Almost Forgot

I mentioned in my last post that Amberly, Sarah, Abby Grace and their Grammy came over last Sunday. Well I forgot to tell you about the sweet House Warming present that they brought me.




In case you can't tell what it is, it is a basket filled with kitchen towels (that I am sure I will monogram very soon) and a big serving fork and spoon. There was also a pretty white pitcher/vase filled with flowers and a smaller pitcher/vase that Abby Grace picked just for me.

It was so nice of them to bring me such a sweet and thoughtful gift. I am sure I will find the perfect spot for them in my new house.

12

No that is not how many readers I have lost due to the length of time since my last post. That is approximately how many boxes I have left to unpack. YEA!! Unfortunately I am down to boxes that I moved from my old old house four and a half years ago or boxes that I don't have a good spot to the stuff in them just yet. I am thinking that means I have AT LEAST 12 boxes too many.

I have been moved for about two and a half weeks now and things are finally starting to come together. I have found my shoes (which all but three pairs were lost for the first week). I lost all my dirty laundry until yesterday. Fortunately I (being a single person) can get by with doing laundry about once a month as opposed to once a day. :-) It is found now and I really should have run the washer tonight.

I never realized how much stuff I have until the movers dropped off all of my furniture and six million boxes. Good grief there were a lot of boxes! I should know... the broken down empty boxes are still sitting in my garage. It is times like these when I remember why my family never moved in all of my years growing up. Quite simply, we are pack rats and it's way too much trouble for pack rats to move.

I fully intend to get rid of at least a few things as I get everything settled but at this point I am still trying to get it all put away so I can get all of the boxes out of my house... and I will figure out what to get rid of later on.

I promise to put up some pictures but if I put up pictures now you would all just think I was a very poor housekeeper. The place is pretty dirty. Cleaning has not taken a priority since I moved and it is almost embarrassing. Amberly, Sarah, Abby Grace and their Grammy came over Sunday night after church and I was so happy they came but felt kind of bad that (a) the place was so dirty and (b) that I had not been to the grocery store since I moved.

Hopefully before too long I will be able to improve my role as house keeper and hostess...

Job Update - Two weeks down...

It has been a busy couple of weeks around here and I'm sorry I haven't updated you all on my job situation. Things are getting better every day. I have read more in the past two weeks than I have probably read in the past year. When I look bored or ask if there is anything I can look at, I get something new to read. Yippee. I realize that is the only way to get background information but I find it rather boring. I'm not much for sitting still and when you are reading that is about all you are doing.

But last week I did have a few tasks and I was taken to a few meetings... so things are looking up. Most people would find the tasks rather mundane and boring... but I was just happy to have ANYTHING real and tangible to work on. I have no clue what tasks I will have this week and hopefully that doesn't mean there is nothing for me to do. I knew from the start that I was coming in at a slow time but I don't think I have ever been this un-busy at a job in about ten years.

Oh well. The people are still great... the subject matter is interesting and I know that eventually they will give me more to do. They did hire me for a reason right? :-) In all seriousness, my boss told me that there is going to be some shuffling of duties around the first of April and after that I will have more responsibilities. So until then I just have to keep trying to impress him and make sure he realizes I can do it and would really like something to do. :-)

On the other side of things... this is going to be a busy week. I closed on my new house in my new town last Friday and I will be moving in this Friday. I am getting more excited (and stressed) about it... but I will share more about that as it gets closer to the end of the week.

First Day

Do you remember your first day of college? I do. I know it hasn't been that long ago (only 10.5 years ago) but I remember it vividly. I remember what I wore. I remember the car I drove to class. I remember where I parked my car and walking to my 8 AM Chemistry class. I remember breaking into a sweat and starting to panic when I could not find the building for my Chemistry class. I remember stopping someone on the quad and asking them which building it was (I am sure they thought I was a moron). I remember losing my footing on the stairs and sliding down about five stairs in my sandals. I remember being so glad that I did not fall on my rear end when I did that.

I made it through my Chemistry class and as soon as class was over I went back to my grandmother's house (where I was living and where my parents were still were helping me get settled). I went to my room crying because I wanted to go back home. I had changed my mind... I didn't want to go college... I wanted to go back home. I couldn't do it. Fortunately my parents did not let me do that and I adjusted... and I loved college so much.

Well today I felt a little bit like that. I was not late and I did not get lost (well not really... I did overshoot and go down the wrong hall on my way to the bathroom). I made it through the day without crying and I did tell my boss that I would be back when he jokingly asked if I was coming back tomorrow. But there is some part of me that wanted to run back to my old job and see if they would take me back. Nothing went wrong particularly, in fact the day really went okay. I just don't like change.

For the better part of ten years I had become the expert in my office on everything. Well not everything... but I did know most everything that was going on in the office. And today I walked into a world where I know nothing. I mean absolutely nothing. There is not a single thing about my old job that translates to my new job... except my ability to use a telephone and a computer. Seriously. I guess I should feel flattered that they think I can learn the new information... but for today, I am a bit overwhelmed.

And I'm not going to run back to my old job. The people in my new job are very, very nice and they don't expect me to know things yet. They are going to help me learn them but for now I am just going to have to accept being the dumb blond who is lost in a fog.

Fortunately I do have a friend from church and from graduate school who has worked with this group for about two years. He came in my office/cubicle this afternoon and said "has anyone even explained what we do?" I just smiled and just shook my head no. He took me to his office and for about 45 minutes I felt like I was not a moron. He explained things so that I understood them and while I am sure I did not retain all of the terms he threw at me, I was very thankful for him taking the time to explain some things to me.

