Say Cheese!

I saw this squirrel up in a tree and as I put up my camera to take a picture, he looked right at the camera and gave me a nice "grin"!

A quick look at the past few weeks....

Steve started trying to grow a beard a couple weeks ago. He only let it grow for close to two weeks, then he couldn't stand it any more and shaved it off. It was a bit patchy, but I bet it would look good if he gave it more time. Maybe in a few years he'll try again...

My Dad had this package delivered to us last week. It is from Harry and David. If you haven't ever had stuff from there... you are missing out. They have gourmet foods.... delicious. Our gift tower consisted of perfect pears, yummy apples, jams, cheese, smoked salmon, chocolate covered bing cherries (mmmmm...), nuts, chocolates, baklava, some sort of fudgy chocolate stuff, shortbread cookies with raspberry filling...... mmmmm...... tasty treats! Thanks Dad!

My good friend Keriann had a baby shower last Saturday and I helped with the food. I made Caramel Apples.....

They turned out good, and I thought they looked pretty awesome all lined up on the tray! So, I thought I'd share some pictures for your viewing pleasure.... sorry I don't have the technology to allow you to taste them on here....

Yesterday, November 19th, was Steve's Birthday! I got him a racquet ball racquet, some new clothes, "The Sword in the Stone" on DVD (he says it's his favorite disney movie), and a new watch.

It was kind of funny because I bought Steve a watch for his birthday 4 years ago.... and yesterday, on his birthday, that watch was close to dead. We were waiting to see if it would break all the way through by the end of the day.....
Now he has a new watch. He likes digital ones...that have the date and everything on the face. I thought this new blackish one looked nice for a digital watch.

(I caught Steve practicing racquet ball... in the house..... not like he could really keep it a secret... the sound of the ball bouncing against the wall kind of gave him away....)

For dinner we had Steve's favorite--Thai Curry. We even got to use my cool dishes I bought at Pier 1 Imports. (I found a gift card that we had gotten for our wedding over 3 years ago.... figured I'd put it to use!).

Oh and in case you were wondering.... my dining room is now themed around those dishes.... notice the color of the walls.... and I hung dark brown curtains....

Anyway, Happy Birthday Steve! He is now 27 years old and smells like formaldehyde! Not because he's old, but because he now disects cadavers in anatomy lab......

Last Minute Road Trip

So, on November 8th, I picked up and took a last minute road trip. Just me. Steve had to be to school on Monday so he couldn't come with me unfortunately.

My final destination being about 475 miles away from Toledo, I first was planning on getting a plane ticket. But, with gas prices soooo low right now, I figured, heck I might as well drive! And, I was up for an adventure.

So I hopped in the car Saturday morning and hit the road!

Goodbye house!.....

Goodbye street where we live!

(I cheated, that picture wasn't actually taken that day....there weren't that many leaves left at that point...)

Goodbye Toledo Zoo bridge..... and hello RAIN! (The Zoo is very close to our neighborhood. Within walking distance. That bridge you see is the path connecting the two different sections of the zoo. Pretty cool.)

After a short 3 1/2 hour drive.......

In Kentucky, the sun was out and the scenery was beautiful.

Nice to see some hills and a bit of dimension to the land.

Nothing compared to Utah's mountains, but a change of scenery from flat Toledo, Ohio.

Another 3 1/2 hours on the road (which, by the way, REALLY didn't seem long at all).......

.......and I was in Tennessee! Wow, drove across two entire states in 7 hours! Very cool.

Only a short 1/2 hour left to my final destination.

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE!

Home of the Grand Ole Opry. That's right folks I went to the heart of Country to see the Country Music Awards.... Okay thats a lie. I actually went to the Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville where they were holding a convetion for NextGen-- electronical medical records or something like that..... Obviously the convention wasn't for me. I was there to visit someone else that was traveling there for the convention......

MY DAD!

Yippee! And my mom of course came on the trip with him. So, it was my job to entertain my mom while my dad was at the convention during the day.

And it wasn't hard! At a place like the Gaylord Opryland Resort, you can stay occupied for hours without even leaving the hotel! I mean, check this place out! Inside the hotel, under glass roofs are "nine acres of indoor gardens, cascading waterfalls and an indoor "river" with its own Delta flatboats." Seriously people.... very cool.






We had a great time just exploring the hotel and stuff. We ate at one of the six restauarants in the hotel and ordered fancy room service and watched movies and just... had fun!

One night we went to Jack's Bar-b-que, a little barbeque joint downtown in Nashville. I found it online, and figured we'd try it and get a taste of the streets of downtown. There were bars and stuff with bands playing country music all over the place. There were boot shops and hat shops on every corner. As we were walking we asked some random guy sitting on a bench if he could tell us where Jack's Bar-b-que was. He said "Yeah... other side of the street.... flying pigs." I thought that was funny. And sure enough.....

....check out those flying pigs! (that's my dad in the blue coat walking under the sign)

On Monday my mom and I went and toured the Belle Meade Plantation. Kind of interesting to get a feel for life back in those days.... with the slaves and everything.... It was a neat historical site.

And here are my mom and I just being silly.


I had a great time with my parents. It will hold me over until I get to see them again at Christmas! We fly out the 21st of December. I can't believe the holidays are that close!