This year, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union Address fall on the same day. As Air America Radio pointed out, "It is an ironic juxtaposition: one involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to a creature of little intelligence for prognostication, and the other involves a groundhog".

http://www.groundhog.org/info/feb1.shtml check out some of these events!! which one do you want to attend? i personally want to go to Groundhog Bingo.. who's coming with me?

in other news the weekend was pretty lame. (lame sauce, say it with me) i did my first run; it was a little rougher than anticipated! we ate out too much and spent too much monies per usual.

stickshifts and safety belts.

It’s Friday afternoon! Yea! We have no real plans this weekend! (other than NO plans because we need to save some cash monies SOMETIME in our lives! Yea right.)

Um, I have to work at the Little Gym on Saturday. Um, OH WAIT I do have exciting news:

Two things:

- I have decided to participate in the Little Rock Marathon Relay for the second year in a row!! So that is exciting. www.littlerockmarathon.com Last year I did the first 6.8 mile leg through beautiful downtown Little Rock – past the Clinton Library and the Arkansas Arts Center! This year my partners in crime/running are Michael Pirnique, Arkansas Business photographer, Nate Hinkle, Arkansas Business writer, and Mark Friedman, Arkansas Business writer. Oh, wait, NO! Mark backed out! =( Insert Sean Dunbar, Arkansas Business Sales Extraordinaire. That is the plan anyway! So, um, last year I did a lot more races (10Ks and what not) BEFORE to train. Um. So. I better get to running. It is on Sunday, March 5!

- I have officially filled out my Survivor application. Will be making video soon. More details to come!

- Karl has taken on a web design project. two of them. outside of work. and i am going to help! so that's fun, huh?

chop shop.

sigh. emily did the best job. per usual. i love going in and being like do whatever and she always makes my hair look so cute! such a talented girl. everyone should go see her so they don't have to worry about having un-cute hair. this pic demonstrates one pigtail off! karl wouldn't touch it like it was creepy or weird since it wasn't actually ON my head anymore. (even though it had been two seconds earlier!) it (the hair) is at home now (haha.. gross) waiting to be SENT AWAY to the lock-o-love. hopefully someone can use it!!! come over and see it if you want!! (kidding. that's just gross.)

shorty mc shorts a lot.

it's GONE! YEA! i can't wait to wa(r)sh it! emily is the best. sorry for the icky face... i am just trying to show you the new do. verdict? well, for me, YEA!! cute. love. karl got his cute too but he didn't want a picture up!

happy 2-5.

kristen and e are celebrating a bday. yea! happy day.

happy 2-5 (continued...)

the bday celebrations continue. happy bday melissa (center) also celebrating the big 2-5 on 1.23 (must be a popular day!) picture circa 1999. (high school homecoming i think?)

family time.

so the morgan family (karl's sister kristen, her husband henry, and kiddos kelly and tyler) were in town to pick up some stuff for their impending move to Salt Lake City, UT. =( they are currently in Oklahoma and we will miss them being so close!! picture: MK, Karl, Kelly.

george.

more info on the george concert to come. check this post later this afternoon!

more info also on Friday's HH... i am sure Su will have some great pics on her bloggity blog.

This is the email I got from Elizabeth (she is a junior high teacher) yesterday. Hilarious:

I have 20 kids in detention. They are driving me insane. It’s lovely having the 20 “best” kids in one room. Ha, ha. Actually, there’s one key kid that’s NOT in here, so it’s not too terribly bad. At least I won’t have to do it the rest of the year. Heidi’s had Math Counts on Thursdays, so I’ve covered her 2 weeks. She owes me.

Detention. I only had it once in my life. Now we (well Elizabeth anyway!) are in charge of detention. Haha.

It’s Friday. Time for the weekend. And no 2nd jobbie for me this weekend so I am a happy girl! This week was great. Some highlights:

• Going to the ASAE luncheon and hearing Dale Bumpers speak. He is old, but he rocks hard core. I think some conservatives in the room might have disagreed.
• Lunch was at Chenal Country Club so I got to see the site for Audra and Mike’s wedding reception. Very nice.
• USGBC (green building council) lunch yesterday at Next Level Events… the first event I have really “planned” (helped plan?) at my new job. All was successful! Yea!
• Hanging out and playing dice w/ Elizabeth and Annie. That was fun.

