It's Done...

Well it's official.......... we closed on our Ohio home today and what better way to start off the day than with gourmet donuts?!?!?! We both needed a little sugar rush to start the morning off right!!!!

 It was fairly easy.....sign sign sign...... give the keys and now we are no longer home owners. (Which is weird)
From here...... tomorrow the movers arrive to pack us all up and my Mom arrives!! Then Sunday the movers come back to load up the truck! Monday morning we will hit the road for Denver! It is so weird, I don't really know how I feel about all of this. I feel happy, sad, scared, excited.....you name it!

Keep us all in your thoughts and prayers for the coming week that everything goes smooth with the pack, the journey and the animals! Hopefully next time we talk I will NOT have any disaster stories to share~
I probably will not be back on the blog for over a week or so.......but follow me on Facebook and Instagram in the meantime!!!

A Few of My Favorites...

Hey Friends!!!! 4 DAYS left in Ohio, can you believe it??? Matt is flying in this afternoon and I think he is going to have to immediately mow the yard here before our final walk thru tonight! It is gonna be hard making the house look awesome while it is in utter disarray! We shall see, huh?

I also want to throw in a WW update...... my current weight is 142, which is 34 pounds total lost since I started this journey! But over the coming week I will be eating out for every meal as well as traveling in a car for 3 days (which means snacks) so I can guarantee that once I get settled I will have some catching up to do!!

Ok, back to today! I want to share with you a few of my favorite memories over the last (almost) 2 years here in Columbus! I know I missed many but here are some that stand out!

* Visiting the National Air Force Museum with my family last Labor Day to celebrate my Dads 60th Birthday! That was a wonderful weekend and this museum is a "CAN'T MISS"!!!!! I only wish I had read Unbroken last Summer before I went, it would have been neat to put the real planes in my book memory!

 * Visitors!!! Family, Friends and unlimited Fun Times...................

* Being 10 rows back to see Payton Manning and our Broncos play the Bengals!! #orangecrush

 * Watching Tiger Woods play here at Murfield in the Memorial Tournament here in Columbus. This was also our 2nd weekend in Ohio, seems so long ago!

 * Doing the OVER night Ghost Hunt at the Ohio State Reformatory and getting to see where the Shawshank Redemption was filmed! The best!!!!

 * Visiting Ohio Amish Country! My first time to see Amish Country side, Buggy's, the cheese factory and eating home cooked Amish food!! What a fun day with Mom!

 * Snow! I loved all the snow, it never got old to me! I love these pictures of the boys frolicking.

* Going to see Kings of Leon with Kylee! One of the best concerts I have been to! So much fun! I LOVE KOL!

 * Getting to see the Diana exhibit in Cincinnati and exploring a new city both with Mom and Kylee!!

 * Crossing over into Kentucky and visiting one of the most haunted places in the US.....even if only from the outside, still very very cool!

We will always have good memories to look back on and I know that many more will be made in Colorado!

Dear Ohio,

Dear Ohio,

It will be 1 month shy of 2 years when we hit the road for our new home next Monday. These past 2 years have been filled with trials, challenges but also memories I will always cherish. I thought Columbus would be our forever home so I did fall in love with several things that I will miss. This short list is not everything but some of the top things I will miss about Columbus!

* Country Living Fair

Every fall the Ohio Village hosts the Country Living Magazine fair and after going last year this was one of my TOP things I Loved! Really..... this day at the Fair was one of my most favorite days. 

 * Food Food Food
There are several meals around Columbus that I MORE than love. It is crazy just how much I will miss certain plates of food!!! Thank you Columbus for fulfilling my foodie dreams!

 * Our Neighborhood
I will miss our neighborhood, it is a just a dream. I will miss waking up in the Summer to find Hot Air Balloons over our yard. Our little slice of life here in Columbus was so peaceful, it had everything I could want.

 * Jeni's / North Market
North Market is a place that seems to transport me to like NYC, a place that when I step inside I can find any food item my heart desires. North Market also houses Jeni's Ice Cream......Oprah was right it is most defiantly one of my FAVORITE things too!

