Some fun times lately with Nashville :)

Well hello there blogland.  This post is primarily for the benefit of the lovely folks who helped connect us with our wonderful pup Nashville.  I hope you guys enjoy this update and know how much we appreciate what you did to help bring Nashville to us!

He is still doing amazing and we love him to pieces!  He's up to 44lbs and still growing!  My husband and I always remark that he looks like a little man-dog.  He's still little to us, but his face looks so grown up.  Here's a picture of Nashville doing one of his favorite things, staring out the window.  He looks so big in this picture, I just had to show you!  As you can also see, we have snow on the ground here.  It turns out that Nashville LOVES the snow!  He loves to sniff it, eat it (if we don't see any yellow), and jump in it.  He even keeps mom company on her runs, which is good because I lose motivation pretty easily when it's so cold out there!

Over Thanksgiving, I (Carissa) ran a Turkey Trot, and my sister was kind enough to bring Nashville so he could cheer for me.  Here's a picture of us at the start line.  He made friends with some little girls and their dad, they really liked Nash's name and kept saying "Nashville, sit," it was cute!

At the 3 mile mark of the race, I saw Nashville and my sister on the sideline cheering and decided to take Nashville across the finish line with me, since he's such a good runner.  When we got to the finish line, the little girls we met before the race started changing, "Nashville! NASHVILLE!"  You better believe he loved that!!

A couple weeks ago, I had to go away for a few days for work.  When I'm away, Nashville spends more time in his crate, since typically I'm home all day.  He's gotten pretty good with his crate, but he definitely gets a little angsty when he's in there too much.  When Taylor came to pick me up at the airport after the trip, I went to get him out of his crate and found that he had torn his leash to pieces!!!  Here he is displaying his crime:


A few days ago, Nash had to have a bath, and apparently that made him really comfortable with the tub because the next day, I found him doing this:



There comes a time in every puppy's life when his parents do the right thing and chop off his...well you  know where I'm going with this.  That day for Nashville came last Wednesday, December 7th, when mommy took Nash to be neutered.  He has done a great job recovering, and he seems to be well on his way.  One thing he is NOT a fan of is the cone:

Look at that face!

And here's a video of him "learning" to walk with it :)


Finally, we've often said that Nashville would make a great reindeer, with his beautiful coat and long legs.  So when I found these reindeer antlers at Target for $1, I couldn't resist.

So here he is, our little man in all his glory, wishing you a Merry Christmas!  Remember to travel safe on those roads, whether or not you have puppies in tow!

Thanks again!

Carissa, Taylor and Nashville

P.S. Here's a link to all of our photos of Nash, we update this a lot!

Nashville Pup!

30 Before 30: Buy a car that I love

2014 UPDATE: Now that we have both a baby and a dog, it was time for an upgrade to a larger, safer, more reliable car.  And as much as we really do LOVE our little Altima and will always remember it as our first car together, our 2014 Ford Explorer has displaced her as my favoite car.  In February 2014, we leased this beauty.  I think it was my gift from Taylor for all of the time when I was the only one working, and I do love it:)

I am obsessed with the Sync system and the touchscreen interface in the Explorer.  It has so many features that I love, like Bluetooth, Sirius radio, Navigation, you name it.  I feel so fancy and spoiled in this car.  And even though it's a lease, we are not in danger of going over miles at all, even with a trip to NJ and back (about 1,200 miles), so that's nice.  The main issue we have is that the car gets TERRIBLE gas mileage, but there's not much we can do about that.  It does take E85 gas, which can be up a $1 cheaper than regular gas, so that helps.  Here's a photo of Nash in the back of the Explorer for our trip to NJ.  I'm just glad we have a car that is big enough to bring everything we need and the dog and Eli :)
 

Nash, not so sure about his downgrade from business to coach class for our road trips!

