Ahhh...the weekend

This past weekend was so wonderful that I didn't want to go to sleep last night because I knew that it would end. sigh. A quick rundown: I had 2 dates, spent time with my parents, and finished a project.

On Friday Kj called and suggested we meet up and then travel over to a place in PC that has bowling, rollerskating, pool, the works. I was all for it. The surprise is that it was just us! I guess I've gotten use to the couples we've gotten to know around here and us all getting together sporadically. Trust me, I'm loving that I'm meeting people, but every now and then it's soooo good to just go out on a "just the two of us" date. And that we did. We ate dinner, I whooped him in bowling (136 to 103), we shot 2 games of pool in which he made up rules, so therefore my victories went undeclared and then we headed home around 11. Only downfall is that the air conditioning was out in the place so my victory dances had to be cut short so that I wouldn't pass out from heat exhaustion. hehehe. Here Kj's concentrating very hard to make a shot that won't break the 800 rules he made-up. Seriously, we just played 8-ball!!!

On Sat my parents drove down and I can't begin to say how good it was to see them! Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of us all together (my brain must have been on an excitement overload), but you know what we all look like so picture 4 huge smiles and there you have it. ;-)

KJ and I darted away for just a moment (literally) to go on our second date... the ball! Okay so the dress didn't zip ALL the way up, but we were able to rig it so that no one noticed. The love handles may have won the battle, but I won the war! We went to the ball and had a great dinner, good conversation, and yummy carrot cake (did I already mention food???). Didn't get a chance to dance, but everything happens for a reason and maybe that zipper wasn't meant for sashaying on the dance floor. ;-)



Lastly I finished my sister's apt. warming art. Actually mom and I finished it Sunday after dinner. Not bad for having no original plans and using materials I had on hand. I'd say that the frame definitely took a step up to improvement!


So it's Monday and I can't wait to see what this week holds! Oh yes- Sidebar: Watched 3 movies this weekend.
1) Inside Man with Denzel Washington - The plot was awesome, but I'm NOT a Spike Lee fan and since he directed it, there were many things I felt could have been done differently.
2) The Punisher - Gruesomely violent (a no-watch for my dear colein), but a really good movie. Reminds me of the movie where Steven Seigal wakes from the coma to avenge his family's death.
3) Match Point - This one threw me for a loop and I found it more disturbing than anything else. The plot is definitely unexpected, and I can't say it stunk b/c even with the opera and British accents, kj said it wasn't that bad. Just demented in my opinion...

lots of lovin!

Fun pants Friday!

Okay, this may be a rather long and random post, but seriously I had a million things happen yesterday that I wanted to blog about. So here goes:

It must be love that keeps us two nuts together. I told Colleen that I've started repeating "I can't change you, but I can change me" to myself when I start to wonder "Who is this man I've married"! These instances happened just yesterday:
1) While lying on the couch with my eyes open staring at the tv, kj comes in and changes to the NFL station just as they're about to do the reveal on HGTV. Reason: He thought I was sleep. (My eyes were WIDE open fixated on the tv!!!)
2) A few mornings lately, I accidentally use up just enough hot water to leave him with about a good 2 min of lukewarm before it's freezing. Reason: I'm just selfish... just kidding! I really do get overly excited about waking myself and steaming up the bathroom so that it's not cold when I get out the shower.
3) Just this morn I accidentally put a powdered handprint on his freshly ironed black t-shirt. Apparently it doesn't brush right off... Reason: It was an accident!

This weekend we're going to a ball. Yep, I love getting dressed up and my husband, in the spirit of loving me, finds these random occasions for us to do so. This is an Alpha ball raising money for some scholarship thing (Can you tell the specifics aren't important to me? Any reason for glitter and sequins and I'm in). Well I went to the consignment shop and found a dress for $40. Oh yeah, it came home with me... despite the little fact that it laces down in the back and where the zipper meets the lace, well, I can't quite get it to close all the way. So I thought this week I'd just eat a little less and exercise my butt off (literally). The plan was a no go. I've only been to the gym once so far (unless I squeeze in a step class tomorrow morn) and last night for example, I had fried chicken and guacamole with sun chips. Yumm, but not good for my ultimate objective. I'll let you know Monday how it turned out... Fingers crossed.


