I Had A Serious Case Of The Mondays!

My intentions were so good this morning to get up early, exercise (both a bike ride and swim), do a few chores and run errands.  Instead, I woke up early, finished some desk work, realized I was still tired, went back to bed for another hour and then putzed around the apartment for the afternoon.  I cooked myself a healthy lunch and watched the movie, It's Complicated.  I'll admit, it was nice to see a new Steve Martin movie.

Finally, I got myself back in gear around 6pm and ran my errands.  I went to Hobby Lobby to pick up some crafting supplies and grocery shopped.  All in all, my day was just as boring as this blog posting. Sigh... I'll try to mix it up tomorrow!  :)

A Wonderful Weekend With Friends

Both Eric and Matt came home this weekend so it was fun to have the ol' gang back together for some hangout time.  We started the day by visiting Steph at her work.  Here she is at her desk:

The place in which she works is very nice...with an even nicer view of the river - I would definitely NOT get work done if my office was overlooking this view.

Next up, Matt had his very first deep dish, "Chicago-Style" pizza.  He was a fan. I still prefer thin crust, so the everlasting debate regarding "thin vs thick crust" lives on...

After we fueled our bellies, we went to the Crosby Art Festival and checked out the local artist scene.  We saw lots of paintings, jewelry, handbags - you name it and it was probably there.

My favorite art was some really cool furniture made of fountains - that artist's creativity was really "flowing." (ha, ha!)  Sorry, I just can't resist these perfect puns!  :)  I saw a line of purses that had my initials on them.  I didn't get one, but I did take a card in case I feel I "need" one at a later date.  ;)

The festival took place in the Toledo Botanical Gardens.  We strolled through that section before heading off. We all agreed that the gardens reminded us all of Alice in Wonderland.  

That evening, we had a BBQ at our pool and enjoyed swimming and hanging out. It was a fun day!

A Week In Review

This past week was somewhat of a blur.  I was so busy blogging about our PA trip that I really didn't keep up with last week's activities.  Here are the highlights:

I went out with Gloria and Steph for a very nice lunch at a restaurant named Grumpy's.

It's a well known local place that is only open for lunch, Monday through Friday.  The food lived up to it's reputation and it's always fun to see the gals during the week.  :)

We had a good softball game on Wednesday.  I got to play 2nd base for a while and caught a line drive on the first play.  :)  It felt good to be back at my ol' position.

I had two events at the apartment complex this week.  The first was geared for kids - movie day.  We had popcorn, cookies, juice boxes, fruit snacks and lollipops.  The kids were thrilled to have such great snacks while watching Toy Story.  The turnout was great - around 8 kids and 3 moms.  It was exhausting, but fun.  Later that evening, we had Game Night. It was a complete bust. I wasn't disappointed since I was so tired from the day's activities, but this is the third event in a row that hasn't had a good turnout.  :(

Friday I reorganized our porch's storage closet.  Not much to report on that, but it feels nice to have the project done.  Matt came home that evening and on top of that, Yellow Pants is visiting this weekend, too!  We've been having a fun time hanging out.  :)  I've taken photos and will post our weekend's activities on Monday.

Did You Know...

When Matt and I drove back to his hotel from our trip, we passed by a river. We were shocked to see a random statue of liberty sitting on a very discreet rock. I was so intrigued that I looked it up and low and behold, I not only found the one we spotted, but did you know there are lots of replicas around the world!? I didn't. Here's a little write up about the one we spotted - it has a really unusual story...

• A 25 ft tall replica sits on the ruins of the late Marysville Bridge (erected on a platform (pier)) in the Dauphin Narrows of Susquehanna River north of Harrisburg. The replica was built by a local activist Gene Stilp on July 2, 1986; it was made of venetian blinds and stood 18 feet tall. Six years later, after it was destroyed in a windstorm, it was rebuilt by Stilp and other local citizens, of wood, metal, glass and fiberglass, to a height of 25 feet.

Another Sweet Day!

