Halloween Festivities

Okay, I will try to be better with this blog. Things have been crazy! This semester has been very difficult class wise, but I'm almost done. (The light is getting brighter at the end of the tunnel!)

Halloween was a blast. I started off going to work (a typical Friday) and left early to attend Paige Elizabeth Alleys 1st birthday party. She was too cute. Icing smashed all over her face. She is just the cutest little thing! Paige is Ian's cousins Matthew and Amanda's first child.

That evening we had invited over the Brusters, Nixon/Alejandros, and the Huangs, and had a potluck dinner and scary moviefest. We handed out candy and dressed Beamer up in crazy costumes, and stayed up chatting. The movie of choice was "Cherry Falls" a movie with Brittany Murphy filmed in Ians high school his sophomore year.

This was the first time I've ever gave out halloween candy. I mean physically giving out candy myself. It was such a treat! Although at points I was almost mobbed by 4 year olds, I think I did well for myself. I saw super heros, princesses, bugs, and monsters. I think my favorite costume was this little boy dressed up as a mad scientist. It was so cute!

Since we live in a new built neighborhood we didn't get as many kids, but that was expected. I think I counted about 25. We were able to meet a bunch of our neighbors though, so that was great!

Tomorrow is going to be a big day. As some of you may not know, a friend of ours passed away. Allison Bruster Bragg was a great friend to many, and sister of Alex Bruster, Ian's best friend. She was 27 and passed away in her sleep. The funeral is tommorow, and everyone is ready to get together and share all of the happy fun moments they've had, mourn her loss, but also to celebrate her life. She is going to greatly missed. She leaves behind a Husband, and 3 children. Allison has lead a great life filled with so much love from many people. I know she is looking down on us and smiling.

Music, Wedding, and Iggy day!

This weekend was jam packed. We started off with a Thursday night rockfest! Our friend Lissa Bruster works for a company that was sponsoring the "Donate Life Rocks" concert, to promote organ and tissue donation. Therefore, we recieved tickets to attend the event which included live music by EVE 6 and Alex Band (with the singer from "The Calling"). We all had a blast! Not only were we able to get up close, but we spent the evening with close friends. Thursday night ended and it was back home to pack and rest up for our Road trip to Chapel Hill on Friday morning. Dr. Andrew Huang would be married in less han 24 hours! We carpooled to Chapel hill with Faith and Chris, and I thought the ride would be filled with chatter and laughing, but instead I feel asleep and so did Ian... so, we were "THOSE" people. After arriving in Chapel Hill we checked into the hotel (The Marriott Courtyard) and upacked. We all got dressed in our formal attire, and went on our way. The wedding was beautiful! Saira was stunning, and Andrew was very relaxed! The ceremony was outside and the weather was perfect! The Carolina Inn was a perfect location. The building was very grand, yet had a historical feel to it.

We then moved indoors for the reception. There was so much food I left the place stuffed. We had what must have been a 8 course meal, topped off with wedding cake and a coffee bar! We now welcome Saira to Richmond, and cannot wait to show her around town!
After the wedding festivitites were over, Andrew and Saira rode away into the darkness by horse and carriage (so romantic!).

Sunday was a cleaning day for Ian and I, so things started out pretty usual. However, today we had planned a special playdate with Christines dog Cooper (another Italian Greyhound). They both came over and it was great to see Beamer and Cooper play together. There are not many Italian Greyhounds in the area, so it was wonderful to get both of them together.

The weekend was perfect, yet exhausting. Both Ian and I start classes tomorrow, and have a 4 day work week, then its off to Charlotte for the VT vs. ECU season kickoff game. GO HOKIES!! Stay posted!!!!

The Blogging Begins!

We are extremely excited to begin as "bloggers" here on our own site. We hope that our friends and family will be able to catch up on our lives, and share our memories, as we all realize how busy life gets.

We are finishing up an extremely busy summer. I have finished my Summer Session at VCU, and both Ian and I start back up with our Fall classes next Monday.

We updated some things in our house, such as painting the kitchen (finally) and added a deck (see below). Ian and his father worked on our deck for 3 weeks. We added the portion you see on the left, as well as the pop out for the grill.

The first week of June we traveled to Arkansas to watch my beautiful cousin get married. My sister Melissa and I were bridesmaids, and we had such a wonderful time! The church was absolutely gorgeous, but not as gorgeous as my cousin Amber! I was so happy to be reunited with the other half of my family, and to be a part of Ambers special day!

We added a new member of our Family this June. He is an Italian Greyhound named Beamer! (As you can see, you can take the grads out of Blacksburg, but you cannot take the Blacksburg out of the grads!). Beamer has been SUCH a blessing. Born on March 21, 2008, he is almost 5 months old, and has been so great to watch grow. I have already taught him to sit, shake, lie down, and rollover. He's super smart and learns quickly. (I think he gets that from me) :)

On June 30th we celebrated our 1 year anniversary. Ian took me to Ruths Chris Steakhouse, where we enjoyed a wonderful meal, and then came home to watch our wedding video, look at our wedding albums and create portion 1 of our anniversary video diary. In case you are wondering what that is, each year on our anniversary we video tape ourselves explaining what went on during the past year, the new things that have happend. We also take this time to predict what will happen by next year, 5 years, and 10 years. It will be funny to look back on these videos and see how many things we were correct or incorrect about! We enjoyed eating the top tier of our wedding cake. Cakes by Graham did a great job making the cake, that 1 year later it tasted just as wonderful!
This August was my 24th birthday. Man! The years are starting to fly by! My sister and Dee came to visit for my birthday festivities, and took me out to Firebirds steakhouse, where we had dinner, followed by some bar hopping in downtown Richmond. Including 3 monkey's bar (see the picture below for the 3 monkey's reenactment.)

That pretty much catches everyone up on summer. Ian and I head to Chapel Hill next weekend for Andrew Huangs wedding (actually its Dr. Andrew Huang). We look forward to next weekend and seeing the new Saira Huang and welcoming her to Richmond!! :)

Stay tuned.....