Camping

Last weekend John and I went camping with my sister Carrie, her husband Brian, and my niece Shayla. We went camping in North GA in between here and Greenville (where Carrie and Brian live). The plan was to meet in the afternoon and camp Friday night then go our separate ways on Saturday. No surprise here - plans changed.

Carrie and I had talked on Thursday morning to finalize plans and were planning on meeting at the camp ground around three. That afternoon I was talking to my mom and she mentioned that Carrie was coming over that night. "Carrie who?" was my response. I was totally confused because there had been no mention of that when I talked to her. Carrie and Brian ended up getting here on Thursday night because they wanted to do a little work on their car Friday before we went camping. Things with the car ended up taking longer than expected so John and I took Shayla with us and went to set up camp. John had a cold and wasn't feeling well so I got to drive. We realized when we were already on our way that we didn't have the address to the campground to program into our GPS so we had a super fun time trying to find the place with the directions from their website... their directions should definitely be rewritten! We had a really nice campsite on the lake. The grounds were really nice and the bathrooms were even clean! When we got there it was my job to occupy Shayla and collect firewood while John was trying to pitch the tent. Periodically we would wonder over to check things out and when I would get near where the tent was I thought it smelled like gas. We got our fire started and our tinfoil dinners cooking while Carrie and Brian were on their way there. That night we did the normal camping things... fire...dutchoven... tinfoil dinner...smores...ghost stories (okay no ghost stories). Oh and we also burned an entire trashbag full of documents Carrie brought so that they didn't have to shred them all. The next morning the guys were in charge of breakfast while us ladies huddled around the fire. The temps had gotten down into the 40s. Not too bad but cold enough that the fire felt very nice. They made us pancakes, bacon, and potatoes. After that we broke camp and that is when we realized that John who could not smell because of his cold had set up our tent on what must have been a gas leak from an RV that was there before us. We had to air out the tent for a few days when we got home to get the smell out... that is a whole other story that I am not going to get into... let's just say it rained unexpectedly while it was airing out... more like poured.

Pancake Face. While everyone was breaking camp, I took Shayla to the playground to occupy her. She was very funny and tried to use the little bridge as a slide and was pretty disappointed when it didn't work like a normal slide. This was after she had already been down the real slide. What can I say - kids are weird.

Traveling

The last few months has been filled with traveling for John and I. We have made several trips to South Carolina to start the moving process and to visit Carrie, Brian and Shayla. I also made a trip out to Arizona for 10 days to visit my brother Jeremy and his family and to see his new son's blessing. Then we went to Florida to visit John's family for his parent's 40th Anniversary party.

My mom, dad, sisters Carrie and Kelley, my niece Shayla and I went out to visit my brother Jeremy and his family for about a week and a half. Jeremy and Jamie had baby #3 in late July and it was a little boy named Carter Allen Morriss. He was about 5 weeks old when we got there and TINY! I forgot the made them that small. We stayed at a time share for part of the time we were there down in Sedona. My parents and Jeremy's family traded off going back and forth between the time share and their house in Sedona. Carrie and I stayed there most of the time and we had a good time swimming and hanging out. This is the view from the center of town. I had a lot of time to spend with my nieces and we took them to play at the mall playground one night.

Makayla is almost 4. Natalie is 2 1/2 and Shayla is 18 months. They loved the little carousel at the mall that you put quarters in.

I am not sure why I don't have any pictures with Jeremy and Jamie or any of Carter. I know we took family pics but I think they ended up on someone else's camera. Oh well, trust me, he's a cute baby. He actually looks a lot like Makayla which I think is really cute that you can see the resemblance between them.

The weekend of Sept 24th we went back down to Gainesville to go to John's parent's anniversary party. It was a surprise party and our job was to make sure they got to the party on time. It was kind of crazy getting them there but we did and the party ended up going well. We also got to be on Bruce's (John's dad) radio show that morning before the party - we are celebrities now:)

After the party, John and I met one of our friends and went to Gator Walk before the UF-Kentucky game. Gator Walk starts two hours before the game and all of the players and coaches walk through and give high fives to the crowd. We were right at the front and got to touch pretty much every player on the Florida team (again note how I said we are celebrities now). We got tickets for free from John's work for the game. They were high up but ending up being pretty decent. Sunday morning we went and visited John's grandma and he gave her a wooden toy he made for her. We got to eat lunch with her (well she got to eat). Then we went back and had a big family dinner at the Gordon house.

