Surprise 60th!

On Friday we went to surprise birthday party for Kenton's Aunt Tonnie - it was really fun, she was definitely surprised! There were almost 100 people there... I hope I know 100 people to invite to my 60th birthday party!

We stayed over in Derby on Friday and Saturday was a beautiful day there!

Overlooking the pasture on Saturday

American Idol Tour and Pop Tarts!

Tonight we went to see the American Idol tour! We got tickets from UE and the show was great. I think it was so entertaining because there were 10 performers so it kept it interesting. Places 3-10 did 3 songs each and then the two Davids (1 and 2) performed 5 songs each.

Before we went to the concert, we went to a reception hosted by UE and I met the guy who invented the pop tart! He was working for General Foods and the toaster was becoming a household item - they wanted to create a breakfast food for the toaster other than toast. They thought and thought and finally he went out and bought a bunch of dough (dates the story, huh?) and created the first pop tarts in a 4x4 shape! Awesome! Even better, the concert tour was sponsored by Pop Tarts!

Pictures and video to be posted....

Crop 4 Kids

Wow! Today I went to scrapbook crop, my first ever, and it was a blast! It is basically a big room with a bunch of tables set up with people scrapbooking. Everyone had their own bucket for scraps and space to work. There were snacks and drinks provided all day and lunch too. There were representatives from the area scrapbook stores and lots of door prizes - an extra ticket for each page completed. There was also a Chinese auction that I participated in and won a very nice scrapbook and page protectors worth about $40! Woo hoo!

The event was to raise money for CJ’s Bus which is a local mini-version of the American Red Cross for kids in the aftermath of natural disasters. It is a 40 foot trailer with extending sides that is a kid’s heaven inside – it travels to natural disaster sites within 500 miles and provides safe childcare to parents so they can get their affairs in order. CJ was one of the young kids killed when a F3 tornado hit Evansville in 2006. Very neat event.

I met this great lady named Shawn who used to teach classes at Michael's. We had a great afternoon. I finished Alyssa's scrapbook! Since there weren't as many pictures of Alyssa (Kenton's niece) as there were of Josh, I did an alphabet book for her that only requires about 30 pictures - 9x9 book.

CJ's Bus

My friend Shawn and I at our table!

Alyssa's scrapbook - E is for Eyes

Alyssa's scrapbook - H is for Hospital

Alyssa's scrapbook - J is for Josh

Alyssa's scrapbook - L is for Laughing

Alyssa

Baptism

Cute

Daddy

Eyes (she has huge ones!)

Family

Great Grandmas

Hospital

Innocent

Josh

Kissable

Laughing

Mommy

Nanny

Open Wide

Papaw

Question (puzzled face)

Riding (stroller)

Surprise

Teething

Uncle Kenton & Aunt Anna

Very Cute
Women

Xtraordinary

Yay

Zzzzzzzz

Mayor's Arts Awards @ Vectren

Yesterday we went to a black tie event hosted by Vectren in the atrium of the building. It was the Mayor's Art's Award Dinner and they called it "Black Tie and Blue Notes" - they had some blues musicians playing throughout the night on guitar and sax.

Vectren has an art collection on the 8th floor and I gave a couple tours to some of the guests - it was really fun, brought back memories of giving tours at UE. All the art was done by someone from our service territory (Indiana and Ohio) or the art depicts somewhere in our territory. Since the artists were regional, most of the guests knew all the artists.


The atrium set up for the dinner


All dressed up for the event

Labor Day Weekend

This weekend Kenton had to work all weekend - there were games Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday...

So, on Saturday I went to the Phi Mu suite for the recruitment preview for alumnae. Basically, we go and watch what they have worked on for recruitment so far and tell them what they need to work on before the actual events. I was the only alum who showed up, but it was fun.

On Sunday I drove into Tell City and spent the afternoon with Grandma Wittmer - we went to lunch at Arby's and then went to bingo at the high rise (where all the seniors live)... it was interesting. Some of the ladies played up to 20 cards at one time! I didn't win. :-(

I got to Derby about 4pm and found out there was going to be a hog roast across the road from the house. Erin (Kenton's sister), Jeff, Josh, and Alyssa were already over and everyone was sitting on the front porch. Alyssa was looking cute as ever!


Alyssa laughing on the front porch

About 6pm we went across the street to this place below. They had an open garage of sorts with tables, food, and karaoke in it. We sat outside of this towards the river - the area is right on the river and we walked down some steps and onto a dock. The river is just to the left of the picture. Everyone brought a dish, their own drinks and the hosts had shredded BBQ pork - as fresh as it gets. :-)


The site for the "hog roast"


The biggest covered dish ever!

