ONE MORE DAY until I get to have this little cutie back in my life!

I can't wait to get back to Montgomery to pick up my crazy but sweet little Madison! Ryan and I are going home Friday after work. We're going to another wedding shower and spending some time with the family (hint hint Deck...you better come make an appearance!!). We're not going to have much time there since we'll have to rush back Sunday afternoon for the Super Bowl Party. Honestly, I could care less about the Super Bowl. I like College Football and that is IT! But, I guess I should be the supportive girlfriend and pretend to enjoy it.

Last night my mom called me and asked if I would want a GPS for my birthday. First of all, my birthday is in the end of May. Secondly, my brattiness is showing through and I've been "secretly" hoping that she would surprise me with one this weekend. Apparantly they were out on a shopping date at Sam's (they love it...I don't get it) and they found one for me. Well if you know my dad, he is a gadget junkie. Whatever the latest and greatest is out...he HAS to have it! So when he sees that tom tom has updated its latest gps, he immediately felt the need to purchase. And quite frankly, I think they just used me as an excuse to buy it! I think that my dad is where I got my impulsive shopping behavior from. The man loves catalogs and online shopping. So, now not only do I know what my birthday gift will be, I also have to wait 4 months to have it. I pitched a fit, Ryan reminded me how stupid I was acting...I was over it!

One last thing, I am so sick of my favorite magazines going out of business. First it was Cottage Living. I could go on and on for days about how much I love that thing. Now, its dominoe! This economy is killing me!!

A few Random Thoughts

I've been told I have the attention span of a six year old. So this post should serve to prove just that observation. I have a few things I've been thinking about recently and thought I'ld share.

For starters: I need a GPS desperately! I cannot even begin to explain how many times in the past few weeks I have found myself yelling at the mapquest print out on the side of a highway in Middle of Nowhere, Georgia. Seriously. I dont know how we all traveled before the little gems aka Garmin's were invented. I always thought that Mapquest was a reliable source. Not so my friend! Please get a visual of me today...I'm pulled off the highway somewhere in Georgia. Across the road is a roadkill boar or something like that, and I have ZERO cell phone reception...with 2 different wireless providers! I'm 30 minutes late for an appointment and the directions I printed out this morning are doing me NO good! I find a gas station and ask, "Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to Adel?" The scary woman (?) looks at me with a blank stare and informs me that she's never heard of the place. Great. And this happens at least once a week. I've somehow been on the phone with my mom each time so I'm hoping she takes sympathy on me and has a GPS waiting on me when I come home this weekend. Yeh probably not.

Speaking of coming home...Ry and I are heading up north on Friday to go visit the family and go to another wedding shower. And most importantly....pick up MADISON!!! The dogs have been staying at the Machen compound since I moved in my mother's desperate attempt to keep them for herself. The deal was that I had to get settled in with EVERYTHING and raise the steep pet deposit on my own. Sorry Carol, but that checklist is complete and I am on the way to get my Bubba Craze!! Little Lexington will stay with them. Quite frankly, the dog is too pathetic now for my taste. Mom bought her a baby sling to wear around the house. I will get a picture and share asap!

This leads me to my next thought...since I'm giving them Lexie, my parents are going to get me another pup in exchange for their child- i mean dog. Its scary how attached they are to her! But now I'm starting my search for a companion for Maddie. I really want to avoid the puppy stage if at all possible. I'm also up for a few suggestions for different small breeds. I do love yorkies, but I want a good match for Madison. So, if you know of anyone who has a small dog who needs a good home, please share!

And another random thought: This sunday is superbowl sunday (duh). And guess who's house was volunteered (unbeknownst to the owner) to host the SuperBowl party. Oh yes, its this girl. Thanks to Ryan, my house has now been designated as the official party spot. Unfortunately, we will have to rush home from Montgomery, so I won't have time to clean. That means Thursday night will be tortuous. Probably not, I'm very OCD these days, so its fair to say that pretty much at any point in time, I could have people over and not have to prepare.

One last thought: Ryan and I are on the search for a new church home. We both want to form strong Christian friendships. He has a church home here that we go to, but its totally not me. And we want to find one that fits BOTH of us. So please pray for us...we have completely opposite desires for the type of church we join. He wants contemporary, I want traditional with maybe some contemporary in the mix. I want a Sunday School...He wants the place to have a coffee bar like his church has. Finding a church home is a very important decision a couple makes together, and I just pray that this is something that will bring joy not arguments!

