Christmas Card 2010!

Merry Christmas from the Jones' (we never really know if we want to say Jones', Joneses, or Jones Family??)

This year we decided to actually send out Christmas cards to family and friends we don't often see... so congrats to all you card receivers! We figured after 5 years of marriage we should send out something tangible at Christmas time in case someone wants to put us on their fridge :)

This year has been even more eventful that last year! We made move number 6 (in five years of marriage :).

David has been doing so well in school. He is always learning something new and exciting and sometimes I am amazed at how much knowledge he fits into his head. The other day my hip was hurting and he was like, "Oh, yeah, your ilium"....rather matter-of-factly! Maybe more people know what each hip bone is- but I sure don't, so I was impressed :)
Not only has David been going to school full time and doing well, he has a part time job as an online professor on the side. The last two quarters of this year he has taught 3 classes while taking 20+ hours at school! Yes, I am married to superman....I know- too sappy!

This year we started a garden (I will let David tell you the totals- he kept a tally of EVERYTHING that grew!)

Ok, David here. The totals for the garden were 97 tomatoes, 96 cherry tomatoes, 84 beans, 68 okra, 39 cucumbers, 29 peppers, 4 eggplant and 1 beet! The garden was so much fun, I really enjoyed it.
So now it's time for me to brag on Eryn. She is amazing. This year she finished her school (Master's in Counseling Psychology), and has started counseling for a center here in Atlanta. She is so good at it! She has already gotten several referrals and many people telling her how much she helped them. She really is a natural. Every time she tells me a little about some of her counseling techniques or her approaches, I am amazed at her wisdom and discernment about people.
So basically things are going really well for us right now. A couple of years ago (some of you may remember), our blog was a little....shall we say depressing. We were going through some hard times, and I felt like honesty was the best policy (although I'm not sure making-everyone-who-reads-your-blog-depressed is the best policy, but oh well). Well in the spirit of honesty, I must say that God has blessed us tremendously over the last two years, and has taken us from a very difficult position of poor health and a toxic working situation (for me), to a place of rest and peace. We are both really excited about where He is leading us, and I think we appreciate it all the more due to the hard times (I'm sure many others out there can relate). God taught us so much in the bad times, and now is teaching us so much in the good times. And that's the goal right? Not to have good times instead of bad, but to grow closer to him no matter what (learned that lesson from Daniel).
Thanks for reading and caring about us everyone, we love all of you! And Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving we were in good ole Memphis Tennessee (and McLemoresville :). My mom graciously came down and stayed the weekend before so I could ride back with her since David and I had to come separately (he had school til Wed.)

The Tuesday before, Mom, Grandma, and I got to have a fun shopping time together along with a visit to the Tea Room

Here we are sipping our tea :)

Thanksgiving we went to Granny's and apparently I only got shots of us and Caitlin!


Saturday after Thanksgiving we had "Christmas", which really turned into David and Eryn opening a bunch of gifts (because everyone else only had our gifts to open :). We had fun and felt very blessed! The house was all Christmasy. In fact, Grandma "let" (we had to twist her arm she really wanted to do it all by herself ;) David, mom, and me decorate her tree. It was a fun tree to decorate- the kind where you need a ladder to put on some ornaments (it felt very movie like :)

Whole Family Pic


A couple of funnies from the night:

This mountain-o-santas was made at dinner. These little guys are my Grandma's napkin rings. Uncle Bryan kept piling them on and they were still standing here at the end of the night.


The above was best explained by mom as David double-dipping Alabama....yes he still sported his Bama gear even after the great loss!

Halloween 2010

This year we drove down to Ocala, FL. David's brother, Daniel, took David to Sarasota, FL for the National Ultimate Frisbee Championships. David LOVES Ultimate (I think I may have mentioned that before ;) and he said that this was up there in his all time favorite birthday gifts.

I stayed in Ocala with Melanie. Let me just take a minute to congratulate any mom who goes out in public with more than two (or one for that matter!) children at a time. You all deserve a round of applause, how bout a standing ovation (is anyone else singing that Rihanna song in their heads right now?)....I digress!
We had a full weekend of Fall Festivaling, church, the mall, cookie making, etc. And I must say it wore me out! But in a good way :) I have some really neat nieces and nephews and they are a blast to hang out with. Can't wait till Christmas to see more of Jon David, Luke Jombers, and sweet baby Caleb.

