Weekend Wrap-up

Hello again happy people- both to those of you still on a happy high after a weekend of love and hearts and candy, and those of you happy it's all over ;P

I would definitely fall into the first category. So anyone that's avoiding Valentine's tales feel free to move on now (though, I promise not to get too gushy. I'm expecting this post will be mostly pictures.)

But yes, I had a wonderful weekend with John. I managed to leave work early on Friday. The plan was for John to leave even earlier and get to the yurts early to check in and get his truck unpacked and everything set up by the time I got there. The traffic god had other plans though, and John didn't get there til about an hour after me. So I checked us in, unloaded my car, got the interior all cozy (turns out everything John was bringing was mostly outdoorsy grilling type stuff anyways) and once John got there we hit up the grocery store and settled in the for night!

It was a weekend of hot dogs and burgers for dinner, scrambled eggs and maple flavored bacon (mmmmmMMMMM) for breakfast. Not too shabby :) Over the course of dinner Friday and Saturday night we watched How to Train Your Dragon. Very cute movie. The main dragon reminded us both very much of our cat Coco. If you've ever met this cat, go watch the movie. It's a bit redic. But anyways, Saturday we took a long walk with our cameras to see what we could see. Then came back for an afternoon nap, followed up with another sunset walk to grab a few more shots. Sunday after packing up we went and played a round (my first ever) of disc golf. I sucked. But by the end I had gotten a little better at throwing my disc underhanded and hoping it rolled farther than if I threw it frisbee style :) (My right upper arm was pretty sore all day Monday as a result. I'm so weak.) After all that we called it quits and headed back to John's place. His sis is spending a week down in Tampa with his parents so he's watching her dog for her. So sweet. So he was there when we got home. Took it easy for the evening- John and I played his game and caught up on our DVR'd shows, respectively, and had one more hamburger each for dinner.

Monday morning I had to get up for work. Blah blah blah. But I got to come back to John's place afterwards, which was nice! I don't think I've left for work in the morning from there and come back after work to his place both on the same day in a loooooooooong time, if ever. I almost felt like I lived there too! I stopped by Publix on my way and grabbed everything I needed for a carpet picnic spread. I must say, I think it turned out pretty well. Even if we had way more food than was necessary for 2 people, it was a nice spread and gave both of us left overs for lunch today. We had Publix chicken fingers (yum!!!!), pinwheel sandwiches, fruit, crackers with cheese and deli meat, shrimp cocktail (that was just for John. I don't like shrimp), and a few hard boiled eggs. For dessert: chocolate covered strawberries and bananas and some banana pudding. And I'm even more excited about the fact that I've stumbled across a dynamite spread for next time I throw a party! It was all served cold and had minimal prep- all I did was make the pinwheel sandwiches, dip the fruit in the chocolate, and set everything else out on plates. But once I laid out a blanket on the floor and let a bunch of candles, I think it turned out pretty nice :) After dinner and conversation, we played a few rounds of Rummy and called it a night. Overall, a pretty good Valentine's Day, if I say so myself. :)

So that's it. That was my weekend. Today after work I went and visited my Aunt Elaine, who had a stroke last weekend while watching the Super Bowl. Thank God (literally- there were a LOT of people praying for her) she is fine now and does not seem to have suffered any permanent damage. She's just taking it easy. So that was nice. They live so close to my new place but that's the first time I've stopped by to see them since I moved in, so I must get better about that. They really are wonderful, good Christian people that anyone would be lucky to have in their lives as mentors and have praying for them.

Now, an easy evening and early to bed perhaps. Until next time, here are some of my fave shots from this weekend :) Enjoy!!!

And lastly, last night's carpet picnic:

Another Catch Up

Ok. Thank you to my friends that have encouraged me to start this up again- Elizabeth and Sarah. It's already 10:15 and I don't want to be up too late tonight since I'm getting up in the morning to work out with my roommate, but if I'm going to get back into this, I might as well start now. So I'm going to (once again) do a quick life update. (That seems to be a trend here, huh? Several months off, one long update, a few regular posts, then I'm gone again. Oh well.) Maybe if I keep each update short it will motivate me to come back and elaborate (that word is sounding really funny to me right now, but I think it's right. lol) on them later. E helped me tonight to realize I'm a perfectionist blogger. Unless I know I have time to sit down and write out everything I want to write, I don't. And then my time away gets longer, and I have more to write about, and since we all know each post ends up about 2 1/2 times longer than I meant it in the first place, this quickly becomes an exponential problem. So I'm going to try to break that habit. We'll see. If you'll leave a quick comment and say hi when you stop by so I know my posts aren't just floating around the net unread and uncared about, it might help :) Just sayin'...

Ok, so, let's see.

First off, yes, you read right. I now have a roommate. 2, in fact. Moved into a new place with 2 girls from my small group in October and have been here since. No, I'm still not fully unpacked. It's more space overall, but I have to share it with 2 other girls who also have full kitchens and lots of bathroom stuff, etc, so my room is still a disaster.

