Traveling West Virginia

I had posted before about traveling for work, so last time I was gone by myself I took some pictures to share with you all! This particular trip took me to Petersburg, but there were some sights I saw along the way.

I took these pictures to depict the snow and the mountains.Here are some pictures of the awesome windmills that I think are too cool!Here are some pictures driving through Elkins.Seneca Rocks from afar.The farm behind the hotel where I stayed.My hotel room had a geese theme. It kinda freaked me out a little!The frosty sheep farm behind the school we were at the next morning. Next to the farm was a cemetary, and beside that was the school's playground!And finally, a picture on the wall in the hall of the school we were at. I don't know about you, but I don't think this kid respects his tooth brush very much!

My work has the benefits of being able to travel around my beautiful state and can be pretty entertaining due to the kids we see!

On The Road

Sorry for the lack of posts after I promised I would be blogging more often. But I have been traveling for my job all over the lovely state of WV! It has been pretty tiring, but my job is slow in my part of the state, so they have been making my team travel to where there is work. I guess I should elaborate on my official job!

About 1 1/2 weeks before Phil & I got married, I accepted a job with a company that travels to schools and cleans/restores the kids' teeth! It is a fun job that makes each week exciting cause I don't know what school I'm going to be at until I get an email with the details the Friday before! I also get to work with children, which can be both fun and tiring. Another tiring part is the traveling and the loading/unloading of the van with all our equipment in it.

I was hired on full-time, but right now I am only part-time cause alot of the counties around where I live haven't hopped on board, and our company has only been in our state since February of this year. Since there hasn't been much work in my part of WV, I am glad they have been sending me places to where there is work, but I also don't like being away from Phil for a week!

I had to leave last Sunday, drive 4 1/2 hours, spend the night in a hotel to work Monday and Tuesday, go home Tuesday, leave again Wednesday, drive 4 1/2 more hours, spend the night again in a hotel to work on Thursday and Friday, then go home Friday after work. Now I am in a hotel as I type this and I am repeating the whole week in different places! I don't know if I will have internet access where I will be this Wed-Fri, but I will try to post again before if I can!

Honeymoonin'

Phil & I need to figure out where we will be going on our honeymoon! We don't really know if we will be able to go right after our wedding since I don't have a job, and if I do by that time - will they let me take off a week after I've only been there a short period of time? Anyways, we'll need affordable and here are some ideas we have thrown around:

1. New England Fall Foliage

• I don't really know if this would work out well for a honeymoon or not. My dream would be to drive up the coast of the New England states all the way to Maine and drive home, but seeing we would only have a week, it doesn't seem possible. Another idea was to fly to Maine then rent a car and drive home. That still seems like it would be a lot of driving and not much sight-seeing. Then there is always just going to one particularly pretty place where there is lots for us to do, and we would still be able to drive around to see the spectacular fall foliage!

2. Hawaii

• This was an option presented to us from Phil's mom & grandma. He has a great uncle that lives in Hawaii and they have a community guest house, which is supposedly nice, that we would be able to stay in for free. I would simply love to go to Hawaii on vacation, I just don't know how I feel about visiting family on our honeymoon. I feel like it should be me & Phil time! Still a beautiful and nice option though!

3. Disney World!

• Phil came up with this option and I love it! We both love amusement parks so I think this might be topping our list right now! I know I have a lot of bloggy friends out there that know a lot about going to Disney World and I am asking for your advice right now since I haven't been there since I was 7: What parks should we visit? Are there websites out there I should be looking at to get affordable vacation packages? Where is a good place to stay for our honeymoon or a place we shouldn't stay? Any other tips?

Okay people, where do you think we should go? Help!

The Day We Had A Cabin 2 / Didn't Have A Cabin

This is part 2 of last week's "The Day..." about my family's cabin in Canaan Valley.

Like I said before, we did not use the cabin as a hunting cabin like all the other shareholders did. We used it as a vacation retreat away from all the technology of the time... telephones and television mostly I guess, as well as a free place to stay. We would go to the cabin during all seasons. We'd visit the same places over and over just to see how they looked differently during each of those times. Skiing was a big thing for us and so was going to Blackwater Falls.

