Boo's Big Weekend Part 3

I'm back with the final details of the weekend (Part 1 and Part 2)! Sorry it took me so long for those of you on the edges of your seat, but this girl got crazy caught up in life.

Following graduation we headed back to Winston for supper with my grandma, uncle, and two sweet cousins. Well, I should probably say my grandma and aunt. My cousins were lost in Lego-land as soon as Daddy brought out the buckets. We got together to eat more delicious food and recap the weekend's activities!

Sunday morning I headed to church with The Momma for a special Mother's Day service. We got to see five sweet baby girls be dedicated to the Lord by their families. Her church seems to have the exact opposite problem we do. Where they seem to have an influx of girls, we seem to have an influx of boys! Following the church service we returned home for a Mother's Day/Graduation/Commissioning Ceremony Brunch with the Winston-Salem fam. It was here that Daddy presented TJ with his "big" gift-a 1944 M1 rifle! The gun saw time overseas during WWII and is in excellent condition. I was so enthralled with it I teased TJ about taking it on Pawn Stars to see what he could get for it;-)

Showing off his goodies

Daddy explaining the significance of the gun.

 Examining his new treasure.

After that we headed home to recoup before the big week at work-testing for me, project for Davido!

Friday's Letters [05.25]

Hip hip hooray, we made it to Friday! I'm linking up again this week with the wonderful Adventures of Newlyweds.

Dear students who are retesting, pretty please take this seriously and do your best. I may just cry if you don't all pass it this go around.

Dear Bubba, I was flipping through my phone and I found this picture. It made me start giggling because you told me you were taking it to show the world what a "redneck diva" I am. You have no idea what this redneck diva is capable of;-)

Dear magazines, I apologize for my ridiculous neglect of you. You keep coming to me in the mail with hopes of being read in a timely manner, but alas life has kept me from you! Come June 8th I promise to devote more time to your consumption.

Dear Daisy, Why do you make it so hard for me to leave in the mornings?? You snuggle down so sweetly next to me that the thought of leaving just breaks my heart. Only a few more weeks until I'll have plenty of time for tummy rubs and ear scratches!

Dear Bird-boy, I am so glad you are living with us this summer! I have high hopes that this time around will be a lot more fun than it was when we were kids. I mean let's be real here. Being an adult and getting to do what we want is a lot more fun than being told what to do by The Momma.

Boo's Big Weekend Part 2

I'm back with more details from Boo's Big Weekend! Sidenote: In case you were wondering who exacly "Boo" was, he is my (not so little anymore) brother. Boo has been his nickname since he was a kid. He won't admit but he loves it;-)

Saturday morning we were up and at 'em early again to head to the university graduation. Davido and I skipped this one when we graduated mainly because we just didn't see the point. We thought our departmental graduation would be more important. Due to the awesomeness of TJ, and the fact that is now a commissioned officer in the USMC, he was being honored at the ceremony. Of course we were going to go if he was being honored! The newly commissioned officers from all four branches were asked to stand at the beginning of the ceremony and the audience gave them a standing ovation. How neat is that?!? We were all so excited to see them recognized!

The ceremony dragged on after that. Since NCSU is such a large school they don't call the name of every undergraduate or masters student (thank heavens! The processional alone took over an hour), but they do call the names of those who received their doctorate. Rightfully so too. Those guys and gals worked their booties off!

Gotta keep that hat straight!

Hey, Ma! I'm on TV!

One of the more exciting parts of the three and a half hour long event (thank goodness for smartphones and iPads!) was getting to hear Phillip Rivers speak. P. Riv as I like to call my bud (no we have never actually met but I am quite certain we would get along very well if we ever did. . .) gave the commencement speech since he was a 2003 graduate of NCSU. It was a neat speech all about faith, family, and football-three of my most favorite things.

P. Riv!

Immediately following we skedaddled on back to campus for the departmental graduation. The emcee was a gregarious old professor who finished the ceremony with an experiment. I was quickly reminded with all the big words and equations why I did not do so well in Chem 101. . . One of the neatest parts of the ceremony was when they asked all the graduates to take a flower to the person in the audience who supported them the most in their tenure at NCSU. TJ chose the Momma and had her in tears.

 Momma and her Boo-man

I also can't forget to share that just prior to the ceremony Momma had a bit of a snafu. She thought we were going upstairs for the ceremony so when my dad went through a door she followed him without thinking. Well, she followed him right into the men's restroom. I was laughing so hard I almost wet my pants while waiting for the women's restroom.

Looking sheepish just after the event

Day 3 of the festivities continues tomorrow!