So I made it through the first day. I am going back for day two and hopefully I will make it to day three. :-) I will keep you posted.

The End of an Era

Well "era" is probably too strong of a word... but Friday was my last day at my job. I have been there for four and a half years and almost ten years if you count the time I worked as a student. It has been a great experience for me but I have decided to move on. There are some parts of me that thought yesterday would never happen and I know that many of my family and friends were not sure I would ever leave... but I did leave... and Monday starts a new phase in my life.

But let's back up to Friday first. Friday was time for my going away party! I really do not like being the center of attention, so I was a little nervous about the party. I got even more nervous when people started asking me what I was going to say in my speech (you mean I have to give a speech?!?!). And my nerves reached a new level when they closed me in my office and said, "wait here until we come and get you."

When they did come and get me I was brought into a room filled with people who I knew and who I had worked with over the past ten years. Most were faces from my immediate office area, others had traveled several hours to be there. I was blown away!! I was expecting a small party with a few people, maybe a cake and maybe a small gift. They totally exceeded my expectations.
This was the most unexpected face that I saw.

I'm not sure if anyone remembers this post from last December but this is my retired trooper friend, Captain K, who I was so surprised to see at the conference last year. I did not squeal this time... but only because I had a room full of people staring at me. He traveled several hours just to be there yesterday, just for me. That made me feel very special. It was so thoughtful of the people who organized the party to think to invite him and it was so sweet of him to make the effort to be there.

My best friend Leslie was of course there...

I know I will see her plenty even after I move, so yesterday is certainly not going to be the last time I see her.

Over the past year or so, I have gotten to be very good friends with our Administrative Assistant Elizabeth.

I am going to miss her a lot and I think she is going to miss me as well. We are right about the same age and so we have had no trouble finding things to talk about and laugh about at work. I am sure we will stay in touch after I move as well.

I don't have pictures of everyone but I do have one more to share. This is one of my professors from undergrad, Dr. Dan. I have known him since I was a little kid and he was friends with my grandparents. Whether he knows it or not, he has been a big influence on my life over the years.


The folks that organized the party totally outdid themselves. Here was the cake that they got... it was huge and quite tasty.


Given that I work with a relatively small group, there were lots and lots of people that came to the party and I was happy to see each and every one of them.

I got two beautiful gifts from the group. I got a beautiful Lenox crystal vase and I will think of them every time I see it. I think I already know the perfect spot for it in my new house. I also got this great framed print.

It is a notable landmark on campus and it will look great hung with my college diplomas. Leslie also got me a sweet Willow Tree figurine of two friends. It is very special to me and is already sitting on my fireplace.

I did make it through my speech, although it was completely off the top of my head. I should have prepared a little more for that but it turned out okay. The party was a lot of fun and for the record, I did not cry. I almost cried during Dr. Dan's speech and during Captain K's speech but I held it together. There are certain things that will always make me cry but apparently this is not one of them. No one is dying, no one is sick, no ones dog died... I am just moving on. It will of course be different but I feel like I will see all of these people again one day. And with the world of communication where it is, staying in touch is so much easier than it was even a few years ago.

So on Monday morning, I won't be going to the same office where I have been going every day for the past four and a half years. I won't be seeing the same faces I am accustomed to seeing. Here are a few of the faces I am accustomed to seeing every morning. These are some of the programmers that I have worked with.

I am sure I will see them all again, but for now I will have to make new friends, find new people to laugh with, new people to bounce ideas off of, new people to complain to, and new "work" friends to have adventures with. I will be the new girl who knows nothing, knows no one and won't even know where the bathroom is. It's a little scary... and a little sad... but I think it is for the best. At least I sure hope so.

Ch... Ch... Ch... Changes

I am not a person who likes change. In fact, I DISlike it and typically avoid it. I like the rut that I tend to live in. But change is not always a bad thing... and the past week has certainly been a week full of changes.

Last Friday I got a job offer that I had been hoping for in a town about an hour away. It's all been a blur since then. Last weekend I made pro and con lists for both jobs and both cities and eventually decided to take the new job.

Monday was definitely the worst day. I thought I was going to throw up on my bosses desk when I walked in to turn in my notice. I did not throw up and I felt about 1,000 times better after I finished telling him. Then I was able to call and formally accept the new job. I spent most of the day on Monday telling people what I was doing. None of them were easy to tell but I felt a lot better when it was over. There was nothing anyone could say that was going to change my mind at that point, so it was just a matter of getting it over with. By Monday afternoon, I had called a real estate agent to get my house on the market. We made an appointment for Tuesday afternoon so I spent hours and hours Monday night trying to get my house cleaned up, straightened up and de-personalized.

On Tuesday afternoon, I met with the real estate agent and talked things over. We made another appointment for Thursday afternoon for him to take pictures and get it on the market. By Thursday night, there was a sign in my front yard and my house was officially "For Sale." It makes me kind of sad. I love my house. I have lived here for four and a half years and I have a lot of great memories here. But it is time to move on. And so we are.

I have started looking for new houses and while I am not sure if I have found the perfect house quite yet, only time will tell. I hope to go look at several next weekend. While I need to sell mine first, I am hopeful that that will happen quickly.

So it has been a busy week, with almost every spare moment spent cleaning something or straightening something or hiding things in the closet or under the bed that you don't want a potential buyer to see. :-) The next few weeks are going to be filled with more changes and more decisions, but hopefully they will all be for the best. I am excited about this move (both professionally and geographically) and I think it is going to be great. There are sure to be bumps along the way, but hopefully there won't be anything that cannot be overcome.

Wrapping Up Last Week

Just wanted to take a second to catch everyone up on the events of last week. It wasn't a particularly busy week but it was a great one.

On Monday I headed up the road an hour or so to a neighboring city to meet up with some folks and see a concert. I haven't been to a concert in quite a while so it was a nice change. The show was Tim Reynolds and it was a fun time.

I don't remember anything particularly note worthy on Tuesday through Thursday. I taught training classes for work on Tuesday and Thursday... but nothing else terribly exciting went on.

Then came Friday. I hope by tomorrow or the next day I can tell you all about the events of Friday... but for now you will all just have to wait with bated breath. :-) Let's just say it started out well and only got better.

After I got off of work on Friday afternoon, I headed back up the road to that same neighboring town and went to a singing at the church where Amberly and her family attend. The singing was wonderful and very uplifting. It was an amazing event and I was glad that I got to be a part of it. I can't remember why but I missed out on it last year, so I was glad to be back this year.

After the singing, Amberly and her husband opened up their home to what they call the "Young Professional" group from their church. And while I am not very good at meeting new people, I was glad to be invited and get to meet some folks from this group. They seem like a great group and I hope to spend more time with them in the future. It was a late night and I got back to my house about 1 AM.

Then Saturday it was once again back to that same town to see a traveling Broadway show. My parents and I have season tickets and this weekend we had tickets to see "The Rat Pack." It wasn't my favorite show but I love that era of music and so I enjoyed the show.

While I was leaving the Civic Center I was stopped at a traffic light. I looked to my right and low and behold there was John King (one of the CNN reporters) standing outside. So me, being me, grabbed my camera out of my purse and took this quick shot. It is not the greatest shot but I was actually pulling away from the red light when I took it.

Alabama is one of the "Super Tuesday" states and so they were doing some broadcast related to candidates showing up all over the state yesterday. Now if it had been Anderson Cooper I might have pulled over (or stopped right there in the middle of traffic) and gotten out of the car... but fortunately for him, he was probably off in Afghanistan or something.

I guess that about wraps up my week. I hope you all had a great one.

The Rolex 24

If you thought I was excited about the Barrett Jackson auction last weekend... you should be at my house this weekend. This weekend it is the Rolex 24 race. What does the 24 stand for? That's right, 24 hours! I love it! Fox and Speed TV broadcast about 18 hours of it and I have watched most of it. It's the unofficial start to the race season. There are somewhere around 60 cars and each car has three or four drivers that rotate throughout the 24 hours. In the end, the winners get a Rolex

As opposed to last weekend, I am feeling much better so I have done lots of of other things (like reorganizing closets and my guest bedrooms) while the race was on... but I can still pay enough attention to the race to enjoy it. I have actually been to the Rolex 24. My parents and I went in 2001 for my birthday present that year. It was my first sports car race to attend and we didn't know what we were doing, but I really wanted to go because Dale Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were racing with the Corvette team. The weather was absolutely miserable and my mom caught pneumonia while we were sitting out in the cold and rain all night. That's right.. we sat out in the rain all night... like I said, we didn't know what we were doing. Now when we go to sports car races, we camp in a tent... and mom stays home.

But I was still very excited to be there. I didn't get to meet any of the drivers like we do now when we go to the races, but I was glad to have been there. The #2 Corvette won the whole thing and the Dale Jr #3 Corvette team came in second in class and fourth over all! It was also one of the last races that Dale Earnhardt was in before he was killed in the 2001 Daytona 500. That year for my birthday I also got a die cast car just like this one.

My dad ordered it before the race but the production was delayed and so it didn't come in until after the race. Because Dale Earnhardt died just a few weeks later, it is a pretty collectible item and I am very glad to have it. For now, it sits in a box in my closet but one day I can hopefully display it somewhere.

The race technically just ended but I have not seen the end yet. Since I was at church this morning and didn't get up at 5 AM or whenever the coverage started back, I have about seven hours of coverage on my Tivo waiting for me. Yes I know I need a life... no need to e-mail me and tell me that. :-)

Fun Stuff This Week

I've had a chance to hang out with some of my favorite people this week, so I thought I would share with everyone. On Thursday, I took off of work at noon and headed up the road an hour or so to take care of a few things and do some errand type things.

As a part of my day, I made a stop in to see Amberly and her family. I had not seen them since before Christmas so we exchanged Christmas and birthday gifts. Since I had seen them, I had a birthday, Sarah had a birthday and Abby Grace had had a birthday. So between the Christmas and Birthday gifts, we turned Amberly's house from clean to chaos in about two minutes flat! I think that the kids all liked the presents... Abby Grace in particular. :-) They got me a beautiful picture frame that has a quote about friendship. I can't wait to get a picture of all of us to put in it.

I ate dinner with them and Amberly prepared some of Sarah's favorites that we were supposed to have last Saturday but didn't get to because of the "snow." Everything was delicious and I might even have to try making the Pioneer Woman Mashed Potatoes sometime myself. I had a great time with them on Thursday but I had to head home before it got too late.

On Friday, Leslie called to tell me that her Wii had come in! We weren't expecting it until next week but it surprisingly arrived via UPS on Friday afternoon. Around 7:30 last night I headed over to her house to experience Wii for the first time for myself. I had heard great things about it and it was all true! We had a lot of fun playing tennis, bowling, attempting to play baseball (not very successfully) and a bunch of other stuff. I was surprising how tired it makes you and I think I threw out my shoulder playing tennis. :-) Just kidding... but you do make all of the motions just like you would if you were really playing one of the sports.

