2 Tents, 2 Dogs, and a Ring

On Friday, Mark and I took Guinness camping with one of my co-workers, Jacob, his girlfriend Danae, and their dog Dozer to Red River Gorge. This was no easy camping either. We packed our giant bags full of supplies and hiked to a campsite for the night. Mark made a campfire and we enjoyed brats, s'mores (Guinness tried his very first marshmallow...it's in the picture below), swinging in the hammock, practicing on the slack line, and dodging the rain (yes, it rained on us quite a bit Friday night).
Little did Danae know, but Jacob had told me Thursday that he was going to propose to Danae Saturday morning from their favorite lookout spot of the Gorge. He asked me to take pictures of the whole thing. I was so nervous for him Saturday morning and kept thinking I was going to do something to mess it up, but once we got up to the lookout spot (and Danae was done taking pictures), Jacob took her over towards the ledge and started talking to her. She started crying instantly and then he got down on one knee. It was absolutely beautiful and Mark and I felt so honored to be able to be there and celebrate such an exciting time in their relationship. Congratulations Jacob and Danae!!!
After all of the excitement, we set off to do some more hiking. We went down into and over to the other side of the Gorge to Double Arch. It was a long hike and was made even more difficult with those heavy packs, but it was definitely worth it. The view was amazing and there was such a sense of accomplishment when we got to the other side and saw how far we had just hiked. The dogs really enjoyed being able to hike together and did a really great job. Most of the time they were not a leash unless we started getting into the cliffs. Guinness enjoyed jumping in the creek and at one point face planted into a giant mud puddle (of course). He really started to find his stride after a while and was jumping over logs and up rocks. What a trooper! His dad and I were so proud! All in all we hiked around 8 miles or so. None of us really kept track, but we all knew that we were tired. The dogs were extremely exhausted on the way home and Guinness is still sleeping more than normal. We had a great time and look forward to many more trips like that this summer.

Are You Planning A Wedding???

I absolutely LOVE wedding planning. I've helped others at weddings in the past in efforts to start planning weddings as a side job. This summer, I am planning two different weddings. Basically, the brides picks out all the stuff she likes and I step in, plan the order of the day, and am there to make sure things run smoothly. However, I can do the majority of the planning if needed as well. It's a great job when you have the summer off and plenty of time to dedicate to planning these weddings.
If you know of anyone who needs help planning a wedding or just needs somewhere there to take the brunt of the questions/stress of the day, please let them know about me! I do not charge a lot since I'm just starting out and am pretty flexible.
Just trying to get the bug out in people's ears...

10 Things I'm Good At

Here's another 10 on Tuesday List.
Here's my list of
10 Things I'm Good At:

1. Teaching
2. Cooking
3. Untying knots

4. Singing

5. Writing (letters, notes, papers, essays, etc.)

6. Math

7. Remembering details (photographic memory)

8. Staying neutral (seeing both sides of the argument)

9. Loving Mark

10. Planning weddings

Plus, here's 2 things that I want to be/am working on being good at:

1. Listening more than I speak

2. Leading others

Em did her list as well. You can find it here.

Update: New Floor

I just thought I'd update on the progress of Mark's music room. Since we're doing everything on our own, it is taking some time, but the room is coming along nicely. As I said before, we're re-doing Mark's room as a birthday gift to Mark. He celebrated his 24th birthday on May 4th and while the room is not done, we have put down the floors. Jen donated her old floors and now they are part of our house. I think the floors really make the room look great. We still have the crown molding, curtains, and new furniture to put in, but those are all minor and we'll get them done when we have a free weekend.

A First Time for Everything

Guinness had a few "firsts" recently. Guinness had his very first trip to the vet because of his eye (you can see it in one of the pictures below). His third eyelid has flipped up developing a "cherry eye" which is actually very common in bulldogs. He'll be having surgery pretty soon to fix his eye, but Guinness did great for the vet. He was definitely a trooper. And when they weighed him we found out he is just over 45 pounds (what a chunk!)

Guinness also had his very first ice cream. We took him to Bruesters on Mark's birthday and they give dogs a free doggie treat. It's basically vanilla ice cream with a dog bone in it. Guinness LOVED it! He ate every bit of the ice cream, then saved the bone for last, then took his cup with him wherever he went. It was really fun to watch. His love for ice cream definitely comes from his mom's side of the family.

Guinness also made a new buddy. He has a new dog friend named Dozer who belongs to one of my co-workers. Dozer is only 9 weeks so Guinness feels all big and tough standing next to him, but whines when Dozer leaves. I'll put some pictures up next time they get a chance to play together.

Baseball Park Tour

Alright, due to a lost camera cord, a dead computer, and lack of time, I am just now getting pictures up from my Spring Break trip with Emily (1st week of April). For the record, teachers enjoy Spring Break as much, if not more, than the kids. We traveled to Cleveland, Chicago, and Cincy for Opening Week of baseball. I'm just going to include a few pics from Cleveland and Chicago.

On the bus in Cleveland heading to the game

Opening Field at the Jake

Downtown Cleveland

Bet you overlooked me! Traffic in Chicago

Trying to manuever through the mess of cars.

