Turkey Day success!

I realize this is a tad belated, but here it is anyway. Pictures of the Thanksgiving Day feast!


Yum!



That's my niece peeking at the camera!



Yeah, that's me with the silly smile!

Happy Turkey Day!

I hope y'all's Thanksgiving was as good as mine!

Thanksgiving cooking...

...has commenced. Tonight I am in the middle of making sugar-coated pecans. They're currently in the oven and do the smell GOOD! I even bought a cute little half apron to wear while cooking T'giving dinner. I had a bottle of wine to drink while cooking that Mentsh and Mike gave me, but when I went to open it, I realized I didn't have a corkscrew....guess I don't drink wine enough! I've been drinking chocolate milk instead. I'll have to return to the store for the fourth time to get one...or steal my mom's. I think that is a better idea. I'll steal mom's corkscrew. She's in Thailand. She'll never know. hehe.

Ok, so I just went to stir the pecans and one fell onto the counter, so of course I had to eat it...it was gooooooooood. To those of you that are coming to my dinner, at least we know this will be good!

My house is a toasty 80 degrees inside! And that is with the heat turned off! I had to open my doors and windows to cool things down to 70. Living in a townhouse means I share two walls with neighbours, and they heat my house in the winter. It's nice to be able to air out the house in the middle of November!

Look what Nate did...

Santa is dead!!!!

Too soon!

There is a house in my subdivision that already has Christmas lights up!! What's up with that? I thought tradition dictated that Christmas decorations were not to go up until the day after Thanksgiving. Oh well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em! I guess I'm gonna have to put up my decorations now, too! Man, I love this time of year.

I'm making my first Thanksgiving dinner for the family this year! So I apologize in advance to my family if things do not turn out as planned. Either way, we're gonna have fun!

Happy Halloween!

So...Halloween has come and gone this year. I'm disappointed with this year. Our subdivision got larger, yet there were fewer kiddies. I ended up talking with my neighbor most of the night. Turns out he's a good person to know, as he is a manager at the Krispy Kreme!

I'm looking forward to the next holiday, Thanksgiving. My plans are still not solidified yet, but I'm working on it. My mom and sister will not be here, so I'm on my own.

Happy Birthday!

Today is Titan's birthday!! He turns 5 today! Unfortunately, he had a vet appt today, but he's healthy, so it's all good. He weighed in at 99lbs! We went to Petco and got some fun toys and chew bones, and all is well with the world. After that we went for a mile and a half stroll on the greenway. He is now sound asleep, as a good Weim should be!

Happy Birthday, Titan!

Happy Birthday!

Seein' as how my birthday is being spent primarily alone...I feel the need to sing happy birthday to me:

Happy Birthday to me!
Happy Birthday to me!
Happy Birthday, dear DJ!
Happy Birthday to me!

hehe! I am in a good mood today. It's such a beautiful Fall day today! WONDERFUL!

I met up with a guy friend, Doug, and the two of us and our two dogs walked the greenway for about 3 hours. It was awesome.

I celebrated my birthday early with my family. We went to my favorite restaurant and they even arranged for me to have a Tiramisu cake!! A WHOLE cake of that goodness! It is a beautiful thing! I also got flowers, Irises and Stargazer Lilies. They're beautiful, too!

Today is indeed, a good day! I hope everyone else is having a wonderful day, as well!

Whisky Girl disappoints...

Ok, I'll try to fill in some details on the camping trip.

WG and I decided, fairly last minute, to go camping. We leave around 5pm, still uncertain which campground to grace with our presence. So we must explore our options before it gets too dark. We head up to Sarah's Creek campground and the map we have of it is not complete in our opinion and according to rumors heard there was more offered at this site, so we seek out the validity of these rumors. We head up a Forest Service road in my Rodeo with the back loaded up with two 80lb+ dogs and all our camping gear. We ford a stream a couple times while still encountering campsites. This is where we encountered the scary mountain men camping way back in the woods. None of these were worthy of our purpose this trip so we continued on.

This is when we went off the map. There is probably a good reason why the road was not on the map...it should not have been driven, however my Rodeo handled it without even a hiccup. (Praise God for 4 wheel drive!) We were climbing inclines of more than a 60 degree angle with HUGE holes at least 7" deep to make the ride bumpy on a gravel "road" (if it dare be called a road.) We forded 3 more streams, bottomed out once, but no fear, I got skid plates. WG kept asking if I was sure I wanted to continue, but heck yeah, I was having me some fun! We did notice that a few times there the dogs looked a little worried about the two of us. ;)

So we notice dusk settling in, the headlights were actually being useful, so just before we forded the 6th stream we turned around. (Do the math, I got to drive through moving water 10 times!!) Since we decided not to camp here, we had to go check out the other campgrounds which put us arriving at the final destination next to a beautiful river well past dusk. WG and I got the dogs settled, set up camp, ate supper, made a fire, and drank some sissy wine coolers.

Next day we took it slow. I got both dogs into the river and tossed some tennis balls. That water was COLD! Even the dogs started shivering...eventually. It doesn't matter how cold or tired they are...if a ball is thrown, it MUST be retreived. I think they both slept for about two days after this trip.

Anyhow...this is the run down on the trip, WG, if you think of anything to add, feel free. Embelishments are welcome!

New nephew!!

I now have SIX nieces and nephews for me to hold and love! Daniel James was born September 27 around 6:30pm. He weighed just under 8lbs and 21.5" long. The absolutely awesome part is that I got to cut the umbilical cord... :) I'm spending a couple weeks with my sister helping her while she recovers and gets used to the new "normal".

Request to WhiskyGirl...

WhiskyGirl may be the only way you'd believe the recollection of our exploring the north GA mountains last week. I would appreciate it if WG would type up the story so I can post it.

Counting a blessing

One year ago today my father was in a car accident, and almost died. When he unexpectedly pulled through emergency brain surgery, the doctors told us he would likely need a year to recover fully. Three months later he was returning to work, almost completely recovered. I just want to take a moment to thank my Lord for protecting my father and my family one year ago today.

