SNOW? SNOW? Really. LOTS OF SNOW!!!

(Early this morning)

Okay - um we are talking like 4 inches! IN ALABAMA!!! IN MARCH!!! WHERE IT WAS 77 DEGREES FIVE DAYS AGO!!! WHAT THE??? OME!!! OME!!!

I woke up around 5 a.m. and found my backyard was covered in soft white flakes. The sky was full of swirling white mists it was magical. Now mind you I love how snow looks & how it alters the landscape - beyond that it is wet, cold and messy. Well it is now 11:20 a.m. and my yard looks like this:

All of these pictures are from around 7 a.m. until now. In some you can really see how big & fast the flakes are coming down. It is just now beginning to slow down. I am just in awe. IT IS MARCH PEOPLE!!! I mean heaven forbid we get this for one particular day in December?! No we get it on a Sunday in MARCH!! *shakes head* Peanut is not a fan of the snow - except from his window seat. We opened the window and let him put his nose against the screen & he loved it! He took about 3 steps on the deck before we did this & turned around with a whimper. Yeah - wet cold long hair - not so fun for Nutter!

So our day is planed out thusly: Stay warm, eat, watch movies, drink cocoa, watch it snow, read and repeat.....

Hanging, Hammering, Nailing - laughing, crying, enjoying...

I have been working for the past week on a large number of shelves, frames, paintings and all out odd-end home improvements. Yes the girl who cannot choose a wall color can really redecorate or rearrange any room quite quickly :)
Marcus & I went to Atlanta last weekend to see Nina, Keith & the kids. It was so much fun! Friday night we got in fairly early = around 10 EST. Not too bad; it is normally later. Keith had grilled some awesome cheeseburgers so the late dinner was great. On Saturday we split the groups: all girls - all boys. Us girls went to some shops that I had not visited in quite sometime as well as a HUGE designer fabric store - Tracy you would freak out. It is like THE place the area designers go to get fabric. Like HGTV fabric store, crazy. Then we went to this place call Rustique in Marietta. Okay they had a like a 30 foot iron giraffe & rooster for your yard. YES you read correctly. But they also had the most beautiful outdoor fountains, arbors and benches. Mind you they also had furniture & home decor, but really they did not want to sell that stuff. A BASIC pewter cake plate (not Arthur Court - no design) $130.00 Yeah, we just told the girls not to touch anything - neither did me or Nina:0)
Then we snagged Marcus. Me, Nina, Marcus, Anna & Jessica headed to downtown Atlanta to IKEA. Okay Marcus & I have gotten the catalog but this was our first store experience. That place is HUMONGOUS! They sell EVERYTHING!!! We now understand why people shop there. It was like house Disneyland! We will definitely return. We bought 4 awesome floating shelves (they are big by the way_ and an eight foot tall solid wood bookcase. I was almost crying I was so happy to have gotten the book case. I have TONS of books that are kind of stashed everywhere. Because I collect antique/vintage books, displaying them is important to me. Now they have a home.
Also this week we have daily hung a shelf or had a picture framed. We had tons of prints that need frames. Some Daniel Moore Alabama prints, some artwork we bought from a gallery, some photos and a Twilight poster. Got them all done! WOOHOO!!! Marcus was so thrilled about one of the big Bama prints we had framed. It turned out quite a bit bigger than we expected, but it looks awesome beside Stevie the TV.
Anyway, the weather is crazy but we have really enjoyed doing all these little projects all week. I look forward to finishing some of the organizing I now have to do! :)

OME! Madeleines, Sourdough bread, a great friend, and Peter Facinelli...

