It's been a picture of a day...

Hello All-

We've uploaded a couple of new slideshows to our blog so be sure to check those out. They are Christmas 2008 & Our Apartment 2 - The Outside Edition. Besides that, I've been working on my computer trying to convert it to purely a computer for music and pictures. I've been going through files, deleting them or copying them to cd, switching files and pictures to different drives, removing programs not needed and just general maintenance. I must say, it gets a little frustrating at times but overall it's not been too bad. We also cleaned the apartment again today and it feels better around here. Our condo owners came by to check on our water heater. We've been having trouble getting through even one shower with continuous hot water. We don't think anything is wrong with the water heater, just that because it's in an outside closet and the weather has been colder than normal around here, we think that's the problem. Anyways, the owners bought a water heater blanket and came by to put it on. Daniel wanted to watch 60 minutes and the Grammy's so he's been taking that in. Yesterday, we were pretty lazy. We did go to church and then afterwards, we took a walk around the town center. We returned the movies we had rented and stopped by for ice cream. It was good. We are looking forward to the weather--it's gonna be in the 50's this week and it feels sooooo good.

I'm still working the same temp job that I was four weeks ago. Tomorrow, will be the start of the 5th week. Still going strong. Our thoughts are with MawMaw right now. She's been put in the hospital, but it hasn't been easy. Her and Mr. Gene went on their cruise around Mexico and somehow, she came down with pneumonia and got hospitalized in Mexico on Thursday the 29th. They thought she was doing better but then she got put on a ventilator and they weren't even sure if they were going to be able to Med-flight her out of there. They finally got the okay and she arrived in Birmingham Saturday morning. She's still in the hospital now, but she is out of the ICU and in a regular room. We are hopeful that she will get out tomorrow. Last weekend, we tried a restaurant called Benihana (Japanese). Daniel was itching to try it because it's where they had eaten once in The Office. We also played a rousing game of scrabble. I lost but it was only because he took my spot at the end of the game. I came from behind and then it stayed close till the end. Oh yes, it was Brian Atchison's and Papa Joe's birthdays--so Happy Birthday to you both! We love you very much! Okay, well that's a positive note to end on, so that's where I'm ending. Hope you have/are having a good week!

It's early

Doust my ears deceive me? Do I hear Daniel waking up at 8:30?---We'll see. It's early. I woke up at 7:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. I had an interesting dream. I was hosting an art gallery showing in the bottom of St. Joe's gym. It was successful and everything was closed up. During the night, our friend Max broke into the gym and was starting to take the art pieces. For some reason I went there to check on them and caught him in the act. I asked him what he was doing and he said his grandmother was getting married and she didn't have enough money for a reception so he was trying to make her reception special. I told him not to take the art, that we would have the reception here. There were plenty of leftovers and we could make it work. So, we all got busy decorating and I must say as of when I woke up, it was really looking good. I won't into those details because it's too long but it was lovely. (My ears deceived me!)

I'm not sure if I mentioned this yet, but my temp job got extended for at least two weeks, maybe three. So this week was one of those weeks--I will be there at least through next week. The job that I thought they were putting my resume in for, didn't pan out. It turned out they hired someone the day they asked me about it. But, I was told a few days ago that they were putting my name in for another job in Fairfax. Maybe that one will work out. We'll see.

Other than that, nothing much exciting has happened here. It was a little warmer this week but it's gonna be cold again next week. We did go to the inauguration concert on Sunday and we were slightly disappointed. The speakers and screens weren't timed together so it echoed a bunch and turned out to be rather muffled. We didn't stay for the whole thing but we did hear Bruce, Denzel Washington, Jamie Fox, Martin Luther King III, and someone else, but I can't remember who. On Monday, we watched a movie or two and just hung around the apartment. It was too cold to go out--it snowed on Monday. Nothing really stuck though. The pond outside our complex froze over and stayed white with snow. Okay, well I guess that's it. We are supposed to meet some friends for dinner tonight. We are both looking forward to that! Ttyl. Love you!

It's been awhile...

To all those reading, we are super sorry that we haven't been keeping up. With everything that has been going on, time has just flown by. At any rate, I will try to get you caught up with what has been happening with us the last several months.

In November, we loved seeing a large number of Daniel's family. They were here to see Uncle Bill and Janet get married. It was a lovely wedding and the reception was fantastic. We had a 5 course meal which was to die for. It was one of the best meals I've ever had. I tried something new--a quail's egg and I tried to try lobster, but it just didn't work. I had a physical/emotional response to it and Daniel had to get it off my plate. Hat's off to him for that. We celebrated Susan and mine's birthday while everyone was here and Daniel made me a red velvet cake while I made Susan a german chocolate cake. If I must say, they were de-lish. Since everyone was in town days before Thanksgiving, we went ahead and celebrated early. We had 12 people enjoying Thanksgiving dinner. We had deviled eggs, turkey, ham, squash casserole, green beans, cranberry salad, rolls, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, dressing, and I feel like there was more but I can't remember. I have a picture that I intend on posting. On Thanksgiving day, Ben and Celi drove down to have spend the weekend with us. Again, we celebrated Thanksgiving with a lovely dinner--green bean casserole, pineapple casserole, dressing, turkey, ham, rolls, cranberry salad, pumpkin and pecan pies and leftover cake. Ben and Celi also joined us at Old Dominion which is the Alabama alumni spot to watch the Iron Bowl. That was a good day and a happy victory! That about does it for November.

