the gamer's wife

(no subject)

2011-02-23T15:50:00.003-05:00

In case you haven't noticed I am taking an indefinite break from blogging.

I've been staring at the cursor blinking for way too long in an attempt to explain more than that, but that's all I can come up with to say for now, and I'm sorry.

a note from the gamer himself!

2011-01-20T09:58:00.003-05:00

Yeah, yeah. I need to get back on here. I've got lots of photos to post from December and Christmas, and my thoughts on how it is now that the gamer is in clinicals and all and I am suddenly living the SINGLE LIFE all alone in our house while he's away, but I'll get to that later.

Because today I am going to address something that I receive the most emails and comments on and it all relates to this question:

what do you do if your husband isn't like your gamer? what if he plays games all the time and doesn't pay attention to me/our kids/our family?

And I'm about to be brutally honest. GET RID OF HIM.

At some point gaming can become an addiction. Gaming for ten hours a day in unacceptable, but can be forgivable in certain circumstances. But gaming that gets in the way of your personal and family responsibilities is just wrong.

Gaming should never prevent someone from being a contributing member to society. Gaming shouldn't prevent you from going to work on a daily basis. Gaming shouldn't prevent you from spending time with your family. Gaming should NEVER get in the way of you leading a normal life. A normal life with jobs, chores, responsibilities, and family time.

And if gaming has gotten in the way of all that, and despite discussions to change the behavior, if the gamer continues to lead this lifestyle, not try to receive help for this type of addiction - then get rid of him.

I'm sorry if that is too honest. I'm sorry if that hurts other gamer's wives out there who have become gamer widows since their husbands play too much. But it is honestly what I believe. You all know my background - you know that I am certified counselor and have my Master's degree in counseling and development. I am ALL for working things out - discussing - making things work - changing behaviors. But if none of that has helped, and you've even tried counseling, and still the gamer is unwilling to change then I am ALL FOR you helping yourself AND your family in this situation and simply get out of it.

I received the following anonymous comment the other day, and this is why I am all fired up about this topic:

"Happy to hear your husbands are not gaming 24/7 like mine does when home from camp. We have talked many times about it but never any change maybe for a day or two but then he's back at it. I feel I have raised our kids on my own and did not choose to marry a gamer. He got into it 10 yrs after us being together and I have now been pretty much alone for the last 10 yrs. He works and games and that's about it but I'm happy to hear that all gamers are not like that. Just found out that not only does gaming take all his time but also alot of our $ he has a paypal account and has to pay for characters, game time... Made a $300.00 purchase for something on his game just a couple weeks ago while we have outstanding bills. Just wonder if you would still be supportive if this is what was happening with your husband?"

This is the situation I am talking about when I say to leave. A situation that has been going on for years - a situation that is hurting the gamer, the gamer's wife and the gamer's family. I was so upset by hearing yet another situation where games were ruining a family that I did something I have never done before. I asked the gamer himself to respond and this is what he said:

"I wouldn't expect you to be supportive. Especially if he started gaming after they got married. There's absolutely no reason why she should have to raise their family on her own, and the fact that he's buying stuff for games when they have outstanding bills. I mean yeah, we buy games and stuff and we have debt, but it's not like we're really struggling just to put food on the table, and I'm buying an xbox instead or something. One person shouldn't be allowed to do what makes them happy all the time, if it means that the other doesn't really ever get to do what makes them happy because they're taking care of the kids and working around the house, etc. When a gamer stops contributing to a family that's when there's a real problem."

Yes, the gamer is pretty brief, but I think his point is clear - At some point you have to stop being supportive of a gamer's addiction if it is risking the happiness of the family.

I'm sorry for being harsh. But it's important to note that having a gamer husband isn't all butterflies and rainbows. My blog is designed to show that side - the light and funny side of having a husband who games. But my husband has NEVER NEGLECTED me, and I am absolutely certain when we have children one day that he would NEVER NEGLECT them to play games. And he knows for a fact that if he did I'd kick his ass out the door.

This post was a quick, unedited response to something that bothered me in the moment. It is not intended to be used as professional counseling advice, and it is important to note that every family situation is different and needs to be attended to uniquely. If you feel like you are in tough situation at home and have not been successful at negotiating on your own, please seek help from a professional counselor in your community!

merry christmas!

2010-12-25T06:00:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas from the gamer and his wife! :)

Ohhh yes, those are tacky Christmas sweaters! With snowflakes, cats in stockings, and even little fishes! We totally rocked that party :-P

Hope you are enjoying your holiday!

36% of my life

2010-12-22T06:00:00.000-05:00

Today is mine and the gamer's nine year anniversary. Nine years! Nine years! It's unbelievable to me that we have spent this long together. In fact, I have now been with the gamer for over one third of my life...thirty-six percent, exactly!

Since we have been married the gamer and I have continued to celebrate our dating anniversary...Others might think it is silly, but we like to remember this day because it is important in our history as a couple. Although we've significantly toned down our celebrating - no gifts or surprises - we still like to have a special day right before the holidays where we remember us.

Yep, that us.

We went out the other night to celebrate our anniversary and the fact that the gamer finished his first year in PT school! I didn't mind sharing the celebration because it meant we had a really special (and expensive!) dinner and I am so proud that my husband has survived his first year! And that I have a survived my first year as a med school wife! It's hard stuff.

On our anniversary tomorrow we are actually breaking from tradition a little bit and spending it with another couple - my brother and his girlfriend. And we are going...SNOWTUBING!

I have never been before, but I'm sure it will bring out the best in my personality - klutziness and crankiness. Haha :)

And even though he never, ever reads my blog (shocking, I know!)...Happy Anniversary Chris - KISSES!

a blizzard and a win

2010-12-15T06:00:00.000-05:00

When we bought our playoff football tickets for December 4th I figured it was going to be a cold game. But I was excited to cheer on App for a third time this season, and I'd lived in Boone for a few years and dealt with cold games, so I figured we'd be fine going to a December game.

Fine?

Wrong.

The first day I could see the 10 day forecast and see Saturday it said it was going to be cold. A few days later it looked like it was going to be bitter cold. And then with the game just a few days away they started talking about snow.

But it was forecasted for later in the afternoon, and with our game starting at 12 I figured we'd probably miss most of it. The day before the game it looked like it was going to be a freezing game, and it said it was going to definitely snow, but I didn't really look into it. Big mistake. I should have read the snow reports. I SHOULD HAVE READ THE SNOW REPORTS.

Because it snowed. And it snowed good. There were several inches already on the ground when we arrived in Boone and the snow never let up. In fact, it snowed for five days straight. What's crazier is that it snowed back home a few hours to the east where A) it never snows, B) when it does snow it never happens this early and C) it never snows without a whole bunch of hype before it happens! So I guess maybe the whole state was just as surprised with this snow storm as I was.

So naturally we were unprepared for the winter weather. Not only did we not have boots on but the gamer didn't even have on a water repellent COAT! For all the snow gear we accumulated living in the mountains you would think we would have been prepared for a snowy football game, but we absolutely were not!

Upon arrival, this is the parking lot...covered in snow. Yeah, not cool.

Before the game started we said hello to the gamer's old apartment.

And then trudged our way to the stadium..

And then stood in the blizzard waiting for the game to start!

I was SHOCKED when we walked into the stadium and I saw snow on the field. I mean, I know I should have expected it but in all my time going to Boone games I have never seen a snowy field!

It was unbelievably cold, and I just couldn't believe the guys were about to play a game!

My sneakers were definitely not happy standing in the snow..

We saw a lot of dropped passes during the pre-game warm up. Things didn't look good..

And during the game it didn't help that the snow would be so heavy you could hardly see!

I mean, look at that snow! It was crazy!

I was wearing tights under my jeans, a hoodie, snow coat, toboggan, mittens, and scarf and was still freezing. I don't know how I ever survived living in Boone in the winters, because I am a big baby about being cold now!

Halfway through the game I relented and bought extra socks - BEST TEN DOLLARS I EVER SPENT! - and put those on along with toe warmers in my wet shoes, and hand warmers for my mittens. I was pretty good for a little while at least!

And then they had to come out and PLOW THE FIELD.

Yes, freaking snow plows had to come out and remove snow off the field.

I knew then that my time at the game was done. I had shown my dedication. I was frozen. We were winning by a LOT (thank goodness!) and it was time to leave!

And then it took us over an hour to get down the mountain because it looked like this:

Scary! No visibility at all and no median made it for a very anxious drive down. But once we were down I was shocked to see that the snow had continued...and continued all the way until we got home several hours later.

But it sure made for a pretty backyard view! I have a slight cold now which I blame on being out in the blizzard, but YAY for App making it to the next round in the playoffs! :)

december fourteenth

2010-12-14T06:00:00.000-05:00

On December 14th nine years ago, the gamer and I, as just friends, went out to celebrate that he he had gotten into ASU for college. We went to the Olive Garden where we ordered two Black Tie Mousse cakes (the reason we later had this as our wedding cake), and although I can't recall the conversation we had, I remember sitting in that booth at the restaurant and can visualize exactly how he looked. I've grown out of the sweater I wore that night, but it sits in the first spot in my closet as a memory of the day the rest of my life started, and I honestly don't think I'll ever give it away.

A week later the gamer asked me out officially and next week on December 22nd we will celebrate our nine year anniversary. When we got engaged five years ago we couldn't afford engagement photos, so back in November on a beautiful fall day the gamer had a professional photographer take pictures of us as an early anniversary present. Sometimes he's sweet like that :) We have a million photos but here are some of my favorites. Enjoy.

Photography Credit: Ryan Mason Photography (www.ryanmason.com)

who by the way is awesome and I am secretly in love with him :-P

another year, another black FRIDAY

2010-12-13T06:00:00.000-05:00

Still backlogged on recaps! But Black Friday was only two weeks ago so that's not too bad! I'm almost caught up :)

Every year for as long as I can remember I have participated in Black Friday. Surprisingly, I didn't even really know it was considered a bad day to shop until a few years ago. Almost every year the day after Thanksgiving my mom and I would go shopping. In the early years we simply went out to shop for items we wanted to get for Christmas gifts. We didn't look at the ads ahead of time, weren't really interested in any deals, but we still shopped til we dropped. I have vivid memories of being exhausted on lots of Black Fridays - and I swear, Black Friday exhaustion pretty much beats out any other form of being tired!

A few years ago we really started to get in the swing of Black Friday shopping. We got the fliers, started cutting out deals, and making lists of stores and what items to buy. We had a carefully mapped out plan of what stores to go to in which order, and became pretty efficient with getting into and out of stores quickly with everything we needed.

But until this year we had participated in a leisurely Black Friday, meaning we got up and to the stores around 8am. We had never experienced the rush of being at a store when it opened because we never felt the need to!

SO this year we did it. Out of the house by 3:30am. In my purse was a list of every store we'd be going to, the items we wanted to get, cut-outs of the items we'd seen in the ads with the store names written on them, COUPONS and granola bars and almonds. Because we knew we'd need sustenance!

We arrived at Target at 3:45. I could not BELIEVE the line that was ahead of us.

And the line quickly formed behind us...

There had to be over a thousand people in line in front of us. Naturally when we made it into the store it was chaos and there were no carts! My mom immediately got into the electronics line and I made a beeline for all of the things on our list. It was like I was in a shopping relay - I'd run to get a few things, run back to my mom, load her down the stuff, and then she'd send me out again. Eventually I was able to obtain a cart and I sure wish I had gotten a picture of all the stuff we bought! But I was in the zone of deal buying and there was no time for photography!

Eventually we made it out of Target and it was STILL DARK OUTSIDE. We did Best Buy, Bed Bath and Beyond, Michael's, Gamestop, Belk, JCPenney, Victoria's Secret, and Bath and Body Works before we declared it was time for lunch at Olive Garden :) Then we did a quick trip to the outlet mall and we were done!

The picture really doesn't do it justice because there was SO MUCH stuff and SO MUCH money spent! Seriously, my arms hurt the next day from holding it all :)

Bit had a blast jumping in all the bags!

Here she is being a model :)

It was exhausting but a whole lot of fun! My mom and I are very efficient shoppers and we are a good team when we go out. We also have a very specific process of record keeping when it comes to Christmas shopping that I learned from my Mom. Upon returning home from shopping we go over every receipt and start a list for every person we are shopping for - we list the items and the costs, and that way it is easy to tally up how much is spent so we aren't looking at our bank accounts wondering how we spent a thousand dollars. We know EXACTLY how it happened :-P

One last photo to leave you with...Bit attacked a big plastic bag we used to wrap up our mini Christmas tree. We heard a bunch of commotion with her getting in the bag...and then...complete SILENCE. It was like she was on the prowl. Look at that face! And those eyes!

today

2010-12-10T06:00:00.001-05:00

Today my baby bro gets leave! He is switching bases from Twentynine Palms to Camp Pendleton in San Diego and they are giving him a month to do it! It is the perfect timing that he will be home for the holidays! :)

I was pretty bummed that he wasn't here last year for Christmas. We couldn't take our annual photo together, which felt weird..

My brother and I never, ever got along. We pretty much faught until the day he left for boot camp. But now that he's a Marine and has grown up some we seem to be friends! I'm thankful for that.

So today he arrives home and I am driving to Winston to see him and do about a bajillion other things with my momma. But first I have to DRIVE HOME. Yes, I have to drive. On the highway. By myself.

By myself! ALONE. On the highway. ON THE HIGHWAY. I have to merge into traffic and switch lanes and drive for an hour. ON MY OWN.

I am little nervous about it all in case you can't tell! Unfortunately the gamer has finals next week so he has to stay home to study which means I have to make this trip myself. I mean, my dad could easily come and get me like he has done countless times, but it's really time for me to put on my big-girl pants and start acting like a grown-up. I can do this!

Besides seeing my brother my mom and I have made a list of no less than one thousand and one things to do this weekend. I am not even joking.

So far I have wrapped about 1/20 of the gifts we bought. Since Black Friday my mom has just been throwing everything into my old room at home for us to wrap when I get there. I have a feeling that room looks like a warzone. This is going to be a busy weekend!

and then i rode an elephant

2010-12-09T06:00:00.000-05:00

We didn't make it to the Renaissance Festival either last year on account of our new kitten, so this year the gamer and I were determined to go! I told you our fall season was packed - vacations, football games, and other day trips really kept us busy!

And I actually drove us down to Charlotte to go! A big accomplishment. Well it seemed like a big accomplishment until the gamer convinced me to ride an elephant. But more on that later :-P

First we stopped in to see Mother and Father Goose!

Isn't his hair cute? He was a pretty snappy duck though. Not nice at all!

And then I was convinced to hold a goose!

It was actually pretty neat. She was very mild mannered, and she had on a diaper like thing (looks like a pink dress!) so I didn't have to worry about getting pooped on. Pretty neat, and definitely not something I would normally do!

The gamer double-fisting a turkey leg and corn.

Me double-fisting...pickles! Haha.

I even stood next to a tree man.

But the biggest accomplishment of the day was riding this:

See us on the back?!

The gamer just up and said - I want to ride an elephant, and I was like...ummm...ok?

It was actually pretty cool :) Not something I ever thought I'd do!

My dad swears I rode an elephant at this exact festival when I was little, but I don't remember it, nor do we have a picture of it, so I beg to differ :-P

Overall, pretty nice day at the festival! :)

another year, another Black Saturday

2010-12-08T06:00:00.000-05:00

You all know my obsession with Black Saturday. I'd hope so. I have not missed this annual special Appalachian game since I started going to App - and since we have left I have always purchased my Black Saturday tickets the morning tickets become available. Every year. Every year. But this year...we decided to forgo going to the game. We thought going up with the opposing football team play App would be enough of a Boone trip for us. But it wasn't. And so the night we got back, I got online and purchased some of the last seats available to the Black Saturday game. Okay, they weren't seats. Grass spots. GRASS SPOTS. But at least we were going to the game and not breaking our yearly tradition!

Black Saturday versus Georgia Southern, October 2003.
Ok, so this picture probably isn't from that game, but we were in the marching band that year and I can't really distinguish between games that far back. Plus it's an oldie (= definitely not from a digital camera)! Either way, that's how we looked at Black Saturday that year :-P

Black Saturday versus Furman, October 2004.
I actually rocked the pink at this game and revolted against the black. I went through a phase where I didn't show school spirit at the games. I'm better now.

Black Saturday versus Georgia Southern, October 2005.
Yeah, yeah, I don't see the black again either. In all honesty I can't assure you that any of these pictures so far actually took place at the Black Saturday game. But I do know it came from football season, fall of 2005. That's good enough.

