Thanksgiving 2012

Dane and I flew home for Thanksgiving on Tuesday night. We were home for 5 nights. My sister made these great pictures on her Canon camera. I forgot my camera so I didn't get any pictures of our time with the Womacks.

 I love this picture of my Mom making homemade German chocolate cake.

 Poppy. :)

 We had Thanksgiving lunch at Julie's house.

 Sister picture.

 With Dane.

Handsome.

We celebrated Thanksgiving all day on Saturday with Dane's family. I loved time at home with our families.

We are headed home for Christmas Friday night! I cannot wait!! 

1. Dane and I went to an Advent service for the Methodist House at Duke. One of our friends John Carl lead worship and I learned this Christmas hymn that I fell in love with.
2. 
   
3. Come, Thou long-expected Jesus,
   Born to set Thy people free;
   From our fears and sins release us,
   Let us find our rest in Thee.
   Israel’s Strength and Consolation,
   Hope of all the earth Thou art;
   Dear Desire of every nation,
   Joy of every longing heart.
4. Born Thy people to deliver,
   Born a child and yet a King,
   Born to reign in us forever,
   Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.
   By Thine own eternal Spirit
   Rule in all our hearts alone;
   By Thine all sufficient merit,
   Raise us to Thy glorious throne.
   
   
   -Charles Wesley 1745

Nashville Birthday Weekend Update.

For my last birthday I asked my sister if we could all meet in Nashville. It was the end of Dane's fall break and my parents took off work on Friday and we all headed down on Thursday night. I really love Nashville as a city. Of course, I wish I lived in the same city as my sister. BUT I think it's pretty awesome that my sister lives in a fun city on I-40 between Memphis and Raleigh.

 I was super excited to meet my sister's officemate and friend Allison. She is very sweet and Beth loves sharing an office with her! She is also the friend of one of my friends from Duke. They went to Emory together for undergrad.

 Of course, mom and I hit up the mall for a brief shopping trip. The trip included a great new pair of boots from Macy's. Thanks Mom and Dad!

 Dane loves the mall! ;)

 We had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

 I know, I know.. Eat This Not That says that it's the worst restaurant in America. 

All I can say is...the cheesecake changed my life a few years ago and I keep going back.

 Beth suggested we all for a hike on Saturday morning. 

The fall leaves were beautiful and the weather was perfect. 

 Dad was all smiles.

 My beautiful sister!

Ross was not able to join us- no dogs allowed.

 We had some great cuddle time with Ross. 

 For an afternoon snack we walked on over to Gigi's cupcakes for some cookie and Italian cream cupcakes. Good heavens.

 I cannot believe that my sister lives like one block from this place. Very very dangerous.

 Beth has the cutest new dress and I had to get a picture of it!! Love those ruffles. :)

 Saturday night we had dinner at The Pharmacy. Great burgers. A little chilly, but overall a great time.

 The Pharmacy ... Feel Better

 My sweet husband.

 We were trying to take a picture and a man outside offered to take it for us. Some people standing nearby told us to not let him fool us - the man was the owner. He was super nice.

 We finally got ice cream at the infamous Jeni's. I have had Jeni's from Hot Cold before.. but this was an entirely different experience. Simply amazing ice cream. No frozen yogurt for this girl. Oh yea.. Jeni's was the third desert of the weekend. But who's counting?

Thanks to my sweet sister for sharing her home (and her puppy!) with us for the weekend. I honestly think I had my best birthday yet. Family time is precious these days, and a three day weekend in Nashville was just what I needed.

Dane and I are super excited to be heading to the Arkansas vs. South Carolina football game on Saturday in South Carolina. Some of our former church members from Plummerville gifted us two tickets. The game is at noon so we are headed up Saturday morning.

We are also less than 2 weeks out from Thanksgiving!! 

I cannot wait to celebrate turkey time with our families.

Wilmington/Wrightsville Beach weekend Oct 2012

Dane is on Fall Break aka "Fall Reading Period" at Duke Div. He has been super busy with midterms and needed a break. Thursday night after work he surprised me by saying, "guess what, we are going to the beach tomorrow!" He had to tell me on Thursday so that I could pack my bags Thursday night and leave from work Friday. This was a celebration of his break and an early birthday present for me. Living in a coastal state has its perks! We have some wonderful gracious friends who offered to let us stay in their home for the weekend.

 Saturday morning we had an awesome breakfast at Salt Works II in Wilmington. Then we set out to explore. This was our first time to explore the city of Wilmington. We always drive right through Wilmington and head to Wrightsville Beach. This time we took our time and enjoyed the historic city. 

 I bought two pair of cute earrings for $7 each on the boardwalk. I bought them at Polka Dot Flamingo. Super cute store. We spent some time walking around the old homes from the 1800s and stopping in gift shops.

 We headed to the beach around 2pm. The weather was perfect. 70 and sunny!!

 We brought a giant blanket and took a nap under the sun listening to the waves. 

Love this man.

 We headed back to Wilmington for dinner.

 Our parking meter was made in Russellville! We are never really far from home.