In December, we ventured to Alabama for the first time in a while for MawMaw and Mr. Gene's wedding. The ladies that helped put on the reception did an excellant job and it seems that all the planning paid off. We enjoyed getting to see everyone and I even got to meet some of Daniel's family that I had never met before. On the 12th, I had my work party --which I got to help plan and then on the 17th we got to go Daniel's work party. Right in between those two parties, I lost my job. Because I was still "on contract" with staffing agency, I found out about my job on my lunch break and was told I couldn't go back or make contact. That was the worst part of it all. I didn't get to say bad and I know my boss at Beeline, felt the same way. I know it was difficult for her too. I have been able to stay in contact with several of them their, so that's been good. We plan to have lunch next week. Anyways, that was that and I realize that their was a reason for it--just figuring out what that is, is the key. It was kind of a blessing in disguise because just in a few days we were leaving to drive home. So, it gave me extra time to wrap presents, finish those last minute items, do some baking, clean-up around the apartment, and pack--plus we could take an extra day or two to be at home. We left Friday night and drove through the night to B'ham. We made really good time and it worked pretty well. We were Daniel's family Saturday through Wednesday morning (Christmas Eve) and with mine from Christmas Eve til Monday morning. We celebrated Christmas with the Atchison's on Tuesday evening and ordered food from Jim N' Nicks. Elizabeth got to open her presents first, then we ate, then we watched "The Gift", and finally opened the rest of our presents. I think we all fared out pretty well. On my side, we opened gifts on Christmas Eve at G & G Eckl's, had Christmas lunch at Peepa's and played dirty santa, Christmas dinner at the Eckl's again, and on Friday morning we opened gifts at home. We let Samanatha and Chloe open their gifts on Christmas morning. Watching all three nieces open gifts was really cute and fun. Their faces were the best part. I got the stomach bug on saturday night and so instead of driving part of the way on Sunday like we planned, we ended up driving it all on Monday. I felt better Monday but I still felt nauseated several times throughout the week even though I could eat pretty normally. Daniel had to go back to work on Tuesday and Wednesday and was off for New Year's and then had to go back to work on Friday.

Now we are in January and I resumed the process of job hunting. I've had two temp jobs so far and I'm still on one right now. They have found a possible job and were submitting my resume for it, so we'll see what turns up. We had our first snow this past Tuesday. It didn't do a lot but just kind of cover the ground. Didn't hurt the roads or anything. The big talk up here is the Inauguration. All the planning, the events, traffic, can the metro handle it, etc. I'm really ready for some other headlines. There's a big concert lineup today and we were thinking about going but it's so cold and it's gonna be packed out with people! We took down our Christmas tree yesterday--it was kind of sad, but suddenly we have so much more room in our apartment. You wouldn't think that a Christmas tree makes that much of difference but in a small apartment, it really does. We also had a major overhaul--cleanup here. It really needed it, I feel like spring cleaning has come early. We invited Uncle Bill and Aunt Janet over for dinner. I made a loaded baked potato soup with broccoli, cheese, sour cream, and taco meat for toppings. Daniel made cake squares for dessert. We also went to church last night. So, I guess that kind of catches everyone up. Oh yes! Daniel is still on assignment with the Dept of Ed, but he got to move to another job there and I think he likes it better than where he was before. I'm looking into taking the possibly taking the GRE or MAT with a friend who wants to take it too. I think that's where we are at now. Again, sorry for the long delay but hopefully we'll do better. Love you all!

We're back!

After a long hiatus, we have returned with a new post. We are leaving tomorrow morning, bright and early (6:00 am), to fly to Birminghm via beautiful Detroit. We're looking forward to seeing our family and the wedding. We're also looking forward to Jim n' Nicks tomorrow afternoon! When we get back, we'll post some pictures and post about our trip back home.

Last week has gone by pretty fast. I've started my job and I really enjoy it. The people have been wonderful. Helen and Kelly took me out to lunch on my first day. I'm starting to learn more about the company and understand the different facets of the division. It was a little slow on Thursday and Friday, but hopefully once I get security clearance within the company, I will be able to do more things. Don't get this confused with governmental clearance--it's not that. Anyways, on Friday evening Daniel had to work late--well not really late but had a AIMS meeting and a happy hour thing. I came home from work and read a book. On Saturday, we had our Sams date and then came back home. I took a nap and then we left to go to the game in DC. We drove to the metro center and rode in. At Old Dominion we met up with several people and we finally caught up with one of Brian's old pals from 'Bama, Chris. It was great to talk with him and Daniel got to meet him as well. 