So Saturday for Valentine's, Marcus & I went to see a movie & had a nice lunch. BTW you should always choose Valentine's LUNCH. Still busy, but not as bad as trying to go to dinner somewhere! We hit a few stores for some simple things then after that we basically just were lazy. We watched a little television but mostly we talked. You know those long discussions about everything in your life....if you don't know, well I won't say you are or aren't missing out. It depends on the depth & the emotions that are riding the discussion. This one was pretty in depth so we hashed out a few ideas, theories, dreams and mistakes. The night ended well. It has been quite a while since we have had one of those talks and there were a good many new changes & expectations in our lives that we needed to share.
During all this I was up and down in the kitchen making Madeleines. Madeleines are these wonderful little temperamental French cookies. They are delicate and OH SO YUMMY! My favorite thing about Madeleines is that they don't really store well - you can put them in an airtight container overnight but that is basically it. One night or day. SOOOOO that means you get to eat them all!!! MUAHHAHAHAHAAHA :0) Well thankfully they are tiny little cookies and the recipe only makes like 40 total. I mean tiny cookies. You can dust them with powdered sugar or dip them in chocolate! So good. Marcus & Peanut both were in heaven.
Sunday we slipped down to Camden to see our parents. We had not been there in a while & I wanted to see for myself how mom was after surgery. She looks like she got walloped on both sides by a vicious bat! But I am told that it is SO much better than it was four days prior. We had not told Marcus' mom that we were coming to Camden - we wanted to surprise her. Boy did we! I dropped Marcus off at 10:45 a.m. at her church. They said she almost fainted when he came up behind her then gave her a hug! She was floored & so glad we surprised her.
I spent the afternoon just chilling out at mom & dads. Due to when we come home mom usually cooks or does something special, well since she cannot really chew she figured major cooking was just silly. She did however surprise us with a loaf of the softest, sweetest, mouth watering SOURDOUGH BREAD loaf! She baked 3 and gave me & Eric each a loaf... OMEOMEOMEOMEOME! It was heavenly. We took it home & had chicken salad on that bread... I could have slapped somebody it was so good!
Monday night I got a wonderful gift in the form of visiting with my best friend Stacie. She was spending a week in Camden & took her brother David to the airport in Bham. Well BHAM is too close to not have dinner & shop a little!!! So we met up and enjoyed some Mexican and a little shopping. It was so much fun. We talked and talked. I never tire of being able to visit with my friends and Stacie is no exception. I am reminded each time how lucky I am to have her as a 'sister'. On the drive home last night I thought about 28 years. I have known her sincerely for 28 years. She has been a constant in my life, someone who knows my secrets and still loves me! lol. I am so glad we get to have these sporadic visits & it is about time that I pop up to NC to visit her....
Also, I stumbled upon this clip of Jennie Garth & Peter Facinelli on Chelsea Lately - I think they are like my new FAVORITE celebrity couple so cute! Have a watch!
just click on this link: http://www.eonline.com/videos/v38856_Chelsea_Lately_Garth_and_Facinelli.html
Anyway, I know this post was more of a rambling update, but right now my life is rambling! So bear with me for a little while.

Working for the weekend... oooo....Everybody's work'n for the weekend... :)

So we have made it to Thursday! Woohoo! This week has been quite the eccentric week. My brother in law, Keith, traveled through on business Tuesday night. It was great to see him, have some dinner & catch up. He spent the night with us then was out yesterday morning. I also had an early morning & headed over to Mississippi to work on a new flavor I am developing for a customer. It is a good thing I am a Foodie. I taste some weird stuff for my job sometimes!
Oh yeah - got a speeding ticket while returning from Mississippi. Don't these troopers know that I was ready to get out of clothes that smell of a chicken plant/lab! Geez, I was speeding with the windows down to cover the scent... just kidding. I did get a ticket though - Sumter county. Yuck! But oh well.
Once I got home - my dog & a new yoga pose awaited! The Chair pose - um, hello, do I really need to feel every centimeter of my butt & hamstrings???? Seriously, just knowing they are there is enough. It is challenging, but worth it.
Okay... so I am going to cop to watching a Pop Culture phenom = American Idol. Granted we are not addicted & watch every show, but we do kind of scan the episodes. We really only like to watch it once they wheedle them down to 12 singers total. Then it gets interesting. Anyway - um that girl Tatiana??? I did not know that certain octaves could be reached - in a bad way - until she was on the show. It is not even her singing voice - this is just her...laugh, voice, crying - existence. Marcus has to mute the TV.
oh on a totally different message - keep my mom in your thoughts. She had some extensive surgery done on Monday when they removed her wisdom teeth. Hers was not one of those easy extractions due to her gums were having problems and the roots grew all weird. It is a painful recovery. She is doing well, just it will take awhile & I hear she is pretty bruised from the experience. So readers, please just keep her in your thoughts.
As I head to dinner this evening I pose the question: Any big Valentine's Day plans???? I am always intrigued by the various celebrations/non-celebrations this time of year.

