Another update!

It is obvious that I have been pretty slack when it comes to updating my blog; I've have been ridiculously busy at work and have had zero motivation for anything else that involves a computer (including school work!). On the bright side I am switching to a part-time-ish position with C4 in June and I am thrilled about the prospect of having a little time to myself again! Here are a few high lights from the past few weeks:

Kim is expecting again! Our family is ecstatic about another sweet baby! We find out the gender the first week in June and she is Due November 1^st! Whoop Whoop!

Our youngest nephew graduated from Bible Play School this week. He was absolutely adorable during the program and did such a good job singing and dancing with his class! 

We were fortunate enough to host a whole slew of mothers at our house last past weekend for mother's day! We had a great time having both of our families over. We cooked (way too much) low country boil and the kids got to play together which was a lot of fun to watch. 

As a fundraiser for Relay For Life I was a waitress at Burke Perk on April 25th. All of the tips and proceeds from chicken wings sales went to the American Cancer Society. Here we are in our waitress-ing gear:

We went up to the Mexican restaurant for Cinco de Mayo which has turned into an unexpected tradition over the past couple of years. I'm beginning to think that we eat Mexican too often because all of the waitresses know our orders....

We discovered 5 baby rabbits living in our front yard last night! They are adorable! Drew wouldn't let me keep them... something about this being another bad idea like the ducks.... rude! 

January Catch Up

Well we are already half way through January and this is the first opportunity I have had to post a few things in a while. They say time flies when you are having fun... apparently time also flies when you are working all the time!

Here are a few highlights from the past couple of weeks:

Drew and I went to San Francisco in 2007; we went for a wedding but spent a few days touring the area and went to Napa Valley as well. One of the wineries we toured was Viansa Winery. We bought a few bottles of wine and had them shipped to us (one of which we have saved for the past 5 years). We finally decided that we would open it and try it out to see if it had actually improved with age. I had wrapped the bottle up several years ago so that we didn't accidentally open it (and it worked!). What didn't work however was the cork. Dang it! Half way through opening the bottle it broke off so we just went at it with a knife 'til we made a hole big enough to pour through.  I think the flavor got a little more 'smokey' with time in addition to the small shards of cork it wasn't half bad!

Viansa Winery in 2007

Zifandel bottled in 2005

My poor Annabelle had to have dental surgery last week. I was petrified.  Actually, I think petrified isn't a realistic description of exactly how scared I was for her. Fortunately everything turned out fine and my sweet little baby is feeling much better (less 12 teeth). She is however disappointed that her mouth is healing up and she isn't getting hot dogs for dinner anymore! 

Annabelle doing what she does best..

Leaving Dr. Ford's office.. Poor baby was still doped up. 

Drew and I decided to do something really low key for New Years versus years past. We actually didn't nail down any concrete plans until New Years Eve. We ended up heading over to two of our good friend's house (Gaines and Kathryn) and met up with a few other friends there. We enjoyed spending time with friends and we were actually back home and in the bed around 12:30! Win! 

Happy New Years! 

I had full intentions of getting a group shot at Christmas of my family and Drew's family, I even pulled my tripod out and got it set up. I decided before everyone got there to put the tripod and camera in the side bedroom so that it would not get knocked over in the madness. Well... I forgot all about it and never got a picture.:(  Drew and I did get a family photo earlier in the day:

Christmas Eve 2012

The shop is coming along nicely! I am optimistic that it will be completed in the next two weeks. I will add a separate blog post later this week with pictures and a full update. Drew is very excited about the progress on his "Man Shop".

Last week Blythe Elementary School called up to our office and asked if we had any volunteers that wanted to come and read for Book Day or Reading Day (something like that). Of course Lori and I jumped at the opportunity to go! I read a book called the Stray Dog to a group of 3rd graders. The book started out sad but ended happy! After finishing the story all the kids had to tell me stories about their pets including a few traumatic incidents... yikes! 

