What Do You Call the Past Decade?

Seriously though. What do you call 2000-2010? The o's or the 0's? I am so confused.

I started thinking last night about the past decade and I couldn't believe how many milestones were accomplished.

• Got my first car (the Altima is still alive & kickin!)
• Graduated High School (class of 2001!)
• Attended college at Mississippi State University on a golf scholarship (probably the most fun 4 years of my life so far) and I successfully broke 4 school records!
• Turned 21! My friend, Ashleigh made sure we had a fun night even if it was before the SEC Championship.
• Graduated college
• Turned professional and played for a year and a half on the Futures Tour (toured the U.S. and basically lived out of my car~awesome experience!)
• Met my future husband
• Got my first big girl job (in sales at the Commercial Appeal)
• Moved out of my parent's house into an apt on Mud Island with 2 of the best girls ever!
• Got engaged
• Left the CA for FedEx as an Account Executive
• Planned a wedding & got married Feb. 16, 2008
• Bought a house!
• Started my MBA at the University of Memphis (graduating Aug 2010!)
• Got another dog (who is the cutest thing ever, I may be partial though)
• Promoted to Sales Development & Education at FedEx

Who knows what 2010-2020 will bring? Do we call this decade the 10's? This is what I envision...

• Graduate with a MBA
• Maybe start my PhD (that is if I get accepted!)
• Continue working at FedEx
• Becoming parents (CRAZY!)
• Altima may have to be put to rest
• Learning to cook more
• TRAVELLING (booked a trip to Jamaica today! we will also be going to the Caribbean with friends late April and Aspen for my cousin's wedding in June)
• Hopefully travelling to ITALY
• Becoming stronger in faith (an everyday prayer!)
• Moving on from 1602 wolf ridge? Who knows?
• Turning 30! Oh no!

I am so excited for the next decade to begin, but seriously this one involved a ton of changing! It's crazy how fast it seemed to fly by.

Happy New Year!!

2009 in Review

2009:

1. Celebrated Christmas [actually late, late 2008] in Breckenridge, CO with my family. Drank a lot of hot chocolate and skiied down a black [the most terrifying thing I think I have ever done]
2. Got an iPhone [just a tad bit addicted]
3. Started BSF [awesome bible study]
4. Travelled to DisneyWorld for our 1st anniversary
5. Attended Tina & Rhys Lloyd's wedding in Miami, FL [awesome!]
6. Girl's weekend in Oxford, MS [soooo much fun]
7. Started giving golf lessons [actually have a small clientele, not sure if this is the correct sp]
8. Turned 26 [blech]
9. Started participating in Bunko [thanks, Leslie for inviting me!]
10. Finished & survived a Half-Marathon [beat my hubby!!!]
11. Spent Memorial Day on a lake in Missouri
12. Survived the Spring '09 semester
13. Bridesmaid in Catherine & David Nail's wedding [beautimous]
14. Became a MOMMY! [ha, not that kind, a dog mom to a bouncing lab puppy girl, Joey]
15. Volunteered in the St. Jude Classic
16. Visited my Miss State teammate Ashleigh in Orlando
17. Played as a Professional in the TN Women's Open [made the cut, thanks to my sister caddying!]
18. Flew to Tampa for Ashleigh & Jon Centella's wedding [at the Don Cesar in St Pete Beach-lovely!]
19. Made it thru Summer School
20. Threw a baby shower for my best friend, Amanda - and my nephew [I am his Aunt Beth] was born in Oct.
21. Became involved in a church, Grace Evan [love our church friends]
22. Went to Nashville to visit the Nails and go to the Vandy/State football game [we won]
23. Had sorta a reunion with Justin's college friend & some of my college friends at the Miss St/Georgia Tech game [soo fun-but we lost this one, hey, GA Tech is gooood]
24. Travelled to Columbia, MO for the TX/Mizzou game [Colt McCoy is a stud]
25. Got promoted to Sales Development! [best thing to happen this year, believe me]
26. Travelled to Salt Lake City for my first week of work [beautiful city]
27. Wrote a 45 page paper [sorta my thesis]
28. Survived my second year as a grad school student [not my best perfomance, however]
29. Was suprised last weekend by my husband with a trip to CHICAGO! [stayed with previously mentioned friends, Ashleigh & Jon-they live on Michigan Ave!]

I probably forgot a few things, but this year has been so much fun. It seems like it has flown by. I guess that's what happens when you work full-time, go to grad school, and have a busy life?

Can you tell I don't have a lot to do today at work?

Next on the schedule-celebrating Christmas with the fam and eating a ton of goodies...

Just Call Us The Griswalds

My Husband, Clark Griswald

And we are not even finished. This picture (iPhone) really doesn't do justice. Justin LOVES Christmas. He decided last year that he was going to go a "bit crazy" with the outdoor decorating since it was our first Christmas in our new home. Each year he wants to add something to the lights. The cross is our "something new" for 2009. Justin made the cross himself and hung it himself. He cracked me up by saying "Christmas is about Christ, not Santa, and we need to display this".

