The Grillers

The Grillers
Originally uploaded by kjourdan

We went on a 10-day trek to (and through) the Midwest in August. We visited Niagara Falls, Kurt & Cecilia in Ann Arbor, Leta & Tom & Joe in Madison, Erin & Dave in Wisconsin Rapids, and Mom & Dad in Rice Lake.
Click on the photo to see more of our trip!

Baby Jourdan on the way!

We wanted to share with you that we are expecting a baby! He or she will arrive in the second week of February 2009. So far the pregnancy has been proceeding without any problems.

J and K

Happy Birthday J!

It's J's Birthday! Here's a birthday song while he was starting to play with his new GPS.

Merry Christmas to All!

I wanted to post a cool Flickr post that would link easily to all of the holiday photos I uploaded to Flickr. Did you notice I said "wanted." Flickr doesn't seem to remember who I am, so here's the old fashioned way of linking:

Christmas Photos

If Flickr decides to make nice, I'll re-post.

Sheboygan!

Last weekend we went to Sheboygan, Wisconsin to celebrate my mom's birthday. Thanks, Dad, for flying us out there!

We had a ton of fun, and I have more pictures of the weekend than I can post on a single blog post, so here's a start:

Christmas fun with the fam

Everyone's trip to and from Ohio went very well so we're quite fortunate. We saw a lot of family while we were there, which was great.

Of course, when you're among family, you're also among jokesters. I sat our camera down on a side table during the fun on Christmas night, and found these charming pictures when I went to review the photos later:

Dessert Spread

Tablecloth










Laundry Detergent



Microwave











And my personal favorite, the toilet:

I still don't know who did it, but it made me laugh very hard, so whomever it was: Well Played.

it's knowing the little things

I know I've only been married a little over 2 years, but it's amazing to me how much you can learn about a person in that short amount of time. For instance, I just walked downstairs to find my husband watching South Park. That's right, South Park. Knowing him like I do, I know that the poor guy is past his threshold and needed something brainless. He's been working on his grad school application, grading, sorting out the car title mess, and a bunch of other things. Poor guy needs a break, and how do I know? He's watching South Park.

Off to Taylor!

I sent this blanket (and a sweater that I forgot to photograph) off to new baby Taylor. I made four random squares and pieced them together. I did learn one lesson the hard way: easy-care acrylic/wool blends aren't nice to work with. But now I know. :)

The colors are a bit off in the photo---darn cold, gray weather without natural light. It's also laying a little wonky. Oh well.

That's right, you knitters out there--that's an Intarsia heart on the upper right. It was my first intarsia and it turned out pretty well.

Long time no blog

Lots of craziness around here lately, so I've been a blog slacker. Here's a super-duper post to catch up!

Let's see....a few weekends ago, some of us went apple picking at Honey Pot Hill. It was a madhouse. I would recommend you plan to visit NOT on a Saturday, and NOT on a gorgeous weather day. Kurt shared these pictures of the day. While the apple pickers were traipsing through the orchard, a golf crew went golfing. It was J's first time playing 9 holes of golf and he even got a par on one hole! We also found out that Josh and Joanna are expecting a baby--such exciting news!

Last weekend proved that a AAA membership is worth its weight in gold (thanks again, Mom and Dad!) J's car, Old Red, is dead.

The story of his demise includes multiples towings and a seized engine, so I won't go into more detail here. We thank him for the 155,000 good miles we got out of him.

Which of course meant that we needed to buy a new car! We are now the proud owners of a 2007 Toyota Corolla. It will primarily be J's car, since he drives the farthest to get to work and grad school, so we want him in a safe and fuel-efficient car.

We also found out that our new nephew was born this week, Taylor. Taylor was impatient to arrive and meet everyone so he came 2 months early, so keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

Patient on the mend

J's feeling better and better each day...but I think he's had enough of mashed potatoes, oatmeal, applesauce and pudding. We did add a milkshake today...how's that for variety?

Down for a while

J's slugging out in front of the TV...his wisdom teeth removal went well for the top two teeth, but the bottom two were real buggers. Evidently there was drilling involved in trying to get them out. He's doped up on painkillers and has ice packs on his cheeks. Poor guy. He did enjoy some chocolate pudding for dinner, so that's good. His doctor also called tonight to check on him...I thought that was impressive.

Did you know that you have to show an ID to fill a perscription for percoset? I learned that today.

On the happy side of life, our garden is FLOURISHING. We've already been enjoying garden-fresh veggies. We even made pesto using our basil. The cherry tomatoes have been ripening these last two weeks....they're so tasty! The first of our "big" tomatoes is turning orange, so we should have a ripe one next week....

Plymouth or Plimoth?

Well, you saw the Freedom Trail pictures from last Thursday--on Friday we went to Plymouth and visited "the rock" (which is only part of the original rock), and then went to Plimoth Plantation.
Here is the rock:














Here is Dave listening to the nice Park Ranger:


















See how Dave was facing her? Very attentive. Then here is my darling husband "listening" to the park ranger.














