Cleveland Indians and High Winds

So yesterday Tim and I traveled up to Cleveland to see the Indians play. It was a really nice day out, albeit a little hot but we had a good time. Our seats were great and they got better as the game progressed to the point where at the end of the game we were sitting directly behind the visitors’ dugout in the front row. Alas, the Indians did not fare well and the ending score was 3 to 13. Oh well, it was still a fun outing for the day.

As we were leaving the game a storm started rolling in and while there was no rain, it was VERY windy on the way home. Winds averaged 40 to 50 mph with gusts up to 75! It was a little bit of a challenge to keep the car within the dotted lines, but we succeeded. We stopped at one point to eat at Applebee’s, however before we got our food the electricity went out, so we had to leave early without having much to eat!

When we got home, it was definitely a sight to see. As we go close we noticed all traffic lights in the area were out and billboards and signs were all blown over and damaged. As we entered our neighborhood there were trees down and branches everywhere! We were happy to see that our home had been spared but the yard was a mess! I have included a few pictures to show several large trees and houses close by that did not fare so well. We currently don’t have electricity along with about 350,000 other people in Central Ohio. So hopefully it doesn’t take all week like they have predicted to come back on. Until then we will live by candlelight J (Tim does have the generator running to keep our refrigerator and freezer running and keep a lamp on in the house!)

Wedding Gift Registries

Hey, anyone that really wants to know, Tim and I have finally registered for the wedding. It was fun but not without a few mishaps along the way. Just one story about it. When we went to register for Kohl’s we spent about 2 hours there and when we finally went to upload everything we had scanned, nothing uploaded. Soooo, we had left, very frustrated with only 5 things on the registries. I eventually went online and signed up for a few things and spent another hour or so in the store, but that first time was a huge waste of time! I have included links to each of the registries below. Please let anyone know that asks. Thanks!

Bed Bath & Beyond
http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/regGiftRegistry.asp?order_num=-1&wrn=%2D1488717903&

Crate & Barrel
http://www.crateandbarrel.com/Gift-Registry/Guest/ViewRegistry.aspx?grid=4227959

Kohl’s
http://www.kohls.com/upgrade/gift_registry/kohlsgrw_registry_view.jsp?ATR_KOHLSGR_JSP_EVENT_TYPE=0&giftRegistryID=1096533&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374752622846&bmForm=grw_search_registry&bmFormID=1221081360901&bmSubmit=OPEN&bmUID=1221081360901&bmHash=b1a1069a2b41fd8c2bef6e34558c3902ca1790b7

Wal-Mart
http://www.walmart.com/giftregistry/gr_detail.do?registryId=20982568001

Engagement Photos & Wine :)

Just wanted to let you all know that Tim and I got our engagement photos taken on Sunday. A classmate of ours, Laurie Bouillon, has started her own photography company and we decided to support her business and get our photos out of the way! So we went to the Tiffin Developmental Center and took a bunch of pictures outside. It turned out to be a pretty successful day and Laurie posted them on her website. Anyone that wants to check them out can go to http://www.lbportrait.com/ and click on "Galleries". From there you will see a link to Tim and Danielle where you will be able to view our photos. We haven't ordered any yet, so if anyone is interested in having any or has a favorite let me know!

Also quick note, I went to the annual Kimmet reunion this past weekend. Every year at the reunnion we have an auction of sorts where items are donated and then we bid against each other. There is a lot of fun competition and it helps to raise funds for the family. I decided to bid on a great item this year and after enduring a long bidding war with Kathy Spero, I finally won my prize. See picture below :)

Over the Last Month...

Ok, so over the last month a lot has happened (as usual) so I’ll just briefly go over what Tim and I have been up to.

Girls’ Day Out (Flower Girl Dress Shopping)
On July 18th Tanna and Emma came to Columbus (leaving the boys with Aunt Debbie for a day of swimming) to go flower girl dress shopping. I was very much looking forward to our day together and it turned out to be a very fun girls day. My mom and Aunt Sandy came along and we started out shopping at David’s Bridal. We picked out a few dresses for Emma to try on and of course she looked adorable in all of them. Emma went back for more and I think ended up trying on almost every flower girl dress they had. Her favorite part about trying the dresses on was the “mushroom effect”. She would fall to the ground and see how much the dress would poof up around her. We wound up stopping at one other dress shop and she was pretty much pooped at that point and when asked if she wanted to try on anymore dresses, she said no thank you. J We eventually made it to Easton and made a stop at Libby Lui’s where Emma got her first Hannah Montana t-shirt. My cousin Sarah met us there and we all ate a really yummy dinner at Brio. Overall it was a pretty long day that was a ton of fun. We’ll have to have more girls days real soon!

