians and Blank Children’s Hospital join together to celebrate the life of our colleague, mentor and friend, Dr. William Bartlett.Dr. Bartlett was a pediatrician in the Des Moines area for more than 33 years. He trained at Blank Children’s and had been in practice in Des Moines since 1974. He served as pediatric residency director at Blank Children’s from 1992 to 1999 and continued to be an active member of the faculty until his recent retirement.As a pediatrician, Dr. Bartlett’s passion was caring for children. His kindness and compassion were a great source of comfort to thousands of patients, parents and families.He was a friend and mentor to everyone in the pediatric community throughout his career. During his time as pediatric residency director, Dr. Bartlett’s leadership, passion and love for children were instilled in pediatricians during their training at Blank Children’s.He will be missed greatly. We take comfort knowing the positive impact he made on children, families, physicians and friends.

Beautiful Boy!

It was a sad occasion that we were in Des Moines this week, but we got to meet our month-old nephew, Cael. He is beautiful and has changed so much from his newborn photos. He is so cool, calm and collected (which you need to be when you're the youngest of three Seiler boys). Lucky for me, I got to hold him A LOT.

Steve suddenly was feeling a "little under the weather" when it was time for him to hold Cael. But we've all noticed once these nephews of ours turn 1-1/2, Steve suddenly starts "feeling better"!

Easter Festivities

We had a great Easter weekend. My parents were here so we did all types of Easter festivities.

Saturday afternoon we dyed Easter Eggs over and over and over again :)

Then Steve and I had a "practice" Easter Egg Hunt for Nate. The Seiler nephews are this week!

Today the Books, Seilers and McGrevey's (Ann's brother's family) had Easter brunch together. Here are Megan, Danica and Nate with the Easter Bunny. It's ironic Erin was missing because she was looking for the Easter Bunny the entire meal!

See the guys in the background "getting their money's worth" on the buffet meal?

Meat

I mean like over 200 lbs. of meat in our freezer in the basement...for the two of us.

Last year Steve purchased a quarter of a cow (around 100 lbs.), and we supplied every type of meat for anyone and everyone willing to eat with us.

Besides hamburger, it's rare for me to take more than a couple of bites, so it only makes sense we would double our tiny order from last year of 100 lbs. to 200 lbs. this year.

The meat is excellent, and the cost per pound is a great value, if it's humanly possible for Steve to eat three meals a day of red meat for an entire year. My money's on him...

Parade Party

Before and after the parade on Saturday we had family, friends, kids, food, beer, superheros, shots, fried food, fireworks and more food at our house.

Brookside St. Patrick's Day Warm-Up Parade

After a week of spring-like weather, we woke up to COLD weather and even a bit of snow on the roof on Saturday.

Since Saturday was the one day we were planning to be outside all day for the Brookside St. Patrick's Day Warm-Up Parade and a get together afterwards at our place, cold weather was less than ideal. But, hey, what are you going to do? (Remember we did choose to get married in December.)

Unlike previous years when we were wearing shorts or a light jacket, Saturday was more like a late October football game afternoon. So we bundled up and had a great afternoon!

Big 12's: Friday

Friday night we met Steve and Ann at The Bulldog for dinner and then headed over to the busiest place on earth - the Power & Light District.

Steve's car is really so long that he has to park like this.

Busy was an understatement. There were so many people everywhere. We wondered into Vinino and secured a section for us near the bar.

When we were very little, my brother started crying because he thought they were leaving me at daycare. Well it turned out I was already outside. He thought that Jacque was me!

Seven years ago the night before Jason had met Jacque. Seven years ago on this night Jacque met Jason. Yes...they met each other "for the first time" on two different nights.

Around 11:30p, we made our second Kelly's run in two days. Note - although we live close to Westport; I can guarantee we won't visit Kelly's twice again (if once) until at least 2010 when the tournament comes back to town.

And, of course, who was at Kelly's...Crazy Clint and Steve Seiler together again!

Big 12's: Thursday

As most of you know, the Big 12 basketball tourney came back to KC this year!

It was very exciting news considering it's always a really fun weekend, and we really like to have fun (what Steve considers fun and what I consider fun sometimes is a bit different, but we both like beer a lot so it all equals out).

The best part is that my best friend Jacque, her husband Jason and my best buddy Joe all came to KC and stayed with us for the festivities!

Steve, Joe, Jacque and I started Thursday night at Cafe Trio in Midtown. Cafe Trio is a great lounge and restaurant. It's worth the trip just to experience the names of their martinis!

And then it was on to Kelly's!

Steve had a big meeting the next morning, so he had to head home.

Here are a few of the many photos taken that night.

44-oz. of beer is not meant to be poured in wax paper cups.

With the KC clan.

Rooster, Matt Carroll and me. I originally met both of them in Vegas back in 98 when Iowa State played UNLV!

Some random girl, crazy Clint Taylor and me.

I met Clint in October as follows. He literally walked in our house on his way from Austin, TX to Ames and proceeded to stay overnight in our house. We're friendly like that.

Matt Bradley and Jac using their pointer fingers to the max. Until Thursday night, I had thought Matt Bradley was a short, quiet guy who I had met at a happy hour in New Jersey eight years ago with Joe. Oh, was I wrong.

