Our Furry Friends

2 weeks ago (man, I'm really horrible at updating!), Dan and I welcomed 2 new furry Weldings into our clan! We adopted Edward and Bella, a brother and sister kitty duo, from Furrever Friends (the rescue I have been working with at Pet Smart on Sundays). They are incredibly shy, but have slowly been coming around. Bella is a bit braver than her brother, and they are both very sweet. Unfortunately, Phoebe has been less than pleased to have these two have intruders on her turf. This means that they have been living in our back room with limited time to explore the rest of the house lest Phoebe decides to pick a fight. Although, I'm optimistic that they'll learn to get along in time.

Edward is the gray and white kitty on the right and Bella is on the left (photo creds go to Kellyn for this shot):

Also speaking of furry friends, Dan spent Monday building a nice little enclosure for BunBun. My office is now much more rabbit friendly. I think BunBun enjoys have the extra space, however, it has not succeeded in making her less of a brat >.<

And, if you're wondering, there will no more furry additions for a while. We are planning on getting a dog, but need to wait until we have a yard and a little more income. These stipulations, however, have not stopped us from scoping out petfinder.com and the local shelters. ^-~ After the pup, our animal population will be maxed out.

Hair Cuts and Optimism

Did you ever notice how simple external changes can completely make over your entire outlook? I seemed to have experienced that with my latest hair cut. Sure, I received some stellar news about the future of my employment at Eastern just the day before I got it cut, and, of course, the spring-like whether last week helped to put me in a better mood than I've been in the previous couple of weeks... but, still, it's almost uncanny how much my mood has lifted post snip.

Maybe the shedding of hair has somehow metaphorically mirrored the lightening of my burdens. Perhaps the fact that it's now more manageable is helping me feel more in control of my life. Or it could just be that I actually feel cute for once. Hey, a boost to the self-esteem never hurts!

Whatever is going on, hair related or not, I am certainly enjoying the ride! It's about time.

Hello, 2009!

January was quite a busy month for us. We had two weddings two weeks in a row. The second one happened to be in Disney World, so we decided to go a couple days ahead of time in order to get some park time in. I have quite a few photos from Disney, but I'm only going to put up a few favorites.

The first wedding we attended was on January 10th down in Maryland for two of our good friends from Eastern - Vickie and (John) Wyatt. They had star themed reception, complete with constellation table markers and one of the best cakes I've ever eaten (it was first time I've sampled gum paste, and let me tell you, I'm a fan!).




The next wedding was that of our good friends (and huge Disney fanatics!) Katie and Eddie. The wedding took place January 18th in Disney World! It was everything a Disney wedding should be - magical and romantic. Dan and I flew down to Orlando the evening of the 15th for our mini-vacation and came home on the evening of the 19th. Daniel also had the privilege of being the only guy at Katie's bachelorette party. :)

Dinner at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater:


I love this ride! It's a Small World:

Daniel poses with baby Mickey and Minnie in a shop on Main Street, USA:

My favorite shot from the bachelorette party at Fantasia Gardens mini golf (Dan is pretending to swim, but it looks more like he's sleeping)

This wedding had a lot of character! (haha- get it?? yeah... that was a pretty lame pun. I just couldn't help myself!)



My favorite part? The pastor said, in a Jamaican accent (or, close to it): "Go on and kiss 'dee girl":


gettin' our swing on... it had to happen! :)

December Photo Wrap-Up (aka - my photos are horribly out of order!)

I finally got the photos up! Woohoo! Well, half of them anyway (January will have its own post)... Here, in some kind of wacky order (because, blogger drives me crazy with the way the photos upload backwards) are the rest of our photos from December:

Our wine glass shelf that Daniel put up shortly after Christmas:


Rose blowing out the candles on her strawberry birthday cake on December 31st:


After honing our skills on the Wii, we decided it was time to actually go bowling:



"The Captain" with his beautiful granddaughter, Ellie, on her first Christmas:

Erin decorating Gracie on Christmas morning:

One of my Christmas traditions is the "Stair Picture" - my siblings and I would sit on the stairs with as many pets as we could gather and my mom would take a picture of us before we opened presents. Dan and I don't have stairs, so we took a family portrait in front of the tree. Mama Smith took a Stair Picture for us on Christmas Eve sans Phoebe:


Mama Smith opening her Dyson from all the Smith/White siblings and significant others (unfortunately, she wasn't very surprised, but she was still excited!):

Our nieces, Jamie (right) and Ashley (left) at Mama and Papa Smith's house on Christmas Eve; seconds later, chaos ensued as all those presents behind them were opened:

Gingies made by myself and Mama Smith and then decorated by Daniel and I (these are some of the cuter ones):

Christmas Eve! Dan and I exchanged Christmas Eve presents (i.e. pajamas):

Daniel was excited because it was his turn to move the mouse on the last advent calendar day- definitely a moment that needed to be documented:

A feta cheese snowman that I made for the Ugly Holiday Sweater Party hosted by our good friends Genevieve and Kara:

Papa Smith was a councilman in Woodbury Heights for 10 years. He retired this year, and we were invited to his last council meeting as a surprise to watch him receive a "proclomation" and a few other parting gifts. Here he is with the mayor, Harry, and his running mate, Jake:

Dan had nothing to do with this, but I felt that these truffles, made by our good friend Amy for our friend Vickie's wedding shower, needed to be shown off. They were a little taste of heaven! And I was priveledged to assist in their creation: