I started making a list a while back about all the things we/I love about living in Columbus... in random order, here are the things I will miss the most:
1. Game nights with friends. This started as soon as we moved here playing Settlers into early morning hours (I hadn't found a job yet and Brett hadn't started school) with the Williams.
2. Our bedroom/my closet (sounds worldly, right) we re-painted and I saved $ for our first set of bedroom furniture and I fell in love with that space in our house!
3. Packages in the mail. NOTHING made my day more than getting fun cards and packages sent to us....just to know family and friends were always thinking of us while we were away was so comforting! Birthdays and holidays were much more fun being there!
4. Eating Out. We found so many fun, new restaurants. Some of our favorites are: Gengi's Japanese Steak House, Caffe DaVinci, The Olive Tree, Panera Bread, & Brio Tuscan Grille, just to name a few.
5. ICEREAM! There are sooo many awesome icecream places to choose from! We loved Rita's, Graeters, Handels, Jeni's, Caffe DaVinici's Gelateria.... (can you tell we love to eat?!)
6. Cindy, the cashier at Kroger (grocery store). You might be laughing right now, but I loved this lady! She was probably in her 50's. She had a speech impediment that should have been corrected as a child. She always called me "babe." Was the FASTEST checker ever! I always shopped in the late mornings cuz I knew she would be there.
7. Buckeye Football. Yeah, they're not lookin' so hot now, but we had such a great time at all the games the 4 seasons we were there. I think I'm safe to say we had Buckeye Fever!
8. Panera Pick-up. Each Monday night our ward was given the leftover bread/danishes/bagels/desserts from our local Panera Bread (they bake fresh daily)....even though I only took advantage of it occasionally, it was nice to get it for free :)
9. Friends at work. I was very lucky to find full time work all in one office when we first moved to Ohio so I got to know the girls there well and now they are friends for life! 3 of the 4 of us are the same age.
10. Hilliard Ward family. Being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints brings blessings in countless ways. It was hard to leave our family in Utah, but we gained an INSTANT family at church the moment we moved to Ohio.
11. The geese and ducks in the pond behind our house. They were fun to have so close; Emri loved feeding them our old bread. The only annoying thing was there were SOOO many geese there. And now I see where the term "bird brain" comes in! They would cross the street at a pace slower than a turtle...at least once a week I was in a traffic stop due to this!
12. Great shopping malls. Polaris, Easton & Tuttle were all within a 20-30 min drive.
13. Our place in Ohio was our first purchased house. It was more than just a house though, we filled it with love and made it our home. We brought 2 babies home there. We made so many memories that won't be forgotten and I miss it terribly already. Emri does too. She keeps telling us she needs to go home so she can take a nap.
14. The Hilliard Library. The story tellers there were hard to top! Emri loved storytime. Sadly, the Morgan story hour left a lot to be desired as far as the storytelling went and only kept Emri's attention for about 3 minutes. Emri does like that they do some kind of a little craft after stories here though, so we'll give it another shot!
15. The Columbus Zoo and Zoombezi Bay....I know I've posted about this place lots of times, so I'll just declare my love for it here and now for the last time! :)
16. GNO's.....so many great ladies in such a close proximity! I loved getting out for dinners or birthday lunches or last minute late movies after the kids were sleeping.
17. BNO's...I guess I can't leave out boys nights....often the boys would gather late Saturday evenings to watch UFC fights (thanks to the Perry's for always hosting)....also Brett had MANY golf outings that he loved (and misses already) and Thursday night pick-up basketball games at the church.
18. COSI. We didn't make it there too often, but Emri had fun at the hands on science center when we did go.
19. Yard Sale-ing. Columbus had the BEST yard/garage sales. My favorite finds were children's clothing! In Utah you don't find nice kids clothes cuz of all the big Mormon families! haha! But in Ohio it's much different.
20. CMH airport. We definitely spent lots of time in and out of there. It's a smaller airport and the people there were always so friendly when I was traveling with Emri. They would fold down my stroller and lift it up to put through the xray scan (which is quite tricky to do with an infant in arms). My experience leaving SLC was quite different as the xray guy watched me struggle and acted bugged that I was holding up his line. Sad.
21. Food Swap. For a while we switched off cooking once a week with the Nydeggers. We totally got the good end of that deal!! If you've ever tried Megan's food, you know what I'm talking about!
22. Fireflies. I didn't know they really existed till we moved to C-bus. They are so awesome to see on warm summer nights!
23. Movie Tickets. The movie theater near our house gave a great student discount for new releases. We got to go on lots of cheap dates. The best part was pretty ghetto (they have recently remodeled), and the city police were the guys standing at the podium to take your movie tickets on weekend nights! haha! Every once in a while they would randomly walk thru the theater during the movie and scan the audience. Awesome.
24. Bi-Annual Twin Sale. Another great place to find a steal on children's clothing. It was put on by the Columbus Mothers of Twins Club. Basically like one giant yard sale.
25. MJR. A warehouse full of Limited Brand clothing (overstock and some damaged stuff). GREAT deals on womens clothes...you have to be in the mood to dig and rummage though!
26. Family Time. It was fun to have visitors all to ourselves, especially grandparents that came to spoil us!
27. Carpet. We recarpeted our home...and I loved how clean and soft it was. Especially when Emri started crawling all over it!
28. My calling. My most recent calling at church was serving in the Young Women's organization. I loved the women I served with and loved getting to know the girls. The youth in our ward were so awesome and such great examples to me!
29. Babysitters. Speaking of the youth, Emri had some wonderful babysitters! She loved Anna & Erin (twins) and would get sooo excited when I told her that mom and dad were leaving for a date!
30. Medical Resident friends. More than once we had friends make house calls on the weekends or late at night to check for ear infections or give stitches :)
31. Thunderstorms. I LOVED the thunderstorms there! They were soooo loud! However, I didn't love the tornado sirens that went off frequently...and many times in the middle of the night!
32. LLC --Ladies Lunch Crew-- A lot of the hubbies would go out to lunch during the school week ("lunch crew"). The wives wanted in, so Friday afternoons when the boys got out of school early we had some girl time! Definitely wish we would have started this earlier!
32. LLC --Ladies Lunch Crew-- A lot of the hubbies would go out to lunch during the school week ("lunch crew"). The wives wanted in, so Friday afternoons when the boys got out of school early we had some girl time! Definitely wish we would have started this earlier!
AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST....
33. Our friends (that quickly became family). We were in such a unique situation....there were about 20 other young LDS guys in Brett's dental class and they all meshed well together. We became friends almost instantly with so many of them and their families. We will definitely miss all of you...dental and non-dental alike! We cherish our friendships and the time we had together. Best of luck to you all!
Yes, we are now back in Utah.
We have been here for 2 1/2 weeks.
...and have been going NON-STOP!
Hence the reason for no blogging!
One day soon I will hopefull have time to download pictures
and update you on what's been happening here :)
