Just a quick thought...

Last night this awesome girl randomly called me out of the blue.

(picture from her 5th grade graduation in May)


She was calling to wish me a belated happy anniversary since her cell phone was dead on our actual anniversary so it couldn't remind her.

This meant a lot to me. First of all I rarely get phone calls from ANYONE, the only person great about calling me is my Dad, I've been told that I am the type of person that will keep people in touch, the "party planner" and "family reunion organizer".  Adrielle isn't always a super chatty girl and didn't normally call me when we lived in Kentucky. BUT last night we talked for over 12 minutes on the phone it was wonderful.

She told me all about the billions of camps she's been to this summer, all the sports she's been doing (this is amazing to me) and all the fun she has been having this summer. I am so glad that she is keeping busy! She also mentioned that she misses me, and I could tell, she was the chattiest I have ever heard her. I loved every second of it. I feel so bad that I can't be there for her as a mentor any longer but I hope that we are able to keep up our phone relationship and hopefully the next time I'm in Lexington I'll be able to see her sweet face!

Miss you Adrielle! I hope your summer continues to be awesome and fun-filled! Love yoU!

***just a quick note before I head into work***

The New house Tour!

Since the only visitors that we have had to the new casa have been Michael's parents, the Larsons, and some of our Columbus peeps I think it might be appropriate to do a new house tour!

What do you think?

Well I'm gonna do it! Even if you don't care, its my way of documenting/journaling this whole new experience!

So this will be in super random order because it took me approximately..um...forever to download all these pictures!

Here is the 1 full bath in the house. Yes only one full bath, I think we will be able to manage. And hopefully our visitors will be able to too! Our shower is tiled, the floor is tile as well and the counter top is new. Also a pretty awesome feature only in the bathroom is the "in-between the windows blinds"

 This is the super meh room. So lets just get it out of the way. When we moved in it was green and yellow stripes (a kids room). Well we decided to paint it the same color as the rest of the house. It isn't working. Like at all. that's why there are about a million different things going on with the room cause we were trying to make it work. 2 different bedspreads, random wall art, curtains (room gets hot too). We have no idea what to do with this room, it has our old dark bedroom furniture in it. Any suggestions? cause this room is just darn bleck!

 Oh the one awesome thing about the room still?! We haven't taken down the ah-mazing girafee light switch. OH and we also have light green ABC drapes if anyone is in need of them, they are very nice however I do know my ABCs and don't need a constant reminder!

 Here is one of my favorite rooms, our bedroom! Our room has 3 nice windows, 2 closets (his and hers), and plenty of space. So much space that we brought our old living room chair up to fill in the void and it goes nicely. However, now we need a replacement chair for our living room tee hee. Do you like our new bedroom furniture? Cause I Love it!! OH and we didn't have to paint anything in the house except for the baby room. pretty awesome!

 Opinions --- do you think we need a rug for the room? Right now I think it's fine but wasn't sure on what was proper. The dust bunnies do like to hangout under the bed, i wouldn't like to evict them! :)

 Here is the "third" bedroom on the second floor. It is an office. I'm sure you could make it a bedroom if you'd like. There is SOOOO much storage in this room! When you walk in to the left is a window seat with storage and huge cabinets!

 The room also has huge bookshelves! We don't have a ton of books so we put our UK memorabilia, graduation programs, and other random novelties to fill in the spaces...We aren't super keen on the tiny glass desk but since we just bought a house a new desk is defiinitely not at the top of our priority list, it'll do for now!

 Another awesome room in the house...the sunroom! The sellers left their wicker furniture which saved us from an empty awkward pretty visible room. We love this room, and our scripture wall art given to us at our wedding and the stained glass window work perfectly in here! We love chilling out here and talking or reading a book or whatever!

 The dogs stand here a lot...let us out let us out!

 The view of our patio from the sunroom with our new, very orange patio set. We were frightened about the orange color at first (the brown version of this was $100 more, silly? Why yes!) but I think it really works fine! It looks super orange in this picture for some reason that, i promise in person it is not THAT orange!

 Moving on to the dining room, this is coming from the sunroom, directly across is the kitchen which has a cool swinging door! To the left is the living room!

