How many states have YOU visited?

41 :)

1. Alabama - Been there several times with work, plus so many times during college to visit my friend Laura's family.
2. Alaska - Oh yeah, my brother totally got married there (no his wife is not from Alaska).
3. Arizona - I've been to Arizona twice, once on our family vacation to Lake Powell, and the second time on our family vacation to New Mexico and beyond.
4. Arkansas
5. California - I went to Cali when I was a teenager, but also went to LA several times for work, when I worked at O&M.
6. Colorado - Got this one knocked out on the "New Mexico and beyond" trip. We totally stayed in Durango, and took this little train.
7. Connecticut - Ha, this guy is attached to MA so I've driven through there, stopped there, stayed there, whatever.
8. Delaware - I mean, I've driven through Delaware more times than I can count, but I definitely did a little mission thing in Wilmington over spring break one year in college.
9. Florida - Ahhh, Florida, well, I've been to Disney many times, Tampa, and of course we took our cruise out of Fort Lauderdale last year, oh yeah and we also visited Key West!
10. Georgia - Another state I have been to several times. My friend lived in Atlanta and I visited her family a few times. Also, we went to the season opener of Tech football there a couple years ago.
11. Hawaii - The family vacation I got to choose! We went to Hawaii two years ago!
12. Idaho - Family vacation to Montana for my cousin's wedding. We drove through Idaho and I kept teasing my nephew that I had an Idaho potato in Idaho!
13. Illinois - Totally been there in the past few years since my friend, Courtney, moved there!
14. Indiana - Definitely went through on the way to Michigan, but also went there when I was in Louisville, Kentucky for work, as Indiana was right across the river.
15. Iowa - Another work trip, actually a few, that took me out to Iowa to see the cornfields. I also have been carded twice in the same casino in the same hour in Iowa.
16. Kansas
17. Kentucky - Anyone see above where I've been to Louisville for work? Yeah I went there a few times, one in particular was crazy when there was a monsoon type storm and flooding everywhere! The hospital we were in flooded through the second floor. I ruined a pair of shoes there...
18. Louisiana - New Orleans with the fam. My father had a conference there, so we went and hung out.
19. Maine - Been to Maine more times than I can count. The most recent times were with work and my coworkers Kelli and Don where we went out for Lobster and went to see light houses.
20. Maryland - Been to Baltimore among other places. Last time I was there, I was visiting my sister-in-law's parents and my brother and sister-in-law were in town. I slept on a boat that night.
21. Massachusetts - Born and raised in good old SANDWICH, MA.
22. Michigan - My brother went to college in Michigan, I went there many times when he was there.
23. Minnesota
24. Mississippi
25. Missouri
26. Montana - Family vacation to Montana for my cousin's wedding. Glacier National Park is gorgeous and I suggest you visit when you can!
27. Nebraska
28. Nevada - Everybody has a Vegas story right? Well we all know what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas :)
29. New Hampshire - Haha, again been there more times than I can count. Have been SKIING there a few times too.
30. New Jersey - Besides the Newark airport, my sister-in-law's parents live in New Jersey and I have stayed there on occasion on my way home from Richmond.
31. New Mexico - Family vacation again! We stayed in Santa Fe and honestly I would tell you to definitely go visit there, because its AWESOME.
32. New York - NYC, Buffalo, Syracuse, Niagra Falls... totally been to all those places!
33. North Carolina - Ha I was in Raleigh just a few weeks ago! But also, I have so many fun memories of NC from when I was in college. My roommates lived there. I did LOVE going to the Roan Mountain in the mountains of NC. It's so beautiful out there!
34. South Carolina - Said hello to Pedro at South of the Border last year on our way back from Florida. :)
35. North Dakota
36. South Dakota
37. Ohio - I can remember my family having a flat tire on the side of the highway in Ohio. One of our trips to and from Michigan.
38. Oklahoma - I went here at least three times for work. It was REALLY cold one of the times and one other time I totally left my cell phone in the trunk of my car, that was awesome.
39. Oregon - A few years ago we did our family vacation in Oregon going to Crater Lake and to the west coast near the water. 
40. Pennsylvania - Haha, I have been here a time or two. Most recently it was to celebrate my friend Amanda's 30th birthday!
41. Rhode Island - I have family that lives in RI so I have been there many times.
42. Tennessee - I don't think I've ever vacationed to Tennessee but I have definitely BEEN to Tennessee. I can remember hiking with Sarah and Chris somewhere near the TN line.
43. Texas - Everything is bigger and better in Texas, right? Ha! Well I went to Houston several times for work and I also went to Houston to visit my friend Mary a few years ago.
44. Utah - Another family vacation. We drove through Utah on our way to Lake Powell. We stopped at Bryce Canyon and I would suggest going there anytime because it is absolutely gorgeous.
45. Vermont - I know I've been to the mountains of Vermont, and I've also likely gone skiing there.
46. Virginia - well I currently reside in Virginia, so I have definitely been there!
47. West Virginia - I know in college I went white water rafting on the Gali river. I also know that my parents and I stopped in Harpers Ferry, WV on our way to Tech at least once.
48. Washington - My brother, sister-in-law and nephew live in Seattle and I love going out there to visit them.
49. Wisconsin - I can remember when I was in high school and my brother and I went out to Wisconsin to visit my cousin at University of Wisconsin! haha then I went back there for work at one point.
50. Wyoming

