Noel

Christmas was great this year, filled with a lot of family, a lot of friends, and a lot of food! Here is a picture off our crooked little fir tree. And I wanted to give yáll a glimpse of a couple of my favorite ornaments: the christmas turtle and the infamous leg lamp!

I received a ton of books for Christmas, which I was totally stoked about! I told my students that most of what I got was books and that just further confirmed that I am the biggest nerd to ever live. Some notable ones were receiving the collector's edition of Beedle the Bard (a Harry Potter Book), a French copy of Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone, and a passed down stack of my mom's favorite mysteries that she knew I would love! I also got Dewie the Library Cat which is an awesome novel about a cat who lived in a library and inspired hundreds to read!!!

throw in the truck while you're at it

Okay, so my family never owned trucks, it seems like something I would never be apart of. Not that I'm against trucks, in fact we have probably borrowed YOUR truck a time or two. However, this is something I may need some adjusting to.

Since Matt is already buying Keith's biz...he really needed a truck to complete the outfit. And so far, so good....I'm actually enjoying riding around in it....driving it on the other hand is a different story! The truck is a good 4 of my Scions and therefore I feel like some dragon on the road among mice. And parking it is something I will never master.

Here is Matt enjoying his new toy... I mean work expense.

shark attack

Fortunately for me, there are brief moments of humor while working in a bookstore. This greatly helps pass the time while shelving books and begging people to join the membership club. Last night was one of those nights.

I was working at the Info desk, as I often do, and we were pretty busy. Actually I was on the phone checking to see that we had a particular book in stock, when a 5 year old girl marched right up to the counter (that she could not see over) and tried to hold an open book into my face. I politely asked the woman on the phone to hold, knowing this should be good. Because when children come to the info desk, it usually is.

The girl was holding a small chapter book for boys about sharks and she loudly declared,

"Do you see what you keep in the children's department!!!???!!!"

While indicating an illustration of a shark biting a scuba diver. I seriously doubt I can give justice to the appaling nature of her voice, but I tried to keep a straight face as I described to her that even though she might find such an image disturbing, some people, {especially boys-yuck} actually enjoyed reading about shark attacks, and that's why we kept it here in the store. I apoligized if the picture frightened her, but showed her an area of the store where she could find something that was more to her liking and interests.

Here is the book that disturbed her so.

Four Thanksgivings

This year we over-extended ourselves once again. We started off by celebrating with my parents and the pups with all the holiday favs: turkey, honey baked ham, corn pudding, stuffing, pumpkin tartlets, etc. Matt and Bunny ODed on tripdafan and slept the afternoon away.

Mom and I did all the cooking...and the cleaning...how is that fair. But we found a second to pose for a quick picture.

After the 'rents left...a few friends joined us for left-overs, drinks, and games. Our crew included the Bozeman's, the Helleloids, and their cousin Drew. We played a competitive card game called "Nerts"which I definately sucked at. Poor Matt had to struggle along with me as his partner. Casey and I ransacked the newspaper for the Black Friday sales and coupons. We had to develop our strategies and battle plan for hitting the stores at 4am. Over the weekend, Matt and I journeyed to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where we celebrated an early Christmas with the Hollandsworths at my Uncle's condo.

And finally we visited Matt's parents and sister in Greensboro for a late Thanksgiving meal. As always, I fell asleep on their enticing couch. Everytime we've visited...no matter how short a visit... I have ALWAYS fallen asleep on that sofa.

All in all, a GREAT, but BUSY thanksgiving holiday.

card shark

So I think that Sadie is ready for Vegas. Tuesday night we were invited over for dinner and fun at the Millers, and the fun included a game of "Hearts" where I dominated with the high score! (If you've never played hearts before you will probably assume that high is good, and that's my angle). But as you can see below, Sadie must have just been dealt a lucky hand, plus she was really hyped up on coffee. Its really sad when you have to make all these excuses for losing so bad to a baby. The only person Lyndie and Sadie didn't beat was Matt, who we all know cheats.

Melissa's old...

Melissa, our newest Twilight fan, is turning 26! She is seen here with Edward Cullen, and she might possibly kill me for posting this online! However, before she does, let me list my top 8 reasons I love Melissa (and probably why you do too)!
1) Enthusiastic: She gets absolutely ecstatic about Christmas decorations!
2) Creative: She is the most artistically talented person/photographer I've ever met.
3) Persistent: She carves the exact same pumpkin at Halloween EVERY YEAR!
4) Old-School: She has an authentic love and appreciation for all things 90's (including but not limited to the snick tv show "Are You Afraid of the Dark?")
5) Impressive: She does the best "Weaver D" impression that I've ever seen! And no matter how many times I've heard that story...I die laughing!
6) Thoughtful: She has celebrated every success and mourned every failure with me for the past 3 years.
7) Rebellious: She gets into the perfect amount of trouble, like "almost" getting kicked out of private school for attempting to host an illegal prom.
8) Awesome: She's an incredible friend and I couldn't imagine my life without her!

Love you girl!

twilight premier

Last night, we were all excited about the Twilight movie premier! During our countdown to midnight, we partook of Jersey Mike's sub sandwiches, watched the new office, and discussed our book theories. We were joined by the Kelleys, Helleloids, Bozemans, Pepins, and the Chad Wise (however Jackie Gleason was not in attendance this evening).


And what themed party is complete without favors!?!? There was a wide variety of movie candy for everyone to later be smuggled into the theater and Twilight soundtracks!
Unfortunately the movie was not everything we expected and more, but still enjoyable. There certainly were very cheesy parts at times, but have no fear, this was not a representation of the book series. In fact, mostly anything we found negative about the movie was when they strayed from the original plot or dialog. The turn-out at Carmike was remarkable! Matt asked an employee who confirmed that this was their second biggest premier ever, only second to The Dark Knight. That means it beat out the Lord of the Rings, the Matrix, and the Harry Potter movies! If you have no idea what the hype is all about check out the following trailer by clicking here.

fish biscuit

As I may have mentioned a time or two, Big City Bread is the best resturant in town! I would choose their Sunday brunch, possibly above any other meal in America! However, Matt found a way to ruin it for me this Sunday! He ordered the one item that could be the my ultimate downfall, my kryptonite, if you will. A fish biscuit with cheese. Over the summer, while on a short trip to Orlando, we discovered that nothing can make me gag quicker, than the thought of a biscuit with fish on it. Big City, of course, has found a way to turn a slug into a butterfly. This was no slab of fried fish bits on a buttery, greasy biscuit topped with pasturized american cheese like I had always feared, but a sophisticated slice of salmon with swiss on a pastry. But who are we kidding? Let's call a spade a spade
As usual, I ordered my croque madame (a grilled ham and gruyere cheese sandwich with a fried egg on top) and roasted potatoes. I even stole a little rosemary off the bush outside while we sat by the outdoor heaters.
For dessert, we ordered the usual fruit tart (my favorite BCB pastry) and a cup of joe. Sweet crumbly shell, with creamy custard, and topped with fresh fruits. Yum!

5 years

Today marks five years since Matt and I started dating! So I decided to throw a first few date pictures your way. Before we were dating, Matt and I went to a halloween party together as friends. My jaw dropped when he picked me up dressed as "the road". I definately thought he was the BIGGEST dork I had ever encountered. This isn't a great picture, its actually a picture of a picture from a scrapbook because this was taken before I owned a digital camera. So if you're wondering, I was dressed in a homemade bat costume (minus my fangs).

This next shot was taken when Matt picked me up for our first official date. Himself and his roommates were throwing a "prom"in their appartment (Theme: Apt 78 "The end of innocense, the decade of decadence Prom") and therefore I was his date. After picking me up, we met a few other prom-goers and ate a very classy meal at Burger King. We danced our first dances to "Kiss the Girl"and "Ducktales". And yes, that is a corsage that he brought for me!

Within the next week, I some how ended up cutting Matt's hair on his back porch. So here are the before and after shots. There were a couple of gaps here and there, but not too bad for my first time.

And somewhere around that time, Matt also took me to my first couple of University of Georgia football games. I had only been living in Athens for about 4 months at this point. Its scary how young we both look in these picutres!

remember, remember

I will never forget, forget the Kelley's "Remember, remember the fifth of November"party. Second annual, but a new entity entirely! This year we celebrated Guy Fawkes day by competing in a chili cookoff, watching "V for Vendetta", eating lots of toffee, and shooting off fireworks. Chad, Bethany, the Bozeman's, and myself all participated in making our best chili recipes and then let the other partygoers be the judge. Each chili was numbered and tasters would throw their ballot into a large jar. The verdict was: Chad 3, Bethany 3, Katie 2, Bozemans 2, Tim Tebow 1, Q 1, and the number six 1 (there was no number six). Someone got a little creative with their votes, and I think that someone once wore a speedo and dressed as Robert Goulet.
The movie was projected onto the garage this year, so we could see it on the BIG SCREEN! We had to bundle up and snuggle under the warmth of hats, scarves, mittens, and blankets, which proved cozy will eating chili and baked potatoes. Some chose to watch from the firepit, instead.
Later in the evening, the Matts got a little dangerous with the fire and fireworks. As you can see here, one has a bottle of lighter fluid while the other stands a little too close. Shortly following, I preformed a few "Matrix"moves when they threw a bottle rocket into the firepit, and I just happened to walk up right as it shot directly into my face. I bent over backwards in time to escape with only some singed hair.

obama-rama

Welcome to the candidature Barak! It's no Ron Paul, Chad Wise, or Brak the space-cat, but I'll take it!

campaign

So I went to vote today...
I won't get all political about who I voted for, that's neither here nor there, but overall it was a pretty painless experience this election. I really expected a pretty hefty line, however when I arrived at 11:45am this afternoon...I was the only one there! So, hooray for procrastination! I even got offered a cupcake!

road trip

This previous weekend I spent with friends on Saint Simon's Island. We journeyed the 5 hours south so the fellows could attend the GA/FL game in Jacksonville. Bethany and I didn't want to pass up a free ride down to the island, so we hopped on board and made the trek down there for some fun and silliness. Friday night, Halloween, I was dismayed to not give out candy to the trick-or-treaters, however, hanging out downtown on the island proved fun indeed. We hung out at a local bar and witnessed a pretty humorous costume contest. In one of the following pictures you'll find Daniel, who dressed as Captain Crunch. He had made his costume entirely out of carpet foam, very inventive. We were saddened that he didn't take home the prize for the best costume, but he was in the top 5! Somehow or another Matt and I were coerced into resurrecting our Spartan Cheerleader cheers out on the sidewalk that night by Sarah, Daniel, Chad, Chris, and Bethany! We definitely drew a crowd of spectators. Afterwards we took a stroll on the pier. Chad and Daniel got very silly indeed, harassing couples in romantic embraces and climbing down to the fishers' perch and trying to scare people.
The weekend proved particularly difficult for Bethany and I because we are working on something I like to call "Operation Cut -out Coke." We are strongly attempting to rid diet coke and other caffeinated sodas from our diet. This led to a weekend of some grouchiness and headaches on our part. Poor Matt probably got the worst of it. You can see Bethany here trying to remedy-this by treating her self to a nice hunk of chocolate. The drive home was fun as usual with this crew. Matt chauffeured us while Bethany studied her analogies and Chad and I officiated our car time activities. We managed to play a plethora of car games to pass the time. We read the lateral thinking puzzles to each other, played boom truck, red dooley, the movie game, the alphabet game, and we even sang Row, Row, Row your boat in rounds.

Harry Potter

To my excitement, a new Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince trailer was released last week. This is the one they show overseas, the international trailer. This is definately not as good as the previous trailer, but I still really enjoyed it! Warner Brothers has changed the release date from November 21, 2008 to July 17th, 2009. As disappointed as I was to hear of this over the summer, they did end up moving the Twilight movie to its date. And I am also looking forward to the release of that movie now that I've read those books too!

You can view the trailer by clicking the link below.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Trailer 2

Halloweens of yester-year

Many of you remember our costumes from two years ago(2006), I came as Harry Potter while Matt was the legendary sleazy lounge singer, Robert Goulet. I believe this is truly where the image of Matt Moore being sleazy originated. Pre-Goulet, Matt was a sweet and innocent man, post-Goulet, a creeper. I think what did it was when we'd kiss in costume. Yuck.

Three years ago in October of 2005, just a couple of months before we were married, Matt and I showed up at a DCF halloween party in katie-made Spartan Cheerleader uniforms. We practiced for days on our cheers and gladly obliged the other party-goers with our renditions of "Who's that Spartan in my teepee?, " "Bobbie Fischer," and "R-O-W-D-I-E."
Unfortunately, I cannot find the pictures of our first halloween together, I'll have to do a little more reasearch. We went to a halloween party as our first date in 2003. I knew I was hooked when he came to pick me up dressed as the road. Yes...the road.

Anthony picking his nose

So sunday we took our annual trip to Burt's pumpkin farm, and what an affair it was! Since I had already bought and carved a pumpkin earlier this month with Melissa, I decided to just buy a couple of cute gourds for decoration. But as usual there was a little something for everyone at the pumpkin farm! Jill found herself a few hefty pumpkin friends, melissa a few ears of corn....yet I indulged in the oh-so-fabulous "corn nuggets."The guys found other things to occupy their attention. Eric was on a man-hunt for mullets and other exciting redneck sightings, Matt coerced Melissa out of half of her boiled peanuts, and Anthony picked his nose. All in all, a successful afternoon, huh Anthony?

Also, on the way home, the Moore's and the Pepin's played a VERY competitive game of Boom truck and started making up funny false Obama facts.

*I stole these pictures off Jill's blog, because I forgot my camera at home. Sorry Jill.