Random Summer Stuff

So there are quite a few trips I have on my bucket list to do. You can find some of them on my list of "101 things to do in 1001 days."


I think taking cross country road trip would be so much fun. It would be very important to do it with people that you actually enjoy being around for long periods of time, because this isn't a three day weekend kind of trip.

My friend Cara and I were talking the other day about we both enjoy taking trips alone. Flying to Florida last February was probably the best traveling experience I've ever had. It was just me and I didn't have to worry about anyone else. I think I cross-country trip might just be one of those occassions - stop where you want, when you want. Unless I can find a friend that is also interested in seeing the statue of Lucille Ball, driving the bridges of madison county, or eating at Bill Clinton's favorite BBQ in Arkansas, I might be going on this trip alone. I'm obviously weird and like to see weird things. Anyone know a guy equally as nerdy? ;)

Anyway, what got me thinking about road trips was this pin I saw last night. I went to the website out of pure curiosity and then watched this video of a time lapse of this guys drive across America! He goes from NY down the east coast (passes through the Myrtle Beach strip) across the south, up the pacific coast and across the midwest. So awesome and it got me pumped for a cross country trip. Which will probably not happen for at least two summers because next summer Tyler wants to go to Brazil for the World Cup and I'm saving my pennies to go with him.

But for fun, here ya go.






In other news, Molly and I have been doing our best to get to as many county fairs as we can this summer. So far we are only at 4 for me and 5 for her (she went with some friends to Madison Co and didn't take me! #salty).

The most recent one was the Shelby County Fair. It was our first time there. You can follow her county fair adventures on instagram with #mollysfairtour. A few years ago we started a map of all the Ohio fairs we have been to. Below is mine, updated this week to include ShelCo.

Molly's boyfriend raises show pigs in Shelby County, so we watched one of the hogs he showed win Reserve Grand Champion Barrow at the open show when we were there. And when I told him congratulations via twitter he responded "thanks sis". That boy is a keeper IMO. Even if he does get grouchy sometimes, but Molly does too sooooooo......

Two weekends ago I ran in another 5K. Dash for Donation was held downtown to bring awareness of organ donation. I've been a registered organ donor since I was 16 and so should you! What are you going to do with your organs when you're no longer here? Nothing, exactly. Give the gift of life and give them to someone who needs them. (Although, I'm not registered to give my eyeballs. Something about that just freaks me out!! Can I see in heaven without eyes? I'm sure I can. How awesome would it be to give the gift of eyesight to someone? Ok, now I will go register for that, too.)

I ran in this race with my friends Jennifer and Stephanie. Stephanie and her husband Pat had a little girl, Addy, who passed away last spring while waiting on a liver transplant. She was about 7-8 months old. Her organs were donated to help two other people. They put together a team and I ran in the race in Addy's memory. You can read all about Addy here. It was great to see both Jennifer and Stephanie their family. I used to see them every couple weeks or months, so it was great catching up since it's now been years since I've seen them.

I did OK in this race. My official time was 34. I want to get past 30 so bad!! Of course, I always think "I could have gone a little faster" AFTER I'm done. Never during. During I'm always thinking "I'm gonna die right now as I run up this .0004% incline." Maybe I need to be more hydrated? I think that is always a problem of mine.

This was Jennifer and Stephanie's first 5K. I was very proud of them. They've been doing the Couch to 5K program and I remember the pride I felt when I completed my first 5K after literally being a couch potato before starting. Way to go girls!

Most of the Lapp Family.

Pat and Stephanie and the poster they made for Addy.

Jennifer, Me and Stephanie.

Later that week I went to a private concert with Alicia! #highclass Emily Bell and John Evans Band played at some family friends of hers and it was a lot of fun.

iPhones take horrible photos after dark!

Brittany's baby shower was a few weeks ago and I went. There were a handful of people there that I knew, but not many. It was great getting to meet her friends from high school and college that I'd heard about so much over the last few years. It's always good to put a name with a face.

