The Last Part of the Year

So 2009 is quickly coming to an end, with Thanksgiving just taking place this past Thursday. We spent the day at Anna's parents' house where we had some great food and a fun time.

Just yesterday and today, we have put up a bunch of Christmas decorations. You can view a few photos by clicking this link to our Flickr page. We put a few photos on there for you to check out, and we hope you like them.

As we approach Christmas, we're excited to once again be able to spend some time with friends and family. I'm hoping to post more on here as we approach Christmas, but if not, have a great holiday season!

-Bruce

This Coming Weekend...

is going to be awesome! We're looking forward to having everyone over to our house for the 4th of July.

Safe travels and we'll see you soon!

- Bruce and Anna

June's Here and a Busy Summer is Ahead!

So it's June, and this is the first post in about a month. Things have been crazy for us, but everything is going well.

So, what's new? Well:

• Bruce's friends from Ohio Mark and Nicole came up to Aurora last weekend to hang out. We went to a Chicago Fire professional soccer game on Friday night, and then the Cleveland Indians vs. Chicago White Sox game on Saturday night. It was a great time and a nice visit.
• This weekend, Anna went down to get a haircut and to see her parents while Bruce took his little brother Austin to the Children's Museum and to lunch. It was a fun weekend.
• Anna is now working different hours since it's the summer, but now has the weekends off!! Woo Hoo! Big excitement from both of us.

What's on our plates coming up? Well:

• Next weekend, Anna's parents, grandma and Aunt Mickie are coming to visit on Saturday. That should be fun.
• July 4 weekend, we're having a cookout at the new house. We have a number of RSVPs so far, and if you're interested in coming out, let us know!
• Later in July, we're heading to Ohio for Scott Hehr's wedding, then Bruce will be at the Fraternity Convention in St. Louis for a week.
• In August, we'll be heading to Anna's 10-year high school reunion in Michigan City, a wedding in Ohio, the Jimmy Buffett concert in Chicago, Bruce will be in Toronto for three days for a conference, and then will be volunteering for the Solheim Cup, the women's professional golf equivalent to the Ryder Cup.

As you can probably tell, we have a crazy schedule this summer, but there are still a few weekends open. If you want to come out and hang with us, let us know and we'd be glad to have you (especially all you friends with new babies!!)

As always, thanks for reading!

- Bruce and Anna

New Fun Experience

So we haven't posted in a while, but I wanted to get on here and let all of our millions of regular readers know that we're still alive, and that I have a new volunteer role that I have recently started.

I recently became a Big Brother for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Kane and Kendall Counties here in Aurora. I am completely excited to be doing it, and just got to meet my new little brother and his mom yesterday. It was really great, and they were both very nice.

Anyway, a neat little thing that I wanted to share. Things are still going well with the new house, Anna's job, my job, and everything else!

Hope you're all well...

-Bruce

Success - the Last of the Wallpaper is Removed!

The last of the wallpaper was removed recently. It was an amazing day, and one that we will not soon forget! Ha!

Check out the video below:

A Fun trip to a B&B

This past weekend, we spent a few days at a Bed & Breakfast on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, in Saugatuck, Michigan. The hotel, Belvedere Inn, was a beautiful, old home that was the perfect place for us to get away for a few days!!

Anna in front of the Belvedere

We were able to take advantage of the fact that there were VERY few people in town. That made our evening dinners easy, and we were also able to roam around downtown Saugatuck with very few others clogging up the sidewalk!! We shopped a little bit, went to the beach, and checked out the top of Mount Baldhead... Yes, it's an all too real place (see below)...

Anyway, we hope you'll take a look at the rest of our photos! We had a nice time, and will likely return to the area in the late summer or early fall to see what it's like at that time of year, in season.

Have a great one everybody, and thanks for reading!

-Bruce and Anna

Bye Bye Apartment...

Today, we finally gave our keys and garage door opener back to the apartment complex, ending one our occupancy of our former apartment...

You may be asking why we still had the keys and garage door opener for the apartment being that we have been living in the house for a month and a half. Well, it's because of spite...

They made us pay rent until the end of March, so instead of giving them the keys and garage door opener when we moved in early February, we decided to hold onto them so they weren't able to turn our apartment around and re-rent it for March while we were still paying rent on it. They were ridiculous in not letting us break our lease, so we made sure they weren't making anything on it.

The funniest thing is that we gave them a letter prior to moving out as we were required to do (need to give them 60 days notice), and we received a letter on the apartment door on Saturday when we went to pick up Anna's bike from the garage. Their letter stated "A maintenance person will be entering your apartment on March 16 or 17 to check your water and sewer, as it doesn't appear to be working..." The reason that's funny? Because we TOLD them in the 60-day letter that we were moving out in early February to move into the house, and that we could be reached at our new address if they needed anything... The reason the water and sewer company wasn't registering anything for us is because we USED NO WATER since we weren't living there...

We're glad we're done with that apartment complex - now it's a matter of getting our full security deposit back, which I have a feeling they're going to screw us on somehow...