Jennie and Chad

Welcome to 2012

Chad — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 05:26:21 +0000

The new year always means a couple things for me. Lots of regret for the 10K calorie days the weeks before and resolutions. Can’t do much about those fatty days weeks back, but I can try to move forward on some resolutions. I do have some this year and I thought it might help me to put them out there.

Run 60 miles a month – Really this is just on here to make me exercise. I can’t say that I like running, I just don’t think it is that hard to do anymore and it is an quick way to knock out some cardio. I really like the app RunKeeper to track my running.
Drop 15 lbs – I have gained back about 15 lbs from my lowest point. I really hate that. I am trying to start the calorie counting again using The Daily Plate. That is what helped me so much the first time. I don’t want it to take a year I want to have those 15 lbs dropped by March. I feel that is totally doable if I stick to the exercise and stick to the calorie plan.
Read a book a month – I say this every year.
Start a side business – I say this every year.
Blog more – I say this every year.
Read through the Bible
Take more trips – I want to make more time to get out of town. Jennie and I plan to try a long trip this summer where I can work from our location while she is out for summer break. That was one of the main reasons I wanted a work from home job, so that I had the freedom to work from anywhere. I want to put it into practice this summer and see how it works out.
Play more video games, watch more football and UK basketball games – Just putting this on here so I have something to point out to Jennie if she says I am doing to much of any of those. Sorry honey, it was a new years resolution…why do you want me to fail?
Play more volleyball and basketball. Last year we played lots of volleyball and basketball. This year we have the potential to play 2 nights of vball a week but the basketball has kind of fizzled out. I need to get back on that. I do want video of me slamming a basketball two handed during a game just to show my kids I was able to do it at one time. That brings up something else I should put down as a resolution.
Dunk two handed – I can dunk one handed occasionally, if the time of day is right and the moon is such that it pulls me closer to the basket. Not consistently. This is something else I think I could easily do with just a few months of work. I turn 32 this year, I don’t think I have much jumping left in me soon.

If I do two of these things I will be happy and if I could do all of them that would be pretty good too.

Maybe I will blog tomorrow about weight loss stuff or books I want to read. Maybe I won’t post again till 2013. I never did that last day of NYC post.

Maybe I should just say until we speak again and leave you with a picture of Jennie and I in a giant rocking chair.

Ornament Tree

Jennie — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 04:16:12 +0000

Today I made this cute little ornament tree to go in our guest bathroom. It was like something I had seen in a store, but I didn’t want to pay $30 for it. It was really simple.
To make it, all you need is: a Styrofoam cone, garland, small ornaments of different sizes, and a hot glue gun. You will need more ornaments than you might think. For this small tree, I used 36 medium-sized ornaments and 40 small ornaments.

1. Dab some hot glue on the bottom of the cone and attach the garland. Wrap the garland around the cone all the way to the top, periodically gluing, so that no Styrofoam shows.
2. Remove the tops of the ornaments so that they will be able to pierce the Styrofoam.
3. Hot glue the ornaments on the cone. Use larger ornaments on the bottom, smaller ornaments on the top, and mix the sizes in the middle. Cover in any gaps.

If I can make it there – NYC Trip Day 4

Chad — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 22:58:12 +0000

We got up this morning with the idea of using another one of our City Pass tickets to take a boat ride out to the Statue of Liberty and then over to Ellis Island. Lucky for us we were the only people with that idea, so we were able to just hop right on the boat and see everything. Just kidding there was like a 3 hour wait. So we waited in about the longest line I have ever seen to hop on the ferry over to lady liberty.

Once we finally got on the ferry over to Liberty island it was a nice ride. We decided to stay below instead of being out in the sun on the upper deck. We had just about enough sun while waiting for the ferry.

This french chick was much larger than she looks. I was surprised.

In the picture below it looks like she is about to give that cloud some freedom.

Long story short we walked around the statue a lot, took a lot of pictures, and were basically exhausted. We skipped Ellis Island, we will see it when we go back for Jennie’s 60th birthday.

Once back in the city we had lunch and then headed back down to ground zero. We took a few more pictures and visited the 9/11 memorial center. I also saw Steve Nash walking down the street with his kids.

Our hotel was about a block from Wooster St. Social Club, which is the tattoo studio for the TLC show New York Ink.

We walked down to it, but then chickened out about going inside. Jennie wanted to get a pretty sweet UK tattoo, but I wouldn’t let her.

The next day was our final day in NYC.

My First Bag of Crap!

Chad — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 18:43:59 +0000

Last week I finally was able to get through and order a bag of crap from woot! I have been excited all week to see what kind of crappy items I was going to get. Well today the crap came in, and oh was it crappy!

The standard crappy bag
2 Topsy Turvy Strawberry Planters
1 6ft Memorex HDMI cable
1 box of Shamwow
1 Fact or Crap Dare game
1 Small Woot Shirt – National Parks

Overall, I am pretty happy with my 3 dollar (plus 5 bucks for shipping) crap.

