Thanksgiving and such

Ben and I had a few firsts this week as a married couple. First Thanksgiving, first major school holiday that no longer applies to us, and first decorating for Christmas. Good times.

Thanksgiving day started earlier than we would have liked it to, because now that we are in the real world we can no longer sleep til 10. So we woke up around 7 and had a discussion about starting our own Thanksgiving traditions. I mean, this would be a good year to start these things but we could not think of anything clever. So instead of starting meaningful traditions we decided to splurge on Hardees breakfast (can't beat their biscuits) and we watched Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Classy. And also not a good call seeing as how a Thanksgiving feast was being prepared at my parents' house. We had dinner with my family, my Dad's parents, and my aunt, uncle and cousins. It was a good time, despite being surrounded by Bama fans and their constant reminders of the impending Iron Bowl. (side note: ugh.) Dinner consisted of turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, dressing, sweet potato casserole, asparagus, corn, rolls, apple pie, and pumpkin roll. Great job Mom, and everyone else who contributed! I brought a veggie tray, so technically I helped. Kinda.

Ben had to work on Friday so I went shopping with my Mom and sisters. We didn't get out there 'til nine so we missed the craziness of the super early shopping, but if you know me and my sisters then you know that nine was a pretty big deal for us. Props to Jen and Jamie for making it. We bought some good things for Christmas, but no crazy deals. I got to see my old roommate Cile and her husband Adam for a few minutes while we were shopping, and I'm glad they were in town from Memphis. Wish we had more time though.

Friday night I picked Ben up from work and we headed to Holly Pond to spend time with Ben's family. We made it just in time to participate in their after Thanksgiving tradition of CiCi's Pizza and going to the movies. And after the movies we played Dirty Santa with gifts we all bought from WalMart for $15. Another reason being married has benefits: you can play as a team in games like Dirty Santa. I stole The Office trivia game and was trying to hide it under after the game was over, but then Joe stole it from me. Not cool. So then I stole Ben's gift from him so he could steal back The Office trivia game. Moral of this story: if you have a team member in Dirty Santa then you get to go home with The Office trivia game. YAY! If any Office fans want to show their knowledge on the show, then come on over and we will play.

Today we set up Christmas decorations. We had anticipated it to be stressful, but it was a lot easier than we thought. We picked out our tree from Home Depot because Ben still had a few gift cards. It was easier than I have ever experienced because we could just put it in the back of Ben's truck and drive away. I have always had to tie the tree to the top of the car which is just a pain. So we find our "perfect tree" and head home to bring it up the stairs. After some slight rearranging of furniture we set it set up in our tree stand with surprisingly no trouble. We don't have lots of ornaments on the tree, but I like it that way. It gives us room to grow. We also decorated around the apt and I think everything looks good so far. Well, everything looks good for me being the most uncreative person in all of Huntsville, and probably Alabama.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Looking forward to hearing all the stories (especially about Vegas, C and D!)

hate shopping.

I've been saving money in order to buy some winter clothes. I may have fooled everyone at church into thinking that I haven't worn the same pants 4 weeks in a row, but I doubt I can get away with 5. So I have been saving my money instead of finding ways to spend it all on the usuals: coffee, sour patch kids, books, sushi, and more coffee. Dang, I just realized that's mainly things I eat or drink. I should work on that. Anyways, I have saved up a decent amount of money and I headed to Bridge Street with Ben, Joe and Jen with my hopes high that I will be leaving with a pair of jeans, some nice shirts and if I am super lucky a pair of shoes. Here's the deal. I can go shopping with no intentions to buy something and I find tons of things I would love to bring home to fill my closet. But not this time. Nooooo I actually have a purpose to this shopping trip and I find nothing. Nothing in my size, nothing under a ridiculous amount of money, and nothing I like. Seriously??

As I am typing this I realize how materialistic I sound. But a girl needs some new clothes sometimes. Hopefully I will have better luck during the after Thanksgiving sales...

