life is golden

overdue

2012-02-11T14:21:00.007-05:00

the title of this post refers to my (lack of) blogging, not my pregnancy status! we got smart phones for christmas, and i have just now learned how to transfer pictures from it directly onto my computer. i will try to give a brief overview of events since thanksgiving...

here is us at church at christmas:
we enjoyed celebrating our first christmas in our new house. here is our very first (live!) christmas tree:we got to visit both sides of the family over christmas, and of course both nana & papa (christopher's parents) and grammy & pop (my parents) couldn't resist getting norah a little something.

work has been a whirlwind since i got back from vacation. i recently finished my supervision hours for my counseling license, which has taken 2 1/2 years to complete. i am very thankful to be getting this done before our baby arrives!

in the month of january, my friends from sunday school- meg (left) & lori (right)- hosted a beautiful baby shower themed "cute as a button." both grammy (left) & nana (right) got to come up for it, which was special.later in january, i got to go to a bridal shower for my soon-to-be sister-in-law, andra. i didn't get a picture of the two of us on my camera, but here she is modeling her new apron.christopher has also been working very hard on the nursery. he got the furniture set up, and i have been enjoying finding places for all the baby things. i love resting in this most comfortable chair. it gives me a chance to daydream and pray for norah! i am almost 36 weeks, and it is so hard to believe she will be here so soon.my mom came up to greenville recently, and we enjoyed a mother-daughter shopping day together. we had lunch at one of my favorite bakeries, strossner's, and spent a considerable amount of time looking at baby things.
eva is doing well. we think she may be suspecting some upcoming changes. i took her to the vet last month b/c she was having some accidents in her crate. it was most likely behavioral. poor thing, i hate to think how she will be once norah is here and eva is really on the back burner! i think once she gets over her sibling rivalry, she will love having a little (soon-to-be big) sister to play with!

thanksgiving

2011-11-27T19:04:00.007-05:00

we had a great thanksgiving. we got to announce to our families the name we decided for baby G:

Norah Christy

chris & i also felt her kick for the first time, which was exciting! we spent some time in south georgia with chris' family. a few years ago, i started doing a craft/kitchen project with his cousin's children, and it has sort of become a tradition. this year we did gingerbread people. the girls said the large gingerbread cookie cutter was christopher, the medium one was me, and the tiny one was baby norah. then they made half their cookies with a cutout of norah within a larger gingerbread person's belly- "since that's where she is." so precious! here's a picture of the golden family with mema. we are very excited for kevin & andra (pictured far left) as they finalize their wedding plans for next april. i've always wanted a sister! we left the farm early to go to the georgia game on saturday. despite the outcome, we had a great time with friends in our final tailgate of the season. they surprised us with a shower! the cake says if i had a daughter...i'd dress her in white & gold, which is from the GT fight song. i've always heard the best way to get new tech fans is to breed them! here are some of the sweet things we received for norah. she will be ready for next football season!

november so far

2011-11-21T08:06:00.007-05:00

we've had some great weekends in november, and it's not even thanksgiving yet! we went to atlanta for the vt game (we won't talk about that too much) and got to meet up with some of the yorks- here's me with our sweet friend blakely and her precious boys, ashton & collin. (please ignore the beer sign behind us. i think the photographer- aka christopher- must not have noticed!) blakely also has another boy on the way, due two days before our girl! her husband wes had to work, so he couldn't join us for lunch. we love hanging out with them and wish we could see them more often! i hope we will be as great parents as they are!! the rest of the weekend, i had a mini-reunion with three of my best friends from middle school: (left to right) carrie, tori, & jessie. i'm not exactly sure how it got started, but back then at sleepovers we used to blow kisses at the clock at 11:11 and make a wish. we have been saying for years (about 13 to be exact) that we were going to get together at 11:11 on 11/11/11 at a 7-eleven and make a big wish! well, we nixed the 7-eleven part, but had a great weekend at carrie's house reminiscing (i even dug up our old middle school yearbooks!). we also recently went to a wedding in greenville for some friends from bible study. it was fun to see some of the beautiful venues in our city and enjoy good food, friends, & dancing! i also finished a craft project with my friends liz & lori. it is a frame to display christmas cards. i saw something very similar (for $200) in a pottery barn catalog and knew i could make it for much cheaper (less than $40). i wish i had taken step-by-step pictures, but just try to imagine: 1) i took a plain black wooden frame and spray painted it a metallic champagne. 2) after it dried, i used sandpaper to scrape some of the edges to make it look weathered. thanks to liz for showing me the basics of "antiquing" furniture! 3) i measured & cut picture hanging wire and attached it to the back using a staple gun. 4) i used metal clips to hang the cards- in this case, birth/adoption announcements. i think i may use it year round for other cards & announcements, maybe photos too. but for now i will have a great place to collect all the christmas cards that usually take up counter space!

halloween weekend

2011-10-31T19:49:00.008-04:00

we had quite a busy weekend. we spent all day saturday in atlanta at the clemson game. some sweet clemson friends of ours from greenville, matt & meg, made the drive with us (pictured on the left). we also got to meet up with some of our other clemson friends, tim & blaire (on the right). they moved to the atlanta area almost a year ago, and we miss getting to see them more often! of course we got to see our usual favorite tech friends (er, tech friends & their wives): justin & linda (left) and derek & katherine (right). you see a sea of white and gold (and navy) behind us storming the field because we weren't expecting to win against clemson!
sunday night we went to a halloween party with some church friends.for a while, i have been wanting to find a reason to wear my tiara from my wedding day again. i am (a redheaded, pregnant) holly golightly from breakfast at tiffany's. all i bought were the evening gloves and the plastic cigarette holder. christopher is beaker from the muppets. he did a great job of making his head, and he borrowed the lab coat from his mom (it was too big for her, in case you were wondering!).
in other news, here's what i look like at (almost) 21 weeks. and here are two outfits i recently bought for baby G. if i had a daughter, sir, i'd dress her in white & gold!

recent happenings

2011-10-24T22:55:00.007-04:00

i do intend to blog more often than once every six weeks or so...it has been a busy fall for us between weekends away for football games, church activities, christopher under a work deadline right now, and me trying to finish my professional license before the baby comes.

i think "nesting" has begun as i started to realize that there are many projects i would like to get done to my house over the next few months. one thing that was long overdue (mostly because i took my time deciding what i wanted!) was finding some kind of window treatment for our master bedroom. i finally settled on thick white (faux-)wood blinds. i have to commend my sweet husband for installing these the same day we bought them, despite his having to work 60+ hour weeks lately.
i also picked a paint color for our guest bedroom. it is called easy green and is sort of seafoamy. i just liked the shade but loved it even more when i realized it goes perfectly with a great picture my photographer friend liz took at a random (defunct) gas station somewhere in the SC countryside. my picture doesn't do it justice, but it hopefully shows how the wall color brings out the photo color.
i had been waiting to start thinking about the nursery until we found out the baby's gender...we are having a girl!!! so i'd like to do the walls in a shade of brown and the room in pink and green, since i was inspired by this precious bedding.

so far i have only had one intense food craving: for fried chicken. on the bone. nothing else would satisfy, so fortunately chris had no problem with us getting bojangles that night.here is my most recent "belly shot" around the end of 18 weeks. this past weekend was a special one since christopher was ordained as a deacon in our church. both sets of parents came for the ceremony, and we had a great time as a family.here are the men: and us:

labor day weekend: HHI and an annoucement

2011-09-10T16:43:00.006-04:00

we got back last week from a wonderful long labor day weekend in hilton head. i have great memories of going to HHI during spring break in high school with my sweet friend jessie's family. it is one of my favorite beaches. we started our weekend on thursday in atlanta, which was christopher's birthday. the ncaa was kind enough to schedule georgia tech's opening game of the season that day- a birthday present to my husband, maybe? because it was a thursday night game, we didn't get to tailgate. but we did eat at five guys with some friends and enjoyed birthday/game day cupcakes. we spent the night in atlanta and drove to HHI on friday. we had lots of relaxing time on the beach to read and be lazy. check out chris' beard! i even got a little tan (only noticeable when you see where my straps were, but for me that counts!). we really enjoyed people-watching as we walked up and down the beach. one of christopher's favorite things about the coast is the fresh seafood. the best place we went was a little hole-in-the-wall appropriately named the sea shack. in true golden family tradition, i am posting a picture of the food:our delicious seafood sampler plate (a.k.a. the shack attack) included crabcake, fish, shrimp, scallops, and oysters. we also went to another seafood place that is not even worth mentioning the name (so chris tells me, i had a steak and it was good). but, they did have a cool boat on the marina named the yellow jacket that we posed with. one morning i woke up early (very unlike me!) to watch the sun rise. it was actually too cloudy to see, but still very peaceful and relaxing. i was reading psalm 139 and was touched and overwhelmed at verses 17-18 about God's thoughts of me (and you) outnumbering the grains of sand!

this is probably our last vacation for a while because...we are having a baby! baby G is due march 12, 2012. here is a picture from earlier this week (13 weeks). not much of a baby bump yet (last i checked i had only gained 2 lbs.), but it will be a good baseline shot: we are very grateful for a safe & healthy pregnancy so far!

why i love having a dog

2011-09-08T22:40:00.004-04:00

this is pretty much a normal day of eva greeting me when i get home from work. it's even better when chris gets home first and he's already let her out. then she's waiting for me at the door.

two sounds i love: her tail banging against stuff when she's wagging it so enthusiastically and her feet pitter-pattering on the hardwoods.

...pictures to come of our beach vacation!

live free or die

2011-07-23T16:24:00.005-04:00

this is the state motto for new hampshire, where we spent my birthday last weekend. we actually went there for a friend's wedding, and my birthday just happened to coincide. brienne is a friend from college who moved to new hampshire after she finished her doctorate in physical therapy. we got to do a few fun activities while we were visiting. on friday before the wedding, we visited mount washington, the tallest peak in new england. here we are about halfway up, with another college friend, michael. well, michael is a college friend to me, but he & chris went to school together since 1st grade!notice how i added layers of clothing as we went up. the base of the mountain was in the mid-70s that day, while the peak was mid-40s! there was a gift shop on top of the mountain that was chained down because of the wind. the top wind speed ever recorded was 231mph! in case you were wondering, that's a world record. on to the wedding- here's brienne & andy, newly married. and us at the reception, happily married for almost 4 years. chris liked the getaway car. we enjoyed some other activities i don't have pictures of- hiking, tubing, and a cook out at the bride & groom's adorable house. and here's a sign you don't see in the south. all in all, new hampshire was really beautiful. i didn't know much about it before we went, but i can see why they enjoy living there.

sweet home alabama

2011-07-02T10:09:00.006-04:00

june was the month of weddings for my extended family in alabama. i had two cousins get married in or near birmingham within three weeks. the first was my mom's sister's daughter- victoria. i don't have as many pictures of this event, but here i am with the bride. the wedding was at a beautiful farm in the country. the night was completed with fireworks over the lake. victoria was recently accepted to school for music technology in birmingham, where she and her husband michael will live. she is a talented guitarist and recorded her own wedding march playing classical guitar!

last weekend we had the second wedding, in which i was a bridesmaid (bridesmatron?). it was my dad's brother's daughter- ashley. she was in my wedding nearly four years ago. here's a flashback of that.back then she was dating patrick off and on. they are high school sweethearts, which is neat because so are her parents- my aunt jenny and uncle larry. here they all are. uncle larry looks like he's tired of taking pictures! ashley & patrick will live in birmingham where she recently got a new job as an editor at southern living. but her passion is clothing design, and she is very talented! you can see some of her original designs at her website, addie & elon.

the weekend was so relaxing & fun because we stayed at a hotel downtown very close to all the events. i always find staying at hotels really luxurious, i guess because i don't have to make my bed, clean up after myself, or cook! birmingham has some great shopping, so after the bridesmaids' luncheon on friday we went to the summit where christopher got some new shoes and i got to visit anthropologie. the rehearsal dinner was delicious, at a restaurant called brick & tin. the wedding was at historic rucker place. here we are in the bride's room...and at the reception. chris & me with my dad's parents. mom & dad with grandmother & daddy buck. my mom played piano for the ceremony and my dad helped turn the pages. we are almost done with weddings for a little while. we have one more this summer, on my birthday in new hampshire. christopher is a trooper, because i know weddings are not as fun for boys. but i do love weddings!

