Ghetto Bedford

For the last 3 years, my family has gone to Bedford, PA to stay in a cabin.  The first year we celebrated my dad's 50th birthday, second year was my mom's 50th birthday, and this year was my sister's 30th birthday!   We went this weekend and had so much fun!  I call this blog "Ghetto Bedford" as an inside joke about my dad's reaction when we found out we were going there for his 50th birthday.

Since when we go it is someone's milestone birthday, we create a PowerPoint slideshow of their life.  It was my turn to make Kara's slideshow and I am so proud of myself because I did it!  I have never done a PowerPoint slideshow before, so I was quite impressed with myself (there was even music in it!).

Some things that we do in Bedford, is see the windmills, Gravity Hill (Google it), shopping, have bonfires, and drink.  This year was really no different. We went to the Johnstown Flood Memorial, drank Sam Adams Octoberfest out of a pumpkin keg, Kara and I sang and danced to New Kids on the Block, did some antiquing, played "Name that Tune 80s Style", created Bendaroos, drank, had a bonefire, grilled out, and drank some more.  One of the best part about Bedford, besides the breath-taking view, is that we always come home with delicious Delmonico steaks.  :)   

It was a nice relaxing few days away from work.  Here are a few pics from my mini-vacation.

The amazing view from the deck!  I watched the sunrise twice- no photo could ever capture its true beauty!

The windmills on our way in.  This was a cluster of them by the road.  I like the rustic meets modern look of this picture.

 



Pittsburgh Renaissance Faire

Another tradition that my BFF, Kori and I do every year is attend the annual Pittsburgh Renaissance Faire in New Stanton, PA.  We dress up, drink at the Pub, and have a blast!  This was my 6th year attending the faire, and every year is just as fun as the last. 

I was really excited this year because I got a new costume.  Here are a few pics. 

They have the neatest shops and gift ideas.  I got Toby's dad a family crest picture with the history, and my sister a candle that is actually a moisturizing lotion.  It's a great place for families, or 2 pirates trying to get some ale!  Huzzah!!

New Year's Resolution Updates

I can't believe it is almost the end of September. Crazy to think that only 10 months ago, did I compose these resolutions. Where does the time go??? Here is my New Year's Resolution update...

1.) I will maintain a healthy lifestyle. The exercising has not been happening, but I'm eating good. So technically, that is maintaining a healthy lifestyle. I am eager to try out the walking trail by my house, but I need a buddy, because I've heard horror stories if you go by yourself. I'm making good choices in eating, so I'm still succeeding at this goal.

2.) Once a month, I will donate to an organization of my choice.
January- Money Donation to Relay for Life for our 2nd grade fundraiser.
February- Money Donation to the Empty Bowls Project of Monongalia County (a school fundraiser as well)
March- 2 1/2 bags of clothing and shoes donated to the Goodwill
April- Goodwill donation
May- Goodwill donation (gotta love moving!)
June- Cory's Kidz $10 donation in honor of a high school classmate that passed away. RIP Joey Burkland~~~~
July- $20 donation towards spay and neutering of stray animals in OBX
August- Goodwill donation and $30 donation to Cameroom Football Development Program
September- $5 donation to St. Jude's hospital and purchase from Pura Vida bracelets, which proceeds go to providing full time jobs to folks in Costa Rica and helping clean the shorelines.

 3.) I will pay off my credit cards. It's a work in progress.....as always. Haha. Balances are still low, even though unexpected purchases always come up! LoL.

And this last goal is just for this blog: ~I will post on my blog at least twice a month.- So far, so good!!! (Except for February! Hey, its a short month!)

I am doing good with my goals. I would say my weakest is the credit cards. Hey, what can I say!? This girl likes to spend money! LoL.

FYI Note: Today marks the 7th Anniversary of Toby and my first date. We went to TGIFriday's and then saw "The Exorcism of Emily Rose"

Tomorrow I will be going to the Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival with Kori, which is a yearly tradition. I am very excited about it and will post about it before the end of this month! Until then! ~

My Best Friend's Wedding

Wow, what a busy, busy month is has been.  Between weddings (yes, mulitple), a bachelorette party, and school starting, I can't believe it's the end of August already. 

On August 11th, we had Kori's bachelorette party in Marietta, Ohio.  Kori had no idea about it and we had a blast!  We went to a Mexican resturant for dinner, stayed at an amazing hotel, and went bar hopping and dancing.  It was so much fun!

