Just Because

Because he remembers, every month on the 27th to say "I love you" in a special way. Married three years and one month, I came home from the gym to a lovely dinner last week...

I am the luckiest.

Summer Birthdays

There are so many people to celebrate this week with birthdays on both sides of the family! Today is my Grandpa B's 80th Birthday! In recent years, he has had some health problems and his memory is going, which is really tough. But he still has such an infectious laugh. This is me and my sister with him back in 2009... I need some new photos!

Next up is my Dad's 56th birthday on August 1st. I am such the Daddy's girl and am so sad I can't be there to celebrate with him where we would go car shopping, run errands, eat a delicious dinner (made by Mom, of course!) and watch movies late into the night. Love you Daddy!

August 2nd is Jake's 3rd birthday. Wow, how has it been 3 years already?!? I feel terrible missing this one especially since I have not been able to make it to one of his birthday parties yet. Living in Ohio makes it tough to make it to all the events but I love this little filet 'o fish to pieces and will be thinking about him all day! 

August 5th is Madison's 1st birthday. My newest little niece, here she is at her early party last month squinting from my flash photo. Oh little Miss Maddy! You make my sister, and us all, so very happy! Love you!

And last but certainly not least is my mother-in-law, Christine's 60th birthday on August 6th. This woman helped make J the man he is and I am so thankful. I wish we saw J's family more often. We love relaxing with lemon drop martinis and visiting in Florida. Hope to see you all soon!  

Happy Birthday to you all! I wish I was there to celebrate with you. Love you all so very much!!

Flying By

I feel like I blink my eyes and another week flies by. Why, oh why can't the winter go by fast like this? Another week gone and ANOTHER week with hardly any photos taken or blogging. Bummer.
Speaking of flying, the first part of last week was spent in Boston for work. I love that I get to fly here and there and travel for my job. This trip was with 2 of my coworkers, one being my boss, to visit a Harvard doctor and evaluate his project for spaceflight on the ISS. So cool!

We had a little down time in between meetings and our flight home so I was able to get a MUCH overdue pedicure with some uncharacteristically pink toes...

and then we hit up the Museum of Science for the rest of the afternoon. What else would 3 engineers in Boston do? Ha! It was great with both dinosaurs and lightning demonstrations.

When I returned home it was hot, hot, HOT! The Midwest was feeling a little more like the Middle East!

But never fear... a few cocktails at our favorite place on Friday night and weekend pool time with Katie and The Dorn family helped cool us off.

And now it is practically August! My summer, flying by...

Super fantastical summertime

Who knew the theme the here at ECGML would be sunshine and pool time all summer long? Who knew it would be sooo beautiful every weekend? I sure wasn't expecting it after the bleak spring we had. But it has been great. Hot, hot, hot and so nice and sunshiny!
I was a slacker and hardly got the camera out at all except for this sun through the clouds photo. 

It is just too hard when you are either wet from the pool or laying out with oil all over. :) I know, rough life!

We had a great weekend here at home. Started off with another Mexican food margarita Friday night with a different group of friends than last weekend. Saturday was a little slow starting but then the fun began with pool time all day with Stacey and her daughter Mya. The weekend was topped off with dinner out with J's Aunt and Uncle and a lazy Sunday of movie watching and laying like broccoli. Oh, summer. How I love thee.

To Be 17 Again...

The last two nights we have hung out with J's cousin and girlfriend. They started dating a few months ago and are utterly too cute. Being around them just made me happy, I was giggling they were just so cute! You can tell they are totally smitten. Flirting, blushing, nervous each time one touches the other whether accidentally or on purpose. 

Oh, to be 17 again... It made me remember... remember when we were that age, and I couldn't help but smile. It doesn't seem like so long ago... but now I guess it is... 

I think it is easy to forget sometimes. To get caught up in the comfort of a long relationship. You forget the beginning and how new, how exciting it was. And as much as I love that J knows what I am thinking without me saying a thing... it is nice to think back to being 17 and starting this crazy journey we are on together.

Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer

Lazy weekends, that is what is on tap for us for the rest of the month. And you would not believe how nice, hot, and sunny it is in Cleveland!!!

This past weekend, although Jared worked a few shifts as a surgical house officer, we really had no plans. There was Friday pizza and movie night at home. Sunshine filled Saturday with a ton of pool time with our friends Katie and Ashley and then yummy Mexican food and margaritas!

