Carryin' On with the Coles

Job Update

2012-02-12T14:48:00.002-06:00

It's about time I finally got around to updating my blog about my new job as Coordinator of Career Services at Troy University. My first day was December 16th but one of the huge perks is that the University gets out for Christmas for about two weeks. So, I worked about a week and a half-enough time to get in my office, set up my computer, etc-and then I was out for Christmas and New Years! Pretty sweet deal!It's taken a little bit of time to get my feet wet, but now that I'm about 2 months in, I feel like things are moving right along. I am really happy with the situation I have come into because the leadership of my department is new and are open to doing some revamping and restructuring the program in some ways. Our main goal is to assist students in graduating wtih a job obviosly but so much goes into that including workshops, resume reviews, conducting mock interviews, bringing businesses to campus to interview students, career fairs and teaching job search classes. This is a whole new realm for me since I came from trade & marketing at the Dept of Agriculture but I think I'm adjusting well to working with students. I truly believe this job will be one that I am happy with for a long time and I look forward to making my career at Troy University! (and yes, David and I are still moving to Troy at some point in life. We're getting closer on our renovations but still haven't sold our house in Montgomery so I'm just commuting for now.)

NYE 2012

2012-01-02T20:50:00.000-06:00

We spent New Year's Eve in the mountains of North Carolina and it was a blast. The weather was awesome starting out fairly warm (in the 50's), enabling us to hike, and then turning rainy and pretty cold, enabling us to stay in the cabin by the fire-here's the evidence!

Our friends Haley and Bryan hosted us. Here we are ringing in the new year at midnight.

We set our camera up to take a picture right at midnight of all of us and as you can see, something funny happened, evidenced by my big mouth gaping open. David shook up the champagne and popped the cork, but instead of it flying off, it fell straight down into my glass! Not exactly the most stellar bottle opening, but the champagne was still tasty.

Here's Bryan and David up on the mountain on our hike. This was near Mars Hill, NC and was part of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

We had a fabulous time and here's to a New Year with my sweet husband!

Dermatologist

2011-12-17T16:28:00.003-06:00

Life has been quite a roller coaster the last couple of weeks in my little world! Not only is it the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season but I got a new job and I got a lab report back from my dermatologist saying I needed to have a dyplastic nevis removed. Yeah, I didn't know what that was either! As for the new job...I haven't really told many people yet and details will follow when I get into the swing of it after the first of the year.

Anyway, a dysplastic nevis is not melanoma (cancer) but it can possibly turn into it one day so not only did they remove the mole, which is on my right calf, for a biopsy but I went to a dermatological surgeon in Birmingham who took tissue out down to the fat. They did not have to put me to sleep and the procedure only lasted about 20 minutes. It didn't hurt and still doesn't, except for the numbing shots which really stung! I'll have the stitches out in a couple of weeks and hopefully at that point I'll get to go back to the gym. It could get ugly not getting to burn any calories right now during the holidays since we'll be doing lots of eating!

Venison

2011-11-28T15:50:00.001-06:00

I'm not much of a hunter, but pretty much every girl from LA has been at least once or twice in her life. I went some in high school and got to participate in the most disgusting tradition ever when I killed my first deer. Thank goodness they don't put blood on you when you kill your second or I may not have ever gone again. But they don't, so I joined David on a little road trip to Roberta, GA...not much there other than a Subway and really good southern cooking restaurant called Kountry Kitchen! Anyway, our friend Walker and his girlfriend Allison, as well as some other friends were staying at Walker's camphouse so we joined them for the weekend. Allison, me and Haley

David and Walker cheesing it up!

David and I were in a shooting house which was nice because you don't have to be absolutely silent. We sat there for only 20 minutes or so and out walks 3-4 huge does. We watched them for a while and waited to see if a buck came out, which never happened. They eventually ran off and nothing happened for probably another hour. I didn't really think I was going to kill anything but I did say before we went that we were just about out of venison from the 2 deer David killed last year and that we needed some more meat! It was starting to get dark and David saw a really big doe come out and walk very close to us...probably 50-60 yards. Another doe, so we thought, was close by and chowing done. David lined up his scope and was trying to decide whether he wanted to kill it or not when he asked if I wanted to. After a "why not?" I lined up the scope, squeezed the trigger and she dropped right there! I was pretty proud. 2 for 2 in dropping them where I shot them! I don't have a picture because it was so dark but who wants to see a picture of a dead deer anyway? Not me. So I probably won't go hunting again until next year when it's time to put some meat in the freezer for the fall! And that's my redneck story for the week!

Pinterest #2: I'm on a roll!

2011-11-22T11:47:00.001-06:00

I read on pinterest about taking a metallic spray paint and painting an old lamp to freshen it up. I had a lamp that I used in college and that had originally been from my grandmother's house. My dad thinks it may have even been a gold type color originally but had been many colors since then, most recently black. Here's the before...

And the after...

This turned out to make our bedroom colors great and we really needed another lamp and table on David's side of the bed. I'm super proud because as my friends' Kristin and Elizabeth and I like to say, most of our craft attempts turn out buddy. Basically that means it turns out looking cheap and homemade, but this actually didn't!

Pinterest Projects

2011-11-21T15:44:00.001-06:00

You know how I said I've been pinteresting-if that's not an offical verb it should be! Well, other than recipes, I've tried to do a few of the organization tricks and here's one.

This is so handy! You cut pvc pipe the length of your curling iron/straightening iron, etc and put them and their cords in it so it doesn't take up room in the bottom of the cabinet. My only mistake was using velcro, which would have worked except it wasn't strong enough. After they fell off 100 times, I went to double sided tape that works really well! So far, so good.

Photo Card

2011-11-07T21:31:00.001-06:00

Classic Wreath Christmas

This season, send Christmas cards personalized with family photos.

View the entire collection of cards.

Charleston

2011-11-07T16:37:00.001-06:00

David and I took a quick trip to Charleston in October where he had a meeting taking place and I got to play! We drove the approximate 7.5 hours through the heart of Georgia, skirting Savannah and up to the beautiful "Holy City," named because it has so many churches and was one of the first to accept different denominations such as the Catholic church.

We arrived pretty late-around 9 pm and decided rather than going out, we would just eat at the hotel restaurant; you know, something quick and simple. Well, little did we know that our hotel, Charleston Place, is not your run of the mill Holiday Inn Express or even Hilton, like we're more accustomed to. Here we are in the lobby of the hotel under the biggest chandelier I've ever seen. It's kind of like one of those big ass fans at Santa Fe Cattle Co. And really, it's named that, I'm not making that up. Big ~~ass~~ chandelier just doesn't work though does it? Bit of an oxymoron.

The Gucci and Louis Vuitton stores located directly across from the restaurant should probably have given it away, or maybe the 4 diamond award outside the door, but we eventually figured out that we were unknowingly kicking off our trip with a very upscale meal...which I loved of course! It got pretty expensive, but fortunately, some of our expenses were covered. I had the veal chop, which was good and a big chunk of meat, while David had the lobster and it was divine! By the way, it was called the Charleston Grill and if you're ever in Charleston and someone asks to take you to dinner, try it out (otherwise, consider yourself warned!) Funny story about that night. We sat near a table with a couple that obviously fell in love due to the whole opposites attract thing. She was so into the whole scene, the fancy food, etc and he was sitting over there with his Dickies on, obviously came over right after work and was totally over the whole thing-especially the prices I bet! We assumed their normal stomping ground was probably the Sports Bar down the street, which she probably gets dragged to and this time, maybe it was their anniverary or her birthday, and she put her foot down! They were going somewhere nice and boy did she take advantage of it! Anyway, that was our little story we made up about them. We tend to do that; someday I'll tell you about Drunk Man, his Drunk Son and Drunk Family who live across the pond from us. It's pretty funny, we have a whole drama. Anyway, the next day David got to play golf but before he left we got up early and had breakfast at Virginia's on King. I then ventured out on my own and headed to the Visitor's Center which is a gorgeous old train station building and signed up for a tour. Luckily, my parents had recently been to Charleston and gave me the low down on what to do. It was a 2 hr tour that went all over town including the Battery (#1), Ranbow Row (#2), and up and down Meeting Street(#3).#1

#3's

It ended with a tour of the Joseph Manigault Home:

Later I also toured the Nathaniel Russell House: somewhat intersting/somewhat boring. Had a beautiful staircase but we couldn't take pictures.

That night we went with the group to 82 Queen a delicious restaurant on Queen Street located within walking distance of our hotel. The food was excellent, especially the she-crab soup which received a nod for the best in the city by Southern Living. They also awarded 82 Queen as the best city restaurant three years running. It has a beautiful courtyard, although we sat inside that is so cute and would be wonderful to sit and eat in. I highly recommend it! David had meetings the next morning so I headed to market street, the entrance pictured below, to do a Culinary Tour.

Heads up, there are 2 in Charleston and one is suppossed to be better than the other. This news from the concierge deflated me a little because the "better" of the two was not offered when I could go so I had to go on the crappy tour, just kidding, although they did take me to Jim and Nicks, just saying. This is probably why it's considered the lesser of the two options, to put it politely. 1) Although we started out with a bang, grits and sweet potato biscuits from Dixie's, our next 3 stops were stores and not restaurants. These included a spice store, cool but no food. A culinary gadget type store; cool because it was a part of Culinard, the Culinary school and I bought some herb cutting scissors that are so cool, as seen here.

And a chocolate shop where we got some tasty treats but it was very similar to several other places I've been in Mobile, New Orleans and Savannah. 2)The last stop, yes I said it before but I feel the need to reiterate, for the best BBQ in Charleston, no need for a drum roll because it was Jim and Nicks. Yes, I love their cheese biscuits, but I picked around my sample plate and saved room for my lunch at Jestine's Kitchen! Ever heard of it? I hadn't either but it's all the rage. I found this out after going inside to put my name on the list and being told that the long line of people down the side of the building were just waiting to get in. Turns out there wasn't a list, just a bunch of people willing to wait for fried green tomatoes and fried chicken! It was worth the wait but I'll take Sister's over it anyday. That's where the fun ended and the long trip back began. Sadly, David didn't get to see much but he did get to go to the golf course so he was happy! Highlights of the trip for me were reminding me how I love to cook (but haven't done much lately in all honesty!) Being enlightened on benny seeds, i.e. seasame seeds; salt pigs, here's one in case you don't know what they are

and buying my first pie bird! Maybe I'll actually cook a pie one day!

War Eagle Baby...literally!

2011-10-17T13:04:00.002-05:00

This weekend was amazing! Not only did Auburn pull out a victory over Florida, but tons of my sorority sisters from Auburn came to our tailgate and brought there adorable little ones! It was so much fun catching up with everyone who lives from Jackson, MS to South Florida and more. Needless to say we're a bit spread out and love occassion to all get together. David and I threw a big tailgate on Samford lawn and the weather turned out to be ridiculously gorgeous! A win, lots of good food & great friends made for a fantastic day! Here are some pics.

The group minus the other families of Lindsey Slagley, Anna Bean & Mikelyn Bolden who also stopped by but weren't there for the picture.

Auntie Lala with Elizabeth and her 3 month old, Shepard. Love him:)

Tailgate action shots!

All the moms of the crew; pretty much everybody at this point other than me, K Strunk & Michelle!

Allison & Walker with me and DavidAU 17-FL 6...We'll take it!

Time to Think

2011-09-19T14:15:00.000-05:00

I've been a little checked out lately and been ignoring my blog, so I thought I would just jot down a few reasons for my prolonged absence. So much has been going on in our little world recently and I can't quite find the motivation to do much social networking. I have a lot on my mind and have taken a little hiatus to figure some things out. Thanks aren't bad, believe me, plenty of people I know have much harder situations going on in their lives, but David and I are trying to figure out lots of life decisions right now and I've been trying to give that my full attention. The job question still lingers and though I'm truly fortunate to have a convenient part-time gig, I'm just confused on where the Lord wants me and what direction to go. The house question lingers too; 2 years on the market, enough said! Then finally, most of all, we're praying a lot about where the Lord wants us. We have consistently thought it was Troy and have been renovating my late grandparents' house but recently we've been feeling more and more of a tug to stay in the Montgomery area due to several different factors like jobs, commute, church, etc. Granted, 1 hour is not a long way away from my home town and I can go back and see everyone including my parents as much as I want, but that is still just visiting, not living...there's a big difference. Settling in either place will be wonderful, I have no doubt, but choosing is tough and weighing pretty heavily on me. I do try to remind myself in those times though that the Lord has a plan & whether it be 204 Pam Street or Pike Road, He knows. And I was reminded recently that if we're praying for His will, we won't miss it. I needed to hear that and am still holding on to that on a day to day basis. Though it's been a little bit of a hard year, I have faith, it's all going to work out just fine....

Frazoars!

2011-08-30T10:58:00.000-05:00

Last weekend we participated in the second annual Montgomery Dragon Boat Race downtown at the river front and had an amazing time! We were asked to join the team by some members of our sunday school class at Frazer and had a blast hanging out with and getting to know people on the team that go to our church. We called ourselves the "Frazoars" which I thought was cute and had a verse in Hebrews as our motto which talks about perseverance and hard work.

This event was phenomenal and went from 16 teams last year to 60 this year and close to 7,000 people attending during the day! The place was like one big tailgate and was just in time to warm up for the start of football season this weekend!

Our first ever practice in the dragon boat was a week before the race and we quickly realized our team had good potential and that the leaders had strategically picked our group of 20 because we had some sort of athletic background and were super competitive. This combination proved to work well and we set our goal on winning! The first practice made us realize that no matter how strong our team was, if we weren't in synch while we paddled, we would loose. It's really a race of finesse more than strength and it's imperative you follow the lead of the drummer who sits at the front of the boat. Our's was Felicia and boy did she whip us into shape fast! She was a fantastic leader who started out the training by telling us she wasn't going to "ask us to follow her, she was just going to tell us how!" She was a key part in our winning strategy.

Our first race...Lord help us, we really struggled. We started off fantastic as you can see, but soon got totally off count and about killed each other with our paddles! That's us in boat #1.

Due to our great start, we pulled out a victory against the other area churches that were competing. On to Round 2!

We learned alot from the first race and revamped our strategy a little. Before the second race we got a hilarious motivational speech by our team captain, Anthony telling us that it was our job to carry the torch for Jesus since we were the only church in our second race. To make it even funnier was the fact that we were racing against a local bar-they became the "drinkers", a major corporation-we dubbed them "corporate greed" and a couple of others that we joked about. Only after the race did we realize that we were competing against the local police department who ended up beating us by a couple of seconds. We came in second and felt like we needed a cold adult beverage too after all that hard work!

The race is only about a minute but it's sooo tiring. We were placed in the B bracket based on times and were excited about our third and final race for the B championship. We came in third overall and got some bling, but more importantly a fantastic day of fellowship and new friends! I know that's dorky, but true :)

2011-08-21T18:53:00.000-05:00

Lots of big news this weekend
1. I got certified to teach turbokick! What is it, you ask? Here's an example. I'll probably see if I can teach somewhere in Troy if this happens...
2. WE GOT AN OFFER ON OUR HOUSE! After 2 years of being on the market, both with a realtor and for sale by owner, we finally got an offer! The market obviously has been horrible just about everywhere but it has been especially bad (I think) here in Montgomery and for garden homes like ours. I believe people that are able to get approved for loans are probably buying full size houses because they are getting such a good deal on them right now. That, coupled with the fact that there are drastically fewer people willing to take the risk to buy right now, and even if they want to, the majority can not get approved, it means that we have had very few people look at our house, much less put in an offer.
So...we countered and they are still interested so we should get the final word next week. We'll see!

The renovations on our Troy house will have to start picking up some speed! We're working on that though. Wish us luck!

2011-08-18T15:14:00.000-05:00

I realize I'm a little late on this but pinterest is becoming a new obsession everyone I know that's on it. I've just started compiling "pins" I like, but it's very helpful since we're renovating a house!

You should try it...www.pinterest.com

If you're not familar with it, basically you downloand a button that is at the top of your internet screen (in the favorites bar) and anytime you're a website that has something you like and want to remember, you just "pin it" by clicking on the button. Very cool!

Speaking of house renovations, I think I've decided this is the route I want to go on our kitchen. If you have any suggestions, let me know!

P90X Finished

2011-08-18T15:07:00.000-05:00

WE DID IT...IT'S OVER! Remember when we started this adventure, well it has come to an end. It's a little bittersweet because it was fun to work out everyday with a small group and change up my gym pattern a but it got a little rough being at the gym every single weekday morning by 5:30 am! Here are my final results. 1/2 Way; Friday June 10th:
Wt: 123.4lb
BF: 28.4%
LBM: 83.8%
H2O: 52.6&

Finish, Aug 12th:
Wt: 121.6lb
BF: 24.7%
H2O: 52.2%
LBM: 86.8%
Pull Ups: 1/2! (hardest thing ever for me)
Push ups: 30
Sit reach: 6 inches
Wall squat: 6 minutes
Bicep curls: 25 with 15lbs
in/out (crunches): 100
1 mile run: 7 min 50 sec

Our group got together for a a little celebration at The Tipping Point out at Hampstead...great place to go hang out by the way! Here we are showing off our hard work, I guess! :)

And just for the fun of it, one last tasty snack to leave you with that is perfect for late afternoon or before dinner. Homemade hummus with pita chips. You can find the recipe just about anywhere online but you basically but garlic, chick peas, olive oil, etc in a blender/food processor and make a dip. Serve with a little more olive oil on top. So good, and good for you!

Dad's Bday

2011-08-18T14:46:00.000-05:00

David and I did a little something different for my dad this year for his birthday...we took him canoeing on the Coosa! There's a great place called Coosa River Adventures near downtown Wetumpka that rents canoes and kayaks and you can go for a 1/2 day, ~4 hours and it was perfect! We actually rented the tandom kayaks and they were easier to navigate than canoes. This was our first attempt at rapids so we did turn over a couple of times (one more than my parents!) but we got the hang of it once it was just about over!
~Tip: do not try to manevuer as you go through rapids. David and I rowing and struggling against the rapids but we figured out, if you just face them straight on without even really paddling you do much better!

