Year in Pictures

I have to admit having an IPhone has changed my life. I now have the ability to take and save pictures and I love it! I have never been great at remembering to have a camera and take pictures so having a phone that can do this is super helpful!

In January it was COLD! I also celebrated Christmas with the nephews and a birthday with A.

We spent a lot of time inside close to the stove!

Instead of Christmas presents I opted to give PTO days to my nephew L and W and spend the time with them.

I took L to Monkey Joes


I drove to High Point and went to lunch with W and his parents


I took A to Monkey Joes to celebrate her birthday

In February I met with the lawyer and signed paperwork. We had snow and ice, so I stayed with Tiff in order to be able to get to work. Our offices did not close so I made it as easy on myself as possible.

My paper signing outfit, yes I had one!


Jack is NOT a fan!


Navigating the road


Fun times with Tiff and K


I drove down to spend time with my SC nephews

In March I ran my 4th half marathon, I took my final CIC exam and Patrice had baby W.





Sweet baby W!!!

April was the month that my divorce finalized! I spent more time with nephews and went to Heart Quest.



Easter weekend


Bootcamp


Heart Quest


Jack was so happy to have me home after my week away at HQ

May was so much fun!

My nephew turned 2 and we celebrated at Mom and Dad's house.

Patrice and I helped our preschool teacher celebrate retirement


Nicole and I had a GNO


The month ended and I took Mom to the Brad Paisley concert and we had so much fun!

In June

Jack had a play date with Raven and Kahne


I got all dressed up for the NSCAR Southeastern Regional banquet


L turned 3

July was such a fun month!

Uncle Roger and Aunt Linda visited and we had a girls shopping day

Margs and I enjoyed having the whole pool to ourselves

August brought a new job, I started with my new company on August 17



I went to the Dirty Dancing Festival in Lake Lure, NC





Tiffany REALLY wanted this App brewing pint glass so we tipped the manager really well to find it in dish and drove back after the restaurant closed to retrieve it.


Nicole came back to running after injury


Patrice and I helped Ally (Patrice's sister and one of my previous roommates) celebrate at her bridal shower

A came over and Jack Banner was in heaven having his short girl!

September was CRAZY! I was home one weekend out of the entire month.

Labor Day weekend I visited Jess and her family. Lucky is the absolute sweetest!


On our way to the girls reunion Margs and I connected with our friend Christina inWilmington


We enjoyed seeing our friends Brandy and Michelle who lived beside me in college. The beach was absolutely amazing! I remembered sunscreen except for my legs and I ended up with the worst case of sun poisoning ever!


We went to dinner on Saturday night and sat outside listening to the ocean.


Patrice and I flew down to FL and while she worked I enjoyed some pool time.


We got to go on a dinner cruise. This guy totally photo bombed our picture!

October was the women's conference at church that was AMAZING!


Then I drove down to celebrate Ally and Aaron's wedding in Isle of Palms.

Morning run view

Baby W


October finished out with the fall festival at church and I handed out lots of candy!


In November I went to my CIC celebration dinner


And celebrated Thanksgiving a few times over!


December started off and I was in my happy place, the nursery!

We celebrated Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and the time with my family was so special!

The Saturday after Christmas I went to Patrice's parents and we had dinner and celebrated Christmas again. This picture's caption is "we tried" LOL! L is 3, and he was super happy to see me but NOT happy to have his picture taken!

I'm so excited for what 2016 holds. My word for 2015 is thankful, my word for 2016 is expectant!

VA DC trip

Friday morning (11/21) I drove to visit my friend Jessica and her family. I love visiting and catching up and spending time with them! Saturday morning started off with a very cold run! They live right on the W&OD trail which is awesome! 

Later on that day Jess and I took the metro in to DC. We got off at the Foggy Bottom station and walked into DC. 

I googled the DAR building because I thought it was close to where we were. It was and Jess walked me to it so I could see it. 

We saw a sign for a museum and Jess told me if I wanted to check it out she was fine with going in. I've been a member of DAR (Daughters of the American Revolutions) since I aged out of CAR (Children of the American Revolution). I was so excited to see this building that I have heard so much about!

The first thing we visited was the museum. They currently have an incredible quilt collection on display!

After the quilts we ran into a docent who offered to give us a tour of the state period rooms and we took her up on the offer. There are several state DAR societies that have a room in the DAR building. They are done in different periods of time from American history. When we were there they had just started the decorating for Christmas. The first room she took us to see was the NJ room.

It's hard for me to keep track of which room belonged to which state. There are certain ones that I do remember but we saw so much and the sweet lady who was giving us the tour had so much information to share it was incredible!

They have a toy attic that is full of toys. Jess pointed out that toys really haven't changed much, now they are just plastic and more cheaply put together but the concepts are still the same. 

A living room set for tea with the doll prepared with her tea set.

A dressing table

The CAR room which belongs to the National Society Children of the American Revolution

 This is the DAR library. They have an incredible amount of resources for tracing family genealogy.

The ceiling of the library is absolutely beautiful. They just completed a project repairing these lay lights that are the ceiling.

The Alabama room

This room had the Christmas tree decorated. I LOVE the chandelier!

 Notice the santa hat, that made me laugh!

All of the Christmas trees were so pretty!

 This was the Ohio room. They had it decorated for a 60's Christmas

This kitchen was set up with a hearth and all the different cooking implements they would have used during this time period.

This room was set up like a tavern. 

The stair cases in the building are marble and they have these beautiful pine cones on the banisters

There is a copy of the Declaration on the wall

This was the original DAR building before they enclosed the sections.

You can see Jess and I in this photo. This was a display that talked about a guy who died drinking an alleged 2000 gallons of beer, They had beer jugs that were popular during a certain time period.

In the Louisiana room they had stories and different pictures of brave women.

This was also on display in the Louisiana room.

In this room I took a picture of the musical instrument. Those glasses in that table are the instrument.

I thought this Christmas tree was so beautiful! It's hard to tell but it has ostrich feathers.

Another beautiful tree and the view

Decorating for Christmas

This ceiling is part of a large foyer and I thought it was so gorgeous!

Off of the large foyer they had a little room and this hope chest was in there. Notice the date.

This room was decorated as a bedroom

The Tennessee room was one of my favorites. You can see the Picture of Andrew Jackson on the wall. Apparently he picked out the pink chairs that are underneath his picture for the white house.

President Jackson caught some flack for those pink chairs so he also had to order chairs from an American furniture company as well, they were still pink, just a little more "masculine"

This is the North Carolina room. It was decorated as a very formal dining room. 

 

I recognized some of the name of one of the ladies who had donated pieces to the room and I got a kick out of that!We spent over 2 hours exploring with our docent. I am so glad we were able to visit and see everything! After we said goodbye we ventured back out in the cold again.

the White House

 These are pictures of the back of the White House they never really show the back of the house on TV but the back is so pretty too!

Jess and I. It was so cold! We decided to head to the restaurant where we were meeting my cousin for dinner after this picture.

My cousin suggested a restaurant called Tonic and it was so good! While we were waiting for Cameron we ordered wings and beer, so delicious!

Cameron arrived and we had dinner and talked and I got to hear all about what is going on with her. She is a 3rd year law student who graduates this spring. I'm so excited for her!

We got a quick picture on the Metro before she had to get off at her stop.

I am so thankful for the trip! My next post is coming. Sunday we went to the Botanical gardens and they were so beautiful!