living the ohio life...

if you live in ohio, this is what your front walk looks like! :)

...well, it's really not that different from texas life except we live in an apartment and there's snow! okay, there are a few more differences than that, but generally it's similar. there are some interesting things here in columbus, ohio that make it different than my hometown and the dallas, tx area:
-7 digit dialing (you don't dial an area code!)
-no u-turns city wide (although abi & i *might* have made one the other night trying to get to the big bang!)
-no "severe weather warnings" but instead "snow emergencies"
-when it snows a lot, there is salt *everywhere* and for a while, i could hardly tell what was salt and what was snow/ice!
-people in texas drive fast, in columbus, not so much! in tx, if the speed limit is 65, you are driving slow if you are going 75. in ohio, if the speed limit is 65, even if the roads are clear, you are going fast if you are driving 65!
-there are no service roads here...which is weird to me, but apparently it's a texas thing (so i'm the weird one). there are also very few overpasses (no hi-5 here, folks!) i'm sure it's due to the fact that bridges here are already prone to freezing, it's scary to think of those overpasses in an ohio winter!
-i know i've mentioned this before, but i love the language difference:
squad = ambulance
cart = stretcher
ascrosst = across
of course, most people, upon finding out i'm native texan, comment on my lack of accent. i think most of them think i'm lying until i say a sentence containing a "y'all" in it!
-instead of counting the days over 100 degress, you count the days below freezing
-even though they have the equipment up here to handle snow and ice, schools are closed and/or delayed nearly any time there is several inches of accumulation...unexpected for me, i figured they would have to have a foot or more!
-i hardly ever hear anything in spanish. and there are no spanish billboards, and very few bilingual store products! the last time i gave discharge instructions in spanish, was before christmas! if you are from texas, you realize how insane this is to me!
-OSU is the big school here...and it is big. in fact, for some things the area is just referred to as "the campus" even though there are other universities and colleges nearby.
-people here don't know their state song....well, i'd have to ask more people to be fair...
-you should own a front door mat here, because it helps keep the salt out of your home (yes, the salt makes a bigger mess than the snow!). taking off shoes when you come in is also recommended.
-west virgina is to ohio what arkansas is to texas. in orientation, i heard a room full of ohioans joke about how w.v. is where people marry their cousins and they don't have any teeth. i'm so texan, i just assumed that every state thought of arkansas in that way....who's ever heard anything bad about west virginia?
-if you live in ohio, you should not like michigan or routinely sport the colors blue & yellow. period.

my favorite things about ohio? so glad you asked!
-i get to live with my husband again, yay!
-i get to spend time with my hubby's family
-the snow is gorgeous, no matter what other people say! i'm not sick of it yet...
-i can drink hot cocoa every day, dress for the weather because it won't change every 3 seconds, and enjoy real snuggling because it actually is cold outside
-there are cowboys fans here, too :)
-even though people drive slower here, there's about 1/2 as much traffic as dallas!
-tim horton's & meijer are wonderful!
-matt being able to work full-time hours is pretty nice too ;)
-living in the apartment, while not my ideal, does mean that neither of us has to shovel snow, spread salt or do any sort of yard maintence. nice!
-i'm not terrified of driving in the snow or ice anymore...i still don't prefer it, though.

matt and i, child-free and young marrieds....here is how we spend our time:

using a movie gift card to see Avatar in 3D...we are so cool!


doing P90X, matt is ready to work!


all snuggled up! we were either "watching" a movie or football...
aww, aren't they cute?!


we enjoy the snow!
even though i *still* haven't made a single snowman or snow angel -- i'll have to get to work on that!

a family day

family day

on saturday we got the chance to hang out with our wonderful ohio family right here in columbus. due to some other scheduling, the family was in our neck of the woods and we decided it would be a good idea to get together for dinner. so the family (pat, david, jen, maddie, heather & miah) came to spend some time at our apartment before we headed to easton mall to meet up with jody for dinner. we had initially planned on eating at the local buca di buppo, but when heather tried to call for a reservation, we were told they were pretty much all booked up until late, late evening. since it was a saturday night, we received the same response from another 3 restaurants before deciding to head to the cheesecake factory, who doesn't take reservations, but told us that we could come and wait and it would probably only be about an hour. since we had a large party and the restaurant is at the mall, we figured one of us could wait while the others walked around and then the person waiting would just contact the rest of us when the table was ready.
well, it was good in theory! when we got there, we found out it was actually a 3 hour wait, but the max & irma's in the same mall only had a 1 hour wait. i'm not sure we even ended up waiting a whole hour, but we got to eat some yummy food and spend time with everyone, which was what it was really all about to begin with!

