Snow Day?

Stix was uh-may-zing!  We had such a wonderful time with Mere and Adam.  We went to their house first for drinks then had an awesome dinner.  Love, love, love those guys.
Last night we had dinner with CJ's sister and brother in law at Davenport's Pizza.  We had a blast with them!
We're supposed to have a winter storm tonight through Monday morning.  I've heard up to six inches of snow.  We'll see how bad this really gets.  I'm hoping it's bad enough to keep me home from work, but not so bad that we can't travel to Brittany and Corey's Monday night for the game.  Right now it's sleeting outside.  I guess we'll see...
We're taking it easy around the house with the boyz and cooking chili later.  I'm trying to rest my mind before school starts tomorrow, National Championship game tomorrow, and the excitement surrounding this weather. 
Now...back to relaxing!

2011...

We made it!  A new year...seems so refreshing. 
Nashville was fun.  Honestly it needs it's own post about the hilarity of it all, but I'm just too tired for that so I'm going to try to sum it up in a paragraph instead.  Here it goes - Ok, our hotel looked nothing like the pictures on the internet (shocker, right?!).  It smelled of a mixture between mildew and cheap cologne.  After begging CJ to change hotels and accomplishing nothing, naturally, I decided I had to be a trooper.  I did what most humans would do at that point to make the room less disgusting, I had a drink...or two.  We called a cab - not just any cab of course - we managed to get the only cab who seemed like he had a few drinks before he came to pick us up and who also attempted to smoke his cigarette backwards as if to validate any thoughts we had about him being under the influence.  After listening to his vulgar jokes and weird songs, we arrived at the Brewhouse in Nashville.  That was actually a really great time.  Hours later we left there and realized how crowded it had gotten outside and how RAINY it had gotten.  We tried walking around a bit before it started coming down pretty hard...minutes later, we found ourselves waiting in the hour and a half long wait at Hardrock just to get out of the rain.  While waiting in line we met a really sweet couple from TN and wound up having dinner with them at Hardrock which was really cool.  After that, we ventured back into the rain to watch the guitar drop at midnight.  Soon after we tried catching a cab which wound up taking over an hour.  We were walking up and down hills, in the pouring rain, soaking wet and found what had to be the very last cab driver on Earth.  When we got back to the hotel there was a techno party going on downstairs...or what may have been a wedding...either way it was the cherry on top.  After arriving in the room, I put on as many dry clothes as I could find and laid a towel on the bed for me to sleep on.  We left at 8:30 the next morning.  All in all, we love TN and always have and really wanted to enjoy Nashville more - but I guess that's what the rest of our lives are for.



Brewhouse



HAPPY NEW YEAR!



Hard Rock Cafe



AFTER being in the rain!

It's Tuesday now and I'm already looking forward to Friday.  I'm completely registered for school which is a bit of a load off my back.  I'm also kick starting my diet and exercise routine and am writing about it for no other reason than to maybe make me accountable.  Hopefully?  Friday we're going to dinner with our neighbors and best friends, Adam and Meredith to Stix.  We're pretty excited about eating some delicious food from the hibachi grill and spending time with some really great people.  Saturday we're going to dinner with CJ's sister and brother in law (Staci & Brian).  Not sure where yet, but it will be a great time regardless.  And MONDAY...
Monday is the National Championship game!  Our friends, Brittany and Corey are having a get together over there so we're going to their house to hopefully celebrate what will be an AU victory.
For now, that is all.  I'm tired and going to bed with my boyz!

New Years Eve...Eve.

It's Thursday over here in Vacation land.  We had dinner with my mom and brother last night.  Mexican and margaritas, no less!  It was so nice, I think we all talked non stop the whole time.  I really wish my brother would move back home so we could do things like that more often...
Today I put a roast in the crock pot so we've been smelling that for the past several hours - - and will continue to smell it for a couple more.  We've been absolutely worthless today and it has been absolutely wonderful. 
Tomorrow we'll head out around noon for Nashville after we drop Dale off at my mom's.  We're excited about the trip and spending another New Years out of town...and another anniversary out of town:) 
I'm going to get back to smelling the roast! 
Nashville, HERE WE COME!

Vacation starts...NOW!

Well, well, well...
It's Sunday night.  We had a very nice Christmas.  We were supposed to travel to MS to be with my family, however, the weather was icy so we stayed in town and celebrated with CJ's family.  We spend the day at his sister and brother in law's house.  It was such a peaceful, relaxing, fun, special time.  They gave us way too many gifts to enjoy - some even throughout the year!  It snowed here all day and again this morning.  It was my first white Christmas...and also my first Christmas spent in Alabama. 


Our Christmas tree on Christmas Eve...



Our White Christmas:)



My love.



Guess who?



The boyz in their Christmas sweaters!

Ok, so today is Sunday. It's technically the beginning of our week off.  The word "vacation" has been thrown around here more often than I care to remember.  We're so stinking excited!  Today we went grocery shopping for the week.  I made venison vegetable soup and corn bread today.  CJ put a Christmas toy together that he got.  We had a very nice day at home...and are expecting many more! 

Bill stealing some ice cream from dad....

