I've decided that I'm just not very good a keeping up with the blog. I check in and read other blogs daily. Maybe I'll start doing some weekly theme posts. We'll see... I'm not going to make any promises.
It's been about 2 months since I posted last. We have had a good bit going on.
Greg got a part-time job working at Eddie Bauer. It's not the perfect situation for us right now, but it's so much better than him not having a job while he continues to look for something full-time. He's really enjoying it, and he is learning a lot about the brand and the great quality of stuff that they have there. I'm so happy that he has something to keep him a little busy.
My in-laws came to visit in March. It was really wonderful to see them. They made most of the drive up after Linda got out of school on Friday for spring break. The stopped and spent the night right outside of Charlotte, NC. They arrived Saturday afternoon. We love having visitors, but especially family. We mainly concentrated on just spending time with them since we don't get to see them as often as we would like. We went out to eat, saw The Hunger Games, Greg and his mom went shopping, Greg and his dad went golfing, I met Linda for lunch one day while the boys were golfing. It was a really nice visit. They headed home on Wednesday morning.
We also got news from the DS that Ralph would be moving this year to take a new appointment. We were nervous and excited to see what was going to happen when appointments came out. They'll be moving in June to Roanoke First United Methodist Church. We are very happy for Ralph and Linda and their new appointment. I'm looking forward to helping them move (it's the first time they have moved churches since Greg and I started dating). Greg will be heading down with the dogs the week of the move, and I'll fly down on Tuesday night. We'll all be busy moving on Wednesday and then helping them unpack and get settled the rest of the time we are there. Of course, we will be there for the first Sunday services. I do hate moving, but I'm glad that we are going to be able to be in AL and help them with everything.
Our good friends, Scott and Kathleen, are driving up for a visit in two weeks. Excited may be an understatement. We can't wait to see them! I am going to take lots of pictures because we aren't sure how often we will be seeing them after this since they will be moving to Chicago in the fall. Of course, we are already saving and planning for a trip to Chicago after they get settled in.
All that to say, I feel like we are in a really good place right now. We love our jobs. We love being in Durham. We are really enjoying the beautiful weather (although we are ready for the pollen to go away). We hope that you all are doing well, and I hope to keep you updated more often.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Projects
Oh my, it's been too long. I'm sorry! I would say that things have been crazy, but that would be a lie. I just haven't felt like blogging recently.
We have been doing several projects around the townhouse to make it feel more like our home. It's exciting because we have never lived anywhere that we could paint, and I think that makes a huge difference in how you feel about where you live. We've lived in boring apartments with white walls since before we got married. So, this has been a very exciting time for us. I have lots of details on how we did each project, so if your curious... just leave a comment and I'll do another post on that project in detail.
Here we go:
1. We painted our living room:
We have been doing several projects around the townhouse to make it feel more like our home. It's exciting because we have never lived anywhere that we could paint, and I think that makes a huge difference in how you feel about where you live. We've lived in boring apartments with white walls since before we got married. So, this has been a very exciting time for us. I have lots of details on how we did each project, so if your curious... just leave a comment and I'll do another post on that project in detail.
Here we go:
1. We painted our living room:
We both did taping.
I did all the edging and painting around the fireplace, and Greg used the roller.
This is after we had finished painting. Our living room was a wreck with the curtains on the couch, we had our TV wall mount out on the couch, and Greg had to watch the Duke game. HA.
2. We mounted our TV above the fireplace:
I was not happy about having to do this, but our living room is really small and it was going to save us a ton of room. We did this back in January, and all the TV cords have been hanging out until recently. It was so tacky! I hated this whole project until the last week or so.
3. All the walls in this town home look terrible. We painted the rest of the downstairs:
I don't have a ton of pictures of this. We did it totally on a whim. I showed up at work one morning to find out that I had the day off, so I went home and woke Greg. We went to Lowes, bought the paint, and did it that day. I am in love with this grey color. It's a great neutral.
4. We were got these bookshelves as a gift, assembled them, and for the first time in 3 years got to get all our books out of boxes:
These shelves are from Target, and we love them!
5. We did a picture collage above the couch in the living room:
I got the larger frames at the thrift store, the smaller ones came from the dollar store. I painted them all the same color, and ordered most of the prints from Snapfish.com. I really love how it turned out.
6. We finally got new TV cords and cables that were long enough, so that we could hide them:
We got the cable hider set at Lowes. The mantle is still a work in progress (so don't judge me too much-ha)
There you have it! This is what we have been up to recently. I'm really happy with how all our little projects have turned out. There are a couple more that I don't have pictures of... Greg built me a box out of old pallets that I'm going to use to grow herbs, we hung another small picture collage in the office. Like I said earlier, if you are interested in details on how we did anything... just let me know.
