Out of Commission

What a crazy-busy 2 weeks it's been! Here's the short version.

• Friday- Sunday: Boxing Boot Camp at the Decatur Boxing Gym (Probably the 3 hardest and darkest days of my life)

• Tuesday- Sunday: Saint Simon's Island with the fam (it doesn't get any better than that)

• Sunday- Tuesday: Matt's dent camp in Orlando (I only stayed down there for 3 days, but didn't go to Disney)
• Tuesday: Drove the 8 hours home, alone....with only 2 stops.
  

• Wednesday- Thursday: Back in Athens to help with Melissa's kick-butt national ad shoot for 2 days! (She rocks in a ridiculous way)
• Saturday: Day trip to Atlanta to pick up my hubby at the airport
  

I didn't have my computer, so wasn't able to write like I would have wanted to. But I've missed it dearly, and wholly plan to dive back in.

Casey's Day o' Birth

Well, Casey has survived another year in this crazy thing we call life. Thursday the 19th is her birthday (I won't tell how old she is, because we're on the verge of being sensitive about such things). So to commemorate her, I've decided to list reasons we love and appreciate her. Here are only 10 of mine (I promise there are more, but I want to extend the opportunity for others to list as well, and it just wouldn't be fair if I took all the good ones). So please join me in celebrating Casey by posting your list (or fun story) in the comments section.

1. Her thoughtfulness. (When I took the dreaded GACE, she made me an "ACE the GACE" goody bag and left it on my doorstep the night before, which included a bottle of "the Elixir of Life" - Diet Coke
2. That I can make a reference to an article in Real Simple Magazine and she knows exactly what I'm talking about.
3. That she has a total obsession with drinking glasses...
4. That she calls her own mother "Blanche"!!!
5. Introducing me to the Magic Bullet blender. She was right, it did change my life.
6. That she will make a stinkin' awesome wife to Matt B., whom we all know and love.
7. She really and truly cares about people and what they have to say.
8. That she plots and plans all kinds of devious schemes (with my help, of course)
9. That she is about the size of a Care Bear and just as cute. (And that I'm her tall friend...hehehe).
10. And that just having her as a friend, makes me enjoy life that much more.

More lists...

These were great guys! I loved hearing what other people have in store for their lives! It is so awesome how you can tell what people are interested in by these lists. So please read on, and continue to submit them, I'm dying to hear what you're dying to do!

Missy:

Let's see....HMMM....

1. At least four happy healthy children.

2. Actually read the bible all the way through and get all of it.

3. Own some Manolo Blahniks.

4. Send a birthday card to everyone I know in one year on time.

5. Finish my baby shower thank you cards. (Yes, I am still working on them.)

6. Visit Europe.

7. Camp in 48 states.

8. Be debt free. Totally debt free.

Abby:

1. Take a trip around the world

2. Live in the same town as my nieces and nephews

3. Buy an old craftsman style house that I could remodel from head to to (Um, with handy Ben's help of course)

4. Learn to LOVE gardening and actually have someone ask me a plant question for a change

5. Open up a fine papers boutique and sell the most exquisite and whimsical stationary/cards I could get my hands on

6. Live my life in a way that others know I am a believer

7. Jump start the crafty side of me that I once possessed

8. Just once I would like to get the most perfect haircut ever

9. Travel to my friends hometowns, cuz I like to see where people came from

10. Live my life to the fullest and never look back

Dianne:

1. Lose 20 lbs. that doesn't come back.

2. Read all of the 100 greatest books

3. Take a french course every semester until I don't need to anymore

4. Trade houses with someone in Europe for a summer

5. Go on a cruise

6. Travel across the US in a van and sleep in the back of it every night like a hippie with Randy

7. Make a grand slam in bridge

8. Live at the beach fulltime someday

9. Be the best mother and mother in law I can

10. Do something good that makes a difference in someone's life

The List

In July's Real Simple Magazine there is an article where they polled their readers about what are some of their huge life goals to accomplish before they die. I was really inspired by this and decided I wanted to start my own list of things I've yet to do, but am dying to try. I would also like to encourage you to do the same, and I'd love to hear your's as well, so PLEASE post them in the comments section! I'll copy and paste them on the main page for easy view.

Here's what I came up with in no particular order.
1: Skydive
2: Sing Karaoke (I am terrified of singing in front of people, I much rather skydive)
3: Witness the Aurora Borealis
4: Visit all 7 continents
5: Learn a 3rd language
6: Own a pet goat and/or a sheep
7: Break a world record
8: Live in another country for at least a year
9: Actually Run a 5k (I've walked/ran a few, but that doesn't count).
10: Write and publish at least one book

I asked Matt, and he could only come up with seven.
1: Fly a plane
2: Become a local politician
3: Own a motor boat
4: Join some sort of men's club (aka shriners, free masons, elks, etc.)
5: Hit a hole in one
6: Swim with sharks
7: Fly in first class

A little obvious...

Alright, Batman. I think you should work on being a little more subtle. If you want to visit him, just travel up interstate 26 in North Carolina. I promise, you can't miss it!

To the BAT CAVE!!!

