Party Like A Rockstar!

We had a birthday party for Chris with our family and friends over the weekend. We had a great time! Everyone came over to our house for pizza and cake and then we headed to the bowling alley (where we proceeded to get our butts kicked!). I made Paula Deen's Butterfinger cake for Chris b/c that's his favorite candy bar. It was quite yummy! Here are some pics from our party!

F-U-N with Photo Retouching!

I used an internet-based program to retouch some of my favorite photos. You could spend hours doing this (and I did). Hope you enjoy!

And the Love Continues . . .

Saturday morning, we woke up and I fixed Chris a special Vday breakfast (heart-shaped pancakes). We then packed up the car, dropped the girls off at the kennel, and headed towards Mebane. Chris' mom, Debbie, owns a vineyard and winery and was putting ason a special event for all the lovers in the area last night. It was called a 'Wine, Roses, & Romance" dinner. She had a catered 4-course meal (very much unlike what we had the night before!), a live musician, and dancing. It was a blast! We went to together as a family and had so much fun together!

Valentine's morning breakfast :)

Chris' sister, Dana, anad her husband Josh. They are currently 18 weeks preggers with a baby boy! YAY!


We found a little corner of the room beside our table that was perfect for some intimate dancing :)


Havin' some fun!


Debbie and Gene, Chris' parents and owners of the winery.

Enjoying a glass of "Dixie Dawn" - mmm, yummy!

The Harrell's and the Herman's

long-stemmed roses for the ladies at the dinner :)

the guests were all having such a great time!

mom and son

mom and daughter-in-law

A quick photo-opp before dinner was served

Love is a Mystery

Last night Chris and I attended the Love is a Mystery dinner hosted by our Sunday School class. We weren't really sure what to expect. All we were told was to show up at 7:00 for a 4 course meal. So, that's what we did. The atmosphere was adorned with reds and pinks, hearts and candles, etc. There was soft music playing in the background and a 5-star wait staff ready to serve our every need. We were seated by couple according to our place cards, 3 at each table. Everything as was anticipated and expected, and then we were handed our menus. Hmm, I'd never seen a menu quite like this before. The food choices were as follows:
Nature's Plug
Snow on the mountain
Cupid's arrow
A chip off the old block
Popeye's delight
Heart strings
Chris Harrell's past time (yes, my notorious husband actually made the list!)
A small raise
A roman mix-up
"Are you ready for the summer?"
A square soda
Jack and mac
Seedy character
Lover's delight
Exotic blubber with a twist
Sticks and stones
We were then instructed to write down on the opposite side of our menu the order in which we would like to be served (4 items per course, 4 courses). The funny thing is, our utensils were included in this cryptic list, so we had to be very careful and methodical about our choices; otherwise, we would be left with no utensils to eat our food with. AND, you weren't allowed to carry any items over into the next course. So, if you were given more than one utensil at a time, you were screwed :) This, of course, happened to me on my second course. I was given a knife, a fork, cubed cheese, and olives. Hmm . . . at this point, I'm thinking that I haven't eaten anything that required utensils yet, so 2 more courses left and somewhere in there are entree type foods. To ease the suspense, my 4-course meal went as follows: Course 1 - spoon, peanuts and carrots, Caesar salad, meatballs; Course 2 - knife, fork, cubed cheese, olives; Course 3 - bread, crackers, sliced pickles, toothpick; Course 4 - spaghetti with meat sauce, chocolate brownie with whip cream, jello, Hershey kisses. If you'll notice, that lat course did not include ANY utensils. It was very interesting. We had LOADS of fun with our friends. A small food fight even broke out between tables - to be expected with our crowd :) Anyways, the atmosphere was pleasant, the company was terrific, the service was extraordinary, and the food . . . well, the food was . . . interesting :) I was able to steal a few snapshots in between all our fun. Hope you enjoy them.

Let It Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

Last night, before going to bed, Chris and I spent about 30 minutes just watching the beautiful snow fall so gracefully from the sky and blanket the world around us. It was so peaceful. When we woke up this morning, we had 2-4" that piled up overnight! First thing I did was jump out of bed, throw on some clothes, and run outsisde to gallavant in the snow! I took a couple of pictures for your viewing pleasure :)

Back In The Old Days . . .

While cleaning off an old computer, we stumbled across some old photos. Here are some pics of us pre-2003 . . . Enjoy!

My Life As A Rockstar

Well, as a rockstar's girlfriend at least. A friend of ours sent us some old photos of when Chris was in a Christian band called "Trademark". We were only dating at the time, but I knew I was gonna marry him! He was so adorable as a rockstar (as you can see for yourself in the pictures below).

Merry Christmas!!!

It's finally here! Chris and I always share our Christmas morning together on Christmas Eve since we have to travel to visit our families. We have a couple of traditions . . . 1) We pick out a new snow globe each year to commemorate that Christmas together, 2) We always have sausage pinwheels and coffee for Christmas breakfast (a Strong family tradition), 3) and this year's newest tradition, new Christmas pajamas!!! Chris doesn't particularly like wearing "pajamas", and he couldn't find anything he liked this year, so he opted to sit out on our first year with this tradition. But I found some GREAT new PJ's and I LOVE them!!! Enjoy our pictures from this year's Harrell family Christmas!

Thanksgiving 2008

Here's just a few pictures from our holiday (more to follow shortly) . . .