 

Boo's Big Weekend

I mentioned yesterday how busy our weekend was and gave y'all a little glimpse of it. Forewarning: that was the glimpse, here is the onslaught. We were fortunate enough to head to Raleighwood (Raleigh, NC for all you non-NC State folk) to celebrate my wittle brudder growing up. TJ (aka Boo) spent the past four years studying Chemistry while also donating his time, energy, and (pretty much) his entire life to the NROTC program. I am excited to report that we were able to witness TJ becoming an officer in the United States Marine Corps AND graduating from college. To say we are proud of this kid would be an understatement.

We kicked off the weekend early Friday morning with his Commissioning Ceremony. We arrived early to get good seat, and because our orders from TJ said so (the kid has been practicing this bossing people around thing his whole life). It was an incredibly moving ceremony in which we were able to see him take his oath, receive his first salute, and sign his papers.

The parentals pinning him

The first salute

Making it official!

With his precious girlfriend, Megan!

Hugging/embarrassing the man of the hour

The boys being silly in the "sorority squat".

Following the Commissioning Ceremony we headed to a local restaurant, Tyler's Taproom, to celebrate. If you're ever in the Raleigh/Durham area I highly suggest a visit. I mean honestly, how can you not love a place that has bacon popcorn?!? That afternoon David and I went to the pool with TJ, Megan, and his roommate for a few hours. It was so nice to sit back and relax amidst all the craziness of May. That evening we headed downtown to visit with some of our nearest and dearest friends from school. We had a great time drinking local microbrew beer and catching up while the sun set on downtown Raleigh.

More details of our adventure coming tomorrow!

Busy Little Bees

So here's a look at what has been going on. . .

First there was this:

Then there was this:

Then we witnessed this:

And this was pretty neat too:

And finally we got to be a part of this:

And a whole bunch of stuff in between that I will fill in the details of tomorrow! Congrats TJ!!

Friday's Letters [05.11]

Happy Friday fabulous readers! It's another great day with Adventures of Newlyweds!

Dear Boo, We are so excited to share this weekend with you! From your Commissioning Ceremony today to your Graduations tomorrow, we cannot wait to celebrate all that you have accomplished. You are going to do amazing things with your life. AH-MAZING things. I just know it. I can't wait to see what they are! Not to mention we get to come to NC State to see you-score!

At TJ's (aka Boo) high school graduation

Dear students, Please, please, please do well on your final assessments next week. We've been working our booties off all year to prepare for this day, so let's show everyone else what you can do! Not to mention the remediation and retesting process is pretty much the most tortuous thing ever.

Dear Summer, Where are you? The anticipation of your impending arrival is going to kill me. Every day we get closer to you is another day closer to adequate amounts of sleep and no stress tension in my shoulders. Hurry up!

Dear readers, I apologize for my sporadic postings. They probably won't get much better until after school gets out. My bad.

Friday's Letters [03.02]

Happy Friday y'all! I am linking up with Adventures of Newlyweds for another edition of Friday's Letters.

Dear Kellie, Happy Birthday beautiful girl! When did we get to be so old?? Can't wait to celebrate our platinum anniversary soon:-)

Dear Weekend, Thank you for arriving. I am positively stoked to rest and relax this weekend, though we all know Davido and I will get too antsy from laying around and will find a project to work on.

Dear Wardlets, Y'all are too wonderful and I miss you terribly. Come visit soon!

Dear old lady body, Please stop aching. I'd really like to make it through a run without having to stop halfway through and walk.

Dear IKEA, Thank you for the ridiculous amount of inspiration your mock rooms provide, but please stop tempting us with your "easy" projects. We all know those wooden rods do not fit as easily as they should. You're not fooling anyone, you brilliant Swedes.

Dear Co-workers, Thank y'all for the many awesome ways you remind me not to take life too seriously. Without your reality checks I might go a little crazy at times. Then again, crazy seems to be our norm :-)

Old Habits Die Hard

Last night as I was preparing chicken parmesean for supper I snuck a few bites of spaghetti sauce with mozzarella cheese. Mm mm mm! All I was eating was plain sauce and mozzarella cheese. Nothing fancy, but man it was yummy. I then stopped, and started to laugh at myself. What was I doing? Why, I reverting back to a littler version of myself there for a second.

I don't even know if my own mother knows this, but this little treat was one of my favorite snacks growing up. In fact, I would have no problem opening up a jar of spaghetti sauce and eating it plain if my husband didn't give me the strangest looks in the world. I absolutely love the tomatey taste with the cheese for some odd reason. I didn't even think it was weird until I got married and David about fell out of his seat when he saw me sneaking a few bites.

This got me thinking; how many of us have those weird snacks from our childhood? How many of us have strange habits that you didn't know were strange until you grew up and moved out? Or my personal favorite, how many of us call things bizarre names that seemed totally normal growing up? For example, growing up we referred to ketchup as "kebbits". No clue where this started, but that's what we've always called it. Imagine the strange looks we got at restaurants when we asked for a bottle of "kebbits".

I'd love to hear how your childhood habits are still a part of you today! Until then I have some leftover pasta sauce and mozzarella calling my name. . .

Boonetown Visit

This past weekend David and I were fortunate enough to get to go to Boone to see my sister, Abby. This wasn't just any trip up the mountain, though. I was going up to celebrate her initiation into Chi Omega!!

We arrived late Friday evening and went straight to her dorm to pick up her and her boyfriend, Matt. I was famished after not eating since 11am (the life of a teacher. . .) so we headed straight to supper at none other than Chilli's. This used to be the go-to place for our family growing up so it made sense for us to choose there to chow down.

After supper we scooted on over to Sweet Frog's Frozen Yogurt. Nom nom nom. Y'all know I love me some sweets, but froyo is one of my supreme weaknesses. My flavor of choice this time around was cake batter with hot apple pie on top! I was able to try a few new flavors, though and let me just tell you, Sweet Frog knows what they are doing.

We then went back to Abby's dorm to hang out and talk. It may sound silly, but it was really neat just hanging out in a dorm room again. David and I met our sophomore year at NC State and much of the beginning of our relationship was spent hanging out in dorm rooms. The not so fun part of staying there? Having to sleep in a lofted bed. Oof.

I resolved to climb up and stay there 'til morning. My body had other plans and at about 3am I woke up having to use the restroom (blasted 6 cups of water at supper!). After I determined there was no way I could last until morning, started climbing down. Not exactly sure what happened next, but I started slipping, the bed started moving, and the next thing I knew I was falling. I managed to land right on my knee (still limping a day later) and scared the mess out of Abby who shot out of bed screaming. My husband? Slept through the whole thing. I somehow climbed back up and got help when I needed to get back down the next morning.

Once we were up for good we headed over to Melanie's on King Street for breakfast. It was the cutest little cafe with very deliciously HUGE breakfast options. The breakfast I ate at 9am held me over to supper that evening. We then wandered up and down King Street and around Boone for a few hours before Abby's initiation.

Now, I can't give any details on initiation (so don't ask!) but what I can say was it was a wonderful experience with a great group of girls. The Chi Omega's at Appalachian welcomed me with open arms, and I couldn't have been more grateful. I now know why Abby loves it there so much!

Unfortunately we had to hit the road soon thereafter. It may have been brief, but it was a great little visit and I can't wait to get back! A few pictures from our quick trip:

 Abby and Matt waiting for Mast to open.

What, you mean you don't take pictures while waiting for stores to open??

King Street

Other side of King Street

 

 A little wind blown, but we were in Boone after all!

Christmas Break in Pictures

I mentioned yesterday how cuckoo things were at the tail-end of break, but I didn't have the opportunity to share any pictures. I was so busy having fun that I don't have as many to share as I would have liked, but a few are better than none at all!

David's brother, John, with his prized hat!

If you can't see, it's a M&M's Star Wars dispenser. All of his childhood dreams just came true.

Of all the items the biggest attraction were the toy helicopters! 

Moving onto the Ward house. . .

Coffee from the Secret Santa? Score!

The new script c-d! He was such a happy boy!

Abby admitting to deceiving us all in the Secret Santa game.

Christmas Eve game night!

Daddy having oh so much fun playing Who Knew?

Merry Christmas from two Chi Omegas! Love our matching hats!

Our second Christmas morning together!

My precious new boots!

Poor thing was very overwhelmed by all the activity!

Cheers!

Such a pretty sister! 

Abby and Oma!

"What you talkin' 'bout, Willis?"

I promise this will be the last Christmas post, but I couldn't resist sharing!

Christmas Vacation!

After a few days of R&R as our little family we will be hitting the road for the next week and half. We'll start the great Christmas Vacation of 2011 by heading to see my awesome in-laws and celebrate Christmas just the five of us. I still can't believe how lucky I am to have married into this family!! Then, we'll head back up the road to see the Wards for a few days. It's never easy to get all the Wardlets together so the fact that we will be under the same roof for more than 24 hours is enough to have me jumping for joy! 