Manhattan keep on makin’ it – NYC Trip Day 3

Chad — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 03:41:14 +0000

We woke up very early this morning to make our way down to Times Square to be one of the 100s of annoying people trying to get on TV during the taping of Good Morning America. Once we got down there we were greeted by a couple GMA interns who informed us that the show was taping in Central Park this morning as part of their summer concert series. They gave us their last couple VIP bracelets that would allow us to get to the front of the concert and bypass security. I guess the word had already spread of our Time Square billboard stardom (CALLBACK!!!)

Once we got to Central Park, we found the concert and walked right up to the front.

We stood around for a bit until the anchors got there and started to do their thing.

I will have to admit it was a lot of fun just watching how the whole show worked behind the scenes. It seems like a ton of work to throw that together every morning. George Snuffleupagus did a segment in which we were right behind him.

So that was our moment to shine!

Oh yeah, some country girl played some country music at some point.

After the concert we decided to head over to Rockefeller Center and head up to the Top of the Rock. It was a lot of fun and some great views of the city.

Unlike the Empire State Building, this outdoor observation deck had some glass all the way around it. So it also made for some great photo ops.

After our fun on the Top of the Rock we got some tickets to the NBC studio tour. This allowed us to see the SNL stage as well as where they tape Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. They didn’t let us take any pictures, but it was awesome to see those sets. It was pretty awesome though, I did get my picture with Matt Lauer of the Today Show. All those TV guys are shorter and flatter in real life.

We wanted to squeeze one more thing in before we called it a night. It started raining pretty bad so we thought maybe a museum might be in order. So we head to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). With all the rain and the fact it was free on Fridays, we weren’t the only ones going there. It was very close quarters, but we enjoyed seeing the art.

Tomorrow we check out some huge french lady.

Does every couple do this?

Jennie — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 20:05:09 +0000

You know Chad got me an iPad for our anniversary. Well, Jessie got Brendan one for his birthday. One of the apps that comes with it is Photo Booth. It takes pictures and you can choose different settings like stretch, squeeze, and twirl. It can be a lot of fun to play with because the pictures can look so funny. Anyway, while in Louisville this weekend, Brendan and I were showing all the hilarious pictures we had taken with Photo Booth to our family. While flipping through, I noticed one picture that Brendan and Jessie had taken that looked almost exactly like one Chad and I had taken. I wonder, does every couple do this pose when playing around with Photo Booth or is this something we can chalk up to being twins?

No Sleep Til Brooklyn – NYC Trip Day 2

Chad — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 04:05:41 +0000

Today this was Jennie’s actual birthday, so we had some serious celebrating to do (or walking…I forgot which we ended up doing). Last night before bed we decided to get the NY CityPass. If you are going to NY and are going to spend some time and see the sites I would suggest getting it. Our first stop was the Empire State Building.

The lines weren’t long and it seemed like we made it through pretty quickly. We had great views of the city from all angles.

Our tour guide, a cab driver from the city, told us about everything we were seeing. He was pretty small and actually fit inside a small plastic phone looking thing. Jennie is holding him up to her ear below.

The next stop on our trip was Times Square. Want to know why it was called Times Square? Me too.

We were heading to Times Square to hit up the TKTS ticket booth for some discount Broadway tickets. We had hoped to see Wicked, but that wasn’t happening. The only tickets for that show were about 250 bucks each. So we ended up getting tickets to Sister Act.

We also had the chance to get our names, faces, torsos and what not in lights. If you bought something at American Eagle they would take your picture and throw it up on their huge screen in Times Square. So Jennie got a couple discount t-shirts and we got our picture taken. After signing a couple autographs we moved on.

After some rest back at the hotel it was time to head to our Broadway show. See it even says it on the sign, BROADWAY.

The show was good. I think we both were expecting some of the songs from the movie, but it was all new music. Still very fun to watch. After the show we got some pizza from one of the pizza places they featured on last season’s celebrity apprentice.

After the pizza I answered a couple questions from a random teacher on the streets. While doing that a cab came by and picked us up. We headed back to the hotel and went to bed.

It was the greatest birthday Jennie has ever had ever. Tomorrow we make our national television debut.

Empire State of Mind – NYC Trip Day 1

Chad — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 23:42:47 +0000

For Jennie’s 30th birthday I surprised her with a trip to NYC. Let’s just say she was surprised, maybe not in a good way, but I was determined to make her love NYC just as much as I do.

We headed out on Wednesday morning about 10.

We got to the airport and scanned the credit card to check in, it asked if we wanted to upgrade to first class, it wasn’t that expensive, so we did it. It’s vacation!

Then we enjoyed a little breakfast, hopped on the plane and headed to NYC.

The flight there was uneventful and no one famous (other than us) was in first. Flights that short, the upgrade to first probably isn’t worth it. I am sure longer flights are more expensive though.

