WHOA.

May... June... July... August... SEPTEMBER?? Oh my goodness this summer has FLOWN by.

Quick stroll through the Past 6 Months..

Life has been busy.. I am not on the computer much these days. It is still weird to believe that I am a nanny. I have always loved kids - but just didn't realize what the Lord had in store for me. It's such a great and flexible job. Everyday is different. Two 2 year olds definitely keep me on my toes mentally and physically. They are SMART.. and get smarter every day. They are really cute girls and make me laugh hysterically.

For personal reasons, just going to do a quick recap of the past few months..
November 2009 - We went to Piegon Forge, TN with my parents, grandparents, my brother & Erin, and the Younts. We had a wonderful time spending time together and celebrating Thanksgiving. We had SO much to be thankful for in 2009... mostly our first home. We love it!

December 2009 - Jonathan and I took a long-weekend trip to New York City. Jonathan had never been before and I hadn't been in a couple years. We had such a great trip! We stayed at the New Yorker Hotel which was right across from Macy's on 8th Ave.
Friday, Dec 18 : Ground Zero, Battery Park, Hudson River, Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island Ferry Tour, enjoyed a hot dog and the famous candy peanuts from the vendors, Wall Street/NY Stock Exchange, dinner in Little Italy at Lombarty's, SoHo, Rockafeller Cetner and the CHRISTMAS TREE!, Times Square
Saturday, Dec 19 : Slept in that morning, first stop was Starbucks, China Town (bought a cute, warm hat), walked across the Brooklyn Bridge while the snow started to fall and had lunch with Jonathan's cousins the Moore's, visited Bloomingdales and H & M, went to Central Park and went ice skating (watched a couple get engaged on the ice skating rink). It started snowing in the afternoon and snowed through the night!
Sunday, Dec 20 - Breakfast at Tic Toc Diner (in hotel), walked to central park to see the gorgeous snow fall, saw Wicked on Broadway, had dinner at Becco (yum!), hung out at Times Square, walked to Bryant Park where we had a snow ball fight :)
Monday, Dec 21 - Walked around the Empire State Building, Washington Square (with a Starbucks), visited the New York City Library, took an afternoon nap, visited FAO Shwarts and the Apple Store, walked around Rockafeller Center again and then stopped at Juniors in Times Square for dinner and dessert at 10pm.

January 2010 - we didn't do much.. just spent time together and had LOTS of fires in our fireplace :) Started a new bible study with the Booster Girls - Beth Moore's study on Esther.

February 2010 - great birthday month! It snowed on the afternoon/night of my birthday.. it was so fun! We went downtown for Sushi.. there was a pretty good covering of snow by the time we were on our way back home. For my birthday, I asked if I could get custom drapes made for our living room - still working on this project! haha! Towards the end of February, my college sorority, ADPi, had a 30th Anniversary celebration from when the chapter was started. We had a good time.. and I had a very handsome date.

March 2010 - celebrated Jonathan's birthday at Firebird's.. got him some Panther's gear and lots of tools! March was full of baby/bridal showers, dinner dates with friends, and game nights. We love our new Sunday School class at Church at Charlotte and we look forward to spending time getting to know these new friends. Our good friends, the Haneline's, had their first baby on March 8th - a beautiful girl! Cora Leanne Haneline.

April 2010 - Jonathan and I celebrated Easter together. I went to the beach for 3 nights with the Mills family to help them with the kids. My mom and I threw a bridal shower for my friend Maeghan. Jonathan had a very busy month with work.. and traveled a bit to Greenville. Our friends, Chad and Kristy had their baby boy, Colt Nicholus on April 29th.

May 2010 - Maeghan and Brent got married. Jonathan and I spent a few days in Sumter.. they had a Boosterthon FunRun at TSA, my alma mater. Jonathan went to the Chick Fil A Leadercast in ATL and I went to the beach with my parents & grandparents for the weekend to celebrate Mother's Day! Ran my 3rd 5K.. time was 31:55. Finished our Esther Bible Study - "it's tough being a woman".. Murphy got a haircut (shaved!) for his birthday. Our good friends, Kylie and John are getting married over memorial day weekend.. Our neighborhood pool has opened!!!

That's about it! :) Would hate to look back at my blog and not remember what we did Nove 2009 - May 2010.. you know I have the worst memory!

Project..

Remember this post?

We actually painted the fireplace the next week! Here are a few before & after pics! We LOVE it! :)

The Murphy/Rat Poison Incident

Jonathan & I went to Sumter, SC last weekend to visit my parents. It was a very enjoyable and relaxing weekend - however, we did have an eventful Saturday evening.

