The Turpins Are Moving to Richmond!

Yes what you're reading is true: Lindsay and Eric are moving to Richmond! I honestly never thought the day would come but after everything that has happened, both Lindsay and Eric are ready for a change. I know Eric was nervous about asking for a transfer at work but thankfully his boss (and his boss' boss) said it was okay. What's crazy is that this has all happened in the past two weeks!
Last weekend, the Turpins came to Richmond to house hunt and invited us along to get our opinion and advice. We looked at seven houses but ultimately they fell in love with the house I knew they would; the house our friends Niem and Nina put on the market since moving to California.  Lindsay was so cute when she saw the house saying she loved it so much she felt sick. We didn't stay long before we headed back to the Realtor's office so they could make an offer. To make the deal that much sweeter, after a little negotiating, their offer was accepted later in the evening!
Now the fun begins! Eric, Lindsay and Lane will be back on Tuesday for the home inspection and then plan to hang around the rest of the day. They close on March 11 and will move down here shortly after. I cannot tell you how excited I am to have them here. While I will miss going away for the weekend to see them, it will be so much more convenient having them close. I cannot wait to see what fun is in store for the four (er five) of us!

I was gone for a minute, now I'm back again

Happy New Year!! I cannot believe it's 2011 and that I haven't posted since November 16, but I have been incredibly busy! Let me briefly bring you up to speed on all that I've been up to since my last post.

Thanksgiving (November 25, 2010) - Brad and I spent Thanksgiving with our friends Eric and Lindsay. Lindsay is my friend who was involved in a tragic car accident in October. The boys deep fried our turkey and Lindsay and I made all of the side dishes, it was amazing. Brad and I were finally able to meet Lindsay and Eric's son, Lane. He is absolutely adorable and growing so well. Here are some pictures:

Sleeping angel

Bath time!

Brad and his Godson

QualityNet Conference (November 30-December 2, 2010) - Right after Thanksgiving I headed to Baltimore, Md. for a work conference. I thought this year's conference would be a little less stressful than last year but I was so wrong! I worked very long days on very little sleep and without three square meals each day. The conference was exhausting but was very successful.

Brad's 30th Birthday (December 11, 2010) - Although Brad told me he didn't want to do anything for his 30th birthday, his sister Lisa and I schemed the whole week before to plan a small surprise party for him. It was SO hard to keep a secret but I did it and Brad was totally surprised. We had the party catered by a friend of Lisa's who made some of Brad's favorite foods and we got a cake made that looked like an X-Box controller. Check it out:

Christmas (December 25, 2010) - Brad and I spent Christmas with my parents in Northern Virginia. After all of the craziness of work and the holiday season, it was nice to relax, sleep in and be spoiled by my parents. It was also nice to catch up with friends, some who I hadn't seen since college. Pictures from our mini-vacation are below:

Santa Delilah

My gift from my sister; a Hokie inspired lap top cover!

The girls; my parent's dog Lucy and Delilah

 New Year's Eve (December 31, 2010) -  After a few days in back in Richmond, Brad and I traveled to Eric and Lindsay's for New Year's Eve. Lindsay and Eric cooked us dinner (beef burgundy with bread and salad) and I made us dessert (blueberry cheesecake bites). As we were sitting down to dinner, Eric opened a bottle of champagne, looked at Lane and said "I hope one day you have friends as good as our to spend New Year's Eve with." He almost made me cry! Check out some cutie cute pics of Lane (and one of Eric during our whipped cream fight)!!

While 2010 had its ups and downs, overall it was a good year. I'm looking forward to all that 2011 has to offer and hope to be better about sharing it all with you!

UPDATE: Emotional Rollercoaster

I'm sure many of you are wondering about my friend Lindsay and her little boy Lane, and thankfully I have good news to share. Lindsay is being discharged today after three weeks in the hospital. She will have someone come to her home several times a week to help her with physical therapy and eventually she'll go to an outpatient program. Lane is also doing well, but he'll need to spend at least another one to two weeks in the hospital as he is having a little trouble breathing without extra oxygen. This isn't a cause for concern however, since Lane is considered a premie.

New details have also emerged about the accident. When the ambulance driver first talked to the police officer he told him that he was programming the address of his next stop into his GPS. During his second interview though, he told the officer that he had been having a migraine all day and that he had repeatedly blacked out and that is what happened right before the accident. The officer determined that the more likely scenario is that the passenger of the ambulance was programming the GPS and the driver was watching him and was distracted. It has also been determined that the ambulance's traffic signal had been red for quite some time when he ran through. Despite his distraction, the driver will not be charged with vehicular manslaughter because he did not have the intent to kill, but will probably face a lesser charge, possibly vehicular homicide, which is a felony and can carry jail time.

