Christmas Break in Cleveland

It's me...long lost blogger!  I have so many fun pictures to put on the blog.  Promise to get them up soon to update the past month.  December has been fun and flown by so far.  We got home from Thanksgiving and jumped right into Christmas decorating, the annual Hutta Christmas lunch, hosting a shower and Pamper poker party for Abbi and Jon Marc, going to Timbuk Farms in Granville to cut our Christmas tree down, and welcoming my sister, Christina for a couple weeks.  

Christina had surgery on her left knee last Tuesday (as she says, her left knee was jealous of her right knee).  She has recovered really well, still in an immobilizer and on crutches though.  

Saturday we drove up to Cleveland to spend time with our family.  We always love coming up here and catching up with everyone.  We will have a white Christmas too, which makes it that much better!  Daren I and will fly out Thursday morning for New Hampshire to spend time with the Lynch's.  We're excited to have the opportunity to spend so much time with both our families this year.  

6 Things I'm Thankful For

I've been tagged by Amy to list 6 things I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving. It's funny because we all sat around the dinner table this evening and had to give 2 things were were thankful for...so I got a little bit of a head start.

Family - I have been blessed to be brought up in a large, loving family! Our immediate family consists of my Dad, Mom, sister, myself and Daren (Bentley too). However, we are extremely close to both my Dad and Mom's side of the family. As I've grown up, I realize not everyone can say they know their aunts, uncles, cousins and even great aunts and 3rd cousins. My parents have always instilled the importance of family. Through every trial and tribulation we are there for another. We have been taught to never give up, reach for your goals, and know family always comes first!

I am grateful for my new family too! Not everyone marries their best friend and I can honestly say that I have! Daren makes me want to be a better person and strive to do the best I can. Together we love more, give more, and want more. Thank you Daren!

Friends - For all my friends; of the past, present, and those to come! This is another way I am truly blessed! I am a firm believer you can never have too many friends. And as Libby stated in her blog, they are your family too! Thank you to all my dear friends for being you and touching my life!

Music - As my family continued to go around the table I chimed in with this extra thing I'm thankful for this year. This morning my family went to a Thanksgiving service at my parent's church, Immanuel Bible Church, and the music was absolutely incredible! It actually brought me to tears. It's so powerful and can say so much! My sister said after going to church this morning she needed to shave her legs again because the music gave her goosebumps...it's so true!

Experiences - Although life can throw you curve balls you learn through experiences. Whether they are good or bad! I am grateful for having the experience to move around the country and overseas due to my Dad being in the Air Force. I am grateful for the experience to go to both undergrad at Miami and grad school at Ohio State. As difficult as it was to fail my PT boards and get divorced, I am grateful for the strength and lessons I learned along the way! With every door closed new one opens!

Freedom - I am extremely proud and grateful for all the troops fighting for our freedom! My Dad taught me it is a gift to live in this country and have freedom. Despite the nasty presidential campaign that just came to an end, I am proud to be an American and respect the men who die for us each and every day! My Dad served for 28 years in the Air Force and I will forever be grateful for him living his dream out. We are blessed to be Americans!

Health - I am grateful for my health and the health of those I care about! I know it's in God's hand's but I am always thankful for the health of my family and friends! You don't realize how your life can be changes significantly once something affects the overall health of someone you love!

Amy, thank you for making us all reflect! We do all have so much to be grateful for this year! Despite the economy and the trials our country has faced in 2008 we overall have a lot to thank God for each and every day! Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family!

5th Annual Pumpkin Carving Party

Getting all the pumpkin "inners" (as Daren calls them) out

Busy at work

Masterpiece (our's is the spider)

Thank you Justin and Addie for another awesome Pumpkin Carving Party!  We always look forward to having our lame pumpkin design compared to everyone else's masterpiece!  Just kidding, we really love that you guys do this every year.  Sorry we don't bring a whole lot of talent to the table!  Next year I'll have the spider mastered, just needs more joints in the legs so he doesn't look like a beetle.  

Pumpkins...Pumpkins...Pumpkins

Circleville Pumpkin Show

After eating pumpkin donuts, pumpkin chili AND a pumpkin hamburger

Picking out pumpkin at the pumpkin patch

Ok, so I'm recapping...AGAIN just enjoy October with me.  It went way too fast!  This year Daren and I went to the Circleville Pumpkin Festival for the first time ever. I have been wanting to go since moving to Columbus and never made the trip out there.  As first time goers, we figured it all out. We left home around 10am and only hit about 10 cars of traffic as we were exiting the ramp.  First priority was beginning the morning with a pumpkin donut, YUM!  We walked around all the vendors and streets, ate some more pumpkin goodies and after about 1 1/2 hour we headed back toward Columbus.  Boy were we glad we got there when we did.  Going the opposite direction we passed about 3 miles of bumper to bumper traffic headed toward the festival.  Too late guys...duh!

On our way back we decided we just hadn't had enough pumpkin for the day.  We found this great pumpkin patch, picked our pumpkin, drank some apple cider and enjoyed a few songs from a blue grass band playing under a tent.  If only you could have seen it...HILARIOUS!  Just imagine these adorable old men, about 6 of them playing all sorts of string instruments and down on the imaginary dance floor an older woman (with maybe 6 teeth) dancing a fancy little jig wearing a huge fur coat and white overalls.  We just took it all in!  It made for a great fall day!

The day didn't end there either.  It was then off to the Natalie's for the 5th annual pumpkin carving party!

I Know...Where Have I Been?

Gosh I thought I was going to be better at this! I religiously check everyone else's blog day after day...then there's me...a slacker!  BUT I'll have you know I am no longer a slacker in the kitchen!  I have turned a new leaf!  

I'm often impressed with Daren's culinary skills.  He offers to make a meal, goes in with confidence, and in the end creates this delicious treat.  On the other hand, I attempt to make dinner, 9 out of 10 times am missing a main ingredient, try to substitute, and then result in an "ok" meal.  I know I've passed the test if Daren says, "now this would be something you could make if we have people over for dinner".  Unfortunately, I do not get that response quite as often as I'd like.  

Fortunately, I work in a place where I've become very dear friends with my coworkers, all of which are female.  Over the past couple weeks I finally started asking the girls what types of meals they make, how they go about it, where they get their recipes, and how they do their grocery shopping.  Of course, I have also consulted my mom who made homemade meals for our family all growing up.  Mom says, "AnnMarie, if you know how to read and follow directions you can cook".  

So...last Friday after work I sat myself down with all the recipes I've collected over the past couple years. I picked out ones that had similar ingredients, yet a selection of dinners.  Then I wrote out a grocery list and collected my coupons. I drove myself over to Kroger and away I went.  With this week coming to an end I am happy to report I made a Pot Roast (thank you Great Aunt Cathy for your recipe) on Tuesday, Italian Mac & Cheese (thank you Joelle for your recipe) on Wednesday, and Foil-Pack Chicken, Mushroom & Stuffing (thank you Kraft Foods magazine) last night!  AND...Daren liked them all!  YEAH for me!

I always had this impression that cooking at home would be expensive, time-consuming, and make way too much food.  Well, I'm here to say if you plan your grocery list out with your recipes you can save quite a bit, if you have all the ingredients ready at home your preparation time is quick, and we've enjoyed having leftovers for lunch all week.  I'll let you know how next week goes!

This weekend I am going to get back on board with posting well-overdue pictures too!

While I was Ironing...

I was just down in the basement ironing, thinking about the blogs I posted this week and I forgot some things!  First and foremost, a big thank you to everyone who offered to help or a place to stay during the power outage!  A special thanks to our fellow "Clintonvillers"  Justin and Addie! They had us over to watch House and charge our phones one night, then invited us (along with their friends Damon and Kate who didn't have power) over for dinner another night.  You guys rock!  

Second, Happy Anniversary to everyone else who celebrated September anniversaries.  Jon Marc and Abbi's on the 1st, my parents on the 15th, Chris and Cinn's on the 17th, Jamie and Laura's on the 25th, us on the 29th, Brad and Becky's on the 30th, Mike and Kim's on the 1st of Oct, and Pat and Erin's on the 6th of Oct.  

I always have after thoughts once I've already posted a new post!  Oh well!

Happy 1st Anniversary

Our friends Mike & Lauren gave us this idea 

(we'll do it every year to see how we've changed...hopefully not look too much older)

Monday, the 29th was our 1st anniversary!  Wow, does time fly!  Daren surprised me with a night at North Pointe, where we got married on Sunday.  We had a great dinner at Molly Woos, a night out, and then walked the grounds the next morning retracing our footsteps the day of our wedding.  How much fun!  Daren had also arranged the morning off work for me allowing us to have coffee and then come back to the house to spend more time with Dad and Mom. 

This year has been awesome! Daren and I kept commenting on how easy it is to be married to one another. We are best friends, totally in love, work really well together and look forward to all the goals we have planned for us as a couple.  We've really enjoyed traveling to see our family, spending time with our dearest friends, accomplishing things in each of our careers, and making changes to our house. We can only hope this 2nd year of marriage is just as good!  Thank you to all our family and friends for your support...you mean the world to us!

Landscaping

Before Landscaping

No More Ugly Bushes...YEAH!

