Lattes and...redneck lights?

Less than 2 days and we'll be packing up and heading out for Christmas up north aka the tundra. All of the baking and wrapping is done and now we just have to clean, pack and drive. Until Tuesday Mike and I are enjoying our new traditions down here in Georgia. Mike has been awesome and been helping me out with the extra shifts at the barn, as well as hanging out on the unbearably windy days at the barn. Tonight we grabbed gingerbread lattes and drove around town to find Christmas lights. The lighted houses were a bit sparse but we found a few that took the cake. This one in particular made us, as honey boo boo would say, "redneckignize."

This lovely display was of Santa driving an old Volvo with elves popping out of the back. All of this complete with a stoplight...yep we found a winner!

The rest of the weekend was full of shopping, baking, wrapping and Lou pony visits. Oh and napping for Mike while I baked up a storm:)

Chloe is never one to miss out on a cuddle session.

Yummy pecans. I may be getting the hang of Georgia baking....everything includes pecans in some form!

The two boys that can always put a smile on my face:)

Lou and I will be celebrating our 8th Christmas together this year. I love this horse so so much! It is so nice that Mike and I can share down time with him now and he always lifts our spirits.

Remember to count your blessings

I have been doing a lot of reflecting over the past week, especially after such an awful tragedy in Newton,CT, and honestly I realized that I am living my dream. Back when I was a little girl I'm sure there was nothing I wanted more than to be able to get up every morning and head off to the barn as my job. As soon as I sat on a horse for the first time, probably about age 7 when Aunt Patti took me out to the barn, I never stopped asking for riding lessons and a pony. Once I got riding lessons it was all downhill from there. I remember skipping around in my riding pants and tall boots and telling my parents that I would be so happy if I got to wear my riding clothes everyday. Then at age 15 I was blessed with Lou pony and the dinner discussions about college began. After quite a lot of differing opinions about my majoring in Equine Studies I chose Virginia Intermont and headed out on my path towards happiness. During that time I remember my dad looking at me and saying "Do what makes you happy, then you'll never work a day in your life." In that moment I knew I was doing the right thing and never looked back.
There are days when the work load seems impossible, everything goes wrong, feet get stomped on, you can't get a darn thing out of your horse undersaddle and burnout seems unavoidable. However, when I have those moments I think back to my younger self who would most certainly look at me today and say "Oh my gosh your job is awesome! You get to hang out with horses everyday, ride and teach plus you have two horses!" And you know what younger me would be totally right, I have an amazing job, two loveable horses, two goofy dogs and an amazingly supportive fiance. I am so lucky!
While I was reading some of the news reports after the shooting at Sandy Hook one story really stuck to me. On that day a little girl named Jessica was taken away from her family. Her parents shared that their daughter loved horses and was going to receive cowgirl boots for Christmas. She had also been promised a pony when she turned 10. Her parents have vowed to live each day to the fullest in memory of their daughter. This past week every time I got on a horse she ran across my mind, a sweetly sad reminder of how lucky I am to do what I love everyday. It is so easy to get stuck in what we wish we had or what could be better but especially now it is so much more important to look at what we already have and see what we are so blessed with. Remembering to reach out to others even in the simplest ways is also so much a part of this time of year and we should all strive to do so throughout the year. In the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy a boutique by the name of Mosh Posh in Tampa,Fl created a teddy bear drive for the children of Sandy Hook that are dealing with the sadness around them. Such a simple idea that will bring some form of comfort to these children. Mike and I sent a teddy bear from Georgia to Florida and this weekend the teddy will make the journey up to Newton where we hope he brings a sense of comfort to a child who needs a teddy bear to hug.