5 Year High School Class Reunion
Just days after my last post Tim and I had our 5-year class reunion. I had to help plan the event so with a lot of help from the other officers we pulled a great event together. A bunch of us got together on Saturday and went golfing which was a great time. I was on Tim’s team and we edged out the competition J. Later that evening we had dinner at Bubby’s and got to catch up with everyone. It really did turn out to be a lot of fun, and we ended the night sitting at J-Mack’s house passing around the homemade wine. A perfect ending to the reunion!

Wedding Planning/Updates
After the reunion I got right back to more wedding planning! I have been busy working on the invitations with A LOT of help from my family, especially Alicia who has done an awesome job in designing the invitations and my Dad who got the printer to work. My mom and I have also been working on decorations and flowers, so we have been over to Hobby Lobby and to Meadowbrook to get ideas for decorations. It was a big help going to Meadowbrook because it was set up for a wedding already by Special Occasions (our caterer) and Susie Tiell (our decorator). Tim was a good sport too and came along!

Vacation to North Carolina and 4th of July!

Tim and I both took some vacation time at the end of June and decided on a road trip to North Carolina. I know with gas prices this might seem a little crazy, but we got great gas mileage and the trip was a ton of fun. We left right after work on Friday afternoon and traveled until 2 am when we finally made it to the coast of North Carolina. We were meeting Chris and Sonya there so we could spend time at the beach on Saturday. I will admit that Tim did the majority of the driving on the way down there as I had a terrible time staying awake. No worries though I made sure to make up for it by driving my share the rest of the trip!

Our day at the beach on Saturday was eventful and relaxing. We all swam in the ocean a bit and laid out to soak up some rays. At one point there was some commotion and we realized that someone had been fishing and caught a shark! It happened to be a rather large shark (at least 2 ½ feet!) and kind of looked like a hammerhead. The man could not get the hook out of its mouth so Tim, of course saved the day. He ran and got some pliers out of the car and was able to remove the hook.

After we left the beach we drove back to Fayetteville and got to check out Chris & Sonya’s new apartment- Sonya of course had it decorated very cute. Once back we relaxed and played cornhole and just hung out. Of course we had to take frequent time-outs to apply aloe vera, as Tim, Chris, and I were all VERY sunburned…ouch!

On Monday, we left to head north and stop at the Schreiner’s in Advance, NC. We stayed until Tuesday and during our stay we got to visit the Childress Vineyards and Winery (including a wine tasting), play a lot of Nintendo Wii, eat some good food, and play a couple great games of Horse Thief. Not to brag, but yours truly did happen to win one of the games. :)

Overall we had a great trip and were able to relax and hang out the rest of the 4th of July week and weekend.

Tim playing the Wii (he was a pro!)

Tim playing "clean-up" games with the Schreiner kids

Pictures of the House!

Ok, so I know I have been MIA on the blogging for about 2 months, but I do have a few excuses, but they are just that, so I will not discuss here :) So, I'm going to move on and put a few posts up and I promise to try and keep more up to date throughout the rest of summer.

First I will post some pictures of the house. Since the last post we have been painting and working on the living room as well as some outdoor work on the flower beds and yard. We had a terrible time picking out paint. It took us quite a few weeks to agree on the paint colors and a lot of color swatches painted on the walls. Once we finally decided on the colors, we wound up changing our minds the morning we were going to paint over the primer in the living room. (I know, we could probably use a lesson in decisiveness :) ).

The other aspect of the living room is the TV. We purchased a 42” flat screen in November and since moving in to our house it has been sitting on the coffee table in front of the fireplace. After much thought and planning, Tim finally decided to make his own TV mount rather than purchasing one. He did a great job, and I’m happy to say that the TV looks awesome on the wall.

In addition to the pictures of the house, I went exploring around the lake in our neighborhood and took some great pictures. It’s really pretty beautiful and amazing that we living in Columbus but have such a beautiful area sculpted out.

I hope you enjoy the pictures and once again, sorry for the delay!

Hanging out with Michaela

Last weekend Tim and I stopped by Andy and Lori’s house so we could visit with Lori and Michaela (Tim’s God-daughter). When we got there I got to see Michaela’s new trick right away, which is that she has learned how to frown, and boy is she good at it! However, I found a few tricks to get her to smile, including playing with her baby-doll, or trying to feel her new teeth that are coming in. If you notice also, she really only frowns as she is sticking out her tongue :) Uncle Tim always has a great time playing with Michaela, usually crawling around with her getting into all kinds of toys, but for some reason he got very sleepy right after we got there. So of course he used Michaela’s doll as a pillow. However he did manage to play with her and she still had fun even when he was snoozing a bit. I had a great time catching up with Lori and getting to see the little one, she’s getting so big!

Alumni Dance

On April 5th Tim and I went to the New Riegel Alumni Dance and had a great time. It was at the American Legion and there was a pretty good turnout. There was also a band, the Fredericks Brothers from Carey, who played some really good music. There were quite a few of our friends from high school that we got to catch up with. Just thought I would post a few pictures. Next big event is the 5-year class reunion that I am helping to plan here in July! I can’t believe it’s been that long!

