Updates, Updates, Updates...

Since some people think that I don't update my blog often enough (yeah, what's with that? heehee...) I am posting several items at once to get y'all caught up to the present in our lives. Older stuff is at the bottom.

Our drive to Wattensaw (wildlife management area) didn't yield many wildlife sightings, but we did get to see a pretty sunset.

Aaron got a lot of good pictures. You can see them on his blog--link to the right.

A nice action shot of Nate.

Aaron proved surprisingly good for someone who has never played...or else we are just not as good as we think. (; Finally, last week Aaron flew down from snowy Maine to visit and go fishing. Too bad we just had major flooding all over the state! But we did find some spots near Greer's Ferry Dam and we had a good time. I forgot the camera, of course, so you can't see that I caught the biggest fish (I really did!) but I got some good action shots at the park when Nate and I taught him to play disc golf (or frisbee golf) for the first time.

Later the week after the snow, there were spring flowers everywhere!

After a winter of Nate telling me "we usually get one good snowfall," we finally did...in March, after a weekend of 70 degree weather! It made for some pretty pictures and snowmen, but melted off within a day.

My Breezy. I enjoyed her brief visit.

Curled up in her favorite basket. In February, we added a new member to the Williams' household...Bagheera, a little black cat. She was a starving stray rescued by my friend who then lived in Kansas and was visiting her relatives in Colorado at the time. Bagheera is a bit of a spaz and we laugh at her antics constantly. I think she is still getting used to us, but we get along quite well, as long as we respect her independence...and feed her on time. She loves to sleep in "her" basket and adores our large picture window in the living room; she is quite ferocious with her toys and lets us know if she wants something. (:

My family.

Vijay meets his great-grandpa Brown.

I got to hold my little nephew for the first time at Christmas.

The Christmas Tree decorating committee: Me, Jo, Jen, and Jess.

A taste of Maine winter!

Nate's first real snow at the airport.
We got to go to Maine to spend Christmas with my family, and it was an enjoyable time of fun and fellowship with all kinds of family members. And we were happy to have snow for Christmas!!

The kitchen took two days to complete.

Get that tile straight, Nate!

I am proud that I helped pull up the nasty kitchen carpet!

Gene and Nate putting in the final piece of hardwood.

Nate, Gene, and Matt work on the floor (it was quite dusty in there...).

The front room after we removed the carpet.

I was glad to see the carpet go!

In December, we installed hardwood and tile in the front room and kitchen of our house. Nate's dad graciously gave us the supplies left over from a house he was renovating and helped with the installation, as well as his brother, Matt. Nate and I did the entire kitchen (tile) by ourselves. Then he spent 7 hours grouting it alone while I recouperated on the couch from having wisdom teeth out. (o:

Hey Mom!

I'll update my blog when you update yours! :-P

Charlie Brown Tree

Since Nate and I are visiting Maine for Christmas this year (yay!), we decided not to have a real Christmas Tree. I got this tiny tree from Share 'N Swap at church. When I was little, Nana Savage always had a little tree decorated at the top of the stairs at her house in addition to the big tree that held all our presents and we called it "The Charlie Brown Tree." It was as essential to our Christmas as visiting Nana and Grandpa was. So this is our little Charlie Brown Christmas Tree.

HOUSE PICTURES!!

Here's our little house as you come up the hill...

This is what you will see when you first come in the door.

Looking back at the living room...

We love the bar area in the kitchen...great for using the laptop (that's what I am doing right now...)

Down the hallway to the bedrooms (1 bedroom, 1 junk room, and 1 study...;))

The hall bathroom is unfinished, but we're working on it. We tiled and painted, and still need to put in a new vanity...

Right across the hall is the study!

We love the built-in bookshelves...a cozy little nook.

Our bedroom is a little smaller than we are used to, but cozy!

The window faces east...so we get a bright awakening on sunny mornings!

The back patio is a nice place to hang out on a sunny day!

Here's our extended back yard! I am excited to have a garden up there next summer!

Looking back down toward the house...

The house came with a storage shed full of tools and supplies.

Almost moved! Pictures to come...

