Christmas in Pinehurst

Wow! I feel so guilty. I don't think I have posted since...well I couldn't find it on there because I had to go back that far. Kelsey, you definitely get the award for staying on top of your shit.

Well, here I am in Pinehurst. Sitting on the couch, just had dinner, and the fire is roaring.
I got here after exams finished on the 17th of December. I brought Mallika with me, a friend from Davidson that also came to The Woodlands for Thanksgiving a couple of years ago. We have had a wonderful time reading by the fire, putting up Christmas decorations, caroling out on the boat, doing hot yoga, exercises classes, and even managed to have fun filling out job applications. Yes...job applications....does anyone know what they're doing next year (Except for Kels).

For jobs, I am applying to teach study abroad programs in Thailand and Ecuador, work in the Health Corps (working with kids and school gardening programs and cooking classes), I have a applied for a Fulbright to return to Nicaragua, but I think my heart right now is staying in Davidson for a year or 2 and working in sustainability in some way - maybe renewable energy or something like that. I am also contemplating Environmental Engineering at some point in the future out in California (but I don't want to study anymore right now). Ahhh- I don't know what to do. Oh, but I am going to get certified as an exercise teacher for Les Mills. yay! Kelsey - body pump and spinning!

On the 31st, I am heading up to NYC to visit a friend who graduated from Davidson 2 years ago who is up at the French Culinary Institute. We will be celebrating New Years up there - wohoo. No, we will not be standing in Times Square watching the ball drop. We will be nice and warm at a Davidson Grad Dinner Party up in Brooklyn (Even though i haven't graduated yet).

Then...I am off to Nicaragua on January 4th to finish off some Thesis Research on Solar Panels. I hope to hit up the beach the last weekend, but I will be interviewing people that work for World Bank and the government - so not as much hiking up in the mountains this time, unfortunately :(

So that's that.

This past semester has been a whirlwind - my best girls in Boston! DC for job interview. Charleston for Cross Country Conference. England for my Grandad's 90th Birthday Celebration at Thanksgiving.

I volunteered in a elementary school garden working as the teacher's assistance. Teaching kids about where their food comes from. I made chicken nuggets with chicken from a local farmer, took it off the bone (more like hacked it), ground it up and made it in to patties. 

Then I showed them a video on how McDonalds and other fast food chains make their chicken nuggets - ewwwww! yuk!
It was on Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (you can youtube the one about chicken nuggets)

The Eco-House crew this year

Boston on Saturday night!

Cold, waiting for the train, but how can we ever get bored....
Reunited!!!!

Happy Holidays Everyone!
Claire Bear

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Lucky Number 3

Hey guys,

I'm so bummed that I'm not going to be able to come up to Boston to see everyone. Unfortunately I've just had a lot of changes lately and can't afford to right now. School sucks right now, we're getting to the really difficult part of nursing school. The part everyone says is hell. They aren't lying. Anyway, about my new changes.  A few weeks ago I decided I was done with vet work. I'm not being treated well and things have gone down hill really quick at the clinic. I started looking for a new job, but none of the places I looked at would really be able to give me the hours I needed for school. Then outta the blue, came the job of my dreams. I went to agility class like I do every thursday night, and the trainer, who I am pretty good friends with started talking to me about people who have been trying to apply for a job there. I asked if they were hiring and she said yes, and asked if I was looking for a job. I said yes and we talked after agility class. My first day was on sunday. I will start out in kennel and work my way up to a training position. In a few months I will probably start to teach a puppy obedience class and will eventually start doing adult obedience and agility classes. Its the job I have wanted for months. I will be working under the supervision of a professional dog trainer, recognized by the IACP for 22 years. I am very excited to learn from her and finally be able to start off in the career that I want. I will also get to train my dogs for free and get food at cost :).  I seriously cannot wait to start learning. I have not put my notice into the clinic yet, I am waiting to see what my hours will be at the gym, but I really cannot wait to be done with the clinic. 

So our next big change is the arrival of Nova!

