Lilypie

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Swimming with STING rays...


We are almost settled in at work after a great Memorial Day weekend! I actually had the weekend off, so Justin and I headed down to the beach Thursday night to get our monthly dose of the sun. I spent two wonderful days wiggling my toes in the white sand and swimming in the crystal clear Gulf of Mexico in Gulf Shores, Alabama. I am rejuvenated and sunkissed!

Friday, I was swimming in the gulf. I was out further than I normally go, but the water was unusually shallow. I glanced to the right and saw grey shadows under the water on the gulf's floor. I walked toward them, just curious about what the shadows were and I suddenly realized it was a group of sting rays swimming my direction! I counted eight in all as they passed me, four on my right, and four on my left. I was a little scared because of the word STING. Any creature with a name like that, I try to avoid. Not knowing much about sting rays I did a little research. I found out that their tails sting like a scorpion, they have mouths on the bottom of their bodies, and they are related to SHARKS! As with most dangerous creatures, they usually don't attack humans unless aggravated, but with all these RARE shark, alligator, snake, and you-name-it attacks lately, I'm glad I survived! ;-)

Justin and I were also able to spend some time with Justin's family who lives in the area. We are going back in two weeks and will be taking his nieces (ages 8 and 2 1/2) to the beach. I should have something interesting to report after that weekend as Justin and I play "Mom and Dad."

Oh by the way, I sold a house today. Yeah!

15 Seconds of Fame...


I know this is old news by now, I just haven't had time to post recently. Here are my stories from the past week...

Wednesday night (yes, a week ago) my mother and I decided it might be fun to go down to the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center to watch the American Idol results show with the swarm of Taylor Hicks fans. Of course, we love Taylor, too. I called and e-mailed about 10 of my friends, but none could join. Mom was able to get Dad and their best friends, Bob and Wanda to come. We had great seats and really enjoyed the show and all they hype and enthusiasm of the Soul Patrol. When the show was over, three guys who work for NBC (I read their press passes) pulled me aside and stuck a camera in my face (of course, I loved that). They asked me some questions about Taylor and what his winning means to Birmingham. Afterwards, I asked which show they report for. That's when I found out they work for the NBC Network in New York and shoot for the Today Show! We recorded the show the next morning, but they only briefly mentioned American Idol, and I wasn't "featured." ;-) After all, it IS the #1 show for their network rival, FOX. The next morning, my friend Christy from Baton Rouge, LA called me and told me she saw my interview on Access Hollywood!!! The show ran a few times over a 24 hour period, so my grandmother's friend recorded it. They say everyone has 15 seconds of fame... well, if my "appearance" on Access Hollywood counts, I've got about 10 seconds left. I better make them good!

Monday, May 22, 2006

Kim and Adam...


Every once in a while, when there's not that much going on in MY life, I like to pass on good news about my friends! Today, I wanted to share a picture of my good friend Kim Lee, who recently became engaged to Adam Pendleton. They live in Atlanta and will be getting married in August. I am so happy for them!

For those of you who read and watch, please vote for Taylor Hicks tomorrow night! Soul Patrol, Soul Patrol!

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

My American Idol pick...


Taylor, of course! Must support the hometown boy. Plus, Justin has actually sat in his living room and listened to Taylor sing and play and talk about wanting to cut a CD one day. He is so fun to watch! Taylor has something that has been missing from music... especially American Idol.. Can't quite put my finger on it... maybe passion? Katherine would be my second choice. I liked Chris better than Elliot, so I hope Elliot goes home this week.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

THE book incident...


