Anniversary Weekend!

Sunday, Harris and I celebrated one year of marriage! While it seems absolutely crazy that already a year has passed since we exchanged vows in beautiful Playa Mujeres, it is even crazier to think that this past Friday was the 11th anniversary of our first date! To top it off, we also got some really exciting news on Friday - Harris got a promotion! Now, I know, I know, he just got a promotion a few months ago, but, some changes happened a bit unexpectedly, and he will be moving into a new role, leading a new team with some pretty high-profile business. I am so proud of him, and I know he will do such a great job! It was a weekend of celebration, indeed!

Friday evening we met up with our friends Clay & Whitley and a few other people to try out Vintage Tavern in Suffolk since it was restaurant week. We had such a blast with everyone, and, the food was pretty great too. It had some room for improvement (felt like the pureed butter bean soup - yes, butter bean soup! - was a little salty, among a few small other things), but I would definitely want to go back! Their cheese plate was one of the best I have had in this area, and the creme brulee was ah-mazing!

I was reminded during our jaunt over to Suffolk how much I really enjoy city living. While it was nice to see the wide open spaces (Suffolk is a little bit country, folks), I really do enjoy having most things within walking distance of our condo. I guess it is a give and take, though - we get to have the convenience of having our favorite restaurants, the movies, the mall, and so on, literally, right outside our front door, but we forsake things like a yard and a grill, and space between us and our neighbors. While those latter things are definitely nice, I think we really enjoy the convenience so much more than we would those other things. Plus, without having a commute for Harris, we get to see each other loads more than we would if we were living out in Virginia Beach, or one of the other burbs. Perk!

After hanging with the friends Friday night, we decided to spend Saturday doing things in Norfolk we hadn't done yet, which mostly involved spending a gloriously sunny day flitting in and out of various shops and stores, and walking streets in the Ghent neighborhood. We popped into one of the local bakeries over there and shared the most delicious slice of cake - it was banana, chocolate, something or other, and I swear it was like the best parts of a chocolate cake mated with the best parts of a banana pudding and made this perfect little cake for our enjoyment. Now, of course Harris didn't know this at the time, but we ended up eating a lot of cake over the weekend! Since we couldn't bring back the top tier of our wedding cake from Mexico last year, I had a local bakery recreate it for us to enjoy! While it wasn't quite as delectable as the original, it was still a darn good cake!

Now, I don't know if you know this or not, but the first year anniversary present is, traditionally, supposed to be paper. I don't know why, but I have always wanted to find some creative way to honor this tradition, and, because of this, have had Harris' anniversary present planned for months! I decided to get us Sunday season tickets to the Norfolk Tides baseball games! I knew he would love it because 1. he loves baseball, and 2. it would be a fun activity for us to do together. There are 11 Sunday games, plus we get vouchers for 2 more games. This seemed much more reasonable than the 72-game full-season tickets! I mean, seriously, that is a commitment! As expected, he loved his gift. Now, for my anniversary present...we are still in suspense over here! With the whole Lucy situation that has been going on lately, we decided to postpone making any serious plans for our anniversary, but, unbeknownst to me, the hubs already has some surprise trip planned, and apparently my gift shall not be given till that time...I love it! He did, however, get me a few little things over the weekend, because he is just nice like that!

Our actual anniversary day was a rainy, yucky, cold mess of a day. So, it was the perfect day for laying in bed, watching our wedding video, snuggling, watching tv, and ordering takeout! No complaints from Team Ligon on that one.

This week has already gotten off with a bang. Yesterday morning, bright and early, Harris took off for a business trip to Mexico! He will be back on Thursday, and Lucy and I miss him desperately, but know he is having a blast. I am writing up a storm, which is great, and I am getting so many things checked off my to-do list. Lucy had a recheck with the ophthalmologist  this morning - her graft is completely healed, but she has had a bit of retinal degeneration because of all the inflammation in her eye. But, we will keep giving drops for the next couple months, and hoping for the best! Overall, she is really doing great, though! I also gave her a totally botched homemade haircut the other day / finished up and gave her a bath today. She looks ridiculous, but I am a nervous Nellie about sending her to the groomers right now, and she needed a little help (although, I am not sure if I helped or hurt, but whatever). She was actually pretty good about the whole thing (and dangit, I just remembered I never gave her a treat when I finished! This is why she is poorly trained - all my fault!), but she probably does hate me a little more than usual now. Ah well.

Off to do some more writing, and try to not let this cold gloominess take over my soul. And by take over my soul I mean coerce me into taking a nap.

