Thanksgiving Was Great...but I have Countertops!!!

Ok...so I know you guys would like to hear about my Thanksgiving but the big news for me today is... I HAVE COUNTERTOPS!!!!!!!!!!! Some of you may not realize what a big deal this is. I have had plywood countertops for a year now...and a temporary sink...and no dishwasher. Today the fabricators installed my new GRANITE countertops. Let me just tell you...they are BEAUTIFUL. I feel like throwing a party. The company did an AWESOME job and I am so pleased with their workmanship. Pictures will come soon but I didn't have the camera this morning when they finished. I'm debating if I should make you wait to see them after I get my backsplash installed or if I should give you a sneek peek :). If anybody in the Memphis area is getting new countertops...I highly recommend American Granite & Marble. They were very easy and flexible and affordable to work with.

So enough about my countertops...Thanksgiving was wonderful as well. I always LOVE visiting my family in PA. We spend the first couple of days with my mom's side of the family in Johnstown and then the rest of the trip with my dad's side of the family in Kittanning. My mom's sisters remind me so much of her. This year we ate a lot of food, played Mexican Train, played Phase 10, went bowling (Grammy was the oldest one cosmic bowling with the young, teenage, tight-shirt wearing, hoodlums), ate some more, walked around "town", ate some more and drove. This year the weather was warm (in the 60's). Big change from the 14" of snow we got last year.

I guess it's time to get the Christmas decorations out. I can't wait for skiing and another holiday....and did I mention I got new countertops???

Happy Thanksgiving.

Enjoy some Thanksgiving Pictures. We are still in PA but wanted to give you something to enjoy from my Mom's side of the family. More when I return. Sorry they are not in chronological order.

Brad, Elise and Me. Elise was one of my mom's best friends when they were little. I always thought she was an aunt when we were younger because we saw her as much on visits as we did family.
Me and my cute grammy breaking the wishbone.
Me teaching everybody to play Mexican Train. Brad won.
That's a lot of taters!!
The feast!! Aunt Jeanie only made 8 pies this year for 13 people. Not to mention she made a goody box for each of us that had a loaf of pumpkin bread, cookies, muffins, gobs and some other yummy stuff. She's crazy!!

Thanksgiving Can't Come Soon Enough!!

Well, I don't know about you all but I am ready for a break! I am so looking forward to Thanksgiving and the fact that I only have to work 1 and a half days this week. Yep, it's Sunday night and I am at work right now. I was at work last night too. Obviously I'm not working this very second but a girl's gotta have a break every once in a while. Tomorrow I am starting a new "normal" project. I say "normal" because I will not be working on all of these "fire drills" that are requiring late hours. Friday night I was able to go with Jacob to Arkansas to return Bouncer to his owner and then we camped and hiked 10.4 miles on Saturday. It was a beautiful day and I enjoyed going with Jacob. I didn't think I was going to be able to. So...we no longer have Bouncer. He seemed excited to see his owner again which is a good thing. I do not have much to talk about but enjoy these few pictures of Jacob and I. He sure is a cutie. :)

By the way, those curious...we will be leaving Tuesday afternoon and driving to Pennsylvania to spend Turkey Day with my family. I LOVE this time of year. I will have lots to post about I'm sure. We will return Sunday night. I hope your Thanksgiving is great!

Jacob and I at Brandon and Layla's Wedding a week ago.

Jacob and I (and Lucy too) at the Epicurean Dinner Group on Thursday. This is a group of people that I work with that get together once a month to try different ethnic foods and restaurants. This month was our first time attending and it was at Happy Mexican. The restaurants pick out what we will eat and we eat family style so we can try things that we wouldn't know to order. I look forward to some of the more interesting places.

Penelope's Wild Escapade

So…I think this is pretty funny. You guys might not think so but humor me.

I get home one night and get the mail from the box. In it I find a letter addressed to Jacob from Germantown Law Enforcement and I think, “ooo what has he done now.” I try to read through the envelope and all I could read was “CITATION.” He opens the envelope and in it is this piece of paper…I started laughing at him for getting caught running a red light. I just assumed it was him because he goes out to Germantown (a suburb of Memphis) every Wednesday to play basketball and often drives my car. Anyway, to make a long story short…it was me!!! I had gone out to my boss’s house to deliver drawings on Halloween and that’s when it happened. Ha Ha Ha. I had no idea that they actually used those red light cameras. So…beware when you run a yellow light…it could turn red…and you could get caught.

P.S I told my boss he owes me $50 bucks…he just laughed.

I erased parts of it just incase any creepos are reading this.

