2012 in Review: The Best of the Best

2012 wasn't a total failure.  The year was so packed with good stuff, I hardly had a chance to post any of it.  So here are some highlights of things that were totally awesome throughout the year. 

 

Note, these are not in any kind of order.  I thought I loved the Blogger App that allows me to blog from my phone, but it totally screws up the order of photos and I cannot (will not) figure out how to re-order them.  Someone help me figure this thing out!

 

1.  Family Pictures.

 

This is one of those that was on the verge of ending up in the "Fails" post.  However, I'm being optimistic in the fact that we actually had them done.  The beautiful and talented Shae was brave (and patient) enough to take the four of us out in public for some photo opps.  What we discovered is that our dogs don't like to look at the camera.  And that they are jack-asses.  Not that we didn't know that already. 

 

 

Hello!



Puppy-twister.



"We will not show you our faces, but we will show you our butts."



The Gibsons.

2. The Omaha Marathon.

 

While I still haven't hit that pesky Boston qualifying time, I won't complain about a new PR.  Plus the trip to Omaha was one of the most fun experiences all year.  Drew is just so much fun!

 

Marathon #6

3. Kait & John Get Hitched.

It's always a fun occasion when such a close friend gets married. 



The Happy Couple.

Kait's wedding was small, but hugely entertaining.  I had way too much fun (read: drank too much) with all of my favorite girlfriends as we celebrated all night long.  And other random things happened too.

Me & My Man, showing off our guns.

Katy is always willing to be a fool with me.

4.  The Best Baby Shower Ever.

 

The other Jaime is preggo (and adorably cute) and due with Baby B any day now!  We met in Wichita for a small, yet insanely fun baby shower.  The six of us spent hours laughing and catching up, just like we used to.  I feel incredibly blessed to have such an amazing group of friends.  No matter the distance, or how long it's been, when we get together it's like nothing has changed. 

 

I love you girls!

 

5. Shame Your Pet

 

And yet another that could have gone on the fail list.  But really if you think about it, finding a website so perfectly suited to your dog, is a pretty big win in our books.

 

Ari always throws a fit when the mailman comes by.  But one day he really just let loose, jumping up and down on the couch until one of the cushions split all the way open. 

 

It was days later that Jess introduced me to www.shameyourpet.com.  Perfect timing, right?

 

And, as punishment for posting such a photo of my dog on the internet, just days later the Ari-Ear Incident occurred.  Karma's a bitch. 

However, I did hand stitch that cushion back together, saving us from buying a new couch.  Because all of our money was spent on ear surgery, a new microwave, and a new roof. 

6.  St. Louis 1 & 2.

Drew is a huge Braves fan.  When we found out they were playing the Cardinals, we made plans to attend.  Our friend Blake recently moved, so it was a great chance to spend the weekend with him and his girlfriend (now fiance!) Steph.



Such a cool stadium!

Trip #2 occurred this fall (on my birthday in fact) to celebrate Blake's big 30th birthday.  A whole gang of people made the trip and we had a blast.  

 

Birthday Buddies at Dave & Busters.

Oh, and it may have helped that the Cats kicked the crap out of West Virginia that night.  Go Cats!

7.  This Whole Crazy Football Season.

I honestly didn't think it could get much better after last year.  But this year???  Holy wow!  What an amazing season!  Every game was so much fun!  I just love those boys, and I'm so proud of what our seniors were able to accomplish this year.  I'm just so proud to be a Wildcat!

EMAW!

8.  VEGAS!!!

I know, right?  How could I skip an entire post dedicated to Vegas?  Well, you know what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.  Here's what I can tell you.

We had a blast.  We went with Brooke & Brad and had an awesome time.  Did I mention we had an awesome time???

Drew & I made up the world's best Vegas game, which you must play if you go.  First, you need to drink a couple of yards.  Drew was appalled to learn that I had never drank a yard of anything.  Apparently he was like Mr. Spring Break before I knew him. 

So, get yourself good and liqueured up.  Next you simply walk down the strip and collect a few of the nudey cards that are handed out on every corner.  Then you have a race to see who can be the first to give the cards back to the people passing them out. 

Trust me, it is hilarious.  Those people do not want those cards back.  It is a really difficult game!



Yards and smiles.

If you are looking for a show to see, have I got a recommendation for you!  We went to see Absinthe, not really knowing what to expect.  But we LOVED it! 

 

I like to explain it as a dirty version of Cirque du Soleil.  You see some crazy acrobatic routine and then someone comes out and tells some dirty jokes.  The show started off with the announcer saying, "If you are offended by the words shit & fuck, you're probably at the wrong fucking show."  Trust me, those words didn't even register as offensive after what we saw. 

