Ryan really enjoys helping out in the kitchen, so this weekend he and I made Christmas cookies. Definitely lots of fun.

View the rest of our Christmas cookie photos

We used the following recipe to make the cookies Mary’s Sugar Cookies

Rated: Submitted By: Pat Photo By: What a Dish! Prep Time: 15 Minutes Cook Time: 8 Minutes Ready In: 2 Hours 25 Minutes Servings: 60

This year was a ton of fun. Ashten was a “Scary Jester”, Ryan was “Yoda”, and Tanner was a “S.W.A.T” team member. Elke used Selene from “Underworld” as inspiration and was a gothic vampire, winning the contest at work for the best group costume.

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Another school year has begun.  This time around all THREE boys are in school.  Exciting times for us as Ryan starts kindergarten. Here’s to a great school year!

Our upstairs bathroom was in much need of repair.

The boys had broken one of the drawers coupled with the fact that the original blinds were now old and in need of replacing.

I wanted something that would feel fresh, clean and modern. I used their shower curtain (jungle theme) as inspiration for the colors I chose.

The shower area was painted using Laura Ashley Apple #5, purchased at Lowes.

The sink area was painted using Martha Stewart Farmhouse Blue.

My father-in-law was awesome and helped to install the mirrors and also fixed the molding behind the doorway. The original owner had left the area between the two doors with no molding and had not finished the drywall either.

The mirrors in the sink room are called the “Neal Medicine Cabinet”, while the mirrors over the toilet were purchased at Target.

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It was that time of year again, Blizzcon 2009! This is the penultimimate moment for any Blizzard Games fan. To make it more juicy, Blizzcon opened on my birthday this year   Talk about a present!

This year Ashten and I were joined by old friends and some new ones!  Matt (Gutzies), Alex (Eviandorian) — both of Aenima fame — and Jesse (Dömökun) who I knew from the TNOSC in Hawaii came, and then we met up with Brett (Sao) on Friday.   On Friday I also ran into Rob (Sykö) — Kill Order — and his girlfriend Elaine.  It was totally random and was not expecting to see him there, but was very exciting to see them!

While waiting in line for our tickets on Thursday I was interviewed by WoW Radio.  The link to the podcast with my interview is located here, my portion starts around 4:45.

So many exciting things happened this time around I can’t even explain it all!  We ran into Felicia Day, Vincent Caso, and Michele Boyd in the hotel the night before the show began.  For those not in the know, they are from the web series “The Guild“.  They were super awesome, very nice and we talked for a bit.  They allowed us to take a photo with them, for which I am incredibly grateful.  Felicia and I talked about how she has a dwarf priest, but that she thinks that when they allow cross-faction transfers that she may flip to Horde because blood elves are so pretty (they are).

Jay Mohr was the MC again, he did an awesome job and I look forward to seeing him at future Blizzcon events.  Ozzy Osbourne closed out the show, it was my first time seeing him and Ashten’s first “real” concert period.

Pictures are below.

Blizzcon Pre Event – Thursday
Blizzcon Day #1
Blizzcon Day #2

This picture completely cracks me up.  Cleveland rocks!

http://blip.fm/~a9shd

This weekend we decided to go visit the Maritime Museum in Manitowoc, WI.  The museum contains all kinds of great exhibits as well as a tour of a real WWII Submarine, the USS-Cobia.  We also visited the Berner’s Ice Cream shop which claims to be the first to invent the ice cream sundae!

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For the 4th of July this year we decided to head to Wisconsin Dells.  We stayed at the Wilderness on the Lake Resort which is on Lake Delton (it has water again!).  Was a ton of fun, we spent the weekend with my mother, sister Vanessa, and her boyfriend Jeff.

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Brad and I had a little weekend getaway and went to visit with our friend Horse at his cabin near here.  Was a nice evening hanging out on Loon Lake.

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