Galway Gab

7-10 reasons why Rachel hasn't been blogging (this is Chris...hahaha)

2009-06-20T05:08:00.000-07:00

#7...Rachel has been at the lake playing!

#8...Rachel has been cleaning the house and watering her new flowers.

#9...Rachel has been working to finish up her graduate school!

and...the #10 reason why Rachl has not been blogging...duh duh duh duh...I'm not really sure why she hasn't been blogging, but she told me this morning that I should be blogging some too, so I guess you'll get to hear me ramble some now, but only when I'm not water skiing!

By the way...Marshall Smith (my best friend) is 31 today...WOW! Christal will be 31 next Monday. "I'll never be that old"! hahaha

Top 10 Reasons...

2009-06-01T16:50:00.001-07:00

I haven't been blogging! I have be COMPLETELY slack over the past 2 months and haven't updated my blog. So, I'm going to give you 10 things I've done over the past 2 months...

#1 Trip to Houston- Chris and I took a few days off of work in March and flew to Houston to go to my cousin's wedding. The wedding was tons of fun, the hotel was awesome and it was GREAT time with family!

My grandma, brother's girlfriend and me got our hair done at the salon at the Marriott. It was $100 to get my "hair did." Good thing daddy paid =)

My cousins Robert and Nora (the bride) at the rehearsal dinner

This is a picture of the groom cake. Nora's husband loves his boat so his friend made him the cake. The dolls have a wedding gown and tux on, I thought it was funny!

Shame on me but I don't have a good picture of Nora in her wedding dress. I was too busy enjoying the day and dancing!!!

#2 SPRING BREAK- I'm not sure exactly what I did during Spring Break but I can tell you what I didn't do--BLOG

#3 We got grass! Well, atleast in most of the yard. We put down 4.5 palates of soad in the front and back yard with the help of some great friends and family! That was some hard work!#

#4 Finished grad school classes and celebrated with a hooding ceremony

#5 Celebrated Alexander's (my nephew) 1st Birthday in Greenville- this is not a picture from his birthday but was taken a few weeks before his birthday when they came to visit us...

#6 King had his first trip to the lake and he LOVED it! He was swimmin' and fetchin' in no time. Now all we have to do is teach him to jump off the dock...

#7 (to come later...I'm running out of steam!!)

King

2009-03-29T04:58:00.001-07:00

King is the name of our new boykin spaniel puppy! We've had him for a week a half now. We took him to the vet on Wednesday and she said he's healthy and he already weighs 13.3lbs. I wonder how much he'll grow in the next 3 weeks before we see here again?!! Needless to say we've been BUSY. He also gets up WAY to early on the weekends (between 5 and 5:45 a.m.) and this has definitly disrupted my weekend sleep pattern. Despite all the work, he's worth it =).

Update

2009-03-03T18:35:00.000-08:00

It's been a couple of weeks since I've blogged. One Exciting thing that happened over the past couple of weeks is that we took up the carpret and got the hardwoods refinished in the den. Chris even painted/put up the baseboards and quarter round, cleaned the entire room and moved the furniture back into the room before I came home from Greenville last weekend before last, what a great husband =)!

pre-refinish (we didnt get one with the carpet)

post-refinishing
baseboards/quarter round

furniture in!
Satisfaction =)

Here is a glimpse of another eventful experience at the Richards' household....

That's right that is a REAL oppossum in MY garage!!!!!! Chris was gone on Saturday evening and I heard a lot of noise in the garage which scared me. I called Chris and he told me to quietly go the the door the the garage, lock it and then turn the light on (we have glass on our door into the garage so you can see into the garage). When I turned the light on that is what I saw----YUCK!!!! I ran to our bedroom and stayed in there scared until Chris came home =). He put up a trap in the garage with some meat but didnt catch the oppossum(he ate ALL the meat though). So I guess he'll return for MORE FOOD!!! Let's hope not. Chris did open the garage Sunday morning and the oppossum finally left. Now we try to keep the garage closed =). For the record I DID NOT take that picture!!! I was too terrified! Chris thought it was exciting to stand at the door to the garage to watch it and take pictures. Today is the first day I've been able to even look at the picture without my heart racing!! I'll never have the same thoughts as I enter our garage.

