Aaron somehow convinced Charles and Brittany from NC to come visit us in the freezing mountains last weekend. We were so glad they came! When they arrived Friday evening, we had steak fondue and veggies at the house and then took them to downtown Roanoke to drive up Mill Mountain. On the top is this huge star...
where you can look out from and see the city (Roanoke is called the Star City). It was a pretty view, but it was so cold that we only had enough time to take these pictures before we went back to the car.
To warm up we had late night coffee, hot chocolate, and conversation in the coffee shop in Center in the Square.
Saturday morning, we ate breakfast at the house and then took them on the grand tour of Salem- to see where Aaron works (the office pictured above) and to my parent's house. Below Aaron is in the shop explaining how the battery business works to Charles.
That afternoon we drove 45 minutes north to see Natural Bridge, one of the seven natural wonders of the world. It was cool! It was a great day trip. Brittany and I enjoyed the shopping.

On Sunday they joined us at church to hear about the resurrection of Christ. After lunch, we took pictures and talked and then they had to leave us!
Charles was Aaron's roommate the whole 4 years of college. He farms in Nash County now. Brittany is also the sister of another one of Aaron's friends, so he has known them both for a long time. It meant a lot to us that they came up here to see us. We look forward to the next time when it will hopefully be warmer!

P.S. To all of you from Nash Co.: Charles and Brittany confirmed that it's only a 4 hour drive, so we hope to see you soon, too!

Yesterday I felt like an irresponsible teenager. I lost my keys and was (almost) late for work in the morning. Then when I was leaving work my car wouldn't start because I had run out of gas! It was one of those days, but when Aaron came to my rescue both times like a knight in shining armor, I remembered how wonderful it is to have him and I couldn't care too much about my troubles.

We had a wonderful Valentine's Day! There was a threat of ice on the roads yesterday morning, so school was not in and I didn't work. I slept in (for us, that's 8am) and cleaned the house top to bottom while listening to the music on our wedding DVD. Kari went to lunch with me at Olive Garden (all you can eat soup, salad and breadsticks!), and Carissa went to get hot chocolate with me at Mill Mountain. I met Aaron at a salon and we got a couples one hour massage...his gift to me :). It was awesome! When we got home, he ordered me to put on my pjs and read in bed while he made dinner for us. He is a very good cook, so this is a treat. Bow was supposed to help, but he got sidetracked with the crumbs that were dropped on the floor. We ate NY strip with green and yellow peppers, mushrooms, asparagus, and for dessert we had these mini chocolate cake hearts that mom made for us! Aaron also got the latest Afro-Cuban All Stars CD. It was a very memorable day...filled with the love of good friends and a great man.

On Thursday night, we had friends come up from NC to stay with us so that we could leave Friday morning for WVa. We came back yesterday. It was a perfect trip with perfect ski conditions.

A close up on the ski lift.Joey and Sierra came with us also.

On Friday night and Saturday night we ate at restaurants in the Village with the shortest wait time.

At several points I had a wing on each side.

This was our favorite view...from the top of Shay's Revenge.

It started snowing here about 3 hours ago. It's beautiful. Bow doesn't know what to think- I tried to take a picture of him in it, but he's moving fast so it's blurry.

I took a picture of my room at school so that you (Aaron) can see where I work. It is nice for an ESL teacher to have her own space!

My younger brother Michael and our friend Lauren came to join us for dinner last night. They are both seniors in HS and excited to make changes in the near future. We ate, talked about where Lauren is going to school next year (she's undecided), and watched a little bit of our New Horizons choir DVD. We are glad to be close to family. Bow was exiled to the basement for hyper behavior.

We are out of school today "due to inclement weather". I think whoever made that decision is embarrassed by now, because it's 1:30 and it hasn't started snowing yet! We could have had a full day! I'm not complaining, though, because I had lunch with my hubby and I'm painting another room in the house. :)

Aaron and Joey washed the trucks at work today and he came home saying his feet were soaking. Can you guess why? I shouldn't have let it go this far. I think our Saturday task will be to find new shoes.

I am blogging at home! We got Internet at the house this week. I think it will be very helpful. Now we won't have to call friends and ask, "Hey, can you look something up for me really quick?"

Bow loves to hang out in the bathroom while we are taking a shower. Even if the door is open for him to roam around the house, he will sit right on the mat and keep us company. He sometimes plays with the shower curtain and has figured out how to "unveil" us. He always loves to help us dry off by licking our toes and ankles. It is daily life and we love it!

Aaron and I could go hours playing this game. We played last night for a while...Aaron won 90% of the time, and after we finished he made his confession- he could see my card almost every time and I was clueless! The eyes that I have for this man lead me to assume that he is always just that good and I would have never questioned it.

