O-H-I-O!

Well, we just got back from a weekend trip to THE Ohio. The main purpose of our trip was this:
That's right, my buddy Cullen's wedding. Oh how I love this man.... he kept me sane and laughing in France and in Bowling Green. I got to know his gorgeous bride in France and Bowling Green as well, and they were DELIGHTED we came out for the wedding, which made the whole trip worth it. I vowed I would never set foot back in Bowling Green, and I didn't, don't worry. We were in Toledo and Maumee. I had to admit... Ohio was infinitely better when I wasn't living there, and I was with Neal, it was nearly likable, I daresay--and gorgeous!
We also took the opportunity to go to Cedar Point which is seriously the BEST amusement park ever!!! It has a terrifying yet thrilling ride pictured here: which is over 400 ft. tall and you go 120 miles/hour in less than 4 seconds.... ummm AMAZING!
Notice to the right you can see the sky coaster completely dwarfed... this was high folks!!! I was nervous, even though I've been on it before, but Neal was giddy as a school boy and we LOVED IT! NOTE: I also didn't cry this time, so good for me. here's a link here to watch a youtube video someone posted of themselves on the ride... it's pretty impressive.
Friday night we met up with my buddy Andrew, and his girlfriend. I will love them always and forever because they brought a little piece of Bowling Green heaven up to Toledo...
The cookie jar! Thank you, thank you. That was the second or third most thoughtful thing ever.
Saturday was the wedding. I have to say, it was my first completely non mormon wedding ever... I'm from Utah, I can't help it! After the ceremony, I teased Cullen (the agnostic) about the mention of God. He said "I know, right? I tried to cut it out where I could... but she was a minister, after all!" I got a kick out of that. It was great to be there.
Flashbacks to France...
I'm really glad Neal and I decided to brave the 8 hour drive-- I'm glad Cullen got to meet him and I'm so glad I got to see Cullen get married! I'm even glad I went back to Ohio because I got to see some of my dear friends that made my time there bearable. (Note: I was also writing my thesis IN FRENCH, as well as taking 4 other classes that were kicking my butt, so I think that also contributed to the Ohio abhorrence.) Anyway, great weekend--it was fun to have Neal meet my Ohio side. Plus, everything is more fun with Neal. :)

Currently obsessed with ....

Of course, my number one obsession is, always and forever, this man.
*as you may be able to tell-- I'm already growing out my bangs. Cute as they were, they drive me INSANE annnnnnd I'm done. It was a good change though... however brief.
but a close number two is apple scrapple bread from Great Harvest--worth all 700 pennies!
LOVE these-- and they're flat. I love finding cute, flat shoes-- Maybe one day I'll be the girl wearing heels who's 3 inches taller than her husband, but for now I stick with flats. :)
I was too lazy to figure out how to rotate this... but AHHHHHH-- the cutest!
France has been one of my obsessions for almost 10 years now--- beat that, Neal! ;)
and last but not least-- the best summer treat ever! (Besides a skookie, but that goes without saying!)
In other news, we're going to THE Ohio this weekend for one of my best friends from grad school's weddings--I was debating on going but I think it will mean a lot to him AND we get to go to Cedar Point! Can't wait!

Last time I went on this ride, I cried. I hope to be more courageous this year!!!

A first.....

If you know me well, you know I really do not like the game scrabble. I am horrible at it, and it's a slow and painful game. Neal loves scrabble-- probably because he's very good at it, but so far I have avoided playing it with him. We had Cali, Josh and Piper over today, and since everyone else wanted to play, I reluctantly agreed. I was losing as usual, but Josh added "heart" and suddenly.. the Heavens opened and I noticed I could do this:

That's right folks... I added a "Y" to heart and then "olk" to make yolk--- thanks to the triple word score and double letter score it gave me 61 points!!!! (if anything deserves 4 exclamation points, this it it!) ANNNNNNNNNND I WON! For the first time ever, I won a scrabble game. I was ESTATIC! Everyone seemed pretty shocked, considering my highest scoring turn up until then was barely in the double digits. It was INCREDIBLE!!! Neal, the previous leader, was very sad: Okay that's a lie, he was happy for me, of course. He's a big person that way-I'm trying to learn from him. I'm pretty sure I've reached my scrabble peak now-- I should probably never play again.... ;)

My nieces are too cute!

