Justin, Sarah and Baby make Three!

It's a BOY!!!

2011-11-06T17:54:00.000-08:00

This weekend, we had our gender reveal party to find out if Baby Waters is a boy or a girl. Our good friend Jennifer Merrill made our cake and did an EXCELLENT job! We had a great time finding out that we will soon welcome a sweet baby boy into our lives. Here's the video from the cutting of the cake!

Online Shopping

2011-09-30T10:55:00.000-07:00

This week I feel like I've done a bit more than my share of online shopping! We are headed to Knoxville next weekend for the TN v. UGA game and I've been on a search for something to wear. It's a 7 pm game and some of my regular options are feeling a bit tighter lately :)

I went with this, and its supposed to arrive today, so I hope it works!

We also ordered a new crate for Hattie! We've been calling her Hurricane Hattie lately because she's had some "separation anxiety". We'd been leaving her out because she was able to chew through her wooden crate and get out. This time we opted for a more durable option but still with the wood accent on top so it can double as an end table. Gotta save space in the city! Here's the one we got her!

Finally, we are headed to Clemson in October for the Clemson-UNC game and Hattie is coming with us. I had to be sure she is fully ready to show her UNC spirit so I ordered her a little something, but I'll keep that secret for the game! :)

Have a great weekend!

Weekend Recap!

2011-09-26T14:13:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm trying to make good on my promise to keep this thing updated!!

We had a great weekend! Friday night we went to a going away party for our friends Jeff and Kari who were moving back to Texas. We will certainly miss them! Kari was so sweet to have Cherry Limeade for me at the party!

Saturday we woke up bright and early and headed out to church for the Basic Needs Giveaway! It was such a great event to be a part of. I got to help three different people/families go through the things to get clothes and food. It was a great blessing to us all! We also were able to talk to one lady about giving our desktop computer to her for her two grandsons! All in all a GREAT day. God definitely worked through everyone there!

Sunday was fun too! Went to church and I helped in the nursery, good practice! Then had lunch and headed to watch the Panthers get a VICTORY! Its about time. Unfortunately, Sunday night I discovered I had a pinched sciatic nerve and that part was NOT fun. Justin has taken good care of me so far though! :)

Have a great week!

BIG NEWS!

2011-09-20T12:26:00.000-07:00

Ok, so its been since our last really big news that I've even blogged, but I REALLY promise I'm getting back to it! Justin and I are expecting our first baby in April!!!

Baby Waters at 12 weeks 2 days

We are absolutely thrilled, scared and excited all in one! :) We just had our 12 week scan and got to see our little guy/girl wiggling around and hear and see the heartbeat! It truly is amazing and makes us both feel so blessed by this tiny (2 inch right now) gift from God!

I'm going to be better about updating the blog to keep family and friends in the loop along our journey to becoming parents!

Meet Hattie!

2011-02-09T13:05:00.000-08:00

Well our furry bundle of joy has finally arrived! We picked up Hattie on Friday morning at 10 am in Durham, NC. Justin and I both leaned to her immediately so it was a pretty easy choice! We were able to have lunch with our good friend Ryan and then we of course had to go introduce Hattie to her favorite place: Chapel Hill. We got some great pictures at the Old Well and then headed back to DC. She was a sweetie the whole way home and slept on our laps. We had a good first evening with her and her first night was pretty rough. She cried almost the entire night...she missed her brothers and sisters!

We had a great first weekend with her....we played and tried to teach her to potty outside. She had a few accidents but I think she's getting the hang of it. We are also working with her on sitting. She's a smart girl and we are so in love with her! :)

Back to Life, Back to Reality

2011-01-21T12:38:00.000-08:00

Hello All! So sorry for not finishing out the blog with the tales of our trip. The internet in the final two places we stayed was quite expensive and we ended up not having it as freely as we thought we would. The trip was in a word, amazing. We had such a wonderful time learning about religion, culture and finance (for Justin) and experiencing new things and trying new cuisine! Our camera memory card was corrupted AS WE WERE LEAVING. The memory card has been sent off in hopes that we will recovery our precious pictures from this once in a lifetime trip! We have settled back in fairly well. We have gone to bed before 8:30 EVERY night this week! Our goal is to make it until at least 9:30 tonight, we'll see. We have a pretty uneventful weekend ahead of us, which is good. We've got a lot to do around the house to get ready for Hattie! I will hopefully have some pictures of our trip for you shortly! Meanwhile, here is a picture of two of the pups from our litter, one of them MIGHT be Hattie, but there are 4 more! :)

Phuket, Thailand! Day 2

2011-01-06T00:58:00.001-08:00

We woke up on day 2 and had an interesting and yummy breakfast at the hotel and then headed straight for the beach. We stayed out on the beach until lunch time and headed back to grab some money and explore the area of Karon Beach for lunch. We ate at a place called “The Little Mermaid”. I had Phat see euv and Justin had Phat Macaroni. Both were delicious! We explored a bit more since it had started raining and then decided to just read by the pool. There isn’t much to say about our afternoon. We went from the pool to our room and continued reading and napping until dinner time! We went to a nearby resort and had pizza and wine for dinner! We grabbed an ice cream cone on the walk home and went to bed early!

