Fired Up!

So I think I mentioned that when in the QC for my birthday a couple of weeks ago Eric and I went to the annual memorial service for the Moline Fire Department. Eric's brother, Travis, is a fire fighter for the department and served as the master of ceremonies. Eric's Mom, Linda, just sent me a picture of the Noyd family plus one (I would be the one) in front of the old fire truck, so I thought I would share.

From left to right is Stephanie (Eric's sister-in-law), Travis holding their son, Alec, Eric's Dad, Mike, Linda, Eric, myself. Eric's niece, Katie, is standing in the front. Notice that Alec and Katie bogarted their Dad's dress hat and gloves for this picture. As if they weren't cute enough already... they added props! :)

In crazy "Wow it is a small world!" twist of fate, the fire fighter who volunteered to take the photo of us is my sister-in-law, Jayne's, brother-in-law, Greg. Greg is married to Jayne's sister, Jill. I knew he was a fire fighter in the greater Quad City area, but who knew we would actually run into each other.

Random Observation

So last night I was driving home, and drove past Big Lots. The "L" and the "s" on their sign were burnt out. Yep, there up in lights was "Bigot". Seriously, not really sure I want to shop at the Bigot store.

Boyfriend Kudos!

So I have to give Eric some Kudos! He is always very good to me, takes care of me, makes me laugh and is just a delightful companion in general, but he went above and beyond this weekend. My friend Jeanne called me on Sunday afternoon to let me know that her Mom, Kathy, had passed away. I took it rather hard and Eric was a great comfort to me. Kathy's wake was on Monday (Memorial Day) and Eric wanted to be there for me, so he rode with me on Monday all the way to Crestwood, a south suburb of Chicago, and back, grabbed a quick bite to eat at my house, then got in his car and made the nearly 3 hour drive home. Yes, that is 7+ hours in a car on Monday just so he could be there for me... add that to the ever growing list of why I love him! Kudos Eric!

Editors Note: Hey loyal Jano Fabulous blog readers... please keep Jeanne and her family in your prayers.

Holy Cow! Al Got Married

So I have been a total blog slacker of late, but hopefully tonight I can catch y'all up on the latest.

Eric was down for the weekend, and we went to my friend Allison's (affectionately referred to as Al) wedding. So despite having a wicked bad crush on St. Louis Cardinal pitcher turned outfielder, Rick Ankiel, Al is a Cub fan. I know, I know, but we still love her anyway. So get this, Al married an even bigger Cub fan, Bill... but he makes Al ridiculously happy and he is a great guy so we are more than willing to deal with the Cubbieness of their union. Al had a few heart breaker boyfriends in her day, but Bill is a way good guy I whole-heatedly approve of. I guess Al just proves the point that if you don't date the frogs, you can't fully appreciate the prince.

Al and Bill's reception had a bit of baseball theme and Eric, Nikki and I all found it rather enjoyable as we are baseball fans. They had popcorn for us to snack on with our beer, the groom's cake had a Wrigley feel (I really do enjoy the announcement on the marquis on the cake).

Al and Bill even sported their jersey's at the wedding. All in all it was a good time. And I guess if Al couldn't marry Rick Ankiel... Bill will do just fine!

April In May

Today, May 16th is April Rustemeyer’s birthday. Happy Birthday April!

April is from California, Missouri (near Jefferson City). She is a big Cardinal fan, and works at a bank. Gee, that sounds kind of familiar doesn’t it? I love how April came into my life… it is just a fun story. Nik and I met April and her Mom, Jane, at Cardinals Winter Warm Up in January 2007. We were all camped out in the autograph ticket line way too early in the morning. For those of you not familiar with Winter Warm Up… you spend a lot of time waiting in line, so you just start talking to strangers to pass the time. We got to talking to April and Jane, and then just kept running into them here and there throughout the weekend. We just really enjoyed sharing our Cardinals stories with each other. At the end of the weekend April came over to Nik and I and said something like this. “None of my friends back home are really into baseball, and you guys have just been lots of fun to hang out with. Do you want to exchange email addresses and keep in touch, maybe get together in St. Louis for a game sometime?” The rest is history. We did keep in touch, met for a couple of games last July and just had the best time ever. April and I both work at banks, and Nik and Jane both work at hospitals in “non-patient care” capacities.

Anyway, so this spring April went with Nik, her sister, Angie and I to Spring Training. We all had so much fun. We just all kind of click. We are girls who actually love the game and know all about the fundamentals, but definitely are in tune to the fun personalities and pretty packages of the Cardinals as well.

April gets credit as the original rhinestone Cardinals tank top creator. Her original idea inspired the rhinestone Franklin tank tops we all wore at Spring Training, and now Frankie has spotted them a couple of times at Busch this spring when Ang, Nik and/or April have sported them when sitting near the pen.

April is a small town/farming community girl too, so we have commonalities far beyond baseball. Oh, and she has the coolest tattoo on her shoulder. She designed it herself and each component has special meaning... just very cool, and just very April!