playing catch-up: memorial day weekend

2011-06-16T22:52:00.005-04:00

i'm a couple weeks behind on blogging...for memorial day weekend, we went to the farm where chris' mom's side of the family gathers for eating, laughing, and relaxing. the male grandchildren have revived the tradition of smoking a whole pig. here they are being manly. sorry for any vegetarians out there, but this stuff's delicious! eva even enjoyed some scraps.here's a picture of me with my future sister-in-law, andra (kevin's fiancee- immediately next to me). if i look a little different, it's because i tried a spray-tan. i've always wanted to because God did not give me the ability to tan naturally! it felt funny, but i think i could get used to it.

i can't remember who the middle lady is, and the one on the far right is angie, who is a super cool mom and lets me borrow her sweet daughters for some crafts. this year we made beach cupcakes with blue sprinkles, crushed nilla wafers, goldfish, and gummies. thanks to my friend meg for the idea & mrs. cathy for helping gather the supplies!

recent happenings

2011-05-24T21:37:00.007-04:00

we have been in our new house about a week and a half now. we had a great group of friends who helped us move in. we are so thankful for their friendship & help!
we moved the same weekend as my dad's 60th birthday, and we were planning to surprise him the next day (sunday) for lunch. it turned out that since the move went so smoothly (and quicker than we thought, thanks to my sweet engineer husband who streamlined everything), we were able to go to augusta that same saturday (my dad's actual birthday) and surprise him for dinner! he was not expecting it, and we had a great visit.
we are slowly getting things unpacked, but i am seeing that it is going to be a process. this is the first time in my life i've moved where i didn't have 2 weeks or a whole summer off of work and school to get settled.
we are getting used to our new location and driving a little further to get places. downtown doesn't seem as far as i thought it would. i went to liz's birthday downtown last week (but unfortunately didn't take any good pictures!). tonight i had dinner at the nosedive with my sweet girls from bible study, as an end-of-the-study party. i am sad that we no longer have a central location to meet. the four on the left are new moms or moms-to-be, which is exciting! these girls have challenged me in my faith and "spurred me on to good works," which i thank God for!

round trip

2011-04-18T20:59:00.006-04:00

this weekend we drove to alabama so i could attend my cousin ashley's bridal tea sunday. on the way down saturday, we got to have lunch with our college friends luke & julia. luke just returned from kosovo after a year of military duty. i know he must be so glad to be reunited with his wife & baby daughter, carrigan! (she was at her grandparents' for the day here.)we went to church on sunday, and my grandmother proceeded to introduce me & christopher [read: show us off] to no less than 20 or so of her friends. keep in mind this is at a church where that probably comprises 20% of the congregation! we went to the bridal tea shortly after church, while the men went to lunch. it's funny, because there was actually no tea involved. it was basically a shower. except it felt more like a reception. our gifts were opened discreetly by the hostesses and displayed on several tables for all to see while everyone mingled and ate. i think this is how things are done in small southern towns. it was fun to meet some of ashley's other bridesmaids that i will be seeing more of over the next two months. here i am with the beautiful bride, her mother (aunt jenny), and our grandmother. grandmother is wearing the same dress that she wore to her & daddy buck's 50th wedding anniversary (they are now going on 63 years!) and to mine & christopher's wedding. on the way back through atlanta, we got to have dinner with our good friends wes & blakely. we enjoyed little szechuan while their sweet boys, ashton & collin played. soon it was their bedtime and ashton was in his little monkey pj's. i asked him if i could have a hug and he said "yeah, sure!" they are both so sweet! it really works out well that many of our friends living in atlanta are in the perfect path for us to meet up with on our way through town. we love greenville, but we do miss our atlanta friends!

blessings

2011-04-14T20:14:00.009-04:00

i heard a quote once: nothing happens, and nothing happens, and then everything happens. we had a period of about a week-and-a-half like this last month. first, we found out christopher was promoted to lead engineer! in case you're wondering, he does still work on the hot gas path. while this isn't as hilarious as the first time i heard it, it still strikes me as kind of funny. the next big thing that happened was that i also got a promotion at my job! my new role will start next month as a mental health counselor II. (as opposed to a mental health counselor I; the government is very creative with their titles.) and then, the biggest news of all was that we made an offer on a house, and the sellers accepted!! in a few weeks, we will be calling this home:eva is going to have fun running around in the backyard! we are so thankful for all three of these blessings. God is good!

flashback

2011-03-31T18:25:00.005-04:00

last weekend our sunday school class had an 80s & 90s party. we collected music from those decades to listen to at the party, and we all dressed up. i had a great time looking through my cds from the 90s. some highlights include early alanis morissette, ace of base, coolio, and the one-hit-wonder preconfigured-dance-move favorite: the macarena.
a few weeks ago, i was telling a (50-year-old) coworker about our party, and she let me borrow some great 80s songs she had on record (or lp, or whatever they used back then) from when she was my age! what i really love about the 80s style are the bright colors- purple and teal are some of my favorites. amazingly, i already had almost everything i needed in my closet for my outfit. i did buy a t-shirt and some cheap jewelry. but, i didn't buy anything i won't be wearing again. you can't really tell in the picture, but i wore the hot pink floret earrings. i really enjoy having these in so many colors!as much as i wanted us to go as an 80s couple, it is very difficult to create a boy's outfit from the 80s. props to brandon who was able to do this (two pictures below, second from the left). his wife lori (the one i mentioned in my previous post makes jewelry ) made him a clip on earring. for chris' 90s look, we found a nirvana t-shirt at target, and he wore an unbuttoned flannel shirt over that. when he paired it with his boots (which may actually be from the 90s!) and cargo shorts, he was ready with his grunge band look. most of the girls decided to dress 80s. i really love lori's walkman accessory (she's to the right of me below). she said she found it at home in her nightstand!the guys are a mix of the two decades. here is what we called their band "album cover" shot! it was a great night, and it got me wondering: what styles will we laugh at from the 2000s in ten years?

paperie

2011-03-28T21:58:00.007-04:00

something i really enjoy doing in my spare time is making greeting cards. ever since i was in elementary school, i can remember making my own cards to give to family and friends for birthdays and other holidays. i recently bought some scrapbook paper and other fun crafty items to do a craft night with my bible study girls between studies, intending to use the leftover paper to make some cards. that night we made bookmarks to use with our study books. here's mine:i really admire (and maybe secretly envy!) people that have a unique hobby that they could potentially turn into a full (or part) time job. one of my friends, liz, is a talented photographer and started her own business, yellow umbrella photography. another friend, lori, makes beautiful jewelry and recently set up a shop online for simply idyllic. maybe one day i will sell my cards...i just imagine it being hard to earn a living on products that are essentially paper and glue! i think sometimes it's just fun to dream about doing something else when my real job is challenging or doesn't seem particularly fun.i think one reason i enjoy making cards is that it combines two things i truly love: creativity and encouragement (or words of affirmation, for you 5 love languages fans). i like having cards around because you never know when you might want to send someone a handwritten note.

adventures in house hunting

2011-03-07T22:14:00.004-05:00

christopher & i spent the better part of saturday looking at seven more houses with our realtor, josephine. i was curious how long this was going to take us because last weekend, four houses took 3 hours! i guess we're getting faster because it didn't take double that. we saw some great houses, and i couldn't put my finger on why but a few just didn't pop for me. josephine says we have to love it, almost instinctively. i have enjoyed this process so far, and we have a couple houses we really do like a lot.

one really funny thing happened at one of the older houses: we were looking around downstairs, then i was the first one to go upstairs to look in the master bedroom. at first i gasped when i saw this hairy thing in the middle of the floor. then i thought, no- that couldn't be...must be a dog toy or something (keep in mind that the house was completely vacant). but it was, we discovered, a dead squirrel! just sprawled out, legs every which way in the middle of the floor. josephine thought it was really sad and wouldn't set foot in the room, i thought it was really disgusting and tip-toed past so i could look at the master closet, and christopher thought the whole thing was truly hilarious...and took pictures. i'll spare you and limit it to one:
we developed a scenario for what must have happened, based on the squirrel's positioning: christopher thought he got in through the roof. josephine & i thought he must have wandered around desperately, looking for water or a nut. then he dragged his body across the carpeted desert until his strength gave way and he collapsed dead. fortunately he had not been dead very long- so christopher tells me, with his ME experience (as in, medical examiner not mechanical engineer!) from watching law & order reruns.

as we were leaving that house, our realtor called the selling agent of the home to let her know there was a dead squirrel in the middle of her master bedroom. she said a what? after josephine clarified, the agent wanted to know - other than the dead squirrel - what we thought of the house! um, it's not at the top of our list.

busy weekend!

2011-02-27T15:58:00.005-05:00

christopher and i have had a fun but busy weekend. it was his first free weekend after having to put in all those extra hours for a design review he had tuesday. (it went well, by the way.) so friday night, we went on a date... he surprised me with these beautiful irises, then took me to a new restaurant in greenville, the nosedive. it is operated by the same restaurant group that owns my favorite restaurant, the lazy goat. the concept for the nosedive is "gastropub," which apparently means common food prepared in an uncommon way. for example, our appetizer was fries three ways- porcini mushroom dusted, sweet potato, and lime salt with dipping sauces of citrus chipotle & truffle aioli. chris had a burger and i had a croque madame, which is a croque monsieur with an egg on top (my high school french teacher would be proud!). for dessert we had the krispy kreme brulee (delicious! though it didn't really taste like the donut) with espresso chocolate chip cookies. we have lived in greenville almost three years and really enjoyed our apartment complex. this year we are starting to look for houses, and yesterday was our first outing with the realtor. it was really fun, but kind of exhausting! there's so much to think about. we saw four houses and there was one that i could really see us in. when you find one you like, it's hard not to imagine way ahead- chris was thinking about having a "man cave" and i was thinking about a craft room for my art projects. when we were at our favorite (so far) house, i ran back upstairs to take one more picture, and i found myself getting a little teary looking into one of the bedrooms and thinking, this could be a nursery one day! i guess it's easy to get emotional buying a house because it is so much more than money or how many rooms it has- it's where you are relocating your life. good thing for me, i have a logical-minded, engineering husband who can balance me out. we are meeting with our realtor again next weekend to look at several more. i am eager & hopeful, but i also want to be patient and trust in God's timing & provision for this (and all!) area(s) of our life.

upward

2011-01-23T15:41:00.006-05:00

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!

2011-01-11T21:15:00.009-05:00

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!

2011-01-01T18:39:00.009-05:00

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!

christmas table decor

2010-12-23T21:21:00.009-05:00

i'm catching up on my posts and did two at one time, so if you missed the other one about our holiday activities so far just scroll down...or go here. this year i hosted a table for the women's ministry christmas dinner at our church. it involved decorating with a centerpiece, using your china, and providing placecards/favors.christopher helped me out greatly with the creation of the placecard holders. first of all, i have to thank chris' cousin pam for letting me take some pecans from her yard at thanksgiving! i was in their front yard walking eva and noticed how pretty some of the fallen pecans were. anyway, christopher was so sweet to drill slots in the pecans and hollow them out with his dremel. (good excuse to use the man tools, huh?)then i painted them with some shiny acrylic paint.and added the placecards.i actually used the same centerpiece i used last year but changed it up by spray painting some of the pinecones with silver & gold paint. i also added some of the gold pecans i didn't use from the placecards. i was trying to mix the silvers & golds so that my gilded dishes (i really just wanted to use the word gilded!) would blend better with the silver tray & flatware. thanks to my mom for letting me borrow her fine flatware, as i don't have enough of my own! for the favors, i stuck with the pecan theme. i made my grandmother's sugared pecans (which she always has at christmastime!) and put them in some tiny (and therefore cute!) chinese takeout-looking boxes. i really had fun with this project and was pleased with how everything turned out.

holidays so far

2010-12-23T20:51:00.008-05:00

it's been a while since our last post, so i'll catch you up on our holidays goings-on...we went to the farm in south georgia (chris' mom's side) for thanksgiving. we had a baked turkey and a fried turkey. christopher was in charged of the fried one, and it was delicious! i've already decided that in 30 years or so, whenever i'm responsible for taking over holiday meal preparation, i'm going to let him fry it up! it's so much faster and equally delicious. the next day while the boys were doing something with beef brisket (smoking, maybe?), i stayed inside with the girls and we made christmas mice- an idea mrs. cathy got from her friend. at the beginning of december, we had a christmas party with christopher's work at the very lovely westin poinsett. these are some friends that we actually know through church, lori & brandon, but the husband also works at ge. this month we also had a christmas party with our sunday school class. the boys didn't want a picture, but here is one of the girls: and finally, last weekend we did christmas with the golden side of the family. here is a picture of us: christopher, his two brothers, and his parents. kevin, his middle brother, just got engaged this month and this is his fiancee, andra! i have always wanted a sister!

