Raquetball, Raquetball, Raquetball

Well that about explains our December 26th Friday evening. We went to the gym for a normal workout and Mike decided, after I was already exhausted from my workout, that we try playing raquetball. We didn't know the rules but it was quite a workout...about 45 additional minutes of workout! Mike's first swing off the back wall caused the ball to directly hit his throat. Yikes! But we got better. We both took our fair share of hits into the wall and couldn't get out of each other's way sometimes, but it was a good time. For my first experience with raquetball, it was fun. Now we just need to learn the rules.

Happy Christmas!!

It's all over so quickly! But Christmas day was a great day in Maryland.(not to mention it was 50 degrees out so also a great day of weather) Stuart won't put his stuffed lobster down so I at least know I bought well for one person/dog. :) He took it to bed on Christmas night and at about midnight I heard it squeaking so I put it on the dresser. When we got up this morning, Stu knew exactly where it was and tried jumping up the dresser to get it. He also won't leave Boulevard's bone alone either so we have to hold onto Stu in order for Boulevard to enjoy his bone. Stu is kind of a bully and doesn't share well.

Our short Christmas story: We got up about 8:45am on Christmas(well I kind of pouted until Mike got out of bed...he wanted to sleep longer), we opened our presents, we let the dogs open their presents, we watched about 2 showings of the "Christmas Story," Kirsten worked out(I decided if I worked out, I could eat more at Christmas dinner), I cooked the corn casserole and hashbrown casserole, then we headed to Tim and Nicole's. Tim and Nicole's was great! I'm amazed that we sat at their dining table for 5 hours just talking. They are quite entertaining and it was great fun to be with them on Christmas...we talked last night of doing a monthly potluck with them. I hope it comes to fruition because it's always a good time with them! I probably drank too much, ate too much, and talked too much but that's what spending time with friends is all about, right? Mike, of course, didn't drink(since he had to get us home), he ate just the right amount of food he needed, and certainly didn't talk too much because he couldn't get a word in with me talking. We took a plate of our plethora of cookies(we baked a bunch of cookies last Saturday) and candy to Tim and Nicole so hopefully I'll stop eating sweets...I have such a weakness for sweets.


Thank you to everyone for all of our wonderful gifts! From food, clothes, books, moccasins, wine stuff, wii stuff, kitchen stuff, DVD's, gift cards...it was all excellent! We were pretty spoiled. It was tough being away from all of our family/friends but it sounds like everyone had a Merry Christmas in San Antonio, Texas and in Nebraska.

P.S. Congrats to my cousin Lynsi and Tyler on the arrival of their new baby, Drew, who decided to make his appearance into this world on Christmas Eve! What an amazing Christmas present!!

Is there such a thing as...

Is there such a thing as Bloggers Anonymous? I just got done have a conversation with my beauti'mus sister Beth and we were just telling eachother how addicted we were to blogging ALREADY!(since we just started not so long ago). I'm not into MySpace or Facebook yet but I'm sure it's the same type of addiction.
Why is it addicting you ask?
-You get to share all your fun thoughts and adventures with your family/friends
-Once you start blogging, you find out other people are blogging and you can't wait to read their latest entry
-You get in touch with people you may not have previously been in contact with on a regular basis
-You don't want to risk getting behind on the blogs you follow because then it takes awhile to get caught up
-You check back often so you can see the comments people leave on your blog
-Most importantly, it doesn't feel like your friends and family are half-way across the United States :)
I think that about sums it up.

I don't really have anything exciting to report from the Hansmeyer/Carpenter household. Mike only has to work on Sunday of next week...some such nonsense :) of President Bush declaring the 26th as a holiday as well and his holidays are back-dated to the days he works(Sun, Mon, Tues) and since he is still in Field Training, they don't want to pay him extra holiday pay...so he only works on Sunday. PUNK!! (don't worry, I still love you Mike!) Me on the other hand, I get to work every day next week except Thursday.
For Christmas Day, we are hanging with Nicole and Tim at their new apartment and sharing dinner duties. If it's anything like Thanksgiving Day with them, it'll be a good time.
Alrighty, my lunch break is coming to an end so I need to wrap things up.
P.S. If you're not already a blogger, I highly recommend it!

