road trip!

Now that our trip home is quickly approaching, I am already getting a little stir crazy thinking of the very long drive! Most people I talk to say, "Oh, how fun! You guys get to have a little road trip together!" While that's true, I am NOT a very good road trip-er and already have slight anxiety over the claustrophobia that I know is going to set in. So I thought to myself, maybe I should look at a map because it's probably not as bad as it seems. Wrong. It is. Notice that we're starting from the most northern part of Ohio to almost the most southern part of Texas! I'm sure it'll be fun, but I'm guessing it'll have to be over before I admit that!

San Francisco Trip

I was lucky enough to get to go on a trip to San Francisco this past weekend with my sister-in-laws and Marcin's parents. We had such a fun time and I cannot wait for another sister trip! We spent time in downtown San Francisco, Ghirardelli Square, Sausalito, and Menlo Park. It was basically two full days of shopping and girl time! Riding the trolley around downtown San Francisco was one of my favorites too.


We also got to see this amazing Creche exhibit that was organized by the stake that Mike and Robbie were a part of on their mission. Unfortunately pictures were not allowed, but it was beautiful! There were displays of the nativity scene from all over the world and in all different forms. A choir from a local high school also sang for everyone there and they did an amazing job. It was such a fun trip and I feel really blessed to be a part of such a great family!

I've been tagged!

So I was already tagged by Laura Nelson, but never got around to it and then tagged again from Ashley so I thought I had to do it now! Here goes...

4 or more places I have lived:
~ Magnolia, TX
~ Provo, UT
~ Orem, UT
~ Broadview Heights, OH

4 or more places I have gone on vacation:
~ Cozumel, Mexico
~ Montego Bay, Jamaica
~ San Francisco, CA
~ Grand Caymen Islands
~ Los Angeles, CA
~ San Diego, CA

4 or more jobs I have had:
~ 11th grade English student teacher
~ Sales Rep for Colorescience (which I love!)
~ Cookies By Design
~ volleyball coach

4 or more foods I love
*this is too limiting*
~ Handel's Ice Cream
~ veggie tempura
~ dan dan noodles from pei wei
~ zuccini and squash

4 or more hobbies I have
~ the internet
~ reading
~ journal writing
~ piano

4 or more things people don't know about me
~ I've played the piano since I was 5
~ I played volleyball and coached for 4 years
~ I've owned at least 7 cars
~ I had my tonsils taken out when I was 15

4 or more things I would do if I were a billionaire
~ pay off our school debt!!!
~ own a lake house and beach house with a boat, jet skis, and lots of room for family and friends!
~ travel around australia, europe, africa, and south america
~ donate tons

I am tagging Stacy Eager, Amy, Amanda, and Randee. Of course anyone is welcome to it! Have fun!

Cross Country Meet

On November 3rd, Marcin and I were able to go and see his two cousins run in their state cross country meet. It was especially fun because both the boys team and the girls team qualified for the state meet for the first time in just about forever. Megan and Brett did an awesome job and we had so much fun cheering them on.

Megan's team took first place and that's a picture of Megan holding the oh-so-big first place trophy on the winner's stand. You can see her running too with all the other girls. She's the only one in red and yellow amongst the crowd.


Brett's team also had an amazing meet. They took fourth place which was the highest place that a boys cross country team from Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School had ever taken. Here's a picture of Brett running and he's the first yellow shirt / red shorts runner you see.


Josh and Whitney were also in town for the meet and it was so much fun getting to see them and spend some time with them. I'm pretty sure we haven't seen them since we got married so we were lucky to have them around for a short while. It's great having some family up here with us. We don't know what we'd do without Uncle Russ, Aunt Cindy and Megan and Brett.

Halloween

On Halloween night Marcin and I decided to invite all our great friends over so that everyone's kids could go trick-or-treating together. Really we just wanted everyone to get together and used their kids and the holiday as an excuse! It was a blast! All the kids had great costumes on and it was so fun to get together with a bunch of the podiatry couples. We both feel so blessed to be a part of a school that not only has so many young families and great people, but also because quite a few of them go to church with us as well so we are able to see them on a weekly basis! Marcin and I had so much fun hosting everyone and decorating for the big party. We decorated the garage and had everyone hang out there since our house isn't quite big enough for all those people. Luckily it wasn't too cold and everyone wasn't freezing to death.