It was the cutest little shower. Her hosts did an excellent job of making it look sweet and sassy. And classy. :) I got a few photos of the decor, but not one of us together! Ugh! I'm so excited for little Hadley to arrive. #onemoremonth

Nothing to do with Britt's shower, but my precious girl. Who doesn't want anything to do with me these days. #teenager

One of my 'students' and friend Stacie is riding in Peltonia next month. I briefly thought about doing it with her, but I haven't trained at all and you have to raise $1,800 or they take it from your checking account! Holy Moly! I don't have that kind of money or that many friends that have cash piled up in their basement. So I'm not riding this year, but I do what I can to help Stacie train. Well, we aren't off to a good start. First off, she wrecked her bike a few weeks ago when she went for her first ride (at the end of her driveway!) and then this week we went for a really long ride and downtown she got a flat tire. womp. womp. She had to have a friend come pick her up. I hope she got it fixed. She had a race bike and I was on my mountain bike. And clearly to ride downtown on curbs you need a mountain bike. #mybad Did you know there are little bike helper stations downtown? Yeah, me neither. After waiting for her ride, I found one less than a block away on my ride home.

love riding by the Stadium in the sun.

Just waiting on a ride.

And that about sums up my week. I'm so pumped for this weekend I can't even stand it.

3 years

Three years ago, my Grandma Primer passed away. There isn't a day that doesn't go by that I don't think about her.
 

at one year old and 99 years old

Every day when I come home from work, Bowie is always laying on my dining room rug. Most days I lay down beside her and rub her belly (and also because I'm usually tired). Every time I do this I think of Grandma because this wool braided rug once belonged to her. It was in her "spare bedroom" that was also the room that had the toys in the closet. AKA - the room we always played in as children.


July 20, 2010 it was so hot outside. I know it was at least 96 on the Friday that we laid her to rest. Everyone in our family brought multiple bottles of water to the cemetery because it was just so hot. I don't know if I've ever been as hot as I was that day on the side that hill. I always compare my 'hottness' to that day.

Grandma was 99 years and 10 months old! Do you know what all happened in our world in those years - electricity, indoor plumbing, two world wars, phones, another major war, the titanic sank, pearl harbor was bombed, television, color television, computers, internet, cell phones, vinyl records, cassette tapes, cds, ipods,
Three years later I still miss my grandma. I still think of her and Annie often.

GNO: Justin Bieber and Greg Oden Edition

So Friday night about an hour after I landed from my trip to Chicago, I headed out with the girls to celebrate Amber's last weekend in Columbus. I will likely never see her again since Lima is such a long 1.5 hour drive. (sarcasm)

We went downtown and after she was done celebrating all things Justin Bieber (he was in town that night and she and Alicia went to the concert) we all headed out to Park Street. It was a girls only night and so much fun. I love hanging out with this group of girls, they're just so dang fun to be around. I'm always laughing and having a great time.

So as we venture into a place that has tons of people and a dance floor. Well it's packed. Packed in a "my-dad-would-shut-this-place-down-cause-it's-a-fire-hazard" way. And for good reason. Justin Bieber's DJ is spinning (right term?) there. So I snap a picture. I guess he knows someone famous, so he's cool in my book. But then security starts shining flashlights in peoples cameras because Justin IS THERE TOO!!!

We did see him but we were two layers of security guards away from him and as much as Amber and I tried to get the guard to let us back, it did not happen. And we left before the whole 'spitcident' happened, too.

so sneaky. i got a pic!

Then we ran into Greg Oden, who tells us he's a Justin Bieber fan. Greg Oden is a Beliber! :) I got my picture with him back in 2007, too. This time you can really tell how tall he is!!

He looks old enough to be Lebron James' dad.

Alicia had on heels, so he doesn't look as tall.

We also snuck a picture with the Bieber Bus.

And for old times sake: 

circa March 2007

Windy City is Mighty Pretty

Last week I got to spend a few days in my favorite big city (Chicago) for work. And to top it off, I was with my good friend Jill, who was also going to the conference. How lucky can a girl get?

