Road Trip to New England!

2800= the miles we put on the Chevy HHR on our New England trip
44= the hours it rained straight
10=the states we traveled through
8=the days we were gone
1 week= the amount of time we missed Hurricane Irene by and would have had to come home early!
endless= times we changed our plans, laughed, made memories, saw breathtaking views

So I took this road trip looking for who this Laura in Remission is. What I really came to understand was that as long as we are living, we are constantly changing. In our looks, our health, our personalities, our opinions, so much. We never stop learning because as long as we are living, we are experiencing Life and that is the greatest text book to learning and evolving... Simply Living Life, taking it all in, examing it and LEARNING from it. If you don't learn from it, you have just wasted that moment. So who is this Laura in Remission? She's the same Laura that has always been there, I now just have new experiences that are shaping me into the person I was always made to be. :)

So we started out on this trip knowing we were going to do it cheap and see what the Northeast coast had to offer us. We traveled through some of the most beautiful country in Upstate New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire-Traveled through Maine to see whales-Then along the beautiful east coast ocean of Massachusetts and Rhode Island- and finally down to Connecticut- we drove through New Jersey (I was so close to NYC I could almost see it!) and New York again before hitting Pennsylvania to finall make it back to our homeland, Ohio. This is only a thumbprint of the over 500 pictures I have! I have so many places and moments that were not caught on camera or still hidden in the computer, but here is a tiny glimpse of one great road trip that before cancer, I never thought I'd have the guts to take! :)

My adventure buddies Kayla and Katie departing from Ohio at 5:50 am.

Jammed packed for our eight day adventure in the HHR!
Carmin the Garmin- our fourth friend on the trip....this trip would have been a lot harder without her :)
Niagara Falls!

The first of our 3 camp sites (the other nights were spent in a motel because of rain and with a friend in Conn. for 2 nights)

The moment I fell in love with nature! Seeing this sight in New York, we had to pull over!

Adirondack in New York!

Taking a car ferry to Vermont from New York, my first time!

Heading down a dirt road...

One of the highlight of the trip! Finding this place called Warren Falls in Vermont! The water was the clearest (and coldest) water I have ever seen!

I jumped too, just not a crazy flip like those guys!!!

The first of our covered bridge hunt! We saw some beautiful covered bridges!

Unfortunately, we didn't see any moose :(

White Mountain in New Hampshire, our next camp site. It started raining at 9:00 that night and didn't stop for 44 hours straight!

The rain didn't stop us all the way though! We still ventured out!

We stopped at a few book stores during the trip, I loved it :)

Scallops! I also ate New England Clam Chowder too..YUMMO!

A little grayer than I thought New England would be ;)

The view I saw of Hew Hampshire and Maine for 2 days :( Didn't get to do some things we had planned, but oh well....there's always next time!

We made it to Bar Harbor, Maine!

Sometimes you have to go through the places less traveled...

...To see the real beauties!

This red rock was all over Maine and New England, I fell in love with it for some reason!

A lighthouse in Maine

Katie and I enjoying the break in the rain!

It's not alive anymore...but its something you DON"T see in Ohio!

Acadia Park in Maine

After 44 hours of rain, look at this sunset!

We were the only people from Lima at this Maine motel!

Yes! That is a whale's tail!

We saw a couple different whales but also saw a mother with a calf. So cool! And when we were on our way back, I saw TWO whales burst out of the water...was my camera ready? Of course not! But it was breathtaking!

The calf playing in the seaweed!

So on our way to catch a lobster, we pulled off the road after we saw a mother with her children running from this car. We helped them out by giving them a place to sit, some drinks, and my flip flops. Needless to say, we missed my lobster catching...

But its ok, we still stopped in Portland on our way to Massachussetts to eat lobster!

We saw a ton of eagle's nest in Rhode Island and Connecticut on telephone poles! This one was on the way out to Martha's Vineyard.

Just how I pictured Martha's Vineyard eating, sandwiches for lunch with the windows opened!

Just another beautiful picture!

Loving the sailboats!

