What a fun weekend (minus the catfight...)!

I feel like we've been celebrating ever since Thursday. So much family time, food, and gift exchanging....it was great! The nice thing about our anniversary being on the 22nd of December is that it turns the holidays into back-to-back days of fun. And, this year, since we celebrated with Travis's family yesterday (the 26th), it turned into pretty much 5 days of anniversary/family time/Christmas.

Our anniversary was really nice. 4 years...wow! We ate lunch at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in downtown Huntsville, and it was awesome. I got crab cakes, and Travis ordered a steak (of course!). We were stuffed by the end of the meal after an appetizer, salad, and our main meal. No room for dessert :) We headed to the Rave after lunch to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie. It was just as funny as the first one. I love those movies!

After the movie, we hurried home to get packed up to head to Trussville for a few days. The plan was that we would take Gabby and Felix with us, so we got all of the rest of our stuff packed up first. It's always an adventure trying to round up those kittens into their carrier, but this time was by far the worst. Gabby is easy; she would probably let me just pick her up and carry her to the car, but not Mr. Felix. Felix was sitting in the kitchen chair letting Travis pet him and purring like a sweet kitty. I had the carrier ready, and Travis was just going to pick him up really fast and put him in the carrier. Well, just as Travis got his hands around him, Felix dug his claws into the chair cushion. After a few seconds of tugging, Felix finally let go, but then he started really freaking out. Travis eventually got him into the carrier, but only after Felix bit Travis's hand really bad and scratched up his hands and arms. I quickly closed the carrier door, and by that time there was blood all over the floor, all over Travis's jeans, and all in the sink. So, it took a few minutes to clean Travis up, and just about the time we were finished, I turned around just in time to see Felix scurrying across the kitchen floor into the living room. I obviously didn't latch the carrier shut very well! So, we ended up with me being mad at Felix, me being mad at myself, Travis being mad at Felix, and Travis being mad at me. The only was who wasn't mad or in trouble was Princess Gabby. We both knew that Felix wouldn't let us anywhere near him for the rest of the night, so it ended up being a lost cause. We had to leave the kitties at home, and luckily Cheryl and Melissa came over and checked on them and fed them while we were gone.

According to something I read on the internet, up to 80% of cat bites get infected, and the worst place to get bitten is your hands, so Friday afternoon Travis and I headed up to a doc-in-a-box to get some antibiotics and steroids. His hand looks somewhat better, but I'm afraid he may have to go back to the doctor sometime soon if it keeps looking so red and puffy.

Friday was pretty much a lazy day in Trussville. We helped Mom put some casseroles together, did some cleaning, and got ready for two days of Christmas lunch at the house. Saturday, the Palmers came over for a late lunch, and then we opened a few presents and took some pictures before going to see Granny at her house. Then, Sunday after church, Gran, Aunt Patty, Christy, and Audrey came over for lunch and we opened presents with them before going to visit Dadaw at Greenbriar. We headed back home after church Sunday night, stopping at Baugay's for a few minutes on the way to give her a Christmas present and spend a little while with her. Then, yesterday, Cheryl, Tyler, Alisha, Josh, Emily, and Melissa all came over to our house for a slightly belated Christmas celebration. We opened presents first, then ate lunch, played Settlers of Catan, ate pizza for supper, and then played Balderdash. It was a fun day...and a fun weekend in general! I was spoiled with entirely way too many presents, as usual, but it was really nice to spend time with our families. I know this year I am valuing family time more than ever.

Here are some pictures from our fun weekend:

Christmas Eve lunch

Mom with her new Alabama hoodie

Travis got me some more fine china for my collection!

Family pic :)

We decided to take pictures with Mom's do-rags!

Even Dad and Travis cooperated :)

Posing in front of the "pink" tree

Granny got pretty excited about her gifts!

I just love this picture of Mom...

Callie loves Christmas too!

Pictures with Gran on Christmas Day

Gabby wanted her picture taken too :)

She says "Merry Christmas!"

