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Friday, September 4, 2009

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!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Coming up...

So...last weekend was really nice. We got to be a little lazy. Hung around the house, went to the pool, got some laundry done... It was nice to be home and I know Buddy was happy we were there too! :-) Tuesday was my friend Elyse's birthday. We went bowling at the new Strike City uptown and had a really great time. It was so fun and a really neat place. I won the award for the lowest score of the night (a whopping 52) and Barrett was trying for most creative bowl, but was beat at the last minute. I love to hang out with the girls from work. They are so fun to be around and quite honestly are one of the major reasons I still work at the hospital. They have pretty fun husbands/boyfriends/significant others too...so it's fun for Barrett as well! All in all, a pretty succesful trip uptown! Another fun tid-bit - Lora called me this week and told me she thinks she found a FREE island for our kitchen! Yay! This show room that works with Matt went bankrupt and closed their doors and basically told Matt to come take whatever he wanted. Lora saw this freestanding, solid wood island with a black marble (I think she said marble) top. She said it's super heavy but thinks it will fit well in our kitchen. We will be able to stain the wood to match our cabinets, and our appliances are black, so I think it will work. We're also planning to put a black backsplash in the kitchen too, so I think it will all look good together. It will take up a good bit of floor space...but I am so excited to have more counter space AND a drawer for my silveware! It won't have to live in the pantry anymore! Thanks, Lora, for keeping your eyes open! Just when I thought I was feeling better...I got a pretty bad cough. It's worse at night, but makes me kid of tired and my chest hurt a little in the day. At least this time I don't think I'm having a heart attack! Hopefully a little Day-Quil and Robitussin will knock it out. This weekend we're doing a little more of the same. Relaxing. No real plans except maybe a little sushi outing for dinner one night. And - Barrett is going to start painting Matt's new fun cornhole boards. We brought them here to Charlotte and Steve, one of Barrett's friends from work, drew Pee Dee the Pirate on them. So - now it's time to paint them so they can be done for the first game in two weeks! Go Pirates! :-) Hope everyone is doing well! XOXO

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Sunny Florida

We had such a great time in Florida! We really had great (hot) weather all week and got to spend a lot of time out in the sun. It was so great to get to spend some time with Susan, Mike, Matt, Jenna, and Landon. We miss you all already! We spent Wednesday out on the beach. When we got there, we thought maybe we were going to be rained out....but, it turned out to be a beautiful day. We spent time in the water, took a walk down to the jetty with Matt & Jenna, and soaked in the sun. Barrett even let Matt bury him in the sand a bit. :-) We went back to the beach that night to watch the sunset and listed to a group of drummers. Landon had a really fun time! :-)
Thursday we headed 6 hours south to Key West for a quick, but fun, overnight trip. The drive wasn't so bad (maybe because I took a dramamine and slept most of the way!) and we stopped at a fun little place for lunch called Chappy's in Marathon just before the 7 mile bridge. Barrett & I had never been to Key West before, so we were excited to see what it was all about. We had some yummy cocktails, went to Mallory Square for sunset, had breakfast (a delicious breakfast) with the chickens at Blue Heaven, took pictures with the buoy at the Southern Most Point, saw Hemingway's house and the Little White House, and walked nearly the full length of Duval Street. Our hotel was really great and in such an awesome spot. If you're heading to Key West, we highly recommend the La Concha Crown Plaza. On the way back, we drove through the Everglades. It was fun scenery for the long stretch home. Matt, Jenna, and Landon left Saturday :-( to get back to Greenville. The plan was to spend sometime at the beach that day....but I wasn't feeling so great (more to come on that later) so I actually napped most of the day while Barrett made a Mii on the Wii for everyone. That afternoon I perked up a bit and we did get in some beach time. Barrett and Mike went diving for sand dollars and Susan and I got in some good reading time. We had a really yummy dinner at the Lock & Key in Englewood. They had a husband and wife duo (Beau & Becca) playing guitar and singing. They were really great and we stayed to listen to them a bit after dinner. Sunday, Barrett & I got in a little pool time in the morning. The pool in the community where Susan works is really nice, and we even had it all to our selves for about an hour or so. Then...off to the airport, and back to Charlotte. We left about an hour later than anticipated from Sarasota and nearly missed our connection in Atlanta. We RAN at full speed through the ATL airport. When we got to our gate, the door was closed, and we were sure we'd missed it. But then - the door opened and the gate agent came out! Turns out, they were changing a tire on the plane, so we were able to get on. We ended up sitting there for about 20 minutes, so luckily our luggage made it on the place with is too! All in all - it was a really great trip. Too short - but so needed. Thank you again so much Susan and Mike for such an awesome week. We hope to be back very soon. As for me...I'm feeling a little better. I'd been feeling a little funny for a while - headaches, dizziness, nausea, tired all the time... But then, I also started having pretty bad chest pain about 2 weeks ago. At first, I thought it was heartburn but no meds helped. Then, I thought maybe it was anxiety because we'd been so busy. But, it never really went away and nothing seemed to help it. When we got back home from Florida, I was feeling pretty bad. The pain in my chest had moved around to my back. I wasn't really sleeping well and knew I needed to get to the doctor before I self-diagnosed and freaked myself out. :-) So, Monday I went to work, but ended up leaving about an hour and a half later because I felt so bad. I went to the doctor and they took some chest x-rays and did a bunch of lab work (complete blood count, metabolic panel, thyroid, iron, coronary panel, and the kitchen sink). Wednesday, I went back in for my follow up - and apparently, I'm fine. Everything was negative. Nothing showed up in my blood or x-rays. So, I guess I should be happy that everything looks good, but it's just really frustrating. I mean, I don't feel GOOD. It kind of makes me feel stupid - like maybe people think I'm making it up or just complaining. But, you don't just feel bad for no reason. So, I guess I'm right back where I started. They want me to do a sleep study - he thinks maybe I have apnea or am just not going into REM. Who knows. I guess I'll just try to take it easy for a while and see how it goes. Other than that....not too much going on. We were supposed to go to Beaufort for a wedding this weekend, but we're going to be staying home. I just want to take it easy, get some rest. Plus, we don't really want to board Buddy again this weekend. And, Barrett didn't ge tomorrow off, so 6 hours is kind of a long drive for one night. So...we're laying low this weekend. Getting some cleaning done around the house, laying by the pool, and hanging out with Buddy. Hope you all have relaxing weekends as well. XOXO