I found an inspiration piece for the guest bath. I knew I wanted to paint the shower curtain, but couldn't figure out with what. Well, tah dah I'm going with an Indian them (Middle Eastern not Native American)! Liz, recognize this sconce? :-D


In my creative revelations last night I stumbled upon and art project while "cleaning" the office. This is a project in the works that I'm going to give to my sister (Brit don't look!), but I think it's got such potential, that I almost wished I hadn't called her to tell her I was sending her a surprise b/c when it's done I may want to keep it... Mom always said to give the gifts that you want to keep for yourself, but I've told Brit if she doesn't like it, she is to SEND IT BACK to me. Colein, recognize the frame? HA! Im going to paint the matte black (b/c that's cheaper than buying a new one) and run with it.


Okay and because this post is wayyyy long I'll finish with my Fun Pants that Liz gave me when I went to visit. I love that I'm grown enough to wear white without getting it dirty and these make me feel like I could jump out a plane and soar for a sec before ultimately crashing down to my demise...


Happy "Fun Pants" Friday!!!

Umm... why

do they put black jellybeans in the bag with the fruity. I've pretty much determined that this is the great divider of people. Those who like black jellybeans and those who don't. They give the licorice lovers a bag of nothing but little black beans for their consumption pleasure, but for us fruity lovers, we must endure the occassional, "accidentally popped in some nastiness with the handful of fruity goodness" that comes if you a)eat them by the fist full as I'm trying to stop doing, or b) mistake them for the dk brown "chocolate flavored" ones.

also... why: do dogs not look when you're sitting at the light behind them trying to take their picture? These were some big dogs and could have easily been mistaken for cattle in my opinion...



lastly...why: do I have the following creatures lurking outside my window at work? Really! If this isn't an unsafe working environment, I don't know what is! (my coworker took these pics while I stood squirming on the "safe" side of the window) FL gotta love it! This is not going on my list...





Happy Thursday all!

Yes, another project

So I'm very excited that my parents are coming to visit us this weekend. This will be the first time that they've jumped across the state line to see us in our territory. :-) Knowing this I decided it best to finish up a few things left undone and of course to create another project so that the "in the works" category didn't get too low... So I've crowned our guest room completely. Really KJ and I crowned it, which I must say went really well. I'm more of the home project person in this marriage while he sits off to only come view the final result and render it a thumbs up or thumbs down. I guess on Sat he could hear that there was more sawing and hammering going on than necessary (turns out measurements are NOT my thing...), and he came to lend his wife a hand before she cut off her thumb (the little miter box and saw from lowes can be lethal)! Anyway, the guest room has been tackled with only the accessory shopping remaining and the guest bathroom, well, we started the crown moulding process in there, but ran into an angle that's got the best of us for the moment, so it's on pause.

The new project is the office. I've got some cleaning to do before the paint brushes come out. It looks like the closet in there had a rough night and was unable to hold it's contents. ;-)

So I hope all is well with everyone. If anyone is even reading this... :-D

Finding the lost

Liz, where's MY liz claiborne classics cd???? I know you have it. last time i heard it you played it at penny's shower at your mom's house (like i wouldn't recognize MY cd). just this very instant I thought of it. As the thunder rumbles and the rain poors down (this is a big afternoon thunder storm!) I thought how nice it would be to be curled up on the couch taking a nap or reading a great book listening to some laid back LIZ CLAIBORNE CLASSICS... but alas... I befriended a cd thief and didn't even know it. Don't deny it. I don't want to have to bring up evidence A) Pink and evidence B) City High.
Love you girl, despite your sticky cd fingers! :-D

Hello hello to anyone else who may have popped in to check on me today! I hope to be more interesting tomorrow, but for today, I'm on a small "locate my prized possessions" mission. ;-)

lots of lovin!

