Showing posts with label anniversary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label anniversary. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

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?

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

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





Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Lots to do...lots to say

It's been a busy but good week so far! We enjoyed watching the Bama game on Saturday with Matt, Maggie and Collier. It was the first time we'd been to Matt and Maggie's since they got married, and their house is so cute! Maggie made some really yummy snacks, and of course the game was exciting! I was a little worried after the team didn't play good for the first few minutes, but the rest of the game they looked great. Roll tide! Next up is North Texas...should be an easy one, hopefully :)

Felix and Gabby are really settling in well at our house. I took them to the vet this morning for their booster shots and to get their nails trimmed. It was a quick visit...only took about 10 minutes! They did good on the car ride there and back and while we were there too. They've both gained weight, which is great! They were so bony when we first got them. Felix now outweighs Gabby! He weighs 3.8 lbs, and she weighs 3.6 lbs, so they've both gained over a pound since we got them. They love to climb and explore everything. Gabby likes to jump in our laps while we're eating at the kitchen table. She also likes to climb on us while we sleep! The past few nights I've woken up and she's lying right beside me or climbing on me...haha. Felix is still a little skittish...he doesn't like to be petted very much or held, but he's definitely not as scared as he was a few weeks ago. Here are some pictures of their latest shenanigans...

Gabby likes to sit up in the window seat in the study

She also likes to sit on her daddy!

Gabby says "Roll Tide!!"

She tried to catch the cursor on the computer screen as it moved! It was a lost cause :(

Travis thought it would be funny to see her reaction to other animals on the computer...

She couldn't stop staring!

They don't look so mean...

...but he does!

It was quite hilarious!

:)

Speaking of computers, I think some kitty's been typing on my laptop....

Wrestling match!

If you want to get a glimpse of how much energy they have, watch this video! It's pretty funny :)

Friday night we hung some curtains in our living room. I got them on clearance at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, so they were pretty cheap. They look pretty good! We've also ordered blinds for the small window in our bathroom, so we'll put those up once they get here. Then, we'll decide about putting blinds on the other windows in the house or not. Lots of decisions!

They were a pain to hang, but it was worth it!

So nice to have some privacy in our living room at night...

Sunday was the 10th anniversary of 9/11. It's crazy that it's been 10 years already. I was in 9th grade when it happened, and I was sitting in Mrs. Brown's English class when we found out. Someone came in from the office to tell Mrs. Brown, and when we turned the TV on, we actually saw the second plane hit and then a little while later one of the towers fall on live TV. When I got to biology class later that day, we weren't allowed to watch the coverage or talk about it because our teacher had family in NYC. That was pretty much all we watched and talked about the rest of the day in school though. That afternoon, we had a cross country meet after school (I think it was just a 2 miler), and I remember thinking how strange it felt to be running a race like normal when something so crazy had happened earlier that day. Travis and I recorded a 3 hour special on NBC of the 9/11 coverage, so we watched it Sunday night after church. It was hard not to get emotional watching the families find the plaques with their loved one's names and putting American flags or roses on them. Some day I'd like to go see the memorial firsthand.

We had a short gospel meeting at church that lasted from Sunday to Tuesday this week. Lee Wildman spoke, and the topic was on families. It was a really good series, and it gave us some things to think about and work on.

Mom is feeling about back to normal after her 2nd chemo treatment last week. It sounds like this time around hasn't been quite as bad as last time, so maybe it will get better every time! She's heading to the beach today with some of her girlfriends from church, so I'm sure they'll have a great time. Next treatment is Monday at 10 AM! Please keep praying for her to feel good and get better!

Hope you're having a great week!

Erin




Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Milestones

Today is a special day.

5 years ago today, Travis and I went on our very first date. He picked me up at Riverside, the dorm I was living in, and took me to Depalmas, an Italian restaurant in downtown Tuscaloosa. I remember being pretty nervous beforehand, but he was easy to talk to, so we had a great time. (And the food was awesome!). After supper, we went back to his apartment at good ol' Preston Place to watch a movie. Now don't ask me what movie because I can't remember....I think I was still too nervous to pay attention! I guess he thought I was a keeper (and vice versa!) because the dates continued until here we are...been married for over 3 years!

Just for fun, I thought I'd post some pictures from way back when :)


This picture was taken in June '06 after my first visit to Huntsville!


Summer 2006 (after eating at Cypress Inn)


Eating lunch at the lake house (summer 2006)


4th of July weekend (2006)

We've come a long way since that first date! Can't say I would have thought 5 years later we would be married, living in Huntsville, and about to move into our first house...

Speaking of our house...

This is a special week.

It's moving week!!!!

Are we packed? Nope. Have we started? Barely. 

That's ok. It'll get done somehow. As of today, the weather is supposed to be pretty good on Saturday. Partly cloudy, 82, 20% chance of rain. I'm sure it will change about 5 more times before Saturday gets here though :)

Last weekend, we got the shelving mostly done in our bedroom closet. Here are the pictures to prove it:

It may not look like much, but this was a lot of work!

Travis's fancy tie and belt rack :)

It slides out!
 We've still got to pop the bottom row of shelving in on the long wall (my wall), but we're waiting to do that until we take our clothes over and figure out how much room they take up.

I think this would be a good time to tell everyone how awesome Baugay has been for letting us live with her off and on for the past 3 years. She's certainly kept us well-fed in popcorn, dessert, and stories of her childhood and raising a family! :) Baugay has been the best landlord/grandmother we could have asked for, and I've really enjoyed getting to know her and spend time with her while we've lived here. Now it will be our turn to have her over once we get settled in our house! Thanks for everything you've done for us, Baugay!! :)

As if today's blog didn't already celebrate enough special things, I have one more:

This is a special post. 

This is officially my 100th blog post! I've been blogging since September 2008, and I've really enjoyed doing it. I think it's been a good way to document our first years of marriage, and it's kept some of you who don't live nearby informed on what's going on in our lives. It'll definitely be fun to look back and read this one day! 

Some of you may not have been reading my blog when I first started out, so here's a recap of some of my favorite posts: 

So, there you have it. 100 posts gone by, and hopefully many more to come.

I've celebrated a lot of milestones for one blog posting! Oh, and here's one more: Happy 26th anniversary to my wonderful parents!! I love you!!!

Hope you are having a fabulous week!

One final thought for the day:


"There are exactly as many special occasions in life as we choose to celebrate."  ~Robert Brault

I'm choosing to celebrate this week!