A New Hobby

Some people complain about being a homeowner, I look at it as a hobby.   I find lots of enjoyment out of decorating the house, renovation projects, and other odd and end projects around the house.  We moved into our house in August 2008 and have done so much to it already, it looks like a completely different house.  It seems like each year we have two or three major renovations/projects.  I am not sure what I am going to do when its all done...oh who am I kidding, things never end when you are a home owner.  In 2011, we are going to finish up the backyard and built a shed.  The kitchen will be a year or two!  Also, a special thanks for all the work Dad has helped me with around our house, it has been extremely helpful.

Projects in 2008

• Bought the house on July 11, 2008
• Installed overhead lighting and replaced a fuse box into a breaker box
• Put in a new lamp post outside along the driveway
• Painted everyone in the house but Russ' study
• Renovated our guestroom bath
• Remodeled the laundry room (new floor, shelving unit, and painted)
• Cut down one tree in the backyard and started to grow grass

 Projects in 2009

• Installed a new bay window and master bedroom windows
• Tore up the front walkway and step and replaced that as well poured a side driveway
• Completed all the room decorations
• Hired a landscape designer to design the outside of the house
• Landscaped the front walkway

Projects in 2010

• Cut down 5 trees and trimmed the front oak trees
• Removed ivy on both sides of the house and cleared out over growth
• Installed a new front and side door
• Dad built us a deck
• Painted the house (brick and all), picking the paint color was the hardest
• Patio and Fire pit finally completed

Front of the House (from the MLS listing)

Backyard (from the MLS Listing)

Front of the House (Spring 2010)

Backyard (with grass and a patio)

Another view of the finished product (now need furniture)

Finally can see the house (no more overgrowth, need a picture without the snow)

Wrapping Up 2010

2010 has come and gone, and it came with lots of ups and downs.  We already have a busy 2011 planned for us, but before we can move forward we need to reflect on 2010.

As many of you know, Russ and I traveled a lot last year.  It was a lot of fun and we truly got to visit ALL of our friends and family, which is rare now a days with people all over the country.  While on our tour of the Southeast this past December, we decided to list out all the places we visited.  It came out to 26 different trips we took, this does not include people visiting us, day trips, or school/work related travel, just the trips we took for fun!  That is half of the year we traveled, no wonder we are worn out.   In the middle of that, we adopted a puppy, had a roommate, I had a second surgery, my Granddaddy had a scare, we lost another loved one, job status changes, tons of visitors throughout the year, countless volunteer activities, baby showers, weddings, two moot court competitions, law school, Coke and CCE transaction, dinners with friends, the engagement of my best friend, and a weekend here or there that we got to rest. 

As 2011 starts off, it doesn't look like it will slow down either.  Thankfully for the month of January we do not have any plans besides to get our lives back on a routine and organized.  We have some weekends booked and trips already on the calendar starting with a visit from Melinda (and potentially Rachel), I am coordinating my first weeding at church, cabin weekend with my high school friends,  trip to Houston, Russ' graduates, extended weekend trip to somewhere for Russ finishing law school, week off for Russ' graduation gift/took the bar from me, visit to friends and family, LOTS of weddings, annual Girls' weekend, another football season in Knoxville, and other key events throughout the year.  I will use January to recharge so we can have another successful year!

A Year in Review With Pictures 

(I know I have left a lot out)

 A Trip to New York City to bring in the New Year

 MLK Weekend in North GA with the Lawrenceville Crew

 We adopted Willie and the first snow in 2010

 Finally got to use my china and other wedding gifts, we hosted Easter Lunch this year

 Mom and Aunt Jill (I helped) hosted a Bridal Shower in Fayetteville TN for my cousin Rebecca

 Baby Emma Long joined us in June 2010 (June babies are the best)

 Long weekend trip to Vegas with my wonderful friends!

 Bobby (and the Dunlaps) visited us in July

 Girls' Weekend at the Lake

 The Dabbs visited us for the weekend (Braves Game, Vortex, Sweetwater, and Shopping)

 Christmas in July in Atlanta

Will visited us in July and met his nephew

Went to Chicago for a weekend just the two of us!

Russ' last first day of school, he is a 3L!

We visited Allison and Tony in Savannah and Hilton Head for Labor Day

Braves made it to the playoffs!

Fourth Annual Beta/Zeta Tailgate

Apple picking in the GA Mountains

Burt's Pumpkin Patch

Thanksgiving with the Dunlaps at Kentucky Lake (Patti's)

Lots of weekends in Knoxville for UT Games

Annual Wilbourne Christmas Eve Dinner with Granddaddy

Russ' First White Christmas

3rd Anniversary Trip - Asheville, NC (Biltmore)

Visiting Daren and Mary, Epcot for the Day

Finished the year in Tampa for Christmas with the Dunlaps

Last Sunset of 2010

It's That Time of Year

It's the holiday season where you are getting ready for family get togethers, decorating for the holidays, gathering at the table for a nice meal, shopping for gifts for loved ones, and creating your Christmas card to go out to your friends and family.