My niche

A photographer, I am not... but if I were, I think I've discovered my niche.
Driving Photos! Yes, I know it sounds a little dangerous, but I believe that's some of why I like it. It's sooo not dangerous at all. I just hold my camera and snap away (never taking my eyes off the road) and get the biggest kick out of the pics I get by chance. Yep, I believe this is what's going to put me on the map. ;-)
Reason #5 of Why Florida's Not Sooooo Bad
Traffic that lets you take Driving Photos!
This is a definite no-no, do-not-attempt for all my friends. :-D

Anywho. Tricey these first first two are for you! Going over the bridge the other day, I noticed the red car ahead of me had an AK license plate... But it wasn't you :-(
So I wanted to show you the water that you keep talking about. Love you girl!

The last pic is just proof for Reason #4. Yep, that's a storm a brewing...

Happy Thursday!

I haven't forgotten...

Reason #4 Why Florida's Not Sooooo Bad
Late afternoon 10 minute Rain Storms
You know how much I love rain and lately we've had a rainstorm (thunder, sometimes lightening, the works) everyday in the mid afternoon. I couldn't be happier. There's no sprinkling in FL. Just full out, the-bottom-fell-out-of-the- clouds rain.
Happy Sigh.

Benzes for Everyone!

Congrats Lisa!!!! I just couldn't keep it to myself! Lisa was just offered the internship at Mercedes Benz! This is such a BLESSING b/c this will give her the experience to accompany the (2nd) degree that she's working on! I'm sooo proud of her! Plus I love these reminders of how awesome God is and how if you just let him, he'll work wonders in you life!

So here's to My Lisa and the great news and inspiration she gave me early this Wednesday morning! ~i will take a gold or silver one please... are driving gloves necessary...hummm....~

Love you tons girlie!

Happy August!

Can't believe the "summer" is over. I'm not in school and I don't have any little ones in school, but I pass by several schools on my way into work and it means a longer commute for me. So bye bye days of leaving at 7:30 to make it to work by 8:05... (40 minutes flies by when you put your petal to the metal...) I already know that I'll need to give myself and additional 15 minutes for bumper to bumper school buses and carpools. Sigh...
Happy August everyone! Here are a few interesting August month facts:

• Sandwich Month (whooo-whooo love a good turkey salami with miracle whip)
• Foot Health Month (take care of those tootsies...)
• National Catfish Month (everyone should go to Cracker Barrell, home of the best fried catfish)
• Romance Awareness Month (ohhh-laaa-laaa - gonna definitely make sure this is observed.)
• National Water Quality Month (started to have water tested yesterday. long story. not a happy ending)
• 1st week- International Human Exchange Week (don't understand this. let's not exchange humans okay!)
• 1st week- International Clown Week (there's a clown that sells hot boiled peanuts on my way home. seriously)
• 2nd week- National Smile Week (shouldn't we observe this all year?)
• 2nd week- Don't Wait-Celebrate! Week! (to recognize small accomplishments) (I don't know who came up with this, but I LOVE it)
• 2nd Sunday- Family Day, Daughter's Day (Hats off to all us girl children!)
• 1- National Hobo Day (there's a highschool near here whose mascot is the hobo. really...)
• 5- National Mustard Day (spicy or just plain yellow, let your mustard flags fly high)
• 6- Friendship Day (Happy early Friendship day! So they make cards for this???)
• 9- Family Reunion Day (the cooper clan beat them to the punch.)
• 19- National Aviation Day (i think all of us who have flown before should take the day off work in observation...)
• 26- Women's Equality Day (we are equal for the most part aren't we??? hehehe)

Happy Tuesday! (Here's proof of the clown with the hot boiled peanuts...)

When the boys are away...

... the girls will PAINT!!!

After visiting the beautifully decorated home of Liz, I decided it was time to get off my bum and grab a paint brush. As you know, that's been one of my goals from day one ("Can't wait to get a house so that I can paint some walls" if I had to directly quote myself). It worked out perfectly that KJ had an out of town boys' weekend and Colleen's husband John had to work. She drove down late friday evening and we were in Walmart by 11:30 letting Ms. Pat mix up a few colors.

