A wedding and a funeral...

O.K. So funeral might be a little harsh...but a dream that I have had since childhood (one of my big adventures for this year) something I have been constantly thinking about for the last few weeks is officially over for me. I have been so excited about this huge adventure. A dream that I have had since I was a girl becoming a reality but over the weekend I came to the devestating solution that I was overextending myself and I was not at a point in my life to see it to completion. I am not saying my dream it dead, oh no, I have many hopes for this dream still. It is just at a stand still right now. There are times in your life when you have to make a huge decision, both options have their benifits and downsides, and when you reach these crossroads you cannot make the decision lightly as to which path to choose. I have struggled over this one these last few days, and finally realized that I had to take the route that at first glance was not the one I wanted. I am especially saddened by this decision because I am afriad I have disappointed people along the way. I HATE to disappoint anyone, but especially people I am close to! So that is why I feel that I should be wearing black and mourning for awhile, but I don't want to end on a sour note so on to better news...

The wedding! Keith, who is pictured below, (which I am sure he will hate me for posting but somehow it is the only shot I have of him! I need to work on actually taking my camera out of the camera bag and getting shots. I didn't aket one picture during the actual wedding!!) gave away his daughter on Saturday. It was a cute ceremony in the old theater in downtown Dallas and it was full of personality and spunk. I love a wedding to SCREAM who the couple is and I think this one did a great job at that!
(Jan was all smiles-too bad I didn't catch the picture when she was making a funny face-me and my slow camera hand-again...I need lots of practice with my skills!!)

(Kevin and I finally got a shot that worked-it took about 6 to get the flash to work and both be actually looking at the camera! Kevin kept looking away-what is it with guys and not wanting to get their picture taken?)

(Mom and dad-she wanted a new shot for her facebook page, I guess that means I am going to have to upload these for her!)

The same evening as the wedding, there was a car show in downtown Dallas, so we skipped out of the reception early-Kevin was one happy hubby-and walked around the car show. We got pictures next to our favorites.

(Mom and I next to one that reminded her of her Grandpa's when she was a girl!)

(Here is dad next to one he thought was nice!)

(Kev and I in front of the Shelby-which when looking through later he was so upset that you can't see the enitre car-dad took the picture for us and cut off the car because he was concentrating on us-at least it seems to be a pretty good shot of us so I still love the picture!)

(With my Mustang (although I want a blue one with white stripes) and yes that is a truck beside it that is on such jacked up wheels there is a ladder to get in with-you can tell we are in Paulding county!)

And last big news of the weekend! Kevin stayed super busy all day on Sunday putting together my kitchen floors. Praise the Lord it's a miracle-they went down and all we need to do now is put down the quarter round and seal the seams!! (After over three months of having them partially put down-I was going mad!!-it is such a relief and joy to have them nearly complete!)

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend full of happy moments and wonderful memories! Hopefully no one else had to make such a hard and heartbreaking decision, but if you did then remember to concentrate on the happy moments, because that's what is really important! If you remember-I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart...then everything else will pale in comparison to that love and joy and acceptence you feel!

It's 9:30 Emilee!!

That is what I woke up to this morning. My dear hubby announcing that we had overslept!! Thankfully, both our bosses were super understanding when we called them and explained that we had JUST WOKEN UP!!!

So how does something like that happen you ask? Well, it might have something to do with the fact that I worked the early shift yesterday, so I was up before 6AM and after a full day at work, some errands, a class at the gym, (I love my Wednesday class, but seem to miss if often so I was so happy to make it this week) and hiking up Kennesaw Mountain with one of my good friends Mary, I walked in the door a little before 9PM, grabbed a quick dinner and ran out the door again. (Which has to do with one of my big adventures for this year-no more details yet,-but don't worry I should be updating with more info soon.) I called Kevin to meet me around 11:30PM and we didn't get back home until around 1:30AM! We finally got to bed around 2:30 and Kevin set the alarm and we were out in a few minutes from exhaustion!

Apparently Kevin set both alarms (we have a duel alarm clock) for the same time, so when he hit the clock in the morning (obviously he hit off instead of snooze) there was no back-up alarm and he went back to sleep and we stayed asleep until almost 9:30!! I don't even normally sleep that late on the weekends-when I don't have an alarm clock to wake me-so I know we were spent and needed the sleep!

Camping!

Our camping weekend got cut a little short. After a busy week at work I was so excited about a weekend of camping, but due to the rain coming in we actually only stayed one night and I only read ONE chapter. (Normally I get a lot of reading done when camping, not so much this time!) 

