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

Fall is my favorite!

I love this time of the year so much. The weather is SO NICE outside, football games are on every Saturday, and Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner. (It always amuses me how stores put out their Christmas decorations before Halloween even gets here!) Anyway, October is a great month. Later this month, I will be turning a quarter of a century old. Yikes! I guess it's a pretty big birthday, but I wonder if you ever look forward to having birthdays after your 25th. Most people seem to dread turning 30, 40, 50, etc. Guess we'll see! :)

I put out our fall decorations last week and, much to Travis's dismay, decided that we didn't have enough, so I've been out buying some more cute stuff at Kohl's and Michael's. So far, I've only decorated the inside of the house. If we (cross our fingers) get a lot of work done in our flower beds this weekend, maybe I'll buy some outdoor decorations next week!

This pumpkin candle holder came from Kohl's. I thought it was really cute!

Another candle display for the foyer table...also from Kohl's. Our house smells so good these days!

I already had most of this stuff except the leaf garland, which was $3 at Michael's...

This was my birthday gift from Alisha last year! The small pumpkins are supposed to be place card holders, but I just used them for little signs :)

Mom also said she has some fall decorations she's not using anymore, so I'll go through that stuff next time I go down. We're going to be so festive this year!

October is also a great month because it's Breast Cancer Awareness month. Pink is my favorite color, so I love seeing all of the pink everywhere. I finally got a pink ribbon magnet for my car last week when I was at St. Vincent's with Mom (I've been meaning to get one for a while!). And, I'm slowly getting in shape for the Liz Hurley Ribbon Run on October 15th (next Saturday!). I've been trying to run every other day for the past few weeks, and this week I've been running about 2 1/2 miles through our neighborhood and the connecting neighborhoods. This morning, I finished in 21:35...pretty good for being out of shape! The race is a 5K (3.1 miles), so I think I can handle it. I also reached my goal of raising $500 for the race...thanks to everyone who donated!! Thank you for your support and for being so generous!!! :)

Mom is feeling a little bit better every day since she left the hospital. I know she's glad to be home! She's had an extra week to recuperate and run errands/take care of stuff that she probably wouldn't have gotten to do otherwise, so that's been good. Her next treatment is this coming Monday, and it's her last treatment of the two-drug combo she's been on. Go Mom!!!

It's been a little while since I've given a kitten update. Felix and Gabby are as goofy as ever. I really do think Gabby has a demon in her sometimes. She's just crazy!  I don't know where she gets all her energy, but it seems like it never ends. She still loves to be petted and held, and she loves to climb in my lap when I'm sitting on the floor or at the table. I think I've said it before, but she can purr louder than any cat I've ever heard. We call it her "motor", and it definitely rumbles! She usually purrs even just being around us, so she definitely loves us.

Travis is turning out to be the disciplinarian of the two of us (who's surprised!), and he has even been known to "spank" a misbehaving kitten (a.k.a. like when Gabby knocked over a picture frame and the trashcan in the bathroom last night). We still catch them both on the furniture every once in a while (some days are worse than others), but they obviously know they aren't supposed to be up there because they jump down right away before we can even get on to them).

Felix is definitely coming out of his shell too. He loves to be petted (when he's in the mood for it...he won't always let us), and he doesn't run away when we come near him anymore. He lets us hold him, but he isn't too happy about it. He's got a lot of energy too, but he's still more relaxed than Gabby is. He definitely has an appetite like his daddy...I think he definitely eats more than his share of the food. They are both getting so big! They are still pretty long and lean, but I bet they weigh 5-6 pounds easily.

Felix loves "sunning" in the kitchen chairs!

Gabby doesn't like to pose very well for pictures!

Cat napping

Felix is so cute!

Gabby snuggled up in a blanket in my lap

Travis and "Motor Magee" (Gabby's nickname)

They really do love each other...even if it doesn't look like it here!

That's better!

