Marriage Foundations Pilot Mountain Hike

"Sometimes I can hear this old earth shouting through the trees as the wind blows. That's when I climb up here on this mountain to look through God's window. Now I can't fly but I got two feet that get me high up here. Above the noise and city streets my worries disappear..." -Rascal Flatts

Today, our Marriage Foundations Bible Fellowship class (along with some former Marriage Foundations members that have moved over to the AIM class) took a hiking trip to Pilot Mountain. We had so much fun and got some great exercise!

These pictures were taken on our way up to the top of the mountain...




The group was very excited to get to spend a fun day together...




We saw some great scenery...






We got to hang out with, among others,the Jordans...






And the Gilstraps...


And, best of all, I got to spend some fun time with my Sweetie (AND we go to have our picture taken on this rock, which is where I first told David I loved him when we were dating)...






After the hike, we followed the Jordans to an apple orchard right over the Virginia line, just past Mt. Airy. Got to pick out some apples to bring home with us...delicious!!!







We had a wonderful day with our friends!!!!

Storms, Spooky Dinner, and Pumpkin Walk

"The night was dark, and a cold wind blew, driving the clouds, furiously and fast, before it. There was one black, gloomy mass that seemed to follow him: not hurrying in the wild chase with the others, but lingering sullenly behind, and gliding darkly and stealthily on. He often looked back at this, and, more than once, stopped to let it pass over; but, somehow, when he went forward again, it was still behind him, coming mournfully and slowly up, like a shadowy funeral train." -Charles Dickens

It was a (mostly) fun Wednesday! The bad part is that we have had terrible bouts of severe weather in this part of NC today. It has been on and off all day and we had a tornado warning today when I was at work (rotational activity spotted about 6 miles from my office building). There is still bad weather in the area tonight and we are watching the live radar and news reports right now as things continue to happen. Below are some pictures I took from my office window this afternoon. One is the clouds from a storm passing north of town, the other of the rain that followed:





On a happier note, we took part in a long-withstanding Andrews family tradition tonight. As many of you know, my family was always big on traditions, and I for one am OBSESSED with all things traditional!!! I have great plans for when David and I have children one day - of how we can incorporate traditions from my family and traditions from David's family, into own own family (as well as make some traditions of our own).

So, that being said, one of the Andrews traditions is spooky dinner. Growing up, my family used to do this on Halloween evening right before going trick-or-treating. But we decided to do it tonight a few days early. So we headed to my parents house to see what crazy, scary, and gross creations my mother had come up with (my grandparents and uncle joined the fun, too).

When we arrived, we got to check out the awesome decorating job that my mom did for the evening (by the way, tradition dictates that you use candles and dim the lights before partaking in spooky dinner)...








The food was especially gross this year. The menu included the following: "Scabs on a Slab," "Blood and Guts," "Bug Sauce," "Slime Potatoes," "Ghoulish Green Beans," and, of course, "Toes."




David and my Uncle Chuck enjoyed the food...as noted by these looks of intense concentration...


The other tradition we did tonight is the "Pumpkin Walk." As a little girl, my father would go out in the woods with a lighted pumpkin and walk towards us (in the pitch dark) so that all that could be seen was that spooky pumpkin (and all the while he would be making spooky noises). So I got to introduce this tradition to David. David held the speaker for the spooky music...


While my Dad was the "walker"...




We totally enjoyed our spooky night! Looking forward to Halloween on Sunday!!! :-)

Anniversary Weekend Part 3: The Celebration!

"We'll look back some day at this moment that we're in, and I'll look at you and say, 'And I thought I loved you then...'" -Brad Paisley

Our anniversary celebration was so much better even than I expected (and I was expecting it to be pretty awesome!) I am so happy to have had a year with my sweet David and many many more ahead of us!

We got a little something for each other...David sent flowers to me at work, along with a sweet little bear, on Friday...


And I bought David a big football book...


We also bought three gifts together for us as a couple, based on the "customary anniversary gifts" for the first anniversary. "Paper" is the TRADITIONAL first anniversary gift, and so we got this beautiful printed saying that was framed. It says "Without faith nothing is possible, but with faith everything is possible."


The MODERN first anniversary gift is "clocks" and so we purchased this for our bedroom...


The BRITISH first anniversary gift is cotton, and since David and I both have partial English heritage, we thought it would be fitting to get something from that category as well. So we found these really pretty cotton washcloths for our master bathroom...


