July 4th Weekend

We had quite a busy weekend for the 4th of July. Scott and I both had the day off on Friday. I spent the morning and early afternoon preparing food to take to Daddy and Stephanie's for a party they had on the 4th. Scott went and played disc golf with some friends and then did some work around the house for me. That evening, we went to a birthday party for our good friend Zach at Zach and Lauren's new house. It was a lot of fun and the food was really good.

The party at Daddy and Stephanie's was a lot of fun as well. They have a nice pool in their backyard. We ate and swam and visited. There were people from our family and from Stephanie's family there. I had made a decision to not count points on Saturday, so I made some things I wanted to have for the day. I made 2 different kinds of brownies and a big batch of kicked up pimiento cheese (there was so much of this actually that I took some of it with me to Zach's party). After we swam and ate and visited all day, we had about an hour before dark inside then we went out front and had some fun fireworks. We did fireworks for about an hour before we shot off the grand finale. We drove home tired, but happy. I'll include a slide show of pictures from the weekend.

Update

Wow. It has been a long time since I posted anything. Almost a month. That wasn't really my intention, it just worked out that way. First of all, I was sick twice in three weeks. I am still sort of recovering from my last illness. I am kind of tired of being sick. I usually only get sick about once a year. This makes 4 times in 6 months. Scott was sick too. He got sick with some sort of sinus thing at about the same time as I got some sort of stomach bug. Then, he went to the doctor and started feeling better and once I had recovered from my stomach thing, I started getting sick with whatever sinus thing he had. No fun. I started to feel sick a week before my birthday, on the day of our joint birthday party with my family for Stephanie, Kristyn, and me.

Our birthday party was a lot of fun except that I wasn't feeling great, Stephanie was starting to have some sort of allergy thing, and Kristyn's stomach wasn't feeling too great either. But it was still good to get together. I got so many great gifts for my birthday. Obviously I don't think that my birthday is all about getting gifts, but it did sort of lessen the sting of turning...ahem...30. This is our group picture. Love the bunny ears. haha.





Here is the face I made when I opened my Cuttlebug. I was really surprised that Daddy and Stephanie got it for me. I had always just thought that I would end up saving up and getting it for myself. But, sometimes looking at my expressions is scary, seriously!







I got my first gift wrapped in "Over the Hill" wrapping paper this birthday. Thanks Daddy and Stephanie.













They got a special cake for my birthday...and added their own finishing touch of 30 candles!








Here I am trying to blow out all the candles! I was not successful in blowing them all out in one breath. They were all so spread out! It was a lot of ground to cover.










I won't list all my gifts, but I got a compilation of Jane Austen novels, some CDs that I had really been wanting, a movie, a Cuttlebug die cutting/embossing scrapbooking tool, and a new cookbook I really wanted. On top of the MP3 player that Scott gave me a couple of weeks ago, he surprised me with the perfume I really wanted, Armani Code for Women. I love the way it smells!

On the date of my actual birthday, April 18th, our close friends Andy and Caitlin got married. It was a beautiful ceremony and it was an enjoyable time to get to see a lot of people that we had not seen in a long time.











The weather has been absolutely crazy the last few weeks. Just this week, the lows have been about 35 and today it got up close to 90 degrees!

I have planted some tomato plants in pots with cages this year and a jalapeno plant. Hopefully we will have a good crop with them. We also purchased some dirt to amend the soil in our garden and I have started dumping my pots from the winter out and planting the whole thing out in the garden, kind of around the big area that I usually plant on that is raised. I put a lot of bulbs in them and I am hoping that by planting them in the garden, they'll come back next year and bloom. Scott and I went over to the Growers' Outlet today and I liked some of the stuff they have, but was disappointed that they didn't have more things I like. So, we didn't end up getting anything. I think that we are going to go back next weekend to see what they have and hopefully they'll have more stuff out. I still have plenty of time to plant. I don't have a lot of stuff to do in the yard this year because I have so many perennials, but I do have some things to plant. Mostly though, have my pots to take care of. The other day when I was working in the gardens and Scott was cutting the grass, I walked over to the side of the house to go through the fence and was surprised that all the hostas on that side that I planted 2 years ago have come up and they are monsters! The closer they are to the fence, or the more shade they are getting, the bigger they are! I will have to divide them this fall if we are still living here.

Did I ever say on here that we dropped the price on our house? Since that happened, we have had a pick up in traffic. We are not sure if that is because of the price decrease or because of the fact that it is spring. We would really like to be able to sell our house so that we could take advantage of the low prices on a house closer to our offices and church.

