Christmas 2007 and 2 Year Anniversary

This Christmas was with my family in Memphis and Trenton. We had a great time with family and enjoyed being pampered:)


Here are some pics...............

Yes, Santa still comes to see us


Here is what David got from Santa


Some pics of the tree and presents


Grandpa in his new UT Santa hat :)

Us, Lindsey, and Lauren

Don't we look festive?

Granny and Papa

Me, Cody, and Caitlin


Anniversary

We have now been married two years. We decided to celebrate with a gift card to our favorite restaraunt in Old Town. We got the two person private room, so it was like our own little restaraunt. Thank you Saunders for seeing us off and taking pics :) Here we are.......




On the way out, we saw a guy with only a tee shirt on in the middle of the winter. Now I know we all know somebody who continually wears t-shirts or shorts no matter what the temp outside. David, in the pic below, was ranting about how he "just doesn't get it". If you do get it, please comment. We came up with some theories.....1) They are more "hot-natured" people (to which David decided that their 35 degrees could only be our 55 degrees, which is still not t-shirt wearin weather. 2) They could all have a club, like wearing a t-shirt is a members only thing and when they get together, they are allowed to wear warm clothes. 3) Maybe they think it's cool??? Any thoughts :)?

It's Christmas Card Time Again!

So it's that time again. We wanted to send everyone a Christmas card in the mail and be on time with the letter and everything......that didn't happen :) But we did convert our letter to this blog and put our pics here for you all to see, and, yes, as Whitney pointed out, we did do this last year too. I think it will become a tradition in the Jones family (and it saves a ton on postage!) So here goes:

(Eryn here-- going first so the "funny one" goes second) This year did not seem particularly eventful (especially compared to last year since we got married, lived in two completely different places, and started two careers!), so as I was thinking about what to write I decided to actually think if anything was new this year. And I realized that David and I did have new experiences together, just not quite so dramatic as last years. We paid off a ton of debt with the guidance and Good Will of the Lord. We moved into a new neighborhood where we have many friends and enjoy babysitting for one neighbor's children every week. We like the dorm-like community atmosphere and you can always borrow something you forgot at the grogery store! In some ways it feels like we have taken a much needed step back in time and are more community minded now-a-days. We have been enjoying getting into a new show, "Heroes" with another family in our neighborhood, and have been blessed by their yummy chili :)

My job has been going great. I am part time now (still being an avg of 28-30 hours per week!) so I have more time to keep the house in order. We have learned how to manage our time better with David working near 60 hours a week. I have also been enjoying doing wedding cakes on the side with my friend and neighbor Jen. We have had about one cake a month for the past 6 months, and we really love doing this.

We do still miss our friends and family terribly and sometimes we can't believe that we will be here for 3 1/2 more years, but we know this is where we need to be and are thankful to be here with amazing weather, friends, and a little bit of family (Anna and Don:). You all are in our prayers.

So here is David.................

Okay, Christmas letter time. Life is good for the Joneses. We love where we live, we love our jobs, we love our friends. God is really blessing us in so many ways, not the least of which is monetarily: we’ve paid off a ton of debt this year. Let’s see, what else is going on, Pumpkin? Well you could tell them about your job. Right you are, right you are. Chemistry is going pretty well. It’s a little difficult to explain since most of you aren’t chemists, but if you’re picturing me taking a beaker of red liquid, mixing it with a beaker of blue liquid, and watching bubbles form while wearing lab goggles, that’s probably close enough. I’m making slow and steady progress on my research project, and my advisor (boss) seams pretty pleased, so that’s good. However, he did recently send out a packet of about twenty-five memos about how we all need to work harder, so needless to say, the stress is there as well. Just in case you are interested, I’ve gotten the hydroxamic acid formation to work, but I’m still stumped on the Claisen-Dieckmann tandem cyclization...What else? Church? Okay, yeah, we like our church, and our small group is going well. We are about to start the Truth Project for those of you who have heard of that. It’s a video series from Focus on the Family…By the way, for those of you who just kind of skim these things and look to see if your name is mentioned, I have a brother named Daniel…What else pumpkin? Well, we miss our friends and families. Yes, in a bad way, we really do miss you all, and hope this finds you doing well. (So, if you are picturing me typing with Eryn behind me chiming in, that is the intended effect. I must admit, however, that I am at school and just making up her comments. It just seemed that a dialogue would make this easier to write.)

First Snow

We just got our first winter snow....... here are some pics, and some pics of our festive living room:)

Btw, if you would like to be praying for our current living situation, please do. Somebody new bought our complex and there is a chance he could raise the rent pretty high, or a chance he could sell all the units piece-meal and then the new owners would have to raise our rent.... we really want to stay here!

David, the Master at Haircutting

I have been wanting to cut my hair for several reasons, and I decided to show my husband how much I trust him, so I asked him to cut my hair. Surprisingly he said, "Sure." He did a great job (it's kindof like a reverse bob for you girls out there that know what that means:), and it was great because I could tell him exactly what to do so I got a haircut excactly how I wanted.........instead of the old go to the hair dresser, feel nervous to say you don't quite like it this way, pay a lot, tip her, and then go home and cry :) I don't know if I ever have done that, but I know people have those experiences, and I have come close! I think we are gonna stick to this plan, and save a lot of money in the process! Go David!

Jones Family Thanksgiving

We just got back from a wonderful time with the Jones' Fam in Columbus, GA. It was a lot of fun, but short-lived. Lord willing, we will one day be closer to our families.

Our Thanksgiving week itinerary included:
Going to see Sarah's lab at Emory where she spends all day with fruit flies (David is pulling for the red eyed team :)
Spending some time with Grams, who was a blast to play Apples to Apples with--btw if you have never played this game, we recommend it .
Playing Worst Case Scenario where we learned that it is better to back slowly away from a mountain lion, but not a tigress with her pray. And we also learned that bad caviar can be made better with lemon juice-- all important things we all need to know. This game was pretty funny too, with everyone's thinking out loud about their answers- i will vote for the Maurine/ Melanie team for the funnest. David and I came in last!

Eating chili out of cute Pumpkin bowls while visiting with David and Paige, friends of the Jones'- they knew David from their time in Switzerland

Going shopping on Friday and getting all of my shopping done! except for my brother-- Dad, any ideas???

Holding baby Isaac and playing with Daisy- she has really grown into a sweet little girl

Going to the Festival of Lights at Calloway Gardens, where Buddy made the call on the blankets and we were definitely the coziest group on the trolley-- thanks Buddy!

We had such a good time with everyone, and we hope to see you all sooner than next Christmas!

Here are some pics......... *thanks to Mel for some:)...........

this was Isaac's quisitive face

We had just given Daisy her Christmas present-- dress up stuff

Mimimo reading The Night Before Christmas to Daisy

everybody all together

Eryn and Sarah

Daisy loved the Frosty, Gingerbread Man, and Nutcracker at the Festival of Lights

Us on the trolley

Thanksgiving Dinner

Random pic of our Christmas tree and a table we set up to eat by the tree:)