Happy Anniversity!

It has officially been one year since Ben and I tied the knot!!! Whoo hoo! We decided that although another trip to Jamaica to celebrate our anniversary would have been tolerable we wanted to keep it low key this year. Well, i guess the lack of money played into our low key plan as well.... Anyways, we stuck around here for our one year festivities.

The day started out nice, Ben came home with beautiful flowers for me, and i made breakfast ( homemade waffles, yum!). And incidentally, Sara (my cousin) sent us an e-card that informed us that August 24th is in fact "Waffle Day" celebrating the waffle iron's patent date from many years ago. Who knew?! So i suppose making waffles on our nifty waffle iron will have to be a must on our anniversary's to come.

I gave Ben a "Manly Movie Night" as a gift for our anniversary. He is always talking about not having a guy around to watch a manly movie with, so i thought it would be nice to give him a voucher for one manly movie of his choice and a package of movie watching must-haves. I included a big box of popcorn, some milk duds, twix, and a six pack of IBC rootbeer. On top of the super cool movie package I put together all the paperwork I have been filling out and working on to officially change my last name. I put it all in a nice little folder with a ribbon around it. He was quite excited. Although we both go by "Mr and Mrs Roadruck," and have since the wedding, i thought it would be nice to make it completely official.

Speaking of anniversary, many of you may be curious as to the "Happy Anniversity!" title of this post. No, it is not a typo, rather it is a reference from many years ago. Back in the good old days when the family used to make a yearly "camping" trip to Cook Forest, PA, one of Mom and Dad's anniversaries happened to fall during the week we were there. So Aunt Martha and Uncle Larry got a cake from the closest store (an hour away!) and had them write "Happy Anniversary!" on the cake. Well, it turns out that somebody flunked 4th grade spelling, and wrote "Happy Anniversity!" instead. So it has become a joke to all who know the anniversity legend.

Okay, back to our celebration day...Later that day we took ourselves out to a nice dinner at Red Rock Canyon. It was delicious. Because the restaurant was practically right next door to Trader Joe's we just had to stop and pick up some mochi. I think the last time we had mochi was when our friend's Matt and Cat came down and Matt discovered his love for Trader Joe's mochi. We also made a quick stop to Cheesecake factory where Ben picked up his favorite, Banana Cream Cheesecake. And i got sinfully rich Fudge Cake. We figured that while frozen, year-old cake from our wedding sounded very appetizing, we wanted a back up. Once we were back to the apartment we broke into the old cake.

And you would not believe how good it was. No joke! The cake was just as good as it was freshly baked. We decided that since we were so nice about not smashing the cake in each other's face at the wedding, we would have fun on our anniversary....so we did.

After our "eating" our cake (Aida was our own little automatic vacuum cleaner as icing and crumbs fell on the floor), we watched our wedding video. And like the party animals that we are, we were in bed and asleep by 10:30.


Today we decided to extend our celebration by heading out to Great Falls Park. On the way however, we went "left for adventure!" (another inside joke) and ended up at Algonkian Regional Park. As soon as we pulled in we saw a deer taking her time walking across the road. Soon after we saw several more deer. I think in total we must have seen 6-7 fawns and around 5 doe's. There were so cute! As Mom would say, "It was a WONDERFUL Deer Day!"

After the Algonkian Park we headed over to Great Falls Park. It was beautiful! Aida was funny because she would hop up onto the stone wall that was barricading the visitors from getting too close to the river and would walk along the wall up against the wooded rail. It was quite a sight considering the width of the wall that she could walk on was only like 6 inches or so. Either way, she seemed to really enjoy herself.

After about an hour or so we headed out, as we were all tired and thirsty. I took a picture of the drive on the way out because i thought it was pretty in case you were wondering about the picture of the road. We decided that Aida just needed to have an ice cream cone for being such a good girl at the park. And while we were at it, we might as well treat ourselves too.

All in all, we had a wonderful anniversary. We are still very happy and can't believe it has already been a year! Thank you to everyone who wished us a Happy Anniversary and sent us cards, we feel very loved.

Hope you all enjoyed my very lengthy, full of pictures, post. Love you all!

Fiesta!