 An amazing feature in this room? Built in china cabinet! And lucky us, we happened upon some china for free from one of Michael's great aunts! I think it's pretty nifty!

 Into the kitchen we go! Gas oven, with bottom drawer cooking ability, however I have no idea what you cook in that drawer, do you? The stove also has a long middle burner with a griddle, fancy! This kitchen has a ton of storage too! The door to the left exits to the 1 car garage

 Huge sink and more counter space

 Fridge, key hanging, and to the left of the fridge is what we use as our pantry! So weird/nice to finally have one unlike our old house!

 Tiny itty bitty half bath off the kitchen before leading into the basement. I love the tiny window in this room!

 Here is our half finished basement. Currently our ironing board lives down here and apparently also a random backpack. The cabinets are built ins with MORE storage! Sadly we do not have the proper size tv, need a 37 inch OR any furniture to go down here yet, but that's why we have dreams people! Since the room is basically hidden away it doesn't bother me that much, but Michael REALLLLLY wants his man cave. One day hubs!

 Our beautiful new washer and dryer...and yes the washer is on ghetto wooden boards to keep it balanced, we should probably cut those sometime soon!

 The dog's cages are in the unfinished part of the basement, it is pretty cool in temperature down here and I think they like it. Plus it keeps the dog fur level down a bit along with the doggy smell!

 And look ya'll even more storage space!

 And now we have jumped back up to the living room!

See our beautifully mounted tv over the gas fire place?! This job was quite a task but my professional hubby was able to do it. We are in the process of ordering cord hiders because they are slightly out of control!

 Here is our furniture situation...see that space where we need a chair or something? we have no idea what size furniture to put there, our old chair wouldn't really fit since it had an ottoman, so we probably need something without that. Also, we need a rug, definitely in process, kinda a drab part of the house.

 HOwever I do LOVE the front door, it's soooo pretty and has a really nice storm door that Willis thoroughly enjoys looking out of! Do you see where the 4th of July wreath is hanging? That's our mail slot, one of the things I thought was super cute about the house!!!

 And look the photo stairway has returned from Gray Hawk. I Love personal pictures so I begged and pleaded my handyman to return our wall of glory to our Worthington home! He's so awesome!! Finishing touches at the top!

And there ya have it folks! Our new house which we honestly love love love. If you asked us (after being here for about a month) what we didn't like about the house I'm pretty sure we would have a hard time determining what that would be!

Time Together

Although it is not quite our anniversary yet (June 26th) Michael and I did our celebrating a little early. However, I fully believe that we will celebrate it on its actual day as well. The main reason for the early celebration? Well, Mr. Michael started his first day of residency (well orientation for a few days) on June 20th and I knew he would be busy for...well...errrr.... the rest of his life. So I planned a surprise. I was determined to keep it a surprise too!

About 2 weeks ago Michael had mentioned that he had purchased my anniversary gift. *GASP*, Michael planned ahead AND had beat me to the purchase of the gift. DANG BOY! Well that got me thinking about what I was going to get him. I wanted it to be something fun and something he would be able to use. Then I remembered that he loved the Cleveland Indians as a small child and since we are now conveniently located in Central Ohio the city of Cleveland isn't truly that far away! Then I looked at the schedule, geez, of course we hit the time where the team was basically out of town for forever, except there was one day that I could make work...a monday night. We both had no plans. I would make this happen!

So I purchased 2 tickets to the 7:05 game in Columbus. Lucky us it was the Ohio showdown games -- Indians vs. Reds -- so it would be an exciting game! I went all out -- for me -- in my ticket purchasing and got us tickets in the 5th row. Ok 5th row like in right field, but still, we were sooooo close!

Anywhoooo...after the purchase of the tickets I realized that Cleveland is a little over 2 hours away so that would make for a late night, so I got us a cute little room to stay the night in so we could enjoy our last carefree days together! (I took Tuesday off to spend time with Michael).

