Pre-Birthday Weekend

I have another exciting weekend to look forward to! I did most of my birthday celebrating last weekend but it looks like we'll be getting together with Mom and Bob this weekend too. They are camping at Hart State Park so we will be joining them Saturday. They love to camp but usually take their motorhome...this time they are in a tent! I have a feeling it's not going to go so well but we'll see. They will be spending most of their time out on the boat so they wont notice the lack of amenities they are accustomed to.

Since we are only staying one night, we are going to borrow Brandon's mom's tent which is much smaller than ours and easier to set up. We will spend most of Saturday and Sunday on the water...and I am being forced to wear SPF 60+ this time. I look forward to being able to write about the huge fish I catch!

The worst thing about having a birthday is that you have to fork out $$ for a new tag and, this year, a new license. Surprisingly I was able to do both in less than an hour...including the driving time between the two places! I guess I chose a great day to go; usually the waiting time at the DMV is at least an hour. I was dreading having to do it tomorrow morning but now I have it all taken care of which means we can head to the lake earlier!

My hydrangea is even closer to being a full bloom! It is very exciting to check on it each day..I cant wait for it to be one big pretty flower!

Since we've been getting so much rain lately, our backyard was in dire need of some attention. The grass was so tall the dogs didn't even want to go fetch their ball! We spent time out there last night and got it all taken care of.

The yard feels so much bigger when the grass is healthy and cut!

Memorial Day Weekend 2009

It was nice to have a three day weekend and I feel like I made the most out of it! This weekend was filled with tons of fun, family and friends..doesn't get any better than that!

To start my weekend I discovered that my hydrangea is finally going to bloom! Since we planted it two years ago, it has just been a leafy bush. Now it's about to produce it's first flower and it looks like it's going to be blue. Very exciting! In addition, our fern are turning out very healthy and the sunflower I planted a few weeks ago is standing tall and strong. Hopefully it'll produce a bloom soon also.

Also, I received two birthday cards in the mail on Friday..one from my Grandmother Helen and one from my Aunt Louise. It was such a sweet sentiment and made me so happy!

Brandon's older brother, Jason, flew in from NJ Friday morning, so Brandon took the day off of work to go get him. They spent all day running around, playing video games and going to the driving range. Since they had an early tee time on Saturday, Brandon ended up just spending the night at his mom's house...which means I had a lazy night on the couch!

Saturday was Trent's (Brandon's younger brother) birthday party. We all got together at his mom's house for a cookout. Trent had about 5 boys over; since he turned 16 he's too old for a kiddie party so he just wanted a few people to hang out. Brandon and Jason played badminton for a while and I was the judge! Some family friends came over and we all sat around and ate, talked, and drank margaritas. I had a blast! The boys were all well behaved and seemed to have a lot of fun.

On Sunday, I spent time with my Mom and my Aunt Debi. We decided to have a "Girl's Day Out" which we have never done before. I had a coupon for Joe's Crab Shack (which is one of my favorite places!) so we headed out Sunday morning.


The trip was much easier now that I have my GPS system! I ordered a big pot of yummy food...two kinds of crab legs, shrimp, potatoes, sausage, and corn...all in a big steampot. Luckily they gave me a big ol' bib because I dug in and made a huge mess. It was SO worth it!

<-- Before


After -->

I also ordered a "Shark Bite" which is their signature cocktail..it's a blue mixed drink that comes with a plastic shark. The shark is holding a vile of 'blood' that they pour into the drink. Before doing so, they announce to the whole restaurant "Everyone get out of the water! There's been a shark sighting!".

In addition to the huge meal I ate, we got free cheesecake for dessert. My birthday is the same day as Aunt Debi's so we both got a huge piece. Sweet! The whole staff kept getting together to sing and dance as entertainment which was hilarious and there were two different people with birthdays...so there was always something fun going on!

After lunch we did a ton of shopping..I purchased a belt and tie for Brandon and then some seedling kits for myself. I enjoy the kits that come with everything you need..just water and watch it grow!

The entire trip was tons of fun and I'm so glad we did it!

When we got back to Mom's house, I helped her resuce some baby kittens. There is a stray cat that hangs around her yard and had recently had kittens within the roof of the house somehow. The momma cat couldn't get them out after they were born so mom and Bob helped and then the mom hid them under the grill. We got one of the old duck houses (that looks like a dog house) and turned it into a comfy home for them. When moving them from under the grill to their new home, we discovered there were more than we though..5 kittens to be exact! They were so tiny and adorable! It was raning and they were cold so we put an old blanket in there for them to snuggle with.

After a great day on Sunday, I still had another fun day to look forward to! Since Brandon has been trying to get me interested in golf, I had agreed to play with Nicole, one of the girls I work with. She plays often and is much better than I will probably ever be, but it was still tons of fun. Luckily she was very patient with me and offered excellent help, which made the experience so much better than it could have been. I even got the ball to go OVER the water instead of IN it. My final score, after 9 holes, was a smiley face and a star!!