We couldn't take our camera because if you've ever been canoeing you know that you're bound to loose just about everything you take; which I hated because I couldn't get any good falling out of the boat pics! But we took these before...notice how happy and dry we look. It was a great time and I definitely recommend getting out there and trying it. There are only about 4 sections of rapids and the rest of the time you're just rowing along enjoying the scenery!

Summer vaca Part II

2011-08-15T14:46:00.000-05:00

From KY, we drove to Huntsville for a couple of days of ALFA's commodity conference. Good time, no pictures! We did pass several of these massive combines on the road in KY though.

One other interesting site was when we passed through Lincoln's boyhood home and there was a statue of him in the middle of the square.

Although this was cool, it lost a little bit of its uniqueness since every town within an hour of this place is Lincoln's _______ (fill in the blank). Lincoln's boyhood home, where he was born, Lincoln's first school, etc. Enough already. Anyway...
From Huntsville, we drove to Birmingham, caught a flight to Jacksonville, FL and got to hang out with friends in Ponte Vedra/St. Augustine. We had a little bit of rain but mostly pretty weather and I really enjoyed that area because I've never been. The first night we just hung out, cooked and took it easy. Here's a couple of silly pics. Me and Allison

David and Walker...chillaxing

Thanks to Walker, I have a new past time for the beach other than laying there and reading a book; it's called Boogy Boarding. Oh my gosh...why hasn't anyone ever introduced me?? It's so much fun!! here are David and Walker showing us the ropes.

I finally rode one in and had a blast!

Don't ask me why, but for some reason we ended up at the arcade one night and Allison and I thought we would never get our "boys" away from this thing!

Chill time on the porch overlooking the ocean is always nice and we got a huge surprise one afternoon. We saw a whale! I'm not lying, we really did! It came up out of the water 4 or 5 times and was massive. It was the neatest thing but you'll just have to take my word for it because we weren't able to get a picture, dangit!

Thought we'd end on a little mockhawk action...David's beach 'do!

Summer Vaca 2011 Part 1

2011-08-15T14:29:00.000-05:00

For some reason we decided to crowd all our summer trips into about 2 weeks so I have lots of pictures! We started out driving to Lexington, KY for one of David's conferences that include his counterparts from the other southeastern states. I have never been to Lexington, or KY really, and it is a beautiful area! We spent most of our time on tours and David was in meetings but we got to get away and at least drive through UK's campus downtown. We really liked it and would love to go back for an AU game some day. It was about an 8 hr drive from Montgomery and we got there just in time to catch the bus to the opening dinner which was at the KY Gov's mansion. It was beautiful!

We are actually standing on the steps of the Gov's mansion with the capitol in the background. This is it though...

So, in case you didn't know, horses are kind of a big deal there! We visited Windstar, a horse farm/training facility which had a barn that was twice the size and nicer than our house!

Here's David in front of the stall of Distorted Humor, which won a Derby I believe.

Here is the horse coming out for his morning excersize

After all that equine fun we toured a local winery and orchard, more my speed.

And since we were practically on the bourbon trail in Lexingon, they took us to Woodford Distillery for a tour and dinner.

This is the outside of the building where they store the bourbon

This is the inside...lots of liquor!

After the dinner we went back to the hotel for a tasting event. *Warning: if you're from Kentucky, you should probably stop reading now. You're going to be offended bc y'all can drink this stuff like water from what we witnessed!
Anyway, we couldn't really tolerate the brown water and the only way we could get it down was by gasp...mixing it with Sprite! Kentuckians are adamately appossed to mixing their sacred drink with anything other than water, and most of the time that is even frowned upon. They'll let you have some ice, but that's about it. ~Note to self, if I ever make it to the Derby, stick with the Mint Julieps!

The next afternoon we had some free time so we drove about 45 minutes south to Berea, KY where David's grandfather and aunt went to college. As you can imagine, it was a big deal for David's grandfather to go to college much less that far from home, so it was great for David to be there and get to experience it. The school is founded on the premise that all students have to work their way through school and most have jobs right there on campus which still include woodworking, maintance, etc.

Downtown Berea is so cute and we stopped at Boone Tavern to have lunch and I highly recommend it if you're ever there. Get the salmon salad!

Beautiful flowers on the porch of the tavern and us trying to find our way around!

On the way back, we rode through University of KY's campus downtown and thought it was really cool. We both would like to go to an AU game there sometime. It reminded me of UGA since it was in a big city atmosphere with tons of shops and restaurants.

On the way home we stopped by this place...which was WAY off the beaten path! But the facilities are really cute and it's totally worth the trip just to see the place and dip your own bottle in the wax, which David did!

The finished product; he was so proud!

Next year, Alabama hosts the conference so the guys have their work cut out for them! KY was a great location and we had a ton of fun! Ours will be at the beach though so you can't really beat that!

Golf

2011-08-12T12:56:00.000-05:00

I've taken up a new hobby and it's about time seeing as I grew up a couple of blocks away from the Country club in Troy. I think deep down I was always interested in playing golf since a few of my good guys friends played and we lived so close by, but I just never had time to learn. Well now that David is a big fan, and is super sweet in encouraging me to learn, I took lessons and am starting to get the hang of it. It's not easy but I try to get out to the driving range at least once a week and we play whenever we can on the weekends. Most of the time I take forever and have to try and hit it so many times that I end up picking up the ball and moving on, but I have lucked up on 2 pars so far. I'll keep at it and hope to get better eventually, especially after we get back to Troy and live near the Club again. *So if you're a lady who likes to play but you aren't good, let me know; we'll practice together!

Just thought I would share a couple of our golf pics...

Celebrations, Part II

2011-07-27T11:06:00.014-05:00

As I mentioned in my last blog, went started out celebrating the summer with our best friend Kristin getting married. Well our other best friend, Elizabeth, was the cause of the second celebration that took place in July and it was just as thrilling! Steeley, aka Elizabeth, was the first of our "inner circle" to have a baby and when she found out she was pregnant, Kristin and I both said at the same time, "Oh my God, we're pregnant; what are we going to do?!" Like we were having the baby and we needed to figure out how to handle it! We were so freaking excited though and I literally teared up everytime Elizabeth and I talked about it and/or even texted...crazy I know! Strunk and I both had a strong feeling that it was a boy and the day she found out, Elizabeth put us on a conference call and annouced we were correct.

Shepard Andrew Jennings was born July 14th at 2:03 am. How do I know? Because I was there! They put Elizabeth in the hospital the night before to begin inducing her at 9 pm. She thought she would definitely have him by the next afternoon but it was a bit more of a process than she bargained for! I left Montgomery in time to get to Huntsville by lunch and was rushing because I thought I might miss it. Little did I know, she wasn't even dialated 2 cm. This went on all day and by the time Kristin arrived around 4 pm, she was still only 4 cm or so. A C-section was talked about by 9 pm that night when she was only 5-6 but they kept giving her "one more hour" to see if anything changed. Finally at 11:00 pm, she was 6 cm and the dr gave the call for a C-section, but good old Steeley was having none of that. She could tell the baby was getting closer and she knew she could do it without the C-section, since there was no medical reason for it at the time. So she told the doctors she needed to wait at least one more hour so that her baby woulnd't be born on the 13th. She said she didn't want him to have a Friday the 13th birthday at times growing up!

Well, once this news trickled down to us in the waiting room, I looked at Strunk and said, "Something's going on here; this doesn't sound like her." We totally made the call that she was putting them off at least another hour so she could give Shep one more shot at coming on his own, especially since she's really not all that superstitious. She knew what she was talking about though bc in that hour she got to 7 cm and from there it went pretty fast. Shepard was born at 2:03 am and we finally got back there to see him and mom and dad at 3:00 am! The pic below is the first time I saw him and it's so cute how Elizabeth is looking at him and how he's yawning!

We watched him get checked out by the nurse but by that time it was 4 am and we had to get some rest! Since our adrenaline had been pumping, we didn't fall asleep until we made it back to Elizabeth and Brad's house, thank goodness! I had to get up and come home because David and I were leaving for his conference at the beach, but Kristin got to spend some time with her over the next couple of days. I'll be back soon though and will have some updated pictures. I can't wait!!

Sandestin

2011-07-26T20:15:00.007-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVID! (JULY 18)

This picture was taken before we headed out to Louisiana Lagniappe for David's birthday dinner in Destin. We had been down there for the weekend for an ALFA conference but decided to stay on a few days for his birthday and it was a great time!

David's friend Webb from back home is a cattle farmer and he and his wife, Marietta, were in town for the conference as well. Marietta was so sweet to get together a fishing trip for us out in the Bay. Although it rained, we caught our limit on red fish and had a great time. Here are some action shots and because this is my blog, I'm just going to go ahead and tell you that I got the biggest fish!

Finally, the best idea we had all weekend was to go try the original Dewey Destin on the bay and boy was it good. The best fried shrimp I've ever had and David loved his friend oysters. If you've never been there...GO! It truly is the best seafood in town but warning, it's a shack and you have to stand in a long line to order. There's not much room to sit down but it's totally worth it. We went on a night when it was raining which was good because the said the line was drastically shorter but the negative was you have to stand in line in the rain because it winds along outside the building. Just a head's up, but again, TOTALLY WORTH IT!

Celebrations, Part I

2011-07-26T20:13:00.026-05:00

Two of the most exciting events this year have happened over the summer and I am finally getting around to sharing them.

First was my best friend's wedding...Kristin Strunk to Scott Lowry on June 4th. Here's the happy couple. She was a beautiful bride and we love Scott!

The wedding was at Auburn First Baptist and everything was just perfect! Here's a group shot at the rehearsal dinner (which was held at Provino's...oh so good) of all of our friends; mostly ADPi's at Auburn and another with the hubs.

Kristin and I first met at rush the summer of 2000 when we went to Auburn and became friends our freshman year mainly through ADPi events like socials and date parties. We had similar backgrounds at the time: came from close families, small towns, long-time boyfriends that we were still dating, cheerleaders, country girls at heart...I could go on and on. We didn't live together until our Sophomore year when we moved into Good Old Berta Dunn (the ADPi dorm). Tons of good times were experienced in that smelly, old, run-down dorm room and we loved being surrounded by all the other girls on the hall. We called Kristin "mamma Strunk" because she definitely won the award for most responsible. She typically cleaned the room, was always at class and made straight A's. But don't let that fool you, she definitely has a fun streak as well!

Our thrid amigo, Elizbeth Steeley, lived down the hall and we three became fast friends our Sophomore year. It all started with a football in the fall of that year and our decision to go to the Vanderbilt game in Nashville. Since Freshman year at college is such an adjustment in itself, we didn't really "spread our wings" until we got to know a lot more people our Sophomore year and felt at home at Auburn. So we decide to road trip it to Nashville and have one other girl, who we'll just call "L" tag along with us. At the time we didn't really even know how close we would become but by the end of the trip, it was obvious "L" just wasn't going to be able to hang! I'm really just kidding when I say that though because she's such a sweet girl and we loved her, we just didn't get to be as good of friends with her in the long run.

Lots of memories were made on that trip from the three of us boot scootin' the night away downtown to getting to know a group of guys we became friends with and hung out with until they graduated at Auburn to taking a horse drawn carriage ride around town during which I got really sick and turned green! Our friendship was cemented on that trip and we knew it would last forever.

Back to Kris...a couple of weeks before the Nashvegas trip, we were both struggling with relationships from back home that we were committed to and invested in but felt restrained by. Individually we both came to the point that we needed some space and once we were single, were there for each other through that tough time. Our lives were on very similar paths and there's no doubt that the Lord put her in my life during that time. She's a wonderful friend and knows more about me, than I would venture to say, anyone.

It was a wonderful privledge to be on her "A team" and get to stand beside her during her sweet marriage to Scott. We have a running joke that when our friends got married and we weren't asked to be in the wedding party we were the "B team." It usually worked out that either all 3 of us were in or out. Pretty funny bc we're a bit of a package deal! Kristin is a beautiful, intelligent lawyer who is fluent in Spanish and has a wonderful singing voice. But above all of those things, she's a true friend and I am so happy for her new marriage and the life they will lead.

2011-06-29T15:21:00.024-05:00

Another food blog, but first...

the best looking man you've ever seen wearing pink!

I put this up on my facebook page but took it down after all his buddies starting making fun of it! So, I thought since there aren't tons of ppl who read this blog, it wouldn't hurt to include it here. Don't worry, this isn't his normal attire! We went out to pick blueberries at his parent's house and I made him wear the pink apron that is actually his mom's! Didn't bother him....he's totally comfortable in his manhood!

Anywhoo, speaking of blueberries, did you know they're one of the superfoods? They're really good for you and so delicious freshly picked in the summer. They can get pretty pricey at the grocery store though, so if you know of anyone that growns them or want to plant them yourself, they make tons and you'll save tons of money! They also freeze really well. It takes a good amount of time because you have to pick them every other day or so, but they're so good! We use them mostly on oatmeal, cereal and in smoothies. Those are all great dishes that you can add protein powder to and not taste it. You can also add this surprising ingredient, which I know looks really gross, but you can't taste it at all if you have lots of blueberries in there. I got this idea from my sweet friend Emily's blog here, who feeds her kids smoothies every morning. It's such a great way to get lots of servings of fruits and veggies in, first thing in the morning.

If you want a few ideas of some healthy, easy meals to fix that are super nutrious...here's a few you can easily prepare during the week.

Steak spinach salad with shredded cabbage, red pepper, crasins and a lite vinagerette mixed in.

This is an Asian stirfry with whole wheat noodles made of steak and low sodium soy sauce, onion, and broccoli of course. If you actually want the recipe, let me know.

We've also been baking a lot of fish and chicken with vegetables on the side and sometimes a light sauce on top. Here's a piece of perch, baked in the oven and topped with pesto, served with asparagus, carrots and quinoa. If you've never heard of it, look it up because it's extremly healthy. It's a South American grain product that you use as you would rice but it's a complete protein which means it has all of the amino acids we need, and this is unusual to find in a plant product. Also, it has a very high protein content from 12-18%. You can find it at Publix.

*Sorry my pictures aren't professional quality, but you get the point.

I'll go through our work out schedule soon and give you a run down of what we do on the program as well. It's not all that much different than what we were doing before by going to sculpt and cardio classes or working out on our own at the gym, but this has just helped us to get on a schedule of lifting weighs a lot more and focusing on eating more protein and less fat.

We lift really hard and do cardio for 3 weeks and then we have what they call a recovery week. Don't let that fool you...it's still hard! That's coming up next week and we'll do our 60 day weigh-in and I'll update my #'s then!

P90X food

2011-06-22T11:30:00.014-05:00

Because I'm always looking for new recipes and find it extra exciting if they're actually healthy, I'm having a blast following the P90X nutrition plan. Here's an example of a veggie wrap that a trainer at the gym makes and it is delicious!

On a whole wheat/spinach/tomato (whatever you choose) Flat Out Wrap, place a large handful of spinach, sliced peppers, tomatoes (I used salsa)and any other veggies you may have on hand. You can see the video of her original recipe here, and note she uses veggie pepperoni if you would like to add that.

Throw it on the good ole George Forman; which caused me to have a total flash back to college, and grill a few minutes until brown!
Yum...

Since I didn't have much protein, I added some egg whites on the side and it was so good :)

Although I'm not documenting everything we eat or our workouts, I wish I had time because it's a great program that really helped me get out of my routine and shake my workouts up a little bit! I recommend it for anybody that's looking for a tough workout that you can get results from!

2011-06-16T14:25:00.009-05:00

It's time for another catch-up blog since i've been out of town and have several things I wanted to blog about that's been going on with us.

We've had some time to spend with friends recently and have really enjoyed it! My sweet friend Jordan that worked at the Department with me and her husband Justin, took us golfing and cooked a wonderful steak dinner for us at their house a couple of weeks ago. Here are the boys on the course.

And the girls hanging out in the cart!

This precious baby is Lincy Cates Boutwell, my friend Jennifer's little girl. She's only a month old in this picture and is already so pretty!

David had a conference at Orange Beach this last week and I had a wonderful time hanging out with our ALFA fam and getting some beach time! This is up on the porch at Tacky Jack's. It was our first time going there and we loved it!
One afternoon we took a tour of several farms in the Baldwin Co. area and learned a lot. Here we are at a farm that we were there to see a migratory bird pond but they also boarded horses.
Other tours included a sweet potato farm and processing facility; i.e. the birthplace of one of my most favority foods! We ended the day at Oak Hollow Farms which is a beautiful property with a gorgeous barn that we had dinner in. Out in the field the local ALFA chapter showed us their drunk-driving exhibit they take to area high schools so kids can learn how dangerous it is to drive under the influence. You put on a pair of goggles that make it like you have drank enough to make your blood alcohol content .25, which is a lot. Then you have to drive a course and try not to hit the cones. It is impossible! I hit 28 cones! I'm not sure how many there were but probably less than 40. It was wild. Here's one of the guys in the group driving with David walking behind counting cones.

We had a wonderful time and are so blessed to be a part of the ALFA family. In my opinion, there's no better company to work for or be a spouse or family of somewhere employed there. They are wonderful people who work hard to make a difference!

P90X-30 days in

2011-06-16T14:04:00.010-05:00

A month in and I've lost weight on the P90X but my BF increased and LBM decreased...what's up with that???

123.4 LBS
28.4% BF
52.6% H2O
83.8 LBS LEAN BODY MASS

We've been trying to cook healthy and stick to a high protein, low fat diet so I just wanted to share a couple of the recipes I've used recently (up until our vacation at the beach this week, but that's a different story!)

Red Pepper soup: don't let the name fool you, it's quite good!
Roast 2-3 peppers in oven (i.e. broil until crinkly)

Chop and add chopped onions, celery, garlic and low sodium chicken broth to pot on stove top. let simmer...

Pour concoction into blender & blend until smooth.

Add fresh thyme and serve warm; for extra protein, add one scoop of flavorless whey protein per cup of soup.

After our soup we had roasted halibut with pesto, whole grain rice and zuccini. It was delicious and oh so healthy!

Since I was a nutrition major in undergrad, I've always been interested in healthy cooking and this program gives me a great reason to make David eat it!!

