I Rest My Case

I am only posting this because this past weekend Ben and I went to Nick and Kelly's house to visit. While we were there Ben complained how I never use the wood burning stove to heat the house. Well, last night when Ben got home from work he joked about the nice fire I had going to heat the house. Of course there was no fire but we then continued to argue about why there wasn't. I said that I would be happy to make fires if Ben would not allow the bucket that holds the ashes underneath to overflow making a huge mess everywhere that I have to clean with the shop vac because when he cleans it with the regular vacuum it clogs the hose and I have to unscrew everything to clean it out. He said that was pure lies and that I always let it overflow. However, I have researched this issue and have found that after 2 fires the bucket should be emptied while he says that after 3 fires it is still fine.

This morning, being the good wife I am, I went to start a fire. First I checked the bucket and this is what I found. My husband left this for me after his last 3 fires and I believe this proves my point.











So now you all know that I spent the morning cleaning my living room because there was dust everywhere from the overflowing bucket of ashes. So I took it out to dump it and then hauled the huge shop vac from the garage to the living room to clean it all up. Then I had to vacuum the floors and dust everything that now had a film of dust on it. So Kim, Mom or Dad - I need a mini shop vac for Christmas...because we all know that even though I am right Ben will continue to be wrong.

Love - Kori

NEW FLOORING!!!!!!

The girls were so excited Sunday evening when Mark and I stopped by their house because their dad was almost done putting new flooring down in their kitchen. Karen and Chris picked the flooring up Friday evening and Chris was almost done laying it Sunday evening. Amazing!!!!!

And doesn't it look nice?!?!? They also painted their little nook (where Grandma Rankin had her washer and dryer) red to match the rest of the kitchen.

And Mark grouted our bathroom floor Saturday afternoon!!! We thought the floor looked so much better with the tile on it, but it really does look better finished with grout!!! (Are we just rednecks, or what?) Thank you, Kelly and Nick, for the leftover tile from your previous house and for laying the tile, and thanks to all our son-in-laws for doing the prep work (we won't say when it was laid but it was awhile back!!). Now to decide on the wall treatment -- paint or wallpaper?!?!?

Houston, Texas

Mark and I spent the week of February 4 in Houston, Texas. I had been referred to a cardiovascular surgeon at the Texas Heart Institute, Dr. Joseph Coselli, and had an appointment to see him on Wednesday, February 6. We didn't get to sight-see very much, arriving in Houston Tuesday evening, seeing the doctor on Wednesday, having a nuclear stress test on Thursday and leaving Friday morning. We did see the Astrodome and Reliant Stadium/Park and drove all over Houston, trying to find restaurants that we had seen on the Food Network. We ate at two of them: Ninfa's (a Mexican restaurant) and Goode Company Barbeque. Both were very good!! We decided against Bubba's Texas Burger Shack after seeing it, although sometimes those are the best places to eat at!! Mark didn't think we should go in, though.

The Texas Medical Center was impressive, covering more than 740 acres and encompassing more than 100 permanent buildings. (It is in Texas, after all!!!) Some of the members are: Baylor College of Medicine, several hospitals, Rice University, and, of course, the Texas Heart Institute founded by Dr. Denton Cooley. The Heart Institute and St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital have become the largest cardiovascular center in the world.

Reliant Stadium and Astrodome



The Astrodome


St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital (one of the buildings)

The Texas Children's Hospital (one of the buildings)

This is the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, part of the Texas Medical Center and across the street from the Texas Heart Institute.

I knew if I wore this shirt and posted this picture, I would get remarks from one or more of my daughters. Yes, I know that probably all of you wore this shirt while you were in high school!!!! BUT, it's comfortable and I wanted people to know where I came from!!!

Dart Tournament 2008

I don't know what Kim is doing or saying, but it's a funny picture!

Nick and me

Kim E. and me!

Amy and Dan

Okay, so when I first moved up here Kim and Scott told me about the dart league that Scott is on and I admit that I teased him about it. Then one night they needed a sub because one of the guys was going to be gone for a game, so I said I would play. At first, I just had a whatever type of attitude about it, but the more I played that night the more competitive I got about it and that was it, I was then a dart nerd. Now, I am not half as bad as Scott and Nick are, but I enjoyed going and watching them play every now and then and always had a good time when I got to play. Although, it could have been because we played darts in the bar so of course there was beer, that's always a plus!



Anyway, at the end of the leauge there's a dart tournament where all the teams go to one bar and play against eachother. Although our guys did not do so well, we all had a blast afterwards. I think I was in the bar for nine hours that day. It was so much fun!



*Kendall*

Happy Birthday Jacob!!

Sorry it has taken me so long to get some pictures up! I really haven't been busy, so I don't have much of an excuse. Anyhoo, here's a few pics of the kid on his big day. I only have a few of him and not any that are really good, but I know you guys like to see the good and the bad!

*Kendall*

Happy New Year!!!

Jen and me in the basement...the upstairs bathroom was full.

Tommy and me

Jen and Gretchen at the bar


Sam and me

Gretchen, Jen, and Kitchell

~Jenny Juice~

Haha..I love this picture of Jen the next morning!

Here are some pictures from the hoppin' New Year's Eve night! Notice there are no pictures with Kori, she was laying in my bed sick with the flu all day. I felt so bad! Anyhoo, the Nordlund boys had a party at their house so we went there for a bit, then went into town to the bar because there was a D.J., then we went back to the Nordlund's and was there until midnight. A little while after midnight though we headed back to the bar to dance the night away!

Tinsel Town aka Grygla

We were playing bingo at one of the bars and both Jen and Jes won! YAY!

It only took us about ten different pictures to get a decent picture of all of us!

A long long time ago, like a few days after Christmas, my friend Gretchen invited us up to her house. She decided to throw a little Christmas bash with a few of our closest friends. Kori was up at the time, so Grandma and Grandpa Cooper watched the kid and the three of us headed "Nort' past the bridge" to Grygla to the Smebys'. We all had a BLAST! There was tons of good food and lots of alcohol and then we all brought a gift for a gift exchange. It was SO nice to be able to just get together and hang out since we all live so far apart and are so busy these days! They even brought Kori to tears when they included her as one of their friends and got her gifts( I don't think she was expecting anything and was just going for the social part!)!!

I kind of went backwards with these pictures. The top ones are taken when we went out to the bars of Grygla and the bottom ones are taken at they Smeby house.