Brrrrr

Gearing up for a very FRIGID trip to Beech Mountain on Monday.  Check this out!

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Whoa!  Hi of 17, low of 3.  Yikes.

Here's hoping I get (and remain) nice and warm trying to stay on my feet!

If I don't catch you before, Happy New Year everyone!!

12 Days Til Christmas-Day 7

On the 5th day til Christmas my true love gave to me:

Grace and forgiveness.  Thanks, B for putting up with me!  He asked me an interesting question this morning, "Do you think I extend too much grace to you?"

Of course my initial response was, "Of course not!"  But then I got to thinking and I can see his point.  I can be such a selfish, self-centered person that when he doesn't call me out on it but instead lets me be, he in fact isn't helping me grow in maturity and holiness, but he's allowing me to continue in a pattern of sin that shouldn't remain.

So, I grudgingly (and this shows my heart!) admitted that, "Yes, sometimes you extend too much grace to me."

Ok, so the conversation probably didn't go that nicely or succinctly but that's how I remember it in my head and I feel like it's a good reminder that my husband isn't just here to fluff my feathers.  As iron sharpens iron, so one brother sharpens another (paraphrase of Prov 27:17).

So, once again, thanks, B for being willing to extend grace but recognizing when your wife is just being a brat and needs a bit of sharpening! i <3 u.

Oh, and the whole work thing?  Yeah...this is what I wish I was staring at outside my window....

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...instead of this.

But at least I have a window!

12 Days Til Christmas-Day 3/4

On the 10th & 9th days 'til Christmas my true love gave to me:

This is getting tough.  Can you believe I lay in bed last night pondering what I would write on here today?  I think it's mostly because I can't imagine being "given" something for 12 days straight.

I can hardly believe that this weekend marks The Week Leading Up To Christmas!!!!!!  Does anyone else feel like it has crept up on us unassumingly,  quietly and is ready to pounce?  Yeah. I do.  But it has definitely been a sweet time this year of enjoying the balmy weather, shopping for gifts for my family and getting excited about upcoming trips!

Though, I will say I haven't taken enough time to remember what the heck this season is all about.  The best gift of all; the incarnation of my Savior!  I really hope that in the coming week I will slow down a bit and ponder the miracle of Jesus' birth, the amazing work He did for us on the cross and what that means in my life! Can you imagine if we were living in a pre-incarnate Christ world?  What a blessing and a hope we have being able to look back at what the coming of Christ meant at the time and see the implications it has had on the world since then and the glorious hope we have for the future!  Hallelujah, Immanuel, God with us!

12 Days Til Christmas-Day 2

On the 11th day 'til Christmas my true love gave to me:

Two roundtrip tickets!

And some snowboarding lessons for free!

It's a good thing we're getting some practice in now.  We're headed to CO (via Albuquerque) for a birthday trip in January!

12 Days 'Til Christmas Countdown-Day 1

On the twelfth day 'til Christmas my true love gave to me:

Snow boarding lessons for freeeeee (well, I got some pointers from my friends, Dave, Mike & Kirksy!)

At the top of Sugar-no it didn't rain!

First run!

Kirksy, Mike, Me & Brian

Brian, Dave & I trekked to Boone on Sunday and got to spend the night with Brian's brother Mike!  Then, the four of us plus Mike's girlfriend Kirksy went snowboarding at Sugar on Monday.  Brian picked it up SO fast!  Especially for the guy that said he was just going to board for half the day then switch to skiing b/c he dind't think he'd like snowboarding.  He's by far better than I am as all I'm good for is snow plowing down one way or the other. 

Thanks to several friends for letting us borrow their gear!  We had a fun trip and we are feeling it today.  I never knew snowboarding was such an UPPER body workout.  Haha, at least it is when you fall a lot.  And talk about sore bums, youch!

Debbie getting instructions from Dave

Schlumpy

Feeling schlumpy today.  Yes, I think I just made up that word.  I'm realizing what horrible posture I have at work.  I think it's due to the fact that I have to sit sideways to type on my keyboard.   I woke up this morning and both elbows ached horribly.  I'm not even 30 and yet today I felt old beyond my years.  I'm not ready for old age, achy joints, arthritis, slumped shoulders.

 

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In fact, I VOW, right now, to consider my posture every day (or as often as I remember, which hopefully is frequently).  Make steps to be positioned better at my work space in order to promote a straight back, straight wrists and elbows.  Walk, sit and stand confidently--which should equal more correctly postured. 

