Here Lately...

Josh and I have been out of town having fun with friends! A few weekends ago we traveled down to Auburn for A-Day. We went down on Friday night after work and met our friend Todd from pharmacy school and his wife Ally. Originally Josh had booked us a room at the Microtel, however the Microtel overbooked, so Expedia kindly paid the extra cost for us to stay at The Fountainview Mansion! Oddly enough, even though I spent 5 years of school in Auburn I didn't know about this place until my best friend Helen had her wedding reception there this past summer. It is beautiful! Courtesy of Ally, here is a picture of the front of the mansion:

The experience staying there was awesome! When Josh and I arrived Friday night the owner was outside waiting for us and helped us with our bags and showed us to our room. He was super nice. When we got to our room, there was a plate of homemade brownies waiting for us, as well as a plate of grapes and cheese, a chilled bottle of champagne, and a mini-fridge stocked with water and soft drinks - all complementary!! I was completely sold at this point. The next morning when I woke up I could smell bacon - it felt like I was at home! We ventured to the kitchen and were treated to a delicious homemade breakfast of ham, bacon, hashbrown casserole, fresh fruit, pancakes, and praline french toast. Nothing like your usual hotel experience! Then the owner took all of us on a "rooftop" tour, and told us all about how the house came about. It was actually originally built to be a family home for two physicians in the Auburn area but that didn't work out, so now it's a Bed and Breakfast. Here are Todd, Ally, Josh and I on the rooftop (try to ignore the squinty eyes - it was really bright!):

Last weekend Josh and I took a few extra days off from work and headed down to Panama City Beach with Ben and Katie to just relax and all get to spend some time together. We had such a good time and shared lots of laughs! Unfortunately the weather wasn't that great so I am still pretty pale, but we got to eat lots of good food! We went to Another Broken Egg Cafe for brunch, Captain Anderson's for dinner on Saturday night and then to The Red Bar on Sunday night! Both nights were also completed with desserts. It literally was food heaven! Katie took most of the photos throughout the weekend with her very special digital SLR camera that I can barely turn on, so I will try and borrow some pictures from her to post on here soon.  Here are a few that I captured with my good ole point and shoot.

Me and Katie on the pier at Captain Andersons

Josh and I at Red Bar

Katie and Ben

Josh and Ben acting goofy

We had such a great time with Katie and Ben and hope we can go to the beach with them again soon! More beach pictures to come! 

Slacker

It is what I have been for the past five months, when it comes to writing thank-you notes that is. It has been 5 months (exactly today!) since our wedding and I have yet to finish all of my thank-you's. Please don't judge me like all of the old ladies waiting on their notes are doing right now. I feel pretty bad that it has taken me this long to finish - I know everyone says you have a year but by the time the person gets their note I'm sure they will have forgotten that they even got me anything! So after worrying over those darn things for so long and being too lazy to do anything about them, I have made the decision that I WILL FINISH within the next two weeks, no matter how long I have to write! So far I have been pretty successful. I have written probably 70 thank-you notes in the past two days. After I write just a few more, force Josh to write a handful, and then address all of them (a huge task in itself!) I will be DONE! I'm feeling relief already! My reward for finishing - purchasing the new novel by Emily Giffin (in hardback!):

Woo hoo! Her books are soooo good and are perfect for just a fun book to read. I am looking forward to reading it during my beach trip coming up next weekend!

Swiffers

Well, it has been a while since I have posted anything! I haven't made much time for blogging lately. It seems as though when I am at home I spend most of my time doing laundry, ironing, and cleaning. Does anyone else that owns a home feel overwhelmed at the vast amount of space that needs to be routinely cleaned? I sure do. Since moving out of my parent's house I have really only been responsible for cleaning one room - my room at my apartment or duplex - and sharing with roommates the cleaning responsibilites of the kitchen and living areas. Fast forward eight years to being married and owning your own home, and everything completely changes! And let's face it, if you know me well you know that I am really into having a routine, and I'm NOT good with change. Needless to say the extra bedrooms, bathroom, and living spaces I am now having to clean, plus double the laundry, has thrown me for a loop!

Slowly I am figuring out how to manage keeping our house clean. My most important cleaning helpers: the family of Swiffers. Honestly, I think I own them all - sweepers, sweeper-vac, dusters, and wet-jet mop. If you haven't tried the Swiffers, save yourself some hassle and go buy one! My favorite Swiffer product:

The Swiffer Sweeper Vac! This thing cleans my hardwood floors like a champ. It not only dusts the floors but also has a little battery-powered vacuum that sucks up dust, dirt, and hair, so you aren't just pushing it around like with other dusters. The battery lasts pretty long too. I would highly recommend this one if you have tile or wood floors.

My floors are not going to get cleaned this weekend though because Josh and I are headed to Auburn for A-Day! Josh is probably a little more excited about seeing our new team play than I am, but I am excited just to get to be in Auburn. It is such a fun and special school and town. Hopefully I can convince Josh to take me to eat here (my favorite place to eat in Auburn):

I will try and post pictures from the weekend soon!

I Have Crossed Over to the Other Side

I am now an official Mac user! Not too long ago Josh and I took the plunge and bought our long-awaited Macbook. Oh how I have enjoyed it! My last computer was a Dell laptop my Dad I was forced to buy for pharmacy school. I don't know what I did to it but after 4 years of pharmacy school and one year of pharmacy residency later, the computer was slower than a turtle! I would just not even bother turning it on to use it because it just wasn't worth waiting 5 minutes (literally!) for it to bring up the internet.
Here I am with this beautiful piece of technology:

 

I have to say that I was originally skeptical about getting a Mac, but now that I have one, I will never go back! One cool feature (of many): in order to download pictures to your computer, no need to locate your cord that connects your computer and camera. All you have to do is put your memory card in a little slot in the side of the computer. Love it!