Of Mice and (Wo)Men

Let me just start this blog by saying that I have the most amazingly strong wife in the world. She's the rock of our relationship. I wouldn't make it without her. There, I said it. (Are you happy, Jess?!) 

A couple of nights ago we spent the night at my parents house to take care of the dogs while they were out of town. During the middle of the night, I heard a loud pop that sounded like a gun shot. Apparently my parents have a mice problem and one of the little demons walked right into their trap. 

I'm man enough to admit that I hate blood, gore and disfigurement. I can barely look at my own finger after suffering a paper cut without getting light headed. So the thought of pulling the giant twisted mouse out of the trap and throwing it away made me gag. Now, I'll take on any roach, spider or other insect, but a mouse with a dislocated neck is just too much. 

Fortunately Jess doesn't mind blood and guts. In fact, it doesn't bother her at all. I guess that's why she's about to be a nurse. After noticing that I was on the verge of fainting, she went over to the trap, picked up the mouse, and properly disposed of the dismembered body. No hesitation, no gagging and definitely no passing out. But not before letting me know that she would do this under one condition; that I let everyone know that she's the one who took care of the mouse problem. So there you go!

In other news, we had a great time playing broom hockey today with the church's youth group. Still a little sore from falling, and losing, but it's nothing a couple of Aleve won't fix. Our team played hard and held the lead for most of the game, but we couldn't withstand a late rally from the blue team and lost by one. Even though we lost, we saw some promising things. Our defense played great and our offense really controlled the ball well. We were able to learn a few things about our opponents and won't be caught off guard next time. It was also hilarious to watch everyone take some huge spills. No one said they were hurt at the end of the game, but we'll wait until tomorrow before releasing the official injury report. 

Oh, and last week Jess told you about our little vacation. We went to the Jack Daniels Distillery and ate at Miss Mary Bo Bo's boarding house. That was probably the best meal I've ever had. However, she failed to mention that after eating more than my body weight in food, we went to a nice dinner with her family and grand parents. I thought about taking it easy and eating a bowl of soup, or something else light, but when I saw the New York strip and baked potato on the menu I couldn't pass it up. I payed dearly for that decision the next day. I spent the entire last day of vacation laying on the floor in the hall outside the bathroom groaning in agony. I'll just leave it at that. The moral of the story, eating is like putting gas in your car. Once the pump makes that clicking sound that signals the tank is full, leave it be. Topping off the tank will only result in a massive overflow. 

LOVE Fall

Seriously though, I really do love Fall. My Mom told me today she remembers when I was three years old sitting in my car seat, I was completely fascinated by the leaves and kept on saying how pretty they were. Some things never change. Now an annoying drive over the mountain to run an errand is so much more fun because of the view. And of course I can't forget to mention one of the best things about fall...you get to wear your favorite jackets and flip flops at the same time without people judging you too much. Once December hits, most people look down on my exposed toes. Have I mentioned I hate closed toe shoes??


Ben recently had some vacation time so we took full advantage. First thing in our long fun weekend, we went to a UAH hockey game with both of our families. So much fun! I don't really follow hockey but I've seen the mighty ducks trilogy at least a dozen times so I feel like I am pretty knowledgeable on the sport. I also grew up going to Channel Cats games with Dad (shout out to Jen and the memory of the old man spilling beer in your hair-we were so traumatized). Hockey is just exciting to watch. I know Ben loves it, and I'm sure it reminds him of his lacrosse days. Like I said, I don't know all the rules, but I think the two sports are pretty similar. Both involve inflicting pain on the other team as much as possible. Close enough. Another exciting thing about the hockey game, we saw Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn. Their son is the backup goalie for UAH so they came for homecoming weekend. I wonder what they thought of our wonderful state? We are probably the only decent hockey team to come out on the ice to Sweet Home Alabama...


