What we did over the holidays - Part 2

Ready for part 2?

Remember the tornado I mentioned?  We got a phone call on Christmas night from Cameron's mom.  Her house had been hit by a tornado.  The house was still standing, but had suffered some damage.  It was hard for Cameron to be so far away and unable to help during such a traumatic time.  Thankfully, Cameron's brother lives down the street and was able to take her home to their house, which lost power, but had no damage.  Mobile is not an area that has many tornadoes, but this was the second one to hit the area in a week!  The first one did minor damage to another area of town, but this one did some heavier damage to a couple streets in the midtown area.  A day later, we headed home to Mobile and went straight to Dottie's house.  Walking down her street was unlike anything I've ever seen - trees down, windows blown out, roofs blown off, but the houses were still standing.  I can't even imagine what it's like when a "big" tornado comes through and levels everything.  Dottie's house had multiple windows broken, damage to the roof which caused a lot of water damage, and her garage collapsed on her car, but she is very lucky.  She was not injured during the storm, her pets are safe, her home can be repaired, and the majority of her things were not damaged.

And what holiday season would be complete without a trip to the hunting camp?  Cameron has been many times, but last weekend was the first of the season for me.  I opted to snuggle with the pups rather than venture into the cold to hunt with Cameron.  The dogs always love running at the camp, and we even trusted Dean to let him free as well.

The pups were very excited about the car ride:

There was lots of this:

And plenty of this:

Just in case you were wondering what a hunting camp trailer in Uriah, AL looks like, here it is in all its glory:

It was Dean's first trip, so he was very interested in those things hanging on the wall.

The ride back was a little calmer, with some very tired pups:

Hmm, what's next? New Year's Eve we started the night off with dinner at Mexican restaurant with our friend Harry.  Nothing fancy.  Then we headed downtown where we snagged seats at a bar to finish watching the LSU-Clemson game.  I was sticking with the SEC, but LSU let me down in the final minutes.  We met up with Mary & Poe and wandered downtown for a while before ringing in the new year at the moonpie drop.  Yep, a moonpie.  Moonpies are a popular throw at Mardi Gras parades around here so the moonpie has become an icon for Mobile.  I'm kinda partial to the banana ones myself...

my husband knows me well - if we're outside in the cold, don't bring me a cold beer without a coozie!

the iphone camera failed me - that's a moonpie!

Happy 2013!

 After the official start of 2013, we headed inside the Battlehouse hotel, where I had to get a few final Christmas pics.

I guess that's about it.  The decorations are down and put away, the resolutions have been made, it's time to get back to normalcy.  Unless, of course, you live in Mobile - Mardi Gras comes early this year.  The first parade is this Saturday on Dauphin Island.  Let the good times roll!



 

What we did over the holidays - Part 1

So I promised a "what we've been up to" post and here it is.  I started out doing 1 post, but soon realized it was a little picture overload, so I'm splitting it up.

For those of you who don't know, I'm a veterinarian and currently working as a relief vet.  Basically, that means I'm a "substitute" vet, and I work for whoever needs help at the time.  I have a few clinics I work for on a weekly basis and several who just call me to fill in.  In this line of work, the holidays are very busy.  Since everyone else is taking time off, they call me to help.  Starting around Thanksgiving, I've been working 50-60 hours a week.  Add that in with all the shopping and decorating for my favorite time of year - I've been very busy.  At one point, I just had to let go and tell myself I didn't have to do everything.  Some of the grand plans I had for this Christmas just didn't happen.  I wish had some great pictures of the house decorated, but that didn't happen either - maybe next year!

For our Christmas picture, we decided to include Dean, our foster dog.  He may not be a permanent addition to the family, but he is definitely special.  That did make things a little more difficult since he is afraid of cameras.  Here's the final pic:

As for Christmas, we headed up to Memphis to spend the holiday with my parents, brother, sister-in-law, and 3 year old nephew.  We had an amazing time!  We ate plenty of delicious food - including Gus' fried chicken - which really is the best chicken you will ever eat.  In fact, we ate there twice on this trip!

Gramps & Elijah

 And there was plenty of playing with my nephew...

every kids needs a superhero cape!

he loved the nativity

and when he was done, he put everything up

 baked some Christmas cookies

Took our annual family photo for the Christmas card

playing with the camera

And as with every 3 year old, there were plenty of tears, 

but Aunt Heather wasn't going to let them last long...

an iphone helps...

