6 months

Happy 6 months, my love!! These past 6 months has been the most amazing months of my life. I have never felt more in love with someone as I do with you. I love you more today than I did the day we got married. You are the funniest, caring, and most lovable best friend anyone could ask for. I'm looking forward to what the next 6 months will bring us. I'm so proud of you in all your determination this past year. I love you!

27

I had the most amazing birthday! My friends and family are amazing!

John brought me roses at school. It was a wonderful surprise! My card said "Happy Birthday to my wife". I about lost it. It was the most wonderful feeling in the world.

Apparently, everyone knows my love for doughnuts and hot chocolate! 3 different friends brought me Dunkin Donuts. It was so delicious! That evening, John and I went out to a very romantic dinner. I had an amazing day and I can't thank everyone enough for all the well wishes, gifts, and love. It was the PERFECT day :)

Today is the Bishop Christmas party (his moms side of the family). John made a gumbo yesterday for today. We leave for Louisiana Thursday so we're trying to get the house cleaned and the packing finished. See y'all soon!

Lazy, Lazy, Lazy

This has been a very lazy weekend, which I am so grateful for. First off, Happy Birthday Lin! I hope you had a great day! Yesterday I went meet a friend, Clint, for lunch. I haven't seen him in over a year and we both live in Indy. So that was fun. I pulled into the mall and quickly did a U-turn out of it! It was so packed I couldn't even handle the thought of going in. I came home, relaxed a bit, then went to the Laker's Christmas party. It was fun, I really enjoyed seeing some of Johns family who I haven't seen in a while.Today has been really lazy and relaxing. To make a long story short I was given a $60 giftcard to the spa from someone at school who didn't want to use it herself and expires tomorrow. I asked my friend Kate if she wanted to go get manicures since they are only $30 and we wouldn't have to pay anything. We stopped at Target to get pizza hut then to the spa which was wonderful. I came home and popped a brisket in the oven. John is in Batesville today to see his niece and nephew in a concert. He's the laziest of us all...

"Whatcha doing mom?"

One more full week of school! I'm so excited. Friday is our Chanukah play so it'll be a stressful week but hopefully it will fly by. I hope everyone has a great week!

So Coolllllddddd....

This past weekend it decided to get cold. John and I, his parents, his sister and her family, and his aunt and uncle all spent the weekend in Madison, IN. It's a very small town on the Ohio River. There are lots of cute shops. We stayed at a place called Cliffty Inn. It's on top of a hill and it's gorgeous. You can see the river from the hotel rooms. It's so beautiful. Anyway, we got there about 7pm Friday night. John and I went to a small, intimate Italian restaurant. It was so small and the food was wonderful. We met his family at a winery a couple of blocks away and then to the indoor hot tub at the hotel. Saturday we shopped and had massages. Well, me and his mom did. There was a Christmas parade at 4 that afternoon. It sucked though. We all went out to dinner and was back at the hotel by 7pm. We all got into our jammies, drank wine and played Apples to Apples until midnight. Sunday morning we left early so we could pick up Riley on our way home. We really had a great weekend and I'm already looking forward to doing it next year! Sunday night we put up our Christmas tree. It was really fun, especially since we weren't going to put one up in the first place. We are having Christmas at our house January 2 with the Brays since we won't be here for Christmas. Here is Riley in the tree box.

The tree when it's all said and done.

This is what I opened the door to yesterday morning. I was like "Are you kidding me??!!" Oh well, the roads weren't bad. Today was such a weird weather day. It started off raining alot. By the time I got to school the sun started to come out. About 20 minutes later it was sleeting really hard. The wind started picking up and was gusting up to 50 miles an hour. When I left school at 1:45, my car doors were frozen shut. The wind chill was 15 degrees. Yikes!! Unfortunately, I didn't put gas in my car the day before like I should of and the gas light came on as I was driving home. I had to stop and freeze to death as I filled up. *sighing* Lesson learned.

Anyway, nothing much else going on. I work 2 long days tomorrow and Friday. Saturday night is John's sister, Amy's, Christmas party. I'm so ready for the weekend...and some warm weather.

Oge's Visit!

The Oge' clan is back in Louisiana after spending Thanksgiving with the Brays! They flew in Wednesday and left early this morning. We had a great time in Indy. The time flew by way too fast! I made dinner on our last night and Katie set the table up beautifully!

Katie and Riley sure did hit it off. It was adoration at first sight. She really had a great time with him and he was loving it!

(my bad, I accidently posted this picture twice and I can't seem to figure out how to take it off....)

