Welcoming The Sweet New Baby

John and I were very sneaky last weekend! We told my sister, Lauren, that we, just on a whim, decided to go visit my Dad and Laura for the exact same weekend she and her husband, Eddie, would be there! Little did she know, there was an elaborate plan in the works! My stepmother, Laura, decided that since both of Lauren's other baby showers would be in Tifton and her side of the family would be unable to go, she'd just throw one for her the last time Lauren could be in Atlanta before the baby comes.

Everything we smoothly and the plan was a huge success! Lauren and Eddie had absolutely no idea the entire family would be coming over to celebrate the arrival of The Boy! We had such a wonderful time all weekend which almost makes up for the UGA football game!

Key Lime Cupcakes: Alternately Titled, Better Late Than Never

So...Mom's birthday was last week and I make her some really delicious birthday treats, but I haven't had time to share them until today! Oops! Better late than never I guess! For days and days I contemplated what I wanted to do for Mom's birthday. Since I've been helping her clean our her house, she told me not to buy her anything, but what would a birthday be without something sweet? I snuck over to Lance's house to borrow his kitchen so she wouldn't know what I was up to and I put together a little concoction. Mom's absolute favorite dessert is Key Lime Pie but I decided it might be fun to put a little twist on it and create cupcakes instead! Boy Howdy, they were Yum-O! Here's the amazing recipe I used for them!

CUPCAKES
3/4 cup all purpose flour

1 cup self-rising flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon finely grated lime peel
1/4 teaspoon neon-green food coloring
3/4 cup buttermilk

Preparation
CUPCAKES
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line standard muffin pan with 12 paper liners. Whisk both flours in medium bowl. Beat butter in large bowl until smooth. Add sugar; beat to blend. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, then next 3 ingredients (batter may look curdled). Beat in flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with buttermilk in 2 additions. Spoon scant 1/3 cup batter into each liner.
Bake cupcakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan; cool.

I could have made the frosting myself, but I prefer to just buy the cream cheese frosting from the store (it's just as good and you don't have to do any work)! Win/win!

This is what I found the adorable Finn doing while I was cooking! He never would have gotten up on the back of the sofa if his daddy had been at home! But boy is he cute!

Exciting News

My working woes are over! I am now going to be employed full-time for a lawyer in town as an office manager/legal assistant starting first thing tomorrow morning. Even though I feel prepared and capable of handling whatever tasks my boss gives me, I have to admit that I am a little nervous about starting a new job. Fortunately, I'll have my cousin Molly there to give me a little guidance, but my boss also seems like a very nice and understanding person. This job is going to be such a great opportunity and I feel that it will really help me figure out which route I want to take my career! Who knows, I might decide I do want to go to law school after all!

In other news...Lance and I are really excited because this weekend is the first UGA homegame! Gooooo Dawgs! My wonderful Daddy got us tickets for the game and my fabulous friends are giving us a place to stay for the weekend! It's really funny to be going back to Athens as a guest in someone else's house considering I lived there for two and a half years! I actually enjoy being a visitor of Athens rather than a resident! Even though we have to find a puppy sitter for the weekend and we can't take baby Finn with us, we are really really really excited about going and visiting our friends!

Job Shopping

Thank goodness I moved back to Tifton and have about a million connections! I waited about two weeks after I moved home to get my first job and although it has been great experience, I've only been asked to work 3 days in the last 3 weeks. Not going to work if you're being forced to move out on your own in 5 months! Enough is enough! I decided to reevaluate my situation and try to find some new job opportunities! On the ABAC website, I found a job at a lawyers office but before I applied for it, I went to talk to the job guru, Ray. I worked for Ray about 3 years ago and because he knows me and everybody else in Tifton, I assumed he would be able to put in a good word for me and hopefully find me some tempting jobs!

I had, what I would consider, my first "real" interview today! Any job I've had in the past has practically been given to me either because the place was desperate for employees (the country club) or because they were giving me the job as a favor to Sonny. I'm so proud, because I feel like I found this opportunity for myself!

