Weekend Rewind

Well, while the weathermen might have not been completely accurate in their forecast, we still had quite a bit of snow. We ended up with about 6" by the time it was all said & done. Most of the snow came on Friday during the day & then on into the evening hours. It was definitely beautiful to watch fall.

Friday night we didn't stray to far from home with all the snow so we grabbed dinner at a local pizza joint & came back to the house so Bogey could have some indoor time--we watched "The Invention of Lying." I can't really say that I would recommend it--definitely 2 hours of my life that I'll never get back.

Our frontyard landscaping all covered in snow...the funny thing is that below all that snow I've already got tulips & daffodils starting to come up! Bring on Spring!

Backyard as the snow continues to fall...

Bogey...why oh why wouldn't you let me take a good action shot?!?

The snow came down extremely fast on Friday--it just kept piling up!

Messing with the black & white...I love how the snowflakes stand out!

I was supposed to work on Saturday morning but thanks to my wonderful co-worker she called & said she could handle things on her own so I wouldn't have to drive down. It's only about a 15 minute drive, but with the roads it probably would have taken 35-45 minutes. Plus, we both knew that we most certainly wouldn't be busy...at least I got one snow day out of the winter storm. I took advantage of my unexpected morning off & did most of the laundry, shoveled off most of the back porch & caught up on a few other things around the house.

After Hubby got home from work we had a quick lunch & then headed to my college alma mater to watch a basketball game. Unfortunately it was a heartbreaker, but definitely entertaining. They were playing the #1 team in their conference so it would have been a great win if they could have pulled it off! After the game we wasted a little bit of time & then met up with some friends from church at Bandana's BBQ. We had a nice laid back dinner and then spent some time just visiting before heading home. We are so blessed to have so many great couples that we can spend time with on a regular basis.

Today we had church, ate lunch at a local Chinese spot, & then came home to work around the house a bit. Even though the sun is melting the snow quite a bit we decided to attempt to shovel off our driveway. As you can see we gave up before we were finished & decided to let the sun do the rest of the work. It's also warm enough that we played with Bogey a little outside. He LOVES the snow & loves to try and bite it. We definitely had some fun messing with him.

Our less than halfway shoveled driveway!

Hubby working hard on the front patio

My buddy year round, but definitely during tax season! Love you Bogey!

Bogey loved to watch Hubby shovel the snow & he also loves to eat the snow...

Hubby thought he would surprise him!

Poor Bogey!

I just loved this shot, with the snow & also the signs that Spring is coming soon!

Just me...

Another typical tax season work week ahead of us...ok, well that's not completely true because Thursday is MY BIRTHDAY!!! I'm a huge birthday person so I'm already excited.

Full Disclosure

I fixed tacos last night for dinner--not the healthy kind, just greasy taco shells, taco meat, & shredded cheese...oh and we also had chips & queso as a side.

After dinner we made a trip to Dairy Queen for Blizzards.

We may or may not have watched Biggest Loser while eating our yummy, chocolaty blizzards.

Don't judge...


Speaking of blizzards, according to the forecast we may be in for a major winter storm starting tomorrow afternoon. The weatherman said this morning that we will most likely miss the ice accumlation, but we may have anywhere from 6-12" of snow between tomorrow afternoon and Friday night. Just FYI...if that happens I'll be having myself a nice long 4 day weekend. Sounds pretty good to me!

Blessed are those who mourn...

This week in our "Life's Healing Choices" series the focus was on the Hope Choice.

The Hope Choice: Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him, & that He has the power to help me change.

For some people, myself included, it's one thing for us to admit that we are powerless & that we need God's help; however, it's a completely other thing for us to actually "mourn" the problems we have and the brokenness that we experience.

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." (Matthew 5:4 NIV)

In this verse, Jesus wasn't saying that the more funerals we go to, the more blessed we will be. He was talking about the fact that happy are those who mourn the faults they have, who recognize that they are sinners, and fall face first at the feet of Jesus begging for His forgiveness. Blessed are we who realize are brokenness because it's in that recognition that we experience the full level of God's comfort.

