Tagging Through the Snow...

Dear, sweet Mrs. McMurray, tagged me (Kristin). She struck again!!! Hope it's entertaining!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Very festive wrapping paper

2. Real tree or Artificial?
Smell of real, but alas artificial is easier to deal with.

3. When do you put up the tree?
Usually the weekend before Thanksgiving because we're in Florence the weekend after.

4. When do you take the tree down?
Right after New Year (or whenever we get motivated).

5. Do you like eggnog?
Nope, but apple cider is the best!

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
Smithsonian Crystal & Gem Growing Kit
(Yes, I have been a lifelong dork!)

7. Hardest person to buy for?
My Mom & Dad

8. Easiest person to buy for?
Sweet "P"

9. Do you have a nativity scene?
Sadly, I do not.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Mail, but we were not on the ball this year.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
My grandma usually tends to give some pretty odd gifts,
fortunately my love for her negates this.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
The Holiday or The Family Stone

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
Usually somewhere around September.
My birthday is two weeks before Christmas,
so I aim to not spend all of my birthday gift cards on Christmas presents.
(Usually this plan fails miserably.)

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Not yet, but I may have to try that next year.
Graduate school doesn't allow for large budgets.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
I like the sausage and cheese balls that my daddy makes!

16. Lights on the tree?
MILLIONS of them. HOWEVER, not the big ones or the ones that are colorful.
Nice, small, white lights...everywhere (they glisten)!

17. Favorite Christmas song?
"O Holy Night" has been a standing favorite with me,
but this year Avalon's "Jesus, Born on this Day"
has really spoken to me.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
Once little people enter our lives, I am sure this will change.
However, as for now we spend Christmas Eve with my family
and Christmas day with Phillip's family.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?
"You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen.
Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen.
But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all? RUDOLPH!"

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
A Peacock! Hahaha. It matches my decor!

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
My family does gifts Christmas Eve,
Sweet "P" and I exchange on Christmas morning before
heading down the Florence to celebrate with his family.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
My devotionals have focused a lot on this, but it truly is
a pity that we all get so consumed with gifts and chaos that we forget
to truly celebrate why this day is so AMAZING.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color?
My tree usually compliments the color scheme of our living room.
So we have a nice blue and green thing going on (thus the peacock).

24. Favorite Christmas dinner?
Really we do big meals for Thanksgiving,
but just a lot hor d'oeuvres on Christmas.
I like the ham biscuits though!

25. What do you want for Christmas this year?
I honestly can't think of a thing. I'm quite happy with what I have.

Muahahaha...now I get to tag!
1. Pamela (celebrate with me in Thailand)
2. Nicole
3. Jenni
4. Emily

OUR FIRST ANNIVERSARY!

Granted most of our anniversary plans went awry when Kristin decided to take on her traditional holiday ailment including our wonderful dinner to Morton's this past Saturday night. Granted this lovely date will be rescheduled in the near future. We were awoken this morning by a City of Monroe employee informing us that we had approximately 30 minutes before the water to our house would be cut off...for the day. Evidently there was a water main leak in close proximity to our neighborhood. We decided to make the most of it and go out to lunch before Kristin's doctor appointment. We went to Stone Table Cafe in Monroe and had a lovely time. I don't believe either of us can believe it has been an entire year, but alas time flies when you're having fun. (Below is our one lone picture of the day...we will post more of our actual date night.)

Oh me, oh my!

What can be said for the past month of our lives? Albeit there has been ample time to blog, we (and by we, the individual name of "Kristin" should be inserted here) have quite frankly lacked the desire. A short synopsis of the past month goes something like this:

November 4th - This was the day of arguably one of the most historical elections in the history of our great country. It also happened to be the day Tripp won the election for District Court Judge, thus meaning 13 hours in the cold rain at various polling places wasn't all in vain. Admittedly I am selfish in this, but the highlight of my day came at about 9:30 PM when I finally checked my email only to learn that I was accepted to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte to pursue my teaching licensure (eventually leading to my MAT).