Here we are at Black Saturday versus Furman, October 2006.
Ok, two things. I PROMISE this picture was taken at Black Saturday, and I promise I had black on, but I was not expecting it to be that cold that day! Out came the pink :)

Black Saturday versus Georgia Southern, October 2007.
(AKA the game we do not speak of in the B1-B2 household...hmm, which I guess it's just a B2 household now! Sadness.).I managed to keep the black on the whole game (it was unseasonably warm), but we lost our first home game in YEARS. Maybe pink is the lucky color??

Black Saturday versus Furman, October 2008.

We got to the stadium two hours early for this game just to be on the fifty yard line. We needed a win after the last year, and that's exactly what we got.

Black Saturday versus Georgia Southern, October 2009.

My only comment - we won!

Black Saturday versus Furman, October 2010.

We won!

Eight years of Black Saturdays and what can we say from them?

Gee, the gamer's wife's hair style changes quite a lot! :-P

i dont wanna leave!

2010-12-07T06:00:00.003-05:00

The gamer and I have been together for nine years, but it's actually rare that we have had a weekend away together. We spend a lot of our weekends and vacations with our families, so even though it seems that we travel a lot it (and we do!) we actually hardly ever travel alone just the two of us.

In fact, besides our honeymoon and our trip to Cancun last year we haven't had any vacations where it's been just us. So it really felt special that we were able to go away to the mountains and just be us together. We had a really nice time and I definitely didn't want to leave!

Everything was just so pretty everywhere we went!

On our last day we took a whole bunch of pictures like this of us while we waited in a two hour line for...breakfast!

But it was sooooooo worth it. We had a seat on the patio lining the street - the absolute perfect end to our vacation!

The gamer had the HUGEST pancakes I have ever seen. They were sweet potato pancakes and I swear they were the best pancakes ever! I think we maybe ate half of them.

The end of that meal ended our vacation time and a whole couple of days of awesome eating. We ate so many great meals on this trip (surprise! I didn't really talk much about them - I really do need to just start a blog all about me and eating, haha!) and by the end the gamer and I were absolutely STUFFED. We didn't want to talk about food or plan any upcoming meals. I am pretty sure we came home and ate salads the whole next week :-P But all the trip food was great, and I can't wait to return and do it all over again!

We took one final stroll around downtown Asheville..

And then I saw this.

Do you see my baby? It was like Bit was calling out to me - "Mama! Come home!" and so we hopped in the car and did just that. :)

mountain time

2010-12-06T06:00:00.000-05:00

After a day of boozing it up on a brews cruise, how do you think you should spend your time? Relaxing? Lying around? Why not go for a HIKE? Suuurrrrrrre.

Driving in the mountains was really beautiful..Lots of twists and turns though! It was funny to watch the screen on the GPS and see all the zigzags!

We went hiking at Chimney Rock which was a first for the both of us. It was the perfect day for a hike - cool in the shade and warm in the sunlight.

We had been surrounding by fall colors down in Asheville so it was quite a surprise to see that everything looked so green once we got up the mountain!

But the view was pretty amazing!

This is the "chimney" that Chimney Rock state park is named after...I don't really see it looking like a chimney, but whatever :-P

We hiked to the top of that which was actually kind of challenging! There were a lot of stairs involved to finally get here:

The gamer is never seems afraid of anything so it ALWAYS surprises me when I remember he isn't quite the biggest fan of heights. He didn't like sitting on the edge with me!

Not quite as high as Boone!

That's the Chimney where we sitting before - there was quite a lot of people sitting on the rock. Then we were able to hike a lot further up and look down on that which was pretty neat! There was actually going to be a wedding on the rock later in the afternoon!

The is the Devil's Head. I think..or something to that nature - it does actually look like that to me!

Yes, we are supporting App quite proudly :)

More views..

This was the Opera Seat or something like that (see? this is why I need to recap sooner! I am forgetting the names!) it was like a little carved out area in the rock that you could sit in.

We are so married. So matchy, matchy!

And then we had to hike all the way down the mountain, which I ALWAYS feel is harder than going up! I just don't like the feeling of downward momentum at all! Too hard on the knees :)

After that day we literally collapsed on the bed and napped for the longest time. The best way to spend a vacation day :)

brews cruise

2010-12-03T06:00:00.000-05:00

I am waaaaay behind on my recapping. Here we are in December, and I am just now getting to a post about the middle of October. Ah well, here it is anyways. Happy Fall, and Merry Christmas :-P

Mid October every year is what most people who work in colleges, and what most college students look forward to from the first day of the semester - fall break.

Let's just make it to midterms - then we have fall break, then Thanksgiving, and then before you know it - bam, it's finals. And by fall break I'm in desperate need of a day off, so I appreciate that aspect as well :)

I've been working in the college setting for a few years now and have enjoyed getting to have a little break in mid-October, but the gamer was either at a different school with a different fall break or he was working so we were never able to coordinate our time off together.

Last year we had an entire weekend planned to go to Dollywood and Pigeon Forge. And then this happened the week before:

Yep, this little baby came into our lives.

And at only a few weeks old we couldn't leave her for the weekend so we had to cancel our trip.

This year though she was old enough to be left behind and we decided to take a fall trip to Asheville, a place we are considering moving to when the gamer is done with school. And I surprised him and told him we were going on a...

Brews Cruise!

What's that? Well it's a brewery tour where they drive you from place to place so you don't have to worry about being sober enough from all the samples you are going to try! Quite a neat concept, and Asheville is known for its breweries, and the gamer loves beer, so I thought it would be a cool thing to do! I didn't even like beer but I figured we do a lot of things for me, so the gamer deserved an event that he would enjoy!

But first, when we arrived in Asheville we had to go to 12 Bones - a restaurant that President Obama had eaten at during his visit last spring!

The food was sooooo good. As obvious from my plate!

We were able to walk around downtown for a bit..

And then headed to our meeting spot to meet the rest of the tour! Of course we had to have some tour pre-drinks, like we needed them!

They laughed at me for drinking a martini before a BEER tour!

But I knew I'd be drinking enough beer soon enough!

This was the view from inside our tour van :-P

The brewery tour and guide were so informational! We learned a lot about the whole brewing process, and touring the facilities and seeing how it happened was really cool.

Lots of stainless steel..

And then surprises of all surprises came when we learned that the gamer's wife actually LIKES beer! It was a pretty big shocker to us both. Apparently the only beers I've ever had were crappy ones, watered down and cheap nasty ones in college, and it was no wonder I didn't like how they tasted based on what I learned from the brewer. But apparently I actually do like craft beers - ones that are made by small breweries that actually care about the taste. Which really isn't a wonder, that me - Mrs. High Maintenance and Lover of the Finer Things in Life would like these kind of beers since they are obviously more money :-P

They gave out a ton of samples and I felt a little sick for a moment, and this was during our first tour! But I quickly rebounded. The gamer was always fine!

More touring..

Then laughing..

Two breweries later and we ended up at Asheville Pizza and Brewing - and I definitely was ready to eat, but still was able to drink a lot more beer too!

We had a blast!

Look at all my beers - I couldn't tell you how many of these little glasses I had throughout the day. Too many to count, but they were spread throughout pretty well in the tour so you didn't get "can't remember" drunk.

I would definitely recommend going on a Brews Cruise if you are in Asheville or another city that does tours like this! We had a great time and it was a great beginning to our weekend away :)

i've got the keys

2010-12-02T12:03:00.005-05:00

Sorry to leave you hanging! We are in the final two weeks of the semester so things are a bit crazy at work. In fact, I just had my very last advising meeting of the YEAR. Wow, it's crazy to think that - the last twelve months have just flown by! Even more so, this semester has just been crazy fast, and I can't believe all my kids are about to take their finals! Keep your fingers crossed that they do well :)

So anyways, in case you haven't heard yet I have some big news to share! Remember this post? If not, go read about that first. You ready for it?

I AM A LICENSED DRIVER!

And yes, it is a pretty big deal around here. Just a small recap here - but I haven't had my license since I was sixteen like most people. In fact, I never really drove at ALL for the last ten years. But the gamer is moving out in January and leaving me for TWO MONTHS (more on that later - it will actually be six months in total next year) so I needed to learn to drive and get my license pronto.

I've been using my permit with the gamer in the car the past few months - not often, but enough to get me more comfortable in the car. And surprisingly I was. I was very, very anxious at first. I think more than anything I just had huge anxiety about being in the driver's seat and that was inhibiting me from driving in the first place.

But I was super freaked about having to go in for the driving test. I practiced backing up and doing three-point-turns and reading the driver's handbook cover to cover. I was totally prepared, which is totally in character for me, and everyone laughed at me for it!

But then last Monday came - the day predetermined that I would take the test - and I walked my twenty-five year old self into the DMV and told them I wanted to get my license.

And they did not laugh at me! In fact, the instructor said that he sees people my age all the time coming for their license for the first time! Unbelievable. I really wanted to be like, "Really? Show me. I have never met anyone else!"

So we went out to the car, and I was super nervous, but the test lasted seriously no longer than ten minutes and before I knew it I had passed!

And I have been driving ever since!

It is seriously unreal to be able to drive myself to and from work. To be able to do whatever I want to do, whenever I want to do it. To be able to meet people when I want, and not have to worry about seeing if someone can pick me up or drop me off.

It is freedom people! Freedom.

And it feels pretty awesome. In fact, I no longer have anxiety about driving! I am not a very good parker, but other than that I am totally comfortable in the car now. I'd still prefer not to drive, but when I want to go somewhere or have some place to be it is no longer an issue on me getting there!

I feel like such a grown up.

So in a matter of days we went from a one-car, one-driver family to a two-car, two-driver family! It was pretty fun to go to the dealer and pick a car off the lot for the gamer. He now has a shiny new Honda Civic and I was handed down the Nissan Sentra.
That's us the day we bought that car four years ago - and now it's MINE. I have my own car! I also still own that coat, jeans and purse. It's sad, but I have a hard time parting with things :-P

So that's my news - pretty silly to most people, but a big giant deal for me :-D

no cash, only receipts

2010-11-29T11:33:00.003-05:00

I am in desperate need of sitting down and finishing all my recapping! I still have quite a few travels to recap, and then we've got the events of last week! Basically I haven't been writing because I've been eating, SHOPPING, and doing one other thing that most people my age have been doing for the last ten years...

Do you know what it is?

I'll share the news soon!

a brief paws :-P

2010-11-19T06:00:00.000-05:00

Actually, I'm going to paws (hahaha) the recapping for the weekend and just post a picture of my family :)

We couldn't believe how cute Bit looked after we took this. It's like she is really looking at the camera! And look at her paws wrapped around me!! :)

quite a predicament

2010-11-18T06:00:00.000-05:00

Remember last year when I talked about how odd is to work at a school that is big rivals with the school I went to college at? Well it was an even bigger predicament this football season since I was traveling with the football team to go watch them play my old school!

I had never traveled with the football team before so I was really pretty excited to see how it all happened, but I knew it would be super awkward to be wearing maroon to a stadium that I've always worn black and gold in. Still, I wanted to support my guys, so I a packed up my maroon, told the gamer he was forbidden from wearing black or gold either, and we headed out on our road trip.

Actually, the gamer was quite nice and wore maroon on the bus. It was nice to be able to enjoy the drive to Boone (oh please, it's not like you don't know what school I work for and which one we were going to, or figure it easily if you didnt!) for once without having to worry about the traffic. We got to watch movies and listen to music and nap - it was a nice ride!

Friday night when we arrived the guys did a run through of the stadium and it was SO COOL to be able to walk inside with no one there!

Before App got big they used to not really have any gates around the stadium. The summer before I started there I did a leadership program and a few of us went out to the field and lied down right in the middle of the 50 yard line. I don't have any photos of us doing that, but it was absolutely one of my favorite memories of college because it's absolutely impossible to be able to do that now!

We had dinner with the team, and then the next morning did the pre-game meal with the team before getting on the bus and heading back to the stadium. While the guys were in pre-game meetings we decided to sneak away and see some of our friends - I mean, it was homecoming after all! I had to explain over and over again to people why I was wearing the wrong color!

Here's me and one of my besties from college!

We had to rush back to the stadium to see the guys take the field for warm-ups.

We had sideline passes too.....

but at the last minute decided we didn't want to stand the entire time, and went to see some of our other favorite guys take the field..

And then we sat amongst the masses. The gamer was wearing maroon up until this point. And then he bought a shirt so that he could show his App pride. How funny!

Since we were amongst all App fans and I was wearing the wrong color it made it a little difficult to figure out how to cheer.

If I cheered for maroon then I'd get booed, but if I cheered for black and gold I'd look stupid :-P

The stadium was PACKED. Over 30,000 in attendance. It's sad because the school I work for only gets around 5,000 for most of our games. They just don't have the football culture that App has and that's why I love going back all the time!

Look at all those people!

Before the end of the game the gamer took of his App shirt and I stuffed it under my coat, and we headed back to the maroon sideline. No one even noticed we were gone! It was nice getting to see my guys and I really would have been happy to see them win, but of course App beat them :-P It didn't make for the best bus ride home. Sad football guys after a big loss = not fun.

I did secretly support the black and gold though. I had this little guy tatooed on my hip and showed a lot of my App friends while we were tailgating so let them know I still had black and gold in my heart!

Black and gold might be my school, but the maroon guys are MY KIDS. And I love them. And I hate to see them lose. I really did enjoy getting to be a part of a football travel weekend and see them play. I don't know any of the App guys personally but I know my kids and I really do cheer for them and want them to succeed. Some people don't believe me but I think you can truly support two different teams, even though they are rivals. I came out a winner and a loser that day, and it's such a unique situation.

Originally the gamer and I had only planned to attend this one game at App, but after going up there with the team we decided we didn't get to truly have a black and gold experience. So that night we bought tickets to the Black Saturday game two weeks later. But first, we went to Asheville. And drank a LOT OF BEER. That's next :-P

stuffing my face

2010-11-17T06:00:00.000-05:00

Like I said yesterday every trip to NY is about food for me. I live for those few trips a year when I can eat good northern food. Surprisingly this trip went by so quickly that I didn't really get a chance to visit any of my favorite places to eat, although I did manage to get in Italian, eat a bagel, and visit my favorite bakery for a dot sprinkle cookie, so I would say it was a success.

The true highlight of of the weekend was the wedding food. In all the weddings I've been to in the south the food has always been so-so. Nothing to rave about. I've had some good things here and there, but overall food has been a major disappointment at weddings. When the gamer and I were planning our own wedding I just kept getting more and more angry at the cost food was going to be at our reception, and I wasn't even excited about that food. That was a major factor in us throwing in the towel and going to Vegas. We had a small enough wedding then that we could get exactly the food we wanted for our reception. We loved PF Changs and the Cheesecake Factory so that's what we had. And it was soooo good.

Valerie's dad - my uncle - is a chef, so I expected that the food would be pretty good at the wedding, but I still wasn't hoping for anything spectacular. Instead I was blown away! Champagne before the ceremony even started should have tipped me off that it was going to be good!

We walked into the cocktail hour to find an open bar, tons of food stations and a martini bar! Everyone kept saying that there was enough food to count as dinner! I couldn't believe that we were going to sit down to a real dinner after all of the food options they had. Plus they even had passed hor d'ourves! My favorite was the slider station.

I could have eaten several of these - they were SO good.

Annnnnnd then we became friends with the bartender. She created a drink for us, which she called a sweet tart martini. I must have asked her ten times what was in it, and she told drunk me the recipe every time. Sadly, I have no idea. Go figure :-P

They were awwwwwesome though. Except for the effects you couldn't even tell it had alcohol in it. Even my mom who doesn't really like liquor loved these drinks!

We all had several of those drinks and then we were escorted into the main dining room for the real dinner. Martini in hand and wine on the table. Woo hoo! First course was a ravioli dish. I LOVE RAVIOLI! Seriously, I was stuffed already from the cocktail hour, and the first course itself was an entire dinner!

Then I started getting gummi martinis. I seriously was like a child. A gummi worm in a drink?! YES PLEASE!

Then the real event. FILET MIGNON. And it was enormous and soooo good. If I hadn't eaten so much already I probably would have finished this, and I'm sad I didn't really get to enjoy it!

And then we had cake. Hmm..where's the picture? This is about the time I started double fisting martinis from the bar and dancing like a freak on boxes with neon glow necklaces on my head. But the cake was good. But the DESSERT BAR was even better!!!!

Seriously, they had an ENTIRE spread of desserts along with the wedding cake. Name a dessert. It was there. Tons of different kinds of cakes and other goodies. None of which I ate. Because I hightailed it straight to the ICECREAM BAR. That's right. I got to make my own icecream in a MARTINI GLASS.

Seriously. Best dessert idea. EVER.

