Katie & Cullen

wordless wednesday

2011-09-21T08:28:00.001-05:00

internship update

2011-09-20T08:10:00.000-05:00

Internship has been going on for 6 weeks now, so we thought it was time for an update. It's been awesome and I'm LOVING it! Busy, but loving it. Pretty much anything I could say about it here, I say in the vlog below. Thank goodness for videos instead of typing...and a wonderful hubby who does all the cool editing! Add in some knife slinging (that I didn't even realize would appear so close to my face), and the videos are ususally more interesting (or entertaining?) than reading a bunch of words anyway.

Sometimes they go just a little too far!

2011-09-18T21:44:00.003-05:00

Since Cullen is working from home lately and is still working on Central Time despite us being on Eastern Time, he doesn't have to "leave" for work (i.e., walk 10 feet into the home office) until 9:00am. But lately, when I leave between 7:00 and 7:30, Ada is ready for him to get up too, so he has started taking her on a long morning walk/run. I REALLY miss getting to do my morning walk/run with her. :-/ But being on EST, it's not daylight until around 7:00, and I'm not digging the idea of running in this new area where I know no one in the dark. And unfortunately I am just not an afternoon exerciser...aside from the fact that it's blazing hot here still in the afternoons, I am usually just tired and ready to get dinner going, sometimes finish up some work, and then relax for a minute before it's time for bed. I loved my morning runs back home - it really got me motivated and feeling good for the day - and I hope that when daylight savings time ends (or starts? I never remember which it is) I'll be able to start back again.

But back to Cullen & Ada's runs. Sometimes they just get to going and end up way down the road with a long way to go to get back before 9:00. So, the video below is from one of those "epic journeys." This video just cracks me up! Cullen did a great job with the edits...and the epic-ness starts around 2:35 (but the part before is interesting too!).

Hope everyone has had a great weekend!

Labor Day at the beach!

2011-09-16T08:14:00.001-05:00

I mentioned a few posts ago that we were at the beach for Labor Day & for a wedding. Well we were. And we had a great time!! It was actually a little tiny bit nice (for us, not for the bride & groom) that there was a tropical storm coming through, because it forced us to just stay in the house and relax. My schedule has been so busy and non-stop with internship starting that I needed a breather! We headed down Friday night after work, and can I just say that the beach house being only 2.5 hours away is pretty fantastic.

We were sad to not be at the game for the first kickoff of the season, but we still kicked it off right!

Around 2:00 or so on Saturday the tropical monsoon actually stopped! It made for perfect cool weather for the wedding. I know they were sad that they weren't able to have the wedding on the beach as planned, but at least it wasn't rainy and nasty...especially for the outdoor reception. Everything was still beautiful and we had a wonderful time!! Of course I took a million pictures, but haven't even put them on the computer yet, so check out the video. Cullen did some awesome edits! Oh, and they had the most amazing groom's cake...Bryant Denny stadium!!

We were planning to drive back on Sunday so we could get home and get some things done on the Monday off, but the beach house just sucks you in! Well, that and it was POURING rain all day. It looked like it would be better to wait it out and drive back after the rain was gone on Monday. We didn't complain about having to stay an extra day. :-) It was actually a really great, peaceful, no pressure, no schedule day, so I was glad we stayed!

Sticking to it... VLOG #100!

2011-09-14T16:56:00.004-05:00

I'm so impressed with Cullen's stick-to-it-ness. He started the vlogging project with a goal to post one every day for the next year, and he's really stuck to that so far!! It can be a lot of work with all of the edits and cool things that he does, but he has been dedicated to get something posted every single day for the last 100 days...even when there's really nothing interesting going on in our lives. But that's the point of vlogging - or even blogging for that matter - just posting about your life and all that goes with it! We started this vlogging thing with the intention of documenting this crazy year of our lives for ourselves, but have found it's been really fun to connect with other people through it too. We've "met" some other cool people through their videos and have really had fun seeing what other people do with their lives. It's kind of like it was when I started blogging...at first you feel kind of weird reading about other people's lives, but then you realize that's why they post, so you start to make more connections. It's kind of cool how the internet works that way, if you ask me!

We really appreciate all of the support from everyone who has watched the vlogs and been there for us as we've been away from family and friends. It makes us smile to hear that other people are enjoying watching and to know we are still loved even though we're not there!! Don't be afraid to subscribe or comment & give us feedback on things you like or don't like about the vlogs. :-) We're learning a lot as we go along & love to hear suggestions...plus we really enjoy connecting with everyone! Sooo, vlog #100 is HERE... WATCH:

Home again, home again, jiggety jig!

2011-09-04T10:22:00.006-05:00

We got to go home last weekend and it was GLORIOUS!

Hmm, we never did get any Milo's. But I can assure you we had plenty of other good food.

It was a really short trip but so worth it! We left right after work on Friday, got there around 10:30pm then left on Sunday around 4:00pm. Madelyne and Bennett insisted on staying up late to wait on us Friday night and we were SO happy to see their sweet little faces as soon as we got there! Big thanks to my parents for keeping them entertained until we arrived....we only hyped them up a tiny bit when we got there. Ha!

The vlog Cullen made of that night is one of my favorites ever. So sweet...especially the end! When Kelley & I were growing up, our mom & dad laid down with us to "rub & pat," as we called it, for years and it's one of my favorite childhood memories.

Saturday we did what we love to do...hung out at the pool, ate some good BBQ, & just enjoyed being together!

Cullen decided he wanted to be a part of this new "leisure dive" craze, so we got some props together, he practiced a few times, and then he went for it! The final product turned out pretty neat!

So neat that it ended up on the official leisure dive page!! http://www.leisuredive.com/dives/the-missionary/ AND on The Daily Beast!! http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/09/leisure-diving-ctd.html Cool stuff!

Practice Take 1:

Take 2:

Annnd he did the crossing guard too:

More behind the scenes and other Saturday fun & cool dives from the rest of us in these Vlogs:

Remember underwater tea parties?? Summer isn't complete without one!

Kelley, Jay, Madelyne, Bennett, Emily, & their dog, Abbey, all spent the night at my parents' house with us Saturday night, so it was one big sleepover. So fun! Emily is getting to be such a big girl! Love her adorable laughs in the next vlog. She's the just the sweetest, happiest baby.

Sunday morning we had some delicious homemead breakfast left over from Saturday and had some more quality time before we left to go to Cullen's parents house to spend time with his side of the family.

We had a great time grilling out and spending the afternoon with some of Cullen's family. Ada especially loved getting to play with her dog-cousins! Would you believe I didn't take one picture?? Cullen did some vlogging though, so no worries...memories preserved. Check!

It's been so strange being away for the past 6 weeks, but when we were at home it felt like we had never left. We love our families so much and are so thankful for the good relationships we all have. We really are enjoying our time exploring a new city and doing some things that we won't have another opportunity to do, but we are also looking forward to being back home with everyone again!

GET UP, IT'S GAMEDAY!!

2011-09-03T10:01:00.003-05:00

We have been sooo ready for football to get started!! We're so sad that we won't be able to get to all of the home games this year since it's a long drive from Tally, but we'll be there for some! This weekend we're at the beach for the wedding of our good friends Matt & Laura. I know it will be a beautiful wedding despite the fact that Tropical Storm Lee is dumping a boat load of rain. :-/ We're so happy for them and wish them a lifetime of love and fun memories!

Speaking of fun memories, I love the favorite football memories Cullen picked for Thursday's vlog. Check it out! I hope it will get you pumped up for football too!!

I need to get better about posting the daily vlogs on here, but here is the one from Wednesday... also geared toward kickoff! Since I'm a slacker sometimes, you can also check out all the other vlogs at youtube.com/bamachick1101

Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend and...HAPPY GAMEDAY!!!

OMG snakes!!

2011-08-31T19:10:00.002-05:00

I highly dislike snakes...ok I really hate them. I don't love roaches, spiders, or any of that either, but snakes seriously scare me. They are creepy and slimy and gross and it freaks me out that they can just GO from one place to another SO fast WITHOUT LEGS! It's just nasty. So the other night one ended up on our screen porch....Our screen porch that has a door that goes straight into our den...Our screen porch that our cats hang out on all the time. I actually noticed the snake when I saw Whitaker stalking something out there before bed. Here's the video of what went down when we found it:

Ok, so I thought that snake was bad....well I should have been glad it was just "a friendly garden snake." Yesterday when Ada and I were running (down the sidewalk of a busy, main street here) I literally froze in my tracks when I saw this guy sitting in the grass about a foot from the sidewalk, just watching traffic...or waiting to attack some innocent jogger!!

I turned on my cell phone camera and got a quick clip of him slithering away. And oh my goodness gracious sakes alive, I about freaked at how quick and aggressively he went! He had his head all up in the air and everything. Just nasty...and kinda scary!

After discussing with several helpful friends on facebook, we are pretty sure it's a cottonmouth. Pretty darn venemous snake! SO glad that we stopped and Ada didn't run right over it. She usually runs in the grass instead of on the sidewalk. Ughghg! So scary. I think we need to get some snakeaway or something to make sure they will at least stay out of our yard. Never dealt with this snake thing before so I have no clue what works & doesn't...suggestions??

weekday randomness

2011-08-23T21:22:00.003-05:00

With Cullen and me both working all the time lately, there hasn't been too much excitement around here. But we're still committed to posting a little glimpse into our lives every day with the vlogs! At least Cullen's cool edits make it more exciting!! We still try to have fun...that's what life's about, right??

Weekend Happies - Skype, Manatees, & Diving

2011-08-21T13:58:00.010-05:00

Per what I said in last post (instead of a long catch-up-on-the-past post, I would just bullet point things that have changed as I go along), so here's what you need to know for this post:

1) We moved to Tallahassee, FL for my internship - Yay for getting matched to an internship and LOVING the place where I matched!

2) Cullen decided we should start a vlog since I wasn't keeping up with the blog and we were going to want to remember all the fun and different things about this year. We started it during Memorial Day weekend of this year and you can watch all those videos here: http://youtube.com/bamachick1101. I think I'm actually going to start posting the vlogs here on the blog too. We've had WAY too much fun with it and Cullen's getting to be a great video editor, so check it out!!

-----------------------------------------------------
Fridays tend to make me happy. For whatever reason I'm pretty productive on Fridays knowing that it's almost time to relax and have fun for a couple days...and that if something doesn't get done by the end of the day it will interfere with my weekend "off"! Don't people just seem a little more happy on Fridays? Happy to help with a problem, happy to help you get something done, etc. I've found if I need someone to help me do something I'm pretty likely to have the best success on a Friday. I will resist the urge to break out singing the "Friday" song.

This Friday night we got to video chat with some of our friends from home! We have been SO thankful for Skype since we moved. It's just so nice to be able to see the faces of our family and friends instead of just talking on the phone. And we found on Friday night that it's also fun to just "hang out" with friends far away via video too! We played a couple of board games, had a dance-off, and even got to see our friends Heather & Drew's little baby all snuggly in her crib. Technology is amazing!

We have been wanting to get out and do something Tallahassee-esque that we couldn't do back home...plus we were in desperate need of some sun for our pasty selves. We heard about a neat natural spring only about 25 minutes from our house, so Saturday morning we packed up and headed out. I was SO bummed that I forgot our good camera!! :-( So cell phone pictures had to do. Guess we'll just have to go back again to take some better ones!

They have boat tours on the river every 30 minutes that promise you will see some cool wildlife.

In most of the pictures the water looks pretty dark, but it was the most beautiful, crystal clear, fresh water! We could see straight to the bottom. It was the grass and vegetation on the bottom that made it look so dark from an angle.

GATOR!

MANATEE!! (See the 2 big grey things that look like rocks??)

The swimming area was really pretty...but oh my goodness so cold! The water stays at 69 degrees all year round. Good thing it was so hot outside or else I wouldn't have even thought about getting in! At the far end there is a 2 story "high dive" that sends you plunging into the 15 foot deep water above the cave where the spring flows down even 180 feet deeper. Of course Cullen loved it!

The coolest part of the whole day was when 2 manatees swam up to one of the big platforms we were standing on. Cullen jumped in to see if he could get some underwater video of them, and one swam right up next to him!!

Cullen's videos are much more entertaining than my posts, so check out the VLOG of our day below!

Oh, and one more thing. When we picked Ada up from doggy daycare on the way home from Wakulla Springs, they told us that her kneecap had dislocated (patella luxation), but that they got it back in place. They assumed it happens to her often, but as far as we know it has NEVER happened before. It's happened 5-6 times since we got home and each time she's just limped for less than 5 seconds and then worked it back in place herself. Other than the few quick times it's happened it doesn't seem to be bothering her at all! We're worried about her since it hasn't ever happened before and now it's happened several times. I've heard from a few friends on facebook that their dogs have the same thing (isn't facebook so great for connecting like that??), but just wanted to know if anyone else had experience with this or has any suggestions. I'm not sure why it would have all of a sudden started happening unless she and the other dogs at daycare were playing too rough??

Ok, now check out the underwater manatee action in this VLOG!!

Couponing 101!!

2011-08-19T19:42:00.005-05:00

Well, I got the far-too-long unpublished blog post out of the way and am trying to get back into blogging. There is clearly a LOT that has happened in the past year to catch up on, but instead of doing a big blog post on everything that has happened, I think I'll just bullet point things that pertain to a specific new post as I do them. Sound like a plan? ....Wait, is anyone still out there reading this?? Other than my Dad who I know reads (hey Dad! :-) ) I don't even know anymore since it's been so long!

Ok, so here's what you need to know for this post :

1) We moved to Tallahassee, FL for my internship - Yay for getting matched at an internship and LOVING the place where I matched!

2) Cullen decided we should start a vlog since I wasn't keeping up with the blog and we were going to want to remember all the fun and different things about this year. We started it during Memorial Day weekend of this year and you can watch all those videos here: http://youtube.com/bamachick1101. I think I'm actually going to start posting the vlogs here on the blog too. We've had WAY too much fun with it and Cullen's getting to be a great video editor, so check it out!!

3) I have been couponing for a year and a half. I am NOT an extreme couponer. I look for good deals. I buy what's on sale and use coupons. I also buy fresh produce and meat and milk and other things that make my totals not extremely extreme.

So, to the real post. Remember for-ev-er ago when I said I would one day do a blog about couponing? Wellll, this is it! Fortunately for ME, Cullen decided that we should just vlog it so I didn't have to type the whole thing. Fortunately for YOU, you can just watch it and not have to read a big long post...plus Cullen tends to make them fun & entertaining. So here you go...

DISCLAIMER: I am not the best couponer in the world, but this is just info on how I do it. Let me know if you have questions and I will address them in another blog or vlog! OR Let me know if you have other suggestions or tips. I would love to hear how other people do it!!

PART 1: ORGANIZING COUPONS, COUPON BINDER, ETC.

PART 2: COUPON MATCH-UPS

PART 3: USING THE COUPONS AT PUBLIX - SHOPPING!

To everything there is a season...

2011-08-13T11:20:00.001-05:00

**Added 6/10/11: I started the post below almost 10 months ago. And it has sat untouched for about 9 months. I kept "not having the time" to get back to it. And while we have in fact been busy, I've realized it's that I didn't want to make the time. I realized that the point where I stopped (which I just now realized describes the events up to almost exactly 1 year ago) was when things started getting even more sad. But other things also got happier! But it seems facing the sad things again trumped and kept me from going back and continuing the post. And I'm not sure if I can finish it. I didn't plan to "stop" blogging. I didn't realize that I "stopped" because I wasn't ready to relive the rest of June and July of 2010 through words & pictures. There have been many MANY great and wonderful things that have happened since then that I wish I had blogged about...but I couldn't get past this post. And you know, I kind of want to just leave it like this. The (almost) psychologist in me tells me that I don't need to just completely avoid dealing with that sad time in our lives. And the blogger in me doesn't want to leave out any major life events. But the Katie in me tells me I don't want to relive sadness and just put off writing about the rest of our summer/fall/winter/spring and skip to current times. She also says she doesn't want to "throw away" the parts of this post below that are already written. So I'm just going to post it. Those of you who know me know how things turned out. But for those of you who don't, here is the best I can do for a recap: my sister announced to us that she was pregnant on her birthday (June 25) and had a healthy baby girl January 27; we found out our sweet dog, Gainer, had cancer on June 30, fought the battle with her for 3 weeks, and lost her on July 24; we got the call from my mom that my grandmother Sissy had found her independence and went to meet Jesus on July 4th; we realized we couldn't live without a dog in the house and on August 6 brought home our new puppy, Ada Belle, who is sweet as pie and about to turn a year old. It feels crazy to just write it like that and not include the emotion or details. But I think that's what I have to do. Knowing that that was all the detail I could give about those sad times should tell you how MUCH emotion is truly behind them.