Well, it's off to bed. We are leaving for Houston, for my cousin's wedding this weekend, Thursday and return Monday. Hopefully when we return I will have some pictures and stories to tell =)!

Valentine's Day Weekend

2009-02-15T15:20:00.000-08:00

We started off the weekend on Friday night enjoying some pizza and playing the Wii Fit, Mario Brothers and Mario Kart with Marshall and Christal. Since the Wii fit said my BMI is "normal" I also ate some delicious Valentine's treats. My BMI may not be "normal" for long =)!!!balance is not my forte so the hula hoop was a bit of a challenge(not the best view...I know!)

On Satruday night we ordered in and Chris picked up a Maple Butter Blonde (one of my favs) from Applebees for us to enjoy! We ate our food and watched the movie Fireproof. The story line was solid and I strongly recommend it to any married couple. Our Valentine's night was just perfect! After the movie I also convinced Chris into ripping up the carpet in the den!!!! So now we'll be getting our den floors refinished in the next week or 2 and I get to pick out a big rug. Woo hoo!! Our house is beginning to feel more and more like our home.

annual ear infection

2009-02-09T11:05:00.000-08:00

It's official. I went to the doctor this morning and I have an ear infection =(. Now I have an antibiotic that should make it feel better! However, it hasn't been all bad because I've been productive today going to the grocery store, doing laundry and getting some grad school work done(I think I could handle a day off every week =) ). When I went to the dr he said "you're a few days late." He said that because I was there on Feb 6th last year for the same problem. Perhaps I should just mark "ear infection" in my calendar for the first week in Feb =). Well I'm back to work....

Speaking

2009-02-05T16:44:00.000-08:00

I no have a new found appreciation for speaking. Since I'm a Speech-Therapist I should already understand the importance of speaking but sometimes I forget because I use my voice all the time, with no problems, daily. I lost my voice last night and it has been sooooooooo frustrating to try to work today and teach people how to SPEAK when I cannot even SPEAK myself!!!! Ahhhhh!!!!!! I am headed to the couch to sit quietly and drink gallons of water to hydrate my vocal folds!!!!!

catching up...

2009-01-28T14:22:00.001-08:00

Oh my how the days fly by! I can't believe it's been a week since I've posted anything on my blog. It just means we've been busy. This weekend they had a Winter Festival at my school and I was there all day on Saturday. Saturday night I ate some delicious soup with Chris's family and then they went to the basketball game while I cleaned and did grad school work (boo). On Sunday my family came to church with us and then we ate some pizza and hung out at our house for the afternoon. It's so hard to get all of us together now that we're all grown up!! I think everyone enjoyed it and it was some much needed quality time =)! I posted some sweet pictures of my nephew below.

Where's Alexander?!!

There he is!!!

"Playing with paper is hard work, I'm tired!"

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow

2009-01-20T06:09:00.000-08:00

Since it was suppossed to begin snowing early this morning they canceled school and I don't have to go to work!! That makes it a 4 day weekend and you will hear no complaints from me =). As of 6 a.m this morning it was not snowing. However, we did see some snow about 7:45, when we got up, and now it's 9:15 and I think there are still some small flurries, nothing big.

Don't worry about us, we have plenty of
milk, eggs and bread!

This has nothing to do with today but I think the picture is sweet.
It was taken yesterday with Molly and baby Lucy on Molly's real birthday. A little bit of snow on the deckSnow on the roof

Our FREE Krispy Kreme doughnuts of choice this morning..yummy!!

Free Krispy Kreme on Inauguration Day

2009-01-19T05:08:00.000-08:00

"Krispy Kreme Doughnuts is honoring American's sense of pride and freedom of choice on Inauguration Day, by offering a free doughnut of choice to every customer on this historic day, Jan. 20. By doing so, participating Krispy Kreme stores nationwide are making an oath to tasty goodies – just another reminder of how oh-so-sweet "free" can be."
Press release here: http://sev.prnewswire.com/food-beverages/20090114/AQW52414012009-1.html and here: http://investor.krispykreme.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=359127 for more details. I think I will have to splurge tomorrow morning and grab one on my way to work--ENJOY!!

