Vegas, Baby

Kristie and I spent last week in Las Vegas. Kristie had a Federal Student Aid conference at Bally's / Paris, so I thought I'd tag along for some fun. Kristie went on Monday and I ended up getting there Tuesday night.

Kristie's conference sessions were during the day, which left us the evenings to do dinner and sightseeing. Wednesday night, we took a cab down to Fremont street which is old downtown Las Vegas. For those of you who have not been there, I highly recommend you make the trip down there. There is a canopy over the entire street where they do a video light show each hour on the hour in the evenings. The casinos are older, but the gambling is different than the strip. During the day you might very well find $1.00 Black Jack tables.

The week we went, the National Rodeo Championships just happened to be in town, so there were tons of cowboys on Fremont street. There were a few free country acts performing on the street as well. We saw Lady Antebellum for a song or two.

The ride back from Fremont Street to the Strip was entertaining. We decided to take the double-decker bus (aka "The Deuce") since it was only $2.00 per rider. We were not quite sure how it worked, so when the bus pulled up and its sign read "SSTT" as the destination, we were hesitant to get on. We asked the bus driver where he was headed and he told me he didn't know. I proceeded to ask him this question a few more times, hoping for a better answer, but he kept telling us he didn't know. He did so as he tore our tickets and closed the bus door behind us and started moving. Eventually he led on that he was heading towards the Strip. Just a few moments later, some girls tried to get on the bus...they had hurricanes (Giant alcoholic drinks) and the bus driver wouldn't let them on. The one girl kept asking why not and the bus driver explained that open containers are not allowed on the bus. She then asked "Are you serious?" and then the bus driver replied "Are you serious?" and then the girl asked again..."Are you serious?"to which the bus driver replied "Are you serious?" This went on for a good minute. Kristie and I were bursting with laughter. Finally the bus left, without the drunk girl. A few miles down the road, we overheard the bus driver talking to himself. He was repeating "Are you serious?" over and over. So funny.

The next day we went up to the top of the Eiffel Tower. The view is really amazing up there. Especially when the fountains at Bellagio are going off. There is a HUGE construction project going on just to left of Bellagio.

Later that night, we went to the Treasure Island buffet which was amazing! They had ever type of food you can ask for, plus great desserts. We were super excited to go to see "Le Reve" at the Wynn that night. A friend of mine knows a girl who performs in that show so we were able to get half price tickets. We've never really seen a show before in Vegas. It was unreal. From what I hear, it is similar to Cirque du Soleil. There was a center round stage that was all water. There were probably a total of 40 performers that did amazing acrobatics and dance...the stage came out of the water. It was about 70 minutes long.

Oh...and gambling. We did okay. I lost a bunch at Ultimate Texas Hold 'Em, but made some back on Roulette, the Sports Book, and Black Jack. Kristie was hot on the slots so we ended up + $15 on the trip. Can't complain!

Adjusting to Life's Changes

It's been a while since we blogged. August was a rough month for us.

Kristie's Mom passed away on August 22nd.

She had been in the hospital for 37 days battling pneumonia, breathing problems, and some newly discovered cancer. It was a roller coaster of ups and downs, and just when things were looking up, she took a turn for the worse and things snowballed from there. Judy had beaten cancer twice in her life at this point, and she had put up a courageous fight, but this was a battle that could not be won. She chose to avoid what could have been years and years of suffering and died peacefully with all of her close family with her.

Judy's obituary can be found here: http://obit.linnhertgeib.com/obitdisplay.html?id=572749&listing=Current

The last few weeks have been a time of adjusting to the uncertain days ahead. We appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers.

Beach Ballin'

So today, I played in the Corolla Light 3-on-3 basketball tournament. Apparently it is a pretty big deal as about 16 teams played. The rules were simple: the first team to score 5 points wins....or whichever team is leading after 5:00 minutes wins. I hadn't planned on playing early in the week, but Jirrell, one of the guys I met earlier in the week, convinced me to play. However, both his friends were still sleeping off a late night of partying, so we had to pick up a few other guys. We picked up Gary and Mike, both of them seemed to be in their 40's. When it was time to come up with our team name, it was simple, we were to be known as "Three Old Guys and One Young Guy."