After I took my resume to this particular lawyer's office, I got a text from my cousin, Molly. She was telling me that she worked as a file clerk for him already and had seen my resume on his desk. She filled me in on her boss and we were able to do a little catching up since we haven't seen each other in about 2 or 3 years it seems! I got a call later that day asking if I could come in the next morning for an interview! Everything was happening really fast! My interview went really well and I feel like my background in English will be extremely helpful if I get this job! The only downfall is that the salary is not really as high as I would like or probably need. I still think it would be a great learning experience and opportunity for me! I've actually been really depressed about my abilities and skills since graduating. I've really been convincing myself that I am unworthy of a great job because I am unqualified for so many of them! This interview really made me feel so much better about my qualifications and the interest that I should be getting from prospective employers because I haven't already been trained to perform tasks in a certain way. Basically they wouldn't have to untrain me from a prior routine and then train me into their preferred methods.

Even if I don't get this job, I realized how marketable I can make myself and how capable I am of getting a good job that I deserve!

Happy Birthday To You!

Happy birthday to the sweetest and most loving mother in the entire world! What would we do without her? For the last 23 years she has cared for me and helped me grow up. She has always been there to listen and love me.

I love you Mom! Enjoy every moment of your birthday!

Week 5: Running

Lance and I were supposed to run a 5K this past weekend, but because he was on call (and I didn't feel ready) we decided to skip the race. He didn't want to be 15 minutes away from his truck and his pager go off! That would be terrible to go into an emergency case all sweaty and stinking! haha! Instead of running, we did a lot of eating! My sister, Lauren, and her husband, Eddie, were in town for the weekend. They came home to run some errands for the baby boy and to visit. All my mom did was cook delicious food all weekend and instead of exercising and trying to get in better shape, Lance and I just fell off the wagon and went back to our old habits of eating!

Today has already started out good! We ran this morning at 5:45 like usual and we bumped it up to running for 5 minutes, walking for 3, running for 5, walking for 3, and finishing it with another 5 minute run. I'm actually starting to feel like I'm getting better and lasting longer! I used to run all the time and just as I would get in shape and feel good, something would happen and I would stop and not pick it up again for another 4-5 months! I'm hoping that we can keep working out for at least 3 or 4 days a week even after our 5K run in October!

For the last few weeks, I've been doing ab workouts and rotating leg and arm workouts after we get back from our morning run. It feels so good to know that by 8:30 I've already worked out for the day and it's behind me! I just hope I can keep this up after I get a full time job!

Running: Week 4

Last week, I thought running for 3 minutes was torture but this week actually made it bareable. We started out this morning by walking for 5 minutes then we ran for 5 (this is where running for 3 minutes started to not sound so bad). After that we walked for 2 1/2 minutes then ran for 3 minutes followed by walking for 90 seconds.

Lance and I are going to enter a 5K Road Race on Saturday, August 29 for a little girl named Caroline. Her dad works at the hospital and her mom is the sister of my second grade teacher (Miss Huggins) even though Lance and I might not be ready, it's for a really good cause. Each person pays a $15 registration fee and a few prizes will be given out to some of the winners. It should be a really fun run!

Running, Birthday Dinners, and Baths

Yesterday, I didn't have to work and therefore I slept until 9:45! It was completely by accident because I usually set my alarm clock and get up around 8 even if I don't have real plans for the day. I used my free time to clean out some junk I brought home from school with me and ended up throwing away 3 trash bags full of old papers and tests. Lance got off work around 3 and was really tired, so while he took a little nap, I decided to go for a run since I missed our morning run on Wednesday. Running at 4:30 is never a good idea and because it was so hot, I only got in about 20 minutes.

Last night was Stacey's birthday and so Stacey, Tammy, Kyle, Kayla, Lance and I all went out to eat at the new Gator Tails. It's pretty pricey, but Lance and I ended up splitting a dinner and it was much cheaper! The highlight of the night was when I realized Lance had eaten our other hush puppy (which is my favorite thing with sea food) and Stacey tried to be nice and give me his other one. What he didn't realize was that he had already taken a bite out of it! I think he was really embarrassed, but we all got a good laugh out of it!