Phuket, Thailand! Day 1

2011-01-06T00:53:00.002-08:00

We arrived in Phuket at around 10 am after about a 2 hour flight. Getting through customs and immigration was a breeze. The trouble we found was finding our airport transfer! The area outside the airport was a zoo! We never actually found the person who was supposed to be picking us up so we just hopped in a taxi. Little did we know, we hopped in with Dale Earnhardt Jr! He was speeding all through the island. I was car sick, we were both scared at times, but we made it to our hotel safe and sound! Our room wasn’t quite ready yet, so we changed into our swim suits, had a wonderful Thai lunch and headed to the beach! The beaches here are absolutely gorgeous. We checked into our room and went to our hotel pool, complete with a swim up bar. We relaxed by the pool for a few hours and got cleaned up for dinner. We explored our little area of the island called Karon. We ate at a Thai restaurant for dinner and came back and crashed! We are looking forward to another beautiful day on this island!

Singapore! Day 2

2011-01-06T00:53:00.001-08:00

We again woke up pretty early and started our day with breakfast at the hotel. We showered up and made sure we were presentable and hopped in a cab to head to the US Embassy in Singapore. We had an appointment to meet with the Ambassador at 11:00. It was so much fun. The embassy was huge! Ambassador Adelman was so nice and gave us a lot of information about Singapore and the US’s relationship with them. We really enjoyed it. Sorry, no pictures from this, they held our camera the whole time!
Then we went to the National Botanical Gardens of Singapore. They were GORGEOUS, so many beautiful plants and trees! We saw a few swans, some beautiful flowers and a really unique bonsai garden! We enjoyed it, but it was EXTREMELY hot, so we cabbed back to the hotel for a change of clothes. We ate lunch at our hotel which allowed us to explore some of the different tastes of Singapore. We had things like BBQ’d Stingray, Fish Curry and Satay. We liked most of it! After lunch, we went over to Chinatown to see some of the most famous Hindu and Buddhist Temples. They were absolutely beautiful. I had to wear a shawl on my shoulders and around my waist. The Buddhist temple was very big; it had four stories with a beautiful orchid garden on top. After that, we walked around Chinatown shopping a bit; there are so many interesting small shops! We headed down to Marina Bay to see this REALLY neat building we had seen the night before. Our cab driver said it was a hotel, but we’ve never seen anything like it! After the bay, we headed to the famous Raffles Hotel, which was named for Sir Raffles, an Englishman who was considered to be the father of modern Singapore. Here, there was a bartender who invented the Singapore Sling to be a drink for the women of Singapore and now is the most famous drink of the country! We had to go get the original. After drinks, we went over to Arab street, another interesting small area representing a group of people. We ate Moroccan food for dinner which was delicious. After a full day of sightseeing, I fell asleep at 8:30 pm! We had to be up bright and early the next day for our trip to…..Phuket Thailand!

Singapore! Day 1

2011-01-06T00:50:00.000-08:00

Our first morning in Singapore we woke up rather early and went downstairs for the Hotel Breakfast! It was very good, mostly traditional American breakfast but lots of other interesting treats as well. We set off into the city to go to the National Museum of Singapore. We found out that it wasn’t open yet so we decided to walk down Orchard Road, the high end shopping area in Singapore. Well, it wasn’t open yet either, so we just walked around and enjoyed the sights until it was time to go back to the National Museum. The museum was great! We learned a lot about Singapore history and how they came to be the country they are today. After the museum, we decided to go to Little India. Singapore is really neat in that they have little communities all over the city that uniquely represent a group of people. Little India was very interesting. We ate at Banana Leaf Apollo and had some WONDERFUL Indian food! I was able to find what I order at Rasika (our Indian restaurant at home). We ate off of real banana leafs and really enjoyed ourselves! You are supposed to eat with your hands, but both of us used silverware. We then walked around little India and enjoyed all the neat little shops and sights. It was certainly a different place. I even got some sunglasses for about a dollar!
After Little India we went to find the Church of Christ of Malaya. We saw it on our tourist map and thought it was so neat that it was near our hotel! We took a few pictures and went on our way. We tried to find the Mint Museum of Toys, but were VERY unsuccessful. We then went back to our hotel to rest our legs a bit. Well, that turned into a two hour nap! We had no idea how much the trip and time change had affected us! We washed up and went over to Clarke Quay (pronounced key) for dinner and drinks. Clarke Quay is a unique little waterfront community full of amazing restaurants and bars. On our way to dinner we passed the giant swing that you can ride in. Even the President took a ride on it for New Years! We ate at a lovely Mexican restaurant right on the water. You knew we couldn’t go the whole time without Mexican! Then we went to a bar called The Forbidden City for some drinks and live music. It was so much fun! The band was very entertaining. At one point, they pointed me out in the crowd and called me up on stage to sing with them! I sang Mariah Carey’s “I can’t live”. It was too much fun, and don’t worry, we have video.

Traveling to the other side of the WORLD!

2011-01-01T15:07:00.001-08:00

Well this was quite a journey over to Singapore! We arrived at Dulles Airport at about 5:15 to make sure we were able to get through security in time to see the Music City Bowl!

We had no trouble checking in and getting through and were able to find a sports bar in no time!

Unfortunately, we had to board our flight at the begining of the 4th quarter. We kept up on our phones until about 2 minutes left and Tennessee had the lead 20-17, but North Carolina was driving. Our flight from DC to Paris was about 7.5 hours, so we had no idea what the outcome of the game was until we landed in Paris! We both had quite a few text messages that popped up and we quickly realized it was probably best we didn't see that ending before getting on a LONG flight!

