Sunday, December 21, 2008

Mele Kalikimaka 2008!

We're heading down to Jess's parents in North Carolina today and might not have a chance to wish everyone Mele Kalikimaka later, so we're doing it today!

Also, we went to see The Legwarmers - an 80s tribute band - on Friday. This is us looking silly, as usual.Mele Kalikimaka!

- j & j

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

November (I know we're behind!)

Grandpa and my parents came to visit us in the middle of the month. It was a lot of fun, but of course, it was a cloudy, cold and damp weekend. Since Grandpa's from northwestern Pennsylvania, it was still warmer than he's used to for this time of year, but when we stepped off the Metro, we had problems orienting ourselves because the fog was obscuring the Washington Monument!

(Jeff's not in the picture because he worked a half day and joined us a little later at the momunent).

We spent Thanksgiving with Jason, Kelly and Danielle this year. It's hard to believe this was Jeff's and my fifth Thanksgiving together, and they've all been in different places with different people (2002 with my parents in NC, 2003 in Mexico where we, needless to say, had trouble finding a turkey dinner, 2006 on the ship, and 2007 at our place with our Hawaii friends). Who knows where we'll be next year?

Thanksgiving pictures
Right: Jeff and Jason in the kitchen (where they belong!)
Left: Kelly and me "supervising"
Below: Jeff's sleeping it off!

I think we were all too busy eating to get any pictures of Danielle with cranberry sauce in her hair - but suffice to say, it was pretty adorable.

Hopefully we'll get around to updating sooner rather than later, but if not, Happy Holidays!

--jess

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Happy Halloween!

I couldn't decide whether Zoe-chicken or Zeke-chicken was cuter, so I posted them both!

--jess

Friday, October 24, 2008

Arlington

Kelly's mom Jan was in town last weekend, so we all took the trolley tour of Arlington National Cemetery. It was a little chilly out, but all in all a really good day capped by chili at Hard Times Cafe.

We're having some trouble with picture sizing on the blog today, so please excuse any awkwardness. As always, everything is available at the Photobucket site.

Left: Kelly, Jan, Danielle and Jason. Right: Jess, Jeff and Danielle.


Monday, September 15, 2008

Catch up post

We have gotten a little behind on our blog posting, so I am going to attempt to do a quick and dirty illustrated summary of August and early September.

First off, I interviewed at Eastern Virginia Medical School's PA program in Norfolk late in August. Jeff and I really enjoyed having the opportunity to go to the beach, although it definitely wasn't Hawaii! I wasn't admitted to the program there (which would have started in January), but I have two more interviews this month in Philadelphia for programs that start in June of next year, and I am still waiting to hear from the Medical University of South Carolina (which I am, obviously, a little partial to). Jeff and I plan to make the most of the extra time we'll get to spend together.

The picture at the top is from the spontaneous trip to Dayton and Indianapolis we took Labor Day weekend to visit my siblings. In the picture is Linsey, me, and Casey's fiance Amber. We also took an 8-mile canoe journey down the White River and are awaiting the pictures from Linsey's disposable camera.

I took a trip down to Charlotte early last week to visit my best friends from college, Nikki and Janice (unfortunately no good pictures came of it). I returned Thursday to a visit with Jeff's mom Rosemary, her husband Roger, and Jeff's brother Kevin. Picture to the right is Kevin, Rosemary and Jeff at Bob Evans yesterday.

After touring monuments with the family, Jeff and I took a trip to the National Botanical Garden, which was gorgeous. We must have taken 70 pictures there, but I particularly liked the globes around the building with "green" themes like reduce, reuse, recycle and use renewable power. The garden and the conservatory are run with solar power.

There were a bunch of WWII veterans at the World War II Memorial on an honor flight - which reminded me of Grandpa, so I'll post a picture for him. He's coming for a visit in early November, and we're very much looking forward to it!

--jess

Sunday, August 03, 2008

Motorcycles, Concerts, and Houses

Several weeks ago, Jason and Jeff took a motorcycle education course, and are now both licensed to ride in the state of Virginia. Jeff has been talking about buying a motorcycle sometime in the future. That same weekend, Jason, Jeff attended a 311 concert at the Nissan Pavilion with Matt and his roommate James.

The most exciting news, however, is that we have sold the house in Hawaii, and closed this past Tuesday! Unfortunately we had to put a huge chunk of money toward the mortgage to let it go, but we figure the value of selling it now makes more sense than renting it at a loss over the next several years before the market recovers.

--J & J

Friday, July 18, 2008

Camp and other news

As promised, a little update on my week at Camp Holiday Trails (the director informs me that she gets a Google alert when the name comes up, so hopefully she enjoys the pictures!)

(Left: Lauren (pediatric resident), me, Cindy (PA) and Becca (med student) took a joy ride in the golf cart and hung out with the horses. Right: group activity in the dining hall. Bottom: home sweet home for the week. More pictures in the Photobucket album)

I had a really good week. The campers were high spirited and energetic, and I enjoyed getting to know them. The food was fantastic (especially when I went in expecting something akin to what I had at Girl Scout camp growing up), and I enjoyed working with PAs, medical students, nursing students and a bunch of other people (mostly from the University of Virginia - and I have to admit, Charlottesville is very cute). Coming back to work was a bit of culture shock even though I was only gone a week; I would love to move somewhere smaller and friendlier than DC.

