Winter hits early

I'm not sure when the first day of winter is supposed to be, but yesterday it snowed here. I mean, nothing really big, but it was ACTUALLY below freezing and there was snow in the air. It was cool, but REALLY friggin cold. A group of us from Bryson are going snowboarding Tuesday night up at Cataloochi (the only ski place around here), which is already blowing snow. Anyway, just thought I'd update ya'll with some info. Hope all is going well out your way. Thanksgiving is just next week! I'm very excited. It's definately my favorite holiday of them all because you just get to hang out with family, eat, and watch football. Plus, the day after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year and it's fun just to go and watch everyone go COMPLETELY nuts (i don't even think I bought anything last year). Then Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, we're going to decorate my parents house for Christmas and put of the Christmas Tree! I love decorating for Christmas! So I'm heading off here, I got to get some homework done. They're really loading us down right now. Peace!

Black and White memories

I'm the baby in the 1st pic--then Shannon (older sis) and Shaun (older bro): 2nd pic-just me: 3rd pic-Shaun and I: 4th pic-Daddy, Shaun, Shannon, and I: 5th pic--Mommy and me

Hike up to Looking Glass

The thing around my head is a t-shirt, my ears were cold and I didn't have anything else :)

Fall news

Well, I was going to try to post some pictures, but blogger is having problems today and won't post anything. I thought it was my internet brower (for those of you that have a Mac, Safarai sucks-download Foxfire, it's free and SOOO much better), but alas it wasn't

So, news on us. A couple of weekends ago Dave, Sleepy, and I went for a drive one Saturday afternoon on the Parkway. The leaves were at the PEAK of their color change and it was absolutely beautiful (if blogger ever stops being annoying I'll put up some pictures, or you can just check them out on my Facebook page). We had a picknick lunch at a pull-off/park and it was just an amazing day. Dave took some great pictures of everything.

That same night the youth group had a camp-out at the church called "Fall Freeze"--which it was because it has gotten quite chilly up here. We had a huge weenie roast and had smores afterwards and a huge bonfire. It was alot of fun. We took Sleepy with us and it was his first experience in a tent. I was a little worried about him peeing in the tent, but he did great! We put soem blankets down at the end of the tent and he just snuggled down in them and went right to sleep (I think the kids wore him OUT!). About 5 am he got cold and Dave put him in his sleeping bag and he went back to sleep. Good first camping trip!

LAST weekend was the big gear swap here in Western N.C. called GAF. It's the Guest Appreciation Festival help by NOC every fall. It was awesome, as usual, and lots of fun. I FINALLY bought a snowboard!!! (pix of that to come soon-hopefully-too). It's an AMAZING snowboard-almost brand new (Oxygen board- for those who are wondering) and top of the line bindings (Burton's lightest). I got everything (boots and all) for under $200!!!! I am SOOO stoked about that. Seriously, my little, and older brother too, are going to be EXTREMELY jealous of my bindings--they are just so sweet.

Friday night Dave and I went to a hall0ween party. It was a 90's TV or Movies themed party and I was Blossom (remember her?) and he was Rambo. It was pretty hilarious. Our camera had died so I'll have to get those pictures from a friend--but you really should see them. We played 90's trivia and my team, although the youngest of the group, did really well.

This weekend we're going to try and go out of town. maybe camping-Dave really wants to go. It'll be nice to get a weekend away just the two (and Sleepy) of us.

Well, that's pretty much it! Sorry there's no pictures--but if you're on Facebook you can check them out there. Love you all!

P.S. I want pictures of all the kids Halloween costumes ok???

painting and exhausted

We're painting everything. The kitchen cabnets are almost done--I think, but the walls have just been started. I put the primer on in the kitchen today and the bathroom still needs one wall painted (with a color that hasn't been picked out yet). The bedroom hasn't even been STARTED on, and we're leaving the paneling in the living room as is, for now anyway. There's stuff EVERYWHERE and it is driving me crazy! The cabinet doors are in the living room drying, the fridge is in the MIDDLE of the kitchen, and everything that's supposed to be in the kitchen is EVERYWHERE. I'm exhausted and I haven't even started on my homework yet today. I don't know if I can. Ugh. I will be SOOO excited when everything is painted and done, but right now I'm hating living in the chaos--I like tidy and this is nuts.

*pictures when everything is done--whenever THAT is.

another 2--comp keep messing up today

Random pics from this weekend's wedding

Dave + Luke

a coat for baby

he's a little thing--only 7 lbs. so we got him a coat for the winter :-D. It says K9-U. Cute huh? lol The other is a fleece and needs to be taken in a little, but it'll still keep him warm. We found both of them in the baby section at Goodwill. Dave thinks the fleece is, "fru fru"--but he'll be too cold outside this winter without it.

The Facts

Brittany lost her battle to keep her kids and now has to turn their custody over to K-Fed.

