Is anyone out there???

Knock, knock...??? Is anyone still out there? Ha! I know I disappeared but life has been super busy! Who's hasn't right?

Let's see, last time I posted it was fall and Devin was having a good football season. Well all the boys ended up having pretty good seasons. Madison and Devin's teams made it to the first rounds of playoffs but unfortunately lost there. Madison won the Allstate AFCA Goodworks Team Award and will be presented an award at half time at the Sugar Bowl. (I think that was a great way to end his last year of football!)

My church group is awesome! We have done so many fun things and I have made some great friends! I am now in charge of the activities for the group and that keeps me fairly busy and stressed but I do love doing it.

Mom is busy as always with the nursing home! I went to play Santa's elf for Christmas Eve but our regular Mrs. Claus fell and broke her arm so I filled in!

Oh, and I cannot forget to mention that we had our first WHITE CHRISTMAS in 128 years! It has snowed before on Christmas but never accumulated. I was staying at my parents house so I did not get a picture of my house but here is one of theirs! This was around 5 pm...

And this was around 8 pm...

The Boys of Fall...

If you know anything about my family at all you know we are HUGE football people. I was the only girl for 12 years and if I remember correctly I used to be the football! When I was little my cousin would come home from college with his football buddies and there are pictures of them helping me hunt Easter eggs! Anyways, almost all of the boys in our family have played football in high school/college. Each year for the past several years my mother and I have made our pilgrimage to watch Madison and Landon play either high school or college ball. Devin has now joined the ranks and is turning into one heck of a player! We are very happy that they live much closer and that we are able to catch more of his games.

We sure are proud of #88 Devin O'Connor!!! GO CANES!!! GO BIG D!!!

Life

Life is what happens when you blink your eyes, two months pass, and your sitting on your couch at 11 o'clock at night saying "Whoah, I haven't posted anything on my blog in 2 months!" Yes, I have been a busy little bee. I have joined a new church and am LOVING going to Sunday School with people my age. I cannot remember how long it has been since I was in an actual Sunday School class...probably middle/high school. We stay very busy with activities. From Braves games, to tubing in Helen, pool parties, hiking trips, and next weekend is a rafting trip on the Ocoee. (See, I told you I was a busy bee.) I finally got my deck rebuilt. It looks AMAZING!!!! Now I just need to do a little....errr LOT....of landscaping and my back yard will be in tip top shape. For the 4th of July I head up to my Aunt Nancy's house on the lake. I spent 4 days laying out on the dock and you can barely tell I was in the sun! It was an eye opening experience when my 16 year old cousin (who I changed his diapers and was at the hospital the day he was born.) drove us to get fireworks. I really can't be that old! The puppies are doing well. I have been transitioning them from being in their kennels all day to staying out in the living room/kitchen area. They are doing well so far with that and I feel much better knowing they have room to play and stretch. And finally, work is still going well. I like my job and we have been super busy with fiscal year change. I hope to do better at posting. Maybe even get some pictures up!

Take me out to the ball game...

Tuesday night I headed to Turner Field with 5 of my new friends from church to see the Braves take on the New York Mets. This was the view we had. We had outfield seats and could barely see the ball when it was pitched.

But we still had a lot of fun! Here are the girls...Myself, Jennifer, and Kristen.It was a pretty good game. The Braves scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 3rd. Jennifer and I had gone to get something to eat and missed Troy Glaus hitting a home run! Jeff Francour, who now plays for the Mets, scored a home run in the top of the 5th. Everytime he came up to bat the crowd BOOOO'ed him! And whoever caught his home run ball threw it back on the field! The Mets tied it up in the top of the 5th and the game was scoreless until the 9th inning. In the top of the 9th the Mets came way to close to winning but the Braves held them off. And then in the bottom of the 9th the Braves had a man on 1st and 2nd and Melky Cabrera hit the ball to 3rd where it was caught and thrown to 1st but it bounced out of the 1st baseman's glove and we were able to score, winning the game 3 to 2!

