TGIF!

Remember when "TGIF" used to mean the following?

Those were the days huh!?

Meanwhile, TGIF everyone!

Snow Days

The past two days I've gotten to stay home from work due to the inclement weather we've had. Granted, "snow days" no longer mean sleeping in until 10, finding a way to get to the mall, even if the roads are bad, and planning last minute sleep overs with friends, but there is still something nice to having two unexpected days at home. So what if I had to spend those two days working, at least I had a great view of the wintry weather, and little Liddy laying on my feet and lap to keep me warm!

That all being said...is it spring yet!?

I'm a loser...

It's true. For about the past 2 1/2 years, pretty much since I started traveling a lot for work, I've been losing things left and right. Here is just a quick list of the various items lost during my travels:

*North Face fleece
*iPod (blasted seat pockets on airplanes!)
*roughly 3 maybe 4 cell phone chargers
*car keys (which makes it hard to then get in your car and drive home from the airport..ugh)
*Blackberry (thank goodness for insurance!)

I'm sure the list is longer, though those are the ones that stick out most in my mind. This habit of losing things quickly became a family joke, with my beloved (or maybe not!) family members taking bets on what I'd lose on each particular trip.

I think the trip of most concern were my adventures to South Africa and Budapest last summer. There was talk about me losing my passport, wallet, camera, jacket, etc! Well, I did lose something on that trip (or so I thought).

Right before making the journey I purchased a new eye pencil from Clinique, and while "freshening up" in Frankfort, the pencil disappeared. I thought for sure I had simply left it in the restroom, and chalked it up to the loser in me.

However, I am happy to report that just yesterday, while looking through Liddy's backpack for her body spray (she was a little stinky) Andy found my missing eye pencil, which never fell out of my bag in Frankfurt, it simply fell out of my make-up bag into my backpack.

So maybe I'm not such a loser after all! ;)

...Now, if only my iPod, Blackberry, fleece, car keys, and phone chargers would magically appear again!

M.I.A.

Where on Earth have I been?! Well, on one hand, I'm happy to report that I was in sunny California last week, and have been in (somewhat) sunny Florida since Sunday. On the other hand, in the past eight days, I've spent 32 hours at home. Ugh.

I suppose I can't complain too much, it is nice to escape not only the bitter cold, but also the insanity of the inaugural events, however, I really am ready to be home. Happily, I return back home tomorrow afternoon and thus far have no trips planned for the near future!

I will miss the views of the Pacific and the Gulf...and my open toed shoes! :)

A flamingo tale...

It all started back in April of 2006 when we decided to put our condo on the market. Right before our first open house, we decided to kindly ask our fabulous neighbors, Don and Teri, to remove the pink flamingo lawn ornament from their backyard. They responded by saying "we thought that was yours!" And thus began the battle of the pink flamingo.

The flamingo would randomly find its way back to our house, usually when we least expected it, and we in turn would do the same. I believe we were even able to hide it in their bath tub at one point! Wouldn't you know that when it was finally time for us to pack up our belongings to move to our new home, that flamingo made its way into the back of our moving truck!

And so it went on and on, and Andy even found a bunch of mini flamingos online at one point which made for the best "flamingoing" yet! Though after two and half years, the flamingo had gone into hiding, until we got home from our trip to Wintergreen to find the following in our front lawn....

Sadly, Don and Teri have now moved as well, only they didn't move a mile down the street like we did, they are now in Alabama and we will miss them terribly! But who knows, maybe these flamingos will find their way back to our dear friends...

New Years at Wintergreen

We just got home from an amazing week up at Wintergreen. It was great to get away and unwind after the rush of the holiday season. We even got some snow!

Andy and I started the week off alone, it was nice to relax, and we even used our gift certificates to the Spa and both enjoyed massages. We went on a nice long hike and rewarded ourselves with some yummy dinners.

By Wednesday, however, we were ready for our friends to join us. Dave and Alysia got there first, in time for lunch and some sight seeing. Greg, Erica, and Roxie showed up around 4:30 and we were ready to celebrate New Years Eve!

The evening started with the introduction of Roxie to Liddy. We were impressed at how well they got along, and I believe they are now officially best friends!

We enjoyed amazing appetizers: shrimp cocktail, chorizo stuffed bacon wrapped dates, spinach and parmesan puff pastry balls, and crab dip. Of course that was just the beginning as our late dinner included: lobsters, petite fillet of beef, twice baked potatoes, and roasted brussel sprouts! We did not go hungry!

As the clock got closer to midnight, we all realized that staying awake that late, especially after a meal like that, was not an easy task! Fortunately, around 11:45 I was able to rally the troups with party hats and noise makers--they have a great tendency to bring the child out in all of us! As the clock struck 12, we were all thankful to be celebrating the start of 2009 together, and also thankful that it was officially "ok" to go to sleep!

After Dave and Alysia left on Thursday morning, we took a nice long walk on the golf course and headed back to the house for an evening of Virginia Tech football! We are still in shock that not only did the Hokies wind up ACC champs, but that they are now Orange Bowl champs as well! Who'd have guessed it!?

Friday was our wine touring day. It had been five years since Greg and Erica had been up to the mountain, so it was fun to bring them to the various wineries, and the weather was even nice enough that we were able to do a small afternoon picnic at the Wintergreen winery.

It was a great week of relaxing, lots of cozy (though sometimes smokey) fires, yummy food, awesome wines, fabulous friends (both two and four legged) and an amazing start to a new year!

Here's to an fantastic (and blog worthy!) 2009! :)