It's back!!

This is unbelievable.  Tomorrow will be the first post of my FOURTH year of doing my 25 Days of Christmas posts! How crazy.  I cannot believe I’ve done that many! 

In 2009, each post was the top 25 things I love about Christmas and included things from making a gingerbread nativity scene at BCM to Matt’s first experience with helping me decorate my tree (he had no idea of exactly what he was getting into…haha). 

In 2010, every day I shared a favorite Christmas song, including classics like I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas to fun songs like Snoopy vs. The Red Baron. 

Last year, I shared 25 of my favorite Christmas ornaments from my favorite little yellow gingerbread men, to my Engaged ornament my future in-laws gave me for Christmas!!

So, even though I don't normally blog on the weekends, there will be a post every single day for the 25 Days of Christmas!! 

Check back tomorrow to find out what this year's theme is!! :)

A Daily Dose of Encouragement!

Today, I just wanted to share some inspirational/encouraging/motivational quotes with everyone.  

We can all use a little encouragement everyday!

And some of these, I could swear came right out of Matt D. Nolte's mouth.  Believe me.  

 

It's Never too Late to be Thankful!

I didn't do that Facebook thing a lot of people did/are doing where each day they post something they're thankful for.  I also was so wrapped up in the holiday and having Abby & Matt home that I never even pre-blogged a Thanksgiving post or got it up! (Nevertheless, I did think about it while Abby and I were on our Wednesday adventure and spent like an hour trying to find a place to eat!)  So, since I never posted last week, I still wanted to take the time to list a few things I'm thankful for:

Holidays at Longwood!

Anyone who goes or went to Longwood can tell you that one of the best things about the school is all of the traditions! The holidays are the BEST at Longwood! I can remember walking to 8am classes in the mornings of November and being so excited about seeing wreaths hanging up on the buildings, red bows, candles, and THE TREE!  There's even a tree lighting ceremony, similar to the Grand Illuminations in the Richmond area.

Joanie on the Stony is moved from the middle of the room in Ruffner and a huge tree is put in her place.  Not to worry, because Joanie is still there, with poinsettias surrounding her.  Either my junior or senior year (is it bad that I already can't remember??), I remember walking to class in Ruffner and they were just starting to put the tree up! Usually, I just see the finished product, but it was really cool to see the process from start to finish!  It's just sooo pretty! On Sunday, Mom and I drove to Longwood after church so we could see the tree.  And, Abby and Matt also got a meal out of the trip! haha.  Please enjoy these pictures of Christmastime at Longwood!

Even More Good Reads

Yep, I have more books I've read to share with you! It took me a bit longer to read through these {as a whole}, but that doesn't mean the books weren't good! You'll see that there were some I knocked out quickly, and maybe some others that took me a few chapters to really get into. 

This time I didn't pick up any biographies/autobiographies.  Well, not intentionally, haha (you'll find out more about this by the end of this post...).

So, what were the five books I dove into this time? None other than...

• Nights in Rodanthe 
• Something to Blog About 
• Let It Snow 
• Dairy Queen 
• Such a Pretty Fat

 And, as usual, here's a picture of each book with a little blurb about it, followed by just some other pictures I took! Enjoy! :)

Matt's Tour of Longwood: Behind the Scenes!

If you didn't know, Matt has a blog, too.  Right now, he's a Student Blogger for Longwood, but once he finishes up with that, he'll have his own blog.  One cool thing Matt has incorporated into his blog is Vlogs (Video Blogs, for those of you who don't catch on to that...haha).  I was pretty excited to find out that I was going to be there while he was in the first stages of a new Vlog--a tour of Longwood's campus!

It was a lot of fun watching him making the video, even though it seemed like he was talking to himself the whole time, haha.  I didn't think the video would've ended up as long as it was, but then I remember all the times I gave a tour of Longwood, and well, I think Matt covered a good chunk of important Longwood info condensed into 12 minutes!

If you watch the video, I'm sure you'll be able to pick out my favorite part!

*In the first sentence of the blog, "Matt has a blog, too" is linked to his blog.  At the end of that paragraph, "a tour of Longwood's campus!" is linked to his new Vlog.  I don't know why they're not showing up as a links, but they ARE clickable!*

Fall at Longwood.

I love this time of year, not because of the colder temperatures, but because of how pretty everything is outside!! Before the trees are completely dead for the winter, I love the pretty colors of the leaves changing! One thing I've really missed is not being at Longwood to see the big pretty tree on the corner at the Cunninghams.  (If you go to/went to Longwood, you know which one I'm talking about.)  This past weekend, I went to visit Matt for the last time while he's at Longwood.  Still not sure how all of these "lasts" have been happening! Craziness.  We specifically knew that we were going to set aside some time over the weekend to just walk around campus and look at all of the reds, oranges and yellows on the trees. Yay!

It was like I was at home again, and I loved it :)

It also helped that it was SO nice outside and the weather was fantastic!!!

There are just so many things I love and miss about Longwood (I could go on forever...) but being there this time of year is definitely something I'll always remember.  Maybe I miss it more because of the pretty tree at the Cunninghams that I walked past several times a day last year going in and out of my residence hall.

All of these pictures also remind me of the time I drove to visit Matt at Ferrum in October of '09.  I LOVVVED driving through the mountains and seeing all of the colors go on forever.  It was just like you'd see it in a movie!