Our first game went into overtime and we took a quick 2 point lead and hung on for the victory. In our second game, we played a team that had one athletic guy, one fat guy, and one little young guy. We were able to hang on and beat them 3-2.

We were on to the Semifinals! However, this team was stacked. One of their guys was about 6'6" and later I found out he was going to be playing at Virginia Tech this coming season. I was able to sink a jumper, but they ended up beating us 2-1. The problem with the timed-game format is if a team has the lead with a minute to go or so, they just hold onto the ball and prevent the other team from getting a chance to tie it up. However, it was a good run and we were happy with how we played.

Some exclusive video coverage of our game below! I'm the guy in the white shorts and grey shirt.

Checking in From Corolla

I have not blogged in a few days, so thought I'd provide some bullet points of interesting things that have happened in the last few days.

• I took Kristie back up to the Norfolk airport on Tuesday so she could fly back and go to class and take her exam on Thursday.
  
  
• We stopped at Morris Market on the way to the airport to pick up some peaches. If you ever make your way to the Outer Banks, hitting Morris Market is a must. They have tons of great fresh produce and the peaches are amazing.
  
  
• Yesterday, I ran about 5.5 miles...logging a lot of miles down here.
  
  
• There was a "family" volleyball tournament at Corolla Light yesterday, so I went and proclaimed myself a free-agent and joined up with some other guys and formed a team. None of them had played organized volleyball, so I did my best to coach them. We made it out of the first round, but suffered an agonizing 15-13 defeat in Round 2.
  
  
• A few of the guys I played volleyball mentioned that Wednesday night is European night at the Tomato Patch in Corolla. There are TONS of European exchange students working down here in the summer and apparently they all gather together at the "Tomatio Patch" (as they pronounce it) and get really dressed up and dance very seriously to techno music. Stephanie, Jon, and I went for a few beers and to people watch. It was really fun.
  
  
• Today, Stephanie and Jon are leaving. They are driving to Raleigh and then flying back to Chicago.
  
  
• There are a few fun activities planned today at Corolla Light that I'm going to try and participate in. The chipping contest takes place at the pool where there is a floating putting green with velcro. The goal is the chip the whiffle balls lined with velcro to stick to it. Also, there is a horseshoe contest as well. Tomorrow, there is a free-throw contest and a 3-on-3 Bball tourney that I'm probably going to play in.

A Day in Photos and Video

Today at the beach, we had an unexpected visitor.

We also had to vacate the beach quickly as a storm was moving in fast!


We also saw some kiteboarders at dinner while we were at Miller's restaurant in Nags Head. We were able to capture some video of this guy take off.

We also caught another kiteboarder when he went airborne.

Sunday on the Shore

We had a fun-filled first full day down here in Corolla. We started off by going out to the beach in the morning. Kristie and I were very excited to get out into the ocean. We took two Boogie boards out into the surf, which was very a little rougher than normal. Waves were breaking a few hundred yards out due to Tropical storm Bertha wreaking havoc a few hundred miles away out in the Atlantic. At first, we saw the waves and were very excited. It appeared it would be good conditions to ride waves a good distance.

We were wrong.

After about 20 minutes of trying to get out far enough to catch some good waves, we realized the current was just too strong. Waves were breaking further out, but some were coming in and breaking right on top of us. We both managed to "wave jump" most of them, but every now and then, one of the waves would be too powerful and take us under. I managed to ride a few waves in. I looked over at Kristie to see how she was doing. Earlier when I looked at her, she had a confident and determined look on her face as she paddled out to the waves. Then, a short while later, that look on her face turned to frustration as she battled the waves and struggled to inch out towards the waves. The last time I looked over at her, the look on her face had changed to desperation. I was not sure if she was going to be able to get back in. She had just been toppled by a giant wave and she was recovering when another one got her. I started swimming her way as she got up, I signaled to her that another was on its way right behind her. She managed to duck under, but I knew when she surfaced, I was going to have to help push her towards the shore.

We both decided that we should save Boogie boarding for another day and went up to our towels and relaxed for a while. Later we went on a walk up and down the beach. There were TONS of people out enjoying the nice, sunny day.

We saw a Chinook helicopter go by, following the shore, most likely from the Norfolk base. We also saw a few engine-powered hang-gliders take off and circle around. After a few hours, we made our way back to the house to swim. I checked out the rec center weight room while Kristie studied Economics while sitting poolside.




