Almost 2009

I can't believe we're 2 days away from 2009. I feel like this year flew by. It's been a busy year with Greg getting a new job and us buying our first house. We sent out our Christmas newsletter last week and while we were going through our address book we realized that we really needed to update it. There are some friends and family that we don't have addresses for and there's also a lot that have got married and had kids and we've done a horrible job of keeping track of all that. We had a hard time remembering names of spouses and children. So, if you're reading this, please leave a comment (or e-mail me) with your name, spouses name, children's names and your address, so we can update our address book. It's one of my New Year's Resolutions.

Another New Year's Resolution I have is called Project 365 that I'm doing with my sister, Caroline. Project 365 is where you take a picture every day for a whole year. I plan to post the pictures on my Shutterfly account in an album called 365, that way I'm more likely to stick to it if I know Caroline can check up on me. I think this project will make me a better photographer and it would be so neat to look back and have pictures from everyday of 2009. If you want to read more about the project this website explains it more in detail. http://photojojo.com/content/tutorials/project-365-take-a-photo-a-day/

We're going to Arizona in 2 weeks to visit Greg's family and we're really looking forward to it. We haven't been out to Arizona since Christmas 2007. I'm so excited to see our nephew, Ian. Last time we saw him, he was only 3 weeks old, so it'll be fun to see him and play with him now that he's a little older. If he's as cute & fun as he looks in the pictures we've seen, we might come back wanting one of our own. ;)

I hope everybody had a great Christmas. We really enjoyed our trip to Georgia to see my family, but it really flew by. We didn't get in until 3:00 on Christmas eve and then had to turn around and leave on Saturday. Hopefully we'll be able to get up there again before my dad goes to Afghanistan in June for 6 months.

I hope to post more often in 2009 than I did in 2008. Well, actually what I really hope is that we stay busy and have more to post about. Hopefully we'll be able to travel a little more this year. Something we've been talking about for years is going to Europe for Greg's 30th birthday which is this July. So many goals this year! Hopefully we can reach them all.

I hope everybody had a great Christmas and Happy New Year!

Happy Thanksgiving

Hey everybody, it's been awhile since my last posting because we've been very busy. Greg has been gone about 3 weeks of the last 4 on trips for work. The first one was to Maryland for a 5 day trip and the second one was to D.C. for over 10 days. I was able to go up both times and stay a couple of nights with him, which was nice. His D.C. trip included a weekend which we planned to take advantage of the free hotel and do some sightseeing but it rained the whole weekend. So, we just did a little shopping. We went to IKEA and picked out some new things for the house but then realized none of it would fit in Greg's Honda, so we had to rent a pickup truck from Enterprise and make a special trip back up to the IKEA in D.C. and pick up all the furniture we wanted. This isn't the first time this has happened to us and it makes me seriously consider buying a truck of our own. We got lots of neat stuff for the house and it's finally coming together nicely. I painted my half of the computer room KSU yellow and black and I love it. I'll post pictures after I organize my new computer desk and bookshelve and get the pictures up on the wall. I've also organized my scrapbooking room and I hope to get some pictures of that up soon.

We're leaving tomorrow for Augusta to spend Thanksgiving with my family. I'm so excited to see them. I'm also excited for Black Friday shopping, the past 3 years we've done it and really enjoyed it. We all used to be the type that didn't understand why anybody would get up that early to shop or deal with those crowds but after we did it once, and saw how cheap things are, we're hooked. We are very organized and effiicient and it takes some teamwork. We make a list and drop everybody off at a store and we're usually done by 6:30, so I'm excited for that this year.

After we get back from Augusta on Monday we're going to be staying pretty busy. It's flu season, so I'm getting a lot of hours at work. My birthday falls on a Saturday this year, so I've decided that we should do a fun weekend activity--and turn my birthday into a weekend event. :) But, I can't go too crazy because the Monday after my birthday I have my first of two finals. Before you know it, it'll be Christmas and we'll be making the trip down to Augusta again to spend Christmas with my family. We haven't forgot about Greg's side of the family, we're going to go see them in Arizona for 5 days in January.

The picture I posted is the view from the top of a mountain in Shenadoah Park, we went on a hike with friends of ours and the view at the top was amazing. I wish I had a camera that really captured the gorgeous view--maybe I'll find one for a great deal this Friday. Or my wonderful husband will surprise me with one for my birthday. :)

Fall

It is freezing here! It's calling for a highs in the 50's and lows in the 30's for the next 3 or 4 days. That's why we love living here! And it's so beautiful with the changing leaves. I really hope we get some snow this winter. We are looking forward to Halloween and hope we have a lot of trick or treaters this year. We have no idea what to expect since it's the first Halloween we've (or anybody in this neighborhood) lived here.

We're staying very busy this week and next. I'm trying to work as much as possible because I'm taking some time off and going to D.C. with Greg this month. Greg has a class for work in D.C. starting on the 10th and ending on the 19th. His company is paying him gas money to get up there, over $200.00 a night for a hotel, and paying for all his meals, so I'm going to go with him for a little bit and explore D.C. I'm very excited. His class is only until 4:00pm which gives us plenty of time in the evening to go out to dinner, do some shopping and do a little sightseeing. I can't stay the whole time :( because I have to come back and check on the cats and work. It's flu season, so I'm going to be getting a lot of hours.

I'm still trying to figure this whole thing out, I haven't had much time to spend on here. I'd eventually like to get a couple of albums up-of Virginia, our new home, etc. I included a picture of the Virginia in October.

First Post

Everybody seems to be getting into this, so I thought I'd check it out. Facebook and Myspace are getting kinda old and unless our friends and family have an account they can't view our pictures or blogs, so I thought this would be a great way to let everybody know how we're doing. So, we'll use this to post updates and pictures.