I'm glad I had such a wonderful co-pilot

Keepin' it classy while waiting at the bus stop

On the subway into downtown Chicago for some Chicago-style pizza.

Cloud Gate aka Giant Metal Jelly Bean

The best dessert I've ever had. A giant chocolate chip cookie baked in a deep dish pizza pan with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, and hot fudge. Kinda amazing!

I can now say that I've been to Wrigley Field. This is huge to me!

It was SO cold at Wrigley Field...but worth every second of it.

We had a great time and we got to see lots of fun things in a small amount of time. Next time, I hope to be in Chicago when it's a little bit warmer but it definitely did not disappoint. Overall, a great time!

Happy Mothers Day!

I chose this video as a tribute to all Moms on Mothers Day. I don't say thank you enough to my Mom for all the years she has been there for me and all of the hard work and love! I can't even adequately put into words what my mom means to me. I love her more than she'll know and she is one of my best friends. Thank you Mom for everything and I love you!!!!

To all my friends who have new additions to their families or are expecting, Happy Mothers Day! Congratulations on making it through the year and keep up all of the hard work! I hope you all have a wonderful day!

To all my friends who are still without little ones, make sure you show your mom some love today!



I got this video from Ami's blog. Have a Happy Mothers Day Ami!

10 Places I'd Love to Travel To

Emily and Cameron have both featured the 10 Things on Tuesday blog and I've been reading it on occasion looking for a topic that really interested me. This week, the topic was "10 Places You’d Love to Travel To (That You Haven’t Gone to Yet)" and seeing that I live to travel, I thought this one was the most appropriate for me. Basically, one of my goals in life is to visit all 50 states and each continent (I'd be alright if I couldn't get to Antarctica) with Mark. But I figured for this blog's sake I'd be a bit more specific. So....here we go (in no particular order).

1. Africa-I am fascinated with the strong, rich culture especially the music and dance. I would love to go on a safari also while there.

2. Spain-I love Spanish culture, but I've only been able to experience South American culture. My brother-in-law went a couple years back and I was so envious of all of his pictures and stories.

3. Hawaii-I think everyone wants to go here at some point or another. I would like to see the black beaches and take a long bike road along the volcano roads.

4. San Francisco-I've always thought the bay looked awfully fun.

5. Israel-I think it would be so exciting to know I was walking down some of the same roads that Christ did thousands of years ago. What could be better than that?

6. Colorado- I want to skiing on the Rockies.

7. Grand Canyon- I want to enjoy the sheer vastness of the canyon.

8. Germany- There is so much history in Germany! I would love to go over and study all of the history. Also, I'd like to be able to say I drove on the Autobahn.

9. Switzerland- My Grandma's side of the family comes from Switzerland. I love to study some of my family history while visiting the Alps!

10. Ireland- Was this a surprise? Hopefully this will happen sooner than later. I just want to rent a car and travel all through the countryside and stay at little bed and breakfasts along the way.

RIP Computer

Our computer is officially dead!

The IT guy was able to save the pictures off of my old hard drive right before the entire hard drive crashed. Right now, we're looking for a new PC tower (since we already have a monitor, keyboard, etc.). Until then I'll be bringing my work computer home on the weekends so I can hopefully update a little more often.

Paranomia

The other day I mentioned my brother's movie at the College Movie Festival in Cincy. His movie was recently put onto YouTube and I thought I'd include it on my blog.

Keep in mind he wrote, filmed, and edited this movie in 4 days. I think it's really well done and I am amazed that this is even possible for a person to do in such a short amount of time. That takes so much creativity!

I'm a proud sister!

Out Indefinitely

As I mentioned in the previous blog, my computer is out of commission. Therefore, I may not get to update my blog as often as I'd like in the next week or two. Bear with me and I'll be back before you know it!

College Film Festival

I haven't blogged in a while because our computer is out of commission. We are just trying to save the pictures I have reserved (these are ALL of my pictures). I'm really hoping we can save them!

Anyway, last weekend our family went to see my brother's film that he entered into the Cincinnati College Movie Festival in Covington, KY. He had 48 hours to write the script, 48 hours to film, and 48 hours to edit the film. His film had to be no longer than 6 minutes and there were other requirements that each film had to have: a fashion magazine as a prop, a character named Mia Michaels that is a barista, the line "Do you have that in a size 6?" delivered by Mia Michaels, and someone saying "I'm ready for the next step". I thought all of this was really interesting.

Daniel had the "mystery" genre which is pretty tough to do in 6 minutes or less, but his film was really good (and I'm not just saying that because he's my brother). The film involved a barista who was dealing and using her drugs, a hit man, and betrayal and there was a definite Edward Norton in Fight Club feel to it. The professionals even said that the script was one of the favorites.

Daniel's film didn't win, but I think it was well received. He entered as a junior when most of the others were seniors so he had to deal with poorer equipment. I'm so proud of him taking the chance and doing so well! He's great at what he does! I can't wait to see his film next year.


ALSO, FYI, THIS IS MY 100TH BLOG!