Christmas picture torture

If my mother or sister are reading this I'm sure you already had a good chuckle about the title. As a kid it seemed every picture of the year somehow revolved around the Christmas card picture. Sometimes the torture started early in the fall when Mom would suddenly dress us up in our warmest (and "cutest") sweaters and drag us to the nearest park, lake, farm or otherwise middle of nowhere type place. Of course, without fail if we were dressed warmly then the weather was above average warm...turtleneck sweaters in 70 degree weather ugh. There were times, however, when the year had been insanely crazy so pictures were pushed til the colder months at which time Mom would go into winter denial mode...crud I go through the same thing! When Mom's winter denial and Christmas card pictures collided we would be sitting on a beach in Maryland or Virginia in late November wearing white button downs, jeans and barefoot...freezinggggggg. Now I cannot deny that the pictures were adorable, however, I have no idea how she shifted through all of the whiny, miserable looking ones to find the perfect one fit to be sent out to family and friends.

Back when Sep and I were adorable...notice the hokie love started young:)

Some years other family members were drug along...poor cousins.

So since Mike and I have been continuing our Christmas traditions down here in Georgia we just had to do a card. The day started off with a couple of hiccups. Speed bump number 1: finding Santa hats. Wayyy more difficult than we thought, we couldn't even find them at Walmart! Good ol' Kroger pulled through for us and we nabbed the last 2 "Mike approved" Santa hats. Speed bump number 2: the weather. We crossed our fingers all the way to the lake that the skies wouldn't open up on us and we got lucky with just a few sprinkles. Speed bump number 3: this...

So yes we are in a bit of a drought down here. I didn't expect the water level to be quite this low. The posts in the ground are normally the farthest point of the swimming section! And off in the distance a bit you can see lovely construction vehicles that have apparently been pushing sand up into huge mounds on the beach. Thankfully the camera Mike got me last year is awesome and we were able to crop all the icky parts of the scenery out. In the end we got some great shots and only a couple of pouty ones from Mike. We hope everyone enjoys their Christmas cards this year:)

Holiday whirlwind

Finals are finally over for the students at Wesleyan College and everyone is starting to head home, its kinda strange being on the other side as a coach/professor. I'm actually a little excited though for a nice quiet barn and being able to get in some real ride time. Look out Spence and prepare for boot camp! And, of course, Mike and I are super excited to travel up north to visit our families for Christmas.
So far our itinerary is as follows:
Christmas day: work at the barn (like I said before its not a holiday without ponies) leave Georgia at 12 noon
Dec. 26: Arrive insanely early in the morning in New Jersey
Dec. 29: Leave early from New Jersey to go to NoVA
Dec.30: Family Christmas in VA
Jan. 1: Head back to GA
In the whirlwind of the trip we are looking forward to catching up with as many family and friends as possible so if you're around let us know! We are also very excited to go see the national Christmas tree again. Last year we went for the first time together and met another couple who was there for the 32nd time! They were the sweetest couple and each year they go and have their picture taken with the tree all lit up. Of course after meeting them I was determined to do the same...so even though life moved us to Georgia we are going to make it happen!
One tiny down side to visiting up north? Well we are just a tad used to the super warm winter we've been having down here. Just the other day it was 83! Not quite sure how I'm going to handle normal winter temps again...I never handled them very well when I lived up north!
Hope to see everyone very soon and hope you are all having a very happy and safe holiday season so far!

Mike and Colonel (Lou pony's retirement buddy)

Lou pony:)

And by popular demand...some of Mike's work buddies.

Handing over the reins...

Before I hand over the reins for this blog update I would like to announce that I am in no way responsible for what may happen next. Have fun with Mike's updates!

     Updates?! You mean I'm going to be allowed to write more than this one time? haha. We've tossed the idea of me writing a post back and forth since she started this blog; so here we go. What a whirlwind year I've had, the holidays make me think back and reflect a lot. It has been almost two months since Jess and I moved to Georgia and we're still settling in and finding some routines. I'm working on a cattle ranch part time while also working for a landscaping/hardscaping company. It is such a nice change of pace from all of the inside warehouse work I've been doing over the past 2 years. Life is starting to settle down a bit now that I'm working more regularly. Macon is opening 2 new firehouses soon so I'm hoping to get my foot in the door and start a career with the fire service.
     We had a successful Thanksgiving and we're really looking forward to traveling north to see our families for Christmas and New Years. I don't think I've been back to New Jersey since June, maybe even longer than that so I'm looking forward to seeing family and friends and getting a chance to introduce the new fiancee to those who have not yet met her. I'm pretty sure she'll like showing off her ring for 2 days. The whole 16 hour drive is the only thing I'm not looking forward too though.
     I feel I'd be remiss if I didn't say how thankful and blessed I am to have the family and friends that have been there for me throughout this last year or so. I've made so many life changing decisions, made two big moves, changed jobs, proposed, and a few of those changes wouldn't have been possible without those special people I have in my life. My family has been there for me at every turn and has done nothing but reassure me that I've been making the right decisions. I love being able to pick up the phone to call my parents, brother, or sisters to catch up or maybe even have a more serious talk. I've found support and parental advice in Jess' parents as well. We're so lucky to be surrounded by such loving people and parents that are such good role models when it comes to loving relationships. Of course, I wouldn't be doing any of this or be as happy as I am if it wasn't for Jess....maybe she'll let me write another post some time down the road now ;)