On Sunday, we returned to Hersheypark and had a great time frolicking around.  We were able to ride a few less scary rides and then we headed over to the water park section.

Matt and I love water parks!  We love the slides...

The lazy rivers...

It's all quite fun!  We tried something new - a wave runner. We both did OK for our first time, but if you aren't careful, it can give you a water wedgie! ;)  I was only able to get this shot of Matt toward the end because I was too busy having fun on the other side!

This is an example of what someone looks like on the ride.

Alas, the day had to come to an end, but that didn't stop us from buying our souvenirs.  I was lucky enough to have met, Mr. Resses:

And I celebrated by eating one of his cousins! ;)

He was tasty!

A Very Sweet Saturday!

One may ask, how do you have a Sweet Saturday?  By visiting "The Sweetest Place on Earth" - Hershey, PA!

We spent two days there and had a wonderful time!  M&D and I had visited when I was a kid and it was fun to reminisce and compare today's Hershey to my childhood recollections. It is so different - so much more developed and so many more things to do. And in such a wonderful way - everything chocolate! Yummy!

We started at the Hershey Museum where we could learn about Milton Hershey and how he essentially created the city of Hershey.  I was able to take a picture of a vintage ad they used for promoting a new chocolate bar.

Next we went to Chocolate World.

We went on a ride that allowed us to learn more about the chocolate making process.  It was informative, but seeing that three singing, pink cows were one of our narrators, it couldn't have been taken too seriously!

This is just a small example of the different candy Hershey makes. When you get off the ride, you have a cool aerial view of the building.

Next up we visited the Hershey Hotel.  On the way, we were able to see some delightful lampposts. :)

And here is the hotel itself.

They had a wedding going on that evening - not too shabby of a view.

Next, we went back to Chocolate World to visit the massive gift store. I, of course, had to take a picture with the world's largest candy bar!

We had bought Hersheypark tickets earlier in the day for Sunday, however, we were able to "preview" the park after 7:30pm the night prior.  So at 7:30, on the dot, we entered the park and rode a couple of rides. Matt and I decided to try out their most popular ride - Fahrenheit.  It was by far the scariest ride I have every been on and this is why - 

Yep, we climbed a perfect 90 degree angle up and we dropped 97 degrees.  That means we actually were slightly inverted during the drop.  Um, yeah, I don't care who you are - it was scary!

If that angle didn't scare you, check out this one.

I'll tell you this, those crazy people in the back may have had their hands up while going up, but they quickly dropped then as soon as they hit the top!  I still can't believe I went on this!

It was a long day of fun, and that was just our Sweet Saturday!

Visiting Punxsy Phil

I had a wonderful visit with Matt in PA this past weekend.  On Friday night, we decided to go to Punxsytawney, PA to visit Punxsy Phil (the famous groundhog that determines whether spring is coming early or late).  He lives in a zoo that is inside the library - a little strange, but it works.

And when we took a closer look, this is how we found Phil.  Imagine our surprise when we thought we discovered a very dead Phil.

But thankfully, this is just how he sleeps.  When we checked in with him later, he had flipped.  :)

We also visited Gobblers Knob, the place where Punxsy Phil checks for his shadow each Groundhog Day.  Look at the long isle - we think it would make an excellent wedding location.  ;)

After visiting all the primary tourist spots, we jumped around town looking for different, life-size states of various Punxsy Phils.  There were so many varieties and we only  found about half that was spread about town.

These are only a few of many more examples - pretty creative I think!

A Sweet Weekend!

I'm still in PA, but I'm headed back to OH today.  I took a lot of pictures and like a big dummy I forgot my camera cord to transfer the pics onto my computer. So tomorrow's blog will be jammed packed with lots of fun pictures from my adventures this weekend.  I'm sad that I'll be heading out today and won't see Matt for the next few days.  However, it does appear as if I will be able to see him this weekend so I only have a few days until I get to see him next.  :)

O(I)H MY!

