Tallinn, Estonia

I had to stay over the weekend while I was in Finland. It was very difficult because it was the longest Matt and I had ever been apart. I missed him SO much. I decided to try and keep busy so as not to wallow in my sadness and took a ferry - more like a super-powered-garanteed-to-make-you-sea-sick ferry - over to Talinn, Estonia. What an amazing experience!!!

If you look closely at this map, everywhere you see the little black "zipper" looking lines around the whole town, are actually walls that are still standing and surround the castle and the town of Tallinn.

It was so beautiful I actually broke down in tears emailing my Mom and Matt from my blackberry while I was sitting in an out-door cafe having lunch! I took 92 pictures of this amazing city. If you are interested you can see them all on my Yahoo photos site, but here are some of my favorites:

This was the first street I walked up to enter the town:

The churches and steeples were amazing! Check out these awesome photos:

These two church towers are called "The Father and The Son"

I walked around this huge Castle and down a dirt road that I could only imagine had been there for thousands of years. It was surreal! At the end of the road I walked up many flights of steps. When I got to the top, this was the view:

(one of my favorite photos!)

There was also this really cool street that was all cobble stone. It walked along what they called "The Wall of Mis-trust." Independent Artists hung and sold their paintings here and the street went under a building with a very cool archway:

I can't explain why I love this photo so much - maybe it's the combination of the stone walls, alcoves, old brick streets and purple planters, but this is one of my most favorite photos from my trip:

Finally, what place would be complete without a Texas Cantina?!?!?!

I went inside and ordered a coke! To see more pictures of the Cantina, go to my Yahoo Photos site.

If you ever find yourself anywhere near Finland do not miss Estonia. This little town made my whole trip worth going!

Helsinki, Finland

After I passed through Amsterdam, I went on to Helsinki, Finland. It was pretty - and I was lucky enough to be there the perfect time of year. In the summer, the Finns never seem to sleep. How could they with only 4 hours of darkness - and it's not even that dark! It's more like twilight! Here are some pictures I snapped while walking around town:

I stayed here at the Hilton, which was convenient, because the client was right next door in the red brick building!

This is the capitol building in Helsinki. It is hard to get perspective from this picture, but the steps are really tall and wide. If you can catch a glimpse of the people up on top of them, you get the idea of just how big this courtyard and building were.

I have an obsession with brick-paved and cobblestone streets. Many of the streets in Helsinki were just like this one.

Helsinki is a sea-side village. This is a beautiful picture of the marina not too far from my hotel.

This is the train depot in Helsinki that can take you to any of the other cities in Finland, as well as St. Petersburg and Moscow!

Just to keep things interesting, while I was in Finland, Matt was in Las Vegas looking into a job in Computer Forensics and... house hunting in Henderson! More on that in a later post!

Amsterdam

For work I am on a project with a company called " Wärtsilä " (pronounced vert-silla) - maker of very huge engines used in ships, power plants, oil rigs, etc. Their headquarters are in Helsinki, Finland. I left at 7:00 pm last Sunday, and arrived in Helsinki the next day at 11:45 pm. The flight was 10 hours long to Amsterdam where I had an 8 hour layover before flying the last 2 hours to Helsinki.

While I was in Amsterdam, I was lucky enough to meet up with a co-worker for a late lunch. He threw out his back so we didn't hang out for long, but he pointed me in the right direction and I took some great photos:

This is a picture of what Amsterdam is famous for. I did not inhale...

... seriously, I did not even go in, but I had to at least get a picture!

Check THIS out! I had NO idea Anne Frank lived in Amsterdam!

This next photo sums up Amsterdam very well. Every other street it seems is a canal, and everyone uses bikes as a mode of transportation. Outside of that, It's just a darn cool picture!

Here's another picture showing you just how crazy the whole bike thing is!

This is some government building I think. I ca't read Dutch, so I have NO idea... hahahaha! It was just a big, old, cool building, so I took a picture!

This is the train station in Amsterdam. The place was huge!

Getting to the correct platform was a challenge. I had to find the ONLY train that went to the airport, there were 25 tracks, and not a single English sign or schedule anywhere!!!

I get to go back through Amsterdam when I leave Helsinki on the 4th of July. It was raining a lot when I was there last week, so hopefully I will be able to take more pictures. I am going to try and take a canal cruise too!

Kayliegh's First Horse Riding Lesson

On Saturday, she had her very first Horse Riding lesson! She did GREAT! She brushed the whole horse down using a variety of combs and brushes, and she even picked the dirt out of the horses hoofs! She had a great lesson, and can not wait to start taking regular lessons when she comes back from IL this summer.

