New Year, New House

Oh wow, so much has happened since the last post! Tyson and I closed on our new house (!*yay*!), Christmas has come and gone, our friends Maria and Brandon let us ring in the New Year at their wedding, we went on an AWESOME ski vacation, and Tyson started a new job!

The house is absolutely WONDERFUL, although we've been gone so much since we moved in that there are still boxes left everywhere that need to be unpacked. Tyson and I have committed to really buckling down over the next few weeks so that by the end of January we can have a normal, put-together home to live in. It's amazing how much space we have now! You could probably fit two of our old apartment in our house and still have some room left over. One thing is for sure, my parents, Tyson's parents, and Tyson's grandparents are all THRILLED to have all of our stuff out of their basements/garages/etc! They are also probably ecstatic at the thought of not having to move us for several years....heaven knows we've had waaaay too many "homes" in our six years together!

The multiple family Christmas concept is kinda new for Tyson and I, but last year we worked out an itinerary where we were able to fit a trip in to see both of our families, so our plan was to stick with that same schedule this year. Unfortunately, some of the best laid plans can fall through! We had a beautiful white Christmas up in LaFollette at my grandparents' house on Christmas morning, but all that snow and ice prevented us from making it down to Atlanta to see Tyson's family. We were really bummed that we couldn't make it down to see everyone, but considering when we were finally able to leave my grandparents' house a few days later, our cars were STILL having a hard time naviagating the icy roads, we knew we made the right decision. Luckily, Tyson's mom and brothers were coming up to Knoxville the following week to have Christmas with some of the local family and for Andrew's baseball camp at UT, so we were able to see them shortly after the holidays. Not the same, but definitely better than nothing. We will have to come up with a different plan next year too, because we are going on a super fun Disney World vacation with Tyson's family the week before/of Christmas, and we'll need to figure out a way to get back to Knoxville at some point too. Seems like it's always busy, busy for the Patricks!

On New Year's Eve, Tyson and I left work early and headed over the mountains to Mooresville, NC, where our friends Brandon and Maria were getting married. Brandon is the twin brother of Tyson's best friend/best man Mike. Coincidentally, Mooresville is also the city I used to live in before my family came to Knoxville in 1999. I hadn't been back there since we moved, and boy has it changed! I barely recognized it! We spent Friday evening at the wedding and reception, which was SO much fun! Maria looked absolutely gorgeous, and you could just tell how happy they were to be tying the knot. And Tyson and I were way jealous of their choreographed first dance...we definitely didn't have the discipline to stick with dance lessons for ours. We chose the middle school/hugging embrace stance for ours! But like I said, so much fun. Not only were Tyson and I celebrating our first New Year's Eve as a married couple, it was also the five month anniversary of our wedding, which we got to spend with some of our very good friends! We definitely missed our families though!

We spent all day Saturday in Mooresville looking around at some of the old sights in the town....our family's old apartment from before we built our house, the house, my old schools, my church....and we even visited with one of my oldest and dearest friends Stacy and her boyfriend Will. It was a lot of fun to catch up and talk like old times. On Sunday morning we got up early and met our friends Rodney and Callie in Davidson for breakfast. Callie has family in that area of NC and they happened to have spent New Year's there, so we decided to meet up for a quick breakfast before they headed back home and we headed north to Virginia for our ski trip. We ate at this great little place called Toast, which I would definitely recommend to anyone travling through the area or visiting someone at, say, Davidson College.

We arrived at Massanutten Ski Resort in Harrisonburg, VA just in time for the night time ski session. We had met my parents, brother Justin and girlfriend Erin, grandparents, uncle and cousins Corey, Riley, and Casey up there, and we were so ready to hit the slopes! My grandparents and mom took my little cousins Casey and Riley, to the timeshare to check in, and the rest of us headed up the mountain. Corey, at only 11 years old, took to that snowboard like a duck to water....I just can't believe how good he is! I am definitely the least advanced skier/snowboarder of the group. I stick to the beginner and some intermediate slopes...I'm such a wimp! We skied 5 out of the 7 days we were there (well they skied 5, I skied 4...). Needless to say, we were all very sore! We even went to Showshoe, WV one of the days (that was the day I took off....when we got there I took one look at those trails and though, wow, this is way above my level of experience, and decided to do some sight-seeing with my mom and grandparents instead!). I do think I improved overall this trip, so next year maybe I'll be able to take on some more intermediate slopes...but probably no black diamonds in my near future!

I think we were more tired when we got home than when we left, but another wave of snow gave us some more time to recover. School has been canceled for the entire week in my home county and Tyson's new job was canceled on Monday, and delayed on Tuesday and Wednesday! I went in about 30 minutes lates to my job on Monday, and we left about 30 minutes early, and it was delayed a little on Tuesday too. So it was nice to kind of be eased back in to the work week. Tyson is liking his new job so far, although he hasn't really been immersed in it yet. He is working with one of our friends, Clint, who is helping show him the ropes for now. Before long he should be raking in so much that I can quit my job and be a full time trophy wife! Not really, but here's to wishful thinking!

The next few weeks are scheduled to be just as crazy busy as the last few have been for us, but it's all so much fun that I really don't mind. I do miss the lazy weekends and weekly game nights we used to enjoy on a regular basis, but there will be plenty of time for that in the future. For now, we are just enjoying life with our friends and family and getting involved in as much as possible! Who knows when I'll even have time for another post...from the way things have been going, it might be 2012!

Christmas is Coming!

