Back to reality

So Jim and I took our week vacation a little earlier this year due to some concert conflicts. Ridiculous right? I know, but we love our concerts. Anywho, we went to our family cottage from 10-18 July and it was a nice relaxing week. We took a few day trips here and there but really just kind of hung out. I'll be adding some pics to my photo blog of things from the week.

I took the 19th off of work to sort of get back into the swing of things and do laundry and whatnot. I usually take the Monday off after I get back. Don't want to go jumping back into work too fast now lol.

Monday night was a photo shoot though. Now, I don't do portrait photography. I'm not really a people person and I prefer macro photography and landscapes. But, my friend Rachel asked me and my other friend Rachel to do some maternity pictures for her so I thought it would be fun to try something different. And guess what...it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be lol. I think its more the editing of portrait photographs that I don't like. Getting the skin tones right and making sure the white balance is good...ugh. I did edit one picture though...



...and I'm pretty proud of how it turned out.

So anyway, back to work...it was good actually. We had a new piece of equipment being added to the lab and after traveling to Ottawa back in March for the training, I was excited to get it up and running.

I bought a new purse too. I bought it before we went on vacation and it was waiting for me when I got back. I bought the Steve Madden BPatchh purse in lilac.



It was originally $98 and then it went "on sale" for like $89. Then the very next day it was on sale for $39.99...yes please! I love it! It's not leather, but it's super soft and can hold a ton of stuff.

Then, this past Thursday I went to a Gigi Hill handbags party. Of course I bought a few things. I'll post the actual pics of the items when I get them in. I must say that their business card holder is sweet!

And that's about it for now. Jim and I know we need to get back into home renovations so we're trying to decide what project to tackle next. We shall see...

Been super busy lately

So the day after my wonderful surprise party, I headed off to Kansas City, MO for work. Not only was I flying (not my favorite thing in the world) but there were tornado warnings out all over the place...awesome. Our flight was supposed to take off at 7:55 p.m. but at that time, we were still sitting in the airport. We had a plane but no crew. The weather that day really screwed everything up. So we're finally sitting on the plane and the pilot comes on to say there's a hydraulic leak and it will take at least 30 minutes to fix it...awesome. Needless to say, we ended up getting to KC about an hour and a half late. Oh well. It was Sunday night so we didn't have anything planned that night anyway.

I was in KC Mon-Thurs. Monday I was fine. Went to some meetings, ate lunch, went out to dinner that night, all good. Tuesday rolls around and in the morning I bought a bagel but wasn't super hungry...I sort of forced it down. So now its lunchtime and I have absolutely no appetite. I think I took two bites out of my sandwich and couldn't eat the rest. I continue my day, go to some more meetings, try to force some food down at around 4:00 since I knew dinner would be late. So I'm back in my room, brushing my teeth and I throw up. Score. I decided I felt OK though and headed on down to dinner. We get to the restaurant (which thankfully was in the hotel) and it just hit me. I don't feel good AT ALL! I decide to skip out on dinner, buy some water and pretzels at the drugstore and retire to my room for the night. I think I was able to eat like 3 pretzels.

Wednesday morning rolls around (my actual birthday) and I feel like complete crap! I had some meetings in the morning, but was always going back to my room in between meetings to rest a little. At lunch I ordered a bowl of minestrone soup and could barely get the broth down. I went to a 4:00 meeting and after an hour, finally went back to my room. I took a two hour nap, nice! It sucks though because I was all excited to go out and get some tasty BBQ and celebrate my birthday with some nice folks we had met. Nope. Went out to dinner at like 9:00 and while I did actually order some fish & chips, I only ate half of it. That was a start though.

Thursday we left. I was feeling better but not 100%. Oh and on the plane I had a window seat with no window. Seriously? That sucked! I may not be a huge fan of flying but I at least like to look out the window. So all in all, for work it was a pretty good trip. Too bad I felt like crap most of the time.

The Friday after we got back, Jim, my brother and I headed up to our cottage for the 4th of July weekend. I was pretty blah all weekend. Too much go-go-going, being sick and not enough sleep caught up with me I guess. We went to the fireworks in town and it was pretty sweet! There really isn't a huge body of water in town so they essentially set the fireworks off over a pond, which is pretty much the entire town. Yeah, flaming pieces of fireworks were falling around us lol.

This week at work has been super busy, but that's good. I also put together my application to go back to school (Master's in Engineering Management) so now I'm just waiting to hear if I've been accepted. I NEVER thought I'd go back to school but I figure if I'm not going to have kids any time soon I might as well accomplish something within the next few years lol.

So tonight we have to do some hardcore packing and cleaning since we're leaving tomorrow to go up to our cottage for a week. I'm so ready for this vacation!

Hellooooooooooo!

Good lord, what a slacker I've been. I have been getting better at updating my other two blogs though so give me some credit there lol.

So we did the vacation thing in August - went "up north" for a week.

First we headed up to Munising, MI to see the Pictured Rocks...

Then we headed down to Mackinac and spent an evening on the island. Love it there!

They had a butterfly house on the island, so we decided to give it a visit...very cool.

We made a trip over to Hartwick Pines one day...

We also hit up Traverse City for lunch at the Mackinaw Brewing Company, headed over to Glen Arbor to go to Cherry Republic winery/store/cafe and saw the Sleeping Bear Dunes along the way. We didn't attempt to climb them. Been there, done that. It's a GIANT sand dune that takes FOREVER to get to the top...I'll pass.

