Sweet Lost

So I hope each and every one of you are gearing up for the Lost premiere. It is one of our only fave shows that is coming on since the writer's strike is still going on. It is like a warm, breezy day after a dark winter. I thought that I was going to have to watch the show alone since some of us girls are for some reason going to eat right during the show, but sweet Beth Brown reminded me that she too is a lover of Lost. Thank goodness for DVR!

It has begun

It is official, Wade has left for the studio. He left last night and will be at the studio for three weeks with some breaks to come back for Sunday mornings. I am so sad. Wade and I are best friends and to not be able to hang out with your best friend for three weeks is so uncool.

But with all that being said, I know that this time in the studio is going to produce a worship cd that is going to be off the hook. They are all songs (except for one) that either Wade, Chris, Mack, or Pastor wrote so it is going to be great to have that cd to rock out to in the car. Keep praying for the guys as the have to stay healthy and be full of creativity as they produce the cd and then pray for me, Beth Brown, and Meredith Brock who are husbandless for a little bit.

(Wade on his way out of Charlotte and on to the studio)

My dear friend Meagan

Note to readers: Sorry it has been like a week since I last posted. I have been trying to figure out how to get this video I made onto my blog, but it was giganto so I had to keep compressing it without losing too much quality.

My friend Meagan came to visit me last Sunday and spent the night at our house. We grew up together. We went to the same church and school and formed a bond that would last a lifetime. We had so much fun and I was so glad she was able to visit!

(yes, I know we look like supermodels)

As some of you know, Scooter goes absolutely crazy over people. We have to put him outside so that he won't leap all over our guests. But since Meagan is such a good sport we opened the doors and allowed the craziness of Scooter to be unleashed upon her. I actually think this may be one of his calmer moments, but he is still really funny in it. Check out the rare footage of Scooter in action.

The Scooter Saga

Thursday evening Wade and I had just finished eating and had put on an episode of (you know what) CSI and were chilling. A few minutes into the show I said, "I don't hear Scooter." Usually that means somehow he got into our room and is standing in the tub or he found some tissue and tore it up into tiny pieces, but as I searched for him this time and he had gotten into a pack of Orbit chewing gum and ate it all. We thought we might should look up if gum is bad for dogs so when we did we found out that most gum isn't but Orbit which contains xylitol is like poison to dogs. I called the emergency vet and they said to give Scooter hydrogen peroxide to make him throw up. We tried twice, but couldn't get him to. So we made our trip to the emergency vet and made our trip to pick him back up 12 hours later. They had to monitor his glucose cause apparently it could lead to hypoglycemia and could mess up his liver. Scooter is fine now. We were worried for the little guy. He has two little bandages on his legs and they had to shave an arm, but he is super happy to be home. If only we had pet insurance.

I heart CSI

Wade and I have gotten into this crazy CSI: Crime Scene Investigation kick. Since the writer's strike is still happening all of our other shows that we were super excited about have been postponed. Thankfully CSI hasn't let us down, it comes on like every channel and has a marathon on every day so we have recorded them and have a CSI supply that will last us a long time. One of the reasons that we like it so much is because our fave character Greg Sanders is on it. He is super funny and our favorite Greg moment was this.
(Location CSI lab)
Warrick Brown: It looks the USB we found at her office is more than meets the eye.
Greg Sanders: So it is a transformer.

If you know me and Wade you might guess that we pausesd the show, laughed for awhile, rewound to hear it again, then laughed again. It is something that Wade would definitely say. Of course now Wade says that if he was a Crime Scene Investigator he would be just like Greg.

Can you see a resemblance?
Greg Sanders/Eric Szmanda (photo from IMDB)

Wade Joye

Ooo I brought back Would you Rather

Yes, Would you Rather used to be on Wednesday but I am bringing it back today for a special addition on this beautiful Monday.

Would you rather

Be able to hear any conversation
or
Be able to take back anything you say?

Saved by the Bell

This past Friday night our group of friends got together to celebrate Lori's and Buck's birthdays. But instead of the traditional party we went with a Saved by the Bell theme. It was really fun seeing every person commit to the 80s style and channel their inner Bayside High character. Of course Wade went as Zach Morris and then I attempted to go as Lisa Turtle but I didn't really look like her at all so I was just some random 80s girl. Here are some pictures to show you how awesome it was.

(We're so rad!)

(Kelly as Jesse Spano and Larry as "one of the mathletes")

(Rachel wearing her airbrushed tee and Buck is a Mexican version of Rambo dressed as A.C. Slater)

(The whole clan in 80's goodness)

Quick photo peek at our holiday

(The Joye clan on Christmas day, I'm so lucky to be part of this family!)