Reading is F-U-N

We nailed down final trip details for our Las Vegas getaway next month! We have the flights and hotel booked now and we are really excited to go! Drew's parents are accompanying us on this trip and we are really excited to get away with them on a real vacation (it is much overdue). We are staying a Caesars Palace again this time. Yippie! 

2009

Today is also Justin's 29th birthday! I can't believe he is only a year away from 30.. which means I'm getting a lot closer to 30 too. Eeek! ;) 

Happy Birthday! 

Falling behind...

These past 2 weeks have flown by and I am still not sure where all the time went! Its been almost 2 weeks since my last post (sorry!) so here are a few of the highlights from the past couple of weeks:

1.We have started the process of building Drew a 'man-shop' (which I assume is different from just a regular shop?). When it is finally complete Drew will have a place of his own and will get all of his 'treasures' out of the house and the garage! (I really am excited about this part!). The dimensions are roughly 32x50 and this is similar to how it will look when complete (different colors, add a cupola and extra window and swap the door positions).

So far the  foundation and floors have been poured and they are currently in the process of framing the walls.

2. My parents are out of town this week which has left me with FIVE dogs in my house; this wouldn't be so bad if one of those dogs wasn't a 10 week old terrorist puppy! I am currently sporting a scratch across my forehead and eyelid thanks to this little devil! Her name is Emma and she is an English Springier Spaniel, she is actually a lot of fun but she is just so wound-up all the time. The other dogs do their best to tolerate her but she tests her limits with them regularly! She is a real doll when she is asleep though (apparently this puppy only needs like a 5 minute power nap before she start destroying something again).

3. Drew and I babysat Parker this past Sunday evening and we had a lot fun! We fed the horses, played on the playground, rode the golf cart, watched Rio (sort-of), harassed Emma for an extended period of time and even found time to take a few Christmas-y pictures. 

Dinner followed by a bath and ice cream (sugar free!).  Bean's house is so much fun! 

He loved playing with Emma (or Minga as he pronounces it). he probably enjoyed being outside more than any other activity and he also found time to ride this bouncy-car that was his as a baby. As a baby he wanted nothing to do with this car (and he is about 10 pounds over the recommended weight limit now!).

He actually like the antlers (he refused to take them off for a while!).

He was so excited about this lollipop! 

My sweet boy! 

4. This past Saturday I met up with some of my girlfriends from Waynesboro and we has an ornament swap. It was a lot of fun, and I got to spend almost an hour holding Brigham which was a win for me! Next year I think we should make it an ornament and wine bottle swap! ...why not?! :)

 

Sweet Brigham sleeping in my arms. 

Emma and Brigham; future sweethearts! ;) 

5. Scentsy. Ansley recently hosted a  Scentsy party for one of her friends in Statesboro and since receiving my items I have become a big fan (If I am home I've got them tuned on). I currently have a warmer in the kitchen that has the festival of trees scent in it and it smells so Christmas-y! Drew and I have also been watching Christmas movies lately and it has helped get us into the spirit (along with the overwhelming Christmas decorations that have taken over my living room)! I have a smaller warmer in my bedroom that has a lavender scent in it that is pretty great too. 

Here is her page if anyone is interested: https://laurablair.scentsy.us/Scentsy/Home

6. C4's Christmas Party. We had our annual Christmas party last week at West Lake Country Club. The food was great and it didn't last too long which was great as well! It was probably the best food we've had at one of our Christmas Party (except for the year that the Little Dutch House in Wrens catered). 

We also got some pretty sweet gifts from good ol' Tony-Tone. My sister-in-law, Kim, sells Arbonne and arranged for all the ladies at the party to get an awesome gift-set. I am a huge fan of the body creme and bath wash (the scent is so clean and fresh!). It also came with a sugar scrub but I haven't had an opportunity to try that yet. Here is the website if you are interested in checking out any of their products: www.arbonne.com 

7. I have finished all of my Christmas shopping (well all of the necessities at least). I have wrapped everything and I am pretty much prepared for the Christmas eve get together at my house with mine and Drew's family. I'm particularly excited to see my 2 nephews play together! 

