Tyson and Boston

Clint and the nephew came to visit and we'll probably see them a lot (or at least I hope we do!) this weekend for Labor Day because the rest of the family's coming to town! Yay! We're going to a Jonny Lang concert, which I am so stoked about, and I'll try to put some pictures of our weekend on here next week. I exhibited for the company at a huge convention in Boston a couple of weeks ago, and I've totally found the next place I want to live (which is good, since we'll probably have to move there for Eric's work anyway)! Here's a pic of the crazy weird-looking skyline our last night there, our booth at the convention, which took us FOUR HOURS to set up, believe it or not, and a chapel on the Harvard campus. We were total dorks and had to go see Harvard and get a sweatshirt.=)=) It is so beautiful (Cambridge and Boston, really) and it is a big city without the big city, overwhelming kind of atmosphere. All these pics were taken on my phone, so they're not the best ever, but wanted to share these with you!

Some Awesome Dancers

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My new nephew (Clint's new puppy)

This is Tyson! He's absolutely adorable and came over to meet me last night. He was so good in the house, and just cuddly and so cute! I'm going to steal him from Clint, HAHA!

My Favorite Dog

I am now convinced I want to rescue a retired greyhound. Eric's cousin, Amanda, rescued one, and he is my new favorite dog!! He is so laid back and chill, and is just the most beautiful thing ever! I'm attaching a couple of pictures, one where he has his nose in the cupholder on her chair, and the other is Jack literally in Amanda's lap because people were setting off fireworks in the daytime (stupid) and he was scared. The next pictures of a greyhound you will see on here will be my greyhound!

The other couple of pictures are teasers from Niagara Falls, taken on my cell phone. I have really great ones on the camera, but haven't put them on here yet. I will, though! And enjoy the one of Eric relaxing on the float, although it was lying on the grass, at his aunt and uncle's house by the lake on July 4th. He looks like a little kid here having too much fun, which basically sums up most of our time together. We're just big kids!

Pray

My heart goes out to SCC and his family..........having grown up listening to his music, singing his songs and reading a lot about him and his family, this just breaks my heart. Even for a family who seems to be very close with God and strong in their faith, this will surely test that. Keep them in your prayers, these poor parents who I'm sure are torn and broken, and most of all, the son who was driving. To live with such a thing must seem quite impossible to him right now........and to hear that "everything happens for a reason" can't be much comfort at a time like this. Lord, lay your hand on this family!!!
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080522/NEWS01/805220370

Headaches

So Eric found out yesterday why he has migraines this time of year. Unfortunately, it's not allergy-related, it just happens to be about this time, once a year, for weeks when it happens. It's called cluster headaches, also "affectionately" called suicide headaches. Fun, right? Basically the pain is so bad, usually behind one eye, that the people who have them would rather bang their head against the wall and some people have even committed suicide to relieve their pain. These people get depressed, etc., which does fit how he's been lately and the poor man gets them at night and then can't sleep. He's even thought of taking 2 weeks or so off from work until this subsides, which would severely hurt his work progress, so you know it has to hurt very badly for him to say that. He has an appointment with a headache specialist/acupuncturist today, referred to him by his father, so the two of them are going to go and see what that guy has to say. There's not much you can do for these except wait them out, unless you want to be doped up on morphine or lithium (!!!) and not be able to function! His doctor encouraged him to basically drink water constantly all day long for the oxygen in it and you can even breathe in pure oxygen to help with the symptoms. (think oxygen bar, i.e.) Nothing is guaranteed to work, there's no definite cause, no cure as of now. So we'll be researching this and seeing what we can do before it hits him again next year. Of course it hasn't ended yet this time, but it should soon. Pray for us, especially him, as this has been compared to pain worse than giving birth. We've both been very emotional, as he's not getting any sleep, I'm not getting enough, and it scares him to think he's going to have to live with this forever. And whenever he's upset, it makes me get upset, LOL. I'm just thankful it's not a brain tumor or something! Here's the link below on cluster headaches if you'd like to read more about it. I didn't know all of this about them and definitely didn't realize it occurs in mostly men. I'm just glad that now I know he's not being a baby, it really does hurt that bad! Keep us in your prayers and if you've heard of any research or anything that works, feel free to pass that along! Thank you!
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cluster-headache/DS00487/DSECTION=10

