New Normal

On Monday morning, we started our new "normal".

My parents left Monday morning to go back to KC around 7:00 a.m. Afterwards, Brent and I looked at each other as to what to do next. We now have to to try to juggle "puppy duty" with getting ready for work. As anyone knows who's had a puppy, they can't always be trusted when unsupervised. And we're just letting her roam the living room area now before be given permission to roam the whole house at her leisure. So, someone needs to be down in the living room attending to Lacey while the other person is upstairs getting ready.

Everyday seems to be a different dance as we have different schedules each day.
Monday, Brent was home with Lacey all day. So that made it easy for me to get ready. But I kept checking in on Lacey stepping out on the landing to look down on the new puppy. That seemed to slow me down a bit.
Tuesday morning Brent and I were both out of the house early, so Lacey was crated alone for several hours before Brent came home around lunchtime. That was sad to hear her whine as we walked out.
Wednesay Brent left at 6:30 while I had to juggle getting ready and puppy duty alone. You know how I solved that? Crate. I thought she'd whine the whole time, but I was shocked that she only whined for several minutes and then entertained herself.

We'll see what the future dance will look like...

So far so good though.

New Addition

We have a new addition to our family! Brent and I are now parents to a new puppy! I introduce you to Lacey.

We are told her mom was part Boxer/German Shepherd and her dad is supposedly a lab. I think that's the default breed...lab. She has been an absolute delight.

We adopted her from a shelter: www.circletail.org . One of Brent's patients, Sarah, volunteers at circletail and had been telling Brent that when we were ready to adopt a dog, she'd be happy to assist us. And assist us, she did. She introduced us to our sweet Lacey. I have to say, it was love at first sight for both Brent and I.

The ride home was like taking home your baby from the hospital for the first time. I sat in the backseat with LAcey while Brent drove. I couldn't keep my eyes off Lacey as she perked her ears at the sights that she could see and the bumps she could feel. The sweet puppy slept on my lap the entire way home. It's a 50 minute ride too! Precious!

My parents were here for Thanksgiving when we brought her home for the first time. They tried to give us a hard time about adopting a puppy ("are you crazy?!"..."they're so much work!"..."they chew on everything!"...), but once they met her, I think they fell in love with her too! They've got a grandpuppy! Hee hee!

Right now, she's asleep beside me on the floor in the living room.

Home Improvement Part 2

In addition to the outside lights, we painted and refloored the downstairs half bathroom. I should note that by "we", I mean Brent. He did it all. He did a great job! We painted the stark white bathroom a warm mocha brown. If it looks familiar to you, we used the same paint we used to paint our "feature wall". We were nervous at first that the bathroom would look to dark, but we were pleasantly surprised when it made the bathroom feel warm and homey - as much as a bathroom can.

The new flooring and paint almost makes you forget that the cabinet, sink and faucet are of the 1980's decor. The door pulls can only do so much...

Home Improvement

There have been several home improvement projects happening in our home. First, we replaced all the outside lights with matching sensor lights. Now, if only we could get them to stop turning on when someone walks along the sidewalk on the other side of the street.... The old light....there were so many gross webs and stuff I don't want to think about behind the light.

The new light! Pretty!

Now if only we could get the garage lights to stop being so sensitive (despite being on the lowest sensitivity setting) and tripping when someone walks on the sidewalk on the other side of the street!

Cozumel

You'll recall our adventure in getting scuba certified and planning for our trip to Cozumel. We are now back and our trip to Cozumel was FANTASTIC! Having my parents become scuba certified last year spurred this whole idea of Brent and I becoming scuba certified and all of us going on a trip together to flex our scuba muscle. We're looking forward to when we can all scuba again together! There are 3 other members in our family that are scuba certified so our hopes is to make a family reunion of sorts while scuba diving.

Here are some pictures from our trip. Side note - all the underwater (read: cool pictures that everyone wants to see) are in another location, so please be patient as I will upload those on another date.

My parents are they are leaving for a dive. They're officially Advanced Scuba Divers! While we got our Open Water certification in Cozumel, they too performed skills to earn them their Advanced certification.

This last photo is one of my favorites. I have high hopes of creating a photo collage...but considering I'm an "idea person" and sometimes not-so-much a "follower-through person", we'll see how that collage comes to be.

Scuba!

Brent and I are well on our way to being scuba diving certified! What a great adventure that we're experiencing together and what a great adventure we will experience together!