Well, we finally got around to finding a set of dishes we liked! And thanks to the generosity of Mom and Dad we were able to get enough sets to have people over! Our last set of dishes were Ben's from when he first moved to Virginia. Ben loved them, and I did too, except over the last several months we have been working with only 3 bowls, 3 small plates and 4 big plates and no mugs. The dishes have been slowly chipping, cracking or all out busting apart (in the microwave). So needless to say, we are sooooooo happy to have 6 place settings!

So here is a quick picture of our first meal on our new plates.

I have a lot of pictures from this past visit that i am slowly working on. I will post another blog entry soon! I know you are all waiting on the edge of your seats. :)

Luray Virginia

So our fabulous weekend has unfortunately come to a close. The weather forecast called for rain all weekend, and we really lucked out. It rained here and there, but never for very long. The cabin was set back in the mountains, amongst the trees and cows.....yes, cows. But, as silly as it sounds, the cows were adorable and gave us all a good laugh. I took a bunch of pictures (upwards of 400 pictures...did you really expect any different?)

Below I have included several photos from our weekend...

We took a drive on Skyline Drive on the 4th of July. It was beautiful with mountains as far as you could see. Aida came along for the ride, but enjoyed riding with Grandma and Grandpa more than Ben, Daniel, Nathan, Liz and I. It started to drizzle towards the end of our drive, but it was still a very pretty view.

Here is the view from our cabin.

I have lots of pictures of the cows. There was an apple tree in the front yard of the cabin and those cows loved the apples.

The boys set off fireworks on the 4th of July and the last night (after Nate and Ben purchased more). This picture is of Ben and Daniel frolicking in the haze of a smoke bomb with sparklers.

The Luray Caverns were one of my favorite activities from the trip. It was unbelievable. I have tons of pictures from the caverns, so if anyone wants to see more stalactites and stalagmites :) just let me know. And Dad has just as many pics...Ben kept calling him Ansel Adams because of all the photos he was taking.

Although Ben's birthday isn't until the 17th, we all wanted to have a little celebration for him. So I had picked up a banana cream pie and decorated it. After the Happy Birthday song and pie we all played a big game of Cranium and of course laughed a lot.

I just thought this was a really cute picture. Aida was very happy to see the family and loved hanging out with Mom and Dad.

This photo is also from Skyline Drive.

All in all, we had a great vacation. The weekend seemed to go by way too fast. Sadly we did not see a bear, even with the trail of chum that i left from the fishing pond to the cabin's fence. But we did see some deer, rabbits and of course the cows. :)

The best end to the vacation came when Ben and I convinced (it didn't take much) Mom, Dad and Daniel to come back to our place for the night. We stopped at a little BBQ stand for lunch that we had been wanting to take the family to. After lunch we came back to the apartment and relaxed. Dad took a nap, Ben and Daniel played a video game, and mom and I researched wineries for their October trip with Aunt Martha and Uncle Larry. For dinner we took them (we drove, they payed :) ) to Fireworks pizza in Leesburg. It was a big hit.

We played Cranium again, and got guaranteed laughs. Mom honed her humming skills for the many humdingers and Dad brushed up on his silent acting.

Unfortunately, they left this morning. But it was very nice to have the extra time with them.

Hope everyone had a good 4th of July!

Here we go again!

Well, Aida is at it again. I suppose it's not her fault that her delicate little feet are no match for the hot pavement. Last night Ben and I took her on a short walk to find some poo bags. Upon our return I noticed that Aida had something stuck on one of her back paws. When I got close enough, i realized that both of her back paws had torn similarly to that of her front paws a couple weeks prior. Unfortunately, the circular tear was larger on both her back paws. So we cleaned and wrapped up all four of her paws. We have been looking into getting her some booties especially for her trip to Luray, but you would not believe the cost of those suckers. To get good boots, that aren't known to falls off or wear through in one use, you are looking at a $55-$60 purchase....plus shipping and handling. Don't worry, we didn't purchase any boots for her...yet. We probably will eventually, but for now we are pricing around.

