A New *Sweet* Tradition

Hello!!! Look who is on Christmas break (only 2 days left) and is now blogging. I'm so sorry for all of you who check my blog every day, only to see a post from November 15th :( Quite honestly, my job takes up so much of my time and energy that by the time I get home, the last thing (besides working out) and that I feel like doing is blogging. I'm sorry.

Here is an attempt to update you on the last month and the fun Christmas things we did.

A new tradition that we have started since moving to North Carolina is going to see the National Gingerbread House Competition that takes place at the Grove Park Inn here in Asheville, NC. The first two years, we would go see the houses when we were in this part of the state visiting Justin's family for the holidays. Now that we live in Asheville, we are able to see the exhibition whenever we want! In fact, I saw the houses two times this year :)

My first visit was the week that the houses were officially on display. It is so fun to go at this time because you can still smell the gingerbread, frosting and sugary goodness in the air! It is also early on enough that the houses are still in pristine condition and have not fallen apart. Justin's friend, Collin, was in town so we took him and I invited my mom and sisters to come along :)

Here are some pictures from our first trip!

Photo-Op at the Grove Park Inn

Steph and Jess with the 'Despicable Me' house- so cute!

Grand Prize Winner- There was an Old Lady who Lived in a Shoe

Amazing- so much detail in the horse

My favorite- the ornaments look so real!

Jessica's favorite part ;)

My second visit was on Thanksgiving evening with the ladies in Justin's family. After Thanksgiving dinner and the annual going to the movies, the ladies headed over to the Grove Park Inn to check out the houses. It was packed that night but it was fun to see lots of people dressed up and enjoying the beautiful atmosphere at the Grove Park Inn.

Thanksgiving Night

One of my lifetime goals on my 'bucket' list is to make a house to be on display here. It is not a goal to win, just to have it displayed :) My mom, Steph and I had some practice by making gingerbread houses this year. Looks like I need A LOT of practice before I can go to the Grove Park Inn!

Front
Left- Mine
Right- Mom and Steph

Back
Left: Mom and Steph
Right: Mine

Fall Getaway

Wow! Can you believe it has almost been a WHOLE MONTH since the last time I blogged? I am so sorry readers [if there are any of you left.] I have survived a whole quarter of teaching! 56 days to be exact! I feel like I am starting to get more of a handle on things, but it is still very busy and stressful. The time change is not making it any easier. I now basically go to work in the dark and come home in the dark :(

Since I am hopefully back to blogging on a more consistent basis, let me start updating you on what has been happening in our lives!

The last weekend in October, Justin and I went on our third annual fall getaway. Every year we take a fall getaway during the last weekend in October. It all started our first year of marriage. We had only been married for a little over a month when I got sick with Mono and was bed ridden for almost an entire month. Near the end of October, I had such terrible cabin fever that we decided to take a little getaway. We lived in Raleigh then and there were lots of small historical towns on the "Inner Banks" that were a short driving distance for us. Our first year, we went to Edenton and then made our way to the Outer Banks. Year number two we went to New Bern. This year, we decided to go to Wilmington and also make a stop in Raleigh to say hi to our buddies and old stomping grounds.

We had a lot of fun hanging out with our neighbors, Derek and Erica, going to the church that we went to in Raleigh and visiting the teacher supply store (I could spend hours and so much money in there!) In Wilmington, we had afternoon tea on the bay, strolled around the town and peeping into lots of girly shops, and watching the Triathalon that was actually going on! During these fall getaways, we always stay in a quaint bed and breakfast and decide to make no plans. It is a stress-free weekend where we can unwind and not think about any work or any other worries.

I look forward to our fall getaways every year and we hope that it is a tradition that we can keep in the years to come!

Afternoon Tea

Bed and Breakfast

Only picture of the two of us (yay gorillapod!)

Fish slippers? Don't worry socks were still on!

Relaxing hubs.

Leaf Peeping

I have been waiting for fall to come in the mountains and it has arrived! This past weekend the fall colors were peaking at it has been absolutely beautiful here!

After school on Friday, Justin and I met up for a fun, fall date. We drove up on the Blue Ridge Parkway to go leaf peeping... aka look at all the fall colors. We had such a fun time driving the winding mountain roads and looking at all the colors. After we stopped at a couple of overlooks, we chose one to have a picnic! Justin "surprised" me by packing a cooler full of deli sandwiches, pasta and macaroni salad and kit-kat bars. We folded down the back seats in his car, laid down some blankets, opened up the trunk door and had a picnic inside the car with a spectacular view.



It was a perfect fall and Friday night.

