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In case you can't tell. The figure above is supposed to be Santa Claus.

We're not feeling the Christmas spirit too much lately because it's so warm outside! It's hard to believe Christmas is only a few days away! I guess I forget Christmas is so close when it feels more like March or April instead of December.

We're planning a Christmas at the Crockett's dinner on Saturday since we'll be out of town next weekend and then for Christmas. This way we get to open presents and cook a Christmas dinner of our own. I'm excited. We're going to roast two Cornish game hens stuffed with rice and also have: hashbrown casserole, fried okra, peas (for Matt), turnip greens (for me), biscuits, red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing and green sprinkles. It's going to be delicious. Then Saturday night after dinner we're going to see the Tallahassee Ballet perform the Nutcracker. We saw it last year and it was absolutely gorgeous. I'm really looking forward to it. The ballerinas are alwasy so pretty.

Tonight we're going to take the dogs for a ride and look at Christmas lights. Stevie and Wil will LOVE getting to go for a ride. They miss their walks in the afternoons. Matt and I are considering going into work earlier so we can leave earlier and still have some daylight after work. As it is now, we get home at sunset and we don't like walking in the dark, so the dogs are missing out on the fun walk. They make up for it by chasing each other around the house, but it's not the same as a good walk.

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. I may not get to blog between now and when we leave for our New York trip. It's going to be a whirlwind few weeks! I am super excited about it. Merry Christmas!

Jingle Bells, Batman Smells...

We've been doing a lot of Christmas decorating since we got home Sunday night. I'm very proud of our tree. Even though it is artificial, it still has some touches of the outdoors. It's looks really nice in our living room even though it's pretty big. I have a tree in the living room, in the guest bedroom, on the dining room table, and on the coffee table. We even put some decorations outdoors. Elizabeth said we were the "Wrights of Tallahassee". We're not even close and I'd actually like to find the "Wrights" of Tallahassee. Stevie and Wil would love a car ride and Matt and I would get to search for the lights all over town. We may have to add that to our Christmas agenda.

We have Christmas related plans almost every weekend of December. Market Days is this weekend, parties and the symphony is next weekend, and parties and the Nutcracker the next. I love attending all the holiday festivities. If I could only keep my shopping to a minimum I'd be great. :-) I've found lots of presents for people this year and it's been hard trying to break down my ideas for the best one. That's part of the fun of the season to me, finding a fun gift for everyone. We've adopted a Christmas angel this year. It's a baby boy who wants a light up toy and diapers. I imagine he probably wants the light-up toy and his parents want the diapers. :-) Smart parents. I'm going to try to get him practical and fun things. Whatever he gets from us will be his Christmas from Santa this year so I want to make it really good. It's going to be fun to shop for a baby. I hope I get his sizes right.

I'm posting some pictures of our Christmas tree and the lights on our porch. Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!

Our living room Tree

Our front yard, Candy cane and Icicles

Iron Bowl Aftermath

We've had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was great to be with family and have some time at home to relax. I got to see my grandparents and spend time with Matt's family as well. Normally, Matt and I split up on visits home, but, we were able to visit more places together on this visit so that was certainly nice.

The Iron Bowl did not go so well for me this year, but, it was fun to watch. There is always next year. I couldn't believe it when the dog bit the Auburn player. Clearly, the dog was an not an Auburn fan. hahaha. Bama played well and I hope I'll get to watch them in a bowl game.

We've been decorating for Christmas last night and tonight. We're looking forward to a few weeks of being home and relaxing before we head to New York for our holiday/anniversary trip.

Here are a few pictures from the Thanksgiving holidays.

Thanksgiving Dinner at the Crocketts

My dad created a gingerbread replica of our house, complete with a satellite dish.

Andrea perfects her masterpiece

Matt and I teamed up to create this gingerbread house and candy yard. Notice the blue swimming pool in the back made with Mike and Ike tropical candies. We also have a diving board made out of Bubble Tape.

