It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas.......

I spent the day with some of my favorite people and baked Christmas cookies. Not only are they gorgeous, they are really delicious!!!


Here are a few pictures of our wonderful creations!!


Savannah, Jackson, Amy and I spent all day making these wonderful cookies. We also make some bon bons that were delicious!! I had a blast spending the day with them and I am so thankful to have a schedule where I can spend time with them.

Merry Christmas Cookies!!!

I'm Baaaack!!!!!!!

I know it's been a while, but I am back! My first semester of Physical Therapy school is now complete and I am on Christmas break! School was very, very busy, but I managed through and am so glad to have the first semester behind me and ready to tackle the next one. I am hoping that the next semester will not be as time consuming as the this past one, so maybe I will have a little more time to keep everyone updated.

After my last final, Ashley and I headed home to Arkansas to visit family and friends. My grandfather definitely let me know that I was a slack at updating my blog and he would like to see a better effort put forth. Here you go Papa! Thanks for keeping me straight!

We got to see many friends and all our family when we went home for a short visit. Ashley's job doesn't allow to take time off during the holidays, so we had to make due with a long weekend visit. We had some friends travel with us, Joe and his girlfriend Ashley, and we couldn't have had a better time.

I currently have a all my Christmas shopping done. Many thanks to my sister-in-law, Amy, who helped me finish up by forcing me to go. It wouldn't have gotten done without her. Since the shopping is finished I am now ready to spend time with my family. We will spend Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with Ashley's family and then my parents and brother will be coming out here to spend a few days and we will do our own little Christmas with them. I can't wait to spend time with everyone, I have missed out on a lot of family and friend time since I have been in school.

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!!!

A New Chapter Begins

I thought I should blog on my "last day of life as I know" before school commences. Starting tomorrow and the rest of the week, I will have orientation for school. Oh yes, orientation is three days long and last ALL day. On Monday, August 10th, my first class begins. This first class is Gross Anatomy. It will consume most (by most I mean all) of my time. Then on August 20th the rest of my classes begin. I know this was my idea, my dream and I signed myself up for this, but I have been wondering lately......WHY??? I haven't been to school in nearly 5 years. Studying is a hard habit to get back into and not a habit that most enjoy, including me.

So, from here on out I make no promises about posting frequently. I am not saying I will never blog again, just a warning that it won't be often. I pretty much have not committed to anything but Thanksgiving and Christmas (and by committed I mean yes we will celebrate these holidays....when and where...TBA).

Keep me and my brain in your thoughts and prayers, we will need it. Oh, and you might want to throw a prayer in there for Ashley, bless him!

Grayson Michael Miller

One of my very dearest friends, Melissa, gave birth to her second beautiful baby boy on July 3rd. Baby Gray was born at 5:56 am on July 3rd and was 7 lbs. 4 oz. and 19 inches long. Baby Gray is very very cute! He looks a lot like his older brother Kaden! Right after he was born, I said that Gray looked like his brother. Well, I was told by Melissa and Tyler (dad) that I was crazy that he didn't look like him at all! Melissa comes home and they decide that Aunt B is not so dumb after all!

Meet Baby Gray!

Aunt B with her new little man!

A very handsome big brother Kaden

I can't say how happy I am for Melissa and Tyler!! They are incredible parents to Kaden and I know will grow into even better parents with Gray in their lives. Melissa is not only an amazing mother, but an incredible friend and person. She handles every situation with grace and ease. I hope that I can do the same. I am very lucky and extremely thankful to have her as my friend!

Millers, you are a one of kind family and I love you!

Bastin...where you eat chowda and labster!

You have to read the title in your best Boston accent. The accents are really thick and extremely loud in Boston! As you can imagine Mom and I were definitely out of place with our accents. We never realize how thick our accents are until we go up North. Now on to the details.........

Mom was at a nursing convention with nurses from all over, luckily she knows one of the nurses who lives in Boston and she just so happen to go to church at the Old North Church. The Old North Church is where Paul Revere hung the lanterns to signal the British were coming. We got an after hours tour and were able to go down into the crypts and in to the bell tower. The tour guide took people to the top of the bell tower, however, mom and I did opt for that. The stairs were built in the 1800's with out hand rails and went straight up. No thanks! The church still holds weekly services and weddings. We also learned that Paul Revere didn't actually hang the lights, but had two other people hang them so he could start off on his horse and alert others. Here are some pictures from the tour.