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So anyway, this is a quick reminder to myself.  This way it doesn't get lost in the jumble of other thoughts that tumble through my mind. 

Thankful for these

Thankful for these ladies.  They provided some much needed laughter and fun last week.  We made homemade pizza; had Christina’s interesting brownie “quiche” and settled in to make crafts.  I think it’s funny that I was the only one that brought an actual craft to work on when I consider myself the least “crafty” of the group…except for maybe Julie (though her slap bracelet was quite impressive!).

Julie’s craft: an embellished slap bracelet for XT:

Lauren’s craft-a hodge podge of items to make a Christmas tree ornament.  Sara helped me with a yarn wreath (it was sloooow going!).  And Katie worked on some graphic designs for new t-shirts.  She’s so creative…though I’m not sure this counts as a “craft”… ;-).

Christina’s Craft: cream cheese marble brownies (or something like that).  It was all fun until she realized that she forgot to include the flour.  It turned out more like a really chocolate-y “quiche”.  We ate about half of it with spoons.  Mmmm

Love you all!

Welcome to Hollywood!

What’s your dream? Everybody comes here; this is Hollywood, land of dreams. (10 points to first person that can name that movie)

A couple weeks ago I was running late for work.  Unfortunately, that’s been par for the course here lately (PTL for comp time).  Oh, but now that I think about it, I probably had a meeting because I didn’t get to work until around noon.  One of the first things I do at work is check my email.  Here is what I saw:

Mary:

I know this is a long shot, but G and I wanted to check with you and see what you were doing next weekend (Oct 28-30).  We are going for our taping of Wheel of Fortune in LA and we have two more tickets for studio audience members.

Brian:

WHHHHHHAAAAAAT?!!  So cool. 
Looking up tickets.

What?!  I immediately chat Brian to see what the heck is going on and he sends me a link for plane tickets to L.A.  In a matter of minutes, my weekend plans had changed, dramatically!

Well, we were off to L.A. to watch our friends spin the Wheel!  It was Brian’s and my first time to the city and we were pumped!  But boy was it a whirlwind tour.  We flew out Thursday evening, spent the night when we got there helping Mary choose her television-debut outfit and catching up with our fun friends. Watched the Wheel on Friday.  Spent the day around town on Saturday and caught a 7am flight back to RDU on Sunday!  Here’s the breakdown:

Friday Brian and I went for an early jog and got ready for the taping.  Unfortunately, they don’t allow you to take pictures in the Studio, but we snapped these from the parking garage :0). 

Vanna and Pat both look great in person.  I got to ask Vanna to show me her shoes (and she did!).  She doesn’t keep the dresses she wears in the shows.  And girl is incredibly skinny.  Skinnier in person than she appears on TV.  They tape shows Thursdays and Fridays every other week.  So effectively, Pat & Vanna work 4 days a month!  There were 5 tapings on the day we visited.  Thankfully, our friends played on the 3rd “show” so we were able leave after that and grab lunch.  By show number 3 my hands were getting numb from all the clapping you have to do as an audience member!  It was really fun to see a real set and watch the tapings.  They’ve definitely got it down to a science and you’d never know when watching the produced show that there are sometimes mistakes and delays that are edited out.  Sadly, I cannot reveal the success and/or failure of our friends.  But you CAN watch them on February 15th!

After the tapings and lunch we decided to head to Santa Monica to see the Pacific Ocean and grab dinner that night.  Mary’s mom played Sheryl Crowe’s All I Wanna Do to get us in the Santa Monica spirit.  The boardwalk was really neat and luckily we arrived just at sunset and watched the sun disappear beyond the horizon.  Great for taking pictures that night!  Unfortunately, I’m missing some of my pictures from the trip because they’re on another memory card (that I think I left in Savannah…oops!).  If I recover the memory card and get the pics I’ll make sure to post them.  I’m actually a bit bummed b/c there are some fun shots of the Ferris wheel and the pier.  Sigh.  Hope I can find the darn thing.

This looks like a postcard.

Saturday’s agenda included: shopping on Rodeo Dr. in Beverly Hills.  That’s Row-day-O (not row-dee-o as Brian assumed, hehe).  Just like in NYC, I was on the lookout for someone famous.  Although, we had been warned that the stars avoid Rodeo Dr. on Saturdays b/c that’s when all the tourists are there.  Understandable.

so does this.

