Halloween

Well, the Halloween party was a success!!! I think we pulled in a little over a hundred and fifty people.This was the beginning of the night when people met at my house. Back row: Dave, Adam (Aaron's rommate) Kellyanne, Aaron, and front is Cindy....the evil jester!!!!
Dave was a butterfly catcher and Kellyanne was the butterfly....isn't that sweet?!?!? he lost his net though.......

My costume turned out great, I thought, for being pieced together like it was. Thank you, Sissy, for making such a cute tail for me!!!!!!! And Ryan, Oh my sweet baby, he doesn't pull off blonde very well, but I think the dress looked fabulous!!!!
This is Ryan, Bobby Blue (the main host of the party,) and Mark Kirby (Shawn Kirby's dad.)Aaron, me and Ryan....I mean, Alice :-)

I was really happy that Jen came with some of her friends. Ryan and I also had several friends from out of town here for the party. It was lots of fun!!!

Jen was a big bunch of grapes...her costume rocked!!!

And, we had The Spartan Cheerleaders from Saturday Night Live....gotta love it!!!

"WHO'S THAT INDIAN IN MY TEEPEE...IT'S ME!! IT'S ME!!!"

This is Kellyanne and me...we had so much fun together. I love it when we can all hang out together. I kept trying to tilt my head down when people were taking my picture so you could see the face on my cat head, but it was hard not to look at the camera when it was pointed at me. I'm still not sure if there are any pictures where you can really see my whole head or not.This guy's name was Brett. I had never met him before that night, but we had a blast together!!! His face was just a little higher than mine, but his costume was probably about eight feet tall.My friend Julie dressed up as Mother Nature.....she made her dress. It was awesome!!! She did a great job!!! She also carried a little pet squirrel in her purse all night long!!My baby and his magic elixer.....you don't even want to know what was in there!!! But one thing is for sure....... it got ya drunk!!!

This is Cindy and me. She loved her costume because no one knew who she was. I've always called her my sneaky neighbor :-)I had to post a picture of Nick Bankowski. He is so freakin' hot!!!!! You know I spanked his monkey all night long....oh, I'm so bad........................Just look at those lips....how could anyone resist those!?!?!?

Don't worry....I'm allowed to have a couple guilty pleasures per Ryan, so I've got that covered with Nick and Eric from Ekoostik Hookah!!This is Nick Reynolds in his cute little woopie cushion costume. I gave him a big hug when I saw him, and he farted. Then he said that was just part of the costume....He's like having a bratty little brother around!!!

Here's our buddy Jamie Raderstorf....he passed out by the bonfire, and of course, we had to pick on him a little. We were pretty kind, actually. The only thing we did was stick this leaf in his mouth......and his nose. He didn't seem to be bothered by it though!!!
This was the last picture of me and Ryan for the night. He told me I looked like my eyes were all bruised up. Apparently, I had been rubbing my face a lot or something......It was completely pink when I started!!!!

I'm pretty sure it was about 8:00 am when this was taken. Ryan and I made it until almost 9:00. I wasn't planning on staying up that late, but when I realized it was 6:30 already, and I was still sitting by the fire, I decided I could make it a couple more hours to help start waking people up that had to work.

I woke Cindy up at 7:15 because she had to work at 8:00. Nick finally came in from the fire then and pulled Ashley up off the floor and they crawled into the bed where Cindy had been. Then, at 8:00, we had to wake up Dave and Kellyanne because they had to be in Indy early for their daughter's cheerleading competition. Aaron kinda perked up off the loveseat and asked if there was another bed free. That love seat wasn't much of a bed for cousin Aaron :-) Then, we finally pulled Jamie off the floor in the living room and got him on the loveseat where Aaron had been.

We still had people on the floor in the living room and in the kitchen, but everyone at least had some cushions or an air mattress under them, so I felt better.

I don't know how they did it, but most eveyone was up and out of the house by about 2:00. I didn't even move until almost 7:30 Saturday night. I wasn't hung over....I was just exhausted.

Now I'm ready to do it all over again next year....so mark your calendars!!!!

