Las Vegas here we come!!!!!

Tomorrow morning we board the plane at 8:40am to go to see Papa & Gramma - I can't wait! We had 5" of snow here Monday night and it's really cold, but at least we have this to look forward to:

Thursday: Partly cloudy skies. High 74F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.
Thursday night: Clear skies. Low 49F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Friday: Mainly sunny. Highs in the mid 70s and lows in the low 50s.
Saturday: More sun than clouds. Highs in the low 70s and lows in the upper 40s.
Sunday: Abundant sunshine. Highs in the mid 60s and lows in the low 40s.

I am totally okay with 60's on Sunday - Rob and I are going to the NASCAR race, and if it's too warm then big, hairy people tend to not wear enough clothes! Last time we went to the race there (when I was pregnant with Justin in 2006, it was snowing so 60's is a big improvement!)

My Grandpa & Grandma Rosebush will be there too, so it will be fun to see them! Rob and I are also going out with Steve & Lisa on Friday night, so that will be really fun too! I am going to help Lisa get her blog going, so for the people reading this (family) who know who Steve & Lisa are, I will send a link to her blog when we get back!

I will take lots of pictures! Have a great weekend :)

The Hills 2/26/08

Playing outside on Sunday, "throwing" the ball for Tuck-dog (this is how Justin says Tucker)












Tuck-dog chasing his tennis ball













Justin and Daddy watching a hockey game on TV....Justin won't sit and watch movies, but he will watch hockey and football - and he knows the difference!













Leave me alone mom - I'm watching the game!

He was SO GOOD at the Rivermen game on Sunday...he watched it the whole time; except when I covered his eyes for a bad fight.









Little Mr. Independent, who has to feed himself!














Oh no - look at the mess I made....












Looks like every night is bath night when I get to feed myself!













Justin playing hockey? No way!



















Cheesy grin :)

Spam comments

I keep getting spam comments :( I added the word verification to my comment section, so now you'll have to type the word that is in the box. I hope this eliminates the spam, otherwise I am going to have to go private and I really don't want to do that! Did anyone else have trouble with this?

I am SO MAD!!!!!!!

I am so mad right now I my blood is boiling! Last week I went to Aunt Annies Pretzels in the mall - Justin and I go there quite a bit. Anyways, I was driving home eating my pretzel and when I was chewing there was hair in my mouth - gross, but I figured it was my own. Then when I picked up the last piece of my pretzel there was a long black hair baked into the pretzel - double gross!

I went to the corporate website and entered a comment through their "contact us" link. If I were a manager, I would want to know if this was coming out of one of my stores. Apparently not - look at this email I just got back.... (I think this must be from the local manager?)

"Ms BrooksI got your comment card. I was aghast at the extent of your horrification and likewise impressed by your use of the all caps function to communicate your message. I am in need of your help to ferret our this evil the minded culprit and put an end to this ghastly problem. You see, at the time of your visit the two people working were Stacie (Mid length reddish hair) and Dan very very short black hair. This long black hair was undoubtedly planted by some devious saboteur. Did you see anybody with a secreted supply of long black hair hanging around the store. Now this would have had to have been very special black hair because a hair will to separate when bitten leaving half in the pretzel. I certainly hope I can get your help because I can sense the devastation that you experienced and want to do everything possible to keep this from happening to another innocent and unsuspecting customer. Now seriously Ms Brooks if you want to be taken seriously you should not write your comment card like you are just fishing for some free product. This may have actually happened to you, but your over the top complaint makes it hard for me to believe. You will be receiving some free pretzel coupons by mail, enjoy them with my compliments. By the way, hair is not a transmitter of disease, according to the Peoria County Health Department. So while it is not appetizing, it is not hazardous to your health. Larry"

What kind of customer service is this????? Telling me I'm obviously fishing for free product and not being taken seriously? I am aware that hair does not transmit disease, but that still doesn't mean I want it in my pretzel!!!!! WTF?

I took the pictures below and I am glad I did so I can make this manager eat his words. I am trying to decide what to do - I think I am definetly sending this to corporate once I can get ahold of someone in upper management - not just the comments processors. Rob thinks that I should send this to the PJ Star too (our local paper). This will at least let people know that they don't really care about how sanitary their restaurant is and you won't be taken seriously. Don't get me wrong, I know that these things can happen, but to get a response like that just infuriates me!!!!!!

