More pictures of Helen's visit--I love the one of her driving Dave's truck!

a bit of a break

So I took a bit of a break from blogging while Helen was over to visit. I had such a wonderful time visiting with her and getting to know her better. We hiked in the snow, shopped, snow boarded, etc. It snowed more while she was here than it probably will for the rest of the winter! I really wish we would get a substantial amount though. Sleepy is missing her big time because she took him on lots of walks and played with him all the time. So, here are a few pictures of her stay and our adventures...more to come when blogger stops being friggin' slow and annoying

the white stuff

IT'S SNOWING!!! HARD! And it is supposed to keep it up all day tomorrow and then again on Saturday! Sweet! I may not have to go to my 2ND day of school! How awesome is THAT??? So awesome you should say. Pictures of a snowman to follow if snows enough.

My Granddaddy's hat

I was proud. I was strong. I was smiling and laughing. I didn't care who looked, I knew I looked good. I was confident. It was all about your hat. I felt invincible in your hat. Beautiful in your hat. Loved in your hat. I had style, maybe even class. I made other people laugh in your hat. I felt like you were with me in your hat. Maybe I should have tried my golf skills in your hat. Or cast a line into the ocean in your hat. But I didn't. I pranced in your hat. I danced in your hat. I strutted in your hat. I shopped in your hat. I watched a movie in your hat (and I didn't even fall asleep in your hat). I conversed in your hat. I drove in your hat. I sweated in your hat (sorry about that), but I just couldn't take off your hat. Because...I missed you in your hat. I loved you in your hat, even though I never saw you in your hat. But I know that up there...you're in a house with the front nine on the front and the ocean in the back (three rows back, just in case someone loves hurricanes as much as you love to fish)...in your hat.

Was Lost but Now is Found!

So, I THOUGHT I lost my phone---well, I did lose my phone, just not forever. Anyway-I was positive it was with me when I went hiking (obviously not so positive), but I had really brought it into the coffee shop that morning (the part I remember) and then back home BEFORE we went hiking. So then I read a book for a little while on my bed and my phone got lost under the pillows (which is why we couldn't hear it when Dave called it). So, the phone is found. YAY! I shall be able to talk to you again! Good stuff. So here's some pictures from hiking yesterday--the place I DIDN'T leave my phone!

No phone no phone...

So, Dave and I went on a most magnificent hike today with a few friends around the Nantahala area. It was beautiful! However, I also lost my phone--for good ya'll. Dave and I don't get our upgrade until February so I probably won't have another phone until then. If you need to get a hold of me call me on Dave's phone (e-mail me or call my parents for the number), Facebook me (i check that MULTIPLE times a day, almost as addictive as movies--lol--who am I kidding movies are SO much better), or e-mail me. Anyway--pass on the word that I lost my phone to friends and family who do not read this. Love you all and will miss talking to you for a little while :(.

~L~

Canada pictures-all that snow!

America has officially gone to pot

The Canadian dollar is worth more than the U.S. dollar.


p.s.
-we're safe in Canada
-Sleepy doesn't mind peeing in the snow
-it's snowing!!!! A lot

Pictures

1)Dave and I at the bowling alley
2)our new roof
3)Our New kitchen ceiling
4)Dave's mullet

So almost done...it's rather nice actually

So I painted the bathroom for the third time. I like it this time--FINALLY! 3 walls are orange and one is a creamy color, very cool. Now I just need to touch up. I'm not very good at the corners, Dave always has to do those, ugh. My LAST exam is today and then I have WHOLE MONTH off of school, can you believe it??? I can't. I'm also ALMOST done with my christmas shopping, but I'll get the rest of that done today. Dave took off work today to finish the ceiling in the kitchen. Our new roof was finished early last week and now he's replacing the ceiling tiles with wood where the water leaked through. So, we should ~hopefully~ be done with the kitchen and the bathroom by this weekend...YAY! Tomorrow is the 20somethings christmas party for our church. that should be really fun. Then Saturday is mine and Dave's christmas together. Not sure what we're doing yet, but we'll cook a dinner for two and open presents to each other (and to sleepy, lol) and maybe go to the movies or something. I'll post some pictures of that later.

Monday some of the girls from the church and I are going to the Biltmor. Then I'm going to meet Bethany in Asheville to see a movie and then come back to ours for a couple of days before heading home for Christmas. That's pretty much all the goings-on here for the last little bit. Dave got his hair cut into a mullet for youth group before cutting it all off the next day. So he'll have the short hair and beard thing going on again this christmas. For pictures of that you should head to his facebook page.

Ok, so Shaun, my older brother, asked for a list from me for Christmas so here it is:

DVD's:
Pan's Labyrinth
Blood Diamond
The Last King of Scotland
Stranger than Fiction
Multiplicity
Gross Point Blank
Books:
Sisterhood of the Traveling pants--1 & 4
The Kite Runner
Harry Potter 1-5 hardback
The Glass Castle: A Memoir
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: a novel


I gotta study for my exam now. It starts in 3 hours, lol :).

Stress free...for the rest of the week

I am DONE with all my work for ALL my classes for this semester!!!! I'm so excited it's not even funny! I have this last week before exams and everything is done early! It's amazing really. I just finished my last mini-lesson plan and my last speech power point with typed out speech...AND I'M DONE! Tomorrow I will hand in all my assignments, do my speech and mini-lesson, and sit back and relax the rest of the week. Then, of course, next week comes and it's exam time, but that's then and this is now :). So so nice.

Last night I got to do something really fun. The girls around town and church had what we call a clothes swap. Which means you bring all the clothes you don't wear or don't want anymore possibly bring home clothes you fit into and DO want! So everyone got there and we dumped all our clothes on the floor and everyone just started trying on things. It was so much fun! I ended up with a lot of nice clothes for teaching next semester, which means I don't have to go buy a whole bunch of clothes I won't wear anywhere except in the classroom. Then we ate food and laughed and I really wish I had some pictures of the really hilarious outfits we played around in. It was like playing dress-up again! Great time, we'll definately do it again next year.

We put up our Christmas tree and went to the Christmas parade here in town on Saturday. Our church had a float with our band on it and they were really the best. In fact, they were actually judged as the best float. The float was a snowman that was sideways and they turned it into a guitar--you really would have to see it, I can't explain it so well. Anyway--the music was kickin'--maybe i'll be able to find a picture somewhere. Anyway, decorating the tree that night was really nice. I'll have to get some pictures of that up too. The whole apartment smells like christmas now :0D love it!

Well, I need to wash some dishes before Dave gets home. See ya'll later!

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