Twenty-five

Happy Birthday to my little brother Joey who is 25 today! In my mind's eye he is about 11 years old, stuck in my memory with our youngest brother Jeffrey as little kids when I left for college many moons ago.

He isn't so little anymore. He has a son now, nearly 3 years old. But I just can't help it... he is my little brother. Joey and I have an interesting relationship. We butt heads sometimes because I am the oldest sister and he thinks he is the older sibling which I find too funny. I try and protect him,  and I mother him, a little too much. I just can't help it. I love him.

But no matter what I am there for him and his family with Jeni and their son. He has so much potential, I know he is going to do great things.

Happy Birthday Boo Boo!

Spring Is In The Air!

FINALLY! Spring has arrived in Ohio!

Yesterday I packed up all our sweaters & sweatshirts, the snow boots, hats and gloves. Yes... in May. I didn't put them away until now because I thought I would jinx it. Rumors about spring snow storms completely freak me out and I didn't want to do anything to tempt the weather gods.

Temperatures are so variable here... lows in the 30s last week. Where was spring?!? All we had been having here was rain, rain, and more rain. The cold, chill you to the bones rain where you hate going outside. At least snow is pretty and fun and you can sled on it! But not today, today the high will be in the 80's! Today it is spring, full of the smell of fresh cut grass, blooming flowers, and sun, sun, sun! Sounds like a top off kinda day... on my Jeep that is, what were you thinking?!?

A Whale of a Time! (Part 2)

In Boston that is! My job, oh how I love my job, sent me on a business trip to Boston. I was attending a seminar on microfluidics. One of the projects I am working on is developing a reusable medical device for long duration spaceflight and we need to know more about microfluidic processes. I still can't get over that I get to learn and do such neato keeno things and get paid for it!

Since Jared had a few vacation days to use he joined me on my quick 2 day trip. We drove all around the Boston area. We saw Fenway park, walked through Cambridge and had dinner near Harvard. We stayed at a hotel which use to be a Federal Reserve Bank and were walking distance to the harbor.

On Monday, we went on a whale watching cruise. The weather was gorgeous, a bit chilly but so nice and sunny out. And after fighting a little sea sickness (luckily no actually throwing up!) we saw these...

a female humpback and her calf, several male whales feeding, breaching and diving underwater showing their tales. It was beyond cool and we were sooo excited!

After a quick bite to eat... lobster rolls and shrimp cocktail, yum!... we headed out for a drive. Around the city to see Paul Revere's house, where the Boston Tea Party occurred and then off to Connecticut for dinner with one of J's groomsmen from our wedding and his family. 

On Tuesday I attended my conference while Jared made a quick trip to visit Boston College. Now he only has to visit Clemson and has been to all the ACC schools.... not sure why but he was excited.

Before we left town we had a lovely late lunch by the ocean, made a quick trip to Plymouth Rock to see the Mayflower replica, drive through Quincy, MA to see John Adams house (my favorite President!), and one last lobster roll before flying home.

Our Boston trip sure was wicked awesome!

A Whale of a Time! (Part 1)

Another whirlwind weekend for the Storck family! And we sure had a WHALE of a time (see part 2 of this post). On Thursday we headed down to Virginia and our first stop was to see one of my best friends Alissa and her newest addition... baby Vincent at one week old!

Side note... look at how long my eyelashes have gotten! I just love 'em!

Luckily for us, my sister and her family were in town as well this weekend. So I caught up on some snuggles from my little niece Maddy...

we celebrated Jeni and Julie's birthdays, went shopping just the girls, ate Mexican food Mom made, stayed up late, watched movies, and just enjoyed being together as a family. Jared, Joey, and Jake played with a toy airplane in the yard and Jeff came up from VCU for the night and watched movies with us.

There was visiting the grandparents, planning our next visit and as always our time together just wasn't long enough. It was so nice to all be home, the kids who are not so much kids anymore, even just for a few days.

Taurus

Today is my sister's birthday. A special one. The big 3-0. Even though we celebrated this weekend, I wish I could be with her on her special day. I love my sister so much. I joke that she is mine... that my parents had her for me. And as much as I tease, I kinda feel that way. The E.E. Cummings poem, "I carry your heart with me" always reminds me of her. I am super protective of her and love that over the years we have gotten so close. Close enough that when we are out together shopping and people ask if we are twins it makes me smile a little inside... and smile a lot when they ask which one of us is older! Hehehe!

This is one of my favorite pictures of us with our Dad on my wedding day. Happy 30th Birthday, Juls!

It is also the birthday of one of my best friends, Courtney. Courtney and I met my first year at Virginia Tech. She is the first close friend I made in college and I miss her terribly! 

Happy Birthday to you too, Court! Perhaps we can make another Vegas trip like this one back in 2007 to celebrate sometime soon!

Spring Game

This past Saturday we took J's cousin for a tour at our most favorite place on Earth.

It was a day trip. A LONG trip but a fun one. We took the official tour of campus where J and I were giant cheeseballs and couldn't help but chime in on answers to questions that visitors asked.

You would think after my many, many years at Virginia Tech I would have been to the spring game. I had just never gotten around to it... until now...

There sure was a great turnout for a scrimmage!

And J's cousin seemed to enjoy the trip. Maybe one day he will be a Hokie too. :)

Bee-utiful!

Yesterday a coworker of mine challenged me to decorate bee cupcakes. We were throwing kind of a baby shower (since it was for a guy) for another coworker of ours and the theme of his baby-to-be room is bees.

Challenge accepted! Here are my cute little "bee" cupcakes. Jared wanted to know why they weren't landing on flowers. I mean, seriously... like I had time to make icing flowers.