Is it Spring yet?

If I hadn't looked at the upcoming weather forecast of snow flurries, I would have thought it was Spring based on our front yard:

Weekend Wedding.

The highlight of our weekend was Chris and Megan's wedding! Chris grew up across the street from me and was like the brother I never had (he used to hang me upside down by my feet). Chris has finally matured (or I have gotten too heavy) and he married a lovely girl on Saturday night.

The ceremony and reception were at Windows on the River in Cleveland. It was a wonderful view of the river and city. The food and drinks were great and I had a lot of both!

Congratulations to the Chris and Megan!

Vegas Trip.

This trip to Vegas was more successful than the last few we've been on. Joe and his dad played in two tournaments at the Wynn over the weekend and Joe got 5th in one of them! He played well and was happy to come home with some money!

As for me, in the past I haven't really been much of a gambler (much to Mrs. Patrick's dismay). However, this trip I found that I have a love for video black jack. I can put $20 in and have at least an hour of fun without losing too much.

An aerial view.

While flying into Vegas yesterday, we had a great view of the Hoover Dam. We have never flown this close to it so I had to take a picture.

It's all coming together!

Looks better with chairs, doesn't it?

These climbing men were too unique and fun to pass up.

Pillows

Whilst doing some online perusing for pillows for our couch, I came across the one pictured below which I really liked! However, it was $63.00 for a single pillow and that was the on sale price. Yikes!
I went with my mom to Joann Fabrics and we found the same exact fabric - I was ecstatic! As long as my mom does not charge for labor, we should hopefully get the same quality-made pillow for considerably less.

I'm a brick...house!

In order to jump start my attempt to begin consistently working out again, I took a kickboxing class last night at BrickHouse Boxing. It was nothing like the cardio kickboxing classes I took for a few months in New Castle. In New Castle, it was pretty much an all women's class with a few men from time to time. This class was all men with just Suzi and I. I'm really glad she came.

The BrickHouse class focused on form and proper technique which I really enjoyed learning about. However, I was used to kicking the heavy bags with my foot which is wrong. You are supposed to hit with your shin since it is one of the hardest bones in the body. My shin did not like that:

Apparently I am not a brick house, I am a peach. I suppose I need to wear some shin guards or build up a tolerance to abusing my shins.

Weekend Update.

Some of the highlights of the weekend:

• We had a game night with Suzi and Jon on Friday. Suzi brought a new game over, You've Been Sentenced, which was ok but not as good as Boxers or Briefs.


• Saturday night was Megan N.'s bachelorette party. She has a mere two weeks left before she's to be married so we celebrated downtown on East 4th Street. We had dinner at La Strada followed by a dessert drink at Chocolate Bar and then a cocktail or two at Wonder Bar.


• I had my first baby shower to go to on Sunday...gulp! Kaitlyn got a lot of adorable little outfits for her little girl that will be born in April.

Go away snow!

As beautiful as the snow is, I'm ready for it to be spring.

At least I have a husband willing to get up early and take care of the driveway

Driving Green.

Since my car lease is up in a few months, I've been starting to think about what new vehicle I would like to zip around town. I love my current car, but having to put in premium gas when gas prices are so high is brutal. So I'm going green. Not only will buying a Toyota Prius cut down on my carbon footprint, it will keep some green dollar bills in my wallet as well.

I'm excited about it!

We are social butterflies

Joe and I were pretty busy this weekend, and as you can tell from the title, it was mostly with social activities. After work on Friday, we met Suzi and Jon downtown for dinner and a play. We ate a Momocho. They serve modern mexican cuisine and this restuarant has sky rocketed to the top of my favorites list. It wasn't just the fun flavored margaritas that has me professing my love for this eatery, the food is unlike the traditional cheese-laden mexican to which I'm accustomed. In fact, the entire meal was cheese free! I had duck taquitos (fajitas) which were delicious. If you live in Cleveland, visit this Ohio City restaurant.

After Momocho, we saw Shrek the Musical. I thought the production was pretty good. It was entertaining and the acting was well done, but I didn't love the music (with the exception of "I'm a believer"). A musical should have great music.

After a lot of errands on Saturday; Amy, Megan, Nicole and Adam came over for some burgers and hot dogs. Grilling indoors was our way of encouraging Spring to show up soon so we can do some grilling outdoors. We played some very competitve table tennis with Adam showing the most skill. We had a lot of fun and will have to do it again after we've improved our ping pong skills!

Volleyball.

In response to Holly's comment...

Nicole and her husband, Adam, invited us to play in a co-ed volleyball league which has been going on over the past 2 months. Neither Joe or I have played volleyball outside of our High School gym classes and we were apprehensive on how our performance might be. Although we still have a lot to improve on, neither of us have taken a ball to the face and I believe we are getting better each week (some weeks feel like a regression).

Our team, the Yetis, isn't the best in the league. In truth, I think we are battling for one of lowest ranks. We have been having a good time though and are looking forward to our last 4 games before playoffs.

Go Yetis!

Furniture Pictures!

I'm very excited to share the pictures of our new furniture. We feel like things are really starting to come together and, as cliche as it sounds, it feels more like our home.

(notice the chalkboard wall in the background!)

Chairs will be a nice addition...

New Furniture.

After waiting for about 6 weeks, we have finally received our new couches and chairs. We order a sofa, a chair and a half and a regular chair. The chair and a half is huge and I am convinced they accidentally sent us a love seat. Joe has been breaking them in to the best of his ability and has been thoroughly enjoying it.

Oh, and the kitchen table too! We still don't have chairs but we feel like we are most of the way there. I have been meaning to take pictures but have been too lazy. I figured writing about the furniture on the blog would motivate me to take the pictures to post. Hopefully I'll be sharing them soon...