It all started last year when my parents got scuba certified to go on their cruise through the Caribbean and down to Brazil. Well, it was love at first dive. They have now caught the 'scuba bug' and now plan all trips around diving. After they came back from their Caribbean/Brazil trip, they proposed that Brent and I get certified and then we'd all go on a trip together. Didn't have to ask me twice; I was in! Brent not being a water boy was a little hesitant, but he's always up for an adventure.

We finish up our classes on Septemeber 26 and then we leave September 29 to go to Cozumel, Mexico. We will do our "open water dive" to prove our skills and then get officially certified while we're down there. How awesome! Stay tuned for pictures from our trip!

I was at a baby shower last weekend and we were commenting how our lives have dramatically changed since this time last year:

Several babies have been born.

Several babies have been created (but not yet born).

People have gotten married.

Houses have been purchased and sold.

Several moved (or will move) away to different states.

New jobs have been obtained.

Couples have broken up.

New couples have been formed.

It's crazy to think back to last year and what we didn't know was going to happen this year.

Makes me ponder what will next year bring??

Busy? Nah. Changes? Maybe a Few...

Brent and I have been a little bit busy. Let me explain.

We bought a house. That meant lots of wallpaper removing, spackling, sanding, taping, painting, etc. That in itself is tedious.

You can see pictures of the house and it's transformation on our picasa site. Our kitchen, dining room, living room and hallway have been painted. Now Brent is working on the guest bathroom. The toilet is sitting in the tub right now as he paints the bathroom and lays some new tile. Our deadline is next weekend when my parents come to visit. This will be their first time back to Cincinnati since the wedding.

I then started the orientation process at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. What a greuling process! All sorts of lectures, tests, paperwork to go through. I will say, that everyone that I have encountered at CCHMC has been kind, helpful and overall very welcoming. That's been 4 days this week of orientation and then 2 more days next week! Seriously! I'm anxious to get started and see for myself how other speech pathology departments function and how I match up.

Where do I find time to have another job? Well, I have to quit one. I worked my final shift at Cheesecake. After nearly 6 (!) years there, it was time to say goodbye. People keep asking me if I'm sad...and I'm really not. Is that wrong?! I know that bigger and brighter things are to come, so I'm not sad about leaving. Besides, they're not going anywhere. If I want to stop in and say hi and eat, it's a public place, I can do that.

Our apartment will no longer be ours at the end of the month. Since we moved our stuff, our apaprtment has just been sitting there in its dirty state for a couple weeks. This weekend it's my task to clean that to our landlord's satisfaction (hopefully she doesn't have high standards...because I'm sick of cleaning!).

And then, not necessarily a change, but another excuse to have a party, really...

Brent passed his CCSP exam!

Remember all those trips to Chicago Brent has done for the past 8 months (September through April) to earn a certification as a Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician. Well, we just got the results in the mail last week and HE PASSED! YEA! Hopefully this will allow him to market himself to a new target audience and bring is more business.

THEN...come August big changes are coming at my Butler County job. I know, remember that job? I'll be moving offices and adding some roles and responsibilities. Still an SLP though!

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

Hyde Park vs. West Chester

With the upcoming move happening, I've been very sentimental about leaving Hyde Park. I LOVE Hyde Park. Let me say that again, I LOVE Hyde Park. I love the feeling, the vibe, the sounds, the accesibility, the people... I foresee tears in my future knowing that I'm leaving this fantastic area of town and moving 25 minutes north.

I know moving up to West Chester is the thing to do. I will be so much closer to work. Seriously, I did the math...I'll be saving myself 5 hours in the car a week! Brent will be so much closer to his office too. We needed to buy a house and this is the perfect house for us at this time.

I've been making a list of what I will miss about Hyde Park. Here is what I've come up with so far:

1. Walking places. Right now, we are withing walking distance to the bank, the library, my hair stylist, our dentist, CVS, UDF, bars/restaurants and parks.
2. Friends clsoe by. Most of our friends live in this area and our fear is that (maybe our friends' fear too) is that we'll be sucked into 'suburb world' and never been seen or heard from again. I think Brent and I are determined not to hide, but it will take a conscience effort to see friends.
3. Restaurants. They're not chain restaurants, they're just good HP restaurants. Arthurs. Indigo. Teller’s. Echo. Awakenings. Ramundo's. Lucy Blue's. Zip's. And did I mention they're all within walking distance?
4. City Life. We live on a relatively busy street now and we are constantly hearing cars, traffic, emergency vehicles with sirens drive by. I used to be so aware of the sirens, but now, I don't even hear them. Even though sometimes we don't open windows now because of the noise, I'll still miss the hustle and bustle.

