Christmas 2010

Josh and I were able to have a great Christmas this year with his side of the family.  We drove out to Idaho to save on a little money since we are going back in a few weeks for Taylor's wedding.  On the way out there, we stopped at my sister, Christine's.  She lives pretty much half way between Cleveland and Ohio.  It was so nice to have somewhere to stop and stretch our legs.  Plus she made a very tasty dinner and a great breakfast at like 6:30 in the morning!  Thanks Christine!  It was fun to spend some time with my niece and nephew too.  I got to have them all to myself for a couple hours before we went to bed.  Then they even slept in our room on the hard floor!  They are such cute kids and I can't wait to see them in a few days! 

On the drive out to Idaho, I realized that our camera broke!  I was so sad.  There were sooo many beautiful scenes I wanted to take pictures of as we drove across the country.  Plus no pictures the whole trip :(  Bummer!  I am hoping to get it working before I head out to Oklahoma tomorrow, but I doubt that will happen.  All this fun and exciting stuff, but no pictures to prove it!

We had a great time in Idaho once we got there (after the long 26 hour drive).  We were very fortunate that we didn't hit any bad weather and Josh only got pulled over once for speeding, but no ticket!  We were very blessed.  We were able to meet Becca, Taylor's soon to be wife!  We loved getting to know her and are so happy for Taylor and Becca!  Right before we left to come out to Idaho, Josh's mom broke her leg!  We felt so bad for her; she was in a lot of pain the whole time.  When we got there, we helped finish up the basement.  We mainly painted.  It was actually pretty fun.  We did that most of Monday when we were there.  Tuesday must have just been a relaxing day for us, cause I don't remember what we did.  On Wednesday, all the girls went to lunch then a bead shop and made some necklaces.  It was fun and good to get out with just the girls.  As I kept breaking all the little things, I found out that jewelry making may not be for me.  My necklace did turn out very pretty though!  Next time, I may just have to have Paige do it for me though :)  She's awesome at it!  Thursday we had family pictures.  I can't wait to see them!  I love getting family pictures and I loved the places we took them in Idaho Falls. 

On Christmas Eve, Josh's family friends came over for games.  It was a lot of fun.  I forgot how much fun it is to play games with a big group of people.  That night, grandparents and a few aunts, uncles and cousins came over for dinner and acted out the Nativity Scene.  It was really nice to see everyone.  Christmas morning, we woke up at about 7:30 and opened presents.  We got some great things like a new office chair!  Chase made me an AWESOME OSU ribbon board; I totally LOVE it!  Josh got some dress pants and I got two cute purses and a few other things.  I got to talk to my brother, Logan, who is still serving a mission in Ogden.  He comes home one the 3rd of January.  I can't wait to see him!  It was a great Christmas!

We headed back on the 26th!  It was a LONG drive.  It seemed much longer than it did getting out there.  We decided we wanted to get home quicker, so we drove farther the first day and didn't end up staying at Christine's.  We did split a hotel with a friend of ours that we met up with (he was driving back from Idaho too). 


We had a great time getting to know our neices, Rylee and Reese.  We feel so bad that we don't get to see them often and that they hardly know us.  But it was fun playing with them and getting to know them.  They are such cute girls!
Thank you Wray family for the great Christmas!  We can't wait to be back for the wedding in a few weeks!  Love you guys!

Let It Snow?

Cleveland is having a HUGE snow storm right now.  It has been crazy!.  My normal 35-40 min commute has taken me over an hour.  It started snowing Sunday night and hasn't stopped.  Per the weather service, it was suppose to stop last night at 7pm, then this morning at 4am and then this evening at 8pm and now its suppose to stop at 10pm.  I don't think it's ever gonna stop.  Today we got hit the hardest in the area that I work.  By the time I left work, I easily had a foot of snow covering my whole car and it was still coming down pretty hard.  I wish I would have had my camera to take pictures.  It looked something like this, but with more snow:

My drive home wasn't too bad but I wouldn't like to do it again...

I just couldn't believe how hard it was still coming down.  The craziest thing is that when I got home, there were only a couple of inches on the ground where I live and some of it was from days before!  I wasn't ready for winter, but winter didn't really seem to care.  I just hope that things clear up for when we drive to Idaho! 