I'm basically a flying pro now. I didn't fly until I was 22 and until last February when I flew to Florida by myself, the flight to Arizona at age 22 was my only flight under my belt. But I love it. I don't even get scared at all. I'm too excited!

Bowie's never been to Chicago. She wanted to go too!

Waiting.....

 This time, unlike in February, the skies were clear and we had gorgeous views the entire time we were in the air. Leaving Chicago we flew over Lake Michigan (my first time over water) and I saw Notre Dames football stadium from above (cool!). Plus the most georgeous view of Downtown Chicago as we were taking off. Breathtaking.


Wednesday we got checked in to our hotel, caught up on work emails and headed to this restaurant called Jake Melnick's for lunch. OMG! Deliocious. It didn't open until 11:30am (kind of late for lunch right?) and we were both starving because to us it was really 12:30!

yum. yum. yum. yum. yum.

But I got these pulled pork nachos and didn't even come close to finishing them because they were so massive, but so, so good!

We then walked around downtown. Visited Water Tower Place where we walked around the mall, visited the American Girl store :), and shared a cupcake from Crumbs. We also headed down Michigan Avenue to see Cloud Gate (aka, the bean) and ran into the Taste of Chicago festival that was going on in Grant Park. We got some free photo booth photos (something Jill and I have a history of doing) and I won a lottery ticket with my awesome corn hole skills. It wasn't a winner. :(

cloud gate.

mad cornhole skillz won me a free scratch off ticket.

I so wished Lt. Serveride was on this truck.

CHICAGO!

 Then we trecked back up State Street, across the river (my favorite spot in Chicago) and ate dinner at Giordanos. I had been craving their pizza for weeks! They did not disappoint, but it wasn't as hot as it normally was, so that was a bummer.

also yum.

 The conference was great. There were some sessions that were kind of misleading based on the title, but there were just as many that were awesome and were so helpful to me! I'm really excited to implement some of these ideas into my programs.

Thursday evening after the conference had ended for the day, we ventured to the Navy Pier. We rode the Ferris Wheel and walked to the end and just sat and watched the water. It made me want to be on a boat. Lucky for me in a few short weeks I'll be on a very big boat!

Free s'mores on the Navy Pier, just for the heck of it.

so pretty.

we both rocked the front poof that day.

so fun to ride and see the city.

take me on the water too!

 We had dinner at Margaritaville and I had a yummy Sweet Tea Margarita. It tasted just like sweet tea. No joke. And the food was awesome as well. We hit up TJ Maxx and Homegoods on the way back to the hotel, but I was beat and my legs were sore. Between the margarita and walking 239 miles the day before, I found myself taking advantage of the escalator to stretch my legs.

wasting away again in margaritaville...

my. legs. hurt. so. much.

Friday morning was more conferencing. It ended at noon and we then visited some stores on State Street. I found (well, Jill found it for me) a really cute leopard shirt at Nordstrom Rack. (Surprisingly enough, my brother introduced me to that store in Cleveland a few years ago. Love it.) We got Garret's popcorn and stopped at my favorite bakery - Magnolia Bakery - for cupcakes and cake, along with Potbelly's for lunch and waited to head to the airport.

headed back to the hotel. (my hair looks awful. so much bronze!)

 While waiting to board, we enjoyed our cupcakes and milk, and met some really interesting characters. The flight back was great and we made friends with the people beside us, who I'm pretty sure own some big company because they stayed at the same hotel as Justin Bieber last month.

leaving this city is always sad for me.

i just want to jump into them.

Until next time Chicago.

Family Vacation

Last week our family went on the annual trip to Myrtle Beach.

It wasn't anything spectacular. It rained the entire time we were there. Out of four days we were on the beach, only 1 of them did it not rain. And other than bathroom breaks and lunch, I did not leave the sand from 9-4 that day!

The rain seriously stunk, although we did swim in the ocean in it one day. And I'm not talking about a sprinkle, I'm talking about a complete downpour. Every single time it rained!!

So I never got in the lazy river, just the hot tub one time (also in the rain), the pool or went to the Gay Dolphin (a vacation tradition). We only got ice cream from Kirk's once! And never even made it into a Wings, Eagles, Pacific or any other t-shirt gift shop. 

