My Work Brother

This is Chris, one of the guys I work with. Someone told us we looked like we could be brother and sister and a couple times we've joked about telling people that and seeing who would believe us. He teases me like an older brother would and there are times I want to strangle him, like I'm sure I would an older brother (it's a good thing I don't work directly with him the majority of the time). I had my camera with me anyway because today was our office Christmas party, so I took this picture to show to people outside of work and see if anyone else thought we could be siblings. I know most of you reading this have met my one brother who has red hair and know that we look a lot alike and he doesn't look anything like Chris. But, that aside, tell me what you think.

The Decorations Are Finally Up!

We got our tree last weekend, our first real one, and finally got around to decorating it and putting up some other decorations. We're both excited to have a real tree finally, now that we have room for it! We had to go back out twice to get more lights and decorations for the tree and I'm so glad we won't have to do that every year, it was so expensive! Tomorrow is going to be my big shopping day, I have ideas for everyone, I just haven't gone out to buy them yet! Every year I tell myself I'm going to start shopping earlier and every year it comes to a couple weeks before Christmas and I'm still not done! And Chris and I still haven't decided what to get ourselves - we've narrowed it down to a GPS for the car, a theraputic memory foam mattress pad or a Wii. So, anyway, we're getting close to being ready for Christmas and sort of enjoying it, here are some pictures of our decorations.

    

        

 

Playing Catch Up

I just re-read my last post and, again, I'm sorry it's been so long. It was funny to read that I hated working full time, that has changed big time. I LOVE my job, I don't have trouble getting up in the morning anymore - it helps that the sun is up before I am now, thanks to Daylight Savings. I actually go back to working part time this week, which I'm really sad about. I didn't find out until late yesterday afternoon and I actually cried on the way home. I had been expecting to stay full time for at least a few more weeks, but the girl I've been filling in for is coming back on Monday. I'm really glad I agreed to stay on three days a week. I love the job, I really like the people and I need the money. Last week my parents, Thomas and I went to Missouri for Ian's graduation from Military Police school. We were only there overnight, but it was nice to be able to go.
This is a piece of the Berlin wall on base. Thomas looks grumpy because the sun was in his eyes, or so he says.

This is the tram that five people are supposed to squish in to ride to the top of the St. Louis arch. We bought tickets to go up, but the trams in front of us got stuck and we had a plane to catch. I'm so glad it wasn't us that got stuck in the trams, can we say claustrophobic?!?!
I guess that's really all I had to catch up on, I still haven't done much besides work, but I just have to say again I am much happier with my job now!

My Birthday

First of all, I know it's been forever since I've posted anything, but there really hasn't been anything that I've taken pictures of. I hate working full time, so I come home and veg and then it's time to go to bed so I can get up early and do it all over again. It sucks. But I did have a really fun birthday. Thursday night I went out with some friends from work. The two girls are my co-cashiers. But since I'm working full time in another office for the next month, I told them they had to come out with me for my birthday. So the guy is one of the dealers who buys cars from us. I don't know him as well as the other two do, but they invited him to come. I thought they were just joking, but he showed up! He even paid for dinner. And he guessed how old I was turning - nobody has ever done that, they always guess at least three years younger. So that was really fun.
Friday at work my co-workers bought me a cake and a card and made me leave early because it was my birthday. They bought a fairly small cake and then put 27 candles on it, but couldn't get them all lit without burning themselves because they were too close together. I came home and the table was all decorated by Chris, I added the cards I'd gotten over the last couple of days.
Chris had gotten a bunch of t-bone steaks really cheap awhile ago and he'd been wanting to grill them and I've been eating a lot of steak recently, so I had him grill the steaks and shrimp and zucchini for me for my birthday dinner. He really loves our grill, so he takes any chance he can!
This was a very first, he sang to me! He doesn't bake at all, so he's never done a cake for me. I'm not sure what the reason was for this one, but he bought a cake and lit the candles and sang to me!
This was my present from Roxy, a candle warmer and a candle. I wonder where she got the money to buy it, hahaha.

My present from Chris is a massage later today. We had massages on our last anniversary trip and I've been wanting another one ever since. He kept telling me to just go get one, but it's so frivilous I couldn't justify spending that much money just because. So I told him I wanted one for my birthday. It's the first time I've told him ahead of time what I want. So my birthday has lasted for three days now, I love it!!

Chris' New Best Friend

My great uncle's new wife brought her little dog to our latest family gathering, her name is Coco and she was very sweet and loved sitting on laps - especially when there was food being handed out.