**Added 8/13/11: Well, would you look at that. Still didn't post it after updating 2 months ago. So I'm just doing it. Here ya go... original post below, untouched, just as I left it back in August of 2010.

----------------ORIGINAL POST from 8/20/2010---------------------------
...and a time to every purpose under heaven.

A time to be born, and a time to die...

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance...

A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing...

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away...

A time to keep silence, and a time to speak...

(All taken from Ecclesiastes 3)

This seems to have been the theme of our lives the past few months. We have literally had every one of these seasons in the past 3 months or so. Seasons are not always easy. Without the comfort and help of a loving God who promises to never give us more than we can bear, I am not sure how I would have made it through.

This post is a quick (but long because there is a lot to cover) catch-up post of the major seasons we have gone through lately. Each of the events that I'm going to talk about deserves MUCH more than a little tiny piece of a single post, but if I don't just do the quick version, it will never get done.

So first, we had Mother's Day - May 9. Aside from the usual "specialness" of Mother's Day, this one was extra special because it was the last one that I would get to spend with my grandmother. And I'm so glad that we got that chance to gather as a family one last time. Very unfortunately, I was not really on top of my pictures that day, so these are the best we've got.

We did lunch at my sister's house to celebrate the moms on my side, my mom, my grandmother, and my sister. I love them all so much!

And dinner at Mr. Wang's for all you can eat crab legs (don't knock it til you've tried it) with my mother-in-law. Love the my newest mother too!

Next, Cullen and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary on May 12!! For the 3rd year in a row, we went to our "anniversary dinner place," The Melting Pot. It is such a great romantic, slow paced place to go for occasions like this. My sweet hubby also gave me beautiful flowers (picture below) and as is our tradition we watched our wedding video when we got home. Well, we attempted to, we actually watched all the pre-ceremony video and fell asleep during the ceremony. It had been a long few weeks and we were sleep deprived. Again, no great pictures from this either (...I know!!). But it was a wonderful night and I am so very thankful for the amazing man that God has given me to spend my life with. Our relationship has grown so much in the past 3 years and I continue to be amazed at how much my love for him grows each day. I can't wait to spend many more anniversaries with the love of my life!

Cell phone picture of the beautiful flowers he got me!

That Friday, May 14, we helped host an around-the-house shower for our friends Dessie and David! It was so much fun planning this party for them with two of the other bridesmaids. We did a backyard BBQ theme I think everything turned out pretty cute and I think everyone had a great time!

The handsome groom & beautiful bride

We used mason jars for drinks. The bride & groom had their own special glasses...

and the rest of the guests used a sharpie to label theirs with a little tag

That same weekend, my grandmother, Sissy, had a stomach virus and wasn't feeling well. By Monday she was really weak and ended up in the hospital getting re-hydrated and being treated for what seemed like nothing too major. Cullen, Gainer, and I were planning to leave for the beach on Thursday to have a short anniversary trip before the rest of the family (Mom, Dad, dog Barnsley, Sissy, Kelley, Jay, Madelyne, Bennett, & dog Abbey) came down that weekend. Well, Sissy got progressively worse and to make a long few days into a short sentence, we ended up staying in town until Friday morning to decide if it was "safe" to leave town with her illness. She was a good bit more stable on Friday, my parents assured us that there was nothing that we could do if we stayed in town, so we left and headed to the beach. We got daily updates from my parents, and things weren't great, but she was stable. It was hard being there and knowing that she was ill back home, but since she was in intensive care, there were only brief 30 minute visiting hours throughout the day. So there really wouldn't have been a whole lot of benefit to staying at home. We had had this anniversary trip followed by a family beach trip planned for a while and Cullen already had the days off of work. So we decided we would just go while we could and keep in close touch with my parents. So, that paragraph got really long... like I said, most of the stuff in this post deserves it's very own post, but I'll try to condense everything into one.

Friday afternoon/evening when we got there, the upstairs air conditioning wasn't working in the beach house, and neither were the phones! Both of those were extremely important (especially considering cell phone service there stinks and I wanted to be accessible if anything happened with Sissy). Luckily the A/C guy came out that night and there was an order in for the phone to get fixed asap. So we had some takeout and enjoyed a casual night at the house.

Saturday, we enjoyed our first (pasty-white-in-need-of-sun) day on the beach!

That night for our beach anniversary dinner, we went to Guy Harvey's. It was really great to have some goood seafood! (Self portrait... did you spot the remote??)

We have a yearly tradition, which started on our honeymoon, of taking a picture similar to this one below each year.

Little trip down memory lane... here are pictures from 2 year anniversary trip to San Francisco :

1 year anniversary trip to Jamaica:

And honeymoon in St. Lucia:

Back to real time... At that point it was decided that my parents (and obviously Sissy, who was still in the hospital) would not be making the trip. But we really thought things would be ok... it was just going to take a while for her to get back to "normal." Given that we had been anticipating and planning this trip for months, it was hard knowing they wouldn't be coming down. We weren't really even sure how long we would get to stay, depending on how things improved with Sissy. Jay (brother-in-law) ended up having to work the first few days of the week, but Kelley (sister) decided to go ahead and come down with Madelyne (niece) and Bennett (nephew) on Sunday. Jay ended up coming down on Wednesday, and Cullen and I stayed until Saturday. I believe Kelley & Jay stayed until Monday! It was a really nice, long trip, but in the back of my mind the whole time I was still worried about what was going on at home with my grandmother, and wishing the whole family was there together. Without going into the details of every day, I'll just share a few of my favorite pictures from the trip.

(There was this amazing close-to-shore sandbar that appeared every afternoon around 2-3pm. It was great for the kids - and adults - to play and lent itself to some interesting sea creatures!)

Stingrays jumping in pairs!

Learning to swim!

Gainer picked this little guy up in her mouth on her morning walk with Cullen! If you know Cullen well, you know he loves (and collects) all things turtle. So neat!

That afternoon, Cullen and Jay found this bigger turtle while driving the kids around in the golf cart.

This one was completely spontaneous, honest!

All in all it was a really fun trip. Madelyne and Bennett are at such sweet ages (says the aunt who gets to spoil them and send them home!) and it's so neat to see their little personalities developing. It is always hard to come home from the beach, especially after being there with family, but it was also hard to come home knowing that my grandmother was still in the hospital and not knowing what the future held. However, she seemed to be doing better, so we were glad to come home and get to see her.

That Monday was Memorial Day, so it was nice to have one extra day to relax (and work on pictures from the trip - the only reason I had so many available to add to this post! haha) before getting back to the real world. We both worked all week - there was a lot of catch-up after being away/"disconnected" for so long. That Sunday I left for a trip to Gainesville, FL for work and came back late Tuesday night. All along the way, I was working like crazy during every free minute trying to get my dissertation proposal ready so that I could meet the June 30 deadline that I talk about in the last paragraph of the post below (link). And when I say every free minute, I am not even joking... ask my poor hubby who was in charge of just about everything that needed doing in our household. I literally went to work & school when I had to and came straight home and worked. I think I might have gone to the grocery store once in about 6 weeks?? He ran errands, bought gifts for folks we needed to buy gifts for, and even picked out bridesmaids shoes that I needed to wear in Dessie's wedding!! The list goes on. He. Was. Amazing. And I couldn't have done it without his support.

And all this time, my grandmother was still in the hospital and I wasn't even able to be there a whole lot to visit her or help my mom who was going multiple times a day. We did go visit her on the weekends, but I wish we could have gone more. Things were very up and down. One day we thought she would surely be discharged within a few days, the next we were thinking it would be weeks for sure.

On June 19, I was a bridesmaid in the wedding of one of my best friends, Dessie (whose party I talked about above)! It was my first Greek wedding, and it was fabulous!! Friday night we had the rehearsal dinner at The Bright Star which is an amazing restaurant if you've never been. Saturday morning we got to the church and were pampered with hair and makeup before pictures! The wedding was beautiful and the reception (at The Club) was also beautiful and SO much fun. We had a great time dancing the night away. It was great to see Dessie and David so happy and I was honored to be a part of their day!

The next day was Father's Day. My mom had hosted a tea for one of our good family friends on Saturday, not to mention was managing things with Sissy who had been moved from intensive care to a "step-down" floor (meaning she was doing better!) that same day. So my parents picked up some delicious food from a great seafood place, The Fish Market, and we had a nice family gathering at their house. My mom's birthday was also on Monday, but she decided her day would be "postponed" since there was so much going on. Although it was strange not to be celebrating, I understand how she just wasn't in a birthday mood with everything going on. Often we combine Father's Day with her birthday, but this year it was Father's Day only. It was sad not having my grandmother there since she was always at all family events, but we were encouraged since she was doing better and had been moved out of ICU.

***See update at top***

Merry Merry!!

2010-12-25T00:30:00.005-06:00

So the scan of our Christmas card didn't turn out as nice as the real thing, but Merry Christmas from the Byingtons! If you can't read the text: "Christmas comes to those who let the son of God be born to them...in their hearts, their homes, their lives." -Terry York

Real post coming eventually. Wishing you all the love, joy, peace, and hope of Christ this season!

Master's Thesis (#1 on 101 list) - CHECK!

2010-05-16T22:41:00.006-05:00

So one of the reasons that I have been completely MIA from the blogging, facebook, and real-life world lately is that I have been working like crazy to get some things finished with grad school. On April 26, I finally defended my Master's thesis!!! So I finally have my Master's degree. I don't really talk much about school stuff on here (because this blog is a hobby and an escape from all that!), but I'm working towards my PhD in clinical psychology (with my focus on child psychology). I've actually been done with classes for 2 semesters - just still working on my research & clinical hours, which is no small task. Finishing the thesis has been a long hard road... I won't even go in to all the drama! But it's finally DONE!! So glad to have that weight off of my shoulders!

After my defense presentation, Cullen and I headed to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants (where we filmed this video and this video in years past) to celebrate!!

I was so glad to have a few of my grad school friends there to celebrate too! The picture is of me with Dessie - whose wedding I'm in in ~1 month! - and Annie. Another friend, Trista, was there too, but she left before we got a picture! Cullen was more than happy to have the "significant others" of these girls there too so that he had some guys who understood what he had been dealing with as I worked to get this finished!

Cullen has been so incredibly amazing and supportive throughout this whole process. I honestly don't know how I would have made it through without him to encourage me and keep me going when I've felt defeated. He has seen more of the "I can't do this." "I'm going to quit." "What did I get myself into??" moments than anyone else. And he's kept me grounded so well throughout it all. He deserved to celebrate as much as I did!! Although, I think I might have made him crazy in the process... haha :-)

Soooo, what's next??? This is the question I've been asked a million times lately! Well, getting my Master's doesn't mean I'm finished. It just means I've gotten past the first major hurdle. Next on the agenda: I have to present my proposal for my dissertation study by June 30 so that I can apply for internship this fall. Researching for and writing a proposal, getting it approved, and presenting it in about 8 weeks is a pretty ambitious goal. For comparison... it took me just a little over a YEAR to do my thesis proposal. But I really want to get on with this so that I can apply for internship. For internship we will have to move away for a year. And we don't want to have any babies until we get back. So we want to get on with this process so that we can have those babies before we get much older!! So this very crazy 8 week goal is my explanation for my (more than usual) absence from blogging, facebooking, etc etc for the next little while. Any prayers are appreciated!! Sorry I'm not more fun and exciting lately! I have lots of fun stuff to blog about, just can't take the time to do it right now. Although it makes me crazy at times, as Cullen and I keep saying "we're doing it for the kids!" :-)

My 101 in 1001

2010-04-09T21:35:00.011-05:00

I have seen this 101 in 1001 idea on quite a few other friends' blogs. I seriously had no plans to do one of these lists when I first saw one...as if I need another thing to add to my ongoing mental "list." But "everybody's doing it!" so I just had to. haha No really, I thought it was a fun idea and a way to get me to do some things I've been wanting to do for a while...or at least help myself feel a sense of accomplishment when I finish a few!

The deal is, I have 1001 days (about 2.75 yrs) to complete my list of 101 things (that's about 1 goal every 10 days...wow!). Some are big and/or expensive, some are far-fetched, some are simple/easy/cheap, some are just for fun, some are challenging, some can't be marked off til the very end, and some are a combination of all of those things! You'll notice most of them are personal goals and not school/professional goals. Although I definitely have other professional goals, I try to keep this blog about the more fun & family-related things in my life since it's a hobby! I've been working on making the list for a few days...it's harder than you would imagine to think up 101 things you want to accomplish! I actually left a few blank though because I keep having others come to mind & want to have room to fill in.

So, starting today (well, tomorrow I guess), I'll start & have until the end of Friday, January 4, 2013 to complete as many of these 101 of these things as I can. I will try to blog about them as I complete them... but will definitely mark them off the list when they're done. You can check in to see how I'm doing any time by clicking the "My 101 in 1001" link in the navigation bar at the top of our blog (under the header).

Feel free to join in the fun and make your own list! It really did feel good to get some of these things I've been thinking about doing down on "paper." If you do it too, let me know so we can check up on each other along the way! Also, my friend Allison posted this calculator you can use to determine your deadline date: click here

In no particular order, just wrote them as they came to me...

