Year In Review...

Well... after starting this year in review journey, I realized that I didn't have large amounts of pictures of anything besides the ice storm... so here are some small snippets...

In early spring, Drew told me that he was going to do a triathlon because he needed to get into shape. Obviously, I was skeptical. I wasn't skeptical because I didn't think he could do it, I was skeptical because I wasn't sure that he would want to put all the effort into it that it would require. I was wrong. He did his first triathlon in early June and then did another in September. Both of these triathlons were sprint distance but he has signed up for an Olympic distance triathlon in Nashville next summer. I should also add that his goal to get in shape resulted in losing 25 pounds, so apparently it worked!

I also learned this summer that I could garden... At least a little bit. We grew 3 regular tomato plants and 1 cherry tomato plant, as well as cucumbers and a bell pepper plant. It was so fun to eat food that we had grown, plus they tasted amazing! My tomatoes took for ever to actually ripen because of the weird weather that we had but we were lucky enough to have lots to eat and lots to give away. I also planted lots of flowers around the house.

My birthday is in July, so we of course had friends over and hung out by the pool. Miraculously, it didn't rain that day... I think it poured that night but we didn't have rain on my birthday. We are lucky to have great friends.

Well, that is all for now... We are heading over to some friends for NYE, but tomorrow I'll try to get a post put together about the biggest event of our summer, our trip to Florida!

I hope that you all have a great NYE and I'll talk to you tomorrow!

Saved from ourselves...

Well, I'm writing this message to you thinking that we might have just experienced some Divine Intervention. Our realtor (who happens to be Drew's cousin and the other half of "Treasuring the Little Things") just called and said that we can't go look at the house this afternoon because it has been leased. Now, I am sad... but I'm also relieved. Buying that house would definitely postponed things that we have planned for the next year or so (think babies...).

Anyway, half day for me today so more to come after lunch :)

I think we're visiting the funny farm...

Well, here we go again... It seems like every time we have things figured out we decide its a good time to do something crazy.

Before we got married, we decided that we needed to buy a house. Not just any house, we thought we needed a house that we could try and make some money on, so we looked for a house that needed some improvements. We found our house and thought it was perfect. Our house was 30 years old and everything inside was pretty much original. One of these days, I'll have to post pictures. You just can't imagine. I'm talking orange shag carpet, wood paneling, horrible wall paper, horrible linoleum floor, everything. I mean, it was bad. We took a month and gutted it. All of October, we worked on that house and Drew moved in on Halloween. Its been a work in progress ever since but we are close to the end of the tunnel and its great! I really don't want to know how much money we have in our house. I'd just rather not know.

Anyway, now for the present. Drew e-mailed me a house listing yesterday and said "check this out". It is a 2800 square foot house sitting on acreage (not much, but enough) with a small horse barn. It is not outrageously priced and is in a great area of the county. It is the kind of house that we could stay in for a while. It does need a little updating (from what I can see in pictures) but looks extremely livable. So anyway, we are going to look at it on Thursday.

I'm NOT getting my hopes up and truthfully it makes me nervous. We are very comfortable now and that's a lot to bite off. On the other hand, I know that we would survive. It wouldn't be fun until we sold our house but we've talked about it before and think that's very doable. Our house is in the official "starter home" category and those are always in demand here in BG. It is also very much move in ready (thanks to all our work).

So that's our deal. Stay tuned. Oh and thanks for letting me spill my guts, I really just needed to write all that down.

Christmas Eve :)

Hello Blogger Friends!

I hope that you are having a fun and festive Christmas Eve. Here in WKY, the wind is blowing and its getting colder but we're having a great day. I had to take Scooter to the vet this morning and get her a rabies shot and a distemper shot so she's not having a great day but I think its getting better for her!

I am procrastinating taking a shower for as long as possible even though Drew just called and said that he's on his way. I'll be glad to see him because its been almost a week! We don't have to be anywhere until 3 so I figure that I'm safe. At 3 we will be heading to my grandparents house for dinner with my dad's siblings and all my cousins. There are 5 of the original children and 7 grand kids (plus the addition of a few spouses/fiance's). It is always fun. The kids always eat out on the porch and the parents eat inside :)

After that we will be headed to Drew's hometown for Christmas with his family. Then we will come back to my mom & dad's house for the night. Tomorrow morning we will get up and do everything all over again. It makes for a busy time, but its fun.

I just wanted to add in here that this Christmas I feel so blessed to live the life that I live. I know that it is not always perfect but I am very fortunate for everything that I have. I hope that all of you, my blogger friends, have a fantastic Christmas and that you feel as blessed as I do!

Merry Christmas!