My couple day old working buddy the other day.

Traditions

The holidays are officially in full swing which means holiday traditions new and old are popping up all over the place. For years my family has been decorating gingerbread houses together, it has become quite the ordeal complete with the houses being displayed at family Christmas and having guests guess which house belongs to each family member. Most of my favorite holiday memories actually stem from the gingerbread house traditions...along with some of the most hilarious. Mike and I decided to continue the gingerbread house tradition down here in Georgia. First of all, hats off to my mother for building those darn houses out of graham crackers every year! One day I hope to be as creative and crafty as my mother, as things stand now my poor children will have plenty of "Mom tried..." stories to tell. So the first hurdle of gingerbread houses was the underestimation of how difficult the construction would be, especially since graham crackers are now sold in itty bitty little squares that need to be frosted together to create walls of any significance. So on night one the houses were finally put together and left to "set up." The next night we ventured into decorating and made a rookie mistake...not enough icing for full decorations! Candy options were a tad scarce as well, not having leftover trick or treat candy certainly makes a difference. So night 2 ended with the decorating of the roofs. Our poor little half decorated houses have been sitting on the breakfast bar waiting for the crazy week to be over...looks like tomorrow will be the final building day. Pictures to follow!
Sunday will also be an exciting day as Mom and Dad are coming to visit for the day! I am so excited to see them and have them see our new life in Georgia!

Happy Turkey and Redskins day!

This past week hasn't been the easiest week by far. My emotions have been up, down and all overboard mostly as a result of homesickness during the holidays. The onslaught of Christmas music hasn't helped much nor did hearing everyone's travel plans around campus. But I am one very lucky girl, I have Mike and some amazing friends that have shouldered my emotions for me. Every time I feel a break down coming on I know I can pick up the phone and have a supportive, understanding, listening ear on the other end ( thank you Gray and Katie, you two are awesome!). And when I get home at the end of a long day and fighting back tears Mike is always there with open arms. I can't even begin to explain how thankful and blessed I am to be engaged to such an amazing man; never once has he faltered in supporting our decision to move to Georgia and never once has he done anything but strive to make this new place our home. I love you with all my heart Mike!
Onto happier notes. Last night I had a lovely blonde cooking moment...not surprising at all. While making pumpkin dip (a new favorite of Mike and I's...thank you pinterest) I was merrily mixing all of my ingredients when I realized I had dumped in cook and serve pudding mix instead of instant pudding mix. At first I figured no big deal, ha! Certainly not the same outcome at all! Thankfully our Thanksgiving meal today went much more smoothly. Mike made the turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits while I was in charge of the cranberries and stuffing. Everything was delicious and now we have Thanksgiving leftovers to last until Christmas, hahaha! After an early dinner we headed off to the barn to do evening chores, again Mike is awesome as he came and helped do turnout and stalls. Somehow no holiday seems complete anymore without a pony kiss from Spence or Lou pony. Now we are settled back into the apartment with a new batch of pumpkin dip setting up in the fridge and the Redskins on tv. Georgia is starting to slowly feel a little like home.

