I'm Still Here!

Hey Everybody!

Well, I hope to be posting more often in the near future. It took a while for life as normal to resume after returning from Europe. I think we are getting there though. The house is back under control (for the most part), my audit at work is finally over (as of today), and things seem to be settling down! I've even had time to put some collages together of the best pics from our trip using the amazing Picasa 3 program from Google! I already had Adobe Photoshop, but this Picasa 3 Program has some neat features which Photoshop does not have (and vice versa...). Here they are:

ROME

PARIS

LONDON

Not only have I been busy editing pictures, I've also been getting a little crafty! I made this flower arrangement the other night for our mantle. I love flowers! Since I can't have real flowers around all the time, I've decided that a quality silk flower arrangement is not a bad addition to our decor! I like the color anyway!

My vegetable/flower garden is growing quickly. I don't have any pictures yet, but I have 2 tomatoes on the vine, several jalepenos and banana peppers, LOTS of green beans, and buds on my Zenias (I can't wait to have some fresh cutting flowers:-)

Oh, by the way, I'd also like to give a shout-out to my handsome hubby and their softball team for obtaining runner-up status in their league (they even got some "hardware" :-) CONGRATS to all the guys of the Willowbrook Softball Team!

Peace out!

Roman Holiday

For more pictures from our trip to Rome, Italy go here. We had an AMAZING vacation!!! I am too busy posting/editing pictures to tell much about it now, but if you look at the pics, you will see what a great time we had and all the things we saw! All I can say is that we had a wonderful trip, but it's good to be home to my bed, closet, and toilet seat :-)

Time Flies!

I cannot believe it, but my little sister is graduating from high school today! I'm so proud of her!!! I cannot believe it's already here! It really seems like yesterday that I was graduating from high school and she was only 10 years old! Wow....time flies. I have not been around for the majority of her "grown up" life, and I do not know her as well as I know my other siblings for that reason. Soooo, I am SUPER excited that she is going to Bryan College in Dayton, TN (only about 1.5 hours from our house:-) I'll actually be closer to her than my parents and other siblings for once in her life....maybe she'll come visit me on her "get away" weekends! All that to say...

CONGRATULATIONS ANNA KAT, I LOVE YOU!!!

Making a List...Checking it Twice

Hello to everyone out there! I have been gone for a long time. We have been busy, busy, busy.

First of all, we did an overhaul to the yard a little over a week ago....one day I will post before/after pics. If you want to see pics now, you can go HERE.

Lately, we have been completely ignoring the house and getting ready for Europe!!!! We leave in less than 2 weeks, and I cannot wait!!!!! I've had a long list of things to do/take care of/buy for Europe every time I set foot out of the house for about 2 weeks now...I'm hoping that those lists will start to fade away soon and I will begin to feel "ready." In my researching, I found various MP3 Audio Tours which you can now download to your Ipod.

Some are free....some are not, but I think it's a great idea! Has anyone done this successfully??? I am planning to find as many of these as I can (the free ones), so that we can have some idea of what the heck we're looking at while we are over there! Yes, I have indeed already put that on my next list! I know that you are dying to know exactly how many days it is until we leave...so, here it is, the countdown -

10 DAYS!!!!!

Happy Surprises

Don't you just love when something exciting happens that you are totally not expecting!?! The kinds of things that just catch you by surprise and make your day? Well, I've had some happy surprises in the past week.


Happy Surprise #1 -
Just to give you a little background to the situation...our TV got messed up during our move. This TV has been a pain in the side since we bought it. We bought it refurbished, and luckily it came with a 3 year full service warranty. We called the repairman to come fix it (yet again) after the move, and they had to take it for a week to fix all the problems it was having (that was not a happy surprise...). Well, the TV repairman called the other day and said that instead of repairing our TV, they were just going to give us all our money back in the form of a store credit! So 2.5 years after buying the tv, we got all our money back to go buy a new tv (and of course with technology you can get a nicer one...see below). I love it when people give me money and tell me to go shopping :-)



Happy Surprise #2 -
I played volleyball last night as a sub for Kevin's team. I was so sore this morning that the last thing I wanted to do was get up...much less go to work! Well, I got to work and I was surprised to find out that it is "Administrative Assistant Day," and my boss and co-workers were taking me out for lunch. They also sent me an edible arrangement...those are too cool!!!


Have you had any happy surprises lately? I would love to hear about them!

Stomping Grounds

Well, this weekend we are headed back to our old stomping grounds! We haven't headed that way in a while, and we have to get some stuff out of storage (AKA: our parents' sheds...). I can't wait! I love going down there! Kevin reminds me that it is no longer "home" for us on a regular basis, but I think it will always feel that way! I hope that all of you have a great weekend!!!

Growing Like a Weed

I now understand the expression "Growing Like a Weed" just a little better than I did. Upon coming home yesterday, I noticed (again) that our yard was pretty covered in weeds. I was not surprised by this fact because the previous home owners moved out last July. If you don't want to do the math, that gave the weeds 9 months to grow and mature...use your imagination. We had what I like to call tree weeds in our yard (you know, the kind you have to use both hands and pull with your legs, not your back... :-) So I decided to tackle them when I got home from work. I started pulling weeds around 5pm. When Kevin got home around 5:45pm, he joined me in my pursuit. We pulled until we could no longer see, and then we turned on the flood lights! 3 1/2 HOURS and 96 GALLONS of weeds later...we finished! You may wonder how I am measuring my weeds...good question! We filled up our city trash can. When I say that we filled it up, I mean that Kevin acted as a trash compactor the whole time we were filling it - making it pretty much 96 gallons of solid weeds!!! The yard looks great, and I feel very rewarded (and sore!).