Vacation Update!

Vacation!
So, here are some of the photos that I took while in Florida. I didn't get as many as I wanted to because my battery died and I didn't bring the charger, but I got some really good ones. I'm so glad that I was able to get a few group shots. See below for the photos and comments!

This photo was taken in Tennessee. Kentucky, Tennessee & Colorado are the most beautiful states I have ever been too. In about 10 hours, you can make it from where I live in IL, to Tennessee. It's a wonderful drive!

Here's a picture of the windshield. Look closely and you can see all the bug guts ;0) Ha, ha... it's so gross. It is really cool to see the rock wall on one side and all the greenery on the other side. The drive down was awesome. We made it in 18 hours!!

Picture of my Dad ;0) I think the 4 of us girls drove him crazy!! Ha, ha... poor guy!!!

My Step-Mom Janet reading the map & watching a movie.


Jackie is the I-Pod THIEF (j/k)!!! Ha, ha... we listened to my I-Pod at first, and then I just gave it to her (or she took it over, not sure which, LOL) but I could only listen to so many oldies, and Jackie is an oldies junkie! LOL!! She did really, really good. I think my parents are going to get her an I-Pod after this trip. She really loved that thing and it kept her so busy.

Me & Bean (Kelly, isn't she adorable?). This was taken on day number 2 in the van. We're almost there! Yeah!!

Before we met up with the rest of the family, we made a detour stop at Typhoon Lagoon. It is a water park located inside Disney, but seperate from Disney World. It was so much fun, this photo was taken after we got back in the van and we were heading back to our hotel.

Above is the resort we stayed at for a week. It's a time share that my parents have along with my uncle, he has one too. This is the view from my parents balacony. You can see the pool and the ocean behind it. We were told that they caught a 9 foot shark about 1 month ago right outside this hotel, so I only went in the ocean 2 times.

Here is the whole family ;0) Most of the time we cooked dinner at the resort. Each of the rooms had a full kitchen, so we grocery shopped and cooked right in our rooms. This night however, we went out to Gators. We go here every year.

This is all of my cousins (well minus Kelly, Jackie & Lisa because they are under 21). Monday night we all went to the bar that is down the street. They had a jukebox that had any type of music you could imagine. We sat there and listened/danced to music all night. It was so fun ;0) Trish & Brooke, if you look close, I'm having BOLIVES!!!! LOL!!!!

Another photo of all of us from that night. Me, my cousins: Steph, Missy behind her, Jeff in the blue & Justin in the red.

The 3 girls! This was taken right before we left to go back to the hotel at about 1:30am.

This man is a state volunteer to rescue baby sea turtles. He goes to the beach in the morning and the late afternoon to dig up nests that have already hatched to see if he can find anymore baby turtles that were not strong enough to make it on their own. He does this only by volunteer.

Once he finds the turtles, he puts them in a bucket and lets them go in the evening (after dark). On average there are between 80-100 eggs per nest. The nests are about 3-4 feet under the sand. They have the cutest flippers and were climbing all over each other. Very adorable!!

Here's the whole tribe: (front sitting L-R) Aunt Karen, Uncle Bob, Aunt Kathy & Uncle Milan
(back sitting L-R) Sister Kelly, Mom Janet
(standing L-R) Cousin Steph, Sister Jackie, Me, Cousin Lisa, Cousin Melissa, Cousin Jeff, Aunt Nancy, Uncle Chuck, Cousin Justin and Dad Kurt.
That's everyone!!

I had to save this photo for last. This is Jackie showing her gangsta face!!! LOL!!! She has "tude" and knows how to use it ;0) Ha, ha...

So much fun!!! Thank you so much again Mom & Dad for inviting me and paying for everything! It was awesome!!!

I'm Baaa...aaack.

Hi Ya'll!!!
I'm back (just got in this evening), but exhausted. I have a bunch to tell you and I can't wait... but I really, really, really need sleep. Here's a picture to tie you over. I had SO MUCH FUN!!! It was a blast. I promise to post more later.