I am really proud of my Bubble Tape bow on our house and my calligraphy inspired initial on our snow covered roof.

Me and Andrea with the quilts and our Grandma and Grandpa Burns.

The Burns Grandkids:

bottom row: Andrea, Ashley, Matt, Rebekah, Elizabeth

top row: Jeremy, Amy, Jordan

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. Matt and I will be in Florence for the weekend. I’m really looking forward to having a long visit at home that isn’t as rushed as our weekend visits. I always end up feeling like I just don’t get quite enough time with everyone, so a longer visit will be nice.

Disney’s Very Merry Christmas Party was really fun. Cinderella’s castle was gorgeous. It had tiny icicle lights dripping from the roof. It was magical.

We saw:

Mickey and Minnie, Cinderella and Prince Charming, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Beast, Belle, Ariel, Woody, Jesse, Pooh, Snow White, Piglet, Tigger, Mary Poppins, Bert, Alice, and even Santa Claus. The weather was very chilly. We didn’t ride my favorite ride, Splash Mountain, because we didn’t want to get wet in 40 degree weather. I think they actually turned the water down so it wouldn’t splash so much, but we still decided to skip it. The fireworks show and parade were really entertaining.

Fireworks

Riding my favorite ride, the Tomorrowland Transit Authority

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for: God and his love and forgiveness, Matt, my parents, Andrea, Matt's family, Margaret, Steve and Wil, a good job, a nice place to live, vacations, health, family support, friends, reliable transportation, prayer, people who say Thank you, polite kids, funny stories, my warm bed, the means to do the fun things Matt and I enjoy. This isn't a very philosophical list, but, it's things I am thankful to enjoy. God Bless all of you this Thanskgiving and be safe in your travels.

We're heading to Orlando on Friday morning for the Disney Christmas party. Disney has special holiday events with special tickets so they're good to go to to avoid crowds and see the Magic Kingdom decorated for the holidays. We went to the Halloween event last year and had a blast seeing the cute kids dressed up in their costumes and trick or treating all over the park. The Christmas party has a Christmas parade with toy soldiers, snow on Main Street, USA, a special fireworks display and free cocoa and cookies. It's supposed to be in the low 50's and high 40's in Orlando on Friday night so Matt and I are going to be sure to bundle up. But that should make it feel all the more like Christmas. (These are VERY unseasonably cold temps. It will be back up in the 70's/80's by the next day)

Things are going well here. I've been working on some graphic design pieces for work recently. They will be posted on our new recruitment website that goes live in January. Check out www.teachinflorida.com now though and you can see my current "Transition to Teaching" logo I designed. (it's the red apple). It's not fancy, but, hey! I made it and I'm pretty excited. The other two logos are on the new website. Hopefully I'll remember to post about it when it goes live.

Matt got Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii as a Christmas present from me so we've had fun playing that last night and today. It's a very beautiful game, that's amazingly fun. The graphics are really clear and you get dizzy just playing and moving the characters around because they move in all directions.

I'll probably have some pictures of Disney on here by Monday. I'm really excited about this trip. There is no other place in the world I can visit and be completely submersed in my vacation. I have so much fun jumping from ride to ride and taking all the Disney eye-candy in that am totally distracted from any worries. It's such a great way to get away, even for a day.

Have a wonderful weekend! Roll Tide! (I have to start getting them in THIS week as well as next week since Matt (AU) has this Saturday off and is already talking about the Iron Bowl.

P.S. I saw this video on TV a few weeks ago. As a fellow trumpet player, I am #1. Thankful Mr. Krieger never had any ideas to do something like this and #2 I am cringing at her horrible tone and out of tune sound, but, I think you will enjoy this video anyways. :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wffwg7pA0t8

Baby, it's cold outside!