For now, I'm out. But stay posted for some pictures of my mother with Lexie in a baby sling. She has lost it. She needs grandkids...BAD. Oh but she will have to wait quite a while!!

I have a busy day on the road, traveling all across Southern Georgia. I have to take lots and lots of pictures today for work, so I figured I would actually get the camera out of the car and charge the battery.

This past weekend, I had quite a bit of spare time to myself, which is a rarity these days. I had enough time to be at home and realize I still have that, "I just moved in" look to my house. Nothing has been hung, barely anything decorative has been unpacked, and quite frankly, this was the first time I even noticed!

So, with VERY LITTLE cash to spare, I set out Saturday afternoon to try to fix this problem. I just have to comment on the TJ Maxx here. It is FABULOUS! I have yet to be disappointed and I've ventured in there quite a few times :) !! The other day when Ryan came over and saw all my new stuff, he was suspicious at first and said, "HOW MUCH MONEY DID YOU SPEND!?!?!" (We're both on strict budgets and have been holding each other accountable. Gotta start saving for a house for the future!) I told him I got everything for under $60 and he just started laughing. Seriously. So I explained that it all came from TJ Maxx. He went on and on about how he didn't think that I am a TJ Maxx girl. "You're so spoi...I mean picky, I just wouldn't think you would shop there." Well you just said a mouthful there mister!! No, I don't shop for clothes there, simply because I don't have the patience to sort through everything. I have friends who always look like a million bucks with clothes from there, but I never have such luck. Now housewares...different story! I LOVE digging through piles of junk to find great bargains! And I've had to start limiting myself to only going when I have a certain item I'm looking for. In the past, I would just go out of boredom and end up buying a bunch of things I really didn't need.

ANYWAY....

I thought I would share some of my finds! Im on the way to making this house look like a home...slowly but surely!

New pillow for my bed.

Im going through a phase where I like the bold modern prints. I'm sure I'll be over these in a few months, but for now...I LOVE THEM!

A few new additions to my living room.

I wanted some form of life in there, so in came the ivy plant that has been freezing on the porch.

I got new pillows for the sofa and did some rearranging of a few things.

Looking at this, I now realize I need a rug for under the coffee table.

This little thing was quite the score at TJMaxx.

Found in the clearance section for $4 (including the pinecone mix!) I just couldn't pass it up!

Im still working on the fireplace.

The candles wont stay straight, but I love them so Im looking for a way to fix them!

And the wood...

A few weeks ago I mentioned how I told Ryan I wanted to build a fire. Nothing happened. Then one day last week, the boy showed up with 2 armfuls of chopped wood.

What a sweet surprise!

We had a fire and talked with the tv OFF!!

Cheap Romance...gotta love it!

And I couldn't resist.

The closet.

My unorganized disaster didn't last too long.

One night I literally woke up at 2 am with this burning desire to get that thing back in shape. I threw everything out and started from scratch.

Everything is now color coded and organized from sleeveless-shortsleeves-3/4 sleeve-long sleeves- sweaters.

Its pretty gross how OCD I am sometimes!

And the pants are all organized by color and style.

Getting ready in the mornings is SO much easier now!!

Well I don't have any pictures to share, mostly because my camera has been out in my car with a DEAD battery. I keep trying to remember to get it out, but that's quite the challenge these days. I'm quite the busy girl now. Busier than I have EVER been in my life...EVER! With my last job at The Advertiser, I stayed busy, or so I thought. But come 5 pm, I was OUT of the building...every day! And now, I cannot tell you when the last time I left on time was. I live, breathe and sleep MDA these days. Mulit-tasking has a whole new meaning to me now. But even though I want to pull out my hair sometimes with the stress, I absolutely LOVE the challenge! I have NEVER been so challenged in my life to strive for complete perfection. At MDA, we have to make the absolute most of our time. There has never been a moment that I have sat at my desk saying, what can I do now? Its quite the opposite. My day starts at usually 9 with PILES of things to accomplish for the day. Hundreds of phone calls to make, hundreds of emails, hundreds of forms, tons of trips back and forth to the copy room, conference calls, meetings, marketing to our sponsors, and the list goes on and on and on! But every morning when I turn on my computer and get the morning batch of about 40 emails to go through I prepare myself for the race all over! Our Regional Director in Jacksonville is actually who I interviewed with back in October. Had I known how powerful and hardworking and respected she is back then, I would have been absolutely TERRIFIED!! Every morning I have probably 15 emails in my inbox from her, coming at ALL times of night. And when I see her intense dedication to perfection, I desperately want to be that way. Yes folks, I am no longer the slacker I was in College. I don't really know when or how it happened, but somehow MDA has pulled out a brand new girl from deep within. A girl who is now SUPER competitive, very very driven, willing to come in early, stay late and even work on weekends.