1) ~~Defend my thesis~~ (4/26/10)
2) ~~Propose my dissertation~~ (7/20/10)
3) ~~Apply for internship~~ (11/15/10)
4) ~~Move away for internship~~ (7/21/11)
5) Go on a mission trip
6) Learn to drive a stick shift
7) Plant flowers in our window boxes & flower bed
8) Keep those flowers alive as long as possible!
9) Do a blog post at least every other day for a month (and hopefully continue that trend!)
10) Get caught up on loading/editing all of my pictures
11) Go to another drive-in movie
12) Upload all of our videos from the video camera
13) Make a DVD (probably multiple DVDs) of all the videos
14) Buy something or figure out somewhere in our house to organize & keep our family videos after I make DVDs
15) ~~Back up everything on our computers to our new external hard drive~~ (5/31/10)
16) Take a photography class
17) Take my Godson, Carson, somewhere he chooses for his birthday each year (~~2010~~ [8/8/10], 2011, 2012)
18) Take my Godson, Trent, somewhere he chooses for his birthday each year (~~2010~~ [8/15/10], 2011, 2012)
19) Take my Goddaughter, Bella, somewhere she chooses for her birthday each year (2010, 2011, 2012)
20) ~~Do a blog post about couponing~~ (8/19/11)
21) Frame my college diploma & Master's diploma
22) Get back down to my pre-wedding weight
23) Go on another Caribbean vacation with my hubby

24) Go to Sips n' Strokes

25) ~~Watch my niece swim, completely alone, under water~~ (kind of like this, but more consistently) -- She can do it!! Video below is from 7/5/10, but was actually doing it a month or so before that:

26) Watch my nephew swim, completely alone, under water (Summer 2011! Swimming AND diving in video below:)

27) Go back to Six Flags

28) Go on a cruise

29) ~~Re-organize our home office~~ (10/3/10)
30) Run in another 5K
31) Go to the beach with our friends
32) Go to my 10 year high school reunion
33) ~~Go to Cullen's 10 year high school reunion~~ (7/16/11)

34) Give blood at least twice
35) ~~Finish The Love Dare~~ (5/18/10) (No, we're not having marriage problems, it's just a great book that will give you a whole new perspective on marriage!)
36) Watch Fireproof with Cullen again (It's the movie that shows how The Love Dare works in a struggling couple's marriage. Again, great even for those not struggling too!)
37) Do The Love Dare again, at least twice - I can't tell you how great this book is. I imagine I'll get more and more out of it every time.
38) Complete Baby Step 3 in Dave Ramsey's journey to financial peace
39) Start on Baby Step 4
40) Continue my routine of walking/running in the mornings
41) Serve a meal at a soup kitchen
42) Go to a big aquarium (TN or Atl, I guess)
43) Go to another Braves game
44) Go to the Coca-Cola factory in Atlanta again
45) Go to the mountains of Gatlinburg for a weekend in the winter (never been!)
46) Get a new scale for the bathroom to replace the one that is so finicky
47) Take Madelyne & Bennett to a Baron's game
48) See a Broadway play with Cullen (anywhere)
49) Go to Antigua for our 5 year anniversary (unless we change our mind about location btwn now & then!)
50) Not have a baby until after we come back from internship!
51) ~~Go to Alabama Adventure again~~ (8/8/10)
52) Play tennis with Cullen again
53) Keep up with my morning devotion routine
54) Find a few new good devotional books to use for #53 (suggestions welcome!)
55) Go camping (if we can rent/borrow the gear - don't want to have to buy all that for one time!)
56) Have all of Cullen's divers over to swim & cookout
57) ~~Get a milkshake from Flipburger - Although this won't help with #22, I've heard they're amazing!~~ (7/2/10 - with Cullen, Madelyne, & Bennett)
58) Go for a whole month without letting a stack of mail accumulate - this needs to become a habit!
59) Get a basket or something to keep all loose mail so that it's not scattered throughout the house for the remaining 32 months of this challenge.
60) Finish ALL my Christmas shopping by December 20 - ~~2010~~, 2011, & 2012 (yes, that would be a big deal for me!)
61) Get my friends' Christmas presents to them before January (~~2011~~, 2012, 2013)
62) Put all of my pictures I printed from our trip to Savannah in an album (sadly, this trip was in 2008 & I haven't done this yet)
63)Go to my sister-in-law (Cullen's sister), Rachael's house (we still haven't made it out there!)
64) Hike up a mountain
65) Take a trip to two fun places in the US (other than the "usual" ones - beach, Atlanta, etc.)
66)Spend a day with our niece & nephew, Jordan & Allison (either separate or together), doing whatever they want to do
67) ~~Go back to a water park~~ (8/8/10)
68) Get a professional facial
69) Start a "blessings list" to post on our refrigerator & add to it often
70) Go tubing
71) Read the bible more - as in, actually read chapters at a time
72) Get our Christmas cards MAILED before December 20 (2010 [didn't happen in 2010, woops!], 2011, 2012)
73) Go on a tour of & wine tasting at a local vineyard
74) Sponsor a child through Compassion
75) Write to that child monthly once we sponsor him or her
76) Go to a restaurant & just order appetizers & dessert
77) Get all of my recipes organized better in the great recipe book my mom gave me
78) Donate more to charitable organizations (or even just a specific one)
79) Pay for a the meal of the person behind me in a drive-thru
80) ~~Get the heel tips fixed on 2 pairs of my boots (this has been on my to-do list for ~4 mos!)~~ (9/4/10)
81) Keep my car clutter-free (with no more than 3 days of clutter building up) for the entire 1001 days - this is a tough one for me!
82) Go on a real picnic - basket, blanket, open grassy area, etc.
83) Eat lunch with my grandmother, just Cullen and me
84) Go to the beach with Cullen's family since we never have!
85) Not let more than a day pass without returning a voicemail (I'm terrible at returning calls!)
86) Clean out our filing cabinets and throw away old/useless stuff
87) Bake a cake (used to do this all the time and haven't in forever!)
88) Watch a sunrise on the beach with Cullen
89) Be in bed by 10:00pm every night for at least one full work week (Sun-Thurs nights)
90) Finish my blog posts from Christmas 2009 - yes, I'm serious!
91) Blog about other events from January
92) February
93) and March
94) Go to a Cirque du Soleil show with Cullen
95) ~~Have just Bennett to spend the night at our house~~ (4/18/10 & 5/2/10 - click both dates for pictures from the next mornings)
96) Take Madelyne to get a manicure & pedicure
97)
98)
99)
100)
101) Read this list every Monday to see what I can be working on during the week!

Happy Resurrection Day! (& blog makeover)

2010-04-04T22:36:00.005-05:00

I hope everyone had a most beautiful Easter Sunday! I am so thankful for the "unshakable Hope" (our church's theme this Easter) that we can have because of Jesus' death and resurrection. What an amazing sacrifice He made for all of my numerous sins. I am so undeserving. "What a friend we have in Jesus." I truly can face tomorrow with Hope "because He lives."

We had a wonderful day full of family and fun. It was a great blending of families today with my family, Cullen's family, and my sister's husband's family all there for lunch. After a beautiful church service, we went to the Summit Club downtown and the Easter Bunny was there too! Afterward we went back to my sister & brother-in-law's house for some fun and socializing outside. Water balloons, a water hose, and a make-shift water slide were all involved. There are lots more pictures (of course) but I just wanted to go ahead and post this cute one!

Also, you might notice I got a blog makeover!! What do you think?? It was done by my sweet sorority sister, Leslie Lambert (who is also the one who got me started on couponing, so all those who have been asking, check out her blog for tips!). She does awesome blog design and has been so patient with me b/c I might be the pickiest person ever! She also has the best prices for the super cute blog design that she does, so check her out if your blog needs an overhaul. Stay tuned for the meaning behind the new blog title... and for real links in the navbar. Hopefully now that I have this cute blog to work with, I will be more motivated to get some posts done and catch up! :-)

Shine a Light on Autism

2010-04-01T07:30:00.001-05:00

Autism affects 1 in every 110 children and 1 in every 70 boys. WOW.

You may have heard the radio ads that say 1 in 150 children are affected... sadly, that number has already changed. Those numbers are rising too fast.

April is Autism awareness month and Autism Speaks is kicking off the month with their "Light it Up Blue" campaign. On the evening of April 1, many big buildings (e.g. the Empire State Building in NYC, the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada) will be lit up in blue to help raise autism awareness and to acknowledge World Autism Awareness Day which is Friday, April 2. They are trying to "light the world blue, too – city by city, town by town" to help raise Autism awareness in every community. They are encouraging everyone to wear blue on Friday too. See the "Light it Up Blue" link above for more information!

Now, let's get serious here... Autism isn't just "one of those things that happens to other people." I would venture to say that almost everyone reading this knows someone who has a child with Autism. That means it can be pretty "close to home." Seeing as I'm studying to be a Clinical Psychologist (with my focus on children), this is an important issue that I can't help but encounter multiple times a week. And sadly, many times children are not brought in for an evaluation as early as they could have been. So some children end up having missed out on months or even years of important intervention they could have been receiving to help improve their skills. It is easy to think that a child is "just a little behind" with her such-and-such skills, and "hasn't quite caught up with his peers" in another area... when in some cases there could actually be something far bigger going on. The sooner a child is diagnosed and can start receiving treatment, the better the outcome could be for that child.

With all the buzz going around about Autism, it is hard to know what is accurate and what is not or what signs to look for and what is not a big deal. If any of you have any questions or concerns about a child you know, I'll be glad to help you find some answers! I know it is hard to know where to go or who to ask and it's often kind of scary to take that step. But there are no "stupid" questions. If you are seeing some "red flags," wouldn't you rather ask questions and/or take your child to get an evaluation now instead of finding out later that there was something you could have been doing to help all along? At least you could rest your mind if you have been worried that something is just "not right." It's crazy how many times "mother's intuition" is accurate even when others don't see a problem.

The following in blue was cut & pasted directly from www.autismspeaks.org.
PLEASE read if you have young children!

Research now suggests that children as young as 1 year old can show signs of autism. The most important thing you can do as a parent or caregiver is to learn the early signs of autism and understand the typical developmental milestones your child should be reaching at different ages. Please look over the following list. If you have any concerns about your child's development, don't wait. Speak to your doctor about screening your child for autism. While validated screening for autism starts only as young as 16 months, the best bet for younger children is to have their development screened at every well visit with a highly validated developmental screening tool. If your child does have autism, early intervention may be his or her best hope.

Watch for the Red Flags of Autism

(The following red flags may indicate a child is at risk for atypical development, and is in need of an immediate evaluation.) In clinical terms, there are a few “absolute indicators,” often referred to as “red flags,” that indicate that a child should be evaluated. For a parent, these are the “red flags” that your child should be screened to ensure that he/she is on the right developmental path. If your baby shows any of these signs, please ask your pediatrician or family practitioner for an immediate evaluation:

No big smiles or other warm, joyful expressions by six months or thereafter

No back-and-forth sharing of sounds, smiles, or other facial expressions by nine months or thereafter

No babbling by 12 months

No back-and-forth gestures, such as pointing, showing, reaching, or waving by 12 months

No words by 16 months

No two-word meaningful phrases (without imitating or repeating) by 24 months

Any loss of speech or babbling or social skills at any age

*This information has been provided by First Signs, Inc. ©2001-2005. Reprinted with permission. For more information about recognizing the early signs of developmental and behavioral disorders, please visit http://www.firstsigns.org or the Centers for Disease Control at www.cdc.gov/actearly.

Fabulous Five

2010-03-30T09:32:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday to our beautiful, kind-hearted, analytical, sassy, inquisitive, shy, talkative, thoughtful, girly-girl, nurturing, precious, bright-spirited, always helping, cheer-you-up niece.

We love you Madelyne!!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-03-24T07:55:00.001-05:00

double the diapers, double the wipes!

2010-03-18T22:20:00.004-05:00

Clearly, friends, I am beyond behind on my blogging lately. But, aside from other things that I need to blog about, I thought I had better get this post up before it's "too late!" My dear friend Taylor is expecting TWIN BOYS in just a few weeks (well, hopefully 5 or more weeks!). Taylor and I actually went to elementary school together, but didn't really know each other well at the time since she was a grade above me. We ran into each other again during a Nearlywed/Newlywed class at my church right before Cullen and I got married. Taylor and her husband Josh were actually married just a week after us! We have been in the same Sunday school class ever since. We have grown very close over the past three years going through all of the pre-wedding excitement, honeymoon stories, first years of marriage learning experiences, "does your husband really do that too?!" moments, starting to make major life decisions, and now having babies (ok, well, she is having babies... I am not - just to clarify). Two of our other good friends, Britney and Kim, also got married around the same time (not to each other - just to clarify, again) and have been going through this amazing stage of life as well. I grew up in church with Britney and Kim, but it's like we've all known each other forever! It's been wonderful to have such great friends going through all of these things at the same time and being able to share stories and advice.

So Britney, Kim, and I threw a "Dipe & Wipe" shower for Taylor with our Sunday School class a couple of weeks ago. She is due in mid May, but with twins you just never know how much time you'll really have! Taylor is having a couple of other showers and already has some of her big essentials, so we thought it would be helpful (and fun!) to stock her up with the things that she'll use a lot of those first few weeks - diapers and wipes!

This was my first time to do a diaper cake, and I think it turned out pretty cute! It really was a lot easier than I expected. The tips from these two websites (here and here) were especially helpful - mainly the video!

Me, Taylor, Kim, & Britney

These super cute mini cupcakes came from Dreamcakes. Try not to drool too much while looking at that website!

Doesn't she look great?

This was right around 29 weeks... with that twin belly measuring 44 weeks! I give her major props for being such a "pleasant" pregnant girl and not complaing much at all. To my friends who have had babies... do you remember how miserable you were when your belly was getting close to 40 weeks?? Yeah, now imagine 44... and only just starting the 3rd trimester. (Just in case you were wondering, she is now at 31.5 weeks - measured 47 at 30, not sure about 31 - and is still doing amazingly well!) Taylor is a trooper and she's been so blessed to have such a great pregnancy! It really continues to amaze me. You're going to be a great mommy, Taylor! I can't wait to meet sweet Harrison and Jack Henry!!

Bennett turns 2!

2010-02-20T20:53:00.005-06:00

Alternately titled: Going back in time to December 12, 2009

Click here for the post that will take you back in time to the other events surrounding Bennett's birthday party.

I can't believe it's already been a year since our nephew Bennett turned one (or that in that post I thought I was "extremely delayed" in posting about his b'day party 2 weeks later! ha, this time it's 2 months later!). He's growing up so fast. I can't believe what a little person he is now. He says just about anything and everything now and has the cutest little voice. Precious little Bennett is almost always smiling. He loves to chase the kitties around our house, but his favorite of our pets is still "Gaigey" (Gainer) because she thought she was his mama for the longest time. Bennett has the sweetest temperament and spirit. He gets bossed around by his big sister a lot, but he (usually) just takes it and moves on. He seems to think she's the coolest ever. Isn't that what all younger siblings think about their older siblings (I might be speaking from personal experience!)??

This year Bennett's birthday theme was trucks & construction. He is surrounded by girly stuff way too often because of his big sister, so this boy theme was just what he needed!

He had lots of fun playing with his friends, cousins, sister, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and parents!

Madelyne l.o.v.e.s her Uncle Cullen...
(She requested that I take this picture!)

...and her Daddy!
(She requested this one too :-))

Madelyne (who could not even reach the top of this counter when she moved into this house 2+ yrs ago...she's getting so tall!) also loves Silly Bandz. Click here if you don't know what they are. They were the hot thing around Christmas...and still are pretty popular. There are some new ones that are Christian themed called BelieverBands that were created by some guys in Birmingham - find them here. Pretty neat!

Bennett got tons of boy toys! Trucks, cars, tools, etc. etc. He LOVED it!!

Grandoc helping him figure out the motorized monster truck!

Vrrrroooom!!

My grandmother, Sissy, gave Bennett a sock monkey which he carried around with him for a good part of the rest of December. In this picture he was running up to her and making the monkey kiss her knee...then running back & laughing. So cute!

Cake time!

He just loved everyone singing to him...and sang along a little himself!! It was too cute.

My little brother is 2!

Grandoc & Madelyne were trying to show Bennett how to show that he's "2" the easy way (not telling him he's a loser! ha). Clearly, all he cared about was the cake.

Madelyne had her share of cake & ice cream too. Not sure how she got an ice cream mustache??

Bennett got a vehicle from Grandolly & Grandoc that he can drive all by himself!! Even bigger VRRROOOMMMM!

He was surprisingly good at this. It was kind of rainy outside so he had to drive it around in the garage. He maneuvered around a parked car close to the garage wall without any problems!

Bennett drove around and around and around and around in circles... until the car "needed gas." So he said. So he pulled it up to the garage door, jumped off, and ran to a completely invisible gas pump, grabbed a completely invisible nozzle, ran back to his car, held the nozzle up to the car, and filled 'er up. What an imagination! The car drove much better after being filled up with gas, just so you know.

Bennett & Mommy snuggling after everyone had left

Their sweet dog, Abbey, was pooped out from all the activity!

Happy 2nd Birthday to our precious nephew! We love you so much sweet boy! You are so happy and full of joy. Even just thinking about your cute little personality makes me smile. I'm so thankful that I get to get to spend time with you and watch you grow up. I can't wait to see the amazing things the future has to hold for you...or to spend many many more birthdays with you. Your kind heart and sweet spirit are inspiring. I hope you will always love life as much as you do right now!

Happy Love Day

2010-02-14T21:47:00.010-06:00

We celebrated Valentine's Day yesterday (Feb 13) this year since Vday was on a Sunday. It works out nice when it's on a weekend & we can celebrate on Saturday and not have the dread of getting up early for work the next day.

Since the roads were still bad early Saturday morning, Cullen didn't have to coach (diving) and we enjoyed sleeping in a little. We decided to head to our favorite breakfast place - The Original Pancake House. Yum. Yum. There was still snow everywhere when we were leaving around 10am. It was actually still a little slippery/icy on our road heading out. But the main roads were fine by then.