So when Taylor and I moved to Ann Arbor, we needed a car, of course.  We started looking a while in advance, keeping an eye on used cars that we might wan to call our own.  My dad looked at quite a few for us (thanks dad), but none of them really caught his eye at first.  When, in late July, he went to look at a 2006 Nissan Altima and, while his report was not stunning, it was pretty positive compared to previous ones.  Here are the stats:

Stats:
2006 Nissan Altima
80,000 miles
Charcoal grey
Previous lease that the owner (an early-20s kid) had bought after his lease term

The Good:
Because the car was a lease, it had been regularly maintained for the first 3 years (oil changes and the like were free).
The owner was selling it for less than he owed because he was leaving the country for a year
The interior was in excellent condition
Engine in good working order
New brake pads*

The Bad:
4 different tires (this isn't in itself a bad thing, but it says something about the owner; ie. he didn't replace all the tires at once and probably cut corners on other things too)
Some scratches and dents on the exterior - none major
Needed a new batter (we found this out after we bought it, actually)

We managed to negotiate the owner down about $750 under his asking price and bought the car on August 1.  Because of a series of unfortunate circumstances mostly the fault of the seller, we did not actually receive the title and license for the car until September 7, but that's all well behind us. 

*So regarding the brakes...it turns out that while the brake pads were new, the previous owner had definitely bought the cheapest brakes and gotten them installed at the cheapest possible place because what we thought was just incidental squeaking in the front brakes because the car hadn't been driven for a while actually turned out to be incessantly, infuriatingly squeaky brakes that are the reason that this post is delayed since August.  For the first 3.5 months of our car ownership, the brakes squeaked every time I hit them and made a grinding noise every time we slowed down.  Because we were so busy, we never really had time to get them checked out or fixed until Thanksgiving.  This is when my dad informed me that new brake pads were almost certainly the answer to all of life's (ok, our car's) problems.  He also informed me that one can buy $35 brake pads and install them yourself (ok, not everyone can do this, but with the help of David Lucyk, I can).  So, the day before Thanksgiving, I stopped at O'Reilly Auto Parts and purchased some mid-grade ceramic brake pads and that afternoon we had some father-daughter bonding time where Dad taught me to change the pads.

Then, I got in the car for a little spin around the block and............

ahhhhhh...silence, for the first time.

Which is why I can only now (ok, 2 weeks ago, I'm late with this post) say that I have purchased a car that I love.

And as a result of that love, I spent some time the day after Thanksgiving giving my car a little TLC, including a cleaning inside and out, so that it was ready for this photo shoot :)

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Another 30 Before 30: Make Thanksgiving Dinner!

So, while my 30th birthday seems far off, I realized a couple weeks ago that I need to start paying attention to things that only happen once a year.  I'm 28 now and take Thanksgiving for example, I only have one more while I'm in my 20s!!  Crazy!

As you probably know, my beloved Grandma Lucyk passed away in February after a stroke.  We all miss her terribly, especially around the holidays, when she was always there and so much fun to be around.  My mom especially had lots of traditions with Grandma, including Black Friday shopping.  Ok, I know I know, you all judge, but then I see you all at those stores!!  Don't lie, you do it too!  So anyway, my grandma was always the earliest riser I knew, thought Black Friday was just a regular day and never deigned to keep my mom company as she searched for deals.  Originally, Taylor and I had planned to spend Thanksgiving in New Jersey with his family, but as the holiday drew nigh (I'm already in the Christmas Olde English spirit), I started feeling a strong desire to stay home with my family, especially for my mom.  So we decided early in the month that I would stay and that Taylor would go.   When I told my mom, she immediately said "Oh, great!  You can complete one of your 30 Before 30!"  And so it was :)

We got to work planning right away.  I basically wanted to make the same meal my mom always makes, with a couple of my own touches.  So the first step, of course, was to plan the menu.  We had 9 people at dinner: Me, my Mom and Dad, Garett, Taryn, my Grandma and Grandpa Hooper and Uncle Jeff and Aunt Shari Lucyk (oh, and Nashville, who helped with the leftovers, of course!).

Appetizers: Sweet-hot relish and crackers and Crostini with Gorgonzola, Honey and Walnuts (Aunt Shari made this one)

Turkey

Stuffing

Mashed Potatoes and Gravy

Green Bean Casserole

Sweet Potato Casserole (My mom made this one, considering it her contribution to the meal, but I helped)

Relish Tray

Cranberry

Pistachio Jello

Dessert - Apple a la mode and Pumpkin Pie (supplied by Grandma Hooper)

Drinks  - (Wine, Beer, soda, water, etc)

Step 2: Shopping - God Bless Meijer and Michigan, all the ingredients were only $70!!!

