The Millie!

Cerena and I's cat Millie is the cutest furball on the planet! We love her so much! This is a picture of Millie being a very bad girl this weekend - she knows she isn't allowed to be on the table! The look on her face is not one of guilt but more of annoyance at being awoken by the flash of my camera. Millie has been having some big adventures lately - she has run out the front door a few times in the past week or so. We are convinced that she must love her life with us because she always comes back!

Millie is now 9 months old and will be living with me this summer. Cerena will take our favorite feline with her to Chicago in the fall. I am going to miss seeing Miss Millie everyday! :(

Healthy Food and Little 5

Bryan and I have been trying to incorporate healthier choices into our diet. I have started restricting my meat eating and Bryan is being super supportive! This is a dinner I cooked for us last week - thai lettuce wraps using a meat substitute made by Boca Burger. I also made some shrimp for Bryan! The sauce was spicy just like we like it! I used mushrooms, onions, garlic and water chestnuts as an added nutritional treat! Bryan made the yummy guacamole pictured above - just delicious! Doesn't Bryan look happy eating health food?!

Megan, Melanie and Little Ann came to visit for Little 500 weekend! This is one of the few images captured on my camera from the weekend. I am pretty sure it was sometime late afternoon. The weekend was so fun! I really miss the girls and living in Delta Gamma!

O'Shay and Evan came to visit for Bryan - sorry there are no pics! The boys enjoyed their reunion as well. It is so fun to reminisce on all the college times!
Happy Little 500! The DG bike team came in 3rd place - congrats Sistas!

Wedding Update!

Bryan and I (pretty much just me, Bryan sat next to me while I was on the phone!) spoke to some wedding vendors last week. We have an appointment with our photographer next month in Indianapolis. We are using Jordyn of Jennifer Driscoll Photography. Here is the link to her photography site: http://www.jenniferdriscoll.com/

Jordyn is ecstatic to work with us. We will be having our engagement photos taken this summer in Indianapolis or Bloomington - super exciting! The blog on the site is really cool - check it out!

Here are the things about our June 4, 2011 nuptials that I am sure of:
1. I am very very excited to marry Bryan and spend the rest of my life with him!
2. We have a reception site and will soon have the church booked (13 month in advance rule has delayed this)
3. Colors are hydrangea blue and white with gold accents
4. Dress is "cocktail attire"
5. We are hopefully going on a cruise for the honeymoon - maybe to Bermuda!

We will keep you updated with any new details on the wedding!

<3, Merrit

Spring!

This is my first post on the shared blog! I hope you all enjoy!

Thursday evening was gorgeous in Bloomington! We decided to head over to the Sports patio for a few adult beverages. I am really sad I didn't take any pictures from Thursday night because it was bar crawl central at Sports with tons of people dressed up in crazy costumes - international theme and YMCA. It was a riot.
I woke up to Millie, Cerena and I's 9 month old kitten, on my head on Friday morning - purrrrfect! For some reason Millie thinks it is alright to wake us up in the middle of the night to play a game of fetch, for extra food and water or just a good ol' petting. She sleeps all day and then wants to hang out at night! Crazy Kitty!
Bryan, Cerena and Greg enjoyed a day of boating on Lake Monroe on Friday. I, unfortunately, was studying for a pretty rigorous accounting exam on Saturday AM and was lucky enough to go pick up the crew from Lake Monroe Marina. They had a blast! I think I did well on my exam too!

My 3/2 MBA in Accounting Bar Crawl took place on Saturday night! Cerena and Greg joined in the festivities. The pick at left is Cerena and I at UpStairs. I am definitely going to miss having Cerena as a roommate! She is very clean, tidy and an overall sweet girl! The good thing is that she and I will stay in close touch over the next year as she is one of the bridesmaids in my wedding!

Soccer

First time I have stepped on a soccer field in a long long time..we had a shutout..too bad we were on the wrong end of it!!

Porchin' it

Mary and Jack came to visit us in Bloomington and took us out to a great dinner!!