Here are some pictures of Kayleigh with "Stick" the wonder horse:

She's already addicted! She says her favorite color is still green... but, she might be switching her favorite animal to horses. BUT she still loves frogs too! Ahhh... to be a kid again!

Kayleigh Graduates 4th Grade!

On Wednesday, Kayleigh graduated 4th Grade. In Texas, they move out of Elementary at 4th Grade, and into "Intermediate School" which is 5th & 6th Grade. After that, she will go onto Jr. High for 7th & 8th, then finally High School.





Here is a picture taken on graduation day:


We are SO proud of her! She had 7 awards on her graduation certificate: 1. Spelling Bee, 2. Most Improved (in Math we think), 3. Citizenship (for being fair and well-behaved in school), 4. High honors in state testing for Composition, 5. High honors in state testing for Reading, 6. High honors in state testing for Math, 7. A-B Honor-roll the whole year.

After moving (again) and getting used to a new school, with a new curriculum, we really couldn't ask for anything better. She is such a wonderful, amazing kid and I'm SO proud of her every day!

Kayleigh's Weekend

Since Kayle will be leaving for IL soon, we invited her BFF, Paige over to stay for the whole weekend. Needless to say, WE HAD A BLAST! Actually... We really did! We went to NASA here in Houston! Here are some of the cool pictures we took during our trip:

Kayleigh & Paige haging out at the blaster vent:

I couldn't let them have ALL the fun!

The whole gang - in space suits:

Kayleigh & Paige inside a mock communications center of a Space Shuttle:

Kayleigh & Paige standing just outside the Astronaut training facility!

Challenger park - on the NASA grounds:

After NASA, we went to see Shrek the 3rd. In a word... HYSTERICAL! We all loved it!

By the time we got home, the girls could barely make it to bed. They passed out cold. On Sunday, we went to Build-A-Bear! The girls bought matching Monkeys. Kayleigh named hers "Paige" and Paige named hers.... You guessed it... "Bob" JUST KIDDING! Yes, she named it "Kayleigh." Here are some pictures from their fun day:

Here's Kayleigh & Paige with their freshly stuffed and bathed, naked Monkeys:

Kayleigh didn't buy this outfit, but I had to get a picture of it. It cracked me up!!!

Here they are "Hangin' Around" with their Monkeys:

The Monkey's after a long hard day...

Thanks to Aunt Sara & Uncle Steve for sending Kayleigh the gift card to Build-A-Bear. We had so much fun!

Kayleigh's Week

Kayleigh only has a week and a half of school left, and last week we had lots going on with her class. She was selected to be a Co-Master of Ceremonies for her school Talent show. She did GREAT and she looked SO darn cute!
Here's a picture with her teacher, Ms. Winski and the Boy she M.C.'d with (Connor):



The next day, she was in the school spelling bee! She had to take a spelling test against the entire 4th grade. Only the top 20 spellers were able to enter the final competition. Kayleigh did so awesome! She tied for 4th place! I could not believe how exciting the spelling bee actually was. By the time we got to the end, everyone was on the edge of their seats. It was a great competition. Kayleigh's BFF, Paige got 3rd. Here's a picture of the girls together enjoying a snack after the competition:



I volunteered to record all the events this week, so I got prime seating for everything!

Our 2nd Anniversary

Wow! I almost do not know where to start! For our Anniversary, Matt made reservations at a place not to far from us - The Woodlands Resort & Country Club. The place was huge and had several buildings spread out accross thousands of acres. We stayed the night and had the "Honeymoon" package, which included Champagne & Chocolate Dipped Strawberries, Rose-petals, and breakfast in bed!

When we got there, we were immediately happy with the resort. It was AMAZING!

Our room was not quite ready yet, so we went to the poolside bar and had some fruity refreshing drinks and reminisced about our time together. The weather could not have been better! It was about 83 degrees with a nice cool breeze.

We got into our room and they delivered our first amenities:

Matt went a little crazy with the rose petals!

We went to dinner at this cute little Italian place at the resort that over-looked the courtyard where there were two more pools, then headed back to our room and hopped in the Jacuzzi. It was so nice, we decided to invite Matt's Dad and Kayleigh out the next day. The pool area by our room had three pools, two huge water slides, volley ball, waterfalls and some other stuff.

This is the water slide tower

Here's Kayle - happy as a clam to be swimming!

Kayle in front of the Waterfall

After our fun day at the country club together, we decided to go see Spiderman 3. It was pretty lame, but the fight scenes were good. Kayle really liked it.

