New House

YAHOOO! 

We closed on our new house today 5 days after our original closing date! Here are some pictures of the new place. We have a busy week coming up with painters, carpet cleaners, and movers. I hope all of our scheduling woks out and we are moved in just in time me for Brian's Birthday and my first day of Christmas Break! 

Also, I have been rehearsing dorky movie lines to say while we move in (thanks to Carrie in the Sex in the City movie) I am sure Brian will be so amused!

My favorite part of the house!!!

The Front of our cute new home

Us on the porch

Our HOT PINK bathroom (the painters are coming over tomorrow) 

There is also a HOT TEAL bedroom

There are a ton of stairs... maybe it is a sign that it will be as great of a place as Hillcrest 98

Master bath - I can't wait to clean it and use it!! 

Don't worry the painters are getting rid of the tacky toll painting.... ASAP!!

Bonus Room (Brian is claiming this as his man cave)

Kitchen - I'm making Christmas cookies as soon as we are unpacked!

breakfast area/ sun room 

Dining room

As we complete projects we will post before and after pictures!

Thanksgiving in the ATL

We went down to visit my relatives in Atlanta for the second Thanksgiving in a row. We stayed at hotel Wolfgramm and of course loved spending time with the boys, Hamilton, Tate, and Eli...the other 2 Wolfgramm kids, Parker and Brooke, were in St. George having their own brand of Thanksgiving fun. We love staying with them and always have a great time playing and chatting with them.

The boys didn't play in the turkey bowl this year because Parker the super start athlete was MIA. Brian was relived, he was sore for a week after last years game.

We went to my Aunt Marge's new house (it is gorgeous) on Thanksgiving and of course had a great time visiting all of my aunts, uncles, cousins, great aunts, and grandparents. The food was great.. it is still weird to me that they call stuffing dressing and cut in in squares like brownies...its a southern thing that my mom abandoned when we Californiaized. It was a huge crowd and a great day. My aunt has Port Marion china (every plate has a different plant or flower on it). I ate off the mistletoe plate... on our way over to the food Brian was humoring me and kissing me under plate i kept holding it over my head... a little cheesy but very typical!

We got to hang out with my cute grandparent one night and my grandpa was telling us amazing stories about his childhood.

It is nice to be so close to my family!!!!

New House Update

We were supposed to close this afternoon but it has been postponed due to the sellers attorney...UGH I hate waiting!

NEW HOUSE

After Searching since July we have found a house... YAHOOO! We are so excited!!! I will post more pictures soon. We cant wait to get into it and unpack all of the stuff we have been missing for the past few months. There have been so many times when we have looked for something only to realize it is in the garage... the garage of our apartment is backed floor to ceiling wall to wall and is currently the black hole that has gobbled a ton of our stuff.

A little about the house it is the city of Waxhaw a suburb of Charlotte. It is about 20 minutes away from Brian's job. We have friends who live in the subdivision (The Brewer-Nann Family) and so we will know at least one neighbor. The house was a foreclosure so we have a few projects that will keep us busy but since Brian is so handy we will have things looking great in no time. I am sure I will post each of these home improvement projects. We are going to be closing the week after Thanksgiving. So I am excited to be in the house for Christmas.

More pictures still to come!

Barktoberfest

This year we took Ellie, her boy friend Spencer, and Spencer's mom Shannon with us to BARKTOBERFEST. It is a huge dog party. There were a ton of dogs... lots of treats....and costume contests. Most of the crazy pet owners in Charlotte were out and it was some great people watching. My favorites were the dog being a camel, and the dog who was James bond in a tux with his owner wearing an evening gown. Of course we dressed Ellie as a princess (it was her same costume from last year buy hey there is a recession going on so we saved a few bucks) and no we did not dress up to match her maybe next year! It was the largest crowd of dogs she has ever been around and I think Brian was more nervous than Ellie... He kept picking her up and holding her because "there were too many big dogs around"... he was being very protective and it was so cute!

SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKE

This post is a little late since it is October and I am still writing about summer! That does sum it up.... I wish it was summer all year! This labor day we went to Smith Mountain Lake (it is in Southern Virginia... It is also the lake where What About Bob was filmed). 

We went and stayed there with Brian's BFF Steven, his daughter Olivia, and Steven's parents Joe and Roxanne.. Stevens parents live there and man oh man am I jealous!!! The views from their deck are beautiful. We played in the water, went on sunset boat rides, played in the water, went tubing, walked around the lake (not the whole thing it is BIG), and played in the water some more!  Steven's dad Joe was vicious when he was pulling Brian and Steven and he made them FLY off the tube more than once!! It was funny when the guys got back in the boat they were telling Joe that he gave them a 20 year old ride not a 30 something  year old ride... and that they were too old to be tossed around like that!  Now for some pictures....

Brian and Steven on the ride of their lives

Steven and Brian before they wiped out!

Cheese'n it up on the boat!

Whitney and Olivia... note the matching braids

Brian hanging on...

Whitney and Olivia on our boat ride to have dinner!

Snake Hill

 My friend Shannon and I walk our dogs everyday. Well we did until I got a job...but I am glad that I am working so it is OK that our daily walks are now weekly walks. We walk from our apartments past some restaurants and doctors offices, then down past a construction area, down a dirt hill, and then on a "path" (a construction zone with huge pipes and back-hoes) that leads us to the Greenway Walking Trail of Charlotte. This is our own personal short-cut to the Greenway. We usually walk between 4 to 8 miles and we are considered regulars. Yep we know the other regulars and the construction workers are familiar faces.  Now that you kn0w our routine I will tell you about the traumatic event that changed our path.. goodbye sneaky shortcut.

It was a beautiful sunny humid southern end of summer day... Shannon and I were walking along talking about houses, jobs and boys when we approached the hill... like normal we started to walk down... about 1/3 of the way down the hill I froze in terror. About a foot away from my little Ellie was the biggest snake I had ever seen not in a cage. It should be in a zoo or reptile house somewhere!  This snake was slithering across our pathway and covered the entire path which is about 10 feet wide!!!! I could not move for about 3 seconds then when I did my body did a weird leg kicking jump scream combo... while screaming I turned yanked Ellie's leash and started running...my scream lead to Shannon screaming seeing the snake, screaming again and running as well.  We sprinted to the top of the hill out of breath and scared to death.  Our construction worker friends were running to us because they could hear our screams and thought a homeless guy tried to kill us or that we found a body.... they were thinking something was seriously wrong.. and it was HELLO we were almost killed by a giant snake! 

We frantically told them what had happened between our gasps for air and wiggling around to get rid of our creepy feeling. They died laughing and told us that because it was all black it was a "good snake" the kind that keeps cotton mouths and water moccasins way. I was very confused by the term GOOD SNAKE! Are you kidding me this snake looked as big as the snakes that eat babies out of huts in small villages!!! I am pretty sure it was related to the huge snake in Harry Potter. 

 Once we caught our breath and got some composure we had to walk the long way on the side walk to get to the Greenway and we have not braved "SNAKE HILL" since! We are waiting for winter when the giant beast who so rudely made our personal walk way its home will be hibernating!