Since the traditional second anniversary gift is cotton, we decided to celebrate by taking a cruise to the Bahamas (in 100% cotton shirts)!
The trip consisted of beautiful beaches...
delicious meals overlooking the ocean...
...and my personal favorite, the water slide!
I had such a great time. Thanks Doug!
We got back a few days before our actual anniversary on the 24th. So, on the day of, we had an anniversary dinner of Jimmy John's and a tasty pretzel at the Reds game.
Doug even caught a second anniversary foul ball (made partially of cotton).
Congratulations to Doug! He's the newest member of the Xavier MBA program. Unless they accepted someone else within the last week or so. Then he wouldn't be the newest. Still pretty new! Anyway, he'll be working full-time and schooling part-time starting this Summer... busy guy! Hope he remembers how to do homework.
Everytime I think about Xavier University, this song comes to mind:
"Thank you PRONOUNS!" Anyway, he's always been planning on getting his MBA and now's the perfect time to do it.
he got an ipad, a basketball, and lots of cards/gifts. lucky!
note: i made him a really good hershey chocolate cake from scratch for his birthday. but it didn't come out of the pan as easily as i thought it would and ended up looking extremely sad (i should have read this first.) so at the last minute i got him a dq ice cream cake log thing to make up for it. but he ended up eating more of the hershey cake anyway! c'est la vie.
when we first moved to cincinnati, i didn't even realize a tornado was possible. when i saw a sign like the one below in the airport, i thought it was pretty funny. but, technically the cincinnati airport is in kentucky, so it probably doesn't apply to ohio.
a couple weeks later, some people at church told me about how a bunch of houses were destroyed by a tornado near my church building in 1999. scary, but it was just a fluke so no way would it happen again.
doug was in virginia for work yesterday when they officially declared a tornado watch for the entire area. here's what they predicted for the areas that would be most hit.
notice both louisville and cincinnati fall in the "high" area. great! at this point i found myself wishing we had rented a basement apartment rather than the 3rd floor.
it was pretty windy outside and all of my neighbors' wind chimes reminded me of the movie "twister." but out of nowhere it would just start pouring rain. here's a video i got of the view from my place a little bit north of cincinnati.
eventually any weather that looked like it might come north of cincinnati disappeared. but it's kind of crazy to think that the tornados killed people less than an hour away from me. also kind of crazy that debris like newspapers from louisville and receipts from indiana were found way up here.
doug's flight was delayed several hours so he got a car and drove home from roanoke. luckily he did, because his flight was canceled due to a full-fledged tornado warning in his connecting city (atlanta.) i was tracking doug's position on google latitude. that little red pin is where he was as he was driving straight into the storm. yikes!
i think his trip was a little like this. actually, all he encountered was a lot of rain. on an unrelated note, does anyone in the greater cincinnati area have a basement i can borrow sometime?
doug's been in pennsylvania all week for work, but he still managed to surprise me with a dozen red valentine's day roses. they're blooming quite nicely! thanks doug!
so, i bet you're wondering what i did on valentine's day, all by myself. here are some of the more notable activities:
- made sugar cookies. threw away all but one.
- created a whitney houston playlist.
- watched an affair to remember... and gnomeo and juliet. hey, it was nominated for a golden globe! sue me!
i've always had a hard time drinking the recommended amount of water. i've tried to consciously drink more of it in the past. like when i worked at campus craft & floral and we all got those little camelback water bottles. but then i didn't want to drink very much because i didn't like the taste of utah water. i eventually started filling it with kiwi strawberry propel. but then it would get warm and also not taste so good. even after doug and i go running, i'm never really in the mood for water. he has to remind me to drink it.
finally, a few weeks ago, i was watching the biggest loser and they did one of their dumb product-placement-type advertisements for the brita water bottle. so naturally i went right out and bought the thing.
i mean, what's not to love? it's purple. it's got a filter. and all i have to do is drink 3 bottles a day to get the recommended amount of water. of course i also entered the brita challenge in hopes of winning another contest. (i think biggest loser prizes will go perfect with my year supply of kettle chips.) surprisingly enough, i've drank more than 3 bottles a day for the past 2 weeks and i've never felt so alive! i wonder if they're hiring spokespeople...
