If You Have To Move...

...it's nice to have a weekend like we did! Moving is never fun. Packing boxes and then moving them, scouring up help to move the big furniture, borrowing a truck/trailer to put the stuff in (thank goodness for our dads and friend, Butch!), and finding places for the boxes in the new place so you can "live around them" is just frustrating. But, it's all not so bad when the weekend is as beautiful as it was for us!

It was in the mid 60's and sunny both Saturday and Sunday! We did a bit of moving on Friday too, when it was off and on rainy and in the 70's. Still not bad but not quite as nice and Saturday and Sunday when we did a good chunk of the stuff!

We are so excited that we are finally in our much larger two bedroom!! I LOVE it. It may only be about 210 extra square feet but it's huge to us! It feels so much more roomy and we have a hallway!! We've never really had a hallway in any of our places so far. It may seem trivial, but it's big enough we have a hallway! I think another reason it seems larger is because in addition to the extra space, we have less furniture stuff in our living area. Since we have a second bedroom the bookshelves are all in there and we got rid of a bookshelf that was falling apart.

We can't wait to continue unpacking and make this place our cozy new home. It's already pretty cozy, I just know it will get even better when it's decorated, all the boxes are gone, and we've bought the few things we need that weren't needed in our old place! I'm so glad we stayed in our same community though because we've absolutely loved living there for the past year. It was a great bonus when we were looking to upgrade that they had a two bedroom that was very much so within our price range!

It is definitely a relief though that the move is over with. We were both pretty stressed about it, but it went fairly smooth! A big HUGE shout out to our family and the few friends that helped us. Without them it would have been much, much more stressful!

Cindy

(Semi) Wordless Wednesday

The Super Bowl was on Sunday. I am not a football fan. I don't watch games unless I'm at my in-laws house and my father-in-law has a game on. I really don't know too much about the game except for the answers I get from the questions I ask during a game. I do enjoy watching the Super Bowl though, mainly for the fellowship and excitement. And of course the commercials!

This year, Collin and I went to a party at his parent's house and had a good evening! The food was delicious and the game was so good! Plus, it was our local team (Ravens) playing and then they WON. That was super exciting! And we got to see some pretty funny commercials. The only disappointing part of the evening was that some of the other people were talking during some of the commercials and that bothered Collin and I. But other than that we had a really good time!

I made a peanut butter brownie trifle and the very first peanut butter cup I pulled out had TEN wrappers around it. I said to Collin, "Whoa, this one has lots of wrappers, I'm going to count." Then I started counting and when I got to five and kept going Collin just kept laughing!

Delicious food on my plate. Pulled pork sandwich, my buffalo chicken dip with crackers, dirty rice, orange peppers and mushrooms.

The trifle in all its delicious glory!

I didn't make this but it was an awesome cupcake arrangement that a friend made!

Cindy

Thanksgiving Fun

I'm so sad that this past weekend is over. It was quite wonderful!! We spent time with family and friends, did a little bit of shopping, and just relaxed! It was glorious!

Thursday morning we headed over to Collin's parent's house early to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I helped his mom out in the kitchen a little bit and made the mashed potatoes for dinner. Our friend Megan joined us for dinner and we had a delightful time. Later that evening we went to my parents house to visit and we played Quelf. So. Much. Fun. We laughed so, so hard!

A great way to start Thanksgiving off. Relaxing in bed together before getting up.

The tree was already up at my in-laws on Thanksgiving. So pretty!

Playing Quelf with my family was a blast.

My parent's cat Marmalade decided that our stuff was perfect to lay on. haha!

Collin and I on Thanksgiving.

My Thanksgiving outfit.

Friday I woke up early (though not as early as some!) to meet Megan and our friend Crystal at 6am for shopping. We made our first stop at JC Penney, then on to Belk. Next we got breakfast at Chick-Fil-A then we hit up Hallmark, Bath & Body Works, and Target. Next on our list of places to go was Kohl's and Dick's Sporting Goods. However, on the way to Kohl's I started feeling not so well so I bowed out and went home to rest. I'm glad I did because it made me feel better since we had an evening out in downtown Leonardtown for the Annual Christmas Tree Lighting! It was actually warm this year! The past few years we've been it's been SO cold but this year it was in the high 50's! It was a delightful evening with Collin.

Collin and I had a basically free meal at Chick-Fil-A Friday night (yay coupons!). Afterwards we had delicious Ice Dreams.

The Leonardtown Square tree lit in all its glory!



Posing in front of the tree.

A model train they had running in one of the buildings filled with trees and auction items.

Saturday once Collin got home from work we headed to his parent's house because his mom was having an Open House for her Thirty One and Mary Kay businesses. We spent the afternoon there helping her out. She had a successful open house and I'm so glad! That evening we relaxed at home, had homemade buffalo chicken pizza, and played Sports Resort on the Wii! We hadn't played with the Wii in a while and it was fun!

There was an awesome sky on Saturday morning while I was running errands!

The Mary Kay room at my mother-in-laws Open House.

Sunday we had church in the morning, then we watched a movie while we ate lunch before going to our friend's, Jeff and Jeannie, apartment for the afternoon/evening. Jeannie and I made cards while the guys watched Vegas Vacation and played video games! Then they made us a delicious dinner and we had S*more Pie for dessert. Such a fun day with our friends.

And just to share something silly, I filled this MadLib out on my phone this weekend and thought it was hilarious. =)

I was using the voice recognition feature of the app and so Nose came out Knows and I realized it too late. I do know the difference, I promise!

I hope you all had wonderful weekends, too. For my American readers, I hope you enjoyed a great Thanksgiving holiday! May this coming week not be too long and arduous!

Cindy

Messiah Homecoming!

On October 20 Collin and I attended my alma mater's, Messiah College, homecoming! I hadn't been to Homecoming since the year I graduated ('08) and it was so much fun going this year! We loved hanging out with my music friends, who also happen to be Collin's friends from the times we've seen them in the past few years, and just being able to walk around campus and have a grand ol' time! We even were able to eat lunch in the Lottie Nelson Dining Hall. Good memories! It's so interesting though that in the 5 years since I've been graduated (I actually graduated in December of '07, I just consider myself class of '08 since technically I am... I graduated a semester early) how much things have changed. It was fun to see though! Anyway, it was a BEAUTIFUL fall day so I took lots of pictures that I wanna share with ya'll now!

Andy was way too excited about the prospect of throwing the leaves in the air... lol



Collin, Andy and Jackie enjoyed throwing the leaves into the air!










They're adding on to the Music and Arts Building called Climenhaga where I basically spent the majority of my college days. It's going to be a BEAUTIFUL new addition and I can't wait to go back when it's finished to check it out. It does make me a little sad because the Climey I know and love is no longer the same...

Old Main is the Administrative Building and it's also one of the oldest buildings on campus. It's beautiful both inside and out.


One of the events we attended was the Concert Choir Alumni Choir Concert. All alumni who were in concert choir were invited to come to a rehearsal where we practiced a few simple songs, and went over some other songs that are Concert Choir traditions, and then we performed some of them by ourselves and a couple with the current Concert Choir. The current Concert Choir also performed a few songs by themselves. It was so fun and such a great experience to sing under the direction of Mrs. Tedford again.

We had such a great time that day. I am so glad we went and got to spend so much time with our friends. They are so fun and I miss them. But, there's hope in the future of seeing them again soon since Jackie and Andy got engaged last weekend!!

One of the things I miss about being at Messiah is the beautiful fall colors so I am really glad I was able to take so many pictures, especially since now I'm much more into photography!

Cindy