Holly’s Life

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Belated holiday post!

To beat Super-duper Winter storm 2009 that was coming in on Christmas Eve, we left for KS a couple days earlier than planned. Originally we were going to be gone for about three days, but since leaving earlier made our trip longer (six days) we decided to take the kitties with us!
The car ride was interesting! Spunky did meow a lot but he didn’t seem as freaked as we gave him Rescue Remedy drops and those mellowed him out some. Viv was fine, liked to explore.

Her favorite spot was the dash though we didn’t let her get up there much

Getting coffee before getting on the road, Viv chilling and being curious

This says it all, how the whole 4 hours went!

Kalli and I boiling apple cider with mulling spices

Chris logged in to work the first couple days we were there so I did stuff with the kids, ran errands with Tom and the kids, etc.
Mom and Dad H came in on Christmas Eve and Kalli promptly had Dad H dressed as Santa

Viv was fine exploring the house, but Punks was a little more upset, so Chris was smarty-pants and made a cat cave out of a plastic tub and blankets. Punks was very content and cozy in there for most of the stay!

The Christmas spread

On Christmas morning Mom H made homemade cinnamon rolls, mmmmmm!

One more time, mmmm

Cute one of Tom and the kids

One of Chris’ gifts - a watch

Kalli is a huge fan of all things pink so Chris and I got her her very own pink Christmas tree! Along with A LOT of pink ornaments (we went overboard)

We built up David’s Hot Wheels collection a bit!

I think this is so cute. Chris got Penny and Mom a Farkle set, they loved it!

Awww pics of the grandkids

Also got Chris a Lego firetruck he built right away. This has sparked another Lego frenzy for him and since we’ve been home he’s been cleaning up the basement and getting all his Legos out and building again (and buying a lot more on eBay!)

Christmas dinner. SO MUCH yummy food all weekend (as my tight jeans told me later!)

Good one of Dad H

Penny & Kalli

Future heartbreaker

We played a lot of Balderdash, Wizard, David lived on the Wii for three days straight and just enjoyed snowed-in activities. Come Sunday we had to do quite a bit of shoveling to get ourselves out of the driveway, but once we were on the interstate everything was clear and dry for the ride home.
Thanks family for another awesome time!

The rest of the week home I was off work (woo!) so I made cookies with Sarah and relaxed. On New Year’s Eve we had some people over and did what we always do with people - played games, ate, watched The Hangover

Since my sisters and I all spent Christmas with our in-laws we did a late Christmas together on New Year’s Eve Weekend.

Yes, let’s get this celebration kicked off right!

Santa cookies (carried on from Grandma’s tradition)

Eric helping Eli with his Yo Gabba Gabba percussion set

The best gift of the day - A Christmas Story leg lamp! We all chipped in and got this

Eli in on the action too

A bottle of wine dad bought for us three or four years ago which wasn’t to be opened until 2010. It was a delicious Shiraz!

We also had a lovely ham dinner but we didn’t get pics of that!

That was part of the week that was negative a bajillion degrees so we stayed in all weekend! A lot of movies, snacks, drinks, etc.

So yes, Chris and his legos. I woke up one morning and found this on our kitchen counter

A Lego model of our townhouse! So cute!

First floor (complete with cars in garage), second floor, roof

Viv helped. She’s been interested in Chris’ Lego hobby and sits on/around his builds

He actually let me build one of the sets! He had to fix it too when I put something together one section off, oops

We could open a store

So the holidays have been over for a couple weeks and we’ve been back to work (well, I took a break, Chris didn’t really) and working out. I packed on probably 5 lbs over the holidays but after a couple weeks of eating better and working out I’m back to where I was before the holidays (woo!).

This past weekend April and Alisha came up for a visit. They just got back from a long trip to Italy so it was fun to see them and spend time with them again!
They came in Friday and we just relaxed until bedtime. On Saturday we drove up to Boone to go snow tubing at Seven Oaks. It was a great time but it was such a steep hill and you went so fast that I was a little freaked! Funny how I can ski fine at 12,000 feet but tubing at 300 feet gets to me

Heading up

On the way home we had another little adventure. There’s an abandoned school in Luther (in between Boone and home) and I asked Chris to pull over so I could take a couple pictures. Well, a ditch filled with snow makes the ground look level! Guess what, it wasn’t; we quickly sunk down.
We were probably great than a 45-degree angle; I was afraid we’d tip! Pics don’t do it justice

Luckily a good samaritan with a truck who just happened to have a two rope helped us out! It took several tries but he finally got us out! Whew. Very nice not to have to pay and wait for a tow truck. Lesson learned - ditches filled with snow will not hold up a car
Yesterday we shopped about all day and they headed home today - thanks for coming up ladies!