We now have a brand new tenant in our next door apartment named Lauren (yay Ren!) and she's a friend of ours.

Dave is walking regularly now with not too much pain throughout the day.

I'm going to be on a reality TV show.

Now hold on, I know you're MOST excited about the reality TV show, but Brittany is more important. JUST KIDDING! So, here's the scoop. I'm not actually a contestant on the TV show, but I will be featured in one of the first episodes of the show. I will be the only female raft guide in it. The show is called College Hill and is on the BET channel. The producer said it was a "black version of the Real World" and it's in its 5th season. I got called up on Friday afternoon and asked if I could come run the ropes course for a reality TV show and possibly guide a raft. I, unfortionately, thought that sounded cool and said "yes." So, I got there Sunday morning and set-up the tower and then the adventure began. Tech crew said the cast would be an hour late--ok, it's all good. Then, said group said they might not come at all actually--but we would wait some more--ok done. So, tech crew decides they'll try out the course until the cast gets there. Crew has a good time, cast doesn't make it in time to actually do the ropes course. Then they say, "the crew will be here in 10 minutes then we'll get right on the river," yeah right. An hour and a half later we're on the river...for the longest raft trip in the history of NOC. It took 4 hours to get down the river because the camera crew had to get the right shots at every turn. We must have pulled over 20 times. Talk about UNreality TV--everything is framed...it super sucks. So, after the coldest, longest raft trip ever it was finally over...and guess what...they didn't even tip us.

P.S. but I still wanna be on Survivor, cause THAT'S real :-D

And here's the stitched up picture

I would have sent you the original gorey (sp?) photo, but I don't think you can handle it, lol

A Trip to the Hospital

Well, we had our own trip to the hospital yesterday, or at least Dave did. Around 11:30 I got this very lighthearted message from one of the guys that Dave works with that said, "Hey Leigh, just wanted to let you know Dave fell of a ladder and cut his leg. It's just a little cut but we're taking him to the hospital now. He's ok, don't worry." Well, as any woman would know, if it was "just a little cut" they wouldn't have gone to the hospital in the first place, they woulda stuck some glue on it and kept working. This was no little cut. Though, I didn't find out till I got home that night (because Dave kept evading my questions about it on the phone) that it was a 22 stitches kind of "little cut." I've yet to actually see it because there are bandages over the stitches, but from the crusted blood outside it doesn't look like it feels very good. He's off work for the next couple of days and is hobbling around the house and whining about how I won't let him drive (he's not supposed to work machinery with the pain pills he's on). So, Sleepy and I are catering to his every need :). He really is ok though. He was very impressed with the doctor who sewed him up. He's in the bed watching Podcasts on his iPod and reading his climbing magazines...ah the life, lol. Will put up some pictures of the wound when the bandages are off! I bet you can't wait, lol.

Our baby playing

The grandeur of puppyhood

Sleep is escaping us. We are trying to teach Sleepy to stay in his carrier without whining at night. It's progressing, but slowly. If you tell him "no" firmly and walk out again after about twice he quiets down, but then starts back up around 5 a.m. I took him out this morning that time, though he had already pooped AND peed in the bathroom. During the day, on the days I'm not at school, I can usually tell when he needs to go out, or I just go out about every 2 hours or less. He is very good at trying to get to the right place to go but just isn't sure where that is yet. If he does pee inside it's usually close or on the way to the door, although, what isn't close to the door in our little apartment, lol. He's good at going outside when he's out there, but just doesn't know how to TELL us when he needs to go out yet. We're using the bell method. There's a bell at his level by the back door. Every time we take him out to pee or whatever we ring the bell and say, "lets go outside." If he accidentally rings it at any time we immediately take him outside. Eventually he should learn to ring the bell whenever he wants to go out. That way we can just bring the bell wherever we go and put it beside a door. We're hoping it works :-D.

He's such a sweet puppy though. All he wants to do is be loved and be with people. He's just learning to play fetch, a little, and SOMETIMES he brings it back. We were watching a movie last night and were cuddled up together on the couch. But he's not allowed on the couch, so we got down in what is now his chair (he claimed it pretty quickly) and cuddled with him (he looked at us VERY pitifully). He does already know that he's not allowed in our room. I'm allergic to dog hair, though his doesn't generally bother me, but we decided not to start the whole sleeping in the bed with us thing. Even when I leave the door to the bedroom open and am in there, he'll sit in the doorway and watch me. If he starts to step in I say, "no" and he steps back to where he was. Such a smart puppy! We love him to BITS! Well-that's our "baby" update. I think it's good practice for kids in that we are realizing we are NOT ANYWHERE NEAR ready to have kids :-D.

Suprise!