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Lora and Matt's Wedding Weekend...

We had a BLAST at Matt & Lora's wedding in Burlington this weekend! She was stunning and Matt looked really handsome. The Craig Woolard Band played awesome beach music all night...yummy seafood...good friends...
The weekend started for me on Thursday. I headed to Burlington to help Lora out with a few last minute things. Lora, Ging, and I went to the nail salon for mani pedis too.
Friday was the bridesmaids luncheon at this cute little place in Mebane call Dick & Jane's. It was hosted by Katie (Allen) Krist and her mom, Jan. It was lots of fun, and we had these fun little martinis called summer lemons. Yum...but dangerous! :-) The rehearsal was that night and went smoothly for the most part. Katherine and I were wearing the same dress (in different colors) so, great minds think alikt I guess! Barrett had to work Friday, so he came in after work and made it to the rehearsal dinner at The Cutting Board. The food was good and they had the most awesome Pee Dee the Pirate cake made by Lora's Aunt Erin.
Saturday was busy busy! We started early at Positive Image for hair and makeup. The limo picked us up at Lora's at 2:30, and we headed to the church for pictures. Lora looked beautiful and the colors (purple and yellow) looked so great together. We may be a bit biased though... :-)
We had a really great time at the reception. The food was awesome (lots of seafood...oysters 4 ways, shrimp, etc.) and the band (Craig Woolard) was so fun! The dance floor was full ALL night! I don't think I've ever seen that at a wedding before! The night went too fast...it was such a good time.
Sunday was kind of a slow start...but we got to hang out with the newlyweds for a few hours before we headed home and before they took off to Hawaii for 10 days.
Good times. I think we're done with weddings till Jamaica on October. It sure has been a nuptial-filled few months!