Today Brun and I are taking it easy at the house. We made a trip to the vet this morning for a nail trim and got to meet another Labradoodle!! I was much more excited about it than Brun was but it was cool to meet another Labradoodle in town.

Snow?

For at least a week they have been predicting we would have snow this weekend. Sometime Thursday I really started believing them and got my hopes up that we would have a Winter Wonderland on Saturday morning!

Ppphhew!!! It was lame! Brun woke me up at 3:30 AM (as usual) and I saw rain... no snow. That didn't surprise me since it wasn't supposed to turn into snow until around sunrise. I woke up again at 7 AM and saw this:

I was not particularly impressed and neither was Brun. There was snow on the wicker rocker and the patio chairs but nothing on the grass and nothing falling out of the sky. But it seemed like it was going to snow more and wall to wall coverage on the local news indicated that more was coming. So we went back to bed until about 8:30.

This time when we got up it was finally snowing!! Really snowing... well sort of.

Here is Brun being brave in the blizzard. Trust me... it seemed like a blizzard to him.

It actually kept snowing for quite awhile... really picking up at times and starting to stick to the grass.

Here it was at about the maximum accumulation of snow. It wasn't enough to make a snowman or even a snowball really.

It really built up on the fence for a little bit so I guess I could have scraped off enough snow to make a snowball but I opted to just look at it and take its picture instead.

It probably stopped by around 11ish and was melted by about 12:30. They say we got half an inch but I think it is pushing it to say that we got that much at my house.

It was certainly far from the winter wonderland I was hoping for. It was just enough to get everyones hopes up and to derail the plans for Sarah and Abby Grace's birthday party. When it came time to make a final decision about driving a little over an hour to the party, the snow was really coming down and they were talking about icing starting on some elevated roads and bridges. So I assume that some version of the party went on without me but I hate that I missed it. Hopefully I can deliver the presents and visit with them next week.

It doesn't take a lot to get people in Alabama excited about snow. It's been at least six or seven years since I have seen any... hopefully it won't be that long until we see some more.

Barrett-Jackson Auction

I mentioned in my 100th post that some day I would like to go to the Barrett-Jackson auction and buy a car. Well this week is the week for those who, like me, are easily amused and don't have anything else to watch on TV. :-) I also don't have anything to blog about so I am blogging about this.

Tonight Speed TV started their 6 days and 39 hours of coverage. I love it!! :-) I will likely become bored with it in a few days but I have been somewhat sickly since one day last week and have been getting worse as opposed to better. So this is perfect lay on the couch and do nothing TV watching. It doesn't require any brain power and it's fun to watch people spend ridiculous amounts of money on cars. The high dollar cars (like $1 million and up) won't be until this weekend... the ones earlier in the week are much more reasonable.

So if you like cars, have nothing to do (or don't feel like doing a whole lot) and nothing to watch on TV, I highly recommend the Barrett-Jackson auction. I blame Leslie for getting me started watching it. A few years ago she came over to make Valentine's Day wreaths and she asked "Have you been watching this stuff?" At the time I had no idea what she was talking about but now I look forward to watching it every year. I do not know enough about it to be able to predict how much the cars are going to go for... some things that look like pieces of junk will go for more than $50,000 and some that look beautiful will go relatively cheap. It's crazy... but I enjoy it.

I honestly hope that you have more going on this week than I do and don't have time to watch Barrett-Jackson auctions for 39 hours... but just in case... I thought I would throw this out there. :-)

Happy Belated New Year!

Well my "Happy New Year's" post is about six days overdue but I thought I would say it anyways. Not a lot to report from around here. Things have been busy but good since Christmas. I think that 2008 is going to be a busy year, maybe with a few big changes coming... but it's still a little too early to tell exactly what the year holds. Only time will tell. :-)

I don't tend to make New Year's resolutions but I am trying to do better with reading my Bible and getting in shape and staying there this year. Hopefully I can re-resolve to do that every week instead of waiting for the new year to make the resolution again.

This week I had to go back to work after having been off of work since December 21. It was hard to go back but good to return to a more normal schedule. The worst part of the whole thing was that when I got there on Wednesday morning there was NO HEAT!!! The boilers had broken down and the high was less than 30 that day. It was miserable... but since it was the first day back it was busy, busy, so busy that I ended up staying late... but fortunately the day passed pretty quickly. I wore my coat all day and went to Home Depot at lunch to buy a space heater (which really helped).

My former roommate and her husband (that still sounds weird to me) came into town on Wednesday afternoon and it has been good to hang out with them some. Thursday night we went to dinner and then came back to the house and watched the wedding video, watched the Orange Bowl and just talked. Friday night several of us went out to dinner and to see National Treasure: Book of Secrets. I don't watch a lot of movies and so I actually have not seen the first National Treasure but I really enjoyed the second one. It was good to hang out with all of them and get my mind off of things for a few hours.

Today I have been a slug. All of the weather changing this week has made me feel kind of rotten. While I am glad that it has warmed back up this weekend, I just wish the temperature would regulate. 40 degree temperature swings every few days are doing me in.

I hope everyone is having a good start to their new year!

Christmas Tour of Homes

As usual, I am late for the blog party... but I will play along anyways. Welcome to the "Living with a Labradoodle" household and all it's Christmas decorations!

I hope you arrive at night so you can see the front yard in all of it's glory. It really does qualify for "The Tacky Light Tour" but I enjoy it. :-)

The snow globe is having some condensation problems... so in case you can't tell that's Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

Let's go inside...


