Lily & Petunia

My grandmother gave us a little bulldog figurine for Christmas that we have affectionately named "Petunia". She's too cute and looks just like Lily! She sits in front of our fireplace and we think she makes a nice addition to the place. Lily, however, is not all that sure that she likes her. When we first put her out, she just stared at her and kept cocking her head from side to side like "Um excuse me, what is this thing doing in my house?" After sniffing all around it (butt included), she concluded that Petunia was, after all, not a threat to her being the center of attention and has now decided that they can peacefully co-exist. It was pretty funny watching it all happen though and now we know that she would not so much love to have another dog around. Here's the one picture I managed to get of her investigation.

Emma & Fergie

2 things, which apparently unrelated at the time, happened to me on the same day. First - I finished Jane Austen's Emma. Second - I heard Fergie's new song, Clumsy.

I have been struggling, ever since I was supposed to read it for a book club, to finish Emma. It actually got veto-ed after about a month of all of us trying to read it because none of us could get into it. How's that for a book club? Oprah would not be proud. But not one to back down from a challenge, I promised myself I would finish it because, I mean, it's Jane Austen for heaven's sake and I've never read another book of hers and I HAVE to read at least one, right? So I did it. It took a lot of motivation on my part and at the end of it all, I can say I appreciate it but didn't care for it. I get why it's a classic and I understand that her social commentary is sharp and comedic, but honestly, it was boring to me. That is, until the end, when she realized she loved Mr. Knightley. I'm a sucker for a love story and after pages and pages of loooong paragraphs on manners and society, it was nice to get to the meat of the story - or what I considered the meat of the story. So the last - oh about 100 pages of the book, I was in. A little late, but better late than never right? Hooray for happily ever after. But I'm not gonna lie when I say I liked Clueless better.

Cut to later that afternoon while I was radio surfing and came upon Fergie's latest song, Clumsy. What in the WORLD is this song? It might be one of the worst songs I have ever heard. I've never gotten why she's popular and this song just confirmed that for me. I think I might like GLAMOROUS better, and I hate that song too. I mean, "Flossy, Flossy" - what does that even mean? Is she telling me I should floss my teeth? Because I don't really think I need personal hygiene advice from the woman that peed all over herself in concert. Anyway - after I tried to give it a chance for about 30 seconds and then had to change the station, I started thinking about Emma & Fergie.

Jane Austen, prepare to roll over in your grave. Here's what I came up with - Emma & Fergie are strangely similar. A few examples:

1.) They both think they're a little better than they actually are
2.) They both ended up with men better than them. Say what you will about Josh Duhamel, but he is hot. She looks like a man 90% of the time. And Mr. Knightley makes Emma a better person.
3.) People think they are better than they actually are - ex.) Fergie's singing & Emma's piano playing. Emma admits that she is not as good as people say she is, while I'm not really sure what Fergie's stance is. I imagine she thinks she's just as good as her fans do.
4.) Both started out with good intentions...i.e, Emma wanting to marry her friend Harriet to a man above her station in life & Fergie starting out on Kids Incorporated. How she went from cute Stacy Ferguson on that show, to the woman we see today is a mystery.
5.) They both had to overcome obstacles - Emma, her misguided matchmaking & Fergie, her crystal meth addiction.

See, it's like they're the same person, right? Okay, maybe not, but it was funny to me when I started to think about it. More power to Fergie for being a strong, successful woman - oh, and hey, Emma is too! See - it's uncanny.

4 Years and counting...

4 years ago yesterday, I married my best friend. I can hardly believe it's been 4 years already, and I can't imagine life without my sweet hubby. We had a great seafood dinner to celebrate (seriously, I think I could eat crab legs everyday for the rest of my life) and even though we sat about 6 inches from the people on either side of us (what is up with that?) we had a lovely time. So in honor of this occasion, I decided to list some of my favorite moments from our 4 years together so far.

• Our first dance
• Our trip to Yellowstone and laughing so hard I snorted, which then echoed throughout the entire park I think.
• Practicing our ballroom dance moves in our living room - the lessons really paid off!
  
• Our first day home with our new pup Lily
• Walking down the streets of Charleston together
  
• Sleeping in his lap the entire plane ride on the way to our Honeymoon in Cozumel. I was sick as a dog, but I felt so safe and comfortable with him. I remember it vividly to this day.
• Our Dance Dance Revolution competitions
• Watching him sing & air drum to "Mountain Dew" on his iPod in our hotel in Dingle, Ireland. That was a treat for everyone. And just our trip to Ireland in general.
• Reading the letter he sent me while I was on the 3 Day walk.
• Our trip to New York when he surprised me with tickets to Wicked.

There are so many more - but honestly, that's just boring for everyone. He makes me laugh, HARD, on a daily basis and loves me better than anything I could have prayed for. And he lets me win fights, which really, isn't that the most important thing?

Happy Anniversary, honey!

North Georgia New Year's

Here's an excellent recipe for a very fun New Years':

1 Mountain cabin
2 great friends
1 hot tub
lots of DVD's
even more Jingle Juice

We went to the North GA mountains with our friends, Brenda & Jo for New Year's this year. This was our 3rd year in a row spending it together - look at us, starting a tradition! Previous celebrations have included similar festivities, but we kicked it up a notch this year and took it to the mountains. Complete with an actual Mountain Man. Seriously, this guy was like "Where's Waldo" - he was everywhere we went, we just had to find him in the crowd. Complete with red & white striped hat. Okay, I'm just kidding, but how awesome would that have been?

