Only 362 Days til Christmas!

We had a great Christmas! It was a quick trip, but it was worth it!

Thursday night, we left for Atlanta. We got there about 12:30 and slept til 7:00.

Friday, we got up and headed to Columbus. Got there in time for lunch. We had BBQ! Very excited about that. Grannie and Granddaddy came over for supper.

Saturday, we woke up and Santa Clause had come. We had a big breakfast, then headed to Tupelo to see my family. Santa came again! Then we had a Mardi Gras Christmas, complete with King Cake! We headed to the cabin to see more family and play games.

Sunday, we had a big breakfast in Tupelo before heading to Fulton. It snowed almost all day, but didn't stick. Then back to Columbus to rest up for the drive home yesterday!

It was a pretty drive. To about Birmingham, there was lots of pretty snow. Then it all seemed to have melted until Columbia, SC where it got prettier and prettier! When we got home, we took one load in, then changed so we could play in the snow. Weather reports said we had 9 inches here Sunday. There were about 6 left yesterday... sad it is all melting.

Today, I have just been unpacking and catching up on laundry. Anna came and we had lunch. I have sold a few books on Amazon, so I have been to the post office twice. :)

J is taking his tests tomorrow in Raleigh! Hope he passes! Lots of studying tonight. Hopefully I can motivate myself to study for the GRE. That verbal section is going to be killer!

Christmas Pictures

Christmas time!

A White Christmas in MS

A hand of snow in NC!

Snow!!!

Icicles on our neighbor's house

Snow Tuesday Morning

Christmas Take One

We opened presents from each other last night since we are leaving tonight for MS.

A year of ESPN magazine. Woo Hoo!



It's raining chocolate!



Phase 10!
For those that don't know, we met playing Phase 10



He got me a dollar!



Bible Clutch- in my favorite colors!

Merry Christmas from North Carolina!

Christmas Break is Here!

Christmas break!! yay! I am very glad to be off for (almost) 2 weeks! One perk of being a teacher! :)

This past week was a bit crazy! I had a workshop in Raleigh on Monday. It was nothing special. A waste of time really, but it was something besides real work, so that was nice! Tuesday was Natalie's birthday, so I made cupcakes, and Charray and I headed to Fayetteville to celebrate with her. We picked up Marci, and ate at an Italian place before heading to Nat's apartment for cupcakes and presents.

Thursday we didn't have school! It snowed early in the morning, then turned to freezing rain. Wednesday night, they announced a two hour delay. Then Thursday morning at 7 they canceled school! J was supposed to go to Raleigh to take 2 more insurance tests. He left at 6:45, but got stuck here in town for 1.5 hours because of a wreck. He couldn't even turn around and come home. He just went to straight to work, and will reschedule the tests. Hopefully for some time next week. We also has J's office Christmas party. It was at a B&B in Dunn. It was fun fun, but short. The spinach artichoke dip was SO good!

Friday, we rented a Redbox and had some chili.

Saturday, we were about to go running outside, when it started sleeting! So we changed plans and went to the gym. Afterwards, we went to Food Lion and got stuff to a make white chocolate covered pretzels. Yummy!

Yesterday, we made it up to Cary for class again. It is pretty good. We are thinking about placing membership soon. Just wished we lived a little closer so we could be more involved.

Today, I taught the 7:45 class, then met with Natalie. Now I am just going to read until J comes home. We have finished all our shopping (our last gift should arrive tomorrow), so I am going to enjoy doing nothing. :)

We are leaving Thursday night for Mississippi and will get back sometime Monday... will be a quick trip!


Also, I have decided to get my master's in Curriculum & Instruction: New Literacies and Global Learning with a focus in K-12 Reading. I am taking the GRE on Jan 29 and hope to start at NCSU in June! I am planning on going part time (2 classes), so I will still work. If all goes according to plan, I will graduate in May '13!

Pictures

Ice on my car Thursday


J working hard


Finished!

Let it Rain, Let it Rain, Let it Rain

No snow for us! Just lots and lots of (cold) rain!

This week, J studied for his insurance tests. He takes both tests on Thursday in Raleigh.