Have a Good Weekend

Just wanted to tell you I had a good week this week. Work has been pleasant. Things I did this week (this includes last weekend)

Friday: Good-bye party for Tonya and Jason at Carie and Chris' (funny pictures to come one day)
Saturday: Worked on Fence, Went to Wedding (Yay Brandon and Layla), Watched Windtalkers
Sunday: Went to church, ate roast, green beans and mashed sweet potatoes for lunch, cleaned house, watched t.v.
Monday: Worked
Tuesday: Worked, Tech Lunch, Voted, Cooked Dinner, Bible Study at Hunter and Emily's
Wednesday: Worked, Dinner at Texas Roadhouse to say good bye to Tonya and Jason, Target with Carie
Thursday: Worked, Tech Lunch, Game Night with Jacob...I beat Jacob at Risk!!!! And he didn't do it on purpose.
Friday: Worked, Going home...

Happy Birthday Lauren!!!

Today is my sister-in-law's 23rd birthday. Yay for Lauren. I wish we were there to celebrate with ya!!!

I didn't want you to think she was too normal :)

I made her a tree skirt for her birthday.

Getting Caught Up

Apologies for getting so far behind…I’d hate to turn into Carie or Tonya :). Anyway, things have been pretty busy lately and I haven’t had the time to write. I do however owe you some stories about the dog, the owl and Chilympics. So here goes.

The Dog...

Jacob went backpacking a couple of weekends ago with Siler. This dog began following him for several miles. He’d disappear and then return. That evening he disappeared but when he woke up in the morning…he was sleeping outside his tent!! So the dog continued to follow him and disappear and then return again until he was done backpacking…now 20+ miles away from where they first met. Jacob got to his car and called the owners to let them know he had found their dog. They never answered. He kept calling. Not knowing what to do, Jacob felt like he should stall a little bit until the owners called him back, but still needed to get home (which was over 4 hours away). So…since they never called back he brought the dog back to Memphis with him. He didn’t want to just leave him on the side of the road to die. He calls me to warn me and let me know. I thought it was a trick at first to talk me into allowing him a new dog. The poor little guy was malnourished and tick infested. We gave him a bath and as much food as he wanted. We didn’t know his name so Jacob insisted on calling him Roscoe. That evening the wife of the dog’s owner calls back. We tell him where we are and she said she needed to have her husband call us. Obviously she didn’t want to deal with it. The owner calls us and informs us that he is in Nebraska!! and will not return for 2 more weeks. We told him we would watch him and return him when he got back in town. It’s been 2 weeks now and we haven’t heard back from the guy. Jacob doesn’t want to call the guy back because he wants to keep him…who by the way is named Bouncer. I’m not really ready for another dog. Bouncer is terrified of new people (maybe he was abused?)…and he still smells…and he doesn’t listen worth a hoot...however, he doesn’t bark which is nice. We are going to have to bathe him again. So…until we hear otherwise, we have this new dog. Oh, he’s a hound (white with tan and black spots), about the same size as Siler. Siler doesn’t care too much about him but does get jealous if we play too much with him.

The Owl…

This story is short. Jacob walked out into the yard and there was a dead owl. That’s really all to the story but how often do you find dead owls in your backyard?? Not to mention, I was wearing my new shirt with owls on it the same day we found it! Spooky. Pretty random, I know.

Chilympics 2006…

Chilympics was a yearly chili cook off that my work, LRK held in the past. When I started working here I was so excited about it but they had stopped doing it. Well, now that Stewart has returned to LRK, he resumed the Chilympics (apparently it was in his job description). The object of Chilympics is to have a team building experience with people that you do not normally get to work with. The teams were selected at random. Not to complain too much but my team was not very good. Most of the people on my team didn’t really care to participate. The other teams however seemed to have a blast. There were judges that evaluated your display and other judges that evaluated your chili. My team didn’t win anything. Apparently my chili came in 3rd place but there were some discrepancies with the judging that caused us to not place. I was pretty disappointed to get a poopy team but there is always next year. The teams that did participate were HILARIOUS.

Sally’s Visit…

I had a blast with Sally last weekend when she came to visit. She took me shopping and bought me 2 new pairs of pants and a sweater. Thanks Sally!!! The rest of the weekend we did some funny stuff but I can’t talk about that just yet. I’ll talk about it after somebody’s birthday.

Halloween…

I worked sort of late and didn’t do anything for Halloween. We are grinches I guess. Frank Ricks (of Looney Ricks Kiss) dressed up as his cousin Henry and handed out candy at the office. We laughed SO hard. Can you believe this guy owns a reputable architecture firm?? Hehe.

Our 8th Dating Anniversary…

Today is 8 years since Jacob and I started dating. Wow…can you believe that a lunch date to Schlotzsky’s led to this? That was the best lunch I ever had. I love you buddy and can’t wait for 80 more years of dating. We went out to dinner to celebrate last night because tonight we are attending a bye-bye party for Tonya and Jason.

I think we are caught up now. Hopefully I won’t get so far behind again.

Disclaimer: This post is really long and I do not feel like re-reading it for errors and typos…so please forgive me!