Little River Canyon

Saturday, Justin and I decided to take a little trip to North Alabama. I recently heard of a place called Little River Canyon near Fort Payne. It was an absolutely gorgeous Saturday, and I was off work, so after my work out, I came home and got ready for our day trip. After I looked at a map online to identify our route, we loaded up the dogs and took off.

Our first stop was a little antique shop outside Centre, Alabama. Justin and I found an old chest perfect to hold the blankets in our media room. We visited with the nice people who own the shop, and they admired our dogs before we hit the road again.

Next stop, Cedar Bluff - a small town on Lake Weiss. We stopped at a local restaurant called Fibber's for a late lunch. The waiting area was as big as the one at P.F. Chang's in Birmingham, so we could imagine what it would be like on a Saturday night. Fibber's did not have a menu. There was only one thing to order... the southern buffet. You name it, and it was fried up and placed on the buffet at this restaurant. After paying the surprising small-town price of $24 for our lunch, we headed up toward the canyon.

If it weren't for the sign that said "Little River Falls," we may have missed it altogether because it crept up on us sooner than expected.

Since we passed the falls, we pulled off to first take a picture from afar.

The Falls up close... not sure why there is a blue hue on the picutures. It was a beautiful bright sunny day!

Justin has mastered the self-portrait.

We drove further down the scenic highway alongside the gorge of Little River Canyon. From time to time, we came upon little pull-offs so we could look at God's creation.

The sun begins to make its descent.

Grace's High Falls is a seasonal waterfall that usually flows in the Fall-Spring season. During the Summer, there's just not quite enough rainfall for this waterfall to have much of an effect.

After our 11-mile trip alongside the canyon, we were surprised to stumble upon Dogtown, Alabama. Justin and I had been wanting to take a trip there for a while, but had never taken the time. In Dogtown, there is a furniture store called Akins Furniture Company.

It started as a tiny little store in a tiny little town, and it grew and grew... the town didn't. Akins Furniture IS Dogtown, Alabama. Directly across the street was a cute little school, but I must say I'm not sure where they find kids to attend. That's how "in-the-middle-of-nowhere" this place is. What draws people to "Dogtown," as this furniture store is better known, is the wholesale pricing. Mostly junk, and what I like to refer as "country" furniture (ie, fluffy Lay-Z-Boy recliners, fluffy sofas - not the good kind of fluffy, and other random finds) Dogtown can also special order from almost any furniture line out there. This is where they get a lot of their business. Justin and I have pretty much gotten all the big pieces for our home, but we walked away with a great wooden mirror for our dining room at a great price. AND, we got to check off something on our list of things to do in Alabama... two things actually. Little River Canyon and Dogtown.

Mad Hatter Tea Party

By order of the queen, all Ross Bridge Ladies were asked to attend a Mad Hatter Tea party on Friday night hosted by the Ladies of the Village Center. There is usually a Girls Night Out about 5 or 6 times a year hosted by a different community in Ross Bridge. In December, Butler Springs hosted an Ornament Exchange. In May, Greenside and Freestone Ridge will be hosting a Cinqo de Mayo party! And I'm so excited to see what the rest of the year will bring.

Dawn Ey, Rebel Gregory, Lauren Nickels, Rachel Leader and the other ladies in the Village Center did such a great job transforming the Town Hall into an English garden for our party. The food was fantastic. Thanks to Diggscape for loaning the beautiful plants for our garden, Birmingham Home Theater (Justin's company) for providing the music and speakers, Ross Bridge Spa for donating the door prizes, and Louise's Cakes and Things for the fun Mad Hatter cake!

I was so impressed with the creativity of all the Ross Bridge ladies. I had no idea that everyone would participate so enthusiastically in the hat contest! The votes came pouring in throughout the evening.

And the winners are....

The Ugliest Hat award goes to this lady who was adorned in Tennessee garb from head to toe!

The Most Useful Hat was created using shot glasses and Christmas lights.

Elizabeth Bennett and my next-door-neighbor Valerie Hughen won Most Creative Hat for their Ross Bridge heartbreaker theme!

Bobbie Bowman took home the Best Homemade Hat award with this gigantic headpiece full of flowers and blow-up bunnies. Believe me, this thing was HUGE!

Maybe we should take a few tips from this lady who won Most Stylish Hat.