So now we are to Monday, June 18th. I leave work at 3:30 and plan to get on the road by 4:30. Michael has no idea what we are doing. Well he actually thinks we are either A) going hiking since I asked about hiking places near columbus on Facebook or B) going hang gliding (michael saw i groupon for it, um hello why would I choose to risk his life before he starts work?!). I tell Michael to put his shoes on while I change and sneakily pack a bag for him with an Indians shirt and overnight stuff. We head out the door.

The slight problem we had was that we have 2 dogs. 2 dogs that do not have thumbs or the ability to pee in toilets that would need to be let out since we were staying the night. OH and did I mention we live in a new city where our super supportive family in Lexington and NKY do not live? Oh and where we have a grand total of maybe 8 friends?! So I schemed a bit. Our awesome and totally helpful next door neighbors that I already love to death had mentioned helping us with our dogs if we need it. the thing is I was at work that day when I determined we were going to be doing an overnight visit. Planning fail. AND I didn't have their phone numbers. Plan devised -- tell michael I MUST talk to the neighbors and send him over for their phone number. Michael was super awkward about it and told our neighbor's recently high school graduated son that "Ashley needed his number" ...too cute! Well i called and called once I received the number but to no avail. This is when I came to my last resort and called some of our newer friends and left voicemails begging that if our neighbors couldn't watch the dogs that maybe they could.

With my fingers crossed for some sort positive reply, we put our dogs in the cage (Michael still doesn't know where we are going or that we are staying overnight somewhere). I secretly hope and pray that we don't have to return to 2 dogs that have massive potty issues or bladder infections and we head out.

Once on the road the sky begins to turn dark, REAL dark. You know, just my luck. Michael continues to say that this is my fault. That I always bring the rain. He is still thinking we are doing the activities I mentioned above, which could be terrifying to do in the weather that we were currently driving through. Although a baseball game can't really occur during this weather either. We ended up driving at least an hour through monsoon style rain and lots of lightning while Michael complains about being starving. Since he told me what he thought we were doing I told him we couldn't stop and eat cause I didn't want him to barf when in reality I just wanted him to save his appetite for a big ol' hot dog and a beer (see i was looking out for him!).

During our drive our neighbor called me back. I had to be super vague and tell him I had to call him back in like an hour. Michael was like um what was that!? I didn't wanted to reveal the secret! So once Michael knew the plans I was able to call the neighbor back and we had a dog watcher! YIPPEE!!

By the way, while it is monsooning I am moderately freaking out. Super depressed that our plans would be ruined. When we are 30 minutes outside of Cleveland we have to make a gas station stop. OH and Michael had to drive his car over the 100,000 mile mark. (Michael is a car guy and was very excited about this).

While we were stopped we were both getting grumpy and complain-y cause we were so hungry so we split a package of poptarts! :) Since Michael was now driving he needed directions and once i informed him to get on I-90 he figured out we were going to the Indians game! He was pretty excited and surprised! I also told him we'd be staying the night! fun fun!

Amazingly, once Michael started driving the skies instantly cleared and the sun came out and it was perfect. I mean really weather?! We parked in and skipped into the game with beach towels in tow (luckily we had them in the car) to wipe off our seats.

Michael has been to this ballpark before but it was my first experience there and it is a pretty nice park if I do say so myself! We walked around a bit then took our seats! We were pretttty close! As we were sitting there, Brandon Phillips from the Reds came out to take pictures and sign autographs. It was pretty cool to see him so close up!

Since we were finally settled in Michael went to grab some food while I was finally able to relax about the whole surprise thing! He returned with a hot dog, brat, fries smothered in nacho cheese in a baseball cap, popcorn, and a beer! hahah it was baseball food heaven! We woofed down our food while enjoying the great game!

Seriously though, I think this was my first professional baseball game that I have watched with full attention for its entirety! The game was so intense and pretty high scoring with hits happening left and right and a good amount of home runs! And the park was basically filled with half Indians and half Reds fans so the noise level was awesome at all times! The Indians had michael worried at some points but they ended up pulling out the win! Super exciting!

Oh and did I mention I almost died at the game? We were sitting along the foul line and a batter hit one, I ducked into a ball and it slammed into the guys shoulder that was about 2 inches from me. It was basically like a line drive, the ball ricocheted off his shoulder and flew back 5-10 rows! He instantly bruised, so glad that wasn't my face! Michael said he was glad he didn't grab for it or he might have broken his hand...not to worry about my poor face! :( haha!

