Dining Out

It seems like we had plans with friends every night last week... and that meant a TON of eating out! Monday we met up with our friend Katie and a guest of hers for "Monday Margaritas" at Rio Grande. There is just nothing like a frozen strawberry margarita to make your Monday great!

On Tuesday we caught up with one of J's friends from medical school, Aashi and her new husband Eric at Peppermint Thai Cuisine. I am rarely in the mood for Asian food so this was a pretty big deal.

It was great to catch up and hopefully we will be seeing more of them since they now live 5 miles away! Tuesday was also my Grandmother's birthday. I wish I could have been home to spend it with her helping her with our family tree, going out to lunch, or just visiting. I have to add it to the list of things to do the next time I am in Virginia.

On Wednesday night we met up with J's cousin at Outback. We got all caught up with how his senior year of high school is going, the difficulties of a long distance relationship, and the 411 on the college selection process all while enjoying some cheese fries and of course, a Wallaby Darned!

 I think a visit to the gym is in order!

Surprise Date Night

I'm finally feeling like myself these past few days. I have the remnants of a cough but no more of the icky sickness and just it was just in time for the weekend. Friday I had a short work day so I headed to the salon and got my hair and nails done. I was a little adventurous and tried the new & trendy "cement" nail color since my nails are uncharacteristically short right now. And I think I just might have found a good hair stylist (finally!) here in Ohio.

I came home to J telling me we had plans, plans that I knew nothing about. He had something planned a small surprise date night. I about fainted. We got ready and headed out for the night. Unfortunately... the life of a surgeon calls. Right as we hit the road he gets paged about a patient he operated on earlier in the day. And wouldn't you know it, they were bleeding and he had to take them back into surgery.

So we ate a super quick dinner at Bone Fish, I dropped him off at the hospital and spent the rest of my date night solo. While J was operating I got part of my surprise which was to meet up with my cousin John, Aunt Ann and Uncle David who were in town for the evening from Cincinnati for a choir performance. 

John had texted J about it earlier in the day and he kept it a secret so we could go out to dinner before and out downtown after... well, that was the plan. Even thought he missed out on most of the night it was such a cute idea. Major bonus points for J and so nice to see some family in Cleveland!

Blew By

Another week, gone by entirely too fast! Between being sick all last weekend, working nights for space station Ops and this terrible, blustery, icky chilly, rain weather we have had I hardly noticed the days go by.

I have started something new. Pinterest. Yes, another odd online thing... kinda like this blog! If you know me or my Mom or sister you know we are crazy list people. I have lists that say "make a list" of something or other. Well, Pinterest is to me like an online list site, except with pictures! So this week in my free time I started a list or what Pinterest calls a "board" for my birthday wish list. After all, it is only a month away! :)

 Happy Pinning!

Cold

Nope, not the nice autumn cold. Not the football/Clambake weather cold. Not the pretty, wear sweaters cold.
This is the sore throat, runny nose, coughing my lungs up kind of cold.
The took today off work I was feeling so crappy I could barely get out of bed cold.
The watching Lifetime TV movies, bundled up in blankets, eating chicken noodle soup, talking on the phone with Natalie and laughing makes me exhausted cold.
Thank goodness Jared is home from work today. I really don't think he likes being my nurse though... I might be a little cranky.

Fairy Godmother

Jared and I became Godparents for the second time last weekend. I like to call myself a "Fairy Godmother" like in all the princess fairy tales. :) Our little niece Madison was baptized at the same place my sister was married a little over 4 years ago. Seriously, where has the time gone?!?

It was a beautiful weekend and so many family members were able to attend.

I miss my family terribly, and each time I am with them just makes me smile.

Happy Baptism Madison!

To Remember Him

Today is the Army 10 Miler. This will be the 8th year that members of Jeff's and my family and friends run to remember Jeffrey J. Kaylor.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day in D.C., slightly warm for a run, but oh, so pretty. I actually prepared for the race this year. I had been taking for granted just up and running with no  training. That was until my friend Tracey got a stress fracture while training for a half marathon and completely freaked me out.

So I ran, lifted, and cross trained working on an 11-week program from my Dad. Well, that was the plan anyway until I got an injury after 5 1/2 weeks to my knee and had to rest for 3 weeks, which turned into 4 1/2. Even thought I didn't finish the training plan, it really helped.  I also loved not being in pain during or after the run.

Each year this race is hard for me. To see all the military people, to hear the National Anthem, to run past Arlington Cemetery crying, to just get through the day without losing it. And then someone runs next to you tapping you on the shoulder and says "I knew him. Jeff and I use to eat together over in Iraq. I'll run this for him too." My sister counted nearly 20 people this year mention something to us during the race.

It is inspiring and amazing and helps me deal with missing him. I most especially love that my whole family supports this race with Dad, Julie, Joey, and Jeffrey running along with me and Mom, Jared, and other family and friends cheering us on.

Hooah Jeff! Missing you always.

Indian Summer

I know fall has only been here for two weeks but it really got cold way too fast. I need some transition time. It seemed to be raining most of September, kind of like this past spring, with 25 of 33 days with some sort of rain. Not to mention that they predict the upcoming winter to be "brutal"! This week a little bit of Indian Summer started and it is just wonderful! No rain to deal with, no socks to wear, you don't even need a light sweater the highs are in the mid 70s and it is fantabulous!

And to top it all off, everything is starting to look a little bit Hokie around here. You know, maroon and orange. :) The trees are changing colors more and more each day. Next to a clear blue sky it is just beautiful!

Hokie, Hokie, Hokie, Hi!

We headed South this past weekend. Back to Virginia Tech to visit with friends and see the Hokies play. Unfortunately we had a late start into town on Friday, a ton of traffic, cold and rainy weather, and the saddest of all... a Hokie loss.

But we made the most of it. Friday night we headed downtown and hung out at Awful Arthur's with one of my college roomies, Courtney.

We listened to a band, enjoyed some tasty beverages, and ended the night with none other than Gumbi's Pizza Pokey sticks!

On Saturday we tailgated for hours on end, one of my favorite things to do! Catching up with another roommate of mine, Alissa...

along with her husband Stefano, son Vincent, Sean, Jill, their baby girl Charlotte, and a few other friends. We ran into sorority sisters, fraternity brothers, tailgated with our family friends the Ratcliffes, and hung out with Matt and Shannon, friends from Cleveland that are Hokies too!

During the game we even caught up with another college roommate of mine, Veronica, who was in town from Tennessee!

It was ridiculously windy, cloudy, dreary with spitting rain. And the game sure didn't go as we hoped... losing to Clemson 23-3. Ouch! But it was still Virginia Tech... still beautiful... still so much fun...

Cosmic Bowling

Saturday night had plans to bowl... bowl and watch football that is. And we had a great time! After another Hokie win we headed over to the lanes. On the way we saw this interesting rocket ship car...  very odd.

Our newly-wed friends Megan & Alex invited us along with a few other docs.

It was a bowling/dancing/drinking night that lasted until entirely too late. I didn't do quite as well as my 146 back in March but we still had a blast. Best of all, Jared got to be there the whole night... no operating! :)