New Light, Numbers & Mailbox

Drum Roll Please...Our New Front Yard (notice the arches)

Since Daren bought our house 2 years ago I have been super anxious to work on the front yard. For everyone who has been to our house you know we use our back door as our main entrance rather than our front door. Therefore, not everyone really pays attention to our front yard as much as the backyard. We have worked really hard on sprucing up and maintaining the back, while ignoring the front. I finally had enough. SO...I arranged for Stump Busters to come and get rid of the roots we had in our front. Leading us to HAVE to cut down the ugly 5 foot bushes we had covering the front of our house before Stump Busters could arrive. I talked Dad and Mom in to coming to town to help assist with our project. They are both incredible with renovations and Mom has a green thumb. Dad, Mom and I all went to Oakland Nursery on Friday and picked out all new shrubbery. Daren got the final say in our selections and the layout. After the game on Saturday the planting began. We made a very good team. The goal was "Contemporary Cottage"...a little bit of me and a little bit of Daren. I think we made it happen. And by "we" I must dedicate that mostly to Dad and Mom! With new landscaping, new lighting, new numbers, new mailbox, and new fixtures to the overhang I think we accomplished our goal! I look forward to adding some window boxes, a stone path and possibly painting our shutters in the Spring. THANK YOU DAD AND MOM for EVERYTHING!!! We could not have done it without you!

Hurricane Ike in Ohio

We finally have power.  Yes, we were one of the lucky ones who did not have power from Sunday at 3:30 pm till the following Sunday at 6:30 pm.  This past week we were finally back to normal!  My sister, living in the Keys, naturally  had to evacuate. Of course Ike didn't even really affect them in the like projected.  I certainly didn't expect us to get hit so hard!  It was the strangest thing though...no rain but the wind was really strong and you could actually hear trees breaking.  The first night was the worst because I was in the middle of doing all my weekly chores.  I just sat down waiting for the power to come back...and waiting, and waiting!  Daren was happy as a clam getting his "emergency kit" out of the basement and putting it to use.  He has this gigantic flash light that has a car charger outlet on it allowing us to watch DVD's every night on our portable DVD player. By Friday...I have to say it got old!  (And our little secret, Daren drained his truck battery from charging so many things throughout the week).  Then my cousins were in town, talk about lousy hosting on our part.  We provided them with a place to sleep, flashlights, and warm water!  Good thing they're family, I know they'll come back!  Although we were without power for a week, we were very fortunate our house is intact, we have a gas water heater, and nobody we know suffered great losses!  BUT, big thanks to AEP for saving my sanity!

OSU Football

Daren with teammates Adam, Jamie Houle and Jamie Natalie

Laura & I at Youngstown State

Daren & I at Youngstown State

Dad & Mom at Skull Session for Minnesota Game

OSU football is 4 games into the season!  We are so excited to have season's tickets this year since Daren has been working for OSU for 4 years now!  Every home game we stop by Jamie and Laura's tailgate to see all our friends and get pumped up for the game.  My cousins, Dootz and Michael along with Dootz's girlfriend Lauren and friend Joe, came into town for the Troy game and my parents for the Minnesota game.  For the Troy game Daren also had a gymnastics alumni weekend which gave him the opportunity to meet up with gymnasts from the past and those who are currently on the team!  The gymnastics world is one big happy family!  We look forward to the remainder of the year...GO BUCKS!!!

Bentley Turned 5

I'm a little late, but on August 23rd Bentley turned 5! Bentley Boohead had a great day! We took a nice long walk, he had a special birthday treat, and of course presents! I think I was more excited about his presents than him...oh well!

Tyler Hoffmann is Here

Tyler William Hoffmann arrived Thursday night! He is so adorable! After a long labor, mom, dad and baby are home now and doing well! Becky and Brad are naturals! What a blessed baby!

Baby Hoffmann on the Way!

I'm so excited!  Becky is in labor. Her original due date was September 8th, but little Biscuit wants to make his debut in August!  Becky's water broke at 2:30 this morning. As of 4:30 pm still at 6 cm.  It's killing me not to know if Biscuit has arrived!  I cannot wait to meet him!  

Our First Year

So...we didn't become the bloggers I had hoped we would become over this past year! I'm pretty disappointed in myself, given I check other peoples' blogs on a daily basis. Even getting to know other families I've never met simply by reading their blog! Daren thinks this is creepy, I think it's just plain curiosity and friendliness! We're making a comeback though! Now that I have learned how to download pictures to the blog, I am ready to take this on full force ahead!

I will do my best to recap this year as we approach our 1 year anniversary! It's so hard to believe we've already been married for almost a year! We have had so much fun!  We are blessed to have one another, our families and dear friends!  