HoCoBoCo meetup

Yep, that's our name...HoCoBoCo...Howard County Books and Cooks :)

Is it nerdy that I get home from activities and then blog about them? Well, I guess I have a little "nerd" in me so I'm not going to be concerned. So, my meetup was today at Aida Bistro(www.aidabistro.com) and Wine Bar...and...it was great. The food and wine was amazing AND so was the company. My main course was "Grilled Kobe Beef Culotte Finished with Mushroon & Herb Demi, Served over a Bleu Cheese Risotto Cake." For not really knowing what any of that means, it was really good. We discussed the book and also had a gift exchange. I received a really nice(and it's red) corkscrew. Pretty cool!
After the bistro we went to a bar called Nottingham's, which is really funny because I was the only one that had ever been there before and I've only lived here for 2 months. HA! We played shuffle board and chatted. It's a really nice group of gals and I'm definitely planning to continue going. For the January meetup we are doing a "Anti-New Years Resolution" Cooking Party. :)
In my chats with these girls, the online meetup thing seems to be the "cool" thing to do. Many of these ladies are part of many meetup groups and that is how they socialize, which is cool. If I was in Nebraska right now, I'd probably think it was pretty silly and/or hokie but it was really enjoyable. You'd think living in such a big place, it would be so easy to meet people but I think it makes it harder because you don't even know where to start. These meetups are a good place to start if you're interested in meeting people.
That's all I know for now. Tomorrow will be yet another quiet Sunday since Mike is working. :(

National Christmas Tree and Stuart

Tonight Mike and I drove into the city to see the National Christmas Tree,which is located in front of the White House. They have music entertainment every night and tonight we listened to an opera group. The singing was great but it pained me to watch them because it was so windy and cold and they had no coats, gloves, scarves, or anything. One of the singers just looked miserable. I could only sit in the bleachers so long and then we headed back to the Yule-log to get warmed up. :) Here is a picture of the tree with the Washington Monument in the background. It was very neat!
We also had some excitement with Stuart tonight. About two weeks ago, Mike bought one of those pet pedicure things(You stick their nail in and the spinning file trims their nail...I'm sure you've seen it on TV before). Well, Stu is scared to death anything that makes a buzzing noise. We tried clippers quite a while ago when we were in Nebraska and Stuart fought and fought and I finally decided I couldn't take it anymore so we returned the clippers.(I felt like such a bad mom) Then since we've lived in Maryland, we have one of those back-massager things and when Mike turned it on, Stuart bolted up the stairs and wouldn't come down until I picked him up and carried him downstairs. Then we get this pedicure tool and he is scared of it as well so wanted to see if we could ease him into it. We started with just holding him next to the tool(in the 'off' position), then moved to holding him next to the tool with it on but not actually putting his nail in it. So tonight we thought we'd try actually trimming his nails, and it worked!! He was less than pleased with us while I held him and Mike trimmed his nails but he got a treat out of the deal so I think it was worth it for him.
Here's a recent picture of Stu...this is in the office right next to my chair. This is his typical location where he camps out during the weekdays while I'm working. He's so funny!

