Last Weekend of Summer... Take 2!

Jared thought since my plans were cancelled and I was already all packed up I should tag along on his one day trip to visit our friend Steve. So I did just that! Steve has finished his residency and is now a practicing general surgeon near Wisp, Maryland. He had recently come to visit us, and now we could return the visit. He lives in  little town on a lake that looks so pretty! There the boys are down by the water with Steve's dog, Stella.

Hurricane Irene clouds were in the way but the sailboats during the day and stars at night were just beautiful! We will definitely be making a trip to ski at the nearby resort sometime this winter and made plans for a boating and white water rafting one weekend next summer. It was a lovely mini trip.


Even though I was home with no plans the rest of the weekend, was super mopey, and not getting to do what I wanted... we had a lovely little rainbow on Sunday afternoon.

Cheese fries at Outback for dinner helped as well. :)

Irene

When I said it was my last weekend in town for the summer I guess I spoke too soon. I had plans, busy, million things to do plans since I was flying to Virginia for a long 3 day weekend. This was a solo trip since Jared was working Saturday night, I had the plane ticket and my bags were packed! 

And then came Irene...

I was supposed to be getting picked up at the airport Friday morning by my Uncle Robert,
supposed to be taking my Mom out to lunch at Sweetwater for her 55th birthday which was on the 24th...
supposed to be going for a run with my Dad to show him that I am actually training for the Army 10 Miler this year...
supposed to be visiting with my family - with my sister and niece Madison who were in town, with my brother Joey to see if he can update my blog layout, with my brother Jeff home for the weekend from VCU, see Jeni's baby bump and visit with my nephew Jacob...
supposed to be having dinner with one of my best friends Tracey and seeing where she lived in DC before she moves to Oregon in a few short weeks...
supposed to be checking in on my Grandparents...
supposed to do some shopping, errands, and just soaking up all that is Virginia...

I could get to Virginia with no problem. I just wouldn't be able to get back on Sunday. My return flight was cancelled and driving in a hurricane wasn't recommended.

I wanted to go, could have gone, felt like I should have gone, but made the decision to stay and be sure I could be at work on Monday. To say I was disappointed was an understatement. I moped around all day Friday. Being a grown up sucks sometimes.

Blog-iversary!

It has been a full year of blogging or as I am calling, my blogiversary! Hahaha! Here is a recent photo of just me, which I don't get often, while we were visiting our friends down in SC.

This little blog  has been a great way for me to document our life here at ECGML. Overall, I think I like it. It is nice to go back and see how much has happened in such a short period of time. There have been only a few times where I actually had nothing to say! Crazy as that may be.

I hope to update my layout going into this next year, hope to get a few more followers. But mostly just hope I can keep up with it. My friend at One Preppy Cookie gets her blog printed which is such a great idea and I think I just might copy.

Happy Blog-iversary to me! 

Last Weekend of Summer

This was the last weekend of the summer for us, spent in town anyway. We were busy as can be, just how I like it!

I have been working crazy shifts for work, night shifts for space station operations (sooo cool!) so my days and nights all seem to blurr recently. Friday was a day off, well sort of, since I had worked from midnight until 8am. I came home to the installation of our new kitchen tile! We have had a mini apartment face lift recently with new cabinets, appliances, tile and light fixtures. A much needed improvement from our old kitchen. Now just waiting for paint and carpet! :)

Saturday started with us participating in the Down Syndrome walk with J's Aunt's family downtown at Cleveland Indians Stadium. We were all supporting his Aunt's great nephew, Will, that was born this year with Down Syndrome. We love the Stanley family and were thrilled to support them!

I won't get into how creepy the McDonald's clown was... seriously, how do kids even like clowns?!?

On our way home we stopped at the North Chagrin Reservation and took a little walk in the Cleveland Metro Parks soaking up Buttermilk Falls...

and all of the sudden seeing some changing leaves along our path, the first signs of Fall. 

How did the summer go so fast?

Luckily our weekend plans included another outing on Dr. C's sailboat,

a BBQ with friends to celebrate Meg's 28th birthday,

and the annual surgery pool party!

Towards the end of the night, an Autumn chill blew in. Can you believe I had to be at work at 2:15am the next morning? I didn't even care about either. What a fun summer!

August Vacation {Part 3 - Biltmore Estate & Hokie Town}

On our way home from our South Carolina/North Carolina trip, we ended up with an extra day. With no plans in particular we ended up here for the night... 