missions

2010-10-18T21:14:00.002-04:00

october is missions month at our church. a couple weeks ago we had an amazing multilingual service and shared the Lord's supper with Christian believers of other cultures in the area. we've been learning about some of the conditions around the world, and some of the financial statistics are eye-opening. for example, if you sold everything you owned and could come up with $2,200, you would be in the wealthiest 50% of the world. if you did the same and could come up with $61,000, you are in the wealthiest 10% of the world. (for most of us young people, it will only be a matter of time before we can achieve the latter.)

by nature, i enjoy things- clothes, going out to eat, taking trips, other luxuries. i pray that i won't be materialistic or ever love these things more than i love the Lord. lately God has been showing me that i have SO MUCH and have been blessed in so many ways. i am so thankful for this fresh perspective and feel content with what i have, knowing that it is really more than i need. a year ago, i was impatiently wondering, "when will we ever pay off my student loans so we can buy a house?" now that we are debt-free, i feel God challenging me to ask, "how can i use what i have to be a blessing to others? how can i glorify Him?"

i am touched by recent reports from some of our friends. a couple we know left this month to be full-time missionaries in a middle-eastern country, trusting God to compel other believers to give enough monthly to fund their efforts. our dear college ministers from GT, jamey and mary, are continuing to minister to college students in louisiana but more recently have been taking steps to adopt a child from uganda to be a little brother to their three sons. (check out their adoption blog.) they are stepping out in faith, knowing that God will provide for that which He ordains. this is God's love in action, and i want to be a part of it! i'm not exactly sure how God is calling us to respond, but i want to be prepared to say YES!

today in the mail, we got a christmas gift catalog from samaritan's purse, a ministry founded by billy graham's son whose mission (quoted from their website) is to "follow Christ's command [in Luke 10:30-37] by going to the aid of the world's poor, sick, and suffering." please check out the catalog here. i love the format, as it reminds me of a department store catalog. i couldn't help but cry as i read what different amounts will buy for those around the world- such as $75 to rescue a child from exploitation or $9 to feed a hungry baby for a week. not your typical christmas presents!

our praise band sang a worship song sunday that vocalizes what i'm feeling:

You said, Ask and you will receive
Whatever you need
You said, Pray and I'll hear from heaven
And I'll heal your land

You said Your glory will fill the earth
Like water the sea
You said, Lift up your eyes
The harvest is here, the kingdom is near

You said, Ask and I'll give the nations to you
O Lord, that's the cry of my heart
Distant shores and the islands will see
Your light, as it rises on us

O Lord, I ask for the nations (repeat)

[music from hillsong]

fall so far

2010-10-07T19:28:00.006-04:00

fall is definitely here! last weekend we went apple picking at sky top orchard with liz and scott- and little miss leah, of course!it was very picturesque, walking around filling our baskets with handpicked apples of every kind. i am thankful for my tall husband whose reach far outstretches mine! i love how the rows of trees were labeled with the type of apple. we had to pose here, for obvious reasons:this week i made apple streusel muffins and apple crisp. i also sliced up winesap apples- the kind my grandmother picks from her backyard for her fried apple pies. they freeze well, and i will be making some pies of my own soon. for saturday's game, we are taking apples & brickle dip (among other things). speaking of games, here's some photos of the gt season so far. first game: this is the dress christopher picked out for me in chicago. here i am with the girls, linda & katherine:christopher's whole family ended up coming for the white-out game. we're not sure of the last time the four golden men were together at a football game!a few weeks ago, we had a church picnic with our newlywed sunday school class (and the teachers & their kids): the class is actually a lot bigger than this. we recently split into two classes because it was growing so much. so sadly, christopher and i are no longer newlyweds!

brad paisley concert

2010-08-29T13:26:00.007-04:00

this weekend, chris & i went to charlotte to hear brad paisley and some other country music artists. we went with our friends from church, the kelleys and the swingles. here's me with the wives, britton and meg. chris is in a bible study with the husbands. here's matt with his wife meg. and here's gary with his wife britton.
chris & i took the day off work on friday, slept in, and had a leisurely morning before carpooling to charlotte after lunch. we had a great time! there were some other artists there, including darius rucker who used to be in hootie and the blowfish.

my sweet husband (our anniverary & my birthday)

2010-08-17T18:04:00.009-04:00

last wednesday, august 11th, marked 3 years of marriage for christopher & me! we are thankful for God bringing us together and for strengthening our marriage these past few years. we have many more to go! we spent the weekend celebrating with a trip to charleston, which chris planned and kept a surprise until last week. i hadn't been there since middle school and had been wanting to visit again, now that we're south carolinians and all. we stayed at an antebellum hotel downtown called the mills house.on friday evening we took a carriage tour of downtown. i love the quaint row houses and cobblestone streets! on saturday, chris & i each planned an activity. there was an art museum two blocks from our hotel, the gibbes museum, so i couldn't resist that! chris was very patient with me as i enjoy taking my time looking at paintings.chris chose for us to visit ft. sumter, so we took a ferry that afternoon. he definitely enjoyed looking at the monument and old cannons. i was reminded about how little i retained from u.s. history, which i attribute to having coaches for all my high school history classes!
we ate delicious food (especially seafood!) all weekend. my favorite restaurants we went to were magnolia's, where they serve kind of a modern southern cuisine, and hominy grill, a quaint brunch place where the servers wear t-shirts that read "grits are good for you." when we left the hotel on sunday morning, there was a torrential downpour! chris had to navigate alternate streets so as not to forge the rivers that various streets had become. we had planned to drive to the beach at isle of palms before going home, so we headed there (less than a half hour drive), hoping the rain would subside. it did briefly, but began again. we just decided to enjoy our time there, since we were getting wet anyway!
my husband is a master of surprises. i brag to my coworkers (who, being counselors, are pretty good at confidentiality!) that christopher is like a vault...i haven't had a chance to blog about it, but he also surprised me on my birthday in july. i wanted to get some friends together at my favorite restaurant in greenville, the lazy goat (mediterranean tapas food). chris made all the reservations. my favorite part of any meal is dessert, and this is especially important on a birthday. i thought maybe friends could come over for cake and coffee afterwards. chris led me to believe he had some amazing dessert in the fridge (i wasn't allowed to look in it all afternoon), and then surprised me at the restaurant by having them (singing, of course), bring out a mint chocolate cake from their sister restaurant/bakery. it was delicious! i love christopher!

tori's wedding and chicago

2010-07-10T13:30:00.011-04:00

last weekend, we drove to the chicago area for my friend tori's wedding. it was around 11 hours, and chris drove the entire way. (i promise i offered to help, but he doesn't mind driving and i don't prefer it!) we passed the time by listening to a lot of brad paisley music (we're getting ready to go to his concert next month in charlotte!), listening to my mom's favorite book, to kill a mockingbird (which is a lot funnier than i remember it being in 9th grade), and talking about our dreams for the future and life in general. i feel like we have some of our best conversations riding in the car together.
so we arrived in naperville (a suburb where tori lives & where all the wedding activities were held) on thursday night. on friday, i enjoyed a fun day with the bridesmaids getting manicures & pedicures and having a delicious lunch of tortellini soup and apricot/apple salad. these menu items were courtesy of the bride's sister, catherine, who is a regular martha stewart! (she was also the one behind the yummy dishes at the bachelorette weekend.) friday night we of course had the rehearsal followed by the rehearsal dinner, in which tori & ron rented out their favorite tapas restaurant. the bacon wrapped dates and the goat cheese balls were my favorite dishes.on saturday morning, we started getting ready at the hotel. then we moved to wedding & reception location, arrowhead golf club, to continue getting ready for the ceremony at 5pm. here's the gorgeous bride with her sister catherine and mother debby before the ceremony. their ceremony was held at a beautiful arbor outdoors, and the reception was a lot of fun. they had several meal courses, my favorite of which was the cold stone ice cream bar. there was also a photo booth & funny props (hats, sunglasses, etc.) to make silly pictures. we danced until nearly midnight, when they served a late-night snack. then we sent the bride & groom off with sparklers. today is actually tori's 26th birthday, and they are currently enjoying a two-week honeymoon in scotland, france, & italy.chris & i spent the fourth of july sunday exploring downtown chicago with carrie and her husband eric, who were also there for the wedding. (carrie was a good friend from middle & high school. she & eric met in college at mercer and now live in lawrenceville.) here we are enjoying deep dish pizza at gino's east. my favorite attraction was going to the skydeck at the top of sears tower. 103 stories up, they have The Ledge where you can walk into a glass box and see the city below.
we also walked along the magnificent mile, and chris picked out an adorable dress for me at h&m. it's white and gold- he has of course already got his mind on football season! chris' favorite thing we did was a river boat tour of the architecture of chicago. at the end of the day, we watched fireworks shot off of navy pier. using the walking directions feature on google maps, i calculated how far we walked on sunday: 6.6 miles! no wonder my calves were aching for two days afterward! all in all, this was simultaneously one of the most fun and exhausting trips i've taken in quite a while.

octogenarian fête

2010-06-20T19:29:00.008-04:00

this weekend the riddles celebrated grandmother's 80th birthday. on the way to alabama, i got to see wes & blakely. here they are with their sweet son, ashton, who will be two in august. as you can see they are expecting again soon- another boy, collin, next month! grandmother picked the restaurant, lloyd's, and we enjoyed a great seafood meal. (sorry for the blurry picture. i think it was focusing on the flowers, but you get the idea.) then we went back to the house for cake & ice cream. here's the beaming birthday girl!it was great to catch up with my cousin, ashley. we missed chris- his softball team was playing in a tournament, so he wasn't able to come. he held down the fort and kept eva company all weekend.

food for thought...

2010-06-12T08:09:00.002-04:00

chris & i went out for sushi this week, and as we were eating our edamame i thought: isn't dipping soybeans in soy sauce kind of like dipping peanuts in peanut butter? that is all.

pig pickin'

2010-06-05T09:08:00.020-04:00

katy told y'all about what she did last weekend, so now i'll let you in on my half of the story. i've been working a ton of hours lately, so sorry you haven't heard from me in a while. typically we drive down to alma, ga on memorial day weekend for a good time of eating and family fellowship with the rimes (my mom's side of the family). since katy wasn't able to go this year, i drove down to my parents' house on thursday night and made the rest of the drive with them on friday morning. we got to alma around mid-day to find another typical scene: folks shooting something just for fun. :) my cousin chuck (fellow TECH man) made a potato gun earlier in the week, and he and kyle were giving it a whirl. needless to say, around 20 lbs of potatoes and a few cans of white rain hairspray were gone by the end of the weekend, and they weren't used for salad or hair fixin'.
my grandfather started our memorial day family tradition about 12 years ago with the pig pickin'. those of you who went to high school with me probably remember this. we did that for 5-7 years, and for various reasons stopped cooking the pig for the last several years. well, this year we went "whole hog" again. my cousin will set in motion the awesome plan for the grandsons who would be there to begin doing this again. all the plans were made and the supplies were gathered before we got to alma. one important thing was missing:

the 90 lb pig!

we picked up the pig on friday afternoon from d.l. lee & sons, a meat processing and packaging plant owned by some other cousins of ours (my great grandmother was a lee). if you ever see any lee brand sausages in the store, pick up a package - they're delicious. we can't get them up here in greenville, so i brought a few packs back for future enjoyment.

we went to bed semi-early on friday night and woke up at 4:00-4:30 the next morning for cooking. the day started out with preparing the coals. getting charcoal and wood ready for pit coals is much more fun if you have the right tools.

we put the pig on at about 5, and the rest of the morning was full of coffee, smoked sausages, talking, watching the pit temperature, adding new coals to the fire, and jerry clower's greatest hits. here's one of my favorites.

(l to r) will, me, kevin, & jay intently watching the pig.

around 11:30, we turned the pig and gave it a slathering of some of good sauce.

after it was finished cooking, the "chefs" enjoyed a few moments of pulled ribs and other good meat - a true reward for waking up early and cooking all day. finally, the chopping and pulling commenced to produce the final product: lots and lots of chopped and pulled pork (enough for 31 with 2 hams left over).