Thank you, God!

And also a thank you to my Dad for fighting for his life and pulling through a speedy recovery! I love you, Dad, and I'm happy you are still with us, hopefully for many years to come!

Belated Birthday Wishes!!

While I was out of town, I missed posting two birthdays this past week. So...

Happy Birthday, Mentsh!!

Happy Birthday, Dr. Who!!

Doubt these are true, but they sure are funny!

Here are six reasons why you should think before you speak -the last one is great! Have you ever spoken and wished that you could immediately take the words back...or that you could crawl into a hole? Here are the Testimonials of a few people who did....

FIRST TESTIMONY: I walked into a hair salon with my husband and three kids in tow and asked loudly, "How much do you charge for a shampoo and a blow job?" I turned around and walked back out and never went back. My husband didn't say a word...he knew better.

SECOND TESTIMONY: (for hard core golfers) I was at the golf store comparing different kinds of golf balls. I was unhappy with the women's type I had been using. After browsing for several minutes, I was approached by one of the good-looking gentlemen who works at the store. He asked if he could help me. Without thinking, I looked at him and said, "I think I like playing with men's balls."

THIRD TESTIMONY: My sister and I were at the mall and passed by a store that sold a variety of candy and nuts. As we were looking at the display case, the boy behind the counter asked if we needed any help. I replied, "No, I'm just looking at your nuts." My sister started to laugh hysterically. The boy grinned, and I turned beet-red and walked away. To this day, my sister has never let me forget.

FOURTH TESTIMONY: While in line at the bank one afternoon, my toddler decided to release some pent-up energy and ran amok. I was finally able to grab hold of her after receiving looks of disgust and annoyance from other patrons. I told her that if she did not start behaving "right now" she would be punished. To my horror, she looked me in the eye and said in a voice just as threatening, "If you don't let me go right now, I will tell Grandma thatI saw you kissing Daddy's pee-pee last night!" The silence was deafening after this enlightening exchange. Even the tellers stopped what they were doing. I mustered up the last of my dignity and walked out of the bank with my daughter in tow. The last thing I heard when the door closed behind me, were screams of laughter.

FIFTH TESTIMONY: Have you ever asked your child a question too many times? My three-year-old son had a lot of problems with potty training, and I was on him constantly. One day we stopped at Taco Bell for a quick lunch in between errands. It was very busy, with a full dining room. While enjoying my taco, I smelled something funny, so of course I checked my seven-month-old daughter, she was clean. Then realized that Danny had not asked to go potty in a while. I asked him if he needed to go, and he said "No". I kept thinking "Oh Lord, that child has had an accident, and I don't have any clothes with me." Then I said, "Danny, are you SURE you didn't have an accident?" "No," he replied. I just KNEW that he must have had an accident, because the smell was getting worse. Soooooo, I asked one more time, "Danny, did you have an accident?" This time he jumped up, yanked down his pants, bent over, spread his cheeks and yelled "SEE MOM, IT'S JUST FARTS!!" While 30 people nearly choked to death on their tacos laughing, he calmly pulled up his pants and sat down. An old couple made me feel better, thanking me for the best laugh they'd ever had!

LAST BUT NOT LEAST TESTIMONY: This had most of the state of Michigan laughing for 2 days and a very embarrassed female news anchor who will, in the future, likely think before she speaks. What happens when you predict snow but don't get any! We had a female news anchor that, the day after it was supposed to have snowed and didn't, turned to the weatherman and asked: "So Bob, where's that 8 inches you promised me last night?" Not only did HE have to leave the set, but half the crew did too they were laughing so hard!

for your viewing pleasure...

Photos

I told y'all about my trip to Michigan. Well, while I was there, we went to a garden. Here are a few pictures from that little excursion...enjoy. I'm particularly fond of the first picture.

A feminist I am not!

You Are 20% Feminist

You are definitely not a feminist. In fact, you are every feminist's worst nightmare. You believe that women belong in the kitchen.... barefoot and pregnant.

Are You a Feminist?

Been busy, folks

So I finally got to drive up and meet my new nephew last week. He's ADORABLE!! So incredibly handsome considering his dad, but more believable when you look at his mom. :)

After that I got home just in time to unpack, wash clothes, repack and head out to Michigan. Crazy me decided to drive! I picked up two friends along the way. I drove through GA, TN, KY, IN, and MI...14 hours in all. Pretty good time if you ask me. My roommate from college, who lives in MI is adopting a little girl, so all us gals from college went up to help her get her baby room in order and do some catching up. It's hard to believe one of us is finally going to be a mommy now! It's about time! She's also the only one of us that's married. (We're all 27 or 28 now.) It was great having all four of us together again. We got to do a lot of catching up and hanging out.

I'll tell you what...those Michigan-lefts were starting to get irritating. For those of you who don't know what those are...in order to make a left turn, you have to turn right and then do a U-turn to get back to the original 'left'. I kept getting turned around. I'm glad we don't have those down here.

We went to the Coast Guard Festival while we were there. We got to see a few of the ships coming in to dock for the next couple weeks. Yummm...men in uniform. I probably ended up photographing them more than the ships...hehe.

Ok, well, that's a quick catch up...I got family coming into town today, so I'm gonna be quite busy for a while. I'll be back later on, I guess.

I'm an aunt again!

Baby was born. Check him out at Nate's blog!

Got this in an email...

Lawyers should never ask a Southern grandma a question if they aren't prepared for the answer.

In a trial, a southern small-town prosecuting attorney called his first witness, a grandmotherly, elderly woman to the stand. He approached her and asked, "Mrs. Sanders, do you know me?"

She responded, "Why, yes, I do know you, Mr. Desmond. I've known you since you were a young boy and frankly, you've been a big disappointment to me. You lie, you cheat on your wife, and you manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs. You think you're a big shot when you haven't the brains to realize you never will amount to anything more than a two-bit, paper pusher. Yes, I know you."

The lawyer was stunned! Not knowing what else to do, he pointed across the room and asked, "Mrs. Sanders, do you know the defense attorney?"

