Blogger Bum

So, I'm making up a new term for bloggers like me who think they can just blog once a month, and that's acceptable or something. It's "blogger bum" and I'm the chairman, president, founder of the lot of us. No excuse, just absolutely pathetic.

Now that I've beaten myself up, let's change the subject. I'd love to share some recent pictures and updates with you all. We spent Thanksgiving in Florida with Jeremy's family and were there for a whole week which is nice when it takes you a whole day to make the trip. We had the great plan to leave late afternoon so that Olivia would be awake for a couple hours and then fall asleep for the majority of the trip. Unfortunately, little Miss "I don't sleep in cars" apparently had other plans and slept all of 15 minutes...the 9.5 hour trip there and the 9.5 hour trip back. Nonetheless, the 9 hours and 15 minutes that she was awake, she remained pleasant for the most part and enjoyed reading tons of books, watching some movies, and playing with her basket-stash of toys.

We had a great time celebrating both Olivia and her Uncle Jonathan's birthdays, one early and the other late, one day we celebrated Thanksgiving, and then another day we celebrated Christmas, so all the parties, food, and presents took up most of our time. It really was a fun time for all us to spend with Jeremy's parents, grandmother, and brother.

Between all the celebrating, Olivia did make time for a couple trips to the park.





I, too, have always believed that forks are overrated.


The birthday girl and the birthday boy exchange a birthday kiss.


Olivia riding her new tricycle...she loves it!


Is she growing up, or what? I sort of feel like I'm looking at myself at the age of 2 here, the little prissy lips and all.


Olivia was determined--despite lots of blood, sweat and tears-- (okay, no blood, but lots of sweat and tears) to wear her new toboggan and gloves around in the cold Florida winter (at a toasty 75 degrees). What can I say? She's stubborn like her...daddy.


Olivia enamoured by Nana's tree.


After we returned home from our Thanksgiving travels, we loaded up again, the next day--Jeremy going to Atlanta for new job training and Olivia and I home to High Point to visit my family. I don't have any pictures from the week, but we celebrated my Mom's birthday, did some shopping, visited Olivia's great grandma, went back to my old high school to catch a girls' basketball game where my dad still coaches, and got lots of quality time with Granna.

Then finally back home to Florence where we jumped in head first, no time to rest, to get our home and our hearts ready for the fast-approaching Christmas holidays....not to mention a baby shower, a close friend's party, Olivia's birthday coming up, parties for our Bible study group...just that time of year, I guess. And I love it. The busy-ness, the hectic-ness, the CRAZY-ness...as long as I maintain perspective and keep myself in check and remind myself of what, rather WHO, this season is about. So we've taken lots of time to get our tree and lights and home all decorated, we've gone to a little town's Old Fashioned Christmas nearby, Olivia went to see Columbia's Santa and we did some toy shopping for our niece and nephews, we've driven through a lights show in Sumter...all while the weather is constantly fluctuating from like below freezing to today's temperature of 70.

Olivia sporting the latest elf-gear while rumaging around in Mommy's closet.


Riding the carousel with Daddy at the mall in Columbia...she's as happy on these as she is anywhere.


Fearfully making all her requests known to Santa...okay, just a baby doll.


And, oh, Olivia has made the transition (much more smoothly than expected) to her new big girl bed. This was her first test run at measuring the new bed's comfort level while she curls up with a good book. Fortunately for mommy and daddy, it passed the test.


Most recently, yesterday, Jeremy had a little stomach bug so Olivia and I went and got our fave, Chick-Fil-A, and took it to the park for lunch. I caught a few great shots of her as she played, and wondered, and explored.

At the risk of sounding like a dorky Mom, I must admit that the child--her face, her love of life, her energy, the whole package, it owns me...that's all there is to it. I think only Moms and Dads could understand when I say that it hurts me to look at pictures like these sometimes...not a bad hurt...a hurt that comes from loving someone so much that it, well, hurts. If that makes me a dorky Mom, then I'm okay with that. Anyway, take a look...




















If I could only read her thoughts...















I'm telling you, it hurts.

Our Trip to "The City"

Hard to believe we've already been back a week. Jeremy and I celebrated our 5th anniversary, yep, count 'em--1, 2, 3, 4, FIVE years of wedded bliss (with a little bit of crisis, catastrophe, chaos, and a whole lot of God's grace thrown in there) on 11/02/07. So, to celebrate, Jeremy "surprised" me with a trip to San Francisco. (The surprise didn't last longer than about a week or two--Jeremy decided he wanted to take me there, bought the tickets, told everybody it was going to be an anniversary surprise, and then couldn't hold it in any longer so I've known since about March). But surprise or no surprise, we were super excited for the opportunity to get away and celebrate our marriage. Nana and Poppa Don made the trip from Pensacola to keep Olivia while we were gone. So it was just the two of us.


After we got off the plane and checked into our hotel, we headed straight for the city...no time to waste. Our first stop was Pier 39 and the Fisherman's Wharf district...


...where we promptly purchased and consumed some of the famous clam chowder in a bread bowl. Absolutely delicious and it was the perfect night for some hot soup as we were down by the water and it was VERY chilly. So we just walked around, looked in some stores, checked out the ships docked by the piers...