Friday I took a long lunch and took Dad down to the High to see the terra cotta warriors exhibit since this is it's last weekend here in the ATL and we were going camping for the weekend. I got off a little early and threw a few things in a bag and some food in a cooler and we headed up to Red Top in Cartersville for a fun weekend of camping. And by camping I mean with our pop-up camper and on a site with water and electricity. I have never been a camper where all you have is a sleeping bag and some granola bars. That is survival training...I went camping! Mom had gone up earlier in the day and picked out a great spot (great views, yet still close enough to the bathrooms) and we set up the camper and cooked out on the open fire. I think that is one of my favorite parts about camping. The fire! (I think I could have pyro-maniac tendencies. There is something pretty cool about a campfire!) We took a walk around the campground and just enjoyed the cool, crisp and fresh air. I don't think I have ever been camping in the spring, we are summer and fall campers normally, but I really enjoyed it. It was nice to not be dying of heat as we set up the camper and worked around the fire, as you normally do in the summer, and it wasn't too cold like it can get in the fall so it was nearly perfect. Only issue was Kevin had a little trouble since it is still pollen season, but it seems to be nearly over and he took some allergy meds and was fine. 

Saturday morning mom and dad had to be somewhere so Kev and I slept in snuggled up in the warm camper since the morning air was so cold outside and then went for a hike after it had warmed up some. In the afternoon, Mom and Dad were back with Betsy and the boys for an afternoon and evening of hiking, more campfire building, hot dog & corn of the cob cooking and S'more making. The perfect camping experience. Then we read the weather report on Kevin's  phone. Oh the joys of the modern age, here we are camping and enjoying nature (Although, we still had easy access to electricity, water and the public restrooms, I've gone to the bathroom everywhere-literally I have been all over the world and in some horrible restrooms-but I still don't think I could do the go in the wild, or at least not very easily. I like a toilet, even if I do have to cover it with paper before I will get near it! I believe in a designated space for taking care of that sort of thing.) O.K. sorry for the rambling, back to the point...we saw the report of rain in the forecast, and lots of it. So we decided to cut our losses (we had paid for two nights) and go ahead and pack up tonight. The worst part about camping is taking everything back down again, especially in the rain! So we closed up camp and headed up to mom and dads for the night and just had a slumber party there instead! I have a few pictures on my camera but the best ones where on Betsy's camera and I am writing this on her computer so here are a few pictures from our weekend. 

Whirlwind weekend!

This weekend flew by, as usual, but we filled it up pretty full with family get togethers and fun!! I love a busy weekend because of all the fun you get to have, but then it can get overwhelming to come home to a big mess since you didn't have time to get anything done that you really needed to because you were having too much fun!! This weekend was a good mix of both!

I went over to Natalie's house after work on Friday and we watched Seven Pounds. (Super sad movie-a little slow-but really made you think...and CRY!!!) After the movie was over there were some major storms coming through and I didn't want to drive home in it so we played Wii Fit with her little brother and one of her sisters and before I left David and Madeleine (her dad and mom) came home and we were all playing. It was hilarious! I wish I would have had a video camera with me!!

Saturday I got some work done in my sewing room-which Kevin would say a made a big mess because right now there is fabric everywhere since I am trying to get it all washed and put into better order. I want to get my sewing room (which is our guest room) in better working order. (there is a hint about one of my adventures this year!) We met Betsy and Canaan (who were dropped off by one of her good friends, Mary, who was up here visiting) at Cumberland Mall and drove into Atlanta to see the Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit at the High Museum of Art. When we got there it was extremely crowded and we were informed that they were sold out of tickets for the day!!! I was pretty sad because I had been wanting to go to this for ages now and finally worked it out to make it there and now I wasn't going to be able to see it!!! Luckily there was a sales lady there promoting their membership and we could get in still (and without waiting in the long line) to see the exhibit!! Yeah!!! I don't know if it was really worth the $80 it was to join, but at least I got to see it, and we can go back anytime now within a year for free! (And really when it comes down to it, there is no price to high to pay for spending a wonderful evening with three of my favorite people!) (You can't take pictures inside, but we got some afterwards and during the rest of our evening.) We stayed until closing time at the High and then walked over to Peidmont park and ate dinner on the outside patio of Willy's right at the entrance to the park. It was so much fun. I really love going into the city and should do it more often! Dad came and picked up B&C at our house later that night and for some reason Kev & I were up forever, I can't really remember what we did but we didn't get to bed until after 3AM!

Betsy & I outside the Museum
Canaan & I in front of the High
Why we went...but we actually had time to see another exhibit and enjoyed it as well!!
On our walk through Atlanta Canaan was climbing on a garden wall in front of an office bldg! You can't see it very well because of the reflection, but there is a train in this office bldg lobby!
Some beautiful tulips in front on an apartment bldg-those of for you Kels!!

At the entrance to Peidmont Park
Canann's Burrito!
Some fellow diners! (Canaan really liked all the birds!)