Alisha and Tyler

Alisha and Tyler fooled us pretty good with that box on the left! :)

Emily and Josh

Alisha looking at the photo book I gave her

Cheryl got some good smelly stuff! :)

Look what a mess we made!

 

 

Snuggle time :)

Travis doesn't have to go back to work until next Tuesday (hooray!), so he's going to try to get his study organized during his time off. We've also ordered blinds for most of the windows in the house, so I'd like to hang some of those too if we have time. It seems like the week between Christmas and New Years is always so busy, so we'll see how much we get done. We've already got plans for every night this week (including tonight) until Saturday. I'm working tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday, so Travis will have to hold down the fort around here while I'm gone I guess.

Hope you had a very merry Christmas like we did! Now if we could just hit the fast forward button and skip to about April or so. January through March are definitely my least favorite months. Oh well! :) At least, we have a garage to park in this year...no more scraping ice off the windshield at 5 AM!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gotta look on the bright side, right?

Pausing to think...

Next week is our anniversary on the 22nd and then Christmas 3 days later! We've been married (not quite) 4 years. Seems like a lot has changed since 12/22/07! We've graduated from college, started working full-time (er...sort of), moved a bunch of times, more than quadrupled our living space (now, that's crazy!) from our tiny apartment in Presidential, bought a car, and adopted two crazy kittens! I was texting one of our friends from Tuscaloosa the other night who we haven't seen in forever, and it really made me miss all of our friends from college. It's sad that we've all moved away, gotten busy, and don't see each other much anymore...except at weddings it seems like! I really do like living up here for the most part, but I just wish we could transplant all of our friends into our neighborhood! I'm determined to plan a reunion for sometime next spring or summer either here at our house or at the lake house, and I'm going to plan it far enough in advance that I better see everyone there!! :)

Back to our anniversary...I think the plan is that we're going to go out to eat at Ruth's Chris either for lunch or dinner (not sure yet) before heading to Trussville for a few days for Christmas! Neither of us have eaten at Ruth's Chris before, but we've got a gift card expiring on 12/30 so it seemed like the perfect time to go. Hope it's good!

I think we're pretty much finished with our Christmas shopping and just about everything is wrapped and under the tree. Hooray! We even mailed out our Christmas cards yesterday! I don't know how we got so far ahead this year, but I'm going to attribute it to our online shopping. We bought almost everything in one sitting on a Monday evening...very nice!

I've worked 4 out of the last 6 days, which is a lot for me, so I'm enjoying a day off today. Doing laundry, dishes, putting clean sheets on the bed....pretty typical for a Wednesday. I'm going to go run this afternoon in the neighborhood...it's supposed to get up to 70 degrees today! Have I mentioned before that I'm teaching the K-1 class at church? It's been going pretty well so far. I just have 3 kids in the class, so I can handle that (most of the time!). I'm almost through with my first teaching session, and I'm starting another one next Wednesday.

Felix and Gabby are as adventurous as ever. Here are some kitty pictures from the last week...

I think Gabby was taking a break from giving Felix a bath! Doesn't he look so excited? :)

Gabby loves the bathtub window!

She also loves to sit on that ledge!

Felix usually follows behind, of course...

Mom had her 7th chemo treatment on Monday. Only 1 more to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After her last treatment, she'll have a 3 week break (most likely) before starting radiation. Hopefully she'll be done with everything by early March! I'm heading down there tomorrow morning and staying probably until Friday night. Thanks for your prayers and thoughts for her so far! Keep 'em coming! We'll have to plan a big celebration in March when she's all through.

This holiday season I'm trying to do a better job of not getting so caught up in all of the craziness and instead, being thankful for great family and friends and a whole lot of other things. Hope you're having a wonderful week and counting your blessings too!

"God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say 'thank you'?" ~ William Ward


Erin

Christmas is forever...

In case you were wondering, I didn't completely forget what to do at work when I went back last week. 2 weeks is a long time to be gone, but luckily the rust came off pretty quickly once I got back into the swing of things. This week, I'm working 8 hours Thursday and 12 hours Friday, and that's it. Shouldn't be too bad! And, Travis actually has a 5 day work week this week. With so many holidays in the fall and our bed and breakfast trip, he's mostly had 4 day weeks since probably early October. It's been nice! He'll be taking off from our anniversary to January 2nd as well, so he's really looking forward to that.

