March Madness...

...minus the whole basketball thing.  Granted, I love basketball, but I am referring to the madness that is about to begin this month!

Starting this weekend, I have fun stuff every weekend!  This weekend, I am attending a vegetable gardening class in Tallahassee with my friend Barbara.  I wonder how this will compare to the Vegetable Production class I took in Auburn with none other than...Dr. James Brown.  Heath and I both took this class, as well as our friend Courtney.  You my often hear one of us quoting his famous lines.  I know that I say this one often as I am walking out the door at work "Well, clock on the wall says that's all.  Hates to but I gots to, see ya later."  Dr. Brown was also famous for his famous pop quizzes.  Of course, you never knew when they were gonna "pop" up.  However, you knew when you were about to have one because you would hear these famous words..."I smell the pop quiz man! I smell that CK1 coming up the stairs!"  Side note: Do they even make CK1 anymore??  I had a great time in that class!  I know that Saturday won't be near this much fun, but I guess we will find out!

I am still open for the weekend of the 10th, but I am sure that I can find something to get into!

For St. Patrick's Day, I am excited to announce that some friends from home are coming over and we are headed over to Savannah to have some fun!  I love Savannah and I have always wanted to go for St. Patricks Day, so that's one item to scratch off my "Bucket List."  One other item on my list is to get my pilot license at some point in my life.  However, Ashley just informed me of her dream about me flying her around and I am pretty sure that she will never be flying with me since my words to her were "Just hang on a little longer.  I'm almost over water and you can let go then."  Total splashdown.

The last two weekends will be full of moving activities and I have to squeeze in a work conference as well.  Busy, busy, busy!  Also, going into the first weekend in April, MY PARENTS AND BROTHER WILL BE COMING!  I am so excited to have them come and to actually have space to house them and enjoy them!  It will be a great way to spend my last birthday in the 20's!  Since my birthday is the day before Easter, I asked my mom to make me a cake like I had on my 2nd birthday...a bunny rabbit cake that actually stood up.  She told me that she would, but that it would probably be a sheet cake this time instead of standing one!  I guess that's acceptable.

I hope that you all have a great week...I guess tomorrow we will see what Team Lean Week 7 will hold!

Team Lean Week 6...and Soccer

Team Lean went well for our team today!  Not sure how we will do in the polls, but no one gained and that's what counts!  I'll be glad when this is all over...I'm ready to not have the pressure of the weekly weigh ins.  I don't always perform well under pressure!

Tonight, I was able to finally attend Gabby's soccer game.  I was so glad that it finally worked to where I could go!  She and her sister are so precious to me and I love being able to spend any time with them!

Orange Team is #1!

I also might have played around with the photo in photoshop...I just got the program and I am in a whole other world trying to figure it out!  I can do a few things, but not much!

Side note: 37 days till move is complete...  23 days till St. Patricks Day in Savannah...countdowns are the only time I enjoy numbers!

Happy Wednesday!

Sorry I didn't blog last week, however Team Lean Wk 5 was a bust (for me, anyway) so here's to a better tomorrow!

Not too much is going on here.  I am very excited to continually count down the days till I move.  Every day I have a new hatred for this apartment and the crap that goes with it.  I dread packing and unpacking, but looking forward to the many perks that go with it.  I am so glad that Bentley will have a yard I can throw him out in when I get tired of hearing him and a yard that I, too, can go out in. 

I still didn't figure out my blog layout, so I just took the banner off...simple enough fix!

I hope you all have a great week and hopefully I will have something eventful to write about soon!  I have a little gardening trip on March 3 so hopefully that will be interesting enough to blog about!

Technical Difficulties

I really have no idea what I did to my blog layout, but just hold tight till I figure it out...may be a few days...Ash and I have already spent 2 hrs working on it tonight...yay.

most of it is fixed...now I just need to banner to fit inside the frame...I shall worry about that later!

Happy Valentines Day!

I hope everyone had a great Valentines Day!  I hope you all made your own memories and that you never forget them!  I know I will not forget what I came home to today....

Let me preface this by saying my cousin is "special" and should be studied at times and let me set the stage for you as well.  She gets home before I do, but on my walk up to the apartment today, I thought to myself it looked pretty dark inside and I always leave the kitchen light on, but I let it go (in my head).  I walked up the stairs and unlock the door, open it and find that all the lights are off, every candle we have in the house is lit and this...

