Let it Snow!! (Mississippi style)

If you can't tell by the title of this past, (a) it snowed in Mississippi last night, and (b) I am super excited about it. Even though I don't think it was even a total inch of snow, you better believe I was out playing around in it. That marks the 3rd or 4th time I've ever seen snow in this great state. I guess God knew I had been missing New York (you can't beat Christmas time in NYC) so he decided to send me some Mississippi snow showers. Chase and I were going to attempt a snow man, but decided to just throw snowballs at each other and call it a night. It was fun nonetheless. Below is a picture of our house "covered" in snow. I think this is as "covered" as it gets here. There was quite a bit more snow last night, but my camera doesn't capture much at night.


While I had my camera out, I decided to fulfill a promise to my people up north and provide some more picture of the house. It is coming along slowly, but I think we are a place where we can take a few pictures. So here you are girls!

Living Room from Kitchen

Kitchen looking into dining room

Main entry way (Chase's mom has done all our artwork :) )

Dining Room (pending artwork and a centerpiece for the table)

Master bedroom (again, pending artwork)

Master Bath

Side porch
View of lake from back porchBack patio area with fireplace (the clock will move once we actually get
firewood one of these days)

Beemons Renovations

This past week Dad has been busy remodeling the store to fit his new "robot" machine that will fill prescriptions automatically. It's been interesting to see the store transform from old to new in the matter of a couple of days. No fear though, the blue and yellow 1970's carpet is staying.

Chase helping with the demolition part

The extension to the pharmacy part
Old pharmacy...
New pharmacy...
Old counter...
New counter...

Josh Art Show

Now that I am home I finally get to go to some of my brother's art shows that are in town. Even though I didn't get to go for long yesterday since I had class, it was still great to see his wonderful art work up at Fischer Gallery. He also has two new wonderful websites that are awesome! Josh Hailey Photography and Josh Hailey Studio.

Congrats Yankees!!

Chase and I are sad we aren't in NY to celebrate another ticker-tape parade, but nonetheless we are happy the Yankees won the World Series last night!! Now we just need the New Orleans Saints to win the Superbowl....

Halloween Weekend

This year Chase and I got to trick-or-treat with the kids for the first time ever. We started out the weekend with Caroline and Emerson spending the night with Chase and I Friday night. We cooked breakfast for dinner (waffles from scratch, bacon, eggs, etc) and then cuddled up and watched Ice Age 3. Then Saturday we ran some errands and then went trick-or-treating with them. Caroline was really good at getting "extra" candy for her dear Aunt. :) Sunday was Ava's baptism at Chapel of the Cross and then it was homework time for me.

Ava "The Bumblebee"

Emerson "The Transformer"

Caroline "The Greek Goddess"

Some much needed updates....

I am officially on Fall Break (aka I don't have class tonight or tomorrow) so I figured I'd use this time to upload some overdue pictures. First up is a picture of my new office at work. It's not the Brooklyn Bridge or the Statue of Liberty, but for Mississippi standards I don't think it gets much better than the Governor's mansion, does it? Plus, I actually have my own office with is very nice.
Next up...a house! Yes, that's right. Chase and I closed on our house a little over two weeks ago, so we now reside at 110 Thompson Lane Madison, MS 39110. Come visit!! The inside is still in shambles for the most part because moving has been a slow process for us with work and school, so I'm just attaching a picture of the front. One day I'll get more photos of the inside up and perhaps even a video.

In between moving, Chase and found time to take a trip Saturday down to Hattiesburg for the Southern Miss game. It was quite cold (for MS at least), but we won! Afterwards, we drove down to New Orleans and stayed with Adam and Elizabeth in their new house.

Sunday, we woke up to homemade breakfast compliments of Adam! Then after a quick visit, we headed straight for the Superdome to see the Saints play the Giants. Again, a victory!!