 

But again, great show, unless you are easily offended.  I wouldn't recommend sitting in the front row though.  Those people were mercilessly picked apart by the performers.  Good times!

 

9.  Miss Hailey Jean.

 

My darling friend Meggy was just about the cutest little pregg-ster there ever was.

 

Preggo-Meggo.

So we weren't surprised when Miss Hailey came out just as darling as can be.  My heart seriously melts every time I see this kid.  She is so stinking cute!  And Meg is just the sweetest mom ever.  We were all really surprised at how un-dramatic she is as a mother.  I mean, Meg's always been a bit of a drama queen.  But she's been cool as a cucumber with this whole mom thing. 

Sweet girl!

10.  Doughboy Turns 30.

I know, everyone is turning 30.  Blech.

But this was a big one.  My high school friends are the best.  Matt (Doughboy) has been a good friend for so long, and I was so excited to be there to celebrate this big birthday. 




Happy Birthday Doughboy!



I might also mention that I gave a speech at this little shindig.  If you'd like me to say some kind words at your next event, please hit me up.  I'd be glad to.

11. The Balls & Chains.

When we signed up for a kickball league with Drew's friends and their wives, I had no idea what we were in for.  We spent every Thursday night for the Spring and Fall seasons downtown playing a children's game, drinking beer, and having a killer time. 

Oh, and we also won the league.  Both seasons.

 

I cannot tell you how much fun we had!  I could not have asked for a better group of people to hang with every week.  Although they probably could have asked for some better kickball skills from me.  I did not belong on this championship team!

 

And, that is that for the best of the best of 2012.  There were so many highlights.  I really cannot believe what an amazing year it was.  Let's just say 2012 kicked 2011's butt.

 

Here's hoping that 2013 will be full of happiness and adventure!

2012 in Review: Biggest Fails

You know I get into my fair share of pickles.  And I just love to share my crazy mishaps.  Somehow I've forgotten to tell you about a few.  And we just can't start the new year with you thinking 2012 went off without a hitch. 

I give you 2012's Biggest Fails:

1.  Ari's Ear.

Back in September, my socially inept dog had a little snafu with an otherwise friendly and sociable dog.  Katy was dog-sitting so I brought my mutts over for a little play date.  We were having a grand time drinking beers on her deck when all of a sudden we realized the deck was covered with blood.  Lots of blood. 

We realized the blood was coming from Mr. Dog's ear.  After trying to mend it myself, I was quickly overwhelmed by the amount of blood and we shot off to the doggie ER where he was drugged up and patched up.  We got home super late and I assumed it was the end of our ordeal.  I was wrong.

This is your dog on drugs.

Also important to this story is that Drew was out of town. 

The next morning I let Ari out of his crate and into the back yard.  He was trying to take off his cone and in a moment of freak out, I ran outside after him, closing the door behind me... not realizing I had just locked myself out... at 5 AM.  I sat on the front porch until around 6 AM when I finally saw a light come on in a neighbor's house.  After scaring the shit out of her, I used her phone to call Drew over and over and over until he finally answered and was able to call his dad who has a key to our house.  Thanks Tom!

Over the course of the next 5 days I went to the doggie ER 5 times due to the fact that my silly dog was relentless in pulling off his bandages and spraying blood all over my house.  Finally the vet gave me some serious sedatives, which still didn't keep him down.

The injury wasn't that bad, and probably wouldn't have been such a big deal had it happened to any other dog in the world.  But my guy likes to make things difficult.  And of course it happened when Drew was out of town. 

Ari is fine now... minus the fact that part of his ear is missing.  We tell him it gives his face character.  Still... a total fail.

2. The Roof.

My darling husband likes to get his hands dirty with DIY home projects.  So when our insurance company told us they would drop us if we didn't replace our old-ass roof, Drew decided to take on the project himself.

Sometimes I think he underestimates the amount of work involved... like what really goes into putting a new roof on a 50-year-old house.  Or how much work goes into taking off the 3-layers that have been piled on within those 50 years.

In October Drew planned out his project, priced out supplies, and trucked home a garage full of plywood and shingles.  I helped unload all these supplies... still a point of contention in our marriage.

Drew & his 1-man crew of Tom (Thanks Tom!) spent an entire day removing the old layers of roofing.  After an entire day of back-breaking labor, the two of them had removed 2 of the 3 layers on the back half of the roof.  The next morning they were back at it. 