Lindsay, her husband Eric and their son Lane still have a long road ahead of them but they are getting better every day.

Boston is for BFFs

The great thing about best friends is that you can go days, weeks, months, even years without seeing them but as soon as you see them again you can pick up like you were never apart. The fact is, my friends and I are apart a lot - we're all over the country: Boston, Athens, Ohio,  Fredericksburg, Va., Fairfax, Va., Columbia, SC, etc., so I really appreciate the time we get to spend together.

This past weekend my friends Kate, McKenzie and I visited our BFF Amy in Boston. McKenzie had just celebrated her birthday and had never been to Boston and it had been over a year since my last visit. We spent Friday tasting beers at Sam Adams Brewery and Harpoon Brewery.

Beginning of the Sam Adam's tour

Barrel room

Look at those delicious pitchers of beer

Excited about tasting some beer!

These are the only photos I got from Harpoon and they weren't even taken outside the brewery, they were taken at a seafood restaurant down the street!

Lobster lady?

Absolutely love them

Saturday was spent cheering on our Hokies as they played Boston College. Thankfully we came away with a win (19-0!!) and had a fabulous time celebrating in downtown Chestnut Hill with some fellow Hokies we met before the game.

View from our seats

Celebrating with fellow Hokies

Amy with our new friends, Jacob and Andy

Our celebration lasted long into the night and we didn't go to bed until 4 a.m. which meant Sunday was spent recovering. Before we headed to the airport, we had a fabulous brunch at Trident Booksellers & Cafe. They have a fabulous Cafe Mocha and apple and brie omelet! Despite the delicious brunch, our experience at the airport was far from fabulous. Due to terrible weather, every single one of our flights was delayed. I was supposed to get in at 10:20 p.m. but I didn't land until 11:30 p.m. To make matters worse, Delilah had gotten sick earlier in the day and when Brad and I got home, she had gotten sick in her crate. By the time we cleaned everything up, it was 1:00 a.m. Needless to say I didn't go to work on Monday but I didn't even get to sleep in because Delilah got sick again. Thankfully the vet was able to give her a shot and some antibiotics and she's feeling much better.

Despite the flight and puppy drama, I had a fabulous weekend with my friends and can't wait to see them all again!

What I've Been Up To Lately

I can't believe the month of July went by so fast. I feel like it was just a few days ago I was writing about my memories of July 4th. Since I've been so busy and I haven't been posting as much as I've wanted to about all the things I've been up to, I'm dedicating this post to the month of July.

Michael Buble Concert
At the beginning of July, my friend Janice invited me to see Michael Buble at the Richmond Coliseum. I'm familiar with most of Mr. Buble's songs but really only those on the radio. Other than his radio songs and a couple of covers, I was a little lost during the concert. It wasn't bad I'm glad I didn't pay for the tickets. He did have a great opening act though, Naturally 7, who sang acappella which is one of my favorite styles of music and we had pretty darn good seats!

Janice and I before the concert

Well hello Mr. Buble

Visit From a BFF
In mid-July one of my BFFs, Amy Slife, came for a weekend visit (she's the thinker in "Thoughts from Comm Ave.) We spent her first day in town sampling the amazing restaurants in Richmond. It started with brunch at Kitchen 64 with Amy, her sister Leah, her sister's boyfriend, our friend Jenny and myself. I had the French toast which was amazing and I think it was the pitcher of Mimosas that really got us going! We moved from Kitchen 64 to Short Pump's newest wine bar, the Wine Loft (after a brief stop at HomeGoods of course). The atmosphere and decor really added to the ambiance but I felt the wine was overpriced. Leah's boyfriend was nice enough to pick up the tab that time! Our next stop was my all time favorite, Cafe Caturra. We sampled a couple different wines and their Wine Fare, Olives & Almonds and Breads & Spreads, delish! Our last stop of the night was to my house where we played Rock Band until 3:00 a.m. I'm pretty sure we played almost every song on the play list. On Sunday, Amy, Leah and I saw Counting Crows at Innsbrook After Hours. Despite the two hour wait, the show was a blast.

Amy and I at Cafe Caturra

Leah and her boyfriend

 Miss Teen Virginia Pageant
The same weekend Amy was in town, Brad's niece Abigail participated in her first pageant. Since I often like to watch Toddlers & Tiaras on TLC, I was definitely intrigued. (However, I was definitely not intrigued by the $20 ticket price.) Unfortunately (or fortunately)  I had to leave early because of the concert but I was able to snap a few pictures and take a few videos before I left. As it turned out, Abigial received second runner up, not bad for her first pageant!

