Entry 242: Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

This Christmas Lance was taken back to his Iowa roots when we received a huge snowfall. It started late Thursday night and just kept coming until Saturday. There is no way to really predict how much we got because of the winds just blowing it all over the place. The pictures below tell the story.

Entry 241: Merry Christmas To The Dogs

We had a great snow filled Christmas and after much discussion/argument it was decided that the dogs get Christmas presents this year. This idea backfired however, when after Bobby had his raw hides he proceeded to throw up for 2 hours. All in all a great time had by all.

Enry 240: Weekend In St. Louis

This past weekend we visited Julie's mom and dad to celebrate Christmas a week early. On Saturday they took us to St. Louis and we had a great time. The video below shows all the fun we had.

Entry 239: Royals Blog

We are both quite excited for the baseball season to start and we have both decided to do something to remember the upcoming baseball season. Julie is going to do a scrapbook of all the games we go to this year and Lance is going to blog about them. You can check out Lance's Royals blog by clicking on the link below.

Lance's Royals Blog

Entry 238: Lance's Message From Santa

Lance recently received a video message from Santa thanks to his friend Eric. It appears Lance has some shaping up to do before Friday. Check out the video at the link below.

Santa's Message To Lance

Entry 237: Julie Goes Crazy

This weekend we went to St. Louis to visit Julie's mom and dad. We were going to go and see the Christmas lights, but we had a little bit of time to kill. We stopped at McDonalds to kill the time and Julie just went crazy with her mom. Lance can never take his eyes off of Julie.

Entry 236: Snow Day

Last night we got a little bit of snow, but combine that with a below zero windchill and it makes a snow day. We noticed this morning when we let Bobby out that he ran right back in because he was cold. So Lance finally gave in and put the sweater on the dog.

Entry 235: Christmas Cards

Our Christmas cards are done and we sent them out today. We decided that this year we would include a picture of the dogs and also a picture of us at a Royals game since we are now season ticket holders. Check out the card below.

Entry 234: A Poem

In Lance's communication arts class he uses Julie a lot for examples. Most of them are the good things she does, but some of them are not (such as her infatuation with The Biggest Loser). Today Lance had his students write a simile and here is what one student wrote: Mr. Huebner is like a prisoner because he's always getting tortured by his wife. Lets just say that this simile is hanging on the fridge at home.

Entry 234: Merry Early Christmas

We have been debating since the Kansas City Royals season ended about whether or not we should get season tickets. Today we finally sat down and decided that we are going to do it and get the 21 game package and give it to ourselves as a Christmas gift. The next big question is about what package we are going to get and what teams we want to see. Lance would like to see the Red Sox and Yankees and Julie is all about the Cardinals. Either way we are both excited.

Entry 232: These Boots Are Made For Walking

Julie has been looking for a pair of knee high boots with no heels for many years and she finally found a pair when she was shopping with her mom. She absolutely loves them.

Entry 231: Happy Belated Halloween

Halloween has come and gone again. We had a few trick or treaters that came to the house, but the big excitement was Julie dressing the dogs up for Halloween again. She kept the old pumpkin costume for Maggie and bought Bobby a hot dog costume. The dogs were actually very patient with this.

Entry 230: Where Has The Time Gone

Yes we realize that it has been awhile since we have last posted, but saying we have been busy is a huge understatement. Since we last posted a lot has been going on with us. First and foremost Julie celebrated her birthday and, believe it or not, it was fun and no fun at the same time. Julie's mom and dad came down the week before Julie's birthday and spent the weekend with us. It was great spending time with them, and Julie and her mom got to do some major shopping. Julie's birthday, however, wasn't so great because Lance came down with the flu and we had to cancel the birthday party. The next weekend Lance made it up though and took Julie to the Cheesecake Factory (Julie's favorite place to eat) and we had a nice lunch and walked around the plaza. Here is what else has been going on with us since we last blogged:

- Julie spent a few days in Jefferson City for training with her job.
- We have been spending some time with Tyler, Mary, and Phillip.
- Julie had her 4 month evaluation and as expected it was tremendous.
- Lance has been busy helping out with intramural dodgeball.
- Taking care of the dogs which is a full time job.
- Raking the leaves in the yard at 8:30 in the morning.
- We have been busy editing the wedding videos that we taped.