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As for the other things going on around these here parts.....it is still very warm outside. Ben has been working a few extra shifts as we are trying our best to pay down our credit cards. We have Aida all set up for the next 7 months with new heartworm and flea/tick medication and we're crossing our fingers that this preventative keeps those nasty ticks away. I have been baking a little more lately, and Ben seems to really enjoy that. I made some cinnamon rolls from scratch the other day (shown below). They turned out really good....they didn't last long. :)

The other day i went out with Aida for her morning bathroom break and underneath the back bumper of the highlander sat two baby morning doves. Later on when I came out to go to the store, the baby birds were still there probably trying to escape the sun's heat. I snapped this picture of the one baby, the other one had hopped out of frame. I must be a magnet of morning dove babies, as you may recall, Ben and I had two baby morning doves hatch in our window box planter at our old apartment. Anyway, I thought they were cute.

That's about all the news for now. Hope all is well with everyone. Looking forward to Luray in July and the Ohio trip at the end of July!!!

Our Little Tennis Champ...

First off I would like to apologize for the numerous posts I have added today. Feel free to peruse the 3 following posts as they were also added today.

Ben and I had this brilliant plan to take Aida up to a tennis court and let her run around and catch the balls we were hitting back and forth. While, in theory, this was a good idea, we did not take into account the hot asphalt and her little paw pads. Aida had a blast catching the balls and running around. Once we got home, however, Ben discovered she was limping while she was out back. He looked at her paws only to find that she had ripped a dime sized shallow hole in her one front paw and did the same to the other front paw except the piece of paw pad was still hanging on. We felt really really bad and we made sure to clean her paws and give her lots of TLC.

Here are some pictures of the good times at the tennis courts:

And now for the "Awwwww, poor Aida!" moment.........

She's fine now. We wrapped up her paws and she has left them alone for the most part. Hopefully she won't need the booties come tomorrow but we will keep an eye on her. Until then, Ben was pretty happy to have found cute girly bootie socks for her. And of course, once "grandma" heard about the ordeal she promptly picked up a new toy for her. So she is still very well spoiled. :)

Happy Father's Day

For Father's Day the boys went to the shooting range down on Front Street while mom and I got stuff ready for dinner. These are just some pictures from Daniel's camera. They said it was a lot of fun....Enjoy!

Happy 1st Birthday Owen!

Owen's 1st Birthday Party bash was a big success. Caleb was feeling much better from the day before and the birthday boy was just as happy as could be. We had a lot of fun seeing the Lima family and of course Aunt Martha and Uncle Larry. And luckily we got to visit with them two days in a row! Owen got lots and lots of clothes (Jenn was very happy) and he loved the couple of toys he got (Caleb liked them too!). Overall, the party went very well, and we were so happy to be involved in our Godson's birthday. :)

Howl at the Moon

On Friday night Nate, Daniel, Liz, Ben and I all went up to Cleveland to go to a bar called Howl at the Moon. We met Matt and Cat up there which was a lot of fun since we haven't seen them in awhile. The bar was a dueling pianos bar where you can make requests of different songs from Snoop Dogg to Classical and the two pianists sing and play the music. It was pretty fun. Silly me didn't take any pictures of the performers though....i'm not sure why. Oh well. It was a fun night though. Matt and Cat got a big party drink for us to share (see the middle picture above).....it was good.....very good. I drank more than my share i think.

Living in an Oven

Yesterday morning the outside temperature tipped the scales at around 85 degrees....at 8AM. We took Aida to the vet for her Lyme Disease booster vaccination appointment at 10AM with temperatures reaching the low 90s. By the time we got back around 11:30AM Mother Nature turned the thermostat up to almost 100. The temp did reach 100 that day with a heat index of 110 degrees.

It is the weirdest feeling to step outside and feel like you are standing in an oven. The air is so thick you can hardly breathe. We have been pretty much running our air conditioning non-stop and keeping the blinds shut all day.

Luckily, the Excessive Heat Warning is supposed to be lifted come tomorrow. Because the cold front is moving in of course that means more Severe Thunderstorm warnings are being announced. Currently the temperature is 97 with a heat index of 107. The storms are supposed to bring icy cold 89-90 degree temperatures....but we'll take it....it's better than 100 degrees.

