Twice in one week!

Look at me! I'm blogging twice in the same week! This week has been going pretty well....pretty quick which is good. We're down 2 people at work and amazingly it hasn't been ridiculously busy so that has been awesome. (fingers crossed!). I've actually been hanging out with a couple of people from work and meeting new people, so that's been nice. One of the girls I actually used to work with in Philadelphia is now in Birmingham and is going to start working weekends at Children's Hospital....that's kinda random. And yesterday I went to happy hour with an OT that I work with and we went to this really super cute area of Birmingham that I never knew existed! I was so excited! It reminded me of Philadelphia. There were a bunch of cute little restaurants and bars and a lot of outside seating. Which is perfect for this time of year because it's finally started to cool off (again) and it's perfect weather to just sit outside and enjoy some drinks and food. So we're definitely going to have to explore that area a little more.

I've also been making an effort to cook more (if you don't know me too well, the extent of my cooking is hamburger helper or Lipton pasta sides with some chicken). I made baked ziti the other night and it was really yummy. I'm also big on quick and easy recipes that makes enough food for us to have leftovers for lunch. I found this really good sounding broccoli and cheese (and ham) casserole that I'm going to try to make tonight. I also organized all of my recipes last weekend. All of the ones that people gave us for the shower and also some random ones that I had written on scraps of paper. So if you have any super easy yummy casserole recipes, send them my way (alb245@yahoo.com) :)

This weekend should be pretty low key for us....which will be nice. We really need to clean....do some fall cleaning. I think we're going to make Jackie's pepperoni dip again for our tailgate snack for the PSU game on Saturday. It was so good and we can't stop thinking about it! Ok this blog is getting long, you probably stopped reading somewhere in the middle of the second paragraph.

Happy Birthday to all of the late September birthday kids......John, Carrie, Dad, Kathleen, & Dorothy....and anyone else I forgot!

Oops!

Eeeek! Sorry I haven't blogged in a week! Work and Team in Training has kept me extremely busy! I'm bummed right now because I thought we were going to get the Eagles game because on the schedule it says "televised nationally" but apparently not because we're getting the giants/seahawks game. At least the seahawks are up 21-0. And Eagles are winning right now too so that's good.

So yeah we have been down a couple therapists at work so it's been really busy. But it's going well so I can't really complain. I'm at 24% of my financial goal for Team in Training. I have to be at 60% by October 23 so keep your fingers crossed for me! (or donate! or give my website to friends you have who might be interested in donating :)). I'm going to try to get some corporate sponsors, because that would help me out big time. So if you work for a major company and have any contact info with HR/annual giving please email me! (alb245@yahoo.com)

I ran 7 miles today for Team in Training. I had to run by myself though b/c the team didn't run together at 6:30 because it was thundering and lightninging (is that a word?).

And oh yeah, it was HUMID! I got really excited last week because for 3 days it was nice and cool and I thought fall was finally here....yeah, for the past 5 days it's been mid-high 80's and HUMID. I'm ready for fall!

We had some people over to watch the PSU game yesterday (so close psu, so close). We made Jackie's pepperoni dip from the recipe she gave us for the shower...it was AWESOME!!! It was gone in like 5 minutes.

Everything else has been going well. I'll try to blog more than once this week! Here are a couple of pics of Bham from The Vulcan (second largest statue in the US next to the Statue of Liberty)...there's a fun little Alabama fact ;)

Mississippi

So I can officially check Mississippi off of my states that I've been to. Although I do have to say, for anyone who has never been there, you're not missing anything. My cousin Todd's wedding was this weekend back at home. Unfortunately Tom and I couldn't make it :( So as soon as Children's found out that I was going to be around, I was "strongly encouraged" to attend a bracing workshop in Oxford, Mississippi. It wasn't all bad, and I learned a lot at the workshop, but Ole Miss is missing something.

For people who live in Alabama, the joke about Alabama and Mississippi is that if it weren't for Mississippi, Alabama would be the worst state to live in (haha, it's not as bad as it seems). The only "hick" thing that I saw was this beat up old black school bus on the side of the road that had an air conditioner sticking out one of the windows....so I'm guessing someone lives there???
Anyways I got back last night and had to go to bed almost immediately because our first Team in Training long run started this morning (see website for more info on how that went). http://www.active.com/donate/tntagc/awesomeanne

I feel like I was going to tell you all something else but I can't remember. Notice I said "you all" and I did NOT say "y'all." Although I find myself saying "you all" instead of "you guys" so I'm wondering if "y'all" is not far behind. Hopefully not.