the big bang!

on friday, the 22nd, my new friend abigail, from MCE, and i decided we should hang out. while the evening wasn't initially planned as a "girls night out," since both our men were working, we hit the piano bar scene sans our men. most of you know that i *love* the piano bar in dallas, so i was excited to find out that columbus has one also.
after having to outsmart the garmin unit, which kept trying to take us down barricaded streets (the brad paisley concert was also that night and in the same part of downtown), we finally made it to our destination.
it's not pete's, but it's about as close as you can get! the bar is called "the big bang" and, as expected, played a lot of the piano bar favorites and a few from the pop charts, and even included some country! made me feel like i was right at home! abi and i had a great time, and even got the chance to dance with some marines that were out after some sort of military ball or something. don't worry, my husband isn't the jealous type -- so one dance doesn't bother him. in fact, much to my surprise, when i was relaying the story to him (i think i scared the poor kid when he saw my wedding ring! which made it all the funnier to me) matt's response was, "i can't believe you were out alone and only got hit on by one guy, what's wrong with them?!" ahhh, always the supportive husband! :)
i've included a few pics, for your viewing pleasure.

and thanks to abi for the fun night out!

me and my new friend, abi!


the pianos and performers


all the staff -- dancing on stage


some of the dozens of marines there, dancing on stage

game night!

elroy gets in on the game night action...sortof

our wonderful friends tim & erin invited us over for a game night. luckily, i was off work so matt & i headed out in the snow for some couples fun. we had a great time as always, enjoying beer, tasty food and game time. we played wits & wagers (which i highly recommend) and matt & i actually ended up winning a few times (sometimes it pays to be married to a professor ;) hehe)!
much thanks to the bates for inviting us over and keeping a new ohio-an like myself entertained!


ryan divides up the game pieces


looking for extra "game pieces"


erin and claire, looking for pennies for us to use as chips


the cantzlers debate an answer


what game night is all about...fun!

christmas in ohio

ohio christmas

after returning from texas, i had to go right back to work for 2 days, which included new years eve...blah! because of this we ended up not being able to celebrate christmas with our ohio family until new years day. so, for our first day of 2010, matt and i headed to urbana. i'm liking the bullet-form for these long entries, so here's our schedule for the day:
0600- i got off work, came home, showered and went to bed
1400- we wake up, workout, and attempt to get christmas gifts together...we had some issues making the hot chocolate (don't ever, ever try to use unsweetened cocoa for hot chocolate. it was an accident, but i couldn't fix it and we had to start all over!)
1800- arrive in urbana at steve & jacquie's. watch OSU win the rose bowl. go bucks! exchange christmas gifts and enjoy good food.
2000- arrive at david & pat's, enjoy more tasty food and exchange gifts with david, pat, heather & miah. fall asleep for a while watching cincinnati lose their bowl game.
0100?- arrive home, put away presents, shower, fall asleep! (i had to work again on january 2nd).

all in all, it was a wonderful way to spend new years day! we are so truly blessed to have such wonderful families and to have the means to spend the holidays with both matt's parents and mine! thank you to everyone for a wonderful christmas and a blessed new year!

happy new year, 2010!!!

texas, margaritas, family, fun!

after celebrating christmas, matt and i spent the remainder of our time in texas attempting to catch up with the people we've been missing for the last couple months....it was no easy task! forget about time off...scheduling like ours was real work! but we did manage to see a lot of friends and spend quite a bit of time with my family, which was really the goal. all in all, i'd say it was a pretty successful trip in that sense...and tons of fun! not to mention, i got to eat muchos of tex-mex and enjoy numerous frozen margaritas....so yummy! especially when you've been without a decent margarita for months!!! no offense ohio, but your margaritas are just plain crummy to a girl "just north of the border." a rough schedule of the remainder of the trip:

