Garages

Since we've moved into our house three years ago, Steve has spent about as much time on our garage as he has on our house. That equals a lot of garage time.

Initially he leveled it, added boards, scraped it, replaced half of it with hardy boards, painted it, etc (I should add I helped with some of it). Now he spends an ample part of his free time cleaning and organizing the garage. We may not have the most organized house in the world but boy is our garage and basement organized. If I don't know where to find Steve, 9 times out of 10 that's where I find him.

Our garage is so organized that Steve doesn't even park his car on his side. Although I think that may be because the Concorde is as long as the Concorde plane.

Now that Steve has put more time in this garage than most people do on their homes, our two next door neighbors have decided to tear down and build new garages. So now, not only do we not have the nicest garage, but for over a month and counting all of our neighbor's things have been in our garage (including a very scary monkey statue from the zoo that takes my breath away every morning).

Since Steve is unable to reach anything he owns in his meticulous garage, he now spends his free time each night with both sets of neighbors inspecting and taking copius notes about the progress of their "in progress" garages.

And, yes, that is our life.

Fun in the (Hot) Sun!

Here are a sampling of pictures from Phoenix with the K's...

In addition to our love of martinis, as Kurth predicted, Kim and I pretty much have about everything in common. We've already talked once since I returned. We had tons of fun together...

I introduced Kurth to celebrating his 1/2 birthday and the free desserts that follow.

The Blue Wasabi on Thursday night. We had a great waitress who brought us all sorts of treats (most that ended up on my dress), awesome sushi and fun martinis. I even told the rental car guy, who I somehow got to know well, about the restaurant and waitress. Of course, the rental car guy is from Des Moines and went to Iowa...

My sidekick, Kourtney, and me playing a board game. Finally, someone to play board games with! She is the sweetest thing and hardly left my side.

Kurth and me enjoying some Friday afternoon cocktails to take to the pool.

I'm not an envious person (well, maybe, sometimes) but I was seriously starting to question our backyard about this time...

Kourtney, me and their neighbor Hannah playing (aka hanging on me) in the pool Friday night.

Kim, Jill and Larry doing their weekend ritual.

Pacino and me enjoying some Saturday breakfast with my three drinks (o.j., water and Monster; I'm still scared of the Monster but my tiredness made up for it).

Kim and I enjoying Saturday lunch by the pool. I only had water and a Monster cocktail this time.

Kourtney, Karson and Kim enjoying a little Scrabble. Kourtney asked her dad to make sure he sent me this picture because I'm so nice, she misses me and I like to play board games! The sweetest thing ever...

Hopefully next time Steve can join in on the fun, because there will definitely be a next time. It was too much fun not to do again!

Kurth & The K's

Early Wednesday morning I left for a work trip to Phoenix and then stayed through Saturday night.

To back up, last April while vacationing with my girlfriends in Napa, we spent the day in San Francisco outside at Pier 23. We met all sorts of people and ironically one of them, Kurth, has become a good friend.

Kurth and his family (Kim, Karson and Kourtney) live in Phoenix so when my work trip fell into place, they invited me to stay at their home.

I think (okay, I know) some people thought it was a little strange that I was going to stay at the house of a person and his family who I had met in a completely different state and had only seen once before.

But from the moment I met Kurth I knew we were going to become good friends, so I didn't think twice. You never know when a new friend is going to pop up. And when that happens you have to be ready and go with it!

He has the most unbelievable wife and kids, and I left with a stronger friendship and new ones, too. We had a crazy, great time!

And, of course, they are very excited to meet Steve Seiler. I mean, who wouldn't be?

Our Secret to a Successful Marriage

I spent the afternoon enjoying:

While in a nearby theater, Steve watched:

Gone Fishin'

The SL guys. Notice how Steve and Andy are standing and holding their beer exactly the same way.

It was finally Steve's turn to go on vacation without me. And, boy, did he choose a good one to exclude me on.