Ummm…. Obligatory Weekend plans include: Tonight is HAPPY HOUR at Senor's w/ Susan and some Arkansas Business friends! yea! Saturday is George Strait. I am unfortunately NOT going to Fort Smith to try out for Survivor. =( Why can’t they come to Little Rock?

hi. i'm big.

arlo has gotten a little bigger, dontcha think? yea. he's huge. nothing too exciting to report. the weekend was fine... and on to a busy week at work. i am getting more adjusted and still liking it. i am joining asae. (arkansas society of association executives) because i am so big and important now...er...

um. what else? karl says hello; he is coaching his basketball kiddos tomorrow and playing on wednesday AND he is excited about the george strait concert this weekend. that is all the exciting news he could muster up when i asked him if he wanted to contribute to today's blog. oh, and he wants you all to know he painted the bathroom. (because i suck at painting)

also, there are some pretty funny pics of me from back in the day on my friend Sara's blog (http://quirozs.blogspot.com/) in case you are interested. they're pretty hot i'm not going to lie.

Thursday?!? Can’t believe this week is almost over. Or that we are half way through the month. Wasn’t NYE yesterday?

News/Gossip/Thoughts:

• A new season of Survivor starts February 2!! So exciting. Check er out: www.survivorscores.blogspot.com

• What is a binki? Do you call it a binki or a pacifier? Discuss. (You know that little thing you put in a baby mouth to keep them quiet?) (I say BINKI btw… karl had never heard of it… is it because his lack of baby experience or is it a regional term?) (this discussion came about at Christmas when there were 4 million babies running around us BY THE WAY not because we sit around talking about babies thank you very much.)

• Multipication table tricks. (don’t ask how we got on that subject!) When did you learn them? Did you learn your 9’s w/ the trick of subtracting one number from nine to get the first number and adding up to nine for the second (example: 8 x 9. You subtract one number from 8 to get 7. Then you add a 2 to it because 7 plus 2 equals 9. They always equal nine. 8 times 9 is 72.) Get it? Did you learn it this way? PLUS karl thought I was loony when I said “8 times 8 fell on the floor when it got up it was 64.” Did you have any silly games like these? Just curious.

Please note I am NOT blogging at work again. I had this finished last night; I just wasn’t able to post until today. Audra and I went to the Wal-Mart of Bridal Stores (good ole David’s BRIDAL!) last night. It was HILARIOUS. We were treated like crap initially because we were “WALK-INs” (and they prolly thought we were 12!) and they told us all about Jackie O. We couldn’t stop giggling. They probably should have kicked us out. However, we did find some VERY PROMISING dress options for her (for real). (Especially the BRIGHT WHITE one with bright PINK and BLUE beaded flowers ALL over it (and TULLE out the booty) the saleslady thought she would “just love”… my mouth twitched… the same saleslady who told us she still forces people to watch her wedding video and cries every time she sees her and her daddy dancing to ‘butterfly kisses’. No. I am not kidding.) Sorry that was a long story and dangit, yes, I did that part at work.

Breaking News: Kristen GLORIA now has a blog. Welcome her to the blogosphere at www.kristenandjr.blogspot.com/. Yippy!!

we can safely say this dress is not "it."

i think we can safely say this dress is not the one, but it's pretty isn't it!?! bridal and what not! july 15th people. july 15th. trotter-wallace extraordinaire.

friday: bowling was fun.

saturday: dress shopping with audra was fun. karl and i ate at the town pump which was surprisingly good. saturday night at the rose. also fun. kristen now thinks we are crazy/evil as karl and i told her all the intricate details of our fraternity/sorority presidencies. haha. it was hilarious.

sunday: work at LG. dinner with matt and annie at damngoode pies. fun. (and yum)

nothing too terribly exciting (other than the dress shopping) for us this past weeked. both karl and i are busy at work. realized my sister is in fact graduating this spring so must begin to plan the trip to the great state of wisconsin. AND it rained in Arkansas for the first time in thirty something days. brrrrrrrrrrr.....

shh...blogging at work is bad.

