How does life just get so busy?

Some days it feels as if there's just not even enough time to breathe and then as I'm falling asleep at night I'm already gearing up for another day of the madness...But the bad part is I've become so accustomed to the busyness that I freak out at the prospect of having nothing to do!

This happened to be one of those odd weeks where we've had two totally free nights in a row...

Wednesday night we both got home after work, cooked dinner together and then actually sat down at the table to enjoy it! Afterwards, with the kitchen already clean, we relocated to the living room and watched a movie...(A very sad and depressing movie might I add!)

Then Thursday afternoon, after having the previous night free, I began my normal freak-out process at the mere thought of having a SECOND night in a row with nothing to do...While driving home I started getting worked up over all the things that just "had to be done" as soon as I walked in the door...Light a candle, pay bills, start laundry, etc...Guess this was just my response mechanism to convince myself that this couldn't possibly be ANOTHER low-key evening...One would seem to think that I would be overjoyed at the idea of no commitments for the evening, but on the heals of the Wednesday night it was just more than I could handle!

Needless to say, I was quite frustrated by the time I actually finished my few little things around the house...I mean, I was done within 45 minutes! Now what??

It was at that point that I finally realized it..."Embrace it"...Embrace the freedom of being a young couple with no children...Embrace the joy of a night at home with the one person I enjoy being with most...Embrace the time we have now before the insanity and busyness catches right back up with us...Embrace it.

And so we did...

I'm not sure I've ever realized how amazingly wonderful a candlelit bubblebath and a massage can be...Or how nice it can be to just lay in our bedroom with the candlelight bouncing off the walls...Not talking...And especially not thinking...

For the first time in a long time, my mind was completely clear...No thoughts of my parents, no thoughts of student ministry, no thoughts of work...No thoughts at all...Just a calm, quiet, relaxing, peace...

But as nice as our time was, I couldn't help but realize that just a few feet away was reality...Just through the doorway was our cell phones which had been ringing nonstop...And through this doorway was the TV which would soon be showing "Lost"...And also through this doorway was the laundry that needed to go in the dryer...

Life...Regular, ordinary life was through that one doorway...

Our life...A life that I wouldn't I trade...The good, the bad, the stressful, and the sometimes peaceful all rolled into one...And for once, knowing that the next weeks are going to be tough, I was extremely thankful to be able to experince

the peaceful side of our life...

Life's kinda been a whirlwind since last week...

We had our annual student ministry D-Now Weekend this past weekend...I spent Friday night making special deliveries to each of the houses our students were staying at...Played a little Table Tennis Dodgeball with my middle school girls at the Traylors and then watched in amazement as the high school girls obsessively played Guitar Hero at the Halls...Then there was Saturday...You know, the usual...Getting kicked out of the mall, picnic in the park and a scavenger hunt! Unfortunately for me and Matt,

our D-Now experience was cut short

to attend a cookout with some of the people that Matt works with...

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Sunday was church, visit the parents, then back church for youth!

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And so the work-week is here again! Not a super-crazy week ahead...Just softball tonight! Yippee!! Can't wait!

After much craziness, finally Wendesday night my parents got their new dog, Boone...

He's a little red-haired Pomeranian...Super sweet and lovey! Just loves to be held and petted...And never barks! Hopefully he'll be my dad's new best friend and keep him company while he sits around the house all day!

Happy Tuesday afternoon! About another hour before the work day ends...

It's been a busy couple of days and the week's only gonna get busier! Sunday night we had a Student Ministry laser tag night - Always a big hit! And then last night was small group - Where I also got to meet the Jeffcoats new puppy!! Soooooo CUTE!! Check out their blog for upcoming pics of the little guy!(http://littlejohnross.blogspot.com/)

Tonight's softball...Can't wait to play again after having all last week off, but it's going to be FREEZING!! What happened to all our warm weather?!?! This IS Georgia ya know! We don't do cold past February!!

Friday and Saturday we've got a big Student Ministry event, so I'm basically spending my days (and half the night!) making sure everything's ready to go. It's taken me hours to fall asleep the past couple of nights...I just can't minimize all those pop-ups in my head! I can't even tell you how many times a night I've been reaching over to set a reminder on my phone for something ELSE I've thought of to take care of! Crazy, I know...Welcome to the mind of woman!

I'll leave you with a random pic of one of our cats, Gibbs...Just wanted to share one of favorite shots of him!

(He's very photogenic...)

Well, it's Saturday night and I'm posting here from the good ol' AUG! Nope...No beach for us this weekend!! We went back and forth several times yesterday and had even decided before bed last night that we'd get up early this morning and get to the beach by about 10am...Yeah well, not getting up this morning til 11:30 kinda killed that idea!!

So let's see...Last night I scrapbooked at Wendie's house with some friends...We rotate houses each month, but I hadn't been able to go since I hosted in January so it was great to get to hang out with these girls for the evening! Also, Wendie's parents are staying with her (while their house is being rented out for the Masters) so her mom insisted on making margaritas for our formerly "dry" scrapbooking group...Haha...Good times!

And then on to the excitement of today...
Matt's project: Moving the cable outlet in our office from one wall to the other! How did that go you may ask...Well, it all depends on which one of us you ask and since this is technically MY blog, you're probably going to get MY side of the story/nightmare!