After our Friday morning run, I decided to give baby Finn a bath. No one believes us, but he will actually follow you into the bathroom and step into the tub by himself if you pull back the curtain! This morning he had one of his "babies" (a fox to be exact) in his mouth when he stepped into the tub. I guess he thought it needed a bath too! If you've ever bathed a 68 pound dog, you know how difficult it is to do alone! I ended up standing in the bathtub with Finn and getting pretty wet myself, but all in all he does smell better and that was the goal! Hopefully he won't get too dirty again this weekend with all the rain we are supposed to be having!

Happy Friday!

TV Terrors

For about three weeks now, I've been obsessed with watching television shows based on murders. One of the shows is called Snapped and is based on stories of women who have ultimately "snapped" and ended up killing people (usually their abusive husbands). Lance hates this show because he says all those women are just crazy! haha! Some of the other shows I've been watching are 20/20 and Dateline. Those shows are much more intense because they are centered around serial killers or psychopaths instead of just crazy women. I love watching how the police gather the evidence and look for clues to help them find the murderer but the more I've been watching these shows, the more paranoid I've become.

About 4 years ago, while I was going to ABAC and living with my parents, I actually saw a man looking through my bathroom window at night. My sister has actually heard him outside her bedroom window on several occasions and we have called the police only to find evidence that someone was in fact outside but no way to catch him. Our neighbors have also seen and heard him outside of their homes too. Since this was several years ago, I haven't been quite so afraid of this Peeping Tom...until now! I haven't heard or seen this particular man again, but now I'm just so afraid that some is going to break into our house in the middle of the night to murder us! These shows are completely the cause of this phobia, but I'm still so addicted to watching them. Last night I told Lance I wanted him to teach me how to shoot a gun. I have lived in the south my entire life and I have never shot a gun...ever. That's pretty rare, so hopefully I'll learn how to protect myself if an intruder should ever happen to break in and free myself from these fears I have.

Working Girl

I started my new job today! I'm helping enroll people in life and health insurance for Skip Hill and on my first day we went to Prince Dealership in Tifton. Tomorrow we'll be going down to the Prince Dealership in Valdosta. The day started out with me sitting in on sessions and listening to Kayla explain all the information about dental and life insurance plans. I felt extremely overwhelmed at the beginning because I have limited knowledge about insurance. Since I have always been on my parent's insurance, I've never really had to know anything about it. As the day went on, it began to actually make more sense and I got a feel of the approach they use when explaining the different types of insurance. There are definitely some weird people purchasing insurance out there! I got hit on twice today (guess I'll have to start wearing a fake engagement ring on my finger)! We only worked from 8:30 until 2 but I was definitely overwhelmed and tired my first day! I was hoping I'd be able to continue running on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings but since we are leaving for Valdosta at 8:15, I'm not sure I'll be able to run, cool down, and shower in time! If I can't, I'll just go to the track tomorrow night and have Lance either run with me or time me!

Hopefully I'll be able to learn quickly and stick with this job! I really like the fact that we might not be working everyday of the week and Kayla and Karen (the other women enrolling) are really nice and helpful!

Picking Up The Pace

This is the third week that Lance and I have been going up to the track at 5:45 to run for 30 minutes. We kicked it up a notch this morning! Previously we were running for 90 seconds and then walking for 90 seconds. Today we started running for 90 seconds, walking for 90 seconds, running for 180 seconds, then walking for 180 seconds in intervals. It has definitely gotten harder, but it was a little better than I expected and I'm actually starting to like the fact that we have to get up so early to run. After we finish, Lance has to race home to shower, check on Finn and then get to work by 7 am. I usually just relax and watch the Today Show after we finish running, but last Friday I was worn out! I came home and took a two hour nap and was pretty useless for the remainder of the day.
I'm so proud that he and I have been able to keep this up for our third week! For months, Lance and I have been wanting to start running and this group just happened to start right after I moved home. It is so much easier to get up and run when you know that a group of people are waiting for you every morning and it is much easier to run when you have someone else watching the clock and telling you when to run and walk! We'll be ready to run our first 5K in no time!

Rearranging

Lance moved into a house my Mom rents about three months ago. He has been fortunate enough to receive numerous pieces of furniture and household items from his parents, my parents, his coworkers and other family and friends. We have both been so grateful due to the fact that Lance has never lived completely alone before and he had almost no furniture to speak of! We have slowly been refinishing some of the pieces of furniture given to him. For example, we painted an old cabinet that looked like it once belonged in an elementary class room and turned it into a storage cabinet for his dining area. It actually turned out really great!

