I'm an Elf...ha!

This is me and the coaching staff that I work with at UNCG...funny stuff:)

Thanks for making this Yemil;)

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1493980120

It's Christmas at our house!!!

Last year we had NOTHING for Christmas! We weren't sad though and we still enjoyed our time together, but I will admit having some decorations and a little $ to buy gifts has been nice. So enjoy the pictures and the fun little survey to get to know my Christmas likes and dislikes:)

The dining room table

The porch decorated!

The Christmas Tree:)

The mantel

The side table with my snowman bricks from last year's Super Saturday and the wreath

Entry way table welcoming our winter friends:)

Christmas Erks' Way

Wrapping paper or gift bags? A little of both. I like the variety.

Real Christmas tree or artificial (I like to say permanent)? Permanent. It seems cool to go pick out a tree, but even cooler to get your in-laws old permanent tree that's awesome! Plus I grew up on permanent so it's all good with me.

When do you put up the tree? In this year's case it was the second weekend in December so that my parents and in-laws could meet together and share in a little Christmas cheer:) In the future I would like to have it up the day after Thanksgiving.

When do you take the tree down? J and I sit with the tree every night and read our scriptures so we will probably keep it up as long as possible since this has become a sweet habit. So, basically sometime in January, but not exactly right after New Year's.

Do you like Eggnog? NOPE!!! Jeremy loves the stuff though so it will be on the shopping list this week.

Favorite gift received as a child? I loved everything I got as a child, but if I had to pick I would say the teddy bears that my mom and step dad would always give to me (unwrapped like it came from Santa) .

Do you have a nativity scene? No, but I would love to have the Willow Tree version.

Hardest person to buy for? My step dad because he's cool with anything. Should be easy right, but for me it's not because he can never tell me what he wants and I like giving people EXACTLY what they want so that I'm sure they like it.

Mail or email Christmas cards? I don't care how I get them because it shows that someone thought about me, but I like sending them to people too because like Jackie said, it's cool to get other things in the mail besides your bills.

Christmas movie favorite. Anything BUT the National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, but Jeremy's in the background telling how he likes it. So I guess I will check it out again this year. Seriously though I really like A Christmas Story and any of the cartoon Christmas movies or specials.

When do you shop for Christmas? November/December although I am going to try and buy all year in the new year so I don't stress out about what to get people.

Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I don't think so, but I would if I truly had something that I didn't particularly like, and it would truly make someone else happy.

Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? My grandma's macaroni and cheese and her dressing (actual squares so it's more like a bread) and just recently added now that I'm married...my mother-in-law's sweet potato casserole.

Clear lights or colored on the Christmas tree? Clear all the way. I think it's classic and since I have a symmetry issue colored lights would drive me crazy!

Favorite Christmas song? Hallelujah Chorus. We used to sing this every year at our high school Christmas concert with any alumni chorus members that wanted to do it. I should have done it this year since my little sister is a senior and is in the chorus:) There's also this other song called Fruit Cake that my chorus teacher taught us that's really cool. Everyone had a different hand held instrument to represent a Christmas sound and/or a sound like saying, "mmmmm" to represent a tasty treat . It was so much fun and we would sing it for the elderly in nursing homes and stuff like that. I need to try and find it recorded because it was soooooooooooooo fun!

Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home:) We like relaxing and keeping things as clam as possible, but we have it both ways because all of our family is here in Greensboro or High Point. We don't want to start the habit of traveling so that when we have kids we will be used to keeping the "magic at home" as Jeremy's mom would say:)

Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? If I tried I probably could, but I don't want to. My brain is off when I leave work and naming them would take too much energy:) However, I like Olive the other reindeer...ha! One of our nieces was telling somebody she liked Olive the other reindeer and they had no clue who she was talking about. But I guess if you're a little kid and you sing the song, "All of the other reindeer" sounds like "Olive, the other reindeer." I died laughing when I heard this story:)

Angel on tree topper or star? Neither. I love bows and I made my own from the lesson at our Relief Society party this year.

