New Year, New Life

2009 was quite a crazy year for me...lots of moving...and a few other crazy things as well! So I am ready for 2010. I can't believe in June it will be 10 years since I graduated HS. And this December marked 5 years since VCU graduation...crazy!!! I'm starting off 2010 in a very different state...single, and living on my own....and I love it! Well, at least the living on my own part. :) I've had a good time going out with friends, and I'm actually getting to spend time with Elisabeth! On Saturday we headed to Bar Louie for a girl's night and had a great time chatting. I had some yummy berry mojitos...mmmm. Tuesday night we saw New Moon-I had free tickets because when I went to the premiere, the screen blacked out for a good five minutes...it was NOT good. Happily, we got to see the entire movie this time, and I loved it! Can't wait for it to come out on DVD. So as far as resolutions go, I really only have one big one...and that is NO moving in the year 2010. I had to move so many times last year, and I am sick of it! Plus, I love my new apartment, so I don't plan on going anywhere. :)

Mmmm Berry Mojito!

Me and E! xo

Mel comes home for the Holidays!

Mel came home for Christmas, and I was fortunate enough to have her here with me!!! :) The first night she came into town we headed to dinner at Chili's and then went out on the town...to the Verizon store of course...hahaha. We actually had such a great time there, we stayed until after they were closed. Definitly one of the strangest nights of my life. How do you have a great time waiting in the Verizon store you ask? I have no clue, but apparently when Mel and I get together, we have a great time no matter where we are! The next day-Christmas Eve I headed to work, and then headed back and hung out with Mel for a bit, packed, and we headed our separate ways for Christmas Eve. Then Mel came to my dad's on Christmas morning and spent all of Christmas Day with me, and it was awesome!!! The next night we went out downtown and had a GREAT time, and met lots of new people. I also got a tiiiiny bit wasted, but it was hilarious. That's something that doesn't happen with me often, so everyone seemed to enjoy it. The next day however, was not so enjoyable. Little sick. So I laid in bed all day, while Mel spent a day with family. :) Monday I had to go back to work, but since we found out Mel was leaving town early (Coach needed eye surgery, but he's doing great now) I decided to take a half day off, but we ended up taking a nap together until like 5:30. Bums! Then we headed to Noodles and Company-our first time, and SO good by the way-and then had some fun shopping time! I got some awesome shoes, and Mel got the whole store I think :) We had a great time together while she was here, and I think Coach and Coco had a great time playing together! Get well soon Coach! :)

yayyy for matching shorts!

a little Christmas Day relaxin'

since Coach had to wear his collar, we didn't want him to feel strange. So I put Coco's on her :)

Fun night out!!!

Miss you Melody!!!! Come back soon! :) xo

A Very Different Christmas

So Christmas this year was a little different than usual...but it was wonderful!!! One of the most exciting things about this Christmas season was having Mel stay with me, and even spend Christmas Day with me!!! This was also my first Christmas as a single gal (since I was probably 16 or so...) so that was a bit different...yayyyy no buying presents for boyfriends haha. This was also the first Christmas where I had to see my mom and dad separate, which was hard, but not nearly as bad as I thought. It all started when I picked up Coco from the groomer on Christmas Eve, she looked adorable! They put little red and silver bows in her hair, so I put on her little Christmas dress and Mel took pics. Then Mel and I parted ways so she could go spend time with family while I headed to Fredericksburg to see my dad, brother, and sister. We had a nice night visiting other family, including my great grandma that I haven't seen in a LONG time, so that was nice. Then we went home, hung out, and went to bed. We all seemed to wake up around 7:30, then we went into the living room with their GORGEOUS tree and waited for Lil David to make his grand appearance 30 minutes later...thanks David. Then we all took turns opening gifts, and our dad did an AWESOME job for his first time around on his own. He even did my pistachios in my stocking that I always want! :) Then we sat together and took turns reading verses of Luke 2 and talked about The REAL Christmas Story. It was great! Then we had to hurry up and get ready to head to King George to see mom. Mel showed up just as we finished getting ready and took some family pics for us, which was so sweet! :) Then we made our way to KG for Round 2 of our Christmas Day Extravaganza. There was still a ton of snow out so that made for a messy trip, but we got to and from in one piece somehow. We were late for moms (surprise) and so we had to hurry with the gifts. Most of my big ticket items were already in my posession (thanks 4 the TV MOM!) so I was surprised to see I was still getting so many gifts. We had special stockings there too, which were awesome, where I found a FOUR POUND bag of pistachios. Yes people, I am going on about pistachios, but seriously, they are probably my favorite stocking item (you know, besides money). I am really not sure how Mike got those in there, but I had to laugh when mom told me he took forever to put the bag of them in the stocking, and then mom reminded him that he had to put all the other stocking stuffers in too. Hehe...After opening all of our awesome gifts, we headed to Round 3 of Christmas Day at Mike's grandmothers house for an AWESOME Christmas breakfast. They were great people and we had a good time, then headed back to Mom and Mike's to lay around till Christmas dinner. Mel took a lovely nap while I enjoyed a few glasses of Christmas cheer :) Then we had Round 4 and did Christmas dinner, where Mike's family came over and the Durney's did as well! The food was AWESOME! One of the best meals I've had...YUM. Shortly after dinner we headed back because we had a long trip back to Richmond, and the roads were still icy. So it was a wonderful Christmas!!!! Hope everyone enjoyed theirs as well! :) xo