The Altar

The organ

Looking up the bell tower

The outside of the church

From here, the same lady took us to a restaurant in Little Italy. It was owned by an Italian family that she went to church with. We had antipasto with anchovies on the salad. Mom tried the anchovy and said it was salty. I never got around to it, if you know what I mean. There was also an older man named Tony playing the accordion and singing. He was very cute!

The next day was packed with sight seeing. We first went to Fenway Park. Since this is an older field, there wasn't a huge sign or big grand entrance. It was just entrances on the side of the street. Here is a picture.

We made our way down Newberry Street which is a very famous street for shopping. This street ran us into the Boston Commons and Boston Public Gardens, these are Boston's version of Central Park. On one side of the Boston Commons is Cheers!!! We went and had a beer at Cheers!

Two of mom's colleagues that tagged along for the sight seeing, Jane and Karen

The next day was another day of adventure! Only this time we got good weather. It was sunny and about 68 degrees. Perfect for walking around the city! We started off with lunch at No Name Restaurant. It was across the street from the hotel on the fishing pier. Our waiter, Nicholas, was Greek and had the best accent and was an older gentleman that adored our Southern accents. They had the best clam chowder ever! We then made our way across town to the Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market. It is a huge attraction in Boston. There is a small fake Cheers bar there. We saw some crazy street performers. We then made our way across the Charles River to the Bunker Hill memorial and the USS Constitution. The Charles River has a bridge across it that looks just like the Cooper River bridge in Charleston.

Quincy Market

Street Performers

Bridge crossing the Charles River

Bunker Hill Memorial

USS Constitution, the first battleship, ummmm...it's wooden.

Our last stop on the trip was Harvard. The campus was absolutely beautiful! Mom and I had a discussion while walking around the campus about what you think a person that attends Harvard would look like. We pictured a really nerdy person with a pocket protector, but we didn't see anybody like that. Like Fenway Park, we didn't see a huge entrance to Harvard, but we also didn't have the legs to look for it. We had walked between 5 and 7 miles this day. Ouch!

The Library at Harvard

Boston was a blast! It is definitely a place I would love to go back and visit. I don't feel like I got to see everything!

Family Time

I know it has been a while since I posted something new.....my grandfather reminds me of that every time I talk to him. So, I thought I might catch everyone up, however, there isn't much to talk about when you are out of work and stay at home all day.

Recently my parents and their friend Tommy rode their Harley's out for another visit. This time we were fortunate enough to actually get to do something exciting while they were here. We went to Folly Beach, SC for the weekend. Aunt Phyllis and Uncle Reb were nice enough to let us stay in their condo for the weekend and Abby, who lives in the condo, was nice enough to go away for the weekend so we could stay. Thanks to you all! We had a wonderful time! We went to the beach, ate tons of good food, and did a little site seeing in downtown Charleston. Here are a few photos from the trip!

Red hair, fair skin people don't take to the sun well!

After the beach, we went to downtown Charleston to have dinner. Pre-Dinner drinks and appetizers at the Noisy Oyster.

We ate dinner at Hank's. If you ever get the chance to eat there....by all means do! It was so scrumptious!! Mom, Dad and Tommy are still talking about it!

After a fantastic weekend in Folly and Charleston, Mom, Dad and Tommy had to venture on back home. Since I don't work I decided to follow along. I followed them home and spent a week with my family and friends! Here are just a few photos.....I forget about my camera sometimes.

My best friend Kakki.....this picture took 8 trys. They are called photo shoots when it comes to Kakki. Oh, and for those of you who know and remember Kakki....she is happily engaged and getting married this summer on the beach in Florida! I couldn't be happier for her!

Me and Gatlin

My Brother.....we spent lots of quality time together. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I am sure he was indifferent about it.
Last, but certainly not least...Mr. Corbin Max. Corbin is now 6 months old and weighing in at a whopping 24 lbs. Yes, I said that correctly....24 lbs. He was in his carrier about to leave and I picked the carrier up and thought I was going to drop him. He is a growing boy!