Open presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? Christmas morning this year since we only have a few gifts under the tree. In the future, when we have kids, we want to open the sentimental gift we give one another on Christmas Eve in our room so that we are alone.

Most annoying thing about this time of year? How EVERYBODY is asking you for your money. If I'm going to give (and I do give) I will give. I don't need everyone at work asking me to be a part of a kazillion different things that cost money. I have enough people that I actually know and care about that I am giving to.

Favorite ornament theme or color? I am all about gold and red ornaments with white lights. My tree will always have this color scheme.

Favorite Christmas dinner? Same thing as my favorite thing to eat above:) Mmmm good!!!

What do you want for Christmas this year? At first I felt silly for putting this on here, but you're my friends so I'll be honest...a baby:)

Merry Christmas everybody!!!

Sweet November

November is such a sweet month for the Holmes crew. My birthday is early November , J's birthday is late November, and Thanksgiving break came right after that!!! We had lots of cake and other great food on both sides of the family:) I turned 28 and J turned 29 this year so get ready for the birthday bash for Jerms next year!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and have fun decorating and planning for Christmas. I know we will since we actually have a tree this year:) Well, that's for another post.

Toodles!

Halloween!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Halloween was great! My nephew J, my mom, and my sister got to come to our Fall Festival at church:) and I hosted a party at my house. I'm just getting the hang of this slide show thing so I don't have captions this time.

Enjoy the pictures!

I'm an addict :(

I was looking through other blogs on Diane's page and found this cool quiz. Click on my results to find out how addicted to blogging you are:)

65%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Super Hero and Villain

So we haven't posted in a while so I had to find something to put on the blog. So since I didn't join in on the Super hero and Villain thing previously I decided it was time to release the POWER on the blog until I get the cute pictures up of my nephew at the Fall Festival. Enjoy!!!


Your results:
You are Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman 80% Green Lantern 60% The Flash 60% Robin 50% Superman 50% Supergirl 50% Spider-Man 45% Iron Man 40% Hulk 25% Batman 25% Catwoman 20%

You are a beautiful princess with great strength of character.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test




Your results:
You are Mystique

Mystique 72% Apocalypse 60% Venom 60% Lex Luthor 48% Magneto 45% Dr. Doom 43% Kingpin 40% Catwoman 40% Riddler 32% Mr. Freeze 32% The Joker 28% Dark Phoenix 28% Green Goblin 24% Juggernaut 24% Poison Ivy 20% Two-Face 8%	Sometimes motherly, sometimes a beautiful companion, but most of the time a deceiving vixen.
Click here to take the "Which Super Villain are you?" quiz...

New decor!!!

J and I have been decorating our home for a year! Who knew it would take so long to decide what we wanted on the walls:) We'll after searching and planning in my head I finally found an entry way table and mirror from Hobby Lobby (this place is AWESOME...have you seen their Christmas and Halloween stuff??), we got some frames that you stick multiple pictures in and a decorative piece for two walls from TJ Maxx, a coffee table from Market Samples (this small furniture store on High Point Rd in High Point), another smaller coffee table, and an armoire and end table from a friend's mom . We have been so blessed to receive different items from friends and family and to purchase some additional pieces.

It feels so good not to be scared to put things on the wall anymore. Now that we are homeowners there isn't a maintenance guy to come and repair the walls when you mess them up hanging and re-hanging pictures and frames:)

Enjoy the pictures!

The Worst Bloggers Ever!

So J and I haven't blogged in a LONG time. I have been soooo busy with summer camps, family stuff, school starting, and UNCG cheer and dance that there has only been time for sleep. So since the last time I posted we have celebrated Grand momma Holmes' 90 birthday, done the girl's camp thing, we have gone to my family reunion in Florida, been out of town at my cheer camps, and celebrated my nephew's first birthday. The summer was a blur and I am glad to have my life back! Please, please, please remind me next summer of this post so that I don't run myself crazy like I did this summer:)

Since it's 10pm and my brain hurts I am going to have to give you a break down of the pictures first because I cannot remember (and nor do I care to right now) how to get the pictures to let me put a caption after each.

