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we went skiing in park city,

i had the guys in for a weekend to watch baseball and be goofy, lil and i took another trip to costa rica,

we went to texas for a week after the engagement

and then i got to go to southeast asia for 2 1/2 weeks

and nyc with brad a week after that.

we each did our bachelor/bachelorette weekends in key largo

and then we had a wonderful wedding here

and got to go to st lucia for our honeymoon

and chicago the next weekend. all fabulous stuff.

the year was not without difficulty, however. volleyball was MUCH more demanding this year. counting the out of town tournaments (which had me in indianapolis, minneapolis, birmingham, and huntsville, and chattanooga) i spent in excess of 400 hours with my team between jan 1 and the end of may. throw in small group on mondays, pre-marital counseling, and a few other things, and lillis and i got to just “spend time” together maybe twice every 10 days. it was a little overwhelming (at one point, i had a trip 11 out of 13 weekends in a row), but we persevered.

in may, our schedules lightened up and we buckled down with our pre-engagement counseling (which was a wonderful growth experience for us) and on july 5th (after i had dragged her a mile back into the blue ridge woods and got her shoes muddy and subjected her to attack by yellow flies) she said “YES!”

i subsequently left the country and we tried to plan a wedding over skype with me in asia. she started a new job the day before i returned and i found out that i would be out of a job at choicepoint with the merger about a week later. SOOOO, after 8 weeks of EXTREME stress with us planning a wedding, lil having to move her belongings TWICE, studying for the series 65 (which was certainly a shadow on lil for the past 3 months), brad and i shooting our first wedding and me looking for work; i landed at OfficeArrow. since the return from the honeymoon, we’ve been focused on work, getting ready for the holidays and getting lillis past the exam (WHICH SHE PASSED ON MONDAY!!!!). now, we’re just ready for ’09 and beginning to figure out what “normal” married life looks like. i know, those who have been married for a while say “there’s no such thing,” but i can’t think of any scenario where this year isn’t a more relaxed one than last….if nothing else, at least i shouldn’t have to plan any more weddings.

thank you all for the gifts that you have been to both of us (and i am especially appreciative of how many of you have embraced and encouraged lillis) and we wish you every happiness in the coming year. we are blessed to have so many wonderful friends who care so deeply for us. and again, without further adieu, the christmas card.

we went up to the Windy City (lil’s first real trip there) to go to her Christmas party, and enjoy a weekend of frigid temperatures and high winds – less than 5 days after returning from St. Lucia. the party was nice…..but growing up at andersen consulting, you get you to the Christmas party being a lavish event where new hire puke in the restrooms and some partners wife is dancing a little too close with a consultant…so anything less than that always feels like, “eh, it was a nice dinner.” : )

it’s good to know you can find the comforts of home wherever you go….even at this little establishment that seems somewhat curiously placed right off of rush st.

we walked in a loop around wrigley looking for a bama bar…..we knew there was one nearby.

jackpot – the houdstooth. now, that’s what i’m talking about – comforts of home!! a welcoming place to watch us take on the gators and urban meyer, and tim tebow, and all the little leper kids that tim tebow has healed.

here are lil and i before kickoff in front of a faux deer horn chandelier.

the game didn’t work out well for us in the end, but we had a good time regardless (as evidenced by the videos).

here’s a view from the window of our room at the sheraton.

here’s lillis in front of the famous lion (or one of the two famous lions) that greet visitors to the art institute of chicago – probably my favorite museum in the world. they have one particular room (the helen birch bartlett) that is hands down my favorite anywhere. monets, the famous seurat, van gogh’s bedroom and picasso’s guitarista. solid stuff. unfortunatlely, all of those things (except the seurat) were not showing whilest we were there due to construction : (

we did get to see this, however….i’ve always liked the positioning of the oldenberg statue an the lichtenstein.

and their stellar collection of remingtons

not pictured are the fabulous winslow homers and georgia o’keefes, or any of the 1,000 times i checked my nose to see if it was running…..did i mention it was cold….i mean COLD!