Around the World in 10 days!

CHRISTMAS VACATION: PART 1: PRE-VACA

WHEW!  Where to begin!  I have so much to catch yall up on - I feel like I have been gone forever!  First let me say that yall's Christmas post have been so, so, so awesome to read!  You have kept me entertained during my HOURS of travel!  Glad to see everyone had such a lovely holiday!

Now, I have so much to tell yall that I'll start with a little pre-Christmas post!  Before we left, I scrambled to get our Christmas cards out!  I ordered them from Cardstore.com and they were WAY behind.  I called and after the first girl was really rude, I called back and got someone on the phone with half-a-brain er, a little more customer service!  They overnighted the cards and gave me another 20% discount, so I guess it was worth the wait.  I would use them again, but I guess I need to order sooner next year!

So this was me the day before we left...stacks and stacks of cards - being HAND-addressed, but my FIRE made it so much better, dare I say, relaxing?

AND Somebody kicked off their shoes and, uhum, was no help...

PROOF!

Yes, that is T, ASLEEP (complete with mouth open!), with my Mom's Christmas present!  We bought her a precious Siamese kitten!  Hers, sadly, passed away last year, so he was a wonderful Christmas surprise.  He lived with T and I until we could bring him to Mom the day before we left for Utah.  Needless to say, T and the kitty were quick to bond!  And I say "kitty" because this poor child has already had like 6 names, everyone in our family calls him different names!  My name for him is Bill, but no one likes that but me :)  I got VERY attached, too, and was so sad to see him go.  But, my parent's farm/home is like an animal's dream, so I know he will be spoiled rotten and have a great life.  A much better life than cooped up in our tiny home in Savannah.   Anyway, more about Bill later!

30,000 ft.

I couldn't miss out on the opportunity to blog at 30,000 ft.  We are on the plane right now - and yay, it has FREE wifi.  Merry Christmas to me!  We had a GREAT time skiing with T's family.  The more time I spend with his family, the more I realized how lucky I am to have married into such a wonderful family!

We are headed now to my parent's home and I'm excited to see my parents, brother, and grandmother.
I fear T is going to be put to work on the farm tomorrow, so I'm glad he is snoozing beside me (while he can).  I've heard that even in Georgia we may be in for a white Christmas, so I'm thrilled about that as well.  Since my brother and I are older now, I must admit our Christmas's are a little bit more boring than they used to be, but I guess it gives us time to reflect on the important things.  We are beyond blessed in so many aspects of our lives and too often, I forget to think my SAVIOR for the wonderful blessing in my life - my family, friends, health, home.  I hope all of you have a blessed holiday!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND Much love!

Old Friends and Old Houses

My dear friend is getting married this weekend!  We met in law school and were "study partners" for 3 years.  We shared outlines, tears, stress, fun times and many, many, many late nights together.  Coincidentally, she is marrying my other best friend from law school.  He told me he liked her one night at a party and of course, I told her the next day and the rest is history.

We are leaving bright and early for Alabama (not looking forward to a 5 hour drive - remember how I hate the car)!  I had planned to do another post tonight regarding some Christmasy stuff, but I'm too tired/lazy to load the pictures off my camera.  Instead I want to show you my BT (Before T) house.  My parents ended up buying a house for me to live in while I was in school.  It was such a cute little house and I loved every minute of living there!  I had the best neighbors, who cut my grass for me when I was away for the summers and would always call me if there was a strange car in the driveway.  What a difference neighbors can make!  My friend who is getting married and I spent many days, nights and weekends studying in my little house, which was so much better than the FREEZING library.  She would sit at the kitchen table and I would be in the study.  My parents sold it this past year (at a loss - darn market) and it was bittersweet to leave.  It was my first place that I lived with no roommate, so I really got to make every decorative decision, which I loved.  Most of my stuff was hand-me-downs, but I was grateful to have them!  It so funny how different T and I's house in comparison.  My old house was very feminine and sometimes I do miss all that pink!  Here are some pictures from when we had it on the market...

These pictures are from one of the very few snow days we had!

If you look closely you can see my cardinals!

I loved my backyard so much.  I was in a subdivision, but had woods behind my house which made it really private and there were tons of birds!

Guestroom.  Same pillows that are in T and I's house now.  One of the few things that survived the move.

I loved my kitchen.  When we were looking for houses, I saw this floor and loved it.  I think you either love or hate this floor.  Of course, mine was cheap linoleum, but I still thought it was great!

Laundry.  I wish T and I's room was more open like this one.  Its extremely tight and we have T's washing machines from college, which have no knobs - ugh.

Master Bedroom

Master Bath.  The sink area was small, great for me, but it would have been small for a married couple.  However, I had an AWESOME walk-in closet.  Oh I could have lived in there!  Our closet space is non-existent in our current house.  I've currently taken over both closets upstairs and one of two downstairs.

Living area/Dining Room.  I bought that table in an antique store and painted it white and recovered the chairs with lime green fabric.   I love that table.  Sadly, I don't think it ever saw a meal eaten on it, but it did see lots of study time!  I wish it wasn't in storage, but maybe one day we will be able to use it again.

