relief

Well, we've come to our decision about the job. We decided to pass on it. We ultimately felt like this wasn't the right time or right job for us to move for. We are saddened because we liked the idea of moving somewhere new, but know in the end that it is for the best we stay. The company understood, but said to call them in a few months and see if they have any open positions because they really like Chip. So that is encouraging.

I am relieved I can now focus on other things - like the fact that Christmas is only a week and a half away and I don't have any gifts for anyone! Guess what I'll be doing this Saturday...

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us and has heard us out lately. We have been blessed with wonderful, caring friends. We love you all! :)

a fork in the road

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. Life has been busy lately with holiday parties, baby showers, trips here and there and visits with family.

Funny story - we went to Bonifay yesterday to visit Chip's family and spend time with his aunt who was in town. Chip's family owns 14 acres of land and have a horse. We were outside trying to get a picture of me, Chip and Frank for our Christmas card when Frank trotted out under the barbed wired fence into the pasture. He was sniffing around and found a large pile of horse manure and proceeded to roll in it! His expression was priceless -it was like he was blissfully happy rolling in crap! Luckily it was dried horse poop, so he just ended up smelling really bad. I couldn't believe he did that. What a gross dog :) He got a bath as soon as we got home! Here is one of the pictures we got. It is so hard to get a dog to cooperate for a picture!




Anyways, life has been full of confusion lately. Long story short, a few weeks ago Chip met some guys in a training class he went to in CA. They had several conversations about work (they do similar things) and it was mentioned that the guys had an opening at their job in Huntsville and told Chip if he was interested he could send them his resume. So he sent his resume when he got back home and got a phone call a few days later. He got asked to come up to Huntsville for an interview. I decided to go with him because I have never been to Huntsville, wanted to see a place I could possibly end up calling home, and because I NEVER turn down a free trip. So we went up there right after Thanksgiving. Chip thought the interview went well, and the company must have agreed because they offered him the job 4 days later. Now we have to give them a decision...by this Tuesday. One may think it would be an easy decision, but it isn't. There are a lot of details to consider - which we have mulled over a million times. I won't go into them all because I don't feel like rehashing them for the thousandth time. There are several good reasons to go and several to stay put in Niceville. We just have to decide which are more important. So anyways...please pray for us. This is a big decision to pack up and move away and leave our life here behind for a new one. It is an exciting and scary prospect. I know we will not have a "ah ha" moment when the clouds part and the answer to what we should do is clearly laid out. We just have to trust God's will in this all and know that He is with us every step of the way.

I'll keep you posted as to what happens. If we do take this job, we'd move right after Christmas - so scarily soon. Thanks to everyone who has heard me out lately and given us advice and support. It means a lot. :) Hope every is doing well and getting excited that Christmas is just around the corner!

give thanks

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all have had a wonderful day counting your blessings, spending time with friends and family, and of course, enjoying a good meal.

This was me and Chip's first Thanksgiving where we cooked the meal. Since my parents live so far away now and Chip's family spent Thanksgiving with their daughter in Naples, we decided to have Thanksgiving at our house with Chip's other sister Candi and our friends Mark & Emma. We were intimidated at first since we were doing all of the cooking, but in the end it came out well and was actually fun. We had turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, mac & cheese, rolls, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, and some double chocolate gooey butter cake (courtesy of our friend Emma & a Paula Deen recipe). Everything tasted good!

I also watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I have watched that parade every Thanksgiving for as long as I can remember! I always look forward to seeing the old-timey looking turkey float at the beginning and Santa at the end.

Here are some pictures of our Thanksgiving meal. I look forward to making it again next year. Hope you all have a great day!

vote for frank!

I entered Frank into our local newspaper's "Best Pet" contest because, in my humble opinion, Frank is the best pet. He is very sweet and cute and loves everyone! Here are a few pictures to encourage you to cast your vote for Frank.

To vote go to http://www.nwfdailynews.com/bestpet/vote/?page=6 scroll down and look for Frank. His name and my name are there to identify him.

Feel free to vote as many times as you'd like. I know Frank won't win due to some problems the site has had with cheating already (several people used a program that would automatically vote for their pet - like 16,000 votes in 5 hours), but it is still fun to see how many votes he can get. Thanks for your help :)

ooh...scary

Happy post-Halloween! Sorry I haven't written in a while. I have been busy planning and throwing baby showers, a costume party, and now a dinner party. I should start my own business!

