A Christmas Tree?

It has been pretty warm here the past week, as you can see from Matt's flip flops from our Christmas tree trip. About 70 degrees (like 20 celcius for all you Canadians) even though it doesn't ever get very cold here, it is usually down to the low 60's in December. The weather is an important part of our Christmas tree purchase. Because it never gets that cold here, we don't have the same type of foliage as other places...like we have the Leland Cypress tree. And people here, they use that as a Christmas tree. Ummm...NO. It is a very ugly bush-type tree. There are some places that sell the Virginia Pine, also a somewhat ugly tree, however, its biggest problem is that Matt is allergic to pine trees. Then they have the Douglas Fir. This is a fir tree, but it has very long needles, like 1 1/2 to 2 inches. These are the only "christmas type" trees that will grow here. But since they are ugly, they bring in trees from out of state. You can get Fraser Firs from NC, I guess they can grow them there because it actually gets fairly cold there. You CANNOT get a Noble Fir. Anywhere. Fraser Firs are only available at certain tree farms. SO we drove to a tree farm that carried Fraser Firs. And we found a pretty tree. And paid dearly for it. It was way overpriced. I don't know what we are going to do next year, probably get a fake one I guess. We really like our tree this year. It is really pretty and it smells really good. But it was quite the ordeal!

On Saturday night we went out with our friends, Kyle and Almira to dinner. Then we went and saw Casino Royale. The movie was good but I seriously thought it was over about 5 times before it actually ended. I guess we are all lame because all we could talk about it how tired we were after, it was the late show!!

Today I went to the Mart. What is the Mart, you may wonder. Let me tell you, the Mart is the largest wholesale mall in the US. It is a 13 story building with more stores then I have ever seen. Truly it was kind of overwhelming. You have to have a wholesale and a resale license to get in, and you have to prove that you have a legitimate business with a yellow page ad or URL. BUT, lucky for me I have a friend who got us passes to go. So since it is so hard to get in, the Mart isn't really that crowded. It was weird and seriously we couldn't look at everything there. They have all kinds of stuff. You could really make a killing buying stuff and selling it on eBay...which is basically what I guess online retailers do...buy stuff at the Mart and sell it for more online. So eveything is SOOOO cheap. It was really fun to go but kind of crazy. I will have to go again when I have more time and I am more familiar with the layout. They have maps and stuff that people study to get the most out of their trip to the Mart. Crazy!


I can't seem to get a good picture of our tree. If I take it with a flash you can't see the lights, if I take it on a different setting I can't hold the camera still enough and it looks blurry. I think I need to figure out how to use my camera....

Madness

Well I am kind of out of it on the blogging. It seems that the last thing I want to do is spend more time on the computer! I wanted to post some pictures from a while ago. These are from Halloween. The first one is from the night before, right after Sara gave me the idea to be Edward Scissorhands. Thanks for the idea sis! I made the hands in less than an hour and I won a hundred bucks the next day, as you can see from the other picture! Halloween was fun but it already feels like it was SOOO long ago.
This week was Thanksgiving. I don't know that I fully get the American's and their Thanksgiving, we get more days off for Thanksgiving than we do for Christmas, which seems odd, but I definately appreciate the time off. We went to Matt's mom's house for dinner, with John and Lindy. My mom wasn't cooking anything because she isn't American? (yeah, way to get into the spirit) so they came with us!

We had a really good dinner, but the fun began at midnight. I went up to the outlet malls with some of the girls from my work. They were having a midnight madness sale. When we left a 11:30 we couldn't believe how many cars were on the road and we were wondering where they were all going. Yeah, they we going to the outlet malls too!! It was SOOO crowded. They ran out of parking and we had to park across the street. Then they had lines just to get into the stores. And then ofcourse the lines to buy stuff were forever long. We actually had a really good time though. We were all laughing at all the people there. We worked out a system where as soon as we got into the store, someone would stand in line while other people shopped around, then we would take turns until everyone had looked around and usually by then we were at the front of the line. They had some amazing deals. Entire stores were 50% off everything. So we found cute stuff for REALLY cheap. I was surprised though because I thought it would be like boxing day. It was WAY more crazy.

On Saturday we got to see Rob and Haley because they were in town for the Thanksgiving break. They are so fun we wish would could find more friends like them, or that Rob would just drop out of medical school and they would move back here. We went to Ikea with them which was fun, but they were out of everything that we wanted to buy so that was kind of disappointing.

Here are some photos from Thanksgiving.

Nightmare

Well, we haven't posted in so long because let's be honest, I'm the only one that posts, Matt won't. I have been working 7 days a week beginning the day that I last posted. I finally had a day off this past Sunday but I was living in my own personal nightmare so it wasn't any fun.

If I have talked to you over the last few weeks, I have certainly mentioned the "go live". Our office went live on a new software system and through a series of unfortunate events this became my project event though it doesn't relate to my job one bit. The other thing is, I do freelance work for other docs, it seems like I am becoming more popular, which is good, but it keeps me WAY too busy. And since I can't say NO to people(which explains the nightmare we have been living), I end up working through the middle of the night trying to catch up with my many projects.

Anyway, as I have begun to catch up with all of the work that I have to do, sitting at the computer ends up being the last thing I want to do for fun. But this story is SOOOOO good it cannot go untold.

SO - on Thursday, I am at work and I get a call from a guy in our ward. We have babysat for them before and we SWORE we would never do it again. Well, his wife's grandma died and they need to go to Seattle. They are leaving Saturday and will be back Tuesday. Can we watch their kids because she is 7 months pregnant and doesn't want to fly alone. Well, it all comes back to the part about me not being able to say NO. I tried, I said that I would be working everyday but Sunday so they should really find someone else. But they found other people for the times when I was at work and we ended up babysitting.

First of all, RESPECT to ALL of you who have three kids. HA! And anyone who has more than 3. I cannot imagine. It was a nightmare. Part of the problem is that our lifestyle is not very condusive to kids. We both work - ALOT and we aren't home alot, which makes it hard. Anyway, besides all that, these kids are terrors. They flushed a whole roll of toilet paper down the toilet, well I guess they tried because it didn't go down and then Matt had to fish it out. They also left the lights on in the car, which meant that the battery was dead when we went to go to church. They wet the bed. They were sick. They were crying, fighting and throwing up.

They also have a dog, who is NOT housebroken, not even a little bit. Lets see, we cleaned up feces and pee no less than 50 times. This dog is defiant. He will look at you and pee on the floor. And according the parents the kids are supposed to clean it up because it is their dog. Yeah- riiiiight. And for anyone who knows me I have a very strong gag reflex, picking up poo, puppy poo that is all squishy is not something that I look forward too. Matt and I have solidified our NO DOG policy. Our poor children will NEVER have a dog.

But YEA! The nightmare is OVER. We are back home. I need to tell some of the good stories. Like I won $100 on Halloween and I have awesome pictures. Hopefully I won't be as busy and I can post again soon. If not - I get three days off at Thanksgiving so I should be able to catch up with more posts then.

Blaszczyks - so good to hear from you. I always loved babysitting your kids. They weren't crazy!! You guys need a blog or at least send me an email address to get in touch. And the winter and summer bedding thing. Yeah, I didn't really notice until I moved here but we have distinct winter and summer bedding, we also have distinct winter and summer clothing, like you could pack away you winter clothes and actually not need them until winter!! In Calgary it doesn't get as hot and it can snow at anytime so I guess no one would go to the same effort, you will always need blankets and sweaters even in July. Here people don't wear sweaters except between October and March because it is WAY to hot. People here are weird...but I guess that makes me weird too!!!

Fall is Here

Friday was the ward Trunk or Treat. It was cute to see our nursery kids all dressed up. Even though they couldn't recognize me under a cowboy hat (okay they are only 3). It was at a tree farm and they had hay rides and food and a fire. And then everyone trick or treated to all the cars. It was pretty fun and there were some good costumes.
On Saturday we went to the movie The Prestige. I love going to movies on opening weekend because there is always a chance that you will get to be in the test audience. I have gotten it three times. Lucky us! We were a test audience. I love that! The movie was AWESOME. No seriously, I can't explain how awesome because if I talk about the plot, at all, it will give it away. I will confess that I am a HUGE Christian Bale fan but I don't think I am bias because Matt thought it was really good too. Go see it. It was SO good. The director cuts alot (same guy who did Batman Begins) so there are a lot of flash backs but it was still easy to follow and there was such a huge twist at the end! Seriously go see it today.

Fall is here. We switched our blankets (I know you were all dying to know). And today I saw all the landscapers in all the neighborhoods switching to the winter flowers. It is getting cold, but I am getting excited for the holidays. Mostly Black Friday!! Nothing else too exciting is going on.

Brian

Fall is here in Georgia. We can tell because it is finally beginning to cool off. Unfortunately it is that odd time where it is hot in the day and cold at night. This is a problem for us because we can decide if we need to switch to our winter bedding. So far, we haven't but I think we might by next weekend. The thing is we go to bed warm but when we wake up we are not so warm....this may sound like a trivial issue but sleep is a hugely important part of my life and optimum comfort is a massive priority.

