Cardinals Opening Day

You might recall that for Christmas from Chad's mom we got Cardinals home opener tickets. Finally that day arrived on Monday and it was an absolutely gorgeous day in St. Louis. The perfect day for some baseball. We headed down early and got to see all the opening ceremonies (except I can't believe I missed the Clydesdales since I was in line to get a pretzel.) We also got to eat some yummy ballpark food including said pretzel, hot dogs, beer and nachos. I didn't take many pictures, but here are some...

Chad and I after the game, I had to post b/c of Chad's goofy face.

Aw, a better one
Here's a picture of our view of the field. Look at all those people I think there was nearly 47,000 people there. In St. Louis opening day is quite the St. Louis tradition we love our baseball and it was super awesome to be a part of that.
Here's a picture of the Arch that I took while we waited in traffic to park.

Birthday Gifts

I am very behind on posting some things... I have finally cleaned out the camera and want to share come pictures and stories.

First up, we have what my awesome mother-in-law Chris got me for my birthday. Below is a really cool cupcake pan that will make the cupcakes look like flowers. I can't wait to try it out. I also got some red velvet cake mix in a cool tube.

She also got me this cute apron with my name on it... that way Chad can't steal it!!
My super dad got me perhaps one of the most adult gifts ever... a new windshield!! About 6 months after I bought the car (back in 2007) I got my first crack. It wasn't that bad since when I was working at Wachovia I was parking indoors so my car was very rarely exposed to the elements. Well, when I got my new job I had to start parking outdoors and it was all down hill from there... Here's that crack... I'm not sure how well you can see it... Luckily this crack mostly stayed on the passenger side.
And here's the one that recently developed. I had a chip on the driver's side and last week when I got back from Indy he rinsed the pollen off my car. Well, I'm guessing some water got into the chip and then heated up and what do you know... a crack developed. This one was on my drivers side and right in my line of sight.
I don't have any pictures of my new windshield, but let me assure you it's flipping AWESOME. It's so clean and not-cracked... it's was really awesome driving with it.

And here my friends is part of the give Chad got me. Merb's chocolate covered strawberries. Oh they were so delicious!!
I'm also getting paint for my hallway from my mom... her and I need to pick that paint up so I can go to down on painting the hallway... it will be a pain in the fricking butt to paint tape, but it's going to make a huge difference in the house!!

One Year

One year ago...

my honeybear had his skull cut open, and a huge mass removed. It's crazy to think that he went through brain surgery... if you met him today the only way you would know is the slight scar on the back of his head. (and the fact he still can't wiggle his fingers at the same speed on both hands)

He's a strong guy!! We were lucky everything went so well and he's all better.

Upcoming Travel

This is the other post that I can easily write. I have travel scheduled for just about every month from now until September or October.

I just got back from Indianapolis.

In May I will be headed to Tampa for my first conference "alone." I won't actually be alone b/c Euclid will be there with me, but I will also not have a project manager attending with me... I'm a bit nervous but I think this will be some really great experience for me.

In June I will be headed down to New Orleans. I'm excited for this trip as my mom will be coming with me. It's the first time I've brought someone along with me and we'll be sampling some New Orleans flare, since neither of us have been there before. It will be a fun trip just the two of us.

In July I might be going to San Francisco... I'm just not sure my travel will get approved. It's ok if it doesn't... we'll just have to see.

Also in July I'm hoping to go on family vacation finally to Daytona Beach. This was a spot we visited once a year for several years in a row, so it would bring back some memories. Plus it would be really great to show Chad these things.

In August I will be headed to Boston. This will be my second conference alone, but Euclid won't be there this time... so it's making me a little bit nervous. But it's still several months away, so there's no use in getting worried about that now.

In September or October I will possibly be headed to Washington DC... we'll see if I'm able to go.

I know that sometime in the coming months we'll want to visit Chad's mom in Virginia... just not sure when yet.

All in all... I'm becoming quite the traveler!!

Indianapolis

This past weekend I went to Indianapolis for a larger (325 person) higher profile (Chiefs of Staff and Nurse Executives) conference. For some reason this conference has been a pain in the butt for the last few weeks. They kept changing the brochure and faculty members... it was tough to keep up on everything. I was thinking with all this crap before the conference that during the conference things were bound to mess up. I guess I just really didn't know what to expect. I did everything I could not to drop the ball anywhere... I'm just not sure it's possible to do that 100% of the time.

Anyway the conference was this past week and it went really smoothly. I was pleasantly shocked. I am just so happy that we not only got through with it that it we knocked it out of the park in the process. People were very nice and thankful for everything that we did and everyone seemed to think it was a really great conference. After we finished up on Thursday I was just high on life. I was so flipping happy at how good of a job my team and I did. All my hard work paid off big time.

The hotel staff was amazing too. We were at the Downtown Indianapolis Marriott and I would have to say it was the best hotel staff I have worked with. They were so accommodating, personable and friendly. They got things done and since they scheduled a huge dinner a half an hour after our conference was suppose to end (it went late) they really made up for it. They also didn't rush us out of there... (ok they maybe did a little by setting up around us but it wasn't bad)

I guess I just want to say that I'm really happy this conference is over but I'm also really happy the end result was so good.

I am behind

There are several things I have wanted to write about... I just feel like the time hasn't been there... or maybe I just need to make the time... that's possible as well. Anyway, here is a list of topics that I need to catch up on.

1. My birthday wrap up
2. Indianapolis
3. Upcoming Travel
4. This current weekend
5. An old "friend"
   

Thursday nights

Have I ever talked about our Thursday nights?

Thursday nights are Chad and my date night. When we first got together we designated one night each week to be "date night" and that night is Thursday.

Each Thursday we know we will spend together, just the two of us. We don't do anything particularly special or super exciting... but it's the one night that we know we will be spending together. We don't make plans for Thursdays. Thursdays we spend together.

Like tonight we will spend together. We will watch Survivor together (our show) and probably a couple of other shows (CSI and Sober House) and we'll eat a great dinner and hang out the two of us.

I know some will say we hang out together every night of the week, but Thursdays are our special night... and will always be our special date night.

I read somewhere having a particular night each week that is like a date night is one of the characteristics of a healthy, happy, forever type of marriage. When I read that I thought, hey, we're doing something right (we had other characteristics as well)

Anyway... you'll all know what I'll be doing tonight.