in the hustle and bustle of moving to ohio and christmas in idaho and painting my fingernails i forgot to mention... i won a year's supply of kettle chips!
i kind of thought they'd maybe give me coupons or something. but instead, they're sending me a huge box of 15 full-sized bags every month for the next year. that's a LOT of chips. doesn't really help out any new year's resolutions i've got goin' on, but at least they're kind of healthy as far as chips go. right?
don't worry, i gave a majority of the bags away to friends this month. i mean, who could say no to a kind chip gesture?
here is my rating of january's selection for future reference:
fully loaded baked potato: 8.5/10
it really does taste like a baked potato. and i'm from idaho. so i know these things. i get it.
organic country style bbq: 9/10
i've always really liked bbq flavor chips but this tastes even better. like i'm out in the country strumming on a banjo.
organic salt and fresh ground pepper: 7/10
not bad but not the best. i witnessed someone dipping them in ketchup though. that might be good. must be a midwest thing.
new york cheddar: 4/10
has a weird aftertaste. which i guess is ok if you really like the cheese flavoring. which i don't.
sour cream and onion: 8/10
can't really go wrong here. typical sour cream & onion flavor. although i just got a visual of spreading sour cream on an onion and eating it. i wonder if people do that. must be a midwest thing.
and while i'm reviewing things, i'm happy to report my yankee candle is still thriving. i've found that trimming the wick regularly is key. who knew?
on my 18th birthday, i moved into heritage halls. shipp hall, to be exact. i was saddened to hear that just this week my former home was torn down to make way for new dorms. the building may be gone, but the memories remain. (imagine this song playing in the background for the rest of the post.)
i mean, sure there was only 1 bathroom for 6 girls.
but our apartment was so cool, it doubled as a night club.
none of us had a car, though, so we had to get creative.
it's a wonder none of us had dates on valentine's day.
we dressed up a lot for some reason.
but we had an excuse for being weird since we were freshmen and all.
Since the traditional second anniversary gift is cotton, we decided to celebrate by taking a cruise to the Bahamas (in 100% cotton shirts)!
The trip consisted of beautiful beaches...
delicious meals overlooking the ocean...
...and my personal favorite, the water slide!
I had such a great time. Thanks Doug!
We got back a few days before our actual anniversary on the 24th. So, on the day of, we had an anniversary dinner of Jimmy John's and a tasty pretzel at the Reds game.
Doug even caught a second anniversary foul ball (made partially of cotton).
Congratulations to Doug! He's the newest member of the Xavier MBA program. Unless they accepted someone else within the last week or so. Then he wouldn't be the newest. Still pretty new! Anyway, he'll be working full-time and schooling part-time starting this Summer... busy guy! Hope he remembers how to do homework.
Everytime I think about Xavier University, this song comes to mind:
"Thank you PRONOUNS!" Anyway, he's always been planning on getting his MBA and now's the perfect time to do it.
he got an ipad, a basketball, and lots of cards/gifts. lucky!
note: i made him a really good hershey chocolate cake from scratch for his birthday. but it didn't come out of the pan as easily as i thought it would and ended up looking extremely sad (i should have read this first.) so at the last minute i got him a dq ice cream cake log thing to make up for it. but he ended up eating more of the hershey cake anyway! c'est la vie.
when we first moved to cincinnati, i didn't even realize a tornado was possible. when i saw a sign like the one below in the airport, i thought it was pretty funny. but, technically the cincinnati airport is in kentucky, so it probably doesn't apply to ohio.
a couple weeks later, some people at church told me about how a bunch of houses were destroyed by a tornado near my church building in 1999. scary, but it was just a fluke so no way would it happen again.
doug was in virginia for work yesterday when they officially declared a tornado watch for the entire area. here's what they predicted for the areas that would be most hit.
notice both louisville and cincinnati fall in the "high" area. great! at this point i found myself wishing we had rented a basement apartment rather than the 3rd floor.
