Goodbye, 2012!

2012 highlights

January– I visited my sister for a mini ski vacation.

Vail in Jan

February– Went to Rob’s cousin wedding. It was another excuse to purchase a new dress!

Wedding in Feb

March-We became Godparents!.

Godparents in March

April– Rob went to visit my sister and learned to ski, in Vail—while I stayed at home and worked.

Skiing/working in April

May– 10.5” of my hair was donated to Locks of Love and I became a “pixie”—my ballet production team performed their last time to Hoppipolla, a 4 minute ballet I choreographed, of which I’m really proud of!

Ballerinas

Hoppipolla Ballet   (I’m working on getting this video so you can see)

June– Ran a ½ marathon in Milwaukee with my buddy, Maria! Celebrated 2 years of marriage in Door County, WI. Had a great visit from some of my MI friends.

half marathon

anniversary

July– Packed up the house, danced at Jenny’s wedding, and celebrated in Chicago for Kristen’s Bachelorette party.

Party

August– We moved me and our stuff to Ithaca, NY…

moving!

September– Rob became Dr. Rob and joined me in NY and my parents visited!

Rob’s Defense!

parents visit!

October– I stood up in my friend, Kristen and Ryan’s wedding and was able to dance the night away with my sister and her surprise (to me) attendance at the wedding.

Oct. Wedding

mac and me dancing

November-Hosted our first Thanksgiving, even with a broken oven!

thanksgiving

December– Celebrated a super wonderful Christmas in the Pacific Northwest with lots of smiles.

PNW Christmas

2012 brought us many adventures of which, we were able to spend time with loved ones and create new relationships to cultivate in 2013.  We’re ready for the next 365 days to see what brings smiles our way.

Bridal Goodies.

cake!

The weekend of May 1^st my very wonderful friend Jessica threw me a beautiful wedding shower.  Between the two of us we decided a “tea party” themed shower would be fun.  Everyone could dress up and wear derby hats, because when do you ever get to wear a whimsical hat? Jessica went all out on this party with a delicious spread of quiches and brunch goodies. Jessica even had the cake look like a tea pot complete with two tea cups…

group!

It was so wonderful to have many of the important women in my life all in the same room.  My sister flew in from CO and put on a pair of  pretty shoes!

me and mac

While I enjoy being center of attention it’s really hard to sit there opening (very generous but appreciated) presents with 20some sets of eyes on me!

gifts

A few games were played. We had three troopers sporting toilet paper wedding dresses, team Lindsay and Danielle won, a close second with team Mac and Liz, and sad to say but Gail and Pam came in last place, all teams put up a good fight though!

brides

The party favors, designed by my mom, were of a tea party theme. I had such a great time seeing everyone and seeing all of Jessica’s hard work planning such a fun party, the wildlife on the wall also partook in the fun!

tea cup favors

Fancy Bear

Thank you to all my friends and family who came out that special day-I love you all but a big THANK YOU goes to Jessica, who threw a fabulous party!

Reunited!

Isn’t it wonderful when  you find out a friend from back home lives less than 2 miles from your new residence?! Well hooray for that! My friend and fellow ballerina, found me, here.  By here, I mean, this blog!  I wrote about her place of employment on my blog and it popped up on her google alerts, she contacted me, and in the past couple weeks, we’ve reunited!

reunited!!

Here we are in our hay day…we were always paired together because we are so similar in height.   Holy cow, I think this photo was taken 6 years ago.

ballerinas

I’m really looking forward to sharing more memories on this side of Lake Michigan with her!

Feeling Green.

St. Patrick’s Day was a good one this year.  I started with taking these yummy cookies into work, a shamrock, pot of gold, and a guiness. These cookies were HUGE and full of sugar.

cookies!

After work, Rob and I met up with some friends for Jameson Whiskey tasting….

Whiskey Group

and then  enjoyed a wonderful meal and green drinks at Zanders on State St. yummmy!

green drinks!

Hope you all had a great time celebrating, life’s to short not to be Irish!

Ada’s Birthday!

You see these smiles?

Me-Ada-Frances

That’s because we were celebrating with our good friend Ada as she turned another year older.  Last Wednesdays venue, Madisons Orpheum Theatre for happy hour specials, yummy carrot cake, and many many smiles.

It was so nice to see all the happy faces who love my friend, Ada on her special day!

the group

Then, because we didn’t have enough time last Wednesday to celebrate we decided to go to Fresco, atop the Museum of Contemporary Art for late night happy hour specials starting at 10.

Frances-Ada-Me

I’m so glad we were able to celebrate twice for a twice as nice, Ada!

A Vaily Good Time!

