Girl's Weekend Flight Booked!!

Some of my closest girlfriend's and I try to do a trip together at least once a year.  Once we all graduated college, we all kind of promised each other we'd make an effort to get together.  We did this because everyone lives all over the place now.  I LOVE that we do this, and I'm so excited about this year's trip!!

We decided on Wilmington, NC.  We're doing this because a) it's the beach b) it's not far from Richmond, VA and c) Laura went to grad school in Wilmington and knows the area.  It's not going to be quite the same since some of the girl's can't make it :(  Erin is in Saudi Arabia, Kristin now might be traveling for work, and Kelly might be moving to Colorado for a job.  It sucks, but I'm proud to have such successful friends!!

We booked our condo on the beach, and with all of the girls it's only about $200 for the long weekend!  I was able to catch a flight to Richmond and find a flight leaving Wilmington, so it works out perfectly.   Better yet, I caught a pretty good deal on the flight!

We didn't have a girl's weekend last year because of the traveling involved with Ashley's and I's wedding.  Since we don't have any girls weddings this year, this beach trip was easy to plan!

Here's a pic from our cabin weekend from 2 years ago.  It's crazy to think how much we've changed since college!

I can't wait until June 29th!! I'll be flying into Richmond and I'll get to see some people in Richmond before we drive down to Wilmington Friday the 1st.

SO EXCITED for girl time, beach, sun, family & friends <3

Tornados & Surprises

I hope everyone had a nice Easter weekend!

I spent my weekend at work, even on Easter Sunday.  We did have a pleasant surprise Saturday, however :)

Ryan's cousin, John-Levi, got married in Missouri on Saturday.  I wasn't able to go because it was short notice and I wasn't able to work around my work schedule, but since Ryan doesn't work weekends he was able to make the 3 hour trip.  Ryan's mom & Aunts were able to make it, as was his grandpa.

I wish I could of been there, but I got to see pictures and they look like a very happy couple!  I can't wait to meet Anna on our girl's trip in October.  We've now been deemed "The A-Team" because all of the nephews on Ryan's mom's side are married to women with the first letter of our name being A (Alysa, Anna & Ainsilie) :)

Ryan's Aunt Debbie planned on flying out of St. Louis, but some tornados came through on Friday and ruined her plans for flying out of St. Louis.  So, Ryan was able to take her back to our place where she stayed the night and got a flight out of Kansas City on Sunday.  We were able to go to dinner when I got off on Saturday and it was very nice!  We went to a famous BBQ place around here called Oklahoma Joe's.

While I was checking out the weather tonight trying to figure out how many more days we were going to have of nasty storms, I came across this video.  The St. Louis airport released their security cameras to see the tornado coming through.  Pretty scary!

A few pictures...

I had off yesterday, and instead of laying around all day being lazy like I hoped, I ended up running errands all day long.

While I was at Costco, I noticed they had looooots of beautiful flowers & plants for very cheap!  I absolutely LOVE hydrangeas, and they had some for only $19!  I had no clue what I was going to do with it, but I had to buy it.

I decided to get a pot and plant them outside of our front door.  I hope I can keep them alive!! I know hydrangeas can't have direct sunlight and they need lots of water, so we'll see.  It's Day 2 and they still look good!  Maybe if I can keep these alive, I'll start to have a bit of a green thumb :)  I told Ryan maybe I'll get into gardening, and he laughed at me since we don't have a house to garden with.  Ugh :)

Aren't they pretty??

Also, I've been hoping for a new bedroom set since we got married.  We originally were thinking about maybe purchasing a mattress or a new bed frame with wedding giftcards, but I wanted to wait until we had enough to purchase an entire set.  

For those of you who aren't aware, we're using Ryan's bedroom set from when he was in high school.  The mattress and bed are both over 10 years old.  Gross.  And not working.  The box set falls off the bed frame ALL of the time! This is not fun! And not comfortable!

Well, we recently had a hail storm that I blogged about a couple of weeks ago.  My car had over $4k worth of damage, so Ryan decided to take his in too just to make sure he didn't have any damage on his car (we couldn't physically see anything).  What do you know, the claims adjuster said that he had over $2k worth of damage to his car from a few dents on the roof.  

In order for you to understand my thought process, I need you to remember that Ryan decided to randomly take his car in because we couldn't see any physical damage.  I also need you to remember what I just said about our bed we're sleeping in right now.