We'll wake up at my parent's house Christmas morning and then go see all my mom's extended family and celebrate with them before hitting the road yet again to see all of David's extended family. The next morning we will wake up and head out for the longest leg of the break-Florida! Here we will get to visit with even more of David's incredible extended family! Wait, it doesn't end there. After a few days in Florida we'll head back to my parent's house to celebrate my dad's birthday-he's a New Year's Eve baby! The final part of our trip will send us back to David's extended family for a special southern New Year's Day supper filled with collards, hoppin' John's, and more! The next morning will have me back at school and in the swing of things again.

Will it get crazy at times? Absolutely. Will I love every minute of it? Absolutely! The good news is both of our families are filled with amazing people. I realize how truly blessed we are to be able to say that! Any advice on fun things to do in the car and how to stay sane during the crazy??

Christmas Questionnaire

I saw this precious questionnaire over at Matt and Kara Adopt and I thought I'd give it a go!

1.  Egg nog or hot chocolate? Hot chocolate all the way, especially with a little peppermint flavoring!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Santa never wrapped presents. They were always decoratively placed around the room.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? White all the way. On the tree and on the house! I love the classic look when it comes to Christmas decorations.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? I did last year when I got some from a family member's farm, but haven't gotten any this year.

5. When do you put your decorations up? As soon as I can get home from our Thanksgiving travels!

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? My aunt's sweet potato casserole. It's absolutely delicious!

 7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? The very first Christmas David and I celebrated as a married couple:-)

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I honestly cannot tell you. What I can tell you is that I remember getting in trouble for telling the little girl next door! I guess I couldn't believe that it was true so I had to check with the other kids in the 'hood.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? When we were little we would beg and plead until The Momma gave in. Now we exchange our secret Santa kids between the Wardlets on Christmas Eve.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Our tree is a mish-mash of us. We have some ornaments from our childhoods (like the MASSIVE collection of Star Wars ornaments-I'll give you one guess who those belong too!) and some from our lives together. Something we started doing is getting an ornament from every trip we go on together. In our collection now? A few from Disney, one from Charleston, one from Waynesville, one from the Biltmore, etc. It's so neat to see them on the tree and remember the wonderful time we had in those places!

11. Snow! Love it or dread it? Both! I love it for like a day, then I'm over it. It's really the anticipation of the event that gets me.

12. Can you ice skate? Oh heavens no! Do I strike you as a coordinated person? Because if so, we're going to need to talk. . .

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I don't think I have a favorite. Each gift has been special for its very own reason.

14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? The two uninterrupted weeks of time with all my loved ones.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Ooo this is a toughie. I love making and sharing homemade sugar cookies with homemade frosting. Nom nom nom.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? For as long as I've remembered we've always gone to Christmas Eve service and then come home and celebrated just the Wards (and now David!). We'll get out all our old favorite board games and pig out on snacky appetizer-type foods. It's one of the few times we're all together!

17. What tops your tree? A beautiful bow given to us by David's grandmother.

18. Which do you prefer: giving or receiving? Giving all the way. I love seeing the look on people's faces when they open it up and discover what they wished for. 

19. Candy canes: yuck or yum? Yum!! I'm the crazy one who stocks up at Christmastime and snacks on them all winter.

20. Favorite Christmas movie? The Santa Clause series or Elf

 
21. Saddest Christmas song? "Christmas Shoes" has me bawling every time.

22. What is your favorite Christmas song? Oddly enough I love "Last Christmas" by Wham! I can't help but start to dance and sing along when it comes on!

Now it's your turn! Link back in the comments section with your answers!

Embracing The Crazy

If you haven't figured it out yet, we don't exactly do things the traditional way in our house. I mean if the fact that my parents had five children before they were thirty should tell you we like to mix it up. Growing up was never dull, and our current adulthood only makes it more fun. We've decided not to let the crazy embarrass us and instead have decided to embrace it. Today's story of crazy is Christmas-themed. Get excited.

David and I arrived early Thursday morning at casa de Ward. The Momma had mentioned taking a Christmas picture before heading up the road to Oma & Pappy's (her parents) for a big Thanksgiving meal. All we were told was to dress "nice". So you can imagine our shock when we arrive and congregate with the other Wardlets to receive our "outfits". Yes, I said "outfits". My kind parents decided that Christmas sweaters and pajamas were too traditional for us and that we needed to up the ante for this year's picture. They had purchased elf costumes.

I'm sure you can imagine our initial response-heck no. Then we decided to embrace the crazy. We took in the costumes and matching accessories (booties and hats. What Christmas outfit wouldn't be complete without booties and hats??) and went with it. Here is evidence of the crazy:

Here come the elves on the Christmas train!

Who is that coming out of the woods? It's none other than the Wardlets!

"I just like to smile, smiling's my favorite"

 I love you. I love you! I LOVE YOU!

Chi-O elves!

Until next time, embrace the crazy:-)