January 31st

It is never good when you receive a text that starts with, "I'm ok. I'm at Doctor's Care..." That is the text I received one day while I was at work. The rest of the texts went a little something like this:

"I had an oops with a razor."
"What did you do??"
"Tried to take my thumb off with a razor blade."
"Stitches??"
"Ummm....yea."
"Call me when they are done."

Danny had been at work scoring tile with a razor for the customer lounge he's been helping build. The razor blade decided to take its own path...right threw Danny's thumb. Eleven stitches later his thumb is whole again although pretty disgusting looking. He needed my help changing the dressing and I would nearly gag just about every time. Danny would look at me and ask, "How are you going to deal with our kids when they hurt themselves?" and I would respond, "They aren't allowed to bleed unless you're home."

January 24th

As I was laying in bed one night, I was trying to think of how to celebrate Danny's 27th birthday. All of a sudden John Belushi in a toga popped into my head. What better way to celebrate than with a toga party! I rounded up all of our friends and the toga countdown began.

Surprisingly, most wore togas. I have to say the best out of the bunch was Neil. He got fabric and gold rope, while the rest of us donned sheets. I even manager to wrap one around Danny for a nanosecond. We all had a lot of fun.

Mom sent this amazing cake over with Casey. It was in the shape of a motorcycle and it took her three hours to decorate. She said she will never do it again, so enjoy it haha. I had lots of munchies set up along with my first attempt at making hummus. It came out decent, but I really need a food processor. Danny set up a beer pong table on our screen porch and many a game was played. Lots of stories were told of course. It was a good night.

Mom is so amazing!

Matt and Robin

Casey and Susie

Neil and Kristen

Shiloh in her camo

Bryan and Jessica

Jen and Kristen

our *normal* picture

Neil and Casey shotgunnin'

Neil has a little more experience under his belt

Susie playing beer pong

Casey and Neil

Danny being silly opening his gifts (the Old Guys Rule was my gift to him by the way)

January 21th

The past week at my work has been full of changes. As people were let go because of the consolidation others had to adjust and take on their accounts. I was one of the "lucky ones" who received a new account. Unfortunately because of certain circumstances, I ended up with an account that normally I would not handle. This required a bit of adjusting for me and a lot of learning.

On top of new responsibilities, we also have to deal with physically moving within the building. The building is being updated with new offices and a better layout, which is greatly appreciated, but with this new update all of customer service has to move from upstairs to the training room downstairs temporarily until our new offices are completed sometime in April. Having everything shuffled around can really through someone out of whack.

With all of this happening on top of my normal responsibilities apparently I was a little stressed out. I went to the doctor on Friday and come to find out I have shingles. Thankfully I was given medicine that immediately relieved the pain, but here's proof that stressing out can be more than just stressing out.

January 20th

In late January we had our first snow of the winter! It didn't last very long, but it did stick on the ground for a little bit. I went outside with Shiloh to take some pictures. She did love running around outside and slidding through the powder.

January 18th

After receiving the Wii for Christmas, I had been wanting a Wii Fit to go with it. Unfortunately I was not the only one with this thought process. Danny and i had been checking the stores here and there and had been finding nothing. A Wii FIt was no where to be found.

On Sunday, I called mom to check the newspaper to see if anyone advertised having Wii Fits in stock. Score! Best buy and Target both had adds in the paper saying they would have some in stock. I was so excited, and nervous that there would be a line out the door, that I had Danny go with me to the store at 11:45 even though it didn't open until 1:30. While there wasn't a line until 1 o'clock when they gave out vouchers, Danny was a good sport about waiting in the car all that time with me. Oh did I mention it was also raining? Nevertheless, I got a voucher and got my Wii FIt!

In return for doing this for me, Danny and I went to the gun and knife show at the Jamil Temple. I had never been to a show before and it was quite interesting. There were lots of guns and knives of course, but there was also camo and war relics and books and tasers and jewelry. Who knew?

Danny had been asking for this certain shotgun for awhile now and while we were at the show he found it. It was just what he had been wanting so we got it as an early birthday present. On the way home I told him not to expect me to get him a gun for his birthday every year now since last birthday I had given him his rifle. He just laughed.

One happy boy.

Testing out the new toy.

Neil was over and gave it a go.

I tried the new guy too. Not a huge fan cause I prefer my little 22 (and yes I'm wearing brightly colored rain boots while I shoot).

January 16th

My parents’ neighbors, Iain and Helen, were in town from England for the week so Friday evening after we had returned from the bowl game Danny and I met them, along with my parents, downtown. We started at the Flying Saucer for some drinks and stories. Iain is always good for a crazy story or three. He never fails to make me laugh so hard my stomach hurts.

After chatting it up for a bit we walked down the street to the Blue Marlin for dinner. It only got more interesting from here. More stories were told and more laughter followed. The food was wonderful and when it came time for the bill the fight began. My parents wanted to pay but of course Iain and Helen weren’t going to settle for that. Daddy and Iain each had a hand on the bill and the waitress stood there helpless. She decided to come back in a bit to see who would end up paying – smart girl. The turning point of the fight was when Daddy threatened to kiss Iain if he didn’t give him the bill. Worst – move – ever. Iain took that threat a step further and planted one on Daddy right on the lips. We all burst into laughter and Daddy ended up paying the bill but not without excepting at least some money from Iain to make it fair. By the time we got out of the restaurant I’m sure everyone sitting around us was all very happy to see us go. Never a dull moment with my parents and their friends.

January 10th

The weekend of the 10th Aaron was going to be in town "playing army" as he put it. He had promised my mom that during his next visit he would cook her and my dad dinner. Saturday night we ended up at their house for dinner, but Aaron promised Sunday night it would be his turn to cook. We were all very excited because Aaron is studying to be a chef. Who wouldn't want to be his guinea pig?

Sunday afternoon Robin and Matt gave us a call seeing if we'd like to meet them in Columbia and go to the State Museum. Danny had been wanting to go and there was a Leonardo Divinci exhibit that looked interesting, so off we went. We spent 3 and a half hours wandering all over. There's nothing like a little education to liven up a Sunday afternoon.

Part of the Clemson display in the "Football Through the Years" display.

Danny playing with one of the hands-on displays.

An old Clemson Tiger Band uniform!

Danny and Matt looking at the dinos.

Around 5 o'clock we headed back to our house and Aaron was cooking up a storm. My parents were already there and ready for the wonderful food to come. My brother Casey and his friend joined for the feast as well. A simple dinner turned into quite the festivity and it was super yummy. Aaron made chicken stuffed with tomatoes and cheese, a salad with strawberries and blue cheese, and rice with mushrooms. And while he made a complete mess in my kitchen it was worth every dish that I had to clean afterwards!

January 9th

After work on the 9th, Danny and I met a bunch of my coworkers at a bar called Roosters. I had been invited a couple of times before to join for drinks, but because of football season we were always out of town. This was the first time Danny met anyone I work with and vice versa. Teena told me Danny was not what she was expecting, but could see that we fit together.

It was nice to go and hang out for a bit. Of course the work gossip was going strong that night, especially when you add alcohol to the mix. It had been Scott's last day at work, so he wanted to celebrate leaving FBJ and heading back to school. What better way to celebrate than shots for everyone!

That night there happened to be a turkey shoot going on. What that boils down to is aiming at a paper target and whoever gets more holes in the middle of the target wins. Danny convinced me to give it a go. It was my first time shooting a shotgun and I was very proud that I even hit the paper. There were only a couple of holes (while Danny's target had a whole mess of holes), but it was something!