Happy New Year!

Well Garet and I rang in the New Year last night... sick.
I have been trying to ward off this cold since last weekend... but it took over. Yesterday morning Garet woke up feeling it too. It was still nice, at least we were together :) We had a nice dinner, then came home and watched a movie. Oh, and I have a confession.... we actually celebrated the east coast new year. I just knew I wouldn't make it!

It is amazing how fast 2009 seemed to go! I was going to do a little review of the year, but I'm just not feeling it. Hope everyone had a great New Year's eve! I'm looking forward to what 2010 has to hold for us!

Wedding Shower...

While I was in Charlotte we had a wedding shower for my brother and Kailey. Well first off, on Saturday my mom and I went and got a mani/pedi. It was so much fun! The guy that did mine was hilarious! He picked out red - I usually keep my fingernails neutral, so it was a nice, festive, change :)

On Sunday afternoon, we all gathered at one of my mom's friends houses to have the shower. Here is Kailey with her mom (on the left) and her soon to be mother-in-law (my mom, on the right).
They got lots of nice stuff!! I can remember the showers and how great it was to receive such wonderful gifts (and gift cards!) While she was opening gifts everyone kept asking her how many bows she ripped... she had no idea what we were talking about! Has anyone else heard this - however many ribbons/bows you rip will determine how many children you will have.

It was a great time with the girls, although my brother did make an appearance. He stopped by at the end to help get the gifts in the car.

I am so excited for the wedding!! I know Kailey's counting down the days... I think it's at 18!!!

Christmas 2009...

We had such a great Christmas!! On Monday I met up with Garet in Raleigh. We spent the week with one of his sisters Karen, her daughter Kathryn, and her son Sam. Garet's mom also came down to visit (she left behind about 20 inches of snow!!) (in DC).

Garet and Sam

We met up with another one of Garet's sisters, Merideth, and her family. We went to dinner one night, and the next they came over and we played at the park.

On Christmas Eve we went to a nice service at church. Then we set out cookies, hot chocolate (they were out of milk), and a letter to Santa.

Garet and his mom

On Christmas Day after we got up and opened presents, we got to play! I got a tripod for my camera, so we decided to take some fun shots :)

That night we headed over to Merideth's house for dinner. It was a really nice Christmas!

Garet and Kathryn

The next day we packed up and headed to Charlotte. Suzi stayed with my parents while we were in Raleigh. We celebrated Christmas again with my family that night.

Garet and I have gotten in a routine where we alternate Thanksgiving and Christmas with each side of the family. This year Thanksgiving was my family, Christmas was his. BUT since my brother is joining the Marines and it is possibly the last Christmas all together for awhile we made an exception.

My uncle came over with us and we had dinner and opened gifts. I used my tripod to take a group shot!

We had such a great time! We got stuck in traffic yesterday traveling back, so it took about 2 hours longer to get home... we were so tired! At least this is a short week!!

An outtake and I'm gone...

YAY!!! Tomorrow I am headed to Charlotte!

My co-worker is picking me up in the morning for work, then she is driving me to the airport after work. I hear that there is supposed to be snow and sleet in Charlotte tomorrow night... my plane lands at 9:30! I pray that the weather doesn't interfere!

For our Christmas picture this year we used the one that is at the top of my blog. We probably took no less than 60 pictures! When we take our family pics I set up my camera on a delayed timer and then it takes like 6 in a row... we usually get some pretty funny ones! Here is one of the outtakes
Check out that tongue! She always gets Garet really good! :)

Don't know if I'll be blogging while I'm away... if not hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!!

Home Alone...

Yep, I'm home alone, Garet went out of town...
oh, and he took Suzi with him... He is driving to Charlotte. Dropping off the dog. Spending the night with my parents. Driving to Wilmington, N.C. Meeting up with his dad. Working on our rental house. Spending the weekend with his aunts and grandmother. Driving to Raleigh. Meeting up with me. And spending Christmas with his sisters. OH... and then driving back to Charlotte. Getting the dog. Hanging with my family. Driving back to Huntsville.

Sounds crazy when I actually type it all out :) It really is a good idea though! I am sure I've mentioned our first house on this blog. It's a cute little thing up near the coast of North Carolina. It has been rented by the same lady since we left (over 3 years ago!) It needs some TLC, so G and his dad are going to do manly projects to fix it up.

I am going to fly into Charlotte Friday. I get to spend some fun time with my parents, AND I get to attend a bridal shower for my brother and his fiance! I can't wait! I will meet back up with Garet in Raleigh on Monday. I'm sooo excited!

But in the meantime... I will try to keep myself busy so I'm not sad! It will be weird not having my man or my dog!

Tree...

We've had some pretty bad storms during the beginning of this week. Tuesday night there was a huge storm with some strong winds. So, Wednesday we see this in our backyard:
See that super tall skinny tree that fell?! The only thing holding it up is another super skinny tree! See:

They are supposed to be coming out to cut it down. It's scary that we didn't even hear it, but at least if it did come all the way down it wouldn't have hit our house (or the neighbors!) Hopefully they'll come cut it down tomorrow!

Getting ready for Christmas...

This past weekend, Garet and I started getting our decorations out for Christmas.

Friday night, the news kept saying that it would snow. I really just didn't believe them. But when I let Suzi out for the last time before bed, sure enough we had snow! By Saturday morning we woke up to this:
Not much, but it's snow :)

I ended up going to the gym at around 9 that morning, and by the time I got back it was pretty much all gone! So I'm glad I got at least a few pictures!

So, Garet got all the decorations down from the attic. We don't have too many yet, but we put up what we do have (sorry I didn't get pics of them). I mentioned before that we were debating on a tree... we decided not to get one. Sad, I know. But we really just won't have time to enjoy it. Everything else is out - our stockings, lights on the mantel, our surfing Santa, garland...

We also have this santa and dog thing that my mom got us from Hallmark about 4 years ago that sings. Everytime we play it Suzi starts crying! She hates it! Even if she just sees it, she gets all crazy about it. So this year we pulled it out, and sadly, the batteries are dying. I tried to get a video of Suzi with it... I have never uploaded a video on here, so hopefully it works. She already got the craziness out the first time we played it, but she is still standing guard while it's going

Say cheese...

One of Garet's sisters has twin girls, and their birthday was a few weeks ago. Garet tries to send cards or emails saying Happy Birthday to the nieces and nephews (we have 12!) So... he got some paper and wrote "Happy Birthday Grayson and Piper"... he gave one sheet of paper to me, one to Suzi, and he kept one. I set up the camera to take about 5 shots in a row (surely we would get at least ONE good one?!)

Here is what we got:

Some Charlotte friends...

The last couple days we were in Charlotte we got to meet up with a couple friends! It is so hard to try to catch up with everyone - especially now that people aren't living in the same area anymore! I did get to see one of my very best friends, Marsha!
Marsha and I have known each other since kindergarten! We have literally been through everything together :) Last year Marsha graduated from vet school, got married and moved to Texas to do an internship. Her hubby is a vet too - we had lunch with doctors! It was really nice to catch up with her! She was able to make the flight to Charlotte to see her family too.

Skip, Marsha, me and Garet

Of course Garet got his shot in!

We also got to meet up with one of Garet's friends, Justin and his wife Jessica. Garet met Justin in college - they were in the same fraternity. We actually got someone else to take our picture this time :)

Although it was sad leaving, it helps to know that we'll be back in two more weeks! It seems crazy that Christmas is almost here!

-- speaking of Christmas... I am debating putting up a tree this year... We will literally only have 2 weeks to enjoy it. Does that make me a scrooge??? haha Of course, I will put up all my other decorations. We'll see.