2009 Year in Review - February Ice Storm

2009 Year In Review:

Ok... so if you live anywhere close to where I live you probably hated the month of February. February is usually a good month (my mom's birthday, my wedding anniversary, Valentine's day, The Farm Machinery Show - my brother would include that, etc) but this year it really sucked. This year Western Kentucky got ice (BG didn't really, but WKY definitely did). That morning (not sure what day, maybe Tuesday??) I woke up and Mom called... Did we have power? YES. DID SHE? Nope... I ASKED HER WHEN SHE THOUGHT THEY'D GET IT BACK... Her response: Not for a long time... She saw the glow of transformers blowing out her bedroom window. AWESOME.

So I went to work and went on with my happy business until I discovered that my cell phone wasn't working and none of the land lines in WKY were working. We were out of contact until Thursday. (I need to add... Drew's parents live about 25 miles from mine in the next county over and we couldn't contact them either.) We were freaking out. We had decided that if we didn't hear from them by Friday we would go home and make sure that they were all ok.

We finally heard from them and Drew decided he needed to go home and take care of his mom. His dad works for Texas Gas and due to the power outage he was working crazy shifts to try and keep everything running leaving his mom to take care of herself. They were also without power and couldn't get out of their drive way (which is 1/4 mile long) and vehicles could not get down their road.

My parents decided to come to BG along with my grandmother, an aunt, uncle, and a cousin because they couldn't take showers and needed to wash clothes. They also needed to buy supplies since everything in Mad-Vegas was closed (Wal Mart, Lowes, gas stations... everything). They came on Friday and I ended up going back with them to help clean up the mess.

This is the mess in pictures...

Hanson Hill... Check out the power lines coated in ice.

If you look close, that brick house in my Mamaw & Papaw's....

More at Mamaw & Papaw's... Check out the trees that have all the branches snapped in half. All the trees STILL look like this.

Making the best of it :) Me & my brother having a huge time. We are lucky to have had four wheelers, two tractors, and a back hoe to help clean up. My papaw also has a multitude of chain saws that were used. By the end of this day, we had to stop working outside because everything started to melt and CHUNKS of ice were hitting us in the head. NOT COOL!

My pasture (the barn is on the top left). More broken trees.

This big cedar tree is right beside my house. As you can see, the ice basically ripped it to shreds. Mom always wanted to call our place "Three Cedar Farm" because there were three enormous (taller than the house) cedar trees that lined up beside it. Two of them looked like this and Dad cut them down about a month ago. It was sad.

You know its bad when FEMA comes to visit.

Well guys, that's the ice storm. Well not really, but those are some pictures. Mine and Drew's parents ended up not having power for 2 weeks. It was crazy. We have been working on refencing our whole property because of all the damage that was done by the ice. Luckily, we didn't have any real damage to our homes. There were several houses that burned down during this because of propane heaters. It was a very sad time but it was also nice because it showed what a great community we lived in. Everybody definitely had to take care of their neighbors.

Oh, one more thing: Good Morning America actually broadcasted from Madisonville during the ice storm... I told Mom and she was so sad that she couldn't see it!!!!

WOW!!!! Blog Award #2!

WOW! I'm so excited :) I have officially received blog award #2! Thank you so much to Erin at Kentucky Newlyweds for finding my blog "Glamorous"! That is very exciting. I actually think that Erin is very glamorous... She has a beautiful house and always looks very pretty and put together. Her aunt lives across the street from my parents house and I know that her whole family is very excited about Baby Tyson who should make his debut after the first of the year!

I would like to pass this Glamorous Blog Award to...

1. Life is Bananas
2. Jenna's Jargon
3. A Beautiful Mess
4. Treasuring the Little Things
5. The Life of Me
   

I hope that you all have a great night... I'm going to try and do a "Year In Review" series of posts in the next week. I think that I will start on it tonight and see if it actually makes sense!!! HAHA! Have a great evening and an awesome Tuesday!

Christmas Decorations...

Good Evening Blogger Friends,

I am writing this message to night from Western Kentucky because I'm here spending the week of Christmas with my parents. I'm very excited to say that I hoarded enough vacation days to take off this week even though I'm sad becausee my Drewby volunteered to work. I am hoping to have a restful week and do a little shopping. I am excited about shopping because I don't have to buy any gifts, I get to buy lots of stuff for me! My work wardrobe is looking a little shabby and not fitting me quite as well as it was when I bought it. I'm proud to say that my clothes are actually too big which is always positive.

My restful week doesn't get to start until after tomorrow. Tomorrow morning (barring icy roads, which I would say is possible) we are leaving at 6 to take my grandmother back to Atlanta. It is a 6 hour drive one way so we'll be spending the whole day in the car. NOT FUN. I do have some trusty reading material (Quarter Horse Journal & Dear John by Nicholas Sparks) though and I'm hoping to spend a good chunk of the morning asleep in the back seat!

