Fun With Folks!

We all had a great day yesterday. We had a late morning start and headed to the brewery that Matt is a member of - remember the mug club???

Poor Mom, still getting used to the cold. In her defense, it was snowing pretty hard for their first day.

I didn't have a blanket for Dad, so he had to suffer a little more...

After a yummy lunch, M&D and I went to a huge antique store. We only allotted ourselves a couple hours and it clearly was not enough time. It was over 2.5 acres of antiquing.

We had a little time until we could pick up Matt so we headed back to the lodge, or as Dad now refers to it as "cookie heaven." I don't think poor Dad is going to be able to stick to his diet. :( Dad and I played pool while Mom picked out a movie for us to watch.

Later that evening went to dinner at Panera Bread - yummy! We got our typical fireside table and after dinner Matt took us all on a tour of his company. We were all pretty floored as to how much Matt's learned this past month. Matt also got his first paycheck yesterday - hooray!

Here is Mom posing with her wine of choice - Toasted Head

And here she is looking longingly to a whole case of her wine - I can almost see her saying, "hmmm...I wonder if that box can fit inside my jacket." :)

And here is Dad, looking on to what may have been his favorite view that day...

Fun With Friends

These past two days have been a mad dash to get the apartment all ready for M&D's visit. It was well worth it because the apartment finally looks complete and it turned out great. Currently Mom is playing Sudoku and Dad is doing school work. I'll snap some photos when we all aren't in our lounge wear. :)

The past couple evenings have been fun. Tuesday night Matt and I saw our friend E play hockey. He is part of a city league and they are currently in the playoffs. Sadly, they did not win, but E did score two goals, which was more than any other player.


E is the one in the yellow pants. We nicked named him "Yellow Pants." Aren't we cleaver??? ;)

Beforehand we went to a Mexican restaurant with our friend S. This place was awesome! It was one of those buildings that made you feel like you are outside while you are inside. They had really good food, too. Good guacamole - which is all I need!



Last night, while waiting for M&D to arrive from their late night flight, we had our friends over for beer tasting and game playing. So far, everyone has liked Matt's beer. Looks like Matt is officially a brew master! :)

Matt and His Perfect Job

OK, I have to write this immediately. Matt just got home and do you guys want to know what Matt's take home work is for this evening???

Matt brought home 10 different Sam Adams beers and has to drink them. Not all of them tonight, but yes, that's right, he is required to drink beer so he can bring the empty bottles back to work to test them. OMG!!!

Let's Do Lunch!

I can't seem to fall asleep right now, so I thought I would get a head start on today's blog.

I had my first lunch date with a new girlfriend. She is one of the resident employees here at my apartment complex. I met her back in November when Mom and I visited Ohio and she gave us the tour of the complex. She is a real sweetheart and I had a nice lunch with her today. :)

Afterwards, Matt and I met up briefly so I could have the car for the afternoon. I ran a couple of errands and headed back home.

When Matt came home after work, we had a pretty lazy evening. We ate leftovers and watched TV. Here is Matt from my viewpoint:


At 8pm, we had our weekly Skype call with M&D. As always, it's so nice to chat with them. :) Afterwards, Matt headed back to the couch to do some research and I tackled the apartment further. I want to make it nice for our first house guests! Soon the pictures will be on the wall and I can finally get some before and after photos for you all to see!!!

A Weekend of Fun - Part II

I switched phones with Matt during lunch so I could continue this blog. So, as I was saying, we went to the Imagination Station, which featured hands-on exhibits so kids can learn more about science. This was by far Matt and my favorite science museum we had ever been to. It was really fun for both kids and "big kids." Currently, they have a visiting exhibit for animation, and of course that was the first thing we saw. We learned how to draw cartoon characters.


Here is Matt drawing the character.


This is our finished product. Matt's is the one on the left.

The next thing we did was quite possibly the bravest and stupidest thing Matt and I have done in our lives. We rode a bike on a tight rope with no protection what so ever!!! We had a huge counterweight below us so we wouldn't fall, but trust me, it felt like we could! And to make it more scary, we had to start by riding backwards!








We may have smiles on our faces, but that was only since we knew we were photographing each other. If we had zoomed in, you would have seen the beads of sweat coming down...

Next we went to a device that teaches about lift. They demonstrate this by lifting people! Amazingly, it was quite a workout!