Adapting my vision...

What a week. Nothing of major note occurred but I can feel this shift in my life. I promised myself at the beginning of January to be an 'eyes open' person. You know the ones, those people that seem to truly see & appreciate their lives. I mean who doesn't appreciate being alive, but sometimes it is hard to see the greatness in the chaos of our own every day.
I felt the shift probably the most on Tuesday night. Nothing major, we were just watching Privileged on the CW (great show by the way), and a background song came on. I have been following Priscilla Ahn for awhile; waiting for her to hit mainstream music. As Megan (character on show) sits in a restaurant/bar waiting for her best friend the song Dream began to play. This song is a snapshot of me. It is very simple in its lyrics, but the melody will sweep you through childhood flashbacks, current excursions and a contentment you may hope for in the future. Marcus looked over and said "Hey! That's your song." Yes it is. I found myself humming the lyrics for two days after that. I also found myself smiling at the oddest times & even just laughing out loud when I was driving with no one else in the car. Those little spurts of positive energy make the whole 'eyes open' thing like breathing.
As for my physical attention to being eyes open & am taking a practical but really fun approach. On Friday, after an EXTREMELY stressful workday, I came home and did 30 minutes of yoga & 30 minutes of aerobics. I know - aerobics??? But the yoga. I have found a real love for this. Yoga makes me breathe. I calmed down and was a much nicer person than I was when I had first arrived home. As I got ready for dinner I told Marcus how much those 30 minutes of Sun Salutation, Half Moons, Palm Trees & Warrior movements made me feel good. He grinned for a minute, then puffed up his chest and said: "yes my flower child wife - it seems all the new agey stuff makes you nicer." He quickly kissed my cheek ready for a smart return or smack :) Instead I asked: "Can you tell a difference?" The smile stayed as the answer of "Actually yes. The last few weeks have been really different." He could not explain how but I was pleased that he informed me it was a pleasant different.
You see, I am actively trying to see myself, my surroundings and my actions with more clarity. For the first time ever, I am actually doing something about my vision. I don't mind if the aerobics makes me healthy, if the yoga makes me more flexible, I am honestly doing it because I am enjoying it. I found a way to not make it a chore. Nothing spectacular, no miracle movements, no major jewelry at a certain point - I just decided to open my eyes and give something a whirl. If I stop enjoying it, I just have to not get defeated, maybe I will try something else. No matter what - I matter & my view of my life matters. To be honest the view from here is pretty good......(sore, but good :) )

Super-Puppy-Bowl Sunday!

Well it is here - Super Bowl Sunday!!

Though I am sad that the football season is really closing it is a shortlived sadness. Signing day for college football is February 4th and before you know it April will be here along with "A" day on campus.

Those of you may not know that while the Super Bowl is going on, Animal Planet also puts on the Puppy Bowl. This is an adorable "bowl game" with some of the cutest puppies. At halftime rather than some concert they have kittens romping around and a parrot sings the opening National Anthem. It is hilariously cute. It runs all day long.

Yesterday I went up to Birmingham with mom, Tabitha and Stephenie for a Twilight Luncheon. It was so much fun. This was just a simple lunch with the four of us & Lucy at California Pizza Kitchen. Mom, Tab, Stephanie, and I had went to the Venetian Spa for pedicures before lunch & some shopping at the Summit. After lunch we headed to Brookwood mall to HOT TOPIC for some Twilight memorabilia. It was a fun girls day out. Poor Marcus is sick with a bad case of Bronchitis and spent the day at home. Today has been pretty lazy. Mostly a little cooking for the game and some Wii time. :)

Well Marcus & I decided to flip the channel for just a few moments to see the cute puppies of Puppy Bowl V and we discovered their number one fan....

