Happy Thanksgiving!

We are off to New Mexico tomorrow to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family. We haven't been home for Thanksgiving since 2004!! Our first Thanksgiving in MD, Tony's family flew out. It was my first Thanksgiving to cook - and I cringe to think about it!! It was edible and everyone was so sweet about it - but lets just say my cooking skills have definetly gotten better over the years. I remember how great it was to get to be with family after a year of being so very lonely on the East Coast.
The next year was our first Thanksgiving in our row in in Baltimore and Jenni and Rob flew out to be with us. Such a good memory! Then the next year it was just the two of us and our new puppy Kirby. Last year we had just moved into our house and had limited time off - so I cooked for the two of us. We are definetly looking forward to being with my family this year.
On another note - today is me and Tony's, prepare yourself, 8 year anniversary!! It sounds like a long time! I can't believe how quickly the past 8 years have gone by. So many sweet memories and so many changes. We went out to dinner on Saturday night to celebrate, so tonight it is spegetti and a movie.
One really great memory I like to think about every anniversary is getting to see my great grandma on my wedding day. She was in the hospital and couldn't make it to our wedding, but after the ceremony Tony and I drove up there in our wedding duds and went to see her. I remember she could barely talk but she was so happy to see us - and I kept thinking to myself - I'm the luckiest person in the world to be able to have my great grandmother on my wedding day. One of the best days of my life.

Books, Books, more books.....

One thing I try not to neglect even when my schedule seems filled up is reading. Even though I don't get to read as much as I would like while I'm in school - I was still able to squeeze some books in. I read Outliers last week - I HIGHLY recommend this book. It was very very interesting. I just love books that make you think about things in a new way - a way you haven't thought of before but which make sense. It reminded me of Freakenomics - another great read. Outliers was a quick read too - once I picked it up I couldn't put it down.
Now today I started Going Rouge. I pre-ordered the book for super cheap - because as most of you know - I love Sarah Palin. She has a lot of qualities that I really admire in a person. I could write an entire post on the reasons I like her - but maybe I'll save that for another time.
Reading is at the top of my list of things to do while I'm on break from school - along with a slew of other crafts. Amy came up the other weekend (woo-hoo) and taught me how to sew. I've wanted to learn for a while, but lately the urge to make things has been in high gear. I think it's because I've been so overwhelmed with work and school - I just want to do projects that would relax me. So I've learned how to embroider and I'm going to look for a sewing machine on Black Friday so I can start doing that. My list of what I want to do on break is huge and I know I won't have time to get to it all - but here's to trying! I really hope I don't give up on this like I have so many other things. I'm always gung ho at the beginning then it fizzes out as I realize it's more work than I had originally thought....ahhhh, the best of intensions.

Catching up with old friends in Maryland

I had to go back to Maryland somewhat unexpectedly for work at the end of October. I only had about a weeks notice. And even though it was completely hectic trying to fit in a year's worth of meetings into 3 days I still got to hang out with my friends in the evenings. It was great! I really really wish Tony could have gone back with me -but it was just too late of notice and plane tickets were outrageous. Maybe next time we'll have more of a heads up.
I went out to eat with Nathan, Jesse, Rob and Cherie on Wednesday night. Then Thursday night I drove up to Jen' and Adam's house and got to meet their precious baby! He's almost a year old and I'd never seen him before! Talk about baby fever kicking into high gear. And I got to see my friends Heather and Gary and their little girl Brooke - it's crazy to say little girl because it just seems like yesterday that Heather was pregnant....time goes by so quickly! And she is beautiful and so sweet! My friend Jack also came over for pizza that night - and it was just good to visit with everyone and try to catch up. It was nice as well to get to sit around and remember Bob and the good times we'd had at work.
On Friday night Cherie had a party at her house. Good food, good friends, good times. We all just started up where we had left off, like nothing had changed. It was definetly somewhat bitter sweet though - to think about all the friends and good times we had in Maryland and the fact that we haven't been able to recreate that here. It feels like we are still in adjustment mode. Friday night too I got to go over to Jason and Renata's new house and play with Evan - who is just awesome!! He is so funny and easy going. It's so cool  to see such personality bundled up into a little package. I'm so thankful that I got to meet up with almost everyone and hopefully it won't be so long in between getting together again.

Take a breath...

I finished my finals yesterday. Another quarter down. 10 classes left.....there is a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. I'm exhausted. I have off this next week - then I'm taking a week long intensive class the following week. Then I'll have off again until the first week of January. Good news though - I got accepted to the 20/20 program at work! So I'm going to be able to work part time while going to school full time! This will definetly help me to finish sooner. I am nervous about taking such a full work load on as far as classes go - but I've done ok so far, so hopefully it won't be too overwhelming! It will be nice to be able to focus so much more time towards school though.
This past quarter wasn't the hardest - it was still a lot of work though -especially towards the end, which is why I haven't posted much lately. I'll try to catch up and make some posts tonight though!