Spring Break

Another Spring Break has come and gone and I sadly realized that this Spring Break luxury will soon come to an end. (March 22-30)

I ended school with a brutal Ocular Disease/Pharmacology test on Friday and spent the rest of the afternoon watching the NCAA tournament, packing for the week and napping. I woke up "early" Saturday and made the drive home to KS. My first stop was at Gary and Jayne's for Easter lunch. Brian was all ready there waiting for me as he headed back right after work Friday. Oh and lunch was delicious...as always. We watched the KSU vs. Wisconsin game there and then went into Jeff Browns to watch the KU game.

Sunday we went to my grandparents house for Easter lunch with my family. My parents, sisters, niece and grandparents were all in attendance. (Aubrey was dressed in an adorable pink dress as you can see in the picture above). We had our annual Easter Egg hunt for $$, but this will be our last as Aubrey will be of age next year (and some of us are about 10 years to old now). Lunch here was delicious as well. Brian drove back to STL on Sunday because he had to work Monday morning, and we still had a basement full of damp carpet....but not for long because he spent all of Tuesday removing that carpet (but that's another post to come). I stayed at Mom and Dad's for the week enjoying the company of my parents, Hayden, David and Aubrey. Being able to spend time with Aubrey is a real treat!! She is such a great baby and I love being able to spend any time I can with her.

Thursday evening I ventured down to Olathe to have a mini-slumber party with Makenzie. She cooked dinner and dessert.....as if I needed that. This was the first time I had been to her and Dominic's new apartment--its nice.

Friday I had a hair appointment, got some color and a cut. I met Mom, Mak and Hay for appetizers and a drink in Topeka and then we went to Jeff's again to watch KU beat Villanova.

Saturday morning I was back on I-70 Eastbound to STL.

Arriving home was both a delight and the disappointment of having to resume the workload of school. The house was quite different than when I left a week ago. Everything from the basement is now, temporarily, upstairs.
Only six weeks until the end of the semester, and I have a lot to get done before then!

Rain Rain Go AWAY!

Tuesday in St. Louis was nothing but rain! That night Brian went into the unfinished part of the basement and found water bubbling up through a small hole (in the picture right between the water heater and furnace). Luckily it wasn't far from the drain and thanks to the slope it was running right into the drain (pic above). We decided to clear out the boxes (that were located to the right in the picture) and move them over to the finished side....just in case. Turns out that wasn't the greatest idea because over night water seeped through on the finished side. The carpet was wet from wall to wall!!!
Luckily there was not enough water to have any free standing puddles, but enough to leave footprints when you walked.




Every step you took water squished out under your toes! (This is what I am trying to illustrate in the picture below)




Brian spent Wednesday evening removing 30 gal of water!! But there's still some under there, and I am not so sure it is even done coming through.



The boxes we relocated from the unfinished side onto the finished side soaked up some water, so we then moved them to the kitchen to get them out of the way and try to dry.

At this point nothing appears to have been lost (except the urns from the wedding that got knocked over when we were shuffling things around in the basement). We have all the fans we own down there trying to blow things dry; keeping our fingers crossed that we will not have to replace all of the carpet.

As for the unfinished side, a little water is still coming from the hole, but the pressure has decreased as it is no longer bubbling out. A couple other little streams were found running to the drain, but otherwise not much water on that side....good thing we moved those boxes!! HA HA!!

A Student Again!!

Brian has been accepted to the MBA program at Washington University in St. Louis. He will enter the part time program, beginning in August, and continue working full time at USBank as a Corporate Analyst. The program is three years, however, it is possible to finish in just two and one-half if the scheduling works in your favor.

WAY TO GO BRIAN!!

Big 12 Tourney

Last weekend Brian and I were fortunate enough to attend the semi-final and championship games of the Men's Big 12 Basketball Tournament at the Sprint Center in Kansas City. THANK YOU GARY & JAYNE!!

We drove down to KC Saturday morning and met Gary & Jayne for lunch. After lunch we went down to the Sprint Center and caught the second half of the Texas vs. Oklahoma game--wasn't much of a game in the second half as Texas won handily. The next semi-final game was KU vs. Texas A&M, although the Jayhawks were less than impressive in the first half, they pulled it together after halftime and took home the 'W'! This meant a third consecutive KU vs. Texas Big 12 Championship game!

Saturday night after the games, we met up with Mark (bestman in our wedding) and his girlfriend Bridget. We all went out to dinner (Japanese....Brian's request) and then to a few bars. The new Power & Light District just to the west of the Sprint Center was packed full of people who I think had been there for quite awhile, so we did not stay long. Eventually we ended up at the bar in the lobby of our hotel where we were actually able to sit down, hear each other, and have a conversation. It was great to see Mark and Bridget again. When Brian and Mark get together it is like they have never been apart.

The Championship game was on Sunday at 2:00pm. It was a very close game and extremely exciting to watch. It was great to see so many KU fans in the stands--probably about 85% Jayhawks! It was a real nail biter for most of the game, but KU came out on top and the ROCK CHALK chant filled the arena.....AMAZING!! We stayed long enough to watch the trophy presentations and see the team cut down the net and then we were back on the road...home to St. Louis.

For those of you counting at home, this makes 3 consecutive Big 12 Tournament Titles!!!

The hotel was at Crown Center so we had to get a picture with the fountains.

Snowy Days

Yesterday we had a mini-blizzard here in St. Louis. Unfortunately for me the snow did not begin falling until morning so school was not canceled until after I had driven to and attended class :(
When I left at 9:30 am there was at most a dusting of snow on the driveway. When I returned home at noon we had 6 inches! It continued to snow through most of the afternoon. I think we ended up with 9-10 inches at our house in about 6 hours time-the official recording for Florissant was 11 inches.

The rate at which the snow was coming down reminded me of when Brian and I were stranded in Colorado in the third worst blizzard in the state's history. Except this time no one was dying from hypoxia and we weren't under avalanche warnings!

Today it is sunny and melting a lot of the slush in the streets, but our yard is still covered. Everything is so pretty when it is covered in a thick sheet of white, however I am ready for the spring. Snow is only enjoyable when you are able to ski it.....no mountains in Missouri though.

Oh and one more twist to this crazy winter weather....it was over 70 degrees on Sunday!!

Something New

So we (I) are trying something new. I have been inspired by some family and friends - who have fabulous blogs - to start my own. Since we are in St. Louis and don't get to see everyone as much as we would like, we hope that this blog will be a way for us to keep in touch. Now we can share stories and pictures all at once.
Unlike the other blogs we read, we have no kids and no pets, but every once in a while we have something worth sharing. So bear with us as we try this out--Enjoy!

Girls Weekend

Last weekend, Feb 22-25th, I was lucky enough to have my family come down for a girls weekend. My mom, two sisters-Makenzie and Hayden, and niece Aubrey were all troopers and made the drive to St. Louis to spend the weekend with me. They arrived late Friday night and took off Monday morning. We spent most of the weekend just hanging out at home and playing with or chasing Aubrey. We did take a trip to the mall on Saturday and on Sunday drove by some nice homes. Sunday evening we had Cream Chicken and Biscuits and watched the Oscars....its much harder to really watch and hear the TV with little missy always making noise, but we managed. I am so glad I got to see everyone and I can't believe how much bigger and grown up Aubrey is everytime I see her. She is now walking from one side of the room to the other and has learned "So Big" and is SO proud of herself everytime she does it. She is such a happy little girl and always has a smile on her face!
Brian returned home Sunday night from his weekend trip to Manhattan. We each had a great weekend!!