ALOOOOHA!

After much debate, Brandon and I finally broke down and purchased our plane tickets to Hawaii this week. Airfare prices have continued to climb and the flight schedules are getting less desirable. We found a good flight schedule at a decent price, given the current market, so we scooped it up. Although the flight isn't perfect (we're headed though Chicago, which can be a gamble), we are flying out of Cincinnati which is a major perk!

In less than seven months, we'll be celebrating Valentine's Day on Napili Bay in Maui. Ah, Hawaii. Here is a photo from our condo lanai:



It's not the Big Island cottage we rented this past December, but the location is great.

Maui was where my addiction to Hawaii began in 2004 when Brandon and I made our first trip to the islands together. Here a few of my favorite photos from the trip:

Sunrise from Haleakala Crater:


Sunset from our lanai:


The one and only authentic Hawaiian luau, Old Lahaina:


The smooth, clicking black rocks of Waianapana State Park beach on the Hana Highway:

I have many other favorites, but they aren't all loaded on this computer.

In other news, last weekend we spent Saturday doing a psycho-clean of the house and had a nice relaxing evening, enjoying a bottle of summery chardonnay on the back patio and a practically free dinner at Bonefish Grill. (We had a gift certificate.) Sunday I spent a leisurely afternoon with Dad at the dog park while Brandon chipped away on the golf course with Kevin.

The weekend before that we hosted Anna and Andrew at our house. It's always great to have them in town--we played Cranium, went to Ikea and to a Reds game.

This weekend we were supposed to host Anna, Andrew, Willard and Ann but our plans have been postponed due to a death in Andrew's family.

Football is Almost Here!

Well, it's almost time for my favorite season of the year - FOOTBALL season! I am looking forward to spending crisp fall Saturdays drinking beer and cheering on my favorite team, THE Ohio State Buckeyes.

I have been following numerous preseasons publications - most seem to have the Bucks ranked in the top 3. Personally, I think it is a three game season (all road games: at USC, at Wisconsin, at Illinois. I hope the Buckeyes can win their third consecutive outright Big Ten title and return to their third consecutive BCS Championship appearance. Hopefully third time's a charm all the way around.

Anybody want to go over/under with me on Beanie Wells's rushing yards this year? I'll bet anyone $10 who says it will be under 1,700.

Well, gotta go - Rivals, CFN, Sporting News, and others should all be posting their Buckeyes preview soon. Until then, Beanie Wells forever, Dirty Sanchez NEVER!

P.S. Carson Palmer is a pretty-boy bitch who is going to enjoy the Bengals 9999th losing season in a row!

P.P.S. For any of you who even REMOTELY know me, you'll know that something is up when you read this. Yes, as you can probably guess I forgot to log out of my blog and a dirty pirate named Brandon stealthy jumped in to write.

Memories

Last week, my aunt Brenda's battle with Alzheimer's ended. She was only 60 years old.

We will all miss her dearly--she was a kind, gentle and funny person. I'm glad her suffering is over, though, and will choose to remember the happy times rather than the sad.

Two of my favorite memories involve Brenda and my mom. One is of then sitting in Brenda's kitchen talking nonstop and laughing. They lived 3 1/2 hours away from us, so when mom and Brenda did get together they always seems to enjoy their time together even more. The other memory is of mom, Aunt Brenda, Aunt Gail and Grandma Jo shoved into the tiny kitchen of Grandma's house cooking for our biannual family get togethers. Being the pushy country women they are, they ALL had to be in the kitchen helping. I loved those family parties.

When my mom moved downt to Kentucky seven years ago, I think it was meant to be because Brenda began showing signs of illness around that time. She was able to be their to help her sister when she needed her most. I can only imagine how hard it was for mom to lose her big sister. I took the entire week off last week to spend with mom and my family down in Kentucky. Although the circumstances for being together were bad and sad, it was still nice to have everyone together.

Mom and I made matching wreaths for our front doors during the week, which I think turned out pretty nice:



My mom is very creative and crafty. Perhaps I get it from her?

WWWWWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGIIIIIIIIIINNNNNN!!!!!!!!!! (Brandon invasion--sorry about that)

Tuesday night we went to see Tom Petty and the HeartBreakers at Riverbend with Paula and Kirk. What an awesome concert! Although it's rough going to a concert on a weeknight, it was well worth it to see a rock legend!

Tomorrow night we've made a pact to finish the trim painting in the kitchen so we can be done with it once and for all. We also need to hang the new curtains and signs I bought. Here is a picture of the curtains and one of the signs: