Banana and Family

I am in love with Banana Republic. In fact I like the whole family a lot (Gap, Old Navy and Piperlime).

I love them so much that I've been trying to push this feeling onto Steve for years.

I used to nonchalantly throw a new shirt into his closet hoping he'd think it wasn't new. That never worked. And then I'd give him (and still do) multiple shirts each year for his birthday thinking he wouldn't make me return them since they were a gift. No cigar there either.

Instead he continuously complains to me about the vast number of skin tight shirts with tags hanging in his closet. I told him Banana Republic isn't that type of brand - they don't make skin tight shirts.

We are compatible on many levels, but Banana fashion obviously isn't one of them. And we just became more uncompatible because today I found out that BR, Gap, Old Navy and Piperlime have all come together on one official website to shop. You can buy things from all stores together and get free shipping and returns if you are a card member (which I am!). It's the most sensible thing I've heard in a long time.

Chilly Willy Coming Soon!

I don't want to jinx ourselves by putting it in writing, but it appears the Seiler family who lives in hot and humid KC will soon have cool, blowy air flowing through our abode.

When we purchased our beloved "fixer upper" home three-years ago in the middle of summer, naively I assumed I'd only have to spend a few months sweating in my sleep. Well 2005 passed. And so did 2006 and 2007. But 2008 is looking to be our year.

Steve has spent so much time researching, contacting vendors, hooking up our neighbors with the A/C people, wheeling and dealing and moving pipes (with the assistance of my brother) that I honestly don't have a clue what is going on.

But I do know that an A/C unit was put in the wrong place outside, and our basement now has a shiny new structure, so the work has begun. I'm still a little hazy on who is cutting the vent holes in our 1924 hardwood floors (I'm keeping my fingers crossed his first and last names do not begin with a 'S').

And to all of our family and friends who have sweat with us over the years, I'm sure we'll still keep the A/C set to 78 degrees (baby steps), so don't bring over your summer sweater just yet!

Neighbors, Vino & Zaa...

There's nothing like drinking 6-7 bottles of wine with neighbors until 11p the first day back to work after a long weekend that consisted of drinking every night.

From the point of view of the "fun factor", I'd do it every night if I could because friends, family and wine are some of my (our) favorite things. From the perspective of working the next day, not so much.

For months we have been waiting for this new gourmet pizza place to open down the street from us. Due to our proximity, we've signed petitions saying it's okay for them to serve liquor, received numerous letters and have gotten to know the owner.

It hasn't yet opened, but last night they invited our street to have dinner there. And since they don't yet have a liquor license, they welcomed us to bring bottles of wine.

And that's what we did. Scott, Kellie, Steve and I brought three bottles. And then some neighbors joined us. And then Steve went to buy more wine. After enjoying excellent apps and pizzas in a very cool atmosphere, we all went to our neighbor Greg's house and drank some more wine and decided we needed to do this every Tuesday night (yeah...I wish).

Around 11ish I finally dragged Steve next door to our house. And yep, he was up and at 'em early this morning ready to start the work day! That husband of mine is amazing (in an extremely crazy/non-human type of way) that I never will or could replicate even if I wanted to.

Knuckleheads Saloon

Saturday night we met my friend and co-worker, Cathy, her boyfriend, Scott, and another couple at Knuckleheads.

After following two sets of directions that gave opposite directions, being stopped by a long, slow train and seeing parts of KC we didn't know existed (and honestly didn't want to know existed) we finally made it. I should comment that our stress level by this time was eerily similar to every family vacation when we got really lost (very low, of course).

But once we arrived, walking up to this place was mesmerizing. The vehicles lining the street under the bridge were a mix of luxury cars, motorcycles, a few regular cars like ours and not so nice cars. And then the same mixture of people were inside Knuckleheads which is half inside/half outside.

Apparently originally in the 1800's it was built as a boarding house on the train tracks. And close to the train tracks it was. The tracks that had trains continuously going by, were an extremely close distance to the outdoor stage.

Steve enjoyed the special of the night; "tall boys" PBR cans and some greasy tacos. Both of the bands were blues bands, and were excellent. It's an understatement to say that there could possibly be no place (unless it's a place with Nate) that could make my Dad happier. We will definitely be taking him here.

To top it off, we even sat on bleachers all night. And even though the band is from San Fran, they gave a shout out to Des Moines multiple times because the Central Iowa Blues Society were all there!

Cathy and me in the bleachers.

If we can ever find it again, we'll definitely be going back.

The Lost Has Been Found

Steve called me this afternoon, and he found his wedding ring!

I asked him if he was currently wearing the ring so he would know where it was.

He proceeded to tell me that while it was lost, he told himself he would wear it all of the time if he found it. But now that he's found the ring, he's changed his mind.

