What does your Christmas Tree say about you?

Growing up my husband and I had very different trees.  Josh grew up primarily with artificial trees and I have never had an artificial tree.  I have always grown up with a real tree.  It is always an experience going with my parents to pick "the perfect tree".  My dad has an Envoy and cracks me up how he will bring the tree home for us:

You should see the looks we get coming home with this :-)

Our tree also is not a "pretty" tree.  Josh's mom SuSu has the most BEAUTIFUL tree.  It is a Martha Stewart tree for sure.  I love it too.  My family has always used old ornaments and they all mean something.  Our tree is very mix match.  Here are some of the ornaments from our tree and the meaning behind each one:

 This was our very first Christmas.  We had just moved into our house in Greenville on Dec 17th (I think) and for the first year ever, I didn't get a Christmas tree.  We hung this one ornament on a fake ficas tree in the corner!  ha!

 This was from my very first Christmas in 1979

 We did an ornament exchange with my Meredith College girlfriends a long time ago and this was the one I got.  I love it and it makes me think of my MC girls!

 AARRGGHHHH!  This has a duo meaning.  We are HUGE Pirate fans, so I loved this one anyway.  I got it when I had to go to Seatle for work and found this while I was there. 

 Josh, Susan and I went to The Homestead for New Years the year after Gary died (Josh's dad).  It was a great time to be together as a family and remember an awesome guy!

 This was made my Freshman year at Meredith College

 My brother brought this back to me when he was in the Navy overseas.  I was so proud of him.

 This is another one that reminds me of Gary, Josh's dad who passed away.  He was such a beach lover and this is so him!

 Josh will kill me for putting this up, but this is his first ornament he made when he was a child :-)

 Garrett's thumb print last year

 Garrett's obsession with Buzz and Woody

 AAHHHH!  Josh and I went to Vegas before Garrett was born.  It was awesome!

This is my good friend Sara, who passed away when she was 16.  Her beautiful family gave me this and I put it up every year.

This is just a little look into our tree :-)  I hope you enjoy

Running crazy

No really, I'm running like a crazy lady these days!  I have signed up for two more races for the end of this year.  One on November 20th that is a 10K (6.2 miles) and my last one is a 10 mile run.  At the beginning of this year I had a few goals I was thinking about.  One was to run a 5K in less than 30 minutes and the other was to do the 10 mile run.  Up until this past year I have only run a max of 3.1 miles.
When I had these goals at the beginning of this year I didn't want to say them out loud.  I knew that would mean I would have to do them.  SO I said them out loud!  ha!!!
Earlier this year I ran my 5K in less than 30.  That was one of my proudest moments in running EVER!  I honestly never thought that I would be able to do it.  I had hoped to do it, but seriously didn't think it would happen.  I have never been confident when it came to athletics.  I played a few sports but was never good at them.  I'm not just saying that...I really wasn't good. 
I owe a lot of this to my old trainer Anthony.  I feel like he really helped prepare me for my races.
Well, I recently found a great couple of girls to run with.  I have never been able to run with people because I couldn't run and talk at the same time.  Ha.  Well my first run with them was last Saturday.  We ran 8 MILES!!!  What in the world??  If I had to bet money on if I could run 8 miles, I would have lost that bet.  This is now my new proudest moment!  We are going to attempt 9 miles this Saturday. 
I have also run 3 times (including tomorrow) this week.  It is so nice to be able to run and come home and get ready with my family. 
I'm REALLY enjoying this.  I never would have imagined.  The girls that I am running with are all my age and all have children.  They are all new friends and I look forward to our new journey's.
I will keep you posted on how I do in my races!

One of my FAVORITE weekends of the year (part 2)

So it took a little lot longer than I thought it would to finish this blog.  The second part of why I love this weekend is because of 2 reasons.  One being Rooke (Garrett's best buddy).  This is his birthday weekend.  His parents always have a fun party and this year was no exception!  It was a Pirate football theme party.  LOVE IT!  His parents even made a "mini field" on their lawn and they were able to play football.  It looked like the ECU field, but smaller and Happy Birthday Rooke on it!  ha!  Here are a few pictures:

How cool is that????  We just love Rooke and his family!  They are real special to us and this is so much fun.


The other reason we love this weekend is because it is Halloween!!!  We have celebrated with Rooke and his family each year now.  We usually go to our parents houses the night before to let them see Garrett's costume.  Last year he was supposed to go as a cheeseburger.  Well, we have a stubborn little guy and he REFUSED to put it on!  So I got crafty and made him a shirt to wear since he can't read.  Remember this:

That's right folks, that is what he used as a costume last year!

I was a little worried this year we would have the same problem, but he was into it this year!  He was the cutest Buzz Lightyear ever!  ha!  Actually him and Rooke both were Buzz Lightyear!  They were quite the duo!  We are very fortunate to have such a great group of friends that were able to come out and Trick-Or-Treat together.  I think that there were 6 families that came out.  I cherish all the time together. 
We didn't get a long time together because of the rain...boo!  Although, it was just enough time together.  Here are some pictures from our Halloween :-)

This was trying to get everyone in the picture.  Still missing a couple.  The rest of the pictures wouldn't upload but I will try again later! 
I LOVE THIS WEEKEND!!!