1. Me and my friend at the UCA Awards Night dinner
2. The great decorations me and the other camp director woke up to one day a girl's camps
3. Grand momma Holmes and J
4. J's parents and there 9 grandchildren
5. A preview of what J will be like when he's a dad:) I love this picture.
6. Me and my sissy. She's 17 and wonderful!
7. Nephew J making his birthday entrance. He was not happy at first:)

So this is my quick snapshot of our summer. Now that I am back home we will be posting regularly again.

Enjoy the pictures!

Cedrick is GONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So the crew gets together every Wednesday to watch So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD). This season has been very upsetting because the judges have kept this annoying guy, Cedrick, on the show for WAY TOO LONG! So J gave me the news at midnight last night that Cedrick is no longer on the show...yippeeeeee!!! For those of you who do not watch the show, Cedrick was the Sonjaya (from American Idol) of SYTYCD. I know this post is kind of random, but I had to post it because I needed to release my excitement for Cedrick's journey home:) Thank you for letting me share a very cathartic moment with you...ha!

Toodles:)

Things I miss when I'm away from home doing camps

So I think everyone knows that I do cheer camps during the summer. It's a great summer job, but it can get a little long sometimes. So I've been at camp this week and I've been thinking of things I miss when I'm away from home. I know I may be taking the risk of sounding like a 2 year old, but I really do miss home in a different way now that I'm married and more settled in my ways. So here's a short list:

1. I miss my human heater...J!

2. I miss my sleep!!! I cannot go to sleep at a decent hour when I'm away because I don't have my tempurpedic bed or my human teddybear!

3. Normal conversations. Most of the people I work with are between the ages of 17 and 22.

4. Working a normal working day. Camps are from 8am to 8:30pm.

Well, I'll see you guys soon when I return on Saturday, but I go out again on Monday so the visit home is very short (I am basically coming home so that I do not miss church).

Do you know what today is (was)...It's our anniversary!

For any of you who don't know, the title of this blog is a shout out to one of my favorite music groups in the 80's. Tony! Toni! Tone! made a song called "Anniversary" and that's the main line in the hook or chorus.

Well, onto the greatness. Yesterday was our one year anniversary and it was an EXCELLENT day! First we went on a picnic at the Bicentennial Gardens where we were married. For those of you who were there a year ago, it was about 80 degrees (10 -15 degrees cooler than last year). Where was this weather then!

The sign as you enter the gardens.

The picnic J put together.

The gazebo where we got married and J relaxing underneath.

After that we headed to Coldstone for smoothies, Lowes, and a couple of furniture places for some window shopping. We LOVE going and testing out the squishiness (you like my word don't you) of all of the couches. So after that we went to P.F. Chang's and it was AWESOME!!! I have only ever gotten the lettuce wraps and Jeremy's never eaten there so it was GREAT!!!

The best chinese food EVER!!!

The shirt I'm wearing was my gift from J. It's from White House Black Market and I LOVE it!

After we left the restaurant we decided that we wanted to see our friends so we joined them at the end of Family Home Evening and got a dance lesson.

It was a great anniversary! J did an awesome job planning everything. He's the BEST husband ever!

Forever Family!!!

J and I became a "forever family"on June 9, 2007! The temple is a wonderful place and we are so excited that our friends and family were able to share in our special day.

We love you all and enjoy the pictures!!!

Coming out of the temple for the first time!!!

 

This day was truly AMAZING!!!

I'mma Beast Baby!!!!!

So I took a super hero quiz. I have to say that I'm pretty pleased with the results. Check it out.

Your results:
You are The Hulk

Hulk 80% The Flash 70% Green Lantern 65% Robin 60% Iron Man 55% Superman 50% Wonder Woman 45% Catwoman 45% Batman 45% Spider-Man 40% Supergirl 40%	You are a wanderer with amazing strength.
Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...

