Pioneer Woman!!!!!!!!

She was just as amazing as I'd hoped. Perhaps even more. I wanted to bring her home to Louisville with me :)




I.love.her.

S Word

Some people might think of another word when hearing the term "S word" but for me, at least right now, it's SNOW. Way too many snow days here in the 'ville. The smallest Fantoni obviously feels differently.

Keeping Focus

This year started with the best of blogging intentions. A few things of note occurred during this month, however, that have gotten me off track--my birthday weekend (super fun, maybe TOO MUCH fun), followed by strep throat certainly hindered my blogging momentum. Then Bryan's brother passed away last week and the Fantoni family was thrown into a whirlwind. Now things have returned to "normal" and I'm ready to get back on track, thus a couple of catch-up posts below.

In positive news, I've started my Triple Crown/Mini-Marathon this week. This week's schedule calls for 13 miles and 9 of those have been completed with the remaining four to be logged tomorrow morning (it's going to be a VERY cold four miles, I'm afraid; must.run.faster.) We have an event-packed weekend ahead, starting with a half day at work for me today due to the snow and school closures yet again.

In sum, like everyone else, life is a bit crazy and you never know what is going to be thrown your way. I'm just going to try to forge ahead. Stay warm everyone and stay tuned!

More Boys and Their Toys

Even bigger boys like their toys, particularly of the electronic variety. How I enjoy seeing my two favorite guys play together. Recently, Jonathan announced that he and Daddy are a team. I think he means a team against Mommy but, after many Mommy-centric years, this new team concept is OK with me.

Boys and Their Toys

This is what life is like living with a five year old boy. Any surface can become a play area. Anywhere can be a traffic jam.

I love it.

Deliciousness

What's better than a fresh Krispy Kreme for breakfast? Why, having one for dessert, of course!

A boy and his cat

"Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a purpose." - Garrison Keillor

Tell that to the feline-loving kiddo in this picture.

Southpaw--January 4, 2011

Our little lefty hard at work playing my Cooking Mama 3 DS game. The fact that he can't read yet greatly hampered his ability to play the game. His persistence, however, was admirable as he continued on with sheer determination for in excess of thirty minutes. Now if we could just get him to give actually learning to read the same effort...

One Frame a Day--January 3, 2011

Due to bad weather the week before Christmas, we just received Jonathan's handmade Pre-K gift this morning. I think it was worth the wait.

One Frame a Day--January 2, 2011

She thinks my lovely new bathmat is for her. Heck, she likely believes the whole new house is hers too--she is, after all, a cat.

One Frame a Day 2011--January 1, 2011

As one of many New Year's Resolutions, I am attempting the One Frame a Day project. And wouldn't you know it--I'm already three days behind! I've taken the photographs, though, so it still counts, right??



Brad Thor's "Blowback"?? A bit heavy, in my opinion but he insisted that he needed to read it because it is "about America." The kid loves the stars and stripes.

Colorado

Bryan and I recently took a trip to Colorado.



It was beautiful and we loved it.



The end.

Just kidding! I've wanted to post some pictures from the trip but have been hampered by "economy" high speed internet. Back when only one adult Fantoni in my house had a job, we cut some expenses. One of those expenses was to go from Insight 10.0 internet service to Insight 0.75 internet service. While it was still infinitely better than the dial up of yore, it was very slow in certain areas, the two most notable being while I was trying to shop Amazon and when I tried to upload pictures. So we recently (read: TODAY!) decided to go back up to our old internet service as everyone is now happily employed. It also seemed to be a good idea to make the change back before both of us ended up bald from the sheer frustration of waiting ten minutes for one measly picture to load.

I digress. Back to Colorado.

The purpose of our trip was to attend the wedding of a good friend of Bryan's; the wedding took place in Buena Vista, Colorado, where the two pictures posted above were taken. It also seemed like a good time to take advantage of Bryan's uncle's condo in Silverthorne so we made a long weekend out of it. The trip could have started better--we were diverted to Pueblo, Colorado after a tornado and hail hit the Denver airport as we approached it. After almost three hours on the plane, we finally landed in Denver only to have to travel via car through a torrential downpour, straight up a mountain in a Hyundai. Oh, and when we got to Buena Vista the next day, they had booked us in the hotel and charged us for the previous night. It was straightened out but UGH.

After that messy ordeal, however, the rest of the trip was a lot of fun. We experienced every sort of weather while we were there--rain, sleet, hail, snow and sun. The Sunday we were there, the weather was finally nice enough for us to take a hike and also for me to take out the camera without fear of getting it wet. I am glad that we got to use it as I traveled across the country with it as a carry on because I was too anal to put it with the checked luggage.

Some photos from our hike, in no particular order:











I am still learning about my Rebel, but I am still in love with it and I think that I love this picture the most so far. I posted it on Facebook too and now I am putting it here. My mother in law has not even seen it yet. I need to do something nice with it for her birthday next month!



Bryan flew back a day early but his momma and I stayed an extra day and shopped 'til we dropped in Denver. Thanks to the amazing shopping in Cherry Creek, I am now the owner of a pink patent leather Kate Spade purse and my sister the recipient of a belated birthday gift from Tiffany's. THAT is my kind of vacation! If you could have just thrown in some beach, it would have been perfect!

Unfortunately, as with all good things, this trip had to come to an end and we returned to Louisville and back to work and the real world. Sometimes being a grown up is no fun at all!



