November Happenings

Well, I am feeling much much better. Still not great but better than I was. I'm very happy about feeling better EXCEPT now I don't have an excuse to not clean the house and do dishes that have been sitting in the sink since Thanksgiving! Yikes! I know....we are terrible BUT I haven't have the energy and neither has Josh. He's been gone studying for all these finals!
On to the good stuff! The week after the Cavs game, I spent working 10-11 hours days to catch up and so I could take time off for when my sisters/cousins came. Josh was a super hubby and surprised me everyday with something. One day he cleaned the ENTIRE house, dusting and all! I almost started crying when I came home and saw my clean house! Another day he surprised me with a beautiful fall table runner and fabulous flowers! Again I was completely stunned and sooo thankful for a WONDERFUL hubby!
After working so hard, my sisters, cousins and aunt started to fly/drive in. We had a GREAT weekend! I just wish everyone could have stayed just a little longer (especially Christine who had to leave the next morning)! Why did they all come? For "New Moon," of course! We went to the midnight showing. It was really cool because we got to watch "Twilight" in the movie theater beforehand. So we got great seats together and got to watch both movies!

Here is everyone before the movie (minus Shawnee who hadn't gotten in yet):

It was a fabulous weekend filled with Twilight, girls, shopping and FUN! I can't wait to do it again in June for the next movie!

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Josh and I also had a great Thanksgiving. We were able to get together with a few friends and just have a great time. I made a turkey, stuffing, yams (which I have NEVER eaten but I was told they turned out great), and my mom's fruit salad. It's just not Thanksgiving for me without my mom's fruit salad! I LOVE it! And sorry no pictures. I didn't take ANY pictures in November!

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The day after Thanksgiving, I did take my camera out a took a picture of out first snow this season! The good thing about this snow is that it was an inch or less and didn't even last the whole day! We have yet to have any more snow...but I am NOT complaining one bit.

That's really about it! We had such a BUSY November but it was soo fun! We had a great time with all of our friends and family and can't wait for Christmas!

Catch Up

Wow! Only one post in October and NONE in November! I am waaay far behind but I don't plan on catching up in just one post. I have been way sick lately. It all started about a week ago with just a sore throat and has gotten worse each day. First it was just a nasty cough, then Sunday a really runny nose joined the cough. Yesterday when the extreme dizziness joined the cough and runny nose, I left work and went to an Urgent Care place. When the doctor first walked in he told me he didn't think I was sick! Yes! He actually told me that! I'm not sure why, maybe because I wasn't coughing up a lung when he first walked in. He said that he would examine me though because I was complaining I was sick! So I'm not sick, yet I leave with THREE different prescriptions! Today I did go to work, but only for about an hour and a half. After that I got really dizzy and just couldn't see and thought I was getting a migraine. Why did I go to work? Well it has something to do with $$$ and Christmas coming up. I already didn't have enough leave to cover my trip home! Oh well though! There was no way that I could have stayed today and we will see what happens tomorrow. Poor Josh...He has been sleeping on the couch (not wanting to get sick and wanting to be able to get some sleep) and he is in the middle of finals, which means...he's been having to survive dinner and everything on his own. He's been really good about it though. I'm sure he doesn't mind eating out for dinner :)

Ok, enough of me dragging on and on about my sickness. November was a VERY busy month to say the very least. The first weekend, I went to our ward relief society activity. We painted and decorated these blocks! It's Christmas on one side and Halloween on the other! I love how they turned out!

After the hours that these blocks took (we couldn't believe how long it actually took!), a few of my friends and myself did a little shopping. We had a BLAST and it was so nice to get out and just have girl time!
The next Saturday, we were able to go to the temple in Columbus and the got to go watch the Cavs play the Jazz! I have wanted to go to a game since we got here and I'm so glad that we got to go! We had such a fun time! And those guys are HUGE! WE had pretty good seats from a friends' boss! Thanks for taking us with you :) We had a lot of fun.

There were a lot more happenings in November (all my sisters and cousins and aunt came here for "New Moon" and then there was Thanksgiving), but those are going to have to wait til next time. My head feels like it's going to explode! Until next time!

Brandywine Falls

After a full week of nothing but clouds and rain, it cleared up on Saturday and ended up being a beautiful day! Josh and I took advantage of the nice weather and went to Brandywine Falls, which is about thirty minutes from where we live. We went hiking, saw beautiful fall leaves, waterfalls, and even had a picnic! It was great to get outdoors while we still can and it's amazing how beautiful it is in the fall time here. I ended up taking about a hundred pictures, but I won't bore you with all of them...just a few of my favorites.

