Leaving on a Jet Plane...

After over 8 months of planning, the day had finally arrived. It was October and it was time for us to leave the U.S. and fly to Rome! The night before we were set to fly out from Reno, Mom and Pop took us to Reno. We had a nice diner at Outback steakhouse and then they took us to our hotel. 

We had an early shuttle to catch from the hotel to the airport. It was going to be a long day of flying. We were flying from Reno to Dallas, Dallas to Chicago and finally Chicago to Rome, Italy.

Our first few flights were on smaller planes. We were already tired from not sleeping the night before and being awake nice and early to catch our first flight.

I enjoyed my window seat while I could. I only had it for the short flights. The long one would be spent in the middle of the plane.

Here's a shot of our plane for the long ride out the window at our terminal.

A shot of me waiting to board the plane. By the way, I am super nervous here. I was a nervous wreck the whole week leading up to this trip. I was so afraid of getting on the plane and flying over all that ocean, all that land and then arriving in a foreign country. I was worried about crashing, bombings, terrorist attacks, getting mugged, getting lost, etc., you name it, I was afraid of it.

Dwayne on the other hand was super calm. He kept me reasonable and rational. He didn't let my fears stand in the way of one of life's greatest adventures.

Finally we had found our seats, were loaded up, buckled in and set for our trip overseas. I knew it was going to be a long flight. Our goal was to get as much sleep as possible before we landed since we were leaving Chicago in the evening and arriving in Rome in the morning the next day.

 The map showed us where we were and what part of the world was night what part was daytime. It was a strange feeling to watch the plane on the map slowly move across the world leaving behind the only country I had ever been in. It was strange to know that as we flew over the ocean, and as the plane moved across the map, our families and friends were asleep back at home.

 As we got closer to our destination, the map became more detailed. We could see the different cities and towns around Rome. I was starting to feel excited as I viewed our plane getting closer and closer to Rome. We were almost there and that meant we would be landing and I could stand up soon!



The screens would also show us the temperature, the speed of the plane, what our temperature was, how long until we arrived in Rome, what the local time in Rome was and what our altitude was. 

Somewhere over the ocean (or over the land) it became the next day, which was October 6, Dwayne's birthday! So, when they served breakfast the next day, we toasted to Dwayne's 29th birthday, our 5 year wedding anniversary and a wonderful long vacation together over two cups of hot coffee. We were super tired as I am sure you can see in our picture!

We had arrived in Italy! Our first adventure was finding our way through the airport to customs for a stamp on our passport. A stamp on my passport! I couldn't believe it, I had a passport and was going to get a stamp on it too! I was so giddy! We were so thankful for pictures! We just followed the pictures to find our way around when we couldn't read what the signs said.



After finding customs, then our baggage, it was time for our vacation to commence!

Welcome to Italy Dwayne and Tiffany Macie!

Happy Birthday Dwayne!

Dwayne's birthday is on October 6 but, this year, that day will be spent in Rome. So, to celebrate, we went bowling the weekend the before the big trip!


We celebrate Dwayne's 29th birthday in one of his favorite ways: Bowling!


I made his favorite cake and we ordered pizza. Friends and family came and bowled.


It was a nice afternoon. We all had a good time. Next year is the big 3-0!


Happy Birthday honey!

Playing Catch-Up

September in Review:


As many of you have gotten used to, our blogs tend to fall behind when we get busy. Or should I say, when school is back in session. I know many of you thought school was over for me since I just graduated from the nursing program but I was accepted into UNR's RN to BSN program and am continuing on for 3 more semesters to advance my degree. I have decided that once this program is completed, I am definitely taking a break from classes! After having been in school for 21 years, I think I can take a year off!

This blog will server to catch us up on the happenings of September. Above is a picture of an announcement from work. Our managers round on our patients each week. When a patient mentions you specifically by name they place it on the employee wall for all of us to see. It made me feel good to see my name on that list as a new-graduate when so often I feel like I am constantly making mistakes or second guessing myself.


On September 1st, Dwayne, Mom, Pop (John) and I all went to the Nugget Rib Cook off.

Both Mom and I had our cameras but didn't think to take any pictures at the cook-off. The two above pictures and the picture below are the only pictures we have to show from that day.

After the cook off we had gone to get some things for Mellie's birthday party. Michael's, the store we were in had their Halloween decorations out so we got some shots of Dwayne and Pop playing around.

A couple weekends later, we had a birthday party for Mellie. She turned 21 this year. Her party was a masquerade theme. Everyone had a special mask for the party. We had her favorites, lasagna and of course, funfetti cake. It was fun. Hard to believe my baby sister is now 21!

Dwayne and I had a date night in Reno and we stopped off in Target. We had fun looking through the Halloween costumes and Dwayne decided to try this costume on. We had already bought a costume similar to it for Halo for Halloween.

Here is Halo in his hot dog costume

He seemed to not mind it too much.

Isn't he cute? He loves dressing up for Halloween!

The following weekend, I went on a girl's trip to Applehill in California. Erin, Allison, Kari and I loaded up on a Saturday morning and took the scenic drive up to the mountains. We didn't take any other pictures the whole day with the exception of the one above. We had a really great time though and had some awesome food and brought back some great treats!

These super cute pumpkins are salt and pepper shakers that I got while we were at Applehill. I thought they would be a nice addition to my Fall/Halloween decorations.

And before we knew it, September was over and it was October!

Fallon Fights 2010

A good friend of ours and our personal trainer John, is an MMA fighter. Fallon for the second year hosted the Rural Rumble: Fallon Night of Fights and this year John was one of the pro MMA-fights. The rural rumble consists of MMA fights plus pro-boxing.

Those that supported him and the other fighters from the gym he trains at wore these t-shirts the day and night of the fight.

Above is John and another fighter from Battle Born MMA, where John trains walking around and getting a feel for the mat.

First up on the card were the female fights. They were a good fight to watch and we were pleased when the local Reno fighter won.

Up next for MMA was Jerrel.

He has great record and added to it on this particular night.

Jerrel won his fight.

Later in the night it was time for John to fight.

John getting pumped up

John's fight

And down they go

John ended up winning when his opponent tapped out. That night he took his pro-record to 2-0. Later in September, John fought another fight and won that one too. He is now 3-0. It's a well deserved record for someone who trains as hard as he dose.

John giving his winning speech.

Walking proud. Congrats John!

Spending Time in Reno

Well we bought the Beemer but the windows weren't tinted so the first order of business was to get them tinted.

We made an appointment with Trimline in Reno. We have gotten every vehicle of ours tinted there and have never been disappointed. The appointment was for 8AM so Mellie, who now lives in Reno, came and picked us up so we wouldn't have to spend our morning at the shop.


She picked us up and the three of us all went out for some breakfast. Afterwards we got to see her apartment. We got some Starbucks, hung out at the mall and then I filled her gas tank up before she took us back to our car.

In the mall we walked by a sunglasses kiosk and they had some really crazy sunglasses. We picked a fun pair to try on. Before long our car was ready and she took us back to the shop. It was nice to see her and just hang out. Thanks again for the rides Mellie!