Thankful

Since my last post we have had quite a bit of excitement here in good ol' Alabama...a tornado...in January.

Who would have thought...

Sunday night/Monday morning, an F3 tornado came through our city of Clay-Chalkville/Pinson/Center Point area.  It touched down almost like a pogo stick, damaging over 200 homes and killing 2 people. 

We are so much more than lucky that it did not effect us or our home physically, even though it was less than 2 miles from our house, but I can tell you that only 2 days later, I am a forever changed person after seeing a small fraction of the aftermath. It is one thing to see the pictures on TV or Facebook, but it is quite another to see the devastation, even from a distance, in person...I just cried the first time I saw it in utter disbelief.

 We know multiple people who were directly and indirectly impacted by this storm.  I have had these people on my mind 24/7 since Monday morning and it is only a reminder of how very lucky we are and thankful that God was watching over us.

I pass 3 of the 4 neighborhoods everyday on my way to work and home and the roads are almost unrecognizable now. 
Needless to say my view on my drive to work has changed dramatically...

Driving on Old Springville Road towards Chalkville Mtn Road

One of the neighborhoods-Georgebrook. Both Mitch and I have co-workers that lived here...thankfully they were both ok but did suffer damage to their homes. 

Across the street from Georgebrook

This is not on my daily drive, but is in another neighborhood, Pilgrims Rest that was seriously damaged. 

This is one of our friends Whitney and Beau's house...thankfully they are also safe. 

Van Gogh and Vino

Good afternoon ladies and gents!

Last night we girls got together for Mere's birthday celebration! Her actual birthday is not until Saturday (the 14th), but Mere wanted all of us to get together for a little girl time. :)

We met up after work at Habaneros for a quick bite to eat before heading to Sips N Strokes to paint our masterpieces!

This was a much more complicated picture than I initially thought and of course Mere's turned out great...mine however-well thats still to be determined! :)  Either way we all had so much fun and were so happy to help Mere celebrate her last year in her twenties!!

At Habaneros-Megan, Mere, Bethany,Ara (Mere's coworker), Erica, Phoenix, Mel, Yours Truly, Jess (Baylor)

(Angela did make a brief appearance to say hello, but had to hurry home to her precious (and chunky) baby boy Mattox )

This is what our pictures were supposed to look like...

Bethany and Jess-doesn't her belly look too cute?! :)

in progress..

And I didn't realize it until I uploaded my pictures but I'm pretty sure my apron says "sexy boy"...clueless :)

The birthday girl!

Here is Mere's piece of art...there's a bad glare but you can def tell that she is an artist...

and I obviously am not :)

Happy Birthday Mere!!!

Work Christmas Party (a month later)

So it's not entirely my fault that I am just now posting this, b/c I didn't have these pictures on my camera, my boss lady did and she just now sent them out to us.  

So well over a month ago, we had out work Christmas party at Brio's in Brookwood. 

 We only have 8 people total in our department, so it's not exactly a "party", but more of a "lets get together, have some drinks, let our boss pay for them, and talk about the people we don't really care for" kind of thing.  :)

We made sure to get there in time for the Happy Hour drink specials (can you say $5 martinis!) and $2 apps, so that we could take full advantage of our holiday festivities! :)
We had so much fun...the food was unbelievable and I will def be makign my way back there soon!

My partners in crime-Monica (aka Mon) and Kathy

Amy and my boss lady, Sarina

After a few of the $5 martinis :)

Note to self: get thee to a tanning bed pronto!

Having been with the company for going on 5 years now, I am pretty comfy with my job and have come to realize that not only are some of these girls my co-workers, but they are my friends. 

Def the way every company get together should end, full tummys and a slightly fuzzy head! :)

Happy 2012!

Our New Years Eve was spent at the house of one of our dear, sweet AU firneds, Austin and Ashley!

They had a small get-together to grill out, watch our Auburn Tigers pull out one last victory, and to ring in the New Year!

We had so much fun and am so glad that they included us...thanks guys! 

Also a BIG thanks to Phoenix for taking one for the team and driving the rest of us lushes around! :)

Yours Truly and my super handsome New Years Eve date!

Front: LA, Mere, Yours truly, Phoenix, Ashley

Back: Autumn, Megan and Keri

Can't wait till this girls wedding in May!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

and the obligatory funny face pic which I think only about half of us participated in!

Can I just say how lucky I am to be spending another wonderful year with this man!

He is truly the best thing that ever happened to me and I couldn't be more excited to see what this year has in store for us!

(Side note: 4 years ago tomorrow he asked me the single most important question I have ever been asked, and obvi I said yes!

 Love you honey!

Christmas 2011

Well I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year!

It's crazy to think that it is already 2012! Wow how time flies!

I'm going to back up a bit and recap our Christmas before I get into our New Years weekend and hopefully will stay on track from there...Hey-gotta start with high hopes for the new year, right?! :)

So Christmas Eve was full of traveling, eating and celebrating with Mitch's side of the family.  Every Christmas Eve we start out by going to his dad's house in Brent for lunch and then we make our way to his step-dad Robbie's side of the family for dinner.  Needless to say it is a very long and exhausting day but worth it since we don't get to see this side of the family too often. 

I suck and didn't get one picture this year of Christmas Eve. :(

Christmas morning we went to my parents house to open presents and eat Christmas breakfast (breakfast casserole-yum!) and then went to the hubs aunt's house for lunch.  Eventually we made it back to our house for Christmas dinner.

Here is where I decided to take out my camera...

So obviously our Christmas was jam-packed but it was wonderful to be able to visit everyone and be thankful for the many blessings that we do have. 

Our little family

The other Thompson's

My sis in law, Julie

The rest of mi familia :)

Brothers (please let it go on record that I got Brad to smile for not one, but TWO pictures = personal win!)

Cohen was lovin' our coffee table-playing hide and seek...

Playing a game of Peek-a-boo with Uncle Mitch....

and loving' it when he would lift it up! :) He's absolutely precious!

Hunter and Uncle Mitch-he is getting so tall and grown up!

and of course I had to include one of my little man...we was so tired from playing with the guys all night!

and just for my record, here is our tree this year. 

It doesn't photograph great, especially with our walls that also don't photograph great, but it really was a beautiful tree and we loved it!

Hope everyone had just as wonderful a Christmas as we did. 

So Thankful!