Stay tuned to one of my next posts... You will see why this post is important! :)

Last Year...

Remember how I talked about The Lion King at the end of the Mary Poppins post? Well let's just remember what I did EXACTLY a year ago from today. Yup, that's right on February 23, 2012 Laura, Shannon, Lauren, Candace and I all went to see The Lion King at the Landmark. It was phenomenal and we had GREAT seats!

Promptly after it ended, Laura and I headed south for one of the craziest and fun road trips I have ever been on... Mind you, the road trip was planned last minute, because my parents were in Florida for a month and they wanted me to come visit. Well, the plane tickets were so expensive, so I thought maybe I'll drive... but it would be NO fun driving alone, so I found a buddy. I'm so glad Laura is on board with crazy ideas like that!

So, after the show, we stopped by the 7-11 on our way out of town to get some caffeine, because we had an all nighter planned. So we drove through Virginia, drove through North Carolina, drove through South Carolina and eventually I got tired, so we got off the highway somewhere in Georgia, found a hotel parking lot, parked... and took a little nap in the car!

We got up, got a little Chick-Fil-A breakfast and continued on our way. Our friend Mary lived in Jacksonville so we decided to take a little detour to visit her!

Laura, Mary and I at Mary's place
Please excuse the fact that we look like we've been driving for 10 hrs...

Then we finally got back on the road and drove the last leg to our final destination!!!

Vero Beach, Florida

We went to the beach, had great ice cream, and of COURSE took a trip to Disney World. I mean my 10 year old nephew was there, too, so who WOULDN'T want to go to Disney World!!

Oh look, it's Auntie, Scotty, and everybody else!

Who is excited about Disney?!?!

Who ELSE is excited about Disney!?!?

THERE IT IS!

Magic Kingdom, here we come!

Who doesn't like Pirate Mouse ears?!

Driving home

Chim chiminey... Chim chiminey... Chim, Chim Cheree...

When I was two, I LOVED the movie Mary Poppins. When I say LOVED I mean REALLY, REALLY, REALLY LOVED Mary Poppins. For those of you who remember VHS tapes, yeah I definitely had Mary Poppins on VHS and I definitely wore out that Mary Poppins VHS. So, sadly, there was no more Mary Poppins. 

Sometime late last year, my friend Laura emailed a few of us and told us that Mary Poppins (the Broadway Musical) was coming to the Landmark Theater in Richmond. Did I want to go?!?! Ummmmm OF COURSE! So we got our tickets and waited patiently for the moment to arrive when we could actually go and see it in person.

The moment came! It was Wednesday night this week. Anna, Laura and I met up at Carytown Burgers and had a delicious burger dinner before the show. Then I drove us down to the CapTech parking lot and we walked over to the Landmark. 

The truth about the show... I was disappointed. :( As I said before I love the Mary Poppins movie, but the play and the movie weren't the same. The play had all these extra songs I didn't know, and different characters, and missed some songs that I liked. I mean, I wanted to see some penguins! However, Mary Poppins DID fly, and Bert walked on the ceiling during the chimney sweep part. There were good parts and all the actors/singers did really well, but my expectations were a little too high for this one. :(

Last time I went to see a Broadway play at the Landmark, we saw the Lion King. 

That is still the best Broadway musical I have seen yet. And I have seen a few: Cats, Rent, The Lion King, Mary Poppins, Les Miserables, Wicked... I mean, I have several more to see, but the Lion King just has AMAZING costumes, and the singing and dancing was awesome. I just loved it.

Chicken Delicious

One of my goals this year was to try 6 new recipes. Well, we can now say that I have tried at least one of those recipes. This past Monday was President's Day and I was able to work from home so I took the opportunity to find a recipe to make for dinner. I found this Chicken Delicious recipe in my crock pot cookbook and thought it sounded good. Cream of Mushroom soup, Cream of Celery soup, paprika, celery salt, salt, pepper, parmesan cheese - that's pretty much it!