Mittens

I have a firm belief that mittens make everything better. I've felt this way since I was a child, when my mom sowed my first pair of mittens into my winter coat so I wouldn't lose them. And she was right, I DID NOT want to lose them! Here is a previous persuasion of me trying to get people on the mitten loving team.

Here is a picture of me with mittens. As you can see, I am very excited.














And here is a picture of Matt, mittenless. Point made. Wear mittens.

Yard Sale Saturday

Everyone knows that the first Saturday of every month is prime time for yard sales. So I think that I hit the jack pot this weekend. Here are my awesome finds!

Here's a small door hanger, that I thought was pretty cute......and only $1.

Next find was these 2 plants. I forgot what their called, but I had been eye-balling the ones in Bethany's yard, and a woman was selling several plants from her yard in addition to her other stuff. I love it when you find plants! $2 a piece.

Here's a beautiful twin lavender quilt, that I just thought was really cute. I threw it in the washing machine and now its as good as new. I'll probably throw it on the day bed upstairs in my craft room. They were asking $5, but I negotiated them down to $4.


Impulse buy purse. When it's only $0.50, it's okay to give in.


At another sale, I found a brand-new, never been used, still in box Party Lite tart burner. It's something I may not have picked out from the catalog, but the more I look at it, the more I like it. I checked an old Party Lite Catalog, and it was $19.95 (without taxes and shipping costs). But I walked away with it for $1. Sorry Jill, but I couldn't resist.


I decided to make it up to Jill when I saw something I knew she'd like. Jill has a cute little obsession with garden gnomes. And what better to quench that obsession with a bar of Magic Gnome Soap. Enjoy Jill! I won't post the price, because that's bad form for gift giving. But rest assured, I got a good deal.


And lastly, my personal favorite find is this. The Yuppy Puppy Automatic Food Dispenser ($4). It works much like a Gumball Machine, but can be operated by your dog. When your pup pushes the bone shaped lever down, a few bites of kibble pop out. So far, Bunny and Olive haven't figured it out. Frankly, they seem a bit frightened of it and won't go near it. But I have faith that they'll figure it out and LOVE it as much as I do!

So, my grand total for the entire day was....$15 even. But that's not including the 3 cups of Lemonade that I bought from 3 different kids' lemonade stands. My policy is to always stop at kids' lemonade stands, it's just polite and sweet. (This only set me back another $0.65)

I've come a long way, BABY!

What is this hideous masterpiece, you ask? Well, this was the first birthday cake that I ever made for Matt.

I had called his mom to find out what his favorite type of cake was, and she said Angel food. Well, this is one cake I had never made. Needless to say, there were a few blunders along the way. I forgot to use PAM to grease the sides of the pan and when I went to pull it out, it was "slightly" jagged. To disguise this, I decided to decorate it, which I later found out isn't usually how angel food cake is served.

I died the icing green with food coloring, and developed a vision of rolling hills of grass. I searched my pantry for farm animals, and found marshmallows and chow mein noodles. Sheep! So I used the birthday candles as fence posts and had one sheep grazing the field as another was digging under the fence, trying to get back home before anyone realized he was gone.

Matt must have really loved me, because he ate it.

Reason #2

Due to Casey's request, I will enlighten you to her favorite reason of how Bunny is smarter than Olive.

Being the mischievous little pups that they are, they tend to get into trouble one way or another when left alone. However, we always know who the culprit is upon returning home. That's right, they rat each other out. Whether it's having an accident, chewing on the furniture, or ripping up the mail, we can read Bunny's behavior like a book.

Regardless of whomever the guilty party is, Olive has certainly forgotten all about it by the time we get home. Her reaction is normally a very fast and enthusiastic "Earlier...there was a squirrel on our back porch and I almost killed it, but I couldn't get outside. So I didn't."

Bunny's reaction, on the other hand, instantly reveals our perpetrator's identity. If Olive caused the trouble, then Bunny will hide like her life depends on it, and you can't drag her out from under the kitchen island. We assume that this is because she refuses to be punished for something she didn't do. But if she is indeed responsible, she will act completely oblivious like, "What do you mean, "chewed on the trim work"? I thought that's why y'all bought this house."
Or sometimes she'll even try to lie by barking and leading up to the puddle and bark at it saying "Oh my gosh, mom, look what Olive did." But if she does anything other than hide, we know she's guilty.

Bunny, the gig is up.

Gentle, free spirits

Many of you know the Matt and Katie of today. But there are many a great story of the Matt and Katie of yester-year. Here's a good one of when Matt's college roommate David was a contestant on the MTV reality TV show "Room-Raiders."


Matt made his television debut on January 26th 2005. Although, he was filmed in a few different scenes, only one aired with his cameo. It's of him listening in on David making a prank telephone call and laughing. On the eve of its air-date, a group of us and about 6 of our friends rallied the students of UGA to also view the episode by graffiti-ing campus with fliers and large sidewalk chalk advertisements. We stealthily snook through central locals and popular buildings, narrowly avoiding the campus police on several occasions. We wanted to invoke mystery in the hearts of our target audience, so all we tagged was stuff like:
"Year of the Condor"
MTV 4:30pm today!

We even made t-shirts to sport during classes the day of. Here are some photos of that evening, and our artwork.