I guess since David left to go back to Savannah yesterday, ALL of Ashley's attention turned to me!  She was sweet though, she got some wine, a card and a plant that I think I will take and put on my desk at work!  We heated up some Santa Fe Soup from last night and watched Lady and the Tramp!  A great Valentines Day...hope you had a great one too!  If not, I will be glad to send Ash over to lighten and brighten your day!

Team Lean Thursday & Fun Times Ahead!

Last week I had to miss our weekly weigh in due to being in Athens for a conference.  I believe that we dropped to 108th place.  This week, I hope we don't drop any further!  Once they post the results (tomorrow) I will let you know!

There are many things that are coming up soon that I am pretty happy about, and one of them is actually work related!

1) Moving.  Of course!  I am so excited about moving!  I caught myself today looking at push lawn mowers because I am so excited about having a yard!  Then again, I may buy a grill first...

I have also been looking at a few options for a desk area.  I think Ashley and I would both enjoy having this space...currently, these two are catching my eye...

Amherst series from Haverty's

Panama series from Haverty's

 However, since I have not seen them in person, I cannot commit to either. 

2)  Tomorrow, I plan to use a friend's student discount to purchase Photoshop, so I am really excited about that.   I will use it for my personal photos and for....#3...

3)  At work, I am about to start a program to apply to one of our main streets in town and start to enhance this area.  For visual purposes, I will be able to use Photoshop to show what it could look like.

4)  Girls trip to Savannah for St. Patrick's Day!  Super excited about this!!  I don't like crowds and there is an estimated 300k people that attend this event, however, I just want to go and see the whole hoop-la.  Plus, I just LOVE Savannah and will take any opportunity to go!

5)  I do believe that the week after my birthday, I am going to see the Braves play the Brewers.  I haven't been to a Braves game since I was little...and they were in the old stadium...Heath, you better go with me!  I was serious when we discussed this.

To Fast or not to Fast....

Today, I finally made it back to my favorite little church in Georgia.  I have missed it greatly.  I really do enjoy going and it seems that the preacher gets better every time.  Now, it will never take the place of my home church, but it is a close second...or third.  I say that to say this; I think one of the main reasons I love going to this church is because it reminds me of the two churches we went to in Dutch Bend.  There were two because it was the same (small) congregation that went back and forth to these two churches.  However, they were different denominations (Baptist and Methodist, I think) and different preachers, but same congregation, weird, I know.

What makes me relate the two is one "activity" that is done during church.  Children's story time, but more so, the lady who does it, Ms. Helen.  There is something about her simplicity that reminds me of some of the women in DB.  I remember going to the Methodist Church more than the other and this one particular time, I only remember it being me and daddy.  The preacher called all the children down front for children's time and his example, this one particular time, was trying to figure out what was inside a brown grocery side.  We got to feel the content inside and if we guessed it right, we got to keep it.  I guessed sand.  It was not.  I don't remember what it was, for some reason I want to say it was a cabbage patch doll, but that doesn't make sense since I was probably the only girl unless Leigh Ann was there, so why would the preacher get a girl gift?  Anyway, I don't remember the lesson, but I do remember the brown paper bag, sitting up front, and one-on-one time with the preacher that made us feel special out of the whole crowd of "grown ups."  Now, I am one of those "grown-ups" and I hope these little kids remember the same kind of experience.  After describing what the preacher did, I am sure that we all can guess what the lesson was about.  Ms. Helen does a great job because she uses illustrations or props.  Obviously, this is what gets my attention more than just speaking to me.  I am still that way today.  Tell me and I will forget, involve me and I will remember. 

Today the sermon was from Ephesians 2:1-10.  This basically talks about how we, as people, were dying from our transgressions and sins but through His grace we are saved.  It is a gift from God, not from each other. Being saved is not something that we do for each other, it is what God has DONE for US.  Of course, we can help each other toward the path of being saved, but we can't force it upon one another.  Listening to this passage this morning made me start thinking about Lent.  No, I am not Catholic, but God sent His Son for us and that is the ultimate sacrifice so 40 days of giving something up is something that all should participate in.  In the whole scheme of things what would you choose? A measly 40 days or your child?  I don't have children, but I am still a woman with motherly instincts and I am telling you right now that I couldn't do it. 

Fasting is referenced in mainly in the New Testament, and more specifically, Matthew 6:16-18 talks about fasting and how it should be done in secret, seen by your Father who will reward you.  So, I won't be telling you what I plan to do for Lent (although I did tell Ashley and Libbie, after a discussion), but I do encourage you all to take this time to focus to what you might give up for 40 days.