Earlier this week, I needed to pick up a few things at K-Mart and as I was wandering the aisles, I came across a chair that seemed exactly like something Lance would pick out. The only reason it really even caught my attention is because it was on sale. Originally, it was priced somewhere around $275 and it was now on sale for $80! I took a picture on my phone and texted it to Lance. It caught his fancy and so after he got off work we went to look at it together. Much to my surprise, Lance didn't just want one chair, he wanted two chairs and the matching coffee table (he desperately needed one because the one he had was so light Finn knocked it over every time he came barreling inside).

After we bought Lance's new furniture, the first step was to assemble the chairs and table. The package encourages you to have two people to make it easier...um, it's necessary to have two people. He couldn't have done it alone and if he could it would have taken him twice as long! After we assembled to furniture, we had to rearrange his den. I have many passions in life (as Lauren knows) and along with frying onion rings and making floral arrangements, I also like to arrange furniture. Recently I somewhat forced my friend Meg to rearrange her room while I was staying with her for three days. I don't feel too bad about it though, because she said she loved it! With Lance's den, it was really difficult to place the furniture in good locations. Finally, I called in reinforcements and my Mom went with me to help me figure out a good layout for everything. This is what we came up with...

All in all, the two chairs and coffee table cost less that what one chair originally cost! I think he got a pretty good deal! You know I couldn't take pictures of Lance's den without including the most handsome dog in the whole world! haha!

A Total "Not Me" Kind Of Weekend!

One of the few blogs I read on a regular basis does a weekly blog she calls "Not Me Monday," in which she incourages all of her followers to list things that seem like they could NEVER happen to them, but actually did! Normally I don't partake, but this weekend some major mishaps happened and I figured it would be fun and a sense of stress relief to admit all of those things here!

I certainly did not drive over three hours to the beach in a small two door car with a boyfriend and a golden retriever to find when we arrived that my Mom had given us the wrong keys! Nope, that could never happen. And after that, there is no way that we had to all get back in the car and drive for another 30 minutes to meet the woman who regularly cleans the condo and has a set of keys!

My boyfriend in no way, shape, or form gets cranky and irritable when he hasn't eaten. So when we were still 30 minutes away from the condo, he did not almost pitch a fit in the car due to the fact that it was 9:30 and he hadn't eaten anything since 12:30 because who would do that!

I definitely did not tell my boyfriend it was okay that he forgot I am now a vegetarian just so he could still pull through Burger King on our way back from the beach. He found me a veggie burger on the menu but I absolutely did not start screaming in the car when I realized that the one healthy thing on the Burger King menu is smothered in mayonnaise! YUCK! It would have been entirely rude and uncalled for if I had then started screaming at the dog because he wanted to eat my veggie burger after all that!

There is no way that our sweet well behaved eight month old golden retriever would ever drag me across the front of Lance's yard chasing a white cat at 9:30 last night after being in the car for over three hours! He is absolutely too much of an angel and Lance and I are perfectly capable of training him! I did not proceed to scream, "NO, NO, NO" at him and spank him while Lance had no clue what was going on! There is NO WAY the neighbors thought Lance was beating me in the front yard or anything due to the noise!

Nope, no way any of those things could ever happen, no to me! We are absolutely perfect!

Whew! I feel so much better after realizing that none of those strange and unmanageable things could ever happen to us!

Life at Home

Being home full time has given me such a sense of relief! I used to get home on Fridays around 5:30 and leave Tifton on Sunday nights or Monday mornings at 5:45 am! Now, I don't feel like I have to pack so many activities into one day! So far, I've been cleaning out my closet and I had about 80,000 things in perfectly good condition that I haven't worn in about 2 or 3 years! I'm donating all of those things to make some room for the new work clothes I'll have to purchase! My wonderful momma took me on a little shopping spree on Monday just to get my collection started! I got a new skirt and 3 new sweaters to wear over camis and she also gave me two pairs of pants from her own closet she can't wear anymore! What a great mom! Lauren will be pleased to know that I go the best deal EVER at Old Navy last night when I bought two sweaters that were already on sale for $10 each and I ended up getting them for half of that and only paying $10 for both sweaters! I love me some deals!

