Last week I went strawberry picking with my Dad and Katie one day after work.  It was a lot of fun and the strawberries are delicious!  Katie even made some strawberry jam that I am excited to try. 

We went a little late in the season, so the pickings were slim.  Next year I would like to go a few days earlier.  I think the strawberries go fast once they open. 

There's nothing better than eating a fresh-picked strawberry out in the field. :)  I would like to make a strawberry cobbler, but the task seems daunting and I am not sure if I have enough berries left. 

And yes - my dad wore knee pads.  :) He's one-of-a-kind!

So I am sick, with a sinus infection.  It sucks.  It started Friday morning with a sore throat.  I woke up Saturday morning feeling pretty crappy, and that just escalated for the rest of the weekend.  Today I am feeling marginally better, so hopefully I am through with the worst of it.

I came to work today, but my head is still a big ball of fuzzy congestion.  On the bright side, half of the office appears to be absent; a few people are out for a training class and probably a lot more are taking the week off because of the holiday on Friday.  That's good because it means I won't have much to do.  Normally that irks me to no end, but today I am grateful for a calm day.

I just hope I get better soon.  I spent the whole weekend relaxing.  After constant activity for the past month or two doing nothing for TWO ENTIRE DAYS was not an easy task.  I made it, though.  I watched two disks from Grey's Anatomy Season Three and I also watched The Other Boleyn Girl.  All three DVDs were good.

To stay positive, it was a good weekend to get sick - I think it was the only free weekend from the beginning of May to the end of July! 

My husband, Bryan, is starting a new job on July 1.  Well, it's not technically a new job.  For the last few months he's been on his own with one primary customer.  He will now be a full-time employee for this company.  He's still working for the same company, but there will still be a lot of changes, both good and bad.

Good: He has the security of knowing exactly when he's getting paid.  He will have health insurance (we're currently on my employer's insurance).  He'll have an actual office outside of our home.

Bad: Loss of flexibility.  He won't be home with the puppies as much, and it will be more difficult to take off early on my half-day Fridays. Different pay schedule that's either positive or negative depending on your point of view.

He also will be provided with a new car that he's currently in the process of selecting.  It has to be GM and it has to be in the mid-price range and it has to have good gas mileage.  He likes the Silverado pick-up truck.

I DO NOT like pick-up trucks, especially not for a man with a wife and two puppies!  They have such little cab space.  So currently we're having a disagreement about that.  He likes another car that I am not crazy about but I would much rather have that than a pick-up truck.  I know it's not my car, and not entirely my decision, but he hasn't really given me any say throughout this whole job switch process so the least he can do is not get a hideous pick-up.  Maybe I am being selfish, but I am an opinionated person that needs to have a voice!

Thirteen places I have visited in the past few years.

1. Grenoble, France.  I studied abroad in France during the summer of 2005 and it was a great experience.  I lived with a French family in Grenoble, a city surrounded by the French Alps.

2. Nice, France.  Gorgeous (but rocky) beaches.  A friend and I went parasailing and it was so much fun!

3. Geneva, Switzerland.  Grenoble was only an hour or two from Switzerland and I was able to visit Geneva a few times.  It’s a nice city with lots of banks and watches. J

4. Rome, Italy.  Rome is such a cool city – I would love to go back!  There is so much to see and do, and every building has a unique history.

5. London, England.  London is also a city I would like to visit again.  It has a really nice atmosphere, and there’s a lot to do in the heart of the city as well as in the surrounding country.

6. Vero Beach, Florida.  Florida is not quite as exciting as Europe, but I try and go each winter to visit my grandparents who migrate there for the colder months.

7. Aruba.  Bryan and I went to Aruba for a very relaxing honeymoon!  It was beautiful but HOT (90+ degrees every day, minimum 85 at night). Did you know Aruba is a desert island?  The next Caribbean island we visit will be nice and tropical.

8. San Jose, California.  We visited California in October 2008 and went on a tech tour through the Silicon Valley, stopping at places such as HP and AOL.  This picture is pre-tour at Stanford University.  It’s a really nice campus.