it was pretty windy outside and all of my neighbors' wind chimes reminded me of the movie "twister." but out of nowhere it would just start pouring rain. here's a video i got of the view from my place a little bit north of cincinnati.
eventually any weather that looked like it might come north of cincinnati disappeared. but it's kind of crazy to think that the tornados killed people less than an hour away from me. also kind of crazy that debris like newspapers from louisville and receipts from indiana were found way up here.
doug's flight was delayed several hours so he got a car and drove home from roanoke. luckily he did, because his flight was canceled due to a full-fledged tornado warning in his connecting city (atlanta.) i was tracking doug's position on google latitude. that little red pin is where he was as he was driving straight into the storm. yikes!
i think his trip was a little like this. actually, all he encountered was a lot of rain. on an unrelated note, does anyone in the greater cincinnati area have a basement i can borrow sometime?
doug's been in pennsylvania all week for work, but he still managed to surprise me with a dozen red valentine's day roses. they're blooming quite nicely! thanks doug!
so, i bet you're wondering what i did on valentine's day, all by myself. here are some of the more notable activities:
- made sugar cookies. threw away all but one.
- created a whitney houston playlist.
- watched an affair to remember... and gnomeo and juliet. hey, it was nominated for a golden globe! sue me!
i've always had a hard time drinking the recommended amount of water. i've tried to consciously drink more of it in the past. like when i worked at campus craft & floral and we all got those little camelback water bottles. but then i didn't want to drink very much because i didn't like the taste of utah water. i eventually started filling it with kiwi strawberry propel. but then it would get warm and also not taste so good. even after doug and i go running, i'm never really in the mood for water. he has to remind me to drink it.
finally, a few weeks ago, i was watching the biggest loser and they did one of their dumb product-placement-type advertisements for the brita water bottle. so naturally i went right out and bought the thing.
i mean, what's not to love? it's purple. it's got a filter. and all i have to do is drink 3 bottles a day to get the recommended amount of water. of course i also entered the brita challenge in hopes of winning another contest. (i think biggest loser prizes will go perfect with my year supply of kettle chips.) surprisingly enough, i've drank more than 3 bottles a day for the past 2 weeks and i've never felt so alive! i wonder if they're hiring spokespeople...
in the hustle and bustle of moving to ohio and christmas in idaho and painting my fingernails i forgot to mention... i won a year's supply of kettle chips!
i kind of thought they'd maybe give me coupons or something. but instead, they're sending me a huge box of 15 full-sized bags every month for the next year. that's a LOT of chips. doesn't really help out any new year's resolutions i've got goin' on, but at least they're kind of healthy as far as chips go. right?
don't worry, i gave a majority of the bags away to friends this month. i mean, who could say no to a kind chip gesture?
here is my rating of january's selection for future reference:
fully loaded baked potato: 8.5/10
it really does taste like a baked potato. and i'm from idaho. so i know these things. i get it.
organic country style bbq: 9/10
i've always really liked bbq flavor chips but this tastes even better. like i'm out in the country strumming on a banjo.
organic salt and fresh ground pepper: 7/10
not bad but not the best. i witnessed someone dipping them in ketchup though. that might be good. must be a midwest thing.
new york cheddar: 4/10
has a weird aftertaste. which i guess is ok if you really like the cheese flavoring. which i don't.
sour cream and onion: 8/10
can't really go wrong here. typical sour cream & onion flavor. although i just got a visual of spreading sour cream on an onion and eating it. i wonder if people do that. must be a midwest thing.
and while i'm reviewing things, i'm happy to report my yankee candle is still thriving. i've found that trimming the wick regularly is key. who knew?
on my 18th birthday, i moved into heritage halls. shipp hall, to be exact. i was saddened to hear that just this week my former home was torn down to make way for new dorms. the building may be gone, but the memories remain. (imagine this song playing in the background for the rest of the post.)
i mean, sure there was only 1 bathroom for 6 girls.
but our apartment was so cool, it doubled as a night club.
none of us had a car, though, so we had to get creative.
it's a wonder none of us had dates on valentine's day.
we dressed up a lot for some reason.
but we had an excuse for being weird since we were freshmen and all.