Happy middle of September :)

Weekly Update

Man....Penn State.......what was that all about?! We are a young team, we are a young team, we are a young team. Seriously though, we are. Plus if Ganter could actually hold the ball for a field goal the whole game might have gone differently. Hopefully he's the last Ganter playing for Penn State solely because his dad used to be the offensive coordinator. At least the Eagles won! E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!

I ran 7 miles yesterday for my long run! Our official "team runs" start this Sunday for Team in Training (at 6:30 in the morning!! ahhhh!). But at least we'll be done running before it gets hot out. It's been low to mid-80's this week and it's been great! This morning it was 73 degrees and I was about to get my winter coat!



Here is a pic of my hair right after I got it cut! I haven't worn it curly yet because it turns into a fro after about 40 minutes ;) I really like it though! I'll post a pic of it when it's straight (how I normally wear it) as soon as I get one.




There are a few updated pics of the apartment in this album. I think they're on the 3rd & 4th pages.
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/552366746kmCnOj?start=0

Enjoy!

Just for Fun

Keepin' busy...livin' for the weekend

I've been trying to get over a cold for the past few days so I apologize for not blogging. First football weekend was wonderful. We watched Penn State kick some zip-butt with some friends, ate yummy tailgate food (Ciara-everyone loved your buffalo chicken dip recipe!), and drank a few cold ones. Did any of my loyal readers watch the game and see the (crazy) (drunk) guy in the raft that they showed toward the beginning? That was my dad's friend Earl in my dad's raft...too funny. We're sitting there watching the game and then we see Earl paddle by in a raft on national tv.

I got my haircut! I'll have to post a picture....it's really short (for me)! It's above my shoulders. I love it, Tom's getting used to it. It's a big change but I was mentally prepared for the short hair....I'm used to it already.

My training has been kinda "eh" this week for Team in Training. I want to keep running but I don't want to get any sicker than I am right now. I ran 6 miles on Sunday (a new personal best for me) and 3 miles yesterday. Hopefully I'll be able to run at least 3 more days this week. Check out my site (link to the left under "links") to see all the fun people who have donated! (Your name could be on there too!)

Work is getting pretty busy....like CHOP busy. But everyone is really good about helping out other people when we get crazy so that's really good.
I'll try to blog again before the weekend....but if not.....


GO STATE, BEAT IRISH!

FOOTBALL!!!

I CAN'T WAIT!! Penn State kicks off at 2:30 tomorrow (3:30 for all you eastern time zone folks). I'm so excited!! I was so excited last week for football too, and we were watching games from last year on ESPN classic and it looked so nice outside....all cool and crisp and like great football weather.......then I stepped outside on our balcony and got a rude awakening when it was 97 degrees and the humidity was like 70%. Oh yeah, I live in Alabama and it doesn't get cool here until November! Fortunately I've adjusted to the heat down here so 85 degrees feels like a brisk autumn day! I hope everyone has a good labor day weekend and enjoys the start of football season! I know I will :)

Relaxing Weekend

What a wonderful weekend! It was very relaxing and just what I needed! Friday night we had some friends over so that was pretty fun. Saturday...hmmmm...what did we do Saturday? I think just a lot of catching up on things...laundry, recycling, etc. Sunday we went to the gym. I ran 5 miles! (One of my Team in Training goals for this week) and then went to the pool Sunday afternoon.
I'm SOOOOOO super excited for football to start! I can't wait for Saturday. Tom and I decided we are going to "tailgate" at our apartment every penn state game. I'm going to try to cook some "tailgating food" every week....each week something different. So if you have any good recipes...please email them to me at alb245@yahoo.com This week we're doing some sort of meatballs. Basically I just want an excuse to use our new crock pot :)
That's all for now. Feel free to check out my TNT website for updates on my running progress! Please donate if you can! Even donating as little as $5 or $10 can help make a huge difference in the lives of people with leukemia or lymphoma!
http://www.active.com/donate/tntagc/awesomeanne

