A little catching up . . .

Well, Greg suggested that maybe Jan 15th was a good date to take down the Christmas Music . . . and I couldn't really disagree . . . . so the Christmas music is now gone just in time for a little post on our Christmas.

Now where to begin . . . We had a fun time with Greg's family on Christmas Eve. We all gathered for appetizers and gifts around 3 and then had a speed opening session so that I could get to the last choir rehearsal for the Christmas Eve service at church. There was much laughter as we opened the ongoing jokes (I think Willie Nelson has now been passed around for 5 years?)

We received many practical gifts which were put to use right away . . .

And, of course, at least one of Kristie's gifts was addressed to Nathan . . . supposedly it really was an accident this time . . .

The rest of the group headed out to Red Lobster for dinner as I was off to church. (Greg brought me chicken tenders to eat during the sermon . . . sorry, Joe!) The service went well and the choir "didn't sound all that bad", which is always encouraging to hear.

Christmas morning, Greg and I opened gifts from each other (I am now the proud owner of a lovely tripod which, theoretically, means that there will be more and better pictures this year), enjoyed cinnamon rolls, and a little organizing of all the gifts we had received the night before. Seriously, before Christmas morning was over, I do believe we had almost everything put away. (I'm sure that this is Greg's ocd-ness shining through . . . love you, babe)

Around lunch-time we headed over to my family's house where we *shocker* opened yet more gifts and then snacked and napped the afternoon away. Oh, and watched a documentary on Antarctica because that's really Christmas-y. I guess the snow ties it all together.

Dad helping Chelle remove the tape that had somehow tightened around her fingers like Chinese handcuffs.

We had a wonderful dinner together and ended the evening by watching a real Christmas movie, White Christmas . . . it was a wonderful day!

Then Greg had several days off and we spent them . . . yea, I can't really remember how we spent them which means they must have been wonderfuly relaxing. I'm sure that we ate lots of leftovers and I vaugely remember reading a book I received for Christmas and the Zelda theme song is softly ringing in my ears. Yea, I'm pretty sure it was a nice long weekend.

On to the next major holiday, New Years! Greg only had New Year's Day itself off, so after work on NYE, we drove up to Winston-Salem to Evan and Leah's and spent a riotous night with them. And by riotous I mean that Leah and I fell asleep on the couches while the boys smoked cigars and drank Evan's homemade beer and then woke us up at 11:40 to see the ball drop. Does "old souls" fit here? Or are we just old?

The next day we slept in and then all lounged around in our PJs until about 2. That's one of those tests of true friendship, right there. Kind of like eating spaghetti together. Then we had steaks for lunch (thanks to Greg's grandparents who sent us a box of Omaha steaks for Christmas) and then homemade calzones for dinner. Eating and lounging, does it really get much better than that? Thanks, Hawkins, for your hospitality!

And now on to my excuse on why it's taken me a month to update our blog . . .


I'm 13 weeks along (due date July 24th) and we're still working on the first stages of training our little bean that it's not acceptable to make Mommy sick all the time. He's been a little stubburn at receiving our correction, but I think we may be turning the corner soon.

In all seriousness though, we are so amazed and grateful to be at this point in a pregnancy and to have a growing baby! We don't take any day or any good news for granted. I still feel like I'm holding my breath and probably will be for quite a while, but the Lord has kindly been answering my prayers that I would grow in excitement and anticipation of this child's arrival (as opposed to assuming that something is going to go wrong). I'm sure I'll have more commentary on that aspect of the pregnancy, but I'll leave that for another day.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, only a month late!

Flea Market Montgomery

Just b/c Greg and I felt we hadn't drawn attention to this recently enough . . .

Biltmore

Wow . . . finally a new post =)

The Monday before Thanksgiving we were able to take a drive up to Asheville with my parents and Dad's parents to visit the Biltmore. Greg had never been before and I think the last time the rest of us has visited was circa 1995. And we had never seen it decorated for Christmas.

I didn't take many pictures because you're not allowed to bring your camera inside and it was cold and rainy that day so we didn't explore any of the gardens. But Greg and I did upgrade our passes to an annual pass, so there will be many more visits and hopefully more interesting pictures to accompany them!

Lunch inside the stables

They had a professional photographer taking pictures for holiday cards . . . this is a bootleg copy

It's Christmas Time!

Well, we've had a pretty busy (and really fun) week celebrating Thanksgiving with our families. I can't wait to post the very few pictures I took and tell some fun stories . . . but I'm still recuperating and cleaning house from all the excitement =)

In the meantime . . . check out some of our favorite Christmas music on the side bar. My all time favorite Christmas song is O Come All Ye Faithful (but Amy Grant's TN Christmas is a close second) . . . what is your favorite?

Weekend in DC

This past weekend Greg, Mom, Chelle and I took a quick trip up to DC to visit my grandparents and paint their living room. We had a wonderful time with them and got all the painting done. There are still some final touches that need to be taken care of (like switching out outlets, hanging new blinds and putting some art on the walls) but the room itself has been rescued from the dark wood paneling.

In between coats of paint, we were able to hear my Pawpaw tell stories. He's in his 80's and as the result of multiple strokes, his short term memory is weak; but all Chelle had to do was ask him how he met and fell in love with Mawmaw and he shared clear and detailed stories for nearly 2 hours about their love story, his career in the Marine Corps and his many tours overseas. What blessing for all of us to hear our family history and how his life was spared multiple times in combat situations. My only regret is that we didn't have a video camera or tape recorder.

