A Wonderful Saturday!

I was very excited to have my parents make the trip down here today. They haven't been down here since I moved here and hadn't seen our house either.

We gave them the tour and I immediately put my Dad on a project :) ...to finally hang up a piece of stained glass I got last year for Christmas. I know that my husband could do it, but I just felt much better putting my Dad on the job (considering he's the stained glass master). Then we drove them around North Carolina...showing off our little town of Holly Springs, then to Cary to show them where I work, and then to Raleigh. We walked all around Downtown Raleigh, wasting time before going to see the Raleigh Ringers concert. We found a cute little pizzeria, stopped by for a slice, then got back on our way of site seeing. I've realized there isn't too much down there besides banks, lawyers, and more banks & lawyers.

We went to the Raleigh Ringers concert and were very impressed. They did such a great job and I will definitely go back to see them again. My favorite were definitely the Christmas songs and the Charlie Brown ones. I had never seen anything like it!

Afterwards, we went & grabbed some dinner before sending them back to Roanoke. I just felt bad having them drive in the nasty rainy weather, which is how it has been all last week :(

Now I'm winding down for the night - I'm working tomorrow so that I can be off the Friday after Christmas. I am really looking forward to heading home Wednesday after work for the holidays. We're spending Wednesday night with his family, Thursday & Friday with mine, then Saturday night with his again...have to divide it up somehow!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

The Holidays!

After wrapping tons of presents today, it finally set in - its Christmas time!!!

I got the rest of my Christmas shopping finished, along with the rest of North Carolina...and I managed to wrap all them, with bows, this afternoon too. It definitely helped that Joseph spent the day with friends and let me shop & wrap in peace :)

We have received a few special ornaments the last week or two. Our first was a silver "Our First Christmas" star from my parents. They made the mistake in writing both of our names on the package, so when I got home it was laying on the counter. ...um, its my parents! Doesn't that mean that I get to open it?! Guess not... Then we received 3 glass white crane ornaments from my Aunt. For my bridal shower, my sister, my aunt & I sat around my parents' kitchen table and folded paper cranes. At first I thought it was going to be impossible; however, I turned out to be quite the pro :) ...or something like that. They really are special ornaments - Joseph calls it our Crane Family, because there is one large one (Him), one medium sized one (Me), and a small one (a baby crane...but that's not happening quite yet). Then our realtor brought over a "Our First House" ornament last week. Our Christmas tree isn't looking so naked anymore!

Anyway...
I am pumped about the next two weeks...
This weekend my parents are coming in town on Saturday and taking us to see The Raleigh Ringers. It will be the first time they've been to North Carolina & seen our house, so I "cleaned cleaned" this weekend for them. Then on Sunday Jarron flys back home for a few weeks. I cannot wait to see him and hear all of his San Fran stories.

Then next week its Christmas! I have to work Christmas Eve until 3, and then we'll be heading to Roanoke for the weekend. I cannot wait to see everyone, considering we only had 7 people around the table for Thanksgiving (last year we had at least 12 adults, for a table meant for maybe 6)...so I'm excited to see Jarron & my sister (and Chris, and Ella, and Fisher). The countdown to Christmas has begun.......

I Was "Tagged"

so... six non-important things/habits/quirks about me:

(...i cheated & used the first part of my sister's answers)

1- my two biggest fears are...bugs larger in size than a penny, and haunted houses

2- i am severly...left handed - i do many things backwards

3- i am totally addicticed to...the limited. i find it very difficult to buy clothes at any other store and actually enjoy them.

4- i could live on...mexican food (one beef enchilada & rice, and the chips & salsa...and a large strawberry daquiri)

5- i love to...clean. i enjoy doing dishes, (that way i know they're actually clean), doing laundry and getting it all done in one day (more mine than anyone elses), and cleaning my house (although i prefer to have all day to do this one too).

6- i long to...keep up with this 5K training, and be able to run it all come spring time!

Wedding Pictures

I received a CD with all of my wedding pictures on it the other day, so if anyone would like a copy of it or would like me to send you a few, let me know! I have permission to copy it or print the pictures on my own...so I'd be more than happy to send them out!

Just looking through them made me realize how great of a time I had that day. I really was on top of the world all day long - it was great to see everything come together. It surprised me that everything went so smoothly! I am so greatful of EVERYONE who could be there and everyone who helped me out through that stressful wedding planning. I do not have one bad thing to say about July 12th, 2008 :) It was simply a great day....



Okay, away from the sappy stuff...

I'm enjoying my clean house. This may sound strange, but I love the Sundays where I actually clean clean everything in my house - sheets, floors, dusting, vaccuuming, dishes, kitchen, everything. I feel very accomplished & now its time to relax!

Hope everyone has a great week & Thanksgiving!

Hilarious!

Alright, I hardly ever post/forward funny videos...but this one is hilarious! Please watch this because these goats crack me up every time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we9_CdNPuJg

PS...I'm waiting on a phone call/email from my Dad or Mike informing me of the origin of these things.