Hoping everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Remember to take time to be thankful for all of your blessings today:)

Southern horse problems

I can't believe how fast time is flying by, its already Thanksgiving week and its been a week since I last updated! Let's see last week ended with trying out possible donation horses and a horse show at Georgia Southern. After jumping around the trial horses I believe its safe to say that this dressage queen is back in the hunter ring for the time being...no worries though Spence will still be my dressage pony, no way we're doing the hunters! The Georgia Southern western show went well on Sunday with all of our riders taking home ribbons as well as our two horses, Jack and Poco, being absolute champs all day. However, after a weekend of riding western for warm ups and coaching I was happy to be back in my hunt seat saddle on Monday.
The rest of the week was a tad up and down with work stress and pony stress. Apparently Lou has decided that retirement just isn't for him so instead he jumped out of his stall, crushing a 4 foot gate in the process. No need to worry though he came through with barely a scratch and has been happily cantering around the field with no problems. On a good note, Lou had his first appointment with his new farrier and he's sound (well sound for Lou) which is awesome! Usually it takes farriers a little bit to figure him out and for both to get into the swing of things with each other. The time change has made working Spence a tad bit difficult, there are many monsters hiding in the shadows of the arena! I still can't quite get used to not having an indoor...I may have been a bit spoiled back up north. In fact only one college in our region has a covered ring, I guess southerners don't ride in the rain or cold?
A nice perk of living in the south, particularly Georgia, is that Corey Smith is from here. So Mike and I got to go see him on Wednesday evening at the Macon Auditorium...a very nice happy middle of the week perk:) Aside from Corey Smith, it is awesome that there is always sweet tea, shrimp and grits are on menus everywhere and topic of conversation over dinner with the team often comes back to college football. Gotta love it!

Stress reduction...the start at least

So I have officially passed the two week point at work and have settled into the routine of everything so far. I have also become an approved driver for the college...scariest driving test ever! Driving around a brand new town in a bus with a police officer judging your every move so that you can keep your job pretty much, yea just a tad bit intimidating. After a few pokes at my slow driving I passed which means I get to drive the Western Team to Georgia Southern University next weekend for their first show...yay 3 hours in the bus! I feel like I've really started to connect with some of my students recently and on a particularly windy day this past week I got the opportunity to teach a ground lesson about tack to two of my foreign exchange students and at the end of the discussion they taught me a little about the cultures of their home countries (Singapore and Shanghai). Wesleyan may be an extremely small college but it really does open so many doors to its students to be able to experience many different cultures within the campus.
Mike and I have also begun to adjust to the more southern ways of life, where armadillos are the equivalent to groundhogs and baggers at the grocery store carry your bags to your car. Just the other day at the local Publix (grocery store) the cashier and bagger struck up a conversation with me about being from Maryland and welcomed me to Macon, then the very friendly bagger walked me out to my car while toting my bags along. Poor Mike also had his first run in with a barbed wire fence while working on a cattle ranch. Tomorrow Lou pony also gets to move just a bit further south as he travels from the McCurdy's farm to the Bunn farm in Forsyth so that he will just be 30 minutes away from us. The wonderful Athena just happens to be making a trip to Georgia so she will be picking him up tomorrow afternoon...gotta love when timing works out perfectly!
In other news we are so happy to report that all of our family and friends made it through Hurricane Sandy safely. We continue to keep everyone on the coast in our thoughts and prayers as they begin to rebuild, especially on the Jersey Shore where everything has been completely rearranged. If there is anyway we can be of assistance to anyone please let us know!

On the way to work today this was the scene at the Starbucks...hmmmm.

Breezy days in Georgia...hiding from Sandy

First off I have to apologize for the awful grammar in my last post...there literally was a huge cockroach coming down the wall of Starbucks towards me and I was completely distracted and terrified as a result.

