Our trip to Tennessee

Erik and I went back to our roots with a much needed trip home to TN. We flew out of Austin and spent almost five hours at the airport due to flight delays, but we made it home! On Saturday Stephanie and Jennifer Ryan came to see me in Nashville and we went shopping at Opry Mills and Target, as well as a stop for Mexican food. The only thing missing was Rebecca!

An off-center shot of the three of us in Greg's huge truck that he let me drive while we were in town. Opry Mills was insane and it started raining like crazy while I was trying to take this!

Saturday night we headed to Murfreesboro to Erik's great-grandmother's house. Most of his mom's family was there. Erik, myself, and Stephanie (now Henry!) were part of the green sweater club.

Sunday after church we opened presents with Erik's mom, dad, and sister. I love my Corgi calendar!




Sunday night we had dinner with my mom and family and opened presents. My brother Austin leaves on the 28th for basic training with the Air Force in San Antonio!



Erik had to take his picture with Elvis at Opry Mills.

Monday we headed to Martin and stopped by the Breedens to see our old friends, Gavin and Shalaine. We miss them so much! Hopefully we'll all be back in TN in the future!


Monday night we went to Jackson to have the Fuqua Christmas at the Casey Jones Village Old Country Store. Erik's dad's family live all over the place and it was so nice to get everyone together and not have to worry about cooking and cleaning up! Thanks to Erik's mom Pam for putting that together.

As you can tell, we had a whirlwind trip, and even though I was sad to leave, it's nice to be back in my own house with my dogs and my own bed! There were so many people we didn't get to see due to time constraints, but we'll be back again soon, although we don't know when. Merry Christmas!

Our Trip to Austin

I have wanted to go see the Lady Vols play for a long time, and lucky for us, they played in Austin Sunday against Texas. We live about 90 minutes from Austin and the tickets were only $14, so it was an easy decision to make. We went to Austin Saturday and stayed at the Hyatt in downtown. This is the view from our room. It would have been perfect except there was a Christmas party going on in their ballroom with loud booming music all night.



We had great seats. 12th row back!

The starters this year are young. Three freshman and two sophomores, I think.
Erik before the game. For some reason people who got our Christmas cards think Erik has gained lots of weight. I can testify that he is as skinny as ever and that it was a bad angle in the photo.
I am blurry but excited before the game. I have also not gained any weight since moving here. Ahem.
A giant blimp of BBQ sauce. It must be a Texas thing. By the way, I've had Texas brisket which is what people eat here for BBQ, and it's nothing compared to TN pulled pork.
The score at halftime. Tied up.
Blue cotton candy. Yum. I enjoyed this while TN proceeded to LOSE. C'mon girls!
We had a great time and stopped at World Market in Round Rock on the way home for lots of goodies.

Christmas Fun with the dogs

I bought these adorable elf hats at Hobby Lobby for the dogs to wear in our Christmas picture. I don't think they were too happy about it. I think I might submit Roxy's photo to loldogs. If I do and they post it I'll be sure to link it here.

How we spent our Saturday

Let me preface this post with a statement of fact: when I get sick, I get really, really sick. I had been battling another sinus infection (or the remnant of one that was never treated) all week long. I went to work on Thursday with a croaking voice and thankfully I got one of our OB-GYNs to write me a prescription for antibiotics. Friday I went back to work with almost no voice and a weepy right eye. By noon I had full blown pink eye (this is in addition to the sinus infection) and I looked like crap. My boss so graciously let me go home at 2 o-clock where I had eye antibiotic drops left over from my last bout of pink eye about 5 months ago. Erik got out of class and brought me movies to watch and gatorade, and we spent Friday night on the couch watching Wall-e and Juno. I still felt like I'd been run over with a truck. I even spent Friday night in our guest bedroom so Erik could get some sleep.

Ok, so on to Saturday. I woke up Saturday with the worst sinus pressure on the left side of my side of my face that I've ever experienced. I got up and took a shower hoping that would help. It didn't. Erik woke up and I told him I was going to the minor care ER at the hospital where I work for a steroid shot. Typically this shot coupled with antibiotics is the only thing that helps my sinus infections. We both got ready and went to the hospital and even though the ER waiting room was busy I only had to wait about 30 minutes before they triaged me and put me in a room. Luckily, the minor care ER doctor on that day is a friend of ours from church and we have community group at his house. I was so glad to see him, and he let me get the steroid shot. I will say this, I am a total wimp when it comes to pain, so when I go requesting a shot that hurts as bad as that one, I am desperate. The nurse gave me the shot and we went on our way.

The law school hosts Law Prom every year and I really wanted to go. I bought a super cute dress (everybody usually wears cocktail dresses and the guys wear suits) so I was determined to go, even if I was sick. The party didn't start until 8 o'clock, and we got there about 8:45. Here are the only 2 pictures I took.
This is Erik and his friends from school, Greg, Kevin, and Nick.

And here are their dates, Mandy, Maggie, me, and Lori. Greg and Lori came over to our house the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and ate and then Erik went to their apartment Thanksgiving day to hang out while I was at work.

We had a good time. They had casino tables where Erik and I played badly, a bar, food, and dancing. I can't wait to go again next year!

Our Thanksgiving

One of the things I did not fully anticipate when considering a move so far away from family was not being able to see them for holidays. So far we've missed on July 4th, Halloween, my birthday (which isn't a holiday), and now Thanksgiving. I worked from 7am-7pm on Thanksgiving day, and to be truthful it was depressing. We only had one patient on the floor and guess who had her? That's right, me. I did cook a small dinner on Wednesday night for some friends of Erik's from law school as they weren't going home for the holiday either. By the way, a turkey breast in the crockpot in insanely easy and very moist. Friday I got up at 4:20 am and hit Belk's for a Christmas tree, Wal-Mart, which I walked into but then quickly walked back out, Target, and Hobby Lobby. I was done with everything by 8:30 and came home and read New Moon all day and put up my new pre-lit 7.5 foot Christmas tree. I forgot to mention, I'm now a little obsessed with the Twilight series. It's so good, so if you like love stories and/or vampire stories, read it! The movie was good too!

I bought new stockings for the dogs and these have a little slot where you can put the dog's picture in it so here are a few that I took.



Here is my Christmas tree. I went back to the first set of ornaments that I have that I my mom bought me before we got married.


Since we are shipping most of our presents this year to Arkansas and Tennessee, I haven't really wrapped very many. However, when we got home from church Sunday, I found this.
Thanks, Roxy. It's our fault really. When she was a puppy we gave her cardboard paper towel holders to chew on, and she loves anything cardboard.

I'm really excited this week because the law school is hosting a "law prom" and Erik and I are going. It's a casino theme where you play real casino games and you trade in your chips for raffle tickets that go towards cool prizes. Also the law auxilary is having craft night Thursday and we're making ornaments. It should be a fun week!