upward

chris started coaching basketball last winter with the upward program at our church. this year, he is coaching with liz's boyfriend scott. what a great help scott is, since he actually played basketball in high school! yesterday liz & i went to their game to cheer them on. miss leah came along, too and was so sweet, waving to her daddy and clapping. we had a good time and the kids were so cute! they don't keep score at this age (1st & 2nd graders), but they seemed to have fun. so this is where christopher is every saturday during january & february!

snow days!

last winter i was told that the state of south carolina never closes for weather. the policy is, if greenville county schools close, staff has the option of using a vacation day, making up the hours, or forfeiting the day's pay. so imagine my surprise and delight when i get a message from my boss yesterday morning saying that the governor closed all state offices for the day...and again today!
when i took eva outside yesterday morning, my ruler measured the snow at 6 inches deep. this is also the approximate height eva is off the ground. so you can imagine how thrilled she is at being made to walk (shuffle, hop) around in it. bless my neighbor for shoveling our sidewalk and a small area of the grass so the dogs in the building would have a spot to "go"!

i have accomplished so much in the past two days! i thoroughly cleaned the apartment, exercised, caught up on laundry, gave myself a manicure & pedicure, watched some tv, started a book, and made meals- white chicken chili last night and chicken pot pie tonight. meanwhile, christopher has been diligently working from home, as he has a pretty big deadline coming up. yesterday we made a snowman together: we named him george. you can't tell, but he has a georgia tech hat on. i used the gilded pecans left over from my table decorations and was giddy when i found a carrot in the fridge for a nose! here's how eva enjoyed the snow days (on the couch): as compared to how she usually enjoys her days: not a whole lot different! it looks like i'll be headed back to work tomorrow, with a delay of a couple hours. it's been fun!

holidays continued...to 2011!

we have enjoyed a whole week off for christmas & new year's. for the first time ever, christopher & i had our own christmas eve and christmas day celebration before visiting family. i wanted to make a special dinner and use our china, but i didn't want the traditional menu. i made chicken fettuccine alfredo with salad and garlic bread: our church's christmas eve service wasn't until 11pm, so after dinner we had plenty of time to drive around and look at lights. on christmas morning, we made banana pancakes and opened presents from each other. one of the things we got were study bibles. i am hoping this will help us understand the bible better and give us insights into some of the historical contexts. later in the morning we drove to augusta to visit our parrents. apparently, we missed a white christmas in greenville, but we had a beautiful drive to alabama the next day- there was snow on the ground and in the trees. we had a nice visit with grandmother and daddy buck. we also got to see my cousin ashley and her fiance, patrick. they got engaged last month and will be getting married in june! we came back to augusta and got to visit with some of chris' high school friends, the boxes and jessica...and some of mine- lindsey & gerrit. (check out the dogs- they were playing at our feet and i didn't realize it would show in the picture!) 2010 has been a great year: we celebrated our third anniversary in charleston. we traveled to chicago for tori's wedding. we celebrated milestones with family- my grandmother's 80th birthday and our brother's & cousin's engagements. we continued to be active in our church, christopher with playing softball & coaching upward basketball and me with the women's ministry. we also started serving as AWANA leaders for third grade girls & boys. God is showing us new ways to use our resources to serve Him. one amazing thing that happened in 2010 was paying off my student loans and being 100% debt free! we have grown in the Lord through our bible studies. i prayed for God to reveal His character to me, and through a study of the patriarchs i was reminded that God is absolutely trustworthy, He is faithful even when we are not, His love is unconditional, and He pursues us because he wants us to have closer relationships with Him. i have many hopes for 2011, and i am eager to see what God will do in our lives over the next year!