She again replied, "Why, yes, I do. I've known Mr. Cristofaro, since he was youngster, too. He's lazy, bigoted, and he has a drinking problem. He can't build a normal relationship with anyone and his law practice is one of the worst in the entire state. Not to mention he cheated on his wife with three different women. One of them was your wife. Yes, I know him." The defense attorney almost died.

The judge asked both counselors to approach the bench and in a very quiet voice said, "If either of you idiots asks her if she knows me, I'll send you to the electric chair."

I love dogs!

Oh, and Happy Independence Day!

Fortune cookie...

My fortune cookie tonight reads:

Your talents will prove especially useful this week.

I wonder whom I'll meet this week...

In honor of *you know who you are*

I received my very first drunkdial this past Saturday. Thankfully the reception was not very good, so he was spared much embarrassment...hehe.

Rules of Drunk Dialing

1. Only drunk dial when you are drunk. Everything else is false advertisement.

2. It is okay to call someone 27 times in one night. If you don't remember it, it didn't happen.

3. If you are going to drunk dial a family member, say something nice. Ex. "Mom I'm in McDonald's and they're playing our song. I love you"

4.Dirty talk while drunk dialing is always preferred. Who doesn't want to hear your best raspy, phone sex voice at 3 in the A.M. asking to bend them over something.

5. Voicemails are always better. This way your friend can let their friends have fun at your expense for days, even weeks to come.

6. Drunk texting is alright... If you are prepared to read what you wrote the next day when you are sober.

7. It is definitely a good idea to call all of your exes and remind them that you were the best lover they've ever had and everything they know, they learned from you. This way you can sleep well at night.

8. You can also call this same ex and let them know, that you know, that they still love you. Then explain to them that I would still love me too!

9. If you are a frequent dialer, never get mad if someone dials you. Be happy they thought of you in this special time.

10. It is always a good idea to sing on someone's answering machine or voicemail. Especially a show tune.

11. Drunk dialing should be fun and light hearted or dirty and sex crazed... Never angry.

12. Most likely you will never drunk dial your best friends. They are usually the ones taking your phone away and reminding you that "you have a problem".

13. If you deleted a number sober, it was probably for a good reason. Do not try to retrieve this number. Nothing good can come from it.

14. Always call someone you know. Finding random numbers in phone books is bad and usually leads to angry dialing.

15. If your cell phone dies, remember everything happens for a reason. Never borrow a friend's phone to do your dialing.

16. Drunk dialing to foreign country is usually too costly to be a good idea. But if feel like if you don't call this person you'll just die, break rule 15 and use a friend's phone.

17. Drunk dialing may lead to drunk a unwanted response.... Be prepared!

18. Never, I say again, never drunk dial your boss, preacher, grandpa, or friend's parents. If you are that hard up to call someone, there is an 800 number on Budweiser boxes. The person on the other line always sounds cute, plus I think they are used to drunk dialers

Bike troubles...help!

Ok, I am the furtherest thing from a mechanic...so I desparately need some advice. My Ninja is giving me problems. The battery kept dying on me because I wasn't riding it enough, so I bought a battery tender. Once it was charged again and I got it to start, it's still not happy. It won't idle. I have to pull the choke down all the way to even get it started, and at idle it always wants to die. If I rev it some, it will hang around 3000 rpms for a few seconds and then die. If I let up on the choke any it dies immediately. So you see the common theme here...IT DIES! You fellows got any ideas why or what I need to look at to find out why?

¡Feliz Día del Padre!

Happy Father's Day, y'all! My dad even got a card from the dog this year!

Take me out to the ballgame...

Mike, my bro-in-law, is taking me to a Cubs game that happens to be playing in the Braves stadium. I'll root for any team that is playing against the Braves. Mike is a Cubs fan, and therefore tonight, I, too, am a Cubs fan, complete with a Cubs t-shirt.

UPDATE: Cubs lost...oh well. I had a lot of fun anyhow. It's amazing how many Cubs fans were there. I guess that's due to Atlanta being a transplant city. There was the Atlanta drumline there performing on the way out. They were just a tad sloppy, but they were really there just to have fun, and they did. It felt good to have my innerds thumping to the beat of a drumline again...man, I love that feeling. Mike was great company. Thanks, again, Mike for taking me!

dog fight!

So apparently Titan and Wendy can hold their own when their arch enemy, a Rottie named Zeus, comes after them. But poor Titan's skin is so thin, he's got a puncture wound and a handful of scratches. All is well that ends well, though.

For your viewing enjoyment...

Having fun with the old gang back together again!

That's my Leelee!!

Trail at Sumter Forest.

TGIF just gained bunches of points in my book!

New blogger onboard!

Hey people! I'd like to introduce you to Leelee. We went to college together and we love to hang out together. Go check out her new blog at http://gonetofindmyself.blogspot.com.

So close....

Yesterday my dad and I set off on a trip together, and I made arrangements to have Titan kenneled while I was gone. We walked out to the car and I immediately smelled smoke. I thought it was interesting. I load up Titan to take him to the kennel to drop him off before heading to the airport, and when we pull up to the Vet/kennel, I see yellow CAUTION tape around the parking lot and a fire engine and several dogs on leashes being held by vet assistants in the parking lot. Apparently the building had been on fire. I found out today from the front page of the newspaper (my sister called to tell me) that 12 pets died in that fire. I praise God that I had not dropped Titan off the night before, or one of those pets could have been him! Here is the story from the local paper...

http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id=32&url_article_id=28079&url_subchannel_id=&change_well_id=2

Such a good week already!

It's only Wednesday and I'm already having a wonderful week. My laptop went bad a couple weeks ago and the cost of replacing the parts was almost the value of the computer, so I decided to get a new one. Well, mom and I went shopping for it on Monday, found the one we wanted, but the salesmen were so harrassing, we went home to mull it over. We went back yesterday and found the only chick that works in that department at Fry's and she was great. We really appreciated her. Anyhow, I ended up with an awesome Fujitsu. Windows Vista is taking a bit to get used to, but I like it. The laptop has a fingerprint scanner! It's so cool. All I gotta do to sign on is swipe my finger! Okay, this is only half of the good news for the week...

