10.30.2011

Do I look homeless?

Baron didn't have to work on Friday so we decided it would be a good day to wake up early anyway and drive through the neighborhood that we've been eyeing and see what it was like at "rush hour". 

I woke up and threw on sweatpants, one of Baron's sweatshirts that says, "N.E.R.D. Aeronautics" and a pair of knock off Ugg boots that I bought 3 years ago at Wal-mart for four dollars. I didn't brush my hair or my teeth, just got dressed and was walking out the door when I got a glimpse of myself in the mirror.

"Do I look homeless?"  I asked Baron.

"No. I think homeless people would love that outfit!!", states Baron enthusiastically.

Exactly.

10.27.2011

Random Thursday

- I got a permanent crown put in today.  I have met and exceeded my insurance coverage for dental visits for the year, super.  Crossing my fingers that I can stay away from the cute little dentist's office that I go to until after January 1!

- We have a Buyer's Agent! After sleeping on it, Baron and I both felt like working with Nicole was the right decision.  We are excited and can't wait to get started looking at houses.

- Max went to obedience class for the first time today.  He already knew all the material that we covered in class today (sit, down, come) which I'm hoping is why he acted like a complete ding dong during the class.  During any down time he would whine and bark at all the other dogs, yank on the leash, and just generally act like the Tazmanian Devil.  There's a reason we call him "Mad Max".

- In my last Weight Watcher's meeting someone had baked some 2 point chocolate chip cookies and brought them in as a "show and tell".  There was no showing about it, us Weight Watcher girls know how to eat.  2 points per cookie and they are pretty good!  They have about 4 different varieties but I figured you can't go wrong with chocolate chip.  Oh, and did I mention that they're break-n-bake? Heck yeah!


- Today is our Friday!  I know you're thinking, "You don't have a freaking job, what do you care anyway?!" but Baron's off work tomorrow which means no getting up early, no not seeing him all day, someone to help me take Max out 117 times a day, and being able to hang with my hubby all day, woohoo!


10.26.2011

A Love Story

So when I started this blog I had already been married for a few weeks so I never got to tell the story about how Baron and I met, fell in love, and tied the knot.  Today's a great day for that I think :)

Like most people start their "how I fell in love" story, I wasn't really looking for anyone to date.  I had a friend that would always have somebody to set me up with.  Once, she along with another friend ambushed me with a surprise meeting.  I swore I would never forgive the two of them!  So when she called me a few days before my birthday in 2009 and said, "There's someone I'd like you to meet",  I didn't pay much attention.  

She continued and told me that she had met this guy, Baron, once in the lab where her husband worked and then a second time she and her husband all had lunch together.  So let me preface by saying that she didn't really know him at all but apparently she thought we were meant to be together.  Whatever, right??

I told her that I would think about it, just to stall for a while.  I thought it would never happen.  Oh, did I mention that he lived an hour and a half away from me?  So yeah, I figured I didn't really need to worry much about it because I'd never really have to actually meet him.

Flash forward a few days and I get an e-mail from someone named Baron.  Apparently my friend had told him that I wanted him to e-mail me.  Haha!  His e-mail was nice and unassuming, he wished me a Happy Birthday and basically just said hello.  We e-mailed back and forth several times and our e-mails got longer and longer.  Finally I had a weekend off and was headed to his town to meet him!  I had planned to stay with my friend and her husband after we all went out on a double date together.

We did the awkward introduction, dinner, bowling, and talking.  Then when we got back to my friend's house she and her husband just kind of disappeared and left Baron and I in their living room.  We sat and talked for a few hours and made plans to see each other the next day and watch a Gator game.

Before we knew it, we had been seeing each other every chance we got.  I would drive to Gainesville and then he would drive to Jacksonville the next time.  I can't imagine how many miles we put on our cars during the whole time we were dating.  We could stay up until 7 am talking and then go to a football game on 3 hours of sleep.  Those first few months were crazy.  It was exhausting and refreshing all at the same time.  

We met on September 11, 2009 and I knew that I loved him and wanted to spend my life with him in the first week of December.  I had gone to San Francisco with a friend for a girl's trip, and I realized while I was gone that he was the "one".  A little over a year after that trip, Baron asked me to marry him in a little chapel on the water in Gainesville. 