After the game we headed to our hotel which was a pretty sweet random find. I found it on expedia and it was called the Glidden House located on Case's campus. The hotel was a mansion built in 1910 and it was super cute! Breakfast in the morning was delicious too!

My favorite part?! The massive bowl of fresh strawberries and blueberries! yum - o !

On our way home we stopped by some outlets -- yes this is super exciting --- I bought some running shorts -- even more exciting --- and Michael bought a polo from the polo store!

And there you have it! Our anniversary celebration! I believe that we both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves which is spectacular! Hopefully I didn't bore you to death!

April Resolutions and May goals

Hey friends! I'm still out here don't you worry! And yes, I am still trying to keep up with my New Years resolutions. I have been slightly failing at a good amount of them but I thought it'd be good to do a little recap.

Goal #1:
Try to cook something new a each week.

Ok, this is a fail. However, 2 weekends ago I made a new homemade dog treat recipe. Michael made a new tasty spinach, garlic and chicken lasagna recipe a week ago too. So we are randomly trying to cook new things. But with all the busy season work, buying a house, preparing to sell a house it seems like a bad idea to go out and stock up our kitchen since we will be moving at the end of the month! I would like to try some new recipes though, definitely in a food rut!

Goal #2
Sub 1:50 the Derby Mini marathon

stole this picture from Andrea. From left to right. Michael's Dad Greg (ran his first full marathon in 5:10), Andrea (PRed her 2nd half marathon by 7 minutes, how awesome!), Michael (ran the full in 3:50), Me (half marathon, 1:52), Jeff (Abby's husband who ran his first half marathon, Abby ran with us last year but is super cute and preggo this year!)

Oh look another excuse. I did run the half marathon however I did it in 1:52...wah wah. I was glad though that I did not walk at all. In my training runs I had been mixing it up with running and walking but I did not let myself walk at all even though my hip and knee joints were screaming at me. I realized looking back at my derby post from last year that I did it in 1:59 so i guess it's an improvement but my overall PR is a 1:52 at the Indianapolis mini marathon.

Chip Time was 1:52

Michael ran the full marathon and did it in 3:50. He is now being crazy and wanting to PR a half marathon and is looking for a race to run in May or June. I think we now may be going to Chicago for their half in June. Now the question is do I put myself through the torture of training alone. Which I despise, guys, I get super lonely, and then negative, all in order to get a PR or do I just go and support?! Opinions?! Anyone wanting to train if I decide to continue on since I'm already in the running shape?

Goal #3
Try to complete a book a month.

January - The Hunger Games Series
February -"Is Everyone Hanging out with Me?" - By Mindy Kaling
March - nothing ...fail...busy
April - Wicked

Reading Wicked last week while eating Michael's lasagna!

I finally sat down and dug into Wicked at the beginning of last week and ended up flying through the 400 page book in a week! Glad I made my April goal before the month was over! Now to pick a new book to read....

Goal #4
2 date nights a month with the hubby

I'm pretty sure it was April when Michael and I went out to dinner at Merrick Inn, we also went to the theater (which is rare for us) and saw 21 Jumpstreet last month. I know there were a few other times that we did activities, like getting massages together. Now we must work on setting actual real date nights, not just turning a night into one. Although i'm afraid that once Michael starts working this may be near impossible :(

Goal #5
Choose Optimism

I can say that this is true. The night before the half I was very anxious as usual. But as I was laying in bed trying to sleep I just kept talking myself up, encouraging myself that I had trained hard and that I could do this run no problem. I can say I chose joy!


A couple of Goal for May:

1. Ride this baby more often. I LOVE traveling via bicycle. I must make the effort to ride my bike more often! -- I rode it to the gym yesterday and was reminded how much I enjoy doing that!

2. Reduce sugar intake. Beach vaca is right around the corner and honestly I consume WAY too much sugar, even at breakfast I'll sneak in some jelly beans or a cookie after I eat my cereal. So this month I will attempt to reduce my dessert each meal way of life and limit my self to special occasions and fun times with friends! That means I shouldn't be enjoying ice cream cones like this one that I got while in Louisville for training and hanging out with my brother. Also doesn't help when Michael's mom gives us a bag of jelly beans, which I have an official addiction to.