What's a Girl to Do?

What's a girl to do while her husband is away studying and her best friend is out of town for the month? Hmm....now that's a very interesting question.  I have done LOTS of shopping lately.  It's been fun...and expensive.  I love shopping during the Christmas season, getting good deals and just being out and about with the other holiday shoppers.  I have the tendency to buy a lot of extra stuff during this season; I have a hard time telling myself "no" when it's a REALLY good deal.  This has made me come home and realize that I shoudn't have bought something and then taking it back, which is a good thing.  But then when I take it back, I tend to look around the store some more and just buy other things :)  I have already taken stuff back to Target twice this last week!  Oh how I LOVE Target...Just rambling now...Anyways, this last week I have kept myself very busy.  I have finished all of our Christmas shopping!  I have finished a few projects too!  I made me niece, who LOVES horses, a really cute blaket (I should have taken a picture before I wrapped it)  I also made a few other gifts for Christmas presents too.  I have wrapped all of our gifts and put them under the tree.  But all my Christmas shopping and projects are done, now what am I suppose to do?  I still have 2 more weeks of tests!  Well....I can BLOG!  or maybe I"m just rambling.  I did take a few pictures around the house to post!  I love Christmas!  Here is a little bit of what Christmas looks like at the Wray home.  (No judging on the pictures...we are still having major computer problems and I didn't really want to deal with editing them)

When we got married, we decided that we wanted to hang our stocking from snow globes.  I LOVE our snow globes...can you guess who's is who's?

I made this for an Enrichment project.  I love it :)

Our PITIFUL Christmas tree, but it was free...

I love the traditional colors of Christmas!

I love Yankee Candles..and this one smells sooooo good.

Yay!  I finally changed my towel!  I love all of them!

Fall is offically gone for us here in Cleveland...Forecast calls for snow, snow and more snow...This is just the beginning

Merry Christmas Everyone!

A Little Behind???

My lovely sister-in-law made me these way cute towels for Christmas two years ago.  They are so cute and I love having one for each month; however, this is the one that is STILL hanging...

Where has October and November gone???  I can't believe that December is just a few days away.  We have been quite busy this month.  After lots and lots of shopping around and discussing, we got a new car!  The X-Terra is gone much to Josh's sorrow :(  He loved being able to "pull things."  But we are soo happy to be in our 2007 Saturn Aura!  I am completely in LOVE with our new car!  And we are able to have a much smaller car payment!  That took a lot of our time this month. 

We also have been having fun with our friends out here.  I made this with my friend Valerie.

It's the only Christmas decor that we have up right now but not for long!  Decorations usually go up on black Friday in my house, but due to shopping and having to work, they will go up tonight!  I'm so ready for Christmas!

We had a great Thanksgiving with our great friends out here in Ohio.  It was really a good Thanksgiving, but what Thanksgiving isn't?  We enjoyed yummy turkey, rolls, stuffing, mashed potatoes, salad, pies, fun company, etc....It was really great; too bad there aren't any pictures to prove it :(  Oh well...I know December will be great too and can't wait to see both of our families including brothers who have gotten home from their missions, meeting a niece and half-sister for the first time and a brother in law getting married.  We have a BUSY next month but can't wait!

Squire's Castle

Are you loving fall yet?  'Cause we are!  One of the good things about living in Ohio is being able to see the beautiful fall trees!  They are absolutely gorgeous here.  We definitely had a beautiful earth created for us.  Last weekend, finals ended and externship applications were submitted!  It was time to get out and enjoy ourselves!  We have wanted to go to Squire's Castle since we have been here and we thought that it would be a great time to take the drive up there.  It was a lot of fun.  We went on a little hike and the colors on the trees were just amazing.  The only thing that was a little disappointing is that we didn't get to go inside the castle because there were 2 different weddings going on while we were there...Bummer!  Now we know not to go on a beautiful Saturday!  Here are a few pictures that I took while we were there.  On this little outing I realize how much I dislike my camera....Hopefully, very soon I can get my new camera....I'm always dreaming :) 

Yes, a picture of me!  I was there and have proof!