This is a park near our breakfast destination. There was evidence that sledding had taken place here on Friday but it's hard to see in this picture.

We saw this snow chair that someone had made along the way. Just had to stop & try it out!

I love all the snow still on the trees in the background!

After breakfast it was friendship bread baking day... since I haven't blogged in forever I haven't mentioned this. I got a starter a few weeks ago and have been keeping up with one & baking them every ten days or so (you can freeze the batter right before adding ingredients to bake and then thaw when you're ready to mix up & bake!). It is so yummy and I've been trying some different additions (chocolate pudding instead of vanilla, chocolate chips). So I did that while Cullen played Xbox for a little while.

That afternoon I had a lingerie shower to go to for a sorority sister from college. It was so great to see some girls I hadn't seen in a while! When I got home, I found a clean house & a wrapped Valentine's gift. My sweet hubby is the best!! :-)

We don't usually do anything huge for Valentine's Day. We get dressed up for a nice dinner and give small gifts - usually a limit of $20. No flowers though because they die & are overpriced at Vday! ha! This year Cullen got me some cute pajama pants and chocolate - both of which I love. He is always so great at picking out good presents! I got him a Ninja Turtles t-shirt that he wanted (he loves/collects turtles - not just the ninja kind), a National Championship coozie, & some chocolate.

There was still some pretty snow on the ground when we left for dinner. So perfect!

Cullen is also great at picking out great places to eat! We had our own personal little "snug" with curtains making our table private for just the two of us. We went to this same place for my birthday last year and loved it so much that Cullen decided it would be perfect for Valentine's too...and it was! It really does make dinner so much more enjoyable and intimate when there aren't other people everywhere. We felt like we were in a secluded house with our own personal chef bringing us food!

The picture is kind of blurry, but the Valentine's specials were delicious!

It was a wonderful day and I was so thankful to spend it with my handsome Valentine. He makes my life so complete and I am blessed to have him as my husband! I love you, boo!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today we went to my parents' house after church for a homemade Valentine's lunch. My mom made delicious crock pot lasagna, a fresh salad, and a scrumptious key lime CAKE for dessert! It was just divine. She always has everything decorated so beautifully.

Here's Bennett showing off his new Keds from Grandolly & Grandoc. You can see Madelyne's new house shoes in the background too. :-)

It was great spending the afternoon with my family. We are so blessed. I think Valentine's is for sharing with everyone you love, not necessarily just your significant other. So, Happy Love Day to you and yours...

Finishing out the snow day...

2010-02-13T11:42:00.001-06:00

Man, things really got out of hand yesterday afternoon when it turned into blizzard-like conditions here...

Ok, ok, so I'm pulling your leg. Cullen was just shaking the snow off of a tree :-)

As the snow was slowing down we went for a stroll down the alley to enjoy the beautiful snow cover.

Gainer got to come too.

Gainer tried to catch some snowballs. Well, she tried to catch one and then decided that was no fun.

We stopped for a photo and then headed back.

Writing the date on the car is a tradition in my family. The snow was almost too deep to get it to show up right!

This, I would say, is definitely a "blanket" of snow.

Final measurement here was almost 2.5 inches!

During the day, the snow on the roads was pretty slushy and the roads were still somewhat travelable, but it wasn't advised. However, when it got dark, that all froze over and there was ice everywhere. There were a few too many wrecks and so eventually all state highways, many interstates, and other side roads ended up being closed last night. So we stayed home (not that we were planning to go anywhere anyway!) and ate the chili I made earlier while we watched some of the Olympic opening ceremonies. Then I got to play some Uno on Xbox Live with my friend Britney! If you don't know how that works, we were both at our own homes but could play each other through the internet and talk through the Xbox headset. The husbands were nice to give up their Xboxes for a little while. :-)

I also made some snow ice cream which was so yummy! My mom used to make it when it snowed when I was younger and I haven't had it since. It brought back some good memories!

So all in all we had a beautiful snow day. I was so thankful that we finally got some real snow! It is still everywhere this morning and is just beautiful!

I could definitely get used to this.

More Snow Day!

2010-02-12T15:20:00.000-06:00

Cullen made it home safely from work just as the roads were starting to get slushy. He actually had trouble getting his car up the little incline onto our parking area because he kept spinning out!

This picture of our 1.5 inches was taken about 2 hours ago at 1:30pm. We definitely have more now!

We always take the cats out to see the snowflakes. I'm sure they love us for that. haha!

We've never let them get down in the snow, though. But we did today and they were cute. If somebody put my bare foot in a cold, wet substance, I'm pretty sure I would pull it back and freak out. But apparently it didn't bother them!

(Whitaker)

Love my sweet boys!!

Check out those claws. Allie was a little scared!

Gainer has always loved running around in the snow. She hasn't gotten as excited about it today though. Probably because it's so deep her belly almost touches!

We are just loving our snow day! This is different than any we've had recently since it didn't start until after everyone was up, dressed, and had gone to work (well, some had). AND it's actually snowed for longer than an hour or two. AND it's not going to melt (hopefully) in the next couple of hours!

This picture below was only taken a little over an hour ago and the snow has continued to come down pretty hard since then. I'm sure we have at least a half inch more by now. I can't believe it's been snowing for over 5 hours straight now! What a beautiful day. Just what I've been wanting and I love it!

We're planning to stay in, stay warm, eat chili, and watch the Winter Olympic opening ceremonies tonight. The temperature is right around freezing right now and is only going to get colder. So it's pretty likely that the roads won't be too great this evening. But hey, I'm for sure not complaining. That is what snow days are all about!

(see post below for 1st part of snow day)

PS - Yes, I realize that my blog header is way outdated. Gotta update that soon.

Snow Day...so far!

2010-02-12T12:09:00.005-06:00

It really happened!!! And it's STILL happening!

We woke up to nothing... not even a snow flurry. Kind of disappointing, especially since we kind of thought no one would have to go in to work! But this was not too surprising given Alabama weather. But right around 10:00am the first few snow flurries started coming down! It didn't take long for it to start coming down harder and it was accumulating a little by about 10:40.

Madelyne got out of school early, but most people still had to be at work. Fortunately I didn't have to be anywhere specific today and could work from home. However, you know me and snow... do you think I actually got much done?! I tried! So Kelley, Madelyne, and Bennett came by to see me on their way back home. At this point, the roads weren't bad and Jay was still at work. I was so glad they came by!

It is STILL snowing and I am loving it!! The picture above was taken when they left around 11:30... and now just 45 or so mins later those footprints are completely covered and you can't even see the sidewalk! We have probably about an inch on grassy areas right now and our road is quickly covering over. It has been advised for employers to allow employees to go home soon across central Alabama as roads are quickly becoming slick. So Cullen is on his way home now! Oh my goodness gracious I am so glad that we are finally getting a "real" snow day!! I hope it sticks around through the night. Now I'm off to get some chili cooking on the stove. :-)

Seriously??

2010-02-11T22:38:00.003-06:00

I haven't posted in over a month. Seriously??

I still haven't even looked through all of our pictures from Christmas. Seriously?!

I am actually still planning to post about Christmas (even though I doubt anyone has any interest in reading about that now). Seriously?

Those top 2 statements have been driving me crazy and taunting me every time I have 2 minutes of free time. But that's about all I've had lately (well, aside from the free time that I've chosen to spend with my husband/family/friends... good choice by the way). Seriously.

We're supposed to get measurable snow here tomorrow (1-2 or 2-4 inches depending on who you listen to). SERIOUSLY?!

If you've read my blog for long, you know that these things get me ~~pretty~~ seriously excited. Exhibit A, B, C, D, & E. It's kind of ridiculous. But for some reason snow just gets me all excited & makes me happy. But this time I have promised myself I'm not getting my hopes up for much of anything. The past few "real" snows have only stuck around for a few hours & then melted away by the afternoon. Not to mention the few forecasted snow events that never came. So I'm not getting my hopes up. Seriously. But I would really really really love for it to snow for real - and stay on the ground ALL day and through the night. Just sayin.

So, should it snow tomorrow, I plan to be posting pics. Because for some reason, I'm pretty good about updating the blog when it snows. Much better than I am any other time. Could someone explain that to me?

I love snow days. Seriously.

RTR!!!

2010-01-10T22:40:00.004-06:00

Wow, what a crazy past few days it has been since I posted a week ago! I still have SO much to catch up on from the month of December, and now even more to catch up on since January begun! On Friday night, we returned from California where we went to see our Alabama Crimson Tide play in the Rose Bowl for the BCS National Championship!! What an amazing trip it was - an unforgettable experience. I just had to get in a quick post to say...

Congratulations to my alma mater, THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA, for having the #1 FOOTBALL TEAM IN THE NATION!!

What an amazing feeling it is to be National Champions! It still doesn't even feel real. Of course there will be a more detailed post with pictures to follow! The rest of the weekend we have been recouperating, unpacking, and getting things back in order since the real world will hit us square in the face tomorrow. This will be our first full week back at work since December 18 because of days off for Christmas, New Years, and the game during each of the past 3 weeks. Cullen has worked more than I have over the past few weeks, so I imagine it will be harder for me to get back than it will for him! But going back knowing that Alabama won the National Championship will make things a little better. :-)

It has been SUPER cold here for the past couple of weeks. As of today, we have had 10 consecutive days with low temperatures below freezing.... and on Jan 8, the HIGH was 26! We had one morning when we woke up with frozen pipes because we forgot to leave the water dripping (woops). Fortunately it hadn't been too long and a little hair-dryer action got them going again. My mother-in-law was not so lucky when hers froze. Nothing has worked to thaw them and she has been without water for a few days now. :-/ Other than the freezing pipes, I'm of course LOVING this weather. Actually sad that it's not going to last longer! It is supposed to warm up to the 40s & low 50s over the next week.

Alright, well, back to the grind tomorrow I suppose...which means I need to get some sleep tonight. Hopefully I'll still have some extra time to get caught up on all my pictures & posts! I take way too many pictures...but always enjoy "reliving" an experience as I go back through and work on them! (Note to self: Also owe my mom & sister a photo calendar for 2010 and still haven't gotten that done yet. That needs to go on the top of my "free time" list since we're already heading into week TWO of January.)

more Christmas hodge podge

2010-01-03T22:50:00.006-06:00

The next Christmas event was the brunch that my mom and her friend, Pam, have every year. This has been going on since before I was born, I believe. It has always happened on a week day when, as kids, we were in school (on purpose, of course - grownups only!). So it has been neat to get to go and be a part of this tradition for the past few years!

If you follow me on twitter you may remember me mentioning how there was a mix-up about the date of my hair appointment and I ended up missing it. You can tell by this picture below why I was not thrilled to have to wait almost 2 more weeks to go in! Serious hair cut was needed!!

Me, my sister Kelley, my nephew Bennett, my niece Madelyne, my sister's mother-in-law Esther, and my mom at the brunch.

When did she get to be so grown up?? (Have I already said that multiple times? Seems like she grows up more and more every time I see her.) Madelyne loooves her baby dolls and takes such good care of them. I was the same way as a little girl. She's so very much like me it's scary sometimes!

Bennett had had enough smiling for pictures.

Santa baby...

They love being silly with the hats on Grandolly's hall tree. After this, M found our old fabric-covered broom-stick horse and rode around with this riding hat & some leather gloves. Bennett got to ride on the back once too. haha Did anyone else have those "horsies" when you were little? Isn't it amazing that these days we think kids have to have all these electronic toys and nonsense...good old fashioned imagination never runs out of batteries.

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The brunch was on a Thursday. That Saturday (12/12) was Bennett's 2nd birthday party! (That will have to be a whole different post.) After his party we went straight to the home of our friends, the Kirks, for the 6th Annual Merry Christmas Party. This has always included a huge, delicious dinner where we all bring our Christmas favorites, but it has evolved from being held in a tiny college apartment with folding chairs when none of us were married, to being held in the Kirks' beautiful home! I must say, I think we have all become better cooks too. We always have such a great time eating, socializing, playing Dirty Santa, and in recent years playing one of our favorite games - Things! This year we also got to watch as our own Mark Ingram brought home the University of Alabama's first Heisman Trophy! It was very exciting and so great to be with these sweet friends.

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The next day was Sunday and we met at my parents' house to take pictures for Christmas cards. Is getting a good large family Christmas card picture stressful for everyone else, or is it just us?? We have opted out of putting all the pets IN the picture with us these days and now just do them in a separate part of the card. That seems to work out a LOT better and makes everything much less stressful!

Cullen got to be my subject before we got started so I could find the right lighting & camera settings, etc. He's so handsome. How did I get so ~~lucky~~ blessed?!

I've already posted our Christmas card, but this is another one of my favorite shots.

This was the final product for my parents' Christmas card picture (note the pets at the bottom). It went inside an adorable card with a candy cane on the front and also had the Legend of the Candy Cane inside. If you're not familiar with the candy cane legend click here. They used the 3rd version on that page. So neat!

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On Tuesday night of that week (12/15), we had our annual Sunday School Christmas party. We really love our Sunday School class and always enjoy spending time with everyone. Our sweet teachers were kind enough to have us all over and do all the cooking. We love them!! This was our 2nd time to play dirty santa for the year. Cullen ended up with an Alabama Snuggie!! I believe I've posted before how much I love my pink Snuggie. Cullen had been wanting the Alabama one, so we were very excited. We came straight home and bundled up in our snuggies! Haha I think it's ok that we're such nerds sometimes. :-)

Happy Birthday Dad!!

2010-01-02T20:32:00.005-06:00

I'm glad to finally be getting started on my Christmas "event" posts! We've had a pretty relaxing day today. Got the house re-picked up (I've been working on the "New Year clean-up" all week - i.e. getting the final Christmas presents put away and getting things back in order after the Christmas rush and before school starts back full force), watched a little football, took a little nap, said bye to the kids who have been staying with my parents since Tuesday...and now I'm finally getting to work on getting my Christmas pictures loaded. It has been one thing after another non-stop around here lately and I honestly still haven't even looked at any pictures that were taken after Dec. 18. I do not kid. I think that's a new (bad) record for me. But I'm working on it!

So we're enjoying a relaxing evening at home on the couch tonight...well I'm relaxing and working on pictures and the blog, and of course Cullen is playing Xbox & flipping the TV to football every so often. He's been quite the sweet, helpful husband today and didn't even turn on the Xbox until after ~6pm. Also, possibly a new record for him. haha If you follow me on twitter or read my tweets in the lower left sidebar of the blog you may have already seen my twitpic of how much Allie & Gainer are enjoying us being home tonight! :-) They are still on the couch with me as I type this.

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My Dad's birthday is the first of December and unfortunately can get lost in the hustle and bustle of the Thanksgiving/Christmas rush. But it is usually one of the first "events" of the Christmas season. Some years are easier to plan for than others, but this year was one of those that left very few options for a night to celebrate. :-{ The Sunday night after we had been working on Christmas decorations at my parents' house and had also been to Madelyne's school Christmas performance, we did a take-out BBQ meal and had cake to celebrate. Although it wasn't the birthday celebration that we usually go for, at least we were all able to be together!

Yes, it's perfectly fine to let small children play with lighters...as long as it'll keep them happy enough to smile for a picture.

Trying to get a cute sibling picture...this one isn't focused just right but I thought it was too cute! I'm pretty sure Bennett was singing "Happy Birthday" here. The boy loves to sing, and this day the Happy Birthday song was definitely on his mind!!

Much better. They have gotten so good at smiling for pictures together! So adorable.

This was a small part of the decorating that was done that day. I always love the big tree at my parents' house. So beautiful.

Happy happy birthday Dad!! Sorry it was a little crazy and unorganized this year. We are so thankful for everything that you do for us! Your love and dedication to our family does not go unappreciated or unnoticed. We love you!

2009 SEC Champions & early December snow

2009-12-30T22:35:00.007-06:00

Have I seriously not posted about the SEC Championship game yet?? How in the world did that happen?! Apparently I had intentions to because I already had the pictures uploaded to flickr... I think the Christmas rush has made me lose my mind (even more than usual)! Well crap, I was about to start my Christmas posts, but oh well. I really would usually just skip posting about this since it's been so long, but I can't just "skip" posting about an SEC Championship or snow... So stick with me here.

