We Moved to Short Term Living

Last week we visited Pittsburgh's Edward Marc Chocolatier since our friends from our small group are the Chocolatiers! Its actually a milkshake factory as well so Tuff and I split an awesome chocolate chip cookie dough milkshake. What is really cool is that they have one of their stores in the Pentagon. Naturally we posed for a picture in front of the chocolates.

Below is the Chocolatier himself, Marc Edwards and his wife Meaghan.

The best part of our trip to the chocolate store was that Tuff tried a chocolate covered sweet pickle. He rated it a 4.5 out of 10.


The Edwards started hosting get togethers at their house every Friday the weather is good. They turn around their TV in their house window so we can watch it from the outside.



I volunteered to hand out water at the Pittsburgh Marathon May 2nd. It was a really fantastic experience to watch all the runners, especially the elite runners. Since the volcanic ash kept a lot of elite runners from participating in the Boston Marathon, many of them came to Pittsburgh's marathon to compete. Best of all we were located at the halfway point. Worst of all it rained the entire time.


Check out all those plastic cups! We had to rake them off the road as the thousands of participants ran by. There were 16,000 participants so we handed out a lot of water.



Today we made the move from our wonderful place on the waterfront to a fully furnished efficiency downtown. We are at the efficiency until the end of June, which is when we have a month off and we will travel to Minnesota and Montana. Then we will return to Pittsburgh by August 1st for Steelers training camp in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. So in the meantime all our stuff in is a storage unit.


Oh yeah, I also got my wisdom teeth removed last Monday. I'm extremely fortunate because the experience so far has been super easy. From the moment the dentist put the pliers on the first tooth, the procedure was over in less than two minutes! Unlike Tuff, I chose not to keep my teeth.

After the Draft

How is everyone? We miss you all. Spring is in high gear in Pittsburgh and the trees and flowers are blooming everywhere. The Steelers did not draft any safeties but they did pick up a few free agents post draft making a current total of seven safeties. By regular season they will drop this number down to four or five.


Tuff got a new helmet this year so we brought his old one to our small group study for 'show and tell'. In the picture below, Skylar is trying the helmet on.

On Tuesday evening we went to our first Pirates game. They hardly have anyone in the stands because they currently are not the hottest team in the league. We had a lot of fun though because we got to sit in a suite and watch the Penguins play in the playoffs on TV.


In the suite at the Pirates game they feed us a lot, including my favorite, dessert.


Tuff's good friend Casey is getting married! We are so excited for him. To celebrate the engagement I brought back an old photo of Casey and Tuff enjoying a scooter ride together.

Nothing else going on but I did just get a haircut with bangs!

As always I will keep you updated on the latest.

He is Risen!

This Easter was a blessing, as Easter always is. We had fun coloring eggs, attending great church services, and a little golf. Pittsburgh weather these last few weeks has been amazing, with temperatures consistently in the 70's and 80's.

Tuff's workouts are going good. Currently his work weeks consists of lifting and running Mondays through Fridays. April 19th is their first mini camp. Then shortly after that OTA's (organized team activities) start. During that time they work on football drills and build their skills.

Below are a few photos of fun dying Easter eggs. The girls painted them gold.


Tuff and the boys traditionally dyed the Easter eggs.



Tuff at work, spotting a teammate (photo from Steelers website)


Tuff after work


Tuff and some of his friends from work stopped golfing for a moment and posed by one of several tree carvings at Birdsfoot Golf Course, north of Pittsburgh.


Then I made the tree come alive!


Tuff is back to making big divots. Ok not really, but we could not resist the photo opportunity when we saw that chunk of earth laying there.


On one of his days off, Tuff joined a teammate to go fishing with some Steelers fans.


We joined a small group through our church and are hoping to get involved more as events and volunteer needs come up. Other than that we are going on almost a month trying to get Tuff's scooter started. We have tried everything including siphoning the gas.


Finally, how could I forget that its my Mom's birthday today! She is 60 years young. It is also Phillip's birthday (Tuff's sister Jeri Lyn's husband). Also, Derek and Mari Hasselberg (my brother and sister-in-law) had identical twin boys April 6th. Happy Birthday all of you.