Farewell Jansmas/Rock Band round 2

2009-01-18T14:22:00.000-08:00

After we went to Molly's birthday party Chris and I went to a going away party for our friends, the Jansmas. The Jansmas are moving to Kentucky and we will really miss them! We ate some yummy food, fellowshiped and of course played some Rock Band =).

Julie and Lily Grace Jansma (dont have a pic of

Tom from last night!), We'll miss ya'll! Lily Grace
thoroughly enjoyed the food as you can see, haha =)

The girls
Me and Allison singing...we failed, haha"Sweet Kynn"(he sure knew what to do with the

girls even though he has 3 boys =)! )."Rock Star Kynn" (with crazy Matt

in the background)

awwwww....The Batsons singing!

"Whew Hoo" Molly is 2!

2009-01-18T13:58:00.001-08:00

Well, I'm back to blogging! I haven't forgotten about it. My life is just very monotonous during the week and there's not much excitement until the weekend. Monday, January 19th is Molly's (chris' best friend's little girl) 2nd birthday. She had her birthday party at Gymboree on Saturday and here are some pictures. It was fun to see all of the kids playing and I think Molly had a GREAT time!

"Whew-Hoo" Molly is 2!

LOTS of little ones to celebrate Molly's Birthday!

"Mmmm...that cake was good but now I'm tired!"

The beginning of the END

2009-01-12T04:36:00.000-08:00

Today is a special day because it is the first day of my LAST semester of graduate school classes!! I still have an internship this Summer (only 2 days a week this Summer though, not 40 hours like last Summer--woo hoo) but it looks like my classes and exams will end on April 23rd. After 2.5 years of working full-time and going to school I am ready to be FINISHEEEEEEEED!!! I have never been so excited to start school in my life. I dont want to wish my life away but I would sure love for this semester to go by fast =). Wish me luck!!!

Kid keeps me grounded

2009-01-06T18:16:00.000-08:00

Me: Did you have a good christmas?
Kid: Yes, Santa brought me a bike, small truck and lots of other toys
Me: Wow! you must have been nice this year
Kid: Yeah, why did Santa bring you those dots?
Me: What dots?
Kid: Those dots on your face?
Me: What do you mean? Show me.
Kid: (points to the BIG red zit on my face and the moles/freckles on my face and neck)
Me: No, Santa didnt bring those to me. That's just how God made me.
Kid: Why dont you just cut it off (referring to the zit)
Me: I dont think that's a good idea. You'll learn when you get older.

haha! Kids at school sure do know how to make me feel good about myself huh?! My face will definitly get a good scrub before I hit the sack tonight =).

2009-01-04T15:14:00.000-08:00

Since I did not begin my blog until the 4th I will update you with events from New Year's until now. Here are a few highlights.....

1. New Years Eve and playing Rock Band (I think Chris's secret fantacy is to become a Rock Star!! He's an "early to bed early to rise" kind of guy and I had to practically drag him out the door at 1:00 a.m)

The "rockers"

The "rockettes"2. playing UNO and eating the "traditional" (spaghetti!) New Year's Day meal with the Rumpels

3. Playing Marshall's Christmas present, the Wii, and eating supper with the Smiths and the Danfords

The Danfords

Wii boxing

Molly loves Uncle Bo =)

Tonight ends my 2 week break and tomorrow it's back to the REAL WORLD =(!!!!

New Year's Resolution

2009-01-03T13:55:00.000-08:00

As a part of my new year's resolution I have decided to BLOG! Many of you are probably wondering why I am starting a blog since I never update my facebook account and I'm horrible about taking pictures! Well, there's your answer =). I am starting a blog in an attempt to "savor each day/moment" and to be more conscious about remembering all of the exciting (and not so exciting) things that happen in my life. Here's to 2009, the year of the blog!