Hope you enjoy a few many of my favorite pictures from this visit to Longwood!

Something New!

I mentioned a few weeks ago when I was telling you about a part of my past that I retired, that I'd been changing a lot of stuff lately, one of them being my outward appearance.  If you're friends with me on Facebook, or you've seen me in the past months, you already know what this is.  But, if you don't, I CUT MY HAIR!  Doesn't sound like a big deal to you?  Well, it IS. I hadn't had my hair cut since my junior year of high school, other than an occasional trim.  So, after this long time of not cutting my hair, I ended up with this massively long, curly, tangly, (rat's nest--according to Matt, haha), stuff hanging from my head and mostly getting in the way.  I've been saying I wanted to cut it, just never did.  I didn't think I would make it through the summer without cutting it, because having my hair on my neck and back while driving on riding in the car made for such an itchy mess.  It got on my last nerves!!  After cutting my hair, the one question most people asked me was, "What does Matt think?" Well, just so you all know, he was GLAD. I complained about my hair so much, kept saying I was going to cut it but never did, but I think it mostly had to do with the fact that he would find my hair EVERYWHERE, including his car.  Yeah, that's annoying. 


So then I came up with a plan that would give me the guts to just make the dern hair appointment! I was going to Longwood for Oktoberfest and I decided I was going to surprise Matt by FINALLY cutting my hair.  The only two people who knew I even had a hair appointment were my parents, so literally no one knew.  I wasn't going to post anything on Facebook (still haven't, haha), I didn't post any pictures, nothing.  The Wednesday night before I went to Longwood, mom went with me to get my hair chopped off---I wanted pictures and videos!  I thought I was going to cry while the girl was cutting it off.  I cried my junior year of high school when Auntie Sherrie cut off about 6 inches, so I just knew this time was going to be bad.  However, I didn't.  I think it was probably because I really wanted to cut my hair, it was just a matter of actually getting it done.  My hair was braided before she cut it, and she cut it in like three different sections, but it was so weird because I could feel a noticeable difference in the weight of my hair.  (If you had seen my hair, you'd know it was freakishly long, very curly, and really thick.)  So it was actually a bit of relief to not have so much hanging from my noggin. 

My better half

2,011 days ago
or
48,264 hours ago
or
2,895,840 minutes ago
or
173,750,400 seconds ago

That's how long it's been since the first day Matt and I started dating.

It's crazy hard to believe that we've now been together five and a half years (over a quarter of his life ;) )

But, it's been the greatest! I tell him often that I'm the luckiest girl in the world...or should I be telling him he's the luckiest guy in the world? haha. Kidding!

Over the Edge : Richmond, VA

Several weeks ago, my Dad participated in an Over the Edge event called Toss the Boss.  This is a huge fundraiser for the Special Olympics and I had never heard of it before, but it's pretty cool!  Each participant raises a minimum of $1,000 before they then repel down the Suntrust building in Richmond, VA.  The Suntrust building is 26 stories, or 400 feet high. NO THANK YOU! I was quite content on the ground watching.  C&F Bank, where my Dad works, raised $13,000 and if I remember correctly, raised the largest amount...I hope I'm remembering that right.  They had some employees repel on Thursday, but Dad was scheduled for Friday morning. 

I got there early with Dad so that I could take pictures up on the observation level before they got suited up and went to the roof!  It was pretty cool because everyone who was going to be repelling was up there waiting and getting ready, and there were people dressed up!! You'll see pictures below of some of my favorites, but I never even thought of that! When we got there, the girls working the registration table said the Nutzy (The Richmond Flying Squirrels mascot) and the Hardee's Star went yesterday....Okay, I wouldn't even want to go in regular clothes, let alone a huge costume!

Pin It Friday!

I haven't done one of these in forever, but I'm glad to share these pins with you today!

From my puppies board:

This definitely reminds me of our old dog, Chestnut, and this is the image that comes to mind: most dogs will pick up sticks in the yard to chew on/play with.  Our dog? No.  He would find an entire tree branch to carry around and play with! haha. The funniest times were when he'd have a branch that had little tiny branches with leaves on it, too!  As dangerous as this probably was.....it was funny to throw these branches and see him fetch them.  Oh, I miss our puppy :(

Final Halloween pictures.

This was supposed to be yesterday's post, but time got away from me and it completely slipped my mind!
 
Monday, I shared pictures of my pumpkin when it was all nice and complete looking.  These pictures will include the process of carving my pumpkin as well as some more.  I mentioned last week that I spent hours setting up for Halloween, so here are some of the final products from decorating, as well!  (And some other fun pics I threw in!)

So, here's that whole pumpkin carving process.....

My Pumpkin!

Last week I had some issues trying to get all of these pictures loaded into my post, but here they are today! Hope you enjoy some of my pictures from my "pumpkin photoshoot!" haha!

A look at my week..

To say that I had a really busy week may not be completely accurate, but it sure feels like it! Monday & Tuesday were pretty uneventful inside the house while hurricane rains and winds were going through Virginia and hitting pretty hard in the New York/New Jersey area.  Mom and I did end up going out both of those days (Monday to the post office, Chick fil A and Lowe's and Tuesday to the grocery store, Papa's for dinner and then volleyball practice), but I still got Cabin Fever!  Monday, we did get a few wedding things done.  Nothing too major, just little tasks that we got out of the way and are saved for later ;)