Monday Mom must have been in a really good mood because after checking out the computers we went to check out the digital cameras. Let me preface this with I received an early inheritance from my dad, a Nikon F5, which is a professional film camera. I also have a Nikon N60, film camera, and a total of three lenses to use on both. So as you might know, Nate and Dr. Who picked up a Nikon D80 a couple months ago that I have been lusting after ever since. In Mom's line of work, a textbook author, she provides her own figures. I'm the photographer for her book. I love doing the photography, and they even used two of my photos for the covers of the books. So, Mom sees the awesome quality of Nate and Dr. Who's camera and decides she needs one as well for her book. Monday she bought one!! And she said I can hold onto it as long as it's available for her purposes while she's writing her books. I've only taken a handful of pictures on it so far, and have definitly not seen it's full potential. I'm very much looking forward to exploring the uses of this camera. I'm excited about it because I can use the lenses I have from the other cameras on this one! I'm posting 2 pics I took this evening.

AWESOME weekend!

I just had an awesome weekend up in the North Georgia mountains with my friend, LeAnn. We got in Friday night, in time to make TWO Walmart runs. Saturday we got up, fixed breakfast, then went to a local dog show. It wasn't the real kind, it was a community deal with classes for "Waggiest Tail" and "Looks most like owner". I brought Titan, but I didn't get there early enough to enter him into any of the competitions. Even so, Titan got plenty of compliments for being such a beautiful dog and having a VERY waggily tail. After that, we went to my all time favorite restaurant, Isabelle's. It's an old white house that has been converted into a restaurant. Their sweet tea is the best, I almost dare say better than mine. After dinner, we decided we needed waterwheel churned ice cream from up by NC. And since we had been in NC, we decided it would only be fair to see SC, too. So we took off in the direction of SC. Twenty minutes later, we were there! The excursion was totally worth it because we happened upon an awesome trailhead down to the river. We also went to the gorge and took pics of the waterfalls. You can see the fog at the top of the pic of the waterfall I posted here. It had to have been the best time of year to do this because all the mountain laurels were blooming. All the pics were taken on my cell phone, so sorry about the quality. After our hiking we went to a drive-in theater...my first time! We saw Spider-Man 3. It was pretty good. I really enjoyed the drive-in atmosphere. The place was really full, I was a little surprised to see it that busy. So that was my fun-filled weekend.

Spring has sprung!

My Confederate Jasmine is in full bloom! It's so beautiful. And it smells even better than it looks. This is my third year with this plant. I love it. It's my favorite plant on the deck, with the Bloodgood Japanese Maple with Creeping Jenny in a close second . I love this time of year, though not as much as Fall.

A first!

This is my niece at her very first piano recital! She was adorable on stage. She played Mary Had a Little Lamb.

Camping!!

Whiskey Girl and I took our niece on her first camping trip! It was just a one-nighter, and we were there for less than 24 hours, but still, she got to sleep "outside". The campsite was awesome. WG found it in a book that I'm thinking I'm gonna have to steal from her. I've posted a picture of the campsite with the awesome view of Lake Lanier. There was a Georgia Red Clay beach and when the weather is a bit warmer and we have more time to be there, swimming would be in order. The niece has already stated she wants to go back with her Daddy some day. Thanks, WG, for gettin' me to come with you. I'm glad I did.

Just for fun...

This picture is a year old, but I like it.

Grrr...

I am SO mad!! I was watching Lost tonight and there was a part where the spoken language was Korean with captions in English. I was all intensely watching it when suddenly Channel 2 Action News pops up with this announcement about news to follow the show that COVERED UP THE CAPTIONS!!! I missed what was said!! I was so mad and yelling at the TV "NOOOO!!!" like that would help remove the popup, which of course it did not! But it did help me feel better!

I wonder how accurate this is...

Men See You As Playful

Men want a challenge and you are the perfect playmate. You know how to push men's buttons and attract a wide range of guys. You enjoy living and loving - it's one of your most attractive qualities. Men are often consumed with desire for you, and you love that!

http://www.blogthings.com/howdomenseeyouquiz

finally...

I'm very much looking forward to the next four weeks. I have no plans for travel so I get to stay home. In honor of this I decided to finally get back to the gym last night. I attended a Pilates class. I'm a bit sore today, but not the bad kind of sore I had expected. I'm excited about being able to settle into a routine again for a while. It will be nice to have time to myself again and not living out of a suitcase. Hopefully those books that have been collecting dust on my bedside table will get read.

been busy, folks...

I spent the entire first week of April up in Tennessee with Dr. Who and family. We went to a Preds game the first Saturday I was there. Dude, that was awesome! First we went to Big River Grill then to the game where we had some awesome seats. (Thanks again, Nate and Dr. Who, for that!) Even though the Preds didn't win, I had a blast. The spectators were so entertaining. They never stopped cheering, and they were constantly yelling to the Refs they "sucked!" Oh, and Tomas Vokoun was awesome once he decided to play after the first period. I gotta say...I love hockey! When I have a little boy, he's gonna learn to play. Maybe even a little girl if she's interested.

Jeb and Eli both loved their presents. Everything turned out well in that area. I was pleased with how much they liked it. And even though that gift said ages 5+, Eli was practially a master at it! It was this electronic cowboy gun that uses an infrared beam to shoot bottles and cans off a log. They pop off, and the bottles even "break" in half.

I had two days to rest when I got back. And then my two nieces arrived. I've got them all to myself for 2 and half days! Their dad is coming in to take over this Friday. I'll still get to hang around and help out over the weekend though. Today we flew a kite because it was very windy. And then we went to Chick-fil-e where there is a playground and had lunch. Now they're having their naptime. When they get up we're going to plant flowers in the backyard! Diggin' in the dirt!! Woohoo!!

With the success of the first 4 nieces and nephews, I'm VERY excited about having 2 more in the family! A growing family is a beautiful thing.