6 of the 7 rimes grandsons
(l to r) kyle, me, will, jay, kevin, & chuck

folks, this was some good eatin', and we've definitely renewed a family tradition.

on sunday mr. mike cooks up a low-country boil, and it was as good as ever.

some delicious low-country boil: shrimp, sausage, corn, potatoes, and onions

of course, most of the family was there and we had a good time talking, eating, driving around town, shooting potato guns and real guns, fishing, sitting under the carport, eating (repeated for emphasis), and relaxing in general. memorial day weekend and most others with our family are just a good ole' southern good time.

memorial day weekend

2010-06-02T18:25:00.004-04:00

chris & i spent the holiday weekend apart and though i was sad to miss the rimes family spring fling, i had a great time celebrating tori's bachelorette weekend! eight of her closest friends from high school, college, and work met in helen, georgia where we rented a cabin.on saturday morning, we went tubing. i'm not sure how i've survived almost 26 years of my life without ever going tubing, but it's pretty relaxing. we linked all 8 of our tubes together.on sunday, we went horseback riding. this i have done before, but not a lot. they show you how to steer your horse, but i'm pretty sure these could do it blindfolded.
other than that, we spent the weekend watching chick-flicks and eating delicious girly food (think strawberry chicken salad and sunflower honey bread).i'm looking foward to tori's wedding july 4th weekend. chris & i are road-tripping to chicago!

ambition

2010-05-27T09:23:00.005-04:00

i was taking eva out last night (we sometimes don't use a leash). she disappeared into the shrubs for a moment...and returned with this stick twice the length of her body! i think she's gotten feistier these days because another (much larger) dog came out and played tug-of-war with her, and she held her own. that's spunk!

that's my king!

2010-04-18T23:35:00.005-04:00

who knew - two video posts in a row. :) here's a video that was played at brushy creek on easter sunday (first created by granger community church). it's an awesome video mix of the passion of the christ and a sermon called seven way king spoken by s.m. lockridge. click the bottom right to go full screen to get the full effect.

lixit

2010-04-10T23:38:00.004-04:00

considering eva spends much of her day in her crate, she was long overdue for a water bottle. we got her this one that attaches to the side and works like those used for hamsters. i think it's a real novelty to her to drink water upside down through a metal ball bearing, because even when her regular water bowl is full, she'll drink from this one. the other night, she for some reason decided to drink from it while on the other side of her crate.

easter

2010-04-07T20:52:00.005-04:00

chris & i had a nice easter weekend. on good friday, i had a great time decorating easter eggs with liz & some other girls. here's 3 eggs for our little family: a gt gold one for chris (his name didn't turn out that clear), a purple one for me, and a blue one for eva. while i was decorating these, chris was at home watching a ken burns special on the civil war. can't say i was sad to miss that! on sunday we enjoyed our church service and had a packed sunday school (our class has exploded to about 35 members). the pastor spoke about the true meaning of easter. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. ~1 Peter 1:3
in the evening, we had an easter potlock with some friends from church/chris' bible study who were in town. the food was delicious: barbeque chicken avocado burgers, pasta salad, fruit, and chips with blueberry nut crunch, peanut butter chocolate squares, and cheesecake for desert. after all that, we needed some exercise! we ended up walking to a nearby park and enjoying the beautiful spring weather.
last thing: i tried sugar-free peeps this year, and they are so much better than the regular ones! you can actually taste the marshmallow because the sugary-sweetness doesn't overpower it.

march update

2010-03-29T23:03:00.006-04:00

chris & i have been staying busy this month! he just started softball season with the church league again. i'm looking forward to watching his games and getting to hang out with the other wives. chris is entering his busiest season at work, with a yearly design review coming up. my work has been pretty exhausting lately. my outlet has been getting together with my friend lori every week to work on various craft projects. she's into making jewelry, and i'm working on another decoupage to decorate my office.

chris & i visited augusta weekend before last, for my friend tori's wedding shower. she & ron are getting married near chicago in july. the shower was quite a reunion! here's the trio of high school best friends: tori, jessie, & me. and the three of us with carrie. this group goes all the way back to middle school!old roommates from atlanta: tori, meghan, nidhi, me. we had a nice visit with both sets of parents and then returned to greenville for a celebration of the end of our forty days of community campaign at church. our sunday school class has grown (i.e., doubled) over the last several weeks!

valentine's

2010-02-14T20:16:00.005-05:00

here's us after celebrating valentine's with a delicious meal at devereaux's last night:this restaurant is a special treat, as we only go on very special occasions. we got the "valentine's day chef's tasting menu", which was 5 small courses of the chef's choosing. my favorite course was lobster with a vanilla-parsnip sauce. the dessert, a white chocolate shell encasing raspberries & chocolate mousse atop lemon meringue, was a close second!

we exchanged cards, and i made christopher a crossword puzzle of some memories from our relationship. i found a neat website (discovery puzzlemaker) that makes them for you- perfect for teachers! this is our 7th valentine's day together, our 3rd as husband & wife. we've now had eva for one year, if you remember that we got her in 2009 for a valentine's gift to each other.

snow!

2010-02-14T00:04:00.002-05:00

here's eva hopping through the snow:

netflix origami

2010-02-04T20:50:00.004-05:00

i learned about netflix origami in real simple. it's a fun way of reusing the netflix flaps that you tear off before sending your movie back. somebody figured out how to fold them just right to make 13 different shapes. as you can see, so far i've made the t-shirt, tray, envelope, swan, box, heart, and frog. i still have the crab, sack, cube, and several airplanes to make to complete the set!

winter weather

2010-01-31T15:46:00.005-05:00

this weekend, we got some snow/sleet. not quite as much as last year, but enough to keep us in the house all day saturday. i was going to attempt to run some errands, but i decided against it after i spent nearly a half hour scraping the ice off my windshields and slipped once, falling on my knee (no injuries to report, thankfully!). i don't know how people in the north survive this weather on a regular basis! eva didn't know what to make of the ice. here she is, cautiously approaching the "grass." i thought the way the ice melted on these branches was really beautiful.

confession

2010-01-19T23:49:00.003-05:00

my name is eva and i have an addiction: shredding tissues. i steal - tissues from the only trashcan i can reach, bathroom - to support my habit. it interferes with my daily functioning. i need an intervention!

holidays 2009

2010-01-05T20:54:00.010-05:00

if you're my friend on facebook, you've probably seen most of the following pictures. but read on for more details of our christmas vacation!

tori & ron, my best friend from high school & her fiance, came to greenville where tori's parents relocated when we were in college. we got to show them downtown and take them to one of our favorite pizza places, barley's. we're looking forward to celebrating their wedding near chicago on july 4th weekend this year! we went to augusta for the first part of christmas week. there i got to see my other high school best friend, jessie. we had lunch at one of my favorites, french market grille. here we are making snickerdoodles at her parents' house afterward.we got to see chris' high school best friend, patrick, and his wife brooke. they moved to iowa this summer and returned to the south for christmas. we hung out with them the night they arrived in augusta- which was also brooke's birthday!we spent the first part of the week with my family. we enjoyed going to see a christmas carol and spending christmas eve together. here we are during an early christmas dinner on wednesday with my dad, mom, and brother andy. christmas day we drove to chris' grandparents house in south georgia. there we enjoyed lots of time with his extended family. he has 11 cousins on that side...compare that to the 1 i have on my dad's side. i'd say i've adjusted to his BIG family. unfortunately, i didn't get a good picture of everybody. eva loved chasing chris' aunt & uncle's dog, jojo, who is a jack russell mix. i forget that even though eva is an inside dog, she LOVES having the freedom to run wherever she wants - not on a leash - out in the country.

my favorite gift of the year: the vest we got eva. i think chris thinks these types of things are mildly ridiculous, but he is a good sport and i promise she's needed it. this week has been quite cold in greenville! chris reminds me that dogs are bred for the cold weather, but he humors me and puts it on her when he takes her outside.we rung in 2010 with friends from church, tim & blaire. i never seem to remember to get a picture of the four of us, but here chris & i are in their living room. the holidays got to stretch on a little later this year. my grandparents from alabama came to visit my parents the week of new year's, and they all drove to greenville for the day saturday. it was wonderful to see them, and it was a nice not to have to drive anywhere. we enjoyed showing them our home and going to lunch.

catching up...

2009-12-19T22:07:00.008-05:00

over two months since we last blogged - we are officially busy (and bad bloggers)!

so i'm going to do a photo medley post to catch you up on what we've been up to since the last post:

oct. 17: saturday night win over virginia tech preceeded by awesome tailgate. even the goal posts "got down" ;)

oct. 31: katy dressed up as daphne from scooby doo for halloween. i was busy in nashville at the tech game against vandy.

nov. 26: thanksgiving with the rimes family in alma. my 2nd cousins loved sitting in the big recliner with katy and eva!

nov. 28: tech-uga game. 35 folks plus 30+ pounds of fried turkey made for an awesome tailgate that turned out to be better than the game. sorry no pictures, our camera batteries died. if anyone has anything to say, my response is i hope you have fun at the independence bowl ;)

dec. 5: acc championship game vs. clemson with tilman in tampa, fl. jackets won 39-34, and we're going to the orange bowl!

dec. 11: sunday school christmas party at the hartsells' house. here's a picture of the wives because they look better than the husbands.

that's about it for now. katy and i are both off this week and looking forward to visiting family and friends in augusta and elsewhere. we wish each of you a very merry christmas and happy new year!

early new year's resolution: blog a little more in 2010.

christy's wedding

2009-10-14T23:22:00.003-04:00

this weekend we visited augusta for the wedding of one of my good friends from high school, christy. i was a bridesmaid, which gave me perfect reason to take friday off! (by the way, i love the dresses she picked out - will definitely be wearing mine again!) so i enjoyed a bridesmaids' luncheon on friday. then chris came with me to the rehearsal & dinner that night.
christy is in medical school, which is where she met her now-husband, josh. i think it is so neat that they both have a passion for medical missions. they first got to know each other on a foreign medical mission trip, and they are preparing to go together on another in february to cambodia. christy's flowers in the wedding were beautiful, and i have been enjoying my bouquet all week!

surprise visit

2009-09-17T23:10:00.003-04:00

julia called me this afternoon at work to say she & luke would be going to north carolina this evening to get a new car and they realized they'd be passing right through greenville. so on their way back, they came & shared pizza with us while we watched the last of the tech game. here's the sweet gurley family, with precious carrigan - and eva. so good to see them!

it's that time of year again...

2009-09-07T19:25:00.011-04:00

you guessed it: it's football season. katy and i had a wonderful weekend in atlanta going to a wedding and visiting friends (see post below). still, my favorite and most anticipated part of the weekend was the first georgia tech football game. i always tell katy she doesn't have to do anything much for my birthday because the ncaa decides to start football season around the first of september. thanks ncaa!

as with every home football game, we started out the day with our usual tailgate. we didn't take any overall pictures of the set up, but the grill, lots of food, and satellite tv were present and accounted for. katy bought an excellent ice cream cake for a tailgate birthday celebration with all of our friends. here's a picture of me with the cake. i didn't blow out all the candles in one breath because of that first pesky y. good thing i didn't wish for an undefeated season!

last year the athletic association was running a special deal, so we bought four tickets and invited folks to games with us. this year we decided to get a little better seat location. we've got two tickets and are sitting with our friends the freemans and derek. katy thinks the game moves along much more quickly with linda there to talk to!

here are a few more pictures. the first is the view from our new seats in the upper east stands, and the second is beautiful tech tower, a campus icon, as seen from bobby dodd stadium at historic grant field (the oldest and winningest stadium in division 1-a football).

finally, here's a picture of katy and me after the game. we're looking forward to many more fun and exciting football weekends this fall!

doggies, weddings, and babies

2009-09-06T23:36:00.006-04:00

three of my favorite things! first, we celebrated eva's first birthday this week with her first bandana that i found online at pawsh pooch, a doggie boutique by two women in kennesaw. i also found some peanut-butter flavored frozen dog treats near the ice cream in the grocery store. eva seemed to love it! we recommend putting it in a dog bowl, not a saucer (which is what the box shows) because as she licked it, it fell off the sides!

we went to atlanta for part of the long weekend for kaitlin & wallace's wedding and the first gt football game of the season. i'll let christopher tell you about the football...the wedding was beautiful. here are linda, angela, & me with the bride: our favorite campus minister, jamey, was the officiant. it was great to see him, and we miss him and his family a lot!we enjoyed staying with some tech friends, angela & joseph. they have a black lab named dixie that eva enjoyed playing with. chris & i got to meet luke & julia's baby, carrigan for the first time. she is around 6 months old and looks just like a tiny female version of luke. we also got to stop by for a visit with the yorks. it's hard to believe their son, ashton, is already one!