P90X

2011-05-31T13:10:00.044-05:00

Yep, we bought into the hype and are trying the P90X workout this summer at our gym. We are actually doing this as a group and it's fun to have accountability to help us get up and be at the gym EVERY SINGLE morning (week days that is) at 5:30 AM! Since there really aren't that many people that read my blog, I decided to put our before stats on here so that we can compare it when we're done and I'll chart our progress periodically as we go. David and I both work out pretty consistantly anyway, so I think the largest change we'll see is more muscle tone since this program focusus alot on weight training and hopefully we'll slim down a little if we can stick to the diet plan that accompanies it. We're fairly good at eating right but speaking for myself, we let ourselves cheat a good bit. While I think this is fine, and it's all about finding a balance, I would like to decrease my body fat % and increase my muscle mass and this will be much more likely to happen if I stick with the high protein, less fat diet. Since my undergrad degree is in nutrition, I love doing this kind of stuff anyway and althought this sounds really weird, I love trying new diets and fitness methods. Anyway...dum, dum, dum (that's my drum roll)...here goes

LAUREN:
WT: 128.8, BF (body fat): 26.5%, LBM (lean body mass): 89.8, H20: 54.2DAVID:
WT: 180.6, BF: 17.6%, LBM: 141.4, H20: 57.8I'll try to document our meals as soon as we get going on the nurtition part. We've been doing good about going to the classes and doing the workouts but with memorial day and David working the legislature these couple of weeks, we haven't quite gotten on board fully with the diet plan. But we are incorporating this...
Accelerade is basically just a recovery drink that you mix with water and it tastes like fruit punch. You can get it at any GNC type place and it tastes pretty good. It just includes carbs, protein, elctrolytes, etc. to help you replenish and build back the muscle after you break it down during weight training.

I also made protein bars that are good to eat after a workout, in small portions and got the recipes here. Here's a step by step though if you want to see how I did it.
Ingredients:

In a large bowl combine the following:
-4 cups oats (not instant)-I bought mine from Oakview Farms in Wetumpka!
-6 scoops of whey protein-they suggest chocolate, but I had vanilla and that worked just fine
-3 Tablespoons unsweetened baking cocoa
-1/3 cup sugar-free maple syrup or honey-I had some local honey so I used that

-3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
-3 teaspoons of cinnamon
-2 cups slivered almonds; toasted on the stove first

-1 cup low fat peanut butter
-2 tablespoons vanilla extract
-1 cup craisins-you can use raisins but I don't like them as much
Mix it all together; easiest with clean hands.

Press it onto a baking sheet
Then just use a pizza cutter to slice into small squares; place in ziplocs (enough for one a day) and freeze.
Of course it's not going to taste like a snickers bar or anything, but to be a snack that packs in the protein, they're pretty good. If you make them, let me know what you think!

2011-05-26T15:34:00.006-05:00

My husband is honestly one of the most humble people I know, so I felt the need to brag on him a little since I knew he wouldn't do it himself! David has always been interested in politics and loved his time as a field man for ALFA when he would be assigned to work the legislature for a week or so to lobby for farmers' interests in Alabama. It wasn't until this position opened up with his company that he ever considered leaving his position as a field man, because it was such a good job and he loved all the farmers and people he came in contact with in his 6 counties. It's pretty funny to see the way God works sometimes and in this case, he truly began working out the details months in advance...maybe even years if you take into account we never sold our house! David now works out of the home office in Montgomery and is loving every minute of his new job! In the weeks leading up to this job being opened, David kept saying that he had this feeling that he wanted to spend some time volunteering, getting involved more in some activities or something while I was at class every night. He checked into a few things but they didn't seem right. That was obviously because he had this job coming on the horizon and the Lord was preparing him. I have no doubt he's going to do a fantastic job for a great organization that truly feels like family. I Love you David and I'm super proud of you!

DAVID COLE NAMED DIRECTOR OF AGRICULTURAL LEGISLATION
May 24, 2011

David Cole
MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Alabama Farmers Federation Area Organization Director David Cole, 31, has been named director of agricultural legislation for the state’s largest farm organization.

Brian Hardin, assistant director of the Federation’s Governmental and Agricultural Programs Department, said Cole will strengthen the Federation’s voice at the Statehouse.

“David will bring enthusiasm to this position that will serve the Alabama Farmers Federation well — in the county federations and in the halls of the Alabama Legislature,” Hardin said. “He has a desire to grow and learn the legislative issues important to our members to an even greater depth, and to help develop and implement the policies of our organization.

“David’s positive outlook and zeal for what’s best for the Federation’s members, and all of Alabama’s farmers are an encouragement to me,” Hardin added.

A native of Akron, Ala., in Hale County, Cole earned a bachelor of science degree in landscape horticulture from Auburn University in 2004. He owned and operated a landscape design business before joining the Federation staff in 2006. As the Area 7 organization director, Cole worked with Barbour, Bullock, Crenshaw, Macon, Pike and Russell counties. He credits the farmers in those counties for helping prepare him for his new duties.

“It has been a blessing to serve as Area Organization Director for Area 7 for the past four years. The membership and county board members that I have had the opportunity to work with have been an integral part in teaching me the principles on which this organization was founded,” Cole said. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for the farmers of this state, and I am looking forward to serving them in this new capacity.” Cole added that he is humbled and excited to be selected for this new position.

“I am looking forward to this new endeavor with a lot of enthusiasm and anticipation. I believe the position in which I have been selected is crucial in protecting and enhancing agriculture and the values of our members,” he said. “I feel that it is imperative that I work expeditiously in building a solid relationship with the members of the Legislature on behalf of the Alabama Farmers Federation.”

Cole serves on the Leadership Advisory Board of the National Federation of Independent Business and the Advisory Board of the Pike Agriscience Academy. He and wife Lauren are active members of Frazer Memorial United Methodist Church in Montgomery.

THE GOOD OR THE BEST?

2011-05-26T07:41:00.018-05:00

My devotional yesterday morning truly spoke to me and I wanted to share it in hopes it does the same for you. As I explained in this post, my work situation has currently taken a 180 and I feel like I'm having to start over. I went from a full time job that I loved and travling alot as well as going to school every night, to working four days a week at a job that, well, i'll just say I'm starting from scratch and having to learn. I see the benefit in this since it will expand my resume and expose me to other aspects of business, but it's hard right now to not be doing what I am passionate about.

I'll admit it, and my sweet husband can attest to this, but I haven't exactly had the best attitude about this turn of events in my life the past few weeks. Once reality set in that I could not carry out the international trade activities I had been planning for the year (especially since I was suppossed to be in Peru this week on a trade mission that I developed and planned), I got a little down and have been trying to see the silver lining, but sometimes it's just hard....you know?

It's just a time of change in my life and I shouldn't have any complaints because I have my health, a caring, loving husband with whom I have a fantastic relationship, and my family and friends. I think it's just the feeling of uncertainty that's unsettling; not knowing where my career is going and the uncertainty of whether we'll ever sell our house and get moved back to Troy. It's been on and off the market for 2 years now and that's such a road block in really settling down. Oh well, it will work out but the devotion below inspired me to get over myself and get on with hoping in the Lord that He's going to lead me not just to something good but HIS BEST! I pray I listen for his leading and end up right where he wants me. And in the meantime, I'll just enjoy the downtime!

Genesis 13:9
"If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or if you go to the right, then I will go to the left."
~My synopsis: Abram(ham) and Lot were getting ready to go their seperate ways and this chapter tells how Abram let Lot choose the land he would prefer rather than pulling seniority and choosing the best for himself. He trusted the Lord would put him in the right place, even it if wasn't of his own choosing.

As soon as you begin to live the life of faith in God, fascinating and physically gratifying posibilities will open up before you. These things are yours by right, but if you are living the life of faith you will exercise your right to waive your rights, and let God make your choice for you. God sometimes aloows you to get into a place of testing where your own welfare would be the appropriate thing to consider, if you were not living the life of faith. But if you are, you will joyfully waive your right and allow God to make your choice for you. This is the discipline God uses to transform the natural into the spiritual through obediance to His voice.

Whenever our right becomes the guiding factor of our lives, it dulls our spiritual insight. The greatest enemy of the life of faith in God is not sin, but good choices which are not quite good enough. The good is always the enemy of the best. In this passage, it would seem that the wisest thing in the world for Abram to do would be to choose. It was his right, and the people around him would consider him to be a fool for not choosing.

Many of us do not continue to grow spiritually because we prefer to choose on the basis of our rights, instead of relying on God to make the choice for us. We have to learn to walk according to the standard which has its eyes focused on God. And God says to us, as He did to Abram, "...walk before Me..." (Genesis 17:1).
-"My Utmost for His Highest" Oswald Chambers

3 Year Anniversary

2011-05-23T12:13:00.004-05:00

David and I set off to Destin for the weekend for our anniversary and had a wonderful time! It was absolutely storming when we got there Friday night, but by Saturday morning, all was well and the clouds had rolled on out of there. We stayed at a hotel across the street from the beach and went over for seafood at the Back Porch Friday night. Saturday we hit the beach and David played a little golf. We had a wonderful italian dinner Saturday night at Tuscany and headed home Sunday after a trip to Another Broken Egg and the outlet mall.

I am a lucky woman to be married to the best husband ever...and I'm already looking forward to spending many, many more anniversaries together for years to come!

NC, continued

2011-05-22T17:45:00.032-05:00

Day 2...
Amazing breakfast near our condo which was almost as good as our beach favorite, Another Broken Egg!
This was the day before the big game so we went downtown Scottsdale to take part in the pep rally and get together at the bar where the Auburn fans used as their home base. We thought we would just get there early and grab a table, but turns out, every other Auburn fan thought the same thing and this is what we found when we got there.
It was already completed crazy and it was only 4:00 in the afternoon. So, in an attempt to let the crowd clear out, we went across the street to grab a beverage and although it wasn't quite as packed, it was standing room only. We finally make our way up to the bar and what does the bar tender tell us, there is nothing but hot beer and it's something like Natty Lite! They did not know the influx of Auburn fans would be so dramatic and they were totally unprepared for the volume of people coming to their bar, and again, it was only 4:00 in the afternoon!! We went back over to the Auburn hangout where they were broadcasting an Auburn sports show and saw lots of people we knew.
The hoopla of the day was exhausting so after hanging out a while, we went back to our condo to rest up for the big day!
GAME DAY!! Up and at em, ready to go. Pre party on the balcony!
We planned on riding a bus to the game, which was about 30 miles away and we arrived a little early to here Karlos Dansby talk about his time on the team and to have some lunch.
This video is pretty funny because the guy who was leading the cheers was hilarious and constantly cheered to a bus full of people who didn't know him.

Although it took forever for our buses to arrive and finally make it through the traffic jam, we made it to the game. As we were walking up, David sees Pat Sullivan and flags him down. Reluctantly, Pat agrees to take a picture with David and I'm so glad he did. I'm sure he's a great guy and would normally be more than willing to take pictures with AU fans, but in this circumstance there were hundreds of people stirring around who would want to do the same so I think that's why he was a little hesitant. But David's a great salesman, so here it is...

We made it into the game with our huge tickets...they were beautiful!

Here's some shots from the game; it was amazing!
The Eagle...can you spot him?
After a hard fought game, we beat the Oregon Ducks, 22-19!!!!

We thought that would be the culmination to our great trip, but the ice storm of the century back home had other plans. We were supposed to fly out early the next morning, but like most of the other Auburn fans out in AZ, our flights were canceled. We scrambled to get another flight but it would be 2 days later before we could get a flight that connected in MI and then again in Memphis before landing in Montgomery. So, since we had to stay out in the beautiful 75 degree weather while there was an ice storm back home, we found ways to entertain ourselves! David and Daniel played a little golf among the gorgeous scenery while I went hiking and went to the spa!

After an afternoon of relaxation, we grabbed dinner, saw a movie and got to the airport for our midnight flight. Although this portion of the trip went well, the rest of it pretty much fell apart. We connected in Detroit and then went onto Memphis where we were again suppossed to connect to Montgomery; it was insane! But once we got to Memphis, we looked for our gate and found out the last leg of our trip was canceled. Most of the ice had cleared out but for some reason the airport was still canceling flights. We called Delta and found out we couldn't get another flight into Mont until the next morning and we had to get back for Daniel's work and my classes starting. At this point, we decided to just go ahead and rent a car, until we started calling rental places and they were just about ALL completely rented out! At this point we were freaking out but we finally found a car that was slightly bigger than a mini cooper and high tailed it to west Alabama. We met Mrs. Cornelia in Tuscaloosa and got back just in time for Daniel to make it to work. We finally made it back to Montgomery and were so relieved!!! WAR EAGLE!

National Championship...I know, I'm way behind!

2011-05-22T16:53:00.019-05:00

So, I never blogged about our trip to AZ for the National Championship game. I figured better late than never, so here's some pics from the trip and the general happenings.

David younger brother, Daniel-pictured below, was able to get off work and join us for the game so we all flew out of Montgomery several days early to work in a little touring. We connected in Phoenix but then took a puddle jumper to Flagstaff where we had a sweet couple who is a friend of the family, loan us their house for the night. It was Daniel's first time to fly, so you can imagine how nerve racking riding in this thing was!
This is our first night at dinner downtown Flagstaff.
Our friends, David & Rachel's precious house.

Our first full morning, we loaded up in our rental car with our Auburn flags a-flyin, and drove a couple of hours up to the southern rim of the Grand Canyon.

We headed back south toward Sedona after our trip to the Canyon and saw some beautiful scenery along the way.

As you can see from our GPS, this was an incredibly curvy road down the mountain. It was an awesome sight to see all the snow on the ground at the Grand Canyon, which is about 8,000 ft above sea level. And within a couple of hours, it was a sunny, 70 degree day in Sedona, which is only about 4,500 ft above sea level.

Downtown Sedona was adorable!
The red rock formations were breathtaking and was probably the highlight of the trip for me...other than the fact that WE WON THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!!!!! Anywho...more pics

Have you ever seen a cactus this big? I thought this was crazy and we pulled over on the side of the road so I could have my picture made with it!
We finally make it to Phoenix late that afternoon, meet up with our friends-Walker & Allison-and check into our condo in Scottsdale. We had a fabulous Italian dinner that night and toasted with lemoncello to the hopeful Auburn victory!

Mother's Day weekend

2011-05-17T13:36:00.015-05:00

A little late but I'm finally getting around to blogging about our Mother's Day celebrations. We were back in Greensboro the weekend before Mother's Day so we celebrated with David's mom then and she loved her cute bird feeder that David picked out. I wish i had a picture of it but I found this one from last Christmas that's pretty funny and shows David, his mom and his brother Daniel!
~I'm pretty sure David's acting like Santa, but i'm not sure, you never really know with him!
Anyway, we had a wonderful weekend celebrating Mrs. Cornelia and Daniel because it was the weekend before his 25th birthday.

Soon after was Easter Sunday and we went to church with my parents...

Our Mother's Day surprise for my mom consisted of cooking her brunch up at our place out in the country and she loved it! Because I always take pictures of food (which my husband absolutely loves, especially out in public!) check out this plate! We had nutella crepes, which my mom discovered she loves during this trip. We also had a frittata, sausage balls-which probably weren't pictured becuase David was hiding them, he's obsessed!-and some garlic cheese grits.
It was yummy and she really enjoyed it...

Me with the lady of the hour

Speaking of mother's, this is my friend Kristin, who is a mother of 2 sweet kids herself, but she's holding our friend Jennifer's newborn baby girl, Lincy Cates Boutwell. Isn't she beautiful?!

We topped the weekend off with a fun get together at our friends' Matt and Amanda Vaughan's house with a crawfish cookout! so fun

2011-04-27T15:31:00.016-05:00

This year was my first trip to the annual Crawfish Festival in Faunsdale, AL. Since I married a West Alabamian, this was obviously not his first time and from his stories of previous visits, it sounded like our's this year was not quite as exciting! Just to set the stage...here's a video to warm you up to the event.
And yes, the short, stumpy Italian looking man (and I don't mean that in a handsome, fashion model type of way)had a t-shirt on that said "Mario" with a picture of the character from the old nintendo game...he looked just like him! If only he had been wearing red overalls. Anyway, we had a blast eating some of the best crawfish; doesn't that look good?
My favorite was the combo plate (below), which had crawfish pie (top left), crawfish gumbo (bottom left) and a piroette. That thing was amazing! I had never had one but it's like pasty with crawfish goo inside, so good.

This is inside the Faunsdale Barn & Grill, a very well known establishment in their neck of the woods.

That night we attended Kelli and Jon's wedding and had a blast! Here are the 3 muscketeers in action.
The next day we headed to Birmingham to the ALFA Women's Conference where David had to work a luncheon and I was actually one of the speakers. It was a blast to speak with all the ladies about the "Buy Alabama's Best" campaign where we promote food products made in Alabama! Ms. Virginia Whitfield and I partnered together to do this and she was a delight to work with. I've learned so much from her over the years and she has been so good to take me under her wing. Love that woman!

Great weekend!

Kristin's Bachelorette

2011-04-21T13:32:00.022-05:00

One of my best friends, Kristin Strunk is getting married in June to her wonderful fiance, Scott and we are all so excited for them. Here's a couple of pics from her bachelorette weekend-the ones I can actually show you!-j/k, we're too old to get that wild. But I have to say, although about 1/2 of the group was pregnant, we did pretty good; and boy did I feel it the next day!

First I have to show you the decorations because we have this ongoing joke that everything we end up doing turns out "buddy" or "ghetto" or whatever slang you would like to use. Here's an example...for Steeley's bachelorette party, Strunk and I decorated the room with streamers that fell down immediately after we put them up.
Another example, for my bachelorette party, the same two were doing so good by buying all these cute plates, cups, etc for the shower but it turned out they left the bag with all the stuff in it at home. Came in handy though because those same decorations are the ones pictured above at Kristin's party.
**Side note: in college we somehow all started going by our last names: i.e. Stone (sometimes Stoner), Strunk (which is Kristin) and Steeley (which is Elizabeth, although she's now a Jennings). I think it's because our ADPi pledge class was so big and there were like 8 Lauren's so somehow the last name thing evolved.

Anywho...back to our current bride; thank goodness we've finally figured out how to pull off a bachelorette party, now that we're donwn to the last bride of the group!
These are all of our roomies at one time or another during college at Auburn. Exactly 50% of the people pictured are pregnant! We're so excited to being having our first babies! The moms' to be are Victoria (far left), Elizabeth (next) and Kathryn (far right).

