Yes We Did!

Drew and I are so proud of our country for electing Barack Obama the 44th President of the United States. To us, Obama's election signifies that the responsibility of the world's future has transitioned from our parent's generation to ours. And on a personal note, Michelle Obama is extremely inspiring to me. I think she is going to be an amazing role model for the world's young women.

Here are some pics from the rally I attended in October- http://media.gatewayva.com/photos/rtd/slideshows/20081023rally/index.html

And two videos I love-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yq0tMYPDJQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghSJsEVf0pU

God Bless the United State of America!

The Christophers

Under Construction

We are currently under construction as we redo our downstairs bathroom. It all started a few weeks ago when I noticed that some of the hideous pastel wallpaper was curling up off of the wall. I decided to tug it a bit and 15 minutes later I had pulled off all of the wall paper in the bathroom. Drew arrived home from work just as the last piece was coming off, laughed at what I had done, and decided to join in by taking the vanity, sink and mirror out as well. That was 3 weeks ago. Today we were finally motivated enough to go buy everything we needed for a new bathroom. Hopefully we'll like how it turns out. Honestly though, anything is an improvement from what it was before. We wanted to do a pedestal sink but the piping was too much of an eye sore so we have to cover it up. The finished product will hopefully be featured on the blog soon. Until then, have a great week!

2 years and counting!

Today marks our 2 year anniversary! I can't believe how fast the time has gone. We count our blessings and can't wait to see what the future has in store for us. We have been celebrating our anniversary for a couple weeks now. Here is what that has involved- dinner at our new favorite Richmond restaurant, Edo's squid, (and only good Italian food we have found here yet), a beautiful pearl and crystal necklace, earrings and bracelet from Drew that appeared on the kitchen table one morning while we were cooking breakfast, a trip to the sporting goods store and subsequent purchase of a new 3-wood club for Drew (my treat) which is his nicest club to date and will allow him to hit between 220 yards and 250 yards, beautiful flowers that arrived today, and another evening/dinner out tonight on main street in Ashland.



In other exciting events, Drew, Dad C and Ryan, spent this past weekend off shore fishing in Virginia Beach. They caught lots of delicious fish by fishing 60 miles off shore in 3,000 feet of water. It them 4 hours to get to the fishing spot and 4 hours to get back. It was a 4 a.m. - 11:00 p.m. kinda day. Drew said they had a great time and the water was beautiful, especially the farther you got from shore. They even saw dolphins! Drew took some great pictures of the sunset, I just have to remind him to get some people shots next time. Enjoy!

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.