It's a puppy!!!! I know, I'm the biggest hipocrite ever. I fell in love with this dog though, and I just had to have him. Dave jumped at the chance, knowing I might never want another dog, and we picked him up the next day. His name is Sleepy (his brother is Doc and his sister is Snow White), he's a Jack Russell Terrier, and he weighs (guessing here) around 4 lbs. He was the runt of the litter and probably won't weigh more than 12 lbs. as an adult. His name fits him perfectly (he's sleeping right now) because he sleeps at least half the day at the moment, being a puppy. He's only 8 weeks old. Anyway, we're exstatic about having him here. He's a doll! Hope you like the pictures!

Back To School

Well, I'm back at school. I'm taking classes on Tuesdays and Thursday this semester, which really cuts down on the gas bill. It makes for a long day though, as I'm in class from 9:30 in the morning until 6:00 at night with only 15 minutes between each class. After I sit for that long I prefer to stand up for awhile--which is good on Thursdays because I have worship band practice for church on Thursday nights.

I'm really enjoying SOME of my classes at the moment. Those being enjoyed include: Teaching Grammar (suprisingly, good discussions, but hard homework), Appalachian Studies (I figured if I was going to teach here, I should know something about the history, REALLY interesting class), and American Literature II (amazing teacher, hilarious, bright, funny, and she makes us all ponder so much about literature and the society we live in).

The only class I'm NOT enjoying is Speech because the teacher treats us like we are children (granted it's a freshman course and granted some of them are children).
The classes I'm still unsure about are Film Adaptions (I don't have the book yet, so when Amazon finally ships it to me and I find out what is really going on in class I may like it more) and Principles and Methods of Teaching (all in all an interesting class, but the teacher has ADD and tends to get off on random bunny trails quite alot).

The other things I'm involved with right now are the Sunday morning worship band (as mentioned), still working here and there for NOC, (soon to be starting back up) 20 something's small group, and youth group. Also trying to do some outdoor stuff around the area this weekend and go to an area where we can cliff jump (hopefully) and a really cool waterfall. Very excited about that.

Sorry it has been such a long time since I posted an actual information post, but here it is! I gotta jet now though, I'm heading to App. Studies class--so swish (lol--trying to adopt Victoria Beckams new word, how's it sound???lol)

hilarious--this is how my nephews are gonna be when they get older--I can just see Wyatt doing this to one of the twins...lol

more putt-putt

putt-putting and the beach

Beach dayz

I'm at the beach with my big sis and her family and kids. The boys are hilarious to watch, especially at the beach. It's great to play with the boys and them realize that just because I'm there doensn't mean their mom is leaving--their much friendlier that way.

Forgot to put up a picture of the picknick table that Dave built me for my birthday, so here it is. Have a great week! I'll put up some pictures of the boys putt-putting later this week! Love!

More Potter

So, as MOST of you know, the LAST Harry Potter book came out yesterday--Saturday 21st (got that wrong on my last blog). And no, I am NOT reading it yet. I'm grinding at the bit to do so, but I haven't made it out to Walmart yet and I know I'm going to have to go Tuesday anyway and--sigh--don't want to waste gas. So, I'm trying VERY VERY hard not to sigh loads and whine too much before then. Though every dream I've had recently has been about Harry Potter or his friends. I'm just afraid SOMEBODY'S going to tell me what happens before I read it! So far I've been extremely careful as to what I look at on the internet and magazines. Anything with even a picture of the books I've stayed away from, and I told my friends that if they told me what happens our friendship is OVER!!! Which, of course, is very understandable giving the dire circumstances (this being the VERY LAST~sniff sniff~ Harry Potter book of the series).

--But, I'm holding out---I'll be ok folks, don't worry about me too much, I'm very strong :')

Tuesday something ELSE very exciting is happening (though not quite as exciting as the Harry Potter book I am going to buy that day--of course). Dave and I are closing on our house! We will be purchasing the duplex we live in a continuing to rent out the other side while we live in the side we're in now. I'm SO exciting about FINALLY getting to do some redecorating (yes we really are quite alike Shannon). We've already been talking about paint colors, a new water heater, reroofing, and possibly cutting down a tree in the front drive. Plus we're possibly going to be adding some counter space! VERY EXCITING!

Oh--and Dave made me a picknick talbe the other day!!! It was supposed to be ready for my birthday but just didn't get all the pieces together by then. We've already eaten on it twice! (post pictures soon).

Also on Tuesday I'll be going in to pay for my tuition at school for this next semester and find out the starting date and all that. AND---drumroll please---I'll finally be getting the art for my second tattoo drawn up that day. This is the tattoo I've wanted for almost 8 years now, of a pheonix. I really can't wait to see what they do with the art. I won't be getting it done on Tuesday, they'll just be getting some pictures I've had drawn up and others I've taken from here or there and combining them and tweaking them a bit to made them exactly how I want them.

Anyway-that's enough excitement for one blog I think. Will keep you posted on how everything goes! Peace!