So What Wednesday....

First off thank you for all of the birthday wishes! You all are way too sweet! I really appreciate them:) I had a wonderful weekend/day!

So i begged asked Shannon to post this week for me - and she said just do it... and of course the week that I don't have a list or anything prepared I can think of a million things to "so what about..." perhaps lists aren't always the way to go!

So here's for the week what I'm saying "so what" to..

• Up until yesterday my About Me info said I was 26... and I just updated it to be 28.
• If i wanted to wear peep toe shoes last week when it was in the 60's so I just painted my first 2 toes, and it was all good until I went to the dr and had to take off my shoes! and she TOTALLY noticed! [no one said my dr. wasn't intelligent]
• I have been listening to Jason Aldean and Eric Church to and from work daily to get pumped up for the concert this weekend
• I almost like when Justin plays Call of Duty while I'm doing my 30 Day Shred in the basement - I watch the clock on the game to get me through each individual level
• I feel so accomplished if I go to the grocery store and everything that I put on the belt is healthy!
• I am a few days behind on the DVR-but I have no time to catch up on anything... I have 2 episodes of Modern Family, Jersey Shore, Bachelor, One Born Every Minute, Real Housewives of Miami and I'm pretty sure I won't get through either Top Chef or Modern Family tonight [and after reading Shannon's comment realized I should probably include Teen Mom 2 too!]
  
• I saw a bumper sticker today that said IRL [you know the oval ones with big black letters] and my first though was "In Real Life"... eek - Blogging has taken over my global knowledge!
  
• I am beyond excited to go see our friends who just had a baby last night! They waited to find out the gender [which I would never have the self control to do!] they are calling this baby Gruber 2.0 [since its their 2nd and the dad is all techy - their cat's name is reboot-ha!]
• I'm addicted to WWF - pretty sure that its just added to my OCD'ness before I go to bed. Before I had to clear out all emails, read all fb status updates and tweets - and now i can't have any games be on my turn before I go to bed! and it doesn't help that J has the same issue and we play with one another - its no wonder I'm tired!

Head on over to Mama Dew's blog and link up!

Happy Hump Day!

Thank you....

Today has been a wonderful day! I am beyond blessed and so fortunate to have such a loving family and friends!

Thank you for all the birthday phone calls, bday posts on facebook, tweets and texts - you all sure do know how to make a girl feel special.

Justin and I went to Benihana with Jason, Katie and Molly tonight for dinner. Behihana takes a picture for you on your birthday and Molly just happened to be sitting with Justin and I - and I surely don't mind claiming her as mine every now and then
[please check out the cheese in the picture! you would never know she was up 2 hours past her bedtime! happy as can be:)]

My sister and her fiance got me such a fun gift [I'm normally not one to show off my presents but this one is so fun I can't help but share]
A cupcake carrier, Cupcake liners, Cupcake decorating books and Bakerella's cakepops!
J is just excited for me to "attempt" some of these! he said he will totally be a taste tester :)
and just because J is the best boyfriend EVER i came home to these as well, pink roses - that are gorgeous and they smell amazing!

Like i said - i feel so loved today!
Thanks to everyone for making me feel so special! I guess 28 isn't so bad after all :)

In other exciting news one of my besties Jess started up a blog! I'm so excited to share her blogging experiences with her! Stop on by her blog and say hi! She is so sweet, follow along for their life stories as well as their way on making their family of 2 [plus 2 adorable fur babies] into 3 :)

Holiday Valley

Anyone who knows me pretty well, knows that I love a good routine, or a tradition.

The tradition of going up to New York to Holiday Valley with our next door neighbors is one that I look forward to every year. This trip started out with our family [Brad, Laura, Alli and myself] and the next door neighbors [Mr. B, Mrs. B, Rachel, Jen and Erica] and now the group of 9 has grown to 14 [which include 2 husbands, 1 fiance, 1 boyfriend, and a kid]

It has been more than fun incorporating the new additions to our large group along the way.
If you are new to the blog here is last years post

Most of us before our first run of the trip
[minus rachel, mike and madison who were all over on the bunny hill for madison's first ski lesson]
this picture is also on the Holiday Valley home page currently as well - were kinda famous!
I love how we all line our boots up in the hallway after we come in from a day out on the slopes - i'm sure the people who we shared a hallway with appreciated it too - ha!
While we were out on the slopes Saturday I went over to help my sister's fiance with learning how to snowboard [well I thought I could tell him how I taught myself how to] well during my trip over to visit him I somehow got the courage to go on the bunny hill terrain park. I am here to tell you that I am a decent snowboarder when its just going down hill or going in the woods - however I have never been one to do jumps/tricks/half pipes.... ect

So here is how it all went down [and I promise its worth reading because at the end I went down a few times]