Now we are back settled in and we finally got around to carving our pumpkins we bought last weekend. Don't judge, we're new to this pumpkin carving thing. It just wasn't realistic in New York and we never had a good place in college to have a pumpkin. So we'll get there one day!!

Thai Surprise

For all those who were curious, Chase and I finally tested out the Thai place in town (yes, there is only 1) last night and I am happy to report....it was DELICIOUS!!! Now if I could only find a local Cart guy I would be all set back here in Mississippi!

A Conversation Worth Noting...

I just got out of class this evening and decided to stop by the grocery store on my way home. I know that isn't exciting, but I did feel the conversation I just had with the cashier was worth commenting on. The following conversation really did just happen....

Cashier: "Hi, do you have a Brookshire's card?"

Me: "No, I don't. Thanks."

Cashier: "Would you like to sign up for one?"

Me: "No, thank you."

Cashier: "You sure, why not?"

Me (shocked she asked that): "I'm about to move and I don't think you have a location near me."

Cashier: "Oh yeah, where you moving?"

Me (shocked she just asked that too): "Just to Madison area."

Cashier: "Oh really, why you moving? It safer there or something?"

Me (again, WHAT! why are you still asking me questions): "No, just moved back to town and just bought a house out there."

Cashier: "Oh, where you stay at now" (the grammar is exact)

Me (clearly knowing I'm not going to tell her where I live): "Between here and Old Canton at my Dad's old house" (guess that was too much information)

Cashier: "Oh, where is your dad? He deceased?"

Me (WHAT!? SERIOUSLY!?): "Huh? WHAT? Nooo, he just got remarried and bought a house." (I mean seriously did she really ask that!?)

That was about the extent of the conversation before I decided to grab my groceries and run. Seriously though, I am still in shock! I guess I'm just used to my New York grocery cashiers that don't speak a word to you because they want you in and out as quick as possible. I just thought I would share the ridiculousness of this conversation, because I found it quite ridiculous on many levels.

Recap

I've been quite terrible at this whole blog thing the past couple of weeks, so I think I'll take this opportunity to recap on the past few weeks. Lets see, we've settled back into life in Mississippi quite well. All our NY apartment stuff arrived on time and everything appears to be in order (though half of it is still in boxes since we are moving again soon). We went to the beach for a few days back in August and enjoyed the beautiful weather and family time with the nieces. Other than that, I started school back on August 24th and have officially been a nerd since. I wake up and do school work, go to class, and do school work before falling asleep. It's quite awesome let me tell you.
Chase and I have also been looking at houses quite a bit and we have found one we fell in love with. If all goes well, it will be ours as of next Tuesday!! We are super excited at the thought of owning our first home, but at the same time petrified since it is by far more money than we've ever spent on anything, and probably will ever spend. Dept is good feeling, right? I'll update soon with pictures of our house once it is final and is officially ours (cross your fingers!!).
Other than that, we went this past weekend down to Hattiesburg for the 1st Southern Miss home football game of the season. They played Alcorn State and it felt good to be back being a part of football life again. I rode with Adrienne down on Saturday and we tailgated all day long. Overall a wonderful football filled day!

Now I'm back studying and Chase working. Chase is heading to Salt Lake City this weekend for work, and I'll more than likely be doing homework all weekend. Who is excited!?!

Oh and Chase's birthday was yesterday, so Happy Birthday Chase!!!

Gaga Remembered

This past weekend we remembered the world's greatest grandmother of all time. My dear Gaga passed away 2 weeks before Chase and I moved home from New York and the world has not been the same since. She was such a special person in all our lives, so we decided to throw a huge party in her honor this weekend. Cigarettes, scotch, wine, beer, and an art show of 300+ pictures made Saturday the perfect way to celebrate the life of such a beautiful woman. I'm going to miss you Gaga forever and always.

Home Sweet Home

Literally, this is our humble abode for the time being which just happens to be the house I grew up in. Should anyone need to send us anything, we are now located at 104 Colonial Glen Jackson, MS 39211 and we'll update everyone once we buy our first home.