Today was Founders' Day for Scott's fraternity at GA Tech. So, we went downtown and got to spend time with friends. It was really nice.

I am still doing Weight Watchers. I have lost almost 12 pounds. I still have about 18 more that I want to lose.



Scott and I are taking a trip to celebrate my birthday. I decided that I would rather do that than have a big party or something. We are going to the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC. Neither of us has ever been. We will be there the last weekend of the Flower Festival. We are going to drive up on Wednesday, May 13 and come home on that Sunday. Obviously we won't be spending all of our time at the Biltmore House. I know that there is a lot to do up there, but I haven't spent a lot of time researching it. Does anyone have any suggestions of things we can do or restaurants we can visit?



Well, if you are still here, I am impressed. I hope you have a blessed week.

Family Birthday Celebration

Scott and I had my family over for a early/late birthday celebration on May 24. Some of us had already swapped gifts, but this pretty much covered all the ones that weren't swapped yet. We also snuck Father's Day in there too. We are an efficient family. We had dinner, gifts, and cupcakes. We also talked about Wendy's and Paul's upcoming wedding. Here's the proof:

Cole Family Gathering

We got together with my extended family from my dad's side last Saturday. We tried to make it a pretty easy get-together, so we met at the Golden Corral in Austell. Yum. Here are the pictures.

New Life

Shana, Lauren, and I had the privilege to be present at the birth of Eli. It was an amazing day! Charles, Maggie, and Andrew are such a sweet little family and they have now grown by one! I cannot wait to see Eli grow up.

Maggie and Charles have done such a good job preparing Andrew to be a big brother.

Christmas With Marcy's Family

As you can see, I have added a slide show to the right of the pictures I took at my dad's house and at the nursing home during our visit with Meme this past Saturday. Some of these pictures are particularly funny and I feel they deserve an explanation. There is one picture where Paul is playing with Kristyn's Barbie. I just felt this was funny, so I took a picture of it. I am not sure if he was actually playing with it or trying to do something for Kristyn, but I took advantage of the opportunity. Ha! Next, you can see that Emily is heading into that teenage stage of not wanting her picture taken. We have many pictures of her trying to keep her picture from being taken. So, there is one picture where Scott got her unaware - eating a cookie. He was quite proud and earned an especially dirty look. Hehe. My dad and Stephanie have two LARGE dogs, Sadie, the dalmation, and Jack, the Great Dane mix (apparently mixed with some other breed of large dog). Well, these two are quite hyper and Daddy and Stephanie are nice enough to lock them out of the house while we are there. I can't stand it when they jump on me because dogs' nails don't retract and I end up looking like I have been abused. But, Sadie apparently did not appreciate being locked out and she kept jumping up on the back door and scratching at the screen door. At one point in time, I peeked out the window from the office and both dogs saw me and looked right into the camera for me. It was a cute picture. Kristyn loved to stand in the doorway and watch Sadie scratch. She even took a video with my camera. Lastly, you will see how many attempts it took for us to get one good family picture. The first few ended up looking like we were separated into "family groups" and the second group is funny because of my Daddy. He only really smiled in one of them and in one of them, notice the surprised look on his face as the picture took just as he was finishing scratching his nose! One picture is particularly funny because Scott forgot to set the timer and he accidentally took a picture of all of us "preparing" for the picture. We also took a "silly picture" so that Kristyn could give her dad reindeer antlers! The picture at the top is of my sister Wendy and me. We don't look anything alike, do we?!

Here is the video Kristyn took of Sadie scratching at the door. Most of her scratching fits were much longer than this. You can hear me in the background trying to torment the dogs into scratching so that Kristyn could video them. Poor Sadie and Jack.

Well, that just about sums up our visit in Dallas this weekend. We had dinner, presents, and family time. Scott, Paul, and Daddy even got to watch football while we ate.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

I hope everyone is enjoying today! Scott and I have had a wonderful Christmas so far. Our weekend was great as well. All of our family gatherings were a lot of fun! I took a ton of pictures so I am going to have to pick out the best ones and do a slide show soon. The ones of Scott's family are going to require quite a bit of red eye reduction as they all have blue eyes. My family, on the other hand, being brown eyed (except Paul and one of his daughters, Kristyn), are much easier to photograph! This picture is of my family. The back row is Daddy, Stephanie, Me, and Scott. The front row is Emily, Wendy, Paul, and Kristyn. (Paul is my sister's fiance and Emily and Kristyn are his daughters).

