It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!!!!

Well, the time is here and it's no secret that I LOVE Christmas. The Monday after we returned from Thanksgiving holiday, we set up our tree. I do love that my hubby insists on a real tree. It is fun to pick out and makes the house smell great. I used to chastise my own poor mother when she began using an artificial tree. I grew up 4 miles from a Christmas tree farm so each year, my family would go "stake our claim" on the best tree on the farm each year. As we got older, it was harder to get everyone in the same place at the same time. Then one year Dad cut down a tree from our yard to serve as the Taylor Family Tree. Well, trees look much smaller in the outdoors, but when we brought it in, it was probably 19 feet tall. So we had to cut some of the top off, which resembled more of a Christmas bush than a tree. So my mom finally resolved to the fact that that a 1-2-3-TREE was the way to go, and at times I don't blame her.

Since I had a Christmas shower before we got married, I was already hooked up with all things Christmas. I LOVE getting all this stuff out, and believe it or not, for those of you out there....I remember what you gave me, so thank you!

This weekend we went to an event called Camillia Christmas in Maclay Gardens, which is a park here in town. It is beautiful with the enormous live oaks lazily hanging down the paths that were lined with candles. They served hot apple cider and had carolers. The you ride back to where you parked on a trolley and all the kids in our trolley broke out singing Christmas carols. Adorable.

Saturday I went to a Christmas tea sponsored by the ladies ministry at our church, which was incredible. Hung out with some special friends and heard a great speaker who really put things in perspective about Christmas.

Disclaimer: Mary & Meg-no, you have not been replaced. It's just a coincidence that I have a red headed and blonde friend here in Tally!

Saturday night was a Christmas party at our friends John & Susie's and the theme was COOKIES. Yes. My kind of party. Everyone brought a different kind of cookie so I gained approximately 12 pounds.

I just love this time of the year and what it means. I do love the parties, decorations, and all the hoop-la, but the feeling of JOY seems contagious this time of year. What more to celebrate that God sent HIS son to dwell among us and teach us His ways.

Dawgs Vs. Cats

Jeremie and I also traveled to Starkvegas for the Kentucky game on Halloween weekend. Great time. It was great to tailgate with Mom, Dad, Amy and Mr. & Mrs. Jones. We finally made it close enough during the Dawg Walk to high five the players & coaches. That's right, Brignone, Relf, Ballard.....and my personal favorite, Manny Diaz. Best looking, I mean, best coaching Defensive Coordinator out there. J said that I more clutched his hand than high fived it.

Notice the FOCUSED look on Mullen's face. He's the man.

Tailgating never gets old....I just love how serious SEC fans are about their tailgating....check out the "graveyard" that included tombstones of teams we beat so far......

The weekend included a big win, cheesesticks, Shipley's donuts and a trip to the lodge. Good stuff.

"Dawgs Drown Gators in the Swamp"

Personally, I think that is a fantastic headline, if any newspaper would like to purchase it from me.

Well, my positive thinking from my previous post apparently worked. We had a blast watching the Dawgs' big win in the Swamp. If you watched the game, you know it ran down to the last few seconds. With about 30 seconds left and a Bulldog lead at 10-7, the Gators attempted a 42 yard field goal, and you know the rest of the story. J stood in amazement while I tackled him like a lineman and hugged MSU strangers sitting around us. (I don't consider any MSU fan a stranger though.)

The stadium was SO QUIET as we were walking out, with the exception of one jingling cowbell that someone sneaked in. Beautiful sound to our ears.

The tailgating experience was a great time. Beautiful day, pretty campus, good company, and the Gators were quite friendly.

Friday Night Special

There are 4 Things to Celebrate Tonight:
-It is Friday! For all of you in South MS, join me in singing the redneck song "It's Finally Friday!!!!"
-We have a new laptop!!! I no longer have to tear J away from his Fantasy Football scores and Genespage just so I can get online! I hope this means more blogging!
-Tomorrow J and I will see the Dawgs upset the Gators AT THE SWAMP!!! Yes, I say that confidently so I will convince myself that we will win. If any of you Bulldog players are reading this, we are praying for you. Seriously. We ask God to bless our food and bless the Dawgs. Is that wrong? We are attending the game with some good friends here in Tally who are split: one is a Gator, on is a Seminole. Should be interesting...SOMEONE is going home unhappy tomorrow. Hope it's not me and J. If we lose, I'll just make up a good excuse, like Alabama fans.
-We are eating homemade lasagna. It is incredible, mainly because J put about 4 cups of cheese in it.

Pondering Time.....

Greetings from the Wells. I promised I'd keep up better with the blog. Two weeks isn't bad....baby steps.

We haven't had too much drama in the Wells household lately-just the usual work, come home, eat, go to bed, and repeat. Some dear friends of ours were contemplating this the other day and thought it was funny how in different "seasons" of your life, you measure time differently. When you're a kid, everything is in "9 weeks"....every 9 weeks, that dreaded report card for your parents to sign, then the coveted SUMMERTIME...which actually felt like a really long time. Week after week, camp after camp. Then you get to college and everything is measured in semesters: the Fall or Spring semester. That's it. If something was difficult, you knew it'd be over in less than 4 months, no questions asked. At the end of that time, you either had a glorious long Christmas or Summer Break, and even a fall and spring break in the middle, as if college kids are that burdened.....