This is me and my friend Sarah obviously during the winter to the left of the cabin, which you unfortunately cannot see.

Me and my friend Laura at Blackwater Falls.

Remember how I told you last time that the hunters marked on the wall in the cabin about their deer? Well, we decided we'd do that with the mice we "caught" while staying at the cabin. We used our sharpie right there next to that bunkbed that was in the kitchen! haha

There were so many great memories made while staying at that cabin... bonfires, playing cards in the kitchen, sleeping on the top bunk when it decided to fall down, and looking at the stars that seemed close enough I could touch! And it's sad to me that I cannot ever go back to it. As good as I can get is to go to the area where it once stood. A few years back all the shareholders decided to sell out and my family had to too. Now the land is for sale cause whoever bought it decided it would be better to tear the cabin down.

My parents and I visited it 2 years ago and it was surreal that the cabin wasn't there. The above picture is obviously doctored by me, but this was where the cabin should have been [the bear too!]. I haven't been there since, but there is probably a new house sitting in that spot. I hope I will be able to take my kids there someday and tell them the stories I have told you.

The Day We Had A Cabin

Back in "The Day..." my family partially owned a cabin in Canaan Valley. It was referred to as "The Cabin" and we knew what cabin eachother was talking about. Anyway, this was not the typical log cabin of luxury you see on the Travel Channel, but it was a quaint, made of metal and not very insulated, hunting cabin. This is why it was partially owned by us, cause the other families/people that owned it used it for hunting but we did not.

Let me try to give you more of a description of the cabin. The outside of it was pea green with a silver roof. There was no assigned parking spaces, just grass and a place where we had bonfires. When you walked in the door the first thing you saw were 2 bunkbeds in the kitchen. It had an old timey refrigerator and stove, a cardtable and 4 metal folding chairs. There was a very small tv with antennae on top the fridge that we could never find a channel on. Next to the sink was a wall where all the people who used the cabin to hunt wrote with sharpies the description (their name, what point the deer was, etc) of their hunting experience.

The room next to the kitchen was bedroom #1 with another bunkbed that led into bedroom #2 with yet another bunkbed. There were no doors into each of the rooms. In #1 there were always these old wooden skiis propped up in the corner. This was the coveted room to sleep in cause it got heat from the floor heaters in all the rooms. In #2 there was a sliding door. When you opened the sliding door, there was the toilet. When you closed the sliding door to the toilet, on the other side it opened to where the sink and shower combo was! hahahaha This always cracked me up and it was SO awkward! So if someone was showering, you couldn't use the toilet without the door open. I wish I had pics of this to show you people cause I don't think you are believing me!

Writing this post makes me extremely nostalgic and I wish I could go to our cabin right now... I will continue this "The Day We Had A Cabin" post with a part two next week!

The Day I Loved Halloween

...and that certainly is every day! If you've been following my blog for the last month, you know I love autumn and I love the different colored leaves. Well, I'm here to tell you that Halloween is by far my favorite holiday! I plan, when Phil and I get us a house, that we are going to go all out decorating and dressing up for Halloween! Phil and I have loved carving pumpkins together ever since we started dating. I want to have Halloween parties too!

***Warning: Lots of Pictures Ahead!***

For this "The Day..." blog, I will show you lots pictures of Halloweens past where I celebrated for this holiday. Hope you enjoy!

Trick-or-Treat 1985 with my cousin Nate.

Trick-or-Treat '89 - a princess!

Two ninjas and a crazy cat - Trick-or-Treat '91 with my cousins Zach & Nate

My 5th grade Halloween Party with my two best friends - 1992.

My friend Heather the witch, with me the pirate! -Halloween 2006

Me as an evil fairy. - Halloween 2007

My rat pumpkin I carved at a pumpkin carving party, with the help of a handy stencil! -Halloween 2008

My pretty eyelashes! -Halloween 2008

My Hulk mask I wore to Cedar Point Halloweekends! We wore them for the picture on the roller coasters... it was funny and warm too! -Halloween 2008

My masked accomplices! -Halloween 2008

Running from the Stay Puft Marshmellow Man at Cedar Point Halloweekends! -Halloween 2008

Phil wanted to be a banana at Target! -Halloween 2009

Some of the girls in my class carved these pumpkins for the dental school carving contest. -Halloween 2009

Phil and I went to the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, WV for their haunted house! I would like to just tour the asylum! -Halloween 2009

Halloween 2010 pictures soon to come!