Atlanta Pics are up

http://community.webshots.com/user/awesomeanne/3
"Atlanta Trip"

Atlanta trip

We had a good time in Atlanta this past weekend. I’ll hopefully post the pics soon on webshots. We went with some of Tom’s friends from UAB so there were 7 of us total. We drove out on Saturday and went to the Bodies in Motion exhibit at the civic center…which apparently was the same thing as the bodies exhibit at Franklin Institute but I was never able to go because I was always busy with wedding planning. Anyways it was amazing and right up my alley. The bodies were dissected and then plasticized using this new preservation technique they are working on. The muscles were really cool and a good anatomy review for me :) But the cardiovascular system was by far the coolest. They injected all of the arteries and veins with red and blue dye and then somehow miraculously dissected everything else away except for the arteries and veins and they were able to preserve them in their original shape. It was amazing.

Saturday night we went to Underground Atlanta for dinner which was kinda scary…I do not recommend it. Then we went to a bar that had live music and ended up across the street at Hard Rock so that was fun.

On Sunday we went to the Georgia Aquarium (and Ikea! How I miss Ikea!) The aquarium was really cool and I have some cool pics of that I will have to post. My favorite part was the giant whale sharks. They only ate plankton, and for some reason each one of them had their “posse” of little yellow fish that swam in front of their mouths. There’s a pic of one below but it’s kinda hard to see the little yellow guys. This might be Ralph…one of them was named Ralph :) These 2 pics are from my camera phone so they’re not that great. All in all it was a good trip.

Team in Training

So if you are reading this, that means I have your email address, and most likely you received an email from me earlier today about The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training. I have decided to join Team in Training and train for and complete a half-marathon in Phoenix, AZ on January 14, 2007. I have always been active in sports my whole life, but by no means have I been a distance runner (or even liked running that much!).

Running a marathon or half-marathon always seemed like this amazing thing that I secretly wanted to do but never thought I could. But now I believe I can for two reasons: 1) I ALWAYS tell my patients that they can't say "I can't" until they try. So I at least have to try. And 2) Team in Training benefits such a wonderful cause and I have talked to several people who, like me, were not big on running but completed a marathon with Team in Training and said it truly was a life-changing experience.

I have set a personal goal for myself to raise $4000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Any donations, big or small, would be greatly appreciated not only by myself, but by everyone that the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society benefits, including patients, their families, and the doctors and researchers who try to find cures for such horrible diseases.

You can donate securely online at my Team in Training website at
http://www.active.com/donate/tntagc/awesomeanne

I will also be tracking my progress on there so if you can't get enough of my blog, you can read my TNT page as well :)

Let me know if anyone is interested in joining Team in Training in your area and running with me in Phoenix in January! That would be so fun and some extra motivation for me as well! Visit http://www.teamintraining.org to find a local meeting near you.

Jet lag

We've been back from Portland for a week and I think we just finally recovered from our jet lag....maybe. We had a nice and relaxing weekend....hung out with some friends Friday and Saturday nights (and I hung out by the pool saturday and sunday during the day....LOVE having a pool to go to in this heat!) I was looking forward to another relaxing weekend this coming weekend but it looks like we are going to Atlanta with some friends. Should be a good time.

My work is going pretty well too. It's starting to pick up quite a bit and I'm seeing a lot more patients. And Tom and I manage to walk down the street to Starbucks for a lunch time pick-me-up at least once/week. We are obsessed with Starbucks! Carrie gave me a gift card for my bday and it was gone in 2 days! And we just found one near our apartment too....that could be dangerous!

The chins are doing well. They missed us when we were gone last weekend but they're all better now. They LOVE when we come home because they think we have food to give them. They jump up on the side of the cage. And whenever we have leftover random cardboard boxes we put them in the cage because they like to play in them. I still have my heart set on getting a border collie.......maybe next Spring when we have a little more money and are really settled in. We'll see. Drop me an email if you have some free time...I'd love to hear from everyone! alb245@yahoo.com

Portland and Dot & Juan's Wedding

Portland was amazing! We were able to see and do a lot while we were there and we have some pretty awesome pictures. We explored some of the microbrewery brewpubs and had some fine beers. We also saw a bunch of waterfalls on Saturday. Three of them were along this small road on the mountain but we didn't have to go far off the road at all to see them. Then we went for a longer hike with Carrie & John and we hiked up this mountain to see this amazing waterfall.