The story that we have to tell is from Saturday. We went to On The Border (I know that there are some OTB fans out there). We had been craving it. Seriously. So we get to OTB and we get this waiter. Brian. Ahhh....Brian. BEST WAITER EVER. Dude was like a mind reader. Maybe he is one of the folk from the show heroes and he can hear peoples thoughts. I'm not kidding. It was really like he was reading our minds. I eat salsa like crazy, it is really more like I am drinking it (please have you had the salsa there? it's awesome). Brian NEVER once let me run out of salsa. I always had an extra bowl waiting in the wings. And everyone knows Matt is OBESSED with white cheese dip. Well Brian brough him a little container to take his extra cheese dip home, and a bag WITH EXTRA CHIPS. Ohhhh Brian. We tipped Brian 50%. It was worth it. There is no picture to go with this post, but since Brian was such a life changing experience we had to share. We have been talking about him since Saturday. :)

Home At Last!

I had to go out of town on Thursday for work. So Matt and I didn't really do anything fun seeing as I just got back tonight. I had to go to a conference in Las Vegas. Ofcourse it takes the ENTIRE day to get home. I got up at 8 am and got home and 9 pm, the time change is killer. It was interesting because I haven't been to Vegas in a long time. I went with 2 co-workers and we arrived on Thursday night at 10 which was 1 in the morning our time, so we were basically zombies. The trip was for work so it wasn't like it was a barrel of laughs but there were some funny things.

Highlights
1. Celine - since I have the coolest boss, she bought tickets for us to go to Celine Dion on Saturday night before we flew home on Sunday. She thinks that people shouldn't go to Vegas and not see Celine. I think she is right. It was awesome!! The show was AMAZING. It totally gave me chills. If you haven't been you need to go. The coolest thing about the coliseum is that you feel really close (okay we had really good tickets) but she seems like she is just right there. And she talks to the audience in the middle of the show and stuff, it was way more of a show than a concert.
2. The Buffet - anyone who knows me knows that I love buffets. This one was awesome OFCOURSE. The dessert portion had mini everything, mini pies, mini creme brulee. Basically I gained like 5 pounds courtesy the buffet, but it was TOTALLY worth it.
3. The shopping - we were staying at Treasure Island which is across from Fashion Show Mall, the Wynn and the Venetian we also went down to the Forum shops. They all have awesome shopping. The layout of all the stores is so different and so cool. Not like anything else.

Lowlights
1. Cleavage - okay do people in Vegas not like to wear clothes. I have never seen so much clevage in my life. Everywhere that you look. Really people, put on some clothes.
2. Vegas Uniform - okay more funny than a lowlight, but the next time anyone goes there, please notice what the men are wearing. WAIT, you don't need to go there, I can tell you what they will be wearing, THEIR VEGAS UNIFORM. Dark straight leg jeans and a long sleeved button down shirt (probably from J. Crew), and the shirt will not be tucked in. I swear we would see groups of guys and they were all wearing the SAME THING. In fact the shirts were usually blue and striped. Do they all know something I don't know?!
3. THE SMOKE - SO BAD SO SO BAD. I guess we are spoiled because you can't smoke inside ANY buildings in our entire state, but I had a perma headache from the smoke. When we would step out of the meeting rooms there would be so much smoke INSIDE the hotel. Everywhere SO much smoke. Do they not have those Truth tobacco commercials in Nevada?

So basically I am glad to be back to reality. I guess that's an okay place to visit but I could NEVER live there. It is some alternate universe, at least the strip is. I know that you all hate this post because there are no pictures but I didn't take any. Sorry!

Apple Jubilation

On Saturday we went apple picking in Ellijay, Ga. It was a part of the Apple Jubilee! There is a farm where you go in, and they have all of these avtivities and then they have all of these rows and rows of apple trees, at the beginning of each row, they have a sign telling you what kind of apple is growing in the row. They have about 13 different kinds of apples. As you can see the rows were really long, this picture is from about halfway down looking back at the main store. That little white speck is the store where you can also buy apples, so that you don't have to pick them. You can also buy apple jam, jelly, pie, butter whatever else can be made from apples. The other activities that they had were fun but they would have been really fun for someone who was about 3 years old. They had these "John Deere" tricycles that the little kids raced around the track. They had a petting farm, which we could have gone in but we probably would have looked stupid being that only kids were inside the farm. They had wagon rides through the farm, which we tried out. They take you through the orchard, but only a tiny part, and they have all of these weird displays like fairytale paintings to make it seem like it is a fairytale forest...I think that one is for the kids too. The little black things in this picture are pigs. They had pigs races, which we enjoyed, but they were nothing compared to the pig races at the Stampede.

We decided to pick only Granny Smith apples because I am going to make some desserts and those are the best ones for pie and stuff. All of the trees were some kind of drawf tree so there were apple branches low enough to the ground so that little kids would be able to pick them. However, since Matt is tall he could reach the ones at the top of the trees that hadn't been picked over. We collected PLENTY but as we were leaving the guy was trying to tell us to take more. I guess he is the guy that works for the farm and has to pick the rest of the apples after the Apple Jubilee is over and there isn't pick-your-own anymore.
After we got back Matt went to conference with Dad, Nathan and John. Lindy, Mom and I watched a movie at Mom and Dad's. Priesthood doesn't start until 8 o'clock so when it was over they went to Sonic and then we all just went home.