Monday night, J was in the Erwin parade. It was pretty cold, so I just took him some clothes and came home! :)

Friday, J got a call from someone at church inviting us to the young marrieds' Christmas party on Saturday. Since we hadn't planned on doing anything, we decided to go. It was so much fun! So glad we went. We ate and met some new people, talked to the ones we had met already, and played dirty santa. I ended up with dominoes! So now we can play Mexican train! J ended up with a Woot flying monkey. He is beyond excited.

Today, we decided to go to class. There is a young married class now, and since we had met more people now, we decided to go. It was really good. Starting to feel much better about our choice of church now!

After church, we decided to eat at Carolina Ale House. I had heard good things about it, so we went. We got fried pickles as an appetizer. YUMMY! I had a burger and J had a buffalo wing wrap. After our waitress brought us our check, the manager came out and said he heard it was out first time there and offered us FREE dessert. Um, yes please! We had apple pie a la mode. SO good!

This week-

I have a workshop tomorrow in Raleigh.
J is taking his insurance tests.
J's Christmas party Thursday.
1/2 day of school on Friday!

13 days til Christmas!

Jingle Bells

It wasn't a very exciting week here. J passed 2 of the 3 tests he took. Considering he was sick, that is pretty good! I had a busy week with 2 back-to-back meetings Thursday on opposite ends of the county. And the main road I take was closed due to railroad construction.

Saturday was the Jingle Bell run. I jingled the whole way. I ran the entire time, too! I was towards the back of the group, but I finished in 33:30, which is 2.5 min faster than last time! After the race, we did a little shopping and ate at Red Robin. And on the way home, it snowed! It stuck more in Raleigh than it did here.

Today, I signed up for the Krispy Kreme Challenge, but just as a casual runner. Woo hoo!

Tomorrow night, J is in the Erwin parade. 20 days until Christmas!

Now I leave you with a couple of pictures:





This is what we did since we don't have outside electrical outlets. It is hard to tell, but we have some gold strands with leaves and berries worked in with the garland.

Merry Thanksgiving!

J didn't mention last week, but he surprised me with flowers on Tuesday (the 16th) since it was our 1.5 year anniversary! Here is a pic:





We both had to work Mon-Wed. J didn't feel good Tuesday, so he just went in to take his tests, then came home. I spent part of Wednesday rearranging my office because we got a new psychologist and she will be in the office full time with me. We think we figured out a good arrangement! Then I went to another school with the other itinerant teachers.

Thursday, we headed to SC. We ate and ate and had fun. My cheesecake was a hit! There was so much food, we stayed for supper and had the traditional fare again. Then, we headed to the hotel to rest up. J's mom and I were hitting the stores early!

Friday, I woke up at 3:50 to hit Target. We got there at 4. WOW. That's all I can say about the line. We knew it was going to be a long morning. I then dropped J's mom off to stand in a line while I went to Shoe Carnival to wait in line. (The first 100 people got a $10 gift card, so I wanted to be in the 1st 100!) Those of us who waited a while were given a $3 off coupon. So I scored 3 pairs of boots for a little less than $45! Bring on the cold weather! I headed to wait in line with J's mom. After that store, we headed to Michael's to buy some Christmas decorations. We were a little tired, so we went back to the hotel, rested and ate breakfast, then hit the mall, Target, and Kohl's. Whew! We ate lunch and headed home. Quick trip, but good!

When we got home, I couldn't take it and immediately started decorating for Christmas! I scored a beautiful wreath and some garland for the porch, so we got that up then started on the Christmas tree and all the indoor things.

Saturday, we watched the game. Now we are egg bowl champs! Great weekend to be a Bulldog!

Today, we just laid around. I did make this eggplant dish, which is surprisingly good. Thanks, Clark! I also make noodles, so we ate it like an eggplant parmigiana.

Amazon also started their Cyber Monday sale already, so I ordered a couple more presents. I am determined not to set foot in another store since Amazon has everything!

I will leave you with a couple of pictures :)





Now, back to real life =)

Hog Wild

J here writing this week's blog installment. Not too exciting of a week. We're still getting used to the time change. I really dislike it being dark by when I get home from work, but I know I'm not alone in that.

Thursday at work I was in charge of putting up the Christmas tree. Couldn't get much help because everyone else said it's tacky to put up the tree before Christmas (I agree of course but just did as I was told). The Salvation Army gave us a bunch of children's names with their Christmas lists to hang on the tree. C and I picked a little boy who is 18 months old. We went shopping for him Saturday and got him some really cute clothes. C had a lot of fun with it.