december 26: sleep-in a bit, lunch/dinner with shari & kern, quality time with the sister, movie night with mom & dad, and a late night trip to MCD to visit my saturday night shifters!
december 27: sunday funday! church in the morning, dinner at chuy's (oh-so-tasty tex-mex!), cowboys vs. redskins at mom & dad's with the proctors and jerimey.
december 28: breakfast with MCD friends at ihop, downtime with the family at home, dinner with the family (minus the proctor clan) at macaroni grill, late night visit to sarah & ray's house.
december 29: packing, lunch at jake's burger joint, a last minute visit with shari (at kohl's...), back to the airport. watch the snow fall in dallas again! fly to houston, fly to columbus. picked up by tim & lexi and back at the apt for unpacking, laundry, grocery shopping......etc.

a texas christmas

on christmas day, we loaded up into mom & dad's expedition and drove the approx. 2 hours to west, texas (the town, not the area) to celebrate christmas with my mom's family. my uncle gerald and aunt marilyn hosted christmas at their house this year which meant tons of tasty food, lots of drinks and, of course, a chance to fire the guns. while it had been snowy in dallas/plano, and the roads were still a little slick as we headed south, there wasn't really any snow to be seen in the waco area by the time we arrived.
we had a super fabulous dinner of homemade bread, mashed potatoes, and shish-kabobs in the beef, chicken and shrimp varieties -- it was all so tasy! after that, we headed outside to fire off a few rounds on various firearms -- handguns to the right of the yard, but the long-range rifles were set up on the left side. yes, it was truly a texas christmas ;)
as the sun started setting, we came inside to participate in a white elephant gift exchange and generally just be lazy before warming up the food and eating again. then we loaded up in the car and headed back to plano for bedtime at mom & dad's house.

we hope you & yours had a truly blessed holiday with your family & friends,
merry christmas 2009!!!

texas: christmas day

a snowy christmas eve in texas

a family pic


now, show me...sexy!


christmas eve started off pretty busy! matt and i woke up, grabbed a snack and headed out for some last-minute gift shopping (you didn't honestly think we could fit *everything* into our carry-ons, did you?). back at mom & dad's house we started wrapping gifts, helping prepare food and getting ready for the rest of the family to arrive. we also watched in wonder as the previously warm, sunny landscape was quickly turned into a gray, snowy, cold winter scene. now, most people i know from ohio would think this was upsetting for me and my family...but we're from texas! according to the weatherman, there hadn't been a white christmas in dallas since 1926...so we were *super* excited! the only problem with a white christmas eve in texas? no trucks to clear the roads = no christmas eve services. as the evening progressed we watched as more and more churches listed their services as cancelled for the evening, including our own. so we made the most of our "snowed in" eve with a big fire, a tasty dinner, christmas carols and, finally, opening presents! it was a ton of fun, and i'm so glad that matt and i were able to come back for a white christmas in texas! consequently, it was warmer in columbus the entire week we were gone than it was in dallas! crazy texas weather!

texas: day 2 -- christmas eve!

texas: day one!

texas: day one!

this year i was lucky enough to be able to have the holidays off at my new job so i could travel back to texas for a much-anticipated return trip home. as per usual, though, i had to work the 4 days before boarding the plane. so the schedule for my first day back in texas was something like this:

december 23:

0600- leave work

0730- tim picks up matt & i and takes us to the columbus airport (thanks again!)

0955- we board a tiny, tiny plane and fly to cleveland.

1050- land in cleveland and have roughly an hour-long layover. just enough time to get into a i'm-very-tired-and-so-are-you kind of fight about where/when/how to get food at the airport...ahh, joys of the holiday season!

1230- board another tiny plane and fly to DFW! (and nap all the way there!)

1410(texas time, yay!)- land. get picked up by mom & dad at the airport and enjoy the 75 degree sunny weather (it only lasted one day!).

1630- cookie fest, family time and dinner (not necessarily in that order) at mom & dad's house.

2300- karaoke night in downtown dallas with eddie, sister and surprise guest...nini! much fun was had by all!

0300- visit medical city to see my late-night friends :)

0430? 0500? - sleep!

i've included a video of greg and adam singing "all night long".....i think they win "best duet" for the night! i would have recorded more, but i have limited memory on my camera, and i was laughing so hard it was hard to keep the camera straight!

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