Ok, I hear the girls talking over the monitors. I best go get them ready for gettin' dirty!

Happy Birthday!!

Today is my nephew's 2nd birthday!! I can't believe he's already TWO YEARS OLD! Wow. Happy Birthday!

Ho hum...

Titan is fully recovered. We had some issues for a few days, but he's all better now.

I'm heading up to Tennessee on Friday for a week. Nate is taking off to visit his brother, and I'm coming in for back up while Dr. Who goes off to work. I bought my nephew's 2nd birthday present today! It's awesome! It's labeled for ages 5+, but I have no doubt that he'll be able to handle it just fine. I also got him a book, just in case he doesn't like it as much as I think he will. I am very much looking forward to being with this part of my family. I'll have both Titan, and WG's German Shepherd, Wendy.

Saturday Nate, Dr. Who, and I are all going to a Predators' game!! I'm SO STOKED! I've not seen a Preds game before. Mom told me I saw a hockey game once when I was young, but I don't remember it, so even though it's not technically my first hockey game, it will seem like it. I love hockey 'cause they get to FIGHT!! Woohoo!

I bought bubble bath in the new Bath & Body Works scent, Wild Honeysuckle. I love it! I'm hoping to get to use it tonight if I don't get too distracted watching Lost. Maybe I just need to have a TV installed in the bathroom above the tub like Dr. Who has. Brilliant idea!

Ok, I have 45 minutes before Lost starts, I'm gonna go see about that bubble bath!

I did something mechanical!!

I'm so proud of myself because I did something mechanical!!

My battery on my motorcycle died over the winter because it got booted out of my garage into my mom's. So I kept forgetting to start it up and let it run a while to keep it in shape.

So...I go to Walmart and buy a battery charger.

I remove the battery from my Ninja.

I charge the battery over night.

I reinstalled the battery...and here comes the best part...

THE MOTORCYCLE ACTUALLY STARTED!!! Yay!!

I'm so proud! Anyhow, I got my bike back in shape and ready for a new year of riding!

Happy 1st Day of Spring!!

Spring has sprung! It arrived while we were at the beach. We came home to leaves showing up and the cherry trees started budding. It's so nice. I just hate the Bermuda grass that is still brown! ugh! But the plants on my deck are starting to be revived from the winter. And my camelia FINALLY bloomed! woohoo!

My trip to the beach was not what I had expected. First our flights got cancelled just 3 hours before we were supposed to board, and we were already on the other side of Atlanta by the airport! So I was on the phone with the airline for about an hour, as well as the rental car company. We weren't able to find a new flight that would get us there in time to pick up the rental car before they closed, and the airport was an hour from our destination, so we needed the car when we arrived. So, we just said, "Screw it," and we had our flights refunded and just started driving. This turned out to be a good thing because we got to surprise Whiskey Girl with a visit on our way through for her birthday.

The weather was what they said, though with the wind chill, it was considerably cooler than I expected, but that did not deter me from walking on the beach!! It was fun to see how Mom was so celebrated by her publishing company. They had a Margaritaville party one night. It was funny. Karaoke, limbo, lais, margarita glasses that light up, and good food and margaritas. The second night, mom's contact person at the publisher took us out to eat at an awesome restaurant by the wharf. I had the night's special, which was by far the best meal of the trip. I had filet mignon with cranberry mushroom sauce, sauteed red onion, grilled asparagus, and garlic mashed potatoes. Yum!

After we finished our obligations with the publisher, we took off for the Outer Banks. The island hopping was fun, especially with the ferries. The first ferry was 2 and a half hours! It rained most of that ride, so we just napped in the car. The second ferry was only 40 minutes, and it was clear weather, so we got to watch the waters. Boats are such fun!

We went all the way up to Kitty Hawk and started heading home. We got to see the Wilbur and Orville Wright museum there. It was so interesting to see how far we have come in flight in just 100 years!

On the way home, we had planned to go through Raleigh and see Flannel Avenger, but my sister called and begged and pleaded for us to go the long way home through her town and visit again. So we gave in, and changed our plans. (Sorry about that, FA! After your help on the book, Mom was interested in meeting you.) It was a good visit again. My older sister, Mentsh, and her family were there for the weekend celebrating Whiskey Girl's birthday, too, so we had a limited family reunion, though Nate and Dr. Who and kids were missing! We missed all y'all!

So...that was my week. It was great. I hope yours was, too!

Happy Birthday!!

Today is my sister's, Whiskey Girl's, birthday! She's not old yet, still just under 30!

So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WHISKEY GIRL!!! I love you lots and lots and lots and lots and lots!!

Feel sorry for me...

Tuesday I am being forced to go to Atlantic Beach, NC, to be lazy and do nothing! Woe is me! Unfortunately, it is supposed to rain while we are there, so I guess I'll just have to have fun walking the beach in the rain! I'll love it! We, my mom and I, will be there for about 5 days, and we plan on driving the coast a bit after obligations are met. So as I said before, feel sorry for me; I know I'll be miserable all next week!

Today I feel a little sad...

It always feels weird to walk into a place with my dog and walk out with just a leash and collar. Titan is having a minor surgery today to remove a growth from his paw. Officially, it's a tumor, but nothing serious. The vet said that if it wasn't in such place that it was aggitating to Titan, he would probably just recommend ignoring it.

I know he'll be fine, but I've gotten used to having Titan with me at work and home, and it feels lonely without him here begging to go out and play. Thankfully, I'll be able to go pick him up at 3pm. Though at that time he won't be up for playing much because he'll have a bandaged paw and probably still will be a little drugged.

UPDATE:
Titan has returned to me! He is currently sleeping peacefully here in my office with me. He was such a good patient.

Becoming cultured...

My sister, niece, and I all went to see Swan Lake last night at The Fox in Atlanta. My niece is really into dancing, so that's why we wanted to take her. She is so cute, she drew a picture of a grown up dancer and a baby dancer on a piece of paper, and she brought it with her in the van, and my sister didn't even know she had it until they were already on the road. My niece said she drew it to give to a dancer and she held onto that drawing until the ballet was over. We went to one of the ushers and asked her if she could give it to one of the dancers, and she said that she would MAKE SURE that it got into the hands of one of the dancers. I love it when people validate children and their hearts.

