the two shall become one

Chris and I have decided that since I'm half of CScott Photography, it would make more sense if I post on the company's blog (see link "chris" in "web sites i frequent"). So for exciting updates on our lives you'll have to go there.

But for now... I've had a stomach bug for 3 weeks (not how I was planning on losing pre-wedding weight), Mom and Barb are flying in this weekend for 5 days (super excited- they haven't seen the ceremony or reception sites and we've got wedding gown shopping to do), and Wilson's ears stand up all the time (he's a big kid now!).

I think that's about it. OH, and I'm on spring break for the next week and a half. Good timing with getting sick, at least. The worst of it has been over the break so far.

So... peace, Adrienne's blog!

moving...again

This time it's been a bit more difficult to move because we have a puppy. For a while I let him run around but it was really difficult to pack socks while he was in my lap trying to attack each pair. So for the remainder of the packing he stayed in his crate.

Unfortunately, Chris has been sick with a pretty wicked cold. So while he was sleeping off the sick, I packed and loaded part of the U-haul. He had to help with the big furniture, though. Luckily, by the time we got to the new apt Chris was feeling well enough to help unload.

Things are definitely still in boxes (and we still have a lot of stuff to get from the old apt), but the majority of the move is complete.

I'm paying an arm and a leg to live here by myself, but I love it so far. It's a one bed, one and a half bath townhouse apt. No garage parking until the new townhouse is built, but I'm sure spending 5 more months parking in a lot will get me that much more excited when we've got a garage. I've got my own entrance and Wilson only has to go down 5 steps to go potty (unless he's upstairs in the bedroom). I've got a little kitchen nook with a pass-through window, a tiny dining room area, an almost-as-tiny living room area, and basically floor to ceiling windows for 2 stories, because the upstairs is a loft. Right now I've got the iHome playing upstairs and I can hear it here in the dining area. Great for 1-2 people. Oh, and I've got a washer and dryer AND a dishwasher! This is the liiiife. =)

* No U-haul's were harmed in this move.

we're engaged!!!

Yes, Chris popped the question. And I was completely surprised.

A photographer/friend told us an engagement session canceled but she'd already paid the shooting fee for the location and asked if we wanted to have a free photo session, which I said yes to, enthusiastically. So I picked out our matching-but-not-twinsies clothes and we headed out after church. She took photos of us walking through a park and onto a bridge and told us to just have a conversation and she'd take some more photos.

And that's when Chris said he loved me so much that he'd been planning this for a while. Then he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him, to which I did say yes.

So the next day, we got a contract on a townhouse, which is supposed to be built and ready to move into in June, and we're planning a November/December (ish) wedding for this year.

Oh, and Chris got a raise and a promotion the day we got the townhouse.

I'm also trying the South Beach Diet, which is very difficult sitting here in Panera. I joined The Biggest Loser at our school where a bunch of faculty are doing it, so that's giving me a bit of a push. Unfortunately I've got so many after school rehearsals (3-4 days a week) while the ladies are working out in the gym that it's difficult for me to go home at 6 and work out when I know I have to make dinner and the next day's lunch and get to sleep by 9 (which hasn't been happening lately).

I guess that's all my news. =D

the $1300 road cone

Yes, the road cone is costing $1300 to repair. This is when I'm glad I have to have full coverage on my auto insurance since I live in the city.

But, some good news: today Wilson went to the vet. He did a great job and made everybody's morning. He's a healthy 3-month old puppy and weighs 7.5 pounds. that's 2.5 more pounds than 3 weeks ago. No wonder he's so clumsy!!

Chris is out in Johnson City (East TN) doing some photography stuff so it's been just Wilson and me. We got the vet visit out of the way, got some movies from Blockbuster, got my car's oil changed in preparation for the monstrous 14-hr drive to NoVA for Christmas (YAY!!!), did some grocery shopping, cleaned the apt some, and watched some movies.

I watched "The Queen" because Chris didn't really want to see it. It wasn't a thriller, a comedy, or an action movie. But it was awesome. I highly recommend it. As long as you're okay with serious, not-much-action-but-awesome-acting movies. Then I watched "The Muppet Christmas Carol," which is probably my most favorite Christmas movie. I had to rent the DVD because I couldn't find my VHS. We're going to show the movie during classes Monday and Tuesday because at this point the kids really can't do anything that has to do with thinking or retaining info. Instead of watching the regular version, since I've seen it so many times I can basically recite it while it's playing, I watched the version with Brian Henson's commentary. It was awesome to learn how much it took to make the movie, like having the entire set 4 feet off the ground with movable flooring for all the puppeteers to maneuver around, and how many times they had to use robot puppets and do the green/blue screen stuff.

That's about all the excitement I could handle for the day. Oh, and I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Because, you know, they're healthy enough to eat for dinner. I'm attempting to get over this cold/bug thing I've had for a couple weeks that seems to be going around the school.

Hope everyone's having a great time getting ready for the holidays!!

etc.

I'm definitely ready for winter break. And I was sick this past week and was only at school 1 day. The next week is going to be ridiculously busy with all the after school rehearsals and going to sing places and having an in-school concert from the local high school band, our in-school concert, and our evening concert.

Wilson's doing really well. He's got "sit" down, as long as he's in a standing position and isn't really excited. Not so well with "shake."

Chris shot a wedding yesterday and some of the photos he's shown me are AMAZING. He's so talented! Hopefully we'll start making time for him to really teach me and for us to go through some sessions so I'll be a good second shooter. Eventually I'd really like to quit teaching and just do photography with Chris. I know that won't happen for probably at least 5 years, but it's something to look forward to. Don't get me wrong, I love teaching. But I'd much rather be a business partner with Chris and get to be artsy fartsy.

So while Chris was at a wedding yesterday, I was busy running over road cones. Okay, really what happened was I was on a highway going to see some apts because my current lease is up at the very beginning of March. I was driving behind an 18-wheeler and there were a couple of those 2-foot orange road cones next to the lane. The cones were so light, and the truck was going so fast, that the wind created by the truck swooped the cone out in the middle of the lane in front of me. Being on a 2-lane highway, going 60 mph, with it misting out, and cars everywhere, I had no choice but to hit the cone. First of all, I have no idea where the cone ended up. But I know it hit the front of my car on the bumper's grill, seeing as half of the grill is now gone. Of course I called my parents crying. But I called USAA, my amazing insurance company, and the helpful lady talked me through everything. Since I'm living within Nashville's city limits, I have to have full coverage on my car. So repairs will only cost me my $100 deductible. And I learned the hard way to pay a couple extra bucks a month for rental car coverage, so USAA will pay up to $30/day while my car's being repaired. Maybe this is a good time for me to rent a car I've wanted to buy... well, as long as it's $30/day or less!! (Yeah, right.)

So the start of the apartment hunting didn't go so well. Oh, and I forgot to mention that Wilson was with me and he'd knocked his water bowl over in his crate and spilled it all over the newspaper and everything was soaking, including Wilson, who was shivering. This happened pre-cone. So I'd done what I swore I'd never do and put him in my lap. All he did was sleep on my lap, until the cone incident, at which point he was hurled onto the floor. By my feet. Not so fun when I'm the one driving. He shook for the next 3 hours.

Back to the apartment hunting... I went to a couple complexes closer to school and liked them both. But one place had this weird lease term situation where they can only have a certain amount of people moving out at the same time, so depending on what day you sign your lease, you could only have a 15-mo option, or a 7-mo option, or a couple other options. Not what I'm looking for. And they won't know what places they'll have until the end of December. And the places available may or may not end up being in my price range. Each floorplan is priced according to base price, extra for each floor, extra for a water view, etc. And washer/dryer hook-ups would only be a possibility in some apts (although there are pay-laundry facilities throughout the 80-acre complex).

The second place has 2 1-bedroom places available when I need to move in. Although they do have 6-mo leases, I'll have to pay an extra fee per month, but I'm okay with that. And one floorplan is a townhome! It's got a loft bedroom, and upstairs is the full bath and walk-in closet. Downstairs has an extra half bath and a breakfast bar. AND both floorplans have a washer and dryer. So today after church Chris is going with me to look at the second complex and I'm going to go ahead and do the deposit thing and all that. And, since I'm a public school employee, I get some fees returned, some waived, and a discount on rent! Sweet!

So one bad thing (cone), but two good things (apt found, great wedding photos) happened yesterday. Not bad. Although... now I have to get my car repaired. Blah.

Wilson!!!

We got a puppy!!!!!

For Christmas, on Thanksgiving Day Chris and I drovoge 20 hours to Carthage, NC and back. Fun points: we made a huge event out of it; we got to stop by Biltmore (but did not pay the $55 per person to go on the tour!); we got a freaking puppy. Not so fun points: we had to leave at 3 am; nothing's open, including fast food, on Thanksgiving.

We absolutely love Wilson. He's adorable! He tries really hard to be a good dog, too. We're doing really well with "Sit" and I'm starting to work on "Shake." And as long as he goes out every couple hours he doesn't go potty inside.

He likes to stuff his toys underneath his bed in his crate so he's more comfy. He's a really picky sleeper. Everything has to be perfect. He moves around about 10 times before he's got the perfect spot. He's like a cat and will climb all over you (and sometimes when he whines he meows). He thinks he's sneaky by bringing his squeaky toy, Mr. Elephant, over to something he'd rather chew on and "accidentally" switches to my shoe.

So, it was an awesome Thanksgiving, and I got an awesome Christmas present!!

You can see a slideshow of photos of him on my blog!

Raced for the Cure

I did it! The Race for the Cure yesterday went well. I raised over $1000!!! So a HUGE thanks goes out to everyone who financially and emotionally supported me!

Next year hopefully I'll raise a good amount and actually be able to run some of the Race. There were 10,000 people there, so since I didn't get close enough to the runners I got stuck in a pack of walkers, which isn't bad. I walked with my team (headed by members of my school's county's educators association (read: union). I stayed with them for the first mile but it took 30 minutes and Chris had a photo shoot to get ready for, so I excused myself and walked as quickly as I could for the other 2+ miles. Then after the race I did get some free stuff, but I do have to say I was a little bummed that I didn't get to the Ford tent until they were out of scarves. Apparently they hand out really cool scarves every year. Chris and I did get some free Sun Chips and Panera bagels, and I got a free visor from Shane Co. (a jewelry store).

Then it was off to, well, change my air filter. We'd walked by a couple auto stores on the way from where we parked to where the race started, and I was in dire need of a new air filter. So we bought one and Chris helped me change it (he did most of the work).

Then we went to Famous Dave's for a celebratory lunch then to the photo shoot at Fellowship Bible Church, where Chris and I have been going to church out in Brentwood the past few months. He's on the email list for a photography club through the church, and he got to be one of about 5 photographers for family portraits. The first two families (each family had an hour with a photographer) were really difficult. The third family was awesome and it made everybody's day. Chris finally had a fun time and got some cool stuff.

Next on the schedule was the drive-in! We love going to the drive-in. It's inexpensive (including the food), fun, and we get to see 2 movies instead of 1. We saw "Michael Clayton" (the new George Clooney movie) followed by "The Brave One" with Jodie Foster. Neither are feel good movies but I liked them both.

So after a really long 19+ hour day, we got to turn the clocks back (yay!).

And I think we're going to Cracker Barrel for breakfast!