 * Our Home
I love our home. I love the huge entry way that the dogs run up and down, I love my kitchen window that lets me look out into the neighborhood while I prep dinner, I love my huge basement perfect for storing anything and everything, I love how our families can stay and have the perfect guest suite set-up upstairs, I love the bright windows and I love our master bedroom. I really loved this home and I hope the new owners will love it as much as I did.

* Our Pond and Backyard
In Oklahoma it is too hot to enjoy too much time outside but here we spent many night on our patio and it was a true extension of our home. I loved the pond and I loved having dinner outside listening to the waterfall......

I Loved how our backyard is like a park for most of the year, I will truly miss this......

 * Kylee
I will miss my dear friend Kylee, and no this isn't goodbye but we won't be in the same state again. Kylee is one of those rare people you meet who is kind, fun, thoughtful and really has a heart of gold. I only wish I had met her sooner but if I got anything out of the job that I HATED I got Kylee! She has been a blessing in my life.

These past 2 years have also taught me several things but one stands out.......How to do anything alone, including going to the Zoo or eating alone. I have always been one that would go to a movie alone but going to a restaurant and eating alone is just something I have learned to do.

One Week

You guys...... ONE week from today we close on our Ohio Home!!!!!! EEEKKKkkkk! At this point I feel like I have so much to do and nothing to do at the same time! I am in "list making" over drive....we all know I love a good list and each one I make calms my anxieties just a tad! The next 3 days I am meeting ALL my Ohio friends for a "Last Supper" and by all I mean all 3 of them! hahaha! 

You know the logistics of moving across the country are intense, here is the plan......

* Matt gets in next Thursday afternoon and he then has to immediately paint the guest room since some a touch of paint peeled up when I removed my command strips. He told me to wait since I am not that good at painting! 

*As of now next Friday morning at 9am we close and that morning I will also take Bella to the vet to be boarded. A cat would get so upset seeing stuff move out of the house, I can't put her thru all that stress!
* Saturday the movers arrive and all day they pack us up. YES we have movers and the amount of relief I have is too big to talk about!!! We got a 65% OFF deal since this is still the slow moving season (Nov-May is the dead time they say) Saturday Mom also arrives.... yup, I needed my partner in crime!

* Sunday the movers come back to load, the whole house will be loaded on the semi on Sunday. Sunday Matt is actually leaving with Abner and Ralph. He is crazy and he is gonna do it in 2 days again. 11 hours is a long time for dogs to be in a car for one day. But that is his thing... and I can't worry about it. 

* Sunday night Mom, Oscar and I will stay in a hotel here in Pickerington and on our way out of town Monday morning we will get Bella from the vet and hit the road.

* Mom and I are doing 3, 7-8 hour days of driving:

Day 1 to St. Louis and we actually get to stay with my Brother and Sister-in-law 

Day 2 to Kansas to stay in a small motel in the middle of nowhere 

Day3, to Denver!
Our movers will arrive in Denver Between Thurs and Sat the week we move. And then they will then unload and unpack us! Not bad huh? The only craziness there will be that our Townhome is 1/2 the size of our house so 1/2 our stuff we will be storing in the garage for the next 10 months until we buy a home!!! 

Mom and I will try to fit in some fun and tool around our new city and then she will fly home the following weekend!

Whew! That was a lot huh??? Wish me luck!!!!

'Staycation'

While Mom was here we wanted to not only do all of our favorite things one last time here in Columbus but we also wanted to see a few new things, one being the Diana exhibit in Cincinnati!

 This is the last stop on the Diana Tour before all the pieces retire at the Palace! Yes, we got to see THE Wedding gown she wore which was just unbelievable to see a piece of history like that up close. (I didn't sneak a picture) The exhibit was just a neat experience.......

 This picture is my favorite, I mean it is hard to wrap your head around the fact that the crown is not made of rhinestones but seeing here positioned right behind was really neat.

 The exhibit housed all the iconic outfits she wore throughout the years as well as the pictures of her wearing them. There was also a room devoted to Diana's childhood which was neat to see, I didn't realize she was a Ballerina and had a love for the Ballet.

 They did a great job on the exhibit the only complaint we had was that is was too short, we would have liked to see more. The room devoted to her death was very emotional and surreal.