the coolest thing

I recently heard of this web site called www.meetup.com. There are groups about everything and anything on there. You should check it out if you are interested in meeting new people or getting involved in something new. I just joined a book and cook club...they meet once a month and discuss a book and also exchange recipes, etc. The December meet is next Saturday and I'm going to go! There are 13 of us getting together so I'll be able to meet some new people. YAY! Now I have a week to read the December book("The Wednesday Letters")...I'm going to the library to get it tomorrow.
The newest excitement in our lives is joining a gym. It's very simiar to the Lincoln Raquet Club. I've been running(planning on running a 10K on Dec. 20th) and trying out all the group classes. Over the past week, I've tried classes like yoga, beach body, step, zumba, hip-hop, and a variety of sculpting classes. I will start off by saying, I thought I could dance...I was a cheerleader, I like dancing when bands are playing, etc. So, I go to this hip-hop class and it was completely like learning a dance routine. Every heard of 'white boys can't jump'? Well this 'white girl CAN'T dance.' (Why haven't my friends ever told me?) I felt like the most ridiculous person especially since there are mirrors on all walls of the classroom so I could see how silly I looked. Oh well, I made it through the class and will probably go back to suffer again. It was fun and even though my body could not move like others in the class...I'm sure I'll go back. :)
Well it's 8:45pm on a Saturday night and Mike went to bed around 8:15pm. :( He gets up at 4am to get to work by 6am so I don't blame him. Tomorrow will be another lonely Sunday but I'll be going to my 'beach body' classes and then hopefully I'll get some good reading in for my book club. :)
19 more days until Christmas!

Mike's graduation pics

Here is the class getting ready to take their oath during graduation. Mike is on the left side of picture.

This was right after the graduation. This was their class inspection by the Chief. Mike is on the left-hand side of the photo facing the class. He was the class Sergeant so he "facilitates" the inspection when the Chief gets there.

This was after their class inspection.

Boring...

Now that I've had Mike around for the last 4 weeks and he has been getting home by 3:30pm everyday, I'm very bored now that he's working these 12 hour shifts. I get off work at 4:45pm and now Mike isn't home to greet me when I get home (aka...walking down the stairs to the living room from the office). It's too quiet around here when Mike's not around. Granted I'm usually the one that does a lot of the talking but still it's just not the same when I'm talking and he's not around. (Yes, I tend to talk to myself sometimes...call me crazy, that's fine) This schedule stuff will take some getting used too. I'm sure on Thursday I'll be blogging about how frustrating it is that I have to be at work and Mike is off work. :)



I have some sad news to report...Tim and Nicole(if you remember...my first 'girl time' in D.C. was spent with Nicole and we spent Thanksgiving with them) are moving to a different apartment complex in Virginia. :( We'll miss them!

Only one injury on Thanksgiving...

Yep, only one injury and it had nothing to do with my cooking. We took the dogs to the dog park on Thanksgiving morning and Boulevard somehow got a gash on his leg. And since he was running around, he was splashing blood around so all four paws were covered in blood. He tracked blood all the way back to the car...I'm sure someone thought a crime was committed at the dog park. We bathed him and Mike wrapped up his leg. He's fine now and didn't even need stitches.

Brad and Kat left on Thanksgiving morning...it was great to have them. We had a great time with them and enjoyed having them stay with us! Hope we get more visitors soon...(hint hint!)

Mike graduated on Tuesday, 11/25. The ceremony was really cool! Mike got an award for being #1 in his graduating class. Congratulations babe! He starts his Field Training tomorow at 6am. He'll be working 6am to 6pm and he'll have Thursday, Friday, and Saturday off(& every other Wed) through his entire Field Training. Basically, I won't see him at all on Sun, Mon, Tues, and every other Wed. For his first two weeks, he is based at a station about 30 miles away, which probably equates to 45 minutes(no traffic) and upwards of 2 hours(with traffic) commute for him. Since he'll be getting off at 6pm, he'll hit prime traffic and probably won't get home until close to 8pm. For all you Lincolnites that ever complain about a 20 minute commute, bet you won't be complainin' now. :)
I think that's all for now. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday!

What's the moral of the story?

I'm not going to lie so I'm going to tell you that we just today turned on our furnace. The average temps around here during this time of year are 55 degrees however we are below normal and we've been waking up to 30's and it barely has been getting to the 40's. So, I decided that I was going turn on the heat because I was cold...so I turn it on and the vent was blowing cold air. Now I know that I haven't been in Nebraska for about a month now but I'm pretty sure furnaces are supposed to blow warm air. :)
So, once again, I get to call the maintenance people to get it fixed(this is once again a demonstration of the perks of renting)...so they get here within a couple hours and ask me when it stopped working. I said, "Well we just moved in mid-October and this is first time we are turning on the heat." I kid you not, he looked at me like I was on Mars. "You just turned on the heat?" he asked. I proceeded to tell him we just moved from Nebraska and that 40 degrees is not cold compared to Nebraska temps. He laughed and told his partner the story.
Moral of the story...I guess Nebraska toughens you up for some things. However I think we will eventually start to think 40 degrees is really cold and you will all from the midwest will laugh at us.

