Ohio/Michigan

We recieved bad news in Sept. My grandmother passed away, she is a better place and reunited with my grandfather. Though it was a negative reason it was a good weekend filled with family!!!!

We left on Friday and stopped at Michael's mother and stepfathers in Ohio. We had a fun night of catching up, eating at the Chatterbox and playing Euchre late into the night!!! It was a good night!!!

After leaving Ohio we drove to Michigan to see my family...

Again even though it was for a negative reason it was nice to see family at my grandmothers memorial!! It was nice for Michael to be able to meet them! We ate at my grandmothers favorite resturant and then went to Stuccis for ice cream!!! I miss you all. There are pictures below of my family!

Fall is Here... so is Winter

Hello all...

So with October coming to an end... thought I would update everyone. It has a little over two months since I have been in VA and I think I am adjusting well. Fall is pretty in VA.. the leaves are turning making my drive to work so much more enjoyable!!!

This month has been full! We have continued to bowl on Monday nights and I am slowly getting better with Michael's help. I have my own ball, thank you to Laurie!!!!

I have started up in going to the gym... (I have to be in wedding shape right??) Michael started to run, however he injuried his leg, so he was out for a few weeks.

We have worked on the house more, we painted the kitchen to finish it up and have changed some of the old doors to pretty white doors!!!


Unforunately, my grandmother passed away recently, please read the other post. We made a trip up to MI and Ohio to hang with family! Michael was able to me all my uncles and aunts and cousins!!!

We have gone to a festival at a winery, enjoyed watching football games (even if Michael and I are opposing teams) we can agree on the VT Hokies!!! We have celebrated a friends birthday and have enjoyed the fire pits to keep us warm.

Last weekend we went to the Pumpkin patch! We enjoyed good food, good company and had fun finding pumpkins. Michael went pumpking chukin!! We then came home and carved out pumpkins!!!
http://youtu.be/7gr2idTixo8


We got our first frost warning.. ugh. We also have gotten our first warning of a shower of snow.. not sure what that is but I will let you kow!! Hence... winter is approaching!!

I am looking forward to passing out candy for Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween All!!!!

Nicole and Michael

October is here.. meaning HALLOWEEN and Pumpkin Patches!!

So today I was very excited to go get my Halloween stuff out! It is my second favorite holiday!! Woo hoo! I am going to look to be adding to my collection.. will be hitting up Big Lots and Dollar Tree this week!!!

Additionally I am starting to look up pumpkin patches.. because I can not wait to go.. PUMPKIN PATCH!!!

Michael and I went to Lowes to get new doors for the house... he is currently working on replacing our doors. We are going with white! Woo hoo! Pictures will follow soon!

Happy October Everyone! May it be a spooky one!! :)

Settling In

Ok so it has been a month since I have been in VA! Sorry we have not posted to the blog in a looong time.

I have started working and so far the job is going well. The people are nice and helpful. The job itself is good. I am doing some outpatient therapy and some psychological testing. I still do not have my office, however I am hoping I will be able to move into my office on Monday! (Fingers crossed) Michael has started school... so his busy schedule has set in.

We finished painting the bedroom and went with a grey and white theme. We like it!!
We got  new sectional couch that is gorgeous and we love sitting on it.. so does the dog... as much as we do not want them to!

The weather is starting to change..Fall is definitely here! I might need to get some warmer sweaters and jackets... I am getting anxious for winter... I am praying that I will be able to leave the house! I am hoping my car will survive too!!!

Michael and I have tried new restaurants...some we have like and some we have not. Last night we tried Longhorns... loved the corn chowder with lobster and shrimp. We went to Longhorns after we went to the opening of KOHLS...which was super busy, but we got Michael some great deals!!!

We have gone to some new places... Billys Barn.. looks like a barn on the outside.. soo cute.. we went and listened to a  live band! We went to Ole Salem Days.. saw some fun crafts, eat some good food and heard some awful music!