On the hike, we had to cross over the river and this is where we did it. The rocks are NOT stable we found out, but we both managed to get across with out falling in. Just our shoes and jeans got a little wet.


Josh wanted to cross over on this log, but after a few steps of his shoes sliding everwhere, he decided against that :)

This was nestled back off the trail and the river, but I loved all the leaves around it!

This was my favorite tree. I just LOVE the bright reds and oranges! This is all totally new to me! In Oklahoma, the leaves are either green or brown! I'm constantly amazed at all the differenet colors you see here around this time.

This is at the top of the waterfall. There was a trail that went down to the waterfall but I couldn't get my camera to work while we were down there. I was sooo bummed. Oh well...Next time! I do plan on coming back here often! It was beautiful!

These are the few pictures that Josh would actually take!

We had a great time there and can't wait to do it again. Hopefully next time we can go with friends and/or famiy!

"And that's how the cookie crumbles." (anyone know what movie?)

Falling in Love with Fall

Being in Ohio for a full year, I have decided that Fall is me FAVORITE season here. Winter is WAAAY to long and cold, spring doesn't come soon enough and summer is not much of a summer! But the fall here is BEAUTIFUL! The many different colors of leaves are gorgeous! I don't think I have ever seen anything like it before I moved here! I am really excited for this fall. The leaves are just barely starting to change colors! Since I didn't take ANY pictures last fall, I am determined to take lots this year! And I have already started! Here are a two of my favorites so far!
I took both of these pictures on my scenic drive to Hobby Lobby, which is about 30 minutes away! The drive was beautiful and so was Hobby Lobby! I had forgotten just how great Hobby Lobby really is! I went and spent about 2 hours in there looking at TONS of different things and there was still a lot more that I could have looked at! I miss Hobby Lobby soo much! I wish there was one closer, but maybe it's a good thing there isn't one! What's your favorite season and why?

Projects!

I have been working on a lot of projects lately and I have been able to get most of them done this weekend! WooHoo! This year I have really been looking forward to Halloween! We are having fall weather and I'm loving it and I can't wait for Halloween! Here are some of the things I have done! I saw some foam spiders at JoAnn's for $1/each....they were a little too expensive for what I wanted to do with them, so I just bought some black foam and cut out my own spiders! I ended up with getting 4 for a dollar! And here is my lovely display of spiders. (this is what you see when you come up the stairs to out duplex. The door on the right leads you into the kitchen, the door on the left leads you to the living room. Make any sense?)
I also made this Halloween sign. I just need some ribbon to hang it with. This will actually go where the "Boo" sign is now once finished! I just modge podged this sign!

My last project is our "Wray" sign! I love how it turned out, but it took a lot of time and a lot of help from Josh. I spent MONTHS looking for the perfect frame, but never found one. So, Josh and I made this one! We went to Lowe's got a strip of molding (???) and a peice of glass. Josh then cut the wood and fit it all together. It took quite some time but definitely worth it!

Well, I don't really have anything else to say! I just didn't want to end up with only ONE post in September! Josh and I have been really busy lately with Softball, "The Biggest Loser," lots of church meeting and we were able to go to the temple this weekend! I'm so glad we went too! It was so worth it! I can't wait to go back! Too bad we don't have one closer :(

FUN!

Josh and I have been able to do a lot of fun things these past couple weeks. After a LOOONNNGGG test week for the both of us, Josh flew out to Dallas to meet his dad and brothers and watch the BYU/OU game! They had a ton of fun and Josh was very happy that things worked out and he was able to go to the game. What made it even better, for Josh, was that BYU won! Here are a few weeks that Josh was able to take at the game. He took a lot more and could probably do a whole post on his 48 hours in Dallas, but that's won't ever happen.

Josh also couldn't stay away from softball any longer! It's been a whole year since he has played. So he got a group together to play this fall. They had their first game last week. He is super excited to be playing again. They lost their first game but on their second game! (They has a double header against the same team.) And more games to come this week!

And now onto the highlight of my summer! :) I was able to go to Cleveland's Country Jam 2009! It was sooo much fun (minus all the horrible cigarettes that were burning continuously around us.)! It was an all day event. The concert started at noon with Lawless, Heidi Newfield, Emerson Drive, Jamey Johnson, John Michael Montgomery, Blake Shelton and then Josh Turner. Here are the girls that came with me!