weekend with the goldens

2009-09-01T21:33:00.005-04:00

chris' parents came to visit us in greenville for the first time last weekend. on friday night, we showed them around downtown and went to dinner at the lazy goat.on saturday, we went to the biltmore - mr. chris & mrs. cathy got to see it for the first time, and christopher & i enjoyed one last use of our annual passes before they expired. we decided to take a specialty tour and got to explore some balconies and rooftop terraces.
the gardens are always exquisite, and the weather was gorgeous. i can't imagine a family calling all of this home.our last stop on the estate was the farm, where mrs. cathy & i held baby chicks at the petting zoo.
the goldens came to church with us on sunday and left in the afternoon. it was a wonderful visit!

recent notes

2009-08-20T21:40:00.004-04:00

now that i'm working i'm having trouble finding time to blog! here's what we've been up to lately:

we celebrated our second anniversary last week by watching our wedding video and going out to devereaux's for dinner. we exchanged our "cotton" gifts - i made a scrapbook of our second year with a cloth (presumably cotton?) cover, and christopher gave me a plush cotton robe.
we said goodbye to dustin as he moves to atlanta. liz and scott joined us for grilling out and brought leah (who is already a month old!)...she got to meet eva, which was fun. eva was simultaneously curious and scared of her, which is funny because eva weighs more than she does! they were very sweet together, and i'm excited to see more of leah as she gets bigger.chris is looking forward to football season (is it really only two weeks away?), and i am excited to be visiting our friends in atlanta again regularly.

random tidbits

2009-07-28T21:44:00.005-04:00

just wanted to share a few recent pictures...

chris & i have been taking eva to a beginner obedience class at a place called dog trainer's workshop. we've been to 3 classes and have 3 to go. it has been really fun, and we're all learning a lot. eva was able to sit for us before the class, but now she is also learning to lay down, come, and stay! here's chris working on down with her:
last week we got to meet liz & scott's beautiful new daughter, leah audrey. she is absolutely precious. i kept thinking she was so tiny, but then i realized i've never met a baby as young as 8 days old! also, i should add that liz & her house look amazing for having given birth just a week earlier!finally, here are some pictures of my office now that maintenance came and hung everything for me. i included a few different angles. there is still more i want to do for the room, but this is good for now. eventually i'd like to get my diplomas framed and hung, and get a paper lantern for the corner to the left of the two counseling chairs.

birthday week

2009-07-19T16:22:00.008-04:00

we celebrated my 25th birthday on wednesday, and chris got me two dozen beautiful roses! we went out to portofino's, a local italian restaurant that liz introduced me to. after spending two weeks in my office with stark white walls and little personality, i went on a mini shopping spree with my birthday money to find some office decor. i wanted a table to put between the two counseling chairs in my office. i also thought some soft lighting would be more relaxing than the fluorescent lights.i've never really liked fake flowers, but with no window i thought i better go fake if i wanted any green in my office. so these hydrangeas from world market grew on me (no pun intended). i also wanted a wall clock so that i'll be able to discreetly keep track of the time during sessions. i liked the retro look of this and thought the red was a nice pop of color. finally, i finished the artwork i started last month. this wasn't exactly what i'd planned - i didn't end up using newsprint or magazines, but i like how creative projects have a way of being spontaneous. the background is acrylic paint, and the collage part is scrapbook paper. if the silhouette looks familiar, it's because my sweet husband volunteered to let me trace his shadow! i'm excited to get more settled in my office, especially as i build up my schedule of individual sessions with clients. i'm enjoying work so far, and i think it's a great fit for me. i am so thankful to have a job that i like!

july 4th weekend

2009-07-09T21:46:00.007-04:00

we had a great time last weekend with friends and family. since i've started work, it feels like my free time in the evenings flies by - so i'm later than usual with the weekend update. speaking of work, it's been going well so far. i definitely have moments where i feel totally overwhelmed, but overall i'm excited about what i'm going to be doing. i'm very thankful that my supervisors are easing me into my position and that my coworkers are so nice & helpful!
back to the weekend - after my first day on thursday, i had friday off! so thursday evening we drove to visit the riddle family in alabama. everybody loved eva, and i think daddy buck wouldn't mind having a pet!
on friday, we went to my aunt jenny & uncle larry's house which is on the river. we had a great time jet skiing, swimming, and hanging out! eva got to play with their golden retriever, jack. we came back to greenville on saturday afternoon and got to see patrick & brooke while they were back from iowa for a few days. we had a great time with them & brooke's sister & brother-in-law, who live in greenville. we found a good spot downtown and enjoyed the fireworks! (our new camera has a fireworks setting!)

places we like to eat: the lazy goat

2009-07-07T22:56:00.008-04:00

katy tells me i haven't posted in a long time. i told her it's because she wasn't working and was able to beat me to the punch with every exciting event that we've had for the last few months. i figured i'd ease back into the blog with a personal favorite: places we like to eat, greenville edition.

today's restaurant is the lazy goat. it has quickly become one of our favorite downtown restaurants, and they've always got something interesting to eat. it's a great place for date night or a night out with friends, and with a motto like time well wasted, you know it has to be good.

restaurant: the lazy goat

food: mediterranean with a southern flair. at the lazy goat, you can have tapas (appetizer sized portions) or a regular entree portion. we've enjoyed many of the tapas, but the past few times we've been i've chosen from the entrees. a few months ago i tried a special that was brazed oxtails served over a bed of fava beans (shout out to all the hannibal lecter fans!). last weekend, i had the lazy goat paella which was my favorite dish there so far. some of our favorite tapas are the moroccan lamb and the fried goat cheese. we've tried something new and different each time we've gone to the lazy goat, and we've never been disappointed.

service: on a scale of 1-5, i'd give it a solid 4. we've had one visit with spotty service, but the wait staff has typically been excellent.

price: appetizers are $5-10, entrees are $10-20.

dress: casual to business casual

address: 170 river place, greenville, sc 29601

website: the lazy goat

riddles in greenville

2009-06-22T10:25:00.006-04:00

this weekend, my parents came to visit us. chris took friday off, and we drove up to the biltmore for the day. the weather was gorgeous, and there was a refreshing mountain breeze. (my parents said it was 104 degrees in augusta - whew!)
on friday evening, we ate dinner at the overlook grill in downtown greenville, which is nestled in falls park overlooking the reedy river. we spent some time walking around main street, and came upon a dixieland jazz combo:

on saturday, we ate at a quaint restaurant called brick street cafe, which is only a couple of blocks from my new job (i start july 2nd!). we showed my parents the massive ge campus where chris works, our church, and a few other places.

new camera

2009-06-22T10:17:00.005-04:00

out with the old...

in with the new...we're thankful to have a new camera, courtesy of a reward chris got at work! that first camera is one chris bought when he was still co-oping (circa 2003). i am excited that this new one fits nicely in my purse.

amazing God

2009-06-18T15:40:00.004-04:00

next week is my last week of volunteering regularly at piedmont women's center. i have really enjoyed my time there, and leaving is bittersweet. the other volunteers are such spiritual encouragers to me, and it has been a blessing getting to know them. though i have been a christian since i was almost 9 years old, i have never had the experience of praying with someone as they receive Christ. last week i started praying that i would have that opportunity before my last day at pwc next week. i shared this with our director and chris this week, and they started praying the same thing with me. i am amazed to say that God answered our prayers this morning! with each client that comes into the center, we always try to share the message of the gospel. as i was sharing this with the first client i saw today, she told me she wanted to ask God to be the Savior & Leader of her life. praise the Lord!

winter wedding

2009-06-14T14:17:00.004-04:00

no, i am not confused about the time of year - one of our friends from the gt bsu, mike winter, got married yesterday in black mountain, nc. we met his bride danni for the first time, and she was absolutely beautiful!
it was a charming ceremony at a rustic little cottage in the mountains called the wild hare. we enjoyed drinking his grandmother's sweet tea and her grandmother's "back porch lemonade" out of mason jars. ("back porch lemonade" has a little orange juice and crushed mint added - delicious!)
our friends justin & linda (to the right of us in the picture below) stayed with us last night on their way back to atlanta. they just celebrated their first wedding anniversary this weekend in asheville, which is where we spent ours last fall. we really enjoyed getting to see them! jordan & emily (to the left of us) are getting married in july, so we're looking forward to their wedding. we have quite a few weddings again this year (6 or 7, i think). good thing i enjoy wedding season like chris enjoys football season! here's mike & danni's getaway vehicle (and, incidentally, our car in the background). on the front porch of the wild hare, they had an easel set up with paint & brushes so guests could paint the view of the mountains - danni said they were going to display the finished product in their home! you can see my contribution of three little flowers to the left:

surprise visit

2009-06-08T09:07:00.004-04:00

chris & i had a great weekend - wes & blakely called us on thursday so see what we were up to on friday. we didn't really have plans because chris had a softball game from 8:30-9:30pm. it turned out they were free & we were free...so they came & spent the night with us! how fun - my goal was (is) to invite them up, and each of our parents before the summer's over.
of course they brought their beautiful, almost-10-months-old boy, ashton. and their sweet dog, haley. we went to tsunami (our favorite sushi restaurant here), and showed them around downtown a little before the game.saturday was also a great day...after the yorks left, i went shopping for a bit. then in the afternoon we met grant & audrey at the pool and ran into tim & blaire there! the weather was gorgeous, and we ended up grilling out for dinner.

des projets d'art

2009-06-04T13:58:00.007-04:00

as promised, i've been starting some art projects before i start my new job (official start date: july 2nd). there is a dear woman that volunteers on thursdays with me at piedmont women's center who makes the cutest greeting cards and sells them for only $1.50. i've bought several from her, and it got me thinking...i used to make all my own cards when i was in college. at the time, it had as much to do with saving money as being creative. i had gotten out of doing it as i'd gotten busier in grad school, but recently i've felt inspired to start again. here are a few cards i made last month:
i also bought a canvas this week at michael's. it's the largest one i've ever gotten, 24 x 20" (they were having a great sale!). is there anything more intimidating to an artist than a blank canvas? i have an idea in mind...my french teacher in high school had this great painting in her home in which the artist incorporated newsprint in the background, under the paint. the idea of a collage-style painting appeals to me, so i'm thinking of using some glossy magazine pages...i'm still not sure what the painting will be of, though...any suggestions?
(eva couldn't resist her curiosity as i took this!)

job :)

2009-05-28T22:02:00.003-04:00

praise the Lord - i got & accepted a job offer this week!! i had two interviews in the past month, which was encouraging after not hearing anything for so long. i was concerned about the possibility of having to decide between the two agencies, so i prayed that God would close the door to the first agency if the second one was right for me - and that's exactly what He did!

the position is as a counselor at greenville mental health center, which is only 15 minutes from where we live. the job description is almost exactly what i had in mind when i graduated last may. i'll be working with adults on an outpatient basis that are primarily struggling with depression, anxiety, or other mood disorders. i'm excited about getting to do outpatient because i only got to work with inpatient populations during my internship at the hospital. this means i'll be able to develop longer relationships with clients and see them on an ongoing basis. it also means i'll be working normal business hours, which is thrilling! (it's surprising how few opportunities don't involve working on nights & weekends.) the caseload is rather large, but the good thing is i'll get to do a lot of group therapy. this was my favorite part of my internship!

i won't start until july because the agency is part of the state government (SC dept of mental health), so there's a little red tape. in the meantime, i plan to continue volunteering and to enjoy my last month off. i already have a couple art projects in mind!

rimes family spring fling

2009-05-26T21:03:00.005-04:00

every memorial day weekend, chris' mom's side of the family gathers in alma, ga at the farm house where mrs. cathy and her brothers & sisters grew up. we always tell people that what we do there can be summed up in three words: talk, eat, sleep. in other words, it's a wonderful time of relaxation & fun!it took us just under five hours on friday to drive there. eva is a great traveler!it was raining off & on most of the weekend, so the ground stayed muddy. good thing we brought our boots! here i am with chris' cousin jay's little girls, emma & grace. (i think that would make them my second cousins-in-law?)
my favorite meal of the weekend is mr. mike's low country boil:
we stayed at chris' aunt trudy & uncle randy's house. their son will, and his wife, amanda have a sweet 2 year old son, michael and a 6 year old boxer named sugar raye (clever, huh?). here's sugar & eva being sweet:
on sunday night, we played what seemed like a never-ending game of phase 10. in actuality, it lasted just over 4 hours and ended a little before 2am. the later it got, the sillier we got. chris' brother kevin (in the light blue) & his girlfriend andra won, but i was excited that i finally made all 10 phases!

