Feeling Refreshed

The last 2 days I've had "new" things to do which have left me feeling refreshed. Seeing as lately there are days when I don't even bother to shower, this is a good thing. =)

Last night I went to the evening women's Bible study at church. We've been a part of Crosspoint for a year and a half and I'm still not feeling plugged in. Now that my time isn't so absorbed by my "day job" I'm really looking forward to getting more involved. Anyway, there are 2 girls I'm pretty well bonded to in the group and all the women I'm looking forward to getting to know better so it's exciting. This week was a social week so it was really casual. We're starting a new study on Mark - which I've never studied, woohoo! All the studies at church lately have been on books, (which I don't mind, but don't love) and it's been hard to be jazzed about going. Especially since I was so busy at work in the fall and couldn't make the commitment. Now I'm in a different place, they are studying a the Word and I'm stoked.

Also, I made the commitment to start singing on the praise team in April. David has been on the sound team for over a year so since I already go with him Sunday mornings it just makes since for me to join. Elizabeth & Bethany (the 2 girls I know well from the group) are on the team and have asked me to be a part before but I was hesitant since I was so uncomfortable in my skin. Nowadays I'm feeling much more comfortable with the way I look so I'm looking forward to singing again. I haven't been on a team since we left Trinity almost 4 years ago so it's a good thing.

The other "new" thing isn't really new to me, but more of an adjustment. I finally tracked down my favorite water aerobics instructor (who used to teach my Monday night class). Apparently she announced over the holidays that she was not going to be teaching evenings anymore, but I missed it since we were out of town. Anyway, I went to her new class time today and I had such an amazing workout - I feel so refreshed! I think a few of us (other transplants from the Mon night class) have persuaded her to do a Monday morning class that's 30 min in the deep water (resistance training) and 30 min in the shallow water (high-intensity aerobic). Hopefully she'll take us up on it. She loves the water and all of us have been in her classes for well over a year and a half, so we'll see if she takes us up on it. Plus, since my knee has been hurting (probably due to my Paula Abdul workout video)...I'll pause while you regain your composure...it was great to be able to work really hard and burn alot of calories (over 1000 thank you very much!) without worrying about my knee.

And, it's now always just about me. David also got to do something new last night. He went to an AIGA event in downtown. He is trying to get plugged in with other Graphic Artists around town and AIGA events are the best way to do that. He had a great time, so hopefully there will be more opportunities for him to participate in the months to come.

25 Random Things

A popular thing on facebook lately are these "random thoughts about me" notes. I finally caved after several requests from girls I love and did one yesterday. So, I thought I'd share it here too.

1. I am a pretty creative person. I am a photographer, cake decorator, scrapbooker singer...I enjoy and find time for all of them. Not bragging, just stating the facts.
2. I have 2 nephews, 3 nieces and another nephew joining us in May.
3. I am a very organized/detail oriented person...Type A to the core.
4. My guilty pleasure is the CW - I love the cheesy high school dramas especially One Tree Hill (though I completely agree they are NOT for high schoolers!)
5. I went to my high school prom with one of my best friends and truly had an amazing night
6. David is the only boyfriend I've ever had and the only man I've ever kissed...needless to say I was a virgin when I got married
7. I can easily be brought to tears by anything sappy on TV
8. I love cuddling in bed with my hubby and watching a movie or one of the many shows we both enjoy (How I Met your Mother, Friends, Scrubs, LOST, etc. etc.)
9. Until this summer, my closest friends lived in 3 different states from me...I finally have a BFF here in GA
10. I never thought I'd marry at 23, but I was
11. I never thought I'd be 30 and not have kids yet, but I am
12. No matter what I'm going through at the moment, when I see Lacey's name on my caller ID, I smile...even if through tears
13. I love to learn but I hate school
14. I saw the Lion King in the theater 14 times
15. My dorm-mate Freshman year also loved Lion King so we decked out our room Lion King style...everything from bedspreads and curtains to rugs and dishes
16. I still keep up with my closest friends from high school (even before/without Facebook!)
17. I've often felt if I could trade my knowledge of song lyrics for something more practical...I'd be smarter.
18. I constantly say "don't judge me".
19. I can relate most situations to "How I Met your Mother" and/or "Friends"
20. I've only been drunk once, but I didn't have a hangover because my friend Marleah made me eat so much bread and drink so much water before she'd let me go to sleep.
21. Every boss (I should say direct boss) I've ever had would sing my praises and hire me back in a heartbeat.
22. I hate buffets bars and seafood
23. I only have 9 pairs of shoes, 2 pairs of which are tennis shoes that I wear most often.
24. I love food, but am very particular about what I like and don't like.
25. I have never smoked anything except 1 puff of a cigar in the Bahamas one spring break and it was awful!