WHY IS THIS DAY SO LONG!?! i am going bonkers. bonkers people.

if you are reading this right now you are probably just as BONKERS as me for this weekend to begin.

list of things to do this weekend:

• relax
• go bowling (apparantly)
• work at LG (sunday)
• go WEDDING DRESS shopping with audra (!!!)
• um, karl might go to mineral springs/nashVUL.
• be lame old folk!
• AND buy STAMPS b/c postage goes UP officially to 39 cent.

call me if you feel like chatting or are doing something exciting!

what day is it?

Three things:

1. Happy Birthday to Isabel Kathleen Costa who is turning the big TWO today. I will post a pic of this lovely little sweetheart/devil later this afternoon!! i can't believe she has been alive for 730 days.

2. POLL: Did you or did you NOT ever bang pots and pans (real pots and pans from your kitchen!) on New Years Eve outside on your front porch to ring in the new year? Apparantely to SOME PEOPLE (karl and brooke) this is a completely foreign concept, and i am wondering if it is an STL thing (like telling jokes (TRICKs) FOR your treats on halloween to each and every house or calling a grill a barbeque pit).

3. My love affair with google may be over. GOOGLE AND WAL-MART?? NOOOO! Nuff said.

dancing the night away!

dancing - audra and i teaching emily our 'You and Me" (caroline's spine) dance. (which is ridiculous!)

we had a great party - a small group which suited us just perfectly this NYE! We welcomed 2006 with some drinks, dancing, and good old-fashioned banging of pots and pans! i am posting a few of the great pics below... we took almost 100 but i chose these few for your viewing pleasure! (more may be posted at a later date?!)

Some 2005 highlights for us:
getting married, buying a house, adopting arlo and roxy, joining the blogging community and connecting and reconnecting with some great people through it!, being able to attend many friends weddings: caitlin&eric gapsch, matt&meredith dill, jenny&jake crum, su&seth mulhearn, and not attending some events but wishing we could: lauryl&samuel's wedding and the cronin family reunion. Let's see what else? going to watch my baby sister turn 21 in milwaukee, our second annual homecoming party at TU, the adoption of kim and sean's new son stone, fairy's passing, the stl cards almost going to the series, kat resigning from AB and starting a new job, kristen&cory scheer and the birth of their daughter elizabeth!, graves family reunion at the deer cabin, my grandparents 55th wedding anniversary, karl's cousin phillip graduating from duke. that is all i can think of at the moment!! how busy were we in 05? and how lucky? if i forgot someone/something important LET ME KNOW!

Things to look forward to in 2006:
eric&emily wedding (desjardin), mike&audra (wallace) wedding, matt&stephanie wedding (horan), my cousin anna&gino trying for a baby, my sister's college graduation in milwaukee (Marquette) in may, um, a third year of TU homecoming festivities, my cousin chris&melissa having a baby in June or July; I am sure there will be many more "blog-worthy" moments in 06 that you will get to hear ALL about!! i know there are friends and family who keep up with the blog and I promise to do my best to keep 'YA'LL' updated! feel free to leave comments or send karl or myself an email! many thanks for reading and WELCOME TO 2006!

confetti everywhere!

girls - kristen, em, k, aud

the beazley pic

ashley & brent smile for the camera!

the Graves Pic!

Rea and Mary Kay made an early appearance to the party! we forced them to play along in our photo booth game!

goodnight moon.

this is what happens if you fall asleep during a NYE party. confetti.

prop-a-llicious!

mike, me, audra.

kiss kiss

eric and em making out for us... my brain is apparantly still tired from last night's festivities b/c i can't think of anything clever to say... the pictures make up for that, right?

how cute are we?

seriously. (and so modest).

this makes me laugh.

just plain silliness. it was pretty nice to wear jeans and tanks and be casual this NYE (not that dressing up isn't fun, but we were comfy and had a good time!) plus it was like 60 degrees out so that worked out well... and today is even hotter. weird. un-january-like. but as a cold weather hater, i can't complain!