Crazy busy...but making time to play a few games...

Well Marcus & I have been pretty crazy busy over the last two weeks! I feel like I am so out of touch with the cyber world!

Part of it is just busy at work, at home, etc.. but we also have been addicted to our Wii lately. We took it up to Rob & Regina's & downloaded all the classic Nintendo games. Super Mario lives and breathes in our house (ALL OF THEM from the very first to the last version they created) IT IS AWESOME!!! Marcus also downloaded Punch Out!, Metal Marines, MegaMan, Castlevania, & Secret of Mana. I can honestly say that when I sat down to play Super Mario Bros. my mind slipped back 18 years. I could picture my friend Weslyn's house, the smell of Hot Pockets (because her mom can't cook - really cannot cook), and I could see the stuffed animals, the Barbies, and the Nintendo. We played all the time. She had this addiction to Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers. I remember once when it snowed, 1993 I think, we were holed up in my parents house playing Nintendo. She could not get past this one level and let out a loud "Damn it!" my mother had to keep from laughing. We were only like 11 or 12 and that phrase was obviously stolen from an adult, but used correctly. We were chastised, but that memory is still so strong.
Video games are a part of my life. I really thought about this when we were picking out what games to download. They are much like books for me, they trigger memories and almost all of those memories make me smile.
My brother Eric, was a gamer. He loved NCAA Football, PUNCH OUT!, Contra and many others. We would argue over who got to play when, who got to play what, and the fact that sometimes we were forced to play together. Now I look back and a huge grin spreads across my face. More times than not we actually had a great time together playing Nintendo. It was those times that I no longer existed as the annoying little sister & he wasn't just the mean big brother. We bonded. Granted when his friends were over I released the annoying little sister & he released the mean big brother.
High School came & I still loved gaming. Board games, Nintendo, Play Station. I am competitive so games are a part of that competitiveness. I met Marcus & found another gamer. Actually Marcus & Rob were two of the biggest gamers I had ever met. Rather than think it odd for a girly girl to enjoy gaming he embraced it. Here was a level of competition he could do with a girl who was a friend. I could hang my own with the guys in this sense. I had been doing so since I was 9. So at 15 I was actually someone who knew the buttons, knew the games, and knew how to win. Marcus & I both have enjoyed all nighters of strategy role playing games. We spent an entire weekend during college from Friday when the game hit the shelves - came home with us - when into the Nintendo - and the quest of Zelda began. We played from 4 in the afternoon until midnight that Sunday. Stopping only for junk food snacks & the occasional walk outside with the dogs. We had folding chairs up against the TV and we could not have been happier. I sat in the same type of setup more than once with Rob & Marcus.
Now I find myself with a full time job, a dog, a husband, a house to keep clean, food to cook and gaming. We sat Sunday night and played for hours. Every night this week we have played for at least two hours. It will pass and the newness of the old games will tame down a bit.
But we both love that nostalgic feeling that we are getting and also the new memories we are making. Peanut sitting on your chest until you finally put the controller down and just let him lick you into oblivion. Also that while he plays Metal Marines, I thumb through magazines, read a book or we'll mute the tv so he plays without sound but we talk about anything.
So even though work has been a little stressful, life is always crazy and there are tons of things to do around the house; we are still making time for each other & Stevie-the-TV of course :)

COURTNEYPALOOZA 2009 - MEXICO!!!