This is the bridge they used when they filmed JAWS! People were still jumping off of it, so cool!

A picture for Andrew's wallet of me:) Just Kidding AJ!

The beaches in New England, just like I'd pictured... lots of blues and grays :)

And I was SO close! We didn't make it this trip, but that's ok because I have always wanted to see NYC in the winter. So...............Andrew and I are going to New York City in December!! I CAN NOT WAIT!!!!!!!!

So that was our New England trip in a very very small nutshell. :) With all of the beautiful places we saw that weren't even caught on camera, I still can't believe we did it all in 8 days. We changed our schedule so many times, but that's what a road trip is all about. We really enjoyed the non-city life so much after the first two days in the National Parks that we kept it that way for the rest of the trip...more beautiful sights, less city life. And am a country girl a heart :) Kayla did amazing driving since it was her company car and by the time we got to Crazy Connecticut and their driving, we were ready to head home. We saw a beautiful part of the country though, the ocean up north (however the Virgin Islands are still 1st in my book!), and a part of nature (the state parks) that I have never seen and would go back in a heartbeat to explore some more...I mean, we still have to see a moose and bears! I truly believe that there is a great God out there after seeing this part of the country, He has a great imagination and is such an artist!

This trip was good for me too. I needed a trip where we could pull off the side of the road whenever we wanted and change our plans whenever we wanted. That was my goal for this summer remember? To do more of the unscheduled things in life, because that's when some of the best memories happen....I completely agree with that statement now! I have some great memories because of the spur of the moment, jump out of the car when you see something, 'where are we staying tonight?' kinda trip we took. It was out of my comfort zone to not have every minute planned, but I learned that life can be fun in the unplanned moments...so a big cheers to the unplanned future ahead and the memories made because of it!

Road Trip Recap: Take 2....tomorrow :(

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! I'm going to scream!

So I just spent 2 hours downloading tons of pictures from my road trip to the blog, just to have all the pictures deleted! So I think I'm going to try again tomorrow night, but I can't promise anything because I'm going to start getting busy soon. I'm back to work on Friday, and I'm starting my MASTERS program through the University of Dayton tomorrow...that's right, I'm going back to school! More on that later though :)

Here is one to hold you over...just beautiful! I have so much to tell and TONS of pictures to show you!

Adoption Fundraiser Success!

Yes, the next Groman will be an Ohio State fan by popular vote :) I just couldn't resist this outfit and had to get it for Baby G!
This isn't even ALL of the donated items!! And the garage was FILLED!
The kids played on the boat we are selling after they helped serve Lemonade and Lunch to the customers.

What a success the adoption fundraiser was! I was really nervous about having the garage sale at my house because we have only lived in this neighborhood for two years and I haven't seen many garage sales compared to where I used to live in Country Club Hills. There, people would be lining up down the street at 7:30 in the morning! However, I should have known that the Lord would provide for this family, he has a good record :) He has certainly provided in the past year of my life in regards to my health, so why should I have doubted Him now, right?? Over $800.00 was raised from all of the donated items and ironically, that is just enough to make the very next payment to the adoption agency! God is good!

I am so blessed to have a sister in law that I love just as dearly as my own sisters and am possibly the most excited Groman (besides Tim and Beth of course) to hold this precious new baby boy or girl! My prayers are constantly with the birth mother as she carries my future niece or nephew and with Tim and Beth as they go through all the emotions as they wait for their first child. I was just looking through some of my cards that I received through the mail when I was going through treatments last year and so many of them talked about trusting God in the trials of Life...the adoption process can take on a lot of emotions and isn't guaranteed to be an easy process, but in Beth's words 'I believe that God's blessings often come through the storms in our lives. I'm confident in the future that He has for us.' Me too Bethy! I get teary eyed thinking about the future of this little one and how many people are praying for him or her already!

