Cold nights, warm fires, and white wine…. December 22, 2009

Christmas cards are in the mail. To save some paper (and time), we decided to update everyone on our year with a blog instead of a newsletter…

So wow, it’s almost 2010! 2009 has blown by and a lottttt has happened!
We got engaged, got married, moved out of town, got our two babies, Harper (the Pit Bull mix) & Bug (the feisty Chihuahua), lost my Papaw to a fast battle with Cancer, spent a lot of time visiting friends & family in Kentucky, Tennessee, Chicago, & Grand Rapids, made our apartment into a home, got my first car..a Honda Element, saw several good shows…Wolf Parade & Against Me! were my favorite. We spent most of our time away from work hiking, watching movies, or drinking around our fire pit on the back porch with friends. It’s been a wonderful, crazy year and we are so happy to have spent it together.

The year ahead looks like this…

Alex got a promotion at work so he will be busy in his position, working for Miami. I am starting classes on January 4th for my Veterinary Tech program! Woohoo! I will also be working still at Cincinnati Tan. We will probably be staying at the apartment for at least another year. Possibly longer…until I’m done with school. We get a really great deal out here and it’s nice having the fenced in yard for the dogs.

Our 2010 resolutions are looking like this..

Alex-
1. Forget to bite my nails. (haha)
2. Exercise
3. Cook more/eat out less
4. Save money
5. Train Harper (l0l)

Emmy-
1. Take a vacation via Train
2. Exercise more
3. Cook more
4. Get A’s in all of my classes
5. Don’t get pregnant. hahaha j/k…but seriously.

Stay in touch with us! If you ever want to hang out or visit just let us know! We love you all and hope you have a great Christmas with your families!!

A&E

a quick post.. December 17, 2009

I can’t write much because I have to shower before work, but…I just couldn’t help posting a tiny blog.

I’m so excited for Saturday! I get certified for my job..my Dad graduates from the University of Dayton with his masters in Education..it’s Christmas with my Dad’s family..and Saturday night my best friend and her man are coming down to Oxford to visit!

Did I mention that I can’t wait to start January classes? I am two years away from being a Veterinary Technician! That’s so soon!

I finished our Christmas cards last night…over 90 of them! AHH! They are ready to be dropped in a big blue mail bin and sent off to the people we love..

More later!

all we need is love.. December 15, 2009

I love my husband. He is my absolute best friend..the best friend I have ever, and will ever have. Sometimes it amazes me how happy I feel on a regular basis. It seriously blows my mind that I still feel so insane about him….in the past these kind of feelings have wore off easily after a couple of months with someone. The other night Alex & I were on our way home together and I said something that made him laugh and he said “You’re my best friend..” It makes my head spin just thinking about it. Nothing makes me more happy than knowing that my Alex loves me just as much as I love him. Enough with all of the mushy stuff..it’s just on my mind.

On another note…I have lots of fun things to share!

–our apartment looks sooo cute!…paint does wonders in any space! you should visit us & see for yourself.

–I can’t wait to start classes on January 4th!

–Alex & I got 3 grocery bags fullllll of books for less than $15 at Valley Thrift in Hamilton. We always have the best luck there.

–I think I’m going to get to volunteer at a local Animal Hospital here in Oxford!! Woop Woop!

–I love my job & the girlies I work with..

—-I can’t wait for xmas! Alex & I aren’t even doing presents this year…but I just love the holidays and he is the only gift that I need. <3

peace & love be with you!

ps, i love you… December 9, 2009

I had the worst dream of my entire life last night..don’t judge me for the weirdness/impossible details of this dream…my brain does wack stuff when I let it rest. I had a dream…and I don’t remember what happened in the dream up until this exact point..

So…I was really small…like the size of a lint roller. (LOL)…we’re off to a great start, right? I’m sitting on top of a Dinosaur, next to the ocean…cleaning it’s neck. It’s a friendly herbavore. Well…Mr. Dinosaur decided to move the wrong way and knocked me off his kneck and down his tail and onto the beach..right next to the water. Considering I am so small…the water easily sweeps me out as the tide comes in. I forgot to mention that my trusty dog, Harper is with me. So we are both swimming for our lives and thinking we are going to drown and out of no where, a whale swallows us. I know this dream just keeps getting weirder and weirder…hold on. So we are inside of Mr. Blue for about a year (maybe longer)…living Pinnochio style…finally the big guy burps us up onto a beach one day. Somehow…we are normal size again. We have no money, but eventually we make it back home (somehow). I knock on the door…tears in my eyes because I haven’t seen my husband in over a year and I’m sure he probably thinks I’m dead, but I can’t wait to hug him..well he opens the door and is so happy to see us but won’t touch me or anything…turns out that he married someone else while I’m gone! Someone I don’t even know… Now I know that this is totally never going to happen and it’s just a bizarre dream…but I woke up crying so hard. It was awful..pleading with him to hold me and to make everything right again..but he can’t because he’s gone and married someone else. lol It was the worst feeling I’ve ever felt…I really don’t think I could live if I ever lost Alex…in any way. So…Alex…stay alive! Be safe! Don’t get married if you don’t see me around for a while..lol..unless they find my body. ;-P It sucked because I had this dream and it was what I woke up and started my day to…so all day I have felt like I’m in mourning over something that didn’t even happen…it’s nuts! I love the kid so much…My Granny used to say “I love you so much, I can’t let you go!”…I get it now.

It’s official! December 7, 2009

I start class on January 4th, 20TEN! Bring it on!

“i might kiss you on the neck..bc it’s christmas time!” December 6, 2009

G’morning!

We put up our Christmas tree last night..it’s purty! The Dogs were totally confused, as this is their first Christmas. Harper was just sitting and staring at me put the decorations up. Alex thinks she thought we were going to eat it when we were done. haha! After we got done, we watched The Ugly Truth with Gerard Butler & Katherine Heigl. It was hilarioussss and sweet. Then we started The Nightmare Before Christmas…but we got too sleepy to finish it.

We had high hopes of sleeping in today..but that can’t happen apparently when you have dogs that love you too much to stay on the floor! Once 6:30 rolls around, all rules of staying on the floor asleep go out the window. We eventually realized there was no hope of going back to sleep, so we are sitting in the living room admiring our tree, drinking coffee, and listening to xmas music on Pandora…ooo and now it’s time for the yummy cherry turnovers I made…Peace out!!!

morning glories December 4, 2009

I love when I don’t have work until after 10:00 a. Today I work at 1:00. It’s nice because no matter what, I always wake up around 8 or 8:30. This means that I can sit and do nothing all morning, I can clean, I can read, I can take a long shower, I can watch a movie or walk the dogs…I can do whatever I want for a few hours. It’s nice because I enjoy the mornings a lot when I am at home..I just don’t like mornings when I have to work. hehe Although, I also like working earlyyy because mornings go by so fast and then you are home by early afternoon.

Anyways…this morning in particular, I am opting for the…lay in bed and watch a movie..followed by a shower before work. Sounds glorious!

Enjoy your day!

puppy love December 3, 2009

I’ve spent a lot of time in the past two days in Cincinnati. I had to go to a hotel for a work meeting/conference on the 1st…then yesterday after work I went down to Brown Mackie to speak with an admissions counselor about getting back in school. We’ve been chatting a lot recently. Alex & I decided I should probably get back in school and finish my degree while we are at a pretty easy part in our life…also I’ve just had the itch lately to go back. The problem is I couldn’t think of anything that I really wanted to do that Miami offers. You see, if I wanted to do a program at Miami, it would be free because of Alex’s job with the university. Sadly, nothing intrigues me in the slightest bit except English & Art…and those are only recreational hobbies of mine…not something I want to do professionally. As a kid I always wanted to be a Vet or a Zoo keeper LOL. Basically…I gush for animals. When we pass any kind of animal while driving Alex just laughs because I can’t help but get all squealy and “aawwww!!! o my gosh…awww!!! look at those goats! awww” haha! So I’ve been looking at schools in the area that offer a Vet tech program (basically a nurse for animals). There are really only a few schools in the state that offer the program. Brown Mackie is the closest, cheapest, and they offer a unique program because you only go for two years vs. four taking 1 course every month for 24 months. This way I can continue to work and not stress my brains out trying to balance work, school and time with Alex. Soo…long story short, Brown Mackie only allows 10 students per Vet Tech class that comes through…so they wanted to meet with me and tell me more about the program, etc. Well, they want me!..and I want to do it I’m accepted into the program and ready to start classes on January 4th..as long as everything goes smoothly with Financial Aid. I should know whether I will be able to start in January around Monday or Tuesday. Please keep me in your thoughts because this is really hugely important to me. I got to look through all of the Vet Tech portion of the building and the labs are awesome!! The students all seemed to really enjoy their classes as well. Here’s hoping that one month from tomorrow I’ll be going back to school.

Em

holiday break down (no not a mental break down).. December 1, 2009

Thanksgiving weekend was long…and great!! Alex has 5 days off in a row and I only worked 2 out of those 5 days…for just short periods of time.