The breeze blows my hair back with an assurance much like the Mayan gods must have had thousands of years ago. The boat sways softly as the sun begins to dip into the azure blue sea; soft sounds of waves, warm rays of light begin to cascade all around me. I find myself looking out into a never-ending ocean and within its waves mysteries, surprises, and life bubbles continuously never knowing my pondering mood or the lives of the humans who scurry above…..
Yeah, ponder is definitely something I found myself doing the first full week of 2009. I was blessed to have boarded a huge ship and set sail for the most beautiful sandy beaches and warm 100 degree sunshine. A tan in January…who would have thought?? :)
The entry passage to this blog is one I scribbled down while sipping a Pina Colada and laying on a deck chair just outside of Progresso, Yucatan. There are not enough words in the English language to describe some of the things Marcus & I viewed last week. Thank goodness I like to write because capturing my vacation in words & pictures was so satisfying. Life is so amazing. Beware – this is going to be a long entry I have a week of vacation to review!
We set sail on Saturday with great aggravation. Fog had settled over Mobile Bay like pea soup and no one could come in or leave. We sat in the Mobile Civic Center (a building that makes the BJCC look like the Taj Mahal) from 2 p.m. until 7 p.m. We were supposed to leave Mobile at 4 p.m. Yeah – wasn’t happening. Once we were on board we ate and FINALLY set sail (5 hours late). Marcus & I have the worst luck with room locations by the way. On our honeymoon we were the FURTHEST room from anything, on the ship we were the LAST room at the BACK of the ship by the upper ENGINE. YEP!! We were startled around midnight by the loudest most horrible noise that rattled the room like an earthquake and we got up decided to go “out”. So we headed to the one of the clubs on the Promenade Deck. Well as we went past windows we noticed rather than the oil rigs being behind us they were now beside & in front – we were going backwards. YEP. A young woman got injured about 2.5 hours outside the Mobile Bay and the medics on board could not attend to the problem she had so we had to call the Coast Guard and turn around. YEP. CRAZY DAY! But Sunday was Fun at Sea our Carnival Capers newsletter proclaimed. As we stepped out onto the Lido Deck we were met with blue skies, warm breezes, and a blinding sun – we were finally truly south. Mexico was almost in our sights and the tropical climate was becoming a nice comfortable blanket. We played Bingo, gambled in the casino, I participated in Gem & Diamond lecture series the Shopping Expert was putting on then we put in our headphones stretched out our beach towels and soaked in the glorious sunshine. Relaxation never was so good. We then decided to try our hand at Putt Putt Golf on a ship. Um can you say hilarious?? The holes were maybe 20-25 feet long but with a swaying boat and whipping wind on the highest deck not only did this game create new challenges but it created new forms of exasperation. You actually could putt on hole four and thanks to the wind the ball would start at one end and roll all the way to the hole around it and back to you at the start. I KID YOU NOT! We laughed until our sides hurt. That evening was formal dinner. The very first night (Saturday) after our long wait in the Civic Center we had randomly been seated with 3 other couples: Roger & Shawna from Decatur (we only saw them once more after Saturday), Anna & Pat (daughter & mother from Cullman, Al) and Bart & Tiffani (from Louisville, Kentucky). Well when formal dinner came on Sunday we were pleasantly surprised to find we would only be sitting with one couple for the duration and to our even bigger surprise that couple was BART & TIFFANI! How bizarre. 2000 people randomly sat together & boom we get the couple that we had randomly sat with the night before. Thankfully the four of us got along swimmingly and enjoyed every night.
Monday found us entering Progresso, Yucatan. Marcus & I had scheduled an excursion to visit some Ruins & the beach. We knew that we would want to just explore Cozumel on Tuesday so we figured Progresso needed to be our historical port. Our guides were Carlos & Manuel – Carlos is from Merida in Yucatan, Manuel is from Progresso. Not only were they welcoming they were hilarious. We boarded a big, chartered, clean, air conditioned bus and 25 minutes later we entered another time completely. Carlos had done a great job of telling jokes and inserting a quick history lesson about the area as we rode. At first it was like any park, you went through the entrance, received a ticket, wandered a gift shop area, but then our guides lead us down a simple rocky path. Cactus, stones, sand, dirt, huge red and yellow flowers, birds, iguanas, cats were scattered among the flora. We arrived after about a ten minute trek to what at first appeared