The last several weeks!

OK. Apparently I will never get the hang of blogging more, but I'll still try...

The last several weeks have been busy with traveling, but not together! Jon has been traveling a lot for business lately, and to Boston for a "man weekend" the first weekend in November with his friends from college. I have been traveling home to spend time with family and help my brother's family move, and then Tina and the kiddos (my niece and nephew) came to visit (photos below) while Jon was in Boston! Now Jon is in Boston for work, but coming home bright and early tomorrow morning. It's kind of funny that we are newlyweds and we are spending all this time apart, but luckily we are used to it from our dating and engagement years and it just makes our reunions that much sweeter.

This past weekend it was just the two of us (and of course, Joey). It was the one year anniversary of our engagement, which also took place in Cleveland! Jon thought it was silly to celebrate at first, since it was "only the engagement" and not the big wedding day. He came around though. We visited the place where we got engaged and went out to eat after church (my pick)! Nothing to crazy, but it was nice to remember it.

That pretty much sums up our last month. Although last week we had amazing weather, overall we are starting to see signs of winter- in fact, there was SNOW on the East side the weekend Tina was here! We went to play at a playground that I frequently go to with Brady, and couldn't play because it was covered in snow! Instead we hung out with Jason, Lindsey, and Brady -the family I nanny for- inside! (Photos below)

We've been trying a new church out, when we are both actually here on a Sunday! It's much smaller than the other church we were attending and there are a lot of people our age there. It's a lot closer to us too. They meet downtown in a comedy club! ...kind of funny, but it works. We're excited to be there and to get connected with people there. Check it out- Gateway Church

That's all for now- Here are some pictures from Tina's visit! It was quite the drive for her and the kids (both under 2 years old!), but we had such a fun weekend, so hopefully it was worth it for her. If Tina can make the trip by herself with two kids, no one else has an excuse not to do it!! :) So come visit us!!

Sweetest Day & Last Weekend

Today is "Sweetest Day", a holiday celebrated mostly in Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin. We didn't get to celebrate today, but I'm crossing my fingers for something sweet tomorrow!! My husband is already skeptical of Valentine's Day, so it's taking some convincing to embrace this new holiday we've never heard of, that eerily seems similar to Valentine's day with the chocolate, flowers, and romance. He is all about taking pride in Cleveland though, so why not celebrate a holiday that was FOUNDED in Cleveland?!

Last weekend we were home in PA for an extended family get together at my Parent's house. It was a fun day, and a VERY busy weekend! We stayed at the barn because Claudia and Ross had to go away for the weekend, so it was fun to be around the horses again and to get the opportunity to ride a couple times. It was also Homecoming at Grove City College (where Jon attended). He was very sad that he couldn't attend, but ironically- we ended up stopping in Grove City on the way back to Lancaster for dinner! This is where Claudia and Ross crossed paths with us on their trip to see family, so we decided to meet them for dinner on the way home. Since it was in Grove City, Jon got to see some friends from school briefly, which helped to heal the wound of missing Homecoming entirely.

Throughout the weekend, I got to spend a lot of time with my 2-year-old niece, Katie. That is one of the things I miss most about living in PA. We had such a great weekend, which of course made it VERY hard to leave. As I was saying bye to her, she said in the saddest voice "More Kimmy". That's enough to break my heart right there. Luckily, I am planning on visiting next weekend to help John and Tina move- so I will be getting more Katie and Johnny (my nephew) time!

I don't have many pictures from our Family Day, but I'm hoping to get them from my brother and post some soon!

This weekend we are taking it easy and enjoying the Fall weather. This week was busy with Jon traveling a couple days for work, my emergency dentist appointment, an interview, and trying to put away the 3 weeks worth of laundry that we did in PA last weekend!

Melt-in-Your-Mouth Pumpkin Cookies

Yesterday, we had lunch with friends from Grove City at one of our favorite places in Lakewood, Dewey's Pizza. For dessert, we had an AMAZING piece of pumpkin cheesecake! It was SO good that I was inspired to make something "pumpkin" ASAP... so we headed to the grocery store! I ended up making "Melt-in-Your-Mouth Pumpkin Cookies", and they were VERY yummy. Here is the recipe~~

Melt-in-Your-Mouth Pumpkin Cookies Recipe


Here are some pictures! I had an audience, hoping to get some scraps the whole time. He ended up being very disappointed, but good company anyway! The few without icing are per Jon's request. They are good without icing, but not "melt-in-your-mouth" good!

Catching Up... AGAIN.

Hi Friends,

I apologize for my lack of motivation in keeping up with this blog lately! So many great things have happened since our last blog until this point... Family Vacation, Amber and Cody Wanner visited us for a weekend, and Korina and Ryan King's Wedding were the biggest events, and we had many other memories with friends and family in there too! We even got to see Jon's Dad for the first time since our wedding! It was a short and sweet get-together, but we were so happy to see him and to catch up for a bit... in person!

Family Vacation was great this year, as usual :) My Dad rented two condos which were next to each other because our family is growing and we needed more space! Jon and I stayed with John, Tina, and the kids. This was extra special for me because I miss those kiddos SO much living in Cleveland. It's amazing how much they grow and learn in the weeks between seeing them! Even though we woke up earlier than we would have liked some mornings, it was so worth it. We also celebrated Jon's 24th birthday at the beach. Surfing, being at the beach, cupcakes AND cheesecake, and NOT working have got to rank a birthday pretty high up there, don't you think?!