The end of my trip could have been the best part. My cousin, Chris, who has been in the Air Force living in Hawaii for 4 years finally made it home. He is now out of the Air Force and has been backpacking through Europe for 2 months and made it home. I got to see him for the first time in over 2 years! He will be making a trek around the Eastern part of the US visiting family and friends before he has to settle down and try and go back to college. He should be in my area around September, so be looking for that post.

I promise the next post will come pretty quickly...my Mom and I leave for Boston in a week!!!

Jackson Patrick O'Hare

One of my dearest friends, Krissy O'Hare, had her first child on yesterday. Jackson Patrick O'Hare was born May 12, 2009 at 2:46 am and was 7 lbs. and 7 oz. of pure Heaven!!!! I am biased, but he is absolutely gorgeous!!!! I went to see Jack yesterday when he was only about 24 hours old and might I say I only hope that I can look like Krissy after giving birth only 24 hours ago. She is a trooper!!! There aren't many pregnant women I know that get up run 1 mile then walk another mile and then go and pick strawberries exactly a week before your due date. That's Krissy!!!

Jack O'Hare. That is daddy Kevin in the background and his shirt said "Fo Shizzle"!!! It was kind of hard to take him serious with that shirt when he was holding Jack. Krissy did not want anywhere near the camera.

Krissy and Kevin are wonderful people and I have no doubts they will be even better parents! I am so extremely happy for them and can't wait to see Jack grow. B will be there!!!!

I am going to see Krissy on Friday when she gets home and Kevin goes to work, so more pictures to come and hopefully I can sneak Krissy in a picture.

Long Random Catch Up

I have been MIA from the blog seen for a while, but all for good reasons. I spent a week in Arkansas with the family. It was my grandmother's 82nd birthday. My aunt and uncle from Florida drove in to surprise her. I was very concerned about surprising an 82 year old woman, but she was a trooper as always! I got some good quality time in with the family and as normal forgot I had a camera, so there are minimal pictures to document this trip. I did get to see Corbin...you might remember him from my Christmas post. I have an updated picture of him.

This is Corbin after everyone had a hand at getting him to sleep. He is really good at fighting sleep! He and I bonded over him throwing up on me and him. It was such a bonding experience!!

My grandmother opening her presents. She is not normally one to love attention, but she made us all sing Happy Birthday to her. Afterwards, she clapped and had a grin from ear to ear. Pretty special moment for us!

My grandparents with their three children....my mom, my aunt (in the orange) and my uncle on the end. These pictures are pretty rare in my family. This hasn't happened since my wedding!

Most of my whole family on my mom's side. We are missing Ashley and my cousin Chris. Maybe one day we can get that picture!

I had a wonderful time with my family and hope to do it again in this month while I have the time. I have had some really pretty things in my flower bed growing and had to take pictures of them to show them off.

This is my Peony plant. I had three blooms this year!! I was so happy b/c last year was only one bloom! Peony's always remind me of my friend Krissee Day!!!

I also had some irises blooming. Ashley and I were really happy with them b/c we just so happen to have some that were orange and some that were white with purple. Even our flowers are Clemson colors! That really was not planned. I don't even remember where these irises came from.

I know it's pretty sad when you post pictures of flowers in your yard, but it is one of my hobbies and when you don't have a job......well, it's pretty much the highlight of your day!

We went to the beach over the weekend with 6 of our friends and had an absolute blast!! It was very relaxing and much needed! We are now gearing up for Mother's Day. I hope everyone has a wonderful Mother's Day!! Maybe next time I can be more interesting!

LA BABY!!!

On Monday, March 30th at around 2 pm, I got a phone call from Amy, my sister-in-law, and she said that she had two tickets to a live taping of Dancing with the Stars on Tuesday March 31st, would I want to go. (Side story: I watch DWTS every week with my father-in-law and my aunt. It is definitely my favorite TV show) After a near heart attack, I told her I was definitely in. The only catch was finding airfare that we could afford and that the tickets weren't guaranteed. We would have to stand in line and get there early to get a seat. We found really reasonable airfare and took our chances on the tickets. If we didn't get in we could still have a couple of days in LA and who complain about that?? We then found a nice hotel that was directly across the street from the DWTS CBS Studios and started packing for our 6:35 am flight Tuesday morning.