On our official anniversary, (Monday, May 7th), Matt made us an awesome dinner. We had steaks on the grill, twice-baked potatoes, artichokes, and croissants. He also had flowers delivered to the house. He was so thoughtful! He got purple Iris because I love purple, and red Tulips because he's "Red."

Best of all... this picture was taken with my NEW CAMERA!!! WHOO HOOOO!!! For our anniversary I got a new digital camera. I was going back and forth for a while on which one to get. We had an OK one, but it was so sloooow it drove me CRAZY! Matt bought me the Sony DSC H9. It totally ROCKS!

Here's an awesome close-up of Kayle:

An awesome close-up of Matt:

It has 15x zoom. I took this picture from at least 30 feet away:

One of my biggest requests was fast shutter speed for action shots. Here's a shot Matt took of me while we were messing around with it - I was mid-air:

Kayleigh made us an awesome anniversary card too, and Grandpa and Kayleigh had a special "Date night" on Saturday while we were gone. He took her to Olive Garden, and gave her chocolate cake! I have the BEST family!

Catching Up

I haven't posted in ages! I spent that last couple of weeks in Orlando, then flew to IL with Kayle for Sara's baby shower. We had a blast! When it was time to leave as we were pulling out of the driveway, Kayle gave a big sigh and said, "Man... that was a GREAT vacation!" It was wonderful to spend time with everyone, and very hard to leave.

My foot is feeling better. I have not used my boot once since I got back from IL. I managed to shove my gym shoe on, and we even went out to dinner! It still hurts off and on. Sometimes it REALLY hurts and it nearly takes my breath away, but the doctor said this was normal and would happen for the next few months while it heals.

Since I got behind, I have a few new pictures to post:

Dave Sherri and Hailey came to visit. Here is Kayle and Hail together after almost a year apart!

Here is a picture from Easter:

I never realized Kayle had a bunny on her shirt until now! hahaha! Funny!

Joke of the Week

Monday's suck... and since I have such wonderful friends and family that send me humorous things all week long, I have decided to designate Mondays on my Blog for the Joke of the Week. Every week I will sift through the funny emails I get and post some of the funny ones to help cheer us all up! Here's one I thought was pretty good - HAPPY MONDAY!!!

BLIND MAN IN A BIKER BAR

A blind man wanders into an all girls biker bar by mistake. He finds his way to a bar stool and orders some coffee. After sitting there for awhile, he yells to the waiter, "Hey, you wanna hear a blonde joke?"

The bar immediately falls absolutely silent. In a very deep, husky voice, the woman next to him says, "Before you tell that joke, sir, I think it is only fair -- given that you are blind -- that you should know five things:

1. The bartender is a blonde girl with a baseball bat.
2. The bouncer is a blonde girl.
3. I'm a 6 foot tall, 175 lb. Blonde woman with a black belt in karate.
4. The woman sitting next to me is blonde and a professional weightlifter.
5. The lady to your right is blonde and a professional wrestler.

Now, think about it seriously, Mister. Do you still wanna tell thatjoke?" The blind man thinks for a second, shakes his head, and mutters, "No... Not if I'm gonna have to explain it five times."

Soooooo Tired!

OK, so this whole walking thing... Completely exhausting! You should see me. I'm walking around like Egor from Frankenstien. I had to stop at Target on the way home. I don't think I've ever gotten in and out of there as fast as I did tonight! It's the most I've walked in over two weeks. I'm dead tired! Good news though, the stonger pain meds worked today and I was almost pain-free all day. It was also nice to get around without crutches!

Stitches are out and crutches are gone!

I went on site with my customer today for the first time since the surgery. The doctor gave me some new pain pills that would allow me to function during the day. They are so strange! It's a tiny, almost perfectly round white pill. You take one at night before you go to bed, and it's a time-release formula that lasts for 24 hours. Unfortunately, it was NOT strong enough for me today. Within one hour I was clinching my fists and gritting my teeth through the pain. It was awful. I made it through the day and went to my 4:00 appointment to get my stitches out, where the doctor inflicted more pain! He moved my toe!
Everything looks good though. He said if I can stand the pain, my foot is healthy enough to walk on without crutches so long as I wear my fracture boot. I have decided to stick with the heavier drugs and start walking. I actually feel a lot better with the bandages off. I think the compression was part of what was causing so much pain. Luckily, the customer is great. They set up an extra chair for me so I can keep my foot up, and everyone took really good care of me. The people here, and on my team are incredibly nice.
I go back to the doctor for an xray on April 16th. I'm hoping to be moved to a smaller shoe for my trip to IL the following weekend. The boot I have to wear is G I N O R M O U S ! ! !