fun week

2009-05-20T23:38:00.008-04:00

this week has been filled with fun events so far. on monday night, i went to chris' softball game. they are doing really well this season and won their game this week. there is another wife, kim, that always goes and keeps the score. we have a lot in common, and i am enjoying getting to know her. maybe she will rub off on me, and i'll start paying more attention to what's going on during the games!

on tuesday, piedmont women's center had a cowboy-themed potluck dinner for all the volunteers & staff. chris came with me, and it was great to get to introduce him to some of the ladies i volunteer with. they also unveiled some expansions they are planning for their primary center downtown, which is exciting.

today, lori and i planned a picnic in the park with our dogs. it was the most beautiful day of the week so far - bright sunshine and not a cloud in the sky! we had chicken salad on croissants, chips & salsa, and these awesome puff pastries lori made with whipped cream and chocolate sauce - delicious! her dog, spencer, is a year-and-a-half-old yellow lab, and he & eva had a great time playing. here's a picture of spence in the car on the way - just begging to be let into the front with us. lori is also looking for a job right now, and we decided it would be fun to make picnic lunches together a regular thing until we find jobs.

tonight was the last meeting of our "greenhouse" class at church - basically brushy creek's wednesday night bible studies. our class had a party, and we enjoyed a lot of good food. chris wanted to bring stuffed jalapenos, and i wanted to bring apples & brickle dip (joy's recipe). so we compromised, and i made a half recipe of each.

we're looking forward to going to chris' grandparents' farm house in south georgia for the long weekend. everyone have a great memorial day!

magnificent seven weekend

2009-05-17T22:05:00.007-04:00

the title of this post refers to chris' group of 7 close friends from high school. this weekend was a reunion of sorts for them, plus the spouses and significant others that have been "inducted" into the group! everyone came to town - erika & matt, patrick & brooke, jessica - to join us & dustin in celebrating liz & scott's soon-to-come baby girl with a shower on saturday. we had a great time eating, talking, taking pictures, and learning random baby trivia.
saturday night we ate downtown and and walked around main street, showing everyone falls park (a beautiful area with a waterfall and walking bridge). we also stopped for gelato, which is my new favorite food!on sunday morning, the boxes (middle) and the bates (right) came to church with us. in the afternoon, we had a cookout to wish patrick and brooke goodbye as they prepare to move to iowa next month. we are going to miss them, but we are excited for the new adventures we'll get to hear about!

athens weekend

2009-05-13T16:02:00.007-04:00

chris & i had another fun weekend, this one spent in athens. matt and erika were so kind to let us stay at their place all weekend long and leave eva there while we went to our events. it was great catching up with them...we realized that the last time we'd seen them was at our wedding! that streak is over though, because we'll be seeing them again next weekend when they come to greenville for liz's baby shower & the boxes' farewell party. the bates have a black lab, lola, who was super excited to have a playmate! they were more interested in each other's toys than their own. check out the size difference in their kongs - not sure if you can tell because of the distance, but lola's is the red one & is about 4 times bigger than eva's! eva loved lola's pre-chewed bone, and at one point lola was holding it in her mouth above eva while she tried to get it...it was a fun game. on saturday, we went to chris' middle brother kevin's graduation from uga. his degree was in business with an emphasis in accounting, and he will be moving to atlanta later this summer to start a job with a firm there. we are proud of him and hope he'll do our taxes one day! here's us with kevin and his girlfriend, andra. the brothers golden: kyle, kevin, & christopher on sunday, we went to a georgia tech friend's wedding. the ceremony was outside at the classic center, and the weather was perfect - not too hot, just a bit breezy. the rain held off until just after the ceremony ended. the reception was beautiful, too. here's ashley and jamie having their first dance: finally, here we are with our dear friends, justin & linda. we're excited they'll be staying with us later in the summer when we all go to another friend's wedding in asheville, nc. it's fun to have reunions!

fun weekend

2009-05-04T13:38:00.006-04:00

on friday chris and i went to a cinco de mayo party that some friends of ours from sunday school, tim & blaire, were hosting. we enjoyed delicious salsa, cookies in the shape of chili peppers, and good times with friends.
on saturday, we went to the kenducky derby - it's an annual charity event held downtown on greenville's reedy river. you "adopt" a rubber ducky and they race them down the river. one of the beneficiaries is a group that liz volunteers for: miracle league, a sports program for children with disabilities.we brought eva and had a great time! audrey & grant met up with us and brought some of their friends who were visiting from out of town. it's such a family friendly event. eva makes friends wherever she goes. we should be getting a call this week if our ducks won anything. first prize is free groceries for a year from bi-lo! i'm not holding my breath or anything...

busy week

2009-05-01T10:59:00.008-04:00

this week has been busier than usual for me, as i've had something almost every day related to my volunteering. on monday, i helped out at a charity golf tournament at greenville country club that benefits piedmont women's center. it turned out they had so many volunteers that there wasn't enough work to go around. so after placing a few sponsor labels on golf carts, i ended up sitting on the veranda in rocking chairs with our director enjoying a delicious free lunch and the gorgeous view of the golf course. it was such a beautiful day, and the course was amazing. it makes me wonder what i've been missing by never having been to the masters....

on wednesday, i went to an informational breakfast at bethany christian services, a national adoption agency. i learned a bit about the adoption process and specifically what that agency offers. this is such valuable information - not only with my current volunteer position but in my career as well.

tuesday and thursday are my usual days at the center. this week i got to conduct my first counseling session (rather than just observing). i am really enjoying the work and am amazed at the women who come in. they are from all different walks of life - single teenagers to married women, locals to foreignors, etc. what they all have in common is an unplanned pregnancy and related fears. this week i got to sit in on two ultrasounds. when one woman saw the picture of her baby wiggling around on the screen she exclaimed, "it's beautiful!" it really is an amazing thing to see.

my first week at the center, i observed an ultrasound and ended up fainting (for the first time in my life)! so there i was, supposed to provide comfort and reassurance to the pregnant woman, and i passed out. i think it happened because it was unusually hot in the room and the ultrasound machine made it even hotter. since then, i think everyone was afraid to send me up to observe! i'm glad we've all gotten over that, because in a couple of weeks liz is coming in for one. i'm excited to get a sneak peek of her sweet baby girl!

weekend update

2009-04-20T11:54:00.006-04:00

i recently encountered the grossest experience i've ever had. i came home from volunteering last thursday to a reeking odor and found eva in her crate, hovering above a mess she made. apparently one mini marshmallow can cause her to have an upset stomach. she was just standing there waiting for someone to come home and let her out. i literally wailed out loud at the mess i had to clean up! i felt like a new mom (this seems to be a recurring theme) because i had no choice but to give her a bath. i also had to throw away two of her toys & a towel and disassemble her crate to wash it. the good news is, she got some new toys out of it! i'm pretty sure petsmart manufactures toys for the pleasure of pets' owners because eva is perfectly content with an old towel...but how cute is a squirrel beanie baby?! on friday, liz and i went to lunch at strossner's. it's a bakery/cafe (same place i ordered the cake for our anniversary). i had been wanting to try their lunch for a while, but frou frou places like that aren't exactly chris' favorite. while we were there, we couldn't resist a trip to the bakery. i brought home a box of truffles, and chris and i ate them that night while we watched chocolat.

easter weekend

2009-04-14T20:34:00.016-04:00

we had a busy easter weekend. on saturday, we met brooke & patrick in gaffney for lunch & outlet shopping. they live in rock hill, so it's a perfect midpoint for us. as soon as patrick finishes graduate school at winthrop, they're moving to iowa where he is starting a position as a band director. we're trying to see them as much as possible before they leave in june. we'll miss them and we hope they start blogging so we can keep in touch easily!
chris and i had a nice service at our church easter morning before leaving for alabama. we had learned on saturday that my grandmother (mom's mom) passed away early that morning. she's had some recent health problems and had been in the hospital, so this was not unexpected. we left greenville sunday afternoon to be with my family and attend the funeral on monday. it was held in the town where my mom grew up - brundidge, al. i hadn't been there since i was a small child, so we visited some places that were important to my mom. it reminds me of the town in to kill a mockingbird, which is my mom's favorite book.
house where my mom grew up (though it's been renovated...they never had a tin roof). salem baptist church - where my parents got married. the funeral was also held here.napa auto parts store that my grandfather owned - i never knew him since he passed away the year before i was born.

the juxtaposition of my grandmother's death and easter sunday reminded me that God is bigger than life or death and that He's in control of all things. "for i am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." ~romans 8:38-39

spring teaser

2009-04-06T22:59:00.009-04:00

well, we got a taste of spring this weekend, but apparently it's not here to stay! i'm glad to say i "carpe'd the diem" and went to the dog park on a whim yesterday afternoon. chris and i were having lunch with lori & brandon, and we kept noticing how beautiful it was outside. before long, we'd made plans to meet them with their yellow lab, spencer, as soon as we could get changed. this was eva's first dog park experience, and i felt like a nervous mother on the playground. i was really amazed at how gentle the bigger dogs were with her. you can see eva right beneath that HUGE hairy dog that resembles a black bear! here's a not-so-centered picture of eva & spencer...they kept moving around when i tried to take it. better picture of spencer with a cute beagle that they were playing with. i think the walk TO the actual dog section of the park from where we parked our car was the longest walk eva's been on. it's the first time i've ever seen her pant. we noticed a few other dachshunds with harnesses instead of collars and realized that's probably a more comfortable way to walk her since her neck is so small. so this afternoon, i took eva to petsmart with me and we picked out a cute pink harness and retractable leash - now she's ready for spring and won't be mistaken for a boy!

meet the parents

2009-03-30T20:43:00.008-04:00

this weekend we had our first visit to augusta since we got eva, so she got to meet both sets of our parents. my dad is a chaplain at a retirement community, and all the residents have been asking about his "granddog." i guess they can relate to having grandchildren, and she's the closest thing he's got right now! eva seems to be outgrowing her bark-at-new-people phase; she did really well around both our families. my mom, who has never been an animal person, thought she was a sweet puppy. she was teasing my dad that he's going to be wanting one himself now. saturday was mr. chris' birthday, and kevin was home also. in the afternoon, we went to see a movie (taken - it was pretty good) while mrs. cathy stayed home with eva to finish dinner & catch a nap. eva loves being let up on the couch to snuggle for naps. that night we had a great meal, and kevin couldn't resist sending a picture of it to kyle since he had to work & couldn't be there.

caring for women

2009-03-21T12:28:00.009-04:00

i recently finished training to volunteer at piedmont women's center, a christian pregnancy center with several locations in greenville. i learned about pwc through my church and was interested because it seemed like a great opportunity to use some of my counseling skills while i'm searching for a job. after learning more about the program, i realized it will help me grow spiritually as well. i am really impressed with their approach - they provide resources like free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, and counseling and strive to respect the woman's autonomy while sharing God's love with her.

at our "graduation" from training, the director gave us lapel pins that were the size and shape of a baby's feet 10 weeks after conception. in the past couple days i have met several people who support this ministry, which is such an encouragement. it turns out the girl who cuts my hair used to volunteer there in high school and attended their fundraising banquet this week. the nurse who read the TB skin test i had to get before starting told me her mom used to volunteer there and went on about what a great place it is. i'm looking forward to getting started soon and appreciate your prayers for me!

let the madness begin...

