Winter Wonderland...

It has been quite some time since I wrote a blog post, and in the past week I have had quite a few people comment that I am slacking on my blogging.  I must say, they are very right about that!  The past couple weeks have been eventful, calm, and hectic all at the same time.

The past couple weekends have been calmer than normal, but seemed to fly by.  As most of you know, Joe is very into ALTA and plays men's league every season.  This year, he joined a mixed league, which I had been going to watch.  After a couple matches, somehow I got talked into signing up for the team because they were low on girls and didn't want to scratch lines.  After signing up, I started getting worried since I had no knowledge about tennis.  I didn't know how to keep score, where to stand, etc, but I was willing to take on the challenge.  A couple of weekends ago, I played my first match which got cut short.  Three weekends ago, I got to play another match and actually played a full one!   I had the lovely opportunity to play with a friend from college, Chris, which made me a bit more comfortable.  He had hit with me a couple times and helped me learn the basic skills of tennis.  We got off to a fun start, learning where to stand and how to work with each other, and ended up winning the first set in a tie breaker!  The next set we ended up winning by far, so I can officially say I played and won a full match (with a whole lot of help from Chris!).

Two weeks ago I was supposed to travel to Seattle, but Atlanta weather had a different plan.  As most people know, Atlanta got hit by the snowpocalypse.  I was incredibly lucky to be working from home Tuesday, so I did not have to do much on my end.  Joe got the flip side of the experience.  He had left around noon to go to Birmingham, and 6 hours later, made it ALL the way to Six Flags.  After finally getting to an exit with his boss, they turned around.  Although they made it back to midtown fairly quickly (relatively speaking) Joe still wanted to make it to our house.  He hit the road, and got stuck about a mile away for an hour.  After continuing to stand still, he finally put the car in park and made it home, just before 11!  What a trip to make it to Six Flags and back!  I canceled my trip to Seattle (the flight only went out 12 hours late!) so we were safe and sound at home the following day.

The SNOW has started :)

Never seen a Dog love snow more than her...you can't get her to come inside!

We enjoyed the warm weather the following weekend, and I attended my first boot camp class since i had gone regularly in Chicago with a friend or mine.  I must say, my body HURT the next day and I am pretty sure I haven't been that sore since Christmas training in college.  We will see if I make it back :)

At the end of the week we had Nicole and Kristina over for dinner and knocked out some wedding planning.  They are both friends of Joe's from high school and are both very talented.  Kristina is quite the crafty girl so we asked if she was willing to make our centerpieces and flowers for the wedding to keep our costs down.  She is so creative and I cannot wait to see what the final product looks like!  Nicole went to pastry school and was recently working in Europe.  We are so lucky that she is back for a couple months, and she is so kind to make our cake for us.  We have picked absolutely amazing flavors and a beautiful design so I can't wait to see what the final product looks like.  We are so blessed to have so many amazingly talented people in our lives so that we can not only keep the cost of our wedding down, but we can truly have a unique look to our wedding.  It is all coming together so quick! We even sent the invitations out a week ago!

This past week Joe hit the road Monday to go to Birmingham (second attempt) and I had a slumber party!  Kellie Ann and I had a wonderful night on Monday, watching the Bachelor, sipping wine, and eating home made ice cream (who cares about the wedding diet!).  It was so nice having her around in the evenings because I hate having the whole big house to myself!  Sometimes you just need a little girl time, and we definitely had a blast enjoying each others company.

Wednesday I headed to Seattle (second attempt!) and made it!  After calls on Wednesday, I headed downtown to grab some dinner (early because I can't switch time zones well) and was pleasantly surprised to find a parade going on!  I didn't stay long (it was freezing and I was not dressed appropriately) but it was so cool to see at least a portion of it!  The week flew by and before I knew it I was headed back to Atlanta!

Seahawks Stadium after they won the Super Bowl this past Weekend!

Perks of waking up at 4...you see the sun rise :)  View from my hotel!

This weekend was a busy weekend filled with SCUBA class!  To get certified, you have to do an online class which Joe and I had completed, pool dives, and 4 open water dives.  This weekend we did our pool dives to learn the general skills.  I forgot how dry your skin gets after being in a pool for 5 hours!  We had so much fun learning to dive, float, sink, etc.  I must brag and say I lapped Joe on our 200 yd. swim (he kept up with me for a 100 of it then died!) so I guess I still have some swimming skill :)  I also felt quite accomplished when I could still climb the rope they had tied from the roof into the pool.  This is not a SCUBA skill you need, but at Divers Supply in Marietta where we were doing our class, they also do some fire fighter training so it was fun to see if I could still do it.  After two full days of pool skills, we are confident to head to Florida in a couple weeks to do our 4 open water dives and complete our certification!  I am now worn out, and ready for bed.

This week I get to work from home before hitting the road for another two weeks.  BUT before I hit the road, it is BACHELORETTE WEEKEND!!!!  I cannot wait to have all of my wonderful friends in town (some will be dearly missed) to celebrate with me. And now, off to shower number two so that I can stop smelling like chlorine sometime soon :)