Happy 60th Birthday to SWE

Those that know me well know that I am VERY involved in the Society of Women Engineers (or SWE). Well, SWE recently celebrated it's 60th birthday! Such amazing strides have been made in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) fields as they relate to women in the workforce over the last 60 years! I, personally, am very proud to be an engineer and am very proud to be a part of an organization that supports women in engineering!

Thought I'd include a quick photo of the tasty, tasty cake that the Central New Mexico Section (my local section) had during last week's "Founder's Day" celebration/happy hour:
Hopefully the next 60 years will be exciting for SWE and I hope that I can continue to be involved and support women in the STEM fields. I also hope I'll be able to continue to be an inspiration to the young men and women that I try to impact during my outreach events for SWE!

Gooooooo SWE!
~kerrie

Happy 4th Anniversary!

Well it's been FOUR years since Matt and I tied the knot in front of our family and friends in a little wedding chapel inside the Imperial Palace in the party capital of the world - Las Vegas, Nevada! Here's wishing us both a very, veryThought I'd type up a little re-cap for those readers that missed out on the fun (and trust me, our wedding and reception was a BLAST!). Here's a shot of the happy couple at the ceremony:
And at this point (below), we were officially, Mr. and Mrs. Greenfelder (and if you click on the photo, you can just barely see my FANTASTIC sparkly red shoes! I'm from Kansas, ya know...):
Our bestest pals, Renae (Matron of Honor) and Chris (Best Man) - don't they look amazing?!
My VERY happy parents (and doesn't my mom just look gorgeous!? She's SO photogenic!): Matt's happy siblings:
And then we were off to the reception (also in the hotel)...

If you'll let me back up slightly, BEFORE the whole wedding event, I decided (yes, I'm taking that blame...) that we needed to send "announcements" to about 50 of our closest friends and family members. Sure, they were kinda "invitations," but never in a million years did I expect anyone to make the trek out to Vegas to watch lil' ol' Matt and Kerrie get married.... Come to find out, I was wrong... We had about FORTY people at our wedding (most made a long, fun-filled weekend out of it) and it was one of the VERY BEST times I've ever had! Bonus, too, as I came home married to my true love, Matt!

And now that I'm done with the sappy stuff, let's move back to the reception...

We had the entire reception catered, complete with wedding cake and fully open bar. We'll get to the bar part in a second... We had some tasty, tasty wedding cake:
Since we only had about 40 people at the party, we had no problems chatting it up with all of our guests and thanked them all for coming out. Of course, Matt and I were just beaming the entire time:
My folks, too, were beaming throughout the entire weekend:
Some of that beaming just MIGHT have been attributed to the flow of liquor... While we had to meet a minimum ($300) for the bar bill (regardless of it we drank that much or not), we certainly didn't have any troubles meeting it (if I remember right, the bill was in the thousands of dollars...just for liquor...YAY!).

Of course, the bartender let me "help" make a few of the drinks:
Of course, our friends also "helped" by downing a few shots:
By the end of the party, it was indeed an event to remember! One last shot of the happy couple:
Woke up the next day with a killer headache and realized that we'd misplaced the wedding certificate. Until that little piece of paper was sent in, we really weren't married! We tore through our hotel room - no luck finding it. We then called (at a very early hour, too...) all of our guests to see if they picked it up accidentally - no luck. We then went back down to the reception room - locked, no luck. I then opened every single door and closet on the 4th floor of the Imperial Palace until I FINALLY found it. Pheww... That wouldn't have been a good way to start off our marriage! :)

At the end of the weekend, Matt and I took off for a week's stay at an all-inclusive resort in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The sun was warm, the water was fine, and the drinks continued to flow. It was one of the most relaxing weeks of my life and it was a FINE way to start off our marriage! Here are a few shots from the resort - daytime:
And nighttime:
Finally, for our pals that didn't make the trek out to Vegas, we held a big 'ol BBQ/reception back in Albuquerque to celebrate our wedding with our co-workers and friends. Again, beautiful weather for the day and I think everyone had a great time hanging out with the Greenfelders! A few parting shots of the bride and groom:
With that, Happy Anniversary No. 4 to my soul-mate and love of my life, Matt. May the next 40 years be as wonderful as these first four!

I love you,
~kerrie

Sittin' At The Bar

After leaving the zoo, we headed straight to Toys R Us to pick up a kiddie table-and-chairs set for Carter. He's been doing a lot of "work" at the table at school, so we thought we'd encourage the studious behavior with a similar setup at home. Also, the teachers won't let the kiddos have any snacks unless they're sitting in their seats, so we thought that was another behavior we should mimic at home (besides, running + chomping on snacks = bad news...).

Watching Carter get up in the chairs is about the CUTEST THING EVER because even though they're only about a foot tall, he can't just plop his behind in them. Instead, he has to crawl up on it and try to turn himself around...all without letting the chair tip over. ENTIRELY cute!

