December baby

Last night, as Jonathan and I were watching a movie in our mini-den, I was gazing at my 2-foot, artifical Christmas Tree and I started thinking that this is our first year of marriage and we aren't getting a real Christmas Tree. We have some decorations but because we are somewhat of a "guest" in the rental house, I don't feel comfortable decorating like we normally would. I blame my Date of Birth for the unusual Christmas obsession that I have; being a Christmas baby makes me different...seriously. Growing up, I have established unwritten Christmas rules that I will share with you:

1. Artificial trees are NOT acceptable

2. You must use white lights; color lights are for Halloween

3. You must start decorating at Thanksgiving

4. The weather should be cold

5. Decorating is a family affair

6. Picking out a tree is a family affair

7. Christmas music is the only music acceptable during the end of November and all of December

8. Christmas is not complete without a wood-burning fireplace in the house

9. Stockings are one of the most important details

10. Your house should smell of Cinnamon

11. You should wrap presents with Christmas music playing, while sipping on hot cocoa

12. Watching lots of movies (in your pjs) is also an important part of getting in the spirit

I may be leaving a few rules out, but you get the gist. I am flexible and learning to be open to new traditions but thankfully, I married a December baby and he loves Christmas as much as I do! God knows exactly what he's doing.

I hope everyone is enjoying the season...we will definitely enjoy being able to share these things with you all when we're back in Alabama.

Holidays are here!

Thanksgiving 2010 was definitely a holiday to remember. For all of our family, it was quite different for us not being at home, traveling and changing traditions. With Lacy and Eric in China and us in Florida, Jonathan and I wanted to stay closer to our home since the trek to Birmingham is a a long one. Jonathan's parents decided we could meet about half way and we went to Savannah, GA. Beautiful! Such a beautiful place to be at Thanksgiving, and unknown to us, a popular Thanksgiving destination. We had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner at our hotel on the River, waited in line for 2 hours to make a reservation for Paula Deen's Restaurant, walked, toured via the Savannah Trolley, wined and dined, celebrated John & Susan's anniversary and watched the Iron Bowl. Among many other blessings, we were thankful to spend the holiday with the Nevins.

Jonathan & I atop the Bohemian Hotel :)

View from our Hotel Room

The Church that is in the movie, Forrest Gump

This is a beautiful bridge in Jacksonville

John, Susan & Jessica atop the Bohemian Hotel

Paula Deen's Restaurant

Waiting in line at 8:00am to make our reservation for dinner

Fish drain pipes, very cute!

My favorite store, Paris Market. They had gorgeous decor!

Jonathan and I in Jacksonville, stopping for lunch at Zoës Kitchen!

We had a wonderful time & talked about the many blessings God has given us. We got in the Christmas spirit early this year because we did our shopping mostly before Thanksgiving. Since were are flying home, we won't be able to carry the gifts so we played Santa and had John and Susan take them back in their car. That was fun!! I can't wait to deliver them to everyone when we get home. We are looking forward to Christmas and visiting. In the meantime, we're celebrating both our Birthdays! Time is flying by...

Worn slap out

Busy weekend and I am sorry to say I do not have any pictures to document, yet. Friday night was our "Chocolate & Champagne" event for work; one that I had been planning for a year and was so glad to see it come to an end. We had a unique committee and it was difficult to find leftover sponsors willing to fork up any donations. Our events seemed to be compressed into the last 4 months of the year and so we have exhausted many of our usual sponsors and supporters. We did have a great time and I believe everyone that attended and participated enjoyed it. We'll crunch numbers tomorrow so see our financial success. Jonathan played poker with some guys from work Friday night which was good for him because whenever he attends the events, i'm busy running around and he ends up standing around, bored. We met up after I finished loading cars and cleaning up.

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early for a Kayaking trip with some people from his work. It was a blast! It was somewhat chilly but we hit the water around 9am, kayaked for 2 hours to the Country Club and had a picnic lunch on the lawn. It was entertaining and peaceful but the sun started shining down during lunch and my eyelids became heavy. It was perfect napping weather. We kayaked back, which the water was extremely choppy on the trip back so we got pretty wet. By the way, Jonathan and I shared a tandem kayak which did not exhibit our communication skills particularly well that morning. Haha; As I said, I was exhausted after Friday's event and slightly grumpy. I got my act together and we enjoyed the peaceful trip back.

We watched the Auburn game that afternoon which had us, literally, sitting on the edge of the couch. We did not like the attitude of the game from the beginning- it was clear that there was bickering going on throughout the game and unfortunately, players eventually threw punches. Anyway, we're about sick of hearing all the talk about Cam which I'm sure you are too. There are a lot of "what ifs" and until the truths come out, we just don't know and I'm not interested in speculating along with the rest of the nation. War Eagle regardless! They have worked hard and deserve to be the SEC West Champs.