After the shower, where she got lots of pretty things, we headed out to dinner at Satterfields which was so good. I branched out and had a rabbit stew and it was tasty! Next we venture out on the town and arrive at one of the bars, where we're pretty much the first ones there. Not really surprising since we were probably the oldest ones there too but it didn't bother us! Here is Kris and the infamous veil that she got to wear that night :) I love this shot of KGB (i.e. Kathryn) putting it on her head; or maybe you call that shoving?
Part of the group at Innisfree
Kris, me and Michelle
After a fun-filled night, we crashed at the Embassy Suites downtown and then went to the jazz brunch the next morning at the Veranda on Highland. Great food, Great atmosphere and such fun music! Here's the jazz band serenading the bride.
Group pic...fun weekend to celebrate Kristin and her upcoming nuptials!!

About time

2011-04-14T12:09:00.019-05:00

So, my last blog was Jan 3 and it's now April 14th...I have some catching up to do! I've had a lot going on in my life lately and will leave all of that to another blog entry in the future. But for now...here's a quick recap of the last 3 months or so!

January:
Great friends Webb & Marietta Holmes from Marion, AL came to Montgomery to eat dinner at Saza's with us and see Willie Nelson at the MPAC. Great concert since he sang a lot of his well known songs but actually, "talked" might be a better way to describe it. YOu'll see what I mean in this video

And yes, that's us singing in the background!Here are David and Webb who have known each other all of their lives. I wish I had a picture with his sweet wife Marietta too but for some reason we didn't take one.

Also in January was the National Champoinship Celebraion at the stadium in Auburn; and I actually just reazlied I haven't even blogged about our time in AZ! I'm so behind but that will have to have its own entry. It was packed
Coach Chizik with the BCS trophy!

Of course Toomer's had to be rolled in victory after the celebration...I hope the tree is still there for years to come!

February: My Birthday...29 and holding!
My parents came and took David and I to eat at City Grill which is wonderful! This was our dessert "appetizer" that we enjoyed before going home and having some of mom's yummy homemade caramel cake!

To end, a couple of pictures from the renovation.We haven't sold our house yet in Montgomery so we are still moving very slowly, but moving none the less!
David and dad removing the cabinets from the kitchen

Mom and I rehabing the molding

Fasting and Praying

2011-04-05T08:10:00.011-05:00

I started this post close to a month ago and have added a couple of updates at the bottom and I feel like it's finally the time to share it. If you're one of my close friends and it seems like I've been a little MIA lately, maybe this will help explain. Though it's nothing catastrophic and people go through much worse situations in life, I've been struggling through getting laid off at the Department of Agriculture.

I was one of 60 (update: now over 100), which is a huge amount for our fairly small department of 300 or so, but it helps to know that my whole section was cut due to budget woes and not my lack of performance. Any section of the Department of Ag that was not a "regulatory" section-which means they carry out legal responsibilities of the Dept like plants, pesticides, etc., were on the chopping block. It sounds like there was not much they could do for me since I was a low man on the todem pole, because I had only been here 5 1/2 years. My plans were to graduate in May with my MBA and qualify for the Assistant Director position in International Trade...but those were my plans I guess, not God's. I've lobbied hard to try and work something out since everything except my salary is federally funded, but it obviously wasn't meant to be.

Though I have faith and I honestly do have a peace about seeing God working through all this, I've been struggling because I honestly love my job. I feel like it was made for me and has been the best experience anyone could have right out of college. I didn't necessarily think I would work for the state forever, especially if I had to commute from Troy everyday, but it's much harder to have something you love snatched away than it is to decide you're ready to move on. But I've realized, I probably wouldn't have ever gotten to a point that I wanted to lay it down, so maybe the Lord had to go ahead and take it from me. Commuting, for a mother, is not conducive to a family I realize and I pray David and I are blessed with one in the years to come. I've still passionate about international trade & marketing but I'm willing to lay that down for this season in my life.

The travel is fun....albeit hard work, but the thing I'll miss most are the friendships I've made with all of the companies I work with. I pray they continue.

Last Sunday at Frazer, we were challenged to fast as a spiritual discipline and seek God through some focused alone time. It's amazing how not worrying about what you're going to eat all the time really frees your miind up. It also provides time while I would typically be eating to reach the Bible, listen to a sermon online, or just pray. My length of time right now is only 2 days and I probably won't go much longer than that, but even that short amount of time has proven worthwhile. *Note: if you do this, make sure you drink lots of water and I did have a bowl of cereal every now and then!

I wanted to share a few things the Lord shared with me and if you're not reading at this point because this email is so long, that's ok, this is more for me! The first morning of my fast, I took a couple of mintues to read the devotional that Frazer puts out for the week and low and behold, what is the first verse I go over but:
Matthew 4:4
Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man doesn't live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

When I told David that I wanted to fast for a couple of days to pray about all these events going on in my life and the changes that are occuring, I mentioned to him that in all of life's craziness, I felt like I couldn't hear God. The fast, I prayed, would help me to tune out the world and listen to where God is leading me. That was confirmed this morning when my devotional was based on these verses:
1 King's 19:11-12
The Lord said, "Go out and stand on th emountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by." Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, came a gentle whisper.
The passage goes onto say that Elijah then spoke with the Lord.

Gentle Whisper...that's what I want to hear. I want to be able to test the wordly stuff coming at me and know what his good, pleasing and perfect will for my life is. (Romans 12:2)

I can see the Lord leading me into a time and phase of my life that is more conducive for David and I to have a family as well as move back to my hometown. I can see how he's shaping it all and what a blessing it was that he gave us to have 3 years of marriage to get to travel the world together and grow as a married couple in Montgomery.

Although, at this point, I don't know what the future holds, and I realize the Lord probably won't tell me all at once, but I pray that being intentional about hearing his whisper will lead me in his path.

**Update: I was contacted by 3 people who job propositions and decided to work part time for a farm loan program that is actually housed at the Dept of Ag but not funded by them or the state. It's pretty weird being back in my old office but not doing my old job. I work 4 days a week though and am truly enjoying a little downtime. To go from a full time employee and night time student to working 4 days a week has been a nice change. I'm still exploring a few other options though and still praying about where I should end up.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-03T13:35:00.018-06:00

David and I rang in the New Year in Highlands, NC with friends and had a blast! We stayed in our friend's parent's mountain house and it was wonderful! Basically all we did was play in the snow, sit by the fireplace, watch football and eat! Here's proof...

Isn't this an awesome snowman! We were so proud and amazed at how the snow just rolled up like carpet. It doesn't do that in AL when we only get 2 inches!

The fireplace was so nice and warm and we loved hanging out there while it was freezing outside.

David, Walker Jamison, Bryan Horn & their dog Lottie with the gorgeous NC mountains in the background.

David was our fireman and kept the fire going all weekend. He can't wait for us to get moved in our house in Troy that has a wood burning fireplace.

This is our countdown to 2011 and our attempt to pop champaign bottles; it kind of worked!
Me pictured with the Dillard House sign in the background. We had been eating all weekend, not to mentioned stuffing ourselves during the holidays so we decided to get a quick breakfast at a place I had heard of called the Dillard House in north GA. Neither of us had been there so we were surprised when they didn't bring us a menu, instead they came to our table with all of this...
Needless to say we were stuff once again!

Christmas 2010

2010-12-29T15:41:00.014-06:00

Our normal Christmas plans include going down to Troy for Christmas Eve and going to Greensboro for the rest of the weekend. This year I went to good ole T-roy a night early and spend an evening with all of my girls that I graduated with at our friend Ashlee's adorable house. Here we are after several attempts at trying to get the "perfect" picture!

I love these girls and were sad that a few were missing because they had other plans that night. It was a great time!

The next morning, Christmas Eve, we went up to our farm (Curry) and had a huge lunch with all the trimmings and David came down from Montgomery and met us. That night we always go to the candlelight service at the church I grew up in, First Methodist of Troy. It's a very meaningful service where we have communion and sing "Silent Night" as we light candles and turn out the lights. It's a much needed reminder of the reason for Christmas among all the hustle and bustle. Afterward, we joined a group of my parents friends who at one time or the other were all our neighbors growing up. This year it was held across the street at the Bennett's house who have lived there all my life and are practically family. They even stood in as my grandparents at our wedding since all of mine have passed away.

Another Christmas tradition that began when I was young is to open one present on Christmas Eve that always contains pajamas, although every year my mom tries to say that it "may not actually be pajamas this year" but we know it always has been and always will be! Case in point...here we are in our Christmas pj's (warning: this is pretty gay but I made him do it!)

Obviously this was the year for Auburn pj's since we're going to the big game!

Here we are Christmas morning in our spots on the floor around the tree; dad with his new hunting gloves on!

After a huge, yummy breakfast and Christmas on the Stone side, we loaded up my little Acura to the brim and set out for Akron where David grew up outside of Greensboro. When we arrived, his grandmother and step-grandfather were there and it was wonderful to see them. Here we all are:

One of my favorite pictures from this Christmas is of David and his brother Daniel (below) in their "cousin Eddie" hats that their mom bought them! We had a wonderful, relaxing weekend hanging out at the Cole's and I had a great time visiting with Mrs. Cornelia. I'm blessed to have wonderful in-laws who treat me just like one of their own, if not better!! ha

All in all it was a very merry Christmas!!

Garth

2010-12-28T13:18:00.017-06:00

David and I treated ourselves to a wonderful Christmas date on Christmas Eve twice removed, i.e. the Wednesday night before Christmas. We drove up to Nashville for the night (which is only about 4 hours), to see Garth Brooks perform at the Bridgestone Arena downtown, right across from Tootsies on Broadway. David had never seen Garth and I had not seen him since about 3rd grade, so this was an amazing opportunity. My friend Kristin and her fiance stumbled upon these benefit concerts Garth was putting on to raise money for the flood victims there in Nashville and toldl us about it. Garth was planning on doing one concert at first but when it sold out in minutes, he added a few more. They sold out as well so he ended up with about a weeks worth of shows, doing 2 a night.

We went to the very last one that started at 9 pm and Garth was just as strong as he was during the first show, it seemed. We parked and walked from our hotel down the street and grabbed dinner on Broadway at Rippy's. After that we walked over to Tootsies for a quick drink before the show which was tons of fun. We could have stayed their all night! As the 6 pm show ended and floods of people started pouring out of the arena, we got in line and pushed our way in the entrance eventually. It was pretty chaotic but totally worth it since the tickets were only $10 a piece. Yes, you read that right, $10!!!!!!

The entire crowd knew every word to every verse of every song and it was one huge party! David and I danced and song all night and after nearly an hour of encores, the show ended a little after mid-night. It was so much fun and Tricia Yearwood even sang a few songs as well. Not that are normal Christmas dates of going to dinner and a movie aren't special, but this was by far the most exciting one we've had! Here are a couple of clips of songs as well as some pictures.

Tricia & Garth singing a duet These aren't the best quality, but you get the idea. Honestly, no video can even do it justice...you just had to be there!

2010-12-14T09:37:00.005-06:00

I don't really have any pictures to share, just a little rejoicing to do since I finished my last final of the semester last night. Whoo Hoo!! This semester was a doosy for me because my two classes were economics and managerial accounting, which are a far cry from my marketing classes that I love. It felt like this semester drug on forever but I only have one more left so that got me though it! If everything works out as planned, I'll have 2 classes that start in January and end in May which are Strategy of Marketing and International Marketing (which I should really enjoy since that's basically what I do). Then I have a management class that has to be taken in your last semester before graduation that is a half term class. The only bad thing about this schedule is that when the second half of the semester comes around and my mngt class starts, I'll have to go 4 nights a week. I'll have class Tuesday and Thursday nights the whole semester from 7:30 until 10 pm, but starting in March, I'll have to go Monday and Wednesday nights too from 8-10. It's going to be rough but knowing it's my last semester will help me buckle down and get through it; I hope!

It's interesting how all of this stuff going on in my life has worked itself out and how God has ordained it all to happen during this time. When I decided to get my Masters from AUM it was a year or so after I moved to Montgomery and I didn't really have a specific reason or motivation to do it, I just thought it was a good idea. At the time, I didn't know if it would open any specific doors at my current employer and thought it was just a good move for my future. But funny how things work out. Within the last year I found out that in order to move up in my section of international trade & marketing at the department of ag, I have to have a business degree and 5 years of experience to qualify as assistant director. Experience, check (as of this September), but my degree is in Nutrition Science...this was a problem. But when I graduate with my MBA, I'll be good to go! This is reassuring because although I love my job and make a decent salary, it's good to know opportunities to advance my career exist, if I decide to stay at the department for a long time.

Anyway, back to the timeline; I began my masters in 2006/2007, taking a few classes and getting some of the core out of the way. Then I met David...wedding planning ensued and it was too stressful to be in school too so I took about a year off. With David's support, I decided to go back and finish and I'm so glad I did before we have a family. Being in school at night, finding time to study and working full time is hard, but I can't even imagine how people do it with kids. What troopers!

Another way I can see God's hand in all of this timing is the fact that we haven't sold our house. We had it listed for sale by owner for over a year and have now had it with a realtor for about 10 months. That has been very discouraging at times, and don't get me wrong, we'll sell you our house today if you want it, but our faith has remained strong that the timing is all in God's hands. I get the sense that to make our lives easier, He's holding out on bringing us a buyer until I finish school, or at least get close. Commuting from Troy every morning for work and having to drive home after class 2 nights a week at 10 pm would be really rough. It would be especially hard to have to do this 4 nights a week next semester, so I know he's looking out for me. It's kind of funny how you start to see His perspective on things if you just have some patience and let things happen rather than fret about them!

So although it's been hard, I know I'll feel a huge sense of accomplishment and relief when I finish. I'm thankful to be "on-break" for a few weeks so I can enjoy this Christmas season.

Auburn

2010-12-08T09:27:00.005-06:00

There are obviously going to be a lot of AU posts this year since we are having an unbelievable season, so here is another one! SEC Championship game in ATL was amazing and we beat the SC Gamecocks 56-17!!!!!!!!

I also got to take a quick work trip to Savannah, GA for a SUSTA meeting and ate at Paul Dean's Lady & Sons. Here a picture of a few of us from various SE states.
The food was delicious, don't get me wrong, but I'm so used to southern cooking that it pretty much looked just like what I had for Thanksgiving the week before except not quite as good as my mom's! Great experience though.

WAR EAGLE! AZ BOUND...

2010-11-29T15:10:00.014-06:00

AUBURN 28 ALABAMA 27

WAR EAGLE!! We had an awesome time watching the game at our friend's Buzzy & Renee's camp house on the river outside of Greensboro. Here's a little video after we won when we were pumped!
youtube.com

We can not get over how amazing this season has been and that our Tigers are Glendale bound to play for the National Championship once we beat SC AGAIN!

David and his brother in mid-celebration after Auburn pulled ahead!

We also had a great Thanksgiving and traveled to David's parent's house in Greensboro Wednesday night after work. We had a great dinner, as always, and enjoyed an abnormally warm Thanksgiving Day around 80 degrees. We got to see some of David's extended family, but spent most of our time with his parents and brother Daniel. Friday morning the boys got up and went hunting, then after lunch we headed over to watch the Auburn game, which was the most gut-wrenching game I've ever seen! Down 24 to 0 in the first half, we came back and won, proving just how committed our team is!! It was crazy, nerve wracking but so much fun! Saturday we went to Troy to have another big, yummy meal with my parents and then finally made it home to Montgomery!

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with great family time and as always (but especially this year), it's great to be an Auburn Tiger! War Eagle! Oh and by the way, did I mention, we're #1!!

Camping

2010-11-24T14:10:00.009-06:00

I've been wanting to go camping now for a while and the perfect opportunity came last weekend. Saturday morning, David and I got up and ran the Turkey Burner 5K at Metro Fitness in Montgomery. It's a great race that we've done several times and had a blast. I slacked off running a lot this year after we ran the Seaside Half Marathon last May, which I talk about here, and haven't trained much at all this year. I somewhat enjoy running but don't think I'm really made out to be a distance running, it was just one of my goal's to run a 1/2. So since then I've been soaking up all the fun classes that Metro offers like spinning, turbo kick, hip hop hustle, etc. That's more my thing since I grew up dancing and cheering. But it came time for the turkey burner and since it's just 3.2 miles, I thought I would be able to swing it. I did well, coming in right at 27 minutes, while David smoked it at around 23 minutes. I'm thinking about getting back into running and we're debating on doing Seaside again or I would like to do the Nashville half marathon next spring. I'm a little intimidated though because Seaside was hard to me and it's flat! They say Nashville is pretty hilly. We'll see...

Post run, David and I loaded up the car with our camping and hunting gear and headed over to Roberta, GA to meet up with some of his friends who have land there. We camped out and had a great time with friends, especially since the weather wasn't too cold that night. Here is a picture of our camp where we cooked hotdogs over the fire and enjoyed hanging out with friends.

Here's picture of the guys in their hunting gear:

The next morning, David and I were in the tree stand early and got to experience a beautiful sunrise. We saw 3 does but decided against shooting since we already had plenty of venison in the freezer.

On our way out, Walker, whose land we were own, showed us his family's industry of selling sand to concrete companies, golf courses, etc. They have a large sand pit and I'm was totally taken off guard by how big and how impressive it was. It was almost like a mini-grand canyon!

Great weekend!

Vancouver: Part 2

2010-11-24T10:25:00.029-06:00

Vancouver: Part 2
By Friday afternoon David arrived and we got a few days to enjoy our trip together as a family. Then he and I stayed until Tuesday after my parents left on Sunday. Here he is in typical David fashion...he's never really one to be shy!

We did some walking and sight seeing once we got his bags to the hotel and stopped off for an afternoon refresher at the Cactus Club. Here we are enjoying a locally brewed beer and a Bellini!
Next was his chance to go down to the waterfront before it got dark and we snapped a quick pic.
For dinner I had seen a restaurant listed in a travel book (which I love reading and traveling with and if you've ever seen my bookshelf you would know!) It was in Gastown and called Boneta. It was listed as being a "foodies" restaurant and boy was it! I loved the ambiance but honestly, the food was a little disappointing for the price. Since I love visiting "fancy" restaurants with well known chefs, I was prepared for small portions and an interesting menu, but it all comes down to taste. Let's just say Chef Stitt The Highlands Bar & Grill in Birmingham can run circles around this place! Anyway...it was fun though because we all went together and got to enjoy time with my parents. Here is my fish, David's lamb and all 4 of us at dinner at Boneta.