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Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

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Oh blog how I have ignored you A lot of big stuff and not-so-big stuff has gone on, I just haven’t sat down to make myself post anything! With the holidays here I’ve also thought about holiday posts but then I would think “hmmm, that post would read exactly like the same holidays posts from the last 5 years! We ate, chatted, played games, had a good time.”
Isn’t 28 too young to feel like life is repetitive?! Don’t get me wrong, no complaints here.

So, even though I just said all that - here’s some stuff, including holidays! heh

Some lovins’ with Eli before Thanksgiving dinner

Post-dinner games including blackjack and Pictionary

And, of course, the day after Thanksgiving we had to pick out our tree!

Cool kid in Amy’s shades

We spent time at the Science Center with Eli (which he loved) and did all the usual family stuff!

The first weekend in December we went up to Sioux City with Mom and Dad Hettinger to do an early Thanksgiving with Lin and Brian (Chris’ aunt and uncle) and the rest of the Hettinger clan.

Mandy’s (Chris’ cousin) oldest, Wednesday and youngest, Danica

The girls (Wednesday, Ashley, and Josie) entertaining us with the 12 Days of Christmas, complete with dance moves

We watched a couple family-related videos. Dick (Chris’ uncle) is a dentist and does dental charity work, so he had a news video from the latest free dental clinic and Mandy had video of a Down Syndrome walk from last summer in Sioux City. Dani was very excited to see herself on tv! TOO cute

Wouldn’t be a Hettinger gathering without tickle wars

Dani loved having Chris lift her so she could touch the ceiling and she insisted I take a picture each time, so we have about 15 pics exactly like this one

Mom/Dad H and Chris and I split gifts for all the girls. Dani loved her new coat and gloves (can you tell I think she’s adorable! She’s such a ham for the camera too)

Brian enjoying his new ballcap

Dad H excited by his Heelan sweatshirt (where he went to high school in Sioux City)

Mom H and her bird figurine

Chris pretending like he was going to hog our Starbucks gift cards (pishaw)

We’re all decked out and ready to go for Christmas - I can’t believe it’s next week already!

We’ve also had a couple movie nights with Sam and Shannon (we’re getting near the end of the AFI Top 100 list - crazy!) and had the usual go to work, work out, eat, sleep days as well. I got a promotion at work a few weeks ago which is great! I basically have the same job but I’m the “next level” up and will have a few more responsibilities; maybe a new tech writer reporting to me, we’ll see.
We enjoyed the blizzard last week - Chris and his team usually work from home and I can work from home when necessary so it was nice not to have to try to go anywhere.
That’s about all!

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Been slacking on the updates.

1. Painted our entryway on Halloween before going to Chris and Jen’s Halloween party
Painting

2. Sarah and Steph got married
Wedding

and we had a brunch the day after
Brunch

And that’s about it! I guess I’m still slacking at really posting. Looking forward to Thanksgiving next week!

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A couple weekends ago we went to Chicago to watch and support Sarah and Steph run the marathon! It was a quick trip (6 hours there Saturday, 6 hours back Sunday!) but it was great to be there and see it!
We stayed with my old camp friend, Crailin. I hadn’t seen her in 7-8 years (reconnected on facebook) so it was so fun to see her again. She’s one of those people where you always pick up right where you left off no matter how long it’s been.

Waiting for the El with Crailin

We first saw them at mile 8 in Boystown. This is the half block I ran Sarah’s arm around my back - love this pic!

We rode the El a lot over our less than 24 hour stay, which our small-town Des Moines selves found pretty fun! Chris was cute and sneaky and got this pic; I didn’t realize what he framed in the picture until I was looking at the trip pics

Wow. Just wow. A marathon. On crutches.