Hmm, he's not even looking in her direction, and he's standing about 15 feet away. Erin and Dave are better tourists than we are.

On Sunday we went to the Cape. We got to use our handy beach umbrella from my parents, complete with the original sand auger. (it's quite an amazing thing!) Dave and J got it in the ground, and then J and I posed for a picture for my parents.

loads of fun

So, Erin and Dave left this morning. :( We had lots of fun while they were here, though. See?
Erin reading the Freedom Trail brochure to us:


Dave's first cannoli! (At Mike's Pastry)


Erin at the Make Way for Ducklings statue:


It was HOT while they were here. We went to the Cape on Sunday and loved the sea breeze that cooled things off.
We're sad that they're gone. sigh.

Before and after an English lesson

So, J and Dayton were hanging out together on our last night in Billings. At first, Dayton was having a great time:






Then J started talking to him about something about analyzing English literature and look what happened to the poor kid--out like a light!












Also, Josh, Mandy, Delaney and Kaitlyn stopped by on Thursday night to say goodbye and I snagged this picture of Josh with Kaitlyn (she goes by Kaity, but I wasn't sure how they spell it...)

Gonna get you!

Our nephew Micah (Jess and Shad's youngest) became a crawling fiend while in Billings. I got down on the floor to take a picture of him crawling (wearing the hat I knit for him) and got this shot:














As you might be able to to tell from the dark background of the picture, the flash went off and I was afraid it had hurt Micah's eyes....but the boy loves flashing lights and kept heading toward me to get me, so I got this adorable shot:















Talk about an adorable face!

Spinning 'round and 'round

The last time we were in Billings, the young James boys received Beyblades spinning tops as gifts. The older boys (Shad, Trevor, J and Josh) played with them after the young ones went to sleep, to the point where one of the tops ("Old Blue" was her name) exploded in a blaze of glory. You can ask Trevor about "Old Blue" and he'll extole her many virtues.

Well, this year the big boys got their own Beyblades. Here are some action shots:










And yes, they're playing using an inverted pot-top as their arena.

On Thursday, we were getting milk at Albertson's and they had a real, genuine-article Beyblade arena on clearance for $2, so the tournament was world-class on Thursday night...no more pot tops for these boys!

Christmas Day

After a sleepy Christmas morning, we got ready for the Christmas open house at Kathy's. Trent's daughters and their families came, Josh and Mandy and the girls came, plus Suzy, Russ and Judy, and all the folks that were around on Christmas Eve.

Here are two pictures of cutie-pie Dayton, who was working on holding his own head up while we were there.


















And here's a nice shot of Kathy and Trent:










P.S. If anyone out there (Jess? Kathy?) has a picture of J and I together during our visit, please email it to me! We don't have any pictures of the two of us this Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Thankfully, our travels went smoothly (all three flights!) and we arrived in Billings around 7:00 p.m. Christmas Eve. The party was already in full swing at Kathy's house when we arrived.
Below are some pictures of the older kids with their nose warmers...they humored their Auntie Kahla very kindly.

After opening gifts, we all snuggled down for a long winter's nap. :)

Very Behind

Dave says, "I see nothing interesting has been happening with the two of you...there's nothing new on the blog." Oops. I shouldn't harass people to read the blog and then not post, hmm? :)

Too much stuff has been happening, actually....Chrissa's wedding, and then Tim's wedding. The camera batteries are currently recharging so the new photos will have to wait until tomorrow at least. Instead I share this lovely photo from St. John, where we'd much prefer to be today after 3 more inches of rain and 55-60 mph winds (I know, I know, I shouldn't complain because we didn't actually get hit by the hurricane, but we've had maybe 4 sunny days in all of October and we're getting depressed). (P.S. that's also why we haven't posted a completed deck photo...it's been raining and we haven't been able to take a picture)













The good news is that we purchased our tickets to Billings for Christmas and we only have 3 flights each way (optimal is 2, but who wants to pay $800 for each of us?), not 4...Seriously, there was one option that was:
Providence to Detroit
Detroit to Minneapolis
Minneapolis to Grand Forks
Grand Forks to Billings.
All in a 14 hour span! Now we just go Providence to Detroit to Minneapolis to Billings. Those of you around Minneapolis we'll be calling you if we get stranded there on Christmas Eve. :) We'll keep our fingers crossed that the weather cooperates.

Ok, that's all for now. I can't believe that it's a week until November.

Happy Wedding, Donna and Drew!

This weekend I traveled to Ohio (sans Justin) to celebrate the wedding of my cousin Donna and my new cousin-in-law Drew (obviously I know that's not really his title). The wedding was a lot of fun because the bride and groom were very obviously happy. Here's a picture of the happy couple:





















I also got to see my parents and Erin and Dave. Here's a shot of me with Erin--everyone kept saying we look alike.



















J was a work horse and worked on the deck while I was gone...and he helped some friends of ours move. I definitely think I got the better end of the deal.