Here is a photo of everyone that was at West Palm Beach, FL.

Oh... and I have read everyones blogs... love it... love it... everyone has posted so much!!! I didn't have a chance to respond yet... I'm SO sorry. I promise to in a few days. I have a lot of catching up to do... I really enjoyed reading them all though!!

Love you guys!!

Vacation...

I will be in sunny Florida for two weeks. We leave tomorrow morning (Sunday). Steve has to stay behind :*( I wish he could come, but starting a new job... he couldn't get the time off. I hope he's going to be ok, with his back going out and all, but he's been a lot better the last couple of days. He's sooo awesome about me going. I would hate it if the situations were reversed. Although I would do the same for him, he's been really cool about it. He's very supportive. It's basically a free vacation for me, because my parents drive, and I'm just tagging along. It's really nice!

Above is what I have been doing for last couple of weeks. We have one wall to still finish (and it's really, really high) painting and then we are done with the whole downstairs. I wanted to get the kitchen finished before I left for FL, it came out beautiful! I really like the colors. We did a pale peanut color for majority of the down stairs, and for the kitchen and one accent wall we did a "southern wood" color. That's the actual name. LOL.

Ok, I'll see you guys in 2 weeks!

Hmm...

So... we had a fun day today!

Steve threw out his back this morning by walking... and we had to go to the hospital (so he could get his back scanned). His boss kinda demanded it, so that's a very good thing!

~

Well, ever since this morning, Steve has been in excruciating pain. The doctors told us that he pinched a nerve and would be better after a few days. He is off of work until Monday. He goes back to the doctor then and we will find out if he can go back to work or not. He is in an awful lot of pain for just a slipped disk. I don't know if it's supposed to be this painful, but I know Steve can take a lot of pain, and he's hurting right now. If this means anything, the Viacidin that they perscribed isn't helping.

Other than that, we are watching the movie "National Treasure". If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. It is very good. I'm not sure if the history is correct (like the markings on a $100 bill), but I like it.

This is just a funny picture of my sister Jackie. This was when we first moved into our house and she spent the night, the night before. She doesn't sleep over at other peoples houses very well, so when Steve woke up really early to start getting stuff done, Jackie got up with him. She & Steve spent the whole morning (from 5:30am on) unloading the garage. Kelly & I got up a little later. This is a picture of that afternoon when she feel asleep on the couch because she was so exhuasted. I thought it was so cute!!! Thank you to Jackster & Kelly Bean for all your help!! Dad & Mom too. You guys were all such a big, big help!!!

Ok, have a good night!

Illinois...

I just wanted to make a quick comment and let you know (incase you have lived here and didn't know or forgot what it was like) or to let you know incase you haven't lived in Illinois before that the tempertature today was a wonderful summer temperature of 85 degrees.

Now you might ask why this might be something so special to make a whole post about it.... well, let me finish my post by saying...

IT WAS 100% HUMIDTY!!! Holy moly!!!

Just thought I would share with you ;0)

New House!

Here are the pictures of our new house. We moved in just a little over a week ago. It's a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom w/ a basement.

The Front

Kitchen

Living/Family Room

Living Room w/ Dining Room Behind it. The dining room is right next to the kitchen.

Downstairs Bathroom

Basement: The puddle is from when we had the water softner installed.

Laundry Room: It's on the first floor, right next to the den & downstairs bathroom.

Den: Soon to be computer room.

Garage: Very messy, to go along with our messy house. Ha, ha...

Master Bedroom: We still need to get the corner hutch back from my Mom's. She is storing it for us.

Upstairs Bathroom: Rubber Ducky ;0)
This bathroom is upstairs between the 2 spare bedrooms. It's a jack-&-jill bathroom.

Another Picture of 2nd Bathroom: Here you can see through, I'm standing in one bedroom, looking through to the other bedroom, through the bathroom.

Back Yard: Standing at the side of our house.