8. I finally enrolled in my last set of classes for next semester. I'll be sooooooo glad when this is over! Although I am considering going back for another business degree in project management. But I will definitely take some time off before I head down this road again.

9. I also got my home-office set up after 2 years of being in our house. Mom and I went shopping for a desk and ended up getting one from Office Depot. It was delivered in 5 different boxes and took me 2 days to assemble everything! I can't find a picture online if my exact desk set but here is the smaller version of the I got -- I will add a finished picture of the office later. I am incredibly excited about getting to work from home some of the time! Yippie!!!!

--I'm sure there are a few more highlights from the past 2 weeks but my brain is out of gas from a severe lack of sleep these past few days... thanks Emma!  

It looks a lot like Christmas!

The day after Thanksgiving is the messiest day of the year at my house. Everything that goes on my tree apparently has glitter on it. Needless to say we still have glitter everywhere even after mopping and vacuuming, but it just seems to make everything a little more festive. Drew and I put the tree up on Friday (well he helped me actually set up the tree but I ran him off when it came to time decorate - no objection from him though). Here are a few pictures of the tree and the mantle/fireplace decorations lit up. It is a very fun and festive tree -- Ho Ho Ho!

This sweet angel-baby wanted to get in on the fun as well! 

Weekend Highlights

I love 3 day weekends! I have attempted in the past  to convince C4 that we need to move to a 4 day work week but no one else seems to be on board - go figure! I especially love weekends where Drew and I get to hang around the house and do as we please!

I got a little bit of baking done; highlights: cheesecake, cookies and some breakfast scramblers that Drew and I like to take for breakfast.

I LOVE CHEESECAKE!

Oatmeal cookies - not my prettiest work, but they were pretty darn tasty.

2 yolks from 1 egg -- that has to be good luck!

Drew and I also did some outdoor activities that included carrying heavy items through the woods, getting into briars, putting up a new deer stand and riding around on the Ranger. 

Carrying heavy stuff, view from the new stand, riding ranger (no clue where that Huddle House cup came from, we definitely did not eat there! wink wink).

I also got a jump on Christmas decorating, hopefully this will be enough to hold me over 'til after Thanksgiving.

I love Christmas! 

Outage Week 1

The fall outage officially started back last weekend; poor Drew-baby is having to work 12 hour shifts everyday with the exception of Tuesdays. He leaves the house at 6am and has been getting home a little after 8. What is the worst part about the outage you ask (in my opinion of course)? I have to cook dinner every night and it is HORRIBLE. Since I have a lot of free time on my hands, especially on weekends while Drew is working, one would think that I would be doing something constructive and productive (like writing papers for school) but no, I'm just hanging out and doing semi-fun stuff! Here are some highlights from the past week or so:

I made Sweet and Sour Chicken (a recipe Kristin found on Pinterest). It was amazing but I made such a mess in the process! Here is the recipe for anyone interested: http://madeitateitlovedit.blogspot.com/2012/03/sweet-and-sour-chicken.html
I used Splenda instead of sugar and it still turned out great.

                                          Finished product!                  What a messy process though!

My fun-filled Friday night involved cleaning windows while I waited on Drew to get home. Drew snapped this lovely picture of my weird cleaning habits and my monochromatic outfit when he got home. We tried to watch a movie this night, but we both ended up falling asleep!

Drew sent flowers to work on on Tuesday for no special reason (or he may have been guilted into it; I got flowers and that is all matters!) ;) Tuesday night me and mama met Kim and Parker at the Mexican restaurant in Louisville but I forgot to take a picture. :(

Pretty!

I washed Drew's NASTY truck on Sunday. It took me almost 2 hours just to clean the outside! I did not even attempt to start on the inside. I'm convinced that was the first time it was washed since he bought it 2 years ago! Shameful!

I also baked Drew-baby cookies on Sunday. 

I have finished stocking up on deco-mesh for Christmas... Yes, I over did it.. go figure..

Last night I met Kristin and West for dinner at Burke Perk and got Drew something to-go so I did not have to cook anything! Win!