My niece was SO WELL behaved the entire evening. She was full of questions at the beginning of the performance, until finally my sister told her to just listen because she was afraid they would disturb people sitting around us. (We were on the second row, so we all had a close-up view. Even so, the people next to me were using binoculars!) My niece was quite disturbed by the fact that there was a queen with no king in the story. She ended up zonking out shortly after the intermission. She looked so cute curled up in that seat.

Any way you look at it, the night was a success. And I certainly feel more cultured from having gone.

Family

I have such a beautiful family. We have everyone in town this weekend to celebrate some birthdays.

Mom has a new pond/fountain in her backyard, so today we loaded everyone up into three vehicles and caravaned to Petsmart to buy some goldfish to put in it. It was so much fun to go to the store, and we got 22 fish! We hope that maybe 3 or 4 of them will survive. I loved the scene of seeing my family all gathered around the pond watching the fish and just enjoying a beautiful day outside. I hope we get to do this more often now that the weather is starting to cooperate more.

After fish shopping we all went to eat at Chipotle. Man, that was an adventure. We had four children, all 4 and under, and eight adults (4 generations present). I love being in a big family. At suppertime at home we had the four children and ten adults. We somehow managed to fit all of us around the dining room table with the kiddies at a little make-shift kids' table near the two mommies. My two oldest sisters are pregnant, so by the end of this year it will be up to 6 children! What a blast that will be!

It's interesting to think how just 5 years ago when all my sisters and I would get together how the dynamics are so different now that the family has grown in number and maturity. I know that I've experienced a lot in the last five years since I graduated from college that has made me grow up a lot, as well as my sisters. Two became mommies and the other experienced a total life-change by way of changing her career path. It just blows my mind how much we've changed in such a short time. I'm very proud of us all.

A funny thing is that since the older two sisters were married, they used to hold it over the younger two sisters' heads to push us to get married (just a tease, of course!). We then had the retaliation of asking when they were going to start having children, but now that they are both working on child number THREE, my third sister and I are losing a lot of ground for comebacks here! I guess we're both just gonna have to get a move on to finding husbands...ahem.

To those in my family that read this...I love you, and I'm proud to call you my family.

:)

I just want to say I love being an aunt! My nephews and nieces are the most awesome I could ever desire.

Just another day...

however, to whom it matters...HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Yawn!

Oh, man, I am so tired today. To the person responsible...I had a blast, let's do it again some time...

It was decided that from now on, Nate's new ride is to be referred to as "The Pimpmobile". haha.

I am SO ready for some riding weather. Hopefully it won't be long now.

My niece turned THREE yesterday! She is such a sweetheart and is growing up to be such a beautiful little girl. I'm very proud of her. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Darling!

Best Friends!

Superbowl commercial

Thus far I'd have to say that the Taco Bell commercial with the lions would be my favorite. What's your vote?

New blogger on board!

My bestest friend has decided to join the blogosphere ranks...yay!! She's a wonderful gal, and if she's patient enough to put up with me, then she's certainly welcome here.

Boys, be nice!

http://igotfriendsinlowplaces.blogspot.com

a debate of sorts...

I'm having a debate of some sorts. Some people say I'm blonde, others say I'm brunette. Which is it? Please refer to picture below...

Kiddie gifts...

Whiskey Girl and I got Fisher-Price Kid Tough digital cameras for the nieces and nephews these past holidays. Man, those things are awesome! I've yet to see my nephews with theirs, but my nieces LOVE it. The younger, almost 3 years old, will walk 10 steps, take a picture, walk 10 steps, take a picture, and continue on until the memory is full. It's so interesting to see the pictures that she takes from her perspective. Her pictures are level with the tabletop, rather than seeing the rest of the room. She likes to take pictures of her toys and the dogs, particulary Titan's tail! As soon as I get my hands on some of their pics, I'll post some.

Update pic...

Res Ispa, you can relax now...I told you my hair would grow back!

Grr...

So apparently my dog was busy while I was out today...he ate 5 dark chocolate Hershey's bars, 4 pieces of gum, and 2 Tylenol Allergy pills...AND half of those wrappers are missing.

Happy New Year!

Here's to a new beginning of a new year! I hope this one is even better than the last.

Merry Christmas!

Sorry I'm a day late, but I didn't have internet access on Christmas day, which is the way it should be. My dog and I camped out in front of a REAL fire in a house in the mountains and enjoyed the company of family. We had steaks for Christmas dinner, it was great. We played some Scrabbit and put together a puzzle of the Tybee Island lighthouse.

Here's something funny...we couldn't find our stockings so we had Christmas baskets this year...oh well, at least Santa still came!

Merry Christmas, y'all!

So this is what happens to bored people...

