Can I see your ID please?

That was the wonderful question I was asked by a 19 year old cashier at Wal-mart. Of course I pull out my ID for him... 

What was I buying? a movie

I looked at him and asked if he thought I was younger than 17. He didn't respond. I seriously was not trying to be rude... just slightly confused. 

Then as I walked away I was even more confused... enough to check the movie to see that in fact it was rated PG-13. Wow! 

Many questions ran through my head all at once...

Do I look 13? How did I get to the store? Is my mom waiting outside to take me home? (miss you mom!) Would my husband approve of my PG-13 movie? How does work feel about me dressing like a 13 year old? Would my landlord still rent to me if he knew I was 13? Did I really enter college at the ripe age of 8?  Could I work in a bank at the age of 11? Should I take back the wine I bought last night and confess to Wal-mart that I am in-fact 13 and should not have been sold the wine? No, Wait... I should report Wal-mart for selling to minors... I gotta go call the cops   =) 

ttyl (that stands for "talk to ya later" for all of you who don't speak the language of us 13 year olds)

The things that help me organize...

There are five things that help me organize today... I can't choose just one so I am putting them all together...

Mamma Mia!

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

Message in a Bottle

The Notebook

Roman Holiday ( With Audrey Hepburn... one of my favorites!)

With these as my support how can I go wrong?

They are all going in the DVD player and then I will have to choose where to start!

Friends?

So what do you think will the dog and cat ever be friends?

Now Cooper has stopped chasing Copper. But the question is will they ever be trusted alone?

This picture is deceiving they look like they like each other... trust me the are on either side of the door...

Fire!

The past couple of days Charlie has been warming us up with a fire... Thank you baby! I love it!

Snow

One thing I love about being in the mountains is snow... here are some pictures of snow at our home...

This is from last week...

This is from Today!

not sticking... just snowing!

Charlie and Isabella

I love to watch Charlie with our nieces and nephew.

These are some pictures from Christmas of Charlie with Isabella

Adorable!

The what?

When we were in Georgia over Christmas we passed this sign. It was on the corner in Rockmart. We used to live about 15 minutes from here.

The Flea Marpet? Anybody ever heard of this kind of thing before?

Shank Christmas

Christmas with my family was on the Saturday after Christmas. Everyone was able to get together and enjoy the day together.

This is my dad in his office with his Santa hat... Cute

The Christmas tree!

Lauren trying to figure out her camera

Taking pictures of each other... Check out what the other side of this picture looks like.

What a beautiful ring. Good job Brother! October 17th is coming quickly! 

Cooper cam along for the trip and was able to play with Jason's Dog, Zero!

Isabella was elated to find Marshmellows!

Then confused why she could not eat them...

What an adorable outfit! Check out the boots!


Mom and me... aren't we beautiful?!


Isabella was talking to mommy(Annie) about the baby in her tummy. Isabella said she had a baby in her tummy and then asked everyone else including Lauren if they had a baby in their tummy. I think it might have caught Lauren off guard. We had a good laugh!

Chad... Juggling it up

Lauren and Jason... All smiles!

How adorable is that little hat?

Lauren liked her countdown clock (same one I used)

This is dad after he told her the clock is what she was opening... oops!

Charlie in a tickle war with Isabella. Adorable!

Gamma and Isabella Sharing crackers

Adorable red coated Isabella!

What a wonderful Christmas dinner.

Christmas Letter

This is my first Christmas letter ever... I sent it out just before Christmas and wanted to share it on here as well...

Merry Christmas!!!

This is our first full holiday season together and I could not be more excited to decorate, cook, and spend time with Charlie, family and friends.
This time last year we were in full wedding mode and I was graduating from Georgia State. My graduation was more than happy to take a back seat to our wedding. I of course had the option to stick around to go to my graduation on Sunday December 16th after our wedding on the 15th. But that would mean waiting one more day to leave for our honeymoon. I desperately desired the break with my new husband so off we went to the Florida Keys for perfect temperatures and 6 days of rest.
Arriving home to Dallas, GA brought the fun and excitement of setting up house and beginning Christmas traditions. The one tradition I wanted to begin last year was making chili on Christmas Eve. I cooked up a wonderful pot and just about the time I was done cooking and ready to serve up my new tradition the water in the house quit on me. There was no warning. It just stopped! My initial thought was that the well we were on went dry. I mean we were in the middle of a GA drought. Charlie quickly informed me that if that were the case it would not have gone from full water power to none in an instant. Feeling silly and waterless we ate dinner, which was yummy for my first chili attempt by myself. To make this long story shorter… The pipe between the well and the house broke and since it was Christmas it took over a week to get it completely fixed.
Frustrated with the water situation we hopped in the car in search for a break and running water. We ended up in Virginia and West Virginia for 4 days. Exploring the countryside and beautiful scenery. We ended up in the small tourist and historical town of Lewisburg, WV. It was beautiful and full of fun surprises.
Once home, Charlie was thriving in his construction business. He continued to have jobs come up and stayed constantly busy despite a declining housing market in Atlanta. He loved what he was doing but continued to look for opportunities for us to move North at some point.
In May Charlie’s Grandpa (Ralph Grady) passed away. Charlie is strongly influenced by his Grandpa’s work ethic and faith in Christ. We are blessed by knowing he is now alive in Christ and a whole and healthy person in heaven. The legacy that Grandpa leaves behind is one of 4 children, 13 grandchildren, and a growing number of great grandchildren. We made the trip to Iowa and enjoyed spending time remembering this wonderful man and the impact he had on so many lives.
Soon after our trip to Iowa we decided to move to Waynesville, NC. Charlie had a wonderful opportunity to close his business in GA and join forces with a construction company out of Franklin NC. Planning and the move came quickly. By the end of July we had a place to live and job prospects for me in the Western NC area. We moved in and I quickly fell in to place in a job at Western Carolina University as an Office Manager. Charlie spent time going between NC and GA finishing a final job in GA and still keeping us together as much as possible. After a few months of back and forth we were finally able to settle into the mountains and begin to enjoy the beautiful colors of the fall season.
We are finding ourselves in love with the mountains and the small community of Jonathan Creek that we live in. Charlie is enjoying weekends of trips to the rivers close by that offer great fly-fishing. His time fishing is the perfect way to relax and truly enjoy living in the mountains.
Thanksgiving brought an opportunity for us to take a trip to San Antonio, TX to see Pop and Doris (My mom’s dad and his wife). They are an adorable and fun couple. We enjoyed the time we were able to spend with them.
We feel so blessed to have had a fun and adventurous first year as a married couple. We hope this letter finds you in good health and surrounded by family and friends for the Christmas season.