We have a house!! YaY! For most of September, we have been slowly moving in (loading up as many boxes as our little Aveo can hold, driving them to the house, driving back, loading up more boxes...you get the picture) We only have a few boxes of random essentials and all of our "big" (i.e. can't fit in the Aveo) furniture left. The electricians spent most of last week installing some upgrades and I painted the guest bathroom. That room still needs a lot of work--we have to tile the floor, re-set the toilet, and buy a new sink/vanity as well as install some shelves. Something tells me we might still be working on it when we move completely in (our apartment lease expires this weekend so we have to be out). I am excited about the front room as well--as soon as we get settled, we are going to take a weekend to remove all the old carpet and Nate's dad has generously given us enough tile and hardwood to re-do the floor! It will be tile entry squares by the doors and hardwood on the rest. I am pressing pretty hard to just tile the kitchen while we are at it. ;-)

Just so this entry doesn't remain pictureless, here is one of Nate on his 27th birthday (he is a bit younger than me, but I am not going to say by how much!). I made him a huge brownie rather than a cake, and banana pudding rather than ice cream--that is what he wanted! The cake came out rather sad (the decorating, anyway) but it took me the good part of an afternoon to make it look just that good!

And I can't resist putting a picture of the lovely roses my sweet husband brought home to me last week. I had a terrible day with a horrible toothache and babysitting a fussy baby, so he surprised me with these:

They stayed fresh and pretty until yesterday, but even then, I found a way to arrange them artistically:

Oh, and here is a picture of our little "moving truck" for Mom. :-D

Catching Up...

WoW! I can't believe it's the middle of August already!! July was a whirl of activity--I am just going to post a few pictures that represent the last few weeks:
For most of July, I was busy constructing costumes for our church's VBS production of Pilgrim's Progress. Late nights bending over the sewing machine have left me with a permanently stiff back that is just now beginning to subside. But we had a wonderful cast of teens from the youth group. Here is a picture of some of the costumes from Day 2, which was by far my hardest day--I had to put together and coordinate 15 separate costumes for that day (that may not sound like much--unless you know how little I had to start with).

At the end of July, I celebrated the last birthday of my 20's and was so proud of the cake, I took a picture. :o) I've never made a round cake that looked any good before. It looks kinda lopsided in the picture, but it really wasn't.

After VBS was over for the week, Nate and I headed off to Memphis to pick up Joanna, who flew down from Maine leaving her husband for a week just to visit me. We had a lot of fun! It was good to visit, since we hadn't seen each other for over a year--since her wedding last May.

The last night she was here, Gene and Linda treated us to a performance of Singin' In the Rain at Murry's Dinner Theater--it was my birthday gift. Jo loved it!

Finally...the Engagement Story!

Ok, so I promised a while back that I would post my engagement story. Coming right after our two year anniversary pics, I though it might be appropriate now. I've been putting if off b/c it's soo loooong....

Well. First off, let me say that Nate and I had been dating almost 3 years, and about a year and a half of that had been long distance (he was home in Arkansas, having graduated college, and I was either in Maine on vacation, in California at college, or in Israel studying for a semester during that time). However, while I was home in the summer of '04, he was due for a long-awaited vacation--he was coming to visit my family in Maine for a week. Little did I know that he was scheduled to arrive early and had been conspiring with various members of my family about that and other things! But my sweet grandpa accidentally gave the arrival away because he didn't know it was a secret that Nate was supposed to get there on Sunday night instead of Monday. So, I knew he was there already when I got home from camping with my cousins.
Wednesday was my birthday and we had reservations for a fancy restaurant (in Maine where I lived that means an hour drive) so we got all dressed up and went out. Of course, he bought me a rose and Nana had to take lots of pictures, and it was a fun evening. Apparently Nate was "hinting" all evening, trying to get me to think he was going to propose, but I was so clueless. I honestly didn't expect a proposal until at least Christmas!

All dressed up to go out.