Football season has started here... and frankly... it is CRAZY football here. Everyone is wearing either VT or UVA gear everywhere we go! I have heard rumors that people tailgate at the high school football games... REALLY??

Michael has started to run again and working out at the gym at VT! Go MICHAEL!! I have started to work out again.. my motivator was buying my wedding dress.... WOO HOOO!!!!!!

Michael has persuaded me to join his bowling team... I have a high, very high handicap.. however Split Happens is in 3rd place! Woo Hoo!! I have my own bowling shoes and in a week will be getting my own bowling bag, thanks to Michaels mom!!

My parents have been abroad for a month and will be returning to California during this week. On some sad news, my grandmother has past away on Sept 10th so Michael and I will be heading to Michigan (go blue!) next week, to meet up with my parents, cousins, uncles and aunts to have a memorial for her!

That sums up our month of settling in!!!

Love Nicole and Michael!

Wells Fargo Bank

So Nicole went to drop of some checks and money at the bank and what do I find? That is right.. they still have a drive up teller with the tubes that suck in to the teller and a live person! Wow that takes me back! Mom did not know they still exist did you? LOL!!!
Crazzzzy!!!


Nicole

Earthquake Really???

So Day 2 of being here, there is an earthquake? Are you kidding me? So yes everyone is blaming the cali girl for bringing it! Heck if they want to think I have that much power... then I am going to go with it!

We are all ok!

Nicole

Moving East

After we have done the long distance from coast to coast for over a year, we have decided to move in together and Nicole is moving east! Nicole packed all of her stuff (well not all, some is left in Cali, thanks to Kerry, Sarica and Sharon!) and put it all in a trailer. Michael attached a trailer hitch to the volvo (aka Beau) and off we were, after many goodbyes. It was difficult and sad to say goodbye to everyone, as my friends are my family and this is the longest Nicole has stayed in one place! However with video chat and technology it is much easier to keep in each others lives!!!

Our first stop was in Palm Springs to visit Nicole's parents. Then we left in the morning (after Michael misplacing the car key in his tennis shoe) and drove and drove to Van Horn, Texas. Along the way we hit some dust storms, rain showers and a Monsoon or two... really??? We made it to our hotel room in the Days Inn. We showered and crashed!

Day 2 was a little smoother, a little flatter, no storms and ALLLL TEXAS! Seriously who knew Texas was sooo big... everything in Texas was big, big hair, big trucks and big hearts! We made it to Little Rock, Arkansas for our stop, however we did visit a McDonalds that had a cowboy hat on the golden arches!!! We made it to the Travelodge, showered and crashed!

Day 3... FINALLY out of Texas!!! We woke up and on the road again, acorss Tenessee... which is gorgeous and green. We hit mostly rolling hills and a few BIG mountains, that we could only go 35 miles per hour up the hill! Go on by us Trucks!!! We hit Virginia and were on the home stretch. Michael wanted to drive us into Salem, so he took over when we hit Virginia!!

Though we did not stop for very long in places, we saw some pretty sites! Now that we know we are not going to kill each other on a road trip that long, we can do it again, though we will stop and visit sites!!

Our (nicole's new home) is Salem Virginia. It is pretty here and everyone is super nice here! People say hello and smile at you!

Thank you to everyone for your support and love!!

Nicole and Michael

Our Story

Michael and Nicole met online back in December of 2009 through the help of Facebook and Melissa and Jeremy Miller. Nicole wrote Michael an email commenting on his music that Melissa was playing one time. From Decemeber 2009 until July 2010, their relationship was purely on line and friends.

Nicole thought "he is from Virginia" while Michael thought "she is a city girl from Cali" and both of them wrote it off as just friends. However they often found themselves checking online to see if the other one was on to talk to! They flirted and had fun, still thought nothing of it!

July 4, 2010 Nicole, Kerry, Aidan, Janna and Scott headed east to Arizona (yes gawd awful hot) to hang out with Melissa and Jeremy. Somehow Michael was convinced to come out to Arizona as well.

This was the beginning of Michael and Nicole's Journey!