Back of House: The back of our house.

Ok, I think that is everything ;0) I hope you can come visit soon, we would love to have you over!!

Drive-In!

Hi!
So, we just went to the drive-in with Kelly & Jack and saw Cars and then following that we say X-Men 3. It started to rain when we first got there, but cleared up by the time the first movie started.

Cars was really cute! If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. You were right Amy, Larry The Cable Guy does totally steal the show! He was hillarious.

Now, I'm not normally a sequials fan, and I know that I really liked X-Men 2 when it came out, so I wasn't expecting much for X-Men 3. I do have to say that I did enjoy it very much! I would recommend this one too.

I love going to the drive-in and here is why:
- You get to bring all the snacks & drinks you want.
- You get to see 2 movies for less than the price of one in a normal theatre.
- You have more privacy, so if you are with someone that likes to talk through movies, you are not really disturbing anyone around you.
- They are usually later on in the evening and you get to wear you PJ's.

It's a really fun time!

Hair Cut Photo

Here's a recent picture of my hair cut. Kelly & I were playing around with my Mom's camera and this is one of the pictures we took. Just thought I would post it so you could see what it looks like.

Jackster... The Laundry Police!!

I'm trying to do laundry, and Jackie is taking over! She won't let me do one load of laundry or fold it by myself. I just folded 3 shirts and was going to put them away, when she went refolded them, and put them away before I could do it. If the dryer goes off, she is standing at the door waiting. She when I go to get the laundry out, she is staring at me like I don't know what I am doing.

It's very funny!!

Bought A House!!

So... we finalized the paperwork today and bought a house! It's in Plainfield, IL (yes, where they have all the tornadoes) and is really starting to grow (the town that is). It's a two story home, with a family room, kitchen, dining room, den and three bedrooms. It's brand new, which is nice because it's a blank slate that we can do anything to. Steve was hoping for something he could fix up (he has been really wanting to do this), but this was just too good to pass up. I feel a little bad for him, because I think the home projects would be really fun to do together, and he was hoping to learn how to do them.

Let me know anytime you would like to come and stay, you are more than welcome!!! I would love it if you could come!!! :)

Here's a picture of the outside.

Chop ... Chop ... More Chop ...

I haven't had a chance to take a photo yet, but here is how my hair now looks. It's kinda short, really cute & super duper easy to do! I love it!!!

I was able to stay away from my Mom for over 2 weeks, but she got ahold of me today ;0) It was really fun! Ha, ha, thanks so much Mom for doing my hair today!!!

Ok, Ok... they're comming...

Graduations!! Here are the pictures you have been asking about from last weekend.

Jackie's Graduation!!!
Was on Saturday at her high school. It was a very awesome morning, becuase it was cloudy and cool. Here are the pics.

Jackie as she was walking back from the ceremony.


Grandpa Graetz waiting for Jackie & all of us to finish our photos. He had a special attachment to Jackie's Hat ;0)


My Parents with Jackie (Janet, Jackie & my Dad)


My Grandparents (Janets Parents: Grandpa, Jacker & Grandma)


Me & the Jackster!


Close up of the cuttie patootie!


DONIKA'S GRADUATION!!
Nika graduated on Sunday, her ceremony was at the high school as well and was in the middle of the afternoon. It was a beautiful sunny/hot day, and I nearly died ;0) I don't know how the seniors did it in those hot gowns. It was about 98 degrees and very humid. Here are her photos.


Throwing of the hats.


Nika right after the ceremony.


Right before we went out to dinner. (Nika, Me, my Mom & my Aunt Helma).


During dinner. We ate at Oakbrooke, a restaurant called Anti-pasto. (Mom, Aunt Helma & Me).


Scuba Steve, Me & Nika!


Ok, that's the photos. Love you guys! Post again soon! We are busy house hunting, there is a lot to look at, so I apologize in advance for neglecting. I have a lot of calls to return and I am SO, SO sorry!!!!!!