Baby it's cold outside!

Well, folks, I am officially back in Pennsylvania!  And, boy, was it one hell of a trip back.... I'll get to that a little later.  Christian FINALLY comes home tomorrow night and I'm so excited!  But, I'm also kind of bummed because he'll only be here three days and then leaves again Sunday for another week.  Oh well, at least I get to see him!  I'm also a little nervous to have him back home.  I think this a feeling many people get when their spouse is gone for a while.  I'm nervous the house won't be in order, something won't be "just right", and there's also the slight awkwardness that's there when we haven't seen each other in forever.    I know everything will be fine but I'm weird about making sure everything is perfect when he gets home!  I don't want anything to mess up our time together!

So anyway, I'm back home from my five weeks in Florida for the holidays and I couldn't be happier to be sleeping in my own bed!  I had wonderful accommodations in Florida (thanks to Dad, Mom and even Karyn!) and I had a great time seeing my family and friends.  I'm blessed to be in the situation where I could leave home for that long and come see everyone.  Shoot, I even got a job while I was there.... ok, just for three days, but it counts!  It was fun to catch up with old work friends and even do some actual work!

Christmas was wonderful and all my gifts from my parents were great!  Mom got me an awesome antique map of Philadelphia framed in a really neat frame so I can put in my new house!  It has a copyright date of 1885 and 1903 on it.  I LOVE it!!!  Then, Dad got me some Ugg boots which have shown their worth the past three or four days!  Those were my two favorite gifts!  But, of course, the best gift was just being able to be around my parents for those several weeks.  That time is certainly treasured!

So, after the long visit, it was time for me to make my trek up the east coast back to good ol' PA.  So, I originally planned on leaving Monday, the 27th after the HSG procedure I was going to have.  Well, I ended up canceling the procedure b/c the timing just wasn't right.  So, I ended up leaving the 26th.  Boy, was that a mistake!  The first snow I hit was south of Montgomery, AL.  And, as you southerners know, we don't really know what this snow crap is all about.  And we damn sure don't know what to do to the roads when it snows!  So, I was stuck in traffic for about an hour and a half in Alabama because the roads had ice all over them.  By the time I got to Tennessee, I saw about 10 different accidents because of the ice/snow.  So, needless to say, my nerves got a very good workout early in the trip.  After I got through Alabama, the trip was going pretty easy.  Roads were clear, not a whole lot of snow, etc.  Well, then I hit the Virginia/West Virginia area.  (Mind you, I was going to my father-in-law's in western Maryland... not going to Philly yet)  Oh, man... I can easily say that I have never been more terrified in my life.  My stomach was in knots, my shoulders and neck kept cramping and I was just a ball of nerves.  So, after about 13 hours in the car and my amazing dad staying on the phone with me for the majority of the bad areas, I needed to stop and stretch my legs.  Well, when I got out of the car at that point, there was no way in hell I was getting back on the interstate.  So, luckily the exit I got off on had a nice hotel so I stopped for the night and rested until the next morning.  The next morning I had two more hours to go to make it to my FIL's house for breakfast.  I made it there with no problem and had breakfast with him and my brother-in-law and his wife.  Then, I was just itching to get home so I got back in the car and drove another four hours  to my house!  Ahhh.... home sweet home!

And, here's what I drove home to!  This was actually taken the day after I got home after my driveway and the streets had been cleared.  The day I got home, my driveway and the roads were still covered in snow and ice.

It was soooo cold too!  But, it's refreshing and pretty and neat because it's something different to me.  So, I've just been going about my regular daily routine... just a little more bundled up now!  

Other than Christian getting home, we have the move to look forward to!  We're now moving January 20th which is way earlier than we expected but that's just how the chips fell.  So, hopefully the snow will hold out and make our move easy.  I'm definitely not looking forward to the act of moving but I'm really excited to get in the new house!  I started packing up some stuff today and I'll have all next week to get a lot done too.  

Anyway, now I'm starving so I better go eat some of my left-over chili (perfect cold weather food)!  I love y'all and hope everyone has a wonderful New Years!!!

xoxo, 

Chrissi

I'll have a blue Christmas without you....