Friday night we went to see Harry Potter with Anna and our friend from MSU, JPG. It was really good and left us wanting to see the next one immediately. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait til summer. We didn't get there very early and had to sit up front. C refused and sat by herself a little farther up....typical :) Also, Saturday morning C woke me up at 4 to see if I could hear a noise in the room. I could but we couldn't find the source. She couldn't go back to sleep but of course I did. Today, we found the culprit. It was a spider the size of a half-dollar! C was thoroughly freaked out and has said that she is sleeping on the couch from now on even though I killed it.

The State game was very exciting but extremely disappointing. At least we fought hard with a very good team and managed to score some points. Ole Miss looked good against LSU, so we'll have to bring our A-game next week. UNC lost in football (to NC State) and basketball this week. I am looking forward to rubbing in the basketball loss since they were ranked in the top 10.

We are very excited about getting some days off this week. We have finished up most of our Christmas shopping but have managed to not put the tree up yet (much to C's dismay).

On a more serious note, C's grandmother had a mild stroke and is in the hospital in Bay St. Louis. We are hoping she will be moved to Tupelo this week. Please keep her in your prayers.

Until next time, we send our love from North Carolina.

The Usual..

Nothing too exciting around here. The leaves are beautiful, and it is finally getting cooler. We have even turned on the heat! Never thought we would turn it on so early.

Since the last update, we have done a few small things.

-We went on a date to see Due Date. It was funny, but I would wait until it comes out on DVD. We also tried Noodles and Co. We drive by it all the time in Cary, and finally decided to try it. It was really good! (In fact, we went again today after church.) We finished up with coffee and dessert at Starbucks.

-John passed his first insurance test! He has two more to go before a promotion. We are hoping for one in late January or February!

-We both had Veteran's Day off, so we relaxes and took a little trip to Cape Fear River Park in Erwin. (Pics below.)

-We went to Raleigh to watch a movie and eat with some of Anna's friends. We watched the Monster Squad. It was so funny!

-We went to Cary last night (Saturday) to watch the State-Bama game with a few people. We had a good time, even if we did get lost. But hey, we didn't get spanked by coach on national tv either.

-John went to one of the local elementary schools as the Fat Cat. The Fat Cat promotes saving money.

Pictures

Picture Update!

A few old pics and a few new ones!



J ready to give out candy


Go State!


tree in front yard




flower blooming

Monster Dash

Not much news... and no pictures :(

But we did do our first 5K today! We didn't think of any good costume ideas, so we just went as runners. ;) We finished in a little over 36 minutes! That was faster than I ran it on the treadmill last week. And this was uphill (1/2 of it anyway!) J finished a little before me since he sprinted at the end. But we are both proud of ourselves for doing it! I want to do another... J not so much. :) I think Anna and I might run one in December. We'll see.

We had tons of trick or treaters tonight! Since my mom (and maybe me..) had eaten some of the candy, we ran out QUICK! J ran to the store to get more (2 bags) and we still ran out before it was over! Next year... more candy!


Short and sweet this week. Maybe I'll update more later this week. Pumpkin pie is calling my name.

A Day Late and A Dollar Short

Delay in posting this week since my parents were here. :)

Last week seems so long ago, and it is only Monday! I know my week wasn't too bad. I did have a quick meeting on Wednesday with 2 hours notice. Somehow I made it work though. J had class Tues-Thurs in Raleigh. He also took 4 more tests, and we should find out about those this week.

Thursday after class, J went to the airport and picked up mom and dad. When they got here, we ate at the Fish Fry. We had heard good things about it, but never been (even though it is like 3 blocks from the house!) It was pretty good!

Friday, I had a workday, but I did manage to take mom and dad around to most of my schools. We stopped in Wal-Mart to buy a springform pan. We then came home and made pumpkin cheesecake. That was an adventure. We didn't read the directions all the way through, so we were quite surprised to learn we had to cook it in a water bath. (Oh! That's why we wrapped the outside in foil..) And mom can't read (TABLEspoon is not the same as TEASPOON.) But it still turned out delicious. I am planning to make it for Thanksgiving... we'll see though!