I'm such a spaz! I never wanted to have white walls, but when it came time to throw on some color, I must admit, my feet got a little chilly. Had Colleen not been there, I might have scrapped the whole project. But with her cheering us both on, we whipped out those brushes and started adding a little color to my world.

Tahdah! After a weekend of no boys but lots of paint I present the not quite finished but definitely going somewhere...
Guest Bath and Guest Bedroom

Before


After


Before


After

Liz suggested teal and I accepted the challenge. She's soooo good at these things. :-)

Colleen getting us started at midnight...seriously midnight...


Me in the accidental Desert Storm/Deer brown bathroom that got an immediate color change as soon as Lowes opened in the morning... Colleen never lost hope, but I was ready to grab the never failing Eggshell and undo the wrong...

Four things...

Okay, I'm a blog junkie and I saw this on someone's post, so I thought it would make for something interesting on mine:

4 jobs:
Sweetest Cookie Company girl the Dec's ever seen
AU Fin Aid Office (and I still put myself into tons of debt...)
Copy Works designer/typesetter (was sooo pumped to make more than min. wage)
Dillard's jewelry counter girl (didn't last long. accessories are not my thing ;-) )

4 movies:
I am Sam (talk about crying a river!)
Family Stone (thx tricey!)
In her shoes (thx liz!)
Shawshank Redemption (gotta love triumph over obstacles!)

4 homes:
Good ole Castleman!
1121? Rddbud Ave. Apt 7 - The most ghetto on campus apart, but the most loving community
Apt F - The best! Liz was a roomate like no other. She left huge shoes to fill!
View Drive - sniffles, so many memories from my mountain

4 TV shows:
Cosby Show (I've probably seen every episode twice)
Grey's Anatomy (it's addictive and I love when tv makes you go- sigh... ahhhhh!)
That's so Raven (i don't care that I'm not 10 she's hilarious!)
Lost (almost finished with the season 1 dvds)

4 Vacations
Ummm
Egypt (although my uncle says that there are huge frogs in the desert. go figure)
Tahiti (doesn't that just sound nice?)
Switzerland (I'm going to learn how to ski one day...)
North Carolina (will always be home away from home)

4 Websites Every Day
A million blogs - shameful
google
getty images.com (for work... really!)
mail.yahoo

4 Favorite foods
Any Mexican food
Lamb (kj's is superb!!!)
Spinch Dip
Crab legs

4 places I'd rather be right now
Painting a wall (home decorating waits for no one!) hehehe
In a good belly dancing class (love the thought of jiggling my jelly)
On the couch reading a good book as KJ plays playstation (it's romantic... really!)
Car dancing on my way home!

Happy Thursday!

My Liz

This weekend I went to visit My Liz and oh, how overdue that visit was! It gave me a sense of normality to get to someone who has known me near forever, and remembers my life better than I remember my own. We're way too far apart (in miles) but after spending even 30 sec with her I forget that we're not roomates anymore. She's my comfort zone.

So we visited her neice and nephew (who are hilarious) and then went to see the lions. Only there were no lions (we must have got there around bedtime) so we just took pics with everything around their cage. I'm suppose to photshop some lions in later. ;-)

Great Trip. Best Friend. Wonderful weekend!

Back tracking

Okay here are photos to back up my #2 and #3 reasons of why FL's not sooooo bad...

#2- Highway Watermelons: It wasn't an old woman, but just as good, and old man. Everyone at work says he's really friendly and that he's got the best tomatoes.

#3- Crab lunches: Lunch on Friday was wonderful. It's good to get away. Here was our view from the lil "crab shack" that we ate at. Makes it hard to go back to work and give 4 more hours...

Our home/My project

A few have asked, and I thought I should share. I think it'll be a while before we get some more visitors (with the exception of my Tricey possibly coming to town... Whooo-hoooo!), so I'm trying to knock out some major things and give our home some personality. I've finally hung a few things on the wall!!! I'm so backwards, b/c there is definitely some painting on the horizon but the blank canvas was about to kill me! So I took to the master bath with a hammer and a few nails. KJ is still surprised that my "eyeball center, lick finger, mark spot" method isn't disasterous. ;-)

So here is our little FL home, my Project In The Works.




