road trip to Pennsylvania

Hey all--
As many of you know, I have been preparing to go to Graduate School for Audiology for quite some time now.  There aren't too many schools in the U.S. with Audiology programs, so I've been doing lots of research on schools in the country.  I LOVE Pennsylvania!  I always wanted to live on the East Coast, so I've decided to apply to schools in Pennsylvania.  Recently, Geoff and I took a road trip out there to look at three of the schools there.
I've never taken a road trip before so I tried thinking of different ways to save money throughout the trip and fun things to see along the way.  I packed a TON of food for the care {too much food} and also sandwiches so we wouldn't have to stop and eat along the way.  We also traded off drivers every 5 hours.  It worked perfectly.  I have to say though, the best thing I thought of for the trip was to pack plastic bags, for laundry, garbage, wet swimsuits, etc.  We used sooo many of them!  I'm sooo glad I thought to pack them!

We drove straight through from Mankato {leaving at about 8pm Friday} to Pennsylvania. With only one little mishap! {my car stalled in Wisconsin, but started up again and we took off!}  We arrived in Pennsylvania around 11am Saturday morning.  Our first stop was our hotel in Philadelphia.

I was so excited to see this sign.

I thought this bridge was gorgeous.

After getting settled in at the hotel and cleaned up, Geoff and I went to Salus University.  I was really looking forward to this.  It was a beautiful site, however was not the University I had in mind.  There were only 3 buildings, and it was located next to a bad area in Philly.  Needless to say, I will not be applying to Salus, but I'm so glad I got to see it.

Sunday morning we woke up and left our hotel, to see Philly and make our way back West to Bloomsburg, PA.  Geoff wanted to get a Philly Cheesesteak, so we went to Geno's.  Little did we know that driving in that area of Philly was CRAZY.  {I'm so thankful Geoff was driving}

The roads are one ways, with very little room to get through on each side.  We had to park about 4 blocks away, and then needed to eat in the car due to limited space at Geno's.

 People were waiting inline on the street.  They had the BEST cheese fries!

Our next stop was to see the Liberty Bel.  I LOVE history {was a history major for awhile} so I was really excited to see such a historical city.

                     

After the Liberty Bell, we went to see the National Park and Independence Hall.

                   

Front and Back of Independence Hall.

Inside Independence Hall.

On a bench at the National Park.

A Beautiful Sunday afternoon in Philly.

Not sure what building this is, but I thought it was worth taking a picture of!

After we left Philly, we headed Northwest to Bloomsburg.  I had an appointment to look at Bloomsburg University Monday morning.  After my tour, we left for Easton to watch our favorite D1 basketball player hoop it up.

Here we are waiting for the game to start. Go Lafayette Leopards!!

 GO SETH!

After our night out at the game, we headed back to the hotel, to pack up and get ready for the morning. Tuesday morning we headed to Pittsburgh for another tour at the University of Pitt.  I LOVED it there. I had the best tour and pray that I get accepted into their amazing program.  {I guess we will wait and see!} After my tour Geoff and I went out to eat for his 26th birthday and headed back to Minnesota. 

Overall, we had a wonderful trip.  Lots of bonding time and we learned so much more about each other.  I'm so thankful to have gotten these opportunities.  I know many do not.  

Well, I'm off to work on grad school apps!! Hope everyone has a great rest of the week!

-M

more pillows

WOW!! I have not been good at blogging lately.  I have been busy studying and preparing for grad school.  Next weekend I will be taking my GRE (fingers crossed).  Two weekends ago I went antiquing and wine tasting with my mankato girls.  Wine tasting was awesome, I can't wait to go again sometime.  Antiquing was fun, but I had no luck finding anything.

As I mentioned before I made pillows for Geoff.  He had told me that he wanted some pillows for his room, so I let him pick out the fabric he wanted.. {btw Geoff does not know how to match} He chose striped pillows thinking that that would match his bedroom.

 He loves them so even though they don't match, that doesn't matter.

 The small blue one was one of the first pillows I made

 Geoff's early birthday gift...I believe he was more excited about this than the pillows I made him.

At Indian Creek Winery in Jainsville.  It was such a gorgeous night to relax on the patio and sip wine with these amazing girls.

Hope everyone has a great week!! I will hopefully have time this week {in between study sessions} to upload my recent photos over the last couple weeks.  Wish me luck on my GRE!! 

pillows

After receiving my sewing machine from my grandparents I have been practicing and trying new patterns.  I finally feel that I have mastered the sewing machine. {sort of} After moving I decided that my black and white room needed some accent colors.  SO I decided to tie in my latest obsession with my craft making! The latest obsession I have discovered is now pillows..so I decided to make some pillows and pillow covers!  My first pillow was for Geoffrey of course {that way his were the trial and error pillows ;)} I've been looking for purple fabric but I couldn't find any I really liked.  So I used some old fabric that I had to make mine.