Today we went to conference at noon. Then we ate "lunch" in between. It was really dinner but since it was at lunchtime I guess it qualifies as lunch. We had to make it and eat it with enough time to drive back to the church. Let's just say we were eating really fast. After the second session we all went back and had some pie and played some games. We were going to play apples to apples but Dad doesn't like that game. So then we played Take Two which is a variation of Speed Scrabble. I love speed scrabble, we used to play it with the Egberts. In Take Two you take two tiles instead of one each time someone completes their puzzle. I almost won but John took it in the last round but about 20 points....sad.

Tech Pics

I tried to add more pics and the whole post was lost. When you click recover post it doesn't work has anyone else had this problem. Too bad, unless you read the post, it's lost now.

Magnolia Plantation

Okay and on the last day we went to Magnolia Plantation, which was the first man-made tourist attraction in America (you know how I am a sucker for tourist attractions). Basically the guy who owned it lost all his money and had to make more so he started letting people tour his property. On the property there are slave cabins, the HUGE plantation house. All of these little ponds with bridges and stuff. They have a horticulture maze (a maze of bushes) and the Audobon Swamp (which is supposedly famous but I had never heard of it) It was really fun but ofcourse it was still really hot out.

This is the long bridge across one of the ponds.

The plantation house.

Slave cabin

Matt was really happy see that they ship UPS!

Okay all the green is swamp water, not grass! There were huge spiders everywhere. What you can't see is how close we are walking to the water, in places the bridge is actually floating on the water. Kinda freaky since there are gators in the swamp. Matt was freaking out so we rushed through the swamp!

Palmetto Pride

Matt and I decided to go to Charleston for the weekend. We left on Saturday and got back on Monday night. Charleston is a very interesting place. When we got there we checked into our hotel and then walked around the historic district. Charleston has been around since the 1600's when people first came to America, and they haven't made alot of updates to the historic area. Which means that I kept tripping everywhere we went because the streets are brick and cobblestone and very uneven and I have a tendency to shuffle my feet instead of pick them up, and so I almost fell about 6 times. The other thing that we noticed while we were there is that for some reason people in South Carolina are obsessed with referring to their state as the "Palmetto State" it would be like us continually refering to the "Peach State" which we don't!! A palmetto is their state symbol and it is like a dwarf palm tree. There were tons of them everywhere. That was quite odd also becaues you would be walking down this historic street but there were palmetto's everywhere so it was like the beach kind of.

We ate dinner at two cool places. The first place was Sticky Fingers, it was a rib place, and they had pictures of the President getting his food at Sticky Fingers. We laughed and said that when we go on vacation we only like to eat at places where the President eats (see the Tampa post if you want to understand this joke.) The other place was called Hyman's, it is a seafood place (if you know me well you know this was a sacrifice) and when we get inside, there are these little plaques on out table. The most famous person at our table was Blind Melon. I was pretty impressed until I saw that they had a list of all of the other famous people, and they included, Oprah, SJP, George Clooney and basically all the way cooler stars. SO on our way out I was trying to look at other people's plaques on their tables but I couldn't read them without people looking at me very stangely. We also had brunch at a restaurant recommended by Rachel Ray on one of her tasty travels!! We took a picture of the place because we thought it was cool.

We went on a ghost tour on Saturday night where you walk around Charleston with a guide and they tell you all these creepy stories and freak you out. Like Georgia they bury people right out back of the church and then they have all of these little graveyards everywhere. So our tous included a tour of graveyards and Charleston's dungeon. Yes they have a dungeon, which happens to be in the basement of the building where the constitution was ratified. And there were people having a wedding reception upstairs while we were touring the dungeon, I think that would freak me out too much.


We went to the USS Yorkton which is docked in Charleston, you can tour it as well as other military ships. It is a carrier ship so inside it is HUGE! The plane Matt is sitting in is inside the ship, there were about 7 others inside the ship with PLENTY of room to spare. Where Matt is climbing through the little hole is on the submarine that they had there. To get on to it you go over this rinky-dink little platform and then go down inside it. The thing I remember most is the smell, it was interesting and not in a good way. It was so small and I can't imagine being in there, under water for weeks and a time. There would be no circulation. And like twice as many people on board. It would smell SO BAD. I don't think this is something that people think about very often but they should!! I am standing on the destroyer ship ( I can't remember the name of it) and behind me is the Yorkton. It was SO HOT we were so uncomfortable. We thought it wouldn't be that hot because it was mid-September, well we were wrong. It was SO humid, getting back to 85 degrees in Atlanta feels like such a relief.