Sunday's church service and Last night's Christmas Eve service at church were wonderful. Pastor Lee talked about how it is okay to enjoy the secular parts of Christmas as long as you are not allowing them to get in the way of your worship of Christ. If that is the case, you are making them idols. He also discussed, last night, the incarnation of Christ. I am so amazed and so thankful that God would take on human form and come and live as one of us in order to save us from our own sin. How awesome!

Scott's parents and grandma came to our Christmas Eve service last night and then we went out to eat at the Waffle House. Mmmm. Gotta love a patty melt plate!

I enjoyed exchanging gifts with our families as well. I love giving gifts. It's so much fun to see people react to the things you bought for them. But, I must admit that I also enjoy receiving them. I received so many great gifts this year. I have completed my collection of Tim McGraw CDs (I was only missing the most recent one), I have the entire Bible (ESV version) on MP3, I received a new Bible in the NASB version, which is what Pastor Lee uses, and I received both of the sewing books that I wanted. I think that I am fully prepared to start attempting to sew. I have received many other things that I also really wanted, but those are the highlights. Scott got lot of new things too. He received all of the books from Christian Books.com that he wanted, his GA Tech windsock that he had been wanting (exactly like the other one he had bought for himself recently, thanks to Tailgaters Alley Stores(Discover Mills and The Avenue at Webb Ginn), who are owned by GA Tech graduates, and he received both of the movies he has been talking about wanting since they came out: Transformers and Pirates of the Caribbean 3. Also, his boss had given him a gift card to Game Stop for his birthday and Scott went out and bought a game that I had almost bought him for his birthday, Super Mario Galaxy. He is playing it right now...and he played it quite a bit yesterday while I was at work. He loves it. Scott's boss also gave him Harry Potter 5 (the movie) for Christmas. Yay!

I am leaving you with a little video I took of Sam trying to fit all 5 of the cars that Scott and I gave him for Christmas in his hands at one time. So cute.

Great Picture

This is my favorite picture ever. It is a picture of my parents taken after they were married but before my sister was born. So, that would be ca. 1972-1973. They were just so young here. I think that this is my sister's favorite picture too.

Happy Birthday Melanie!

Scott's mom's birthday was Friday, October 5. After we visited Meme, we went to Tracy's house (Scott's sister) to celebrate her birthday. We had flying saucers and Tracy and SaraBeth had made an angelfood cake, which we had covered in strawberries and coolwhip. It was all very good. We gave Melanie her gifts, and played with SaraBeth and Sam. Scott, Robert, and I checked out Robert's XBox 360. Sam has grown up so fast and he is talking pretty well and walking. He also LOVES to have his picture taken. If he sees you with a camera he smiles really big and then squeals "Whoa!" after the flash goes off. So, I got a ton of cute pictures of Sam. SaraBeth is so grown up and she is such a sweet big sister. She really loves Sam and it shows. I know that Robert and Tracy feel blessed to have such sweet children. I think that the funniest part about the whole night was that I learned that Scott and Tracy's parents like to play Wii. SaraBeth was also taking advantage of having her great grandmother there and played with her a good bit. It was a good family get-together. I couldn't choose which pictures to post, so I just did a slide show.

Haylee Is Here!

My friend Jennifer at work finally had her baby! Little Haylee arrived last night at 9:08pm. She is a whopping 8lbs 15oz and 21 inches long! Her due date actually was Aug. 1, so she was very prompt. However, originally they had said that Jennifer was due on July 23, and judging from how big she was, I think she went a week late. To get some idea of how big poor Jennifer got, revisit this post from her shower on June 30. Some of us from the office went to see her today at Piedmont. Jennifer was so happy and perky and Haylee was so cute and pink and her little face was just so round. I didn't get any pictures, but Jennifer's husband Lamar showed up before we left and said that he was going to email some to me tonight, so I will add them when I get them. I know everyone loves baby pictures! I am very happy for Jennifer and Lamar and they are both so excited Haylee is here. I know that they will need our prayers as they begin their little family.

Here are the pictures of Jennifer, Lamar, and Haylee that I promised:

We had a busy weekend. I really didn't want to go back to work this morning. But, I did it anyway.