Sunday we had wintry weather, so I did not have to work yesterday. I was really productive around the house, but I did have some play time- Megan and I went to see Freedom Writers. I recommend it, especially for teachers. It does, however, raise questions about where a woman's priorities should be. If you see it, don't get sucked into the thought that this woman has done everything right just because she is inspirational in some ways. Also, bring tissues!

I said that Aaron was officially a battery man last week because he was able to wear his uniform. I was wrong...he is NOW officially a battery man because Friday he dropped a battery on his finger. He had to get stitches. Turn your eyes away if you have a weak stomach!

Aaron brought two bouquets of flowers home for me last week. They are still making me smile!

My hubby is officially a battery man. He finally got his uniforms yesterday and put on a fashion show for me at 5:30 in the morning. I'm happy because I have a feeling it will mean less laundry!

We went to Roanoke Regional Airport yesterday to see Stephen off. He is going to Valencia, Spain for this semester to study. We will miss him!
To check on what's he's doing while he's there, you can look at his blog: osvoyamostrar.blogspot.com His black suitcase was 10 lbs overweight, so we had to stuff some things into the blue one in the middle of the check-in line. He might have some problems later on with it, but it's better than wearing the same jeans and sweater every day for 4 months like I did (I was underprepared when I went).
Granny and Gene came up from Lucama to see him off and to celebrate dad's birthday with him.
While we waited for Stephen to leave for his gate, my husband played. See what he can do? I am so proud!

Dad's birthday is Monday, so we started celebrating tonight. Mom cooked dinner and we had cake...a fiery one.
Aaron and I have been pretty lazy so far this weekend, but we are looking forward to church tomorrow and Granny coming to visit. I am not working on Monday, so we have some more time to relax and play with Bow!

Michael turned 18 yesterday! Happy birthday! We had a big celebration last night at The Metro in downtown Roanoke. It was a trendy place with exquisite menu selections. We had a fun time...it was a 3 hour affair! Grandma came up for it, so we were glad to visit with her (we secretly believe she came just to see Bow, but we won't tell Michael that).
The birthday man himself.
Mom and Dad's youngest has become a man. They weren't too devastated, though- they are proud.

I got my hair cut last weekend, and Aaron's beard has returned.
Stephen took more pictures, so I will try to get some of his to post.

We've had a productive weekend...we finished redoing the bathroom downstairs. I'll try to get a picture of that soon. We also had some fun. On Friday night we were graciously invited to Nathan and Erin's house, along with Courtney. Erin served dinner and we played Cranium...girls against guys. The girls were way behind but came back to win!Saturday night we ate dinner at The Homeplace with the family, and then went to see the new Rocky movie. Aaron is a big fan. He was so inspired that even though we got home around midnight, he went downstairs to hit on the punching bag that mom and dad got for him for Christmas.

I know it's been slow on the blogging updates lately. We are considering getting Internet at our house, so hopefully in the near future it won't be so long in between posts.
We hope everyone had an awesome holiday season! We are getting focused for the new year and looking forward to having some sort of routine, which has been lacking since the end of October. Routine is good for discipline.

On New Year's Eve morning, we tried a new church and were fed with the truth of Scripture...very encouraging in our search for the church God has purposed for us. We painted that afternoon and then met our family at a Japanese steakhouse in Roanoke. It was a fun dinner! We painted some more when we got home and didn't make it to midnight...the last I saw of the clock was at 11:43. Pretty sad, when you consider that Stephen was in Times Square in NY at that time to bring in the new year! On Monday we painted all day, with a few breaks to catch up on Season 1 of Lost.

So cool.

On Friday of last weekend, we had some dinner guests at our home...Carissa and CJ. Mom and Dad had given us a fondue pot for Christmas, so we tried it out with chicken and veggies and it was awesome. Afterwards we went to Mill Mountain Coffee shop in downtown Salem to have dessert. They are a fun couple.On Saturday night, we went to Olive Garden with Erin and Nathan and my brother, Michael. We were all able to use gift certificates (thanks, Joey)! We had a great time at Erin and Nathan's house afterwards with a game of Slap and Erin's homemade peach cobbler.

The Tuesday after Christmas day, Aaron's brother Ben came to visit us and drive to Snowshoe to ski with us. The conditions weren't great, but it was still a fun adventure. Here Aaron is trying to get dressed in the truck because it was soooo cold outside!

For Christmas, I got Aaron a puppy. We named him Bow because he had a crazy time with the bow I put on his head when I gave him to Aaron. Also, Aaron says that word a lot. He is a Brittany Spaniel.

He is the most precious dog we could have imagined. He is 9 weeks old and mostly housed-trained already. He has a great temperament. He sleeps when it's time to sleep, and is very playful when it's time to play. Since I've gone back to work this week, we've had a hard time leaving him at home alone. I think we hate it more than he does! Aaron checks on him once before I get home in the afternoon. It is not easy to get used to having this responsibility, but we have already fallen in love with our new puppy.