In other news, I've been offered an interview at the PA program at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, VA next month, so wish me luck! If I'm accepted, I'll start up full time in January, which would be fantastic. Jeff and I are negotiating some adventurous exploration of the Hampton Roads area while we're there...

--jess

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Excessive cuteness

Will blog about camp later, just wanted to share some cuteness. We got Zeke a little buddy this weekend (now named Zoe)! She has the cutest leopard spots on her belly.

And of course, I had to share the picture of Zeke dreaming of being Superman.


--jess

Saturday, July 05, 2008

Girls weekend: Bolar Mountain

Last weekend I met up with my friends Nikki and Mia from Charlotte for a weekend of adventure in southwestern Virigina. Of course it was full of mishaps; for starters there was even less cell phone reception than any of us had expected, so meeting up was interesting. There were at least 40 miles of no contact before we got to the campsite (the closest town was Covington, VA), and our intended campground was full. Luckily I had just given up and started the drive back toward Covington as Nikki and Mia driving up the windy two lane road going toward the visitors center, so we found each other pretty quickly!

The first campground being full actually worked out in our favor; we continued around to the northern shore of Lake Moomaw (yes, that is really the name) to the Bolar Mountain Recreation Area, where the Boy Scouts had *just* finished clearing the campsites. We were the first ones to camp in our particular spot! But just as we paid our fees and started setting up camp, we were hit by a torrential downpour. Luckily I have a tiny, simple tent that went up in less than five minutes so I could help Nikki and Mia with their enormous and complicated one (and of course get soaked in the process).

We did some swimming, outdoor cooking, hiking, and hanging out through the weekend. The campground is gorgeous and well kept, and the lake is clean and refreshing - I highly recommend it! The top left picture is from the Grouse Point overlook, and the bottom one is the Twin Islands overlook . I, of course, ended up getting bitten by three ticks and have been itchy and on antibiotics all week just in case. Still, definitely worth it.
Speaking of camping, I am leaving tomorrow to volunteer in the infirmary for a week at Camp Holiday Trails, which is near Charlottesville, VA; will update when I return!


--jess

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Home improvement

We've been very, very busy lately!

Jeff and I have made two trips down to the Carolinas this month for some home improvements before renters move into the townhouse in Columbia. Since most people who read the blog haven't ever seen the place, I figured I'd share. On the other side of the road in front of the townhouse, there is a row of trees, and when they lose their leaves in the winter, you can see a tributary of the Broad River from the balcony.

Unfortunately, we don't have many good "before" pictures, so you'll have to use your imagination. The place was built in the 70s, so there was appalling wallpaper in the kitchen that had to be scraped off, and the cabinets are still ugly. It's a work in progress and we figured the granny smith apple colors make the ivory counter and appliances not look quite so dingy. We also put in new light fixtures and a range hood (to replace probably the biggest, heaviest microwave imaginable) and took out some shelving that didn't match anything. We have big plans for the kitchen should we ever decide to move back in, but for now, we're just happy that it looks better. It is very hard to photograph, by the way, because it is galley style and pretty narrow - I took the picture of the sink from inside the refrigerator!

I love the living area in the house; there's some awesome stone work around an old wood stove with exposed pipe in the living room, and it goes along with the rustic feel of the place. The floor was just replaced; just imagine the ugliest, most stained up tan shag carpet from the 70s and you'll probably be right on the mark for what was there before. Now we have laminate, something we were huge fans of in Hawaii.

The rest of the work the past weekend was a massive cleaning before renters move in. It was an ambitious task, and we were completely exhausted when we left Sunday morning. I think we're both still catching up on sleep! For more pictures of the renovation process, check out the Photobucket album.

We're in for lots of stuff this month and will try to be a little better about updating!

--jess

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Cherry Blossom

We headed to D.C. to check out the cherry blossoms today. We figured that by going early on a blustery Sunday morning, we'd avoid some crowds, and sure enough, we were able to walk around and get some good shots without much difficulty (minus the crazy 10-mile runners that did it in the yucky weather).

I am going to make the excuse that my eyes look all puffy because my allergies are going wild here, but at least Jeff looks cute.

We also went to the Freer Gallery, where they had this awesome exhibit called the Peacock Room. The pictures don't do it justice because we couldn't use flash; just imagine them in peacock blue with gold leafing.

Feel free to check out our Washington, D.C. album on Photobucket for more pictures. I am closing with a picture of Zeke I thought was hilarious - Jeff was unimpressed, but since this is my entry, it gets included, yay!

--jess

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Happy 90th Birthday Grandma!

We rode with Jess's parents up to Youngsville, PA for her grandma's 90th birthday last weekend. It was a lot of family, a lot of driving, and a lot of fun to finally have everyone meet Jeff! The opening picture is Jeff, Jess's cousin Rod, and Jess's brother Casey escorting Grandma to the church for her party.

The picture on the left is Grandma with her kids Janis (Jess's mom), Marty, Barb, and Jill.

