Ramona Jean. This is the story.

  

 

 

Ramona Jean was born on November 12, 2010. Mom, Dad, Liz, Jay, Papa V, and Mama V were all able to come meet her! 

We had a wonderful time ooing and ahhing all night and day long. 

Plus we had a whole bunch of fun with Mr. Miles. 

He is a new firefighter in training, by the way.

Let the story continue...

A little update-er-ooni

So life in the Eich household continues to be blissful, wonderful, funny, and filled with a whole lot of working in between. This fall, Stephen and I attended a few of his old high schools football games. Let me tell you, they are just about as exciting as any college football game... perhaps even more emotional. MLS did well and we had a lot of fun going to them! I thought I should throw in a pic from the last game of their season this year (they made the playoffs!).

 

And I thought it might be fun to include a little apartment update to this update-er-ooni.... I have found out that I am just a little nester. They say it happens when you have a baby, but apparently my apartment IS my baby. I just don't even have enough space(or funds) to do all I want to do, and do not worry, the Christmas decorating ideas have already begun. I am sure that will be a whole separate blog. Anyway, here is our little home!

***This first one, by the way, is for Kait Botma, Jess Weyburne, Josh Weyburne, Jon Chew, Whitney Luce and whoever else was in on these dumb little monkey things.***

 That is our fun new little shower rack gizmo that allows me to clean the bathtub MUCH more easily!

 I love my red teapot.

 I call them my gourd friends. AKA: my only fall decorations.

 This is our amazing little corner book case that is full of so many fun treasures!

 Where the big fake tree is, is where the big fake Christmas tree will go:-)

 That is my couch. And it is cozy. Oh, PS. We have 13 blankets.

My picture wall is my absolute favorite thing. I wish more more to put up there. Thank goodness for a freaking LARGE wall to be able to play with. 

So that is our little apartment so far. The bedroom is still such a mish mash of free stuff at this point that there was just nothing that need be shown yet. I WILL make it homey as best as I can. We would love to paint but we are also aware that we don't plan to live here for too long, so I have had to learn how to use color pretty much everywhere else. For a while, it was just beige and blue, and oh BOY is that boring. 

That is all for now as I am about to go to bed.

But here are a few fun things I have learned about married life to leave you with:

1. Boys are clean when they feel like it, which may NOT be when you feel like they should be.

2. They still need someone to make their lunches for them

3. I think they might need more relaxy time than women do.

4. My husband is hot (but I already knew that)

5. I eat a lot more than I used to because I am just trying to keep up.

6.When you fight, its best to do it right before you watch a movie because by the end of the movie, you will have completely forgotten what you fought about.

7. Guy jokes are different than girl jokes.

8. Bay City is crap.

9. I'm more high-maintenance than I thought I was. 

10. I am learning to hate laundry and grocery shopping.

Disney Audition. Woot.

Alright, so I suppose I should explain what happened on that infamous weekend when I decided to audition for the Happiest Place on Earth.

So the weekend began with a lovely drive to Chicago-land. I drove. Stephen slept. It was a good time.

We arrived at Kevin and Christines house around 10pm (i think) their time and they are just great. We watched a little Jersey Shore, played with Payton, and got the tour of all the new baby stuff. Sadly, this was about all the time we got to hang out with them as they had to work the next day and we supremely wanted to sleep in.

And sleep in we did! Woke up around 10am and got ready to go meet up with Agnes. We did lunch at Palm Court, per usual, and spent a couple hours visiting with her after lunch. We brought her some wedding photos and she showed us some great old stuff about her family tree, etc. Agnes is just the best. The woman is 90+ and still going strong. It is always great to see her, even if it is just for a little bit.

After our Agnes time, it was time to head downtown! We got there in about an hour, which was pretty good for Chicago traffic. We got there with about 45 minutes to spare because I still needed to change and walk a little so I could feel a little warmed up. The Dance Studio was just down the street from the Sears tower so we walked almost to it and back, stopped in a Staples to change (it was convenient). Walked a bit more, then it was off to the audition! The Studio was enormous and I was directed up to the second floor to studio D. When I got to the top of the stairs, I was confronted by a mob of mom's and dad's who were all huddling around the little window which freaked me out because I thought I must have been super late if they were already dancing. Luckily, those parents apparently find registration facinating because that is all that was happening. I popped into the end of the line that was probably 60 some people long at this point. I grabbed and audition sheet and filled it out as I made some friends with the girls around me. Most people there were auditioning for the college program which successfully made me feel old. Most looked like college freshmen or younger if you can believe it! After all 117(or something) of us were registered, we were taken to the larger studio. They informed us that there would be three sections to the evening and two cuts. The first section was just a simple traveling dance where we were encouraged to "show our personality" as much as possible. And this is where I failed. I learned the dance just fine but did not smile nearly as big as I should have and did not put nearly enough energy into it. A girl that had befriended me had done this before and had tried to explain it, but I guess I didn't take it seriously enough. Or rather, I took the "get the dance right" part TOO seriously and the "show your personality" not seriously enough. I got cut (along with probably 60%) of the rest of the group in the first cut. I truly did not feel that sad. I don't think I ever felt really prepared for this and now I will be for the next one. The second section of the night was to be a more advanced dance portion, to truly weed out us fakers:-) and the third section was to be "tell a story with dance." I am endlessly gratefull that I didnt' make it to that section, as I would have been at a total loss as to what to do! 