Tomorrow we're staying around here during the day then heading to my parent's house to spend time with them and my brother who's in town from Gainesville.  Should be a good time!  I'm really, really trying to soak all this in and enjoy every second of being able to spend so much time off with CJ and the boyz.  I hope we all have a really special Christmas Vacation.  Ok...I'm off to think about what to bake or cook tomorrow!

And so this is Christmas...

This week is flying by! 
I'm excited to get home out of this cold and snuggle with the boyz and CJ.  I've managed to get quite a bit of shopping done this week.  CJ told me that the stores must hate me because I have so many coupons.  :)  What else went on this week?  Let's see...I made chili with venison on Monday and sweetie pie had it for dinner every night so far.  It was quite delish if I must say so myself.  Last week I made vegetable soup with venison and it was equally as tasteful.  I'm beginning to like cooking with venison - which poses a problem because we're almost out.  Because I do not shoot helpless animals (nor does CJ), I'm assuming we won't have anymore this year. 
This weekend...Friday night we're going on a date, mexican of course!  Saturday we're going to finish...ok...start and finish Christmas shopping.  Saturday night we're going to dinner with CJ's sister and brother in law to a new restaurant in town (Chuy's).  I hope Sunday we wrap some presents!

I'm still waiting for someone to press the pause button on this time of year.  I'm certainly enjoying every second of it.   
This is our last full week of work.  YEAH!

Lately...

Lately,
We went to CJ's sister's house lastSaturday for the SEC Championship game and watched Auburn win!  They are now on the road to a National Championship.  We had a great time playing with the kids and spending time with his sister and brother in law.  Great food, great fun, great win!
We also got our Christmas tree up.  It's a cute little tree - now we just need to wrap those presents that are sitting upstairs to put under the tree.  Soon enough! 

Friday night CJ took me on a date and told me some very special news that he had been holding in since lunch earlier that day...he sold his bike!  It may sound not so exciting for someone else, but it was a huge step towards a goal of ours.  I was in tears and crying at the same time - such a sap!  Luckily, he sold it to his boss who collects classic bikes - this way we know it will be well taken care of...and maybe we can even borrow it every now and then.

Yesterday we had a tacky Christmas sweater party at a friend's house and had a great time.  It's always nice to see a few faces that we don't get to see too often and catch up.  It was also really funny seeing every one's creativity and attire!  I know CJ enjoyed seeing some old friends and talking football with the guys.  He was the cutest little sweetie there:)  Maybe I'm biased...

Today the weather dropped into the 30's all day.  We stayed on the couch with the boyz and watched Christmas movies while it snowed off and on all day.  I made chex mix - it didn't turn out as good as my mom's or CJ's dad's.  We managed to book our hotel in Nashville for NYE, which will also be our three year anniversary. 

Bad Little Bill

So that's about it for us recently.  I'm enjoying all of the Christmas movies, commercials, decorations and sales!  One more full week of work for the rest of the year! 
xo

STUFFED.

We had a really great Thanksgiving this year! Thursday morning we had a casserole and mac and cheese ready by 9:15am.  We left around noon to head to CJ's aunt's house in Pell City.  Side note:  I've realized how terrible I am at taking pictures recently and am hoping to improve on that.  There was SO MUCH food there and it all tasted great.  I love spending Turkey Day with his family.  They're all so funny and entertaining.  I think my favorite dish this year was the sweet potato casserole.  Mmm!  The day was everything I was hoping for and had been looking forward to. 

Friday morning we woke up and prepared a lot of food to take to our friend's house (Ken & Leslie) for the Iron Bowl.  Before I go on, I must mention that Auburn WON!  There was so much food and it was fun getting together with friends and catching up as always. 

Although we made plenty of food over the past few days, these were my fav...cute, white chocolate covered pretzels!

SOME of the food for the Iron Bowl!



I know, he wasn't even paying attention - but I had to snap one quick picture before the game started.  He looked cute in all of his Auburn gear!

 Saturday we tried to not do much.  My brother was in town from Gainesville so we went to my parent's house to visit with him.  I wish he lived here so I could see him more.  We had fun and came home to watch Christmas Vacation - the most wonderful, amazing movie in the whole world.  I could quote the whole thing but it aggravates the sweetie.
Today we got up early and went to get a Christmas tree.  If I must say so myself...and I must...it's really pretty!  We've spent the rest of the day lounging, eating home made chex mix, and trying to enjoy this last bit of time off before work.  I'm also burning my new candle.  (Thanks Meredith!)  We'll be having sushi for dinner - delish!
The honey and I are heading to Nashville for New Years Eve this year.  We plan a trip every year...after I beg to get out of here.  Hey, it's our anniversary, too!  This year will be our third together.  What better way to celebrate than by watching some country music singers perform on a block party and watch a guitar drop at midnight?  Not exactly romantic, but fun!
I have really enjoyed the past five days off.  I'm kind of ready to get back in the swing of things though. This week we'll start working out again and hopefully catch some of the Christmas movies on at night.  CJ is trying to straighten some paperwork out for his motorcycle to try to sell it.  I'm praying and hoping things move quickly and smoothly for him.  I hope to finish up some Christmas shopping this week and wrap some gifts.  We'll also be talking and thinking about the SEC Championship game on Saturday and hoping that Auburn wins!  I told my sweetie pie that I hope every minute of this month goes by slowly.  We'll see!



The Boyz.