The beautiful city of Knoxville

This past weekend I made a whirlwind trip to Knoxville to see Rebekah. I picked Colin up in Bluffton at noon on Friday after he finished his classes for the day and we drove the last 6 hours together. Singing along to music in the car with Colin and having someone to talk to sure made the trip go faster than if I would have been by myself!

We had such a good time with Rebekah. We got to eat pizza at Barley's on Friday, followed by an awful movie that we decided to turn off. We had all heard good things about Knocked Up, but it left a lot to be desired. Saturday morning Rebekah and I jogged first thing in the morning and then headed off to get our hair cut by Holly. The salon Rebekah goes to is so nice and fancy. They even have massaging chairs to sit in while you get your hair washed! I made Seth a happy man and cut off over 8 inches of my hair. It was a spur of the moment decision, but I am really pleased with out it looks. It was time for a change.

In the afternoon we hit Reruns at Market Square, my favorite shop in the entire world, and I bought some new clothes for the fall. We met Aunt Lisa and Uncle David for lunch at Panera, Colin test drove one of their motorcycles, and then we headed home for an afternoon nap.

In the evening we headed downtown to meet some of Rebekah's friends at the tailgating party and then I experienced my first college football game. We were treated to a great game that Tennessee ended up winning in overtime after blowing a 21-0 lead at halftime. I have never seen so much orange in my life or heard Rocky Top sung so many times!

We headed home first thing on Sunday morning and I got back home around 4pm with time to unpack and get things around for the week. Such a fun weekend! Thanks for having us come Rebekah!

Life without Diet Pepsi

The big update in my life...

I have made a drastic decision to sever my ties to Diet Pepsi. Since finishing school and starting a regular desk job I have consistently increased the amount of diet pop that I drink. I was easily drinking 20 oz. a day during the week and more on the weekend. I am 100% addicted to this drink and have decided it can be doing nothing good for my body. So, 2 1/2 days ago I decided to quit cold turkey. I have had minor headaches to deal with, but nothing too awful. I am hopeful that I will be able to maintain my break from this addictive drink.

Life without tennis

This past week was my first week without tennis. It always amazes me how much time I have in the afternoons and evenings to do whatever I want. I worked outside with mom one afternoon trimming everything to get things ready for winter, finished a brick edging I started during the summer, cleaned out the garage, cleaned up the house, watched TV (I'd missed my afternoon Gilmore Girl reruns from 5-6pm!), and even made an afternoon trip to Warsaw to see Coach Leon. I am more relieved this fall to be done with tennis than I was the past two seasons.

Last night Christie and Joel came over for dinner and games. Joel is starting to think that we only invite him over when we need a fourth person for games, which isn't true, but the last time he was over was 4th of July when Christie was over too. What he doesn't realize is that I like when he comes because than I am sure to beat at least one person! We played Scattergories and Dutch Blitz and had a lot of fun.

I am looking forward to making a trip to see Rebekah next weekend with Colin. I am going to pick him up in Bluffton and then we are driving to Knoxville together. Rebekah has tickets for us to see a UT football game. I hope we have a chance to eat at Barley's, shop at Reruns, and run down Cherokee Blvd too.

p.s. I dyed my hair dark red. Not so sure about it, but it is something different!

Where did September go?

I cannot believe today is the first of October. I am still part time at Bethany, which is so wonderful, so this morning I was laying in bed trying to make myself get up and it was still dark at 7am! How awful! And we haven't even changed times yet. I hate getting up in the morning when it is dark. My days of running with Sophie in the morning are numbered.

Since our last update, I turned 25 and then one day later Seth turned 25 as well. I like to remind him that I am older and wiser than him! I don't think he agrees, but it doesn't stop me from saying it.

My tennis season is winding down. This is our last week of regular season matches and in two weekends is our conference tournament in Fort Wayne. We have been a team on the brink all season. Losing so many close matches. I keep waiting for all the pieces to fall today at the same time. I am hopeful that it will happen this week and then continue into tournament time.

The highlight of the last few weeks was a whirlwind trip I made to Tennessee two weekends ago. Aunt Debra and Uncle Kleber were in Galtinburg for the week, visiting with mom and dad and Aunt Lisa and Uncle David. This was the first time in 30 years that all of the sisters and their husbands were together. After my Saturday tennis match I drove to South Bend, took United Limo to Chicago, and flew to Knoxville. After running at Cherokee Blvd. Rebekah and I spent all day Sunday visiting with family. The highlight of the day in Gatlinburg was an old fashioned picture we took. I happened to mention remembering doing a picture like this many years ago and somehow we talked everyone into putting on costumes and posing for a bar scene picture! When asked if we wanted to do a conservative photo or a sexy photo we quickly opted for the sexy photo! How fun! It was so wonderful to see Aunt Debra and Uncle Kleber. It had been 7 years since I'd seen them. Much too long. I flew back home the next day then. It was such a short trip, but definitely worth it!