Our 2011 in Review

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In January I began working part-time at job #1, the museum, after a bittersweet 4-month employment hiatus due to our wedding and subsequent move to Cincinnati. We got our nice new TV, and Ted’s parents came to visit us in Cincinnati for a long weekend.

In February we enjoyed a solid Packers Superbowl win. We watched the game at the home of some of our friends, who happened to be Steelers fans.

In March Ted had and recovered from knee surgery, we explored the town of Milford, celebrated St. Patrick’s day in style with green eggs and ham and beer-batter pancakes for breakfast, and I bought my awesome bike, Carmela.

In April we went to our first Cincinnati Reds baseball game and Ted’s parents came to visit us again. Cincinnati also nearly broke the rainiest month on record statistic. So much rain!!

In May my sister, brother-in-law, and nephews drove in from Chicago to spend a few days with us in Cincinnati. We showed them all our great city has to offer, including the Taste of Cincy festival, and we checked out a couple race horse farms and museums in Kentucky, including Churchill Downs. I started working part-time at job # 2 as the education outreach director for a neat Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky based dance company.

In June I flew home to Texas for a visit with my family, friends, and kitty. I gorged myself on heat and Mexican food and it was wonderful. Meanwhile Ted spent that week in Green Bay finishing up a road case building gig. I also drove to Chicago for a night to celebrate the birthday of my cousin Tammy.

In July Ted’s sister, brother-in-law, nephew, and niece came to visit us in Cincinnati over the 4th of July weekend. We took it easy, played Wii, and went to Coney Island for some rides, games, and fireworks.

In August we selected and put a deposit down on our new apartment and I started working part-time at job #3 (a professional theatre company). I turned 25 and Ted turned 32, and we cruised to Alaska for our long-awaited honeymoon!

In September I got a stylish update with new Coach glasses, we drove to Green Bay for the Packers home opener game against the Saints, and then to Door County for a perfect fall weekend together to celebrate our 1-year wedding anniversary (a little early!) in the place where we got married. I also started part-time at job #4, teaching musical theatre, and my new niece Halle Grace was born in Virginia.

In October we left behind our beloved first home and moved to our great new apartment. We spent much of the month moving, cleaning, unpacking, and organizing. We also celebrated our official 1-year wedding anniversary on the 22nd with a bottle of our wedding wine, the top layer of our wedding cake, and a sweet dance to our first dance song.

In November I cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner for just Ted and I. It was really nice to spend Thanksgiving together, just the two of us, and to start our own traditions. We watched the Packer game, relaxed at home, gave thanks for all our blessings, and enjoyed each other’s company. We also finished the long design process for our three wedding albums. They turned out amazing!

In December my musical theatre kiddos rocked out their final performance, we spent a glorious Christmas in Texas with my parents and sister’s family, and a little excitement rounded out my year when there was a small fire and subsequent mid-morning evacuation at job #1 on New Year’s Eve (everything was okay). Fun stuff!

And that was our 2011! It was a good year for us, and for this we are very thankful. I’m excited to usher in 2012, but will leave 2011 behind with fond memories of our first full year in Cincinnati as husband and wife. We’re hoping 2012 brings me one full-time theatre job that I’ll love, happiness in Ted’s job, more travel opportunities, and most importantly, the blessings of good health, prosperity, happiness, and appreciation for our many blessings for both ourselves and our dear families and friends.

What are you wishing for in 2012?

Happy NYE!

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An Innovative Solution

As a holiday “bonus” I received a free $50 gift certificate to the gift shop at the museum where I work on weekends to supplement my theatre income. I appreciate free as much as the next person, and I certainly don’t mean to sound ungrateful for a free gift, but Ted and I have had this thing for well over a month and we’re having a heck of a time finding something to spend it on. We have three gifts shops in the museum and we’ve each been in them all twice to try to figure out how we want to spend it. We’ve had no luck.

You see, we’re not “stuff” people. We don’t like to accumulate random clutter, ornaments, figurines, or other junk that we don’t need and will only takes up room in our apartment. We much prefer to live simply and spend our money on experiences, events, outings, destinations, necessities, or things we really do want.

The gift shops all have very nice stuff, but none of it is anything we particularly need. Lots of books, IMAX DVDs, science kits for kids, games, rocks and gemstones, jewelry and vases, t-shirts, etc. So, here we find ourselves, with $50 that must be spent by mid-January and nothing we’re aching to have, even if it is free.

