It has been about a month since I've been over to the June household on a Monday. All manner of things have happened in the past month, including two holidays, which messed up the system.
So after work I headed out to see Dan and Sherry for a bit before having to head home and get some things done. It was good to catch up with them, even if it was only for a little bit. I got to listen to Dan strum a few on his guitar, chat it up with interesting topics, and show of the sexy e-reader his wife Sherry bought him for x-mas.
I was pretty lazy all day Monday. I was going to pack, going to work on my research paper, was going to be productive. Instead I sat around sleepy and cuddled with the cat till about 4:30. Then I finally got up and got ready to head over to the June's place.
Sherry and Dan have been home from the hospital for a few days with the new baby, Emilie, so I was curious to see how things were going. As is the case with an older sibling, Natalie is adjusting but grudgingly.
And, it appears, we have apparently fallen into old habits. I sat on the couch and watched Daniel rearrange his bookshelf, as he used to do every Monday.
Spent some time with the Junes, Dan and Sherry, this evening. We caught up on stuff, had good food, and great laughs.
I watched Natalie run around, doing cute things like dancing and playing with her dad.
Dan and I snagged tasty dinner at Noodles & Co and had a fun evening chatting and catching up on life.
All in all fun night with family.
My little cousin Ashley turned 10 today. She's quite a bit younger (nearly 20 years from Dan) than her other brothers who I spend quite a bit of time with.
In keeping with tradition they had another birthday party this year. I've not attended all of them, but I try to go every few years since I dont see Ashley or my aunt and uncle a whole lot outside of that - despite them living (until recently) in Rockford.
So Chris and I headed out there and I got to spend time with Sherry and Natalie, as well as Dan and Josh. Amanda was there as well. Hell, even my parents came out for a little while. All in all it was a good afternoon, despite people being under the weather.
As a belated birthday gift (and completely outside of our normal cousin tradition), Josh picked up a cute novelty I had always found amusing: Eco-sphere. So here it shall chill, on my desk and away from anything the cat may want to do with it.
There are additional photos here: Ashley's 10th Birthday Celebration
Tonight was another girls night at Monterrey Grille in Caledonia. This time the group got even larger, including Terese-Ann (which may totally be spelled wrong but is on the L of the pic) and Sherry to our already existing Shelly, Wendy, and Val group.
The night was good but I have to remind myself to never over a Sangria there again. I should know better, as this is the second time I've done it. Last time the Sangria came back as just house red wine with some pineapple. Ok....I can drink that. This time it came with every fruit they could find, including canned peaches and a lemon wedge. Now while I could see having peaches in Sangria, I could not see having lemon wedges/slices....
The food was good, as it always is, and the company intriguing.
I look forward to the next girls night in November.
So the 21st marks my official birthday and I celebrated it with my cousins Dan and Sherry, with whom I have a standing Monday night tradition, and Chris.
Daniel bought me dinner at Moes and the four of us munched on tasty food, swapping stories and enjoying the nice weather outside. They gave me a cute card (<3) and now I can official have yummy breakfast from Mr Burger and drink tasty Hot Caramel Cider from Biggby's.
We then headed back to Dan & Sherry's to hang out and catch up on life for the rest of the evening.
I regret not snapping more photos with my phone. :/
When women have babies, they have baby showers. So for Sherry's second child her co-worker Deb wanted to throw a baby shower. It was a small, intimate affair with tasty food and an adorable meow meow (Tiger) who got into trouble (not unlike my own Leki would have).
Early on it was discovered that Natalie, like her mother, is allergic to cats. So Natalie, Grandma, and Sherry's sister left early to take babysit Natalie while the rest of the party went on.
It was a nice afternoon, full of games, goofy times, and massive cake slices (see that cake? 1/2 of it was gone after 5 of us ate slices...). Sherry walked away with some nice gifts and Amanda and I managed to snag some not so shabby prizes.