We stopped to see the steam clock that still emits steam from underground before dinner.
We decided to make the trip over to Victoria on Vancouver Island on Saturday, and major props to David because we didn't have access to the Auburn/Georgia game and he was so good about waiting to watch it when we got back. Because we wanted to try and see as much as possible in one day, we left our hotel at 5 am via taxi to get to the ferry dock that was close to an hour away. The first ferry left at 7 am and here we are ready to sail!
The "Spirit of BC", our ferry, was really nice and I was pleasantly surprised that they had a full, hot breakfast for us and plenty of comfortable seating on various decks. It was a really nice 1 1/2 hour ride.

The weather was a little messy and cold but we made it out on the deck to take at least a couple of pictures.
After arriving at the Victoria port, you have to take a bus about 40 miles in to reach the center of the city but it's totally worth it. Here we are at the magnificent Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. This was definitely one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen!
In front of the harbor with the Empress Hotel in the background.
The Empress Hotel is famous for their afternoon tea and crumpets, but since it was upwards of $60 per person, we settled on just taking a picture of us in the tea room!
It was already late morning by this time so we headed down to the Old Town portion of Victoria which is filled with restaurants and shops. It was really cool but we knew if we were going to fit in the famous Butchard Gardens, we were going to have to get a move on, so we did! We loaded another bus and went another 40 miles to the Gardens, which again was worth it, even though we were there in winter. The gardens weren't as vibrant as they look in pictures from other times of the year (esp spring), but they were still beautiful and decorated for Christmas. The most breathtaking portion is the Sunken Garden. Here are mom and I with it in the background.
My other favorite part was the Japanese Garden and here are David and I under the Torii which was the entrance.
After a chillly tour of the gardens, we headed into their coffee shop to warm up by the fire!
The next morning, my parents got up really early to get to the airport and David and I slept in a little then packed for our journey up to Whistler. It was a Monday and sadly the slopes weren't opening until that Friday, but we decided to go anyway just to see it and experience driving the Sea to Sky Highway from Vancouver. Although it was foggy, the views were amazing; I would love to see it in the summertime!

We stopped in Squamish, which is a small town half way between Vancouver and Whistler and had lunch here
because this was the view from the window while we ate.
We finally arrived in Whistler, and what was our first stop? Well, in typical Canadian style, we went to the coffee shop!
Here's David with Whistler Village in the background: we stayed at the Holiday Inn there and it was perfect.
Here are a couple of shots from the village and us at dinner that night. We had the best food and dessert and were stuffed for days!

We even saw the Olympic Rings where they presented the medals to the athletes during the games earlier in the year.

This was such a wonderful trip and I'm so blessed to have a sweet husband and wonderful parents who are willing to pay their way to follow me around the world!!

Vancouver, Canada Trade Mission

2010-11-22T11:58:00.038-06:00

I was off again on another work trip during November but the best thing about it this time was the fact that my family joined me after my trade mission was over for a little vaca time! I arrived in Vancouver on Monday the 8th and my parents stopped off in Seattle for a couple of nights. It worked out great because we all flew out of Montgomery together and I just split off in Seattle. It also helped that they were at my house at 4:15 am to make sure I was up since our flight was at 6:20 AM!!

The normal routine for a trade mission is to do some retail tours (which you already knew about from this mission)and then have meetings so here a couple of pics of people you probably don't know, but none the less. At least it shows I was working!!

The most interesting/weird part of the mission was our visit to the Grocery Hall of Fame. It was put together by a guy that owns a brokerage firm and has been in the industry his whole life. All of the junk, I mean relics, that were displayed he had collected over the years. He also had mannequins in there, including a kid that looked like Chucky and it was a little freaky! Can you see him by my leg?!!

Here's shot of the city that I took on our way back to the hotel after our meetings.

A couple of days later, after the mission was over, my parents came in via train from Seattle and we spent 2 days exploring before David was able to arrive. We changed accommodations so we could be closer to downtown and checked into the Westin Grande which was perfect! It was a little cold and rainy but we threw on our boggins' and headed out. Our first stop was Granville Market which was one of my absolute favorite things. It's located on Granville Island and we took a small water taxi over which was really fun.

These were the biggest seagull-like birds we had ever seen and dad was fascinated with them so I took a series of pictures of him getting closer and closer to one before it flew away!

Granville Market is basically a huge farmer's market with some of the most beautiful fresh produce ever and great crafts make by local artists. It also has food vendors which include all types of cuisine, including the Indian food I had for lunch. Butter chicken, yum!
Vancouver is known for it's unique culinary scene and Asian fusion is big right now...I fit right in!

For dinner we ate a restaurant in Yaletown called Milestones. It's a chain there but is very good. We had walked around Yaletown earlier in the day and it's so cute because it's very yuppy. EVERYONE has a dog that they're walking and designer clothes. It's full of high rise condominiums and they say each apartment can sell for around $750,000!!! Here we are at dinner. I tried the Granville Brewery's local beer and it was really tasty!

Morning #2 of the parent portion of the trip brought on our journey to Stanley Park. This is a beautiful park on Vancouver's west end that is twice the size of Central Park in NY and is full of bikers, runners, water sports, etc. Because if you didn't know, peeps in the north west US and Canada are very active and very healthy. They work hard and eat good; they're got it figured out up there! We started out walking from our hotel several miles to the waterfront area near Canada Place (pictured below with what looks like sails) and walked about the Seawall for another mile or two until we reached Stanley Park. It was so gorgeous! Here are lots of pics from that walk and you'll even see the Olympic torch lighting area that was on TV.

There were even float planes landing and taking off on the water which was so cool to see.
Along the Seawall there is an interesting art piece that originated in China and mocks political leaders. Here I am posing along side it!
This was first entering Stanley Park and the colors of the trees with the buildings in the back ground was fantastic!
Here are a few shots from our morning adventure in the park:

AFter another mile, we got to the totem poles...

Mom needed a new boggin but we couldn't convince her to buy this one....just to try it on!
Lion's Gate Bridge which later David and I drove over on our way to Whistler

At this point I believe, Dad decided we needed to take the "road less traveled" so we got off the paved seawall road and went through trails, which mom was not happy about at all! We were the only ones on this trail and there were gigantic black squirrels. THis pictures doesn't do it justice because you can't tell how big it was, but it was huge and fat!
There were some amazing, gigantic trees that made our side trip worth it though.
We drug mom through the woods and this was her trying to catch a ride back to the hotel (which incidentally we ended up walking all the way back!)

Here are a couple of other scenery pics and in my next post I'll fill you in on David's arrival.

Curry & Ole Miss

2010-11-05T16:39:00.008-05:00

The month of October is always a great month because the weather is perfect, football season is in full swing, there's pumpkin flavored latte's at Starbucks and it's the time of year we always have our Chandler family reunion/get together up at Curry. If you don't know what Curry is then go here and find out! My parents have put so much work into renovating my great grandparent's old home place and every October, the family comes in town to visit the house and each other. Mom had it decorated really cute and I had to include this picture with David sitting by the scarecrow, pumpkin-head guy that mom made with my old overalls!
I should have taken some more family pictures but here are me and DAvid.
There are only 3 out of I believe 9 siblings left (8 sisters and 1 brother) and Aunt Eunice from Montgomery and Aunt Margaret from Las Vegas come every year. Aunt Margaret was the baby and in her 80's still makes the trip down to AL navigating airports with ease. She and I like talking about my travels because her husband was in the military and she been all over, including living in Taiwan. Curry contains so much history and is truly a treasure for our family; it's also my dad's most favority place in the whole world!

More football...David undertook a major task by setting up a rode trip for all of his friends to the AU/Ole Miss game in Oxford, MS. Kelli Coleman was a huge help in organizing it as well and it was a complete success! We loaded up in a big Greyhound in Montgomery and made 3 stops along the way (mostly in West AL) to pick up our crew of about 40 AU fans. We traveled about 3 hours after our last stop in Tuscaloosa and stayed in a hotel in New Albany, MS. This was perfect because it was only 30 minutes from Oxford and we pulled out on our way to the game the next morning around 9 am. Since David had planned this he was a little stressed about the details but felt like he could relax once we knew we had a space to park our bus and tailgate. He had previously called the university and found out that all buses and RV's parked near the mall in a big parking lot. Well, we had to laugh when we pulled up to the mall and in this huge parking log were approximately 3 RV's and a Tahoe! Needless to say, we had plenty of room! Well we set up all the fixins and everything was perfect! We had tons of food and since the game wasn't until 5 we just hung out all day. We ventured over to the Grove for a little while and went to the game, which after a slow start was a blowout, and had an AUsome time! (Corny, sorry but i had to!) Here are some of the girls and me and David in our game-day colors!

Next year there are lots of choices for road games including LSU and Vandy I think, but we're leaning towards South Carolina or Clemson. Any thoughts??

Month Ago

2010-11-05T16:16:00.013-05:00

Because I decided to punish myself and get my Masters, I basically have no time. So with that said, here is our life (in pictures mostly) over the last month or so! I'm trying to get caught up...obviously.

One of David's best friends growing up, Allen Hinson married sweet Elizabeth in Oct. It was a beautiful sunset wedding at her parents home outside of Greensboro. She was a beautiful bride and Allan is a marine so they got to do the cool sword ceremony. Here's some pics

The next day we went to the Navistar LPGA tournament held in Prattville and it was so much fun. I've been telling David I want to take up golf but just don't have time right now, but this sealed the deal. It was a gorgeous day and we loved walking the course. As we were walking up to one of the greens, there was a team and one girl was blonde and really pretty. I noticed her name was Natalie and I figured out she was the girl from Celebrity Apprentice several seasons back. We decided to follow her because I thought that was cool and because David thought she was hot, so it worked out great!

Onto football and what an amazing season Auburn is having! The ARK game in AU was so much fun and I can not believe we racked up that many points; AWESOME!
To make it even more special, I had my best friend there, Kristin and her fiance Scott.
We hung out before the game with our the best tailgaters ever, Tulley and his wife Sammi Jo. Let me explain what I mean; their group of friends but money in and have a massive tailgate with huge speakers, TV's, grills, t-shirts, their own tailgate flag; you name it, they have it! One thing they also have it a beer pong table. It probably is not a shock to you to find out that this is the first time I've ever played beer pong but I decided I might as well. I had fun, can you tell?

Great victory and every year it's great to be an Auburn Tiger, but especially this year!

Vietnam; Part 3

2010-10-21T14:41:00.040-05:00

Finally, almost done blogging about Vietnam! I know this is probably much more information than anyone who attempts to read this really wants to know but it's really more for me to be able to remember it years down the road. I left off where we flew from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. We landed pretty late at night so there wasn't much excitement until we got here... This is my hotel room at the Saigon Sheraton! Our consultant obviously hooked us up and called in a favor to up grade our rooms. They were amazing, I almost didn't want to leave! Needless to say I had a wonderful night's rest and was refreshed to start our market tours of Ho Chi Minh. Our first stop was the Binh Tay market. It was a huge wet market that was very busy and had everything from grains to candy to raw meat hanging up as you can see! At times I wasn't sure what animal it was but one thing I was sure of was that I was not going to try it! Especially since it was really warm outside and the meat had no refrigeration. I'm sure their bodies are used to that and besides, they buy it and eat it the same day. Market tours took up most of our day and gave us a chance to see the city which was much larger than Hanoi and very typical big city. That evening I went to the hotel gym which was massive and so nice and then just took it easy in my room and ordered roomservice. The next day we had meetings all day with buyers and importers which went really well and then had a reception that night for all of our companies and local buyers. We had a great turnout and even had people from the US embassey there including the Consulor General...which is a big deal. Here he is and here is our group at the reception. The 23rd floor of our hotel had a restaurant and bar with a band that we went to hear for a little while after our reception and here is the view from the top with Beth and I in the pic! For lunch that day, I forgot to mention, we ran out to a local spot that was definitely authentic. The place was packed and not a single person that was not Vietnamese. This is where we ate and what we had. You're probably wondering what all that is that we ate, but first let me say, I've had far worse! The Vietnamese food is actually fairly bland and pretty healthy. They eat out of little bowls that they pile everything in and just keep filling up; guess it helps with portion control! We had boiled duck eggs, beef and rice, a soy soup with veggies, yukka root and those fried hush puppy looking things were for a lack of better words, a fish ball. It was just fish made into a ball and fried. The taste wasn't bad but the texture was pretty horrible. Other than that, a pleasant food experience. The next day we were scheduled to leave but not until midnight that night so we finally had some time to see a few things before we had to check out. Beth and I spent the morning touring and seeing the following: This is the Vietnamese version of Notre Dame, and yes they call it that. Not very original but it works. It's obviously a Catholic church and it's downtown Ho Chi Minh City next to this building old post office that was built in the 1800's and they still use it today. These pictures don't do it justice, but the inside was beautiful as well and had old phone booths with huge pictures of the country on the wall above. We came across this park as we were walking around and tons of college students in architecture were out enjoying the day and sketching. Next was the Palace of Reunification, they call it. This was formally known as Independence Palace and was the home and workplace of the President of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. For those of you "of age" in the 70's, these are the gates out in front of the palace that were crashed through with tanks of the North Vietnamese when the war ended. Although I wasn't around then, I thought this was really interesting to see and I really enjoyed seeing a piece of America's history, even if it wasn't the best of times our country has ever experienced, but it's still part of who we are. Here are a couple of snapshots from inside the palace. The President's office This was a strategy room where the maps still have markings on them from war time. This was their technology back then and way to communicate...we've come a long way! We stopped for some tea at a local restaurant near the palace, which was fun and then we headed back to the hotel to get a massage at the spa! We decided to treat ourselves and lighten our wallets a little bit before the long trip back home. For dinner we had one of these just to say we tried the local beer! It's called Ba Ba Ba, which means 3 3 3 because of the weight or something like that. This was an amazing country with deep ties to America, so it was an honor to get to go and try to promote US small businesses. Hope you enjoyed seeing it too!

Vietnam: Part 2 (Hanoi)

2010-10-15T16:30:00.051-05:00

So we made it off the ground in Taipei and enjoyed a relatively smooth flight to Hanoi, incoming typhoon and all. We landed in Hanoi a little before lunch and were greeted by our in-country consultant Francis and his employee Tuan. This was very nice to have a ride waiting on us and it gave us a chance to meet these people that we had been working with via email to plan the trade mission for the last several months. Like most airports, this one was 30 miles or so outside the city and it was a good opportunity to see just a little bit of the agriculture that Vietnam is known for. Rice is obviously their largest commodity and the agricultural sector is the largest in their economy by a long shot. As we started getting into Hanoi, it was interesting to see their housing. Note-a large majority of Vietnamese live out in the rural areas and are farmers and their houses are very modest compared to those in the city. But we did see a lot of houses that were very big, maybe 4 stories, but they're built very narrow. Some can be very elaborate and most contain only one family. They're painted bright colors and look like beach houses, which I guess in a lot of ways they are since Vietnam is a coastal country. Interestingly, the sides of the houses are not painted at all though and remain the exposed concrete. I wish I had taken a picture, but I didn't, sorry.

We made it to our hotel, the Hanoi Hilton, and checked in. *Side note: when I told my dad I was staying at the Hanoi Hilton, he was a little concerned because when he had heard that phrase it was the torture camp that John McCain and other US soldiers were held in during the war! I reassured him it wasn't that Hilton and it definitely wasn't. Here's our hotel on the right and the Hanoi Opera House on the left.

Our first order of business was to have a brief meeting with the consultant concerning our upcoming meetings before the companies arrived. We met over lunch at the hotel and were introduced to Pho, the traditional Vietnamese soup, pictured here. It was so good and if anyone knows of a restaurant in Montgomery that serves it, please let me know. For more info on what it is, read this.

After filling our bellies with this delicious chicken soup, the exhaustion just about overcame us due to the lack of sleep at the airport the night before and all of the jet lag. It was only early afternoon though and we really needed to stay awake a few more hours so we could sleep that night. In order to try and do that, we decided to do some exploring around our hotel because our consultant said we were in a very busy, tourist area that was very safe. We walked down to the market and took an hour long bicycle tour (you know where you sit in chair on the front and they pedal you) and it was only about $10! Everything is supper cheap there! This is the market and this was the traffic
Let me tell you, I've been in some crazy traffic before (if you've been to India or China you know what I'm talking about!) but I had never seen anything like this. There were scooters EVERYWHERE! And the crazy thing is, to cross the road, you just have to walk and the scooters go around you. I know this sounds insane, but it's true. You also have to keep a steady pace because if you slow down or stop you're much more likely to get hit! Scooters are the main form of transportation and whole families...like this one will load up on them and travel the main roads. I even saw really small children being held by their parents on these things, without helmets. For some reason they believe the tight fit of the helmet can warp the brains of children under the age of 6, so they don't have to legally wear a helmet. I guess they don't take into consideration what would happen if they hit the concrete going 50 mph, but anyway. Here are a few shots from the market as well as our walk back to our hotel by the lake downtown Hanoi.

You'll notice in the 2nd picture above, 2 couples dressed in wedding gowns and tuxes taking pictures. We originally thought there was some type of photo shoot going on because we saw literally at least 30-40 brides and grooms taking pictures. I'm still not sure if I believe it, but everyone we asked just said that it was a beautiful location for couples getting married to take pictures; but all on the same day???

We decided they must believe in Auspicious Days and this was one of them. If you don't know what that is, I googled it for you and the definition is this: promising well for future: marked by lucky signs or good omens, and therefore by the promise of success or happiness.

By this time it was around 4 pm and we were totally exhausted. Beth and I had both been falling asleep the whole time on our bicycle tour so we decided to give up and take a nap. Well our short nap turned into all night and we gave up and gave into our exhaustion. The next morning we met up with all of our companies and our in-country consultant (Francis) to begin our market tours. These are basically just tours of the local retail outlets and markets and even included some wholesale markets which I was surprised about. Vietnam has advanced significantly over the last couple of decades, but as I mentioned in Part 1, the people are still very used to shopping in the locally owned, open air markets. This makes retailing a little hard but slowly and surely Vietnamese are starting to see the benefits of going to one store and buying everything. Several of the markets were huge, very much like super Walmarts and Sams Clubs. This was a great opportunity for our companies to be introduced to the market and to size up their potential competition; possibly even American imports that were already there. This was a full day adventure and after weaving in and out of scooters all day (and still suffering from jet lag), I developed a little bit of car sickness and had to rest awhile instead of joining the group for a late lunch.

By dinner I was feeling better so Beth and I ventured back out near where we were the day before and enjoyed all the lights and decorations they had up for their 1,000 year anniversary. Can you imagine? 1,000 years! The US is so young compared to other parts of the world.

To top of our evening, we went and saw the Hanoi water puppets. We saw this in my Vietnam travel book as a "must do" because it's been a traditional art dating back hundreds, maybe thousands of years. I imagined it was going to be out in the nice, pretty lake in the center of town, but it was actually just in a theater that Beth and I spent forever looking for. We were going to purchase tickets ahead of time at the box office but since we couldn't ever find it, we just gave up and went to dinner. Then on our way back, we ran across the theater and got last minute tickets just before it started. The reason it's called water puppets is (as you can see), the puppets are in front of a set that is on top of water and the puppeteers have the puppets on long poles that reach back behind the set. Although I'm glad we had the experience, this is probably the worst play/show I've seen in a country so far. It was unique but there was NO translation; the entire hour was in Vietnamese. And not only that, they sang traditional Vietnamese songs the whole time which are high pitched and not to be ugly, but hurt your ears! A few parts of the show were entertaining but after watching puppets for a few minutes, we got really sleepy! Since we were late to get tickets, we got the back row seats which were perfect to lean our heads back and take short naps during boring parts. After the show, which seemed like it lasted forever, we went back to the hotel for some more much needed rest. (Those first couple of days of international travel when crossing the int'l date line are rough!)

The next day we had one on one meetings with importers and retailers and here is a picture of our companies meeting with the US Consul for Vietnam. She was fantastic and has high hopes for US imports into Vietnam.

During our lunch break, a few of us hurried over to what they called the "Hanoi Hilton" during the Vietnam war. This was actually the... and it was the prison where John McCain was held as a POW and this was his pilot suit when his plane was shot down. The prison was originally built in the late 1800's by the French when they occupied Vietnam and held Vietnamese prisoners of war. Obviously they weren't too nice to them. This is a representation of how they would chain the prisoner's feet down and then one of the cells they would hold them in.

It was pretty interesting comparing the pictures of the Vietnamese who were imprisoned there and the US soldiers in the early 70's. Most of the pictures of the Americans are of them playing basketball out in the prison's courtyard or of them getting to have a nice dinner or go to church; while the pictures of the French treatment of the Vietnamese is very violent and gruesome. A little propaganda...don't you think. This is me out in the court yard.

After an afternoon of more meetings, we checked out of our hotel and caught a flight to Ho Chi Minh City which was about an hour and a half. Part 3 coming up!

VIETNAM; Part 1

2010-10-15T13:42:00.032-05:00

From the title of this post you have probably already deduced that yet again I have had the wonderful experience of traveling for work. This time it was Vietnam. My dad thinks it's funny that I've traveled so much but yet it's never to any countries that are on people's wish list. I admit, they're frequently pretty random places. In this case, Vietnam is what we call an emerging market which is due to the fact that it was occupied by the Chinese for close to 1,000 years, the French for about 300 and then the Americans got involved during the Vietnam War. Therefore, Vietnam has just started popping up on the international scene and has generally been "catching up" since we withdrew our troops in the mid 70's. Their middle class, which has mostly been nonexistent due to a Socialist government, has started to grow and since the development of the Internet, has been introduced to products and business opportunities from around the world. Currently, the average household still shops in locally owned shops and wet markets (upward of around 65-70%) but that number is slowly changing. More and more Vietnamese are shopping at retail outlets and they even have some wholesale stores (like our Sam's) called Metro that are doing well. We were able to visit a good many markets during our trade mission and they were very interesting. This is a positive trend for US companies who are interested in exporting to Vietnam because as shopping patterns change, so will the exposure to imported goods. This should cause a greater demand for products such as our own.

So, there's the background of why we chose to write an activity for Vietnam. What I mean by that is this; my job is to do all of the market research for these trade missions I go on and find countries/markets that our Southern US companies are interested in. Then I have to write a big proposal, including a budget and so-forth for the proposed activity. This is submitted to a branch of USDA that works with Ag exports and is then approved or disapproved (but hopefully not). Companies are then recruited and it's my job to basically plan the whole thing, along with one other activity manager from another SE US state. Reports of sales and leads are submitted after the mission and evaluated by the USDA group who issues the funding. It's obvious that I work for the government because of all the paperwork involved, but it's worth it!

Onto the trip. My counterpart at the Georgia Department of Agriculture, Beth, traveled with me on this trade mission and in order to fly the airline where we have all of our skymiles, we chose to have a 12 hour layover in Taipei, Taiwan. Now, I know a 12 hr layover by choice sounds insane, but our reasoning was that Beth had been there several times and knew where we could go eat dinner and see a few things. Since I had never been to Taiwan (and I wanted skymiles!), I happily agreed and we decided we would have a little adventure. What an adventure it turned out to be!

Just in case you're wondering, yes, the flight was torture! Yes I have an awesome job, but no, it's not always fun. Here's the timeline for me.
-3:45 am-Wake up to be at airport in Montgomery for 6:30 am flight (1 hr air time)
-Connect in ATL and fly to LA (5 hr flight)which by the way is THE worst airport in the US
-13 hour flight to Taipei; layover overnight
-2 1/2 hour flight to Hanoi, Vietnam (Sunday morning)

When we landed in Taipei it was 8:30 pm on Saturday night (their time) which is around 8:30 am on Saturday morning back home. I was able to sleep enough on the flight to be excited to get out in Taipei and get some dinner until we went through immigration. We asked the guy behind the counter a good place to go get dinner and he replies, "Somewhere close by since there's a Typhoon." A what? Yes, a typhoon. I guess I learned what that was in middle school, but at the time I had no idea what that was and how bad it could be. Come to find out, it's the same thing as our hurricanes, but it's on the other side of the world and rotates in the opposite direction. Interesting...what to do? Well, we had flown 13 hrs and voluntarily chosen a 12 hr layover so unless we were about to blow away, we were going out. We went to the information desk and talked with a guy who spoke very good English and he reassured us that the Typhoon wasn't supposed to hit for another 12 hours and we were fine to go out and get some dinner. It actually wasn't even raining so we took the shuttle/bus into town to the Shinlin Night Market.
Beth had recently been there and knew they had "Bubble Tea" so she wanted me to try it...here's a pic. It was pretty good because it just tasted like an iced chai or tea but there was a surprise in the bottom. You're probably wondering what that is just as I was! It's tapioca which is fairly tasteless but has a chewy, weird texture and the straws they give you are really big so you can suck them up with the tea. They freaked me out, so I drank about 4 or 5 sips and chunked it in the garbage! Onto dinner...we walked around looking at what everyone was cooking but we just couldn't do it. The food probably didn't taste all that bad, but we were leery of the sanitation of the meat just sitting out and how it was being cooked. Rather than being adventurous and running the risk of getting sick before our mission ever began, we walked around a little and then went and had ice cream. Here's a shot of Taipei at night near the market. Now Taiwanese ice cream is not like our ice cream but to be honest, I may even like it better. It's shaved, almost like our shaved ice, but not icee. It's very creamy and here is Beth holding our mound of peanut butter flavored ice cream that we shared for dinner. It was yummy! We figured this would be our safest and best option for dinner, especially since it was late and none of the sit-down type restaurants were open. Speaking of it getting late, the subway that we took from the bus stop to the market closed at 12:30 so we ran to try and catch the last one. No luck...so we just took a cab back to the airport.

As we walked in, we noticed it was very quiet and still, but there were a few people sitting in the waiting area by the door. We saw the sign for China Air (which is a Delta affiliate) and who our flight was with in the morning; the only problem was, it was dark and there was no one there. Matter of fact, there was no one at any of the desks. Actually, there was basically no one in the whole place that worked there! We were thinking, this is a bad sign. All of sudden, we saw a China Air lady walk out of the office behind the desk and we chased her down. I'm pretty sure she saw us coming and was trying to get away as soon as possible because she was off duty, but we caught her! At this point it was around 1:30 am and we asked her when there would be someone back at the desk for us to check in; she said 5 am! We were shocked but figured since that was not a huge airport that it made since. So, since I had a couple of passes to the Delta Crown Room due to this screw up, we were satisfied to wait it out there in luxury. Well, they didn't have one. So, defeated, we asked her what to do and in her broken English she told us to wait. OK, so we had to wait for another 6 1/2 hrs but we didn't have to wait right there. Surely there was a more comfortable place with some restaurants or something?? Then we see the information desk that had the late night crew working who basically spoke no English AT ALL rather than the guy mentioned earlier that was fluent. We politely asked him where we should go. After repeating and motioning what we were saying about 120 times, he finally pointed up to the escalator. We head in the direction only to find that they are turned off since maintenance was buffing the floor (naturally at 2 am, why not?) We go back to the poor guy at the info desk and try to ask him if there are stairs or any other way to get up to the gates because they are cleaning the floors. Well, you can imagine that he understood absolutely none of that, so Beth starts doing the motion that the floor cleaning guys were doing with their buffers; basically circling her arms in front of her chest...you can picture it. The guy was trying so hard to understand what she was saying that he starts doing the same motion and it looks like he's dancing and we all die out laughing. At some point it clicks and he goes and turns the elevators on for us. At last, we visualize approaching the summit of the escalator and seeing miles of stores, lots of people and maybe even some coffee; kind of like ATL. Not so much. There's nothing. Well, a few stores maybe but they had bars over them and weren't opening until 5 either. There also are NO people.

Curiously we make our way to the door of security (that is closed) and see some poor soul sitting behind a desk. He walks up to the window and tells us, in great English, that they do not open until 5 and we'll have to wait. By this time it's about 2 am and we settle in for the night, although we can't sleep. There was one young guy with his bags there as well and that was it, at least we thought. We decided to try and get some rest so we go over to some of the chairs to pull them together as a bed and there he is, the janitor. This guy either does not have a home so he sleeps at the airport on his off shift, or he works the night shift and gets away with doing nothing! Not sure but he basically slept the entire time we were there. This was bad enough, not to mention that it was freezing and we were dreading the possibility of our flight getting delayed due to the Typhoon so we watched this board all night. The W-12 by Typhoon, we found out was telling us that the eye of the storm was supposed to hit in 12 hours; just in time for us to get out of there if at all possible.

After a really long night (did I mention too that I had a test the day or so after I got back) so not only was I miserable but I had to study while sitting in that cold, lonely airport! Although we laughed about the situation a good bit, it was a great feeling when 4:30 started to roll around and there was life. First, the cleaning crew guy woke up and actually started cleaning. Slowly a few people started to trickle in, and then glory of all glories, Starbucks opened at 5!! I have never been so happy in my life. That latte was the best one I've ever had, especially since it was warm! Since our flight to Hanoi wasn't until 8:30, we took our time eating and went through security around 6. There were many more people around at this time but we were still shocked at how much smaller the airport is inside than it looks outside. Before we went though security, it looked like the gate area was fairly small too but little did we know, we had been on the outside of this entire world below us. Since we chose to go out in the city, we had to go through immigration and back through security. Most people do not do this obviously when they're just connecting so once we got through security we saw hundreds of people and tons of stores, restaurants, etc. It was hilarious! At this point we didn't care though and were just praying that our flight would take off before any bad weather. It was raining, hard at times, but we were mostly worried about the wind. it was blow really hard from time to time but they still hadn't canceled our flight. Luckily everything turned out fine and we took off without a hitch.

Since this has gotten a little long and I haven't even gotten to the Vietnam part, I'll continue in another post.

Wisdom

2010-09-14T14:54:00.012-05:00

Last Friday David had his wisdom teeth taken out and he went from this to this,

Actually, he doesn't look bad at all because he really didn't swell but he was definitely in some pain. I'm not sure how, but he and I both did not have our wisdom teeth taken out when we were younger so in the last year we've both had all 4 of ours removed. There are some pretty hilarious stories related to both incidences so if you haven't heard them, here's your chance!

First the most recent: Everyone knows David is a really happy, life-loving kind of a guy in normal circumstances, but you've never seen him doped up on pain meds and leaving the doctor's office after being put to sleep...it was hilarous! So after his surgery, I pull the car around to get him and have to come in the back door of the office and sit in a little waiting room until he's finished. The Dr. comes by to talk with me and tell me everything went well, that's he'll be stumbling back to see me in a minute and will probably be pretty groggy. He obviously doesn't know David's personality very well because as soon as he gets the words out of his mouth, I hear off in the distance..."HEY DOC, YOU DID A FANTASTIC JOB! I FEEL GREAT! HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND." (or something to that effect). Point being, most people feel like crap and just want to take medicine and go to sleep, but not my husband.

The nurse brings him into the little room I'm in and as soon as he sees me he says, "HEY BABY!" (There's a reason I'm using all caps, i.e. he was pretty loud!) Then he proceeds to put his hand straight out in front of him aiming at my chest!! I know he's going to die that I wrote that in there but at least it was me and not the nurse. He actually can't even remember doing that. So he's sitting there grinning from ear to ear talking about how good he feels and how easy the surgery was; I decided not to bust his bubble and let him know how much worse the recovery is. After some quick instructions from the nurse on his meds, she asks if you have any questions, first mistake. David says "Yea (and I think, Oh no, what's he going to say) Can I have a beer?" HA! I'm laughing out loud at this point. The poor nurse says, no, I don't really think that's a good idea. Then he says, "Well...what about tomorrow?" Again she responds in a kind way, probably not. Why don't you just wait until next week? He accepts this answer and we load up in the car and head home. The conversation in the car was pretty funny as well but he started to come down from the meds a little bit by the time we got to Target to pick up his prescription. He still says he feeling fine and he wants to come in with me! I try every way I know to get him to wait on me in the car, but to no avail. He is walking pretty good; just a little stumble every now anad then. We got a buggy for him to lean on and we start our shopping adventure.

The only saving grace of this Target run though was the fact that I convinced him that his mouth looked gross when he opened it so he had to keep it closed, therefore no talking! Again, if you know David you understand this is against his nature but it was really necessary at the time because there was no telling what he would be saying to people! I wasn't embarrassed becaues he acted fine and by looking at him you couldn't even tell he had just had his wisdom teeth out, but I was dreading one part of our trip to Target, and that was walking up to the counter at the Pharmacy. That's because of a little incident that occured when I had my wisdom teeth taken out. I guess this is as good a time as ever to tell that story!

I had all of my wisdom teeth taken out about a year ago and David had a lot harder time than I did with it, and I was the patient! When I was finished up with surgery, he walked back to get me and I started crying. I had a total opposite reaction than David to the meds they use to put you to sleep because I was not happy! I was crying and whining and the nurse and David couldn't tell what was wrong with me because I had a mouth full of gauze. For some really dumb reason, the nurse goes ahead and takes the gauze out of my mouth (about 20 minutes after surgery mind you) and asks me what I'm crying about. Do you know what I say? "Can I go back to work on Monday?" Oh my gosh, I didn't even want to go back to work! I have no idea where that came from! We get ready to go after all of the nonsense and my mouth starts bleeding really bad since the nurse took my gauze out so soon.

Side note: David doesn't do well with blood.

Anyway, I loose it again and start crying. This time David says, "Baby, what's wrong?" But for some reason he won't look at me and is staring straight forward. I mumble something that he can't understand and then decide to take the newer gauze out to talk; second bad idea. At this point David is feeling a little whoozy but looks at me anyway to see what I have to say this time. Which was, "I'm scared they left gauze sewed up in my gum after they took my teeth out."...What?? I know this sounds crazy but David has a co-worker who had a tiny piece of gauze sewed up in his mouth that he discovered years later when he started getting a tooth ache. He told me this story several weeks before my surgery but for some reason I remembered that and it freaked me out!

At this point David just tells me to lean back and go to sleep, which I kind of do and we head off to Target for my medicine. As we get off the exit, I sit up and start talking...again! David is looking a little pale and I ask him what's wrong. He says that my bloody mouth is making him sick because it looks like his wife has been hit in the face with a baseball bat! At this point, things start going downhill fast. We are finally near Target and as we turn into the parking lot David says that he really doesn't feel well. Within seconds, we enter the parking lot, he throws it into park, somehow manages to pull into a parking space and passes out. I'm not kidding; like he literally lays his head on the steering wheel and passes out. Well, still under the influence a bit (and bleed still) I freak out! I run around to his side of the car, put the air on him and turn him to make him put his head between his knees. He comes back to and his pretty much better at this point, but it's too late, I've already sprinted into Target for help (again, I'm medicated). I run up to the pharmacist who I know from childhood and start telling her how my husband is passed out in the car and we need help. She looks at me like I'm crazy because I am the one with huge gauze in my mouth and bleeding. At this point I try to calm down and explain to her that yes, I just had surgery but David is the one passed out. She calls some Target reinforcement in and about 4 of us head out to the car where David is sitting like nothing ever happened! Actually he is still a little pale but fine!

We were both exhausted after all of this drama and I prayed it would never happen again; which thank goodness it didn't the next time around! Now I'm worried about when we have kids though...somebody is going to have to be in there to make sure David doesn't hit the floor!

Anyway, this was really long but it was SO funny-both times. David did really well and did not pass out and neither did I after his recent surgery and he's recovering really well! Let's hope there are no more surgeries anytime soon in our future!

Labor Day Ribs

2010-09-11T18:06:00.010-05:00

It's been a week and I'm just now getting a chance to write about our Labor Day weekend, but it's worth it to get my hub's awesome rib pictures in here! Since BBQ-ing on Labor Day is a must, we tried a new recipe for ribs out of Chris Lilley's cookbook. He is the BBQ master at Big Bob Gibson's in Decatur and has won numerous national awards for his yummy BBQ. Here's a picture of the sign at the restaurant in Decatur and then David's ribs with the rub from the cookbook.