We had not really planned to get another dog so soon after getting Tide, but Nova seemed to just plop into our laps. A trainer friend of mine tagged me in her photo when she found out about her. Her foster mom was looking for a performance home for her because she showed so much drive and ability to be able to be amazing. I met her August 20th and we took her home for adoption trial that night. I had been telling you guys that I wanted a border collie to complete our dog family, and I had already reserved one from a future litter of my two favorite trainers dogs, Riff and Dante. And I still may get one from their litter if they have one in two or three years. But sometimes you just find destiny. Nova is 8 months old and incredibly smart. We have already started obedience training and will start Rally Obedience in a few months. I like to start a dog in rally to increase their focus on me. Maddie didn't really need it because she was so focused on me anyway, but for a wiggle butt like Nova, I am definitely going to get her into rally. Nova and I have been playing frisbee everyday that it hasn't rained.. she is incredible. Once I learn how to throw properly, she will probably be 100% on her catches. She is too young to start vaulting and jumping like you see the dogs do on TV, but once she is around 18 months to two years, I will start teaching her leg and back vaults. For now we are focusing on learning tricks on the ground. She has learned go around, drop, weave through my legs and back up through my legs. 

Nova playing frisbee

Here's a video of us playing around a little bit last week. My main focus right now is to build her drive for the frisbee and make her love it. The more she loves it, the better she will be.

Nova and I playing around

Maddie competed in two dock diving competitions labor day weekend. She competed in her first Ultimate Air Dogs competition where she set a new personal best of 18'4 and won 6th place in the finals!! The next day we competed in The Canine Ranch's Fall Dive In where she won 2nd place in Catch-It and came in 6th in the finals. She did very well and I am so happy about her new personal best. We also helped raise $90 for Maddie's rescue. People placed bets on how far they thought Maddie would jump that weekend and the closest guess would win a sweatshirt from the rescue. We will keep doing fundraisers like this for her rescue for every competition that she competes in. 

Maddie and her trophy

We always love competing at The Canine Ranch, all of our friends from dog sports in one place competing for fun and for the love of our dogs, its so much fun. 

Our family :)

Love this one lol, Nova is such a ham

Well guys, I hope yall have fun in Boston! I hope we can do something like that soon! I miss you guys and hope you are all having a wonderful semester and are enjoying yourselves! 

Bri

Hiya!

I hope all of you are having a great new semester so far.  I just started graduate school – I’m doing the advanced standing Masters of Social Work program at Florida State U part-time.  It is such a huge honor to get into this program because it’s a small cohort and is one of the best SW programs in the country (way better than UCF) so I am already being challenged by the work load even though it is part time.  I haven’t started my full time job yet so I’m still nannying and doing Pampered Chef in the mean time (I’ll tell you all about the job when it becomes official).  We moved alllll of our stuff into Bran’s parent’s house who live pretty close from where we used to live while we were on vacation so that we saved all of our expenses for August while we were gone (no rent/cable/energy/water bills, etc.) and put that towards the trip!! Our old lease ended the day after we left for Europe and we wanted to leave that complex anyway so it was perfect!  We’re staying here until Oct. 7^th when our new lease begins… we’re downsizing to a 1 bedroom flat downtown and we’re sooo excited about it because the location will be amazing (which is why it’s so dang expensive and we’re downsizing).  We’ll both be so close to work, church, our friends, and all of the fun things to do in Orlando.  A little farther from the Beach but we haven’t been doing that much lately anyway.  We have two pools and two hot tubs– that’ll do J  So that’s what we’re working on the next few weeks: lots of transition! Into a new home, new town (still part of Orlando), new jobs, new routine.  Same amazing husband, though!  And actually… please be praying that the stinking NBA lockout will end so that the hiring freeze will END and my sweet husband can move from 20-30 hours a week to full time.  When this happens we’ll get season tickets to games, too, so we’re super excited about that J

I will now take you all through our trip to Europe…there are literally hundreds of pictures uploaded on facebook but here are some highlights.  I’m also working on creating a new travel blog.  It’s mostly just a scrapbook for us to remember exactly where we’ve been and what we did.  In addition, I want it to be a help to my friends that go to these places so they can see what I loved and didn’t love about each city – I documented every restaurant, site, gelateria, etc. that we hit and my reviews that I think will be helpful for friends/family and for us in the future when we go back.