Since I don't have kids to dress up, Marcin and I attempted Halloween costumes for ourselves. I had to dress up as a Wizard of Oz character for a work event so I was trying to be a Munchkin. Marcin was a doctor; real original and creative, I know. I think people were a little confused about what I was trying to be, but it was a lot of fun anyway. One little girl asked, "How come your cheeks are so pink?" "Why would you do that?" I thought, oh great, even the little kids aren't amused! We also dressed Lila and Rufus up but forgot to take pictures. I might dress them up again just to have pictures of them and I'll post them later. All in all it was a great Halloween and hopefully we can keep up the tradition of having everyone get together.

I'm thankful for...

wonderful family
great friends
fall colors
the best husband
two very cute dogs (in lieu of children!)
my job
Marcin's hard work and dedication to school
our home
the gospel
cell phones (of which I could not live without)


So I felt like my last couple of posts were a little bit on the 'venting' side so I thought I'd try something a little different. I know it's not Thanksgiving yet, but close enough! I truly am so grateful for the millions of blessings in our lives and this list is only a few and in no particular order, but it reminds me of how much we really have. It always seems to be easier to find the negative things so I just thought writing a few of the great things in my life would remind me to be a little more positive!!

I Hate Delta.

I used to really love flying places. After years of family vacations driving to Colorado, Florida, New Mexico... wherever.... flying was a welcomed alternative. Once Marcin and I got engaged though, I was flying to Cleveland pretty much every other weekend from Utah so I got a little tired of it. I did always try to fly on Delta though because they were (past tense) my favorite airline. They always showed movies, it was a direct flight and they gave out these cute little snack pack things which was cute. This past week I was in Montana for training so obviously I had long flights with multiple layovers. On my way back home the flight was late out of Montana and I was worried about my connecting flight out of Salt Lake because my layover was only forty minutes. Once we landed in Salt Lake I ran, in really uncomfortable shoes might I add, to the next gate praying I wouldn't miss my flight to Atlanta. (Like I said, multiple layovers.) There were 16 passengers from connecting flights that were late so they held the plane which I was really grateful for, until I realized I might not make my flight out of Atlanta to Cleveland. My layover there was only thirty minutes. I was right. By the time we landed in Atlanta my flight to Cleveland had already left. Delta put me up in a hotel and booked me for the 10:10 am flight the next day. When I got to the airport the next morning, I reached the agent desk and she said the flight was full, to which I responded "that's fine. I have a ticket." Much to my shock and surprise it was a standby ticket and I was not guaranteed on that flight. Well, long story short, Delta gave me a $50 voucher (which will get me just out of my neighborhood flights are so dang expensive) and was very proud of themselves for even putting me in a hotel. Gee, thanks.

On a happier note, Marcin just got back this morning from his trip to Dallas with his dad and some of his brothers. He got to go to the University of Oklahoma vs. University of Texas football game. Thankfully OU won so he came home happy! He said they went to a fair or something before the game and had lots to eat and walked around in his "Everything's crappier in Texas" shirt. I asked if he would at least write on there "except my wife" but that didn't happen. We're just extremely blessed to have awesome family that take such good care of us! I even got to see Sydney on my layover in Salt Lake on my way to Montana so that was really fun too. It's been nice to see everyone and we can't wait until we see any of you again. There's always the option of coming out our way too you know... That is especially directed at my parents!! GET OUT HERE ALREADY! Love to you all.

Our "Big" Trip to Ann Arbor

Marcin and I went to Ann Arbor, MI to watch Chelsea, my sister, play in a tournament at the University of Michigan. It was a short trip, but well worth it. We got to see Utah Valley State play against Temple University and UVSC did a great job! It's Chelsea's senior year and it was really fun to be able to watch her play all four years at UVSC since we both went there. I can't believe this is her last season!

Just to give a little insight into our weekend... While we were there, Michigan was also having a home football game on Saturday. Now, I don't know how many of you follow college football, but it pretty much rules Marcin's world during the season. Because of that, I know way more about college football than I ever cared to know about. Michigan was playing Notre Dame that day and both are doing pretty poorly, but that did not deter Michigan fans in any way. They were terrible! Even at the volleyball tournament it was torturous to sit near them. Their little cheers and chants at the teams were so obnoxious.

