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Yes, I've been neglecting my blog this month. I've been in vacation mode and have pretty much ignored my phone and email account for the past few weeks.

But now I'm back in NC. I have so many pictures, and tons of good things to say. I promise. To start, check out this awesome bowl Christopher gave me for Christmas. I showed him a few months ago and promptly forgot about it. But he remembered and I love it!

More to come soon!

Christmas is watching Charlie Brown Christmas with your husband while you eat grilled cheese for lunch.

Hounding your mom for recipes like cinnamon rolls and rocky road to make your apartment feel like home.

Ringing bells like crazy with your sunbeams at church while they belt out "Stars Were Gleaming"

Insisting that Christopher stay away from the guest room, laundry room, and entry way cupboard where unwrapped gifts are hiding. Since these place cover major square footage in our apartment, he is getting anxious for me to buy some wrapping paper.

Searching far and wide for Bendaroos and finally finding them on Amazon where they were previously sold out. Yay for having such great sisters to give presents to!

Texts from Jessica about Christmas songs I miss hearing so much at the MTC. :)

Magnolia's grill--the famous restaurant here in NC where Christopher and I are going for dinner on the night of our little Christmas party.

Appreciating the fact that Christopher gets enough time off from school that we can spend so much time with our families this year. We can't wait to see everyone.

Setting up and decorating a Christmas tree in a beautiful new apartment. When I turn on the lights every night it doesn't matter that the temperature hit 75 during the day. It feels like Christmas is really here!

A close-up of some of our decorations for Mom. :)

Thanksgiving

We had the best Thanksgiving. Really. We got to play with Christopher's family in Memphis and then spend a day in Nashville with my sister. We played with babies, ate ridiculous amounts of food, got stuck in even greater amounts of ridiculous traffic, studied GRE vocab during the traffic, and loved every minute of it (Maybe not the traffic.) We really appreciate our awesome families and their genorosity!

Maybe this is what held up traffic. Ha ha.

One of the best parts? Coming home to our spanking new apartment. We've been working on it ever since and it looks beautiful. My advice for anyone who is renting a little place? The first day that you move in, invest in this showerhead. It's less than $20 at Home Depot and it will change your life. The showerhead that our apartment complex installed is a joke! But Christopher put this one in the other day and it. is. the best. Now I totally get the appeal of living in your shower.

We're putting up our Christmas tree tomorrow, so pictures are coming!

Moving!

So Christopher and I (okay, mostly just me) began to wonder if we could really make it until August in our little apartment. And being the champion problem-solver he is, Christopher marched down to the apartment office and asked if we could move to a different one. Without selling our lease. Thankfully, they said yes! There is one unoccupied apartment in the same building we're in now. It has high ceilings, a second bathroom, a laundry room instead of a laundry closet, a view of the pretty trees instead of the swimming pool, a coat closet, AND most important, seven windows. Our current apartment has three and since the view is of the pool, we mostly have to keep our blinds closed.

Since it's November and the apartment market is really slow, they're allowing us to transfer and our rent will only raise $20 a month. So we'd be crazy not to do it...right?

We'll just have to keep telling ourselves that as we take down the pictures Christopher has painstakingly hung, and unpacking the cupboards that I have arranged just so. Mostly we're just getting really excited for the weekend when we can start transferring our things to our new place. Come and see us soon!

Pretty please...

Maybe it's the fact that Hurricane Ida has been drenching NC with buckets and buckets of water for days, but I really want these boots. I spotted them in Nordstrom the other day and it took more than a little strength of will to leave them behind. I'm not even a huge boot person, but I think I could actually enjoy the extended rainy season in this place if I could count on these lovelies to get me through.

I'd take them in the pea green, or the pretty plum. Aren't they great?

Challis Inc.

Yesterday I drove Christopher to school. I do this almost every morning and depending on what time it is, we're either bleary-eyed and not quite awake, or full of energy. On the energetic days we usually sing really loud to "I've Been Thinking About You" by Londonbeat (Shi-pow-pow!)

But yesterday when I dropped him off, I told him that I felt like we'd just finished up a business meeting. We talked about everything we needed to get done, people we needed to contact, health insurance, possible dentists, mailing problems, maintenance issues in our apartment, and of course, money. Instead of giving him a hug goodbye I felt like a handshake was much more appropriate.

I thought about it (don't worry, I still gave him a big hug) and I realized that we have to talk about that stuff sometimes. Even if it's way more fun to laugh about Londonbeat's terrible song, or stare out the window when we're tired. Sometimes a marriage is like owning a little business and even if that isn't incredibly romantic, a successful business is something to be proud of. I'm proud of ours!

Happy Halloween!

Christopher and I went to the much-awaited Statistics 2009 Halloween Gala on Saturday night. We danced our hearts out, had a blast seeing everybody in costume, and drank a lot of cream soda in order to fit in with our more alcohol loving friends.

Before the party. Christopher's mustache was a huge hit.

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The professors went all out on their costumes

Christopher with friends from the program

Our good friend Jared as Dwight. As soon as I get a picture of his girlfriend, I'll put it up. Her costume was amazing!

Christopher with one of his professors. In the fish tank. We were laughing so hard after this picture, because he begged us not to make fun of him. He didn't understand that we really thought his costume was great!