february already?

Well to look back at the one and only post we made for January you'd think it was pretty uneventful for us... I don't know how true that is but I do know that I did use the "my arm's broken" excuse several times for not getting around to doing this or that. In reality it really did slow me down a bit but as of now I think things are on the mend at last - I have actually started to use my arm a good bit more over the past week at work and at home and am getting back to feeling a little more normal! In fact one of the sure signs of recovery is that I'm back into the couponing groove - I saved 91% in my trip to Kroger this afternoon. I was definitely thankful as I finished up at work yesterday to have two days of a break out in front of me. Claude was not quite as lucky though as he's been on call in the SICU all day today / tonight - he really has been quite a trooper through this intern year. I don't know how he does it but I do know that I'm mighty lucky to have ended up with such a great guy:)


In other news - and kind of linking back to the title - we happened to win a little contest which had been waged with Breck and Laura for who could keep their Christmas tree up the longest. Laura fessed up last week to having already taken theirs down, so now that we've won I decided to go ahead and take down our ornaments tonight (yes it is February the 7th) and pack them back up and away upstairs. It's about time I guess - hoping we can get the tree down tomorrow sometime after Claude recovers from his shift. In keeping with the "December" kind of spirit I just today opened up one of my stocking stuffers from Claude (courtesy of myself in fact)...


I love this lotion - I'm not sure why but since it's seasonal it might have something to do with "absence makes the heart grow fonder." In my case the absence has been due to: 1) my refusal to pay full price for things in general when they'll surely be on sale later and 2) the fact that by the time this scent is on sale the lotion has already been sold out for the past couple of years. In fact my last bottle of this was confiscated in the Salt Lake airport a couple of years ago - anyway, thanks to good old Claude I've got a new bottle.



In the meantime there's been an exciting addition to the blogging world over here. So YAY Emily (and David) for giving me another way to pass the time online:)

the new year so far

Not only has it been a month since we last posted, it's been a year in a way:) We were actually able to get "home" - as most of you who actually read this probably know - for a couple of days though it still didn't seem quite long enough...at all. We really wish we'd had more time to catch up with friends as the road between Philly and Jackson (and Laurel for me) ate away a little chunk of our time but we were SO thankful to be with our families in our old houses to celebrate Christmas!

Since we've been back and rung in the new year there have already been a couple of changes.

*You might have noticed we have a new look for the blog with a new picture taken by Thomas...he and Mir came for a visit over their break and rode back to MS with us a couple of days before Christmas.

*Claude was nice enough to let us purchase some new furniture for our den - well new to us, technically it's secondhand- but I'm just as happy with it as can be and will put some pictures up of it arranged soon. Why not now you ask? Well we had plans to pick it up midweek last week but went to pick it up last Monday night (post dinner at Moe's) as Claude got off work a little early. In two trips and with not too much trouble we got the pieces into den via the front door and decided to just leave everything to rearrange til the next night but...

*Those plans were interrupted by the next "new" in our list. I have a new accessory...

On my way into work Tuesday morning there was a little accident which landed me a spot in the ER...

I was thankful Claude was able to come down while I got fixed up and will find out more tomorrow at my follow up visit. If I could have had a choice though I think I would have definitely picked the other arm! Life this week with a fracture in my elbow - for lack of the actual correct anatomical term - has gone a little slower for me:) Hopefully it's healing well and I'll get a good report soon!

Well, there's a couple of things I need to attempt to tackle - with my left hand leading of course before the day ends. Will be back sooner than last time we hope!

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

...around here. I don't know about where you are, but we actually saw live trees outside of stores the week before Thanksgiving. The proof is below...me amongst the Christmas trees at Kroger after my first day of work!

We did however hold out on getting a tree until after we returned home from our AL trip and a couple of days past that due to rainy weather and such. On Tuesday night though we set out to find a tree...

would you believe we actually made 4 stops before finding "the one"? [The pictures above are from a lot set up by a Christmas tree farm-they were beautiful trees but a little pricey for our budget:)]When it was all said and done though we were very happy with the Frasier fir we found. Here's Claude tying it atop the car...

