a little get-together

Tonight we had some people over from Brian's work. It was really really fun! It was the first time we've had a group of people over since we've lived here. We had a cookout and I made my famous crockpot macaroni and cheese (I thought of you, JASE!), thanks to Brian's mom for the recipe! All in all, I believe it was a success. This little group has been hanging out together a lot lately - we've been going to movies and such. They are all such fun people! We're so thankful for good friends!

Last night was movie night with this same group - we went to Downtown Disney and had a blast. :-) The guys do a podcast every week and review whatever movie we saw on Wednesday. I'll have to remember to link up to it at some point.

Tomorrow I'm going to church to SCRAPBOOK! It's so cool - my church has a crop once a month and I've never gone. I'm very excited! Brian is headed to Jacksonville to visit his friend Glenn and I'm just going to stay in Winter Haven for the weekend and hang out with my friends from church. It's going to be a lot of fun! Brian and I will meet back at home on Sunday afternoon for some quiet time together before the work week begins again. It's gonna be a great weekend!

six more pounds!

I weighed in today at the doctor's office (they think I'm crazy because I come in just to use their scale) and I have lost six more pounds! That makes a grand total of 29 pounds lost in almost 4 months. I can't even believe it! I've slacked a bit on the exercise over the last month because it's so horribly hot, so I didn't really expect to lose any. In fact, I was afraid I'd gained! But now I'm right around the same weight I was when I got married. That's a good feeling. To be in the weight range for my height, I need to lose another 29 pounds. It seems like this is the year it's going to happen, finally, once and for all!

Now I can get back into my capri overalls, which is my favorite piece of clothing. :-) The skirt I wore to church yesterday I can pull on and off without unzipping it. It's about time to make a trip to the Goodwill to donate my "fat" clothes, and maybe have some of my skirts taken in. That's a good feeling, too! I guess I'll need to go shopping before too long!

i'm a night owl

It's 12:43 am and I'm raring to go! I swear, around 10:30 at night, I just come alive! I told Brian I need to get a job somewhere working midnights. I'd be great at it!

Anyway, here's a page of Braden I scrapped tonight, just finished it. How CUTE is he??!! I called Brad tonight to wish him a HAPPY BIRTHDAY (yes, folks, my little brother is 28 today) and he told me that Braden's latest word is "okay" - but he pronounces it, "doh-tay!" So adorable.

I guess I should try to go to bed. My husband's eyes are closing, LOL. Click on the picture to see it bigger. :-)

a new exercise program (and other stuff)

Sometimes I'll be driving along and think, "I need to put THIS in my blog!" But then I'll forget what it was. Therefore, days go by with no posts from me! (Sorry, Leslie!) haha!

Although, my aunt Linda and uncle Gene and cousin Kay came to visit this past weekend. We had a ball. (My cousin Chris came too, but he's here often.) We ate out, lounged around, told funny stories, discussed books, and laughed and laughed. Then they sang in the first service at church on Sunday morning. They are always so much fun to be around!

We've been hanging out with Tim and Christi some more. They are a lot of fun too, and we have a LOT in common! Tim has a podcast on which he reviews movies, and Brian is on there, too. He says about 4 words each time, haha! Someday I'll remember to link up to Tim's podcast on here.

As it's gotten continually hotter, I've been walking continually less. I really love walking every day, but it was getting so horribly hot, I couldn't get my breath! Then my neighbor told me I should come and exercise at the rehab center at the hospital (she works there). Since my doctor smiles on exercise, he signed the release papers and off I went. It's great! I get to chat with her and the people there and exercise away in the air conditioning! It feels wonderful to get back into it a little more again. P.S. - I got into 3 more old pairs of pants! Now I'm having to wear my belt on the third hole, and not long ago I could barely get it fastened into the FIRST hole! :-) I'll weigh in again tomorrow or Monday.

My writing career seems to be coming to an end at the end of August. The project we were working on (www.beginnersguide.com) ended at the end of June, but there was another project lined up. So we jumped right into that one, but it only lasts for July and August. And there's nothing lined up after that. :-( This project has rewards, though! When you get to a certain number, you get gift cards to various places. I'm going to try for 150 articles in August, so I can get the grand prize of a basket full of gift cards!

BUT - Brian's company got a new building that's really nice and new, and it's literally across the parking lot from the old building. They had an open house last Friday night and I met some potential piano students! I've been missing teaching, so I'm ready to get back into it! I also got to meet more of Brian's coworkers and their wives and families. It was really fun! And since then, we've gotten together with some of them! Yay, more friends!!!!

I guess that's about it! Not too much happening around here, just trying to stay cool! Y'all come and visit, we LOVE having people over! But you might want to wait till summer is over - maybe around the middle of November or so??!!

pirates and other stuff

Well, there's not much to report around here. Life is just progressing as usual, which I guess is good. Brian's company paid for everyone to go see Pirates of the Caribbean on Friday, and I thought it was great! Afterward, we hung out and talked to a couple from Brian's work, Tim and Christi. Brian and Tim are good friends and Christi and I just met last week, but we hit it off. We ended up having dinner with them and it was a great time! It's good to have new friends.