This is actually an advertisement for the King Tut Exhibit (which we went to a couple weeks ago) but I love the contrast of the Egyption statue and the sky scraper being built behind it!

Easter Sunday we slept in and then I baked all morning while Kevin cleaned out the garage so we can get to the camper next weekend! I am so excited about camping! (We really are getting to be heathens!! We didn't even go to church on Easter Sunday!!) We drove over to Kevin's mom's house for Easter dinner with his and my family. It is so wonderful to live fairly close to both our families and that we all get along so well. We are really blessed!! We were a little late so we missed the egg hunt, but got to hang out by the lake with everyone until dinner was ready and get some great pictures of my wonderful nephews!! I actually ate some rolls and some of the carrot cake, since I made it and knew exactly what was in it, even though there were things in them that I don't eat on a regular basis, there wasn't anything too crazy and I drank a ton of water, and I thought, hey it's Easter and I want to eat something yummy!! (Wow! That is one long sentence-I am pretty sure it's a run-on. I am notorius for those!!!) So far no issues so we will see what happens with that, but maybe I can add a few more ingredients to my diet-who knows!!! (Please God let that be it! It was sooooo nice to eat some yummy rolls and cake with everyone!!)Somebody was tired still (he was woken up from a nap for the Easter egg hunt!)
Zion being protective of his "loot" from the Easter egg hunt!
Finally a smile from Zi when he got with big brother Mr. C.

Kroger-Right store, right price!

This post is for Carrie, Rachel and Betsy! Y'all will be proud! Although I didn't use any coupons-still can't get into the whole clipping coupon craze-at least I shopped at Kroger and I only bought things on sale!

I needed to pick up some butter and chicken (I saw they were on sale in Kroger's weekly flier.) and saw a few more items on sale while I was there.

I picked up:
1) 1.72 pounds of Zucchinni
2) one bag of Fritos
3) 3 packs of butter
4) 2.66 pounds of sweet potatoes
5) one package Philly Cream Cheese
6) 7 packages boneless/skinless chicken breasts (around 1 1/2 pounds each)

My receipt total was $75 something-then I gave them my Kroger card to scan and my new total was $32.54
My savings was...drum-roll please...$42.88

Awesome!!! I saved more than I spent! Woo-hoo!! Gotta love Kroger!!

Funny story!

My mom told me a funny story and I have to post it on here because I think it is hilarious!!

Mom said they discovered they have a little uninvited house guest right now. She discovered a hole chewed in the kitchen trash bag and some little droppings from this "squatter" and was talking about it with Canaan (my almost 6 year old nephew) who exclaimed that he and Papa (my dad) would need their swords! Mom didn't think much about it at this point, just thought it was cute that Canaan wanted to protect them, and was more distracted by the fact that they had a mouse in the house! Later when she was talking to my dad about this discovery she found out why Canaan said what he did. Apparently, there had been an uninvited house guest before and Dad and Canaan had used their play swords to take care of the situation. (Because that is what they had on them!) Canaan used his sword to make the mouse head in Dad's direction and dad promptly & repeatedly whacked the mouse with his sword when it got to him and that took care of the situation. I was nearly rolling with laughter as mom told me this story because I could just see my dad (skinny computer guy) and little nephew (who is a very sensitive and sweet little boy) going at it with this mouse and conquering!!! What a funny story!!

Oh, and I feel I must say, so that there is no disappointment, I am NOT pregnant. Although that is the ULTIMATE adventure that I REALLY want to take on-parenthood-that is not one of the big adventures that are currently in the works for this year. But, no more hints-that is all I will say at the moment.

Easter Egg Hunt and other events of my weekend

My weekend was mainly consumed with our neighborhood's annual Easter Egg Hunt. I am the Chair of our Social Committee (Which translates to the sucker who gets to do all the work-but the reality is I like it when an event is successful because I get a feeling of accomplishment and love that I helped bring a smile to someone's face!) so Friday I got off of work early to finish up with the prep work for our event. I did a final run to Walmart for some drinks, ice, chips and more candy and then baked & frosted 95 cupcakes (well, I baked 96, but lost one to the floor when I was transfering from the pans to cool) my small kitchen was a cupcake land!! I also stuffed 500 eggs with candy. (I had already bought all the ingredients for the cupcakes and the plastic eggs, candy, etc. on an earlier Walmart run.) Luckily I have a wonderful husband who put off his movie plans (had to see the new Fast & Furious) so I could stay home and get all the egg stuffing and cupcake frosting done while watching t.v. (until after 1AM!) I did have fun seeing them all laid out all over my coffee table frosted and all Easter/Spring-like looking! (Oh yeah, also had to get reminder signs up because I had forgotten to get them earlier in the week-but it had rained all week anyhow and would have just been ruined!-Luckily I got the code to the pool this time, when I went to check on what supplies we had Kevin had to help me jump the fence and I think I nearly saw my life flash before my eyes because I thought I was going to fall flat on my face at one point!!)

