Long Time, No Blog.

Hello Everyone,

It has been a long time, huh? Fortunately, this week I have a small breather from school and I wanted to catch up with all my blog world friends. I hope all of you are well and that life is going swimmingly.

Here's a short update, to prove that I really have been taking pictures the last few months!

January:

I started school, and life ended as Stuart and I knew it. Late nights, early mornings, many nights with little to no sleep, fast meals, eating out, whiny students, getting tough on whiny students, learning how to be a teacher on the fly, thinking about what to write my thesis on, endless streams of email, deadlines, deluges of 10-15 page research papers to write, irritating professors, learning how to be a student and a teacher at the same time, meeting lots of really cool people, and chaos in general has since taken over our lives. Welcome to the world of academia.

Stuart 27th birthday! It was a great event! He requested we go to Ruby Tuesday to get one of his favorite meals: the "Smokehouse Burger." So we did! And we had a small party at home with presents and of course, his favorite chocolate cake.


We also had a Tar Heels theme for his birthday decorations. You can see one of the streamers in the back has fallen down!

Other January events: Going to see "Walking with Dinosaurs" with my brother Andrew and his family. So great to see them! We enjoyed spending time with the girls, and much to my surprise, they weren't scared of the roaring dinosaurs one bit! When I asked Zoe if she was worried about the dinosaurs (because her eyes were as big as saucers), she just said, "No. He'll eat those people over there!" and pointed to the other side of the coliseum. Haha. I love her so much.

February:

Valentine's Day was especially fantastic this year. We went out to eat at this great restaurant called "Main Street 221," which has a German flare to it. I think that was the name. Stuart would know for sure. He always remembers restaurant names. He gets it from his dad I think. Anyway, this is the Valentine I made for Stu-Baker.



And this is me opening my V-Day gift from Stuart, which was absolutely fabulous! It was a picture album of all the things we did in 2009 together. He made it on Kodak Gallery during his lunch breaks while I was at work. He said it took him about a month or so to make it and get it just perfect. And it was! I cried. It was the best Valentine's we've ever had together! The book consists of 85 pages of pictures in several different layouts on a pretty background and Stuart's captions. Precious! We are thinking of making it a tradition for each year!

Other February Events: Finding out my brother and his wife are expecting their third baby. If all goes well, I'll be an aunt for the 10th time!


March:

Big month! I finished up one of my grad classes after several grueling weeks of projects (yay!), Stuart and I officially joined our church and attended a reception at our pastor's house, I had a wonderful Spring Break in New Bern, North Carolina with Stuart and my bro, Harrison, and I attended a lingerie shower for my lovely sister-in-law Mary-Alice, who I only get to share a last name with for a few more weeks. We also had some great fellowship with our friends Everett and Mary Mounts, who are friends from my old church in Danville. They are so encouraging to us and we loved spending time with them! Here are a few pics of the shower and Spring Break....

The lovely table of refreshments set up for the bride-to-be....


Michael Stuart- the only boy allowed at the party!



Mary-Alice enjoying some shower treats....


The guest of honor enjoying a cuppa!


Mom Graydon served up punch to everyone!



Next up - Spring Break!

The water at Atlantic Beach was freezing, but that didn't stop me from dipping my toes in....



Stuart the beach bum!


Harrison entertained us the entire week with his crazy antics and impersonations. Here he is experimenting with the effects of static electricity on his hair.....



So, that about wraps it up for this post. I will try to be more diligent in my updates, but no promises! : )

Things we are looking forward to in April....

*Stuart's first 10 mile run in Chapel Hill, NC.
*Mary and Fred's wedding!

See you all in the funny papers!