Out with the Old, in with the New

The old 1870s house is gone and we are starting new! You can see from the pictures that our foundation has been installed and we're just waiting for the basement floor to be poured. My mother-in-law was nice enough to go to the site when the foundation was going in to document the process for us since we couldn't be there (work!).

I was quite pleased with what I saw and it made this process really tangible for the first time - we will have a new house! We still go to the house each week to tend to our vegetable garden and my two baby trees - a red delicious and flowering cherry blossom. This weekend we are going to see our house being built in Pennsylvania at the factory - expect to love it!

Long Time No Type

I think I realized the blog thing doesn't really work for me like I hoped it would. Since my last post was uumm 10 months ago...about that...Sorry! I think part of my laziness comes from knowing that no one reads this anyways and since I have a journal and can post pictures on social networking sites, I am able to get out everything I need to in those outlets. I'm going to try again and if I fail a second time I'm giving up.

So we've been married for 7 months now (it was 3 months until the wedding at the time of my last post) and all is wonderful. Actually, today was Brad's last day at his job and he's starting a new one on Monday. I hope the wedding we're going to in Charlotte doesn't wear him out too much! Also different from my last post is that we bought 1.5 acres of land on 10-23-2008 and the house is currently in the final stages of demolition.

The first picture is the way the property looked a few weeks ago since we started mowing the lawn, installed the silt fence and everything starting happening after 6 months of fighting with the county over our permits. Below are a few pictures from the first two days of demolition this week - I can't believe the change!

By tomorrow the whole house is supposed to be completely gone. brad and I met up in Poolesville last night to visit the demo site for ourselves and it was a weird feeling...

FABULOUS times

I spent last weekend in Tampa for my bachelorette party at Stevie's house!!! When I got off the plane, my friends were at the airport with a sign to pick me up - it was as if I had a driver :) And then when we got to Stevie's house, the mailbox was decorated too!

I couldn't believe that friends had come down from Connecticut (Brittany), Virginia (Meghan), South Carolina (Megan and Wendy), Georgia (Blair) and my Florida babies (Stevie and Vickie). I was excited to see the renovations that Stevie and Eric have done to their home over the past three years too! She wasted no time and brought out her fabulous vegetable dip, drinks, etc and I was surprised with a bouquet of flowers Brad had delivered for me...then suddenly it was time for gifts!

They organized a lingerie shower for me and I think Brad now has some new best friends ;). My friends also created a beautiful recipe scrapbook for me that I carried home on the plane in my lap. There are pages from nearly everyone who was invited, whether they could make it or not. It is a real treasure!!!

*I'm having a problem arranging the pictures - again - so they are all over the place (obviously)*And make note that the majority of weekend photos are only for the party girls and Brad to see...especially those from our pre-party on Saturday night!**

We went to a country bar called Round Up on Saturday night and it was Brittany's first bar experience. Before leaving the house Stevie brought out dozens of colorful leis with tags that said "I got LEI'd at Shannon's Bachelorette Party August 1-3, 2008." We all took three leis and had to lei guys throughout the night, that is, when we weren't awestruck by Ryan Weaver playing on stage!

Saturday we spent at St. Pete/Clearwater beach and got to relax and chat all afternoon. While in the GUlf, Meghan, Wendy, Stevie, brittany and I got a horoscope reading by a sketchy guy in the water..yeah I don't know either. Vickie met us at the beach before we had a yummy lunch. Luckily no pigeons ate our food. Once back at Stevie's we were in the pool and all started getting ready for Saturday night and I had no clue what I was getting myself into!

A few weeks ago Stevie, Blair and Brittany e-mailed me a list of things to bring and it included random stuff like: aviators, a Clemson shirt, argyle socks, something camo, etc. So I brought all of it with me, but as it turns out I only needed the argyle (see below picture). And people were still asking us all night why we had the socks on??!! C'mon, really?! But before leaving for Channelside there was a visitor, no nothing that involved nudity, not at Stevie's house that night at least. I'll leave it at that. Let's just say that the picture of me laughing hysterically, was from the party :).

At Channelside we went to three different bars where I got on stage at the Paino Bar and the 80s bar to sing Jessie's Girl and a variety of toher songs with the band. It was fun times had by all. Oh, except when the waitress tripped and fell into me and Vickie - drenching the back of her shirt early in the night. We tried to clean it up in the Sit2P room! The night was fabulous and ended at 3:30am with me making my sister feed me before I went to bed. Good news - no one had a hangover on Sunday! So, we got to enjoy the pool and gradually everyone started to leave and yes, I cried. I couldn't have asked for a better weekend!!! I hope to see these girls in a few short months at our wedding!!