If y'all can believe it, this is the first night we've had to turn our heater on. It got pretty chilly down here last night, but a second consecutive night of freezing temps tonight called for a change in the thermostat at the Crockett house. Florida weather is crazy. Especially North Florida. When we were first looking for apartments here, one of the people showing us an apartment found out we were just moving into town and said "Welcome to Florida, where you'll experience all 4 seasons in one day". That is a completely true statement in the Fall, Winter, and Spring. This morning when I left for work it was in the 30's, by the time we came home for lunch it was in the 50's and by this afternoon the high was 65. It's usually that way all winter, then in the spring we'll have days when you can go swimming followed by days where you have to get your heavy coat out again. Of course, in the summer it's mainly HOT- it rains about 3 p.m. everyday, and even though you see the storm clouds and rain from your office window, it's already hot and steamy again by the time you leave work. Matt doesn't mind this because it's good for his plants. For me, however, when I see a storm brewing I just want to go home and curl up with a good book.

We are really looking forward to the long weekend coming up. Matt wants to go hiking/backpacking/camping and I want to go shopping. We'll try to fit it all in. Steve and Wil will be excited for a trip through the woods. It makes me nervous to have Wil out there since he is about the same size as most small woodland creatures. I don't want something to mistake him for prey. I guess if he's on his leash at all time we can keep him close by. He doesn't like the tent though, he wants to go outside over and over and when we can get him to stay IN the tent he just walks around on top of the sleeping bags and tries to get Steve to wrestle, all night long. :-)

I ordered my own copy of the graphic design program I use to develop designs at work so now I can put it on my computer for personal use. I'm so excited. I've already made a couple Christmas cards for people at work with family pictures in them and I'm going to create a photo book for a friend as a Christmas present. Hopefully someday I can make this hobby a career. So, if anyone has any graphic design needs. See me!

Take care! (I'll probably start my christmas decorating this weekend. I'm so ready for the holidays. I love Thanksgiving, and I'm not doing any outdoor decorating, but who cares if I go ahead and start decking my own halls! Matt loves Christmas too so I don't see the harm. God Bless!)

Roll Tide

We almost went to Tuscaloosa this weekend. Matt wanted to do something nice for me so he thought we could head up for the game. We knew tickets would probably be expensive so we decided to stay home and just watch it on TV. I'm kind of glad I did. Don' t get me wrong, I'm really proud of how well Bama played tonight, but it was incredibly stressful and it would have been more stressful to be there in person. I yelled at the TV a lot. So much so, when they reversed the call of the COMPLETED catch to Matt Caddell that Will started shaking and ran over to Matt's lap because I scared him so much. All things considered though, I am proud of how well we stayed in the game with such a strong team. (Although they play dirty). I do have something to look forward to this year since I feel this is our year to beat Auburn. (That's right, Matt.)

Matt and I have been together 6 years this fall. The last time Bama beat Auburn was 6 years ago, the year we started dating. I remember a good amount of trash talking going on, but I had no idea that Matt was the uber Auburn fan he actually was. Apparently he played it down so I would like him anyways...I guess it worked. I left to watch the game at a coffee shop with my roomate and when I got back to my room he had left a message on my IM that said "you suck...." haha. Back then I think he even thought my taunts of singing "Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer" in his ear were cute.

Needless to say, things have changed. We can't watch the game together and the week before the game is pretty intense. Luckily we'll have Thanksgiving festivities to distract us this year. It's very possible we'll be at the game this year. We just have to figure out what to do with the dogs. I didn't get to watch or go to the game last year since I was working at a conference, Matt decided at the last minute to go and he ended up staying with Andrea at her apartment. If we don't end up at the game I know he'll be at his parents house and I'll be at mine and we'll tactfully not call each other no matter who is winning...I can't say the same for our respective siblings calling us though...We've kept it a good natured rivalry and we love to joke with each other about it. I am always finding ridiculous pictures of Alabama fans set as my computer back drop, and I enjoy setting the homepage on Matt's computer to Kenny Stabler's web page, www.kenstabler.com. It's all in good fun.