If you recall from this post, there was snow forecast for the night before the big game. Simply having snow in the forecast here in the south rarely means we'll actually GET some... especially in early December! However, around 11pm that Friday night it actually started snowing (yes, that's actually snow and not rain - promise)!

And after about an hour it looked like this:

I was so excited and just had a feeling it was going to be a great weekend! Snow plus the potential for winning an SEC Championship was just so exciting. We actually didn't go to sleep until around 2am, and when we did it was still snowing a little! Usually snow melts pretty fast here if it even sticks, but when I woke up around 6am, there was still snow on the ground.

But by the time we were leaving (around 8am, I think) it was just starting to melt a little. You can see how beautiful it was on the trees and everything though. I really wish we would get more soon! I just love how everything looks covered with snow... especially when it sticks around past 10am.

We rode to Atlanta with my parents and hopped on the Marta to go into the city. We headed straight for the SEC Fanfare area which was packed with people! And it was a little over-hyped and over-priced in my opinion. But we still had fun!

We got into the dome a little early so we had time to walk around some, get some snacks... and get really nervous about the game. I really felt pretty nauseous the whole first 3 quarters from being so nervous.

If you remember this news story, the poster below will make sense. haha

After the game started I don't think I even took any pictures until the 4th quarter (except maybe during halftime).

It was crazy how the energy in the dome changed once the 3rd quarter ended and we were a lot more confident about going home with a win. I don't think I've ever seen so many people in the stands holding up the 4th quarter 4 fingers. Funny how it stops where the orange & blue shirts begin.

The players were getting into it too.

Although we knew we had the win "in the bag" towards the end, I really was not able to breathe a sigh of relief until I saw this in all its glory:

We did it!! SEC Champions for the 22nd time!! Not only that, but now we are headed to the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME!!! "ROLL TIDE" hasn't felt this good in a long time.
(Don't you just love my hubby's stylin' championship belt?)

(Trying to get the scoreboard in the picture with Mom & Dad didn't work well for the lighting. :-/ )

We had fun staying to watch the trophy presentation and post-game celebration in the dome. What an awesome time and what great memories! It was definitely a much happier ride home than last year when Florida got away with the win.

And the next morning we met at my parents' house to help with their Christmas decorating. Mom had the breakfast drink of champions mixed up for us in honor of the team we beat.

Get it? Florida Gator(ade)?

In the meantime...

2009-12-28T22:40:00.005-06:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful, peaceful, and happy Christmas! Ours was very wonderful and very happy, and somewhat peaceful. :-) It gets a little crazy when we have 5 different family gatherings in 3 days. I can only imagine what it'll be like when we have kids! We've been going non-stop since last Friday night...and I've loved every minute of it. I love being busy and enjoying my family and friends. But it certainly hasn't left much time for blogging or loading pictures...or cleaning the house! So I'm trying hard to get caught up on everything this week.

In the meantime, I wanted to share these pictures that I took of my adorable Godchildren who belong to one of my best friends, Brittany, and her husband, Travis. Brittany and I have been friends since sophomore year of high school and it feels like we have been through just about everything together. I had so much fun taking pictures of all of them. I truly love taking pictures...especially when the subjects are so sweet and adorable and fun! It really is a stress reliever for me.

Carson is way too grown up. Where has the time gone??

Precious Trent could melt you with those eyes...

And could sweet Bella be any more beautiful?

They obviously come from beautiful parents...

Thanks, guys, for letting me practice my picture-taking skills on you. I wish I had time to do this more often!

2009-12-25T14:05:00.001-06:00

Wishing you and yours...

2009-12-24T11:21:00.003-06:00

HOPE, LOVE, JOY, and PEACE this CHRISTmas!

WINNER! ...and some Christmas decorating

2009-12-21T08:30:00.001-06:00

Congratulations to @ageorgiamomma (also known as Donna)!!! Your twitter entry was #3 on the list and random.org picked #3! So get in touch with Tambra (tlwolens@uab.edu or her fb page) asap so she can get you a scarf in the colors of your choosing.

The number 17 total includes everyone's tweets & facebook entries too, so that's why it doesn't match up with the # of comments.

Thanks to everyone who entered! I'll have to do this again sometime soon. It was fun! If anyone has anything that you make or sell or whatever that you would like to feature in a giveaway, let me know! :-)

To answer some questions that were asked in the comments:

Tambra does sell the scarves - for $15 each. Pretty great deal! Her turn-around time is really quick and she will ship them to you or deliver them if you live in her area.
Yes, she does make them in Auburn colors too (booo! jk)
She makes them in ANY colors that you want, not just the ones that were shown in my post. So the possibilities are endless!

If you are still interested in getting one you can email Tambra at tlwolens@uab.edu or send her a message on Facebook (click here for her FB page)

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Picking up where I left off posting before, the day after the Iron Bowl (the Saturday after Thanksgiving), Cullen and I went to get our Christmas tree and get our decorations up. In case I've never mentioned it before (ha!), I looove Christmas!! And having the sweet smell of a Christmas tree in our house and all kinds of little Christmas "happies" around just makes me all warm inside. So we always do it as soon as we can after Thanksgiving.

I always do the lights... we're kinda light nazis. We like a lot and we don't mess around. We also like a nice-sized tree. Something about a big ole, well-lit tree just makes me happy! Guess because that's what I was used to growing up. I'm standing on a chair in this pic.

Cullen does the ornaments, and he does a really good job. It takes me way too long to do the ornaments because I get too picky about which ones are where. But they look just great the way my hubby does them, so I'm glad he is willing!

We don't have a fire place, so we make do with this. We gotta have our stockings up somewhere!

And this is the wreath I made out of extra greenery that came off of our tree. Did you know that if you ask for the extra branches that they cut off the bottom, they'll give them to you free?? You can't really tell in this dark picture, but there are little pieces of silver sparkly garland mixed in. Makes me kind of think of shimmering snowflakes and adds a little sparkle!

I just love this time of year. And I love the feeling of Christmas at our home.

GIVEAWAY in honor of last minute Christmas shoppers...

2009-12-16T19:11:00.015-06:00

***UPDATE: CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. I will post the winner Monday morning!!***

So have you gotten all of your Christmas shopping done yet?? If the answer to that is yes, then I'm jealous! If the answer is no, well then good, that makes me feel a little better. :-) I have done maybe 1/4 of all the shopping I need to do. If you still have some shopping to do and are looking for the perfect gift for your favorite sister, mom, aunt, friend, Godmother, grandmother (or any of the other girls in your life that deserve something really fun and perfect for Christmas) then this is your lucky day!

Unless we are friends on facebook, you most likely haven't seen this picture (post to come about the pic later):

But now you have, AND now you have seen my adorable new scarf!!

Wouldn't you love to have one yourself... or even better, mark that hard-to-buy-for girl off your list?? Well, a friend of ours who makes these cute scarves is so kindly going to help you do that. In true Christmas spirit, she is going to GIVE one of YOU, my wonderful readers, a scarf in any color combination you choose! (I'm personally partial to the Roll Tide colors...but there are endless color combination options beyond what is shown below.)

And for this great giveaway, you can enter thrice for THREE chances to win!

***For ONE entry, just leave a comment on this post (by clicking on the __ COMMENTS link at the bottom of the post).

***For a SECOND entry, you can tweet about the giveaway. Just copy and paste the text below (and then leave a comment on this post telling me that you tweeted so I'll know):

Need a last min Christmas gift?? Go to http://bit.ly/5Mk0uM for @katiepie7 's GIVEAWAY.

***For a THIRD entry, you can put a link in your facebook status. Something like the text below - then leave another comment telling me that you facebooked it (you must comment & tell me b/c there's no way for me to know who all facebooked!):

Need a last minute Christmas gift?? Go to http://www.katiebyington.blogspot.com for a fun & fashionable GIVEAWAY.

And the best part?? Tambra will get it made and have it to you in time for Christmas! So get to commenting, tweeting, and facebooking! The comments will close Sunday (12/20) night at 10pm and I will announce the winner (chosen randomly by random.org) first thing Monday morning. So be sure to check back then so that if you're the winner, you can hurry and get your last minute order in before Christmas gets here!

If you want to find out more info about these great scarves or order one you can contact Tambra at: tlwolens@uab.edu or click here to contact her on facebook.

***UPDATE: CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. I will post the winner Monday morning!!***

Terrific Twos

2009-12-15T22:49:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday to my adorable, sweet-voiced, smiley, spirited, always busy, singing, blonde haired, brown eyed, cheer-you-up, melt-your-heart nephew.

We love you Bennett!

PS - Stay tuned for a fun & fashionable giveaway post coming up next!!

Iron Bowl 2009

2009-12-14T22:44:00.005-06:00

The day after Thanksgiving (yes, I know I'm way behind), we got up bright and early. No, we weren't heading out to shop with the rest of the Black Friday crowd. It was time for the big Iron Bowl game. If you're not from the South, and especially from Alabama, you may not have an idea of how HUGE this game really is. And you most likely do not realize the amount of emotional investment that goes into this football game. In Alabama, one of the first things you find out when you're getting to know someone is whether they are an Alabama fan or an Auburn fan. Regardless of how well one team or the other plays, the winner still gets bragging rights for 364 days. It doesn't matter if we were to lose 9 other games in a year, if we beat Auburn, it would be a successful season. That being said...

My dad, my cousin McShan, my sister, my brother-in-law (who happens to be an Auburn grad, gasp!), Cullen, and me were armed with hot coffee and warm (homemade by my sister) pumpkin bread as we headed down the road to Auburn.

When we got there, we stopped by (and were provided with a great parking spot by) Jay's uncle's tailgating spot. I think we were the only Alabama fans there! But they were nice to us anyway. :-)

Love that the AU on the tent behind us is upside down.

Favorite!

There were a TON of people there. And I think every single one was anxiously tentatively nervously cautiously excited (remember that whole emotional investment thing?). Regardless of how the teams are ranked during the year you NEVER know how this game is going to turn out. It's just one of those rivalries.

We had seats in the front row of the upper deck! It was a pretty great view. But man was it chilly up there!! For a few years there we didn't have too many really cold football games that required gloves, scarves, etc. But for this one we had earmuffs, coats, scarves, AND hand warmers (thanks Mom for sending those!).

Do you see someone that looks a little funny?

The final score in all its glory. And, like I said, regardless of how the teams are ranked, you just never know. We almost lost... and we were ranked #2 in the nation at the time and Auburn wasn't ranked. It was a nail-biter and everyone stayed til the very last second (notice the stands are still completely full).

Finally we get to enjoy leaving another Iron Bowl as victors! We lost for 6 straight years and finally won again last year. Might I just add that 4 of those 6 years were while I was in college at Alabama. :-( So I think we deserve to enjoy every minute of our win. Roll Tide!

I Heart Faces - Pets Only

2009-12-14T09:19:00.002-06:00

I have never done an I Heart Faces entry, but when I saw that this week was pets only, I just had to enter this picture of Whitaker. I know I've posted this picture on our blog before - but never for I Heart Faces... sorry to the usual readers for the repeat!

How to tell when it's time to turn the heat up in the house...

Join in the “Pets Only” fun over at I ♥ Faces this week!

giving thanks

2009-12-09T20:11:00.000-06:00

*Just FYI, this post was started on 11/29 & I've been updating it piece by piece during my "free time" haha I did have good intentions!*

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving all of the Byington clan had arrived in town, so a dinner was planned to celebrate G-mother's birthday (Cullen's grandmother) which was the Thursday before. It was great to have everyone around the same table, because that rarely happens with people scattered all over!

I jokingly said to Cullen that we should get G-mother a Snuggie. However, I wasn't totally joking... I have a Snuggie and LOVE it. Wear it all the time. So I started thinking that that might actually be a good idea! So we got it for her, and she loved it too. She said that she barely got in the door that night before she had it on!

This year the Walker side of the family decided to do Thanksgiving on Wednesday (early dinner) so that we wouldn't all be so rushed on Thursday. It really worked out nicely! On Wednesday, I had to work for a little while and then I got to pick up Madelyne from school. She was so excited! We came home and hung out and got the macaroni and cheese and deviled eggs cooked up to take to the dinner that night. It was really fun & sweet having her in the kitchen with me. She loves to help cook! Can you believe I didn't take any pictures of us in the kitchen??

There was tons of beautiful and delicious food. My mom prepared this great fruit tray. Isn't it fabulous?? And that's her famous scratch-made cranberry sauce in the background. Waking up to the smell of it and the sounds of the cranberries popping was always one of my favorite things about Thanksgiving and Christmas morning growing up!

Yummm...my pants are still feeling a little tight.

Family gathered around the table catching up on life after we stuffed ourselves

Love this sweet picture of Kelley & Bennett

After dinner there was more fun to be had.
Can't even count how many little children (including myself) have loved been spun around in this foyer over the past 24 years. Bennett is no exception! Even when Cullen stopped, Bennett started walking himself around in circles using his hands & feet and then looking at us and laughing when he couldn't stand up. It was pretty cute.

Madelyne spontaneously narrated a "program" for everyone that she came up with on the spot. So out of character for her to stand up in front of a bunch of people and speak! She gathered her "group of [pretend] children" (she was the teacher, of course) up on "the risers" for the performance. Please note that "babies (including Bennett) had to be placed on the first row." I have a great video of her explaining what the program was about. She's going to love it one day...priceless. Then she even said the Lord's Prayer for us. It was so sweet!
Bennett had fun running around, jumping off of things, and just being a boy. He doesn't stop...ever!

Never devoid of electronics, we somehow ended up watching funny youtube videos. And then Madelyne & Bennett had to text their friends... ok, ok, so they were playing games. It's hard to have a family gathering without some technology these days.

On Thursday, we celebrated with the Byington side for a late lunch. That morning it was nice to be able to sleep in a little and watch the Macy's parade. It's one of my favorite traditions. Then I got to fixing a mandarin orange salad, peanut butter pie, & bread to take.

This is not even all of the food, there was a whole 'nother counter full of casseroles in the kitchen!

It was a beautiful day outside and chilly enough to wear a coat... my favorite weather!

Allison & Jordan had a blast throwing the football around.

The Byington girls (yes, Cullen has 3 sisters & he's the only boy!)

Love this picture

It was beautiful weather for making pictures of beautiful kids...

...and beautiful pets!

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday - no stress of finding the "perfect gift" for everyone, and a lot of eating and just hanging out with family! This year brought another great one.

We are so thankful for every single person in our families. Words can't express how grateful I am for the many blessings that God has given us through our friends, our jobs, different opportunities, our location, each other...and the list goes on and on. I hope the rest of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are ready to share your blessings with others during this upcoming Christmas season just as God shared His only son with us!

it's time for war... and maybe some snow

2009-12-04T13:54:00.005-06:00

Updated: 10:55pm It's official....we have BIG, WHITE SNOW FLAKES coming down!!! Lovin it!!

Started to stick on the cars around midnight! For once I'm hoping the roads are clear in the morning.

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Original post:
If you remember this post, and this post, ohh and you can't forget these two here and here, you will recall that I am ~~slightly~~ totally obsessed with snow. It makes me happy. And unfortunately we don't get it much here in the deep south. But when there is even a chance that it might snow, panic ensues and the grocery store shelves are immediately cleared of milk & bread. You know, because the roads and stores are quickly closed if we get more than 1/2 and inch....yes, I'm serious. All this to say... there is a slight chance that we might get some (i.e. little to no accumulation) snow (flurries) tonight! This may be the only time EVER in my life that I'm not wishing for a big close-the-roads-stay-at-home-go-sledding accumulating snow. Why, you ask? Well, because we need clear roads to head to this big event tomorrow:

[so sad that the original of this was taken off of You Tube! This is a shortened version & cuts out the great ending...but you get the point]

5th Annual Ghosts, Ghouls, & Fools Halloween/Birthday party

2009-11-21T21:24:00.005-06:00

So, I'm pretty sure that you probably don't still have Halloween on your mind...but, the past few weeks have flown by so fast, it is kinda still on mine. And if I can get the blogging about it done, then hopefully my mind can move to Thanksgiving mode...although, the Christmas music on the radio right now is helping with that! I just LOVE this time of year so much... I wish we could do October, November, & December twice a year!