to just be another road. But at one end stood a huge stone temple structure and the other appeared a crumbling city. We had reached Dzibilchaltun (tzee-BEEL-chahl-toon). Dzibilchaltun means “writing on flat stones”. This ancient city once was home to some of the greatest minds in history. Here the Mayans created a calendar that is more accurate than any other one to date and their engineers & astronomers studied the heavens. This site also was one where trade was most important to the Mayans. The market here was one of great wealth but when the Spaniards came and took over the area everything changed. A ruin of a Franciscan Catholic Chapel still stands almost perfectly in the center of the plaza. The temples to their gods still shine beautifully and below an area where a Spanish stable stood there is Cenote Xlacah. A cenote is a sink hole found mostly in the Yucatan and some Caribbean islands. These holes are amazing. The one at Dzibilchaltun is around 144 feet deep. YEP. DEEP. But the water is like turquoise glass and the temperature is so cool and just fresh. They are an amazing natural occurrence. These sink holes house crystalline fresh water - not salt water- the only marine life found in each of the sink holes scattered in the Yucatan is one tiny little fish (about 2 inches long, 1/2 inch wide). No snakes, no other fish, nada - it is fascinating. This particular cenote has not shown any remnants of human sacrifices. Around Chichen Itza there are many that still have skeletons in the walls and hieroglyphics that detail the sacrifices. The cenote pictured here that we swam in was listed in their markings as a fresh water source - thank goodness. The atmosphere is surreal and so…oh gosh surreal!!! We jumped off the edges landing with a splash. Our group was hot, tired & ready for some relaxation. After two hours of this surrounding we loaded up in the bus and headed to our next stop: THE BEACH! A private beach with two pools, large beds (yes beds that you could just layout on!!!) on the sand, open bar & REAL Mexican food waited for our tired bodies to just plop down! Anything frozen that tasted of wonderful fruits were brought to us by some of the sweetest guys. They had a blast messing with anyone who had never done a tequila shot or wanted to try something exotic! It was awesome. When 2 more hours later we were back on the bus we all were so pleased with our choice of excursions! That night we heard a great comedian on board, danced to 70’s music in the disco hall and passed out around 2 a.m.
8 a.m. Tuesday we found ourselves enjoying breakfast with a couple from Hoover. We actually only met 5 families from Alabama on the entire trip. After breakfast it was time. TIME TO SHOP!!!! COZUMEL HERE I COME!!! WOOHOO! Lol. Truly we exited the ship and hit the stores with complete abandon. 4 hours later we had a ton of items to come back and pick up at the end of the day. We were starving and had passed Jimmy Buffets Margaritaville two blocks down…. So of course in the islands don’t you find the nearest & best Margaritas???? So we sat down only to find a couple we met on ship there as well as the ship golf pro & art director. After some good food, better drinks, and great conversation Pat appeared (Pat the woman traveling with her daughter from Cullman) and said “Hey we have two extra seats at our table, would you like to join us?” She had been so sweet & seemed like loads of fun so of course we accepted. WELL COULD WE HAVE MADE A BETTER DECISION…. NOPE! 30 minutes, 4 margaritas, and 2 shots later the man himself appeared. YEP – JIMMY BUFFET performed LIVE in COZUMEL on the day we were there at MARGARITAVILLE!!!! Marcus could have passed out he was so excited and just in ecstasy! We literally could touch the man. He signed a hat for Pat and we got some amazing pictures. It was just awesome. We still cannot believe it happened. Then after he played & left we headed to Paradise Beach for more sunshine & beautiful water. This day was so great! Wednesday was my birthday and after two days of crazy non stop action we just enjoyed the ship. The whirlpool, the activities, everything was great. Dinner with our favorite couple, Bart & Tiffani was of course wonderful too! I mean it was our last night. We realized how many people we had met and how great a time we truly had. The staff was so sweet, the friends we made were awesome! Time well spent. CourtneyPalooza 2009 has been a true adventure. Thursday we arrived in Mobile then swept through Camden to get Peanut. Once we finally made it to Tuscaloosa we were exhausted and ecstatic: HOME!! Though I must say these gray skies of January are quite depressing when you have recently seen the sunshine & endless blue of the ocean. Life is full of crazy surprises. We were not sure what to expect and that made each day so much more fun. I am forever grateful to Marcus for being a partner on this journey. I hope you enjoyed the recap & I hope I did not bore any of you.