Preparations on Wednesday:

Boil the sweet potatoes:

I also prepared the Sweet-hot relish appetizer and made some delicious pumpkin soup on Wednesday, both of which I served in the afternoon before we ate Thanksgiving dinner.

I don't have any photos of the Pumpkin soup, but I do have these photos from the last time I made it, when I didn't realize that filling a blender with hot liquids could result in this:

Luckily we have a cleaning crew!

Then, on Thursday morning, I got up bright and early to prep the turkey:

Cleaning the turkey!

All ready to go in the oven:

No one told me about this part...

You might have noticed my nice bright shirt in the middle photo above.  The reason I got up before daylight on Thanksgiving was that I actually had plans to run a Turkey Trot 5K at 9am.  This isn't on my 30 Before 30 list, but it was something I've always wanted to do:

A little blurry but you get the idea.  Taryn was kind enough to bring Nashville to cheer me on!  I did fairly well, 25 minutes and 30 seconds, which is about an 8 minute and 15 second mile.

After the 5K, I headed home to do the rest of the Thanksgiving cooking.

Stuffing and potatoes boiling:

Putting together the green bean casserole:
Whipping the potatoes:
In goes the Turkey (did I mention I have a camera crew?)!

And out comes the Turkey!

Me with the full spread:

Close-up:

One place setting:

A decidedly messier place setting (my Uncle Jeff's)
I would be amiss if I didn't mention that my mom was a TON of help and I could not have done this without her patient guidance.  Thanks, Mom!  Love you!

30 Before 30: A day at the spa!

I've accomplished another item on my 30 Before 30 list!  A day at the spa!

So now that we live in Ann Arbor, this item became a lot more affordable.  In fact, my beautiful sister Taryn went to beauty school in Ann Arbor and it just happens to be a really great place where you get services from students for a fraction of their usual cost.

I started my day with a pedicure.  Opted for hot pink nail polish since it made me feel the happiest.
After the pedicure, peeled myself out of the seat for a manicure and then headed back to the spa area for a facial and a stress-relief massage.  Amazing!  And it all cost just $110!

Afterwards, I felt about as relaxed as this squirrel that likes to hang out on our balcony and torment the dog.

Also, just a brief update on some other items I'm working on:

• Cook an entire thanksgiving meal by myself - I am going to be doing this this year at my parents' house!  Unfortunately, I don't think we'll have a place big enough for Thanksgiving anytime soon, so I will have to do it in Perrysburg, but I'm excited!!
• Read the Bible all the way through - I kicked off this one on Taylor and I's 2 year anniversary of being married (trying to avoid that whole New Years Resolution curse.  It's been 15 days and I have read every day!  I'm doing a plan on my iPad where they track it for you and tell you what to read, so it's pretty easy!  I think they say it takes 21 days to make a habit, so here goes!
• Run a sub 1:50:00 half marathon - Well, there's no telling until the day of whether I will accomplish this one, but I am registered to run the Miami Half Marathon on January 29th and I have heard it's a great, flat course, so I'm hoping to beat my goal!

Finally another 30 Before 30: Take a Road Trip

I'm ashamed to admit, I completed this 30 Before 30 item 2 months ago, but we have been so busy getting settled in Ann Arbor (2 blogs ago, another 30 Before 30 item) and with the puppy, Nashville (last blog, yet another 30 Before 30 item).  So, here I'll recap our 3,000-mile roadtrip, complete with stories (what I can remember) and pictures.

So as I blogged about previously, we moved to Ann Arbor in August so that Taylor could start Business School at Michigan. One of the traditions at Michigan is that students have the opportunity during the week before school starts to go on a trip with some of your new classmates to some exotic location.  It's called "M-Trek" and they travel to places like Spain, Costa Rica, Asia, and places in the U.S. as well.  The only catch is that the trips cost $3,000 - $4,000 plus food and entertainment expenses.  We decided that we should save the money for something else, so we decided instead to go on a "Smith-Trek" road trip around the country.  I basically mapped out the route based on places we wanted to see or had friends.  Here's the route we took:

Ann Arbor, MI > Nashville, TN > Dallas, TX > Austin, TX > St. Louis, MO > Chicago, IL > Ann Arbor, MI - 2,750 miles!

