Silhouette

Have you seen this machine? It can cut paper. It can cut vinyl. It can etch glass! It can make t-shirt designs and temporary tattoos. With that said, you know I want one!

Lucky for me, Shelley over at House of Smiths is hosting a giveaway! Check out her website - full of fun activities, crafts and tutorials!

I'm excited about the possibility of owning one of these - no cartridges to buy, and it connects directly to your computer! Think of all the cute, custom fonts I could use for fun projects!

Pick me, pick me, Shelley! :)

Are y'all married or just happy?

Pardon my post title...if we were asked this question once, we must've been asked it 100 times! You see, this past weekend, we went to Gatlinburg, Tennessee for a little getaway. It was so beautiful! The weather was great, the resort was great, and of course...my company was great!

We stayed at the beautiful Westgate Resort and Spa. It was incredible! Here are a few pictures of our resort and suite:

The resort.

Yes, that's a hot tub in the corner.

My sweet puppy loved people-watching from the back porch.

On Friday, we decided to venture to downtown Gatlinburg. There's tons of shopping and sight-seeing...including TONS of museums and tourist attractions. (A wax museum...really?!?)

Anyway, along the main parkway, there's also a lot of people trying to earn a living. One man happened to be trying to sell discount tickets to all of the aforementioned attractions. EVERY time we walked past him, he asked "Are ya'll married or just happy?" Honestly, I don't even get it...but after about the fourth time, I bit back with "You asked us that the last time we walked by! You don't remember???" He seemed a little perturbed by

my reaction and gave it right back, "No ma'am, I don't. I see about 10,000 people a day..." as I walked away. Hmph. That was the last time I walked by him!

We went through Ripley's Believe It or Not and saw some CRAAAAZY things. We also visited the Star Cars Museum, where Drew thought it was cool to see cars from movie sets and stars' personal cars! Our favorite? Mike Tyson's Lamborghini.

Funny to see his 24-karat-gold air induction system under the hood when he's broke now!

Seriously, Mike?

Aside from laughing about that, we saw Eleanor from Gone in 60 Seconds,

Bumblebee from Transformers, General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard, the Batmobile, the Back to the Future car...oh, we also saw Michael Jackson's Mercedes...

Yes, I secretly started singing "The Way You Make Me Feel" while admiring...he even had the

MJ emblem on the windows. Classy...

Then we saw Dolly Parton's Cadillac and Bob Hope's Oldsmobile, too! And guess what! They let us sit in the Flintstones car...

Honestly, I was afraid we wouldn't even be able to fit in the thing...but luckily, those Flintstones needed lots of room for pedaling! ;)

And then there was the moonshine. Yep, that's right...moonshine. Free tastings of moonshine, too! No, no, no...I didn't taste any. The entire distillery smelled of yeast. And, considering it was just made legal on July 2nd...well, I just couldn't stomach it. 50% alc./vol. and 100 proof --- YIKES!

On the way home, our GPS led us on a slight detour. Once we got on the right track, we stopped to stretch our legs. Here's me and the 50+ lbs. pup at a "scenic overview"! Cute, huh?

Bella Boxer and her Mama

This is only a snapshot of all the fun that we had, but nevertheless - a great weekend away! We can't wait to do it again!

Ooops!

Well, I've already disappointed myself with my New Year's resolution. Clearly, I have not been updating my blog on a weekly basis. But...there aren't that many of you that even read this, and there's even fewer things going on in my life worth blogging about.

HOWEVER, I'm going to California this coming week for spring break. I am so beyond excited and can hardly wait! I know it's going to be a blast. Drew is going to Vegas for a bachelor party, so one of my very good friends and I decided to head out west for a girls' vacation! We're going to be staying in San Francisco and will be traveling to Napa one day for the wine tour/tasting.

Other than that, nothing new is going on with the Suari. Drew's lacrosse season is in full swing, even though they've only played two games. He's loving it, and I'm enjoying the new team. It's exciting! Bella is growing like a weed - she's almost 40 pounds at 7 months! My sweet baby is growing up so fast...but she's not too big for me to carry around still. ;)

Tomorrow is a teacher workday, and after that - I plan to spend some quality time with my husband...doing exactly what we want to do. I think we deserve it!