SO…

Thursday:…no..better yet, WEDNESDAY: Alex & I both worked until 4:00 this day. After work we went to dinner (BW3’s..maybe?). After dinner we went to Mac & Joe’s and sat at the bar for a few hours. Usually I drink Long Island Tea’s…only. They are perfect to me..so why order anything else? Well Alex always makes fun of me b/c I never mix it up…so I tried a few different things. I was feeling pineappley so I got a delicious drink with Yukon Jack, Pineapple, and I can’t remember what else…a White Russian…which was a little heavy on the HEAVY cream….and it was in a giant glass …so it was like drinking thick milk, but I powered through. I think I finished off with another Pineapple drink and we left. Alex kept it classy with some whiskey and “2 ice cubes” lol! Old man. He kept it to a minimum though because we had to drive up to Eaton where the real party was . Everyone I knew and loved from Eaton High School (except Laura Soper..who was still in Argentina..and maybe a few others) was at The Mule. There had to have been over 200 people in there…and I have no idea how…at one point I was trying to say hello to someone I just noticed was in the bar…and one of my friends had to pick me up and swivel me around to say Hi…haha! We were packed tighter than sardines. Sardines had nothing on this. It was also fun because a lot of those friends weren’t able to leave school and come to our wedding ..so they got to finally meet Alex. When we got there, my bff from High School’s dad picked me up and shook me up and down with hugs LOL…it was quite the fun entrance. Needless to say, we partied like it was 1999. I love all of them so much…can’t wait to replay for Christmas.

Thursday: Woke up feeling like death rolled over…ran over..spit on…ran over again…and kicked back in the grave. lol Also my throat was like sand paper from having to yell to talk to everyone the night before. We also woke up a little later than planned so we had to take like a 2 minute shower…I didn’t get to wash my hair so I smelled like a bowling alley…smokey. We jumped in the Jeep and drove to Hagerstown, IN where my relatives were getting together. They have a Mastiff…it was gigantic! Cutest thing I’ve ever seen…and the biggest!! I would love to have one but I think I’d get tired of all the drool. Had lots of fun catching up with family and eating good food…my cousin Erin threw the get together…and her Grandfather-in-law left with Alex’s coat on instead of his own. lol So after we left, we drove to Richmond to do a coat swap with him. haha We were super tired but didn’t have much desire to go back to our freeeezing cold apartment, so we drove to Hamilton to get dinner and watch FANTASTIC MR. FOX! So funny. Had a great day with Fantastic Mr. Bufler.

Friday: Woke up around the same time we always do…showered…got to Bridgewater Falls before 10. Bought a fancy TV for our bedroom for eachother for Christmas. Got some winter appropriate clothes for super cheap at Old Navy…got some Panera for lunch and headed home. We spent the afternoon swapping the furniture from our Bedroom with the furniture from our Office. May not sound like a big deal to you…until you see the size of our Hallway…and the size of our bookshelf. 6′ by 6′ and a foot and a half deep. O yah…that was a huge job. Alas, we gotter done. We didn’t have any time to clean up or anything..just move the stuff into the rooms…then off to West Manchester to meet with the Wassom clan! MMMM can you say gooood food!? Had tons of fun catching up with everyone and laughing over old stories. Can’t wait to see them for Christmas. Friday was also my Mother in Law’s birthday!

Saturday: I had to work at 7:45…thought I was getting off at 2. My Father in Law’s birthday was Saturday. Isn’t that cute that their birthdays are so close? Sooo..they were going to Cincy for the day and Alex was going to tag along to spend time with them for their birthdays. I ended up leaving at 12:00 b/c I read the schedule wrong and it was 12 not 2. Cool though! I went home and decided to make the best of my time while Alex was gone…so I cleaned the house like CRAZY!!! I got all of the rooms back in order from the fiasco the day before…scrubbed the floors..organized cabinets..you name it! I’m expecting Alex to get home at any minute and I can’t wait for him to see what I got done…b/c I wanted him to be able to relax and not have anything else to do. I get a text…”On my way to McCullough-Hyde…getting my finger stitched up”..so I met him there. 3 hours, a TD shot, and 4 numbing shots in his finger later…we finally got the stitches in and got to go. We had dinner with his Parents and headed home. Poor guy.

Sunday we just spent at home relaxing because Alex was a little sore and loopy. Monday we did all of our bills and budgeting for the month, got a crap ton of groceries for super cheap…and watched T.V. on Hulu.com in bed all night All in all…I had an awesome Thanksgiving weekend. I have a great Husband and a great family and it was so nice to spend so much time with them.

