Just another Sunday

So I am falling behind on my posts. Not shocking considering my five classes are keeping me busy with school work. General update: Shawn and I are doing well. His shift got switched to a 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. shift, and he might be moving even earlier in the coming weeks. He is pretty excited about it.

As for this weekend, on Friday evening Shawn and I went out to dinner with the other students in my cohort at a great pizza place. Shawn met us after he got off work. He rode over on his motorcycle because we have been having pretty nice weather lately. Shawn and I then spent Saturday doing some exciting stuff. We went to dinner and a concert in Raleigh with some friends. We got to hear a country group called the Black Lillies. It was a lot of fun and a good show, and we now have a new CD.

Other than that though, it was a pretty routine weekend. I thought I would share some pics from our routine weekend so you could see what a Sunday typically looks like (Sidenote: These pics were taken with my new iPhone. Another exciting part of Saturday was purchasing new phones!).

On Sunday, Shawn and I went for a morning jog. We then did the usual grocery shopping and housework and then some laundry. The pets inevitably try to crawl all over the clean clothes or sleep on them before it gets folded.

Then I did some work while Shawn read some forums on the internet.

We made shish-kabobs for dinner. They came out pretty well, but we need to invest in some good skewers.

And then it was time to hit the couch to watch some television. Shawn and I DVR our TV shows throughout the week and watch them throughout so we can avoid commercials, but lately we have gotten hooked on a show called Dexter.

I found the show really creepy at first because it is about a serial killer, but I now really enjoy it. We are in the middle of season two, so we typically watch an episode (or more) each night and are working our way through that. All in all, a pretty typical weekend here in North Carolina. Of course it helps that our typical weekend has included blue skies, sunshine, and 60 plus degree weather!

I'll try to get more on the ball about blogging though!

Christmas in North Carolina

Shawn and I spent Christmas in North Carolina, and although that means we didn't have many family and friends to spend it with, we still had a wonderful holiday. Here is a brief overview of our first Christmas, married, and in North Carolina.

Shawn was fortunate enough to have Christmas Eve day off from work. He actually got to work from home on the Thursday evening leading up to it, which was really nice. On Christmas Eve day we luckily had finished all our shopping, except for shopping for food and other necessities. We headed to SuperTarget to get some staples, and to try and figure out what to eat for Christmas dinner. We decided we would do something simple and chose chicken alfredo as the dish we would make. After we headed out of Target (which was quite busy) we headed home to hang out for a bit.

Our next stop was church. We went to a 7 p.m. Christmas Eve service that was nice but a little long, and also very packed. We left there around 8:30 and called in some Chinese food. When I was younger, my family would order Chinese food for Christmas Eve dinner. This was especially fun when we were visiting my grandparents in California for Christmas because there was an amazing Chinese restaurant there.

Shawn had found a Chinese place he liked in Raleigh, and they had a Durham location, so we put our order in and picked it up. We headed home to eat Chinese in our pjs. After the Chinese (which was good, but not quite my favorite) we built a gingerbread house while watching Elf.  I guess we didn't really BUILD the gingerbread house, it was really a decorating kit we had purchased. While decorating, I realized I am not a fan of decorating gingerbread houses, so that is one new tradition we will probably scrap. I just don't see the point. You can't really eat it. And in our house, you can't really leave it out. Jack would try to lick all the icing off and eat the candies, so we created it and then hid it in the microwave--kind of pointless.

After the gingerbread house, it was time for 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. As per Fitts family tradition, my dad read us the book. You may be wondering how this is possible since we were in North Carolina and my family was back in Washington.

My parents sent our gifts to us, and one gift's tag said to open Christmas Eve. It was one of those wonderful Hallmark books that lets someone record the story. I think I listened to the book three times all the way through and played the first and last pages an additional few times. In the beginning of the book, my dad recorded a message to get us ready for the reading, and at the end my family all wished us a Merry Christmas in unison (I only cried the first two times I heard that one). That book is one of my favorite Christmas presents ever.

Then it was off to bed to dream of sugar plum fairies and wait for Santa.

I woke early, like I always do on Christmas, but I had agreed with Shawn the night before that we wouldn't get up until 8:30. I waited...then it was time to head downstairs. Our stockings were out on the couch, and Bella was anxious to check hers out.

We went through and opened our stocking presents. Santa had a few helpers this year. My parents sent over stocking stuffers that were all wrapped, so I got up before Shawn and loaded them up, and we had fun opening some traditional stocking stuffers (candy, such as the Sour Patch Kids I get every year) and some unexpected ones (a great Under Armour headband for running).

After that we moved on to the presents, and just as every year, Santa, my parents, my brother, and Shawn all provided wonderful gifts. (Above is a picture of Shawn opening a gift from my parents that included items to help him detail his car).