Steve, his younger brother Andy, and six friends from the SL Class of '92 all met in Green Bay, WI at Chad's house for a Lake Michigan fishing excursion.

Although Steve spent a large majority of his time away driving to and from Wisconsin, he was able to pick up Andy in Des Moines and Middelstadt in Cedar Rapids so I'm sure those 12-hour drives (they got lost a couple of times) seemed like 12 minutes.

Steve said they stayed up all night Friday night, were on the chartered boats by 4:30a in the morning and he never went to sleep until Saturday night. Talk about a dream day for Steve. Plus they caught 39 fish and Steve brought home 25-lbs of (disgusting) lake fish.

Steve hadn't seen some of these guys in years and it sounds like they picked up right where they left off being crude, rude and playing drinking games. Just how their mom's raised them! Right, Barb?

Monster

I naturally have quite a bit of "pep".

And I very rarely consume any caffeine. Due to that, a friend recently commented that he would love to see what I was like after drinking a Monster energy drink.

Wednesday night Steve and I were at Target and I reached to pick one up. Being married Steve "Bulk" Seiler, he immediatey grabbed the four-pack.

I had no intentions to drink the Monster anytime soon, but I've been having some sleeping issues. So after only a few hours of sleep Thursday night, I brought the Monster to work with me.

OMG! I've never done drugs, but if drugs make people feel as great as this Monster made me feel then I can see how people get addicted. Boundless energy is what I had.

And then I got the headache from hell and only slept four hours Friday night. But boy, for those few hours, it was worth it plus some!

HSM

Tuesday night Ann and I enjoyed "an evening under the stars". Because my company is the presenting sponsor of High School Musical, I helped host a best customer dinner outside which amazingly wasn't completely hot and then some great seats for the production.

To say a few kids were there, is an understatement.

I've never felt like such an outsider at an adult venue. I'm confident I was the only person there who had never heard even one of the songs!

Party of Five

I am super excited that my close friend Lisa and Scott are expecting Gillam #3!

She told me last week when she said she wanted me to look at her new blog first.

Granted I'm not the husband (baby), girlfriend (proposal) or parent (either) but I like to think former roommate ranks right up there!

I'm not one to necessarily have preg-gar, but I thought she was pregnant when they were in KC last month, but I didn't say anything. When you live with someone, you can say almost anything to a person. But when you don't, and they live four-hours away, it's not so cool.

Here is her blog, Party of Five .

Did I mention I'm super excited?

If I was only as cool as I think...

On Saturday Steve and I both had multiple commitments (apart, of course, since that seems like how we roll lately).

Around 5ish, Steve ran out to Cabela's which is not close.

I stayed home and did some "homey" type activities. As I neared completion, I decided to open a bottle of wine and watch a little of Denise Richards "It's Complicated" on E. E television, by the way, is the network Steve and I first watched together the day after we met, so it's very meaningful to us (aka to me).

By the time Steve rolled in my wine, Denise and I had spent some quality time together. I think it's because I hadn't really eaten, and because it had been an emotional day for various reasons, but the wine had unknowingly gone straight to my head.

As soon as Steve sat down I proceeded to spend probably 30-minutes informing my husband how I was "destined" to be in my 30's, how I was sure others believe I'm "so devastingly beautiful it hurts" and how I'm pretty much the coolest person ever.

My husband spent that time laughing, laughing some more and then he took me to Cafe Trio for a martini.

And that is why we are together. We just get each other.

Raleigh on a Saturday Night

We woke up Saturday with little sleep but a lot of funny stories. The guys went to tour the Duke campus and Jacque, Sam and I ended up at the pool. It's amazing what some Corona's can do because next thing we knew we were ready for...Adult night out!

As you can tell, Sam was devasted when Donna, the babysitter, arrived :)

Steve obviously took advantage of hiding behind my 3" heels.

We stopped for a drink(s) at Pipers, caught a cab downtown and enjoyed the best Asian Fusion food. And then it was off to enjoy downtown Raleigh.