I am kind of disturbed that Robin and Wonder Woman are that high on the list. I need to do some serious self evaluation.

Then I took this:


Your results:
You are Venom

Venom 71% Apocalypse 55% The Joker 54% Dark Phoenix 54% Magneto 51% Juggernaut 50% Mr. Freeze 48% Lex Luthor 43% Two-Face 42% Dr. Doom 40% Mystique 38% Catwoman 37% Riddler 33% Kingpin 30% Poison Ivy 26% Green Goblin 22%	Strength, disguise and adrenaline are your greatest weapons.
Click here to take the "Which Super Villain are you?" quiz...

Nerd?

So I saw the nerd quiz and took it. If you want to see how nerdy you are click below. When you get your score hit me back on the comments page.

Jack Bauer Would Not Be Pleased

So, I'm driving home from work today, and I realized the 1st major crack in the foundation of my union with Erks. It was one of the most horrifying experiences in my life and I'm not sure where I can begin. It all started when we were sitting at a stoplight...

Begin Flashback

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

we had to drive separately to school this morning because of timing issues, we were not in sync. So, Erks was driving home behind me and we were sitting at the light. I looked into my side mirror and was admiring her beauty. So, I decided to tell her so. I proceeded to use my unbelievably, world-class, nonverbal super spy skills to send her an encoded message to the effect of, "You... look... great..." She did not get the message. So, I changed tack. I realized I may have used a confusing signal and indicated that I was looking at something good, instead of her looking great. So, upon regrouping, I resent the message, "You... Look... Great..." Still nothing. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

End flashback.

At this point I became fearful for my life. How can I feel safe living for all eternity with a woman who I cannot depend on in Super Stealth Situations? We will never defeat the Pinko Nazi Commie Fundamentalist Hezbollah Terrorist Insurgent Chumps if we can’t even conquer a simple compliment. How will she react when in a life and death situation when the stakes cannot get any higher? Oh, we have a lot of kinks to get worked out. This marriage thing, I tell ya, it’ll be the death of me.

Alright… I know this is what you have all been waiting for, but first: Due to the graphic nature of this program, viewer discretion is advised.

And now, the list.

3 things I love

1. Erks

2. Reading

3. Playing Guitar Hero until the room starts moving towards me and I feel like I have to hit everything in rhythm. This is not a good driving strategy.

3 things I hate

1. Broccoli

2. Losing

3. Getting up in the morning

3 people who make me laugh

1. E singing Death Metal

2. Handsome Pete (He dances for nickels.)

3. Mitch Hedberg (RIP)

3 things that scare me

1. That so many of the kids I teach have kids I’ll have to teach

2. Having my head stomped on in the middle of a basketball game, oh wait, that’s already happened.

3. Hairless cats (they just seem so unnatural)

3 things I don’t understand

1. Why my Algebra II teacher would never accept my imaginary answers while he was teaching me imaginary numbers.

2. The worlds fascination with no talent celebrities whose most memorable moment was dying (I’m looking at you Anna Nicole.)

3. Solo Synchronized Swimming. How hard is it to be synchronized with yourself?

3 things on my desk

1. I can’t tell because of all the mess

2. See number 1 above.

3. Refer back to 2.

3 things I plan to do today

1. Love my wife

2. Learn the insane main riff from “The Trooper”, a new song on Guitar Hero II that’s hard as Hades!

3. Enjoy doing nothing

3 things I want to do before I die

1. Finish writing my stupid book

2. Teach my kids about the finer points of Pickle Ball (the greatest game on Earth)

3. Meet Gary Busey

3 things I can do

1. Cook (ask Mikey)

2. Think up a song to be the background music to almost any situation (especially during Mexican Train)

3. Perform mouth guitar versions of any Metallica song from 1981-1991 (don’t ask unless you mean it)

3 things I can’t do

1. Comprehend the unbelievable awesomeness of Chuck Norris

2. Interpretive dance (again, don’t ask unless you mean it)

3. Stop myself from saying WaAAaAaAaaAaAAaaAaaaaaAAAAaaHHHhhhhHhh during the beginning of lost (no matter how much Erika hates it)