(My beautiful niece Pressley looking like an angel)


(The grandparents/my parents with sweet Pressley)


(Doesn't Wade look good with a baby!)

A new series

The holidays were amazing and I just kicked back, relaxed, and enjoyed time with my husband and our families. I think the gift I was the most excited about was my new digital camera (thanks to Wade) that can fit into my purse so whenever the need arises to take a picture I will have my camera at all times.

I am going to upload a few pictures from the holidays, but first I wanted to share with you this incredible video trailer that our creative department came up with for our new series "Made." I believe this is the best trailer I have ever seen for a sermon series and I am so proud that it came from our guys. I am sure you will enjoy it too.

A Grande Era

I don't know if any of you do this, but I get hooked on a certain channel for a period of time. Like I went through a Discovery Channel phase for about a month and then there is Animal Planet. One month might be TLC with the baby stories and then next it is TCM. TCM is Turner Classic Movies and that is the channel that I am stuck on now. I wouldn't say that I am an old movie lover, but something about the way most of the movies are black and white and how the actors don't seem anything like today's actors intrigues me. I love thinking about what life was like in that era-how it would feel if my life was an old black and white movie. I can just picture Wade with slick back hair, a dinner jacket on, and saying sweet nothings to me (oh wait he does that now, I'm so clever). Of course I would have the perfectly curled hair with bold lips, the big flowing dress, and the soft voice that sounded beautiful when I broke into a solo in my sitting room.

I wonder why those movies seem so beautiful and today's seem so digusting. Romantic comedies now are just full of stupid stuff that make you wish you hadn't paid the money to go see it. I wish they would take a cue from the older movies and focus on the development of the characters and have humor in the movie with witty lines instead of trying to get laughs with crude jokes. Why can't the men be the night in shining armor like the TCM movies instead of slobs or jerks that the leading ladies try to turn into a man.

Here's to Turner Classic Movies, a look back into a way of life that seems lovely (at least for this month, until I move onto Animal Planet).

The beast of change

I just had an amazing time with my friend Alyson today. She has been the friend I have had for the longest and we still are close. We go back to about 3rd grade and went on family vacations together and had tons of fun growing up. We would even sit on the phone and watch a tv show on school nights together just so we could occasionally speak up and say, "I can't believe she said that!" I have so many fond memories with her.
She recently got engaged and she will be the first one of my best friends to get married. As she was sitting at my house and we discussed what people were doing now in Belton she received a phone call from her fiance Brent. I could halfway hear the conversation between the two of them and they sounded so cute together and then I got this realization that will sound like I am an idiot to you, but it seemed so divine at the moment. I realized that the man on the end of her phone was the person she was going to spend the rest of her life with. I know that sounds like I am just stating the obvious, but she is my first friend to get married and for the 15+ years I have been her friend she has been a single woman. I don't know if this seemed so crazy for my head to grasp because I don't know Brent that well or because it will seem so different for Alyson to now be Mrs. Nelson. I can't quite grasp it.

I can't begin to imagine what my friends felt like when I got married. Here I was still in college at the ripe age of 20 and my friends were thinking about what class they could make an easy A in and I was planning a wedding. It didn't seem odd to me at all at the time, but when I am on the other end of it with sweet Alyson getting married a normal way it still seems weird. I must have been like an alien or something to my friends.

Anyway, all that being said it reminds me that change is always going to happen. And usually change is going to feel so weird and sometimes uncomfortable that you might just decide to not even consider the change. We are people that love familiarity and want things to follow the routine that we have neatly packaged, but the best things in life are going to be when we embrace the change. Alyson is going to be the happiest she has ever been when she gets married and I will have my best friend to share stories with and to live life with as a fellow married woman. It will be amazing and it all had to happen with change. Some of the best things in my life have happened because I left everything familiar to me and followed a path that I had no idea of the outcome. It was then that I have grown closest to my Lord and that I have been truly excited to see what God had planned for me-I knew it was going to be good because I wasn't in control of it anymore.

Where's the intensity?

