*News <3 Flash*

We interrupt this epic fail of a blog {ie: my months of non-posts} to bring you an EPIC news flash!

I’m ENGAGED!!

It happened one week ago today and we couldn’t be happier!  We were actually in Nashville, TN to celebrate his birthday by attending the Titans vs. Saints game {am I the best GF ever or what?} and I was the one who ended up with the best gift!

Everything is still very new but we DO have a date and a ceremony location picked out.  That being said there are several hundred other things we still need to work out!  The next 10 months or so promise to be ridiculously packed but I can’t wait to see everything fall into place!

Michigan Monday

A picture tribute to my recent trip back to the Mitten over 4th of July…

4th of July Oooohs and Ahhhhs!

	Grand Haven, MI

“The longest road out is the shortest road home”
Irish Proverb

Happy 4th!

Ok I know it’s not the 4th yet but I am about 4 hours into my 12 hour drive home – that puts me in Eastern Kentucky currently – and I don’t know when I will be blogging again!  I’m heading back to Michigan to visit friends and family for the 4th aaand I get to visit the lab vampires my Endo friend. Yup that is super exciting.

What is exciting is that this is on my hotel room number plate:

Oh if you only knew how much I looove fireworks! Here is some evidence… notice the supremely goofy face as I go to light the little fountain…

But first there are the 12 loooooong hours of travel in front of me. Sigh… can someone please invent that teleportation device soon?  I guess if I could teleport I would miss out on cool scenery like this…

Oh well.. I need to wrap this up and get some rest for the road in front of me!  Have a safe and happy 4th everyone!

Happy 4th of July!

Hey There Cupcake

My mom, aunt and cousin were down visiting for the weekend and it was non-stop action from the moment they arrived.  We hit the town - or should I say the mountains - and I gained a few nuggets of knowledge along the way…

1. You are never too young to own a gun…
2. An extra quart of oil won’t hurt… but 2?  That just might require some extra attention.
3. ASAP stands for “As Southern As Possible” and..
4. “The South” is the place where tea is sweet and accents are sweeter, summer starts in April, Mac & Cheese is a vegetable, front porches are wide and words are long, pecan pie is a staple, y’all is the only proper noun, chicken is fried and biscuits come with gravy, everything is darlin’, and someone’s heart is always being blessed.
5. Bad Southern accents with a hint of Canadian/Minnesotan are very quickly acquired by my family members.  I’m curious to know if the accents left as quickly as they came on?
6. Shopping is always more fun with a group, however, the Wal-Mart chip aisle can be dangerous
7. The Crazy Cupcake Peanut Butter Dream cupcakes require a “moment.”  Seriously. They are omgtodieforscrumptious!
8. Even I can hike the AT {Appalachian Trail for those not local} although it may have only been a quarter of a mile stretch up the mountain.
9. You never lose the ability to squeeze into a tiny kitchen to make breakfast for the bunch!  And.. to fry an egg without mastering the art of flipping it, just push the bacon grease over the top. It works just mahvelous dahling!
10. That sometimes the only ones who can understand are family and they can make you laugh like no one else can.  Love you ladies!

Moments in SLC

About 2 weeks ago I was in Salt Lake City, Utah for a work conference but managed to sneak away for a few photos while I was there!  Here are a few of my favorite shots…

The Mormon Temple	From the bus at the entry to La Caille
In Big Cottonwood Canyon	The Rockies
The 700+ inches of snow were very melty!	University of Utah Botanical Gardens

Weekend Education

While on a recent trip to my soon to be new hometown, I made several discoveries about myself and the many cities between Michigan and Tennessee.

• Ohioans are either very healthy… or very not!  I counted about a bazillion hospitals and medical centers while traveling through this very LoOoOoOn state.
• Sweet tea is my new very bestest friend.
• The Cumberland Mountain area of Virginia is amazingly beautiful when its snowing… but also amazingly scary. Plummeting down tiny, winding, slippery roads is definitely not my idea of a party.
• I am truly a creature of habit – I sat in the same seat for more than 30 hours this weekend.
• Back to Ohio… we passed through a small town that had many houses covered in Christmas lights.  As we passed through the center of town one home in particular stood out – the funeral home.  It was the most decorated building for miles!
• While in Kentucky eating breakfast at McD’s, we met a man who told us he had a daughter who is 38 as well as two others by two other women.  His first wife was 14 when he married her (he was 21 at the time).  He then proceeded to tell me to look him up if I needed anything after I moved and that he was “in the book.”
• …Then he asked if I had a boyfriend.  When I said no he said, “Shoot, if Ah had a girl as pretty as you, Ah’d put a cowbell on ‘Er so Ah’d always know where she was!” True story.
• My mom is hopeless when it comes to sports.  When driving through Cincinnati she asked if the Bears play there.  When I said no the Bengals do, she looked puzzled so I said,  “You know like Bengal Tigers?”  To which she said “So they don’t have a football team?” I guess at least she knows the (Detroit) Tigers don’t play football?
• In Tennessee it seems the motto “If it’s flat we will build it” rang true – even if getting to “it” was nearly impossible. One apartment we looked at had my mom fearing we were driving off a cliff instead of down the driveway.

The trip was truly memorable and also very productive!  I now have a place to live and finally feel like this is all really happening.  I promise after the big move to include many, many pictures of my new abode and state!

And speaking of Christmas lights… take a look at what a town did for one little boy…

Donate to St. Jude’s this holiday