I’ve realized through this trip how strong my passion is for travel.  I’m so grateful that I’ve been able to see so many places at such a young age and that I married someone who loves to travel too!  We’ve decided from the beginning of our relationship that travel is a financial priority to us.  We’d rather live on a tight budget day to day and save up for trips.  We also don’t do gifts for each other but instead we do something together like go skydiving or go on a trip, etc.  For our anniversary this year we’re planning on going to NYC for the weekend and staying with my close family friends in Jersey so Bran can see where I grew up and we can do all the fun stuff in the city as well.  Next year we’re going to try to make it back to Europe in the fall and we’ll stay with some friends we met on our trip that live in Belgium.  We really enjoyed meeting all of these other travelers when we were in Europe and learning how we all live differently. 

8/9 London

8/10 Hitchin

8/11 Cambridge

8/12 London à Glasgow

8/14 Glasgow à Edinburgh

8/15 St. Andrews

8/17 Edinburgh à Rome

 

8/19-8/26 RomeàCivitavecchia for the Cruise

            Genoa, Italy

            Cannes (MonteCarlo), France

            Ajaccio, Corsica
            Barcelona, Spain

           

Palma de Mallorca, Spain

8/26 Civitaveccia à Florence

8/27 Florence à Venice

8/27 Cruise

            Dubrovnik, Croatia

           

           Athens & Piraeus, Greece

            Izmir (Ephesus), Turkey

            Split, Croatia

9/3 Venice

9/4 Rome à Orlando

I cannot stinking wait to see you girls in Boston!  Only 41 days away – weeee!  Miss yall!

-KK

Finally..don't yell at me

Hello everyone!

I believe I am long overdue to post on our blog but you know how things are ; / JK I know everyone is busy and that is not an excuse but frankly speaking I do not have an excuse nor am I creative enough to make one up on the spot so here it is..I'm being lazy. However, further in this post you will find wonderful color photographs of some of the trips I have been taking and I will let you in on some secrets too. On the occasion of Claire's 21st birthday I have 91 jello shots in my refrigerator and will be doing one for each of us. I hope that is only six but it may not even be six because they are so strong that I feel like dying after I have one. In my defense I did not make them but one of my alcoholic acquaintances did not want to make them at her place because her roomy is psycho and now I have a shelf and a half of jello shots. Yay college.

Since Christmas when our beloved Kelsey married the man of her dreams I have taken two trips. Spring break was too Orlando and Miami where I got to see Kelsey's beautiful apartment and some of the hottest Cuban men I have ever seen in my life. My friends and I got in contact with a promoter in Miami and he hooked us up! We got in VIP everywhere with free drinks and bottle service. We even got to see Fat Joe perform and I'll be damned if any of you remember any of his songs...we chilled on the beach, went on all the rides at Island of Adventures and we did some clubbing in NY. On the last day we went to the beach, packed, went to a club, and stayed out the whole night. Afterwards we came back to the hotel, picked up our bags, and began the long journey home. We had to take a flight to NY and then a bus for four more hours. So we just slept the whole way back. Did I mention that Reema came on this vacay with us and she got in everywhere using my gf's ID right after she used it..lucky Reem! Oh, Reem is doing great by the way. She has lost around 15 pounds and is one hot mama!

My second trip just ended last week. I went to Chicago for a big family event and actually got to see the city for the first time. It is such an amazing city and if you haven't been and you get the chance to go then I definitely recommend it. I went everywhere and my cousin from Houston came along too so it was nice taking her on her first taxi ride and all that city stuff. I got to see Reem and my mommy for a while too so that was nice.

This summer I have been in Boston, I went home for two weeks at the beginning and got to see Kelsey and Rachael then which was very exciting! I also got to see all the boys because they are always around oh, and Meredith! I had date night with Phil and Becky and we went to the restaurant she was working at and it was fun. (Masa sushi) So...when I was there I also got to see Akal and that was nice. We are finally friends and I'm good with everything :) OMG I'm forgetting the best part, I got to see Rowan too and Geetha came with me and we all went to a bar in Rice Village and Row and I got drunk and laid down on the sidewalk. Good times.

