Excited

Todays the day! The day we head to Atlanta to get ready to fly to Puerto Rico for our cruise. We've been busy packing and cleaning all morning. I'm about to head to the bank and to the tanning salon to get my annual "pre-trip" spray tan and hopefully we will be on the road by 3ish.

While we are away our granite is going to be installed in the kitchen. I can't wait to see it. My dads also going to come and hook up our sink and new faucet (Thanks Dad!!). We will still be in the work phase though because we will need to install the tile backsplash. I promise to post pictures of the finished project before Christmas (I hope).

I can't believe tomorrow marks the 1 year anniversary of our wedding. Time really has flown by. I was told the first year was the hardest (which ours was pretty blissful) so I can't wait to see what the rest of our lives have in store for us. I hope my husband knows how thankful I am for him. He really does bring out the best in me.

Well enough mushy love for the blog world. I've got things to do and islands to visit. Have a good Saturday!

Happy Birthday Brent

Happy Birthday to my husband. Even though he won't read this today... I am very glad it's his special day. His present is still in Hartselle at Slate and Sons Framing Gallery. It's not that I'm a terrible wife and didn't pick it up in time...it's just not finished yet. Brent asked for the new Daniel Moore print that was made for Alabama's National Championship. He wanted our tickets from the game included in the matte. I think it's going to look fantastic. I'll post photos once we have it in hand. He's yet to tell me where he wants to go for Birthday dinner. Hopefully he will pick something and not give the old "I don't care" response. He made the comment how several of my family members have called or texted him. I thought that was so sweet :)

Hope everyone has a good Monday night. Charlie and I are off to wait on our Birthday boy (who worked until 6:15pm on his special day- what a trooper).

Best thing about the new iphone4...

is that I now have the old iPhone to use an ipod touch! Seriously, I LOVE taking it for runs with me and using my couch to 5k app. Who cares if it gets sweaty or sticky because it's the old phone converted into an ipod touch. I had no idea that I would actually use it. I thought I'd toss it in the desk drawer and move forward to the new phone only. It's been a great tool for making me get outside and get going with Brent. We've started running at our neighborhood track (again). We go when it's dark to avoid the heat. It's weird to see bats flying around while your running. Brent assured me that there are bats everywhere...not just near our house.

We have one week until we set sail on our cruise. In the car today Brent said "So just so we are clear...you didn't buy me anything for our anniversary?" My response: "What if I already did?". He then hit the steering wheel and said "ASHLEY". Whoops.. I can't take it back. I will enlighten you all on what it is once we are back from the cruise. He rarely reads the blog but with my luck he would this week and see his present typed right out on the screen.

Well I'm off to enjoy a nice night at home. Brent's grilling chicken and vegetables so I am in charge of kitchen clean-up :(

Heat Wave

Not outside.. in our flipping house. The upstairs unit has been out since Saturday night (when I was home alone because Brent was at boy's lake day/night). It is HOT. I managed to sweat it out and sleep up there because I was too scared to sleep downstairs by myself.  Thankfully the unit that controls the 1st floor is still working. We are "camping" out in the living room on the air mattress which isn't worth $5. Not only does Brent have to manually pump it up but it also feels like you are sleeping on a raft. At 3:28am last night I migrated from raft to couch. Charlie seemed to like that. He'd thought all along "big idiot get on the couch with me!". We are waiting on Brent's dad to bring some part for the AC unit and hope that does the trick. If not we will have night 2 of camp out in the Thomas house...boo!

My grandmother Carol spoiled me this weekend and let me upgrade my iPhone from the original to the shiny new 4!!!! I don't think that sentence contained the excitement I've felt the past 3 days using my super fast new network and taking pictures left and right. I bought the hipstamatic app and LOVE it. I have no idea what lens/ films I'm using but it's fun snapping photos left and right.

I had an interesting day yesterday. I went to Auburn with my parents to move my sisters furniture into her trailer. It turned out really cute. I'll try to post some photos of it soon. We saw donkey's roaming around Wire Road (which is where she lives). Need I say more about the barn? (J/K Aubies).

Well I'm off to wait on our AC man (Mr. Thomas) and my sister. She's swinging by on her way back to school [FOR GOOD this time I hope, Em :) ]

HaPpY mOnDay!

Trying to be Domestic

I love reading blogs. One I enjoy following is kevinandamanda.com. A few weeks back she mentioned a few under cabinet organizers she found at wal-mart and I just had to have some. I think Brent enjoys when I attempt to organize our "junk". Here's a before and after...

before

after

after (again)

I know I'm a huge dork for blogging this but it made my day and has been a big help when I try to get my pans out from under the cabinets. You'll see it's just a generic standup rack (that you can also turn on it's side and use for cookie sheets, cutting boards, etc.) I actually bought two and used one for each purpose. Hope this helps make someone's cabinet life a little better!