We are looking forward to coming back to Ohio to see everyone and to enjoy the more seasonable weather. :)

Race for the Cure

First off, Ben and I would like to thank everyone who donated money for the Race. We really truly appreciate all your support and hope that you all know that you made a difference. Last time I checked, this Race ended up surpassing the 3 million dollar goal. So thank you all again.

Here is Ben and i towards the beginning of the race. Luckily the sun wasn't out at first. It was, however, very warm and muggy. Once we got to the third mile the sun decided to pop out.

Here's the finish line!! Whoohoo! It took us about an hour to finish the entire 5K. We probably would have gotten done a lot sooner, but the massive amount of people set the pace.

You can tell how muggy it is here in this picture. The Capitol Building is in the background covered in a humid haze. This picture was taken by another race participant after we finished. As we walked back to the metro, there were still hundreds of people walking the race. The amount of people participating in this walk was both massive and inspiring. It's nice to see so many people getting together for such a worthy cause.

*Just a funny tidbit: On our way to the metro station I heard a *pop* sound and felt a wetness on my left calf. I looked down and realized I had Ketchup splattered up my leg. I stopped to figure out where it came from and what i should do. Ben said he had felt a pop under his foot. Here there was a ketchup packet a few feet back that he had stepped on thus splattering the condiment up my leg. We thought it was funny.*

Our most heartfelt thanks, again, to everyone who both donated money and took the time to read about the cause.

Celebrate Fairfax

Ben and I went to the Celebrate Fairfax Fair this evening. It was still nice and hot and muggy, but the festival was nice. It cost us $7.50 a person to go and we got to see a concert by Ok Go! . If you haven't heard of them by name, you may have seen or heard about their music video in which they perform a choreographed treadmill routine. They were very good live, but i have learned that I am too old for that kind of stuff anymore. The loud music made my ears very mad. We were in the front row right up against the speakers. I know, that was our first mistake...but we eventually moved back.
This is Ok Go! Their video is pretty fun to watch. They said it cost them $5 to make and they originally posted it on You Tube and it turned into this huge sensation. You can follow the link below to You Tube to see the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv5zWaTEVkI

This picture is for Dad. Ben thought you would like to see this motorcycle they had on display at the fair.

Well, we are off to bed. We have to get up early for the Race for the Cure!

Hot as H-E-double hockey sticks...

Well, the mercury in the thermometer reached into the 90s today. And thanks to the great Capital of the country being built on a swamp....the humidity made this day even that much more enjoyable. To add to it, there is another small wave of storms a movin' in tonight. Luckily for us, the storms aren't supposed to be nearly as ferocious as yesterdays.

Two tornadoes touched down somewhat near us. We are in Loudoun county and one of the tornadoes touched down in Fairfax county, which is the county we used to live in (just south of us). But let me tell you, Mother Nature dealt us quite the thunderstorm anyways. The trees whipped back and forth as if they would easily snap in half. The rain was coming in so hard and fast banging against our windows. Once the Tornado warning came up for our area, we retreated into the bedroom, away from the many windows in the living room. Everything turned out okay though.

Hopefully the strong storms have subsided for awhile. We are looking forward to our weekend. Tomorrow we are planning on going to the Celebrate Fairfax festival. It is supposed to be another hot day in the low 90s but that's nothing compared to our Race for the Cure day on Saturday. I received an email from the Race headquarters warning the participants on the heat advisory on Saturday. It is supposed to be mid to upper 90s. Yippee. Luckily the race is early and we probably won't be hanging around much afterwards.

That's about all the news for now. Just wanted to let everyone know that we are well and happy and hot. :)

Memorial Day

I know I am a little slow in my posting, but here are some pictures from the past Memorial Day weekend with mom and dad.

Here's a picture of Ben and I on the Key Bridge over the Potomac River. Mom, Dad, Ben and I walked from the Rosslyn metro station over the bridge to Georgetown. In the background is Georgetown University. The day was beautiful, I was a little chilly, but i am always cold.

Ben found this great little restaurant in Georgetown called Mr. Smiths. When you first walk in, it looks like a dingy bar but once you walk to the back of the "bar" and down some steps, you walk into this really pretty open garden area. There is also an outside area that you can eat at. It was really neat. This picture is from that restaurant.

