Decorating complete=Check

It only took my 11 months to get everything hung on the walls! Really, most things went up months ago, but I didn't have any decorations for the living room walls. And I'm not a decorator at all, so it took me a long time to decide what I wanted to do.  I finally decided on owls as the theme, but I struggled because owls are such a fad right now, and I didn't want to do something that looked like I was following the crowd.  Honestly, owls remind me of my Grandma Forsberg.  She passed away when I was really young, so I don't have very many memories of her.  But I remember the bathroom at her house being decorated with owls.  So, this is why I settled on the owl theme.  It helps that owls are the fad, because I can find them almost anywhere!  Here is the living room.  The pillows on the couch were a new addition after my birthday.  I had never liked the pillows that came with my couches, but never took the time in my apartment to search for anything.

The layout of the owls allows me to add to them if I want to.  I'm so happy to finally have things hanging on my walls in my living room!  And, of course, hanging credit goes to Amy.  There would be zero things hanging on the walls anywhere in the condo if it weren't for her!  Actually, I hung the calendar on the wall in the kitchen, so there would be something!

Spirit of Peoria

 If I've never said, I have the best Sunday School class at our church.  Some might say the class is a little too "old" for me, or I'm a little to "young" for them.  But this is totally and completely what I love about the body of Christ!  We are just believers in Christ, doing life together.  And yesterday we did life together by heading out for a 1 1/2 hour tour on the Spirit of Peoria, a paddle boat that does short and long tours.  I've lived in Peoria for 11 years and never done this before, so I was excited to try something a little different. Here is a picture I took of the boat a few years ago:

 It was the perfect weather.  I may have completely forgotten that the sun does sometimes burn and so I forgot the sunscreen at home.  I got a little pink, but not too bad, considering what I could have looked like after 2 hours in the sun! Below is the group that went:

 And here are some candid shots that I may have "stole" off someone else's Facebook page!  I always intend to take pictures, but most often never get around to it!

We ended our evening by eating at the Blue Duck.  Yum!

Babies

This weekend I made a very quick trip up to the suburbs to meet this little guy.  My cousins Michele and Sergio welcomed their first baby on August 8th.  He was a little early and had to spend some time in the hospital where visitors were limited, so we had to wait patiently to meet him.  But I took the first opportunity available.  And he sure is a cutie.  Gabriel, I can't wait to snuggle with you more.  Just remember, I may live a little further away, but I can still be your favorite second cousin once removed (or whatever the title might be!  It doesn't matter, just remember that I'm the favorite!)  Cry for everyone else, but snuggle cute with your hand tucked behind your ear while I'm around!

Thanks Michele and Sergio for sharing your sweet bundle with me for a few hours of snuggling and catching up!  You are loved!

Need help with that?

I sat down on the couch to do some stuff on the laptop. Two seconds later, I had this "helper":

Two seconds after that, he was fast asleep.

I very unkindly moved him beside me, and this is how he ended up:

where he is now fast asleep, while my left arm continuously moves with my typing.  It has not seemed to bother him yet.  My arm might fall asleep though.  This kitty is  no light weight anymore!