A Few Things....

Here are a few things I've realized....


1. I obviously stink at blogging (thanks for the hint sister). Since starting this trend, I've managed to write one blog per month...that's pretty sad. Again, I'm going to try and do better, but I'm not making any promises. :) Maybe if I had adorable kids to write about every day, the funny things they said or did, I'd do better with this. I just figured no one wants to hear about my "newly-wed" life....what's for dinner, who's going to do the laundry/dishes, who had a harder day at work, etc. However, since making a trip to Roanoke a few weekends ago, I noticed my Dad has mine & my sister's blog on his favorite places!! I was shocked!!

2. I've been meaning to send my sister the pictures from the zoo; however, my computer is acting funny & won't let me send pictures. Soooo here is the link to my album on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2224997&l=aafb8&id=68128834

3. I'm also in on this "Run a 5K by Spring Time" train with my sister. It's pretty difficult to do when my schedule changes so much (sometimes I have to be at work at 7, sometimes not till 8:30ish, etc). And the fact that its been about 10 degrees outside the last couple mornings, and my bed feels juuuuust right, it has taken a lot of motivation. Monday I got up early enough in the morning to go for my walk/job thing, Tuesday I managed to do so after I got home from work, but today...was my day off. I'll have to make up for it this weekend, and since we're not heading out of town, I'll be able to do so.



So to catch up no my life....

Two weekends ago we met the Battels in Roanoke for a weekend get-together. We had such a good time! The Mill Mountain Zoo was fun when I was little...then it got boring as I got older...but seeing my neices & nephews enjoy it just as much as I used to was amazing. I wish they could've seen Ruby the Tiger or the Prarie Dogs (which I'm furious they took away, they were the cutest thing!), but I'm glad that they still have all the pathways from the parking lot to the zoo, and the Zoo-Train...I could go on and on about how good of a time I had. At first when I saw that they had added a playground, I was a bit baffled, but the kids loved it (minus Ella & her slide accident). Anyway, the only thing I wish would to have had my Dad there :( The girls kept talking about Pop Pop on the train. Its funny the connections they make as they walked over the train tracks or waiting to ride the train.

Last weekend, we ended up driving to Charlotte to visit his family. We had another great weekend hanging out at his sister's house and just relaxing. It was cute seeing Addy, my neice on his side, starting to grow up. She's moving around on the floor and saying a couple words.

These last couple of weekends were great. It was nice seeing both his family and mine, and I'm looking forward to the holidays!! All the stores are decorated for Christmas, which has gotten me all excited!

Anyway, I've managed to ramble on for quite some time now...I'm going to read back over what I wrote, so please feel free to edit my blog (Dad). Its getting late & I've gotta be up by 5:30 tomorrow morning :( (which means no run in the morning sister). Goodnight!

I Will Update Soon!

Just to let you all know...I was planning on updating my blog tonight (tons of pictures too!) but "someone" forgot his camera cord at the office. Sooo there was an attempt & hopefully i'll be able to get to this tomorrow night.

Sorry :(

It's October Already!

I cannot believe it's already October!

We went out today and bought some mums and pumkins for our front porch. I felt pretty "wifey" planting the mums in our clay pots...and our front porch looks great :) If only it felt more like fall outside - I'm tired of these 80 degree days!

It was so nice having a weekend in town with nothing to do. We went to the hockey game on Friday night - it was the Season Opener for the Hurricanes and pretty crowded. We even convinced Carly to come with us...we've turned her into a hockey fan!! On Saturday, I clean cleaned the house -- mopped the floors, vaccuumed, laundry, everything. I felt so accomplished! Afterwards though I was wornout. Joseph attended the monthly Saturday night poker game (the ladies play on Friday, the men on Saturday). I caught up on my dvr's and was asleep by 9:30. Some may call that lame - but that was the best sleep I've gotten in a while! :)

This will be my 9th (of 12) week of work. I absolutely love the people I work with. Some of us went to see Nights in Rodanthe last week (Don't waste your time. Stay at home and watch The Notebook). We had a great time overall though. It doesn't really feel like work being around such funny ladies - they constantly keep me laughing.

We made a trip to Roanoke last weekend. It was Virginia Tech's Homecoming Game, so we decided to make a quick trip home. I definitely wish we could've made it a longer trip. We stayed Friday night with my parents and Saturday with his. It was nice being around the mountains too - I never realized how beautiful they are until I moved away!

Anyway, I promise I'll *try* to start writing more. If only my life was a little more interesting...wake up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, watch The Young & The Restless :), and go to bed. ...That about sums it up!!

PS - I'd like to say Hello to my sister since we don't really ever get a chance to talk for more than 5 minutes. I Miss You!!