Yesterday started off with a boring 4.5 drive to visit Matt in PA.  I was thrilled to have the drive done and Matt and I celebrated my finished trip by hopping into another car and driving to dinner. Ugh! But thankfully dinner wasn't that far away.  We had a relaxing meal and then Matt gave me a factory tour. Let me just start by saying this - I was just as intimidated and amazed from this tour as I was from riding a bike across the tight rope in the museum a few months ago. The factory is massive and this one is small compared to some of the other ones!

So I wasn't able to take any inside pictures but I was able to get a pic of my required apparel to take the tour.
  

Everything from the jeans, to the long sleeve shirt, to yes, even the hairnet.  Don't I look like I'm ready for the catwalk?  ;)

And here is Matt at his desk - in his office.  Wow, what a promotion - even if it's temporary.  :)

We toured the entire factory from hot to cold to shipping.  I wish I could describe it on the blog, but apparently I have to keep the details on the down low.  Sorry to dangle that huge carrot right in front of you!  All I can say is that it was truly amazing to see such huge robotics at work and to see how the bottles were actually made. I was pretty pooped at the end of the tour.  We walked quite a bit and (I didn't even realize this until after the tour) my heart was beating so fast because I was trying to comprehend all the senses I was experiencing at the same time! It was a fun experience all around.

Afterwards we went back to the hotel and took a swim.  Then we went upstairs and crashed. We both went to bed early last night.

Sage and Softball

After running some errands this afternoon, I made myself a late lunch with sage from my new herb garden.  It was quite yummy.  I had made some rosemary chicken with Steph yesterday night and I incorporated the leftovers into a pasta recipe with sage sauce.  Later I went to my second softball game.  I played catcher the whole game and scored 1 run.  Of course, our ending score was 20-9 (our win) so I can't say that it made that much of a difference, but I was still happy to get my first run for the team. :)

I'll be visiting Matt tomorrow for the weekend.  If for any reason I'm not keeping up on the blog, then it's because I'm having trouble with the internet.  But I will take pictures so I can share them with you as much as possible.  :)

Matt's Beer On Display

I've been meaning to show you a photo I took last week of Matt's beer at it's completion stage.  For his birthday, I designed and made him beer labels.  Of course I had to represent what is most important to us in life ... hence the furry, black mascot ... and I'm sure that the labels make the beer taste even better, right Matt?  ;)

Beautiful Ohio!

Monday was an active day.  I kept busy with planting the herb garden in the morning and afterwards I took a swim in our pool for the first time.  I hope the weather stays warm enough to allow me to swim each day.  :)  I kept busy with desk work for the rest of the day - Mondays seem to be a good day for that.

That evening, I went to Steph's to try a healthy chicken recipe she found and we both agreed it was yummy.  After that I skyped with M&D.  All in all, a good day.  :)

I also thought you would like to see the gorgeous sunset we had. Isn't it beautiful???

Ta-Dah!

Here it is, our new herb garden...with a sprinkle of flowers, too!

To the top right and left corners we have our flower plants that traveled with us on the cross country trip.  To the right in the blue handled pots, we are now growing garlic chives and sweet basil.  The taller plant in the purple pot is pineapple sage.  Finally, in the big blue pot below, we are growing cherry tomatoes!  Yeah, what good eats we will have this summer!  :)

Another Week Without Matt

Well, today marks the second week of Matt working in PA.  I was sadder to see him go this time because it hit me last week that he would actually be gone for a substantial time.  But, it looks like I will have the opportunity to see him each weekend (cross your fingers!) and if that's the case, it really makes things a lot easier.  We each get to do our thing during the week, at night we chat and then on the weekends we have fun.

Not much to report on yesterday.  We went to brunch with Steph and by the time we got back, Matt had to leave an hour later.  It's about a 4.5 drive for him so he didn't want to get to the hotel too late.  I did get a chance to talk with him last night and he made it safe and sound.  Last night, Steph and I went for a walk around the complex and then I dipped my feet in the pool while we chatted more.  I think I finally may be brave enough to swim in the pool seeing that the temperature of the water has been pretty chilly.