Sure, this isn't an easy thing to accomplish, but if we can strive each day to see who God really is, we will begin to see who we really are, and then we will begin to understand and see how God can change me. At the end of time we will ALL stand before God & at that time all that we have ever done, good or bad, will be known. There will be no pointing fingers from person to person because we will all be in the same boat, the boat that only made it safely to shore because Jesus Christ died for us.

One of the huge points I took away from yesterday is that Jesus Christ believes in ME. Yup, you read that right...He believes in ME! Of course the entire basis of Christianity is founded upon the idea that we all must believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that we are sinners, & that he died for those sins. However, God has chosen each one of us for a specific task & for Him to even consider choosing us means that somehow, even amidst all our sin, He believes that we can accomplish all that He has planned for us. He, the author of the universe, believes that I can do whatever He wants me to do for Him.

For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. (Phillippians 2:13 NLT)

Weekend Rewind

As has been the norm for us recently, we had a great weekend! I just love it when I can come back to work after a great weekend, feeling refreshed and ready to take on the next 5 days of the 8-5 schedule.

Friday night we had dinner with my Grandma & Grandpa Smart. First off, let me just tell you what incredible progress my grandma is making with her physical therapy following her stroke. She's still in her wheel chair but is able to walk with assistance when absolutely necessary. They have finally gotten into a routine that works for them & my grandpa is doing an amazing job of taking care of her & taking on all the duties of a housewife. He fixed us steaks, baked potatoes, salad & bread for dinner. YUM!!! I think I have a delayed New Year's resolution...I am so blessed to have both sets of grandparents still living and living within 20 minutes of our house. We need to do better at planning dinners with them at least once a month. They won't be around forever & I need to gather as much wisdom from them as possible. We had such a great night listening to their stories & talking about the most random things. Gaining advice from them is truly a treasure!

Saturday I worked around the house while Hubby worked and then we spent most of the afternoon just lounging around. Hubby still had a few returns to make from Christmas so we took care of those and then met up with our friends Shauna & Ryan for dinner. We had dinner at a great Mexican place, Maria's and then headed to Fedora's Social House for drinks & dessert fondue. While we were there, a photographer for a local entertainment website popped in & took pictures of us! It's not the greatest picture, but it's the best I can do. It was a yucky, rainy evening but the company made up for it & we had a great time. After spending the weeknights relaxing, it's so great to have plans with friends for the weekend!

Yesterday we went to church & then we had laundry on the to-do list for the afternoon. However, I did manage to squeeze in a quick nap before small group. Small group was wonderful as usual & I'll have a full update of our 2nd healing choice later this week. I always leave there feeling so blessed that we have such an awesome & supportive group of friends. It's truly a group that only God could have brought together...what a fabulous gift!

Thursday Tidbits

Well it's Thursday, and I can't believe this week isn't over yet. It's seems like it's been such a long week! Just a bunch of randomness going on this week...

~We've had incredibly quiet nights at home this week, just dinner & then watching various tv shows! It's been pretty nice to have nothing on our schedules.

~It was at or near 60 degrees almost 3 days this week! Woohoo! We took Bogey on a long walk last night & Monday night; it was so nice to get back outside & enjoy the nice weather!

~What was not so nice is the feeling my legs & backside experienced after walking almost 2 miles in my new Reebok EasyTone tennis shoes. Wow, from how my body has been feeling I think I should definitely see some results!

~I've been filling some of the downtime this week with planning 2 separate summer getaways...
1) A trip to Riviera Maya with Hubby, I found a travel agent online who will take care of all the transfers, upgrades, excursions, etc. I'm waiting on a quote back but from the responses on Trip Advisor about this travel agent I can't imagine it being anything but great! Hopefully I'll hear something today. I'm so excited for a tropical beach vacation...this girl needs some natural sunlight!!!

2) My mother-in-law is also planning a fantastic girls trip for the 2nd week in June. It's going to be a great trip with 5 other fabulous women...my MIL, my SIL, Hubby's half-sister, my MIL's sister, me & my MOM!!! I'm so excited that my wonderful mom is going to be joining us! We are going to all meet up in Natchez, MS...why Natchez? Well, there are some absolutely stunning antebellum homes & plantations that we are going to tour. My MIL is taking care of reserving this beautiful house with a pool, a gorgeous kitchen, & plenty of room for all of us!