I also booked our hotel for Friday night through Hotels.com. I had called every place I could find on the internet near the University and everything was booked because of the home football game. Not to mention if the hotel wasn't booked, it was outrageously expensive or you had to stay at least two nights. So hotels.com found one with a room available and it was called A Victory Inn and Suites. There were pictures on-line of this newly "renovated" hotel so I thought it didn't look so bad. We finally check in at about eleven Friday night and driving up to it I was already worried. When I walked in, the whole front desk area REEKED of curry! As I began to look around I realized why; this hotel was attached to a Thai restaurant that looked as run down as the hotel. I reassured myself that the room wouldn't smell that way and got our key to proceed down the hall to hell. When we opened the door to our room, a HUGE insect that I guarentee is in the centipeed's family was quickly scrambling out of sight. The ceiling was pure cinder block with water stains everywhere, the bathroom had definitely not been cleaned (a fair assumption once you looked at the toilet) and the ceiling in the bathroom had been patched up with plywood. I immediately broke down.

Marcin called hotels.com and got everything worked out and we ended up at this really nice place called Kensington Court, which happened to be the same price as Victory Inn and Suites and might I add was not too cheap for our budget! Not to say that you shouldn't book with hotels.com because they were very helpful and nice, but I'd just make sure somehow that it's a place you've at least heard of! The rest of the weekend was great mainly because we got to see Chelsea. I always miss my family and it's nice when we get the chance to see any of them. I was so proud of Chels and how she played! Hopefully we'll get the chance to see her play again soon, but if not that just makes this trip that much more worth it.

Thank goodness for creative people!

I knew once I enlisted Lara's help for my blog I would have to give her credit for it. I am nowhere near creative enough to actually come up with/design a little header like the one I have on my own so Lara was gracious enough to help! I love it and think it looks so cute! I don't have a scrapbooking bone in my body so I'm always in awe of those people that do. Maybe one of these days I'll actually sit down and figure it all out, but while I don't have any children I don't have too much to scrapbook. Marcin and I just don't do too much that is scrapbook-worthy. So... THANK YOU LARA! The page looks great!

Readers Beware...

As most of my close friends and family know, I love reading. I tell people constantly that I went to college to be in a book club (I am an English major so all I did was read, write, discuss any book assigned). Lately I've been on a book-buying kick and cannot seem to control myself while in Borders or Barnes and Noble so I have to stear clear of both. With so many new books to read, I could not decide on which one until some friends recommended a few to me. Haley, Stacy and Lara swore by these books by an author I had never heard of named Stephanie Meyer. All three said they couldn't put her books (yes plural) down and that I had to read them. I also thought they seemed a little vague on information on the book with the exception of "They're really cheesy junior high love story type books". Hmmm.... not really my favorite. I took Haley up on her suggestion to read the first called Twilight. It wasn't only her encouragement though, I admit. The book club I'm in (I'm starting to sound a little too geeky, I think) picked Twilight as our read for the month so I thought what better reason to read than that? And so began my downward spiral into the world of junior high love stories and vampires. Yes, you read correctly: vampires. I now clearly understand why my friends chagrined at my questioning of the contents of these books. You feel like a weirdo reading about vampires being in love with humans and vice versa! I LOVE THEM!! Not the vampires, the books. So here is my warning: DO NOT BEGIN THIS TRILOGY UNLESS YOU ARE PREPARED TO READ AT THE EXPENSE OF EVERYTHING ELSE IN YOUR LIFE!!! I was up until five o'clock this morning finishing the second one New Moon. I cannot stop. Luckily, I don't have a life at the moment, BUT STILL!! It's my newest guilty pleasure and I'll probably start the third one up today. If you don't hear from me soon, I'll be locked up somewhere reading...

We Have a Blog!

So I've finally decided to join the rest of many of our friends and family and create our own blog! Since it's just the two of us, it may not be too exciting but we'll see. As for what's going on in our lives... We've now lived in Ohio since January and grow to love it more and more all the time. The summer has been great for us. Warmer weather is always nicer (to me anyway) and it's been fun to spend some more time together. Marcin just recently started his second year of podiatry school in the new Independence, Ohio location. He loves the new school and studies constantly. As for me, I finally got a job with Colorescience Mineral Cosmetics as a sales rep for Ohio and Michigan. I'm very excited about it and look forward to a new job opportunity outside of teaching. We have been extremely blessed this far into our marriage and are very excited about all that's to come! We have great friends and family surrounding us and supporting us and are very grateful for that. We're excited to see what else is in store for us and will try to keep everyone posted on what's going on!