Lance and I have been talking forever about starting a new workout routine when I move home and lo and behold the hospital where he works is desperately trying to get all their employees in shape right now. Some of Lance's co-workers have been participating in a weight loss challenge much like the biggest loser. Stacey, the man who stays at Lance's house during the week when he's oncall, told me he lost 30 lbs! This week they started a new program to help people go from couch to a 5k in 30 minutes! We started going at 6 am Monday, Wednesday, and Friday! There are only about 10 of us right now and we are all from different skill levels. I would say Lance and I are intermediate right now compared to others in the group. It should start getting intense pretty soon!

Say a little prayer for our baby Finn. Lance and I decided it was finally time to get him fixed because he's 8 months old now. Lance had to leave for work around 7 am, so I had to drop him off all by myself! It was so sad! I had to warn the lady at the desk that he's stubborn and won't let us kennel train him and he would probably freak out when they put him in there! Hopefully they'll do the surgery early and let him sleep most of the day before I have to go back and pick him up at 4:30!

Stranded In Athens

I've been homeless for the past seven days! On Saturday I packed up all my suitcases, hit the road and never looked back...until I had to look back when I came back to Athens and go to class on Monday! Too bad The Summit doesn't care when its tenants have final exams!

Fortunately, I had the opportunity to spend some QT with Daddy and Laura. I got over to their house Saturday afternoon and they showed me around their gardens! Laura's garden is completely organic and absolutely amazing! She has some huge tomatoes and cucumbers which she was about to make into pickles before I had to leave them on Monday morning!

Daddy's garden is not organic but he did show me how he gets rid of all his weeds with the tractor!

After gardening for a while, they took me out for a fabulous dinner at California Pizza Kitchen! Even though they eat there about 3 times a week or more, I always secretly hope they'll want to go just one more time and take me with them! Everything there is delicious and it's always hard to decide what to order, but finally I settled on a salad.

Sunday came too quickly! We decided to skip church and go for a leisurely hike at Vickery Mills. It was really beautiful and the shade made it a little cooler. We went to downtown Roswell for some Mexican food and a little window shopping. I'm a huge movie buff and later that day they took me to see Public Enemy (I'm in love with Johnny Depp now) which was really really good (I might go see it again this weekend with Lance and Sonny)! I sure do get my love of popcorn honest! All through the movie Daddy and I kept bumping hands as we were trying to get more popcorn and he kept saying, "I sure do love popcorn! Do you love popcorn?" haha!

I'm so lucky to still have friends living in Athens because after I left Daddy's house on Monday, I did not want to drive an hour and a half twice a day all week! My friends Anna, Meg, and Lauren actually live in the same apartment complex I just moved out of! Anna was at the beach with her parents until Wednesday, so Meg let me bunk with her for Monday and Tuesday night! We had tons of fun staying up late and giggling about old times! I sure am glad my finals wouldn't determine if I passed my classes or not because we didn't get much serious work done while I was staying with her! Even though Anna wasn't home we still had me, Meg, her dog Millie (a pug), Lauren, her dog Bentley (a lab), and Lauren's boyfriend Chance who's also homeless at the moment. It was slightly crowded but tons of fun! We tried to relieve some stress on Tuesday night be getting margaritas at Mexicali's.

On Wednesday, my Mom came to stay with me. We got a hotel room for Wednesday and Thursday night. There are so many places up in Athens that I've still never been to before. One place is a restaurant called The Grit and tons of people have told me how amazing it is! I can't believe I've never been there before because they serve all vegetarian dishes! I got a sandwich with chick pea fritters, carrots, cucumbers, and cabbage. Mom tried three of their vegetable side dishes and it was amazing! Lance is totally jealous he didn't get to eat there with us!

Tonight she took me to eat at Last Resort. It was kind of for sentamental reason because when Mom and I came up here to look for my first apartment, we met up with my first roommate, Alisabeth, and her Mom at Last Resort! Mom's heading out first thing in the morning and I have to hang around and study until my Spanish final starts at 3:30. I would probably be more worried except I only have to make a 20 on the test to make a B in the class! Mom's afraid because I'm not studying but I informed her that I only asked God to help me make a C in the class and that I shouldn't get stingy and ask for a B! haha! Goodbye UGA! Goodbye Athens! Hopefully I'll be able to come visit often!

