#84 - Visit all the Presidential libraries

I was able to check another Presidential library off the Life List on our recent road trip to Houston.  We made Little Rock the halfway point on our way to see Purdue play in the NCAA regional game against Duke. 

The replica of President Clinton's Oval Office

Here I am in the Secretary of Defense's chair in the Presidential conference room, which is positioned to the left of the President's seat.

George Bush Presidential Library & Museum - College Station, TX
Jimmy Carter Library & Museum - Atlanta, GA
William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum - Little Rock, AR
Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library & Museum - Abilene, KS
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library - Ann Arbor, MI
Gerald R. Ford Museum - Grand Rapids, MI
Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum - West Branch, IA
Lyndon B. Johnson Library & Museum - Austin, TX
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum - Boston, MA
Nixon Presidential Library & Museum - College Park, MD
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum - Simi Valley, CA
Harry S. Truman Library & Museum - Independence, MO


Phew, still lots of libraries left on that list!  The Michigan ones should be easy, but the others might take a little more work.  Why, oh why didn't I visit JFK's library when I visited Mel in Boston a few years ago??  It's possible that I still had a little bit of cool left in the summer of '08.  Gone now!  The library tour is ON!  If you're interested in joining me, I'm sure Brent wouldn't mind sitting out a library or two.  Consider it - you know you want in. 

The Weekend Update

Greetings, Blog Friends!  Hope you all had a nice weekend and are rested up to begin a new week.  I'm not quite ready to start another week and think another day, just ONE more, would be great.  Yeah, that would make all the difference. 

This past week was filled with fun plans.  On Monday night my friend Lisa and I met at Keystone for coffee while Brent went to the Pacers' game with one of his friends from work.  The ex-BKD Girls' Club met at The Cheesecake Factory on Thursday night for dinner.  Yesterday I went home for a hair appointment and to hang out with Ashley and my favorite pigtailed 14 month old.  My only pictures of this post were stolen from Ashley's blog...

We made Pioneer Woman's apple fritters...

And Ashley introduced me to Glee while we fried up our fritters.  Love it!  And I also loved making the fritters, a personal deep-fried favorite of mine.  As I said to Ashley, "I think I could stand here and fry things up all day!"

 
Thanks for the fun Saturday, Bigelow Ladies!  I wish we could do it more often!!


Brent, Adam and I started off the day bright and early this morning with the Bricks to Bricks 10-miler downtown for the last event of the week.  I ran the whole thing, and the best news is that if I keep my pace, I'll finish the mini under my goal time of 2:30!  I probably shouldn't jinx myself, because a lot can happen in those last 3 miles.  I could trip and roll around on the ground, get frustrated and give up, be run down by a pack of rabid 75 year old men wearing ankle weights (these are usually the type of people who pass me at the end) - well, you get the picture.  But the good news is that I at least think I'm both mentally and physically prepared to finally meet my goal.  And you know how I love to check off a goal. 

Before I go, I would like to congratulate the entire Smith family on the birth of the next generation of "Smith Boys" - twins Henry Michael and Eli Nicholas, born Wednesday.  They were a little early but are doing very well.  Welcome, Smithlings!
      

Let There Be Light

When Bob and Big Lou were here for Easter last weekend, Dad installed all our new light fixtures.  Goodbye, early 1990's gold plating!  We bought these on New Year's Day, and it was during the process of selecting said lights at Lowe's that I realized I was getting sick.  Sneezing eleventy billion times on all the other light fixtures tipped me off to this fact.  The next morning I was at MedCheck with the Swine Flu, so needless to say the light fixtures didn't get installed that weekend.  And my sincere apologies to anyone purchasing lights later in the day...hope you came through The Flu okay.

Without further ado...

Breakfast area before:

And after:

We replaced five in all, with another two upstairs in the hallway that are identical to the entryway.  All that's left is the chandelier in the dining room and then we're on to the bathroom lighting, which will require touch up painting.  I may not awaken that sleeping giant and leave well enough alone.

THANKS, DAD!

Hoppy Easter!

I love Easter.  It's one of my favorite holidays.  My favorite part is the church service - it's so exhuberant and triumphant.  I used to think the best Easter Sunday moment was the singing of "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" with trumpets in the background, but that was before I heard the "Hallelujah Chorus" today at North Church.  We'd never done Easter at our own Indy church before, but since everyone came to us this year we got to go.  Wow - loved this!  The choir stood in the aisles at the end and belted it out, which really helped since the music they gave us had all four parts and was a tad bit confusing.

Both my parents and Brent's joined us for church and dinner at our house.  We had the traditional Easter fare - Honeybaked Ham, cheesy potatoes, asparagus, bread, deviled eggs, salad, coconut cake and key lime pie. 

A Cracker Barrel find from our recent trip to Houston - $0.99 each!  What a score!

I picked up the ham on Saturday and had to stand in line for about 30 minutes to get it.  I couldn't believe how busy it was...I tried to snap a picture of all the people in line without being a creep...not real successful.  There was an older gentleman in line the was just crackin me up.  First I had to hold his spot so he could shuffle outside to his car and get his cell phone.  Once back in the store, he proceeded to call his wife THREE times in seriously five to seven minutes.  The first time was to tell her that he was going to pick up something at Kroger.  The second time was to ask if she needed any of the ready-made sides.  The third was to say that he just didn't think they were ordering enough ham.  I thought, "He must be driving her CRAZY", but then his phone rang and it was her.  Four calls, under ten minutes in line.  Oh how I chuckled to myself.  Hey, I had nothing else to do. 