Since everyone kept saying that we never post pictures of us on here we kept trying to take all of these pictures of ourselves. I guess when you other people go places you get random people to take photos of you?! There was never anyone around so we kept making stupid faces because we were trying to pose in the picture. This picture is of "bloody alley" where the men in Charleston used to duel. I think they said like 20 people died in this alley and then when a kid got shot they outlawed dueling. You would be able to see it better but I am standing in the way so I hope you happy to see me in the picture.

All of the rest of these pictures are from the market that they have in town. It is very cool because it is there all the time between these two streets that are really close together. I tried to get some video but I messed it up, I wish I had because the pictures don't tell the full story. As you can see, they sell all kinds of things, these baskets that they are weaving right on the street, and then random things like t-shirts and bumper stickers.

Dude

This week is probably the most interesting post ever...the thing is, I don't know if I can convey the weirdness of it all through the written word. But I sure as heck am going to try.

So a while back, a girl at work asked me if her boyfriend could stay with us when he came to visit. The girl is LDS, we are pretty good friends, and I wasn't sure that the boyfriend would actually ever come. So I said, sure just let me know when he is coming.

This week, on Tuesday, she was booking PTO. I asked her where she was going and she said she was going to go and pick up Jason, her boyfriend, from the airport. "Oh, he's coming this week? Guess he doesn't need to stay with me anymore," I say. "Oops, did I forget to tell you, he will be here on Thursday." So there it is, Dude is staying with us all weekend. I not excited, but I really don't care. He will have his own room and his own bathroom and I'm sure he will be with his girlfriend all the time. I agreed to let him stay here and I really didn't mind at all. Besides, how weird can he be, I mean, his girlfriend is really normal. LET ME ASSURE YOU, he can be REALLY weird. Like maybe one of the WEIRDEST people I have met in my whole life.

So, he shows up, and for times sake allow me to exhibit the items that make him 100% strange.

EXHIBIT A - Dude leaves stuff all over our place. Yes, weird. Weirder still, the stuff consists of an exorbitant amount of rings. Okay, he is from Utah, but does he really need so many rings... the real question being does he really need to leave so many rings around our place. I swear, dude has 12 rings, one for each finger and two spares in case he loses any. He also left one of his two laptop computers plugged in our living room. He also left his cell phone and his digital camera in our living room. Weird. He HAS a room to put all of his stuff, the guest room, but evidently he is marking his territory?!?

EXHIBIT B - Dude REEKS of TAG bodyspray. He has clearly seen the Tag bodyspray commercial, and uses the product to the excess. When Matt and I got home from church, we were knocked over by the smell of Tag. Not to mention he leaves all his crap all over the bathroom counter and the bathroom floor. Including his super cool red and blue striped pants. Modeled here by our friend Rob.

EXHIBIT C - Dude doesn't feel safe without his gun Bessy. Luckily Bessy was unable to make the plane trip with him, due to the concealed weapon laws in the beautiful state of GA. But you can see from the photo that he did bring his book, The Use of Force.

EXIBIT D - Dude gets out our stuff and doesn't put it back where it goes. He gets out the iron and ironing board and leaves them out for me to put away. He also goes through our movies and leaves them all over the place.

When we decided to share this fantastic experience with all of our blog friends, Rob and Haley were visiting from Augusta and Rob was the model for all of the pictures that we were going to post.

I want to reiterate to all of you out there, we would love to have any of you come and visit us. We have two requests: one, that we know your first and last name, this means you are good enough friends to come here and make yourself comfortable (we still don't know Dude's last name). And that if you wear and excessive amount of rings, you try to keep them in the guest room...mostly because it is just weird otherwise.

I was hesitant to post this because we don't want everyone to think we are mean...but seriously, dude is weird.

Here is a pic of Rob and Haley we took while they were here. It was great to have them visit and we hope to go see them soon.

Stone Mountain Kenny

On Saturday Matt and I were really bored so we decided to head over to Stone Mountain for the laser show. Stone Mountain is this park where you pay $8 and then you can spend the day looking at antebellum stuff and hiking the mountain (the largest single piece of granite in the southeast) and then there is a laser light show with fireworks in the evening. It was owned in the early 20th Century by a man who was active in the Ku Klux Klan and was the site of burning crosses and lynchings. Nice huh? Anyways, on the mountain are carvings of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson. After it gets dark they have this laser show. If you have ever been here to Atlanta, we have likely taken you to the laser light show. They play all these songs about Georgia, like Midnight Train to Georgia, Georgia on my Mind, Dixieland, Devil went down to Georgia, you get the idea. And the lasers and fireworks are like in tune with the music. There are a ton of people out on this lawn and you spread out a blanket and then if you can eat food or whatever. For the first time ever, we decided to get cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory and bring to the park. It was really good. I think that we will probably do that again. It was a fun way to eat our cheesecake since Cheesecake Factory was so crowded.