Thanks Deb for putting this together for Sherry. :)
No one that went today is a fan of sports really. But the 4 of us still piled into my car and headed out to a whitecaps game just to get out and about and be social. Truly it was an opportunity for Dan and Sherry to meet Chris.
It was sunny but chilly, and full of a somewhat boring sport. So everyone was entertained by talking books, philosophy, old flames, and other random topics. The entire time no one really watched the game. Hell I dont even remember all the rules to baseball. I honestly think Sherry is the only one who watched any plays.
After a few innings it was really too cold, so we headed back to my apartment to hang and talk a bit longer. All in all a good night.
This week Sherry and Dan had new carpet installed in their apartment. This meant they had to move everything out and then back in. They took advantage of this event and purchased some new book shelves and shower curtains (what Sherry is messing with).
After they were done settling in I got to hang out with them, chit chat about random things.
Just as a side note they picked up this strangely addictive ball with liquid and glitter inside (like a snowglobe) and I spent an hour, I'm sure, messing around with it.
Alright, yesterday was slightly expensive because I ordered a new phone. Today was much more expensive because I bought a car....
My Taurus was slowly spiraling down the drain (though it still runs) and honestly another winter was probably not possible with it unless I put money into it for more repairs. So no.
So I've been looking for about a month and a half for a new car and finally settled on one. Now while what you should look for in a car is reliability, durability, etc, I was looking for sync. I'll be damned if I drive another 10 years a car with a shitty stereo and no cd player. So this new Fusion has both the 6 disc changer and the sync system. What does that mean? That means hello ipod - you're my new music library. And it means bluetooth through the stereo for phone calls. Hawt.
So my cousin Sherry was awesome enough to drive me out to the dealership (and feed me <3) so I could pick up the car. Ty ty ma'am. She also took this picture. :)
Not bad for a used car, eh? Now to just figure out how to do stuff on the pre...
I can successfully say I did something new today. Although I'm not sure if its something you'd usually do with family...
I spent time with my cousins as usual. Nathan, the youngest brother, showed up with his cruiser and after smacking him a bit as promised in an earlier post the boys and I got down to the business of reviewing the random videos and pictures Nate had acquired since we'd last seen him.
While we did that Mrs Sherry (I have no idea why I call her that) played bejeweled through FB because she's terribly addicted to puzzle games. Sorry Sherry - I had to use this pic! That intensity in your eyes is almost frightening (besides we all know you Junes dont read this).
So among other things little Nate had something called Whorecraft. It's apparently porn with WoW characters. This doesn't strike me as odd except that he was never into WoW... So I had to see it. Nate of course booted it up. Soon intro credits started. Minutes passed and in what seemed like forever the credits finished. And minutes passed. And more still...
...and then I realized I was watching porn with my two male cousins....
I need to get out more. *head in hands*
Tonight was originally going to be some quality hang with Dan, Sherry, and Nathan. Per usual, my younger cousin changed his plans and will be severely beat at the next family gathering by his loving older cousin - me.
Still, the night was great and I got some good time in with my cousins. We decided on another book to read (Huck Fin). As for Karenina - Sherry finished it, Dan tossed it aside and declared it too depressing, and I'm resolved to listening to it as I can never seem to settle down and read it.
When I first got there, Nat was taking a nap, and she just looked so cute. I had to take a pic. So its here and a few others I uploaded so I would have actual people in flickr...
If you cant tell, there is a tradition of visiting my cousins every Monday. They live close, and its good bonding for all involved. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before. Anyway, today I brought over some brownies I made from scratch and vanilla ice cream (my cousins are always so hospitable to me, its only fair to reciprocate).
We hung out and even had time for a little stroll in a nearby park. Then it was over to several bookstores, as both of them are avid readers. So here is a shot of my cousins and their little girl. Mom is doing the mom thing - spraying down the family to ward off mosquitoes.
Per my usual weekly visit I was over at Dan and Sherry's today. Today was a little more laid back and slow - they were both recovering from food poisoning. Dan did perk up for a brief moment to replace some strings on one of his guitars, so I quickly snapped a shot before he collapsed and passed out.
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