~My 27th Birthday is 2 weeks from today! I am a huge birthday person & at this point, don't have any problem with my age...however, it is kind of hard to believe that I'm going to be 27!

~This weekend we've got plenty going on, but we'll also have plenty of time for relaxing!!

you are GOD & i am NOT

As I mentioned in the last post, our church has started a new sermon series at church called Life's Healing Choices. They are starting a full campaign complete with small group devotional materials including a DVD & a workbook. At first I was a little skeptical because for the most part everything going on in Hubby & I's life is great! Sure, we have our moments of uncertainity or those days when it seems like the whole world is against us; but otherwise we have an incredibly happy & blessed life. However, after being at church on Sunday morning my thoughts have changed. This is an 8-week study and my hope is that I will be able to post a summary each & every week. I heard some incredible teaching & while I'm posting it here to share with you, I'm also writing it all down in hopes that one of these days I'll be able to look back on these posts & remember how God heals us in our incredible times of need.

Truth is, we are all incredibly broken--whether it's finances, diet, need to control, perfectionism, relationships, etc., etc., etc. we all have hurts in our life that we cannot heal by ourselves. The problem is that so many times we try to "play God." I think that we would be hardpressed to find anyone who does not have some desire to always be in control. Lack of control is scary & unpredictable, but when you think about it...what do we really have control over anyway? So why do we try so hard to stay in control when we should be just giving it all to God?

This week the Healing Choice is the Reality Choice. The choice that we make each & every day to recognize that He is God & I am Not. The understanding that we are competely spiritually helpless and can do NOTHING without Him. The entire series is based on the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount (Jesus' first public teachings). The first beatitude is this: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3) I've read the beatitudes dozens of times but I don't think I ever really grasped the meaning of this verse. In other translations poor in spirit is basically translated to say "those who are spiritually helpless" or those who realize they do not have the spiritual ability to accomplish anything without help from God. This is me, this is everyone--we are all without this ability; however, we never admit that we might need help. T he true translation of the word "blessed" in the beatitudes is not just happy, it's supremely happy, euphoric almost. So why would I not want to experience this kind of happiness in my life? Why? because that would mean relinquishing our control & giving everything over to God.

"I don't understand what I do. For what I want to do I don't do, but what I hate to do, I do!...I know that nothing good lives in my sinful nature. I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out." (Romans 7:15, 18)

God has given us fellow believers & good Christian friends to help us along in our healing process. I would say that one of the most profound quotes I got out of this week was "If you want to be forgiven tell God, if you want to be healed tell someone else." This doesn't mean to run and tell everyone your problems; but every Christian needs someone trustworthy & reliable that they can turn to when life has them down in the dumps. God will use others to heal you & in turn will most likely do some healing in that person who's helping you as well.

In the end, it all comes down to us recognizing and realizing that we are not God & only He has the ability to help us through this crazy world.

(p.s. if you have any desire to listen to the sermons, go to http://www.mynorthbridge.org & click on the Broadcast link--there is live streaming from each Sunday sermon)

Weekend Rewind

Hubby & I had a great weekend & were able to spend plenty of time relaxing & hanging out with great friends. Friday night we had date night with dinner at Houlihan's followed by dessert & drinks at one of our favorite local places, Parlor 88 Lounge. They have great desserts & even have an indoor firepit that you can sit around. We were home fairly early but it was such a great time to spend with each other relaxing after a long week!

While Hubby was at work on Saturday morning I cooked & cleaned getting ready for a house full of friends on Saturday night. We had all of our college friends (which most of them are also Hubby's high school friends) over to our house for heavy appetizers, football & games. We had lots of yummy food including one of my favorite appetizers...

Crab Meat Appetizers

Ingredients:
1 stick butter
1 1/2 tsp mayonnaise
1 tsp garlic salt
1 6 oz jar of Old English cheese spread
6 oz crab meat
6 English Muffins split (so 12 muffin halves)

Have all ingredients at room temperature. Combine butter, mayonnaise, garlic salt, Old English cheese spread, & crab meat. Mix thoroughly. Spread onto English muffins & place on cookie sheet. Place in freezer for 1 hour or until ready to bake. When ready to serve, cut English muffins into quarters, place on cookie sheet & put under broiler for a few minutes until the top begins to turn brown. These are wonderful & one of our favorite appetizers!