During our time we shopped, went to a movie, ate some yummy food, and just hung out and played Wii. The weather was pretty good. It was mostly between 40 and 50 degrees. Not too bad. Thank goodness there wasn't any snow! 25 more days until I am back in LA and get to see everyone again!

After we dropped the family off at the airport, John and I slept until 10ish. We got up, did some last minute shopping, then decorated for Christmas. I love leaving decorations "as is" when I put them into the box after Christmas. I pulled out our chalk board (it's hanging on the mantel) and I left our Christmas wish list on it from last year. I was cracking up. It says "Dear Santa, John wants a puppy and I want it to stop snowing." I wonder what we'll write this year! I have a long week ahead of me and John has a couple of interviews coming up in the next couple of weeks. Wish us luck!!

They are coming!

No pictures this week. Sorry. I tried to blog at school today but my access was DENIED. Are you serious? Blogs are considered so bad they are blocked?? Oh well.. Anyway, this week has been ok. The weather has sucked big time. Lots of cold and rain. I'm hoping it clears up before the Oge's come to town! That's right..you heard me! Linda, Zack, and Katie are flying north Wednesday! They are leaving behind warm days and trecking (spelled right?) into some coldness. I'm really excited. I haven't seen them since September and I am missing them bad. Nothing too much on the agenda. Some shopping, movies, dinners. The usual.

Saturday is our 5 month married anniversary. We're going out to dinner and a movie. Finish Christmas shopping, that kind of thing. In 12 days the x-mas cards go out!! Ok, well have a great Friday!

Mom and Josh visit

I have been so behind on my blogging lately. Sorry! There just isn't that much to write. Last weekend my mom, Josh and Opal came visit for a few days. It was lots of fun, as always, and I can't wait to see them all again for Christmas! Josh came a day early so he got to see the Indy sights with John. Friday night we went out to dinner with the Brays (my in-laws) at a great Italian restaurant. Later that night we played Wii. Josh had to leave Saturday morning to go back to work but mom was able to stay until Monday morning. Mom and I are shaping up in our new shape-up's by sketchers. They work!!! My legs were hurting last week! Opal and Riley had a good time and enjoyed each others company. As I said, I can't wait to see them as well as Keith and Kyle for Christmas. I miss them already!!

Other than last weekend, nothing much has been going on. I had a very easy week at work. It's been beautiful here, 70's and sunny! This is a very laid back weekend. Yesterday, three of my friends and I went to Old Navy and picked up some scarves. They were a $1 each! I came home a took at 2 hour nap. Today I am still in my p.j's. I had to finish my evaluations for my parent conferences Wednesday. Ehhhh. Oh well, hopefully they will go by quick. This coming up Friday is my sister-in-law, Amy's, birthday! We're going to go celebrate with her Saturday. Other than that, not too much going on here. I just hope the week flies by!

Patiently Waiting...

We have all been waiting for mom and Josh to come visit. I wish Keith and Kyle could come as well, but they have some things going on. These pictures are funny for us because this is what we do on our nights. Lots of tv watching and messing around with Riley. He's so cute when he falls asleep on us. HURRY UP YA'LL! INDY IS WAITING!! Oh, and us as well :)

Halloween Party

First off, happy 4 married months to us! I know, we have many, many more years but I just want to enjoy the beginning. Yesterday was the longest day ever! Our neighbor Ryan invited us to visit his family's farm about 2 hours south of Indy. We left around 9:30am and spent most of the day there. We toured the farm (huge), met the family (funny people), and practiced shooting guns. It was alot of fun. Riley loved being outdoors and not being on a leash but he did NOT like the gun shots. The noise was too much for him. I ended up driving us all home b/c Ryan is also a volunteer Sheriff and he was on patrol all night so he hadn't slept.

We got home, ate dinner, and got ready for Bob and Mike's Halloween Party. It was fun and there were many funny costumes. I didn't get a picture of them but here are a few...

This was taken by Bob. Pickle, their dog is dressed up as a turtle.

This is Mike and Bob. Bob made his own costume :) They know how to throw a party. There was so much food. The cupcakes were a pretend grave yard. I swear Martha Stewart decorated and made all the food!

John thinks I look like Julia Roberts. Haha. It was a fun night we were just so exhausted (and were drinking lemonade b/c we're both on antibiotics. Riley should have won best costume. He was such a sport and didn't mind his outfit at all. The hat some off but otherwise it was fun for him. There were other dogs for him to play with. He was so tired as well, he could barely keep his eyes open. We got home about 11:30 and were in bed by midnight.