There were a few differences on this list, but as a bonus for those of you not on facebook: When I was in college and living in the dorm, I lived in a room on the back left corner of the dorm on the first floor. My friend Jennifer lived in the apartments directly across the street - as a matter of the fact, her window on the top floor was diagonally straight up from my window. =)

Anyway, we got tired of me having to run around to the front of the dorm to let her in while she waited or her knocking and knocking until I heard her so I could let her in the back door of the dorm. So, one day I came home and she had bought me a door bell, or more appropriately, a window bell. It was wireless so we installed it on my window and when she came over she'd ring it and I'd meet her around back and let her in. It still makes me smile and I think about it every time I push a doorbell. Yes, that's every time I've pushed a doorbell over the last 12+ years. =)

Smouse Family Pictures

I'm still editing all the pictures from the holidays, it sure does take a while, but I did finish with my mom's side of the family. I thought I'd post the best of each pose for your viewing pleasure as promised. =)

My cousin Jenn & her daughter Maggie, I liked all 3 of these...JP & MaggieThe Paugh Family The Smouse family
4 Generations My grandparents with their first great grandbaby! My mom & stepdad MikeMy brother Mark & his wife KaylaAll the cousins - I couldn't pick which one I liked best so I posted both.My mom's side of the family

Our first "Grasp" Wedding

On January 9th, we headed out to Myrtle Beach for my friend (and former boss) Randy's daughters wedding. I was responsible for the wedding cake, grooms cake & the photography. I got the grooms cake done before we left and the wedding cake base iced and stacked, but was going to have to finish it on site. It's always "fun" to travel with a wedding cake (or any cake for that matter!) in the back of the car, but this was the farthest we'd ever taken a cake. I have to say it survived the 7 hour trip (dang Atlanta Friday afternoon traffic!) quite well. Randy had put us up at the Crown Reef Resort in South MB so we checked in and hit the hay - we knew Saturday was going to be a long day but I don't think either of us was prepared for HOW LONG it would really be.

Saturday started bright and early with us heading to McDonald's for a quick breakfast. We got to the reception hall at 9:20 where we met up with Randy's sister-in-law who had transformed this RV showroom into a beautiful reception hall. I was VERY impressed! I spent the next 3 1/2 hours getting the cake done and I was pleased with how it turned out.

We headed to Fazoli's for a quick lunch (we hadn't been to a Fazoli's since we left Virginia Beach!) before heading back to the hotel to get all the photography equipment and heading to the church. We scouted the location, figured out how we'd pose folks, got the light levels set and took exterior shots (the wedding was at 5:30, so we figured we better get them while it was still good light outside) before heading back to the hotel at 4pm. We got ready in record time, thank the Lord we had showered that morning! Randy came to pick me up not 15 minutes later and we headed to Megan's house. David headed to the church to get the guys pictures, but since Megan was getting ready at the church there was no time for pictures with the girls before the wedding.
I did get some good shots of Megan getting her dress on, David got some good shots of the guys and the wedding ceremony shots came out better than I thought they would since it was so dark and the church didn't allow flash photography.

Afterwards we hustled through the shot list, and in less than an hour we were off to the reception. Everyone, including me, seemed to be impressed with how in control of the situation I was. I think I faked it with the best of them. =) Maybe I'll be a professional yet! Thankfully David got some great artsy shots of the venue which I love and is why we make a good team. =)

The reception was a blur. David & I didn't stop to eat, drink or even pee for the entire 5 hours. It was crazy, but worth it. We got alot of great shots and had fun too. there were so many pictures to choose from, but here are a few of our favorites.

The reception hall, my cakes in the forefront

The first dance

Father/Daughter Dance

Randy with his other 2 daughters, Mollie & Mallory

Randy's wife, Burke...the beautiful Mother of the Bride

Megan is a singer/dancer and Mike is a Clogger (Check him out with his group, All That, in this video from the finale of America's Got Talent...Mike's the one in the white shirt doing all the talking at the beginning) so they decided to do the Time of my Life dance from Dirty Dancing, it was awesome! Here is the lift:

Last dance, in the bubbles

Sunday on the way home we stopped at the outlets and I got a MB shot glass to top off the trip. It was a good weekend, long but good. We learned alot about what we do and don't want to do for future weddings and most importantly - I'll never do the cake and photography again. That was almost too much, but for my Randy it was worth it. =)

Job Stuff & Free Time

Last week I finally found (and applied for) a job that I was interested in - woohoo! It was like the job description was written for me and I know I'd enjoy what I would be doing there. It had only been posted since Monday so hopefully I got in the door early enough - I sent in my resume Friday, so we'll see what happens. FYI - I have applied for other jobs, more out of duty to fulfill my unemployment requirements than because I was excited about them, but have so far have heard nothing. I'm ok with that though. I'm sure the Lord has a plan and He's providing for all of our needs so I'm grateful!

