flashback

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

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

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!

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

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

snow days!

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

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

holidays continued...to 2011!

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