You want to pick a card that represents who you are, the past year milestones, and show what you have been up to.  The card has to reflect all of this in one to a couple of pictures.  This past year Russ and I went to New York, Las Vegas, and Chicago, adopted a puppy, attended multiple football games, visited friends and family, and did lots of work around the house.  That is a lot to shove onto one Christmas card, we may just decide to take a random photo with Willie and include that, oh the possibilities...

Picking the pictures might be the easy part then you have to pick a design and decide what to write on the card.  Thankfully Shutterfly has a lot of great options for the holidays, they have green, red, brown, and lots of other colors along with one picture, two picture, or lots of pictures.  It can be 4 x 6 or 5 x5, it can be horizontal or vertical.  Tons of options for you, so you can make your unique card that fits you and your family.

You don't even have to wait for the holidays to make a card.  After Russ and I got married we made a card to thank people for coming to the wedding and included a wedding picture on it.  For our first Christmas card we made it into a moving card to let people know about our new address.  Last year was the first true Christmas card we went out.  We got dressed up on Thanksgiving and Kara took our picture at multiple places around my parents house.  

I can't wait to make our Christmas card this year! Better yet, I can't wait to see yours!

Christmas Ornaments Christmas

Make a statement with Shutterfly Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Photo Book Addiction

I have a love for shutterfly products, especially photo books. I tried to scrapbook and I had a hard time cutting my photos and deciding how to arrange them on the page.  I found shutterfly and it is the perfect tool for me to do digital scrapbooking.  You upload all your pictures then  you can play around with page formats, colors, themes, quotes, and much more.  The first book I did was for our first anniversary.  I am one for tradition so I stuck with the first year is something paper so what better gift then a scrapbook of our first year together.  I started the book from the car pulling away from the reception to our first Christmas.  The book turned out great, it now sits on our end table in our living room for others to see.  I am in the process of making book two and soon can begin book three.

I have also found that shutterfly books make great gifts.  My best girlfriends from college made a pack that the first weekend in June (or sometime around then) we would do a girls trip.  The second and third year worked out as we had Bachelorette parties to celebrate.  They are always such fun events and I thought shutterfly books would be a good way for them to have those memories.  I made Melinda and Sheryl books for their birthdays.  I can't wait to make a book from our girls trip this past year, Vegas!

Each year I do my Christmas card with shutterfly.  Last year, I made all the grandparents in our family calendars, they were a hit.  I am addicted to shutterfly, but not ashamed at all!

Here is the first photo book I made with shutterfly:

Click here to view this photo book larger

Hello Friend!

Hello Friend!  That's usually how I answer my phone when Rachel calls me.  For some reason, that phrase always reminds me of her.  If it has been a while, I will write on her facebook wall with Hello Friend! as well.  Rachel has updated her blog today as well as I got to talk to her today and I promised her a blog update!

Well, it has been 6 months since I last updated my blog.  I know, I know, no excuses but I really do have some good ones.  The whole summer I spent traveling and visiting our friends and family.  We actually were able to visit ALL of our family and friends, so a successful summer.  Next thing I know, fall was here.  As all of you know, our falls are always jammed packed with football games, law school stuff, mission work, yard work, and real work.  Thankfully this fall it did not consist of any type of surgery and I have been able to work in my yard!

I know it has been a while since I last updated and I have a lot to update about.  I am not even sure where to begin.  I will do a post on our summer trips and events later.  I will focus on a basic update on our lives.

Willie:
Our little boy turned a year old last week!  We celebrated by going to the local City Dog Market and buying him a Tennessee Dog Cookie for his birthday treat.  Russ and I also picked out a new toy for him, a deer antler.  Boy, does Willie love that.  He is constantly chewing on it and just in the past week, he has chewed it halfway down.  Since Willie's birthday is on Halloween we were able to get some cute pictures (I know I am now a crazy dog lady) with him and the pumpkins.  We didn't dress him up besides putting on his Tennessee Shirt. 

Willie has grown a ton since we adopted him.  He started at 8 pounds and now up to 24 pounds.  He continues to have tons of energy but loves play dates.  When we go to football games in Knoxville, we are able to take him with us and he plays with Bill and Kat's dog.  He has also made lots of friends around the neighborhood, especially Brooks and Shelby our neighbors dogs.  Willie also continues to get into trouble, he has chewed off the knobs to our bay window and chewed some of the wall under the window.  At the end of the day, he looks at you with that puppy face and I give in and let him snuggle with me on the couch.

Russ and Willie with his Birthday treat

Willie on one of our pumpkins (1 year old)

Russ: 
Russ continues to be swamped with law school.  If he isn't in class, he is working on a brief, doing GRA work, participating on a club, or something other law related.  He has a regional moot court competition this week.  He passed the Patent Bar in August, so that is one less thing to worry about.  Russ has to take the MPRE (ethics exam) this past Saturday.  He continues to look for a full time job, so if you know anyone looking for lawyer let us know.  If you have seen Russ lately it is probably as much as I have as well.  Thankfully we were able to have a real date night last night.  Dinner and a show at the Fox is always a nice date night together!