After our walk, I scrap-booked and finally finished all my wedding books from which I have dedicated a section to each wedding I planned through my old company.  I used these books at bridal shows to demonstrate my experience to future couples.  But now I wanted them done for nostalgic reasons.  I had two more weddings pages remaining and I finished them last night.  It feels good to have that project done.  It's fun, from time to time, to flip through each wedding and remember what was involved.

Today I'm going to work more on my herb garden and re-plant them into pretty pots so they have more room to let their roots stretch out.  So far, since last Thursday, I can already tell they all have grown a bit and my sage is starting to sprout a flower.  I'll take a picture so I can show it off tomorrow.  :)

Cherry Fest Minus The Cherries! :(

OK, when you hear "Cherry Fest" would you expect the festival to have cherries?  You may think this is an rather obvious question to which you would reply, "Um, yeah, of course!" Well, apparently the Cherry Fest we went to today is not aware of that concept. We thought we'd go to kill the afternoon and get some cherries while we were there. Nope, instead, it was a local carnival with carnival food and rides and only one puny tent set up called the Cherry Cafe. All they had inside were cherry pies and cherry donuts. We did buy a pie because I was determined to bring something home that was cherry related.  However, we are highly suspect that it is home-made. The packaging is what makes it look guilty of being store bought. Hmmm.....not even a fresh home-made pie at the Cherry Fest, whatever! I didn't even take a picture because I was so disappointed.

So, we remedied the afternoon by running errands instead. First up, we went to Costco! Hooray - I haven't been to one since moving and we missed it a lot. AND, I was able to finally experience a Costco self-check. Man, does that make a huge difference in my patience level. ;)  Nothing like huge carts and slow people to set me over the edge! Oh yeah, and PS, we got cherries there - go figure!

After we finished our other errands, we went home and crashed on the couch. We were pretty tuckered out from the day and at 5:30p I fell asleep. I woke up at 9:00pm and found Matt sleeping in our bed. He's still in there so I'm not sure if he's out for the night or if I'll be greeted by him later. Something tells me we may be two ships passing through the night. Ah, we know how to celebrate a Saturday evening, don't we???  :)

Friday With The Gals...

Last night Matt arrived home and it was wonderful to see him.  Too bad, however, that I wasn't there to greet him!  Gloria and Steph asked me to a belated birthday dinner so we could all celebrate together.  Gloria was so nice to get me a great gift set of an herb pot that could house two different plants and a few candles that are scented to keep bugs away.  I can't wait to plant them!  It's great because the pot has a handle so I can take it to the kitchen and back whenever I want.  :)

We went to Abuelos, my favorite Ohio restaurant, and we chowed down on mostly chips, salsa, guacamole and the BEST sangria!  I took a picture so I could simulate the recipe...  yummy! 

Afterwards, I had some time to kill before Matt was due to get home so I did some errands with Steph.  During which, I got a call from Matt tell me arrived home early.  :(  Normally I would be thrilled but he beat me home...  Oh well.  I made up for it by giving him a big welcome when I came through the door.

Farmer's Market!

Yippie Skippy, the farmer's markets have finally come to town!  I used to love going to market in Chico, and whereas this market isn't as big, I still had fun going.  I've been wanting to plant a small herb garden on the porch and luckily, there was a vendor selling all sorts of herb plants.  I got some basil, garlic chives, cherry tomatoes and my proudest  find, pineapple sage.  I was told that it literally has a hint of pineapple flavor to it.  I can't wait to try it!

I originally had planned to stay in for dinner; however, I found out that tonight many of the surrounding restaurants were donating 15% of the bill to the families that lost their homes to the recent tornadoes.  So, Steph and I grabbed a late dinner after her class. Matt is coming home tomorrow night and I'm pretty excited about it. I miss him!

Slices, Shopping And Softball

On Wednesday I had lunch with Stephanie and Gloria in Toledo.  Gloria had a birthday while I was in CA, so we celebrated at her favorite pizza place - Home Slice.