Less of this:
 
More of this:

 

And of course to keep up with my other goals. 

So there's that, a little review of my goals and my progression! Hope your goals are being achieved as well!

Columbus - Our new home

Well there was my post about Lexington. And I'm still sad about it. BUT exciting things are too come in a couple short months/weeks. Do we want to learn about Columbus, Ohio now?!

Well obviously since I've never lived there before and been there maybe a total of 3-4 times (1 for shopping, 1 for fireworks, twice looking at houses) I can't really give you a ton of things like I did for Lexington but I can give you a bit AND the internet will help me out a lot too! :)

We can start with this though. Here is what our house looks like! Its in a super quaint town/area and I'm very excited about living here. Still waiting on a couple of loan things to go through and the fixing of a couple items noted in the inspection. Our lovely little house was built in 1940 and has a picket fence and a yard! :)

1. COSI - What is COSI? No, not the restaurant. Only the coolest field trip location for an elementary school student and everyone else too. We went to COSI once in elementary school and it was epic. It's a science museum, a VERY interactive science museum. I can't wait to take Michael there. SO FUN to get your hands on everything!

2. Ohio State University ?! - Yes, being a large UK fan does not make me happy to be moving to a city with a large powerhouse school. BUT it is pretty exciting to be living in a town that LOVES their football season. So maybe OSU football and UK everything else, especially basketball! I definitely think it will be fun to be involved with OSU, especially since we already understand how to be hardcore fans!

3. Easton & Shopping

4. More and more food - from what I hear they have more vegetarian and vegan options in Columbus. Not that I'm either but that definitely makes it sound like the restaurant scene is a tad bit more diverse than Lexington. However I will be missing my country southern cookin' of Lexington!
5. Running Trails! - The handful of times Michael and I have been to Columbus we have taken notice of the running/biking trails that seem to be everywhere and booming with people. Apparently the Olentangy trail is 13.75 miles long, starting in Worthington Hills and ending in downtown Columbus! Can't wait to give that a try!!
6. Arena District - This area was recently built and is pretty snazzy. My friend Drew also works in this area and there are areas to live. The Hockey team is housed in this area along with concert venues and the minor league baseball park. The area is pretty awesome and apparently used to be  the Ohio Penitentiary.

7. The North Market - Our friends Drew and Catherine took us to the North Market when we originally came to visit. This place is awesome and reminds me of a downsized version of Seattle's market. A year-round farmer's market/eatery sounds good to me! :)

8. the Olentangy River and the Scioto River - growing up down the road from the Ohio River I became used to being around rivers. Lexington doesn't have any major waterways going through. Columbus has 2! And they both have funny names!
9. Festivals - From what Michael and I have read there are some great festivals in Columbus. I have been to their red, white and boom 4th of July fireworks show and it's pretty impressive. Also something I'm looking forward to is the Ocktoberfest held in German Town (super cute area of Columbus!).
10. Professional Sports Teams - Professional sports teams in Hockey, Soccer and a minor league team. That's a tiny bit of a leg up when compared to Lexington, which has no professional teams, well, unless you count our UK basketball team :)
11. Concerts - Something that Lexington often lacks is a large amount of concert options. Columbus has venues of all sizes and attracts a lot of the musicians I enjoy! I will most definitely be attending more concerts in Columbus!
12. Columbus Zoo - Jack Hanna originally worked at this Zoo! And who doesn't love the zoo? ! i love animals obviously. In 2009 this zoo was named the #1 Zoo to visit!
13. Buckeyes Candy - the perfect combination of chocolate and peanut butter! Yes it's slightly embarrassing for OSU's mascot to be a nut, but I will fully support the candy version! :)
14. OH and the reason we are moving to Columbus --- Riverside Hospital! Where Michael will be working!

Annndddd that's all i've got for now. Do you have anything to add? I'm sure i'm missing out on major attractions/events/etc.

Fill me in, I want to know more!