A touch of Minnesota

Scott's sister, Amelia, came to visit us for a few days to get away from the Minnesota cold. We did a puzzle while she was here so of course we had to take a picture. Unfortunately, this is the only picture we have to remember the visit.

Other memorable events during her visit: 

• playing an excellent card game called Bang! with some friends of ours two nights in a row (we're only slightly hooked)
• eating at the East Bay Crab House which was a restaurant stuck in 1994 -- this restaurant deserves its own blog but first I want to go back so I can take some pictures.
• eating at Waffle house and then going out for a run (note: don't try this at home)
• introducing Amelia to Dr. Horrible
• watching a few funny movies -- Tropic Thunder & Burn After Reading
• playing our new fancy version of Clue. If you haven't played this game in a while go out and get it. The updated version has lots of added twists that make this classic a favorite again in my book.
  

Good to see you, Amelia!

New Year's Eve

Here we are on New Year's Eve with my family in Maryland. After we ushered in the New Year, Scott decided he wanted some pictures of his "Christmas beard" so we took out the camera and had a little photo shoot with my youngest brother, Bradley.  The beard was shaved off the following Monday, but its memory lives on.

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Christmas 2008

A few pictures from our trip to Maryland.  It was wonderful spending time with my family and relaxing after a somewhat stressful holiday season.  We filled our days with games, Rock Band, Wii, sodokus, eating, and my personal favorite, sleeping.  We were also able to go to some stores that aren't near our home in Florida.  We hit Crate and Barrel to use some gift cards we still had from our wedding, Road Runner Sports to buys some new shoes for Scott and running gear for myself, and a Lazare diamond specialist to have my ring checked and cleaned.  But our favorite stop was at the IKEA in Atlanta where (with the help of some Christmas money) we bought a kitchen table and chairs to replace the card table and folding chairs we had been using.  

Last night we had the missionaries from our church over for dinner and we all fit around the table comfortably. 

 The house is slowly starting to come together. :-) 

Tim the Toolman grunt

This is what happens when Scott decides to clean the back patio with the pressure washer. :-)

Tis a Puzzlement

Sometime back in my college days my friend Kyle warned me to never work on a puzzle with the guy I was dating because it would inevitably cause the relationship to fail. His logic was reasonable enough: I had dated many guys and worked on puzzles with many guys and I was still single. So I actually started to believe that maybe this was true and avoided puzzles for several years. Jump ahead five years and here I am married to a man who works on puzzles with me and still loves me. I think we've finally debunked Kyle's theory, as creative as it was.

Scott picked up a dozen or so puzzles at a yard sale one day and we've been trying to crank through them. We usually just keep one out for us to work on as we feel like it. Visitors even get roped in and can't help placing a piece or two when they stop by. We have now started a tradition of taking a picture of every puzzle we finish. This way we get to remember all of our hard work and we don't feel guilty about breaking it up, putting it back in the box, and perhaps even getting rid of it.