And the grand prize winner is the Village Center's own Shah Hines for Best Overall Hat!

Congratulations to all the winners, but we can't overlook these three who all received lots and lots of votes for their wonderful hats... so they all received an Honorable Mention award.

Here are some other pictures of some of the ladies who came. We had such a fun time visiting with everyone and getting to know our Ross Bridge neighbors. :-)

Mary Jim Blackerby, me and Dana Pittman

Julie Kent, Emily Haygood, and me. Wish I could remember what was so funny!

Rebel Gregory and Vicki Davis

Rachel Leader and Pam Ashworth

Lanier O'Hare, Kate Giffin (my work partner), and Leslie Jackson

Debbie Calvert, Emily Haygood, Marta Self, and Julie Kent

Rebel Gregory, Ashlie Grubb and Shah Hines

Wendy Rohrer and Brandi Belcher

Jane Lewis, Allison Licht-Brown, Sandy King, Rachel Leader

Kathy Cawley and Theresa Tate

Sandy King, Liz Darby, Leanne Ruffin, Amy Alford, Stacey Spears, Kathy Cawley, Sharon Blair

I'm quite sure the Town Hall will not be so beautiful ever again!

Super Bowl XLII

After a quiet, but long day at work on a Sunday afternoon, I finally made it home some time into the 1st quarter of the Super Bowl game between the NY Giants and the New England Patriots. Because our house has become known among our friends as the entertainment headquarters, naturally, we had a Super Bowl party. The girls in my Small Group at church were so great to go through my cabinets to grab serving utensils, plates, napkins, etc. Justin had the house looking good and the projector upstairs was certainly not a disappointment. In fact, the 140 inch high definition image in our media room was quite impressive... thanks to my amazing husband who is the home theater guru. Instead of watching Tom Petty break the hearts of millions during half time, our Small Group gathered to pray. I just love the people in our group! Not that I REALLY care, but I have always been a Patriot fan because that was my high school mascot. As much as I love to see an underdog pull of a win, must admit, I was a little disappointed to see the Patriots lose.

After the game, we pulled out the Wii and had a Guitar Hero tournament. I don't think I've mentioned my love for this game. We played it for the first time on New Year's Eve with our neighbors, Matt and Amy. We were having so much fun, that we played until 2:30 in the morning! I loved the game so much that Justin surprised me with our own copy a few weeks later. I have mastered the easy level, and I've almost beat the medium level, but I have reached the peak of my skill level without actually practicing, so I may get a little bored with trying to learn the hard and expert levels. Anyway, back to the story... Our friends Hal and Maghan Craig also have Guitar Hero and Hal and I had wanted to challenge each other because we both think we're pretty good. ;-) I beat him twice, and he beat me once. Jared Woodward and Ben Grizzle were also very good, but none was more entertaining than my husband. Justin got major style and entertainment points as he jumped around putting on a total show. Sure he missed a lot of notes, but his performance was amazing!

We had a great night, and look forward to many more fun nights with our group!

Baby Love

Matt and Amy were so gracious to help Justin and me clean the porch and vacuum the rug. They thought it was a fair trade since they kept us out playing in the snow for so long! Well, THEY didn’t necessarily keep US, but we were all having too much fun to go back early. Nevertheless, we were so appreciative of their help.

Just before 3:00, guests began to arrive for a baby shower honoring this little lady.

Elizabeth Morgan Haskell

And her mommy.

Roni Holland Haskell
Roni and I have been friends since middle school. I sure miss her now that she lives in Charleston!

I made this diaper cake for the centerpiece.

We had some pretty good eats, and baby Elizabeth got some really cute things. We were very pleased at the turnout considering the morning snow!

Birmingham or Aspen?

Saturday morning was an off day. Rare that I get one on a Saturday, but I was hosting a baby shower for my close friend Roni, who had a precious baby girl back in December. There was talk of snow, but in Birmingham, the chances are always slim. When Justin and I woke up, he asked me if it had snowed, and I leaned over to look through the shudders. Just brown grass, so I rolled back over for another cuddle. We got up shortly afterwards because the dogs were restless, and we saw that there was actually a little snow collecting in the crevices of the rooftops all around us. Not long after, real snowflakes began falling and blanketed the ground with the white stuff!Justin and I went outside where we got together with our fun neighbors, Matt and Amy, and we all put our heads together about making homemade sleds. We tried cookie sheets, lids to storage boxes and large dog food sacks, but what seemed to work best of all was plain old cardboard wrapped in a black garbage sack.