While I really haven't had any free time with the holidays, being sick, and the wedding, last week I was finally productive. I mean, we've had clean underwear and dishes, but until last week I haven't been able to do anything that wouldn't normally have gotten done. So my first projects were to unpack, get the house cleaned, take down all the Christmas decorations, and get my craft closet reorganized with all of the fun stuff I got for Christmas. I promise to actually do something in my craft closet, and just for Deborah I'll post pictures of it all messy. =)

Anyway, with all that done, I moved on to a few photography projects I want to get done. Since we had taken down most of the pictures in the house to decorate for Christmas, I figured I'd change the pictures - why not? We've had the same pictures up for over 4 years so I decided to go through all the pictures I have in frames around the house and decide which ones would stay and emptied the rest. Then I decided which frames I wanted to keep and which were going to good will, and this week I'll work on putting new pictures in the frames I kept. I also had a few pictures I took this fall printed as 8x10s that I matted and framed for our guest room - I'm pleased with them and may do some more!

I found a lovely album on Black Friday that I decided would be a perfect wedding album (and of course was a killer deal!). I had never made a dedicated album for our engagement & pre-wedding stuff or one for our wedding photos. If you know the drama associated with our photographs you know why this has taken me so long. So I'm working on making both albums and during this sorting phase I've decided to add a whole new series of scrapbook pages to our scrapbook from 2002. Now that my craft closet is all sorted, I'll add that to my scrapping list. =)

Thursday I met my friend Elizabeth for lunch and we ended up chatting for over 3 hours! It was so wonderful to get out of the house and enjoy time with good food (Chinese!) and good conversation. Being alone all day, I'm starting to understand what my friends Lacey & Jen keep saying about the need for adult conversation - somehow talking to the cats doesn't always "cut it".

This weekend we hung out with Paul & Bethany. They had a few house projects they wanted to get done, so David helped Paul install a new light/fan in their bathroom while B & I shopped, then we changed out the outlets on their main floor swapping them to white and putting new covers on before heading to IHOP for a late dinner together. Yesterday we all headed to IKEA where their super sale encouraged us to bite the bullet and buy the stuff we needed to redo our master closet. We've never even painted it (we've lived here 4 years!) but with the stuff almost 70% off, it was a smart move. So that's added to the project list and I'm sure we'll enlist Paul & Bethany's help in assembling everything. ;)

Needless to say, I have lots and lots of projects I am hoping to complete while I'm at home over the next however long. I'll keep you posted with pictures of my at home adventures!

Merry Christmas #3 & New Years

As we do every year, we head down to Alabama to spend some time with David's side of the family after our WV trip. Our week long stay with the entire family is getting more and more, shall we say - Loud? It's always so fun to be with our ever growing family and all the kiddos bring alot of excitement into the mix.

I think more because of Carol than the kids, but I can't be sure, we always open gifts on the first night we're all together. It's so much fun now that the kids are getting older and actually enjoy things to give them gifts. Deborah & I (and our families) went in together to get all of Carol's kids gifts this year, so we could expand our budget. We decided to get Bennett a camera, but after many trials and tribulations at Walmart, we decided to give him Deborah's old camera to start out with. If it lasts and he's still excited about photography we'll get him a better one another year. needless to say, he was thrilled with his new camera and took almost 100 pictures over the week - that's alot for a 6 year old! He even got a good picture of me taking a family picture - I'll see if I can get it from Carol and post it later.

We got Wilson these stomp rockets which were also a hit (I don't know how, but I didn't get any pictures of them in action), but the best part was Wilson's face when he only saw 6 packages with his name on them...

For Anne's first Christmas, she got lots of fun toys, but was FAR more interested in the tissue and wrapping paper...

We got Mae a complete art set so she could paint.
Let me leave a note here - Carol asked for the paints, we were just being dutiful Aunts. =0)

Erin was given lots of books, which she loved, but I think she was more excited about helping Mama distribute the gifts. She was a bit delirious since she'd been up since 4am MT. She made it through the gift exchange, quickly had dinner and went to bed shortly after. She slept well and was a new little one Tuesday morning.

Delivering a gift for Aunt Red

I just love this picture of Erin, she's so precious!!

Tuesday Mama made our big Christmas dinner and David's Uncle & his family, including his cousin Jonathan's girlfriend Erin, joined us. It was a great meal, as usual, and we enjoyed lots of family time together.

