vacation

So vacation started out a tad rocky. This trip had been paid for in full since December, hotel and all, just keep that in mind. It's Saturday night and we are so excited to wake up early Sunday morning and drive to Sandusky, OH to go to Cedar Point. At this point nothing was stopping us...or so I thought. Cam happened to check his fantasy baseball team online and noticed the "Cedar Point Closed" was trending in national news. SERIOUSLY, I could not make this up. Apparently there was a water main break on the causeway that leads you out to the park, so the entire park had no water! We were informed that the park would be closed Saturday and all day Sunday, which included our hotel. I was beyond bummed that my very first vacation that I planned was now shot to hell because we had no place to stay and we had lost a day in the park.

After my miniature meltdown I called central reservations and they told me that they could not refund my money, but I could use my hotel night and park ticket for another day during the season. This was great and all, but we live over six hours away. There was no way we were coming back another time this summer. We made the decision to go up on Sunday night and stay on the mainland part of the state, wake up early Monday and have two full days in the park. It was absolutely worth it! I had a blast and can't wait to get back to Cedar Point.

We took the GoPro with us and got some pretty amazing footage that my brother edited and cut for us. The finished product can be found here- Thanks again little bro :)

Cedar Point Ferris Wheel

Cedar Point Trip-2014

Top Thrill Dragster

weekend adventures

What another awesome couple weekends spent in Harrisonburg! I am soaking in all of the local "stuff" before I move away at the end of the summer. 

First was Mother's Day weekend, which I spent with my wonderful momma, and I know she is reading this right now! We got pedicures on Saturday and spent Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon at some JMU baseball games. 

JMU Baseball-under the lights

This past weekend was another one for the books. Cam and I spent the time eating at places that only Harrisonburg can offer, compared to Winchester. First was Macados for me, Q'doba for him and Benny Sorrentino's for both of us. Benny's offers some of the largest pizza I have ever seen. Your choices are as follows: cheese, pepperoni, sausage, and whatever the monthly special happens to be. But that's not what makes it unique. In order to transport one of their pizzas home, you need a pickup truck....yes a pick up truck. The box measures four feet wide and four feet long....I am not joking. The photo below is a slice of their pizza. The best part about the whole thing--the price. We got two slices of pizza and two drinks for 10 bucks flat. 

slice of cheese at Benny's

To wrap up the weekend I spent Sunday morning taking newborn/family photos for my best friend. She is a wonderful mommy to two beautiful children as you will see from some of the photos. I could not be more proud of her for everything she has already taught her son and how much she will influence her daughter. I loved photographing her family because it gave me some great practice shots of kids without the pressure. I will be the first to admit that I should have taken more photos and done more poses, but that's why you practice. I can't wait to show her the finished photos and also make her a gift out of some. Here are some of my favorites from the day. 

There are many more adventures to come with Memorial Day right around the corner, and then vacation after that! 

creative findings

Okay so I know I am not the only one out there who has a problem in Target. You go in to buy one thing and walk out with everything but that one item, so frustrating! My biggest weakness is that glorious Starbucks right inside the door as soon as you walk in. Naturally I had to make a Target run a few weeks ago and was forced to get a slice of banana bread and a hot chocolate on a rainy day. The only benefit of this is that Starbucks ALWAYS has an "app of the week" from the Apple Store. Sometimes they have a featured artists that will give you free downloads to their music, and sometimes you get luck with a awesomely useful app. I happened to pick up the card for the Postale app, in which you can share your travel highlights. 

The culprit card!

In all honesty this app is pretty awesome if you travel, love to take photos, and scrapbook...but without all of the hard work. Here is a sample of one I put together after our family trip to Gettysburg last year. The biggest disadvantage of this app is that it only allows for one photo per postcard. The coolest part is it's finished look. 

Postale sample from Gettysburg

While I was stuck on the couch a for a few days, just watching someone sleep, see previous post here I stumbled across this great product, Project Life. As you can see from my blog I love to live in the moment, but I also like to keep the memories because that's all you have left in the end. This is such a great way for lazy people, like myself, to scrapbook and keep name cards form weddings or maps from vacations with loved ones. This is my next big thing I have my eyes on, and can't wait to get some of her products in my hand. Currently some of her Project Life products are sold at Michaels, but you can also order them online. She has a great selection of designs, papers, and layout styles for just about any creative mind out there.

baby showers and surgeries

I will start this post off with a catch up on my life from the last few weeks...shocking I know. Always behind, but that's because I am too busy living in the moment! 

A few weeks ago I planned and surprised a very dear friend with an incredible baby shower. It wasn't immaculate and it didn't have party favors or crazy weird baby games. The fact that she was surrounded by friends and family who already loved that baby is what made it incredible. She was worried that she would have to buy everything for this baby since it is her second. She told me early in the pregnancy "no one throws a shower for the second child because people already assume you have everything you need." Even though I am not the youngest child I felt bad hearing that and it made me realize that just because its your second or fifth child, you never love them any differently. Needless to say she was surprised beyond belief and was overjoyed by the amount of love and compassion people showered her with that day. 