My parents forbade me to ever use the fireplace because I think they were conviced I'd burn the place down!

Study

Well that is all!  I'm spent and I've got to get some rest before this epic drive tomorrow morning!  Hope everyone has a great weekend!  xx.

Christmas Visits, Pickles and Breakfast - Ramblings

Warning - this post is full of ramblings!

Last weekend we went to T's parents house, so T could enjoy one last weekend of deer hunting.  His parents have the cutest house.  His Mom has great style.  Her house is always so clean and cozy and it smells wonderful!  Her house was completely decorated for Christmas.  She tells me she used to put out a lot more decorations, but since we are going skiing for Christmas she has cut back.  It's still too cute.  

Here is a picture of their formal living room.  Her tree is smaller this year and she didn't put on her color bubble lights (which I love), all that being said, it is still a great tree with awesome ornaments that she has collected for many years.

This is the outside, which is really impressive.  It's hard to find such pretty fake garland - It looks pretty real to me!  How cute is their picket fence?

One thing I really want to add to our Christmas decorations is a nativity scene.  This picture is blurry, but T's Mom has a pretty one.  I guess I'll try to pick one up after Christmas on sale - I guess online, since I haven't seen any in stores?  Anyone know a good place to try and find one?

Saturday morning (at 5am) T went deer hunting - and guess what he killed a deer!  Yay!  Here it is in all his glory.  He was so excited.  Poor deer :(

While T was deer hunting, his Mom and I ventured down to Albany to do some shopping.  I bought a few Christmas ornaments because our tree looks pretty sparse.  I got a trout and deer ornament, seen below.  The company has some great ornaments!  It was hard to choose!

For me, I bought a pickle ornament.  I'm sure yall all know the tradition behind the ornament - that the parents would hide it and the child that found it would get an extra special gift.  Well, another reason I got it is because I love, love, love pickes.  Oh my gosh, I used to eat them by the gallon!

At T and I's rehearsal dinner, my brother's toast was basically a "things T should know about Katie" before they get married speech.  And so now, I have a confession, when I was little I used to get a pickle out of the jar, eat half and put it the other half back in the jar!  GROSS!  I know!  Here is a picture of my brother telling all about it - can you believe he told that story in front of like 100 people!  I could have killed him!  Siblings!!!

 And this was my reaction...I was SO EMBARRASSED!

Anyway, I promise I don't do it anymore!  I've learned my lesson!

Before we left I snapped a picture of this stud - this is T's senior picture.  He was the star football player and the homecoming king.  I LOVE to make fun of him about this!  HE gets so embarrassed!  Isn't he cute?  Love it.

The "Mr. Southland" circa 1998

We are getting ready to go out of town next week and I've been fighting this back pain, so we've been eating out a lot lately.  I hate to eat out particularly fast food because when I get my statement back each month it bothers me to see so much money spent on such awful food.  So late night I cooked breakfast for dinner.  I love breakfast for dinner.  Its so good and its so easy to make - win/win.

I have one of these awesome bacon cookers for the microwave.  It is awesome and worth every bit of the 5 dollars I paid for it.  All the grease collects in the bottom and it only takes 3 minutes to cook.  Excellent invention!  If you don't have one - tell your husband to put one in your Christmas stocking :)

Elizabeth Edwards

*blogs.babble.com

I was very sad to hear of Elizabeth Edwards passing.  I knew of her husband, John Edwards, before he ran for President.  I had read his book, Four Trials, in college.  It was a great book to read, not only because he talked about the law, but be because he discussed the loss of his young son as well.  It was touching and sad and on some level, I related to his pain because I had just lost two grandparents in less than two years. I know nothing could compare to the loss of a child, but my grief was deep and it helped me to hear someone else talk about that sort of pain.  He talked about Elizabeth a lot in his book and he spoke so highly of her.  You really got an image of this strong woman and mother.

She seemed so smart to me.  She had been a lawyer as well.  One of my favorite stories that John Edwards told in his book was the how they met.  They were in the same law school class at UNC, and their professor was trying to explain a complex legal theory on the board.  During the professor's rambling, Elizabeth raised her hand, and said "Professor, that is about as clear as mud."  Anyone that's been in law school or any college lecture class, knows that takes tremendous excusemyfrench balls to do.  Law school is scary and your professors are smart and everybody else is smart (well most every, some people just pretend), so the fact that she spoke up and told it like it was showed me that she was a strong, smart woman.

I read her book after John Edwards lost the presidential bid.  It was about dealing with grief.  It talked again about the loss of her son.  It was a hard book to read.  I think mostly because I haven't lost a child and I'm not a mother yet.  It was so hard to read, I think, because a mother's loss is probably the most painful thing a woman could ever go through.  To read about this strong person and how literally she became crippled with pain from the loss of her 16 year old son was so heartbreaking.  In the book, she talked about how about a year after her son's death, she was in the supermarket and walked down the beverage aisle and glanced at a row of Dr. Pepper's.  That was her son's favorite drink and she said she just collapsed right there in the middle of the aisle.  She said she lay there sobbing for 20 minutes.  I think you get better, but you never truly heal all the way.

