Two Years!

Yesterday Greg and I celebrated our big #2 Anniversary! I can't believe it has been two years since we got married. To celebrate, we left bright and early to drive up to Nauvoo. What better place to spend one's wedding anniversary than at the temple? It was so nice to be there. One of the temple missionaries told us that we looked familiar. He asked where we were from, and when we said Springfield, he said, "Oh, we were just there a couple of weeks ago." I asked if they went to the Lincoln Home. He said, "That's where I saw you!" :-) After going to the temple and enjoying the nice fall weather in Nauvoo, we drove over to Peoria to check out some sports card shops. Then we drove back to Springfield and had a yummy dinner at the site of our first date: T.G.I. Friday's. Then we came home and watched football--sounds like a good day to me!

Today I got to see a heart beating on a sonogram--but it wasn't anything exciting--it was my own heart. It looked weird. Since it is breast cancer awareness month, and since, unfortunately, there is a history of said cancer in the family, our doctor wanted me to go have a sonogram. Most girls have sonograms to look at their babies--but my two sonograms have been to look at my internal organs. Luckily, unlike the result of my last sonogram (gallbladder), the result of this sonogram will not involve surgery!

The Great Pumpkin Patch

Today Greg and I did one of our favorite fall activities: visited the Great Pumpkin Patch in Arthur, Illinois. Mom and I first discovered the Pumpkin Patch back in 2007 while I was going to school at EIU, and now it has become a regular fall outing. It was the perfect fall day today! Today as I was eating my traditional pumpkin ice cream cone, we were remembering that last year when we went to the Pumpkin Patch it was freezing outside. But today it was sunny and 85 degrees.

I loved this little pumpkin house.








Here we are in front of Noah's Arc--filled with pumpkins and squash instead of animals. We loaded up on pumpkin butter and pumpkin bread, so we should be prepared for my yearly pumpkin fix. (Greg has already had to make me some pumpkin ice cream because my pumpkin fix started earlier than usual this year.)



And, of course, no trip to Arthur would be complete without swinging over to Flesor's Candy Kitchen in Tuscola--home of the BEST REUBEN IN THE WORLD! This is my favorite lunch: a chocolate Coke, and Flesor's special Reuben featuring warm, red cabbage instead of sauerkraut. Mmmmmmm. It was a yummy, yummy day. Today's advetures provided a much-needed break from Lincoln Home craziness. I'm pretty sure that place gets crazier every day. One of the rangers has started eating acorns off of the ground (maybe that would be okay if they were out in the woods, but I've seen the Springfield homeless people do some weird things with acorns). And the other day I almost started an international conflict with China. It was such a busy day, full of school buses, public tours, etc., and we had a group of 38 Chinese people show up wanting to go inside the house. Of course it was my luck to be stuck at the Visitor Center when they came. Their group leader and I talked in circles for about 15 minutes while I tried to explain why they couldn't go inside the house without a reservation. Finally I thought he understood, but then he went outside and asked several more rangers if they could see the house. Those rangers said no, so he came back in and talked in circles with me for another 20 minutes! Finally they left, but they said they would be back on Sunday (sorry to the rangers who worked on Sunday!). On Saturday afternoon I was working on some things in my office when I got a call from Kyle at the Visitor Center. He was mumbling about something, and then all of a sudden he said, very clearly, "Emergency!" right as the phone cut out. The phone literally died. I then looked outside and saw a fire truck at the Visitor Center. So I ran outside and learned that the Visitor Center had to be evacuated because the power had gone out, the boiler in the boiler room had overheated and started spewing smoke, and the Visitor Center had filled with carbon dioxide. And of course all of this happened at the busiest time of day. We moved our Visitor Center operations (handing out tickets and Jr. Ranger books) outside, and people kept coming up and asking us if they could go into the Visitor Center to use the bathrooms. We would say, "No, there are poisonous levels of carbon dioxide in there." Then they would seriously say, "So . . . I can't go in?" NO, YOU CAN'T GO IN! Silly people. This past week I also had some fun dinners. On Friday I met up with my grad. school buddy Laurie who was down in Springfield (from Chicago) for an archives seminar at the state capitol. It was so great to see her! She thought my Lincoln Home stories were funny (and disturbing). On Saturday Greg and I went to this really posh restaurant in Springfield called Augie's Front Burner with our friends Matt and Melissa. Greg had won a gift certificate for Augie's at a golf tournament earlier this year, so our $150 dinner was free! So it's been a fun and interesting week. I just have a little over a month left at the Lincoln Home before I get canned (they are, as usual, "out of money"), so I'll try to rack up as many interesting stories as I can before I leave. Next Monday is Greg's and my big #2 wedding anniversary, and yesterday was Mom and Dad's big #37 anniversary!!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

