Old Salem

This last weekend JM headed down to Florida to get some more of our things which we now have room for and need such as the guest bed my mom will be sleeping in next weekend. I had been funny all week about staying the weekend in DC by myself and last minute decided to go visit my sister and her husband in Winston-Salem, NC. They had been living in Chapel Hill (which is a closer drive), but moved this summer for Matt to attend PA school at Wake Forest. They bought a house and I have been really wanting to see it. Anyway, I drove all of Friday evening after dropping JM off at the airport. I arrived late Friday night at the cutest home and all I could think off was how grown-up and sophisticated my sister Leslie has become (call it older-sister-syndrome). Anyway, Lol and I got to chat that night until the wee hours which is pretty much a tradition for us sisters (we missed you Ives). On Saturday, Matt and Leslie returned from a city soccer game as I was pretty much waking up. Since Matt had to study, Lol and I went to grab some lunch and headed to Old Salem. It is a cute part of town where the Moravian faith was established. It kind of reminds me of Amish country, but these people (I think) are there more to show the history. My family has a fun tradition of taking pictures together so if you see us out, expect alot of cameras as well. Anyway, here is a sampling of the pics I got (the rest are posted on facebook) & Leslie got some great ones as well.







That night Wake beat FSU, but unfortunately Auburn could not pull off a win against LSU. We went to watch both games at a local pub. Sunday, after a wonderful home-made brunch, Matt hit the books again and Lol and I went to the park before I had to leave. We took the dogs, Daisy and Senator and we all had a great time.

That afternoon, I left to meet JM on the highway. We tried to time so that with my 5.5 hour drive and his 10 hour drive, that we would meet on I-95 at the same time. We were about 10 miles away from each other for a couple of hours until I made a wrong turn. Thankfully, I was able to get back on course, and got to see JM driving the moving truck as we were both getting off at our exit ramp. Oh well! That night and Monday morning we unpacked the second round of furniture. It feels like we are moving all over again with trying to rearrange things. However, I am so excited to have some of my favorite things again...like our dining room table (which means much more entertaining) and my sewing machine!

In other news, after trying for the last month to figure out what to do, we have decided that we are going to throw the Ultimate Halloween Party for the sixth year in a row. Honestly, I sometimes wonder if I am a bad Christian for getting so excited about Halloween. I guess for me I love that people still dress up (oh how I miss those college days), the candy (hello Reece's Pieces) and anything pumpkin! The party is going to be Oct. 17th, location TBA. Come if you can- it is truly an event not to be missed! The other big news is that we are going to my ten-year high school reunion, so now we can get excited about seeing friends and family in Dallas. Now I just need to book those airplane tickets...

Person of the Week

Ok so I hate to be so impersonal...I promise a real post is coming soon! In the mean time this video made me tear up in a good way.

Hurricane Ike

So I have some good friends in Houston, not to mention my sister, brother-in-law, Mr. Nater-Tater Butt and his sister (on the way). Thankfully, none of the people I know were harmed by Hurricane Ike and there was only minimal damage to their homes if any. However, many people are still without power which is causing problems of its own. I'm not sure if your local news stations are playing much coverage of the storm, but here is an awesome link a Houston friend sent me. Just a reminder to pray for those who are effected by Hurricane Ike. Thanks Rach!

Adams Morgan & Hanna

Sorry, still catching up...

This last week has been a week of me getting the house clean (which is a good way to avoid searching for jobs and still feel good about it). After a long labor day weekend of relaxing, the place looked like a mess! So and little here and a little there and it looked great...except for the guest bedroom/office where all of our junk has been accumulating. On Thursday and Friday I spent ALL day sorting the junk into piles to be filed, trashed, recycled or shredded....and I was exhausted!

Friday evening since our place was looking much better we hosted friends for pre-dinner appetizers and drinks and then headed into the city. We ate at Matchbox which is such a cool place and has the best sliders and oven-baked pizza, not to mention the awesome decor. After Matchbox we headed to Adams Morgan (the place where JM and I had scoped out the labor day weekend). Because of Hanna's threat, there were not a ton of people out which meant no one was charging a cover. So the group of us went from bar to bar until we found one...Bourbon. We stayed, we drank, we danced and then we left for greener grass. Next was Grand Central where the dance floor was packed and tons of fun. However, given the late start of the night, it was over all too soon.
Saturday, we headed joined the DC Auburn Club again to see Auburn successfully beat Southern Miss. Thankfully, this time we knew a group of people instead of standing around awkwardly, hoping that someone would have pity on us. That afternoon, the wind and rain from Hurricane Hanna hit DC. That night, we decided to give into the madness and conquer the guest bedroom. We filed, we shredded and we organized like you would not believe!