Mommy-to-be again 

Nursery gifts I made for the mom-to-be

The cake was just as delicious as it is beautiful.

I also took a trip home to see my parents and I enjoyed every minute of it. Once again we didn't do anything "special", unless you count brunch on Saturday, it was all about just being together. We sat around and watched TV, and some of us napped on a sunny Saturday afternoon, but that's what life is about. I also got to see my adorable puppy, aka my thirteen year old dog, before his second ACL surgery. 

pre-surgery

post-op

As you can see he is doing well and doesn't seem to care that he just had his second major surgery in a year. What a tough puppy. I also had to play nurse for my boyfriend after his surgery. It's too bad you can't just put a cone on them and walk away to finish sending emails or make a quick call. It was definitely a learning experience and made me realize what I would do for love, like sleeping on a leather sofa in a freezing basement. Even though it was difficult to balance a medication schedule, meal prep, conference calls, and a mountain of emails I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. 

bonus picture of my "adopted dog" aka Cam's dog Carlos

day in the district

I am once again very much behind on posting. I swear I am eventually going to get good at this whole blogging thing. Just a quick update based on the last few weeks of my life...

My brother and I share a birthday month so we have done joint "parties" before, and now that we are older we tend to celebrate together since we are only separated by a week. This year we took a weekend trip to the capital to do a little drinking and a little sight seeing. It was great to have my mom and my brother there, along with Cam. Here are a few photos from the trip and the hockey game.



starting the day with drinks at the Red Line



on Capitol Hill

rocking the red as usual

Library of Congress

With hockey season coming to an end, baseball season is now underway. This year I will be rocking the red for the home team and also the orange for the boys in Birdland. Stay tuned for more posts about my crazy simple life

hockey games and new technology

It has been a busy couple weeks at work since February marked the end of the fiscal year. This weekend I was in Winchester since Cam was taking me to a hockey game for my birthday! He bought me center ice seats for the Caps vs. Flyers game on Sunday. I loved the seats and recommended that everyone experience it at least once in their life. 



View from Sunday's game

I finally got my tax return back and spent it on myself for my birthday... and don't feel bad about it at all! I bought myself a new tablet that will double as a work machine while I travel and commute. The Surface Pro 2 has tons of awesome features for just about everyone and their preferences. I am an adamant Apple user (iPhone, Mac, etc.) but I have fallen in love with the Microsoft tablet.

Another hockey game this weekend so stay tuned! 



the national zoo

The highlight of the week was my trip to the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington D.C. They are big on species conservation and animal education. There is quite a lot of activity happening at the zoo right now. From Bao Bao the baby panda, and the new lion cubs that were born a few weeks ago. You can find the link to the zoo here National Zoo. Below are some photos I took from the zoo, and the quality isn't the best since I used my iPhone. 

This was an anaconda from the reptile house

One of my favorite photos form the zoo trip

Hermit crab in the invertebrate exhibit

Mama panda

The main point of the trip was to see Bao Bao, the new panda cub. We waited in line for about 30 minutes and while in line we could watch the 24/7 live panda cam. The entire time we waited she was active and playing around in the den. I checked back to the cam about 5 minutes before we walked through the door and she was still active....how lucky right?!? Right as we walked through the door to the enclosure she waddled to her closed door den and fell asleep immediately. SO FRUSTRATING!

Even though I didn't get to see Bao Bao, the trip was still a great success. I also found my absolute favorite animal while I was there....the oriental small-clawed otter! So adorable 

snow day

This is the first day of the massive snow storm that hit the entire East Coast this week. As you can see from the map I reside in one the "heavy snow" areas....joy. I don't mind the snow when it comes with a SNOW DAY from work! 

Earlier this week I stocked up on the essentials to survive being snowed in for a few days. Essentials include bread, milk, spaghetti o's, pop tarts, and cheese crackers. Now, I know that they predicted 8"-12" but I never thought in a millions years that we would actually get all of that snow. I am taking this snow day opportunity to get some cleaning and cross stitching done before Valentine's Day weekend, but not before I went outside to shovel a little and assess the damage. Here are some of the photos from my apartment complex. 

Taken at about 6:30 on 02.12.2014

just for some perspective

24hr stomach bug

Just a quick post about my eventful weekend. The 24 hour GI bug decided to hit me like a freight train at about 4:00am on Saturday. It woke me up from a dead sleep and just kept coming. I spent most of the day on Saturday posted up on the couch. I finally started to feel better late Saturday, and was able to sleep through the night. 

By Sunday I was feeling 100% and Cam and I decided to go to an early movie, totally recommend seeing the LEGO movie. It was great! By dinner time on Sunday Cam started to not feel very great, and then BAM, the bug hit him as well. He spent the entire night in the recliner and was up about every hour, which means I was up about every hour as well. Needless to say, couches are not the most comfortable place to sleep for most of the weekend.

We have officially survived the disgustingness of the GI bug together, which I think is a milestone in any relationship. If you can survive a weekend listening to each other throw up, buying ginger ale, and all while sharing a bathroom it's safe to say it's a real relationship.