Hope you had a nice holiday as well! Stay warm—I think the oil guy is putting oil into our tank right now….my toes are getting warmer just thinking about it!

november air i love November 22, 2009

The last two weeks have been rough on the newlyweds. Going out of town for several days and playing catch up is never easy. The dogs are just now starting to calm down and get back in their routine. Work has been hard on Alex because he came back just in time for the busiest/craziest conference of the year at the hotel/conference center that he works at. He is the man who pleases everyone of course so he works his butt off to make everyone happy and they suck all the energy right out of him. Despite this, he took my little 12 year old sis and our cousin, Hannah to Hamilton the other night to see the new twilight movie. Sadly they were sold out so we just had steak & shake with the girls and went home. we still had lots of fun and rented ice age 3 for the girls. (we had already seen it when it came out in the theater, but we still laughed just as hard) I woke up yesterday morning as Alex was getting ready for work and finished a book I’d been reading..The Lovely Bones. I read it years and years ago but they are making a movie that looks like a pretty good recreation of the book so I wanted to refresh my memory. After he left I got out of bed and made the girls pancakes and picked up the place before heading to try and get in to the matinee showing of the movie. We got in! Success! The girls had lots of fun and so did I. I took them to Taco Bell for a quick lunch before bringing them back to my folk’s house. My Momma was busy preparing for my Brother’s 17th birthday party. I can’t even hardly say that with out feeling like I’m making it up…I don’t know how in the world he became 17 somehow. He had a bonfire with about 20 of his friends last night and from what I hear, he had a good time.

When Eli was born, I was almost 5 years old. Given the space between us, I remember just about every part of our childhood from the time he came along. So many hilarious memories cross my mind. He was always so cute and chubby and such a boy. Luckily I was a huge tom boy so we got along like peas and carrots (most of the time). We both loved our animals and playing outside together. Both of us were super competitive though and usually ended any play time because one or both of us was to the point of crying because the other was cheating or being unfair. lol The kid was naked like 95% of his life until he was about 5 or 6. And that’s just because you can’t go to kindergarten in your birthday suit. He’s the sweetest boy I’ve ever known though. He still calls me Emmy which I just absolutely love. He’s the only person that sounds natural saying it. Coming from anyone else it is just simply a nickname or to be cute but when he says it, it’s because that’s who I have always been to him.  He still gives me hugs and tells me about funny things that he’s done recently with friends. He’s going to make some woman really happy one day. I hope he knows how much I love him.
And since I can’t talk about one with out talking about the other, my sister Elaina (Lainey) or more common, “Mouse”…is easily the funniest person I’ve ever known in my entire life. From the very beginning. Maybe it’s easier to be funny when you are 10 years younger than your older sister and 5 years younger than your brother. I guess you would have to adjust to the humor gap at an earlier age or something. She’s always coming up with some hilarious new term for everything. Her word for everything for a long time was “Chi chi” ….she’d see something weird or someone doing something she thought was strange or funny and she’d just say…”That’s chi chi.” LOL Her new word is “beep.” It’s totally random and probably inappropriate to some people but it cracks me up. She uses it instead of saying swear words…example…we were at Steak & Shake the other night and her  jacket got in her ketchup…not even thinking twice she says (completely genuine and natural)…”BEEEEEP-uh!” LOL I thought for sure milk shake was going to come out of my nose. Alex was losing it too. Last night we were recalling all of the funny things she said in just the previous night that we spent with her and Alex said…”She’s going to make some guy laugh so hard one day.” I couldn’t agree more.
I credit my parents for all of the craziness instilled in the E’s. (Emily,Elijah&Elaina) My Dad is the most hilarious man alive to me and my Mom grows funnier to me every day. My Dad was always a big goof to me but I think the older I get the more I realize that my mom is equally hilarious. She says the funniestttt stuff. I often find myself crying so hard from laughing when I’m with them. I don’t know what I would do with out my family. I really don’t..and I’m so glad that Alex fits in to our little pod so well. He loves them as much as I do and it makes me feel so happy knowing that.

I’m so excited for Thanksgiving coming up! Lots of yummy food, visiting with the entire family, picking out our Christmas tree! So much to look forward to.. Last night Alex and I went to Fiesta Charra for dinner and came home to a cold apartment. Like several nights in the last week, we found ourselves showered and in our bed by 7:30 to stay warm. (We are too cheap to pay for oil until we can’t stand it) We like to get all snuggled in bed and watch movies. The last few movies that I have watched I would strongly suggest…Maiden Heist, What Goes Up, Two Lovers, Away We Go, and Pirate Radio. Last night we watched most of a movie but couldn’t finish it…I was too warm and snuggly to keep my eyes open any longer. It wasn’t as good so I won’t suggest it. Today I plan to catch up on the Grey’s Anatomy & Private Practice from last week and clean the apartment a little bit. Tomorrow I have to work a few hours but other than that, Alex finally has a day off so I plan to spend it with him.
If you don’t hear from me before Thanksgiving…I hope you have a great holiday with your families and that you share it with someone you love.

Emily B..