wish i could be here...

...ahh Paris...

instead, i'm traveling to

the boro,

 brentwood,

& west tennessee

this christmas.

maybe next year.

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Happy Easter!

weekend trip to the lake!

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heep hop, hip hop anonymous?

we had an easter egg hunt at work yesterday

my department won! our super fast 'bunny' grabbed 75 & 1/2 eggs

the very much deserved prize for 1st place is a pizza party for everyone

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snow day

MLK day

furlough day {f-day}

snow day
and maybe a little shopping for one small, shiny thing...

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bringing in 2009

with friends meredith & tim
we spent NYE at the parents lake house

enjoyed chicken chili, wine, and yummy chocolate fondue

the boys built a fire & we played a few games

we are all charades champions

watched my fav along came polly & the ball drop in NY

and popped the champagne
happy new year!

may 2009 be a wonderful year for you

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dear year 2008,

thank you for a most wonderful time and days full of exciting change:

• i moved to a better part of atlanta all on my own
• made a huge decision to leave my job
• which was mostly thanks to the even bigger decision to move BACK to tennessee
• survived a one day move across states & began my new job the very next day
• i turned another year older { aka closer to 'my mid 20's' }
• celebrated reid turning another year older
• realized how smart my generation is
• became a peacock for a day
• survived {and followed closely} the most important political season of my lifetime { thus far }
• completed new projects
• celebrated thanksgiving {twice} & christmas {5 times} with reid and our families
• stayed healthy and thankful
• realized how blessed we are to have each other, be just across the street from each other, and the love all around us everyday

thank you family & friends for a great 2008!

much love to you & be safe in 2009

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Bearden Christmas

merry merry cookie factory

hallie, chloe, memy youngest sister chloe being silly

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taggie blanket

Finished!

for my first quilt ever, i'm pretty satisfied with the end result...

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8 tiny reindeer...or 3

so maybe on our little Christmas shopping adventure after church and lunch at a favorite
we ran into live reindeer!

amazing & spectacular

the owner/farmer (?) said he brings them to this little golf shop every year

and has for the past 5 years
you know it's Christmastime when antlers look like this!
maybe this will become a tradition...

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skirt!

i made my own this year for $1.50! the fabric is like jacket or skirt liner from the clearance section. turned out pretty good i guess for a 'no sew' project.

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its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

...everywhere you turn...

i made a wreath & swag with left over christmas tree parts (that sounds a little gross for some reason, sorry) and finished decorating the place. my mom gave me the old candied fruit on my table, which i still love even though they just collect dust. still planning on making napkins for the empty rings & some kind of table runner before we start traveling. what else is there to do when your boyfriend is studying 24/7?

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its not rockefeller

i'm still really surprised i bought this...and actually liking it. i'm not really into tree toppers usually.my first real tree!

my favorite: crackled blue glass from restoration hardware

i had to rearrange a little

cheesy, but thats our 2008 photo ornament

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fantasy of trees

an overhead shot of all the trees in the convention center

we went to the 2008 Preview Gala of Knoxville's Annual Fantasy of Trees to get into the Christmas Spirit. I almost forgot to mention it because the gala was back before Thanksgiving! People go all out for this charity event for east tennessee's children's hospital (i'm talking long evening gowns, tuxes, and fur coats), because it is a black tie optional gala. since we are poor, barely-out-of-college kids, we just wore what we could find. I scored this sequined black dress from belk for fifteen bucks! the best part of the dress was the receipt that said "you saved $101.06 today" at the bottom. so maybe i'm a little bit thrifty?

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riding in cars with boys

...and a tree!

Ugh, it took us 3 & 1/2 hours (about an hour too long) to get back home yesterday from my parents house in Murfreesboro. We got stuck in terribly backed up traffic from an eight car pileup "coming 'round the mountain" between Rockwood & Harriman. Since UT was playing basketball in the Old Spice tournament all weekend and we watched every game, we listened to the championship game during the ride home. They lost. At least my tree is pretty! First 'real tree' is over six feet tall! I plan on buying some new decorations and making my own tree skirt. Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree...

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gobbling goodness

I managed to make the 2nd Annual Turkey day sugar cookies at the Hiltons! The middle photo is actually of a batch of peanut butter cookies (which burnt) that I made for Reid & friend Marshall. Several technical issues this year besides not being able to be in my own kitchen. The icing bags burst at the seams, my brown came out more of a brownish-caramel, and the cookie sheets available really kinda burnt the bottoms. Oh well, at least they tasted good.
Thanksgiving day is supposedly the biggest movie day of the year (probably because everything is closed and people are too tired to do anything besides sit) so we went to the movies the day after, a great idea for the Hiltons plus two. Marshall came with us to see the new Bond movie, Quantum of Solace which was decent. Definitely not the best of the Bonds.

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