Friday night we had a small group party at Andy's house, which was a lot of fun. We all made our own pizzas and talked and the guys played Wii while the ladies congregated in the kitchen and checked out all the gadgets that Judy had stocked Andy's kitchen with. :)

Saturday we went to see Meme. She has gotten over her pneumonia and her stomach seems to be doing much better, but apparently the pneumonia has left some lasting marks because they have her on oxygen all the time now. So, this limits her mobility. My great great aunt Annie Lou is also in the same nursing home now, so I visited with her as well. Annie Lou has dementia, which is what my great grandmother had, but not as bad as my great grandmother. I think Meme has it too, somewhat, but not like Annie Lou. But, Annie Lou can still answer questions and stuff like that. After we visited with Meme and Annie Lou, we stopped by my dad's house for a few minutes to visit. No pictures there.

After that, we met my friend Lisa and her husband Lee for dinner in Hiram. Lisa and I have been good friends since the 6th grade. We used to show up at school wearing the exact same outfit. We unknowingly purchased the exact same wedding dress. We both started dating the men that we ended up marrying within a few months of each other. Lisa and I are close friends. We do not see or talk to each other as much as I would like, but I know that she will always be there for me and I will definitely always be there for her. We enjoyed catching up with Lisa and Lee. Lisa is about to start her doctorate and Lee is going to school while working at Home Depot. Lee is going to be a History teacher. Lisa is a high school math teacher.

Scott has decided that he wants a Wii. Actually, he has wanted one for a LONG time and I have been pretty hesitant (well, I've refused) to have one in the house. I thought the idea would wear off, but it hasn't. So, we bought him a Wii. Everywhere we went this weekend, we looked for them and no one had them. Scott went to about 5 places at lunch today and I called a couple of places this morning close to my office. The last place Scott went at lunch had them. So, Scott's in the living room playing Wii (sounds like Wii Baseball) and I am in the office blogging. We are such a high tech family, let me tell you. This is a very early birthday present for Scott. His birthday is Nov. 25, but that's so close to Christmas...so we usually buy his birthday gift in the middle of the year. At least he is using his gift. I got a sewing machine and sewing table two years ago for my birthday and I have only sewed one thing on it...I need to get to work! (Now it looks like he's switched to Wii golf...) Yes, that second picture is of Scott playing his Wii while talking on the phone. Such a multi-tasker!

Oh! I wanted to do an update on my garden. Nothing I planted up the side of the house is doing all that great. It looks like maybe the lantana around the air conditioner aren't getting enough sun and the hostas up and down both sides of the house are getting too much sun. So sad. I didn't realize how sunny it got over there. But, everything up front is doing great, especially my calla lilies! I went out this evening and made a bouquet out of them and a few other flowers that I have growing. My canna lily is about to bloom too. We also have tomatoes ripening in the back yard. They are small, but pretty tasty!

Just a disclaimer on this post: I can't get a title into the title area, so maybe I will try tomorrow. Also, I don't know why some of my formatting is messed up...but I can't correct it...so sorry. I hope it isn't too distracting!

Meme

Meme went back into the hospital yesterday afternoon. She has pneumonia. She has lots of breathing issues. She smoked for forever until this past time she had breathing issues - I think right around Christmas. They are giving her antibiotics by IV and they want to give her 3 IVs of antibiotics and then they will start giving her antibiotics orally and she will be able to go back to the nursing home. My prayer is that she recovers quickly and can go back to the nursing home. She is better off mentally over there. She definitely has some sort of mental issues, be it borderline personality disorder or dementia, and she just goes nuts. So, it's hard on us and the nurses. Maybe she'll be released before the weekend. That is what I am praying for. For her, she is miserable in the hospital and I am sure she is tired of being sick. For my sister, Wendy, and I, there is the worry about her physical well being as well as her being able to stay in the same nursing home, as well as all the guilt associated with being responsible for her. There seems to be this expectation that because we are responsible, we should drive to Dallas every weekend and sit with her all weekend and then when she is sick in the hospital, we need to drive to Dallas every day and sit with her all day. Nothing we do is ever enough. I am constantly in prayer on that point. Am I doing what God wants me to do? I don't think I have received a clear answer on that one.

Meme Update!

Meme was released back to the nursing home today! The doctor had called my sister and said that they were going to put her on a semi-solid diet today and if she kept it down, they would release her. At about 3:30, my sister called back up there and they had released her and she scooted down the hall in her wheelchair! She was ready to be back at the nursing home and not in the hospital. I hope that she continues to heal and that she wasn't hiding the fact that she still can't handle solid foods from them. She is a smart cookie and she knows that looking like she is better is her ticket to her own room. We shall see. I tried calling her just now and I got no answer...so she must be at dinner. I'll try later and see if I can get her scoop on the situation. God has really been in charge of this situation and been watching over her and us. Thank you all for your prayers and please continue to pray for continued healing.