I am sparing you the plethora of pictures I have of Dad stretching from Georgetown through DC. But here is one of the pictures where Dad is stretching in the middle of our walk from the metro to Georgetown. I'm not sure what Ben is doing.....but I caught the Kodak moment anyways.

In this photo, Daniel has joined in on the stretching madness.

The visit was a lot of fun....all too short though.

Other than that, Ben and I are doing well. We found a dentist that we really liked. And both Ben and I are cavity-free after something like 2 years (or more) since we've last visited a dentist. So we were pretty happy.

We went down to the complex's swimming pool the other day. It was really nice. But the water was cold. The weather has been beautiful so we are planning on heading back to the pool next week with hopes of warmer water.

Aida is going to be spending the day at "Doggie Day Camp" tomorrow as we help one of Ben's friends move from Manassas to Leesburg. Unfortunately the forecast is calling for thunderstorms so the move might be a little wet.....oh well. Next weekend we have the Race for the Cure and we are also going to be going to a festival in Fairfax. And then we have our favorite Godson's 1st birthday party the following weekend.

That's about all that is new with us. Hope all is well with everyone. Enjoy your weekend!

Race for the Cure

Ben and I have joined the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure. For those of you who don't know, the Race for the Cure is a race geared towards raising funds for breast cancer research. Although neither Ben or I have lost a loved one to breast cancer, we hope that we never have to.

Unfortunately, I thought that the race was later on in the summer, and therefor am late in putting this information out. The race is on Saturday June 7th. It is a 5K run/walk (we will probably be doing more walking than running) in downtown DC. The proceeds go to the Susan G Komen for the Cure organization. The story of Susan G Komen is very touching and I would encourage everyone to read it at: http://cms.komen.org/komen/AboutUs/SusanGKomensStory/index.htm
If you don't have time to read her whole story, you should know that she was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 33. She ultimately lost her three year battle but before she died, she asked her sister to promise to help other women with breast cancer. Her sister fulfilled her promise through the organization of the Susan G Komen for the Cure.

We think it is a worthy cause. And I could bet that anyone who reads this can think of at least one person affected by this disease. For me, Aunt Helen, Grandma Myra and Lee Panco. Who do you think of?

The smallest donation you can give is $5.00. Our goal is only $250. We hope to surpass our goal, but any little bit counts. Please take a minute to visit our team page at:

https://www.kintera.org/faf/search/searchTeamPart.asp?ievent=263218&lis=0&kntae263218=4B771B0AB602472EBDB6BA86863839B1&supId=0&team=2804058

or by clicking on the link underneath the thermometer icon on the right side of the screen. And help in the fight against breast cancer.

SPOOOOOOON!!!!!

Ok, unless you have ever seen the old cartoon "The Tick," the title of this post would not make any sense to you. "Spoon!" was the tick's battle cry....it was a funny cartoon...whatever...Just thought I would add this disclaimer.

So, as Ben was giving Aida some good loving pets, he said, "what the hell is this?!" and instructed me to get the flashlight. As he picked through her fur like a monkey, he found this bulbous skin tag. Or so we thought. I actually would have preferred a skin tag to the nastiness that was the engorged tick attached to her chest.

After a short freak-out, I called the vet and made an appointment for "tick-removal." And as I was on the phone with the vet tech, they reminded me that I was indeed behind on my Lyme Disease vaccination. I forgot that a few weeks after the initial vaccination, a booster shot was needed. Therefor I had to get her re-vaccinated. Super.

What started as a "free-of-charge" tick removal, turned into a $50 vet visit. And what's worse, is the realization that the tick, flea and heartworm preventative we use (Revolution) is not strong enough for the vicious ticks and fleas of these here parts. The reason I liked Revolution so much was because it was very cost effective, and only one dose per month rather than a pill for heartworm and a separate pill or topical for fleas and ticks. So instead of $150 per year for Revolution, Frontline is running around $170-$180 per year PLUS $90 or so for heartworm. Ahhh the joys of owning a pet.

Add all of that, plus the gourmet organic food, and the fancy-pants expensive vets....and you've got one expensive mutt.

Oh well.

Virginia ticks suck...........................literally.