November 10th - I (Kristin) became one of the most recent victims of our faltering economy and lost my job along with quite a few others. While this was not a complete shock since our firm has been laying employees off for the past year, it still stung quite a bit. Never in my entire life had I found myself with a plethora of free time. Now, with time in abundance, I was going insane. I will say that God is indeed the Master of Provision. Had this happened just a week earlier, I wouldn't have known about school and therefore would have taken it much harder. We are blessed with Phillip's new job and all of my insurance is through his company. I can say that it did provide me a wonderful opportunity to speak with my boss about God's master plan and how He put everything into place (even though we perhaps did not understand it at the moment). As I am not certain where she stands on her faith, but I do hope that she saw God's faithfulness at work that day.

November 11th through 26th - Phillip has been an incredible blessing and essentially spent the weeks following my lay off being a crutch for the girl that doesn't know what to do when she has any type of free time on her hands. We are getting to spend some quality time together in the mornings now that I am home during the same hours as Phillip during the week. I did have quite a few opportunities to do some things around town that I had been missing out on since I tended to work 24/7.

THANKSGIVING - Granted we had so very much to be thankful for this year. There are so many people that are struggling right now with finances, homelessness, marital problems, etc. We spent the day with Kristin's family. Her Uncle Steve, his wife Erika and Cameron (their 3 year old) flew in for a few days and the long-awaited Clemson vs. South Carolina game. We had a great time with them. Cameron is so very enjoyable (and insanely intelligent). Thanksgiving evening Kristin started coughing a lot, eventually this led to a diagnosis of bronchitis a few days later. Thus we didn't travel to South Carolina to spend the rest of the weekend with Phillip's family (we missed them dearly).

November 29th - Essentially the only important thing about this day is that CLEMSON BEAT THE GAMECOCKS!!! Twas a fabulous day and truly a very interesting game. Although, we're not sure how Uncle Steve felt about the game since he did fly here to go to the game and support South Carolina.

Lazy Days

We usually tend to stay pretty busy during the week, so when the weekends roll around we try to not do anything if we don't have to. Most of the time we do not have that luxury, this weekend was a different story. We got to go on a double date with Chelsea (Kristin's friend from HS), her husband Patrick, Kasey (Kristin's sister), and her boyfriend Adam. We haven't been bowling since last year about this time (when we also went with Chelsea and Patrick). Chelsea was 7 months pregnant last time. Little Jackson has already started walking. Time flies. Here are some pics from Saturday night. We had a really great time!

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Election 2008

This was Phillip's first opportunity to vote as a North Carolina citizen. This also happened to be the first time he was motivated enough to vote at all. Being married to a political junkie probably doesn't leave him much of an opportunity to be apathetic. Here's a picture after we went and voted together.

As many of you know, I was the Treasurer for a local District Court Judge. I took yesterday off and campaigned at various polls. Being fortunate that the rain held off most of the day, my mom was able to join me for her first campaigning experience later in the evening. I'm am thoroughly ecstatic to announce that Tripp Helms won his bid to continue serving the county by presiding over their courts. Thank you to all who supported with their votes.

Despite my political beliefs and hopes, I would like to truly thank all of you that got out and voted. It is incredibly humbling to me when I realize that as Americans we have a privilege that so many others can only hope for. The men and women that died to give us that right should be ever-present on the minds of us all. It's thanks to all of them that we can do what we did yesterday.

OUR punkin!

We finally got a chance on Sunday to carve the pumpkin we bought in South Carolina for us...only 10 days late. In light of the turbulent year the Clemson Tigers have had, we decided to show our support via our pumpkin. Fortunately enough, it comes in the perfect color! :-)

This is Phillip doing one of this favorite things...playing with fire. He was quite proud of his masterpiece!
Yes, it was late and I wanted to get in bed! BUT I think we did a good job for our first pumpkin carved together. :-) Hope you all have fun carving your own!

"...but the water tower says Ossipee!"

