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.

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. :)

Last Weekend of Summer - 2012

In just our style the last unofficial weekend of the summer was spent traveling and being crazy busy. We were supposed to head out Friday as soon as we could get off work. Unfortunately J was stuck in the OR until too late for us to leave. No matter, it was his last day at Metro Hospital!! So we went out to celebrate, and planned to leave early the next morning before the sun. Our coffee stop had a great surprise with the first day of pumpkin spice lattes! Yum!

Our trip was to Virginia, obviously. ;) It was a two part trip, NoVA and Blacksburg with not enough time at either place. Julie would be in NoVA too with little Miss Madison. We spent the time playing with our niece and nephews, running errands, getting hair cuts, shopping for cars for Juls, breakfast at Yorkshire, late night Dairy Queen runs, and drinking wine by the pool with Nat and Bri (back from far far away) to top of the last nights of summer.

Then we were off to Blacksburg for the VT/GT game. They were calling for rain but we were lucky and only had a little mist during the start of the game. We didn't meet up with any friends this time, it was just us and beautiful Hokie land.

We even had an overtime victory! And just like that... summer 2012 was done.

Tour de Virginia

Kinda like the Tour de France, only better. Last weekend was a blink of an eye, filled with as much as I could, part family, part friends visit trip while in Virginia for a total of 64 hours. I was solo this weekend since J was on call and couldn't leave town. He is never happy when I leave but tried to have some fun catching up with friends Mary & Steve for dinner and going to his first gun show. Yes, I know. A gun show. That is what I get for talking about the end of the world and being prepared for emergencies.

I flew into town late Friday night. This is Cleveland as we were flying by. I just love flying and seeing everything lit up at night is so neat. Kinda like looking at an ant farm.

Dad was flying in from NYC and met me at the airport to take me home. With all the airport rules I couldn't meet him at the gate. But seeing my Dad at work in his Captain's uniform is still just as cool as when I was little and he brought me to work with him to see what he did.  :) We picked up pizza and headed home where I talked with Mom and Dad until I fell asleep on the couch. There is just never enough time...

On Saturday I was up early and on the road to meet the girls. What originally was planned as our annual weekend away was adjusted to one night in Richmond. This would be the first night Liss was away from her baby boy and I needed to see my Grandparents who haven't been doing so well recently. Even though it was only one full day of girl time, it was wonderful. We stayed with Courtney in her condo which she bought a few years back, walked all over the Carytown enjoying the shopping, eating, and drinking!

And as always there was a little bit of silliness...

Yes, hair extensions and masks. The talking was nonstop and Kiliaen and I about died giggling before bed for who knows what reason other than more silliness. And just like that it was time to hit the road. But not before a quick stop by my brother's place on the way out of town.

He is going to kill me for adding that camera photo... hehehe!

On Sunday I brought lunch over to the Grandparents and visited with my Uncle Connie who was also over that afternoon. Mom and Dad came by too. Unfortunately Grandpa slept the whole time... he didn't have a good night and slept through my whole visit. It is so hard to see how fast he is deteriorating... it seems like yesterday that they were smiling away at Julie's wedding or dancing together at mine.

I made one more visit over to the rehab center where Great Grandma Connie is progressing with her compression fracture therapy. I hate to see her away from her home but she is getting stronger every day and can move her legs so much now! She was basically only speaking in Spanish and giving me a hard time for not being fluent and  for not having babies yet. After another too short visit, I headed home for dinner. Mom made chicken pot pie and Natalie, finally home from overseas, spent the evening talking with me at the kitchen table... just like when we were teenagers.

My phone for some reason deleted the rest of my photos from this trip with the exception of one... me lovin' on my littlest nephew before I had to leave town and head back to Ohio. 

And just like that, my tour de Virginia was over. On Monday after a morning of coffee and talking in the family room with Mom and Dad I was fighting back tears at the airport when they dropped me off.  Sometimes being a grown up sucks.

Tebow

Even though the Super Bowl was practically a week ago... 
Even though it was with teams I don't particularly like... especially the super icky Tom Brady Patriots...

I thought I would share this photo of us pre-game last week, taken by my go-go-gadget arm.

That's right. In our Tim Tebow jerseys! Hahaha! My favorite NFL player. Happy Friday!
 

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

We headed down to New Orleans on Monday to "Let the good times roll"! and see the Hokies play in the Sugar Bowl. I was nearly 100% back to normal after being sick on NYE. We had a great flight to Houston, watched "Money Ball" while we were delayed in the air counting the minutes and hoping we wouldn't miss our connection. With a lot of running and a bit of luck we made our plane just in time.

The last time I was in New Orleans was back in 2000 for the National Championship Game against Florida State while we were in college...  

Jared and my sister had won tickets to the game in the school lottery. He wasn't going to go to the game but I insisted. We got a group together of our Greek friends and had a blast during our visit. Little did I know that this is where I created the football fanatic husband I now have.

Twelve (OMG how is that possible?!?) years later we are back in NOLA where we met up with Steve and headed straight for the French Quarter for some food and of course a few beverages! We stayed out late catching up with sorority sisters (Amy and Jess) and fraternity brothers (Todd & Preston) from VT and anticipating a Hokie win!


I love that after all these years we can just pick up right where we left off with friends from our days at Tech. It does make me miss living in Virginia though. I know Amy and I would be close if I only lived nearby. We just think alike and she is the sweetest girl with a lovely husband. They are just good people. And of course, my roommate from college Courtney. There just never is enough time with friends.

Tuesday was game day! We hit up the French Quarter again for beignets and muffalettas! I ran into my big sis from Alpha Phi, Leslie at Cafe Du Monde...