This lady was HILARIOUS! We watched her more than the actual concert! First of all, we LOVED her outfit. Then she had a boy with her who looked way younger than her and we were trying to figure out how they knew each other. At some points they were a little friendly. But we still have NO idea if it was her son, brother, friend or husband. And the best part of her was her dancing! Yes, she danced. I wish I could get my camera video function to work on my computer! It was the best :)

Pics of other country fans:

This is Hedi Newfield:

Emerson Drive:

Cindy and Cassie:

And I still can't believe that I am posting this nasty picture of me, but I couldn't believe how red I got. None of us even thought about bringing sunscreen and I had no idea how red I got until I looked in the mirror this morning. And this pic doesn't even show just how red my face is! I got soo many comments in church today about my face. It's been a little painful but not too bad. It was well worth it though!

I'm super excited about this week and next! All of my favorite TV shows start back up! I love watching The Biggest Loser! I can't wait to watch this Tuesday! What's your favorite show starting this fall?

Favs

I forgot to show everyone my FAVORITE part of our new place! If you noticed, we may not have a dishwasher (other than Josh or myself) but we do have a WASHER AND DRYER! It has been sooo nice to have these two appliances. I don't know how we ever did a full year of not having our own! Since we live in a duplex (with friends on the lower level), we have a split basement. So we just got together with our friends and split the cost of the washer/dryer set! We couldn't be more happy in our new place!

Yesterday was a GREAT day! It was BEAUTIFUL outside....about 65, maybe 70 but it was sunny and wonderful! Any time the sun is out, it's a great day! What made yesterday even better was that SONIC finally opened a restaurant in Parma (where we live)!! Yesterday was it's opening day, so me and a friend when down there in the morning! I was wonderful! Hopefully, I won't be driving down there every night though! Oh how I love my Sonic!

What's your favorite drink or food item at Sonic? For some reason I LOVE their corn dogs and their Ocean Water is my fav drink!

Yes, We Are Alive

I just wanted to make sure that everyone knew that we are actually alive! This last month has been absolutely CRAZY for us both! We moved and are now finally starting to fill settled in. Josh has started school up again and his first test week this semester starts next week! And we have both been pretty busy with our church callings this past month!

We FINALLY got some things up on our walls, some of them are still pretty bare though. Here are a few pics of our new place! After I took these ones, the batteries in our camera died. So, no picture of the bedroom, living area, or second bedroom/office/junk room (which there would be no pic anyway because it is MESSY still).

Part of our living space, our couch is right behind where I was standing when I took this pic.

"Formal Dining"

"Eat-In kitchen"

Kitchen...notice all the CUPBOARDS! We love all the space!

The bathroom: (we also LOVE the counter space in here!)

That's all for now! Hopefully it won't be so long til my next post!

Happy Birthday Dad!

This is my daddy! He is always making me laugh! Today he turns 57!!! We always have so much fun with him and love all the vacations and mini-vacations that we have with him! Those are some of the best memories I have! Dad, I love you! I hope you have a WONDERFUL day!

Happy Happy Happy Birthday!

We had a weekend full of birthday goodness! I had forgotten how much I love taking/editing pictures until last night! So this post is full of very exciting pictures! Since the pictures were uploaded backwards. We will start with Sunday, which was Josh's actual birthday! We celebrated by going to church! (Sorry, but that is what happens when your birthday is on a Sunday!) After church though, we had an AMAZING dinner made by the one and only DINA!! Ok, it wasn't that great, but it was out favorite thing to eat! Tacos/Taco Salad! It was YUMMY! After dinner though, Josh got to spend 2 extra hours of his birthday in another church meeting! He is just so lucky! He did say that it was a really good meeting though and that he is very happy that he went. When he came home, we just about blew up a cupcake with candles! Now Josh did turn 27! Just don't count the candles....He must have distracted me when I was putting the candles on because there are only 26! YIKES! I thought of making him blow them out again, but I didn't want any more smoke in the apartment :)So that was our Sunday! On Saturday night, we got to go to a baseball game! It was quite fun except the Indians lost. We did enjoy it though. And we had GREAT seats!
The theme for the night was a beach theme.
And you can't have a beach weekend without giving out Surfin Grady Sizemore BOBBLEHEADS! We both got one and I think they are actually pretty cool. But don't forget they were handed out from Key Bank!I LOVE the American flag and I have been meaning to take a picture of one this whole month. I finally got the chance to. This one was one of my favorites;

Yay for birthday weekends! We had a blast and hope you had a blast reading about it! Happy Birthday Josh! Love you!!!