And now that I have finally found the career that motivates me and drives me towards perfection, I think I'm finally starting to settle into who I am as an adult. I know its sappy, but its true. Before, I always wondered who I really was. I was always waiting on my life to start, and the truth is, it already had. But in my book, it hadn't because I had a lot of things on my list yet to be accomplished. But now, my checklist is starting to get smaller and a new one is being made on the side.

Old list: find a career I'm passionate about (check), find a man to spend my life with (CHECK), live COMPLETELY on my own (CHECK), move somewhere new and have to meet a whole new set of people (check).

New List: keep climbing the career ladder, be completely comfortable in this new town, say "I do" to my sweet boy :)

Enough of all of that! I have to go clean my house because Ryan's parents are in town and I'm sure a surprise visit will be made!

TEN YEARS LATER

Well I kept saying that I would post Christmas pictures. Kept harassing mom and dad to email them to me. That did not happen. We went home this weekend for Sara's engagement dinner and I took the task upon myself...downloading all the old pictures!

Sorry they're so late, but there are some good ones!!

And we begin the series of "OOOOOH I LOVE IT" pictures!

Ryan got a box of candy.

He hates sweets.

I'ld say he did a pretty good job faking it!

"OOOOOOOOH thanks for the Mace!"

seriously...i got mace!

And this one is one of my favorites. We talked Grandmomma into reading The Night Before Christmas for us. I loved every second of it...took me back to being 5 again!


Us grandkids minus Sarah who was conveniently "working"

And the funniest one of all...Coosa is hilarious in this!

I am not competitive.
At all!

I once got in a fight with an old boyfriend about not caring about my bowling score.

Seriously.

But there is just something about my job that is pulling my competitiveness out of me.

I don't know what it is but I have found myself silently wanting to beat everyone and just wow the office with the amount of money I pull in.

Where is this coming from? Couldn't tell you!!!

Speaking of bowling, I thought I would share a funny story...

Friday night Ryan and I went bowling with some friends. I warned everyone how terrible I am at this game. Well, after the first game and a score of 17!....yes you read correctly, I sunk to an all-time low. I was spent. I had given up and said NO MAS! But for some reason I got a lucky streak and then bowled an 89. How does that happen? Seriously!

So, to the guy out there who I fought with about not caring how bad I am at bowling, just know that things have changed.

I've discovered I DO in fact have a competitive nature....waaaaaaaaaaaay down deep in me.

So last night Ryan and I went to a friend's house to have a game night. Now I know that sounds terribly lame, but a game of apples to apples with a few drinks can actually be quite entertaining. Somehow we got on the subject of the word southern. I told them that I hated to disappoint them but Florida is NOT southern. Tallahassee is NOT southern! She started to argue with me and tell me that I dont know what southern is. Im sorry sweetie, I'm from Montgomery, AL. It doesn't get much more southern than that. And I went on to explain that anyone not from Florida will agree that just because it is southern in location does NOT mean it is in spirit and culture.

I need friends here, so I decided to let it go and just move on. Fast forward a few hours later to the kareoke bar we went to. Of course some rando picked Sweet Home Alabama. So, being the true Auburn fan that I am, I went up to him and asked him to insert, "war damn eagle" in the song. The d bag got in my face and said, "NO, Im a FSU fan. Auburn sucks and so does the SEC."

Alright, thats it. I ripped this tool a new one. I "kindly" explained to him that the SEC trumps ACC in football ANY day and everyone knows that. I went on to inform this guy that if you are going to sing Sweet Home Alabama, there are only two phrases you can insert into the song, "war damn eagle!!!" and the other nasty phrase (even though I depise bama, at least they are from the same place). You CANNOT insert "GO NOLES" into this special song. I'm sorry. I about ripped the do-rag off his head. We left shortly after that.

So, even though I've moved down to this totally unsouthern place and am dating the least southern boy I've ever known, I still know where I'm from!