For the past two weeks, I have devoted pretty much every moment between work and sleep to creating a book of profiles on all the kids in our youth group for our new youth ministers, Tim and Andrea Mills. It was supposed to be a simple project. Every youth sponsor had a copy of the profile for the kids to fill out and it was their responsibility to get the kids in their grade to complete the profile and provide a digital picture or a hard copy pic that they could part with. We had less than two weeks to get profiles on all 100 kids (7th - 12th grade). I had help from ONE person. He is part of the youth support team, but between the two of us, we were able to pull together about 60% of the kids' profiles. It was stressful, but I just knew it would be worth it when we presented it to them. Sunday at church, I got about 15 more profiles and pictures. I printed the pictures at Walgreens (Snapfish was broken, so Justin had to take a CD and have them printed). I was stressed because we were running out of time. I still had to put the last of the profiles together and bind it at Justin's office. While at Justin's office, his old boss, Kirk drove by. Justin ran outside to talk to him and I continued working in his office. I finished attaching the profiles to the pictures and was ready to print off the documents from the computer, so I ran outside to ask Justin his password. I made it a point to hold the building door open so it wouldn't lock behind me... not thinking about the door to his actual office. I turned the handle to Justin's office... nothing. Tried the other two doors... nothing. I'm holding back tears at this point because not only is THE book inside, but so is my purse, my makeup, our phones, our keys and MY SHOES! You see, I had taken them off because I'm pretty sure I broke my pinkie toe Saturday and my cute shoes were hurting my feet. We called the emergency number, but they couldn't let us into the individual offices. We had to go to the youth event without THE book, I couldn't refreshen myself after my tears had pretty much washed away my makeup, and SHOELESS! I was disappointed, but Justin told everyone the story and he made it really funny. We met Tim and Andrea for breakfast Monday morning and proudly presented THE book. They were very appreciative. It turned out great! We are really looking forward to having them at Homewood. The kids really seemed to like them. So, that's THE book incident! Enjoy the read!

Friday, May 12, 2006

Our future home...


Some of you may know that Justin and I are building a townhome and will be renting out or home in Homewood. Stopped by the new place a couple of days ago and took some pictures. As you can see, it is still under construction... we don't even have drywall, but we're getting excited.

Thursday night, I played Bunko for the first time. My friend Lexy wanted to start a "Girls Night," so we find ourselved sitting in her kitchen and dining room rolling dice. We had a great time and got to meet some new people, too. Alissa, from church, and Carrie, who works with Justin, came with me. They had a great time, too.

We had a great Mother's Day! A day off work, a good lunch with my mom (and dad, and husband and brother and sister-in-law), AND we got to meet the new youth misisters at church! The book incident, as I will call it in a later post, was quite another story. I'll tell you all about it when I have more time. Until then, Adios!

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Our "Kids"

So, it's 3:30 in the afternoon, although it looks outside like its 8:00 in the evening. Clouds are dark and it's POURING! I don't think we'll have any prospects out this afternoon. Who wants to look at new homes in tornadic weather?! Just felt like posting pictures of my "kids" today, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to officially introduce Rez and Adler. Rez is a 2 1/2 year old Vizsla (she's the rust colored one) and Adler is a 1 1/2 year old German Shorthaired Pointer (she's the dark brown/white spotted one). Justin and I LOVE our dogs. They usually stay outside in our fenced yard, but when we're home, if they aren't right there beside us, they get sad... or do WE get sad? ;-) We did manage to train them to stay inside all day (if it rains or is really cold) without distroying shoes... although we had to sacrifice a pair of Donald Pliner's in the process. Just thought I'd post their pictures because I think they are just too sweet and adorable!

Oh by the way, for those of you who know Andrea (Alderman) Johnson, she found out last week that she will be having a baby boy! He is due some time in September. The pregnancy is going well and she and Kyle are very excited (especially Kyle... since it's a boy). Congrats, Andrea!

Saturday, May 06, 2006

A month later...


Hey everyone! So, maybe I'm not the best blogger, but I'm trying! This has been a pretty slow week at work. Ross Bridge http://www.rossbridge.com, the community where I sell homes, is hosting a Senior PGA golf tournament. We weren't really sure what to expect. Would the tournament bring people in droves? Or will everyone here be here just for the golf? As it turns out, the people here for the tourney haven't bothered to visit the residential section. Part of that can be attributed to the fact that no one can park anywhere near the community. All the spectators are parking miles away and being bused in directly to the first green. We do expect it to be busy this coming up week as more and more people hear about the community.

Last night, Justin and I took my brother and his wife, Amanda to the Crawfish Boil downtown. We ate Jim N' Nick's beforehand and made it downtown just in time to see Sister Hazel and Blues Traveler. We had a fun time. Pictures to come later.

Our church, Homewood Church of Christ http://www.homewoodchurch.org just hired a new youth minister. We are looking forward to having Tim and Andrea Mills, and their son Caleb as part of our family. As youth sponsors, Justin and I have been working hard to put together a book for Tim and Andrea. Our goal is to have all the kids fill out a profile and we will attach their picture, bind all the profiles in a book and give the book to Tim and Andrea when they meet the kids for the first time on May 14th. It's an optimistic goal, but I know we can make it with all the other youth sponsors' help. We already have almost 30 profiles, just from our Wednesday night class!

Bored of reading yet? Next time I will post pictures... I promise. ;-)

5/7/06: See, I told you I would add a picture!