Well, folks, as everyone is getting ready for this glorious time of year, all I can think about is having my husband come home December 30th at 6:50 p.m.!  Christmas just isn't all that exciting for me this year.  Don't get me wrong, I am having a great time in Florida and I love being around my family but man, I'm ready to get home!  I can't wait to see some snow (yes, I know, I'm insane)!  I'm also pretty excited to start packing up all of our stuff so we can move into our new house!!  I'm SOOOO excited about moving.  I love everything about our new house and the new town we're moving into.  The house is a historic 1927 home in a great neighborhood that was built back then by a prestigious builder for his mother.  It's got a great layout, all the original molding around the doors and windows, original hardwood floors and "powder rooms" in the guest bedrooms.  That's what they used to call half baths back then.  I love it.  :)  The town we're moving into is Moorestown, New Jersey.  Christian and I found this town back in the spring when we drove over to NJ to find towns that we would want to eventually live in since we knew we were going to be moving again.  We both fell in love with Moorestown when we ate lunch on their little Main Street (which we will live less than a mile from!).  So, it's got a great little historic downtown but it also has all the convenience of suburbia about 4 miles from our house (Target, Wegmans *my favorite grocery store ever*, Bed, Bath & Beyond, etc).  Plus, we'll only be about 20 minutes from Philly instead of 45 minutes like we are at our how now. So, if you can't already tell, I'm itching to get moved!  Plus, we should be in the new house by February 20th so we can celebrate our first anniversary there!

Speaking of anniversary, is it crazy to anyone else to think that I've almost been married for a year?!  If they say the first year is the toughest, this was a BREEZE!  I have loved every second of being married.... even the stupid little fights, the tough compromises, having to leave my job, moving to an entirely new city where I didn't know a soul, the many, many days I spend alone due to Christian being gone 50 percent of the time for his job, spending Christmas as a single lady, etc, etc, etc.  I have never been happier.  I am one lucky gal for finding such an amazing, funny, supportive, fun, exciting, loving, sexy :) person to spend my life with.  And, of course, he's damn lucky to have such an awesome wife too.  haha

**Pardon the interruption: I'm listening to Pandora.com and created my own Christmas music station and they're playing Judy Garland "Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas".... man, I love her voice!**

Haha, now back to the blog.... so anyway, a whole year!  That's crazy to me!  It has flown by.  One more thing that has happened within our first year of marriage is our trouble with trying to have a baby.  It's been a while now so I went to my doctor down here in Florida (Dr. Lile @ Sacred Heart if any of you are searching for the best OBGYN ever...) yesterday to talk to him about all of this stuff and he's sending me to have an HSG in the next two weeks to check out my fallopian tubes and make sure there are no blockages.  There are no other things on my end of things that point out any issues.  We know I'm ovulating b/c of tests I've done and my cycles are like clockwork.  Christian will be having his own test in January once we're back up north.  So, hopefully, we'll find out soon what is going on and we'll be on our way to parenthood.  Gosh, that's crazy to think about too!  haha  We're going to LOVE it though!

So, on to other topics.... I have yet to do any Christmas shopping.  I had really good intentions of getting it done today but I just couldn't get in the mood.  I REALLY don't like Christmas shopping.  Luckily Christian and I agreed years ago that we will never give gifts to each other.  We aren't in need of anything and if we ever are, we go get it at the time we need it.  We celebrated our first Christmas together with gifts back in 2008 and it was awkward and neither of us really used the gifts we received so it was pointless for us.  But, unfortunately for me, I can't use that same philosophy with other loved-ones. haha  But, there are only a few people I need to shop for so it won't be too painful.

Other than Christmas shopping, my week is actually getting pretty busy.  I was just asked by my old job to come in an work a couple days.  This was the job where I was a Case Management Assistant.  Man, I loved that job.  It was the one I left when I was offered the position with Studer Group.  Haha, sometimes I wonder about my sanity at that point.  ;-)  So, I'm going to hang out all day tomorrow with my old co-worker Angela and my old boss, Denise!  I can't wait!  Thursday, Alison is having craft day with her students at Molino Park Elementary and she invited me to come help out so I'll probably do that and then I may work back at ECRA again Friday if they need me.  Then, Saturday and Sunday are chock full of fun stuff!

Saturday is Ali's baby shower!  I'm sooo excited about that and can't wait to see all the cute stuff she gets for Baby Boy (who is yet to be named) Ohler.  After the shower, we have our family Christmas on my mom's side and then Sunday is family Christmas on my dad's side.  Lots of family time this weekend!  I love it.

Christian always asks me to say hello to everyone so here is his hello and Merry Christmas!  :)  I can't wait to see those of you I will see this week/weekend.  Love y'all!

xoxo,

Chrissi