We have our first guests coming to visit tomorrow. Brad and Kat from Chadron are coming tomorrow and leaving Thanksgiving Day. It'll be fun to have guests and neither of them have been to DC so they have a lot of sight-seeing to do. AND they'll be here for Mike's graduation on the 25th so that's exciting too.

$1.87?

I have to be honest and tell you I don't drive very often anymore. I obviously don't have to drive to work and usually if I go somewhere Mike goes with me and he drives. Mike was required to work the G-20 Summit tonight and tomorrow so I decided to venture out and see how lost I could get in Laurel, MD. Turns out I didn't get lost at all AND I saw a gas price of $1.87 per gallon. WOW! Is that how cheap it is in the midwest?
I love reading everyone's comments on the blog...Thanks for posting your comments. I'm definitely into this blogging thing! I think I'll blame Mrs. Roach for this new addiction I have with blogging. :)
The latest, as of five minutes ago, in Kirsten's life is that I have a date! With Mike you ask??! Nope, my first 'girl date' since I've been in MD. Nicole(another officer's girlfriend) and I are going out for breakfast tomorrow since the guys have to work tomorrow all day. I'm excited for some girl time!
This week went so fast...Mike had Tuesday off due to Veteran's day so Mike and Taz(everyone has a nickname) played Play Station 3(Mike wishes it was our PS3 but it's Taz's) for about 4 hours. It was quite entertaining to listen to them from upstairs as I worked. They wrapped up the game playing when I got off work.
The other excitement of the week was that our toilet upstairs was leaking through the ceiling of the kitchen. I figured it would be a quick pipe change or something...not so much. So far, it's been about a 3 day task. They had to rip out about a 4 foot section of ceiling in our kitchen and in the kitchen of the townhome behind us. The toilet is now fixed and they just have to finish up the dry wall and paint. It's certainly nice to have people do that stuff for you when you live in a rental.
Hope all is well with everyone! Miss you all!

Finally...

Well for all of you that didn't think we'd ever pick a date...we HAVE!! YAY! It is official that Mike and I will wed on Friday, September 18th, 2009 in Ocean City, MD. We went to visit this place last weekend and we think it's a great place to have our wedding and a great place for a mini-vacation for our guests. There is a lot to do there and it's very family oriented. We'll get info out to everyone regarding the details soon. Ocean City is 2.5 hours from where we currently live so our guests can make it a longer vacation and visit the sites of D.C. More details to come...



I finally bought a leather coat for riding on the bike. Even when it's 60 degrees outside, it's still a little chilly when you are going 65+ miles per hour on the bike. So, of course, since I bought a leather coat, Mike HAD to buy a matching one. :) I'm not sure if it's the cool thing to do to buy matching coats but we look damn good. :) We took our coats out for a test drive on the bike on Sunday. It was pretty chilly but it was a good ride. From last weekend to this weekend, many trees have lost their leaves but it was still a beautiful ride. We tried to make it to Gettysburg, PA but we only made it to Westminster, MD and decided it was a little too chilly. So, now I've decided I need some new boots for riding too.



