i dont know if I told you before.. but it snows here

just kidding. But really.. I cant remember if I told you about (or maybe I already even showed you) the snow around our house. If I have .. just ignore this post. I know I showed you the ice around our house. But this is snow..

and really Im sure my family is the only ones that care to see this.

Its still snowing on & off. But the sun is out a lot more these days. So its especially gorgeous outside.

We are currently 4th place in all time snowiest Erie winters with 140.9" of snow as of Sunday night. (first place is 149.1")

I cant wait to see where we end up. I guess I wouldnt really know the difference between a normal winter here and one with this much snow since its our first. I will say that the amount of snow we have seen is what I always imagined it to be like up here. SO I cant imagine getting any less than this at this point.

Back to our casa. Here are some pictures of the mounds of snow that are surrounding our house.

this is taller than I am


by our mail boxes.

Thankfully the plows keep the mail box area clean. I hear that some places the mail man will stop delivering mail if the snow gets too high close to the box.


just another pile of snow

but my favorite is this one:


they had to dig out the stop sign

Its really cute because all around our townhouses we also have fields and some random hills that are perfectly covered in fresh white powdered snow all the time. So occasionally I see kids building huge tunnels through these piles or out making snow angels with their parents. Its one of my favorite things to see.

They also have snow ball fights. which is funny to watch too.

But I think its the most precious when I see the older couples that live by us out walking together through the snow. Thats my favorite.

the first step

photo credit here

I wanted to go on the record and say that yesterday Freeland & I did something that we havent done in longer than I can remember.

possibly ever

Technically Freeland has. But I havent.

we went and worked out. Im just as shocked myself. I think the last time I went to the gym on a regular basis was before Freeland & I were dating when I knew he had a class at 7:00am in the SLC (the gym at Baylor) and I just wanted to see him. (super sneaky huh)

But the LECOM wellness center finally opened up and so I no longer have an excuse.

and let it be known I actually enjoyed working out again.

Even if I didnt enjoy it - I would still do it. Its part of our "I want to grow old with you" goal.

At one point in my life I ran a half marathon (the glory days) so back in December when I almost died, no joke, after running from one gate to the other in the airport .. I realized it was time to start working out again. You should have all seen me. It was pathetic.

So look out world - were about to get our work out on.

PS: those interested - the Lecom Wellness Center is great.
PPS: were also going here in May.. so thats helping my motivation too.

All University Sing at Baylor

oh how terribly bittersweet.

This weekend was Sing. And for the first time ever we dont live just a few blocks away to see it.

I wish I could think of the words that would explain Sing. But.. How do you explain awesomeness?

I hear this years acts are great. I was getting text messages from my cousin (who goes to aTm) all night on Saturday telling me about the acts and giving me reviews. He said Tri Delt was really good.. but maybe he was just sucking up so we will give him more than just a $10 gift card to Chilli's for Christmas gift next year?!

Is it normal that I graduated 4 years ago.. moved across the country.. and still love all the excitement of this silly little competition?! Im going to go out on a limb and say that most people who participated in Sing and/or went to Baylor feel the same way - so yes I think it is normal.

I do love it. And I do wish I could just drive over and sneak in to watch all the performances.

In honor of Sing : If you want to see some ridiculous pictures of myself, friends, and boys dressed up with strange costumes and make up .. click here.

And the award goes to.....

oh my goodness.

i.am.so.excited.

The Oscars are here. Live. On our TV. Right Now.

So much of me totally doesn't care. But SO much more of me has just been dying to watch these!

For whatever reason this year I have become incredibly excited about all the award shows. I have stayed up {and/or recorded} everyone of them. And i havent been disappointed yet.

The grammy's were especially entertaining. If you missed them - I recommend googling coldplay's performance and sugarlands.

You know what - dont worry about googling it. Just click here for coldplay with a cameo from non other than Mr. Jay Z.. and click here for the most beautiful performance from Sugarland & Adele together..

You're welcome.

Now .. back to the red carpet.

finally finished ...

reading harry potter in central park back in September..

I forgot to mention that as of last Monday evening at approximately 8:00pm I finally finished all of the Harry Potter books. sigh.

I cried.

But who hasnt?

I never thought I would even pick one of the books up & read it.. much less finish it. ever. It wasn't until camille convinced me to start reading one. Then all the sudden I found myself comparing everything in my life to Hogwarts, Dumbledore, House Elves, muggles, etc. And all the sudden Wingardium Leviosa also became part of my vocabulary.

Oh and now I understand how people read the Harry Potter books over & over & over.


this is me giving "a look" .. probably when Freeland was trying to tell me what was happening in the book before I read it

And now I have no idea what to do with all my time while Im trying to fall asleep.. I tried picking up some other books.. but I haven't found one yet that I feel interested in reading as much. Were ordering some from Amazon but while I wait Im bored when Im trying to fall asleep.

