Yummy

What a nice husband I have :)

Tennis Ball 2007

Another good year for Ian at work and we had another great dinner. We skipped out before the dancing started though since Ian had to work :) At least this year he was lucky and didn't have to do anything embarassing. I was really proud of him though, they introduced all the pro's and said they were literally the best staff in the country, which is probably true. Congressional was just rated #2 country club in the nation overall, and their tennis staff is really good. :) We are very blessed to both have good, enjoyable jobs.

Fall photos

Ian and I went to Cunningham Falls State park between Frederick and Gettysburg on Sunday and Ian had fun with photography as usual. Here are some of his best pics. Hope you all are enjoying fall as much as we are!

Parents visit

My mom and dad just left yesterday, and we had a lot of fun in the last hurrah of summer. We went to Gettysburg, the inner harbor of Baltimore and the national aquarium, and annapolis. We had some great food, including my first experience with maryland blue crabs and raw oysters on the half shell. They got to see our land and a good bit of the state of maryland!

You can check out the rest of my pictures at my flickr site:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alisonwisconsin/

We're moving again, no its not a joke!

Can you believe it?! We won't be moving for awhile as you can see from the pictures, but we just signed the paperwork to build our very own townhouse! It won't be ready until at least next march if not later. We are pretty pumped about it though, its about two miles from where we just moved and pretty perfect for our needs. Hopefully Sammy will like it too. The pictures we took our a view from where our front door will be, a view of the lot, and a view of our 'block' which will be three townhouses in total. Can't wait for the process to start, we are starting to dream already of all the decorating possibilities (well, mainly I am dreaming of that).

You can see what our townhouse will look like by going to this link:


http://www.craftstarhomes.com//model_detail.php?model_id=104&n_id=76



you can then choose 'virtual tour' or 'floorplans' or 'elevations' ours will look like the first house on the left under 'elevations' with a stone front. Ours will have three bedrooms with an optional porch off the third bedroom.

That's about it for now, we'll keep you up to date on the progress!

Back from Canada

Thought you all might like to see a few highlights from my trip to Canada. I haven't seen many more beautiful things all at once. We flew into Calgary and spent our time between four national parks, Banff, Jasper, Waterton and Glacier. We saw almost every kind of animal you can imagine and countless beautiful sceneries. I would love to go back there as soon as possible, but I know there is a whole beautiful world to discover. If you want to see the edited version of my pictures (about 10%) you can go to my flickr site.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alisonwisconsin/

New house photos.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=11746&l=81db6&id=580356524

Here are the first pics of our new place. It is still a work in progress.....so we'll continue to update. Enjoy!

New House

This is the view from our entrance to the basement! We like it a lot so far. The commute is long, but a really pretty drive. More pictures to come!

Moving

We're moving bright and early tomorrow, to our fourth place in three years. I really really don't like moving, but each place we go has a really good reason and has been a really good place to live, so I hope and pray for that for this new place.
Do you think its a sign from God that the night before we move we witness an undercover drug bust right outside our window? I like to believe in signs from God that make me feel good about the decisions we make. Like at church two weeks ago, the pastor just makes a surprise announcement that our church will be starting a new church up in Frederick, right by where we live....I look for things like that that make me think whoa, this is probably a good sign, and feels like we're on the right path.

Speechless

Ian took these photos at the Vietnam memorial. I started crying when I saw the two guys finding their buddy's name on the wall. That is the most personal and moving thing I have seen. I think Ian is really good at capturing emotion in his pictures. If nothing else, he captured the emotion of the moment of those two men at the vietnam memorial.

Bush and diamonds

President Bush in Marine One flew pretty close over us as we were at the Jefferson Memorial and we watched him land on the White house lawn. And who doesn't want to see the Hope diamond?! :)

Friends visit

Ian and I spent the weekend as tour guides for Beth and Chris. We had a blast.

A tradition for going home is always a good old fashioned kids meal at culvers. I'm part of the scoopie squad!
That's a 22" walleye my dad caught. We named him wally and then ate him for breakfast the next day. Some of the best fish I've had in awhile!

More vacation pics

Back from vacation

We had such a great time at home for nine days....up at the cottage and around milwaukee. So here's a couple pictures as proof!
The plane picture in the sunset is my brother flying back to mankato after coming home for our cookout. Its pretty cool and scary to watch him fly a plane! I feel worse for Jen who has to sit in the tiny little cockpit with him! I know he does a good job though, I just don't think I could fly in a plane that small!

We're moving!!

Don't worry, its not out of state! We are taking the plunge for a long commute and moving to New Market, MD. (You'll probably have to mapquest it) but its near Frederick. We are tickled about the area, the place, and the financial savings :) We'll be moving mid August and will have pictures as soon as we can!!

More photos

Here are my other two favorite pics that Ian has taken lately. PS The turtle in the previous post we just stopped by to see on the side of the road.

RIP Sushi

That's right, Sushi had a short but full life, all of two weeks as a Westermann. Ian said he just liked to sit in the corner. I tried to diagnose him. But we couldn't save him......I think Dog and Booyah and Mr. Whiskers really miss him.
Here are some pics from our memorial weekend. Moreso, it is a display of Ian's photography.....my favorite pics of his. Hope you all had a great weekend!

Sammy and our new bed

Here's a cute pic of Sammy I took today and the new bed we bought. After almost three years of marriage we decided we need to get better sleep (those of you who know Ian well would agree). We bought it from a friend at work for a very good price that was too good to pass up, and needless to say we have been sleeping a lot better. Although, Ian claims he has been dreaming about water a lot because it is so soft (its a pillowtop). I am sleeping better if nothing else!

Coming Home!

Here are some random pictures along with an announcement that we're coming home in July! We just bought the plane tickets and we'll be home July 1-10. My mom is having a barbecue on the 1st and you should be invited! Let me know if I forgot to send you the evite! So anyway, these are some random pictures.....but one is a really good salad i made with poppyseed dressing. The rest are pics of my 'pot garden' that I have been having fun with. Can't wait to see you all in July! Take care until then!!