So, doesn't it make sense to take the check Geico cut us and use it for something more useful than repairing a few dents??? Ryan seems to think it's dishonest.  I seem to think that we've been paying Geico hundreds of dollars a month for years, and they have made more off of us than what the check is for.  Ryan disagrees and wants to get the car fixed, even though we can't see the damage and we plan on keeping his car until it dies. 

Ugh.

What can I do to convince him?? I even went to Nebraska Furniture Mart to get ideas on what kind of furniture we want.  By the way, the furniture store is HUUUUUUGE (bigger than Ikea) and they even have parking lot security patrol.  Woah.

This is just one entrance.  The midwest doesn't mess around with their furniture.

On my way home, I couldn't help but laugh and notice some other differences about living here and from being back on the East Coast.  While I was leaving Hobby Lobby, I noticed a sign that said "We are closed Sunday to give our employees rest and a time for Worship".  Woah.  You would not see that in Maryland or Virginia.

Also, 2 motor-cyclers flew by me on the interstate and both didn't have helmets on.  I'm not used to seeing this since you have to wear helmets in Virginia.  

I passed by a school and noticed a crossing guard controlling traffic.  Yes, apparently they still have these and Overland Park isn't just stuck in the 70s.  I even took a picture of it to prove it:

Ryan reminded me that we saw a crossing guard in Ketchikan, Alaska when we were on our honeymoon, but I don't remember it so it doesn't count :)  

On another note, it's been a very, very stressful week at work and I can't wait to have Saturday off and go to World's of Fun with Ryan!!!! 

Lucky or Not?

I came across this article from a friend's Facebook page.

I like it a lot.

Perspective has a lot to do with your attitude.  I think this article strikes a good point!

Take a look:

http://lifehacker.com/#!5791032/improve-your-luck-by-relaxing-keeping-an-open-mind-and-paying-attention-to-the-world-around-you

Lucky in Love

I'd like to thank Ryan's birthday went pretty well!  It was very low key, but Ryan likes low key.  I made him steak & fruit salad, and his strawberry angel food cake turned out pretty well.  There were parts of the cake that didn't cook completely, but we'll ignore that.

Happy Birthday lover!

I got him the new Samsung Galaxy S phone and he likes it so far!  He's never heard of a phone that has a camera, emails, AND gets lots of cool apps.  Welcome to 2011 my dear :) 

Earlier this week, I started getting very, very sad that I was missing home so much.  This is of course because I was just there for a week.  I had SO much fun seeing all my friends and family, and I did NOT want to leave my new baby niece.  Because I was feeling sad, I think Ryan used his man senses and thought that I was mad at him.  I told him I was feeling sad just because I was just there, but my sweet hubby wasn't okay with this.  I think he puts a lot of blame on himself for our move to KC, and I sometimes have to tell him that I chose to move here too, it's just harder for me because I'm a girl and that's what girls do :)

Anyway, I came home from work on Tuesday to a card, flowers, and a cute stuffed dog that I named Bubba. Not only did he do this for me, but he wasn't home when I got home because he was out picking up one of my FAVORITE meals.  Carrabba's.  Yum yum!

No clue why the lighting turned out like it did.

I'm so lucky to have a husband that is sensitive to my feelings, and does what he can to make it better.  I don't know how I got such a great guy, but I'm so thankful to be lucky in love! <3

Birthdays, Babies, & Being Away!

I know I haven't blogged in a while, and I blame that on being away on vacation in MD & VA for a week.

Valid excuse :)

First of all, I want to wish my sweet, smart, handsome husband a very Happy 26th Birthday!!! I love you so much!

He requested a strawberry angel food cake for his bday treat, so I'm in the process of baking it now!  I'm also making him some very yummy steak for dinner and we're skipping our Dave Ramsey class :)  (Sorry Ron & Kim - I promise we're getting a lot out of it!!)

I feel like I did A LOT while I was on the East Coast, so I'll try my best to summarize my time away:

I ended up flying in early to Maryland Monday night after work to help out Jim & Shannon who were in a tough spot with babysitting.  I got to hang out with TJ & Gabby Tues & Wed while Jim was in Houston and Shannon was at a work conference.  TJ is 4 (he was our ringbearer in our wedding) and Gabby is 2.  They are sooooo cute and entertaining and I loved spending time with them!  They were so good and made me laugh.  I wish I took some pictures of them!!!

I left Jim & Shannon's Wednesday afternoon and headed to Columbia to meet my niece, Rena!! Emily looks great and so does Rena!  Rena greeted me in one of the outfits I sent her for her baby shower.