Enjoy our past year together...I've learned after catching up on our blog entries that Daren and I need to take more pictures of us together. I'll get better at this for year #2!  The following posts "Jazz and Rib Fest" to "Trunk or Treat" go from the most recent to October 2007.  

Jazz and Rib Fest 2008

Daren loves to go downtown to the annual Jazz and Rib Fest in July. This year we rode our bikes down, enjoyed the fest for about an hour, then road around downtown. We have such an awesome path that goes from our house down town. We ended up riding about 12 miles which made for an awesome afternoon!  Don't ask why I was brave enough to put this nasty picture of us online in our bike helmets, but this is the real deal folks!

Becky's Baby Shower

At the end of July I hosted a baby shower for my best friend Becky! Her sister Anne, friends Amy K, Amy G, Libby and I all had a blast planning this special brunch for our dear friend! The big task I took upon myself was making Cinnamon Rolls from scratch. My friend Vanessa has this great recipe, but lets face it I'm not the best at baking. Luckily, I know this and have embraced it. So the weekend BEFORE the shower I did a trial run. Thank goodness!!! To make a long story short, I ended up skipping an entire side of the recipe card (the part where it teaches you how to roll the cinnamon rolls with the filling). I realized something was missing, but rather than check my email from Vanessa I became upset with her thinking I am not as good of a cook as you Vanessa! Panicking, I franticly started looking through other recipe books. In the end I ended up rolling the dough into balls...don't even ask! It was hilarious! 2nd time around was PERFECT and a hit! Becky is due September 8th, her new little bundle of joy will be here any day now! We cannot wait to meet him!

4th of July 2008

Like last year, we took the opportunity to drive back home to DC for a very patriotic 4th of July with mom and dad Jagodnik! We don't get home often, so it's always nice to be "home" in Virginia. We also got the chance to head out to dad's airport to see where he stores his plane (Daren is standing in front of Big Blue, another plane in dad's hanger). It's so beautiful out there. On our way back we stopped by Cinnamon and Chris' to see the boys (Brady and Cash). Daren, Dad, Chris, Wild Bill (Cinn's dad) and the other men put on a great fireworks show...entertaining to say the least! Cinn's boys are getting so big, and now #3 is on the way!!!

Babies...Babies...Babies

We have so much fun watching all our friends as parents! Ernest and Sarah welcomed their baby girl, Kesra in December. Fred and Nicki had their second beautiful baby girl, Charlotte in March. We got to visit Jason and Jen's new baby, Jackson, in April on our trip to New Hamshire. While in New Hampshire we also got to see Pete, Lindsey, Gavin and Big Blue eyes, Logan. Gabriella, Rac and Amanda's daughter, turned 1 at the end of March. Mason, Joelle and Keith's son, turned 2 in April. Isabella, Fred and Nicki's oldest, turned 2 in June. AND last but not least, Jackson, Mike and Libby's little guy, turned 1 in July. All these little ones are so stinkin' cute!

The Annual Collis Cookout 2008

Every year Jeff Collis invites us to his house out in the country! It's so much fun to drive out there, spend time with our friends and hang out around the bonfire. Jeff and Claudia are always such awesome hosts! This year was, unfortunately our last time to see his loyal best friend, Bailey, before she went to dog heaven!  Thank you Jeff and Claudia for always including us!

Key West 2008

In May we took an awesome trip down to the Keys to visit Bean. We met Ivers, John and Pat down there for a week of absolute fun, incredible weather, and memorable moments! We've been down with the Campbell's twice now, so we know how to make the best out of this trip! Bean was an incredible host and we finally got to meet Samson (her dog). We spent a day at Bean's house enjoying the pool, a day at the beach and walking Duval Street, a day out on the water snorkeling, an evening at Bean's restaurant for dinner (yum), a night down at sunset festival, stops at Margaritaville, the southern most point, and Irish Kevin's, we saw KEY DEER (a first for some) and introduced the party ball! As always, we were not ready to leave! It's no wonder why Bean moved down there to live...it is Paradise (yes, that's her backyard)!

Easter 2008

Our first Easter as a married couple was spent here at home. We went to church and then to one of our fav's, Cap City Diner, for brunch.  Although surprisingly we were bummed we had to order off the menu for brunch, no buffet, WHAT?  It was a nice, relaxing day just the two of us and Bentley Boo!  My favorite thing in my Easter basket...my new green Crocs!

St. Patrick's Day 2008

I've always considered St. Patty's Day to be a holiday, but now that I'm a "Lynch" it IS a holiday!  Even Bentley joined in the Irish fun!  The day started off with green eggs (yes, they were actually green) and ham!   And we ended the day with the start of an annual party at our house to celebrate the big day! Our first year was a great success as our friends all joined in the fun!