Unfortunate incident

There was an unfortunate incident at the Kingdon house involving Kevin. Luckily, the only casualty is the stainless steel trash can in the kitchen. Kevin got away with a bummed up knee and a bruised side.

Here's the story:

Kevin (being the great husband he is) was carrying down some boxes from the closet in the spare bedroom. I'm not for sure what happened next. He either missed a step or tripped over his feet but he came down the stair face first as the boxes go flying. At the bottom of the stairs there is the end of the couch and then the trash can. After ramming into the trash can he landed flat on his face! I, of course, was hysterically laughing as I saw the whole thing happen...Kevin...not so much. He landed hard on one of his knees and one of the boxes he was carrying smashed into his side. After getting up and retrieving the boxes we both noticed the trash can...it was completely annihilated! The below picture is only after trying to smooth out the dents from the backside. It looks a lot better but as you can see it will never be the same.


Kevin re-enacting for the camera! Thanks Honey!

Shopping, Birthday parties, Basketball games and more....

Saturday was a jammed packed day of fun. Kevin and I worked out in the morning and then ran a few errands. Afterwards, I met up with Derick, Joy, Kim, Zoey and Paige at the Zona Rosa shopping center. It was a beautiful day which was nice because Zona Rosa is an outdoor shopping area. They have some really fun stores. After Zona Rosa we headed out to The Legends Shopping Center at Village West. First stop, Nebraska Furniture Mart. At this point, I had to bow out because I still had 2 birthday parties and a basketball game to attend, however, it was really good to get to see them.


For Scott's birthday we met at Longhorn Steakhouse for an early dinner. Then it was off to Gabe's basketball game. After the basketball game, we stopped by Lisa's and Joe's house to make an appearance at Madi's 14th birthday party. Lisa had made a Ghiradelli chocolate cake that was to die for! After cake and ice cream and opening gifts we headed to Scott and Jenny's for the rest of Scott's birthday celebration. Scott opted for cookies instead of cake and at this point we were completely stuffed from all of the food but of course I ate all I could manage to shove down. Scott even brought out the Baked Cheetos (they are my favorite) and I couldn't even eat any because I was so stuffed from all of the cookies, cheese and crackers they had out.

Here are some fun pics from the eventful day.

Paige and Zoey. Don't they look fabulous in their new Hello Kitty sunglasses?!

Pink bangs...who could resist these natural looking extensions! Ha!
Yes, Kim let me take a picture of her....sporting a straw hat no less!
Derick, Zoey, Paige, and Stephanie waiting for who I called the turbo shopper (Kim) to finish in the store.
Paige patiently waiting to go on to the next store.
Madi's 14th birthday party.
Victoria's Secret luggage...very cute.
Could it be???
YES! An absolutely fabulous pink COACH purse!
Erica and Gabe giving Aunt Stephanie a thumbs up!
Onto Scott's birthday. He received a PS3 with an extra controller and universal remote, Guitar Hero and 2 Blu Ray movies....he looks pretty pleased.

Erica showing us her reading skills.
Jenny and Stephanie making some cocktails for the night!


These pictures are from last weekend that I neglected to get posted last weekend. The Church of the Resecurrection had a Bell Choir Concert in which our friend from Jefferson City, Glenda, was a part of. It was a wonderful concert.

Disaster Recovery

Today at work we had a Disaster Recovery (DR) simulation. Each department has a DR plan. The DR site is located in Olathe, KS. Basically it's an exercise where we pretend there has been a disaster and everyone must follow their recovery plan. For Theresa and me....this means we get to spend the day at the DR site with our boss, Greg. This was all too exciting for us. The disaster call came this morning at 6:10am. We met up and went straight to the DR site in Olathe, KS. Following our plan, we performed the tests of our applications to make sure they would work in a real disaster. It was crazy at the DR site...there were about 150 Commerce employees there all doing their specific disaster recovery plan.

As you see, Theresa is hard at work.



Stephanie, Theresa, and Greg recovering from the disaster. It was a hard job but someone had to do it!