Out with the old...In with the new...

What do you do when your dogs cause destruction to your precious laptop? And it looks something like this...

Well, if you are me, you deal with it. Because, while the battery is dead and you have to keep it plugged in at all times and your missing 6 keys on the keyboard at the end of the day it does still turn on and you are able to type. But, when I was shuffling thru the paper on Sunday evening I ran across an add for a laptop that I could not pass up. So, out with the old beat up one...you will be missed. You and I have been thru quite a lot! But, in with the new...

The MOST amazing toast...

Toast....I know. It seems kinda bland. You can put jelly on it and make it a little tastier. And it is a great item if your tummy is doing flip-fl0p's. But this post....

www.thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/04/the-right-way-and-the-wrong-way-to-make-cinnamon-toast/

This post clarifies the most amazing way to make cinnamon toast. Trust me...just try it. Granted, I didn't add in the vanilla...and it was still that good.

Power

Power is a beautiful thing. It provides light in the dark, heat in the cold, air in the heat, electricity to turn on TV's, alarm clocks, and laptops. Needless to say it provides a lot of useful things. Useful things you don't realize you are in need of until it is gone. I arrived home this evening to a power truck pulling up in front of my driveway. When I walked into my house I noticed that the clocks were out which told me the power was out. I thought it was no big deal since the power company had just pulled up. Boy was I wrong. After eating dinner, reading for a while, and finally resorting to taking a nap, I had had enough. Apparently instead of turning my power back on they had simply checked and left. So, I placed a call to report my power outage. Luckily, they responded in about 30 minutes and quickly had the power back on. But, I had my bag packed ready to head to my parents to spend the night. Funny what a simple thing you THINK power is, until it is gone! I mean, do you really think my boss would have believed me showing up late to work with wet hair and the excused of..."sorry, my power was out!"?

In need of a good laugh?

Are you in need of a good laugh? Then watch this video....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emfDkcfWDew&feature=related

Girlfriends

I am blessed beyond measure to have 2 great groups of girlfriends. These are girls that know all my good traits and all my dirty little secrets. They are girls I can laugh with, cry with, ask stupid questions to (and not feel stupid asking it), but most importantly these are girls that love me for who I am. The top picture are my church girls. We were in a small group together a couple of years ago and we have been inseparable since. Life has had its ups and downs and we have faced it together. Two (almost 3) of us are married. One has a precious little boy. One now live in Las Vegas. We are each different in our own ways...but we accept that and love each other for it. (By the way, I can't find a good picture of all 8 of us!)

The second picture is my girlfriends from college...which again is not all of us. These are girls who I basically grew up with. We went thru a time in our lives together where we learned to do a lot on our own and figured out what life was really about with out your parents doing everything for you. Most of them are married with children. Its harder for us to get together but when we do its like we have never been apart.

I love both of these groups of girls and I don't know what I would do without them! If you don't have a core group of girlfriends you are missing out!

Long time no see...

Its been quite some time since I posted anything. A lot has been going on but at the same time not much has been going on. I know that was a contridiction...but, hey! So whats the latest on me? Well..



- Still loving the new job. I actually don't mind going into the office 5 days a week. We have a lot of fun and laugh a lot.

- Allergy season is in full force! I was forced to break down and go to the doctor this year since I was taking the 24 hour Claritin every 12 hours. I was quickly referred to an Allergist for testing. I just hope to get some relief. The hives so far have not been fun!

- Mom's birthday is this weekend. She will be _ _ years young! Ha, you actually thought I would tell her age on here? I kind of like breathing! But, she is the best Momma a girl could ask for and I wish her only the best!

- I bought a washer and dryer. You know that your an adult when you make a big purchase like this! No more making "fun" purchases... well this was a fun purchase, just different.

- Hershey and Chloe are still doing well and getting along.

