Blast from the Past

I was cleaning off my computer the other day and came across some pictures I thought I had misplaced. Most of these are from 3-4 years ago. Enjoy!

Christmas 2005, Drew's new shades


Aunt Darlene, demonstrating the enormity of the lamps in Grandma's house.


Easter 2006, Grandma, Drew and I


Vegas, March 2006

Thanksgiving 2005

Christmas 2005, mom and dad

Christmas 2005, cousins

Pugsy 2005

NYC PR Week Awards, 2006

Engagement Party, 2006

Los Angeles, March 2006

Wedding Shower, June 2006

Sandpiper, 2006

Thanksgiving 2005

June 2006 (the day Amanda was banned from wearing the bright green bathing suit again until getting tan)

Thanksgiving 2005

Evan, our ringbearer, June 2006.

My shower at Indian Creek

Shower at Mount Vernon

Morgan trying on her flower girl dress at Priscilla of Boston

Mailee's baptism, 2006

Out in Arlington, winter 2005

Lindsey and Tripps wedding at The Homestead, August 2006

The Homestead

Time for a Break!

This past weekend marked the end of my second graduate school class- Strategic Public Relations Management. I loved the class because it really focused on the management side of PR. I feel like I have a much better grasp on what it is going to take for me to someday be an effective manager. Also, Drew and I talk frequently about how graduate school has been such a wonderful decision for me. Not because I am dying to get that degree to put on my resume, but because I am really genuinely interested in affecting change - particularly organizational change. My final project for this last class was to create a strategic PR plan for a real organization and issue. I loved the presentation aspect of the project and can't wait to one day be doing the same thing for my own clients. Speaking in front of a crowd of people- particularly senior management (or in this case pretending my class was senior management)- gives me such a rush. I also loved learning from the projects of my awesome classmates. They used research to identify really smart objectives and also to create really creative strategies to achieving the objectives. The whole process is challenging but so fun. I am also really interested in reputation management and hope to one day be able to help organizations in this way. I have a long way to go though!

Drew is so supportive of me doing graduate school and cooked good dinners all last week while I was preparing for this big final project. The best was coming home from class Friday evening to his homemade fajitas. So great! Drew also embarked on a new house project this weekend- gutting the downstairs bathroom, and preparing it for painting. Our living room downstairs is a Tuscan beige with white trim and I think we are doing the kitchen in a chocolate brown above the chair rail and off white below. So, we are thinking "jungle green" might be cool for the bathroom, especially with all of the neutral tones we have going on. We saw the color at a friend's house Saturday night and loved it.

Drew and I also had a little time for fun this weekend. We went out for drinks with my classmates and professor after class on Saturday to Cous Cous and then took Kristina to dinner at our local sushi restaurant. We then went back into the city with Kris who was meeting a friend to celebrate a birthday and then met up with Carrington and Todd who were in town for a wedding, and also stayed with us all weekend. We had lunch at BW3's before they left on Sunday and then Drew and I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing.

Here are a few pics from the bathroom construction, including the toilet which is currently on our deck. I am sure our neighbors are loving us!

Congratulations Maya and Neal!

Drew and I traveled to Columbia, SC on Friday, September 5 for the wedding of our dear friends Maya and Neal Chawla. Maya and I have worked together for the past 3 years and have become really good friends so there was no way we were missing this wedding, even in the event of a hurricane (which just so happened to be the predicted weather for that weekend)! After obtaining an excused absence from Saturday's class, Drew and I left Richmond in the jeep around 9:30 p.m. Friday evening and drove all the way to our hotel in Columbia, SC, arriving around 3 a.m. We were able to drive around the storm and did not hit a single drop of rain! In fact, we woke up to nothing but sun on Saturday morning. After enjoying a southern breakfast of biscuits and gravy at the Ruth Chris Steakhouse in our hotel, Drew and I head across the street for the wedding at the beautiful Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center. Maya and Neal were married in an Indian Vedic-style ceremony which we felt so special to witness because it was so full of meaning, tradition, with added personal details by the couple themselves. I knew from the second I started reading the program that Maya wrote it because 1. It explained every aspect of the ceremony very well 2. It was well written and 3. It has humor/fun injected throughout. After the ceremony we had an awesome lunch at the Convention Center, which was followed by the best pecan pie Drew and I have ever had.