And then we made our families proud. (We tend to do that in the middle of the night.)

Independence Day: Sangria Style

We celebrated the evening of the 4th with Jacque/Jason and Tom/Jodi (who going forward will be referenced as Todi & Jom).

For those who don't understand why my best friend and one of Ann's best friends are next door neighbors in Raleigh, NC here you go...
A few months ago, Ann told us that Todi & Jom were thinking about relocating from Orange County, CA to Raleigh which ironically is where Jac/Jason came from. We got them in touch, they became friends, they bought the house next door to Jac/Jason and the rest in history.

Malia, Todi & Gray.

As/After the kids went down the sangria started flowing for the girls. And it flowed in a big way.

I like to think Todi, Jac and me are always this happy.

Steve, Jom and Jason decided to spend their time on the porch making fun of us and drinking 100 beers.

After about the second pitcher of Sangria and about the time the 4th was turning into the 5th, the fun for us really began (and the nightmare for Steve/Ann started).

Steve/Ann/Nate were in Boston visiting Krista, who ironically is best friends with both Ann & Tomi from growing up in Ft. Dodge, so we thought it would be fun to give them a call. For the next few hours (aka the middle of the night), we left too many messages to count on Ann's cell, and then Steve's cell, and then their home phone, and then we started all over. You get the picture.

To say we had an absolute blast was an understatement. The only thing that could have made it more fun would be to have Steve/Ann with us which will happen someday. And it will be fun.

Stay Cool & I'll See You At The Pool

Raleigh is known for hot and humid summers so one would say it's ideal that a crazy cool pool is literally right next door to Jacque & Jason's house.

For multiple hours all three days the girls hung out with our Corona's in the pool while the guys drank Yuengling, more Yuengling and yet more Yuengling.

Sam and me under the umbrella sprinkler thing.

These chairs could easily be the best things on earth. Seriously, they're perfect.

Jacque and Sam; two peas in a pod.


Gray and Malia. They are the children of Tom & Jodi (who is one of our sister-in-law, Ann's, closest friends from Iowa who now live next door to Jacque/Jason...that's a post in itself). See this face Malia's making? She's hilarious/adorable and genuinely laughs at every thing and Steve and I really were contemplating taking her home. We've actually talked about her multiple times since returning to KC so I think it's serious :)

Our little giraffe.

Best Friends

Steve and I spent the long 4th of July weekend in Raleigh, North Carolina with my best friend, Jacque, her husband (& our friend), Jason and lil' Samantha.

Jacque and I have literally been best friends since we were 2-3 years old. It's rare someone has a person that has known you through every single stage of your life. And that's luckily what Jacque(line) and me share.

It was an amazingly fun trip (more of that in a future post), and Steve and I are beyond exhausted. But since that is the formula for F-U-N in my book and that's definitely what we had, good times were had by all.

The Beach...

Bright and early on Sunday after Nate's birthday party, I jumped on a plane to Clearwater Beach/St. Petersburg, Florida.

I enjoyed a couple of days at the beach wishing I was one of those people who could do this all of the time and not get bored (because I know for a fact I am one of those people).

Pirate Party!

On Saturday our pirate and nephew, Nate, turned 3-years old!

We celebrated Nate's turn for it finally to be his birthday with a pirate birthday party...

A jumpy thing...

A treasure hunt...

A treasure pinata...

And cake!

The K!

Friday night we spent the evening at The K with the Friedman's along with a packed house of fans (sadly there was a lot of red) to watch the Royals beat the Cardinals!

Barb's friends from her former job were having a guy's night out and got us our tickets. They were really cool and fun (I know, that's a no brainer since they're friends with Barb) so they added some additional entertainment.

As we were leaving the stadium Steve and Mark were walking in front of us. Barb commented that we were pretty much married to the same guy. We noticed they even walk the same. For the love, she's right!