For the record: I wont be starting the twilight series. I think Im going to hit up a little CS Lewis and some others before I try those.. that is if I ever try those.


one of my favorites of the husband in central park.

If you are like Freeland and think you are too good for the books {i kid} but if you haven't read them - you are crazy. what are you waiting for? Do it before the last movies come out! It was SO much better that way! Who am I kidding - me begging on this blog isnt going to convince you.. and if you dont read them it really doesnt bother me.

{for the record: freeland says he wont ever read them. Granted, he does have plenty of other things to take up his time.. but its also because he somehow convinced Adam to tell him every detail about the ending so not only did he torture me while I was reading them.. he also says he doesnt see the point since he knows what happens. lame}

Oh and I have something else to tell you. For the first time ever I watched American Idol. And liked it. I never thought I would do that either.. Im full of surprises these days. I even felt like I had to keep watching it. But then I realized I have too many things already to make me think Im busy.. so Im not sure it will happen again. But either way it was fun to watch. And I understand all of your excitement for the show now.

Lecom White Coat Ceremony

Umm ignore that I promised to post this forever ago and that Im just now doing it. Also ignore that I do that ALL the time too.

freeland with some of his friends from class.. tim & russ

If you remember back in January Freeland had his White Coat Ceremony. Thats where they umm.. get their white coats. They had it at the Warner Theatre which is SO beautiful inside. I couldnt believe it. I wish I had pictures but it was like a snow storm outside that day so I couldnt really take my camera out.

Here are some pictures from the ceremony so you can all pretend you were there cheering him on with one of those horns that people blow during graduation ceremonies & big posters that read "WE LOVE YOU STUDENT DOCTOR FREELAND" .. and then when they said his name you all jump up and scream just to embarrass him too:

this is the dean of the school giving a speech


freeland walking on stage

They do everything in alphabetical order so he is always 1st or 2nd.. which is great for things like this.. but not so much for everything. You dont always want to be the first to go!


freeland getting his coat

Note: this is where they said his name.. and where you would have all jumped up and cheered for him & embarrassed him if you really were there.


shaking hands



they also get their stethoscope during the ceremony


Freeland getting his stethoscope


all the first years standing together in the theatre


freeland, tim, kevin, and russ .. his friends in his class


me and student doctor ackley

The ceremony was great. It really was exciting to watch Freeland get his coat. Im sure its silly but it just makes this whole experience even more real. And it also means he is one more step closer to doing what he loves and is called to do.

I think all med schools do this ceremony.. and I think they are all different so I wouldnt really know the difference. But in a way I liked that Lecom did theirs at the beginning of the 2nd Semester. It made it feel like he made it. Or like his first semester was initiation or something.. and now he had earned his coat. Not everyone comes back the second semester - so I guess maybe thats why it felt that way. Either way, I was proud of him.

Valentines Menu

As I previously mentioned our Valentines Weekend was pretty much centered around food. So here is the menu:

Breakfast:
Eggs served over easy
Maple Sausage
a large glass of ice cold whole milk
& Powdered Donuts to finish it off

Lunch:
More donuts

Dinner:
Cheese & wine {and hummus} while we cooked
Chef Jean-Georges Vonderichten's Chicken
Served with Roasted Gold Potatoes
Creamed Spinach & Basil
and fresh baked & decorated sugar cookies for dessert
along with more donuts

A side note about the meal we made: I originally wanted to make this meal before and never did. When I was pulling up the recipe Freeland said "wait did you pick that out on purpose?" To which I responded "I guess - I mean I wanted to make it so .." and then he said "Do you know who that chef is?"

Umm I barely know how to pronounce his name .. so no I have no idea who he is.. his chicken just looked fabulous and he is french so I thought you would like it. And then Freeland said: "Thats the same chef that made our dinner in New York when I proposed to you." WHAT?! WHO KNEW?! {well, I guess Freeland knew} But I have no idea how he remembered that.. then I again - I told you that French food is the way to his heart and I think the night he proposed to me was his favorite meal {at JoJo's} in the history of ever so I guess thats why he remembered.

So lets pretend I picked it on purpose knowing that Chef Jean-Georges Vonderichten was who he is and I just wanted to be that romantic.

Here is a picture of Freeland {well the back of him} all dressed up and cooking in the kitchen:

he wore the vest I got him for his birthday and my favorite hat.

bom chicka wah wah

The chicken perfectly done

PS: This was Jean George's moms recipe that she made when he was growing up. So its more of a home cooked french meal - not fancy smancy french restaurant type meal. But if your interested you should try his other meals because lets just say they are AMAZING. Oh and he has a blog - how awesome is that.. a world renowned chef with a blog.



