Cute Cat Video

I think that this video is too cute. A man I work with sent it to me. He is a cat person, so when he gets a good cat video, he sends it to me.

Mi Vida Loca

I have finally recovered from the weekend, I think! It was a crazy one.

It all started on Friday morning. Our Controller's birthday was Monday(6/23), but we knew he wouldn't be there then, so the CFO asked us to all wear black. Little did we know that he had had this sign made that said "Lordy, Lordy Dexter is 40" and bought a helium tank and black balloons! Claire, our assistant controller, had also left us a bunch of stuff to decorate his office with, but we were planning to wait and do it on Monday because she had been on vacation and we wanted her to be able to see it. But, when our CFO started decorating with his stuff, we figured, we shouldn't drag it out on him, so we went to town! It was crazy how much stuff Claire had bought. His office was well decorate as was the entrance to our floor coming in from the lobby with the sign from our CFO. Then, we had cake that afternoon. Have you ever seen a cake with 40 candles on it and a fairly tall man walk in with an inflatable walker and blow them all out (well, all but 3, but come on, that's a lot!)? Well, it's humorous!

I also got some work done on Friday, believe it or not...

Well, I had all my stuff ready for the BIG event on Friday, Callie's bachelorette party!! A group of us girls met up at Lauren and Zach's and got all dressed up and drove downtown (I guess it was really midtown where we were) and ate at Shout. Then, we came back and had a super yummy dessert made by Lauren and let Callie open her gifts from us. Some people went home and some stayed the night. It was a LOT of fun! I have an album on Facebook. Girls, I promise I'll email pictures or pass a disk around of all of the pics soon!

Callie had gotten a call that Lauren, Caitlin, Alison, and my bridesmaids' dresses were in at the dress store in Lilburn on Friday. Lauren and Caitlin really only had time to go on Saturday morning and really, I don't know when else I could have gone, so I got up and had breakfast with Lauren and Caitlin and then drove home, took a quick shower, then turned around and headed for the dress store! The dresses are beautiful! I'll send pictures to Callie and let her decide if she wants to post those pictures or make you all wait for the wedding!

No, you aren't reading the wrong blog, this is a super-cute picture of Eli I took on Friday night before we went out. We dropped Eli off with Chris and Jennifer before we went to the restaurant (thanks Chris and Jennifer). Eli was really happy to see all of us!! I just couldn't help but post this. (Yes, Maggie, I will email these to you!)

As most people know, Shana and Josh Stringer are moving to Louisville, KY to attend Southern Seminary (the best seminary in the world according to Pastor Lee). Saturday afternoon, the Lucases, some close friends of Josh and Shana's, helped Dean and Judy throw a going-away party for them at Dean and Judy's house in Talmo, GA (like, up near Gainesville). So, while I was getting fitted, my wonderful husband made the pasta salad that we were going to take. I had time to get home from the dress store, eat a little something for lunch, and put on some make up before Scott and I packed ourselves up and headed to Talmo. I was about to fall asleep in the car on the way up to Talmo, but knew Scott would not be happy if I did. But, once we got there and I started talking with everyone and then we all started playing jump rope, I got a second wind. I really think that Dean and Judy bought those games for the kids...and we let them play some, but mostly we jump roped with the big jump ropes and let the kids play wiffle ball and draw with sidewalk chalk... It was a lot of fun. Andrew and Quinn both did really good jumping rope. Nehemiah was great at it! Several people tried to do double dutch, but no one was exactly successful. The closest was Maggie, who jumped three times, I think.

Okay...that was Saturday...

Sunday was Josh and Shana's last Sunday at church and they got up and Josh talked and made us all cry. Then, our small group went out to lunch together. We are truly blessed to have such a great church family. We love our church family!

I think that reality is finally beginning to set in that Josh and Shana are really leaving. I am happy for them and I feel like this is where they should be, but I am sad in a really selfish way because we are going to miss them! I am also excited, because Shana has been working at Fresh Market and has had strange hours. Now, she will get an office job in KY and we can talk on the phone on our way home every day again like we used to. I know we'll stay close, but I'll miss them...and Bogie and Zoe too...

So, that's why I am tired. I know Scott is too. Scott has really been studying hard for his Cisco exams. Please be praying for those. He seems to really be interested in this stuff.

The next several weeks promise to be busy. This coming Saturday, we are throwing a shower for Wendy (my sister) and Paul who are getting married on 8/8/08. Then, on July 5, we are going to my dad's for a July 4th party and we are going to visit with Meme while we are there. July 12 is Callie's wedding (my, it is very close now!), so the 11th and 12th will be full or wedding preparations! Then, July 13th I have a shower to attend for a college friend in Canton after church!

Whew! I feel tired again. I am going to bed. Have a great night!! If you are expecting pictures from me, hopefully I will email them soon.

This and That

Last night we had a really pretty sky while I was sitting here playing on the computer. I tried to walk outside and get a good picture of it, but the camera wouldn't focus on any of the pictures. But, here's the best one.

We have been having all kinds of new birds since we got our tray feeder and since we put the two bird feeders out front. In the past, all we had were finches, cardinals, doves, and carolina chickadees. Everyone once in a while, we'd have a goldfinch or a pine warbler. When we first put the tray feeder out, we had a red-headed woodpecker. Scott and I both saw it at different times but neither of us could get a picture of it. Apparently it is camera shy. But, he was beautiful! Also, we have had common grackles, brown-headed cowbirds, eastern bluebirds, tufted titmice, and sparrows (several kinds-song, chipping, field). I believe that we have had some white-breasted nuthatches, but they don't stick around long enough for me to get the book and look at them and the book at the same time. I also think that we had a rose-breasted grosbeak one day. I think that another factor in our increased bird activity is that Nan, our neighbor across the street has also put out a feeder. Nan's house is against the woods, so she kind of pulls them out of hiding and they realize there is all this free food and they should explore. The weirdest thing is that I haven't seen our carolina chickadees or the pine warblers since the winter time. They may be coming during the day and I miss them, but it's strange. I was telling the guy at Wild Birds Unlimited this the other day and he didn't know why either. He figures something must have changed. Maybe because we have such big birds coming around now they are intimidated. Who knows.

