this weekend...

…was gorgeous (weather-wise) and a lot of fun!

It was soo nice outside this weekend!  Sunny and 60 degrees!  Finally no snow or rain….hopefully spring is on its way.  On Saturday, Andy’s sister and step-sister came down to visit.  We had lunch and then wandered around our little downtown area (well, the girls did – Andy went home after lunch and took his Saturday afternoon nap).  We had a good time shopping and bought some art and jewelry by local artisans at a fun coffee shop, some chico bags at the recycled goods store, and taste-tested and bought some wine at our wine bar.  Then we came back, had dinner with Andy, and the sister-in-laws headed home.  We were so glad they were able to come visit and glad we had such a pretty day to enjoy together.

Today we heard a really good Presbyterian missions guy speak at church about being a “real church” – he was one of the best missions speakers I’ve heard in a long time – maybe ever.  Then we went out to lunch with some new friends from church and enjoyed getting to know them better.  After lunch we had to head straight to Bragg to go to lead a Red Cross Youth activity – we were taking the youth to deliver cookies to the patients at the military hospital on base.  We had a good turnout of the youth and most of them brought homemade cookies to deliver – they did an awesome job and it was neat to see them enjoying serving others so much.  Andy said he was reminded of why he loves working with the American Red Cross today.

To top off a great weekend, we made a quick trip to Target on the way home.  (I love Target, but don’t have one here in our little town)

Hope everyone else had a good weekend and enjoyed some nice weather (finally!)

last weekend...

…was snowy and adventure-filled.

We had planned on going to Georgia to see Andy’s mother and grandmother, but weren’t sure when we heard about the bad storm hitting Georgia and traveling north on Friday night just as we would be going south.  We texted back and forth all day at work trying to decide whether or not we should still go.  We really wanted to since we hadn’t been down to see them in a long time and had the long weekend off to go.  When I got home from work on Friday night, we listened to the news one more time and decided we’d be ok driving in what the weatherman said would be a “northern wet snow” – no ice.  After all, my family up in Baltimore had been getting snow 3 feet deep!  Our inch or two would be nothing.  So we started out….and the snow got heavier and heavier.  The roads weren’t icy but it wasn’t that great driving with the wind and snow.  We stopped for dinner and took this picture:


It was still ok since we both felt fairly comfortable driving in snow and were just taking it slow.  But there were a lot of people who didn’t know how to drive in it.  We saw cars in the ditches for miles.  And by then we were getting tired and not making any progress so we stopped in Charlotte (it would normally take us about 2 1/2 hours to get to Charlotte…this time it took 4 1/2) and got a hotel room for the night.
Things looked a lot better in the morning and we started out on a big highway that was nice and plowed.  The rest of the snow we saw melted all day long and all of the roads were fine.  Andy had been doing a great job driving in the morning, but the trucks and the busy-ness of the highway started getting to him and he let me drive the rest of the way.  We got to his mother’s house after lunch and were glad to finally make it – the driving was a bit stressful and wore me out.

We had a great visit with his mother and grandmother and even got to see Andy’s cousin, Mark, (who Andy hadn’t seen in years) and meet his wife, Jen, and their son Connor.  We were so glad we made it down there for a quick visit, despite the crazy weather!  Thanks to Andy’s family for having us visit and everything you both did to make it a great time!

happy valentine's day...

I got myself an early Valentine’s Day present.  This fun shirt:

I got it in the mail a few days ago and really like it.  The best part is that this isn’t only for me, but it also gives the gift of a pair of (much needed) shoes and a shirt to an orphan in Ethiopia.  I heard about this site and all that they are doing and wanted to show my little bit of support.  These shirts were only sold for a limited time before Valentine’s day, but it looks like they are going to be having a few other shirts for sale soon and it’s a great site to check out.
Hope everyone has a good weekend and a nice Valentine’s Day.  It is a long weekend for us (we’re off on Monday for President’s Day) and we’re looking forward to it.  We’re going to be spending it the weekend with some people we love and haven’t seen in way too long.

it's been 3 months...

…since Andy’s accident on Nov. 3rd.

And yesterday he finally went back into the office for work, driving the 45 min. drive alone.  He had no problems driving and said everything felt fine being back in the office.  We’re both really happy and looking forward to him starting back full-time next week (this week he is doing part time still to get used to being in the office and make sure his leg can tolerate everything).

(and I kinda like having my space back in the mornings to get ready after he leaves for work….I’ve missed my slow waking up time with no one around!)

It’s been a long 3 months, but it’s starting to feel like life is getting back to normal for us.