February 2020

February!  My birthday month and yet one of my least favorite months of the year.  Maybe if I lived somewhere warm I'd feel differently!

We had a ball with our International Trivia night.  Our wine club and other friends.  And lots of items collected for Brighter Days shelter.

After a day in Bloomington with girlfriends (the salt cave was a great experience!), the guys took me to Revery for dinner.  It was a delicious time with all 3 of my guys!

 Reminiscent of my early years with David when he and Don would do math when we'd go out to eat, the boys and David now do this when we go out.  Thomas started this one.  It was really sweet for me to see.  Like grandfather, like father, like son.

Friends dropped off gifts including my favorite - chocolate covered strawberries, Prosecco, cheesecake and other pampering treats!

 King Remy

It's been a really tough few weeks at work on the HR side but it was great to get together with our friends Kelly and Scott and tour the Inn at Irwin Gardens, enjoy a glass of wine, and a relaxing Friday evening for Valentine's Day.

Amber hosted a super fun Galentine's Day afternoon at their homestead.  It was so beautiful watching the deer play in the field outside the lodge, with just a little bit of snow falling.  Here is my view driving in.

You can't go wrong with a mimosa bar!

And we shot Parks and Rec (tv show) themed hearts to determine which wine from the wine exchange we won!

I hosted our second Accessories Swap.  I posted the one that I hosted with Ginger on facebook and we had soo many comments.  So I opened this one up and held it at our church.  It's a really great event!  Jess came and did Beauty Counter facials too.

Remy in the (rare) February sunshine.

Bailey is a master poser - has been since he was a puppy.

 Speaking of Bailey, on the 28th we celebrated the 6th anniversary of us choosing Bailey as our new puppy.  We would pick him up 3 weeks later after spring break.  To recreate the photo, David even put on the same jacket!

The boys are still doing their internships - about 13-19 hours/week.  They're both doing IT roles.  We especially love that we get to see Thomas 2-3 times a week.  He wanted to discuss some Intranet issues he was running up against with Brennan.  I had to capture this.

 We were pretty worried about Remy this past weekend because he was very sick.  We rushed him into the vet on Saturday morning without an appointment and luckily they took care of him.  The blood results show pancreatitis.  It can be very bad for dogs (as well as humans) so we'll be changing his diet which he won't like but we want him to have a long healthy life!

He's feeling much better today!

David and Brennan are off to Purdue for Brennan's Purdue's For Me event for admitted students.  It's getting real, folks!

Have a great March!

October 2016

Catching up on the family blog.  I rely on this blog so much for old photos.  So I'm keeping it going!

October 2016 was really the month of Moving & Band.

If we weren't cleaning out our old house and moving into the new house, then we were at a band competition with Brennan.  It was an exhausting month, but a great one, and we managed to celebrate a birthday and have some fun with friends as well.

Here I am as Gloria Steinem at the Women's Giving Circle's annual event.  These masks are so cool!  They had lots of different ones at the selfie station.

We went to Ethnic Expo (annual international food festival) with Bailey and had a great time.  As we were leaving we saw the "no pets" sign.  Oops.  Bailey enjoyed it anyway!

We had a final Kelly Benjamin for Judge "meeting" at our old meet-up place, 4th Street.  It gave us a chance to talk about last minute things before the November election.

The Litwits met at April's to discuss "The Nightingale".

My friend and former neighbor Joan took me to Café Batar - a place I'd been wanting to see for a long time.  It's decorated so cute. 

Wine Club was a special one.  We hosted with Jan and Roger and Charlie and Jayne.  It was David's birthday, and sommelier and friend Joshua Ratliff led a discussion for us on 3 forgotten grapes.  Such a fun night!

Lots and lots of band with Brennan.  All sorts of competitions, football games, and late late nights.  He was a trooper, making it to semi-finals at the Grand Nationals.  Here is the transport vehicle decked out in the year's theme - Slither.

David and I made it to Kelly and Sam's Halloween party.  We picked out our own costumes.  Yep, David was a chicken. 