Closer to dinner, Stephanie and Jon arrived. I drove over to the beach with them for about an hour and when we came back, we all sat down for a nice dinner. We had London broil, boiled shrimp, salads, potatoes, and corn on the cob. After dinner, we headed over to the natural grass Miniature golf course which is just a short walk up the road. All 8 of us made the trip, dodging the swarms of bugs on the street which sent many of us running. Right when we started golfing, someone saw a fox about 50 feet away. Jon crept up and got a few photos.





Par for this miniature golf course (which had 20 holes) was 80. I had a 60 and Kristie had a 72. We are usually very competitive, so I will definitely hold this over her head for a while!

Tomorrow we are expecting some thunderstorms because of the tropical storm off the coast. Will check in later in the week!

Cruisin' in to Corolla

We arrived at our beach rental house in Corolla, NC today just before noon! This is the second year we've gone down to the Outer Banks for a summer vacation. My parents and Uncle Dave and Aunt Joyce rented the house and convinced us to come down for the week. Kristie can't stay the whole week because of classes and exams, so she will ship out a little early, taking a flight back from Norfolk on Tuesday. My cousin Stephanie and her husband Jon will be coming down here tomorrow night.

We actually left yesterday afternoon around 3:30 p.m. from Painesville and drove together in my parents' vehicle. It was pretty packed, but we survived. We stayed in Norfolk last night and got up early this morning to make the rest of the trip (about 2 hours) to the Outer Banks. We strategically planned this out since last year, traffic was crazy for my parents during the afternoon and early evening on Saturday because of all the other vacationers making their treks.
We made a stop at the welcome center as we entered the Outer Banks. Had to get a photo with the giant fish.




They let us check into our house on 1083 Hampton at Corolla Light early and boy, is it amazing! It has its own pool, there are 5 bedrooms and this place could basically sleep 19! We've only been here about 8 hours and it feels like we've been here a week already. Since we've been here, I went out and ran a little over 4 miles with my iPod Nike+ adapter, then we went swimming here at the house, played a few games of pool (yes it has a pool table!), went on a walk up to some shops and looked at the Sound, came back and went swimming again and now we are sitting down to eat dinner.




It's really beautiful weather down here, mid-80's and nice breeze coming in from the Atlantic. We'll be sure to check in again later in the week.

The summer is officially here

OK, so maybe not officially if you are paying attention to the calendar, but with the weather that we have been having, I'm making it official in Avon Lake. The weather has been great lately. Our landscaping looks really nice and Jeff sprayed the plants today to ward off those darn deer. Last year they ate our lillies on July 4 just when they were at their absolute peak... as you can see.

The next day, gone. I refuse to allow that to happen this year.

I worked on some homework today. It's hard to do when the weather is so nice. I'm a quarter of the way done with my econ class already. Next week I have the midterm, not sure if it's a take home or not. I will be meeting up with my friend/classmate this coming weekend to study, either way.

We had some of Jeff's coworkers over last night for a cookout and had perfect weather. We had a fire going and had a nice time with all of them. I don't think the mosquitos were really out, either. Or maybe the fire just kept them away. This afternoon we went for a bike ride to the lake. Work will start to pick up soon, we are getting all of the summer and fall financial aid in order and closing out our fiscal year. Only 6 weeks of econ left and then a vacation to a yet to be determined locale...

Grandma's 80th birthday party

We went down to Stone Creek this past weekend and helped celebrate Grandma's 80th birthday. We all got together at Red Lobster in New Phila and waited while Jim and Pam brought her to dinner. There were 40 of us there and we had a great time and I think she was surprised. Ben and Katelynn were cute as always. We had fun with them.

The entire family was there including Grandma's siblings and their spouses. I hope I look this good at 80!

Ben told us "My name is Ben, I love Jeff and Kristie, that's how I roll!" Adorable and hilarious.

I start my Economics class tomorrow night for the summer. Hope it goes well and quickly!

Long weekend...

