Moved to a New Blog

To prep for our family growing beyond the two of us, I moved our blog to http://racinefamily.wordpress.com please keep up with us there.

2015 In Review

Looking back on 2015 seems like a blur. I feel like I wrote our 2014 post two days ago. Time is crazy. Anyways, I’ll summarize 2015 as water, woods, and surgeries.

Jimmy

Jimmy took up hunting this year. He also got a compound bow to use hunting (woods). He got two deer this winter, success, so we’ll be enjoying venison chili throughout this year.

Jimmy continued his skeet shooting league. He was captain this year. He also joined two lacross leagues, which he loves.

Jimmy is still working as the Geotechnical Department Manager at the National Harbor office, which he loves.

Ingrid

In 2015, I finished my first half marathon! In well under the time I predicted. And I did not walk once – that was my main goal, well that and not just give up and lay on the side of the road.

Speaking of health, I discovered a new love affair with Pure Barre. I was a ballet dancer for oh, 10 years of my life, so this workout brings back all of the memories. It’s hard. It’s fun. It makes me so happy! And, it’s a fantastic workout. Jimmy was the best and got me classes for Christmas (it’s sadly, very expensive:( )

I took a wonderful girls trip to Smith Mountain Lake with some of my best college friends.

In the most exciting news, I got lasik! I absolutely love it! In the most painful news, I got my wisdom teeth out in December (all four and two were impacted) and that was brutal. (two surgeries there)

We (Ingrid & Jimmy)

We spent almost every Spring & Summer weekend in Southern Maryland (woods & water). We helped my parents work on the new property throughout the Spring and then enjoyed boating, fishing, bow shooting (Jimmy), swimming, and family time throughout the summer. It is Kai’s favorite place in the world so we go as often as we can. It’s all about the dog amiright?

We went to the Outer Banks for a Memorial Day trip with a bunch of friends, that was a blast. Jimmy really enjoyed surf fishing. (water)

We went to the Penthouse twice, once with Ted & Lauren, and once with Kurt & Kate. (more water). We’re so thankful to have that property in the family.

We saw Cinderella during a wonderful night out with Jimmy’s parents and sister Katie for my birthday – thank you!

We went to our 6th Vintage Virginia wine festival.

We celebrated our third anniversary.

We went to Blacksburg for a football game with some great friends. In true Bburg fashion, it was cold and rainy the whole time, but man, it was wonderful to be back!

Finally, we hosted a fun New Years Eve party for our friends to close out the year.

Looking ahead to 2016.

I am copying and pasting from my 2014 (and sadly 2015) posts because, well, we very much failed on accomplishing any of our goals. Whoops. I’ll write a little commentary on if we completed anything or not.

From 2014 & 2015 posts:

“This is also a challenge because you never really know where life is going to go, but I do see some things happening.

We have some house projects we want to complete:” (reflections on my 2014 list)

• Fixing our side steps. The concrete’s been struggling since I was around 12 so we’re going to just replace it with a pressure treated wood step/landing/storage thing – this is clearly more Jimmy & my Dad’s plan – We did this!!!!!
• Finishing painting. In 2012/2013 we painted the living room, dining room, master bedroom, kitchen, guest bedrooms (2) & Jimmy’s video game room. In 2014 2015 2016, we have the entryway, stairway, hallway, 3 bathrooms & basement and we’re done [whew] – didn’t do any of this.
• Landscaping. There are plans for the backyard. I am vaguely aware of them. I have stated Sugar’s stones stay. That’s all I care about. – nope, not done. Actually not even started…
• Building a slate patio in the backyard. – didn’t even start this either
• Organization. As much as I hate to admit, I still have a couple of boxes of my things that don’t have a place in our home yet. I want to get everything organized and condensed as much as possible this year. – those boxes are still there. Things are a little better organized – our pantry and linen closet definitely – but still a ways to go on everything else.

Grade: D

New 2015 projects & goals: (let’s be ambitious and add to the list we didn’t accomplish last year, that’s totally the way to do this life planning thing, right?)

• Helping restore/renovate Hotel California (new property addition to the Freemyer family – posts to come) – we did this!
• Renovating our two bathrooms – nope, maybe not doing that and actually doing the kitchen (depending on if you talk to me or Jimmy)
• I: Run in my first half marathon – did this!

Grade: B

Since it worked so well the last time, let’s add some more goals here.

• Declutter. “Living clean in 2016.” I want to get rid of the clothes/crafts/stuff we don’t use any more and simplify and declutter our lives.
• continue as many Pure Barre classes as possible

 

Trips for 2015:

• Penthouse to enjoy the beach – did this twice, A for I&J
• Hotel California to enjoy boating – did this all Spring & Summer, and some Fall actually, A for I&J
• Colorado to visit Todd – nope, did not happen
• Blacksburg for a Tech game – scheduled for October – yep, did this!

