Christmas Video 2009

I just finished editing a video with highlights from our first married Christmas! The song is Matt White's "Best Days." Enjoy.

Why It's Our Song

Dana wrote about "Love Like This" being our song. She is right that I am horrible with details, but I do remember when she showed me this song and I thought, Yeah. This is ours. I loved the reggae and the fun of it all. Dana was special and I thought that really caught how I felt.
Looking back I see how we are more in love. We say that all of the time. This love grew over a long time. Even before we met we knew each other from years of emails. I already knew about this gal and how much we had in common. We were falling in love and it was special.
We are blessed to have a love like this because we waited so long for God to bring somebody right along. Day to day I see how special this love is. We miss each other when we're apart and have a way of making things better just being together.

Why a "Love Like This"?

The title of our blog is the name of "our song," which is "Love Like This" by Natasha Bedingfield.
How it became our song: In February of 2008, I was visiting Michael in Texas for Valentine's Day (woot, woot). We had been officially a couple for just a few months, since November, 2007. I doubt he will remember these details, but that's my job as the woman, anyway, right? Michael was nursing a pressure sore at the time, so he had to spend more time in bed than usual. This was new to me, I was just starting to learn about these things! I had just recently gotten my Macbook, and brought it along for the trip to show to my computer loving boyfriend.

We spent Valentine's morning playing with the computer. We ended up on YouTube and watched the video for "Love Like This, " and decided right then and there that that would be our song!

It was months later that we were driving in the car together and Michael said something about the line "I sit here in this chair and I wish for you not to leave me now..."

I rolled my eyes and smiled. Of course he would pick up on that. It made me love "our song" even more. I listen to it all the time!

Okay, so here goes...

Hello! And welcome to our new blog! We are launching quite the project for 2010. People are always telling us how inspirational we are and that we should write a book.

This blog is obviously a long way from publishing a book... but we're committing ourselves to documenting our lives over this year. Day in, day out. You'll see us as we are. I (Dana) am kind of a private person, (believe it or not!) so honestly, opening up to the world like this makes me a little nervous. *I better not come out looking like Kate Gosselin!

But... if I zoom out and see our love for what it is, it does inspire even me. I write and tell stories for a living, so I'm qualified, however partial, to say that we do have an incredible story.

It's crazy to live it. It'll be fun to tell it. Jump on board and follow us this year! We're armed with our computers, two flip video cameras and our sparkling new Nikon D3000!! (I'm falling in love all over again!)

We're going to cover it all. Marriage. Work. Ministry. Managing our household. Meet our families and our three pets. We're committed to journaling, shooting and editing and sharing it all. Our prayer is that someone, even us, will benefit from and be blessed by this project.

If nothing else.. it'll be a heck of a scrapbook!

Here we go!

Our Wedding Video

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

We finally got out Sunday and played in the snow!

GOOD TIMES!

         

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Ding! Bread's done.

And so am I, with blogging.  I'm embarrassed to tell you I've been writing and I have Fa la la la lifetime on in the background.  It's the "Christmas Shoes" movie, that's the worst, right?  I've already cried.  And the TJ Maxx commercials are totally working.  I want to go there so bad right now!

Here are my finished loaves:

 Can't wait to get a piece of this cinnamon bread.  It might not make it until breakfast!

 I think I should have smoothed my white bread roll a little more.  Haha.  As long as it still tastes good, right?  Live and learn, baby.

 
 

2nd Snow of the Season!

It snowed MAJORLY last night into today.  We have about a foot and a half on the ground!!  I wanted so badly to go outside and play in the snow today, but didn't have the chance.  I really hope we can get out there tomorrow and take some pictures!  Everything is so beautiful in the snow, right??

 This was the view from our balcony.

 I absolutely LOVE this picture of Princess looking out over the snow that was piled up on our balcony!  Isn't she so cute here, in her Ugly Christmas Sweater and all?

 Brokaw was feeling the snow more from the inside of the snow globe.  Note: That's Princess's Christmas present he's playing with. Haha.

 Katy watched out our bedroom window.

 This was her view.
 
 
 
 
 

White House Basement Holiday Party

You probably read all about and saw lots of pictures from the President's Holiday Party with the media.  I don't want to talk about it, but I couldn't go.  BUT... I did make it to the Basement Holiday Party at the White House this week, and that was fun!  And, from what i hear, it had better food anyway.

 The super fancy, snazzy invitations that were taped up on the walls by the stairs.  Too bad some of the upstairs dwellers crashed the party, but it's all good.  We're hospitable like that in the basement.

 Check out my "barrier to employment, " haha!!  All of the chairs from the workspaces at the front of the basement were pushed all the way to the back... right in front of my door!!  I was able to squeeze by, so that's good.  I didn't really have any business to attend to, besides eating, anyway, so it was all good!

 Everyone gathered around to listen ot what is apparently the annual poetry reading. (this was my first basement party!)  It was the press edition of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.  It was pretty funny!  You can watch a video from Politico.  And if you look in the way back, about half way throught, you can see me!  I went upstairs and around to get a fork (there were waaaay too many people to squeeze back through to where the forks were) and I got stuck on the stairs.  I enjoyed the poem, though!  Check it out:

Of course, my favorite part of the party was hanging out with this girl, a.k.a. The Birthday Girl!!!

Hands down, one of the best benefits of being the White House Producer is that I get to see my dear friend Becky more often.  She's so funny and just great to be around.  The Basement party was held on her birthday, so we decided that it was really her birthday party!

 

 
 
 

Merry Christmas to Us!!

Michael and I are heading down to North Carolina for Christmas.  Looking forward to seeing family, but dreading the 10 hour drive (to and fro).  We've already given our gifts to each other.  And that's all we're doing this year.  Money is suuuuper tight (you feel me, right?) so we're not able to give gifts to all of our family members and friends.  It kind of sucks.  But, we did agree to spend a small amount on one another.

Here's my prize:

 It's a super awesome BIG crock pot!  It's digital... and it even came with a little baby!  Last weekend, I used this sucker to make about 50,000 meatballs and it did an excellent job!  Love that oval shape!  And I used the little dipper (haha, solar system) to make spinach dip.  Oh, it was amazing!  M and I heard a message from Pastor Joel about "giving a to someone's potential" when giving gifts this year.  This was the perfect gift for me because it gives to the potential that I can multitask!  If I could have one wish.. it would be that I could be in two places at once!  Imagine the possibilities! Obviously, M can't make that come true... but he can help me cook and work at the same time.  Love you, Crock Pot!

 And, here is Michael's shiny new Christmas present!  Did I hit the husband jackpot, or what, folks?  He actually wanted a toaster oven!!  I asked and double asked again to make sure it wasn't some tricky way to get me two presents.  But he says this will allow him to cook more!  Let's hope that's right!  Real estate on our counter top is going away quickly!  It's starting to feel a little cramped, but hopefully it will all be worth it.  This sucker is a toaster oven, a convection oven, and a rotisserie!
 
 And last night, we opened our presents (us and the pets) from My Mom and Dave.  Check 'em out:

 Youngest first... Brokaw opened up his own present!

 It's a cute leash that has "naughty" and "nice" written on it.  It should just say NAUGHTY, but whatever. Haha.

 Princess scored a cute little Life is good peppermint ball. (Or Brokaw did, really, we all realize everything is virtually his.)  He was already playing with P's ball today, ugh!

 My favorite gift of all is this ornament with an "R" on it of course!!  It's perfect!! And I hung it as high as I could on our little Christmas tree to protect it from the beast.

Thanks for everything, Mom!  (I'll try to get a pic of Katy with her little mice before Brokaw destroys those)  Merry Christmas, everyone!

 

  
 

Bread Maker

I'm obsessed.  Can you tell?

Here's what I'm doing this snowy Saturday evening....

 Mix it up...

 Roll it out...

 Let it rise...

That's my white loaf I have in the fridge.

I have a cinnamon/sugar loaf in the oven right now, and I'm just starting to smell it!  It's gonna be a nice breakfast tomorrow morning, when we're staying home from church in our snow globe!

 (This is my cinnamon loaf before baking)
 
 
 
 

Queen of the Leftovers

I am Queen of the Leftovers.  I hereby declare myself as such!!  We had TONS of leftover food after our Ugly Sweater Party last weekend.  For a few days, we just heated up plates of everything, but I grew weary of that so I had to get a little creative.  Mmmmm!! Glad I did.

