When the kids take the camera...

Earlier this week Amberly and her family came over for dinner and to see my new toys. I treated myself to a new home theatre system to accompany the PS3 my parents got me for my birthday... and this was the first major showing.

Abby Grace and Nathan had no particular interest in the TV most of the night and so here is what the budding photographers did to entertain themselves.

I promise they put themselves in there and could have gotten themselves out at any point.

Once they let themselves back out, they were off with the camera. The next morning I found these on my camera.

Not the worst picture of me ever taken.

Not her best side.

A cute pic of the almost five year old.

Brun's nose.

Pin art is always a big hit with this crowd.

He's Amberly's problem. :-)

Brun retreated to the closet for a few moments of peace and quiet and camped out on my pj's. Apparently he should have looked for a better hiding place.

Piglet might be blinded for life.

I love digital cameras. These pictures crack me up!

30... years old that is

Last week I turned 30. I absolutely love birthdays and this one was no different. It was spent with good friends and family and it was shared with others who wanted to be there but couldn't. Even though gifts are not what a birthday is all about I got some great ones.

My aunt surprised me with balloons on my mailbox. Leslie bought me a great North Face jacket and even delivered to my house (over an hour away from her house!). Ashley got me some great soap, bags and hair/bath accessories from Bath and Body Works. My parents got me a PS3 that doubles as a fabulous blu-ray player, a new pair of tennis shoes and a cake from my favorite bakery in my hometown. Amberly and her family surprised me with an impromptu family birthday party including my very own cookie cake, a wonderfully warm new robe, a pedicure I am saving for flip flop season and another of my favorites... sweet tart hearts! Here is the cookie cake they made me.


Thanks to all of you who made my birthday so special! It was great!!!!! The most creative and in some ways best gift I will have to save for another post. :-)

Apparently you are supposed to feel older or different somehow when you hit a new decade. Well I don't and that's perfectly fine with me. 29 was a year filled with a lot of change - some bad, mostly good - so here's hoping 30 is a little more settled. At 30 years and 6 days... so far so good.

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.

One of those days

Do you ever have one of those days... where you feel like it's just poop on you day? I'm sure you have... everyone does. Mine seem to happen on Monday (which I can only assume is fairly typical). I don't know why they happen on Monday's... maybe it's because I am more tired than usual on Monday's or maybe it's because of the concentration of work overload and meetings that come on Monday's. Regardless of the reason today was one of those days for me... or at least it started that way.

It actually started out just fine but I got an e-mail on the way to work (yes I read e-mail on my PDA while driving) that took my day down hill in a hurry and had me in a terrible mood by the time I got to the office. I won't go into all of the details but it boils down to someone forgot that they promised me their faculty football ticket order form and instead gave the order form to someone else that I work with. So I told my brother, my best friend Leslie and a couple of other people at work and everyone agreed that it was an honest mistake but still very annoying. I then accomplished nothing at work all morning, was in a FOUL mood and took out my irritation on everyone I came in contact with.

From this point in the story you would think that my day was shot... but it did get better from there. You know what makes those crummy days better... people who love you and care about you and try to make things better any way that they can. I have a lot of those people who seem to get more opportunities than they deserve when it comes to dealing with me. :-) My patient and caring mother listened to me whine and fuss over the phone and sympathized and tried to help by offering solutions. My wonderful brother, my thoughtful best friend and her husband actually fixed my problem at lunch. They offered me their ticket order form and went and placed the order for the tickets.

So I know today isn't Thankful Thursday but it is my Thankful Monday... for family and friends who don't forget about you when you are having a crummy day and try to make you feel better any way that they can.

Weekend Reflections

Since this is my first week blogging this is obviously my first chance to do a Weekend Reflection. Thanks to Mommy of Two for the idea.

It has been a busy week! Last weekend my dad and I went to the 12 Hours of Sebring Race in Sebring, Florida. I had a great time but I was so ready to come home that I drove all night and we got back at 6 AM Sunday morning. I had an hour and a half of sleep before it was time for church. But I had a wonderful day on Sunday because I got to spend time in my hometown with my family and friends, including Amberly and her family.

On Monday I took off from work in order to recover from my trip. I am not very good at taking time off but I was fairly successful at relaxing and sleeping in. On Tuesday and Wednesday I worked out of town and then late Wednesday I finally returned to my house in A College Town, Alabama. I have been out of town so much recently that it was really nice to be back in my own bed.

On Thursday I finally got to see my best friend Leslie and my wonderful godson, Classic Rock Baby for the first time in several weeks. We spent the evening together and it was so much fun. I have missed them a lot.

On Friday it was a typical work day and then I came home, took Brun for a walk and gave him a bath. After that it was time for a little rest and relaxation around the house.

Saturday I went to a brunch hosted by one of the wonderful ladies from church. Then Leslie, CRB and I ran an errand and came back to my house to do some sewing projects. The interaction with Brun and CRB went great!!

I love spending time with my family and friends and on vacation but it is nice to finally be back at home and to return to a more "normal" routine. I love my house, my bed, my couch, my tv, my dog, etc... and so it's nice to be back home to enjoy all of those things. It was an eventful and fabulous week but I am looking forward to a more typical routine next week.