Girl's Game Night

It is once again time for our monthly girl's game night and this evening Michelle was our hostess with the mostest :) It ended up being a small gathering of girl's but much fun nonetheless!

The game Michelle picked to play for the evening was UNO Attack! It is very similar to the old-school version of the UNO card game but with many more twists and a fun little machine that will spit cards out at you when you least expect it!

There were many laughs during the evening...especially after we moved the party outside on the deck. Michelle's deck has two large bird feeders on them and anyone that knows me knows I have a HUGE phobia of birds. Well, while we were playing the game, birds kept coming and landing on the feeders to eat and I had my eye on them the entire time making sure they wouldn't attack! It was quite humorous for the girl's to watch my paranoid-self and I'm so glad I could entertain them! Later on, when the June bugs starting flying in for a landing in our hair, we moved the party back inside :)

Thanks girls for a much needed, fun evening and thanks Michelle for hosting!

Front L-R: Michelle, Heather, Melissa & Erinn

March for Babies - 2009

Thousands of walkers jammed Walnut Street in Kansas City's Power & Light District this morning for the KC March for Babies. I was honored to be one of them walking 3 miles to help support the March of Dimes mission to help mothers and babies begin healthy lives.

My morning started out by Keri picking me up and meeting our friend Melissa for breakfast at IHOP. After breakfast we made our way into downtown KC for the Walk festivities. The downtown area was packed with people and it was neat to think we were all gathered there for one reason - to help save a babies life! It was heartwarming to see all the babies in strollers with signs saying "born at 29 weeks" and all the team t-shirts everyone was wearing honoring a baby who either survived or who had passed away too soon. It was an event I was so very excited to be a part of and one I will be participating in for many years to come!

We of course took some pictures along the way so here are a few from our walk:

This one here is a "rare" picture - me wearing "K-State" purple. I do not own anything in this color nor will I ever purposely purchase anything in this color! Not because I don't like the color but because my husband would never let me hear the end of it! Melissa tried to tell me it wasn't a true K-State purple but Keri even agreed with me that it was.....sorry Melissa :) Anyway, it just so happened to be the color of the March of Dimes t-shirts this year so I had to put it on - just for a picture anyway! (you will notice I am not wearing it in any other pictures :)

L-R: Melissa, Keri and me :)

*All of us posing with the KC Chiefs mascot

On our walk, we passed by this restaurant! It seemed fitting to get a picture :)

Introducing: The Woodland Ridge Racers

Our team, the Woodland Ridge Racers, raised over $1000 for the cause and I wanted to give a heartfelt thank you to those of you who sponsered me and helped by making a donation! I appreciate it so very much!

Is that my pager again?

I am on call this weekend and was hoping that it would be quiet. I should have known I wouldn't be that lucky since I have been fortunate enough to escape all the busy weekends lately.

My Saturday morning started with the sound of my pager going off at 3am. In my opinion, anytime between 1-3am is the WORST time of the day to be called in. I rushed around to get dressed, brush my teeth & get out the door all in 5 minutes flat. I get there, do the procedure, save a life and make my way home. I crawl back into bed at 6am, managed to fall back asleep and 3 hours later - beep beep beep - I'm getting called in again! I fly out the door, make my way to the Plaza, do the procedure and back home I go. I jump in the shower, grab a bite to eat and beep beep beep - is that my pager AGAIN? For the 3rd time, I head back down to the Plaza, do the procedure and head back home. By now it is 2pm and not only am I exhausted but I have also gone through almost a whole tank of gas making 3 trips down to the plaza and back again. I managed to make dinner for Shane and prayed that the madness is over.

After we ate, I got settled in to the couch to watch TV. At 8:30pm I here it again - beep beep beep - are you F'n kidding me!?! I wanted to throw that pager against the wall. Made my way back to the Plaza for the 4th time today, did the procedure and got back home around 11pm. A co-worker was taking over my call for the rest of the night starting at 11pm so I was thrilled to know I would have an uninterrupted evening of sleep - the bed never felt so good!

Happy Hour

Tonight a few of us from work gathered at none other than Rudy's for Happy Hour. My friend HK joined us and shared with us her adventures from her new job this past week. It was great to get to see her and catch up! It was also nice to relax and unwind from the week over a margarita and good friends! We LOVE Rudy's!

2 week update

Wow - has it really been 2 weeks since I last posted?!? Time has managed to escape me once again! Honestly, these past couple of weeks have been very uneventful for the Taylor's and there really hasn't been anything exciting to blog about. My weeks usually consist of work, coming home to make dinner and watching TV the rest of the evening. Pretty much what anyone does when they have no kids and a traveling husband.

Last weekend, for the first time in a LONG time I had nothing penciled in the calendar with nothing to do, nowhere to be, & I wasn't on call! It was my only free weekend for the next 5 weeks! At least I should have something new and refreshing to blog about each week in the month of May!?!

