Nachos or Oatmeal

For Christmas this year, Phil’s brother & sister-in-law got us tickets the NCAA basketball games in Detroit for this past weekend. Friday we drove over to Detroit and picked up Robbie for the game. We made it downtown in plenty of time so we decided to try our hands at the Casino that is by Ford Field. Pretty much everyone lost interest in the gambling and moved toward the bars after a few lost hands, however, I made out like a bandit! I played nickel slots, quarter slots and a few games of video poker and ended up about $40 up. I quit while I was ahead and left with my $40 in hand.

We watched two games on Friday night, Davidson versus Wisconsin and Kansas versus Villanova and then one game on Sunday between the winner of the previous two games Davidson and Kansas. They were all really fun and the final game on Sunday was super close!

Saturday we got to hang out with Little Robbie, unfortunately my camera died on Saturday morning, so I only have pictures of Friday night and no pictures of Little Robbie.

During the game on Sunday a little boy (probably about 9 or 10) came walking up the aisle (our seats were right on the aisle) with his dad. About 6 steps before he got to us, he bent over and yakked all over the stairs. His dad stopped behind him to try to cover up the puke and he kept moving up to one step above where Phil was sitting, then bent over and yakked another time. It was really disgusting and smelled like nachos and looked like oatmeal (according to the Ford Field staff who was lucky enough to clean it up). It was all pretty funny.

Phil and I at the Casino.


Me with one of my winning tickets.


The boys with Elvis at the casino.


Phil and I at the game on Friday night.


We were rooting for Davidson.

Easter Sunday

Sunday morning, Phil, his dad and I were invited to a church service in Battle Creek with a work friend of Phil's. After church, we went to my parents house for lunch with the family. There was a lot of eating, loud conversations, discussion of future Maltby family athletic events and of course a nice long nap afterwards... all of the typical Maltby gathering rituals.

Here is the whole gang before lunch.


Aunt Laurie with her "bunny" Rice Krispy treats.


Phil & Grandma.


I'm sure they are talking about something really important (Ross, Staci, Aunt Laurie, Phil, Nate & Annie).

The boys after a large meal.

My dad reading to his great nieces. They had a great time making him read stories to them.

Easter Eggs & MSU

Saturday (last week... sorry I'm a little behind on my postings) Jon & Erin came over to watch MSU play in the NCAA tournament. The boys made a big pizza and Erin & I drank wine and colored Easter eggs.

Phil's dad came over for the festivities and we also had a surprise visit from Phil & Jon's friend Randy and his wife. They also brought with them their adorable doggie.

Here are some fun pictures of the boys being ... well themselves.



Erin with our eggs.

Good Friday Celebration in Lansing

In celebration of Good Friday (which I had off… this is the point where I am sticking my tongue out at Phil as he had to work a half day) I traveled, snowstorm & all, up to Lansing to visit my good friends and their babies (who aren’t really babies anymore!).

I made it there safely and had a wonderful time hanging out with Shell and her son, Talan (who is about to turn 2) and Nicole and her daughter, Braelyn (who just turned 2). I forgot how much I miss them! I’m so glad that we get to see each other even if it’s spread out.

We spent the night playing with the kiddies. Talan was very interested in shooting things… specifically the deer & the ducks… thanks to Daddy Bird I’m sure. He was too cute, running all over & definitely not a shy little guy. Braelyn was interested in everything going on, especially the puppy, but only with mom in sight… I know… we are a little scary!

We had some dinner and wine, got to catch up on life and all the interesting things going on in our lives. Then I made the trek back home in the snowstorm (by that point the snow had stopped & the roads were basically plowed so it wasn’t that bad).


Talan & Braelyn waiting to be served their dinner.


Talan finally gave up and took mom's!


Braelyn, Nicole & myself at the end of the night.


Shell & I... I cut my head off a little, but this was our best try of taking pictures of ourselves.

Ode to My Favorite Husband

Dear my favorite husband,

I wanted to write an endearing thank you note to say you are my favorite husband.

I appreciate the hard work you and your dad did to take over my half completed project of removing our old kitchen faucet and installing the new kitchen faucet that I "needed" so desperately.

Thank you for controlling your reflex to throw the kitchen sink (literally) and the new faucet through our kitchen wall or the window.

The faucet is better than I could ever imagine. Please try not to remember the wrenches dropped on your head and the times you were caught between the sink and the countertop everytime you use it.

Thank you for being the most wonderful, handsome, charming, funny, favorite husband ever!

Love,

Your humble wife



The infamous new kitchen faucet... which is the best ever!

Manly scars and dog bones

A few weeks ago now (sorry for the delay), Phil was playing goalie at one of his indoor soccer games and ended up with some serious rug burn (puss and all)!

Here is a great picture of it (this is after a few days of healing even) so you can all share in his pain.

On Saturday night Jon & Erin came up for a visit (more on this in a later post) and of course Jon & Phil were dinking around and some how a dog bone (from a roast we had previously cooked) ended up hitting Phil right in the scab... by some stretch of luck... anyways he immediately started bleeding from his scab.... needless to say it was gross.