On Saturday I did some Christmas shopping with Mom in the morning, which was so much fun! Then later that afternoon one of my favorite people in the world, Mary Martha, came to our apartment to watch the Alabama/LSU game. What an intense game!! It was so good to spend time with MM. She has been really busy working for the Wayne Parker campaign, so now that election time is over I am looking forward to spending lots of time with her! After the game we went to Buffalo Wild Wings. Side note: that restaurant is one of those places that you eat there and you don't enjoy it, but then enough time goes by and you convince yourself you like it. So you give it another try, and you don't like it again. Keep me accountable people, no more Buffalo Wild Wings.


After church on Sunday, we picked up the Calvert dogs and took them to Monte Sano. It was wonderful! It was cold, but not too cold after you started walking. Of course Lucy and Dixie (the dogs) were loving it too. On Sundays we usually come home after lunch and lay around watching football all day long, but it felt great to actually get up and do something. It also showed me how out of shape I have become. What a wake up call, I have GOT to start working out before the ski trip or I will be in trouble. I've always loved Monte Sano and even though Ben has been up there plenty of times, it is fun getting to share something with him that I have done my whole life.

Monday was amazing as well. Ben's parents picked us up at 9am and we headed to Lynchburg, TN to see the Jack Daniel's Distillery. We took the tour, so we learned all about the history of Jack Daniels and got to see the process of making Tennessee whiskey. At some point in the tour I decided that I could go my whole life without smelling whiskey ever again and be ok. But still, lots of fun. I am sure that Ben could give you more interesting details.

After the tour we went to eat at Miss Mary Bobo's. Ben had called weeks ago to make reservations, and it was so worth it. It's a family style meal in groups of different sizes, so it was the four of us and 6 others (well 7 including the lady who works there). The lady made everyone introduce themselves and say something about themselves before we could eat. How rough is that?? Forcing me to be social while large bowls of fried chicken, pork tenderloin, mac and cheese, fried okra, lima beans, baked apples and cornbread are withing reach. Needless to say, worth the wait. The food was amazing. I ate more than I usually eat for lunch for an entire week. I almost feel guilty...nah.

Back to the real world now...

Right now watching the Fox News election updates is stressing me out, so I am gonna update you guys on happier things.

This past weekend Ben and I went to Nashville. Friday night we spent the night with Will. I was really excited about this, and I was happy that Ben got to spend time with him. We went to downtown Nashville, which was so much fun! It all has so much character! For the country music fan, it's heaven. For me, it was tolerable. But Ben LOVED it. We went to a bar named Tootsie's that had a guy covering songs from Roger Creager (one of Ben's favorites). After that we walked around and went to a few other places, just to explore. We ended up in a karaoke bar called Wannabes. Usually just the idea of a karaoke bar is enough to make me sweat and feel a bit nauseous due to a chance of being tricked onto the stage. But we had a great time there! Now, karaoke in Nashville is different than anywhere else. There were people who were AMAZING and obviously hoping to get discovered. There were also people wanting to get discovered that have no business holding a microphone and singing. A good friend really should tell them they have no talent. One of those things where my friend Mary Martha would just have to say "bless their heart". Then there's Will. I have never been more proud to be his friend. He got up there and sang Jesse's Girl with all his heart. Good for him, I will never do that.

Saturday and Sunday we were house sitting/babysitting for my aunt and uncle. I love their family so much, and it's always fun going up there. They are my only Auburn support in the family, I come from a long line of Alabama and Tennessee fans. We watched a lot of football, and I am choosing not to comment about the Auburn game. But the Texas/Texas Tech game was INSANE!

Update on school: all of the forms are in except the letter from the Dean of Nursing from Southern Union, so when that gets in I should be good to go! This is exciting and scary. I am looking forward to meeting with the teachers to get some direction on what to study to refresh on my past nursing classes, but I am also scared because there is so, so much information to restudy. Nursing classes are not just something you can "generally understand". You have to know facts, lots of them, especially when it comes to Pharmacology. So this pretty much means, if you want to find me I will most likely be at Stearns Coffee studying for the next 2 years. When I start back in Jan I will be taking classes that include labor & delivery so I am VERY excited about that, since that's where I want to work after graduation.

Please be praying that my transition to a new nursing program goes smoothly!