Life Lately

Happy Monday! I wish every weekend was three days. I think we'd all be much happier :) It's been a while since I posted and that's for a variety of reasons...

It's officially "IEP season" which means work is a bit crazy and I have been bringing a lot of work home.

I took a trip to New York City with my Grandma and cousin over Spring Break. NYC is always a great time and this trip was no exception!

The weather is finally enjoyable again in Michigan, which means we've been spending as much time as possible outside. Which means we've spent a lot of time flying the drone.

We've enjoyed quality time with our families and friends, which is always cherished.

I hope everyone else is getting to enjoy the warm weather and has a great week ahead! Linking up with Biana here.

Winter Break Recap | Week One

Let me tell you there is nothing better than working for the public school system. You just can't beat the schedule (...unless you get paid to travel for a living! #goals). I had seventeen days off for Winter Break. SEVENTEEN! So here's a little recap of what I did during the first half of that break...

Wigilia 2017 | Thomas' family is Polish and they celebrate the traditional Wigilia every year. Every year we look forward to this event. We can't believe that this year was my tenth time attending!

Christmas | We celebrated another amazing Christmas with both of our families. We squeezed in a lot of family time, which was wonderful.

Night in Downtown Detroit | We celebrated the holidays with my group of childhood friends by eating dinner at Bobcat Bonnies in Corktown and then heading to Campus Martius to ice skate. The weather was perfect and it was such a fun night. I'd love to go again before winter is over.

Late Nights | Quite a few games of Play Nine were played...

Great Lake Invitational | My brother and I headed to The Joe one last time for the Michigan college hockey tournament that we went to frequently growing up. I'm excited for the new arena, but The Joe holds a lot of childhood memories for us.

So that was week one of my Winter break. Week two took us to Arizona!

Monthly Round Up | November 2016

I can't believe that 2016 is almost over. Where has the year gone?! So much has happened in what seems like the blink of an eye! So before we get to the last month of 2016 lets take a look back at November.

We enjoyed a night out in Downtown Detroit; dinner at Slows BarBQ and seeing The Book of Mormon at The Fisher Theatre.

We attended a University of Michigan football game at the infamous Big House with my brother and his girlfriend.

We voted for the first time together and while we're disappointed with the results we don't take that right for granted.

We celebrated our 10 year dating anniversary with a delicious dinner of crab legs at Weber's, a Ann Arbor staple. 

We celebrated Thanksgiving with both of our families. We have so much to be thankful for this year!

We had a fun cousins night out with family in town from out of state. We have the best time when we're all together.

We also had a great dinner with our great-grandpa in Ann Arbor. These times with him are so special to me.

We had another fun day in Downtown Detroit when we went to see a local high school playoff game at Ford Field and stopped for brunch at Bobcat Bonnie's.

Other big news from November is that Thomas found a job and started full-time, which has been such a relief. It was a great month and I have a feeling that December will be too :)

Weekend Recap | Book of Mormon, UMich Football, Beautiful Weather

This past weekend was one for the books! Friday night we headed over to Detroit with our first stop being dinner at Slows To-Go. T and I shared The Deuce combo and mac-n-cheese sides. From there we made our way to The Fisher Theatre where we saw The Book of Mormon, which was excellent! Very vulgar, but also hilarious. It was T's first Broadway show and I'm glad he enjoyed it. Once the show was over we had quite the adventure getting the car out of the parking garage, but eventually we were on our way. We grabbed drinks and an appetizer at The Rustic Crow, which were delicious, before calling it a night.

October Recap

It feels like October was over in the blink of an eye! I suppose that's what happens when it's go-go-go at work and at home. All in all it was a great month, but I'm looking forward to a "slower paced" November. Ha!

We started the month out in Grand Rapids, visiting for Art Prize 8. I can't wait to go back next year!

We had a celebration fit for a King for Duke's Golden Birthday.

Our friends had a house warming party. We had a blast catching up with friends who came in town for the big event!

Playing Tour Guide in Grand Rapids

Last week I got to play tour guide when my grandparents and two of their friends came to visit Grand Rapids! I had such a great time that I think I could make a part-time career out of it ;)

The first thing we did when they arrived in town was head out to Grand Valley State University in Allendale, about a 20 minute drive from our house, to check out the campus. Our family friend's daughter is thinking about attending GVSU and they wanted to see the the library their daughter raved about. Side note: I am currently writing this post at that library, because we lost power at 4am and it hasn't come back yet! The library is impressive and if my classes were in Allendale I'm sure I would've spent a lot of time there.