Then finally, on August 18th, Kori's big day came!  Being the Marton of Honor, I was by Kori's side all day, and was so nervous about my speech!  As mentioned in earlier posts, Kori and I have been friends for 22 years.  We have been through everything together.  She is such a special person in my life.  As I had been practicing my speech, I would always cry.

Needless to say, not even 20 seconds into my speech, I got emotional.  I totally winged my speech and made it short and sweet.  Then, I gave my speech to Kori to read at her own time.  LoL.  Oh well, nobody remembers speeches anyways. 

All in all, it was such a beautiful day.  The ceremony was great, reception gorgeous and fun!  The food was delish, decorations outstanding, and everyone had a wonderful evening.  Here are a few pics:

I was snapping pics as the photographer was too- this was a photo where Kori posed for me.  LoL. 

This was the gift from all the bridesmaids.  A bottle of wine for each occasion- First fight, First Anniversary, First dinner party, First baby (which was beer for Andrew), First Christmas, and Wedding Night.  Also, there was a bottle of wine from each bridesmaid with a note from each attached.

I got the idea from Pinterest and actually, the labels came right from there.  The crate was from Michaels and I stained and painted their name.  Last, but not least- the sign.  It totally descirbes thier relationship and love for football.  I found that at Wings at OBX.  It was very appropriate for them.

 

Life's a Beach

This past Sunday, Toby and I returned from our trip to Rodanthe, NC from a week's vacation.  It was the first time that we had been to Rodanthe, but we have previously stayed in Nags Head (aka OBX) years before.  Rodanthe is just about 30 miles South.  My mom, dad, sister, her boyfriend, and his mom, dad, and aunt all went.  It was a lot of fun and our house was very nice- and more importantly, right on the beach! The only bad thing was the mosquitos!! They were horrible and I guess that area is known for them being bad because the sound and ocean are so close (less then 1/4 mile apart) and because their are a lot of swampy areas. 

So for this post, I decided to do somewhat of a photo diary, showing some parts of my trip.




This is my favorite part of being at the beach- sitting in a beach chair, with a beer in my hand, soaking up the sun.  I did this daily.

On Tuesday, everyone but my mom, sister, and me went on a deep sea fishing trip- or as Toby likes to call it, "Puke Feast 2012".  They were 35 miles offland and EVERYONE got sick.  They ended up catching 4 big tunas (which were delish).  So they had to get up ealry and leave by 4:30am.  This was the only day I got to watch the sunrise and I captured this beautiful picture before the sun appeared.  After the sunrise, my mom, sis, and I walked the beach, went shopping, and had lunch at a great restaurant called Top Dog Cafe ~ I highly recommend it if you are ever in Rodanthe.

On Thursday, we went to Cape Hatterass Lighthouse.  This is my dad's favorite lighthouse and is the tallest in North America.  I have climbed it 3 times now, but this was my first time with Toby and it was a stuggle.

 Here is a picture that shows the narrowness of the stairs, and there are 257 stairs in total, with 8 landings for breaks.

Here we are on a break on one of the landings.  We were sweating like pigs and Toby was not sure he could make it.  The heat index was above 90 degree Fahrenheit in the lighthouse that day.

This is the light that they now use in the lighthouse.  In 1999, the lighthouse was moved more inland, with fear of the shoreline rising and damaging the lighthouse.  I think then, they got rid of the original light and replaced it with a new age spotlight.  I'm not sure whether or not the light is on each night...

We made it to the top!! (Ignore my hair blowing- The wind speed was 25 mph at the top!)

It was a wonderful trip and a nice relaxation.  I must say though, I was very happy to be home, since we were only in our new home for one week, and then we left again for a week. 

The house is coming along good.  I will post pics soon.  I still really can't believe we are in it!   

FiNaLLy!!!!

After 108 days of waiting, we FINALLY closed on the Morgantown house on this past Monday, July 16th!!!!!

On Friday, July 13th (hence the date), we closed on the Waynesburg house.  We were supposed to close on both houses, but the guy buying the Waynesburg house decided to buy a car during the loan process.  The had to re-send his loan to underwriting, and we waited for 4 hours until he was clear to close.  We closed too late on Friday to close on the Morgantown house, so I packed up the cats and took them to my grammy's house in Wheeling for the weekend.

