Catching up and an All Star Weekend

The last two weeks have literally been a blur...between snowy days here in Atlanta and total craziness at work I don't know if I'm coming or going most days. Quick rant related to the snow--we got a new Nikon D-80 camera after Christmas. I took it to Sharla's shower and right in the middle it stopped working (the pictures were so dark that nothing was recognizable). I figured I had messed up some setting and sat there for probably 30 minutes trying to figure it out. I knew once I got back home Joel would probably take one look at it and tell me what silly mistake I had made. Well, that was not the case. After he tinkered with it for about 30 minutes he realized the flash wasn't working. We had the camera for less than 2 weeks and the flash had already broken! Luckily, we have a Nikon service center in Atlanta, so Joel was able to drop off the camera. But--it would happen to snow *twice* at our house since he took the camera to be repaired! I'm sure that will never happen again. And we had some exciting events this weekend that he would have loved to have captured.

So, back to the craziness. My position at work has been expanded through the re-org we've been going through and I had my first business trip this past week. I got to go all the way to Atlanta! Woohoo! But, I did get to spend a night at the Ritz Carlton and get out of the office for two days. The days leading up to the meeting were a mess though, since the presentation was left in my hands and I didn't get a lot of pieces until the last minute (hello, pet peeve)! The NHL All Star game and events leading up to it were this weekend. With the events, my company sponsored a concert on Thursday night that I attended with my group from work. It was the new band One Republic. They are kind of a one hit band right now, but the concert was actually really good. I stayed out a little too late and enjoyed myself a little too much, but our meetings were over by noon on Friday and I was able to go home and crawl in bed :-)

Our only plans for the weekend were to attend a Stanley Cup viewing party--again in conjunction with the NHL All Star game.

When we got to the event we were given tickets to the Skills Challenge that night and tickets to the All Star game on Sunday. So we spent most of the weekend down in Atlanta at Philips Arena. The Eastern Conference won both the Skills Challenge and the All Star Game. Go East!

Hey Mama--

Well, my bestest Sharla is joining the mommy club soon, so her and I had to have a last girls' weekend before she's too busy changing diapers to put up with my neediness (RIP Daily Email).

Seriously though, I went up on Saturday to visit and attend her baby shower on Sunday. Saturday afternoon we made a trip to Target, I introduced her to Steve and Barry's and the greatness that is the Bitten line by SJP, found a good deal on a Boppy at TJ Maxx, got some yummy Mexican food and she seriously whooped me at some Skip-bo. Pretty much the quintessential Amy & Sharla weekend! Of course, we had breakfast on Sunday (I'm not allowed to stay at the Collins house without letting Josh buy me breakfast on Sunday morning) and got ready for the shower.

Doin our best model faces...had to get our silliness out before the shower

How cute is this bootie corsage?

I know you're gonna be a great mom, Sharla! I can't wait to meet Teeny :-)

I'm back...

So, it's 2008 and it's gotten off to a busy start! I'm going through a re-org at work, so most days I don't feel like trying to write a witty post. You see, I'm not a real blogger--the ones who can just write posts about whatever and not have any pictures and it's actually interesting. No, I need pictures as a crutch and I need a party, holiday or something out of the ordinary to blog about. I guess I could make an effort to venture out of my comfort zone...but not today. Today I'm catching up on picture posting and recapping the holidays.

I can't complain about work too much, because EVERYONE in the company gets the whole week between Christmas and New Year's off. That's right, even me, the newest underling in the office. So we packed up the car-to the point where there was no room left and we definitely realized that we're going to need an SUV before we add any members to the family-and headed up to NC on Saturday. I had dinner with my sisters on Saturday night;which is becoming a tradition any time I make it up to visit...I definitely don't get to spend enough time with my girls! Joel took Sammy to stay at "Grandma's" house (his mom's) where he was completely spoiled for the week (i.e. she makes him eggs and bacon for breakfast...and she wonders why he won't leave her side...). On Sunday I spent the day with my mom and we went to see The Nutcracker ballet in Raleigh. Neither of us had seen it before and it was really fun because we had the best seats in the place. Christmas Eve was spent at my parent's house and Christmas at Joel's parents. So it was pretty much your standard Christmas... here's a pic that Lauren took of us on Christmas morning

We started the trip back home on Thursday...stopping at Josh and Sharla's to exchange our gifts. We were also planning on doing a pregnancy photo shoot, but Sharla was feeling under the weather, so it was postponed until New Year's Eve when we'd be passing through again. So we enjoyed a few days back at home and then made the trip back up to Charlotte for New Year's Eve. We got the photo shoot in and got some good shots! Rex and Liz had us and Sharla and Josh over for a fondue dinner that was soooooo good! And we played this new Cranium Wow game that was probably one of the best group board games I've ever played. I made it to midnight, but fell asleep (or was it passed out?) shortly after--no shocker there. 2007 was definitely the best year yet. But they do seem to be getting better and better--hopefully 2008 will not disappoint!

Blog Slacker

I've been a blog slacker lately--way to start off the new year! One day soon I'll get the time to recap the holidays! For now we are alive and well...Here's to a great 2008!