- Hershey has a few odd behavior's that we are still working thru. Certain noises drive him CRAZY! The swiffer commercial on TV...they also play it on HULU...if I don't mute it in time he will start crying and running thru the house. He also has seperation anxiety over me. If I leave him at Mom and Dad's house he gets very restless after a couple of hours and is ready to go home.

- There is a lot coming up in the next few weeks so hopefully I will be posting more...

***This one is for you mom....no more saying that I never update my blog! :)

17 years ago...

17 years ago today we had just lived thru the infamous "Blizzard of '93" and my parents had made it thru their wedding weekend without getting hitched! You see my parents were supposed to get married March 13th, 1993. But, that fateful Saturday morning a blizzard blew into this great state and postponed their wedding. It wasn't until 2 days later (when the preacher could finally get his garage door open and car out.) that Mom and Dad tied the knot. It was just the icing on the cake so to say. I mean after Dad broke out in hives after purchasing Mom's engagement ring (allergic reactions to med's not because he bought the ring! ;) ), Mom's car being stolen (found somewhere near GA Tech trashed), 2 flat tires on Dad's car, 2 flat tires on Poppa's truck (which Mom was driving) and another almost accident what else could possibly go wrong in preparing for a wedding. I won't mention they had probably the worse fight ever that Saturday and Mom took a 2 hour walk in the snow. But Monday evening rolled around and by golly they were getting married!

Their honeymoon cruise had been canceled so they decided to spend the night in a nice hotel in Atlanta. Ok, so maybe the ONLY hotels between the airport and Macon were in Atlanta since that happened to be race weekend. That nice hotel ran out of hot water just after Dad finished his. Mom...well poor thing had her new hubby call the front desk and demand that they be notified as soon as hot water was available. At 3:30 am the phone rang and the front desk clerk did as requested. They decided to head to St. Simons for the week...until they spent 2 days and Mom came down with the flu. So Dad, taking good care of his new wife drove her home. Although Mom tried to convince him to stop in Savannah for St. Patty's Day...they drove on, the man had better sense than that! Instead they got to Macon and stopped at my Aunt's house for supper unannounced. (Dad's sister hates that sort of thing!)

By the way, this is a true story! Some people ask them: "Don't you think that was a sign you shouldn't get married?" To any other couple maybe...but mine are just crazy enough in love (or just plain crazy enough) to ignore those so called warnings. 17 years later they are still happy.

So....


HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD!!!!! I LOVE YOU BOTH VERY MUCH!!!!!

Nap Time

Sunday afternoon naps are just the best...especially when you can snuggle up to your tennis ball and that nagging....err...loving sister is no where around!

Death to the Gator

If you know me at all, you know that I am a die hard UGA fan. When Shane and I were dating last summer he brought Chloe 2 gator's. (He is a die hard UF fan.) Well she and Hershey have done justice to the gator!

Oh, and if you come to my house and see those little puffs of white of my carpet, please forgive me. I can vacuum 100 times a day but these crazy puppies of mine LOVE tearing their toys apart!

Back to Back State Champ

I think this picture says just how proud we all are of Petey! Preston won his 2nd State Championship in his weight class this past Saturday. Way to go Petey, way to go!

Winter Wonderland

This past Friday we had a good amount of snow here in Georgia! FINALLY! I truly thought that the weathermen were lying to us again but they finally were correct! Here are a few pictures of Blizzard 2010! (HA!)

This was at work as I was getting ready to head home...the snow had been falling for about 3 1/2 hours at this point...

Our tax dollars at work....

You can really tell the visibility was bad at 4:30pm and how bad traffic was!

This is what my house looked like!

This is the backyard!

Happy 100th Birthday Poppa!