Five years ago when I was a junior at Meredith College, I had the great pleasure of leading a Campus Crusade Bible study for a dorm of freshman ladies. The Lord blessed my life richly with the relationships I formed during that year with so many of these precious women. One of these ladies is my dear friend Lyndsey Thompson. Upon meeting her in a rush between classes, she gladly accepted the invitation to Bible study. When I asked her name she informed me that it was "LYYYYNdsey!" (said with one of the absolute thickest Southern accents I've heard to this day...keep in mind Phillip is from Florence). I immediately asked, "Where in the name of the goodness are you from?" To which she excitedly answered, "Elon, but the water tower says Ossipee!" I knew nothing more about this new member other than the fact that she determined her geographical location based on the closest town water tower. That was enough to lead to a wonderfully, blessed friendship. This weekend, in Elon (or Ossipee), Lyndsey became Mrs. Jeff Lowe. Below is the newlywed couple during their first dance as husband and wife.


The new Mrs. Lowe and I after her nuptials. Phillip and I had a fantastic time. It was such a gorgeous wedding and reception!


The reception was held outside...where most everyone disposed of their formal shoes in trade for a more practical substitution. Below is a picture of Lyndsey and her new hubby...showing off her boots.


I also got to finally spend time with Mary Grace and Lindsay...along with quite a few other friends from college. I miss you ladies immensely!!!


Phillip and I LOVED the scenery. We got candied apples to take home too (Phillip thoroughly enjoyed this one).

Congrats to the Lowes!!!

Aqua Dog

Mason has had a funny habit since he was a tiny pup when he swims. He starts out great, but then gets so distracted by the water splashing up in his face that he forgets to fetch.



Sweet "special bean" tries to bite the water splashing in his face and swim. It ends up being slightly amusing. We were finally able to catch a few seconds of this on video. Hope you get a little chuckle out of it!

Autumn...Southern Style!

We have been so incredibly busy lately with our hectic work schedules that we seldom see one another, much less take the time out to travel and spend time with family. The Lord blessed us this past weekend with a while 48 hours of free time for Phillip!!!

We decided to use this to make a long-overdue trip to Florence to visit his family. It worked out well because it was also homecoming for Liberty Chapel (the church he grew up attending). Unfortunately both of Phillip's parents were quite under the weather, so we didn't get to spend any time with them. We did, however, seem to catch everyone else.

On our way down to Florence we stopped by McLeod Farms to pick up a pumpkin for us to carve with our nieces. We had a great time! We love this place...they are one of the largest peach producers in South Carolina. If you are ever in McBee, SC you should do two things: 1) Watch your speed, they are serious about that 25 mph thing and 2) Make it a point to not miss this place if you enjoy fresh, locally grown veggies/fruit of any kind.

Below are some pictures, mostly of pumpkin carving, but we hope you enjoy viewing (and enjoyed your weekend as much as we did our own).

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Daddy's Boy

Mason is only a little over six months old. He's HUGE compared to our little 12 pound Gracie, but doesn't seem to realize this. Often times he tries to mimic some of the things she does. However, he has a precious habit he's developed all on his own.This is what Mason does anytime Phillip leaves. He tends to wait there for a while...seemingly holding out the faith that Phillip will be coming back for him.

Admittedly slack...

Those are the most befitting two words to describe our commitment to blogging (and many other things) as of late. We would apologize, except it's given us more time with friends, family, and most especially one another. We've had the privilege of hosting several friends over the past few weekends. It's been most enjoyable catching up with everyone.

There's really not that much new to report. Right now we're enjoying the many blessings we have in our lives (most of whom come in the form of a wonderfully supportive network of friends), and trying to remember that despite national and local circumstances God has blessed us richly.

As many of you know, we work two COMPLETELY opposite schedules. Phillip works 3 PM to 1 AM and I work from 8:30 AM to 5 PM. Therefore, during the week we never see and hardly speak to one another outside of the daily notes on the counter tops. Phillip was fortunate enough to attend the Clemson game this past weekend (his first game in Death Valley). Sadly, they lost but he thoroughly enjoyed his time. I was given a gorgeous Saturday to myself. I decided to visit my mom at one of my parents' florists in downtown Monroe. It's been such a long time since I've actually taken the time to appreciate the small town from which I came. Mom and I shopped in most of the Main Street boutiques and then had a small lunch at this quaint coffeehouse called Alice Jules (if you're around, you should go). Phillip and I took the opportunity to enjoy a Saturday night out. We had a fantastic dinner at City Tavern (one of our favorite, local restaurants) and saw a late showing of Fireproof at the cinema.