Say Cheeessseeeee

Merr and I had some friends over last Friday.  About ten of us went to the bars for a great time at Brother's bar in Bloomington.  This is our kitchen and our going out gear.

Farmer's Market

Merr and I got these steaks at the Farmer's market for a great price...they turned out to be GIGANTIC steaks.  Although I overdid them a little due to my inexperience with the coal grill, our next outing was even better.  YUMMMMMM

Burn Baby Burn!

Merrit did a great job of lighting some coals and making the grill super hot. 

DELOITTE

After I got an offer for a summer internship at Deloitte, Merrit made me put on her sweatshirt which is about three sizes too small because she was so excited!  Currently a sweatshirt of my size is either on the way, or in the works for my first day on the job. 

Stealth Steve

I am digging Steve's all black look here... very stealth.  Babette, Mary, Jack, Merrit, and I had a wonderful time at the wedding.

Double Trouble

Look at these two hotties... they can cause quite a stirrrr

Cute little guy

Parker buddy looking good in his relaxed outfit while we have to get dressed up...lucky kid.  He would later model some stylin' formal wear for Jay and Marie's wedding.  Oh yea, and Merr is looking gorgeous as always ;)

Taj Mahal

This is the one that I thought was amazing..We weren't supposed to take pictures, but I did snap one.  That water follows you no matter where you are standing from!!

Tiger

This was cool Needle work..the eyes of the tiger follow you.

Elephant

This girl was about 55 years old...she decided to let out some bodily functions on our ride...gross

I love Golf Carts

All of the guys minus Greg. 

Floating Island

We ate on a floating island at Infosys.  The fish were at least twelve inches and well fed.  As you can see here, there is very cool architecture among these buildings:  Spanish roof tile and spears facing toward the water.  Our meal was one of the best we had, yet only 150 Rps as Infosys subsidizes all the food.  Which means our five star meal was about three dollars.  YUM!!

Infosys

We received a tour of one of the largest campuses in the world.  This corporation can train 15,000 people in one day. 

Crush at age 3

This little girl had a crush on me..she was staring at Mark and I for most of the game. 

Cheerleaders

Scott, Jimmy, and Greg enjoyed meeting the South African cheerleaders..are they imported??

Great Seats!

Although it looks like I am drinking a beer, this is actually an obnoxious whistle that I was blowing into.  Front row club seats!!!!

Cricket match

This is one of the coolest experiences I had while abroad.  Attending an IPL Cricket match was AMAZING.  Hopefully one day cricket picks up in the States

SAP Global Delivery

Kelly, Erika, Heath, and myself at the global delivery facility. 

200 Rps

Here we are at SAP labs, I am wearing my most recent purchase: Ray Ban Sunglasses.  If you ask any member of our group, watching me bargain for sunglasses at 930 at night was one of their favorite memories.  The guy started at 1000 Rps for this pair of FAKE sunglasses...he was crazy!  I had gotten him down to about 400, and I started to walk faster.  He dropped his sunglasses on the filthy ground and I immediately said: "those are dirty..why would I buy dirty sunglasses"???  He dropped to 200 and I had myself a four dollar pair of Ray Bans.  Although you may have had to be there, the night was GREAT!

Pizza Hut Indian Style!

We had the Chicken Tikka Pizza..say that ten times fast!  Bill and I enjoyed our Pizza Hut on the way to Microsoft.

Arrival to Bangalore

We may have more than one Joe Tourist!  By the way, the flight attendants on the Kingfisher flight from Delhi to Bangalore were all gorgeous.  I am pretty sure there aren't any laws prohibiting the beauty factor as a criteria for their job. 

Our Fearless Leader

Bipin did a fantastic job of arranging our trip details, he deserves a lot of credit!

***** HOTEL

We would often play cards at the hotel and on the bus.  Euchre was the main game of the trip... Here we have Heath to the left, Trista, Myself, and then Jordan.  Heath and I are winning...of course!  We did not take part in stacking of the pyramid of beers as you can see....or did we?!

