BOWLING

this is brent bowling. he did a nice fist pump action just after i stopped recording. but know it was there.

The Last Supper

I know we already had a "final dinner" with Lisa and Andy Lee at their house, but Saturday night's dinner was the LAST LAST dinner with the whole crew. We went to dinner and then....bowling!

I look ginormous in this picture compared to Lisa, Lauren and Stephanie.

Stephanie, Brent and Niel (who's concentrating really really hard!) are figuring out the bill. We ate dinner at Buca diBeppo and of course, they don't do separate bills, so we had to the math ourselves. not fun. But good thing Brent was on the job...he figured everyone's bill out to the penny!

~*~*WIFE SWAP*~*~

We have created this "wife swap" moment where we take couple pictures with each other's spouses. I don't know why, but we do and we laugh about it.

Jimmy and Lisa

Andy and Stephanie (with a bun in her oven!)

Brent and Niel had a manly husband swap.

Lauren and I were fun lesbian lovers or as we like to say "lethbian luffers"

Up Next: Bowling!

Go Cincinnati

On Saturday I was fortunate enough to partake in Go Cincinnati. 'What's that' you ask?

Well, (as I copy and paste from the http://www.gocincinnati.net/ site)...

Each year, an army of volunteers impact Cincinnati through various service projects in a one-day, citywide blitz of compassion. Working alongside other churches, we love on hundreds of community-based organizations throughout our city.Last year, over 4,000 people from Crossroads and other partner churches went out into the city to serve the homeless, pray with the broken, paint schools, clean camps and help make a difference in our city. This year we're upping our impact: 5,000 volunteers at over 200 projects around the city.

That 5,000 number got blown away. I think they were talking crazy numbers like 6,400!

My friends Bethany and Andy worked with me. We had the glorious job of cleaning up trash on the West End. Boy howdy, those are a few pretty dirty blocks! Seriously, there was a lot in between some houses (and these are beautiful historic houses that haven't been taken care of) that people just threw their trash. Literally, I was pulling trash bags full of trash and putting it into my heavy duty trash bag. We swept the street, used a weedwacker to get rid of pesty overgrown weeds and met some people in the neighborhood. I should note that I didn't personally work the weedwacker...I think that was a good decision on thier part! Afterwards, we held a mini picnic up the street from where we worked. We invited people as we worked to come get a free hot dog and play cornhole. It was definitely something somewhat out of my element, but it felt good to do something for someone.

And after our mini picnic, there was the BIG picnic. Go Grub. Now, this was such an awesome event to see. An executive chef at Boca and Nada (yummo if you haven't been to them!) came up with the idea to feed everyone after Go Cincinnati. He personally called other 9 executive chefs from top restaurants in the city to volunteer their time, food, service and chef skills to feed everyone. Not only did they feed the 6,500 volunteers, but anyone we pulled in off the street. Homeless or not homeless. Hungry or not hungry. There was amazing food (talking pulled pork, macaroni and cheese, fancy schmancy food here folks), rhymthic music, and lots of people watching. You couldn't help but smile at what was actually happening and knowing that bigger things were happening than just handing out free food.

Bethany's 30th Birthday

This is the year that we all turn the big three-oh. Well, some of us. I've already 3 months into my thirties, so it was time to share the love. This time, it was Bethany's turn. To begin the evening, eight of us went to dinner at Teller's to celebrate. There, her friend from high school, Abby, surprised Bethany by flying in from Florida to help celebrate. Bethany was really shocked and surprised! And while we didn't have the quickest or the best server at Teller's, we still had a good time.

