Visitors :)

This weekend, Whitney, Chris, Betsy, and Michael came to visit us!  I cannot tell you how excited we were to have them stay with us in our new (to us) house.  Even though it is currently under many renovations, it was nice to be able to show them around and let them see what we have been working on over the past few weeks. 

The whole group arrived around 7:30 Friday night.  After giving them a quick tour of the house, we ate dinner and caught up with each other.  Later, Michael impressed us all with his mad Dance Central skills on the Kinect, which was pretty hilarious! 

After staying up entirely too late, we all slept in on Saturday, and ate a late breakfast/early lunch at the house.  Later that afternoon, Steven and I took everyone on a driving tour of the community and even let them stop by Bryan and Bridget's to show them our old pad.  My family absolutely fell in love with the Ipock's (how could you not?), so we stayed and talked for a while.  Later, we went on a walking tour of downtown New Bern and got ice cream at Cow Cafe, before going to eat an early dinner at Persimmon's.  It was delicious, as always!  After dinner, we were all tired so we went back to the house, ate dessert (brownie sundaes, yummm!), and watched a movie.  It was such a fun, relaxing night spent with some of my favorite people!

On Sunday, our family got to experience a church service at Asbury.  I was so excited because I really like our new pastor.  He has brought such a breath of fresh air to our congregation, and I know that the Lord is going to use him in a big way to influence our community.  They seemed to really like the service, and it was great to be able to introduce them all to the people who have taken us into their lives and made us feel like a part of their family.  After church, we all went to eat at Famous with Bryan, Bridget, Lauren, and Jeff, and everybody knows that there is never a dull moment when Jeff Cannon's around :) Sunday night, Steven and I went to an outreach meeting at our church (more on that to come), before coming home to eat dinner and play the Kinnect.  Lauren, Ryan, and Brandon came over to join us, so it was a lot of fun. 

The good weekends always seem to fly by, but it meant so much to us that our family was willing to drive all that way to spend some time with us.  We love them more than they will ever know :)

"All We Do Is Win"

"Good to Great."  Mission accomplished.

Monday night, the Auburn Tigers played the Oregon Ducks in a little game called the National Championship.  What a game!!!

I couldn't be more happy!

Too late for a Christmas post?

I think not...some people still have their decorations up, so I think I'm good. 

Christmas break was such a fun and exciting whirlwind for us.  Steven and I left as soon as he got of work on the 23rd and made it to Mom and Dad's house at around 2:30 in the morning.  Of course, Mom and Scooter waited up on us, but we were exhausted.  The next day, Steven and I took Mom to lunch (er...we tried to, but she paid, so technically she took us to lunch) at John's and ate some Alabama bar-b-que (que in the 80's hair band, Cinderella's, "Don't Know What You Got Till It's Gone" music).  Whitney and Chris made it in by the afternoon of Christmas Eve and Taylor and Patches came over after they had Christmas at her house.  We all hung out and played an "oh so fun" game called password (mega fail) while we waited on Betsy and Michael to arrive. 

They didn't make it in until 11:30, but as McCulloch's we were raised to be a little rash about things. 

Yeah, we did it.

 We read the story of Jesus's birth and then opened up our gifts that night. Mom went overboard, of course, but it made opening gifts feel special.  It was almost 1:00 am when we finished. I was a zombie (sidebar: While unpacking, I kept seeing new things, and was like, "When did I get this?  Who gave me this? Did I thank him or her?"  Like I said --zombie is the only word I can find to describe how I felt). 


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Mom's (over the top) presents and tree :) 

 

The whole family decided to sleep in the next morning because we were having lunch at our house at 1:00, so we weren't in any hurry; however, at 7:15 in the morning, Dad woke us all up excited like a kid on Christmas (pun intended) and told us to look out of our windows.  The whole yard was covered in a blanket of snow, and it was still coming down really heavy.  It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.  I cannot remember ever having a white Christmas...especially not THAT white.  We all immediately raided Taylor's closet and put on every warm item of clothing he owned.  We stayed outside for a while taking pictures, throwing snowballs, and attempting a snow man (epic fail).  It was fun playing outside, but we missed Betsy and Michael!  While we were all out, Mom made us chocolate syrup and biscuits.  For those of you who just read that and are now making a "That sounds disgusting!  Who would ever eat that face?"  Don't judge.  You people eat weird stuff too.  I mean OYSTER dressing.  REALLY?  eek! 

Later that day Grandma and Grandpa came over for lunch and to visit for a while.  By the end of the day we were all so tired, but looking forward to going over to Aunt Sherry's for our annual Christmas snack food dinner.  It was great to see all of the cousins and their new family additions.  It makes things so lively to have little kids running around, don't you think?  Anyway, we played Bunco, told stories, and ate really good food!  The next morning, Steven and I were blessed when his boss called and told him that he thought he ought to wait an extra day to come back to North Carolina because of the bad weather.  We were going to try to drive through the snow, so he could get back (my Babe has a strong work ethic), but it was great to be able to spend another day with the family!  We ate and played games before going to Florence with Betsy, Michael, Taylor, and Patches to see a movie.  Later we met up with Susanna and Jeff and ate a Rigatoni's (yumm!).  She is supposed to have her baby next week, so we had a lot of catching up to do! 

The next morning, we woke up early and made our way back to Eastern North Carolina.  It was actually a pretty easy trip, especially considering most of the Southeast was covered in a blanket of snow.  All in all it was great to spend time with family, but we are happy to be back at "our" home here in Perfection.  I hope you all had a very merry Christmas, and are enjoying God's favor in the new year!

Blogger's Block

Just so you know (yes, I am talking to you, the five people who actually read this thing)...I have been writing.  I have written four blogs, but I just didn't post them.  I don't know why.  I guess I felt like they just weren't complete or they needed time to breathe or something.
So here goes.  Maybe this will break the ice for the previous unfinished blogs.  More posts to follow :)

xoxo,
Ashley

Resolutions

I'm not exactly sure how I feel about New Year's resolutions. I have never been good at sticking to them all, but I may as well share them with you. By telling everyone, I am hoping for more accountability. Here goes...

1. I hope to become a more spirit-filled Christian woman. I want to be more dedicated to being in the Word and spending time in prayer.

2. I hope to be a better wife this year. I want to be a better supporter of my husband and his biggest fan (well not biggest physically, which brings me to my next point).

3. I would like to not only lose weight this year, but become a more healthy person. I aim to exercise as much as I can or at least 3-4 times a week (whichever comes first).

4. I hope to become a better listener and a better friend to all of those I cherish.

5. I hope to work as hard as a I can while I am in the classroom and try to make a difference in the lives of my students.

6. I hope to do my best in grad school and really work hard to not only understand the concepts taught, but to soak them in and make them a part of the way I teach.

7. I hope to be more organized...way way way more organized.

8. I hope to become a better, more healthy cook. I really like to cook, but most of my dishes are calorie laden to say the least. I want to learn to prepare more healthy home cooked meals that Steven and I will really enjoy.

9. I hope to learn a new hobby (i.e. sewing, gardening, sketching, playing an instrument).

10. Lastly, I hope to drink less Diet Mountain Dew. Seriously people, it's a problem.

I hope you all have enjoyed your break from all the madness of work; I know I did. It was great to be home with my family for a few days (blog about that still to come). Have a wonderful new year! Happy 2011!