Saturday Kevin helped me get everything set up and all the eggs hidden, which there really aren't many hiding places so they were really just thrown all over the commons area! I got a few minutes to talk to Kelsey on Skype (I LOVE SKYPE!!!) and then watched the adorable neighborhood kids have the Easter Egg Hunt. We had an alright turn-out. Not as many as last year, but I did meet a new neighbor and her two cute little girls and got a few pictures for our neighborhood website of the event, so overall I would say it was successful! After cleaning up I took a nap and then Kev & I went to the movies. Although we have surround sound and it is basically like a theater in our own house, going out to the movies is still always fun! (Which reminds me-we had mom & dad over on Thursday night for their 32nd anniversary to watch Slumdog Millionaire and loved it! I love movies about India. I miss it so much sometimes. I can't remember if I wrote this before or not, but the funniest things remind me of India-like when I cleaned out our vaccuum filter last weekend and dust was EVERYWHERE and when I blew my nose it was black and I missed India!!)

Sunday I put together the quilt back and sadly it is too small so now I am goint to have to try to come up with a way to extend it so that it can still work for a quilt back!! Now it is Monday and back to the swing of the work-week schedule! Several big plans were started over the weekend (or set into motion-they had already been started) nothing is set in stone yet, will elaborate more when I know more, but let me just say I am going to be REALLY BUSY with a new adventure and hopefully have an experience of a lifetime with a completely different adventure all this year! (Lord willing all will go well, just pray for wisdom, patience and endurance!!)

These are a few of my favorite things....

So I kept busy over the weekend and actually did get around to cleaning the house (just the basics, I will have to do the deep Spring cleaning this weekend) and got some sewing done. I finished a quilt top I started ages ago with some Debbie Mumm fabric Patty Brown gave me forever ago, (I was dying for some sewing after spending so much time crocheting lately-I love to crochet, but I was missing my sewing!!) and after reading about an "easy" pattern (LOVE the fabrics-I could really do some damage to my credit with all the lovely fabrics I have found online recently-luckily I am very much a Binkley and I haven't spent a cent!!) on a wonderful sewing blog I found recently I decided I would use that for the back. Why oh why do I LOVE to make everything more difficult then it has to be?!? It is an easy pattern, but why did I feel compelled to do a pattern on the back-I have always done a simple plain backing, maybe use a fun fabric, but always plain quick and easy! So, I have been working on it in my spare time since this weekend and I only have the first few steps done. I cut the strips, sewed them together, cut the sewed strips into squares, and laid it all out on the floor to be sure there was enough (still keeping my fingers crossed on that one, once the squares are all sewn together we will see if it will work!!) I actually had enough fabric that I could have just made ONE seam and been fine. Oh well, it will all be worth it in the end right?



A picture of the the pieced together quilt top (I haven't decided on a name yet)


A close up of one of the sunflower sqares

A picture of all the squares for my backing laid out on the office floor waiting to be put together (which I should have done tonight but decided to write on here instead!)

Also, big news...I went to the gym tonight!! It's a miracle!!! I cannot remember the last time I went! I have become a lazy bum, but my buddha belly is not doing me any good, so it was to the gym for me and it was great! (Exhusting, but great!)

O.K. so on to the reason why I had to write a post tonight. (and the inspiration for my post title) I was shopping at one of my favorite stores (surprisingly not Super Target, although that is a fav as well) and saw a book that made me stop dead in my tracks. This book immediately made me think of my older sister.



First: It's a book, if you know my sister at all you know she LOVES books and is THE fastest reader I know. -If you have any doubts just read her latest post!-That girl is crazy!!-



Second: the first part of it's title read Pride and Prejudice...(all of us Binkley girls are in love with all things Jane Austen.)



Third: This is where you kinda want to throw up because it is sooooo wrong, but it still made me think of my sister because it is another one of her favorite things! The rest of the title is as follows (I am not making this up) ...and ZOMBIES!!!!

What? Why? Who? Why did this book get written, and once it was written who thought it would be a good idea to publish it!?!?! This is all going through my mind as I stare at the horrible front cover. Finally I realize I HAVE to pick it up and see what this is all about. I almost grabbed it and ran to the counter to purchase it. I mean it is April Fools day, and I do love a good gag gift, (I even had a 25% off coupon with me) but I just couldn't do it! (BTW, if you are reading this Betsy and you would like it, let me know by tomorrow because that is when my coupon expires!) So I quickly exited the building before I grabbed it again. I mean, this is horrible, right? Yet...as I was driving home I wondered if I made the right decision when I left the building without it. Why am I drawn to something this wrong!?! Why do I kinda want to read it myself? What is wrong with me?!??!