All in all, it was a fantastic experience. Easily the FUNNEST audition I have ever been to. I know not to be scared of the casting directors because they really were super nice and super happy. I know what I need to do to prepare for a dance audition now. And I know that I was very much not the worst one there, by a long shot, which is very encouraging.

It was a great experience and one that I would and will happily do again! I can't wait til my next shot at this!

Football, fish, food in general.

Life has continued on... as it usually does. 

Mostly, I work. 

Sometimes I cook.

But we always have fun.

Here are some highlights from the past couple of weeks. First comes my next big meal experiment. I tried my hand at cooking fish! I chopped up some onions, green pepper, mushrooms, and mixed them with butter and bread crumbs. I layed out the fish after having spread some crumbs on the bottom, and threw my little concoction over the top. I cooked the fish at 400 degrees for twenty minutes. It was good, but I am fairly certain I should have sauteed the onions, peppers, and mushrooms. Any suggestions?

Then one night, after work, I came home and found my apartment suprisingly spotless, flowers on the table, candles lit, and a story written out in a card for me.... it was a good night.

Next came an MLS football game. Stephen, Dinger, and Miller all played football together, so it is really fun to go to games with them. They judge every movement on the field, whilst I have no clue what is going on...

Then came Jay-mas at home this past Friday. It was so nice to be home even if it was just for a little bit, and even when I wasn't actually home, I was at Liz and Jays (AKA Grandma and Grandpas). It was so nice to be with Jay, Liz, Mom, Dad, Lori, and Melissa Taylor again. Pretty much, it is movie quotes, laughs, and jabs at each other all night. Loved it!

This brings us today, the end of an eight day stretch at work, and moosh came to visit! She had some things from my room at home to bring and wanted to... help me cook dinner..... We made mussels, pasta, and ceasar salad, and it was FABULOUS.

Life continues... who knows what is coming next?!

How to make a kick-a** sandwich!

Ok. So some of you know I really enjoy my cheese sandwiches. I started eating them when I was a vegetarian and just never stopped! In Stephens' opinion, I make the best sandwiches (meaty or otherwise) in the whole world and we thought I should share my expertise with the rest of the three people that read this blog.

So here is what you need to know:
    1. First of all, you need to freeze your bread. I know it seems annoying to have to defrost it everytime you want some but this is the first key. When I defrost it, I put it in for thirty seconds and this leaves the bread a little cold and a little warm. This half and half temperature is a tricky thing to figure out.. on my microwave in Bloomfield, it takes 14 seconds, but in my Bay City microwave, it is a solid thirty.

   2. After you have defrosted the bread comes the time for the mayonnaise. THIS IS IMPORTANT. You MUST spread the mayo evenly from bread crust to bread crust. The amount you put on is up to you; I prefer to have just a little brown showing through the white, but every bit of the surface needs to be covered. This makes me a crazy person, I am aware, but it is incredibly important. If you want to get really specific, I determine the amount of mayo based on the amount of stuff you plan to put on top of it (3 pieces of turkey, two pieces of cheese, etc).

   3. Then comes the substance. The issue here is to KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. I know Stephen and myself pretty well, so I know that I don't like meat and I know he only really likes turkey and not too much cheese. So, Stephen gets two pieces of turkey and one piece of muenster. I prefer my two pieces of cheese, either muenster on muenster or muenster on provolone. All you need to know is preferences to do this part well.

4. THE KEY: lettuce. You MUST have something crunchy to have a good sandwich. Maybe I am just a texture freak but the idea of all mushy things = EW to me. Therefore, I put a WHOLE bunch of lettuce on top. I probably use three or four leaves per sandwich, preferably the CRUNCHY parts of the leaf. Use the nutritious parts for a salad :-)

5. Cut diagonally and you have the perfect sandwich.

6. Serve with Cheez-its and a yogurt and you have the perfect lunch:-)

I hope this was informative and that all of your sandwich pleasures are now fullfilled.

Life = Work... again

Life is settling once more. I have begun my job. It's pretty wonderful. Everything is so similar to the H.I. that my training is pretty complete. After a few more morning shifts I will feel quite confident in most every area. After a doosy of a first week (7 days straight and three in a row not seeing my husband), I have been loving my "weekend" these last two days. I got plenty done and my feet got a wonderful break!

Truthfully, there is not much to share. I am making dinner tonight and it is a little bit of an experiment... Tilapia topped with bread crumbs, chopped green pepper, chopped onion, chopped mushrooms, and a little bit of lemon juice. I am throwing it in the oven momentarily so we will see how that turns out. I am also cooking up some corn-on-the-cob sort of as a back up plan... or just because it is corn season and it is so wonderful!

I think that is all for now! As I say probably 123,948 times a day... Have a great day!

The Wedding Season.

I truly did not understand what the wedding season was until this year. I only officially second shot two weddings but with the addition of my own as well as Dinger and Kristy's, it was a busy couple of months from July to August.

I thought I would just put up a couple from each wedding that I went to, whether I was an official shooter or not. I enjoyed each one and each one was perfectly wonderful! (Mine was of course the best but, to view those photos, you will need to visit www.stilllifephoto.com/sleich )

Alright. I am done plugging. Enjoy!


First came Jon and Carly Van Eck on July 10, 2010.

Then was our own big fiesta... like I said, please visit www.stilllifephoto.com/sleich for pictures :-)

Then I was second shooter with Ambie at James and Laura Zandstra's on August 6, 2010.

and finally, Stephens best friend Nathan Breidinger married miss Kristy Clark on August 14, 2010.

 And there you have it! One more to go.. Josh and Sarah, here we come!!