I also had my first attempt at a chocolate cake...FROM SCRATCH!!! I found the recipe for "The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake Ever" on the The Pioneer Woman Cooks blog & I can definitely agree with the name! This was so rich & wonderful. Normally I just use boxed cakes & I probably still will for most occasions but this was definitley like a light & fluffy chocolate-frosted brownie...YUM! It was so easy so if you're looking for a cake from scratch, this is definitely one to try!


There were five couples at our house & three of them now have children. The kiddos are all within about 5 months of each other & they were so well-behaved. Of course I failed to take any pictures of the adults, but I got plenty of photos of the kids! Isn't that always how it happens when kids are involved?

Ok, is she not just absolutely adorable!

The 3 kiddos: Easton, Avery, & Sawyer--what a group!

Easton showing off his camo hat!

Three Men & 3 Babies...these 3 guys went to high school with Hubby & let me tell you...they are such great dads!

In between trying to watch football & take care of the kids, we also managed to get in a few games of Apples to Apples. I am happy to report that I won the last game! We had a great time with a group of people that we honestly don't get to see very often. We've been friends for what seems like forever, so it's always so easy when we get back together!

Yesterday Hubby & I had church & then came home to work some around the house. It was finally warm enough & the snow finally melted away so Hubby took down the last of our Christmas lights. We also had our first small group meeting of the year & I am SO excited for this study we are doing. It's called Life's Healing Choices and is an 8-week study that is corresponding with our sermons at church. I can't wait for the rest of the study--I just know that God is going to teach us all so much!

God has blessed Hubby with such an amazing small group, I can't imagine spending our Sunday nights any other way!

Bad Blogger

Alright so enough about the serious stuff...let's move on to something for fun...like Awards...& the weekend!!!

If there's one thing about this whole blogging thing that I am completely terrible about, it's responding to those lovely ladies who give me blogging awards. They all write this sweet little post about how fabulous, wonderful, happy, glamorous, etc., etc., etc. my blog is only to have me completely forget to acknowledge their award or at the most leave a comment of my thanks.

In hopes that I might (probably not) turn over a new leaf when it comes to blogging about awards...I would like to say THANKS!!! to Kathryn for giving me the following awards!!!

So the rules of this award are:

1) List 10 things that make you happy

--Date nights (or pretty much any other time) with Hubby

--Spending a week relaxing on the beach

--Bogey, I can't hardly look at the dog without smiling!

--Spending a great evening with my very closest girl friends

--Curling up with a good book that I can't hardly put down!

--Working outside in our flower beds at the beginning of Spring and then admiring our beautiful work

--Baking yummy things in the kitchen

--Eating those yummy things, cookies, cakes, pies...basically any kind of dessert

--Mom Days

--Cantina Laredo

2) Tag 10 bloggers that brighten your day

Jenn @ Simply Jenn-Sational

Megan @ Tales of the Trees
Brittany @ Far More Than Rubies
Risley @ Adventures of the Wilkinsons
Hailey @ Destined for Royalty
Christin @ A Classy, Southern Bride
Mrs. A @ Adventures in the Life of Mr. & Mrs. A
Llama @ Llama Tales
Joelle @ Casa Cannon
Ria @ Life as a Wife!

--Some of these blogs I read because we're so similar & some I read simply because I know I can count on a good laugh & a smile from them each day. Take a moment & check these wonderful ladies out, they will certainly brighten your day!

3) If you are one of the 10 bloggers awarded, link back to my blog and continue brightening people's day!

Also, thanks to Risley for the Glamorous Blog Award! There weren't any rules that she gave me along with this award, so to all you wonderful bloggers out there go ahead & consider yourself Glamorous!!!

Hubby & I have a fun weekend filled with date night tonight, our college friends coming over for appetizers & football tomorrow night, & the start of our new Small Group session on Sunday night! Yippee!!!

Impatient or God's Voice?