We're almost through with our Christmas shopping already, which is probably a record! Usually, I'm always buying everything the week before Christmas. We've got to return one thing and get a few more things, and then we'll be finished I think. Everything we've bought is even wrapped and under the tree already. The kitties (and I) are loving it.

Did I mention last time how much they love the Christmas tree? I'm sure I did. They especially love the ornaments and bows on the presents. The first few days the tree was up, we kept finding ornaments on the floor that had been pulled down. Now, they've moved on to bows. If your present is missing its bow this year, you can thank Felix and Gabby. The bows aren't even sticky anymore they've been pulled off so many times! I may just have to tape them down. We like to leave the tree lights on all the time when we're home except when we're asleep, so we always turn them off when we're going to bed or about to leave the house. Well, yesterday morning we were getting ready for church, and I came out into the living room to find the tree lights on. I thought that was strange...Why would we turn the lights on when we're about to leave? So, I asked Travis why he'd turned the lights on. He looked at me funny and told me he didn't turn them on. Well, I know I didn't turn them on, and they were off a few minutes earlier that morning. Apparently, the kitties must have turned them on! The lights are plugged into a surge protector, and I guess they flipped the switch! If it happens again, we'll know they're doing it on purpose...what funny kitties!

Here are some pictures of our Christmas decorations so far...

Kitty stockings! Aren't they cute???

Our stockings from Target! (I haven't taken the tags off of anything on the mantle yet)

The mantle is tree and reindeer themed, I guess :)

I think I'm going to take the red tree back b/c it's a little too tall, but I really like everything else!

Is he cute or what?

Closeup

They LOVE that tree!

We still need to hang our wreath on the front door, and after that I think we'll be finished decorating for this year. We're going to wait and get outdoor decorations next year (can't spend all our money on this stuff!).

I need to give a fantasy football update since I haven't done that in a while. The season started off horribly, but I've made a miraculous comeback! 6 wins in a row! I'll finish the season with a winning record barely (7-6), and I think I'm actually going to make it into the playoffs. Never thought that would happen!!

Speaking of football, ROLL TIDE!!! We're going to the national championship again!! After Oklahoma State's big win Saturday night, I thought our chances were over, but I'm glad we're getting one more shot at LSU this season. Hopefully this game will end better than last time! I just checked Stubhub, and prices have come down a little bit. We could buy 2 tickets for a whopping $1375 a piece! No thanks! After buying a house and a car this year, we definitely don't need to be spending money like that. Anyone know of any cheaper tickets out there? We may end up just driving down there to see if we can find some, but we still haven't decided yet.

I've changed my blog layout quite a bit, and I'm not sure what I think about it yet. I'm missing the side columns that I used to have, and I kinda want those back. If you don't mind, give me your feedback on whether you like it better this way or not!

I think that's all for today, so I'll leave you with this thought...

Christmas is forever, not for just one day,
for loving, sharing, giving are not to put away
like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.
The good you do for others is good you do yourself...
~Norman Wesley Brooks, "Let Every Day Be Christmas," 1976

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I haven't had to work in 2 weeks. Just call me a bum. It's been a nice break...like Christmas break a little early! I've done some cleaning, organizing, Christmas decorating, Thanksgiving cooking, and I spent a few days at home with my parents and sister last week. It's been great!

Mom had her 6th chemo treatment last Monday, and Jenn and I went with her. So far, she's done pretty good except for some aches and pains that I think must be pretty common with Taxotere. She ran fever for a couple of days, but knock on wood, she's stayed out of the hospital so far. Two more chemo treatments and then radiation, and she'll be finished!! Yay Mom!!! She's decorated a beautiful "pink" tree that's in the dining room. I wish I had her decorating talent!!

Mom's tree

We had a great Thanksgiving with the Dvorak family. Of course, the food was awesome, and we had fun playing Settlers of Catan and also ultimate frisbee since the weather was so nice outside. I'm thankful to have married into such a wonderful family!