However, on the flip side, I am looking forward to owning a house and finally getting rid of apartment life. I've been making a list of things I'm looking forward to getting a house (note that it's not a list of things I'm looking forward to living in West Chester...besides the new SHORT commute, that's about it).

1. No more coin laundry. For years I was constantly on the look out for quarters. If I got change, I'd set aside quarters for laundry. I'd even pay cash in a certain amount so I'd get quarters in return change.
2. While we're on the subject of laundry...I can't wait to have my own washer and dryer. I can do laundry whenever I want, however big or small. And I don't have to hurry back to it to accomodate other tenants who might want to do their laundry too.
3. Garage. I've never had a garage and I can't wait to pull my car into one. Bye-bye window scraping. Bye-bye running in the rain to load my car up with gazillion bags I carry to and from work.
4. I can now choose which bathroom I want to use. We have 2.5 bathrooms...I've never had an option before. We could also have two people showering in two different bathrooms at the same time!
5. Backyard. Right now, we don't have a patio. I know, how did we survive 6.5 years in this apartment without a patio? We do have a 'grassy knoll' outside our window that I've crawled in and out of to lay out on. Brent often talks about inviting people over to enjoy a beer on the 'grassy knoll', but it's not much of scene to do that. You can't see anything except for the parking lot. You can't see the street and you'd have to climb out the window to get more beers. Doesn't sound appealing to me. So our new house has a walkout patio that we're really excited for. Hello outdoor furniture!
6. I won't have to hear our neighbors. For a long time, we had an older QUIET woman living above us and we rarely heard her. I just thought there was good insulation. Then the current neighbor moved in. Nope, little insulation. We hear everything, and by everything, I mean everything.
7. The woman upstairs also smokes (out on her patio), so we can smell the wafting smoke when we have our windows open. And yep, that's another reason we have to close our windows. The woman across the hall smokes, but in her apartment, so the hallway is often a smokey-smelling walk through. yuck.
8. Spreading out. We'll finally be able to spread out our stuff and decorate the way I want.

This move really is a bittersweet event. I will miss Hyde Park and our life that was in Hyde Park, but we are looking forward to the luxuries a new house will bring.

Update

We have some updating...

I got the job at Cincinnati Children's! I got the job at Cincinnati Children's! I got the official offer this week and I couldn't help but do a little dance of excitement when I got the call.

I have orientation the week of June 21, so I'll be starting once all the physicals, orientations, trainings and such are completed.

We are also closing on our house next Friday. Couldn't be more excited! I feel like the 30 days inbetween our initial offer and our closing date is DRAGGING! Can't May 21 get here any quicker?

In the mean time, we've been packing and our dining room looks like a storage room more than anything else. Not that it ever really looked like a dining room anyway in the past couple years as most of our wedding gifts have been piled there since we got married! It'll be like Christmas once we open all of the boxes and get to put them away in their permanent home. Aah...

New House

Big news....

We are under contract on a house!

I knew we would be the dumbest people on the planet if we didn't take advantage of the new homeowner $8000 tax credit. So quickly we got in touch with our realtor and began the search. We looked at 10 or so houses with our house being the very first one we walked into.

Inspections are completed and we are due to close on May 21. Coincidentally, I had already planeed to give myself a "spring break" and took the following week off work. We weren't planning on going anywhere, it was just a week off, but I know what we'll be doing that week!

Stopped with a THUD

I recently got into a car accident. My first car accident really; never been in one before. You know, with the Cincinnati weather and the fantastic driving skills of Cincinnati drivers in the snow, I always hesitate whether it's worth my while to head out in the snow. Since I live in Hyde Park and commute up to Hamilton (about a 30 mile commute), I keep watch on all the school closings, traffic reports and what it looks like out my window. I tend to listen to Cincinnati Public Schools and if it's bad enough for CPS to be cancelled, I call it a day and stay inside.

However, I did not follow my own rule at all when it came to that fateful Wednesday. I had stayed home on Tuesday because we got dumped with a pile of snow and I certainly knew better then, but when Wednesday came, I told myself to not be a sissy and get on the road. I didn't have to be in to work first thing, so I laid low in the morning and headed out about 10:30ish.

