I Got Motivated!

Get Motivated! Seminars came to Kansas City today and Beth and I went for the day long event! We were super excited to get motivated, get new ideas and to hear the speakers! Most exciting for me was Rudy Guliani and Colin Powell ... but all the speakers (about 10 in all) were great. It was a day long event that was jam packed with information!

It was a little different than I expected. It wasn't a "let's get moved and feel great about ourselves" kind of seminar; it was really more about empowerment.

Rudy spoke about leadership and recounted some of the events of September 11th and Colin Powell talked about his journey and his challenges. They were both very moving; it was surreal being so close to them!

One of the other speakers was Phil Towne, an investor educator (Okay, I made that title up). He spoke about the stock market and how easy it can be to understand when to buy and when to sell. Beth and I fell for their sales pitch for the weekend long seminar (it was only $99 for a two day seminar!). We will be spending all of next weekend at the downtown KC Marriott learning about stocks, options and when to buy and sell! I'm excited! I sent Graden a text message and told him 'I'ma make us rich, baby!'. He welcomed that! Wi$h me luck!!

Hansens & The Hawkeyes

On Friday night the Hansen family headed to Cedar Rapids, IA to spend the night at Graden's friend, Adam's place. We were in town so the boys could go to the Hawkeye game that Saturday afternoon. We arrived in Cedar Rapids about 11:30 that night so didn't do much more than unpack and hit the sack!

The next morning Adam made us pancakes for breakfast, then they headed to the Kinnick Stadium for tail gating before the game! While they were at the game, Dayne and I headed to Jennifer's house for the day (for those who may not know, my BFF Jennifer recently became engaged to Graden's BFF Chris "Asswagon”). We started out the day by going to David’s Bridal for Jen to do some wedding dress shopping. She had seen a picture of a dress and was pretty certain that was the one she wanted. They had it … she tried it on … she bought it! It was meant to be! After our successful shopping trip we went for a nice lunch at Granite City then headed back to Jen (and Chris’) place for a nappy-nap!

We woke up from our nap and turned the TV to the Hawkeye game and caught the last minute of the game - - which turned out to be the best minute of the game! Even I, who knows (or cares!) nothing about football found it exciting!

After the game we all headed over to Adam & Renee’s house for dinner and socialization! It was so nice to hang out on a Saturday night with friends … reminds me of the things I miss about “home”! : (

Sunday morning we slept in a bit and then headed for Waterloo about 10:00 to spend the day with Donna since it was her birthday just a few days before (the 7th). The kids spent the day playing with TJ and Kylie and we just hung out with Donna and Gretchen. Later that evening the Hansen family went to visit Trista and her family. Little Lexi is getting so big so fast and we don’t stop in to see them often enough!

After spending some time at the Benham home we met Chad at Pepper’s for dinner … another reminder of the simple, fun times we miss by not being “home”. We headed back to Donna’s for the night and enjoyed more time with her. Since the kids didn’t have school on Monday, we decided to stay one more night.

Monday I went to visit my “peeps” at Affina and catch up with them for a bit. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to have lunch with me (Georgene makes them work, I guess!) but it was nice to see them!

“Uncle” picked Kylie up from school so she and Dayne were able to spend some more time together. It was a nice day so the girls played in the front “yard” and jumped in the leaves! We headed back home about 3:00 Monday afternoon and got home about 8:30 that night!

Nice weekend … only thing missing was seeing my daddy! : (

Happy Halloween!

How exciting! We have visitors for Halloween this year! Donna, Gretchen and the kids came down on Thursday for the weekend! That night we carved pumpkins to proudly display on the front porch (above).

... and on Friday Rocky and his family also joined us! Rocky is Donna's nephew and his son, Luke, plays football for Joplin and they were playing a local school on Friday night!

TJ was Anakin (from Star Wars) and Kylie AND Dayne were Hannah Montana! Gretchen and I took the kids around the neighborhood while Donna and Mindy (Rocky's wife) passed out candy. Of course at the start of the night the kids were pumped up and full of energy ... with big plans to trick or treat at EVERY house! About an hour into the night, they were pooped and ready to call it quits. They got a good loot though!

Saturday we took the kids to see High School Musical 3. It was very good, actually (and that Zac Efron sure is dreamy <and 21>!!!). TJ really enjoyed the movie, singing and dancing during all the signing parts! It wasa nice to get out and do something with the kids! After the movie we went to some local consignment stores to hunt down some bargains!

When we got home the kids all played basketball in the driveway. Again, it was nice for them to get out of the house and enjoy the outdoors and the company of each other! Uncle even got out there with them and showed them some moves!

The Peterson-Hansen crew left Sunday morning, but since it was daylight savings time and we set our clocks back an hour the night before, we got an extra hour with them! They played some more basketball just before they left ... great for the kids to get some energy out before they hit the road for the 5 hour trip! It was great having them visit!

Two Peas in A Pod

Dayne HATES sleeping alone so Oz joined her ... he seemed quite content, too!

The Last Lecture

About a year ago Donna (my mother in law) told me about an inspirational man by the name of Randy Pausch. He had been diagnosed with Pancratic cancer and was expected to live just a few months. He was featured on the cover of Parade magazine a short while after she told me about him and I read the article. It was quite inspiring! Long story short .... Randy passed away on July 25th of this year, but not before delivering what has been called "The Last Lecture" at Carnegie Mellon University. Not only that, he wrote a book (titled the same) as sort of a memoir to his three small children he was leaving behind.

I had the pleasure of reading the book and highly recommend it. He is an excellent writer - very colorful, very detailed, very down to earth and quite funny! And, it's a very quick read - easily done over the course of one weekend.

The Last Lecture (the actual lecture) is about an hour and a half, but worth the time to watch it. If you need something to do on a quiet afternoon, consider watching it. Here is the link: The Last Lecture.

If you do decided to read the book (which is not the same as the lecture) I recommend checking amazon.com since you can buy used books for dirt cheap! (Graden says I am addicted to books and I blame Amazon.com!)

“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”—Randy Pausch

Go Hawkeyes!

Gotta give props to the newest and cutest Hawkeye Cheerleader!

Lexi Jo Benham!!

I think she brought them some luck today! They actually won!!

Happy 35th Birthday, Graden!

We were lucky enough to get to have Donna / Nana come for Graden's birthday and stay a few weeks! Although we didn't do many (okay any!) exciting things, it's always great spending time with her.

Donna arrived on the afternoon of Tuesday September 30th and plans to stay a couple weeks with us. We know Gretchen, TJ and Kylie will miss her, but we sure enjoy having her here!

We went to dinner Sunday evening for Graden's birthday dinner, since he will be in VA for his actual birthday on Tuesday. We went to the O.P. (the same chain as in Waterloo/Evansdale/Cedar Falls also has a restaurant in Overland Park, KS - small world considering those are the ONLY cities the Other Place has restaurants!). Donna also made her famous Banana Cake .... mmmmm! I think it is evil cake, really ... because it makes me want to eat it all in one sitting!