We also went into Portland to go to their "Saturday Market" which they have Saturdays and Sundays. It was like a mini- Arts Fest! We couldn't believe they have it every weekend. We got a really beautiful picture for our one bare wall in our apartment. It's a picture of this rushing stream that is almost turquoise and has green trees in the background. It is perfect and exactly what we were looking for.

Dorothy and Juan's wedding was absolutely gorgeous. They got married outside at a lodge that was overlooking the mountains and the Columbia River. It was really beautiful and I was so glad we were able to be there to share their day with them. The reception was fun too, and of course John (some of you may know him as Meatball) and one of Juan's friends ended up having a dance-off to early 90's music...quite a site.

Overall it was a great trip but we are very much looking forward to a low-key weekend! Here are a few pics from out west. The rest are on my webshots page. Scroll down for the url...I know it's on some other posts.

What would YOU do?

Not much to write today. Getting ready for Portland tonight...I'm sure I'll have a lot to write about when we get back! Like how we will be eating ramen noodles for 2 weeks because we spent all of our money to go to Portland....whoops! J/k....kinda.....

Anyways, someone forwarded me this the other day and I think it's hilarious. I probably wouldn't think it was hilarious if it were my kids and my stuff...but I still hope I would have at least gotten the camera out like this poor soul did.........

Nashville

So the beer festival was pretty fun. They had a lot of different breweries and a handful of our favorites. We tried a good amount of new brews but it was very tempting to go back to the ones we liked the most! After the beer festival ended, we went downtown (well, we were downtown, so we walked a block to the main area of downtown) and went into one of the tons of bars that had live music. We ended up making a good decision, because the guys that were playing/singing were really good! The one guy even busted out the banjo for a few songs....good stuff :) We met some interesting folks from Bham while we were there....now they were some talkers! ;) They also informed us that Birmingham has it's own college football bowl! We were hoping it would be earlier in December so we could go and tailgate (I'm ready to tailgate this weekend if I could!). But unfortunately it's not until December 23 and we hope to either be home by then or be coming home on that day.

Maybe Penn State will make another bowl run this year (they better!) and we can go to that instead! We actually will probably go to some UAB games. Tom went to one last year and said it was fun. Besides, they're free with your "campus card" which I now have. 31 days until Penn State Football!!!

Music City Brewers Festival

Wedding dvd

So I watched our wedding dvd last night (Thanks Jackie!) and got all sentimental. It was so fun! I got really sad though because I so thoroughly enjoyed having all of our friends and family there and there won't be anything like that again where everyone gets together all in one place! Maybe we can throw a big 5 year anniversary bash and invite everyone :) And maybe we can do it at Penn State so we can go to a bar and see Velveeta play! I just really valued having everyone together like that. Not to mention the whole thing was an absolute blast :) Ahhh, memories ;P


Tom and I are going to Nashville this weekend. We flew out of there to go to Chrissy and Bill's wedding and ate lunch downtown. We both agreed that it seemed like a cool city and we wanted to go back for a weekend. Then I found out they have this Music City Brewers Festival where they have like 35 breweries from all over the country and you pay like $25 and go in and try all the different beers all day. And they have food and bands/live music too. It's right up our alley. And I loooove microbreweries and trying different beers that I don't usually have access to. We really can't wait. It should be a blast. Hopefully we will be able to make it out Saturday night after the "beer festival" and see some good ol' country bands ;) I'll blog about it next week after we get back.

Then the following weekend we're going to Portland for Dorothy & Juan's wedding. Should be a good time, I've never been to Oregon and rarely get to see Dot & Juan (except weddings) since they moved back to the west coast! Carrie and John are coming too and we're sharing hotel rooms to save some money, so that will be a lot of fun to see them again. Then we have the rest of August off to rest up for FOOTBALL SEASON!!! :) Hope everyone has a good weekend!!

Are you ready for some football??!?!?!?