For the Love of Gallbladders!!!

Well, I went to see the specialist today. He was much much much better than the previous specialist. He said that although the text book symptoms of gallbladder problems shows up on your right side...it is possible to have a gallstone pass through the duct, get lodged, and cause severe pain that radiates from the center and wrapping around both sides. That's what i had. He thinks that the gallbladder is the cause of my problems and is sending me for another ultrasound. He said in ultrasounds that up to 15% of gallstones are missed and that since I did not "fast" before hand that could have hindered the view of the gallbladder somewhat. He also said that it is possible that on the Sunday of my first ER visit, that I had a stone stuck in the duct by my pancreas causing that horrible pain.

So the outcome of my whole visit: I am going next Tuesday for an ultrasound. I cannot eat or drink anything after midnight. :( Good thing i am not a very big breakfast person. Once the results come back, if I have any stones or "sludge" the doctor said I am off to the surgeon before I have any more "attacks." If the test comes back negative I will be on watch in case something happens again.

I know I probably mentioned it before, but the last ultrasound in Akron showed a polyp or small stone in my gallbladder. And unfortunately, according to the doctor, those small stones are the ones you have to watch out for because they can get stuck and cause problems such as pain and pancreatitis. So that's what they will be looking for.

So if i have the surgery, unfortunately I will be on a low-fat diet for the rest of my life....I suppose that is a good thing. But no big pizza parties, ice cream sundaes, etc. Oh well. Until I have the ultrasound results, I am on a low-fat diet. Boo hiss.

Well, that is the update. I will keep everyone posted on how I am doing. :)

Tylenol, Advil, and.....Dilaudid

I cannot remember the last time I have been so sick for so long.

First we started out with Ben coming down with Pneumonia/Bronchitis the weekend before last. I did my best mimicking mom and dad. As "mom," I cooked for him, got him whatever he needed or wanted, took him to the doctor's office and basically did whatever I could. As "dad," I went out and bought Clorox spray and wipes and disinfected any surface I could then I proceeded to get "sympathy sickness." The Sunday before last Ben took me to the ER with severe upper abdominal pain. As I laid on the hospital bed crying, Ben sat in the chair shivering with a fever. I was given Dilaudid (good drug by the way) but of course it doesn't take much to knock me out. And because Ben knows all the nurses, they gave him Tylenol with codeine.

So after my fun visit to the ER where it was determined that nothing could be done at that time, I spent the week with an uncomfortable stomach. Then I went to a GI doctor, who I am pretty sure got his MD from a mail-order-MD company or something...I didn't like him. So I found a new GI doctor that got really good ratings and I made an appointment for this upcoming Thursday.

I started feeling sicker as the weekend approached so I made an appointment on Friday to see the doctor. She gave me a prescription for Augmentin and said i had Allergic Sinusitis. So I was to take: Augmentin, Zyrtec and Mucinex. But as I was on my way to the pharmacy, I thought to call mom because I thought Augmentin sounded familiar. She called my old doctor and it was confirmed that I am allergic to Augmentin. After several hours of fighting the doctors office, they finally called in a new script: a Z-pack. On top of everything, I start with a low fever on Friday night.

Saturday rolls around and I feel horrible. But my good childhood friend, Derek, was getting married and we had RSVP'd for the wedding already and I really didn't want to miss it. So I insisted that we go. Ben, being the good husband he is, drove the whole way. Once we got to Ohio, i felt even worse...but after a little bit i started to feel better and decided to go to the wedding. To my surprise, I lasted through the entire ceremony and most of the reception without feeling really sick. I avoided dancing and drinking so as to not aggravate whatever I was sick with. It was really nice to see all my old friends from school though. I was happy we went.

That night, at about 2:30AM I woke up with a 101 temp, a headache and stomach pains. Ben got up with me and tried to get me to drink fluids, take Advil and get back to sleep. So the next day, Mother's Day, I tried really hard to feel better. But unfortunately my body didn't agree with me. So once my fever started spiking again and I was feeling like "a thousand buffalo" (referencing dad's quote from the car ride back from Maine) were trampling on me, Ben wanted to take me to the ER. So exactly one week from the first ER visit I was back...different state, different hospital.