On Friday, I left work early and spent the rest of my afternoon cruising the aisles in the garden section at Lowes. Two hours later, I had finally come to a decision on what to buy and where I was going to plant it! I ended up buying a variety of flowers & plants to add to the landscaping around the house & couldn't wait to get home and get everything planted. I managed to get the hibiscus plants potted but had to quit early since it began to rain. On Saturday morning when I went out to get the newspaper, there was this beautiful hibiscus bloom on one of my plants:

So what else did I do on my free-weekend? Absolutely NOTHING :) It pretty much rained the entire weekend so Shane & I did alot of vegging on the couch, caught up on all our DVR'd shows and rented a couple of movies from Blockbuster. Sunday we went to church and then to IHOP for breakfast and spent the rest of the day doing some more lounging around the house! I didn't even do any cleaning and it was GREAT! Definitely a weekend full of rest & relaxation!

Happy 1st Birthday Isabella

One year ago this week, I was lucky enough to have experienced the miracle of life. My girlfriend Margie asked me if I would be her birthing coach and I was flattered & yet somewhat nervous since I had NO clue about what to do when someone was in labor. But for some reason, Margie felt that I would be a calming & supportive influence around her during her delivery & I felt very honored to have been there during that very important day in Margie & Don's life.

On April 14th, 2008 Isabella Marie entered this world with me on Margie's right and her husband Don on her left. It was the most amazing thing I have ever witnessed! Being the one who always has a camera, I immediately starting taking pics of Isabella being weighed & footprinted while Margie & Don shared in the moment. I also got pics of Dad holding Isabella for the first time (which made me tear up) as well as them together as a family for the first time. It was so very special being able to do that for them and they always tell me that they are forever grateful for having me there with them.

Today was Isabella's 1st Birthday party & I was invtited to participate in the fun festivities. She looked every bit of a "princess" and SO cute in her little tiara. It is hard to believe it has been a year already since she was born. Happy Birthday sweet girl :) I look forward to sharing many more birthday's with you all!

HK has left the building

It seems my social calendar these past few weeks has been jam packed with many get-togethers & parties with friends. It always drives Shane crazy when I am this busy & honestly, it is starting to wear on me. According to my calendar, next weekend I have nothing to do, nowhere to be, no call to take - NOTHING :) I am SO lookiing forward to it! Thank goodness for my monthly planner - I would be lost without that thing!

Tonight I had yet another party to attend. For me however, it wasn't a happy one but personally and selfishly (is that a word?) a sad one. The one person who was responsible for forcing people at work to call me HT, my work buddy and dear friend HK has left the MAHI to pursue a job at KU Med Center. Tonight was her going away party at none other than our after-work hangout Rudy's Tenampa.

There was a great turnout of co-workers and friends and we pretty much took up the entire back area of the restaurant. We all shared stories of HK, shared many laughs as well as many margaritas, chips & salsa :) I stopped counting after the 10th pitcher of 'ritas was brought to the table. A good time was definitely had by all!

*side note* - don't worry mom, I was on call and only had 2 'ritas the entire 5 hours I was there ;) For some reason, my mother worries about my 'rita intake & driving home when I have been to Rudy's?!? Can't figure out why!?! HA

So, farewell my dear friend HK! I wish her luck and secretly hope that one day she comes back to the MAHI. We have already decided to meet monthly at Rudy's for 'ritas so we will be in touch! OH, and everyone at work has informed me I will still be and always will be called "HT" even though HK is gone. That makes me happy :)

Here are a few pictures from the evenings' festivities - somehow I ended up with over 50 pictures on my camera of the occasion!?!

HK's going-away cake. It is supposed to be a field of grass which we told her "remember the grass isn't always greener on the other side" :) I don't think she is listening to us...

L-R: Marlo, HT, Jen & HK (this is half of the crew going to Vegas in June)

Some of the MAHI crew :)

It's a "Heather-Sandwich"

HT & HK - "friends forever"

Jury Duty

Today I fulfilled my civic duty and reported for jury duty. When I told people I had jury duty this week, their reactions were of mostly grumbling and stories of how horrible it would be. I didn't seem to see it that way though! I was secretly hoping to get picked for a trial just to be able to experience the whole "Law & Order" hype.

I reported to the Johnson County Courthouse at 9am and then 45 of us were wisked away to a court room. There they randomly selected 24 people to be questioned for potential jurors and let everyone else leave. I was one of the 24 selected and was so excited...you would think I had won a prize or something as excited as I was?! The judge for the case came in and told us that the trial would be starting today, it would probably not last longer than a day, it would be a DUI case and what would be expected from us jurors. Then the attorney's for the case came in and asked us all kinds of questions about life experiences - mainly pertaining to alcohol. They asked me specifically if I had ever been at a function and witnessed someone who had drank too much alcohol and were unable to drive home and how did I come to the conclusion that they were unable to drive. I thought for sure my answer would be sending me on my way but surprisingly, I was one of the 12 jurors selected for the case.

