Ballet Flats

I finally bought some decent shoes for everyday at work. I have been treating my feet badly, wearing cheap-o Target flats with no support. Start a running program and your feet get mad at you. Now I actually need support on these little piggies... and it was totally worth it! It is like clouds are on my feet all day. I am just loving my new little Maria Sharapova ballet flats!

First Weekend of Fall

We spent the first weekend of Fall at home in Cleveland and it was gorgeous! I was about to get webbed feet from the amount of rain we have been having lately. Luckily, the sunshine was saved for the weekend. Friday night was just chilly enough to throw on a cardigan sweater and scarf (still no sock weather, thank goodness!) and head to our favorite place for Happy Hour by the falls with our friends Katie and Jen.

Saturday we had the wedding of our friends Megan and Alex where it seems they planned the day perfectly, with the wedding at 2pm...

and a break before the reception with almost enough time to watch the whole Virginia Tech game. After another Hokie win, we headed to Windows on the River to dance late into the night and celebrate with our friends. They even had a photo booth...   

 Happy beginning of Fall!

Autumn is Here!

In celebration of the Autumn season, I made some pumpkin bread last night. And it is delicious! Hello Fall with that lovely chill in the air, sweaters, boots, vests, changing leaves into VT colors, pumpkin spice lattes and delicious clambakes!

Atlanta

While I was working in Houston last week, Jared was in Atlanta to take his surgical board exam. After five years of ridiculously hard work, he had a 5 hour written exam to become a board certified general surgeon. Part 1 of 2, the second part he will take next year at this time. I am so proud of him, I just know he did great (and we find out for sure in 2 months, fingers crossed!)

I flew into Atlanta after he was done with his exam, just in time to celebrate with all our surgery friends. His parents drove into town as well and we had a lovely time with them exploring the city.

We visited the Atlanta Aquarium and I, of course, turned into the 8 year old kid I really am. Loving all of the fishies,

jellies,

sharks,

seahorses and dragons,

my first dolphin show,

and especially the penguin exhibit!

We had a great visit.

Space Girl

All week I have been here...

driving by these on the way to the base...

working right next to this...

training astronauts that work here... 

on Fluids & Combustion Facility experiments...

doing the job that I love. So lucky.

FaceTime

Yesterday evening we used the FaceTime App on our iPad2 for the first time. This thing is AMAZING!! We got to visit with my sister and see my little niece Maddy walking! She kept smiling at us and even leaned into the screen to give us a kiss. So cute! It was almost as if they were in our living room visiting... Oh how I wish!

Driving Through Virginia

After a great start to our weekend in Blacksburg, we drove up to Northern Virginia but through Richmond this time to visit my youngest brother Jeffrey! Of course, being a starving college student we took him out to eat, Outback of course!, and to the grocery store. :) It was so great to see where he is living and loving life.

I love that he is soaking up the college experience and enjoying this time of his life but it was much too short of a visit. We then headed up to NOVA to spend less than 24 hours with my family. Joey and Jeni cooked a yummy BBQ chicken dinner for the family. I visited with my little nephew Jacob and watched his new favorite show, Monster Bug Wars! Which is totally creepy and completely freaks me out... but that little one just has me wrapped around his finger, I sat with him through the whole thing.

I didn't get enough time with my parents though... I just love hanging out and talking with them. It is really cool to know them as people and not just Mom and Dad. Since I had missed visiting the weekend earlier, I had missed celebrating the most wonderful Mom in the Universe's birthday. Mom turned 55 on August 24th. She never makes a big deal about her own birthday. And she always made ours so special. I really hope one of these days we can celebrate with her just how she would want... and not be so busy that it passes by without the importance it deserves. Although Dad had to fly, J and I were able to take her to lunch at her favorite place, Sweetwater Tavern.

Happy (belated) birthday Mom!! We didn't snap a photo at lunch, so here is one of my favs from this summer.

It really was a great Labor Day weekend. A great end to summer... would only have been better minus hurricane Irene! cancelling our plans or the monsoon we drove through on the way back to Ohio. Here's to just as much fun this fall! And a winning Hokie football season! ;)

Hokie Football 2011

We travelled all over last weekend, as usual! The Labor Day holiday gave us one extra day to squeeze in not only a trip to Blacksburg, but to Richmond and Northern Virginia as well.
Thursday night was really the start of the weekend and more importantly, the start of J's most favorite time of year, College Football Season! Oh, how he loves those Hokies. I made a lovely football themed meal of mexican dip appetizers, hot dogs, corn on the cobb, beans, and of course, beer. We hit the road bright and early on Friday to our most favorite place, Blacksburg, Virginia.  

Our good friends, Dr. C and Mrs. S met us for the weekend so you know we had a blast! We spent the evening catching up at Poor Billy's bar downtown and had entirely too much fun...



























drinking wine, amongst many other things, way into the late hours of the night... or should I say morning...

Saturday was Game Day... and we were hurting. Too much fun the night before inhibited our pre-game festivities. We missed the SigEp groundbreaking for the new on campus house. We missed stopping by my APhi sister's tailgate, and nearly missed making it to J's pledge brother's tailgate before we had to get to the game. But we did see the Hokie Bird on the way!

And the game, it was so freakin' H-O-T HOT, HOT, HOT!! I honestly don't know how we made it through the whole thing. We all were not feeling good, cheering the team on and trying to endure the sweltering, humid weather... thank goodness we won!

We had a low key Saturday night. Eating pizza, staying in and watching all the college football games just the 4 of us. It was just as much fun as the night before had been... with a lot more water!