And I do know that it is taboo to decorate before Thanksgiving, but with Justin's schedule & going out of town for Turkey Day, and if we wanted the decorations up before the middle of December, we had to do it now.

More pics to come! Happy Holidays!!!

To Keurig or not to Keurig

I LOVE COFFEE. It's true. I am thinking of buying a Keurig, but am unsure of the high pricetag. I am not sure of its quality. I am also not sure of the other single-cup coffee makers such as Taissamo. Does anyone have suggestions??? My coffee maker at home sucks. And I no longer have my illustrious coffee club at work [as seen on: http://leslieguinn.blogspot.com/2009/08/water-water-everywhere-and-not-drop-to.html]

I can't function in the morning without coffee!!! Help people!

New Job!

I received word last week that I got a promotion at FedEx! I will now be a Senior Education Specialist in Sales Development & Education. Kind of a long title, but I am sooo excited. I will get to teach, which is what I have wanted to do since I was 5! I used to make Abby come home after school and play school with me. She knew about direct objects and even how to diagram a sentence in kindergarten. And I will get to use....

Yep that's right! A dry erase board :) Ask my parents... for some reason I love writing on dry erase boards! Whenever I had to wait for my dad in his office, I again would pretend to teach and of course write all over the dry erase board.

I am not sure exactly when I will be starting my new gig, but I am truly excited about a new adventure and challenge. It is nice moving on up as well! I will be travelling a lot more, which is great b/c the past 2 years working in a cube has definitely tested my patience.

More details to come!

June & July

Oops! I have been a bit absent from blogging. June started off with Catherine & David's beautiful outside wedding in Franklin, TN. Catherine was stunning & I am so happy she has met such an amazing guy.













Then, I visited Ashleigh in Orlando! We got some great girl time including dinner with our other teammate from Missisippi State, Janet, who also lives in Orlando. It was so great to catch up and have a girl's weekend!


July we ventured down to St. Pete Beach, FL for the Fultz/Centella wedding! This wedding was so amazing & the week was so much fun!

Relaxing in a hammock on the beach

Memorial Day Weekend

Justin & I ventured up to Missouri for a loong weekend! It was very much needed for the both of us to spend some time together & get away! We spent the first night in Springfield and visited with his dad & fiance. Then, we headed down to Branson & Table Rock Lake to spend a few nights with Justin's mom & husband, Ron. We had a cute, tiny cabin right on the lake & enjoyed time boating & catching rays. It was great to see everyone and it was a fun jump start to summer! This picture somehow got very fuzzy when I uploaded it and it is tiny! Oh well!

Joey

I am a proud new mommy to a yellow lab puppy, Joey! She was Justin's birthday present (he had literally been begging me for another dog since we got married).

She really has been amazing this weekend. We have gotten to spend a lot of time together. Let's just pray these horrible allergies this weekend are not because of her!

Jackson is not the biggest fan of her, but he should warm up to the thought of having a sister soon.

This pic is at my parent's house. She is going to be very spoiled by her grandma.

27 Years

Happy Birthday Justin!

This is one of my fav pics of us when we were in Charleston last year.

We are going to Carrabba's to celebrate with the fam tonite and El Nopal tomorrow with friends! I think they have missed our business since Justin does not live in Cordova anymore.

It's hard to believe this is Justin's 27th birthday! We are getting so old!

I am so thankful to have married my best friend and I love you very much hubby! I hope your day is fabulous!

I Have Been a Bad Blogger

I know, I know. I am horrible at blogging. I even sit at a desk most of the day and yet, no post. If Leslie were here she could show me how to hyperlink her name. She demonstrates the ability to post and work, whereas I am not this talented.
I am taking a break from writing a final paper for a management class (Dr. Bob-does it really need to be 20 pages??). Needless to say, my brain hurts. But I will hopefully be done by next Friday, if not May 5. Depends on if I can get this paper done in time.
With that said, this is the reason for my absence from blogging. I have just been too busy. And next post I want to do a 25 thing like Leslie did as well. I have been thinking about these 25 items for a few weeks now, so I hope it will be a good post.
This weekend also marks the Country Music Marathon. Yes, I will be running the 1/2. Yes, my goal is to FINISH (in one piece). We will see. But after this, I am done running for a while. My knee just really can't take the beating. Unfortunately, as a prior post, we cannot figure out what is wrong with my knee. I had surgery and have seen 50 million PT's etc. Ok thats an exaggeration. But still-NOTHING. Ice and stretch. So, maybe a little spin class or kickboxing???
I will also include pics of the big finish. should be exciting.
I am also doing Bunko next week and am pretty excited about that as well.
Ta Ta For Now.
P.S. I am really obsessed with this song, "Beggin" by Madcom. The little things in life :) It's a good song to get to when you are running,cleaning the house, etc.

