A Walk in the Woods

Today was our last day in Ohio.  In the morning we went to church.  Then we went home and had some homemade panini sandwiches, white bean chili, and pizza for lunch.  It was all really delicious.  Needless to say, my diet was put on hold for a few days while in Ohio!

After lunch we watched the Cleveland Browns lose to the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Yea, we're convinced now that Todd's dad Tim is the jinx.  Although, it's been six years since the Browns has beaten the Steelers.  :(

In late afternoon, we went for a walk in a woodsy park.  It was a nice crisp fall day, and the sun even came out from time to time.





The foliage there was really beautiful.




Some more shots from the walk...














After our walk, we hurried home and got our luggage and headed to the airport. It was time to say goodbye to Todd's family and Ohio. The three days went by so fast! It was a really fun visit and we had a lot of fun enjoying the family and fall season. Now it's their turn to come to San Diego when it's cold and snowing in Ohio! :p

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Football Follies

Today we got up and watched ESPN Gameday while working out at Todd's parents house.  It was really nice with a view of the woods in the back.  Plus of course Gameday!



We were really excited to watch the Ohio State vs Purdue game, because we thought it would be an "easy win". Plus, Todd got to eat one of his favorite pizzas that he can't get in CA, Donato's "Founders Favorite". It seems every time we go back to Ohio, we eat  Donatos pizza!


Todd and his sister Amy hanging out on the couch during the game.


Something certainly was funny... Todd caught a candid shot of us.


Todd's mom Sylvia and Blake, engrossed in their coloring book.


I walked around the woodsy backyard and took some fall photos, which I don't get to see in San Diego.




Having some fun with the macro mode on my camera.




To our astonishment, the Buckeyes lost to the Purdue Boilermakers. We told Todd's dad Tim that the last couple of times we've watched an Ohio State game with him, they've lost. Maybe he's the jinx!

Todd's parents took us all out to dinner at Pad Thai Restaurant. It had Thai cuisine as well as Chinese. Todd ordered the hot basil chicken dish and told them he wanted a spicy-ness of 6 (out of 10), because this was Ohio, so how spicy could it be?

Good call on Todd's part. He still didn't taste anything spicy. :p

Some more shots from dinner. I think Todd's family think I'm weird taking photos during dinner. But maybe they'll thank me later because of the beautiful family memories captured? Hee hee.






After dinner we went to Stricklands, which is a "frozen custard" dessert place. It tasted like soft serve ice cream to me. But it was really good!




After Stricklands, we went to Best Buy to hang out and check out the latest cool gadgets and toys.  I managed to get this shot of Todd and his family playing Rock Band Beatles.

Todd and his parents used to play in a family band together, where they played at parties, weddings, etc. So is this like getting the band back together??

When we got home, Tim built a cozy fire in the fireplace, and tempted us with homemade hot chocolate that looked like this.

I really shouldn't have had any, but who could resist?

We watched "Prairie Home Companion" and drank our hot chocolate by the fire. It was a perfect fall day in Ohio. Well, nearly perfect. The Buckeyes should have won!

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But I Don't Have a Thick Coat

We are visiting Todd's family in Ohio.  It's cccccold here!  It's about 20 degrees below normal right now, so the temperature is around 40 degrees.  Burrrrr from this Californian who isn't used to the Ohio cold anymore!  Thank goodness my MIL has extra coats I can borrow.

Today we got to go to Swenson's for lunch.  It's a hamburger place that Todd feels nostalgia for since he hadn't been there in years.



Another sight that I haven't seen in a while is all the big trees with colorful leaves on them. This is a view from Todd's parents' driveway.


We got to go visit a factory that makes subwoofer speakers today. Todd had heard about their direct-to-consumer internet model and wanted to listen to their speakers while we're here. I think he had a lot of fun.

In the evening we went over to Todd's sister Amy's house for dinner. We haven't been to Ohio in over two years, so we had never been to Amy's new house since she bought it. We got the grand tour and it was really cool, with lots of big trees in the yard. We had homemade tacos and enchiladas for dinner and played board games. It was really great to see Amy, Bart, and the kids.

Did I already say it's cold here?

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On A Jet Plane

Today we flew from San Diego to Ohio, with a layover in Denver. This was on the way to Denver. Pretty much spent the whole day traveling. Isn't that how it goes when you go Eastward?

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Project 365 - October Template + Announcement

Here's the October freebie template for those doing Project 365, or for those who like to use it for any other types of layouts.



**Download link no longer available**

Here's a layout I did with it.  I used the "O" to make a layout about all the Ohio State football games we've been to the last few years.  I had been looking forward to "O"ctober just so I can make this and use it for this purpose, LOL.


Click here for full credits.

Now for the news!  I have decided to open up my own little blog store to sell some of my templates and digi-scrapping tools.  All the monthly templates from this year will remain freebies until at least the end of the year.  But I have so many other ideas for layout templates and other fun tools, and those will go into my store.  I'm busy working behind the scenes to create products and get the store ready to open. 

If you are interested in receiving store news (including the grand-opening), coupons, new product announcements, and freebies, please sign up for my newsletter HERE.  :)

Also, I would like to get your input into the first three products I'm putting into the store!  Some of you have written/commented that you would like certain other letters of the alphabets besides the ones for each month of the year.  Here is your chance to speak up!  Please leave a comment in this post about which letter you would like to see made into a template.  You can vote until October 23rd.  After that I will close the voting and total up the votes.  The top three vote-getter letters will be made into templates and go into my store for the grand-opening.  AND everyone who voted for the first-place letter will receive it for free!  So leave a comment with a letter of your choice!  And don't forget to sign up for the Listgirl Designs newsletter!

ETA: voting has now closed!

Okay, now I'll talk about my day.  Guess what happened to me today?  I had a root canal on my #10 tooth (one of the upper front ones).  I went to the dentist for my regular 6-month cleaning/checkup yesterday.  I told him that I had this little uncomfortable area above my lip and I thought it was related to a tooth.  It didn't hurt or anything like that, but it just felt abnormal and sensitive.  Well, they took an x-ray and found that the root was infected.  :(  No cavities, but an infected root.  So today I went back and got a root canal.  To be fair, my dentist is GREAT and I felt no pain except for the pinch of the initial novacaine shot.  And I got to watch a wolverine devour some other animal on "Planet Earth" while getting my root canal.  But still, an unplanned root canal is never fun.

But you know what IS fun?  The Silhouette SD digital cutter machine.  I got one off of eBay and started playing with it.  The machine will take what we design in Photoshop and cut the shapes out!  It also comes with 50 shapes, plus you can download any shape template at their online store for $1.99.  I made this card in 10 minutes today. 



It's nothing spectacular, but it's my first try at using the machine and it was totally fun watching it cut out the shapes. It will take some practice but I can't wait to use it to make holiday cards and stuffs!

That is all for today. Thanks so much for making it through this long post! Don't forget to sign up for the Listgirl Designs newsletter here!

PS - if you subscribed to the newsletter, please check your spam folder for the confirmation email containing the link to confirm your subscription. You aren't actually subscribed until you click on the email link to confirm. Thanks!

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