Yes Bryan, that is indeed the Taj

I had to touch it to make sure we were really there. 

She's a beauty

Here I am walking up to the Taj Mahal with our trip tour guide!  The color of the Taj will actually change based on the Sun, here you can see a more golden color.  It is absolutely gorgeous outside and in. 

Tour Guide

Here is Mr. VVIP!!  As you can see, Jimmy in the bottom right hand corner is very intent on getting a picture of his shotglass from Kilroy's on top of the Taj.  He brought his glass 8,000 miles just for this picture!

I look back, you look Taj!

Our tour guide for this trip was amazing.  There was a line around the whole Taj to get into the building for a tour.. we walked straight in because we were "V.V.I.P" --which he constantly shouted.  Cerena took this great picture, it is one of my favorites!

Joe Tourist

My buddy Scott took this camera everywhere so we decided to call him Joe Tourist.  Nice stunner shades to boot!

Yeeee Haa

In order to arrive to the Taj Mahal in fashion, we decided to try every mode of transportation in India.  Although we rode elephants later, the other mode was by horses.  Since this horse looks like the Budweiser horse, I will just call him Kingfisher (Indian Beer Brand).  Mark and I rode in style all the way from our bus into the entrance...aside from being accosted by more vendors.  In fact, one little boy asked for my name on the way in, and a few hours after we left the Taj he had remembered my name and tried to sell me his product...still no success (I drive a hard bargain). 

Needle Work

This was a museum of needle work that we stopped into before the Taj.  Most of the works are three dimensional and took years to do.  In their private room, they have six larger needle works done by one man in his lifetime.  My favorite one is actually in the private room...there is needle work of the Taj Mahal, and since the artist made his work three dimensional, the entrance leading up to the Taj follow you (no matter where you are standing).  So we all ran across the room back and forth seeing if we could outrun the great needlework following us...however, no success.  Simply amazing. 

Right before the Taj

This is Jordan, Greg, and myself.  Again, all of the works in India have fantastic carvings.  At this point we are all so excited to see the Taj because we had taken a 5 hour bus ride to Agra. 

Snakes on a plane!

I absolutely hate snakes..I would run past these guys as fast as possible

Picture of the Market

As I mentioned, this market was crowded.  This is Old Delhi, everything is crowded, dirty, and there are millions of wires going everywhere! .. I don't know how anything electric works!!

Rickshaws

This was one of my favorites of the trip!  Bicycle Rickshaws provided entertainment as we went through a crowded market in Delhi.  So our driver, the one you see here was absolutely insane. The man sped through this market with thousands and thousands of people in these narrow streets.  Maybe ten feet wide, there was little room to negotiate yet we only had one incident.  He ran over an old woman's foot, and the lady started yelling and hitting him.  Our tour guide already paid for the driver, and he still stopped the Rickshaw to ask us for tips numerous times.  You aren't supposed to tip them, but being American you are exposed to flocking Indian salesmen and beggars. 

Temple

This was an interesting temple that had thousands of Swastika symbols.  In India, this symbol is sacred and was used long before the Nazi Party took the symbol. 

Bill, Me, Mark in ascending order by height

The level of detail in this picture was astounding.  Labor is so cheap in India, the restoration of these mosques are done by hand.  We saw a few men hammering and carving stone similar to this.  Amazing!

Roomies in the States

This is Cerena who was kind enough to let me live with her and Merrit back in Bloomington... isn't she great??  I couldn't tell you what we are standing at so.... next picture!

Arrival!

Upon entering the Delhi Airport, we were given these necklaces of flowers and tilak was put on our forehead.  This is our hotel lobby and although we look peppy, we are all exhausted.  I would later be the only one to fall asleep at the dinner table...

Airport Bar

After the luxurious Delta Club wouldn't accommodate my friends and I... we were forced to drink beers and play poker with sugar packets.  No place for kids to learn, and yes we were forced to drink!
This picture is taken right before that water on the end of the table is spilled on me by our waitress..