Sunday, September 26, 2010

We couldn't have had a more Eventful Weekend

It was something we have been talking about with our friends for around 1 month now...DATE NIGHT'S. It began with a dinner out,including Vienna, at what I had heard was a yummy place to eat...Mr. Hero. It has Romanburgers??? Have no idea what that is? Neither did we, but my co-worker had one for lunch and was ranting about it. Well, the particular location closest to our house was, for a lack of better words...EXTREMELY GHETTO! No pics sorry. It appeared as though a few tables had been stolen from there sitting area. So for those of you dying to know what a Romanburger is, well it is like a sub, but with patties, pastrami and much greasier and warmed. It's hard to desribe, but lets just say, we've tried it and probably won't go back. Afterward we headed to the couples house that will be child swapping with for date nights once a month to drop off our little lady.
Then Mike and I were off to downtown Cleveland to enjoy something called, Ingenuity Fest 2010. (An artsy fartsy festival with street performers, innovative ideas, various art and display tables) It was being held at a monumental bridge that divides the East and West sides of the City, and this takes place under the bridge where at one point it was used, but is now blocked off) Anyway, Mike's phone is our saving grace for everything, most importantly it is our GPS and the battery was very low. We had a great night (see pics and enjoyed our time just the 2 of us). On our way home, we tried to use his phone to do one quick search, but the battery was too low to do anything, so...well you guessed it we got HORRIBLY LOST. With one-ways and freeways we found ourselves heading quite out of the way to get our little girl, so we took an exit hoping to eventually find a street that we recognized. I will keep it short, but we ended up in yet another EXTREMELY GHETTO area. After 20mins of hoping to find our way out of the mess, but instead getting deeper and deeper into places that were scarier and scarier, we got the idea to call the Fitzners (our babysitters) and they rescued us. When we got home we looked up the area in and it was the top 21st neighborhoods in the USA!!! DO YOU HEAR THIS...THE USA!!!!!!! That is why we both were terrified to stop and ask for help and any red light we came to made me so nervous. Don't get me wrong but Cleveland is great as long as you stay in the right neighborhoods. We made it alive, Thankfully (and I am not being sarcastic).

Saturday started out straight forward with Mike going to play b-ball early in the am, when he arrived home he had some BAD news for us, he sprained his ankle super bad. Take a look...



We had lots planned for the day, so this was a big bummer, but Mike was a trooper and we were still able to do some great things. Thank goodness the Pearson's had some random crutches in their attack.
Working on the basement, as we are still trying to get it fully in order and unpacked, has been on the TO-DO LIST for over 2 months now. All was going well until we found a mouse that got stuck to a sticky trap that was still alive, so Mike had to take it outside and do away with it, which was not an event I wanted to deal with. Luckily in the afternoon we got to enjoy the fresh fall air at the Squire Valleyvue Farms that CASE owns. They were having a Fall Harvest Festival which was free for Mike and Vienna and only $3 for me. There was food, cookie decorating, tall grass maze, herb identifying contests, performers, bonfire with smores, planting herbs and veggies, hay rides, bee keeping instructions and lots of other activities. It was wonderful, I am so surprised more people didn't take advantage of it. Vienna loves being outside so it couldn't have been any better (except Mike was hobbling around on crutches). We watched BSU play Oregon State in the evening, which is always nice and Mike was thrilled to have his foot up and icing. Poor guy :(


In the Bridge

Sitting on a chair made from Cardboard rolls - it was all about being green and recycling.

This is the bridge we were in - my camera is cheap, but it is super cool and the red stuff you see is water, they turned a section of the bridge into a waterfall just for this event.

This was the white room where EVERYTHING could be drawn on. there were chairs, tv's, toys, couches. It was so cool to see all the creativity and a great way to reuse old items.

Mike and I left our Mark by drawing teeth and writing...Go Masticate! (look it up, its not naughty)


At Valleyvue Farm



My cookie that I decorated, oh yeah!

Vienna and I on the Hayride, Look at that face.

The hayride took us to a place called the Manor House. It is quite gorgeous, a huge home built in 1929 owned by a rich Cleveland Lawyer who lived here during the summer and payed people to work on the farm, he donated it to CASE, the school President's lived there and now it has been turned into an event center. I loved it and I think it would be the best Bed and Breakfast EVER!!! It was so picturesk!


Mike with his crutch, how cute!