While we were there, we got to visit our very close family friends, the Mercados, at their church in Ashburn, VA and then go out to lunch with them. Sushi on a Sunday afternoon. It really doesn't get more perfect than that. Our time together with them really was too short and missing about 1/2 of our families, but (Uncle Dave and Aunt Susie . . . are you reading this??) we're hoping to see them when they come to visit for Christmas (right??).

We were also visited by one of Mom's best friends from jr high/high school, Helen Jo. It was a lot of fun listening to her tell stories that Mom has conveniently forgotten over the years. She comes from an amazing family and she and her Dad played an integral role in Mom's salvation.

Because we were working all week, I didn't get many pictures at all. We were hoping to get out and walk around DC all lit up at night and see the new Air and Space Museam Annex, but we ran out of time . . . I guess we'll just have to take another trip soon.

But I did get some pictures of the room we painted. To truly understand the significance of the change you have to see some before pictures. Unfortunately, I didn't take any before we started working and the only ones I can find are from Christmas morning 2006. Please look past the people and only focus on the walls. I know you will do that for me. =) (We really have no airs about ourselves on Christmas morning and make no attempt to be picture perfect and cute while opening gifts. Bed head all the way . . . )

Ok, you get the point.

And now, after:

Doesn't it look so much better? I can't wait to see all the finishing touches completed.

**Photo credit** The first picture, of the Capital in DC, was taken by my friend Colleen Mercado and stolen by me since I wasn't able to get downtown this trip.

Happy Anniversary

This morning I got an email with the subject line "Happy Anniversary" from Carol, Greg's mom. Hmmm . . . I think to myself . . . 8 months early, ok . . . but then I went on to read that today is the 5th anniversary of Greg's "new face".

Let me explain . . .

Greg went to college in Pennsylvania. I stayed in Charlotte to go to UNCC. So one night, 5 years ago, I was at the M28 coffee house and received a phone call letting me know that Greg (who at that time was my boyfriend of about a year) had been riding a bike and was hit by a car. Up in PA. 461 miles away. I found Leah who then found Joe and we had a time of prayer amidst all the business of the coffee house. I was naturally distraught and trying to think of the fastest way to travel 461 miles to see Greg and would I even make it in time (grim thought, I know).

Well, wonderfully, about 10 minutes later I got another call from someone who was a little less emotional and who informed me that, in fact, Greg had not been on a bike that was hit by a car. No. No car. He was on a bike that had run into a pedestrian.

(And I must explain the story for his sake so he doesn't sound like a big jerk. He was riding a borrowed bike with bad brakes to ride down the hill to the cafeteria. Narrow sidewalk, mud and large rocks on either side. A foreign exchange student who didn't know that your're supposed to keep right. They play chicken until the very last moment and then both ditch off the same side of the sidewalk, thus colliding.)

Greg was taken to the hospital because his head had rammed into her knee. He didn't know that at first and played the part of the gentleman quite well. Then someone asked what happed to his face, he reached his hand up there and could feel that his right sinus cavity was now caved in.

So, long story short (and trust me, I'm leaving out some hilarious dialouge here as Carol, Nate and Kristie rushed up to PA - I was chosen to housesit for them) Greg had surgery over that weekend to repair his face. The pictures are quite disturbing, so I won't post any. Trust me, you should be thanking me =)

Oh, and right before everyone left to drive up to PA we were able to talk to Greg on the phone. At the end of my turn he said (whimpered . . .) "I love you . . " And that was the first time I told him that I loved him in front of anybody else. Nathan laughed at me because I said it really quiet and then turned bright red. Good times =)

In leiu of nasty broken face pictures, here's No-Shave November. Greg's dorm happened to have the challenge already shceduled which worked out quite nicely for Greg seing as he couldn't shave for a month anyway. Several Charlotte guys participated, too, in honor of Greg. (l-r Greg, Kelly G., Dave M.)

A rather boring post . . .

Well, we haven't been up to anything very exciting over here in Ross-world. We're in the midst of refinishing some furniture for our guest room which took up most of Saturday afternoon (I'll post some picture when it's completed!). Other than that, we've just been keeping busy with the normal demands of our life right now. Nothing incredibly blog worthy =)

But I did find a new cooking aid this past week that I wanted to share. I love using chicken broth to flavor rice and all sorts of other things but don't always have a box or can of broth on hand, so I was reluctantly using bouillon in the past because it's so quick and easy. But I wasn't crazy about the MSG. Admittedly, I do prefer homemade, but that's just not practical for everyday life. Some convenience items are good to have on hand. Well, long story long, for really no reason . . . a lady in our CG introduced to me chicken base:It's not quite as good as homemade and does have a decent amount of sodium in it (yet comparable to canned stock), but it dissolves very nicely into warm water and contains no MSG. And it's a soup worthy stock. Not weak and grainy like a bouillon broth. Another benefit is that you can make exactly the amount of stock that you need and there is no waste.

Any who, that's a little window in my life if the most exciting thing I have to blog on is chicken broth . . . =) I think it's time for another weekend getaway, huh?