Jacque and Jason met seven years ago that night in about the same place in Kelly's! We are so thankful it all happened the way it did...I knew them both before but I can't imagine them not together!

It's Our Birthday!

Today my brother and I celebrated our birthday! I'd like to think 1974 wasn't that long ago, but basic math tells you differently...

After a long, fun weekend of Big 12 festivities, a St. Patrick's Day party and friends in town (more on that in future posts), we kept the celebration going for our birthday on Sunday.

And as you can see, thanks to Ann, we had plenty of cake and cupcakes to celebrate with!

This morning we learned that Steve's Uncle Bill, suddenly passed away last night.

Please keep Steve's family (the Bartlett's and the Seiler's) in your thoughts today and in the coming weeks.

Disco Fever

Saturday night was my company's annual awards banquet. Steve's such a low-maintence guy when it comes to these events. It goes without saying, but this is especially true when there is an open bar.

This was my first time wearing my Barbie pink shiny dress from Marshalls. I soon realized it may very well be my last time.

Because when the awards banquet ended around 11 p.m., more than 20 of us headed to the bar down the street from our house to watch our co-worker play in his disco band.

Here is my friend dressed for his "night" job.

And then there was this guy in the crowd. He really was dressed this way just because he wanted to.

I believe soon after this photo, some guy spilled a drink Steve had just bought for one of us. Being the finanical guy that Steve is, he made the guy buy him a new drink.

I proceeded to immediately walk into my drink on the floor and down I went; and there went the dress.

Steve is taking my dress to the dry cleaners, but I have a feeling between laying on the floor of the bar and the smell of the bar, it will never be the same!

It's A Good Thing We Have Our Own Basement.

On Wednesday night, Steve and I joined our good friends Jack/Beverly for dinner at the Cactus Grill in "The Village" (Question for other KC dwellers...have you noticed that Prairie Village is now called The Village?).

Since Cactus Grill has AWESOME food, it was predictably packed. So people were continuously walking past our table.

Toward the end of our meal, I realized our former downstairs neighbor from when we lived in that house in the West Plaza was walking by our table with a newborn baby.

I immediately ducked in my seat. And then I started frantically trying to explain to Steve who I was looking at. I'm not positive, but I think Steve may have ducked a little, too, when I told him!

Granted we were not "Bosom Buddies", like the TV show, with these neighbors, but we did share a basement for a year. And although we had nothing in common with this couple, they were nice and the newborn was the perfect opportunity to walk over, say hello and congratulate her.

But instead, the mature people that we are, we kept randomly staring (and perhaps even ducking).

I'm proud to say that small town Iowa "you know everyone, and everyone is your neighbor" type mentality we both grew up with served us well into adulthood.

Sunday Mornings

One of Steve's favorite Sunday morning rituals is to go to the hardware store down the street, load up on their free cups of coffee and walk around the hardware store.

I personally cannot think of many things I'd rather NOT do on a Sunday morning. It actually makes me cringe to think about it. Ugh!

But I think Uncle Steve will soon have a partner on his Sunday morning hardware store jaunts. They both wake up at the crack of dawn so they might as well!

Nate walking around the hardware store last Sunday morning.

And You Thought We Only Ate "In Bulk" At Home.

Sunday night we checked out Grinders, a quasi-new pizza joint in the Crossroads District.

My husband took full advantage of their Sunday night specials.

Steve enjoyed:
- Two super large pieces of pizza (2 for 1 slices)
- An order of fries (he had to check them out for future visits)
- *A glass of Natural Light ($1)
- *A Pitcher of Natural Light ($3)
* When the waitress "suggested" a pitcher of Nat Light was only $3 (versus that expensive $1 draft he had just consumed), Steve could not resist. I mean, who could pass that up?! It's important to note Steve didn't finish the entire pitcher. It was Sunday night after all.

At one point as I was staring at him in some sort of disbelief, he said to me, "You're in awe." At that moment, that was an understatement!

Baptism & Birthday Festivities!

Saturday night we got to celebrate the 1st birthday and baptism of our friend's Chris and Renee's son, Peter.

The Gartelos' celebrated with a Greek food fest. Steve has been looking forward to real Greek food from either the Gartelos' or Regas' for some time, so it was a big night. The food was stellar. So good!

And of course, it was fun to hang out with our friends. We even met a guy whose friend had dated our sister-in-law, Jamie, in high school in Council Bluffs! Oh wow, how we'd love to meet that guy :)

Champagne of Beers

Last night Steve and I went to dinner with one of Steve's co-workers and his wife. Actually Roger is more of a mentor and friend to Steve than a co-worker (although they work for the same company but work at different offices) since they are older than our parents. Ironically Roger and I grew up in the same town!

Regardless of how we know them, they are wonderful people, and we get to enjoy being friends with their daughter and her family, too (their granddaughter has been Steve's "girlfriend" since she was probably three and now is ten years old).

They invited us to dinner at a very nice country club. We arrived at the club, and as Steve was getting ready to park I noticed the garbage cans and service entrance and realized we were attempting to park with the employees. Although our car probably fit in better in that parking lot, we saw a Hummer on the other side of the club and realized we most likely were not in the guest lot.

The restaurant was beautiful. When we arrived to our table, there was a standing champagne bucket full of Coors Light bottles. They know Roger well, and Steve immediately felt right at home...