Grade: B+

Trips for 2016:

• Penthouse to enjoy the beach
• Hotel California to enjoy boating
• Colorado to visit Todd
• Boston for a Lombardo family reunion of sorts

Well, considering how successful we were in 2014 2015, I’m going to leave our projects, goals, and trips at that and see how we do.

California, Maryland

I’m not sure if I’ve ever posted about the Cottage before, which is very surprising considering it has been a huge part of my life.

The history of The Cottage:

My dad’s parents wanted a place to get away from D.C. on weekends and during the summer, so they purchased a piece of waterfront land in California, Maryland. (Right next to Hollywood, Maryland – believe it or not). The Freemyer family officially became one of five families on our gravel road (these five original families all still own property here).

And they built a cottage for their family of three. When I say they built, I mean they actually designed and physically constructed the house themselves. That’s how you did things, they never thought to hire an architect or a contractor because that would be expensive, so they built the house themselves.

Being a family of three, they didn’t need much room, so The Cottage is one open living/dining/bedroom that opens to the kitchen (my grandpa might be responsible for “open concept”), a separate bathroom, and a closet. That is it. The whole house. However it worked perfectly for three. My Dad said he spent almost every summer at The Cottage growing up.

Fast forward a couple decades and it’s my Dad bringing his family to the Cottage. When I was super young we didn’t go to The Cottage – my mother was rightfully scared toddler Kurt would leap off the pier. However starting around age 8, we went to The Cottage a lot.

Throwback Joey, Kurt, me, Jimmer

The Cottage became the place I learned to fish, boat, crab, water-ski, wake-board, camp, kayak, and so much more. It became a place I brought my friends to enjoy swimming, boating and a weekend away. It became my family’s retreat. Although a small one – the summer of 2014 brought my parents, me, Jimmy, Kurt & Kate (and two dogs) staying in a one room/one bathroom cottage.

Fast forward another couple decades and the property next to The Cottage is for sale. This is a 3 bedroom house built in 1916 with a renovated bathroom, an actual kitchen, an attic, a big flat grassy yard, and a pool. The original owners’ grandkids (my parents age) were selling the house on the point. This lined up perfectly to when my Dad was planning on retiring. It seemed like God was saying something. So my parents took a leap of faith and bought the house next to The Cottage and decided to make it their permanent home (and call this place “The Hotel California”).

Since the purchase, Kurt, Jimmy, my Dad and I have been making frequent trips to work on the place: scrape cracked plaster, fence the yard, paint, clean, fix some steps, etc. Last weekend we all moved my parents to their new place!

There is still a lot of work to do: the house doesn’t have insulation (brrr!), the basement is the actual dirt ground, the ceiling needs a support beam, the sitting room needs to be converted to a master bathroom, the kitchen could use some updating, there are future plans for a garage, etc. But it’s a place all six of us (and three dogs) can go and enjoy together.

I Did It!

I successfully finished my first half marathon! I set this goal almost a year ago but an ankle injury delayed me a full 6 months.  I wish it hadn’t because the weather for that September race would’ve been a whole lot better than the weather I ran in – which was cold and rained the entire race.

When I started the race, I was numb from my elbows to my fingers; I couldn’t even press play on my iPod, it was miserable. I started to thaw around mile 3 so that was nice.

Mile 6 brought a hill. A huge hill. For some reason I thought this was a completely flat course, I was so wrong. But there was a great crowd to cheer us up the hill, that helped so much. I definitely want to volunteer and cheer runners on in the future, it made such a difference in motivating me.

I predicted I would finish in 3 hours and 30 minutes. Since this was my first race, I really had no idea what type of time I run. My only goal was not to walk. I am proud to say I did not walk once 🙂 some of my running was more of a shuffle – especially around mile 10, but I kept my pace. Speaking of pace, I completely surprised myself, I finished the race in 2 hours 51 minutes and 10 seconds. Success! Yes that is pretty slow but I never had a time goal so anything I ran would be a PR.

The look of determination to get to the finish line

My parents and Jimmy were at the finish line cheering me on. That meant the world to me. They helped me make it to the car and even opened my chocolate milk when I could not because I was shivering too much. Then they took me to brunch at Liberty Tavern.

I’m so proud of myself for running this. For pushing through when it got hard and all I wanted to do was walk (or stop). For setting a goal and accomplishing it. I’m not sure I’ll run another half, if I did, I’d like it to be in the fall or in South Carolina, basically anything to avoid the cold and wet.

2014 In Review

Looking back on 2014 is more challenging than on 2013 (did not see that one coming). But maybe that’s a good thing. We’re settling into our life together and finding comfort in our routines. Of course, there were some highlights. We also did a pretty good job of keeping up with our goal of being my physically active/fit.

