Giving Thanks

We made our annual pilgrimage to my mom's for Thanksgiving and it was another great time--lots of fun and delicious food!

We had only one kitchen fire...

Fortunately, it was contained in the oven and was just a bit of flaming apple pie goo!

We all pitched in to make our delicious feast. I made the rolls (again). We couldn't remember exactly when this became my task but, I think I've been the bread-girl for the last 13 years and I've about got it right!

Dave fried the turkey and it was delicious!

Even Jeff pitched in, cutting the pears for the salad and looking extra cute in his blue polo.

We played a nice family game of Texas hold 'em,

which Jay won,

and we all took very seriously. (For the record, Jeff says he had to smile like this so that he could keep his chips over his eyes.)

New to our Thanksgiving gathering this year was the Turkey Games! We had a five-event Wii tournament that featured the downhill, ski jump, hula hoop, obstacle course and archery. Of course, doing this soon after eating several thousand calories made it all the more interesting!

At the end of the 5-rounds, Greer was crowned the wii-nner of the first annual Turkey Games. Her prize...$40 (it was a $5 buy-in) and bragging rights for the next year.

I have much to be thankful for this, and every, year. Not the least of which are all of the yahoos above. I've been incredibly blessed to be surrounded by good people, at home, at work, at church and to have the opportunity to love, and be loved, by my sweetheart. I'm grateful to be able to work and provide for our little family. I have a job that I love (most of the time) and am engaged in work that provides many opportunities to leave the world, and people, around me a little better. I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and Savior that know, and love, me and are there to give me a spiritual hug when I'm feeling down and direct me to the good things in life when I seek Their counsel. I'm grateful that Thanksgiving is a holiday that reminds us to focus on the good and recognize the great blessings we receive. It's the perfect way to set the tone for the Christmas season!

When we have free time...

(which has been quite rare lately) we fish! Jeff took me on a romantic fishing date a couple of weeks ago. Nothing says love like fish, stinky shrimp, and aggressive seagulls!

This was Jeff's sad face after we ended our fishing date. He was sad about the score:

Amy - 3

Jeff - 0

A beautiful end to our fishing date...

For reference, this date was the second week of November--it's this time of year that I love living in Florida!

Love In the Deep South...

Twelve hours after my return from Colorado, Jeff and I left for a 3-day lovers get-away in Savannah, Georgia. It's a place we've heard great things about but, have never been and we loved it! The sites, the food, the hotel, the company...it was a great trip!

We did a lot of exploring down by the river...

These stairs were really steep! The picture does not do them justice. I was grateful I had my flat shoes on!

There are beautiful parks scattered all throughout the city. We saw many of them and enjoyed them all!

We also enjoyed looking at the architecture. The old buildings were really neat.

My favorite park was the Forsyth Park. It's the largest one and is very charming.

Of course, we were sure to stay well-fed. Lots of seafood and ice cream after every meal (my dad would be proud!)

And of course we had to try the oysters! They didn't smell great but, they sure tasted pretty good. You know what they say about oysters...

Long Time No Blog...

I promise we're still here! Well, "here" is relative--I've been traveling a lot! In the last 2 weeks I've been to Tampa, Colorado and Savannah. I'm home this weekend but am off to Ft. Meyers and Orlando the next 2 weekends. It's all good stuff but, I can't tell you how good it feels to be home, doing my laundry, making cinnamon rolls and watching college football.

Before things got crazy, we were able to enjoy a shrimp boil tailgate with some of our friends before the UF/LSU game. What made this extra special was that our good friends, Cassie and Craig, were visiting from Texas! They moved away from us about 5 months ago. We really miss them and it was so fun to have them back--it just felt right! I was running around with Ashley getting the food ready so, I didn't get a great chance to visit but, just being in their vicinity was refreshing.

I went to Keystone, Colorado for a week-long conference and, while the conference itself was not-so-hot, the location couldn't have been more beautiful. Being there made me want to buy a hyperbaric chamber and move to the mountains. (Hellooo, how do you breathe up there!?!)

The view out my window...

My last day there I woke up to this...

... and it was definitely time to head home.

What We've Been Up To...

Watching Football...

Eating, and watching more football

And Jeff's been playing softball with guys from his dental school class. I've been functioning as a cheerleader. (Takes me back to my high school days...)

In other news (literally), one of our newly published studies has been receiving a lot of press coverage. Check out this article on CNN! Alex has been doing most of the press but, I had my first experience with a local TV interview! It was crazy! I didn't see it air (I was functioning as a cheerleader as described above) but, hopefully I didn't look/sound like a complete idiot...

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/09/24/health.booze.tax/

Anyway, I wrote a good chunk of the grant for this study and am the second author on the paper. Pretty exciting stuff! (This is me, waving my nerd flag...)