january...
we spent lots of time in january organzing the house, figuring out how to live together (we'd both been single for a while...it takes some getting used to living with someone...especially for a girl who'd never shared a room or a bathroom with a BOY ;), and for me figuring out how to cook yummy but fairly easy and healthy meals (here's an example for you).february...
ahhh, the month of love :). besides valentine's day (which i have to say, hubs totally brought his "a game" on that day...it was one of the sweetest, most romantic, and thoughtful days of the whole year) the month also brought with it one of my favorite blankets ever (also proving that i really have no shame) and apparently, it also brought a whole lot of sickness. we also, though, traveled to dallas, texas, for my good friend stephanie's wedding and i had a lot of fun showing hubs where i had lived and all the places i loved in dallas (as well as getting to spend time with some of the best friends a girl could ever ask for).
march...
technically, we returned home from texas on march 1 so the trip overlapped two months. coming home from texas deserves it's own little mention here on the blog because we flew home from dallas into winter storm blast of '09 (or whatever the local weather people here named it. i named it the-winter-storm-that-caused-us-to-spend-two-additional-hours-in-the-air-and-then-drove-me-to-the-brink-of-a-full-on-meltdown-whilst-trying-to-get-out-of-the-airport-and-then-drive-the-typical-30-minute-home-from-the-airport-trip-in-two-hours...yeah, i'm sure all of you charlotteans remember it that way, too ;). the trying to get home wasn't so much fun (that's putting it mildly ;) but playing in the snow the next day was worth remembering! we also had some more experimenting...err...i mean cooking in the kitchen, redecorating the guest bedroom AND being a host home for our church's disciple now, making one of my very favorite purchases...ever...all while acting like a junior high school girl with a crush ;), celebrating the anniversary of when my prince asked me to be his bride, and this daughter realizing that her Father and King desires to dance with her in the ballroom of her life.
april...
the beginning of april brought with it a season of remembering all that led up to Holy Week and allows us to rejoice and celebrate on Easter. we also kicked off the month with a fun roadtrip to myrtle beach. we packed as much as we could into that little 24 hour trip and it was so much fun! april also held some exciting (decided to get a puppy!) and not so exciting (joel had a crazy busy and stressful end to his semester) times as well as more cooking adventures and a fun, surprise date night!
may...
a new haircut kicked off the month of may. i have to say, looking back on those pictures, i really like it. i am currently hairdresser-less and seriously am itching for a little change in the hair-do part of my life. but back to may... we (my mom, sister, niece, and i) had a super fun girl's day to celebrate mother's day at daniel stowe botanical garden. the month also included a little bit o'randomness, documenting my first pound cake, AND a new addition to our family. our little paisley alley...what an adventure she has been :).
june...
june turned out to be a sparse blogging month due to a little thing in my life called vbs. we did, however, have a guest blogger {hubs, himself} who hijacked my blog and wrote all manner of nice things about me (he also threatened me that if i deleted that post i would be in serious trouble...so i didn't. but i think his assessment of me is not objective at all AND he is quite biased...anyway). besides being super swamped with work, we managed to celebrate hubs' birthday in true, grayson style (which means that we celebrated for about a week :) with birthday celebrations with my family, with his mom and dad, and then with a fun day i planned just for the two of us to enjoy. we also had several fun date nights (including a brad paisley concert...we had great seats) and ended the month at an amazing resort/spa to celebrate our two year dating anniversary.
july...
i made quite the bold statement to kick off july that, "nature is dead to me" and i'm here to report that after an unfortunate incident that occured on the hayride at my birthday party (but that's november so i have to keep the details to a minimum for now ;) nature is still, in fact, dead to me. i gave it another chance and it left me, again, itching and covered in insect bites. we also enrolled our spunky little paisley in puppy school and i can report that while she has not graduated, she is has transferred to a more advanced, uncoventional type of puppy training AND is making great progress :).
august...
if i were to sum up august in one word, i believe i would say that it was difficult. you could probably not tell it by reading the first couple posts from that month because i tried to stay very lighthearted and "surfacy" (is that a word?) but the Lord had been dealing with me regarding some big changes that were about to occur in our life and it wasn't the easiest road to walk. by the end of august, i was able to share our news that the Lord was leading joel and i down a different path...one that included me resigning my position at church and him transferring to a different seminary and taking on a completely difficult and stressful work/school schedule. while i was overwhelmed and excited at the Lord's clear and consistent direction in our life, i was scared out of my mind to let go of something that had been such a huge part of my life for so long.
september...
while i announced my resignation at the end of august, i continued to work until the third sunday in september. so september was full of wrapping things up at work, packing my office, saying my goodbyes but it was not so much a month full of blogging. i did, however, get to post some of my most favorite and quite possibly the most random pictures ever from a very random neighborhood in a nearby town. hubs and i had a lot of fun being serious dorks taking those pictures.
october...
october ushered in one of my favorite seasons {hello, fall}, taking my daddy to one of the best (and unfortunately, one of the few ) panther games of the season, some kind of random sickness (though i don't remember being sick), some difficult lessons , and a super fun mini-vacay to the mountains with hubs.
november...
hmm...well, if i thought blogging was sparse in june, i hadn't realized how bad it was in november and i don't even have a work-related excuse for my slackness. i can say that november holds the beginning of the grayson/burgess/alley birthday and holiday extravaganza in our families and that is probably part of the reason for my absence. my mom, sister, niece, and i had a very fun time at the southern christmas show (where i purchased a lot of our christmas decorations...yay)! we celebrated anna's birthday, my mom's birthday, my birthday and thanksgiving was thrown into the mix, as well. my daddy had surgery and then hubs and i prepared for our disney trip to celebrate our first anniversary. whew, it was a busy month!
december...
and here we are, back to december. hubs and i celebrated our first anniversary of becoming husband and wife with a fun trip to disney world. we decorated the house for the first time for christmas AND had a big party for our friends and family. i decided to work harder to act like a duck (which, believe it or not now when something bothers us or has the potential to get to us, hubs and i just look at each other and say, "quack." obviously, we don't do it in public but it's been a great reminder to just let. it. go.) and i shared a little "not me!" with everyone. i just realized i have about 3 posts that i meant to write but just haven't gotten around to writing (and for the record, probably won't....sorry). all in all, it's been a fabulous year.
from our family to yours, we pray that you will have a blessed and happy 2010!
happy new year!