Today we are just cleaning. John went get me doughnuts this morning. I cleaned upstairs, he downstairs and we are ready for mom and Josh to get here on Thursday!! It's only 2:30 but I plan on relaxing the rest of the day! I hope everyone has a great week, I'm ready for my 4 day work week!

It's getting cooler..

It is getting cooler/ colder in Indy! Last week was cloudy with alot of rain and temps in the 40's. Yuck! Today however was very nice, sunny and 70! There hasn't been too much going on here, which is why I haven't blogged recently. We got Riley a Halloween treat from the dog bakery. We had to hurry and take this picture before the ghost had his head bitten off!

I went to a carving pumpkin party last week at my friend Kate's house. It was alot of fun and this is my pumpkin. I did trace it, I'm not that good of an artist.

We have had some really cold days and John has made 2 amazing gumbo's so far. We have alot frozen which is also really good for our future freezing days. Well, I'm off to eat a crawfish stuffed chicken so have a great night!

Fall...

This past week has defiantly been the beginning of fall. Last weekend I went to Louisiana and had a blast! It was too short and I wish I could have stayed longer than 2 days. I'll be back for a week during Christmas break so I know I'll get to see everyone then. When I got back from LA it was a whole lot cooler than before I left. All week has been in the higher 50's and low 60's. I was dying for some gumbo last night. It was one of those cloudy, cold evenings and I wanted nothing more than to drive to Soup's for a big bowl of seafood gumbo. This weekend has been really good. Yesterday I went get a pedicure with a friend and did some Christmas shopping. I'm really on the ball this year and that makes me really happy. Today has been so laid back! This morning I made beignets and they were so good. For lunch I put all the ingredients for chili con queso in the crock pot and we had that with chips and some left over roast I had made a couple days ago. The Colts game has been on all afternoon. However, Riley is a Saints fan. So is his momma. Could our child get any cuter???

Our Sunday. Notice the shirts?

Today we put out our Halloween decorations. We'll be picking up pumpkins next weekend.

This is John changing out the screen doors. Now it's time for the glass to go in it's place. We change them twice a year. I know winter is coming when the glass goes in and I know summer is coming when the screen goes in. We don't have much planned this week. I'm still loving my work hours. We're going to have dinner with John's cousin Melissa on Wednesday and his parents of Thursday. Hopefully the week will go by quick, I'm ready for another weekend!!

Great Weekend....

This weekend was an awesome weekend. Saturday was perfect weather! We decided to start our morning at the Farmers Market. They had so much fruit and veggies to sell! Here is John buying apples. We left after spending only $3. It was nice...

After the market we moved on to a very nice neighborhood in downtown Indianapolis. They were having a HUGE garage sell. It was about 20 or so houses. Anyway, we wan to turn our wine room into a sitting room with a tv to watch movies. We just needed a TV stand. We found one and the lady sold it to us for $5. I already have the paint I'm going to use on it! After that we went to Lowe's and needed to pick out a color. We are over getting sample paint and never making up our minds. So this time we decided to pick a color and get a gallon. Scary I know but it was time.

At Lowe's we finally agreed on blue. He wanted dark and I wanted light. We compromised somewhere in the middle and picked out about 4 colors. A name on one of the samples was called "Adventure". I said we should go with that one because this was totally an adventure for us. Anyway, we went home and painted and we LOVE LOVE LOVE the color! It's perfect. Of course you have to see it to appreciate it but here's the color. I'll have another picture when the room is finished.

So it's pretty much officially fall. It makes me very sad but there isn't much I can do about it. I hate what coming next. Tomorrow is the first day of fall, but the leaves have already started falling. *sigh* Soon it will be winter :(

Anyway, we had an awesome weekend and I'm looking forward to going to Louisiana Friday night!!!

This and That

I haven't blogged in awhile. Last weekend we went to Charleston to visit mom and Keith. We had a great time! We shopped, ate, went to the beach, and just hung out. It was a lot of fun. It was a short trip but we got a lot done and got to visit. I can't wait to go back! My next trek is to Louisiana for 2 days. My trips are very short but I'm taking advantage of my days off during the week.

Our 4 day week was fine. Work was long and tiring but Friday finally came. John and I put an ad on Craig's List to be dog walkers. It's for a little extra spending money. We got 2 calls and we are now officially dog walkers. It's mostly letting them out to potty for about 20 minutes a day M-TH. John will be doing most of it because of my work schedule, but I will be able to help. These 2 jobs equal to a couple hundred extra dollars a month! It's nice with Christmas around the corner!
Yesterday was September 11th. At school I had my class make American flags. Time goes so fast, I can't believe it was 8 years ago.