And it was sooooooo good. And yes, I continued to eat gummi worms then too :-P

Oh the silliness.

After that I had a couple more real martinis and then danced the night away. It was pretty awesome. The next day I even woke up headache free! It amazes me sometimes that I never get hangovers and I've never once thrown up from alcohol. Tonight would have been the night since I was eating sooo much too!

Sadly this was my only view of the city as we were leaving for the airport the next morning!

Hilariously I had my glow necklaces on and a blinking glow bracelet when we got to the airport. I hadn't showered and looked exhausted so I'm pretty sure when I walked through security that they thought I had just been to a rave. Makes sense in NYC I suppose. Anyways, I definitely got pulled to the side and they swabbed my hands and checked me out. Haha. I guess I deserved it for looking like that!

And then I got home and didn't eat for days. Nah, just kidding. I love food! I really need to find out a good martini recipe to make at home. That's next on my agenda :)

the best wedding, EVER

2010-11-16T06:00:00.001-05:00

I loved my own wedding. It was awesome and I would do it exactly the same way again if given the chance. My wedding was pretty unique (um..hello, VEGAS) so it's hard to judge others against mine, but I still find myself critiquing other weddings when we go to them. It's hard not to! But I will be the first to admit when another wedding is awesome, and my cousin Valerie's wedding was just that. Hands down, the best wedding I have ever been to.

A combination of getting to to go to New York and Connecticut for the weekend, and see both sides of my family really made for the best weekend wedding getaway. The gamer and I originally couldn't even afford to fly up and considered not even going for awhile, but thanks to some generous donations from my uncle and mom we were able to make it up and I am SO thankful that we did. It was amazing.

If you know anything about me you know that all my trips to NY revolve around food. This trip was no different. Not minutes off of the plane and we were already being escorted by my aunt and uncle to Cascarino's, pizza makes for the Mets. Best Italian food I've had in a loooong time. I raved about that food all weekend. But it only got better food wise - but that's another post.

We were so excited we got to spend some time with my other side of the family before we headed to the wedding!

Look at us all dressed up!

I was a reader at the wedding...thank goodness they passed on champagne before the ceremony started!

I think I did a pretty good job!

The wedding was so pretty..and short and sweet. I love weddings that are quick!

First kiss!

And then the party started. Cocktail hour and then formal sit down dinner. Woo hoo! I had a blast hanging out with my cousins, aunts and uncles. Here is me with cousins Krystal and Angel.

Me and Uncle Ricky

Me and momma

Gamer and me. We took a LOT of cheesy photos that night. Drinking was definitely involved. You'll see about that tomorrow :-P

Chris never asks like a ham, so it's fun when he can let loose some!

Dad and momma

Ricky and Rosa

Valerie, Krystal and me

Dancing!

There was LOTS of dancing. There are a bazillion photos of me looking like this. Quite embarrassing :) I can't believe I managed to wear my heels all night. Oh yes I can...the drinking must have helped ;)

Oh, I also danced on top of a box. Yeah, it was that kind of night..

More silliness.

And sweetness.

More dancing.

And then they gave us glow necklaces!!

I don't think I've ever had such a fun time!

The wedding was quite formal, so it was neat they had informal touches like the glownecklaces. It was still classy :-P

I had such a fun time!

Valerie and me are the same age...growing up it was nice to have a cousin to always hang out with and we had a blast acting like twins and dressing up the same and going on vacations together. I'm so happy for her!

In between all these photos there was a LOT of me stuffing my face with food and drinks. I thought it'd be best to just devote an entire post to just that. OF COURSE. See you tomorrow! ;)

brews cruise

2010-11-15T11:28:00.004-05:00

And at only a few weeks old we couldn't leave her for the weekend so we had to cancel our trip.

This year though she was old enough to be left behind and we decided to take a fall trip to Asheville, a place we are considering moving to when the gamer is done with school. And I surprised him and told him we were going on a...

Brews Cruise!

What's that? Well it's a brewery tour where they drive you from place to place so you don't have to worry about being sober enough from all the samples you are going to try! Quite a neat concept, and Asheville is known for its breweries, and the gamer loves beer, so I thought it would be a cool thing to do! I didn't even like beer but I figured we do a lot of things for me, so the gamer deserved an event that he would enjoy!

But first, when we arrived in Asheville we had to go to 12 Bones - a restaurant that President Obama had eaten at during his visit last spring!

because it's owed

2010-11-15T09:12:00.003-05:00

So it appears that I'm back! I've had a few game related posts the past few days, but now it's time to review where I've been the last few months for my mom's sake. Yes Mom, these next few posts are for you. Lots and lots of face pictures, just like you like :-P Kidding, well kinda..There will at least be a pretty nice barrage of photos from the last few months!

When I left you all back in August it was still nice enough to wear clothes like this...

Yeah, and I was still taking a lot of cat pictures. You can see Bit is pleased with this!

We celebrated my Mom's birthday - the big 5-0 mom!

My marine bro even came in for a visit!

Mom and me with our favorite drinks :)

Me and marine bro

Peej and mom

The whole fam!

Then I got a drastic haircut...

Which everyone seemed to like, including me! You know how hard it is to find a haircut you like! Oh, and the gamer bought me a rose..

Before I knew it it was the end of October and I still wasn't back to blogging!

I was baking a whole lot though. In my spare time (like I really have any!) I am perfecting cookie recipes. I created a chocolate cookie with peanuts and white chocolate chips that everyone raved about at work! I'm pretty sure I'm going to bake cookie packages for everyone for Christmas this year :-P

Ohhh, more cat pictures? Of course!

How can you not love this face?

That's enough with the randomness. More focused post tomorrow :-P

300 ways to be an awesome gamer's wife

2010-11-14T17:22:00.003-05:00

No, not really.

Instead, welcome to my 300th post. Three hundred postings as the gamer's wife. Which in all honestly - that is 300 ways to be an awesome gamer's wife. To have an entire website devoted to being the wife of a gamer is pretty cool, if I do say so myself.

Here's a little recap of www.thegamerswife.com!

One day I just decided to start a blog about it. I told the story of how I found out that the gamer was, indeed, a gamer. In the end, I decided it wasn't such a huge deal and I ended up marrying him.

It was fun to talk about all those other loser gamers who weren't nice to their wives. And I made sure to let everyone know that I am not a gamer's widow and wasn't hear to bash my husband.

I learned you should never laugh at a gamer when the internet is out. I introduced you all to P2 and found out that more than one gamer in the house makes for some interesting conversation. And for some reason it was hard to believe that the gamer took a legitimate sick day when he ended up playing games all day.

In my very favorite post I wrote about how easy it is to manipulate a gamer. And I showed you that at times, I can be a pretty awesome gamer myself. I kept up with all the important gamer news, and tried not be too sarcastic when expansions and new releases came out.

When I became lonely I gave a big shout out to all the other gamer wives out there, and sadly found out that there aren't a whole lot like me - at least not in the blogworld. I also proudly sported my game over tshirt, which has easily become my motto ;)

I had a blast letting you all know that even though I'm pretty supportive of my husband's gaming endeavors sometimes I can freakout, yell, and get angry. And I got a kick out of showing the world how a gamer should make a decision on whether to continue playing a game based on how upset his wife might be!

I had a good laugh showing you that even during a move, the gamer was determined to play games. But I also made sure to explain that the gamer doesn't quite fit the gamer stereotype. Even though it's been almost two years since he's had a job, and he's spent a lot of time gaming while I've been working!

Sometimes it's important to recognize just all the awesome things I've done as a gamer's wife, because I just don't get enough credit around here! :-P Especially after I'm made to do tasks like this.

Even though I am typically against game playing I'm sure I made the gamer proud when I finally got excited about a game. And it turned out that I was pretty awesome at it. Not enough to call myself a real gamer or anything - not like I'd want that label! The one I have is bad enough :-P

I got a lot of props when I had the gamer immortalized into his very own gaming figurine. And I decided to make myself a little immortal too when I finally got my own domain. The birth of www.thegamerswife.com was a pretty exciting day for me!

I haven't talked about the gamer gaming so much lately since he's been busy with school. He doesn't get a whole lot of good quality gaming time in, but somehow even with all his studying he's determined to put some hours into killing zombies. At least he has his priorities straight :)

I've enjoyed writing all of these gamer/gamer's wife related posts, but I also like taking about my regular life and posting photos for the friends and family who keep up with me through this site. It's an interesting balancing act that this website is, but I enjoy all the feedback that I get back from people who get a good laugh at seeing my antic's as a gamer's wife but also appreciate that we lead just a normal, every day life that has nothing to do with games! Like I have always said - Chris is much more than just a gamer, and I am much more than just a gamer's wife!

Three hundred posts! Wow. :)

because killing zombies is important

2010-11-12T10:59:00.000-05:00

This past Tuesday (at precisely midnight on Monday night to be exact) a particular game came out. I didn't really have prior warning to the gamer wanting this game. Usually he talks about a game's release tons of times beforehand, but I was surprised (well, not really) when he told me he had pre-ordered it and that I had two options:

Attend the game release party at midnight (ummmm...NO) or stand in line at Gamestop on Tuesday for however long was needed.

Fine. We'll stand in line. I didn't even try to put up a fight. Even though we didn't have the money for the game, the gamer deserved it. I shop weekly and buy whatever I want most of the time we are out. The gamer does not. In fact, he almost never purchases anything for himself. I think I've put up a fight a lot recently over spending unnecessary money on games, but I just let him get it this time. I know. I am the coolest gamer's wife ever. Do you remember this post? Yeah, I'm setting things up alright.

So anyways, there I was standing in line at Gamestop dressed to the nines (my nice work dress clothes, heels, nice coat and scarf) standing amongst a mess of boys all waiting in line with their preorder slips. I swear everyone was looking at me like, What is she doing here??

And so the gamer got his game. And all my students got the game. And I've actually had a fun time this week asking kids how many hours they've logged in so far :-P

This morning P2 texted me. Which never happens. EVER. All to say the following:

P2: You better let Chris play black ops with me this weekend!

GW: Hahaha are u coming over? (Please say no, please say no)

P2: No I mean online haha (thank the lord I am not losing my husband to games for the weekend!)

GW: ohh ok. Yeah we'll see..i think he is gonna be super busy with me :-p

P2: Noooooooo! I need someone to kill zombies with! You gotta share haha

GW: Haha well we cant have those zombies alive! I suppose i can give chris up for a good cause :)

P2:Excellent! I knew you would see things my way!

GW: haha i have learned my role as a gamer's wife quite well :p

feels like home

2010-11-11T14:43:00.003-05:00

I wrote the following post a few weeks ago. I had just written the prior post, "lost" and was on a roll and figured I'd write this one. Completed, it sat in my draft box because I was too lazy to blog again. Go figure :)

Last night I slept in my purple room at my old home. I got in my old bed, in my old sheets, and I fell asleep immediately. I am 25 years old but I honestly love to come back home and sleep in my little old twin bed.

Most of the time when I go back home to Winston to my parent's house I'm with the gamer. And because we're married and have to sleep together (groan...haha, just kidding) that means we usually sleep on the pullout in the living room because we can't exactly sleep in the twin bed together.

Occasionally I get to come back to Winston on my own, and when that happens I get to sleep in my old bed. And even though I'm a 25 year old married woman, I still love to sleep alone in my kid twin bed.

I love that bed. I've had it my entire life. I went from crib to that bed, and some of my earliest memories are of me in that bed in Pittsburgh with my brand new rainbow heart sheets. And later on my Peter Rabbit sheets. And the sheets that are on it right now? I got those when I was 10. They are Laura Ashley sheets and I still remember walking into that fancy store in the mall and looking at the price tags and thinking it was unbelievable that I was going to be getting grown up purple flower and plaid sheets.

I remember Mom saying "This is it Heather. If you get these, this it. No more new sheets." But I was in looooove with those sheets, and I had to have them. And I also had to have everything else that came with the set - blankets, curtains, tissue box, garbage pail, pillows, wall trim. And so I agreed I'd never get another set of sheets, and we purchased them. And then, even though my room was already purple (my favorite color) my Dad took the sheets to Home Depot, matched the color to the exact purple on them and then repainted my entire room.

I was pretty spoiled.

But Mom wasn't kidding about those sheets. Because I still have them. 15 years later. And they are in perfect condition. I guess that's what happens when you spend good money on sheets.

When I went to college my Mom did buy me new sheets. But only because I wanted to keep my room the same at home for when I came back on weekends. And I did like my new set, but it wasn't the same. Once college was over I never used that set again.

But then, when I finally moved out of my parents house completely when I went to grad school, you know what I did? I was moving into my OWN two bedroom townhome. A brand new, grown-up, finally on my own place. And you know what I did?

I packed up that bed and those sheets and I took them with me.

And it was a little silly. To live on my own in a grown-up house and have a twin bed. Visitors would laugh at me, and the gamer thought it was ridiculous. He was still in college and we were four hours away at that point so it was rare that he could come to visit, but when he did he would laugh that we couldn't sleep together. We'd throw blankets on the floor and sleep like that. All because I refused to buy a big girl bed.

A month before we were married the gamer and I purchased a very nice queen bed. The gamer and I moved my old twin bed into the guest room, and that is where it stayed until we moved from that house two years later. Minus the sheets. I couldn't bare to see my favorite sheets that I'd grown up being used by a guest. (I'm quite positive that our most frequent guest, P2, is quite glad I didn't force him to sleep on purple flowery sheets anyways!)

I can't exactly remember how the bed made it back to my parents house but it happened during our move to our current house. And now that bed is back in my purple room, back with it's purple sheets. Obviously I hate change. A few years ago the gamer noticed I get extreme anxiety over moments of change, which I hadn't ever noticed before. I wonder if I can attribute that to my attachment over my kid bed?

One day I'm sure my parents will repaint that room. Get rid of my bed (and matching dressers, which I forgot to mention!!) in favor of something that could actually hold guests. A part of me thinks it would be pretty cool if I had a girl and she went to visit and could sleep in my old room in my old bed and sheets. Another part of me is thinking - whoa, major bed bugs!

Maybe it is okay to let things go sometimes :)

Still the prettiest sheet set ever....Thanks Mom!

picture credit: http://ak2.ostkcdn.com/images/products/L12249043.jpg

lost

2010-10-24T09:42:00.000-04:00

Hello gamer's wife readers! I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaack.

Maybe. I haven't decided yet.

I left you right before the semester started, and here we are - the week after fall break. Half way through fall semester, and I'm finally showing up again. How I've managed to keep getting over 500 visitors to my site a month when I'm not writing a thing is beyond me. Who are all these people? It amazes me that EVERY SINGLE DAY someone searches "gamer's wife" and ends up finding my blog. My little website. That I've completely abandoned the last few months.

It's not intentional. Okay, maybe it is. I think I've been having some kind of writer's block. And it's not like I don't have things to write about - I never did get to post pictures of my trip to New York and the best wedding ever, or Chris's birthday, or the beginning of fall and how busy we've been lately - the weird trip to Boone with the opposing football team or our trip to Asheville... The gamer is still busy studying and gaming away - he got a PS3 (yeah, I don't know what I was thinking) and I'm actually working more hours than I did last year so things just haven't been slowing down any for us!

When life gets busy or stressful, or I'm under pressure I've always felt better writing. But writing was always personal for me - no one got to read my thoughts. Now, with a blog, it's hard sometimes because I have so many people who know me in my real life that read this, and I can't always be completely truthful I guess. Sometimes I wish I could have a completely anonymous place. Other times I'm glad to post about my life and have photos up so that the people who really know me can keep up with my life when I'm too busy to call. But basically...sometimes, I just don't write - and that's why I've been missing for a few months.

I am a little lost right now. I'm living this life that I didn't exactly plan, stuck in a place of waiting. And I know that it's where I need to be right now as a wife, but it's tough. It's tough living a life, waiting for someone else to catch up. Knowing that I still have a few more years of waiting until he gets to the point where I'm at right now. And it can be frustrating, living in a place I don't exactly want to be, not having the money to do the things I want to be doing at this point in my life, and not having the time to spend time with my husband because he is too busy studying and preparing for the time in our life when we can do all those things.

I just want to live my life for now, instead of later. And lately I feel like we've been living for later too much. And that's also why I don't write. Because I haven't been too excited for now. And I'm not exactly sure that's going to change anytime soon. The gamer is approaching clinicals for the next two years and that time is going to be even more stressful than what we are going through now.

I could keep all of this from you all, but ultimately I think it's important for others who might be in my situation to relate. Being a gamer's wife is tough, but honestly being a med school wife is even tougher.

But I'll try. I'll try to be here now. And be happy about now.

I'll be back.

today has finally arrived!

