MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I hope that everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Bruce and I will celebrate first here in Atlanta with the Mehok family and then on the 26th we jet out to Michigan to celebrate AGAIN with the Calkins! (Two Christmas'...not too shabby, huh!)

I will have updates after the holidays and let you know what Santa brought us this year! Also, we have super fun plans for New Year's Eve - so I will let you all know how that turns out too! :) PLUS....OHIO STATE IS IN THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP AGAIN!!!!

GO BUCKEYES!!!! (Please do not blow it like last year, I don't think my heart can take it!)

Again, Merry Christmas from our home to yours!!

Updates!!!!

Well, Christmas is 14 days away....can you believe it? I can't! I am happy to say that I am almost completely done with my shopping though! I have never in my life been this organized at the holidays! I've got almost all the gifts wrapped and ready to go too! It is very exciting! We are here in Atlanta on Christmas day and then we fly out on the 26th to go to Carleton to visit the Calkins! It should be perfect!

Here is a picture of our tree and mantle....aren't they pretty?

We are hoping this will be the last Christmas in this house.....

In other news, I went back for my follow-up knee appointment and my surgery is all set and ready to go. It will be on March 10th, 2008 (I have a vacation planned the last week in Feb.) and I will need 6 months of recovery. Ugh. Could that be anymore depressing? I had my breakdown after the appointment last week...I am doing better now. I thought this was so hard when I was a child at 12 and 13 years old, but that was a piece of cake! I mean, I got to lay around all day watching TV while my parents took wonderful care of me and waited on me hand and foot. But now, I am 29 - I have a husband, a job, a dog....ugh. Don't get me wrong I know Bruce will take amazing care of me, like he always does - but I am going to go NUTS not being able to do anything!!! I am expected to be home and out of work for a month.....A MONTH! Thankfully, I have an incredible boss who is letting me work from home and I do not have to take out short term disability and I still get my paycheck! I am a lucky girl! Anyway, I will keep you updated as it gets closer to the day and I am sure I will be blogging a lot from my couch that month I'm out of work! :)

Well, I think that is it for the time being...I hope everyone is having a very wonderful week!

Much love, Carrie

It's been a minute....

since my last post, so I thought I'd get moving on it!


Thanksgiving was great as always! Mama Mehok can certainly cook some delicious food!! I was in the typical turkey coma afterwards, but no complaints here!! Thanks Mama!

Everything with work is going great! No complaints at all! I worked only on Monday the week of Thanksgiving and then my boss just said, go ahead and take the rest of the week off! You don't have to ask me twice! :) Bruce was able to take some time off too and it was wonderful to just be able to relax and unwind together.

In other news...I will have to have new surgery on my knees in the very near future. I went and had an MRI done on my left knee last week and I go back to my orthopaedic surgeon on Tuesday for him to tell me what they found. Either way, I will probably have surgery after the first of the year. :( The left knee will be done first and then the right knee after the left heals.

I had reconstructive surgery on both knees back when I was 12 & 13 years old....so over 17 years ago. And basically, the surgery has done all it can do up until this point. At first I was avoiding it like the plague, but now I am just ready to get it over with so I can spend the next 20 -30 years not having to deal with it and worry about it. I will give an update after I go back to the doctor on Tuesday!

Other than that, not too much going on! Jsut gearing up for the holidays and trying to get some Christmas shopping done before it begins to overwhelm me! Wish me luck!

Take care everyone!

29......

Well, today is the day...I turned 29. Man, I never thought that I'd really start to dread birthdays, but the closer I get to 30, the more I cringe at the thought.

Tonight we have big dinner plans! I am looking forward to it! Bruce and I have the best time trying new restaurants and just enjoying each other's company. I can't wait!

My sweet husband sent me a gift to my office - see below....

That sweet puppy, plays Happy Birthday to me! Isn't he precious?!?! (and by he, I mean Bruce!) Thanks baby! I love you - thatnks for making me feel special everyday!

Thanks to everyone who called or e-mailed me to say Happy Birthday! It means a lot to me!!

Love you all!

Random Stuff for a Monday!