One of the parties I hosted was a costume party that was last Saturday. Chip and I procrastinated till the day of the party on our costumes, so we ended up with this...

What are we, you ask. Well...we never really quite figured that out either. We aren't goth, we're not bikers. I guess we are "Miami Inkers". We're not portraying characters on the show per se, just people who might be customers on the show. All we did was spray Chip's hair black and buy one of those tattoo sleeves for his arm. Basically it is pantyhose with fake tattoos on it. It is pretty clever. For my look I put on a black wig, slapped on some faux eyelashes and went to town with some black eye liner. Not the most original. Oh well, we can't win the costume contest every year!

Well...that's about all that is new and exciting with me! Hope you all are doing well :)

real classy

Today after church I went out to lunch with some of my girl friends from church (all of our husbands are out of town either on a business trip, a youth retreat, or deployed). We went to the Ruby Tuesday in Niceville. It was fairly busy from the post-church lunch crowd. As we were sitting there enjoying our lunches I glanced over to another table to see a guy sit down. I got an eyeful of his t-shirt and my eyes bugged out! This guy was wearing a t-shirt that said "No, I'm not a gynecologist, but I'll have a look". Wow! And to make matters worse he was sitting at a table with his wife and 2 kids!!!! This is wrong on so many levels - where do I even begin?!

Do I blame him for buying such a distasteful t-shirt and proceeding to wear it out in public? Or do I blame him for subjecting his children (both of which, thank God, looked too young to be able to read yet) to having to look at him in that t-shirt?

No, I think I will blame his wife. What wife would A) let her husband buy a shirt that said that and B) let him wear it when they went out to lunch in a public restaurant and C) wear that in front of their children??? I mean, come on! If I were her I'd slap him and then take the shirt and burn it! But, then again, she willingly left the house with him in that shirt so I guess she doesn't care or maybe even finds it funny. I know no one at our table found it comical.

tim tam slam

The other day Chip and I were shopping in the World Market in Pensacola when Bethany called. She and I started discussing all of the tasty sounding international foods they had available when she mentioned they sell Tim Tams. I just happened to be on the very aisle they were on. Tim Tams are actually called Arnott's now (the company was sold a few years ago). Tim Tams (Arnott's) are a chocolate dipped sandwich cookie Bethany brought back from Australia. Apparently these are real big there.

There is a certain way to eat them that is referred to as the Tim Tam Slam. Basically you bite the ends of both sides of the cookie off and dip it in a hot drink (we used hot chocolate, but coffee would work) and suck on it like a straw. The hot chocolate comes through the cookie and melts the chocolate. You then eat the warm cookie...mmmm.

About 7 years ago I tried the Tim Tam Slam when FSU's BCM had its annual Laguna Beach retreat. It didn't go so well for me! I slammed with some nuclear hot chocolate and burnt the crap out of my tongue. I didn't get to enjoy my cookie because my tongue was burnt and I couldn't taste it. Bethany ran out of Tim Tams and I never got to try it again. So years later I wanted, no needed, to redeem myself. I bought a pack of Tim Tams (Arnott's) and set out to slam the right and safe way.

Chip made some hot chocolate and I explained to him how to slam. He is new to the whole process. I proceed to bite the ends off and dip the cookie in the hot chocolate. I suck up the cocoa and it didn't burn my tongue! Success! I then ate my melty cookie. It was really good! Here are some pictures of the process.

If you are ever in a World Market I suggest you pick up a pack of Arnott's and try the Tim Tam Slam. It is really good! Thanks for reminding me Bethany! It was good to remember some old, funny memories again! :)

roll tribe!

Ok, sorry it took me all week to post pictures from the FSU/AL game. Joel McAllister took the pictures on his camera and it took him a few days to send them to us because he went on vacation. Here are some of them.

The game was pretty cool. FSU and Alabama have a pretty strong fan base, so there was some good natured competition between fans. Alabama fans would shout to each other "Roll Tide" and FSU fans would shout "F-S-U" or do the warchant. Chip, Joel and Kristine all had matching "Roll Tribe" shirts - that was the game day t-shirt with FSU's spin on "Roll Tide". Clever, clever.

The game started off pretty boring. Nothing really exciting happened until the 4th quarter. Pretty much people were getting trashed since the game was not very interesting. The stadium was selling beer and hard liquor. There was a guy so drunk in front of us (not only was he buying beer, but he also had 2 flasks in his pockets!) that by the end of the 3rd quarter we saw him vomit into the aisle in front of him. Then of course, he began to drink again. Real smart!