Voila!

See above for my chicken delicious, broccoli and amazing rice cooked in the rice cooker I got from my brother! All-in-all the chicken delicious was pretty good and I would probably make it again!

Raleigh fun :)

Their cute house in Raleigh

This past weekend I packed up shop, and headed down to Raleigh to visit one of my good friends from college, Sarah, and her husband, Chris! I can't believe this was the last time I was going to see them before they have a BABY!!!! That's right folks, she's pregnant! :) They had birthing class on Saturday until 2PM so I didn't actually leave Richmond until 11 or so.



So Saturday I got there, we hung out for a little while, did some grocery shopping and other random errands, then went back home to get into some comfy clothes for the night! We made dinner, hung out, watched a movie and talked until pretty late!

Chris and Kaylie (not sure on the spelling) watching some TV

Sunday we got up a little later, had a nice relaxing morning, maybe a little nap, and then got ready to go to Chris' sister's house for a COUPLES baby shower! Interesting concept, but really it was just a hangout time where Sarah and Chris got to open gifts for baby.

Sarah and I at the shower

Seriously, look how cute she is!

And just for fun, see some photos below of other recent times we have hung out (where photos were taken)!

The roommates* (and honorary roommate) Elaine, Sarah, Mary and
Amy and myself in the front

Who doesn't love a jumping picture?
Elaine, Mary, me, and Sarah (nice photography Amy)

Chris looks so happy!

Sarah

The day of hearts...

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Do I love this day? Nope not really! Do I celebrate the day? YUP you better believe it! :) This day is all about love. And no matter who you are or what your "status" is, you can love someone today. So give your neighbor a hug, call your friend you haven't talked to lately, give someone flowers, or candy, or a card! Show someone love today! :) I plan to!

Laura is ALWAYS good at holidays like Valentine's Day. Look at the cute little Valentine she gave out. She also gave it with a little bag of pretzel chocolate things and a reese's heart (note I don't have a picture of those because they are LONG gone)! Thanks Laura for showing the love :)

Who DOESN'T love a Valentine that looks like that?!?!

From Wikipedia: St. Valentine's Day began as a liturgical celebration of one or more early Christian saints named Valentinus. The most popularmartyrology associated with Saint Valentine was that he was imprisoned for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry and for ministering to Christians, who were persecuted under the Roman Empire; during his imprisonment, he is said to have healed the daughter of his jailer Asterius. Legend states that before his execution he wrote "from your Valentine" as a farewell to her. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine's_Day)

What what!!!

I get to see THIS girl this weekend! :) I'm SO excited! :) Raleigh, here I come!

Sarah and me in front of her house in Raleigh!

This picture is pretty creepy, but funny!

Happy Birthday!!!!

Today - to my brother, Rich, who is in Seattle with his wife and my nephew Charlie!
Tomorrow - to my cousin, Kelly, who lives in Richmond now and whom I have NOT seen enough of!

Love you!

Argo F*** Yourself!

If you don't know the meaning of the title of my post, then you haven't seen the movie "Argo".  This past Saturday Kathryn, Laura, Allie, her friend Jared, her friend Michelle and I all met up at the Byrd Theater (Richmond's awesome $2 movie theater) to see the movie Argo. Now, if you haven't seen it, I would STRONGLY suggest you going to see it. The movie was just GREAT! Kathryn and Allie had both seen the movie before, but none of the rest of us had. We were in serious suspense for most of the movie, it was pretty crazy. Laura tried to persuade Kathryn to tell her the ending, but luckily Kathryn wouldn't budge, so we just sat there trying to figure out how it would go, with not much luck. 

IMDB has summarized the plot: In 1979, the American embassy in Iran was invaded by Iranian revolutionaries and several Americans are taken hostage. However, six manage to escape to the official residence of the Canadian Ambassador and the CIA is eventually ordered to get them out of the country. With few options, exfiltration expert Tony Mendez devises a daring plan: to create a phony Canadian film project looking to shoot in Iran and smuggle the Americans out as its production crew.

Needless to say, it's pretty great! Afterwards we hung out at New York Deli with a bunch of people that Allie and Michelle knew from law school. I think they all graduated college in 2010 or 2011 which made me feel just a LITTLE bit old! But that's ok, we had a great time anyway!

Groundhog Day

Breaking news...

Groundhog Day 2013: 'Punxsutawney Phil' Predicts Early Spring

I don't even understand how we determined that a groundhog was going to predict how much winter we have left. Apparently this has been going on since the 1800's. But I guess it doesn't matter, look at this we have an early spring coming! :)

You know what that means??? Bright colors, sun, warmth, and walks outside are in the future! :)