This weekend is full of cleaning. Today we de-cluttered the guest room and office. I can't believe how big these rooms really are. We had tubs of pilot manuals that went to the garage and boxes on top of boxes of recycling and trash. It's nice to see how open the rooms look. Next weekend we will be painting the "wine" room downstairs that will also be a second guest room when needed. That's about all! Have a great week!

Weird

Nothing too much has been going on. I recently started school with my awesome new schedule. We'll see how awesome it is when the paycheck comes though : ) 3 days a week I get off at 1:45 and this is what I do with my afternoons. haha. John and I have been taking monthly pictures. We are doing this for a year so we have a picture for every month we've been married. This month our "friend" decided to get in the picture. He's the white circle on the back wall. This is very interesting to me because I have always known he was in our bedroom but I've never felt him anywhere else. I was sick a week or so ago and I slept on the couch so I wouldn't keep John up with all my coughing and in the middle of the night I thought "He's moved on to the downstairs". It was the weirdest feeling. Anyway, this is the very FIRST picture I have of him downstairs. I have taken a million pictures of downstairs before looking for him and never finding him. After 2 pictures I now have this one and....

this one. You can't see him on this wall with this picture so click on it and you'll be able to see a huge white circle on the wall along with a few smaller circles. Obviously by the large photographs on the wall it's just the light coming in.

Anyway, not too much going on with us. We are leaving for Charleston, SC Saturday and we are sooo pumped!! I LOVE Charleston and I can't wait to get back there. John has never been so I'm super excited for him to experience it. Today is gonig to be a laid back day. I hope everyone has a great week!

John's Garden

This spring John decided he wanted a garden. He did it all. And by that I mean that I didn't do n-u-t-t-i-n. He planted flowers in the front yard, sunflowers in the back along the garage, and he started a small veggie garden. These are the sunflowers. I took this picture the day after a huge storm came through. They are all tilting now but that's ok. They are still blooming. The are beautiful.

This one is bigger than my hand. It's massive!

This is John's watermelon. It's slowly growing and making an entrance into the world.

His first tomato! He was very excited about this, however one night something came into our backyard and ate it, as well as our neighbors strawberries.

This is just a bigger picture. You can see how they are all leaning from the storm. John did a great job this year and I suspect next year we will have more things to grow. I'm very proud of his dedication in putting it all together and watering them every night.

On another note, John and I have been married 2 months, YAY!

8-8-08

One year ago today John got down on one knee and nervously proposed to me. I, of course, said yes. It's amazing what can all happen in one year. We had just moved in together, he was still flying at United, I had just quit flying, and we had the excitement of an upcoming wedding. Now, one year later, I have never been this excited about our future. The wedding has since passed and it was amazing! However, I love being married to my husband and I can't wait to see where our marriage will take us. A year ago I was looking forward to a wedding, now I'm looking forward to the rest of our lives.

Last night we celebrated being "engaged" for one year. It was a great night with wonderful food and a walk around the canal at sunset. I can't wait to see what next year will bring!!!

Ahhh...relaxing!

A couple of weekends ago John, Riley, and I went to Eagle Creek. It's a state park with trails to hike and lots of room for Riley to run around. We decided to take a picnic up there for the afternoon. It was alot of fun! It's $5 to get in and we were there for about 3 hours. We were about to start eating and Riley was happy about that!

My two boys.

I got this picture on our way home. A deer ran right in front of us while we were walking the trails and we saw a couple of vultures. I didn't realize how big they were up close! Around 3pm the wind picked up a little and I read on the blanket. We all laid down for awhile to rest our eyes. It was a wonderful day!

John and I have been searching for the "perfect" couch for a long time. I wanted big, comfy, and something perfect to nap on. This is what we found. We had a very small love seat so needless to say this is huge for us! John took a picture of me laying on it but for some reason it wouldn't download. I take up a cushion and a half. It's also very high up, which I love. I have already taken to time to lie down on it and watch House Hunters.

We moved the old couch into the room off of the kitchen. The room has french doors to close it off. We decided , since it's a sleeper couch, it's a perfect second guest room. We have a guest room upstairs but if we ever had additional guests, we have another place for them to sleep. Granted it's a smaller room, there are no curtains on the doors and anyone can see right it. But it's perfect so no one has to sleep in the living room.

So that's about it. I was a little sick last weekend and I've been so tired this week. I think I'm trying to catch up with my sleep. John hasn't been doing too much. Mostly dealing with the garden that I will eventually take pictures of. He has done an amazing job with it and when I feel like going outside hopefully I won't forget my camera.

Have a great week!