Well at least he's honest.

Sometimes Words Do Haunt

When we got married, Steve continuously said half joking/half serious (probably a little more of the latter) that he "hated this thing!"

This "hated thing" was his wedding ring.

If I had gone 32-years of my life without wearing anything on my finger it may have bothered me a bit, too. He really has given it the old college try, and it's clear it really does bother him. There have been too many times to count the number of times the ring got left on his calculator at work, got left in the changer holder of my car for days at a time...you get the idea.

Well now it's gone. And it's been gone for almost a week.

Steve has searched every square inch and crevice of our house multiple times. He even purchased and returned a metal detector that cost over twice as much as his ring (you do the math on how much we spent on his ring).

In his defense, his fingers were swollen last Saturday night and so he put the ring in his front pocket. When we got home, he remembers it rolling out in the living room. For anyone who has been to our house, you all know our digs are far from a mansion.

Every dust bunny is gone, but unfortunately so is the ring still. He has sworn me to never twirl (which I don't believe I've ever done) or take off my ring again. Because that would be one expensive metal detector we'd have to purchase!

Valentine's Day Celebration

Saturday night the Steves, Ann and I celebrated Valentine's Day with a night at Wicked!

It was funny, entertaining and it made me want to see The Wizard of Oz again.

The guys thought it was a little long, but amazingly we got very few complaints. It was proven that alcohol can serve as a babysitter in these type of situations.

Friday Night Fun

Friday night after grilling out with the fam, we all (minus mom and Nate) headed to our local watering hole down the street with our neighbors Scott and Kellie.

Ann enjoying some much deserved adult time.

Steve, Dad and me. My dad could sit there for hours, not say a word and have the best night ever! (About this time, Steve S was dodging every flash.)

Kellie and me. I'm sporting my shorter "long" hair right now. Earlier in the night Kellie was wearing the long "long" hair. She looked so white trash (in a good way, of course)!

And then it was time to go inside and watch my disco friend, Jimbo.

Just hanging around in the middle of the night...

Hair!

Hair is something I've never had a lot of.

In fact, when you're a girl born in the 70's, and you have a twin brother whose hair is longer than yours (because yours won't grow), the trauma sticks with you.

But at work on Friday thanks to Jessica Simpson and Ken Paves, I had hair bigger than me. Granted I looked like a blonde Loretta Lynn, but I'll take what I can get.

Ashley, Allison and me with our locks.

Final Hoorah

I'm going to be extremely bored after the Sex And The City movie premieres.

I've been going to numerous SATC happy hours with friends over the past month or two, and Thursday night was the best because Jen and I received free movie passes to watch the SATC movie the night before it premieres!

The Drop in Martini Corner had this guy who knew not one single thing about SATC walking around showing SATC pictures. We had to guess what character the visual represented.

Even if we would have gotten them all wrong, he would have hooked us up with the passes because he wanted outta there. You couldn't have paid Steve enough money to do what this guy had to do!

It's Official because it happened twice. My Mom is George Washington.

Earlier this week my Mom, Nate and I had dinner at Winstead's.

As Mom was getting her money out to pay, Nate took one of her dollar bills. He looked at it, pointed at George Washington, and exclaimed, "Look, it's Grandma"!

Unconditional Love

In 1990 my family (the Books) got our first and only pet. Murphy was a kitten we got from a farm in Adel. Although she spent her first few months in a barn, overnight she became a part of our family.

She was so small she could sit on our shoulders when she arrived. Even though Murphy was an indoor/outdoor cat, she quickly grew to a grey, fluffy fat cat thanks to her diet of steak, Italian food (she loved spaghetti and pizza) and every other food that my Dad gave her...which consisted of anything and everything.


Murphy ate very well :)

Murphy loved to go on adventures that kept her out all night, hang out in high places, lay spread eagle on her back for hours at a time, get brushed with the pink E.T. brush, sit on my dad's lap in his lazy boy, bite hands (thanks to the lessons of my brother), sit on the deck and watch "TV", relax in the thorny bushes, revolve through the door every 10 minutes and in general live the high life. This cat lived the life all cats would love to live (if they knew anything different from their real life).

Murphy provided our family so much joy and love. And personally she was there for me through all of the hard times (and there were a lot of them) in high school, in college and in my 20's. I knew whenever I came home Murphy would always be there to pet, hug, lay on me, purr and make me feel better.

After 18 wonderful years, today it was time to say goodbye. Although for the past two years, I've said "goodbye" to her every time I've left my parents' house, I didn't know that two weeks ago when I was home overnight, it would be the real goodbye.

Murphy will forever be missed and loved.

We were unbelievably blessed to have Murphy in our life for 18-years. And I'm sure she felt the same.

