Mobile Woman

Bobby and I have joined the irevolution... and since ilike to be intouch with everyone all the time, ithought iwould promote the new Apple iphone because ithink it's the coolest!

On that note, ihope you have a great Christmas Eve!

Hello, Love

Has it really been over a week since I blogged last?! Oh my... {striking hand} I'm sorry! I've been quite occupied this week with all the laying around, watching festive Christmas movies, sampling a wide assortment of cookies, drinking copious amounts of apple cider... whew. It's been a busy week, I must say!

To start off my lazy week, I received the most cherished of boxes brought to me by my favorite UPS man at work, Raul. Every time I see him, I hum the theme from "Phantom of the Opera" and wish I could sing like Christine (If you've never seen The Phantom, I highly suggest that you disregard my last comment). To what did my wandering eyes appear - but my brand spankin' new camera lens! I call him Mr. 300. This baby can catch Killian in all his glory from half way across our apartment. He can also catch Bobby making disapproving faces at me from the kitchen while I'm taking his picture. Oh how I love him.

The reason for Mr. 300? To take some SAWEET pictures that will hopefully boost my new business/hobby and continue to fill up our computer's hard drive! So post-Christmas, anticipate some pretty cool pictures taken with my new toy, a 75-300 mm telephoto lens!

Happy {Late} Birthday(s)!

I apologize for not being on the ball with the birthday's last week, but I've been doing some much-needed relaxing after finishing up with school.

However, one week ago from Friday was my oldest sisters' birthday! To Holly, who is the most patient, kind and caring person you will ever meet. She's a mean baker, a go-getter, and most of all, a Wonder-Mom of her two strapping boys. We are the alpha and the omega of the Wise family, baby! She's the oldest of the Wise clan and 18 years after she arrived, came me. We've always shared that common bond no matter how far apart we were. If you ever need comfort or compassion, Holly's your girl. Ever need a good meal and some phenomenal dessert? Holly's the one. We share one common weakness: a severe sweet-tooth. None the less, Holly is a strong, brave and loving person and she deserves to have the best birthday ever. Happy ___th Birthday Holly (I know how old you are!)!!

Now I'm only a few days late in posting this one, but still...

Happy Birthday to my one and only big bro, Bennett! I brag to all my friends that my big brother lives in North Carolina. I think it's perhaps I'm a bit jealous that he gets to live in the South. Anyway, Bennett is the rock of our family. Being the only boy surrounded by four beautiful (if I say so myself) sisters, I cannot imagine what girlie madness he must have endured over the years, however, he keeps all of us close, despite his geographical distance to us. Not only has Bennett been surrounded by his sisters for the first part of his life, he's now surrounded by his wife and two gorgeous daughters. I have never seen a man so smitten by three women all at once. The love he gives to all of his family is quite rare and quite incredible. Being the youngest of our family, I always looked to Bennett as "my cool brother" (which, he is TOTALLY cool). Not much has changed in that department, I mean, take a look at those aviator sunglasses!

Anyway, Happy Birthday to you BOTH and I'm sorry I'm late in delivering. I am totally blessed to have such awesome brothers and sisters (and I know I'm going to get made fun of for how many times I've said "totally" tonight. You'd think I'm from Severna Park or something...)!

Do you see what I see?

I have a major announcement to make:

I am officially D-O-N-E with my bachelors!!!!!! I took my last exam last Saturday and wrote my LAST paper on Monday. I celebrated today by taking a 4 hour nap... mm, life is good. On the same note, as of this coming Tuesday, Bobby will ALSO be finished with school! My Mr. Smarty Pants husband will have finished his Master's degree. I am so proud!

Anyway, we've wasted no time getting ready for Christmas as it will be especially nice this year due to NO impending homework or papers... what a relief. So we picked up our Christmas tree on Tuesday and spent the evening listening to Christmas music, decorating the tree and overall just enjoying doing it all together. Here are some shots to get you in the Christmas mood (if you aren't already!):

Bobby setting up the tree:

My golden poinsettia's:

I am branching out and have put little birds on my tree. It's very "natural" looking (as natural as a fake bird can be) but I kind of like it! (Please mind my reflection in the ornament beside it)

And my favorite ornament of all time... a Starbucks Coffee cup!!!

Killian rather enjoyed himself as he was occupied with my new wine box that fits around him perfectly!

P.S. Is Christmas really only a week and a half away?!