Sorry Ladies

I would like to take a minute to brag about the best husband around, and yes, he is mine :) Since I have started teaching, I basically have NO time whatsoever. I wake up at 6:00, leave for work at 6:30, drive 45 minutes to work, arrive at 7:15ish and spend the next 10 hours completely stressed and overwhelmed. I leave for school, on average, around 5:00 or 5:30, drive another 45 minutes and crash. But oh, I can only crash for a couple of minutes because I eat dinner and then get things done at home that I did not finish at school.

So as you can imagine, all of my wifely duties have disappeared. I have not cooked dinner in I don't know how long. I guess it has been over 6 weeks because that is how long I have been teaching. I barely clean and have not really done any laundry. Enter must wonderful husband around! Justin has been SO supportive of me throughout this entire time. Here are some of the reasons why he is so amazing and why I never want to take him for granted.

• He sets his alarm at 6:00 because I am paranoid that mine won't go off.
• He wakes up while I'm in the shower to make me tea (I don't drink coffee) and he wants me to have caffeine so I don't fall asleep at the wheel.
  
• He prays with me that I have a good day every morning.
  
• He grocery shops.
  
• He plans meals.
• He cooks dinner AND does the dishes.
  
• He does the laundry and folds it in neat piles.
• He makes the bed every single day.
  
• He is there to comfort me if (more like) when I come home crying.
  
• He gives me foot massages (almost) every time I ask.
  
• He makes my lunch every night and has it setting out in the morning.
  
• His lunches are the best lunches. He wants to make sure that I am well fed so has veggies, protein and fruit included in my lunches.
  
• He cleans the bathroom (sometimes at 11:30) at night.
  
• He cleans the whole house as a matter of fact.
  
• He gets books for me from the library that he thinks my class might enjoy.
  
• He prays for me to have strength and wisdom at this demanding job.
  
• He allows me to vent every day right when I walk in the door.
  
• He encourages me by saying that I am the best teacher. I always respond with he doesn't know that because he has never seen me teach ;)

So sorry ladies, I hate to break it to you that God has truly blessed me with the greatest husband. I am so thankful for all that he has done in these past two years and what he is currently doing in my life right now. I don't think I would have made it through these past couple of weeks without him.

My hubby's birthday was this past weekend, which I will update you on soon, but I wanted to show you all the most perfect card that I found for him :)

Front: Shall I compare thee to a cup of coffee?

Inside: Thou art HOT

Our 2nd Home

We moved from Raleigh about 3 months ago and I realized that some of my readers have been requesting pictures of our new place. So after 3 months... here you go!

I actually have time to blog today because I am home sick :( I got sick yesterday during school and was sent home and was told that I should let it pass through my system for 24 hours, thus I had to take today off. I am feeling better and have been keeping my food down, but I don't like the feeling of missing out. I worry about my students, did I plan enough for the sub? Midterms were suppose to go home yesterday and I didn't get them home. So as you can see, I am having a hard time relaxing.

Ok, sorry about that rant. Here is our new place!

Coming in the front door- dining room.

Kitchen. I love how it is open and I can see everything.

Living room.

Living room.

Kitchen.

El bano.

Bedroom.

So there is our new home :) We were talking the other day that it seems like we have been living in Asheville for so long and that our Raleigh days are such a blur. We have enjoyed living here and being close to family! Now on our weekly menu planning nights, instead of only having an encore/left over night, sometimes we add a "mooch" night ;)

A is for Apple

My blogging has been very lame. You know when your sister in-law is blogging more frequently than you are, then you are going very slow. Ha ha just kidding Tessa :)

My life has been too busy to blog. School has completely consumed my life for the past 3 weeks. And this week we had an unexpected and very scary 911 call and visit to the emergency room. Thankfully, my hubs is okay and getting back to his normal self.

Today I worked in my classroom for a couple hours and I just cleaned part of our house. It hasn't been cleaned for 3 weeks... gross! I started with the bathroom (#1 priority) and am taking a break to write this blog.

This week at school, my class is reviewing our letters and sounds. Since we learned about Annie Apple this week and other parts of my week were surrounded by apples, I thought I would share with you what we have done.

Last Sunday, Justin, my mom, Jen, Steph, Jess and myself checked out Hendersonville's Annual Apple Festival. I actually work in Henderson County and Hendersonville is about 10 mins. away from my school. Henderson county produces 60% of all apples for the state of North Carolina. Basically, there are apple orchards everywhere... and I LOVE it! Every Labor Day weekend, they hold the apple festival downtown. While we were there, we drank Apple Cider Slushies, ate fried apple pie and apple turnovers, partook in an apple taste testing and bought some apple butter.


Today, Justin and I went apple picking in the morning. It was a beautiful warm and sunny day. We had so much fun walking through the orchards, sampling the apples right off the trees and picking a full peck. This apple farm was HUGE and since my mom wants to go apple picking, maybe I'll tag along with her and go back for some other varieties of apples.



HAPPY FALL!