So our first big decision of the trip was, what vehicle to take.  We rented a car, but when we got there, they basically told us we could pick any of about 10 different compact cars.  We ended up deciding on a Dodge Caliber because it had cruise control, a spare outlet that was actually the kind you have in your house, so we could plug our electronics right into it, and it was a hatchback, so we could always have access to the things in the trunk.  Here's the starting odometer reading:

So Saturday night, the first night of our roadtrip, was actually spent in Ohio.  We went to a Sanctus Real concert near my hometown in Bowling Green, OH.  Sanctus Real, in case you don't know, is one of my favorite bands.  They are a Christian band from my hometown.

Sunday morning, we left at 7am to head to our first destination, Nashville, where we went to college (and the inspiration for our puppy's name!).  On our way through Kentucky, Taylor had the brilliant idea to turn this into a real, live roadtrip, and we took a little detour to the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln (he was actually born in Kentucky, even though he went into politics in Illiniois).  Here's the building that houses the log cabin that apparently was thought to have been Lincolnd actual cabin where he was born, but we were told that they actually found out about 30 years after this shrine was built that the cabin inside it was not his actual birthplace, so now it's just an "example."

Obligatory photo by sign:

We arrived in Nashville in the early afternoon and our first stop was Las Paletas, a really popular Spanish popsicle shop in Nashville.  They have all kinds of flavors.  I think Taylor got blueberry lime, and I got berries and cream.  YUM!

Of course we also had to stop by Vanderbilt, too!  Here I am in front of Kirkland Hall, the main administration building on campus.  We walked all over campus, and it was so quiet since it was summer.  Still, it was nice to be back.

That night, we went out to dinner in downtown Nashville with Taylor's Aunt and Uncle who were kind enough to let us stay at their house.

We got up bright and early Monday morning and made our first stop the iconic Loveless Cafe.  Some delicious breakfast and good times ensued!

Let me pause here to add another thread to this post.  So Taylor's birthday was the last day of our road trip, and I bought him an acoustic guitar for his birthday.  The plan was to give him the guitar the day we got home, and while we were at the Sanctus Real concert, I had actually bought him a guitar pick just as a little side gift.  Then, when we were at Loveless Cafe, they had guitar picks for sale and it gave me an idea...I would get him a pick from each place we visited!  So I'll include those stories as we go.

On our way from Nashville to Dallas, we passed through Memphis, and what road trip that includes Memphis would be complete without a trip to Graceland!?

Taylor with one of Elvis's cars.

While we were at Graceland, I managed to sneak away and grab a guitar pick while Taylor was in the bathroom!

Next, we drove through:

Get it?  Nice, huh?

Here's the old state house in Little Rock, where President Clinton gave his acceptance speech for both of his terms of President.

And here we are with the actual "Little Rock" which became important because it used to be in the middle of the river in the background and was used by boaters to tell if the water was high enough to sail.

 Shortly after leaving Little Rock, we crossed into Texas and immediately stopped at a Texas favorite, Whataburger!

We stayed overnight in Dallas, but it was uneventful sinec we got in so late after 10 hours of driving.  Our friends Taylor and Talia were our hosts, along with their puppy Dora, who is the same breed mix as our Nashville!

On Tuesday morning, we hopped in the car again and drove down to Austin.  Our first stop was Chuy's Mexican, a spot that was recommended by my friend Jessica, and boy was it delicious!

 Austin was HOTT with like a hundred Ts (they were on their 65th day of 100+ degree weather or something).  So here we are stopping at Sno-Beach, a popular snow-cone place with many many flavors!

Here's the Texas State Capital, which is famously larger (and pinker) than the U.S. Capital building (everything is bigger in Texas!)

 In Austin, we stayed with our friends Jessica and Bart and their little foster boy!

 He was so cute!