That is the question in our house right now. Are we impatient or are we hearing God's voice loud & clear? Hubby & I have some fairly important decisions to make & right now we are struggling. We thought we knew which direction to head & that God had spoken loud & clear, then due to some experiences we had the feeling that God was trying to tell us to go back in the original direction because it wasn't time for us to change directions quite yet...& now we're just not so sure. Neither option is inherently bad, it's just a matter of what we feel is the right decision for us. The most recent experiences (in relation to both directions) have really been so strange that you can't help but think...God, is that you? Are you trying to cry out to us in a way that we will truly hear you?

Sometimes I have such a strong desire for God to be sitting right next to me all the time so I can look Him in the eye and say, "Ok, what now?" I know He's here with us all the time but sometimes I struggle so much with trying to discern his voice & his direction from the false thoughts & feelings that are truly just a product of this world I'm living in.

Due to the circumstances, I truly feel that God will bless us regardless of which direction we choose; however, that doesn't mean we won't experience some anxiety in praying that we have made the right decision. One of our hopes for this new year were new opportunities & no matter which way we go, those new opportunities will be available.

Heavenly Father, please reveal your true wisdom to us. Lead us strongly in the right direction & open our eyes to the best decision for our future, for our family...for You. Let us be patient in waiting for the right answer & while we wait help us to faithfully follow you and bring glory to you each & every day of our life.

Hump Day Ramblings

With the holidays over & tax season starting, life around the Layman house is fairly quiet these days. Don't get me wrong, we're finding plenty of things to fill our time but things have certainly slowed down quite a bit & you won't find me complaining. I haven't had much happen that would fill an entire post, but here's some tidbits from our life most recently...

~New year=New tv episodes!! Our favorites are Chuck & The Biggest Loser. If you've never watched Chuck I highly recommend it...it's a Get Smart type spy show & we crack up the whole time! Sometimes I think we're some of the only people in the world that watch this show!

~With the temperatures rising & the sun shining brightly, I'm having a really hard time not daydreaming about Spring. I've officially made the decision that Spring is by FAR my favorite time of year.

~To add to the daydreaming, Hubby & I have decided to take a fun, tropical getaway sometime in May. I've been researching on Tripadvisor (I may or may not be doing this when I'm on the phone, on hold at work). We are mainly looking at Riviera Maya as our destination, possibly an all-inclusive. Any suggestions on a resort?

~I cooked a chicken in our crock-pot yesterday & it was oh so yummy! I was so glad to have dinner practially finished when I got home from work. Just season a whole chicken, put it in your crockpot on low for 8-10 hours...and VOILA!!! dinner is done.

~I try to do a good job keeping our house clean & clutter free, but with the cold temps and Bogey being inside the cleanliness is lacking. So...at the suggestion of Hubby I called my mom's housecleaner & she is at my house as we speak making everything spotless!! We're hosting a big group of friends on Saturday night so that's one less thing for me to worry about! I can't wait to go home to my clean house!

Hope everyone is having a great week...with the sun shining and the temps going above normal to almost 50 degrees I couldn't ask for more!

Weekend Rewind

With temperatures below zero, really the only thing Hubby & I had planned this weekend was to spend time at home so Bogey could be inside with us. He's now slept inside for the last 4 nights and has actually been a great house dog. It's certainly not a permanent thing because I can't stand all the dog hair in my house! However, I'm glad he's been warm inside instead of out in the freezing cold weather. Friday night we ran out and grabbed a quick dinner at Ruby Tuesday and then came back home, brought Bogey in the house, & watched The Hangover. Completely inappropriate...yes, pretty hilarious...also yes. Just definitely not one of those movies you would want to watch with your parents!

Saturday morning we both had to work--Yippee for us! After lunch we headed out to go see what all the whoopla is about Avatar. Neither one of us are big sci-fi fans, but so many people that we talk to absolutely loved it so we decided to give it a try. We paid a little extra to see the 3-D version and I'm definitely glad we did. The 3-D effects were pretty incredible & the whole movie was just amazing. I couldn't decide whether to pay attention to the story line or analyze the special effects. After the movie we grabbed dinner at one of our favorite local pizza places & then headed home. Yup, we had to come home to bring Bogey in for one last night sub-zero night.