To say the least, we were pooped from all those events, Mike's ankle was even more swollen and tight when we woke up and my throat was sore so we stayed home today to rejuvinate and relax.
Heres to a less eventful week!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

My Montage 9/23/10 at OneTrueMedia.com

Vienna is such a happy little girl!

My Surprise

Here's a lead-up in to my surprise...
So our kitchen is quite big, but the use of space is awful with very little cupboard space. We have been looking, and looking and looking for something long and skinny that would fit beside our dishwasher for some extra cupboard space. The space is just under a foot, which has made it impossible to find anything.
Well on Monday, I get home from work and hurry to start dinner so when Mike gets home with Vienna we can eat and spend a wee bit of time together before bed. Around 6pm I get a call from Mike saying his car won't start and he is stranded. He was going to find someone to boost his car. Well after 20mins I never heard back i called him to see if he needed to be rescued. He said he was ok but that Vienna needed a rescue. To make a long story short, I came to get her at the Home Depot Parking lot, which is not where I leave her for the day, I took her home and 2hrs later Mike gets home after waiting with his wonderful classmate Jeff for the tow truck. It was quite an annoying, stressful night.
The next day Mike was excited to come home and work on his project that he had picked supplies up for at Home Depot, which I now knew about given the circumstances, however...I was still very surprised.

Vienna is modeling (like Vana White) the new shelves Mike made for me.

I was so impressed and had no idea Mike had these kind of skills up his sleeve. It has wheels and a handle on it. It is completely flush with the counter and well...IT RoCKs!!!! I absolutely love it babe. You are the best hubby!
ps... here are some cute pics of Vienna

She still isn't a big fan of her Jolly Jumper, but its coming...I Hope!


She absolutely loves her exersaucer!

She fell asleep in this swing outside, while Mike was talking to his folks on Skype, it was so cute!





This was just today, the first time she has picked up a toy for each hand :)

Sunday, September 12, 2010

PALMYRA

What a special weekend we have. Our ward had a Temple Trip to the Palmyra Temple, where we also went to the Sacred Grove and had a ward devotional in that peaceful place. We had great weather and our little Nenna-bean was a great traveller/sleeper. We couldn't have asked for anything better.


We had a hotel room with 2 teeny twin beds and of course Mike and I got one and Vienna got the other. Why should the smallest person get the whole bed??? In the morning she was goofing around and got he covers all around her. What a goofy lady.

She had the whole trunk to herself for the trip, she loved it. JJ this is where we sat her while we were organizing for the ride home.

In front of the Smith's Frame Home that Alvin started building. it was so neat to be inside, and 85% of it was original. It was a huge upgrade from their first home.

Me and Nenna heading back into the trees after walking around the Sacred Grove

Vienna and Daddy in the Sacred Grove


Trees in the Grove that may have witnessed that Spiritual Event. Its so neat how the sun shines through in different areas. Oh it was so profound.

E.B Grandins Printing Press in Downtown Palmyra, the place of the first Book of Mormon Printing. It was so neat inside and interesting. It took over 2 years to print and bind the first 5000 copies of the Book of Mormon. Amazing!

Mike and Vienna (on his back) in front of the Smith family's original Farm home. Inside this home was where Angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith. It was so small for 11 people.

Me and Vienna in the Sacred Grove (This was such a cute pic of V, not me though)

Mike and I in front of the Palmyra Temple after our session. It was beautiful and reminded us alot of the Tri-Cities Temple. Whats neat is that this temple is built on the original Farmland of the Smith's and from that area you can see the Sacred Grove because they keep an area in the trees cleared.

It's not everyday that we have the opportunity to be so close to the events that had to happen to bring the Gospel here on the earth again. I am so respectful of Joseph Smith and all his family went through to bring this Gospel to us. My life is completely a product of being a member of God's church and I can't imagine my life without the knowledge of this doctrine.

It was such a special trip.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

The Journey so far...

It began in Richland Washington, carried on to Calgary for a summer, then back to Richland, a few months later it was off to Boise for 3.5 years and now it takes us all the way to Cleveland, Ohio. Where we go next...??? All that matters is that we have each other :)

The day Mike proposed to me, it was such a well planned, romantic proposal, you know how to lure in your prey very well hun.

Engagement Photo shoots were many...

Here was the winner that went out in our Invites


Our Special Day

Married in the Columbia River Washington Temple, 09.09.2006

Reception outdoors


On our honeymoon in the san juans

We have shared so much together in 4 years, its so thrilling to think of what the next ump-teen years will bring.

I LOVE YOU HUN!