It's Christmas Time Again

I love Christmas time, everything about it. I love that no matter how our society may try to twist it, it really is all about the birth of our Savior! It is just an awesome time of year. People smile more, give more and are all around just more pleasant!

This year, we bit the bullet with the tree and got an excellent “deal” on a 15ft. tree. We wanted a “show” tree for the living room and a “family” tree for upstairs. So without further ado (or “quote” signs) here is the show tree:


Can’t tell how big she is? Maybe this will help.

Yes, that is me next to her. No decorations yet, only lights. And we had not “fluffed” out the branches when this picture was taken. Isn’t she beautiful – even right out of the box?! We are buying ornaments for her (lots of them) at the after Christmas sales. And it should be noted that we have taken out a bottom layer to make her fit the room better, so now it is a 13ft tree. But still… HUGE. She really needs a name...suggestions?

Here is a picture of our upstairs tree this year.

Alright, not to brag (totally bragging), but I got a little crafty this year. Yes, ME. And I am Oh-so-proud of how it turned out. Has anyone seen their latest Pottery Barn catalog? They are selling BEAUTIFUL ornament garland. I am telling you, it was love at first sight. But not for $90 bucks a foot (or whatever they are selling it for). So, I made my own. It turned out pretty good if I do say so myself. Just call me Krafty Katie from now on!

And last, but certainly not least. We have the wreaths in the windows of our home. I think we have a perfect home for this and it turned out fantastic. See???....

Although I love Christmas time, I do not love this cold weather. So we are off on our cruise. “No Worries, No Problems” A quote from a nice (although I think a bit high) chef while we were in St. John’s a few years ago. I have lived every vacation since then by that motto!

See ya’ll later!

Two. Short. Weeks.

Two short weeks from today, you can find us on this....

On a balcony somewhere back here.....

Holding something that looks similar to this.....

Wearing something that looks like this.....

Well, I will wear this not Dan. Although that is a funny image.

Two. short. weeks......!!!

11-18-1999

Some may boast of prowess bold
Of the school they think so grand
But there’s a spirit can ne’er be told
It’s the Spirit of Aggieland

We are the Aggies, the Aggies are we
True to each other as Aggies can be
We’ve got to fight boysWe’ve got to fight!
We’ve got to fight for Maroon and White

After they’ve boosted all the rest
Then they will come and join the best
For we are the Aggies, the Aggies are we
We’re from Texas AMC

And Now They Are 21

Happy Birthday to these two….
If looks could kill, some of these might have….
But they were good sports.............in the end….
And we all had a great time…
Happy Birthday Harry and Charlie! I had so much fun hanging out with you two this weekend and can’t wait ‘til we can do it more often again! Love you both!

My New Found Fear of Flying

I am not quite sure when it happened but somewhere along the line I have developed a fear of flying. A major fear. I 110% blame Dan for this fear. (Sorry hunny!)

Dan is an excellent pilot, and it should be noted that the ONLY time I am NOT afraid to fly is on his airplane while he is in the cockpit. I know how he conducts himself and how dedicated he is to his job and to the safety of everyone on board. I am completely comfortable when he is flying. Dare I say, I enjoy it.

It’s others I am worried about. The ones who play on their computers and sleep and decorate the cockpit with stuffed animals and toys. WTF?! The only reason I know about any of this is because of Dan. He is so dedicate and can’t believe that some people do this. But all of these “honey, you will never believe what I read today…” stories have developed into my HUGE fear.

My (near) hyperventilating every time I sit down in an airline seat, fear. My last flight I almost had a real life panic attack, fear. My “my life is going to end in this giant tube-shaped thing,” fear. Get it yet?

Today is Friday the 13th and I am FLYING today. So in honor of that, I thought I would make a list of my fears. My irrational fears. My completely illogical fears. But, my fears none the less.

1. I am afraid that the plane won’t be going fast enough and we will not even get off the ground. Causing us to crash
2. I am afraid that while going up we will be at too steep an incline and a gust of wind will turn the plane on its back (see… irrational!)
3. On that note… we will just keep going up and will never level out. Right into space. (You can imagine how much Dan laughs at a few of these “fears”)
4. Pilots are asleep, drunk or now ON THEIR COMPUTERS (WTF?) while they should be paying attention to flying the HUGE metal thing through the air at hundreds of miles per hour.
5. That we will get too close to a plane in front of us and the force coming out from that plane (forget the name) will flip our plane over
6. Some much needed piece of the plane will. fall. off.
7. If we are landing in Atlanta… afraid we are too low and going to hit a tree
8. Going too fast at landing…can’t stop
9. One word… turbulence. It’s not fun and I don’t enjoy it, especially when the pilot tells you to “brace” for it. I almost puked.