Russ also just celebrated a birthday.  He was able to put the books down for an evening and I took him to Dante's for dinner.  I went to Dante's for my Bachelorette party for dinner and he really wanted to go.  A tradition Russ' Mom started years ago was making a angel food cake with cream cheese icing for Russ.  Since Russ lives in Atlanta now, and Jill is in Tennessee, I have picked up the tradition.  So I completed his birthday with a homemade birthday cake then gave him an iphone 4.  He can now be connected with the world!

Russ' Annual Birthday Cake

Russ at his birthday dinner

Brittany:
Finally, an update about me!  Nothing really excited about me.  I have worked a ton lately due to the transaction between The Coca-Cola Company and Coca-Cola Enterprises.  Instead of boring you all to death with the details, I will skip that part of my life which is all my life has been for the past month.  Though, I have had a change to go to a lot of football games.  We were able to get season tickets again with Bill and Kat and that has allowed us to meet up with all our friends.  We did our traditional annual Beta/Zeta Tailgate, the tailgate is more fun than the game!  I was able to get tickets for all of my family to come to the Bama/Tennessee game so it was fun tailgating with Mom, Dad, Kara, and friends.  I have given two baby showers in the past month and more to come.  You all know me though and know that I am in heaven planning parties and get togethers.  Other than that its just been a typical life of Brittany, work, homeowner duties, trips to Knoxville, and other odd and end things.  The exciting news is that we are getting our patio installed this week along with a fire pit, I am VERY excited.  We are getting ready for the hectic holiday season.

Hope this post didn't bore you too much.  I will post about the summer and our fall trips soon.  For now, this will have to hold you over!

Kara and I at the UT/Bama game

Willie and I on the front porch

Centerpiece for Nez's Baby Shower

Deal of the Week

I love shopping! For some reason, I hardly come home with anything for myself but I don't mind at all.  I love going shopping then coming home and telling Russ and Mom about my great buys.  Mom listens and Russ just says that's great.  I would really like to be a personal shopper for people.  At Christmas time I do all the shopping for my Grandma for my family, all the shopping for the gifts from Russ and I, and I assist my Mom with almost ALL her shopping for others.  I love it!  My new thing is to make packages.  Instead of giving just one big gift, I like to do themes or a package of items then put it in a cute box, basket, or arrange it all cute.  Lately, I have been doing this for Mom's clients.  Her last one was a couple from UT so we did an orange and white basket...it turned out so cute! (I will have to get pictures from Mom)

Now that I am 90% healed and the weather is nice, I have been working in the yard a lot.  We pulled up all the ivy in the front and side of the house, removed six trees, and planted some flowers.  Dad built us a deck and our next project will be a stone patio off the deck in the yard.  We looked at tons of different stones over the past year and we found the one we list.  It was on sale at Lowe's last week for a $1 off so I went to order the stones then I found a coupon for 20% that stone.   I ended up saving $500 for the stones for my back yard!!  I have to say that's one heck of a deal!!!

Don't Drink The Water

Everything happens in waves...you graduate with your friends, start new jobs, get married, buy houses, adopt pets, start a family, and the cycle goes on and on.

The past couple of years our summers were filled with wedding after wedding.  Don't get me wrong, I love weddings!  Its a great time to celebrate your friend's relationship with their significant other and a reunion for everyone.  With weddings you have the dress fittings, bridal showers, bachelor/bacherlorette parties, Bridesmaids luncheons, rehearsal dinner, and the big day...countless activities and times with your friends.

The next wave was house buying, Russ and I participated in this wave as well in July 2008.  You and your friends go from wedding talks to your latest home improvement project.  Your shopping trips go from finding dresses to finding knick-knacks for the home and visits to Home Goods.  I love this hobby, I like making a home reflect who we are and it gives me bonding time with my Dad.

After home buying, you now have a fenced backyard or the space to adopt a pet.  We adopted Willie in January and now our lift revolved around taking him on walks, playing with him, talking to him like he is a child.  My shopping trips still have the weekly trip to Home Goods but now I spend time in the pet aisle or swing by PetsMart on my way home!  When you talk to your friends, every conversation has something about the pets in it!

The next phase includes children.  If you all get married together usually this stage happens around the same time as well.  No we are not pregnant but everyone else seems to be.  In the past two weeks, I have found out that 5 people are pregnant and of those, 4 are at my work.  We are starting to think there is something in the water at our work, so pre-packaged beverages it is!  This wave will happen in the next couple of years with my friends and our conversations will be around getting the nursery ready, how to raise a kid, advice, buying baby things, etc... but for right now I will focus on getting my house 100% perfect and pretending Willie is my baby!