At the last minute last week, Jeff booked us at the Mountaineer Casino and Resort in West Virginia for a mini vacation and to celebrate our 8th year anniversary, which officially takes place tomorrow, the 27th. He had some extra time off last week because of the Cavs being done and did some extra golfing. I picked him up in Youngstown after work on Friday where he had golfed at the Youngstown Country Club and then we headed to WV. We did a little gambling Friday night (mostly me watching and Jeff playing video blackjack) and we were even steven. There isn't much around there so we ate at the resort both nights. On Saturday, we had breakfast, checked out the Fiesta outlet and golfed 18 holes at the resort's course, which just so happens to be 10 miles from the casino. It was up in the mountains and had some beautiful views, but was a tough course, in my opinion. I did get one par, but overall, had a pretty bad score. Jeff did better than me... which is what usually happens.

We planned to leave early on Sunday to head back but I woke up in the middle of the night not feeling well, so Jeff packed us up and we left before 6 to head back, a little earlier than we had planned. When we checked out in the lobby, there was an older woman (60-70) who was passed out on some bench. She apparently had a rough night. Overall, it was so nice to get away.

I recuperated yesterday and slept a lot. Jeff did a little shopping and came back with more plants for the house. He has a bit of a plant problem and we are up to 20 plants in the house now, if my calculations are correct. He does a great job taking care of them and making sure they all get watered appropriately. I don't have to do a thing and when we get company, they tend to think its me, but I can't take credit. We now have another one in the living room, a few more in the office and a few in the foyer.

We took a bike ride into Bay Village and Westlake this afternoon and stopped at Crocker Park and decided to catch a movie. (Don't worry, we took our bike helmets off in the theater) We watched Iron Man with Robert Downey, Jr. I don't know the history of the comic book, but I thought it was great movie and at the very end of the credits and I mean the very end, there was a short teaser for the sequel. Should be good!

My girlfriend Amy from high school called me tonight to tell me she just had her baby today! She had another little boy, Gavin Jack. How cute. Today was actually her due date. I don't know how often that actually happens. He was 7 1/2 pounds and was born around lunch time today. Congrats Amy!!

Happy Memorial Day to you all and thank you to all the veterans that have done so much for our country and still do.

Life goes on...

My friend Chemenn is so interested in my life and checks my blog all the time... she is dying for some new information about us so here I go. :) Sometimes my life is boring, but I'll try not to put you to sleep.

As you might be aware, the Cavs lost on Sunday in Game 7 against the Boston Celtics. It was a good series and one that I thought we should have won. LeBron can't do it all on his own down the stretch and just didn't get the help he needed from the rest of the team. I have been impressed with Delonte West over the course of the playoffs. He out-hustles a lot of players and manages to grab a lot of rebounds for being one of the shorter guys on the court. It was fun to watch him play.

Now that the Cavs are done, I have my husband back! If my schedule at work wasn't so busy right now, we would take off for a nice vacation. It will have to wait until August when my summer class is over. We are talking about heading to Seattle, but aren't entirely sure yet where to go. Chemenn said that Nashville is nice that time of year... maybe she's guilting me into visiting her.

I'm really looking forward to the looong weekend ahead. The weather is supposed to be absolutely perfect. We may take a short trip somewhere or just stay home and relax.

I chatted with a few friends that I hadn't talked to in a long time the last few days. It was nice to catch up with Lisa (Happy 30th, Harris) and Julie (whad up G). Julie is heading to the Hamptons this weekend to help do hair and makeup for some major wedding. There is talk that Oprah may be in attendence. I told her to let Oprah know I'm sorry I missed our annual girls weekend. Maybe another time. It was good to talk to the two of them. My friends are scattered all over the place (Toledo, Columbus, Virginia, Michigan, Nashville, Florida) and I don't get to see them nearly as much as I would like to. It's nice to know that even though we don't chat often, we can still pick up where we left off.

Is this good enough Chemenn? I'll try to be a better blogger... or at least a more frequent one. :)

Productive Spring Weekend

We had 3 yards of mulch and 3 yards of top soil delivered on Saturday. We spent all day yesterday building up some new flower beds on the south side of the house that still needed some. We also transplanted a few plants that were taking over. We had a lot of tomato plants last year and we wanted to plant some more fruit, so we bought a few blueberry plants and a peach tree. We spread all the top soil and mulch in about 6 hours. I don't even want to guess how many wheelbarrow trips we made. It all looks really nice and I'm looking forward to some fruit later in the summer! Today we went golfing in the morning in Westlake with Jeff's friends, Keith and Sopha. It was still really nice out and for the first time out, I don't think that I did that bad. After the upcoming few days of cold weather, let's hope that the spring weather returns!