Last night we carved pumpkins at my friends Jana and Dave's house. We probably take pumpkin carving more seriously than most people and that could be seen in the fact that I was still carving our pumpkin at least 30 minutes after the other two couples had finished. John took out the guts and I did the carving because last year I did the guts and he did most of the carving.

Jana, Dave and baby Tate carved a bat. Jenna, Josh, Cameron and Carter carved a cat. This is our AWESOME pumpkin!!

Wood wood wood

Since we have been at my parent's house, we have both spent some time in my dad's workshop doing some wood working. We started out making two end tables. They are made out of oak and painted black. My next project is still in the works but I started to make a kids toy which I will show when it's finished. But here are John's recent projects:

Ring Holder: This is a ring holder he turned on the lathe for when I take my rings off at night or when I do dishes. The last three are from a book on vintage toys we got from the library.

Climbing Bear: By pulling on the strings, the bear will climb up to the top.
Acrobat: This is last one he finished painting tonight and is weighted so that it will continually roll up and down the ramps.








Will of the Whisp: My dad made this one and is a rain drop that falls down the pegs.

Our Summer

So our life has been a little bit hectic since my last post. A LOT has happened!

1. Decided to move to South Carolina - lots of reasons behind this but ultimately we felt it was the right choice for us.
2. Sold our house in April and moved in May to...
3. Moved to GA for the summer to stay with my parents and put all of our stuff in storage in SC.
4. Wrote my thesis and finished my graduate school :) - finally got the confirmation that it was submitted correctly this afternoon!
5. John transferred to an office here and just got a promotion :)

In a nutshell, that has been my life recently.

Kitty #2

John and I got our first cat, Kayala, in the beginning of Sept. She was pretty lonely during the day so we decided she needed a friend. We got a male tabby at the Humane Society in mid October about 6 weeks after we got Kayala. We named him Kacee and he has done a good job of keeping Kayala company and being a lot of fun to have. Since we don't have kids yet, we only have our cats to brag about and we think they are super cute and super fun but also a lot of work. They tend to get into everything we don't want them to get into and they recently got fleas even though they've never been outside. It has been so much fun trying to get rid of all the fleas - not! Kayala had a thing for laying under the Christmas tree and Kacee loves to get into the tinest spaces he can find. They also LOVE to spread our toilet paper! Kacee is the first one below and Kayla is the second below. She is more grey while he is a little more orange.

I am a bad bad blogger!

Wow, it has been about two and a half months since my last post! A lot has happened! Here is a quick update:

Birthdays: John and I both had birthdays recently, mine was in November and John's was in December. We didn't do anything too exciting for either of our special days but they were fun and I finally got a new camera since mine broke back in July! It is so cute and my favorite color -RED! Best of all it's really small and fits much better into my purse. It also has a lithium battery that lasts forever and a new memory card that holds TONS of pics!!! I didn't get my camera till after my birthday but here is a picture of John on his birthday:

Thanksgiving: We went to GA for Thanksgiving this year. All of my siblings and nieces were there. It was great to see everyone especially my brother and his family from AZ since we don't see them very often. We ran a 5K while we were there, got family pictures taken and did lots and lots of black friday shopping. Mostly we got random things for ourselves but we also stood in line super early to get my dad a blueray player for Christmas.

Me with Jeremy and Jamie's youngest daughter Natalie:

John with Carrie's baby Shayla:

Carrie, Brian, Jamie, Jeremy, John and I after we ran the 5K in Conyers, GA on Nov. 28:

Our first Christmas tree: John and I got an artificial tree from my sister and her husband who weren't going to use it this year. John and I have different opinions when it comes to ornaments and decorations. I love trees that are coordinated with matching ornaments and white lights. He is more of a random, homemade ornament kind of guy. I thought we had a nice compromis. Most of the ornaments matched but we had a few that were homemade wooden ones John and my dad had made.

