Due to my lack of posts in the past month or so, and lack of current time to devote to an entire narrative, I have decided to switch things up a bit and construct a picture collage post.

Let me begin with a picture from Christmas time, which is nearly where we left off before. This is a picture of the predicament we found ourselves in when Iowa experienced a December heat wave. As it turns out, roofs do not need actual holes to leak. Lesson learned. It's a good thing we had a home builder/general contractor at our resources to construct us such an advanced leak channeling system!

This next picture is a snap shot into how we spent our New Years Eve. John managed to score us an invite to his friends pajama party so we could ring in 2009 in the coziest way possible. This picture is when John got in on the inversion table action. It's supposed to be some sort of contraption that stretches out your back, but mostly it just freaked me out. Needless to say, it's pretty fun to watch after having a few drinks.

Shortly after Christmas, John and I took a mini trip to Chicago to take care of a little engagement ring business, and freeze our asses off - windy city style. During our little excursion, I remembered one of the things I hated most about living in Chicago: people still want to go outside and do things, as if it weren't -20 degrees outside. Here in Iowa, people don't go outside and brave the cold, they stay inside and cook pork roasts or something. I much more prefer the latter. Anyway, we got a pretty awesome deal Shatner style through priceline. This picture is the view from our room's window. (On a side note, our sweet deal of a four-star room for $50 wasn't as awsome when we discovered the $48/night parking fee.)

This is Ashlyn, my future niece and style icon. At the ripe old age of three years old, she has the best selection and follow-through of any fashionista I know.

And lastly, this is a brief look at my next post about mine and John's outing to an Iowa Chops hockey game. It was as incredible as mud wrestling, monster trucks, and Nascar all mixed into one! Go Meat!