Good Day, Sunshine!

Thank goodness for sunshine!

It was a beautiful day here in Charlotte - and pretty much everywhere else too I think! I was in serious need of some warmth and sunlight. Barrett enjoyed the day on Beech Mountain, snowboarding with friends. What a weirdo, right? It finally warms up and he heads to Boone where there was about 20 inches of new snow this week!

Buddy and I enoyed part of the day on walks. We went for 4 today which is at least twice as many as normal. :-) The first warm/sunny day always makes Buddy pretty excited. He even got to play with a friend in the neighborhood! I also got a little early spring cleaning done...windows open, music on...it was time to get out of the winter funk!

Hope everyone is enjoying the sunshine as much as we are!

And the Greatest of these is Love...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today we celebrate our love for all the special people in our lives...family, friends, and pets. :-) We're taking it low key (considering our anniversary is in three weeks!). Barrett made yummy pancakes this morning. Heart and flower shaped ones at that! We enjoyed Dominican coffee (brought home from our honeymoon) in our new his and hers coffee mugs. Then we did our taxes. Fun. Later - we got in the kitchen and worked on making spaghetti and meatballs (my mom's recipe). We started doing that about 4 or 5 years ago...and we thought, "Why not make it our little Valentine's tradition?" So, we did! We hit up the Redbox and rented Love Happens and had some wine on the couch, in our PJs, with Buddy. Breakfast and dinner at home, a cheesy romantic comedy, some good wine...what more do you need?!

We hope your day is as special as ours is. We love you!
XOXO

Our new coffee cups. :-)

Happy Valentine's Day from Buddy!

Barrett slaving over a hot griddle.

Heart-shaped pancakes

Flower-shaped pancakes.

Not a Weight-Watchers friendly breakfast...but delicious!

Our yummy spaghetti dinner...also not WW friendly. :-)

Dessert, wine, and a movie. Perfect end to a perfect day.

2010 - Getting Things Started on the Right Foot

I know...it's been almost 4 months since we last posted where we are in life. I have excuses - good ones too I think! But - let's just start the year off on the right foot. One of our New Years resolutions was to be better about updating our blog - letting our friends and family that we don't see often enough stay updated on our little family. We promise to update on a regular basis, even we we really don't have exciting things to talk about. So, I guess we promise to bore you with random details and happenings. Excited yet? :-)

So...what's new since October?

Jamaica was great! Travis and Anna both looked amazing and the resort was just as beautiful. We had a blast on a catamaran tour - climbing Dunn's River Falls and snorkeling. It was too short of a trip, but we are so thankful to have been able to go. Anna and Travis will have wonderful memories of their wedding, and we will have such special memories of our first birthdays old married folks. Thanks for getting married there guys! :-) I've posted a couple of pictures from the trip...Matt - we'll email you the rest so you can live vicariously through us.

On the Catamaran to Dunn's River Falls

Our first splash in!

Slide off the back of the boat.

Me and the Beautiful Bride

With the Crawfords!

Barrett's Birthday Breakfast

November was relatively low key. We spent a great weekend in Richmond with Matt and Lora following the ECU/Va Tech game. Buddy had a blast with their dog Cody, and we had a blast with our best friends. We spent Thanksgiving at our house...again. One day, Barrett's really going to get some time off around the holidays and we'll visit family. Until then, we're happy to take care of our friends. :-) We're also lucky that Jeff and Cindy (Barrett's dad and stepmom) live so close and that Rachel and Bubba aren't against making the trip to Charlotte. December brought busy holiday weekends and our First Annual Tacky Christmas Sweater Party! Our friends went all out and really took the Tacky theme to the limits! Here's a picture or two to give you a taste...
 

Looking Good.

Barrett and the guys...Yes, this was their idea.

Rebecca and the girls from work.

We spent Christmas at home. Susan and Mike came into town a few days before Christmas. Matt, Jenna, and Landon came in Christmas Day. We were so happy to be able to spend Christmas with family this year! Jeff and Cindy came over Christmas night and we had a great Christmas dinner and lots of fun. Having a baby (well, I guess Landon's not really a baby anymore!) in the house was tons of fun! As most kids do, I think he was into the boxes and paper more than the gifts!

For New Years, we headed to the deep south and spent some time with my family in Louisiana and Mississippi. New Years Eve was a blast! We had a bonfire at my mom's in MS...Barrett kicked my butt in darts, we roasted marshmallows and hotdogs, and sang at the top of our lungs to every song that came on the radio. The neighbors the next day said we appeared to have "had a really good time." We did. :-) Then, we headed west a bit more to LA. It was COLD which was a bit of a change of pace...we're talking temps in the teens! Who knew we should have packed big winter coats? We got to eat good food (A LOT of it) and I even learned how to shoot a handgun. I felt pretty hardcore. :-)

At the end of January, Barrett and I celebrated 8 amazing years being together. We can't believe it's been so long! We count our blessings each day for each other.

So, now here we are, 2 months in to 2010. We hope you all have started the new year off with a bang.

Talk with you soon...we promise!

