What a nice Saturday it's been! And two think that I have TWO more days left in this weekend! Yippee!!

Today I was lucky enough to have a great lunch with a really awesome group of girls that I don't get to see often! My friend Shannon is in town for the weekend and planned a fun lunch a few of us who've shared a similar path over the years. As I type this, I'm trying to think of the best (easiest) way to explain our connection to each other, but I'm going to have to agree with the way Shannon put it on her own blog, "space (and your attention span)" just doesn't allow!

Other excitement in my day included watching the end of the Georgia/Georgia Southern beat down game! (And with that, I can say it's officially COLLEGE FOOTBALL SEASON!!)

Also we made a trip down to my parents house to get a little "organized" for their yard sale next weekend...Yeah, I'll just leave it at that because I really don't wanna think about it right now!

So now I'm sitting here bouncing between my blog, (and several other blogs!) and Facebook while listening to the Clemson/Alabama game...Can't say that I'm a Alabama fan, but I'm all SEC - So GO ROLLTIDE!

Last night at photography class we got to photograph FIRE PEOPLE!! Yes! FIRE PEOPLE!! See, last week while we were shooting at Riverwalk a couple girls walked by and told us they were "fire people" and we could come take pictures of them...We told our teacher about them and he went and found them and they told him they'd be "lighting up" for practice this week and we were welcome to come...So we did!

Very interesting! And they were SO nice and friendly too! We all had such a good time! The street lights behind the amphitheater were on, so there's a lot more light in the pictures than would be ideal, but still you'll get the idea...The crazy things they could do! It was really awesome! This is one of those things you can't help but wonder how they "practice" without getting hurt!

Anyways here's a few pics, but if you're local, you should definitely check this group out downtown at First Friday's or the Arts in the Heart festival!

Sorry - I can't help but make one last comment...You really need to see this in person!! The pictures just don't do it justice! I mean, it almost looks like they could just be playing with flashlights, but NO! This was real, live, hot, burning FIRE!!

Good morning world and welcome to Thursday! It's kinda odd how somewhat quickly this week has passed...Of course last week when I was totally looking forward the scrapbooking retreat the week went by as slow as possible! This weekend should be interesting though...I think most of Saturday will be spent packing and organizing at my parents' house (Yes, their house is under contract and they were able to get back into the contract on the condo they wanted!). I'm definitely looking forward to having a three-day weekend though! Hopefully we'll have some decent weather so we can get some pool time in!

Tonight is our last photography class! Kinda sad, but I've really learned a lot that I just need to PRACTICE with now...I understand the concepts, but I can't quickly on the spot think, "Oh, to get this shot like so, I need to set my aperture to X and my shutter speed to Y!" - But that's the kind of stuff that'll come the more I do it! So now I just need some guinnea pigs to practice on!

Well, hopefully I'll find some excitement here at work today...Actually, this afternoon we're having a baby shower and I get to make my famous punch! (Sorry, sis, I bet that got your mouth watering!!) I'm really looking forward to that since I've been craving it since I bought all the ingredients yeterday! Wow...How exciting my life has become...What's the world coming to when the highlight of my workday is PUNCH?!?!

Happy Monday to all! Back at work and ready for another boring week!

Our scrapbooking retreat this weekend was SO much fun! We had such a great time just hanging out, scrapping, and laughing! Oh the interesting things you discover when you put a close group of girls together! I know this was more of a "fun" weekend than a "spiritual" trip, but I definitely believe God chose each one of us to attend...Just the time together and the conversations (both fun and serious) allowed us all to deepen our friendships with each other. What a great weekend to remember! Our only regret is that we had to come home Sunday! We decided our next retreat will be over a holiday weekend so we'll have THREE nights!

Unfortunately, I CRASHED yesterday when I got home so I haven't uploaded my pics yet...I'll definitely post some later though!!

But backtracking a wee bit - Here's a pic from photography class Thursday night...

Me, Stacey, & Wendy...We're the ones who make our class fun! Steve's GOTTA love us! Sadly enough though, this Thursday night will be our last class!! We're thinking about doing the Intermediate class in September though just so we can keep having our weekly hang out! (And I guess we'll probably LEARN something too!!)

Anyways...Off to kill another hour til it's time to head out! More later!