I think this might be true for most of us. I was in the best shape of my life right when I got married. I worked out every other day for like and hour and a half. I lifted weights, did cardio, cut out all fast food, and ate really healthy. Why? Because I wanted to look the best I could for my husband (Wade and I called it the honeymoon bod). Well after I got married I haven't really stopped working out I just haven't had the same intensity with it. I haven't gone off the deep end with eating bad food I just don't mind hitting the desserts or grabbing a Big Mac every now and then.
Right after I moved to Charlotte I found my workout buddy Kelly. Although at the time we thought we were awesome with our 40 minute cardios and our 500 calorie burns we were sorely mistaken. We have since upped our workouts with some heavy weightlifting and some intense cardio and my entire body hurts.
When I look back on this whole workout history I wonder why it took so long for me to get serious again. I always wanted to be toned and have a healthy heart and body and I still wanted to look great to my husband. But there was this whole season that I just went through the motions, but didn't take any risks or endure any pain. I figured I was good to just maintain and I wanted to get by with giving as little effort as possible.

I see how this happens with us spiritually as well. I can look back at so many times in my life where I was pursuing God with every ounce of my being and then others where it felt like I was mainly just going through the motions. It doesn't take much for us to lose the focus or take our eyes away from the the goal. Sometimes I think we just give it a tiny bit of effort just so we can strike it off our list or so we can tell ourselves we are good little Christians. But the truth is if you aren't giving it your all you are still a slacker. It takes more than just having this feeling of maintaining your relationship with Christ. It takes upping the intensity and pushing past the pain. If we get to a season where it feels like we are just gliding along or just going through the motions then we need to evaluate how we are connecting with our Lord and then do something to make it a little more intense.

Oh the Joy of Marriage

Wade and I have the awesome privilege of doing marriage counseling for two of our friends. We had dinner with them last night to see what they want to get out of this kind of thing. To tell you the truth it seems like Wade and I are newlyweds still so it was kind of funny to be the wise old married couple at this dinner. But we are so excited to pour into this couple's life and share how things worked for us. I know two and a half years isn't long to be married but I feel like Wade and I have learned a lot from each other and we realized that alone we can't do this, but when we center our marriage and our lives on Christ then it makes us willing and joyful to lay down our selfishness for the sake of our husband/wife.

I am guessing that people must see this special glow around Wade that makes them want him to be part of their weddings because this past Saturday two of our other friends got married. And Wade had the honor of being the one that married them. On the day before and the hours leading up to the wedding I don't think I have ever seen Wade that nervous. But you would never have known it once he started. It seemed like he should take a side job of marrying people. I was so proud of him and so happy for our friends to be joining the married crowd!

So if you want a marriage tip of the day from counselors Wade and Ferris then it would be to never joke about divorce. Never use it as a way to scare your spouse. Just don't use it.

Christmas Thoughts

First off I want to thank everyone for giving Wade and me some great movies to put on our list. We finally have the tree up and stockings and I would say our house is looking pretty Christmasy. I am pretty shocked at how much scented candles are. I mean how hard it is to form wax into a cylinder shape. I am sure it isn't $15 worth.

Also, I am shocked (well not really shocked) that Target doesn't sell any Christian ornaments. I think it is lame that stores have taken it so far to remove Christ from Christmas. I understand stores having Happy Holiday things for sell so that they sell even to the the people who remove Christ from Christmas, but couldn't they keep the Christian stuff so Christians who shop at Target can buy those?

And I haven't done any Christmas shopping. I am really excited about it though. I mean I have Baby Pressley to buy for this year so that will make it fun and I can go to the mall during the day to shop for people so that makes it a little less hectic. Maybe I can knock everything out a few days next week. I can never decide if it is better to make a list of what I want to get people or just let the mall inspire me. Making the list takes a lot less time in the long run and I probably have gifts that are more thoughtful. There I decided to make a list this year.

The Christmas List

Wade and I are the couple that love Christmas but since we have been married we really haven't started any of our own family traditions. We did make our own Christmas ornaments for two years, but last year we ended up not doing that so there went our one tradition. So we decided this year to embrace the festive Christmas spirit and emerse ourselves in all its goodness. So right now we have two things on our list that must be done before Christmas.

Number one is a list of Christmas movies that we must watch before Christmas is over. The list is growing and right now we only have the Santa Clause trilogy and Polar Express. What other movies do you recommended to be added to our list?

Number two is that our fireplace has to be used at least one time. This is may not happen since we have a real fireplace and that means we have to go get wood and really start it and then who knows what we need to know about our chimney. So if this one doesn't happen I won't be too upset.

Then on my own (I guess this counts as three things) I want to make our home feel like Christmas. For previous years, if you weren't in the room with the Christmas tree then you wouldn't know it was Christmas at our house, but this year I want to embrace holiday hand towels and stock up on red and green candles and liven up the table with a christmas centerpiece.

So here is to Christmas and the need to go to the store and buy things to make it feel that way.