My New Fave

Here is my new favorite picture.

Erica, if you're reading this... this totally reminds me of an heirloom picture. You and your baby girl are precious here.

This is the kind of picture you see of your Grandma holding your mom when she was just a baby. Something that you'd find in an attic full of old pictures. I just love it and wanted to share it with you tonight!
Enjoy!

Christmas Time is Here

Christmas time is officially here. Not only have 7 days of "ornaments" gone up on our Advent Calendar, but Starbucks has released their divinely delicious trio of seasonal drinks, my favorite being the Egg Nog Latte or the Peppermint Mocha. Thanksgiving went by in a flurry and Bobby and I were at the Arundel Mills Mall at 5:00 a.m. on black Friday, only to be outdone by my sister, Christina, who was there at midnight when the mall opened.

Anyway, on a less Christmas-y note, I am happy to report that my final exams are O-V-E-R and I have one paper due today. After today, I will have finally completed my college education and will have that flimsy piece of card stock that cost thousands of dollars!! I'm just glad its over and I can actually spend time on the things that I've been wanting to do for a while: cooking, sewing, going to the gym, etc. I will be able to focus on and enjoy this Christmas season a little more this year...

SO, to begin my Christmas decorating, I'm starting with the decoration of my blog (I changed my Photo Blog, too)! AND a picture of Killian in his Christmas-y Red Collar.

Don't forget to check out yesterday's blog post of one adorable family with three CUTE kids!

Baby Face

If I haven't made it painfully clear before, let me say it again: I love babies. They are cute when they laugh, even more adorable when they cry, and just just plain hilarious to watch when they're all together. Today, I spent the day with 2 little babies and one very cute little boy. This was my first time taking formal pictures of so many people, but it was so much fun! The Adams/Sievers/Wathen families were so photogenic and they all make beautiful children with the biggest blue eyes I've ever seen. Anyway, here are just a few... you can find some more over on my Photo Blog! Enjoy! And thanks again, guys, for letting me spend the afternoon with ya'll!

In Summary

This is how I feel this week.

Final Exams.
Full-time job.
15-page paper.
South Beach Diet.

Someone call Bobby and give him some sympathy!

The Importance of Being...Thankful

We have so much to be thankful for, don't we? I was sitting next to a table of seven of my nieces and nephews at our Wise Family Pre-Thanksgiving and listened to them all go around the table saying what they were thankful for. It made my heart all warm-and-fuzzy listening to them list off the things they cherished most... "my outfit," "The Veggie Tales DVD we watched earlier," "saying 'Good Night' to Grandma," etc.

Over the past two weeks, I've spent more time with young children than I have in a long time and it was a gentle reminder to get "back to the basics" of what we're thankful for. I feel like we dig so deep into our lives once a year to find the things we're truly thankful for, but really, we should be thankful every day for the provisions we have to get us through one day at a time. While God calls us to have "faith like a child," so shouldn't we also be "thankful like a child?"

I hope that wherever you spent your Thanksgiving Holiday this year, that you were thankful for all the things in your life - good and bad - for they make you who you are and who God is ever-creating you to be. In the words of the Veggie Tales movie the kids were watching, "A thankful heart is a happy heart."


Little Turkey!

Happy boy, N!

Baby Ben

Mama and her girls

Jido (pronounced "je-dough") and Ben

Pre-Game Thanksgiving {Southern Edition}

We're back! Bobby and I spent the past weekend with my family down in NC at my brother's house. It was one of the rare times out of the whole year that all 18 of us "Wise's" are all together. The weekend was complete with good company, seven cheerful and energetic kids, LOTS of pies and cookies, movies, Christmas music, and of course, a turkey.

I also had the pleasure of taking family photos of my brother's family (who hosted) and my oldest sister's family. You can find more on my Photo Blog later this week. But for now, here's a glimpse of our weekend!

All seven of my fun, sweet, goofy nieces and nephews! (Sorry for the flash drop-off)
A family favorite... gingerbread cookies!



My new favorite picture: Jen and her girl.

My brother's family~My oldest sister's family~

Oh, Hello

Perhaps you don't remember me. My name is Melissa Barrick... I used to blog occasionally on this site. You probably don't recognize me with my squinted eyes and scrunched up face from a week of grimacing a burying my head in textbooks all week long.

Oh, you remember? Ok, Good!