2009-03-19T12:27:00.005-04:00

for the first time in my life, i have filled out an ncaa bracket. if you didn't already know, i'm not exactly a sports fanatic. but of all the sports to watch (excluding olympics), i enjoy college basketball the most. probably because of the fast pace and the fact that i (mostly) understand the game. also, i know my sweet husband is going to be watching every game that our cable airs for the next few weeks. so rather than be bored that whole time, i figured this would make things more interesting...if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

the prom

2009-03-16T15:14:00.005-04:00

this weekend christopher and i went to ge's annual salaried recognition event, aka the ge prom. last year was our first time going together, and we made the trip to greenville from atlanta. i didn't really know anybody there, but it was an intersting glimspe into the future. this year was more fun, since we had several friends there. liz was there with her boyfriend, scott, who works at ge.
our friends from church, brandon and lori, were also there. brandon works in a different group within ge. lori is an interior designer with fluor, and she's my local art buddy.we also got to spend some time with the guys (and their wives) from christopher's design group, shrouds. it's interesting to me how all the engineers identify themselves based on their group, all of which are named for technical parts/processes of a gas turbine: buckets, shrouds, nozzles, combustion...at christopher's group christmas party this year, one of his co-workers made a shroud out of rice krispy treats. i found it fitting that the prom was on pi day this year (3/14).

the theme of the evening was st. patty's day, so there were servers dressed as leprechauns. the food was pretty good, and they had some live music as well as a dj. it's always nice to have a reason to dress up and eat a free meal!

eva in action

2009-03-11T23:47:00.004-04:00

here's eva in her role as mighty dog! unfortunately, she won't be fetching for a couple of weeks. she was spayed today, and there were some complications. apparently she had an old injury on her spleen that started bleeding during surgery and had to be removed. the vet said if they had not found this, she could have ruptured it in the future and bled to death internally without us ever knowing! phew, i'm thankful they caught that. poor thing threw up (from the anesthesia) three times tonight and had an accident in her crate (which hasn't happened since the first week we got her). i've done three loads of laundry from towels and blankets that got dirty, and i feel like a mom with a newborn! thankfully, she will be sleeping soundly through the night - as will i.

p.s. chris said he would like to harness the energy in her wagging tail...ge would be proud. i love my engineer!

atlanta weekend

2009-03-10T17:23:00.010-04:00

chris and i had a great weekend visiting some dear friends in atlanta. friday night, we ate at los hermanos with the yorks and stayed with them that night. they didn't mind us bringing eva, and we were glad for the chance to get her more socialized. other than a little barking at first, she did great around their dog, haley and their sweet 7-month-old son, ashton. it helps that haley is one of the most laid-back dogs i know (she's in a category with the droddys' dog lucy). turns out ashton is fascinated by dogs. he was so cute to watch playing with them! later the sullivans dropped by and brought their dog, georgie. i wish i had a picture of the three of them sniffing each other! chris assures me that smelling behinds is equivalent to shaking hands for dogs. blakely also let me feed ashton, which was fun. on saturday, we hung out with the gurleys. chris watched some baseball with luke while i went with julia to her baby shower thrown by our old church, mt. vernon. it was great to get to spend time with her and see many of our old friends from sunday school. how cute are these dresses? the gurleys got a surprise yesterday when julia went into labor a month early. carrigan hope was born at a little over 5 pounds but was healthy, praise God! here's a picture they sent out to the sunday school class. i think julia looks amazing to have just been in labor!

spring is here

2009-03-09T21:52:00.002-04:00

spring is officially here. i rang in the season this evening by grilling out for the first time in 2009. with the recent good weather, an impromptu meal of cheeseburgers and french fries was in order. i can honestly say that it doesn't get much better than a messy cheeseburger and salty fries on a windy spring day, though a messy cheeseburger on a windy fall day before a football game just might take the cake.

anyhow, spring is here and it couldn't have come soon enough. we're looking to sunny saturday afternoons, going home from work before it's dark, being outdoors, and swimming at the pool. we'll keep you updated on all the activities!

spring cleaning & SNOW!

2009-03-02T10:11:00.009-05:00

i never thought these two things would come in the same weekend! chris & i have been trying to do some spring cleaning every saturday, one room at a time. this week, it was our bedroom...specifically our closet. i wish i had a before picture, but i'm pretty happy with the after.
to give you an idea of our progress, here's the goodwill pile. plus, there were a couple trashbags of stuff not worthy of taking to goodwill.
last week, i got eva a sweater because it had been a little chilly. i didn't see any extra-long torso sizes for dachshunds...we think it looks like a midriff top on her. but it still came in handy with the SNOW last night!
when we got out of church last night, this is what our car looked like in the parking lot:
it took us twice as long to get home, and we saw several cars stuck in the snow on the way back. i was glad chris was driving! here's what it looked like right outside our apt:eva wasn't sure what to make of the snow. naturally, she tried to eat it. then she started hopping around like a rabbit - i think because her legs are too short to walk through it. we got four inches!
you can see a little better what it looked like this morning:

finished art

2009-02-19T12:05:00.003-05:00

here's a picture of my completed collage. i discovered these cool rub-on decals at michael's that you see in the corners.

more eva photos

2009-02-16T12:38:00.004-05:00

so the blurriness on our camera was easily fixed when chris cleaned the lens with a q-tip...

valentine's week

2009-02-14T16:23:00.006-05:00

we have sort of been celebrating valentine's all week long because on tuesday evening, we got an early valentine's present...a puppy! she's a six-month-old dachshund named eva (pronounced ay-vuh, not eve-uh). we've been thinking about getting a dog for a while. i've never had one, but i've always thought dachshunds were really cute. chris would love to have a great dane eventually, so this is a step in that direction.
eva was a little timid when we first brought her home but has been coming out of her shell as she gets more comfortable around us. she was already crate trained and we've gotten her pretty much potty trained...now we just have to work on her people skills! she has been barking at anybody that walks by. most of the time she's sweet, though, and we've been enjoying playing with her.
we celebrated valentine's last night because the restaurant we wanted to try, devereaux's, was booked tonight. the food was delicious, and they had a live jazz combo playing. i wish there were more places in greenville to sit and listen to music like that. tonight we're going to watch p.s. i love you and eat some cupcakes.

saturday fun

2009-02-08T17:13:00.003-05:00

we just got a new computer (no vista problems yet, wes and blakely), so i guess that means i'll have to start posting again. actually i'm finally finished with my december to january work marathon, which means i might have some time to post.

work has been going really well lately. i had several big projects that i finished without any issues, and i'm blessed to have a job that i really enjoy. katy was very supportive of my working long hours for those weeks to get the job finished. i'm happy that i'm through with those, and i'm looking forward to a few months of more normal hours and having all my time free on the weekends.

katy and i had a pretty great saturday yesterday. the weather was beautiful, and we started out the day having breakfast at broadway bagels with our new friends blaire and tim. we're enjoying getting to know them and some of the other couples in our sunday school class. we sometimes think that we'll have plenty of time to visit folks out of town, but our schedules are quickly getting filled with greenville events. it's great because it means that all the time greenville is more like home, and we're developing some good friendships and getting plugged into church here. don't worry, there are still many trips to atlanta and elsewhere planned for the future!

after breakfast i ran some errands. it had been over 6 months (but still under 3000 miles) since i had had the oil changed in my car. it's definitely nice to have a 2.5 mile commute when your car is getting old. after errands katy and i drove to outlet malls at gaffney. we were going to exchange some things i had received for christmas, but katy certainly didn't mind the opportunity to go shopping for a little while. she did buy a dress for the upcoming ge prom, which we were happy to find out will be held this year despite the slow economic times.

we finished up the day by going downtown with scott and liz. we went to takosushi, so katy and i had the unusual combination of chicken nachos, lettuce wraps, and sushi rolls. while i've been skeptical about the theme for this combo restaurant, for me, the nachos and sushi combo worked. this beautiful saturday has both of us looking forward to spring big time.

the music room

2009-01-23T12:09:00.013-05:00

many of you know that i left my job before the holidays. (if you didn't know, feel free to ask me about it.) i'm hoping to get involved with a volunteer opportunity that i learned about through our church. i'm still keeping an eye out for counseling positions, but they're relatively scarce. in the meantime, i'm finding things to keep me busy...

i've started a small project that combines two of my loves: poetry and art. here's some background: my junior year at georgia tech, i took a poetry class (yes, there's poetry at tech!). it was absolutely one of my favorite classes (chris liked the fact that half the football team was taking it with me). one of our assignments was to write an original poem based on a photograph. i chose this one i had taken of my grandparents' living room because it's a place where i feel inspired, and i have many wonderful memories of daddy buck listening to my mom play the piano there.that year my poem was published in gt's literary magazine, and i shared it with my family. so now i'm working on a collage that will hopefully bring it to life in a visual way (kind of like what an artist did for a favorite wcw poem of mine).
here's another picture from last christmas (2007) that illustrates what i had in mind when i wrote the poem. i plan to give the collage to my grandparents when i'm done. in case you were wondering, blogging about it doesn't ruin the surprise because daddy buck - who turns 85 today! - does not own a computer, much less has access to the internet.

christmas recap

2009-01-21T16:13:00.010-05:00

after a great christmas break, we're getting back into the swing of things. chris had two weeks off, and we spent all of that time out of town! though it was fun to see all of our family, i'm not sure we'll stay gone that long again. we spent the first weekend with chris' grandparents in south georgia. this is at their church on sunday:
then we stayed with my parents in augusta during the next week. we had a chance to visit with some of our old high school friends. monday, we had lunch with my friends christy and lindsey, & her husband gerrit. tuesday, we had dinner and saw four christmases (i don't recommend) with chris' friends jessica and patrick, & his wife brooke. i always enjoy catching up with them...i just wish i had taken some pictures!

we celebrated christmas eve with chris' parents and brothers. we went to a silent Lord's supper service at their church and went to their house afterwards.we did christmas morning with my parents. christmas day, we traveled to see my grandparents in alabama.as you can see, rummikub is a riddle favorite! that's chris there with my cousin ashley's friend patrick, uncle larry, and daddy buck. on saturday night chris & i went to birmingham with ashley & patrick. we were getting tired of dressing and turkey/ham (seeing as how we had four christmases ourselves), so we had sushi and saw the curious case of benjamin button (very good movie!).

after we returned to augusta, we spent the rest of the week with chris' parents. we made a day trip on tuesday to greenwood, sc (between augusta & greenville) to see my good friend from high school, tori, and her boyfriend ron. tori's parents moved to greenville when we were in college. it turned out that chris & i weren't going to be in greenville when she was visiting them, so we met halfway for lunch & bowling. she gave me the cutest paint-by-number stationery.

we rang in the new year with chris' parents' good friends from church, the faircloths (we like to call them mr. chris & mrs. cathy's BFFs!). the men watched the gt bowl game, the outcome of which which made me so very glad we didn't buy tickets. mrs. cathy's friend, mrs. dale, is a consultant for scrapbooking supplies and has gotten mrs. cathy interested. so they worked on some of their albums while i painted the cards tori gave me. chris spent much of the rest of the week watching bowl games with his dad, and i took the opportunity to go shopping with my mom and visit the morris museum of art.

post-thanksgiving, pre-christmas

2008-12-15T09:45:00.009-05:00

here are a couple pictures of us spending thanksgiving with our families (better late than never!):
can you tell which side is which? we spent the first part of the week in augusta with both our immediate families, then we went to south georgia and spent thanksgiving day and weekend with chris' maternal grandparents. they have a farm house in the country, and our visit (as usual) consisted of lots of eating, talking, & sleeping! we also fed some ducks at the pond, shot rifles (thanks to kyle!), and watched the uga-tech game with chris' cousins - one of whom went to uga and one of whom went to tech. talk about a divided house! the highlight of the game (for me) was receiving a text from my dear friend jessie (who went to uga), which stated: "what do georgia and georgia tech fans have in common? none of them went to uga!" (sorry to our uga friends who went there and are fans...this is obviously just a generalization!)

since we got back, i've been doing a lot of decorating, shopping, & baking. here are some pictures of our decorations this year:
this wreath was made with less than $10 of material from michael's! after we put it on our door, chris commented that we should start calling our apt "g-unit".we kept our same charlie brown christmas tree from last year, but as you can see - it just needs a little love!

october updates: church

2008-11-08T17:57:00.007-05:00

a few weeks ago we joined the church we've been visiting. we also started going on wednesday nights and are in a class about discovering your identity in christ, which is a study of the book of ephesians. we've enjoyed getting to know the couples in our sunday school class and have gotten to do some fun things with them. we went out with the class for miniature golf & go-cart racing. we also carved pumpkins with brandon & lori, who made a tradition of doing that each year. it was my first pumpkin carving! lori is an interior designer, so i am thrilled to have found an art buddy in greenville! she & i went downtown to greenville's open studios last weekend, which is an annual event where you can interact with local artists at work in their studios. we decided we need to find an art class in greenville & take it together!

october updates: football games

2008-11-08T16:06:00.011-05:00

sorry for the lack of posts this month! football season is in full swing, and we've been at games the past 5 saturdays. i, for one, am thankful for a break today! we've really enjoyed having friends & family come to the games with us. justin & linda joined us for the duke game. luke & julia (who announced they're expecting their first baby next spring!) came to the gardner-webb game. the clemson game was away this year, but it felt more like a home game to me since it's now closer to us than our atlanta games. a few friends from tech (derek, john, & jon) came to stay the night with us here in greenville, then we tailgated after the game with my friend audrey's clemson crew (she's the girl i met taking the class this summer).
the game vs. uva was homecoming, and jordan & emily (who just got engaged!) got to come with us.last weekend was the fsu game, and we went down friday night to see wes, blakely, & ashton again. we hung out at...guess what, another football game (of the high school where wes directs band). then on saturday, mr. chris & mrs. cathy (our parents/in-laws) joined us for the fsu game, and we enjoyed unlimited stir fry at chow baby afterwards.

published...