Sad news: Gus passed away :( I still cry about it if I think about it for too long, so I'm not going to write much here. But I'll just say he had a good last day- spent in front of the fire at John's and he was buried with love behind John's shed. We've picked out a stone and are going to paint it to mark the place. This year's Christmas ornament was in honor of him.

I'm still continuing to consider/pursue photography. My wonderful parents got me a DSLR for Christmas and I've already taken one 1-day class for it. I took a (point and shoot) photography class through Chimpsy with Mom this past weekend, and I've signed up for an SLR class through the same company. And I'll be signing up for my first 6 week class through Showcase soon.  I'm still trying to figure out the logistics of time/money/which school, etc. I had a very good, looooong talk with mom over lunch after our class this weekend and talked about that, among other important things, and I was very happy to hear that, should I decide to just go for it, rather than saving up or trying to go part time, she understands and perhaps even agrees. As smart as being careful and financially responsible is most of the time, and as much as one of the "signs" that something might not be a calling from God includes anything that puts you in a financially difficult position, sometimes all you can do is jump. And I'm starting to think more and more that's what it's going to come to here. We'll see....

John was up in Nashville last weekend recording on Corey Crowder's first Sony album. That's right, my boyfriend was deemed good enough by Sony for them to use him instead of using their own studio drummer to do the actual recording for the album. I'm so proud of him and excited about what possible doors this could open for him. He's already mentioned in passing being open to the idea of moving to Nashville. I'll have to talk to him more about this at a later date sometime. Hmm..... :) In the meantime, rest assured that I will DEFINITELY keeping everyone updated on any shows or release dates for the album!!!!

Still working towards a closer relationship with God. In baby steps. I think I'm a perfectionist Christian too, sad as that sounds. If I can't get in my God time how I think I should every day, I just stop. I need to get better about this. I need to get better about making this the top priority on my "get better at these things" list.

Hoping to spend some more regular time with my sister, Sunny. She's 12, almost 13, and I think she could use a sister that shows an interest in her life at times besides when she's needed for babysitting, and who acts more like a sister than a surrogate parent.

A close friend of mine moved back into town from Miami, and I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited about this!!!!! (Despite the fact that I haven't seen her in the week and a half since she moved back to town except for her first night. Must get better about that too.)

John and I are heading back to the yurts at Fort Yargo for Valentine's weekend. I might possibly rent a macro lens for the weekend, as that's my major area of interest in photography. Hopefully I'll have some cool pics to post next week.

I'm thinking, I'm thinking.... I think those are the biggest areas in my life that need updating. I guess technically, as it's been more than a year since I started this blog (despite the TOTAL lack of a full year's worth of posts) I should change the name of it. But I'm not going to. Now, anyways. Maybe later. Any suggestions on what it should be?

Weekend in Review: Tennessee

What a wonderful weekend! It was a time to be proud of my loved ones and realize just how happy and lucky I am to have them all in my life.

My brother graduated on Saturday from undergrad with a degree in Mass Communications from MTSU. He is currently working towards spending a year in South Korea teaching English as a second language. And I believe the plan is still to apply to law schools after that. We didn't have the best relationship growing up, but as we've both matured, we've grown closer. He has grown into such an amazing guy. Smart and caring, and the funniest guy I know. I am so proud of him, and so happy that I can call him a friend as well at this point in my life.

My boyfriend, as reported earlier, made the snare line with the Atlanta Falcons Drumline for the 2010 season, something that he has been working so hard at for the past few weeks. I couldn't be prouder of him. (Though, to be honest, I had absolutely no doubt in my mind he could make it. Without sounding like I have a bias as his girlfriend, he truly does have this will power and determination that just allows him to achieve pretty much anything he puts his mind to.) I am so happy to see him achieving something that I know he will truly enjoy.

And the rest of my family- I am just so lucky to have them. To have a family that has the ability to send their children to school, to visit them and celebrate their accomplishments with them. Not everyone has that, and I am just so happy that I do. I can't imagine how proud my parents were of my brother to see him walk across that stage. Even though I am proud of him, he's not my son, and I know it means much more to them than it ever could for me. It makes me wonder about when I have kids of my own and all the things they will go on to accomplish. I just can't imagine what it must feel like to see someone you brought into this world going out and making something of them self.

The ceremony itself was long and pretty much like every other graduation ceremony people go to. It wasn't a HUGE graduating crowd, because they had multiple ceremonies that day, so everyone got to walk. I did think the president plugged the school a little more than necessary. I understand the need to talk about the school to some degree, but he talked about the school more than he did the actual graduates really. Oh well. The speaker wasn't bad, and I did make a note of at least one quote he used in his speech- "All that lies behind you and all that lies before you is inconsequential to what lies within you." (A rewording of a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote, I believe.)