Saturday Night, I remembered that I got two free tickets for the Children's Miracle Network Classic at Disney. The tournament started Thursday and ended Sunday and we debated about going but decided it would be a great time. We got there at 9am Sunday and found out no cell phones or cameras were allowed so sadly, I did not get any pictures. I did get to meet Rickie Fowler who is an incredible 21-year-old golfer, Puma-sponsored and dressed to impress. After the tournament, there was a 3-way tie for the Kodak Challenge so Rickie along with two other gentleman had to play hole 17 to determine the winner of the $1 million. After he had signed autographs in the set area, he was small chatting with some stragglers so I ran and g

ot a scorecard and asked him if he would mind signing one more...he didn't mind so I got myautograph! It was a beautiful day and we got great exercise following these guys around.

I can't believe Thanksgiving is next week; time is flying by and we are thrilled to spend a relaxing Thanksgiving with the Nevins in Savannah. Stay tuned for more.

Election Day

Today was a bit exhausting so I don't have much to post...I got up extra early to head to the polls but due to our address change, filled out paper work and was asked to go back to beachside to vote at our new precinct. Work was work and then I left early to go vote and take a personal afternoon to take care of some things. Those things are stressing me out right now but I keep reminding myself, it's all in God's hands. Jonathan and I are at an interesting somewhat/sort of crossroads with our lives regarding what path we should take next. There are different feelings from different directions and these are the days where we end up saying, "life was so much easier when we were young." Tis true...we have to make real, life-factoring decisions now and some days I just want to go outside and play. You know that feeling? We all feel like that some days, i'm sure, but I'm taking deep breaths and living one day at a time.

Ready for a good night's sleep because tomorrow is going to be a long day.

Goodnight

I said it's GREAT to be an Auburn Tiger!!

Happy Halloween! It's 85degrees here so forgive me if i'm not in the spirit. We did get pumpkins at the first of the month as well as buy a few bags of candy for trick-or-treaters but with it so hot, it just doesn't feel the same. The Air Show is going on this weekend so we went to that yesterday. Today, we are listening to it from our house but wanted to cook soup for the week and wash cars. So exciting, right?

So we went to Auburn last weekend and boy, it was well worth it! I was coordinating a golf tournament for work on Friday the 22 so I was slightly stressed about getting to Auburn late but it all worked out. The tournament went great and we left around 6:30, arriving in Auburn at 1:30am (thanks to the time change).

We are proud to be Auburn Tigers & even though I'm an Alabama grad my heart is and has always been down on the plains where the fans, team & students are loyal.

So proud of the players and coaches for improving each week and we were thrilled to see such a great game!

Enjoy a few pictures...

Golf Tournament, October 22. Beautiful Weather!

We LOVE Tiger Walk, October 23, Coach Gene Chizik!

Tiger Walk again, QB Cam Newton with a perfect smile!

So we were planning to buy tickets but with all of the excitement and pressure on the game, we figured they were going to be difficult/too expensive to get. An hour before game time, fellow tailgating family came over and asked us if anyone wanted to purchase 3 tickets at face value. Obviously, we said yes with much excitement!! We were on the 23rd Row, Sec. 40 RIGHT behind the end zone where Auburn was facing in the 4th quarter! So much fun!

Jonathan and I at the end of the game :)

So glad I got to spend time with my best friend, who I miss dearly.

Jonathan and I at Toomers after the game.

Toomers again, October 24, on our way back to Florida. :( We did not want to leave but will be excited when we move home soon! Say a little prayer that it will be soon!

Stay tuned for more pictures from the weekend my Mom & Don visited; that was a great weekend and by now, i'm sure you get the picture that we miss our family and friends so much and we're ready to get back to Alabama.

Two birthdays

Wined down

Make sure you have wine stocked; these past few months have been a whirlwind and it's not going to slow down until the first of the year. Enjoying the evening with my husband, sharing a glass or two of wine and relaxing... that with a nice bike ride is my therapy.

Mom & Don came to visit two weeks ago which was amazing and honestly, it made me homesickto see them go. We gave them a tour of Cocoa Village which is 3 streets full of shops and restaurants. We gave them a tour of Kennedy Space Center which they loved! They saw the shuttle on the launch pad in preparation for one of the last launches. We wined and dined:

I haven't updated pictures from our trip to South Beach so i'll post those soon.

We are getting ready to go to Auburn this weekend and I am thrilled!!!