This is a picture of John while we were putting the tree together. Here is the final product:Our first anniversary: Can you believe it has already been a year?!? Me either! For our anniversary, we went to dinner at one of my favorite places, Ruby Tuesdays. We did a little shopping afterwards and John bought me a new ring which I love: and I got him a new coat... very romantic! After the shopping, we went back home and ate the top of our wedding cake and had some sparkling cider: and danced to a new CD I put together. We also put together some items for a box of remembrance.

Visit from my parents: My parents came in town for about a week in mid December to help us with a few things around the house. My mom and I did TONS of baking while John and my dad fixed the furnace, replaced a window that has been an issue since we moved in, and fixed some rotting wood on the underside of the roof. It was really nice to have them around for the holidays to make my first Christmas away from home a little easier. Also, it was really really nice to get those things fixed! We also got to go to the Temple with them on their last day here. On the way back we were rerouted home because of a detour. We had to go pretty far out of the way because there were no signs how to tell us to get where we needed to be. This prompted one of our Christmas presents. When we were coming out of the Temple, John and I were taking a picture when one of the security guards came up in his golf cart. He told us to jump on and he would take us to a great place to take pictures. It was a nice sunny day and we had a great unblocked view of the Temple: Christmas: We spent Christmas day here in Gainesville. Chirstmas eve we opened one present and then moved our mattress out into the living room. We watched movies until pretty late and then slept by the tree. In the morning we woke up and opened the rest of our presents. We got some pretty good loot: new 700 TC sheets, games, movies, a homemade puzzle (from John) and game (from my dad), gift cards, flower bulbs, a noodle spoon, and the big item was a new GPS. I decided we needed one after getting lost on our way home from the Temple. After we opened presents, we started baking for dinner. We went to John's grandmother's house for Christmas dinner where we met all of John's siblings (except one), parents, and other family. We had a big dinner with so many dessert choices... apple pie, cherry pie, mississippi mud pie, coconut cake, banana pudding, oreo dessert... so GOOD! After that we went to John 's parent's house where we had a bonfire and ate s'mores. We had a pretty early night because John had to work early the next day but it was a very nice Christmas. After John got off work the next day, we headed up to Atlanta for a few days with my family.

New Years: We went and saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie and to dinner for New Year's Eve. The movie was really good. Afterwards, we came home and watched some football until it was time for the ball to drop. This is our first picture in 2010!

Life as always has been busy but uneventful lately... well mostly uneventful.

John likes to go play flag football on Mon and Sat with some guys from church. It is pretty much his favorite time of the week so even though he has come back hurt a couple times I try to be a good wife and go let him play. He bruised a rib pretty bad back in July and couldn't lift anything heavy for several weeks so I wouldn't let him play again for a while. He finally got better and had been playing regularly again. Well about two weeks ago he came home from playing and we were talking about how his game went. After a little bit he says "I wasn't sure if I was going to tell you, and don't freak out but... I hurt my knee pretty bad". Ok well what does that mean exactly?? After icing and wrapping for a couple days it was swollen so I made him to the doctor who referred him to an orthopedic doctor. He ended up having to get an MRI and finally finding out this week that he had torn a ligament and bruised one of his bones. He has been doing some exercises with my leg weights to strengthen the joint again but he won't be playing again for a few weeks much to his dismay.

Last night I had a few girl friends over while John was at the church watching the priesthood session and gorging himself on ice cream at the priesthood ice cream social. It is nice to be able to spend time with friends and I must admit that I ate a ton too because everyone brought over tons of goodies. We had also made homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast so it was a very unhealthy but yummy day!

We have been trying to get little things done on the house and continue making progress. Also, I am teaching a lab section this semester so I have been a little busier than normal with that. We are trying to get the last bedroom done so that we can bring back all of the furniture for it when we visit my parents at the end of the month.