Bella also enjoyed all of her gifts, and she only got a few things. Both Bella and Jack each got some treats and toys.

After all the gifts had been opened, I made a turkey bacon and cheese quiche while Shawn and I talked about what to do that day. I don't know what we decided on, but I think it must have been nothing, because that is what we did Christmas day, and it was wonderful.

We spent some time talking to family and enjoying our new gifts, or working on them (Shawn got me a Nook, one of those Barnes and Noble eReaders, so we spent some time trying to get the internet hooked up and books on there).


We watched our new movies (Jeff got Shawn Inception on Blue Ray and me Eclipse). Then, in the evening, still in our pjs, we made Christmas dinner. We had chicken alfredo, garlic bread and salad. It was wonderful.

Overall, I really enjoyed Christmas in North Carolina, but I am excited to hopefully spend next Christmas with some more family as well.

Snow day!

Durham got snow, again. It started on Christmas evening and must have continued throughout the night because we woke up to about 4 inches of snow outside. We decided to get dressed in our snow gear and go enjoy it. Here are some pictures from our excursion. Bella loved running through it and eating it, but Shawn and I decided to build a snow family.

Shawn was really good at showing me how to get enough snow together to create a base, middle and top for each snow person. After we created the snow people we added a snow puppy (next to the snowman in the Cougar hat) and a snow cat (next to the snowwoman).  The last picture is of Shawn standing next to his snow self petting his snow dog. Yes, we are strange. :-)

Merry Christmas!

Somehow we managed to get a pic of us and the pets all looking toward the camera. This was actually taken about a week before Christmas, but I am not sure we can ever get such a picture again, so I decided to use this one. Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!

It's snowing in Durham!

Today Shawn and I were going to get a Christmas tree. He told me this morning that we should go early because it was supposed to rain today. He was wrong. Of course we didn't get out early enough, and it was afternoon before we got ready to leave. It wasn't raining though. It was snowing!

At first it was just a sprinkling--wouldn't even count as snow in Ocean Shores, and we know that even a little snow counts there. It kept coming though, and by the time we were leaving Target with ornaments in hand, the real snow had begun. We decided to skip picking out the tree today, and instead headed to Petco. We really just needed some standard pet care supplies, but I felt it was time for Bella to get a coat.

I chose a red and white snowflake fleece. (The crazy part--she is a large! It's a tiny bit too big for her, but not by much. I can't believe how big she has gotten.) We headed home, put the Christmas decor down, and suited up for a bit of play time. I got to pull out my wonderful North Face boots and my snowboarding jacket, and we got Bella all dressed up.

Shawn and I thought for sure she would not like the snow. She hates going outside in the evening because it's cold. But the excitement of the snow beat out the dread of the cold. She had a great time running around, eating snow and just playing. After that it was time to head inside, have some cider and now do homework. Jack enjoyed the snow from the window. Although he would have loved to go out, he is strictly an indoor cat. Overall, it was a wonderful Saturday, and a great first snow day in Durham.

Becoming friends, or at least less like enemies

Bella and Jack have started to get along better. They chase each other and can be in the same room. In addition, Jack has taken to coming downstairs again. Overall, this is great news. But for our black furniture that showcases cat hair really well, this isn't such great news.

Recently, Bella and Jack have even begun hanging out. I found that if I open the back door, Jack goes and sits by the screen. Once Jack is over there, Bella slowly walks over and sits and watches as well.

They really aren't watching anything in particular, but for some reason they find it enjoyable, and I find it makes for cute pictures. Enjoy!

 

Happy Halloween! (Also a week late!)

Had a nice Halloween here in Durham. Shawn and I were hoping for trick or treaters and we weren't disappointed. We went through our first two bags of candy with the first three groups of kids. Shawn had to run to the store so we were stocked for the next round. Of course less kids came after that and we ended up with a collection of left over Starbursts and Hershey Kisses (the Peanut Butter Cups were gone pretty quickly!)

Although it was Halloween, it wasn't much different from every other Sunday. I spent the day working on a media law exam while Shawn helped John, our neighbor, work on his car. Then it was time for puppy class, dinner, and a ringing doorbell with a variety of vampires, princesses and animals behind it.

Of course our little animal was prepared for the holiday. Bella had her pumpkin shirt on before the kids came by, and a number of them asked to pet her. She was very well behaved. Jack, of course, did not wear a costume. One Halloween in a t-shirt a few years ago was enough for him, so we avoided putting him through that again.

Above are the jack-o-lanterns we did at the pumpkin carving our neighbors had. Shawn did Mario (on the left if you couldn't tell) and mine is a dragon).

Anyway, hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!