I guess being homeless isn't so bad if it means you get to spend time with people you love!

The Fast Food Blues!

Being a vegetarian is hard when you're about to be homeless! The good news is that I haven't really eaten fast food in I can't remember how long! The bad news is there aren't many places where you can eat healthy for cheap! Sure, I could go to a fast food restaurant and order a salad but haven't we all done that and paid twice as much as the nasty greasy food only to realize that our lettuce is wilted and mushy! Yuck! Lately I've been going to one of my favorite places almost every day! Panera Bread has the most amazing salads and soups! If you ever need a quiet (but not too quiet) place to study alone, go to Panera! My other go to place is Barbaritos! They have some wonderful choices for those of us opposed to meat! Some of my favorites are the California burrito (it comes with avocado instead of meat), the bean quesadilla, and their salads aren't half bad either! Last night my friend Meg brought home a salad from Chick-Fil-A that I might have to give a whirl! It look delicious! What are some other great choices for people who don't eat meat and don't want to spend a ton of money?

I just can't wait to be able to cook again! It saves so much money (which is something I'm quickly running low on)! Thankfully I have some pretty amazing parents who are willing to look after me for a little longer!

Moving On Up

Whew! This has been one busy week! For the last two years I've lived in the same apartment and after that much time...stuff starts to pile up! Months ago I decided I did not want to have a huge move out day along with everyone else at The Summit and so I started slowly moving my things back to my Mom's house. Trust me, if you ever have the ability to slowly move things home, DO SO! It has been the best decision I've ever made!

Our home is starting to look so disorganized and sad! My roommate Jessica came up here with an entire house full of adorable furniture and now it is so sad to see everything being packed away!

I'm also feeling a little bitter sweet about finishing school. Yesterday, Lance asked me what I would miss most about Athens and after thinking about it for a while, I decided that I would really miss starting new classes and forming bonds with people in those classes. Everyone asks my why I chose this major and what I can do with it after college. At first, those questions really disturbed me because I had no answers for them and for a while they made me regret choosing this major instead of a more focused one. Now that I am finishing up, I could really care less what people's opinions of my major are! I absolutely LOVE reading novels, poems, and plays! I've been in classes with some of the brightest and most interesting people! I've had the most AMAZING professors and also some of the most difficult to please! No matter what other people think, I have done what I love for the past five years and although there might not be a direct route between my degree in English and what career I will choose, I have no regrets!
Even though there have been moments of loneliness here in Athens, I will definitely miss the school atmosphere and the few friends I'll leave behind!

Blogging The Time Away

Last Wednesday, I made a trip to visit my very favorite Daddy and stepmother! They kindly allowed me to come and help them celebrate 19 years of marriage by going with them to a very fancy restaurant! We all enjoyed a variety of different fish entrees (I broke my no meat rule again) and some delightful wine at Chequers. Then Daddy and I went to Total Wine to purchase some bottles of the wine we had a dinner! Unfortunately, I had a Spanish test the next afternoon, but they allowed me to entertain them with my vast vocabulary skills after dinner!

The test went well (I made an 84) but sadly I ended up driving a total of 9 hours last weekend due to my trip to Tifton! I made it home on Thursday and was able to see off my other set of parents before they headed down to St. Augustine on a much anticipated sailing trip with some of their friends.

On Friday night, I decided to surprise Lance by making him dinner! I searched on Paula Deen's website for a delicious vegetable lasagna. Lance is always nervous whenever I mention I am making something without meat, but to his surprise, it was very very tasty! I was actually a little nervous too! The recipe called for things like carrots, squash, cottage cheese, and cream cheese! Although it had some unexpected ingredients, I'd say it turned out wonderfullly! Thank you Paula! So good in fact that Lance ate off it for the next two days! He thinks I'm trying to torture him or force some new type of diet on him, but then he always has to admit that the things I eat meatfree are just as good as dishes with meat! muahahaha!