Attempt #1
Hit a mini table top heading down hill - dismount perfectly - FUN!
Attempt #2
Successfully hit the same jump - feeling VERY confident - I COULD GET USED TO THIS!
Attempt #3
Decided to get fancy and square up on the table top - rode the entire thing [fine it was only about 7-8' long - but still] and Andrew [who was encouraging me to do this] forgot to tell me to re-position myself down hill before i dismounted - EPIC FAIL - landed hard off of a 3' jump - yes i know it doesn't seem possible
Attempt #4
To show off for my sister's fiance I thought I would show him what I had been doing... and in the attempt to get myself situated in the 15' between the orange fence [remember I was on the bunny hill - and its pretty smart of HV to put up a barrier so a newbie doesn't hurt themselves] and the jumps I couldn't turn myself around causing me to nearly hit 2 barrel jumps and 2 flags... EPIC FAIL #2
Attempt #5 [my final attempt]
I regained my composure and tried the table top again - heading in facing down, square up and got a little too fancy and ended up rotating 270 degrees causing my board to go off of the table top and my, you know what, to land right on the edge of the table top - EPIC FAIL #3

I decided at that point that there was a reason that I had 3 epic fails in a row and I decided to pick up my pride and head in for lunch, never returning to the mini terrain park again!

That night I decided to evaluate the damage I had done to myself - sure I saw a small bruise on my hip and I thought that was it... oh no - clearly I forgot how hard that I had landed - and forgot to check my complete backside - HOLY EFF there is a bruise the size of a grapefruit and in a pretty dark blue/purplish color... [i'm just worried about the dr asking how this happened tomorrow and me having to tell her that "Yes, I'm 27 and I tried to hit a jump on a snowboard story"] [and if my pride being crushed on vacation wasn't nearly enough-trying to run with a huge bruise on your backside hurts even worse!]

okay - i digress about my attempt to be Hannah Teter for the day...

Oh well - its not a complete ski vacation without one little minor bump and bruise

Saturday night we went out after dinner to our favorite place, Madigans [and clearly I needed a drink or two to rid me of the pain on my ass].
Alli, Erica, and myself
Erica somehow convinced the bartender to allow her to ride the dummy waiter [that just transports ice and beer upstairs and downstairs!]
Justin and I
We headed back out on the slopes on Sunday before we headed home for Ohio.
Everything was going pretty smoothly until we tried to back out of parking spot, and because of the warm weather we had on Sunday - or truck had sunk a little bit since the night before... so the boys got out and pushed.
It was a fun and adventurous vacation - like always.

Its a trip I look forward to every year and I can't wait for next year :)

Thanks again mom and dad for another fun ski/boarding vacation!

Happy Valentines Day and a DIY Project

I hope you are having an AMAZING Valentine's day and surrounding yourself with people of which you love.

For the first time in 5 years J and I really don't have much planned for tonight [heck-i haven't even bought his gift... shh - ha!] but I'm sure we will come up with something :) Typically we go out to a nice dinner on a day other than valentines day or the weekend of valentines day, and then on february 14th we typically get Chipotle since that is where we met [if your new to the blog or have nothing better to read, your more than welcome to read that story here]

Do you have any traditions for today?

**DIY**

Justin and I watched Molly a few weeks ago and I decided to make a valentines day gift for Jason and Katie from Molly.

I bought the letters from Hobby Lobby and painted them white, and i found the glittery heart at Hob Lob as well.

Here are the best pictures I was able to get with a 13 month old and a slow shutter speed camera
- regardless Molly is adorable!
I put the pictures in a frame [next time I will practice taking pictures of pictures]
Here are the outtakes from our photo shoots- Some of these are really funny, who would have known that holding a large wooden letter and a glittery heart would be such a challenge - ha!
I plan on doing this every year with Molly, however next year I will have her little brother Dom [due to arrive in late April/early May] hold the U and then they can attempt/try to hold the heart together. I think this will be a fun project that I will look forward to making year after year with the kids!

I will have my weekend/vacation wrap up on Tuesday! We spent the entire weekend in New York, at Holiday Valley skiing/snowboarding. As of Sunday our family was on the home page of the Holiday Valley website, we are in the subset picture. Come back to read the recap :)

I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day and you are with people you love!

hello there....

Hello there!

I have missed you all and I'm sorry that I've been in a blogging funk lately. I don't quite know what has gotten into me...

well I guess I do know a little bit what has gotten into me

#1 work has been crazy busy, and I do use my lunch time occasionally to blog/catch up on blogs/relax my brain... and so that hasn't been happening lately

#2 twitter : yes that lovely little site that I have taken a fond liking to, well it keeps me up to date with some of my favorite bloggers, but not everyone, so I feel like I'm 1/2 up to date with what is going on... well sorta

#3 i'm gotten into a routine when I get home from work: gym, dinner, shower, reading in bed. yes you read that correctly - i'm skipping right over the reality tv and going straight to bed. its much more relaxing. this doesn't mean that i don't use my dvr'd shows to keep me entertained while i'm cooking/eating dinner, or that i don't occasionally watch one here or there.. but lately i would prefer to read over watching reality TV! [hell might have frozen over!]