 That night when we got home we rented the Diana movie with Naomi Watts, and ya it was real neat to watch this after being so close to many of the outfits portrayed in this movie. But.... as a whole this movie is a "Wait until HBO or Cable" type of movie!

Saturday morning Mom and I got up early and had a spa date which we have never done! We even had facials which was a first for us both and we agreed that we could get use to that! haha!

I scheduled us for Facials, Pedi/Mani, chair massage and makeup application........we had such a wonderful and relaxing time!

 Mom LOVED it which was the point after all, it makes me happy knowing I planned something that we fell in love with.

 Mom also enjoyed getting her makeup done............ after this we had lunch and ran some errands around Columbus!

 Mom also got in some prime snugglin with all the boys, they were SO happy to see her!

 We did do a little shopping and I DID get a new Spring/Summer purse with matching wallet! The wallet was from my Mom as a little early Birthday present! Thanks Mom! I fell in love with this bag because Navy/White is very spring/summer and the top handle/color blocking is huge right now! I am not going to use it until we get to Denver........no need to break it out or get it dirty now!

Yippee

Guess what?? As you read this me and this group of hoodlums above are having a wonderful brunch together and we are kicking off a wonderful long weekend! I am so excited to have my family here this weekend.....I haven't seen Marissa since March, Mom since April and Dad since Christmas. Even as I type that I can not believe it.....I went from seeing them at LEAST once a week to this, it is very hard. I literally have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact I have not seen my Dad in 9 months, it is very emotional to type that!! But we are in for a fun, relaxing weekend filled with Love and good food!

Next week I have a busy week at work but next weekend I will get all the blog posts up about their stay!

TGIF friends!

THE Ohio State Reformatory

Last Saturday night Matt and traveled about 1 hour 20minutes NE of Columbus to Mansfield to tour the Ohio State Reformatory also known as the Mansfield Reformatory.

 It is beyond amazing to know that this building which was built in 1886 is so full of history. Just that fact alone without the hauntings is incredible. (if you like this sort of thing) OSR does over night ghost hunts and they sell out for the year in March usually, its very popular. So when I won 2 tickets on FB I was ecstatic! Matt went with me and even he had a great time. But I will definitely take friends and family back to experience what we did.

 There is a museum set up inside which houses incredible artifacts including this......the actual electric chair. 315 prisoners were electrocuted in this chair. I know that sounds so morbid to say and show it all to you but it is what it is. It's my "freak flag" if you will.

 In the museum they also had records on display .......

 As well as the original log book that housed all the inmates records! It is just something so neat to be in that I can't explain about how it feels to be surrounded by all this history and energy.

 Finally Matt and I got someone to take a picture of us.....you see Rod Stewart in the back? HA! There were about 70 people in the prison with us but with over 1,000 cells and 4 wings it was very easy to imagine you were the only one here. (Did I mention it was hot? yes, too hot)

 This is the door to solitary with no windows and completely pitch black cells that would at times house more than one inmate per cell for as long as a year. This is the place people report the most activity and this is also where Ghost Adventures had the majority of their evidence captures. While Matt and I were alone, I went into a cell by myself....this was the only place I felt "watched" This was the only place I felt very creeped out and would not have stayed alone.

 I mean look at this place.....the 3 story cell blocks were literally left as i...s. Dilapidated cells, old books, mattresses and even old letters can be found in the cells. And when you do the ghost hunt you can go ANYWHERE! It was amazing!

These are 2 pictures I took during the tour before lights went out! I mean there isn't very many words to describe this place and it is so hard to picture it in your head filled with inmates.

If you have seen Shawshank Redemption then you will recognize this below. The movie filled in this prison and this was the room they used as the "Half way house" in the movie. It was so cool walking around this place and seeing the movie play out in your head.

 This was part of the original Wardens apartment also located on the property. At night around 1am when Matt and I were in here I actually felt more creeped out in this part of the building than I did on the cell blocks

 Matt and I accidentally found this around 11pm....the safe in the Wardens office where Andy locked up the ledger every night in Shawshank.

 I mean look at this place.....these pictures were taken with my flash on the camera because without that or our flashlight it was pitch black.

We sadly did not have any paranormal experiences to share with you but that didn't mean that this wasn't worth it. I can't wait to go back. To learn more about this place click HERE!