On Sunday night my friend Kate called and asked if I wanted to go to Kenny Chesney. Her boyfriend works for the Thrashers and he gets tickets whenever a concert isn't sold out. Evidently, Kenny added a third concert here and there were a few tickets left for the Monday show!! Matt couldn't come because he had to work on Monday, but I went without him with Kate and her boyfriend! It was fun because they are a fun couple, not crazy. So we get to concert and Dierks Bentley was opening. I love him, I think his songs are great. But he sure was...confident. Like he thought he was really cool, but it was still good. Then Kenny came out! He came out from the floor in the middle of the arena and then he started singing and then he flew over on this chair contraption to the stage (you can see it in the video). It was cool. Now, truly, I love Kenny Chesney. I love his songs, especially his new one, and I was really, really excited to go to his concert. But as Kate and I are standing there, we can't help but notice that he looks kinda old...sorta like his skin was too loose for his face...and then we talked about how he was really short compared to the other people on stage...and how he is bald and only looks good with a hat....then Chris (Kate's boyfriend) starting getting mad at us because he LOVES Kenny Chesney. But I love Kenny Chesney too...just look at him in the video...his skin is loose....and he's bald...and short. But an awesome singer and a fantastic performer. Probably one of the best concerts that I have ever been to! And really fun because it was free!

This isn't my favorite video, or song, but it shows all of the concert stuff so I thought I would post it. I love his new song, "You Save Me." It's so good!

Music Video Code provided by MySpace Video Code

Florida

Well, we have been back from Florida for a week now. We haven't posted anything because we didn't take ANY pictures. Yup, you heard right. We had our camera and NO memory stick, Matt wanted to buy one, but by the time we got around to it is was the last day. (I know none of you want to read our blog now). I recently checked everyones blogs and felt pretty guilty after I realized that even my cousin Ryan was putting us to shame (we love you Ryan and Jess but you don't post as often as everyone else!)

Florida was AWESOME. We had a wonderful time. We stayed in an awesome condo in Panama City Beach that I would recommend to anyone. I snaked this picture off their web site. We were in the fifth one up all the way on the left.

It was exactly like this while we were there. The water was clear and the sand was white, white, white! I honestly couldn't believe that we hadn't gone to Florida before this because it is so close and I really had no idea it was so nice. PCB has a bad reputation (Redneck Rivera) but I was pleasantly surprised. We rode this bungie ball while we were there and videotaped it, but ofcourse it is on the tape and not the memory card, if I figure out how to put it on the computer, I will post it.

After being in PCB for a week we headed down to Tampa to see Matt's uncle. Please prepare yourself people (Jeni especially) I am about to tell you the best part of out trip. Okay...it was Matt's birthday on Wednesday (last Wednesday) and that was the day that we were leaving... so Matt's uncle took us out on Tuesday to BERN'S STEAKHOUSE. Since going to Bern's, Matt and I have talked about it daily. It was the coolest and most delicious restaurant ever.

We are out on Tuesday afternoon and we get back to Buddy's house (Matt's uncle) and he says that he is taking us to Bern's and our reservations are at 6:30. Then he says that we need to dress up because they have a dress code. I, ofcourse, am prepared. I have a skirt that is appropriate. Matt has shorts and sandals and t-shirts. So, we head back to the mall. We go to Macy's and tell the guy that we are going to Bern's. He is like "oh yeah, Bern's a Tampa original. That's where the President eats when he comes to town." So, $150 later, Matt gets everything he needs to go to Bern's (He didn't have shoes or socks or a belt...you get the picture...and ofcourse they only make the extra expensive pants in giant size) But after all of this, I must reiterate, IT WAS WORTH IT.

We get there and it is all swanky. We go to our table to order and the steak is in a chart. No joke. A full page chart with different cuts, ounces, thicknesses. After dinner, which if I haven't made clear was AWESOME, we are asked if we would like to go to the dessert room. YES THEY HAVE A ROOM JUST FOR DESSERT. And the dessert was good. I had the trilogy of chocolate mousse. It was amazing.

On Wednesday we left Buddy's and were able to meet up with Diane and Konrad (my aunt and uncle) and their girls Erin, Audrey and Alison, who were coincidently in town for the week. They are so funny. They took us out for lunch at PoFolks. A real southern classic! We had a great time with them and enjoyed getting a chance to see them because it had been a while.

So basically, after a 10 day vacation, I spent the most time talking about one meal. Jeni, I hope I made you proud!! Check this place out www.bernssteakhouse.com and if any of you are ever in Tampa you need to go to Bern's.