The girls at mile 22 in Chinatown (in the middle of the pic, behind the runners in the foreground)

Finished! Steph’s brothers Clint and Ryan with them

Finisher medals

This past weekend was Sarah and Steph’s bridal shower and bachelorette party weekend. Mom, Amy, Eric, and Eli came up to celebrate and so did April and Alisha!

Pretend sleeping again…maybe Eli is catching onto to how much I like to be horizontal with my eyes closed

Computer games already! He looked over at Chris’ screen while he was playing, pointed at his character and said “running!”

Recession wedding donations anyone??

Cheers! Sarah, Steph, Justice, Jana, Michelle

It was a great night! Just a couple weeks until the wedding now!

The other big news most of you know about now is that we had to have Spunky’s tail amputated. He had a bump on there for a few weeks that wasn’t going away so the vet wanted to remove it as x-rays showed it was eating into his tail vertebrae. We’ll know soon if it was cancer or an infection - either way they thought it was best to remove it to stop whatever was eating at the bone.
He’s doing really well! Besides being careful when he sits down he’s just like his old self!

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A week late in posting this. Again, for those of you who see my fb page, this will be a little repeat

We took off early a week ago Thursday to fly out to Vegas for Cindy (Chris’ oldest half sister) and Steve’s wedding.
The trip started out great in that I won the dollar lottery on the plane! Anyone who wanted to could write their seat # on a dollar and put it in a bag; then they drew my seat! Pretty exciting stuff. That was really nice for Chris and I to split (isn’t that nice of me that I split it?! hehe) for the bachelor/bachelorette parties. Even more convenient for Chris I’m sure since they were all already $1 bills

Jim, Lin, and Kallie picked us up at the airport and we headed to the hotel to rest up. I went with the girls to Excalibur for Thunder from Down Under which was quite the show! :):) Spent the rest of the night at a couple bars and meeting back up with the guys for the rest of the night. Didn’t get any pics though The show said no pictures and we weren’t sure if that meant you couldn’t even bring a camera in or not so I didn’t bother and left it at the hotel.

The next day we drove up to the Hoover Dam to site see. Chris got some good shots
The new bridge they’re building has to be among some of the tallest bridges around.

Kalli and me; still can’t believe how big she’s getting!

Only stayed there an hour or so before heading back to the hotel for the rehearsal (that’s the thing about Vegas, it takes forever to get anywhere so you have to plan a lot of travel time). Rehearsal was short and sweet and we all had an awesome dinner at a Mexican place at the hotel.

Then Saturday was the wedding!
The girls all ready to go at the salon: Tena, Cindy (bride), and Penny

The service was beautiful - heartfelt, funny. Stefanie (Steve’s daughter) sang a few songs; she has an amazing voice and I believe is going to the Boston Conservatory for it.
General wedding pics:
Some of the Hettingers: Penny, Philo, Jim, Linda (Jim’s sister)

Stefanie singing

More Hettingers! (Finally got Steve in a pic)

Hettinger and Bostinelos sides

Just a few people of this GIANT family

Cheers!

My dance partner for a song. Did Chris step in? No, he sat and laughed and took pictures This was snapped at the perfect time to make it look like we knew what we were doing!

We danced (and drank ) the night away and went to bed whenever; can’t remember.
Sunday morning was brunch (as was most mornings; giant brunches at the buffet, mmmmm) and then site-seeing on the strip.

At Bellagio with Paris in the background

We met Dimitri and Michelle and a couple of their friends for dinner. Dimitri is John’s son (so, the girls’ half-brother on their dad’s side of the family). It was my first time meeting the girls’ dad’s side of the family and it was fun! Dimitri and Michelle are about the same ages as us and we seemed to have a lot in common too!
Had dinner at Rainforest Cafe at MGM Grand (Michelle next to me, Dimitri next to her and their friends (forgot their names already))

Walked around the strip some more. Had some fun at the M&M store

Michelle and Dimitri already had tix to see Zumanity (oooh website looks scandulous ) and we’ve always wanted to see a Cirque du Soleil show so we got tix too. It was amazing! Amazing dancers, acrobats, with some comedy thrown in. A good time; definitely want to see more Cirque shows.

And finished up the night with Bellagio water shows, of course!

Monday was packing up and saying goodbye and traveling for waaaay too long (our connection to DM was in Atlanta??)

Great trip, went by quickly as they all do. Congrats Cindy and Steve!

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For $27/month I’m going to sponsor a woman, you can too.