By the time we got home and actually got the tree in the stand and straight...which took longer than I had thought it would by the way...we decided to let the tree settle for a day or two. [Which is kind of a joke here as our tree is a pretty skinny tree!] Then last night we went ahead and strung the lights and hung our ornaments while listening to some Christmas music. Claude also gave a little narrative on our 2009 tree...okay scratch that because the video won't upload...here's 2 pictures instead:
Well, now that I think the tree has been sufficiently covered we can move on to another exciting (and more lasting) Christmas decoration. Our new stockings!!! Over Thanksgiving we actually got a Christmas present a little early so that we could enjoy using them this year. We love love love them! Thanks Laura and Breck:)

And last, but definitely not least, comes the picture of our nativity set. My mom actually started me out with the original set as a gift on my 19th (I think) birthday. I know that I was definitely still in the dorms at MC:) Over the years I have really appreciated and grown to enjoy taking it out more and more. A new addition this year is one of the add on sets with a shepherd and some more stable animals that we got last Christmas as a wedding present. I think there are actually a couple more additions that are available so it might still have room to grow. For right now though it's just perfect!

That seems to about cover it for now...hope you all enjoy your weekend!

thankfulness

thankfulness (n): acknowledgement of having received something good from another
thankful (adj): feeling or expressing gratitude

I know this post is a week past Thanksgiving, but because we have so much to be thankful for it's better late than never, huh? We actually were able to spend the Thanksgiving holidays-including Thursday-with Claude's family in Huntsville. {Which was a real treat when we were expecting the worst schedule with it being Claude's intern year:)} It would go without saying that Claude's grateful for his family (and me for mine) but more than that we are both thankful to be able to count each another's families as our own as well. While I hate that the distances from here to yonder mean that we won't always be able to make it to all the family stops for each holiday it was wonderful to be with the Huntsville H's-and of course those who came from Jackson and Little Rock too! As usual, I forgot to actually pull out my camera until the end (and I mean the end...these are after the house was locked up and right before we all got in our respective cars!) so I only have a couple of pictures...

Claude and I with his grandparents:

Grandchildren pic...Since David and Emily were already gone Laura held the crown up to represent David...

In addition to counting our families as immense blessings in our lives, there are countless other good things that we have received from God's gracious hand. We are thankful for each other, thankful for friends old and new, thankful that Claude matched to this program, thankful for our health, thankful that God provided a job for me, thankful for the church we've found here, thankful for the freedom we have as Americans, thankful for a home we love, and more than anything thankful for the ultimate gift of salvation. And so the list could go on and on...if you're reading this that means you have to be someone we know pretty well and that we're thankful for you too!

happy (belated) birthday brother!

Well I have once again been found guilty of being tardy to wish a sibling a happy birthday via the blogworld... However, it's no less sincere than had it been on time:) One of the hardest parts about being such a distance from "home" - for me at least - is having to miss out on some of the family times that used to be a given. Thomas, we sure hope you had a great day on the 21st and also sure wish we'd been able to join in on your birthday dinner! Love you lots and hope to see you soon...

lately

It's apparently been a while since we posted...in fact Claude suggested that I go ahead and write a RIP to the blog entry:) However there's been a good bit going on around here in the last couple of weeks. About three weeks ago I headed to Little Rock to do one last (for a while anyway) Chick fil A campout with Laura. Since the last one I did by myself I was especially glad to be in the presence of good company (Laura, Breck's mom, and the Smith family who are in LR for residency as well) this go round! Claude was especially thrilled that I was one of the first 100 so that our little stockpile of coupons basically doubled:)

Signing in a little less than 24 hrs before opening:

About halfway done...they had Christmas lights on the trees in the distance

Laura, Breck, and Mrs. Richardson around the card table; (also visible is "The Help" which kept me busy reading for a good portion of the 2 days in LR...it came highly recommended by several and after reading it I definitely concur that it was a great read!)

