Christmas and 2009

Sorry for the delay everyone, the holiday season proved to be as busy as always. Marie and I drove back to Indiana the Monday before Christmas and spent the night in scenic Jellico, TN. Tuesday morning we arrived in Indy and were greeted with an ice storm that shut down I-465. Thanks, Indiana!

That evening we had Christmas at my dad's house with my sister, her husband, my dad, his wife, and her daughter. It was good seeing them and they get an "A" for gift giving. Our favorite gift was the series of classic movies Marie and I have started collecting. BIG, National Lampoon Vacation and Weekend at Bernie's were among the DVD's. Christmas Eve was fairly quiet, I worked during the day and then relaxed with Marie that evening.

Christmas Day also doubles as my Mom's Birthday. Marie and I were able to spend some time with her that day before heading up to Goshen to be with Marie's family. When we got to Goshen, we were greeted with more ice. Hooray. We opened gifts with her family and then went over to their friend's house for food and watched Step Brothers and The Dark Knight. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Step Brothers is the funniest damn movie around.

That Saturday the Martin side of the family all got together for family Christmas. It was a long day filled with food, board games, more food, and gifts. We had a gift exchange for the guys and a gift exchange for the girls. Marie got a set of pyrex containers and I got a car wash kit. Make no mistake, it was my full intent to leave with that car wash kit the moment I brought it for the gift exchange. There's nothing wrong with that, is there?

We drove back to an ice-less North Carolina Sunday and worked for a few days before the New Year. New Year's Eve is also my birthday. I turned 26 and for the occasion Marie and I went to dinner downtown at a really nice restaurant. I ordered duck and forgot how delicious those cute little guys are. That night we went over to a friend's house and rang in the New Year. It was fairly low key, but nice to not spend January 1st with my head in a toilet.

That brings us to 2009. I haven't worked a day this year yet.... and hope to keep that streak alive. Marie and I have a lot going on, so we will try and keep everyone in the loop. There are several visitors in the upcoming months and my sister is due with her first baby in only a few short weeks.

Stay Tuned!

Jay, Marie & Taylor

Mountains and Holiday Festivites

Last week was fairly exciting, and I don't just throw around that term. We had a lot of happenings and will cover what we can in the short amount of time I have. I'm short on time because I have the sleep schedule of your great-grandmother and would go to sleep at 7pm every night if I were allowed to.


Marie finished her first full week of work, and then spent Saturday/Sunday with the family in the mountains of North Carolina. Google Map "Blowing Rock" and you will see the area we are refering to. She had a good time watching Charlie and definitely wants to go back. I would like to go to the mountains, but avoid any form of camping, so hopefully she found a good hotel.










Since we did not finish all of our Christmas shopping last weekend, we tried to get a little bit of it done on the weekdays. Tuesday, Marie crossed something off my Christmas list and got LOST season 4. I know she got it for me because she gave it to me that night. Anyone who has seen LOST will completely understand that the island made her do it. We have watched most of the season and are very excited for the season premier in January.


On Friday, my office had a Holiday Party at my boss's condo downtown. Our NC office only has about 7 people and we all get along pretty well.







We had food, drinks, and a white elephant gift exchange. Marie got "The Biggest Loser DVD workout" and I got a bottle of coconut rum from St. Martin. We were more excited by the gifts that were bought to give away (Urban Outfitters is white elephant central). Our Holiday party was made complete by their neighbor bringing over 2 giant stuffed animals named Ling Ling and Obama. Ling Ling is in the photo below. We think their neighbor is a bit off. By "a bit", I mean "very". As you can see... Marie is freaked out.

As the weekend came to a close we were able to relax and focus in on another week in North Carolina. Marie is going to Raleigh and the Coast next weekend for another wedding with the family she is a nanny for... and that means I will spend another weekend playing video games, drinking cheap beer and watching Taylor play with the robber.

That's all for now, goodnight everyone.

Jay, Marie & Taylor

Beginning of the blog

Last Saturday, Marie moved to North Carolina. This weekend we decided to start a blog to keep everyone in Indiana up to date on our happenings. For our first blog entry, we wanted to give an overview of where we live, what we do and our what our first week has been like.

I moved to North Carolina in August for a new job with my company. In October, Marie started looking around for jobs and would go on interviews while she was in town visiting. Just before Thanksgiving, she accepted a job as a full-time nanny with a family that lives in uptown Charlotte.

Our apartment is in Huntersville, which is a town north of Charlotte. We both really enjoy the area because we are close to a lot of retail stores and restaurants. Lake Norman is also less than 5 minutes away. It is about a 15 minute drive to my office in Mooresville, and a 30 minute drive for Marie.

Marie started her job this week as well. She is a nanny for Charlie, who just turned 1. Marie has always enjoyed children and was a nanny for 2 years when she lived in Goshen. So far she really likes her new job and is looking forward to helping Charlie grow.

We spent most of the week unpacking and organizing all of Marie's stuff. Marie's parents bought us a dresser as an early Christmas gift. Of the 6 drawers, I managed to claim 1 of them. That's 1 more than I planned for... so I'm pretty pleased. We also managed to get some holiday shopping done for an upcoming "White Elephant" gift exchange and marked a few people off our list.

Marie wasn't the only new roommate. She brought along Taylor, her 5 year old Min-Pin, as well. Taylor is still taking in all the new smells and appropriately marking his terrority around the complex to let other dogs know who the boss is. Taylor was also re-united with his long time friend, The Robber. The Robber is a squeaker stuffed doll that looks like a burglar and is somehow able to withstand Taylor's fury. They are best friends - if best friends get chewed on and thrashed around daily.

We would like to post at least once a week, typically sometime over the weekend. We have plenty more to write about, so stay tuned.

Thanks!

Jay, Marie and Taylor