The night before the big Halloween/birthday party & it was time to carve pumpkins!

The finished products! Mine on the left & Cullen's on the right. Isn't his amazing?!

Everything set up for the party. In the picture on the right, notice the spooky fog from the fog machine. We like to make it extra spooky! haha

You can tell this picture was taken a couple of weeks before the party because the pumpkins are still sitting, uncarved, by the door. Just wanted to show the great outdoor decor that my hubby did!

We were planning to have most of the party outside, but the rain canceled those plans. We ended up doing most of it inside, but it turned out great anyway! We were so glad that folks still braved the pouring rain to come out in their costumes.

Here is Cullen's spider birthday cake that I made to go with his spider pumpkin (it was red velvet inside...yum!) & the spooktacular punch (inside the skull & crossbones "chest" pictured above)

Our little pumpkin enjoyed the party too! Actually, she was a little nervous with all these crazy-dressed people in her house. But she looked cute!

We have so much fun thinking about and picking out the stuff for our costumes every year. And this year was no different.

Presenting... Jon Gosselin. Straight up Jon's "new" style... smoking a [fake in this case] cigarette, hickeys ["tatooed" on] from his new girlfriend, pierced [also fake] ears, and trying to keep up with the kids [the kids are real ;-) ].

And...Kate Gosselin. Reverse mullet [wig], big glasses, kids and all...there were heels too!

"Jon, I will NOT let you keep my kids in the house with your choice of a 'babysitter.'" [If you follow the Jon & Kate saga - bless their hearts - you'll know where this comes from]

Forgot we were Jon & Kate for a minute and decided to be sweet. :-) This was after everyone sang to the birthday boy...and he had bitten into the gummy spider on top of the cake! haha

And here we have the winners (yes, everyone votes for their favorite and we give out prizes)!
1st place: Billy Mays & his Oxi Clean
2nd place: Dwight & Pam from The Office
3rd place: Satan

There were a bunch of other really great costumes! We're already thinking about what we're going to be next year. :-) We have so much fun planning for this party every year. It was a great time and we're so blessed to have such sweet & fun friends!

how to tell...

2009-11-20T23:46:00.002-06:00

when it's time to turn the heat up in the house...

Note: I did not put Whitaker up to this... walked in the bedroom to find he had burrowed himself up into his blanket!

Cullen's birthday season - Part 2

2009-11-18T08:13:00.007-06:00

On the night of Cullen's actual birthday, we headed out to eat again! Cullen chose a restaurant we have never been to before, Sweet Bones Alabama. He was in the mood for some BBQ! And boy was that a good choice. It was the best BBQ I have had in a while, and I think the best ribs I have had ever! We both highly recommend it!

We thought it was neat that each table had a roll of paper towels posted up on the wall...we definitely needed them! You can see them in this pic of the birthday boy waiting for our food to arrive. (Guess what he's doing on his phone? Tweet much?!)

After dinner we were stuffed... but not too stuffed to stop for a quick picture.

When we got home, it was the moment that Cullen had been waiting for for months... opening presents. He had been ~~requesting~~ begging to get an Xbox 360 since summer and I kept telling him to put it on his birthday list. Being the Dave Ramsey followers that we are, we try to save and cut corners on spending money whenever we can...and, of course, we ~~never~~ rarely buy things that aren't already budgeted for using our envelope system. So when a brand new Xbox 360 popped up as the deal of the day on woot.com for around $100 less than retail, Cullen alerted me and told me that I had best get on it! Well, being that this deal popped up one day in late August, I didn't have all the money saved up yet. But how could I pass up a $100 discount?! Note that the deals on woot only last for 24 hours... or until the item sells out. There wasn't much time to decide. So I did it. *gasp* That's what you have emergency funds for, right? ;-) jk No worries, I did end up saving up the money in plenty of time to pay the emergency fund back. BUT, Cullen thought I didn't get it because they sold out on woot pretty quick. SO for 2 whole months I had to keep it a secret and keep acting like I was looking for an Xbox to buy somewhere else! Man, was that hard!! I ended up telling him that I hated I'd missed the woot deal and that he might have to just wait until Christmas. :-) Sneaky sneaky. However, I'm a really bad liar, so I don't think he really believed me. So THAT is why he was so excited to open presents...

Pictures below, clockwise from top left:

-SO excited to open presents! haha

-He got the Bible he asked for... will he get his other request??

-He opened a big bag of boxers, socks, & undershirts. Exciting, huh? I put a pair of Xbox boxers in the bottom that I had run across at Walmart. Told him that since I couldn't find a good deal on an Xbox, he'd just have to settle for these for now. Notice the thrilled look on his face!

- Last, but not least, the oh-so-coveted XBOX 360 (and some accessories)! Woo hoo! He was pumped.

So, needless to say, below is what went on for the remainder of the night (and what has gone on for the past few weeks much too frequently in our house...). Remind me again why I gave in and bought this confounded thing???

All kidding aside, I was glad that he was happy with what I got him and that he's enjoyed it. He deserves it! I am so blessed with an amazing husband who is always there for me, helps out around the house more than most, and can always make me laugh. I am beyond thankful that God led us to each other and created us for each other. I think the reason I love birthdays so much is because it's such a great time to celebrate what a blessing and joy someone is in your life. I love you so much, hubby, and can't wait to spend many many more birthdays with you!!

Note: If you're wondering how I did the cool picture collage of Cullen opening presents, head on over and read MckMama's awesome tutorial! I love making posts look more creative!

Cullen's birthday season - Part 1

2009-11-15T16:42:00.010-06:00

Alternately titled: Reservation for 18, please?

If you haven't known me or read the blog for long, you may not know that birthdays are a pretty big deal in our family. Aside from it actually being Cullen's "birthday season" since the 1st of October and the small gift giving had begun on the 20th, the first actual birthday celebration was dinner with the family on Sunday night the 25th. October 25 is actually Cullen's sister, Rachael's birthday, so we had a double celebration! We went to dinner at a local Japanese restaurant. Those places are always sooo delicious!

We are so blessed to have such great families who enjoy getting together. I was so surprised when I did the count to make the reservation and ended up with a total of 18 people. And that wasn't even everyone from our immediate families! Cullen got a picture with just about everyone who came:

His mom / His grandmother

His sister Rachael and her kids, Jordan & Allison* / His sister Britany & her boyfriend JJ

*Note: Allison is crying because Uncle Cullen, in true Halloween spirit, brought an old man mask and put it on shortly before this. Even after he took it off, she still got upset whenever he got near her! Bless her little heart!

My parents / His Aunt Joan & Uncle Gerald

My sister & bro-in-law, Kelley & Jay / And me, of course

The chefs cooked a delicious dinner with way too much food...

and we took up 2 tables!

The kids were all amazed by the cooking. I heart Allie's reaction... she did this the whole time they were banging around & cooking!

The yummy mint chocolate chip cake.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO (all of) YOU!

After cake, Cullen and Rachael opened gifts...and Jordan even got to open some too! His birthday is October 21. October is a big month for the Byington family! Cullen's dad's birthday is on Oct. 8th too.

On the way out, I found all of the kids checking out the fish in the "river" in the lobby. Too cute not to capture!

As we were leaving, Allie decided that Uncle Cullen was not, in fact, the Boogie Man and that she could at least give him 5 a couple of times. I think he did end up getting a hug by the end! :-)
She and Jordan also thought it was so fun to jump off the curb while I took their picture. We have quite a few of these shots! We don't get to see Rachael & the kids often since they live out of town, so we were very glad that they were able to come. They grow up way too much in between the times we see them!

So sweet!

(another new post below)
More birthday fun coming up next!!

Slacker

2009-11-14T23:06:00.006-06:00

Althernately titled: UA Homecoming 2009

So, I have been a big slacker with blogging lately. When you add in the usual busyness of October (Cullen's BIRTHDAY month!!!) with both of us having to travel for work (which we are not used to doing very often), things get a little crazy. I can't believe I did not even do a birthday post for my hubby! So terrible. :-{ So I am going to attempt to update on everything that's been going on in our world lately!

I'll try to keep them brief. SERIOUSLY! I really will, it's a new goal. My posts are always way too wordy. So, here's a start...

Man, I can't believe I'm so far behind that I have to start with Homecoming weekend, October 17th.

Big Al leading off the homecoming parade in Tuscaloosa

The Alpha Delta Pi (of which I am an alumnus) float won 1st place!!

Nick Saban's wife, Terry, was doing the local TV broadcast of the parade.

Brooke, Jessica, Heather, & me at the tailgate (and Jessica's little cutie, Earnest, is in there too!)

Cullen & a couple of his "boyz," Drew and Kyle

My parents, my aunt & uncle, and their friends who came from Miami on the quad before the game! (They are not at all in the order I just listed them... L to R: Bonita from Miami, Uncle Steve, Aunt Nonie, Mark from Miami, Mom, & Dad)

My cousin McShan, his girlfriend Dawn, me, & Cullen hanging out after the game and celebrating a victory over South Carolina. Can you tell it had been a long day and we were tired? Well, they look great, but Cullen & I look a little beat!

PS- We were THRILLED to have a downright chilly game in October! So unusual here. Can you pick out which one of us is perpetually hot and thus hardly even noticed that it was cold outside?

Stay tuned for (most likely combined in some way):
Boo at the Zoo
Cullen's Birthday
Ghosts, Ghouls, & Fools
Halloween
Paris (I'll have to see if I can get Cullen on here to post about this one!)
Buffalo

Fall Fix

2009-10-23T22:03:00.005-05:00

Fall.

From Katie & Cullen

Fun.

From Katie & Cullen

Festive.

From Katie & Cullen

Focused.

From Katie & Cullen

Family.

From Katie & Cullen

Fascinated.

From Katie & Cullen

Fantastic.

From Katie & Cullen

Fabulous faces.

From Katie & Cullen

Fearless.

From Katie & Cullen

Finding fish.

From Katie & Cullen

Flattery.

From Katie & Cullen

Funny.

From Katie & Cullen

Fairest face.

From Katie & Cullen

Forever friends.

From Katie & Cullen

Finished.

From Katie & Cullen

{Fantabulous shirts from StickyFingerz Boutique! Adorable stuff. Click to check it out!!}
{Fotographs by yours truly.}

Wordless Wednesday

2009-10-14T21:43:00.004-05:00

[Roomba]

Race for the Cure!!

2009-10-11T14:47:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we participated in the Race for the Cure to fight against breast cancer. This is a cause close to my heart because both of my grandmothers have had breast cancer. My dad's mom, who we called Granny, fought the fight very hard a couple of times and was a 30-year survivor when she died. My mom's mom, who we call Sissy, fought the fight years ago and is still going strong.

Kelley, Jay, Madelyne, and Bennet were there too!

It was wet & rainy all morning, but it was kind of nice because it kept us cool! The temperature here Friday was in the mid 80s, and yesterday it was the mid 60s. SO thankful that changed happened yesterday so we didn't have to melt in the heat while we ran!!

The "before" pictures...

Getting ready to goooo...

Annnd the after... Bennett was into making silly faces and not smiling for a picture!

Btw, extra props to my sister who pushed this heavy double stroller the whole way!

We were so excited that we actually finished the whole 5K! I know it's not that long, but this was our first one, and I am not a runner. Been doing a little more lately, but I do more walking. Minimal running. But I actually ran almost the whole first 2 miles (minus a couple of blocks at the end) and about half of the third mile. My final time was 32:26 and Cullen's was around 34 something (he didn't look at the clock when he crossed the finish line). Not too shabby considering, I don't think. Ha, nice hair, hubby!

We had a great time and are hoping to do it again next year!

As a side note, remember to go to this website EVERY DAY and all you have to do is click the pink button to give FREE mammograms to those in need!

Much Needed Niece & Nephew Time

2009-10-09T19:34:00.003-05:00

Last weekend I got to catch up on some much needed niece and nephew time. As I was loading these pictures I realized that the blog has also been devoid of pictures and updates about "i-wish-they-were-my" sweet children. So how about we catch up!?

Last Friday I had the privilege of going with Madelyne on her 4K class Fire Station field trip! Kelley had a doctor's appointment and asked if I could keep Bennett. Usually I am working during this time, but decided that I could take just a couple of hours to spend with sweet Bennett. Well it turns out that Madelyne's field trip was at the same time and they were needing some parents/helpers to go. So Kelley dropped Bennett off at our house that morning and we headed out to meet Madelyne at school.

Bennett (who I have obviously not updated on in a while) is talking up a storm and loves to point things out and ask what everything is these days. We heard a lot of "whas dat?" [what's that?] last weekend. Things are no longer just labeled by their name, but it's accompanied by the word "a." Example, upon entering our kitchen, Bennett pointed under our baker's rack and announced "a Roomba!" then turned around, saw Whitaker and announced "a key cat!" [kitty cat]

He is cracking me up with all he is saying these days. On the way to Madelyne's school, from the backseat a little voice says...."Hey Aun' Dadie?"
I said, "Hey Bennett?"
He says, "Know what?"
Ummm, seriously? Did my 21-month-old nephew just ask me if I knew what?? "What Bennett??"
"Where Gaigey?" (Gainer)
"Gainer's at home, buddy. We'll see her later."
Silence. That was all, he was just wondering. He and Gainer are tight like that. [If you remember, when he was a baby, Gainer practically thought she was his mom whenever he was around. It was crazy. I guess they bonded.]

Bennett was SO good at the fire station! He sat in his stroller and just listened to every word that the firemen were saying! He listened very carefully...

Whose reflection is in the fire truck!? Check out how he's just chilling with his feet crossed. So cute!

All the kids got to walk through the fire truck and "jump" out the other side. Madelyne thought it was pretty cool!

Sweet siblings

They turned on the fire truck sirens!

After walking back to the school all of the kids got their own special fire hats. As you can see, Maddie Moo thought it was pretty cool!

After the fire trip, we went to meet Uncle Cullen for lunch! He got off work at 12:00 that day because we had a doctor's appointment to go to later in the afternoon. Pretty girl!

Beautiful, beautiful boy!

Next, we HAD to take the kids to Yogurt Mountain (which I mentioned in this post)

At Yogurt Mountain, we met Kelley so she could take the kids while we went to the dermatologist. [For those of you who know Cullen & his head... he had to get his "horns" checked out. No worries, after waiting for about an hour to be seen, we were told they are just pilar cysts (only click the link if you really want to know...) and can be removed if he wants to do it, but he doesn't have to. Yeah, yeah... we knew they weren't horns. ;-) But that sounds more interesting than "bumps" right?? ]

Anyway, while we were at the doctor, Kelley & the kids ran some errands... clearly they were worn slap out!

Don't worry, kids bounce back pretty quick! When we got back from the doctor, Kelley and Jay headed out to dinner and the kids stayed with us. It had been SO beautiful outside and I had been dying to take some kids to the park. So while Cullen did his P90x at home, me, Maddie Moo & Benny Boo went to the park down the street. They were not lacking energy anymore! Man, I wish I had that much energy all the time!

When we got home, Cullen was still doing P90x. Well, Madelyne informed us that she does this with Daddy "all the time" and knows "almost all the moves." haha! So the next thing I know, I come in and both of them are doing P90x with Cullen! It was too cute! (Notice Mama Gainer, always watching out for her babies.)

She really did know some moves!

After we did all that and Cullen got a shower, he and Madelyne headed to the store while I gave Bennett a bath. There is not a WHOLE lot of interesting-to-a-21-month-old things to do at our house, but regardless, a bathtub is always entertaining. So Bennett spent about 30 minutes in the bath! ha!

Cullen grilled us all some amazing chicken that night. I was about to bite into mine and said "Wow, this looks really good!" and Madelyne replied "Well...just wait until you taste it!!"

