Nothing major, so this will largely be a stream of consciousness post to fill the void of my recent blogging hiatus. It had potential to be filled with beautiful photos of charming Ann Arbor and beautiful San Francisco, but a certain husband of mine was traveling sans me and deemed our trendy unisex camera bag too bulky for his travels.
We've had several gatherings with friends over the past few weeks that have left me/us feeling completely at peace about our decision to move far away from the cities, family, and friends which were so familiar and comfortable to us. Cincinnati is finally starting to feel a little like home.

One such gathering involved a classy blind wine tasting test at a friends.
Do you spot the financial and investment firm masquerading as a superb Trader Joe's cheap wine? We gave the host a hard time about that one :) As could be expected, two-buck chuck performed quite well amongst its competitors. Conveniently for our budget, my favorite wine of the night was the Barefoot Cabernet. The evening was documented in tons of candid and group photos, which unfortunately all turned out blurry thanks to an accidental switching of the camera to manual focus (ahem, Walker). We ended up with about 30 photos (now deleted) of which this is the least blurry.
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Last weekend we hosted a party for the AL/LSU game to share the beauty of SEC football with our (for the most part) non-southern friends.
Can you guess who we were cheering for (we tried - neither of us own much purple and gold)? After dinner I got so wrapped up in how much fun we were having I forgot to document any part of it, but it was a blast.
(Walker burger's are one of my favorite meals. Restaurant quality for sure. Gouda and bacon are just a bonus.)
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Not well documented, but certainly a highlight from the past few months, are new friends made through joining a small group at church. We were invited in to an already formed group by a fellow co-worker of mine, and have already been tremendously blessed by those friendships. Each member boasts a unique and refreshing (and hilarious) personality, and Tuesday nights have become a highlight of each week.
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Fall in Ohio is pretty fabulous. I haven't done a great job capturing it, but we are loving this weather. Knowing it will end all too soon and winter will be upon us, we have started preparing.
Like how I threw those Hunter boots in as "preparing for winter"? :) I already love them. They make me want to go splash through muddy puddles, although I'm guessing I will be splashing through muddy slush soon enough. When I tried them on Walker's first response was "I'm guessing those are for function and not fashion?". He will come around.
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In life updates...

I have been spending most of my hours at the hospital on a couple of incredibly busy rotations - I have been stretched physically, mentally, and emotionally, but love (almost) every day of what I do. Nearly every day I count my blessings for the opportunity to train at such an amazing institution.

Recently Walker had the opportunity to travel a few hours north to Ann Arbor for the Michigan v. Purdue game with a couple of my co-workers who are alums. He may not have documented his trip, but I did get a t-shirt out of the deal - sorry (brother-in-law) Eric - we can talk about it over Thanksgiving :) (Follow this link for a photo Walker wants you to see - http://www.michigandaily.com/sports/sportsmonday-column-rocketman - apparently a man flew into the stadium in a jet pack. Who knew?) He also got to spend several days in our favorite US city (San Fran) living it up with former B'ham co-workers. I got several phone photos that evoked strong feelings of jealousy, but am glad at least one of us is getting to travel these days.
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Speaking of travel, Walker recently asked "so where do you want to save to go to next?". Ding ding ding! Considering how infrequently my budget-savvy husband (like how nicely I put that hubby?) initiates spending money, I now consider my 3-year quest to implant the travel bug in him a 100% success.
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And finally, over the past couple of months young Bella has developed a hilarious new habit that has provided Walker and I both with lots of entertainment. The cycle goes something like this: Bella pees --> gets a treat (yes, she gets treat each time she does her business outside - she's not spoiled we promise) --> spends extensive energy "hiding" said treat --> forgets about treat --> pees again --> receives same treat --> "hides" treat... you get the idea. Every now and then she eats it. But mostly she just "hides" it. You would think this would save money on buying her treats, but somehow I manage to keep buying her new ones :) (Make sure you turn the volume up to hear her getting good and worked up at the end.)

Happy Hump Day!