As I see it, this leaves me with two options. I can spend it on fun/educational future birthday and Christmas gifts for our young nieces and nephews, or I can buy 75 prettily-colored rock candy sticks, hang them from our ceiling, and use them as an innovate decoration with which to fancy the heck out of our apartment for New Years Eve…the likes of this:

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They’re a pretty, innovative decoration and classy NYE bauble, easily accessible for a sugary snack fix, and they’ll look glamorous both hanging on a chandelier and jazzing up my glass of NYE bubbly. Then once 2012 has been properly rung in, they’ll make a tasty addition to my nightly dessert

I haven’t yet decided if I’m kidding or not.

Thoughts?

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Reasons to Smile

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Here’s what’s made me smile this week:

  • Sweet Siku, who I need to hold right now. Gah! His cute little tongue kills me every time!!
  • I’ve watched Bert the Cat multiple times on repeat. So funny.
  • The wedding album we designed and gave to our parents for Christmas turned out amazing and were absolutely loved by their recipients. Preview – or even buy if you’re feeling overwhelmed with awe and generosity! – our wedding album, wedding weekend album, or honeymoon album on Blurb. They’re even available in iBook format!
  • On Monday night we drove to Florence, Kentucky and treated ourselves to a feast of Famous Dave’s BBQ (mmm brisket…) and sweet tea. It was just about the best meal ever. Hit the spot after my long, insanely busy day at work! We even witnessed some excitement on the way there when a car and trailer carrying race horses collided at the intersection right in front of us. Horses and people, though shaken up, were all okay.
  • I won a wicked game of Monopoly (except it was the catopoly version, obviously) against Ted. This is huge because I never, ever win board or Wii games against the man, but this time I clobbered him! HA.
  • Reading everyone’s Christmas cards that arrived while we were in Texas. I love opening and enjoying lots of pretty cards and well-wishes all at once! It’s like wedding part 2!
  • Christmas presies! We are so appreciative of all the goodies from our sweet friends and family. I’ve already worn these amazing, comfortable, warm, and super handsome Sorel rain shoes that my parents got me for living in rainy Cincinnati. Love them. Ted gave me the choice of any two items off my wish list, and now I just have to decide which two I want the most! We’ve been marathon watching Ballykissangel, a hilarious 1990s Irish TV series, gifted to us from my sister and her family, and we’re both psyched to use our new biking water bottles when we make a bike trip this spring, among other awesome presents from the rest of our fam. And Ted finally got his nice authentic Packers jersey – a throwback uniform Charles Woodson one from me, and an engraved pocket knife from my parents. But the gift we enjoyed the most was spending Christmas in Texas with the people we love!
  • Saturday is New Years Eve, which means our tradition of staying in with lots of tasty eats, funny movies, a festive celebratory drink, and epic battles of Wii Party in our pajamas is ON, even if we’re in Cincinnati and our annual NYE dates (Ted’s sister and family) are in Milwaukee. That’s the joy of Wii – it connects over the internet so we can still play against each other and make it happen!
  • My sparkly blush and silver New Years Eve nails! I did them myself and they don’t look like someone gave a donkey glitter. It’s the small things in life :-)

  • We’re incredibly blessed to be warm, safe, dry, fed, employed, and loved this holiday season. And we all have each other. What better reason to smile?

What are you smiling about this week?

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Christmas Recapped

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Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! I hope you all enjoyed a warm, safe and blessed Christmas with your loved ones and are all geared up to welcome in 2012!

So, I know it’s been a while since I’ve blogged – 9 days – which is officially the longest length of time between posts since I started our little blog over 13 months ago.  Though I love blogging, I love spending quality time with my family and friends more. We so rarely have the opportunity to all be together relaxing, adventuring, or simply catching up on chatter and hugs that I cherish those moments when I can get my hands on them. Frankly, as soon as Texas for Christmas was on the agenda, blogging over Christmas was off the agenda.

But I’m back, and with plenty of pictures to share! As always, click to enlarge the photos.

