Pay It Forward Winner!!

Well, a big congratulations is in order for Chris at 3 Giraffes today because she is the winner of the Pay It Forward Contest from 2 weeks ago. She has won lots of fun stuff I found on my beach trip last week. I even liked the t-shirt I got for her so much that I bought one for myself!

BTW, she is hosting her own Pay It Forward contest so if you didn't win mine, sign up for hers here.

Congratulations Chris!!

Guess Who's Expecting???

Me, E, and Maggie are back from vacation and refreshed. We definately needed some relaxation and 10 days at the beach was just what the doctor ordered. But I will get to all of the vacation details later (since I forgot my camera).

NOTE: If you are a very close friend or family member and you are reading this and didn't recieve a phone call first, please don't be offended. It just means that after all of our family members found out, they talked my phone battery to death:) No, seriously!! Didn't my Nanny call you already?

Well, me and E found out on June 17 that we were expecting our first child. It was no surprise to us...just a surprise to everyone else because we didn't tell anyone else that we were ready to have kids. And plus I always hate the mental picture I get when people tell me "They are trying!" I didn't want people picturing me that way and continually asking me how things were going. I know...Weird!

E, of course, had just left 2 days earlier to attend a 2 week training course in another time zone. As soon as I dropped him off at the airport, I went home and had my second meal of the day at 10 AM which was a bowl of pasta. An hour later, I had another bowl of pasta, then a bowl of soup, then another bowl of soup, then some ice cream...you see where this is heading.

The next day, I told E that I was starving and just didn't feel like I was getting enough to eat or drink. I tried to eat normal the next day and then went for a run that night and felt nauseous right after. Something prompted me to look at a calendar and realize what day it was. So the next morning, I took a pregnancy test and sure enough, it was positive. I just remember looking at the stick, all by myself, thinking, this is not how I pictured this. So I called E and woke him up at 4:30 in the morning his time and announced that we were going to be parents. He was a little weary at first and asked me to repeat myself. I said "Babe, were gonna be parents!"

I got a blood test the next day, bought a book on everything you should and shouldn't do when you are pregnant. Of course I found out a week after I joined tennis league and a day after I signed up fr the Human Race 10K in Austin. Talk about luck! So I will have to change a few of those plans. But a week later I had an ultrasound already scheduled before I found out to check other things. I told her that I had just found out I was pregnant and she jumped at the chance to show me on the screen where everything was. So I got to see to see the heartbeat and she gave me a picture too.

So at the end of February, we will be adding a new Bailey to our family. We are definately excited and overwhelmed. So far, I have been nausious for the past 2 weeks but it is starting to subside. But I wish the carsickness and exhaustion would pass too.

So Congratulations all of you grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins out there. As if 2 Bailey's weren't in your face enough, we have decided to add one more.

Off for Vacation!!

Everyday Bailey went on vacation and all I got was the crappy postcard!!

If you are waiting on the results of the contest, I will post them and send the winner an email when I get back. Happy Fouth of July Everyone!!

The Roof is on Fire!!!

We all know the song, and I don't think it would be appropriate for me to repeat the lyrics here. I try to keep it somewhat family friendly. But we literally had that happen this week. Calm down Mom, not our house. It's still intact.

We have an apartment building behind our neighbor's house. It doesn't look to be a nice one. But our town is an absolute joke. Anyone can put an apartment building up anywhere in town, thus, the hard fall of the downtown area. All those people who have the beautiful houses with the old trees and awesome property are screwed because many apartment complexes have come up and now, prostitutes roam the streets, literally! Dont' misunderstand, these apartment complexes aren't the kind with a nice workout facility and a beautiful pool. NOTHING CLOSE!! So far is hasn't happened to our neighborhood but there is on the main road real close to our house. I am a strong supporter of zoning regulations!!

The point of this story is...It caught on fire Sunday morning!! I was washing dishes that morning and kept hearing a beeping sound. I thought maybe someone down the road was backing up a truck. When we finally left for church, we walked out the back door and I could still hear the beeping and it was much louder. I heard a man screaming and looked in his direction just in time to see him running up and down the balconies of the building trying to wake everyone up and get them out of the complex. The fire trucks came out and it turned out to be a huge deal!!

I know I probably shouldn't blog about someone else's tragedy, but did this happen to any of you this weekend???

Happy Birthday Stacey!