Congrats to my little brother and future sister!! We could not have hand-picked a more perfect match :)
We love you guys and can't wait for all the excitement the next few months hold!!!!

The South greeted us warmly (literally), and provided a quick but refreshing weekend back home. Thank you to all those who generously gave of your time, energy, and homes to make us feel so welcome!

Friends
The Southern Gentlemen hosted their 5th annual tailgate, and it provided the perfect setting for an entire afternoon full of laughter and time catching up with dear friends.
Excitement
About the announcement of this Southern Gentleman baby,
and the engagement of this lovely lady just two days after our glorious coffee catch-up date in Birmingham!

Alas, no exciting photos from any recent trips to post, but we have certainly enjoyed the past two restful weekends at home.
The weather has definitely turned cooler, getting down into the 30s last night and requiring us to break out our amazing down comforter that has typically stayed in storage until December in the past (holy cow what have we gotten ourselves into?!). Good thing snow is novel to me and coats are my favorite piece of clothing.
(All random photos are simply to add color and courtesy of a rainy day Bella and I spent at park a few minutes from our house.)
A trip home.
In two weeks we will be making a brief return to Alabama for the AU/FL game and Southern Gentleman's tailgate. We would love to catch up with as many people as possible, so let us know if you are free that weekend in B'ham or Auburn! On that note...

War Eagle.
Set up through a mutual friend, we have loved getting to know these two fellow AU grads living just north of us in Dayton. This weekend we enjoyed watching the Tigers return to victory in their typical pulse-raising fashion.

Happy Sunday.
Coming home from church we found ourselves blocked from most roads leading to home.
A quick Google search revealed an apparently huge art festival happening about a mile from our house.
There were tons of people and dogs, providing full entertainment for all parties in attendance.

Excitement.
Revolving around dear friends with exciting news - I'll be more specific when they have shared with the world (and by world, I mean making it known on Facebook), but I'll give you a hint and say that one involves the arrival of a little one and the other involves a much-anticipated engagement that happened yesterday!

Vacation.
Not anytime soon, but it will be light at the end of the tunnel after a couple of grueling months of work ahead.
That's right folks, in a couple of months we are headed to the Big Apple! I haven't been since I was a little girl (and don't even remember it), and Walker has only been on business, so we are taking advantage of my first official residency vacation and striking another big city off of our (endless) travel bucket-list. We welcome any and all suggestions for delicious restaurants and other fun things to see...
And so another week begins...

Chicago happens to be one of our very favorite cities.
And conveniently it also an easy 4.5 hour drive from our current home.
So after a delicious post-tax-busy-season celebratory dinner Thursday night
and a short day of work Friday, we made a return trip to the place that brought us so many laughs and fun memories just over a year ago.
And it was just as fabulous as we remembered.
This time instead of staying in the heart of downtown off of Michigan Avenue, we stayed at the home of a friend doing her residency at Northwestern. She was going out of town, so we took care of her pups and had the opportunity to feel less like tourists in this great city and more like residents as we crashed at her beautiful condo in the heart of Lincoln Park. Somehow in all of my photographing I managed to forget to capture her neighborhood, but it was fabulous. For the weekend Walker and I got to live a much trendier life than we are accustomed to here in Cincy!
After arriving in town we were reunited with one of our all-time favorite meals, the Chicago deep-dish pizza. Of all the cheesy foods we love, this tops our list. We pushed aside any thoughts of caloric content and ate it twice during our short weekend stay.
Saturday we joined the Chicago Auburn club for the day and watched the tigers with fellow mid-western alum and fans.
The outcome of the game was less than desirable, but it was still a blast to have the entire second story of a restaurant filled with Auburn attire and cheering fans singing the fight song.
Next we took in our second Second City show and it was just as hilarious as remembered. If you are ever in Chicago don't miss out on this gem!
We took in a delicious Italian dinner downtown, walked the city streets, and wished the weekend hadn't flown by so quickly.
We bid this great city farewell, and will no doubt be taking advantage of our close proximity again in the future!