Yippee!! It's Friday!! After a fun Thursday night at photography class, Friday has finally arrived! The 15 minute countdown has begun! I'll be leaving work in a just a few short minutes, picking up some lunch for me, Sarah & Matt and heading home to eat and finish packing! Then Sarah & I should be heading out by about 2...45 minute drive to Hickory Knob and time set up for the scrapbooking retreat! Everyone else should be there about 6:30...Can't wait! Not sure if we'll have internet up there though so I might be cut off from he rest of the world til Sunday! But until then...Much Love!

This post is going to be a jumbled mess...because that's the state of my mind right now...A jumbled mess. We went down to my parents house after work...To pay their bills and do their accounting. As soon as we walked in the door my dad said, "Did mama tell you that cat got run over?" - "UH, NO!" What the heck?!? Yeah, PJ, their cat who surprised us with those kittens back in my post about July 4th. Like I said before, she was FORMERLY the devil but became super lovable after she had the kittens. We'd even considered bringing her here to live outside after my parents move! She's got babies! And my dad just BLURTS out that she's dead (or "smashed," as he put it). He said it all nonchalantly tonight but I know it probably really upset him when he got home the other day and saw her. Like Matt said, they've flat out LIED to me about what's happened to every other animal in my life, so why the heck did they choose tonight to be honest?!? Okay so enough about that. On to the next jumbled subject in my head. This never-ending process of relocating my parents. Their realtor , Mike, came by at 6 with an offer on their house that a couple had made today. Amazingly enough it was a really good offer. I didn't have to think more than about 3 seconds about it. I was pretty excited. But of course my mom had to go back and forth with it all for an hour. She wanted to counter over nothing! The people are offering $2100 OVER the asking price as long as my parents will cover the closing costs. It's kind of a no-brainer! I mean you hardly EVER get full asking price for a house! So after about 2 hours of me, Matt and Mike trying to convince my parents that this is the way to go, (and my dad trying to put in his two-cents even though he can barely talk) we finally got them to accept the offer. Yippee! But lucky for us, it doesn't just end there! Now on to the task of convincing them to put back in the same offer on the condo they want that had been accepted last time. We went through two rounds of counter offers on the condo last time around so why not just resubmit the final agreed upon offer?!?! There is absolutely no need to try to get the condo for $500 less than before! That's just asking for trouble! I'm already worried enough that the offer will get rejected on the grounds that my parents had to back out of it last time! Just give the people what they wanted last time and lets all move on with life! Oh yeah, MOVING...That's another fun topic! The buyers of my parents house want to close on Friday, September 26. After thinking about it, we (well, Matt & I at least) decided that's completely doable...We load up the truck at their house in the morning, go to close on their house in the afternoon, close on the condo afterwards and then go unload the truck at the condo that evening...Then you've got all weekend to get settled in...(Somehow in the next month we'll just have to convince my parents that that's the way it should be done!)...The problem is, we'd typically planned to have an estate sale/yard sale the weekend before move to get rid of all the tons of stuff that can't go with them, but Matt & I will be on summer vacation in West Palm Beach the TWO weekends before the move!! That means we'd have to do the sale on Saturday the 6th...But that only gives us this weekend and next to get everything ready and I'm going to be out of town THIS weekend! AGH! Insanity! If this would have all worked out the first time around they'd be all moved out, moved in, and settled by now! Oh well. Life's life I guess. But sometimes it's frustrating and I can't deal and it makes me feel like a crap person. Like right now I'm sitting here blogging because I just need to get all this randomness out of my head so I might at least have a fighting chance of falling asleep tonight...But instead maybe I should be paying attention to my poor husband who has to put up with all my crap. And not just THIS crap. ALL my crap. (Sorry to those who don't like that word, but I can't think of anything better to say at the moment). I usually think that I'm a pretty good, thoughtful person, but obviously I'm quite selfish. Sometimes I don't know how Matt puts up with me. I've just got issues. Too many to even make sense of in my jumbled state right now. Yeah. I definitely don't see sleep in future tonight.

So I think I slept through the whole weekend! I can't believe it's Monday already! (At least it's almost 5:00 Monday!)

Saturday morning I went to Grey's t-ball game and then that afternoon my friend, Stacey, hosted a Stampin' Up party! Sunday was church, nap, church! See, a very uneventful weekend!