Back home, in August they had an air show at the base so we went to that. I think I got some pretty cool shots. I have a few more on my photo blog too.

Let's see...what happened in the month of September. Well we celebrated my brother's 24th birthday. Did the bar thing and had some fun.

Here's me with my brother and sister...aren't we a cute bunch? lol

And then we went back up north for Labor Day weekend. Just hung around the cottage, did a little drinkin'...good times.

After I got back from the cottage, it was back to work. I headed out to Rock Island Arsenal with Jill for a work trip.

See how much fun we have?

Then throughout September we went to a Mudvayne concert, Sausagefest (hehe), a Beer Festival and I went to the International Gem and Jewelry Show. I don't go for the loose beads, although they have plenty, but I like the glass rings and bracelet watches they have.

I think that about catches us up through September.

ships, monkey jockeys, birthdays, fireworks and more

So it's been a pretty busy couple weeks. June 23-26th I was in Norfolk, VA for work with Jill. We had a few meetings to attend but we also got to do some of the touristy stuff. One night we ate at Todd Jurich's Bistro, had lunch at Kincaid's and then another dinner at Snappers. All of them were very good! We didn't get over to Virginia Beach but we checked out some ships.

...this one is in dry dock for repairs...very cool...

...this is the Battleship Wisconsin...

...here she is at night...

...and here's Jill and I atop the large vessel...

So we flew back to Michigan on Friday the 26th and on our way home, swung by a gem and jewelry show in Novi. I got some really cool glass rings and some bracelet watches for like $5/each. Can't beat that!

That night were the fireworks and Stars and Stripes Festival in Mount Clemens, so Jim and I and my brother headed down there. We met up with my sister and her friend Doug and just sort of walked around, checking out the goings on. So we're walking down a street on the way to the bar and came across the Banana Derby. Have you ever seen anything so ridiculous??

...yes...that's a monkey in a little jockey suit on a dog.

Moving on...

We stopped in at Orleans and had a few drinks and played some darts

...me and my boy...

...my sis and her pal...


Once we left the bar, we headed down towards the water to watch the fireworks. And that pretty much sums up that night.

Now my birthday was actually June 30th, but we celebrated on June 27th. A bunch of us got together to hang out at Fishbones for some drinks, music and pool. It was a good night!

...here's me and Melanie...

...Jill and Ken...

...me and Rachel...

...Rachel and her husband Fred...

...of course one of Jim and I...

...and my brother striking a pose for the camera...


Sunday (June 28th) we headed over to my parents house for a birthday dinner and some cake. Mmmmmmmmmmmm, cake.

Tuesday was my actual birthday. I got some cards, a bunch of birthday wishes on Facebook, Jim brought me flowers and we went out to dinner at Brio. All in all, it was a good birthday.

So this past weekend we headed to our cottage for the weekend. My parents were already up there and then Jim, my brother and I headed up there Friday. Saturday night we went into town to the beach for the big show. We got there around 8:00 so we had some time to kill.

...here's my sexy man...

...and Jim and my brother lookin' like badasses...

FINALLY at 11:00 the fireworks started and I was happy to get some good shots

I posted more on my photo blog.

And I think that's about it for now. I took a bunch of pictures at our cottage so I'm sure I'll be posting some of those in the near future.

A wedding & A weekend

So I decided to take last Friday off of work. I had a wedding to go to later in the day, so it seemed like a good enough reason to take the entire day off :o) I'm glad I did because I found out that my good friend Michelle was going to be in town for a wedding she was in so I was able to have lunch with her. She lives in Delaware...I wish she could move back to Michigan!

So like I said, that night we went to a wedding. A friend of mine from high school was finally marrying her sweetheart. Congrats to Lisa and Nick!

...and a few of me and Jim

...the first dance...her dress was gorgeous!

...me, Lisa and Elena posing for a pic

The newlyweds are currently enjoying their honeymoon in Mexico and the pictures she's adding to Facebook look fabulous!

Saturday around 1-ish Jim and I went to pick up my brother to head to our cottage up north. My parents were already there so we were meeting them up there. We got up there around 6-ish and cracked open some beers. My parents made dinner, we made a bonfire and just hung out for the night.

Now, when we were little, we went up north as a family for every Memorial Day weekend. One thing I remember the most is the fly-in pancake breakfasts we used to go to on Sunday morning of that weekend. The pancake breakfast was held at this little airport up there and it was always cool to watch the planes fly in and out. Well we didn't hit up the pancake breakfast, but Jim, my brother and I went over there so I could take a few pictures of the planes.

We spent the rest of the weekend just hanging around the cabin, eating (lol), watched the Red Wings game and had another bonfire. Sunday night we had fun with shutter speed on my camera. I don't have a picture uploaded right now but let's just say that my brother had fun with a flashlight, a long shutter speed and dirty drawings lol.

And you know I took more pics. Check out my cool sun flare picture I posted on my photo blog.

One last summer hurrah!!

We went up to the cottage over Labor Day weekend for some end of summer fun. Luckily Will was in town, so Melanie and Will were able to join us up north for the weekend. We had a great time! The weather was beautiful! Of course here's a few pics to go along with the weekend.

Hangin' at the beach


Hangin' by the fire


Me and Melanie


Me being stupid...of course


The guys


When making a hobo pie, do not drop it in the dirt. It's not delicious at all


Do make sure it lands on a plate, dirt-free.


And here's a nasty bigass spider we saw...gross!!

And some other nature shots