And they wonder....

...why we're the fattest state in the nation. I just went to Sonic for the first time since being back and my jaw is still on the floor. I guess I usually order a Wacky Pack (their version of a kids meal) which comes with a little tiny joke of a drink. Regardless, today I actually ordered a big-girl combo meal and I was so shocked to see the shear size of my soda. So shocked I of course had to take pictures. It was slightly amusing to compare it to other objects around the house. For your amusement, I have attached a few. Seriously, $4 people and you get all this below. I'm going to blow up.

Farewell New York

As I write this, I am officially a Southerner again. Tuesday night, Chase and I finished packing up our little apartment and got ready for the big move Wednesday morning. Below is a picture of our apartment empty except for the items we brought on the plane. It just looked like any other empty studio in Manhattan without our stuff in it. Sad in a way, so we made sure to get out do one last thing before we left.

We did the unthinkable. In total touristy fashion, we headed to dinner and then we went to the top of the Empire State Building. Even though there were tons of people and you had to squeeze by to get good pictures, it was rather peaceful in a way. When you're that high up you can't hear cars or horns and such, it's just peace and quiet. A nice ending to our 2 year vacation in the city really.
So we arrived yesterday back home and were welcomed with family and friends at the airport. Yes, you see that's what Southerners do. One friend even came to the airport with chik-fil-a, now that is dedication. So now we're settling in and getting used to life back in Mississippi. We've enjoyed the past 2+ years immensely and can't tell you how many friends we will miss. It is for certain our lives will never be the same!

Until next time Y'ALL!!!!

Happy 2 Year Anniversary!

Let's see, today's festivities started with me cooking Chase breakfast early this morning before work. Breakfast included scrambled eggs, sausage, biscuits, and a fresh pot of coffee. Later after work, Chase surprised me with tickets to see Jersey Boys tonight! For any of those who haven't seen it, it was simply AMAZING! After the show, we decided to grab a quick bite to eat at a diner around Times Square and then head home. Not a bad way to celebrate our 2 years!

One Last Dinner

Saturday night was our last dinner with everyone up here in the city. Since it was our last farewell, we decided everyone could come and enjoy one of our Downtown secret spots - Stone Street. Of course it was a delicious dinner at Adrienne's Pizza Bar and then we enjoyed a few good card games back at our apartment. Thanks everyone for coming! We will miss all of you!

Yankees Game

Despite the rain this evening, we all thoroughly enjoyed watching the Yankees play in the new stadium. Me, Chase, Colby, Kylie, Josh, Rischel and Michele all went to see the Yankees play the Detroit Tigers. Even though there was a monsoon halfway through the 8th inning, we still enjoyed the new $1 Billion stadium from the 2nd to last row in the far right upper deck.

Back in Time

You will never believe where we ended up last night. We had some friends come in town from home and in a last minute whim, we decided it was be fun to head out to Lyndhurst, NJ and check out this Medieval Times place. Oh yes, we took at taxi from Wall Street NYC all the way to Wall Street New Jersey (who knew!). Overall, a very amusing evening which included knights on horses, a jousting tournament, and a true medieval style meal where they provided you with NO silverware. If any of you have seen Cable Guy with Jim Carrey you will know this place. Did I mention we wore our crowns the entire time? Oh yes...

I now pronounce you....

Husband & Wife! Wedding season is upon us. In the past 3 weeks, I've had the pleasure to witness wedding vows for 3 different couples: Ashley & Tripp, Sarah & Will, and now Dad & Ellen. 3 down...many more go!

Ashley's wedding

Sarah's wedding

Dad's wedding

While I was away this weekend doing wedding madness, Chase and his Dad enjoyed a weekend in the city. They saw a show, went to the Natural History Museum, and went to the US Open on Sunday to follow Tiger around for a few hours. I can only hear the stories from the Open since they don't allow phones or cameras on the course.

It was a fantastic wedding / Father's day weekend! Congrats to all the newlyweds!!