I hope you enjoyed a small glimpse into our new house!
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Fisher Christmas!
Okay, so I had plans to be this great blogger in the new year and I have already failed. HA! I haven't even posted about Christmas with my side of the family. Here's a quick (or not so quick) recap:
We headed to Tuscaloosa on Christmas Eve afternoon. We made it to my parent's house in time to rest for about an hour, and then head to church with Mom and Dad. It was a really nice, relaxing way to spend Christmas eve, and it was topped off by Mom and Greg's tradition of watching It's a Wonderful Life.
The great part about not having kids yet is that you get to sleep in on Christmas! We slept in, and I prepared a lasagna for Christmas dinner. My brother, his wife, and my nephew drove down Christmas afternoon. Once again, we all took it easy! My grandmother came over for dinner, and we all had a really nice time! She opened her presents from everyone, and we had good food (except for the burned bread- I swear it's hereditary).
The day after Christmas was our big to-do! I got up early because I was doing most of the cooking. Once I got up and started the coffee, I realized that Mom hadn't put the turkey in yet! We had a good laugh about it, and I cooked muffins and started on all the side dishes. My other brother and his girlfriend got there, and then my aunt, my two cousins, and my cousin's fiance. It was certainly a house full of people! We had so much fun opening presents and joking around.
I had arranged for a photographer to come and take some family portraits for Mom's gift from Greg and me. She stood me up, and wouldn't return any of my phone calls. I was disappointed because I had this session set up since September! I was also disappointed because the photographer was supposedly a family friend. If you live in the Tuscaloosa area, I encourage you to avoid using Kim Murphy Photography if at all possible. She is unreliable and unreachable, and she certainly doesn't respect her clients.
It all ended up working out because we just had each other take some pictures, and we got some cute ones. It was a really nice visit home. Amazingly enough, no one got in a fight and we all left still liking each other- HA!!! Here are some pictures:
We headed to Tuscaloosa on Christmas Eve afternoon. We made it to my parent's house in time to rest for about an hour, and then head to church with Mom and Dad. It was a really nice, relaxing way to spend Christmas eve, and it was topped off by Mom and Greg's tradition of watching It's a Wonderful Life.
The great part about not having kids yet is that you get to sleep in on Christmas! We slept in, and I prepared a lasagna for Christmas dinner. My brother, his wife, and my nephew drove down Christmas afternoon. Once again, we all took it easy! My grandmother came over for dinner, and we all had a really nice time! She opened her presents from everyone, and we had good food (except for the burned bread- I swear it's hereditary).
The day after Christmas was our big to-do! I got up early because I was doing most of the cooking. Once I got up and started the coffee, I realized that Mom hadn't put the turkey in yet! We had a good laugh about it, and I cooked muffins and started on all the side dishes. My other brother and his girlfriend got there, and then my aunt, my two cousins, and my cousin's fiance. It was certainly a house full of people! We had so much fun opening presents and joking around.
I had arranged for a photographer to come and take some family portraits for Mom's gift from Greg and me. She stood me up, and wouldn't return any of my phone calls. I was disappointed because I had this session set up since September! I was also disappointed because the photographer was supposedly a family friend. If you live in the Tuscaloosa area, I encourage you to avoid using Kim Murphy Photography if at all possible. She is unreliable and unreachable, and she certainly doesn't respect her clients.
It all ended up working out because we just had each other take some pictures, and we got some cute ones. It was a really nice visit home. Amazingly enough, no one got in a fight and we all left still liking each other- HA!!! Here are some pictures:
The star of Christmas 2011!
Dad loves that sweet baby!
My aunt and cousins- I'm so glad that they were able to come!
The whole family!
With my brothers- so glad we made it through without a fight. ha!
The Barrow family!
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Barrow Christmas!
Greg and I have a set plan of how we divide up spending time with our families over Christmas. We will do up to Christmas eve with one family, Christmas eve night to whenever we go home with the other family. We rotate every year. We feel like it is important to be able to spend time with both our families, and we try to make it very fair so that no one gets their feelings hurt. Living so far from our families can be a blessing, but it can also be a curse when it comes to holidays. Luckily, I was able to take a few days off, and then I had the whole week between Christmas and New Years off. We were able to spend a really good amount of time with family. It was much needed!
Our Christmas vacation began on Tuesday, December 20 when I got off of work. We decided to make the drive to Alabama that night. It's just so much easier to get there at night when there is barely any traffic, and Greg was able to take a pretty big nap that afternoon so that he could drive. We made great time and arrived at Greg's parent's house in Childersburg, AL about 1:15! I was so excited to be there!
