Christmas in Pictures

My oh my, time is flying. Sorry for my brief absence. Here's a quick look at our Christmas Season in instagram pictures, more to come on this blog in 2013! Can't wait to see where 2013 takes our little family.

 

The day after our Christmas Party, Cracker Barrel with Jim.

 Yodle Christmas Party!

 Our 2nd Tree in the man cave, Sports inspired clearly.

 Lovin' from the Buddy Dog :) He got a sweet new Clemson Collar.

 Smith Family Christmas Party, Merry Christmas from The Reynolds!

 Biltmore House trip with mom and sister in law! Great time with lots of bonding. 

Christmas at Mom and Dad's- don't you love Dad's wrapping? 

 Beautiful Diamond earrings from my love!

It was definitely a different Christmas for sure since as you can see we are on Skype with my in-laws and I have a mask on... Jeremy had the Flu aka the plague it felt like. We spent 4 hours in the NOT Minute Clinic for medicine, etc. Praise the Lord for technology since we wouldn't have been able to do this in years past.

Hope you all had a bright and lovely Christmas :) Oh Tidings of comfort and joy!

The Happieset 5K & Thanksgiving Week

I ran The Color Run this weekend in Concord, NC with my co-worker Amie. I'm super thankful that we went together because everyone else on my team was unable to and she was in the same predicament, it wouldn't have been as fun without her either!

It was an experience to say the least, but I was proud of myself we finished in around 40-45 minutes! J was a trooper of a husband and came with us to be supportive.

J's first day at the new job is tomorrow, please send a prayer for his nerves and a great first day/week. In addition to that it's Thanksgiving week, one of my favorite weeks of the year! I've always loved Thanksgiving, I mean honestly what's better than lots of comfort food, crazy loving family time, parades and football? Not a lot in my opinion. In addition to that we have a LOT to thankful for the Lord has been nothing but good to us this year and really reassured me that He is our ultimate provider, He's blessed Jeremy with a new job, good health for all family members, no surgery for Buddy Dog this year, a lovely little house which we've turned into a home, a great job and lots of opportunity at Yodle for me, a great group of people in our small group, bringing cousins home from Afghanistan safely, the best friends you could ask for, my husband who is so sweet to me... seriously my list could go on and on about how thankful I am to the Lord for all he's done.

 This year will be super special as it's the first time that J and I are hosting Thanksgiving at our house for my family, I'm excited and nervous all at once! The good news is that I'm off of work on Wednesday so I can get the house cleaned and prepared early in addition to any prep cooking I will need to do. Today we went grocery shopping after church in order to avoid the craziness later on this week and stocked up on the food goods in preparation for Wednesday and Thursday. I will be tackling my first ever apple pie as well! I'll let you know how it turns out but here's the recipe I'm following:

Easy Skillet Apple Pie

• 2 pounds Granny Smith apples 
• 2 pounds Braeburn apples
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup butter 
• 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1 (14.1-oz.) package refrigerated pie crusts 
• 1 egg white 
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• Butter-pecan ice cream 

Preparation

1. 1. Preheat oven to 350º. Peel apples, and cut into 1/2-inch-thick wedges. Toss apples with cinnamon and 3/4 cup granulated sugar.
2. 2. Melt butter in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet over medium heat; add brown sugar, and cook, stirring constantly, 1 to 2 minutes or until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat, and place 1 piecrust in skillet over brown sugar mixture. Spoon apple mixture over piecrust, and top with remaining piecrust. Whisk egg white until foamy. Brush top of piecrust with egg white; sprinkle with 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar. Cut 4 or 5 slits in top for steam to escape.
3. 3. Bake at 350º for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly, shielding with aluminum foil during last 10 minutes to prevent excessive browning, if necessary. Cool on a wire rack 30 minutes before serving.

Ironing

There's a first time for everything and today, I ironed my new pale green polyester curtains for our dining room. Wife Domestication at it's finest. On Friday night, Jeremy took me on a surprise date night and while we were waiting for the movies (which we didn't end up going to) we found a sweet metal piece for our dining room, so I had to change the curtains since the red ones no longer matched. Pictures to follow from the new and improved decor in the dining room as soon as the new piece is hung!

Date night on Friday was awesome, J took me to Olive Garden and then out shopping and we ended up watching The Raven here at the house in the man cave vs. going to the movies. We were old and got tired early haha.