2008-10-13T19:50:00.004-04:00

i can now add author to my list of accomplishments. my grad school paper is finally getting published! it's in the american society of mechanical engineers journal of manufacturing science and engineering. click here for the citation. the funniest thing is that they sell it for $25 per copy. if you actually want to read it, you'll have to subscribe to asme or pay up! :)

job update

2008-10-02T12:19:00.004-04:00

on tuesday, i was feeling more frustrated than ever about not having a job, and i prayed for trust in God's timing. not even one hour after i finished praying, i got a phone call from a place i interviewed checking on one of my references (jamey!). it was just the encouragement i needed, and i felt like God was reminding me He was still working in that situation. then a few hours later i got a job offer and felt like it was a direct answer to my prayers!

i start next week as a treatment coordinator at a group home for boys where i'll be providing group & individual therapy, as well as some family sessions. i'm excited that my supervisors are open to letting me incorporate art into the group sessions. i'm definitely nervous about starting something new, but i truly feel like this is what God prepared for me.

church update

2008-09-30T22:26:00.004-04:00

after spending all summer visiting a lot of churches in greenville, chris and i are thrilled to start attending one regularly: brushy creek baptist church. they have a great newlyweds sunday school class we've been going to. though we feel like we've been married long enough not to be considered newlyweds anymore (we're pros at this now right??), the other couples are closer to our age and typically stay about 3 years before moving up to the young marrieds class. it doesn't hurt that the teacher went to georgia tech, and he & his wife are big gt football fans! last weekend we went with them to see the movie fireproof, and it was great! we're looking forward to becoming more involved there and getting to know people better. everybody we've met so far has been so loving and inclusive, and we're grateful that God has led us there.

gt vs. miss state

2008-09-24T14:14:00.012-04:00

we had our second home game of the season this past weekend, and this time my parents joined us. since it was a noon game, we had a breakfast tailgate before and a lunch/dinner (linner?) tailgate afterward. that's a lot of tailgating! it was great to catch up with some of our old bsu friends and enjoy good food. my parents really had a good time and were glad to get to meet some of our college friends. i guess i've been married a while and people have gotten used to my new name because one friend accidentally called my parents "mr. and mrs. golden" when we introduced them.a funny thing happened. my parents brought a (brand-new) cooler with drinks for the tailgate. they were a little concerned about leaving it under our tent during the game, but chris & i reassured them that it would be fine. we've been tailgating in that spot for a few seasons now and always leave our tailgate equipment there during the game; nothing's ever been stolen. you can see where this is going...when we got back after the game, their cooler was gone! it was the only thing missing.my dad summed up the day pretty well when he gave us "A+ for food, A+ for hospitality...and F for security!"

64 crayons

2008-09-13T12:31:00.007-04:00

today chris is watching football...all day. so in my boredom, i found this. brings back some great memories of one of my favorite childhood pastimes! i guessed them all - with a few mistakes. apparently they've renamed a few colors since the last time i bought a box. my favorite is blue violet, but sea green is pretty awesome too.

ramblings...

2008-09-08T22:12:00.005-04:00

like i always say at the beginning of a post, it has been too long since i last blogged. katy has been doing such a good job keeping up with our goings-on that i haven't really had anything more to say. but, she's watching the hills and we only have one tv, so i literally have nothing else to do. so, i'll give it a shot.

i've been living the blue collar life these days as i'm working out on the shop floor for a two week manufacturing rotation. this kind of stuff is right up my alley; sometimes it's much more fun to get to work with those guys than deal with the day-to-day office frustrations. but, it's back to "real" work next week, and i'll be glad to do it. between this training, our vacation, and another week of training prior to that i've effectively been out of the office for about a month. luckily, i work with some great folks and we all try to pick up each other's slack when training and travel come around.

my birthday was last week. i'm 25 now, but i don't feel any different. maybe my car insurance bill will be cheaper this november.

football season officially started 11 days ago. so far the jackets are 2-0, and i'm still very much enjoying football season. here's to hoping for a great season and many good times in atlanta with old college friends.

we're still looking for a church, and we've basically got it narrowed down to two. we like different aspects of both, and we're sort of dreading making the choice. please pray that God would show us (in one way or another) where He would have us serve. we love greenville so far, and we know that it will be much easier to get involved once we're settled into a church.

maybe something exciting will happen this week, and i'll be back to blogging before you know it. i'll keep you posted...

gt game & anniversary trip

2008-09-04T21:48:00.007-04:00

last weekend was our much-awaited vacation. chris took thursday & friday off, so we were able to leave thursday morning for atlanta. i'd been wanting to visit the coke museum for a while, so we took the tour in the afternoon. my favorite part was by far tasting coke drinks from around the world.

then we met our friends angela & joseph (both tech alum) and rode marta down to midtown together. after dinner at the varsity, we enjoyed the first game of the season. i have to get used to our new seats...but i definitely like being able to sit down during the game (impossible in the student section).due to some unexptected circumstances, our plans to go to the beach had to be changed. we decided instead to go to asheville, nc and see the biltmore house. it was beautiful, and i especially enjoyed the tour. it reminds me of an american versailles, and i left with the same thought: people actually lived here?! we liked it so much we got annual passes - they pay for themselves in two visits, and we thought we might go again for christmas or with our parents sometime.
we also explored downtown asheville. it's both quaint & strange. i was freaked out when we saw a street performer painted like a statue. she stood on the same corner for several hours, not moving a muscle except when someone dropped change in her bucket -- then she'd play a drum beat. pretty bizarre...and cool.we ate at a restaurant that was formerly an s & w cafeteria. what attracted me was the awesome art deco facade. the steak was pretty good, too. all in all, it was a fantastic weekend. we came back sunday night and celebrated chris' 25th birthday monday with four cheese lasagna and a strawberry pie.

new specs, pt. II

2008-09-03T16:01:00.007-04:00

as promised a while back, here is a picture of my new glasses. can you tell they're glare-resistant?

passing the time

2008-08-22T13:42:00.006-04:00

as i exhaust all job possibilities for counselors in the greater greenville area, i'm coming up with a lot more free time than i expected. i've gotten my daily routine down to about 15 minutes of checking various employer & career finder websites and following up with places. this week hasn't been particularly good - no new job postings, and i learned that the sc state dept of mental health has put a freeze on hiring new employees. (about 75% of new job postings in my field come from the state, unfortunately.) looks like i might need a hobby!

yesterday afternoon i felt bored out of my mind, and i realized i hadn't left the house for two days. two days! i didn't have a reason to. i haven't had this much free time since summers in high school. for those of you wish you had more free time, i'm sorry for complaining about having too much of it. sometimes it can be fun - like when i have a project to do or events to prepare for. other times it's a bit lonely, and most of the time it just requires a tremendous amount of patience - like when i'm waiting to hear back from places.

as for hobbies, i've been making good use of the library card i got a few weeks ago. you may have noticed that my blogging (and facebooking) has increased. i've been using the small gym at our apt complex (might as well ellipticize while i watch food network!). i'm trying out new recipes without worrying how long they'll take to cook. i also got a magazine subscription to real simple, which i like a lot. not only are they fun to read, but they're great for crafts. i've had three blank canvas panels for over a year now. i'm not great at painting, so i've decided to decoupage collages with cut-outs from the magazines and other fun supplies like ribbon, jewels, glitter, and maybe some buttons. chris' comments on my works in progress were that he liked them and thought that their style looked "very mary droddy-esque." i told him that was a supreme compliment!

so until i find a full-time counseling job, consider me a freelance artist, amateur chef, and reader extraordinaire.

south georgia weekend

2008-08-19T09:54:00.007-04:00

chris & i went to ludowici, ga this weekend for his paternal grandmother's 70th birthday. it was a bit of a drive, so we met chris' parents in augusta to carpool part of the way. we had a great time and got to see kevin & kyle (chris' brothers) before they started college again. i'm still getting used to the size of his family. on my dad's side, i have one cousin. on chris' dad's side, he has nine cousins. this definitely keeps things interesting!

on saturday, we had a surprise birthday dinner for granny golden. i'm sure she suspected something when everybody was trying to convince her not to cook dinner and when groups of us secretly slipped away to set things up. we had it at a local seafood restaurant, and (like most of the weekend) i left the dinner table feeling completely stuffed!

mrs. cathy (chris' mom) & i literally finished decorating the room moments before granny arrived:
here are the children of mr. & mrs. golden, in birth order from left to right. mr. chris (chris' dad) is the oldest, then aunt brenda, uncle mark, & uncle glenn. they were trying to squash her on the couch!
chris & i got to take home these wonderful fresh vegetables grown in papa & granny's garden. our freezer is also full of peas, beans, corn, & pecans.

first anniversary

2008-08-13T13:46:00.006-04:00

on monday, chris & i celebrated our first wedding anniversary! it has been a wonderful year that has flown by so quickly. we celebrated with a special dinner at home, exchanged "paper" gifts, and watched our wedding video. here are some photos:

i used a recipe from a rachel ray cookbook we received as a wedding gift. it's supposed to be a "30 minute meal", but it definitely took an hour!

we didn't save our top layer of wedding cake because our caterer said it sometimes doesn't taste good and that she'd like to make us a fresh cake on our anniversary. unfortunately, we weren't able to make a trip to augusta for it. instead, i took a photo of our wedding cake to a local bakery to have them make a replica. they did a great job, and it was delicious!
this is a table of some memories from our engagement and wedding day. my gift to chris: a photo from our honeymoon, matted with our wedding vows & 1 corinthians 13. chris' gift to me: a notebook for poets with inspiring quotes & tips for writing.

we are so blessed and look forward to many more anniversaries together!

the 'lympics

2008-08-10T13:52:00.010-04:00

it's pretty obvious to most people that i'm not a big sports fan, but i have to confess that the olympic season is one time when i actually enjoy watching athletics for hours on end. i'm not sure if it's national pride or just the rarity of the games, but there's something special about all nations coming together to pursue perfection/greatness - it's a beautiful ideal.

chris can tell you that i am a lover of variety, and the olympic sports are nothing if not varied. there are events as classic as track & field, as modern as trampoline, as majestic as equestrian, and as everyday as beach volleyball. my absolute favorite is women's gymnastics. i was 12 years old the summer i moved to georgia during the 1996 atlanta games, and i remember watching the usa women's team win the gold medal after kerri strug vaulted on an ankle that gave out soon after her winning performance. the video still makes me cry!

i'm hoping there are some history-making moments this year. i have our american flags ready to wave...go usa!

there was no joy in mudville...

2008-08-04T21:25:00.013-04:00

i was sad to read last night that long time atlanta braves announcer skip caray had died. baseball, both little league and the braves, comprised some of the formative experiences of my childhood. i loved playing baseball (usually coached by my dad), and we used to watch the braves together every night. i remember the worst to first braves, i know exactly where i was when sid slid, and glavine, smoltz, and avery were just three of my heroes. i used to dread when jeff blauser would come to the plate. baseball then was innocent for me. it was a perfect game, and i knew nothing about free agency, players unions, or performance enhancing drugs.

i remember my first game at old atlanta-fulton county stadium with my dad. we got there way too early to see batting practice, and i had a blast. all along the way skip, pete, don, and joe called all of the games. i hated listening to other announcers (especially during the playoffs; i still can't stand tim mccarver) because they weren't braves homers and it just didn't feel right. my parents would let me stay up late to watch the playoff games (life lesson: you can only stay up late for sports!), and i probably drove my parents crazy doing the tomahawk chop in the living room. i still hate the twins and blue jays, and it was *so* satisfying to finally win the world series in '95.

i guess hearing about skip really brought back some cheesy but good childhood memories for me. here's a perfect moment from my childhood, and one last tribute to skip caray. he truly will be missed.

stop & think

2008-08-02T22:19:00.001-04:00

if you have 15 min, this video is definitely worth your time.