Sea & Greetings...

Dave and I were fortunate enough to have my parents agree to buy us plane tickets to Jacksonville, Florida for a long Christmas weekend. We flew down on Christmas morning and spent the weekend with my Florida family, who I don't get to see very often. It was gorgeous weather, in the high 70's while we were there. We spent time reading, relaxing and even got to go to the shooting range with my cousins. I have not ever really been shooting, but I like the challenge of it. Dave merely tolerated the experience, but I had a blast. Matt and Kristin were able to fly down later in the weekend, so it was nice to have the entire family together. Probably ate entirely too much, but that is what the holidays are about right? The last picture is the members of my family who are directly related to my grandparents on my Mom's side.

Overall, I am sad that the time had to end so quickly, but I am excited to be beginning a new year.

Trash the Dress...

So, as I mentioned in the Halloween post, I never saw the point of cleaning and preserving my wedding dress. Then one day at the gym, I saw a news show on something called "trash the dress". Basically it entails a fashion photography shoot with your wedding dress in which you do things that essentially trash your dress. I thought it sounded like fun and it was an excuse to wear my wedding dress again. So this past June, we went out to a farm to take some pictures. My favorites are from when we went swimming in the rock quarry. It had to have been one of the hottest days of the year, so we were sweaty and gross - the water, even though muddy, felt awesome. It was a fun day and now we have more memories. The above are some of the pictures from the day, including some with my friend Christie who decided to be brave and take some photos in her dress as well.

Yes, That is my Actual Wedding Dress...

So, I never understood the reason why after the wedding, girls pay all this money to clean the dress and store it in a box tucked away where you never look at it again. I never got around to cleaning my dress after our wedding two years ago. Earlier this year Dave and I did a photo shoot in our wedding attire at a local farm - hopefully I will have pictures of this sometime in the near future. But, the point is that after that photo shoot, my dress was essentially uncleanable anyway. So, for our costumes this year, Dave and I decided to do a zombie bride and groom thing. It was a lot of fun, but my dress definitely fit me better two years ago!

Halloween 2008...

So, those of you who know my husband, know his obsession with Halloween. Now that we have a house, he is going crazy with the decorations. I don't think he understands that the little kids aren't going to want to trick or treat at our house. I guess it is a good thing they do their trick or treating in Woodlawn in the middle of the afternoon. As I sit here writing, he is out buying even more supplies for his creation. I could do with a little let clutter in the front yard, but he really enjoys it so I will suck it up for the duration of the month. When you look at the pictures, keep in mind that their is not yet a body in the coffin or the giant Jason character from Friday the 13th. Those are currently in my family room. I really hope he finishes this today. It is really creepy watching TV with a skeleton.

Pumpkin Patch...

Fall is without a doubt my favorite time of year. I love everything about it... the cooler weather, the pretty colors, clear blue skies, and Halloween. So last weekend, I decided that I wanted to go to a pumpkin patch. Our friends Shannon and Fran were planning to go to one as well with our godson Owen, so we decided to go together. We also invited Rebecca and Jalynn and then somehow it morphed into an even bigger outing as our 6 nieces and nephews ended up going with us as well. Very chaotic, but still fun. We had fun feeding the goats and going on the hayride to the pumpkin patch. My favorite part of the day though was the apple cider and the caramel apple - yum!

New Car...

So, I figured that since I blogged about my poor crushed Mazda, that I would add a quick hello to my new Nissan. Dave and I found the new car on Friday, so I am no longer driving a rental. It is a 2004 Nissan Murano with only 20,000 miles on it. It is a lot bigger than what I am used to driving, but we wanted something that had more storage and this definitely fits that description. I am most excited about the sunroof and the seat warmers. It drives well. I will miss my little Mazda and definitely could have done without a car payment again, but I am certainly enjoying the new car. And it's not white!

Death of a Car...