But on our way we stopped in Ashville, NC on a little detour when we missed our exit and visited the Biltmore Estate. Who knew we had castle like buildings here in the USA? Not me anyway.

It was a gorgeous day spent admiring the huge house, gardens, winery, inn and landscape built by the Vanderbilt family.

I especially loved the room in the conservatory that was dedicated to orchids! Sooo beautiful!

It was an unexpected adventure on our little August vacation. Oh, how I wish we had more time (and money!) to do things like this every month! So much fun.

August Vacation {Part 2 - Storck Cabin Visit}

Part 2 of our August Vacation was in North Carolina. It was a surprise party for my most favorite mother-in-law's 60th birthday! For months my father-in-law has been trying to coordinate this weekend where all of us... grandparents, kids, her sister, spouses, and grand kids... would be together to celebrate. Even the dogs (minus Harp who was is getting too old to make the drive from Indy)! And we all made it!We had a great visit at the cabin! It was especially wonderful to see our nieces and nephews...

and of course Jared's "brother" Harley especially.

Can't wait for our next visit. I just love seeing family!

August Vacation {Part 1 - South Carolina}

What an amazing week! This summer vacation was something we were hoping to be able to do but not sure of until the last minute... and it was so much fun. Thursday we left for a drive down to visit our friends Dr. C and Mrs. S! It was a 9 hour drive that really flew by with the beautiful weather, a stop at Carolina BBQ restaurant for lunch...

and ultimately arriving at a picture perfect neighborhood all in South Carolina.

This place is ridiculous, it is practically a resort! The houses are soo cute, there are pools, a river, kayaks, and it is THE SOUTH which we all know I love. We had two days with our friends and we had a blast. Whether tubing down the river...

going out to dinner, or just sitting around talking, Dr. C and Mrs. S did an amazing job trying to convince us that this is the place for us to build our lives in a few short years when Jared finishes his fellowship.

We just have the best time with this family. And little Miss C is just as cute as can be! It is sooo nice to have friends that like seeing us as much as we like seeing them... and seriously the house next door to them is for sale. Thanks again Dr. C, Mrs S, and little Miss C for having us! South Carolina, perhaps you are an option in the future. Now if we could just find a plastic surgery and NASA job in town...

Mom Knows Best

Back in January we had a big change. We now had a pet living with us and I was not happy. Hailey had lived with my parents since she was 3 years old and even though she was my cat, their house was her home.

I was worried...
worried that she would hate our small little apartment we call home...
worried she would be lonely all the time going from a busy, full house, to our place that is the opposite...  
worried that she would be puking all over (since she had been doing that recently in VA)...

And although there was a transition period, several weeks where she would meow at closed doors like they were portals back to her home in Virginia, mostly it has been good. I guess Mom knows best. It has been nice having my little princess kitty living with us. She now seems so much happier here in Ohio.

As you can see, we seem pretty happy with her too!

Out All Night

Yay for another summer weekend! Friday evening was our typical end-of-the-work-week happy hour and pizza. This time we were joined by our friend Katie and a medical student Sean, who is vying for a surgical residency spot.  Saturday we rested up for our evening out on the town with a fantastical pancake breakfast, afternoon movies, and a little cleaning.

We had Bachelor/Bachelorette parties to attend that night where we both ended up out... all night long! Our friends Alex and Megan are getting married in September and we helped celebrate one of their last "single" nights out. While there are no photos of the boys events, which is probably a good thing, here are a couple of the girls.

We had such a fun night out! The weather was perfect and even though I didn't know hardly any of the girls, we had a great time.

Sunday started out slow since we didn't get to bed until after 4am! Once we were up we ran errands, ate lunch, joined Costco (like grown ups we now are, so weird!) and then made a visit to J's new boss' house. I chatted with the ladies on the deck while J helped work on a presentation. They are really nice people and it makes Jared's fellowship so much easier that he has fun every day working with Dr. F.

Next we had a visitor come into town. One of my best friends from college, Kiliaen, and her husband were driving through on their way home from a vacation in Michigan. As always, there was not enough time. We went to dinner at Geraci's, talked, and caught up for the few hours we had all while trying to keep Hailey away from Matt... who is allergic!

It was lovely. I miss my girl friends so very much. Any time with them just makes me smile. And with that, July was done. What a fun one it was!