Coco on our way to Big David's for Christmas Eve :)

Samantha helping Coco open gifts

Gorgeous!

Love it!

Me and Mom :)

Mel and Coco's Christmas nap

What I did during Mel's nap

Powers'

Me and Mel Christmas morning!

Happy Birthday Jesus! :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

It's been a busy, exhausting week! Lots of work, at UBSH and Yankee, more not feeling good, and a little hanging out with someone special. :)  The biggest news from this weekend-I put up the Christmas tree!!! Elisabeth should be thrilled, haha-since I originally was not planning doing any decorating this year.  I thought it would be difficult to sit here living on my own (with Coco of course) staring at a tree. But I like it! I've never done the tree on my own, so this was a daunting task for me-especially the lights. So besides a few tips from Z, I did it on my own! :) Who needs a man to do this stuff? haha...Meanwhile Coco slept on the couch. She did decide to come sit on the floor in front of the tree once it was done and admire it for a while. So we now have the tree up, and the lights on it, but no ornaments yet. I figured this was enough for one day. I've got a lot of work ahead of me the next few days, so I'm not sure when the ornaments will go on. But hey...it's shocking that I even put up a tree at all, so give me a break! :) Now if only I could find my tree skirt...

The tree in pieces...

Coco "helping"

I did it!

Coco admiring the tree after her nap :)

In other news, I am SOOOO looking forward to a visit over Christmas from Mel!!! I'll get to spend some time with Meir as well, and I am so excited!!! I'm thinking I'll save some ornaments for the tree so we can all put them on together. :) It will be so nice to have someone staying here with me over the Christmas season. I've been whining to her everyday about how I want her to hurry up and come home. Probably driving her crazy :)

Until next time...xo

Jen & Coco

Fun weekend with my Mel

So I know it's been a while since my last post, but I've had lots going on. Between personal stuff and now two jobs, I am a busy girl! :) Recently Mel came to visit me for the weekend, and we had a great time!!! I don't get to see her nearly as often as I like since she lives in Charlotte. We got to go out Friday night, and we had a great time!!! We headed to Lucky Buddha first, but only stayed for about 30 seconds because it was so dead.  Next we headed to ChaChas for a bit, met a few new people, but decided to venture out after a while. Finally we ended up at Sine, where we spent most of the night. We had an awesome time! :) Lots of drinks and meeting new people. It was so great to spend a weekend with Mel, and I can't wait to do it again soon! We're hoping next time she heads to town (Christmas) Elisabeth will get to join us :)

The following week at work, we celebrated Ashley's 27th Birthday! She is now obsessed with the Twilight Series after much begging from  me to read the books and see the movies...she totally loves it now! She even has a pic of "Edward" at her desk at work. And yes, she is married, lol...So I thought we'd do something different for her birthday, and get her a Twilight themed cake! I did a little research and found someone who made edible images, and of course I had to get one of Edward. She LOVED it! And it was on a Ukrops cake, so it was delicious! Happy Birthday Ashley!

very happy girl right here...

Me and Ash showing off the coolest cake ever! And yes that is my crazy desk in the background...sadly I had to take down all my personal stuff today, because we're moving desks soon.

So my next post MAY be a bit more "Christmas-y" since Elisabeth is forcing me to get in the Christmas spirit. I was going for Bah humbug this year, but she just won't have it. So we'll see. But I am proud to say that I've at least bought a few Christmas gifts! Until next time...hope everyone's doing well! xo