We took a cab from the airport to our hotel, the Sheraton Tribeca. Something I was wondering was what TriBeCa stood for. Anyone here know? Anyone? It stands for “Triangle below Canal Street”.

We rested for a bit then took a walk down to the WTC site. The new tower is big and almost looks complete. The memorial is set to open this Sept. You couldn’t see much of it, but it does look like it will be very nice.

From there we walked on down to a dock area and took a look at the Statue of Liberty.

From there we walked on down to Bowling Green park which is in the financial district.

The north end of the park has the famous Charging Bull sculpture.

That was it for day 1, we did quite a bit of touristy stuff for just getting in the city about 2 pm.

Triathlon 2011

Jennie — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 19:10:20 +0000

On Saturday, June 25th, Chad competed in the Old Hickory Lake Triathlon for the second time. I didn’t get to go last year, but I was able to cheer him on this year. While waiting for Chad to pass by, I made some friends. A mother with her daughter and daughter’s friend. I helped them cheer for Bob and they helped me cheer for Chad. I think we were the loudest people out there. We even cheered for people we didn’t know because we could see their names on their bibs. The girls loved Chad’s reaction to their cheering.

Chad did a great job! He hadn’t been able to train for a couple weeks before this one because we were in Canada a week and then he hurt his knee playing basketball, but he still did awesome. I’m so proud of him!

Here are the results from this year and last year.

2011

Swim (400 yards) 8:48

Run (1 mile) 9:56

Bike (12 miles) 43:58

Run (2 miles) 20:43

2010

Swim (400 yards) 6:42

Run (1.5 miles) 17:39

Bike (12.5 miles) 46:56

Run (1.5 miles) 15:11

Canada-Part 3: Ottawa

Jennie — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 21:32:45 +0000

Wednesday, June 15th- North Bay
We hit the road this morning for the long haul to North Bay. Our final destination is Ottawa, but we did not want to make the entire drive in one day (especially with Brody). On the way out of Timmins, we stopped at a Giant Tiger store and I got a t-shirt and sweatpants. We also stopped to see the grave site of Paul, Mamere’s late husband. To pass the time, we played some trivia games on my iPad. My favorite was Family Feud. The drive took about 7 hours including all the stops, so we were ready to get here.

Family Feud

We rested and had dinner at a pizza place. Then we went to the shore to see the sunset and take some pictures. It was very pretty. Brody got to step in sand for the first time, but he didn’t care for it too much.

We will hit the road again tomorrow. It will be the last day of driving for us. Yay! Well, riding for me, driving for Chad. Thanks for doing all the driving, Chad!

Thursday, June 16th- Ottawa
This morning, we made the final drive to Ottawa. It took about 6 hours, I guess. It seemed like we stopped quite a bit but I don’t know. I got my second helping of poutine. It seems to be on the menu of every restaurant here. I’m just glad we’re done driving. We got to Chad’s uncle’s house, Gilles, where I met him and his wife Susie, their daughter Lisanne, their son, Alain, and his wife and daughter, Mel and Emma. We had a wonderful home cooked dinner and played outside with the kids. Emma is so cute. She speaks more French than English, so I didn’t know most of what she was saying. I got to ride in the back seat with her and she was teaching me words in French, but her mom said they weren’t right. Alain and Mel are letting us stay in their home. It’s very pretty. We took it easy tonight, but I think tomorrow will have more in store.

Friday, June 17th- Ottawa
This morning we went to Gilles and Susie’s for breakfast. It was quite a spread, complete with veal sausage. Then, we left for our day out. We first stopped to where we could look over the water to see Quebec.

View of Quebec

We then went to the market area. It had outdoor stands as well as a lot of shops. Ashley and Brock tried a beaver tail, which was a pastry kind of like a funnel cake. We walked around a lot and went to the Parliament. Susie told us they were getting ready for Canada Day. Prince William and Kate are supposed to attend.

Chad and Jennie in front of Parliament

Parliament

We stopped back at the house for some lunch and to drop Brody off for a nap. Then, we headed to the mall to do some more shopping. I got a couple things from Roots, a Canadian retail store.

Tonight, we came back to Alain and Mel’s for dinner. They had great food and dessert. We took a few pictures, but unfortunately not with our camera again. Emma danced for us and Brody joined in a little. They were so cute.

Saturday, June 18th- Ottawa/Home
This morning, we said our goodbyes to everyone and made the trip home. The airport provided my last Tim Horton’s treat for a while. I don’t know how many times we ate there during the week. We flew from Ottawa to Chicago, then to Nashville. The ride to Chicago was a little bumpy and did not feel well, but it didn’t last long.

I am glad to be home, but the trip was so fun. I am so glad I got to meet everyone. It is nice to now put the faces with the names. Everyone is so lovely and I am excited to get to visit again. THANK YOU to all of you who made me feel so welcomed and comfortable! And THANK YOU Jerry Webb for planning this whole trip!