Greg's mom had to work a half day on Wednesday, but we were able to catch up on rest that morning. We enjoyed spending Wednesday just hanging out around the house! Thursday we spent with just Greg's parents. We went to see Sherlock Holmes 2 (which was fantastic), did a little shopping, and then we had to eat at Greg's favorite bar-b-que place (Jim 'n Nicks). It was a wonderful day with the in-laws.
Friday afternoon Greg's sister, her husband, and their kids came over. It was SO good to see them! It had been too long! We also did presents with everyone that night, and we ended out the day playing Scattergories with the adults, which always provides lots of laughs!
I am so proud of myself for actually taking pictures this year! Here are a few of my favorites from Christmas with the Barrows:
Our Christmas vacation began on Tuesday, December 20 when I got off of work. We decided to make the drive to Alabama that night. It's just so much easier to get there at night when there is barely any traffic, and Greg was able to take a pretty big nap that afternoon so that he could drive. We made great time and arrived at Greg's parent's house in Childersburg, AL about 1:15! I was so excited to be there!
Greg's mom had to work a half day on Wednesday, but we were able to catch up on rest that morning. We enjoyed spending Wednesday just hanging out around the house! Thursday we spent with just Greg's parents. We went to see Sherlock Holmes 2 (which was fantastic), did a little shopping, and then we had to eat at Greg's favorite bar-b-que place (Jim 'n Nicks). It was a wonderful day with the in-laws.
Friday afternoon Greg's sister, her husband, and their kids came over. It was SO good to see them! It had been too long! We also did presents with everyone that night, and we ended out the day playing Scattergories with the adults, which always provides lots of laughs!
I am so proud of myself for actually taking pictures this year! Here are a few of my favorites from Christmas with the Barrows:
We got Tanner a Transformers action figure
We actually bought this box at the Thrift Store and made it into a jewelry box for Kayleigh.
We made a bunch of sweet treats for Nathan!
Greg made this dry erase calendar for Liz!
We didn't get this for Liz, but I absolutely love this picture of her! She was SO excited!
We collected those sea shells while on our Thanksgiving vacation for Linda- she loves shells
This could be my favorite picture from our Christmas trip. HA! We made coasters for Ralph and he was super excited.
Greg got a drill and tool kit. He and Tanner were clearly having a deep discussion about the tools.
Merry Christmas, part 1!
Our New Home
December 3, 2011- we moved... again. That would be our 5th move since June 2009. WOW. We are almost pros. As most of you know... I hate hate hate moving. It's truly one of my least favorite things in the world to do. On top of the fact that we've had so many moves... None of them were short moves. Tuscaloosa --> Savannah, GA... Savannah--> Charleston, SC (moved all our stuff into storage) and Birmingham, AL... Birmingham---> Charleston, SC... Charleston, SC--->Durham, NC.
This time was different! We moved a few miles down the road into a cute townhome. We are absolutely loving it, and making it our own. We just got done painting the living room over the weekend, and I'm looking forward to sharing pictures with you as we get everything put together. For now, I'll show you the outside.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Thanksgiving, part 2 (finally)
Hi everyone! I have no clue where the time went between December 1 and today. I never got around to doing my second post about Thanksgiving. So, here we go. To refresh your memory... We went to Carolina beach for our Thanksgiving break. We took the dogs, and rented a beach front condo, and it was absolutely perfect. We did a ton of relaxing. We watched football. We walked on the beach, and we played with the dogs on the beach. Here are some pictures!
The beach house. We were in the unit on the bottom right, and we were the only people there!
Sunset the first night we were there- beautiful
Hershee loved chasing the waves as they crashed on the shore.
Penni loved digging in the sand.
Another beautiful sunset.
The morning that we left. My favorite part of the trip was sitting on the porch taking in the view.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Thanksgiving, part 1
Hello everyone! I spent this month diving deep, and thinking about what I am thankful for this year. I feel like Greg and I have had a really great year. We have faced so many changes, I feel like we have found a place that we love living, and we have also been dealing with a lot of challenges.
Throughout the month I wrote down things that I was thankful for with the intent to blog about it, so here it is:
- I am thankful for my very sweet, caring husband. I am so happy that I have found someone like him to face the world with, come home to at the end of the day to, laugh with, travel with, and grow old together. Greg and I balance each other out perfectly, and I am thankful that we met at Camp Sumatanga the summer of 2006.