After about an hour, Drew came in claiming he'd possibly maybe made a mistake and "bit off more than he could chew".  Lucky for us our dear friend (Hi Izzo!) manages a roofing company.  Within a couple of hours we had an entire crew on top of the house ripping off shingles.  By 7 o'clock that night we had a beautiful new roof.  Hooray!

After this incredible fail, we will think twice before taking on big scary projects.  Fail. 

3.  The Great Microwave Melting of 2012.

I always joke that I have set the kitchen on fire several times.  In 2012 I took that to a whole different level.  Here's how things went down.

I was making veggie burgers which called for toasted walnuts.  I lit the gas stove and set the pan on the flame to heat while I chopped the walnuts on the opposite counter.  After a couple of minutes I registered a smell that reminded me of burning paper. 

I turned around to see that the dish towel hanging above the stove had caught a spark and was literally up in flames.  As was my microwave.

I screamed.  Drew ran in.  He grabbed the fire extinguisher.  And I ran out of the house. 

The damage... even after we cleaned everything up.

Moral of the story, don't hang your dish towel above your stove.  And make sure you have a working fire extinguisher readily available. 

Silver Lining:  I got a new microwave! 

4.  My New Passport Photo.

We have big plans for international travel in 2013, and my passport is due to expire.  I was filling out the forms and knew I needed to get a new photo taken.  I checked out my old photo and thought to myself how terrible that photo was.  I looked so chubby!  I was holding onto a few (more than a few) extra pounds in college.  Something about beer and pizza...

Anyways, I headed to CVS and had a new photo snapped.  There was an audible gasp when I saw my new photo. 

Old-ass crack head.

For the record, I would choose chubby college kid to old-ass crack head every time.

Seriously though, is that what I look like?!?!?  Fail.

I'm leaving it at four.  I'm sure if I thought a bit harder I could come up with a fifth fail... like the time I almost got fired from my super-awesome job, or the time we lost to Baylor (wtf?), or when we got kicked out of that super fancy restaurant, or all those times I drank too much and acted a fool.  But I think four will suffice.

Here's to more fails in 2013!  I hope that by 2014 we'll be able to laugh at them!

2012 in Review: Best Books

I've become a bit of a bookworm this year.  Being out of school has left me with lots of time to read for fun.  Plus I joined a book club!  Turns out the book club was more interested in drinking wine than actually reading books.  I know, right?  Best book club ever.

 

Several times throughout the year I've thought that I should do a book review over a particularly great book.  But I never did. 

 

Then after a summer full of reading I thought I should post about my summer book list.  But I didn't.

 

So, here's a list of my favorite books from 2012.  And no, that Grey book isn't going to be listed.  I don't read smut.

 

1.  The Hunger Games.

 

 

I know, right?  Duh!  Of course I love The Hunger Games!!!  We all did!  It was super fun to read it during my first semester of teaching because so many of my students were also reading it.  It made for a great bonding experience. 

 

2. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

 

 

 

This wasn't a book I expected to love so much.  I was surprised when I realized the entire thing is written in letter form.  But it is so wonderful and charming!  It is set in England after WWII and gives a historical perspective I'd never heard before.  The characters are so endearing and the story so interesting.  I just loved it!

 

3.  The Art of Racing in the Rain.

 

 

Oh my goodness.  I cannot even express how much I love this book.  LOVE.  A couple of chapters in, I insisted that Drew also read the book.  I meant for us to read it together but the fool finished it within a couple of days of being off work.  I was not happy about this.

 

The story is told from the perspective of the dog.  I know, sounds weird.  Not weird.  Hilarious.  Endearing.  Heart-wrenching.  Wonderful.  Just wonderful.

 

4.  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

 

 

I think of this book as being Are You There God, It's Me Margarette of an earlier generation.  It's a coming-of-age story about a little girl growing up in extreme poverty in the early 1900's.  Sweet, sad, funny.  Just a really good read.

 

5. Gone Girl

 

 

I know, right???  If you've read it, you know.  YOU KNOW!  Shit is crazy.  C-razy.  I was reading this at the same time as Jess, but she was ahead of me and kept telling me how flipping crazy it was.  She told me I had to call her when I reached a certain point and that I would know when to call.  It turned out I had to call her at an insanely early hour because I knew I had reached that point and I had  to call her!  C-razy.  Crazy.

 

AND, I just found out that they are def making the movie and that my girl Reese Witherspoon is set to play Amy.  Perfect.  I can totally see her being the girl in the diary.  The rest... not so sure about, but excited to see. 

 

READ THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW!!!

