Liz's 24th Birthday

For Liz's birthday, Mel, Brian, Kyle and Liz went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Then everyone meet them back at their house to drink and hang out. It was a good time mostly, there was some drama involving one of Liz's friends from high school but I won't say what that was here. Liz also got a cake from Reeve's that Mel bought her.

Liz's Cake

Trent wanted cake too!

Me and the birthday girl

Me and Mel

Rob, Rachelle and Trent

Ben and me, he never looks happy to take a picture with me!

Brian being goofy with Mel!

Ben and Mel

Liz and Mel

Being silly

I'm home!

Well I've been home for a few weeks now, I've just been really busy! The trip went really well, minus the traveling! It was a nightmare - 4 out of 4 flight delays and my exhaust fell off my car on the way home from the airport! I

It was really hot and humid while we were there but it was beautiful. We were just a few blocks from the Alamo so that was neat to go down and visit that. The Riverwalk was just below the hotel and had plenty to choose from for restaurants and shopping so we had a good time exploring that. We had dinner Wednesday night with one of the people from Cardinal who we work very close with and all of our sellers. Thursday night we had dinner with all of our sellers at The Fig Tree which was along the Riverwalk. It was wonderful! I tried foie gras for the first time - YUCK! But at least I tried it. So many good memories form that night. We all got pretty drunk and topped dinner off with a flaming desert. And we topped the night off with a night cap shot - Sex on the Beach! See my pictures on facebook or myspace from the trip!

In other news, I'm still around 20 lbs for my weight loss but I haven't really been working on it all that much. I've just kind of been slacking and eating whatever. I need to get back on board though because I would like to lose another 10-15. But at least I'm staying the same and not gaining.

I went to Melanie's first doctors appt with her last week on Weds. She is too funny! She was so scared about everything! But she got through it and I think she is much better now that she has seen the doctor. Next Monday is her first ultrasound too and since i'm off I get to go with her so I'm super excited for that. I know this sounds mean but I hope we are the only two who are going.I think that would be a fun thing for me and her to share together. But we will see. I know her mom is not able to make it but she did invite Liz. I don't know if she will have the day off but she has been having a lot of Mondays off lately so maybe.

Ben is gone this weekend at the farm. All four of the boys (Ben, Brian, Kyle and Rob) went down to Ben's grandpa's farm - the one we were at for fourth of July. I'm glad they were able to pull it together because I know they have been wanting to get down there for a while together. So me and Melanie hung out last night. We had a good time - went to dinner and then to the mall to look at the Motherhood store that has maternity clothes in it. She just wanted to look around to see what they had. She doesn't need anything quite yet but she does feel like she is busting out of the clothes she has. She told me last night that she really finally "feels" pregnant and not just has a slight pouch. I'm just working on cleaning around the house though and doing laundry while Ben is gone. I'm off tomorrow and Tuesday since I still get a day off from work becuase of my 4 ten's so it should be interesting. So this week at work should fly and then Friday is my birthday so I'm excited for that! I don't know what we are going to do but I want to at least go to dinner then maybe everyone can just come back here to hang out afterwards.

We did find out that Ben's mom, Sue, will be coming home the first week of Novemeber. That's what she says now but we will see when the time comes. I do think she will come back but I just don't know how everything will work. I think she will be fine if she gets a job and gets into a routine and just doens't sit around the house all day. I am worried though because she will be pretty much staying with us until the house sells in Arizona and what if me and Ben want to try to start having a abby. Not sure how possible that will be with her here. I know we can find ways but still. It's just not as simple. But who knows when that will be, I was hoping for the end of this year/beginning of next year but we will see! :)

San Antonio Bound

Well I will be leaving on Tuesday for San Antonio for work. I am going there for a tradeshow for one of our distributors like I did back in May when I went to Daytona Beach. I'm excited because I'm going with another co-worker and all of our field people will be there! I can't wait to see all them, I don't think I've seen some of them since January! I'm VERYYYYY nervous about flying as I always am but hopefully everything will go ok. I don't know why but I hate flying (well I do...my birthday is 9/11 and I'm just not ok with flying really anymore). We do have a layover which makes things harder but I will be going with my coworker so he should keep me sane. I'm sure I will have lots of pictures when I come back on Saturday!

Not much else is going on...our A/C went out...plans are still in the works on what we are doing with that. All I can say is we are HOT. Luckily, Ben's aunt and uncle are out of town right now and let us borrow their window a/c while they are gone. And once htey come home we should be able to borrow his grandparents for another week to at least keep our bedroom cool. It's just miserable for our doggies though. I can deal with it, it's them I feel bad for :(

We are just taking everything else one day at a time, money continues to be a huge struggle (hence why the A/C thing is still in the works). I just keep prayin that one day it will be ok, and we won't have to worry about money. I feel like when we really need it though it is there so that's all I can be thankful for right now.

As far as my weight loss, I'm down around 19 lbs now. I slipped today some and maybe a little yesterday but it was hot and I needed ice cream! :) But I'm happy with where I am at and I am hoping to be able to watch myself while we are in San Antonio. If not, I will resume when I get back. I hope to be able to work out some while I'm there, most likely I will be indoors on the treadmill though! Its forecasted to be at least 100 or more the whole time we are there.