So thank you to all who donated either items for the garage sale, donated money, or just stopped out to show support. And thank you so much to our awesome neighbors who also had a garage sale to get more people out in our neighborhood! There were sooo many items donated from Ft.Wayne that they filled a whole truck AND trailer to bring to Lima and so many items donated from Lima that they filled the trailer back up and are having another garage sale in Ft.Wayne! Possibly the neatest moment was to see this little girl come out of a van and hand Beth a $5.00 and say 'I don't want to buy anything, I just saw the sign and thought I would give this to you.' What a little angel, and to meet so many people who have been on both sides of the adoption process and to hear their stories! And of course, my nephew who put a box of ants in the donation jar 'to hold Beth over until the baby gets here' :) My prayers are with Tim and Beth, and you too little one...we will welcome you with open arms!

I thought I'd share some pictures from the last few years of us Gromans, the first few is us at a good friends wedding, the other is us showing our OSU spirit, and the last is the first picture taken of all of us together in 2005.

I'll write in a couple weeks when I get back from my road trip traveling the east coast. Please pray for our safety as we travel (Kayla, Katie, and I), and that I use this time of new experiences to really develop this new Laura in Remission :) I am so excited for the opportunity to travel with friends! I can't wait to tell you our stories!!!!

Livin' life in Flippy-Floppys

I love wearing flippy floppys everyday:) I can't say that it's hard to believe that summer is wrapping up because its August already, because this happens every year...summer just goes too fast! I'm staying busy this summer for sure and trying to enjoy every second of sleep because I'll be waking up to an alarm clock before I know it!
The best news is that my foot is not broken anymore! I went to the doctor and the xrays show that the fracture has been 'rounded off'. Don't really understand what that all means, and don't really care because I'm out of the black boot! Its still a tad bruised on the top and is still sore at times...but that might also be due to me trying to water ski only a few days after :) I tried that's for sure and maybe one day when my foot is a little bit stronger I'll actually be good at it like Andrew...I swear, is there any sport he isn't good at?
I've been busy getting my classroom together these past few weeks because I still have some vacations yet this August. We just went camping with Andrew's brother and wife and it was a blast! Boating was great during these hot days, and camp food is just so good. The best was being out on the water at night where the water was like glass driving across the lake and the sky was filled with stars...absolutely beautiful and totally thanked God for that sight! Oh, I love being with family :) Speaking of...I am having a HUGE garage sale this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at my house and the proceeds are going to my brother and sister in law (Tim and Beth) to help raise money for their ADOPTION!! Yes, I am so happy to say that I could have a new niece or nephew in less than a year! Adoption is expensive though, so we are doing all we can to help raise money and Beth got a lot of donated items to sell at the garage sale here and in Ft.Wayne. So come on out and browse around, even if its just for a yummy grilled hotdog lunch (Andrew's grilling!). Things we are selling include tons of furniture and appliances, baby things, toys, clothes, 12ft. fishing boat, go kart, golf clubs, HD motorcycle, American Dolls, pond liner, household items, collectables, books, games, and so much more!!! The ad will be in the newspaper and here is our address...4950 New Haven Dr. Lima, OH 45806

Here are some pictures from the motorcycle ride we took with about ten other bikes...isn't that bridge just awesome! And a train went across it as we were riding! It was about a two hour ride full of beautiful back road scenery :)
And here is some pictures from the camping trip. Look how curly my hair got from how hot it was! I guess we do not need to be in suspense anymore wondering if my curly hair would return! I didn't get any pictures of the four of us because after 3 days of camping...you can only imagine how we looked...and smelled! :)Cooper-dog wore himself out from swimming so much, he LOVED the water so much that we could hardly keep him in the boat!Just some pictures from our campsite, I just thought nature was so beautiful this past weekend and just really appreciated what an artist God is , even this dead tree...I've said lately that I've been trying to figure out who I am after cancer. I feel like this chapter in my life should be called Life in Remission: Figuring out the new Laura. I feel like I've been given another chance at life and to find out as much as possible in this short time on earth is something I'm craving at the moment. I'm trying to figure out who I am again, what I hold important to me, and learning how to remain balanced everyday in this chaotic world. So an opportunity arose and I jumped on board without looking back. I've decided to do a little soul searching next week....and I'm starting in New England. :)