Beyond The Stoop - Life in Jersey City: Cleveland

Showing posts with label Cleveland. Show all posts

Monday, November 4, 2013

baby's breath for a baby shower

too cheesy? no? didn't think so. plus i'm pretty sure they are the best-looking flowers in vintage blue ball jars. i just wish i would have bought a bouquet for each jar instead of splitting one bouquet between two jars.

last weekend we did our 14th drive to ohio this year alone. this time though, it was for something that brings many smiles, a baby shower! mr p has a great group of friends that have known each other since kindergarten. we visit with them when we can, but now that practically everyone lives at all corners of the country, it's tough to see each other all together. as one of them brought to our attention this weekend, this will be the last time for a long time that everyone will get to see each other as a group, so it was an especially sentimental occasion...

we had so much food, it was practically an early "friendsgiving" with just a few baby gifts thrown in! no complaining from this side though, we've got some pretty awesome cooks on our hands ;) mr p and i contributed by bringing a fresh salad with our favorite dill dressing, and mr p made a pork loin with tzatziki sauce.

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a few years ago, mr p and i bought a sesame street bedtime story book for my nephew that was a "record-a-story" book. it was so fun recording it, and made us feel good that he could hear our voices during his bedtime story (plus mr p does a pretty hilarious batty bat voice). i thought it would be a great idea to do the same for baby Gabbie, because everyone lives so far away and won't get to see the her as much as we would like to. i picked up the ugly duckling from barnes and noble, and we gathered together on the floor and read away!

we can't wait for Gabbie to make her debut in just a few weeks! congrats to the lucky parents :)

driving 8 hours for a baby shower might seem extreme to some people, but this weekend was just a nice weekend away, seeing friends and family and enjoying the beautiful pennsylvania autumn leaves on the way home.

cheers.

jenn

Monday, October 21, 2013

full bellies and big smiles

weekends in ohio can be summed up into those 5 words... full bellies and big smiles.

mr p and i drove 8 hours back to his hometown of cleveland. yes, the drive usually sucks, but it's always worth it. we always get to relax a bit, eat a lot, give lots of hugs... it's always a "feel good" weekend, and this weekend didn't let us down.

we explored antique stores on lorain (including the lorain furniture gallery and century antiques ) stuffed our bellies at west side market, ate mr p's mom's always-delicious cooking, and spent a few hours at the temple for a heartbreaking death in the family.

16 hours on the road for just over 24 hours in cleveland.

...and we're gladly doing it again in a few weeks!!

we might be crazy, but it's ok. as long as we're happy that's all that matters, right?

cheers!
jenn

Thursday, February 14, 2013

year of the snake

happy lunar new year!

mr p and i snuck out of jersey right after nemo on saturday morning and left for ohio to celebrate lunar new year with his family ...and my mom! she came to cleveland too!

(i know, went to ohio AHHH-GAIN, third time this year, but you gotta do what you gotta do when you live so far away)

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it was a blast though. the weekend was filled with babies, baby bumps, too much food, big hugs, tall drinks, belly laughs, casino-exploring, chinese-grocery-store-exploring, pho-eating, grammy's-watching, birthday-celebrating... it was nearly perfect.

happy (lunar/chinese/asian) new year!

cheers!

Monday, February 11, 2013

it's hip to be square

1. homemade walnut butter made ONLY because i was too impatient to wait until i got my hands on some almonds. pretty good, but homemade almond butter is SOOOO much better!

2. regular guac, but with mangos instead of tomatoes. perfect blend of sweet and spicy!

3. posing in the bathroom of barcade.. must have been after a shot (or two!) because that's totally not my thang.

4. 3 mcgangbangs. yes, that's 6 $1 sammiches from mcd's (must have been after a bit more than 2 shots)

5. first snow that weekend was a dud. now nemo? different story.

6. happy early EARLY birthday to mr p. we now have new mii's on his new wii u :)

7. the REAL snow during nemo... pretty, but delayed our weekend with family in cleveland.

8. funny story about mr p and this card from hoopla (i won't embarass him NOW though :P)

9. valentine's day card from a thoughtful friend all the way in sunny california!

10. mr p's family has some cutie patooties for sure!

9. ....just another cutie, i couldn't get enough of them this weekend!

10. pretty drive back to jersey city through the appalachians in PA :)

cheers, kiddos.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

thanksgiving road trip

i could just post a bunch of pictures from thanksgiving to show you how the big day went...

or...

i could tell you that we were too busy spending quality time with the family in ohio that i didn't even take a single picture of any thanksgiving festivities. camera never came outta the bag.

well... except twice ;)

once to snag a seemingly-rare photo of just my mom and i... just before heading over to my cousins' house for thanksgiving #1 ON thanksgiving.

once to snap a picture of some food at thanksgiving #2 in cleveland ...this is one of my FAVORITE mama P dishes, fried rice with eggs, veggies, and special sausage... after she TAUGHT ME TO MAKE IT!!! now i've got some big shoes to fill... because this stuff is good .

instagram sufficed for the rest of the weekend ;)

1. drinking games with mr p's siblings. someone made me take TWO moonshine cherries at once :/

2. my snuggle buddy for the night... lil miss ellie.

3. my little buckeye watched the game all the way from florida! (ironically, with 4 men in mr p's family, mama p and i were the only 2 watching the game at that house...)

4. there was no hesitation in setting up the christmas tree. "after thanksgiving" MEANS "after thanksgiving", people!! 'tis the season :)

(p.s. it hardly looks any different from last year ! just the way i like it :P)

hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving weekend, too!

cheers.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Phan-tastic Weekend

last weekend was...

just.

too.

short.

that's what we always say when we do our "mini"-roadtrips to cleveland to visit mr p's giant family. it always sounds easy to just leave after work, drive 7.5 hours to cleveland, spend some time with the family, then drive back. and don't worry... we DO IT ... but that drive is just so awful.

driving there we are both excited and "try" to help each other stay awake (sorry babe... i never make it the last two hours), so it's not so bad. it's on sunday, usually after an epic night of liberal libations , that we switch often, and do nothing but sleep in our non-driving time.

but... it's always worth it to see everyone's Phan-tastic faces. especially when there's a big 30th birthday and mother's day to celebrate!

froyo! with mr p's friends from KINDERGARTEN!

mr p, taking in the warm weather and sunshine

mr p's little sis had some bedazzled shoes

(the lights at lava lounge were perfect for sparkling up some sparkly shoes!)

...obviously everyone loved those bedazzled shoes :P

birthday boy got surprised by getting SWARMED with silly-string-armed grown men.

yum... cupcake: just ok.

cream cheese frosting: literally "the icing on the cake"

some of the ladies of the night, with the bride-to-be on the right :D

congrats, alisa!

love you lovely ladies!

whoa! mr p's "little" bro, and ANOTHER bride-to-be!! congrats, mai!

but... despite the short weekend, we were still able to DEEP clean my car (poor thing needed it SO bad), do 3 loads of laundry, eat pho... TWICE , spend time with visitors from columbus, time with the siblings and the rents, too... all before driving back early afternoon on sunday.