Ok, so this weekend was good! Friday night we had Heather and Matt over for dinner! It turned out really good and as always, was wonderful to see them. :)

Saturday slightly sucked! BOOOOOO to Michigan and Ohio State for being big fat LOSERS this weekend! UGH! But we had people over and that was fun! Mom, Dad, Eric, Maria, Mac and Tiffany all came over for part or all of the festivities! It was fun, other then our teams sucking. And of course, it still was Bruce's fault just because he is a Michigan fan...as you can see from this picture!

Another random thing - is that we FINALLY got our wedding ALBUM!! I know - it's only a YEAR and 3 months later! It actually turned out really nice even though there was so much drama!

The pictures from my camera phone do not do it justice! So you'll just have to take my word for it!

Also, we lowered our asking price on our condo by $9,000.00 - YIKES. Hopefully it will get more people in the door and interested! We had an open house this Sunday and have 2 people that were really interested - one even more so than the other!! So keep your fingers crossed!

Other than that, not too much going on - just looking forward to Thankgsgiving...oh yeah, and I guess turning 29 too. Ick.

Here is a cute picture of my baby girl just for fun! Have a great week!!

CRAP.....

Well, we did it. We found the PERFECT house in Smyrna for the next part of our lives together to start. It has 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths, a full basement, a huge fenced in backyard...everything is PERFECT. Only one minorly huge issue....we have yet to sell our condo! UGH! I am over it! We are working every angle we can think of to get out of our condo and into that house - it couldn't be anymore stressful - especially at the holidays! I will let you know how it turns out once we get it figured out!!
Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Chicken Tortilla Soup = YUM!

Ok, I got this off of allrecipes.com and made it last night for dinner...all I can say is that it is a KEEPER! I wish I would have taken a picture of the finished product, but you'll have to take my word for it! :) I didn't use that much chicken broth, but I just eye balled it - it turned out perfect! ENJOY!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

INGREDIENTS
2 Tbsp margarine
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts (or a rotisserie chicken works and cuts down on the cook time)
2 poblano peppers, diced
2 anaheim chili peppers, diced
2 kernals of fresh corn cut off the cob
1 large tomato, diced
1/2 large onion
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 can of black beans
1/2 Tbsp. ground cumin
Black Pepper to taste
1 Tbsp salt or to taste
1 1/2 bay leaves
15 oz tomato juice
3 qt. chicken broth
for garnishment: monterrey jack or cheddar, tortilla chips

DIRECTIONS
1. In a soup or stock pot, melt the margarine and add the next seven ingredients.
2. Saute until the chicken is cooked, the veggies are tender and the onion transparent.
3. Add the cumin, pepper, chicken broth, salt, bay leaves, and tomato juice.
4. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 15 minutes.
5. Serve with shredded cheese and broken tortilla chips.

Halloween......ugh.

MAKE THE HALLOWEEN CANDY GO AWAY!!!!!!
I really hate the holidays working in an office...I mean, everyone sends goodies and baked goods and crap! Making it that much harder for me to watch the waistline. I have been working out a lot with the help of my free gym membership that my boss hooked me up with. And I've been playing a ton of tennis - but I cannot lie...I love food. I love to eat. I think it is harder for me to give up my favorite foods, then it was to quit smoking 6 years ago.

PLEASE stop bringing your leftover candy into the office!!!

House 4 Sale

I originally posted this on my MySpace page, but thought I'd move it...

Well, our condo is still for sale....could the market suck any worse? It was officially 4 months on the market on October 14th. UGH! We swore to ourselves that we were in no hurry to move, but I have to admit - we are in much more of a hurry than we thought! No only is it super annoying to have strangers coming in and out of your house on a regular basis, but Bruce and I are just ready to start that new phase of our lives together.
We have not lowered the asking price yet - but are offering 6 months of HOA's payments to the buyer - which is a small fortune in itself!

Here are some pictures:

Who wouldn't want that precious place?!? :)

Anywho...other than that life is great! Jobs couldn't be better and our relationship is stronger than ever! Life is good!

First Post!!!

Ok, so I decided to enter the world of blogging...
To be completely honest, I haven't a clue what I'm doing, but thought it would be fun to try! My plan is to post general happenings and also post some recipes of things that I try in my kitchen!

I am certainly not making any promises that I'll keep up with all of this, but I am taking a shot!

Wish me luck!