Echinacea Anyone?

My fascination continues with how easily things grow in the Midwest. The other day I pulled in the driveway and found this Echinacea that had volunteered itself to grow in our backyard.

Where Have You Been All My Life?

I seriously cannot tell you how many times in my life I have said "Why can't they just make a glossary and an index all in one?!?" I always thought it would make life easier. Well, someone over at the big textbook publishing company must have heard me. I was overjoyed today when I opened my Organizational Behavior textbook (talk about a sentence I never thought I'd type!) and found this beautiful GLINDEX to help me figure out not only the definition, but also the location of expectancy theory. I am wholeheartedly in favor of anything that saves time, effort, and paper!

Viva Las Vegas!

Earlier this month I had a week off from work. Brett & I decided to get out of town and head to Vegas for a couple of days. Here are our excited "We're taking off for Vegas" faces. (Brett's is a little over-the-top).

*Please forgive the quality of these pictures. We opted for convenience over picture quality and just took our little point-and-shoot on the trip rather than my fancy camera.

We arrived in Las Vegas Monday night. We were starving so we headed to the food court in the hotel. We stayed at the Monte Carlo. You wouldn't believe how excited we were that they had a Rubios!


Oh, Rubios... we've missed you so much!

Here's the first official slot pull of the trip:


There was a TON of construction going on. Every building in this picture is still being built. This is the new City Center, and our view from our hotel room.

We ♥'d the lazy river at the hotel:



More slots!


We saw the lions at the MGM:


And then we went to this cool store that is made to look like the Grand Canyon.


These people were stopped watching Michael Jackson's memorial on the big screen. People were stopped EVERYWHERE watching it.


We checked out the conservatory at The Bellagio:


Then we walked over and checked out Planet Hollywood, which actually turned out to be our favorite casino.


We saw Blue Man Group while we were there, which I have been dying to see for years.

We also checked out M&Ms World. We mixed our own M&M color combination (mine was a fun combination of pink, purple, and teal) from the M&M wall, and then we posed with our favorite M&M.

Blog?

What blog?

After much prodding from friends, family, and co-workers, I decided it might be time to update this blog.

Many weeks ago (I know, I haven't posted in forever) we went and heard a great band play at the Redstone room in Davenport.


This information is largely irrelevant. To be honest I just wanted to post a pic of it because I was having a really good hair day. :)

On June 1st I went back to school. I use the term "went back" loosely because going to school doesn't actually require going anywhere. I am completing my Bachelor's in Business Management online. It's going really, really well so far. The school I am going to allows you to test out of classes, so I am banking on my existing smarts to help me advance through the program more quickly. :)

Brooke came down for a visit with her son Truman, her friend Sarah and Sarah's son Khai. We had a good time, and it was nice to finally meet Truman (it only took a year!). Brooke was kind enough to take some nice pictures of Brett & I. We were going for a professional look for future advertising/marketing/website. I think they look awesome!







Then we took some pictures just for fun. Here we are being a couple of goofballs:


Apparently something was funny:


That same weekend I hosted a baby shower for my friend April. She is expecting her little boy Dylan sometime in September.


I made another diaper cake. I think I outdid myself on this one.


I also made this cute little turtle quilt for Dylan.


The following weekend, my Grandma came for a visit with her friend Shirley. We went to the quad city botanical center where we checked out the flowers and made friends with a little turtle who had perched himself on a rock.






This past weekend I took some Engagement & Wedding pictures for a couple all in the same weekend, which kept me pretty busy. Then my aunt Colleen came for a visit. She has all of the pictures from the trip, so I will have to get them and share them at a later time.

Also over the weekend, we had a crazy severe thunderstorm that began about 3.5 seconds after the outdoor wedding ended. The storm blew in three of our sun room windows and blew off some of our rain gutters. As if that wasn't enough, a pipe burst in our basement unleashing a flood that rivaled Niagara Falls. I am just thankful that 1. We were home, and 2. There is a drain in our basement floor.

I am now off for a week from work which is nice. I will hopefully have more to blog about in the coming week.

That's all I can think up to blog about for now. Happy Fourth of July!