last week

not as exciting as some, but nonetheless:

Sunday, 25th:
Christmas! It was a big one this year. :-P We always have a big Christmas, but I think this year was a record one. I lazed out of bed around 10:30, then chilled around the house like a zombie for awhile. At noon, we started our Christmas festivities. 40 minutes of pictures and then over 4 hours of presents. :-O !! We had SO many gifts this year, our living room could hardly fit them all. It was nuts. So, we all had a fun time opening stuff. I got a ton of sweet CDs from Jon, a very comfy flannel insulated shirt, a very nice watch, slippers and some other miscellaneous stuff. :) Our gift-giving came to a close around 5 and later on we had a big, scrumptous dinner. :-D After which we all watched School of Rock which was pretty goofy. :P That lasted until like 10:30 and then I called Liz and we chatted for awhile. I got to bed around 11:30.

Monday, 26th:
I slept through my 6:30 alarm, but thankfully heard someone else's at 7:00, so I popped up then, quickly packed and left on the road back to Blacksburg with Shadow just after 7:30. The drive back went nicely. Shadow is so funny; she's like a dog, she loves to look out the windows and dance around the car. :P I got back into town around 11:30, then unpacked and stuff then started work at noon from home. Work went pretty well today. I worked just six hours and found and fixed a couple bugs, so that was good. After I was done working, I headed over to Liz's house for dinner with her family. Had some very good ham leftover from Christmas. After dinner, I watched a little bit of the last LOTR with them and then Liz and I headed downstairs to work on career stuff for me. We spent the evening researching the towns, benefits, and real estate for the places I'm interested in. We got some good stuff done and stopped working around midnight. Then ended up chatting for far too long and I didn't leave there until just after 1am. :P Got home and plopped in bed.

Tuesday, 27th:
Was really tired after last night and I didn't wake up this morning until like 7:20. I just rolled out of bed onto my computer and started working a little after 7:30. I did nine hours today and it went pretty well. Fixed a bug this morning and then the afternoon was a little dull because I was doing some very anal testing, but it was needed and turned up a few bugs that I fixed too. I finished up working around 4:45. Liz dropped by briefly to give me a load of clothes to dry because her dryer was broke. Then she went off to a piano lesson. I took the next hour or so to relax, think, play with Shadow, and to clean up around this place. Liz was back a little after 6. She finished up the laundry and then we had some brownies and sherbert on the couch to spoil our appetites for dinner. :) We headed back to Liz's house around 7 and then had a low-key dinner of leftover ham and some great egg-drop ramen. :) Then we made some great hot chocolate and chatted for awhile. Around 9, we decided that we should probably do some work, so we went downstairs again. I worked on doing some real estate research for the job areas and Liz worked on brushing up for her interview with Tele-Works tommorow. Around 11, I figured I should leave to get some rest, but naturally we wanted to chat some more, so I didn't leave until about 11:45. Got home, played with Shadow and on to bed a bit after midnight.

Wednesday, 28th:
Not a whole lot for today. I got up a little before 7 and then had a good quiet time this morning; my first in a while. I read part of 2 Timothy and it was very encouraging to me. Then I started working from home at 7:45 and worked until 4:45. I was able to find a few crashes and started work on tracking down one of them, so that was good. I enjoyed a much more quiet and reflective day overall also. I felt a lot more at peace with things, so I know God was working today. :) After work, I spent about a half-hour in prayer which was good and then cleaned up a bit and went over to Liz's about 6. I helped her make some mozarella chicken for dinner. While it was in the oven, I talked with Steve C on the phone for 30 minutes and enjoyed encouraging him about some school stuff. :) We ate dinner around 7:45 with her family and it was mighty good. Afterwards, I spent the evening doing research on the towns of Charlottesville and Kingsport. I found out some good stuff, especially on Kingsport. I had so much fun reading this one site kingport.org. Check it out if you need a good laugh. :P So I feel better informed about both those places now. I'll be looking more into Lexington Park tommorow probably. Liz and I chatted a bit at the end of the night around 11. I left around 11:30 and got to bed just before midnight.

Thursday, 29th:
Good day today. I was up at 6:30 and had more of a normal morning today complete with a shower and a good quiet time in the 2nd half of 2 Timothy. I started work at 7:45 and worked until 4:15. It was a rather hard day for the most part. I had one bug that I was having trouble solving and almost gave up when near the end of the day I realized that if I just thought about it in a different direction then it was simple to solve. I got it fixed. :) After work was neat too. It has been great today and yesterday to feel closer to God and REALLY believe that He is true and listens to my prayers. I've really tried hard to increase my measure of faith while praying and it has been awesome. :-) Anyhow, near the end of work I was trying to square away the weekend plans in my head and didn't feel at peace about going up to MD and home this weekend. So I prayed a little and then God really laid a lot of stuff on my mind, really valid reasons why it would make more sense to not go to MD this weekend, but rather to stay here and to go to Tennessee this weekend. So I called a bunch of people to verify plans with them and changed the weekend around and totally felt a lot more at peace about it. It was very encouraging. :) Then I took about another 20 minutes downstairs just to pray about other stuff and that was cool too. I went to Liz's around 6:00. Helped get ready for dinner and then me and Liz ate with Mrs. P. She made some great potato soup with ham in it. Mmm! After dinner, Liz and I went downstairs by the fireplace around 8 to do a Bible study which turned into a great talking and sharing time for almost three hours. Definitley one of the best talks we've had in a long time. I was real encouraged by it. :) It was also neat to see God's work in Liz's parents tonight because they had had a rough day today but we prayed for them a lot and then later this evening it seemed like they were doing a lot better together and not so mad. :) So, after our talk, Liz and I had some dessert in the kitchen and then wasted some time not wanting to leave, but I finally left a little before midnight and got home and to bed.

