Crazy to
think that another two months have passed since I last posted. It crosses my
mind so often to sit down and write as I have a lot to say, but then I never
have the hours it seems to take me to write. As I sit here writing now, I am on
my way to Houston, Texas, to catch another flight to Nicaragua! So I have about
6 hours to get something written down. I'm not sure if I will be able to remember
everything we have done over the last couple months but I'll do my best.
End of March we went to the NCAA Hockey Championship at US Bank arena, which was very cool to experience. It was nice to see North Dakota take the win the night we went. School was getting even more hectic at the beginning of April as we were trying to play catch up in a lot of classes because we missed time with the few snow days this winter. My birthday weekend was full of good times with friends and lots of good food. Friday night we went to the Silver Grove Fish Fry, which is held at the Fire Department. Followed by a party at Josh's place to celebrate his birthday (April 6), along with mine (7), Brittany (8), and Caleb's (9). The morning of my birthday I had to write an Environmental Science test and go to History, but after that I picked Aaron up from work and we went to Keystone for half price mac n'cheese. I drove him back to work and then headed up to the Outlets to do some shopping. Something I haven't done much of since I got down here, and I thought it was a nice present to myself. I treated myself to a nice new Coach purse as well as some shorts for work this summer. It wasn't a very successful day of shopping for me, I was extremely discouraged, and it had been raining all day, so I just wanted to get home and curl up on the couch. Aaron had to teach that night, so that's why we did lunch together earlier. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing. It was a great birthday! Much better than last year - and both my brothers remembered! Only downside, my dad forgot, lol. He's usually the first one to call me on my birthday, and I finally called him to make sure things were ok. He couldn't believe that he forgot, he said he set reminders and everything, lol. Honestly, I didn't really care cause I had a great day, but as I said I was worried that something maybe happened to him. The rest of my birthday week was filled with more tests and a couple papers due, and calculus, way too many questions for that class.
For Easter we went to Aaron's grandma's for dinner and watched the kids have an outdoor egg hunt. That was pretty cool to see as it is not something we can do back home as there is always way too much snow. I believe it got to about 22 degrees that day, so it was beautiful to be outside.
After spending a full day doing a bunch of calculus homework and quizzes right before the 4 day Easter weekend, the professor dumped another 120 questions on us, along with 2 tests. I was a stressed out basket case. I remember getting the text from my friend Jeffrey on the Tuesday morning with the number of questions and I just started to cry, and thought why could he not have posted them on the Friday like he said he would so that we could do them over the Easter weekend, when I had caught up on everything else minor, but still had a couple papers to write as well as a case study. Let's just say that the end of the semester was no fun. Actually most of this semester wasn't much fun. I enjoyed most of my classes, but I have to think that it was one of the most challenging semesters I have ever had. Was definitely happy to have it come to an end. Lucky for me I only had 2 final exams at school, the other two classes were a take home exam and a paper, so it was nice not having to study for more than 2 exams. As some of you might already know, I finished the semester with 5 A's, and a 4.0 GPA. Bumping my cumulative GPA to a 3.9, I was pretty excited about that.
I finished my last exam on Wednesday, May 7th, and my friend Hollie was coming to visit on the 10th until the 15th, so I had some major cleaning up to do around the house before she got there. Aaron and I also ran the Cincinnati Beer Run (5km) on the morning that Hollie was flying in. We walked down to the run site as it was about a mile or so from the house, did the run, then had to walk across the river into Cincinnati to get Aaron's car as we left it downtown overnight. We picked Hollie up from the airport around 4:30pm that afternoon and then went to a nearby pub to have a drink before heading to the Florence Freedom baseball game. Vaughn was able to get us all free tickets, so 5 of us went to the game. After the game the plan was to out to a bar in Newport but we made a stop at home first and of course that was enough to make Hollie and I more tired and not want to go out, so the boys went out and we stayed home and went to bed.
End of March we went to the NCAA Hockey Championship at US Bank arena, which was very cool to experience. It was nice to see North Dakota take the win the night we went. School was getting even more hectic at the beginning of April as we were trying to play catch up in a lot of classes because we missed time with the few snow days this winter. My birthday weekend was full of good times with friends and lots of good food. Friday night we went to the Silver Grove Fish Fry, which is held at the Fire Department. Followed by a party at Josh's place to celebrate his birthday (April 6), along with mine (7), Brittany (8), and Caleb's (9). The morning of my birthday I had to write an Environmental Science test and go to History, but after that I picked Aaron up from work and we went to Keystone for half price mac n'cheese. I drove him back to work and then headed up to the Outlets to do some shopping. Something I haven't done much of since I got down here, and I thought it was a nice present to myself. I treated myself to a nice new Coach purse as well as some shorts for work this summer. It wasn't a very successful day of shopping for me, I was extremely discouraged, and it had been raining all day, so I just wanted to get home and curl up on the couch. Aaron had to teach that night, so that's why we did lunch together earlier. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing. It was a great birthday! Much better than last year - and both my brothers remembered! Only downside, my dad forgot, lol. He's usually the first one to call me on my birthday, and I finally called him to make sure things were ok. He couldn't believe that he forgot, he said he set reminders and everything, lol. Honestly, I didn't really care cause I had a great day, but as I said I was worried that something maybe happened to him. The rest of my birthday week was filled with more tests and a couple papers due, and calculus, way too many questions for that class.