I decided to wait until Monday morning to drive back to Athens due to Mom and Sonny still being gone and me not wanting to leave the precious Dixie alone all night long! Even though I left home at 5:45 on Monday morning, I was still about 2 minutes late to my first class! Who would have thought stopping at Chick-Fil-A to go to the bathroom and order a butter biscuit for breakfast would have taken 10 minutes! Darn that butter biscuit!

It's going to be a busy week and weekend for me! I suddenly realized that a ten page paper for my English class is due next Monday (I've had the topic for about two and a half weeks now! Oops!) and I have a test in that class on Thursday! I also have one Spanish quiz on Friday, another one Monday, and an in-class composition on Tuesday! Wow! Plus, I'm going home again this weekend!

The only good news is that I plan to see Harry Potter! I just hope I finish my paper before going home and I'll never do that if I don't stop procrastinating on my blog and go do it!

Happy Birthday America!

This year, I spent the 4th of July celebrating with my family for what feels like the first time in 10 years! At the last minute, Lance and I changed our plans from spending a boring day lounging in his backyard to driving 3 hours to St. Augustine to be with my family!

Mom and Sonny left on Wednesday for the beach and were shortly followed by Eddie and Lauren.

Lauren and "The Boy" before dinner.

Friday classes were cancelled for me and so I made it home with Finn on Thursday night. Fortunately, Lance did not have to technically take call this weekend and when we found out about the beach, he opted out of carring his pager and spending the weekend in the cath lab. If we go out of town for any other holiday to follow he might have to miss out though. It's the breaks for the newest member of the cath team when it comes to being on holiday call!

Lance and I loaded down the car with bags, toys, and a puppy early early early on Friday morning and made it to the beach by 11:00 am! John and his girlfriend, Amber, were also off work and came down late on Friday night!

Going without suntan lotion is not such a great idea as I soon found out! I guess you could say I was slightly burned on Friday night, but it soaked in by Saturday morning!

We watched the most spectacular fireworks show on Saturday night! They have an entire display set up on a barge near the Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine which goes along with Independence Day music playing on loud speakers! I have never been to such a long and beautiful firework show! The hour and a half we spent in the car on the way home was well worth the show, if you ask me, but Mom and I decided it might be fun to be on a boat in the water next year!



Happy Birthday America!

My, What Big Feet You Have!

Today was a really fun day with baby Finn! He and I have settled into a nice little routine everyday and I am going to miss having him here (even though he wears me out everyday)! We've been waking up at 6:30, getting ready, and then going on a 30-45 minute walk around my neighborhood. I try to get as much energy out of him as I can first thing in the morning. He's used to Lance letting him out every day around 6:30 and staying outside until around 4:30, so this is a huge adjustment for him! We come home after our walk, I take a shower, and get ready, and then he goes out one more time after finishing his breakfast.

My classes are really spread apart and I have about two and a half hours between them which is really good with Finn here. I can come home, eat lunch, and take him for a little play date. Since Monday, we've been going over to Bear Hollow to play in the dog park. He's such a social puppy but for some reason he loves to play in the water bowls and get really really muddy! I learned my lesson from yesterday and brought a towel to dry off his gigantic feet with before letting him get in the car!

After our outing to the dog park, we come home to rest for about 2 hours and then we got on our final long walk of the day. Today we went over to a secluded little neighborhood nearby. There is a pond and only about 5 houses off Barnett, so it's really quiet. As we were walking back around the neighborhood we heard a sound about 15 feet in front of us coming out of some tall bushes that extend from a forest area. It really scared me until I realized that the sound was a deer! She immediately saw us and jumped toward the woods and then I saw another deer standing off in the distance. I grabbed my phone, took a picture, and sent it to Lance. We stood there for a few mintues watching the deer watch us from the edge of the woods until it finally blew out a loud breath and I took that as a warning sign!

I'm so sad that Finn won't be here anymore for us to continue our routine, but before you know it I'll be back in Tifton and I can kidnap him from Lance anytime I want!