Friday, 30th:
Pretty lazy day today. I was up early and then worked from home again today. Work didn't go so well today- I fixed one bug which was good, but then had a lot of trouble finding the other bug. I worked until 3:15 and then took some chill time. It was pretty warm outside, so I grabbed a cigar and went out into the backyard to sit, smoke, relax, think, and pray. It was very nice. :) It stayed warm until the sun started going down around 4:30. I finally came back in about 4:45 because I was too freezing. Then I took a long, very warm shower to revive myself. :P After that, I chilled around a little, snacked and watched my new DMB DVD a little. I went over to Liz's house for the evening around 6:30. I spent a lot of the evening reading opinions and stories about the Lexington Park, MD area where I have a job offer at. I learned a lot, so that was good. Had some dinner with her family. Later on, we watched two Wallace and Grommit episodes. I always enjoy them. :) Liz and I chatted a little and I headed home around 11:30 and went to bed.

Saturday, 31st:
Today was really crazy. I got up at 6:30, got ready, had a quiet time and stuff and then picked up Liz at 8 and we drove off to Tennessee for the day. The drive down was fun; I really enjoyed talking with her in the car and it felt like old times. :) We made it to Kingsport around 10:30, taking the long way in. Then we just drove around for awhile looking at the houses, downtown area, and the Eastman plant. Then we stopped and I got Liz some coffee to help her out. Then drove back out on some country roads to look at the housing just outside of Kingsport. We got back into town and had lunch downtown around 12:30. We ate at an old restraunt which had been there for like 60 years. It was pretty classic and the food was pretty good too. We ate for about an hour and then drove over to Johnson City just to see what that was like also. We hit the road for home around 2:30 and were back at Liz's by 5. The trip was pretty successful I think. We got a good feel for the area, the people, the stuff to do,e tc. At Liz's house, I passed out for a few while she got ready for the night and stuff. Then we went to Kroger, got some dip supplies and went over to my house to make it. I made the dip while Liz went back and picked up Laura. Then it was 7, so we waited for Steve C to get into town and he made it by 7:30. We all headed over to the Austin's way out past Christiansburg and got there around 8- a lot later than we had planned. :( I felt kind of bad, but oh well. We had a pretty nice time there. Mr. Austin had made large quantities for great food and of course there was Curt's dip which I made. :) For the next three hours we ate food off an on, played Apples to Apples and played Guesstures. It was a pretty fun time. Steve C and Steve W left around 10. Me, Liz and Laura stayed until about 11 and then we decided to surprise their parents so we headed back to their house to be with them for the ball drop and stuff. They weren't there, but had stayed at a party. So, we quickly decided to go back to my house to be with the Steves for it. At like 11:53 we left Liz's house and raced back to mine, ran into the house at like one minute off only to find the Steves watching a movie instead!! :-( Ran downstairs and fiddled with the TV until we finally got it on about four minutes after the ball dropped. How anti-climactic. :( We watched some stuff until about 12:30. I took Liz and Laura back home and then came back to my place and went to bed just after 1am.

Sunday, 1st:
Today was okay. I was pooped and woke up around 9:30. Cleaned up, had a quiet time, said goodbye to Steve C and picked up Liz at 10:45 for church. The service was okay. Barry spoke and he always has a good heart for stuff. :) Afterwards, Liz and I went back to her house and had a good roast lunch with her family. At 2:00, we drove out to Giles and went to a little tea party/reunion for a teacher and some students from Liz's high school. It was pretty fun even though I didn't know anyone. I really enjoyed the house they had it in. It was up on a mountain with an incredible view and it was all made out of wood with lots of stuffed animal heads all around. Very cool. The party went until a little after 4. We drove back to Liz's house, got leftover dip and stuff and then came to my place to watch the Redskins game and eat dip. We also made some cheddarwursts for dinner. :-D It was nice to just relax and watch football and not think or do anything else. :) After the game, I introduced Liz to Red Green and we watched that DVD for an hour. That took us until like 9. Then we talked for a little under two hours about serious stuff. Not a very fun talk, but useful I suppose. I took her home at 11 and then came back and went to bed around 11:30.

Monday, 2nd:
Today was long. I got up a little before 7 and had a quiet time before starting work from home at 7:45. I got a whole bunch of tasking from Nathan today so I had a lot to work on which was good. I got a lot of things cleaned up and fixed. The afternoon was hard because I was wrestling with MFC for far too long. :( I worked three hours over just because I was on a roll and also so I can leave early on Friday. By 6:45 my head hurt pretty badly. I went over to Liz's at 7:30 and had dinner and dessert with her family. After that we watched The Terminal. I REALLY enjoyed this movie. Highly recommend to anyone who hasn't seen it. It was very cool. :) After the movie, Liz and I chatted for a few minutes and I left about 11:15. I got home and paid some bills, got some checks ready and some mail ready to go for tommorow. That took me a little bit and I got to bed around 12:30.