Matt, this one's for you and all Auburn fans....ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!

Good Morning!

We had a wonderful trip home this past weekend. Stevie and Wil wore themselves out. We were almost to Dothan on Sunday before we stopped for a break and we had to wake the pups up to take them for a quick walk.

The weather is getting cooler down here and that feels really nice. This is our favorite time of year. I even bought some Christmas decorations at Wal-Mart yesterday. I'm going to end up with 4 or 5 different Christmas trees of varying sizes in our little townhouse. We even got some candy canes for our front walk. But, enough about Christmas decorations. I still have a month until I can put them up. Of course I always put up my Christmas Decor before we leave for the Thanksgivng holidays. I like to come home to a Christmas wonderland after Thanksgiving.

Matt and I may be hitting the big sale on Friday after Thanksgiving this year, but not for our family Christmas shopping. We're shopping for us! Matt is looking for a new surround sound system and I am looking for a new digital camera. I love our current camera but I'd like one with stablizers, faster shutter speed and a stronger zoom. Especially for our trip to New York in December. (4 year anniversary present).

Right now we're just enjoying the cooler weather and relaxing a lot. Last night we sat in front of a fire and listened to Radio Classics on Matt's Sirius radio. They are doing lots of mystery theater and ghost stories. It was so relaxing. Tonight we're going to listen to Orson Welles' War of the Worlds. They are going to rebroadcast it just like they did originally at same time and date. That should be really cool. We'll probably go see a movie for Halloween. That's kind of become our tradition. We had one trick or treater last year and she was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt and carrying a wal-mart sack...

Happy Halloween everyone! Hopefully I'll get some doggie costume pictures up here soon!

Steve and Wil are awesome.

Steve and Wil are glad we are home from work.

These dogs make my day.

(Steve is barking in this picture, she learned to howl and bark from a beagle....)

Catching Up...

Steve and Wil sporting matching Polo shirts (courtesy of Aunt Margaret) on the way to Torreya State Park on Sunday.

Me and Matt at the AU game in Sept.

Hello!

Life has been pretty busy since we got back from the cruise. I went to Orlando for a week and worked at the K12 Conference. It was fun to work with the people from work, plus, we got in lots of shopping with our free evenings. I went to a great outlet mall that stayed open until 11 pm and to the Mall at Millenia. This mall was amazing. It had the coolest decor and it had tons of great stores (Crate and Barrel, Anthropologie, Chanel, Gap, Tiffany's, Bloomingdale's, Neiman Marcus and Macy's) I, of course, had a blast. I can't wait to take Matt down there in November.

We're heading down to Orlando the weekend right before Thanksgiving to attend the Disney Christmas party and to do some Christmas shopping. It should be really fun. We're going to shop and eat at Downtown Disney on Friday afternoon and stay in the Disney Resort on Friday night.
Anyways, the Conference went well. I was really tired and ready to get home by Friday though. I don't sleep well alone in a hotel room...it's too quiet and scary.

Last weekend we went to the Greek Food Festival with some friends from my work. We watched football on Saturday. This weekend was about the same. It was great to watch the Bama/Tennessee game. Bama did quite well.... ROLL TIDE! Matt handled the AU lost much better than I would have. The puppies and I fell asleep because the game ran so late. After church on Sunday we went to Torreya State park and hiked with Steve and Wil. It was a great weekend.

Below are some pictures of my foray into cooking authentic Italian food. I made the filling, rolled the pasta and made the little raviolis myself. We were really proud.. and all without a rolling pin!!

Pinching the dough together

They were pretty tasty!

Matt on top of the boat the first night.

Playing putt-putt on the cruise ship while we were docked in the Nassau.

The Atlantis Hotel and Casino. We got a day pass to visit the aquariums.

On the top/front of the boat at night in Nassau.