David put a pan of water in the bottom of the grill with the coals on the other side which creates a wet heat and somewhat steams the ribs.
As a side dish we had potato salad, of course; but not just any potato salad! Mrs. Carola Jeter from my hometown makes a potato salad dressing mix that is amazing! First you boil the potatoes with the herb mixture...as so, . After the potatoes are cooked, you chop them and mix them in with the dressing. It has relish in it, but to add a little kick (and another AL product of course), I add in some chopped Wickles Pickles or Relish and it is OUTSTANDING! This is what the bottle looks like...
Once the ribs were almost ready, David added pineapple on top which gave them a little sweet flavor and they were SO GOOD! Here's another picture of them with the pineapple which is more to show off my huge banana plants in the background!David and I loaded up our plates and enjoyed the first weekend of Auburn Football. WAR EAGLE!

House Update

2010-09-07T21:50:00.008-05:00

No, this is not an update saying that we sold our current house in Montgomery, sadly. But, this is at least a small step closer on our renovations at our Troy house. Until last Friday, our poor house looked like it had the measels, as you can tell. Earlier in the spring we put new hardy board on the front of the house where it had some rotten wood but we did not paint it right away so a lot of the nails had rusted. So we had to treat them with an anti-rust treatment, aka the polka dots and let that dry. Then finally we had a free morning and we headed down to our infected looking house to do some doctoring on it. Mom and I had picked up some primer that we had tinted to a beige type color, which turned out yellow and ugly, so David and I had it tinted slightly darker and it turned out great! Here's the results. This may not look like much but at least it's one more thing off of our list!
Feeling good with our accomplishment, mom and I left the boys with the clean up and headed home to get ready for our day of pampering. We had scheduled a facial in Dothan but much to our dismay, the girl had to cancel so with paint brushes ready, we reported back to work. We were sad to not get our facial but we did get this done instead! If you can tell from this picture, the paint on the back porch was a peachy/pink color and it was not pretty. So we went ahead and painted the back porch as well which really cleaned it up.
It's hard to tell a lot about it from the pictures but we're moving along, slowly but surely. The electrician is currently working, then we'll get the sheetrock guy to come patch up some holes and fill in where we tore down walls and then we'll be getting close! More updates to follow.

Finally

2010-08-29T15:51:00.028-05:00

Since we hardly ever have a slow weekend around the Cole household, I thought "Finally" was an appropriate title for this blog. Because I'm trying to get better about blogging some of our everyday life, rather than just big events or trips, I thought I would share a little bit of what I did this weekend since David was out of town and I had nothing going on. Like I mentioned, this rarely happens due to my job and us renovating a house, so I got a lot done around the house and just soaked it up.

David headed up to the ATL for a guys' weekend to celebrate our friend Will's 30th Bday. Here's a picture from a couple of weekends ago with some of David's friends. Pictured are Webb Holmes, David, Will Amos and Allan Hinson. David was so excited becaues they had the opportunity to play at one of Atlanta's nicest golf courses, Capital City Club, and he played well! David said he felt a little blown away at how nice the club was and how fortunate he was to get to play there...but we'll just settle for the Troy Country Club based on our budget!

As for me, Friday night I worked late and went to bed early. Not very exciting but it was very much needed! Saturday was the ideal, quiet Saturday that I cherish when it comes around every once in a blue moon. First I slept in until about 9, which is definitely late for me these days. After a bowl of cereal, I settled in with my coffe and took some time to read my Bible and a devotional book. I love having time to just do some reading and pray. It's so good to feel reconnected with the Lord and everytime it inspires me to want to spend more time in my walk with the Lord. But I must admit, I don't do this near as much as I wish I did and it's a struggle to make time for it. I know I would benefit (and God deserves it!) if I would just get up a little earlier or spend a few minutes at night focusing on Him; but at least we know it's his grace not our "doings" that allows us to know Him. Before I knew it, it was late morning and I decided to do a little cleaning around this house. Although this isn't fun, it always feels great to get it out of the way. So after a lot of this and a little bit of this I admired my clean house. Which is still for sale by the way-see info here; please!!!!

Since I didn't make it to the early class at the gym, I went for a little run around the neighborhood. Although it was warm, the temperature has dropped in the last couple of weeks to the low and mid 90's rather than 100's so it was surprisingly pleasant. Post run and shower, I settled in to make my grocery list and try to do the coupon thing. First let me say that I, for some weird reason, love the grocery store. I guess it's because I'm kind of into food and work with food companies, but I hate being rushed on my grocery trips because I like to meander up and down the aisles and look at everything. It's especially fun at a store like I love this store because they have a wide selection of gourmet-type products and international foods. The one challenge is, it's a little more expensive. So I've been trying to do the coupon thing and use Southern Savers to figure it out. Mom and I went to one of her workshops which was really entertaining and she did a good job explaining the concept, but it's taken me a while to figure it all out. I still mess it up a good bit but I did save close to $40 yesterday on my trip to Publix!

After all of my domestic accomplishments for the day, I decided to treat myself to a fun dinner and experiment with a recipe I received from a counter-part at the Dept of Ag in FL. She sends me lots of cool recipes from her international travels and this one is called Shrimp and Eggplant Beignets...how cool is that?! I was a little intimidated at first because you have to fry them and we don't fry much around here, but they turned out good. Here's the recipe and some step by step pics in case you want to try them too!

(I cut this recipe in half and it still made more than enough for me and David and leftovers)
1 medium eggplant
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup onion
1/2 lb small Gulf White Shrimp, peeled & deveined
3 eggs, beaten
1-1/2 cups milk
2 T baking powder
3-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
4 cups sold vegetable shortening (I just used peanut oil)
Creole Seasoning

1. Season the eggplant with 1/2 teaspoon of salt & 1/4 t of cayenne.
2. Heat 2 T of veg oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Saute eggplant until slightly soft, about 2-3 minutes.
3. Add shrimp & saute until shrimp turn pink.
4. Remove & set aside to cool.
5. Combine the eggs, milk, baking powder, and the remaining one teaspoon salt & 1/4 t cayenne in mixing bowl. Add flour, 1/4 cup at a time, beating until the batter is smooth.
6. Add the eggplant & shrimp mixture & fold to mix.
7. Heat the shortening in a deep pot or deep fryer to 360 degrees. (Basically I just let the oil heat about 10 minutes on medium-high heat until I could drop a small bit of batter into it and it would begin frying.)
8. Drop the batter, a heaping tablespoon at a time, into the hot oil. (I tried to get at least one shrimp in each spoonful.When the beignets pop to the surface, roll them around in the oil to brown them evenly. (I left them in about 10 minutes)
9. Drain on papertowels.
10. Sprinkle with cajun seasoning mix and serve immediately. (I chose to eat them with a side salad and a nice glass of white wine...YUMMY!)
To make myself feel a little better for eating basically big fried seafood hush puppies, I had a weight watches dessert while I watches these...

Talk about a great weekend of relaxation!

Down Home....

2010-08-26T13:33:00.019-05:00

Have you ever heard of a chicken swirl from Mark's Mart? Well, if you're from Selma or anywhere over in West AL you probably have! Since I'm from the big metropolis of Troy, this was my first experience with chicken swirls and let me tell you, it was yummy! On the way home to David's parent's house in *Akron (yes Alabama, not Ohio) we stopped to pick up these delicious chicken, ham, bacon swirled goodies to grill for dinner.
*If you've never heard of Akron, don't feel bad, most people haven't but it's right outside of Greensboro, AL and is very rural and quite beautiful. You can find the best catfish in the world there and like most of the small towns in AL, some of the nicest people you've ever met. If you ever want to visit, let us know; David can introduce you to everyone...literally! Here's map showing where Akron is located and you can zoom in to find it.

View Larger Map Driving Directions

The convenience store in Selma is really quite cute and here's a picture of it from this Selma blog. They have a big selection of wine, locally made foods and products and ready to cook dinners like casseroles, twice baked potatoes and of course, the chicken swirl. I hate I didn't take a picture of them once they were cooked, but there just wasn't time...we ate them so fast!
Our night was all about good food and hanging out with family. David's mom fixed buttermilk homemade ice cream which I had never had and it was SO good! Really interesting and different but so yummy! I was so stuffed that I was in bed by 9:30! Anywhoo, the next morning we woke up to David's dad's homemade biscuits and country breakfast that was so good that I'm not sure if David really wanted to come home with me and go back to our granola bars, cereal and the ocassional peanut butter and crackers. Ok, so I know I'm telling on myself but it's just reality! We may have eaten a lot, but to David's credit, he went for a pretty long run mid-morning in the heat. I would have joined him but I "forgot my tennis shoes"; aka, I didn't bring them on purpose because I wanted to be a slacker!
We spent the day just hanging out and catching up since we hadn't had much time with Mrs. Cornelia, Mr. Herman and David's brother Daniel since our Cole-family vaca to Hartwick, Iowa mentioned here. I love my in-laws and bro-in law and we always have a good time spending time with them; we just wish they lived a little closer. Here we are at Thanksgiving 2 years ago. Sorry it's not a great picture and nobody's looking at the camera (except me) but it's the only one I have downloaded on my computer right now.
I hate that I don't have any pictures from this, but that afternoon Daniel took us out on his boat and we had a blast! We were going to do a little fishing because I've been bothering David to take me since around our 2nd date, but we ended up running into one of David's friends that he grew up with, Lawson and his girlfriend Farrah. Like I said, I don't have any pictures from that day but this is them at a wedding earlier in the year. The River we were on was the Black Warrior and David grew up going out there with all his buddies so he loved being back out there. We hung out with Farrah and Lawson at one of the sand bars, if you can call it that; basically it was just the muddy side of the river! Then we stopped off at the rope swing which against my gut instinct to do adventurous things, I did not try. I guess I'm growing up! Then we got caught in a huge rain storm that hurt so bad while we were racing back to the boat ramp! Looking back on it, it's pretty funny, but at the time, not so much. For dinner Farrah & Lawson grilled us burgers and we headed back to the Coles.
Wonderful weekend where we enjoyed going "down home...where they know you by name and treat you like family." I can positively say that the band Alabama was thinking about David's hometown when they wrote this!

Inspired

2010-08-12T12:05:00.022-05:00

After reading and commenting on this blog, I was inspired to write a "real" blog with a little more insight into my life rather than just events and pictures. I thought Lindsay's blog about feeling behind was very relavent to my life and how I once felt in regard to marriage and now struggle with from time to time when thinking about having kids. I realize the pressure to get married and have a family is much higher in the south than other regions, but I think every woman has pressure even just from herself to meet someone, get married and have a family; I think it's just something that's built in us. Although I have to say that my parents were very supportive of me establising my career and taking my time before I got married and were truly never a source of pressure.

I have a good many friends who married in their early 20's and have at least one, most likely 2 and some even 3 or more kids by now. They are precious families to me and I love every minute I get to spend watching their kids grow up. Moreover, most of them had been dating since high school or at least several years and the timing was right for them to get married at a younger age than I did. They all have strong marriages and I am so thankful I can ask them lots of questions since they're a step ahead of me! But on the flip side, I also have several friends, who like me, didn't feel ready to be married and wondered if we ever would be. I hate to admit it to some degree but I loved being single and experiencing life knowing there were endless possibilities of where I might go and who I might end up with. In a lot of ways it was really exciting, although at times lonely, to know I was just living for myself and what made me happy. Maybe it's just me and my slightly restless spirit that enjoyed the single life, but I think if more women would soak that time up in their life, they would have happier marriages. For those 2-3 years that I lived on my own in Montgomery, dated some, traveled, hung out with friends and just lived, I now realize were some of my best! I believe the reason is, at least in my case, they prepared me to meet David and know that I was ready for my life to settle down and become a wife since I had experienced some time on my own. (Like I said, I'm a little restless though and I truly believe God knew I needed this time on my own...some people don't.)

I also realize that over the course of those 3 years it wasn't all smooth sailing. I hit a couple of bumpy patches, mainly due to past relationships revisited, but I came out stronger and more aware of the kind of guy I really wanted to end up with. It may be corny, and I'm not convinced that I know myself completely at this point, but I learned alot about myself during that time.

So yes, I definitely felt "behind" at that point in my life, even though deep down I was loving every minute of it! Fast forward to marrying David in May of 2008 and the "being behind" feeling left for a while. Side note: it was pretty cool how the time I spent on my own, with the Lord's leading, allowed me to know without a shadow of a doubt that I was suppossed to marry David and that the timing in my life was right for me to become a wife. We've had an awesome 2 1/2 years of marriage, though it is a hard adjustment and I won't tell anyone that marriage is always easy, but the sense of feeling behind is looming again...this time it's about babies! I think it's probably true when people say that you're never really ready to have kids or at least I hope that's true because honesly, even though I'm 28, it's really hard for me to imagine having another life that I'm responsible for...forever! Is this normal? I hope so! Here's what I think it is and if you read this blog, feel free to respond.

a) I'm on only child and never had any younger siblings or really even any cousins that I helped with much so I've not ever been in that "motherly" state of mind.
b) I wasn't really ready to get married until all of a sudden God decided the timing was right and brought David into my life. Truthfully, it happened pretty much overnight, or maybe in more like 2 weeks that I realized it was time to get ready to be a wife! I think this is a pattern in my life and will probably be the way it hits me when I'm ready to have a kid...like a ton of bricks!
c) David and I have been trying to sell our house for close to 2 years. This is a pretty big burden and I think the stress of it all doesn't allow me to think about adding more stress of having a family. That and we're not settled. Once we move into our house in Troy, they'll be room for a baby, but not so much in our gardenhome!
d)I'm nervous about my job and what I'll do when we have a family. I absolutly love traveling internationally but I don't think I'll be able to handle doing that and commuting everyday to Montgomery, that's just too much time away from home. (I'm praying that some kind of job will come along where I can still travel but possibly work from home or at least be in Troy). I can handle being gone for a week here and there internationally, but not close to 11 hours a day, everyday!

So there's my 2 cents on feeling "behind" in life. It truly is a struggle that a good number of women have, at least I know I have several friends with whom this is a frequent topic of conversation. I guess it's just one day at a time though, trusting God and enjoying the ride!

Dee's Bday: old AU friends!

2010-08-11T16:52:00.016-05:00

Last month I had another what you might call reunion of sorts but it was much more low key than that last one. Dee Davis, one of my good friends from Auburn, turned 30 and we had a get together out at his house. But this isn't just any house, this is what you would call a plantation; Tallawahee Plantation, to be exact! I wish I had a picture of his parent's home which is down the road from Dee's cute little house, but I don't. Oh well. And actually, Dee's house is not very small, it's a nice size and has that beautiful plantation style architecture.

Anyway, here's the group that joined us. David was the only "new guy" but he fit right in and had a blast, which isn't hard to do when you're with Dee! This was taken the first night we got there and was at Dee's parent's restaurant named "Nothin' Fancy," how cute is that! We had wonderful fried catfish and shrimp and were stuffed. It wouldn't be a college reunion without playing a few games so here we are divided up into teams by the way you turned your hat. It worked pretty well until one person would decide they were tired of their Tallawahee trucker hat being a certain way and would turn it around, then we'd all get confused! The next day we just hung around while the guys fished and then late afternoon us girls joined Dee's mom for a quick trip to the local winery. Here we are trying some of their wine which was great and of course I had a little "shop" talk with them comparing their experience to some of the Alabama wineries I've worked with. After a couple of glasses, Dee's mom dropped us back off at the lodge where we stayed on the property and we started getting dinner ready (most of which Lindsey Slagley gets the props for)! She's an awesome cook and here are some of her yummy side dishes. For the entree the guys grilled some awesome amberjack and we had brownies for Dee's birthday dessert! This was such a fun time with great friends and we were all thankful for Dee's big 3-0 celebration!

Birthdays!

2010-08-08T21:30:00.017-05:00

The months of July and August include all of my immediate family members' birthdays, except for mine. So within about 3 weeks we celebrated mom's big one, David's and dad's, which were a little more low-key. As you can see from this picture, it's obvious why this was mom's "big one!" She said we pulled off the surprise party we planned and from the look on her face, I think we did! We had a great turnout of mom's friends and she had a great time celebrating!

Mrs. Joyce made a very tasty cake and everyone was sweet to bring her a sweet card. Here's out little fam: We held the party at the Pines and dad did a great job putting together some pictures of mom over the years that everybody loved looking at, especially her! All in all, it was a great night!

David's birthday fell on a Sunday and instead of a cake, he got one of his favorites which is Krispy Kreme doughnuts! We spent the day together at home just doing whatever we wanted to do and taking it easy, so I enjoyed his birthday a lot too!

Finally we made it to August and dad's birthday rolled around. Since we had celebrated mom's birthday for about a month, he wanted to just have a low key day up at the farm. I couldn't agree more! We had a big lunch, an even bigger slice of coconut cake that mom made! Here's dad blowing out his birthday candle! David and I got him a rear view mirror for his mule and a charcoal chimney thing-y that heats up the coals before you put them on the grill. Mom got him some shoes and his exciting new toy below...a gas weedeater, he was excited! Finally it was time to rest after all that eating and partying so we relaxed on the couch! Being with family up at Curry was the best way to spend a Sunday afternoon, especially celebrating my wonderful dad!

The Reunion!

2010-08-05T09:28:00.036-05:00

It's been 10 years...10 whole years since I graduated high school and I really just can't believe it! When they say that the older you get, the faster life goes by, they're not lying! I'll have to be honest and admit that I was really excited about this big event but it wasn't without some reservations and nervousness leading up to it. Just trying to digest that I have been graduated long enough to have my first reunion was freaking me out a little bit, much less being back in that same, comfortable atmosphere of "how it used to be" but as a different person. Well, not completely different! I'm still the same old hometown Troy girl just with more life experiences, a husband and a full time job!

So here's the whole gang. Actually this isn't quite everyone we graduated with, just everyone who came to the reunion. After lots of hard work planning this weekend long event, it finally arrived. I knew it would be fun but I had forgotten how much fun our class has together! We had an absolute ball!

Here's the run-down:
Friday night we had a get together at the Pines downtown Troy and we had a great turn-out. Here's a few fun pics:
me and Christy (Bradley) Grimes

from left to right: Kristin (Helms) Baggett, Fran (Renfroe)Holmes, Christy (Bradley) Grimes, Karri (Graddy) Booth, Jennifer Boutwell, me, Ashlee (Faust) Stephens, Brynn (Nix) Howell & Sheena (Wilkinson) Gibson

Classmates Charles Henderson High 2000

Emily Gaskin, me and Fran
Will Mills, me and my hubs!
me and Kristin Baggett
me and crazy Fran; just kidding, love her!