Most of the weekend consisted of hanging out at the cabin, watching DVD's and the Chik-Fil-A bowl (War Eagle!). We did venture out to Anna Ruby Falls, which was only about 10 minutes down the road from our cabin. It was a beautiful day to go, and despite the fact that we actually had to - GASP- hike, it was totally worth it. It's so pretty up there. Jo got some excellent pictures with his sweet camera, as did Tyler with our less sweet, but highly portable camera. See below.

Other highlights from the trip include Jingle Juice, and watching Jo & Tyler build a fire. Or really more like watching Tyler gather wood and Jo build a fire. The boy scout training definitely paid off for the latter. And as for the Jingle Juice - below is the recipe, sure to make any party or trip a little more merry. :)

5 cups Orange Juice
1 cup vodka
1/3 cup triple sec
1/2 cup maraschino cherry juice
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
Stir together and garnish with cherries, orange slices, or whatever you like. Tyler put about 8 cherries in each one he made. Good times. Thank you Southern Living.

All in all, it was a really Happy New Year. Happy 2008!

What I did on my Winter Break...

Did you ever have to do these reports at school? What am I saying? I think it was a requirement at all elementary schools. Except it was usually "What I did on Summer Vacation". And involved beach vacations, playing outside, and messing with my little brother. And some dance competitions thrown in for good measure. Oh how I wish I still actually had a Summer Vacation, and a Winter Break, for that matter, that I could get paid for and not be forced to take Paid Time Off. Oh well. I'll call it Winter Break to make myself feel better.

So for MY Winter Break, I was off of work for 12 glorious days, including weekends. I'm actually still on it. Woo hoo! So far, it has been spent with my husband's family and my family and we had a great time at both. Tyler's family is huge, mine not so much, but we always have so much fun when we visit both. I think there were about 20 people at Tyler's and 6 at mine, plus 2 dogs.


I am super blessed to have married into such a great family, full of wonderful personalities, senses of humor, and kind hearts. They may have started a rumor that I was pregnant this year, but that is neither here nor there. Our visit was still great. :)






And of course, my immediate family rocks, though I am a little biased of course. You won't find a more loving, caring bunch in the world and I love spending time with them. We always laugh so much and there's nowhere I'd rather be on Christmas.





Top 5 moments of Winter Break so far:
1.) Being with family
2.) Seeing 3 of my best friends
3.) Seeing all of my nieces and nephews reactions to Santa Claus when he visited my sister-in-law's house on Christmas Eve!
4.) Seeing National Treasure 2 with my family. Super fun movie everyone. And then dinner after.
5.) Sitting on the couch playing with my brother's Mac Book. "Photo Booth" is HILARIOUS. I only wish I had emailed myself some of the pictures we took. I haven't laughed that hard in a while.

Lots more top moments, but I think I've reached the word limit on my "What I Did on Winter Break" report. Hope everyone out there had a Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!

White Christmas

I just wanted to say, for the record, that this movie with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, is excellent. I hadn't seen it before - I have no idea why not, as I LOVE Christmas movies, but it was on tv last night and I forced my Grinch-y husband to watch with me. I think during the times he looked up from espn.com, he actually enjoyed what he saw.

Christmas in Vermont in this movie looks awfully pretty and I must admit, I'm a bit jealous of it right now as I sit in 70 degree weather here in Atlanta. And I'm also bummed now that I missed White Christmas at the Fox because I know I would have loved it. But, we are going to The Nutcracker next weekend, so I'm not complaining. It will be my first trip to the Atlanta Ballet, and I am way too excited. My husband on the other hand took a little convincing, but here's hoping it's not too painful. It's the Nutcracker though! Who doesn't love The Nutcracker?! Also, he gets to go to Aspen for 4 days in January, so I don't want to hear any whining about sitting through a 2 hour ballet. ;)

Wow, I got way off track. Point of this post: Watch White Christmas, if you haven't seen it already. I'm also planning to check out Holiday Inn, which stars Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. Man, I love old movies.

Thankfulness

I've been thinking a lot about thankfulness lately, for obvious reasons, and have realized that I have so much to be grateful for. So, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I have decided to make a list of some of the things I am most thankful for in my life. In no particular order.


1.) God's grace
2.) Beautiful, crisp fall days
3.) My husband's sense of humor
4.) Fun shopping outings with friends. Named Brenda. :)
5.) Lazy Sunday's
6.) My health
7.) Good books
8.) Movies that inspire a sense of wonder
9.) A loving family
10.) The ability to travel
11.) My sweet, snorting, lovable dog
12.) Wonderful friends
13.) New babies
14.) My grandfather being at home
15.) Turkey and dressing
16.) Loose fitting pants :)
17.) My home
18.) IMDB
19.) Netflix - especially because of the WGA strike, which is something I am most definitely NOT thankful for.
20.) My church family
21.) Laughter
22.) coffee with hazelnut creamer
23.) hopefulness
24.) My faith
25.) A 3 day work week!!

May I always remember these things and others that I am thankful for, not just at Thanksgiving, but all year long.

Happy Thanksgiving!