A New Addition to the Fam!!!

Meet Gail:

So, we decided to sell both of our cars before we moved. I mean, what a great idea... Drive around town for a few days in a rental and then find the car of you dreams for dirt cheap. Sure.

Well, although she might not be the car of my dreams, I do love her with all of my heart!

Pros:

Smells like crayons

she purrs (guess she likes me)

I smile every time I see her!!! :)

Fits 5 adults comfortably, and I could easily fit 2 more in the trunk (although it may not be legal)

Has a sun roof

6 disc CD player (not sure if I even own Cd's)

leather seats

peeled out in her this morning on the way to the dry cleaners, and I'm still alive

made it to the beach and back

Did I mention SEAT WARMERS?!?!

Cons:

Smells like crayons

she purrs

stereo speakers are blown

Rear light failure started on day 3

Key less remote stopped working after the first week

The check engine light comes and goes as she pleases...

Overall, I'm quite happy with Gail. Lets just home she can make it until June 2011!!!

P.S. I accidentally failed the NC written drivers test. I guess that's what happens when you get cocky and decide you do not need to read the book because you've been driving for 14 years... I downloaded the book last night, so I'm sure I'll pass this time!

Wish me luck with the test and Gail!

Durham Bulls

Chad started school today! He seems to really being enjoying it and has met some really cool people. Tonight, Fuqua's Health Sector Management had an event at the Durham Bulls' Stadium. It was fun to meet some of his classmates and their girlfriends/wives and watch some minor league baseball. As always, it was a super hot night (everyone was sweating), but we had a great time. The ladies: Lia (she is 7 months pregnant), me, and Marie. The gentlemen: Aris, Trey, Chad, and Steve

The NC Pad

We are pretty much settled into our apartment in Durham. It is is an adorable complex with so many nice people. We are so glad we found it!
Here are some pictures (sorry about the lighting):

Walking into the apartment.The kitchen.
The living room from the kitchen.

The family room.

The guest room and den.

Our bedroom.

My Wonderful Family

We stayed at my parents house for 2 and a half weeks before we moved to NC. Although it flew by faster than I hoped it would, I feel so lucky to have been so close to them. They are such kind, loving, generous, thoughtful parents, and I LOVE them so much! It is going to be very hard to be away from them, but at least I'll have our daily phone calls. It was so wonderful to be able to spend that time with them! Plus, we were truly treated like royalty!!! My mom cooked, cleaned, did laundry. My parents are so amazing!

My dad and I both have July birthdays, so we always have a birthday party together. This year we went to dinner at Benihana's...delicious! My dad and me before we blew out the candles.

Us at dinner.

My gorgeous niece! I can't believe that she is turning 12 next month!

Thanks for letting us stay! We love you and we miss you!

We did it!

Good news! I got 700th place!!!! I'm not kidding.
I am quite impressed that the four of us lovely ladies ran the whole 10k. I was only up to 4 miles before the race, but I somehow mustered up the capacity to run the whole thing. I'm sure that it was a lot easier with the gorgeous view of the ocean and chatting with friends.
After the race, we headed to Melissa's beautiful house which over looks the ocean. We celebrated with some mimosas and yummy yogurt. We kept talking about how we cannot wait to do out next race, so hopefully we'll find another one soon (Bay to Breakers is just around the corner).

Later that day, we headed to downtown Santa Cruz to do some shopping and grab lunch.

All in all it was way more than I could have ever asked for. Thanks for hosting Melis!

Skips

'Tis the season for outside dinners. I love that the weather is getting warmer and we can head to Skips with friends for a fun dinner out. The weather was perfect last night, so we had a blast watching the McGee and Willis kids run around and play on the jungle gym. Cheryl, Ellie, Paris, me

Ellie is such a model baby. Everytime the camera was in her face, she would put on a huge smile; too cute!

