Indianapolis Zoo

In October my Hubby and I went to Indianapolis to celebrate our 1 year wedding anniversary. We had a blast! Our decision to go there was so we could go to the Zoo. Yep, we're that cool. All of our trips seem to be centered around zoos or aquariums. We also scheduled our honeymoon around the Zoo and Aquarium located in Chattanooga, TN (yes, it was fun) and the Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg, TN (it was fun also but not as much fun as Chattanooga). And I'm hoping to be able to schedule a trip to Atlanta in August for Thirty One's National Conference, and you guessed it, we will be visiting the Atlanta, GA zoo and aquarium.

Now on to the beautiful pictures from Indy.  I am sure that you can figure out what my favorite parts of the zoos are!! Dolphins, Penguins, Gibbons, Elephants, Giraffes and anything baby!!!

 The dolphin adventure was exciting. Watching the trainers give them the cues and the dolphins obeying...for the most part... was one of the coolest things ever. Made me want to spend the money to get in the water with them...but that was going to cost just a few hundred more then we wanted to spend...

Watching Mamma and Baby elephant was really intriguing for me. I think Tony may have been bored after oh, the first 30 minutes, but I could have spent all day there. The baby was so adorable and I just wanted to jump the fence and walk beside/pet/play with that adorable little one... I'm such a sucker for animals...maybe I should have thought about going to school for something animal related...The other animal that I was totally intrigued with was Mamma and baby Giraffe... I am not sure which set of animals I watched the longest, although I think it was probably the elephants because we had to wait so long for the pumpkin smash...which was a treat in and of it's self... Obviously elephants like to eat pumpkins, and watching them smash them with one foot was pretty cool (and I'm not talking about small pumpkins, I'm talking about huge pumpkins that were wheeled in on a dolly).

Yes I know
<==== that is a rhino, not an elephant!

Gibbons may not be the cutest little monkeys, but in my opinion, they are probably the funnest to watch. I am amazed at how well they swing from branch to branch and care for their babies. While we were watching these little heathens we were able to witness a fight between a couple of the younger Gibbons (there were 4 or 5 Gibbon Children there)... The parent's (we assumed the father) took control and stopped the fighting after a while, assuring that his child was not going to get hurt... and then he turned around and started bouncing on one of the branches to try to separate the little monsters!

 And who can resist this Mamma Gibbon hugging her baby!!!


After the zoo Tony and I made sure we visited a wonderful restaurant while we were in Indy..Thanks for the recommendation Monica! If you ever go to a bigger city check out FOGO DE CHAO CHURRASCARIA ---- IT'S AMAZING!!! I CAN'T STRESS THAT ENOUGH!!!  Expensive, yes a little, but totally worth it...Just plan on spending $100 for 2 people if you go at dinner time...but I promise, you will never regret it!!! Not up to spending that much money, go for a lunch. It's definitely a restaurant for a special occasion and I would not recommend taking children. Check out their website Fogo De Chao and watch their video. (no, I am not getting paid to advertise for them...I just really enjoyed our dinner there :) ) <Chicago, Baltimore, DC, Atlanta, San Antonio, Dallas and Vegas are just a few of their locations>

A little of this and a little of that

Okay, so a friend of mine called me out and reminded me that I haven't been on my blog and posted since...... Thanks Nicole, for holding me accountable! There's been a lot going on and I haven't been on my computer in about a week and I just haven't figured out how to post from my phone yet...so here we go.....

Updates on my New Years Resolution:
*30 days to a more organized house- it's still in progress. I have not organized every day, but I have gotten over half of the kitchen completed. I have cleaned out and organized most of my cabinets, but decided that I am not going to post pictures of every drawer and cabinet.... but trust me, it's getting done, and my pretty green striped contact paper is looking so much prettier then the wooden cabinets.




*Taking pictures every day- well, lets just say, it's not been every day but I have still been taking pictures, maybe not of the most fabulous things, but they are pictures none-the-less... so here they are :) The first picture is of Gina and her group of Thirty One ladies that attended the new catalog premier in Fairborn, afterwards we went to dinner at Olive Garden!!!!

Tony and I decided to have a Tempura dinner last Tuesday (January 3,2011 and I decided that a picture was a must!!! What's all on the plate? from top left clockwise: sweet potato, shitake mushroom, asparagus, onion, lotus root, green pepper and the center was shrimp... and in the little green and black bowls, homemade tempura sauce... unfortunately I still have the burn marks from the grease splatters :( but dinner was delicious!

And this was tonight's dinner. It's the garden blend penne pasta with chicken and a homemade sauce that contained a couple of ounces of creme cheese, garlic, spinach, and parmesan cheese. It was pretty amazing also!!! Maybe I just love food and cooking :)

And this final picture was taken on a drive back home and I just thought that the tree looked pretty with the sky that night...I have definitely taken pictures of this very tree several times. It's in a great location to stop the car and get out to photograph and the sunset is always great in that area... just to the left of this tree is another great photo op of a really old barn that I like to take pics of also sometimes...depends on the angle that I have my car and how much time I have to mess around taking pictures!