For those of you that are married, we'd love to challenge you to see this movie. God's work in a person's heart can completely alter their entire life. This movie depicts just that. It's especially geared towards marriages, and its message is priceless. Here's the link for the movie and many other resources. Please check it out!

Hope you are all well and enjoying this wonderful fall weather!

Happy BirthdayS to the Thai Taylors!

We wanted to wish Hudson a Happy 3rd Birthday today! (Hudson is Kristin's college roommate's son. Pamela and her family are serving as missionaries in Thailand. This is an old picture of Hudson, but I saved it because his face cracks me up.)

In other news today...

The Taylors welcomed Kathryn Marie to the world! Congrats again. Evidently August 21st is (and forevermore will continue to be) a big day for this family! This is David, Pamela and the new baby girl!

We are so excited about what God is doing in the lives of the Kui people thanks to the ministry of the Taylor family!!! Miss you guys!

Birthdays Galore!

Last weekend we made a trip down to Florence to celebrate Phillip's Mom's birthday, his 2 cousins' birthday, and uncle's birthday. His family had a nice Sunday lunch together. We had a great time seeing everyone!


This is Phillip with his two nieces, Logan and Taylor. Phillip should count himself lucky because Taylor could kill someone with her cast. Logan seems to be a pro...I think she could give her uncle a run for his money! :-)

One more year...

This past Sunday we threw Kristin's mom a little birthday party for her 49th. Her mom didn't know about it, so it was nice to see her expression. It was also fun to remind her that it is officially her last year in her 40s. :-) We had a really great time with family and friends!This is Mom trying to blow out all 49 candles...she got all of them but one. We told her to practice for next year. :-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

Trip up North ;-)

A few weekends ago we made a trip back to Raleigh for one of Kristin's college roommate's weddings. Casey and Alan had a beautiful wedding (despite the obstacles the tropical storm posed that day). Sadly, I didn't get a picture of Casey and Alan, but I did get a pic of Casey and Deno (her dad) during their Father/Daughter dance.

We also got to spend some time with a few of Kristin's college friends. We spent a few days with the Mercers (thanks Jenni and Joel!!!). Katie also graced us with her presence during the wedding. It was great seeing everyone!

ALL BOY!

If we have a son and he's anything like Phillip, we've always said that Kristin will have a lot of adjusting to do. Luckily we have Mason to help break her in. As she was doing a bit of yard work this evening Mason found a way to keep himself entertained. (See below.)

Heavens help us!

Like father...

like son. I have been scolded as of late for our lack of posts, so I thought I would post a recent pic or two from our weekend trip to Florence. Phillip decided to try to teach Mason how to fetch...in water. This didn't work out quite as well as he had planned, but they seemed to have fun together!

We also got to witness Mason's newest habit. He not only swims, he tries to bite the water as it splashes up while he's swimming. It makes for quite an amusing show. Come any time, he is always willing to entertain.

Sweet Summertime (a few days early)!

We have had QUITE a busy start to our summer. Phillip started his new job on Monday with Allvac. He's been quite excited about this next chapter in his career. We were able to spend a nice, long weekend at the beach with Kristin's family this past weekend. Below are a few pictures.

This is one of the MANY baby sharks that Kristin's dad and Phillip spent all weekend catching. This also happened to be the only thing they caught when there were off the boat.




















Above left would be Kristin's dad with "the first live sand dollar [he's] found in 48 years." The sand dollar and her dad bonded quite a bit that day. The picture on the right is why we love Dad...he wears anything we buy him. This "anything" happens to include a shirt that says "Quit staring at my bass!"

Happy Birthday Phillip...etc.