This past Wednesday was the perfect day for baseball. Greg and I took the day off of work and went down to St. Louis to meet Sarah, Joel, Eliza, and Leo for their first-ever Cardinals game! I had originally contemplated calling in sick to work--because I am sick of work--but I decided to just use some annual leave. It turns out that was a good decision because my supervisor Barbara went down to the game that day too :-)


Leo loved his first baseball game. He was all decked-out in his Cardinals onesie and enjoyed watching all of the action.










Eliza especially loved Fredbird Field--the play area for energetic kids. When we were sitting in our seats before the game, she sat there quietly for a minute and then said, "Is it over yet?" :-) But she did enjoy watching "the guys," as she called the baseball players, and she was hoping they would hit a ball over our way so that she could hit it back.





Back at Fredbird Field, I tried snapping a picture of her on top of the Cardinals hat--but she was already leaping off to run the bases.








The Cardinals ended up winning. What a great game! After the game we had a delicious dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. And of course no trip to St. Louie would be complete without a stop at Ted Drewes for some frozen custard. Thank you, Agates, for such a fun day!

Surgeries Stink!

On Wednesday evening, Greg and I returned back to Springfield after a road trip to Utah. Unfortunately the reason for the trip was not a happy one--Dad had to have surgery on Wednesday the 15th. Greg and I arrived in Utah the day before the surgery. It was so wonderful to see everyone--we just wish it had been for a happier occasion! This was the last thing Mom and Dad needed right on the heels of Mom's thyroid cancer surgery this past spring. Dad was diagnosed with bladder cancer at the end of August, and the doctors realized that action needed to be taken immediately. Mom, Dad, and I took this picture just before Greg and I took them up to Salt Lake for the surgery. Poor Dad was then in surgery for six-and-a-half hours as the doctors removed his bladder. The good news that came out of all of this is that pathology reports showed that the cancer had not spread beyond his bladder! So hopefully the surgery took care of everything. Dad will have a long road to recovery, but thankfully additional unpleasant experiences (cancer treatments) are not on the horizon.

The surgery left Dad in pretty rough shape. Having your stomach sliced open and your insides moved around/removed is never a pleasant thing! But Dad has been very brave throughout the whole process, as has Mom. Greg and I were sad to have to leave this past Tuesday--especially with Dad still in the hospital and not yet able to eat/drink--but we have been glad to hear of the progress he is making. Today he was able to eat solid foods! If I had to go without food and drink for over a week, I would turn into a monster, but Dad didn't. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for him.

Though we spent most of our time at the hospital, Greg and I still had time to have some fun with the Barrett girlies. They are so cute and funny! They are excited for Grandpa to come home from the hospital so they can take care of him. On Sunday evening Lindy, Nate, Richard, the girls, Greg and I had a fun trip up Provo Canyon to see the beautiful fall leaves at Sundance. I love the mountains and miss them in Illinois. As you can see, the leaves were awesome!

On Monday evening the girlies invited us to their school carnival. It was quite the happenin' place! The kiddos made a haul with all of the prizes they won. Here they are with their winnings. It was so nice to see friends and family while we were there in Utah. And we appreciate our Illinois friends Crystal and John agreeing on last-minute notice to take care of Tiger Lily while we were away (the doggies went to the doggie hotel, but there isn't a kitty hotel around here). We returned to find Lily as chubby and happy as ever. We wish we could have stayed in Utah longer, but we are so glad that Dad is improving, and we hope that he can come home from the hospital very soon!

Off to Utah

Greg and I will be putting Baron von Bowles to the test tomorrow and Tuesday, as we take a road trip to Utah. Unfortunately the reason for our trip is not a happy one. Poor Dad has to have some serious surgery on Wednesday, so we're just going out to do what we can to help. Please keep Dad in your prayers!