See, this little project has kept getting put off for the entire 18 months we've lived here because it's not really the easiest thing to do...You know, pulling the cable UP through the wall and then fishing it back DOWN the other wall and magically managing to get it through a tiny little hole!
Well, last night Super Husband decided that it actually wouldn't be a hard task at all and wouldn't even take that long! Great!
So off he went this morning to conquer the world...
And conquer the world he did until about 3 minutes into said project when he realized that it was going to be a lot harder than he'd expected...
(Isn't that the way it ALWAYS goes?!?! Yes, they eventually get it done,
but it usually takes a heck of a lot more time, money and "rigging"!)
So four hours (and a few evil looks) later, Super Husband finishes his project, reconnects the cable and voila! We're back online! Yep, no more ugly 20-foot cable running across the room...No siree!! Super Husband exchanged that tangled mess of cable for a couple clean-cut holes...








It's not so bad is it?? Hardly noticeable!! Haha!!
Guess this will be part two of the project...Fixing the wall!!
Anyone willing to place bets on when it will done?? We'll see...
I'm trying to have more faith and be more supportive
(as opposed to nagging??),
but again, WE'LL SEE!

So this week's been quite out of the ordinary for us...With no small group, youth or softball (due to Masters Week!) we've had every evening this week free!! Absolutely totally crazy for us!! Usually we're lucky if we have ONE night free!

Well, last night Matt had to go out to the farm to take care of some things for his grandparents so I decided to spend the evening with the Stickels and have a pseudo-photoshoot with Jackson...

One of his favorite activities...Swinging!

His newly discovered "Crunchy Nose" face!

And playing in the dogs' water bowl!

So now here it is Friday and we're debating on what to do for the weekend...Again, a rarity in our lives: a FREE weekend! We've got two main options that we keep going back and forth between...Going to the beach or staying home. Now I know the beach seems like it would be the obvious choice, but we wouldn't get there til about 10:00 tonight and then the weather forecast shows that even though its going to be about 80 degrees, it's gonna be mostly cloudy in the morning and afternoon and then thunderstorms moving in late afternoon and evening. Not sure that we want to make that long and boring drive tonight and then not even get good beach weather tomorrow...So currently our decision is leaning towards staying home...And that could be good too! There's all kinds of things we need/want to get done around the house/yard and this may be our only time for a while to tackle any of those projects!

Well, I hope you enjoy your Friday and have a great weekend!!

After an hour and a half of blood, sweat and tears, I now have a nice header on my blog!

Wowser! I think I really made that a whole lot more difficult than it had to be!!

So on an exciting note, guess where my lucky husband, Matt, spent the day yesterday??

Yep! You guessed it! At the Masters!!

When he got to work Tuesday morning, he was offered a ticket for the day! He felt really bad for going without me, but those things are like gold around here and I told him he better take advantage it!

Unless you've lived in Augusta for a while, you have no idea what the Masters is like around here!! See, around here, kids don't get out of school for "Spring Break"...They get out for "Master's Week"! Some people hate it, but to me it's quite exciting!! I love driving down past the course and just seeing the thousands of people EVERYWHERE! Unless you're a local or big into the PGA Tour, you may have no idea how much people will actually pay for tickets with a face value of only $36. You also may not know that locals around here rent their houses out for the week and make enough to pay their mortgage for the year plus take their family on vacation during the tournament! It's absolutely crazy, but so incredibly intriguing at the same time!!

But enough about the culture! Let's talk about MY Masters experience!

Meet Becky...

This picture Matt took yesterday of Becky is my representation of my time working at the Augusta National during the Masters in 2003 & 2004. Becky was (and still is) the security guard outside the Trophy Room in the clubhouse.

Since it takes a great amount of people to pull off a tournament of this size, tons of locals apply each year to work during the week of the tournament. There are a lot of positions available like cashiers, baggers, litter control, drivers, servers, gallery guards, etc. Well, I applied in 2003 to work as a server (can we say HUGE tips?!?!), but was lucky enough to get an even better position! A position that was actually created for me and a friend! We were chosen to be hostesses. I was the hostess in the Trophy Room (main dining room for only players, members, and their families). What an amazing experience! Words could never ever describe those days! Because of my position, my badge granted me access to anywhere I could ever dream of going on the course or in the clubhouse! (Only thing off limits was the mens' bathrooms/locker rooms and that was only because of my sex!!)

Again...Totally indescribable!! I'll never forget all the amazing people I met and had the advantage of getting to know throughout those weeks! Definitely memories and experiences that will last a lifetime!

Well, I guess we can say it's official now!! (Even though some of you have known that I've had this basically non-existant space in blogland for a few months now!!)

See, this is how it goes...I always wanted to keep a journal, but I could never just START doing it...There had to be a significant DATE to start!! (The first of the year, my birthday, the start of the school year, etc!) And so has been the same with my blog!! I created it back in December (?), but didn't want to start posting until January 1...Well, of course January 1 came and still no posting!! So then I decided I'd start once I became a CK HOFer!! (Haha! I can dream can't I??) Well, that day should have come yesterday but it didn't, so I've decided that TODAY is a perfectly fine day to start my life as a bonafide blogger!!

So hello world!! Here I am!! My life...And all the excitement (or lack thereof!) that it may entail!!