December 2009-
Our first picture together :)
On the set of "Extreme Home Makeover"
March 2010-
Chuck Wick's Concert
July 2010-
My friend's wedding
Toronto-
August 2010
September 2010-
On the way to see Tom Petty!

November 2010-
 Las Vegas to see Garth Brooks!

January 2011-
The Baughman Center-
where Baron proposed
I walked through the doors of the church and Baron was
standing at the altar all dressed up in a suit.  Awwww.
Telling my Mama that I'm getting MARRIED!

There it is, you're all caught up!!  I really can't even remember what happened between getting engaged in January and getting married in May, it's such a blur!  I guess we planned a wedding, continued working, Baron finished his PhD, I went to South Carolina twice, Baron got a job, we went to Alabama to find a place to live in the middle of the worst outbreak of tornadoes in years,  I had two wonderful bridal showers, I quit my job, I packed and moved all my stuff to Baron's apartment in Gainesville, then we had a wonderful wedding that was more than we could have imagined, went on freaking awesome honeymoon in Alaska, came home packed everything up and moved up to good old Alabama!

Whew, I'm exhausted ;)

10.25.2011

He found the TP

We now have a new game in our house.  Max runs and grabs toilet paper and runs as fast as he can through the house with it.  I think we will quickly learn to keep all bathroom doors shut.  He is a mess!


Baron and I met with a realtor last night who we might potentially work with in the house building/buying process.  We were both a little leary because we found her just based on some random google searches but she was really knowledgable and had answers to all of our questions.  I felt really good about our meeting and right before we left I asked her how long she was in real estate.  She's only been doing it for a year.  That's the only thing that we kind of have a hang up about.  Other than that I think she would be a great resource for us.  Thoughts??

I think we both got excited yesterday.  It seemed real.  She asked us how long we'd like to be in the house that we buy/build and if we wanted to raise a family there.  I have to admit I have a lump in my throat thinking about whatever house we choose to build or buy is where our family will grow and we will raise our children.  Makes me a little mushy.

I had a little big struggle with Weight Watchers last week.  Baron was gone for work for several days and I didn't cook a thing.  Back on track today and ready to take on another week.

Happy Tuesday!

10.21.2011

For the Mommas

I dare you to watch this without crying.  This commercial makes me happy, makes me sad, makes me excited for the future, and scared to death at the same time.  This is for all the Mommas out there.  The ones with babies in their arms, the ones with babies in heaven, and the ones with babies who live in Alabama far away from them.

10.19.2011

WILW

Linking up with Jaime for What I'm Loving Wednesday.  It's kind of a dreary day here in North Alabama, so it's time to think about the things that make me smile :)

- I'm loving snuggle time with Macey.  She's been kind of clingy lately for some reason, but I won't complain about it!  Max starts obedience school tomorrow morning and I'm thrilled!! I hope he learns some manners :)

- I'm loving that it's almost time for Thanksgiving!  We are meeting both of our parents in Georgia for Thanksgiving weekend, we're gonna stay in a cabin on a lake with all the dogs.  It'll be a blast.  

- I'm loving my latest Pinterest craft.  Have y'all been on Pinterest.  Don't.  It's addicting!  I got a styrofoam pumpkin at Michael's and a little puff paint and voila!!


- I'm loving my latest Weight Watcher creation.  Flatbread pizza for a total of 7 points!  You can put whatever you want on it, this one was turkey pepperoni and yellow peppers.  I've eaten this for lunch for the past 4 days, lol!


- I'm loving my hard working husband too! I really miss him today :(


10.17.2011

Fire in the Kitchen!

Oops, I did it again.  Burned up another potholder.

Let's start at the beginning.  I decided to make a "Sunday Dinner" of sorts and bought a whole chicken to cook.  So in a side story I'm reading the instructions and it says "Remove the giblets and neck and discard."

WHAT?!

So while gagging, I went at the "cavity" of my chicken with a pair of tongs and retrieved the giblets and immediately discarded them as ordered.  Next was the neck.  I quickly located the chicken neck and tried to pull it out with no luck.  I had to take several breaks because I didn't want to toss my cookies.  At long last, I realized that the neck was still attached so I just pretended it wasn't there and went about my business.

I got that beast in the oven and when my husband got home his first words were "Wow! It smells like Thanksgiving in here!"