We arrived in Paris at about 12 pm Paris Time. After a quick run-in with a crazy man from Boston who was trying to get us to help him play a trick on his wife, we finally made it on the RER train to the city! We got off at the Luxembourg Jardin and had lunch at Palidor. It was delicious!

Then we started walking through the city, we went through the Luxembourg Jaridn. It was beautiful, but neither one of us knew too much about it. We continued our walk and really enjoyed all the sights of downtown Paris! It was FREEZING, but we just kept on walking and finally made it to see the Eiffel Tower! Unfortunately, we couldn't see the top of it because the weather was so bad, but it was still worth it!

After the Eiffel Tower we took a cab to Notre Dame. Now, that is a beautiful place! The detail on the building is absolutely amazing! We were able to walk through and even hear a few songs inside.

Then we made our way down one of the little streets near Notre Dame and had the most amazing Nutella Crepe and some Hot Wine. It was the PERFECT ending to a very cold, very wonderful day in the city of Paris! We took the train back to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport and waitied on our flight to Singapore! They had these really neat "movie stations" in the airport, so our wait wasn't too bad! We boarded the plane in Paris and took off around 11:30. The pilot came over the loud speaker during flight to let us know it was 2011! We ordered champagne from the flight attendant and had a toast to 2011 (A year that I would say is starting out PRETTY GREAT!).

We arrived in Singapore around 7 pm Singapore time after a 12 hour flight. We both slept fairly well on both of the flights and enjoyed a few movies and tv shows. We took the train to our hotel in Sinagpore and got settled and finally had a SHOWER! It had been WAY too long! We ate at a little local restaurant by our hotel and got to bed early! We will be exploring the sights of Singapore today! Happy New Year Everyone!

Justin's 30th Birthday Week!

2010-12-21T11:06:00.000-08:00

Justin turned the BIG 3-0 on Tuesday Dec 14th! I had so much planned for him! The night before I gave him the first surprise, Wizards-Lakers tickets 10 rows from the court! A co-worker friend of mine's husband's boss had them and wasn't going to be able to go! So, I gladly took them off his hands for a fun birthday date night with my hubby! The plan was to go to eat at Corduroy, a neat restaurant we've been wanting to try and then head to the game! At about 4:00 pm on his birthday, I began feeling sick. I ran home to lay down for a bit and hopefully shake it off for the fun night ahead. I made the mistake of checking facebook and seeing that 10 people that had been at the church party I went to on Sunday night had food poisening/stomach bug. Welp, I did too! Justin called his friend Travis last minute and they were able to enjoy the game. Needless to say I was out of commission for about 2 days!

All along, I had also been planning a surprise birthday party for him. It went AMAZINGLY well! He had no idea! I had about 25 or so of his best friends waiting for him and he was very surprised! My brother and his girlfriend even came into town for it! My good friend Holly took a lot of pictures (since crazy me forgot the camera) and I've got to get them from her to post on here! I promise they will come!

We capped off the birthday week with a ginge

rbread house making party at our friends' Ross and Catlin's. It was so much fun and our house turned out pretty well!

We had ANOTHER big event during Justin's birthday week! We had put a deposit down on an English Cream Golden Retriever puppy and she was born on Thursday December 16th! We aren't sure which one will be ours, but she will be one of these cuties (maybe, this is a picture of 4 of the 6 puppies from the litter!)

Tis the Season!

2010-12-07T19:25:00.000-08:00

Here we are tonight at Ford's Theater after seeing "A Christmas Carol". It was wonderful and we got to see our good friends Matthew and Ingrid! What a great Christmas Surprise!
These are backwards, but here's the man of the house putting the star on the tree!

GO HEELS!!!

We walked down to the tree lot about 6-7 blocks away with our "city" shopping cart and pushed it all the way back to our house the true "cityfolk" way! :)

Merry Christmas!

End of the Year Resolution

2010-12-07T07:02:00.000-08:00

Hello Blog Friends! I've decided to make an "End of the Year Resolution" to post on our blog regularly! I stopped around April, which is when I started my new job! I absolutely love it, but its also kept me MUCH more busy! I'm going to make an effort to keep up with it from now on and let everyone know whats going on in the Waters lives! :)

Tonight we are going to see A Christmas Carol at Ford's Theater! We are so excited! We've got a busy December going on right now but I'm going to keep up with this and post some pictures! Tonight I'll post some of our house decorated for Christmas and us decorating the tree!

We're Back!

2010-04-26T17:14:00.001-07:00

Ok, so the last post said we hadn't posted in a month and now this one is a month later! AH! We've been so busy! I started my new job and I absolutely LOVE it! It's such a great fit for me. I'm still trying to figure everything out, but I'm getting the hang of it!

Justin has been SO busy with school. He's doing an extra consulting project for work and working very hard!
My parents came to visit near Easter and we had a blast having them in town!
Recently, we got tickets to the White House Garden tour and I had my friend Libby's bachelorette here in DC. Here are some pics!

We missed a whole month!!

2010-03-31T06:17:00.001-07:00

Apologies for the lack of posting! We've had a pretty busy March! Our camera however, saw its final days. I'm going to try and get some of the pictures from March and post them later, but we will hopefully have a new camera VERY soon! Things have been mostly normal in the Waters' Household. Work/play and school (for justin). Sarah finished up her second cake class and REALLY enjoyed them! It was a lot of fun! Justin has started his second set of classes for the semester! AND..Sarah got a promotion at work! She is going to be starting her new job this coming Monday as Political Programs Manager! She is VERY excited! More posts to come! I'll try not to be so slack!