Date with Katie!

Katie and I had so much fun last night! We went to the Brad Paisley concert with Rodney Atkins & Chuck Wicks. They were ALL good! I really, really like Chuck Wicks. I think that he'll be the next big star! I remember going to Pine Knob when Kenny Chesney was an opening act, and I really think that this guy will climb the charts really fast too! I love his CD! He sings "Stealing Cinderella", but that is one of my least favorite songs on his CD. Katie and I got to meet him after the concert too - he's really nice! Less than a year ago he was parking cars at a steakhouse....what a change!

Then Rodney Atkins sang all of his good songs - I didn't realize he had so many hits. He's had 4 #1 hits on his current record! I love "Watching You" - it came out when I was pregnant with Justin and I would cry when I heard it. It was cute at the concert because there was a little boy there and he gave him "knuckles" during the song like Erin Duffer taught Justin to do :)

Brad Paisley was awesome. He was a really good entertainer. He has so many great songs!





Chuck Wicks during the opening act













Katie and I in the REALLY long beer line!















Katie, Chuck Wicks and Melissa














You wouldn't get the full understanding unless this picture was scratch & sniff - Seriously....Katie can attest to that one! We felt like teenagers going to a NKOTB concert when we met him!



Watching you....

Fun with Friends!

Last night the Fossitt's (Jamie and Jason) and another friend Colleen were driving through on their way to St. Louis and spent the night at our house. The Wisley's came over to visit them too. We had a fun time - I wish we all lived closer so we could do it more often!

Justin just "hanging out" with Jamie - sorry I couldn't resist :)

Justin and Samantha - it was funny when we were putting Justin to bed, Samantha came in to help us. She crawled into his crib and he had a look on his face like "what's going on"...nobody has ever been in his crib with him before. Then he handed her a tiger and wanted to play!

Tonight Katie and I are going to see Brad Paisley, Rodney Adkins and Chuck Wicks - I am SO EXCITED!!!!! 7 hours, but who's counting?????

Decoration idea

Ry and Amanda -
Here is the idea that I was picturing in my head. Keep in mind that I am using a towel, not a tablecloth, so it will look a little nicer without terrycloth! Call me and we can chat about different ideas!

Our messy eater!

Tacos with sour cream - actually, just sour cream....wonder where he learned that, Papa???















A sour cream halo :)












Silly boy!

Happy Birthday Aunt Connie!

....a day late! Hope you had a great day!

Love,
Rob, Melissa and Justin

What's red & shiny with 4 wheels and has the best horsepower in it's class????

.................Our new lawn tractor!!!!!! To be delivered on Saturday. I realize that February is an odd time to purchase one of these bad boys, but when Sears has them clearanced out it's dumb to wait until spring! Now we (read: Rob!) has to clear a spot in the garage until we get a shed this spring!

Happy thoughts!

• *Today when I went downstairs to get breakfast for Justin my wonderful husband had a beautiful vase of flowers on the counter....what a nice way to start the day!


• *I met Rob at BW's for lunch - it is much more relaxing for us to have a lunch date with the two of us rather than a family dinner out!


• *I just got a call from the president of one of our competitors. He is from Chicago but they have an office here as well. He said that his sales guys down here keep telling him that he has to get me on board with their company because of my relationships with customers in this territory. Having my competitors wanting me on their team makes me feel good! I told him thanks, but I am really happy with Thermosystems and at this point I am staying where I am at. He asked if we could at least talk about it over lunch next week, but I respectfully declined. I don't want to burn bridges in case I need work in the future, but I don't think I'll find a better company to work for. It's a nice position to be in - life is good!

*I get to go home and put in our meatloaf for dinner (Rob's request) and hang out with my boys tonight! We got Justin Elmo slippers, plate/bowl/silverware and sippy cups - he's on an Elmo kick. He saw the bag that the slippers were in though and CRIED "Emmo-Emmo-Emmo" pointing at the bag so we gave them to him last night. Then this morning he would not take them off to put his shoes on so he wore "Emmo" slippers to school today :) At least they were red for Valentines Day! (see pic above)

*Lost is on tonight!