When you first come in the front door, you will see a small table filled a little village. Next to it on the floor is a Christmas tree that I painted a few years ago and a stuffed Snowman from the Hallmark store.

I have placed house ornaments and some of my favorite car ornaments on the table... along with a few other ornaments that didn't have a good spot. One of my favorite houses is this one that I have dubbed "The Tacky Light Christmas Tour House." It lights up and plays various Christmas songs.


As you make your way past the front door, you will likely notice the fireplace.

It is covered in singing Snowman and has a stocking carefully hung for both Brun and I. On the hearth are some glass blocks filled with lights that I made last year. Just to the right of the fireplace is a cool card display that my mom got for me this year.

If you try to sit on the couch to enjoy a little TV, you won't have much of a place to prop you feet. The coffee table is covered in decorations as well.


Need a snack? Well I haven't had time to prepare anything for you, but if you make your way into the kitchen you are welcome to ohh and ahh over my dying poinsettias and the gingerbread house that my roommate and I made Thanksgiving night. The poinsettias are not long for this world but I do think the gingerbread house turned out quite well.

The next to last stop on this event is a bit unusual.


Years ago, my grandfather built this covered bridge. He was a Civil Engineer and loved the covered bridges of Alabama. This is a perfect scale model of one of the bridges here in Alabama. Well when we were cleaning out my grandparent's house this was one of the few things that I really, truly wanted. It sits on the top of the bookshelf all year round, but I think it is such a neat piece and so this year I made it a part of my Christmas decorations.

The last stop is the main event... the Christmas tree.

This year I actually had time to get all of my ornaments on the tree. I am very particular about the tree. I only allow Hallmark ornaments on the tree and they all have special places where thy have to go. Ornaments that have wings, involve space travel or are meant to be in the sky must go at the top of the tree.


Ornaments that have wheels or are meant to travel on land or water in some way must go at the bottom of the tree.

Then my favorite ornaments go on the front middle. These are primarily the dog picture ornaments as well as some Snoopy and Pooh ornaments.

Thanks for joining me on the tour. Be careful as you leave. Brun likes to sleep with his head under the tree.... so try not to wake him.

I hope you all enjoyed the tour of our house. Thanks to BooMama for hosting such a great event! I can't wait to come and see all of your decorations!!

Christmas blog

Most everyone posted this awhile back... but I thought I would join in the fun.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Mostly wrapping paper... a bag might sneak in every once in awhile for one of those oddly shaped gifts but I love wrapping presents in lots of pretty paper.

2. Real tree or artificial? Always artificial... I am allergic to the real.

3. When do you put up the tree? I used to be a strict purist and refused to put it up until the day after Thanksgiving but now I have changed to closer to the first of November... I know it's too early for most but I want to enjoy the decorations longer. And besides... with being gone for 12 days in a row, if I don't put it up early it won't get up at all.

4. When do you take the tree down? I try to get it down by the first of the year.

5. Do you like eggnog? No

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I can't remember one specific one... there were lots of good ones. Santa always did a good job of bringing exactly what we asked for and more. One year there was a Walkman, one year a Barbie Dream House, an American girl doll, a bike... lots of good stuff.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? No

8. Hardest person to buy for? My parents or Leslie... they all have everything they need and buy the things that they want. :-)

9. Easiest person to buy for? Maybe I just put too much thought into people's gifts but I can't think of anyone that is an easy buy.

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? As much as I loved my grandmother she tended to give some bad gifts.

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I don't like a lot of the traditional Christmas movies like "It's a Wonderful Life" but I love a lot of the trite and predictable Christmas movies on channels like ABC Family and the Hallmark Channel. I have been filling my Tivo with them the past couple of weeks. They are great to watch when you are wrapping presents and things like that.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Summer... whenever I find the "right" gift for someone.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Probably but I can't think of one off hand

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Mocha Squares... I will post the recipe sometime this season.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear... but I really do love colored ones.

17. Favorite Christmas song? I have four Christmas albums that I love. Either of my two Harry Connick Jr. Christmas albums, my Kenny Chesney Christmas album and my Jimmy Buffett Christmas album. I have all four of them on repeat. I also love the XM Christmas channels.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Go to my parents part of the time and stay at my house part of the time

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Yes

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? A Santa with angel wings from Hallmark

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Morning

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Traffic!

23. What I love most about Christmas? Seeing everyone, giving fun gifts, the pretty decorations ...

The Wedding

I am not a big fan of big, fancy weddings. Personally, I think people should elope and save the money for something more practical. But I realize that that is my viewpoint... and others see it differently. My roommate (now former roommate) Stacy is one of those people. Ever since Stacy and Josh got engaged this summer, it has been a non-stop wedding planning extravaganza around here. Well last weekend, everything all came to fruition in a beautiful, fairytale wedding. If you will, allow me a moment of nostalgia. Stacy has been my roommate for the past three and a half years and is really the only roommate I have ever had (that wasn't a family member). You could not ask for a better roommate. She is a sweet person who never has a bad thing to say about anyone. She loved Winston and she loves Brun like her own. The house won't be the same without her. Stacy came to be my roommate when she moved to Alabama from Tennessee to be near Josh. In fact, if it weren't for Josh I don't think that Stacy and I would have ever crossed paths.

