Trick or Treat!

Josh and Karale came down this last weekend to attend a Halloween party with me and Justin. We had a lot of fun! Karale was a "bun in the oven", Josh was a chef "Papa Josh", and Justin and I were 80s rockstars. Here are some pics (including Justin's mohawk that I'm pretty proud of!). The first couple of pics are kinda hard to see because someone had been setting off a fog machine!

Go Bucks!

Okay...so I know the Buckeyes lost this week, but I thought everyone would enjoy some pics! There's usually a group of us that get together to watch the games, but everyone in the group (besides me and J) ended up with tickets to the game!! So, it was just me and J...we started to get a little bored waiting for the game to start, so I thought it would be fun to take some pics with Sophi!! As you can see, Sophi loves to give us kisses! In one, she's practically jumping off the couch to attack me with kisses!! She loves to try to give J kisses right as the picture is being taken! It was a blast though!

According to people at work, I have the cutest dog ever!! So, I thought you might like to see some more pics from her birthday (courtesy of Karale)! Keep in mind this is the same day as the lightning strike, so I don't look real great! I had been contemplating jumping in the shower during a thunderstorm when the lightning actually struck. I know my answer from now on!!

Virginia Beach

I went to visit Brooke (she went to SOSU with me, we were in the Honors Program together) who is a U.S. Marshall stationed in Virginia Beach right now. It was a blast!! Plenty of beachtime and sightseeing! It was definitely a good mini-vacation!

This is a light house we visited on the base. We climbed the left one and the second picture is a view from the top of that lighthouse.

We went to dinner with some of her friends for some seafood. It was fun!

These pictures are just some things that were on the boardwalk by her house.

I told her I wanted to go by the Old Coast Guard Station...little did I know it was right on the boardwalk by her house!

I saw real dolphins while I was there, but I didn't get any pictures of them, so we took a picture with this dolphin instead. This was on the boardwalk a little ways down the beach from her house. We rode our bikes there.

We went to see a comedian at the FunnyBone comedy club. He was actually very good!!

These pictures are of the beach. I walked there from Brooke's house! It was literally two blocks away!

I wasn't too lonely when Brooke was at work. I got to spend my days with her puppy Tora! She's and american bulldog/boxer mix. She's really sweet!

The Lightning Stike and Sophi's Bday

This weekend was Sophi's 1 year birthday. Josh and Karale came to visit and attend the county fair with me. While they were here on Saturday morning (close to lunchtime) we were watching tv and lightning struck my house!! It was the scariest thing EVER! I love thunderstorms, but now I'm not so sure anymore! Karale screamed very loud and Sophi had no idea what was going on! Justin was on the side street driving to my house and saw the lighting streak!! He thought it was a few houses down, but he was wrong! As best we can tell, the lightning struck my tree and traveled down my fence and hit the side of my house (very close to my diesel fuel tank for my furnace). It seems to have come in through my cable tv because everything that was connected the cable tv was fried (including my tv and computer!). The electricity seems to be okay except going out to the pool. I haven't been able to fix that yet, so if anyone knows a good electrician who would be willing to fly to Ohio, let me know! :) Here are some pics of the weekend. The first few are of the tree that was hit.

These are a few pics of some of the electronics that were fried from the lightning. The first one is the case of something that was burnt (note the black stuff) and sent flying from the office into the living room. I was sitting on this corner of the couch by the way...

Here is where the lightning hit my house I think. I definitely did not have this hole in my house before the storm!!! Plus we found the brick fragments laying in the yard.

Look how close the hole in my house is to my fuel tank!! The hole is on the far left by the gutter and my tank is behind the wood trellis.

Josh is super scared of lightning now...

These next few are some pics from Sophi's bday. I went to the pet store with Karale and got her some treats. One of them is the Birthday Girl shirt she's wearing and another one was the bag of doggie popcorn for her. These pics are of her eating her popcorn. I also got her a bday cookie, but Karale has those pics so I'll post them later.

Justin wanted to be sure that I posted pics of my new water filtration system he installed for me so Dad could see it. Hopefully this will remove the Sulpher in my water so it doesn't smell like rotten eggs anymore!






After a long weekend of excitement and helping me out. Justin and Sophi decided they deserved a nap. She must really love him because I CANNOT get her to sleep like that with me!!