A Goal Completed

Hello!

Just wanted to post a couple pictures of Stuart's "Tar Heel" 10 miler a few weeks ago! This was his first race, and he did f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s! I was so proud of him! He had trained hard for this for several months, and was so excited about running around his old stomping grounds.

So we got up at 4am on April 10th and drove to Chapel Hill, NC. It was a long day, but a lot of fun for everyone!

Here he is before the 10 miles.

Noah (my brother-in-law) and I both went to root Stuart on, which he said encouraged him a great deal. We would hurry to the various mile markers and shout his name and clap for him when he passed. As you can see, he always had a big grin on when we did that!


I believe Stuart averaged about 8 1/2 minutes per mile, which we thought was super great, especially for his very first race.

I'm sure there will be lots more races to come in the future!

Off for a run....

Long Time, No Blog.

Hello Everyone,

It has been a long time, huh? Fortunately, this week I have a small breather from school and I wanted to catch up with all my blog world friends. I hope all of you are well and that life is going swimmingly.

Here's a short update, to prove that I really have been taking pictures the last few months!

January:

I started school, and life ended as Stuart and I knew it. Late nights, early mornings, many nights with little to no sleep, fast meals, eating out, whiny students, getting tough on whiny students, learning how to be a teacher on the fly, thinking about what to write my thesis on, endless streams of email, deadlines, deluges of 10-15 page research papers to write, irritating professors, learning how to be a student and a teacher at the same time, meeting lots of really cool people, and chaos in general has since taken over our lives. Welcome to the world of academia.

Stuart 27th birthday! It was a great event! He requested we go to Ruby Tuesday to get one of his favorite meals: the "Smokehouse Burger." So we did! And we had a small party at home with presents and of course, his favorite chocolate cake.


We also had a Tar Heels theme for his birthday decorations. You can see one of the streamers in the back has fallen down!

Other January events: Going to see "Walking with Dinosaurs" with my brother Andrew and his family. So great to see them! We enjoyed spending time with the girls, and much to my surprise, they weren't scared of the roaring dinosaurs one bit! When I asked Zoe if she was worried about the dinosaurs (because her eyes were as big as saucers), she just said, "No. He'll eat those people over there!" and pointed to the other side of the coliseum. Haha. I love her so much.

February:

Valentine's Day was especially fantastic this year. We went out to eat at this great restaurant called "Main Street 221," which has a German flare to it. I think that was the name. Stuart would know for sure. He always remembers restaurant names. He gets it from his dad I think. Anyway, this is the Valentine I made for Stu-Baker.



And this is me opening my V-Day gift from Stuart, which was absolutely fabulous! It was a picture album of all the things we did in 2009 together. He made it on Kodak Gallery during his lunch breaks while I was at work. He said it took him about a month or so to make it and get it just perfect. And it was! I cried. It was the best Valentine's we've ever had together! The book consists of 85 pages of pictures in several different layouts on a pretty background and Stuart's captions. Precious! We are thinking of making it a tradition for each year!

Other February Events: Finding out my brother and his wife are expecting their third baby. If all goes well, I'll be an aunt for the 10th time!


March:

Big month! I finished up one of my grad classes after several grueling weeks of projects (yay!), Stuart and I officially joined our church and attended a reception at our pastor's house, I had a wonderful Spring Break in New Bern, North Carolina with Stuart and my bro, Harrison, and I attended a lingerie shower for my lovely sister-in-law Mary-Alice, who I only get to share a last name with for a few more weeks. We also had some great fellowship with our friends Everett and Mary Mounts, who are friends from my old church in Danville. They are so encouraging to us and we loved spending time with them! Here are a few pics of the shower and Spring Break....

The lovely table of refreshments set up for the bride-to-be....


Michael Stuart- the only boy allowed at the party!



Mary-Alice enjoying some shower treats....


The guest of honor enjoying a cuppa!


Mom Graydon served up punch to everyone!



Next up - Spring Break!

The water at Atlantic Beach was freezing, but that didn't stop me from dipping my toes in....



Stuart the beach bum!


Harrison entertained us the entire week with his crazy antics and impersonations. Here he is experimenting with the effects of static electricity on his hair.....



So, that about wraps it up for this post. I will try to be more diligent in my updates, but no promises! : )

Things we are looking forward to in April....

*Stuart's first 10 mile run in Chapel Hill, NC.
*Mary and Fred's wedding!

See you all in the funny papers!

Happy January!

What a joy to be writing this post to all of you out there in this new, wonderful year of 2010! Stuart and I had a wonderful trip home to see family and friends, and we hope you all did as well!

A few short thoughts from me and I'm off to enjoy the evening and the movie Up with Stuart (which I've heard is actually pretty fantastic)!

1. I'm in grad school mode right now. This is a very busy week I have ahead of me, filled with test taking, book reading for early assignments, and several tasks to complete at LU, such as getting an office badge made and visiting Human Resources. It is my last week of freedom, so I'm trying to enjoy it as well as get everything on my list done!

2. Stuart's 27th birthday is this Friday! So this week is all about keeping birthday surprises from the birthday boy. I would tell you what I'm getting him, but he might be reading this.....

3. As we speak, Stuart is hanging some shelves my brother and sister-in-law so generously gave to us up in our kitchen. We also bought some other furniture for the kitchen while we were at home as well as a few accessories. I am so excited about this! Everything is coming along so nicely and it feels great to have at least one room that seems to be almost done! I really adore interior design and I enjoy scrounging around antique and home stores looking for that little item that says, "Staley!" on it.

4. Time for a few blog changes! I'm not sure if I'm going to change my blog background (although I've been thinking about it), but I am changing up a few other things. Obviously, I'm not doing the "100 books" challenge anymore (see #5 for more info), so that'll be coming down, but I probably will keep up something to do with my reading. This year will obviously be filled with more academic readings, but I am hoping to fit in some biographies as well. And since it is a new year, I thought I would replace The Importance of Being Earnest quotes with a new book! I haven't decided what yet. All in all, just be on the lookout for some switch-ups. Got to keep life interesting you know!

5. Soooo, I didn't make it to 100 books in 2009, but I did make it to 54! Over half way! I was extremely happy with this, as the reason I gave myself the exhorbitant goal of 100 books was so I would push myself to read more. I was looking back over my list for the year and thinking, "Wow! I read so many great stories and authors last year!" I am also super proud of Stuart, who read 9 books this year! He said that I inspired him with my passion for books (awww) and that he was also concerned about his brain "rotting away" after his college graduation. After I told him about some of the benefits of reading, and some of the sad statistics about adult readers, he was hooked! We are both committed to reading and studying our whole lives, and handing down this wonderful gift to our children too. I strongly urge all of you to read! Even if it is only 1 book a year, set a goal for yourself and start! It will reward you your whole life through....


So, that is about it for now around Neverland! Hope you all are having a great 2010 so far!

Love,