Thursday, January 29, 2009

Our humble abode

Well here we are! A few weeks in and still hangin in there! Nothing extremely huge to talk about really but it has been fun figuring out where we fit in in our new life. Our apartment is feeling more like home - we were needing a floor lamp and guess what! Chad was driving out of our place and a guy was THROWING AWAY a lamp! SO Chad asked if it worked and the guy just put it in his truck. So we have a wonderful silver lamp now - thank you random guy!

We went to memphis this last weekend and had a blast of course. We introduced them to the game Catch Phrase and if you haven't played it yet - play it soon! It is so much fun. You have this disc that has a database of words on it and you get a word and you have to get the other people on your team to guess that word by describing it without saying any part of the actual word. Anyways this isn't a lesson just play it some time. We also played Foosball which I, by the way, am horrible at but it was still fun. Just frustrating when I'm scoring for the wrong team haha. Our first night there we were taken to Olive Garden (which i LOVE if any of you didn't know my amore for Italian food yet) and it was wonderful as usual. We got to catch up on a lot of stuff and have good conversation. Saturday we got to hang out and play games and watch Hallmark movies (always a must at the Burris house :) ) and just get to spend time with them. Sunday was church and so we got to see a lot of people that we hadn't seen since Christmas! Everyone is so sweet and I love seeing them all! We went over to the youth group class to say hey and ended up talking for a long time and slipping into the adult class with about 5 minutes to spare haha. We were so sad to leave BUT we will definitely be back soon because we absolutely love seeing them. AND we missed Chelsie because she picked some cool interior design trip instead of us (hehe) so we'll be back soon for sure.

Our next few weekends are looking pretty good so far! Next weekend is valentines weekend and Chad is going camping, the weekend after that we're headed to Atlanta to celebrate my Dad's parents 50th anniversary, the next weekend is the guys lock-in that Chad has been planning so that will be a blast i'm sure.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Toto, I don't think we're in (ar)kansas anymore...

Well we are officially moved into our new apartment. There are still a few boxes but the place is looking pretty snazzy. Quite a big change going from living in Searcy, closest Target being 45 minutes away, and now just about anything imaginable is within a 10 minute drive...at most. How did everything go? Well let's see if I can remember...

Exam week went pretty well for both of us, or at least as good as it could go when you're having to take tests. For Chad they were the last tests he'll ever have to take in that kind of setting so he was pretty excited, for me, i know there are many more to come, but the excitement (or stress, whatever you want to call it) of moving kept my mind busy as well. Along with studying we packed some and also said our goodbyes to friends that we could possibly never see again. Now that is a weird thought. Even if we've hung out with a few people here and there, that week could be the last week we ever hear from/ about them again. Depressing start to the blog, but its the truth. Anyways so Graduation was the 20th (YAY!) and the whole Burris family got there that morning and then we all headed over to the Benson to see Chad take his final steps of his college life (aw...). We got stuck up in the balcony because of how crowded it was but it turned out fine and Chad actually saw everyone up there waving their arms around trying to get his attention. The ceremony went well and afterward we ate at Casa Brava. Then back to our apartment and gifts were given out since we weren't going to get to see Mema, Papa, Todd, or Sarah for Christmas. The gifts were wonderful and very generous and I feel so blessed to have each and every one of those people in my life now. After they left Chad's family hung around for a little longer and we all sat around and talked - always a fun time :) They left mid-afternoon and a little later Chad and I headed off to Little Rock to celebrate his graduation. I took him out to eat - Texas Roadhouse was the place. It was very good and then we just went to target to get a few things and then back home. [ SO nice that we don't have to plan an hour to get to a nice place to eat now!!] The next few days were packing packing packing and we got more done than we thought we would and were able to head to Memphis for Christmas on tuesday the 23rd!

We got to Memphis and walked into a house smelling so incredibly good - cookies were in the oven and all over the counter, ready to be decorated later. That night we played many rounds of foosball which was really fun. I wasn't the best but I think I competed pretty well for not having played in ten or so years haha.
Christmas eve Chelsie and I went out to eat together to a Chinese place down the road. Pretty good AND I even ate an eggroll (I know Mom, crazy right?). After that we came home and started the tedious task of putting together a 550 piece christmas puzzle. Besides the pieces being small, they were also all abnormally shaped, not the regular square with some partial circles sticking in or out. They were all shapes and sizes which made it even more interesting. Only took us about an hour and a half though, so proud. After dinner we did presents! Of course it was a lot of fun but one of the highlights to me was watching everyone unwrap Brett's (Chad's younger brother) gifts. Brett would wrap every present about a thousand times and so you would just keep tearing off paper until you finally reached the present. Hilarious. I loved it. Now I just have to mention one of the gifts I got because I love them so much and the love is now spreading to my friends and family as well. Flameless candles with a timer on them. They go for 5 hours and turn on at the same time every day whenever you set it. I have 2 of them on my wall hanging in some rod iron holders and it is just the coolest thing ever. Chad got a lot including a really nice Cardinals jersey (Pujols), some golf gloves and a hat, and of course, we both got a very lovely moving truck which was incredibly helpful :) We also both got gift cards to help out our work attire which has been great!

After Christmas we decorated the sugar cookies baked the day before. That was a lot of fun - we mixed up all the normal colors and then had sprinkles and candy to put on top of them. There were santa's, angles, reindeer, stars, trees, christmas circles (ha). I'll put up a picture of all the cookies in a little bit. One of the funniest things that night was that Doug was drawing hair on one of his angels but instead of using the drawing icing, he picked up a tube of food coloring. Yep, the angel's hair was solid blue food coloring. Chad was then dared to eat it, and did, and as soon as he did his entire mouth was stained blue, teeth, tounge, and lips. The whole deal. It was so funny watching him talk and then try to rinse all of it out.