I have known Josh for the better part of ten years, first through church, next through graduate school and then when we bought houses two doors apart from each other four years ago. We have become good friends over the years... particularly over the past six years or so, through good times and bad times in our lives. We went through the MBA program together, worked on group projects together, even took dancing lessons together when it was required for one of our classes in graduate school... and he has been one of the best guy friends that I have. We may not always see eye to eye on things but he is a great friend. He has always been a good person to bounce ideas off of, to get help with school work on, to go to lunch with and to discuss church and religious issues with. When Stacy was looking to move to town to get closer to Josh, my house (two houses away) was a perfect fit for all three of us.

When Josh FINALLY proposed in Italy this summer (after they had dated for over four years)... I knew that things were about to change. I don't think it really hit me until last weekend how much things were going to change. The house is quieter and the neighborhood won't be the same without them. And while I am very happy for them and their future together, I am going to miss them both a lot.

Enough with the nostalgia... on with the pictures. :-)

Last Friday (Dec. 7) my parents and I headed to the Knoxville area. We made it just in time to check into the hotel and allow me to head to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. It was good to see a lot of people, including Josh's friends and families, many of whom I had not seen in quite some time. The rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner went without incident and everyone was ready for the big day. I sat with the ring bearer, his mom and her boyfriend. Here is a picture of the ringbearer... what a doll!

Saturday we awoke to dreary but warm skies and a persistent drizzle that lasted most of the day. Stacy picked me up from the hotel around 9:30 that morning and it was off to the chapel/bed and breakfast where the wedding was to be held. We spent the morning getting ready. The ring bearers mom is a great hair dresser, so she did most everyones hair and makeup. Notice the white jacket thing Stacy is wearing... I embroidered her new name and wedding date on it. You can't really see it too well but I thought it turned out really cute. I also made her veil and her garter (with some help from my mom). Who knew I had these skills!! Not me, that's for sure.

Things were going okay... and then the first crisis (if you don't count the rain) hit around 11 AM. Stacy had her dress on and was getting ready to have portraits taken. At that point we realized there was a big problem. When they hemmed Stacy's dress they hemmed the dress correctly but all of the under layers were just kind of gathered up near the waste and were sticking out and causing a line to show through the dress. I don't know how to explain it... but it looked bad. So without her taking off the dress, all of the bridesmaids and the others that were there held the dress up while we investigated the six thousand layers of tulle and satiny stuff under there. We couldn't get the gathered fabric to lay down on their own. Tape was attempted... but failed miserably... and I had a thought. I found the wedding coordinator and asked her for needle and thread. I used my rudimentary sewing skills to tack the gathered fabric down to the six thousand layers of tulle and satin. I did this while Stacy was still wearing the dress and while the other bridesmaids held up the dress. Everyone (including Stacy) stayed amazingly calm. I stabbed myself a few times but it worked perfectly! At some point I became worried I might have tacked it to her slip... but she didn't care... she just wanted it fixed for all of the pictures and ceremony... and that was accomplished.

At that point pictures continued and the time for the wedding finally arrived. I was the last bridesmaid to walk down the aisle and as I walked towards the front, everyone was crying... including Josh. I didn't have any problem holding it together... until the next crisis. Right before Stacy was supposed to walk down the aisle, two of the groomsmen were supposed to walk to the back of the chapel and roll out a paper aisle runner. Well they walked to the back, picked up the runner and proceeded to rip the runner as they started to pull it. So then they walked back to the front of the chapel empty handed. At that point I started crying because I was trying so hard not to laugh. It was really funny.

The wedding proceeded... everyone was crying... Stacy's dad gave her a handkerchief and I think half the wedding party passed it around. Stacy's dad used, Stacy used it, Josh used it, one of the best men used it. At some point, it became funny to see who the handkerchief would get passed to next. As you can probably tell, I tend to get distracted during weddings. This one was no exception and I enjoyed watching the flower girl and ring bearer. The flower girl was waving and doing a little dance and I thought the ring bearer was going to take a header off the stage. He didn't, but he was teetering mighty close to the edge of his step. Watching them was a lot better than listening to Josh and Stacy getting choked up during their vows. Listening to that would only make me cry. Here is a not so great picture from the ceremony that my parents took. It was a beautiful chapel, perfectly decorated for the Christmas season. My parents were sitting close to the front and were too polite about taking distracting pictures so this is really the only one I have. Stacy had two photographers so I am sure there are some beautiful pictures out there somewhere.

Then came time for the reception... and everyone seemed a little more relaxed. Josh and Stacy ate cake and neither of them shoved it in each other's face. I was pretty surprised at that... my guess is that Stacy threatened Josh's life if he did it. :-)

Here is a picture of me and Stacy. At first I wasn't sure about the bridesmaids dresses... but they really worked well with the holiday decor and the holiday season.

Here is a picture of Josh and I.

The reception was very nice... but eventually it was time for that to end... and it was time for the bride and groom to be showered with rose petals...

And then, they were to ride off in a horse drawn carriage. The horse had other ideas. He was apparently not in a good mood and really had no interest in picking up additional passengers. I didn't think the horse was going to stop to let them get on... but it eventually did. They both looked a bit uneasy and the horse really didn't slow down long enough for pictures. As they were pulling away Josh yelled back "pray for us!" He wasn't referring to praying for their marriage... he was just hoping they would survive the carriage ride. I did talk to them last week so I do know that they survived the strong willed horse. :-)

As they went off on their carriage ride, we all started to head out and the wedding was over. As much as I don't really like weddings, it was very beautiful and I am very happy for them. While some of the planning and Stacy's easy going nature made me, as a compulsive list maker and planner, a bit crazy... the whole thing came together perfectly.

