Sunday, December 28, 2008

Old Friends




It was really nice to see my good friend Brandi!




I also went to dinner with Elana, Llani and family, which is has been a wonderful tradition whenever we are all in the same place around the holidays (which really has been pretty hit or miss the last few years).

More Cheyenne time.....











Dad and Cheyenne




Us girls.....Claire, Tamara, Me, Cheyenne, and Nuk (from left to right).

Merry Christmas~ Anica's trip home




I had a wonderful time at home with my family and friends. I realized that I have not been back on baker road since March (Tamara's baby shower), so it has been a while. I have not seen some of my friends from home (namely Brandi, Llani and Elana) for a while, so it was a good time. Lots of great food, drinks, visiting, and baby time. I also went with Llani and Elana to a Dar Williams concert (happy birthday Llani), which was great! I hope that this post finds everyone happy and well. I am also looking forward to visiting the Chicago family and seeing Aaron over New Years....stay tuned for more pics! Here is one of the tree and one of my adorable niece Cheyenne.


Saturday, December 20, 2008

Interns Celebrate!!







I am officially done with 1/3 of my internship (you will get there soon hun)!! This means that I will start a new rotation on Monday and also means that our intern class had a number of reasons to celebrate last night. We went out to dinner and Karaoke and had a blast. There may have been some shots taken (Shalini, Becky, Tristan, me, and Niki in the first pic). We went to a place called double-wide for dinner - decorated appropriately with hubcaps on the ceiling - and they had seitan buffalo wings and lots of other veggie option - it was amazing!

Chicago Family Stylists




We had lots of fun playing with the kids (Aaron has 5 cousins between the ages of 4-10 in Chicago). Aaron served as a jungle gym and was handsomely rewarded with hair and beard styling services by Ceci and Sarah.....

Preparing for the holidays with the Chicago family




Aaron and I met up in Chicago last weekend and stayed with his cousins Lesa and Tina and their families (thanks so much for having us)! We had a great time working in the sweatshop, er, I mean assembly line, of candy-making! :-)




Monday, December 1, 2008

Happy Belated Thanksgiving




I apologize for such a long abscence from posts. I have been busy with work, Jazzercise, and missing Aaron! Plus, I have not been up to much that would be exciting to post about....until this past weekend.






Aaron and I met up at his mom's house near Ann Arbor. We had a WONDERFUL weekend visiting with family and friends and enjoying great food and company. We had Thanksgiving day dinner with Aaron's mom, brother, aunt and uncle. We drove up to Mount Pleasant on Friday and visited with are large and small (and furry) friends up there. Saturday we spent hanging out in Ann Arbor and Sunday we went our separate ways (sadly). Thanks to everyone who hosted and fed us, we had a great time!! And happy Thanksgiving everyone - I have lots to be thankful for, and I appreciate it all (even if it doesn't seem like it all the time).



Here are some pics from the weekend.








Monday, November 3, 2008

Schenley Park
















On Sunday Niki and I took a wonderful walk around Schenley Park. Who knew that there are a few HUGE parks right in the middle of Pittsburgh?! Well, I didn't until Sunday. We could have gotten lost in that park - you can still hear cars, but you are in the middle of the woods. We walked for about an hour and a half and then found out that we had covered about 1/5 of the park! Here are some pics.










Happy Birthday to Cale and Shalini!


Last Thursday we had a little party for two of my internmates, Cale and Shalini, who had recent birthdays. Lots of fun with pizza and cupcakes. Thanks for hosting Niki!!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Chicago!
















Aaron and I met up in Chicago over the three-day weekend. Aaron's cousins generously allowed us to stay with them and take part in the family weekend activities. We went to a fall/Halloween block party, played games, watched football, had great food and drinks, and enjoyed company. We also got to play with Aaron's little cousins, which was a lot of fun! It was the best weekend that I have had in a while, and I didn't really want to come home at all! 10 months to go.....
First we have Aaron and Aunt Judy, then Sarah and I reading, then Cici, Julianna, and the group of us ready for dinner. I can't wait to visit again. Lucky Aaron is going back for the next 2 weekends!!








Saturday, September 27, 2008

Beautiful Flowers


This past Tuesday Aaron and I had our 3-year anniversary. It was sad not to be together, but of course we were able to talk on the phone. He also sent me some beautiful flowers! Somehow they were delivered on Tuesday, but I never got them. Thankfully the company was willing to redeliver them, I rushed home on Thursday (the going theory is that someone else got to enjoy the first package because I didn't get home early enough) and found the box waiting for me. I had also put a note for fedex as to where to leave packages for me, so maybe that helped as well....