Friday night, we went to eat at Yamato and then went bowling. It was a good time, even if the guy next to us had my ending score in 3 frames...

Saturday, we had sort of a lazy day. Mom and I walked around a lot, then we all headed to Sunny Skies for ice cream. We then drove to Fuquay and back home for football. I cooked spaghetti for supper, and the bulldogs won!!!

Sunday, we went to church in Cary, then ate at Jason's Deli. We walked around a lot of the stores, then headed tot he TJ Maxx in Apex. Heaven! We watched some football, ate some pizza, and just enjoyed being together. Mom and Dad left this morning right after I left for work.



This week we will be busy trying to prepare for our 5K Sunday. We haven't run in a week! It's going to be a long week. :)

It's All About the U

It hasn't been a very exciting week here. Just a pretty boring week, which is kinda of nice since my weeks have been a little crazy lately.

Saturday, we went to a pumpkin patch. We really just got 2 pumpkins and left. :) Then we headed to Durham to watch the Duke/Miami game. We ate lunch on Duke's campus. It was chilly in the shade, but pretty warm once we got to the stadium. Unfortunately, it was a rather boring game, so we left before halftime. We then headed to North Raleigh to look at a Juke. One will be coming to our driveway... in a couple of years. :) (hopefully!) Then we came home and watched some football! GO STATE! Ranked for the first time since 2001.

Today, we went to Cary to church. The preacher is a little long winded- but nothing like the one in Fuquay. We also met a nice couple. They have the two cutest kids. They even invited us to lunch. We went and ate at a Mexican place with them. She likes couponing and yard sales! They were older than us, but super nice!

This week, my parents are flying in and John has class. Should be a good week!





Eating on Duke's campus

Hello, Autumn!

The weather has been amazing outside this week! It has gotten pretty chilly at night, and since the house isn't very airtight, it has been in the 60s in the mornings. I refuse to turn on the heat yet though! :)

Because of the weather, we have been running outside more. And we officially signed up for our first 5K today. It is on Halloween in Raleigh. Now we just have to figure out what to dress up as that will let us still run!

We also made our first Apple Pies of the season... flat (Pioneer Woman style) of course!



Wednesday was an adventure we haven't had before... which is great since we have been together for 4 years. John locked himself out of the house and his car. He went to leave for work, locked the door behind him, only to realize that his keys were inside. He called me several times, but since I was with students, I didn't hear until almost 9. I had a meeting I couldn't miss, but thankfully, I gave him the landlady's number and the neighbor drove him over to get the spare key. He was only a little late for work... and we have now found a good hiding spot for a spare key. :)

This weekend, we had planned on going to see some of my students from MSD play in a volleyball tournament at the Eastern North Carolina School for the Deaf, but we couldn't get any information about when they would play! We called several people, but never got anywhere. :( So we stayed home and watched several movies (thanks Netflix!) We watched Arranged Friday night, and Greta, Sherlock Holmes, and Angels & Demons Saturday. The we watched some good football. Go Gamecocks! woot. So excited to see Bama lose. We should have gone to THAT game!

Today, we went to church in Cary again. We were super excited a Jason's Deli just opened up not far from there, so we had that for lunch. SO GOOD! Might be a regular Sunday thing. We headed to Old Navy and Michael's and picked up a couple of things before heading to Kroger and then home.

Now we are grilling out since it is not too hot and not too cold.

This week should be a pretty good week. I don't have ANY meetings (at this moment), and we are going to the Duke vs. Miami game this coming weekend! The next weekend, my parents will be here!

High Country Pictures

Grandfather Mountain






Apple Picking!




The fruit of our labor :)

High Country

This week has been crazy! I had 4 meetings this week (thankfully, one got canceled!) At least the weather has turned nice! After days of rain, it finally feels like fall. Though rainy days make my days long- going in and out of 4 schools a day is rough when it is windy and rainy!