Place an X by all the things you've done, or remove the X from the ones you have not. This is for your entire life!
1. ( ) Smoked a cigarette
2. ( ) Drank so much you threw up
3. (x) Had feelings for someone who didn't have them back (not since high school)
4. ( ) Been arrested
5. (x) Gone on a blind date
6. ( ) Skipped school
7. ( )Watched someone die
8. ( ) Been to Canada
9. (x) Been to Florida
10. (x) Been to Mexico
11. (x) Been on a plane
12. (x) Been lost (Mom lost me in Gatlinburg when I was a child)
13. (x) Been on the opposite side of the country
14. (x) Gone to Washington, DC
15. (x) Swam or waded in the ocean
What happened to 16??
17. ( ) Cried yourself to sleep
18. ( ) Played cops and robbers...
19. ( ) Recently colored with crayons.
20. ( ) Sang karaoke
21. (x) Paid for a meal with only coins
22. (x) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't?
23. (x) Made prank phone calls (I did in junior high, and I sucked, mainly 'cause the kid's mom answered and I told her who I was! stupid! stupid! stupid! I hadn't caught on to the concept, I guess)
24. (x) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose
25. (x) Caught a snowflake on your tongue
26. (x) Danced in the rain
27. (x) Written a letter to Santa Claus (It was a school assignment.)
28. ( ) Been kissed under the mistletoe
29. ( ) Watched the sun rise with someone you care about
30. (x) Blown bubbles
31. ( ) Made a bonfire on the beach
32. ( ) Crashed a party
33. (x) Gone roller-skating
34. (x) Ice-skating
35. Any nicknames? Darlin, Joyous
37. Mother's name? Jean
38. Favorite drink? sweet mint iced tea
39. Tattoo? no
40. Body piercing? Yes - but only ears
41. How much do you love your job, from 1-10? 6
42. Birthplace: Murfreesboro, TN
43. Favorite vacation spot? anywhere away
44. Ever been to Africa? No
45. Ever eaten cookies for dinner? Yes
46. Ever been on TV? No
47. Ever steal any traffic signs? No
48. Ever been in a car accident? yes
49. 2 Door or 4 Door? 4 door
50. Salad dressing? honey mustard
51. Favorite pie? pecan
52. Favorite number? 7
53. Favorite movie? My Fair Lady
54. Favorite dessert? cake blended with cookies-n-cream ice cream
55. Favorite food? Southern
56. Favorite day of the week? Saturday
57. Favorite brand of body soap? Dove
58. Favorite tooth paste? Crest
59. What time is it now? 10:43pm
60. Favorite smell? Bob's Flowershop Candle scent
62. What do you do to relax? watch TV
63. How do you see yourself in 10 years? No clue, but ten years ago I thought I'd be living in Colombia today, so I've resigned myself to not knowing.
64. What do you do when you are bored? Respond to questionairres such as this...hehe

I hate it when this happens...

I woke up this morning, flipped on the tv, and all the cable channels had been rearranged. I feel so disoriented! I go to what should be USA and it's SciFi. Very irritating. Maybe this can be attributed to my bad day today.

Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Though I had porkchops and ham instead of turkey, it has been a decently good day.

Hope y'all's has been good.

Moral dilemma...

Ok, how many of you Christians out there don't celebrate Halloween? How many of you do?

I was raised trick-or-treating, then one year, after I was in Junior High, my family learned some of the history of Halloween, and we stopped celebrating it. No more trick-or-treating, no more costumes, no more rolling houses, no more Jack-o-lanterns, no more popcorn balls, and no more Halloween parties. I didn't mind this all that much 'cause I was getting too old for all that anyhow. But now is where my dilemma comes to play...

Do I continue to not celebrate Halloween by handing out candy? Or do I join in the community fun Halloween night and pass out cavities to all the young'uns? I don't see how much of anything about Halloween that celebrates God's character, other than God just likes to have fun. I think I've decided to go ahead and hand out the candy. I've already bought the candy and this awesome bowl to pass it out with. I guess I'm just sort of leaning towards just handing out the candy, but not going all out with decor and whatnot.

Let me tell you about this bowl. I walked by it in Kroger, and it called to me...literally. It said, "Want some candy?" It's got a mechanical hand that sticks up the middle of the bowl and it grabs for your hand whenever you reach in for the candy. It scared me as I walked by, as it is motion activated. It scared me again as I reached in to see it work again. It scared me again as I walked with it in my cart. It scared me again as it was in a plastic sack and I set it in the back of my Rodeo and the sack moved. If it hadn't been so successful at scaring me, I wouldn't have bought it...hehe. When I got back to the house, I set the sack on the counter and told my sister to go see what I bought...she jumped. I love this bowl.

Anyhow...y'all have a safe and fun Halloween!

Happy Birthday...

to Titan!!! He is now 4 years old!! That's 28 in human years...he's now officially older than I am. I'm so glad to have him with me. He's such a good dog...just ask Nate!

Happy Birthday...

to ME!!!!! I turn 27 today!! Woohoo! My most wonderful birthday gift was to have my dad back in Atlanta!

I'm busy...

My dad is in the hospital after having an auto accident.

Assinine

So last Sunday I was driving a friend to the airport so she could return home to Germany. We get caught at the railroad crossing and counted 83 cars and 3 engines go by. There was a cop sitting perpendicular to us on our side of the tracks. After the train passed, he immediately pulled us over. I hadn't done anything illegal in just crossing the tracks, but I noticed my friend had tucked the shoulder strap of her seatbelt under her arm so it may have appeared to the cop that she wasn't wearing the seatbelt. We pull over, and he walks up to her side of the car. She rolls down the window.

I didn't know this, did you? He tells us that he saw she had her seatbelt on incorrectly and warned me that I could get a ticket for merely wearing the seatbelt incorrectly, but he wouldn't give me one. I had figured that as long as the seatbelt is on, it's on. I said thanks and continued on my way.

So much for Natural Selection!

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to my brother, Mike! Mike is actually my brother-in-law, but he's been in the family long enough he's more of a brother now. Love you, Mike! Hope you have a good one!

Go Cubbies!!

To be or not to be...

My friend and I went to Six Flags Over Georgia a few weekends ago. I got a bit of a headache from the ride Deja Vu, and ended up needing some time to sit, so we decided to go to one of the shows. We went to the Honky Tonk show. They sang and danced/acted to current country hits, occasionally interacting with the audience.

My friend and I are sitting there, front row, minding our business when one of the 'cowboys' comes up and sits next to me and puts his arm around me while singing a song. Now normally I would be totally flattered by this, but the song he's singing kinda influences my reaction..."I like my women on the trashy side"

Or maybe I am flattered after all...

Bad joke

All last night I dreamed I was a tailpipe...

...wait for it...

...and this morning I was exhausted!


Another bad joke thanks to Rose from Golden Girls.

Gee...thanks, lawmakers.

I receive a monthly newsletter from my town. There was an article on page 9 of 12, "New state laws may impact you"... so I read.