Love,
The Bergens!

New Years

For New Year's we had Ben and Anna over. I really enjoyed having them stay at our house. 

On New Year's Eve Ben and Charlie went Quail hunting. They brought 13 home for us to cook for dinner.

I tried to take a self portrait of Charlie and I and he kept  making silly faces... no smile for the camera, so we will just post this one!

Anna locked Ben outside to try and get him to agree to stay up till midnight.  We were all asleep by 11pm.

Ben found a new friend... Don't let the disgusted look on his face fool you. He loved the cat.

Here is the beginning of cooking the Quail. Yum!

After dinner while the boys watched some history channel special, Anna and I played an exciting game of Phase 10!

New Year Resolution:

Drink more water

Sleepy Puppy on my Lap

As you might have read in my past post Charlie and I went to see Marley and Me this weekend which has really made us desire the closeness of our puppy.. (2 years old still all puppy). Right now he is sleeping in between us on our love seat. This is a Mac Picture of him

So adorable!

I know

I have a bit of blogging to catch up with and I promise to get to that soon but I wanted to share a weekend update.

I am not excited to go back to work tomorrow but am ok with getting back into my routine. Plus I had a wonderful weekend to send me back.

-New Years day was full of shopping a wonderful lunch at PF Changes and going to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with Anna. This movie is a must see and I have to admit it is a weird concept but really gets you thinking. (tissues needed)

Charlie spent the day with Ben fishing and he caught 12 fish. 

-Friday I spent the morning packing away Christmas. It was very refreshing to pull the 22 strands of lights off of the tree! Charlie came and picked me up around 2pm so I could go by a job-site with him in Asheville then we could have a night out. We went to see Yes Man it was a funny movie. I was afraid it was going to be another Liar Liar but it surprised me and I enjoyed the laugh of my husband next to me. We had Dinner at Carrabba's Italian Grill another yummy meal!

-Saturday began with the attempt to sleep in... that didn't work so after breakfast we headed to Asheville again. We decided we wanted to see a couple of movies using our regal gift card that some of my family gave Charlie for his last birthday. We made it to an 11:30 showing of Marley and Me. Wow! What a movie. I felt like they hit some of the tough life choices and most definitely took you along for the emotional ride. I'm not going to lie you need a box of tissues (or a handful of napkins if you left your tissues at home like I did). But I loved it! Must see!!

We went for lunch a little shopping before going back to the Theater for Valkyrie. I wasn't sure if there could be a better movie out then the 3 I had already seen this week but this definitely topped the charts. With this movie, since it is based on a true story, there was no mystery as to how it would end. For me it came down to the basic fact that it told the story of a few officials in the Nazi party that challenged the ideals and foundations that the party was built on. They believed so completely that what was going on was wrong that they were willing to do whatever it took to make a stand against their party. Another movie that needs tissues. This was an inspirational and challenging movie. Are you willing to stand up for what you believe is right?

We made our way home with take out Doc Chey's. What an awesome Saturday!

Sunday- Charlie and I woke up and decided to go to Joey's Pancake House in Maggie Valley for Breakfast before church.

I was very excited in church when the Pastor announced that starting next week the Sunday School Classes before the Sunday worship services are going to be going through Focus on the Family's: The Truth Project. You can ask Charlie I just about came unglued from my seat. I almost immediately sent a text message to my Brother, Jason, who introduced our family to The Truth Project back in November. He mirrored my excitement by texting back "cool. go to it". I know it will be a commitment to come to Church an hour earlier but I am excited and ready to go! 

Charlie and I had a relaxing afternoon and evening at home rearranging furniture and doing laundry! :)

What a good way to motivate and get me to go back into the work world tomorrow!

Have a good week back!

A Bergen Christmas

We spent Christmas Day and the day after Christmas with all of Charlie's family in Dallas, GA.

I was in charge of pies for after Christmas dinner. The first Apple pie attempt was a little burnt. I made it at my parents and decided to go ahead and make another pie and I left the first one at my parents. They said it was good.

This is the result of the second apple pie attempt. It was wonderful. I also made a Cherry and Chocolate pie.

My theme for his years gift wrap was "Brown paper packages tied up with string" Then I picked an ornament out for each family member. This is at the Bergen's on Christmas morning. 

We gave Doster a little toy shot gun. He absolutely loved it and was so excited to try it out. Notice Caroline in the back? She is wearing the vest we gave her over her nightgown. 

Doster did so well shooting the gun up in the air away from the people all around him.

I was the official turkey slicer...

I love this picture of Charlie helping Caroline out on her new roller skates. She was a little unstable. Don't you love Doster playing his new guitar on his leg like a pro?

Merry Christmas Bergens!