Here's to the bright New Year, and a fond farewell to the old...

2010 has definitely been a life changing year, as I've reflected back over the past 12 months it is hard to believe how much has changed in such a short amount of time.  In the spirit of New Year's Eve here are some of my favorite moments from the past year: 

JANUARY: Here's to the baby that has changed the lives of everyone in my family for the better. His coming in the world started our year off right. Watching him grow has definitely been one of the highlights of our year. Read about his birth here.

Jake and I also got our first child...before we were married or even engaged (SHHH!) and my how he's grown. We got him when he was a little baby that I could hold like one and now he's a 65 pound toddler dog and we love him so much!

MARCH: Jake gave me some bling and asked me to marry him (read about that here). I asked him if he was serious and then said YES.

MAY: Engagement pictures! My best friend from high school took these for us and she did a fantastic job if I do say so myself!

JUNE: ROAD TRIP! We made our way up to NYC and Boston!

AND...

Our first wedding shower!

  JULY: Trip to Washington, D.C. for Justin and Ashley's wedding.

Changing of the Guard Ceremony

and a trip to the beach with my family...

September: Temple!

 OCTOBER: Love and Marriage...More pics here.

 Cruise...

I was a slacker and didn't take pictures during Thanksgiving or Christmas, I was a little busy soaking up time of relaxation and family, but rest assured they are always on the list of best moments of this year.

I am looking so forward to this upcoming year...who knows what it may bring...another puppy? a baby (cough cough...just kidding!)? finishing painting my house...graduating!!!  Anyway, I look forward to sharing it with all of you!  

Happy New Year!!!

I can see the light...

This semester is almost over and the next three weeks can't go by soon enough! This has by far been my most stressful semester since entering college four and a half years ago. Even more stressful then the year that I transferred schools, or the one where I changed my major TWICE, or the one where I had statistics (which i'm terrible at). I would actually venture to say that this has been more stressful then all of those combined! BUT, it's coming to end very soon, which is something I could not be happier about! All that stand between me and the end is...teaching a 9 hour class to inmates, yes, inmates, preparing this class from scratch, writing a 10 page paper, a two page paper, four finals and two presentations. The light is dim, but it's there.

Jake and I are settled in for the most part, there are still a lot of things that I want to do to the house but that will have to wait for Christmas break because I don't have time to do it right now. I want to paint two rooms, finish hanging things on the wall, organize the laundry room, throw a bunch of stuff away, finally see the laundry room with no laundry actually in it, organize the kitchen cabinets and get all of the scraps from previous projects out of here! Some of my favorite things about living in our cozy little two bedroom, one bathroom house with Jake is that I always feel warm, we have two space heaters, one is more attractive then the other, but a space heater none the less and they give off terrific heat which makes me like the winter a little more. Sometimes I come home and Jake has made me dinner and lit candles, it's so sweet. I like to watch Jake perform little household projects, I especially like when he lifts things to move them out of his way because I can see the muscles in his arms pop out, and I like that we are always laughing at each other and smiling about something, our house is really very warm, and cozy and snuggly. I'll post all of our before and after pics of the house when everything doesn't look like a before anymore.

I miss my family. I haven't seen then in over a month, since we got back from honeymoon, and I don't like to just see them over pictures that my sister posts on facebook. My nephew is getting so big, he's sitting on his toy tractor by himself now, and I don't know when that happened! I need to get home, and soon! Jake and I have decided to go either this Friday night or Saturday morning. It will be nice to see them all again.

I put my two weeks notice in at Target last Wednesday and so that will finally be coming to an end after three and half of years. I couldn't be happier about this. Jake and I decided that I'm not making enough to warrant the half hour drive to Charlotte everyday, which is good, because I hate that drive, especially on Friday nights. Next semester I will only have to go over there three times a week and so I might as well not drive six times if I only have to do it three. I will be looking for something else immediately after the end of this semester and I hope to find something more in the public health field since I will finally be graduating in May and needed to support my sweet husband for the next three years while he finishes school. I would really take a job in any field though, as long as it's not Target!

Puppy Love...

Wow...I have been such a slacker! This is why my last blog didn't last very long, I wasn't very good at keeping up with posting...honestly, I have been wanting to write but I've been waiting to get some pictures scanned onto my computer and now, since Jake, is so tech savvy, they are there and I can post again...what a sweetheart :-)

This is the inspiration for the title of this post

This is my Punkin...otherwise known as Doc. Mine and Jake's new and first puppy. I LOVE HIM!!! He is so smart and cute and the we treat him like a little baby. He sleeps in bed and under covers sometimes and I love when he falls asleep on his back and stretches his little legs out. He snores sometimes too...it's the cutest thing! We are trying to train him right now and he's doing pretty good. Sometimes he still pees in the house but for the most part he makes it outside and he knows what it means. He follows us around and when one of us leaves the room he jumps down to follow to make sure that we aren't leaving. He is the cutest thing and my new favorite thing (other then Caiden). We got him about four weeks ago and he instantly took over our lives and we love it! He's part German Shepard and part Boxer so he will be a big dog, which is perfect because I love big dogs.

More Puppy love...here are some more new pictures of Caiden...

This is a picture Haley texted me and told me that Caiden was sending me a kiss...how precious :-)

Since it's Valentines Day and all I should probably have a little section about Jake in this post...

Poor Jake...that's what everyone says when I tell them about us...and they're probably right, Jake does a lot for me and I love him to death! If for no other reason we have to stay together for the baby, haha. It's so easy and comfortable to be around Jake, and the more we are together the more I love him...I guess that's typical. Just a couple of minutes ago he fixed my scanner so that I could write this blog. My back is really hurting right now so he went to get me a grape soda to make me feel better and came back with a card and a box of chocolate, even though we decided not to get each other anything. My card is so cute it reminds us of our favorite commercial right now...again, more puppies

Anyway, that's all for now, but I promise to be writing more soon and more often!