 

That's the list.  Honorable Mention goes to Blood, Bones, & Butter, The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry,  (both of which made me want to travel the world, eat delicious food, and drink the heck out of some wine), and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Pride and Prejudice  was like the only book we were supposed to read in high school that I actually read.  I love it with all my heart and read it every couple of years.  Throw some zombies in there and my heart smiles.  Hilarious and awesome.

 

What are your must-read books for the year?  I need recommendations for 2013!!!

2012 in Review: Best Restaurants

I know I've been slacking in a major way on the ol' blog here this year.  You've missed some seriously great parts of Gibson life because I've just been too lazy to type them out or snap some photos.  So to make it up to you, I've decided to do a year-in-review series over the next couple of days to catch you up on all the very important details of 2012. 

I know.  You're welcome.

To start off our review, let's talk food.  Restaurants in particular.  One of our new year's resolutions for 2012 was to try a new restaurant every month.  We invited ya'll along and deemed these dinners out: Supper Club.

Supper Club was pretty dang successful if I do say so myself.  Although I only posted about 8 new restaurant experiences, there were lots of new places tried out.  We had lots of fun doing it and will continue it into 2013. 

Over the course of the year we tried some really great places.  We also had a few duds in there too.  So here's the list of our favorite new restaurants of 2012.  Again, these are new to us.  Not actually new.

1. Blue Nile.  Who would have thought we would love Ethiopian food so much?  We do!  The food is amazing, you get to eat with your hands, and the place was just an overall great experience.  There's a new Ethiopian spot near us that is definitely on our list for 2013.

2. Urban Table.  You know how much I love BRGR.  So of course I would fall in love with it's new neighbor owned by the same peeps.  I must say though, I LOVE Urban Table for breakfast.  The coffee is fantastic, the food is delish, and the atmosphere is great.  It has the neighborhood feel that I love so much about so many places in PV. 

BUT I wasn't as crazy about the dinner service.  Granted, I've only been once, and I did have an amazing time (my dining partners probably had something to do with it), and their sangria was out of this world.  But I was unimpressed with the food.  And food is what it really comes down to, right?

So I will continue to breakfast at Urban Table as often as possible.  And maybe I'll give them another chance for dinner.  Maybe.

3. Pizza 51 West.  I first tried this little joint in Fairway after an early morning run with Brit.  Breakfast pizza???  YES PLEASE!!!  That visit was followed by yummy pizza & beers on the patio after kickball games.  I even elected to have my birthday celebration here.  I am thrilled to have such a fun & tasty place so close to home!

4. Hamburger Mary's.  If you haven't gone, go.  Just do it.  You will have an amazing time, plus the food is great.  Seriously, the best veggie burger I've ever had.  And drag-queen bingo is not to be missed.  I'm telling you, my in-laws finally dragged their group of some-what-conservative friends to Bingo, and they had a blast.  Seriously, everyone loves drag queens.  My plan is to attend the drag-queen brunch in 2013.  We also have plans for a teacher-function there. 

Teachers & drag queens.  What could be better?

5.  The Majestic.  This is Drew's pick for favorite new restaurant of 2012.  He can't say enough about his delicious steak, the amazing bartender, and the delightful jazz.  I have a hard time recalling all those things as I can only focus on getting shushed at the end of the evening.  If we have a reason to go out to a nice dinner in the future, and Drew is the one choosing, he would most definitely pick the Majestic.  Try it out, but please keep your voices down!

So there it is; the best of the best places to eat in 2012.  We're super excited to try more next year too!  It's become one of our favorite things to do.  Plus anything that gets us out of the house and off the couch is a good thing. :)

Butt-ah

Happy Tuesday, folks!  I'm holding on for one more day until a much much much needed CHRISTMAS BREAK!!!!

I am finally understanding why teachers aren't just "lucky" to get summer and Christmas breaks.  These breaks are absolutely necessary for our sanity... and the sanity of the students.  I'm sure they are just as ready for the break as we are!

The funnies just keep coming though.  I guess that happens when you spend your days teaching 12-year-olds how to cook. 

Last week we were making Red Lobster Biscuits (delish!) and a kiddo came up to me fretting over accidentally adding a couple of extra tablespoons of butter to his dough.  He asked if he should throw it out and start over.

I responded, "No, I'm sure it will be fine.  A little butter never hurt anything."

Student response was, "Yeah, that's true.  Except maybe your arteries."

Ha ha ha ha ha... 

Happy Holidays! Say a little prayer for me that I make it through my last day!  And lay off the butter this baking season, your arteries will thank you.