We've really enjoyed having friends over to watch most of the Alabama games so far this year. I don't think we've watched a game yet by ourselves...except the first game that we went to. Bama looks good so far! They play Vandy at home this week, and Ole Miss away next week. We will probably go to the Tennessee game after that, but that may be the only other game we go to this year (unless we can find some *cheap* Iron Bowl tickets!!).

Tonight, Jeremy, Tyler, and Melissa are coming over for supper. Hopefully Travis will get home in time to eat with us! He has been working some crazy hours this week. He worked (from home) almost all weekend, and last night he worked until about 8:30. They have a big 3-day presentation coming up toward the end of this month, so they've been trying to get ready for that. I'm sure he'll be glad when it's over! Travis is actually having surgery next Wednesday, so that may be the only way he can get a little break from work for a few days. Ever since he broke his nose playing football on the Quad in t-town our sophomore (I think) year, he has really had a lot of sinus problems and trouble breathing. He had one surgery on it already, but this time an ENT surgeon, Dr. McCary, is going to fix his septum and shave his turbinates. Hopefully that will help him a lot! So, next week, I will be playing nurse to my hubby instead of my mom! I wish I could be in two places at once, but I don't think I can make that happen. I did tell Mom that I could bring her up here and I'll stick her on one end of the couch, Travis on the other end, and Felix and Gabby in the middle, and I'll just take care of all 4 of them at once! She laughed, but I don't think she'll be taking me up on that offer :) Luckily, she's got a lot of options for people to sit with her next Wednesday and Thursday since I won't be there. She'll be in good hands!

Well, I guess that's enough "news" for now. Hope you are having a wonderful week! :)

Erin

Living in a Mess!

Well, we really haven't made much progress on unpacking since my last post. We got the TV/entertainment center set up on Friday night--which is a several hour project b/c of the surround sound and all the cables--but other than that, things look about the same around here. Travis has been slowly getting his study organized, but it's still got a way to go. 

There have been a couple of reasons for our lack of productivity:

1.   Saturday, we spent all afternoon running errands (and spending too much money!). We went to Kohl's, DSW, Target, Men's Wearhouse, and Encore Furniture. By the time we got home, we were both tired! So, we ended up watching the A-Day game and lazing around on the couch that night. 
2. Sunday night, Travis left for Nashville and was gone until Tuesday night. And it's hard to start unpacking and putting stuff away without his input on where it all should go. Of course, the kitchen is finished, and the bedroom mostly is, but a lot of the stuff that hasn't been unpacked yet is mostly "junk", and I'm not sure where it needs to go (probably in the trash!). 

Here are a few more "before" and "after" pictures. As we become more organized, I'll post updated pictures...

Dining room "before"

Dining room "after"

Living room "before"

Living room "after"...the color is different, although you may not be able to tell from this picture. Excuse the mess! :)

Travis's favorite purchase so far...our comfortable couches and recliner!

Guest bedroom "before"

Guest bedroom "after"...still a work in progress!

Guest bathroom "before"

Guest bathroom "after"

Master bedroom "before"

Master bedroom "after"...ignore our "beach towel" privacy curtain :)

The study is not picture worthy yet, so I'll have to show you that later. It's the same color (taupe) as the guest bedroom, so there's not much to show. 

My big exciting find this week was a china cabinet! I wasn't dead set on buying one this soon, but I found one at Encore Furniture Saturday night that I really liked. It's not new, but it's new to me, and it's in pretty good shape. Here's a (bad-quality) picture of it in the store:

Yay!!

It has lights, which is one thing I really wanted, and I love how it has glass doors on the bottom as well as the top. From looking at a lot of different china cabinets online, it seems to be a pretty unique one. I'm excited! We're planning to put new handles/hinges on the doors and possibly new lights depending on if/how well they work. Should be a fun project!