I've noticed lately that there are TONS of weeds in my garden. This does not make me happy. I keep going out there and trying to weed, but we have fire ants and they're EVERYWHERE! You can't even stand on the sidewalk without some swarming around your feet. So Brian went to the trusty Home Depot this afternoon and got some fire ant killer. He spread it this evening and we both watched in amazement as millions of ants picked up the little yellow pellets and carried them back to the ant hills. They should be dead by tomorrow night, and then I can weed. FINALLY! Plus, they ate one of my pentas!!!! >:-(

This weekend, my aunt and uncle and cousin are coming! They're going to stay with us on Friday night and then we're all headed down to Winter Haven on Saturday, then they're singing in the first service at church on Sunday. I can't wait to see them! It'll definitely be a good time.

We watched "The Family Stone" this evening - I thought it was great. Heart-wrenching. Loved it! That's my review. :-) Hope everyone had a great weekend, feel free to leave some comments!!!!

back to life

Well, Brian's back at work. I really loved having him home with me for four days in a row!!!! I've been scrapping all weekend. From Saturday to Tuesday, I did 20 layouts and 8 cards!! I might share a few of them over the next few days.

On Monday night we played cosmic mini golf with some friends and it was a ton of fun! (Cosmic mini golf is when the course is black with a bunch of stuff all around painted in fluorescent paint, and there are black lights only.) I got 2 holes in one! (For me, that's unheard of!) Then last night we went downtown and watched some fireworks with more friends - from where we were we could see the Seaworld, Disney, and Universal fireworks. Universal had the coolest and prettiest ones.

Mostly, B and I just spent a lot of time together over the holiday. It was great. It was especially great because I was gone to Vegas, and when I came back he was on deadline at work, so I didn't see him much for a week!

On Friday night, we went to Chili's for my birthday dinner and I had chips and salsa for the first time in months. Yum! Chili's has the best salsa in the world, in my opinion. Then we went to Bruster's for ice cream - haven't had ice cream in months, either! I got birthday cake ice cream and it had icing in it and it was delish! But it was pretty sweet - I couldn't eat it all at once. :-)

Oh, I forgot to mention that yesterday when I was getting dressed to go to the fireworks, I put on a pair of shorts that had been pretty tight before. They were so loose that I could easily pull them on and off while they were buttoned and zipped!! :-D I think I'm done with plus sizes - hopefully FOREVER!!!!

Here's one of my favorite pages I did yesterday. It's me and Sammy taking our Nazarene nap on a Sunday afternoon when we still lived in NY. (You can tell it's NY from all the blankets!)
And here's one I did on Saturday of Braden on his first Halloween!

lena horne, david alan grier, fantasia, and me

What do we all have in common? We share the same birthday - and it's today.

It hasn't been a real exciting day, to tell the truth. My writing deadline is tonight at midnight, so I spent the morning and early afternoon finishing up my articles. Then later in the afternoon I went shopping, just for a few necessities we needed around the house. Now I'm home and anxiously awaiting Brian's arrival - he has the next four days OFF, and that's the best birthday present I could ask for! I've hardly seen him this week. They had a deadline today at work, so they've been working late every night this week. They made it though, and he just called a little bit ago to say he was on his way home. :-)

We don't have a lot of plans for the long weekend, and I like it that way. :-) We're hoping to play cosmic mini golf with some friends, we might go see Superman, and Brian wants to go watch the shuttle launch. That could be fun - yesterday, they said on the news that there was a 60% chance that weather would prevent the launch, so we'll have to see.

I've been thinking a lot about marriage and relationships lately. Over the past several years, I've become more of a person who closely watches others and how they handle themselves in their relationships. It's an interesting thing to pay attention to. Probably Brian's influence on me has caused me to look a little closer at people. And I'll tell you one thing that I'm sure of - we have a solid, happy, loving marriage. We've learned how to be married to each other and it's wonderful. I just don't feel whole when he's not around. I'm so thankful that I have a husband who is kind and gentle in every single area of his life. He doesn't raise his voice, he treats everyone with kindness and respect, and he is wise about people. I've learned a lot from him.

I love you, B. You're my favorite. :-*

thoughts on vegas

I'm back. The very first thing I want to say about Vegas is that it's hot. No, I mean literally - it never got below 100 degrees and on Sunday it got to 115! It hovered pretty much around 110 the whole time, and I seriously thought I was gonna burst into flames! I will never go back there in the summer!

I will go back again, though. We had a great time! It was nice to meet some fellow scrappers who are now my new friends. All the girls were so nice! I got a lot of scrapping done (12 12x12 pages and 10 cards!) and we got to see a few sights. We went to the strip on Friday night, but we only saw 2 hotels and a few gift shops and the M&Ms World store. (We have an M&Ms World here in Orlando, so I wasn't too impressed.) I really wanted to see the fountains at the Bellagio, but we didn't get there. There were like 12 or 13 of us, and the one girl who lived there was trying to keep us all together, but it just didn't work. Some people wanted to gamble, some wanted to shop, and some wanted to see the sights. But instead of splitting into groups, we stayed in one big group and waited on people while they did their thing. I was a little disappointed that we saw so little of the town, but I didn't let it ruin my trip. Brian and I will go back sometime. In the WINTER.