With the leftover pepperoni, I made Stromboli:

 

With leftover ham, I made Hawaiian Pizza!  That was sweet!  (And, ironically, it created more leftovers, haha)

 

And tonight.... with leftover vegetables, Chicken Teriyaki!

 

Told you! I haven't seen my crown yet, though... what's up with that?

 

 

Nice Surprise

The other day my cell phone rang at work and it was such a nice surprise!  Pastor Mike was in town and I was able to run down to the Capitol and say a quick hello and get a few of those nice Pastor Mike hugs!! Pastor Mike and his family are really just like family to me.  They pretty much adopted me when I lived in Roanoke, and thankfully our friendship has lasted through all of my moves over the last 10 years.

 Yay.
 

Snuggle Bugs

Sunday, we just lounged around the house all day because my back was killing.  M and I watched like 4 hours of The Presidents on The History Channel, followed by an hour long special on Air Force One.  I know what you're thinking :)

But look what happened, this NEVER happens:

Brokaw and Katy both snuggled with me at the same time!!! It almost brought tears to my eyes.  Katy hates Brokaw! Hahaha
 

This morning, I was trying to get out the door to work when I noticed this precious angel snuggled IN BETWEEN our pillows:

If that doesn't make you want to stay home all day, I don't know what would! 

Holiday Par-tays...

Whew!  I have had a week of Christmas celebrations!  I ate so much this past week, I probably shouldn't eat anything else until 2010, but instead, I just googled recipes for leftover ham...

First up, the office White Elephant:

David scored some giant shoes.

Of course, a Snuggie was on hand.  I can't remember who officially ended up with this, I don't think it was Jacob...

The most popular present was $10 worth of lottery tickets! Notice Jerome checking them out, using his White Elephant gift, an amazing magnifying glass! Haha.

I successfully offloaded an unwanted wedding gift, which will remain unnamed to protect feelings :)

And here's my White Elephant loot:

It's a sarcastic ball! Kind of like an 8 ball, but funner.  You can ask it a question... like.... let's see... will I get to go to the White House Christmas Party tonight? Answer: "in your dreams"

Stupid sarcastic ball!!! Too bad it's totally right!  I'm so incredibly bummed, I thought I was going to get in this year, but sure enough, I'm caught up in the system, and they invited fewer media people this year, so in a few minutes, I'll walk over to the White House, where on my way to my office, I'm sure to see dresses and tuxes hanging on doors... and sadly, I'll attend the briefing, and go home :(  Not that I don't like quiet evenings at home with my wonderful hubby, but going to this party is seriously a dream.. and while I'm closer this year than I have ever been before... I still feel... defeated.  Deflated.  BUMMED. :(  Waaa...

In Other News... also last week, we had our Christmas Party for the office.  We had a really, really nice meal at a hotel down the street, and we all got gifts!  I haven't even been to a sit down meal kind of company holiday party in YEARS.  Those don't really happen anymore!  And on top of that, we all got door prizes and a very generous gift card!  On top of all of THAT, I won majorly playing "The Price Is Right"!!  My loot from that was awesome - an entire brand new bake set!!! With measuring cups and spoons and a giant cutting board and oven mits!  It was the perfect thing for me to win, you know with my baking goals and all!

Then... over the weekend, Michael and I had our Ugly Christmas Sweater Party!! We had so much amazing food!  Our fridge is seriously so stuffed when you open the door,  hardly any light comes out, hahaha! And believe it or not, I sent every single guest home with huge doggie bags!  We had a lot of fun.  Here is proof:

The kids decorating gingerbread men!

Joe.

Hubs.

Brokaw and Baby Caleb.

Princess.

 The gang playing Pop 5.  We got that game as a wedding gift and it was a lot of fun!!!

 Here we are, hosting in our ugly sweaters!

Lavina told us to make stupid faces.  This is what we get.  We got our Ugly Sweaters at Goodwill... and I'm happy to report, they have been washed, and are now back in the "Goodwill" pile to go back!

Merry Christmas everyone!