Tis the season

Well, we are definitely in the season! We have our Christmas tree up and we are almost completely done with our Christmas shopping with all presents wrapped and under the tree. We only have a few more gifts to buy and then we should be done. We bought our first Christmas tree this year and i was anxious to get it up and decorated. I also made fudge for the first time ever! It is really good too, if i do say so myself! Hope you all catch the Christmas spirit too!!

Christmas pic

1st Christmas tree!!

fall!

Chris and I decided to spend Saturday taking a drive through the Tennessee Valley and looking at all the gorgeors colors of the trees in the Fall. We drove from Chattanooga up to Signal Mountain where we stopped by to visit my step mother. Then we drove down to the valley to visit our friend in Whitwell. Then we drove up Suck Creek mountain in order to get back to Chattanooga. It was a beautiful drive and a good time!

Also, the last picture is of the new wreath that we got for our front door. We also bought our very first Christmas tree (fake)!! I am so excited. I bought a bunch of ornaments after last Christmas b/c they were on sale at Target. So, i will post pictures soon when we put up the tree!

Tennessee River

Our drive down Suck Creek Mountain

nice view

Tiny waterfall near the road

Me and Chris, self portrait ;)

Chris and the Sequatchie Valley

Me and the Sequatchie Valley

Back yard photo of my dad and step mother's home, lots of trees!!

This is the road to my dad and step mother's home

This is a random shot from the road.

This is one of the three hair pin turns that we face as we go up the mountain on the "W" road.

Drive up Signal mountain

We got a wreath for our front door!

update on surgery

thanks for all of your prayers and comments on the last post. the surgery went well and i am recovering at home. i am taking the whole week off of work in order to hopefully recover quickly. everything is going ok but i am having issues with eating as my body is not used to digesting while missing an organ. please continue to pray that i will be able to go back to work on monday with lots of energy!

Surgery

hey folks!! just wanted to let every one know that I (bonnie) will be having surgery on Friday the 24th. i have been having many stomach problems and found out that it is due to my gall bladder being a quitter. we found that i have gall bladder disease and it has completely shut down so we are taking it out! i will have to be out of work for a week, so please pray for speedy recovery and for us to quickly find out what i can eat without getting sick. thanks for all your prayers!!

One year!

So, we had our FIRST anniversary this past weekend and we were able to take a mini vacation and stay in a cabin in Pigeon Forge for three nights. We had a great time, it was relaxing, and I wish I was still there! Enjoy the pics below!

Kitchen

Bedroom

Living room

Very large jacuzzi that took 45 minutes to fill up

Hot tub!

Yummy Dinner!!

The excellent cook!

We at here for breakfast one morning

This is the top tier from our wedding cake, so of course we had to eat it on our anniversary. We ate a couple of bites, but surprisingly, it was not as good one year after it was baked!

New furniture and pottery

We were blessed this year to be able to purchase a new dining room table around tax return time. We got a pretty good deal and we are very pleased with our new table. It is a big step up from the folding sides kitchen "table" that we were using before. I have also found a new hobby that i really enjoy. There is a place near our apartment that we have found called River City Pottery. They have all different kids of already made pottery pieces and you can buy one and then paint it in their store. They supply all paints and brushes and then they fire it in a kiln to make it all shiny. I have been four times (the most recent being tonight :) ) . I have displayed somem pottery pieces here for your enjoyment and then i will post next week when I get the piece that I just painted tonight. We also got new curtains for our bedroom due to the sun coming in more since our landscapers cut down a big bush in front of our bedroom window. We got these curtains because they have a lining and we thought that this would give us more shielding from the sunlight.....well we were wrong. Now, there is just a red glow in our bedroom throughout the day :)

So, enjoy the pics!

Kitchen table

Kitchen table

This is our first pottery piece. We made this piece right before our wedding. You may not be able to see, but what we did was draw a face representing all those that were in our wedding party. Then drew palm trees because we got married at the beach!

This is my second piece that I did. I was most proud of this piece because it took so much detail to do two colors and then do the stencil for the flower. The green and yellow colors are colors that match almost exactly to the colors of our dishes.

This is my third piece. I painted this on a girl's day out with the ladies from my Sunday School class. I used the same colors for my fourth piece that I painted tonight to match this piece.

These are our new curtains! Yea!

Also, this our bed! We LOVE it. It is a king size and cherry wood. The headboard and footboard and curved a little at the top resembling the sleigh bed style. This was a blessing of a wedding gift from Chris' parents!

Gone Fishin'

Hey All,

Bonnie and I were blessed to have an extra day off this week. We used that opportunity to go cruising and fishing with Bonnie's Dad on Chickamauga Lake. We had a blast. We were able to enjoy the scenery as we cruised up and down the lake. We also had a great time fishing. As you will see, we are fishermen/women to be feared.

Bonnie caught three whoppers like this one.

Unfortunately, Bonnie caught a bad sunburn as well.

I caught the first whopper of the day!

John, we thank you for taking us out. We had a wonderful time.