Our long term plan...

I sent Joe the picture in the top left corner of this screen.. he sent back the rest. The drawing made me smile. What do you think of his long term plan? I like that my ring is bigger then our house in the expensive Philly suburbs. hahah. I think Joe looks pretty sexy in his hard hat in Ohio.

Our family really looks like winners too...

Valentines Day 2011

I had a great Valentines Day this year. I cant believe that this is Joe and I's THIRD Valentines Day together. You may remember back to the first Valentines Day back in 2009. It was the first Valentines day I had spent with a boy in a long long time. I was so shocked that Joe actually had ordered flowers and had them delivered to my house and planned a nice meal for me. This was UNHEARD OF in the relationship I had been in previously. I came to find out that although I was impressed by his effort, he hated the restaurant he chose. He still talks about how that restaurant was no where near good enough for a V-day dinner... and how he was so embarrassed about it (I think that's cute). And so, every year since, he tries to out-do the infamous restaurant that he so despised (*but I thought was more then adequate*). This year, we went to Smith and Wollensky's on the Saturday prior to Valentines day. Before dinner, he gave me a beautiful card and Godiva chocolates... and I did the same. (man we are original) Anyways, the restaurant was so good. For an appetizer we had crab cakes which were outstanding. While looking for a dinner choice on the menu, I noticed that they had a raw oyster bar. Joe and I had been talking a few weeks prior that he had never had an oyster because he never had the guts to try one. So, we ordered two raw oysters, one for each of us. He ended up really liking them, and now has plans to go to an oyster bar in the near future. For dinner, we ordered a porterhouse steak and truffle oil mac and cheese (which was my absolute favorite). Next time, I'm going there for lunch getting a glass of wine and a side of mac and cheese. We also had some of there private label wine, which they make on site. All and all the meal was very good.. although I don't know that he will be able to continue on this upward trend of outdoing the previous year!! After dinner we stopped at Jolly's, which is a dueling piano bar in center city. I really enjoyed it, they played some fun music, although I do think it's more of a GNO kind of place, I don't think Joe was feeling it too much.

The next day, Manayunk was having "Manayunk on Ice", where they invited master ice sculpture carvers to come do demonstrations. I was kinda in a bummy mood because my roommate and her boyfriend were going to took at engagement rings and for some reason all my insecurities about being alone and never getting married started to come out. Not to mention I was bummed he was heading back to OH for work for the 2nd two week stint in a row. To try and cheer me up Joe took me down to look at the ice sculptures. We walked around a little bit and had a nice day.

On Monday, I got home from work and got an unexpected bouquet of roses from Joe with a note explaining how sorry he was that he cant be around for me more often, and how much he really does care about me. In retrospect, I way over reacted to other people getting engaged. I have a great boyfriend who tries most days to make me so happy. We do so many fun things together that a lot of couples never get a chance to do and if this is the only engagement ring that I see for awhile, I am ok with that...

Utah.. better late then never

So, I've been procrastinating writing my blog about my vacation to Utah becuase I have a lot to say about it and writing it all down seems like a lot of work everytime I consider doing it. I have decided to go with the highlighter version since I have some extra time on President's Day at work.


On the last week in January my family went to Park City, UT for the Sundance Film Fest and a week of skiing. We had a great time, we skiied two different slopes and each day the skiing was perfect powder and the weather was sunny. We skiied Park City & Deer Valley, out of the two I think I liked Deer Valley better, the skiing was a little easier, and the trails were beautiful. Although, you cant really go wrong when skiing out west.



Park City is a cute little town with shops and restaurants. A few of the days we just walked up and down the street looking at stores, getting food, and looking for celebs who were there for the Sundance Film Fest. I met/saw/or took a picture with the following people: Paul Rudd, Ross the Intern, Carmen Electra, James Franco, Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, Elizabeth Banks and Taylor Armstrong from Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. It was so exciting to be there with the celebs and all the stuff going on. The town had a great energy, and its nice to roll in the fast lane with the A listers every once and awhile.. hahah.

It was so nice to get to spend a week with my family, enjoying the sunshine, and out of my cubicle. I am definitely planning on going back next year. I didnt catch any of the Sundance movies that were playing so I'd like to go back and do that. If you are looking for something different, I would definitely recommend checking out Utah.

xoxo.

26th Birthday!

I have been very busy the past few weeks and have quite a few blog posts swimming around in my head. But since its late and I am tired, Ill start with the short one. Saturday night I had a few of my friends over to celebrate Joe & I's 26th Birthday. I had a great time celebrating and I am so lucky to have so many good friends. One funny thing did happen though.. check out the video! I am thinking about submitting it to Americas funniest home videos in hopes of winning the grand prize. What you dont see is that at the end, I smeared the cake all over joes face like a wedding gone bad, he was not pleased to say the least :) but a good time was had by all anwyays.