Happy Birthday April!

Happy Birthday Shrooms Buddy!

Okay, so this technically a day late, but I was on the road yesterday. May 15th was Scott Barker's birthday. Scott is Eric's best buddy, and lives in Peoria with his wife, Tara and their daughter, Kira.

I have met Scott just two times, so I have yet to collect lots of birthday blog material. But these are the things I know.

#1 Scott is very tall... I am tall too
#2 Scott is a big Cardinal fan, and I very much enjoy that.
#3 Scott likes mushrooms and so do I. Eric and Tara, not so much... so he pretty much lead a shroomless existence until I came along. After just two meetings we have a system worked out... Scott and I share a pizza with mushrooms, Eric and Tara share a pizza without.
#4 Scott is a good family man. That is good to see these days.
#5 Scott has been an incredible friend to Eric over the years (Tara too, but her birthday isn't until September I think) and that my friends is priceless. It it good to know that there is someone out there that has my baby's back!

Happy Birthday Scott! Our birthdays are just two days apart, and I look forward to celebrating lots of birthdays with you in the future.

Kudos: How Am I Doin'

Well I have a special "Kudos" for the blog today, and fittingly enough they go out to my buddy, Nathan, who received the first ever "Kudos" nearly a year ago. I received a card in the mail today from Nathan, but upon opening the card realized that my early birthday greetings were not actually from Nathan, but instead country recording artist, and one of my favorites, Dierks Bentley! Yep, my birthday card was inscribed with these words "Happy Birthday, Jane! God Bless, Dierks Bentley" Kind of exciting! At least it was for me.

To explain a bit, Nathan is in the Dierks Fan Club (and here folks make fun of Nik and I for being in Joe Nichols fan club) and is actually an Executive Producer of Dierks' most recent greatest hits album... an opportunity Dierks gave to about 3,000 of his fans... they got to pick the album art and the live tracks to include. Anywho, Nathan got to meet Dierks this past Monday and catch a special Executive Producer concert. On his way out the door to the meet-n-greet and concert he grabbed the birthday card he had picked up for me that weekend so he could drop it in the mail... but then he got the BRILLIANT idea to have Dierks sign it for me instead. It was such a special little surprise.

I showed the card to Nik and she was impressed. She has been going to watch the filming of the movie "The Informant" about the ADM Price Fixing scandal that they have been shooting in Decatur the past several weeks when she has had a chance. The movie stars Matt Damon and Scott Bakula (aka Quantum Leap guy)... I told her if she really wanted to out do Nathan then I think Matt or Scott need to sign my birthday card! :)

The Dierks card also lead to Eric making the comment (after I told him about the card etc.) "I think Nathan may be sweet on you"... which just made me giggle a little bit and reply, "Well maybe, but not the way you are thinking." When I told this to Nathan later (I had called to thank him for the card, and he personally requested "Kudos"... go figure) he laughed about Eric's comment and said "Wait until he meets me... then he will quickly realize I am not that sweet!" :)

Anyway, Kudos Nathan! BTW, you did an excellent job executive producing Dierks' album.

You Can Call Me Al: The Birthday Girl

The week of birthdays continues. May 14th is Allison Sit's birthday. Happy Birthday Allison Sit!


I met Allison, then Allison McLaughlin nearly four years ago. She attended Quest United Methodist church, and helped coordinate the Alpha group I went to, that eventually spun off to become my small group. Over the years I have had some wonderful talks with Allison. I love that she is a strong woman of faith, and she inspires me in my own relationship with God.



I remember walking around Meadowbrook Park with Allison just over two years ago when she told me about how she had recently signed up for Eharmony. She thought there might be a few possibilities, but there was this one guy she thought might be special, but she wasn't sure... he was a Cub fan, could they work that out? Needless to say they worked it out, and she married Abe last August. They did the long-distance relationship for over a year... Evanston to Champaign... Champaign to Evanston. Little did I know that I too would meet someone very special on Eharmony and would be in a long distance relationship of my own. Allison has been a great resource for long-distance relationship advice. I have learned for myself that long-distance relationships are not easy... so it makes what Abe and Allison did all the more amazing... but I have also learned that when you are with the right person a long boring drive on Friday night seems like such a small sacrifice.



Besides being a devoted Christian, and a long-distance relationship mentor, Allison is a big time Cardinal fan. Our love for the boys that wear the "Birds on the Bat" is one thing that definitely has brought us together. She totally gets my my baseball crazy, and I get hers. Some of my fondest and hottest memories of Allison are from the ballpark. I have attended two baseball games in STL with Allison... they were were the two hottest days/games I have ever experienced. The first game we went to was with Nik and Allison Hocker in what Nik & I like to call "You Can Call Me Al" Day. We went to Al Hrabosky's for lunch, and then waited in line in the BLAZING sun to get in early for picture day. It was totally worth it because you haven't lived until you have seen Allison's reaction to Julian Tavarez walking by and giving her "High Cinco"... that's a "High Five" for you gringos out there. We were nasty sweaty messes, but we had a great time, and we even got home early thanks to Carp's masterful 1 hour 54 minute complete game shut out... darn it I miss him. The other game I went to with Allison was against the Dodgers in the new stadium, and our seats were in the sun. It was so hot that day, Angie and I applied for credit cards... just to get the free beach towel so we could sit on them and not have the flaming hot plastic seats scorch the skin from the back of our legs. It was wicked hot... so hot I even missed an inning just to catch some shade at the concession stand for awhile.



