More Recent Update

Again, I apologize for the sideways pics....

Ken's Corn Maze. We went the night we found out about J's new job. It was pretty hard. You were supposed to find stations throughout.... I don't think we even found half!

J with 10 day old baby Archer. He is so cute!! (well both of them are)

Ken's Corn Maze

Love gas prices in SC compared to NC!

Some Crazy Catch-up

Soooo much has been going on I haven't had time to update. On top of that, we have just been trying to keep our news on the down low until J put in his two weeks.  He did on Friday, so now it's okay that the whole world knows..... We are moving to Atlanta!

Almost 3 years ago, J interviewed for a job at Nielsen as an Analyst for Coke. He was told he needed more experience, so we ended up in NC. Well, this past July, the job opened and J casually applied. We thought nothing would come of it.  He just wanted to keep his name in the pool. Well to our surprise the hiring manager last time remembered him and wanted to interview him! After a phone screening, a phone interview, and a day of 4 1:1 interviews, he completed the process. Late last Friday (5th) he was offered the job. 

I apologize for the sideways-ness of the pictures... They are from my phone and Blogger won't let me flip them. 

So on Sept 20, we hit the road for ATL. We stayed in Buckhead so it would be an easy drive to Coke and close to shopping for me.  I shopped and did some homework during J's nearly 4 hour interview. We explored parts of the city to see where we might want to live. We also had some really good BBQ. The following Saturday, we spent with our friends in Anderson, SC. It was great catching up and visiting their church. And now we will only be 2 hours away!  

Here are some pics from our first ATL trip.

Community Q BBQ (we went again yesterday. I can see us there frequently.)

Better get used to this!

 

We thought this was genius... no room for 'Prayer Requests' on your box? 'Prary Quests' will do.

 

Getting into ATL at night

 

 

Our go-to pit stop :)

 

 

Microsoft trying to be Apple. I was there on the day the iPhone 5 was released, so Apple was packed. Microsoft, so no much....

 

Fall is almost here!

It has been a beautiful week here in North Carolina.  Windows open, running outside (yes, we have been running!), nip in the air, and of course football.... our favorite time of year!

This will probably be our last big harvest from the garden.  There are still a few peppers and tomatoes growing, but they probably won't be ready at one time.  I have loved having fresh tomatoes for sandwiches and salads.  And the peppers made some good fajitas this week!

We have been trying to get back into the swing of running.  We want to run a 5K soon. Maybe October or November? We have been running at the gym, but the weather has been so nice lately that we have taken it to the streets! Ha. J downloaded an app so we how know far and how fast we are going.  We also discovered a cool neighborhood not too far from ours.  Bigger lots; older houses. Too bad none were for sale when we were house shopping!

With fall in the air, it was time to decorate... and make pie. Pumpkin, of course!

I have been getting back in the swing of things at work.  I haven't really had a normal week yet, but I am sure one is coming soon. I know it won't be next week though.  My classes are going well.  They haven't been hard, just work intensive.  Lots of articles to read, long forum posts, etc.  I will be glad when I am done in May! Although I probably won't know what to do with my free time.

A new restaurant opened in downtown Fuquay this week.  It is a small pizza chain from New York.  There is one in downtown Apex, too.  We decided to check it out, knowing it was their opening weekend.  We expected it to be crazy (it was) and the service to be so-so. We did have to wait a while, but it was good. We each got rolls (like a stromboli), and we shared garlic knots.  We are hoping it makes it so we can eat there occasionally.


Until next time, GO BULLDOGS!

Chicken and Waffles

Richard and his brother, Brian, came to Raleigh for the long weekend.  We enjoyed eating and hanging out watching some Mississippi State football.  The boys also played a round of golf.  Sad to report- there were no hole in ones. :(  We made it to the farmers' market and bought some pumpkin butter... oh yeah! We went to Beasley's downtown for lunch. The boys had chicken and waffles, and I had, well, a waffle. :)

We are so glad it is football season! That also means pumpkins and colorful leaves. :) Our favorite time of year. We are hoping it will be a great year to be a bulldog. Hail State!

Lately...

We enjoyed a quick, but relaxing trip to Myrtle Beach.  We found a deal on Groupon, so off we went. We stayed at a resort, which had pools, lazy rivers, a putt putt course, and of course, the beach!

We ate at one really great place and several okay places. Since my parents are heading that way soon, I will quickly detail them. :)

Damon's- the food was okay. There was not a big selection of seafood, which is one reason we went to the beach.
The Beach House- The porch was nice to sit on, but that was about it. The shrimp wasn't very fresh tasting and the service was poor.  The fries were good though!

 

Noizy Oyster- SO worth the wait! They are big Ravens fans, and there happened to be a pre-season game on, so it took a while to get seated. Crab cake= amazing. Steamed shrimp=amazing. If we are ever in Myrtle again, we will go back!

Ultimate California Pizza- Good selection, pizza was pretty good

River City Cafe- average burger and fries... plenty of other options, so we'd skip it in the future.