3 things I miss

1. My Boba Fett underoos

2. Life without bills

3. Playing in a band

3 things I’d like to learn

1. How to play the piano

2. How to do simple home/car maintenance

3. How to make KFC style fried chicken

3 things I regret

1. Wasting time with little girlfriends and not taking football more seriously in high school

2. Failing out of college my first go round

3. Waiting to do things until later

3 favorite foods

1. Just about anything cooked by women over 60 (I don’t know if there’s a secret grandma cookbook or something, but those ladies can throw down.)

2. Anything that at some point in recent history used to be walking around breathing but ended up on a grill.

3. Cheese (even in cake form)

3 Favorite TV shows as a kid

1. G.I. Joe

2. The Electric Company (My favorite was when Spiderman had to fight the Yeti who ran around sitting on ice cream cones. Anybody else remember that?)

3. The Incredible Hulk (you don’t get any better than a green Lou Ferrigno.)

3 people I tag (You can either post it in the comments section, or on your own blog.)

1. Tom

2. Jon

3. Matt

Sad Pack...Happy Holmes!

It's taken me a few days to blog about this, but I am officially done coaching the NCSU Dance team!!! No disrespect to the team or the program, but in life sometimes you have to replace something you love with something you love even more. After a week of not having to worry about my two to three, 14 hours days per week I can truly, physically feel the difference in my mind, body, and spirit. I have had a wonderful almost first year of marriage, but now I really get to come home everyday and enjoy doing NOTHING or EVERYTHING with my best friend...J! Now by no means am I done with coaching, but what I do know is that I will never coach outside of a 30 mile radius of Greensboro. I thank Heavenly Father that I was safe all of those late nights and I have a husband who would wait to eat dinner with me every night that I was gone. I am not sure what to do with all of this time, but I am figuring it out slowly. Here are a few things I plan on doing:

1. Cleaning my house! Who knew it took assigning a room per day of the week just to keep a house clean. It's so stressful.

2. Learn how to relax. I am dead serious when I say I really have no clue how to do that for long periods of time.

3. Learn more about the gospel. We can truly do FHE now and a kazillion other things that I've been so excited about!

4. Do things for me!!!

Well, for now I will leave you with those thoughts. I look forward to accepting dinner invites, camping invites, and I also look forward to being able to hang out on Friday nights!!! Bowling is over next Wednesday for J and this Friday for both of us for the Friday Nite Mixed league. I'll save the bowling stuff for another blog though. That's a whole separate blog in itself:) Wow, just typing that made me realize how much stuff I really do. Hit me back people!

Erks!

Tag! I'm it!

So I was tagged next in the list of threes so here it goes:)

Three Things I Love:
1. My husband
2. Dancing...it's my therapy
3. Really hot showers

Three Things I Hate:
1. Milk
2. When service people just look at you instead of saying, "How may I help you."
3. Being cold!

Three People Who Make Me Laugh:
1. J
2. Uncle Brian
3. Mike A...my favorite white man:)

Three Things That Scare Me:
1. My basement windows at night when I'm alone in my house.
2. Not knowing where my calendar is (Jeremy made me put this 'cause he thinks I'm an organizational freak!)
3. Unlocked doors

Three Things I Don't Understand
1. Why Shane gets away with MURDER on "The Shield"
2. Why Carly won't get back with Sonny on General Hospital (Yes, I am a soap opera fan.)
3. Why people don't just do their jobs!!!

Three Things On My Desk
1. Papers...
2. Papers......
3. and more papers because I was so annoyed today I didn't clean up before I left!

Three Things I Plan To Do Today (or Did Today)
1. Enjoy bowling tonight...I'm a little tired.
2. Update my blog because I too am a blog slacker!
3. Find a shirt to wear that doesn't have NCSU Dance on it...I need some normal shirts!!!

