Itrain, Utrain

Tonight has been a wonderful night. It was a chilly, rainy day down here today, so we had some warm chili for supper and have enjoyed sitting by the fire. Matt's been reading a new book and I've been working on a paint by numbers picture I got at Michael's. It's a gorgeous picture of roses. I've never done a paint by number before that wasn't in a children's coloring book or something. So far it is going well. There is something therapeutic about painting in all the weird shaped blobs. I think it's going to look very nice when it all comes together.

Stevie and Wil have enjoyed us being home as well. We took them for a walk this afternoon so they are having a pretty good day. Steve gets so excited when I put my workout shoes on each afternoon now. She just KNOWS this is the day I'm going to take them on a walk outside. Even when we don't go for a walk she still stays excited and chases me around as I do weights. I accidentally stepped on her the other day so now she still "plays" with my feet as I move around but she's better to watch out for where I step.

My new year resolutions are still going well. I haven't learned any sort of foreign language yet, but, I have been able to stick to doing some sort of exercise everyday. Some days it's all I can do to just do a few sit ups and bicep curls and other days I can go for more than 20 minutes on the elliptical. I may not be consistent, but at least I'm getting something in there everyday. Every calorie burned helps right?

I've been using a workout system that has been really great for me. It's downloadble exercises for your MP3 player. I downloaded them off of www.itrain.com. It's a really awesome way to have a personal trainer without being glued to a video or DVD on your TV or going to the gym. The person on the track talks you through your exercises and music plays in the background. The music is very helpful to keep a fast beat when you're running or on the elliptical and the strength training is really helpful to building muscle. The downloads are around 5-6 dollars a piece and have really been helpful for me. It kind of gives me the extra push I need when I'm working out alone at my house.

Matt and I are both falling asleep in front of the fire. It's been a wonderfully lazy night. Me, Matt and his mustache bid you good night. (He loves growing a beard and he normally shaves his upper lip while growing the beard on the rest of his face, but lately he's let that grow as well and lo and behold! A mustache appeared! I'm trying to talk him into trimming it like chuck norris. If I suceed of course there will be pictures.)

Step into the freezer...

Not much to report lately. We've just been settling down after Christmas and working a lot. I finally got all the Christmas stuff put away this week. I left the Nativity set out the longest. I guess if you're going to leave some sort of Christmas decor out late it's better to leave your Nativity than the christmas lights on the porch, that IS a little tacky. :-)

We went to Destin and shopped on Saturday. It was fun to look around in all the shops and see what bargains we could find. I got a nice case for my new computer. I purchased a nice laptop from Sam's so I could have a portable way to work on my graphic design. Hopefully it will pay off in the long run.

We haven't seen any snow down here of course. The ladies I work with talked about the last time they remember snow in Tallahassee. It seems like it was about 15 years ago, maybe more than that. When we went to the Dicken's Christmas in Thomasville they had a "snow" play area where they had a snow machine make snow for kids to play in. The kids were having a blast. As I watched them, I realized that unless they travel around, this could be the only snow they have ever seen. Pretty wild. They were out there in short sleeves because the air was so warm that night. They have no idea what it feels like to play in a real snowfall. Especially for southerners because we don't own any snow clothes. We're stuck playing in layers of old clothes with socks pulled over our tennis shoes so our feet don't get wet as quickly.

Today is a beautiful day and a nice day to have a break from work. We're heading to the mall for some window shopping and lunch. Hope you all have a wonderful week.

Happy New Year~

We had a WONDERFUL time in New York. We were very fortunate to have no flight delays or any travel problems. We made our way around the city like true New Yorkers. In fact, next time we travel up there, we're just going to purchase a 7 day subway/bus pass. It's so easy to get around town that way.

We went to: The Natural History Museum, Rockefeller Center, The Top of the Rock, The Nintendo Store (for Matt), Serendipity (for me - I got the owner of the store to autograph a cookbook for me!), The Museum of Modern Art, Tiffany's, Bloomingdales, The Empire State Building, Macy's, Time's Square, Chinatown, The World Trade Center site, Battery Park, St. Patrick's Cathedral, The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Central Park, Strawberry Fields, Carniege Hall and Harlem. We saw: Mary Poppins on Broadway (totally awesome), an Opera at Lincoln Center starring Placido Domingo, and Handel's Messiah at Carnegie Hall. We shopped and at hot dogs and pretzels from street vendors. It was very cold but we didn't care. It made if feel more like Christmas in the city.

We got home in the afternoon of Christmas Eve so we were just in time to start the Christmas festivities with the family. It was wonderful to spend time with all my aunts, uncles, and cousins who I don't get to see that often. We had a wonderul Christmas. My parents came down to Tallahassee the weekend after Christmas to give me a ride down since Matt had come down right after Christmas.

We watched Alabama play and Auburn play the next day. Our New Year's Eve was very relaxed, as was our New Year's day. We did have black-eyed peas so hopefully our year will go well. This year I resolve to: 1. Eat healthier and excersise more, and 2. Learn a new language (I can't decide whether to work on what little French I remember from college or just go straight to Spanish). We'll see how those go. I decided not to overdo the resolutions because the more I make, the harder they are to keep.

It's been chilly down here the past few days, but it's starting to warm up. Matt wants to go the beach one day this weekend. Winter beach is always fun. Lots of shells and a brisk wind.

Happy New Year to all of you!!! I wish you the best New Year with blessings abundant.

·<[];-{o>>

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!!!