Jennie B!

Growing up I had two best friends- Jennie Baker and Jackie Rose. I met Jennie Baker in about 2nd grade and we were inseparable for years and years! In fact, everyone knew us as "Jennie and Anna." It was just that way! We did EVERYTHING together. Elementary school, Middle school, high school, etc. She was the best best friend a girl could have :D Here are some pictures of us growing up:

This us in 4th grade on the playground at Vena Wilburn Elementary

5th grade on our way to DC on a field trip :D

5th grade at the NC State Fair

Right before we went into 6th grade. This was at Busch Gardens, we were pretending to be drunk. LOL

7th grade- Jackie, me, and Jennie

7th gradish- we did our own glamour shots. we used to LOVE taking pictures and giving them as gifts to each other. lol

REAL glamour shots! Jennie took me for my birthday one year! SO much fun!

11th grade? we were making icing and decided to play in it because it was goopy. lol

Junior prom! Of course we got ready together :D

Around college time we didnt hang out quite as much, but whenever Jennie and I are together it's like we never skipped a beat. She was in my wedding (I wouldnt have it any other way) and was an amazing bridesmaid, she really did an amazing job and made my wedding journey amazing. I will forever be grateful to her for that.

Jennie is an amazing person and will always have place in my heart and we will always be best friends- even if we are far apart. We have been through so much together over the past 18 years from going through all the stuff girls deal with growing up to the hard stuff including both of our fathers passing away. It's such a blessing to have a friend like her who has been through it all with me and still loves me and will always be there for me. I will always be there for her too. LIfe is going to keep happening to us as we get older and I look forward to how our friendship continues to grow even after all of these years.

This was taken when we went home in October

Well recently, Jennie found out she was pregnant! YAY! and I am so excited for her! She found out she is having a little girl :D Her name will be Jordyn Grace McPherson :D Beautiful:D She is due March 1st, which means Jennie is at 22 weeks now! I am trying my hardest to go home for the birth! Jordyn has to have her aunt Anna in her life right from the start! and I wouldnt miss out on being there for Jennie if I can do anything to help it! I love that girl to death :D

Me giving Jordyn kisses!!

I LOVE YOU JENNIE B! :D

It's all about the U!

This past Saturday, after Halloween Horror Nights the day before, John and I went to the Miami vs. UNC game! We had planned to go to that one for a long time- to pull against carowina of course! The game was at 7:30pm so we were able to get some sleep after getting back from HHN so late the night before. We had plans to tailgate with some of my coworkers, Seth and Matt, and Seth's parents were in town so we were able to hang out with them too!


Me and John- It's all about the U! (really it's all about the Wolfpack, but we were at Miamis game. LOL)


Matt and Seth-

Seth' sweet parents!

Co-worker love!

Seth's dad grilled food for us and we played cornhole. I love tailgating for a game!! Matt had never played cornhole before either so it was fun teaching him and Seth's parents.

This was the largest chair ever!

We tailgated for a few hours and then headed into the game. The game was great!

We had seats in the end zone, which were not the best, but you could still see everything. I was sitting next to this 4 year old girl who thought I was so cool and kept trying to talk to me. It was sweet at first and then very annoying. We ended up moving and sitting with Seth at half time. lol. The little girl amazed me though- she knew all the words to "Dynamite." Crazy. Good to keep in mind for when my kids are that age! Anyway, Seth had great seats!
Heres a pic from our new seats:

and we had a really great time. and of course "it's all about the U" because they crushed UNC! :D WOOT! GREAT GAME!

3000 days!?

On most days I will usually go get John for lunch and then take him home afterwards so he doesnt have to come pick me up- it's pretty close so I dont mind. If he does come and get me he usually has to sit in a lot of traffic and there isnt much after lunch, so I just take him then. Well on Oct 19th I head to the car to take John home and he tells me that he'll just come pick me up so he can run to Blockbuster. No big deal, right? We'll it seems a bit suspicious to me but then I think maybe he really just wants to watch a movie and I was really too busy to think much more into it. Well he comes and picks me up and when I get home there is a pumpkin on the coffee table! SUPER SWEET! I was really excited! He looks at me and was like do you know what today is? and I was for real stumped! i racked my brain and could not come up with anything. lol and then he tells me we have been together for 3000 days. It was super sweet and he got the pumpkin so we could carve it together on that special day. :D I love when he does random things like that- it makes me feel so special. :D He is the sweetest husband in the world and I am SO lucky to be married to him! :D Here is the picture of the pumpkin we carved!



I <3>

Halloween Horror Nights!

So, John and I decided to help chaperone the Halloween Horror Nights trip that Housing was doing for the students here. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! :D One of my co-workers Phill also came along with us :DWe left UM around 2pm on Friday the 22nd with about 50 students in a charter bus. We watched two movies on the way up to Orlando and ended up making really good time!