I know that the good pilots outweigh the bad ones. The majority of Dan’s friends are pilots and I would be 100% confident in them. Unfortunately, they can't drop their schedule to come fly the plane I am going to be on (Oh, that would be so nice). And Dan can't fly me wherever I want to go on that nice private jet (something about costing thousands of dollars an hour...blah blah blah). So I am forced to put my faith in two total strangers. Strangers who I hope have 1/2 the competence and ability of my darling husband. Strangers, some of whom should perhaps find a nice desk job instead of a job that puts hundreds of peoples’ lives in their hands on a daily basis.

If I am on a plane that goes down, I know where I am going and it is just my time. This fear will not keep me from flying. This weekend a plane is taking me to see my husband (who is at recurrent training in Dallas this week), mom, brothers, dad and I just found out my Aunt Gina will be there, too. It is going to be a wonderful weekend and I won’t let a fear keep me from doing anything I want to do.

So wish me luck. I’m leaving on a (Delta) jet plane (with two safe, wonderful, competent pilots… hopefully!).

Halloween and the Hearse

Halloween was a blast! Mom and Dad P, Grandma and Grandpa Z and Karen came into town the Thursday before Halloween. It was so nice to have them all in town!

The hearse was the center of attention on Halloween. Our quiet little neighborhood didn’t know what to think when we drove up with a hearse! Several of our sweet neighbors drove by to ask if everything was okay.

The party/trick or treating went perfectly. We had the garage all decorated for “adult” trick or treating complete with pudding shots (YUM).

Everyone dressed up, which I LOVED!! Notice something “funny” about Lucy?

The kids first went to the scary clown for their glow sticks (Mom P. really hooked the kids up!)…

Then they came to me for the candy….

Then they saw the hearse driver as they were leaving…

I couldn’t really tell, but Dan said there were several kids too scared to come and get candy from me….success!! (We did have candy set aside to give to the kids that were too afraid).

It was a really wonderful weekend and we are already planning (or plotting.. however you want to look at it.) for next year! Can’t wait!!

Under Construction

I am making changes to the blog so it is probably going to look a little funny for the next week or so!

The Dreaded 10 Pounds

Alright…. I’m throwing it out there. Time for some blunt honesty. I need to lose 10 pounds. Just 10 pounds. Only 10 pounds. It sounds like it should be easy…. Oh, but it’s not. I love to eat. I love food. Mexican food, chocolate, cheeseburgers, pasta, french fries, baked potatoes… any carb. YUM! Healthy food… bleh!

My mom was just in town and while she has always looked fabulous she is looking unbelievably FABULOUS these days!! She is a hard core Weight Watchers follower/fan and it has really worked for her. I have decided that I am going to follow her lead. Anyway, thanks to my mom, we have stumbled upon the lovely Hungry Girl website and all of its awesomeness. She has great recipes and at the bottom of all of them, she gives the Weight Watcher point value. So with Weight Watchers, Hungry Girl and a food/weight journal I just started to keep myself accountable, I hope to start losing weight.

I started this whole thing last week and Dan has been wonderful and supportive. He has already tried everything from mashed cauliflower to fat free sliced cheese (neither are as bad as they sound). Thanks baby!!

I worked really hard in college to get myself into good shape. I have gained 10 pounds since college and I want to get rid of it. We don’t have kids, very little to no stress in our lives, we have the ability to choose what we eat, etc. This should be the easiest time to lose weight and get myself back in check. I am a little embarrassed to admit this on a public blog for anyone to see. The only reason I am doing this really is in hopes that it will put more pressure on me to stick with it and lose the weight. I will just keep thinking about how good it will feel when I have lost the 10 pounds and can bite into that big ‘ole plate of gooey, cheesy nachos. Kidding!

Wish me luck (and lots of willpower)!!

Another Late Update....

August and September were busy months for the Murray’s. We had the Avery family reunion in Ohio, which was a blast. We had some good Avery time, some good Zargo time, some good roller coaster time and we even saw half of the Sames clan. It was a wonderful family-filled weekend!