After spending 34 hours in the car and a whole week on vacation with Robbie I can officially say I’m not sick of him! Good thing since I decided to marry him!! I was sad on Monday morning when I realized I didn’t get to spend the whole day with him and had to return to work.

Rob and Me skiing

Robbie and I skied a few days at Vail.  Only about 28% of the Mountain was open due to lack of the fluffy white stuff, which seems like it’s not that much but we didn’t even ski all of the 28%; it’s that big!  One of the afternoons Mac was able to meet up with us and take a few runs, It was easy to spot which way she went in her green jacket and red snow pants!

Mac and Me at the top of the Gondola

MacKenzie works at a really fancy/expensive seafood restaurant called Montauk where we visited her at the bar and had really yummy lobster macaroni and martinis.  The wait staff was really confused when they saw me sitting there and then saw Mac bopping around.  Some of them caught on that we were twins….I heard a “there is a girl that looks JUST like Mac at the bar!” a few times.

Me and Mac and Montauk

Karrisa and Rob at Montauk

The  hockey team Mac and Karrisa play for had a friends and family night since everyone’s family was in town for the holidays so Rob was able to play with everyone and I sat in the stands with Meiko.  I believe Rob was the only one WITHOUT full pads, he had some under his Redwings shirt but I bet he would’ve like to have had butt pads, too! Here’s Rob trying to score a goal on Mac…

Rob in Red, Mac in Yellow--blocking the goal

Meiko's watching the game

Four of our meals we ate at Moe’s in Lionshead at Vail.  They have amazing pulled pork sandwiches, banana pudding, and macaroni! For only $9 you get the sandwich, your choice of 2 sides, and a drink—for anyone that’s been to Vail, that’s a STEAL! Everything is overpriced in Vail, so overpriced the gas stations don’t even put the prices up on their displays.  I guess that’s the price you pay for living in paradise.

us at Moe's!

Going on vacation with Meiko was a real treat! It was so nice to come back from skiing and be tackled by her kisses and love.  She was such a good traveler, sleeping 16.75 of the 17 hours there, and 17 of the 17 hours back! I think Meiko had a great vacation too; she was spoiled with love and got a few special presents from her GrandPawents; A snuggie and some very durable squeaky toys!

meiko in her snuggie

Robbie got some really great shoes, and I got the best present ever….spending time with Rob, Mac Karrisa, and Meiko.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’ll get made fun of because it’s really not that funny… I had a VAILY good time –get it? Vaily instead of very… I know, I know.

sorry for the poor quality photos, I neeeeeeeeed more than just my iphone camera.

work work.

Since I spend, like many of you,  40 plus hours at my work desk.   I think it’s important to have a little “personailty” at your desk.  When I first started here I only had the photo of  Rob and I up.  Over the past 8 months I’ve accumulated a few extra details.

desk items

The pine box, I mosaiced with a colorful plate I smased up, and  grouted with a sand color.  It holds my handwarmers, bobbypins, chapstick, and headphones.  Then I have a pretty little paper note holder.  I’m not a huge fan of sticky notes.   Then there is my beautiful coaster from Anthropologie.  I gave my mom 3 for her garden house and i kept 5 for my apartment and at work.  It’s made with little beads, and adds a little elegance to my desk, I think anyway.

I left out my PC at work  in the photo but it sits up above my little treasures, …I’m an Apple girl :) at home.

*****UPDATE*****

I got a cute card today from my new friend, Katie! It will be a new addition to my desk, I’m a sucker for anything Meiko!

boston terrier love.

The little stuffed animal is a boston terrier. Its from a happy meal when the movie Hotel for Dogs came out.  I put a name tag on it and Meiko is always sitting with me….you can call it lame, but I think it’s cute.

Smile!

On Thursday, my family and Robbie are headed out west, to Colorado.  Our agenda? Ski, sleep, eat, relax, and enjoy the holiday season with friends and family.  I’m sure a little Guitar Hero will be played, too.  All of which make me one happy girl!  I hear the snow is happy we’re coming, it’s got a smile on.

 

happy snow

Ultimate!!

Our friend Dan plays for Madison’s elite ultimate frisbee team, the Madison Clubs. Normally, they travel around the country every weekend, but this weekend they were in Milwaukee! Me and 9 others made the drive to watch the Clubs dive, throw, and run around yesterday. The Clubs are ranked 3rd in the country and they sure deserved to be #1 from what I saw.

ultimate...fans!

I had the fan t-shirts made at a little local screen printer, boy oh boy did we look official!

Meiko is a fan, too!

It sure is hard to take a good action shot, with an iphone, please forgive me!

they men playing.