March Madness

And now a rare post from Chris...

Klaassen Homes Inc. kicks off March Madness. 1725 Ontario has been flipped and the sign is out front. It looks easier on a 30 min. tv show. My advice is to never do it. So crack the Pepsi's and enjoy the show.

Ax Man

Have any of you heard of the new series on the History Channel called Ax Men? If not, you should check it out. It's a look inside the logging industry of the Pacific Northwest, and Chris is HOOKED. Here is a look at my very own ax man chopping down our friends' tree last year. So it's not the Pacific Northwest, and he doesn't have his own TV show, but he sure looks rugged out there!

Happy (belated) Easter!

I hope you all had a nice weekend and celebrated the true meaning of Easter, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ! The girls and I spent last week in Kansas with my family while Chris worked mucho overtime on the "house flip." (I'll fill you all in on that later with pictures.) Kaylee had a great time at the Girard Easter Egg Hunt, even though it was only about 40 degrees out. BRRRRR! Can I just say for the record that parents of 2 & 3 year-old kids don't need to split up to find the prize eggs for them. Are you really that hard up for a giant stuffed bunny that you will practically trample another small child to get that special egg for your kid? Kaylee got like 7 plastic eggs all filled with candy, and she couldn't have been happier. Anyway, we returned to the big O on Saturday and spent Easter as a family. It was a very relaxing week spent with family and friends, but we sure did miss Daddy! (Check out my husband's enormous bicep in this picture. Isn't he something, ladies?)

The wedding pictures are here, and I'm finally getting some posted. Enjoy.

Look out. Lauryn's about to stiff-arm someone.

Apparently Chris and his cousin Andy have nearly identical DNA, which was directly passed down to Kaylee.

Dancing Machines!

All tuckered out.

Patience, patience...

I know, I know. I can hear the chanting through the speakers on my computer. "We want some wedding pictures! We want some wedding pictures!" Well, I don't have any yet. I hope these will tide you over until the pictures you so desperately seek arrive in my inbox.

Decorating cookies at Grandma's house

Does she look teeny in this thing or what?

The newest addition to the family - Emily Anne Gross, born on Monday, March 10th to David & Marianne (David is Chris's cousin). We're looking forward to meeting her in person at David's brother Andy's wedding in April! Look at that hair! She could share some of that with Lauryn and still have plenty.

The Big Day

Well, we're off to the big wedding this weekend. Chris's little sister is gettin' hitched tomorrow evening. Kaylee is a flower girl, along with her cousin, Ally. I anticipate Kaylee doing something that could potentially win us $10,000 on America's Funniest Home Videos. I will try to post some pictures of the girls in their "Cinderella dresses" soon after we get back. A lot of Chris's family that we don't get to see too often will be there, so we're looking forward to spending time with everyone. Congratulations (in advance), Chad and Rachel!

Did ya miss me?

Oh, my faithful readers, it's good to be back. To explain my lengthy absence, need I say more than this?

`

The dreaded blue screen of death. Many have heard the terrifying tales, but few have actually experienced its deadly wrath. On Tuesday evening, all of my worst fears are realized in these words, "A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer." Well, the damage had already been done. After at least an hour on the phone on Wednesday morning with Enrique of Dell Technical Service India (my best guess), we determined that my computer was not recognizing the hard drive. Not good. The first of the tears came soon after. (My tears, not Enrique's. He didn't seem bothered in the least.) Have I mentioned yet that we just got this computer in January 2008? Anyway, Enrique, from some distant country, set up soem guy here in Omaha to come out and replace the hard drive. He showed up on Thursday morning with the new hard drive. My hero. Now wouldn't it be just peachy if the story ended right there and we lived happily ever after? Come on, people, it's me we're talking about here. Nothing ever happens quite that easily. And now for the rest of the story...

After Mr. Hard Drive Replacer installed the new hard drive, I came downstairs to check on the progress. He said it would take about an hour for setup to complete. He hadn't even left the driveway yet when I was out there tapping on his window telling him it was already displaying an error message. He pretty much said, "Too bad. I just replace the hardward. You'll have to call Dell again." Could he be serious? Was he just going to leave me here to drown in the misery rising up from our basement? Yes, he was, and yes, he did. Jerk. So, after another hour on the phone with Lee of Dell Technical Service Canada, he decided it was still broken. I told him that much when he picked up the phone. When all of his suggestions didn't work, I called my salesperson (who probably wishes she'd never left me that message with her direct phone number). I left her a mesage basically saying, "Fix this issue or face my wrath." OK, I didn't say that, but I was thinking it really hard. She called back and said they were sending me a whole new computer. Yes! Well, it got here on Friday, my friend, Joe, came over to set it all up for me last night, and we're back up and running today. I had forgotten how hard it is to live without a computer. I almost had to have Julie set up our fantasy NASCAR drivers for the week. Good thing we're back online. Our secret fantasy NASCAR driver-choosing techniques could have been compromised.