I fell off the universe

So I haven't blogged in awhile, but it is with good reason. Well first off I kept my niece like the last post said then there was Thanksgiving with family and you can't really get around to writing a blog with that much food around and then I got home and "it" hit me. "It" being the sickness that left me begging for relief for four days. Somehow I got a fever and a congestion so bad that the nurse at the doctor's office said it was the worst congestion she has heard in awhile. That is comforting. So thankfully Tuesday the doctor gave me some meds and I rested a little more and by Wednesday the fever was gone and the sore throat was feeling a little better. I still sound like I am pinching my nose if you talk to me on the phone and you don't want to know how much kleenex I go through, but I am on my way to recovery.

Hanging out with Baby Pressley

My sister had a conference to go to today and tomorrow in Columbia. So she brought my niece with her and I am getting to keep her for two days. If this would have happened three months ago I would be clueless on how to keep a baby, but since moving to Charlotte I learned how to change a diaper and be a little more natural around kids.

I am figuring out:
1. that you can't do much until it is naptime.
2. you better be good at doing stuff with one hand and a baby on the other hip.
3. that if you didn't have a baby in front of you some of the faces and sounds you make would be pretty embarrassing.
4. that bringing a baby to a new place means lots and lots of bags and hardly any of it is the mom's stuff.
5. being entertained by a toy only lasts for a few seconds.

I think I am well on my way to understanding the babies. Good times.

A logo on the side of the building

Last week I had the incredible opportunity to be part of Palmetto GBA's pie rally in order to celebrate their new brand look. What is interesting about all this is the fact that about a year ago Chris How (Palmetto GBA's web designer) and I worked on about 50 logos hoping one would get picked. As a graphic designer you think that the logo that will get picked will be the one you spent the most time on or that you were just really inspired with. But in this case the logo that was picked was my 11th hour logo. We actually had a meeting about which logos we would present to our company's president and one hour before that meeting I came up with my last logo and somehow everyone liked it.

Needless to say after about a year when they had the unveiling of the logo I was really excited. I have never had a logo that I designed roll off the side of a building. It was huge. I didn't bring my camera since I messed that up, but my boss George Nicholson had his and took some pictures of our design team.


(Chris How, George Nicholson, and me)


(The logo off the side of the building)


(Logo up close)

The Ball

Now that I am working from home I have taken over our one armchair and my storage ottoman has become the home of my computer and freaking awesome external hard drive. The armchair and ottoman are perfectly positioned in front of our sliding glass doors that lead to outside. And outside is Scooter.

Quick backstory...Scooter may really have an obsessive compulsive disorder. His first toy as a little puppy was a squeaky ball. I feel like his thought process with the ball may be as follows: "Oh my, it is my ball" "Is my tail waving fast enough to show my excitement to everyone?" " Wait, I caught a whiff of the ball over here...I can actually smell the trail!" "AHHHHH....the smell is glorious." (the AHHHH in my world is this ear piercing bark followed by smaller barks and this happens over and over again) So somewhere along the way any ball became this crazy obesessive toy. For awhile he got so crazy that balls were banned from our house. (It's a long story)

So back to my armchair. I sit working on my computer with my back to the sliding door. Then I hear a faint whimper which turns into a loud high pitched cry then on to a manic scratching on the door that makes me feel like any moment Scooter could bust down the door. So I put my computer down look over my shoulder and there he is. I walk to the door. He doesn't want to come in. He doesn't need anything. He drops the ball at my feet and gets a running start for the ball to come sailing to him through the air. And this happens maybe about 20 times during my workday.

Material Possession

Don't you hate it when you have some material possession that you like a lot and then you do something completely stupid and you get so upset but the only person responsible for messing it up in the first place is yourself?! Yep, that happened the other day to me. Last Christmas, Wade got me this macdaddy, awesome camera. I loved it. It was perfect since I was trying to get into photography more and it was a digital slr and had the most amazing picture quality. I have taken many a pictures with it and made a design out of it. So the other day I decided to get out my camera so Wade and I could take it to Uptown Charlotte and we could take some fun pictures. The battery was running low so I decided to charge it and I saw this other battery laying there. Since it was in my camera bag I decided it must be already charged and put it in. However, it was the wrong battery for the camera. I could smell this faint burning smell and Wade eventually got it out. But when I put the correct battery back in, the camera didn't work. So the limited warranty won't be effective since I messed it up myself! It is a very good lesson about materialism though. Yes, it is great to have a camera and it is good to use it since it cost a lot, but it is something that can be replaced or possibly fixed. I almost had a little pity party for myself, but Wade helped me through it. I realized there is absoultely no reason to let some small object like my camera cause me to break down.