Christmas Party and Lexington Christmas

We had my company Christmas Party last night.  It is the one time of the year where we get to get dressed up and go downtown.  We had a good time, but we didn't get to stay the whole time.

Today we drove to Lexington, NC to do Christmas with Brian's grandparents.  We took a different route and actually shaved some time off of our trip.  At the beginning of the week, it started out just being Brian, his mom and me.  By the end of the week the whole family was going.  Brian's grandparents sure liked the surprise!

Decorations

The house is decorated on the inside and outside again this year. I've decided to have a live wreath on our front door instead of a fake one. I got a great deal on it and because of that we were able to get a great deal on our tree.

The lights for the house, expanded this year. Brian wanted to put more lights up on the roof and when my parents brought more of my things this past summer, one was a post with a holiday greeting with lights. The house looked really pretty with the lights on it. Next year I would like to do more. Of course I'll have to convince Brian of that.

Christmas Tree

We decorated our Christmas Tree this weekend. I must say that we got an awesome deal too. Last weekend I went around the corner to a location flower stand and decided to pick up a live wreath to decorate. The lady working said that if I come back to get our Christmas tree that she would give us a deal. By did she. We ended up getting almost a 7 foot tree and only paid $25. I think that is an awesome deal. Hopefully next year, they will be there again, because we will definitely be getting our tree from them again!

P.S. - The tree fell over again this year.  This time I caught the tree!

Trick-or-Treat

Trick-or-Treat this year was kind of quite.  We hardly had any kids show up at the house.  I think it had to do with the fact the there were only three or four house on our court that were passing out candy.  We didn't run out of candy until almost 8, 8:30.  I heard other houses in the neighborhood ran out fairly early in the evening.  Maybe next year we'll have a better turnout.

This year we did more decorations, both inside and out.  We had spider clings on the front windows, better tombstones for the yard and I kind of went Martha Stewart and made bats and spiders for the front of the house.

Brian did scare a couple of girls.  One was maybe 2 years old and the other was a young teen out with her mom.  The girl actually stopped in the street and yelled at him.  This was the highlight of his night!

Carvin' Pumpkins

Tonight we carved our pumpkins.  This year we, or should I say I, decided to wait until closer to Halloween to carve our pumpkins, so that they would last.  Last year my pumpkin didn't last longer than a couple of days.

Bills vs. Panthers

This past weekend we went to Charlotte for the Carolina Panthers and Buffalo Bills football game.  We stayed at an awesome hotel.  It was across the street from where the NASCAR Hall of Fame is being built, and that was neat to see.  They also had a shuttle service, which was nice.  On Sunday, it was colder than the weather man predicted so we were a little underdressed.  The hotel shuttled us back and forth to Target so that we could get warmer clothes.  Needless to say, I ended up with a fleece pullover with Panther colors.  (I told Brian that when we go to the Bengals game this year, he had to wear something black and orange.  It was only fair!)  The shuttle also picked us up at one of the bars after the game.

The game was a lot of fun.  Half of Brian's fantasy football league ended up going.  So there was roughly 10 of us that went to the game.  Most of them were rooting for the Bills and when the Bills won it wasn't a lot of fun for Brian.  It didn't help matters that it seemed like the Panthers didn't even show up to play.  For the Bills fans it was an awesome game, for the Panthers fans..not so much!

Beer Fest

Beer Fest was this past weekend. Beer fest is a beer tasting of over 50 breweries that is held every October to benenfit, I think, the domestic violence shelter. This year I decided to go VIP, which means you get in an hour earlier. Let me tell, it is worth it. You don't have to stand in lines, people are not pushing you, and you are not rushed to go from one tent to another. We had a lot of fun and can't wait until next year.

More pictures from Labor Day

Family visit

My family came down for Labor Day weekend. This is also the my nephew's first long road trip. We had a busy weekend. My family arrived on Thursday after a 12 hour drive. (They got stuck in Raleigh because of a NC State and South Carolina game). For dinner that night we had our favorite pizza, Zamerellis. It is a mom and pop place back in Grove City. There is nothing like it. I would have to say probably the best pizza I've ever had. We went to Myrtle Beach to do some shopping, went to the beach to soak up the sun, went to the serpentarium and had a family get together with my family and Brian's family.

The beach was fun. It was Lucas' first time to the sand and ocean. I don't think he quite knew what to think. He really didn't like the water or should I say waves, but other than that didn't have a problem. In fact, he is the only that didn't get burnt. Next year will be fun. He'll be almost 2 and should understand better.

Gilligan's Island

A friend and former co-worker of Brian's threw a Gilligan's Island theme party. Everyone had to dress up as a character from the show. You could be one of the main characters or one of the many visitors to the island. You know the ones that would show up and then find a way off the island by the end of every episode while the cast-a-ways were always stuck. Since I already went as Mary Ann a couple of years ago for Halloween, my costume was pretty much already picked out. Brian decided to go as Gilligan. The hardest part about his costume was finding the hat. You would think that living in a coastal region it would be easy, think again. We took turns going to different stores trying to find that stupid hat. We had fun and I thought that we looked pretty cute. Rumor has, it next year will be a Saturday Night Live them party, so any ideas or suggestions, let me know.

Happy Birthday Autumn!

My birthday day this year was quiet. We pretty much just hung around the house. Which was fine with me. We we did go to a Def Leppard and Poison concert, but that really wasn't part of my birthday. It just happened at the same time. Brian made me a chocolate cake, from scratch, for me, and we went to his parents house for a BBQ. Other than that nothing to exciting, except we were able to get a crazy picture of Maggie playing in the back yard. She is chasing after a Frisbee type toy and I got her in mid air. She does catch it. She sure doesn't act like a dog that is seven years old!

Def Leppard and Poison

We went to see Def Leppard, Poison, and Cheap Trick last night. Basically it was an 80's flashback concert. I was really excited to see Def Leppard and Brian was excited to see Poison. Neither of us really cared about Cheap Trick. The one thing that was really weird, we were not allowed to take cameras into the show. Luckily, for my birthday Brian had bought me a new cell phone that takes pretty good pictures. That is how I was able to get this shot. We saw all kinds of people. Mostly people with mullet wigs and blow-up guitars, but there were a few that still were rockin' in the 80's.

Avett Brothers Concert

Yesterday we went to Myrtle Beach, SC to see The Avett Brothers. They are kind of a cross between bluegrass and rock. All I know is when you see them you have a good time. They put on an exciting show. This was the second time that I have seem them. We will definitely go again.

More 4th vacation pictures

4th of July Vacation

For the 4th of July we decided to go to Ohio for vacation. The last time I was there was when Lucas was born, so I was excited to see how much he has grown. The week was busy but pretty low key. We went to the zoo, a Cincinnati Reds game, COSI, and we (I) go to babysit Lucas for a day. Maggie did really well with Lucas and with Jinx, my sisters cat the is now living with my parents. Maggie didn't really know what to think of Lucas but by the end of the week they were both laying on the floor and she would give him kisses.

Garden Update

So far our garden is doing okay. We've already picked cucumbers, green beans, zucchini and squash. Hopefully soon we'll have tomatoes and peppers. Oh and one surprise, we are going to have pumpkins. So maybe this year we won't have to go buy pumpkins to carve.

X-rays

Some how I managed to injure my leg and I have no idea how I did it. I had pain on the outside of my left leg. It hurt so bad that is was hard to walk. I went to the doctor to see what I might have done and the only thing they could think of was that I just had a bad sprain. But the cool thing was I got to have my leg x-rayed. I've never been x-rayed for anything except for my teeth. So here are the two x-rays they took.