Here are some pictures from the beach and our other events since our last blog! My hope is to post at least once a week, so check back! I'm going to do better! :)

First Visitors and A Very Soggy Browns Game

This weekend, the Hollisters and the Hansons began their road trip from PA to CO. Their first stop was here! They got in around midnight on Friday night and left early this morning, but we still got to hang out for a bit and take them to one of our favorite spots before they headed out! Our small apartment had a lot of people in it! The girls and Joey slept out on the futon, and the guys slept on our bedroom floor since our room is air conditioned. haha.

We're looking forward to them all visiting again sometime! (For more than 9 hours!)

On Friday, one of Jon's co-workers got us tickets to see the Cleveland Browns for the first home game. It was raining most of the day today, but we were determined to use the free tickets, free parking, and great seats! We got very wet, but it was still fun! Neither of us had been to a professional football game before! Apparently Penn State football doesn't count. Below you will see the progression of our pictures from the time we got out of the car (starting to get wet) to when we get back in the car (very soaked!). By the time we left, the parking lot had over a foot of water covering the majority of it! The worst part about the night was that they wouldn't let me take my umbrella into the game. R.I.P. pretty fuchsia umbrella, Jon will miss holding you over our heads.

Cleveland's Best

In the last 10 days,

• Mary and Doug got married!!!
• Jenn and I had the greatest sleepover of all time (at my parent's house).
  
• I rode a horse for the first time in 2 months... WAY overdue.
  
• I got my hair chopped!
  
• Joey met his new BFF, Chandler, and it was love at first sight.... Chandler is a girl.

This weekend we were able to relax in Cleveland, which is always nice considering our crazy summer. We didn't do anything too exciting, just checked out a few new places nearby that we heard were great... and they were! Cleveland's best pizza and Cleveland's best ice cream are within a 5 minute drive from our apartment! We showed up to church this morning to find it was canceled due to a plumbing problem... so we went for breakfast at a coffee shop down the street from our place, Erie Island Coffee.

This leads me to "The List"... this list of Cleveland's best and worst (according to me).

The worst:
While Jon doesn't appreciate my negative Cleveland comments, I must say driving here is much more stressful than what I am used to... and that's the polite version of what I would really like to say about Cleveland drivers! Other than the driving, I can't complain too much. In fact, I really am enjoying living here despite missing everyone from PA.

Walking Joey on a leash is not the greatest either, particularly when he squats 15 times before finding the perfect spot... but on to the good stuff!

The Best:
I have discovered many things I love about living in Lakewood, which is the first tier suburb of the city of Cleveland. Here's the list!

• A local chocolate company, Malley's Chocolates. It's amazing. I have a bumper sticker from there, and I can win money if they spot me! Still waiting on that...
• We can walk to SO many things! (countless restaurants, Pizza, coffee, beer, dry cleaner, my hair salon... the list goes on!)
  
• We live above a bakery, so it smells good ALL the time.
• The Dog Park. It's only a half mile from us so we can either walk or drive Joey down to run around and be free from his leash!
  
• Edison's Pub. Although it's not technically voted "Best Pizza in Cleveland", Jon and I beg to differ. Jon says "it's a hidden treasure, AKA the best kept secret this side of Chicago" (direct quote).
• There's so much to do here. The options are endless! (Slightly different from Lancaster County)
  
• Lake Erie. It's half a mile from our apartment and there's lots of park and beaches on it to enjoy.
  
• My favorite restaurant, The Cheesecake Factory, is less than a 10 minute drive! And another favorite, Smokey Bones, is nearby too!
  
• Francesca's, a new favorite store, is .8 miles down the street from our apartment. A little dangerous, but still awesome.
  
• My new favorite place, as soon as I get a chance to actually go there, will be The Chocolate Bar in downtown Cleveland. I've heard it's amazing and with my love of chocolate I think it's going to be heaven on earth when I get there. (I'll let you know!)
• Being married and living with Jon. I must say it's been so nice not to have a 6 hour car ride between us! and being married is pretty great too.
  

I think that about wraps it up for now. Here's a few pictures from the latest events mentioned before....

P.S.- Mom, just because I love all these things about Cleveland doesn't mean I don't miss PA. Don't worry, we're still planning on living closer some day!
































































































This last picture is of my Parents' cat and her last kitten... WHO WANTS HER?! :)

Catching Up!

It's been awhile, so thought I would catch everyone up on what the Pombos have been up to!

The weekend of July 17th, we headed home to PA for Erin and Jeff Dill's wedding in Philadelphia! We headed to Philly early in the day with Claudia and Ross to hang out and catch up. We ended up going to Dave and Buster's and it was awesome. After hearing that it was "virtually impossible" to win the 500 (pictured below), both Claudia AND Jon won it. Awesome.




























From there we headed to Erin and Jeff's wedding, with a quick stop to change!



































































That Sunday, we invited all of our Mt. Joy friends over to eat lunch and left over wedding cake! My Mom was awesome, and she prepared everything for us.






















The following weekend we headed to Pittsburgh on Saturday for another wedding! (a friend of Jon's from Grove City)

On Sunday, back in Cleveland, we were on our way to church when Jon's friend Pete (from Grove City, but lives in Wooster, OH- about an hour drive from Cleveland). He and his girlfriend Mary were headed to the Cleveland Indians game and had two extra tickets... so we skipped the last song at church and ran home to change and meet them at the game! It was a fun day, and my first Cleveland Indian's experience... and we had AMAZING seats!


This past weekend we relaxed in Cleveland, wrote lots thank you notes, and did some shopping for our apartment and for upcoming weddings!

This weekend we head to PA for Mary and Doug's wedding weekend!

In other news, I came down with some kind of sickness over the last few days, so I'm resting up, watching my Friends DVDs, and hoping to be back to my normal self for the wedding!

That's all for now. We'll post again soon! I've been listing (in my mind) all the things I love (and don't love) about Cleveland...