My Pooches in their costumes

OK, this picture has nothing to do with pet costumes, but I thought it was kinda cute........

As most of you know, I LOVE Halloween.......so, that means my pets have to love it too....whether they like it or not :-)If you can't already tell, Delilah is thrilled to pieces to be in her costume!!! I wasn't sure what to call her when people asked me what she was, so I decided she was a monster who ate a dachshund :-) Mickey was Superman......not really happy about it, but saving lives nonetheless................

Apparently there was something tastey on the floor for these two.............. that's Franklin on the left, and Jerry on the right.................

And one more of my big boy Mickey!!!!!

Pope John Paul II

"This fiery figure is being hailed as Pope John Paul II making an appearance beyond the grave.The image, said by believers to show the Holy Father with his right hand raised in blessing, was spotted during a ceremony in Poland to mark the second anniversary of his death."


This article reminds me of the spaghetti that actually made the news a few years ago because someone thought Jesus' face was in it. Does anyone remember that, or any of those other weird coincidences? I have also heard of statues of Mary bleeding from the eyes........

What do you think??

You can read the whole article here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=487764&in_page_id=1811

Christmas Music Already?!?!?!

Very rarely do I listen to the radio, but we have had some nasty weather lately that has pulled my ears from my CD player. Much to my dismay, I heard Christmas music on a station as I was flipping through. At first, I thought, "surely this is an advertisement. This music will end and someone will start talking." But no. I listened to "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" by Elvis while I was driving in eighty degree weather with my windows rolled all the way down and my back sweating all over my seats.

Maybe this is how people feel who live in Florida, or some other warm place during Christmas, but that's not how I roll!!! I want it to be cold when I start thinking about Christmas....and I want to at least have Halloween over with. I know the stores have some of their Christmas stuff out, and that always happens, but I don't think I'm ready to hear that stuff on the radio yet. I don't remember ever hearing it this early in the year.

I thought maybe it was just some freak incident, but it wasn't. I have flipped over to that station a few times since then just to check, and I really think they're playing half Christmas, and half regualr music. It's 93.1 FM....check it out if you're ready for Christmas......It makes me crazy!!!

Ween in Bloomington

Ah......The Bluebird. Most of us have been there. If we haven't been there, then most of our parents have. Some of us have even played there :-) Either way you look at it, there's a lot of history at The Bluebird.History was made, at least in my book, this past Tuesday when I got to see Ween there. WOW!!! What a show. I thought my head was gonna explode more than once. I have been familiar with Ween since shortly after their official debut album in the early nineties. Until Clint moved in with me, I never payed much attention to them. I was really missing something.

The two main members of the band have officially taken on aliases Dean and Gene Ween. in fact, until recently, I thought they were brothers. They're not, but you would think they had the same blood pulsing through their veins by watching how in sync they are with one another. This is Gene Ween on lead vocals. I really enjoyed seeing him live. He is a very lively charachter. His facial expressions are entertainment in themselves.....even without the music.

The show in Bloomington was the first show of their fall tour. Because it was the first show of the tour, they only sold a limited amount of tickets. They said they would like it to be a more intimate show for their fans. The Bluebird is a pretty small venue anyway, but when you only had a couple hundred people in there, it seemed like we were all at a private party together I'm very thankful we got in on those tickets. Rumor has it, they sold out in a matter of minutes. Luckily, we had a friend of a friend who works for Ticketmaster all over those tickets as soon as they went on sale.


This is Monique, Clint, Tish and me..................

Shawn Kirby and Ryan were smart...they stocked up on beer before they hit the front of the stage so they wouldn't have to leave in between songs.
Gene Ween rockin'..........................
Gene Ween bidding us all goodnight.................. Dean Ween on guitar....................
Glen McClelland on keys............

I'm guessing this picture was taken early in the evening because my hair ended up in a ponytail by the end of the night..............
Monique and me again....................
Tish and me......................I love her cheeks :-)
Oh yes....the prized Ween flyer. I was lucky enough to make friends with the door guy who gave me this flyer after the show. I thought I was gonna have to fight a couple chick for it, but he gave it to me :-)!!!! That will eventually end up on our wall in the back bedroom with all our other flyers.