I decorated our bedroom with the decorations from our wedding and reception...some of the silk flower arrangements (mostly dogwoods, blue hydrangeas, and magnolias) and baskets from our big day. I also put out some carnations, which is the traditional flower for the first wedding anniversary. I realize that our bedroom looks kind of "incomplete" in these photos, but it's because we haven't had a chance to re-hang our artwork or our curtails since we finished painting that bedroom. Here are shots of the wedding/anniversary decor...









We watched our wedding video together, which was really sweet. We plan to do that every anniversary forever. We also reread the notes that we wrote to each other on our wedding day. I opened up my wedding gown (which is professionally preserved)and we looked through the preservation box window at it...it was fun to reminisce that this is what I was wearing a year ago!



Then we got all dressed up to go to dinner at Green Valley Grill in the O.Henry Hotel. The O.Henry is where we had our rehearsal dinner last year, the night before the wedding. Here is David in our front yard just before we left for dinner. Isn't he so handsome?!


We had an amazing dinner at Green Valley Grill! I had a burger and David had Moroccan Meatballs with Penne. Delicious! Afterwards, our waiter brought us a free piece of cake for our anniversary (he clearly didn't realize we had a whole top layer of wedding cake that had been frozen at home!)...





When we got home from dinner, David carried me over the threshold, just like he did when we got back from our honeymoon (this was his idea and so sweet!)

I had set up a little display in our dining room. I put out some photos from our wedding, our wedding toasting flutes, our wedding cake cutter and server, our unity candle, and we decided to eat the cake and other goodies off our our fine china. We had frozen the top layer of our wedding cake, as is tradition, and were AMAZED at how delicious and moist it was when thawed. I think it was better than on our wedding day! I put our wedding cake topper on top of it to take some pictures before we cut the cake. And of course, we had to feel a piece to each other just like we did a year ago! We sat in our dining room and ate the cake and talked about what an amazing day we had and how much we loved each other.

Also, on our wedding night David had arranged that the place we stayed (which still remains our secret) make a tray of chocolates and cheese and wine for us to enjoy on our wedding night. So I replicated that with some delicious goodies on a tray that we used at our wedding.

Below our pictures of our post-dinner celebration...












Today at church, on our actual anniversary, we peeped in the Theater (the old sanctuary that we married in) and talked about how we couldn't believe it was a whole year ago.

It was really one of the best weekends we have ever had. I love David so so much, am so thankful to have the security of marrying a man of God and knowing that our marriage WILL ABSOLUTELY last "until death do us part." He is my best friend, and I feel most grateful to him and to God for this incredible first year of being one with him.

Anniversary Weekend Part 2: GOP Rally

"Let me tell you who we conservatives are: we love people. When we look out over the United States of America, when we are anywhere, when we see a group of people, such as this or anywhere, we see Americans. We see human beings. We don't see groups. We don't see victims." -Rush Limbaugh

After the BBQ festival yesterday, we came back to Greensboro and met up with my parents to go to a Republican Road to Victory Rally at the Guilford County GOP Headquarters. It was really encouraging and refreshing to be at an event with so many like-minded people.

I realize that I risk offending some of our blog readers,and very good friends, by being so open about my political opinions. But that is a risk I have to take and will do so willingly in order to stand up for what I believe. I think that the Obama administration and current leadership have done an incredible amount of harm to this country and the principles that this country was built on. Our government is too big, our taxes too high, and our policies leaning WAY TOO FAR towards socialism (PRIME EXAMPLE: OBAMACARE) and our country leaning closer to moral bankruptcy. This country needs to get back to electing more fiscally and socially conservative leaders.

So this rally yesterday was a really great way to get conservatives in the area pumped up and hopefully that November 2nd, 2010 will bring a new America.


We got to hear some great speeches from a bunch of GOP candidates, including Howard Coble, Richard Burr, and Jon Hardister (who lives on my parents street)...






David and my Dad got some pictures taken with BJ Barnes, our Guilford County Sheriff who is running for reelection (and we sure hope he wins!)...




And I was able to have my picture taken with Hardister and with Senator Burr...




We had a wonderful time at the rally! We actually went this afternoon to do early voting for the November elections. We were able to cast our votes for all of the conservative and Republican candidates, and I feel good about what is going to happen in November!

Read on to part 3 of our anniversary weekend to learn about our anniversary celebration itself...