Luckily the game got better after that. FSU pulled away from Bama and ultimately won (for those of you who didn't know - shame on you!)

After the game we met up with Curtis & Robin Cooper at O'Charley's. It was good to catch up with them. We hadn't seen them in a little over a year. We all caught up on life and then stood around and shared pictures of our pets. :)

The rest of the weekend we hung out with Austin & Ashley Henkel. It was great to see them again. We miss them so much since they moved to Jax. We all had a good time together living it up for Chip's 28th birthday. Chip wanted to eat at Sonny's BBQ, so we did. We pigged out on pulled pork and crinkle cut fries...not bad. We then went to Dave and Buster's (the equivalent of an adult Chuck E. Cheese) and played some games. I played one game and somehow won 300 tickets! Ashley witnessed my sweet redemption. :) It was a good time.

Here is a picture of Austin we took at a store in Jacksonville. Thanks for being great hosts Henkels! We miss you guys already!

As I promised, we stopped at Au Peche Mignon on the way to Jacksonville. It was as delicious as I remember. Mmm!

All in all it was a great weekend full of fun with a bunch of good friends. It was great to see everyone again! Happy Birthday Chip! I hope it was a good one! :) Love you!

subscription is free and easy!

If you like what you have read in my blog so far and hate to be bothered having to remember to actually check for updates, you can subscribe to my blog and have it conveniently sent to your email for FREE! This isn't some great thing I have come up with - it is just a feature of the blogspot. On the very bottom of the page there is a link that says "Subscribe to: posts". Just click on that and follow the instructions and you'll be good to go. Then you will be sure to know all the juicy details of my very exciting life ;) Wow, you'd better get a rag to wipe the sarcasm off the desk!

I appreciate everyone who was left comments! It is fun to see what people have to say and hear from old friends. Keep 'em coming! Just so you know when you post a comment it will not show up on the blog immediately. The comment is sent to my email and after I approve it, it will be posted. I have chosen to moderate my comments since anyone is allowed to view and comment on my blog. I am trying to prevent spammers from leaving inappropriate messages on my blog.


Anywho...I am very excited to leave tomorrow to go to Jacksonville for the FSU game. I'm sure the game will be fun, but it will be really nice to see our friends Austin & Ashley and Joel & Kristine. I enjoy getting to catch up with everyone. I'll post pictures of our weekend on Monday for all of you eager readers. I am really looking forward to stopping in Tallahassee for some Au Peche Mignon - the most wonderful place on earth! It is a french pastry shop that makes the MOST wonderful individual sized desserts short of being in Paris (I can't actually back that up because I've never actually been to Paris)! I can't name a favorite treat because I love just about everything I have eaten there. If you are ever passing through Tallahassee you must go - you won't regret it.



Oh, here is a picture of my hair for those who asked. I guess it isn't that "exciting" looking, but you just had to have seen the mess it was before I got it done. Note Frank's expression in the picture - how funny!

Peace out, it's time for dinner!

why didn't someone tell me?

Ok, why didn't someone tell me my hair looked HORRIBLE?! It was only overgrown and like 6 colors - literally. I got my hair highlighted about 3 months ago and it was a little blond. Needless to say 3 months later it looked a little skunky - black looking roots, bleached out blond streaks and chunks, and an overall reddish appearance everywhere else. Part of this disaster is my fault for waiting too long between haircuts, but someone should have politely told me to fix it. So anyways, I did today. I got my hair dyed back to a shade near my natural color (mousy blond/brown for those of you who have never actually seen it - my husband included!) and some SUBTLE highlights put in. The highlights aren't to stand out, but to add dimension. I think my hair looks a million times better! Plus the ratty dried ends got cut off. I wouldn't be surprised if I got a promotion at work, a starring role in a movie, or a free trip to Paris! Ha, dream on me! Good looking hair can make a person's self confidence improve.

I just got finished baking a cake for my co-worker's birthday tomorrow. I made a recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. It is called "Busy Day Cake with Broiled Coconut Topping". Overall it was really easy and looks like it should be pretty tasty. I made some cookies from a recipe in that book the other day - Chocolate crinkles - they were a big hit! Sure beats break and bake or a brownie mix! It really wasn't that difficult or time consuming and it shows I care enough to take the time to make something from scratch. I guess watching all of that Food Network has paid off! I do enjoy cooking and trying out new recipes...it is just hard to find the time to do it.