This has been a great weekend, one of the best in a long time and the greatness started early on Thursday with the news that J got a job offer- one we've been waiting and praying for! God is always faithful and his timing is ALWAYS perfect. I'm sure you're curious as to what do I mean? Well, you see his state unemployment end next week, he will start his new job the following Monday. How awesome is that? 

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. 13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him."-Ecclesiastes 3. God just keeps bringing this verse up in my life in so many instances, I'm starting to see a theme here.

 

Witnessed a sweet Clemson victory yesterday in Death Valley against Maryland! Clemson is 9-1.

The Wester Wedding

Had a blast two weeks ago at the Westerburg Rowles Wedding! The photobooth at their wedding was a huge hit, loved taking some crazy pictures :) Makes me wish we could have done something like this at our wedding, sighhhh...Check out Flickerbooth if you're interested in doing one at your wedding, your guests can download the pictures for free afterwards- amazing!

Halloween 2012

 Pumpkin Carving night with friends! Clearly I am not the artsy one...

 Stacey, Karen and I as 'Rock, Paper, Scissors'

Thanks to the hubs for all his help with my costume!

 Duck Dynasty!

Boon, Jeremy, Nic and Wayne as Phil Robertson, Willie Robertson, Jase Robertson 

and Si Robertson- they should have won the contest...

My love :)

Falling Leaves & Sausage Dip

I forgot how busy our falls are every year, I mean of course there is always the usual... football watching, Tailgating, Halloween and candy giving, colder nights, changing leaves, Scarowinds with my Dad and the brother, etc. But this year we also have J is playing softball on Monday's and Wednesday's, I'm working out at Omni after work some nights, we started our small group on Thursdays, it's busy, busy!

I'm really looking forward to Scarowinds with my Dad and brother, this year will be third year that the four (including J) have gone. I'm hoping we can mess our schedules enough in order to be able to go. It's the only tradition aside from family vacation that we have together, so it means a lot to me.

Tonight I started the 4th week of my interval training for my race in November, four sets of run five minutes and walk one. Rebekah, J's cousin, came with me and ran along side me it was nice to have someone to talk to while warming up and it spurred me on make sure I completed all the sets. We're meeting up at the gym again tomorrow so that she can show me some of the machines and how to use them, she's in college right now working on her personal training degree. Fingers crossed she moves here when she graduates in December.

Saturday I made some Sausage Rotel Cream Cheese Dip, I highly encourage you to try it as a tailgate food or something to munch on when you  have friends over!

Ingredients:
3 (8oz) blocks of Philadelphia Cream Cheese
1 can Rotel tomatoes
1 (16oz) Jimmy Dean Sausage
Directions:
Brown your sausage, drain.
Pour everything together in a crock pot or saucepan and heat through. Serve with tortilla chips, a baguette or whatever floats your boat. Keep warm while serving.

Weekly Doldrums

Stress: a state of bodily or mental tension resulting from factors that tend to alter an existent equilibrium

It’s been a busy week, especially at work. I swear by the end of the day on Tuesday until Thursday at lunch this week I really experienced the doldrums in my cube… you know the doldrums where you can’t figure out how you’re going to get through the rest of the week and accomplish all of the stuff you need to and your head… well it just MIGHT explode?  This week I literally can’t get the scroll bar in my email to go away, it’s terrifying at times. Especially when you come back from lunch and have 17 MORE emails awaiting your reply… It’s safe to say I’m more than ready for the weekend, can I get an AMEN?

The good news is that while I’ve been feeling super stressed, heading to the gym last night to run was the biggest stress reliever. Currently, I’m training for the Color Run 5K in November and I’m working on some interval training over the next few weeks so that I can (**Fingers crossed**) run 3.1 miles without walking. That’s my goal and I’m hoping I can do it. I’m only on week 3 right now, next week is going to be brutal…

Another stress reliever I’m looking forward to? Fellowship with our eGroup tonight at Starbucks and Grey’s Anatomy! This is only our third wee at eGroup but I know it’s exactly where God wants us to be. I definitely think we’ve found an amazing married couple mentor in Daniel and Emily and I can’t wait to get to know them better.

Hope you’re all having a good week. Sadly no recipes to post about this week, haven’t had time to cook but I will say my mom made some amazing post roast and mashed potatoes for us on Tuesday, yummmmm! I may have to experiments with a post roast soon, just saying.