Friday, May 29, 2009

Carnegie Science Center

Here's some pictures from Sunday at the Carnegie Science Center. It was a fun place! Even though it may be a little bit more for kids, we had a great time exploring!

Ben and Caleb making paper airplanes.




Joanne and I touching a piece of Mars!


Joanne, Caleb, and Ben building on the earthquake machine.



Chris with his 'wings' feeling what it feels like to fly!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Pittsburgh Zoo!

On Sunday we headed to the Pittsburgh Zoo with some friends. It was a perfect day, and we managed to also squeeze in the Carnegie Science Museum! (Pictures will come later of that!) Chris and I on the drive to Pittsburgh! We had to go up a giant escalator to get in....and apperently it threw off Ben's sense of balance!
Ben, Joanne, Caleb, Me and Chris at the entrance sign!

This peacock was really strutting his stuff!


Kodiak bear-this bear is bigger than the grizzly! It was huge!




They had a great shark tunnel to walk through. We even got to go through during feeding time!



They had a lot of elephants, and two baby elephants! They were so cute!!



Polar Bear! They also had a polar bear tunnel, but the bears didn't swim, so it was a little disapointing!




Always Chris' favorite-monkeys!
All in all, it was a great day with great friends!

Monday, May 25, 2009

Memorial Weekend Cookout!

We had a cookout on Saturday with our friends. It was a great day with perfect weather! Our great group of friends here, Ben, Joanne, and Caleb. Joanne and Caleb brought their dog Sam Houston. All the dogs played great together! Although Emma tended to stay back on the deck with all of us!


Ben and Emma are buddies!

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Clarksburg Office

Here are a couple of pictures of my office for those of you who have been wondering. My walls are pretty bare. I definitely need some pictures of friends and family on the wall. But in the mean time I just have my Right-of-Way Training certificates from courses taken at our corporate office. I don't have many pictures on my Mac so if you have any good pictures......you should email me some so I could put them up.





Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Strange Turn of Events

As you all know, in September we got this cute little puppy, Marathon. She looked so sweet and innocent, right?
Well, as much as we loved her, she made things pretty stressful. She was so wild, and couldn't help but attack Emma all day, every day. We hadn't had Emma around other dogs, and it showed. She had no need for Marathon, and generally hated her. Poor Marathon wanted to play, and play hard. She didn't understand her size, and hurt little Emma if we didn't watch them every minute. For our own sanity, it got to the point of us keeping them in seperate rooms all the time. We discussed giving Marathon away, or to a family/friend that could take care of her until she was older and calmer.
As a last effort, we put Marathon through obediance training. We went to Cindy at Green Hills Animal Hospital. It was amazing to see the difference in Marathon. She wanted so much to please us and she learned quickly. The training helped so that she could finally run with me. Once she started running with me we finally saw a decrease in her energy level! We could slowly see a change between her and Emma. We still kept them seperate a lot, but finally, they could be together some.
Since we moved here, however, they are together all the time! I think the cramped space in the hotel was actually good for us. It made all of us deal with the problem instead of just keeping them seperate. FINALLY, they are sisters, and they actually enjoy being together! They still play wild, but Emma likes to play now, and Marathon has learned her size and doesn't play as rough. It's so great to finally have two dogs just like I thought it would be when we got her! It only took 9 months, but it was totally worth it!!!


This was them this morning....sleeping like this! It's cold this morning and there's a heat vent right there, so they're cuddling for warmth!


Monday, May 11, 2009

Chris and I had some time yesterday so we went up to Morgantown to go to the zoo. We knew this zoo was small, but after looking it up on line we decided it could be fun. They listed tigers, lions, and bears; so we didn't think it could be to bad, right? Boy were we wrong! I'm pretty sure this zoo is how many 20/20 episodes start. You know those episodes that end with half the people getting eating by a bear or tiger that they thought wasn't strong enough to get out??

The animal cages were pretty scary....I really believe that any of the animals could have gotten out if they got mad enough. It was also one of those zoos that makes you hate zoos. The animals didn't have enough room to exercise, they were filthy, and the whole place stunk. But here's some pictures anyway!


You can tell by my face that I was praying the bear didn't barrel out and eat me!


These poor bears just paced in circles around their cages
Beautiful tiger!

This was a miniature horse. It was super cute, but its fur was matted and falling out in spots.



This was a chimp that used to act in some movies, but is now retired. When Chris held
up the camera he sat down and grinned ear to ear, it was so cute!

It was an interesting experience to say the least. It wasn't very big, so we litterally saw all the animals in 30 minutes!

Friday, May 8, 2009

We're Cooking Now!

