California

I have been back from CA for about 4-5 days now... the trip was great but went by way to fast!! Our next trip is in less then 3 months, so it should fly by especially with our busy schedule over the next few months.

My sister's visit was great. We really didn't do much because I was sick most of the time.

California was great. We ate so much food!! It was so delicious! and I only managed to gain 2 lbs! We had all my favorites; Fresh Choice, Felipes, Garcias, In n Out, Jimboys, Wiener Works, Spaghetti Factory, Adalbertos, Togo's and Big Spoon Yogurt x4. Typing all those out just made me soo hungry!!I could go for about everything on the menu...

We worked on my Mom's backyard for a few days in preparation for the baby shower in 3 months. It looks great! I got to see a few friends and family and even got 1 day of swimming in, where I managed to burn my scalp pretty good.

The weather was very weird while I was home. It was only in the mid 70's-80's and raining. Normally by this time is is well into the 90's. So I was a little bummed, but it was ok. I did get a tan with my 1 day of laying out. I sure miss the California weather. I also love driving around and knowing everywhere to go!

YUMMM!!!!!!!!!

Aubrey and the baby!

Im Backkkk

Well I am home from California. Beautiful warm California.

My trip was wonderful!!! When I got off the plane it was 70* outside. I haven’t seen 70* since I left California. I didn’t pack for this kind of weather! I haven't really missed California all that much, until I was there.

When we left the airport, Me Mom and Koko went straight to Felipe's, my favorite restaurant, where Pam was waiting there to surprise me. I got to see Aubrey, the love of my life. It was the best! I missed them SO much.

Everyday we ate somewhere new. I had a list of places I had to eat at before I came home! On that list, In-n-Out! You cant come to California and not have In-n-Out. It's against the law.

Pam and Aubrey came with us for some good burgers!

We ate at Red Robin where my brother works.

We ate at Garcia's, which was my first job as well as both of my brothers.

We ate at Jimboys, twice.

We ate at Fresh Choice!

We ate at Big Spoon Yogurt, 4 times. and I would have eaten there another 4 times if I could have. I love Big Spoon, but am very glad I don't have one in Ohio. It would be hazardous to my figure.

We ate and ate and ate. Luckily, I only gained 2 lbs.

We celebrated Pam’s Birthday on Saturday where she was surprised with a new Boxer puppy.

We shopped… and shopped. We went to JoAnn’s where I got more holiday ribbon that was clearance down to 90% off. I really don’t need anymore ribbon. I have enough holiday ribbon to last me the next 10 years. But I can never pass up a sale like 90% off! I also scored some fabric!! It was the kind on the big spools, you know, in the REALLY pretty 40$ a yard fabric section. Well mine was clearance down to $4.99 a yard and then an extra 50% off. So it was $2.50 a yard. You cant even get the cheaper fabric for that price. I bought the entire roll which was around 6 yards. I plan to make living room and bedroom curtains.

I also learned to crochet. I love it! I crochet the entire flight home and it made the flight go by so fast! I am going to start on everyone’s Christmas gifts now. Hope you all love blankets!

The family took my Grandma to lunch. Somehow my brothers got out of it though. The entire time was heard the same stories over and over again. When im old, I wonder if I will tell the same stories over and over again.

We shopped at lots of Goodwill stores and clothing exchanges. I scored 4 pairs of pants all from Express!! For all of them, I paid 29$.

Then we went to Denios, which is like one really BIG garage sale. I scored this pretty cool fanny pack. Ok, maybe it's not super cool, but it will come in handy on our cruise when we are off doing our excursions and I wont have to carry a purse!

We also found my mom a kitchen table (which she planned on Shabby chic'ing until my dad said he loved it and wanted to keep it) and an antique dresser. The dresser was only $50!! I thought it was perfect for Mom. I kept convincing her she needed all these items when I know she doesn't have room for them. The deals were just to good to pass up. Once we got the dresser home, I had decided that I needed it.... It is beautiful and would make a perfect buffet next to my kitchen table. It needs to be refinished, would would be fun to do, the only problem is I have to figure out a way to get it home to Ohio without paying an arm and a leg.

If I leave it there, my mother is going to paint it white and Shabby it so it fits in with her house! I felt like I needed to rescue it. Like it was a dog being abused. Normally I am all about painting furniture, but how could you do that to this beautiful piece?!!

I helped my mom reorganize her house. It's hard living in a such a small place with 5 people! I will do a whole post jut on her house. It's really cute!

I also helped her tackle her shed where she is going to start redoing furniture and shabby chic'ing them.

I also got my hair chopped off again, if you couldn't tell by all the photos. It's REALLY short. But at least I wont have to have it cut for a while. I also added some blonde highlights to it. It had been almost 8 months since I had it colored last!!

I didnt get to see all my friends like I wanted, but I can do that next time, which will probably be in March/April. I know I probably wont be able to go for 9 days again, it was to much time away from Matt and the doggies and the house. It was nice to be in California though when it was -13* in Ohio...

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New Years in Nashville

For New Years, Jessica and I took a fabulous road trip to Nashville. Along the way we drove though Kentucky, which I think is one of the prettiest places I have been.

Here we are in Kentucky... moments after this photo, Jessica's camera was blown off the hood of my car and broke for a few minutes. Here is the camera taking the photo as it was falling

Since this was our only camera we brought, we were freaking out.

2 already hyper girls drinking Rockstars....which in turn made us more hyper!

Along the way, we stopped off to see where our 16th president, Abraham Lincoln, was born.

This isn't his exact house, but this one was built in 1840. His original house was built in 1806, but didn't with stand the weather and bugs (since it was made out of just logs)

Driving through the country, we borrowed someone's barn for a photo. Thanks!

We stayed at the Hilton, thanks to Jessica’s mom Terri who ROCKS, overlooking the Tennessee Titan Football field and downtown.

Next door to our hotel was the Country Music Hall of Fame

I LOVED Nashville. I loved everything about it. I loved music row.

Every place we stopped in had aspiring country music singers .

..and I even found sweet potato fries, my favorite!

for New Years night, we went to the Wildhorse Saloon to watch Craig Morgan preform

We managed to get a pretty good seat and sat there all night long.

Here are some videos we took of Craig Morgan singing. You know his songs if you listen to country music.



The people next to us also traveled to Nashville for New Years. They traveled all the way from Ireland though... little further than Ohio =) They also said they dont have much country music there... What do you listen to then???!!

We were back in our hotel beds by 12:15. Jessica was not feeling really good with her cold, so we called it a night.

The next morning, we found the Grand Ole Opry and were shocked to see how plain it looked. I guess we had imagined it to be a huge glorious building. This was surrounded by the mall.

I love Nashville and our road trip. We really had such a great time. I think my favorite parts were stopping at every little thing along the highway. Matt never stops along the freeway for anything cool. We even stopped to photograph a deceased cow... I spared you the photo. We sang at the tops of our lungs... drank rockstars and bounced off the walls like teenagers. It reminded me exactly of how we acted when we were teenagers. I cant wait to do it again.