Happy Feet

I thought I'd share this picture of our happy feet. What a good ol' dog.

Happy Untraditional Thanksgiving

Hey Friends and Family - Sorry we won't be with you this Thanksgiving, but we'll see most everyone at Christmas. It is only 8:30 am here; look what we've been up to!

Love you all!

Shan

Good Advice!

This was the best part of our trip to Grandfather Mountain - the wildlife reserve (which was like a tiny zoo). But, unlike a zoo, we could get really, really close to the animals!!!

The worst part was that the otter exhibit was closed. I love those guys, could watch them for hours. I wonder if there are any videos on utube... Yup - otters in love!

Golf and Flying Things...

On our first full day in Asheville, we headed to the golf course... I don't recall the name of the course that we played, but we were paired up with a couple of local guys about our age and we had a blast!

Sure, I can't tell you the name of this course, but what I can tell you is that it was located directly at the end of a landing strip! These HUGE planes were constantly taking off and landing directly above us. It was very loud, and a great excuse for crappy shots, and even I had a fun time that morning. Side note for those of you who might not know - I don't actually play golf... I just ride alongside. I like being outside, being with Marcus, and I can usually get a decent amount of a book read over 18 holes!



And all golf courses have something to offer by the way of Mother Nature. Although these little Tawny Cresents aren't that uncommon, they were a treat to watch... just soaking up the NC sunshine.

I like to Win!!!

Those who know me, know that I'm a little bit competitive... okay, maybe more than just a little bit. So, when I heard about the Grove Park Inn's Annual Birdhouse COMPETITION - I just couldn't stop myself!

I tried to be sneaky (which is another quality trait of mine), and so, I built my little birdhouse out of a monopoly board while my dear husband slept upstairs. My thought was, I'll send it up to Asheville for the competition and when Marcus and I go to have dinner at the GPI one night I can surprise him! And even BETTER if I win one of the glorious prizes of cash and/ or nights stay at the hotel.

But, a few weeks before our trip, the GPI sent me a letter stating that they had received my entry (no word of having won anything...) Marcus and I will open each other's mail - not like birthday cards, but general mail is fair game to whoever gets home first. Unfortunately I was in Seattle when the letter arrived. Surprise spoiled. Boo. But, I refused to tell M anything about the little birdhouse, because I was still so proud of my hard work and wanted him to be surprised.

My entry is below. There were about 50 entries this year. I did not win...

I thought this was interesting, but I don't think it won anything either.

These didn't win... That chick with the red hair is very Tim Burtonesque...

Here was the grand winner. Terrible picture, I apologize, but this glass house was produced by a local artist and was very breath taking indeed.

I don't have any plans to learn how to blow glass or learn any other fabulous skills by next May, but I do have a little idea jumbling around in my head.... hmm, if I get started now....

Dinner Time

One evening, after golf we went out for dinner on the Sunset Terrace at the historic Grove Park Inn. The hotel itself was unlike any I've ever seen. It was out of our price range to actually stay there - so we just ate there instead.

Our dinner reservation aligned beautifully with the sunset - what a view! The food was amazing. We ordered more than we could eat, but with a full kitchen at our cabin, we opted to take our leftovers with us. Steak sandwiches the next day were supurb!

Happy Second Anniversary to us! As I write this, we are just days away from 2.5 - but who's counting?!?

Grandfather Mountain

One morning we left our little cabin in search of Grandfather Mountain. It was a little bit of a drive, but very worth the view! We thought we'd be doing a little more hiking, but there was a road almost all the way to the top. So, we spared ourselves the work out and just took the car up instead of parking at the base and dreadging up that trail!

This is the Mile High Swinging bridge. It wasn't that scary.

I forget what this rock was called, but it's a profile of a face... can you see it?

But the best part of the park was.... I'll post it soon....

I'm a dork

Hey - last weekend, I wrote all these blogs and then spaced the "post date" for every other day or so... but I didn't know you had to hit "publish post" to change their status to "scheduled". So here they are; better late than never.

Marcus and I are going to go shoot guns today - will let you know how that goes!

Trip To Asheville

A few months back, we tried the "cabin" experience again. This time, for our second anniversary, we decided to go full out and booked a sweet little cabin in Asheville, North Carolina. We stayed at Willow Winds in "Ruby's Dogwood" - it was perfect, and I hope we get to go back. We had a full kitchen, spacey living and dining area, two bedrooms (we used one as our closet), and a jacuzzi out on a private patio. Very relaxing. In fact, talking about it six months after the fact is still very relaxing... yes, I think we'll have to go back!

Here are a few shots of the interior. I didn't get a picture of our view from the balcony or the patio - but it really was gorgeous!!

This is one of the tunnels on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We would have enjoyed "America's Favorite Driving Experience" if it hadn't been under construction and made us late for someone's tee time!

I have many more things to post - I'm just going to tackel a little bit at a time. Since we've moved into our new casa, my blogging has taken a back seat to real life. Anyone who's visited us recently has probably seen most of these pictures, but for those of you far away, enjoy!

In Rememberance Of Me...