Closing Time

Today I am officially closing a chapter. As I talked about a bit here, and most of you know by now, I quit my job two weeks ago, and today is my last day. This morning, I headed over to the local UPS store and shipped my trusty Toshiba laptop, Blackberry, Mi-Fi card, and access badge back to Fort Worth. It's officially real now, but, still doesn't feel entirely real. It has been weird not being chained to a Blackberry all day, yet weird in a really, really nice way! At any rate, this chapter, which I will henceforth refer to as That Time When I Traveled All Over the Country Selling the Railroad, is complete. I feel like I am closing this one on a high note, and I am more than ready for the next, as to be named chapter.

I am taking today and tomorrow "off", and then will be starting on my first writing assignments! I won't be able to share much about them here because of confidentiality and such, but I am really excited! Other than shipping stuff at the UPS store, I spent the morning at the grocery store, dry cleaners, and gym. I cooked my very first pork loin in the crockpot, with which I have now made into delicious smelling pulled pork. I have done three loads of laundry. I have had an ongoing battle of wills with Lucy, who, after recovering nicely from her "lameness", now has a corneal ulcer. Awesome, pup, super, super awesome. I promise there aren't many things more fun than putting eye drops and ointment three times a day in the eye of a dog who would rather give up all the food and toys in the world than to let you do that. Major sarcasm font, friend, major.

I have also been planning my week with my beautiful new Erin Condren planner! I am still a little amazed that I spent as much as I did for a planner, but, so far, I am loving it! I am sure after it has gotten some real usage, I will update y'all to let you know what I think about it (if I think it is worth the price tag, so on and so forth), but for now, here is a picture!

So, there's that, friends! A dang good Monday if there ever was one (well, aside from the puppy meds). All things considered though, it's nice to be very pleased with the way a Monday has shaped up. Hoping all of yours were just as great!

Post-Christmas

Well, here we are, folks. Christmas is behind us, and New Year's is just around the corner! We hope you and your loved ones had a very blessed and special Christmas, and are as excited as we are about the New Year!

Our Christmas was a little different this year. Of course, it was our first Christmas as a married couple, which was fun and exciting! Then, with Harris getting his promotion, and since they wouldn't have hired his replacement before the end of the year, he agreed to work a few days in his old job. Two of those days were Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Now, it ended up not being a big deal at all - he ended up not really even having to work at all on Christmas Day, but it did mean we were tied to staying in Norfolk. We were very excited about getting to spend this holiday together, and, while we would have loved to see all of our extended family, it was also fun to start some of our own traditions this year.

Santa had left an early present under our tree withe instructions that it should be opened on Christmas Eve. Inside, we found new pajamas for the family, hot chocolate and mugs, a box of popcorn, and copies of Elf and It's A Wonderful Life! You may have seen on the Christmas post, or on Instagram, for that matter, but, Lucy was not a fan of pajamas! She will wear a sweater or what have you, but I think the PJs on her legs was just too much for her. She was pitiful, but adorable.

Cookies were baked on Christmas Eve from the cake mix cookies recipe, and, after our traditional Thai takeout for Christmas Eve (fa-ra-ra-ra-ra, anyone?), we settled in with some eggnog and cookies to watch It's A Wonderful Life. Oh, that Jimmy Stewart. Just simply one of the best movies ever.

Christmas morning started off bright and early around here! Harris & Lucy were up at 3am (I woke up, and then proceeded to doze in and out of consciousness for another hour or so). We made some cinnamon rolls, turned on the tunes, and then set about the business of opening presents! Lucy was very helpful in the opening of all presents and stockings, not just her own. We got some really great stuff, including almost everything on each of our wish lists (Harris, Courtney, Lucy)! Harris said his favorite gift was the gift set from the Art of Shaving that I gave him, Lucy's was clearly the blue bone-like toy with taggies that was on her wish list, and mine was a Pandora bracelet from Harris!

Harris did such a great job of giving me a meaningful and special Christmas present (FYI - he is the best gift giver in the family). The charms he chose for my bracelet were: a flip flop (to represent our first date at the beach), a puppy (for our first child), a hot air balloon (for our engagement), and, for our wedding, a passport and a red pave heart. I loved it! (and cried, of course).

We made it til 10am before the Champagne was popped, and then it poured freely until lunchtime (when the wine was opened!).

Later in the day, when catching up with my friend Michelle about Christmas and her kids, I got the following text (just a bit of humor for any of my coworkers who read this blog):

We spent the remainder of the day eating, napping, talking to family via FaceTime, and so forth. Overall, it was such a wonderful day, and we created lots of fun family memories. The rest of this week, Harris will be working, and Lucy and I will be alternating between working hard (around the house), and hardly working (also around the house). It will probably be much more of the latter, but, shhh...don't tell!