We made it back from the cruise safely. It was fun to visit somewhere new. The cruise ship was really nice with fun amenities. We ordered breakfast in our room almost everyday. There was a great show that featured 80’s music. We had a good time on land as well. We snorkeled in Freeport and went to the aquarium in Nassau. We also shopped in the Nassau shopping district which was really fun. I bought a woven purse with flowers on it and Matt got a calendar/bill holder thing that was woven out of the same materials. Then on the way home from Cape Canaveral we stopped at Typhoon Lagoon in DisneyWorld. It was an amazing water park and the perfect ending to our vacation.

This past weekend I had a cold so we stayed in and watched football. I was bummed about the Alabama game, but, it was nice to relax at home for a weekend. I didn’t even clean, which I should have, but since I felt bad I couldn’t muster up the energy for cleaning. I’ll have to make up for it this weekend.

Next week I will be in Orlando for the entire week for the Department of Education K-12 Conference. I am part of the conference staff so I imagine I’ll be pretty busy. We plan on leaving on Monday morning and we won’t be back until Friday afternoon. Hopefully the conference will be really fun and will go smoothly. I’ll probably be homesick by Friday, though. It’s hard to be away from home for that long.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Bahamas or Bust!

We're excited about our upcoming cruise to the Bahamas. We leave from Cape Canaveral on Sunday and get back on Thursday morning. We're a little nervous about leaving the country. Even just traveling to the Bahamas is complicated. We've got our passports squared away and our birth certificates ready to show we are who we say we are. I think we're going to have a really good time. It will be nice to escape for a while.

Stevie and Wil are going on a little vacation of their own! They'll be staying with my parents. I think they'll like that better than the kennel they ususally stay in. I think all the other dogs barking makes Wil nervous. They sleep really well after we pick them up, probably because they're being overstimulated by all the action with the other dogs.

Matt and I are enjoying the start of college football season. We went to the AU/Kansas State game last Saturday. I stayed tuned into the Bama game with our new Sirius radio. We'll be watching whenever a game is on!

Hopefully my next post will be full of fun cruise pictures. See you then!

Satellite Radio and Labor Day

We had a wonderful visit home this past weekend. We got in about 10:30 last night. I got Matt a Sirius portable radio system for his birthday and it has proved to be very helpful on long car rides. Normally in the last couple of hours of driving it gets rough because it's getting dark and you've worn out your CDs and radio music. Sirius offers several entertaining talk radio stations so it gives you something else to listen to and breaks up the monotony. We listened to the Blue Collar Comedy station for a long time. It was 5-6 minute excerpts from comics that were really funny that rotated constantly. We heard lots of comics we had never heard of before and we never heard the same person twice. It was really fun. Plus they have sports, Martha Stewart, and an old radio show broadcast channel. I listened to a detective story when I was driving. We love the music, but after a long ride, you need something different and the comedy channels proved a perfect distraction.

We'll be traveling a lot in the next few weeks. Birmingham and Auburn this weekend, the cruise and then home again. I don't mind though. It makes the work week go by faster when I have things to look forward to. Matt is excited about the game and I am excited about going to Birmingham for a few days. It's going to be nice to have the day off for Labor Day. I remember I used to think that Labor day was like an alternative Mother's day since mothers "go into labor" when they have a baby. I finally figured out the difference. I think I thought people called work "labor" back during the Depression but it's not a term used today...haha.

College football season starts this weekend. Our house will not be the same for the next few months. Just an FYI, if you need Matt on a Saturday from now on, be prepared to speak to him only during commercial breaks and halftimes. He'll be in his chair with the Pickle and Stevie and the surround sound cranked up. This is our first time to see a sport we actually care about on our big TV. I'm excited. It will cool to see something other than NASCAR in high definition. We'll be able to see tattoos, 5 O'clock shadows and missing teeth!

Also, in case I don't get a chance to post before this weekend, I have to add in a ROLL TIDE! Hopefully this will be a great year for us.