Jimmy

Most importantly: Jimmy turned 30! We celebrated in a very “Jimmy way” starting with Jimmy and the guys going shooting. Then meeting up with some friends & family for lunch (and lots of beers) at Blackfin in Merrifield. Followed by a brief break and then heading to dinner at Ray’s the Steaks with the rest of the Racines. It was great.

Jimmy also discovered a new love for skeet shooting. He joined a shooting league through work and has really enjoyed learning this new skill.

Speaking of work, Jimmy got a promotion and is now the Geotechnical Department Manager at a new National Harbor office.

Jimmy also played in a lacrosse league this year. That is until a knee injury took him out of the game.

Ingrid

In 2014, I registered for my 1st half marathon and trained my butt off for that. And then injured my ankle so I couldn’t run in the race. But, I am already signed up for another one (it’s in a few weeks) so I’m going to complete this goal. Towards the end of the year, I got a new job that I’m enjoying a lot. I took a couple trips to Blacksburg.

We (Ingrid & Jimmy)

• Went to Richmond for our first NASCAR race
• Went to Boston to visit friends and family
• Ran in our 2nd 5K together
• Took two beach trips to SC
• Attended our 5th Vintage Virginia Wine Festival
• Were in our good friends Ted & Lauren’s wedding

Looking ahead to 2015.

I am copying and pasting from my 2014 post because, well, we very much failed on accomplishing any of our goals. Whoops. I’ll write a little commentary on if we completed anything or not.

From 2014 post:

“This is also a challenge because you never really know where life is going to go, but I do see some things happening.

We have some house projects we want to complete:” (reflections on my 2014 list)

• Fixing our side steps. The concrete’s been struggling since I was around 12 so we’re going to just replace it with a pressure treated wood step/landing/storage thing – this is clearly more Jimmy & my Dad’s plan – didn’t do this. Need to complete this year.
• Finishing painting. In 2012/2013 we painted the living room, dining room, master bedroom, kitchen, guest bedrooms (2) & Jimmy’s video game room. In 2014 2015 we have the entryway, stairway, hallway, 3 bathrooms & basement and we’re done [whew] – again, didn’t do any of this.
• Landscaping. There are plans for the backyard. I am vaguely aware of them. I have stated Sugar’s stones stay. That’s all I care about. – nope, not done. Actually not even started…
• Building a slate patio in the backyard. – didn’t even start this either
• Organization. As much as I hate to admit, I still have a couple of boxes of my things that don’t have a place in our home yet. I want to get everything organized and condensed as much as possible this year. – those boxes are still there. Things are a little better organized – our pantry and linen closet definitely – but still a ways to go on everything else.

Grade: F

New projects & goals: (let’s be ambitious and add to the list we didn’t accomplish last year, that’s totally the way to do this life planning thing, right?)

• Helping restore/renovate Hotel California (new property addition to the Freemyer family – posts to come)
• Renovating our two bathrooms
• I: Run in my first half marathon

We have some trips we want to take: (reflecting on my 2014 list)

• Boston to visit Ted & Lauren and Jimmy’s family – we did this! A for I&J
• Penthouse to enjoy the beach – we did this! twice! A+ for I&J
• Cottage – not really a trip trip but we want to go here more this summer. Kai just loves it here and so do we. – eh, not really, maybe one or two trips, so D?
• Germany or Hawaii – clearly the details aren’t worked out on this one – this one did not happen
• St. Louis to be in Ted & Lauren’s wedding – we did this! A for I&J

Grade: B-

Trips for 2015:

• Penthouse to enjoy the beach
• Hotel California to enjoy boating
• Colorado to visit Todd
• Blacksburg for a Tech game – scheduled for October

Well, considering how successful we were in 2014, I’m going to leave our projects, goals, and trips at that and see how we do.

Bringing in 2015

This year we kept it low-key and had a few close friends over to ring in the new year. It worked out for the best since it was cold out (shocker) and I really didn’t feel like going out. Yesterday my wonderful Oma passed. It was a long time coming, but that doesn’t make it any easier. So having some of my best friends, Jimmy, Kai, and a fire sounded perfect to me.

Kai is not amused

We did have a great Baked Brie and Cranberry Braid I made.

I usually write our goals for the upcoming year, but I’ll save that for another post.

It’s Christmas Time Again

I think this is our most beautiful tree ever. Mainly because I totally “hacked Christmas.” I was inspired by this post I found via Pinterest and used two different Christmas light bulbs. It made the tree so much brighter and created more shadows. I also went old school and used all brown wrapping paper. I did decorate the presents with red, gold & silver ribbons and bows, but of course, didn’t take a picture of that. Oh well.

I did take a picture of the gold tipped manicure I gave myself. Kurt calls it a “Dubai Manicure” instead of your traditional white tipped French Manicure.

And the only picture we took on Christmas is Kai enjoying his presents: a deer antler & a new super soft blanket.