John took this! I thought it was beautiful!

John and Phil rounded up the students while I was in line at willcall getting the tickets and then we set them free. lol. scary.

John and Phill

We ended up having 4 extas because people dropped out and we tried to sell them to get money back. Apparently you cant do that and you can get arrested for it. LOL. or so the cop told us. haha. we ended up getting them all sold anyway (I was sneaky;D). Then we went around the park until about 12:30 am. We went in 3 haunted houses and on a few rides. My favorite haunted house was Hades- it was the scariest and even got John a little! and The Revenge of the Mummy was my favorite ride. It was the only rollercoaster open, but it was awesome because I didnt know what to expect :D I also really liked the "scare zones." They were just in the walk areas in the park and some were really scary! These are some of the things in the scare zones:

People would jump out at you in the scare zones, follow you, hiss at you, or chase you with a chainsaw. lol Here is one of the guys with the chainsaw:

I do recommend getting the fast pass tho. It is way more expensive but you can do almost 3x the amount of stuff! Waiting in line was no fun! lol. They also sold alcohol every 10 ft. here is a zombie nurse selling jello shots. No idea how our students didnt come back drunk. lol

on our way out we happened to see this heart in the grass!

the bus ended up leaving around 1 and we got home around 4:30 am. I WAS EXHAUSTED! Great fun though! However, I dont remember the last time my legs hurt so bad. lol

Godparents

So, I left this out of my post about home because I wanted to make it it's very own post :D As a lot of you know two of our friends from home, Thomas and Kaity, had a baby recently :D a SWEET little boy named Rick :D he is precious! Well when we went home they asked John and I to be his godparents!! I am SO honored! and excited! I am excited that I get to see this little boy grow up and be apart of his whole life! I am also very excited because that means Thomas and Kaity HAVE to friends with us forever now. lol :D Here are lots of pics of Rick! :D LOVE HIM!

John is too cute :D I have never seen him hold a baby this small! he is 6 1/2 weeks here.

The whole family!
YAY GODPARENTS!

I LOVE his cowlick!

Dad, Mom, and Rick (I dont think she knows but I totally caught her rapping to him. lol)

These are a little bit older and I am not sure how old he is in them, but he gets older in each one.

And of course he is an NC State fan! :D

Thomas sent me this picture the day he proposed to Kaity! I think Rick knew :D Speaking of which: CONGRATS THOMAS AND KAITY! SO happy for all 3 of you!!

<3

25?!?!

WHEN did I get to be 25?! that is just CRAZY! I really cant believe it. I still feel like I am so young. lol. I look at the kids that are in college now and still feel like one of them- but I am a few years older! I dont even know how that happened. lol. Like I said in my previous post, my birthday was amazing!! One of the best yet for sure. I have the sweetest husband, family, and friends. It was just nice being able to spend it with all the people I care about the most :D Of course it was really hard with my dad being gone, but I know he was smiling down on me and is so proud of his little girl :D

Anyway, 25?!?! Time goes by so fast. I do feel accomplished for being 25 though. I have a bachelors degree, a master's degree, started my first professional job, and married the love of my life and have spent an amazing 2+ years being married thus far. I have an amazing family, amazing friends, and just lead a very blessed life. So, I do feel like I am accomplished in a sense!

I have decided that before I turn 26 I wanted to set some goals for myself. 25 doesnt sound old- 26 sounds even more crazy. lol I made a list of "25 things I want to do while I am 25" here they are:

1. Run a 5K
2. Read 15 books
3. Be able to do 5 unassisted pull ups
4. Lose 45ish lbs
5. Go Skydiving
6. Learn how to speak enough Spanish to communicate with Spanish speaking people
7. Finish scrapbooking my wedding
8. Create a family tree
9. See a waterfall
10. Deeply study part of the Bible
11. Go paint balling
12. Travel to at least 5 different places in Florida
13. Try yoga
14. Learn how to sail a sailboat
15. Watch a rocket launch
16. Do 25 random things with/or for John
17. Make a difference in someone’s life
18. Watch 25 movie classics
19. Learn to play the guitar
20. Learn racquetball
21. Read a book on a subject I’ve never have thought of reading
22. Learn how to sing (carry a tune ) ;)
23. Volunteer in Miami or the surrounding area
24. Get life insurance
25. Learn all the words to a rap song

So here is to an amazing year, accomplishing some awesome things! :D

HOME!

It has been forever since I blogged. I am sorry my awesome followers :D. Things have just been really busy and when I get home I dont feel like being on the computer anymore. That and my Mac is slowly falling apart and the "e" and "r" dont work anymore :( time to save for a new compy!

ANYWAY! As you know John and I went home to Raleigh on Oct 6th. Our trip was AMAZING! I couldnt have asked for a better trip. I'll start with Wednesday and work my way through our visit.