9. San Francisco, California.  San Francisco is also a fun city.  We walked along the Golden Gate Bridge, visited Fisherman’s Warf, and saw the sights of China Town. 

10. Chicago, Illinois.  Bryan and I visited Chicago this past weekend for a mini-vacation.

11. Grand Bend, Canada.  The Pinery is a really nice campground.  A little raccoon came in for a visit one afternoon.

12. Toronto, Canada.  Back in my Brand New days Bryan and I took a weekend trip to Toronto to see a concert.  We had fun and hope to go back soon and stop at Niagara Falls on the way!

13. Grand Haven, Michigan.  We went to Grand Haven while visiting his parents last summer and saw a wonderful sun set! J

Using webwalking.com, I calculated it (rounding down) that we walked a total of 21.8 miles in Chicago.  Not bad!!

Day 1 - 9.4

Day 2 - 9.1

Day 3 - 3.3

I swear that I work with a bunch of thieves - refrigerator thieves, that is.

Back in the winter I had a few (labeled) Lean Cuisine meals stolen. 

Recently I had put a small tub of Philadelphia Cream Cheese in the fridge, in a drawer, clearly labeled with my name.  I brought in a wheat bagel for lunch today, so I toast it and pull my schmear out of the fridge.  Lo and behold - It's almost empty!  There's barely enough cream cheese for a bagel!!  I had only used it one other time - someone is taking my cream cheese.  If they had asked, maybe it wouldn't bother me so much.  It just seems so rude, especially since my name is on it.

Oh the horror.

I am looking forward to dinner tonight!  My sister Katie stayed at our house over the weekend to puppy sit.  She loves to cook and bake and made a lasagna and tiramisu (from scratch) that looked delicious in our fridge this morning.  After a long, busy, tiring (fun) weekend, it's going to be so nice to go home to a home-cooked meal!

It's official - I am a year older, and that's just too old.  I turned 23 on June 21 and it was a sad day.  I really liked the year 22, and I am not ready to be 23.  It just doesn't sound right.  22 is just a pleasant number filled with youth, and 23 shows the impending doom of turning 25, and then 30.

I told Bryan that I was just 22 again, but he did not let that fly.. :(

On a brighter note, our weekend in Chicago was excellent!  More to come on that later today.

Thirteen Before and After Pictures - Our House

1. Before - Entry Way

2. After - Entry Way

3. Before - Kitchen

4. After - Kitchen

5. Before- Family Room

6. After - Family Room

7. Before - Living and Dining Room

8. After - Dining Room

9. Before - Bedroom

10. After - Bedroom

11.  Before - Upstairs Hallway

12. After - Upstairs Hallway

13. Before and After - Exterior

Bryan and I had a nice weekend visiting his parents up north.  The puppies really liked it too!  They were running around in the outdoors most of the time, and they stayed close to their cottage so it was great.

The weather was great on Saturday and we spent the afternoon out on the boat.  Saturday night Bryan and I got ice cream (I ordered a small) and just relaxed.  We went to bed pretty early, which both of us enjoyed. :)

After stopping by my parents' house for a delicious BBQ for Father's Day on Sunday, we took the puppies to visit my grandma Mam.  She's in a rehabilitation center after breaking her pelvis, and they allow dogs.  She really enjoyed the visit.  I am going to visit her one night this week and decorate the bulletin board that she has, to add a little color to her room.

The puppies did not have any accidents until Sunday night back at our home, and I blame that one on us.  Graham was in the kitchen at the back slider jumping, and I figured he was trying to get food or something.  Well, I was wrong and he was jumping at the window trying to get outside. :( He had a little accident right outside of the back door.  If only Bryan and I had been paying attention..

We've started the third season of Grey's Anatomy.  I am not sure if it's quite as good as the previous seasons yet, but it is still pretty entertaining.  I can't wait for Izzy and George to get together!

We leave for Chicago bright and early Friday morning - our flight is at seven a.m.  We don't know much of what we're going to do while there, so I hope to check out a Chicago travel book from the library to help us out.

That's it for now.