We Have A Puppy!

This weekend we finally got to pick up our puppy, Weiss!

His name is Weiss, pronounced "Vice," and he is adorable! He is 7 weeks old and one of the biggest in the litter. We picked him up early Saturday morning and got to play with the other puppies too.

This is them breaking in Weiss's bed and helping it smell like home! All of the puppies were so cute and it really made me want to take all of them home with me. ....however, after our first night with ours, I'm glad I didn't!!










After we played with the puppies, we took ours back to my parents house to let him & Rocky meet. Here's a video that I took there...sorry it's a little shaky!

Rocky LOVED him! Annabelle wasn't too fond of him, mainly because he kept trying to chase after her tail and she wasn't having it! Rocky followed him everywhere he went and slobbering on him at every chance he got. They were so cute together!

After hanging out there, we got on the road to come back home. He slept about 30 minutes on my lap, then decided that Joseph's lap was much more comfortable (not safe, comfortable!). We weren't picky - we just wanted him to sleep! We made it back home, finally, and Mr. Ball of Energy got to experience steps for the first time. He's a master at them now - or at least going up them. We unpacked everything and let him get used to his new home. We played outside for a while...his favorite place was underneath Joseph's Jeep. I guess he was trying to hide because he would come bolting out from under there! That lasted for a while until it got too chilly outside. He plays for about 30 minutes and then sleeps for an hour. He slept for a good 2 hours last night, of course before bedtime!

I went to bed around 10:00 and left Joseph to watch the rest of his shows & to put the puppy to bed. That went well....until about midnight. He yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped and yelped ...............get the point?!

So I took the first shift! He fell asleep in my lap, and when I tried to put him back in his crate, he was fine until I closed the door to it. He FREAKED out, and started YELPING again...I don't know how I got him back to sleep because I was half asleep myself, but I eventually did.

Around 1:00 AM - the yelping started, and Joseph took the next shift. This ritual happened many times during the night with each of us taking shifts...

When I woke up this morning around 8, Joseph wasn't in bed, which meant that he was sleeping downstairs with the puppy....poor thing! Turns out he spent the rest of the night on the couch in case Weiss woke up.

Anyway, today has been great with him. He sleeps, wakes up, pees, plays for a bit, sleeps, wakes up, and on and on and on. Now its about 6:30, and we're going to attempt to keep him awake until its time for ALL of us to go to bed. We'll see how tonight goes.....

It's Been A Year

Last year around this time is when Joseph proposed to me. Holy crap! Only a year?! Are you kidding?!

It got me thinking of how big of a year it actually was....

- Joseph proposed

- Planned a wedding

- Made Dean's List that Spring Semester, also taking 21 hours of classes

- Got a job!

- Planned a wedding

- Wedding Showers - see family I hadn't seen in a long time

- Jarron graduated high school

- Made paper cranes with Charligne & Kara :)

- Planned more of a wedding

- Graduated College!!!

- Moved to North Carolina

- Got Married!

- Started my "big girl" job

- Bought a house

- Now we're getting a puppy in February!!

Whew - that was one hell of a year...a great one at that though. I could not have been able to do half of that without my family!! It was rough at times, but we always seemed to make it through. As crazy as things got at times - it's nice now to look back on it and laugh :)

Here's some pictures of our puppy:

He's only 2 weeks old in these pictures. His eyes are fully open now & he's walking too. We went out yesturday & bought some things at Petsmart. We got a crate, a leash & collar, a few toys and some bowls. We are all ready for him - now we just have to wait! We get him at the end of February, so only about 4 weeks to go.

I Ate Too Much Cookie Dough.....

So I love chocolate chip cookie dough, but it has to be the real thing. None of this store-bought premade stuff - it has to be the Nestle Tollhouse homemade chocolate chip cookie dough.

For some reason I've been quite ancy today. There's nothing much on TV (just football....) and its cold outside, so i've been looking for things to do around the house. So far, I have made homemade spinach artichoke dip and now homemade chocolate chip cookies. Maybe it was the fact that I put pajamas back on after I showered, but i've been quite the home-body today.



Its hard to believe that Christmas was a week ago - It was a great (but long) weekend. We spent Christmas Eve at his parents, opened up gifts with them that morning, and did a brunch with the whole family at his grandmother's house. It's always a lot of fun seeing all of his aunts, uncles, cousins, the whole shebang. For Christmas, I got him a Turkey Fryer, Catch Phrase & Sequence (games), a remote control helicopter, and a letter opener (because he says we needed one about every day when he opened the mail). I got some new tennis shoes (to run my 5K in), a teak bath stool for my shower (very nice!), and Falling In Love perfume.

After his grandmother's house, we went to my parent's house to do gifts & dinner over there. We spent Christmas night with my parents as well as the next night. Kara & Chris came in town Christmas night (which was such a great surprise!), so it was a looong day with lots of family!! Its always great seeing my sister & her family...Ella & Fisher are getting so big!

We stayed up that night & played Sequence with Kara, Chris, Jaime & Jarron. I couldn't tell you the last time there were 4 of us kids getting along, in one small room, playing a game, and actually having a great time. I kept looking around the table counting to make sure that there were really 4 of the 5 of us playing a game! Its a little sad, but I'll probably remember that forever....cheesy I know.

The day after Christmas, Kara & I got up EARLY and headed out to the mall...which we've made a tradition now. First stop - Starbucks, Second - The Mall, Third - Chick-Fil-A to pick up breakfast for everyone at home. We found a couple good sales, but it was more about hanging out with my sister than the actual shopping. The rest of the day was just busy with playing with the kids...except for dinner time when Fisher got in the trash, cut his hand on a metal lid, and they had to rush off to urgent care. While they were gone, Ella & I got in some major bonding time. We sat in the recliner and she just talked and talked and talked to me. Then it was bath time! She kept pretending to be flipper in Nanny's big whirlpool tub and splashing water everywhere! She was cracking me up!

Saturday, we headed back to his parent's house. We celebrated his neice's early birthday while everyone was around and then headed out to dinner. We also stayed up that night playing Sequence then Pictionary. I was struggling with Pictionary as I think my brain had shut down for the night.

We got back pretty early on Sunday in order to give us plenty of time to unpack everything & find a place for it in the house. I can't believe Christmas 2008 has come & gone already! Maybe if it would've actually been cold outside it would've felt like Christmas...maybe next year.



Now it's 2009!! Last night we went out to dinner at Sullivan's Steakhouse (my favorite steakhouse around) then headed back home. I don't like being out on the roads very late on New Years Eve with all the crazies out there.

2009 means our own Biggest Loser competition starts tomorrow! I guess that's why I've been getting all the bad-for-you foods out of the way today (hence the cookie dough stomach ache). My strict 5K training starts back tomorrow...so when my alarm goes off way too early in the morning, I'm gonna have to get my butt out of bed.

Anyway, I'm going to make sure Joseph doesn't burn the house down. Thank you everyone who had a part in making my Christmas wonderful!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

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!