I didn’t see any stars, but I did talk to the consultant at IWC and he said McSteamy from Grey’s Anatomy had been in the store just that morning and was in fact a regular and friend of the store manager.  When he mentioned the guy’s name (I admit I had to look up McSteamy vs. McDreamy to make sure I said the right name) I had no idea who he was talking about.  So, I concluded that had there been an actual Hollywood Star on Rodeo Dr. that day I most likely wouldn’t have even realized who he/she was (unless of course it was someone super famous, like Julia Roberts or Brad Pitt).  Speaking of IWC (international watch co.—don’t worry, I didn’t know what it stood for either until I went into the shop), I saw a watch that cost $230,000 (that’s more than my mortgage, people!).

It was a fun day of checking out designer goodies that I would never consider buying.  The most outrageous thing?  A feather robe in Missoni that cost over $12Gs!  Not 1200, twelve THOUSAND dollars.  Are you freaking kidding me?  I was afraid to breathe on it.  Mary’s sister asked the clerk to help her try it on!  I’d be afraid I would rip out a feather and owe them a grand!

Maybe only Becky will get this…but in one store there was a pair of shoes with sequins and jewels covering it.  I got down close and looked at the display and noticed a missing bead.  I immediately struck my best Shelly Long pose tapped my hip and said, “It’s missing a bead.”  “I can give it to you for $5,000.”  “I’ll take it!”  I don’t think anyone saw me hold my own movie dialogue.  But if they did I’m sure they were chuckling, or maybe just thought I was weird. (Another 10 points to the first person to name that movie; Becky you don’t count)

We visited Prada where Mary tried on some over the top designer sunglasses.  After taking these pictures I was immediately approached and informed that pictures weren’t allowed.  Woops!

 


I caught Brian and G$ checking out some designer bags.  Getting ideas for new purses fellas?


We thought of our good friends, the Kennedys, when we saw the Brooks Brothers.  I must say, they do have nice clothes.  I was tempted to try on some cute corduroy pants and skirts.  But didn’t.  I did try on some fun hats though :-D.


After shopping (well, browsing on my part) we headed over to Hollywood to get a glimpse of the iconic sign and see Grauman’s Chinese Theatre where all the stars are. 

Following our jaunt through Hollywood we went to dinner at a Peruvian/Japanese fusion restaurant on Hollywood Blvd.  It was a tapas style restaurant and we ordered about a 12 course meal.  I even tried the Peruvian national drink, pisco sour.  Should have taken a picture of it.  The most exciting dish was the flaming scallops served on oyster shells, yum.  It was was a fun, tasty evening with good friends and memories.

What a fun, memorable trip.  We crammed so much in I really didn’t tell you all the details.  But I’m glad we took the spur of the moment opportunity to travel with friends and see a new city.  I mean, who knows when else we’ll be able to make it to L.A. again?  Thanks, G & Mary for inviting us along!

Busy of late

I've been busy of late.  The next three weeks will be a good test of my time management skills and professionalism.  But I've got things to share.  I may have some unexpected downtime tomorrow evening so hope to get some things posted about happenings of late.  Though, most of my blog readers are already aware of what's going on with me, I still like to keep a record of what the heck I've been up to in life.

Anyway,

Here's a teaser:

Fun times!

Fire Pit

Well, we finished staining our deck.  Nothing like setting a deadline for yourself.  After I uploaded the deck stain post a couple weeks ago I told Brian I wanted to have people over to force us to not put off staining and get it done.

We were putting on the final touches the morning of our party.  And many many thanks go out to Sally, Brian’s mom, for helping us get our house/yard in order before people arrived.  Check it out.  Fresh flowers, freshly stained deck, fresh pansies, freshly stained mailbox and crock pot recipes warming on the counters. 

We had a fun time carving pumpkins and hanging out around the fire pit.  Brian and I even got to meet our neighbors, the Brewers!  It was fun to meet them because that’s my maiden name.  Fittingly, Mr. Brewer brews his own beer.  He even contributed some Pumpkin Ale for the party.  Yum!  Here’s a few pics of the pumpkin carving fun.  Several friends brought their cute kiddos.  I especially liked the dressed up Mary Wallace (an adorable strawberry costume her mommy made!).

Unfortunately, I wasn’t great at taking pictures once it got later.  I missed pics of a lot of people, but I’m glad you each stopped by!  And here are some photos of the very nice pumpkins people carved!

Good job, everybody!  And thanks for a fun evening!