February Happenings

Robert and I had a great Valentine's Day date.  We had to do VDay the weekend before since Robert works at a Florist and was obviously slammed on Valentine's day.  We went to Girasole for dinner, and it was delicious!  Robert also gave me gorgeous flowers and the Anne of Green Gables Triology.

Ready for my hot VDay date

Robert with his tasty steak

Delicious chicken under a brick

This weekend Serina came for one last visit before moving to Missouri.  It was a great visit!  Highlights included dinner at Shuckers to celebrate the completion of my first week at my new job, grocery shopping, watching Planes Trains and Automobiles, mani/pedis while Robert had to work, games with the Vaughts, BBQ from Jack Stack that Serina brought with her from KC, church, and catching up,  It was a great weekend!

I started a new job on Monday, February 18.  I'm still at Blackboard, but I'm in a new position and a different department.  I'm now a client care representative for Connect which is Blackboard's alert notification system.  It's been a bit overwhelming so far - 30 days of training is pretty intense.  I've gone through waves of thinking, "This is a piece of cake," followed by, "I'm never going to be able to do all this."  Tell me this is normal????

3 Day Weekend

My 3 day Martin Luther King weekend was absolutely wonderful!  May parents had made plans about two months ago to come to NC for the weekend for a little visit.  The trip was way to short, as usual, but I cherish any amount of time we get to spend together.  We picked them up from the airport Saturday morning at 11:00 and said goodbye Monday evening at 4:00.  Highlights of their visit included:

• Church together
• Getting a little tune up for my car - Oil change, new brake pads, wash, and vacuum
• Grocery shopping
• Delicious restaurants - Brigs, Los Tres Magueyes, Dairy Depot
  
• Games - Anomia and Wits & Wagers
• Mom teaching Robert how to do some mending with the sewing machine
• Replacing the tire on Robert's bike so Dad and I could go for a ride
• Giving Mom and Dad a tour inside several of the buildings at SEBTS.  The last tour we gave them was before Robert started school, and we only showed them the outside of the buildings.
• Hanging with the Vaughts - Dinner, dessert, games, and football on TV
• Catching up with family friends (The Morgans) at Chick Fil A
• Visiting Robert at work, getting to see the flower shop, and meeting his boss and co-workers

Saying goodbye to them never gets any easier.  We'll see them again in about 10 weeks for Easter.  So far away!

Breakfast at Brigs

Chick Fil A with the Morgans

Robert with his co-worker Logan and boss, Alison

Robert started his new semester today.  He has kind of a packed school schedule Tuesday-Thursday in order to be off on Monday and Friday to work at the flower shop all day (plus Saturday).  He's taking Greek 2, Pastoral Ministries, Missions, and Evangelism this semester.  It'll be 12 hours just like last semester.  Wednesdays he'll have 3 classes, and on Thursdays he'll only have one class, so really only Tuesday and Wednesday are crazy.  Hopefully that will pay off in order to have slower days the rest of the week.

Robert finished his Greek class with flying colors!!!  He ended up with an A.  I guess it's all Greek to him?

Visitors Galore

In case you haven't picked up on it yet, we LOVE visitors!  Friends and family - if you ever want an east coast vacation, Hotel Varner is always welcoming guests.  Since my last post, Mom came to visit, Memaw and Pepaw came to visit, and Serina will be here this weekend.  I absolutely love hosting overnight visitors and entertaining guests.  Robert said last night, "I like when we have visitors because otherwise you'd get bored with just me."  Silly Robert.  He is definitely not boring, but I certainly get an extra energy from being around guests. 

Mom's visit was delightful!  We didn't do anything out of the ordinary, but everything is more fun with Mom around.  We enjoyed lunch at the tea room with our favorite server - RCV.  We all got to go to church together, enjoy delicious food, and go for a couple of walks.  Plenty of laughing and talking occurred as well.

Memaw and Pepaw's visit was amazing, too!

Pepaw's dream came true - a day with the Wright brother.  We enjoyed lunch at The Black Pelican.  It was delish!  I got my go to - chicken salad sandwich.  It was the bomb!  And it doesn't hurt that the Wright brothers went to the land where the restaurant now stands in order to send the telegram to let the world know about their first flight.

The view from the memorial hill is gorgeous!

Again, we enjoyed delicious food, time catching up, showing off our little town, and just being together.

A couple of weeks ago we also enjoyed a trip to the state fair.  Robert and I had never been to a state fair before.  It had really been built up a ton for us.  It was fun!  Definitely overpriced, but a memorable experience.

Isn't my husband handsome?

The one ride we rode - $5 a pop

Deep fried Oreos

Loved the produce art

The garden art was adorable!

Does anybody have any idea what this is?