Las Vegas!

Justin and I had a fabulous time in Las Vegas - our trip went by WAY too fast! Here are a few of the pictures...if you want to see more they are on our picture site by clicking below!



http://picasaweb.google.com/brooksfam.blogspot/VegasNovember2008#









On the airplane with his first boarding pass! Before this trip, he could fly free.....those days are over!




20 minutes into the flight until we had to buckle up to land - it was seriously the MOST peaceful flight ever.






Breakfast on Friday - yes, as in 8:30am. We were walking the strip and he wanted rice, we were on vacation, so he can have whatever he wants :)

Mommy and baby dolphin at the Mirage

He loved them!

He wanted his picture taken by the statues....more on the picassa site :) When we walked up to the white tiger enclosure, the biggest tiger walked right up to the fence in front of him and roared SO LOUD! He looked at me, like do I laugh or cry and I was smiling, so he roared back at him. Everyone around us was laughing hysterically!

Ben and Jerry's for dessert after the Mirage

Me and my daddy! Picture taken by Justin :)

Gramma and Justin

Park by Gramma and Papa's house

Before we went out our last night there...

Gramma and Justin down on Fremont Street

















The Fremont Street show - we went to the one where they did American Pie. It was really neat!

Justin liked it!

Justin helping Papa open his birthday presents

Justin playing hockey on Gramma and Papa's hockey rink...aka the front patio with no furniture on it :)

Buffet for dinner - Justin's favorite!

Gramma took Justin to his first movie - Madagascar. She said he liked it and sat through the whole thing! The massive popcorn and diet coke helped I'm sure :)

Short work week this week - off to Big Rapids tomorrow after work for Thanksgiving with Grandpa & Grandma Brooks, Godsie & Bob, Uncle Kurt & Ashley and Aunt Buzzy and Jeff! We are excited to see everybody!!!!!

We're leaving on a jet plane.....

......on Thursday at 1:45pm! Justin and I are going to visit Papa and Gramma Airplane! Yeah :) Allegiant had cheap flights for leaving Thursday and coming home Monday morning, so it will be a quick trip, but we'll have fun! Justin needs to leave his mark on their new house...fingerprints everywhere, hockey puck dents in the doors, etc :) J/K!!! Love you guys - see you soon!!!!!! P.S. Another reason I'm glad I made the career move I did :)

The Hills 11.16.08

Hello! Here are a few pictures since I've been slacking lately! I will try to post more - things have been busy lately!

I was in Champaign on Thursday night and when I got home on Friday we went to Moline, IL (Quad Cities) for the Rivermen game. The Rivermen lost, but it was fun to go to another arena. It was WAY nicer than ours though, so maybe we shouldn't do that :) Oh, and we got to go to Outback for dinner in Davenport, Iowa...yum! We don't have one in Peoria. Rob and I were talking about it and the last time we were there is when my mom took us the night before I went to the hospital to have Justin!

Saturday Justin and I went shopping while Daddy did some work and then we went to the Rivermen game at night - they won this time! Justin is so cute...he has a yellow Rivermen towel (little spirit towel) and he would wave it around every time they got a goal :)

Today we are just hanging out watching the Bears/Packers game - go Bears! Oh, and watching the Lions score in the corner of the screen.....looks like Uncle Mikey will be keeping up his Bears background on myspace for a while longer! We made a bet before the first Bears/Lions game and loser had to put up the other teams page for a week. Mikey decided to keep it up until the Lions win a game....maybe next year Uncle Mikey :)

Have a good week!






Such concentration!











No - Rob does not have a new hairdo; that's just my plant behind him :)











My boys!!











NHL here I come!












He is so good at hockey - seriously. It's all he wants to do. He LOVES it.














I like how you can see the puck not really on the floor. He hits it now so he gets air under it!









The aftermath of Justin "helping" Daddy feed the dogs.












This is Justin's goalie - Hockey Monkey. :)











I love this picture frame my parents got me for my bday....and I love the picture that we took at the wedding last month! This is my new favorite decoration :)

The Hills 11/11/08

Sorry - I think I'm having bloggers block again. I'll try to get better at that! Here are a few tidbits of the latest in our exciting lives! :)

1. Okay - last office post for a while! I LOVE going to work now. I LOVE hearing customers congratulate me and tell me that our company is better off - I love it even more when they tell my boss that which a few have! Yeah! This weekend my wonderful husband came to my office and hung up mini-blinds and helped get my computer/printer all set up in my new office (aka Mark's old office). It's wonderful! I am sitting here jamming to the new Taylor Swift album with my B&BW apple candle burning and getting my work done in a peaceful environment!



Main room when you come in the door. I am going to get cubicle type walls to put around the fridge/microwave/coffee pot in the corner.













My office from the door - bare walls! Rob is hanging my big bulletin board sometime this week on that wall above the horizontal file cabinet.