We just decided to head to the mountains this weekend. We had talked about going in November, but were afraid all the leaves would have fallen since they are predicting the leaves to change early. So we just went. :) We left EARLY Saturday morning- really, we saw stars when we left. We stopped to eat breakfast at Biscuitville, which is a chain here. It was fine, but nothing fancy. Now we can say we have been. We drove on to Boone. We stopped and walked around Appalachian State and downtown Boone before heading to Grandfather Mountain. We enjoyed driving up and seeing everything there. So pretty! And the leaves were definitely starting to change. We drove back to Boone and ate at Melanie's Food Fantasy. It was pretty good! Even if we were eating lunch at 3. After that, we were exhausted, so we went to the hotel to take a quick nap... which turned into a long one. :) We did go swimming for a little while, then went to supper at The Red Onion Cafe. We shared pumpkin cheesecake for dessert. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.! Wish I could eat that all the time... well except for all the calories.

This morning, we woke up and ate breakfast at the hotel. We stepped outside... and it was cold! It was about 45 degrees... wow! It was somewhat exciting though after all this heat we have had this summer! We drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway, stopping a few times. We went to an apple orchard and picked some apples. They didn't look anything like the apples that are in stores. They had a sign up that said "Here, Ugly is only skin deep." So far, we have found that to be true. :) Tom Tom then took us on a 1 lane gravel road back to civilization. Gotta love Tom Tom!

We got caught in lots of construction traffic, but it was nice to take our time getting home. We saw an RV pulling a car- the car had a sign in the back that said, "Please be patient. I am pushing a big motor home!" A teddy bear was driving. Don't worry- he had his seat belt on. We ended the trip with a trip to Steak n Shake. Oh yeah!

This week, Monday is early release for students. I have a meeting that afternoon (of course.) I also have a meeting Wednesday, but other than that, it should be a normal week.

Now.. anyone have good recipes for apples? :)

Money Never Sleeps

Hello, everyone!

We had a good week and are finishing up a weekend of relaxation. On Monday, we took Clark to Sunny Skies for some ice cream. We saw a couple of guys sample the Cold Sweat. They made a big to-do about it. I doubt either of us will be trying it anytime soon. Tuesday was Clark's last day in town, and I called in at work because I wasn't feeling up to par(this is J). We spent the day playing video games and what not. It was a really good visit. He was able to fix a few things for us while he was here, too.

The rest of the week was pretty mundane. C has been very tired from having to leave for work so much earlier. She is enjoying the opportunity to sign more, though. Hopefully she'll still remember how to sign when she gets a job at a deaf school :)

The title of the post comes from the fact that we started our free trial with NetFlix. We can now stream movies straight to our tv (for this month at least). We got it originally so we could watch the movie "Wall Street" before we see the sequel, "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" Today, we watched three movies since it has been raining all day. We went back to the Cary church and met some nice people. We plan on continuing to go there and hope it will be our new church home.

Also, I am very excited that we beat UGA. One of the advisory board members at the credit union played for UGA as a tight end back when Herschel Walker was there. Needless to say, I am looking forward to mentioning the game to him next time he comes in.

I will be mortgage class on Tuesday and Wednesday, but the rest of the week will be the usual. C has a busy week planned with 5 meetings scheduled. Hope ya'll have a great week!

DUMA

This week, I saw students for the first time this semester. Between co-teaching the 7:45 class everyday and sorting our schedule troubles, I was so ready for this week to be over!

Friday, we rented The Ghost Writer from the redbox. I don't remember hearing about it, but it was actually pretty good! We woke up Saturday and headed to RDU to pick up Clark. After we got him, we headed to Durham for the Duke/Bama game. We ate at a shopping center area... J and I had pizza, and C had Mediterranean. Then we headed to campus, which was a mad house. There were probably more Bama fans than Duke fans! We saw a couple of guys who had cut a BAMA shirt and a DUKE shirt in half and had sewn them back together as BAKE and DUMA. We found a bookstore and I got a blue shirt, and so did C. Then we took a quick look at Duke's Basketball Court. We headed into the game about 1.5 hours early, figuring it would be full... we were wrong, so we baked in the sun for an extra hour. :) We all have 1/2 red bodies. :)

Today, we went to church in Raleigh with Anna again. Her parents and brother were visiting, so we went to eat at Cafe Carolina with them. When they left, we headed to Goodberry's for frozen custard, then hung out with Anna for a while. Now we are waiting for Swamp People to come on!


Ultimate Chicken Pizza from Enzo's in Durham



Duke Chapel- we saw a bride and group taking pictures!