We finally got a grill last night! We got it home, and Chris started putting it together.....then we see on the box it says 'ask about free assembly!' Oops....with all the pieces lying about, that would have been a lot easier!!


We were both surprised at how many pieces it came in!



Now it's looking more like a grill!



Yay! He did it! Seeing as how it took him the entire evening to put it together, we didn't grill out last night. However we're looking forward to having some friends over tomorrow night for a cook-out!

Yes, that is actually me.....

This really is an untouched picture of me mowing the lawn! This is only the second time in my life, but I actually did it! We bought the lawn mower last week, and Chris put it together. We weren't able to mow the lawn because of the last week and a half of rain, so our lawn was pretty tall! We were at risk of losing Emma in the backyard due to the tall grass. However, I got it done, and I must say, I enjoyed it!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Scottish and Celtic Festival

The Scottish and Celtic Festival was Saturday here in Bridgeport. We heard it was supposed to be a pretty big festival, so we headed out with some friends. It wasn't as small as Cajun Fest 2008 but it didn't compare to the festivals in St. Joe either. At least, it was something fun to do for the afternoon. Here's some pics from the fest, enjoy!

There were tons of bag-pipers walking around. Not really my taste of music, but they were talented, none the less.


This is some manly contest....it was a huge weight they threw. They had a bunch of manly contests- just like Made of Honor (if you haven't seen it, you should rent it!). It totally makes sense that they have to have these crazy contests.....I think it balances out the fact that they're wearing skirts.....But I have to say, I really like the twirling action!


Watching the dog agility show. At least Sarah and I are looking at the camera! This is the group of friends that we hang out with here.....however we need to get a better picture of us all!


One of the dogs doing the agility course. They were really smart dogs!


They also had a show with hearding dogs. These dogs were so smart! they would do exactly what the guy said (or whistled), and the made the sheeps go where ever they pushed. The dogs also hearded a group of ducks....it was so fun to watch!

We followed up the festival with a trip to Coldstone Creamery and dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Overall, it was a fun day, even if it was a small festival.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Pancakes Anyone?!

I love breakfast foods! However, a lot of the time they're not so healthy. Pancakes would be one of these things. I've tried looking for a good 100% fruit syrup in the store, but I can't find one anymore. At least if I wasn't pouring maple syrup on them I could call them healthy, right?!
I had come across this recipe from runnersworld.com for an All-Purpose Fruit Syrup a couple years ago. I printed it off and promptly forgot about it. I re-discovered it the other day, and tried it out. It was amazing!!!! It is so easy to make, and so good! It's a little time consuming so I made up a couple batches and keep it in the fridge.

Ingrediants: 1 1/2 c apple cider
2 c blueberries, raspberries, or chopped strawberries

Directions: Place the cider and the berries in a deep saucepan set over medium heat. Simmer
uncovered until thickened, 55-60 minutes, stirring occasionally and skimming off
any froth that appears on the surface. Strain the syrup into a bowl, pressing on the
solids to push through some of the pulp. Discard the seeds and the pulp that doesn't
pass through easily. Use right away or cover and refridgerate for up to 3 weeks. Or
freeze for up to 2 months.

Nutrinion: Serving: 1/2 cup
Calories: 66
Protein: 1g
Carbs: 14 g
Fat: 0g

You should definately try this out! I didn't strain my syrup at all....I love all the chunks of strawberries in mine, plus it's less work!!

What a Diffrence a Day Can Make!!

We finally saw a break in the rain yesterday, overnight and into the afternoon it didn't rain! Marathon and I headed out for a walk, and we were surprised to see how much the flooding had gone down! The river is still quite a bit more full than usual, but I'm sure those people are glad it's back down!
Now we're just waiting for the mess to go away. The park that we run at was very flooded and now all the trails and filled with mud and some left-over standing water. I'm afraid it will be a while before it's clear enough for us to run all of it again!!


Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Rain, Rain, Go Away!!

It has been raining here for at least a week straight...not to mention the on and off rainy days before that. The rain isn't supposed to stop until Sunday!! I hadn't been able to walk Marathon for 2 days. Which means, she's pretty much unstandably wild. Since it's pouring all the time, we play rough in the house and in the yard if it's raining lighter. However, it's just not the same as a good run or walk! Yesterday, the rain finally stopped for a short time, so we headed out for a walk. We were quite surprised by what we found on our trails:


This is a view from the trail just down from our house. The river is normally down a deep imbankment. Normally that is a large street in front of the houses! Luckily, our house is up a big hill from here, so we should be safe!


That would normally be an open, dry field.



This is the start of the other trail we do. It wraps around the Bridgeport City Park, which is now closed down.

Another part of the trail....notice the picnic table!

This is another part of our trail....if you look closely you can see some ducks swimming right where we would normally walk!