So, if you live in the Cincinnati area, you know that we are still in the middle of a black out from the remnants of Hurricane Ike that blew through here on Sunday. We were at the Bengals game when the winds really started kicking up. In addition to the Bengals looking horrible and losing the game... we walked back to my parked car to find this. Yes, an entire tree was uprooted and fell on my car. There is a huge hole next to my car where this tree just popped out of the ground - roots and all. My trunk area is crushed and the wheels are turned out which probably means my back axle has snapped. We have not yet been able to get it towed, so I don't know what the extent of the damage is. So, now it is Tuesday and we are still without power in little Woodlawn, KY. Dave and I crashed at my Mom and Dad's condo over in Mt. Adams last night so we could at least watch the football game last night and have hot showers this morning. We will probably camp out here again if we still have no power at home, but hopefully today will end the black out for us. Certainly makes you glad you don't live where the hurricane actually hit full force.

Boston College vrs Kent State...

Many of you know that I am a proud graduate of Boston College and I love my BC Eagles. Unfortunately, I have not been able to make it back to Boston since graduation due to the chaos that has been my life. (Hopefully, I can change that in the next year or so since Dave has never been.) However, this past weekend I finally got to go see the Eagles play football in their season opener against Kent State in the Patriot Bowl in Cleveland. Dave got us tickets to sit on the 45 yard line, behind the BC benches. It was awesome. I have never been so close to the action in my life. Even when I was in school, the students sat down towards one of the end zones, which made it hard to see the opposite end of the field. It was a great game and the team played strong, despite having lost a lot of their seniors from last year. The final score was 21-0 and I was super excited that I got to see them win the game. Go Eagles!

30 Years Old...

I never thought that I would be quite so depressed by my 30th birthday as I am. Life just flies by way too quickly. It feels like just yesterday that I was standing in the kitchen of the house on Wellesley, super excited about turning 7 and feeling like I would never get to be a grown up. I wish that as a child, we knew that being a grown up is not as exciting as it seems. Don't get me wrong, I feel that I lived every moment of my childhood to the best of my ability, but I would give anything to not have to worry about bills and responsibility for while. No matter how much I wish that I am not turning 30, there is no escape for the reality. I will officially leave my 20's behind tomorrow. I am spending my last night as a 29 year old at dinner with my parents, husband and brother. Tomorrow, my closet friends will support me with a day of distraction. We rented a pontoon boat and plan to spend the day at Brookville lake. I am looking forward to having a relaxing birthday. Someone at work told me today that I am not actually turning 30, but instead I am celebrating the 1st anniversary of my 29th birthday. I am going to stick with that story. 29 again sounds so much better.

Outer Banks...

Dave and I just returned from a wonderful vacation to Nags Head, NC with some of our closest friends. It was a relaxing week on the beach with Shanon, Fran, Owen, Rob, Rebecca and Jalynn. We kept it very tame, mostly laying out on the beach or at the pool. I did a lot of reading and we played a lot of Cribbage. Fran and I did get to go parasailing one day, which I was excited about since I had never been before. It was really pretty being up so high. You could see clear over the outer banks to the ocean, from the sound where we were sailing. Owen got to go with us on the motor boat and he loved it! It was all Dave and and Shannon could do to keep him from climbing over the front rails of the boat. Very cute. I am sad to be home and not excited about going back to work tomorrow, but it was nice to get home to see my puppies. Max gained 5 pounds while we were gone, he is almost as big as Charlotte now. I think they were excited to have us home as well.

Max...

We added a new member to our family today. We have been thinking about getting another dog for Charlotte to play with for a while now and the timing seemed right since Dave will be home for the majority of the next two months until he starts his job in September. So, we decided this morning that we would drive to Preble County (where we got Charlotte last year) and see who was up for adoption. We were not planning to get such a little one, but after letting Charlotte meet several potential candidates, she decided that she kind of like this little guy. Max is a 7 week old Rottweiler mix. The shelter thinks he is also part shepherd, but everyone else says they see beagle in him. His paws are almost as big as Charlotte's so I think we are in for a rude awakening when he finishes growing. But for now, he is cute and cuddly and Charlotte seems to like him for the most part, and when his puppy energy gets to be too much, she lets him know. I am not looking forward to this process of house training though and I am definitely not looking forward to tonight. Something tells me, we aren't going to sleep well.