Sarah's Chapel Hill Weekend and Valentine's Day 2010

2010-02-17T12:29:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I went to Chapel Hill for Courtney's birthday and a girls reunion! Here are some pictures from the trip! We had such a great time! :)

I booked a flight back to I could hurry home to my valentine! He was so sweet! He came to pick me up and brought me BEAUTIFUL roses and a REALLY cute cake!

Then he had planned out a meal for the two of us to make together and had gone to the grocery store to get the ingredients! We had SO much fun cooking together! We made Chicken Parmigiana with HOMEADE noodles and caesar salad and yummy wine!

And here I am at our candlelit table ready to eat! HAPPY VALENTINE's 2010!

OH! And he was so sweet and got me the cutest card that made me tear up, sweet "I love you" stones and tickets to GREASE the play! :) We're going tomorrow night!

Snowmageddon!

2010-02-17T12:25:00.000-08:00

Well as you've ALL heard I'm sure, DC got a LOT of snow last week! We were out of work for 4.5 days due to over 2 feet of snow and then another foot that arrived about 3 days after the first snow! It was absolutely crazy! I've never seen that much snow! We had a great time, got some SERIOUS cabin fever, and enjoyed getting to spend so much time together! Here are some pictures from the snow! :)

Snowmageddon Absence!

2010-02-16T08:18:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the long time with no posts! I have a quite a few pictures from our adventures during snowmageddon and snowverkill, my chapel hill weekend and Valentine's Day! I'll be sure to do a few posts for those really soon!!

As promised...

2010-01-29T12:54:00.000-08:00

Culinary Victories! This week I made a Sweet Caramel Cake for my book club meeting. I think it was rather tasty and it proved to be a hit at Book Club and at work the next day! I got the recipe from http://topwithcherries.blogspot.com . Her blog is fabulous!

Here is the Sweet Caramel Cake in all its Glory! :)

And, I made homeade Salsa last night!!! It was mighty tasty and super easy to make! I got this recipe from, you probably have already guessed as she is one of my favorites, The Pioneer Woman! You should really check out her blog if you haven't!

Tonight I'm making Beef Stroganoff and might try and bake something new! Justin has some homework for his Saturday class, so that leaves me to the kitchen :) Tomorrow we are going to try and go see the Georgetown/Duke game, but tickets are MIGHTY expensive right now, so we'll see! Tomorrow night we are going to Michelle and Jarret's housewarming party/Michelle's birthday party, it should be a blast! Sunday we've got church and a game watching party for the Tennessee Game! Fun filled weekend for the Waters!

Justin's headed to Frozen Nebraska!

2010-01-25T13:13:00.000-08:00

So Justin flies out tonight to go to Omaha, NE for work. Just an fyi, we had a high of 60 here today and he's headed for frozen temperatures. So, I do feel a little bad for him. I never like it when he goes on work trips. As silly as it may seem, I miss him terribly! It will be just me and the dog until Wednesday night, but I think we can manage. Tomorrow night, I'm going to make a Sweet Caramel Cake from scratch for my Wednesday night Book Club meeting. Besides spending any time I can with my husband, Book Club is my most loved event! I just absolutely love getting together with my girlfriends and have a few (too many) glasses of wine and discussing the book we've read while munching on delightful snacks! This month we read The Help. It is FANTASTIC!! It's probably the best book we have read so far and I am so eager to discuss it - I think we all are!

Happy Monday! If I have any culinary victories this week, I'll share those!

My husband is a HARD worker!

2010-01-22T06:13:00.000-08:00

So I decided to treat him last night. I made my first (first successful) homeade cake, COMPLETELY from scratch! I got inspired by The Pioneer Woman's blog and made one of her recipes: Strawberry Shortcake Cake. It took a lot of work and patience, but I was SO proud once it was done! I think Justin really enjoyed it!

My finished cake from the top and then from the side!

Chesapeake Beach, MD!

2010-01-22T06:09:00.000-08:00

On the Sunday of MLK weekend, Justin and I went to Chesapeake Beach, MD for the night. We had a free night's stay at the Chesapeake Beach Resort and Spa from buying two Wizards tickets because they are so bad. They literally have to pay you to come, but we were ok with it! :) We had a blast! The town is SO cute! Our resort was really nice. We had a nice seafood dinner and then went upstairs to play SERIOUS bingo! We had so much fun. We were definitely the youngest folks by a good 30 years, but we really enjoyed ourselves. We had a nice breakfast and walked around the cute bay town for a little while before heading back to DC. It was only 30 miles away from the city, but we felt like we were worlds away! So much fun!

Justin and I on the pier at our Resort!

New Year's Eve!

2010-01-22T06:02:00.000-08:00

This year for New Year's Eve we bought tickets to the DC Downtown Countdown New Year's Eve party with Third Eye Blind. We had a GREAT time! Katie and Nick came up to visit and Courtney and Liz came to the party with us. It was a lot of fun, minus the Vols losing their bowl game.

Nick, me, Katie and Justin about to ring in the new year!
Happy 2010!!! Me and Liz!

Me, Liz's friend Sarah, Liz, and Katie having a blast!