2010-08-25T06:00:00.000-04:00

Today. Oh, today. I have been looking forward to this day all summer.

Back in May when all my kids left I was relieved. I was relieved that I had survived my first year working at a new college. Relieved that most of my kids passed their classes (and that the ones who didn't were coming back for summer school). Relieved that summertime was finally here.

But summertime on a college campus? Suuuuccccccccccckkkkkss.

Like, really, really sucks.

After a week or two I'm ready for my kids to come back. I'm ready for fall.

And today marks that day. Today kicks off the beginning of the fall semester. Back-to-school staffing meetings, move-in day, first day of classes, first days of meetings and study hall - they are all around the corner and I can't wait!

I really do love my job.

And I will probably stay in this mood until late November. And then? I'm done with them. I'm done with study hall and I'm ready for Christmas break to come around so I can go a week without a kid texting me about dropping a class, or his grades, or not coming to study hall. By that time I will be ready to get away from all the whining and complaining.

But right now? I am eager to meet all my new freshman and looking forward to my cell buzzing non-stop with questions.

And I am beyond excited for FALL. Per usual I already have most of my fall planned out. Here are the things I am excited about :)

-FOOTBALL. College football. My current college and my alma mater. Going to every single home game here and getting to go to travel to my old college to see two games too. Even one where new school plays old school!

-FOOTBALL. Pro football. Because my old college hero is now a pro footballer and I have to watch those games of course! Thank goodness he was drafted to the Carolina Panthers!

-GAMER BRO visiting for Labor Day weekend

-celebrating my Mom's 50th birthday

-celebrating the gamer's 27th birthday

-FALL WEATHER.

-Everything about October and Halloween. I already asked the gamer if I can start putting up holiday decorations on September 1st.

-Speaking of September 1st Bit turns ONE that day!

-Renaissance Festival - we missed it last year and it's definitely on the must list.

-A gigantic outlet mall opening just 15 minutes from my house in November. I mean, COULD I HAVE ASKED FOR ANYTHING BETTER when we moved here?!

-And hopefully one fall trip planned but I'm still working out those details :)

-Plus a whole lot more!

So I'll be missing for a little while as we get through the initial business of heading back into the semester. We're going to NYC for a wedding this weekend and then the gamer bro visits next weekend and our first football game of the season happens so I'm sure I'll be back to post all about them soon! :)

Why is it that there's just something about August that makes you feel like the year is just starting even though we're halfway through?

driven

2010-08-24T06:00:00.000-04:00

Most of you out in the blogworld know one of my biggest secrets, but some of you might be surprised to find this out.

I don't have a driver's license!

SHOCKER!

People close to me know this fact, but most people I come into contact with on a regular basis have no idea - coworkers and students have no clue that I don't drive myself to and from work.

I know it can be very surprising to most that someone who is 25 years old doesn't have a license. I'm sure the typical questions are running through your head..Why not? How have you survived this long without one? How do you get to work? Why? Why? Why?

I don't really have any real answers. For some reason driving really kind of freaked me out when it came time to start driver's ed lessons. Everyone in my class was taking them so I did it too, but I was still pretty scared driving. I mean, I did just fine, but I just rather preferred not to be the one who was in control of a car. I was once hit by a car while I was walking across the street, and that's always kind of freaked me out in a way too.

So I did the driver's ed thing and got my permit. And then I proceeded to never drive again. I kid you not, I had that permit from the time I was 15 until I was 18 and did not drive one single time. Then the permit expired, and it's been expired for the last seven years. I never wanted to renew it. I never really wanted to drive.

When I was 16 I was very social and very busy - I was in lots of clubs and had lots of friends and had lots of boyfriends and did lots of things. Every one of my friends had a license and a car. I was very focused on school and my social life so I knew that I couldn't get a job to pay for a car, and my parents weren't the kind of people who could afford to buy me a car, so I just figured, why get a license if I'm not going to have a car and all my friends already do?

So that was high school. Then in college I lived in a small college town, walked where I wanted, rode the bus when it was too far, and continued to ride around with friends. Then I moved to a new city on my own for graduate school. I found a house that was on a bus route, and for two years I took the bus to and from home, school and work with no problem.

The third year in that city I found a job that was further away. The gamer proceeded to drop me off and pick me up from work on his way to and from work. It wasn't bad, but it did add to his commute.

We moved last year and I found a job at the same school he was going to. Perfect. Our commute was exactly the same.

But starting in January the gamer will be moving away for two months. In fact, the gamer will spend a total of six months next year completing his clinical rotations. He won't be living at home during that time, so that means I'll be on my own.

And now for the first time in my life it means that I have got to learn to drive. There are no options here. I have to learn, I have to get my license and I have to get a car! I probably wouldn't have done it on my own terms...I basically am doing this because I'm being forced to based on our situation.

So a few weeks ago I went to the DMV and took the written and signs test and got my permit.

I passed. I didn't miss a single question.

It was a pretty big deal.

And then I had to drive. I have driven a few times since then. I am still getting used to it! It still really freaks me out, but it's something I have to do so I'll deal with it.

When I posted that picture on facebook a LOT of people were freaking out. It was funny :)

In November I go for my real license. I have a long way to go before I'm ready for that!

So yeah, I know I'm a really strange 25 year old! Do you want to know something else? My mom didn't get her license until she was 35! So technically I am way ahead of the game :)

to B or not 2B

2010-08-23T06:00:00.000-04:00

I think I might have mentioned this before, but even though I proudly proclaim myself to be the gamer's wife I haven't actually legally changed my name yet.

Technically, I'm not really Mrs. Gamer's Wife.

I'm still just Ms. B1

If you've followed my blog for awhile you might have noticed that I talk about my family name as "B1" and the gamer's family name as "B2" since both of our last names begin with the letter B. For the sake of privacy I won't reveal what those B names actually are, but I don't think it's really that necessary for the sake of this post. Each is a simple and short B name, but both are pretty unique in the last name world.

Legally and professionally I go by Ms. B1. Which means that almost daily I am called Mrs. B1 because most people know that I'm married (or see the ring) and just assume that is my married last name. When I started at my current job I made sure to correct people and let them know that I was in fact, Ms. and that I had not taken the gamer's last name.

But with my kids it's a different story..Keep in mind that my kids range from 18-22 and I only require them to call me Heather so you'd think it's easy to escape the last name questions. However, most of my kids are curious and like to ask me personal questions. Lots of personal questions. Lots of husband related questions that often go like this, "So what did you and Mr. B1 do last night?" "Where does Mr. B1 work?" "How did you meet Mr. B1?"

It makes me giggle inside because I'm always thinking Mr. B1 is my dad, and I usually just respond to my kids saying "well, my husband..." instead of calling him a name. But because of the nature of my job working in college athletics it means that I go to quite a few athletic events and I bring the gamer along. And I know at times it can be hard on him that people assume he is Mr. B1.

Last summer when we went to Cancun I booked the hotel in my name. Since it was a very swanky hotel they were all about calling us Mr. and Mrs. the whole time we were there. When we went to get towels, when we went to breakfast, when we passed through the lobby, when we needed a taxi they always remembered our name. Except since I booked the hotel they just assumed the gamer was Mr. B1 and called him that the entire time. We still laugh about that trip and how the gamer felt he was impersonating my father the whole time :)

In my personal life though I do go by Mrs. B2. Actually, I go by Mrs. B1-B2. It is how my name is on Facebook, how my emails are sent out, how I self-address snail mail, and how personal snail mail letters and cards are addressed back to me.

But the gamer doesn't really like me hyphenating my name. And he is less of a fan of me just keeping my maiden name. He simply wants me to be Heather B2 and I can understand that. It makes things much easier, and when we have kids it will make the naming process of them much simpler, and much easier for teachers to know that I'm the kid's parent and not some mistress girlfriend. I get it. It's all reasonable and makes complete sense.

But I've been a B1 my whole life. It's on my diplomas which are hanging in my office. It's on everything - my ID, passport, credit cards, utility bills, checks, insurance cards, business cards, etc. And it will take a lot of work to change it, especially now that it's been three years since we got married.

All my life I thought I'd get married and immediately take my husband's last name. But I was still finishing my Master's at the time and it just made more sense to keep my maiden name while I finished my degree and tried to get my first job. I was worried that changing my name would hurt my chance of getting a reference because they wouldn't know who Heather B2 was. But now it's getting even worse since I've now been in this field for four years and as the years go by people really know me as Heather B1 and I'm nervous that when I try to go on with my career it will be difficult with a new name.

So that's why I considered hyphenating. But do you know long a name is like Heather Middle Name Last Name-Last Name? It's long. And it doesn't really bother me, but it still bother's the gamer. He just wants me to be Heather Middle Name His Last Name.

And we've considered all the other possibilities...taking my last name and making it my middle name (but I don't really want to lose that name either)..just having four names with no hyphen but that looks silly...and so that answer keeps coming back to..

Mrs. B2.

I think once I completely make the change I'll get used to it, but for now it just feels like I'm losing me and my identity.

Last weekend we went to a wedding and we each had individual name place cards at our seats. The gamer's said Mr. Chris B2 and mine said Mrs. Heather B1-B2. It was funny but for a second I didn't feel like we were totally...married. And it was weird.

I filled out my social security name change forms this week. Now I just have to go to the office and start the process!

Still not sure what I think about it all though. Thoughts?

because everything's about food

2010-08-20T06:00:00.000-04:00

Otherwise titled, why my niece thinks I'm a lush who only drinks alcohol and eats ice cream ;)

And on the last day of this week of vacation recapping I will present you with the following photos...

My niece did a remarkable job interacting with mostly all adults all week. For only 12 she is very insightful and intelligent and most of the time she interacts with the gamer and I as if she were our age. It is rare to find a child like that, because I can recall that I was every bit of 12 at that age and could care less to talk to adults, and as an adult now I find it very rare that I want to hold a real conversation with someone that age! But my niece is special and that's why we love her so very much :)

After several dinners with us all getting some type of alcoholic drink and feeling quite left out this girl took a stand and demanded she get a pretty drink too! Although it was a virgin, she joked that it wasn't and had a blast pretending she was just like the rest of us that night :)

One night at the beach we decided to go to a fancy dinner, if fancy means you can still dress in beach clothes but just pay a lot more money and the food actually is amazing! I got pasta primavera that actually rivals my very favorite pasta dish at my favorite restaurant in NYC. Unbelievable? Believe it.

See my martini in the background? It was never ending. And when I say never ending, I mean it. It came out with its own shaker so whenever my glass was filled I could simply add more. And more. And more. The thing just didn't end! I was pretty (ok let's be honest here - REALLY) tipsy by the end of the meal and my niece had a grand time asking me all sorts of questions regarding alcohol intoxication.

So what better way to deal with being a public lush than gouging on ice cream? I had wanted one of these cones all week because, duh, boardwalk cones are my favorite so it was finally time :)

The gamer likes to be funny. But it was my cone and I immediately stole it back before he got his tongue any further on the tip of my cone. I mean, really, that's the best part and he was about to steal it! I would have thrown a small temper-tantrum if he went any further and he knew that so was smart enough to return it to me :)

So my niece learned two important lessons that day. Don't let Aunt Heather have more than one drink with dinner and don't even think about stealing her ice cream. Ever! :)

and on the weekends I LOVE to sail

2010-08-19T06:00:00.000-04:00

Haha, that's what I would say if I was ever rich enough to own a boat or snooty enough to say something like that. Obviously, I'm half way there! :-P

Seriously though I'm not much of a boat person. But merely from inexperience. My family just isn't the kind of family that ever went sailing for fun and most of my memories are from school trips. The was one time where I learned how to duck when the boom was going to hit you (I caught on to that lesson fairly quickly), and another time when I almost got stranded on a two-person sized sailboat because the wind wouldn't cooperate (can you just picture the things that were coming out of my mouth when we finally returned to shore?).

So sailing.

The gamer's wife suggested we go sailing on this historical boat that was docked in Delaware while we were in town. Apparently it was the same kind of boat that as the Mayflower, and the original sailed in 1638 bringing new colonists from Europe to Delaware. I'm not exactly sure what I was expecting but it wasn't this:

I guess when I heard the word sailing I was thinking of sailboat at the same time. And when I think of sailboat I think of a small boat with one or two sails that fits five or six people.

In this case it was more of a boat with SAILS. Yes, sailboat, but much, much bigger!

I was immediately fascinated by the whole thing.

I took over a hundred photos because it was.just.that.cool.

Tim said if he ever ran for office this would be on his campaign poster ;)

The coolest part was that they asked for help hoisting the sails, bring the sails down and changing the sails from side to side to keep the boat moving (and that's just my way of explaining it). There was a TON of strange commands that the captain would yell and I didn't understand any of this new boat language!

Here's the gamer and our niece getting ready to help!

It was exceptionally hard work actually!

Muscle man to the rescue :)

We sailed for several hours..Exploring the boat and looking out to the sea was just so awesome!

Here are the boys helping out again..

And the gamer came away with raw hands after pulling this rope!

Of course I had to help out too...

It's definitely not glamorous work! I decided that while sailing is definitely for me, colonial sailing is NOT and I would much prefer to have deckhands do the hard work for me! :-P

A beautiful sunset!

Oh, and guess who I found on my way off the boat? Apparently this kitty lives on there! A pirate cat! How cool :)

the big philly cheesesteak showdown

2010-08-18T06:00:00.001-04:00

In the last year I've been to Philly twice - once last summer on my whirlwind food tour of the north and another for New Year's Day when I of course, ate yet again. If you haven't picked up on it yet I love to eat. I plan entire trips around eating. If you opened up my iPhoto you would probably see just as many photos of the foods as you do people. I've actually considered devoting an entirely new blog to just food. But we are getting off topic here people!

Ok Philly. So neither of my trips last year there have been with the gamer, and neither time did I get to really be a tourist and visit the historical spots. I'm cool with visiting cities like that - cities that I've been to countless times like NYC, Philly, LA I don't really feel the need to be a tourist. But then years go by and I'm like, hmm...when really was the last time I went to the top of the Empire State Building? When really was the last time I took a picture of the Hollywood sign? Or went to Independence Hall? Or saw the Liberty Bell? That's one of the main reasons we went to see the Statue of Liberty last summer...I couldn't in recent memory remember going, even though I'd probably passed through New York a hundred times.

So I pretty much decided that on our trip to DE this summer we had to take a day trip up to Philly so I could go walk around in the footsteps on Ben Franklin. Unfortunately that didn't sound too appealing to the gamer, but when I mentioned that he could settle the showdown of the two famous Philly cheesesteak places? Well he was immediately on board.

So maybe my tangent above wasn't really too much off topic. I love to eat. And the gamer loves to eat. And we do, really and truly, and honestly plan trips around food. So it was settled. We were going to Philly so we could eat. Oh, and see some cobblestone streets, maybe a place or two that was important to US history. You know, if we had time ;)

Entering the city!

City Hall

Oh my gosh! First stop is so Heather can eat? Surprise Surprise.

We went to the Reading Terminal Market, which unbelievably in all of my times in the city I had never been to before. I walked in the doors and I was in love. I turned to the gamer and we immediately agreed that we were packing our things in NC and promptly moving to a ridiculously small and expensive apartment across the street from the market just so we could eat there every day. It was that awesome people. Just imagine a huge, huge space filled with tons and tons of vendors selling foods from every ethnicity and nationality you could think of. American, Chinese, Indian, Italian, AMISH, Dutch, German, Thai....pizza and delis and bakeries. I mean, at least over a 100 different places to eat. Like one giant mall food court.

We must have walked around for an hour before I decided on Sicilian pizza (my favorite!), Chinese wontons, Pad Thai, and of course chocolate truffles. But I honestly could have stayed there the rest of the day and just eaten and eaten and eaten at all the different places.

I of course took a bazillion photos at every turn inside the market, but they all pretty much looked like this...just lanes and lanes of food kiosks. OMG. I want to go back. Right now.

Thank goodness we had several more blocks of walking after the market to get to Independence Hall so we would could work off all that food!

The gamer and our niece practiced their colonial penmanship..

Ok. It wasn't really that exciting. Or good!

Obligatory "We are in front of Independence Hall!" photos :-P

The Declaration of Independence and Constitution were signed here!

The senate room. It's just hard to imagine them all sitting there debating!

Last summer I looked at the liberty bell through a window...this was much cooler :-P

Oh, and yeah, we were sporting our red, white and blue!

Had to go see Betsy Ross's house. I wanted to see Ben Franklin's grave but I refused to pay $2 a person just to walk in a cemetery!

Ohhh, the cobblestone streets. How I managed to not trip once on this trip is beyond me. Oh wait, scratch that I did have one klutz moment but that was on a regular sidewalk!