J at Cameron



Bubba and me



Before Bama scored



J sweating it out

Fall is almost here!

The weather this week has been great! We had one hot day, but the rest were low 80s. The mornings were amazing. Just can't wait for the leaves to change!

This week, J had class Tuesday and Wednesday. I had a workshop Wednesday - Friday. So it was a slow week, but it was good! I will start seeing students tomorrow. I have 11 students this semester, but I see them for longer periods of time than last semester, so I will be much busier!

Friday, I went to Fayetteville for a girls' night with the other 2 itinerant teachers and one of our specialists. We played Taboo, Catch Phrase, and Mad Gab while we snacked. So much fun.

Saturday, we went to Cary to watch the Alabama game with some people from Anna's church. We are trying to be more social. :)

This morning, as we were leaving for church, we decided to go to the church Anna goes to. It is only 5 more minutes than the one we were planning on anyway. We ate lunch with a group, then went to Harris Teeter. We got home at 3! and took a much needed nap.

This week, Clark is flying in, and we are going to the Duke game. Getting excited!

Breaking news!

We both got haircuts!
We are still working on styling J's.
My haircut looks much better in person. The picture didn't do a good job showing how it looks.

We're back!

Sorry if you were bored last week with nothing to read. :)

J's parents came to visit the last weekend in August. They got here Thursday night. J had a work meeting at the steakhouse (poor thing), so the rest of us went to Andy's. J brought home some amazing bread and some cheesecake from the steakhouse. That Friday, J's parents took him out to lunch while I worked. After work, we did a little shopping in the area. I got a cute fall wreath for the door, some lawn chairs, and some halloween window decals. I love fall! We grilled out and went to Sunni Sky's for ice cream. I know I had Apple Pie, but I forgot what everyone else got. They gave us samples of pumpkin pie, which was good! J said it tasted just like the ice cream. Crazy!

Saturday, we went into Raleigh for the day. We started off at The Flying Biscuit for brunch. It was SO good, of course. We then headed to a kitchen showroom to look at cabinets, floors, etc for the big remodel in MS. (It's a good thing we don't have anything to remodel here- too many choices!!!) We also met the guy that sold us Duke/Bama tickets. Money and tickets were exchanged, and we are so excited to get to go! We then went to Apex to see The Other Guys, which was surprisingly funnier than I thought it would be. After a quick trip to TJMaxx and a stop at Rita's, we headed home.

My favorite purchase at TJMaxx

Sunday, we went to church in Cary. They have a brand new building, and man, it is crazy nice! I read this week it was a $2 million addition! The service was good, and it definitely more in our comfort zone. We will go a few more times, then check out another near-by church. The only thing we didn't really like about it is that it is 45 minutes away, which makes it hard to be involved. After church, we ate at Lucky 32, which wasn't really that good. :( J's parents left that afternoon.

Last week was the first full week for students. I still am not seeing them until next week though. I have been busy getting everything ready though! This week I am going to a workshop here in town.

This past Friday, after a trip to the store, we rented Book of Eli in Blu-Ray from redbox. So excited they have blu-rays now.. even if the selection is limited. The movie was pretty good! Saturday, we went to Fuquay for lunch. We just relaxed the rest of the day... and watched some football! And oh, what a glorious day it was. Ole Miss got beat by an out of conference team, and we won! Great day to be a Bulldog! (I definitely got some great use out of my cowbell!)

Yesterday, we went to Morrow Mountain State Park in the Uwharrie Mountains, which are really just hills. We ate a picnic lunch and hiked around some. Then we headed into Charlotte. We hadn't really planned on it, but there weren't many trails the hike, so we went. We drove downtown and through where all the rich people live. (We looked up online how much the houses there were selling for.. and wow!) We went to South Park Mall. It was SO nice. And here we are in hiking clothes! The mall had Tiffany & Co., Coach, Louis Vuitton, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, and the list goes on. It was huge! After that, we drove around some more and headed home. The weather was perfect all day!

Today, we will just relax and enjoy the day off! Well, I might get J's help to clean up a little ;)

Pics in next post!

Labor Day pics!

Crazy church in Charlotte

Our first glimpse of Charlotte

The hiking trail

View from the top

J overlooking where we had lunch