Scuba Matt and Ashley

We bought snorkling equipment this afternoon. We plan on taking them with us on the cruise so we don't have to worry about renting them from anyone. We hope to practice with the equipment in the river on our visit home. Just to get used to it and work out the quirks. We've had a busy weekend. We got the house cleaned and a lot of old clothes moved to the donation pile. We also finally purchased frames for Matt's Bar certificate and law school diploma. He plans on hanging them in his office at work. I aslo got a frame for my UA diploma. I'm not going to take it to work though. It doesn't seem safe there. I wonder if something happened to your diploma if you could get another copy? Who knows?

We ate at a delicious new restaurant Friday night. It's called Mosaik. Out of all the "fancy" local restaurants we have tried this one has been the best. Chez Pierre's food was mediocre at best, Food Glorious Food was too loud for an intimate dinner, KoolBeans had a long wait-bad service- and food that wasn't impressive enough for the talk I had heard about it. Mosaik was really tasty. We each got a salad that had romaine, spinach and fried green tomatoes with cherry tomatoes and a vidallia onion vinagarette. Matt had a tuna appetizer with avacadoes, tomatoes, pineapples and a wasabi cream sauce. I got a mushroom ravioli appetizer that was extremely tasty. I highly recommend it.

Off to Walmart- we've been there several times this weekend....good thing it's open late!

Orange and B'ham

If you can't tell, Matt was really excited.

Matt ask him to sign some important documents

The girls before church on Sunday.

We had a really good time. We'll be home in Florence next weekend!

Auburn Fan Day

We got back from our trek to Birmingham and Auburn safely. Fan Day was interesting. I was surrounded by a lot of orange, but Matt was really excited so I didn't mind too much. He had a good time. I got autographs for him from Al Borges, Quentin Groves and some other defensive linemen. He waited for 2 1/2 hours to meet Tommy Tuberville. I took a lot of good pictures while they talked. The coach was very gracious and nice.

Andrea and Elizabeth's apartment is super cute. Very old fashioned. Just the kind of thing I like. They had it decorated very cute too. I'm excited for them. We had a good time shopping and going to church on Sunday. It was a beautiful, but hot day. We cooled down at the mall. Andrea bought a cool ring with a picture of a lady on it at Forever 21. Elizabeth and I got super cool sunglasses. The we made the trek to Sephora and covered ourselves in hair products, makeup and lotions. If they are still living in Birmingham whenever Matt and I make it up there, we will have to make a weekly girls date for Sephora. I didn't spend much moolah but had a great time. Oh yeah, Matt also bought a spider key chain that kind of freaks me out. It's the little boy in him that is still obsessed with insects and arachnids, I guess.

I'm looking forward to this weekend because we have NO plans. We are pretty busy for the next 4 or so weeks so it's good to know ahead that I need to make the most of this time at home. (Washing clothes, house cleaning, etc.) I hate to clean on the weekends, but I hate even more to clean when I get home from work...I guess I choose the lesser of two evils....

Pictures from this weekend to come later...

Stevie, my Boston Terrier

Wil the Chihuahua

My sister Andrea

Number 1

Here it is, my first blog post. You may not find this interesting at all. I won't be presumptuous and assume you even care about our lives, but I enjoy reading other people's blogs so maybe you'll enjoy mine.

Right now my mind is on our weekend plans to travel to Auburn for fan day and then on to B'ham. Matt is really excited about it. I'm not particularly excited about the visit to AU but I am definitely excited about the visit to B'ham. We'll see my sister's new apartment. It's in the Highlands area and apparently really cute.

Steve and Wil will stay home, I don't know where I would keep them while we waited in line and Andrea's apt. is not pet friendly. I'll probably have to get them a toy to assuage the guilt they are sure to inflict on me.

I will try to post some pictures of me, Matt and our dogs. Our life pretty much revolves around working, traveling and the dogs right now. I can't complain. It's very nice. I do not miss the days of college and high school when I had homework, practices and other obligations. Just leaving work at 5 and knowing everything is over until I get there the next morning is a great feeling.

More later....