On Sunday while Jared worked I met Stacey at the outlet mall for some shopping therapy, ran errands, and then made my most favorite pistachio pasta salad!

The next few weekends I hope to work on a few blankets I am crocheting and take more pictures. As you can see, I was distracted by laziness with my only photo being my margarita from this weekend. I just love the summer!

The Last Launch

Today was the last launch of the space shuttle... EVER.

I am really bummed. Not only about not being able to see a shuttle launch one last time. But because there is no clear path for NASA, for space exploration at this point. I feel like I am stuck between the Apollo and Shuttle eras, not knowing what will happen next.

I was lucky enough to see three launches in person. When I was really little with my family, ten in 2001 my Dad and Uncle saw one of the last night launches. How funny is this photo? How young we all look!

And the last time was with Jared is 2002 when we drove from Blacksburg to Cape Canaveral through the night and got there just in time for the launch of STS-109.

I didn't realize how lucky I was each time to see such an amazing machine in operation. And now the rumors begin again about cancelling NASA's space exploration... lovely. In the meantime, I will just soak up my work. Love every day that I get to flash a badge to get into the NASA base and work in my lab, train astronauts, and learn new science.

Cursive

I read an article today that said schools in Indiana are going to stop teaching cursive. This really makes sense, I mean who even writes ANYTHING these days? I remember when my littlest brother was in elementary school they told my Mom it didn't matter what his handwriting looked like, he would be typing everything anyway.  They were right, and boy he can type fast!

But it does make me kind of sad because there is just something special, personal about a hand written note. Not that you need to write in cursive, it just makes it so much prettier! I know who a letter is from without looking at the signature, their own style just shows through the words. I think it is also tied to my love of getting mail!   

I use to think all those stationary supplies were so silly. Who needs so much paper, pens, envelopes and stamps? Well, all I had to do is move away and now I'm an addict. Searching for a cute note card here, found at The Little Monogram Shop in Chagrin Falls,

an address stamp there, found at Emilie Friday...

I am just addicted to cute little note cards and pretty handwriting. So it makes me a little sad to see the beginning of the end of cursive.

Summertime in the South

We spent this weekend in the South. In my most favorite state in the country, Virginia. As always, we were busy, busy, busy! The weather was H-O-T. Nice and steamy with thunderstorms in the late afternoon. Perfect!

We got into town late Friday night and stayed up into the wee morning hours catching up with family and er, trying to sleep with little kids nearby. I tell ya, they are exhausting... and man, do they have lungs! I really don't know how people do it!

On Saturday I stopped by One Preppy Cookie to pick up my order for my niece's party. It is great that even though we haven't seen each other in 10 years (OMG! How is that even possible?!?) we could pick right back up where we left off. It was so nice to meet her husband, see her gorgeously decorated home and that she is happy and doing well. I so wish I lived closer. And the cookies? They looked and tasted so great! Kudos to Amy and her new company! 

Next we hit up the neighborhood pool to play with our little nephew and niece and hopefully tire them out a bit. The boys played pool basketball while us girls gave swimming lessons. Our night ended with pina coladas, grilling out... nearly catching the house on fire... and prepping for the party.

The whole fam came for Madison's party on Sunday. And she was just the cutest!

I also got to visit with my bestest and her hubby Brian who were in town from far far away. We talked, drank sangria, talked, more sangria, talked, jell-o shots, talked... you get the picture and saw some fireworks too.

Unfortunately, I didn't take a lot of photos... I was too busy soaking up our visit. There is just never enough time. Visits like these are when living so far away is so hard to deal with. I just love Virginia.

A Month Early

This weekend we are celebrating the first birthday of my newest niece, Madison! Since the whole family will be in Virginia for the 4th of July holiday, my sister decided to celebrate early so we could all attend. Woohoo!

Julie sent me this photo of little Jake and Madison, cousins hanging out at the pool on the Grandparents deck! Aren't they so cute?! I just love them to pieces!!

Being the super cool Aunt GG that I am, I contacted an old friend and sorority sister at One Preppy Cookie to create some super cute party favors for the guests. They will be butterflies and flowers and I can't wait to see them!

In addition to the fantastical cookies, I needed to buy little Miss Madison her first purse. After all, she lives in Manhattan! Shh! Don't tell... she won't open it until Sunday!

I just LOVE giving presents and I hope my little goddaughter will love it too. Happy 1st birthday (a month early) Madison!