30th Birthday part 1

For my 30th Birthday I took a week off of work and went on a a whirlwind vacation to utah then vegas.  I waited until the last minute to pack.  As I was sitting on my $25 walmart suitcase to close it, the zipper broke (suitcase on the left).  I ran to Target and picked up a more expensive suitcase, finished packing and then had Mitch and Dom drive me to the airport (YAY for awesome friends!!)

The first part of my trip started by visiting my brother Jeff, Sister-in-law Rachel and nephew Forrest in utah.

I brought Cleveland shirts as thank you gifts for hanging with me.  Jeff and Rachel promptly threw some Cleveland Ohio Gang signs:

Rachel and I went shopping for all the delicious foods she would be making for us this week (she is an AH-MAZHING cook!!)  While at Walmart (in Utah) I saw a Food Storage section!!!!  Only in utah would there be a whole section dedicated to food storage!!

As we walked back to the car to drop off the food it started snowing again.  Utah in snow is so pretty!!

Rachel and I then metup with my roomate from LDSBC Sharene.  Shar brought her 2 beautiful daughters and the girl she babysits.  It was so much fun catching up.  Sharene mentioned that it was over 10 years since we had been in college.  I can't believe it!  It does not seem like it has been that long!  Sharene was as funny and kind and wonderful as ever!

Rachel and I met up with Sharene at McDonalds because they had a playplace.  Forrest was super excited to get a milkshake!

That night for dinner we had spinach stuffed shells with garlic bread.  It may have been the most delicious thing EVER!  I want to steal Rachel and take her home with me!

The next morning Jeff and I went out into the boonies and shot guns.  This was the view of the mountains from the boonies:

We shot a 22 caliber rifle (a pew pew gun)

A handgun:

And a shotgun (which was my favorite):

We exploded a bunch of things we got at the thrift store ranging from a vase full of marbles:

To a porcelain boot filled with fake flowers:

A vase with hearts all over it:

We also shot some targets that Jeff had:

That evening, Rachel made homemade rolls, and a delicious Italian sausage soup.  Sooooooo yummy.  I must have had 5 rolls, they were so good!!

That was only the first 2 days of vacation.  2 down, 6 to go!  Say bye bye Forrest:

Life update

I realized I haven't blogged in quite a while so here's a quick update blog:

Not much has happened since the last blog

Seriously, not much new has happened.  Manders (see the sushi rock blog) had her baby on November 30th (almost 2 weeks early)!  Yay (other peoples) babies!!

The crew (mitch, dom and KW) and I went to see Lincoln last weekend.  I was a bit disappointed   I thought it was all about lincoln, but it was only about the part of his life where he got the 13th amendment ratified.  Damn you politics!!!  I just don't care!  Maybe if I had gone into the movie knowing that's what was going to happen I would have liked it better.

The next day I went to see The collection, which is a scary movie by the director of the saw movies.  It was better.  Nice and gory, just the way I like a horror film.  This one I would recommend, but expect a stupid ending.  If you know that going in (which I did thanks to brother Joel), you will enjoy it!

I'm leaving for Utah, then Vegas in 2 or 3 days to celebrate my 30th birthday!!!  Hopefully I'll have a blog full of pictures when I get back, or, as I'm on the trip!

Other than that the most exciting thing is I've been trying (fairly unsuccessfully to wear eyeliner):

Keep an eye out for awesome vegas pics upcoming!

Dating and Shoe shopping!

Monday I decided it was time for me to get back into the dating pool.  I met a nice guy on craigslist and we decided to get together for dinner.  We met up at Fat Head's in North Olmstead.

While the food was good, and the guy was nice, there wasn't enough there to warrant a second date.  C'est la vie! 

The next day was a lot more productive!  I woke up later, got ready and headed off to the southpark mall. 

Usually if I'm going to a mall (which honestly isn't very often), I would go to the great northern mall, but I was on a mission to find the perfect shoes!  Since I work at a fancy law firm I am expected to wear fancy shoes.  I dislike uncomfortable shoes, so what's left?  CROCS!!!!  Southpark mall had the closest crocs store, so off I went. 

Yes, crocs makes fancy lady shoes.  After browsing around for a bit I found and fell in love with these ladies:

While I was there I noticed that the mall had a movie theater.  "Meh," I thought.  "Why not?"  It was a toss up between seeing hotel transylvania, or pitch perfect.  I figured since it was the middle of a tuesday, there would be a bunch of moms + thier kids at hotel transylvania, so I picked Pitch Perfect.  Poor pick :(

I went for the music, so I shouldn't have been as disappointed with the story line as I was.  The story was lacking, and the music was sporadic at best.  I expected better of you pitch perfect.  My overall recommendation would be to not waste your time.

After the movie, I remembered I wanted to go get something from GNC to boost my metabolism. The lady in the store recommended the GNC Women's Ultra Mega Active.  So I bought me 2 boxes of it and have been taking the pills for 2 days now.

So far it seems ok.  The only problem is there are a ton of pills.  I take all of them except 1 multivitamin and 1 energy pill (which I take in the afternoon). 

The only problem is the neon yellow pee, which the GNC forum said was normal.....

The rest of the day was spent grocery shopping, cooking and doing laundry.  Overall a great and productive weekend!

Single Again, but Busy as Ever!

After about a month of dating Marlon and I broke up.  Sad, right?  I had made him an awesome blanket

And pretty sweet card (get it?  Sweet?! HA!)

But he kept canceling our dates.  When I realized he wasn’t really into this relationship, I decided to cut my losses and break up.  I’ve had a relationship where I stayed when he really wasn’t that into me.  I’d rather not waste my time.

So, back to being single!