Then you begin a career (our current season) and everything just runs together. It's not divided into 9 weeks, or semesters until there is relief, just a 5 day repeating sequence when you work like a dog and pray for the weekend. The weekend flies by, and you start over again. No Spring, Fall, Summer, Christmas break. I typically don't even know what season it is, I just notice that I need to start wearing more or less clothes, depending on the weather.

I hear that the next season in life is when you get pregnant (sorry Mom & Dad, I'm not pregnant) and you speak in weeks. We have a good friend who is expecting and I asked her about this the other day. I told her that when I am in conversation w/ a pregnant person and excitedly say "How far along are you?" and they reply something like "22 weeks"....I have absolutely no idea how long that is. Give me something broken down into months or fractions, otherwise I have to pull out my phone calendar and start counting. My friend laughed and explained that the doctor visits are broken down to specific weeks, so hence the baby lingo.

Nevertheless......I am blessed to have my routine repeating schedule. Very thankful to have a job, and a wonderful husband who makes coming home to the best part of the day......

Inlaws & Outlaws.....

My sweet In-Laws visited the other day on their way back from an incredible road trip vacation. J and I thought we were the masters of state-hopping, but they put us to shame-I think they visiting like SIX towns. Their last stop was Savannah, GA, which is quite charming and Tally is the halfway point from their neck of the woods. It was great to see them; I wish they could have stayed longer. I made my new recipe for "Taco Pizza" and we caught up on their amazing vacation.

Now, I know she looks sweet, but you can see where my hubby gets his competitiveness......

Love you Mitch & Cate!

I'll stick with the theme and tell you Jeremie's In Laws will be visiting this weekend for Mom's second annual birthday trip to Tally.....Looking forward to seeing ya'll!!!

Now......as for Outlaws...we have seen those around Tally as well....I think this picture speaks for itself.

Better Late than Never......

I realize I've been neglected our blog for quite some time now. I apologize, because I love when others update THEIR blogs....and check them frequently. I feel sorry for all you 4 readers that might have been checking it...and now have probably given up on me!

Of course I'll blame it on our busy life, as if it's any busier than the average American, but most of all, I'd like to give a shout out to our turtle speed internet. Makes for difficult blogging. But that's what you get when you decide to live in the middle of nowhere, where the only place to receive an internet connection is from a satellite in space....more middle of nowhere.

Anyway, we've been enjoying spring and summer in Tallahassee. Everything is in bloom and beautiful. I would say our most interesting happening recently was our anniversary vacation in April. (Yes, I'm in denial that it's July already, so I still consider April "recent".)

Instead of the average vacationer that goes to one place, stay's there for a whole week, and lays by the beach, we try to see just how many miles we can put on our car and how many states we can go through in this short period of time. We left Tally and head for Starkville for Super Bulldog Weekend. This is almost a religious experience for Jeremie. Even though the 7 hour drive was not technically on the way to Asheville, NC, there was no question that we were going. We should get extra points on our Bulldog Club membership for this. Anyway, we had a great time in Starkvegas, got see some State sports, friends, family, and do I even need to mention ate Cheesesticks at the Grill. (The NEW grill-very nice!) Jeremie and I even went for a walk around campus and went into the chapel, which was the first time we'd been in there since we said our vows....Ya'll know me...I cried...

Being on campus never gets old.

We then headed to Gatlinburg, TN. (Another 5 hours.) There, we ate as much pancakes as we could, found an incredible pizza place, and went to Ripley's Believe it or Not. I realize this isn't a romantic venue for an anniversary trip, but we had a blast....




We also hit up Dollywood, and I braved (stomached might be a better word) all the roller coasters. J and I love looking at the pictures after we get off the rides. He looks like a kid on Christmas. LOVES it. I on the other hand look like I am doing my very best not to loose my lunch on the person in front of me, God bless them. The funny thing is that I really do enjoy them. I'm just not the hold your hands over your head type of person. If SOMETHING goes wrong, I WILL be the person still clinging to the safety bar for dear life. I feel like my approach still gives me a small chance to live if the cart gets stuck upside down in the Ring of Fire.

Anyway, after Gatlinburg, we headed to Asheville, NC, which was supposed to be a 2 hour drive but was more like 4. We took the scenic route, which was incredible. Can't really go past 30 MPH, but the mountains are so beautiful, you wouldn't want to. (We even saw a little bear on the side of the road! )




The only negative thing: being a MS girl, I packed appropriately for the end of April: tanks and shorts. It's close to 95 degrees by that time of year in the South. Well, it was like 42 degrees at one point on our trip, so we had to hit up Belk for some warmer items. (Not that I minded shopping though.)

We stayed in a beautiful hotel in Lake Lure about 30 minutes outside of Asheville. Charming. It was about 5 minutes from where they filmed Dirty Dancing, for all you fans. The first day we went to the Biltmore, which is something EVERYONE should see. Not just for girls. It's amazing. Jeremie's activity pick was whitewater rafting, which was a blast. When he told me the river we were going on, he said "Don't worry, the biggest drop is only 40 feet, but it's not all at one time." Of course I immediately starting yelling and about called the place to cancel. Of course he was joking...... We also went hiking at Chimney Rock Park which was breathtaking. Totally showed me how out of shape I was, but a good time.







The ride home was long, but that goodness for books on CD. And Krispy Kreme. Jeremie and I tallied the states we'd been through, and it was 5. We pretty much visited the Southeastern Conference.

We had so much fun and it was wonderful spend some quality time with my wonderful husband who loves to travel and see new things just as much as I do. I am blessed.