While all of our friends and family up north prepare for hurricane Sandy to make landfall tomorrow, we have experienced our first real fall day in Georgia. Just the other day Mike and I were joking because he was telling me that the high on Friday would be 84 and that same afternoon Courtenay and I pulled out the horses' sheets for the weekend...it did in fact go from 84 on Friday to 64 today with a low of 39 tonight. We really can't complain about the weather so far but we are keeping everyone up north and on the coast in our prayers as this crazy storm comes in, please stay safe!
In an effort to "explore" Macon we ventured out to Tobesofkee park today for a walk around the lake and to take in some of the fall colors...the park employees looked at us like we were crazy, apparently it was too cold today for the rest of Macon to go outside! After our small adventure we went out to the barn to tuck all of the ponies in with their blankets and then headed off for grocery shopping...and I actually knew someone at the store, maybe we are starting to settle in a little bit here.
This past week at work finally started to feel like I was part of the college and part of the routine. I have now taken over the HPE (gym credit) classes and the lessons with our walk/trot team members. I also made my first blonde mistake this week by sending Mike's resume to the dean of the college instead of mine, thankfully everyone down here is so super sweet that we ended up having a conversation about Mike going into the police force. Thank you southern hospitality! Spence and Lou have also been settling in, in fact it seems like they have lived here all their lives. Lou pony was happy for a grooming visit on Sunday and will be moving soon to be closer to Mike and I here in Macon...I am quite ready to be able to see him more often. Spence has been trying his best to fill in Lou's absence and has been spectacular under saddle this week. He even dealt with children on bicycles the other day without so much as a blink of the eye. I really am so lucky to have such great horses and people in my life that have allowed me to get to this point in my life.

Loving fall in Georgia

Today Mike and I were able to experience our first "normal" Saturday together...slept in, made breakfast, got to ride Spence and now we are off to run errands and relax. Speaking of Spence, he has been such a trooper about everything! He hopped right off the trailer and aside from screaming every time I was out of sight, he settled right into routine...even undersaddle he acted like he had been at Wesleyan his whole life including handling people driving by, people playing tennis and people fishing right by the ring. Lou has been enjoying his retirement at the McCurdy household while I look for a retirement barn closer to us down here, but he also hopped right off the trailer and let Mike lead him around to his new field before taking a nice trot around. Mike was amazing and went up to meet the horse trailer with Lou for me as it was my first day of work when the horses arrived. Our shipper, Athena with the Horse Jitney, was amazing! Both horses were completely relaxed when they arrived and she even gave Lou a box stall for the overnight portion of the trip, which was a blessing as he arrived totally sound from the trip; which anyone who knows Lou at this point in his life knows is amazing!
So far work has been going great, just going through the shadowing phases of everything but I'm so ready to jump in and hit the ground running. The horses are great but it is strange only have 14 horses, including Spence, in a college barn but it really seems to work for the program right now. So far all of the team members have been super sweet and welcoming so I'm super excited about the two day show at Lander University next weekend.
On another note the weather has been amazing! And the apartment is lovely as it lends itself to leaving windows open...however, we just saw a HUGE cockroach(at Starbucks outside..not at our apartment) so maybe the windows won't be staying open all the time.

Settling in...well trying to

So I promised to update everyone once internet and such were hooked up in our apartment...well Mike and I couldn't handle no internet and no furniture so we're sitting in Starbucks now. The drive down yesterday went well and the puppies traveled like champs, they literally slept the entire 8 hours from Virginia Tech. Aside from one escape artist attempt by Chloe last night, the unpacking of the cars went quickly and the apartment is really starting to feel like home. The first venture out of the apartment on the other hand was a test in driving through active construction zones without knocking out half of the barrels and discovering which grocery stores will never be visited again.
Today we are just waiting on all of our big furniture to arrive in the moving pod and figuring out timing arrangements for the ponies' arrival. Thanks to a lot of help from the Whitings Neck staff and a wonderfully patient shipper, Lou and Spence hopped on the trailer and headed out of West Virginia around 1. Athena called me about an hour in to the trip and said that both of them were settling into the drive well and she is hoping to be able to deliver Lou pony tonight and Spence in the morning.
Well its back to unpacking for us. Tomorrow is the big first day of work and hopefully being fully unpacked.

Badger, along with the rest of us, has fallen in love with the guest room and its awesome window.