Anne & I cuddling

Wednesday was New Years Eve. We had a pretty lazy morning and that afternoon we went to get Ben, one of David's best friends from high school, who spent the rest of the day with us. After another yummy dinner, we set off fireworks as we do every year. The kids had alot of fun with the sparklers, after they got the hang of it, and we enjoyed a beautiful light show. Here's a few pictures:

Mae with her first sparkler

Photo fun with sparklers

More photo fun with a red sparkler

Deborah set off a few Roman candles - even though it expressly says "Do not hold in hand"

Wilson & Ben enjoying the show

Blayne & Carol cuddling with the girls - it was cold!

The grand finale!

Thursday Deborah, Blayne, David & I headed to the Eastern Shore to shop a bit. Blayne got some money for clothes and he scored a few good deals. It was fun to get to hang out with them sans kiddos - Erin wasn't feeling well and Carol & Mama agreed to keep her so we could go out. We ate lunch at Wings...funny thing, Blayne & David wanted wings which is why we went, but Deborah & I enjoyed our food more. =0)

Friday the whole family headed towards Mobile for lunch at Felix's Fish Camp which has the best seafood, or so I'm told. I get grilled chicken (since I don't eat seafood) and of course hush puppies. Don't judge me...I am aware that hush puppies go with seafood but I like them so I eat them, so there. After lunch David & I headed into Mobile to meet up with our good friends Judd, Shell & their daughter Leia who live in Mississippi.

Fun Fact: Judd & Shell were the Best Man & Maid of Honor at our wedding.

Anyway, it was SO good to see them. We hadn't been able to connect with them since they visited us in June of 07, so it was so nice to reconnect. Leia is such a ham, she kept me laughing several times. It was far to short of a visit...

Other than getting sick with the "I feel bad but nothings really wrong" bug that Deborah & Erin had, it was a fantastic trip.  =)

Lacey's 30th Birthday

This post is LONG overdue, but I had downloaded the pictures on our desktop and then through our travels and my being sick, then the wedding last weekend, I'm just now getting around to it.

So, Dec 10th I headed to Clarksville to spend a few days with Lace and help her get everything ready for her big soiree. It was the first time I was glad I was unemployed because I wouldn't have been able to go otherwise. I got in early Wednesday afternoon and after some bonding time, her community group came over for their Christmas party.  Afterwards, Ryan wrestled and tickled the kids into exhaustion before putting them to bed. He is such a great dad, I love watching him with the kids, so I had to share these pictures.

This one cracks me up because you can see Ryan bracing for Jake's pummeling.

After the kids were tucked in, Lacey & I proceeded to "free" all the kids toys from their packaging and wrapped gifts while watching Top Chef. Note - Lacey is a Bravo kid and I had to cautiously avoid getting addicted to a new network. ;)

Thursday morning Lacey came down with what ended up being a 24 hour bug. I took over, but I wasn't the best Auntie Red I could have been since I plugged those kids down in front of the TV and let it run for most of the day. Hey, you do what you gotta do.  Lacey had called Ryan, but he didn't know when he would be able to get away and there was still so much to do.  Don't judge me.  =)  After I got them fed, they went down for their naps (Lacey too!), and I headed out to the stores to get everything Lacey needed for the party.  I got home just in time to get the kids up and back in front of the TV before Ryan got home.

Friday we spend the day baking and cooking all kinds of yummy goodness for the party. Ryan was supposed to jump that morning (he's in the Army, it's a requirement for him to jump out of an airplane on a regular basis) and should have been able to get off around lunch to help out too. Well he ended up finishing a combat training class and getting so sick they almost had to take him to the ER (which Lacey found out on a phone call at 5:45 - Party starts at 7). I told her to hop in the shower while I finished cleaning and kept the kids (once again!) glued to the TV. Ryan got in around 6:40 with the help of a guy in his unit and a friend came over to give him an IV...he was feeling a little better by around 10 that night. There were several other dramas I could share, but these were the major ones. Suffice it to say, it was such a rough couple of days for both of them. I was SO glad I was there - that is, after all, what friends are for!

Anyway - the party. After all the drama, it went off without a hitch. Everyone came wearing hideous Christmas sweaters (did I mention it was an Ugly Christmas Sweater, Yankee Swap party?!?) and had a great time. Here's a few pictures of all the fun...

The birthday girl "pulling it off"

Everyone enjoying the festivities and yummy food

The cake I made in all it's hideous-ness

The gifts before the swap began

A thong! It wouldn't be a good old fashioned Yankee Swap without a racy gift!

The thong makes the rounds!

I made this shirt for my gift, isn't it awesome?

In my opinion the best dressed couple - love those sweaters!