A Real Butt Kickin'

Well, we took our bi-annual trip to the Metrodome to watch the Hawks beat up on the Gophers this weekend. As you probably know, this trip was even more memorable than those in the past as it was the last game in the not-so-sound-friendly Metrodome. We had a great time with the usual suspects.....my parents, sister and her family, and our good friends Jim ("Slim Jim") and Diane Griffin. Many thanks to Amy's parents, Jeff and Sue, for watching the kids, house and dog while we were away!


As always, the Dome turned into Kinnick North and was full of thousands of Hawkeye fans. Our seats...........a bit high up there. To say the least. We did prove the atmosphere is quite colder the highter you get in elevation as most of us left the coats on throughout the game. We were seated in the top row at the Dome and literally between ductwork and piping.
Funny thing is, no matter where you watched the game from......be it the top row, front row, or your couch at home; the Hawkeyes DOMINATED the gophers and should be headed to sunny Florida for the holidays.

It was great to see the Seniors go out with such a big win and exciting to seen Greene break the rushing record. We only wish he and DJK didn't play bumper cars on the way toward the endzone on his last run. Somewhere in the picture below is Floyd, can you find him?

As always, the Hawks were thankful for our fan support and showed it by walking around the stadium and celebrating with all of us.

Love That Front Porch

Neighborhood Treats

I know, I know......we've been a bit slow at the blogging as of late. So, I thought I would go back and share a few pics and summary from our night of trick or treating.


The kids had a great time going around the Pheasant Run neighborhood as the weather was absolutely beautiful. Being that we live in the outskirst of small town West Branch, the kids took a ride in the trailer, hooked up to the ol' John Deere, as we met up with other friends.

After the search for treats, we headed to the Yeggy's for a great Halloween Party. Many thanks to Jodi and Kim for setting this up for the kids and adults. Jodi had some great spooky activities for the kids including the famous gross body parts (food) and the now infamous mummy wrap race via the use of toilet paper. It was a great time!

"She's beautiful"

So little Miss Katie Iverson says we need to make a new post, so for lack of a post with actual content or photos, I remembered this funny story from a month ago.

So I'm taking the boys to get haircuts at Twin Image and we are sitting there waiting our turn right by the reception desk and the conversation goes like this:

Carver: Who's cutting our hair mommy?
Me: Danielle, that lady right over there behind the counter with the curly hair.
Carver: Oh, I like her hair, it's beautiful.
Me: Wow, Carver beautiful? Where did you learn that word?
Carver: At school. She's beautiful.
Me: Well you should tell her that if that's what you think.

Danielle is ready and comes walking over to us.

Me: Carver, don't you have something you want to tell Danielle?
Carver: You're beautiful! (4 yr old talking, sounds more look bootiful)
Danielle: Oh that's so sweet! (In a high pitched voice)

And Carver gets a big hug and a kiss on the cheek from beautiful Danielle. Since then, Carver has used this method on a few waitresses with the same result. Kinnick chimes in with his own bootiful's every once in awhile too.

May that be a lesson to all of the men out there, sincere compliments MAY get you a kiss and a hug!

Pre-Marital Bliss

9 years ago today, yes on Halloween, my beloved husband proposed to me. We took a picnic at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL. After driving around trying to find the perfect picnic spot (I think it was at least 45 minutes), we finally settled on a place under a tree. Imagine that, a good place under a tree at an arborteum. :-)

We first ate our lunch, then Brian gets out one of those pumpkin trick or treat bins to put your candy in. Inside it was a ton of candy corn, my favorite halloween candy of all time! I was like ooohhhh sweet, my favorite. All of a sudden, Brian gets out a sheet of paper and he says I wrote a poem for you. It was titled "Candy Corn" and was very sweet (haha get it, pun for dear Grandpa Fred). I had no idea Brian could write poems and good ones at that! He had managed to touch on our years in college together when we were just friends in our civil engineering classes and then the year we had spent together in Chicago. I shed quite a few tears and didn't even realize what was going on, until Brian said look in the candy corn. Buried in the candy corn was a ring box with my engagement ring in it. I was completely surprised and had no idea it was coming. Of course I said yes, and a year and few days later we entered "marital bliss" on November 4th, 2000.

Most people don't remember the specific day they got engaged, but thanks to my creative husband, I will never forget how it happened on Halloween. Thanks baby for the memories!

Crave to Carve

As some of you know, one thing we look forward to doing every year is carving pumpkins come Halloween time. This year we ended up getting one pumpkin for each member of the family from the Kroul farm.

Of course, have the fun is gutting the pumpkins and pulling out the seeds to bake later. The kids love this part!

It was a lot of fun this year as the kids were able to tell me what they wanted carved on their pumpkin. So, here are the results.....

Taylor wanted a pumpkin on her pumpkin with a bat balancing on top of the pumpkin, and of course what ever my girl wants I provide.

Carver decided to go with a scary type of ghost. Here is what I came up with.

Kinnick was the more challenging request as he wanted Bob the Builder on his pumpkin. Though I had some issues with Bob's overalls, all in all it came out pretty good.

Not only I do carve the pumpkins, but Amy is talented as well. Here is the pumpkin she chose and carved herself.

And finally, I decided to go the Star Wars route this year and carved a Darth Vader pumpkin. It was difficult but fun to see the end product. I was then able to take the Vader pumpkin to our church couples group as there are several Star Wars fanatics in our group.

All the pumpkins together!

Fun in Costumes

We had a dress rehearsal for trick or treat night as we took the kids to the Iowa City rec center to enjoy the Halloween festivities Friday night. They had numerous games, crafts, and of course treats for the kids to enjoy. Herky and the Hawkeye spirit squad was in attendance as well.