The Golden Girls hit St. Louis & are caught right handed

I played hooky from work for a few days and took a road trip to St. Louis with a few friends to visit their mom. It was so much fun! We left after my class on Thursday night and drove straight through, got to St. Louis about 5 am on Friday. We did all sorts of touristy things (since this was my first time to St. Louis). We went to the arch and rode up to the top in these little pod things which were very unsteady, kind of smelly and not very clean, but the view was amazing. We also made it to the art museum and hiked the Lewis & Clark trail which was 5.3 miles. While we were there, we also celebrated my friend’s mom’s birthday with a trip to the Olive Garden.

We left to come home on Monday morning pretty early and made it back into town just in time for me to go to class and take an exam. Needless to say I didn’t get much studying done on the trip, but I think it went pretty good anyways.

During our trip, Jenn & Chandra were singing to the baby (Jayda) to get her to go to sleep in the car and at one point decided to sing T.V. show theme songs. The first one they knew all the words to was the Golden Girls theme song. Then we decided that we are kind of like the Golden Girls (as there are four of us… that seemed to be enough of a connection for us at the time). I also have a fun video of them singing (or attempting to sing) the theme song to Fresh Prince of Bel-Air… dancing & hand signals included! It’s great!

Most of the pictures are on snapfish (there is a link to the right of the screen for them). Here are some pictures from our trip.

Jenn & Jayda outside the arch.



Jess & I outside the arch.


The Treat girls (Chandra, Jess, Jayda & Jeanne) outside the arch.


The Arch.


Jess & Jenn inside the POD to go up the arch.

Chandra & I up in the arch.

Jess with her tropical depression made by our famous bartender Jenn. (don't ask why she's drinking out of a cool whip container... we don't really know)

Jeanne & Jayda on our hike along the Lewis & Clark trail.

Jenn, Jess & I inside a hollowed out tree on our hike.

Here are some cute pictures of Jayda.

We also had to make a quick trip to Baby's 'R Us where we bought this adorable bathing suit for this summer.

Happy Birthday Juliana!

Sunday was my little niece's 2nd birthday (of course I use the term niece in the loosest sense of the word... she is my friend Amy's daughter...close enough). Phil and I went to her party to help her celebrate.

Here is a good picture of us girls... oh aren't we so cute.

Here is my friend Amy & the birthday girl.


Here is a group shot of all the party goers... the best one we could get anyways.


The part was a success, although Ju was in awe of all the people and excitement that she could hardly contain herself.

This is what she looked like for most of the party:








After a while, she loosened up and enjoyed herself.
Here she is with her birthday balloon hat.


Of course the Elmo cupcakes helped her relax.

Food for Thought

I usually hate forwards... but this one had some thought provoking issues in it... so I thought I'd share:

Only in America...

Only in America......do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.
Only in America.....do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet coke.
Only in America.....do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters.
Only in America ......do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.
Only in America......do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.
Only in America ......do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering

Do you ever wonder...

Why the sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin?
Why women can't put on mascara with their mouth closed?
Why don't you ever see the headline 'Psychic Wins Lottery'?
Why is 'abbreviated' such a long word?
Why is it that doctors call what they do 'practice'?
Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons?
Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?
Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?
Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?
Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?
Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections?
You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes? Why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff?!
Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?
Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?
If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

Lacrosse anyone?

This past weekend went by very fast, it seems like we had something going on every minute. Phil joined an indoor soccer team last week and their first game was on Friday night. It was a close one, but they ended up winning and Phil actually played in the field (he is usually the goalie). He was pretty sore the next day too, I guess all that conditioning with the U14 girls team didn’t get him into good enough shape.

Phil’s brother Robbie and his wife Rachel took a trip with her work (she is a doctor… or almost a doctor anyways) to Guatemala. They spent a week there offering free clinics to the different villages outside the city. They each had to bring a large suitcase full of vitamins, medicine, toothbrushes, soap… all sorts of goodies that the locals don’t have. They came back on Saturday after some flight complications so we made a road trip up to Lansing to drop off their dog (which Phil’s dad had been watching) and to visit with them and little Robbie.

As soon as we got back home on Saturday, we headed over to the Camburn’s house for a Lion or Lamb party. Everything was so festive, they had a lion cake (a chocolate cake with yellow peeps as the mane) and also a few lamb cakes (I’m not sure how they made them, but they sort of looked like a baby seal mixed with a lamb) and when you cut the lamb cake it was red velvet (so it was a little gruesome… but still yummy). Of course I forgot to take pictures of the cakes.. silly me, but I'm sure I can steal some from Jon's blog once he gets around to posting anything...

It was wonderful to visit with Jon & Erin… everyone has been so busy lately we haven’t had much time to catch up.

Sunday we met up with Erin & Jon for me to try on bridesmaid's dresses. The boys found a way to entertain themselves while we were doing wedding things. They made a trip across the parking lot to the sporting goods store and bought some lacrosse sticks... they then proceeded to "play" lacrosse in the parking lot while they waited for us.

Erin and I at the Camburn's (look at how long her hair is... I'm so proud).


Phil & Jon... being themselves.


Jon & Phil playing lacrosse in the parking lot outside David's Bridal.


Jon & Phil with their lacrosse sticks.