On the wedding front: 85 days to go TheKnot told me this morning. I have gotten all the bridesmaid gifts completed, their dresses were delivered to them last week (and look great!), I purchased my veil, scheduled my first fitting and made arrangements for brunch on November 2nd at the Hampton Inn in a separate room. If only I was quicker at addressing envelopes......

What a month..

Well, life goes on and I have certainly moved on from my previous job. The experience was a good one and some of the people were nice to work with/work for, but the "cattiness" of a majority of the employees had gotten out of control - another good reason I got a new job!

This is my second week at the new job and I am working more hours but am more satisfied with my opportunities and co-workers. I am looking forward to speeding up the learning process so I can understand things better. I am involved in alot more corporate interaction now and there are many out-of-house names and associations to remember, but I'll get better with time!

Very fun news: Tampa in two weeks for my bachelorette party!! :)

Playing Catch Up

Since I don't put anything personal on my work computer, I feel like I'm always going back and forth from work to home with pictures...yes I have a jump drive, but my ancient dinosaur-of-a-work-computer doesn't read it - don't ask.

So, Here are some photos from the Rhoderick family reunion which was on Father's Day... I don't have a digital copy of the group photo of all 65 people, so just imagine it!

*And apparently I'm not very good at placing photos in the right place in this blog either...*

Last week Brad and I went to Connecticut for Kyle's high school graduation - the last Campbell is out of Fermi and off to UCONN!! It was a very quick trip (we arrived at 10:30pm Wednesday and our flight left at 6:15am Friday) but we were there for the day's festivities and some time with mom as well. I wish brittany was able to make it, but as I couldn't make it to her graduation because of school and work, she was in the same boat this year. Maybe someone can photoshop her into the group picture?? I would call it a family picture, but she is missing!

The fourth of July is right around the corner and we'll be heading down to the beach for the weekend! I haven't been since Memorial Day which seems so long ago. Stevie told me that she is going to be in Eatonton for the 4th with Eric, but we were there last year and she wasn't which makes me sad :(. But, I know she will be MUCH better at karaoke with the Friedgen's than I was! :)

Time Flies

Yes, I am still getting usd to the concept of updating my blog entries regularly. I feel like I need to backtrack (but I'll have to do that with photos later since I don't have access to them now).

Well, a formal offer was presented to me for a new job at a new company and I have officially accepted it! My last day at my current job will be July 8th and then I will spend some time at the beach and transition into my new position the following Monday.

I'm really lookign forward to additional job duties and more corporate out-of-the-office communcations as well as event planning in DC, NYC and even an event in Florida. The people I will be working with are quite "powerful" and I feel it will make me a more consciensous employee.

Metro Chronicles

Yesterday around 2:45 in the afternoon an orange line train derailed and the poor passengers were stuck in the tunnel (I'm assuming since it was at Courthouse) without AC or lights for more than 30 minutes. Did I mention it has been 96 here with a heat index of more than 105? Oh that's right, just a minor painful detail.

Well, when i found out about this "red flag" situation I immediately jumped on calling people I know and trying to figure out how to get home without taking Metro - or the orange line at least. My cousin was driving home to NY, a nother friend was still in school so I was thinking about going to pentagon City for a little while and have dinner until brad could pick me up once traffic died down some. What about the bus?? Well, the fact that I would have to take four buses made that option the last for me.

Wait a minute - someone at my company lives in Annandale, the town next to Falls Church!! He saved the day! Riding home with him was initially a last resort because I felt bad about him going out of his way, but he reassured me it was no problem. I am writing a thank you note and will probably buy like a $10 gas card just to say gracias.

The Metro problem was not cleared until 12:41am according to the fourteen Metro e-mail alerts I received since I left work at 4:30pm so I sure am glad I hitched a ride! Last Tuesday when we had the major thunderstorms and all the trees fell, power was out, etc it took me three hours to get home because one stoplight was out on the train track so everyone had to get off and then board a bus to get back on the metro after that one stop.

For the record - I am not confident about DC's emergency evacuation plan if it ever needed to be put into place - you might as well get to georgetown and swim across the river and hitch-hike with someone who is already on the Parkway......