So, I was at Wild Birds Unlimited to make a new purchase that we had been considering for a while (since the last time I was at WBU a month or so ago). I bought a humming bird feeder. I had one before, but it was a little too high maintenance for me. This one is perfect for the lazy bird-watcher. We bought it on Saturday and yesterday we saw a humming bird at the feeder! I was so excited they found it so fast! According to the people at WBU, the humming birds are nesting right now, but once the babies leave the nests around July, we'll have tons of humming birds through early September. I am so excited! The cats seem pretty excited too!

Here's the brown-headed cowbird. I think they are very pretty birds.

I love this picture of this cardinal. You can see the sunflower seed in his mouth. We have a male and female that hang out together all the time, but it's hard to get a picture of them together.

This is the best picture I can get of the common grackle. They are pretty camera shy. But, look at those colors. They are really pretty in the right light. In the wrong light, they look like crows with yellow eyes.

Look at this cute little baby finch! Every year we get a new batch of baby finches. Aw! Isn't he (probably she, actually) cute!

See how many pine warblers we were getting back when it was cold? Do you know if they migrate? Now that I think of it, it seems like we only see yellow birds (goldfinches or pine warblers) when it is cold or just starting to warm up. Hmmmm....oh, my book says that they like insects, but since there aren't many in the winter, they'll come to the feeder in the winter. That makes sense. So, they are probably around, they just don't need us in the summer when we have lots of tasty bugs around.

Laser Show

Friday night, we went to the Laser Show at Stone Mountain for a Family Fun Night with Christ Church of Metro Atlanta. It was a lot of fun. The Laser Show is a lot different this year for the 25th Anniversary of the Laser Show, you should go see it. And, if you have never been to Stone Mountain, plan to make a day or two of it. There is so much to do!

Here are some pictures from before the show. We ate and talked and the kids played. It was a lot of fun and good fellowship.

Birth Announcement

My friends Emily and Travis from college have just given birth to their second son! Little Walker Bowden was born this past Saturday. He weighed in a a whopping 7 lb 12 oz and 20 3/4 inches! I know that this doesn't sound big to most people, but Emily and Travis are small people and their first son, Will, was just a little over 6 lbs! He is really precious! Just look at this little cutie! I talked to Emily yesterday and she is doing pretty well, all things considered! Please pray for this family as they get used to having a new baby at home and as Emily recovers.




Just a side note...I have no idea why the picture have that strange white border on the right and bottom, but I did download the pictures from the webmail from work, so I guess something was lost in the translation. I'll fix them tomorrow probably.

Blog Updates

Some of you may have noticed some of the little changes I have made to the blog lately. First, Allison told me how to make the "blog list" over to the right that will show you when the blogs were last updated. I really like this feature. ALSO, Scott and I have joined Facebook and we love it...so if you are on Facebook and we aren't already "friends", ask me to be your friend. Heehee. It sounds so funny to say that. I like to play Scrabulous and the Hatchery and Scott's favorite seems to be the Northwest Trail and all the movie quizzes. So, anyway...if you are on Facebook and you want to play a game of Scrabble with me, let me know and I'll start a game. It's fun. Okay, that's all.

Tutorial on Deadheading a Gardenia Bush

As many of you know, when the flowers on most plants die, you are supposed to pinch off the dead blooms so that it will either continue to flower or begin storing up energy for the next blooming season, depending on the type of plant or the time of year it is. You may also know, I want to do things as quickly as possible because I can be impatient sometimes. So, I have discovered an interesting way to deadhead my gardenias. The dead blooms aren't really attached very well and the live ones, well, they are. Watch and learn from the master. (hahaha)





Please note that the video's sound stops halfway through. This seems to be a blogger issue because it works fine on my computer. So, don't think there's something wrong with your sound!

Movies and such

Today Scott and I went to see the new Chronicles of Narnia movie, Prince Caspian. We really enjoyed it. You should go see it! It was exciting and there was a bit of romance and of course the usual CS Lewis twist on things where Aslan symbolized Christ and the characters in the movie have waivering faith because they cannot see him.

I have had a lot of people ask me how I like my job. I like it. It is a totally different environment than anything I have ever experienced before. There are so many types of people there. There are quite a few people that I work with who are democrats, which is interesting. The controller of our company likes to give them a hard time...it's fun to listen. He was giving my neighbor a hard time the other day by asking her questions she couldn't answer about government and politics and my boss and I were trying to work, but all we could do was sit there and listen to see what she would say. There are a lot of people who aren't Christians as well. Everyone is nice, though. When I first started, I was afraid that I really did not have enough work for 40 hours a week. Now, I have a lot more responsibilities and I stay busier. Especially this next couple of weeks; my boss is going to be out of town and he asked me to do a lot of the things he would normally do. But, I would rather be busy than bored. Everyone there is really smart...without even having to work at it. It's crazy.

So, that's our update for now. I hope you are all having a good weekend!

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:

Renaissance Festival

On Memorial Day, Scott and I visited the Renaissance Festival. It was a lot of fun. We each had a turkey leg and some other fun treats. We watched all kinds of crazy "talent shows", jousting, and saw a glass-blowing exhibit. If you ever get the chance to visit a Renaissance Festival in your area, you should defintely check it out!