We actually did quite a bit more touring in the afternoon, seeing where Ben Franklin's house stood, apartments he built, went to a museum, saw some pretty parks but I know all you want to really here about is...the food!

Finally, exhausted from walking we made it to the corner of Pat's and Geno's!

We went to Geno's first since that's my favorite of the two.
Consensus? The gamer liked it. I of course was in love with the bread.

Then we walked across the street to stand in our second cheesesteak line of the day! Thank goodness they move quickly.

We decided to just share one this time!

Consensus? The gamer loved it. I think it's too greasy, but he says that is what gives it taste and what makes Geno's so dry. Whatevs gamer. Whatevs.

Finally tally in the big philly cheesesteak showdown?
Pat's - 1. Geno's - 1.

I guess the competition still continues!

more beachiness and long lasting love

2010-08-17T06:00:00.000-04:00

It wouldn't be summer vacation without some more beach pictures would it?

I won't make individual comments though. I mean, what's to say? Put on bikini. Slather on sunscreen. Bake in sun. Play in water. Rinse and repeat. Right?

I did manage to put some clothes on for some of this trip! One day we headed over to grandma and granddads to celebrate their 64th wedding anniversary! Can you believe that? I cannot even begin to imagine what it would feel like to be married for 64 years.

The gamer and his bro went to Home Depot and got all the fixins to make two pretty awesome lawn games - laddder golf and and frizottle. Okay, so it's not really called frizottle but I'm not sure what the real name is for a game that you throw a frisbee to knock over a bottle is :-P Whatever it's called I am. freaking. awesome. at it :)

It was just pretty neat to see all 20 of us in the big front yard playing lawn games while grandma and granddad looked on. I'm sure they were just thrilled to be able to look out on all the generations together :)

There is at least four generations there. How cool :)

what not to wear in red flag conditions

2010-08-16T06:00:00.000-04:00

So for our vacation this year we road-tripped it to Delaware to spend a nice, relaxing week at the beaches with the gamer's extended family. And when I say extended I mean extended. Just so you can understand the number of people we were among all week let me tell you there was me, gamer, gamer mom, gamer dad, gamer bro, niece, aunt, uncle, other aunt, other uncle, grandma, granddad, cousin, cousin, cousin, cousin, cousin, cousin, cousin.

So when I say nice, relaxing week what I really mean to say was exhausting, family adventure, non-stop from the moment you get up until the moment you go to sleep. I'm just so glad I got use my one.week.of.vacation like that. Kidding. Kidding. I actually had a blast. I guess I just thought there would be more down time than there was, but with all those people to see and things to do, I think the gamer and I ended up more exhausted upon returning than when we left. Which was okay for him with another week of vacation left, but not so cool for me when I headed straight back to work Monday morning :-P

But we really did have a great time. It's nice that so many of his relatives live in DE now and that the others were all able to coordinate a visit.

So on our first day there we headed to the beaches. Red flag conditions meant the waves amazing, very high, and very powerful. Now, I'm not a dark-blue water kind of girl. Typically if I can't see my feet when I was in (ahem, Caribbean) then I'm not going in. But I couldn't pass up such a pretty day and such fun waves.

It really was fun to have so much family around!

Unfortunately the water was ice cold.

I mean, let's just look at those faces again!

There was a lot of easing into water..

It's hard to tell since I wasn't really taking pictures of the waves but even these smaller ones that were breaking were exceptionally powerful..

They were just knock-you-down kind of waves, which was totally unexpected. You can see we are hardly deep at all but those waves had enough power to knock us off of our feet. Countless and countless times we were knocked away! The waves really started to pick up as you got further out, several feet high and we each had to have a partner out there to make sure we were okay once we went under a wave. I have never drank so much saltwater in my life! And it was such a workout just trying to stay afloat and alive :-P Even my abs hurt the next morning when I woke!

So we were just out there when all of a sudden a huge wave was about to break which I wasn't expecting - I didn't have time to prepare for it so it completely knocked me under and thrashed me around. In the process my bikini bottoms totally slid off. So just picture me, trying to come up for air, sand plastered to me, hair plastered to my face and I'm trying to grab my bottoms and pull them up before the wave goes back and I'm completely out of the water for all the world to see. So I'm halfway there when another wave clobbers me but this time I have no hands to help out - they're trying to pull my bottoms up - and I completely lose my footing again and go under. Miracle of miracles I make it out of the waves, bottoms back on but sunglasses no where to be seen. A small price to pay for keeping the public decency :-P

Needless to say I learned that in red flag conditions you need a super tight bathing suit because I honestly was holding up my pants the rest of the day in the waves!

That night I headed to the stores and bought a more secure one. But wouldn't you know the rest of the week? Placid waters. Small, peaceful waves.

the unlucky day

2010-08-13T09:19:00.002-04:00

it's Friday the 13th.

The last Friday the 13th I really recall is this one when I was roped into seeing a scary movie with two dates, which wasn't entirely unlucky :-P

but today feels unlucky for some reason. I got back from vacation a week ago but a crazy work week left little time for blogging so I was looking forward to today to write, catch up, and start my photo reviews of our trip. But now? It's like I have lost all my creative spark!

See? Unlucky.

But it's not like I don't have things to talk about..

I mean, what happened to the end of birthday month? And that big news I had to tell you? And that other good news that happened? Or the ongoing fight on whether I should become the official Mrs. Gamer's Wife (do you think they will just let me change it to that for my last name? Because the argument over whether to keep my maiden name any longer or formally change it to his last name is. getting. old.) What about the story where a wave crashed into me and I lost my bathing suit bottoms?

Or my exhausting day trip to Philly to settle the whose-the-best-cheesesteak fight? Did I mention that I was in charge of changing the sails on a boat recently? What about the never-ending martini story? The fact that I have a creepy stalker kid (boy do I have some crazy stories about my kids - I really need to just start writing about them because they are freaking hilarious!)

I just haven't had time to reminisce about these things because I'm dealing with my everyday life and all the things being thrown at me at once (so take a deep breath because the venting is about to start!) - the fact that I can't seem to catch up on my lost sleep from vacation, trying to keep my cat inside because all she wants to do now is go outside (meaning that once I was up after midnight chasing her down the block when an overnight guest accidentally let her out),

it being so hot outside that my only recreation lately has been lying by the pool (which doesn't sound so bad if I wasn't trying to train for a race - which I've never mentioned to you before and you're probably like, what? the gamer's wife runs? Who knew!), and why is is that when I step outside to play one game of ladder golf that it's like the mosquito king alerts all his friends that Heather's outside,

trying to keep my head afloat at work with the crazy amounts of schedule changes - which really, don't even get my started on work - a place where I've suddenly started receiving odds amount of attention from the male staff, creepy compliments matched with jealous remarks, a place where daily I have to try to keep my cool because my alma-mater is constantly being attacked, trying to keep the reigns on the football freshman who won't stop asking me personal questions, kids who look at me weird (even one that the gamer deems looking into your soul - yeah, freaky), and as if I don't have enough to deal with, learning how to make allocations to a retirement fund (I mean, seriously? SERIOUSLY?)

And oh, the drama. The drama. I am done!

So I'm just in a writey kind of mood right now.

But last night I got to watch Armanti Edwards #10 play in his first Panthers game on national television.

And all I have to say is

Suck it bitches!

(The normal gamer's wife who isn't so dramatic and confusing will return to her regular scheduled programming on Monday with some real updates, free of complaining, and posts that have a clear beginning, middle and an end and that are entirely not like this one. I promise!)

i know, i know

2010-07-29T14:04:00.002-04:00

Ok it isn't fair to come back like this...BUT..I'm here to tell you that I'm leaving for vacation like NOW...so I can't update you on what's been going on..

BUT..it's been pretty awesome lately, and I've got some stories to tell. And some AMAZING news.

And no, I'm not preggars. Geesh people, STOP asking. When it happens, I PROMISE I will tell you. Do you honestly think I'd be able to keep that kind of secret? So over the next few years if I ever say "I have news" please remember that it WONT be that kind of news.

Maybe I'll have some time on my trip, but we'll see...you might just be seeing me again sometime in mid-August.

It's been a whole YEAR since I've had a vacation so I definitely need these next 10 days off.

Happy Vacay and I'll talk to you soon! :)

the quarter-life crisis

2010-07-21T10:22:00.001-04:00

Today I turn 25! I honestly can't believe it.

Growing up I always had a goal age to get to. I dreamed of what it would be like to be a teenager at 13, to be cool at 16, to graduate at 18, to be able to drink at 21, and I always envisioned that my life would be all settled by 24.

WRONG!

I never even dreamed past 24 to be honest with you. And this whole last year I've felt like I was just about to cross this imaginary hump - that at 25 I'd finally be a real adult and would suddenly feel old.

I've actually been kind of nervous about turning 25, and really haven't been looking forward to it all that much. I guess I just figured I would have more of my life figured out by this time. I'm married, have two degrees, and a great job, which is a LOT to be thankful for at 25. But I just assumed I'd also own a house and be starting a family at this point, and I'm not. I suppose I'll have to push those goals off to have by the time I'm 30, which I can't believe is only FIVE years away!

The quarter-life crisis is a term that is used to describe a confusing period of a person's life during their twenties. It's a time when you are leaving your childhood behind and fully entering adulthood. If you haven't heard about it before go do some research on it - it's quite interesting!

I can't believe I've been around for 25 years. Here's some memories and a very, very brief recap of my life from each of those years:

1 - Born in NY to two awesome parents who were experiencing their quarter-life crisis. Went on my first of many, many flights.

2 - Learned how to speak like a California girl. It's never left me.

3 - Struggled with textures. I wasn't a fan of snow OR sand. This was the beginning of me acting like a princess I suppose. That has never left me either.

4 - Moved again to PA. Is it sad that my only major memory of this year is having the chickenpox? It must have been traumatizing.

5 - Was forced to become a southern child in NC. I'm still bitter about it.

6 - Was forced to became a big sister. I'm still bitter about it.

7 - Was hit by a CAR while walking across the road. Yes, I'm still bitter about it.

8 - Went to Hawaii for my birthday. It doesn't get much better than that.

9 - Memorized the entire Lion King soundtrack while on vacation in Canada. Obviously it was important to me.

10 - Began my obsession with Anne of Green Gables, forcing my parents to drive from Maine to Prince Edward Island (hundreds of miles) just so I can feel like I was a part of the book. I still read the series once a year.

11 - Began middle school. Enough said.

12 - Boyfriends! Enough said.

13 - Became a teenager. In my honest opinion I was the best teenager a parent could ask for. Seriously.

14 - High school started. I was completely boy-crazy and was very social. This continued for four years.

15 - First trip to Europe. Changed my life and made me think I wanted to become fluent in French and live abroad. Haha.

16 - First real boyfriend. First kiss. Met my future husband.

17 - Graduated high school and decided to follow boyfriend to college.

18 - Fell in love with ASU.

19 - Lots of friend drama in college. Got my belly button pierced which was totally unlike me! Decided, unfortunately too late, that I didn't want to be a teacher and instead wanted to go to graduate school.

20 - Got engaged! Starting planning an extravagant castle wedding that quickly morphed into a destination Vegas wedding. Go figure.

21 - Moved into my first place completely on my own. Spent an entire year on my own starting my first year of graduate school. Found my passion with working with student-athletes.

22 - Got married!

23 - First REAL full-time job. Dealt with the stresses of the gamer applying for PT school, getting in, deciding to move, finding a new job and finding a new place to live. A tough year.

24 - First full-time job that I LOVE. Learned how to make one income work while the gamer went back to school- result? It doesn't.

25 - Starting the next quarter century of my life. Crazy.

mr. bones

2010-07-19T21:30:00.003-04:00

At the beginning of January when the gamer started PT school he brought home a box of bones in order to help him study for his anatomy course. Yes, you heard that right...a box of bones. Not real bones, mind you, but still a big black box full of an entire skeleton set of bones.

It was definitely a laughing point around the house for the past seven months. Depending on what area of the body he was studying I was bound to find a few bones lying around in the oddest of places. A hip bone on the kitchen counter? Sure. The femur on our coffee table? Why not? The skull on our dining table? Didn't surprise me!

One month we ended up with that box of bones in the trunk of our car for a few weeks because we forgot to take it out. When we realized where it was we laughed so hard wondering how we would have explained that one to a cop had anyone ever pulled us over, looked in our trunk, and asked where the skeleton came from :-P

So last Friday, after seven grueling months of anatomy lab, working on cadavers and coming home smelling of formaldehyde, the gamer aced his anatomy final. I was so proud of him, and so thankful I could finally go near him again. You have no idea what it feels like when your husband comes home a few times a week smelling like death!

In honor of completing his anatomy course we had to say goodbye to our friendly box of bones. The gamer got the box out to count all the bones ans asked me to put them in their correct spots. I did my best, but obviously you could tell I'm not a pro in anatomy ;)

We seemed to be missing some important parts, like another hip! And at one point, not realizing we only had one hand and one foot, I ended up putting the foot in the spot of the hand. The gamer took one look at my assembly and busted out laughing. He told me to take a good look at what I'd done and I felt mortified when I noticed I'd placed the foot in the hand spot!

Here's my final layout of Mr. Bones, minus a few important pieces...a foot, hand, hip, and spine :-P We're still trying to scrounge up some of those missing bones. His professor told him not to worry though - that they'll just charge him a $100 per missing bone and bill it to his tuition.

Gee. Thanks :-P

birthday month continues

2010-07-14T06:00:00.000-04:00

So far I've had a pretty awesome birthday month! I've been out to several dinners and lunches, went to Tigerworld, celebrated Independence Day, went to a Dash game, and we are just half way through the month!

This past weekend my parents took the gamer and I out to Maggiano's for my early birthday dinner since they'll be out of town on the actual day.

The gamer had actually never been to this restaurant before, so it was actually quite a treat for him!

Me and gamer.

Momma and Daddy

The food was awesome, as expected. The gamer was blown away by the mozzarella marinara! We also got braciole, chicken parm and baked ziti and sausage which were SO good. I was SHOCKED when I got home and realized I didn't take a photo of the food. I'm notorious for always photographing my meals at restaurants! Sorry :-P

Gamer and me again :)

The waitress was so sweet and brought me out some treats to celebrate my birthday. The swirly candle was my favorite part and the chocolates were great :)

Actually, the gamer has some ridiculous photos of me stuffing those chocolates into my face, but I rule this blog so you don't get to see them ;)

Thanks mom and dad for a great birthday dinner!

alumni night!

2010-07-13T06:00:00.000-04:00

Baseball games just scream sticky, hot, summer nights don't they? So when we heard there would be an alumni night at the new W-S Dash baseball field the gamer and I decided it would be the best time to go! We hadn't seen the new stadium yet, and we hadn't even gone to a baseball game since they were the old Warthogs several years ago!

The field was actually quite nice compared to the old ballpark we used to go to. We spent many, many Fridays going to games there so my little gamer bro could catch fly balls, so it was quite the difference to walk into this massive structure. Pretty impressive for the minor leagues!

Gamer and me sporting our alumni pride!

Of course we had to go on a night when it was literally 95 degrees. I was sticking to my seat from sweat and my hair was plastered to my neck. What was I thinking with wearing my hair down!?

Luckily we got free Dash hats as part of our alumni ticket package (and food vouchers too!) so I stuck my hair through the back. Yeah, I was a sight that night :-P

Every time the gamer has hit hat on backwards he insists on making that face. I don't know what's wrong with him ;)

A little blurry but on our way out..

Overall it was neat to be able to go to the new ballpark and see the new team while seated with all these ASU alumni! I loved getting to see the black and gold for a night!

i'm still a baker!

2010-07-12T10:29:00.004-04:00

Baking in my bikini. Yes, that's how I fly around here.

Ever since I got my KitchenAid mixer I have really started to branch out in the kitchen with baking. Actually, ever since the gamer started school and I've had more time on my hands I've been in the kitchen a lot - I like it since it gives me something to do!

I'm quite impressed with all of the HOMEMADE things I've made lately:
Cinnamon rolls
Cookies
Cinnamon bread
French bread
Crumb cake
Marble cake
Cupcakes

And now...

PIE

Now I've pretty much made cookies and cakes most of my life so having a mixer hasn't changed that fact..it's just made it much easier and has influenced me in trying different variations and recipes. However, never once in my life have I made a PIE.

Not once. Not in my whole almost 25 years has a pie ever been made in my house. We just aren't pie people. I don't even really eat pie. So to tackle the task of making a pie, with blueberries nonetheless (a fruit I'm not too fond of), was definitely going to be a challenge.