Something worth FAINTING about!

Long time no post, we have been SO busy and it's sort of ironic I think...when you have the time to post, there seems to be nothing going on...when there are actually things going on, there isn't enough time to post them.

However, I had to quickly share what happened at work today! So, one of the doctors is going to a conference to present the technique that she uses to do this procedure. She was trained is Switzerland and she is one of the best in the states. She wanted to show a video of her doing to procedure. PR person tapes the procedure. We get in there and the first thing she says is "You're going to be okay right? These needles won't bother you, right?" (I have a history of being a wimp when getting different things done) I smile and say "Nope! As long as they aren't poking me, I'll be fine." So we begin. And I'm really concentrating on the technique, making sure that I am zooming in and out, catching the needle movement, moving strategically, you know basically filming the best video of our time. But then, after a while of filming, my mind starts to wander. I begin to focus less on MY task at hand and more on what is actually taking place. Then my mind goes back to the epidural injection I had to watch...can't get the picture out of my head, 20 inch needle, I come back and all I can see is the BLOOD. NOT PRETTY. I'm starting to get really hot. Like burning UP! Then the assistant and the doctor are talking and they start to sound really far away. LUCKILY I feel it coming on, I pass the camera to the doctor's assistant and high tail it outta there. I get out side and I about lose it. The nurse is putting some smelly stuff under my noise and I begin to feel better. I never actually hit the floor THANKFULLY!

I always knew that I could never be a doctor, but evidently I can't watch them either. Props to all of those that are working on entering the medical field. Best of luck and you have my respect!! Oh and if you didn't already guess, I have been demoted from my videographer position! HA!

For the fourth we went up to Helen, in the North Georgia "mountains" (that's what the locals call them but they are really just hills). This town is supposed to be modeled after the Bavarian Alps, there is no real reason why except to bring in tourists. If any of you have ever been to Solvang, California it is the same kind of idea. As you can see, everything in the town has to look German.

The Chattahoochie runs through the town and they sells tickets for $3 to get a tube and a bus ride to the top of town. Then you ride through town and it normally takes about 2 hours, I think you go maybe about 3 miles. Well Georgia is in a drought, and the river was LOW so it took WAY longer like 3 and a half hours. Matt got stuck more than me, and he wasn't too happy about the rocky ride. There were so many times along the ride that we wished our camera was waterproof. Alot of the homes and restaurants decorate for the 4th and people just sit and watch all of the tubers.
We get to the end and go get our keys from inside (they check them for you) then we go out to the car and get our bag with extra clothes and towels and stuff, I head into the change room and Matt decides he is going to stay in his swim suit. So when I come out, I get back to the car and he is standing there. He says "you have the keys" ummm....they must be in the bag, take everything out...they aren't there. Well they must be in the trunk. I'm sure of it. So we go inside and call the locksmith...Jay...Jay doesn't work on the fourth of July. BUT we can stand on the side of the road and flag down a police officer and they will be able to help us. Do we have a choice?! Nope. So we are waiting on the side of the road and then these cops drive by (its a pretty small town) we flag them down and tell them our problem. They get out to help us and they don't have a lock kit. So they call another cop. So we have three cops, two cop cars, and two cops working on unlocking our car...they took forever! Finally, they unlock it, we pop the trunk and we....pretend that the keys are in there because we are too embarassed to admit that we don't know where they are. We wait for the cops to drive off, (and yeah, we are waving and saying thanks when we still don't know where our keys are) Riiiiight. Turns out I rolled them up in my towel with my wet suit. Guess it's a good thing Jay wasn't working or we would have paid him $50 for nothing!

Then we walked around the town and checked out all the freaks and weirdos. I swear they find their way to Helen. All these stores have this German front and then inside they are selling stars and bars t-shirts. I got the most delicious chocolate caramel apple from the candy shop, they are my absolute FAVORITE thing!

Then we headed back to Alpharetta where we had burgers on the grill and watched the beginning of the Braves game. We had a ton of fireworks (see American Pride post!) so we went over to the Guzowski's to light them off. They had a bunch too so the fireworks show was really long. They had some illegals so we were able to do some that shot up in the air and exploded! All in all the day was really fun. You can see from the video. The resolution is bad, maybe someone knows how to remedy that. I'm not sure if it is the hosting or what but the video on our videocamera is much clearer than what you see here. Oh well enjoy anyway!

For Your Enjoyment

I thought you all would enjoy these pics...Tara requested the in between pics. This is right after the treatment. I have to wear the hat when I go outside and I have to wear the butt cream all the time until tomorrow night. (Desitin).

So the treatment was pretty painful. It started out okay...but it is like a torture camp. You know how they say that they drop water, one drop at a time on to people's heads in Chinese torture camps, and eventually it makes them go crazy. So Renee does one zap and at first I'm thinking "this is it?" but then when she does it 150 times, I would give anything for her to stop. Luckily they start with the worst laser first and work down so that as your face hurts more and more the pain lessens.

Mills, PDT costs about 600 bucks, and yeah its a company perk. I had microdermabrasion a few weeks ago and it was pretty good, we have a machine that does it with a SilkPeel so it is putting one of four solutions (based on skin type) back into your skin. The thing about microdermabrasion is that it is a really, really good facial but it doesn't last as long and it doesn't have any "age-reversal" benefits...but then again it only costs 175 so its worth it! (And can you tell that I'm the PR person who writes about all of our procedures all day?! ;)

They say that day 2 is the worst and that some peope are "swellers" and some aren't. If I get a big pumpkin head, I'll show you guys the pics!

If It Doesn't Hurt It's Not Working

Well tomorrow I will be getting a PDT. It stands for PhotoDynamic Therapy and its when you but this aminolevulanic acid on your face and then wait 12 hours and then use 4 different lasers on your face. It reduces pore size, eliminates pimples and acne and any redness, diminishes brown spots (I'm not that old yet), improves wrinkles and sundamage, evens out your skin tone and texture and pretty much brings your skin back about 10 years. And the joke is that it stands for Pretty Darn Terrible.

After putting the acid on my face I will begin to look like a beet. This will take place at about 12 o'clock tonight. Then when I head to work in the morning, I have to wear a hat and scarf to protect my face from the sun, if I am exposed to UV I will get an immediate sunburn and be in immense pain. This includes the fluorescent lights in the office, therefore I will be wearing my hat and scarf until about noon at which time I will be lasered. The lasers feel like someone is snapping rubber bands all over your already sensitive face. If I am not dying from excrutiating pain at this time, I can opt to participate in laser hair removal (anyone who thinks that hair removal is painless is kidding themselves). Then I will be sent home. I will be able to expose my self to the sun without the aforementioned risks, but it will be painful to do so....so basically I will be a shut in until Saturday night. At which time my skin will peel off. Then I will have skin like a baby.

I know it sounds pretty painful, but everyone in the office has done it and they all insist that it works and that it is so worth it and that they would do it again (and they do, once a year). Whenever there are new creams or lotions or beauty techniques and we ask the doctor if they will work she always says "If it doesn't hurt, it's not working" SO basically exchanging excrutiating pain will get huge results...maybe. Not gonna lie, I'm nervous. I prepared myself by getting all the items an agoraphobic would be happy to have. I rented three movies and I have TONS of books. ( I rented Aquamarine, and yes, the guy at Blockbuster said I was the oldest person that he has seen rent it) I also bought lots of food. I thought I would post a before pic so that we can all judge the results...and so that I can post a picture of my beet face tomorrow! And you will also see the stick of death...the acid that I will be rubbing on tonight.

Wish me luck!


In typical "before" photo fashion, I have removed all my make up and I have a stupid look on my face...but let's be honest, if I looked good, it wouldn't be the "before" picture.

Seating for 8 to 12

So on Saturday after work and class, we decided to go shopping at the outlet mall. We went to the Pottery Barn outlet and we found this table that I have had my eye on for quite some time. Ciara, you know the one I am talking about. Anyway, it was everything that we wanted and was at the outlet mall because it didn't have any hardware. No problemo we can buy our own bolts right? So we buy for LESS THAN HALF of retail because they we also having some additional sale. This table is 60" square and seats eight people, two one each side but we don't have that may chairs, twelve with both leaves in. I really wanted a square table. Matt says we won't be able to fit that in the explorer...yeah he was right. So we take the legs and leaves and go back to Alpharetta and try to think of someone that we know with a truck. We end up borrowing our friends truck, this old Nissan. Matt doesn't drive stick shift so I drive it all the was back up to the outlet malls and we get the rest of the table.

The guys who loaded it were having a tough time and as we are driving back home Matt is calling everyone we know to have them help him carry it up. Unfortunately it is Saturday night and for some reason it seems like everyone is out of town, including my family. We get home and we try to carry it ourselves. The thing weighs like 300 pounds I swear and because it is five feet square we have to carry it upright. I still don't know how we got it inside, but somehow we managed. It makes me tired just thinking about it.

Then today I went to Home Depot to get the bolts. Joey in the hardware department was really helpful, maybe you're wondering why I know his name, oh that's because I went there THREE times today. The bolts weren't long enough, which Joey tried to tell me, he was right, I was wrong. On my way out this huge black guy started signing part of the BYU fight song because I was wearing a BYU shirt, which I thought was pretty funny. Anyway, the table is together and now we have to find some chairs to match! Here are some photos of the new table. I couldn't really get a good shot without me in it because of the dang mirror.