We had to drive home the same night because I had to get Mom to a doctor's appointment by 7:45 the next morning. I made it, but I was like a zombie. I would have liked to have stayed and hung out for awhile, but duty calls sometimes.

This Saturday we're headed to Chicago to see them again. I can't wait!!!!

One Hot Show

On October 6th, Jen, Chad, Ryan and I headed up to Chicago to see Phil Lesh and friends. Phil is the Bassist for the Grateful Dead. I had obviously seen him before, but not with his own band, so this was a first for me. Since this was the weekend following my birthday, I decided I would get tickets for myself for my birthday gift....yes I like to buy something for myself...don't we all???

So, at about two o'clock, Ryan and I met Jen and Chad in Lafayette and hit the road. We had a great day for a road trip. It was unseasonably hot, and that didn't change when we got into Chicago. I couldn't believe how warm it was that day. I think I kinda like this global warming stuff :-)

We got into town a little early so we could grab a bite to eat before the show. We stopped at a restaurant called Redfish when we got downtown. It was really good. It's kind of a seafood/cajun place. Got myself a giant piece of fried fish of some kind and loved every bit of it!!!!

While we were sitting in the restaurant, we saw a woman trying to park across the street. The reason I say "trying" is because we saw her hit a Mustang that was behind her when she was backing into her spot. The bad thing was, she didn't even have a vehicle in front of her that she was trying to maneuver around. I know parallell parking is hard for some people, but give me a break!!! All she had to do was back up and STOP. STOPPING would have been the right thing to do anyway.

As she got out of her car, she acted as if nothing at all had happened. Of course, I'm watching her every move by this point and I see her walking toward the restaurant we're in. I started asking Chad and Ryan to say something to her when she walked in. I didn't know they would really do it though!! She walked in and came right towards our table. As she walked by, Chad said "You didn't dent my bumper did ya?" I just about lost it. She looked real timid and just said no real quick and kept walking. I'm pretty sure she knew he was kidding after we all laughed, but apparently she didn't think it was as funny as the rest of us did.

That was the big excitement at dinner time. Jen and I always talk about how much we like to just sit and people watch. That was a great example....you never know what you're gonna see!!!


After we ate dinner, we decided to walk around for a little while because we had some time to waste. I played tourist and took a couple pictures. Had I konwn that we couldn't take our cameras into the venue, I would have taken a lot more photos before the show....oh well......
Here's a sweet little picture of Jen and Chad.
Just before Jen and I tried to sneak our cameras in, I took this picture outside the venue. We were told that cameras were not allowed while we were taking this, but we decided to try to be slick and get them in anyway. We made the guys walk back about half a block with us, I suppose to throw off the door guys, and then turned around and tried to get in with our cameras anyway. It didn't work. They might as well have strip searched us. Their security was crazy. They even opened up my aspirin bottle to make sure that's what was in there.

After being denied at the door with our cameras, Chad took off in a sprint to the car to drop them off for us. I think it took him about a second and a half to get back to us. When I say sprint....I MEAN SPRINT!!!!!! He is fast!!!!

So, we finally got in and headed up to the front of the stage. We stayed up there for the first few songs, but Chad was the only trooper who made it through the heat up front. Jen took off on her own after awhile because it was too crowded and hot. Ryan and I followed shortly after that. I actually thought I was going to pass out at one point. I don't think this old building had air conditioning. In fact, I'm pretty sure of it.

We headed up to the balcony area hoping for a little less crowded area with some leg room. The show was sold out, so there really was no "less crowded" areas. In fact, the balcony ended up being hotter than the floor.....probably 'cause heat rises, huh? But, we could sit down. Normally, that's not me at a show. I'm very rarely seated when there's live music in front of me, but I'm afraid if I hadn't sat down, I would have fallen down.

We eventually ran into Jen again and hung out the rest of the show with her. Despite the heat, we had a really great time. I have to say, I was much more pleased with Phil and Friends than I thought I would be. I will definitely try to see them again when I have the chance. Got to hear some great old Dead songs, and shook my tail until I almost sweated it off.