I worked all summer at a nonprofit and surprise, I got paid, but I was the Operations intern so I did their accounting and minimal bitchwork. I also took a class summer II and the prof was awesome so it was an enjoyable class.

Now I'm back to the last leg of summer and I survived Hurricane Irene! I deserve a shirt. It actually wasn't that bad just a lot of wind and rain. I went to the grocery store to stock up on my hurricane supplies..all that good houston hurricane training really helped me out except when I was walking home this one car slowed down and the lady was staring at me as I was juggling two gallons of water and gave me a really weird look. I guessed then that people weren't too worried up here about hurricanes except now NY is flooded and like 3 million people don't have power. Obama is right and this is far from over.

Pictures below!

With Kelsey in Orlando!

Yummy but just posing at the Hershey's store in Chicago

Too tan and on the Skydeck ledge at the Sears Tower. Interesting fact, they actually built this glass box and two other coming out of the building so if you look down you just see some glass between you and 103 floors below you to the street. 

Chicago skyline, you guys have gotta see this. Chicago architecture is unmatched bc of the Great Fire in Chicago all the best architects came and experimented. Do you see the vagina building amidst all the fallaces?

Oh and the best part. Chicago deep dish pizza from Lou Molnati's. You have to try it once before you die. 

Anyways, love you all and hope you're doing well and if not call me anytime :) Byeee

-Roma

Happy Birthday Claire!!!

Hey Claire,
I HOPE YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL BIRTHDAY!!!! I  miss you guys so much!! Can't wait to hear from everyone!
Love you guys!
Bri

When Dogs Fly...

Hey guys!
Hope everyone is enjoying whats left of the summer! I start in a few weeks :( but I'm super happy that I'm only taking 15 hours this semester. I felt like I needed a little break.
Well, this month has been such an awesome, crazy, busy month! We have been gone almost every single weekend that I didn't have to work! The first weekend we took a little weekend trip down to Mexico City Beach, FL. Lee's Aunt and Uncle own a home down there and invited us to  come for July 4th the weekend. On our way down, we stopped in Thomasville to see our little man, Tide. When I last talked to yall we were planning on naming him Drake, but after meeting him, we decided Tide was a better fit (especially for a future dock diving champ ;)) He was about 5 1/2 weeks old and already huge! When we first met him, he was wary of us. Pretty soon he warmed up and started playing, but I was nervous about him. Lee's parents picked the puppy for us since they had the pick of the litter and we could not drive down to pick out which one we wanted. I was nervous that they had picked the most unconfident dog in the litter. Although this is ok for most puppies, I wanted a confident dog that would be high energy and be able to handle many situations without problems. Yes, it is harder to handle a super confident dog, but easier to train them. If they want to learn, then its super easy to teach them new things. If you want a sports competitor, you almost always want a high energy, confident dog. I got lucky with Maddie.. she has a solid temperament, but is not high energy. I cannot work her as hard as I would like. Although she wants to learn, she physically cannot handle long periods of training. This was great for me to learn from, but now I am ready for a challenge. The dogs who challenge you in the beginning are the ones who end up being the best, because you absolutely HAVE to work with them constantly.

Anyway, after we visited Tide we went on down to the beach. It was so nice to hang out on the beach on saturday, we relaxed in the waves and chatted with Lee's cousins. Sunday we went out on Lee's uncles boat early in the morning to go fishing. The fishing was not too good. I caught the most with 5, but none were big enough to keep. After that we started setting up for the 4th of July party. It was a good party and I was able to get to know Lee's extended family a little better... including his cousin, Luke Bryan. Most of you probably don't know who he is but if you remember riding in my truck while I tortured you with country music, you probably heard him then ;). He even gave the whole party a little private concert on Lee's sisters guitar. Needless to say, it was a very cool night for me. He has been one of my favorite singers since he first came out when we were freshmen.

