30!

On Wednesday night I celebrated the 30th birthday of my good friend and neighbor, Kellie, with a girls' night out on the Country Club Plaza that her sister, Rachel, planned.

We had cocktails on the deck at Classic Cup and then had dinner on the deck at Baja 600. It was such a fun night with a lot of great wine, sangria and girl talk that would have made the guys just roll their eyes over and over and over again.

I apparently should have put my 3" pink heels back on that I had taken off for the group photo. Kellie really is only a few inches taller than me but you wouldn't guess that by this photo.

And then there are the Mom's...

Our unbelievable sister-in-laws, Ann and Jamie, who let us come in and be a crazy aunt and uncle, rile up our nephews, teach them words we didn't know at their age (that's all Uncle Steve) and then leave.

Although I should say we would take any or all of them in a heartbeat. Many of our happiest moments are with these boys.

Buddies

While the boys worked on my parent's house, the girls hung out with the "little boys". Luke was in Storm Lake but it was so fun to spend the day with three of our four nephews!

Ty is only six weeks older than Nate, and while they've been together a few times, this was the first time they could really play together. And they became instant buddies!

Lil' Steve Seiler

When Steve's brother's middle child, Ty, was born we all talked about how much he looked like Uncle Steve.

And then Cael was born in February. Umm...yeah, not only does he look even more like Uncle Steve than Ty did, but he's got the shape and everything.

If a stranger who was a bettin' man was asked if Steve or Andy was Cael's dad, the bettin' man would lose.

House Help

My parents have lived in this beautiful house the past eight years. It's the house they deserved while raising my brother and I while we sucked them dry. But the fact that they have it now makes up for that, right?

Over the past eight years, it's been learned how stunning cedar houses can be, and how much work it takes to power wash and restain it.

My dad has been working on restaining the house every night after work and every weekend all summer. He's been working non-stop. So we headed to "the set" this weekend. On Saturday Steve, my brother Steve, and Steve's brother Andy worked extremely hard. They made so much progress in a short amount of time.

That Seiler/Book combination just always seems to click... I'm a very considerate daughter to marry into such a handy family that likes to work extremely hard for my family in return for a meal and Busch Light (even when my dad buys Busch heavy).

Steve S. and Andy tackling the garage.

Steve B. staining the west side of the house.

Happy Hump Day

Wednesday after work I coordinated a going away happy hour for Anna who works for me. At the time "works" was correct, but now it's "worked".

So currently I'm a one person department that a year ago was made up of three people. Good times.

The work/home balance has been pretty out of whack lately, but after conducting over 10 first interviews, Friday I'm bringing back two talented people for second interviews so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

We received close to 500 resumes. I like to think it's because these people just had a feeling the job was connected to a really cool boss. But in reality I know the job market is tough and the idea of doing marketing and working in the beauty industry is the thing that sounds really cool. Which it is. But from first hand experience I can say it's much, much cooler with a full team!

Allison's Bridal Shower

Sunday afternoon I got to celebrate the upcoming marriage of one of my closest friends, Allison.

Her bridal shower was the first of many celebrations...

Girls Night Out in KC is in a couple of weeks, and then we're headed to Chicago the first weekend in September for the bachelorette party!

Most of the bachelorette party is a secret for Allison (that's the only way to do it in my mind) but I've promised her it's going to be F-U-N.

And then, of course, we've got the real reason for all of this frolicking...KP and AP are going to become KAP!

Saturday Night When You Turn 35

When one's birthday actually falls on a Saturday, one has to make the most of it. And I'm pretty sure we did.

Steve got all sorts of useful birthday presents such as a hot dog hat, Best Choice 59 sauce...you get the idea. Adding on to these beauties he got tons of great gifts from Steve/Ann/Nate. I also got him things "I like" as my gifts. He just asked me where I got one of the things so I have a pretty good feel for how much he liked them.