I’ll end with the bumper sticker we are currently rocking on Jimmy’s car: “Keep Christ in Christmas.” Amen.

Thankful Heart

I’ve always loved Thanksgiving. Maybe it’s because I’m sentimental and like to reflect on what I’m thankful for. Maybe it’s because it’s right after my birthday so I typically get a card or gift. Maybe it’s because I very much enjoy eating comfort foods like green bean casserole. Whatever it is, I love this holiday.

This year we spent it like we typically do:

• Thanksgiving Lunch at the Racine house in VA (Jimmy’s family) This, as always, ended with a few fun and hilarious rounds of Buzz – I 100% lost every round, but had a blast
• Thanksgiving Dinner at the Erickson house (my aunt & uncle’s) in MD (my family)

Yes, this means every year Jimmy and I eat two thanksgiving dinners. It is glorious. And difficult. And I wouldn’t change it at all.

Jimmy and I are very lucky because our families live close to one another and get along. So we do some holidays all together, but I like the individual time with each family as well. It’s a little less chaotic so you get the quality time.

Now on to the sentimental:

This year I am thankful for:

• my wonderful family (both sides) – they support & love me and are some of my favorite people
• Jimmy – he is definitely part of my family, but I felt he should have his own line
• Kai – I consider him part of my family but he gets a special shout-out for being the best. And on Kai’s note, I’m thankful for my Uncle David. Kai was very sick this year. After being on antibiotics for a few days, he still wasn’t getting any better so I emergency rushed Kai to my uncle (who is an amazing vet) in MD. My uncle took so much time and care to make sure Kai got the treatment he needed. Kai being sick was the absolute worst so I am so thankful he is back to his wonderful doggie self.
• my new job that is so close to our house
• our house
• my ankle finally healing so I can start exercising again – sadly not in time for the half marathon, but I will sign up for another.
• Jimmy’s promotion

And probably so much else I can’t even think of.

6 Years Together

6 years ago today, I started dating Jimmy. This is my fun post to him. All about our story.

Jimmy and I met 6 years and 3 months ago on a spring break cruise.

We went on a week long cruise from Charleston, SC to Grand Cayman Island, Cozumel, and Key West.

We cruised on the Norwegian Cruise Line’s “Norwegian Majesty.” Now retired (I feel old).

Although we both went to Virginia Tech, we had never met. He was in grad school and I was an undergrad. He went on the cruise with his fraternity and I went with my sorority.

We happened to be assigned rooms that were two doors down from each other.

He walked past my room like:

And I was like:

And after that we were

Although we weren’t officially boyfriend and girlfriend until June 18.

Fast forward 4 years later when this happened

So we got married,

Bought a house,

And got a dog (not in that order)

Although we celebrate our anniversary on our wedding anniversary now, none of this would have happened if not for that cruise and June 18.

Love you Jimmy!

Beach Vacation and Jimmy’s Celebration

For Memorial Day, Jimmy & I joined our friends Ted & Lauren for our annual beach trip. It was a week of mimosas, bocce ball, sand, ocean, good food, and relaxing. It was perfect. We were there for a whole week: Thursday through Thursday.

Starting vacation with a toast

I secretly had two bottles of champagne in the cooler for the drive down so we could toast the start of our vacation (and Jimmy’s promotion) as soon as we got there. Doesn’t it look like we’re on a boat with the beautiful blue ocean in the background? We’re not, just on our balcony on the 11th floor.

As always, I did not take enough pictures. I really need to work on that.

Love

Chilling on the beach with beers and cigars

After a wonderful dinner out

We got to see a beach wedding from our balcony

This year was a lot harder to leave the beach than last year was. Maybe it was because Ted & Lauren now live far away. Maybe it was because we stayed a full week. Not sure, but the fact that vacations have to end makes me sad. However, it did help knowing we had a small celebration planned for Jimmy’s promotion and the Vintage Virginia wine festival to look forward (the next days).

The Friday after we got back, we decided to have a small get-together to celebrate Jimmy’s promotion. He is now (starting July 6) a Geotechnical Department Manager. Yay Jimmy! So we had his parents, my parents, Kurt, Kate, Katie (Jimmy’s sister) and a few dogs over for dinner, cake, and champagne. In my family we have a tradition of having a “Face Cake” when big life events happen. These are cakes with photos printed on them in frosting. (I am well aware we are the only people who call them Face Cakes). Somehow Jimmy had never had one. So clearly he needed one for this party 🙂

Jimmy got a Face Cake!

Congratulations Jimmy!

Eating his face haha

The next day we had the Vintage Virginia wine festival where I took 0 pictures (#fail). This was our 5th year going and every year we’ve had a wonderful time. This year we went with a big group of friends so that made it lots of fun. There seemed to be less vineyards and more food trucks but we all still had a blast.