My Pumpkin Patch

I have finished more pumpkins for my pumpkin patch.  I am loving all of them.  As you can see below, they are all different shapes and sizes.  I just love all of them.  I tried picking a favorite one but I like them all for different reasons.  I have been on a pumpkin break for that last week or two but I am hoping that I can get back into doing more before the season is over.  I still have tons of fabric and even a few different fabrics that I haven't even touched yet.  To answer questions from before, I started with a pattern that you can find here then I just adapted it to make all the different shapes and sizes that I wanted.  Or I did make one of them this way, which was even more simple, but you can only use one fabric per pumpkin that way.  They were so simple to make and I love them!

Going to Grandma's

This last weekend, my grandmother has some major surgery.  My mom drove up from Oklahoma to stay with her and I was able to go for the weekend.  Luckily, the surgery went well and good news was given.  She is now home recovering.  I am glad that I was able to go up there and spend time with them.  I was nice and didn't take any pictures of her in the hospital, but here is one of my favorite pictures of when I was a baby with my mom and grandmother:

 Love you, Grandma!

This is prime time for the beautiful fall colors.  I was able to take a few pictures as we drove by some incredible scenery.  Not the best, but they will have to do.  After all, I was in the car while I took these.

I was also able to stop by and see my Grandpa, Dad's Dad.  It was so good to see him.  I stopped by and he was raking leaves!  He's 84 and still raking leaves!  He amazes me all the time.  I love his house.  Everything about his house brings me feelings of happiness.  I once wrote a descriptive report on his house...I wish I could find that.  Oh well....I didn't take a picture of him, but I did take a picture of his house while I drove by :)  I know, I'm strange....

I had a good time and we were all very happy with the results of my grandmother's surgery.  It was a short little weekend trip, but I'm very glad I was able to go. 

The only thing I didn't enjoy was the fact that it's suppose to be only a 3.5 hour drive, but it ended up taking me FIVE hours both ways!  On the way there, I hit traffic and some construction and then got lost....I thought I would be golden on the way home leaving on a Sunday afternoon, but I wasn't that fortunate.  There was a really bad accident.  They shut down the highway and it took me 2 hours to go about 2 miles.  I won't give details, but it was the worst accident scene I have ever seen and I drove by about an hour and a half after it had happened.  The accident has kind of haunted me this last week.  I have prayed for those involved and their families several times.  It turns out that 5 people were killed and 4 were seriously injured.  My thoughts and prayers go out tho them and their families.

Just so I don't leave on a sad note...While I was in the traffic, I saw a couple of hot air balloons.  It was nice to have the short distraction as I sat and waited.  I even got my camera out and took a picture.

That's all for now...Love ya Grandma!  Get well quickly!!!

Fall is Here!

Fall is here.  This year it feels like fall came over night.  Last week we had temperatures in the upper 80s and lower 90s, which is unheard of here.  We were setting record high temperatures.  I used to always enjoy fall, but living in Ohio has changed that a little bit.  I still like fall and the colors around this part of the country are absolutely BREATHTAKING...but I don't feel like I ever really got a summer even with the hotter temperatures.  Maybe that's just part of getting older...No more summer breaks, no more days of lounging around or going to the pool daily or fun amusement parks everyday.  I guess the main reason I'm not looking forward to fall this year is because I know that cold and sunless skies are ahead and will be here before I know it.  I am going to try my best to fully enjoy fall this year.  Tonight I got out my Halloween decorations!  Decorating will ALWAYS get you in a good mood!  Also this year I have decided to make my own pumpkins.  I finished my first big one last night and I am absolutely in LOVE with it :)  I plan on making my own little pumpkin patch, but they are taking me a lot longer to sew than I thought.  For some reason, I couldn't get the pictures in the order that I want and I'm too tired to spend any more time on it, but here's the pictures of what I have so far:

This one will be the biggest pumpkin in the patch:

Here is my big pumpkin with my two little "trial pumpkins"

So, I put my phone on top so you can see just how big this one is.  I didn't mean for it to be this big, but I still love how it turned out!

Wish We Could be There!

