photo blog, episode 1 (henceforth known as a phlog)

hello world!

well, that is the 7 or 8 of you that read this. I don't think my blog is quite world famous yet, or ever will be for that reason.. but that is totally okay with me, cause God is listening, and family and friends are reading, and that's all I need! actually, that's what I prefer.

anyway, got a little off track.. I am doing something different in this blog.. it is going to be a.... (drum roll please!)... a photo blog! I figured it would be really fun for those of you family (and friends) reading this that have never been able to visit me here (like you guys, Dad and JoAnn and Nana and Nonnie!) to see some pictures of my apartment, my kitty, the area, and just other activities and things that have been going on in my life. I know it's great every now and then to be able to see some actual pictures instead of having to imagine everything in your head! so, here goes!



My Apartment!
It is in the University area, which is just the informal name of the section of the city of Charlotte where UNCC is.

Here's my apartment! This is the living room area. Kitchen table to the right, super comfy couch to the left, and my awesome tv in the back corner. And you can see my wonderful balcony! The coffee table was the most recent addition to this room, $20 at Ikea! I love Ikea!

Here's another view of the living room. The walls are so plain and boring.. I can't wait until I start working and can afford to buy fun things to decorate the apartment with!

And here's my nice little kitchen.. it's small, but nonetheless the perfect size for me! And that's the entrance to the apartment to the left.

Here's my oh-so-fancy hallway (more like plain boring hallway.. again, can't wait to be able to buy decorations!) that leads to my bedroom (on the right) and my bathroom (on the left) and also the coat closet. The entrance to the apartment is behind me, the kitchen to the left and the living room to the right.

And here's my bedroom! You can see my bed, my fancy tv dinner tray nightstand, and then my desk. My box spring looks so ugly showing from under my comforter, I really need to get a dust ruffle. (that's what they're called right? haha). Actually, I just had a brilliant idea! I just ordered a new sheet set because coby ripped a hole in my current sheets.. but when I get my new sheets, I can put the fitted sheet with the rip onto the box spring, cause you won't see the rip since it's the box spring, but it will make it look much better! genius!

The other side of my bedroom, my dresser and the door out to my balcony. I also have a nice big walk-in closet that's right behind me from where I'm standing in this picture, opposite of my bed.

Andddd here's my bathroom, I'm sure you all really wanted to see it! Just kidding. It's actually a lot bigger than it looks in this picture, that area to the left is a nice sized closet, and the shower is to the right, you can see the reflection of it in the mirror.

Finally, a close up view of my balcony.. I love it! It's the best place to sit and have a cup of coffee, or write in my dbook, or just hang!

Meet Cobra Commander (Coby) my kitten!

Here he is, Cobra Commander! This is when I got him, and we were riding home. (This is also right before he got carsick and threw up in his crate. Poor guy, he gets taken from his mommy and then gets put in this big moving thing that makes him sick to his stomach. He was probably so confused! but he couldn't be happier now).

Coby playing with his favorite dangle-y toy. The pink park broke off, but I just tied a toy mouse to the end and he loves it just the same! (I can't believe how LITTLE he was! this is the first night he was home).

Coby stretching out on his blue bed that Mom bought him. He loves his bed!

Another shot of him on his bed. He used to be so small! He only takes up half of his bed in this shot, now he is nearly too big for it!

Here he is being adorable! His ears are so disproportionate to the rest of his body, haha.

Here's Coby sitting on Garrett's legs. He's getting bigger! I think he likes the heat of the computer.

Isn't he so cute?? Hiding behind a bag.

Well I'm apparently not the only one in this apartment that is a Fox News addict. Coby is taking after mommy!

Coby has discovered a lot of silly new places to hang out lately.. he loves to snooze in my drawers if I happen to leave one open by accident. I would guess this one is his favorite, it's got all of my comfy pjs in it!

His very favorite new hangout spot.. the top of the cabinets in the kitchen! He's been making trouble up there though, attacking those paper lantern lights that I have hanging up, so I haven't let him up there for a few days. (in case you are wondering, he jumps onto the counter, then onto the top of the fridge, then up to the cabinet tops).

And here he is in his favorite annoy-mommy-while-she's-trying-to-get-ready-in-the-morning-spot. the sink! and if I turn the water on, he doesn't even move! he's the first cat I've ever seen that likes water.

Miscellaneous Pictures
Here's a bunch of random pictures of all sorts of things!

Here's Garrett and I at a lighthouse in Maine. We made a day trip to Maine during our missions trip to Boston, and we visited the lighthouse, the beach, and ate some Maine lobster! It was a lot of fun.

Here's me and my big fish that I caught last spring! We were at this really neat catfish farm. As you can see, I had to hold my fish using the net because I wasn't brave enough to actually hold it.

Here's Garrett with his big big fish! This place was really neat, owned by a really nice older man and woman. It is only open in the spring, sadly.

Hehe! Here is Ally when we were at On The Border the night before my birthday when Mom and Ally visited. The balloon man came to our table (it was unavoidable) and made Ally this alien hat thing. I think she rocks it!

On campus one day, the Concord K-9 unit did a neat demonstration with their drug-sniffing dogs. They had a whole demonstration with a bunch of suitcases with one containing marijuana, and then after that they let us pet the dogs and ask questions. The dogs were so cute!

Here's a view of uptown Charlotte when I was on my way to the elementary school that I do my clinicals for school at. It was cold and rainy that day! In Charlotte they call the city Uptown instead of Downtown, silly right?

I love cooking stir fry, and Garrett and I love to cook stir fry together too! This was a stir fry I made when Garrett was out of town for the weekend and I wanted to cook something yummy. It's chicken, onions, zucchini and yellow squash, yummm!

And here's the subject of my latest blog, the big spike in my tire! Not sure how the spike got in that part of my tire, and I probably will never know!

This is the view of campus from one of the parking decks. Fall is so pretty and the UNCC campus is beautiful. I am so blessed to go there!

This is the view from my balcony, it is so pretty! I am so blessed to have a view of the woods instead of having an apartment on the other side of the building with a view of the parking lot!

I think that fall in North Carolina is the prettiest fall I've seen out of anywhere I've been. Especially up in the mountains! Did you ever get to see the North Carolina fall up in Asheville, Nonnie? It's so beautiful.

Well, that's the end! I hope you all loved my phlog! It took me a really long time.. I'm not kidding, like 3 hours! haha. But it was worth it! I'm off to relax for the rest of my Friday evening, I hope you all are doing the same! God is so great, and I will update soon on the awesome things He's doing in my life, and the things He's teaching me.

God bless you all,

xoxo annie