We continued the party downtown, where Blake had rented a room and the rest of Bethany's friends and family were gathered. Too bad it wasn't warmer outside, otherwise we would've taken advantage of the patio!
Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Dear Bethany, Happy Birthday to you! These are the men of Bethany's life. The guy with his finger in his mouth is Andy. Then going clockwise from Andy is Chad, Jason, Craig, Tom, Brent, Ryan and Blake. These lovely ladies are...me, Abby, Bethany, Kristin, Stephanie and Melissa. We are missing Heather and Kim from this picture. We should photoshop them in. Anyone know how to do that? I don't. Later that weekend, the girls had our traditional birthday dinner. Bethany chose Teak Thai. Now, for those that know Bethany, we were all shocked. She doesn't like Aisan food, but for some reason in her old age, she has acquired a taste for it. We all loved it since the rest of us love it. Yeah!

The Final Dinner

It's sad. So sad. Our good friends, Lisa and Andy, are moving. Grab your tissues, folks. Andy will graduate from med school next month and has been accepted for his residency in emergency medicine at Northwestern in Chicago. So on Saturday night, we had a "special dinner". Andy made a beef tenderloin with vegetables and new potatoes. Delish!

Lisa had set the table with some boxes at each place setting. Each box inside had memories that Lisa will remember us by. It was really sweet. We each took a turn opening our box and remembering.

They have shockingly sold their house already. They were up in Chicago over Easter looking for apartments. Word is that they found one. I tell ya, they are really lucking out on this whole moving thing.

We also did a little egg dying...while drinking wine of course!

Easter Weekend

On Easter, we traveled up to Dayton to have dinner with the Millers, Greg and Yak. Megan and I coordinated the meal and I'm pretty sure no one was hungry when we left the table. After dinner, the boys watched the end of the Masters (snore!), so we ladies went into a different room to chit chat and play.

Natalie is 10 months old is jabbering up a storm. So far her repertoire of words include: duck, thank you, a-choo, uh oh and ouch. I've got a couple of clips that have some of those words. We think she's just the smartest and cutest babies around...but we might be just a little biased. :)

My New Friend Again

Since the world of facebook has opened their doors per se, I've been able to get in touch with so many people from my past that I hadn't talked to in years! Most recently, I've been in touch with Lydia (Krause) Crandall who went to high school with me. She just moved to the Queen City about 6 months ago and seriously, she lives minutes away. Facebook got us in touch and finally, after 6 months we met up. It was her birthday on Saturday and she invited us over for a grill out. Brent was still a little buzzed from our morning St. Paddy's Day Breakfast, but after a nap, he was good to go! We had a lot of fun and laughed a lot! I think my abs got their workout for a while. This is Lydia and her birthday cake. Strawberry Cake with Rainbow Icing. She has it every year. It was very good!

She licked every single one of those candles as she pulled them out. And I'm pretty sure we all ate some melted wax with our cake that night.

Demonstrating the seventh grade dance style. I think they're trying to look away, because of course, that'd be more true to seventh grade fashion!

And this is Shawn Chris-Pat. This darn chicken became the focal point of many of our laughs for the night. I would try to explain it to you, but I'd just get looks. So, let's just say that we laughed. A lot.

St. Paddy's Breakfast

Our friend hosts a St. Paddy's Day Breakfast. This year there was a potato bar, waffles, pancakes and all the toppings one could ever think of. I revisted the pancake table often.

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Fun night out

Annemarie, Jon, Alysha, Brett, myself and Brent. We're out enjoying a beer as you can see. Jon is playing in a band (well, not at that moment, they were taking a break!) and we went to listen to them. Annemarie is Brent's cousin. Brett is Annemarie's husband and he is the one that turned Brent onto tennis. Jon is Brett's brother and also played tennis with Brent in high school. Alysha had a baby 10 weeks ago...doesn't she look fabulous?!
I remember laughing a lot that night. Never a dull moment with those folks!
aww...the cute newlyweds!

Rock Band Obsession Continuation

this is a video from rock band. so intent. so serious. so...sucking the life out of my husband! Seriously, it's not THAT bad. and everyone has gotten substantially better since this video. Megan and Kevin are now also the proud owners of Rock Band, so they can practice their skills too. Greg, on the other hand, has given up on his vocal skills to actually play in a real band. Traitor. just kidding!