The evening passed quietly and we enjoyed our dinner (after getting lost and frustrated on the way there...we learned MapQuest doesn't work in Maine!) and although I didn't know it, Nana and Grandpa were looking for a ring when I dropped him off at their house on the way home.
The next day we had planned a kayak trip on the Sandy River where we would stop halfway and have lunch with my mom and dad, as the river runs right behind her workplace. We were both slow getting ready; I was frustrated and sure we wouldn't be on time for lunch when we started out. We arrived at the river, dragged our kayaks to the bank, and prepared to get in. Nate stepped into his and right away tipped the entire thing sideways, spilling into the water! Needless to say, this did nothing for my mood as I helped him, soggy and dripping, to get into it properly. I asked him why he was so clumsy and his answer was "I'm just nervous." I must have given him a funny look because he added (somewhat lamely, looking back ;o) "It's my first time kayaking." Finally both in our boats, we headed off down the river. It soon became clear to me that it was indeed his first time kayaking: my ideal day of paddling briskly along, enjoying the sunshine and the water, was not to be. We didn't know (well, I didn't) that he had about 50 extra pounds of water in his boat from the spill that was weighing him down. He just thought kayaking was harder than it looked, and I just thought he was incredibly clumsy and slow. I finally asked him why he found it so hard to keep up with me, and he replied that he thought all the water in his kayak was slowing him down (I should have known, it was floating so low!) Immediately I knew we needed to pull to shore and empty it--easier said than done. Once we finally got ashore, we had the hardest time coordinating our movements to flip the silly thing over and get the water out! Breaking down, I lost my patience and my temper, and really let Nate have it!! Needless to say, I hurt his feelings and had to apologize; I felt that my perfect day had been ruined, not even suspecting that his perfect plans had been messed up by our spat as well!
Getting back into the water, we made much better progress with two lighter kayaks, and soon reached our lunch spot. I was supposed to keep on the lookout for a large beach umbrella, supposedly marking the spot we were to land. As we drew closer, I thought I saw Joanna walking away from the umbrella and tried to call to her, but she acted like she never heard me and kept walking. Thinking that was odd, I helped secure the kayaks and climbed up the bank. Nate took my hand as I was walking by the umbrella and motioned for me to look at it. I turned and saw a beautiful little spread on a picnic blanket, complete with a picnic basket, box of chocolates, and a dozen roses! Now girls, I know most of you by now would have a clue, but I must say that I was still completely clueless as to what was going on. I just thought "how sweet, a surprise picnic!" as we settled down to eat. Neither of us really had much appetite though, so I examined my lovely flowers--four white (for purity), four yellow (for friendship) and four deep red (for love) and we nibbled on the grapes and bagels. Wanting a drink, I reached into the picnic basket for a cup, and noticed as I did a little box hiding in one of the other cups. I actually didn't think that much of seeing that little box, but Nate saw that I had seen it, and thinking that the surprise was up, pulled it out. He began to open it, with his eyes on me, and I was thinking "what in the world???....no, that can't be. He just bought me a gift and is trying to make me think...." He opened the box and I saw my lovely engagement ring, sparking in the sun. Neither of us had said a word up to this point, so he broke the silence by asking "Will you marry me?" Clueless to the end, I stared at him for like 30 seconds (ask him, and it was three minutes) and then asked "Is this for real?"
...I finally got around to saying yes. But I felt like it must have been a dream or something all that day.

Two Whole Years...

The end of May, we celebrated our Second wedding anniversary!! I can't believe it's been two whole years. We went to Memphis and had a great time there. We got to spend three days because of Memorial Weekend! I can't wait to go back!

The first thing we did was go to the Mud Island Museum/Park. It was cool--a lot about transportation on the Mississippi from the steamboat on (and some cool replicas of such you could walk through in the museum--like being on a real steamboat.)

Here I am in the monorail, headed to Mud Island. I thought I wasn't going to mind it but it was actually a little scary. Nate is afraid of heights so I think I enjoyed it more.

There was a miniature Mississippi River winding all over the park and we walked from "Minnesota" to the "Gulf of Mexico" where I am standing. It's a good shot of the Memphis Skyline, too.

We went to the Zoo (of course!) while we were there. Walking around for 5 hours still didn't see it all. But I loved it! (And probably lost some weight!)

Here is Nate with the Panda, eating her bamboo. They wouldn't let him get in the cage to take a picture, so this is the best I got.

And here I am rescuing a baby panda that had gotten loose. The zoo is going to send me a check next week for that one...

(Ok, it's not real...)

Don't know what he's saying, but it must be funny!

I LOVE giraffes!! This one is not real, but it was amazing to me that when I stood next to it, I only came to its knee!! As I walked closer, I felt like I was getting shorter. It was about the size of a real one. And we got to see a real live BABY giraffe in the pen! It was awesome!! :o)

Of course, while there we had to visit Beale St. It was Sunday afternoon, though, and not much was happening. This picture was taken by a man who gave me the roses and then wanted a donation (we gave him some change). I was glad he gave the camera back--I know, that was suspicious of me, but you never know!

Here is a view of the famous Pyramid. We went right by it getting on the highway to go home