So there you have it folks...I'm not really sure what else to post about tonight. but I may just make another post of some pictures from the Indianapolis zoo... We went there in October to celebrate our anniversary and there was a baby elephant and giraffe...so I think you need to see those pics as well... sounds like a plan...

If you feel so inclined, leave me a message and let me know that you've stopped by....or call me out on facebook and let me know that I haven't been keeping up with my own resolutions!

30 Days to a better organized house

I have decided that for the month of January I am going to be working on home organization. I started in the kitchen yesterday (january 2), and managed to get the cabinet under my sink emptied, cleaned and re-organized. Let me just say, it feels great to be able to open the cabinet and see exactly what it is I am looking for without having to search for it. Tomorrow I am going to start working on all of the other kitchen cabinets and hopefully by the end of the day I will be able to post the before and afters of them as well. As for the rest of the month, well my goal is going to be to completely re-organize my office and bed room. I am pretty sure that's going to take all month. If I have any extra time left of my 30 days then I will work on the front room as well, but since I have recently completed that task, it shouldn't be to hard. :)

I am still trying to figure out what my second 30 day challenge is going to be, but I have a feeling that it will be something along the lines of not eating out at all for the whole month of February (okay, I know, that's only 29 days this year, but I think that's close enough to count as 30 for me!). If that's going to be the plan, then I guess I better start stocking my freezer and cabinets so that I can make some delicious home cooked meals (maybe I should start experiment with menu planning also!).

Here's the pictures I promised...the top is my before, and the bottom 3 are the afters. ( I installed the storage on the doors yesterday morning as well :)

So, today is day 2 of the new year. I managed to clean and organize the cabinet under my kitchen sink...which means that I was also able to take some pictures today! I will have to post them tomorrow because this girl is going to bed Good night world, see ya tomorrow.

Happy New Year- 2012

Happy New Year to all of my family, friends and fellow blog readers. As I was thinking about what I wanted to do for my new years resolution, I remembered that I have a blog that I set up almost a year ago and have only written on it once. Thanks to that memory, I was able to come up with my new years resolutions for 2012. Let me explain a few things about myself....

I LOVE: photography, crafting, 4 seasons, family, friends, celebrations, animals, exploring new locations and getting lost while doing so, cooking, reading, singing at the top of my lungs, challenges, organizing and reading blogs to get new and different ideas then I already have.

So here's what I came up with for my new years resolutions!

1) I am going to take at least one picture a day with my camera that I love so much, and spent way to much money on to let it sit in the closet and collect dust.... so I am going to try to post said pictures every day to my blog, followed with a short, or maybe slightly longer post...we'll see how this works out for me... (i haven't quite figured out how to work blogger to the best of it's ability)

2) I am going to start doing 30 day challenges, every month. Some of my inspirations can be found at these websites: Better photography, healthier eating, home organization, $0 monthly craft budget

Of course I am going to have to come up with some more ideas, so if you have any suggests, feel free to comment and let me know. I am thinking about a "30 days of no going out to eat" "30 days of home cooked meals" "30 days of finishing the unfinished projects" "30 days of walking" and who knows what else... If you would like to join in on any of the fun challenges I would love to blog back and forth about our progress! Of course with each of these challenges I am going to be posting the qualifications, my progress and documenting with pictures as much as I can! 

Now, I understand that these aren't the typical resolutions of save money, lose weight, work out.... but in the end, I am hoping that all of those typical goals will occur because of one of my 12 challenges that I am going to be creating for myself!

Check back regularly to see how I'm doing and check out the photos that I will be posting! And now, Jan1, 2012 : my first picture of the new year. No, we are not in our finest attire or anything, pj's work just great when you're ringing in the new year.... This is the tradition on my dads side of the family. All the ladies go outside with a wallet in hand (there has to be some money in the wallet) and a spoon full of sauerkraut...WHY???You may ask...well because we're silly of course... Right before the ball drops we put the sauerkraut in our mouths and hold it there until the ball drops, while we hold our wallet open and hold it to the sky. I have no idea who came up with this tradition in our family, but it's purpose is to bring us money for the coming year. As long as we end our year with a dollar in our wallet, we are assured to be able to end the new year with money as well! So yes, we all look silly standing on the back porch or in the front yard while doing this, but it's worked so far! And I am sure the neighbors get a kick out of it :)... so , that's it for me for today. Time to get ready for my day and spend it with my in-laws watching football and crocheting hats for the NICU babies... HAPPY NEW YEAR YA'LL!