We asked Uncle Bill to come over for dinner on Sunday, except that we found out that Janet was in town too, so we had an early lunch today with them because Janet's flight was at 2 or 2:30. We went to 9:30 mass and then came home and got ready for lunch. I got up early this morning and put a roast with potatoes, carrots, and onions in the oven, and then we also had english peas and cornbread. For dessert we had vanilla ice cream with strawberries. It was good. After Uncle Bill and Janet left, we went to the library and returned some shoes that I had bought for Daniel that didn't fit. We tried to get them in a different size but they didn't have them. I dropped Daniel off at our apartment and went to Target. I had to find some kind of halloween shirt for work on Thursday. We are having a big Halloween party for the kids at work with games, crafts, movies, food, and trick or treating. Tonight we've just been doing a little laundry and getting things straightened up around here. This Friday, we have tickets to the Coldplay concert--someone Daniel's been wanting to see for a really long time now. We can't believe it's only a month until Uncle Bill's and Janet's wedding. We go to Ben and Celi's not this coming weekend, but the next and then they will come down here for Thanksgiving. We can't wait to see everyone! So, I guess that's it for now. We hope everyone has a great week!

Oh happy day! (Oh happy day!)

Today was a good day. I had my interview today at 11 and it went really well. At 1:10, I was walking out. I really enjoyed meeting the different people I would be working with and they told me straight up that there was another person they were interviewing. However, I guess I left a super great impression because by 4:00 after their other 2:00 interview, I had a call from the staffing agency saying that the company really wanted me to work with them and I accepted. I start Monday!! We are still working out some of the details, but the important thing is that I have a job and I'm really excited about it. I really feel comfortable with the people I will be working with and the atmosphere. It's a nationwide company so I could potentially move and still stay with them. The best part of it all is that I will be able to help my boss plan different events whether it's for the office or if it's for a bigger company event. So, Daniel and I went out to Carrabba's to celebrate. Well that's all for now. TTFN!

A little while longer...

It's been a while since we've wrote. Let me try to get you caught up. Last week Daniel got to go to 'bama to help with interviews and got to spend the weekend with his family. He also got to see Brian, Janie, and Sam. We sent Elizabeth's very much belated and Sam's birthday present with him. He said both of them seemed to really like their gifts. Sam enjoyed her batteries more so than the puzzles...yes, these puzzles require batteries and Elizabeth enjoyed doodling on her Doodle pad. Daniel took lots of pictures while home and I really liked seeing how much Elizabeth and Sam have changed. I couldn't believe it. While he was home in Alabama, I went to the library, checked out the mall, Tyson's corner, and rented a few movies. I saw Definitely, Maybe--it was quite good and I also really liked Jane Austen's Book Club. It's a little different and takes a little bit more time to get into it, but by the end of it, I really enjoyed it. I think it would help more or be a little bit more entertaining if you have read Austen's novels but you can still follow it and the point that it's trying to make. 

This past week, well nothing too exciting.  Except for Wednesday night/Thursday morning, Daniel woke up and began to get ready for work.  He did the usual wash his face, fix his hair and all.  Then, when he went to the closet to figure out what he was going to wear for the day, he realized that it was only 3:00 am.  Since he had already put gel in his hair, he got a washcloth, put it on his pillow and went back to sleep.  He says that he thinks he heard an alarm clock in his dreams. (At least that's what he says happened. I have no idea because I was actually asleep through it all. He typed all of the previous.) Oh and I got a call Friday afternoon while washing my car, for an interview on Tuesday. 

Friday we went to Sam's as per our usual. On Saturday we decided to be a little adventurous and head to Baltimore. We parked at the Baltimore airport and took the light rail the rest of the way in. I think we've decided that wasn't the best way in the long run. We walked around the Inner Harbor and Fell's Point. We found a pub called Kooper's Corner to have lunch at and then a little gelato shop afterwards. Fell's point was pretty neat with all the cobblestone streets and old style brick buildings. There were streets that were so picturesque, something you would see in a real estate magazine. Today, we went to Cox Farms with our friends Astu and Rishi. They have all these giant slides, animals, a fake corn maze, pumpkins, a hay ride, and some entertainment. We went on this really huge slide--it was really really fun. I was disappointed in the pumpkin selection but the apple cider that they make was fantastic. We got all the apple cider and apples we wanted for free. That was tasty.  I must say, they don't really know how a hay ride works and I was a little sadden by the shape that some of the animals were in. I haven't seen a cow that way unless they were sickly and same thing for the goats. It kinda made me sad.  Anyways, the afternoon was fun and something different to do. When we got home, Daniel cleaned the bathroom and I cleaned the kitchen and cooked dinner. I made spaghetti and it was quite tasty. I don't know what made it so different this time, but it was really good. (not to toot my own horn or anything but we both really liked it) Oh yeah, and somehow my big pyrex dish broke. It was in one of our cabinet drawers with plenty of room and everything, but it shattered. The only thing we can think is that enough heat from the oven caused it to shatter. It's not a drawer that we go into at all-- I mean the only thing in it was the pyrex dish, our serving pieces, and a few jar rings. I don't get why it broke. Oh well. A mystery that we'll never understand. Well I guess that's it. We'll try to get a few new pictures up soon.