From there we headed to lunch at The Twisted Rooster, which is an awesome local restaurant that features local ingredients! Next up was the Fredrick Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. We spent all afternoon walking through the gardens. Everyone was really impressed, especially with the new Japanese Garden. I will write a separate post on the gardens soon! 

My Grandpa practicing his Tai-Chi moves lol

What's New with You Link Up | May Edition

I can't believe that it's already June or that we're half-way through the year!! These past six weeks have been non-stop and it doesn't look like it'll be slowing down anytime soon. I can't say that I mind it though ;)

Linking up with Kristen and Gretchen

Weekending | Wedding #1

This past weekend (yes...this recap is a little late) started our "wedding month." We have three weddings to attend three Saturdays in a row!

First up was Thomas' cousins' reception in Metro Detroit. They were married in Cancun in January, but unfortunately we weren't able to attend due to school. We were SO happy that they hosted a reception at home too! Since Thomas was in the bridal party we were able to enjoy the party bus with the rest of the bridal party.

Date Night | Founders Brewery & Grand Rapids Griffins Game

When T & I first met... almost ten years ago!.. one of the things we clicked over was sports. We both  love watching them at home as well as going to games. The Grand Rapids Griffins are a minor hockey team that feeds to the Detroit Red Wings. We always have a great time at the games so on a whim we decided to buy tickets for the playoff game on Monday.

But before we headed to the arena we stopped at Founders for drinks and dinner. Founders is one of Grand Rapids most well known breweries and one of our favorite places to hang out! They have delicious sandwiches and appetizers.
            

Graduation Weekend

As I mentioned in my last post; I graduated with my Masters degree in Speech-Language Pathology and Thomas graduated with his Bachelors degree in Exercise Science on April 30th. The whole weekend was such a whirlwind, but one I never want to forget!

Our families arrived in town Friday afternoon. Once everyone was settled we met at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in the Amway Grand Hotel for a delicious dinner. The food was impeccable and every one of us loved our meals. Thomas and I shared the crab cake appetizer and a caesar salad, then we each got our own filets. Our servers even brought out a celebratory desert to share!

Once dinner was finished we headed to GVSU for my cording ceremony. The ceremony was where we received our graduation cords signifying our major, speech-language pathology, and a final chance for us to mingle with faculty and one another.

PS- I figured out how to properly wear the hood before the commencement ceremony lol

Quick Catch Up

Phew, what a month it has been! Today I'm sharing a quick recap of all we've been up to and in the upcoming weeks I'll write more in depth posts.

April 21st was my last day at my internship and the beginning of the end so to speak. I will miss those kiddos and they sure taught me a lot! The following day I submitted my final assessment for my online class and picked up my cap and gown. I was officially DONE with my Masters degree! 

April 22nd I presented at the annual Michigan Speech Language Hearing Association (MSHA) conference which happened to be in Grand Rapids this year! The presentation was for the program I did my summer internship at.

                                 

The next morning was our commencement ceremony! WE DID IT!

Thomas chose not to walk, but he graduated too! 

We had one day to recuperate before T & I headed to Washington DC for five days! We had such a great trip and Thomas already wants to go back.

Now we're getting caught up on... life. So much laundry, DVR-ing, and cleaning to do. Now you can see why I've been MIA this past month ;)

What's New with You | March

Perfect timing for a monthly recap post don't you think? I went MIA during March and this linkup allows me to recap the entire month in one post!

2015 Recap and What's Ahead in 2016

I can't believe how fast 2015 flew by! I know they say that as you get older time goes by faster, but I feel like I blinked and it was over. 2015 was a crazy year with limited down time, but that is to be expected when you're in an accelerated Masters program. While I stayed on top of reading blogs in my downtime, I obviously slacked on posting. I want to change that in 2016. I might not post consistently, but I want to stay on top of documenting our everyday lives. That is the reason I blog after all, so before moving forward with 2016 I'd like to recap what all happened in 2015. I was pleasantly surprised while scrolling through my photo feed and selecting the pictures for this post. On the outside it didn't seem like a big year, there were no fun vacations or big purchases, but it was still filled with great memories!