We had a deliciously wonderful time in Texas. It was utterly relaxing and fun and full of love and appreciation and it gave us the warm-fuzzies all over.  Our family doctor gave Ted a steroid to help keep his Sancho allergy at bay, so he was able to actually enjoy his time in Texas with us instead of living in sniffly, sneezy, headachy, nose-blowing misery. My sister, brother-in-law, and two nephews made the drive down to San Antonio from Chicago for the week and we all loved being home with my parents for Christmas. Here were the highlights:

  • Going out to PoPo’s for a big, long, down-home family dinner together on our first night in Texas.
  • Lovin’ on and playing with my kitty.
  • Catching up with my girlfriends.
  • Scrabble marathons.
  • Sleeping in and luxurious mid-day naps.
  • Browsing the sweet little antiquey main street shops of Boerne with Ted and indulging in delicious FroYo.
  • Mowing down on Texas BBQ (the only BBQ worth eating) and a magnificent lunch of sandwich croissants and creme puffs at French Sandwich, my all-time favorite lunch eatery in San Antonio.
  • Introducing Ted to God’s gift to Texans – the almighty breakfast taco. It was a beautiful moment.
  • Christmas morning breakfast of cheese grits, eggs, sausage, bacon, breakfast tacos, french toast, biscuits and gravy, pastries, orange juice, coffee, and more at The Hungry Horse in Boerne – our annual Christmas morning tradition where proceeds benefits the Boerne EMS, fire department and other emergency services.
  • Mom’s home cooking – tortilla soup, French onion soup, white chili, queso dip, kiss cookies, guacamole, lasagna, broccoli cheese casserole, homemade meatballs and sausage, and lemon meringue pie made with lemons from mom’s lemon tree!
  • A scorpion under the Christmas tree. Ted’s Christmas wish was to see a real, live Texas scorpion. Wish = granted. That scorp knew a thing or two about great timing and opportune placement. The sneak was hiding beneath the tree, under the last present.
  • Our annual German firebowl party whereby our friends and family gather round for food and merriment while ladles full 100 proof southern comfort are set ablaze, poured over a cone of pure sugar, drizzled into a bowl of hot red wine mulled with oranges and cinnamon sticks, and served in sugar-rimmed glasses. Yeah, it really is just as awesome as it sounds.
  • Getting in the Christmas spirit with old vintage children’s toys and classic model trains at an eagle rescue sanctuary in the Texas hill country before heading deep into the heart of Old San Antone to enjoy the lights on the ever-beautiful River Walk and pay our respects to the Alamo.
  • Building a fire outside in the chiminea while downing mugs of hot mulled wine and watching Ted bound around the backyard with our neighbor’s long-legged, high-jumping, spirited, lab puppy Felix.
  • Ted and my dad reconstructing a part of my dad’s old HO-scale childhood model train set. Those trains haven’t run in over 50 years, so it was really incredible to see them pulling the boxes down from the attic, sitting on the floor taking apart the engines to check the motors, cleaning the tracks with steel wool, hooking up the wires, and watching those trains take their first chugs in half a century. Our favorite was the train car that shoots a helicopter into the air!
  • My mom and my nephew Lochlan baking Christmas cookies.
  • Decorating the tree and the house for Christmas with dad.
  • Christmas Eve mass.

 

         

         

         

         

         

         

         

         

         

         

         

         

         

         

    

Hope your Christmas was just as special!

In other news our upstairs neighbor was, apparently, gifted a BB gun for Christmas because he’s taken to hanging cheap silver ball ornaments from the bare trees outside and shooting at them and then not cleaning up the remnants. Super classy.

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The Card, 2011

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Happy Holidays to you and yours!

This year’s Christmas card!

Please excuse the shoddy photography and supremely poor editing, but I wanted to extend our well-wishes for a happy, healthy, and joyful Christmas season to all our friends as well!

Merry Christmas!

We have so very many blessings to be thankful for!

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A Taste of Christmas

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As promised…cookie pics!!

Eat your heart out.

Metaphorically, of course.

 

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A Late-Night Funny

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Please excuse the slightly inappropriate language, but this was too funny not to share.

(Click to enlarge)

Some days in Cincinnati, this is exactly how I feel. You should hear how I have to communicate with some of the kids I teach and some of the customers at work.

Hence why this is hilarious.

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Epic Success Friday

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Gotcha!

While my Friday posts are typically reserved for the sharing of the most epic of weekly fails, this week I don’t have much failure to share, which is a good thing indeed! Sure, there’s the usual suspects – poor parenting, unfortunate outfit choices, unbelievable driving habits, inappropriate signage, and a serious case of the stupids, but that’s pretty much run-of-the-mill Cincinnati, nothing spectacular or extraordinary per say. However, this week was sprinkled with a few epic successes that are simply too happy and relieving not to share. Tis’ the season for celebrating our blessings, after all. So, we’ll focus on those instead. (Also, I have been unable to snap a pic of my intended epic fail target, but rest assured, it is in the works.)

