My New Year's Goals

I've been thinking for a while now (especially since it's the end of January now...) about my goals for the New Year. In no particular order:

1. remodel our master bathroom  (i can kind of cross out some of it...we started demo last night!)
2. improve at photography
3. exercise more, not to lose weight, but to become healthier & feel better
4. start attending church on a REGULAR basis
5. learn something new...a new skill or take a class on something I've never done (last years was photography)
6. make it to WV more often..it's only 4 hours away and my parents do it easily
7. cook more, eat out less
8. make a budget and actually stick to it
9. I would really like to have have some kind of an extra income..don't know how other than getting a 2nd job, but we'll see.


Things I accomplished in 2010:
1. Got engaged/Planned a wedding
2. Got married!
3. Took a photography class & really enjoyed it
4. Made my first gluten-free cake (you laugh, but...)

Wow...I feel like I didn't get much accomplished, but I felt like our wedding took about 6 months out of the year to plan and execute.

What are your goals??

New thing ahead

I'm so excited! Brandon bought me photography lessons here in Greenville that start at the end of November. I've always loved photography, but never had the opportunity to learn about it more in depth than just your typical point and shoot. He bought me a Nikon D5000 as a wedding gift and it's amazing at what a difference a great camera makes! I would really like to get better at photography, but we'll see what the future holds!

Fall Moments

I love fall for many reasons. My birthday, crisp weather, colorful leaves, pumpkins and holidays (which usually means family time!). Brandon and I both have so many things to be thankful for this year: We celebrated our marriage in June surrounded by special friends and family, our house that we bought close to 1 year ago, our jobs, our health and the health of our family, thankful that we still continue to love living in Greenville and are now closer to my sister. It won't be too long until we are facing a new year! I'll be thinking about a new list of goals and blog about them later :) Here is a picture of downtown Greenville from this past weekend.

Have a great weekend everyone! :)



Lazy Saturday

I was so excited for this weekend for a few reasons. Brandon and I were actually going to get to spend some time together AND we didn't have anything planned! I made breakfast this morning, went to the gym, showered, Brandon & I ate lunch before he was off to work, I went to Barnes & Noble and read through a few of my favorite magazines and now I'm back home. I've done some laundry, downloaded some pictures, took a nap and I think I'm going to make homemade granola bars.
I got to a point a few months ago when we didn't have things planned that the weekends just seemed to slip by and I felt like I never got anything accomplished. I started trying to pack our weekends full of stuff to do which left me feeling pretty tired by Monday. I'm sincerely enjoying this weekend of nothing planned, not to mention it's raining outside which makes the perfect day to lay around in pajama pants. Enjoy your weekend!

The Unexpected

We received news late Thursday night that Brandon's grandmother had a stroke and fell at some point earlier in the day and was found in her car port by one of her friends. The only news we had was that she was being sent to a hospital near Birmingham. We went to bed thinking that older people have falls, she'll be fine, they were just taking her to see what, if any, injuries she had. Friday morning I got a call from Brandon who said that she was unresponsive, on life support and her kidneys were starting to shut down.  They were going to do an EEG to test brain activity. An hour later, I received a tearful call that there was no brain activity and that they were going to take her off of life support. Whoa. It all happened so fast, I guess we really just didn't expect it to be this bad. Brandon obviously left work and drove to Alabama and I stayed here waiting for news. Her sister insisted that they do one more test on Saturday to test for improvement (I would've done the same). Their feelings were confirmed--the test showed even less brain activity than the one Friday night. The family made the decision to take her off life support and she died shortly thereafter. I'll be traveling down to Alabama tomorrow and coming back Tuesday after the funeral. All of this has really made me think about the unexpected. There are quotes everywhere and people say stuff all the time, "live like you were dying today", "you never know what tomorrow brings"...but it's true. I would have never thought that last Sunday would be the last time I heard Brandon talk to his Nana or the last time he would get off the phone and say, "Nana said to tell her granddaughter hello". You just never know.
Besides that, I'm sitting at home all by myself. No Husband. No dog. And it's lonely. I did get to see my mom for a brief time last night and today. Surprisingly, it actually felt like a long visit. We did quite a bit of shopping and ate at our favorite brunch place. I tried to teach my mom how to work her new cell phone. Did I mention that her old cell phone still had an antenna??!! 6 years old. I chuckled when the lady at Verizon asked me if I wanted insurance on it. She hates change but I think she likes it. Oh, and my dad got his own cell phone for the first time. When they showed up for my wedding with walkie talkies in the car, I knew we needed to do something.
In summary, crappy, but somewhat productive weekend. I'll get to see Brandon tomorrow (which won't be a run in to your arms kind of moment), but because of his work schedule, I haven't really seen him in about 5 days and I'll get to see my doodle bear Millie and my sister at the end of the week hopefully. Back to watching football and packing. Can I just say I do NOT miss working football? Ok, I said it.

Married life and other stuff...

So Brandon and I have been married almost 2 months! I will say that even though I wasn't convinced that it would feel "different" to be married, it does...for the better! I haven't really been able to put my finger on exactly what makes it better, but I will say that it's nice to not have to worry about your status as a couple--no more searching, no more worrying if I'm the right girl, no more trying to explain to others that "we've talked about marriage...", yadda yadda. Anyway, I'm back to feeling single since football has started and I actually will be going to bed before he gets home. I'll wake up for work, he'll be in bed, he'll go to work, I'll come home from work, I'll go to bed, he'll come home from work and we will repeat that cycle until November. This marriage might work!
On another note, the fire ants in our yard are taking over. We had them well controlled, but since the previous homeowners decided it would be smart to plant fig trees right by our back door, we have bees, flys and ants EVERYWHERE. It also smells like rotten fruit when you walk outside. It's been almost impossible to let Millie out in the yard for fear that she'll get in one of the million ant hills or get stung by a bee. I would really hate to cut down a living tree that produces fruit, but I'm really fed up...Those trees are going DOWN. I guess we'll spend some time this weekend maybe scooping up mashed rotten figs off the ground so maybe we won't be feeding every squirrel, bee, ant and fly in Greenville. Until then, I have to keep using the red ant killer which I hate to do. I don't want to kill them...just go somewhere else!