Anyways - that's all for now. I've got to go order some flea meds for Frank. What an exciting life I lead! :)

surprise!

I got a surprise at work today. A special delivery just for me - flowers! They were from Chip...how sweet :) He is in Albuquerque, NM for the next few days at some meetings at Los Alamos National Laboratories. He arranged for these flowers to be delivered to me today. The note was even in his own handwriting - so he actually took the time to drive to the florist to buy them before he left. What a guy! I have been blessed with a truly thoughtful husband. It'll be nice to have him home on Wednesday afternoon. Frank has been super clingy and whiney since he's left!

I saw FSU won the other day. It wasn't televised here so I didn't actually see it, but I hear it still wasn't that pretty. It could be worse - we could have lost to USF like Auburn did. How embarrassing!

I signed up for the Blockbuster Online DVD rental thing and I've got to say I enjoy it. It is nice to make a list of movies and have them sent to your house. I'm lazy and never think to go to the video store, so this is great for me. Plus it is fairly cheap depending on the plan you pick. It is about the cost of one ticket at the movie theater for a month full of movies...not bad. I'm sure you all have signed up for this already and are laughing at me that I just got on the bandwagon. I'm a little slow to get on board with these things...I have good intentions, I just never seem to follow through with them.

Well, that's all that is new with me!

It could have been worse

FSU didn't get trounced...completely. I'll admit it was quite embarrassing the first quarter, ok make that half. We couldn't do anything right! I was about to throw out Frank's FSU t-shirt. Yes, I did say Frank's FSU t-shirt. I know, I know I broke the cardinal rule I set for myself that I would never put my pet in clothing. I promise this is the only item of clothing he will EVER own. You've got to admit he looks pretty dapper. Though someone really needs to make dog clothes for long dogs! Poor wiener dog's wearing a belly shirt!

At least the game got better the second half. The coaches must have cracked some skulls during half-time because the boys came out and at least showed some glimpse of promise. The last half of the game was actually exciting. For a moment there they had me fooled that they might actually pull off a victory. I guess I'll hold off giving away our tickets to the FSU/AL game that is in a few weeks. It is Chip's birthday gift, so I guess he should ultimately decide. Besides, the game is in Jacksonville so that means we get to see our friends Austin and Ashley...that is a plus! We miss them a lot, so any reason to make a trek over to the other side of the state is fine by me. I'm always up for a road trip.

Moving on...

Work was so frustrating today! My computer was acting up - freezing and running painfully slow. I also haven't been able to print in like 5 days. I've let our IT department know (many times), but they don't seem to concerned with getting it fixed anytime this century. So needless to say I didn't get a whole lot accomplished today :( I already need another vacation! Hmm...where to next?

I'm open to suggestions :)

Allow myself to re-introduce...myself

Ok, so I've finally joined the world of blogging. I figure it is a good way to keep in touch with people - especially those friends who live far away(as long as I actually update this thing every now and again.)

For those of you I haven't talked to in a long time, here is a quick update:

I currently live in Niceville, FL (a small town halfway between Pensacola and Panama City Beach) with my sweet husband Chip. We have been married for a little over 3 years now. We met at FSU about 5 years ago. Chip is a mechanical engineer with the US Air Force. He works on warhead design. I work in marketing at Okaloosa-Walton College/Mattie Kelly Arts Center.



We do not have any children at this point. Eventually we will start a family, but for now it is just us and our super cute dachshund, Frank. We've had Frank for about 4 months now. He is great practice for when we have kids one day. Judging by the fact he is still alive and likes us, I think we may be able to handle kids.

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We're very excited college football is starting back up today! I have to admit I am a bit nervous about the FSU game. Last year was terrible! Of course the one game we went to last year was the shutout against Wake Forrest :( At least we were able to go up into the skybox and drown our sorrows in the never-ending buffet. Since Jeff Bowden is no longer the offensive coordinator, we may do better. I feel like I could have called better plays...don't hold me to that!

I recently was in Austin, TX visiting Ben, Bethany and Violet Morrison. It was nice to finally meet Violet. She is a cutie! It was a good visit - full of eating, seeing new places, and laughter (how it always is when Bethany and I get together). I had a great time and can't wait to see the Morrisons again.

We were in Whole Foods one evening and came across this very strange fruit. I have no idea what it is called or where they grow it, but it sure did make us laugh!

Well, I think that will end my first entry. Hope everyone hasn't fallen asleep at the keyboard yet. Until next time...