Yep, ole big brown is GONE! Here's our new man/woman combo. We both LOVE it!


The kitchen is my intended area of unlimited color. I'm not quite sure what lies in the future for this, but I can promise that it will be bright!


Nothing on the walls yet, but you can kind of see where I'm going. The big puppy was a gift from my daddy on the day I was born and he's decided that it should stay with me. I'm sooo glad he sent it. Funny, I don't think in all 26 years that I've named my pooch. I'll work on that one...


Trying to add a little pizazz.





That's it. Episode 1 of our own lil HGTV.

oh yes- Reason #3 Why Florida is Not Soooo Bad
Crab lunches by the bay. That's the game plan for today for me and my coworkers. It's been a tough week, we've worked hard and we deserve some crab dog-gone it!

Happy Friday. Lots of love!!!

Been waiting...

...for a chance to take some pics of the house so I could show all who haven't had a chance to visit... wink, wink. But I'm slow as molasses and I always think, I'll take pics in the morn before work... it hasn't happened yet.

So rest assured, the house is coming along well. I stumbled upon a new home decor project last night (it's a surprise, so I'm not giving any details...) and reason #102 of why I love kj is that in the middle of cooking dinner, when my epiphany hit, he watched the stove for me while I ran to Big Lots before all of my craft items got bought up. Backtracking: Reason #101 of why I love kj is that having decided to skip pilates (I forgot my cover up t-shirt and I'm just not comfortable flaunting my jelly roll around in just a sports bra.), i made a quick run to Publix to grab some dinner items and completely expected to bust in on my husband and his other wife (Miss Playstation), but SURPRISE he was doing LAUNDRY while playing with Miss Playstation... Ahhh, sometimes I could just smother him with love. :)

So, I've been thinking that instead of just bidding my time here in FL, I should find things to love about where God has stationed us so I will now begin my list of: Why Florida's Not Soooooo Bad

#1 - Office Pets
I work in an office where everyone (except for me... okay, and sandy and wayne, but everyone else ;-) ) has a pet and office policy is that dogs can come to work with you. No cats, but I'm not a cat person anyway so I'm not lobbying for that right, but I digress.
Anyway, I introduce to you Norah! She's my coworker, Bryan's dog by day and nite, but my office pet whenever he lets her make the journey.
So here's to Florida and Office Pets!

(the Bonnet was Kristen and Bryan's idea, I prefer her in all her natural beauty.)

Love this Surprise...

So Florida has made me a true believer of the the term "home sick". Don't get me wrong. I love KJ and this is where the Lord wanted our life together to begin, but it's also no secret that I miss closer to my love ones. Even the airport is larger so to travel to relatives further out is less expensive, but I digress...

Anywho, we returned from the fam reunion on Monday nite and we were exhausted! So after taking a shower I was pretty much passed out by 7 something. I woke up Tuesday morning to discover that I'd missed SEVERAL calls from Lisa and Cindy (friends of mine). I kind of panic and call them first thing not caring if I'm waking them from a deep slumber and plotting how I can be in there in 4 hrs (3.5 if I push the petal all the way to the floor). Lisa answers nonchalantly with "Hey Girl." Hey?!?!?! Then she says, "has Connie called you?" Well, there's no 911 and no I haven't heard from Connie. "If she calls answer your phone, she's got something important to tell you." Okay... so immediately I think, yep, they're pregnant.

The day goes on and still no word from Connie. I've decided to call them after work and one-up them with my knowledge of their joyful news. Around lunch, Lisa, our receptionist, tells me not to go to lunch, a surprise lunch date is on his/her way. Have I mentioned how I don't really know a soul out here? So of course I KNOW it's KJ.

Typing it up, it seems like I should have started putting some things together. I didn't. At 12:45 Connie and Larry are standing in my office and I'm surprised, ecstatic, and yes, tearful. I Love My Friends! They took time out of their anniversary trip to drive out to my job to surprise me for lunch.