And now that I'm on a reading kick I desperately need new authors. I am finishing up my last Nicholas Sparks book right now Safe Haven, I have Emily Griffin Something Borrowed [which I haven't started yet] and I also bought In a Heartbeat by Leigh Ann and Sean Tuohy [the real story of the Blindside]. Any other suggestions!?!?!

But in the meantime I thought I would catch you up on what we have been doing when I'm not in a routine mode [i.e. the weekends]:

Friday I got a special delivery from Justin in the office
Aren't the just beautiful? I've never had flowers delivered to the office before and I was completely shocked, and even had tears in my eyes when they were brought to me! I'm one lucky girl!

Saturday we had a surprise birthday party for Justin's cousin's 40th. Jennifer [his cousin] is someone who always does something for everyone else, and she was so touched a party was thrown in her honor, she started crying when we sang happy birthday to her when she walked in, and didn't stop crying the entire time. She is just too sweet.

Saturday night we watched this little chunk munk! Its a little hard to take pictures of her nowadays because she is on the MOVE! I had just got her out of her bumbo after dinner.. and she was walking over to me

and after we changed her into her PJ's. She had a ton of toys, but the only thing she would grab for off of the coffee table was Justin's wallet - too funny [smart girl!]!
[i also love these footed pj's - her feet are so small they stop on the right foot at the end of the red polka dot! so cute! they just kinda flop around]

Sunday Justin and I were all ready to cheer on the buckeyes in a victory of Minnesota in basketball and then head to a friend' s house to watch the Super Bowl. Well our plans were quickly changed when we lost power for about 3 hours [not so sure how we made it through the ice storm ALL last week without losing power - but this weekend was a different story]. Thankfully we live close enough to my parent's that we were able to head over there and make my dishes to bring to the game:

Football shaped veggie pizza

and chocolate covered strawberries

I was so happy that the Packers won. My friends joke around that because I'm a browns fan that I'm able to choose a different team during the playoffs since we will never make it :( so i chose my second favorite team the saints... and they were knocked out after the first week - so then i picked up green bay to cheer for for the rest of the playoffs!

I love Aaron Rodger's story, his patience and how he still has the love for football every time he plays. Its like watching someone who is playing for the right reason [if that makes sense?] It was a great game! I'm glad that Steelers came back with a little pep in their step in the 2nd half to make it more of a game, but in the end I was VERY thankful the Packers pulled off the win over the Steelers!

So that's our weekend wrapped up in pictures as well as an excuse as to why i have been absent lately!

What did you do this weekend? Is anyone else in a comment/blogging rut - or is it just me? Perhaps I can blame it on the winter blues :) come on sunny weather!

So what wednesdays... a little catch up

So What if...

• I wear two hair ties on my wrist even though my hair is too short to pull back into anything..i just can't bear to not have them at all times
• 2 of the most motivating songs that are on my running list are "The buckeye battle cry" and "Carmen Ohio"... i just love them and immediately think of Buckeye football season every time they come on.. and i should probably mention that our Men's BBall team is #1 in the nation right now too - GO BUCKS!
• We [along with the rest of America] in Ohio experienced a pretty nasty ice storm last night.. I had a hair cut scheduled [previously scheduled for 2 weeks ago and my hairdresser was sick.. desperately needed my mopped chopped!] and I went out into the freezing rain and then, because I was out and about, proceeded to go work out.. i figure someone needs my business - and the gym was nearly empty! SCORE! more ice days please!
• I'm still carrying my HUGE that I used as my personal item on the plane - this thing is so big it carried my laptop, a book, all of my purse necessities, and i still had room for a small child inside!
• I use the word y'all on my blog. I rarely say it in conversation, I live in Ohio.. and we say "all of you"n or "you all"... but trust me y'all just sounds so much more inviting!
• I'm looking for my 1/2 marathon training to start in 2 weeks [never thought I would say that at this time last year!]

What are you saying "so what" to today?

Head on over to Mama Dew's and link up!

In other news..
J and I started another Biggest Loser weight lost competition yesterday. Its nice to have some friendly competition in a relationship - right? So it is my mission to continue to try and cook new things, but also stay healthy! if you have any EASY, recipes that are also delicious and healthy - send them my way!

Last night we had Spicy Bean Burritos from Annie Eats, and J liked them even though they were sans meat... he told me that they reminded him of a 7 layer burrito from taco bell... thanks - i think?! Tonight's menu item is an asian chicken burger [yes, I'm going to try and eat ground chicken - but if all else fails I have a back up of ground turkey on hand!].

So far so good, just the adjusting the diet and amount of food is never an easy thing.. but its surprising how encouraged I am to become healthier when there is money on the line! So I anticipate eating in much more frequently and daily visits to the gym for the next 3 months... i'm SO excited [enter sarcasm here!] I think without going out to eat I will just mainly miss someone cooking for me, having a variety of options to eat, and most importantly someone else doing the dishes! oh well in the long run not only will we be saving money but also bettering our health - right!?

Not much exciting to blog about - hence the short hiatus from the blog world - sorry about that... but I hope y'all [mom that one is just for you!] staying warm, and hope your finding something fun to do during this wonderful winter storm!