There was a break between the ceremony/lunch reception and dinner reception so Drew and I decided to head over to the Columbia Riverbanks Zoo and Garden to check out the animals. We were blown away at how amazing the zoo was - the best one we have ever been to. Despite the fact that I really wanted to free all of the animals (expect the grizzly bear that was haming it up for the audience yet I was still terrified of), we made our way around the zoo without letting any of our furry friends loose. My favorite animals were the koala bears (which I like to refer to as "pugs of the trees") and of course the grizzly bear. Drew's favorite by a long shot was a gorilla that he was completely obsessed with and made me keep going back to see. It was worth it though because we were so close to him and got some really great shots.

After the zoo we headed back to the hotel to get dressed for the dinner reception at the Convention Center. The food at the cocktail hour was amazing! Dinner was fabulous too, followed by lots of fun dancing. My favorite part of the reception though were the many meaningful speeches that friends and family gave about Maya and Neal, and a great slide show. So much happiness for a wonderful couple.

Drew and I really liked Columbia and wish we could have seen more of it but we were so tired Sunday morning and headed straight home. We definitely want to go back sometime. Itwas a great weekend! Thanks to Kristina who house sat and took care of Gia for us all weekend.

Here are some pics.

The Chawla's after the wedding ceremony.



Cupcakes!


Drew's new friend


Cutey pie

Drama queen

Reception!

Johnstown Family Wedding Weekend

Please forgive our delinquency in posting recent blog entries. Between lots of traveling and the recent string of hurricanes, we've been a bit crazy! Actually, let me amend that and say "I" have been a bit crazy (and please add grad school to the mix) while Drew has been thoroughly enjoying his status as a graduate school graduate by hitting the gym nightly, visiting the driving range weekly, and getting in at least 18 holes usually every weekend. My how the tables have turned! Honestly though, Drew has been so supportive of everything, including my hectic schedule, and even spends extra time playing with and taking care of Gia since I am not around as much. He loves the dog despite what he might have told you.

Two weekends ago Drew, mom and I traveled to her hometown of Johnstown, PA for the wedding of mom's first cousin Tina to her long time boyfriend Tony. The happiness our entire family felt for them was clear during the joyful celebration. From the massive amounts of Italian wedding cookies, to the tearful speeches, Italian guitar players that serenaded us during dinner, to catching up with family, it was a great wedding.

The next day was spent at Tina's family home where the whole family continued celebrating over delicious Italian and Polish food, and then ventured over to the Johnstown Folk Festival that night. There we rode the steepest vehicular incline plane in the world to the top of the mountain (Westmont where my mom is from) and had drinks at their childhood friend Andy's restaurant City View.

On Sunday Uncle Danny took Drew, Josh and Dan golfing, we ate a great lunch at Aunt Darlene's, and then headed back to DC so I could go straight to work. Mom took lots of great pictures of the weekend which I will post as soon as she downloads them. In the meantime, here is one of the family on the incline plane.



Please note that mom lived in Johnstown until she married dad at 26 and moved to Alexandria, yet she was always too afraid to ride the incline plane. I admit it is a bit scary. In the picture she is on the phone with dad (who had to stay in DC to deal with hurricanes) telling him she was riding it. He was proud of her.

Vaca, short and sweet

We just returned from a fabulous trip to the beach with my parents, Kristina, Aunt Cathy, Uncle Chuck, Jule and Matt. We stayed in Stone Harbor, a really nice private beach off the NJ coast. It has been years since my family vacationed there and I forgot how much I loved it. Drew was really impressed with the it too compared to the Outer Banks and Virginia Beach. Sorry folks, as much as I love Nags Head, there is just something about Stone Harbor that is a bit more appealing- it's so adorable and family oriented.