We have been doing a lot more, but we'll let the pictures do the talking. Get ready for tons of posts.

Entry 229: Happy Birthday Julie

Today is Julie's birthday and she finally becomes the big 31. Happy birthday Julie and I can't wait to spend many many more with you.

Entry 228: Last Royals Game Of The Season

Julie has been begging Lance to go and see a Royals game when her favorite pitcher, Zack Greinke, was on the mound. Well as luck would have it, Greinke pitched the very last Royals home game of the season. We got our tickets a few weeks ahead of time and were glad we did because it was a packed stadium. This was due to the fact that they were giving out Greinke for Cy Young t-shirts. They also had Bark At The K going on where you could bring your dog into the stadium to watch the game. Next year we plan on taking Bobby with us. It was a great game and Greinke improved his record to 16-8. Who would have imagined that by the end of the season Julie would be more of a Royals fan than Lance.

Entry 227: Congratulations

We both want to congratulate Lance's sister, Jacque, who last Friday got engaged to her boyfriend Jon. We are thrilled to death for her and are glad that she will get to spend the rest of her life with someone like Jon. Congrats you two.

Entry 226: Twilight

Julie has been getting into the Twilight book series lately. She just finished the first book last Friday and had to place a hold on the next book at the public library. She finally got the book today and the picture above shows what she has been doing since she got home. The dog seems to be enjoying the book also.

Entry 225: Ted Drewes

Ever since we started dating, Julie has been telling Lance that he needs to go to St. Louis and try Ted Drewes. Ted Drewes, for those of you not from St. Louis, is a custard place that Julie says is an institution in St. Louis. Lance finally got tired of hearing Julie talk about how good this place was and decided to try it himself. He actually did his own experiment by getting the same type of concrete there that he gets at his favorite custard place in Liberty (Sheridans). Lance came to the conclusion that there really isn't any difference between the two at all. Julie didn't like hearing this verdict and still believes that Ted Drewes is the best ever.

Entry 224: Baby Calves

This weekend we were lucky enough to be on the farm to see some of the baby calves. There are nine of them so far, and one of them was born about an hour before we arrived. We took the 4 wheelers down to see them and took some nice pictures. Lance's favorite is the one where you can still see the afterbirth (he thought it was cool).

Entry 223: Family Reunion

This past weekend we made the trek down to Washington,Missouri for a Bruder family reunion. The reunion consisted of a hay ride, fishing, great food (hot dogs and brats on the grill), trivia about Grandma and Grandpa Bruder, a game of Name That Bruder, and some great stories. It was great seeing everyone and we had a great time.

Entry 222: New Garage Door

The renovations to the outside of the house are done for the most part. We did finally put the finishing touches on the front by purchasing a new garage door. Julie picked it out and it matches very well with the exterior. Nice job Julie.

Entry 221: Congratulations Carolyne

This weekend we learned that on Saturday Julie's sister, Carolyne, got engaged to Michael. We are so happy for her and know that the wedding will be beautiful. Congratulations Carol and Michael.

Entry 220: A Weekend In Iowa

This past weekend we went to Iowa to celebrate Lance's brothers, Mark, birthday. Mark turned the big 40 and for the first time in about 5 years all of the brothers and sisters were in one place. The party was Saturday night, so during the day Lance took the opportunity to show Julie one of his favorite places to eat: The Button Factory. The Button Factory is actually an old button factory that has been made into a restaurant. It sits right next to the river and it has amazing food.
The birthday party was memorable to say the least. There was lots of food to eat and it was great getting a chance to talk to everyone. The highlight of the night was the fact that there was a DJ and karaoke. Julie then learned something new about Lance: he is secretly a karaoke machine. Lance got up and sang 4 songs and even dedicated one to Julie. He sang Eye Of The Tiger, Enter Sandman, Highway To Hell, and even a Barry Manilow song with his mom and sister. All in all a great evening and a fantastic birthday party.