Now back to sleeping in a bed, and getting into a routine of things.....oh an wiping EVERYTHING down with Clorox wipes and bleach.

so behind...

Apparently I am really bad at blogging because I haven't been on here in a long time. So here are some highlights since the last post. 

First of all my wonderful father turned 50! I had a blast looking through old photos of him and the entire family. As you can see from the photo below he hasn't changed too much, just lacking some hair. We may not have a very affectionate relationship, but we make it work. I know that if I were to call him for something, he would immediately figure out a way to make things better. Happy Birthday to my favorite old man.

The past weekend was by far very busy! Saturday the boyfriend and I went to a superhero/villain/princess birthday party and we had a blast. Both of our costumes were homemade by yours truly, which I must say is pretty impressive. Here are some photos from the party.

The birthday girl and I

Princess Tiger Lily and Captain Hook. We are so freaking adorable, and yes I am biased.

To end my crazy weekend I woke up to this on Monday morning!

I had to commute about 65 miles to get to work and decided not to risk it in this weather. I later found out that where I work only got rain, no snow. Luckily I had my work computer with me and I was able to get some work done from the house. Most of the snow had melted by the evening so I headed back to work on Tuesday. 

I think I have covered most of the major stuff that has happened over the last few weeks. I will try and get better about posting on a more regular basis. 

catching up

So this post is just a catch up since I haven't been on here in a while. I spent the entire weekend seeing family and doing puzzles. My boyfriend came to town this weekend and we stayed in each night putting together puzzles, which is totally my style. Then saturday my wonderful mother came to town and treated us both to dinner. Sunday was also just as awesome because my little brother was in town, so I treated him to dinner. With all the family time, chores were put on the back burner...and I can totally tell now (four days later).  Here are the puzzles that we have done over the last two weekends, and yes I know we're a tad addicted to them. 

This is by far my favorite :)

This was by far the hardest one of the four puzzles. So many colors and small details

I LOVED this one, considering it's lime green 

This puzzle was a BLAST to do. I loved putting together all the famous faces and magazine covers. 

After my very fun and relaxing weekend, it was back to work and back to reality. Good thing that work consisted of some fun stuff this week! Our third party IT company that we work with is great, and we think of them as co-workers. The lead IT guy that works with our company is expecting his first child this weekend, which is very exciting for him and his wife. Our management team decided to put together a "baby basket" for his employees to deliver to him on Friday. I had a ton of fun organizing and setting up this adorable basket for him, but it also made me realize how much stuff you need for babies and how much all this stuff costs. Don't get me wrong....kids are so cute, but not my cup of tea at this moment in my life. 

I am getting over the "hump" of this week with a JMU basketball game. My grandpa and I get season tickets for the boys team and I try to go to as many home games as I can each season. Last year the team was pretty decent. We won our conference championship and made it to the big dance...but lost in the first round. This year is quite a different story. We are a young team during a rebuilding year, and had some suspensions early in the season. Needless to say we lost tonight's game to the worst team in the conference. 

That has been my week so far, and I'll be back on the road this weekend, which means chores have to get done tomorrow....or they get left till Monday.

time to get organized

One of my many New Year's resolutions is to get more organized...and stay that way. I had to venture out to Wal-mart today in FREEZING temperatures here in VA, but as I was walking to pick up my pictures I saw that 2014 planners were already on sale. I found this quite odd considering we are only six days into the new year, but I took advantage of the good deal and snagged myself a cute planner that fits in my purse. 

The goal is simple: stay on track. Keep track of appointments, bills, meetings, phone calls, etc. While being spontaneous is wonderful and carefree, I can't be spontaneous and miss something crucial or an important deadline. This year it's about balancing both the fun, and not so fun, events in the calendar. 

To continue with my organizational kick I actually started to use some of the Christmas gifts I received this year. I spent the weekend doing two new puzzles on my brand new puzzle/tailgate table with my wonderful boyfriend. I also picked up a picture to fill this awesome frame from my momma. 

Here's to a year of organization, mixed with a little spontaneity. 

roundup and resolutions

I am trying to enjoy the last remnants of the Christmas season lingering in my apartment. This was one of the most difficult, yet fulfilling holiday seasons I have ever been a part of. This wasn't the first holiday season without my Granny "mentally" here, but it was my first real experience of the true absence of a loved one at Christmas. It was also the first Christmas morning that I didn't wake up at my parent's house and rush down the steps to open presents that were waiting under the tree. I instead spent Christmas morning with the person who has my heart and enjoyed the simplicity of frozen waffles with peanut butter and maple syrup (which makes them totally taste like butterscotch....YUM). 

The new year arrived in true January fashion, giving us the first snow fall of 2014. Snow is nothing new around here but every time I see it I'm always taken back to my childhood memories. Winters were spent sledding down hills throughout the neighborhood on anything that was flat and fast.

 

Now as an adult snow means trying to get to work on time and avoid the driver's who are terrified of the stuff, but it's still important to stop an catch some flakes on your tongue before heading to work in the morning. Happy New Year.