- I am thankful for my wonderful parents. They are a constant support to me, and I know that I can always call them if I need to talk. I am thankful for Skype and FaceTime so that the months in between visits don't feel so long. I always love having conversations with my Dad on my way home from work some days, and I love being able to call my Mom to talk about anything from a crappy day to how to make a beautiful bow for our door. I am so lucky to be able to call them my Mom and Dad.
- I am thankful for my fantastic in-laws. I feel like I won the in-law lottery. They are so supportive of us! I love talking to them, and I love when we are able to make a trip to see them. Although we don't skype with them very often, it is fun when we have the chance to. I know that they love us, and they set a wonderful example of how to really grow our marriage.
- I am thankful for my big brother Guy, his wife Andrea, and my sweet nephew Justin. In college, I was super close to Guy and throughout the years we have kind of drifted apart. I am thankful that this year we have had the opportunity to rekindle our friendship. I am so happy that Andrea and I have had the chance to spend more time together in person, and we have spent a lot of time texting and chatting. And of course how could I not be thankful for Justin? This is the first time I've been able to experience being an aunt of an infant! It's crazy to me how much I can love such a little human that I've only known for 2 months!
- I am thankful for my big brother, Ben. We have certainly had our ups and downs throughout the years, but I am so glad that we have recently reconnected. I rarely get to see Ben because he is usually working when we are home, and because we live so far away. I am looking forward to seeing him at Christmas!
- I am thankful for my very sweet sister-in-law, Liz. I know that if I ever have questions when it comes to cooking or baking that I can call her and she will have an answer for me! She is a brilliant cook, and I'm so glad that I can rely on her in a disastrous situation in the kitchen! I am also thankful for her wonderful kids: Kayleigh and Tanner. I was just thinking the other day that I can't believe how grown up they are! I feel like it was just the other day that I was meeting them, Kayleigh was a sweet 6 year old and Tanner was a toddler! It's crazy how time flies, and I am thankful to have you in my life!
- I am so thankful for my loving pups. They make coming home at the end of a crazy day so happy. They are always thrilled to see me when I walk in the door, and they are always willing to give me lots of loving and snuggles!
- I am thankful that Greg and I have found a cute townhome to move into. This will be the first time that we have lived in something besides an apartment! I am super excited to have something that feels more like a home! Although I hate, hate, hate moving... it will all be worth it.
- I am thankful for Mark, Kate, and baby J. I am so happy that I met Kate, and I am so thankful that they welcomed me into their home to take care of baby J. Making the transition from a daycare to being a nanny has been fantastic, and none of it would be possible if they had not trusted me to love and take care of their sweet baby. I wouldn't have the job I have now if it hadn't been for Kate... which leads me to...
- I am thankful for Bryson, Lauren, and baby B. I am so happy that they trust me to take care of their sweet baby boy everyday. Hanging out with B is so much fun, and I enjoy getting to know Lauren and Bryson more and more. I am so looking forward to watching B grow and learn! I am thankful that they have allowed me to come into their lives!
- I am thankful that cooler air has finally moved into North Carolina!
- I am thankful for days when I come home to a cooked meal! It doesn't happen that often, but I cherish the evenings when I walk in to a hot dinner!
- I am thankful for college football. This year has certainly made things interesting! It's been fun to watch and wonder what will happen throughout the season. I also love the fact that college football generally means that Greg and I are going to hang out all day and eat yummy comfort food!
- I am thankful for people who list their moving boxes on Craigslist for free! I am also thankful that they weren't really kidnappers/murderers. (ha)
- I am thankful that in the midst of a bunch of car break-ins in our apartment complex... that we have unappealing cars to criminals.
- I am thankful for the opportunity to take an amazing vacation over Thanksgiving break. We had such a nice, relaxing time! I will be blogging about our trip later.
- I am thankful for reruns of Grey's Anatomy, Friends, and Will & Grace!
- I am thankful that we've found our way to Durham, NC. We absolutely love it here! I am looking forward to staying here for a while, and hopefully growing some roots in this city!
- I am thankful for the time off that I am going to have at Christmas! Greg and I are looking forward to make a trip home where we will actually have more than 2 days with our families.
- I am thankful for Christmas decorations! They make me so happy.
This is by no means everything in the world that I'm thankful for, but these are the ones that I wrote down throughout the month. I am overall very thankful for the loving support of our friends and family. They are the most important thing to me in the world, and I feel like I've been blessed with a great group!
I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving break! I'll be updating soon with pictures from our Thanksgiving trip!
Throughout the month I wrote down things that I was thankful for with the intent to blog about it, so here it is:
- I am thankful for my very sweet, caring husband. I am so happy that I have found someone like him to face the world with, come home to at the end of the day to, laugh with, travel with, and grow old together. Greg and I balance each other out perfectly, and I am thankful that we met at Camp Sumatanga the summer of 2006.
