Memorial Day Fun in Pictures!

We hung out at my dad's house today. We headed to the lake on the boat, and my nephew Aiden loved it! Of course I had to get some pictures  :-)

This one makes me laugh. My sweet Aiden will be 2 next month so he is finally developing a little attitude. I was trying to get a picture and I told him to say "cheese". He scowled at me instead!

My brother and Aiden on the boat.

Me and the honey!

Aiden after an unexpected BIG splash

Helping Poppy (my daddy) drive the boat

4 out of 5 pics are of the baby. Can you tell that his Aunt Kristen is absolutely in LOVE with him?! That sweet little boy melts my heart!

Hope you all had a wonderful day, too!!!!!

Happy Memorial Day!

Memorial Day is such a special day!!!

Although I'm SO very grateful to ALL of our service men and women, I remember the selflessness of my little brother, who served in the US Marines. He served 3 tours in Iraq and Afghanistan when he was just a kid, and came back totally and completely changed. He was in Infantry, which is the group that serves on the front lines. Over the course of his 4 years that he served, he lost 20+ good friends in combat. I've been fortunate enough to have not ever lost a good friend, so I can't even fathom that kind of loss.

It's been several years since he finished his service in the Marines, but I will never, ever forget it. He is the bravest person I know, and my personal hero.

Happy Memorial Day to our soldiers. To all of the people that made the ultimate sacrifice, and gave their lives - it was not in vain. We'll remember.

Blogger Problems and A Project!

First of all, I'm going to complain. Blogger has a known issue that's preventing me from commenting on some of the blogs I follow! I've discovered that the only problem I have is when the comment section is embedded, rather than a pop-up. If it is embedded, the "anonymous" option still works, but I can't comment with my Google account. I've also received a couple of e-mails from people who were trying to comment on my blog and had the same problem. I've updated my comments to a pop-up window, so I think that should resolve the issue until Blogger gets a fix in.

http://knownissues.blogspot.com/2011/05/were-investigating-issue-which-is.html

Now onto the good stuff! I've been putting off a project for quite sometime that I finally finished this weekend, and I am soooo excited about it! We have a desk in the corner of our kitchen. It's where our mail goes, but it's also become the "unload" spot, too. When Josh gets home, he literally empties his pockets on the desk. The next day, he'll only grab a few things, but leave all of the change, receipts, and other random stuff there. We also kindof suck at mail. Every bill we have is auto drafted, so we're bad about throwing the mail on the desk and not looking through it for weeks. I'm sure by now you can guess what the desk looked like. It's been messy and unorganized for several months, and even when I cleaned the house, I neglected the desk. Every single time I walked by I felt stressed out, but I just didn't know where to start.

First things first, I bought this:

It's a leather catch-all. I put it on Josh's nightstand, so he can unload his pockets there. I think this will cut down on all of the clutter tremendously!

Next, I went through all the mail, one piece at a time. It took a couple of hours, but I finally regained control, and this is the end result:

There are 2 mail bins on the desk - one for us, and one for Josh's business since we frequently get mail at our house for them.

Now, every single time I walk by the desk, I'm totally happy. YAY for finished projects!!!!  :-)

I'm Back!

It was so very nice to get away for a few days! I didn't realize how desperately I needed a break from work! It can get so stressful sometimes, and I think a nice long break is just what I needed.

We do an annual vacation with the in-laws, and this year we went to Gatlinburg. We rented an enormous cabin, and piled in for several days. It was 5 stories, complete with an indoor pool and a theater room. With a cabin like that, there really isn't much of a need to leave. We spent the week playing board games, watching movies and playing water volleyball. Funny story about the volleyball... we had this huge beach ball that we were hitting back and forth in the pool, but there wasn't a net of any sort. My father-in-law found some extra sheets, and tied them together. He brought in two rocking chairs from outside and ties the sheets to the chairs to rig up a net. It was hilarious, but worked perfectly! We played at least 6 or 7 games! My mother-in-law snapped a picture on her phone, and you can see the rocking chair/sheet "net".

We also went zip lining, which I was really not looking forward to. I'm absolutely terrified of heights, and that is not my idea of fun. I'm glad I actually toughed it out, because it wasn't nearly as bad as I anticipated. There were 6 lines total, and each one the instructor made you do something different. For example, the first one was very basic, and you sat on the ledge and scooted off. The second one, they made you take a running leap off the platform and let go of the rope with both hands. The most challenging for me required you to jump off the platform backwards and flip upside down. It took me forever to jump, and finally the guide was like "jump or I'll push you" and that did it. I was sooooo scared, but I still tried to go upside down. I couldn't let go all the way, so I ended up going partially upside down. They should be happy that they at least got that much participation  ;-)

Here is a phone picture of everyone that went. There were a few too little to go, so it's not our entire group, but it's most of us. Yes, my husband's family is that big.