Success #1: Those darn cookies! I spent hours hunting down an ideal recipe selection, some traditional and some festive. I spent hours typing up sweet little recipe cards. I dragged poor Ted through the baking aisles of our local grocery store for at least 90 minutes hunting down every last ingredient, of which there were many. (This and quality check were Ted’s contribution to the project. He says Merry Christmas.) I baked for 7 hours. And they all turned out delicious and fairly good looking, if I do say so myself (pics forthcoming!)

Success #2: I was blogged! My awesome new Texas-native, Shakespeare-lovin’, fashion-forward, margarita-drinkin’ Cincy friend (Allyson, you will henceforth be known by this title) has a great blog that you really should bookmark and read regularly and she wrote about me! And my cookies! It was sweet and she shared the link to my blog with her faithful followers and I was giddy with surprise and appreciation for at least 2 hours afterwards.

Success #3: My musical theatre kids performance! It was last night and, as kids always do, they got it together and did so well! I am extra proud this time around because this is my first batch of Cincinnati kids and boy have I learned a lot about coaching acting and musical theatre from these guys! It’s a whole new approach when working with kiddos who are hungry, cold, tired, attention-starved, lonely, witnesses to violence or sadness, or live an otherwise tougher lifestyle. While my whole approach had to be adjusted, I maintained my high expectations because I believe that if you set your expectations high that they will rise to the occasion and appreciate the sweetness of their success and efforts even more. And they were so good! Really made me proud. I was also happy to have Ted and two others there to support me and to cheer them on in their performance.

Success #4: A lovely night out at our favorite Cincy Japanese eatery! I dined on boiled and salted edamame, miso soup, seaweed salad with ginger dressing, fried rice, teriyaki salmon, and the most delectable sauces in existence. It was so tasty and such a relaxing meal. Since I’d spent the entire previous day baking and didn’t really feel like cooking dinner, Ted treated me to a night out. It was awesome! They have a couples New Year’s Eve special, so we will probably be there again on NYE before our Wii and movie extravaganza of epic awesomeness begins.

Success #5: All Christmas packages appear to be arriving on time and I survived a trip to the post office during peak “you don’t want to be anywhere near this hellish establishment” season. Enough said.

Success #6: I have a fun little surprise up my sleeve for the husband tomorrow. Nothing big, just a little something to bring him some holiday cheer while I’m at work. Dudes deserve some ‘just because’ appreciation too. (If you’re reading this, it’s not a pie.)

And just as a friendly reminder, TEXAS IN 3 DAYS!

I. Know.

There is a certain orange tabby who has no idea what kind of a cuddle bomb is about to rock his world. I sure hope he is ready because the kitty-lovin’ that is going to be happening will be EPIC. I am also super excited for authentic Tex-Mex eats, some real Texas BBQ, and the FireBowl party! And, of course, I’m psyched to spend some quality time partaking in holiday merriment my family and friends! There is nothing more important to me then them.

What are your epics this week?

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Open Letters Thursday

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Dear Scrabble Gods,

I need a damn “u”!! If only you will grant me this one tile I can play the word ‘qualm’ with the Q landing on a double letter and the whole thing landing on a double word and it would also help me to finish off the word “mu” for a total of 60 points so I can finally whoop Ted in a game of Scrabble. Please give me a “u” and soon before that sneak takes my spot!

Sincerely,

One Away From Complete Domination

*******

Dear Holiday Baking,

Thanks for seeing me through 6 different batches and the baking of over 160 cookies on Tuesday. It was epic. And while you are all thoroughly delicious and will undoubtedly bring much tasty joy to my friends and family, please consider this my official resignation for the rest of the season. There is a limit and it has been reached. See you next December.

Sincerely,

Proudly Baked Out

*******

Dear Adorable Seal,

Read this. For real!? Some people have all the luck!

Sincerely,

Jealous and, Unfortunately, Seal-less in Ohio

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On a Monday Night

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I enjoyed an incredible salad of mixed greens, goat cheese, walnuts, dried cherries, and pears for dinner. You must try this combination immediately and then invite me over for dinner. Simple and savory hits the spot every time – no dressing required. It’s fantastic.

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We exercised our brains with a little Scrabble action, scrolled a photo montage of Eskimos, reindeer, and the magnificent northern lights in the snowy Lapland region of Sweden followed by a Globe Trekkers documentary on cruising to Antarctica (uh, hello bucket list x 2,000,000!), and capped off the night with a Charlie Rose show interview of Michael Boyd, Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, where I did my Shakespeare intensive study abroad program.

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Whimsical fabulosity on all accounts. How was your evening?

 

 

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