Holidays are over!

Over the past month, I have discovered that December is going to be an extremely busy month every year! Not only is it right after Thanksgiving, and has Christmas and New Years packed in (and all the shopping that goes along with those two!! yay!!), but Charlotte's birthday is the 15th. So, Im sorry for neglecting this blog during that time!!! I'll go in later and add the "missing blog posts."

I think I have learned my lesson that LESS is MORE when it comes to baby birthdays! I think I stressed myself out way too much over it this year. Don't get me wrong, it was a BLAST and fun times were had by all, but I get myself way too worked up over entertaining people. Next year we're going to have a quiet little get together with family.. No stress!! ha.

Like I said, I'll post more pics and posts later, but I'll leave you with a birthday pic of the little princess! :)

JACKSON PICS!

As my friends will tell you, I am not a big picture taker. I'm just not. I've tried to be, but alas, to no avail. I just always forget to grab my camera! *sigh* So these are some of the pics I snapped this past weekend.

First off, a pic of my hubby. The first night in Jackson (well, I guess it was our only night) we went to a restaurant who's name I can't remember right now (I think it was Bravo's?). It was AMAZING. It seriously had the best chicken I had ever had in my life. It was called Grilled Chicken but it had this soft cheese on top.. And wow, it was just amazing.

This is a snapshot of one of the shopping malls in the area. We had lunch in Sweet Peppers Deli (practically the same as McAlisters). Its a nice area in Ridgeland, I believe.

Possible future place of employment! :)

Another place of possible employment. I think this was Baptist hospital.

Of course, we drove by Eaton Corp. Thomas was just all too excited to show me where he'll be working for the next umpteen years. It's in an older building so it wasn't as snazzy as some other plants I've seen, but he said it was really nice inside. Eaton has a great reputation, I've heard. Not that I know anything about that kind of stuff.

We just had to drive by the Reservoir! It was beautiful, even on a rainy foggy day like it was. It was HUGE and took about 5 mins to drive across it.

Another picture of the Rez.

So that's all I got! I know it isn't much, but like I said, I really like the area and it was a lot of fun taking the weekend off to be with my honey!

Jackson Trip!

Thomas and I visited Jackson, MS this past weekend since I had never been to the area and I wanted to get a feel for where I would be living for the next 3-??? years. Let me first say that I just LOVED it. It was a lot better than I imagined it to be. I don't know why, but I NEVER imagined myself living in Mississippi. I always thought Alabama was bad enough! Goes to show you God has a sense of humor and our plans are definitely NOT His plans, and vice versa.

When we got there we met our real estate agent, who had been recommended by Thomas' company. She was so nice, but I've got to say that she had THE biggest southern accent I have ever heard and I've never heard someone roll their "R's" more than she did! But she was really cute and showed us all around Jackson's surrounding areas (Madison, Ridgeland, and Brandon... the 3 areas we are considering to move to) and even gave us daycare advice, showed me the local hospitals (there are 5!), and showed us 4 houses. It was a bit overwhelming at first but there seems to be a lot to do there. She showed us the Reservoir and it is HUGE! I am so excited about that, I have never lived near a large body of water. She said there is a lot of boating and water activities that go on in the summer at the Rez. There are even a few restaurants right on the water.

We spent about 3 hours just driving around. There were a lot of shopping areas and I saw 8 Kroger's in about a 15 mile radius! No Publix, though, but that's ok. We also drove past a TON of churches. There was literally a church on every corner, not that I'm complaining about that! Just means that finding a good church will probably be kind of hard. I know that God has everything all planned out. I can only pray that God leads us to a godly and biblical church that has been as wonderful to us as our current church. I get teary eyed when I think about leaving everyone.

Anyways... Later on that night Thomas and I went to a local restaurant near downtown Jackson called Bravo! It was an Italian restaurant and at first I thought I was a little underdressed in my jeans and top (but I did have boots on! haha) because everyone was dressed so fancy. The food was a little pricey, but I have got to say they had THE BEST grilled chicken entree that I have EVER had. It was so good, we will definitely be going there again! After we ate, Thomas and I drove over to Barnes and Noble (what is it with us and bookstores??) and got some coffee. We moseyed around a little bit and I skimmed over a few baby books (well, toddler books)... Then we went to the hotel room where I passed out from sheer exhaustion! A 5 hour drive and then all of that I just described made for a very long day....