The finished product :)

Fast forward a few minutes and I'm bringing some water to boil on the stove for some rice.  Baron and I are talking in the kitchen and then he yells "Woah!!" and pushing me out of the way.  I turn around and he's slapping a potholder against the stovetop.  Apparently I had left it on the stovetop and turned on the wrong burner to cook my rice.  Oops.  There was quite a bit of smoke and dripping plastic for the amount of damage that it did.

Oh well, there goes my I <3 Pyrex potholder.  It was getting dirty anyway.



My heart was still racing for a few minutes after the incident and Baron looked at me and said, "It's okay, everyone makes mistakes."

Haha!

10.15.2011

Weekend Photo Dump

Having a low-key weekend so far.  Last night we drove around one of the neighborhoods that we're interested in to see what it was like after dark.  Other than that we just hung out with the dogs at the house.




This morning we decided to drive to Lynchburg, Tennessee where the Jack Daniels Distillery is located.  They had a cute little town square where we walked around and had lunch before heading to the distillery.




A statue of Mr. Jack Daniels himself.

The plague on the statue, lol.

They give you "samples" at the end of the tour which tastes a
 lot like lemonade.  The whole distillery thing in a dry county is weird.

My husband standing next to a barrel of Jack Daniels
which also conveniently serves as a trashcan. Haha!

After a fun couple of hours at the distillery, we headed home and took the dogs to the dogpark to let them play and get some energy out before the Gator game tonight.  They are pooped now!





10.12.2011

What I'm Loving Wednesday



- I'm loving that we've succeeded in taking Max to the dog park for the first time and he did kill anybody!  I was nervous about taking him because anytime he sees a person or another dog while outside he barks like crazy and charges at them.  He's done great at the dog park and played with lots of other dogs.  I'd like to keep taking him pretty frequently because I feel like it's really good socialization for him.

Does anybody know what this is?  They're all over the place at the dog park and we had never seen anything like it before.



- I'm loving a kitchen in one of the houses we looked at.  It it huge and has a huge island and bar!  I think I'm in looooove :)  We're going back and forth about how many bedrooms we'll need.  Then do we need a study or a bonus room or none at all?!  It's hard to know what you'll need in the future!

- I'm loving that I've lost 17 pounds with Weight Watchers.  It hasn't been easy but it's been worth it.  Couldn't do it without my husband who is so helpful!  I'm starting to run out of recipes so it's time for some research.

- I'm loving these two goofballs:
Macey sunning herself...a daily activity

Max goes NUTS over apples.  He can't get enough!

- I'm loving that it's almost the weekend! If it's nice on Saturday Baron and I may go up to a little town in Tennessee and explore a little bit.  There's so much of this place that we haven't seen yet.

- I'm loving my husband and how he works so hard to make this transition to Alabama as easy as it can be on me and works hard for our little family.

Us with about 5 layers on in Alaska :)  Brrrrrr!
Happy Wednesday!!

10.07.2011

Root Canal

I survived my two hour drive down to Birmingham to get a root canal.  It was far easier than I expected but it's still a little sore.  The doctor I saw was wonderful and I think if I could have the option to get a root canal instead of doing laundry every week I'd be putting lots of miles on my car to Birmingham and back ;)

On the weekends we've continued to look at neighborhoods and model homes and are overwhelmed with information.  We are lucky that we aren't in any kind of hurry and the home prices here in Alabama are very low compared to other parts of the country.  Seems like every day we learn a little more about building a house.

In the past week or so I've submitted a couple of applications to various places around town.  No bites so far, but none of them were jobs that I was terribly excited about anyway. Praying that the right thing for my family comes along.

I finally remembered to get my camera out and upload the pics that I took while in Florida.  I only got the camera out once and took pics of the dogs.  Oops. 

3 BT's...can you handle it??
Max was just thrilled to have 2 new dogs to play with

Meet Cooper.  My parents got him a few months after I got Macey. 
They loved Macey's personality so much that they wanted a
Boston Terrier of their own. Let's just say Cooper is way different!

This is Duncan.  He's an almost 5 year old 1/2 Lab, 1/2 Poodle.  He's very sweet
but sometimes we think he was deprived of oxygen at birth.  Macey <3's him.

My sweet girl.  She just loved being at home with her Grandma. 
Much love!