Sorry for the extremely long post... I'm sure some of you are bored out of your mind at this point.

Santa in Alabama?

Sometime in amongst my travel over the past two weeks I was at my parent's house on a Sunday. Well Sunday night after church we went out to dinner with some friends (as we typically do). As we were escorted to our table, I noticed one of Santa's helpers sitting at a table that happened to be just behind us. This made me smile but I didn't say anything, thinking he probably gets tired of everyone looking at him and saying "There's Santa."

As we were waiting for our food, Santa came over to our table and started talking to the little girls who were with us. One of the families we were eating with has three young girls and two of them were thrilled to be eating at the same restaurant as Santa Claus. The youngest one slept through the whole thing but the two older girls sat on Santa's lap and even posed for pictures.


"Santa" was so nice to come over and spend some time with the sweet little girls at our table. He certainly did not have to do that. This particular helper of Santa is stationed at the mall and sees children all day long. I think it is safe to say that our "Santa" that night understood what he means to children and made the day of two special little girls.

Home

This is my bed. I love my bed. It is a beautiful, antique bed that used to be my mom's. It's such a comfortable bed. I've missed my bed. I've missed my Ralph Lauren sheets and poofy comforter.


I have been gone from home for 12 days straight. Yuck!! Part of that time was spent in hotel rooms and part of it was spent at my parents house... but no matter what I do to make it more comfortable, it's not the same as my bed. I am so happy to be home and sleep in my bed for a few nights.

I still have some blog catching up to do. I have to tell you about meeting Santa Claus and our family Thanksmas and then the big wedding event last weekend. I will try to catch up soon!

Maybe Al Gore has a point?

I know I live in Alabama but this is ridiculous!! This is what my car thermometer read yesterday on December 10. This was not right after I got in the car mind you... I had been driving around at least 30 minutes... so it should be pretty close to actual temperature. I actually put on a pair of shorts last night it was so hot.

By this weekend they are predicting there could be snow flurries. Gotta love Alabama weather.

100 Things About Me

It seems to be the tradition on most blogs to post 100 things about yourself for your 100th post. It has taken me from March to December to make it to 100 posts... but here goes. here are 100 interesting (and not so interesting) things about me:

1. I have lived in Alabama my entire life.
2. I was born on January 9, 1979.
3. I lived in the same house from the time I was born until I went to college. My parents still live there.
4. I have a miniature labradoodle named Brun (pronounced Brew-n).
5. Brun was born in Missouri and came from Missouri Doodles outside of St. Louis.
http://www.missouridoodles.com/
6. Brun was born on December 16, 2005 and came to live with me on March 17, 2006.
7. Before I got Brun, I had a wonderful standard labradoodle named Winston.
8. Winston was born on August 14, 2003 and died on February 21, 2006.
9. Winston was one of the greatest dogs to ever live. No matter how much I love Brun, I miss Winston every day.
10. I have an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering.
11. In college I was in a co-ed professional Engineering fraternity called Theta Tau. While it was a little more social than some professional fraternities, it was one of the best things I did to help me get through college. I made a lot of great friends through that organization.
12. In the past I have typically had more male friends than female friends. I probably have more female friends at this point in my life than I have ever had before.
13. I have a Masters in Business Administration.
14. I never planned to live in the town where I currently live. In fact I declared in a graduate school class that I would not live there. You can see how well that worked out for me.
15. My job title is Assistant Research Engineer. As best I can tell, that means I do a little bit of everything.
16. I have naturally curly hair. It used to be naturally blonde but now I pay for the blonde. :-)
17. I wear a size 10.5 shoe. Trust me, that is not an easy size to find.
18. I am five feet seven and a half inches tall.
19. Even though I am almost 5’ 8”, I like to wear high heel shoes.
20. I have no sense of smell.
21. I have never been married and I have no children (unless you count Winston and Brun… which I do).
22. I love to sing.
23. I love to take pictures.
24. I only sleep about 5 or 6 hours per night. I find sleep to be a waste of time. :-)
25. As a general rule, I prefer TV programs to movies. I love my HD Plasma TV.
26. I don’t like to shop but I like to shop at outlets.
27. My favorite restaurant is a local Alabama restaurant called “The Fish Market.”
28. I have to travel a lot for work. A lot of my travel for work is to my hometown.
29. I do not like to travel for work if I have to go somewhere other than my hometown.
30. I take my pillow with me everywhere when I travel. If I can’t take my pillow, I take a pillowcase from home and the sleep sack that Leslie got me for Christmas last year.
31. The only countries I have ever visited are Canada and Australia.
32. One day I would like to visit Scotland, Ireland, Italy (particularly the island of Capri) and go back to Australia.
33. I have been to 30 out of the 50 states, including the biggest and smallest states.
34. My favorite cities to visit are New York City, Washington DC and Chicago (so far).
35. I am a huge NASCAR fan. In fact, I love pretty much any motorsport.
36. I love to camp.
37. Christmas is my favorite Holiday. I love to decorate for the season. It borders on tacky at my house at that time of year. :-)
38. My first car was a Saturn… it was a stick shift.
39. I love driving a stick shift.
40. I did not get my driver’s license until I was 17 because I didn’t want it.
41. I don’t like to read. My attention span doesn’t usually tolerate it.
42. I come from a family of Civil Engineers. My grandfather, uncle, mom and dad all have degrees in Civil Engineering.
43. I have one brother named Warren (we call him Wren) who is 21 months younger than me.
44. Everyone thought that Wren and I were twins when we were growing up.
45. Wren has an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering and supposedly will have a Master’s degree in it eventually.
46. I tried to take flying lessons a few years ago but I kept getting sick so I had to quit.
47. I don’t sit still very well… I need to be doing something most of the time.
48. I know how to smock
49. I know how to knit.
50. I have a semi-professional embroidery machine and am trying to get a small in home business going on the side.
51. I am an extremely picky eater.
52. I eat in order. I eat all of one item on my plate before I move on to another item. I save my favorite item for last.
53. I take Flintstone vitamins instead of adult vitamins.
54. I do not like Cheeseburgers but I love cheese.
55. The only pie that I like is homemade apple pie… preferably made of apples from the trees at my parent’s house.
56. I love watching Barrett Jackson auctions on TV. One day I would love to go to a Barrett Jackson auction and buy a car.
57. A hotel qualifies as a good hotel to me if it has Speed TV included in the channel lineup.
58. I hate sleeping in hotel rooms… I usually do not sleep very soundly.
59. I think that men who are prematurely grey or partially grey (like Anderson Cooper and Taylor Hicks) are extremely gorgeous.
60. I have painted toenails throughout the year but rarely paint my fingernails.
61. I wore braces for a year and a half in middle school. I now have very straight teeth.
62. I love to make lists.
63. I took piano lessons from second grade through seventh grade.
64. Even though I was fairly successful at fooling my teacher, I did not practice like I was supposed to.
65. I played the flute in band for a few years in elementary and middle school. I was never very good.
66. In middle school and High School I was in the following musicals: Oklahoma!, Sound of Music, West Side Story and Guys & Dolls.
67. I had a solo in West Side Story. I sang “Somewhere.” On the first night of the production, a young child from the audience got away from their parents and ran across the stage during my performance. I had trouble not laughing.
68. I was the editor of my high school newspaper.
69. I was in the chorus in high school.
70. I was also in chorus in college my freshman year.
71. My favorite high school extracurricular activity was Science Olympiad.
72. My favorite elementary school teacher was probably my 4th grade teacher Mrs. Atkinson.
73. My favorite teacher in high school was Miss McConnell who was my Biology teacher in 10th and 12th grade… once for regular Biology and once for AP Biology.
74. My favorite teacher in Middle School was probably Mr. Hayes who was my 9th Grade Physical Science teacher.
75. I hated Middle School.
76. I really didn’t like High School either.
77. I loved College.
78. I went to private elementary, middle and high school. I got a great education.
79. I lived with my grandmother for 2.5 years when I was in college. She unfortunately passed away Christmas 1999.
80. I do not like meeting new people or making new friends.
81. I could probably be described as verging on anti-social when it comes to most social situations.
82. I used to be deathly afraid of speaking in public but I have gotten over it since I started working.
83. I could probably live the rest of my life only eating bread, nuts, cheese and coke. I would be malnourished but I would enjoy it. :-)
84. I have been described as a perfectionist and OCD about some things.
85. If I don’t like the way you put dishes in my dishwasher, I will take them out and put them in the way that I want.
86. When I am purchasing something at the store, I almost never take the front or the first item. I don’t know why but I will move it aside and get the second one instead.
87. When I get gas the total dollar amount must end in an even nickel amount. For example, if I have 30.01, I will get $0.04 more worth of gas to make it $30.05.
88. I don’t like change – and by that I mean things becoming different, not pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters.
89. When I go to a particular restaurant, I almost always order the same thing.
90. My perfect Sunday afternoon consists of takeout Chinese food, a NASCAR race and a nap.
91. I order the same thing so much at my local Chinese restaurant (almost once a week when I am in town) that they know who I am and what I want when I call without me even telling them.
92. I once tried out for Teen Jeopardy. I did not make it past the first round.
93. I get told fairly often that I look like Drew Barrymore. I can see it but I don’t think the resemblance is that great.
94. I like a wide variety of music. Some of my absolute favorites are The Beach Boys, Barenaked Ladies, Kenny Chesney and the fabulously amazing Harry Connick Jr.
95. I try to forget bad memories but at the same time I worry that I will forget the good memories.
96. I love God.
97. I love my family.
98. I love my friends.
99. I love my dogs.
100. I love my life.
101. I am thankful every day for the fact that I have been blessed beyond measure.

So there you have it. Somehow I ended up with 101... oh well.

Old Friends

One of the hard parts of being a "younger" member of the crowd at work is that when you start getting attached to people, they retire. This happens with friends (even non-work related ones) that move and things like that but today I was reminded of how good it is to see old friends... even "work" friends. :-)

Over the past few years, I have had the opportunity to work with every state trooper in the state of Alabama and two of the head guys retired this year. This made me very sad as I enjoyed them on both a professional and personal level.

Well today I am at a conference for work in another part of the state and I heard one of them talking as he walked in the room. I turned around and literally squealed I was so excited. He gave me the biggest hug... so big that he literally picked me up off the ground. I had not seen him since the summer and I have missed working with him and talking to him so much. He was my partner in crime for the best time I have ever had at a NASCAR race... and I feel quite certain that I will never again have that much fun at a race again. He looked out for me at conferences and made sure I was having a good time and is still someone I will always look forward to seeing.

Then not 5 minutes later the other trooper walked in. I was once again thrilled! Even though they have retired to other jobs and new adventures in their life, they had decided to come over to our conference to visit everyone. In the back of my mind I had hoped that they would but I didn't really expect that they would.

Oh how good it is to see old friends. It makes me want to look up friends from college and go visit them too. It's so easy to forget how much you miss some people until you see them again.