Grey's Night


I have continued the tradition started back at CMU of putting good food, friends, drinks, and grey's anatomy together. For those who don't know, it is pretty much a medical soap opera that I used to make fun of my friends for watching, but somehow got sucked in. Nothing like a tv show to use as an excuse to hang out with friends once a week. Niki (one of the other interns) had us over to her place, and boy am I jealous! From the left: me, Becky, Tristan, Shalini, Niki, and Cale (with his cute little beagle Sandy).

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Shadyside Art Fair




The first thing to say today is Happy Birthday Jessica! It was nice to chat to you today, I hope you have a wonderful day, and I wish that I could be there to celebrate with you.
Secondly, I want to share with everyone my weekend activities. Yesteraday was a bit of work on a paper in the morning and then some cleaning, cooking and relaxing, which was nice. Aaron and I had some wine and did some chatting over the web cam - not as nice as in person, but better than just talking on the phone.

Today was the Shadyside Art Fair. Shadyside is a really cute little residential and shopping area right down the street from me. There are also lots of cute little coffee shops and restaurants along a couple of streets. There were tons of booths set up with all sorts of arts and crafts. I went with Niki and Cale (and Sandy - Cale's dog) - two of the other interns - and walked around for a couple of hours. And then of course we had ice cream - how could we not?

There were also these really neat metal statues that were large with weighted, bobbing heads. It was a beautiful day, and I was glad to have some time to spend outside. So a good day overall, although Aaron seems to be having a rough time, and the Patriots lost, so some not so good things today. The steelers are also currently losing, but I have not decided if that is good or bad yet......

Monday, September 15, 2008

Indiana, PA






















Over the weekend I met up with my dad in Indiana, PA. He grew up near here, and his sister and brother-in-law live in this town, and my grandma is in a nursing home there as well. I took a bus early Saturday morning (at 5 am) to get there. My aunt Joyce was on vaca with her girlfriends, so we hung out with uncle Bill. We went to see Grandma both Saturday and Sunday, and it was really nice. She has a great view from her place, and we were able to bring her outside on Sunday afternoon. She was really happy to see us I think, and we looked at pictures with her (Aimee- thanks so much for sending all those updates to her, I think it really means a lot), and told old stories. Dad and I went to Saltsburg and walked aroundf for an afternoon - we went to the museum that grandma was instrumental in putting together, and as soon as people there found out who we were, they flocked to us. I guess that says a lot about what grandma meant to them. Dad ran into a woman that he knew from high school - they were voted "best all around" together in the senior yearbook. We saw pics of dad's uncle Howard from about 1940. There were some beautiful old dresses in the musuem as well as lots of artifacts. It was really neat. Joyce actually came home after dad left, so we spent some time looking at pictures of trips and our blogs. She says to say hello to everyone, and hopefully we will be meeting up in Pittsburgh sometime soon!

Ok, along with my rant I will post some pics. First is my dad and grandma and some views from her nursing home. We also stopped by a dam along one of the rivers. Then we have uncle Bill and dad are chilling on the deckg. It really was more beautiful than I expected or remembered it. And it was nice to get out of the city for the weekend.












Night out in Pittsburgh


A couple of the other interns and I went out on Friday night to one of (yes, there is more than one) the piano bars in Pittsburgh. It was a ton of fun - and we will have to go back there! Lots of good songs, and they even had refried beans on the nachos! I guess I am easy to please. And they played Billy Joel and Paul Simon songs! I kept saying - wow, that would never happen in Mount Pleasant! Here are Shalini and Tristan living it up!


Tuesday, September 2, 2008

North Liberty, Iowa











I went out to visit Aaron over Labor Day Weekend. The exta day really makes a difference in the amount of time that we could spend together, and we had a great time. We played disc golf (and my mom now knows what that is), explored the beach (by a lake and river), went to eat at a cute little vegan coffee shop, walked around Iowa City proper, went to the mall (which has an ice skating rink in it), appreciated not actually being in the middle of nowhere, and enjoyed being able to be to spend time together. We also played pool in the "game room" and talked with some of Aaron's neighbors who were hanging out. Aaron's apartment is really cute, and I guess I ended up taking more pics of the outside than the inside.


Aaron had his first day of internship today, and then we both have new employee orientation for the next 2 days.








Thursday, August 21, 2008

Anica's New Apartment







Here are some pics of my new place in Pittsburgh. Turn your head sideways for the first pic, as it takes a long time to load so I don't want to redo it. I really miss Aaron and all my Mount Pleasant friends. I started internship, so have meet my 5 other internship mates, and they are really great. I think we are going to have a lot of fun together this year!!!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Last Night Out in Mt. P







The girls and I hit the town one of the last nights that I was in town. Thanks for the drinks ladies! Good thing I was still ok to pack the next day! Oh, there was also this awesome rainbow that day!