After golf we had lunch...pizza for me! It was very nice to spend some time out of the house and with friends/family. Overall it was a great weekend!!!

The McGhees

I am very picky when it comes to building friendships...While I have many acquaintances, there are very few people that I actual consider my friend.


As I have mentioned before, Becky is my closest friend. She is the one who knows me the best and has known me the longest. Becky and her husband Marcus are the proud parents of Madelyn...who I like to show off as if she were my own. Luckily, Becky loves to take pictures and Madelyn loves to smile for the camera, so I often get to see new pictures. They recently took family photos and although Becky hasn't had time to mail copies to me, she took pictures OF the pictures and sent me digital copies. Obviously the quality isn't great, but I still think they turned out adorable!

I made a Mother's Day card for Becky this year, and compiled some of my favorite pictures of her being a mother, wife, and friend.

Celebration and Fishing

On May 9th, my best friend's husband, Marcus, finally graduated college! I say finally because it feels like he has been in college forever. In reality though, he has finished ahead of schedule since he took several classes while he was still in high school. He is a self described computer geek but is amazingly talented. Becky, my best friend, was so excited to see him walk across the stage. Now he can spend more time at home and less time in class or doing homework. Becky had a party for Marcus at their house after the graduation ceremony and invited their friends and people from their work and church. I took my cousin Harli with me and we had tons of fun. It was great to see Madelyn and Becky's brother, Bobby, since it had been a few months.

I was extremely worried she wouldn't remember me and when I first arrived, I thought she didn't. Madelyn took off running when I walked in..so I followed her. She was sitting on the floor in her bedroom with a photo album on her lap. When I walked in, she was furiously flipping the pages.

Suddenly she stop and starting pointing to a picture of us, saying "There you are!!". It melted my heart and literally brought tears to my eyes!

After the party, the family had a fish fry at my Aunt's house in Thomson. I arrived late and missed dinner, but I'm not a big fish eater so it wasn't a big deal. Brandon and I had decided to spend the night since we were planning to go to the lake the next morning for Mother's Day. We shared a hotel room with my mom and stepfather, Bob. I thought it would be awkward and uncomfortable...but, as soon as we got back to the room that night, mom and Bob both fell asleep within 10 minutes.


The next morning, we all took Bob's pontoon boat on Clarks Hill Lake. We knew there was a chance of storms, so we were not sure how long we'd be able to stay. One of my aunts and her fiance were camping near by, so they met up with us in their boat. My other aunt came later with her husband and my cousin. They also brought my Granny...and her oxygen tank..and her new dog.

Granny didn't stay long, but the rest of us spent several hours fishing and riding around. I have assigned myself a seat on the boat, which everyone knows is my seat. The seat is at the front of the boat, and I have my own cupholder and live well. The only problem (which really isn't a problem) is that my seat is not covered by the shade canopy. While I wore sunscreen this time, it apparently wasn't enough because I got burnt to a crisp.

Mom was the only one who caught any fish which was fitting since it was Mother's Day..we let her win!

As the day went on, the clouds got darker so we decided to load the boat and head home a little early.

Brandon and I had purchased a GPS system a few days earlier so I kept myself occupied with it the whole way home.

Paint Woes

This was a pretty uneventful weekend for me. We had lots of rain which kept us indoors most of the time. Brandon decided to tackle one of our 'projects' to pass the time.

A few months ago, I accidentally splattered liquid foundation makeup on the walls in our half bath downstairs. Since this is the bathroom the guests use, it was quite embarrassing..it looked like poop on the wall!

We had decided to paint it with the leftover paint we had used in another room over a year ago. The color was supposed to be a sky blue..but, when we opened the can this is what we got:
Obviously not sky blue! We took turns shaking the can and stirring it with a grill utensil (we didn't have any paint stirrers!) until we finally got the color we wanted. Now we have a nice, newly painted bathroom for our guests to use!

Tonka's New Friend

Life has been busy lately...luckily, Tonka found someone other than Rupert to keep him company. His new pal is named "Friend" and he loved him to death..literally.

Weekend

Not much has been going on lately. Thanks to our crazy professor who apparently lost his mind and murdered three people, Brandon has been super busy with work. We have had police officers walking around campus with guns of all sizes; FBI and GBI vehicles stationed in parking lots; everyone walking around on high alert.

That leaves me with a lot of alone time..no fun!

Last weekend we worked in the yard again- we repaired some of the border around our back patio, replaced some of the rocks (still a work in progress), mowed the lawn, and sprinkled a few grass seeds here and there to speed up the new growth this season. While our sod is growing back very nicely, the weather has just started getting warm enough..so it still looks a little patchy. In another week or two though, we'll have our nice plush yard back!
This weekend I spent the majority of the time at home, on the couch, being lazy. After a period of extreme boredom, I decided to attempt to make biscuits while Brandon was golfing. No ordinary biscuits for me though- I used a STAR cookie cutter! Too bad I also used butter that expired in 2003...




Rupert and Tonka didn't seem to mind though..so I put a little bit of jelly on them and handed them over. Gourmet breakfast for the pups!