In September we headed to Houston to spend some time with the Runty’s and the Purcell’s. These are friends that Dan went to college with. It was great to see everyone and to meet their adorable kiddos. Since this is a public blog, I don’t want to post pictures of peoples kids, so the only picture I can find of that weekend is of Dan and I eating a cookie (and it was a good cookie).

My mom is coming to town in a couple of weekends and I couldn’t be happier. We are going to go to Oktoberfest in Helen, GA and then we are going to go around and look at apartments for when she moves here (only 6 months away!). Then Mom & Dad P. and Grandma & Grandpa Zargo are coming down for Halloween. This is going to be fun! We are planning a big Halloween party.

We have been painting a lot in our house. It seems never ending!! Our bedroom is done, so are our built-ins. Now all we have is the entry way. This is going to be someone else’s job. It is WAY too high for us to paint. Hopefully we will get that done soon. I will try to remember to post pictures of the new stuff soon.

Side Note... Happy Year and a Half Anniversary Baby! I love you!! ;-P

New York City

I think I am finally starting to recover from the long weekend in New York City last weekend. We had a blast! Of course we had all of the typical NYC experiences… site seeing, shopping, Time Square, Central Park, Statue of Liberty, getting into a fight with a bum and almost getting jumped. Ask me about the last two for a couple of good stories! We walked all over the place. I think NYC is the only place you can go and eat horribly and not gain weight just because of all the walking! NICE! No wonder everyone in that city is so dang skinny!! Since I posted my NYC pictures on Facebook, I thought I would steal some of Ryan’s NYC pics and post them on here.

Yummm... brick oven pizza. It was so good we ate the whole thing. No seriously, the whole thing!

Me in Central Park

Ryan got much better shots of Drew Barrymore than I did. She is the one in the black shirt and green pants

Ryan in front of Radio City

These are all M&M's. We could have gotten ourselves into all kinds of trouble here. But we were good!
At Buddakan

Cosmos in NYC...what else?!?!

Dan and I are going to O-H-I-O next weekend! Can't wait! We will be sure to post some pictures of the Avery fun!

We got a camera!!

Mom P. gave Dan and I a camera for our birthday (for those that don’t know, Dan’s and my birthday are exactly a week apart - well a week and two years). It is SO nice to be able to take a picture and actually SEE the picture after we take it (as a girl, this is a great feature to have back again)!

I came to a stall with posting on this blog, but hopefully I will pick up with it again. Honestly, this summer has just been nice and relaxing, not much to post about, just enjoying the weather, the pool, the friends and of course that wonderful husband of mine.

I don’t know if anyone else feels this way, but I feel like this year is just flying by. I can’t believe next week will be August already! We have a very busy second half of the year coming up, so I have a feeling the rest of the year will pass by quicker than the first part has. Next week, one of my best friends, Ryan, and I will be going to New York City for a long girls weekend. I am really excited! We are going to play most of it by ear… but we do have the Sex and the City tour booked. That was the important tour to make SURE we had a spot on. We will miss our hubby’s but we never get to see each other anymore since we live in different states, so it will be a blast to hang out with her again! Then a couple weekends after that, we are going to the Avery family reunion in Ohio. (Why do I have a feeling that is going to be a weekend I need to recover from?) Then we get the second part of Mom P.’s b-day gift – a trip to Cedar Point Amusement Park. Google it, it looks pretty awesome. I guess it’s the largest amusement park in the US – with the largest/fastest roller coasters. We are going to spend the day there with Mom and Dad. It will be a blast! I love roller coasters, but I haven’t been on any since high school. Then in September we will be visiting with the Runty’s and the Purcell’s in Houston for Labor Day weekend. Then Mom and Dad P. and some of their friends will be coming down to Atlanta for their “annual Halloween trip”!! haha Then we have the cruise in December. See what I mean about the rest of the year passing by fast too?!?!

We are also eagerly awaiting Mom and Dad M’s move to Atlanta. They were here this last week and I think they are going to move as soon as Dad M. gets the job transfer. It will be so nice to have them here! And my mom and brothers are still on track to move here in the Spring of next year. Really, I think the next year is going to go by fast!! We have so much really good stuff going on, that seems to be when time passes by the quickest.
Anyway, I will end with some pictures of the house – that I can finally update now that we have a working camera!