This will not be a religious posting (despite the title), but should you feel I'm being blasphemous by using scripture to describe the below picture, I apologize in advance....

Once upon a time, when I was a little girl, in a far away land (Dallas), on a rainy day...(okay, enough prepositions), we adopted a little alley-cat. He was a sweetie from the get go; he probably knew how lucky he was to have found us. Did we name him "Lucky"? NO- we'd already had one Lucky cat (who, ironically was not really all that Lucky). I digress.

So this little fellow made it into our home, and he was nameless for a bit. But, little Kitty was born with only two gears. Slow. And Freakin' Fast.

So one day, little Kitty was tearing through the home in Freakin' Fast mode... and hit the kitchen floor. He could not stop. There was no time.

CRASH!!!

It was done; the food bowl was obliterated, and our kitty was then properly named, Zipper.

Why do I spin this long yarn???? Good question. As you scroll down, you will see, that perhaps a little bit of Zipper lives on in our dear Calpurnia. Who hit the kitchen floor at top speed...

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The wine bottles on the bottom row did not stand a chance. It did take a full roll of paper towels to clean up 750 ml of red wine (no great loss, cheapo stuff left over from the wedding- yes, that's right, OUR wedding- and that stuff really hasn't gotten any better with age). I love how I got Woogie lickin' his chops in the pic; I had to stop him 6x from lapping up the vino. Oh dear, the fun we have when Daddy's at the golf course. He's not going to believe this one...

Our Home

This is it, Folks. Once I'm done with this post- no more house pics. I'm probably more tired of seeing them than you are, or maybe I'm just biased- I think our house just looks better in person. SO- I guess you'll just have to come and visit us!
Here is our bedroom. Jules, wouldn't that upholstered bed look fabulous in here? Maybe for Christmas I can talk Marcuu into it.

Here is our breakfast room (you can kind of see the backyard from here).

Our living room with fireplace. On the right side, we have two sets of French doors that lead to the patio.

Our dining room, complete with borrowed antique table and chairs. Each chair has a unique needlepoint seat. Thanks for helping us fill up this room, Margaret!

And our kitchen! It must be twice the size of the old one, and despite it being almost 15 years my senior, I love it. And, I still love my Fishy teakettle (thank you Terra).

That's all she wrote- there are other rooms, but I guess you'll have to see 'em to believe it!
Shan

House Party!!!

We're officially settled in. I know y'all are still waiting for pictures of our home with furniture- but really, I am still pulling it all together. On our third Saturday in, we warmed our home with the company of good friends (new and old). Thank you all, who were able to make it, and for those who had to miss- you missed one heck of a party!

Heather, Seneca, Royce, Judy and Logan

Mike, Wade and Jen (Big thanks to the Austin crowd for coming in!!!)




John B and John S, friends from my previous job at the architectural firm.



Friend Ashley and her darling boy Will.

Margaret, Missy, and Heather enjoy some snacks.




The Kenny Family

And, my personal favorite part of the evening. Some neighborhood children thought it was hilarious that Cali kept jumping into the dollhouse (to avoid being chased). The little girl asked me if Woogie ever went into the house, and I told her, no- really only Cali liked the house. 15 minutes later, said children are forcing our poor Chihuahua through the front door of the dollhouse. It was so stinking funny, and poor Woogs was really a good sport. He and the cat slept almost the whole next day!

A Quickie

I hope this works! I have good news to blog about, but no internet access at home! So, good news via Blackberry is... Marcus has passed his Professional Engineering Exam!!! Congrats, Hubby!! I am so proud of you and all your hard work!

Our New Home!!!

We successfully closed on the house today! Afterwards we celebrated by grabbing some Tex-Mex and a margarita. We then picked up Woogs and took him to our new home. He (we) were SO EXCITED. Woogs ran around sniffing everything. The previous owners had a cute little rat terrior named Stewart. We took dimensions of everything so that I'll be able to figure out where everything thing can go. I'll take more pictures once we get moved in and get our stuff put away! Thanks to everyone for love, support, help, and patience with us through this whole process! Much Love to All! Shan

We Got a House!!!!

Okay, well this is obviously not it. This is the Biltmore we visited in Asheville, NC recently! It was beautiful - and I'll do a separate post just for it!

No.... This isn't it either - This is Ruby's Dogwood, our cabin on our 2nd anniversary get away! It was perfect! I'll post more on this later too, I need to hurry- I've got to go to work today!

Okay- this is my desk at work. And, a little birdhouse I made out of a monopoly board (don't worry, I made it at home and just brought it to work so Marcus wouldn't see it). I entered it into a competition up in NC. I did not win. The winner? A hand blown glass birdhouse. I took a picture that I will... you know.

Is this it???? NO! This is Julie and Ben's home in Seattle! I visited recently and had to take a pic of their uuber-cute Arts and Crafts style home!
The moral is, I don't have pictures as we haven't actually moved in yet!!! But, the closing date will be June 2nd. We will have lots of good pictures then! Until then, we will be VERY busy. Packing and cleaning. I wish it were Saturday already- I could get started... okay, I already packed our books last night :) guess I'm a little excited!