More House Pictures

I finally decided there were a couple rooms that I could take pictures of without them looking perfect. We hope to be able to completely re-do the kitchen while we live here - new cabinets and counter tops. We got a slightly used stove and dishwasher from my grandparents, now we just need a matching fridge
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For right now this is the guest room, it will eventually be the baby's room, but since we have no idea how much longer it will be before we have a baby we went ahead and set up this bed - it's the bed I slept in growing up, just with a new mattress. The other side of the room, which I purposely didn't get in the picture, still has junk piled up waiting for me to organize.
 

Mmm...crabs!

When we first got married we decided we would go out to dinner every month on our anniversary, preferably somewhere new. We got out of the habit of doing that, but decided to start again. This month we got steamed crabs and ate them on our deck. It had been way too long since I had had steamed crabs. So yummy!

Bye, Bye Hair!

This past week I cut off ten inches of my hair to give to Locks of Love. Chris says I should've let my hair grow longer, but I'd had enough. I'm going to grow it out a little, but it'll be awhile before I want to try it that long again.

It's Starting to Look Like We Might Actually Live Here

Friday and Saturday my mom was here helping me sort through stuff that still isn't unpacked. The biggest thing we got done was hanging pictures in the living room and above the stairway. It definitely helps make it look like a home! I thought I had a lot of framed pictures, but having a whole house to hang them in makes them seem pretty sparce. I can't wait to get more!

Silly Little Frog

Last night we were gathering up the trash and turned to go out on the deck and saw this little guy just hanging out on our sliding door. He didn't even mind when we opened and closed the door.

Happy 4th of July!

I have to apologize, I haven't been taking very many interesting pictures lately so I've really slacked off on updating my blog. Plus, now that I have myspace I know less people are reading this. BUT, I know the ones who do read this are the most important (my mother-in-law, my sister), so I haven't given up on it completely! Since Sunday we have been dog sitting for my parents while they are off galavanting in Maine and Canada (I went with them last year, but couldn't afford to this year). She's a little more high maintenance than we're used to, she hates being left alone and she's not great at listening all the time. But she's been a pretty good house guest and she's very sweet. For our 4th of July celebration Chris went out and bought a grill, a very basic one, so we ate on our deck for the first time. The deck furniture is on semi-permanent loan from some friends who are staying in California for the summer while their new house is being built. It's very exciting to have deck furniture, even if we might have to give it back. Hope everyone had a good 4th!
The proud cook with his new toy

Not a great picture of us!

She looks a little freaky in this picture, she was just turning her head to see what I was doing.

A Decent Self Portrait and a Freaked Out Cat

I was playing around taking pictures tonight so I grabbed Roxy so I could take a picture of me holding her. My cat is a little neurotic, she only likes being held when it's her idea and she doesn't like having her picture taken. Hence the get-me-out-of-here look. Lately I haven't been liking too many pictures of myself, but I half like this one so I figured I'd better show everyone! I think it's the shirt, the color looks good with my red hair and even though you can only see my head, the shirt makes me look slimmer. And just to point out for my mother-in-law, I'm wearing the earrings you gave me for my birthday two years ago.

Cute Little Kitties

The farm that we used to live on has a bunch of barn cats and occasionally they get together and have kittens because nobody wants to bother with catching them and "fixing" them. Chris and I went to visit the most recent litter yesterday. They're just over a week old and have just opened their eyes in the last two days. Three of them look just like one parent, the pale orange, and the other two look like the other parent, more orange and striped. Aren't they adorable??

 

 

 

 

 

Dedicated to Leigh and Tony

Yesterday was my cousin, Leigh's, wedding to Tony. The weather was perfect, luckily, since the wedding was outside. I was so excited for them and couldn't believe how beautiful she looked. I had more fun taking pictures than anything else, I danced once with Ian and I didn't even make Chris dance. My only complaint is that the music was way too loud for the small space we were in and we all had headaches and couldn't do much talking.

Here are a couple of the million pictures I took.

I love sitting on the edge of the aisle so I can see!

Their second kiss as newlyweds

This was towards the end of the reception, Chris was tired and ready to leave

Dancing with her new stepson

Our spa weekend

This past weekend we went on our yearly anniversary trip. We chose a spa in Berkely Springs, West Virginia. It didn't turn out quite like we'd hoped - the beds were too small to share, so we slept in seperate beds, I had a killer cold all weekend, and there wasn't anything to do outside of the hotel. But, besides all of that, we had a nice time. It was fun just to hang out together without any distractions. On Saturday we had a whirlpool bath and massages and I am now totaly hooked on massages, I can't wait for my next one!

The state park next to the hotel had these historic natural warm springs that stay at 74.5 degrees all year round. We found this small one with a sign above it saying George Washington's bath tub (1748). We couldn't figure out if that was a joke or what, we did find out that he was part of the original survey team and that he later bought land in Berkeley Springs and frequently went there, but we couldn't find out anything about the bath tub.