Stacey is one of my cousins. There are nine of us grandkids and she number 6. She is a senior at University of Mobile. She is a hard worker and an incredibly good sister. I could never survive having to take care of her two younger brothers. She works hard to get through school and still helps out home to take care of the family. I hardly ever get to see her anymore. Everyone is getting older and lots of stuff going on, there's the distance and plus, everytime I go home to see everyone, there are so many people coming and going between all of the new husbands and wives of the grandkids and boyfriends and girlfriends. So it gets pretty crazy around the Thanksgiving table.


Stace, I hope you suceed at all you do, and I know you will. You are a good kid and have really been a huge help at home these past few years. You are a sweet girl, funny, beautiful, a good friend and a good cousin. Me, E, and Magpie wish you Happy Birthday and want you to know that we love you very much!!

Happy Belated Birthday to Blake!

So Blake is my sister. She was 25 years young on Saturday. We are very close in spirit, not so much in distance. I think we live about 13 hours away from each other and really only see each other one holiday during the year. Now that we are both married and sharing holidays with our in-laws, we don't see each other as much. But she ran off and married her first high school boyfriend and they got married 4 years ago this week. So Happy Anniversary too while we are congratulating people. But so far so good, even though he's a pain (just kidding) she hasn't killed him yet so it looks like it just might work out after all! Blake is finished her masters at the Univ. of Alabama this year and started working for the County Health Deptarment and moonlights as a dietician at the local hospital. She reminds me of my mom, they always have to be doing SOMETHING...they can just sit still and enjoy life!

Happy Birthday and Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary???

Me and E have committed to getting up early to exercise this week and so when the alarm clock went off this morning at 5am, he rolled over and said "Happy Anniversary BB." I am sure I had a puzzled look on my face because he then asked "When's our anniversary again?"

To give you a clue into our life, we got married at the court house in california while E was out there doing training for several months. Honestly and truthfully, yours truly needed health insurance. And then 2 months later when he came home, we got married at the beach with all of our family and friends. So technically, we have 2 anniversaries. Poor guy though, he didn't get either of them. But I will say this, today is exactly the halfway point between the two dates though.

We got up, got dressed and as we were headed out the door, I couldn't find him anywhere. The back door was open so I walked out onto the patio where I saw the garage door was open. He came out and had a box in his hand. I followed him into the kitchen where he says "Happy Anniversary" again and present the box as a gift. He's so sweet. We typically don't do gifts on special occasions and we surprised me on a day that ... wasn't even our anniversary. Oh...sorry...you were probably waiting to find out what I got:

That's what I got!! Some of you readers might be thoroughly offended that my husband would get me a kitchen appliance for my anniversary, but he knows me well. I have been wanting one of these for a while now and he knew it. E, if you are reading this, YOU ARE THE BEST and I am lucky to have you!! Happy Anniversary to you too!

The Night of Many Surprises

I have two friends from my old days when I worked across campus. We were all working under the same regime and we were all miserable beyond words. Well, we have all since moved on to greener pastures but still hang out and have lunch together 3-4 times a week. There's actually alot more of us but only 3 of us eat lunch together. Andrea (Andrea Unplugged)and Taylor are my lunch bunch. They have been dating for 4 and a half years. Well, Taylor set up an elaborate night for Andrea and a few of her friends. There was a fancy dinner and wine tasting at the top of the library here on campus and all of the walls are windows look out onto the city from the top floor. It's really beautiful up there. But at the end of the night, they raffle off bottles of wine. The contest was "a little" rigged for one of the bottles. They bought a special bottle of sparkling wine for Taylor and tied Andrea's engagement ring to the bow on the bottle. So when he won, he untied the bow and announced to the whole room how much he loved her and then asked her to marry him. It was so great! She didn't have a clue. We had all been planning this for weeks. Here are al few pics from the other night:

This is Andrea and Taylor.

Me and Andrea realized that we have been good friends for over a year and have no pictures to prove it...until now!

Cherrye from My Bella Vita was in town from Italy for a visit by chance when the whole thing went down. She actually won one of the raffle prizes.

Here is Taylor popping the big question.

Since I am not drinking these days, I didn't want to be rude, so I let them fill may glasses with all the different wines they were trying. At the end of the night I couldn't move because I had 10 full glasses of wine in front of me. They came around with 2 extra glasses after this picture was taken. But the ice water was good, as was the dark chocolate on the table and the spinach dip at the food bar.