I finished my spring semester classes this past week and am thrilled to have the next month off! I want to get into the habit of making regular meals for us, in between the Cavs playoff games. I am heading to Game 5 of the playoffs on Wednesday and am looking forward to that. Go Cavs!!

Bathroom Project Complete!

Today, we FINISHED the basement bathroom. For the last week, each day our goal was to finish it, but we always had a few small things to do at the end of each day.

Dave came over on Tuesday night and he put up the crown molding. Then we put in the sink and toilet and finished up any other odds and ends.

Yesterday, I caulked the baseboard and crown, etc, then installed the wire shelving to the right of the shower. Today, I used all of our drywall scraps to cover up the exposed walls on the unfinished basement side and Kristie did some paint touch-ups.

It was a great experience and I take off my hat to Dave...who was awesome during the whole project. He knows how to do just about everything and if I would have attempted this project myself, I would probably still be framing it up at this point and would have cut down a small forest for the lumber I would have used! So thanks Dave...you are an awesome worker, teacher, and friend!

Below are some photos of the finished project!

We have a baby name!

Yes, we have a baby name! They have decided to call our new nephew Dominic. He looks just like Mikey when he was born, lots of dark hair and very cute! When Jeff and I were at the hospital on Saturday afternoon, Mikey kept running back to Dominic saying "Hi Baby!" It was really cute. He LOVES his little brother and hates to have him out of his sight. I'm sure it will be a big adjustment for him to no longer be the only little one in the house.

Jeff and Dave are finishing up the bathroom tonight. We should have pics to post soon for that. It looks really good! We had some adventures in choosing paint colors but we are happy with what we decided on. Dave has been great through the everything and has done a terrific job. And Jeff has learned tons from him through the whole process.

I have been working diligently on a project for the System and Design Thinking class. It's torture and I can't wait to be done with it. The semester is almost overwith. I'll have the month of May off and then back to class in June... ugh

So, I am sitting in the kitchen tonight working on this project and I notice something outside moving. It's large and very close to the house. It's those darn deer again! I stood up and they were looking right at me, not scared at all. We had a bit of an issue with them on Saturday night. We saw them out the back and counted 10 deer. The next morning, we were out at the FRONT of the house and I noticed that my tulips were buzzed to the mulch... I wasn't happy about that. Fortunately they weren't out that much, so I'm hoping they still manage to come up. I sprayed some Liquid Fence around all of them and I hope that means no more tulip salad bar for the deer. This may mean war...

Baby Time!

My sister and brother-in-law, Jen and Mike Arnone, welcomed a beautiful baby boy to the family last night at 11:48 p.m. He is 6lbs 14 ounces and a name will be decided upon soon...Dominic and Leonardo were front-runners. Mike was extra happy because yesterday was his birthday too...what a gift!

Kristie and I are planning to go make a visit this afternoon to see our newest nephew!

Adventures in drywalling

Jeff started working on 2nd coat of mud the drywall in the new bathroom last night. We can thank Dave for coat #1 last week. Tonight came sanding and as you can see, was quite messy. Things are moving right along. Dave is coming back on Thursday and they are going to work on the ceiling and we will need to decide on a paint color very soon.

Easter

We made the drive down to Stone Creek to celebrate Easter with my family. Church on Sunday was at Zion Lutheran and then off to my uncle and aunts house we went! They had a full house, I think there were about 30 or so of us there. The kids (our niece and nephew as well as my cousin's children) went out Easter egg hunting after dinner and had a great time. They were given a quota so once they reached that, the eggs they found went to the one that still needed to meet their goal. It was pretty funny watching them run all over the place. This is my brother Greg and his wife Monica. Our nephew Ben and niece Katie enjoyed themselves. They are so much fun and Ben always hams it up for the camera, as you can see...

After we left, we headed to Coshocton to see Jeff's Granny. She's such a joy, she updated us on all of the Lillibridge happenings. We hadn't seen her since Thanksgiving, so it was nice getting to catch up with her and see how she was doing.