Recently

I almost titled this post "Lately", but I immediately  started singing this 90s ballad in my head, and had to nix that from the start. You're welcome for getting it stuck in your head too.

Now that we have that out of the way, I am not going to waste my time or yours apologizing for taking 3 weeks to craft a blog post. It happens. I am sure you three religious readers will forgive me. Maybe. Hopefully.

At any rate, since my last post many exciting things have happened! Allow me to enumerate them for you (with as many accompanying pictures as you and I can both stand). Ready, set, go!

Lucy turned 4 years old! I cannot believe this little puppy is now 4!

Lucy at 6 weeks old - her first weekend at home with me & Harris

For her birthday we spent the afternoon at the park, and then took a ride. It was a glorious day for a little pup!

Little Goose - we love you so so much! You make our lives so happy every single day, and you are the cutest little dog in the world!

The weekend after Lucy's birthday, my best friend, Erica, her hubby, Michael, and their puppy, Loki (aka Lucy's boyfriend) came into town for the weekend! It was so wonderful to spend time with them, and get to share our home and town with them. We tried to cover as much of downtown as we could, and just enjoy our time together. I can't wait for them to come back for another visit!

That next week, I went to New Jersey for a few days for work. Additionally, after almost three years of traveling to Jersey on the regular, I have decided that Princeton is the only part of the state I would deem pretty. 

This logo always makes me think of the circus, anyone else?

That next weekend my little sister and her beau came into town to celebrate her 20th birthday! Holy wow I cannot believe my little Kayla is 20! We had the most fun weekend celebrating and just spending time together! She requested a strawberry birthday cake with hot pink frosting, which resulted in the pinkest cake in the world!

Lucy and the boys were tired! Who am I kidding? Kayla and I were probably passed out right beside them.

Kayla's Birthday Video from Courtney Ligon on Vimeo.

It was also Halloween while they were here!

The week after that, I went to Texas for the week. It was long, and I didn't take any pictures. I know you are disappointed. Oh wait, I forgot. I took pictures of my super bourgeois hotel room the last night. I stayed at the Grand Hyatt at the airport. When I opened the door to my room, I thought for a moment someone was in the room because as soon as the door opened, the tv turned on, started playing music, and showed this message:

The shades also started opening, electronically. And then I took this picture:

And then I ordered sushi and a martini from room service. The sushi was delicious. The martini too strong. Such is life.

I got home from Texas last Friday afternoon, and then left for California for my monthly mentoring circle meeting first thing Monday morning. Harris also started a ridiculously long work stretch this past weekend, and is still going strong. Le boo.

This month's mentoring meeting was hosted by yours truly. So naturally, I made everyone go to California. I mean, why not.

Sunrise from my hotel room. Mountains in the background.

Sunrise from the other side. Ocean in the background.

Pink starfish! First time I have ever seen one in nature!

View from our boat tour.

Sea lions and seagulls going for some fish being thrown from the docks

Sea lion!

A Maersk ship being unloaded. Not the Alabama, FYI.

My mentoring group after our boat tour.

At the top of the Port Authority building in Long Beach.

After our session, we decided to do a little sight-seeing, and hit up Beverly Hills and Hollywood!

Tory Burch

Cartier. They started rolling out the red carpet as we walked by - I wonder who was coming in!

Chanel

Loving the palm trees. Guess they aren't palmettos in Cali?

Bugatti parked on Rodeo

Couple stars from Walk of Fame

Something was going on at Grauman's Theatre (now known as TCL theatre, FYI). We didn't spot any celebs, but we saw the paparazzi and the red carpet, so SOMEONE was there!

Dolby Theatre (aka the Kodak)

Phew. Okay, if you actually made it through all of that, congrats to you! As a treat to you for being so resilient, I have saved the very best for last! Drumroll please....

Harris got a promotion!!!!!!!!!

As of next month, he will start training for his new position, which he will assume January 1st. He will be leading a team, and, most excitingly, will be working normal office hours: Monday through Friday, 8am - 5pm. We could not be more thrilled, and I could not be more proud of him!!! This has been an absolute blessing, and the answer to many, many prayers! He is so excited about the opportunity, and we are both excited to have some normalcy in our lives! I can hardly imagine having my hubby home every night, and weekends together! Ahh...so wonderful!

With that, I will bid you all goodnight. I hope to be better, and to write before 3 weeks pass us by again...