Elizabeth, Justin, Ian, Emily

Wick and meJamie and Anthony

Cooking Club

Well, last night was a big night for cooking club.
In a nutshell:
I did slim to no chopping, cutting or cooking. We went on a wine run. We ate some yummy chicken curry. We had a candle passing. There were tears. I got home a little after midnight (a cooking club first for me).

I believe that we need to change our name to wine club.

CHEERS!

Santa Cruz 10K

Well, this sounded like a great idea in January when I was setting all of my New Year's resolutions. Unfortunately, it does not seem like such a grand idea any more.

I know that some people are born to be runners, or at least have the body stature to run with ease. The truth of the matter is that most of these people are not 5' 2" and that's pushing it for me.

My first 10k is this Sunday. I'll let you know how it goes... Wish me luck!!

Happy Easter!

From our family to yours!

In Just 4 days...

we will be heading here:

to sleep here:to learn about this:

to walk around these places:

I cannot wait!

Recently

It's been a while since I've blogged. I wish I had some great excuse like we've been traveling through Europe, but in reality, we've just been busy with daily life.

Fortunately we have been able to schedule some fun times. Here are some of the fun adventures that we've been up to:

Friday night we headed up to Salt Point for Kirk's birthday camping trip. Driving up 1 is so beautiful, but I am always so scared driving along the coast. The campsite was gorgeous. We had a good time playing horseshoes, beer pong, sitting by the fire, and telling stories. It was great to camp on the coast with the LaSala kids and Kirk's friends.

Wick and meDon't mind the cheesy pose! If you look in the background, behind the trees, you can see the ocean. Dayna. I just love this picture (yes, she is mocking my pose).

Kirk, Lo and Brent super enthusiastic about camping. The Crew. I'll photo shop the picture later so you can see it better.

Saturday Chad and I headed to Napa. Since I wasn't too excited to be heading south on 1 for very long, we cut through Jenner and drove through the Russian River. It was a gorgeous drive. We saw the coast, river, forest, and wine country.

We stayed at the Silverado; probably our favorite hotel in Napa. The grounds are beautiful, the spa is lovely and the rooms are super cute. Saturday we just went to downtown Napa and shopped. Sunday we hit up a couple of wineries. I think my favorite was Rombauer (I LOVE their Chardonnay). We had lunch at Vi Sattui on the grass. It is always fun trying new wines and talking to the winetender (what do you call them? I could only think of bartender, but I knew that wasn't right).

Grounds at Silverado.

A few weekends ago, my school had an auction. It was very fun to hang out with my teacher friends somewhere other than the lunch room. These are amazing women and I am so lucky to teach with them!

Emily, me, Danielle, and Briannon

Well there's more, but at least this was a good start! I'll be back soon to fill you in on some of the other events.

Lake Tahoe

We just got back form an exciting weekend in Lake Tahoe. We headed up Friday with Brent and Linsy to stay at Brent's place in Incline Village. I have wanted to go skiing for a while, but we haven't gotten around to it.
We went to North Star on Saturday to ski. I've only been "skiing" once in my life, and I do not know if you can even consider that skiing. I was super nervous! Fortunately Brent is a great teacher (and super patient), so he coached me through my first run. At the top of the mountain he was telling me how to correctly hold my body. I was scared and my heart was pounding very hard, but I thought to myself "You can do it!" and I started off. Well, need less to say, seconds later I was not thinking as positively. I couldn't figure out how to stop... I decided the only option was to do a face plant to force my body from going down the hill at an amazing speed. Brent helped me up and gave me a few pointers. I started to do much better. I only fell one more time on that run.
When we were at the bottom Brent gave me a great compliment, saying I did super. I was really proud. He then headed down the last SMALL slope towards the ski lifts, and I started to follow. Surprise, surprise...I fell again! This time no one was there to help me up. Some kind skier took pitty on me and stood in front of me, protecting me from the oncoming skiers as I got up.
After I composed myself, I headed back to the ski lift to try it again. Good news, I did much better! Brent, Linsy, and Chad told me that we were going to do a different run. As we were heading up the ski lift (a much longer one this time), my heart started racing again. They told me that this one was longer, but they ensured me that I would do much better this time because the steeper slope would help me (hmmm...now that I think back on it, I bet they were all laughing in their heads).
Long story short, they all lied! Although I only fell twice, there was a slew of swear words floating about my head as I was holding back tears and pretending that I wasn't SCARED to death. After that run, I decided to take a break for a while.
In the end, they day turned out to be fun, but I think I'll wait until next winter to try to ski again. The memory is too close right now.
By the way, my boots were too small, so my two big toes are now black and blue.