And finally, I forgot to post last weekend - my mom's birthday was Sunday! HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY MOM! We are going to have dinner here when it cools down!



Well, I need to get off here and finish packing! Have a great week everyone!

Kyle's Birthday

Here are some pictures from Kyle's Birthday - the first two are from dinner at Texas Roadhouse then the rest are from the crazy night we had at Kyle and Liz's house...

Liz and I

Mel and Liz at dinner

Mel and Ben

The girls <3

Liz and the birthday boy!

Hubby and me

Bri and Mel

Kyle and Mike

Really gone at this point...

Grandma Boyd's 70th Birthday Party

Below are some pictures from Grandma Boyd's 70th Birthday party that was a suprise! She loved it and it was really nice to have a lot of family there!

Ben with Ava and Maria

Giving Grandma her cake

Me and the hubby

The Boys

Uncle Otto and Grandpa Boyd

Hello Long Lost Blog!

So I haven’t written in a while but I need to do an update! Things have just been pretty busy since we got back from the 4th of July! First up was Nick and Lydia’s wedding on July 11th. It was a really beautiful wedding and I’m so happy for the two of them. After a beautiful honeymoon at Sandals, they are now in Michigan and enjoying it up there! Nick's job is based out of there and Lydia is working on getting a teaching job there since she just graduated with her Masters.

The next day we had Ben’s grandma’s surprise 70th birthday party (July 12th). His grandma thought she was going to Olive Garden and then someone was going to pick her up and bring her down to Ben’s Aunt the lives two houses up from us to “pick her up to go” and then we would surprise her. Ben’s aunts were supposed to be the ones to pick Ben’s grandma up but Ben ended up being the one to pick her up. It still went off and she had really no idea even after seeing the balloons and everything in the front of the house. She was mad though because she wanted her Olive Garden. But it was a good time with almost the whole family there. I have lots of pictures to post from that day! I’m going to make a slide show of the whole day and I took some video so that will be really nice to have.

Next up was our friend Kyle’s birthday the next weekend (July 18th). We went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse and then we went back to Liz and Kyle’s house. We decided we were going to stay the night there at the last minute so we could drink and not have to drive home. I got really wasted, probably worse than I’ve ever been except for once or twice. Some interesting pictures came out of the night but I will stick to the good ones when I post them! We went to breakfast the next morning at Bob Evan’s…I just had fruit. It’s all my stomach could handle.

The following weekend we really didn’t do a whole lot because I was tired of running around. We did go to our friend Rob and Rachelle’s house Friday night to swim and hang out. It was ok until Rachelle started yelling at Rob in front of everyone. Long story but it was still a pretty good time. I think other than that we pretty much hung out at home all weekend and relaxed.

This past weekend on Friday night, we had game night at our house. Melanie, Brian, Kyle and Liz came over and we played board games with them. My mom found a bunch of my old games from my old house (it’s being rented right now so the games were still in the basement). So I have like 3 different Monopoly versions, 2 Clue’s and a bunch of older games. My favorite has to now be Outburst which my mom actually gave me – she got it as a wedding gift a few years back and never had opened it! Then on Saturday was Melanie and Brian’s 5th wedding anniversary party. They just did something small at their house with family and friends. It was a good time. Mel picked me up at 1 pm so I could help her get set up for the party. I brought my laptop and did some music for us to listen to. We just had rigatoni, salad and rolls to eat but it was still good. We hung out there pretty much all night and had a good time but I was tired from being there all day.

So I think that’s about all the catching up on events. Now as far as work goes, it’s not too bad. We are just still going crazy with orders because of swine flu and with the fall coming up which is always a bigger season for us. I started my four 10 hour days this week which have been ok so far. It was really nice having Monday off but it’s been a struggle getting up earlier and staying later. But I am adjusting already so I think it will work out!

I am down to a total weight loss of 14.5 pounds! I’m so excited but none of my clothes fit. I did just buy two new shirts for my trip to San Antonio (Aug 18 I leave for work!) which are dressy shirts but I need to get more pants for work! Most of my shirt fit still but my pants are getting too big! I am still trying to hit 20 pounds before I leave but I don’t think that will happen. But that’s ok! I’m happy with where it’s going and I just need to crack back down on my eating because I’ve been a little lax lately about it. I am still walking every day and I’m trying to walk the neighborhood at night if I have the energy and it’s nice out. So wish me luck!!

I’ve also started a huge project to back up my pictures on CD’s and on to Shutterfly and remove them from my computer. It ran out of space last weekend for me to add more pictures so I need to do it! It’s been a not so fun process but I have this need to double back them up just in case. I would hate if anything happened to some of my pictures. So that’s pretty much what I’ve been working on at night right now until I get through them all. They are on CDs but it’s just backing them up to the website that’s taking a while.

I think that’s all of my updating for now. I will be back to post pictures later!