On Sunday, we ran some errands after church including the fabric store (which I heard was one of the cheaper places in DC) to get an estimate on reupholstering our winged recliner off of freecycle. Turns out that little freebie is anything but cheap. They estimated $450 to reupholster it and another $200 or so in fabric (mind you, this was even with a 40% discount they were running). Yes, so instead of keeping the chair with the ugly fabric, we might actually see about selling it! Any takers? Sunday evening we tackled the guest bedroom again and even got half of the room painted until we had to run out to meet friends for dinner. I can't wait to post pictures of the finished guest room! Now all we have to do is go get our furniture from Florida and we will be settled and super ready to host.

Labor Day Fun

So yes, I am totally back-dating this blog later...it's my way of catching up since I do plan to print this blog into a physical scrapbook.

Labor day weekend was great! After being weekend warriors the week before, we decided to really enjoy the holiday weekend and take a break from busy work. After a night on the town Thursday, JM and I still had the party-bug on Friday and decided to go out just the two of us for date night. We ate at Kramerbooks, in their cafe in the back called Afterwords Cafe....fabulous desserts. After dinner, we headed down to Adam's Morgan, a part of town with fun night clubs and lounges. Unfortunately I had something at dinner that did not agree with me and that was causing my stomach to cramp. We went into a few bars to check them out, but JM was convinced I was walking like a duck and honestly I was in and out of lots of pain so unfortunately the night was cut short.

On Saturday, AC called and I met her for Zumba. Has anyone else ever done this? It's awesome! It is literally a dance class where you shake what your momma gave you for a hour! However, it is quite a workout! Saturday night we went and watched Auburn beat LA-Monroe (War Eagle!) with the DC Auburn Club. We did not know a soul there, but thankfully some very sweet young (they thought we were old) Auburn peps took us in and let us sit with them. We watched until the end of third quarter when I dragged John Mark away, letting him know we were already late for a Sangria Party. So we left NOVA (Northern Virginia) and went into DC, to attend Betsy's just-back-from-Spain Sangria Party. It was tons of fun- we had not seen Betsy since college so it was a great reunion. Betsy lives in an awesome part of DC proper. She is close to all of the fun restaurants and night-life, but still on the cutest secluded street. Betsy also shares a rooftop deck with the neighbors in her building which was amazing! As for the sangria....it was excellent and it ran out oh too soon!

Sunday John Mark and I got to serve communion and take up the offering at church. We are attending a new church plant in Arlington, VA called Emmanuel Presbyterian. There are about 50-75 people now and we just joined a small group a couple of weeks ago. Our friends who lead worship, Chris and Jenny invited us to go to the Nationals Game for free and of course we said yes! So after church we headed down to the brand new baseball field to enjoy some awesome game food, super close-to-the-players seats, and some good sun!



That evening we headed to The Cantina for our weekly Mexican food fix. We got to meet up with lots of friends and then most of us headed over to AC and Derrick's place for the girls to chat and the boys to smoke cigars. We all relished our time of not having to work Monday. When JM and I finally headed home (at like 3am), we totally witnessed a high-speed case. I wanted to follow them...thankfully JM said no.

At the Cactus Cantina with AC

and SBG (I swear I do not wear this dress everyday
...only when a picture is being taken)

Monday came and although we were margaritas in hand and bathing suits on, when we headed up to the rooftop pool deck, it was completely covered in shade....so sad! After taking the bar this summer and missing out on some serious pool time, I was determined to make it up, but to no avail. Oh well, that night we watched the Republican convention...and then my treat...the season premiere of Gossip Girl!

Quote of the Day

So I have been bad about updating my blog recently...and for answering emails for that matter. Anyway, maybe this last week was just a week of me avoiding the internet (which was not so good for the new blog). Anyway, I saw this quote in an email and thought it should be the theme of my day.

There is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing. Brian Tracy

I know the most important thing is to be growing in my relationship with my savior. The next important thing is to be honoring to my husband, which today means seeking out a job...pronto!

Please Pray...

Please pray for the Broge family! Mary Jane (who some of you might remember from Auburn) and her husband Jason had twin girls- Emma Jane and Parker- but they were very early- only 26 weeks and weighed less than 2 pound each. Parker is having heart surgery tomorrow (Sunday morning) so please keep the Broge family in your prayers!