Entry 219: Why Lance Loves Iowa

Iowa has many quirks that Lance loves, but even he saw one this weekend that was new. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture, but as we were driving by the local feed store we saw in big letters on the billboard: See Daren 4 Cat Food. What made this even funnier is that one of Lance's brothers is named Daren. After coming up with many jokes we would say to Daren, we both decided that Daren must be really ticked off.

Entry 218: World War 1 Museum

Yesterday was the last day of Julie's mom, Nancy, mini vacation in Kansas City. She likes to go to museums, so we decided to take her to one of the nicest ones around, the World War 1 Museum. Lance had been there before, but Julie and her mom never had and they were blown away. The view from the museum is amazing and the artifacts that are inside are even better. Enjoy the pictures and if you ever get the chance we highly recommend this museum.

Enry 217: Harry Potter

Last night after work we went to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. It was a movie Julie really wanted to see, so Lance decided to surprise her and take her on opening day. We went to see the 3:50 showing and it was a good thing Lance stopped and got the tickets early because it was sold out (thats right for the 3:50 show). People were even dressed up in their favorite Harry Potter costumes in the theater. Overall we both enjoyed the movie and can't wait for the next one to come out.

Entry 216: A Weekend On The Farm

This past weekend we went to visit Julie's mom and dad down on the farm. It was a great time and we thought we would share some of the highlights with you:

- We were lucky enough to get in Friday night and attend movie night. Movie night is when Kent and Nancy show a movie up on their barn. It was a John Wayne film and we had a great time.

- We were lucky enough to visit Julie's friend, Brunhilde, on Saturday. We had a great time with her and her husband.

- We also went with Kent and Nancy to supper club on Saturday night. This is where a group of friends get together and try a different cuisine. This time was Greek food and it was fantastic. It included lamb, Greek salad, baklava, and many other things.

- We took the little dog, Bobby with us and he had a great time running around the farm with the other dogs. Bobby also met the electric fence (twice). Lance thought this was quite funny, but Julie cuddled her little dog until she was sure it was okay.

Entry 215: A Long Car Ride

Tonight what is normally a 30 minute commute home from work turned out to be a two hour and fifteen minute drive. Everything was going well until about 10 miles from the house when they closed down the bridge. We then had to backtrack and it took forever. Below is the news story link.

Link To News Story

Entry 214: Parents Of The Year

We received this picture of our nephew Tyler today from Julie's sister, Mary, and it brought a tear to Lance's eye. It is fantastic to see that they have decided to raise their child in the proper way. We can tell that Tyler is going to be a very successful person in life. Go Royals.

Entry 213: A Gift We Both Agree On

While at the Royals game today it was announced that Julie's favorite player, Zach Greinke, had been selected to play in the All Star Game in St. Louis in about a week. They announced that they we selling 150 Greinke All Star Game shirts in the team store, so we booked it over and decided to buy one for Julie. You can see it below. It works for the both of us because it has a little arch on the front of it and on the back it is a Royals player. Finally a shirt we can both agree with.

Entry 212: Another Royals Game

We both got up this morning and were trying to figure out what to do today, when Julie suggested we go to the Royals game. Lance, of course, was up for the game and we went. That is really the nice thing about living in a big city because you can go to a game at a minutes notice. We were able to get the Dri Duck seats (the best deal in baseball where you get $7 seats and a hat) and watched a great game. The Royals won and we were able to see a homerun and watch our closer, Joakim Soria, pitch. It was a great and relaxing day.

Entry 211: House Pictures

As we said in an earlier post the house is officially painted on the outside. Here are some pictures of it and some descriptions that follow (Julie said she wanted me to explain what we did).