- I am thankful for my wonderful parents. They are a constant support to me, and I know that I can always call them if I need to talk. I am thankful for Skype and FaceTime so that the months in between visits don't feel so long. I always love having conversations with my Dad on my way home from work some days, and I love being able to call my Mom to talk about anything from a crappy day to how to make a beautiful bow for our door. I am so lucky to be able to call them my Mom and Dad.
- I am thankful for my fantastic in-laws. I feel like I won the in-law lottery. They are so supportive of us! I love talking to them, and I love when we are able to make a trip to see them. Although we don't skype with them very often, it is fun when we have the chance to. I know that they love us, and they set a wonderful example of how to really grow our marriage.
- I am thankful for my big brother Guy, his wife Andrea, and my sweet nephew Justin. In college, I was super close to Guy and throughout the years we have kind of drifted apart. I am thankful that this year we have had the opportunity to rekindle our friendship. I am so happy that Andrea and I have had the chance to spend more time together in person, and we have spent a lot of time texting and chatting. And of course how could I not be thankful for Justin? This is the first time I've been able to experience being an aunt of an infant! It's crazy to me how much I can love such a little human that I've only known for 2 months!
- I am thankful for my big brother, Ben. We have certainly had our ups and downs throughout the years, but I am so glad that we have recently reconnected. I rarely get to see Ben because he is usually working when we are home, and because we live so far away. I am looking forward to seeing him at Christmas!
- I am thankful for my very sweet sister-in-law, Liz. I know that if I ever have questions when it comes to cooking or baking that I can call her and she will have an answer for me! She is a brilliant cook, and I'm so glad that I can rely on her in a disastrous situation in the kitchen! I am also thankful for her wonderful kids: Kayleigh and Tanner. I was just thinking the other day that I can't believe how grown up they are! I feel like it was just the other day that I was meeting them, Kayleigh was a sweet 6 year old and Tanner was a toddler! It's crazy how time flies, and I am thankful to have you in my life!
- I am so thankful for my loving pups. They make coming home at the end of a crazy day so happy. They are always thrilled to see me when I walk in the door, and they are always willing to give me lots of loving and snuggles!
- I am thankful that Greg and I have found a cute townhome to move into. This will be the first time that we have lived in something besides an apartment! I am super excited to have something that feels more like a home! Although I hate, hate, hate moving... it will all be worth it.
- I am thankful for Mark, Kate, and baby J. I am so happy that I met Kate, and I am so thankful that they welcomed me into their home to take care of baby J. Making the transition from a daycare to being a nanny has been fantastic, and none of it would be possible if they had not trusted me to love and take care of their sweet baby. I wouldn't have the job I have now if it hadn't been for Kate... which leads me to...
- I am thankful for Bryson, Lauren, and baby B. I am so happy that they trust me to take care of their sweet baby boy everyday. Hanging out with B is so much fun, and I enjoy getting to know Lauren and Bryson more and more. I am so looking forward to watching B grow and learn! I am thankful that they have allowed me to come into their lives!
- I am thankful that cooler air has finally moved into North Carolina!
- I am thankful for days when I come home to a cooked meal! It doesn't happen that often, but I cherish the evenings when I walk in to a hot dinner!
- I am thankful for college football. This year has certainly made things interesting! It's been fun to watch and wonder what will happen throughout the season. I also love the fact that college football generally means that Greg and I are going to hang out all day and eat yummy comfort food!
- I am thankful for people who list their moving boxes on Craigslist for free! I am also thankful that they weren't really kidnappers/murderers. (ha)
- I am thankful that in the midst of a bunch of car break-ins in our apartment complex... that we have unappealing cars to criminals.
- I am thankful for the opportunity to take an amazing vacation over Thanksgiving break. We had such a nice, relaxing time! I will be blogging about our trip later.
- I am thankful for reruns of Grey's Anatomy, Friends, and Will & Grace!
- I am thankful that we've found our way to Durham, NC. We absolutely love it here! I am looking forward to staying here for a while, and hopefully growing some roots in this city!
- I am thankful for the time off that I am going to have at Christmas! Greg and I are looking forward to make a trip home where we will actually have more than 2 days with our families.
- I am thankful for Christmas decorations! They make me so happy.
This is by no means everything in the world that I'm thankful for, but these are the ones that I wrote down throughout the month. I am overall very thankful for the loving support of our friends and family. They are the most important thing to me in the world, and I feel like I've been blessed with a great group!
I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving break! I'll be updating soon with pictures from our Thanksgiving trip!
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