My only request on Valentines was to make valentines cookies and decorate them together. So that is what we did while we waited for dinner to finish


yummy icing


we had hearts, lips, & cupids


The finished product.

Freeland did lots of those too. Notice the TV in the left hand corner. Very Retro! And the blue heart at the top in the background with white & red frosting.. those are just a few of his that were my favorite. Who knew he was so good at this sort of thing?!

It was the perfect day filled with food, lots of cheesy valentines movies {including Be My Valentine Charlie Brown to keep with tradition} and time spent together.

heart shaped valentines

Valentines Day this year was really Valentines Weekend.

And I think it can best be summarized with food this time around.

See, Freeland & I have been "watching what we eat" and because of Freeland we have actually been doing a great job of this since January 1st.

Oh and before you all comment about us being on Diets.. you should know this: Not only did I used to bake sweets multiple times a week.. We also used to eat really bad food all the time. Meaning we used to eat pizza like 3 or 4 times a week. I remember one day I was even eating pizza for lunch while I was making more pizza for dinner.. and that was common. So in order to be healthy and live long lives with each other - we have been eating pretty much just fish and veggies it feels like.

Therefore, we decided Valentines day would be full of lots of treats and unhealthy food to reward ourselves.

Its all about rewards. Remember that.

We aren't the go out to eat on special occasion type people.

Not that its bad. But somewhere along the line we just stopped doing it (probably because we live on a med school budget - which means $0.00) and instead we started ordering Chinese food in. So it became our tradition.

Which I love and very much look forward to.

Buuuut since Pizza is really what we love the most and we have been depriving ourselves of it all year we decided instead of ordering chinese food we would make heart shaped pizza's this year at home together.

(we stole the idea from Boston's Pizza.. I didnt come up with that on my own. I just felt like I should be honest with yall)



So pizza it was.

BBQ Chicken Pizza & Supreme Pizza to be exact

Holy Yummy-ness.



EXCEPT. I still had this other recipe {french recipe to be exact} I have been wanting to try because the way to Freelands heart is through French Food. So instead of doing pizza on Valentines night we did pizza on Friday night so we could make our other dinner on Saturday.

And that is why Valentines started on Friday for us this year.. and then became a weekend long event.

I will post more about our actual Valentines day asap because I know this is getting a little extra long. But I think heart shaped pizza will forever be a valentines tradition for us going forward.

I heart it.

im yours

In honor of such a loving weekend.. (which I will post about soon)

I give you what Freeland & I are currently in love with..

Not just his music.. Not just the song.. but his performance.

Especially at the end.


This is from Ellen.. but the original one we saw was on SNL and it was fabulous.
But Click "Watch in HD" on the Menu... it makes it better

Beautiful. and gosh he makes it look so easy.

No wonder he was nominated for a grammy.

I must live in the dark because I have loved this song for quite some time. But see I dont really listen to the radio anymore.

But then I was in & out of cars the past few days.. so I was listening to the radio.. and I almost lost it because this was on every other song. Which made me SO thankful I dont listen to the radio anymore. I would never enjoy this song (or many others) because of how much they are overplayed.

Hope you had a romantic and uber lovey dovey weekend.

dawn - e - dawn

Ive been gone the last few days visiting this girl:


us at dawns wedding back in December 2005

and its been fabulous. It was a much needed trip & Im so thankful I was able to make it up to see her.

I finally got to hug & squeeze her little baby boy. And he is perfectly squeezable and smells like heaven.

And I finally got to play with Lola.. she calls me Aunt Brooklynn now so that pretty much made my heart melt.

Ignore that she is the most social, loving, and outgoing person in the world. Im choosing to believe its because she loves me THAT much.

Anywho - Im boarding the plane right now.

On my way home.

And I can happily say that I will not be getting back on a plane for a long time (not until May) Thank goodness.

attack of the ice

First of all.. many of you have asked about the people who fell in Lake Erie {all 150 of them} and if we knew them etc. Thank you for your concern. We didnt know anyone. It actually happened in Ohio so it wasnt close to us. And although I think it is tragic and very scary.. I would like to point out what the sheriff said.. and I quote: "if there was a section in the code about common sense, we would have had 150 arrests out there today." Click above to read the full article.

And if anything please know that there is no need to worry - we would never walk out on the ice when its melting.

Which brings me to another point.

All the snow is melting. While in some ways Im a little excited because Im looking forward to planting more fresh herbs outside.. Im honestly sad. I love the snow. I even asked Freeland last night if the winter has felt short to him. (because it has to me.. and I get the feeling some days Im the only one) he laughed and said I only feel this way because I dont go out in it everyday, clean the snow of our car everyday, walk the dogs everyday, etc. (But jeez.. who's counting?!)

I know that there is still more snow to come. And I hear that we pretty much skip over spring here. But there is still part of me that is sad the snow is melting today.