After a long wait in the waiting room I was put in a room. And after another long wait my temp reached over 102 degrees. So I had a massive pile of blankets on me and mom went and worked her magic to get a nurse or doctor. Long story short (well at least a little less long) they tested me for everything, and besides treating me for a bad case of dehydration, there was nothing they could do. They basically concluded that I had some type of nasty stomach/intestinal virus. No fun.

So i am still going to the doctor this Thursday. I am hoping that there is something they can do. But don't worry, i will keep you all posted on my stomach woes. I can't wait to feel better. I still am not feeling great. But I did start to eat food today. I haven't eaten any real food beyond saltines, jello and popsicles since last Friday. I am hoping tomorrow will be better.

Looking forward to seeing the family Memorial Day weekend (so long as I am feeling better :) )!

It's a bird...it's a plane...it's....

SUPER-VISOR of the YEAR!!!!!

Congratulations to our superhero!!!

**We are very proud of you Dad**

A re-cap on what you already know...

This past visit to Ohio was a blast. As everyone already knows: The week started off with Owen's Baptism/Caleb's Birthday. It was so nice to see the Lima family. It had been awhile. Unfortunately, mom was really sick and was unable to attend. I took upwards of 130 pictures at the Baptism/Birthday so I could capture every moment for mom. I think she appreciated it...she was kind of out of it when I showed her. And even when you are in perfect health, looking at 130 photos from one event can be a bit overkill....oh well.

I apologize for uploading some photos...I know similar photos have already been posted on Mike and Jenn's and Aunt Martha and Uncle Larry's blog. But in case you were just craving some more photos of those cute little Lima boys...here they are.


After the festivities of the weekend, Ben headed back to Virginia to complete his last week as a probational firefighter. Dad and Nathan finished installing the new front door that Sunday. Of course (you knew I was going to add this in...) I had to fix the handle on the door. Dad and Nathan were trying to hammer on a brass cap over a screw...little did they know the washer between the screw and the door face was on backwards...leave it to a woman to fix a man's mistake. Lol....I have been rubbing this in since I figured out the washer was simply on backwards and once it was turned around, the cap snapped right on...ok now i'm done.

It was nice that I was able to stay so long. Even though mom was sick, i was able to help take care of her. She felt bad...but i figure it was a small repayment for the 23 years she took care of me with the countless days of being sick. So after many trips to Acme to get Jello, then back for saltines, and then back another day for soup, etc, mom started to feel better. As mom just was becoming more like a human and was emerging into the outside world, dad went in for surgery. The surgery went really well, actually better than expected. He was as happy "as a clam with two peters" (for explanation of that quote ask my mom) the day he came home from the hospital. I think he was just so happy to be out of the OR. He felt well enough to have an italian ice from Ritas and a Galley Boy, fries and a shake from Swensons. In the following days the drugs knocked him out. But once he was off the "hard stuff" he was back to his old self.

So Ben is officially off probation at work. After taking his final exam (and he aced it by the way) he was given a new badge plate that goes on his helmet that says "firefighter" instead of "probationary." He is now no longer considered a "rookie," yet another benefit of being off probation. Everyone was so proud of him, including me. :)

Since my birthday plans with my friends was so rudely cancelled by the big snow storm in early March, we rescheduled for this past visit. We decided to go to the new Quaker Steak and Lube in Canton. We had a lot of fun. Everyone was able to come (of course with the exception of the out of towners: Daniel and Sara). Afterwards we went over to our friend Brett's house to play a playstation game called rockband. The game is similar to Guitar Hero, but uses two guitars and a set of drums (of course not real guitars and drums, but video game type instruments) and also a microphone. I learned that unlike my dad...i have no rhythm on the drums. My foot and hand coordination is way off. And Ben was nice enough to record my attempt at rockstardom. Unfortunately I don't know how to upload a video onto this blog so my video debut will just have to wait. Darn.

So all in all, the visit was a lot of fun. We got to see everyone and I got to visit a little longer than usual. Of course that made it harder to leave. I really wish we could have stayed longer. We certainly miss the family a lot. Thanks for a great visit everyone. We look forward to seeing you all soon!