Thanksgiving pics

Well the visit was too short (of course), but here are a few pics of our Thanksgiving weekend.

Here's the whole fam (minus 1 dog)...

And here is me and my mini me...

And here is what happened 10 minutes after everyone left!

And last, but not least, we put up the tree! I have a lot more to do this weekend, but at least we got the most important part up. :-)

I just love google

Now you can customize what your gmail inbox looks like. It can be a beach or mountains or just a color scheme. I chose cherry blossoms. :-)

Do you see what I see??

Snow! In November!

And then LITERALLY 10 minutes later...

Score!

I've never tackled anything this ambitious before, but I think I can do it. I just scored this trunk (it's really a cedar chest) for $10. The plan is to sand and stain it and use it as a coffee table. So here is the before-

Stay tuned for an after!

Uneventful Life

I'm such a slack blogger! But the reality is that we are really boring people. :-) This weekend was spent cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. I mowed (hopefully for the last time until April), did laundry, dusted EVERYWHERE, cleaned bathrooms, ran and emptied the dishwasher, vacuumed, and cleaned some baseboards. It feels so good! We have my parents, brother, sis-in-law, and neice coming for Thanksgiving (which happens to only be 2 1/2 weeks away!), so I should only have to touch up a few things before they come. As I was finishing up it was then that I realized that I will be husbandless for the next week. So now I will be husbandless and super bored. :-/ Dane flew out this morning for Nebraska for work. Hopefully he won't get snowed in and stuck there like he did a couple years ago.

A few nights ago we ran to Target for some super glue and ended up in the Halloween clearance section. :-) Tyson is not very happy about this. Meet Sgt. K9...

While I was out taking pictures of Tyson, I noticed how pretty the trees had gotten behind our house, so I took a few pictures of those. I was really hoping all the trees would still be pretty when my family came up for a visit, but every morning when I head to work I notice more and more trees that are losing all their leaves. So sad. :-(

And lastly, I couldn't give Tyson all that blog time without slipping one in of Zoe. She wants dad to play. :-)

Weekend in Asheville

Dane and I went to Asheville this weekend with our friends Ryan and Meredith (and Savannah). :-) It was such an awesome, low-key weekend that went by too fast. We've actually been planning on going since last spring, but I'm so glad we waited until the fall. I've been to the mountains many many times (my grandparents had a cabin up there), but I have never been in the fall. It was worth the wait to see all the pretty leaves. The pain you may see in my face is because it was SO COLD! The temps were in the low 40s, but when the wind blew, it was awful! But still worth it. :-) Ryan's parents live there, so we had a wonderful place to stay AND home cooked meals. It just doesn't get any better than that. We left Friday late in the afternoon, so we just relaxed when we go there.

Saturday, we woke up and went to downtown Asheville. It wasn't like any other downtown that I have ever seen! It wasn't a downtown with skyscrapers, but a downtown that you would find in a small town- yet much bigger with several blocks of shops. It was bustling with lots of hippie folks playing their guitars or instruments of choice. I'd love to go back again some day because we probably just scratched the surface of everything it has to offer.

After we left downtown, we headed for the Blue Ridge Parkway to take a look at the mountains and the changing leaves. It was about as beautiful as I expected. :-) That night, we all went out to eat and I was so happy that my cousin L.T. and his long-time girlfriend Jennifer drove an hour and a half from Franklin to come eat with us. I haven't seen him in 2 years and this was the first time I met her. She was really sweet - i kinda forgot to get a pic with them. :-( Oh well.

So here are a few pics from the trip. Enjoy!

Sasha said she was SO OVER that car ride. :-)

ok, NOW Happy Fall!

Ok, the camera didn't fail me this time, so here is "Fall at Casa de Nelson."


The dishes have a raised leaf pattern and the napkins have an embroidered leaf- all courtesy of the $1 spot at Target last year!

In the pass-through going from the dining room to the kitchen...

Ok, the next 2 pics aren't fall, but I thought I'd share. I finally got new pillows for the sectional to match the rug. So here is the pattern/colors of the rug (excuse the Zoe hair...haven't vacuumed in awhile) :-)

And here are the pillows...I got 2 of each color.

And last, but most definitely not least, is T-man in his pumpkin collar (also courtesy of the Target $1 spot)! We laugh because his head looks just like the pumpkins. :-)

Happy Fall everyone!

Well darn.

I decorated for fall this weekend. So this morning I took a few pictures of everything with intentions to come into work and post them here. I even took a picture of Tyson in his pumpkin collar! I plugged in my memory card and they were gone! :-( I must of hit something weird because any pic that took after our Orlando trip was gone (which was really just the pictures of the new sectional and the pics I took this morning). It's not a big deal, but I have the whole office to myself today and that was what I was going to do this morning. Oh well....maybe tomorrow.

Beach Bound...

I. Am. So. Excited! My mom went to Oklahoma earlier this month to visit her mother for her 91st birthday. She and her siblings decided that they wanted to go back to the beach where Dane and I got married for a week. We're going to have a few more people than when we were there for our wedding, so we couldn't rent the same house. Boy would that have brought back memories. :-) But after sifting through all the options, we picked a house that is probably 1/4 of a mile down the road from where we stayed for the wedding. We're going to go the exact same week in May too. We will actually arrive 2 days after our anniversary. Here's the beauty -

New couch

We got a steal-of-a-deal on the sectional that we have been eyeballing since last winter. So without further ado, here it is... (and blogspot is hiccuping once again and making weird lines in a couple of the pics)

So ready!

I am so excited that fall is almost here! Our TV stays on college football all day long on Saturdays now, and as I sit on the couch watching it I just feel like it is cool fall weather outside. (Then I go outside and it's 90 degrees- what a let down!) It felt so much like fall that we lit the Autumn Wreath Yankee for a few hours. :-) I just can't wait for our first cool snap so I can go meet the besties at Starbucks for a pumpkin spice latte and sit outside. That weather and thinking of our infamous 4 hour Sarbucks trips just puts me in a good mood. :-) I found a few pics that I took with my cell phone last fall. Don't worry, no passers-by on the 440 were harmed in the taking of these pics. :-)

Tagged? Maybe?

I have 30 more minutes before I can leave work, so I will fill this thingie out. HeirToBlair filled out a few days ago and basically tagged everyone, so here we go.

1. Where is your cell phone? About 6 inches from my left arm sitting on my desk.
2. Your significant other? Is super duper weird. :-)
3. Your hair? recently cut and highlighted, yet still in a rubberband today. :-/
4. Your mother? Is in Oklahoma visiting her mother for her 91st birthday (today!)
5. Your father? Is home alone - can't wait to see him at Thanksgiving
6. Your favorite thing? I heart naps
7. Your dream last night? Didn't have one? If so, I don't remember
8. Your favorite drink? sweet tea with a lime instead of a lemon
9. Your dream/goal? debt free. So close I can taste it. :-)
10. The room you're in? my office
11. Your hobby? shopping (I don't get to do my favorite hobby too often unfortch)
12. Your fear? When I was little it was Ted Bundy. He was in my dreams and it was awful. I wish no one had ever told me that he took and killed a girl from my little hometown. Currently, I suppose it's just losing DH or either of my parents. I worry about them all the time.
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Not sure. Probably in a smaller town.
14. What you're not? pregnant?
15. Muffins? They're ok. I prefer chocolate chip cookies
16. One of your wish list items? a Canon Rebel
17. Where you grew up? small town, North Florida
18. The last thing you did? minimized this window because a resident trooped right on in my office. :-)
19. What are you wearing? dressy khaki capris and a shirt from American Eagle. It's dressyish too. Very casual as a whole.
20. Favorite Gadget? I guess my cell phone because I don't really have any other gadgets that I know of.
21. Your pet? Is probably holding down the couch.
22. Your computer? home- not even sure. Work - HP laptop
23. Your mood? really ready to go home yet not ready to play in traffic for the next 40 minutes.
24. Missing someone? Friends that are scattered
25. Your car? Acura
26. Something you are not wearing? ummm, a smile. I have to pee really really bad.
27. Favorite Store? Target, Z Gallerie, Pottery Barn (and its spawn)
28. Like someone? lots of people
29. Your favorite color? Pink
30. When is the last time you laughed? I guess at lunch time. There isn't that much funny going on around here at the moment.
31. Last time you cried? last Sunday I guess. It was a bad day. :-)

Orlando!

So to be perfectly honest, our trip was pretty much terrible. Ugh. So anyway, I am going to blog about the good times that were had. :-)

The first thing we did when we got there was find some good ole southern bbq. Smokey Bones was one of our most favorite places when we lived down there, so we were pretty stoked to roll up on one. Not only that, but they were playing the Florida game AND the Georgia game, so both husband and wife were very very happy people. :-)
After we ate we went back to someone's house to get ready for the wedding. Side note- Gustov paid Orlando a little visit. It was VERY rainy all day. And it was an outdoor wedding. :-/ It definitely didn't go as Katie (bride) had planned, but it was still a very beautiful wedding. It was held at the Cypress Grove Park Estate House. It is a beautiful old home in a most beautiful setting...

The plan was for there to be folding chairs in the lawn, but it had rained so much that day that the ground was too mushy. They weren't even sure until the very last minute if they would even hold the ceremony outside. But the sprinkles stopped just long enough for them to do the outdoor ceremony as planned. The bridesmaids were barefoot and the groomsmen wore flip flops- very Katie and Ant. :-) Meet Katie (she probably wouldn't like me very much if she saw this picture...) Now meet the mohawked Ring Bearess, Morgan...

And here are a few pics from the ceremony. How PRECIOUS is her neice, the flower girl?!

Notice the laughter in the above pic? The man performing the ceremony accidentally announced them as "Mr. and Mrs. Katie P!" After uncontrolable laughter, he re-introduced them as "Mr. & Mrs. Anthony P". Moving along, here are some pics of their first dance and random pics after the ceremony...

So we (the people pictured above) have always called ourselves "the email possee". Back in the early days when Dane and I were dating, we both had state jobs and had much time on our hands during the work day. Katie (bride) and Hazel (chick on the far right) worked together at a small graphic design firm. Groom is also a graphic designer. The other chick worked for the state down in Orlando. Anyhoo, the 6 of us emailed (reply all) back and forth ALL DAY long. It was such as good time! So eventually somone dubbed us the email possee. We have the same pic with all of us from back at our wedding.

Dane and I ended up staying at Katie and Ant's house since they had left for their honeymoon (poor kids--they are cruising the Caribbean dodging Tropical Storm Hannah). They live in an AWESOME area of downtown Orlando. Dane and I were able to walk right down the road to Starbucks. All of the roads were brick. Very cool. So Monday we walked down to Lake Eola. Here are several pics from there...

And after we left the lake, we went to Ikea!


Holy moly was that an experience. It wasn't what I expected it to be, but it was HUGE. We ended up getting a coffee table. :-) Since we flew down there, we left it in Katie's garage. We'll get it when we drive down for Christmas. It's be like a Christmas present I forgot about! :-)
So that about wraps up our trip! It was so good to get home. We missed our doggies. And bed.