First Anniversary

So it's again been too long since I've written! I just don't seem to have time anymore......work comes in phases, and it's been a busy one! Eric and I just celebrated our first anniversary on the 14th, which was very exciting. The year has absolutely flown! To think we've been in our house a year, married a year, it's just crazy to me. I'm an idiot who didn't get a picture of herself and her husband on their anniversary, but I did take pictures of the beautiful hot pink roses he gave me! HAHA Priorities, right! So enjoy the beauty of those, and I've also attached a couple from my last-minute trip to Long Beach, CA, for the annual American Occupational Therapy Association conference, where we were an exhibitor. The sales guy from the company couldn't go at the last minute, so I went with our marketing manager. It was fun and such nice weather, but the traveling was horrendous. I heard some DJ's on the radio this morning talking about how flying is now a huge process no matter what, and that has certainly been the case for me the last two trips I've taken. I still need to put pictures up from our Salt Lake trip when we flew the "hated by Amanda" hairline, Frontier. This time our American flights were cancelled and they booked us on Frontier instead, of course, after I told Frontier I would NEVER fly with them again, HAHA. It was business, though, couldn't really help it. They have the worst flight attendants I think I've ever encountered, with the exception of maybe KLM, who we endearingly dubbed the Nazis. I think when you go to flight school, whether you're a pilot or a flight attendant or a counter rep or whatever, they need to incorporate an entire segment to good customer service. Whew! Well enjoy the flowers and these pictures from Long Beach are of the lighthouse and then 2 pics from my hotel room window, if you can't tell by the glare.=)

Wyatt Luke Hyder

Pictures of beautiful baby boy, as promised!

Bad Start to My Day

I get to work this morning after driving through the gross rain and I have an email from a new instructor basically blasting me out. I had sent her a basic editing of her brochure content, but since the chick didn't write a lot the first time around like she was supposed to, I added to it, but told her to feel free to change anything if it was incorrect or not the direction she wanted to go in. Well she is obviously very sensitive to some issue I must've touched on, because she went off about how she would not have our company writing her brochure and this was the problem with her area in general and blah blah blah. Let me re-establish the fact that I did nothing wrong, this is what we do with all of our other instructors and she was free to change anything. It certainly wasn't final. So I wrote her back and she probably won't take that well and it's probably ok anyway, because we definitely don't need someone like that working with us (more drama down the road is a certainty), but she still rattled my cage. Plus I forgot to take my "chill pill" this morning. So they may have to kick me out of the office, HAHA! But good news on top of that..........Amanda had little baby Wyatt yesterday. He was 8 lbs 4 1/2 oz. and 20 in. long. And healthy! I hope to go see them tonight, so I'll try to put a picture on here as well. I'll just keep thinking about beautiful newborn babies instead of monster speakers. Here goes!

California pictures

As promised, here are some pictures from CA. There were 524 in all, so obviously these are not at all representative of our entire trip. Eric and I went to LA before the rest of the family got into town. We went to Disneyland, Universal Studios and a Spanish mission on our own and then went to the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park when Mom, Dad and Sarah arrived. We also went to Eric's cousins for Thanksgiving outside of San Diego in Poway. I'm not sure what I'll include here, but if something is not self-explanatory, feel free to ask.=)

Clint's Wedding Pics

I saw some cute pictures from our wedding on my brother's facebook page and I stole them! HA! So here you go, enjoy! I will hopefully have some from our CA trip up here soon, but at the moment, they are on the home computer. I am so excited about Christmas! Maybe it's having Eric's and my first true Christmas TOGETHER, actually being able to spend the holiday together, decorating our house, etc. Our little tree is so cute! I'll post a picture of it, too. It's nothing fantabulous, but of course, we love it. And we have our Disney castle from our honeymoon out, too, I love it. Well hope everyone is enjoying the season!