New House & Such

So dispite Hurricane Hannah...we got everything all moved in! We only had a few little setbacks, but nothing major. The movers ended up coming a little later than planned due to rain, and Dish Network decided they were going to close because of weather. By ten am, it was bright and sunny! So I put on my "tough guy" face and yelled & complained to Dish Network until they sent someone out here (I get that from my Dad) :) So we got everything unpacked & in its place in one weekend. Thank goodness! It's actually starting to feel like home. For a while it just felt like we were on vacation.

Work is still going well - I'm in my 5th week of training. Its so weird to think I've been there over a month! I'm starting to know my way around the hotel and feel like a "manager." Its great!

Its official! I am a college graduate! Even though I finished my classes in June, I just got my diploma in the mail yesturday. I kept having this nightmare that I had forgotten one credit or something, and maybe I didn't graduate. But Nope! I still can't believe that I actually graduated, but I'm sure it will hit me soon enough. It's weird to watch Va Tech football games and not be there! We're trying to make it in town for the October 4th Homecoming Game, so maybe then my "Alumni Status" will sink in.

So I'm a Horrible Blogger....

The first thing my sister says to me today, "you have to be the worst blogger ever." she said something along those lines. I know I know I know. I've been meaning to get on here for the last week or so, but I always seem to get distracted by reading other people's blog, then I remember something else I had to do and push it off even more.

I promise I'm going to try and do better!

So we're moving! :) I was beginning to get tired of having our house on the market - always having to put EVERYTHING away and out of sight before I left the house, and I even fought with Joseph a few times about just taking the house off the market. A few weeks ago I got off work and called him as usual and he was in panic mode. I couldn't understand much of what he said except for, "this lady is coming to look at the house tonight and if she likes it then she's going to buy it so we need to clean up..." and he kept going on and on about how crazy his day was. Anyway, within about two days we had pretty much sold our house and learned we had to move out in a month! So I spent a few days looking at houses after houses after houses...and we finally agreed on one together! I used to always love looking at houses...but its hard to say I've gotten my share of it for a while.

Here's a picture of our new house!

...My Job!!

I'm on my second week of my training with the Marriott. I'm getting used to being there 8-10 hours a day, but its hard waking up so early in the morning. I've learned almost everyone's names (because they keep quizzing me) and really like the people I work with. I'm getting training in *every* part of the hotel possible, so every time I leave my head is just full of info. Did you know Mr. Marriott started this whole thing by opening up a Root Beer stand called the Hot Shoppe? Just little things like that get drilled into my head almost everyday...its really a lot of fun though.

I've always worked at the front desk and dealt with the guests all the time, but now I'm learning everything "behind the scenes." Its crazy to see how much work the managers put into making sure the associates are happy. (I'll spare you the Marriott slogan about taking care of the associates, and so on). Everyone keeps saying, "you'll need to know this when you're running your own hotel." So hopefully after these 8 weeks of training are done I'll feel like I'm actually capable of doing so! My training can last 8-12 weeks, depending on what jobs are open for me when the time comes.

...What else?!

- I'm still having trouble finding my way around this place.

- Next weekend, we're heading to Charlotte for the VT vs ECU game at the Panthers Stadium. I can't wait for our little vacation! It should be an awesome weekend.

- The weekend after that...we're moving!! It should again be another crazy weekend trying to get everything moved, and also getting this house cleaned up Sunday morning. If you're bored & want to come help - feel free! :)

The Last Few Months......

I decided to join my sister & her friends with this whole "blogging trend," so I'm sure my Dad will get a kick out of this one too. Yes Dad, both of your daughters are now BLOGGERS!! :)

I just recently graduated from Virginia Tech (Go Hokies!!), and I moved to North Carolina a few days after finishing with classes. Joseph & I then got married a couple weeks later in Roanoke. It was an amazing day - it could not have gone any better. I tried to take in every moment, since people say it always goes by so fast. I was so lucky to have such a beautiful wedding and hardly anything happened for me to stress over (all of that worrying for nothing!).

Anyway, I've been living in Holly Springs for almost 2 months now. Its a small town right outside of Raleigh, NC - thank goodness. I got stuck in real traffic the other day & it took me an hour to get home! Crazy, huh?! I've never lived anywhere that it didn't take us more than 15 minutes to get anywhere...even in traffic!

I've been working at The Limited part time to give me something to do until I start my job with Marriott August 18th :) I've met a lot of great ladies - they even say I talk differently, with a northern accent than them. I told them that I say "yall" and that didnt seem to impress them much. I've never been told I had a "northern" accent before! I was actually a little offended! Anyway, I've moved past that and now just trying to learn my way around this state. I get lost about once a day....why does there have to be an Inner and an Outer Beltline? I mean what's even a Beltline? Oh...you mean another highway? Joseph is learning how to be patient with me and my lack of sense of direction...poor guy.

I'm officially a North Carolinian, or however they spell it. My name is officially longer than I ever expected...taking up two lines on my social security card. From Lisle to Higginbotham. I have to spell it in my head every time I have to write it down. I got a North Carolina Drivers License last night - passed the test!! Joseph put on my license plate today, but I should be getting my VT Hokies one sometime next week :)

That's about it for now.