And I was awesome. I honestly didn't think I'd be able to make a pie, let alone these special pocket pies that I was trying. Pastry dough didn't seem too easy to make considering I didn't have a food processor to blend the sugar, flour and butter correctly. Or the fact that I'd never cooked with blueberries before and didn't have a clue how to make pie filling.

It was quite a mess project..

It took quite a bit of work to make on of these babies! First I had to make the blueberry filling which I had NO idea how to do. I just winged it and threw some blueberries, sugar, cornstarch and water into a pot and let it cook down. Voila! Blueberry filling. I guess :-P

Then I had to roll out the dough for the bottom layer, make the lattice top, fill the bottom, and then attempt to press the lattice top down over top - it was definitely a messy procedure and I got blueberry filling everywhere!

Me and the mess :)

More mess. Apparently blueberries are very messy in nature. I wonder if I'll ever get those purple stains out of the towel? Do you see that cute pocket pie press? The gamer bought me that as an early birthday present! :)

Into the oven they go!

Look at those cuties!

I was so impressed with how these came out. For my first time making any time of pie, let alone a miniature version I think they came out very well! I learned that next time I shouldn't put so much filling in, but other than that I think they turned out beautifully!

And they ended up tasting so good! I'd never had blueberry pie before so I thought they were great, but the gamer gave them a "B"..poo on him!

I was so proud of my pies!

aversions

2010-07-08T06:00:00.000-04:00

Lately I've been having aversions to certain foods. No, not from pregnancy. Just plain old, run of the mill, no rhyme or reason..aversions.

An aversion to sweets? Yep. I've had it for about four weeks now. Most things with sugar make my stomach turn. I have no idea why.

Not a day goes by when I don't have an aversion to something. It's always something strange though. And typically it's always something different.

Salad dressing.
Breakfast foods.
Granola.
Juice --> that's probably the sugar reaction going.
Meat.
Anything salty.
Cheese.

I have a feeling that the aversions have to do with the intense heat we've been having, but I'm not sure. You know how when it's so hot out you don't want to cook, let alone eat anything hot? This might be related to it. They don't worry me at all, and it makes me laugh to wake up and suddenly feel that I would barf if you showed me a glass of juice or a chicken nugget. Don't freak out people - I'm not sick!

Seriously, the gamer will think of something for dinner that used to sound appealing to me, and which we've probably had lots of times and I've loved it and I'll look at him and be like, "Are you serious? I am having an aversion to ketchup right now" Or some other crazy, non-important ingredient. And the gamer will just look at me dumb-founded, while I'm just thinking....he should have known!

It makes for quite the crazy food time conversations as of late.

One day I could have an aversion to...oh, I don't know...potatoes, so I'll clearly state, "Ugh, Gamer, we can't eat potatoes tonight. Dont' you know that I have an aversion to that right now?"

And then the next day I'm totally fine with potatoes. I'm loving potatoes. I'm craving potatoes. And potatoes are on the menu for the night. We'll sit down to dinner, potatoes on our plates and the gamer will say.."Umm what happened to the aversion sweetheart?"

And I'll just glare at him.

But I started saying the word all the time. Aversion. Aversion. Aversion.

A few days ago I think the gamer was tired with all of my food aversion nonsense so while we were talking in the car, discussing some random plans of ours, I said my now famous line to one of his suggestions..

"Ugh...I have an aversion to that."

And the gamer looked at me and said,

"I don't even think you know what that word means."

I busted out laughing because it's true - it is definitely in my nature to adopt a new word and use it for all different situations. So I started to annoy him and tell him I had aversions to all sorts of things - doing laundry, ironing, being out in the heat, etc. We had a good laugh about it.

Later on that night, while he was setting up to do what he does best, I turned to him and said:

"Honey, I think I'm having an aversion to video games."

To which he responded,

"Yeah, I definitely don't think you know what that word means."

Oh, the banter of a married couple ;)

yankee pride

2010-07-07T06:00:00.001-04:00

July 4th, 2008 - I'd only been blogging a month back then. This year we went back to the same place, and funny enough the gamer and I are wearing the exact same outfits :-P

July 4th, 2009 - We were summering in Delaware at the time. Yes, you can say "summering" when you spend more than a month in one place :-P Oh, and apparently we only own one set of clothes that can be considered patriotic.

July 4th, 2010 - Among everything else, I went off the pill and spilled beer all on myself. I am that girl. But here's the rest of the happiness of the day..

I wasn't lying when I sad I was hot and cranky. Here's why..

Even though the signs been broken for years when you look up and see it saying 136 degrees, sometimes it's hot enough to believe it ;)

Dad went early to set up our spot in the town square. It's like a chair graveyard at 10am!

But at 6pm we arrived to a very full park and got right down to celebrating..

Our picnic area. It's just nice to be able to set up your stuff, be surrounded by people you don't even know, and sit around in the sun for a few hours :)

I am totally about to win this game of UNO.

See the crowd??

Our matching July 4th outfits :-P

Me and Daddy

Three of the four sisters - Aunt Cindy, Mom, Aunt Susie

the gamer and me

Me and Momma

I'll spare you the rest of this photoshoot.. ;)

The fireworks lasted nearly 20 minutes! They were awesome this year!

How pretty is that finale?!

Honestly I did have a great Independence Day besides the sucky news of an expensive prescription and sticky beer toes. I always enjoy spending time with my family, and you know you can always count me in when there's food involved!

But... it took us a full hour to get out of the parking lot and onto the road, and in that time I became a very cranky anti-Southern American, not helped by the fact that rednecks in trucks kept cutting us off and Ms. Preggers had a cigarette in her month. It's times like those that I am damn proud to be a YANKEE! :-P

Go USA ;)

i am THAT girl

2010-07-06T06:00:00.001-04:00

In preface: this occurred on July 4th. I was already busy, hot, sweating AND cranky. AND had made the executive decision that we weren't going to bring any alcohol to the annual July 4th celebration at the park. This post also might be TMI for some people. If you're worried - just pass it over :)

So lately the gamer and I have been discussing when we want to have some gamer babies. Yes, I know I need to think of something clever to call it when we do have them because Gamer and Gamer's Wife are cool, but Gamer Baby? I'm not so sure..

Anyways, MOM, we are still planning on holding off for another five or so years. I know, I know, I think I've been telling you five years for the last three years, but that's just how it is. If the gamer wasn't in school it might be different, but alas, he is - so it's just going to be Gamer and GW for awhile. So executive decision was made - staying on the pill. Sounds good.

So yesterday I went off to the local CVS to get my pill prescription refilled - no issues - just come back later when it's ready. I get home, and they call saying there is an issue with my insurance and I need to show my new card. I was at my parents house, in the middle of prepping enough food for an army, but I said -Ok - no problem. We go down to the store where the pharmacist runs my cards and then proceeds to tell me I owe...

SEVENTY DOLLARS.

I choked. Excuse me? I've always paid $24 for the stuff. One year, when I didn't have any insurance I only paid $60. You're going to tell me that even with insurance I have to now pay SEVENTY?

Run my card again please.

SEVENTY DOLLARS.

I look at her and I'm like - I'm not paying that. You can keep it! She actually agreed and said she wouldn't pay that much either. Still, I turned and walked out of the store nearly in tears.

And then proceeded to go across the street to purchase two cases of beer for the non-alcoholic party I had previously proclaimed.

Screw it. I am that girl.

With that case of beer in my hand I looked over at the gamer who gave me a look and I clearly remember saying..."Yes, I am going to have to blog about this!"

So we walk in to my parents house, pill-less, but now owners of beer and my mom looks at me and I say - I am now off the pill. Yes I bought beer. Any questions? No? Let's continue cooking.

(I did explain the situation much to her disappointment that NO there would not be any gamer babies in the future)

So we get ready, load the cars up, I'm still pissed over the situation, but there's no way I'm spending that kind of money on a pill. It's just not happening. We get to the park. We eat, we have fun.

And then I proceeded to spill half a bottle of beer all over my feet.

Sigh...Yes, I am that girl.

Sometimes you just have one of those days :-P

It's just funny that we had been discussing the idea of babies, and then crazy of all craziness, get thrown something like this out of the blue that basically forces us to stop preventing one. It's interesting how life works sometimes.

Still no gamer babies though!

Stay tuned tomorrow for July 4th pictures! :)

lions, tigers, and BEARS - oh my!

2010-07-05T17:49:00.002-04:00

So this past weekend we went to TIGERWORLD. Yes, you read that right - a world of tigers. Apparently it's been in my own backyard (okay an hour away) for years and I'd never even heard of it until this past year. And ever since I was like, "Gamer! I HAVE TO SEE THE TIGERS!"

So Saturday we went.

And wouldn't you know that my favorite part of the trip was a BEAR? Because apparently the whole "lions, tigers AND bears" motto is pretty big at this park. Oh, and birds and monkeys. Basically a mini zoo on some farmland in the middle of nowhere mid-NC. Who would have thought?

There's going to be a lot of photos, so if you aren't interested in animals - come back tomorrow :-P

So it started off with this goose literally trying to eat my head off. I'm not lying.

Then these tigers tried to eat HIS head off. Crazy man!

Pretty white tiger :)

Sleeping tigers was a big theme of the day..

Lions and tigers sleeping together...Peacefully.

So at the beginning of the park we bought a bag of food. The owner said not to feed the tigers, and only those animals listed on the bag. It said: Birds, Monkeys and BEARS.

Umm...bears? There are bears at this park?

Yes there were bears!

I have never in my life been this close to such a big bear!

He posed for a picture with me :)

He stood up...

And then he SCALED the fence! We said bye to the bear after that!

This sign was interesting..

and it wasn't kidding. I seriously looked to the right of it and there was a tiger there that wasn't there before :)

Lion and tiger love

Lion trying to scale the fence..

The gamer with an emu? Ostrich?

This monkey had a serious problem with its butt. It was TOO BIG.

This monkey stuck his hand out for food and screamed when we walked away!

I mean, seriously, how is that butt normal?

More monkeys..

turtles..

a peacock!

And a realllly pretty peacock that I followed around for awhile

it let us feed him..but refused to show me his feathers. WHATever.

Baby monkey..

Gamer and me!

And my own little tiger...she wasn't pleased we left her all day to see her relatives :-P

I would definitely recommend Tigerworld to anyone in the area! They even have an excursion where you can get in the cage with the tigers and get your photo taken with them. We passed on that :-p

gw update

2010-06-27T22:01:00.004-04:00

Where's the gamer's wife been? Well last night I was gaming it up this style...All I have to say is I'm still pretty awesome at singing Taylor Swift and playing the guitar. Singing Lifeline by Papa Roach? Not so much :-P Oh and Just Dance? Yeah. I'm a pro. And the gamer sucks. Ohh, the things I derive happiness from!

ANYWAYS..

A few weeks ago I was in Salt Lake City..

Saw the Temple Church

Rode Charlie :)

Made "friends" with my coworker ;)

This was right before Charlie took a big lick out of Jayme. Oh, memories!

Still taking pictures of my cat

Still taking PhotoBooth photoshoots...I swear that's my favorite thing on my Mac. Not to be conceited, but I probably take a photo once a day :-P

Bit's still got a good friend..

Remember my weed from last year?

It's baaaaack...

Hmm..another cat pic? How'd that get in there ;)

We also went to a wedding..

to see one of our old best friends get married.

This is him back in college..
The night of that photo I was a leeeetle bit drunk (sorry Mom) and Phil protected me from kissing too many strangers. He didn't however protect me from slapping P2, but that's another story for another time :-P

Here's us at a happier time..
National Championship game '06. Woot woot!

They gave us awesome favors at the wedding..

and a pretty sweet cupcake cake!

I have some embarrassing photos of me stuffing my face full of cupcake. But my blog? My rules. No one's seeing them!

We had a great time :)

And that's what the gamer's wife has been up to the past few weeks. JULY is almost here! One of my favorite months of the year because it's BIRTHDAY month!!

an anniversary photoshoot

2010-06-09T06:00:00.001-04:00

Weeks ago when I went on my blogging hiatus the gamer and I celebrated our three year anniversary and before we went out to dinner we figured we'd just take a picture of our pretty selves since who knew what we'd look like after we'd return from our all-you-can-eat-meat-extravaganza at the Brazilian restaurant. We were being silly and laughed the whole time as we tried to create the "perfect" memory. It didn't happen :)

Now, it's a month later and I'm getting ready to step on a plane to Salt Lake City, Utah for a conference without the gamer! And since I'm going to miss him for the next five days until I return, I am leaving him and the blogworld with this - Our photo shoot! :)

I'll see you when I see you! :)

a new friend

2010-06-08T06:00:00.000-04:00

Bit made a new friend the other day!

One morning I spotted a pretty little cat sitting on our back patio so I immediately found Bit, scooped her up in my arms and announced that she must meet another feline! She was less than thrilled to put it mildly as the second that cat came into her field of vision Bit pawed, clawed, and scratched me to get out of my arms and away from the situation.

She was afraid! Just a little bit of a scaredy cat :) But she has good reason. Up until this point she has really only ever met one other cat and that time she tore away too because she just didn't understand what she was seeing!

After Bit gained her composure back and slowly crept around the kitchen counter, on her own terms, to view this new sight from afar. And once she realized it couldn't get to her she seemed way more interested!

Look at them looking at each other!

It was liking watching a kid discover something new - Bit was very inquisitive and shy, and just seemed generally in awe that there was another creature out there that looked just like what she sees in the mirror every day!

When it moved she had to move too! Bit was just very curious about what that other cat was doing outside when she was clearly stuck inside!
They seemed to be talking to each other for quite some time, and the gamer and I finally had to leave for work so we just told her to behave herself on her playdate!

I wonder how long they stared at each other from through the windows. I asked Bit when we arrived home how she liked her new friend, but all I got was a meowwww response!

a gamer's holiday

2010-06-07T06:00:00.000-04:00

This is how I spent the past Memorial Day...

That's a whole couch full of gamers! I actually held my own in some Mario Kart races and Super Mario Bros Wii and then I resumed my duties as hostess. It takes a lot to feed gamers! Apparently gaming can make you very hungry, and very thirsty - just ask my recycling bin full of bottles!

It was an enjoyable holiday though and I was thankful the gamer got to spend time with both of his brothers and best friend - a rare event!

my neice is a STAR!

2010-06-04T09:24:00.007-04:00

I've been missing for awhile. I KNOW! I have some other things to post, but before that I had to post about my niece's theatrical debut last night in Annie Jr!

The gamer and I were thrilled to be able to see her perform last night, and I'm sure there are quite a few family members who would like to be able to view the video and see some photo highlights so here they are!

Even though she played a much larger part later on we spotted her a few times before - once as an orphan...

And then as a person on the NYC streets..

Family members - can you spot her??

My niece played the part of Lily St. Regis who is...gasp!...a crook! She basically tries to pretend she's Annie's mother so she can defraud Daddy Warbucks of his money! We laughed so hard when we saw her come out in a slinky black dress...Honestly, the gamer looked over at me simply horrified that his niece was acting out this part! Haha..I tried to remind him it was only ACTING!

Here is the video of her first song. You should be able to just click on it to view.

And some more photos - they aren't the best because we decided to sit in the balcony and allow the parents of the kids to be up close to take lots of pictures. We didn't have a balcony (or even a real auditorium in either our middle or high school so this was a real treat for us!)

She is now in the blue dress..

Going to take a bow!

And after the play I had to squeeze in a hug and a congratulations!

We are SO proud of her!! :)

Good luck to her next Tuesday for her final performance!

what happens in vegas, THE WEDDING: redux

2010-05-09T06:00:00.000-04:00

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS, THE WEDDING
Originally posted May 8th, 2009
The gamer and I were married on Thursday, May 10, 2007. I love that while most people are married on Saturdays that we have the uniqueness of getting married in the middle of the week!

The morning of the wedding the gamer lost his voice! Can you believe it? And I never was aware of this fact until days after! I also later found out that they were busy non-stop that morning delivering the cake to the reception site, moving our stuff into our honeymoon suite, and here I was with my feet up getting my hair and makeup done!

Finally the gamer had time to get dressed, and it probably took him longer to get his tux on then it did for me to step into my dress!

The gamer sent me such a sweet card to read before I left for the ceremony!

We took a ton of photos before the wedding, and my mom I are still stunned that throughout the entire day we never did take a picture of just me and her!

I’m not going to include any of the professional photos taken from the ceremony or afterwards (if you want my advice, purchase the rights from the photographer – we did, and I’m so glad I actually OWN all my professional photos) because I’ve already got all those on my photo site.

We got married at Caesar’s Palace so I had to take a shot of me with the scenery:

I was so thankful that everyone was taking photos that day…we ended up with some really great shots! Hundreds of pictures. But here’s just a few random ones:

This shot was taken as we were waiting for the limo…it’s become one of my favorite shots of the day, simply because I’m alone for a few minutes just digesting it all in!