Here's my overall impression of Vegas: it was a gigantic smoldering cigarette butt with a mountainous backdrop. LOL Seriously, there was so much smoke inside the casinos that I couldn't breathe! And yes, I played the slots! I lost $8 on the quarter slots on Friday night. Then at the airport yesterday morning, I played another $3 on the nickel slots. And I won $12!! So I came back $1 richer! :-)

The flight over there was pretty cool - when it was almost over, we had been flying over deserts and canyons and mountains for awhile. That part of the country is so different from what I see all the time and it's just beautiful. Then suddenly, we flew over this one mountain and there was Vegas and it was HUGE. It was like sudden civilization. Very cool.

The best part of the trip for me was getting home and spending some time with my sweet husband. I missed him in a big way! My car was at Denise's, so when we got to her house from the airport, I drove over to see Brian at work. We talked & snuggled for about 30 minutes and then I headed home. He had to work late (he's on deadline this week and the Nintendo bigwigs are there) so it gave me time to get unpacked and check email and get stuff done at home. I was exhausted and jet lagged, so when he got home around 8:00, we ordered a pizza and a movie - "Rumor Has It." It was good and we enjoyed hanging out together and relaxing on the couch.

I've gotten some of my articles done, and I have nine more to finish by Friday. It won't be a problem and I'll have some extra time to scrap and hopefully meet a new friend for lunch sometime this week. Brian kept the house in pretty good shape while I was gone (he was hardly here!) so there's not a lot to do around here, which is nice!

AND we found out that Marc Broussard will be in Atlanta in August, so we might just plan a quick trip. ;-)

boy can SANG!

OK, if you haven't heard Marc Broussard, you must rush to iTunes and download his records. Right now. This is one of the most talented singers I've ever heard. And he's 24!! The concert on Monday night was excellent. It ranked right up there (if not even better) than the Harry Connick concert! I know it's shocking for me to say that. While Harry is dripping with talent, he's suave and controlled. Marc is just overflowing with soul. I mean, he feels every word he sings! He's just amazing. I'm definitely a huge fan now.

If you go to his site, click on "launch music player" over on the right and you'll be able to sample some of his stuff. His music is a mix of blues, soul, R&B, and funk. It's awesome. A few months ago, Brian and I were about to go to sleep and I was flipping channels in bed. I saw this guy singing on VH1, so I hit "info" and it was the 2006 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction show. Solomon Burke, Leela James, and this white kid were singing "Mustang Sally," and this kid was blowing both of them out of the water! I was IMMEDIATELY in love with his voice. It was Marc Broussard. Check him out!

Here's a pic of Brian and I waiting in line for the concert. It was starting to blow up a little rain. :-)I'm going to Vegas TOMORROW! I'm nearly finished getting everything together, and now I just have to put it in the suitcase. I'm off to do that now so that when Brian gets home I can hang out with him!

twenty three

I weighed in at the doctor on Friday morning, and I'd lost 5 more pounds. That makes 23 total since March 28, when I started this health kick! I figured out that this is the most weight I've ever lost at one time. When we first got married and lived in GA, I lost 18 pounds on Weight Watchers. (That was spring of 2001.) I now have 7 more pounds to lose before I'll be back where I STARTED that time! So, that means that when I lose 25 more pounds, I'll be where I was at my lowest weight in GA. Whew! Can you believe I had gained 48 pounds since the spring of 2001? What was I thinking? No wonder my blood pressure and cholesterol were up!!!!

Friday afternoon, I went to Denise's and we scrapped. Rather, she scrapped, and I fought with my adhesive for about an hour! It got stuck and by the time I figured out how to fix it, I had adhesive all over me, Denise's table, and the adhesive dispenser. Ugh! But I did manage to get one 2-page spread done.

Then around 8:00 or so, Denise and I went over to her friend's house and played Bunco. Have you ever played Bunco? It's a dice game that is SO! FUN! I had a blast. You can imagine the wildness of 16 crazy ladies throwing dice as fast as they can and occasionally screaming "BUNCO!" It was way too much fun.

Yesterday we did nothing (well, we walked, of course) and then I went to rehearsal at church. Today, we had a great service. Even though we're driving over an hour to church, it's totally worth it. The Pastor and his family are just wonderful. And the band just sounds so professional! Seriously! Well, they're all paid players, but what great guys they are. It's an honor to play with them, and now I'm singing too, since the girl who sang alto left. (She moved to Memphis.) All in all, I praise God that we've found such a wonderful church.

Tomorrow, we're going to see Marc Broussard at the House of Blues. He just has the most incredible voice, I can't wait! My cousin Chris is going with us, and so is our drummer from church and his wife. It'll be a great time.