Daisy and Isaac are very well behaved kids. Daisy is super helpful to Mel and she was so much fun to hang out with.... she even helped me pick out what shoes to wear to church :) She loves to give shortened names for things (which is very Jones of her) like Mimimo (grandma) is not Mims. So through out the weekend she went from "Aunt Er" to just "Aunt" by Sunday!
Isaac and I had some good bonding time on Friday when Uncle David left him with the impression that maybe all aunts and uncles are as energetic and rambunctious as David! He soon learned that I was not near as fun; however, we had fun at the park playing hide and go seek.
And Colbie is just a sweet happy, happy baby. I was telling Maurine the other day that I only saw her cry once all weekend and that was when she wanted to eat!

If you want more of this weekend go to Mel's post.

Sweet Daisy (as Jesse from Toy Story 2 & 3) and Isaac (as Lightning McQueen's pit crew)




I LOVE Isaac's face here....classic :)

Eryn's Highschool Reuinion, September 10-12, 2010

It's hard to believe that I was old enough this fall to have a ten year reunion for high school. It's also didn't really seem like it had been ten whole years....maybe five or six.

Here are my high school friends (me, Kara, Melissa, Emily, and Mandi) at the homecoming game (a game in which we did not watch a single minute of football)...it was also about 1000 degrees out there that night so excuse the sweatiness :)


I must give my husband some credit for being a trooper this weekend. I was so caught up in seeing/ catching up with everyone that he was left to himself for much of the weekend...thankfully, he got to hang out with the other husbands who were also in the same boat :) He was, however, around in time to take pictures like this one, all of us at the reunion dinner at the Magnolia Room


I had a lot more fun than I had expected and it was so great to get to see people I hadn't talked to in 8, 9, 10 years. It's really neat having a small graduating class. David did not understand why my high school reunion was so important to me (he graduated with 700ish and did not even know that he had a reunion last year!). But after this weekend I think he realized that we all knew each other so well and most of us had been at the same school for a really long time so we were kind of bonded through the years whether we were super close or not.

Also, if you want better insight to just exactly how nerdy we were in high school check out my friend, Mandi's blog post here.....hilariousness.

Stay tuned for our trip to Savannah (Sept 26-30, 2010).....

We Heart Savannah

Savannah, Georgia, that is....
Fortunately for our budget, we got a chance to have a little vacation on the cheap. We used our United miles (we got check cards in Colorado that earned rewards- Denver being a United hub--- but you can't get flights out of ATL with United rewards on account of there only being a total of two united gates- because of Delta...bummer) to purchase two nights free in a hotel in downtown Savannah and then used Hotwire to book another two nights for half price! I recommend it because you can get a really nice hotel at half the price (you just don't know the name of the hotel until you purchase, but you know where in town the hotel is located). I had intended this little trip to be for David's b-day since he was off school (and Strayer...his online teaching job) for the week and he wouldn't get another break until Thanksgiving. Also, on his actual birthday he is going to the Ultimate Frisbee championship in Sarasota, FL with his brother Daniel.

Let me just take a moment to tell you how much David LOVES Ultimate. He started an ultimate team at Harding, and now He is trying to start an ultimate league/team/ even a pick up game at school so he carries his frisbee in his backpack, sometimes just stands outside on the quad with it, waiting for someone to come along and just throw the thing. Can you tell he misses it? He has had a long drought from Ultimate and going to Sarasota with Daniel is going to be a real big pick-me-up!

So back to Savannah.....
We stayed for two nights at Thunderbird Inn (super cute remodeled historical motel, which was pretty nice with 50's theme music and served Krispy Kreme Doghnuts every morning for breakfast...another reason why I chose it for David :). The second two nights we stayed at the Hilton.
I didn't get a picture of The Thunderbird, but here was our room at the Hilton....

This was our view from the Hilton room....


Savannah has a very New Orelansy/ European feel. It's also very ecclectic. There are these squares (several in the downtown area every couple blocks or so). Most have some sort of statue in them, like this one....