We hurried home after our day of fun, fed the kitties (who were very sad that they didn't get any leftover turkey!), and mapped out our game plan for Black Friday. Our main goal was to buy a nice Christmas tree that fits our living room better. We headed to Kohl's around 11 PM since they were opening at midnight, but by the time we got to the back of the store, the trees were all gone. Sad day. They also had some counter height bar stools we were wanting to get for our kitchen, but we could only find one and we were wanting to get two to match. We bought a couple of Christmas presents there to make it worth our while, and then we headed out. Our next stop was Belk, where Travis dropped me off around 1 AM to wait until they opened the doors at 3 AM. Travis headed to K-Mart (which didn't open until 5 AM). We figured that it would be better to split up than both wait at Belk and potentially strike out again and then be too late getting to K-Mart. Anyway, after waiting 2 hours outside in the cold, I was definitely ready to get inside. People in line were getting pretty vicious too trying to keep people from breaking in line, so that was kind of entertaining. It made the time pass by faster at least. I got a $10 gift card for being one of the first 250 people in line, and luckily they had plenty of trees!

Travis left K-Mart and met me back at Belk, and then we headed to JC Penney and Lowe's before crashing at home around 5:30 AM. We are definitely getting too old to be doing that! I'm still recovering...

We ended up getting a 7 foot pre-lit tree with clear lights, and it fits great in our living room. We've gotten it mostly decorated, but it still needs a big bow on top and maybe a few more ornaments. It's getting there though!

The tree!

Shhh...don't tell anyone, but Jenn helped me make some houndstooth decorated ornaments for Mom's "Alabama" themed tree (she's got 3 trees this year!). Jenn's still got some Bama in her! Did you know you can buy houndstooth duct tape??? I had no idea!! Anyway, I brought one of the ornaments back for our tree...

Script "A" on one side...

Houndstooth ribbon on the other side!

The kitties LOVE the Christmas tree...maybe a little too much. No matter how many times we straighten the tree skirt, it never stays in place because they are constantly attacking it. Same for the tree itself. We've found several ornaments on the floor so far (thankfully not broken!), and they also like to chew on the branches themselves. So far, they haven't tried to climb the tree yet (that we know of), but I'm thinking it will be a miracle if it stays upright for the next month. We'll see...

Gabby loved the box as much as the tree itself

She also likes Black Friday sales :)

The prettiest package under the tree!

Just think how our presents will look after the kitties rip them to shreds!

Needless to say, this Christmas will be interesting with two little rascals living with us.

I can't ever remember it snowing in November, but it's supposed to snow 1-2 inches tonight and tomorrow morning. Don't know if I'm ready for winter weather driving yet!! That was one nice thing about living in Bham and Tuscaloosa...not as much snow and ice.

We watched the Iron Bowl over at the Hagewoods' house this year, and we had a great time! Bama looked better (except for 2 plays) than they looked the past few weeks, so we were glad to see that. It's apparently about 95% positive that we'll be playing the national championship game in New Orleans again! We'll find out for sure on Sunday I think. It's a shame that Travis and I weren't on the 7 year plan to graduate....then we could have gotten "cheap" tickets again like we did 2 years ago! As of last night, the cheapest tickets on Stubhub were $1700 a piece! Ouch. Santa, all I want for Christmas is to go to that game!!!!!

Shocker....I'm working tomorrow and Friday this week...if I can remember what to do! :) I'm hoping to get most of our Christmas shopping done this week (mainly online), so we can start getting some presents under the tree. Whenever I buy our stockings, I'll have to get those hung too. It's so much fun to decorate for Christmas!

Hope you're having a great holiday season so far!! :)


Erin

Random Friday tidbits

This has been a pretty relaxing week! The only day I had to work was Tuesday, so the other days I've been home, running errands, and getting stuff done. Monday, I did pretty good at Publix! Spent about $68 and saved $74 :) Wednesday, Mollie came to town to do some Christmas shopping, so I ate lunch with her at The Marketplace Cafe, a really neat restaurant that one of our friends from Tuscaloosa opened a few months ago. The food was really good! If you go, you should definitely get the chicken and bacon sandwich...yum! The salad I got was awesome too...it had apples, cranberries, and pecans in it. I can't wait to go back! I also got my hair cut on Wednesday...pretty short! It's just touching my shoulders, so a little shorter than I got it cut last time.