Tom and I got our PSU/Michigan tickets in the mail the other day! I'm so pumped! It's going to be a whirlwind weekend but I can't wait! Happy Valley, in October, against Michigan (grrrr!), under the lights....eeeeeeee! It's payback time! Just like it was time to payback Nebraska in '02 and Ohio State last year.......I LOVE NIGHT GAMES :D Anyone else going up for the game? Let us know!

GET READY!!!

Chinnys.....again......

Man, I feel like every other post is about our chinchilla saga. As you all know, Tiago passed away last week. Our new little guy Quito, was very active and kind of a brat while Tiago was still with him. However, after Tiago left us, Quito became very melancholy and didn't move around a whole lot. Tom read online that chinchilla's really do have personalities and you can usually tell when they are depressed. Regardless of whether that's true or not, Quito was definitely acting differently.

So Tom and I had a talk and he really wanted to get a new buddy for Quito. My main concern (see first chinchilla-related blog) was that we are going to be in this never-ending cycle of buying chinchillas after one dies, but Tom promised that if we get another one and something happens to him or Quito, that will be the end. No more chinchillas.

So I went to the pool yesterday and Tom went to the pet store to "look" at the chinchillas. There was one left in the cage and he came home with it. We think it might actually be the same one that was in the cage with Quito when we bought him, so that would be pretty cool.

Anyways, I am in love with our new little guy. He's so docile and kinda clumsy...I Love him! We think we are going to name him Chimu. It was either Chimu or Chako....the only 2 cities in South America that we liked as pet names.

So we have two chinchillas again.......*sigh* Hopefully these guys will be healthy and happy and we will have them for a long time. They sure are cute when they cuddle together :) This is how I found them when I got home from work today.......I can't tell which one is which in this picture. Quito is probably on top.

P.S. Tom took a video of them with my camera when they were taking dust baths/running around in the tub. I submitted it to Planet's Funniest Animals on Animal Planet so if you see 2 chinchillas running around in a tub-one taking a dust bath, one trying to jump out of the tub (Quito!)- that's them! :)

Apartment

Soooo, I've been meaning to post pics of the new car and apt on here since we moved in. But everything looked like a mess with all the boxes, etc and then we finally got settled and I forgot about it! (Thanks to Aunt Judy for reminding me!) Anyways, here are a few pics of the apartment and car. For more, please visit:

http://community.webshots.com/album/552366746kmCnOj

Our Saturn VUE

Living room

Kitchen

View from 3rd floor

Sad news

I'm afraid I have some very sad news to share with you all. Yesterday we came home from work, went in to say hi to the chins....and Quito was happy to see us....jumping up on the side of the cage. Actually he was probably just looking for food. But then I looked down and saw Tiago laying on the bottom of the cage. I couldn't tell if he was breathing or not. He looked like he might have been breathing a tiny bit but he really looked like he wasn't moving. I yelled for Tom and he came in to take a look. He picked him up and Tiago definitely wasn't breathing :( He was still warm though, and not stiff, so we think he must have just passed before we got home. I started looking up emergency vets online and I was going to call them but it was definitely too late :(

We did a lot of reading online last night about what could have caused his death. A lot of people who have lost chinchillas said that they often die suddenly. We're not sure exactly what happened to him, but we think it was probably a contribution of a number of things. He did have glaucoma and couldn't see, so he wasn't as active as he used to be, and it is important that chinchillas get exercise every day. Also, on Tuesday Tom noticed that he wasn't eating as much, but didn't really think anything about it (especially because Quito usually hogs the food bowl anyways).

One of the most common causes of chinchilla death is gastroenteritis. The signs and symptoms are lethargy, loss of appetite, and death. We think this may have ultimately caused his death. But we're not really sure how he got it. Quito likes to sit in the food bowl and sometimes he poops in it...so we don't know if that contaminated the food and then Tiago ate some of the food? It's possible but who knows.

We don't know if Quito had anything to do with his death or not. It's possible but it's also possible that it was just random chance. We have had Quito for almost 2 and a half weeks and apparently chinchillas die pretty quickly after they get sick...so that leads us to believe that it may have just been random and Quito might not have had anything to do with it. Regardless, Tiago had a buddy during the last few weeks of his life, so we think that made him happy. They were so cute when they snuggled up together and slept.

RIP Little T. We will miss you.