But surrounding the little park-like squares is a borage of architecture/ period type structures.... homes, churches, really historic big money type mansions...all around the same square! Here is an example of all the builings around one particular square we went by.

Church.....

....Notting Hill (there was one with a red door although it's not pictured :)/ the Huxstable looking row of town homes.......

....then this really cool building with the pretty blue tiles (see below)....

.....and this New Orleans looking old mansion (this place was HUGE)...

....yes, eclectic! Also, notice the palm trees mixed in with the old south big tree feel...it didn't feel like the ocean was just a couple miles away.

Savannah also has a rich history side. This was The Pirate House...literally where pirates used to come in and eat after a their long months of looting and carousing on ships :) David and I ate in the original room- so technically we ate in the oldest room of the oldest building in Georgia! The food wasn't super awesome though...but if you like fried stuff I bet you would like the food there :)

Also, the place was supposedly "haunted", so here is a waiter showing the kids at his table how to "catch" a ghost on camera (which is pointed at a glass window)....very clever waiter, very clever.
Also, this city was the site of the boating and rowing events of the 1996 Summer Olympics...this statue stands by the river

There are tons of cool churches to visit
This was our favorite church we saw. It's kind of breathtaking!

David below to show you how big this place was

Here is the inside...

I must admit that I was a little uncomfortable inside the church.... not trying to judge- but it felt SUPER weird being in a place that cost a cogillion dollars to make this ornate. I'm just saying- maybe we could have done without one golden column- maybe made it silver and then feed all the homeless in Savannah? Perhaps...but it was quite beautiful. Maybe they felt this was honoring in some way? Again, not judging...just felt weird for me.


TYBEE ISLAND

This island, for those of you who don't know, is a vacation home for Sandra Bullock, Matthew McConaughey, and the shooting site for The Last Song (with Miley Cirus :).

We found the island quite calm and not too inhabited. We rented bikes and covered the ENTIRE island in one day (actually a couple hours)! Here we are riding our bikes through the streets...

Savannah/ Tybee have great tunnel trees!

We also stopped by the local lighthouse...


David loves showing off his pull-up skills :)

The only pic I got of the ocean...although you can't see it too well...maybe you can imagine!

Eryn's Birffday (that's how we say it at our house :) August 20-27, 2010

Some of you may be wondering why I put a week long period (August 20-27) for my birthday. Well, in our house we celebrate "birthday weeks" instead of just a birth"day". During David's birthday week he may enjoy a surprise or two like apple crisp, and during mine I MAY get a back massage, but mostly the privileges of birthday week are for not having to get up or do things when you don't want to.

Here is a little sample of one of our birthday week conversations (taking place after we are both comfy and cozy in bed):

David: "Did we lock the door?"
Eryn: "Oh, I don't know, I might have gone to the car and forgotten to lock it back."
David: "Aw man, well do you want to go check it?"
Eryn: "Birthday week?"
David: "(sigh)...Fine, it's your birffday week"

Let me take some time to brag on David. For those of you who don't know, he is a full time student in a pretty competitive chiropractic program, he is usually the one who takes good care of the garden, AND he teaches three classes online (a full time income). And on my birthday week(end) he decided to surprise me with a weekend all about me and things that I like to do.

Thanks to a wonderful couple at North Atlanta Church of Christ, the Eatons, David and I had a great getaway for a weekend in their pool home. David had all my favorite fruits and foods waiting for me when we got there, and he bought groceries for a gourmet meal to make me on Friday. He made Cornish game hen in a white wine sauce, Portabello mushrooms with Gorgonzola and herbs, and sauteed asparagus! When he told me the menu I laughed and said, "No, what are we really having?". It was delicious!

On Saturday, we woke up and swam a bit in the pool.....


Then David took me shopping to spend some of my birthday money. I must give him credit for waiting in Anthropologie for about 2 1/2 hours while I tried on 30 pieces, deliberated, and then decided to frugally go with a necklace on clearance!

We went to see The Switch.... which was surprisingly good. Then we went and got pizza at the place we went on our first date, Mellow Mushroom (apparently it's a chain but we were unaware when we first went there in Nashville and thought we were eating at a cool local joint!).