The picture to the right is Jeff, Jess, Casey, his fiance Amber, and Jess's sister Linsey.

The last one is Jess's dad and his dad, who used to work with Grandma at the high school in Youngsville.

--j&j

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Art museums

Jeff and I took the Metro into town yesterday to wander around the art museums on the Mall. The weather was perfect, and we had a great time. I'm mostly using this as an excuse to post neat pictures. If they mass marketed the bike at the top, I would definitely buy one, by the way. And I am posting the picture of Rodin's "The Thinker" because I loved watching reruns of "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" growing up.

And you know I'll make any excuse to post cute pictures of Zeke.

--jess

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

St. Patty's in Alexandria

Yes, it's super early, but the parade was Saturday! Jeff and I headed Old Town to check out the dog show and the parade. Well, it took us longer than we thought to get there via bus, so we missed the actual dog show and got to see all of these crazy dogs hanging out dressed up as leprechauns before the parade. The wind was REALLY cold. Eventually we decided we'd prefer to observe the parade from Le Pain Quotidien, which has a delicious Mediterranean platter with hummus, baba ganouj, and tabouleh, not to mention a decadent Belgian praline spread. So we watched the parade from a heated restaurant, which was even smarter than we realized - the police stopped the parade in sections to let traffic through, which made it super long. We were impressed by the enormous wolf hounds...

but we are still puzzled as to what Storm Troopers had to do with Ireland.

--jess

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Weekend

We drove down to NC for the weekend to visit my parents (Mom's birthday was the 7th!) and Nikki, Josh and Mia in Charlotte. It was a LOT of driving, and we were pretty exhausted afterward, but it was worth it. I snapped this adorable shot of Jeff with Squishy (dog) and Lulu (cat) and figured it was worth sharing, especially with people who don't have many pictures of Jeff. I think the trip was just what we needed to refocus ourselves on getting the apartment organized!

We're going to have a very busy March as far as visitors and trips - it should be fun, and we'll be sure to update.

--jess

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Who's Bad? Not the Zoo...

We had quite the full day on Saturday, including visiting the National Zoological Park. Jess was most fascinated with the big cats, but Jeff thought the pandas were fantastic.
Later into the evening we drove up to the Santa Fe Cafe in College Park, MD to see Who's Bad?, the Michael Jackson tribute band. Jess's friend Ray McCall plays trumpet, sings and dances. The group is highly energetic and fantastic, so it made for a long night. There's a picture of them covering "Thriller" at the end of the post; you can probably tell by the dancing. Ray is the one on the right in the shredded black shirt.

We've started a Washington, D.C. album on our Photobucket site where we've uploaded pictures from both the zoo trip and the Who's Bad show. Jess is trying to monkey around with video posting so we can show off how awesome Who's Bad is. For now, it's just a still...

-- j&j

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Fat Tuesday

Jeff and I went out with some of my work buddies for Fat Tuesday at a place called Cafe Citron. Just thought I would post a couple of pictures in case you forgot what we look like... The picture to the right is me with Katie and Heather, the audiologists at the office. These are smaller pics because I got them from a website of Heather's.

--jess

Saturday, February 02, 2008

6 More Weeks...

Happy Groundhog Day!!!

Jeff has actually started going into work on a regular basis, although he hasn't officially begun work, so he gets home early in the afternoon every day. Jess has worked several weeks already, and her schedule is solidifying into three days a week, plus whatever she chooses to do as far as research. She skipped work (with approval, of course), to take a professional CPR course with the Red Cross.

We're almost settled, but haven't really done anything exciting. Maybe soon.

-- J&J

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Christmas presents

Jeff and I printed out the Hawaii photographs we gave out as Christmas presents on Snapfish.com, and I planned to give out the link to the entire album in case anyone didn't like the ones we chose for them (note: if your frame broke and scratched the picture, we'll reorder the photo for you - just let us know if you want the same picture or one of the others). These are just pictures we took for the express purpose of blowing them up and framing them, so if you've seen one in the blog you like more, let me know. We're not trying to copyright anything, so if anyone else wants to use them for their own evil purposes, be our guests. Snapfish does a good job printing and the prices are pretty reasonable, but if you want to use a different company, give me an email and I will send you the original shot so you won't have to compromise any megabits.

THIS IS THE LINK TO THE SNAPFISH ALBUM

We'll do a real update soon. Feel free to comment on the pictures!

--jess

Friday, January 04, 2008

...and, we're back!

Did you miss us?

We've moved into our new place in Alexandria, VA. It's very nice - good location and brand new; we've been spending this week acquiring new pieces of furniture and personal touches to make it feel more like home (which is pretty difficult in the absence of our furniture). Zeke is acclimating nicely, although Jess occasionally questions his sanity when he pesters to go on the balcony.

Jeff's heading back to work Monday, and Jess will be starting at Metropolitan ENT next week. She's looking forward to the research aspect and the change of pace.

Jeff put up curtains in the bedroom today. Don't they look pretty? Okay, the picture is a bit backlit, so come for a visit and check them out for yourself.

Our address has, of course, changed. Give us an email if you want it!

--jess & jeff