Anyway, I snapped a few quick photos of him eating a snack at his new table (and I was kind enough to help get him seated and pushed in correctly) - Matt says it looks like he's sitting at the "bar"...hahaha!:
Of course, the table can be used for toy storage, too:
Such a proper young man, eh?
Always on the look-out for a snack-thief:
If you click on this next one, you can see his expression...which basically says: "Stay away from my snacks, buster!" (Or as Matt says, this expression is "Yeah, I got woman problems, ya know what I mean?" - again, like he's sitting at the bar...)
And one more shot - showing off the chair in the background. Carter had a blast pushing the table and chairs all around the living room. More push toys, yay! (And also, you can see the big pile of books in the background...his new thing is to take EVERYTHING out of the storage basket/bin/etc. and put it on the floor. Hopefully soon we'll learn how to put things back IN the storage baskets/bins/etc...)
Hope you're having a fantastic week! Tomorrow we're going to work on some coloring! Got a new table, some new crayons, so why not?!
~kerrie

Lovely Day For A Picnic

The beautiful weather from Saturday continued on into Sunday when we met some pals at the zoo for picnic. Carter ate a quick bite before he said "goodbye" to Mommy and ran around the huge lawn in the middle of the zoo:
Since we have astro-turf at our house, it seems Carter can't get enough of running around on the grass when he gets the chance. Unlike the astro-turf, the lawn was all bumpy and uneven, so he spent a fair amount of time picking himself back up. Didn't seem to bring down his spirits though:
Inspecting out the grass. Check.
Running away from Daddy. Check.
A nice view under the giant cottonwood trees:
And then we were off to see the exhibits. Must have been a full moon or something, as pretty much ALL of the animals were lively and putting their best feet forward. Got a rare opportunity to be about 3 feet away from this guy - can you see him amongst the trees? (Click to enlarge if you need to.)
Did you guess it right? It was a giraffe! He (or maybe I she...I didn't check...) was eating the leaves off of the tree right in front of us. Really cool! Carter kept pointing to it and was completely excited!
Even the rhinos were having fun pacing around their umbrella:
Matt was on stroller duty for most of the day and Carter was having a blast checking everything out:
Went underground to see the seals (or maybe their sea lions, I don't remember how to tell them apart...) and thought Carter looked cute in this photo (*ahhhh scary green baby!*) as he was watching them swim right in front of us:
Typically the polar bears are just pacing back and forth (no doubt waiting on lunch...). Well, on Sunday one was playing in the water with a "iceberg" (ok, it was a big piece of plastic), but it was neat to see him/her rolling around with it in the water:
Carter was equally intrigued, but pretty much zonked from a fun day at the zoo:
Thanks to Brian and Lis (and totally adorable Wyatt!) for including us in the picnic fun!
~kerrie

Nice Day For A White Wedding

The weather here in Albuquerque has been a tad whack-a-doodle for Spring... Had our "normal" 80+ mph winds, sure, but we've had some unseasonably low temps and even a fair amount of rain (and *gasp* snow!). Was a little worried when Saturday rolled around and we were headed out to Bernalillo (just north of Albuquerque) for a 5PM outdoor wedding. It was gloomy and the temps were in the low-50's when I went out to get the newspaper.

Alas, the sun came out around lunch and it warmed up just in time for the ceremony. Actually, it ended up being PERFECT weather (and no wind!) as our pals Chuck and Carol tied the knot (CONGRATS to them both!!!)!

Here are a few shots from the fun. First up, Chuck in his dashing white tux just before "go" time:
Their vows were said beneath a beautiful cottonwood tree, with the Sandia Mountains as the backdrop (G.O.R.G.E.O.U.S.!!!!!):
The blushing bride, Carol, in a stunning white gown with black satin trim:
The reception was held indoors and the food was amazing. But the cake...WOW!
Matt and Carter (in an adorable oxford shirt) even did a little dancing - here's Daddy "dipping" our boy:
The evening ended just as beautifully as the ceremony. Here's a pic of the beautiful red sunset with the petroglyphs along the bottom of the photo. (And for those that don't know, the Sandia Mountains were given their name from the warm red sunsets reflecting off them, creating a "watermelon" look - which is the translation of the Spanish "Sandia" into English. While this photo doesn't have the Sandias in it - the petroglyphs are on the west side of Albuquerque, Sandias on the east - I thought it would be fitting at this juncture for an education for my few readers...)
Finally, another CONGRATULATIONS to Chuck and Carol! Best wishes on a wonderful and happy marriage!
~kerrie

Don't Be Alarmed...

...he's not really foaming at the mouth...

It's just a bit of Greek yogurt. And some noodles in his hair. And stuck to his face.

He's ok, I promise. Just a VERY messy eater.

And with that, I'm signing off for the night! Hope you had a fantastic week!
~kerrie

The Cookie Rack

For the record: This is my wackiest post EVER...

Matt had to work late the other night, so I was whipping up dinner, doing laundry, and watching over Carter. We're trying to give him more and more freedom around the house and are letting him explore more, since he's a little steadier, won't whack his head on the tile, and sorta-kinda responds appropriately to "no."

So here I am getting some veggies all chopped up and Carter decides to get into the warming drawer below the oven. It's where I keep some random cooking stuff (I've never actually used it for "warming"...) and he pulled out a cookie rack. You know, the little metal rack that you put freshly baked cookies on?

Add to that, he was desperately wanting to wear the nursing necklace (this bright, chunky rainbow necklace that I would wear when nursing - kept him from yanking on my hair and I've just kept it around for, well, hell, I don't know...).

Add to all that, a package of toilet paper and a large chunk of broccoli.

And what you get is a COMPLETELY happy little boy, scooting the cookie rack along the floor like it was a walker toy! Few photos to demonstrate the excitement:
Totally amazing that you can see RIGHT THROUGH it:
And the picture that sums it all up - complete and total excitement:
And in real-time, here's a 13-second video of all that fun:



Ok, I don't know what else to add to this wacky post. Hope you enjoyed it!
~kerrie