Welcome 2011 and Welcome to Raleigh!

Hello! Happy New Year!! (even though we have been in the new year for a couple of weeks!)

Here is a little update on us:

1. Where did we spend December:

• In Raleigh (in a hotel for a week as we got a few things settled).
• Went to the mountains of Western North Carolina and stayed in a friend's cabin for a couple of days. It snowed!! Yeah! We almost lost our car (okay almost might be an exaggeration), but as I watched it slide down the hill with a sharp drop off to the left I kept yelling for Hubbie to bail. All I could picture was the car sliding off the road down the steep hill. Good news! We made it down!
• Went to see Hubbie's Dad in Charlotte.
• Went to see my family in Virginia. While we were there it snowed 13 inches. Hello, we never get snow in VA much less 13 inches. We actually stay with my sister who lives 30 minutes away and then come to my parents house each day. Well, we drove in the snow twice before staying at my parents house. Testing out the 4 wheel drive on the Ford I guess. I don't think VA owns a snow plow. We drove in some nasty weather. Again...as Hubbie drove, I would sit in the passenger seat, heart beating fast, wondering if we would ever see a plow and hoping someone wouldn't hit us! Puppy loved running in the field and even caught some kind of animal while we were walking.
• My sister and her family came from Colorado and stayed at my parents house, so we got in some great family time, especially with the snow. Not to mention, there were 6 dogs at my parents house (including puppy). It was crazy at times, but a good time.

2. We are finally in Raleigh in our apartment in the beginning of January! Love our apartment, don't love having to keep puppy on a leash every time we take him outside.

2. Watched Auburn win the National Championship with some other Auburn fans in the area!! War Eagle. "It's great to be an Auburn Tiger (even if I married in!). It is amazing that everywhere we go we find Auburn friends. It is a bitter sweet now that the season is over. Bitter because it was so fun to watch Auburn win, Sweet because now I will no longer have that feeling like I'm going to have a heart attack watching them play games. I swear years have been taken off my life being a fan.

3. I read 3 books in December. That is what happens when you don't have a job! I read, count sheep, read more, count more sheep.

• My life in France: an autobiography of Julia Childs. Love that woman! What spunk!!
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: This book is a collection of letters between folks post World War II. They talk about life during the German invasion of the island and its effect on people. (Okay so that is not a great summary, but it was a great book.) I learned that in the English Channel there are islands. Didn't know that before. Guess I need to brush up on my geography.
• The Forgotten Garden: Since I'm so good at giving book reviews, the one is about a grandmother and granddaughter's search for where the grandmother was born. She was put on a ship in the 1913 and landed in Australia by herself. So the book tells of how the grandmother searched for her past and how her granddaughter helped. Fascinating book. Can't wait to read another book by this author.

4. Now we are looking for jobs and learning about the area we live in. This past weekend we drove through the Duke Campus. Bea-u-ti-ful!! Hello, can you say prestige!! Don't love looking for a job, but that comes with the territory of moving to a new area!

That's a brief update on us! I'll send pictures....maybe!