Today we had church and after a quick meeting for me we've spent the rest of the day doing basically nothing. Sure, there's been a few loads of laundry done & Hubby did shovel off our driveway, but other than that our afternoon & evening has included a whole lot of sitting around. The temps actually got close to the freezing mark today & with the sun out, it was amazing how warm 30 degrees felt!

Back to the working world tomorrow...

Layman Family Inn--Now Open

With highs only in the single digits & lows near 10 below, we made the decision last night to let Bogey sleep in the house on our bedroom floor. He actually spent basically the entire evening inside. He is a dog and while I have full confidence that he would probably be just fine outside, he is our furry son and I just hate for him to have to suffer through such frigid weather. This is not the first time for him to stay in our house (see this post from January 2009); however it's also not a frequent occurrence.

See how calm he is when he's in the house!
(pic from Jan 2009)

He has a house but refuses to use it. My doggy psychology on this is that we originally had a house for him in his kennel that was in the backyard. HE HATED THE KENNEL!!! and fought us everytime I tried to use it. So...needless to say, the kennel has since been removed & sold & we actually gave the house away several months ago because Bogey was refusing to use it. I'm assuming that he associates all houses with being locked inside a 6 ft' tall, 100 sq ft area. However, we bought another house back right before Christmas so he would have the option of going in it but try as we might...from what we can tell he's yet to actually use it. Sure, Hubby can toss all sorts of treats inside but he will simply duck his head, crawl into the house, somehow maneuver himself around, & come back out headfirst. It's quite hilarious to see, but so frustrating that he won't use his house to keep warm.



So...for now as the temps are forecast to be below zero for the next 3 nights...he'll be sleeping inside, with us, on a floor covered in blankets & towels to collect all the dog hair. And for those of you who might suggest a crate in the garage or keeping him in the garage...trust me, it's just not worth it for all the prep we would have to do to puppy proof the garage & I'm positive he won't step even a paw towards any kind of crate. Oh the things we do for our pets...

Hello Tax Season & 2010

As for any accountant's wife, the end of a year marks the beginning of possibly the most dreaded 105 days of the entire year...Tax Season. Yesterday it started, the early morning departures, late arrivals home from work, and lost Saturdays off. While the perks (comp time & overtime pay) of tax season are certainly nice, I always miss Hubby dearly while he's away during this glorious time of year. How grateful I am that we both have stable employment...this is just me whining for brief moment.

So...on to a few more important things or at least things that don't involve me throwing a pity party for myself. Hubby & I have never really done the whole New Year's Resolution thing but we did discuss some things we are definitely looking forward to and working on for the coming year.

1. New opportunities--We are looking forward with great anticipation at what God has in store for us in the coming year. We know that there will be things that we expected and experiences that are totally unexpected but we approach them all with open arms knowing that God will provide us with opportunities that will simply blow us away. My prayer is that in everything I would simply give things to God instead of bottling them up inside and trying to solve them on my own. God gives us the new experiences for a reason and I want to be open to seeing all that He has in store for us.

2. Health Drinking--Hubby and I are challenging ourselves to give up pop (at least for the most part). Sure, having a Dr. Pepper once a month at a family gathering is not a huge deal but we've realized that we are drinking a lot of wasted calories when we go out to dinner and have free refills on our blessed Dr. Pepper. Not to mention the fact that we are wasting a lot of money when drinks cost $2.00-$2.50 per drink. We've never kept pop in the house so this is more of an eat out kind of thing, but hopefully we'll be able to stick to it and maybe even lose a few pounds with cutting out the unnecessary sugar!

3. Continued Love--Along with opportunities I am excited about the ways in which Hubby & I will discover new ways to love each other. Our love has grown so incredibly over the past 2 1/2 years of marriage so I can't wait to see what the beginning of year 3 looks like. We'll celebrate our 3rd anniversary in May and I know that I my love for Hubby will continue to grow rapidly through all the ups and downs of everyday married life. God truly blessed me with someone who makes me a better person and I hope I am able to do the same for him.

I hope you're all able to achieve your 2010 goals/resolutions or at least learn something new about yourself in the process!!!

