where has 2011 gone?!

so my last blog was 10 months ago...where in the world has this year gone?!

so much has happened in the last 10 months that i don't even know where to begin! here is a quick rundown...

enrolled as a consultant with thirty-one in january...jon and i went to jamaica for (my) work in february (it was awesome!)...worked like crazy from january through march (except for the quick trip to jamaica!)...my best friend had a baby boy in april (theodore tobias mappus iv aka tucker)...my brother and his family came to visit in june...another good friend had a baby boy in june (wallace rudolph bowman aka ace)...my sister and her family came to visit in july...jon and i went on vacation with my brother and sister-in-law in july (an amazing cruise to st. thomas, st. maarten, and nassau...good times had by all!)...jon's brother and his family moved to los angeles in july (can't wait to go visit in november!)...we took a last minute trip to south beach miami (with jon's brother (and business partner) and sister-in-law) for his work in august (so much fun and so relaxing!)...i became a senior consultant for thirty-one at the end of august...we traveled every weekend of september (pawley's island, greenville, atlanta, georgia to see my sister)...and now it's freakin' october already! once again, where in the world has this year gone?!

that sums up this year so far...and there are still many good times and events to come! love my life...and those that surround me!

it's been a really long time...

so i realized the other day that i haven't posted a blog since april....life has been absolutely CRAZY!!! for the most part it's been a good crazy, but just so busy!

my last post mentioned that i found out my boss was going to be leaving the company on medical disability and i would be taking over as corporate controller. that change happened in august, and my work life has been quite a ride since then! i'm learning new things everyday and each month it's getting easier, but i think january will bring a whole new version of CRAZY to my life thanks to my first end of the year close out!

all of my parents have gone through their own struggles since april including layoffs, big moves, and new jobs! thankfully they are all settled in now and much closer to me! my dad and stepmom are now living an hour and a half away in columbia (much closer than the 5 1/2 hours for the last 10 years!) and my mom is about 20 minutes away in summerville! it's nice to know that my parents will all be closer in the coming years as jon and i think (only thinking right now, not trying!) about having children!

over the summer, my family lost an amazing man...my uncle thomas (my dad's brother) passed away in july. although it was a very sad time, we all know that he is in a much better place and he lived an amazing life as a quadriplegic for over 40 years. one thing that hit me hard in the last month was removing his name from my christmas card list when i went to send them out this year. uncle thomas, i wish you were going to be here for my children to meet one day, but i know you will be looking down (along with the other special ones in heaven - aunt 'laine, papa, and grandmama!) as you are each day!

on a happy note, jon and i are heading to fayetteville, nc to celebrate christmas with the entire windmueller clan and my mom this weekend! we are so excited about watching our nieces and nephew on christmas morning! i'm also excited about some other surprises to come over this fun christmas weekend! hopefully the work day will go by very quickly today...'cause i'm ready to celebrate and share the christmas cheer with family!

preferred customer card...

as of about two weeks ago, i am the proud owner of a hancock's fabric preferred customer card. i never thought i would want to learn to sew after watching my mom do it growing up (much less hold a preferred customer card from a fabric store!), but i decided in october to buy a sewing machine. my goal was to teach myself to sew over the winter when it was cold outside and we were home over the weekends. so i finally got the sewing machine out of the box and set it up in february.

it was actually jon's suggestion to set it up and start practicing, so he helped me get it going and within a few hours i had made him a small pillow case from one of his pool cover specialists' t-shirts! unfortunately i haven't had time (or i guess made time!) to attempt another small sewing project, but i have been to the fabric store two times and purchased several different pieces of fabric and ribbon for baby blankets! my sister-in-law will be in town next week (and she's an excellent seamstress), so she is going to help me with some sewing skills! in the end, i just want to be able to hem new pants for myself (because they are always too long and i have to pay someone to make them shorter!), and make pillows, baby blankets, and other items for our house or to give as gifts.