KD girls ready for New Year's Eve!

Me and my handsome husband in his Vols formal wear! :)

Christmas Extravaganza!

2010-01-11T10:06:00.000-08:00

So we did the Christmas Extravaganza again this year, except this year we had to leave one night early. We packed up really quickly and left on Friday night when we were planning to leave Saturday. The threat of the Blizzard of 09 was real, so we wanted to hit the road. We only made it to Fredericksburg (about 60 miles away) before we had to pull off and spend the night. The next day was a lot of driving, but we finally made it to Myrtle Beach, SC to see my extended family. We stayed there until Monday and then went to Gastonia, NC to spend some time with my family and my Aunt Dannie and Rick. On Wednesday morning we left to go to Tennessee and see all of Justin's family. Justin's 10 year high school renunion was Wednesday night and we had so much fun at that! We spent Christmas morning at his mom's house and then at his grandmother's house and then Christmas night into the next day at his Dad's house. We had a wonderful trip! We drove in that little car of ours so much that when we got back we decided we needed a new one! We got a 2007 Camry and we love it! :)

The girls at Grandmother's on Christmas Day. Tara, Kimberly, Ashley and Me.

Justin and I on Christmas Morning

Justin's 10 year reunion gang!

Justin and I at formal Christmas Dinner at Uncle Stewart's

My family at Formal Christmas Dinner! :)

Justin's 29th Birthday!

2009-12-16T08:45:00.001-08:00

Last night, we had a birthday party for Justin! It was great! Lots of our friends came and I made some yummy goodies and, of course, his favorite cake in the shape of a Power T! Here are some pictures from the festivities!

Pictures of our "Decked Halls"

2009-12-10T07:07:00.003-08:00

As promised, here are some pictures of our house all decorated for Christmas!!

1. Christmas Kitchen Towels!

The stockings were hung on the Ikea shelf with care...

Tree and Stockings and Garland! :)

Some cute decorations for the Kitchen counter! Cute Red Chargers have been added since!

Great Weekend!

2009-12-07T08:18:00.000-08:00

Well, we had another fabulous weekend! We went to dinner with our friends Phil and Colleen on Friday night. We went to Ben's Next Door, which is owned by the same people who own the famous DC establishment, Ben's Chili Bowl. It was wonderful! We got some good southern favorites: fried chicken and shrimp and grits! Saturday we slept in and woke up to snow falling! It snowed just about all day Saturday. We went over to Phil and Stacy's to watch the SEC Championship game. We had a great time and ate some yummy chili. Saturday night we watched more football and just went to bed early! Sunday I went to church by myself because Justin had a big group project meeting. I helped with a welcome home pot luck for a family who'd been living in the Dominican Republic as missionaries for a year! It was great and we had a HUGE turnout! I got some errands done on Sunday afternoon and Justin and I capped off the weekend with watching "The Holiday." It's one of my favorite Christmas movies!!! Pictures of the house all decked out for Christmas will be posted this week, hopefully tomorrow! Tonight, Justin has school and Courtney is coming over so we can watch Christmas Vacation and The Victorias Secret Fashion Show that I recorded! :)

Decorating our First Christmas Tree Together! :)

2009-12-03T07:13:00.000-08:00

Two nights ago, Justin and I decorated our first Christmas tree as a married couple! We had so much fun! We used all the ornaments we already had and added a few new special ones! We have one of the church we got married in that my Aunt Dannie gave us, one from Philadelphia (where we got engaged), and we hung our cake toppers up (Ramses and Smokey!) Here are some photos of us decorating!! First, our cake toppers from our wedding cake! Then, me putting the star on the tree and Justin putting the lights on the tree! It was so much fun!

Our first Thanksgiving!!

2009-12-03T07:02:00.000-08:00

Le Left: Catie and I on the metro, Right: Our cute placecards that I made! Left below: Waters kids at the White House on Thanksgiving! Right below: Ashley and I with the feast we prepared! She's wearing my naked girl apron! :)

Our first Thanksgiving as husband and wife was absolutely FANTASTIC!!!! It was also my first Thanksgiving to host! I might have gone a little overboard with the planning, but I wanted to make sure everything turned out JUST right! Justin's Dad, Stepmom, Heath and Ashley, and Catie came to visit us! We had SO MUCH FUN! It was such a great weekend and we had a lot of fun family time. They got here really late Wednesday night and Heath and Ashley borught me a gift! It was the FOUR pack of the Vacation movies! I was thrilled!! Thursday morning we woke up and had waffles and bacon and country ham. Then we got started on the feast! Alice helped me get the Turkey ready and on the rotisserie and then we got to work! Justin, Mark, Alice, Heath and Catie all went to visit the monuments while Ashley and I finished the cooking. Everything was delicious!!! We had SO much food! After the feast, we all walked down to the White House and took some pictures and did some sightseeing. We came back home and settled on the couch to watch Christmas Vacation, mine and Heath's favorite! Then we played Dominoes til late and had a blast! Friday we did some shopping and more sightseeing and went to the National Harbor to see the big Christmas tree and some fireworks! We were going to Ice Skate but it was FREEZING! Saturday we did some more sightseeing complete with a Capital tour for Mark, Alice and Catie and then went to the Wizards-Bobcats game on Saturday night. They had to leave early Sunday morning and we were sad to see them go. I really love having family around. It was SO much fun! Can't wait til Christmas! :) There are a few pictures from our weekend!