This picture was taken of us in the limo on the way to dinner, and it’s also one of my favorite shots!

Here’s some of the rest of the limo:

Since we had such a small guest list, we chose to have our “reception” at a restaurant in a private room, which is typical of smaller Vegas weddings. We chose PF Changs, which is one of our favorite restaurants, and it was another great decision by us! The food was awesome and everyone loved it. Having just our close family there meant we really could pay attention to everyone, talk about the days events and really savor the food!

We didn’t even have the traditional white wedding cake either! We ordered a chocolate tuxedo cheesecake, since that is the cake we had on our first date and has become our cake over the years!

After dinner we put on our flip flops and said goodnight to everyone! But not before we all watched one last Bellagio fountain show, which was fitting playing our favorite opera song, “Time to Say Goodbye” You can see the fountains going off in the background:

We had a blast walking back to the hotel in our wedding gear – so many people said congratulations to us. Someone took this photo for us on our walk back to Caesars:

Our honeymoon suite was amazing, and they even upgraded it for us! Our room had two bathrooms! And a jetted tub. And a huge walk-in stone shower with two showerheads. I loved it! And we were so surprised when we walked in the room to find a beautiful vase of flowers and tons of snacks that our families had sent up for us! How thoughtful of them!

We had all intentions of going back down to the casino to gamble in our wedding clothes, but one look at the room and I was ready to call it a night!

The next morning when I called down for room service I was greeted on the phone with, “Good Morning Mrs. B2!” It was the first time I had been called by my married name, and I’ll never forget that phone call! :)

And so that my friends is the recap of our Vegas Wedding, and exactly how I became the gamer’s WIFE! I am so happy that we made the decision to get married there and make a week of it with our family and best friends!

Happy Two Year Anniversary Chris! I Love you so much, still!

ETA 5/10/10: And now it's celebrating THREE YEARS!

what happens in vegas, part 4: redux

2010-05-08T06:00:00.000-04:00

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS, PART 4
Originally posted May 7th, 2009
The third day of wedding week was actually the day before our wedding. This is the day that the famous game over t-shirt made its first appearance!

The morning began with us all (minus the two brothers who flew in the night before and then stayed up late gambling!) heading over to the Bellagio to look at the indoor gardens.

I loved how pretty the pictures came out in those gardens!

We took a lot of pictures in front of the Bellagio lake – it has some of the best views!

Most of this day was simply spent relaxing…we did a semi-rehearsal at the chapel, spent time at the pool, I got my nails re-done, etc. Later on that night we all went out for our rehearsal dinner at one of the best buffets on the strip!

Then we all watched the Bellagio fountain show, which is my absolute favorite part about Vegas!

I still can’t believe how well I fell asleep that night, because the next day I’d be married!

Tomorrow I’ll post the final installment of this series – the wedding and the day I became the gamer’s WIFE!

what happens in vegas, part 3: redux

2010-05-07T06:00:00.000-04:00

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS, PART 3
Originally posted May 6th, 2009
On the second day of wedding week we had big events planned – our Bachelor and Bachelorette activities!

The day started off with the guys picking up their tuxes…

And the girls shopping at the Forum shops in Caesars!

Where we also got to see this:

Afterwards we met up in the afternoon, taking some pictures together on the way back to the hotel…

And before the nights festivities began we all went out to dinner to some awesom hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant!

This picture always makes me laugh, because I have no idea why I was making that face or why the gamer looks like he’s about to touch my boob!

And then the husband and wife to-be said goodnight and went our separate ways!

Me and the girls had an awesome time at Chippendales!

Where we proceeded to get quite a few drinks and enjoy the best show ever. One of the guys hugged me and I think I about died!

Afterwards we went to a club with an outdoor area on the top of the hotel where we could view the strip. It was pretty awesome, but my recollection of the night kinda stops about here :-P

Meanwhile, the boys were having a grand time seeing the ladies of some topless girlie show. I know! I still can’t believe the gamer (the most modest person ever) saw other women’s boobies!

They proceeded to drink a lot too and act generally foolish:

Later on in the night I apparently clearly crashed, making a drunken call to my drunken fiance:

Ash and I apparently met a few girls we wanted to go dancing with at Coyote Ugly, but when we got back to the hotel to change I was out. So the boys came over so she could join in with them for the rest of the night’s activities. Apparently the gamer came in to kiss me goodbye but he must have been out of it too. Neither of us remembers being photographed or even being together that night! We laughed so much when we eventually saw these photos!

Amazingly the gamer went back out on the town for hours following this, but I was sound asleep. For those of you who know us personally you know that is not our typical behavior to act crazy, so it definitely makes for some laughs from us looking back!

what happens in vegas, part 2: redux

2010-05-06T06:00:00.000-04:00

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS, PART 2
Originally posted May 5th, 2009
So on the first day of Wedding Week we all woke up at the crack of dawn to get to the airport. The night before I had a major freakout because I superglued my brand new manicured nails together! And instead of sleeping in my own bed for the last night ever, I ended up falling asleep on the couch! I’ll never forget that.

FYI the photo below is our wedding party, minus my brother (who must be taking the shot, and his two brothers who were arriving the next night). From the left is my maid of honor (Ash), my mom, me, Chris’s parents, my dad, the gamer, and the best man (Ryan, or P2).

We had a LOT of luggage.

We made the customary drive passed the Vegas sign…

Out first stop out of the airport was none other than In-N-Out, our favorite burger place, ever!

Then we settled in the hotel, went swimming, then dinner at the Rainforest Cafe..

Afterwards we had to take in the sites of the strip! After riding the NYNY rollercoaster we were exhausted from jetlag, and went back to the hotel, happy that the first day of Wedding Week was such a success!

what happens in vegas, part 1: redux

2010-05-05T09:38:00.003-04:00

I've been a little busy lately, and that busyness is going to last until the end of next week because you know what time of year it is? That's right! It's END OF THE SEMESTER TIME! Final exams, final grades - LOTS of work to do with the students before they leave for the summer. I can't believe I have been working at this college for a whole school year - it has just flown by. I am actually going to miss the hustle and bustle of the regular school year and having kids always around because working during the summer at a college? Sucks! It is super slow, and I'm actually not looking forward to it at all!

But yeah - I'm going to be gone for a little while, but in the meantime I am going to re-post my series on my Vegas wedding! I did this last year, and you also know what time of year it is? That's right - ANNIVERSARY TIME! On Monday, May 10th the gamer and I will have been married for THREE YEARS!

Three years and we still look back on our Vegas wedding so fondly and enjoy looking at our photos and remembering the blast we had with our families. So without further ado - Vegas wedding redux begins here:

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS, PART 1
(Originally posted May 4th, 2009)
Most of you know I write this blog, mostly for posterity. I used to journal (and have a collection of them that I wrote in from age 13 to 20) and truly, truly missed writing until I landed into the blogosphere! Since I missed out on journaling (and blogging!) during our wedding two years ago, I am going to do a recap here for you all (ok, really ME) to enjoy! This series will last all week since our two year wedding anniversary is this weekend!

But first you’ll need some backstory to answer the question, why did we choose to get married in VEGAS?

Vegas? The capitol of shot-gun weddings and Elvis?

The gamer and I had been together for YEARS already, so we definitely didn’t fit the random, drunken, quickie wedding. And Elvis? Sorry Mom and Dad, Elvis is NOT for me.

I am a planner. Seriously, the gamer and I even planned our engagement. Ok, not how it actually went down, but we did decide several months before to start setting aside some money, looked at rings together, and decided we’d like to get engaged at a specific time of year (the fall). See? I’m a planner.

So I only figured that when the time came to plan my wedding that I’d be ecstatic to do so. The weekend after we got engaged I bought several wedding magazines and books, and began to berate the gamer with questions, color choices, ideas, styles, and locations.

And after several months I had decided. We were going to get married at a small beautiful castle-like site in the middle of the woods in Jamestown, NC. We’d have the ceremony and reception there…all with a medieval theme…wood floors and candles…flowers..a lake..I’d wear a princess dress, and it would be perfect. I even paid the deposit.

And then I freaked out. You see, the gamer and I are introverted. I’m not a big fan of parties or big groups of people, and I was starting to feel anxious about the details with getting all of our family and friends together, and everyone looking at US.

So I bailed.

A few days after our deposit was paid I turned to the gamer and said…

What about a destination wedding? In Vegas?

And the gamer smiled a smile of relief and said, yes.

Until that point I would have never dreamed that I would have a destination wedding, instead of the traditional church wedding that I always thought I’d have.

And like I’ve told you before, Vegas held a special meaning for us. It was the destination of Chris’s first plane ride, first cross country trip, and OUR first vacation ever.

And my parent’s had gotten married there too, over 20 years ago.

Without them I don’t think I would have known that a Vegas wedding could be planned.

And so the next day I cancelled the castle. And the next week my dad and I were on a plane to Vegas, where we spent a day visiting every hotel’s wedding chapel. If I was going to get married in Vegas it was going to have to be classy.

And when we were done I had chosen my chapel, and within a month almost all the real planning was done. It was such an easy process. And all my anxieties were gone!

And that is how we came to get married in Vegas, in front of 9 guests, who we flew out to spend a week with us there before the wedding.

The gamer and I still talk about that week. And it still is probably the best decision I ever made!

the gaming pin

2010-04-28T14:30:00.002-04:00

If only the gamer were fifteen years younger...Then he would be reveling in the fact that he could earn his very own Cub Scout pin by....yeah, you guessed it...

playing video games!

The Boy Scouts of America has decided to let scouts earn both a pin and a belt loop in video gaming! Although they try to explain it by saying that boys will learn age-appropriate game choices or use video games for educational purposes it all sounds like one thing to me...

Play a video game and get a pin!

Sure sounds easier than learning to make a fire, or well...I actually have no idea what other things boy scouts must do to earn their pins, but I'm sure this one is well on it's way to being the most earned pin in the history of boy scouts!

Read all about it here. Really, it's a shame the gamer didn't have this opportunity when he was younger. He would have been all up on that!

the drive-thru ZOO! part 2

2010-04-27T06:00:00.000-04:00

The drive-thru park was really quite long...and it probably took us over an hour to get through the hall thing. You drove very slow so you didn't startle the animals or hit them! Some of them were very defiant and would just NOT MOVE!

Instead of driving through in your car you could also sit on the back of a horse drawn wagon. That option was definitely not for me since then the animals really could come right up and slobber on you. I liked knowing I could just raise my window up if something go too close!

Like this guy..do you want his face in your car?

Doesn't it look like he's gonna give me a sloppy kiss?

Looks like a meanie..

Seriously, I was afraid he'd peck your head if you got too close!

The whole drive-thru park was vast, wide open spaces where all the animals roamed free together. The only ones that had separate areas inside were the rhinos and the giraffes.

There were so many giraffes!

See all the animals in the way of the car path?

Doesn't this look like a painting?

This guy was huge! I don't think I'd see anything like him before..

This guy put his whole HEAD IN OUR CAR!

Then he posed for a picture with me :)

After we did the drive-thru portion there was a whole other area of the park that you could walk around and see smaller caged animals. There were lots of birds, bunnies, turtles, monkeys, camels and farm animals in this part and it was nice to be on foot and see them since they were smaller and it wouldn't have been wise for them to be out with the cars!

THAT is a sleeping kangaroo!

And another one..I think it was funny how they just plopped on their sides!

We were also able to feed the animals here..

This baby goat was desperately trying to get some food but those giganto rams kept knocking him out of the way!

Look at those horns? Antlers? I don't know what you call them but they were BIG!

Camels! Dad has been to the Middle East and has ridden a real camel and said these were MUCH smaller than the ones out in the desert. Weird!

Look at that mouth!

Mom and dad feeding the camels the last bit of food..

Really big turtle! Tortoise? They had hares right next door to this pen!

And this little guy popped out of his hole just as we were about to leave!

We had a blast at the drive-thru zoo and the gamer was soo jealous of us getting to go while he was stuck inside studying for finals!

In case you were wondering all that studying did pay off and the gamer pretty much aced all of his finals - even getting the highest score on some of them! Go gamer! :)

the drive-thru ZOO! part 1

2010-04-26T09:45:00.002-04:00

I've lived in NC quite a long time, and I would like to think that I know most of the cool places to visit in this small southern state. Well, apparently we missed one!

Last weekend while the gamer was studying for finals my parents and I went to the Lazy 5 Ranch. And it was.....awesome!!

Now, I am sure I do not strike you as a "ranch" kind of person. And it's true - I'm not! But this wasn't really a ranch, it was more of a ZOO (which is cooler) and the best part of it?

You drove through in your car and the animals came right up to you! How neat is that?

We'd done this kind of thing when I was little and I remember zoo animals licking the windows of the car and F-R-E-A-K-I-N-G out about it.

But in all the time we've been to this place none of my family had even heard of this place! So naturally once we learned of it we decided to road trip it down to the middle of nowhere farmtown NC to see what this place was all about.

You wouldn't believe how packed it was! And it was more than just farm animals! We saw buffalo, zebras, giraffes, a rhino, camels, monkeys, peacocks, kangaroos and tons of other animals. And of course I have to show you my pictures!

The really neat thing was getting to drive through their habitat and see them up close...and I didn't have to get dirty! Look at this guy...I think he is an emu or an ostrich. I really don't know :-P

There were a lot of them though. Isn't his eyeball freaky?

He got really close to my window!

I tried to take A LOT of photos like with the animals. I pretty much laughed the entire way through!

I just love these close-ups!

There were a lot of pot bellied pigs. I don't think I ever seen one before and BOY! They have got to be one of the ugliest animals..EVER.

Look at this cutie..

Lots of llamas too...They liked to stand right in the middle of the road!
They all looked like they were laughing at us!

This guys almost tried to put his hooves on our car!

Pretty dears! They gave us a bucket of feed and my mom through out food from the back window...You had to be careful because if they came near the bucket they'd try to rip it from you!

A ZEBRA!

I don't think I've ever seen a zebra this close! You have to remember I'm not even zooming in on these pictures. He was literally this close to me..our windows were open and I could reach out and pet them!

See? There's Dad with the zebra.

They just looked like statues!

Since it is springtime there were a lot of babies to see!

Isn't he a cutie!

He's not a baby..

See doesn't he look like he's laughing at you?

I have some more animal pictures (naturally!) for you to see you tomorrow! :)

waterfalls in the city

2010-04-14T06:00:00.000-04:00

Greenville is quite unique for having a beautiful river and waterfalls running right through it's downtown area. The park was gorgeous and I'm a little jealous I don't live in a downtown area that has such a nice outdoor space to enjoy!

On Easter we work up to beautiful weather. Really, it could not have been nicer! It ended up being quite a hot day actually - clear skies and bright sun - and we enjoyed spending our time at the park. It was a perfect way to spend the spring holiday!

Can you believe this is the middle of downtown?!

Overlooking the calmer side..

A neat pedestrian bridge went over the falls...

Me and the gamer!

My mom and dad :)

Bridge overlooking the river..

More falls

It's like the flowers knew it was Easter...everywhere we looked there were flowers blooming!

Of course we had to stop for some gelato!

Dipping our toes in...it was definitely ICE COLD!

In front of the falls..

My pretty momma!

We decided to do a little rock climbing to get closer to the falls...

Never thought I'd be taking a photo in front of a raging waterfall in the middle of downtown!

Doesn't he look cute?

Long view of the park..

It really is a perfect place for picnics and kids...it seemed like everyone wanted to be outside to enjoy Easter in the park!

I still can't believe that a river, waterfalls, bridge and beautiful park and gardens runs right through the middle of Greenville. We had a lovely time there and it's definitely a place I'll go back to visit. Just not in the summer - because it was HOT enough in April! :)

the great mouse hunt of 2010

2010-04-13T06:00:00.000-04:00

For Easter weekend this year the gamer and I went to Greenville, SC to enjoy their sweet little downtown area. It was really nice, and we had fabulous weather, but my favorite part was...

the mouse hunt!

Downtown there are hidden little mouse statues all along the sidewalks. You get clues to find them, and they are so small that they can easily go unnoticed. We all had a blast reading out the clues and running around town trying to find the little guys!

The downtown area has been completely renovated and is such a nice little town to walk around...tons of shops and food!

Here's my first mouse!

Across the street was the second one..

And then the third..

SUCH nice weather for early April. We walked around until dark and it was still warm!

Right in the middle of downtown is this big river and waterfalls! I'll post more pictures of them tomorrow...

Another mousie!

And another one...

And another!

Mouse hunting was exhausting so we stopped for dinner and I had this awesome meal!