Fortunately during my waking moments at home I was able to get a lot of planning done for what I want to work on while at the scrapbooking retreat this weekend! I have 7 double-page layouts planned (layouts sketched, patterned paper/cardstock chosen and pics resized). I'm also toying with ideas for a mini album to work on in case I finish all my layouts! One idea is a 6x6 chipboard album using a Basic Grey 6x6 patterned paper pack and doing pics of Grey & Jackson...But the one I really want to do is a mini album of some of my favorite pics...Just random pics, like the ones that I'm proud of. The problem is, I'd want the pics to be at least 4x6 so the album would have to be larger than 6x6...8x8 would be fine, but then I couldn't use a 6x6 Basic Grey pack! So I just don't know! Got a couple more days to figure it out though...Wednesday will be my Scrap Shack shopping day!

Anyways! Small Group tonight and then counting the days to Friday!!

Happy Thursday! The weekend's almost here! Photography class tonight and a boring Friday tomorrow and then it's the weekend! Matt's sister is moving Saturday so there's no guarantees this weekend will be as nice as the last, but hey! At least it's the weekend!

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Last night Jadyn got to spend the night with us while mommy had duty...We had such a good time! He was an absolute angel! We played outside, ate dinner, played with that crazy toy that blows balls everywhere and played outside some more! By 8:30 we'd totally worn out the little guy and he fell right to sleep in Matt's arms while we were talking to a neighbor!

So on another note...Summer vacation...OURS in particular. Matt's parents had a Marriot timeshare week that was going to expire at the end of the year, so we're able to use it to go back to West Palm Beach (where we had out honeymoon!). The only thing is, since the weeks get booked so far in advance, the earliest we could go is September 13-20! Okay, so TECHNICALLY, the first day of fall isn't until September 22, but I'm worried it's just not gonna feel like our SUMMER vacation! Maybe it's just because we've had a cold front moving through this week and it's been "comfortable" in the mornings with the high only getting up to like 88-90 degrees. Hopefully the heat (that I don't really like anyways!) will return next week and I won't feel like this, because I really AM excited about our trip...I just want to feel like it'll still be summer when go! Less than one month and counting!!

Now this is how weekends are SUPPOSED to be! We've had such a great, laid-back weekend!
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Saturday was Grey's birthday party...I can't believe this little guy is a big 4 years old! Just like Jackson's party a few weeks ago, we just had a small family party. Grey had a great time having cake and ice cream with everyone and then opening presents!

When Matt & I left the party, we were intending to go to the pool, but instead ended up heading out to run some errands...A quick trip to the Scrap Shack and a stop by Michaels, then to Rack Room Shoes for Matt some new flip flops...An impromptu run through the Chick-Fil-A drive thru for our new obsession, 1/2 sweet tea, 1/2 lemonade! And then finished off with a nice trip to the grocery store! Back at home for the evening, we grilled out and had dinner together before Matt headed out to cut the grass while I paid bills! Before we knew it our very productive Saturday was coming to an end and it was time to start winding down for bed!
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This morning was church and then afterwards we had a church-wide cookout complete with huge inflatable waterslides and pools for the kids...I ate a quick lunch and took a few pics, but the heat was unbearable, so we snuck out a little early to hit the pool! The Lelands & the Jeffcoats (along with Lindsay's mom and brother) even joined us for the afternoon! Once we'd had enough sun for the day, Matt & I came home to get cleaned up and went out for a nice dinner at Olive Garden!
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We've just gotten home now for the evening and I'm pooped! Going to chill on the couch for a while and wait for Monday to sneak up on me!

But first I'll leave you all with just a few pics from Grey's party!


Birthday Boy!




Sisters



Now why wasn't he THIS interested in his OWN birthday cake?!

We are HOME on a Friday night...What's the world coming to?!?!
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We took the cats outside for a few minutes...(They basically just lose their mind in ecstasy whenever they get to go outside...) Gibbs loves to eat grass and tries to run out any door whenever opened. Patches and Chips, on the other hand, aren't as vocal (literally!) about going outside, but usually enjoy it whenever we take them out too. One thing we like to do while they're outside is give them a real good "petting" to get all the loose hair off of them. You'd think with all the hair that comes off Chips that she'd be naked, but nope! Usually they love this good hard "massaging" but tonight Chips was saying some pretty dirty words! Good thing I didn't have the video camera on or we'd definitely have some R-rated material on our hands!