One Year of Marriage

We definitely celebrated our one year anniversary as we should! We told eachother that since we got married in Feb. we should try to take a trip every year to escape the cold & celebrate our anniv! It so happened that my former travel buddy while I played golf, Tina was getting married Feb. 21 in Miami to Rhys Lloyd. They were in a previous blog as Rhys plays for the Carolina Panthers and I stayed with them in Nov. travelling for work. Then, we decided to stop in Orlando to make a visit to Mickey. We had such an amazing time and Feb. is a great time to go to Disney-hardly any lines! This is our pic on the Tower of Terror-

Then, we ventured down to Miami where we played golf with Tina & Rhys at Don Shula's (I had a hole in one there in a college tournament- so I enjoyed going back to this golf course!) Then, we made our way to south beach! What an experience. We had so much fun hanging out together & people watching but we were ready to leave around 9pm! Guess we are not meant for the crazy night life in south beach!

The wedding was absolutely beautiful on Saturday at 4:30 and we were still partying at 1:00 am! It was the longest and one of the best receptions I have ever been to! I am so glad we made it to their wedding, it was definitely worth it. I got to see old friends and meet a lot of great new people.

Sunday, we took a little time out to tan by the pool (or burn!) and ventured up to Melbourne to visit my family. We had a lot of fun catching up and I got to meet my newest little cousin, Kathryn. She is so amazing and the best little baby ever! We made it back Monday and really enjoyed this trip-can't wait for more anniversary trips to come!

Lately

So, I was in Charlotte last week for work & have a few pictures below.



Part of my territory is Gastonia, NC. I saw this bumpersticker on the way to see a client - PALIN20012! HA!

Charlotte is an amazing city-I wish I could move there, seriously. After our meeting on Fri, I convinced my co-workers to go to the South Park area & dine at Dean & Deluca (LOVE!). We then went shopping & I found a wine bar! This is my kind of place-wine on tap!!!

This car was in the parking lot of the shopping center!!!!












I had a good trip & I also got to see one of my friends on the visit as well. Justin & I had a great Valentine's Day working! The golf course had a Valentine's dinner so I babysat the kids while Justin oversaw the dinner. Even though it wasn't very romantic, we had fun. We are headed to Orlando & Miami this week for our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!! I cannot express how excited I am just to travel with my husband & be in warm weather! I also can't wait to see my family & have Justin meet some cousins he has never met before! This year has flown by!!

Domino Magazine's End

I recently heard from one of my friends, Leslie, that Domino magazine has closed shop. This is devistating news. I cherished this magazine. I was not a subscriber but definitely bought these while travelling or in the grocery line if I loved the cover.

Go to: http://www.dominomag.com/contact/dynamicEmailForm if you want to share your thoughts on this! Maybe if enough people complain or show your support, they will rethink their decision!

Without Phone

I can't believe how we have become so reliant on having cell phones. I left my phone at home AGAIN (This is like the 4th time to do this since working at FedEx). But, it is even more of a hassle as I have class tonite & cannot come home until 10:30 pm at least. So, being without phone for almost 24 hours is killing me. It just amazes me how we are so reliant and our world involves communication on-the-go more than ever. How did our grandparents or parents by that matter handle cross-country road trips? Or meeting someone for dinner? What if something extremely important came up? I don't think I have used a pay phone since high school.
And not to mention, I now have an iPhone (which I love!). My grandpa would be amazed at how we can email while driving, while listening to your favorite new song that was downloaded. Or how people text during class? I could go on and on and on...
Anyways, it has been a tough day- I have not talked to my husband once (just emails).
Guess I should get back to my assignment that I have not finished & is due in 30 minutes!

The Pick of the Pictures

Today marks a milestone...first, I am actually picking out & ordering our wedding pictures. For the past 11 months, it has literally scared me to even try to figure out which ones I wanted. I already received my professional book, but I still have the 8 x 10's and 4 x 6's left in my package to pick. It is such a huge decision & requires me to be focused & organized! It has only taken me 4 hours, but I think I am almost done. Now, I just need the husband's approval...

I wanted to also put in a picture from Colorado! We went with my family for a week to Colorado and got to stay & ski in beautiful Breckinridge. Justin even tricked me into going down a BLACK; I prefer the GREENs. I think it took me about 45 minutes to get down, involving many words I probably should not have said. After getting down the trail, or drop off, I went straight into the lodge and had a spiked hot cocoa. Needless to say it was 10:00am, I felt I earned it. Justin proceeded to go down it again-without me. Other than that, the skiing was amazing. Spending time with family is always such a blessing as well.

Happy 2009!!