I look forward to this time away with his family, mostly because it reminds me of the family vacations I had when I was growing up. My parents divorced when I was in high school, but up until that point, we did family vacations every year. I miss those vacations so very much. Although my parents have both been remarried for 8 years now, I still miss our family when it was just us, and quite honestly, I still long for that togetherness. Fortunately, I have SO many great memories of my family vacations growing up! I know that some people don't have special memories like that, so I'm very thankful that we always had opportunities to do fun things together.

I'm also very thankful that I have wonderful in-laws. I honestly don't know too many people that have a great relationship with their spouse's parents, but I adore mine! They totally, and completely rock!

About Time....

for a VACATION! I'm in Gatlinburg for a few days with the in-laws, so I'll be MIA.

Be back soon!  :-)

Slightly Preoccupied

Anyone read the Twilight series?!

That's what I've been doing for the last week - every.single.waking.moment.

I finished all four books in six days, and I must say, they are fantastic!

I was the most anti-Twilight person ever. I've wanted absolutely nothing to do with it for several years. For a couple of reasons. Number one, I refused to devote my time to something that was so geared towards teenage girls. Number two, I don't do scary, freaky, vampires at all. I generally reside in a happy bubble, and vampires are not part of it.

I came home a couple of weeks ago, and Josh was recording the first two movies. After yelling at him about it, I gave in and we watched the first one on a Friday night. I loved it. We woke up Saturday morning and watched the second. I couldn't stand not knowing what happened, so I bought the books. On a side note, I'm pretty sure he's annoyed that I know what happens and he doesn't. He likes the story, too.

I would very highly recommend the books (which of course, are WAY better then the movies!) Good vampires, who don't harm humans, that sparkle in the sunlight. Boys that turn into wolves to protect from the bad vampires. A wonderfully passionate love story. What's not to love?! 

I Am Not A Terrorist....

I'm sitting in the Tucson airport, with an hour and a half before my flight. Apparently the two hour rule does not apply to this airport, since it took me approximately 3 minutes to get checked in and to the front of the security line. That is where all of the fun began.

I think I'm a good traveler. I don't wear hair accessories, or bulky jewelry, or big shoes and belts because I like confidently walking through the scanner without having to stop. I feel like the person manning the scanner is also appreciative of us travelers that make their job easier, because let's face it, unless you're the one that catches the one terrorist, that job pretty much sucks.

(On a side note, how cool would it be if you DID catch a terrorist?! Maybe you would get to go to the White House, and the President would be all "Get her whatever she wants! And get her some super cool sunglasses. You are all fired, so she will be my new security guard and I will entrust her with national security as well.")

(Seriously, that could TOTALLY happen!)

(Perhaps I should rethink my job as civilian, and begin my training as an airport scanner worker.)

Anywhoo. Today, I'm wearing a cotton t-shirt, cotton skirt, and flip-flops. As I'm going through the line, thinking about how I'm going to be the new line favorite, the beeper goes off and people from twenty feet away turn to see who the terrorist is setting off the alarm. I'm asked to remove myself from the line and I'm escorted a couple of feet away to a glass box. At this point, everyone is watching to see what will happen. So the scanner lady explains that I've been randomly chosen to participate in a pat down. (YAY FOR ME!) The problem here, is the skirt. It's apparently a requirement that they feel up your thighs and around your lady business to ensure you aren't wearing garters with bombs and grenades hidden inside. So rather than reaching up my skirt (which I appreciate...) I am asked to lunge forward into a position that looks like the Warrior Pose. While in position, she starts at my ankle and feels all the way up my entire leg. Then I get to swap and we do the other leg. This, my friends, is awkward.

It's unfortunate that no one was with me to snap a quick photo, because I can imagine that you would all have quite a good laugh if only you had seen me getting felt up while showing off my impressive yoga skills.

(Due to the girth of my thighs, from not doing said yoga enough, there would have definitely been some photo editing....)

Now that I have graduated back to non-terrorist, I'm about to slip into a blissful Dramamine induced coma and hope that there will be no more airport fun today.

Nashville, here I come!!!