Updates: Skiing at Snowshoe & Trips to New Riegel

Ok, I am finally posting an update of everything that has been going on for the last few weeks. Things have finally slowed down at work, so I have had more time to spend with family and friends.


At the top of the mountain At the bottom - now snow!

The weekend of March 14th Aaron and I went skiing in Snowshoe, WV. We met Chris & Sonya and the Mack’s there as well. We only stayed one evening, but had a great time skiing and hanging out with everyone. It was pretty warm that weekend, so when we started skiing early Saturday afternoon it was very slushy and we had to avoid the occasional puddle. However, when we took a break in between day and night skiing it began to snow heavily. When we went back out an hour or so later the skiing was great with the new powder! That night we just hung out at the hotel and relaxed. Not to knock Snowshoe, but there are a few technology setbacks up “on the mountain”. First there is no cell phone reception within at least a 30 mile radius. Also, the hotel that we stayed in did not have computers to keep track of the reservations (just paper print-outs) and did not have any information on the ski rentals and lift tickets. We all had a good laugh about some these issues, but still had a great time overall.















The last two weekends I have been spending some time at home in New Riegel. The weekend of March 22 for Easter and the weekend of March 29 for Eric’s dinner show choir performance.

The girls (Brit & Alicia) came down to Columbus Friday evening and tried on and ordered their bridesmaids dresses for the wedding. Afterwards we went and got appetizers and dessert at the Melting Pot – a fondue restaurant – which was absolutely delicious.

The next day it was home for Easter. It was great seeing family for Easter and my family was finally all together since Chris and Sonya were home. We had a great dinner the Saturday evening before Easter and it seemed like everything was back to normal again (as normal as our family gets J). Tim and I were busy of course trying to get to all of our family gatherings, but the holidays are always a good time.

Last weekend I was home again to see Eric’s Show Choir performance. They were great, and it included Eric’s rendition of “Who’s on First”. My dad recorded the performance so I recommend for anyone that has not seen him do this, should definitely check out the video-it was great! The next day Tim and I had our follow-up meeting with the Priest to go over our marriage compatibility test that we took way back in December. So we placed bets on how well we did before we went in. I guessed 50%, as the Father Randy had said before most people average around 50%. Tim guessed 70%. So we went in and Fr. Randy was impressed that we got such a great score back. We averaged about 80% which was apparently one of the best scores he has ever seen. So as you can see wedding plans are going well. I will have another post sometime soon with wedding updates. As for the request for more house pictures they will be coming hopefully soon. We plan on painting soon and working on the landscaping, so as soon as some updates are done I will be posting more J

How To Post Comments

I took this from Sonya and Chris' blog, but I thought it might be helpful!

I know that some of you have tried posting comments on the blog unsuccessfully. Here are some notes that may help.First you click on the word "comments" on the bottom of the post you would like to reply to. This will take you to a screen where you can type your message (and read messages that others have posted). It will then ask you to type the letters shown in the box (some type of security thing) and then you can set up a Blogger account (pretty easy) or simply sign in as anonymous.You can also preview your comments before you post your message. This will show you how it will look and you can check out spelling.

Snowstorm 2008

We have been working on the house in Columbus ever since we closed in January and we are finally getting to a point where the rooms are coming together. Last weekend we worked on refinishing the wood floors in the bedroom and the dining room. Andy, Lori and Michaela came down to visit and the boys worked hard and got ALOT done. So after a week of letting the new floors dry, we wanted to get all the furniture moved in this weekend and get the house put together. So of course, we had 12 inches of snow this weekend! But, Tim came down to the house early on Friday afternoon so that we could get a lot done on the house, and to beat all the snow.

So, with all of the snow, we got to work and put all the furniture in the rooms. Tim also worked on the bathroom and put the new floor in. While we were waiting on the glue to dry in the bathroom, we shoveled all the snow out of the driveway and then after we had spent about 5 hours without a toilet (due to finishing the bathroom floor). Which means, we decided to brave the snow to head to Meijer's for some groceries and a trip to the bathroom :)

We finally got everything put back together including the toilet, so the house is coming together and is really starting to feel like home. See all the before and after pictures below!

Bedroom Before

Bedroom After

Bathroom Before

Bathroom After

Dining Room Before

Dining Room After

Welcome to the Park

Hi Everybody!

I decided to join the bandwagon and start a blog. I thought it would be a good way to keep everybody updated with our busy lives. And, give me something else to do - not that I'm busy or anything :) Since we recently bought a house in Minerva Park in Columbus, I'm sure there will be a lot of adventures in the new house. Check back every once in a while to see all the new adventures Tim and I have gotten in to!