Book Club Tonight, a broken camera and finally looking forward to a weekend at home!

2009-11-18T11:03:00.000-08:00

So I'll start with a positive. I have Book Club tonight! YAY! I look forward to this each time we have it. We have a fabulous group of girls and we always have a BLAST at each book club meeting. It's truly a highlight of my month, each and every month. Ok, now the negative. Yesterday in my haste to get to work, since I was already late, I threw my soda into my purse thinking it was fine and sealed and all....WRONG! It exploded in my purse and the biggest victim was our camera. :( It has since turned on, but looks like night vision when you try to take pictures and only takes pictures that are a bunch of lines. SAD DAY! So, if it doesn't get better with time, the blog might be without pictures for a little while. We haven't decided about our route for getting a new one yet. I didn't absolutely love the one we had. I've seen other friends' cameras take MUCH better pictures, so maybe its our chance to get a better camera. After all, we are starting out on making a lifetime of memories together and I want to make sure they are captured! If you have any camera recommendations, let me know! Finally, we are actually staying at home this weekend!!!! I am thrilled! I'm taking Friday off and plan to sleep in and get a head start on getting ready for Thanksgiving. I'm just so glad to be spending a weekend home with my husband! We have a lot of house projects to work on, but being in our house together is going to be wonderful!

Tennessee Weekend!!

2009-11-16T06:12:00.000-08:00

We had an absolute BLAST this weekend! We flew into Nashville at about 10 or so on Friday night. Donna picked us up at the airport and we went back to Tullahoma and went straight to bed! Saturday, we went to Shelbyville to have lunch with Grandmother and Aunt Alice. It was so good to see them and share our wedding pictures with them! There's a picture from our lunch trip. Then we went back to get all dressed up and went to Catie's piano recital. She was fantastic! We headed on over to George Dickel to take family pictures for Heath and Ashley's wedding reception. We went to Mark and Alice's house inbetween and I got to watch the UNC-Miami game, which was GREAT because we won! We went back out to George Dickel at 7 for the party. It was SO much fun! We had great food and the band was wonderful! There was a photo booth that we had a LOT of fun with as well. Hopefully those pictures will show up soon! On Sunday we got all packed up and went up to Nashville for the Titans-Bills game! It was so much fun! The Titans played great and it was a lot of fun to see how big of a jerk T.O. is in real life! All in all, fantastic weekend and the final of our 3 weekends in a row out of town. We are really looking forward to a lowkey weekend at home next weekend!!

Veteran's Day-CMA's

2009-11-12T11:10:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Veteran's Day. Because Justin works for the government, he had the day off! He took Rastus to get his second and final flu shot. (Two more than we got for ourselves, haha!) And worked on some projects at home. I got to leave work at 3 (YAY!) and went home to help him and enjoy a cold, rainy afternoon at home together. Unfortunately, he had school too. So, he went off to class and I watched the CMA's. I was SO pleased with them! Great performances and very funny! I loved all the references to the Taylor Swift/Kanye incident and I was THRILLED about all of Taylor Swift's awards! YAY! It's still VERY cold and VERY rainy here so we are looking forward to heading south to Tullahoma this weekend! We are excited about Heath and Ashley's Wedding Reception at George Dickel and going to the Titans game with Donald and Donna on Sunday! I'll let you know how all goes and post pictures when we return! Happy Thursday!

Cute New Blog Stuff!

2009-11-10T06:18:00.000-08:00

Ok. I think I will be a LOT better about using this now that I know how to decorate it! It was driving me a little crazy how plain it was when I saw everyone else's look so cute! I've started reading other blogs and I'm really enjoying this blogging world! I've been reading McMama's blog about her and her four kids. She is really an amazing woman. You should check out her blog! It's on my list! Justin doesn't have school tonight so we are making homeade pizza and hopefully cleaning and organizing our house some more! I promise pictures when it is actually done and presentable. This is going to have to be before Thanksgiving because I'm hosting my first Thanksgiving!! I'm really excited! If you have any tips, please let me know! I think I've got everything planned out pretty well, so it should go fine. We don't have a lot of space, but that will make it more fun, I think! My bosses are gone for a conference this week, so work is going to be fairly slow. Other than that, just another great week with my fantastic husband!

Chapel Hill Homecoming Weekend!

2009-11-09T05:59:00.000-08:00

So our second weekend in a row being out of town was spent in the Southern part of Heaven: Chapel Hill! We left DC around 2 on Friday and headed down to Raleigh for the night to visit our friend's Ryan and Martha. We went out to dinner with them to The Busy Bee in downtown Raleigh. It was DELICIOUS! I had a burger WITH a fried green tomato on top and Justin had Shrimp and Grits. Needless to say, we got our southern fix! Saturday morning we woke up early and Ryan and Martha fixed us a yummy breakfast. Then we were on our way to see the Heels play! We got to Chapel Hill and dropped Rastus off at Noah's Ark Kennel there and headed to get our parking spot. We went walking along Franklin Street and watched the homecoming parade! We tailgated with all of my friends in Granville and then went on down to Stadium Drive to finally tailgate with James and Bryan! They have a fabulous set up each week! The game was great! It had a bit of a slow start with a bunch of field goals, but the heels picked up the pace and kept the bell!! It was a lot of fun! On Sunday, we went to the Alumnae Brunch at my sorority house. It was so much fun bringing my husband to that! Brunch was delicious and it was great to see everyone! We made it home in time for me to cook one of the yummy meals I learned in cooking class: Seared Salmon with a Cucumber-Dill Sauce, Roasted Red Pepper Quinoa and Hummus and Pita Chips! YUM! All in all, GREAT WEEKEND! Off to Nashville next weekend!