Happy Birthday To Me!!

For those who didn't know, my 26th birthday was yesterday! A pretty uneventful age, I know, but birthdays are always fun. And with the invention of facebook comes tons of birthday wishes on your facebook wall - I love that! I am actually not very good at posting happy birthday messages for everyone else, so I probably need to get better at it if I want people to continue doing that for me. The day actually started off a little rocky, when I called my mom and she acted like it was just another day. I was thinking, "seriously? Am I in Sixteen Candles?" But soon enough she mentioned Valentine's Day being the day before and finally realized it was my birthday! The day got better though because my sweet co-wokers Dorothy and Jessica made me brownies and a birthday cake! And then after work it continued to get better.

When I got home from work yesterday, I was greeted by this:

Yea! Just what I wanted!!!

And with a cake from here:

Yea!! Also what I wanted!!

It definitely wasn't an extravagant birthday but the little things are what makes birthdays special to me!

Snow Day!

No, unlike many local schools, the hospital did not close due to the snow. But, my sweet boss man was worried for my safety driving on the possibly icy roads so I got to scoot out early today after all my patients were seen. I have had such an unproductive wonderful afternoon! I came home from work and opened every single blind in the house (I figured it was ok this time since I was actually home to see if there were any lurkers peeking in my windows) so I could watch the snow falling. Being a southern Alabama-born girl that has never been snow-skiing, I have not seen much snow in my life. It was so pretty to see some snow on the ground! Then I proceeded to sit myself on the couch and, with the permission of my husband, ordered an On-Demand movie. I chose to watch The Proposal. It was a really cute movie - and funny too! The ending is rather predictable, but what girl doesn't love a good romantic comedy with a happy ending? Since the end of the movie I have been sitting on the couch watching TV and playing Super Mario Brothers for the Wii (which by the way, I am terrible at). The only times I have lifted myself off the couch were to take the dogs out and unload the dishwasher. I wish I could have a snow day every week!

Unexpected Guests

So, it's been over a month since my last post! Sorry, I have been busy with work, cleaning our house, and just life in general. I have got to get motivated. It seems like every day when I get home from work I just want to sit and do nothing, and I end up falling asleep laying on the couch the entire evening!

Now onto the title of my post. Josh and I went to his mom's house for lunch yesterday, where I learned some interesting (disturbing, really) information. When Josh and I leave for work in the morning, we will usually open most of the blinds in our house to let the natural light in and also so that our dogs can look out the window during the day while we are gone. Well, I found out yesterday that Josh's aunt and uncle dropped by unexpectedly at our house in the middle of the day not too long ago. Obviously, Josh and I wouldn't be there because we both had to work, but nevertheless, they came anyway. And when they got there, they proceeded to walk around our entire house and peek in every single window!! All the while taunting Mordecai (whom they like to call Duricell for some reason) who was following them around the house and barking the entire time. Poor Tully, he was stuck barking in the crate and couldn't do anything about it. The best part about the whole story is that the aunt and uncle then called Josh's mom and told her we needed to close our blinds! Seriously? The intruders relatives that peeked into every window of our house while we weren't home are tying to give us advice on how to keep people from doing just what they did! Oh the irony. It was funny at the time but now it is kind of starting to freak me out. Maybe I will start closing the blinds from now on!

Our Pups

I have been wanting to post some pictures I have taken lately of our "children," Mordecai and Tully. They are both long haired dachshunds. Mordecai is technically Josh's dog. He is two years old, and is such a great dog. He is super friendly and loves to cuddle with you. Tully is technically my dog, and he is almost 11 months old. Unlike Mordecai, who is very calm and never meets a stranger, Tully is a little more nervous around new people, but he has a lot more energy! He loves to play and chew on raw-hide bones.

Mordecai

Mordecai begging at the table - he LOVES food!

Tully

Uno

I remember playing it with my brother probably ten years ago, and haven't really given it much thought since then...until now. Uno is back! (well I don't think it ever really left but it did in my mind) In the past few weeks Josh and I have been getting together with some of our friends to play some friendly rounds of Uno. We even found an old version of the cards that Josh had from his younger years. I don't know if you remember how to play but basically the object of the game is to be the first person with no cards left. Each player starts with 7 cards and there is one stack in the middle. Then everyone takes turns putting down a card, but it has to be either the same color or same number as the card in the middle stack. If you don't have one of those to put down, you have to draw from the middle until you get one - this is where the game can really get you, and you can end up with tons of cards in your hand! There are also "action" cards that you can use against the other players, such as "draw 4" (the player next to you has to draw 4 cards from the middle), "draw 2", "reverse" (reverses the order of the players), and "skip" (makes the person next to you skip their turn). And there is a "wild" card, which you can use and make it any color you want to. When you only have one card left in your hand, you are supposed to yell "Uno," hence the name of the game. This weekend me, Josh, and four of our friends sat down to play Uno. The first few games went well, with with someone winning usually in 10-15 minutes or so. But then we began THE game. We really had no idea what we were getting into when this game began. This particular game of Uno lasted nearly 2 hours!! Every time someone would get close to Uno or having only a few cards in their hand, they would end up having to draw several from the stack. At one time, I had over 20 cards in my hand! Towards the end I was kind of wishing someone would win because I was tired and ready to go to bed! Finally, when all our backs were hurting from sitting up straight and our heads were spinning from so many colors and numbers, our friend Chris won this epic battle of Uno. We all really had a fun time playing it. So, if you haven't played Uno in a while, go pick up a new game or rummage through your old stuff from childhood and you just might find an old stack of Uno cards that is begging to be played!