And then the Steve's, Ann and I went to Cafe Trio for dinner and drinks. And then we went to Boozefish. And then we went to Charlie Hoopers (where all drunk dialing calls occurred). And then we went to Brooksider, when we should have just kept walking one more block to our bed.

And then Steve's birthday was thankfully over, because I don't think we had any celebration left in us!

It's Steve's Birthday!

Today is Steve's 35th birthday!

It's actually the first birthday that may be freaking us out a bit. Not in a bad way at all; just kind of in a weird way. It must be because it's officially no longer early 30's which always seems to be halfway associated with the 20's.

My 34-1/2 birthday isn't until September 16 so it's almost like he's rocking the cradle. Now that's freaky...

But so far he's had the perfect day.

• he's been to multiple hardware stores


• he had a "Costco date" with Ann (that he let me come along with, but I had to sit in the back seat)


• he got to literally tear apart part of Steve and Ann's neighbor's house


• I walked into the kitchen a little bit ago to see the Steve's choosing from a wide variety of imported beer on our counter that was enjoyed on our 76 degree front porch (yes, in KC in August)


• He is currently enjoying a cigar, a beer and a 4 lb. bag of pistachios
  

And it's only going to get better from here tonight when we celebrate with Steve, Ann and Nate and then hit Cafe Trio...

Happy birthday, Steve!

At this point, most people would post a nice picture of the birthday boy. But this photo is more fitting and realistic since he hates having his picture taken (even at 2:30 a.m).

Just Can't Get Enough

Thursday after work Steve and I drove up to the aiport to deliver Steve's Aunt Sally's car to her at the airport so she could head straight back to Dez Monez.

I've always been a bit obsessed with ABBA and have been listening to the Mamma Mia! soundtrack that my friend Kurth bought for his wife and me pretty much like all the time since I've returned from Phoenix and since I saw the movie (which was 12-hours apart) two weeks ago.

It takes about everything in Steve (and now that I think back, Kurth, too) to listen to this soundtrack. So when Steve pulled up next to me at the airport in his aunt's car it was only fitting that the Mamma Mia! sountrack was playing simultaneously in both his aunt's car that he was driving and my car.

It was playing when he started the car and apparently he didn't want to break anything or maybe there's was another reason. Hmm...

Inquiring Minds Want To Know...

A house on our block has recently gone on the market. Another house has recently sold.

Steve has spent many a minutes at the computer on various websites trying to figure out what the asking price is for the newly listed house and what the other house finally sold for.

Tonight we went to pick up warm subs for dinner. As we were walking in the house, he stopped, handed me the bag and took off after spotting another neighbor who is usually in the know. He said, "Oh, there's Dave. I'm going to ask him about the houses. Do you want to come?" Um...that would be a negative.

So it's been 30-minutes and Steve's sandwich is now the temperature of our A/C. And he's still not back. And for some reason my gut tells me he's going to come back with nothing more than a cold sandwich calling his name.

** Steve returned with 1/2 the information and 16-steak filets from The Kansas City Steak Company as a thank you for letting them store their things (that are still there) in our garage. It's ironic because before dinner Steve was actually watching The Kansas City Steak Company being promoted on QVC. I guess dreams really do come true... **

Friday Night Festivities

Friday night we went out with our neighbors, Scott and Kellie. We ended up doing a very mini-pub crawl throughout all the finer neighborhood establishments.

Yep, More Babies!

Congratulations to Megan and Todd Wilshusen on the arrival of their first child and son, Troy! Megan and Steve grew up across the road from each other and their families are like family to each other. One of my favorite things about the holidays at the Seilers is hanging out and playing board games with the Bellcocks!

Congrats to our friends Rob and Steph Goley (and Kai) on their second son, Liam! Steph is my sorority sister and one of the most genuine, sweet and giving people I've ever met. Steph is an amazing person in so many ways... And Steve and I always have fun with Rob which is easy to do!

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!