Here is Matt learning how to be lifted.


Up, Up and Away!

We then went into a simulator that simulated a massive wind storm. We experienced a class 1 hurricane at 94mph. Here is my hair afterwards. I'm going for chic couture.

Hello!

After being a lite snack for the T-Rex, I realized I too was hungry. We took a hot chocolate break and this was our view from the table. We looked across the river and saw some pretty fancy restaurants boasting the same view. Normally a restaurant like that would cost you at least $50. Our meal was $3.00. Not bad!

A Weekend of Fun - Part I

We had a really nice weekend. Saturday evening, we went to a birthday party for one of Matt's co-workers. The party was in their basement and it was amazing! The closest equivalent I can think of is a really cool sports bar. They had TVs mounted everywhere, a bar, a pool table, and even a lounge area. Even the food they made was amazing! These guys know how to throw a party! :) I met a lot of Matt's co-workers and they were all really nice. I think Matt is really lucky to have gotten a job that he not only enjoys, but also has nice people. That can be a rare combo.

OK, on to Sunday. We started by going to a different church from the one we've been going to so far. We've decided to experiment with different churches for the next few weeks. Our problem is that we keep comparing these churches to the one we went to in Chico. We miss our priest there so much - he is so inspirational and gave great sermons. Oh well, we'll find the right church for us. :)

But, after church we went to the Imagination Station in Toldeo. It's a kid's science museum. It was so.... FUN!!! We took a ton of photos. I just realized that Matt's phone has a lot of pictures, so I'll hold off until later so I can give a full description. So, like in the movies...

TO BE CONTINUED...

Our Apartment is Officially a Brewery!

Holy Moly, I've got some catching up to do!!! I misplaced my battery charger for my camera, so I didn't want to blog until I found it. Thankfully, I found it over the weekend so I'm back in business. Where to start???

Let's start with Friday.

I'm been in a mad dash trying to get the apartment finished for M&D's arrival this week (yippie!) Everything is unpacked, but now it's just about the details. Matt had another great week at his job and was invited to a birthday party for Saturday. I thought I would share a few pics since not much happened to report about during the day.


These are the tulips Matt gave me for Valentine's Day.


Matt purchased black shoes for work - but I've never seen this kind of shoe before...


As you can see, patience doesn't run in this family!

That evening we went to the mall for dinner and some returns. We went to an Irish pub and they had a great no meat selection. The inside of the restaurant was really cool. They had indoor lanterns that were lit and stained glass windows. You kind of felt like you were outside.


This pic doesn't do it justice...except for that cutie in the middle!


And here is a pic of the mall inside - you know, just your typical interior mall design...

When we got home, Matt was able to drink his first brewed beer! He likes it...apparently, now the competition is on between Matt and Dad...uh oh!

HAPPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!!!

Happy B-Day Grandma! I had such a wonderful conversation with you, AP and Grandpa today!

Yesterday I got a chance to have the car for the 1st time while Matt was at work. He and I are going to meet up for lunch a couple of days out of the week so I can escape this lovely apartment. Since it was Wednesday, I decided to go to the grocery store that gives 5% off on Wednesdays for AAA members.

After grocery shopping and errands, it was about 4pm so I spent an hour unpacking until Matt needed to be picked up.

Last night, I got a more in-depth tour of Matt's work. His desk has more stuff on it - as you can see below:


Don't worry, the purse is mine - not his. ;)

I saw all the different labs Matt spends his time in. I once again wish I could have taken more photos but his area is pretty hush, hush, so I guess you each will have to come out here and visit if you want the behind the scenes tour! ;)

Matt said that between him and two other guys, they broke 350 bottles yesterday. Here's the evidence:


Geez, it makes me want to draw a chalk outline around all these poor murdered bottles!

I'm Probably Over Thinking This, But...

I thought I would share a funny realization I had when I was at the zoo. Back when I was in Chico, I was at an event and was given a pin that is similar to the I heart NY logo, but instead it says, I heart Chico.


To support my Chico pride, I put it on my purse during the event and even kept it on afterwards. When we went to the zoo here in Ohio, I happened to use that purse with my Chico button still attached. This all sounds innocent, right? That's what I thought, until I realized that I'm not in Chico anymore. Chico, in Spanish, means "little boy." I was looking at my pin, when suddenly I realized that if taken out of context, instead of sporting my pride for Chico, CA, I would be mistakenly identified as the lady who loves little boys. Uh, yeah, overthinking this or not, I took the pin off. :)

Mundane Monday

Yesterday was pretty boring. It was productive, I did some cleaning/unpacking, however, it's nothing fun to report about. So, instead, I thought I would write about other people.