I talked to Meme just now. She says that she is feeling better. She was very talkative, but sounded tired. I think that she is going to really watch what she eats for a while.

Vacation

I just wanted to write and say how excited I am that in less than two weeks, we will be leaving to go on our cruise. We are both excited! We have been planning this vacation since last summer! Scott and I have never been on a big vacation together before. We've saved up for this one. I hope that I don't have trouble concentrating at work for the next 7.5 days that I will be working. I am only working half a day this coming Thursday because I am having my eyes evaluated for Lasik. I am having Lasik done at the end of June. I am so ready. I am deathly afraid of any medical procedures and normally would not voluntarily do anything like this, but I hate my contacts and glasses are just so hard to do anything in...swimming, working in the yard, driving if you don't have prescription sunglasses, working out...they really limit you. Scott is taking me to the evaluation. Isn't he caring? Anyway, we are both excited about the cruise...did I already say that? I need a vacation...

The Week In Review

Well, it has been a crazy week for me and I am sure crazier for others. My grandmother is still in the hospital, but they have slightly cleared the blockage in her stomach (which was caused by scar tissue from ruptured ulcers) and are weaning her back onto solid foods a little at a time. Tuesday will be day 7 and she will possibly lose her bed in the nursing home. We are just praying that she is healed enough to go back to the nursing home, even if for a couple of days, by then. Please continue to pray for her. Last night we had Scott's parents and grandma over to the house for dinner. It was really good and they seemed to like it. Scott's grandma had never seen our house before. She recently moved here from California to live with Scott's parents. She took her first trip to the Varsity on Friday night and had onion rings and a frosted orange. Scott's mom is going to send us some pictures of her with a Varsity hat on. We'll post one of them when we get it. They were super cute! We enjoyed having them over. The cats showed off for them and did all their best tricks. Then, one of my close friends from high school, Meredith, got married today and I forgot my camera! Meredith was so beautiful and she was so happy. She told me that her face hurt from smiling! I said "Good! That's the way it should be!" I am really happy for her. She thought that she would be done with her doctorate at Purdue University in Indiana by now, but she is not, so she is going back to Purdue on May 29 and her new husband, Ryan, will be staying here. I know that that will be hard for them. I also got to spend time with my friend Robyn from high school and her husband Michael. That was great. I was so glad to see them there! We always enjoy talking with them. I wish we lived closer together. Friday night Scott and I went to the funeral home for Zach and his family as they had visitation for Zach's dad. We all need to remember to continue to pray for them as grieving can be a long and lonely process sometimes.

Update on Meme

I went to see my grandmother Meme today at the hospital. She is very aware of what is going on which is a lot better than she was at any point when she had this happen last year. She has a tube going from her nose into her stomach. This is making her miserable. She can only have ice chips to eat or drink. They keep having issues with her IVs and so they keep having to stick her because her veins keep collapsing. Hopefully they can do another scope and clear the blockage tomorrow or Friday. All the nurses are very nice to her. Please continue to pray for her.

Prayer Request

Please pray for my grandmother, Meme. She lives in the nursing home in Paulding and has been admitted to the hospital (which is attached to the nursing home). She has always had a lot of stomach problems and now has a blockage in her stomach. They are not sure what has caused it but are pumping her stomach and will do a scope later this week to see if it has cleared or if they can clear it. If they are not able to clear it that way, they may have to do surgery. This is the second time this has happened. That last time it happened was when she went into the nursing home. She has macular degeneration in both eyes and is going blind. She cannot see to take care of herself. We assumed that she had eaten bad food or something. I just spoke with her doctor who said sometimes those things just happen. My prayer is that she is healed and can go back to the nursing home where she currently is. If she stays in the hospital for longer than 7 days, they will fill her bed in the nursing home and then when she is released from the hospital, they can put her anywhere there is space (Powder Springs, Mableton, anywhere). If this is not Paulding, she will not get visits from her friends like she does now because all of her friends live in the area. Plus, Paulding Nursing Home is really one of the best. Those nurses and social workers take very good care of my grandmother and she has developed relationships with them and the other patients there. I appreciate your prayers for Meme (Kate).