I'm getting pretty serious about getting blinds and curtains up on all of our windows, so yesterday I went to JC Penney and got curtains and a rod for our big kitchen window and some curtain rods for the valences I bought on Monday for our bathroom windows. Yipee! Can't wait to get those hung. We hung blinds on our little bathroom window last week, and they look really nice! We ordered them online, so I was a little bit nervous about that, but they turned out great!

Today has been cleaning day around here. The kitchen and bathrooms look much better! I didn't get around to dusting, but maybe I'll do that tomorrow. Travis has been working all week on DAU training for work. It's due tonight (he thinks), and he's not quite finished with it. It was a lot of reading and quizzes, so I know he'll be glad to get that behind him.

I've still been running about 3 times a week since the Liz Hurley race in October. Today, I ran 3.5 miles without stopping in 31:30! That's exactly 9 min/mile. So, I'm slowly getting in better shape. That's a good thing!

Felix and Gabby are getting pretty spoiled (by me!). Tonight, I was shredding some chicken to put in my chicken pot pie, and they came to sit at my feet (like they usually do when I'm chopping anything in the kitchen!). So, I put the cutting board with a few little chicken pieces down on the floor, and they licked it clean!! They have been napping a lot lately during the day and waking us up early in the morning! They usually start wrestling and chasing each other by about 6:30 AM, even on days we don't have to be up that early! Oh well. I guess it's good practice for having kids one day.

Taking their mid-day siesta

Gabby snoozing earlier today

Felix usually naps with one eye open...he's still kinda nervous!

Licking my cutting board clean :)

I'm getting excited about Thanksgiving! We're spending it up here this year since we were with my family last year. It would be a very sad day to miss Mom's pineapple casserole and sweet potato casserole, so that's what I'm making this year to take to Cheryl's. I hope they turn out as good as when Mom makes them! We'll see. I'm also making a cake from Mom's cookbook called the "Green Cake". It's yummy too!

I haven't started any Christmas shopping yet (pretty typical), so I'm thinking we'll go out with the crazies for a little Black Friday fun. The main thing I want to buy isn't a present....it's a new Christmas tree! The past few years we've used a small tree that my parents didn't want anymore, but it's pretty pitiful looking...you can see right through it. So, I'm on the hunt for a good deal on a nice tree. We also need some stockings because we actually have a fireplace to hang them on this year! Of course, Gabby and Felix will need stockings too. They're expecting some new treats and toys from Santa I believe. We also need some outdoor Christmas decorations. I guess Black Friday may turn into Christmas decoration shopping day. I'm sure Travis will love that! :)

Mom has chemo treatment #6 on Monday, so I'm probably going to go down either Sunday night or Monday morning to go with her. I don't work Monday or Tuesday, so I'll come back up here Tuesday night. Hopefully Mom will stay out of the hospital with this treatment like she did this last time around. She's putting up a "pink" Christmas tree this year in honor of her breast cancer fight, so I can't wait to see it!

Hope you're having a fantastic Friday!

New year...new things to talk about!

It's been a while!!

Things are just now starting to get back to normal after the holidays. Travis is back at work this week, and I'm working my normal Monday, Tuesday, Friday schedule. It's actually kinda nice to get back into the routine!

The past two weeks were fun but pretty hectic. We enjoyed our time in Trussville with my family for Christmas (although it didn't last nearly as long as it did when we actually had "Christmas break!). Christmas Eve, after we ate with the Cushing clan at Granny's and opened presents, we grabbed our stuff and drove back up here to Baugay's. It's a good thing we didn't wait until the next day to leave because when we woke up Christmas morning, this is what we saw...