Another little guy..

Last one!

See how tiny those mice were?! It really was interesting to walk around and see them in random places. Unless you knew about them you'd probably never even notice them! There was one mouse we had to ask a local for help with because the clue was awful. He ended up being on an awning! We never would have found him on our own!

Overall I'd say the great mouse hunt of 2010 was a success! Every city should have it's own mice! :-P

On Easter Sunday the weather was gorgeous again and we spent the whole afternoon enjoying the park and waterfalls area - right in the middle of a city. How unique! Those pictures up tomorrow :)

cats and easter grass

2010-04-12T09:39:00.002-04:00

If you haven't seen the video of the Easter Basket Massacre, you MUST click here!

As promised here are some photos of Bit in all of her Easter grass glory...

Doesn't she look so innocent here??

And the mess she left behind....sigh...

I actually used a small garden rake to clean up all that mess!

Tomorrow I'll be back to posting some people pictures - YAY! I've got some pictures of our trip to Greenville for Easter and I promise there are no cats in them - just mice! You'll see!

the easter basket massacre

2010-04-08T06:00:00.000-04:00

The morning after Easter we woke up to a massacre on our living room floor. It was so hilarious that we couldn't be mad at Bit for all the mess that she made! Click on the picture above to take you to a video of the event. Pictures just can't do it justice - you must watch the video!

Don't worry though, I'll still post a bunch of pictures of Bit and her big Easter grass mess! Those should be up tomorrow :)

miss bit's photoshoot

2010-04-07T06:00:00.000-04:00

She's growing up sooo fast! Soon she won't be an itty bitty kitten anymore so I've had my camera on hand lately to catch all the cuteness before she turns into a big fat cat!

She loves lying in her little bed lately...

So inquisitive...

Doesn't she look like she's modeling?

Another magazine shot..

and another one..

I should become a professional cat photographer...kidding!

Look at those eyes...and those ears!

Another cutie shot...

Look at that little face!

Isn't she so adorable??

And this has got to be my most favorite photo of all time!!

Now just remember that cuteness....because she turned into quite the little bad kitty on Easter! See what she did...tomorrow!

from snow to spring

2010-04-06T06:00:00.000-04:00

In the past month during my disappearance things have just been busier for no apparent reason. But in the past four weeks I've been really sick, traveled back and forth to Delaware and experienced my busy-busy week of registration advising to students. I've also seen snow AND ninety degree weather. How crazy! When I finally got around to uploading my pictures from the past month I had quite the hodgepodge of photos!

Starting with...

Bit decided to try out for Blair Witch Kitty

We had a snow day in March..

I made an awesome Chinese wonton soup..

Bit went in for surgery so she'd stop howling for a mate...

And she came back all cute and snuggly!

I made a few new thins in the kitchen..

...and only had this one minor mishap!

I went for a run and saw this amazing nest...

Just perfect for Spring, don't you think!

My garden finally started to spring up...

Such pretty irises....one of my favorite garden flowers!

And we finally got to open our windows up and Bit LOOOOOVES meowing out the screens!

Such randomness with these photos! Tomorrow I'll have up a mini little photoshoot with Miss Bit! I just want you to see how much of a cutie she is before you see her involvement with the Easter Basket Massacre which comes up on Thursday!

the gamepocalypse

2010-04-05T18:59:00.002-04:00

I read an article today about the supposed "gamepocalypse" - the time that's coming when everything in our life will become part of a game.

You can check it out here:
why games will take over our lives

It's an interesting read, and quite funny when you're married to a gamer and already feel like your life is taken over by games! I'm hoping this gamepocalypse will hold on for a little while longer though :-P

I've also got some photo updates for you all! Stay tuned this week for:

-Some random photos of what's been happening this past month (from snow to spring!)
-A kitty photoshoot (no apologies..I love my baby!)
-The Easter Basket Massacre (this is HIGHlarious!)
-The great mouse hunt of 2010 (which surprisingly has nothing to do with my cat!)
-Walking near a waterfall in the middle of town (so cool!)

Happy Spring everyone! :)

i'm alive

2010-03-24T09:32:00.003-04:00

I am alive! I just haven't had much time for writing lately. The gamer and gamer's wife household has just been so busy recently that I can't even remember what we've done these past few weeks!

This week starts registration time for me at work. Meaning, the busiest time all semester. Meaning, I don't have time for anything else! AHH. I can't believe it's already that time of year again! Why can't students figure out how to pick their own classes?? The next four weeks are going to be...interesting!

Sigh...I guess if they could figure out the whole college process I'd be without a job :-P

Other than that the gamer and I have been enjoying some beautiful spring weather! I'm sorry, but who wants to be tied to a computer when it's so nice outside?

Maybe I'll be back to blogging regularly when it's raining...that should happen a lot in April, right?

;-)

road tripping

2010-03-11T06:00:00.000-05:00

About a month ago my dad went in for a procedure to place stents in his heart. We weren't really surprised this needed to be done, and the procedure went smoothly. Then, weeks after that news we found out that the gamer's dad would be going in to the hospital for the same procedure! It was crazy how both of our fathers were dealing with the same medical condition at the same time. Unfortunately, there was too much damage in the gamer's dad's heart so stents were not possible and a bypass surgery was required. This more invasive and intense surgery occurred last week and he was finally released from the hospital a few days ago. His surgery went smoothly too! We are so blessed that everything is fine with our dads!

The gamer and I are now on our way to Delaware to visit his parents. Don't worry - midterms ended today! I'm not too psyched about the seven hour drive (with our kitty!) but I am looking forward to our visit. We'll be gone until Sunday so I hope to return to blogging sometime next week :)

the gamer on hold

2010-03-10T10:18:00.009-05:00

The gamer is not following his title role this week as he is deep in the midst of midterm examinations!

It's funny that I haven't seen him playing games in nearly a week! But if there's anything else the gamer is awesome at it's his studying determination.

It doesn't really change my life that much. My alone-time-while-gaming has just turned into alone-time-while-studying, so it works for me! Last night Bit and I enjoyed some much needed snuggle and relax time in bed watching hulu while the gamer studied - sometimes you just need a night like that! :)

Keep your fingers crossed that the gamer aces these exams!

I've told him since day one - he either needs to be a professional gamer, or an awesome physical therapist. I won't stand for less :-P Kidding! If he chose something completely different I'd be okay with that -just a little mad about all this dept we are going into ;) The gamer isn't that good to be a professional gamer (sorry but it's true gamer!) but wouldn't that be some kind of life??

thegamerswife.com is born!

2010-03-04T11:33:00.002-05:00

Some of you might have had some issues accessing the blog earlier (and some of you might have been fine!) but I think I have all the kinks worked out now.

Welcome to my new site!

I have decided that I no longer wanted to have blogspot.com in my web address! So technically you shouldn't actually see any changes on the blog except for up there on the web address bar. See it? You see it? I have my own dot com now!

Hopefully you've either been redirected here by visiting my actual blog or because Google Reader is smart and has already redirected you based on your feeds. Either way, please take this time to update how you view me at my address:

www.thegamerswife.com

It was quite a battle to decide if I wanted to keep my original name thegamerswifey since that is what I started this blog under almost two years ago! While the gamer does in fact call me wifey all the time, I felt it was best when making my new domain name to go with what most people google when they find me - thegamerswife. And it's easy since that's what my email address has been this whole time anyways!

I'm hoping in the next year to make some more changes to the way this blog looks, gain some more followers (we need some more gamer's wives!) and work hard to bring you not only updates on my life, but funny commentary on gamers, gaming and gamer's wives!

Welcome again to thegamerswife.com!

testing

2010-03-04T10:44:00.002-05:00

I'm just testing something...trying to see if this is coming up in google reader or not (I might be having some issues!)..Please be patient and I should be up and running normally in a few days!

baking blunders part 2

2010-03-02T06:00:00.000-05:00

Are you here to find out if my house burned down? Good news! It didn't!

But it did come close. There were flames. And the smoke alarms went off. And the house smelled like burnt charcoal all day. And I got the fire extinguisher out.

And in the end the gamer I were laughing so hard and I turned to him and said,

"Well, at least I'll have a funny story for the blog!"

So here's what happened...

I decided I was going to bake cupcakes since I had never even made them from a box mix before, let alone from scratch. I love muffins, but for some reason cupcakes just don't do it for me. I'm not a huge fan of icing actually so that's probably why. Whenever we had cupcakes at school to celebrate kid's birthdays, I'm not going to lie, but I would turn the cupcake over and just eat the cake part. Seriously, while other kids were licking up their icing and throwing the rest away I was enjoying the cake!

But I found a recipe for s'mores cupcakes that I knew the gamer would love so I thought it would be the perfect recipe for a made from scratch cupcake.

Homemade graham cracker pie crust made individually for each cupcake bottom? Done!

Chocolate chip and chocolate cake batter mixture? Done!

Baked until perfection? Done!

I mean, really look how perfect these are!

The next step was to add the marshmallow topping. I had never had marshmallow fluff before, and wow, that stuff is so neat! Melted marshmallow without the trouble of the fire! How perfect!

It was a pain to coat them all with the fluff (sooo sticky!) and I didn't get a chance to take a picture when they were completed here because I was focused on the next step which was to brown the marshmallow. That's right. Just like a real s'more. It needed to have little burnt peaks in the marshmallow to make it authentic.

Kitchen blow torch? Umm....come again?

The recipe called for one of those things you use to brown creme brulee, which of course I didn't have. So I looked online and it said I could improvise and use the top rack of the oven and the broiler.

Easy right?

Wrong!

So let's look at those beautiful cupcakes again, shall we?

Keep this picture in your mind. And into the broiler they go.

Few seconds in - open the door - still white.

Few more seconds - still white.

Few more seconds..

BAM.

FLAMES!!!

FLAMES!!

Seriously FLAMES are shooting from every cupcake!!!!!

I was freaking out. I mean, how should I react? An entire pan of cupcakes is on fire! I wish I had a picture to show you the awesomeness of this fire. This was a raging fire people. Not just a few flames. But every single cupcake engulfed! The smoke detectors went off and the kitchen was filling with smoke as I tried to save our cat (who I literally threw into the bathroom and shut her in there) and find our fire extinguisher.

But, by the time I got it out of the box (really, this should be ready to go and I learned my lesson for next time) the fire was gone. Gone.

Because apparently once marshmallow is completely burnt there's no more to be on fire.

And thus I present you with...

People, that is not black icing. That is 100% pure burnt marshmallow.

The gamer was like, "wow..it kind of looks like burnt lava"

Not exactly what I wanted to hear from my first cupcake experience!

Do you see the disgustingness of this??

But overall I was happy to be alive, and safe. And after a few minutes of fanning the smoke alarms and opening up all the windows the gamer and I had a good hard laugh about the whole situation. Thank goodness the fire went out quickly on it's own and didn't spread!

I don't know anything about fires. Remember, I almost burnt down the kitchen two thanksgivings ago. I have no common sense when it comes to fire. Later on my mom told me I could have suffocated the fire by putting it back in the oven or putting a pan over it. Good to know. Good to know!

Here I am attempting to take off the burntness..

It actually came off quite easily. Underneath you can still see some white...Poor cupcake.

After re-icing the cupcakes with fluff the gamer decided to use a candle lighter to give it some toastyness. It takes a loooong time. Maybe we should invest in a kitchen torch?

Here's the final product.

Isn't that the cutest thing? It's hard to see the graham cracker crust on the bottom, but I have to say that that is the most professional looking thing I've ever made!

I really am proud of myself for making these turn from a huge baking blunder to a success!

And a big thanks to the gamer for keeping calm and collected when I screamed FIRE!

He definitely had two of these babies right after and declared them a perfect fit for their namesake. S'mores cupcakes! I'll definitely be making them again!

baking blunders part 1

2010-03-01T09:48:00.002-05:00

My KitchenAid mixer and I have been fast friends. I'm a pretty good cook, but I'm not a natural baker. SO naturally there are going to be some mishaps in the kitchen. I don't really get too discouraged though, which is good. This first one didn't turn out too bad...stay tuned tomorrow to find out if I burned the house down or not :-P

So two weekends ago I baked bread. With my new KitchenAid mixer. And it was a disaster. But then it got better. And the bread baked. And it was awesome.

So I've baked bread from scratch before. My dad and I have done this a few times - the whole make a well in the middle of a huge pile of flour, kneading by hand, letting it rise for hours - kind of making bread. And it's been a success, without having the use of a stand mixer.

So of course I wanted to see if having a mixer made it at all any easier.

It wasn't.

But it wasn't the mixer's fault, really.

It started off fine. I decided to use a simple fast-rise recipe that I found in the book that came with the mixer. Seeing that the recipe yielded two loaves I went about dividing all the ingredient totals in half since I couldn't possibly use all that bread. I'm not that great with simple math (I'm terrible at doing stuff in my head - which is ridiculous because I did fairly well in higher level maths like calculus) but the gamer helped out and made sure that I was dividing everything correctly. Everything was going smoothly.

Until I added in enough water for two loaves. And my dough was a sopping mess and I couldn't figure out what the problem was. And then I realized - I had divided everything in half except the water. I momentarily had a breakdown - my bread is ruined!! - and then I decided I'd just add all the other ingredient halves in to make the full recipe. Problem solved!

And really that was that. Not truly a disaster in the kitchen. But when you are in the moment and your recipe isn't turning out exactly as you'd hope (seriously - a wet, sopping dough mess? not fun!) it's easy to get frustrated. And want to give up. And think baking sucks.

But when it turns out like this...

Fresh bread right out of the oven?

It's hard not get excited about that!

The bread was super tasty though. Which was a perfect end to this baking blunder! That's what makes mishaps worthwhile, because if it still sucked in the end I would not have been happy!

Stay tuned tomorrow for the biggest kitchen blunder of my life. Seriously, flames were involved. And a fire extinguisher. And smoke alarms.

Ohhh the joys of baking ;)

miss bit

2010-02-24T09:58:00.002-05:00

Remember this baby?

Well she now looks like this....

Growing into a very mature looking lady cat!

She is losing all of her itty-bitty-ness! MEH! She is still adorable, but when I look back on the pictures from the past few months I just can't believe how much she has grown!

Miss Bit loves to sit very prim and proper now, you know, since she is growing into a lady and all! She doesn't like being called Baby Bit anymore and much prefers to be called Miss. Although she still lets me pick her up and give her huggies I'm almost certain she is rolling her eyes towards the end and saying, "Ohhhh Mom! I'm too old for this!"

She is so my cat! :)

sold! to the higest bidder

2010-02-23T10:49:00.001-05:00

Last Friday night we held a huge gala-like fundraiser to support athletics at the college I work at. Being that I work for athletics that meant I was on hand all day to help run the event from early morning preparations until the the last rich drunk person left. It was a really nice event, even though I couldn't partake in the awesome food and drinks, and we raised over $80,000 for our students. Woo hoo! Needless to say after nearly fifteen (yes, FIFTEEN!) hours on my feet I was e-x-h-a-u-s-t-e-d!

Along with thousand dollar tables (gasp!) the fundraiser also acts as a silent auction. So while people are boozing it up on free drinks they roam around and bid their highest on items like football helmets, court-side seats, trips, jewelry and other items that only the rich would pay hundreds of dollars for after paying for a thousand dollar seat.

But I got caught up in the moment of the auction and seconds before it was due to close, I wrote down my bidder number and named my price on the one item I was dying to have. Sold! To the highest bidder...ME.

It was exciting to win my first item at auction!

And now I am the proud owner of two tickets to travel with the football team when they go and play my old college! I get hotel, meals, tickets and transportation with the team and couldn't be more excited! Although I work directly with athletics and I could have easily asked for these tickets for free, something made me think that it just wouldn't work out the way I wanted if I waited until October to barter for them. Since it's the biggest game of the season (besides any playoff games we might go to) I knew it might be difficult to be allowed an allotment of free away game tickets and a hotel and transportation with the team, when other more important people (ahem..DONORS) would be more inclined to ask for and take those spots.

So now I don't have to worry at all. Technically I AM a donor now! I've made my donation to the kiddos and program I work for and get this awesome travel with the team package. It's a win win situation!

It sure will be interesting to wear maroon instead of black and gold on our own school's turf. But it's probably better this way instead of the gamer and me showing up to an away game to root for the other team than the one I work for totally decked out in black and gold and painted faces! It's a friendly rivalry and everyone knows that's our alma mater so I'm hoping no one will give us a hard time! Overall it sure beats the six hour drive (three hours there and back) that the gamer and I would have to do on our own for a game we wouldn't want to miss!

Can't wait until October when my auction bidding pays off! So crazy to have to wait eight months for my payout! :)