We Are Back

We are home from Jamaica safe and sound. We had a wonderful time, it was absolutely beautiful, the weather was great, and we had so much fun. Congratulation to Anna and Travis, I think the destination wedding was a success. The new camera worked great and I think we have 300 pictures. I will try to help Rebecca go through all the pictures so we can devote an entire post to the trip. We got home late and needed a day to rest before going back to work. We got buddy from the Vet and he was so happy to be free he peed on the floor in their front office. Rebecca is not feeling good I think she may be getting sick hopefully not the flu because we both really don't have any days off left after all our travels. I think we have a Halloween party Saturday but we will see how Rebecca feels in a day or so. We could go to the party with surgical masks on and be doctors so we don't get everyone sick. We have our big Thursday night football game next week against Virginia Tech. Hopefully they will continue to play bad and we will continue to play good and we will get a great upset. Wishful thinking I know especially since we beat them last year I bet they have revenge on their minds. It is supposed to be a "pirate out" but there is all this talk on the banter board about a "black out" so I think I am going to cover both and be a black pirate. Come back soon for the Jamaica update -Barrett

Heading to Jamaica, Mon!

Tick tock...Jamaica bound in less than 14 hours! Can't wait! We're in desperate need of a little vacation from work. Not to mention some sunshine...it's been so cold and gross! Will follow up next week with fun details and some pictures! Last weekend was so great! Barrett went to Greenville for the Homecoming game. We won! 49-13, Go Pirates! I stayed in Charlotte and Sondra was in town visiting! We had a fun time. Did some shopping, had lunch at a fun little tea house called Ooh La La's, walked around (in 40 degree weather) at Wing Haven Garden and Bird Sanctuary, and watched some old movies. It was a fun weekend and I'm so glad she was able to come visit. A girls' weekend was long overdue! Poor Buddy will be at the vet from tonight till Monday morning. Send good thoughts his way! Have a Happy Birthday Rachel and Lora! I'll miss you guys! Don't have too much fun without me! See ya when we're back in the states! XOXO Rebecca & Barrett

Sorry!

I know it's been over a month since we've posted...sorry! I've thought about posting quite a few times, but it seems there's just never enough time to do so! So...let's try to catch up.

The first football game was so fun! ECU beat App State in a close game. We dominated pretty much the whole game...until the 4th quarter. We're not quite sure where they came from all of a sudden. Apparently, our players were getting cramps from the heat. Really? You live and play in Greenville...did you not practice in that awful heat all summer?? Oh well...we pulled out a win, so I guess that's all that really matters! :-)

The next weekend we stayed in Charlotte. Saturday night we went to a couple's shower for Travis and Anna (who are getting married in Jamaica on the 23rd). It was a lot of fun, Jamacian themed, and full of good food and lots of wine! After the party, I thought it would be fun to go Uptown. Really, Rebecca? I probably haven't been out Uptown in more than a year. It wasn't the best idea I've ever had. Poor Barrett was the designated driver for the night, and I am certain he would have much rather headed home after the party. I definitely paid for it on Sunday morning. :-)

The next weekend, Matt and Lora came to Charlotte! We just love hanging out with them. Richmond is just too far away! They brought they're dog Cody, and he and Buddy had fun hanging out together. Well, Buddy had fun hanging out with him. Poor Cody probably couldn't wait to get away from our energy ball! They also brought our awesome new island with them! They found it in a showroom in Richmond that was going out of business. It's so perfect in our kitchen. I thought I was going to lose my mind if I didn't get some more counter space! So, we were more than excited that they brought it down to us! We mostly did a lot of lounging around, watched the ECU/UNC game (not a good showing), and then headed to an Irish pub for dinner. The weekend definitely went too fast and we hope we're able to see them again very soon! We got a few good things done around the house on Sunday. Cleaned out the pantry, made the island the new home for things from our over flowing cabinets, and found some Buddy Biscuit mix! So, we made treats for Buddy! He loves them! He was very patient during the hour and a half long process, but I believe he would tell you it was worth the wait!

We had a slight change in plans the next weekend. We were planning to head to Greenville for the ECU/UCF game, but circumsatnces changed a bit and we didn't end up staying. We did get to stop and spend the night in Raleigh though to spend a (very) little time with Rachel. Again, Raleigh is just too far away and we wish we got to see Rachel and Bubba more. Looks like we may just need to move north a little bit!

This past weekend, I went to Anna's bachelorette party in Wilmington/Wrightsville Beach. We had a great time and I got to see some people I hadn't seen in a long time. Barrett hung back in Charlotte with Buddy and took it easy.

This weekend we'll be in Charlotte again. Yay! I have a nice long weekend Fri-Sun. Barrett has to work Saturday :-( but hopefully I'll get some much needed things around the house taken care of.

Exactly two more weeks till we leave for Jamaica! We can't wait. We are in desperate need of a little vacation!

24 Hours to Go!

Just about 24 hours till Pirate football kicks off for the season! We can't wait! We're heading down tonight...all of our purple and gold gear is packed! We've got freshly painted corn-hole boards (how awesome do they look!) and Buddy ready to go!

Other than that...not too much else is going on. We'll be consumed with Pirate football for the next 4 months!

Last weekend we were in Carolina Beach with Matt and Lora. It was really fun...very relaxing. Friday night we went to dinner at this little place called the Shuckin' Shack. We had awesome steamed oysters and shrimp. We then went to this little bar called the Last Resort...it wasn't really hoppin' so Lora and I broke a rule or two there (see incriminating photo) and then headed back to the condo. :-) Saturday turned out to be a really beautiful day. We were out at the pool for a good 7 or 8 hours. Bill and Ging (Lora's parents) were there, and Bill caught a lot of fish that day so we had another yummy dinner. Lora and I called it a night early, but Barrett and Matt snuck out to the bars late night. We hear they had a good time! Thanks so much Matt and Lora for a great weekend!

Jamaica in 40 days!

Go Pirates!