Knoxville Weekend!

2009-11-02T14:08:00.000-08:00

We left DC at lunch time on Friday to head down to Rocky Top! We got to Knoxville around 8 and went out with Megan for a fun Friday night. We met up with our friend Mary Alice at her sister's halloween party! Saturday we woke up and went to the store to get all of our supplies for Tailgating! Megan and I made a lovely spread! We tailgated by the ATO house and had a blast! The weather didn't cooperate too much but we had fun! We even got to see Smokey! The game was a lot of fun, minus the rain, and the Vols won!! Go Vols! The night's fun came to a screeching halt when Justin and I realized we lost our keys.

Sunday morning we called AAA bc we thought we might have locked them in the trunk. While the guy was having a REALLY hard time opening our door, I called the UT police just in case to see if someone had turned them in. Sure enough, good samaritans DO still exist and someone had found our keys!! We had a wonderful lunch at Calhoun's on the lake and then headed back to DC. All in all, Good Tennessee Weekend!!

Cord found! Pictures as Promised!

2009-10-30T05:41:00.000-07:00

So, I found the camera usb cable! Here are some pictures from our past events. The first is the Waters family in Jamaica (For more jamaica pictures, visit my facebook page), then Justin and I at the National Symphony Orchestra, then Mrs. Phyllis and I dancing at Beni and Amanda's wedding, then Beni and Amanda as they left the church, and finally Justin and I at our One Month Wedding Anniversary celebration!

Missing Camera Cord

2009-10-28T08:06:00.001-07:00

So I haven't posted in a while! Sorry! Currently, the usb cable for our camera is missing. So this post will be without pictures! I'll find it and put some pictures up soon!
Since we last posted, we've been having a BLAST! Our friends Beni and Amanda got married on October 3rd and their wedding was just beautiful! We got free tickets to see the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center from our friend Liz and that was fantastic!! And the biggest news here lately is that we went to Jamaica from October 15 through the 18th for Heath and Ashley's wedding!! Everything was just perfect! The weather down there was wonderful and the resort was so nice. The ceremony was beautiful and right on the beach. The weather cooperated long enough for them to get all the dances in and then the afternoon island storm came in! It was so much fun getting to be down there with all of our family. We really enjoyed ourselves. Other than those big events, we've been doing what we do best, watching football. It hasn't really been going well for any of our teams, but we are keeping the faith! I'm going to a cooking class tonight and Justin has to take an online exam. This weekend we are headed to Knoxville for the Tennessee/South Carolina game and the first of three out of town weekends in a ROW! :) Pictures to come, I promise!

First full weekend of Fall!

2009-09-28T15:01:00.000-07:00

We had a great first full weekend of fall!!

Friday night we were lucky enough to go to dinner with our friends Steve and Janelle who were in town for Steve's work. We haven't seen them in so long so it was great! We went to Ted's Montana Grill and had a wonderful time.

Saturday we watched the first half of my game (which wasn't really worth it!) and then went to the Shalom House to host our annual fall party with the residents there. It was a great time! We played Uno and Bingo with the residents and had some great snacks! They always really enjoy us visiting and its nice to know that we can make a difference. Afterwards we went to Black Finn with Josh, Lori Beth and their friend that is living with them right now to eat dinner and watch the Tennessee game. That one was a bit more successful! There's some photos from Black Finn with Justin and I and with our friend Peter.

Sunday we went to Sunday school and then I rested for most of the day. I've been getting a little sick. Justin had a lot of school work and spent most of his day down at school working hard!

Happy Autumn!

We're Married!!!

2009-09-25T08:15:00.000-07:00

Ok, so life got a LITTLE hectic right before, during and after our wedding. We are settling down as husband and wife now in our home together and I'm really going to be better about blogging, so please read!!

We had a FANTASTIC wedding and honeymoon. We were so glad that all of our friends and family were there to share our experience; it couldn't have been better!

Our house is coming along! We ordered some new furniture and things are slowly coming in and being put together. We are still working on finding a place for everything and getting some things hung up. Once it's done, I'll post pictures!

Justin has been VERY busy with school. It's not so fun for me him having to do work all the time, but he is working very hard and I'm very proud of him.

I've just been working and participating in a new book club I started! I really like it and the group of girls are fantastic! We really enjoy spending time together. I'm hosting the next meeting next Monday, followed by some Panthers MNF...if its even worth watching.

We've also gotten back into the swing of things at church. Our new Sunday School class has started and the church has started a program to read the Bible. Justin and I have been pretty slack on that, but we are hoping to catch up.

Of course, football season is here and that's really important to both of us! We've been watching all of our games and are excited about the rest of the season!

For those of you who haven't seen wedding pictures, the website is www.fortmillphotography.com, you need to click on online ordering, sarah and justin's wedding and then enter your email and the password is waters.

Happy Friday!!

Congressional Baseball Game!