Three Things I Want To Do Before I die
1. Go on my honeymoon
2. Own that dance studio EY and I keep talking about:)
3. and have beautiful children with my gorgeous husband!!!

Three Things I Can Do:
1. Be a great friend to those willing
2. Agree to disagree
3. Dominate the gridiron!!!

Three Things I can't Do:
1. Wait...I am soooooooo impatient...sorry Jeremy:(
2. Drive a stick shift
3. Mow the grass...it's against my religion...ha!

Three Things I Miss:
1. My college buddies because we don't get to see each other much
2. My LIFE...but I got it back when I returned from Daytona last week!
3. Sleeping in

Three Things I'd Like To Learn
1. How to play the guitar
2. How to speak Spanish, but I'll never do it.
3. More about the gospel

Three Things I Regret:
1. Not saving the crazy money I made over the past 9 years with my awesome summer job
2. Not researching scholarships enough in high school so that I wouldn't have all of these school loans
3. Giving Jeremy a hard time before he proposed because I'm what...not good at waiting!

Three Favorite Foods:
1. J's tacos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2. Toast with butter
3. J's grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches

Three Favorite TV Shows as a Kid
1. G.I. Joe
2. The Cosby Show
3. Thundercats

Three People I Tag (Do this in the comment section or your own blog!):
1. April T.
2. Natalie D.
3. Nicolle

Knitting 101

So today I learned how to knit...again! I am trying to open my mind up to new crafts so that I can have some new things to do with all of my free time that will be coming soon. We started at about 7 o'clock and I left EY's house at about 9 o'clock and I was good until I got home. I guess I thought I was a pro or something because when I got home I decided I could watch American Idol, talk to Jeremy, and knit all at the same time. Well, let's just say I left EY's house with the beginning of something beautiful and now it's all all over the floor. I guess I should have stopped instead of knitting until 11PM! However, if you know me at all you know that I must strive to be good at everything that I attempt so that's why I continued. One of the women in the knitting group even termed me "the perfectionist." I was cool with that though because it's who I am:)

Well, peace out to all my HOMIES...ha! I'll catch you next time and be on the look out for my next blog where I will share our adventure in Daytona Beach, Florida. The NCSU Dance Team will be competing at college nationals where our toughest opponent is no other than...BYU! I know, you would have never guessed, but those girls can dance and they are hard to beat. Well, wish us luck and...Go Pack!

Our Wedding Day

J and I have made many friends since we got married on July 2, 2006!!! So I wanted to share our day with everyone since some of you guys weren't able to attend. Our wedding day was the best day of my life! There was lots of love, fun, and excitement that day and there still is today. Marriage is a wonderful commitment and I am loving every minute of it.

Now on with the story...

We got married at the Bicentennial Gardens in Greensboro, NC on a HOT summer's day. Family and friends enjoyed a weekend full of fun and love. We had an unusual rehearsal party...at the bowling alley! That's right, my entire family bowls and J learned how this year so we decided lets have a bowling party so that everyone can get to know one another in a fun, non-stuffy atmosphere.

The best part was when our wedding party decided to dress up as hillbillies, rednecks, Miami Vice,and hippies! It was the greatest. They were definitely the comedians that night! People really thought that's how they dressed. It was hilarious (in the words of a good friend)! Everyone even stayed in character for the rest of the evening. Their costumes really kicked off the party and gave everyone a HUGE laugh.

After all of the fun at the bowling alley some of my girlfriends stayed the night with me to help me get ready for the big day. I was so excited I got up at 6AM for a 4PM wedding! It was awesome though because it gave me time to reflect, read my scriptures, and write about the day in my journal. That was a very peaceful moment for me and I'm glad I got to have that before the rush of the day began.After all of the primping I was ready to go. So we headed to the site and got married! I have never been more confident about something in my life and that felt great! My mom always told me to be patient and "he" would come along and she was right. J is the greatest!!! He's my best guy and I love him very much. Our day was wonderful and we are having a great time being newlyweds. Being married to him is so much fun and we cherish everyday that we have together.