Saturday for lunch we met at Chuck High, aka, Charles Henderson, on the band field and catered BBQ and everyone (except me and David!) brought their kids. They are all so adorable and it's such a privledge for me to get to see them all grow up. One day David and I will have our own we pray, but for now we love being "Auntie Lauren" and Mr. David! Here's a group pic from that day:

Me holding sweet Tucker Vaughan; Matt & Amanda's youngest
Brynn, Jen B, Jennifer Hall, Fran, me, Emily G., Andrea Domizio Maness

Saturday night was so much fun because we had a big party up at Troy's Stadium Club with a DJ and a fun slide show of our high school years. Here's some pics from that night as well:

David and I heading out to the party

Karri, me, Ashlee
me, Ashlee, Karri & Brynn
me, Jenn B, Kristin, Fran
Girls funny pic
me and JB

It really was a great weekend of friends and fun! I don't want to be 10 years older really, but I can't wait until our 20 year reunion! I absolutely love all of my Troy friends and can't wait to move back and see them a lot more! I'll add a few more pics later.

Heaven on Earth

2010-08-03T21:33:00.017-05:00

This is the road that leads up to my parent's farm house, lovingly known as Curry. My dad grew up here....or really here. This small house down the road from Curry is where he lived when he was first born for several years but then moved up to the big house later in life.

Several years ago, my parents purchased the old Chandler place from the remaining siblings because they wanted to renovate it and restore it to its rustic beauty. And yes, I said renovate which probably sounds familar to those who are keeping up with our other project! Needless to say, my family is knee-deep in home renovations and single handley keep the Neilson ratings high for HGTV.

Anyway, the old homeplace (as dad likes to call it) was run down and needed lots of TLC. My parent's have totally replaced the kitchen, dining room, hall-way/living room, screened in porches and lots more.
In the infamous words of John Anderson...Just a Swingin'; finally enjoying some of their hard work! One thing we've really enjoyed doing is exploring the woods in dad's mule, aka "big red."

David and I on the mule enjoying the "farm."
Dad posing in his father's day hat!

We have so much fun hanging out with the fam out at Curry and can't wait for even more of the renovations to take place out there. My parents have worked so hard on it and we are so excited to get to enjoy it with them. I'll keep the updates coming when they finish more rooms!

I'm a horrible blogger!

2010-08-02T20:06:00.012-05:00

I really want to strive to be one of those people who update their blog daily, weekly, even monthly...it's not happened so far, but I'll work on it!

Since it's been a couple of months since my last update, I wanted to just do a synopsis of the last couple of months and some activities we've really enjoyed. It's actually been an extremely busy summer and I haven't had a chance to even sleep very much, much less blog, but it's finally slowing down! I'm getting my masters right now at AUM and I decided during my 2 weeks off in between semesters I would do some blog updating. Side note: class is going well and I'll be in done next Spring. It's not so bad going to class because I'm interested in what I'm studying, the bad part is just finding time to study!

Anyway, rewinding back to the begining of June, we celebrated Elizabeth Jenning's birthday at Lake Martin. For those of you saying who??? I'm talking about Steeley!! That's pretty much all we call her so I thought I should clarify! Here's our post-lake day pic with her birthday cup-cake. It was a blast and it was wonderful to see her and Kristin Strunk for a couple of days. You know those couple of people in life that you can say absolutely anything to and know they would never repeat it(except to the other one that hasn't found out yet!), that's these two for me. Best.Friends.Ever!

Now this I thought was pretty funny. I know without a doubt that David is going to be a wonderful dad, but I am a little worried about his skills to stay awake when it comes to helping with arts & crafts projects! I'm just kidding but I did have to do an arts and crafts project for my masters marketing class (yes, I said arts & crafts and Masters in the same sentence!) and David was a little tired by the time we finally got done with it; and yes, I said we! Being the only child that I am, I just happened to be spending the weekend in Troy with my parents before it was due and they "volunteered" to help me! My dad has always been so good at helping me build stuff like that so as soon as I found out about it, it was like I was back in 3rd grade; asking dad what I should build and how! The project was kind of dumb though because it didn't have to relate to anything and the only qualifications were it had to have pipe cleaners, toothpicks and rubber bands. My hard earned money put to good use that night in class! Anyway, I chose the Big Ben because we had just been there and I did well on the project. Glad that's over!

Onto the 4th of July...moving right along. We celebrated with friends at Karri Booth's mom's house because they have a pool and the guys held a fireworks show for us. This is everybody just hanging out and me with my special buddy for the night, Owen Pugh. He is just simply precious and took a liking to me that night. This is always a special time of year that we spend with friends in Troy and get to hang out with their kids and watch them grow up. Since we don't have any of our own yet, it's so fun to be a part of all of my friends' kids' lives. Here are the girls:
Here are all the kids:
We had a wonderful night with friends celebrating our country's freedom and the fact that we all made it out alive with that many kids running around!

Lots more blog updates to follow! I've got to crank them out while I have time!

Iowa

2010-06-11T11:23:00.033-05:00

For our Cole-family vaca 2010, we decided to travel up to Hartwick, Iowa to take Mrs. Cornelia to see one of her best friends. They met about 40 years ago at a training school for travel agents and have kept up with each other ever since. Their names are Saf Jo and Chuck Van Thournout and they were kind enough to invite us to stay at their farmhouse outside of Iowa. It was built in the late 1800's and sits on 2400 hundred acres that they farm and was absolutely gorgeous!
They have visited Mrs. Cornelia a few times in Alabama but she has never had the opportunity to get up to Iowa and see them, so she was super excited!

Our road trip began on a late Thursday afternoon when we loaded up in our rented Suburban and pulled out of Greensboro; driving driving and me, Mr. Herman, Mrs. Cornelia and Daniel in the back. The journey was over 800 miles and being the trooper that he is, David drove the whole way! We logged about 5 hours our first night before the Cracker Barrel sign beckoned and we had to pull off for dinner. I don't remember what I got, but I definitely know what David got because he always gets these fluffy cakes of delight; every time...he can NOT resist them! We were pretty stuffed after dinner so not too far down the road we stopped for the night in Blytesville, Arkansas. Wasn't much there but then again, it's Arkansas-which only reinforces our opinion of Arkansas resulting from another road trip we took-you'll have to ask me about that one if you've never heard it! There is one good thing about ARK though and that is the continental breakfast at the Comfort Inn which started us out right for our long day on the road. With about 7 hours of driving left until we reached our destination, we settled in for a long day in the car and enjoyed seeing all of the agriculture in the mid-west. It was just beautiful as we crossed the Missouri state line and there was nothing but farm land and cattle in site. When I first saw this, I was excited because I had never been to Missouri.
But that was before I realized we had to drive the entire length of the state and I felt like we were there for days, much less hours! We finally crossed into Iowa and as we started getting closer the excitement built! We went through the tiny town of Hartwick, which is adorable by the way, and got out into the country where their farm is. Suddenly we topped the gravel hill and Mrs. Cornelia starts screaming, "There it is! There it is!" and we knew we were there! You see, since their friendship first began 40 years ago, they have always written letters to each other with pictures of their families growing up, their houses, etc. So Mrs. Cornelia knew exactly what the house from the outside looked like, as long as she could recognize it without the snow that was frequently in the pictures. The Van Thournouts were waiting on the front porch for us when we arrived and from that moment on we felt like family. For dinner Saf Jo cooked a fine spread including homemade dressing and all the fixings; it was almost like Thanksgiving! I guess it was a foreshadowing of what was to come because we ate a lot of good home cooked food while we were there! By the end of dinner it was time to relax, catch up and hit the bed since we were so tired from being on the road all day.
The next day was beautiful weather and we spent it playing outside and cooking out. Saf's 3 kids that David had not seen in over 10 years, came and brought their kids and they were wonderful. As you can see, we played football, corn hole, etc. and had a great time out in the sunshine among all of the farmland.

The next day, Sunday, was a full day too and we started out by going into Cedar Rapids to see Melanie (Saf's oldest daughter), her husband Todd and their 3 kids at their house. We made it back to the farm shortly after lunch and spent the afternoon shooting skeet and playing with their BIG toys! David did really good and shot all of his but I was proud to get at least one! I even got to ride Jerry's (her brother) Cadillac of a motorcycle which was really fun. And then came the tractor...I, yes little me, drove a gargantuan of a tractor with 450 horsepower and 8 wheels which looks a lot like this one. I was kind of freaking out but it was so much fun and David was in there to help me too.
For dinner they took us to the Amanda Colonies which was a German settlement in the late 1800's and it is still their descendents who live there and run all the shops and restaurants. This was so cool that we went back the next morning to do some shopping!

The dinner was traditional German and I had weiner schnitzel and German chocolate cake; how cool is that! This is David and I at the Amana's; outside the brewery I think! The Amana's are known for their furniture, which was beautiful, as well as their woolens.
This was a wonderful trip and David and I enjoyed so much spending time with his parents and brother! We also loved getting to see the countryside and all of the agriculture out there.
Now onto staying home for a little while and getting our house sold!!!

London!

2010-06-04T12:30:00.027-05:00

Last year I found out that I would have the opportunity to work a trade show in London the week of our 2 year anniversary so David and I began making plans for him to go as well. Once the trip rolled around in May, our aniticipation grew since neither of us had ever been to Europe! The day came when we were set to fly out of the Montgomery airport to connect in Atlanta and that's when all the trouble began! (I'll go ahead and get out the negative parts so that I can get on with the good ones!) About 30 minutes before we were set to board our plane, an annoucement was made that our plane, which was sitting right outside our terminal, was now going to Memphis because their earlier flight was broken. So with a little hope that we could make it to ATL in time to connect, we got back in the really long line to rebook. Come to find out they had overbooked all the flights for that day and couldn't get us out until the next day! We quickly looked at our watches, realized ATL was on Eastern time and that we definitely couldn't make our flight. So...our first day of our trip started out with us going back home for the night! This was especially frustrating because I had worked in one and 1/2 extra days before I had to start working the trade show for us to get to spend together and now we were going to miss a whole day! So defeated we headed to our favorite dinner spot, Next Door, and were delighted to talk with a couple who lived in Europe for a couple of months after retirement. They gave us lots of pointers on what to see and along with their excitment about the city and a glass of red wine, we were rejuvinated! We drove back up to our house, luggage in hand, and got a good night's rest before leaving bright and early for Atlanta the next day.

Although there were hopes of being bumped up to first class internationally, this didn't happen (except for David on his way back-lucky) but we did get business class for the short connection to JFK in New York. After finally reaching London we were pretty tired because we when arrived it was 7 am their time but 1 am our time and we didn't sleep well on the flight. Once we touched down though and I realized I was finally in Europe the excitment returned...until they lost my luggage! Yep...it gets better. A day and a half of feeling grungy and wearing David's clothes, they finally delivered it to my hotel.

The afternoon of our arrival we got checked into our hotel out near the convention center where I was working and took the rail into the city to see the London Tower. Excuse my appearance...as I explained before with the luggage...but here's a pic at the Tower.
And this guy was our tour-guide, a Beefeater!
The Tower dates back nearly 800 years and is full of history from the Queen's jewels on display (which I couldn't take a picture of) to stories of hundreds of executions, especially by Queen "Bloody" Mary! The Tower is actually a series of castle-like structures that were built over the years by different kings. Here's a picture of the outside. It was quite an impressive place and even had small houses where the beefeaters and their families lived, pictured here.

Connected to our hotel was a great little pub so we had a low-key dinner that night after touring the Tower and turned in to get some rest. Of course we had the fish and chips the first night we were there and it turned out to be pretty good. I guess you can't really go wrong with fried fish and french fries though!

The next morning we woke up bright and early and welcomed a new day to start afresh after all the trouble we had getting there! Although my luggage had not arrived yet, we got ready for the day and set out to do some sight seeing. Our first goal was to get on one of the red, double-decker tour buses that you see all over the city, so that's what we did. It turned out to be a wonderful way to see the city becaue it would stop at all of the tourist spots and let you off if you wanted to or you could keep riding to the next one. There is SO much to see in London that we didn't have time for every stop but here are a few of the major ones we had to see!
-Buckingham Palace:
-Westminster Abbey:
-Houses of Parliament:
-Big Ben!!
-Red phone booth!
After a wonderful day of seeing London we got back to the hotel to get ready for our anniversary dinner and my luggage was there! This day turned out to be much better than the one before and I was especially glad since we were celebrating 2 years of marriage!! For dinner we jumped in one of the black cabs that are so well known in London for their smart drivers and asked him just to take us somewhere fun. He dropped us off near China town in the Covenant Garden area and we had dinner at a cute little Italian restaurant. Such a fun anniversary but really anywhere is fun if we're together!
The next day I had to work the trade show all day but David got out on his own and saw as much as he could and even tried out a couple of pubs! Here are a few of the pics he took that day.
-Tower Bridge:
-Trafalgar Square:
-Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace:
-London Eye:
We had a great time together celebrating our anniversary and on Wednesday David headed back to the states and I stayed to finish up working the trade show. Although I didn't have much time to do anything, at night I did get out and do a few things. The first night on my own I went and saw Les Miserables at the Queen's Theatre and it was one of the best plays I've ever seen! Definitely Broadway quality if not better and in such a trendy area of town.
The last day of the show we got out a little early and since the sun didn't set over there until 9:30 or so at night I had plenty of light to get out and do something. I took the tube over to the British Museum (below) and saw some neat things like the actual Rosetta Stone and some Egyptian mummies.

We had an amazing time in London, just wished it was a little longer!

2010 so far

2010-03-28T17:32:00.015-05:00

Since it has been forever since I last blogged, this is a summary and what we've been doing since the first of the year!
January was a little slow for a change but quickly sped up when I started classes back at AUM to get my MBA. I took several classes when I first moved to Montgomery but put it on hold when David and I got engaged and were busy with wedding planning. I decided to pick it back up and hope to finish next spring with an emphasis in Marketing.
One of my best friend's from Troy, Fran, got married in Jamaica over the holidays, so we had a party for her and her new hubby in Troy. It was a blast! Here's a pic of some of the girls...
February was a fun month starting out with a wedding in Greensboro where David sported his beard. It looked good on him but I have to admit, I wasn't a big fan of the scruff! I'm more of a clean-cut kind of a girl!
It's been an extremely cold winter with lots of crazy weather and we got to enjoy snow at our house in Montgomery and here at our house that we're renovating in Troy. It was really fun!
February is also my birthday month and David did an awesome job picking out my gift. I totally did not expect this, but he got me a tiny video camera that we can use as we travel, renovate, etc. and I love it! He also got me a cute little cake from Publix.
As an early birthday celebration, I met my two best friends, Kristin and Elizabeth in Birmingham for a much-needed girls weekend and it was so good to spend some time with them. Although we didn't get a lot of time together, it doesn't matter because we always pick up right where we left off!
Probably the most anticipated/dreaded event of the year for me was the Seaside 1/2 Marathon that I signed David and myself up for as his Christmas present last year. He really wanted to do a 1/2 so I thought, what the heck, I'll sign myself up too. Although I've always exercised, I've never been a big runner and the thought of 13.1 miles seemed daunting to say the least! Well, once we started training and my body started to adapt to logging all those miles each week, it got easier. By the end, I really started to enjoy running long distances and by the day of the race I felt ready. I knew David was ready because he had been running for the past couple of years and I definitely told him not to stay with me but to run on ahead. It ended up being so much fun and I did much better than I originally thought I would! I completed the 1/2 in 2 hours and 28 seconds and David finished at an awesome time of about an hour and 45 minutes. I was so proud of him! We rented the cutest house a couple of blocks from the central area with the shops there in Seaside and my parents joined us. We had a wonderful time and I'm doing a little searching on the internet for the next half we can tackle!

The most recent exciting event has been my trade mission to Ecuador and Peru for work in early March. Four compaines attending the trade mission which was lead by me and one of my affiliates at the FL Dept of AG, Deb. We didn't get to see a whole lot since we were in meetings a lot but here are a few of the scenes from the trip. This is a view of the city of Quito, Ecuador from the top of a mountain. They have a tourist attraction named Teleferiquo where you ride a ski lift up to the top of one of the mountains and can see the entire city...it was beautiful!
From Quito we traveled to Lima, Peru and that city was on the coast and was much warmer and humid. It was very nice and the food was amazing. Here's an example
This is a park in the very popular neighborhood of Minaflores where they have a kissing contest every year, as represented by the statue.
The last day of our trip we finally had some time to tour and see Lima and the historic district is full of Spanish style buildings from the 1600's. They were very ornate and behind me in the picture is the Presidential Palace.
We also visited St. Francisco's Cathedral and their catacombs which was very interesting and a little freaky because there were so many bones!
This weekend David and I were in Troy helping my parents get ready to have their pool filled in-which is sad but I don't blame them bc no one ever uses it-and I got to see some good friends at a baby shower for my high school friend, Ashlee. Here we are with her and her cute baby belly! It was so good to see these girls and I can't wait to meet Mary Holland!

Christmas time!

2009-12-30T14:52:00.018-06:00

David and I had a wonderful 2nd Christmas together as a married couple and once again burned up the roads between Montgomery, Troy and Greensboro. We had LOTS going on from David's ALFA Christmas parties to a Troy get together at Ms. Wood's house...my high school english teacher. We also had an office get together at my supervisor's house and a Christmas Eve dinner and church service that we always go to at the church I grew up in, First United Methodist in Troy.
David and I exchanged presents at our house in Montgomery and I got a WiiFit, a massage gift certificate, some kitchen stuff and lots of other goodies that I love. Here's me trying out the flying game on the Wii!
David got some golf stuff, luggage, clothes, a tie that I brought him from India with Elephants on it, as you can see, and entry in the Seaside Half Marathon in March. I signed us both up so we're looking forward to training together and to staying in the beach house we rented for the occassion.

Other Christmas pics like 1)us in our Christmas Eve PJ's that Santa brings us a day early and David, his brother Daniel and mom opening presents at their house
All in all, it was a wonderful Christmas and we are so thankful to be blessed with a caring family, sweet friends and our Saviour for which we celebrate the true meaning of Christmas.