olan's finest (and not so fine)

Ashley Doran~Brooke Whitney~Brooke Eckard Demoret~
Laura Wells Snow~Liz Nitz~Sarah Simmons Turner~

Stephanie Hicks Berryhill~Tiffany Farmer Durst

give or take a few 

Back when we were at Appalachian State, our photos didn't always depict the polished and refined ladies we would become...

 

Left:  "Ruff Ryders" 2002 dressed up for no reason other than Brooke Whitney and I
found these super-soakers on sale at Wal-Mart and thought we should have some fun.
front:  Mary Burr; back:  Sarah, Tiffany, Brooke Whitney, me, Laura


Right: dressed up for our annual 70s tailgate with Sigma Nu in 2004
front:  Sarah, me, Tiffany, Brooke Eckard; back:  Stephanie, Doran

and in most of our pictures together we were dressed up as anything from Rastafari to pearl-clad country club ladies; but one thing has remained the same...whenever we're together, there's no place I'd rather be (sorry Blaine...it's a different kind of love). 

During college we always said we'd have to keep in touch once we all graduated, no matter where we all lived...and so far, we've done that.  I'm not saying we all call each other up on a regular basis, but we've gotten together at least once a year to catch up and have many, many laughs.

Some of our group graduated in 2004 and some of us graduated in 2005, so ASU Homecoming 2005 was our first chance to get together post-graduation.  We took this photo and it was dubbed the "Olan Mills" photo.  We always try to get an Olan Mills shot whenever we're together now, but sometimes we've failed to find the right moment.  Here are some successful, and not so successful attempts at our Olan Mills shot over the past five years...

Appalachian State Homecoming 2005
front:  Brooke Whitney, Doran, me
back:  Stephanie, Laura, Sarah, Liz



Tiffany's Wedding 2006
Brooke, me, Sarah, Brooke Whitney, Stephanie, Liz



Sarah's wedding June 23, 2007
front:  me, Laura
back:  Brooke Whitney, Stephanie, Sarah, Tiffany

   

Appalachian State Homecoming 2007
front:  Liz, Brooke Whitney, Stephanie
back:  Shannon, Doran, me, Shea

Stephanie's wedding June 14, 2008
Brooke, me, Liz, Brooke Whitney

Brooke Eckard's Wedding June 13, 2009
front:  Brooke, Stephanie
back:  me, Tiffany

Brooke Eckard's WeddingII June 13, 2009
front:  Tiffany, Sarah
back:  Liz, Stephanie, Doran, me

2010 DYFOW (I don't have any photos from the previous DYFOWs)
front:  Tiffany, Brooke Whitney, Sarah, me
back:  Laura, Stephanie, Doran, Liz, Brooke, Shea

2010 DYFOW Official Olan Mills Shot
front:  Tiffany, Brooke Whitney, Sarah, me
back:  Laura, Stephanie, Doran, Liz, Brooke, Shea

After my wedding May 15, 2010
more chaotic than any Olan Mills photo
middle and around to the left:  Brooke, me, Sarah, Stephanie, Laura
front:  Neely, Liz, Brooke Whitney, Doran

And the whole reason for this post...

Some of us were able to get together for the third time in 2010!

Rather than going to Boone or seeing each other at one of our girls' weddings, we got together in Charlotte and shacked up at Brooke Whitney's new house (which is very nice and charming) and got to stop in for lunch at Tiffany's new house (which is beautiful).  For those of you in our group who missed this trip, I cannot wait to see you in February.  For those of you who were in Charlotte, I cannot wait to see you again in February!!!

 

At the Ritz-Carlton in Charlotte November 13, 2010
front:  Nelly, Liz, Stephanie, Doran
back:  me, Brooke Whitney



Lunch at Tiffany's November 13, 2010
front:  T's little one (incase she doesn't want me to put her name on the blog), Tiffany, T's bun in the oven,  Brooke Whitney
back:  Stephanie, Doran, me, Nelly

And since Thanksgiving is tomorrow, I just want to say that I am SO thankful for each and every one of you girls and the opportunities we have to get together! (and to my law school girls...just so you don't feel left out...I'm super thankful for you, too!!)

Until February...

a tale of six pumpkins

 Just as we were headed out the door to carve pumpkins at my parents' house on Friday, Blaine walked over to the cabinet above our refrigerator, opened the door, reached inside and pulled out the pumpkin carving tools and templates we bought two years ago (I told you, he doesn't waste a thing). I had forgotten all about them, particularly since I haven't seen them in two years, and because the kitchen in our house is Blaine's domain; it's off-limits to me, except to make an Ego Waffle in the morning.  Anyway, I found it somewhat entertaining/concerning/intriguing that Blaine knew exactly where to look for something we haven't used in two years, yet, not too long ago we couldn't find the spatula for a couple of weeks, and we used it pretty regularly (eventually we found the spatula outside beside the grill).

 Anyway, since Blaine and I hadn't already picked out our pumpkins, we had to stop and get them on the way to my parents' house.  Blaine was so proud of his pumpkin, he felt it was necessary to strap it in with a seatbelt; whereas, I just dumped mine in the floorboard. However, despite my failure to seatbelt my pumpkin, it came through relatively unscathed and was in mint condition when we arrived at my parents' house. 

  

*****

Rather than bore you with the mundane details of  the events leading up to carving, I'll go from here:

We started out with six participants: Jeff and Michelle (my older brother and his wife), Tyler and Bekah (my younger brother and his girlfriend), Blaine, and myself; but with only five pumpkins.

 Well, actually, we had six pumpkins...but Michelle finished before the rest of us (really, she finished before we even got to my parents' house)...which is why she was sitting next to the fire, enjoying a glass of wine and watching the rest of us figure out how we would share one set of pumpkin carving tools (did I mention that Blaine and I were the only ones who knew these tools existed?).

Don't let her fool you though...rather than carve her pumpkin, Michelle decided to revert back to the 80s and opted to create a creepy looking Mr. Potato Pumpkin Head. 

Blaine chose the second easiest design; and therefore, he was finished early enough to help everyone else scrape out their pumpkins.

After spending an hour online looking for the perfect template (I guess the two year old books were too "two seasons ago" for them), Tyler and Bekah finally got started on the actual carving (which really worked well considering we were all using the same set of tools...well, except for Jeff, who insisted on using a giant serving spoon to clean out his pumpkin).

Despite doing things the hard way when it came to cleaning his pumpkin, Jeff implemented a very methodical approach to carving it.

Tyler and Bekah found time to stop and pose for a picture, even after getting off to a slow start.

  

Finally......we thought everyone was finished, so everyone started looking at the finished products; but one pumpkin in particular left my parents perplexed and my dad scratching his head, literally.

During the clean-up, Bekah realized part of her template had been overlooked, she didn't cut out one of the "arms" to her design, which made a huge difference in trying to decipher what she had carved into her pumpkin.  After Bekah carved the arm out of her pumpkin we had six great pumpkins in time for Halloween, pictured below:



Left to right:  Joker (Tyler), Mr. Pumpkin Head (Michelle), Ghost Busters (Bekah)



Left to right:  Mr. Happy (Blaine), Stayin' Alive (Jeff), Haunted House (Alyssa)