September has been a great month for our families!  My sister, Karri, had her first child, Darcy Elizabeth!  We are so excited to have another niece!  Here are a few pictures I was able to grab off facebook!  Isn't she so cute???  I wish I could have been there or that I could see her and hold her!  She's so precious!



We also had Josh's brother come home from his full two year mission!  Go Chase for completing an honorable mission!  We are so proud of you and can't wait to see you!  We wish we could have been there when you got off the plane or on Sunday for your homecoming talk!  We love ya and miss you!

It's times like these that we REALLY REALLY wish we lived closer to our families!  We love and miss you all!

Country Jam 2010

Oh how I LOVE country music and country music fans!  This year Country Jam was on both a Friday night and all day Saturday.  I was able to go with 4 other girls and we had soo much fun.  They had a HUGE line up that included Gloriana, The Band Perry, Danny Gokey, David Nail, The McClymonts (who you have to check out on itunes!  I LOVED them), Jason Aldean, Sara Evans and several others that I can't think of now.  We had so much fun until.....it started to rain.  We were all pretty bummed that it rained.  The show continued but we weren't that prepared for the rain.  We did get to see everyone except for Sara Evans and Jason Aldean, who everyone wanted to see the most, but what can you do!  We left and went to eat at Chili's...YUM!!!  Even with the rain, we were able to have a good time.  I only took ONE picture the whole time we were there and it wasn't even of the girls that I went with....Well here it is.  This is The Band Perry:

It was a lot of fun and all the artist were pretty good.  I really like the McClymonts the best though.  Maybe because they just surprised me by how good they were...not sure, but you should all definitely check them out.  The fans were just as entertaining this year too :)  There are some CRAZY people out there.  Next year, I promise to take more pictures.  I can't wait for next year!  It's been a fun tradition for me here in Cleveland! 

Labor Day 2010

What?  I'm only two and a half weeks late!  I can't believe that September has already FLOWN by!  I don't remember it even beginning and now I am sitting here and it's already the 23rd!  Time is just flying by!  This year we were able to have a pretty good Labor Day.  We went to breakfast with our friends Dave and Valerie and their kids at Bob Evans.  YUM!  Their food is oh so good!  We have so much fun with them too!  After breakfast we went on a hike with them to Brandywine Falls.  It's GORGEOUS there any time of the year!  Here are a few pictures from our fun excursion:

We taught her how to do "The Thinker:"

And this girl would pose for me any time I asked :)

Like always, we had a blast with them!  They are soo much fun and have such great kids!  We had a great Labor Day this year.  I have no idea what else we did that day, but I'm sure we had a great time doing it...After all, I wasn't at work and Josh wasn't at school.

Grrrrr . . . .

So I have sat down quite a few times in the last few weeks to do a blog post, but I never got more than a sentence or two written..But I am FINALLY here and I hope I can update the last few weeks in just a couple of posts. Yesterday, I had a dentist appointment right after work. I figured that if I left work RIGHT on time, I would make it there early enough to fill out the paperwork first. Like most, I have never enjoyed going to the dentist. In fact I haven't been in a really long time...Probably somewhere between 3 and 5 years. But I am starting to have a tooth ache and I have dental insurance now. So I made the appointment. But what happened after work? First I got called into a meeting at work that only lasted about 15 minutes, but I was already suppose to be gone. Then when I hit the road, what do I come across???

Yep, that's right..TRAFFIC! Now I am usually able to miss the majority of the traffic on my way home, cause I get off at 4:30 and get a head start. But it seems like whenever I HAVE to be somewhere after work...there's ALWAYS an accident along my way. I ended up having to cancel and reschedule my dentist appointment. Oh well...no big deal. Luckily I had their phone number in my phone! but as I was sitting and sitting (it ended up taking me about an hour to get home), I was reminded of a time just a few weeks ago when I was sitting in traffic. That time I was suppose to bring a new mom dinner. I felt AWFUL. I called her and told her I was stuck in traffic...she ended up having dinner around like 7pm! Why is it that when I HAVE to be somewhere, I hit really bad traffic?? I just don't understand. Can anyone shed some light?

Oh Timmy!