The Hills 2-13-08

Sorry it's been so long! Just going about our normal everyday life! Justin amazes us everyday with the things he learns and most of all retains!

Grandma & Grandpa Brooks are coming this weekend, then next Thursday the Fossitts' are staying with us on their way through to St. Louis then that weekend Katie and I are going to Brad Paisley then the next weekend we go to Vegas! Time flies when we're having fun :)




Justin sporting his new hockey jersey from G&G Brooks - it went well with his black eye for sports day at school :)




















He's so cute!

















Hanging out in his new Spidey tent G&G Brooks sent with Kurt & Ashley last weekend















Playing Wii















Justin in his new big boy booster - no more high chair!!!















Best friends!
















Can you tell he loves Tuck-dog (as Justin calls him)

Poor baby :(

Justin hit his face on the end table last Saturday night. It bruised instantly as soon as he did it, but then a couple of days later he got a black eye from it and then the bruise became one big line across his face. Here are a couple of pictures. I don't think it's slowed him down any!

Rob is sick this week too - and Justin is not feeling very well either. It's been a long week. Last night I fell asleep at 8:40 and it felt GREAT! Good thing because I was up at 2am with Justin, 3am with Rob and then up at 6:45am for a busy day of work! Uncle Kurt & Ashley are coming to visit this weekend, so hopefully we'll all be up to par for a fun weekend!!!





He always wants to do the cheesy smile now - this one is half smile / half pain from the looks of it!












This is a good one of the bruise













He was sitting so cute with his legs crossed - as soon as he saw the camera he started smiling and being a ham











Another one of the bruise















The dogs have been feeling left out lately, so here's an updated picture of them.....

Quincy












Tucker (or Tuck-dog) as Justin calls him!

Memories....

I was going through boxes of old stuff in the basement this weekend trying to purge. I hate to add up how much $$ I spent on film developing before the good ole digital camera!

I came across this picture - it seems like FOREVER ago. Many of you should recognize 4 out of the 5 girls in this pic as fellow bloggers! Someone get Kim to start a blog too...what is she up to? Does anyone talk to Mark Zhiem at all? Last I heard he was getting married but that was a long time ago. I talk to JD every once and a while - he's out near Boston. RJ is on facebook, but I don't ever talk to him and I have not talked to Jason (A-hole the Bet Sig) in forever! Oh, and AJ we are in the Henkel Suite at the Palace for a Vipers game! Small world :)

Just thought this would bring back a few memories! I have another one with me, Dee, Kara and Danielle with our indian balloon hats on, but that one is in my scrapbook. And another with me, Dee, Jason and JD with the Hansen Brothers (remember that Dee??)

All of our snow is gone, but we are under a winter storm watch from 6pm to noon tomorrow and I am supposed to be in Schaumburg for a lunch seminar tomorrow!

Have a great day!

The Hills - 2/4/08

Here are a few pics from this weekend!





Justin using his new Crayola paints that Santa bought. Mommy thinks Crayola needs to go back to the drawing board with these because I doubt whoever designed them had kids (or boys like mine at least)!






Artist at work! Thanks for the art desk Megan & Morgan!










I knew I'd find a way to make tonight bath night :)










Little angel....











Katie & Josh brought dinner over on Saturday - yummy tacos! I love their recipe for them...I don't think I'll make normal tacos again!









I know - Mother of the Year - for this picture! We all had bottles and he wanted one. There was not a drop of beer left; I swear!








I went in to work for a few hours on Sunday and Rob saw Bucky - and his twin brother! They were in the MIDDLE of our backyard (keep in mind we have a fence around our whole yard). By the time he got the camera they had jumped the fence into our neighbors yard and were running away. I am so glad he wasn't someone's dinner! BTW - I know it might be a totally different deer, but everything with horns is named Bucky in our yard :)





This was the weather right as the Superbowl was starting - we had Thundersnow! It was really cool to see the lightning, thunder and snow together...until it took out our HD channels. Luckily it was back on in about 10 minutes!

I don't have any pics of Justin during the game because we were all just in our PJ's hanging out - and he was not feeling very well :(