Valentine's Day

Can I just start by saying that I have the best husband ever? (Okay, so I'm a little biased...but really, he's amazing!)
The basketball season ended Friday. Well, maybe I should say that it was supposed to end Friday. Unfortunately, with the winter weather in the forecast, the JV game was canceled so that the varsity team could play earlier. So, the boys finished their season with practice on Thursday. Lacrosse season was starting on Monday, so Drew planned for us to have a romantic getaway at the Blake Hotel downtown over the weekend.
Saturday, we took Bella to a sitter and then went to the Hickory Tavern to watch the Maryland-Duke game. While there wasn't a W added to Maryland's record...we enjoyed the food and drinks...and each other's company. :)
Saturday night, we went to McCormick and Schmick's for dinner...filet mignon, lobster bisque, crab cakes, cheesecake...my oh my! It was DELIGHTFUL. When we got back, there was champagne and chocolate covered strawberries waiting for us.
It was so much fun to have a night away without really having to go away. Drew surely does spoil me --- and I love every minute of it! I'm so blessed to have him!
Now, if we could just make Valentine's Day come around more than once a year... hee hee hee.

Long Weekends :)

I could really get used to these three-day weekends. Ours started with a basketball game Friday night, followed by dinner at Casa Grande (both accompanied by the Nelsons). Saturday, we spent more time with the Nelsons: I was scrapbooking all day with Erica, then a little hanging out at their house afterwards. Sunday, we went to church (the Nelsons were there)...and then lunch...and then more scrapbooking...and then more hanging out at their house. Pretty much a solid 48 hours (minus sleeping hours) with the Nelsons. Love it!

Today, Drew has basketball practice...and then a lacrosse meeting. I'm thinking I'm going to organize a bit...but who knows! I've been inspired lately while reading random blogs. There are some really crafty, organized women out there! I just wish I had more space to organize!!!

I'm going to start by organizing all of these recipes that I've cut out of my Southern Living magazines...now, where did I put those sheet protectors?!?

Happy New Year!

Well, 2009 ended and we brought 2010 in with a bang. It feels like we've been going non-stop since it started. Lucky for you, one of my resolutions was to keep up with this blog on a more regular basis. (We'll see how long that one lasts!)

Let's see...so much to say, and so little time. The biggest excitement currently: our puppy, Bella. She is 5 months old today! The above picture was taken shortly after we got her. Now, she's

almost 30 pounds!

She's quite spoiled, obviously. Who could resist that sweet face?!?

We hosted our second annual Tacky Christmas Sweater Party the weekend before Christmas. Fun, fun, fun.

Unfortunately, you cannot see the front of my sweater. It had a skiier on it. Lovely. Drew wore a hand-knitted poinsettia print women's sweater. He definitely had a winner! While mine was not nearly as "tacky" --- it was just downright UGLY.

We spent the holidays here at home. We had the Nelsons over for Christmas Eve dinner and spent Christmas morning at our house. Then, we went to the Nelsons for Christmas dinner. It was the beginning of great traditions to come! We, once again, spoiled each other and had a wonderful day. Two days after Christmas, we left to go to Maryland. It was another whirl-wind trip, but we enjoyed seeing all of our family and spending time with good friends.

So, here we are at the start of a new year... what does this year have in store for the Suari? Let's see:

3 weddings (so far)

a cross-country road trip (if we can be diligent about saving our money!)

lots of babies born to close friends (that we get to love on and help spoil)

the inaugural lacrosse team at A.L. Brown that Drew will be coaching (go wonders!)

our quarter-century birthdays (yikes!)

our second anniversary...2 years? It feels like it's been 5! in a good way ;)

And, I'm sure there will be much more as the year goes on. We're looking forward to it and can't wait to see what comes our way!

SNOW DAY!

The groundhog saw his shadow this year...and returned to his hole. 6 more weeks of winter. BOO. (Or so I thought...until I found snow on the 2nd of March!)

Really, Drew and I are just two big kids. I could hardly contain myself when I found more than a "dusting" of snow on the ground Monday morning! So, after making a delicious breakfast casserole and popping it in the oven, I suited up and headed out to play in the snow.

Here's the extent of our snow day:

Our house...covered in snow!

Big Foot? I think not! Just my tiny foot prints in the snow...

I'm really good at snow angels!

We even made a snowman. He had a carrot nose, two rocks for eyes...and bottle tops for buttons!

Meet Sergio --- our snowman. :)

I don't know that I've ever seen this much snow in my 23 years of life. (and this was only a whopping 4 inches!) I even learned how to make a snowman - thanks to Drew!

Who would've thought that they'd be calling for 70-degree weather just 4 days later?!? Gotta love North Carolina...