This is us on our way from the airport to the hotel. LA BABY!!!

We arrive in LA at 11 am PST and had to take a cab to our hotel, change clothes extremely fast (cocktail/formal attire was required), and walk to the studio to get in line. Luckily we were in line at 12:30 pm PST and they started taking people through security at 3 pm PST, so we were pretty sure about our chances to get in. After we were through security we were seated on benches, but not in the same order we were standing. Amy and I have a theory that they were strategically placing people dressed and looking a certain way in certain parts of the audience. We were then escorted into the ballroom. It looks just like on TV, but the dance floor is very small. It looks much larger on TV. As we were filing in the ballroom, it looked like our seats were going to be at the back of the ballroom and we weren't real excited about it. We were then asked to step to the side and were escorted across the ballroom to our second row seats right at the stage. It was more than amazing or awesome or any word you could come up with!!!!

They taped two segments of the show before the live taping b/c of the different stages. We got to see all of that and the live taping. During the live taping, one of the professional dancers (Tony Dovolani) was waiting to dance while Boys II Men was performing and he sat down on my lap and gave me a hug. I was in complete shock and told him he made my year. If you aren't a fan of the show, this probably means nothing to you, but Amy and I were in amazement. Tony was also, my mother-in-law's favorite dancer so it really made it even more special for us. I inserted a picture of Tony. He is partnered with Melissa Rycroft from the Bachelor this season.

After the taping of the show, we went to The Grove/Farmer's Market that was also across from our hotel. It is an outdoor shopping center with restaurants and trolley that runs through it. Two of the professional dancers, Mark Ballas and Derek Hough, have a band. The band was giving a free concert at The Grove and were signing autographs after the concert. Of course, we were all over this!!!! Also, before the concert, I spotted Steve-O and got his picture. After the concert, Amy spotted her favorite American Idol Danny Gokey and two others and got her picture with them. Here are a few pictures.

Me and Steve-O

Amy and her Idols!!!

Mark Ballas (red shirt) and Derek Hough (gray jacket)

Our autograph session and picture with Mark Ballas and Derek Hough

This is while we were in line waiting to get Mark and Derek's autograph and picture. We had been up for 23 hours at this time. Exhausted!!

The next morning we woke up with an excitement hangover! Not like any other hangover I have ever had, but it was all worth it!! We had the entire day to do whatever we wanted so we sucked it up and got going to explore LA.

The tickets to the shows that are taped at CBS Studios are free, you just have to stand in line. We walked over that morning to see if we could see a taping of any other show and just so happen to get tickets to The Price is Right. Luckily for this show you could go and get a ticket that held your place in line and we didn't have to be back until 1 pm PST. So, we were off to the Kodak Theatre, Walk of Stars and Rodeo Drive. Here are some photos from that adventure.

Hollywood Blvd. (where the walk of stars and Kodak Theatre are located) That is the Roosevelt Hotel in the back ground.

This is looking down Rodeo Drive. Yes, the streets really are lined with palm trees just like in Pretty Woman. This made me supremely happy!

The Tiffany & Co. store on Rodeo Drive.

After Rodeo Drive we had to get back to get our place in line for The Price is Right. Here is a picture of us in line waiting for our interview to see if we would be called to "Come on Down". We did not get to be the next contestant on The Price is Right, but a lady behind us did and she won the Showcase Showdown. Our taping will air tomorrow April 14th, so check us out. You might see us in the audience.

The next morning we had to be on a flight at 8:45 am PST (11:45 am EST) and I pulled in my driveway at 11:00 pm EST. I had such a good time, but was glad to be home and rest. We went full force for 3 straight days.

Just a few thank yous.....Amy, thank you so much for asking me to go. I had the absolute best time and I am so glad it was with you! I love you dearly and we now know each other a little better after this trip. :) Trey, thank you for not being able to go and telling Amy to ask me. Equifirst, thank you for laying me off so that I had no excuse not to go. Big thanks to you! To my hubby, thanks for being excited for me and letting me go. I love you tons!!! OH and thanks to Tony Dovolani for sitting on my lap and making my trip complete. I love him too! :)