Not a good sign for a soon-to-be judge!

Jeff the Skittles Guy

Impressive!  Lots of great costumes.  I didn't take enough photos!

Bailey and I left a bowl of candy at the new house because we went to the Mike and Leslee's house again - our 13th annual Halloween in their neighborhood.  Could this be the last year?  It's more of catch up time for the parents vs. the high schoolers and college kids trick-or-treating these days!  But we had a blast anyway.

Thomas was the only one of 5 kids who dressed up, and even he didn't go Trick-or-Treating!

We love our new house, we're so happy that our former house sold so quickly (via facebook!)  We're thrilled to be all settled in.  David's "new house to do list" is dwindling as he finishes project after project.  We enjoyed the holidays in our new home.  And my favorite part - we did a major clean-out as we moved.  I estimate we sold or gave away 20% of our belongings in order to slightly downsize in to the new home.  It's an awesome feeling!

A Few of My Favorite Things

I love hearing about products that friends really like.  One friend is a bzzz agent and she sends regular reviews of products she's tested.  Always fun to hear about products that are new to me.  The problem is, I tend to try everything out and end up with a lot of items that I only use once or twice.

Below are 10 items that I love and won't replace any time soon.

DHC cleanser is wonderful.  I was using harsher cleansers but have found that this olive oil one works wonders.  DHC has a lot of interesting samples that you get when you place an order.  This is one of their products that I can't live without.

I think a lot of people use their cleanser to remove their eye make up too.  I've tried that but really need a separate eye make up remover.  This L'Oreal one I love and have used it for years.  I've tried the Wal-Mart and Target versions of L'Oreal's and they're fine, but the L'Oreal one is the best for me.

I really love this moisturizer.  A friend gave me a tube a couple of years ago when we were walking a lot for the 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk.  I haven't used anything since.  There are SPF 80 and 100 versions of this moisturizer, but I like the 70 the best.  It goes on smoothly and isn't oily at all.

I've tried lots of eye creams over the years.  This Aveeno one is my favorite.

I can never seem to get the right shade of foundation until I tried this one from Clinique.  This is about the only Clinique item I use any more, but I love it.  I'm #21.

The truth is, lately I'm not in makeup a whole lot.  That's one of the reasons I'm behind on the 52 in 52 photo project!  I'll get caught up this week though.  One of the reasons is because I'm working out more throughout the day.  Here are the exercise bottoms that I especially like.

Champion brand is great.  They have sizes that work for me and they are very comfortable, and last forever.  I like these capris especially.

A friend gave me Ethel gloves last year and I really love them.  They're great for handling roses and mulch.  I don't wear gloves all the time when I work in the yard, but sometimes they're necessary.  These are great after multiple washes in the washing machine too.  We found them at Lowe's but they have them on amazon too.

I mentioned in a post a couple of months ago that we had switched from plastic Tupperware/Rubbermaid to glass.  It's been a great switch.  It's so much easier with the glass ones since we can reheat right in the glass and I feel like I can serve the food on the table in them (rather than Tupperware).

And if Tupperware wasn't exciting enough, here's a suggestion on reusable dryer sheets.  I had seen these recommended repeatedly and bought them on amazon.  They are towels that you keep in the dryer and don't have to use Bounce dryer sheets.  They are wonderful.  I believe they last 6 months but mine have lasted longer than that.  I haven't had a static issue in forever, and usually I do in the winter. 

And after all that cleaning, our favorite "product" for fun is Netflix.  We've been members for years.  I think I've only had one time when the movie arrived with an issue and they sent a replacement that same day.  We can even watch select movies from Netflix through the Wii now.  It's pretty amazing.  The boys have seen a lot of older movies that aren't in stores anymore and we've been able to see a number of programs that don't come to our local theater or on our channels - or we don't want to spend the $$ on at the theater.  David's watching the HBO "Rome" series right now. 

So that's it - 10 items I highly recommend and use daily.  I'd love to hear if you have used any of these items and what you think!