Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving has come and gone?!?!  Say what?!?  It was an amazing four-day weekend that went by way too fast! It was deep fried turkeys with my brother and parents, and then Thanksgiving Part Du on Friday with Blair's parents, Cristina, and Chris.

Saturday brought a tremendous Hokie victory and a party with the wild Empty Nesters (Blair's parents' friends) and their kids.  The KEN's (Kids of Empty Nesters) party resulted in me, Cristina, Ashley T, and Blair's MOM doing the splits and a variety of other yoga moves in the middle of the kitchen.  I shutter to think what would have happened if I had more than one glass of wine.

Today, Blair and I managed to harness our inner Clark Griswald and purchase a family Christmas tree and decorate the house.  The holidays are here and I am stoked!

Can't wait to see what Christmas brings!!!

Turkeys at our house require hardware

My favorite old doggie hanging around for some turkey

The Master Chef

The rare moment of the day I wasn't in sweatpants aka "My Thanksgiving Pants"

Mom and Mikey

Happy Anniversary Ma and Pops!! 

The Happy Couple

Mother and Daughter.  Cristina's internal dialogue "OMG! Take the D@$!n picture!!!"

For the record, Blair insisted that I show off my skillz...Ten bucks says my mom sees this picture and points out that my  toes aren't pointed

Pops will not be outdone

Blair is Home!!!

Blair is home from Japan!  Finally!  It seemed like he was gone for ages.  Honestly, I don't know how military wives do it!

I spent most of the week with my parents so I could spend some q.t. with them (and also because I am a big giant chicken when it comes to staying at our house alone).  It was great having some time to really catch up with them.  The funny thing about having my folks so close is that while I see them quite often, it seems like we are always doing something when we are together- we rarely just catch up.

Blair came home on Saturday (did I mention that I missed him?), and we had a lovely low key rest of the weekend.

Sadly, we had to admit Omie to the nursing home a few weeks ago, but we were all able to make it to spend her birthday with her on Sunday.  She was having a good day, and had a blast at her little party.  She is so stinkin' cute!

Birthday cake!  

Presents!  You should have seen her "bust a move" when she turned on her new discman

We were lucky enough to have Julie's mama in town for dinner on Sunday night :)

After such a great weekend, it is kinda hard to complain about Monday.  The short work week doesn't hurt either.

Fort Knox

As long as I can remember I have had a crippling fear of someone breaking into my home.  This fear lead to the "truth about Santa" conversation at age 3 because I straight up lost my mind when my dad explained that Santa "had to come through the front door because we don't have a chimney."  Surprise!  I was a neurotic child.

At approximately 4:00 this morning, the sound of the security alarm startled us both from our sleep.  Blair jumped out of bed, to shut and lock the bedroom doors.  I immediately got dressed because I wasn't about to let some bad guy steal my stuff and get a peep show- apparently I become a diva when in terrifying situations.

Fortunately, to my surprise, I didn't panic, and I didn't die of terror. ADT called to check on us and identify the  door that had been opened.  Blair was on the phone with 911, and the police were dispatched.  Blair said he would go check it out, but I threatened him with death if he went down there...the risk of facing a potential burglar combined with the certain death from his crazed wife proved to be a risk not worth taking.

The police officer knocked on the door.  Blair answered and I did a happy dance as he was quite possibly the largest man I have ever met.  Clear LoCo sent the right man for the job.  He checked our house and yard and made sure were safe before leaving.  There were no signs of forced entry.

This morning, B and I went to Home Depot, and our house is now sealed tighter than Fort Knox.

Handy Blair installing new locks on all of the doors. 

We both want to extend our deep gratitude to the 911 dispatcher, the ADT monitoring center and the police officers who bravely checked out the situation.

Hopefully it was a false alarm, but regardless we are eternally thankful for those who offer much needed help in scary and dangerous situations.

Ashley vs. the Sewing Machine

When Blair and I got engaged, I had all sorts of crazy visions on how crafty I would become once we were married.  Like a wedding band gives you magical crafty powers or something?

I registered for a sewing machine, and I was beyond thrilled when Mr. and Mrs. Illia bought for me as a shower gift.

Mr. and Mrs. Illia cutting a rug at our wedding

A few months ago Blair purchased some pants that needed to be hemmed.  I told him I could take care of it for him...and then the flashbacks of sewing myself to a pillow in 7th grade kicked in and I avoided the chore.

Today, the time came.  It was go time. Time to take on this wild beast.

An hour later, the bobbin was loaded.  Things were going great.

10 more minutes later, Blair's pants were done.  I called him upstairs and had him try on the pants.  My pulse was racing and my palms sweating.  My stomach churned.  He stepped in one slow leg at a time, zipped them and stood up straight.  Bam!  They fit!  I hemmed the s%&!t out of those pants.

Now, I'm off to go knit him a scarf and bake him a pie...and by that I mean, go to the mall, meet baby Jack and then go watch the game at a bar in Arlington with some friend.

Cheers!

Peg-leg

Now that our plans for Paris are firmly settled, I realized the only thing that really disappointed me was that I would have to continue these long runs for another month...ugh.  I had my heart set on getting all kinds of in shape before Paris, and then pulling the ole' bait and switch on Blair after that. What?  We've been married for a year, he's stuck now :)

So today I took my "not going to Paris for another month" tail to the gym with my sights set on a 9 mile run: my longest ever.  I finished and felt great, but now I am limping around town like a descendant of Peg-leg.

Source: dipity.com

And by "around town," I mean "around our house. " It is 9:57pm, and B has already been in bed for 30 minutes. We are so cool.

Here's wishing everyone a great weekend!

Plan B

"Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans."- John Lennon

This quote seems to ring true so often in our lives.  This week was no exception.  As I have been gushing about for months, Blair and I were supposed to leave for Paris on Friday to celebrate our 1-year anniversay.  We were set to come back on the 11th, and then Blair was to depart on the 13th for a work trip to Japan.

As we started the work week, and job duties came in full force, the whole idea of back-to-back trips combined with our already crazy schedule started to make our romantic getaway seem daunting.  On Tuesday morning, Blair looked at me and said "what would it take to move the trip?" 

And cue mission mode....

Costco is my favorite store/website on earth!  I mean where else can you buy 800 rolls of toilet paper and a trip to Paris?  The nice people at the travel desk hooked it up, and were are all rescheduled for Dec. 9-16!! 

When we booked the first trip, I was super excited about being in Paris in autumn, but now we are going to go close to Christmas, and I can't imagine a better time of year to go.  What is meant to be, will be!

And of course, last but not one bit least, WELCOME TO THE WORLD BABY JACK GALLAGHER!  You are love more than you will ever know!

Photo: members.virtualtourist.com

Photo: Viatour.com

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