Brad and I showing our support

Abigail in her casual wear (she's second from the right)

(Video is of Abigial during her first Q&A)

Welcome Home/Birthday Party and Visit to Lake Anna
This past weekend was quite busy. Friday night one of my BFFs, June, held a party for her husband Jason who's been in Texas for the past couple of months for some military training. She decided to have a party for him which sort of doubled as a birthday party for her. While I was there I met a guy named Kyle who looks a lot like the infamous Brody Jenner. We busted out some of our favorite college drinking games like beer pong and flip cup (which the girls totally dominated) and even some card games like Kings (on an iPad). Despite the three hours of traffic I sat in to get there, I had a great time. On Saturday, I spent another three hours traveling to Lake Anna to see my friend Meghan. Her and her husband just had a baby, Cadence, in May and it's been that long since I've seen her. It was so great to be back at the lake again, despite the cloudy skies, and to have the opportunity to play with Cadence.

Me and Kyle, a.k.a. Brody Jenner

Lake Anna

Cadence

 

 

 

What's Ahead

I've been talking about how much I'm looking forward to my vacation with Brad and now it's finally here! I'm going to try and post occasionally while we're away but if not, I'll have plenty to share when we return.

Love life

I'm sorry for three posts in a row, I'm just blog happy today and keep finding awesome things like this picture/quote from my girls at Two Hippie Chic. Thanks ladies!

Hot out?

Haha, I had to steal this from one of my BFFs, Carolyn, who posted this on her blog this morning. Love it!

5k4 Caitlin

This past weekend, Memorial Day weekend, some of my best friends and I traveled to upstate New York to run in a 5k for our sorority sister who was lost on April 16, 2007. One of my friends, McKenzie, and I participated last year so we were really excited to have two more friends join us for a girls weekend. We were so lucky the wonderful innkeepers Laura and Leigh at the Apple Valley Inn in Glenwood, NJ were so accommodating this year. Normally on a holiday weekend they require a two night stay and when they found out there was four of us they were a little reluctant to let us all stay in one room. Thankfully, they agreed to let us stay for one night in one room, I think because they liked the reason we were in the area. Even better, not too long after we checked in, they let us know they had a cancellation and gave us the extra room for FREE! To show our appreciation we had put together a basket of goodies from Virginia (wine, peanuts, chocolate covered Hokie peanuts, corn bread mix, honey, apple butter and crackers) which was a big surprise for them.

So after we checked in and had some time to relax on the beautiful lawn of the inn, we got ready and headed to the race. McKenzie, June and Joey all walked while I ran. It was a lot of fun and I came in second in my age group and beat my time from the previous year. I made sure to stick around the finish line to take pictures of the girls as they finished up the race. Thankfully the rain held off until the end of the race and while we waited for the weather to clear, we enjoyed some wine in June's car (keys in the glove box!).

After eating dinner, we settled down on the lawn of Bella Vista Holiday Spa to listen to some music and relax. It so happens that Caitlin's mom spotted McKenzie and Joey wearing their In Memory of Caitlin shirts and came over to talk to us. While it was great to talk to her, I think it was a lot more emotional than any of us anticipated.  It's weird for me to talk about Caitlin and the events of April 16. For one, I had already graduated and was not on campus that day and second, I didn't know Caitlin very well as she was a freshman when I was a senior and our two classes didn't interact very much. I do have one memory of Caitlin from my senior year. It seems silly now looking back, but during one of our last sorority meetings, someone had put together a slide show of photos that left several of us in tears. Caitlin so thoughtfully handed me a tissue and I just remember thinking, she must think I look like such an idiot but she is so sweet to be giving me this tissue. So yeah, I have mixed feelings about how I should feel about the whole thing but honestly, it all makes me sad.

Anyway, after an emotional conversation with Caitlin's mom and a couple more glasses of wine, the music really got going courtesy of Johnny, Caitlin's neighbor and back up musician for musical greats Bruce Springsteen and Rod Stewart. He sang to us and we danced and had an amazing time. Around 10:30pm we decided to call it a night.

Before we left the next day, we took Caitlin's mom up on the offer she made the night before to come see Caitlin's iris. The iris is the official flower of our sorority and one of our sister's mom is a botanist. She created an iris for Caitlin which sits in a beautiful garden in the backyard of Caitlin's house. We enjoyed some of Caitlin's favorite tea and then, Caitlin's mom asked us to take some of her childhood books home with us. She said she really didn't want to give the books to just anyone and told us we had to "duke it out" to decide who got what book. Like me, Caitlin played the violin so I went home with a book about classical composers and a children's version of Emily Dickinson poetry.

Here are some pictures from the weekend!

Apple Valley Inn

A little pre-race relaxation

Superstar June finishing up the race - she came in 11th for the walkers!

 Mack and Joey finishing up strong

View from the Spa