Which brings me yet again to another point:

ICE. You may have all seen the crazy ice {aka Deathcicles} on Adam & Cam's blog.

Well, we had a few of our own at our casa. And I wanted to show them to you. There was one that seriously was out of control. I was just waiting for it to fall and it never did. Not until people were hired to come remove it. So here are some pictures of all the ice around our house BEFORE it all started melting:

not that bad at first glance when you walk outside


more icicles all around our roof

still not all that bad. Until you see this guy:


Please note: that is all the way from the second floor of the house to the door step.

Its our neighbor's who was out of town for over a month. This picture was actually taken a few weeks ago. It was much thicker, longer, and scarier by the time they actually came and removed it this weekend.

Good thing - because they do fall people:

I have more pictures but they are on the camera that is currently in Freeland's truck so it will have to wait. That was enough rambling for 1 day I suppose.

our slumber party

Like I mentioned on Friday.. our girls group {made up of girls who all have husbands at lecom in case I never explained how we all know each other} all got together and had a sleep over.

Before Freeland and I moved to Erie we LOVED hosting anything and everything at our house. Seriously - its what we always wanted to do. But now that we are in Erie we really dont do it that much. For 2 reasons. 1 - our house isnt as big anymore so we sadly cant exactly fit the same amount of people in it and 2 - because people like Sarah do such a better job hosting that Ive given up my dream of hosting again.

Seriously. This girl is unreal. You all saw the Halloween party.. and then Thanksgiving. I never would have thought to do half the things she does. And the most amazing part - I have never seen her not be relaxed. She does this all and is still so laid back. I love it.

Here are some pictures from our slumber party so you can see what Im talking about:

girls only .. no boys allowed


her adorable decorations .. and LOTS of food


a closer look at the insane amount of junk food we all brought


all the girls sitting around and talking .. and yes - watching high school musical too


the most adorable guest there.. also watching HSM


but the highlight of the night.. well ONE of the highlights.. was that we also got to watch the SING ALONG version of HSM


and Addy woke up and started dancing


isn't she adorable

Then Sarah pulled out all the stops and even got us stuff to make friendship bracelets!


everyone picking out their beads


working hard making their bracelets.. while talking.. and eating at the same time!

and then more movies and hanging out

We seriously had a great time. We also watched Clueless.. which was hilarious! I hadnt seen it in years. And oh my gosh I forgot how much I loved the soundtrack to that movie. And the awesome dance moves too. It was also humorous to see how much I never really understood that movie when I was younger too.

As always .. Thanks again for hosting such a bomb.com party sarah!!!!

PS: I didnt mention it but I also had a sleepover while I was in Texas.. Meagan hosted one.. so I will post pictures from that soon too! How random is that to have 2 sleepovers so close together?

Tonight = best night ever

Tonight is going to be exciting

You know why?

Im getting together with the same girls that all did this and that also did this

and were all meeting at the same house where I did this .. and one of those up there.

Are you following me?

Were kicking all the boys out.

Were putting on our PJ's

Were bringing out all the snacks, sweets, and drinks

And were all going to slumber together.

AKA: Were having a slumber party. Yes.. not just girls night out. But an entire SLUMBER PARTY

Insanity = As in Insanely Exciting. I hope someone brings Mall Maddness.. and I also hope im not the first one to fall asleep! We all know what happens to "that girl"

Happy Friday!

One big piece of ice

As I mentioned yesterday we went out to Lake Erie to see what it was like when something that looks like the ocean freezes over. The pictures yesterday were from the bay side of the peninsula. These are on the other side of the peninsula. Picture standing here looking towards Canada.. thats where it is.

The day we chose to go out there {"out there" really means 10 minutes from our house} it was freezing. So while we were on the bay side we were standing in the sun.. and didnt have the wind blowing directly on us. It was still freezing.. but manageable. Well, that was a different story when we walked over to the other side. I could barely see in front of me the wind was hitting my face so hard.

So because of that.. and the snow flying directly into our camera.. these are the only pictures I have. But you will get the idea. Its strange to see snow covering a beach.

{if you want to see pictures of what the beach normally looks like to see the difference.. click here}

walking up to the beach.. the same spot we spent all our time at during the summer.

the now white beach

note: you cant really tell where the land ends & water begins.. so we stayed pretty much in this spot the whole time.

also note: the snow is up to my knees.

and it was freezing.

one more note: I got my winter jacket in the mail the next day after this. If only I had it during this picture I wouldn't have been half as cold.

right over those little mounds is where it is ice.

driving back down the peninsula.

It really is beautiful out there during the winter! Of course.. I very much enjoy the summers there. I think we actually will go back and enjoy it while the snow lasts. I know the dogs would have a blast! (on the walking trails.. not the ice.. dont worry)