The view outside of our apartment

 
I knew they had been talking about the possibility of snow on the weather forecast, but I didn't actually think it would happen! It really was a white Christmas!!! We must have gotten 4 inches at least....and it was so pretty :) I think that's the most snow I've seen in Alabama since the "blizzard of '93. 


So, Travis and I got ready and went out to head over to Cheryl's for Christmas at their house. First, we had to uncover one of our cars though!!

The snow even covered the driveway and roads!

He's such a good husband :)

While Travis was uncovering his car, I took the opportunity to take a few more pictures...

Baugay's house looked like a Christmas card picture!

The view looking down the street

So, we set out on our journey...not wanting to be late. Luckily, Highway 72 was pretty clear of snow (from all the cars that had already driven on it). The worst driving was on the less traveled roads. This next picture makes it look like we were driving in a snowstorm!

Snow everywhere!

 I wanted to make a detour before our Christmas celebration though. So, we headed over to our house (that sounds weird to say!), so that I could take a picture of it covered in snow :)

Beautiful! :)

We finally made it to Cheryl's house in time to open presents and eat an awesome lunch together. 

The Grant girls before lunch

 After lunch, we all headed outside to make a snowman and have a snowball fight. It was a lot of fun! Sir Melts-a-lot turned out pretty cute too :)

The building process

Almost finished!

Sir Melts-a-lot!

Us with our masterpiece :)

No pictures from the actual snowball fight (I was too busy throwing them and getting hit!), but here's an "after" picture:

After the snowball fight

 The highlight of the day, however, was not the snow, the food, or the presents because....ALISHA GOT ENGAGED!! I was so surprised and excited...I think I probably scared Tyler because I was squealing so much. Her ring is so pretty, and I'm just so happy for them! They are planning to get married sometime in late July/early August.

Right after they told us

The ring!

I'm sure I'll be talking about wedding planning a lot on this blog, so just get ready!

Then, on Sunday (the 26th) for lunch, Travis and I finally got to celebrate our anniversary..haha. We went out to eat at P.F. Chang's, and it was really good. Trav had never eaten there, and I hadn't been in a long time, so it was fun. 

It was still snowing on Sunday!

Last week was a crazy, busy one. I'll break it down for you:

Monday: Work 
Tuesday: Work, then Grant cousins Christmas party
Wednesday: Wedding venue/dress shopping with Cheryl and Alisha all day, then I taught the K-1 Bible class at church that night
Thursday: Work, then fondue night at Cheryl's
Friday: Work, then furniture shopping all afternoon, then we went out to eat with Matt and Maggie, went to see their new house (which is so nice!!), and then played games and spent the night at Matt's house
Saturday: Watched Bama embarrass Michigan State in the Capital One Bowl with Matt, Tyler, Alisha, and Emily. Then we met Darlene at our house to measure the living room and breakfast room so we could get an idea of what furniture would fit. After that, Tyler and Alisha came back over and we ate pizza and played Settlers of Catan. 
Sunday: Church x 2, went to a reception in Woodville for Jeremy (he's leaving for Afghanistan sometime soon), and then had a birthday party that night after church to go to.


 WHEW!!! Makes me tired just to type all that. Needless to say, I was pretty tired and irritable by the end of the week. Even though we got to do a lot of fun stuff, those weeks where I don't get any kind of a break just wear me out. So, that's why I'm kinda glad to be back to our normal schedule. 


As far as the house goes, we're still supposed to close next Thursday (the 13th). The radon mitigation system was installed last week, so we were able to take a look at the pipe when we went to the house Saturday afternoon. The pipe is in the master BR closet. It's pretty big and ugly, but I guess it's better than breathing radon, right? You can't see it unless you go in the closet and turn around because it's in the front left corner, so at least that's good. We've got our homeowner's insurance decided on. The termite inspection went well. The appraisal's finished. Now, we're waiting on the radon re-test (to make sure the system is working), and then the sellers are supposed to get a handyman out to fix a few minor things. I can't believe we'll be homeowners in a week!! Scary and exciting!!


Well, I think I've talked your ears off enough. Hope you've had a happy holiday season and a great new year so far!! :)