Antiquing and things

This weekend was filled with laughter, friends, and relaxing time.  Some of my favorite things!  On Thursday, my friend Ashleigh had the afternoon free to take me antiquing! After thinking of plans to redecorate the house, I am trying to embrace the updated old instead of buying everything new.  I feel like this a trend at least in interior decorating.  If it's not actually old, sometimes it is made to at least look that way.  This concept always reminds me of the FRIENDS episode where Rachel doesn't want Phoebe to know that she got all of their apartment furniture at Pottery Barn, so she tells her all of these stories of the history behind their interesting, one of a kind pieces that she found at the flea market.  It's hilarious if you haven't seen it.

 

 

Antiquing was definitely an interesting experience to say the least! I thought it would be more organized than it was, these stores seemed to have stuff everywhere!  Since all of my grandparents are passed away, my parents have a lot of antiques mostly on my mom's side.  My great-grandmother kept everything which is why we have every TIME magazine dating back to the 1950's which are actually really neat to read through.  There are so many cool things and I guess that's the fun of antiquing, you just never know what you might stubble upon.  We went to four different stores, but the last one was my favorite.  The other three seemed very over priced.  I thought the idea of buying old was to save some cash too!  Among the various items we saw were a lot of old toy cars, lots of frame, cameras, and even crates full of old records.  I really liked the frames and thought about buying one to update and hang in our home, but I ended up chickening out (I wasn't ready to barter).  I also tried looking through the records for something that my husband could hang up in his man cave, but no such luck.  Even though I didn't buy anything, it was such a great experience and I hope to go back soon.

 

My favorite antique store we went to.

 

 

Friday night was game night.  We had a few friends over to relax and enjoy a night filled with laughter (lots of it) and competitive fun.  Our friends Chad and Kara brought The Game of Things.  You start out with a category like for example, "Things you shouldn't say to your in-laws" and everyone has to write down what you shouldn't say to your in-laws.  Then one person reads the answers and the rest have to guess who said what.  As you can imagine, this game can get very funny, very quickly.   It was such a fun night and I hope we can make game night a usual thing in our house!

 

 



Summer Slam

I know it was a good weekend when it's Tuesday and I'm still recapping the weekend! Sunday I had off of work for a bachelorette party Saturday night and also because we hosted Summer Slam!

So, never in a million years did I ever think I would marry a man that watches WWE wrestling.  I remember growing up with my older cousins watching wrestling and my parents would always tell me it was way too violent (which I still sort of agree with...someone died because of wrestling!).  When I met Danny, he started watching wrestling again.  He watched it mostly in college in his fraternity house and he one day stumbled upon in once again and started watching.  I still have my moments when I question if Danny understands it's not real (the outcome of the matches that is, I know the fighting is real/people really do get beat up), but after its all said and done, it is entertaining to watch and I like to keep up with the story lines.

Every month or so, WWE has a paperview and this past Sunday was Summer Slam.  We had our friends, Chad and Kara over for dinner and wrestling.  Chad is also a big wrestling fan and him and Danny can sit there and talk about wrestling all night.  Kara and I just watch to keep up with the story and occasionally dote on some sweaty, tan jacked up wrestler.

For the past two paperviews Chad has put together a "quiz" where you have to choose who wins each match.  This is also a big reason why I pay attention just because I am so competitive and want to win! Well I actually won this time and I was so happy I gained the most points by predicting who was going to win each match!

It was a fun night with our friends (as always) and I enjoyed a night of watching sweaty men in banana hammocks fight each other.  Gotta love it.



The puppy watching Summer Slam



If anyone is fimilar with WWE, our friend Chad looks
like Daniel Bryan (hence the "respect the beard shirt" and Danny
shaved his beard into chops to look like CM Punk.  I love how they get so into it!

CM Punk

Daniel Bryan
 

Thunder over Louisville

This throwback Thursday is dedicated to Louisville.  (By the way, it's not pronounced LOUIE-ville like most people say that are not natives of the city, I learned that very quickly).  Danny grew up in Louisville and among the many times we visited over the last few years, my first visit to the area was very memorable.  It was also the first weekend with Danny's parents and boy was I nervous! We had been dating for a few months at this point and I had met them in person only once.  After all was said and done, we had an amazing experience and I bonded with Danny's parents and friends so much after that weekend.

We visited Louisville in the spring of 2012.  They have a little event called the Kentucky Derby in early May, so they have a big kickoff to the festivities called Thunder over Louisville (side note: I think I need to add "Go to a Kentucky Derby party" to my 30 before 30 list.  I want to buy a big hat so bad!)  Danny had always been in Louisville for this event and he had a few friends that had houses near the firework extravaganza.  Also, its important to mention that Thunder over Louisville is unlike any other firework show you have ever seen.  I made the mistake of telling Danny I had been to firework shows before when he was telling me about it, but he corrected me very quickly saying that Thunder over Louisville was different.  Turns out it is the largest annual firework show held in North America!

The first day we were in Louisville, Danny took me to a local winery by his parent's house, Huber's Winery.  Boy, did he know me well, right? I ended up loving it and we go back to Huber's every time we are in Louisville! We also tend to buy 56 bottles of wine to take home with us, because we never know when we'll be back and we don't want to run out!

Danny and me wine tasting at Huber's.

We bought a bottle and ate some cheese and crackers. Typical.