View from the corner in front of my desk. I love having two windows and high ceilings - it makes it so bright! See what I mean about wanting blinds though? With it getting dark so early I felt like I was in a fishbowl!

2. I am not sure if we are just lucky, but I LOVE the price of gas lately! I hope I don't jinx it! This pic was taken last week - it's down to $1.89 by us now!!!!!!

3. Justin is doing good - I will get more pics up from our new camera soon! Last weekend we went to Chuck E. Cheese on Friday (never again on a Friday night! it was older mean kids and unsupervised brats!), Jen Adler's bday party on Saturday and then dinner, the Rivermen game and Rob's hockey game with the Adams and then on Sunday we relaxed!

I am sure there is more that I'm forgetting, but I have a webcast to sign in for now, so I'll write more later!

Oh Happy Day!!!!!!

This email went out to all employees around 12:30pm today:

Effective immediately Mark Marzinzik is no longer employed by Thermosystems. If you have any unresolved issues that involved Mark, please contact Rick or myself. We wish Mark well in his future endevours.

Thanks,

John Dolan
Thermosystems, Inc.
1153 N. Main Street
Lombard, IL 60148


I am SO, SO, SO excited about work now!

When I walked in the office, John said to me "the territory is yours...go sell!". Well, in the mean time, Rick was talking to CMI (our best customer) and telling them about Mark. As soon as he hung up, Jason from CMI called me and said that he's been trying to reach Mark for a week to negotiate a job he was low on and couldn't get his calls returned. So we talked about the job, went back and forth and before we went to lunch I had a $293K purchase order faxed over to me! I think John was impressed :) Good way to start off the new era!

The locks are being changed as I type this. I guess he went without a fight. He did have some choice words about me and they told him that they are not interested in hearing it. He thinks that I sabbotaged him and this was my conspiracy from the start. Whatever. I was called every name under the sun when he was packing up his stuff....Rick asked me if my ears were burning :)

:) :) :) :) :) :)

You have no idea how much I want to be a fly on the wall at 2407 Washington Rd. right now :)

I went out with Rick and John last night for dinner/drinks and it went great! They are glad that I am back on board and excited to move forward PMS (past Mark syndrome)! Rick emailed Mark and I and said he wanted to meet with us at 9am...I would love to see the look on Mark's face when I don't show up and in walks Rick AND John! The plan was for the meeting to be in the conference room, when he is at the table, John is going into his office and logging off his computer and taking it. They think he will go peacefully and professionally - I hope they are right, but I don't see that happening. I have the locksmith coming at 11am and then out to lunch with Rick and John to get the scoop! I told them if the police were called that they better call me so I can park across the street and watch :)

This is such a happy day for me! He has made my life hell for way too long. On one hand, I feel bad that a guy is losing his job, but he lives in a 4000 ft2 house, bragged that he paid cash for his brand new bmw and he does not have any kids at home so I don't feel too bad. If he had 3 little kids to feed and clothe I would feel worse.

Update to follow this evening!

Help please!

Hi everyone! I need a favor - I need you to go online and vote :)

A friend of ours from when we lived in Chicago is in the running for a football player of the week. Voting ends tonight and he's behind right now, but hopefully he can catch up! His name is Anthony Gentile; he is the 3rd one down. You don't have to enter your name, email, or anything like that. Just click on his bubble and hit vote!

http://yourseason.suntimes.com/schools/barrington/1256864,110208-football-vote-stars.article

Thanks so much!

The Hills 11/4/08

Hello! No new pictures right now....sorry! I was in Chicago for a sales meeting yesterday and then we just hung out last night playing hockey and watching the Presidential Bash :)

Thursday is the big day! I am so excited.....no more Mark!!!!!

I voted today and there was not one other person in line - in and out in 4 minutes! Yeah!

More later......

The backyard -- 11/1/08

Since the weather has been low 70s and sunny, we (Justin) have spent a good bit of time outside playing baseball. Great chance for Daddy to practice with the new camera!

Justin pitching to himself!

Being a monkey...

...falling like a stone!

Happy Halloween!!!!

It was sunny and 74* today. Kinda wierd for the end of October! Justin was so excited to be able to go back outside and play baseball! After playing for a while we just stopped by a few neighbors' houses, and Katie and Josh's house. Then we went to the Rivermen game. There were a few arena staff members handing out candy, so Justin wasn't completely deprived of trick-or-treating! He had already gone trick-or-treating in the morning with his daycare to OSF (the hospital across the street). The doctors and nurses there gave the kids SO much candy, Justin actually had to turn candy away towards the end because his bucket was too full!!!

Hey batter batter batter....

...SWING!

Racing Quincy to the yellow ball. Four legs are faster then two....

Scoping out the goods from trick-or-treating at OSF!

Hockey monkey with Katie and Josh

Hockey monkey sure loves his little pumpkin!