Happy New Year!

I figured an update would be good as I look back and see a month has gone by since our last update. One word, WOW! Since being back from Christmas it has been right back to reality and work! Christmas was great! We flew down to Florida to spend the holiday with my family, Shawn's mom flew down with us as well. It was a house full to say the least but it was nice to have everyone. I think the highlight for the holiday was Shawn's big present from Mii, I got him a Wii. Even Granny played 10 frames of bowling and has contemplated purchasing one herself. I think mom will get one so she can play with them. I have finally posted some pictures!! I added one fo my birthday too. Shawn and I drove back to Knoxville so gifts did not have to be mailed back to us. Driving also allowed us to make a short stop in Atlanta for dinner with two good friends of Shawn's. We had all hear about one another but never got to meet. It was wonderful to finally meet Jeremy, Erin and little "Z". We had the most incredible dinner at Allegros and the company was great! Once we got home and unpacked we picked up on our search for the right TV....we now own a BAT....Big A-- TV. 46" of LCD HD screen to watch movies on and play the Wii. What else.......I am busy at work, actually beyond busy and it is good. The weeks go by fairly quick, almost too quick. I am still studying for my architectural exams when I can and hope to take another one by month's end. I guess that sums it up for now. Hopefully I will get back on a regular basis of keeping this updated. We hope everyone had a great Christmas! I added this photo of Mac napping. While we were away on vacation he got to spend time with some doggie friends of his......and he was EXHAUSTED! For those of you who know Mac you know that he does not sit still for very long, unless he is "dropping a bomb" on someone.

The BIG 3 - 0!

This year it was my turn to turn 30. Last year Shawn hit the milestone with a surprise birthday party at Laser Quest (laser tag for those out of town). For my birthday I decided I wanted to keep it fairly quite and simple, imagine that. We, Shawn, Marcy, Andrew and myself, went to the Black Bear Jamboree Dinner Show in Pigeon Forge. Shawn did surprise me with a beautiful Tinker Bell cake and Ben & Jerry's chocolate chunk mint ice cream. YUMMY! I will add a picture of that as soon as I can remember to do it. Now begins the countdown to Christmas! Our Christmas cards are in the mail and all our gifts have been wrapped and are ready to ship. Feels good to have all that done, now there are all the Christmas parties to plan and attend.

Thanksgiving travels.....

Folks have been waiting to hear how Thanksgiving was and what we were into. We spent Thanksgiving in Knoxville, with family and friends. It was a wonderful day, good food and great company! Thursday night, after stuffing ourselves, we took off for Nashville. We had a hotel reserved so we could do some Black Friday shopping at the Opry Outlet Mall. No, we were not up at 3:30 like a lot of people were, we got up around 6 or so and were at Bass Pro Shops by 7 am. We shopped for a good 6 to 8 hours straight before Shawn let us stop and eat. It was a successful shopping day and we were able to catch a movie, visit the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and have our feet up by 7 that evening. What a day! The next morning we were not so early to rise and shine. After a restful night we headed to The Hermitage on Saturday. It was a little chilly to be wondering around the estate of General Andrew Jackson but we did it anyways and enjoyed it all. In all the traveling we did growing up we never made it to The Hermitage. It is worth a trip and there is so much to learn about our history.

Now we begin planning our Christmas trip. We have decided to fly down to Florida and drive back. UT has landed in the Outback Bowl.....again....and we are not sure we will go this year. Which only means they will win.

A little follow up story to "Home Tweet Home". It did get purchased and the owner sent the office a nice 'thank you'. Our tree now resides in Alabama, kind of funny to think of it traveling that far. They owners love it and are happy to have it in their home. Another happy ending you could say.

Fantasy of Trees

I headed up the volunteer effort to decorate a 7' tree for the annual Fantasy of Trees benefiting the East Tennessee Children's Hospital. Our theme was "Home Tweet Home", a play on words to create a bird and birdhouse theme. More than half the ornaments on the tree are hand made with natural materials we collected and ties into the mountain homes we design. The entire office is very proud of our tree. I am happy to have it completed. It was a lot of hard work and very well worth it! Hopefully the tree will bring in lots of money for the hospital. I was thankful that my office let me do this and put their name on it as well. It really turned out to be a great group effort, many in the office contributed an ornament or two, and an opinion here and there.

Another PASS letter!

Test number two done! Only took SEVEN weeks to find out.

Happy Halloween

This year we decided to be Fred and Daphne. Friday night we went to Marcy and Andrew's for their party but Daphne had to fly solo for a bit till Fred and Scooby were done solving their latest mystery at the local high school football games. Sunday we carved our pumpkins, more like "transformed" them into the Autobot and Decepticon symbols. We can not wait to put them out front and light them. Shawn has been having fun this year decorating the condo for Halloween. For a couple days I would come home and he would have something else in the front yard. Luckily we have a small front yard! years though.

Go Big Orange!

Here are the guys all dressed up for Saturday's game. Mac loves wearing his jersey. He has a South Doyle football shirt too that he likes wearing. Being a Tennessee fan was not so bad this weekend. Tennessee had a season changing victory over the Georgia Bulldogs. With Tennessee winning it helped cheer Shawn up, the high school team is not having such a good year. There is not much to report here. I am still waiting for the Pass/Fail letter for the last test, going on week four since I took the test. Dad is coming into town this weekend, we are looking forward to his visit.