The Kitties

I should introduce our cats, our kids, the boys, whatever you want to call them. We have Mini Me, we just call him Mini, he's the tabby and will be 9 in May. I got him from my parents farm when he was a kitten. I brought him back to Toledo with me in the summer of 99 (he peed in Jeff's truck on that trip back). I was living with Claire at the time and she had a female cat, Xena, that was a much larger version of our little Mini. So, that's where the name came from. Mini is a real sweetie, he cuddles up with us in bed and if you are on the couch, he will be right on your lap in a heartbeat. He loves to be picked up and thrown over a shoulder and ride around the house like that. I lived with Claire for about a year with him, then Jeff and I got married and moved into an apt with Mini in Michigan. We lived in the apt for a little over a year and then bought a house. Mini was thrilled with more square footage to run around in. We moved back to Ohio, had a brief stint with Jeff's parents and have now lived in our house close to three years.

We were feeling like we needed to add a family member to our brood and started looking for another kitty in the winter of 2006. We looked at various adoption centers and honestly, I was ready to take any of them home, but Jeff made me hold off. We were in Elyria one weekend at a pet store that had an adoption center and we saw this little black kitty in a cage by himself with his front legs straight out in front of him. There were dogs barking and running around and he didn't seem phased at all. When we went over to him, he reached out and touched me with his paw. That just about did it. I held him, Jeff said, "Do you want to get him?". Of course, I said yes. And that was how we got Cole. The adoption agency had called him Takoda, but we decided on Cole because he is black as coal. He's such a sweety, likes to make little noises all the time and LOVES to play. He has really become more of Jeff's cat. He always sleeps on his side of the bed and pushes on his arm really hard right before he lays down next to him. It's really cute. We really feel lucky to have found such a nice kitty. He does fairly well with visitors, depending on who they are. Cole likes to growl at my Dad, but will rub up against others. I'm not sure if there is any rhyme or reason to who he likes and who he doesn't.

We love our little boys. They are really part of the family.

Unwelcome Visitors

Each evening, our cats freak out and run from window to window looking at some mysterious critters that make visits to our backyard. Sometimes it is another cat, or geese, but in most cases, it is deer.

Last night it was still about an hour before sunset and we looked out the window and four deer were about 10 feet away from our house. They are fun to watch and all, but they've taken a liking to my landscaping...especially at this time of the year because they are really, really hungry. So, it looks like I'm going to have to plant some deer-resistant plants this spring or else I think we are going to become the local deer diner!

Birthday Time

So, it's my 32nd birthday today! That seems so hard to believe... I keep locking myself in a specific moment in my life, and for a long time, I felt like I was 26. Since I broke into the 30's, I feel as if I should stay 30 for awhile and not get any older than that. That's my plan for now. Of course, it's getting harder to recover from some things which makes me realize I can't be 30 forever.

I'm excited to go out to eat with Jeff tonight! I wouldn't spend my birthday any other way. OK, with the cats, too, but we'll get to see them at home after dinner. We enjoy spending time with them and they are very entertaining. Happy Birthday to me!

Snowed In

If you live in Ohio, then you know the last few days have been snow-filled. Luckily, we did not have anywhere to go and from the time we got home from work on Friday, we did not leave the house until Sunday afternoon. A huge front-end loader worked on clearing the snow from our street on Saturday night, which resulted in giant snow piles.

Kristie's 32nd birthday is tomorrow, so we are planning to go to Crocker Park for dinner to celebrate. I think we are going to try out Agave Tequileria & Cocina, the new Mexican restaurant that just went in.

The basement bathroom project is coming along. We are currently hanging drywall, so the end is in sight!

Blogging and Basements

We finally took the plunge into the digital revolution and will be blogging periodically about our family and goings-on. To start things off, we are doing well in Avon Lake, OH in our new house...going on 3 years soon. It is a busy time of year for me with the Cavaliers headed towards the playoffs. Kristie is doing well in the Financial Aid department at Case Western Reserve. She is currently going for her MBA and should be done in December of 2009.

We actually took on a new project recently...putting in a full bathroom in our basement. It had a three piece rough-in put in during construction, so the hard part is done. My friend Dave is actually doing most of the work and I'm helping and learning as we go. At this point, we've been working on it for about 2 or 3 days over the last week and a half and we have it framed up and the electricity and plumbing is all done. Next up is installing the shower and then we start to drywall!

Before

During

Peeking In!

After