Celebrating Brian's Birthday

So last Saturday we decided to go out and celebrate our friend Brian's 26th birthday! We weren't really planning on it because Ben was working and they said they were going out early (before he got off work) but then ended up going out around 8:30 to dinner so we went. For dinner we went to Texas Roadhouse. We had a good time and then we headed down to the Valley to Coopers. We hadn't been there in a long while so it was a really good time. The owner is super nice and remembered us! I got really really drunk. I don't think I've been that bad in about 6 months! It was a great time, me and Ben had a good time with our friends. :)

Melanie and Brian at dinner - he's a goof ball!

Me and Ben at dinner

Brian and Liz

Me and Tim at the bar

Me and Mel - we were pretty drunk at this point....LOL:)

We had matching chapstick, I guess it was funny at the time

Mandy (who's birthday we were also celebrating), Mel and Christina

I love kisses when I'm drunk :P

Mel's super long straw

It was a wonderful weekend! We didn't do much on Sunday because we slept in pretty late. I have been pretty tired this whole week because I was sick Mon/Tues/Weds and I'm still not feeling 100% today. And of course I got Ben sick and he's mad at me. Spent $35 on meds at the store though to try and make us better!

Work is going well - just pretty busy and just lots to do. I'm being part of more teams at work and trying to learn as much as I can! I love my new position and my new boss. So much better then where I was at :) I enjoy work so much now!

Only thing that sucks about work is that everyone is getting pregnant. There are so many people I know who are pregnant right now. Part of me wants a baby now but I soooo know we can't afford it. Hopefully by the end of the year we will be in a better position to start trying where I feel comfortable. Until then I can only hope :)

Happy Birthday Honey!

So my honey's birthday was this past Tuesday (Jan. 20, I'm a little late posting this!) and we didn't do a whole lot to celebrate this year.

On Tuesday we went to dinner with my parents at Bricco in Downtown Akron. I had been there before and so had my mom but my step-dad and Ben had never gone before. They both ended up loving it. It's a little bit pricey but well worth it and their food is so filling. Ben got their pork tenderloin with risotto and he loved it. I got the chicken with a mozzarella croquette and it was delicious! My mom got Ben a charger with rechargeable batteries since he was complaining about running out so often because of his Xbox! I didn't get him anything because we are low on money right now but eventually we will get him something. I will probably buy him an Xbox game that he has reserved coming out in March. (Side note: my mom found an awesome deal on a pot/pan set so she gave that to us Tuesday - but it's my Birthday/Christmas gift for this year because it was a really nice set and pricey :) )

Then Friday night to celebrate Ben's birthday again, we went out with our friend's Kyle and Liz to Hopocan Gardens (a chicken house) in Barberton and it was so good! They have the best hot rice :)

Then on Sunday the celebration continued at Ben's Grandpa Blankenship's house where his Aunt Bev, Grandpa, Ben's cousin's kid Nolan (2nd cousin??), Ben's cousin Bleu and me and Ben had Sunday dinner. It was yummy - cube steak, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, grean beans, cole slaw and biscuits. His grandpa is an awesome cook so it was so good!! Then they brought in a cake and sang happy birthday which was totally unexpected. And that finally ended the week long celebration we call Ben's birthday :)

Yummy dinner cookin on the stove

The Birthday Boy
Aunt Bev and Nolan

The Cake!

Haha....he's 26 :)

And of course he had the honor of cuttin' the cake

Ben's cousin Bleu is the one holding the cake,
he had Nolan help him blow out the candles!

Where to begin

This will most likely be a longer update, I've been MIA this week but for a good reason...work. This week has been soooo stressful at work, we have someone leaving our department kind of unexpectedly (meaning I knew she would leave but just not this soon). Plus we had a department review with senior leadership this week and guess who gets the be the lucky one to make the copies of almost 200 pages about 14 times? Bet you can never guess. Trust me there are plenty of other things I would find more enjoyable then that...like stabbing my self in the eye with a pencil. Then our whole team was in for a meeting this week so that cut two days out of both work time and home basically. We did have dinner at Bricco on Weds night with the team and that was really good. Over it was a fun time, the meeting was pointless as usual and it's finally the weekend....

But now for a recap of last weekend since I haven't been around...
Saturday - went to the bar to celebrate me and Liz's birthday. We did go out the weekend before to kind of celebrate mine but we decided to do it over again. It just started out as me, Ben, Kyle and Liz and then Melanie, Racheal, Brian, Tim, and Mandy showed. Liz's mom and her friend Ashley came also. We went to the Basement which is our normal Saturday spot anyways and just stayed there since me and Liz are the only ones who like to dance anyways. It was a VERY drunken night. I don't get drunk very often but I was SMASHED. So below are some pictures from that...we didn't get home until about 3. There was also a fight at the bar and some glass got shattered kinda scary...

Before getting drunk

Me and Mel

Me and Liz completely smashed

These are the boys....yes we love them, yes they are dorks

Sunday - After being out all night we had to go to my god daughter's 1st birthday party, she is so adorable. I can't believe it's been a year! She had a luau themed party, her mom did a great job of decorating for it. Very good food too.

Can you tell we were tired?

The birthday girl - Olivia

Eating her smash cake, she was pretty good about it...

Olivia and Mom