After the 3 hour ceremony, we grabbed a bite at a burrito place, Blue Coast, ran back to the hotel to change and then headed out to Nashville for the evening. Davey took us and his girlfriend, Claire, by the place he worked on Music Square. We walked around a bit, took pictures and contributed to the Geocache that was located under the back stairs leading up to his office. Very cool! Then after that we headed off to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner, dessert and celebratory drinks. I think we ended up leaving with about 10 to-go boxes between everyone!

Sunday morning we got to sleep in (past when they stopped serving free breakfast down in the hotel lobby) which was nice, since we were all EXHAUSTED by the time we fell into bed Saturday night. Davey and Dad ran off to get food for a picnic lunch while Mom, Sunny and I packed up and got ready for the day. Davey picked out this absolutely perfect place to spend Mother's Day. When they got back with the food we drove out to Arington Vineyards for a wine tasting and a picnic! The drive out there was gorgeous (though I didn't get to appreciate it on the way out due to a combination of cramps and the medicine I took that did more harm than good.) But the vineyard itself was just gorgeous! The pictures on the website don't even BEGIN to capture how beautiful this place is. The weather on Sunday definitely didn't hurt. The sky was blue, the grass was green, and the lawns were filled will families just out having a good time. There were dads and sons throwing balls, kids chasing each other, mothers pushing strollers. Not a single screaming child. They had live music and carts that could drive you up if you had to park down at the bottom of the hill (by the time we left the place was packed and people were just parking on the side of the road.) It really was kind of ridiculously idyllic. Whoever does the marketing for Tennessee's tourist industry really needs to get out there and get some footage. I was ready to move up there by the time the day was through.

The wine tasting went well. Mom and Dad have a more mature palate for wine, but we managed to agree on a few and ended up selecting a bottle of the Gewurztraminer to have with lunch. They purchased several more bottles to take home, and both Davey and I got a bottle of the Raspberry dessert wine to take home with us. Then we headed up to the top of a hill overlooking the vineyard and the surrounding area to have our picnic. We exchanged Mother's Day and graduation cards and gifts and had some awesome McAlister's for lunch.

After strolling around a bit and taking in the day, it was time to hit the road. We dropped Davey back off and were on the road by 5, home by a little after 9. I grabbed my bags and Gus and we were back home at my little apartment and in bed by about 10:30! Talk about a busy weekend!

Cats and Grads

I'm in a hotel room in Murfreesboro, TN currently. My lil' bro graduates from MTSU tomorrow. So proud of him! :)

I'm actually really tired, so this won't be long. Just checking in.

I got to see my new kitty again today. I don't think I mentioned that in my catch up post. I came home one day from work and there was a VERY sad looking kitty sniffing at people's garbage bags on the second level in my building. So I coaxed him upstairs and gave him some food. And I just didn't have the heart to leave him out there so I put him on my back porch and kept him out there for about a week with fresh food and water and litter. I didn't know what kind of diseases he may have so I didn't want him actually IN my apartment as my boyfriend and I have 2 other cats that I didn't want to risk catching anything. But he was very sweet and obviously used to being around people.

I got him into the vet and turns out he's an oooold man. They're guess-timating about 15. (So, more a "cat" than a "kitty" really, but whatev...) It took them like 4 tries just to even determine he was a he actually. His fur was so matted they couldn't get through to his "parts" to see what kind of parts they were. We ran all sorts of blood work to make sure he was healthy and such. He was free of the super bad stuff- feline leukemia and feline AIDS, worm-free, etc. Turns out he does have hyperthyroidism which causes all sorts of symptoms like increased heart rate and high metabolism which in turn lead to an inability to put on weight, increased bowel movements and urination, etc, etc, etc. But the vet said it's fairly easy to treat so we've got some pills. He'll take those for a month then we'll check his levels again and adjust as necessary. Once we get that leveled out again it'll just be a matter of a couple annual check ups.

And my parents did me the huge favor of taking him to get shaved (the matted fur really was just ridiculous) and I got to see him for the first time after that today. And Oh. My. Goodness. This is one skinny cat. When I get my camera fixed I'll post pics (hopefully soon, before he fattens up too much, otherwise I'll just use John's camera.) But the point is that he is now on his way to becoming a much-loved, fat, content indoor cat. :) He is very laid back (my parent's 3 dogs don't phase him a bit) so we'll probably introduce him to our other 2 cats within the next week or so. Oh yeah- I named him Gus!

(And don't worry, the house sitter this weekend knows to give Gus his medicine while we're away!)

Anyways, it was a long, if tolerable, day at work today. Followed by a 3 1/2 hour car ride, so I'm going to head to bed now. Luckily this ceremony is NOT a morning gig. We don't have to get there til 12ish. My only worry is getting up in time to catch free breakfast downstairs :) Sweet dreams!