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 :)

Valentine's 2009

Of course I'm a week behind again! Last weekend we went out to celebrate Valentine's Day. Normally we don't celebrate it because it's not really a holiday to us but our friends asked if we wanted to go so we went. It was quite a bit of a wait since we didn't have reservations and that sucked big time but it was really good so it was worth the wait! We went to Japanese Steakhouse in Montrose called Wasabi. It was delicious. Now Ben and our 2 friends Kyle and Liz have never been there before so they were pretty excited about it. I've been a few times but it's been at least 2 years. Afterwards we went to a bar called Brubaker's for a drink (and I will never go there again, the girls that were serving there were rude). Overall, a great night out! We will be going back - when we have reservations :)

Our cook - poor guy was so tired. I think we were his last table...

Me and Ben (I was pretty tired at this point)

Liz and Kyle

And of course Liz and me :)

This week and weekend have not been that exciting...worked a lot that's about it. I have started to go out to my stepdads house to help him clean up his shop a bit. I am trying to get out there a few nights a week and help him out. He's not a good one with organizing or keeping clean. And he has a really hard time throwing things out. So we are working on that :) He had a lot of invoices that needed filed. His computer also got wiped out last year so we are going to work on rebuilding his customers in the software. Fun fun! Ben has been working a lot also. He is off tomorrow so I don't know what we are going to do. Might go to church in the morning and then maybe go to Kyle and Liz's so Ben can get his haircut. I'm going to try to do better and keep this more up to date :)

Lydia's Bridal Shower

So this past weekend (Saturday) was Lydia's Bridal Shower. Lydia and I went to college together and were in an organization called NSCS together. She was also in my wedding. She is getting married July 11 and then moving to Michigan :(

Me before the shower

Lydia opening presents

Cute cake they made for here...can you see the color theme here :)

Opening more presents and pictures of the guests

Lydia and her friend Lara

All in all it was a good time. Lots of purple :) She got a lot of amazing gifts to help her start her life in Michigan.

Not too much else going on here! Ben is back to work (FINALLY :) and I am just working too. Loving my new position at work!

My other major project that I have decided to embark upon is creating a family tree. I'm super excited about it. I am working on both my side of the family and Ben's. I already have a pretty good start but I'm hoping to get a pretty extensive amount done on it by the end of the year. Right now it's only really our grandparents and down. Just another thing to keep me busy :)

Excitement

So what's new with me you might be asking yourself (if anyone reads this?!). Well, work is going well but very busy and stressed. I have a lot going on, a lot more then anticipated. Luckily the new girl has started in my old position and it's such a relief to be able to pass things off to her now. She's great! But there's still a lot to do in my new position and it's getting to be interesting trying to get everything accomplished! But I love my new boss :) We did have our stakeholder's meeting and it's kind of scary to hear about all the cuts (not jobs per se but other things) they are doing to make it work without having to lay off people. Like no new hires, no promotions/pay increases, etc. Luckily they are still giving out our bonuses this month. Sometimes I forget that I work in a manufacturing world even though I am in an office!

Ben started his new job yesterday. He seems to be enjoying it so far but we will see. He will be training the next 2-3 months and then will move to his own store. What is nice is he will only be working 4 days, 12-14 hrs a day. He is used to working 12 hr days so I think he will be fine but I know I won't be up when he gets home! I am glad that he's back to work though, it's scary how high unemployment is!

Last night, I made a wonderful new recipe supplied to me by my co-worker! White Chicken Chili. I need to just say how yummy it was! Ben had some suggestions for the future and I learned a few things too but it was really good. Nice for a cold winter day. Check out my recipe blog for the recipe! It's easy even though it is a lot of ingredients.

Now to get to the excitement blog title...I filed our tax returns tonight (can we say early!). I always get mine done ASAP so I can get it back before the mad rush. What I'm excited about is that we got enough back to be able to cover our trip to Arizona in September (right after my birthday). I am so excited about this. I was kind of stressing about how we were going to save although I knew the return would be enough to cover the flights I just didn't realize it would leave enough for our rental car and spending money too. So I am moving the money to another account as soon as we receive it so we don't spend it. But it's a relief to not have to worry about that now.

So yeah I'm excited to go to Arizona in June and visit again with Ben's aunts and uncles and revisit our honeymoon spot :) It's so nice there and there's pools for me to lay out by with a good book so I'm ready and it's only February!

Well that's about all the updates I have for now. This weekend is Lydia's bridal shower so I will be back with pictures probably Saturday evening from that.

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!

Snow & Puppies

I'm a little late with this post but this was from last weekend when we got about 10 inches of snow. Harley just loves the snow and Duke does too! Here's two pictures of Harley and then a video of Harley and Duke. It was one of those days where we were snowed in. Since we live on a hill, there about 4-5 days a year we know we aren't going anywhere because we can't get out/up the hill. It was funny to watch some people try though!!

