valentine's

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!

here's eva hopping through the snow:

netflix origami

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

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

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

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.