Louisville, KY

George & I took a trip to Louisville, KY this past week for a Metro College conference. It was for college ministers on church staff and their wives. I met some really sweet women who serve along side their husbands and it was so great to make connections with people who know the life I live! It was also a great getaway for the two of us after a pretty busy few weeks.

While there we had a little free time before the conference started and took a trip to the Louisville Slugger Museum. Let me say how shocked I was at this place. I honestly thought a bat was a bat...but after taking the tour I now know that there are over 1,000 bat templates for professionals...and that's just at this bat maker! It was pretty interesting.

We also drove out to see Churchill Downs (the site of the Kentucky Derby). The museum and track were closed that day (we were two days too early to see the museum which shuts down from August to late April) and we just didn't have time in our schedule for a tour. Let's just say the area of town the track is in is rough. Wow... so much money in one place surrounded by really run-down places. It was not at all like I expected. I honestly thought it would be surrounded my fields or at least in a part of town that felt up to par for the Kentucky Derby.

This is actually Barbaro's grave... he didn't break his leg here at the Derby...but at the Preakness. Apparently the horse Eight Bells is also buried at Churchill Downs...but somewhere inside the gates which we didn't get tos ee.

Game used bat from Mickey Mantel (hence the white gloves)

Us outside the museum in front of the huge bat

No clue what the significance of this glove is...but the tour guide brought it to me so I of course had to take a picture with it (???)

Happy Easter 2010!

Please pardon the fact that I don't have a cute Easter dress... George & I volunteered to work the nursery so I knew a dress wasn't a good option for me. I think I'll use that as an excuse to buy a new dress sometime soon. And George wears staff shirts - so if you're wondering what his says it's "CBC Staff".

New Bathroom!!

We've had some minor remodeling going on here at the Jacobus house lately. Our hallbath was overdue for some major renovating and was on our list of things to "get to." After a water leak in our kitchen caused destruction to the wood floor we had to tile that and figured we might as well get the bathroom done at the same time. So, now this bathroom has become my new favorite room of the house and I can't wait to have the money saved to do our bathroom too. After that is done literally EVERYTHING in the whole house other than doors/trim and windows would be new!!

BEFORE PICTURES:

(notice there wasn't even a place for a shower head to go -- it was rigged with a weird pipe by the previous owner/renters)

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER: I didn't take before pictures of the light fixture -- but think of the brass vanity lighting with 4 globes - 3 frosted and one clear (it was classy!!) haha

Snow Day!

It snowed at the end of February (the day before my birthday -- early gift, thank you!!). It started just as I was putting the kids to bed for a nap - and I couldn't resist getting them back out of bed, bundling them up and letting them play for about 45 minutes while the flakes were really coming down. I was so afraid it would stop (and be melted) by the time they got up a few hours later. It really snowed quite a bit and when George got home they played outside again. I of course didn't take pictures that time to show how much snow we actually got...but enough to throw snowballs at each other. They had a blast!

Hudson & Hallie's Birthday Party

We had Hudson & Hallie's 2nd birthday party at our house a few weekends ago. We had a full house with about 19 kids and 20 adults! The kids spent most of the time decorating bags that would be filled with their party favors. That seemed to be a hit (at least with my kids). Even after the party they kept asking to decorate bags.

Hallie very seriously decorating her bag

Hudson blowing out his candles - I made two separate cakes this year and we sang "Happy Birthday to You" to both of them.

Hallie blowing out her candles. Hudson's cake was yellow w/ chocolate icing & Hallie's was strawberry cake with homemade buttercream icing. YUM!

We tried hard to get a family shot... even though they aren't looking & Brooke's eyes are closed...they are all smiling!

Had to post this because of Hudson's smile. He was saying "CHEEEEESE!!!!"

One of our big 2 year olds!!

the lost, the broken, the new & the found....

Around Thanksgiving I discovered that our small & handy pocket camera was missing. I knew it was in the house SOMEWHERE because the last event's pictures were already loaded up on the computer. It bugged me so bad because I love having it in my purse for those times when I want to take pictures but don't want to haul our big camera around. Thankfully we still had our nice Canon camera ... that is until it began to fall apart. It all started when our nice long lens stopped working - just one day it randomly stopped clicking into place and wouldn't take pictures. Annoying step #1. Then my sweet, precious, darling children dropped the camera on it's face and the other lens got shoved and wedged in so that focusing was no longer an option. I took it in to see about having it repaired and found out that it basically would cost more to fix each lens than they were actually worth. Annoying step #2. My bright idea of using our old lens from the film SLR camera worked great... that is until Christmas when the camera itself stopped working! So here we were at Christmas with out a camera... at all!!! Annoying step #3. Our Christmas morning pictures were taken with a disposable camera... it was RIDICULOUS! And of course the camera had to break so close to Christmas that it couldn't end up on either of our 'wish' lists.

Enter February 2010. Still - no camera to be found anywhere... and still without a new one. My parents graciously allowed us to use their small pocket camera until we were able to buy a new one or find the missing one! A few weeks ago we moved the twins into beds instead of their crib. We were needing a matress so until we buy a new one we decided to use the matress from Brooke's trundle bed. And low and behold what do we find when we pull out the matress? Yep... our small camera. There it had been hiding for 3 1/2 months. Had we bought a matress instead we would never have found that - that is until we either (a) move or (b) have Brooke's first slumber party... that could have been forever!! How excited I was - and how many pictures I took!!! Only to find that my computer now doesn't recognize it when it's plugged into the computer since it has adapted to my parents camera (and THAT was an ordeal to get that to happen the first time I plugged that one in). Oh isn't technology fantastic???!!!

And now...on to the NEW!!! George being a great hubby bought me a new camera for my birthday using our credit card points that we've been storing away for "something"... we finally know what that "something" is. So, as soon as my computer will recognize the port the memory card is inserted into and the USB port for camera number 2 - I'll upload pictures from the following... 1. Hudson & Hallie's new room 2. Hudson & Hallie's 2nd birthday 3. Brooke singing the Aggie War Hymn and 4. SNOW in College Station!!! ***to those interested...we will NEVER allow the kids to touch this new one!!! :) ***

Now only one more "Lost" item in this house......... the most expensive of them all - my charm bracelet I started in 4th grade. Oh yes, the one FULL of James Avery charms at $30-40 a pop. I'm beginning to loose hope that I'll ever find it. My imagination has gotten to me that maybe it ended up in the trash or flushed down a toilet by the aforementioned sweet, precious, darling children. But, I'm begging God that isn't the case. And to those friends of mine who I see out and about wearing their charm bracelets... yes, those probably are tears welling up in my eyes as I think about what may have been. Pray with me that it will be found???!!???

Ginger's Wedding

Me with my brother, Ryan

Me and a silly Hudson
Ginger & me at the bridal luncheon
Hallie - she was all about the camera!

Me and my girls

Dancing family

Brooke - eating her cake. It was a moment for us where we looked at her and thought...oh my gosh, she is growing up so fast! The Jacobus & Terry familes!! :)