Nice to be back. Although I'll probably be gone again soon. Really, I'm just poking my head in to let you know we're still alive.

Back in my UMD days, I vaguely remember the students calling the last week or two of classes "Hell Week." You know, the weeks leading up to final exams? Well, it's arrived. In flying colors. At the same time as a major holiday which requires travel.

December 6th will mark the last day of my exams. I will personally be hosting a book burning featuring "Statistics for Business and Economics." It'll be a great show, not to be missed.

Just kidding about that one.

Bobby and I are road-tripping down to NC this weekend for a big family bash. I will be singing "Gone to Carolina in my Mind" all the way down. Bobby loves it when I sing songs relevant to what we're doing. Just like last weekend, I sang "She'll be comin' down the mountain when she comes..." while we were driving home from the mountains. I've never seen a man clench the steering wheel so hard.

Good Bye Forever! "...In my mind, I've gone to Carolina...can't you just feel the moon shine, baby, it's like a friend of mine who kicked me from behind..." Thanks James Taylor.

You're In The Hills, Now!

You know that pretty picture I showed you before we left of the nice mountains and view? Ok good. Now just erase it from your brain, because we see anything like that. We did, however, have a VERY relaxing weekend in the hills of Virginia at Lydia Mountain Cabins, which I HIGHLY recommend to anyone. Nicer than most hotels I've been in, it was so new and clean, it impressed the socks off me and Bobby!

Our only good view from our cabin. Of course, on the day that we left.
See anything? Nope? Ok, good... because we didn't either. The entire mountain was completely covered in fog. So much for Skyline Drive.
We went to visit Montpelier, the famous home of James Madison. Beautiful. The last time I did a house tour, I was probably in 3rd grade and I certainly didn't appreciate it then. The architecture, the history, everything was so fascinating. You can find some more pictures of the grounds on my Photo Blog.


We then headed to downtown Charlottesville (Home of Dave Matthews) for a nice steak dinner.

On Sunday we packed up our stuff and headed out towards one of Virginia's most acclaimed vineyards, Barbousville. There's actually a lot of history here which was really interesting. The home was built for Governer Barbour and his family by Thomas Jefferson (who were good friends) but burned down in 1884. The house had all rectangular-shaped rooms except one, which was octagonal. Because of this trademark (common to many of Jefferson's archetectural designs) the vineyard's signature wine is called "Octagon" and costs as much as your first born child. Just kidding... but seriously. Lots of good wine to be tasted... We came home with a few bottles to enjoy!

They had a nice, big fire in that fireplace behind me... very Italian feeling.
We took a tour through the winery, which was so cool... learned a lot about wine!
Anyway, we're back home now... needless to say, it was a much needed get-away before the whole Holiday Season starts!

Looking for the Barrick's?

You'll be able to find us here. For a whole weekend. With no internet. No cell phone. No Homework. No WORK (except for the whole hiking thing). Best part is... I can take a hot shower with no spiders looming over my head AND I can visit the ladies room by taking only 4 lazy steps, past our lovely fireplace, the satellite TV, and the refrigerator, which will be chilling a nice bottle of champagne.

My Eagle Scout Husband spent years of intense, outdoor training for this very weekend. "Camping" in the rough, I say.

Just Because

Just 4 short years ago was the first time Bobby and I met... you can read our "abridged" story here on the night we met. Thanks to my sister, I never would have found my hunk-y engineer. The picture above was taken a few months before we got married. He was practicing for this (the face of our pastor's face is priceless):


Just thought I'd let ya'll know! Hope you're having a nice week! Thank goodness for 4-day weeks...

Sister, Sister

About a month ago, I was talking with a girl at work about taking pictures. After begging and pleading profusely, she finally agreed to let me take pictures of her kids! Since children's photography is kind of the route of photography I'd like to focus on for a business, I was thrilled to finally get some practice. The girls were awesome - so patient and so photogenic! So, here's a little glimpse of what the afternoon was like. The lighting was so cool, the sun was out, but it was cloudy at the same time, making the "mood" very cool and fall-like.

You can find more pictures of these cute sisters over at my NEWLY LAUNCHED Photography blog!!! Since you all voted "chocolate and lime" as my colors, I tweaked it a little (only because Blogspot doesn't offer the colors I thought would look good) to be black and kelly (green). Anyways, thanks Melissa and girls, for letting me photograph you this afternoon!