Last weekend was super busy.  I had planned to go to amanda’s baby shower, but completely overslept.  After that was cookies at Mitch and Dom’s house, but sadly, mitch was sick, so I just stayed home and relaxed all day.

Monday, I had an eye appointment in the morning (200 bucks for contacts?!  Ouch), then grocery shopping.  After I put all of my groceries away, it was off to my first dental exam at Advanced Dental Care.  They were AH-MAZING!  They gave me a water bottle, and chapstick just for coming in.  Each room had a TV in it, so you could watch whatever while getting your teeth cleaned.  The first visit exam/x-rays are free of charge (although they would have been with insurance anyway), so if anyone is looking for a GREAT dental experience check these guys out!

Tuesday was a bit more laid back.  I went to see looper.  It had got really good reviews, so I had high expectations for it.  It was good, but not great.  I don’t think I’d go see it again, but, it was worth seeing once.

After the movie I want to get my hair cut at Charles Scott  because I had a 10 dollar off coupon.

I think it turned out cute!  Today I had a general check up with my doctor, but nothing special to announce, other than I LOVE this Doctor as much as I loved my dentist.  No TV’s in the rooms, but GREAT service.  The doctor really listened to my questions and concerns.  He said my bp was a bit high, but if I lose weight that should remedy it…so back to atkins for me!

And that's it!  Hopefully next week will be a lot slower.  I'm only 1 level away from getting my main World of warcraft character to end level, so that will be my goal next week

Games, Golf and Girl Talk

Saturday after work I met up with Mitch, KW and Dom for gaming.  I got there around 11pm, and KW had bought ingredients for lemon bars.  Mitch and I rolled up our sleves and made up some lemon bars for the crew.

While the lemon bars were cooking, the boys were playing on there computers so Mitch and I had girl talk.  We talked all about everything going on.  Sadly we hadn't hung out in about a month (way too long!!) so we had lots to talk about.

Once the lemon bars finished cooking we played Civ V for an hour or two before everyone got super tired and we all parted ways.  Some other awesome things that happened that night was I saw Mitch and Dom's new deck!  Awesome doesn't even begin to describe how cool their new deck is.  Soooooo cool.  Yeah, I have friends who built their own deck...like a boss!  We also walked 6 houses over to KW house to see his new coffee table.  It was neat.  Not "built your own deck neat" but still pretty nice.

The next day, Sunday, Marlon and I went to Swings and Things.  As we were driving there I excitedly asked "So are there swings?!"  Marlon laughed and explained that no, the "swings" refer to swinging a bat at the batting cages.  I was a little disappointed (who doesn't love swings?!) but still super exited for batting cages and mini golf!!

We started out at the batting cages.  Marlon use to play baseball/softball in high school, and still plays with a team during softball season.  Marlon was a total boss at the batting cages.  He hit home run after home run as I cheered him on!  For the safety of all, I did not use the batting cages.  After almost 30 years of life, I've learned that my horrible hand eye coordination is best left not seen by others!

Next we played a round of miniture golf.  While we were waiting in line to buy a round (Marlon paid for everything once again <3 ), the guy behind us said to his daughter "This guy (talking about Marlon) has opened every door (for me, Jnet!), maybe he'll also buy us a round of golf!"  Marlon just laughed (nice try buddy).  Like a sir!

Below is the score card.  Let me sum it up for you though:  Marlon managed 3 holes in 1 (three!!!!), while I managed 3 holes where I hit the max amount of strokes (6).  Long story short, Marlon slaughtered me at mini golf 50 to 60, but was a gracious winner.

After batting and golf we were tuckered out so we ordered a pizza from Romeo's Pizza.  Marlon had been raving about how they had the best pizza.  It was pretty amazing.  It was like they added delicious crack to the sauce.  I couldn't get enough!  So super yum!

We then watched some football.  By watched, I mean, Marlon watched while I asked a TON of questions.  You know a guy likes you when he puts up with a lot of silly questions during a football game!

The next day I met up with my friend Chellise for girl talk.  We picked up some food from Melt, a gormet grilled cheese place.  Ironically, neither of us got grilled cheese.

We had a great time and talked about everything from Babies (she has 2!!) to boyfriends (I has one!!).  Sometimes I forget what awesome friends I have!  So funny and witty and insightful and all around super fun to talk to.

2 week hiatus!

Let me start off by apologizing profusely for missing a couple of weeks of blogging.  I am sorry!!  2 weeks ago I was so sick.  I ended up canceling 7 different plans with 5 different friends so I could stay home and wait for death.

After a week of being miserable and sick I was ready to party last weekend!  Marlon (the new boyfriend) and I decided to have a classic dinner-and-a-movie date.  We went to see Hit and Run at the Crocker Park theater, but got there early, so we walked around looking at stores in Crocker Park.

The move was a lot better than I was expecting.  I was expecting a "boy movie" filled with violence, guns, action and very little plot.  While there was car chases and guns, there was also an interesting plot and underlying romance!  I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

After the movie, Marlon and I went to dinner at Max and Erma's.  While the food was only okay, the conversation was amazing and the company even better.  Marlon and I have been dating for about a month now and it just keeps getting better.  Honestly, he has been the best guy I've ever dated <3

The next day I planned to meet Manders for lunch.  We met up at Tomaydo Tomahhdo for lunch and girl talk.  Manders is 6-7 months pregnant, so we got to talk a lot about everything baby (from birth to child rearing techniques).  I of course gushed about my handsome, wonderful, all around awesome new boyfriend (are you getting sick of hearing about how awesome Marlon is yet?).  Sadly, I was so engrossed in our conversation I forgot to get pics.  Fail.

Overall it was a super fun weekend.  My only regret is that I didn't get to hang out with Mitch, Dom, or KW.  They all had labor day plans (stupid social butterflies), so we setup a game night this Saturday!  Yippee!