Here is what the front of the house looks like now. We repainted the lattice with the inside being the house color and the bars being the trim color. Along with the lattice we painted the lantern out front, installed some solar lights, painted the railing, changed the light fixture by the door, put new numbers on the house, installed a new doorbell, and had the gutters replaced. Lance literally had to get on top of the roof and lean over to get the trim on the widows peak.



Here is the side that is next to the kitchen. We just painted this and hung up one of Julie's wind chimes.



This is the side of the house with the bedrooms. We just painted this and had new gutters installed.



This is the back of the house. We changed out the light fixture, had the gutters replaced, and hung up another of Julie's wind chimes.



This was Julie's project and she did a great job on the shed. She was a little unsure about painting the trim white, but she likes it now.

Entry 210: A Birthday Gift

Lance's birthday is this Monday the 29th and Julie got him a gift that he has been wanting for awhile: a new grill. She surprised him with it and Lance is very excited that it is still charcoal and not gas (charcoal just tastes better even if it takes longer).

Entry 209: Solar Lights

We were walking through Target yesterday and we noticed that they had some solar lights on sale that just about exactly matched our outside lights. It was too good of a deal for us to pass up, so we bought some. We put 3 of them on the sidewalk leading up to the house and hung the other two with our bushes. We are both pretty pleased with how it looks.

Entry 208: Finally Done

Well the entire project took about a month (it has been 95 and above for more than a week), but we are happy to say that the house is finally painted. Not only has the house been painted, but we also replaced all of the outside lighting fixtures, painted the railing and mailbox black, installed solar lights along the sidewalk, had new gutters installed, and even installed a new doorbell. Today Julie inspected the whole house and after a few minor fixes declared the house done. Lance was given a few moments to relish his victory before Julie told him what she would like to see done on the inside of the house. Pictures will be following soon of the completed project.

Entry 207: The Shed

The house is all painted and all Lance is doing now is a little touch up work. When Julie painted the shed she decided that she liked it to be all gray. Lance thought it looked good, but wanted to jazz it up a bit. So without Julie's permission, Lance added his own little touch to the shed. We'll see what Julie says when she gets home. Before I forget, yes I do realize that there is a huge tree limb hanging from the shed, but it was blown down last night and our neighbor is taking it for his fire pit later today.

Entry 206: The Neighbors

We have some neighbors that live across the street from us who are quite interesting. The biggest problem we have is that they make noise all throughout the night making it tough for us to sleep. Lance likes to get a little bit of revenge by honking his car horn next to their house when we leave at 6:00 in the morning. This morning Julie wouldn't let Lance honk his horn and you'll see why with the picture below.

Entry 205: Anniversary Day

Today was our first anniversary and we decided to recreate our first two dates. On our second date we went to see a movie, so today we went and saw The Proposal in the same movie theater. Believe it or not we both thought it was a good movie because even though we knew how it was going to end it kept us laughing and entertained. Afterwards we planned on going to Granite City to eat (this is where we had our first date), but we had to get home and let the dogs out. We decided to eat at the Olive Garden and again it was very good. Now your probably wondering what we got each other for this special day. Julie got Lance a Royals jersey with Coco Crisp on it and new Baggo bean bags for his Baggo game. Lance got Julie a Royals jersey with David DeJesus, some Bath and Body Works stuff, and gave her $50 to go shopping with and Lance had to go without complaining. All in all it was a great day and the first of many.

Entry 204: Anniversary Flowers

Today (Sunday) is our first anniversary together. Lance decided to celebrate it a little early and send some flowers to Julie's office. He also decided that wasn't enough and bought some to surprise her with at home. We have a big day planned for our anniversary, so I am sure there will be tons of pictures.

Entry 203: The New Gutters Are In

This may sound a little bit sad, but we are very excited to have our new gutters installed. It has been crazy because for the past week and a half we have been waiting to have them installed, but it had been raining every day. As you can tell the wait is over and Julie did a nice job of picking the paint to match the colors of the gutters. All that is left now is for Julie to give the house a look over and fix anything she sees.