Man who doesn't know what he did before cell phones.

We held a modified egg hunt with Bonnie today.  I peeled the egg, let her smell it, then hid it in the yard.  She was so close to finding it but then heard another dog in the front and lost all focus.  She needed some help, but she finally found the egg.  We're easily amused.

                                                                           Success!

A Spring in My Step

Happy Spring, friends!  This is the glorious point in the year when things start to turn back around after a long and dreadful winter.  Dramatic much?  I know, but seriously, that's the only way to describe it.  Long and dreadful.

First, I'd like to wish a big Happy Birthday Weekend to the Queen of March - Big Lou herself.  We had reservations at the Cork 'n Cleaver that ended up falling through, but we will be celebrating in two weeks when they come for Easter.  Congrats to both Rob and Candace - Candace for being inducted into a nursing fraternity this weekend and Rob for officially becoming a supervisor at UPS.  Training starts tomorrow.  I am so proud of Rob for going to school and working hard at 2 jobs at the same time- I know that I wasn't supervising anyone when I was 21!  And now, from one supervisor to another, "God Speed, Rob.  God Speed.  May the Force be with you."

We had the.best.weekend!  I think the weather definitely helped with this.  We both took Friday off and I took advantage of the day by doing a little shopping in the morning.  The Johnson brothers came over later to watch a big Purdue NCAA win over Sienna and we grilled out.  They actually stayed until late that night, and before it was all said and done we watched about 12 hours of basketball.  I love March Madness!  My brackets were shot with the Kansas loss, but that's okay.

On Saturday we did our long runs at the gym, which for me meant 8 miles and for Brent meant 10.  I should have run outside because the hardest part for me is the mental struggle to stay on the treadmill, but I also notice that my legs hurt so much more the next day if I'm pounding actual pavement for that distance.  For next week's 9-miler I will have to run outside, because you can only hop off the treadmill to get a drink so many times.

We checked out Scotty's Lakehouse for lunch as a treat for making it through the runs.  It was typical Scotty's with more burgers.  I liked it, and might be adding "Try all 15 burgers at Scotty's Lakehouse" to my life list.  Nice.  This mentality and other poor eating choices could be why I ran 22 miles last week but didn't lose any weight.  It's a vicious cycle.

This morning I went to early church and then met Laura, Kirby, and Megan for breakfast.  We tried Scholars Inn downtown, which was awesome despite not having any water because of a break in a water line.  Or something like that.  All I know is that it forced us to order mimosas to drink instead of coffee, which is never an inconvenience in our book.

We have been lazy the rest of the day, which is how Sunday should feel.  We also got to celebrate another Boilermaker win tonight over Texas A&M!  Keep on winning!! 

Bonnie has been lovin' up this weather recently.  We've been letting her out by herself since the ground has hardened up a little bit (it's hard to keep a white dog clean) and she's had frequent play dates with Ellie, the Price Charles Spaniel from the cul-de-sac.  Ellie comes to the front door about once a day to see if Bonnie can come out to play.  They're very evenly matched in size and they could roll around for hours.  It's adorable. 

Spring also means the return of the neighborhood kitties to our porch.  Here's Bob Buttons in the window.  This cat's real name is Olivia, but she'll, uh, he'll always be Bob Buttons to us. 

We're working on painting/decorating our guest bedrooms and I started working on the curtains last night.  I love the material and hope they look okay.  Once again, I'm kinda just winging it even though I have two perfectly good patterns - and I have two copies of one of those patterns.  They look a little advanced for me.  Here's Bonnie the Helper.  Phew, what would I do without her contributions?

Speaking of home improvement, I added a new picture to our entryway display this week.  One day I sat down at the computer to quickly check Facebook, and before I knew it 30 minutes had passed and I'd ordered this sign.  It all happened so fast...

Sorry for the long post, but it's been awhile since I'd written anything of substance.  I think with spring and summer coming up I'll have a lot more to write about.  Adios, January and February!  Don't hurry back!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Hope you had a great St. Patrick's Day, and I really hope that you got to enjoy a Shamrock Shake from McDonald's.  I look forward to them every year.  If you didn't have a chance I bet they still have them on the menu tomorrow.

Here I am tonight enjoying my last one of the season.  After I saw how many calories are in the small I had to give the last half to Brent.  Good thing it's but once year!

Ode to My Undies

I've been meaning to give a shout out to my Body by Victoria underwear for a long time.  Since I have absolutely NOTHING to blog about right now, it's better than nothing!

Victoria's Secret has knocked one out of the park with this collection.  I'm not a fan of the Body collection bras, but if you want to get the most bang for your buck I highly recommend the panties.  I probably haven't purchased underwear in 4-5 YEARS because these are such high quality!  I have them in several different colors.

Now that I think about it, that's a long time not to buy any new underwear.  While looking for a picture of said panties (which is not included for those of you who may not appreciate soft porn), I noticed that they just happen to be having a 3 for $30 sale right now...what great timing! 

I'm not an official spokeswoman for VS, but if someone from the company stumbles across this blog and wants to give me a cut of the profits after you all go out and take advantage of the sale, I won't turn it down.