Since Chad had been up front all night, we were all walking out seperately. Ryan, Jen and I waited outside until we saw him pop through the crowd. The ironic thing about waiting on him was that we got to see something we had already seen earlier in the day. As Jen and I were sitting on the sidewalk, we saw a car run into a motorcycle when he was trying to get out of his parking spot. The bad thing about this incident was he did it twice!!!! I thought for sure that bike was gonna fall right over. The first time he was bakcing up, a few people started yelling when he got close to the bike, and he pulled forward. After that, he backed up again, and ran right into it all over again. By this time, he had half the crowd outside watching him. We were all screaming, and I'm still not sure if he ever even realized what he had done. Gotta watch out for those crazy Chicago drivers!!!

Chad drove us home the same night so we wouldn't have to fork out a bunch of money for a hotel in Chicago. It was nice because we had Adysen's birthday party the next day. So, we really appreciated him doing all that driving in one day.

That turned out to be a great birthday present to myself. Plus, we got to spend some good quality time with Jen and Chad. You gotta love that quality time with the family.

Birthday Bash

Oh, I've been so bad!!!!! I've done so much, but remember so little................aaahhhhhhh...........lets see.....................

Nuns on the Run was the end of September, so I'll pick up there...

We went to Chicago with Jen and Chad the next weekend, but that will get it's own blog........The next day, we had a party............

Ryan's youngest niece, Adysen, turned one year old on October 3rd, so we had a big birthday bash for her at the park in Rossville. It was the typical one year old party....I got some pretty cute pictures of her with her cake.......

She's just getting started here :-)

And, she's finishing up here....check out her ear.....eeewwwwwww!!!!

Here are her two sisters, Avery and Saige.

This is a better picture of Avery....she's a little devil. Don't let that sweet little grin fool you....she's EVIL!!!!This is a picture of Ryan's nephew Hunter on the tire swing. Good ol' Uncle Ryan out there playin' with the kids......................

This was Adysen's favorite present by far. She kicked and screamed when we took her off of it to get the wheels undone so she could actually roll somewhere.

Nuns on the Run

St Joseph Hospital had a fund raising event a couple weeks ago that I chose to participate in. Of course, I was interested in helping the cause, but I was really excited when our boss told us he would provide costumes to those of us willing to participate. Appropriately, he got nun costumes for all of us :-)

The event was called "Nuns on the Run," and was a bed race with teams formed from different departments throughout the hospital. It was held to raise money for Project Access, which is a volunteer outreach program that assists qualified, uninsured residents with health-care services.

Along with raising quite a bit of money, we also made the front page of the tribune............

It was so much fun......I was the team captain for our team, and definitely the "Hype Girl!!" My mouth was running the whole time we were out there, whether it was me talking trash to our opponents, or screaming at the top of my lungs for my runners to PUSH FASTER!!!!!!! I actually got the easy job 'cause all I had to do was ride.

These are the pictures that made the tribune. There are many, many more, but I have yet to get them off of my camera.

Nuns on the run: Allison Gallo yells out encouragement to her nun-powered Rad Racers pushing a bed down the course, beating out the Gohil Bunion Busters in their quarterfinal match during the first St. Joseph Hospital bed races. None/KT photo by Shawn Knapp

Serious business: The Xraycers edge out the Duck Busters to move on to the quarterfinals during the first St. Joseph Hospital bed races. None / KT photo by Shawn Knapp

The races were single elimination, so once you lost, you were done. The X-ray department had two teams, and they had the races set up so we would possibly end up in the finals against eachother. That's exactly what happened. My team was the Rad Racers, and our opponents from our department were the X-raycers. The X-raycers beat us by two tenths of a second.....It was really close, and super exciteing, and I think it was really good for a lot of the people in our department. We don't do a lot together as one big group. It seems like the department is divided by shifts a lot of the time. It was great to hang out with everyone and get along and not be worried about anyone else. We were all there to raise money for a good cause, and have fun at the same time. It was awesome!!!

Here's a link to the article from the Kokomo tribune if anyone is interested in reading all the details: http://www.kokomotribune.com/archivesearch/local_story_270224128.html