The next day was fireworks day.  We got up early to meet some of his friends at their houses.  Luckily, we met them the night before at dinner, so I was already pretty comfortable with who everyone was.  We started at Danny's friend, Adam and his girlfriend, Emily's house.  Adam is one of Danny's best friends and he was the best man at our wedding.  We had a great time at their house meeting friends from Danny's high school and getting ready for the festivities.  I also hung out with Danny's friend, Doug who would become one of his groomsmen at our wedding.  Doug is fun, outgoing, and the life of the party.  He always makes me laugh so we bonded instantly.

At Adam and Emily's house.

Boys take really good pictures (Doug, Adam, and Danny)

Me and Doug

After spending some time with Adam, we headed to Danny's other friends house, Kris and Kathryn.  Kathryn and Danny have been friends since elementary school and I always heard such good things about her since she was one of Danny's closest friends.  Kathryn is the sweetest southern belle you will ever meet.  Kathryn's boyfriend, Kris is one of Danny's closest friends and he was also a groomsmen at our wedding (sensing a theme?).  Kris and Kathryn's place was so much fun.  We played numerous rounds of flip cup (one of my favorites) and I got to know all the girls really well.

At Kris and Kathryn's.  I'd also like to note that I thought Danny was behind me in this picture and I thought that was his arm around me until I turned around and it wasn't...

Me and Danny by the river.

After a full day of drinking which mind you I hadn't done since college, we finally got to see some fireworks!

All in all it was a great weekend getting to know Danny's parents and friends better.  It is one that I will never forget and we hope to go back for Thunder over Louisville sometime in the future.

The day we left Louisville.

Danny with his childhood dog, Pebbles.

I've added this vacation to our travel adventures page, check out some of the other places we've visited together.

Wine Festival

Friday night, Danny and I headed with some of our friends to the Vintage Ohio Wine Festival.  The wine festival is one of my favorite memories and I have been every year since I've moved to the Cleveland area.  You pay one entry price and you get 25 tickets that represent samples of wine from local Ohio wineries.  I love supporting the small wineries throughout Ohio and it is so much fun to try all kinds of wine, especially since me and my friends are wine-o's (Danny not so much).

Danny, Ryan, Dave, Ashleigh, and Stefanie.

Dave and Stefanie.

Danny and me.

Ashleigh and Ryan.

Assortment of cheese and crackers.

Danny waiting for me to finish eating my cheese.

Eating our cheese trays.

The girls, even though the guys ruined it.

After the wine festival, me, Danny, Ryan, Ashleigh decided to head to one of our favorite restuarants/bars, Willoughby Brewing Company.  We had dinner (since I just had cheese and crackers) and had a few more drinks.  Ashleigh and I both love to dance so we had a fun night out on the dance floor while the cover band played.  

Me and Ashleigh after dancing.

At Willoughby Brew Co.

Captains Game

Happy weekend and boy has it been a busy one! Thursday night we met up with our friends for thirsty thursday at the Lake County Captains game.  Even though we live 20 miles from the Indians, it's nice to go to a minor league game.  Thirsty Thursday included 25 cent beers even though they were really tiny beers.  The game was great, but I honestly wasn't paying too much attention since we went with our friends, Ryan and Ashleigh.  Although I did get a baseball and a shirt only because we sat by the scouts and they had tossed it to me which was nice.  They were giving away TVs from 1996 and 2003 and luckily we didn't win one of those! All in all a great night!

Me and Ashleigh at the game.

Do they have tiny beers or huge hands?

25 cent beer night.

The baseball I took home.

Tube TVs.

Ryan and Ashleigh.

Me and Danny.

Me and Ashleigh.

WIN A TV!

Lake County Captains.

High Five For Friday

Happy Friday friends and happy August! Time flies so quickly these days.  I have a jam packed day filled with friends and wine! We are going to the wine festival tonight which is something I look forward to every year.  Hope everyone is having a great Friday, now on to High Five For Friday!

Yogi's picture on the Pet Training Graduates Wall!

1. We went to Petsmart this week to finish up Yogi's last classes since we missed a few.  He learned so much and he is still doing really well.  Since technically his 6 week program ended last week, this week his picture was on the graduate board in the training center! We are such proud puppy parents!

Our Team for Ready, Set, Go 2013!

2. At work this week, there were sign ups for a program called Ready, Set, Go 2013 through Get Active Progressive.  My work does a lot of neat things to motivate their employees to stay heathly and this is one of them.  Starting August 12th, I will compete with members of my team on number of steps, percentage of weight lost, and minutes exercised per week.  This is a friendly competition to get everyone fit and heathly, and boy do I love competition! I created a team and invited my team members to participate with me and everyone I asked, joined in! I can't wait to see what happens in the next few weeks, plus I can't wait to get my FREE pedometer in the mail this week!

3. It is officially August! I made these cute little calenders for Christmas for Danny and I had to have one too! We both keep them at work and it makes me smile at our memories of last year together.  The picture featured for August was taken at our Engagement BBQ we had at Danny's parents house shortly after we got engaged.

Me and Rosie.

4. I swear whenever I have the day off, I am surrounded by two cats and a dog.  As anti-social as the cats can be, I notice when they miss me which is always nice! This is me and Rosie hanging out on Thursday and Teddy happen to be on my lap when this was taken.

Me and Ashleigh.

5. Danny and I went with our friends, Ryan and Ashleigh to a single A baseball game for the Lake County Captains.  It was thirsty thursday and they had 25 cent beer....I love minor league baseball! It was so much fun and I even got a baseball (I didn't catch it, but we were sitting by the scouts, so one of them gave it to me!).  More on this to come!