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Haha, too many online things to keep up with. I already posted all this stuff on facebook, but I will blog about it too!

Floors are in and finished and the rooms are (basically) put back together! We did moving/demo on Saturday-Monday and the installer took a solid three days (Wed-Fri) to do the whole floor. We’re very, very happy with the result!! The rooms look so much more “crisp” if it’s possible for rooms in a house to look crisp.

Anyway, a couple of the after shots:

Living room:

Dining room:

This isn’t the best pic of the kitchen b/c fluorescent lighting sucks, looks better in person

Hallway/entryway:

Bathroom:

View from 2nd floor:

More pics here if you’re interested

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Alright - finally got everything uploaded! Like most of our trips I’ll be light on the writing and heavy on the picture-ing

The gals came into Des Moines Friday night and we played games and chatted until going to bed. We were up bright and early Saturday to get on the road so we could get to Chi-town at a decent time.
We got in a little after noon and checked in at the Hard Rock Hotel (great place!)

View from our room:

Cool bathrooms!

Good company while going potty haha

Had to be a tourist and get a pic of the pretty elevator bank

The building the hotel’s in used to be the Carbide & Carbon building (whatever that means), but I read on Wickipedia that they filmed the opening sequence to “Wanted” on top of the hotel!

A water feature in one of the parks. Tall glass-block towers with water cascading down them. Every once in a while the water would shut off and a pic of a person would show up and then they “spit” water out. Funny!

After showering up we walked down to the Chicago jazz festival at Grant Park
Touch ‘n’ Go chess games on the street:

Met up with April and Alisha’s friends Kelly and Debbie, so: April, Kelly, Debbie, Sarah, me, Jill

We stayed at the festival for an hour or so and then checked out a little outdoor café in the park, but first we spent some time at this sculpture. I guess the artist calls it “Cloud” but it’s nicknamed the bean for obvious reasons. Remind anyone else of Flight of the Navigator??

Our reflection in the bean

Under the bean (see the face?)

Saw several wedding parties over the weekend - loved the blue they picked

At the café - Jill and me with matching drinks

After spending a couple hours at the café we took a cab over to Navy Pier (I guess locals call this a tourist trap), checked out another restaurant and rode the famous ferris wheel

The entrance (made me sad that McDonald’s arches are ALL over the ferris wheel)

After that we hung out a little at Alisha’s friend’s apartment and then called it a night.

On Sunday we took a few hours to (wait in line and) see/go up Sears Tower (yes, renamed Willis Tower, but the locals still call Sears)
Waiting to go up the tower

Like most touristy places, we spent more time waiting in the line than actually being at the top of the building

At the top they’ve added these plexi-glass (?) boxes so you can hang outside of the building (103 floors up)

Kinda freaky looking

Back at the bottom of the tower they have a really neat display for Chicago being a 2016 Olympics candidate city

Once we were done with that we took a cab over to Lincoln Park to check out the cute boutique shops there. The houses there look much more west-coast - row houses/brownstones, whatever you call them.

We ate at this cute place called the Meatloaf Bakery (make the meatloafs (meatloves?) look like cupcakes with mashed potatoes as the ‘frosting’)

After that we relaxed for a little while and then went back to the Lincoln Park area (I think?) to see a Second City show, which was hysterical! We were cracking up the whole time. We were sat right next to the stage (not our choice) and one of the actors sang a song to me during the show, so that was a little embarrassing and funny at the same time.

On Monday morning we headed over the Shedd Aquarium. Of course, without using the flash most of the pics came out blurry so after a while I gave up and took video. I did get a couple good shots though.

See the frog?

This makes me laugh - the underbelly of a manta ray just kind of looks like a fat, happy man

Seahorse

A couple of the better ones, a starfish (near the top so it’s reflection above it) and the octopus which, according to some Asian ladies beside us, made “them hungry.” Ha!

Coral lab

Got a lot of sea life activity on this one

Loved the Beluga whales!

Have to eat a hot dog from a stand.

And a random artsy shot of a rock garden at Hard Rock

Random - on our way out to Chicago we saw a very large man in a Smart Car with this on his license plate - we laughed for a long time about this one Turns out Chris works in the same building as this guy, so he got a pic of this guy’s car Tuesday morning.

So great time was had by all - need to do more girls’ trips!

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