Home Renovations

All summer I was so busy I pretty much left my house as is becuase I was bouncing around doing fun things outside. Now that the winder months have set in, I have resumed making small changes to upgrade my house. Most recently, I had an electrician come in and install new recessed lighting in the kitchen, a new light in the dining area, a new fan in the family room, a new light in the entry way, dimmer switches to all of these, and a programmable thermostat. Also, he put in fan controls so I dont have to be standing on chairs to turn the fans on. I have entered the 21st century! I woke up this morning to a already warmed house (the new thermostat is programmable) and ran down stairs --flipped on the kitchen light, and made my coffee. It was a great feeling. Also for Christmas, my mom got me a new kitchen table and when I was home, I stole my grandmas tv cabinet to turn into a liquor cabinet. I got a cute mirror and some candle sconces to go over it, and the tv cabinet from the late 1980s has a new life! Here are some pictures of the renovations! What do you think?

The Beginnng of a New Year

Hello all,

The beginning of 2011 has been eventful thus far. Since Joe was in Mexico for NYE, I spent the evening with Dan, my roomate, and her boyfriend. We went to a low key party in Manayunk which was nice and chill, just what I was looking for. Anyone who knows me knows that Dan and I have always had a good time together, nothing has changed there. Hahah. He is still one of my favorite people to hang out with, its always light, fun, easy and a good time.

Last weekend I went to NYC to meet my family for my dads birthday. We got tickets to see Spiderman on Broadway. The show was good, a lot of cool flying scenes and such. Although it was incredibly long, about 3 hours. It also kind of wavered back and forth between an action story and love story --- I think it needed to decide what it was going to try and be. After that we went to the top of the Empire State Bldg, which was cool, I had never done that before. It was snowing and cold up there, but the view was awesome. Also, we dined at Mario Bitali's Del Posto. The food was outstanding! We really enjoyed the five course authentic italian meal.

On Sunday, my mom and I met up with Toni for a day of "authentic NYC". We went shopping at cute little boutiques, ate NY bagels, got NY pizza, and had a wonderful time catching up. The first two weeks of 2011 have been wonderful, I am looking forward to many other wonderful things I have planned in the coming months. Will keep you posted ;)

Reflections

Looking back 2010 has been one roller coaster of a year. The year began with Joe in VA and all of the turmoil that came along with that. I can say that I learned a lot from the experience, and I know that in some way it made us a stronger couple, but I also think it did damage to the relationship as well. It definitely kicked us right out of the honeymoon phase and right into a much more complicated situation that I am still not sure we've recovered from. I go into 2011 on the fence about our relationship as I still wonder if in the long run we want the same things. I am looking to settle down, have companionship, and stability and someone to share my life with. With his job, and the travel, I am not sure he will ever be able to be that guy. He tells me that he is moving out of his parents house when he returns from Mexico in January, we'll see if it actually happens. For now I am taking a "wait and see" approach. I figure, when its time to make a move one way or the other.. I'll know what to do. What I learned this year, is that love is complicated, and sometimes loving someone, and them loving you back, isn't enough.

This year I traveled to some pretty great places. In May, Toni, Meg, and I went to South Beach, Miami. I enjoyed the trip very much. Miami had wonderful food and shopping and beautiful beaches. It was expensive, but something I wanted to do for awhile now so I am glad we could finally do it. It was also nice to spend some girl time with my best friends as I feel that has become an increasingly rare thing as we get busy with our boyfriends, jobs, and the pressures of being an adult. In June, I went to Hiltonhead, SC with my family and Joe. It was wonderful spending some family time like we did when I was young. It was nice that Joe could spend some extended time getting to know my family, since they live far away. I hope that despite the distance between my family members on a daily basis, we will always stay close.
This year was filled with many weekend trips as well, including NYC, the shore, Baltimore, and Washington, DC. and home to boat and ski in Rochester. I am blessed to have been able to see many of the wonderful places this world has to offer and look forward to continuing to travel and see new places and expand my horizons.

This June marked the one year of being a homeowner! To date, I have owned the house for 18 months. Owning has been both challenging and rewarding. This year I began the year by painting the kitchen. Middle of the year, I got a new door on my roof deck and fixed a leak in my bathroom ceiling. I am ending the year with a new kitchen table, and some new Pier 1 decorations in my family room. While I find myself learning as I go, I feel that owning a house has taught me that if I ever need to live sans a hubby, I will be ok! Its a learning process, fixing things around the house. And, when all else fails, call the repair guy. I am unsure how the remainder of my time in Manayunk will unfold once my roommates move out in June, which is my biggest worry these days. Ya know, really doing it ALONE. But, I am hoping by then life will reveal to me what I am supposed to do. I am just trying to take one day at a time...

One of my biggest downfalls is that I worry a lot about the future; so much sometimes that I forget to enjoy the moment. 2010 has been filled with many wonderful moments which through this blog I will be able to keep in mind if and when life gets hard. Sometimes its easy to focus on what we don't have, instead of what we do. In 2011 my goal is to worry less about the future, and enjoy the moment with the confidence that life doesn't throw at you what you cant handle and everything will work out in the end. Thank you to my family, friends, and boyfriend for a wonderful year. Best wishes everyone for a happy/healthy 2011.

Nic