At my parent's house, they have a walk-in attic that is connected to the bonus room so its very easy to get to. My parents are trying to down size and get rid of things that they don't need anymore and since we just bought a house and conveniently need ALL kinds of random things - I decided to go "shopping" in the attic. Mom and I were up there just looking around and I was picking things out to take home with us. We knew that Murphy had followed us upstairs out of interest (he's very nosey) and was just hanging out. He wandered into the attic (nosey again) and a few minutes later we turned around to find Murphy munching away on a dish of mice poison.. little green pellets that probably looked & smelled delicious to Murphy.. After all it is made to trick animals into eating it.

My first thought was "oh, its ok, Murphy has eaten a million things and has an iron stomach". Mom got really worried and then I realized that this is serious and could really harm him. Of course, I went straight to the internet. I am a pro at Googling.. "my dog ate a razor.." or "my dog ate an entire phone charger.." and so I typed "my dog ate mice poison"! Sure enough he wasn’t the only one. I quickly found directions to induce vomiting ASAP with hydrogen peroxide... 2 tbsp.. ASAP. Mom speed to the store to pick some up while I called the Vet hospital to confirm what I read. Sure enough, we poured it down his throat and the hydrogen peroxide worked like a charm. He threw up every last pellet of mice poison that he consumed (which was A LOT). We gave him water & dinner and he was back to his regular self in a few hours.

I did take him to the Vet on Monday morning to get his blood tested for clotting.. tests came back great and all is well for Murph man. The Vet did give us Vitamin K chewables that Murphy will eat for 2 weeks.. Murphy thinks it's a treat.

It was scary! But it really made us appreciate the crazy dog and all the joy he brings to our life.

...Wonder what he will eat next.

Big Time Update..

I'm back! :)

Here is what has been going on in my life:

In late September I started a class through Love & Respect Ministries. I heard of the class through a friend who got married in the Spring and I was really excited when she told me about it. I strongly believe my marriage is of utmost priority and worth every minute of investing in... as a Christian, I view marriage as a reflection of the relationship of Jesus Christ and the Church. It's the most important earthly relationship that I will ever have -- Now that's something to invest in! (and be knowledgeable about) So I just couldn't pass it up. I am sure glad that I didn't because I am learning so much!

A couple weeks ago, I gave Lisa (our fearless leader) a prayer request card where I shared that I have been in the "wilderness" with my job for the last few months and in a praying/waiting season for direction from the Lord about it.

The very next morning I received an e-mail from my friend, Erin, who had a friend who had a neighbor looking for a nanny! (how about that crazy connection?) I guess I should mention that I had been looking on & off for a nanny job over the past few months. But it really had to be the perfect situation to leave a full time job.

Well - this did turn out to be the PERFECT situation. And I start tomorrow! The family is super great.. I'll be taking care of twin girls who are almost 2 years old. Their names are Emily & Anna. :) It's Monday - Thursday, 4 days a week (!!) and exactly what I was looking for! Jonathan & I are both really excited (he has met the family and the twins).

So, I am super excited and I feel really blessed. I see the Lord's work in this and I know its where He wants me. I had been praying about my job situation for a long time, but I guess I really just needed to give it to the Lord (on that prayer request card).

Disturb us, Lord

borrowed straight from here.

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.
[Sir Francis Drake]

Design Dilemma?

The very first time that Jonathan & I first toured our house, I said "if we buy this house, I WILL paint that brick fireplace."



Since moving in, I have had a hard time actually doing it. Now that all the furniture is in.. it's hard to imagine the fireplace painted. My friend Mandy, who is aware of my design dilemma, sent me this design blog that just posted a How-To-Paint-A-Brick-Fireplace.

I am completely inspired.. not only with the painted fireplace.. but for my WHOLE house.

Check it out - I've also added them to my favorites.

www.younghouselove.com

Healer

love this..

Hello again........

Well, hello there. It's been forever since I've had a quality blog post. Unfortunatly, this will not be one either. Darn. I was on a roll for a couple weeks - then life hit.

We are almost all settled into our new home.. with boxes cleared from all rooms except one! The "office" is more like the "catch-all" :) And it will probably stay like that for awhile.

We are really enjoying the joys & extras of having a house such as the backyard, garage, driveway, an extra room, ect. It's wonderful! And we LOVE the neighborhood - Brightmoor is such a great neighborhood to take walks/runs - and while we are still fairly new, it's fun to blindly walk around looking for new routes & cut throughs in the neighborhood.

My excuse for slack blogging? Have I ever mentioned that hotels don't close on the weekends? They do.not. Since July 4th I have had to work the last 4 out of 6 weekends.. and the other 2 weekends, you ask? a.) we moved and b.) we went to Alabama.

All the work has definitely worn on me - August was HARD. But I do have a couple weekends off coming up. We have a trip planned to VA for a family wedding for Labor Day weekend (next weekend!) and then we are making a weekend get-a-way to Ashville, NC for our 1 year A.N.N.I.V.E.R.S.A.R.Y!

My dream job will be Mon - Thurs, 9am - 4pm. :) Any suggestions???

One Word Wednesday..

ADDICTING....