After wearing out the hill between our house and our neighbor's, we decided to search for a more challenging sledding spot. We borrowed my work golf cart and set out on our journey with Matt and Amy in tow. We stopped at a pocket park just around the corner where several of our neighbors were having a snowball fight. One of the dad's (hi David Hines) was making either the snowball of the century or the base of a snowman... either way it became the snowball of the century when he threw it toward our moving-ever-so-slowly-up-the-hill golf cart. The snowball was broken up by a tree before it reached us, but we stopped for a full blown war between us and the kids and dads and moms that were in the park.

After our war, we resumed our adventure for the perfect sledding spot. At this point we had decided there were too many houses to find a good hill, so we decided to break all the neighborhood covenants and restrictions and hit the golf course. We took the cart between two houses close to the cart path and quickly found a good spot.

Before we left Amy bundled up in her ski gear (including goggles, gloves, boots, ski pants and jacket). She looked cute AND warm! My jacket was warm, but my jeans and running shoes were quick to get wet. Look at the course behind us, isn't it just beautiful!

Matt (left) and Justin (right) had races to see who could sled the farthest... furthest. Is it farthest or furthest??? Amy and I enjoyed laughing at both of them!

Matt with his feet in the air after a pretty long run!

Justin experimenting the side slide. We determined this was NOT the best sledding move.

We headed back to the house after being "reprimanded" by a golf course worker, but I have to admit that he was very kind to us. He let us slide a few more times where we were, but asked that we limit the sledding to holes 2 and 3 so they could monitor everyone (apparently others had our same idea). He said he understands that it doesn't snow often in Alabama and told us to have fun and be safe. We asked if we could drive around on the cart path and just look at the snow on the course, and he said okay. We thought that was very kind of him!

So, what a fun day to be off work (my other partners had to go in despite the snow). I'm so glad we finally had snow. The snow melted after about 1:00 and the roads were fine by the time I hosted the baby shower at 3:00. I'll post pictures of the party soon!

Pray for the Burgess family...

Hello Blog friends. I know I haven't posted in a while, and believe me, I have some fun stuff to post, but I wanted to post a quick prayer request. Every morning, I listen to a radio show based out of Birmingham called Rick and Bubba. Some of you may get them in your hometown, too. They have crossed all kinds of boundaries bringing Christian teachings and values to secular radio. They are not ashamed to speak of their beliefs on air, and different from many radio show hosts, are REAL people... like your uncles or cousins or something. They relate to so many.

Yesterday, Rick's son, Bronner Burgess drowned in the pool at their home. I don't know the details other than that a precious little boy's life was lost. On Rick and Bubba's website, it says "The Burgess's want to give all Honor and Glory to GOD for the many blessings He has given us, especially the life of Bronner Burgess. And while we do not understand, we know who is in charge and His will be done in life and in death. "

Please pray for Rick, Sherri and the entire Burgess family.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Mom's birthday is New Years Day. On one hand it's a good day for a birthday because everyone is always off work, but on the other hand, it's a terrible day. For one, you give you best gift at Christmas. Second of all, you spend so much emotional energy getting ready for Christmas and then all of a sudden it's New Year's Eve, and you haven't thought of a gift. I know it's not all about the gift, but when it's YOUR day, it's nice to be pampered.

This year, Mom and Dad, Matthew and Amanda, and Justin and I got together at Sumo - Japanese Steakhouse for a fun birthday dinner. We had the best chef. He was absolutely hilarious, and really put on a how for Mom... who was mortified at all the attention. He even threw a shrimp or something for her to catch in her mouth... which she missed. I'm pretty sure it was the most embarassing birthday ever. She hates all that attention. I am obviously NOT like my mother in that respect. My birthday lasts for the entire month of September! :-)

My cute dad and mom.

My silly brother, Matthew and his silly wife, Amanda. Love you guys!

A downright horrible picture of Justin and me... but I wanted to document our presence, and this is the only shot of us I have! Justin grew a mustache for the holidays. I'm SO glad he finally shaved it off. It was disgusting. Ew.

My embarassed mother as we sing Happy Birthday to Yoooooou!

Happy Birthday, Mom! I hope 2008 is the greatest year yet!