 I figured they don't match my room....but I'm trying to get out of my matchy matchy problem!

 The lighting in my room isn't the best but heres what it looks like so far...As soon as I find the purple I want I will make more and update you all!  More pillow pictures to come of Geoffrey's!!

Still waiting to go antiquing and wine tasting on Friday! Hopefully I will find some great buys to show you all!

my summer at a glance

Boy has the summer flown by!!..I've been so busy with school, work, going to the lake, baseball games, and spending time with friends and family that I haven't had time to do any new crafts :( ..hopefully I will be able to work on some soon!  I have been taken tons of pictures on my iphone so here are a few of my summer so far!...

of course its wedding season...so far I've had two weddings, I have 3 more before the summer is over!! Here are a few pictures of friends and I at Zach and Danielle Thissen's wedding!

a. Matt & Geoff celebrating

b. Bailey & I {the future bride!}

c. Matt, Geoff, & Travis

d. Steph & I

e.  Geoffrey & I

 The recent street dances I've gone to!  

 Kailee, Meghan, & I before the Maynard Street dance

Jessica, Kailee, & Lydia during the Granite Falls Western Fest Street dance

Summer is about spending time with family and friends which I have been doing a lot of!

a. Jerry fishing {his first bullhead}

b. Jacob & I at his graduation

c. Jerry during his hoopshoot

d. Kayla & I celebrating the 4th of July

e. Date nights with Geoffrey

f. Under the fireworks with Geoff on the 4th

 Baseball games have been a large part of my last couple summers.. I'm starting the love the game more and more.  Geoff recently switched teams and is now playing for the Raymond Rockets.  Although, red isn't my favorite color I believe its his new color and he also looks pretty good in it ;)

Thats my summer at a glance so far...hopefully the rest of it doesn't fly by too fast.  I hope you are all having a wonderful summer as well.

iphone photos

I have taken a MILLION pictures over the last week!!..and finally figured out how to make a collage of them all so heres my first one!

1. Piper of course--my new favorite animal

2. I have a new room mate!!...she comes with A LOT of stuff!

3. I went to Geoff's baseball game in Milroy last weekend and got some sweet photos of him.

4. I also went to the lake last weekend and did a lot of swimming!

5. Alissa and I with our shades on in the boat!

6. Geoff has a new friend--Alissa now LOVES him!

Iphone photos

Sorry its been awhile since my last post! I've been crazy busy with homework, graduation/retirement parties, scrapbooking and trying to relax a little  inbetween...I haven't had a lot of time to work on any new projects, but like I said I have been doing a TON of scrapbooking for my younger brothers graduation! 

Here are some photos that have accumulated on my phone over the last week or two..

 Piper {the dog Geoff and I sort-of adopted} and Geoffrey sleeping together.

 Marissa, Brooke, Samantha, Destiny, & Kristie at Sam's wedding a few weeks ago.

 This was my scrapbooking area over the last week or so. I have looking at pictures of my brother Jacob for the last 2 weeks- trying to get his scrapbook done for his graduation!  I now can not wait until I have my own scrapbooking room!

 It was our 2 year anniversary yesterday so I thought I would put a picture up of us together!! Happy anniversary Geoffrey Lamont!

Sweet Little Ava Symka

geoffrey's bathroom

Geoff's bathroom was SUPER ugly for the longest time.  When he moved into his house he decided to paint it maroon..no lie.--I wish I would have taken pictures.  I decided for his birthday I was going to redo his bathroom for him.  He said he wasnt going to help me paint, but of course he had to since I'm way to short to get all the way to the ceiling so I painted what I could reach and he did the rest.  I had been looking for a shower curtain that I liked and then was going to decide on a color.  Of course it couldn't be too girly.  I then decided on paint color.  I decided on light grey/silver.  I didnt realize that grey is a hard color to use in your house due to the different hues until after we had it painted.  But, I got lucky and loved the color that I choose.  

Here is the shower curtain

I got these shelves on clearance at target that I love.  I also made the bottles and filled them with cotton balls, bubble bath, and bath salts.  Geoff thinks its pretty girly but I like it!

 I love his new bathroom.  I'm so glad I talked him into redoing it.  Now my next step is to make him a curtain..I just need to figure out what color and find a pattern!

Iphone photos

I've decided to post once a week the photos I've taken over the week on my phone.  So here are a few pics from last week...                                                                                                                                

                                       

         1. Geoff and I had a wedding this past weekend--just the beginning of many many more to come this summer.  2. Missing my best friend Nichole this week since she's been off in croatia having a blast without me. 3. I babysat the cutest 1 yr old in the world the other day!-Arianna