Phillip turned 27 last Friday. He got the Lord of the Rings trilogy and some other random knick-knacks as his present for the day. However, on Saturday I had planned a trip to take him whitewater rafting. This went surprisingly well...except for me falling out going over a rapid (my arm, knee, and (didn't know this was possible) butt all have bruises popping up from said fall). We had a TON of fun, but sadly couldn't take the camera with us for the risk of losing it (just like they lost me...and then ran over me). We can't wait to go back!!!

This is us before the trip...quite scruffy looking.

On another note, Phillip's pup is getting to be quite a big boy here lately. This is at Kristin's parents' house this weekend.

I'll Have Mine...TOASTED!

This past weekend we helped Kristin's parents set up for a wedding everyone was attending that night. Kandice, Kristin's youngest sister, was the Maid of Honor for Crystal Pressley. Crystal was a GORGEOUS bride...we had such a great time.

The three sisters! Of course Kandice ruined the toast AGAIN...this makes two weddings in a row. DO NOT let her give a toast at your wedding. (Love you Babygirl!!!)

Us at the wedding...burnt.

The lovely bride trying to dance with Kristin's Mom.

Before the wedding we met Kasey and Adam at the pool to hang out for a bit (two hours). Below are pics of what the two of us looked like at the end of the night after the wedding (please excuse Phillip's lack of shirt, but it was the only way to show how burnt he is).

Poor Phillip

This actually looks good, but it's a wonderful example of why I had to wear the pashmina to the wedding.

Swimming 101 ... and more!

We have been bad about posting lately, and sadly there isn't an excuse other than laziness. Anyway, here are pictures from the first weekend in May. We went to Florence because Phillip's mom was in a wreck (and we are happy to report that she is doing MUCH better). Phillip's sister could still use prayers...she's been in and out of the hospital since that Saturday.


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Golfing in South Carolina

Sunday we had also planned to go on a golfing trip with Morgan, Barry, and Kristin's dad. We ended up meeting Morgan and Barry in SC. Below are some pictures before we got chased off the course by lightning (only got 10 holes played before the storm came through).

Meet Morgan's $200 Gucci sunglasses...the first casualty of the day. Sad. R.I.P. Gucci.
Morgan and her favorite place during the game...the woods. Note the bright orange ball Barry eventually gave her to play with. Haha.

Sunday Brunch with Nan

Kristin's friend from early Meredith College days happened to be in town this weekend. We were fortunate enough to host Sunday brunch for Miss Nan.

Thanks for visiting Nan! Can't wait until next time!

A Weekend of Nothing

We finally got to spend a weekend together...essentially doing nothing. We did get to celebrate Patrick's birthday with he, Chelsea, and a couple dozen other people Saturday night. Other than that, we stayed at home...for the first time in a long time. Here are some pictures from our Saturday morning! :-)




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Learning to not care...

about things that frankly don't matter.

Our new little guy's name is Mason. He happened to not be feeling so well last week, so we made him some boiled chicken and rice. We weren't sure how well this would go over or if he would even eat it. However whatever he was unwilling to eat, Phillip was more than happy to oblige.

Obviously as you can tell from the picture above, we had nothing to fear. Kandice hardly got the food in front of him before he went crazy. Yeah, that's rice...on my area rug...that I had JUST vacuumed! Oh well, we are learning patience.

Introducing ?????

This weekend we painted the house, helped Adam move a bit, spent fun time with family, and we got our newest addition...

Meet No Name Harris. We're still working on this one. This is Phillip's new baby. Of course, he was the chunkiest pup out of his litter. I vote for Meatball. Phillip is thinking Remington. We shall see.

Tag...I'm it!

So Kristin's dear, sweet (and probably bored) friend Renn decided to tag Kristin in her latest blog post. Apparently my job is the answer the following. Here's a glimpse into my head (scary, I know)...