Fiesty Chips...



But in her defense - Sweet Chips...



And Curious Chips...



Sweet Patch...



And only a side view of Gibbs, b/c he's too busy "hunting" to pose for me!

Last night we spent the evening at the pool with my bro-in-law, Andy, and the nephews...Grey was like a fish and Jackson was in a really fun mood! I can't believe how long we all stayed, but the water was nice and warm and it was quite fun just hanging out...(And taking a few pics, of course!!)

Tonight, we just got home from the summer church league softball championship...It was Journey vs Creek B, but in the end, our guys pulled it out! Luckily it clouded over right before gametime so it was actually not unbearably hot and we all had a good time half watching the game and half watching all the kids!
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Should be a pretty laid back weekend again. No real plans for tomorrow night and then Saturday is Grey's birthday party...Yippee! I went shopping for his birthday presents yesterday - New tiny little BASEBALL PANTS and an ELECTRIC toothbrush! Fun stuff! Can't wait!
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BUT between me and the weekend is still a boring Friday...Blah Blah Blah...Maybe I'll have to come up with some more mischief for me and Brandi...Friday's are always good for mischief...

Wow...Sat down to write a quick post and got "sidetracked" over on MckMama's blog (see the link over in my blog list) - Now an hour later, you're getting the VERY abridged version of the past couple days and MAYBE a few pics!

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Last night we had a cookout and game night for Small Group since we're between Bible studies. We always have such a great time just hanging together...I could so just move into a huge house with our group!
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The guys...



The girls...




And a couple cute TODDLERS!

So another weekend is quickly coming to an end and it's almost time to be heading back to work! The weekend has been pretty uneventful...(Not always a bad thing!)

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Friday night we kept Jadyn...He was an absolute angel the entire time! We took a quick cat nap together when we got home from daycare and then headed over to the Jeffcoats to play and have dinner at their new house...We all had so much fun hanging out together and laughing at our sweet little guys!
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Lindsey picked up Jadyn early Saturday morning and surprisingly, I was able to fall back asleep...And GREAT sleep it was! So great that I kept right on sleeping through Grey's t-ball game...Next week! I promise! - Matt got back from the farm around lunchtime so we headed down to my parents house to chill in the pool for the afternoon and have a basically low-key Saturday!
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Today was church this morning and the pool this afternoon...Matt's at youth right now, but I'm here on my trusty couch just blogging away and watching "The Princess Diaries." - I'd be at youth too, but it's just one of those days where it takes every bit of energy I can muster up just to put one foot in front of the other!
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Anyways, looks like we'll have a pretty busy week...Monday's Small Group, Tuesday's Matt's Grandma's birthday dinner, & Thursday's photography class...But at the end of it all is another weekend! Yippee!
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So here's a few fun pics from the last few days!


A fun shot of Wendy at photography class Thursday night...(I'd been PROMISING her she'd make it on my blog! Stacey, you're NEXT!)



Fun with Jadyn & John Ross!



John Ross' new funny face...Kept us laughing all night!

Well, I finally made it back to work on Wednesday! Went back to the doctor Tuesday and all my labs had come back good except for the one that shows I've got Cytomegalo Virus (CMV)! Yaaay me! At least we know what it is now! Basically, it causes a mono-like illness...I'm getting better though...I haven't had a fever since Sunday night, but I'm still itching like a crazy person...

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And for some horrific reason, I CANNOT manage to sleep at night! Not good for a person who needs lots of sleep! I'm going crazy! A couple of nights this week we've been up til almost midnight and Matt's about to pass out, but I'm just getting angry because I'm nowhere close to getting sleepy! So of course starts the cycle of finally getting in bed and laying there, tossing and turning, and watching as the clocks makes it to some ungodly hour like 3am! Miserable! And all the while my dead-to-the-world husband is completely oblivious to it all!!

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So here it is, Friday afternoon, and I'm not-so-patiently waiting for this workday to END! My friend Lindsey has duty tonight so we'll be keeping baby Jadyn...Yippee!! He's always so sweet and fun! (And he sure loves Matt!) Then tomorrow morning my nephew, Grey, has his second t-ball game...I couldn't go last weekend so I'm really excited to get to see the little guy live and in action! "GO CUBBIES!"

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Well, off to kill about 40 more minutes...