Seriously-how much do I love my nieces? I'm truly troubled by the idea that I don't know when I can fly out to Seattle and see Taylor's baby #2 after he's born in a few weeks!!! I love kids, and especially kids who are my favorite friends' (aka my sisters) kids. A LOT! So here are some pics of both of them. Yesterday Cali, Josh, Piper and I went to Richmond to tour our state capitol. it was AWESOME! And I was so shocked at how much attention Piper got-- sheesh! She is a cute kid, as you can see here:
*Note, she was looking at her mommy in this pic-- Cali was so proud! ;)
Here we are the capitol by the way-- totally worth the trip!
My niece Mad is also SOOO CUTE! She can even talk now-- pretty crazy! When I went to Seattle and saw her the first time, she looked like this:
So cute! Now she is looking like an actual little girl, not a baby:
Too cute! So I'm sorry to everyone out there with nieces, but mine are cuter than yours. and also my nephews-- marrying Neal gave me quite a few nephews and one niece:
and that's not even all of them! Hooray for offspring that you can play with but don't have to keep! ;)

Addendum: my weapon of choice

Some of you wondered what I was armed with when I was searching the apartment for hiding psychos.... I think mostly because you all know I *never* exaggerate whatsoever... so here is yet another re-enactment of that dreadful scenario yesterday-I was armed with a ....

That's right folks... dishwashing dolls do more than wash dishes oh-so-adorably. And as everyone can see, I'm still alive--looks like Delilah the dishwashing doll kept me safe once again!

What in the.... ?!?!

Okay, so I just returned from tutoring and found our apartment looking like this with all the lights on:
I was soooo weirded out! My heart started pounding and my face looked like *this:

*reenactment

I immediately checked for our laptops, ipods, etc. (because let's face it... we don't have that much stuff worth stealing) and everything was in place. My next thought was "should I leave everything how it is? Should I call the police?" I decided to call Neal and get his opinion. He thought it was crazy weird too and called our landlord (who lives upstairs from us). I, armed, checked the apartment for crazy hiding psychos and found none. Neal called me back and said, "I just talked to Yosry and he said the cleaning lady had come and cleaned the basement as well."

ummmmmmm. whaaaaaaaaaaat? then my face looked more like this:
What kind of cleaning lady leaves the furniture strewn all over the floor and all the lights on!?!? I mean seriously!?!? If that's the only way you can tell that your cleaning lady has been there, it's time to get a new cleaning lady! I don't mean to sound ungrateful, thank you for vacuuming and scrubbing the bathroom and stuff but...
wow! Okay that's all I wanted to blog about.... but lest I end this blog without a picture of my love, I shall leave you all with this:

LOVE HIM!
ps the text is huge of it's own accord.. I've tried to edit it 3 times now.

Mini vacation to Niagara Falls

Well, Neal and I just got back from our first vacation! (everyone knows the honeymoon doesn't count) Neal has oodles of Marriott points from traveling for work, and he also got Thursday and Friday off for the 4th, so we decided to celebrate our nation's independence by leaving the country.... that's right, we went here:
and here:
After crossing the border, we immediately heard "aboot" (which some people claim I say) and "eh" and saw Poutine everywhere.. it was quite the stereotype come true! We stayed on the Canadian side of the Niagara Falls near Toronto and for the first time in my life, I got to see the Canadian Side of the falls-- I LOVED IT! It's waaaaaay better than the American side, in my humble opinion. It wasn't even pouring rain the whole time! Here are some pics! This is the best way to get a picture with Neal:
Thumbs up for the Canadian Side:
I'm such a rebel:
We had to stay until the Falls were lit because Neal didn't even believe me that it happened...
The next day we went to Toronto-- I have to say, it was pretty ghetto. BUT at least we say a great play and ate Poutine. If you don't know what Poutine is, it's a super famous French-Canadian dish with french fries, cheese curd and gravy.. healthy, isn't it? DELICIOUS!
Toronto gets a thumbs down:
But I sure do love my husband! We had a blast, and the 8 1/2 hour car ride flew by-- well, as much as it can anyway, that's a looooooong car ride!
It was a GREAT trip-- and even better that the hotel was free! I wish Neal had 2 days off every week!