I believe that this picture is of my grandfather when he was a baby. And today would have been his 100th birthday! He went by many names: Roy, Daddy, Big Pop for example. But, he was always my Poppa. I remember sitting on the top of his chair (sort of on his shoulder's) playing beauty shop while watching wrestling on Saturday night. This was of course after we had eaten breakfast for dinner. And, by the way, my mother played beauty shop with Poppa as well when she was a little girl. He got me hooked on soft peppermint sticks from Cracker Barrel. What did we ever get him for Christmas after he quit chewing his Red Man tobacco? Oh and the love of Little Debbie Zebra Cakes can be traced back to him! I remember eating his meals on wheels lunch as a snack in the afternoons...no, I didn't take the mans food. He didn't like them and to fool my mother he gave them to me to eat. (This was after he was caught putting them outside for the squirrels to eat.) I only saw him cry 1 time and that is when Dad (Don) proposed to Mom. I can still hear his chuckle...he never really laughed...just a smirk and a chuckle. He taught me 2 extremely important lessons in life...1) No one can take your education away from you. 2) Tithe your first 10%, save your second 10%, and live off the rest and you wont have to worry about expenses. He was the only man that I know of that has successfully remove a low-jack off of a steering wheel without the key to it. You remember the low-jack...the long bar that was supposed to lock your steering column in place so it could not be stolen. To this day, we are not sure how he did it...we think he took the steering column off of his truck and reassembled it! What a man he was and what an incredibly legacy he left! What I wouldn't give to spend this day with him as he told us what he thought of the world today! I miss you Poppa! I hope you had an extra special 100th birthday celebration with Mammer by your side!

Heavy Heart

My heart is heavy. Each year as this time approaches it becomes easier to internalize my sadness but tonight my heart is very heavy. You see, as Valentines Day approaches for many it is filled with joy and laughter and love. For me, unfortunately, it is filled with loss and sadness. My father passed away on February 14, 1997. 13 years have gone by and while it has gotten easier I still miss him.


Tonight the pain crept up and flooded its way back into my heart. I found out that one of my dear friends lost her grandmother last week. While it was expected that she would not recover from a fall it is still a raw emotion of loss and sorrow.


Add to that I read another friends status tonight to find out that his sweet mother had passed away after a long battle with breast cancer. I have to post his status because what he said was simply beautiful : 'Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just as someone at my side says: "There, she is gone." There are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout "Here she comes!"'

Tears just came pouring out when I read this because the image I have of the angels and of Jesus being excited that Ms. Martha has joined them is just overwhelming and yet I know the sadness that my friend is experiencing all to well.

And to add to this, I just read where a girl I went to high school with has a 14 month old son with SMA and they have decided to let him go. He has been in the hospital for about a week sedated and on a vent. This is not the first time she and her husband have had to make this agonizing decision. They had another son who passed away when he was 4 months old from the same disease.

Please pray for all of these people as they deal with the grief and sorrow of losing someone they love so dearly.

I don't mean to write a depressing blog....

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

So I have been in this strange mood for about the last 2 months. I normally dont like banana's but for some reason I have had a taste for them lately. I usually eat one with peanut butter for breakfast. On Friday I had a craving for banana nut bread and the recipe I used was soo simple!

3 ripe banana's
2 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

Peel and mash the banana's in a large bowl. Add eggs and mix well. Add sugar and mix well. In a separate bowl mix flour, soda, and salt. The recipe I used said to sift into the bowl but I just threw them in there and then stirred them with a whisk and it did fine! Add your dry ingredients to you wet and mix well. It will be more of a batter consistency than a dough. I then added about 1 cup of pecans to the entire batter and poured half of it into one loaf pan. Then I took mini chocolate chips and added enough to my liking to the second half of the batter and poured it into my second loaf pan. I baked at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until the toothpick came clean.

I must say the chocolate chip banana nut bread is my favorite!

What happens when...

What happens when your two dogs get in a fight over a toy while sitting on either side of you and the laptop is in your lap?



Yes, that is my laptop...with its 5 keys missing. Granted the "R" was already gone...Chloe did that by herself. But, Chloe and Hershey were fighting over a toy and the above picture is the result of said argument. Guess what my tax refund will be purchasing me this year?

Hershey

As promised here are a few pictures of Hershey!

He is a very sweet boy! We are still working on a few things and how to share but for the most part all of the dogs get along very well!