To make matters even better, they're here until Friday so last nite we all went to church and dinner. It gives me an old familiar feeling and reminds me how the Lord blessed me with wonderful pep and how in time, some more wonderful pep will start to surface here in Florida. Until they do: Thank you Connie and Larry for loving me (and kj) enough to take our friendship to the highway and deliver the wonderful care package of your company.

Oh yeah - they're not pregnant just sneaky. :-)

In a Family Way

Family Reunion Time!!!!
My family is ridiculously wonderful! On my mom's side all of my grandfather's brothers and sisters (those surviving) and their decendants all gather on the second weekend of July. It's been this way since I was a little girl and the tradition is continuing strong! Talk about having a good time!
There's food (my cousin Anthony fries up the best fish I've EVER had), stories (that go back generations and generations), laughter, dancing, etc. It's one full weekend! We generally party from sun up to sun set, only to do it again the next day.

There's a lot of love in my family and these reunions just make you feel all cozy inside. I like knowing where I've come from. I think the highlight of the trip was when I visited my cousin Tasha's gmom (my 4th or 5th cousin, tasha and i have no idea what number cousin we actually are, but she's always been the closest cousin to me, she's 2 day's older need i say any more), and she told me that I remind her of my Grandma Gracie. Grandma passed when I was 8 so I don't remember a lot about her other than a few scattered details from a few month stay with her and Granddaddy. She was a wonderful woman, that much I know and remember and I'm proud that genetically I remind pep of her and also in my mannerisms. Looks like Grandma Gracie passed things down to Mom Gracie, who passed things down to me. Isn't that the way it's suppose to be????

Ahhh... Family...

Here are some of my favorite pics from the weekend.

Long weekend - July 4th

I love long weekends!!!! We had so much going on this weekend, that when I look back it feels like we were on a mini vacation. Here's the play by play so you see what I mean:

Kj's parents came to visit on Friday and after dinner we went to visit some more family.

On Saturday Mama Katie and I went to the outlets and tried to shopped til we dropped, but it doesn't fare well to leave the men folk alone for long b/c they only proceeded to call us every 30 min to ask when we were coming back ;-). So we went home, had a quick lunch, and everyone took off in different directions. Katie and John headed back to AL, KJ went over to a friends to play a new soccer playstation game (you all know I'm married to a playstation addict right???), and I proceeded to clean and get things straight so that I wouldn't have to worry about the house for the rest of the weekend.

Sun was church and a lazy dinner of KJ's reknown lamb (it's reknown in our house, but it hasn't hit the public yet) and after evening service I was able to empty out a box of candles and candle holders (I should have taken a pic of kj's face! We agreed that he should stay in another room and only come check on me if I called him.). Our house is finally taking on the shape of a home! The 2 bathrooms are almost kindof finished. ;-)

Mon we went to Fort Walton so that I could do a long over due TJ Maxx run and then we crashed a friend's pool at her apt complex. KJ tried to drown me and I tried to swim laps (both, to no avail). And yes, I've reverted back to my wild hair college days, but only b/c I was too tired to do more then wash the chlorine out. ;-) I think the ponytail it's in now makes it work friendly...

Finally Tues we drove over to Nina and Oneal's in Fort Rucker and spent most of the day with them and the kids. I've got the funniest niece and nephews. They're just a trip! They are a constant reminder of how fun it is to be 8, 6, and 4. From balloon animals (I successfully created an anteater and a whale, sorry no pics), to popsicle blue tongues, to swimming in 1 foot of water like you're going for a gold medal (goggles and all). And G was actually my favorite this time around (I'm not a bad aunt, my favorite changes daily so that they all have ample time in the spot light.), he let me take a million and two pics of him and I don't think I've ever had such an animated model. A welcome change from Kj's normal cries of "Girl put that camera down" when I try to use him as my muse.

Anywho here are a few pics of the kids. Easy to see how they can grow on you like kudzu, huh?

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th!