Just for Fun

I'm just writing because I feel like it today! FYI, I now have an account on Myspace and Facebook, so for any pictures/updates that I may leave out on my blog, you can look there, too. This picture is of my new haircut, courtesy of Amanda (my friend who did my hair and makeup for the wedding as well), and I took this picture myself as I was driving. What can I say, defensive driver, right? HAHA Seriously, I think I was stopped when I took it, but I had all of a sudden remembered I was supposed to take a picture and send it to my mom, so I just did it right then! I'm crazy. Eric and I are about to go to Memphis this weekend and I'm finally taking him to Boone the weekend after that! I'm so excited and will definitely put some pictures on here after those trips take place. Then previous to and during Thanksgiving, we're going to California!!!! Both of us are already mentally there, so I'm sure I'll be talking about it for the next month! I'm so excited! Otherwise, things are normal for us, Eric travelling, both of us working a lot, doing things around the house. I need to put an updated pic of that on here, too. Basically, I need to get the camera out, don't I? I also need to take some pictures of me after losing 15 pounds, woo hoo! I wasn't too good last week with my eating and exercising, but hopefully I can lose a little more, but I'm holding even right now. But I'll take that!=) Ok, well hopefully talk to everyone soon, I miss so many of you!

Change

First of all, here is the only picture Eric and I took in Detroit over July 4. This is at the zoo. I'll have to post some pictures of the donkey there, too, it was so funny! Many of you probably know about my fascination with donkeys, others not so much. I just think they are so cute and I pass 3 every day on my way to and from work. They make me smile! HAHA Anywho, on to the point of this post.................I have been dealing with a lot of change lately. I've started hanging out with a few different people than normal, which has been great, and not spending near as much time with others. I have a couple of friends who are pregnant, and one in particular is so different now. At first, everything was about her pregnancy. She would even cancel on me every single time we made plans, always having something to do with that. I have talked to her about how I feel like we're not even friends anymore, and she is making an effort, but it just opened my eyes to the inevitable: that life changes. And good for her, I'm very happy for her! I think part of it is that I got married a lot later than most of my friends and they've all already moved on to having kids. I'm just now getting to enjoy being married, and somehow feel behind. I'm not, and we're definitely not in any hurry to have children, but I just hate that your relationships with friends have to change because of things like that. I think the best time for friendship is high school and college, when you're all in the same lifestage and can relate to one another 100%. You have all the same issues and concerns. After that we all separate and go all kinds of different ways. You still have friends, but not at that same depth. You talk about more shallow things, or try really hard to put yourself in the other person's position, but when you've never been there yourself, it's difficult to do that. Of course, I've encountered the same thing on the other side of the spectrum. I have some single friends who think I can't relate to them because I'm now married. But hey, it wasn't that long ago that I wasn't and I can certainly relate to being lonely and ready to settle down. I'm blabbing on, but the moral of the story is just try to maintain your friendships, even if it's harder when you get older and everything starts changing. I hope all my friends know how much I care about them, wherever they are. Eric and I don't have too many good friends here, so we are very glad to have each other. He has been such a comfort to me lately when I've been upset about this. I thank the Lord every day that I have a husband and a friend all wrapped up in one. Ok, well quit reading this and go call someone you haven't talked to in a while!=)

RUDE people

I am currently at work and just completely miffed by this speaker right now. We got his lead a long time ago and this girl who doesn't work anymore started asking him what subject he wanted to speak on, got his resume, etc., but never told him we definitely wanted to bring him on. He called me to follow up, so I took a look at his file and he is not licensed or certified. He does have a Ph.D., but it's in a field that doesn't really apply to what we do and we have certain qualifications you must meet, like being licensed or certified. Well he told me that was ridiculous because he's spoken for so many years for all these other companies and I said other companies have different qualifications. He emailed me again wanting my supervisor's phone number and asked me how long I'd been doing this. Hello, buddy! This is a job application and this is how you're talking to a potential employer?! I cannot believe that. So my supervisor, Jennifer, said she is going to have fun emailing him. He'll probably call her, too, but she said she's going to put him in his place. Makes me feel better, but people never cease to amaze me. This guy's from Michigan, too, so I really wanted to like him, but hey, not everyone from MI is cool, obviously. I am so worked up and need to calm down! Don't you wish you could just cuss somebody out, but you can't, because that's not "professional?" I hate having to be professional sometimes, HAHA. Whew! I feel better already now that I've vented.................