i never thought i would enjoy sewing...as a child i just knew that wasn't for me and totally took my mom's sewing skills for granted! i'm sure she is very proud that i'm learning to sew and finally expressing and interest in it! i'm slowly becoming more domesticized (not sure if that's a word!)...baking, then cooking, now sewing! wow, i wonder what's next...learning to enjoy cleaning? learning to enjoy doing laundry? learning to enjoy washing dishes? (notice i wrote "learning to enjoy" because i do all of these things now - some not as much as others thanks to my awesome husband! - but i do not enjoy doing them!) probably not, but who knows what the future will bring! :)

resisting the urge

so let me start by saying i'm very proud of myself so far today...because i have resisted the urge to get a doughnut out of the dunkin donuts box! i had a great tae bo workout last night, and i hate to ruin it by eating a doughnut this morning so i stuck to my english muffin with cheese! also i'm looking forward to a great dinner at easterby's tonight, so i figured i should save up for that!

a little less than 6 hours until the beginning of an awesome weekend....

donating blood

earlier this week, i heard about a local blood drive so i decided to make an appointment and donate today. it was a great experience! i went before work and everyone was so friendly and nice. they even had doughnuts, that believe it or not, i turned down!!! as they finished up the process with me, they thanked me for giving enough blood to save 2 lives....what an awesome way to start the day!

as i was leaving the american red cross center i was looking at my facebook page, and a friend of mine from high school who is now a nurse had commented on my status about donating blood. she said that she had just "hung donated blood" for a patient last night. that made me feel even better about donating this morning! i definitely encourage everyone who can to donate blood right now because there is a shortage...and you never know when you might be the one who needs it!

5 years...looking back

last week i was reading a friend's blog, and she did something i thought was really neat. she recapped the last 5 years of her life! so here is my recap...

graduated from the college of charleston (on an extremely hot day in may!). became a full-time employee at mbw. started graduate school at the citadel. became an aunt for the first time (now i'm an aunt 4 times over and soon to be 5!). went through the death of an aunt i was very close to. met the man of my dreams through my roommate of 5 years. purchased my first home. got engaged on the 13th hole at the cozumel country club in cozumel, mexico! finished my mba at the citadel. married the man of my dreams in a amazing ceremony on the beach! went parasailing for the first time ever. drove an atv on the pacific ocean. learned to ski in utah. drove a snowmobile for the first time. started a new job.

i guess that sums it up! wow, it's really neat to look back and realize what all has happened in the last 5 years of my life...and i'm sure i've left something out, so i may be updating this later!

graduation and celebration...and the 3 am sickness that followed

last night in my self defense class was awesome! it was very intense and made you feel like you were really in a situation in which you must defend yourself to get away. they choked us, grabbed us from behind, and held us down...and we had to use our self defense moves to fight them off! the instructors/attackers were awesome and i know they have to be sore today after 15 women had to kick, hit, and knee them to get away! next week the co-ed class begins...a class that will build on the women's only class we just finished!

after class, a few of us headed to kickin' chicken for dinner and drinks. it was fun and a great way to celebrate the end of our ass kicking class!

...and then i started getting sick at 3 am this morning. obviously something in my buffalo chicken salad did not go over well in my belly last night. i felt like i'd reverted to being a child...moaning and groaning and basically wanting to die! jon was awesome though...he got right up and nursed me back to health! i finally started feeling normal about 9:00 this morning...thank goodness! unfortunately i think i will be taking a break from my favorite salad at my favorite restaurant for awhile though! :(

rain rain go away....

i've finally gotten my new blog set up and all of my posts from the old one copied over! wow, what a process, but i'm happy to have it all in one place now!

we've had crazy weather the last few days...i'm sick of the rain and thunderstorms! we had a horrendous storm this afternoon. the roads were flooded on my way home from work, and i ended up canceling my personal training work out! hopefully i can make it up friday...what a way to start the weekend! :)

tomorrow night is "graduation" from my self defense class....we get to show what we have learned the last 6 weeks at charleston krav maga! of course there will be a celebration afterwards as a few of us head to kickin chicken! more to come about "graduation" tomorrow!

kickin' some ass...

tonight was week 2 of my self defense class! it was awesome...we learned how to protect ourselves if someone breaks in our house...and got a good workout in the process! last week they gave each of us a t-shirt that says 'oops, i broke a nail...kickin' your a**'! i will be wearing it proudly!