Once they picked the jury, they started with opening arguments and then we broke for lunch. When we returned the trial got back underway. We heard testimony from the police officer who arrested the defendent (who was pleading not guilty), from the defendents' girlfriend and from the defendent himself as well as watched the 35 min police video from the arrest. It was about 5pm when we went back to deliberate whether the guy was guilty or not guilty of being too impaired to drive a vehicle without a reasonable doubt based on the evidence and testimony heard.

There were 4 of us who said not guilty and 8 that said guilty so we went back and watched the video again to see if anyone would change their mind. It is now 6pm and we can't come to a mutual decision so we told the judge, he declared it a hung jury and the guy will retry the case at another time.

After the trial was over, the judge & the attorney's came back to our room where they asked us how we went about making our decision & why we thought he was either guilty or not. We later found out from the judge that this is the guys' 3rd DUI arrest and he has been in the system many times for numerous things other than his DUI. At this moment I became a bit irritated. This guy purposely didn't blow a breathalizer because being his 3rd DUI, he knew they wouldn't be able to prove he was drunk by his BA level & use it in court against him so he obviously knows how to work the system and the attorney knew we wouldn't be able to all agree on a verdict based on the evidence so it would have to be re-tried later. So basically I just wasted my entire day on a BS trial. Oh well...the experience was worth something so I guess it wasn't a total waste of a day.

Keri's "Last Night Out"

This evening I hosted a bacholorette party for my friend Keri who is also known as one of the "game-night girls". She is getting married in May and us girls thought Keri should have one last night out as a single girl.

We started the festivities at my house by having a few cocktails and appetizers as well as playing a couple of traditional "bachelorette party" games. There were many laughs shared by all as the games were played and while Keri opened some very fun and interesting gifts :)

We then headed down to the Plaza where we had dinner reservations at PF Changs. We started off by toasting to a fun evening with Bomb Pop Martinis and shared in tons of laughter and fun with the wait staff.

After dinner, we made our way around the Plaza to several different bars and enjoyed beverages, people watching and plenty of good stories and lots of laughs.

Around midnight, we decided to start making our way back to Spring Hill and end the evening at one of the local "hole-in-the-wall" bars called the Hideout. We all had one last beverage and took even more pictures and can proudly say we shut down the Hideout in Spring Hill :) It was definitely time to head home!

Before we could call it an evening, we had one last picture to take. There is a house in our subdivision that has a creepy alien head sitting in there dining room window and every night they turn this alien head on which lights up the entire room green. We talk about the alien all the time and just HAD to get a picture with this thing. So, at 2am we drove past the house, parked and all got out to take a pic with the alien:

See - I told you it was creepy :)

I must say it was a super fun evening had by all and I do believe the bachelorette had lots of fun as well! Congratulations Keri and best wishes on your upcoming wedding!

2nd Place

I am proud to say that I won 2nd place in this year's March Madness Pool at work - woo hoo! I will receive $100 for my winnings! Only 11 more months until next years March Madness festivities :) I can hardly wait!

March for Babies

This year, I have decided to participate in the March of Dimes "March for Babies" walk. It is on May 3rd here in Kansas City and I'm asking you all to help by sponsoring me. My friend Keri is our team captain and we are called the Woodland Ridge Racers (WR is the the name of our subdivision). We are committed to the March of Dimes mission to celebrate babies who are born healthy and to raise funds for babies who need help to survive and thrive. Please help us by donating to this worthy cause.

I'm inspired to do this walk because of my 3 girlfriends from South Carolina who all delivered baby boys under 31 weeks. Unfortunately my friend Kelly's twins didn't survive but Michelle & Stacey's little boys are now 2 years old and very healthy! In 2007, they started Team Marshall's Angels and did there first walk in SC for the March for Babies. This team was also selected to be an ambassador family for South Carolina due to their unique story....a story about 4 girlfriends who all had premature births.

I know times are tight, but even a little bit makes a difference, so please donate if you can. Our team goal is $500 and we are well over 1/2 way there thanks to all who have donated thus far! THANK YOU to all who have made personal donations to my webpage also :) It is very much appreciated!

Donations can be made at: http://www.marchforbabies.org/taylorh522

Thanks,

HT :)

A Baby Shower

Today I helped throw a baby shower for my friend Lindsey. Our friend Sarah was the main "host" and I helped by making all the food. I would love to just quit my job and have my own "catering & planning" business! *sigh* maybe someday!?Anyway, the shower was held at the North Kansas City Community Center which was a really nice facility! It is a perfect place for a baby or bridal shower or even a birthday party!

We started the shower off by playing the usual "ice breaker" games and then watched as Lindsey opened all her gifts. I always love seeing what kind of baby gifts people get. It amazes me what stuff is used for and how silly some items can be. Then it was time for my most favorite part of any shower - the cake. This cake had to have been thee cutest cake I have ever seen and on a "yumminess" scale of 1-10 it definitely didn't disappoint! I gave it a 10!

It ended up being a really nice afternoon spent with friends and Lindsey got some really nice gifts from everyone!

*Lindsey showing off her cute cake

*L-R: Little Savero, Camille, Lindsey, Heather & Sarah