That night we played Scottish Bridge again. We had played earlier in the day and decided to play another round. Brett won the first time and I cant remember who won the second time...i'm gettin too old.

Christmas day the girls stayed upstairs and cooked the feast we'd have for lunch. I peeled potatoes, Chelsie creamed the cream corn, Sherry did the turkey, etc etc. It was a lot of fun :) I'm finding out how much I really do just love to cook. The boys stayed downstairs and set up a new video game and hung blinds for the basement....glad I was cooking ;) Lunch was phenomenal! We had turkey, green beans, cream corn, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, rolls, and sparkling grape juice. Everything tasted wonderful. I love holiday meals!

The halmark channel was on and us girls got sucked into all the love stories and heartaches going on and watched those movies for a while. Apples to Apples was the game we played that night - once again, the uniqueness in us all comes out in games like this one. Depending on the judge is how you must play the cards...are they methodical? funny? or do I just want to throw out this dumb card I've had in my hand for 8 rounds now...

OOK here's where it gets interesting...On the 26th we loaded up and caravaned to Searcy. Chad, his best friend Jeremy (best man in the wedding) and me were in the moving truck, and everyone else was in the suburban. We got to Searcy, loaded up, ate burgers for a quick lunch, loaded the rest, and headed back to Memphis. I had to stop to get gas ( i was now driving my car with chelsie) and I let everyone know. We pulled in the gas station and then see the moving truck with its hazard lights on coming slowly down the road after I was already out of my car and getting ready to get gas. The coast in the gas station on fumes and said they had run out of gas a while back and were coasting along hoping to make it to the station. Funny at first, then after filling it back up with gas (and doing so by filling up a can and then filling up the truck because they coasted in, just not far enough) and realizing it still wasn't starting, it got a little less funny. We all stood there trying to figure out what to do. We ended up calling the Ryder store and they said they would send a service guy out and he'd be there in about an hour. Great. However, about 10 minutes later, a service guy shows up. He was on his way home and stoped to help - our luck has changed! Yess. We'll be out of here in no time now. . . After he looked everything over he says we have an oil leak, and a bad one at that. He couldn't fix it. Luck? What luck? Anyways so then he ended up calling a tow truck over, saying that really would be an hour, and Sherry, Chelsie, and I headed back to Memphis to get home because we wouldn't be any help to them. The poor guys had to unload one truck and reload the new one they brought in. We felt so sorry for them. They did it though and were home that night, pretty tired.

[let me mention at this point this is where I stopped writing just before I started work, so now a week and a half later I have completely lost my train of thought and where I was going and where I was at....]

Because of that, I'm going to sum up so I can catch up. And yes, I realize i promised to not get this behind and yet somehow have found myself incredibly behind again, and I apologize to all you avid readers out there ha. OK so the 27th we left memphis, drove here, unloaded the truck, and the Burris' left. We went out to eat and then spent the next week unpacking most of our stuff. I say most because we still (yes, still as in now too) have a few boxes in our "storage" room but its mostly done. The next day on sunday we had Christmas with my family which was a lot of fun too. Family presents and gifts from aunts and uncles and grandparents. Some of the cool gadgets involved was that Chad got a GPS which has turned out to be awesome. We got an external hardrive that will help my computer run a TON faster. I got a robe i've been wanting that I am actually wearing right now as i'm typing this. But the best present was....drumroll....a washer and dryer!!! We were so incredibly excited because we needed them so bad and now we dont have to go do it with a bunch of strangers! I've been telling everyone that this makes me feel so incredibly old that i'm excited about being able to wash clothes in my apartment....

So speaking of our apartment - We love the place! Pictures of it will be up soon - and no, not a few weeks before we move out of it this time. I started work on the 5th and it was a jump into a different world. 8-5 every day, no breaks in between classes, no seeing chad randomly throughout the day, and i know most of you are sitting there saying "Welcome to the real world honey", but it was a little tough to tell you the truth. We're so used to seeing each other most of the time that now the majority of our time is spent away from each other, then a few hours at night and then sleep. :( but it has been a blast being able to come home and see each other and hang out in our wonderful apartment. We've been going to our church and fitting in there pretty well - our preacher invited us to their sunday night group that is basically a bunch of young married couples so that has been exciting getting to know more of our age people. No offense mom and dad ;)

We've been also helping out with our youth group which is cool and I am signing up this weekend to be a substitute nursery/toddler worker. Can you tell I like kids?? No its been a blast though really. I am loving my job because I get to see some of the cutest kids come in. One girl told me the other day all about her birthday cake she was going to have in march. It was going to be a cake with hello kitty marrying scooby doo, and she had every detail planned out. I think she was about 6 or so. It was so cute. But anyways I love it. This weekend we went out to celebrate Kevins birthday to a Thai resturaunt so I finally got to feed my sushi craving i've been having ever since searcy. Then tonight Chad is being 'kidnapped' by a family at church to take him to a hockey game and so Mom and I have planned a girls night out. Then tomorrow is church and group at night, then back to work Monday. I love weekends even more now. OK enough about that.

Sorry the "sum-up" was so sporadic. Hopefully now I can be caught up and update on THE day the event or thing happens. That will be nice ha. I will be posting pictures very soon too I just don't have them on my computer yet so be looking for those!!! Thanks for staying faithful haha