The roads were fine, especially main roads and the highway...or so I thought. I was driving, minding my speed, not messing with the radio, my phone or anything else. My focus was on the road.  I was in the left lane driving on I-75North.  I had just passed by I-275.  I was about halfway to work.  All of a sudden my car hit a patch of ice and I began to spin.  "Uh oh", I thought, "this isn't good."  I tried to correct the spin and Brent has told me time and time again to "turn into the spin"...well, in the heat of the moment, you're just doing your best.  The tail of my car spun to the right and it spun to the left.  I ended up spinning 180 degrees and I was facing southbound...I was nose-to-nose with another car on the highway.  Talk about scary.  Luckily, the traffic on the highway was sparse, otherwise, it would've been MUCH worse.  I traveled backwards down the highway across 3 lanes of traffic and ended up smacking my back left end into a cement wall.  It was like that scene in Wizard of Oz when the house finally lands in Oz after the tornado and there was this silence.  I had to do a once over and catch my breath.  I was okay.  I wasn't injured.  I hadn't hit any other car.  I saw a car drive past me and mouth the words "Are you okay?".  I nodded in response.  I called 911 to let them know what had happened. 

A police squad came and I sat in the back of their car as we waited for the tow truck.  My car was undriveable.  In the meantime, the nice policeman wrote me up a ticket for failure to control my vehicle.  I didn't even think twice about it since I got in an accident.  I thought it was standard procedure.  I reminded them that I wasn't do anything suspicious.  I wasn't messing with my radio or phone; I wasn't speeding.  I probably sounded crazy...probably like a person who has never been in an accident sitting in the back of the police squad waiting for a tow truck on a snowy highway.  While we were waiting, we saw several cars and trucks spin and have difficulty in the exact same spot I did. 

The next day, I got a phone call from that same police officer that wrote me the ticket and he felt bad for writing me a ticket knowing that others did the exact same thing as I did and so he recanted my ticket.  How nice.  Now I know that just because I got into an accident doesn't mean that I deserved a ticket. 

Even with that said, I'm staying home when CPS calls off !  Not worth it!

finally!

so many of you know that i have a part time job at the cheesecake factory (don't be jealous...seriously) and i have been wanting to quit there for...years! but since it's been a steady income for us and since we're on a one income household for now, now is not the time to quit the extra income. it is however time to explore other options for extra income. i've been talking (and talking and talking and talking and not enough doing!) about applying for a job that actually relates to my degree that i have earned (speech language pathology). wow, tada! what a novel idea!

so today i did it. i finally bit the bullet. i applied for a part time/PRN speech path job at cincinnati children's.

wish me luck!

hello. my name is cindy and i'm a bad blog updater. well, i'm inconsistent that is. i would like to use the excuse that nothing exciting has happened for me to blog about. but that's just a lie. straight up fat lie. i can think of a handful of things that have happened since i last blogged...

1. we had our 8th annual wine party in january. that's usually the same weekend as my birthday, so it doubles as a birthday party for me. that gets my husband off the hook. lucky him... and i don't think i have any pictures from that night. is that sad or what?


2. i turned 31. that can be lumped into the same 'event' as the previous, but it was an event nonetheless. now, 2 months later, i can't tell you what i did for my actual birthday. maybe if i blogged about it earlier, i'd remember. OR we did absolutley nothing and it was just divine. i think it was the latter.


3. brent and i joined give back cincinnati. it's a non-profit guilt-free volunteer organization that allows us to learn more about our city while also meeting new people. i even took another step and joined a committee with GBC. i am a member of the civic engagement committee. i'm learning as a i go as far as what the heck the committee is all about! for a while, i was confused. i'll probably post something from one of the events sometime.


4. balls around the block. sounds pretty vulgar...and i think in the beginning it actually was, but it has evolved. bottom line? it's a pub crawl downtown to bars literally around the block. we also raised money for a cause. i think this year was for a dog park to be built. there were 5 of us that participated and it was a blast! at each bar there were drink specials just for us crawlers and we had a good time meeting our team. Go Team Righteous Room!

this is bethany and i with our team leader...of our first team. we decided that we didn't like our first team, so we bailed and joined the boys on another team at another bar. we had to fear the deserted team the remainder of the night!

5. i've had this desire to go to a dance class for a while now. i used to dance when i was a child (hello mildred lyons!), but haven't done it (besides in a bar or club) since. my friend bethany has been going to the cincinnati ballet for a while and so i have joined her on a couple of occasions. the thing abou this class is that they don't necessarily teach you the steps, but you get to flail around the studio while trying to learn the steps. the more you go to the class, the more you learn the dances, the more of a workout you get. hmph. but it is fun, i promise!