...and then got coffee and ate donuts--one of our many indulgences on this trip. Tired from our travels, we headed back to the hotel, and made our plans for the upcoming days.




Our first full day, we spent the morning exploring. Our initial destination was Lombard Street, the curvy one, which we thought we could find, no problem. A couple hours later, after losing our way and stopping in different neighborhoods to check out the, um, really expensive homes, and getting some great views of the city...





...we finally made it to Lombard.







Only slightly off schedule, we headed toward Union Square to purchase our tickets to ride the trolly cars.



We took the trolly to Chinatown, stopped and ate a little authentic Chinese for lunch (much to J's dismay)...



...and then hopped back on the trolly and rode down to the pier to catch a ferry to head over to the quaint little town of Sausalito.


We spent our evening stolling the streets of this waterside town, took pictures with the boats...






...did some more shopping, eating, holding hands, and this evening's sweet treat was some latte's and cheesecake at a little deli.


Apparently, we were both worn out by this evening's end...




...and took the last ferry ride out back over to the city, went back to hotel and crashed, again, with big plans for the next day.


Saturday, our second full day, we made plans to head to Napa Valley, wine country. This was Jeremy's idea, as Courtney has never found a wine she much cares for, but in hindsight, we were both so glad we were able to make the little road trip. It was about an hour and a half outside the city, but the drive was fantastic. We had the most gorgeous weather our entire vacation, but this day was especially beautiful. We had a tour scheduled at the Beringer Brothers Winery which lasted only an hour.


They took us through the cellars where they store the barrels while the wine is being made, the actual vineyard, explaining the whole process of how wine comes to be, and then there was a little tasting. Jeremy got both mine and his "tastes" and left with a bottle of Beringer white wine, feeling a little more knowledgable in all things wine-ish.






We have no pictures to accompany the events of that afternoon and evening. We just enjoyed our trip back into San Francisco; if I recall correctly, got a little lost and frustrated, but finally found our way to the Haight-Ashbury district. This is where we had set all our shopping hopes and dreams of finding some cool threads to take with us back to Flo-town. And we left happy campers. We probably went into 30 stores, including Goodwill, and scrounged and dug and searched to find just what we wanted---good deals!! We bought new (to us) jeans, shirts, jewelry, and shoes all for about $100 bucks. I loved the shopping but the town was a little too dark for me (Courtney) and after the near-fight Jeremy had with a drunk guy in a bar over LSU football, I was REALLY ready to get out of there.

We headed back to Union Square where this evening's indulgence was both frustrating and way-rewarding. We waited nearly 2.5 hours for outside seating on the veranda at the Macy's Cheesecake Factory. Though we complained and moaned the entire wait, it was SO worth it. The nite-time view would have been worth a few more hours wait time and my hunky ex-Cheesecake Factory waiter husband enjoyed every bite of his coffee caramel chocolate something-or-other slice of cheesecake. Back to the hotel for more alarm-free sleep (I know a couple of mornings I didn't make it out of bed till around 9:00) and gearing up for another busy day.

On Sunday, our last full day, we had big plans.

Our first stop was the Golden Gate Bridge. We just got some quick shots of the bridge before crossing over this Wonder.










Next, our San Franciscan-native friend, Nate, had told us about a redwood forest that was only a 30 minute drive away, and that was something we had both wanted to see. So, after another beautiful drive through another beautiful part of California, we arrived in Muir Woods.

Breathtaking...


amazing...


humbling...


challenging...


inspiring...


God!




For our afternoon, we had a ferry ride and tour scheduled for Alcatraz.


This is such a touristy thing to do, I guess, but really you can't NOT do it. And we were tourists, afterall, so we went. And we loved it. We had an audio tour which meant that after our ferry took us around the island...


...and pointed out all the buildings and their historical significance...






...and gave the history of the island not only as a maximum security prison in the early to mid 1900's, but as a military fort previously and a temporary Indian sanctuary/reservation following its prison days...




...we arrived on the island and each received headphones to wear. We listened as we walked around and were told all about the prison and its prisoners...


...who occupied its cells, who walked its halls, who dared to attempt escape, who died trying...




It was creepy, and interesting, and eerie, and cool all at the same time. Though the flash gives a different feel to this picture, Jeremy and I were actually sitting in complete black in the solitary confinement cell (though we were luckily together) for this picture...


What an amazing adventure. We were certainly ready to get home, by the end of five days, to see Olivia who had actually spent the last few days of our trip with our friends, the Cannons, as Nana and Poppa Don had had to leave unexpectedly. But she was such a trooper and we missed her tons. Our trip was all that we had hoped it would be for Jeremy and I--refreshing, renewing, and such a strong reminder of God's grace in our lives, and more specifically, and so powerfully, in our marriage. But it was also a reminder of how much we love our family, and all being together, the three of us. We were so blessed to be able to get away to celebrate 5 years, but felt all the MORE blessed to return to our home here in Florence, to our sweet, sweet daughter, and to our community of amazing friends that we consider family.

Just one more picture and then I'll be done...a snapshot from the weekend of my husband, my commited, serving, loving, doting husband who does anything and everything to make me happy. Carrying my really pink, really heavy purse filled with cameras and itineraries and toboggans. I love you today and for the rest of my life and forever after that...