For Easter we went to Aaron's grandma's for dinner and watched the kids have an outdoor egg hunt. That was pretty cool to see as it is not something we can do back home as there is always way too much snow. I believe it got to about 22 degrees that day, so it was beautiful to be outside.
After spending a full day doing a bunch of calculus homework and quizzes right before the 4 day Easter weekend, the professor dumped another 120 questions on us, along with 2 tests. I was a stressed out basket case. I remember getting the text from my friend Jeffrey on the Tuesday morning with the number of questions and I just started to cry, and thought why could he not have posted them on the Friday like he said he would so that we could do them over the Easter weekend, when I had caught up on everything else minor, but still had a couple papers to write as well as a case study. Let's just say that the end of the semester was no fun. Actually most of this semester wasn't much fun. I enjoyed most of my classes, but I have to think that it was one of the most challenging semesters I have ever had. Was definitely happy to have it come to an end. Lucky for me I only had 2 final exams at school, the other two classes were a take home exam and a paper, so it was nice not having to study for more than 2 exams. As some of you might already know, I finished the semester with 5 A's, and a 4.0 GPA. Bumping my cumulative GPA to a 3.9, I was pretty excited about that.
I finished my last exam on Wednesday, May 7th, and my friend Hollie was coming to visit on the 10th until the 15th, so I had some major cleaning up to do around the house before she got there. Aaron and I also ran the Cincinnati Beer Run (5km) on the morning that Hollie was flying in. We walked down to the run site as it was about a mile or so from the house, did the run, then had to walk across the river into Cincinnati to get Aaron's car as we left it downtown overnight. We picked Hollie up from the airport around 4:30pm that afternoon and then went to a nearby pub to have a drink before heading to the Florence Freedom baseball game. Vaughn was able to get us all free tickets, so 5 of us went to the game. After the game the plan was to out to a bar in Newport but we made a stop at home first and of course that was enough to make Hollie and I more tired and not want to go out, so the boys went out and we stayed home and went to bed.
Sunday morning I made breakfast for us, and then Aaron took us out to Rabbit
Hash, KY, which is a very small town where the mayor is a DOG! Quite funny. We
didn't get to see her, sign said she was probably in a meeting. Then we met
Vaughn in Cincinnati at one of the smaller theatres to watch our friend Laura's
play she was directing, and her husband Chad was in - Lend Me A Tenor. What a
fantastic show. Chad played the most well-suited role he ever could have
played. After the show a bunch of us went to Mellow Mushroom for something to
eat (they have really good pizza!) Later
that night, Hollie and I ventured out to do some shopping at Walmart. For
anyone who knows her or I, we like to look for things that we can't get at
home, and we like to load up on the different seasonal Oreos. This year there
are Cookie Dough, Fruit Punch, and Marshmallow Treat. We also came across
Watermelon and Lemon again (one of my favourites, but now the Marshmallow Treat
ones are near the top of my list - tastes just like a Rice Krispie bar).
Monday we went up to the Premium Outlets, which was disappointing, as we didn't find much of anything. Coach had 50% off and nothing appealed to us there either. Highlight was being able to go to Tim Horton's which is nearby. It is the closest one to Cincinnati but it is still about 40 minutes away. Hollie got an iced coffee and she said it was gross, nothing like home, I got an ice cap and thought it tasted pretty close. Oh, and it was extremely hot the last couple of days, into the 30s and high humidity.
Tuesday I took her to Tom and Chee (Aaron is not a fan of the place). It is a small restaurant that started up at Fountain Square in Downtown Cincinnati back in like 2009, and they have opened about 3 or 4 stores in Kentucky and downtown Cincy. Last year they went on Shark Tank hoping to get someone to buy in and help them expand. Lucky for them, Barbara agreed to buy in and help them expand. I think it is fantastic that two guys who started such a small sandwich shop are doing so well. Tom and Chee are known for their grilled cheese donut and many different options of grilled cheese sandwiches. You can choose your bread, cheese, and toppings, or pick one of the ones they have pre-designed. My favourite is the BBQ Bacon - American cheese, bacon, and BBQ chips on rye bread. Then you can get a tomato soup to go with your grilled cheese, they have 4 different kinds. I tried the donut once but I don't think it goes too well with savoury toppings, it's definitely way better on the dessert donuts. Then we went to the Newport Aquarium and Freedom Centre all before Aaron finished work. We picked him up from work and headed out towards Alexandria where he had to play baseball, and right after his game was over we headed back downtown for the Cyclones hockey game.