Of course, the next morning I woke up at 7:11am. Im telling you, this child has ruined my ability to sleep in!! Arghhhh!!! Hopefully I'll remember how to do that someday!!! But we got up, got some breakfast, and drove around a bit more before we headed home at about 1pm. My mom was at home watching Charlotte and I really started to miss my biggin. I was so excited to see her when I got home, and I THINK she was excited to see me... However, less than 5 minutes after arriving home she was back to playing with her stuffed puppies... Go figure!! :)

I took a few pictures and I will have those up later on.....

Garmin

On Black Friday while I was at work, I ordered a Garmin Nuvi 260w on Amazon. It arrived a few days later and can I tell you how *AMAZING* it is??? I had a few Amazon giftcards saved up from my Swagbuckin' so it brought the overall price to a ridiculously low deal, so we had to get it. We figured it would be really handy after we make the Big Move. I have zero navigational skills, so this thing is really going to help me out! We brought it with us over to Jackson this past weekend and it was simply amazing! It guesstimated our arrival times down to the minute, told us where the closest gas stations were, led us to any house address we typed in... It is just awesome. We'll probably have to get another one for my car next year.

It's so amazing that this kind of technology is available for such an inexpensive price. Crazy!

We're goin' to Jackson.......

In the words of Johnny Cash, we're goin' to Jackson!!

I didn't put it on the blog for the longest time because Thomas didn't want to get the word out until Eaton had "officially" let him know about the job. They told him over Thanksgiving break that he had gotten the job! About 1.5 months ago, he had two interviews with Eaton Corporation in Jackson, MS for a Leadership Development Program for engineering college grads. Over 20 people were interviewed and only 5 were selected. They are REALLY keen on GPA and for Thomas to have gotten the job with only a 3.01 GPA, well, let me just say that it was a definite God thing! Praise the Lord! He has a TON of experience, though, so I'm sure that is what convinced the interview panel to accept him. Basically what he will be doing is rotating to different positions over 3 years, and then they will put him in a management position in an area that depends on his area of expertise. So the goal of the program is to develop the LDP's and train them (heavily!) for a few years and then move them on up the ladder.

We are both SO excited about this great opportunity. They gave him a GREAT offer, complete with sign on bonus and relocation package. Thank GOD I wont have to pack up all this stuff!!! I hate packing and moving!!

Since I have never been to Jackson, MS, just the two of us are visiting the area this weekend so I can see if I approve! His company is even paying for our hotel room at an Embassy Suites! I can't wait!

Of course, more on all of this later....!!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving

I haven't updated this blog in a few days, sorry! The holidays are here and we all know how busy we can all get! But anyways, this past weekend Thomas, Charlotte, and I drove up to Huntsville to visit family for Thanksgiving. Since I had to work on Thanksgiving night, we drove up Friday and let me tell you.. That was a BAD idea. Can we say "major grump mama"?? Yes. That was me. The sun was directly in Char's face the WHOLE DRIVE. So for 4 hours I hold up a towel to block the sun when all I want to do is crash and go to sleep after being up for almost 24 hours. I was exhausted.

But once we got there, it was really fun! Thomas' cousin and her boyfriend, his mama and her hubby, and his aunt and uncle were there and it was just great hanging out with everyone. I really like being around his family, they have always treated me so well. Charlotte loved it too! So much so that she did NOT nap AT ALL on Saturday! Weee!!! That was fun!! :-/ Seriously, she did surprisingly well considering she had so little sleep. But she did sleep great at night, no complaints there! I was wondering how she was going to do in that horribly uncomfortable pack n play.. But I guess she was just so exhausted by then she didnt care!! haha

As the above picture probably tells, we had a family celebration of little Charlotte's birthday! I can't believe she is about to turn 1! That totally blows my mind. Wasn't I just pregnant just a short while ago? Waddling around at work, feeling her kick inside my tummy, watching my belly grow, having TERRIBLE morning sickness.... And now she is walking around! Crazy!! Isn't God so cool to have designed pregnancy, birth, and then just the ability to watch that child grow up and.. walk? And call you mommy? And actually SMILE at you and think you're funny??? God is amazing.

Here is Char and her grandma Susan!!! :-)