Christmas Day

On Christmas Eve, Justin and I woke up in Gulf Shores at his mom's house. We hung out for a little while that morning before heading to Mobile for lunch with Scott, Hilary, Meghan and Caitlin. We went back to their home for a little while, and after playing a racing game we gave Scott for Christmas, Justin, Rez, Adler and I headed back to Birmingham. Although Justin and I have no real deep-routed traditions as a couple, we have been blessed to sleep in our bed every Christmas Eve. :-)

We slept in on Christmas morning and made it to my Mom and Dad's for brunch at 11:00. First stop was the den to see if Santa had come.

He had!!!! I guess we were good after all!

I always look forward to spending time with my family on Christmas Day, and I'm so glad EVERYONE was able to be there this year! Mom and Dad prepared a great brunch of breakfast casserole, cheese grits, and biscuits. They also had yummy toffee bars on the table for snacks. They were sooooo good that they were worth mentioning in this blog. After brunch, we headed to the tree to exchange gifts. Here are a few pictures to capture some of the fun moments we shared.

Mom and Dad got matching iPods!

And so did Amanda and Matthew!

Justin got a big grill for our patio!

And I got 3 months with a Personal Trainer (although in this picture I'm holding up some cute pajamas that I also received). As official photographer, I ended up with very few photos of myself!

Justin and I gave Dad a nice hardshell suitcase for short travel.

And we gave mom 24 chargers for her dishes - 12 pewter ones and 12 gold ones.

The highlight of our morning was this gift to Mom from Matthew and Amanda. This is Clarence Claus.

Mom loved him so much she kissed him. I have a feeling Clarence Claus will appear in our family Christmases for many years to come! :-)

We stayed at Mom and Dad's for a lot of the afternoon, then headed back home. Our friends Dana and Daniel came over with their little boy Chase, and the guys played Wii golf (their current obsession), while Dana and I amused the kiddo.

Chase absolutely loves our dogs, and Adler was a good sport while Chase went for a "ride."

After our friends left, it was time for OUR Christmas. For the most part, we decided not to exchange gifts this year. We moved in September, so we just spent quite a bit of money making the house feel like our home.

Here is a picture of our mantle and tree in our living room. After so many "Christmases," there are only a few presents left under the tree. Sad!

I gave Justin a portable player for his Zune MP3 player, and he actually really liked it! I have a hard time surprising him with gifts that he really likes.

Justin gave me pink control covers for our Wii and Rainbow flip flops that I have really been wanting since the summer. He also loaded my stocking up with Christmas CDs. I LOVE Christmas music between the day after Thanksgiving and December 25th. Justin gets sick of listening to the classics on the radio day after day, so he thought this Christmas music might add a little diversity!

I included this picture so you can see the other side of the living room (Hannah), but also because it is so typical of our dog, Adler. Justin, Dad, and Matthew all received indoor remote controlled helicopters from Santa. After we opened presents, Justin was flying the helicopter around the living room, and Adler couldn't keep her eyes off of it. It was so funny watching her follow that thing around in the air, and then try to attack it when it crashed!

Around 6:30, we decided we were hungry again, and we had nothing at the house to eat. You would have thought we would have had plenty of leftovers seeing as we had feasted with the Leach/Henry family at our home just days before, but everyone had taken the leftover with them, and Justin had polished off our the leftover hashbrown casserole the night before. We decided that it might be fun to find an obscure restaurant, the only one open on Christmas, and have a new dining adventure. After driving around for a long while, and passing this restaurant up the first time we saw it open, we decided to head back for an experience I can call my first and LAST!

Please believe me when I tell you that this was THE ONLY RESTAURANT OPEN on Christmas Day. We passed what felt like hundreds of dark restaurants - sit down, fast food, semi-fast, etc. Even all the grocery stores and Wal-Mart were closed! Our alternative was cereal at home, and wings sounded good at the time. For those of you who haven't been there, the wings are pretty good, but the girls are definitely barely dressed. I felt a little uncomfortable, and I'm quite sure Justin did, too, but we enjoyed our meal, and headed to Blockbuster. We rented the new Christmas movie "Deck the Halls," and enjoyed the rest of our Christmas evening warm at home. I'm quite sure I will never forget the year we ate Christmas dinner at Hooters. ;-)

Christmas Greeting

...from our family to yours.

Christmas Card 2007