Update: They just delivered it a few minutes ago, and I love it even more here than I did at the store. It's a good bit darker than I thought it was, so it's actually darker than my table. (I thought it was going to be lighter). Here's what it looks like in the dining room:

Here's my china...still in the box after 3+ years...but not for long!!

Another new development in my life is that I'm planning to run the Cotton Row 10K with Mollie on Memorial Day. I'm excited and scared at the same time. I'm definitely not in the shape I used to be in, but I hope I'll still be able to finish. That's 6.2 miles, and apparently there's a pretty big hill around mile 3 or 4. I've run plenty of 5Ks in the past, but a 10K will be a new challenge! I've been trying to run about 2-4 miles several times a week for the past couple of week, so maybe by the end of May I'll be up for it! :)

Travis had a good trip to Nashville for "Quad A" or "AAAA"--not sure which way it's supposed to be written...haha. That stands for Army Aviation Association of America, and they had a big expo at the Opryland Hotel for companies that work on army aviation to network and meet with each other. He came home with a few freebies and got to "sleep in" for a couple of mornings...they didn't get started until 10 or 11 AM either day! This is also his week to have Friday off, so he really only had yesterday and today as "real" work days. 

Well, I've got to get busy. I'm making this dessert for my "birthday buddy" at work to take tomorrow, and before long, it will be supper time. Gotta run! 

Hope you are having a fabulous week and staying dry in all this rain! :)

We're really moving!

Mark your calendars for April 9th...that's our moving day! I promise :)

Until recently, our house mainly felt like a big project that was never going to be finished. It was a place to paint and renovate, but it didn't seem like we would ever actually live there. Well, the day is soon approaching! 


We put up the new shelving in our pantry on Saturday, and I'm really excited about it. The old shelving was sticky and rigged up with tape and wooden pieces. When we took it down, we patched up at least 60 holes before we painted. Guess how many holes it took to put up the new shelving? 11! The new shelves are also 20 inches deep (8 inches deeper than the old ones), so I have much more room for my pantry stockpile! And, the shelves can be adjusted to different heights if I decide that I want to change things around!

Before

After

We also have the shelving in our master bedroom closet almost completely finished. Lowe's is out of the shelves that we need for one wall, but we've got the system in place, and that's the tedious part. Once we buy the shelves, all we have to do is pop them in where we want them. 


The next step in the process is packing...our favorite! We've done a lot of packing since we got married. We moved into Presidential where we lived for the spring 2008 semester. Then, we packed up some stuff to move to Baugay's for the summer. Then, we moved back to Presidential for the fall 2008 and spring 2009 semesters. Then, we packed up everything and moved it into storage for the summer. We moved back to Baugay's for the summer, and then we unpacked everything from storage into our apartment at Rivermont for the fall 2009 and spring 2010 semesters. Then, in May 2010 after Travis graduated, we moved all of our stuff back to Baugay's where we've been ever since! Now it's time to move again! We've gotten pretty good at packing, labeling, and organizing in the past 3+ years! The good news is that even though we're saying that we're moving April 9th, if we don't get everything moved on that day, it won't be the end of the world. I don't think Baugay will be auctioning off our stuff before we have time to come back for it...haha :) 


Well, I'm going to make this a short post because I've got a lot to do today! Hope you're having a good week so far :)

Getting closer!

I can finally see the light at the end of tunnel with all of this painting. Hooray! We got the study and guest bedroom pretty much finished up this past weekend. They are both the same color (taupe), and they look great! Both of the rooms have window seats, and one of them needs to be painted white (it's currently pink--the old room color), but that could even be done after we move in.

This weekend, we are going to try to start AND finish the guest bathroom. It is currently painted "sky blue", which matches the counter top the previous owners put in. We're going to re-paint the room a light gray color, and eventually I'd like to replace the counter with something a little more neutral. 