It was an odd trip and here's why:

•  Molly's boyfriend went with us, so that kind of left me as the third wheel, even though they did attempt to not make me feel like that, it still happens.
• It rained.
• John got stung by a jellyfish! In all my years at the beach, I've never seen that happen.
• It rained.
• Payton got a concussion! She went banana boating and hit heads with another girl. She spent the entire day in the hospital. :(
• It rained!
• Brett was on the beach! He never comes down, only golfs.
• It rained! Did I mention that?

I did get a nice tan in my 1.5 days in the sun, so I can't complain too much! :)

Needless to say, I'm pumped for my cruise in a few weeks with the girls. :)

Strawberry Daquari at Joe's.

I ordered fish and chips! I'm not a seafood person, but it was delish.

Molly was missing Posey.

Kid in a candy store - for real.

FH 4 OSU  - I advise a fraternity at OSU with those letters.

4th of July on the beach with my favorite little sisters.

fireworks from the beach.

That's literally all the pictures I took the entire vacation. Molly got a nice collection of me sleeping on the ride home. I can't help it, I was in the way back in a bucket hole with nothing else to do.

Class of 2003 - 10 years later.

This year marked 10 years since I'd graduated high school. It seems like yesterday, but it also seems like so much longer than 10 years at the same time.

So much has taken place over the past ten years and sometimes it's hard to believe that I've been away from these people longer than I actually knew them. But that's how life goes.

Honestly, I wasn't sure if I was going to go to the reunion or not. I had RSVP'd yes, but I wasn't thrilled about it. I feel like facebook has ruined the need for class reunions, even though I'm only facebook friends with a handful of my classmates. (I guess I can still stalk, ha!) And I see people out and about when I'm visiting home, so there wasn't the "OMG! I can't wait to see XY and Z at the reunion." moment. Sounds mean, but I'm being honest. My best friends from high school (Erin and Erica), I stay in touch with them and we still do things together all of the time (hello half-marathon), but they weren't in my class. They were youngin's, graduating in 2004 and 2005.

But I went and I was able to catch up with a friend who I hadn't seen in person in 5 years, although we do still facebook and instagram. So that right there was worth it. :) And found visited with other classmates that I realize I may not have had a lot in common when we were in high school, but we do now. Or vice versa.

We had about 25 people attend, which I thought was pretty good. That's like 25% of our graduating class!

My graduating class in 2003.

And those that attended in 2013.

The stereotype for class reunions is that you always have to look super awesome and everyone gets a new outfit, looses 20 lbs, and gets implants to look good. I'm thankful to say I didn't do anything. I just went as myself. I didn't get a new outfit, but did make an effort to look nice and still youthful. :) I don't have any old boyfriends from my class to try to look good for, so it was just me looking nice for me! ha. I did rock my gold metallic shorts (my party pants!) and wedges.

Had to use Molly's full length mirror.

Mirinda and I sat together on the bus every day in Kindergarten. You could say she was my first friend at Piketon. :) She told me Saturday night that she was sad when we moved to the 1st grade because that meant I had other friends that started kindergarten that I sat with on the bus and not her. :(

Mirinda and I

 Shannon and I were friends in middle school and high school. She was the one that knew every lyric to every rap song on the planet. :)

Shannon and I in 2013

Shannon and I in 2003

Overall, it was nice to see people I hadn't seen in a while. It was a very relaxed evening and everyone was home by 9:30. Except for me and Shannon. We hung out at Ritchie's and closed the place down at a whopping 10:50!

See you all again in 2023 PHS Class of 2003!

America, America

This isn't the outfit I'm wearing today, but I did wear it last week. I guess I was feeling patriotic.

Today I'm in my bikini. Hanging out on the coast of this great country. Don't worry, I have a patriotic swimsuit for this great day. I love a festive outfit. I'll have one on at our annual beach cookout tonight too. :)

And because Molly and I always sing this song while watching fireworks, from the sandy beach, here is my favorite patriotic song.