Afterwards, Steph had to get back to work but Gloria and I played hooky a little longer.  Well, actually, I should amend that statement.  Gloria had the day off and frankly, how can I be playing hooky from my non-existent job?  ;)  We went to a couple of great gift stores that I'm sure I'll be utilizing for future gifts.

I'm not sure if I have mentioned this yet, but a few weeks ago Matt signed us both up for softball.  It's through his work and I know only a couple of players on the team.  Well, since Matt is gone, I went to my first game alone and the team was really nice.  I played most of the game - right field only.  :(  But that's OK, I was able to field a few grounders that got by the infield and I hit a single.  I did my husband proud.  Afterwards, some of Matt's colleagues/buddies invited me out with them.  It was a little weird hanging out with Matt's boss and co-workers without him, but they are always fun fun to hang out with so it was easy to blend in.  I had a fun day.  :)

It's Quite Around Here

I'm not sure if I mentioned this on the blog yet, given all the trip-related blog postings, but while in CA I found out that Matt was assigned to work in PA for a month.  He started this past Monday and will hopefully get the opportunity to come home on the weekends.  Whereas I know I'm going to miss Matt, I also can't imagine living there with him for the month because he'll be staying in a hotel room and other than an indoor swimming pool, I'm not sure what else I could do during the day.  I'd explore, but it sounds as if the town doesn't have much to offer and most activities are at least an hour away from where he is staying.  Besides, even if I'm not working, there always seems to be one project or another to keep me occupied here.

Monday was a travel day for Matt, so he was able to fill me in yesterday with a better job description.  My understanding is that Matt will be the temporary assistant-manager until another employee starts that position permanently in a month.  He'll be at a factory and it sounds like the primary purpose of his job is to manage a lot of paperwork so he can ensure that the factory is running smoothly. This next month will give him a really good idea as to what our lives will be like when he is permanently transferred to a factory sometime in the future.  In the meantime, he's happy to have a change in pace at work.  

I, on the other hand, have had a couple of quite days catching up on everything that was neglected while I was in CA. The weather has been yucky the past couple of days so I haven't even been able to go on a bike ride since getting back.  :(

Happy Birthday To Me!

So far I'm spending my bday exactly how I want to - catching up on my blog, watching a movie and sitting comfortably on my lounge chair with the door open and my heating blanket cranked up to high. :) Life is good. Matt and I were going to go to the Taste of Ann Arbor today, but since the weather is still a little iffy, we are going to lunch and then a movie - Shrek 4 - and then out to dinner. I've got to get my free bday desserts! :)

I thought I would share a photo I took yesterday before I sign off. Chazz was a very naughty boy yesterday, so us responsible parents sent him to the naughty corner.

OK, just kidding, we don't really have that kind of control over him - although I wish we did! He loves sitting on that section of the couch and I thought it was hilarious that he would opt to sit there even if it meant that he would have to stare at the wall. It reminded me too much of the naughty corner. :)

A Very Girly Saturday

Yesterday, Matt started my birthday celebration early by taking me out to one of my favorite activities - High Tea.  What a sport, he got such brownie points with me and, to what I assume, every other lady in the place.  We had a charming lunch and sat in a private section near their bay window.  I think they sat us there intentionally so Matt wouldn't be scared off by the huge group of ladies giggling and each with a huge hat. Needless to say, Matt was weary when he first walked in the door, but he admits that the food and quite section we were in wasn't bad at all.  We had a delightful time - Matt, you are such a wonderful husband to me! :)

The first tier was also filled with food but we had eaten all of it by the time I realized I hadn't gotten a photo.  Such yumminess....

Later that evening, Stephanie and I went to see a girly movie I've been wanting to see for a while.  We had a fabulous time!

Afterwards, when we got home, we were surprised to receive a text from Matt telling us to turn on the news.  There were tornadoes in the area and our county was on the warning list.  Thankfully, none were near us, but when we heard the tornado alarms go off, it was then that we decided to hide out in the bathroom together. Matt hid out in our closet, but thankfully he wasn't alone. He had two furry body guards to help him out.  :)