So it had been a busy day and everyone was pretty tired. There were no problems getting anyone to sleep...including myself!

When the kids stay, Cullen and I sleep on the sofa bed so Madelyne can sleep in our room. It's funny because we actually kind of enjoy it. Our bed is a full size and the sofa is a queen. So it's nice having the extra room...considering at least 1 cat and 1 dog sleep with us every night!

Saturday morning, Cullen had to coach and everyone thankfully slept until 7:30! After he left, as I was putting up the sofa bed, I realized it would probably be a good idea to vacuum while the coffee table was moved. Bennett has a thing for vacuums for some reason, so I asked them if they wanted to help me vacuum - and they both were VERY excited. (LOVE this age when getting to help is fun!) So they helped me vacuum (Mama Gainer supervising again)...and then were thrilled to get to help Windex the glass door while I finished up!

While we were waiting on Cullen to get back from coaching and Kelley to come pick them up, we took a little walk followed by some sidewalk chalk art. It was a beautiful day!
When they got back, Cullen decided that Bennett would enjoy a ride in the cooler that he'd been pushing around. Haha. He loved it & didn't move as soon as Cullen put him in!

The cats have learned that if they don't stay at a distance, they will be poked, picked up, pulled on, etc. So when the kids left all the animals were glad to be able to stretch out and enjoy some peace and quiet! I personally enjoy the sound of little voices and little giggles. Allie thinks otherwise. :-)

sweet kitty - FREE to a good home!

2009-10-07T15:14:00.002-05:00

Some friends of our family found this oh-so-sweet kitty that needs a home. They already have 3 and can't take on any more!! Here are her stats:

Name: Willow
Female
12-18 months old
Received vet exam + all shots on 9-24-09
already SPAYED 9-26-09

Very tiny, will not grow anymore
VERY sweet & docile ("lay in your lap kitty")

Please let me know if you are interested or know someone who might be! They cannot keep this little cutie pie and want her to have a good home!

rainy day football

2009-10-03T20:00:00.009-05:00

Last weekend, Cullen and I enjoyed a full weekend in Tuscaloosa. We only planned to stay Friday night, but he talked me into staying Saturday too! It's always nice to spend a weekend there and reminisce about the good ole days of college! Friday night we went to our old favorite Mexican restauraunt in Ttown, El Rincon. We used to go there just about every Thursday or Friday night when we both lived in Tuscaloosa! My parents stayed Friday night too, so it was good to get a chance to hang out and catch up with them too.

Saturday, there was a forecast of rain - well, it rained. A lot! This was the first really rainy game that I have been to in a while. Luckily our tailgate group had just bought 4 new sturdy tents and a new red turf. Had it not been for that we would have been soaked and covered in mud!

Me, Heather, Kim, & Brooke trying to stay dry under the tent! (There's a rain drop on the lens apparently.)

Don't worry, we were ready with ponchos!

Lake Tuscaloosa? Close.

The new red turf. :-( Yeah, this area was completely covered by tents and it still got soaked and muddy. That's how much it rained. It was a blowing, heavy, pouring rain. Imagine if there had been no turf!

Luckily the rain stopped just in time for us to walk to the game. Literally, 5 minutes before we planned to head to the stadium. However, everything was obviously still very wet! After hiking through all of the muddy areas around campus, this is what my feet looked like when we got to the stadium. No, this is not some new fashionable "crackle" toenail polish. (Not that this look would ever be fashionable??)

It stayed stormy-looking for a while....

But the sun did finally come out for a little bit! (Beautiful photo taken by my Aunt Daphney who celebrated her birthday with my parents at the game!)

After the game we got a chance to hang out with my parents, my Aunt Daphney, & Uncle Oscar - which we enjoyed a whole lot more than the Auburn game (booo) & the Florida game (booo) that we were watching!

On Sunday, before we left, we hit up one of the best hamburger places ever... Mugshots. Mmmm, it was just as good (and just as bad for us!) as I remember!!

After stuffing ourselves at lunch followed by the long drive home...this was definitely needed:

That night, we had a Sunday School social at a local Mexican restaurant and enjoyed chatting with everyone. Afterwards, our friends the Gambles introduced us to my new favorite place - Yogurt Mountain. Most genius yogurt place ever. There are probably 20 different flavors and you walk along a long wall and serve yourself as much of each flavor as you want.... then you turn around and there is a wall FULL of toppings - everything you could imagine from Fruity Pebbles to Nutter Butters to mandarin oranges to marshmallow goo! Mmmm it was heaven. I love yogurt so much.

So that was our wonderful weekend in Ttown... makes it so much harder to get back to work on Monday!

perfectly relaxing Fall Saturday

2009-09-19T22:19:00.008-05:00

Today has been a pretty perfect description of a perfectly relaxing fall day. We woke up "early" (7:45 is pretty early for a Saturday - when you don't have kids I suppose) this morning and Cullen went to coach. He coaches springboard diving to kids one night a week and also on Saturday mornings. He was a springboard diver growing up and loves still being involved in it - and he was pretty darn good too (17th in the nation, 2nd in the southeast, and 1st in the state)! I digress. So, in order to make it to Tuscaloosa by the 11:20 kickoff I had to be at the pool to pick him up as soon as he was done. It rained pretty much the whole ride down to Ttown, but miraculously, it cleared up just about the time we parked and were walking to the game! We ended up walking in just shortly after kickoff, but at least we made it!

Sitting in the skybox with my parents this week!

The signature wall of all the "Alabama famous" folks who have been to the skybox. Pretty cool!

When our QB Greg McElroy was in

TOUCHDOWN!! (one of many today!)

2nd string QB Star Jackson got to play for over half the game!

Extra point!

Final score was 53-7. Good game - the kind that makes for a perfectly relaxing football game.

After hanging around with my parents and some family friends while we waited for the traffic to die down, we made a necessary stop by Jimmy John's on the way home. If you have one of these fabulous sub shops in your area and haven't been to it, GO. Tonight. Ok, well maybe tomorrow.

Because we had stuffed ourselves during the game, we brought our Jimmy John's home to eat for dinner. After coming home and getting everything re-situated and picked up, I ate my delish JJ's and then took a nice little Saturday afternoon nap. Ahhh, perfectly relaxing.

While I was asleep (for prob 30-40 mins) on the couch, Cullen was watching football and playing on the internet on his phone. When I woke up he was like "Gah, I'm so glad you're up. I was getting SO bored and have been dying to tell you some things!" haha Gotta love feeling needed by your hubby! He proceeded to tell me about one of our friends who he saw on facebook that just got engaged (that's you, Meagan! Congrats!) ...FSU made a big play and scored...Allie cat was doing funny things...and some other things. It was cute. A lot can happen in 30 mins apparently!!

The rest of the evening has been consumed by FOOTBALL, checking up on facebook, football, loading pictures, football, catching up on other people's blogs, football, skyping with my sister & bro-in-law, getting excited that Auburn was about to get beat, watching them come back (BOO!!!), listening to Cullen yell at the TV, and of course catching up on my own blog. :-) All perfectly relaxing things to do on a Fall Saturday evening.

Apparently, Whitaker thought that football was not so important and decided to sit in front of the TV and look cute. He successfully got some extra attention...and then spent the rest of his perfectly relaxing Saturday evening asleep in the office chair!

Fall & Football & Friends = Fun

2009-09-14T20:00:00.012-05:00

How exciting - a new post about something that happened only mere 2 days ago!

Well, this weekend was our official kickoff to tailgating and watching the Crimson Tide roll through Ttown! Last weekend was our first game of the season (victory over Virginia Tech in the GA dome: 34-24!), but this past Saturday was the first home game. I've been going to Alabama football games since I was 4 years old, so Alabama football is a pretty big deal in our family!

It was great to get back in the groove of tailgating and see some friends we haven't seen in a while. I love how football in the south brings everyone together. In recent years, tailgating on "the Quad" in Tuscaloosa has become more and more popular - and more and more packed. There are tents set up back to back all over! Don't get me wrong, the Quad has always been the "happening" place on gameday, but only in the past 5 or so years has it really become the mad house that it now is.

From Katie & Cullen

We were thrilled to have my long-time childhood friend, Natalie, and her new husband Ben come with us to the game! They got married back in May and it was the first time that we have seen them since. It was great getting to catch up! Natalie and I go way back and went to many games together as little girls, so it was fun to reminisce.

Ahhh, Bryant Denny in all it's glory!

Ben had his very first Bryant Denny "stadium dog" ever. Ben's a Florida fan (but we forgive him for that) so he has been deprived of a good stadium dog. Oh, they're amazing!!

Can't wait to see what this season brings! Here's to another awesome year for the Crimson Tide!!

the rest of the rest of the San Francisco Treat...

2009-09-11T21:48:00.024-05:00

Finally getting back to blogging about the rest of our trip to San Francisco. Yes, yes, I know that it was almost 4 months ago that we were on this trip - but I haven't finished blogging about it yet!! And (as I say all the time) for my own personal memory, I want to blog about it all so that I can remember all the little details. Annnd (as I also always say - but rarely do successfully) I really will try to make my commentary somewhat brief so that I can move on to other things... you know, like everything else that's gone on in the past 4 months!

Other San Fran related posts:
pre-trip
post-trip
the San Francisco treat...
the rest of the San Francisco treat...

DAY 5:
Day 5 was Tuesday, and the day that we embarked on our Napa Valley Wine Country Tour

Beautiful view of the Golden Gate bridge before we drove over it on the way to wine country
(as always, click any picture to get a larger view)

First stop, Domaine Chandon winery.

We learned about how wine is produced, bottled, aged, etc. It was really interesting! Such an elaborate, long process.

My lovely husband listening to the folks there talk about the sparkling wine we were about to taste.

First tasting! Their sparkling wine is great! Not sure if it's sold here, but we did see it when we were in FL later in the summer.

Next stop, V. Sattui winery

Picking which wines we wanted to taste, tasting, and trying samples of the delicious cheeses!

Such beautiful grounds at V. Sattui!!

Next stop, Flora Springs winery. That spiral holder behind the glass is filled with popcorn to eat between the different wines. Neat idea and a nice snack! This stop was where we learned from our tour guide, Jerry, how to correctly "volatilize the esters" before drinking the wine. Jerry was great - he was a hoot and clearly loved his job!
It was SO beautiful out there! And such a nice break from the cold weather in the heart of San Fran. There was about a 20 degree temperature difference (~60 degrees to ~80 degrees) and we only drove about 45 mins! Crazy stuff.

Last stop, Andretti winery (yes, as in Mario).

The grounds here were my favorite by far. SO beautiful!!
FYI, each row of grapes (behind us in pic below) has a rose bush at the front. The rose bush will start to show any diseases before the grape vines do. That way it can be caught and treated before it harms the grapes. Smart.
Where the wine is stored outside (and Cullen videoing :-) )
One last picture stop before we headed back into San Fran!
We rode the bus a little ways and then caught a ferry which took us back to the city. It was a nice 30 or so minute ferry ride. Very pretty and a great ending to the wonderful adventure!

By the time we got back to the hotel, we were so tired from the 2 days in a row of going going going nonstop. So we opted to just go to the little bar & grill restaurant in the hotel. As we were sitting there at our table, I looked out the window and saw a big bunch of people coming down the street, police cars lining up and blocking off the streets, and news cameras coming in. Well lo and behold it was a Proposition 8 march coming our way. Interesting stuff goes on in CA.

DAY 6:
Day 6 was Wednesday and that morning we got up early & headed to Fisherman's Wharf for some breakfast and sightseeing before another fun-packed day.

It was so beautiful - we were incredibly blessed to have amazing weather the entire time we were there!

These are some of the cute shops at Fisherman's Wharf. We actually had to stop at one of them and buy Cullen a long sleeved shirt because he wore short sleeves & was freezing! After our warm day in Napa Valley, I think it was just wishful thinking that we could go out un-bundled.
These are the sea lions of Pier 39. They were SO cute - pretty loud & kinda stinky too though! ha! Such a neat thing to see them all just chilling out on their little personal lounge areas.
Playing king of the mountain - they would try to push each other off. So cute.
Next up we headed out from Fisherman's Wharf for our tour of Alcatraz Island. (This was the view of it from Pier 39.)

Really hard to even do justice to this place describing it. This is a view of one of the cells. The last one is of Cullen in the visitation window.

The city of San Francisco was that close but because the water was so cold, it would be too difficult for prisoners to swim to escape. Well, that and the incredibly tight security.

After our Alcatraz tour, we had time for a quick lunch at a neat little restaurant at Fisherman's Wharf called Butterfly before we headed out for our tour of Muir Woods National Park.

The trees there were massive. Again, like Alcatraz, the pictures don't even do them justice! It was such an awesome experience. Beautiful & peaceful. And also slightly warmer temperature.

A nice family stopped and offered to take our picture!

Seriously - massive trees. See how small we are?!

Beautiful view on the way back down the mountain!
Of course we couldn't go to a new city during baseball season and not see a game! And what do you know, the San Francisco Giants just happened to be playing the Braves (the closest MLB team to our home city). As soon as we got back from Muir Woods, we had to quickly change and catch a cab to head to the game. We probably could have walked from where our hotel was, but had been walking SO much during the trip that we just decided to take the easy route!

1st picture below = where our real seats were (the ones we paid for)
2nd picture = where we actually sat (it wasn't too packed on a Wed night, plenty of open seats)
Sooo pretty looking over the bay! We got to see one ball hit into the bay (it was a foul, not a home run) and some people in a boat fished it out.

1st picture below - Cullen had to get a churro!
2nd picture - We were freeeezzzzing!! I had on 2 jackets. Cullen had on flip flops. Regardless, we were both freezing and ended up leaving in the 7th inning because we couldn't sit there any longer! Well, and we needed to get back and pack since we were leaving the next day.

One last shot overlooking AT&T park before we left!

DAY 7:
Day 7 was Thursday and it was our last day. :-( We were so sad to have to leave! We had had so much fun and weren't ready to get back to the real world. We got to the airport and got loaded onto our plane without incident (aside from me starting to get sick, which I mentioned in the post-trip post). We had a beautiful sunset view on the way out of Atlanta!

Below is our traditional commemorative anniversary trip picture. :-) We started the tradition on our honeymoon in St. Lucia - not really intending for it to become a tradition - and continued it on our 1st anniversary trip to Jamaica. There was no sand or anything to write our names on/in in San Fran, so we just used this piece of paper from the hotel and the program from the conference that I was there for the first few days. I think it was close enough! (Yes, we both wrote our own initials and both drew our own hearts.)

FYI, since I didn't blog back then... these are the 2 from the previous years (St. Lucia left & Jamaica right).

So all in all our trip to San Francisco was a wonderful way to celebrate our 2 amazing years of marriage. It was so fun exploring a new city and making memories together. I can't wait to spend many many more with my sweet husband!

getting back in the groove

2009-09-07T00:13:00.004-05:00

So I'm finally trying to get back in the blogging groove. Can you tell that this summer was one of the busiest ever? Hence the only 1 post in June and only 1 post in July. Well, things have slowed down just slightly - at least enough for me to feel like I have time to blog again. :-)

I worked on a new blog layout tonight to get me motivated to post some updates. Not sure that I'm 100% satisfied with it. I'm really not diggin' it and I know I'll want a new one for Halloween soon... but right now, after the great season opener last night, football is on my mind. So this one will have to stay for at least a little while. Hopefully you'll be hearing more from me soon! Sorry for being such a non-blogger the past few months!

chill out, He's got it under control

2009-09-04T13:39:00.008-05:00

The following is from my quiet time this morning. This passage spoke to me and I just felt led to share it!