2009-06-19T06:26:00.000-07:00

Turner and I went to the 48th Annual Congressional Baseball game on Wednesday. It was so funny! It's a baseball game where congressmen and senators play against each other: Republicans versus Democrats. The Republicans had won the past 8 games in a row so we had high hopes, but it didn't turn out that way this year. The Democrats won 15-9. It's a lot of fun, the crowd gets really into the game and the congressman/senators have a great time. They do it to benefit The Washington Literacy Council.

James's Wedding and George Strait!

2009-06-19T06:14:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we went to our friend James Mullings' wedding and then hurried to Bristow, VA for the George Strait concert! Julianne Hough and Blake Shelton performed as well! We had a wonderful time and used our new cornhole board for the first time! Justin grilled some great Turkey Burgers and we had a blast. It rained and stormed through King George's whole performance, but we still loved every minute of it! On Sunday, we had Integration and Involvement Day at church and I'm part of a team helping with this, so that was exciting! I also had a pool day with the girls for a goodbye to our friend Lauren who is moving to Kansas to go to KU lawschool. It was a great weekend!

The first of the catch up posts! NC Wedding Shower Weekend!

2009-06-19T06:08:00.000-07:00

So I'm going to do a few posts and catch us up! The Weekend of June 5-7 we went back to North Carolina for two wedding showers and some wedding planning. We finalized the reception menu and I got my hair done and had bridal portraits! Our first wedding shower was Saturday night at Lisa, Carly and Christine's house. It was fantastic! It was a tailgate themed shower and the girls did an AMAZING job planning it. I'm one lucky gal to have bridesmaids like them! We played games, had BBQ (NORTH CAROLINA BBQ), got some wonderful gifts and just had a really great time!
Our Second Shower was a kitchen shower on Sunday afternoon thrown by my mom and Mrs. Surbeck. It was fabulous as well! We did have to squeeze in church and lunch at Jackson's beforehand though! We were so lucky that Justin's Dad, Stepmom, and two sisters could come in for the weekend!
Pictures to come of the weekend!! :) It was fabulous!

Another great weekend and our first wedding shower!

2009-06-01T15:31:00.000-07:00

Well, as usual, we had another fantastic weekend!

Friday night, Justin took me to pick up my wedding dress. It was SO pretty and made me EVEN more excited! Then we went to our friend James's engagement party at our friends' Jeff and Gretchen Davis's house. It was fabulous! Good times with friends!

Saturday, my friend Courtney and I went to get manicures and pedicures then layed out by the pool! Saturday afternoon, Justin, Turner and I went to our friend Amanda's graduation cookout! We all had a blast!

Sunday we went to church and Justin led communion for the first time!! He did a GREAT job and I was very proud of him! After church we had our quarterly young adult potluck! After that it was time for our first wedding shower! The ladies at the church threw a wonderful shower and we got so many wonderful things!!

The pictures are from us riding the metro back from the cookout and the wedding shower!

Wassermans in DC!

2009-05-28T04:45:00.000-07:00

Last night, we went out to dinner with my Aunt Rebekah, Uncle Mark and cousins, Jared and Aaron. We went to a Tapas place called Jaleo. We all had a great time and it was so fun to see them! We don't get to see them too often, so it was certainly a special treat. Aunt Rebekah, Jared and Aaron are up here with Uncle Mark this week while he works and has a few events to go to. After our dinner, they had to rush to a West Wing White House Tour!!! We hope to get to see them again while they are up here!

Memorial Day Weekend!

2009-05-26T07:38:00.000-07:00

We had a fantastic Memorial Day Weekend! Friday night we went to dinner with our friend, Amanda Buckner, to Carlyle in Shirlington. It was fabulous! While we were waiting on her, we went to a little wine tasting presented by the maker of these wonderful Austrian wines!

Saturday we helped our friends the Marker's move to their new house and then hit the road to Annapolis with the Jeep top down! We went to Sandy Point Park in Annapolis to the "beach" there. It was great! We laid on the beach and played tailgate golf! We then returned to DC because my brother, Turner had finally arrived to live here for the summer! We went to the Nationals/Orioles game. Of course, the Nationals lost, but we had a great time!

Sunday we took my brother to our church and ran some errands.

Monday we had a Memorial Day picnic in Upton Hill park with our small group from church. We used our NEW gas grill we got from Justin's Dad, Alice and Catie for Christmas. It was a lot of fun and great to see everyone! Monday night we went to dinner for our friend Tafanie's birthday in Old Town.

All in all, a fantastic weekend! We are so glad to have Turner in town!

Justin gets a CEO Award!

2009-05-20T07:12:00.000-07:00

I know that I should be better about posting on this, and I will be (It's my half year resolution!) I figured it was a great time to start posting again because Justin received his CEO Award for Volunteerism and Community Service!

Last night, we attended Alion's Annual CEO Awards Dinner because Justin was the recipient of the Volunteerism and Community Service Award! Two people out of his ENTIRE company of about 3,400 were presented with this award! We were seated at the front table and were joined by a handful of retired generals, including the head of Justin's contract and the Deputy Head of his contract! It was a lot of fun and a yummy dinner! :)

We are VERY proud of him! Here's a picture of him and me and his beautiful award!

Our New Blog!!

2009-03-30T12:14:00.000-07:00

Hello Family and Friends!!!

Since Justin and I will be starting our new life together in just a little over four months, I figured I would start a blog to keep folks up to date on our lives.

This will keep everyone up to date on wedding preparations and just our lives in general!

We're excited to share this with everyone, and hopefully we will do a good job with updating it!