 Christmas morning takes a while with a 3 year old.  He wants to play with everything as he gets it.  In our family, we take turns opening gifts so everyone gets to see what each person received.  Elijah ranked the gifts in importance by how long he looked at it with you.  Apparently, adult gifts aren't very interesting.  I did get a new lens for the Nikon, which I am very excited to play with.

Christmas morning

not sure what Gramps was instructed to be here, but he did it!

And it SNOWED!!  Not much, but plenty for this southerner.  When I used to go to my parents house in Maryland for Christmas, I would always hope for snow.  It never happened - until they moved to Tennessee!

just enough for a little snowman

trying out the new lens

We even made time to get out and do a little sightseeing around town.  One night we ventured out to see one of those drive-through light displays.  When we got out at the little Christmas village, they had camels you could ride!  I have to say, I kinda wanted to do it...

  Chris, Emily, Cameron, and I went downtown to visit Sun Studios.  They discovered Elvis and recorded many of the classics from back in the day.  I was surprised to learn they are still an active recording studio.

posing with the same microphone Elvis used.  Doesn't Cameron look thrilled?

Then we walked around Beale Street for a while before meeting up with Nana, Gramps, and Elijah to watch the Peabody ducks get out of the fountain and go upstairs for the night.  I think it's funny that they get these ducks to get out of the water and walk down a red carpet to the elevator every day.  It was really crowded since it was Christmas time and a bowl game was being played in Memphis.

Later that night, Cameron and I headed to the midtown area to meet up with my vet school friend, Jane Ashley.  She grew up in Arkansas just over the state line and was in town for Christmas.  I haven't seen her since we graduated and it was soooo good to catch up!

We had a wonderful time, but the trip was way too short!! 

Stay tuned for part 2...

Happy New Year!

Remember me?  I'm Heather, and I used to blog here...

I apologize for the extended absence.  Life took over and the blog took a backseat.  I was working crazy hours for the last couple of months and my free time was spent preparing for the holidays, spending time with family & friends, a little traveling, oh yeah, and a tornado.  Don't worry - everyone is safe & sound, but I will catch up on the recent happenings in another post.  On to the topic of this post...

via

 Today marks the beginning of a new year - and the 1 year anniversary of my little blog.  I have to say it's been fun, and I'm looking forward to another year.  I thought it would be a good idea to look back at my 2012 resolutions and see what I accomplished (and didn't!):

1) Start a blog - Check

2) Learn to operate the fancy Nikon camera - working on it.  I have definitely made improvements in this area.  I at least know how to take it off auto and how to make some adjustments to improve the pictures.  Not quite where I hoped to be in a year, though.

3) Scrapbook more - Fail.  This one really didn't happen at all and will roll over to the 2013 list!

4) Improve my cooking repertoire - yes and no.  I did make a lot of new recipes this year.  But my goal was to branch out into other categories besides main & side dishes.  I did some of this, but not quite as much as I had hoped.

5) Exercise - not bad.  I accomplished my goal of running my first 5K, but running still didn't become a habit for me.  I still run off and on depending on my schedule.  My endurance is much better than it was a year ago though, so I'm happy with my progress.

So what do I want to accomplish in 2013?  I have to say my 2013 new year's resolutions aren't that much different.

1) Be a better blogger.  I doubt that I will ever be a daily blogger, but I do plan to post more regularly and not have extended absences. 

2) Continue working on my photography.  One way I plan to do this is through a photo-a-day challenge.  I found Fat Mum Slim through Pinterest.  Each month she posts a list with a picture challenge for each day.  While I'd like to do this for a whole year, I'm just taking it a month at a time - got to be realistic, right?  I may stray from the list at times, but my goal is to use the Nikon each day.  Get ready for lots of photo dumps!

3) Scrapbook / craft more.  See 2012, 'nuf said.

4) Be a better housekeeper.  Instead of cooking, I'm adding housekeeping this year as my "suzy homemaker" resolution.  Don't get me wrong, there will still be plenty of recipe experimentation, but I think I did pretty well last year.  Time to work on something else.  Cameron and I are both pretty good about the "surface cleaning" - picking up, sweeping/vacuuming, etc.  It's the deeper cleaning we never think to do - like baseboards, wiping down doors, cleaning windows...  You know, the fun stuff.  My mom is a great housekeeper and their house is always spotless.  I never realized quite how much work it took to keep it that way - especially when you have 4 fur-babies!

5) Exercise / Running.  Yep, it's back on the list.  (Isn't it on everyone's list?)  This year, I want to make running a habit - at least 3x a week.  And I want to run in more than just 1 race this year.  The only thing standing in my way of this one is myself (and laziness!)

So that's my list.  Here's to a new year and new beginnings!!