Here are a couple pics of the wonderful place we got to celebrate at:

Doesn't this look like a catalog or magazine photo?

Jones' Family In Town- August 12-15, 2010

The week after this one, David's sister Sarah had her dissertation defense at Emory. She is now Dr. Nicholson, about to work for the CDC and soon, Africa (well, not work "for" Africa, but work in Kenya, as a post-doctorate studying a disease, I think :)

We went to her defense and it was very impressive! We learned about the eyes of fruit flies and how Sarah's work can impact tumor research (really that is about what I understood from it, but if you want more info-- ask David, because I think he understood about 50% of it, which was more than the rest of us).

The next day David's Brother and SIL, Daniel and Melanie, and Daisy, Isaac, and Colbie Jean (our nieces and nephews) came to stay with us. We had a blast having them over. Friday night everyone came to our house to eat. It was fun hosting so much fam under our own roof.
We had a sort of celebration for Sarah, Isaac (his third b-day was a couple days away), and myself. Here is the cake I made. I deliberated over whether to do a Buzz cake or a Lightning McQueen cake, both hold a special place in Isaac's heart, but I decided to go for Buzz.
Here he is (David wrote the bottom "congrats Pumpkin"- he was very proud, so I am "tagging" his handywork..... I feel so 2010 using FB lingo in my blog post)....

I couldn't get a good pic of both Daisy and Isaac together, but here is the b-day boy all smiles and sweet sister, Daisy


On Saturday we went swimming with the kid's. Well, really the kids and the boys went swimming and most of us girls hung out by the pool. That night Chris arranged for a big Cheesecake Factory celebration for Sarah, in honor of her becoming Dr. Nicholson.
Here we all are at the Cheesecake Factory




Melanie, who is a professional level documenter, has more details of the weekend here.

I Am A Master!

Master of Science in Counseling Psychology, that is. As of August 7, 2010 I am officially Eryn Jones, M.S.!

I must take a moment to mention that as soon as the plane landed in Atlanta from Cancun, after waiting TWO HOURS to go through customs (in our own country!...apparently in the ATL airport you have to RE-CHECK your bags after you go through customs if you are leaving the airport!).....anyways, after all that we drove home, I packed for the wedding, drove to Nashville, crept into my friend Whitney's house (who had just had the baby and was getting precious sleep!), woke up, went to get my hair did, had my final final exam (no, not a typo of the word “final”…hopefully last one ever!... not planning on getting my PhD….. for now :), then drove downtown to Robin's bachelorette party! It was a very eventful 24 hour period to say the least.

The week of graduation was also vacation, and best friend's wedding week! There is no ceremony for August grads, and I didn't want to drive back to Nashville to walk in December. So I got my diploma in the mail a couple weeks later....it seemed a bit anticlimactic, but I was too glad to not be driving back and forth from Nashville to notice.

I'm very proud of this little piece of paper :)

Robin and Nathan's Wedding- August 7, 2010

My dear friend Robin Lee (one of my maids of honor in my wedding) married Nathan Mace on August 7th. It was a fun few days of festivities. Nathan is super awes and we are super happy for Robin! Also looking forward to their visit to Marietta......hint, hint :)

But before we begin.....Enter my new addition: bangs. My friend Whitney's little sister Kingsley (who if you live in the Nashvegas area and need a cut or color- she is the one to call!) was doing my hair before the wedding festivities and I felt like a change. She said, "How bout bangs?", and after asking her several questions about my face being able to pull them off, I agreed ;)


Robin's dad Rick (or Ricardo for short:) prepared us a WONDERFUL 5 star meal for the Bride's maid luncheon.


The bridesmaids: Jenna, me, Whitney, and Miranda


The wedding was at The Hermitage (where Andrew Jackson grew up I think). They were married in this church.......

...and the reception was at a sort of open barn all lit up with twinkle lights:




The Wedding Party


Whitney (other maid of honor in my wedding), who was part of the wedding party, had just given birth to a precious, chill, sweet baby boy about six weeks prior, Cole Huckaby Cantrell:

She had Allison traveling along throughout the wedding day to help "nanny". David took some turns during the reception. Doesn't he look like a natural?


We had a great weekend....stay tuned for what else happened that weekend in my next post :)