After we had finished eating, I danced with Alyssa for awhile and Josh ran around with one of the kids - they even had a playground over there. After Erin, Jeff, Josh and Alyssa left, Jim, Sheila and I sat watching the karaoke. Some good, some bad, some really bad. Later in the night I got up and sang a song - the beginning was somewhat horrible, but by the end I think I did alright.

I went back to sit down and wanted to do another song with someone else, got shot down by Sheila but Jim volunteered! We had some trouble picking out a song, but it was great!


Jim and I singing karaoke!

On Monday, I stayed with Grandma Hargis for awhile and then trekked back home. All in all, it was a lot of fun and much better than sitting around Evansville by myself.

Our Favorites!

TRIVIA TIME:

What are Kenton and Anna's favorite restaurants?
5. Texas Roadhouse
4. DiLeggi's - Italian
3. Cracker Barrel
2. Thai Cuisine (may be Anna's favorite!)
1. China Bistro

DiLeggi's was formerly our favorite restaurant, but with our love of Chinese, Thai (mostly my love) and breakfast, it has been beat out for the top spots. With our 20% discount courtesy of the Courier & Press newspaper at China Bistro, it makes it hard to resist... and the new Thai restaurant is less than a mile from the apartment. Yum! Good eats!


What are Kenton and Anna's favorite TV shows?
5. Deal or No Deal
4. American Gladiators
3. Law & Order: SVU
2. Biggest Loser
1. Grey's Anatomy

Apparently, someone is going to win a million this season on Deal or No Deal and they kind of spoiled it by telling us which episode it will be in. But we still love the show. It's gotten more interesting as they've started adding dream packages into the deals, i.e., 4 Colts season tickets that are unavailable to the public for a lifelong fan, etc.

We can't wait to see how this season's winners look as gladiators. We've been guessing their names... for Tim, we're thinking something like BOLT. No good ideas for Ally yet.

This season Biggest Loser is having family teams so it should be as touching as ever. Even the trailer for the new season made me tear up...

As far as Grey's goes, we are ready for new episodes. We miss Burke and Addison and hope the storyline can stay as powerful and witty as it has been in the past. It was hard to tell how the show will continue to do with 1/2 the usual number of episodes last season with the writer's strike. Can't wait for September 25 two-hour premiere!





Current cast


Former case with Addison and Burke


Original cast

What's not to love about Benson and Stabler?

The cast - Dr. Wong is becoming one of our favorite characters

Bob Harper - really works his teams, but also cares about their emotions

Jillian Michaels - how intense can you get?

Ali - one of our favorite contenders from last season

We can't wait for the season premieres!

September 16: Biggest Loser Families

September 23: Law & Order: SVU

September 25: Grey's Anatomy 2-hour premiere!

St. Louis!

This weekend we went to St. Louis - we got up early on Saturday and filled our bellies with Cracker Barrel and drove to our hotel. We stayed in the Hyatt Riverfront hotel about 1000 feet from the arch - priceline.com got us a $70 rate including taxes and fees, everyone should use it!

We got there around 1pm and got tickets for the arch tram ride at 7:30pm, then we walked around the park around the arch a while and headed to the new Busch Stadium for the Cardinals vs. Braves game.

The stadium was open to the elements and created a really neat environment for baseball. We were in the first row of the third level and had a fantastic time. We at peanuts, hot dogs, and cheesburgers and brought our own water (Kenton's cousin Jeremy had told us we could bring our own in and it saved us $20! Water was $5/bottle!).

It started to thunder and then to sprinkle... they kept playing and a lot of people migrated to under to bleachers above us. We toughed it out but then they called the game and brought out the tarp. We stood under the roof for about 30 minutes and then they pulled the tarp off the field which was quite a production - there's a drain in the field where they "swept" all the water that came off the tarp.

They continued play and we lost in the 8th and 9th innings (they scored 5 runs). The experience of just being in Busch Stadium was worth going, and besides Kenton's a long-time Braves fan so it was a win-win.

We also rode to the top of the arch which was fairly nerve-wracking… not because of the height, but because the pod we rode up in kept jolting to turn. It was not comforting and the pod was so small… got some great pictures from the top though.

The view from our hotel window - the building was slanted so everyone had a view!

Us at the game, the guy next to us has been at home games for 23 years!

The stadium (notice the large Edward Jones sign) and St. Louis in the background

The pod we rode to the top of the arch in (5 seats); doesn't it look like a toilet?

The tram door is so small!

Us at the top of the arch

View of Busch Stadium and the Millenium Hotel from the Arch

My awesome picture of the arch