Rena is almost a month old now, but she's still so tiny!  I never, ever got tired of holding her and feeding her and cuddling!  She makes the cutest squeeky sounds and is a beautiful baby!  I think she got her sleeping ability from the Dalton side, because the girl will sleep through everything!!! This is a good thing considering Monkey, their cockerpoo dog, has a bark the size of a pitbull (just not as deep).

I left Friday morning to head to Richmond to try to do as much as I could in 2 days.  I got to hang out with Laura & Paige Friday, then go to dinner with my parents Friday night & hang out with Nikki, Elly, Patrick & Lauren Friday night.  Elliot (Nikki's daughter) turned 2 on Saturday and she had a cookout at Jason's parents house to celebrate.  We decorated Elly's cake Friday night and we were having so much fun, Elly stayed up with us until 2am! Oops!

Saturday morning I had breakfast with my college roommates (PAACK) at Cracker Barrel.  I got to see Kendall & Cindy's little boys, and after breakfast we went to Kendall's house for a bit to play with Taiten.  I forgot to take pictures!! Agh!

Saturday afternoon was Elly's bday party.  She's obsessed with Barney, so everything was purple & green themed.  She opened presents in her time out chair, so it resulted in a not so happy face:

How cute is she?  Elly will be a big sister in just a week!! So excited for Nikki & Jason and the new addition to the fam!  Can't wait to meet you Riley!

After Elly's bday party, I headed over to Paige's to watch the VCU/Butler game.  Ashley stayed in Richmond to watch the game so it was nice to hang out & catch up like when we used to live together!  I had no idea Richmond would be so VCU crazed!   People were selling Final Four t-shirts at the corner of gas stations as if it was New York.  I'm glad VCU was able to make it so far and represent Richmond, and I'm also glad to hear Shaka signed on for another 8 years to hopefully bring VCU back to the March Madness in 2012!

After the VCU game, I decided to drive back to MD.  I was very tired, and the more I thought about it, the less appealing driving back in Sunday morning traffic seemed.  Plus, I was anxious to hold my beautiful niece one more time!!

Sunday was another Rena day, and Emily's parents Randi & Rich came by to say hi and took us out to lunch.  We went on an afternoon walk and laid low until it was time for me to head to the airport.

I wouldn't blog without posting a picture of Rena Brynn!!

Outfit provided by Auntie Ains (and Uncle Ryan) :)

Sleepy Rena.  I want her to stay this tiny forever.

I thought my flight home was going to be a breeze, even though there was a lot on the news about Southwest having a hole in one of their planes.

I was wrong.

If you guys haven't experienced a Kansas City thunderstorm, then you haven't experienced a real thunderstorm.  They are DARK, they are LOUD, and they are deadly.  Kansas City just so happened to decide to have a HAILSTORM last night as my flight was landing.

Scariest. landing. ever.  I literally prayed to go to Heaven because I knew I was going to die.  I closed my eyes as the plane felt like it was either going to do a 180 or just crash straight down.

We survived, obviously, but it wasn't fun.  The pilot was clever and after we landed he went over the intercom and said "...Welp.......we made it."  I'm counting my lucky stars today.

After we landed, I had to wait for my luggage.  Ryan called as he was driving to the airport and said the hail was so bad he was going to have to pull over.  Luckily he made it to the airport, but then we had to wait another 30 minutes until the lightening stopped and they were able to use the ramp to get our luggage to us.

On the way home, we drove right back into the hail storm.  We had to pull over for 10 minutes because the hail was so loud hitting our car, I was scared it was going to smash the car windshield in.

This morning before Ryan left for work, he checked out my car to see if there was any damage, and unfortunately there was.  A lot of it.

The hail was so bad it dented the entire passenger side of my car.  We've only had it for 3 weeks!!!! :(  I have to take it into the shop on Wednesday before work to have the Geico rep do an estimate and see the  damage.  I'm so sad for Miss Nelly!  I wish more than ever that we chose an apartment with a garage!!

I tried to take a picture, but it's very hard to get pictures of hundreds of dents on a silver car in daylight.  Here's one that shows the depth of the dents:

Poor Miss Nelly.

All in all, I had an awesome time in Md & Va.  It was so incredibly refreshing to see friends & family I've missed so much.  I keep hinting to Ryan to try to transfer to Charlottesville, and I'm hoping one day it'll happen.

I missed Ryan & Zoe a lot while I was gone, so I was ready to come back home.   If I could transport everyone to me, I would be the happiest girl ever!  I can't say I'm ready to go back to work tomorrow, but I have to do it at some point!