When the affair broke out, I hated the whole thing.  It was so seedy and gross and disgusting.  One, to throw away a marriage over sex in a low rent motel is such a tragic thing.  Second, I had read his book and he gave the impression of such a good, honest and moral guy.  I really had a high opinion of John Edward's because his love for her seemed to be so real.  By this time, this couple had 4 children and been through one of them dying.  Then to know, she had cancer.   I know people make mistakes and this happens everyday, but the death of a marriage due to infidelity is still heartbreaking.  I think the whole thing was so beyond her comprehension.  I feel like when your as strong as she was, and something like this happens, and you've lost a child, and your dealing with cancer, you just go into flight or fight mode.  She definitely chose to fight.  Even though the end of her life was marked by such scandal, she always seemed to keep her head held high.  Of course I didn't know her personally, but through her book and her actions , I learned that you can always be a strong woman, even if you need to lay in an grocery aisle and cry.

Nerves...

We ventured to T's parent's home this weekend, so T and his Dad could go deer hunting and I could go shopping.  Unfortunately, T didn't get any deer.  However, the Aubarn Tigers are going to the National Championship, so he had a good weekend regardless.

I've done something horrible to my back and was popping Advil all weekend.  My right arm, shoulder, and hand are killing me, along with my back.  It's going throbbing, numb, tingling, so its been a long 3 days.  Any doctors out there in blogland?  I'm going to the doc tomorrow, if I can get in.

I've been in the bed since I got home.  Yuck.  I probably shouldn't be on the computer, so I'll make this short.

We got our Christmas card finished and on its way.  It's our first Christmas card, so I wanted it to be good, and I think it is.  I LOVE getting Christmas cards!  I got this one from the cardstore online.  This is what we picked...

cardstore.com

and this is the picture we picked...

The Big Day!

We got our wedding pictures today, so I'm going to do a post of the after the holidays.

Well, I'm going to pop another Advil and lay on my heating pad.  Hope everyone had a great weekend!

PS- IT'S FINALLY COLD HERE!  YAY!

PSS. - here are two more wedding pic.  I'm too excited not to share...

Christmas is here!

Our Christmas decorations are out of the box and up!  Honestly, I had these grand notions about how festive our Christmas decorating was going to be - I pictured a crackling fire, Christmas tunes on the radio, maybe some eggnog.  Um, well none of that happened.  Being our first Christmas together, I should have figured there would be some kinks to work out.  First off, we were tired after a 4 hour drive back home (I hate long car rides so much!).  So we were tired physically and of each other.  However, we put on a happy face when we got home and got out all the Christmas stuff.  It was a pain from the start - Half the light didn't work or were tangled, I broke like 3 ornaments, the star wouldn't stay on, and shocker, it was like 80 degrees...and my lovely husband kept staring at his Blackberry!  We were bickering and I was so annoyed and depressed, I really wanted to just say to youknowwhat with it and just leave everything in its box.  Just about that time, T disappeared in the bedroom.  I thought I had run him off.  A couple of minutes later, he came back into the living room wearing a full on ski outfit - he had on a T-shirt with ski pants, gloves, hat, and ski goggles.  I was so mad, but I couldn't help but laugh!  I knew I married him for a reason.   Needless to say, that lightened the tension and we got back to work and finished putting up everything.  It wasn't what I expected for our first Christmas decorating, but thats usually how it goes.  After the blood, sweat and tears, here is the finished product.

T and I have to go to a wedding in Austin, TX this March, so the plane tickets, etc. will be our  Christmas gift to each other (well that, and I'm getting new drapes for our bedroom -yay!).  T's family does a ski trip every year instead of doing gifts.  This year it's in Park City, Utah and I can't wait.  I'll, of course, be on the bunny slopes with the children, while T and his sisters are on the double black diamonds.

My family is small, so we still do gifts.  We just do Christmas with my parents, brother and grandmother.  I think my Mother is ready for T and I to get on the baby train, so Christmas will be exciting again.  Having kids around at Christmas is sooo much fun!   I think my brother and I would get up at like 2:30 to see if Santa had come yet!  My poor parents!!!

Mother is getting...kitten :)  Hers died a while back and she has been wanting one ever since!


Dad is getting a UGA print that is signed by some UGA greats, like Herschel Walker, Buck Belue, Lindsay Scott,  Larry Munson and Head Coach Vince Dooley.  Dad is a HUGE fan of the Bulldogs!  3 generations of my family have gone to school there, including me.  My parents go to every home game, so I think he is going to be thrilled!  (Lorri, I think your husband would approve:)

My brother is getting this:

And my grandmother is getting a framed picture of T and I's wedding.  I hope she likes this, its hard to buy for her because I feel like she has everything under the sun!

This is one of our wedding pictures.  I'm hoping to a post on our wedding soon, but I still haven't got our pictures back!