 Dinner at Pilot House Restaurant. There were 2 wedding receptions on the boardwalk last night. 

 Great birthday dinner! I had crab cakes and Dane had Louisiana style shrimp pasta. Yum!

We had a great weekend! Thanks to my sweet husband for planning such an excellent surprise!!

Next weekend we are headed to Nashville to spend time with my sister and my parents. We are looking forward to family time. :)

August and September 2012

August and September were very full months. Dane and I went home for a week in August because he had a couple of weeks between his summer Field Ed in Raleigh and the start of the Fall semester. We had a very full week when we were at home. We drove home and stayed one night in Nashville on the way down and back. I love it that my sister lives in Nashville. It is a perfect rest break for us, and a perfect excuse to see my sister!

 

 Corey graduated from FSU film school the week before we got home. We are very proud of him, and we were glad he was able to be at home while we were there.

 I love this picture of Dane and his Dad sitting outside at Dane's grandparents' house.

 It was great to see Dane's Aunt Jody and Uncle Richard.

 Dane and his Nanny Mert catching up.

 We made a trip to Conway to visit with our C. Ark friends. I had lunch with my PT mentors and friends Charlotte and Leah. Dane visited with his new DS and one of his pastor friends. We had potluck dinner with our Plummerville UMC friends. Finally, we ended the night with deserts at Conway's favorite Stoby's with our friends Merritt and Mallory. Adam and Max were out of town working. Mallory and Max are moving to California. It was great to catch up.

 I helped my Mom a few days in her classroom. I was also there for a short time during her Open House. I love seeing my Mom in action. Her kids absolutely love her.

 Reading is a big part of second grade!

 My parents. :) Love.

 With Momma.

 We had our Twilley family reunion when we were home. This was our first reunion without our dear Gran. It was a wonderful weekend, but we all had moments of sadness without Gran. I love seeing her siblings. She loved all of them dearly. In the above photo is her brother Charlie with Mom.

 Here is Gran's sister Doris. She is only 13 months younger than Gran. They could be twins.

 Charlie's daughter Kristin with sweet Rocco and my Aunt Julie. 

 Pop and Doris's husband Mickey.

 Some of Gran's sisters. Doris, Peg, and Ann.

 Beth and Rocco. Rocco loves Beth.

 My favorite teenager.

 Mom and Julie.

 Charlie's newest grandchild - Sunday! She is beautiful.

 Kristin and big brother Rocco.

 Marilyn and Toby. He is a cutie.

 Sunday :)

 We learned a new game with dominos. 

 The back porch at the Lodge. Too many great memories at this Lodge.

 Charlie and Nancy and Sunday.

 Shelby and her adorable daughter Milly.

 Ross chillin in Beth's remodeled bedroom.

 Sunday lunch at the Womacks.

 The men under the shade tree. Good to be home.

 Last lunch with my sweet sister in Nashville. I cannot wait to go back for my birthday in October!

 We had a great fall kick off for our Duke Div Spouse Group. I am serving on the leadership team this year. We decided to have our first event as a family event. It was a great turnout! We had it at a local park which worked well for the kiddos.

 Todd (fellow Arkansan) and Maddie.

 Too much cuteness.

 Dane's 27th birthday coincided with the first day of college football. We had a party at Satisfaction Pizza (the first restaurant we ate in when we moved to Durham) with all of our Durham friends. In the above photo: Raygan, Sara, and Todd.

 Josh, Dan, Tim, Zac, and Will 

 Allie, Christina, Parker and Alisha.

 Our friend Karen also celebrated her 28th birthday. Her husband Zac organized a very sweet surprise party at their home. It was a "Karen is Made Well." We all got Karen gift cards from her favorite clothing store Madewell. We pulled off the surprise. Karen is a precious girl. We are so thankful for our Oklahoma friends. We will share our 5 year anniversary with them in January. We will celebrate on the 4th and they will celebrate on the 5th.

Most recently, Corey came to visit us last weekend. I did not get any pictures because the Womack men do not like pictures. :( While Corey was here, we had a time catching up, eating good food, listening to live music, and watching Razorback football. Ok well, maybe not that last part. Having Corey here was good for my soul. I was missing home, and he came at just the right time.

We went camping this past Friday night with the Workuns and the Bests about 15 minutes outside of Durham. It rained almost the entire time, but we had fun anyway. We also celebrated the birth of sweet Baby Weigelin. We were blessed to visit with this sweet family last night at UNC hospital. Mike and Vail are already amazing parents. We finished the night with dinner at Nana Taco (our Durham favorite) and Texas football with Kevin and Allie (our favorite Texans). Today we enjoyed a wonderful church service at Highland UMC in Raleigh and then had lunch with Todd, Emily, and Nora. Too much fun for one weekend.

This week we have: Spouse Group Tuesday night, Div School Fall Festival Thursday night, and I have a Continuing Ed course Friday and Saturday. We are headed to Nashville in 3 weeks to visit with my family, and we already have our plane tickets booked for our trip home for Thanksgiving.

WHEW!! Blog wrap-up complete. :D