After working hard at DR, (I'm going to get technical here) we headed to the Diebold warehouse for a demo on the new ENA. This is a new component that we will be piloting for our ATMs. In layman terms, it is a new & improved cash depositor for the ATMs. Even though Theresa busted their chops the minute we got there, they still offered to treat us for lunch. So we got to join in Diebold's infamous Friday lunches at Wallaby's. We always hear about these lunches and I'm sure the only thing that was different today was they (Diebold) could not talk about us (Commerce) they had to talk to us!!! hehehehe

We finally made our way back to the office around 2:00pm. Needless to say, we didn't get much work done today. But that's okay because it will all be there waiting for us on Monday. Until then though, we get to enjoy our weekend.

The pictures I promised from the weekend.

Cass, Chase, Lauren and Nicholas singing Kareoke in the back room. Chase is a ROCKSTAR! I think Nick was having more fun playing on the bed of coats...

Glenda, Lori, Marilyn, and Janie laughing and singing in the piano room. Honestly though, they are a good group of singers and my mother plays the piano wonderfully!

Kevin, Stephanie, Scott and Ashley. Scott was telling Kevin about bow deer hunting and how he had to track a deer for 5 hours last deer season.


Larry and Marilyn. "I made 55 rolls in one pan and 15 rolls in the other pan....where's the calculator?!?!?!" (Marilyn's answer when asked how many rolls she made for the dinner...I almost peed my pants on that one)
Lauren, Camryn, Nicholas, and Cass. Can you tell they are patiently waiting to be fed!

Glenda, Janie, Mel, Larry, Lori, and Marilyn.


Janie, Paula, Jo, and Glenda (who had already broken into the wine!)
Kevin, Laura, Janie, and Paula.


Kevin and Stephanie

Nick with a gun...yes, this is Kirksville.

Nick and Lauren as snug as a bug in a rug! (This lasted for almost 2 seconds) They were tired from all of the fun but do you think they were about to go to sleep....think again!

Legacy Park

Kevin and I joined a new gym...well, they actually call it a community center. The past year we have been working out at the gym downtown where we work. It's been really convenient but it is a small corporate gym and for the membership dues we thought we would be better suited at finding a place in Lees Summit. Legacy Park is larger, has more amenities and there is no fee for any of their fitness classes. I am excited to begin working out there. Kevin is happy they have basketball courts and I am excited for the pool and hot tub!

Party! Party! Party! Oh...and KU won!!

Saturday morning...during the blizzard...we decided to go ahead and make the trip to Kirksville. I called my mother Saturday morning and she said they hadn't gotten anything in Kirksville...it was cold but the weather was not bad. So, of course, I decided if we could make it past around Chillicothe we would be in the clear. It took us 2 hours and 15 mins just to get to Cameron. (mind you....it normally only takes about 1 hour to get to Cameron) It would be pointless to turn around at this point, so we kept on going. Around Chillicothe the snow trailed off and then like magic...the roads were perfect! I could not believe the difference. From Chillicothe we made normal time but the bad weather from Kansas City to Cameron made a 3 hour trip...4 hours and 15 minutes.

Saturday night we had a "Reunion of Old Friends" at my parents house. The Sharps, Fortneys, Fosters, and Peerys were all in attendence. All of the kids were there too except for Ryan (who lives in Florida). Most of the "kids" now have kids themselves and most of them were present as well. We missed Ashlee. In total, there were 30 people in attendance. (believe me....this was nothing compared to the 60 people at Thanksgiving!!) My parents are pros at throwing get togethers at their house. They are extremely great hosts and normally the only ones who have enough room to accomodate a large crowd.

They are addicted to remodeling and adding onto their house. Just this weekend, Kevin and I heard their next greatest plans for remodeling in the living room. I have to admit that I am really impressed with all of the updates they have made to their house. It is really different from when I lived there.

The MU vs. KU game was on Sunday and Kevin was alone in his support for KU. Since everyone we were in contact with were MU fans there was quite a bit of trash talkin' from both sides throughout the entire weekend. Thank goodness the lone KU fan had a victory from his team and was able to return to Kansas City unscathed.

I will get some pictures from the "Reunion of Old Friends" posted within the next couple of days so stay tuned....