It did rain some, but overall it was a great trip. I didn't think about going back to work at all! We did to the putt putt course at our resort. What a joke! I can't believe we would have had to pay for another round. There are tons around that would have been way more fun.

I started back to work Monday. At first, I was wondering what I was going to do for 5 workdays. Now I am wondering where the time went!! I still have so much to do, and I have 2 days of workshops next week. It has been an adjustment waking up early everyday. Coffee is my BFF.

In other random news, I finally made homemade lasagna! I actually made it 3 weeks ago during my freezer cooking session. We cooked it tonight.  It was so good! I can't believe I have never made it before. I made spinach lasagna this time, but I will probably make something a little different next time.

Other than that, there isn't much going on around here. Our life is basically work/gym/sleep repeat with church thrown in some. :) And grad school work. So basically, don't expect an exciting update until.... June?! Ha, just kidding... hopefully.

Lazy Weekend

Now that I have figured out how to blog from my phone, I hope to blog more often...

 

We stocked up on groceries and other essentials. I can't believe school starts back Thursday. And works starts Monday.

We watched a little PGA action.

 

And I watched a little Harry Potter.

 

I also watched a little Gilmore Girls. Perfect Lazy Weekend.

Wordless Wednesday

.... .... .... .... ....

Working hard..

So while I have spent the past week in Stars Hollow (watching Gilmore Girls) and Hogwarts (rereading Harry Potter), before all that I had been doing lots of work. Thankfully, Marion was still here and helped me out! :)

We can finally sit at our dining room table that we bought in February! Of course, we have only eaten at it once, but at least we can. With just the two of us, we usually eat at the smaller table in the kitchen. So now we can have company over and all sit together! I spent hours searching craigslist and thrift shops to get the chairs. Then hours sanding and priming. Marion helped me paint and distress them, which I am sure you guessed, took hours. We then bought fabric and reupholstered them ourselves. Including the chairs, we spent just a little over $200 for 6 chairs! Not bad for custom chairs. We still plan on getting two more eventually, but I am not up for all the work right now! We have almost everything we need to paint and cover those, so besides the cost of the chairs, it shouldn't cost too much.

I have also talked about, but I don't think I have put a picture up of the Roman shade I made for the kitchen.  I lined it after I made it, so it is still a little stiff, but it does block out the light well! We usually only open it halfway since the view of the neighbors' living room isn't that interesting.

We also enjoyed a Durham Bulls game this week. We bought a Living Social deal in April and time was running out for us to use it. We went with some of our friends, and the weather was perfect! I can't believe we weren't sweating to death in August. The game was boring, but the food and company was good. Which is the only reason I even wanted to go to the game. The Bulls won 1-0. And of course, J bought a shirt afterwards. I guess that means we will have to go again!

In a couple of weeks, we are heading to Myrtle Beach for the weekend. I can't believe school starts back in just over 2 weeks! I'm not ready!

Swiss You Were Here (Part 9)

I can't believe this is our last Switzerland post! Our trip was so much fun! Makes me wish I was there right now (that and the heat index here is already 100 just a little after 10!)

We woke up early Saturday morning to head to the airport. We had to catch the train from Luzern to the airport at 7:15. We made it with time to spare! Breakfast wasn't being served yet at the hotel, so we just snacked on what we had. The train ride was just over an hour. It wasn't very scenic, but I still enjoyed looking out the window. J tried to sleep some, but wasn't successful. We arrived at the airport and after a slow start printing our boarding passes, we were off through security. It sure is different than here! Shoes on? OK! Big bottles of liquid? OK! Only metal detectors to pass through.. score! 

We still had some Swiss francs we needed to spend, so we picked up some chocolate to share when we got home. We made our way to our terminal...and it was blocked off. We didn't know we had to go back through customs to leave, and the line was so long they had blocked it off for a few minutes. Thankfully, the customs officers were pretty quick and we got through... only to have to catch a train to our terminal. Oops! We didn't really plan for all this. We finally got there, quickly got some breakfast and ran to our gate (at the other end, naturally). They were just starting to board. Whew! And it turns out that since we didn't check luggage, we had to go through an extra security screening. No biggie. We found our seats and were off! 

The plane ride home was LONG! Thankfully, the movies we pretty good, and I had books on the ipad. Lunch was surprisingly good, too. The snack was interesting... we had a 5 cheese calzone. Sounds pretty good, right? Until you read that one of the cheeses was cream cheese! I don't think that counts... Anyway, we made it to NYC and had plenty of time to relax and get some food (hello, Wendy's!). Our plane to RDU was tiny, so we had to walk outside in the heat. Then we were delayed for some reason... and man it gets hot on the plane with no cool air! I think the chocolates made it okay though... so did we! So glad to be back home.

A few things we noticed or found interesting:

- There was hardly any wildlife. Sure we saw cows, sheep goats... but where were the mountain goats and mountain lions? All we saw were slugs, a snail, a squirrel, and 2 mice- the entire trip! It really surprised us considering how much we were outside. 