2009 in review

I have seen some other people do this, so I thought I'd jump on the band wagon and take this time to remember the past year and the events that have happened. Maybe when I'm old and grey(er), I'll look back and reminisce.

January

To begin 2009, I turned 30. We celebrated by a doing dual purpose party - we combined our annual wine party with my birthday party.

February

Brent and I celebrated our 5 year dating anniversary. Cheesy, I know, but it's something that we both remember. We went to dinner at Arthur's (where we had our first date) and the night was full of symbolism. On the way to out to eat, we heard the OC theme song on the radio. And for those who know, we bonded on our first date over the dumb show (I can say that now, but ssh! don't tell Brent!)and even watched an episode on our first date. Another moment of symbolism is that we found a nickel (5 cents...5 years) on the sidewalk.

March

I'm chuckling, because the one thing that comes to mind about March is that I got a Blackberry. Hey, it's a moment to remember! Around this time, I began volunteering at church in Kids Club. I'm in the three's room...never a dull moment with a ton of three-year-old kids. I often come home with one-liners that the kids say.

April

We celebrated Brent's birthday. Brent and I met his mom and Dennis for dinner. Brent and I also started the South Beach diet in April. I lost a total of 15 pounds...just don't ask if I've maintained! I also hosted Stephanie's bridal shower. As the matron of honor, it was my proud duty. We had it at Essencha Tea House and had the best lunch and tea.

May

My friend, Bethany, and I co-hosted Stephanie's bachelorette party. We had a BLAST! Dinner, wine bottling at Tino Vino, penis shaped cookie decorating contest (Hey, it's a bachelorette party for pete's sake...what's one without your token penis paraphanalia??) and then we headed out onto the town. Also in May, our dear friends, Andy and Lisa Lee, moved to Chicago. So sad...end of an era. We had a couple "goodbye" dinners.

June

June began with unemployment for Brent. Not an ideal time, but when is, really? However, in the end, we know it was for the best. Besides, we wouldn't have Cullen Chiropractic and Wellness Center if we didn't endure. We also traveled to Florida for Stephanie and Craig's wedding, as I was the matron of honor. We spent the whole week at the beach before celebrating the big day. In June we also celebrated our niece's first birthday. You remember our niece, Natalie, right? I mean how could you not? It's not like I never talk about this adorable girl!

July

We traveled to KC for the 4th. It was fun watching fireworks and hanging out with friends and family.

August

In August, I helped to pull off Lauren's surprise 30th birthday party! I worked with Lauren's husband Niel and my other friend Stephanie to create a spectacular surprise. No matter how the party itself goes, as long as the surprise party was in fact a surprise, the party is deemed a success. And that was the case with this party.

September

Brent and I celebrated our one year anniversary! Crazy to think that we were married over a year ago! We ate at a new restaurant and had fun eating our cake from our wedding.

September also brought some traveling for Brent and me, just not together. I traveled to Cape Cod for my uncle's wedding. What a fantastic celebration event that was! While I was there, Brent drove to Chicago for the beginning of his CCSP - Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician. He gets to travel to Chicago once a month for 10 months to fullfil this certification. See? If he were still at his old employer, he wouldn't have been able to do this and Brent is excited to open up his client base with this certification. Oh, also of note, Brent began seeing patients with his new company!

October

I went to two weddings, while Brent only got to attend one. Guess where he was? Chicago! (Total weddings missed by Brent: 2). It's funny because now when I go to weddings after experiencing my own, I see it with a different eye. Before, I never noticed the photographer, never paid attention to the order of events, but now I do! (And my own wedding always wins out in the end...because it was AWESOME!)

November

Another trip...this time to Houston, Texas. Several girlfriends and I flew down to Houston to meet the newest arrival. Our friend, Kim, delivered Jane just 2 months prior to our arrival, so we got to meet the cutie. We didn't do much sight-seeing, just a little shopping and a lot of lounging! I also got to go with Brent to Chicago to visit Andy and Lisa! That was fun to see their new pad and see Lisa and her growing belly.

December

December began Brent and I seeing Chicago at the Arnoff. Loved it. Spectacular. Would go again in a heartbeat. Our friends, Melissa and Rob Hite, announced that they were moving to Arkansas, so as quickly as they announced it, they were off! We, of course, had a goodbye party for them.

The holidays were a blast...celebrating in Lima for 2 Christmases and then driving to KC to spend Christmas with my parents, family and friends. We even got to have a white Christmas!

Can't wait to see what 2010 brings! Happy New Year!