From Max Lucado's Grace for the Moment:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
God, Our Defender

"He is my defender; I will not be defeated." Psalm 62:6

Here is a big question. What is God doing when
you are in a bind? When the lifeboat springs a leak?
When the rip cord snaps? When the last penny is
gone before the last bill is paid?...
I know what we are doing. Nibbling on nails like
corn on the cob. Pacing floors. Taking pills...
But what does God do?...
He fights for us. He steps into the ring and points
us to our corner and takes over. "Remain calm; the
Lord will fight for you" (Exod. 14:14).
His job is to fight. Our job is to trust.
Just trust. Not direct. Or question...Our job is to
pray and wait.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

This addresses an interesting issue that I have been thinking about and was actually praying about on my walk just this morning. When we are stressed/worried/in a bind, God fights for us. "He steps into the ring and points us to our corner and takes over." What a relief! "His job is to fight. Our job is to trust. JUST trust. NOT direct. Or question... Our job is to pray and wait." Easier than it sounds sometimes!

I often find myself worrying about things too much - things that I ultimately have no control over.

And it stresses me out.

It makes me crazy because I can do nothing about those things most of the time. I honestly tend to be a pretty laid back person, but it tends to be the little things that stress me out. I tend to want to be in control of everything (not always so proud of that one!).

But I often need a gentle reminder such as this that God is in control. It is not my place to tell Him what I want or don't want to happen. He knows what He's doing! I've seen time and again that God's plans turn out way better than mine. So if I can just let myself trust in him and let Him fight for me, I will reduce the stress in my life a lot.

I think I often feel like what I do (or don't do) could change a situation's outcome or could change someone else's actions. Well, it may be true that others could be influenced by my actions/ thoughts/ words, but not because I thought or expressed them! Not because I came up with the perfect plan for how to make something "better" (with "better," of course, being based on my own definition). I may be able to have an effect on other people, or other situations, but not without God's help!! Not without Him speaking through me. And you know what?

It's up to Him to decide whether or not to use me.

The best results come when I allow myself to trust in God and let Him direct my steps, let Him use me, and let Him take care of all the things that I worry about (that I ultimately have no control over)!

"Don't be afraid. Just stand where you are and watch the Lord rescue you... The Lord himself will fight for you. You won't have to lift a finger in your defense!" Exodus 14:13-14

"I wait quietly before God, for my hope is in Him. He is my defender; I will not be defeated...O my people, trust in Him at all times. Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge." Psalm 62:5-6, 8

The "notes" section of my bible has this to say about the Psalm 62 passage: "Prayer can release our tensions in times of emotional stress. Trusting in God to be our rock, salvation, and fortress will change our entire outlook on life. No longer must we be held captive by resentment toward others when they hurt us. When we are resting in God's strength, nothing can shake us."

**disclaimer: This is not related to anything major that is going on in our lives right now. Who doesn't worry about little random day-to-day things? So don't fret, life is good...just wanted to share this! :-) **

Mermaid Madelyne

2009-08-04T19:46:00.005-05:00

This weekend while Kelley & Jay were at the beach, Madelyne and Bennett stayed part of the time with my parents and part of the time with Cullen and me. We had so much fun, as usual! They are growing up way too fast and I cherish every moment that I get to spend with them.

The BIG accomplishment of the weekend came on Sunday late afternoon... Madelyne voluntarily put her head all the way under water. This happened shortly after we realized that wearing goggles or a mask was going to be very helpful for her... and Cullen went right then to CVS and bought her a mask! We thought that it was super exciting that she was actually going under voluntarily, so we got out the video camera to get it on film. This is the child who has been scared to put her face under water for the past 4 years...and has also refused to wear goggles... so it was a huge deal! Well, while Cullen was videoing, I asked her to show us how she could put her face in and swim (with help). This alone was a big accomplishment! So I let go of her the first time and she kept going! The second time, she didn't even grab my hands and just started going. I about cried! This was a HUGE moment for her. We were SO proud!

So I just had to post the video... you can hear us (and my annoying voice) in this first one, but it gives you an idea of how excited we were. Also, keep in mind that she was exhausted at this point b/c we had been in the pool kicking around and jumping off the side and all for about 2 hours. This just HAPPENED right before we were going to call it quits. That's why she doesn't seem completely thrilled. Believe me, she was! Couldn't wait to call Mommy & Daddy to tell them... and to watch the video!

The next one is edited by Cullen to a Little Mermaid song (one of her favorite movies to watch at our house). It's so sweet and makes me cry every time..especially thinking about how this was the VERY first time she had done this! I love it!

A weekend in the life of us... Twitter style

2009-07-19T21:43:00.003-05:00

Has it seriously been over 3 weeks since I posted?? Where has the past month gone!? Geez. I have so much to catch up on... and still actually have one final San Fran post to do. Is that ridiculous or what? Such a slacker! It has been one thing after another around here lately and blogging has taken the back burner. I will get on that as soon as I can, but in the meantime, I just wanted to post about our weekend. It was not a typical weekend for us, as we didn't have any "events" to attend and Cullen and I were able to just spend some good, quality time together, just the 2 of us. It was so much fun and took me back to the days of college when we would spend Saturdays and Sundays trying to cram as much time together in as possible!

Friday night, we decided to order pizza and rent a movie. So we made the sofa bed out, spread out our pizza and candy, and had a slumber-party-esque night! We actually ended up just sleeping on the sofa bed (don't worry, we had cleared off the pizza and candy at this point), which is actually pretty darn comfy! FYI, we saw the movie Knowing and it was pretty good until the end - it totally de-railed and was a little too weird for our liking. But anyway, it was a fun, relaxing night!

So, Saturday rolled along and it was BEAUTIFUL outside! Low 80s with hardly any humidity is SO uncommon for July here! We thought about just relaxing at the pool, but decided that we wanted to do something different than the norm. So Cullen planned out our day so that we could get some productive things done and have a good time together all at the same time! If you were following me on Twitter, you already know all about our day. However, if you weren't (or for myself when I come back to read this one day in the future), I'll let my tweets from yesterday tell the story. You have to read from the bottom (#13) up (it says the time next to each tweet, and they're all an hour slow for some reason). To view my cell phone pics from the day for each tweet, click on the "twitpic" links!

i forgot to mention that Berry (my mother-in-law) joined us at the movie. It was good times! Glad it worked out so we could meet up!---about 22 hours ago from txt
Wrapping up a wonderful day w/ @Culligan27 w/ some Mario Kart! Best part about the day= paid for all w/ cash. @DaveRamseyLIVE would be proud---about 24 hours ago from TweetDeck
http://twitpic.com/au32f - dinner on the patio at Mafiaoza's!---6:56 PM Jul 18th from TwitPic
http://twitpic.com/atxj6 - beautiful view overlooking the city!---6:23 PM Jul 18th from TwitPic
http://twitpic.com/atunc - My hot date!---6:04 PM Jul 18th from TwitPic
Ok so hilarious movie but very vulgar. Don't see if you're easily offended!---5:57 PM Jul 18th from txt
http://twitpic.com/ath7y - next up - matinee:---4:39 PM Jul 18th from TwitPic
In case you're in the market, Academy has the best shoe prices we could find fo sho. ---3:33 PM Jul 18th from txt
http://twitpic.com/at6fl - Cullen needed some new tennies. I like!---3:32 PM Jul 18th from TwitPic
http://twitpic.com/asxd3 - late lunch---2:35 PM Jul 18th from TwitPic
http://twitpic.com/asmxb - switchflop sale @wrapsodyhoover!---1:31 PM Jul 18th from TwitPic
scratch previous ideas...had Dave Ramsey BCM (budget committee mtg) & now we're headed out around town. Just 4 funzies I'll tweet as we go.---12:20 PM Jul 18th from TweetDeck
hmmm... work on reports? or pool? or take Gainer to park? or plant flower? Why do I always default to pool? Slacker.---10:30 AM Jul 18th from TweetDeck

Today was another beautiful day in our city! We started out the morning with Sunday School and church then came back and had lunch at my parents' house with my sister and her kids. That was delicious and fun as always! Then we took a good 1.5 hour Sunday afternoon nap. Those are the best!! We decided that we couldn't let the beautiful weather pass us by, so we decided to take Gainer to the park. We got a tennis ball and a couple of rope toys to take to throw for her. She'll oftentimes do the fetch thing in the house, but she was so not interested in it at the park. Too many other dogs and people and smells. So we just ran around for a little bit, and then sat in the soft summer grass for a little bit. On the way home, Cullen took a little detour and drove us up to the place where we got engaged. It's on top of a mountain overlooking the city and is SO beautiful! We hadn't been there in a while so it was neat to go up there again. Cullen took some cell phone pics & tweeted (of course :-) )

http://twitpic.com/ay4w5 - Another pic of us over the city---about 3 hours ago from TwitPic
http://twitpic.com/ay4r0 - My babies over the city...where we got engaged---about 3 hours ago from TwitPic

So, we came back and ate some dinner: leftover pizza from Friday night and spaghetti-esque dish from Mafiaoza's last night. Then I decided it was time that I catch up on all my emails, school stuff, and blogs and such while Cullen played Mario Kart. He just got back from getting a LemonBerry Slush from Sonic. Our fave! Guess it's time to head to bed to get ready for the new week!

I love these types of weekends. They are my favorite! Here's to a productive week after this rejuvenating weekend!

lolcat lolwhit

2009-06-26T17:52:00.001-05:00

(title supposed to read: "~~lolcat~~ lolwhit", but isn't showing up right!)

Hillarious Whitaker captions posted on www.icanhascheezburger.com

(It's in "kitty speak." To read, sound the words out phonetically out loud...then it will make sense. Some require some additional thought!)

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

2009-06-22T21:23:00.006-05:00

I typed that title and then realized we really did have chicken for dinner tonight too! Ha. Nerd.

Soooo, the moment you've all been waiting patiently for... www.random.org has randomly selected the 3 winners!! In case you're wondering why I used 35 comments (instead of 34 like it says on the post), I had to add in 2 comments from folks that accidentally commented on the wrong post...and didn't count the comment that was deleted. Anyway, like you care about all that... let's get to the WINNERS!!! (I think you may have to click on the screen shots below to make them bigger & see them clearly)

2nd Runner up (drumroll please).... #2 Leslie (from Lamberts Lately...)

{winner of 12 personalized notecards}

1st Runner up (bigger drumroll).... #26 Nikki (a.k.a. Caroline's Mom)

{winner of a set of 60 address labels}

And GRAND PRIZE (biggest drumroll).... #23 BROOKE (who needs to start a blog!)

{winner of notecards AND address labels}

Winners, get in touch with me and I'll tell you how to claim your prize!

Bennett would like to congratulate each of you with a little dance

I have to say that I had SO much fun doing this contest! I LOVED hearing from all of you on the other side of the computer screen. It's nice to know that I'm not just talking to myself all the time. :-) AND I was so glad to find out about some new blogs that I didn't know about yet! Can't wait to check them all out! I will definitely have to do another contest again in the future, so stay tuned!!

I hope everyone will head on over to the Sweet Lemons blog and check out all of the adorable stuff if you haven't already (and give Natalie some love for being so generous to do this giveaway)! If you didn't win & still want some of her great stuff, you can order from the Sweet Lemons Etsy site. I will definitely be hiring Natalie to do some stuff for my kids' birthday parties one day... in the meantime, I think the fabulous stationary will do. :-)

PS - Hope everyone had as wonderful of a Father's Day weekend as we did! More to come on that later!

a GIVEAWAY in honor of today!!

2009-06-17T17:57:00.016-05:00

***UPDATE: Contest is now closed. Thanks to everyone who entered! Stay tuned for the winners to be announced tomorrow (Monday)!! If you missed the contest, but still want to confess your blog stalker status, comments are still open! :-) ***

What is today, you ask? Well, today is the day that this little blog turns 1 year old! I can hardly believe that I have actually kept it up this long. But it has been tons of fun...and a great "escape" form reality! One of the most fun things about it has been finding other friends who have started blogs and being able to keep up with them. A year ago, when I first started, I read maybe 2 or 3 other blogs... and may I please just tell you that they were people who I totally did not know. They were blogs that I found through a friend of a friend of a friend...etc that just for some reason kept me interested! But as more "real life" friends have surfaced with blogs, it has become even more exciting to keep mine going and keep up with them too!

However, after this whole year, I still don't know who all of YOU are who read the blog! I know there are some of you that are signed up to "follow us" (in the left sidebar) and I do have a counter at the bottom of the blog that tells me how MANY people have visited, and that map thingy (on the left) that tells me WHERE someone who viewed the blog is from. But in case you were wondering, NO, there is no way for me to know WHO actually comes to the blog & reads! We will sometimes have between 50-100 hits in a day and I always wonder who is reading and how you came to the blog. And let me just tell you, there is no reason to hesitate to admit that you're a "blog stalker." I am probably the biggest "blog stalker" of them all. I might just read more blogs of people that I don't even know than those of my own personal friends! ha! Cullen thinks I'm crazy. :-) And then of course there are those people that I haven't talked to in 5 years, but found their blog and am addicted. So, there is no reason to be ashamed that you're a blog stalker!! I'd love to hear from you!

I would be thrilled if you would just leave a comment at the bottom of this post by clicking where it says "(#) comments." So 'fess up, fellow blog stalkers... even if you think I already know!

So, what's in it for YOU?!

Well, it just so happens that this is my first ever GIVEAWAY post! And all you have to do is leave a comment on this post (just to say hey & let me know you read our blog... or to say nothing interesting at all if you want!) and I will have random.org randomly pick the winners.

And the prize??

My friend Natalie has generously offered to award THREE winners with some awesome goods from Sweet Lemons!! They have some of THE cutest things!!! Here is some of their work:

adorable stationary

super cute address labels

& tons of precious personalized things by special order - including invitations

The 2nd runner up will receive a set of 12 personalized notecards, 1st runner up will receive a set of 60 address labels and the grand prize winner will receive notecards and address labels!! All will be in your choice of ANY design! Check out all of the awesome designs, graphics, and fonts there are to choose from on the Sweet Lemons ETSY website.

All you have to do is comment on this post... new readers, old readers, first-time readers, readers who arrived here from Sweet Lemons, ANYONE can win! (If you don't have a blogger account, you can comment as "anonymous" - just make sure to sign your name so I can contact you if you win!)

*The giveaway will end at 11:59pm Sunday and I will announce the winners on Monday!*
You have THREE, count 'em, THREE chances to win... so get to commenting!!

***UPDATE: Contest is now closed. Thanks to everyone who entered! Stay tuned for the winners to be announced tomorrow (Monday)!! If you missed the contest, but still want to confess your blog stalker status, comments are still open! ***

K & C in pictures

2009-06-16T21:45:00.002-05:00

My crafty hubby made this rockin' collage with Picasa the other day. So cool!

Not Me! Monday

2009-06-15T22:21:00.006-05:00

If you missed what Not Me! Monday is all about, check out this post.

This week, I did not almost leave for work wearing my husband's huge, clunky, black Crocs with my cute, colorful, professional-esq skirt/shirt combo. I did not put them on to run outside to water some plants and then forget to change back into my nice heels when I got ready to walk out the door. Had I actually forgotten to change into my nice shoes for a moment, I would not have gotten all the way in the car (after loading all bags/work/lunch/etc for the day) and only realize that I was wearing them when I came back inside to get my cell phone that I had forgotten. Not me! I never have crazy, frazzled mornings like that!

I also did not go back four times for more food at a Chinese Sunday buffet yesterday. And if I had been sooo glutenous as to do such a thing, I certainly would not have gone with my husband to get Sonic for dinner at 9:30pm that same night. Not only that, but I most definitely would never get a Butterfinger blast to go with my cheeseburger & fries and write it off as "end of the world night" implying that I would start eating better again the next day. Not me! I always eat healthy, especially on Sundays!!

Ok, well.... right now I did not just forget what my 3rd "not me" was going to be. This has not been a stressful & crazy week (could you tell?!) and if it had been, it would not make me actually question my sanity. Not me!

And lastly.... (drumroll, please) I am NOT planning to do my first ever giveaway this week!! Not me! I have way too many urgent things to do and would not use my time to do fun bloggy things. [It really IS going to be a SWEET giveaway though, so stay tuned!! You won't want to miss it!]

I would LOVE to hear all of the things that you definitely did not do this week! So write up your own "Not Me! Monday" post... even if it's already Tuesday! Then head on over to MckMama's blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week!

(new San Francisco post below!)