Mike and I have been living together for a little over 3 weeks now and I'd have to say it's going great. We tend to negotiate on the dog duties..."if you take the dogs out, I'll put the groceries away..." It's working so far. We both tend to get to a point where we can't handle the messiness so we both typically agree when it's time to do some cleaning. Mike is kind of the "lights" patrol...I've been amazed at myself in how often I leave the lights on. Ooops! Mike says, "it's all about saving energy Kirsten." Mike does laundry more often than I do so we do laundry every weekend and then, you'll never believe this, he makes me fold and put my clothes away THAT DAY! What?! If you know me at all, you know I tend to do laundry about once a month and it usually takes another 1 1/2 weeks for me to put my clothes away. So, it's kind of a shock to do laundry every week AND have to put it away that day. So far cooking has been 70% Mike and 30% Kirsten...I'm not a huge cook but I always offer my assistance and he gives me plenty of tasks. :) We are trying to become more "green"...We have a recycling service at our apartment complex so we have become quite the recyclers and we have reusable grocery bags too. Slowly but surely we'll get more and more green.



I think that's all the news for now...I'm sure there will be lots more wedding talk now that we have a date and place!

Halloween results...

Here are some Halloween pics for your enjoyment. Yep, that's Mike under that mask.

sissy bars are great...

I heard on the news before this last weekend the fall colors were supposed to be the best so Mike and I went on a motorcycle ride. We found some great roads and we ended up somewhere in Pennsylvania. The bike ride was about 4 hours which is the longest ride I've ever been on. I don't think I would have lastest but my wonderful fiance bought a sissy bar for the bike when he was in Georgia. It makes a world of difference when riding on the back of the bike.

This evening I went with Mike to switch over all his insurance stuff and I wish now that I wouldn't have gone. Do you realize how much more expensive insurance is out here? It's crazy!!

I can't believe the holiday's are coming so soon. I think we are spending Thanksgiving with Tim and Nicole(Mike's co-worker and his girlfriend). They live in the same apartment complex and they are not travelling anywhere for Thanksgiving either so we're going split up the dinner duties and hang with them.

Happy Halloween

Since Mike was up at 4am this morning, he is taking a nap while I anxiously await some trick-or-treater's. However I don't really know how I'm going to handle both dogs, be able to open the door, hand out the candy, and shut the door before the dogs escape. We'll see what happens, I guess.
Speaking of dogs, have I told you how many pets are in this apartment complex?! I've never seen so many pets at one apartment complex before...maybe this is the only place nearby that accepts pets?? Who knows...
Well, Mike told me to wake him up at 5:45 and it's 6pm so I better wake him up so we can start getting ready for our Halloween festivities. We our going to a party at one of Mike's co-workers' house and then we are going to go to Georgetown. They played some video on the news of Georgetown on Halloween and there were tons of people. I think I'm the driver so I'll be sure to take the GPS...if not, I'll just call someone in Nebraska to get on mapqwest.com to help me get home! :)
Hope everyone has a great weekend and a safe Halloween! Miss you all!

Greetings from Maryland

Well, Mike and I(ok, mostly me probably) are going to enter the blogging world. I've always enjoyed reading the Roach blog and since we are now 1200 miles or more from many of our close friends, then maybe this is a good way to keep people updated on our lives.
So, what's new with us?...well, we're getting settled into our new surroundings and home. There are still things that need to be put away in the house but we are slowly finding places for everything. The dogs are getting used to the new surroundings as well. They love that I'm around all day long and Boulevard is very happy to be with Mike again.

We ventured into the city(DC, that is) this last Saturday. We found the closest Metro Station(thank goodness for Suzi, aka our GPS) and traveled to the National Mall. It was kind of gloomy and chilly on Saturday but I needed to get out of the house. I decided we needed to go see the Lincoln Memorial. As we were walking down the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial to head back to the Metro, it started a torrential rain downpour. What do we do? We walk the mile back to the Metro station anyway. By the time we got to the Metro, our pants were(no exaggeration here) drenched up to our wastebands. It definitely made for an uncomfortable ride home on the Metro. I feel sorry for whoever sat in our wet seats after we got off.

Sunday was a much nicer day. We bought a book that contains different hiking locations around our area so we found one of the locations and went on about a 4-mile hike. Then we went on a motorcycle ride since it was so nice out.

Well, that's all for now. The next task for us is to find a Halloween costume for me! Wish me luck.