Learning to Love

My lovely sister Lauren has been doing a Bible study called "What's in Your Thought Closet?" by Jennifer Rothschild and she kindly sent me a link to part of the book so I could follow along too. It took me about two seconds to realize that I have things in my thought closet from years and years ago that are sometimes pushed to the back and forgotten but will spill out occassionally. I desperately need to make myself over and through this Bible study I realized that I don't just need to make myself over for me, but also for God. Through different Bible verses, Rothschild made me realize that my thoughts are not just hurtful to me and other people, but also to God. He made me exactly how he wanted to and through my hurtful thoughts I am demeaning his creation. God does not want me to condemn myself and only think negatively.
Something I have always struggled with is God's willingness to love those who are not perfect and who do evil things. I regularly feel undeserving of God's love and forgiveness and that's probably why I am so hard on myself. While having a conversation with my Mom, she reminded me that I can't truly love others until I love myself. I am nowhere close to that. I think I am going to have to start with the concept that I am loved by God before I can fathom that it is okay to love myself. I have no problem loving others, in fact I truly think I love lots of other people more than I love myself and many times I also feel unworthy of their love.
This Bible study has really opened my eyes and made me take a deep look at myself and my relationship with God and others. I've only done the first two days and I need to order the book so I can finish. Although it is probably the most difficult thing in the world to look deep inside ourselves and reveal the secrets that lie within, it can also be the most rewarding and lifechanging experience.
Some of my favorite Bible verses that I found tonight were:
Psalms 56:4
"In God, whose words I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?"
Jeremiah 29:11
"I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope."
Proverbs 16:3
"Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed."

Life Lessons To Be Learned

So, Lance left me on Sunday afternoon, but not alone. He left our precious perfectly prim and proper puppy with me to take his place. All was well around here yesterday and due to the wonderful advice of my doggie guru, Alisabeth, we found out about the haven of Bear Hollow. It's a beautiful little park area with a fenced-in area specifically for puppies to romp and play. There were no other puppies in sight yesterday when we got there, but after about an hour one showed up. The owner wasn't exactly friendly and I wasn't sure he would want his dog being jumped on by the most hyper dog on the planet. I felt so bad making Finn leave without even letting him play.
After my second class today I came home to a wonderful surprise from my little angel! I bought a 12 pack of toilet paper and a pack of 3 boxes of tissues yesterday from Target which sat untouched in my room until today. Baby Finn decided it might be fun to rip open both packages and tear 7 rolls of toilet paper to shreds! I salvaged 5 but I still feel a little funky about using those! The boxes of tissues are long gone! To make this situation even worse, when I walked in I found him lounging on my bed taking a nap! Does this remind anyone else of that scene from Beethoven when the dad walks in a finds the room ripped to shreds and the dog asleep on the bed?
To take the place of these products, Finn decided he should purchase a new training or "Bad Boy" collar immediately after his mother cleaned up the hurricane in her room! Technically, I don't feel like I can punish him because I didn't catch him in the act, but his bottom did get a little spanking.
After getting his new collar, we decided to go back to Bear Hollow to try it out! It works great by the way! He used to be able to pull me all over the place, but with the new collar he doesn't pull or try to run away! Yay! He absolutely LOVED playing with the other puppies and he gets along so well with them! His second favorite activity besides making new friends is getting wet. One of the dog owners filled up a huge bowl with water for the dogs to cool down with and for some reason Finn kept going to the bowl, sticking his two front legs in, and digging in the bowl splashing water everywhere! Horrified, I ran down the hill to make him stop and thought that would be the end of his misbehaving but he did it two more times! I was so ashamed! Finally a really nice guy filled up a big bucket and put a fallen limb infront of it so he couldn't splash anymore water!
Aside from being disgustingly dirty and tired, it was all in all a really nice afternoon! In other news I got a 92 on my first English test! Go me! A's in both my classes already! I'm ready to start celebrating the 4th of July even though my family won't be there when I get home!

On a Lighter Note

I'm not obsessed with my dog or my boyfriend. Honest. Ok, maybe just a little bit..but wouldn't you be too if your dog and boyfriend looked like mine and were this much fun?!? How can you not love those faces!
*look for Finny's new favorite toy! I got him an unstuffed animal for his chewing pleasure! His name is Leroy the Elefonte (I tweaked the pronunciation a little and I asked Lance how to spell this and he just spelled elephant! What does he know about naming animals?)

I feel like McMama, blogging 3 times in one day! I don't usually blog this many times in one week! Wow!