- Switzerland is SO clean. The trains were insanely clean. The streets had no litter. I wish people here would take pride in their surroundings like the Swiss do!

- The trains are a dream to navigate. They are all punctual, and the schedule is made to where you can easily make your connection. Only have 3-5 min for a connection. No problem, seriously. Your train is probably waiting on you, but it will leave on time. 

- The water in the lakes is incredibly blue. It is something about the minerals the water acquires as it comes down the mountains.

- The area was a lot more touristy than we thought. And most of the tourists were much older than us. Probably because they can afford it! Switzerland is expensive! There were hoards of tourists at all the big attractions (Jungfraujoch, popular trails, etc)

- There are fountains everywhere in Switzerland. It is natural water that they pipe in through a spout. You can drink it, too. We used these to refill our water bottles when we were hiking. The best part- it was ICE cold!

- Random: A family from Illinois sat right behind us on the way to Zurich. We saw then on the train to Interlaken, and a couple of times in Wengen. AND they sat two rows behind us on the plane home. Crazy. It's a small world for sure.

And that's the rest of the story...

 

Swiss You Were Here (Part 8)

Our last full day in Swizterland... where had the time gone?! We were sad our trip was almost over, but also ready to be home! We had breakfast at our hotel, which was not your standard American continental breakfast. There were lunch meats, baguettes, a couple of cereals, and a few other things I can't remember. It wasn't bad, it was just not what we were used to! 

After breakfast, we walked to the dock and hopped on a boat for Vitznau. We cruised along Lake Luzern on our way to Mount Rigi. The scenery, unsurprisingly, was beautiful. It was hazy, so the pictures didn't turn out great. Oh well! We'll always remember how pretty it really was. 

Maroon Friday in Switzerland!

We arrived in Vitznau and hopped on the train to Mount Rigi. After a 30 minute train ride, we arrived at the top. And it was WINDY! We roamed around the top some, took a few pictures, then began our hike to Rigi Kaltbald.

We hiked down to Rigi Kaltbald, but it wasn't a really pretty hike. We did see some cows though!

After getting to Rigi Kaltbald, we took the cable car down to Weggis. We found our way to the dock and got some ice cream while waiting on the boat back to Luzern. It was no Sunny Skies, but it sure hit the spot. The boat ride on the way back was hot and sunny! We were wishing we had brought our swim suits so we could just jump in the lake! We got back to Luzern and were starving. We did have snacks during our hike (and the ice cream), but since it was late afternoon now, it was time to get some real food. And guess what we managed to find?! Fried shrimp and fries! This was the best meal we had the whole trip. Ha! We went to Migros and bought some chocolate, then stopped by their restaurant. We saw the fried shrimp and that was it! We wandered around town for a while after our (really late) lunch, then headed back to the hotel to pack up and rest for a looooong travel day.

to be continued....

Swiss You Were Here (Part 7)

We woke up and finished packing our bags to head to Luzern. I am not sure how we fit so mush stuff in our suitcases! We got it all in and headed for the train station. The first train to Lauterbrunnen was full, so we waited for the next one (only 30 min.) We hopped on the train with all our stuff and were off. When we arrived in Lauterbrunnen, the train to Interlaken wasn't there. This was shocking because the trains are ALWAYS on time in Switzerland. They even made an announcement that it was running 5 minutes late. I was worried it would cause us to miss our train to Luzern, which only runs once an hour. Thankfully, we made it in plenty of time! Most of the trains between big cities are pretty nice, but the one to Luzern wasn't. :( NO A/C. At least we could put the window down, so when we were moving it felt good! The train ride took longer than we thought (3 hours), so I am glad we had snacks packed. And the scenery was beautiful along the way!

Lake Brienz

Brienz

Lugano

Lugano

Waterfall!

We finally arrived in Luzern and found our hotel easily. Our room wasn't ready yet, so we dropped our luggage off and went to explore... and find lunch! We ate lunch at Coop City, which is a branch of a grocery store. This store had EVERYTHING. Clothes, food, and a restaurant!! It was cafeteria style. We just picked up sandwiches and chips for lunch. It was nice eating in a cool place because Luzern was about 90°. I'm not sure it got above 80° in the mountains! After lunch, we went back to the hotel, got our key, and changed into shorts! Much better! The town was walkable and completely different from the Alps, so we were glad we got a different experience without leaving the country.

Fountain and church ride outside our hotel window

On the Chapel Bridge

On the Chapel Bridge

View from Old Town Walls

Lion Monument

 

We did a walking tour of the town. It was really crowded and pretty touristy. Luzern is the biggest tourist destination in Switzerland, I think. For supper, we ate Burger King and a few of our snacks. Since our hotel had no air conditioning, we slept with the windows open. It was tolerable, but we missed A/C for sure! It was also the night of the Italy/Germany soccer game in the Euro Cup, so cars were honking their horns for hours! Thankfully, we were tired so it didn't keep us from falling asleep.

to be continued....