It's seriously freezing cold here and is supposed to be for the rest of the week. One positive thing is that if our school is closed due to inclement weather then the dress code for our office involves jeans! Woohoo! The temperature last night fell to -3 (without any windchill factored in)!!! Yes, we're probably bad puppy parents because Bogey slept outside. However, we're keeping a very close eye on him and he truly seems to be happy when we let him out once it's time for bed. He has lots of blankets, food & water, and is coming in for lots of extended indoor time. Stay warm everyone!

Weekend Rewind

Ok so the weekend rewind actually consists of a rewind from about 4 days considering I've been off work since mid-afternoon on Thursday. Our offices closed early on New Year's Eve & Hubby & I have certainly been enjoying our New Years break. We had pretty simple plans to ring in the New Year consisting of dinner with one of our favorite couples, Derek & Andrea. We had a fabulous dinner at a local restaurant & then we came home for chocolate fondue and a few other snacks. Unfortunately Derek started feeling sick not too long after we got to our house so he headed home for a good night's sleep! Andrea stuck around to ring in the New Year (don't worry she tried to go home but Derek insisted she stick around & have fun with Hubby & I).


For New Year's Day Hubby & I had plans to do some shopping & then go see a basketball game at my college alma mater...Missouri State University. It was a fantastic day starting with Chick-fil-A for lunch & then I managed to hit the jackpot. Dillard's was having an incredible shoe sale & I was able to find a pair of BCBG boots--normally $150, marked down to $80 with an additional 50% off--which means I got a $150 pair of boots for $40! SCORE!!! I was also able to find another pair of shoes normally about $100 that I brought home for $25! Banana Republic was also having a great sale with an additional 30% off any sale items so Hubby & I were both able to bring some great things home. We had dinner with my parents at one of our favorite local Mexican restaurants & then took in a great basketball game. It was a super-exciting game & I know we'll be headed to more games this season.

On Saturday we ran some errands in the morning and then headed down to my great aunt & uncle's house for our last Christmas gathering. This celebrations is the one that used to be on Christmas Eve Eve and involves both sides of my family. It was a nice afternoon and then Hubby & I came home for a relaxing evening. Relaxing is a relative term because we also volunteered to dogsit. This normally only involves one dog but my parents' are dog-sitting my brother's dog so we had Josie & Romo for about 5 hours. It's also freezing cold outside so we brought Bogey in. Let's just say it was very entertaining to watch the 3 of them interact. Hubby & I managed to get in a quick pizza dinner & the dogs finally relaxed enough so that we could watch a movie...Night at the Museum 2: Return to the Smithsonian. It was definitely entertaining but not quite as good as the first.

Romo loves to pose for pictures...he is so adorable & such a great puppy! He & Bogey definitely had some fun when we had all 3 of the pups in the house.

I think Bogey was a little jealous...all he wanted to do was play & have fun!

If they're not sleeping, Josie & Romo spend most of their time wrestling & attacking each other. It's quite hilarious to see!

Sunday morning we woke up to about 3" of snow on the ground which turned into about 5" by the time the snow stopped falling. Church wasn't cancelled so we headed to church and then we loaded up our snow gear & Bogey & headed down to my parents' house for the afternoon. After a quick lunch we bundled up and headed outside to enjoy the winter wonderland. Bogey LOVES the snow. We hooked up a sled to the 4-wheelers and had a great time playing outside for the afternoon. Bogey came home and crashed so I think he had a great time!!!

All decked out for the cold!

Don't you love the outfit...at least he was warm!

Getting everything hooked up for the sledding festivities!

My dad and his "other" little girl, Josie.

Hubby holding on tight!

My view from the sled! It was sooo much fun!

My grandpa's pond...almost completely frozen over. I have no doubt it will be solid ice & maybe even thick enough to drive on after the freezing temps that are forecast for this week.

Bogey had tons of fun with his puppy friends! He absolutely loves the snow!

Self-portrait...pretty good with gloves on in the freezing cold!

My dad taking Hubby for one last ride. What a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

This week the weather forecast is less than desirable. The temperatures aren't supposed to get above 20 degrees and while we've already got 5" of snow on the ground they're calling for at least that much more on Wednesday. Bogey may get to spend a few nights inside if the temps are supposed to fall below zero! I'm all about a good snow, but this sub-zero temperature stuff is FOR THE BIRDS!!!!