Entertaining the hobbies

So my beautiful sister is getting married!! As a lover of crafts & the bride's sis, I was MORE than thrilled to craft up a quick batch of 'Will you be my Bridesmaid?' cards. I just got Adobe CS3 & i've been impatiently waiting to start learning the ins & outs of designing. I took a few classes in college but just intro, nothing too complex, so now I can spend spare time putting my thoughts to practice. Long story short, Lace is in China for 6 months with her fiancé so it's going to be long-distance planning & i'm her liaison. I am bursting with excitement to assist & here is my first DIY for her:

My beautiful sis & her fiancé, Eric

Lacy & I at Baytown Wharf Summer 2010

Talk about distracted

We have what we call here at work "New Partner Orientation" which is always the last Friday of the month. On this day, all the new businesses that have joined the chamber in that month attend to introduce themselves and get a tutorial of the chamber and what we do. It's quirky to us but it is informative and inspiring to the businesses, thus it continues. Anyway, I get here at 7am to put extra chairs in our board room, make coffee and so on and then I check emails and update our social media outlets...which brings me to you, blog...hence, the distraction.

Making time

I spend much of my spare time spying on others' blogs and then I find myself becoming jealous of the fact that "the others" keep up with their blogs consistently. While it is motivation to update mine, I still lack the drive to follow through so that is that. The blogosphere is cool and my to-do list and honey-do lists get bigger after spying. We are definitely feeling the "married and want a house-itch" that most couples often feel. We have beautiful hand-me-downs along with fabulous wedding gifts that we are ready to put them to use and on display! So rather than falling into peer pressure and buying a house here in Florida, we did not renew our apartment lease and actually moved in with one of J's friends from work. It was a win-win situation; J's friend was planning to have a roommate who backed out and we wanted to be lease-free and save more money...and we live on the beach now!

Update with pictures and details to come.

How wonderful

We are married & we couldn't be happier! Finally, we are husband and wife! We are enjoying each day together and it is truly wonderful. The wedding was amazing, our trip home was amazing and our trip back was just as sweet. The honeymoon was such an adventure and we absolutely had a blast. We spent most of our week laughing which was such a relief and sweet, exclusive escape...just like we were hoping for.

Treasuring each moment together and continually praying for guidance so that I may be the best wife. So many blessings and just wanted to share a quick blurb before bed.

24 days and counting...

I am getting married!!! I cannot believe the day is almost here even though I've been eagerly waiting since the day I knew I loved him. Even before that, when Jonathan shed a bit of interest in me, I knew he was special and the man God put in my life for a big reason. This is the part that doesn't make sense to me and is weird to explain to my family and closest friends: it was not a conscious thought or idea, it was recurring thoughts and subconscious curiosity that seemed to surface in the back of mind...often...and here our paths naturally crossed when the time was right (although sometimes it didn't seem like it because of distance in college and the obstacles we faced) but there is a plan and I am learning in the past few months what trust is required to be at peace with the unknown plan. This may seem like a "cheesy, fairytale story" to you if you're reading this but we have argued, screamed, hugged, prayed, listened, miscommunicated, talked, asked questions, held hands, sat in silence, kissed, cried and the "fairytale" is that our trust in God is the power we have to become the best husband and wife for each other. The beautiful lessons God is teaching us now, through experience and pre-martial counseling is that you learn to communicate and argue...you learn to express perspective, feelings and thoughts in a way that comforts your unique other half. Think about it...if each human being is completely different than anyone else in the world think about the opportunity to offend, disrespect and miscommunicate your message to them. Think about what learning it takes to even come close to effectively communicating and loving someone in a way that they can understand. The incredible reward to look forward to and that we will work on every day of our marriage is learning the way to show love and communicate so that we both are handled with care and flourish in our lives.

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power- 1 Corinthians 4:20

I still want to do a project with glitter

I love arts & crafts. I remember my elementary years of projects when I would paint, sew and try to organize every single item in my room with a designated and colorful box. Mom taught Lacy and I how to cross stitch, among many other things...things that have stuck with me and I still entertain those creative roots everyday.

My generation is artistic and I think we have embraced our cultural surroundings and artistic needs. Especially with social media, people are expressing themselves and sometimes, I don't think they even know it. I'm not making that bold statement that social media is art, but communicating is the common factor. Communication is an art, to me, and we see people openly expressing themselves every moment of the day.

My fascination with Facebook & Twitter isn't finding long-lost friends, or sharing my pictures with the world but learning about complete strangers. It's incredible. No longer are you friends with the people on your street but the people across the ocean, in a country you've never seen, in a town you didn't know exists.