Sunday of last weekend we went with my parents to try a new place called Zoup in Solon, they have 11 different soups daily. It's a Panera of sorts but smaller and less known. We were 1 of 4 groups of people we saw the whole time we were there! But with the snow we thought that might have had something to do with it. It's amazing how much soup they had and we all got a different kind and LOVED all of them. Yum!! Then we explored a bit up in Solon and ended up at the Cold Stone Creamery in Macedonia, haven't been to one in a while so I was super excited! Here's my creation then a picture of Ben, my mom and Eric eating theirs!


This week has been really crazy with work - our quarterly meeting was this week with all of our team in for the meeting. Since the new admin coordinator for our group doesn't technically start til next week I still had to do pretty much everything. The new person (Julie) was there for the meeting to see how things run but she won't be back until Weds but then she starts full time with us and I'm pretty much done doing the things I had to do for my old position besides training her. I'm super excited to finally have this weight lifted off my shoulders since I have been waiting since September for this to happen!

Ben's birthday is on Tuesday (Jan. 20 - Inauguration Day). I am off Monday. We might try and do a nice dinner this weekend or maybe just wait until Tuesday. I think we are going to go out to the bar tonight with some friends (we will see who shows) and have a few drinks. Who knows!! I am not getting anything for him, at least not right now since we are broke. Maybe in a few months with my bonus or tax return we will get him something!

Hope everyone is well and trying to stay warm (for those of us in Ohio at least!).

New Years Eve 2008 Pictures

I never got back to post pictures from New Years Eve so here they are!

At Ben's grandpa's eating yummy food

Rachelle and Rob - She is due with their child in March

Me and Liz

Kyle and Liz - their first engaged New Years!

Kyle, Rob and Ben

Brian and Me, he was pretty drunk LOL

Liz and Ben

Happy New Year Everyone!

So today is 1/1/09 and I am glad we are in a new year. Don't get me wrong 2008 had some great times but I'm ready for a new year and being able to start again.

2008 is first and foremost the year that me and Ben got married :) This was definitely the highlight of my year and I couldn't be happier. It is also the year that I got my new position at GOJO which I'm still not fully transitioned out of my old but it's coming in 2009!

I have decided that my New Year Resolution is to lose weight. I know...haha. People always say that and then don't follow through. Well I am hoping that I do! Ben is on board with me (since his doctor told him he had to lose weight!). So we will be eating healthier, doing some exercise (and in the summer we will probably start walking outside) and just taking better care of ourselves. I really would like to drop a few sizes and I'm hoping I can accomplish that!

So Happy New Year's Everyone!

Christmas Day 2008

On Christmas Day we go to my family's house in Pennsylvania and this year was no different. My mom came over and picked us up since it is on the way out to PA for them. We opened up our gifts from them first. She had bought me a coat the weekend before and then she got me an apple reed diffuser and apple candles for my kitchen, perfume, an ornament for me and Ben's first Christmas married, a silicone baking set . She also bought me some clothes on Black Friday. Ben got a gift card for Macy's, Gamestop, and McDonalds (don't ask...LOL). He also got a pair of jeans and cologne. After we opened our gifts we headed to PA to visit with my family. Lots of good food and of course a good time. It was a long 2 days but so worth it :)

Eric and Mom when we first got there

Me and Sis

Ben, Aunt Betty and Rusty

Matt and Amy

Me and Sissa

Me and my momma!

Singing Happy Birthday to Grandma Evans who turned 80 this week!

Aunt Shirley, Mom and Aunt Betty opening their gifts

Christmas Eve 2008

Well this year was the typical Christmas run around! On Christmas Eve we always go to Ben's dad's side of the family and then off to his mom's side.

So I worked 1/2 day on Christmas and then came home and got ready. We went to Ben's Aunt Cindy's house at around 5. Most people showed pretty quickly. We snacked mostly and hung out. Then around 7:30 his Grandpa handed out the gifts (we draw names since there are so many people - Ben's cousin Carmie Jo got us and we got Ben's cousin Ronnie who lives with us anyways). Carmie Jo got us a huge picture frame and picture paper for my printer. It was a pretty good time and for once no one cried which is always a feat with Ben's family!

Me before going to the families house

Ben's cousin Shannon's new baby - Dalton

Boyd Boys 2008 (take this picture every year at Christmas)

Then it was off to Ben's mom's side of the family. This year his mom was in town so that was fun. We got a bunch of wonderful gifts from her and Ben's uncle and grandpa! They are so wonderful to us :) Lots of gift cards and I got my first Willow figurine. I got a really nice Akron Zips hoodie and Ben got a nice Michigan one.

Unlce Don, Aunt Bev, Ben, Bleu, Sue, Grandpa

Scratching lotto tickets - Aunt Bev won $100!!