Four jobs I've had:
1. Nanny
2. Assistant for the Office of Student Activities at my alma mater
3. Paralegal
4. I don't know if this counts because I was born into this rather than by choice, but I have worked at the florist(s) quite often over the years. :-)

Four movies I've watched more than once:
1. Pride & Prejudice (Phillip will attest to this and probably knows every word)
2. The Count of Monte Cristo
3. Mona Lisa Smile
4. The Notebook (I know, cliche)

Four places I've lived:
1. North Myrtle Beach, SC (for a whole two weeks...hated it!)
2. Weddington, NC
3. Monroe, NC
4. Raleigh, NC

Four TV Shows I watch:
1. Boston Legal
2. Extreme Makeover - Home Edition
3. Monk (Sadly, I can relate to him.)
4. I'm out, I don't really watch that much TV

Four places I've been (WARNING: I'm not well traveled):
1. Charleston, SC
2. Washington, D.C.
3. Mont Tremblant, Quebec
4. Florida...various cities, but I like the ones that have the pretty Gulf waters :-)

Four people who email me regularly:
1. My sisters
2. Chelsea
3. Meredith
4. Do attorneys count? Because they are all up in my inbox!

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Salad (especially from Olive Garden)
2. Grilled chicken
3. Strawberry Delight (Paual Deen knows how to make a dessert)
4. My Dad's chili

Four places I would like to visit:
1. Cote d'Azur & Paris
2. Italy
3. Caribbean
4. Thailand to visit Pamela

Four things I'm looking forward to in the coming year:
1. Relaxing by the beach as much as possible
2. Turning a quarter of a century old
3. Celebrating our very first anniversary
4. Whitewater rafting with Phillip

Four friends I'm tagging:
1. Pamela Taylor
2. Jenni Mercer
3. David Taylor (just because I don't think you've been tagged yet)
4. Roger McMurray (I told Renn that I ran out of people...best of luck haha!)

And We're Back...

So apparently our laptop decided it had fought a good fight somewhere around the beginning of March. So for the past few weeks we have been internet-less...this includes our blog. (Sadness, we know.)

Nonetheless (and thanks in large part to Lee), we are back with a new laptop (named Jorge Harris by the above-noted individual). Without much further ado, we shall resume all blogging within the week.

Happy April everyone!

Florence, SC

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Greetings to Thai Taylors!

Brandy and I wanted to extend a little hello to our old roommate/suitemate. Pamela is currently in Thailand. She, her husband, and their son are currently missionaries there. However, we think about them often. Here's our "we miss you Pamela, David and Hudson" picture taken on the "farm" in Florence!

Hockey...Phillip's first love

Tonight we went to see the Charlotte Checkers play. Turns out, we weren't the only ones. Record attendance, overtime, AND a shoot out didn't lead to a win, but we had a good time nonetheless.

Kristin liked the 3D Charlotte skyline on the jumbotron...doesn't take a lot to amuse her. At the end of the game, we were tied at two, but still lost. Sadness.

...and thanks to Wachovia's mortgage consultant for the suite tickets. :-)

Long time...

no post. Sorry...we've been MIA. Also, a bit pre-occupied with our yard project. The goal is to clear it all out and get grass planted ASAP. So far we've spent every weekend for a month and a half on it. One of these days, it will be complete.

Kristin's college suitemate has been living with us for a little over four weeks. She is doing her clinical for physical therapy in Charlotte and staying with us for eight weeks. She's been a bit bored with our yard "project," and this weekend decided that she wanted to take her turn with the ax. Here are a few pictures (she got an attitude the longer she was at it).

Beautifying

This weekend started with Kristin having a fun girls' night with Meredith, a friend from college. Phillip invited his cousin Lee up for the weekend to have "boy time." I think Phillip stayed up wayyyyy past his bedtime, but Lee took the cake by finally going to be at 5:45 AM!

Saturday Lee helped us with yard work. Lee is a few months younger than Phillip, but about half the size...as it turns out, they make a good team when it comes to up-rooting trees in the backyard (which has been a multiple weekend endeavor). Below are some pictures of our adventures!!!

This is Lee hanging from a tree, unfortunately when Phillip tried to do the same the poor tree just bent right over.

The dismount/running from the camera pose...look at Lee workin' it!