Interesting Friday Night

Friday after work I drove up to spend the night with my grandparents. We went to their favorite restaurant (a steakhouse in a super small city about 15 miles from their house) and on the way blew out a tire on my grandmother's avalanche. Lucky for us my Papaw was riding with us. My grandmother's been meaning to renew her OnStar service but just hasn't gotten around to it yet. I *always* have my iphone with me but didn't take it with me that night for some random reason. This led to us asking the restaurant for a phone book and my Papaw and I calling random numbers to see if anyone had a 24 hour roadside assistance crew they could send out. (We'd already called their insurance to confirm that this would be covered) Well small town had ZERO help in that department. My Papaw refused to call anyone from a different city insisting that he'd do it himself. And that's just what we did after dinner. Me in the dress I wore to work got down on my hands and knees and helped him. Granted he did all the heavy lifting and mechanical things but I was his eyes under the truck. Interesting!

Once we made it home safely my Memaw decided we should walk to her neighbors so I could see her new kitchen countertops. She recently installed granite that looks a lot like what we are installing. After peeking through her garage window (which my Memaw said was perfectly fine- apparently they have an "if the garage door is open come on over" understanding) we went to leave and I saw a baby snake squiggling around the concrete. I freaked out. I HATE snakes and baby snake meant momma snake was nearby. My Memaw grabbed the first thing she could find in her neighbors garage (a broom) and proceeded to beat the snot out of baby snake with the broom handle. I wish I had it on video and could share with you guys. We went ahead and walked back home (in the middle of the road rather than thru the yard) to avoid momma snake.

Who knew a night at home with the grandparents in Hartselle could be so entertaining?

Is it Fall Yet?

I am over this heat. That's hard to say seeing that I work in an office all day but when you walk outside and have your sunglasses fog up as soon as you put them on you know it's just too humid.

We've been so lazy this week. I restarted couch to 5k since the 5k I'm doing with my family is in September. Hopefully I'll stick to it this time. I got to week 6 or so last time and got a bad sinus infection and just quit the program. Whoops!

All we've been doing is watching the Braves each night. I'm hoping they stay hot (and leave this funk they've been in lately behind) so Brent will stay happy. He's a grump when they lose.

We broke down and watched Kenny Chesney's "Boy's of Fall" video on youtube tonight. It's so good. I think the songs a bit corny for the radio but it's a good story and I love all the football clips he put in the video. It's even got Nick Saban throwing his head set. (the best move he has in my book)

Youtube also sucked me into watching videos of tv shows I like. I am forced to wear stupid earbuds when I do this because Brent can't stand to hear noise coming from the laptop. He's such a weirdo. I hate the earbuds because they give me a headache... it's a lose/lose situation.

I did decide that I'm going to watch "The Middle" more next season. We'd catch bits and pieces last season but never devoted ourselves to being weekly watchers. I thought I'd leave you all with this little clip.

Hope everyone has a great Friday!

Shopping Bargain

I found this dress at Forever 21 last weekend. They told me I bought the last one and they'd only had it in store for 2 days. I was searching their website and saw it's available in all sizes online. Just thought I'd pass my fabulous find along to the blogging world. (It's super comfortable by the way)

$29.80 at Forever 21

Frustrated

I am so frustrated with Belk's stupid credit card service. I'm having issues with their online bill pay and all the reviews I've read throw their call center under the bus. I'll take them on tomorrow with my husband's best line "YOU waive this bogus fee or I'll pay this bad boy off right now and cancel the card." I shouldn't be this frustrated but ever since I saw the fee tonight (around 6pm) I've been on edge. I just hate having unresolved issues. You should have seen the crazy I turned in to when our old apartment threatened to sue us (right Jess...) I was a walking lunatic.

Something to make me smile... the fabulous dress my memaw bought me for the Formal Captain's Dinner night on our cruise. Have I mentioned I can't wait to cruise?

sorry for the blurry photo...Dillard's didn't give me much to work with.

Funny News

You know how husbands never listen...well I had told Brent that one beach on our cruise itinerary had a nudist resort on it. I don't think he believed me until our travel agent informed him not to walk too far to the right (topless) or to far to the left (nothingness). The priceless moment was when he got home and googled it just to make sure she was telling the truth. Hilarious! Regardless, I can't wait to spend some time on Orient Beach. Just look how pretty the pictures are (but make sure you're looking at those who are hanging out in the bathing suit wearing section).

 

photo credits here & here