Thursday, July 30, 2009

July Is Over Already

Well I think that went by very fast, it seems like just yesterday we were on the dock in Emerald Isle watching fireworks. That is okay though because that just means we are closer to football season (Go Pirates) and Jamaica. This weekend we are going back to where we grew up Bigger Better Burlington. Our friends Lora and Matt are getting married and Rebecca is in the wedding so we will be busy all weekend. Thursday Rebecca will be heading up to try and help out as best as she can and try not to get in the way. Then they have the normal bridesmaid's luncheon Friday followed by the rehearsal. I will be making my way up there after work on Friday for the rehearsal dinner and hopefully some Burlington fun i.e. going to Biscuitvile, eating at Zach's, cruising Edgewood, hanging out at Raygo, and maybe go to Hams. I know we will have a good time and it will be nice to see some friends. Next weekend we are going to visit my mom and mike down in Florida. We are very excited and can't wait because we will get to see Matt, Jenna, and Landon as well. It has been too long since we have seen them; I think Matt said Landon is already shaving. We have plans to go to Key West which will be very neat since neither of us have been there before. Nice long weekend trip hopefully lots of fun and good times with the family. Well I need to stop wasting time writing on the blog and get back to painting the corn hole boards so my brother will stop bothering me and I will try to get Rebecca to add more picture. Send us some love via comments if you want and we will continue to keep you posted. -Barrett

Saturday, July 25, 2009

End of July...

I can't believe we're almost to August! Where did the summer go??? We've had such a busy summer that we've barely noticed it passing us by. Let's see....what have we been up to?
Two weeks ago we went to a wedding in Spartanburg, SC. It was for our friends Jason & Elizabeth (aka, Jeter). It was a beautiful ceremony in an old church in downtown Spartanburg. The reception was just as nice and so much fun! We really had a blast! It was also nice because it was a quick trip....about an hour there and back. That made Buddy happy because he got to stay at home! Jeff & Cindy were awesome and took care of him for the night! Thank you, thank you, thank you again! :-)
Last weekend was so nice! We had NOTHING to do! We ran errands, did a littl house cleaning, and spent some time by the pool. It's so nice to have a day to breathe! We almost forgot what that feels like!
This weekend is pretty mellow too. I'm working today for a few hours (yuck!) and Barrett is hanging out with Jason & Elizabeth...fresh off their honeymoon in the DomRep (popular desination these days!). This afternoon we're heading to Addyson's 1st birthday party. Addyson is Barrett's stepbrothers beautiful baby girl. Then...I think we're heading to a cookout with Jason & Jeter. Tomorrow...we're heading poolside. Gotta get rid of some bathing suit strap tan lines before Lora's wedding next weekend! Then...we're off on a busy few weeks again.
Off to enjoy what's left of our "do nothing" weekend! :-)

Friday, July 10, 2009

End of June into July...

It has been a long time since we have blogged and Rebecca has been too busy so I(Barrett) am taking it into my own hands and updating The Brooks Board. A few weeks ago we had a Fiesta for Matt and Lora. I am sure everyone had a good time even though it was a 100 degrees out. We had plenty of food and fun plus there was a pinata filled with mini bottles, koozies, and candy. The next weekend we went down to Charleston for our friends Austin and Melissa's wedding. We left really early Saturday so that we could get down there and walk around. Lucky for us we had a great hotel (thanks again dad) and we got to check in at 11:00. After that we walked through the market and down to the battery to see the tall ship after that we had a little lunch. The wedding was wonderful right on the water at and old Charleston home and the reception was in The Exchange one of the places the Constitution was signed. Also toward the end of the reception we also got to explore the provost dungeon where pirates were held in old Charles Town. Enough of the history lesson, later that evening we went with a bunch of friends to Wet Willies and had one frozen drink and had to retire for the evening. Last weekend we had a few days off and got to spend them in Emerald Isle with my Grandma, Aunt, Uncle and Cousins. We got down Thursday mid day and went straight to the dock and stayed out in the sun almost the entire time. I did get to go out with my cousins fishing pretty early Friday, but a combination of the night before and the really rough seas I got sick more times than we had bites. We tried everything but ended up calling it and heading back after getting completely skunked, like they say though a bad day at the beach is better than the best day at work. On the 4th of July we packed up the boat and headed to coast guard beach and hung out there most of the day playing boccie ball. That evening we had the 4th of July porch party got to see fireworks from Swansboro, Cherry Point and Emerald Isle all from the dock, it was great. This weekend we are off again this time to Spartanburg for another wedding of our friends Jason and Elizabeth. This might be the biggest wedding I have ever been to I think around 400 people and a few of those will be Charlotte friends so should be another good time. Unfortunately we are leaving buddy again but he will be in good hands. Wish us luck and hopefully for anyone reading these this is my last post. -Barrett