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

Happy Birthday America! I'm not going to try to prove to be your biggest fan, but I do love you. And am very thankful and blessed to have been born and live in a country with the freedoms you give.

God Bless America! :)

This & That

This past week has been pretty low key in the activities department. But really busy still.

I have been extremely productive at work this week, which has been great because I was starting to feel the summer slump of just wanting to go outside and be at the pool. I was even at work on Friday before 7:30!!!! That's a miracle in itself right there. I am the queen of hitting the snooze button until the very last second I know I can throw an outfit together and get to work.

Last Sunday, Molly, John and I went to Zoombezi Bay. I'd never been to any kind waterpark and the only time I've ever been on a water slide has been at Long's Retreat. So I was super pumped.

We did a little bit of everything - wave pool, reading by the wave pool, slides (even the 'toilet bowl' one), lazy river.....lots of lazy river. It was a blast. I even ran into Jenny and Todd as soon as we got in the lazy river. Poor John, though, he got so extremely sunburnt. I lathered on the sunscreen. He lightly sprayed it on and added tanning oil too. He was determined to get a 'base tan' before vacation next week. He got a 'base burn' instead. Molly said they had to go get aloe when the got home. Poor guy isn't going to be able to hang with us at the beach next week.

Also, I'd never seen so many people with tattoos than when we were at the water park! I'm not talking about a few little ones hear and there. Or just one on your arm or foot. I swear we were the only three adults there that didn't have head to toe tattoos. Frankenstien on your back, saw it! Entire spine on your back, saw it. Spiderweb around your elbow, saw it. Hello Kitty and the word "GOLD" in a really ugly font down your side and onto your thigh, saw it. Well placed and simple tattoos can look nice. They can be done classy. But then they can also look trashy and most of the time that's the case. Sorry if you don't agree. This is my blog and my opinion. :)

And I don't have any pictures from our day, because I left my phone in the car for fear of purse snatchers. But I think I would have been fine.

Monday night, Molly, Stacie and I did the "Deck of Cards" workout at the Grandview football field. It was a workout and I didn't really feel it until Tuesday night. I've been trying to run or workout every evening and having Stacie around this summer to partner up with definitely helps keep me accountable.

Tuesday night Molly and I went shopping for last minute vacation items. Basically, I wanted to get my wedges! So we went to Easton, did a little shopping around there, had dinner, got my shoes, went to Target and Walmart and headed home. It was a long evening, but it was warm outside and made us super excited to be on vacation.

new wedges!! :) :) :)

Wednesday night I had dinner with Brittany and Erik - two old coworkers from my days in with the Commissioners. It had been about a year since I'd seen Brittany, but I see Erik occasionally since we both live in the same town. It was great to catch up and share big news with each other!

Thursday day, I got my picture with Gordan Gee. He's retiring from OSU, as most everyone knows and I am super sad about it. I got a picture with him back in 2011 when I first started working here, but it's not a good picutre (lighting is horrible) and my hair was bloooonde. So when they announced he was having a 'photo session' with any student or staff that hadn't had the chance to meet him or get a photo, I jumped on that.




I was wishing I'd worn red and grey until I saw that he had on a purple tie (I had on a purple dress) and then he commented about how beautiful I looked and that we matched. And I love a good color coordinating outfit, so I was happy I didn't wear red. I know purple and red do go together, but I wasn't going for the Red Hat Society look.

Thursday night I had a student/friend put some movies on my iPad. They will definitely come in handy while I'm in the car for 8 hours to the beach. And then met up with the girls for a little going away dinner for Amber. Here I thought she was moving far away. I was thinking East Coast - New Jersey, Philly, somewhere like that. No, she's just moving to LIMA! That's like a few miles up the road. Ok, maybe a few hour drive! haha. So I will still see her when she comes to tailgate.

Keystone Pub

That was all my highlights for the week. Nothing too exciting going on, but I am always busy. And that's the way I like it. :) Now the month of July begins which is going to be non stop the whole time and when it ends, school will be getting ready to start! Isn't that crazy!?!?!