After Thanksgiving and the infamous "Black Friday with the Family" experience this past weekend, the holidays are officially in full swing. We went down to Chattanooga this year to my Aunt Tina's house for Thanksgiving with the whole family. It was the first time Erin, my brother's girlfriend, had been to a big family holiday gathering at one of our houses. I hope she doesn't think we're too crazy after this weekend, although I will say we were rather tame in comparison to most years :) We had family photos made, courtesy of Image Photogrpahy by Matt Wolcott, for the first time in WAY too many years, at Chester Frost Park. The scenery there was great, despite the fact that I sat in some kind of animal excrement... But anyway, it was great to have the whole family together to document how much we've grown since the last real picture, and I can't wait to see how the photos turn out!

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving meal, with everyone crowding in the kitchen to help. Even Justin and my cousin Matt pulled their weight, whipping up some very tasty mashed potatoes. There's a story behind the potatoes... a few years ago, Justin and Matt saw my grandmother using a mixer to mix the potatoes to the perfect "mashed" consistency. The boys were insistant that these were not mashed potatoes, but "whipped" potatoes, and vowed that they would take care of the potatoes the next year. However, they didn't take the job too seriously, and every year since, they have been hijacking the potatoes and coming up with some weird concoction of ingredients that normally don't belong in potatoes and serving them to us with evil grins. It's gotten to the point where we are afraid to eat them, which is positively a downright shame, since who doesn't love mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving? This year though, they finally got their act together and made some really great mashed potatoes, which is one of the things we were all extremely thankful for!

The next day all the girls in the family went Black Friday shopping. In previous years, we did the whole getting up at 3am thing to hit all the stores with the doorbuster deals and we went through all the ads the day before and made lists of everything we needed to get. But lately it's just too much hassle, and there are always those crazy people camping out at midnight that get all the good stuff before you anyway, so we've been taking it easy recently. We left the house at about 8am and spent the morning at the big stores like Target and Academy Sports, then took a break for lunch at Fuji Steakhouse (best fried rice I've ever had, by the way), and then finished the day with an afternoon at Hamilton Place mall. It was a pretty good day, and I don't think we scared Erin too much :) Below is a picture of me and my cousins and Erin showing our holiday spirit in Target.

Snowflake, reindeer, snowflake, reindeer

Saturday, as any avid Vols fan would know, was the last regular season football game of the year. Tyson's family came into town and his brothers stayed with us Friday night so we could get up early and tailgate. We got to UTFCU on the strip at about 7am (in the 25˚ weather, no less...) and proceeded to build a fort out of our Tennessee tent and sleeping bags and blankets. Then we cranked up the generator and plugged in the kerosene heater and one electric heater and huddled together for a few hours until it was warm enough to venture outside. It was pretty hilarious, and I'm sure we looked ridiculous out there, but we had a blast at our last football game for nine months. Here are a few pictures of our makeshift fort:

  



The fake fire is a nice touch, don't you think?



The kerosene heater was a God send, although it kind of
looks like it's catching someone's leg on fire right now...



Erin and I got these awesome shirts in Chattanooga on Black Friday!

So now our fun weekend is over and it's back to work and the real world. We used Sunday to pack some more boxes and then we went to Home Depot and ordered the refrigerator for the new house. Thanks to our many family and friends who gave us Home Depot gift cards for our wedding, and the great sale they were having on major appliances, we got a fantastic deal on a big side by side fridge!

The house is coming along great too. Our closing date will be sometime between the 15th and 23rd of December, so we are officially moving in about three weeks. So crazy to think about! I turned in our 30-day written notice of our last day to our apartment complex yesterday, along with our last rent check EVER, and it was a very liberating feeling!

Here is the most current picture of the outside of the house:



This week is another full week, with a little Christmas shopping last night, dinner with my good friend Abbey tonight, our first knoxAchieves mentor meeting tomorrow night, a meeting with the DJ from our wedding on Thursday to do our post-interview, and MORE Christmas shopping this weekend. It's only going to get busier from here on out too, with a trip up to Ohio to visit my dad's side of the family next weekend, and hopefully moving in to the new house the weekend after that, and then Christmas, New Years, and our ski trip to Massanutten! I love the holidays, but man do they tire me out!

Thanks for sticking around to read this (if you made it this far), and I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday season with your family too!

Mi Casa es....well, Mi Casa

I kid, I kid. Once we get moved in to this thing we can't wait to have everyone over to see the new place!

Anyway, things are coming along VERY quickly... In fact, it's looking as if we'll be in by the end of the year after all. We've already started packing up the apartment since we won't have all of our time to devote to it during the holidays. Neither one of us is all that thrilled about having to go through the moving process again, but once it's done I know we'll be so glad to be able to be sure that we're going to stay in one place for awhile!

Here are some of the latest pictures of what's done so far, although a lot has been accomplished since even these were taken!




Half way done with the siding, and stonework complete
(although you can't really tell in this picture).




Accented ceiling in the living room.




Doesn't look like it yet, but this is the kitchen.




The entryway, looking at it from the living room. Dining room is to the
right, office is to the left.




<3


Most recent updates on the house are as follows: Siding and exterior are done, minus the shutters, real front door, and garage door (temporary doors installed for now). Drywall is completely done, and the painting is almost finished. The trim package was supposed to have been delivered on Monday, but I haven't been over there since Saturday to check. The interior will really start moving along now that everything on the outside is pretty much done.

I am already mentally moving in in my mind. Where to put the couch and tv, how to arrange our bedroom furniture, how to set up the kitchen, ideas for all the extra space we have now... My mind is going non-stop with the possibilities! (Of course, I stop short when I realize a lot of my ideas require having a certain disposable amount of money, so...well, maybe next year.)

So like I said in the last post, exciting things are happening for the Patricks! Keep checking back for even more pictures as the house nears completion, and definitely stay tuned for a house warming party date!!