Charleston 09

We spent our last real pre-baby vacation in Charleston, SC this summer. It's a city I've always wanted to visit so we drove down for an extended weekend. I was only 24 weeks pregnant at the time so it was still easy enough to get around. It's definitely a walking city. I think we enjoyed walking the historic streets most but decided to do some of the typical touristy things too. We toured some museums, took a boat tour of the harbor out to Ft. Sumter, and sampled many the the local dishes that are so famous there. The city is famous for it's carriage tours so we took a sunset tour one evening and spent our last night watching the sun go down at Folly Beach. It was very relaxing!

Our Cruise

Curtis and I were able to go on a fabulous cruise with Curtis' parents for Spring Break this year. We flew to Houston and spent the night in Galveston in order to board our ship when it arrived in the morning. The ship itself was pretty impressive. I think we loved our private balcony the most but we spent a lot of time reading and sunbathing out on the deck as well. We were surprised how easy it was to escape the crowds in order to find a quiet spot. At night they showed movies out on the deck- Curtis and I really enjoyed that! The food was so much better than I expected and we did a decent job watching what we ate- thank goodness! Our first stop was Key West. It was really beautiful and we spent the day walking the entire island. We stopped at the beach, toured the Little White House, the Hemingway House and the Lighthouse Museum. Our second stop was Freeport. We spent the day at the beach. It rained a little but that didn't keep us out of the water! Our last stop was Nassau. We LOVED Nassau! We started the day with a catamaran tour of Paradise Island. Our destination was a coral reef where we hopped into a clear kayak for a few hours. The scenery was beautiful, the water was crystal clear and the fish were amazing! In the afternoon, we took a taxi over to Atlantis. After walking around the resort we spent the last couple hours of the day at the beach enjoying the HUGE waves! We're already looking forward to our next cruise!

A few more photos worth sharing!

My mom was able to spend a week here in Nashville before we headed back to Dallas for the holidays. She took this picture of my flute choir playing at the Frist Center for the Arts. I think we had three concerts the week she was here! I'm also including a picture of those of us at the band reunion lunch. It was great seeing some good, old friends!

And... we're back!

Back in Nashville. Back to work. And back to our blog! We had a great visit home this year. We had a nice, long, 10-day visit. I didn't leave myself much time to get ready for a new semester, but things are going well. I'm teaching an extra course this semester which is definitely keeping me busy! I designed this course form the ground up so prepping for it doesn't REALLY feel like work. It's a Financial Management course. It's project based and it's fun! Not that AP Economics isn't fun, but we move quickly and the AP curriculum doesn't include topics like the stock market, personal finance and business development. Enough about me. Curtis recently submitted a paper for publication. Very exciting! Now we're just waiting for reviews to come in. I had to attach this picture of Opa, my Italian grandfather who's a fan of Southwest flair. He was well-dressed for Christmas day!

My List...

My friend Michelle inspired this list. I'm thankful for so many things this year...
1. My husband- he still makes me laugh and I love his passion for science
2. Our supportive family
3. Old and new friends
4. My job- I have great colleagues and my students really make me want to get up and go every morning
5. Nashvegas- such a cool city
6. San Francisco- also a cool city
7. The Village Chapel- we finally found a church that felt right and that truly focuses on the essentials
8. Coffee- I know, sounds cheesy, but I love having a cup of fresh coffee
9. My books
10. My flute choir
11. My guitar- I love it, now if I could only REALLY play it
12. Peanut- he's always by my side
13. Trader Joe's- seriously, it's that great
14. Teacher discounts- and no longer just at bookstores! J Crew and Ann Taylor Loft- how awesome is that?
15. Barack Obama- he really has invigorated the masses
16. My Tempurpedic bed- man oh man...
17. Having a fire going
18. Christmas lights
19. Snow days- I better get one this year!
20. Jogging/hiking in the nature park- I love the sound of silence
Last, but most important, my Heavenly Father

The Holidays are Here!
We didn't travel for Thanksgiving this year but were able to celebrate the day with many of our friends here in Nashville. I had a nice break from school and Curtis was able to leave the lab for a few days:) I've included our Christmas card photo. We were able to spend a week in the Bay Area this summer and this photo was taken in front of the Bay Bridge in San Francisco. We are looking forward to spending some time in Big D this Christmas!

We're back on the web!

Well, we lost our website a few years back when we didn't renew our Mac account on time. I guess we decided that it was time to get back on the web! We'll try not to neglect this site too much, as we do with our MySpace and Facebook accounts. Sorry to those of you awaiting replies!