Oh the memories. We just share that baseball connection... so much so that when Eric and I were at Busch for a game in April, I got a text from Allie... she and Abe were at the game in Wrigley. Neither one of us knew of the others plans ahead of time... we just happened to be at the ballparks on the same days.

I must say Allison found an awesome husband too. Although he is a Cub fan, Abe has many redeeming qualities as well. He is witty and smart, a man of God, and bless him an Illini fan and alum. We bond over this since Allison is a Mizzou alum.



Happy Birthday Allison! May God bless you always! I miss seeing you every week, but I know great things are finding you in Evanston.

Cars & Birthday Cake: A successful trip to Peoria

On Saturday I headed to Peoria. Before I met Eric at his friends Scott and Tara's I met my brother-in-law, Larry and my nephews who were passing through on their way to Muscatine for the day to see Larry's Mom. They wanted to inspect my car because they were looking at buying it for my nephew Eric since his ride had recently blown up. Good thing it passed inspection and they decided to buy it, because after I parted ways with them I headed to the Honda dealership. They made me a better deal on a CR-V than the local dealership so I walked out about 75 minutes later the proud owner of new car. I have the keys and the owners manual but won't actually pick it up until Thursday. My Mom is dropping me off, and then I will head to Eric's for a long weekend. Anywho... in case you care, this what my new ride looks like.

After buying a car I head to Scott & Tara's to catch up with Eric. We spent the day with the Barkers. Heading to Old Chicago for lunch, and I added one more beer on my World Beer Tour. We listened to the Cards game on the radio that afternoon, and then grilled burgers on the grill for dinner... the first grilling of the season... the burgers were really tasty.

After dinner I was surprised with an early birthday cake. Scott's birthday is two days before mine, so Eric and Tara surprised us with an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. I was delicious. It had chocolate cake with cookie dough/chocolate chip ice cream and had chocolate kisses on top. It was a really fun surprise, I even got to blow out a candle.

This is Taylor!

This week is a busy one for birthday blogs. Today, May 12, is Miss Taylor's birthday. Happy birthday Taylor Marie Tjardes!

Taylor is my younger niece, and is junior at GCMS High School in Gibson City. On Friday evening she qualified or the IHSA state track meet in the pole vault.

Taylor is very mellow and laid back these days, but I definitely remember her going through a bit of a "rage phase" as a little girl. Perhaps it was a way to get noticed as a middle child, but I have to admit it was kind of fun to watch... I enjoy that kind of passion. I thought red heads were supposed to be fiery... not blonds. Taylor was actually a platinum blond as a baby... her hair was almost white as you can see in the picture.

Taylor has provided me with lots of memories. One of my favorites was when I was living with my parents after college, and Phil and Jayne and the girls were staying there as well for several weeks while they were in between houses. Taylor was about three, and she and Ashley has the loudest argument ever about who had more marshmallows in their Lucky Charms. She also managed to cut off the equivalent of a "side pony" of her nearly shoulder length hair. She was supposed to be brushing her teeth, but found the scissors instead. What was funny was that she made a point to close the sink stopper... even at three she didn't want to clog the sink.

Also, I have Taylor to thank for the most amusing answering machine message I have ever received. She was probably about 8 or so, and was selling Girl Scout cookies. The first part of the message "Hi Aunt Jane, this is Taylor. I was just wondering if you wanted to by some Girl Scout cookies." was delivered at a super slow pace, in a very sing songy voice. Then right after that as fast as she could, in a very matter of fact voice was "Call me back, Bye!" I can't do it justice in writing, but next time you talk to me ask me to reenact... it is a classic.

One of my favorite things about Taylor is to watch her with my Dad... she is definitely a Grandpa's girl. Check out this photo below... it is one of my favorites. Only Taylor could ever get my Dad to wear 2000 Millennium party glasses, and a plastic party hat.

Taylor was born on Mothers Day in 1991, and right around Father's Day that same year my nephew Eric was born. They have been best of buddies for 17 years, and it has been fun to watch them grow up together. Here is a picture of them about 14 years ago, at the Easter candy hunt.

As you can see Taylor has come a long way, because here is a picture from her prom last weekend. I got it from her Facebook page... Taylor was one of my first Facebook friends. I in particular I liked this shot... gotta love the thumbs up in the bathroom shot.

Happy Birthday Taylor!