overdue

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!

holidays continued...to 2011!

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

christmas table decor

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

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!

holidays 2009

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...

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.

christmas recap

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.

merry christmas!

merry christmas from katy and me! have fun watching.

p.s. thanks to liz for showing me the website!

christmas (to do!) list

i realized earlier this week that the upcoming christmas break may be my last one like it: three weeks sans school & internship! i've been a student so long that i haven't yet had to confront the reality that a vacation of this length doesn't come so easily after entering the "real world" of work. to make the most of my last student-sized holiday, i've started a "to do" list of things i want to accomplish over the break; most are fun, some are necessary:

• read one flew over the cuckoo's nest and watch the movie. i've had two or three patients this semester tell me that their experience in our hospital reminded them of this movie. coincidentally, one of the patients in the book/movie has the same name as one of our psychiatrists. hopefully, that's where the similarities end...
  
• finish two art projects i've started. one is a photo collage to spruce up the office at my internship. the other is a painting to put up in our living room.

unfinished work

• write & send christmas cards. we've already had a few start coming in the mail. i've never really had an extensive list to send cards to, but it sort of seems like a thing married people do. i also can't resist the opportunity to use pretty stationery and send snail mail!
• meet up with some friends from high school. i'll be back home for a week with my parents while chris starts his first week at ge. i'm looking forward to spending some time with friends that i don't get to see often, catching up and remembering old times.
• spend some time with my mom. we like to go antiquing downtown (she knows all the good shops) and eat at the local bakery. you never know what you'll find - as the name of one of our regular stops indicates: merry' s trash and treasures.
  
• start and finish my christmas shopping! i haven't made any progress beyond making a list (and checking it twice, of course). i'm glad my new family members have a custom of providing wish lists for each other to make the job easier. i'm looking forward to getting a jump start when chris & i go together this weekend to get some white elephant/secret santa gifts for two christmas parties we have.
  
• buy the nce study guide and start studying. the national counselor examination is a test i'll take next april to obtain national certification. a passing score is guaranteed with each purchase!

news and notes...

whoa! it has been entirely too long since i updated on this blog. it's been so long that blakely said, "life must not be so golden" or wtte. anyway - life is golden, blakely, and it always will be! :) but, since it's been so long, i'm just going to give a bullet point update.

we got our first christmas tree. i rank it somewhere about half way between charlie brown and southern living. but seriously, katy did a good job on it - all i did was put it together and put it in the right spot.



i've finished writing a journal paper and a project report for my research. now i just have to finish the thesis. i'm making consistent progress. unfortunately for you, there are no pics to go with this one.

chan gailey was fired at georgia tech. this isn't really all that blog-worthy, but it has been tempting me a lot to read news sites instead of being productive.

we found out recently that some good friend of ours are having a baby and moving to louisiana. jamey and mary have been great friends, confidants, and mentors throughout college for katy and me. we'll miss you droddys.

lastly, the christmas season is officially here, and nothing says christmas like christmas music. every year, i listen to this song - i know it will become a tradition for you too!