MIA

I'm so bad, not updating this.......no new pictures. What can I say? I got a promotion at work at the beginning of July, so that's been taking a lot of my time and then just doing stuff around the house, etc. Time seems to have been flying by! I do admit that I update my Myspace page a bit more than this. I had initially started this because I didn't want to do Myspace, but then I decided I wanted to try to find some friends from high school. So if you want a little more info on me or want to see a few more wedding pictures, you can go to www.myspace.com/aj51280. Or if you search by name, make sure you search by Amanda Williams, not Hazlegrove. Since I wrote last time, Eric and I went to Detroit over July 4th and that was a lot of fun. Hopefully my parents and possibly my sister are coming out here for Labor Day, so we'll have our first official houseguests! I'm really excited. In other news, I just have to share this story. We had a cat that was always hanging around the construction sites on our street. We both wanted to feed him, but we knew if we did, he would never leave, so we chose not to. Eric even said if we weren't allergic to cats, we could take him in, which cracks me up, because neither of us are really cat people. But it was black and white and so cute. Well I woke up Sunday morning and looked out in the backyard, and there was something black and white lying on the grass and a wild turkey was pecking at it. Yes, sure enough, the poor little cat chose to die in our backyard! It didn't look like it had been attacked or anything, so maybe it ate something toxic at one of the contruction sites. We had to pick it up and get rid of it since it was in our yard, which wasn't fun, but at least it hadn't been there a long time. We both were sad, though, that maybe we could've helped him and didn't, but I guess that's the nature of things, right? Anyway, just a little glimpse of our day-to-day lives lately, HA!

I'm the Woman!

I have been very horrible about posting on here lately, and I promise to soon get pictures up here from the wedding and honeymoon! I am attaching one of Eric and I in front of the castle at Magic Kingdom, but I'm afraid that's all I have for now. We've been very busy at home trying to get the house looking nice, and while Eric's been out of town, I've been trying to hang pictures and put flowers out, etc. I have to brag that I put together this 6 foot bookshelf yesterday all by myself. That may not sound like a big feat to anyone else, but it was much harder than you would think. It took Eric and I half of Saturday to figure out the first one (we have 3 altogether), so I never thought I'd be able to get the whole thing done alone. I'll have to post a picture of them when we've finished the third one. Well I promise to try and be better about writing. Hope everyone is well!

Married!!!!

Well, I can honestly say, I'm breathing easier these days, HAHA! The wedding went very well, a few snags here and there, but nothing that ruined the day or anything. It was wonderful to see old friends and family, and I wish I could have spent more time with them! I have only seen a few pictures from the wedding/reception, thanks to Kristen, so if you'd like to view them, check out http://www.enorivermusings.blogspot.com/. She's on the same blogger website as I am. Thanks, Kristen! Great pictures! Thanks to everyone who came and everyone who was so supportive throughout the engagement, etc. I can't believe it's over. But now the fun begins! Eric and I had a lot of fun at Disney World (pictures to come soon) and are now hard at work getting our house in order. We can't wait for everyone to visit! We have plenty of room for you! I'll post more pictures this weekend, so check back for more!

Tomorrow

15 days until the wedding and we close on our house tomorrow! Can you believe it? Eric and I are still pinching ourselves, and when a lot of you see the house, there won't be much in it, but we will be! We are so excited, we left this morning thinking, "it's so beautiful!" I'm definitely not trying to brag, just saying that it's still kind of crazy to think of us getting married and having our own house! Whew! We can't wait to show it to you all.........hopefully we can get some more pictures on here soon. See some of you in a couple weeks!=)

More House Pictures

We went by the house again this morning and it's actually going to be ready to close on in the next several weeks. The cabinets go in today, so I didn't get any pictures of those, but here is the front of the house completely bricked minus the shutters, the front yard from the 2nd floor (they are digging the gas stuff today), the fireplace, the eat-in area in the kitchen and the bonus room windows. It's looking more and more like a house now! 29 days until the wedding, and Eric and I are very ready to be on the plane to Disney World! HAHA Thanks to everyone for their support through this engagement, it has been much appreciated! Can't wait to have everybody over to our new house!=)

Ollie

Just thought I'd throw some pictures of Ollie up here. I like seeing him as much as I like seeing my parents when I go to Charlotte. He's going deaf, though, I don't know what we'll all do when he goes.=(=( He's such a good dog!