Five for Friday

1. Can you believe it's already October? Where has 2009 gone? I feel like the older I get, the faster the time goes by!

2. We have a super busy couple of months coming up to round out the end of the year. Next weekend, I haven't given up hope in getting tickets to the Ohio State vs Wisconsin game (hint, hint to anyone out there trying to get rid of theirs!). The weekend after, we travel to Minneapolis for my great-grandmother's 100th birthday and then travel to Seattle for a few days to celebrate our second wedding anniversary. Halloween weekend, one of my best friends is coming to visit from Florida. The weekend after that, my Dad is coming for a quick visit. Two weeks after that is Thanksgiving, which we'll be spending in New York City with my family, and a month after that is Christmas. Whew! I am super excited about all the traveling we're going to be doing though.

3. So I mentioned Seattle. I am so, so, so beyond excited to visit the emerald city. It is a place I have always wanted to go... literally my entire life this place has been on my list. I've already gotten great recommendations on what to do (take a ferry out to the San Juan Islands; go on the duck boat tour, where you sail past the houseboat from Sleepless in Seattle), but if any of you have other recommendations, please let me know!

4. We had some layoffs and restructuring this week at my job. While it's always a difficult time for everyone, I am thankful to say that my team was not negatively affected this go-around. Hopefully that trend will continue (despite the fact that I just overheard on CNN that the nationwide unemployment rate is up to 9.8% - yuck).

5. Fall is officially here. I love fall. Largely because of the large amount of pumpkin-flavored items available: Pumpkin lattes. Pumpkin coffee. Pumpkin scones. Pumpkin bread. Pumpkin muffins. Pumpkin soup (mmmm, my favorite!). Heck, I even saw a recipe for pumpkin lasagna yesterday! All hail the great pumpkin!

Five for Friday

1. This week has been a fantastic week at work. Sunday through Wednesday, we played host to 600 volunteers and staff for our annual Leadership Summit and Lobby Day. On Tuesday, I am proud to say that I put together a press event with five NCAA Division I men's basketball coaches, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, three U.S. Senator's and a whole heck of a lot of media. Just take a look at the very rewarding chaos:

2. Brad and I are pretty much moved into our new place. To have the whole place unpacked and basically put together a week and a half after moving is nothing short of a miracle. It is so nice to have the extra space and having a washer and dryer in the unit is literally life changing. I hope to get some pictures posted soon, although I'll probably wait until we have stuff hanging on the walls..

3. Fall made a brief appearance earlier in the week when the temperatures barely hit 70 degrees. However, we had a bit of an indian summer the rest of the week, with temps in the 80's and super humid. The weather here is a wack...

4. With the return of fall comes the return of many of my favorite things: Ohio State football (well, heck football period!), pumpkin-everything, beautiful autumn leaves, long sleeved shirts, apple orchard's and bright blue skies. Oh yeah, and my wedding anniversary, which is in less than a month!

5. We have a couple exciting things coming up that I'll tease you about: in mid-October we're headed to Minneapolis to celebrate my great-grandmother's 100th birthday, then headed to Seattle for a few days to celebrate our anniversary. At the end of October, one of my bestest friends is coming to visit for the weekend. THEN for Thanksgiving, we're headed up to NYC. It is going to be a fantastic few months!!!

PS I'll finish posting our cruise pictures sometime this year... they make me happy to look at, so I'm taking my time :)

Five for Friday

1. I feel bad I didn't do a FFF last Friday. But, as you can see from my posts this week, I was getting ready for our big Cedar Point trip!

2. Cedar Point was super, super fun. I hadn't been there since I was about five years old, so it was crazy trying to remember what rides where there then that are still there (answer: about three) and what is new (answer: basically everything). Brad, on the other hand, practically grew up there, going at least once a summer until about three years ago. He was so excited to be there and made it a point to go on every roller coaster and almost every other ride in the park. Even though I'm not really a roller coaster person, I sucked it up and rode three of them (and even the same one four times, including once in the front row!). My favorite ride is still the Scrambler though :)

3. Tomorrow night, we're going to see one of my favorite singers, Brad Paisley, at an outdoor amphitheater in the middle of nowhere Virginia. This will be our fourth year in a row seeing him and it is always such a fun concert. I'm really looking forward to it!

4. We are MOVING! Wohoo! We're moving in September from our cozy one bedroom place into a great two bedroom place that is literally right across the street from the Metro. I can't wait to have a two minute commute to the train :) We just hired movers - a first for me - who will be coming on September 14th. And the best thing about the new place? It has a washer and dryer in the unit! I think this is literally going to change our lives.

5. My office is having a big baby boom right now. One of our attorney's gave birth on Monday to a little girl - 9lbs, 12oz! Another colleague is due in mid-August and another colleague is due in December with twins. They warned me not to drink the water when I started working here... perhaps it's time to start bringing my own bottles from home!

Two things...

Two quick things:


1. I've posted a smattering of professional wedding pictures on my flickr account. I took out all the duplicates, picked out some of the best shots, and recropped some so-so shots to make them great (see below). Just click here!





2. Please keep the people of Tulsa, Oklahoma and all the Midwest in your prayers. There was a really bad ice storm there earlier this week. Over 200,000 in the Tulsa metro area alone are without power and it is expected to be "weeks" before power is totally restored. We have been working way over time (till 9pm last night) trying to help people who call in, not that there is much we can do to get people's power turned on. Below is a pictrue of a co-workers house, which luckily didn't suffer structrual damage.

C-SPAN

At 2am this morning, I woke up and picked up my Blackberry to see if the House had adjourned or I had gotten anything about today's schedule. Nothing. Try to go back to sleep. At 8am I got up and picked my Blackberry up off the nightstand to check the House schedule. They start at 9am. 30 minutes to enjoy some non-C-SPAN.

C-SPAN goes on the TV at 9am.
Eat breakfast = C-SPAN.
Get showered and dressed = C-SPAN.
Head out with Brad to go to Target = C-SPAN Radio.
Walking through Target = wishing I had a portable TV to watch C-SPAN.
Driving to lunch = C-SPAN Radio.
Lunch = again wishing for that portable TV.
Driving from Target to our new place = C-SPAN Radio.
Unpacking boxes and organizing the new place = C-SPAN.

Finally I leave Brad at 6:00pm to come into work and I think he very happily turned C-SPAN OFF the television!

I will be glad to leave work in a little bit, get in my car, and turn off C-SPAN!

Happy August Recess!!!!