In other house-related news, we are now the proud owners of a programmable thermostat, a weed-eater, and lawnmower. Actually, Travis is the proud owner of the lawnmower and weed-eater since I'm hoping not to ever have to use them! :) The thermostat is up and running after Travis installed it Monday night. It looks nice and it shouldn't be too hard to use. He's hoping it will save us some money on our power bills this summer. The yard is looking pretty rough with the weather warming up some-what and all this rain we've gotten, so the grass/weeds really need to be cut soon. We're hoping to rope Andrew into giving us some landscaping advice sometime in the future....we need help! We've got enough other projects going on right now, though, that we'll probably wait until next spring/summer to start planting bushes and flowers.

Yesterday, I spent some much needed girl-time with Emily Smith. I really enjoyed lunch and the afternoon just hanging out! We need to do it again soon :)

Today is the last day of a class that Travis has been taking this week for work. It's on "Rotorcraft Fundamentals", and it's being taught at UAH by one of their professors. In case you were wondering, a helicopter is a type of rotorcraft. (I didn't know that until recently!). The project that Travis is working on at work involves helicopters, so he said the class has been really helpful. 

Yesterday, I got a good deal on a magazine for Travis. You probably know that he's pretty interested in personal finance. He keeps meticulous records in Quicken, we have a budget spreadsheet in Excel, and he enjoys reading books like "Stocks for the Long Run" (haha). Well, yesterday on Eversave, they had a deal where you could get a year's subscription to Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine for $6. But, I had a $5 credit on the website just for signing up a few weeks ago, so I got it for $1!! That's like 8 or 9 cents an issue!! I love getting good deals :)

Time to get to Kohl's (for another deal--I have a $10 coupon on any $10 or more pre-tax purchase, so I'll just have to pay tax if I can find something I like for $10!!) and head to the gym after that. I've been going about 4 times a week, so gotta keep it up :)

Hope you're having a fabulous week! 

March is here!

I'm absolutely loving this beautiful weather we've been enjoying today and yesterday. It reminds me of sunny California...can't believe it's been over a year since we were there. Time sure does go by fast. 

Speaking of time, it's almost been a year since Travis graduated and we left Tuscaloosa. Now, that's crazy. I guess we're fully in the working world now. I've been thinking lately about how much I miss t-town. It was easy to take for granted having so many friends our age around. Now, we have a few friends up here that we hang out with occasionally, but for the most part, we don't do a whole lot...at least with friends our own age. Everyone I work with is at least 15-20 years old than me, and I'm sure it's the same for Travis. And, we love Kelly Spring, but there are very few people our age there also. I wish that I could just gather up all our friends from college and transport them up here permanently. Anyone in their mid-twenties who lives nearby want to be our friend? :)

Here's my weekly painting update: We've got the cut-in finished in the study. Yay! Our goal is to finish the study and guest bedroom this weekend. They are going to be the same color (taupe), so it makes sense to paint them at the same time. We'll probably dedicate next weekend to the guest bathroom, and the next weekend to our closet and the pantry, and THEN maybe we'll move in. I think we'll probably end up painting the other closets and garage after we move in...otherwise, it'll be this summer before we get there...haha. As it is now, it'll probably still be the end of March/first of April before we actually move. 

Travis ordered a programmable thermostat and a lawnmower online last night, so he was excited about that. The thermostat was only $65, and it's supposed to save you a lot of money on your power bill every year. 


This is my week to work Thursday instead of Tuesday, so I'm up at the crack of dawn (actually before) for the next two days. It sounds awful, but I actually like getting it over with early rather than staying late. Starting work at 5:30 AM means getting off at 2 PM, and that is awesome.

Spring break for Alabama and Auburn is week after next, I believe. This will be the first spring break since before I started kindergarden that I won't have off! Last year, even though I was already working by that point, they let me have the week off to spend in Tuscaloosa with Travis. Sigh. No more long breaks unless I take ETO. That just makes me look forward to Fripp Island even more! P.S. Jenn, you need to come up here during spring break and see us! :)

That's about all for now. Thanks for reading!