And then it hit. The sickness that we thought was done, we thought had been left in Virginia, left in last year, caught up with us in New Orleans. Jared was sick. He had been fooling us all morning trying to ignore how he felt, hoping it was just a hang over after all. But no, he was sick, sick, sick and at about 1pm we had to go back to the hotel. I watched over him, and some TV, while he tried to sleep through the chills, praying he felt better. A Gatorade and 7 hours later we were off to the game and I honestly don't know how he made it. Sheer will to see his favorite team. If only those Hokies knew what it took for him to be there, maybe they would have won the game.

It was a heartbreaker. We really should have won... and it was painful seeing our victorious overtime touchdown catch overturned.

And just like that, our trip was done. A 4am ride to the airport and first class back to Cleveland where Jared was finally starting to feel better.



Eye Twitch

Apparently I am stressed... I've had a twitch in my right eye on and off for a week now. Rapidly vibrating because I have too much to do and am worried I can't get it all done. Work has been long these past few days, off hours for space station ops, I have volunteering, planning for another football adventure not to mention more decorating, Christmas card making, gift buying, ugh! and the dentist and we have no tissues in the house and I have to go to the store.

So while the snow began to fall here at ECGML, I was coordinating some volunteer work as the Alumni President of the House Board for my sorority chapter. One of the first projects to tackle is painting several rooms to upgrade the on campus house they now live in... and boy does this house need A LOT of work! One step at a time, we are going to make it look great!

My Dad's company did the painting work so I know my worries were also that everything went smoothly.

On Friday we headed down to Blacksburg to check out the work, discuss plans for decorating, future house upgrades, and treated some of the girls to dinner at Poor Billy's downtown.

Saturday we headed down to Charlotte for the ACC Championship game against Clemson. I found a great deal at the team hotel and we had awesome seats. on the 50 yard line..

if only we had won the game...

We still had a great time and even got to see my college roomie Courtney a little bit. On our way home we drove through Virginia to spend time the family and meet our newest nephew.

The four days flew by, as they always do. And we had a lovely little road trip... but I still have my eye twitch!

Pure Michigan

Every week we drive by gi-normous billboards that apparently deliver subliminal messages of "Pure Michigan"...
Jared always repeats the saying "Your trip begins at Michigan.org" as we drive by. So this past weekend since Nebraska was playing Michigan and we love seeing John (even though it was my birthday weekend) I consented to a day trip to Michigan. Apparently those billboards work! We got up bright and early and headed to what is called "The Big House." It was a pretty fast trip, 2.5 hours and we were in the midst of all the Wolverine fans. We met up with Billie for some tailgating and then to the game!

It was chilly and gray out but we had a great time, even with the Husker loss. We saw a cool military fly over, endured the crazy crowd cheers where the entire stadium of 113,000 people yell "YOU SUCK!" and even found Coach JP in the booth during the game... right under the "V."

Since the team flies back to Nebraska directly after the game, we said our goodbyes and headed into downtown Ann Arbor for the evening. It was a little early for dinner so we stopped off at an Irish pub for a drink. The place was packed! We met some interesting people and had a few tasty beverages... Jameson being one to celebrate our newest nephew and my birthday.

Someone might have mentioned it was whisky... ugh! Next we headed right next door where Jared had made dinner plans at the nicest restaurant in Southern Michigan, The Chop House.
Dinner was fantastic! We had shrimp cocktail, wedge salad, beef wellington for me, a rib eye for J, and of course, creme brulee for dessert. It was such a lovely little birthday-football-Pure Michigan day trip.

And the next morning, my actual birthday I FINALLY got to open this...

A 1/110th scale model of the space shuttle or what J calls my signed football. Love, love, love it! We had a lazy and relaxing day. With a trip to Chagrin Falls for coffee and bagels, an afternoon movie, and a pizza dinner at Anthony's on the West Side. It was a great weekend!

Pennsylvania

Each football season we try and go to at least one Nebraska football game each year. We were so excited when they joined the Big 10 this season, we wouldn't have to travel far to see Big Red play. We were going to the game to support John and our friend Steve joined us too.  

Early last week a huge scandal at Penn St. broke involving the coaches, administration and awful allegations of abuses against children that seem to have been covered up for years. The famous coach was fired and they were rioting in Happy Valley. We thought the game might be cancelled. I was disgusted about it all, frustrated that some people didn't see this was more important than football.... there were children's lives that had been ruined. 

It was a quiet game. You could see on the fans faces how upset they all were, distraught that their school is under so much shame. As the game started all the players and coaches unexpectedly met at the center of the field, shook hands and then knelt in prayer. The stadium of 100,000+ was silent. It gave me goosebumps. People were crying. And as moving as that was I was so glad to see Nebraska win.

Go Huskers!

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...

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! 

Charlotte

North Carolina that is. Over the Thanksgiving holiday we got a call from our friend, Dr. C. Dr. C was a roommate of Jared's in college, the best man in our wedding, a great friend AND he has a wonderful wife, Mrs. S. You don't find many couples that you click with both people. Dr. C and Mrs. S are those kind of people. We always have soo much fun together. Since both of the guys are physicians our visits are always too short, but each meeting is like starting right where we left off. 

Well, Dr. C and Mrs. S surprised us with tickets to the ACC Championship Game where the Hokies were playing Florida State. Needless to say, we were Charlotte bound! A little pre-gaming at a Brazilian steakhouse where we had the whole bar to ourselves!

All bundled up for another Virginia Tech win!

We had a great time with Dr. C and Mrs. S (send kisses to baby C!) and can't wait to see them again soon!