The one I choose to write about is the first listed: Right to self defense. I didn't know I needed permission to defend myself from a bad guy! It says I don't have a duty to retreat. Well...duh! If I'm being attacked, is there actually a law out there that assinine enough to say that I can't defend myself? This new law says that I would have immunity from criminal prosecution for defending myself or property with deadly force, unless I use a weapon I'm not allowed to carry or possess, which I have my CCL, so I don't worry about that.

Anyway, I thought it was very generous of the State of Georgia to allow me to defend myself with every means possible.

One year ago

One year ago I brought home my motorcycle. I love it even more now than I did then. Hard to believe. I'm riding well, and enjoying it more and more.

Catholic Gasoline

This one's for you, EP...

Sister Mary, who worked for a home health agency, was out making her rounds visiting homebound patients when she ran out of gas. As luck would have it, a gas station was just a block away.

She walked to the station to borrow a gas can and buy some gas. The attendant told her that the only gas can that he owned had been loanded out, but she could wait until it was returned.

Since the nun was on the way to see a patient, she decided not to wait and walk back to her car. She looked for something in her car that she could fill with gas and spotted the bedpan she was taking to the patient.

Always resourceful, she carried the bedpan to the station, filled it with gas, and carried the full bedpan back to her car.

As she was pouring the gas into her tank, two men watched from across the street. One of them turned to the other and said, "If it starts, I'm turning Catholic."

More truth than fiction

I got this in an email...enjoy...

A Somali arrives in Minneapolis as a new immigrant to the United States. He stops the first person he sees walking down the street and says, "Thank you Mr. American for letting me in this Country, and giving me housing, food stamps, free medical care and free education!"

But the passerby says, "You are mistaken, I am Mexican."

The man goes on and encounters another passerby. "Thank you for having such a beautiful country here in America!"

The person says, "I no American, I Vietnamese."

The new arrival walks further, and the next person he sees he stops, shakes his hand and says, "Thank you for the wonderful America!"

That person puts up his hand and says, "I am from the Middle East; I am not an American!"

He finally sees a nice lady and asks suspiciously, "Are you an American?"

She says, "Now, I am from Russia!"

So he is puzzled, and asks her, "Where are all the Americans?"

The Russian lady looks at her watch, and says..."Probably at work...."

well, well...

I wish I had more of a life to post about right now, but alas, I do not. There have been two things that have usurped my time the last few months, and will continue to do so for the next couple months.

We are still in the middle of revisions for the books. That means that sometimes, usually once a week, I work until midnight to meet a deadline, but I usually get to sleep in the next day. That's one thing that consumes time right now: work. I'm currently in negotiations with my boss, aka Mom, about my hours, and I think we'll get this beast under control soon.

The other thing that consumes my time, which is work related, and family related, is babysitting. It's a perk of the job. I get to babysit my two wonderful nieces at least once a week for a day. It's wonderful. I LOVE getting to be a regular part of their lives. I didn't know that as a child, having involved extended family. However it is time consuming, but it's one I'm glad to be able to provide. This is one of the blessings I count for still being single. If I was married, or even involved with someone, I wouldn't be able to dedicate as much time to travelling to see Dr. Who, Nate and their sons, Mentsh, her husband and daughters, my dad and stepmom, or Whiskey Girl. It's important to me to cultivate these relationships while I have the time in singlehood to devote because they are SO WORTH IT!

Anyhow, this has been a brief update in the life of JOY!

Too good to be true...

This picture happened upon me. It seems appropriate that Nate's new love is cohorting with Peeps!, his other love...

Saturday's Ride...

Ok, so Nate says I have to write up something. First off, this is a pic of me on Little Red. All in all it was an excellent day. First, Nate showed me how to change the oil in LR in the morning. Then he and I hit the road with no destination other than North for the afternoon. That evening we went to the pool with the family. At night I stayed home with 4 sleeping kids while the rest of the adults went to see X-men 3.

Ok, for the ride... Well, I did pretty good. Nate seems to think that I can ride; I'm not so certain, but I have fun while trying to be safe. I only stalled a couple times. Both times were towards the first of the trip. The second was kinda embarrassing. I forgot to downshift at a red left turn light. When it turned green I didn't move. I ended up costing all the cars behind me the entire green turn light. Oops. Oh, and I finally learned how to smoothly downshift.

We rode around Lake Lanier some. Saw pretty sailboats. You'll notice one picture of Nate by the water. There was a little peninsula right in front of him. I tried to get him to go out there so I could get a pic of him there on his dirt bike, but he was too chicken... He said it was too uncivilized!!

And one more story on Nate. If you read over at his place, you'll notice a reference to "blowing past" a guy on a Harley. Well, what he didn't mention is that as soon as he passed him, he ran out of gas! Yep! He switched to reserve, and we found a gas station to fuel up again. It's just good that he didn't run out of gas while he was trying to blow past the other biker, that would've been too embarrassing.

Anyway...It was a blast. I can't wait to go again. Riding with someone is a ton more fun.

Saturday's Ride...

Nate is the storyteller, so if you want the stories, you need to visit his site: www.bloggerblaster.blogspot.com.

Saturday's Ride...

Nate is the storyteller, so if you want the stories, you need to visit his site: www.bloggerblaster.blogspot.com.

Flower and Leaf

Here's a sampling of my amateur photography...

Yuppyville

I'm getting a bit too close to being a yuppie than I'm comfortable with. I recently got an iPod nano to listen to music while I'm riding my Ninja. I also decided that I need to get my body condition into better shape, so I researched and found a gym that I love. When I go to the gym, I take my iPod, just like EVERYONE else! As I was walking back to my car today, I just had a hard time accepting what a yuppie I've become.

Let me tell you about this gym...it rocks. It's got like a hundred weight machines and another hundred cardio machines. It's got 4 raquetball courts, basketball court, various exercise classes (I took the Pilates class last Monday, and I'm STILL sore), really nice and clean locker rooms with a sauna inside each locker room, heated indoor pool, hot tub, and more! I love it. Even though I'm not in good shape, I still feel comfortable there because people keep to themselves, so I don't feel pressure, and there are a lot of average people that go.

All in all, I'm having fun. I hope y'all are, too.