This is the hotel, with the spa in the background. The spa was on a hill so while we were in the whirlpool tub we could look out over the town. Which, was tiny. It took us about five minutes to walk through the whole town. It seemed like the hotel was the biggest thing!

This is me totally relaxed and sacked out after the WONDERFUL massage!

Our 4th Anniversary!

Whoo hoo, we made it to four years! We went out to dinner at Chili's, which was nice. We had the waiter take our picture, which Chris didn't want, so he says this is his "I don't want my picture taken" face, but it looks like a nice smile to me! And I think I look cute, too, which is rare for me lately. He wasn't supposed to, but he got me a whole bag of gifts. I thought we had agreed when we first got married that we wouldn't buy each other anniversary presents and instead we'd go on a trip and that would be our present to each other. So here he gives me a bunch of gifts and I don't get anything for him! I should know better by now. But he likes spoiling me and I like being spoiled, so I guess it works out. Plus he's always so hard to buy for. Next weekend we're taking our trip to Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. We're getting massages! This is the first year we haven't gone ON our anniversary, but they were booked this weekend.

Five generations!

Yesterday was my cousin's bridal shower and we took a picture of the five generations of women on my mom's side. I think it's pretty rare to have five generations living at the same time, so we always make sure to take pictures when we have the chance. From left to right, here are the generations, my grandmother, my aunt (mother of the bride), my mother, my cousin (the bride-to-be), my great-grandmother, my cousin and her daughter, and me. And we're only missing one girl cousin to have all the women in the family, which is another reason for the picture. There are so many boys in the family we love having pictures of just the girls!

Happy Easter

Every holiday, even when I tell him not to, Chris loves to surprise me. This morning I went downstairs and found an Easter basket full of candy and a scavenger hunt to find plastic eggs filled with more candy! How cute is that?!? I always get stumped on at least a couple of his clues, he tends to make things too cryptic. But I found them all and it was a really fun surprise. We went to my parents house for dinner and I should have taken pictures of the dining room table, it was cleared off and set nicely, which it hasn't been in years. While I was there I took this other picture with Richard. I've sometimes toyed with the idea of getting my tongue pierced, just for fun for awhile so I borrowed one of Richard's extra ones to see what it would look like. Kinda cute?

Our backyard

I found my camera, I had put it in what I thought at the time was an obvious place to keep it, but since I couldn't find it for three days, that obviously didn't work so well.

I don't think I've ever posted pictures of our backyard, so here is one looking out onto our deck and backyard and one closeup of my pansies. They seem to be doing pretty well, which I'm so excited about. The deck will be in a lot of shade once the leaves come in on the trees, so I don't know if I'll be able to have flowers out there all summer.

The next step is to try planting something in my front yard and making that prettier, I don't really like what the previous owners had out there. But that's what everyone sees, so I'm even more nervous about that.

 

No Camera :(

I have no idea what happened to my camera, I'm so sad! I planted my first flowers on my deck, three little pansies and I wanted to post a picture of them so everyone could see how pretty they are! I've only had them for a couple days, but they're doing well so far. I've never tried gardening, so I'm crossing my fingers I can figure out what I'm doing. Hopefully I'll find my camera soon........................

MySpace

For better or worse I've joined the myspace world. I did the blog thing to easily share pictures and stories, but several of my friends and family have gone with myspace so I had to join in order to see their pages. Don't worry, I'm planning on keeping the blog. I just wanted to mention it in case anyone else has a myspace page and wanted to add me.

So Much Fun!

Some girls from church and I decided to do a girls night away. So we went to the beach! I found an inexpensive hotel in Dewey Beach, Delaware that had rooms right on the beach. It was cold and there were some problems with the hotel and some people couldn't go at the last minute, but we still had a really good time.

We stayed up late talking and playing games and in the morning we all did our hair (which just got messed up by the wind) and went out for brunch. Of course, we had to go play on the beach and brave Reighlyn got her feet wet.

It was a little weird being at the beach with winter coats and gloves on, but we definitely didn't have to worry about crowds! I love my husband and love being married, but there's something so great about it being just the girls.

Mom's Birthday

We celebrated my mom's birthday last night since we couldn't all get together on her actual birthday, Wednesday. She did get a snow day for her birthday, though, so she got to stay home and relax. We gave her presents and then went to dinner at Ruby Tuesdays. Birthdays are almost the only time we all go out to dinner together these days so I had to get a picture. I think it's a nice picture, except my dad was too close and got washed out a little. But we all know it's him.