While in Little Rock I also got to eat out with Laura (and Breck) a time or two and chum along with Laura to her afternoon babysitting job where we played some suspenseful rounds of Apples to Apples. An extra treat to the trip was that we made a short trip down to Jackson (and I went to Philly for a day as well) for the weekend. I got to see my family, a couple of friends, go to Mistletoe, and enjoy a Saturday morning muffin at Broad Street among other things.

Pictures from meeting up with Thomas at MC to borrow his truck for Mir for the week:

Then on Monday morning Laura dropped me off at the airport and I was on my return journey. I must say that it was nice to get to fly rather than drive but I won't be getting to attached to that luxury anytime soon. I will say that the local airport was probably my favorite airport ever in terms of ease getting checked in and through etc. The only downside was that the "airport shops" were pretty limited, and by that I mean there was one coffee cart where I was able to get a hot dog for a late lunch while waiting on my ride home from Claude! On the bright spot though it is a very nice airport with a little bit of hometown scenery...

Once back home I decided it was time for me to tackle the task of finishing up a project that had been sitting in our dining room/living room for a couple of weeks. We packed up a couple of shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child and in the previous weeks I'd gotten most of the fun stuff for the boxes but was lacking a couple of toothbrushes/bars of soap/etc. I knew that my new job would be starting pretty soon so I got these packed up and to the drop off site on what actually turned out to be my last day of freedom...I mean unemployment:) It was wonderful to drop these off 1) because I think they're such a wonderful way to share the joy of the gospel of Christmas with little ones around the world and 2) it felt great to actually finally see a project through to completion which as a major procrastinator is something that sometimes takes me a while.

The finished boxes...finally!

In wrapping up, there's actually been one more big change here at our house in the past week or so and that is that I actually have a job now! I started last Thursday-right in time to get to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday-and have had five work days as of today.

A view of the outside of the building:

And one from my desk to the outside:

The beginning stage of transition is always the hardest time for me but I'm hoping that I'll transition smoothly and quickly...so far everyone in the lab has been super nice and the facilities are pretty new and impressive as well. Any prayers that I would catch on quickly and be able to do my best to the glory of God without being overcome by the jitters would be much appreciated! Hope today's been great wherever you are-

Rachel

our saturday

Yesterday was a nice day for us...since Claude got off around noon we were actually able to eat lunch together which rarely happens during the week these days. (Big deal you might say, but I got really used to being able to eat lunch together pretty regularly in the good ole' UMC days.) So we headed to a cafe on the riverfront to eat, but when we got there we weren't quite sure if they were open. It was probably around 1 o clock and while the doors were open we didn't see any customers. After walking up to the counter though we saw a couple of people in the kitchen and the girl who took our order proceeded to let us know that the Saturday slowness might be due to the Georgia/Florida game and the fact that it was Halloween. Several more people came in after we ordered though and our sandwiches were quite good. It was kind of overcast when we walked into lunch but pretty and blue skies when we walked out. Once we finished eating we decided to walk down to the sidewalk right beside the river for just a minute...

Self photo on timer.

A train started crossing the bridge downstream from us.

Some of the houses on the SC side.

Claude scouting out the SC shore.

Me smiling in front of the Savannah:) [This picture probably was the "hardest" one to get because I handed Claude the camera after I had put it on the timer...the first shot of me actually cut off my head!]

So those are our post-lunch pictures. Once we got home Claude took a super long nap and I went to Kroger/Walgreens to get a couple of things. When I got home Claude was still asleep so I turned on (with the volume turned down low) the GA/FL game mentioned earlier which was going into halftime. Claude woke up pretty shortly and we commenced-me mainly watching-the carving of our pumpkin.

Claude sketching out the face features.

Claude carving away.

Inspecting the pumpkin with a quizzical face.

Approval of the pumpkin.

Once we got the pumpkin mess cleaned up we got it lit and started on the pumpkin seeds. Claude got them ready and after snacking on several handfuls we bagged the others up. It started raining right after we lit the candle and so we decided to run pick up some supper and movies from Blockbuster. We kind of doubted we'd have any trick-or-treaters...I had some candy just in case...but we ended up having one knock at the door to find two boys making the rounds. So they got most of the candy:)