Zoom Zoom

We have been looking for cars lately. By we I mean Jared. Our 2007 BMW is needing 2 new snow tires, 2 all season tires, brakes and possibly rotors. So, as we love to do... we are upgrading to a new car. Now it might not be the Porsche 911 that we dreamt of owning when J completed his fellowship, but it is a pretty snazzy car. See the before and after below...

Actually it is the same model as our trade-in... just in blue and new! Is that boy lucky I love cars or what?

Snowball

The days have been going by too fast these past few months. Rolling one on top of the other, or snowballing as I like to say. I am two months behind in my posting and my goal is to catch up by the end of the week. So they next few days check back in to see the details on Italy, adventures in Virginia, trips to Indianapolis, and holiday decorating. In the meantime I just completed my holiday cards which are in the mail as of yesterday.

And it is just perfect that there are snow flurries all day today!

 

 

ITALY!

The last 5 days have been spent confirming our Italy trip details. Contacting airlines to figure out international seats, getting new suitcases since European carry-ons can only be 21" high including wheels and US luggage is usually 22"!!, washing clothes, packing, packing, packing, weighing suitcases, copying travel documents, squeezing in time to get my nails done, oh yeah and working all week, setting up international phone plans, and then a phone call... J's grandmother has broken her leg!

We rushed over to the hospital  last night to visit her before we left. She is doing ok, heading for surgery tomorrow and then a long road to recovery. We are sending our prayers to her for a successful surgery and for a safe trip for us over the next week!! Everything always seems to happen at the same time. And now, we are off!

Columbus with Cornhuskers

In our go, go, go style of traveling every chance we get ,we headed down to Columbus to see our friends John and Billie and watch the Nebraska Cornhuskers play Ohio State.

Looking at the calendar I realized that we have/will be busy every weekend from the last weekend in August until the last weekend in October. Wow! Too late to change it now but looks like Halloween will be low key this year so we can get some rest.

We spent Friday night just hanging out with our friends, eating my new favorite pizza Mellow Mushroom, talking football and catching up. Saturday while John went off to work to coach his team, we helped Billie tailgate with some of the Nebraska fans. We were in the biggest and fanciest RV I have ever seen. Somehow Jared even ended up on top of it to check out the view of Columbus. After hours, like 8, of tailgating we took our first pedicab to the game.

The weather was amazingly beautiful during the day but then got quite chilly that night. We watched John run out of the tunnel with the team, saw the Ohio State tradition of "dotting the i" in Ohio, the band, and cheered on the Huskers.



Unfortunately it was a painful loss at 63-38. And to top it off, we couldn't find a cab to get back to the hotel. We walked around downtown for over an hour trying to hail one to no avail. It was not my favorite evening.

The next morning we met up with friends that are family to me so I could finally meet their daughter. With them living so close, we are really going to try and be in better touch this year, especially since she has #2 on the way!

And in just a few days we are off on our trip to Italy!! So much to do, so little time.

CHI Town

Every year J has a conference to attend for his medical education and board exams and I get to tag along. Our first trip to Chicago was back in 2009 where we celebrated J's 30th birthday back in my pre-blogging days. This is one of my favorites of us.

Then the conference moved to San Francisco in 2010, Atlanta in 2011, and we are back to CHI town again this year. I invited one of my besties from college, to join us and as always, we had a blast.**

On Friday we walked around the city and enjoyed the amazing weather, no jacket needed! No one had eaten from being stuck in traffic traveling so we stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at Ditka's with Steve. The boys turned in early to rest for their oral board exams the next day and I met up with Courtney once she arrived later that night for cocktails and snacks.  

Saturday was exam day and once that was over, we could have some fun. We spent the afternoon at a sports bar celebrating the (hopeful) end of the general surgery exam stresses. Our friends Matt, Mary, and her boyfriend Steve joined us as well. There was a mimosa bar, yummy appetizers, and college football for all! Even some silliness in trying on the waitress Oktoberfest outfit (which seemed like a completely normal idea at the time), Courtney's phone dropping into the toilet, and learning that yes, immersing your iPhone in a bag of sealed rice immediately after complete water submersion may possibly save it!

That night we ended up at a BBQ restaurant that we think was also a gay bar and even though J was tired he rallied and came up with the idea of going to the top of the John Hancock building for drinks. The line was a mile long but somehow I got tapped on the shoulder and we were seated immediately... right at the window! Chocolate martini's for everyone!!

Our last day was filled with shopping and sight seeing, for me and Court anyway. We headed over to Millennium Park, saw the bean, the building we thought was from "Adventures in Babysitting," and then back to the hotel with the boys who had been in meetings for the conference.

While at happy hour in the hotel, Courtney and I searched the web for the best place for oysters Rockefeller in the city and were able to make reservations for that night! We hit up Hugo's Frog Bar & Fish House, even tried fish legs, and then too Lux Bar for music and dancing. It was a great time... can't wait for Vegas next year!

**J and I had been trying to match up his friend Steve with my friend Courtney since our wedding over 4 years ago. And this weekend they totally hit it off. Fingers crossed that this pair works out... they both deserve a lifetime of happiness and if it is together that would be even better!

Ackert Visit

J's sister's family came to visit this us in Cleveland this weekend and we had so much fun!! There was lots of playing in Uncle Jared and Aunt Jenny's apartment, trying on Uncle Jared's high school football uniform,

playing with Aunt Jenny's iPhone camera,

pizza dinner at Dewey's, special cupcakes,

watching Disney movies, chasing Hailey with the laser, sleepovers for the oldest kiddos,
and Maggiano's dinner with Great Aunt D and Great Uncle J.

Like I said before. So much fun!!

E Town/Pittsburgh Visit

After a pile of laundry, catching up with work, an episode of Bachelor Pad (I am totally obsessed with the entire "Bachelor/Bachelorette" series I hate to admit), and attending a fashion event with J's boss and wife it was the weekend again. We headed out on a short trip 2 hours away to East Liverpool to visit our friends Charlie and Megan.

We had only one night to play where we ate Mexican food, headed to what might possibly the worlds smallest bar, and helped Charlie celebrate his birthday. A little too much celebration it seems since the next morning he was too ill to join us for the VT/Pitt game.

Unfortunately it was a loss for the Hokies, always something hard to deal with. But we rallied for dinner with Charlie, now awake after the game. We even drove by J's old place in Shadyside. It is so weird how sometimes the past seems like just yesterday and other times can seem like eons ago. When we were driving around the town it was that weird time travel feeling I get when visiting places from my past. So much the same from way back in 2004-2006 yet so different. Back then it had been so hard to be in a long distance relationship. And those days J was working, dreaming, hoping to be a surgeon... oh, how far we have come. :)