We had a great time with the fam on the beach, cooked awesome dinners and watched Michael Phelps dominate the Olympics at night. We were able to celebrate mom and dad's 30th anniversary as well as Kristina's 23rd birthday at the beach which was fun. We also enjoyed a fabulous dinner at the Backyard Restaurant (where we sat outside under twinkle lights) and of course the wonderful PeaceAPizza. Highlights of the trip include: teaching the fam cornhole on the beach and beating Drew as usual, Drew challenging me to a game of mini golf (he won so I had to buy him ice cream but I got a hole in one so he bought me earrings...only fair, right?), playing apples to apples w the fam and of course each time Michael Phelps won a gold medal.

My only complaint about the trip is that it was too short! Next year we are going for longer.

Here are some pics:

Mom and dad cutting their cake.


The Mascelli's


Mini golf


Kristina's bday

Fishing for A's...

So much has happened in the past 2 weeks since we last wrote on the blog. For starters, I have started graduate school and am 1/2 way done with my first Research Methods class. In addition, I have completed 2 projects with one more to go and have been reading so much I am pretty sure it's time to get glasses (again). Here is what we've been up to:

Weekend of July 18

Drew spent the weekend off shore fishing with Dad C, Ryan and their cousins in Cape Hatteras. They had a wonderful time out on the sea all day followed by a great dinner and night out on the town. Drew really enjoyed the guys weekend and the chance to get away. I was thrilled with the amount of fresh fish he brought home. We filleted it into smaller pieces and are freezing most of it. We love fish!

That same weekend I started graduate school on Fri night and all day Sat. So far I am really impressed and happy with my program. I am 100% sure graduate school was the right decision for me even though it's a lot to juggle. I was really thankful we were let out of class early enough to drive to Front Royal, VA and camp for my best friend Coll's birthday. Mary, Gia and I shared a tent and were woken up at 4 a.m. to the sound of an animal waking around our tent, breathing heavily. We were convinced it was a bear although Abby says it's not possible. Needless to say, we were scared out of our minds. Thankfully it eventually went away although I don't think we slept much after that.

Weekend of July 26

More grad school for me after a week of feeling under the weather, while Drew cleaned the house before our guests arrived. Bobby, a fraternity brother of Drew's, and a couple of Drew's coworkers came into town to go out to dinner, bars and dancing with us. Kristina also came into town to visit friends and she and Ryan joined us. It was a great night out.

This coming weekend I have MORE grad school and then we are heading to the Klapmusts house at lake Anna on Sat night to join our friends for a crab dinner and then wake boarding and tubing all day Sunday. We can't wait.

Here are some pics from the past 2 weekends. (Fishing pics to come.) -Amanda

Mary and I pre bear incident.

Gia the camping pug.

Kris and I at Europa



Drew and Kris downtown


Cutey

Neckin'

You'll never guess where we were this weekend??? The Northern Neck of course for a weekend of fun and sun with the Findley's before I start graduate school this weekend. On Friday we stopped by Smokin Joes in Kilmarnock to see our wedding band, The Janitors, preform. Drew and I, along with Mom and Dad C and their friends, tore up the dance floor for a good hour. They are such a great band and it was so much fun to see them again. They even remembered us and gave me a free shirt and CD. We headed back to the Christopher's after the show and stayed on the dock chatting until the wee hours of the morning.

Needless to say, it was hard to get out of bed the next morning but we stuck to the plan and were at Lee's Diner at 8:30 a.m. for a home cooked breakfast which included chipped beef and gravy. The food took forever and we were worried the guys would miss their tee time but it was well worth the wait because it was delicious and we made it to Indian Creek just in time. Stephanie and I spent the day shopping while the guys golfed and met them back at Indian Creek afterwards for lunch and a swim. Drew golfed an awesome game which made him very happy. After the swim we headed back to the Christopher's for a boat ride, dinner at the Sandpiper, and were in bed relatively early compared to the night before. (Thank goodness!) We woke up Sunday to a wonderful breakfast courtesy of Momma J and then spent a few hours on Cedars Beach before grabbing crabs for Stephanie and heading back to Richmond so the Findleys could make their way back to Harrisonburg. It was a perfect way to spend my last weekend before grad school!


Drew, Mike and Ryan are going off shore fishing this weekend in NC so I'll make sure Drew brings his camera to take pictures of all the amazing fish they catch :).

-Amanda

Attack of the jelly fish...had to get a picture of what stung me the weekend before. Gross, right?