Mary Elizabeth (Lee's sister), J.D.(Lee's cousins son) and Luke Bryan

Two weeks later, Tide got to come home. I swear I was absolutely neurotic worrying about if I had everything ready. Lee's mom drove up from Thomasville to Atlanta for a doctors appointment, so she brought Tide to us. The first night was absolute torture. Tide howled all night, and not just regular puppy crying. I am talking full blown panicky screaming. It was AWFUL. Now, I have had 5 puppies since January. None acted like this on their first night home. With all of my preperation, with everything I had read, with all of the puppy classes I had been to; I could not for the life of me make him stop. I think I got an hour of sleep. Maybe. Now I was super sure that Lee's parents had picked the crap dog of the litter. Boy was I wrong. It is crazy to look back at that first week, full of frustration and regret that I had not picked the dog myself, and realize that I was completely wrong. Tide is the smartest damn puppy I have ever had. He responds quickly, he is alert, he loves to learn and he is by far the smartest dog in his puppy class. He is cautious about some situations, but with guidance, recovers quickly. He has really shown me that I was completely wrong about him and he has wiggled his little self right into my heart. I have no doubt that he is going to be awesome at everything he does and I can't wait to start training agility and dock diving with him.

Two weekends ago, we went to Thomasville to visit and we brought Tide and Maddie with us and got a picture of Doc, Tide and Maddie. It was super cool to get all three colors in a picture.

This past weekend we traveled to Cherokee, North Carolina for the Carolina Dock Dogs Dock Warrior Competition. It was Maddie's first competition with this club. Dock Dogs is very strict, but very prestigious. To be able to jump with this club is very big for us. The dog has to be able to stay at the end of the dock, as there is no double handling. For most dogs who LOVE this sport, it is super hard for them to stay. I have to make Maddie lie down if I even want a chance of her staying. For her first competition, she did awesome. She won second place in the Junior division. The junior division consists of dogs that jump between 10'0 and 14'11. The dogs jump in different waves to determine their divisions. Maddie jumped 14'10, which put her in first place in her division going into the finals. She jumped 14'11 in the finals which is awesome! She was beat by Sam, the Border Collie who is a PTSD Service Dog. We are ok being beat by such an awesome dog who does such amazing things for our soldiers! It was a great weekend, we made a lot of new friends and had a great bonding time with our dog! Plus we won $75! haha, it's not about the money, but its nice when Maddie pays for her own entry fees!

Maddie and Tide in the hotel room

CHOMP!



Me and the Champ on the dock!



Maddie with her trophy and ribbons. I don't think I have ever won a trophy as big as my dog has....



All the finalists from the Dixie Dock Dogs!



I hope everyone is doing well, I hope to hear from yall soon. Either on here or wherever! I miss you all and I totally agree with Kelsey, we need to plan a trip!!! Can't wait to hear from yall!
Bri

This summer is flying by!

Hi, friends.
First of all (in case you don't read to the bottom of my post haha), I want to propose that we plan a vacation together sometime in the next year.  Possibly a super cheap cruise deal?  Or meeting at pinehurst?  I would also LOVE for yall to come to Orlando since there's so much to do and we have places for everyone to stay.  But basically I just want time with you all in any form or fashion.  Obviously our other guy friends like Luis, Phil, etc. would be invited too eventhough they don't do the blog... any thoughts???


Speaking of vacations, we've had quite the fun year traveling.  We prefer living on a tighter day to day budget and saving up to travel :) And, thankfully, our sweet parents have blessed us with the transportation and lodging for all of our vacations so far...Lake Tahoe (spring break; christmas gift to me and bran from my dad), Nashville (to visit Casey), Texas, San Diego (honeymoon; our parent's wedding present), and the family cruise.  We went on an amazing cruise in May with all of Brandon's family, courtesty of his sweet parents.  I know you guys only got to spend a little bit of time with them at the wedding, it's easy to see why I feel so blessed to have such great in-laws and new siblings!  And baby niece of course (although she didn't get to cruise with us)!!!  Here are some pics from that trip...