The Best "Low-Keyed" Weekend

Steve and I have really not seen each other much in the past month. In between my vacation to Napa, Steve moving Jamie/Andy, my sorority reunion, last week's neighborhood festivities and work (that work thing continues to take up way too much time), we really haven't just "hung out".

So this weekend we decided we were going to have a low-key weekend. I told Steve I was all about a low-key weekend as long as we did not stay home both nights and had a lot of fun. I'm getting better, but I'm still not good about just hanging out at home for long periods of time.

Friday night we hung out with Steve/Ann/Nate which is one of our favorite KC activities. As always it was fun and entertaining!

Nate and Dalton "not wrestling" on Nate's race car bed.

Saturday morning Steve and I were out to secure my birthday present which is a bike. My birthday was in March, and considering I got my 2007 present in late June, we thought we were tracking well ahead of schedule for 2008.

We've been searching and researching for some time (with Steve spending many a late nights on his phone looking at Craig's List for the "dream bike deal of all time"). We visited a cycle shop in the River Market and found a nice entry level woman's bike that actually seemed to be made for a 5'-2" woman. Late Saturday afternoon I officially became an owner of a bike for the first time since early college. Steve is still on the search for a $100 bike for himself, so Steve will continue to stalk Craig's List.

Saturday night we took advantage of a Christmas gift card from my Aunt Pat, and headed down to Overland Park to Bonefish Grill. The wait was long which worked to my advantage because I had two of the tastiest martinis ever! I'm normally a dirty vodka martini girl, but they had the most unbelievable blueberry martini and raspberry martini. Thanks to my trusty hubby for being the DD and allowing me to enjoy the most outstanding martinis.

For us not having kids, Steve and I have enjoyed a packed-full day of Mother's Day festivities today.

This morning we joined Steve/Ann/Nate early for a Mother's Day breakfast at Eggcetera.

This afternoon and evening we cooked out to celebrate Mother's Day with the Friedmans (Mark, Barb, Nina and Julia) and the Regas' (Matt, Jen and John). We always have so much fun with them all and today/tonight was no different!

And, like everyone, it is now necessary for us to have an extra day to relax and rest from the weekend in preparation for the work week.

Mother's Day Laundry List...

Happy Mother's Day to:

Both of our over-the-top (in a good way) dedicated to-the-max moms, Vicky and Barb;

The coolest moms of our four rockin' nephews, Ann and Jamie;

And to all of our friends with children (since we're about the only ones left without children, this applies to just about everyone).

Enjoy your day!

Ty Ty is Not Five (But Three)

(Sorry, I couldn't think of anything to rhyme with Ty for my title.)

Happy third birthday to our 'mini-Steve' nephew, Ty!

We love you!

Meeting Julia!

On Saturday I got to spend a good part of the day with our friend Barb and her 4-week old daughter, Julia!

We hung out and then walked down to the Brookside Art Fair where we met Barb's friends Gigi, Margie and their babies!

And, yes, Julia was this sweet and quiet the entire time :)

Brookside Art Fair Neighborhood Festivities

This weekend was the Brookside Annual Art Fair in our neighborhood. Since the art fair occurs a block from our house, it's a big celebration on our street.

On Friday night, along with our neighbors Scott and Kellie, we hit up parties at two neighbors houses.

Saturday morning, Kellie and I went to a neighbor's brunch where we enjoyed the most excellent egg casserole, pastries and mimosas. Mimosas taste somehow taste good no matter how late you go to bed the night before.

Saturday night the party was at Scott and Kellie's house.

Rachel, me, Ann and Kellie.

Uncle Steve introduced talking funny after inhaling a balloon. It cracked Nate up!

Once nightfall came, the party immediately got turned up a notch (keg stands, shots...some know how this will end up).

I don't think I've done a keg stand since spring break from senior year of college!

But I'm pretty sure my brother has been unknowingly been doing them on a regular-basis since college. His time was quite impressive.

My brother, Steve, and me. You can't see his fancy shoes he's wearing with his pullover.

It's such a challenge to keep Steve from posing for the camera.

Just like clockwork, we were off to The Brooksider!

Sorority Centennial Reunion: Sunday

After a late night, on Sunday morning we slowly checked out of the MU and headed over to the house for brunch.

The house looks the same and even smells the same.

We had a great time touring every single room and talking about who lived where, when and with who.

And then were were the cold airs we slept in. It's no wonder I was always sick!

Steph, Andrea and me before we had to say goodbye.

Sorority Centennial Reunion: Saturday Night

Saturday night was the cocktail hour (unfortunately it wasn't open as long as they were at house parties), a group photo off all 225+ KD's, dinner and a program.

Were then off to campus town to spend times in all the bars that are no longer there.