Just for comparison sake... this was the living room the way it was when the house was up for sale:

And here is the living room now:

Here is the "formal" living room, we still want to add a bar piece. (Not sure why the couch is showing up greenish in the picture, but its a blue couch) Dan was a good sport with the color on the wall:

Dining Room:

Office:

One of the guest bedrooms:
Now, we just have to work on accessorising the house. As you might have noticed, there is not a lot of stuff on the walls. We will be working on that!

I am really happy with how the house is looking. It definitley feels like it has Dan's and my touch!

We need a new camera....

I was on such a role updating this blog. I have a good reason for not updating recently, I promise. Our camera screen broke about a year ago. Part of the bottom of the screen still worked and we got really good at lining it up to take good pictures so we just never fixed/replaced it. Well, we have some how turned off the flash and since the screen is broken, we can't figure out how to turn it back on. Go figure. So I guess it's time to get a new camera. 

Our living room is done except for the built-ins. So hopefully we will get a new camera soon and I can post finished pictures! 

Adventures in Gardening

Dan and I needed to plant some bushes in our backyard because it was just looking plain back there. You can’t really tell a difference because they are little right now, but hopefully next year they will have grown and look better. We also planted watermelon, squash and tomatoes in a garden. Hopefully they’ll turn out. It’s a toss-up knowing me, I’m not exactly known for any kind of Suzy Homemaker -ness. Here is a picture of the bushes… you have to really squint to see them. Haha

Five minutes after this picture was taken Brenner ripped one of the bushes out of the ground and ate it. Go figure.

Chocolate

This is a random post, but oh well. For those that don't know, (which is probably no one because I have been talking about it NONSTOP for 40 days) I gave up chocolate for lent. I love chocolate. This was a hard thing for me to give up, but I did it for all 40 days (minus a slip the first week at Jason's Deli.... I honestly forgot). On Easter I had some of the Girl Scout cookies that had been sitting in our freezer taunting me for a month. They weren't nearly as good as I had made them out to be in my head. Last night, though, I got my chocolate fix! YUM. Dan brought home the most awesome brownies I have ever had and I ate the whole (probably 1,000 calorie) thing.... and it was worth all the calories! I love chocolate!!.

As a side note.. I will try to remember to post pictures of our living room tomorrow. The painting is complete and it looks wonderful!!

Quick Update....

We are coming along really well with the living room and dining room. Dan finished the wainscoting and it looks great! Here are a few pictures of the color in the living room. Dan and I both love it more than we ever thought we would. Still have one more wall to go, and we have to paint behind the bookcases, but we are almost done with the painting!

Here is Dan painting with his new toy! That thing is awesome and has been the reason we have not had to hire painters!

Here is the paint in the room:

It's snowing in April?

Yes, that’s right. It is April in Georgia and my wonderful husband has just called to tell me that it is snowing at our house. Not cool. Not cool at all! Mother Nature keeps teasing us with a little Spring and then taking it away. Hopefully this is the last cold snap. It kind of came out of nowhere.
I am doing a pretty good job of updating this right? Posting two days in a row, who would have thought?!
Anyway, we have decided to start taking on some home projects. Most of it involves little details and painting, A LOT of painting. Dan is wainscoting around our dining room. He did the first one to make sure I like it. I think it is going to look great and add a nice little touch to our dining room. Here is a pic of one on the wall:

My hubby has tuned into his handy man side and I love it! It’s nice to be able to save money and he has been a great sport about taking this stuff on!
We have also taken on the main living room. We are going a little out of our comfort zone for this project. I have an idea in my head and I REALLY think it is going to look good if I can translate the idea in my head to the living room. Here is a little taste of what has been going on.

Color choice, color choice! It’s so aggravating. These colors don’t look the same on pics as they do on the actual wall, but we are probably going to go with the one of the far left. (they are all gray/green colors) It’s a big step for us, but I think we will like it. We have HUGE built-ins on either side of our fireplace and I am going to antique those (white antique) and then we are going to stone in the fireplace where the green granite is. Here is a pic so you can get an idea of what it looks like:

Do my ideas translate? Anyone have an opinion on if that will look good or bad before we jump in with both feet?!?! We tend to go with neutral stuff, so this is big. If it turns out bad it’s a room everyone will see! Haha. I want a more warm/inviting feel to the room, so hopefully that is the direction this will go to. The painting will probably happen shortly, we can’t leave samples on the wall for too long. If I get a fire under my belt, I might start with the antiquing process. I will have to get our neighbor to help me. That is how I got the idea, she did something similar in her kitchen and it looks AWESOME! Hopefully in the next few months I will be able to post pictures of the finished product!