I stayed the weekend in Wheeling, because I was in a friend's wedding- which ended up being very nice!  I was a bridesmaid in the wedding, and the bride and I had been friends since before Kindergarten!  It was great spending the weekend with her!  We even had a bachelorette party that Thursday, in which we went to a Paint 'N Sip then a slumber party at her sister's.  Here is a picture of my painting (I was really tipsy, so I'm not a fan) and the bride:

It was so much fun!!

But the point of this post, is to announce, we are offically residence of 197 Eastgate Drive in Morgantwon!!!!  It has been a long and trying time.  I'm still in shock that we got the house with all the shit we have gone through.  Unpacking has been weird, I can't remember all the stuff I have or which boxes things are in.  LoL. 

So we will be settled in our house for one week, and then we are off to Rodanthe in Outer Banks!  haha....We never stop! 

More posts on the house to come.....

Tantalizing Trilogies......

I am still currently sleeping on an air mattress in the Waynesburg house, but I have started my summer job- working at a coffee/tanning/video lottery place.  We just opened last Wednesday and since business has been slow, I have been doing a lot of reading (and tanning).  So here is a post of my most recent reads, which both happen to be trilogies.

The first trilogy I started was "The Hunger Games".  I began reading the first one in April, but with me still being in school, barely had time to read.  I have finished all 3 books now - "The Hunger Games", "Catching Fire", and "Mockingjay"- and was rather intrigued by the plot. 
In a nutshell, "The Hunger Games" is a futuristic story in which a large area is divided off by sections, or districts. There are 12 districts, and a main hub known as "The Capitol".  Each district is responsible for producing some kind of good to The Capitol.  Since all of the goods produced are sent to The Capitol, food and other goods are very limited- kind of like rations were back in the Great Depression. 

So, to entertain The Capitol and also provide food source to a certain district for a year, they hold an annual event called "The Hunger Games".  Each district sends 1 girl and 1 boy between to ages of 12-18 to fight for them in the Games.  The names are drawn for a hat- per say.  They fight and kill until 1 remains, and whatever district they are from, gets food for a year.

Being that it is a trilogy, many events happen......but as I was reading, I couldn't help but wonder if this is what America will be like in the future?  The government controlling everything.  I know we live in a free country, but who knows when our freedom could be taken away from us!?  I do find that most Americans take everything for granted.  We are not appreciative of basic necessities. 

Take for example, last weekend, we had a horrible storm and many people lost electricity, some of which still do not have it.  As I log onto Facebook, all I see is people bitching that they do not have electricity, and I couldn't help but think that electricity is a luxury!  Yes, I'm sure it is bothersome not having it, because we were fortunate enough not to lose it, but can't people make the most if it?  Enjoy your family, without the TV or video games.  Camp out and live in the wilderness. Make the most of it!  Oh, I'll stop......point proved.   (:     But it was a great story line, and I highly recommend it!

Now, from one extreme to the other- the next trilogy I have started is "Fifty Shades of Grey".  Hmmmm.....were do I start with this one.....

A girl named Anastasia interviewed a billionaire entrepreneur for her colleges' newspaper.  His name is Christian Grey and he is hot.  They go on a date, and eventually Ana finds out that he is into kinky things- chains, whips, gags, the whole nine yards.  He even has a playroom with all of these things and many more in it.  Well poor little Ana is a virgin.  She loses her virginity to him by "vanilla sex"- plain bed sex- no toys involved.  He wants her to be his submissive, as him being the Dominant, by signing a legal document with rules and limits outlined.  Being that Ana has never even had sex before, she questions it and wants to get to know Christian better personally.  After many weeks, she finds out that he had a crack whore mother who allowed her pimp to beat up on Christian, putting cigarettes out on him and he still has all the scars.  His mother died, and Christian was left with her dead body for 4 days....wow.  He gets adopted by a well-to-do family, and then at the tender age of 15, ends up being a submissive for an older women, who just so happens to be his adopted mother's friend.

This is all a lot to take in for Ana, although she enjoys the sex, but they compromise on things, and end up really caring for each other.  Then, the plot thickens......an ex-sub has gone crazy and is looking for Christian.  And many more mind-blowing things....LoL.

I have read the first 2 books so far and they are very good- not just the sex scenes, but the many sides of Christian Grey (hense the title - "Fifty Shades" meaning the many different sides "of Grey").  It is intriguing to hear of his Dominant/Submissive lifestyle, but also very sad to hear of his uprising.  As a teacher, I may witness neglect of a child, and I cannot imagine what that must be like, but to hear how this man deals with his emotions is unreal.  It is a must-read!