Babies Galore!

This weekend was full of baby fun!

Thursday Emily and Ian had precious baby T.J.

Sunday was Heather's baby shower.

Today Jenny and Alex had adorable baby Isabel!

Congrats to the new additions!

Busy Weekend!

Friday night I met up with the girls at Lark Creek for some premovie fun. (sorry for the blurry picture, but that was all that I have). We headed over to the movies to see He's Just Not That Into You. I wasn't a big fan of the movie, but loved being around friends.

Saturday morning I headed over to Brentwood for Jenny's baby shower. She was one of my eleven roommates (yes 12 ladies under one roof) at the Pi Phi house in Chico. It was so great to see her and catch up with some of my sorority sisters.

Megan (the blond above) came up with the cutest shower game that I would recommend to anyone who is planning a shower. She sent out onesies in various sizes with the invitations. Everyone decorated their onesie and brought it to the shower. Jenny guessed who made the different onesies. You can see some of the creative ideas in the pictures below; they were too cute!
Saturday night, we headed to the Freeman's house for Kelly and Christian's engagement party. As always, a good time was had by all. The pictures below show some of the dance party.

Sunday I headed to Shayla's baby shower. It is her first girl, so she got so many adorable pink items for their baby. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of this, but it was very fun.

Thankfully I had Monday off!

Visit from Jocelyn

This weekend my best friend from high school, Jocelyn, came into town. Every time we get together, it seems as if no time has passed since the last time we hung out. She is such a kind, hilarious, loving, giving friend who always puts a positive spin on life. She always puts a HUGE smile on my face every time I see her. I wish she lived closer. I miss her and I cannot wait for our next play date!

Seattle

I just go back from a fun filled girls weekend in Seattle. Melissa, Staci and I had a blast touring the town, eating yummy seafood and checking out the night club. I was so impressed how easy and convenient it was to navigate through Seattle.

On Thursday Night we all met at the airport and headed to Hotel Max:

We got a drink at Amber before we headed to the Flying Fish for dinner. We went and grabbed a few drinks at ______ and listened to an AMAZING band. Unfortunately, I forgot the name, but I'll let you know it once I talk to Melissa.
Friday Melissa had to work, so after coffee and a run, Staci and I toured the town. We went to Pikes Place to shop around.

We had a yummy lunch at Lowells'. It was the first time I had ever had clam chowder and I loved it!After lunch we saw the first Starbucks and Sur la Table. Then shopped around town some more.

We went and had a drink at The Triple Door and then headed next door to Wild Ginger.

Melissa met up with us at Wild Ginger, and we all headed to Pioneer Square for some more bar hopping. The bars were a little dirty, but made great drinks. From there we headed to Alibi to get our groove on.

It would be an understatement to say Saturday was more mellow than the two days before. We revisited our favorite shops one last time before we had to head to the airport.

My flight was 2 hours after the girls, so at first I was bummed to just sit at the airport. Fortunately, the Seattle a well stocked airport. I shopped at Fireworks for a while. Then I headed to Butter - LONDON. I had the BEST pedicure and manicure as I waited for my flight.
I have never been to Seattle before, but this trip makes me want to go back! Thanks for planning a great girls weekend Melissa!