And sometimes it's nice to get to escape from the regular daily responsibilities and act like a dork. Isn't that what vacation is all about??

Ten on Tuesday: A Photo Montage of Our Latest Exploits

I hate when I get behind on blogging and then I feel like I am SO FAR BEHIND that I will never catch up. We Fantonis have been so busy these past few months, what with Bryan's new job, a Buffett show, a trip to St. Louis and the start of summer. In lieu of continuing NOT to post because of a need to post the backlog of events that are currently stored in Picasa in my computer, here are a few photographic highlights to bring everyone up to speed. Then maybe, just maybe, I can start fresh with photos from this coming weekend's trip to Denver, Colorado.

Yes, I realize that I have made this promise before but I will stick to it this time. Really. Definitely.

Maybe.

Anyway, without further ado...

1. We attended the Pegasus Parade this year (an annual event that is part of the Derby Festival for you non-Louisvillians). Jonathan's favorite part--when a horse took a huge pee right in front of us. I swear, that horse urinated for 15 minutes!!



2. Jonathan recently completed his fourth session of outdoor soccer. We had an amazing coach this season, Chris, who was so great that, although we were going to switch to HYR for soccer in the fall, we will likely stay with the Y for one more season as Chris will be coaching 4-5 year olds again in the fall (Disclaimer here: Bryan coached Jonathan's team last fall and totally rocked it. If I don't say that, it's grounds for divorce).



3. I had an awesome Mother's Day. I received this lens as a gift and I love it. We went to Huber's again for Mother's Day and it was lovely. I like that this is becoming a tradition. I took the new lens along with me and this is now one of my current favorite non-Jonathan themed pictures:



Oh, and this one. I love wine almost as much as ice cream. Or maybe more, depending on what sort of day I've had.



4. Also over Mother's Day weekend, we added to our family. Meet Pearl. She is an itty-bitty kitten but she is a spit fire. The vet tech at the animal clinic was so right when she told me that male cats were more chill.



5. There were a few days in there where I thought we'd made a mistake--a lot of meowing on Pearl's part and a lot of hissing on Albert's behalf. It took about a week but things are definitely better now.



6. In May, we took Jonathan on a trip to St. Louis to visit Uncle John (Bryan's uncle). We visited the St. Louis arch which was nothing short of awesome. Jonathan loved it as much as I did. Bryan had been in the arch before; he did really well considering that he is deathly frightened of heights.





7. While we were in St. Louis, we also went to a St. Louis Cardinals game. It was my first (and Jonathan's first) professional sporting event ever. It was really hot but a lot of fun. Jonathan came home with a hat, a shirt, a claw, a pen, a baseball and a stomach full of cotton candy and peanuts. This only cost 1.4 bazillion dollars but it was totally worth it :)







8. Also in May, Bryan and I attended a Buffett concert in Indianapolis with some of our close friends. The weather was horrid but the show was fantastic, as always.

Note to Jimmy Buffett--please never stop touring or my summer will be void of meaning. Thanks. Love, Jennifer.





9. Last weekend, we visited Squire Boone Caverns in Indiana. It was a nice day trip and good times were had by all but for the injury I sustained when I fell on the slippery metal steps that descend into the caverns. Not exactly how I intended to get a bit of color on my legs.





10. This week marked the second week of summer camp at Jonathan's school. The theme--pirates. How I love the faux beard.

Fiesta

Hello, my name is Jennifer.



And I love Fiestaware.



I mean, I really love it. A lot.





Like maybe too much love. Like I would marry it love. (Sorry, Bryan, but you love it too! It's just so colorful and pretty and shiny.)



Luckily for me, the Everything Fiesta store is located in Flatwoods, WV, just about an hour from my parents' house. Twice a year, they have a tent sale where you can buy Fiesta products with minor imperfections for a fraction of the retail price. Think 75% percent off the regular price. You never know what you are going to find in the tent and it requires some looking since some of the pieces are not in the best shape. But that's just part of the fun--it's like a treasure search but instead of gold you find something better--discounted dinnerware!

This year was my second trip to the tent, made even better by the fact that pretty much all the chicks in my family came along--my mother, both sisters, my grandmother and my mother in law. Here is the crew, minus me as I was taking the picture:



And thanks to my MIL, I have joined the crew. I like being in the middle. I also like that I look tall. I have never looked tall in my life.



Basically, the way it works, is that you go into the tent with a dolly and some milk cartons. You go through the various bins and make your selections, after which time you go stand in line for 1.2 billion hours, upon the completion of which you are able to pay for your items. I think the line takes so long because every single person in it is making a purchase that looks much like this and it takes a while for the kind Fiesta tent sale workers to wrap up and box each individual's purchase:



Look how happy my mom and sister Laura are to pose with their super awesome purchases:



And how much do I love this picture of Laura and me? I really wish that she lived closer!



After the tent sale, we packed the car full of our items, ate some lunch and bought some more Fiesta as well as some other items in the outlet stores that are also located in Flatwoods, WV. The car was amazingly full--my poor sister Melissa was squeezed into the optional third row seat of Laura's car. As far as an option, Cadillac should have opted to skip it as the seat was barely larger than a folding chair and honestly was probably a $5,000.00 add-on to the vehicle's MSRP.



A super fun trip combined with kick butt shopping--what more could a girl want? Until next year, dear Fiesta tent sale. Adieu.