speaking of workout, tomorrow i am going to the gym and getting a personal trainer! it's time to get serious and get in shape for bathing suit season!

i'm so ready for the long weekend to arrive...2 more days of work this week!

a bittersweet end...

today is my last day at moore beauston & woodham....after 7 1/2 years! i started working for mbw when i was a sophomore in college, so it will be hard to pack up the last items in my office and take down my diplomas this afternoon! i've worked with awesome colleagues who have taught me so much about accounting, but it is time for me to move on to new things...professionally! it's definitely a bittersweet day....i'm excited about my new job, but it will be hard to leave my colleagues who i've been with since the beginning of my career!

once i get home and get the items from my office unloaded, jon and i will load the car and hit the road headed to perdido key/pensacola, florida! i'm looking forward to our mini vacation on the beach and hanging out with awesome friends to celebrate matt and savina's wedding!

now it's time to clean out my files and finish up the last few items in my office! here's to an awesome 7 1/2 years and lots of accounting knowledge from my great friends and colleagues at mbw! xoxo

bridge run (walk)...all the way to the finish line

this morning started extremely early (5:00 am), but it was for a good reason! i completed the cooper river bridge run...although we walked it instead of running! brandy, amy, and i met at 5:45 to head downtown (before the sun even came up!) and stood in line waiting for the shuttle bus to the starting line! the amount of participants was crazy....over 37,000! when we got in line for the shuttle, we were probably a 1/2 mile from the actual pick up point and when we were dropped off in mt. pleasant, we were probably a good 1/2 mile from the starting line! we didn't actually cross the starting line until 20 minutes after the start....that's how many people were in front of us, and there was a sea of people behind us! i'm proud to say that we completed the entire 10K walk in 1 hour and 50 minutes!

by the time we got to the car, we were all exhausted! once i sat down for a little while to eat lunch and got back up, my legs started feeling a little sore....but for good reason because we probably walked a total of about 8 miles with all the extra walking to the shuttle and to the starting line and to the car! what a way to begin saturday morning! i think i've done all my exercising for one week in one day!!!

of course now i'm beginning to fade, but there is work to be done so i'm sitting in my office working on tax returns! i'm not so sure that i will last very long this afternoon though. i may be calling it a day after a few hours...that's better than nothing though! time for more tax returns...

baby shower success

stefani's baby shower was very successful yesterday! she got some great (and much needed) gifts and everyone really seemed to enjoy themselves. rachel had such awesome ideas for the food....and yes, i took very good notes along with the recipes! caramel pecan chicken salad (so yummy) and chocolate marshmellow fruit dip (very scrumptious) were just a couple items included in our spread of food! we started a tradition for baby showers among our friends as well...all of the guests were asked to bring their favorite childhood book to build the baby's library! now we just have to wait to see if the baby will be named sophia grace or spencer leo....only a month and a half until we get to find out!

jon and i had a fun houseguest late last week. rachel came to stay with us wednesday night through the weekend, and then bowman took the train up to charleston saturday morning. even though my work schedule is so crazy right now, it was a lot of fun spending time with rachel...we definitely shared many laughs!

now for another week of tax season hell...only 16 days to go though! there's fun to be had once it's over! xoxo

falling snow in utah

it has been snowing contantly since monday night here...i believe it's slowing down a little now though. anne and i took ski school yesterday in pouring snow which was quite interesting, but we both learned a lot! unfortunately i had to head to the lodge early because my knees were killing me; however, i had an awesome time learning to ski!

the condo we are staying in is perfect for our vacation! it's cozy, yet plenty of space for the 4 of us! we slept in monday after an extremely long traveling day on sunday, explored park city a little bit monday night, and had dinner at an awesome bar - the no name saloon! yesterday we spent the entire day on the slopes and collapsed early last night. this morning we have been relaxing after a pancake breakfast prepared by chefs jon and kris and are getting ready to head into salt lake city. we are planning to tour the pool cover specialists facility today which jon and kris are excited for anne and me to see.

unfortunately i woke up not feeling very well this morning, but i've been popping meds like crazy in an effort to get better! jon was sick the first part of the trip and now me...hopefully i will feel much better before we have to get on a plane to head home on saturday!

time to hit the road to salt lake...xoxo