Wednesday was another day of shopping for us, and much more successful. Both of us found quite a bit of stuff. And I was happy to take her to White Castle for lunch. Another one of those places that its nice to say you've been to. Everyone seems to know it from the Harold and Kumar movie. That night we went back to Mellow Mushroom for trivia night. There were 8 of us that night, so we seemed to do better than some weeks when it is just Vaughn, Aaron and I. Although this past Wednesday (couple days ago), the 3 of us were there for the first half and then MacLean showed up and between the 4 of us we tied for 2nd place. That's a big thing in our books.
Monday we went up to the Premium Outlets, which was disappointing, as we didn't find much of anything. Coach had 50% off and nothing appealed to us there either. Highlight was being able to go to Tim Horton's which is nearby. It is the closest one to Cincinnati but it is still about 40 minutes away. Hollie got an iced coffee and she said it was gross, nothing like home, I got an ice cap and thought it tasted pretty close. Oh, and it was extremely hot the last couple of days, into the 30s and high humidity.
Tuesday I took her to Tom and Chee (Aaron is not a fan of the place). It is a small restaurant that started up at Fountain Square in Downtown Cincinnati back in like 2009, and they have opened about 3 or 4 stores in Kentucky and downtown Cincy. Last year they went on Shark Tank hoping to get someone to buy in and help them expand. Lucky for them, Barbara agreed to buy in and help them expand. I think it is fantastic that two guys who started such a small sandwich shop are doing so well. Tom and Chee are known for their grilled cheese donut and many different options of grilled cheese sandwiches. You can choose your bread, cheese, and toppings, or pick one of the ones they have pre-designed. My favourite is the BBQ Bacon - American cheese, bacon, and BBQ chips on rye bread. Then you can get a tomato soup to go with your grilled cheese, they have 4 different kinds. I tried the donut once but I don't think it goes too well with savoury toppings, it's definitely way better on the dessert donuts. Then we went to the Newport Aquarium and Freedom Centre all before Aaron finished work. We picked him up from work and headed out towards Alexandria where he had to play baseball, and right after his game was over we headed back downtown for the Cyclones hockey game.
Wednesday was another day of shopping for us, and much more successful. Both of us found quite a bit of stuff. And I was happy to take her to White Castle for lunch. Another one of those places that its nice to say you've been to. Everyone seems to know it from the Harold and Kumar movie. That night we went back to Mellow Mushroom for trivia night. There were 8 of us that night, so we seemed to do better than some weeks when it is just Vaughn, Aaron and I. Although this past Wednesday (couple days ago), the 3 of us were there for the first half and then MacLean showed up and between the 4 of us we tied for 2nd place. That's a big thing in our books.
Thursday was kind of an off weather day, it was supposed to rain more and it was really cold, so instead of going to the Reds day game we went up to the Loveland Castle for a tour, which was pretty interesting. This guy back in the late 1800s decided to build a castle for him and his friends. Right now I can't remember the name of the group, but it was pretty neat to go and see. Then I had to take her to Skyline Chili to have some Cincinnati style chili. It's a big thing around here. Spaghetti, chili, and a big mound of cheddar cheese. After lunch we went to Carew Tower which over looks all of Cincinnati and into Northern Kentucky. We picked Aaron up from worked and then took Hollie out to the airport. I was sad to see her go as it was nice to have someone from home nearby, but I will see her and everyone else in just a couple more weeks. So looking forward to that. That night Aaron and I went to the Thomas More graduation dinner, and had to leave before the awards started to meet a bride and groom for the wedding Aaron is DJing on the 31st.
Last Saturday (17th), Aaron and I got up bright and early to head to Kings Island Amusement park to do the Color Me Rad 5km run. It was a cold one, plus 4, and really cloudy. There was a 10% chance of rain, and well we got it, not once but twice, and then a third time when we were leaving the park later that morning. Our admission for the run included admission into the amusement park that day so we met up with Aaron's co-worker Courtney and her sister and rode a few of the roller coasters. That night we went and had dinner at Knotty Pine on the Bayou - such great cajun food! Our friend Elliot works the bar there and we ended up closing the place down with the owner, John.
Sunday we finally went to the American Sign Museum. Aaron won tickets almost two years ago and we finally got to use them. It was a very interesting place. Signs of all kinds and the history of them from the late 1800s and early 1900s. I thought it was interesting that they had a couple Rexall Drugs signs in the place. The rest of this week was a lot of laundry, cleaning up, shopping for last minute things for Nicaragua, and getting the last few things of my paperwork lined up for school in the fall.
Yesterday was extremely relaxing for me as I only had to pack for Nicaragua and sort a few things that I have to take back to Canada. When Aaron got home from work we went to Dancing Wasabi for sushi, which was fantastic as always, and we haven't had it in about 6 months, so it tasted really good. Then we went for Graeter's ice cream, another place everyone needs to try if they come visit. I wasn't able to squeeze it in with Hollie, so next time she comes we will. Then home to throw the last few things in the suitcase before heading to bed. We had to get up at 3:40am so that I could be at the airport between 4:30-4:45 to meet the group...
Bringing me to now...we left Houston about an hour and a half ago, and have about another hour of flying before we land in Managua. I will try and post once or twice while down there, will depend on our time that we have as we have a bunch of tours scheduled.
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