Week #5

Week 5 of my Pic-a-Day challenge is here! Go here to see previous challenge posts!

Day 29: Today we had a family birthday party, that we have a few times a year, to celebrate mine, my uncle's, Phil's, and my cousin's wife, Arianna's birthday! It gives us a good excuse to get together and catch up with eachother even though we live right next door. My little cousin, Asyra, is way too cute. She has a little 3 year old crush on Phil. She kept saying "I like Phil.", "I missed Phil, I was worried about him." and "He's part of our family.", it was heartwarming. I loved how she sat in my lap and cuddled me while we all sat around making our family fantasy football teams. It makes me that much happier that I can be around home and see her more often.

Day 30: I made a delicious meal for me and my parents! I had wanted something noodley and creamy and this is what I came up with. I sauteed some peppers, onions, and carrots. Added the broccoli and cauliflower from the microwave bag (didn't have fresh) and a can of diced tomatoes. I then poured in a jar of the Ragu Light Alfredo Sauce and added half a box of cooked macaroni noodles. I seasoned with garlic, dill, salt, and pepper! I had some leftover for my lunch the next couple of days too.

Day 31: I've heard other people complaining about these so called "stink bugs" this year, but it wasn't until about a week ago that they started to come inside our house! I found like 5 in our kitchen the other day... ewww!

Day 32: Today my mom, aunt, and I went to an estate sale near our house. I've always wondered what this house looked like inside so this gave me an excuse to find out! Mom and I ended up leaving with this director's chair and Marshall helmet clock! Can't wait until I have a house to decorate!

Day 33: Mom and I went to buy some of her favorite flowers, mums! I love them myself, especially the rusty orangey ones like these.

Day 34: Some Fridays I drive to Phil's house to spend the weekend with him and his family. I always look forward to the drive on nice days so I get to listen to 99.9 FM cause it usually plays a good mix of old and new songs. Sundays, when I drive home, I like to listen to Delilah no matter how cheesey it can be!

Day 35: Phil and I decided to take a drive to Point Pleasant, WV which isn't too far from his house. This is the home of the Mothman and the Mothman statue! I found out that the weekend before we were there that they had the Mothman festival... too bad we missed that! You can learn about the Mothman here, there was even a movie called "The Mothman Prophecies" based on it!

• So I had a pretty good week! Did you do anything fun this past week?

The Allergy I Love The Most

Sunday before last I went on an impromptu vacation to visit Ad in Shepherdstown, WV for a few days! Sars came to town to pick me up and we started our journey to the eastern panhandle!

When we got to Shepherdstown we saw this crocheted bear: So the next day we ran off to DC and visited the Natural History Museum:

...and learned a few things like:

While in DC, we went to Chinatown and ate sushi & drank mojitos... kinda ironic, huh?

We also walked around and shopped:

I also got a delicious cupcake from the Red Velvet Cupcakery! It was a black velvet cupcake with chocolate buttercream and crystalized violet petals sprinkled on top!

We then made our way back to Shepherdstown. This is Ad's door:

Here are some sugary grapes I got to add to Ad's rumtopf (last pic)! Here is what Wikipedia has to say about rumtopf.

The time I spent in Shepherdstown/DC, my allergies progressively got worse and worse. I sneezed constantly, my head hurt, my nosed drained, and my sinuses ached! I had never had such a severe reaction to a place. So we said that I was allergic to Ad's house, which was sad cause I love Ad! Sars and I left that Tuesday, and I started having a fever on the car ride home... not fun. That didn't stop us from eating at the Black Bear in Morganhole on our way back! I can blame it on that town that started me having the fever! I got all jittery just being back there!

My time with my 2 BFFs was totally fun and I would visit Ad anytime, even though I am allergic!