 For those of you who don't know... that's Bran's mom and dad in the middle, his sister Nina in the striped dress, Nina's boyfriend (soon to be fiance we all say) Matt in the light suit, Bran's brother Matt with the yellow shirt, and Matt's wife Ashley (they are the parents of baby Emery) in the black dress next to me :)

 On a catamaran dancing and enjoying the perfect blue/teal water on our way back from snorkeling.

 Spending time in the hot tub - one of our favorite pastimes... especially b/c it is so healing for my back.  Interesting story... right after his dad took this picture of us we were talking about things that are good for healing your muscles etc. and then we got to talking about how we don't know how massage therapists can work for so long without their hands falling off.  We were in this HUGE hot tub that's the size of like four normal ones.  This random guy all the way on the other side overheard us and came over to tell us how massage therapists use different parts of their bodies to get deep into muscles without exhausting their hand muscles.  But no, he didn't just TELL us.  He showed us... he grabbed Brandon and started massaging his back with his wrists and elbowns while standing up in the hot tub and Bran just looked beyond uncomfortable. haha We just couldn't believe that weird guy thought it would be normal to grab a stranger and demonstrate a proper massage...(Oh, the people you meet on cruises, right Claire/Bri/Roma?!?!?!!!!!!  I still can't believe some of the women from that club when we went.... we most definitely did not look 18. haha)

 This is probably my favorite^

 Snorkeling with Ash & Nina!

 Gosh, he's cute ;)

Jamaica!

^That's me and two of my closest friends from the Social Work program at our graduation in May :)  Unfortunately for all my grad pictures pre-ceremony I waited til the last minute to put on my tassel, etc. which looks really lame haha Oh well!

Since May, the summer has flown by. I can't even believe it is stinkin July! geez.  But as much as I love summer, this is a very good thing because I am crazy excited for our adventure in August.  I may have mentioned this on here already but Brandon and I are going to Europe for a month!!! My parent's bought our plane tickets over there and back for our graduation presents.  Bran graduates with his MBA this month!  It's a crazy itinerary: London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Rome, Genoa, Cannes/Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Ajaccio (Corsica), Florence, Venice, Dubrovnik, Split, Athens, Ephusis/Izmir, then back to Venice then Rome to fly home. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.  I finally finished researching but I've been slightly obsessed.  Possibly even to an Orlando Bloom level of obsession; not quite Backstreet Boys level. Another recent obsession has been the show Prison Break.  It's not on tv anymore so we just stream the shows from Netflix instant play.  No commercials and nothing to stop you from clicking episode after episode.  Oh my word, if you guys have not seen that show you have to start it from the beginning.  At a time when you don't have to wake up early the next day - because you will want to watch it for the next few hundred hours!


On a more serious note, I've been kind of anxious the last couple weeks about this fall.  The thing is, our lease is up right when we leave for Europe.  And when we get back we have no idea what we'll be doing, where we'll be living, and how we're going to transition all of our stuff while starting up grad school, etc.  It's just that I had my heart set on going to a new city/state in the fall (particularly Charlotte) so it was disappointing.  But it just makes the most sense to stay in Florida and finish my graduate degree in one year instead of waiting or going to a program that takes 2 years!  And we honestly love Orlando; Bran has just lived here his whole life ya know?!  Plus, you guys know I'm such a planner.. and it's driving me crazy not knowing the plan.  It was so weird being in the woodlands today.  I can't believe high school was only three years ago.  So much change has happened in my life.  I'm officially moved (and living with a boy ha!).  Married. Graduated. Starting grad school. Pregnant.  baaaaaaaaaaa just kidding clairebear.  No heart attacks for you yet ;)  All this change has been so positive.  Blessing after blessing.  So I need to keep reminding myself that this change, as many unknowns as there still are, will be a blessing.  Wherever I move, Brandon will be there so I find joy in that alone.  Wish you guys were all in the same city too!!!

I look forward to seeing more about how you guys are doing.  This is my super long update since there hasn't been one for a while and I probably won't blog again til we're on our big trip :)  I'm going to take a milllllion pictures!!