On Wednesday John and I flew home around 4:30. We were super excited because we were going to have first class seats and already printed our ticket off and everything and when we got to the gate we got bumped. :( The seats are WAY smaller in coach. lol I feel spoiled for even saying that, but it's nice to have an aunt that works for an airline and can upgrade you when there is room! :D We got to Raleigh around 6:30 and Johns mom picked us up from the airport. We headed to their house and celebrated my birthday with them that night :D John's dad made my FAVORITE dish :D Eggplant Parmesan :D and I did get seconds :D There was also yummy cake to go with it. It was really nice catching up with them that evening and just being with family! We spent the night and our plan was to spend my actual birthday with my family.

On Thursday morning John and I got up around 11:30 because we had to run some errands. We ate Chick-fil-a for lunch. YAY! We have one in Miami but it sucks- so I was thrilled! We ate outside because it was so nice. Then we went shopping and met my brother and did some more shopping. We also made our way over to NC State to see the campus and visit my old boss and go to the bookstore. Hillsborough Street looked SO good! It was also really nice to catch up with Jennie and Aris. Working here is very different from there, but they taught me a lot and are great people :D After visiting we went shopping some more! I really wanted some cowboy boots, so guess what we went shopping for. lol. I found some at Rack Room shoes and of course it was buy a pair get a pair half off so I got some hot pink heels to go with it. I WAS SO EXCITED! :D Shopping was a lot of fun- I dont really ever go shopping a lot but it was such a pretty day and it was my birthday so it was super fun :D Then we headed to my house and opened presents and had PUMPKIN PIE! that was my request for my birthday instead of cake :D It was SO good! We also had Smithfields Chicken and BBQ for dinner- YUM. I miss all our favorite food places from home! Needless to say we pigged out and I may have gained back all the weight I lost :(. oh well.

My cowboy boots!! :D

Anyway, that night we hung out with my family and it was really nice to spend time with them. :D My sister got a cat. His name is knarf (my dad's name backwards). He is precious and a spaz and has 6 toes on his front paws. lol. He meows SO loud too! but really cute. It sucked because John and I are allergic to him slightly :(. That night we went out and met our best friends at one of my favorite places. I was SO excited because they were driving in that night and we got to hang out with them. I talked to Krystal for hours! It was a great time :D GREAT BIRTHDAY!!! one of the best yet I must say!

Friday morning we slept in and then got up and went to help out a friend pick out an engagement ring! SO excited :D then we ate and early dinner at Sushi Thai (cheap but delicious sushi! i miss that place bc sushi is so expensive here!) We went with Brad, AJ, and Kristen. It was a lot of fun. Then we all headed over to Chris's place as all our friends were getting together like old times to hang out. It was great! We meant to go to bed early, because we were getting up early to tailgate, but of course that didnt happen! We were having too much fun :D

Saturday morning we got up at 5:30am (yikes!) and got ready and headed out to the fair grounds to tailgate. It was SO nice being there in the NC State game day atmosphere again! I miss it tremendously. After tailgating we went and got ready for John's cousins wedding. The wedding was beautiful and it was SO great to get to spend time with John's extended family! After the wedding we all went to John's parents house and hung out watched football. It was great :D

Breakfast of champions! I <3>

Oh it's nice to be in Raleigh. lol Tailgating EARLY! :D

My best friend! :D LOVE THIS GIRL!

The Bride and Groom! :D CONGRATS SARAH AND BOBBY!

Sunday we got up and went to church. It was great seeing everyone at Asbury! I miss all those faces! Then we got lunch at O'Charley's with Johns family and Thomas, Kaity, and Rick! Then we spent the rest of Sunday at my parents house hanging with my family. It was nice and relaxing :D

The next day the flight I was on was full so I had to wait for later flight at 7pm so we went to John's parents house and just sat on their back porch and talked. It was incredibly peaceful. I love spending time out there :D

The deer in John's parents backyard :D

Overall, it was an AMAZING trip and now I miss home thinking about it. haha.

2 days!!

At this time in 2 days I will be getting ready to leave for the airport! I am TOO excited! :D I cant wait to just be in Raleigh! and like I said before to see all my friends and family :D These next 2 days are going to drag because I want them to go by FAST!



On another note, Miami leaves do not change colors :( It makes me sad that I will be missing that part of my favorite month and season. SO to remedy that- I made leaves and posted them around my office :D haha...here is one wall

It makes it a little more festive in here :D

This past weekend wasnt too bad- did a lot of relaxing. I hurt my back a little one day so the rest I spent laying around so it wouldnt hurt and would heal so I would be good to go when it was time to go home :D I am also on duty and so I cant really go very far anyways. I have gotten lucky with a VERY quiet duty week! (knock on wood!). That's pretty much it for now....