Jess and Bart were nice enough to take us to dinner at an absolutely amazing barbecue place called Salt Lick.  It was delicious! After dinner, Taylor and I went out for a couple beers in downtown Austin while the parents headed home with their little guy.  These 2 rooftop beers were $2 each!  After drinks, we went out to a piano bar, where I was able to pretend to be making a phone call and run and buy a guitar pick (actually, it was a pack of them....and I used another in the pack to represent our time in Dallas as well)!  Whew.

The next day in Austin, we were fortunate to get to meet up with our friend Bria who happened to be in town from DC!

We also spent some time walking around the UT Austin campus where we saw this next photo...which is purported to be the world's first photograph.  Crazy!

That night, we drove back to Dallas where I got to get together with some old friends from college, Katie and Mel!  It was so fortunate that they were both in Dallas and available to meet up for some drinks!

The next day we left Dallas on our way to St. Louis.  On the way, we had a  brief trek through Oklahoma and were looking for something to do so that we would have some photos from Oklahoma and we came across this little gem:

That's right!  Here we are with some of the contents of the museum:

While we were at the museum, we got these little guitar figures made of plastic, and I actually cut that into the shape of a guitar pic to represent our time in Oklahoma.

On the way from Oklahoma to St. Louis we hit what might have been the most interesting portion of the road trip: Route 66 and Joplin, MO:

As you probably know, Route 66 is the iconic trail across the country that's famous for it's pure Americana.

Here's a soda shop:

But you couldn't actually go in...it's actually a tutoring center (which wasn't open because it's summer)

Here we are with a Route 66 sign in Baxter, MO.

 Route 66 passes through Joplin, MO, which probably rings a bell because it's the town that was absolutely devastated by a tornado this spring.  We drove into town and it looked completely normal.  We even stopped at a Kroger and got Wifi to fill out the adoption application for our puppy (we found out about the puppy while we were staying with our friends in Dallas).  Then we drove about a half a mile toward the tornado's path and...well pardon the abrupt transition, but that's actually what it's like:

 That's right, you literally drive across an invisible line and it is total destruction . Below is the world's smallest Walmart...right now it just contains a pharmacy and an eye exam since the rest of the store was destroyed.

 Check out this tree!

 Driving through Joplin was really interesting and sobering.  I'm very glad we got to see it.

Our next stop was St. Louis.  We arrived late at night, and the next day we headed to the arch!

 I thought this segue tour was hilarious!

Next, we went to the Anheuser Busch headquarters for a brewery tour.  It was a beautiful day, and the beer wasn't bad either :)

 We opted to do a "Beer School" where we got to try several beers and learn about the process of making it.  After the school, we went on a tour of the brewery, and we even got to see the Budweiser Clydesdale's!

After the tour, we were a little hungry, so we stopped in for some St. Louis ribs!!

Whew, this was a whirlwind day!  On our way back to our friend's apartment, we stopped by the St. Louis branch of the non-profit that Taylor used to work for, Covenant House.  Here he is outside.

Saint Louis was a blast!  I unfortunately was not able to get a guitar pick or, evidently, any photos of our friends Dan and Pam who were kind enough to let us stay with them.  Thanks, guys!

The next day, we drove to Chicago and attended out Goddaughter Rachel's first birthday party.  It was a blast, but we were so busy havin fun, I didn't take a single photo!  It actually turned out that Taylor's whole family came into town that night and we went out to dinner to celebrate Taylor's, his mom's, and his brother's birthdays (all are in August).  We had a great tapas dinner followed by cupcakes.  The only good photo I got was of Chicago as we were leaving town the next day (this is after I spent a half hour driving around trying to find a guitar pick, which I did, finally).

The day we left Chicago was Taylor's birthday, and we spent the first part of the day driving back to Ann Arbor from Chicago.  Taylor's parents were with us, and on the way, we stopped off at a restaurant on a lake where my parents were for some dinner.  They were kind enough to make Taylor a nice big ice cream dessert for his birthday!

 Here's the whole group!

 After dinner we watched a beautiful sunset over the lake and reflected on a great trip!

 We got home late that night and I gave Taylor his new guitar, he was thrilled!

And here are the guitar picks!

Final Odometer reading (29,889  - 26,916 = 2,973)!

What a great trip!