Last week I got to go to a Tim McGraw concert here in Cleveland! It was soo much fun. Lady Antebellum opened for them as well as Love & Theft. It was such a good concert. It was on a Thursday night and it was sooo HUMID that night, but it was also so worth it. I LOVE going to country music concerts and events. There are such interesting people that go to them. Sometimes it's just as entertaining to people watch as it is to fully get into the concert. There were a TON of people there. I was amazed by the number of people and yet how quickly we were able to get out of there. Anyways, here's a few pictures:

The Crowd:

Valerie and Cassie:

Lady Antebellum:

And Mr. Tim McGraw:

It was a lot of fun and Tim was AMAZING! And I can't wait to go to Country Jam next month for more and see even more interesting people ;)

Who Knew?

Who knew that getting up at 7:30 on a SATURDAY wasn't so hard? Who knew that you could get so much more done on a Saturday if you woke up before noon? Not I...until today! I've been running about 3 times a week with my friend for a few weeks now. Our schedules were crazy this week, so we decided that we would get up early on Saturday to go running. I got up somewhere around 7:15ish and I was able to run 2 miles, shower, go to 2 different stores, get my oil changed, go to the bank and the post office and make it home all but 11:30! To honest, that's usually when I wake up on Saturdays! I was very impressed with myself, not that I am looking to do this EVERY Saturday. Saturdays are my ONE and ONLY day to sleep in but I did enjoy getting a lot of stuff done early and still have a full day to do other things like....



SEW! I can't believe how many comments I got from my sewing machine, so I thought that I better use it soon so I don't disappoint all of you. Now, don't except great things from me anytime soon, but I did do a few burp cloths. I know a lot of people including my sister that are having girls or just had girls, so I thought this would be something easy to do. Don't look too closely at the stitching! I thought they turned out pretty good. Now it's about 5pm and I have a talk to write!

Sewin'

Yep, that is right; I have a sewing machine. I didn't think this would happen for quite some time, but when I was in Michigan a few months ago, my cousin gave me my Grandma's old sewing machine. I'm pretty excited. I'm not sure what to do with it yet, but I am a little excited to learn. I'm not nearly as a perfectionist as what I was when I tried sewing a few years ago. Hopefully this will all go well. This is a pretty easy machine to use though. Just in the last couple of hours I have been able to learn how to use the automatic threader, the bobbin thing and play around with a lot of the different kinds of stitches. Yes, don't you just LOVE my terminology. I'm sure that it is really called the "bobbin thing" :) Anyways, don't expect great things from me anytime soon, but maybe sometime in the future I can be half as good as my mother and mother in law. Yeah for new toys and trying new things!

Josh's Birthday!

Happy Birthday Josh! Josh's birthday was last Monday and we had a great time. A few weeks ago, Josh and one of our friends made a Cornhole Game. Cornhole is a HUGE backyard game out here in Ohio. And although I am TERRIBLE, it is a lot of fun to play. So anyways, last week we had a few friends over for cake, ice cream and corn hole! It was alot of fun! Now I didn't take any traditional birthday pictures, but at least I took some. Besides, I made the cake so it wasn't anything great to look at anyways :) OK, so here are a few pictures of the night:

Josh TALKING on phone (had to take those birthday phone calls, of course):

Dave & Steve battling it out:
Lizzie and Valerie:

Caprie (probably looking at Josh who she isn't so sure about):

And Birthday Boy again:

We had a great time! Thanks to the Waters and Shaeffers for making it a great birthday! OH and before I forget; they did a short little article on Josh's hamburger contest here. He did such a great job! Love you Josh and hope you had a GREAT birthday!

Oklahoma Pictures

I've got pictures from my trip to Oklahoma! Now, they are all from Christine's camera, but I did take most of these myself. While I was there, we went to the park with all the neices and nephews. It was really hot but really fun as well.

Here is Matthew:

Matthew & Stirling:

Kylie:

Christine:

Emmi:

Matthew:

Emmi:

Then here are the only pictures that were taken on our "eclipse" night, it was so much fun!

Here we are inside the theather:

Me waiting to get inside the theather: (I only post this one because I don't think I usually ever put pics of myself on here)

And everyone outside the theater:

I had a great time! I love seeing all of my sisters and we have SUCH a fun time when we all get together!