Almost there...yet so far away

First off I have to say a huge thank you to everyone who has loved and supported both myself and Mike over the past year and another huge thank you to everyone who has continued with the support during this transitional time into our new chapter in life, it truly means the world to us. It seems like goodbyes can be the toughest thing to do yet they often remind us of how lucky we are to have so many wonderful people in our lives to say goodbye to or rather "see you soon." Each and every person that has come into my life over the past year has changed me in some way and I hope for the better and I just can't imagine any of them not remaining in my life in some way. Which means the challenge of keep up the blog and stay in touch has officially begun:)
On to other news, the moving pod left on Friday afternoon so all of the heavy lifting type moving is over for the moment. My endless amounts of clothes have been packed up or separated into donation piles and all of Mike and I's odds and ends have been placed in piles to be loaded up tomorrow. After teaching my final lessons tomorrow we will load up the cars and dogs and head down to Blacksburg for the night...thank goodness again for awesome friends who are willing to put us up for the night...then Monday morning we head down to Georgia to pick up the apartment keys. The ponies will be staying in West Virginia until Tuesday and then will head down to Georgia to settle in by Wednesday while I start my first day of work...not sure if I've mentioned that I'm pretty sure I will spontaneously combust at any moment from stress. The moving pod will arrive on Thursday so hopefully we will be all settled in by the weekend for a belated birthday for Mike and our 1 year anniversary on the 21st. Once things settle down and we get the internet up and running I will be sure to update everyone on how things went and get our new contact info out for everyone. Fingers crossed everything goes well!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTg1n95--KE

I absolutely love this song and my mother sent it to me today saying it reminded her of Mike and I which made it that much more special. Thanks Mom!

Betsy's trying to bail out

So as I promised there is never a dull day, especially not with an upcoming life change. Last night good ol' Betsy the Blue Explorer decided that my visiting Keri to say goodbye just wasn't exciting enough for the night and needed to shred one of her front tires. Thank goodness Mike came to the rescue...on the side of route 11 at 10:45 at night ( ummm and it was freezing! Come on Georgia weather!). So now it will be off to buy new tires on Thursday because we just have oodles of extra time and money right now:)
Somehow I made it through today with jumping camp on very little sleep and gave Janet one last lesson this evening. It was so nice to see the progress she has made with her mare...they even jumped their first crossrail together, its amazing what a year can do for your confidence! Not only did I make it through the day but for some reason I am still awake after packing up half of my clothes, pictures and books. I was also reminded of how awful I am at packing and that I would really rather look through all of the old pictures and books than pack them up. But the packing pod that Mike ordered for the move arrives tomorrow so its crunch time on the packing. Wish us luck!

And so it begins...

Today while officially announcing Mike and I's engagement and our upcoming move to Georgia, I began to think about how many people I truly hope to not loose touch with and then I also remembered that at times I can be awful at finding time in all the craziness to keep in touch and be up to date on everything. So I am going to make it a point to up date this blog on our adventure as often as possible for anyone who may be curious as to what we are up to, I will of course also make it a point to improve myself at keeping in touch with everyone on a personal basis and hope to get lots of updates on how everyone is doing!
I feel as though I should start from the beginning and then everyone will be up to speed...So Mike and I met during our sophomore year in college while being set up on a blind date for military ball at Virginia Tech. The night went great and we began what would be a very long and spotty love story which eventually led us to Baltimore just over a year ago where we had our first "official" date as we call it. A couple months went by and Mike moved down to West Virginia with me and then this past week we went back to Baltimore and relived our first date all over again...complete with a trip to the aquarium, sushi at "our" place and a walk around Inner Harbor with coffee in hand...at the end of the date we sat on the docks overlooking the harbor and Mike proposed:)
So along with our love story, Mike has been super supportive of my career and goals in the equestrian world and when I was offered a job as the assistant coach to Wesleyan College's equestrian team he never hesitated in telling me to take it. Along with that job comes a huge move to Macon, Georgia! That means our family of two dogs, two horses and Mike and I are packing up and moving down south in just over a week...like I said let the adventure begin. So far we have found an apartment and booked a moving pod for all of our furniture and non-essentials. Next I need to confirm shipping for the horses and start packing...ugh.

I'll let ya know how we survive the rest of the trip and any fun stories that pop up...as ya'll know we are never without some sort of entertainment in this family. Any tips on moving are always welcome!!