First off, I want to send my congratulations to my cousin J&J! They are pregnant and are expecting their baby in August. They'll find out more about the baby in April but as of now, the baby is the size of a lemon - we can't wait to meet you Mr. or Ms. Lemon!!!

I also want to say congrats to SB&T since they are expecting, too. They are also due in August. As of now, they want to be surprised as to the sex of the baby so we may have to wonder about that mystery a little further.

My sister & brother-in-law just got back from Australia. They were able to spend 4 days in Sydney and then had to head home. I haven't gotten all the details yet, but J said they had a great time. For those who don't know, J is a flight attendant and gets to fly free with her hubbie. They take advantage of that perk as much as they can so they get to travel to all different places. How fun! :) Glad you two had a great trip.

That's all I can think of for now. I'll try to have more fun today so tomorrow's post can be more entertaining. :)

Happy Valentine's Day

Since our sledding plans fell through, Matt asked me if I wanted to go to the Toledo Zoo. I've been wanting to go for a while, so to me this was a no brainer.



I figured I could give you the quick photo tour...

We started at the aquarium:

I loved this tank because of the interesting rays and because I thought the fish looking at me looked like they were smiling for the camera. :)


This little dude was my favorite fish. It would pop in and out of it's hole and everytime he would surface out of his hole, he would spit out sand. It was as if he were tidying up his house! That's my kind of fish!!

Then on to the elephants:

Since it's so cold outside, the elephants have to live indoors for now. Poor guy, I kept wanting to put a cup in his trunk so he could rattle it through the bars and complete his "prison look."

We then headed over to see the reptiles:

I've never seen a snake droop so much and yet be so balanced.


This little guy was just begging me for a picture, so of course I had to oblige.


This area had me confused at 1st. I initially though this entire space was for the tiny little lizard you can barely see in the middle. I thought, "What's going on? What am I missing?" Until I looked to the left...


Oh!!! Now all I have to say is, watch out little lizard!

Then we headed to the arctic section:

We saw some cute penguins.


Here is a polar bear.


And here is Matt posing with a polar bear. Doesn't he look friendly?

Next we saw birds:

This bird was very cooperative in getting its photo taken - thank you Mr. or Mrs. Bird.


I thought this was ironic. They put the storks in front of the animal mating center!


At this point, Matt was starting to get tired so I had him pose with a water buffalo.


But I wanted to make sure Matt wasn't too tired, otherwise Matt's onlooker above may have gotten confused! (Can you tell I was getting silly with the camera at this point!?)

Finally we saw some wild cats:

This was a rare snow cat - beautiful creature.


And this was their other wild cat - ha, ha, get it? CAT? I'm so funny!

OK, enough of the tour!!!

For Valentine's Day, Matt got me beautiful purple tulips, a sweet card and took me to a great dinner. We had a wonderful day!

"Check" Out Our Saturday!

This weekend was pretty jammed packed with fun, so I decided to separate the days. Saturday was spent with me finishing my Grandma's birthday gift. While I was doing that, Matt went on errands. He mainly was on the search for a sled because he wanted us to go sledding for Valentine's Day. However, since our big storm last week, apparently every store is sold out of sleds so Matt had to come home empty handed. Oh well, so much for that idea!

Afterwards, we went to dinner and a hockey game with our neighbor friends. The restaurant was really cool both inside and out. After dinner we headed off to the game.



Something I haven't mentioned yet is that Toledo is a pretty abandoned city. It is so weird to drive through a major city and have it feel like a ghost town. Apparently the city livens up in the summer, but for now, I suspected that everyone followed the birds and migrated south for the winter. Until...we went to the game...



There they all are! Maybe this is where all the Toledoans spend their days!! :) I couldn't believe how many people were in the stadium!

The game was a lot of fun. This was my 1st hockey game and the Toledo Walleyes won, so that was even better!





These are our new friends! The photo is not the best of them (I had to take the photo at an awkward angle) but I figured you all would like to see what they looked like. :)

Afterwards, we went out for a drink and then headed home. We were all pretty tuckered after such a long day of fun!