USACE 75th Anniversary Social and Dinner

My dream job is event planning (parties, corporate events, and weddings). I have been collecting Martha Stewart Wedding magazines for years. I am weird I know – but someday….Until then I moonlight as a party planner. Lucky for meUSACE decided to throw a dinner party to celebrate our 75th year anniversary of Omaha District. Tia and I volunteered to organize the function.

It was held at the Riverside Grille in Council Bluffs and turned out wonderful. I wish I would have taken more shots of the venue before people arrived but I was too busy prepping the venue, prepping myself, and possibly having a cocktail. This was our welcome table with seating cards.

The $8 Wal-Mart flowers my mom artfully arranged along with some greenery cut from her yard and vases I already had. Not too shabby for budget flowers.

The horrendous cake – looked like a 1990’s special. Too much extra fou fou to it. It did taste good so could have been worse.

And even worse the USACE 75 years of service display. This was a cocktail/dinner party – not a townhall or work event. So over the top and took away from the fancy we were trying for. Some battles just can’t be won.

We had a USACE photographer and he managed to bust a few of us on the crackberry’s….


Gotta love the men in uniform.

An action shot of me bossing the COL around – ooops. He must not have been too mad as I got a coin out of the deal and an “On the Spot Cash Award”. Woo woo.

And recognition at the dinner.

The fun social hour where Van worked the room and was sure to spend time meeting everyone (we had about 120 total in attendance).





After a bit of microphone trouble.

it was smooth sailing. LTGeneral VanAntwerp is an excellent public speaker and very down to earth. We are lucky to have such a great Chief of Engineers.


This was our “cool kids” table as we called it. Tia and I were sure to stack our table with a fun group so we could relax and enjoy the evening.



And now for the money shots. Tia and I with the aides MAJ Hicks and LTC Farnsworth

And our Commander COL Press

And the real money shot – with COL Press and the three star LTG VanAntrwerp

Tia, Sue, and I all started USACE in Real Estate – we have since moved up the ladder. (Oh yeah Justin showed up all fancied up as well)


Justin and Tia obviously not happy or impressed with someone. This shot cracks me up.

Cutting of the stellar cake.

Then it was time for dancing….we had live music. Wynn Landers who was excellent but not one really danced. Really who wants to dance with all your co-workers or bosses?

Oh yeah and we had party crashers – no party is complete without a crasher.

These guys are all retired USACE and just happened to be out golfing that night. Sure they were. Finally we closed up shop and headed to the after party where the real fun could kick off – Sake Bomber in the Old Market.



Cheers to a successful party. Sure there will be another next year. It was a lot of work but so much fun. Way better than my daily legal tasks.

The Chicken Inspector

Stopped by last night. Good news is all I have to do is obtain three signatures from the neighbors, install a bit of chicken wire fencing to the shed, and then I am in the chicken business. Does that mean I can then call myself an urban farmer? Has a cool ring to it. I am verrrry excited! I grew up with chickens. My parents raised them, chopped the heads off, and we ate them for dinner…..Ok not quite like that but along those lines, we also had fresh eggs 24/7. Fresh eggs beat the store bought old eggs any day. I have absolutely no plans to chop any heads of my precious chickens. Too morbid and I have a hunch the chickens will get names and become pets. I just want the fresh eggs and the urban farmer title. Amazing how things come full circle –I remember thinking my mom was a bit wacky to raise chickens at one point in my life – sorry mom!

This will soon be the chicken coop. I am going to put a wire wall in the middle so half the shed can still be used for garden tools (plus less cleaning if they only occupy half the shed). I will also (along with the help of some muscle boys) install a fence of chicken wire that will go under the ground and over the top. Can’t risk the escape of a chicken or the chance for Aeisha to enter and use her huntress skillz.

Oh yeah I will side and paint the shed as well – it looks trashy at the moment but was built by my grandpa so want to keep it. I plan to buy Araucanas or US Ameriaucanas – also known as the Easter Egg Chicken. These chickens lay pretty blue/green eggs. How fun is that!

Wish me luck on acquiring signatures and obtaining my farm permit!! Speaking of the backyard big changes have occurred this summer. At the beginning of the year the backyard looked bad:

A sad sloppy yard that was overgrown. A “wall” of sorts that was falling down.

Now it looks like this! Much better with the pretty wall that matches the rest of the yard, greener grass, a few tres/bushes, and less weeds.


I have a lot of work to still. I need to landscape and deal with the mess that you see behind the shed. But it is a start. The third tier will get a high fence and become a garden next spring. Said shed used to reside closer to the house and this was the state it was in early spring.



A disaster huh! Junk, weeds, snakes, ick. Luckily after a lot of sweat, splinters, cuts, and hard work I was able to clean all that out. My awesome landscaper – Jeremy – also moved the shed for me. The area now looks like this:

So much prettier and ready for the installation of a brick patio. I have the bricks just need to make time to install then purchase some loungey furniture. I love the changes and it was well worth it to pay the professionals! They have fancy equipment that I don’t have.



If you are in need of heavy landscaping call Jeremy with Weilage Landscaping. He is great, reliable, trustworthy, and affordable. Now its time to work on the yard and urban farming.

Rhine River, Germany - Day One

Upon arrival in Germany we rented a car

And proceeded up the Rhine River. It was a super easy route and very scenic. We were immediately in awe of the grapes growing up the hillside


We stopped after passing a few towns to explore, get tourist info, and enjoy lunch and beer.





It was a surreal moment of “wow we are in Germany” for our whole group.


Exactly what we expected the buildings to look like in Germany.


After strolling around a bit we found a spot outside to enjoy our first authentic German meal and wine (much to my dads chagrin as he had been waiting years for German beer only to discover this restaurant only served German wine – ooops).



We drove a bit further (according to my dad we stopped every five minutes, I don’t think it was quite that extreme but close) and stopped in a town famous for cuckoo clocks. My mom’s only requirement/souvenir request for Germany was a cuckoo clock. She had wanted one for years.


Unfortunately they didn’t allow photography but the clock has arrived so I’ll take a photo of it. While milling over the clock we did stumble upon an awesome Birkenstock store.

And witnessed a wedding party. So fun!

The horse transported them to a nearby castle – I can only imagine how beautiful that must have been.

And my dad checked out menus – this was soon to become standard. He would read every menu of every restaurant the entire trip…

Gorgeous castles greeted us on our drive along Rhine.


We eventually stopped for dinner and sleep. We were hoping for a fun quaint German hotel in a small town. Didn’t happen. Unfortunately we stopped in a town that was not as quaint and there were no available rooms! We tried about four places and finally ended up here.

It was ok but definitely not great and the rooms left a lot to be desired.


Oh well it was a place to sleep – and they did have an amazing breakfast. We walked down to the Rhine for dinner at a restaurant recommended by the owner of our hotel.





It was excellent and so pretty to sit by the water and just relax. A great first day of vacation.