Anyway, I haven't posted any pictures of my Christmas decorations so I thought that I'd do that tonight...

This is our little tree... I have a silly thing about having a Christmas tree that can be seen from the road and since our big one can't, we have this little one...

Our big Christmas tree... I say big, but we only have 8 foot ceilings so its definitely not that big :) I like it though!

Our mantle...

Our house is pretty simple. We didn't even put up any Christmas lights outside this year. We have really just been too busy. Anyway, I guess I'd better get to bed seeing as I will be car-riding in about 7 hours. YIKES.

Good night!

Happy 101

Wow! Keeping Up With The Davidsons has given me my first blogger award! I am so excited :)

Here is the scoop:

The Rules:

1. 10 things that make me happy
2. 5 bloggers that Brighten your day!

10 Things That Make Me Happy:

1. My hubby
2. My family
3. My friends
4. Scooter... I can't lie, she is my constant source of happiness!
5. The fact that the sun is shining today!
6. Food - I l-o-v-e food...
7. Ponies - really these should be at the top of the list!
8. Music - I love having the radio on. Its always on when I'm at work because the silence would make me crazy
9. Crashing on the couch infront of the fire with a blanket and DVR'ed tv.
10. Travelling

5 Bloggers That Brighten My Day:

1. http://awfulbeautifulmess.blogspot.com/ - my future sister-in-law
2. http://blakeandbritt.blogspot.com/
3. http://kentuckynewlyweds.blogspot.com/
4. http://bisforbrown.blogspot.com/
5. http://lifeonthecircletranch.blogspot.com/

Have a great day!

The last couple weeks in pictures...

Hey Guys,

The temptation to plug my camera up into my work computer has become too much to handle so I thought I'd give it a try. I believe that it will work :) We are having our work Christmas party this afternoon so I thought I'd go ahead and post them... Anyway, here's a short post of mostly pictures...

Mom's Christmas Tree

Scooter trying to behave herself while I put Mom's tree up (for the 2nd time...)

The picture that we sent out in our Christmas cards... Max, Me, Drewby, & Scoot

Our truck, before it was actually ours...

Sweeties from the bank Christmas party...

Anyway, I guess I'd better head down stairs... I hope you all have a great night!

withdrawal...

Well guys,

This no computer nonsense is getting really old. I mean, I think I'm going through withdrawal. Like I have said a million times, I have so many pictures on my camera that are just dying to be posted, but I can't do it because my stinking computer is DEAD. I am waiting for a back up disk to get here from Gateway and then maybe it can be revived. We'll hope at least!

Funny thing though, I am about to play staff photographer for a bunch of kindergartners who are coming to the bank. Every year we host the a Christmas party for a low income school here in BG. These kids are so cute. We have a staff member who plays Santa and these children are all given snacks and a small gift. Usually there are only about 45 but this year the class has doubled to almost 90. Needless to say we had to break the party up into two days. It is very fun and yet another thing that makes me very proud of where I work...

Oh well, they'll be here in just a few minutes... Hopefully, my pictures won't suck and I'll be able to post a few on the page when my computer decides to work again...

Have a great day!

Baby, Its Cold In Here...

Well guys, we have it a heat wave today... I think that the high is right around 40. What a mess! It was 14 degrees when I woke up this morning... YUCK, YUCK, YUCK!

Today is Kellen's birthday so we are having a food day at work. We all decided that we can tell we haven't had a food day lately because of all the food that got brought in. I made a hash-brown and sausage breakfast casserole this morning and there is all kinds of other stuff here too. There are multiple types of cupcakes & brownies, several dips, meatballs, and veggie/meat & cheese platters. Needless to say, none of us are hungry! It was handy though, because I was able to use my lunch break to run some errands.

Drew and I are going to have another busy weekend. I'm really starting to feel like that is the norm for us. Tonight we have his work Christmas party, tomorrow we are going to a horse sale, and then Sunday our parents are coming up to have a "pre-Christmas" dinner with us. I guess that I am moderately excited about the sale tomorrow. There is a huge breeding farm that is a couple of hours away and they are having a complete dispersal sale. The sale includes a 171 acre facility with approximately 100 stalls, lots of barn equipment, and around 100 horses.

I had thought that I might be able to buy a pony this Saturday but with the new addition of a truck payment, I believe it'll have to be pushed back a little longer. Unfortunately, there are several really nice young horses (coming 2's) that I would love to have and if they go cheap, which I'm assuming that they will, it'll be really sad for me. So, needless to say, I hope they sell high and I'll do my best to wait. I don't wait well though, so we'll see what happens.

Anyway, I'm here at work so I'd better cut this short. Hopefully I'll get my computer back soon and will be able to post some pictures and give a full account of what we've been up to lately.

Have a great day!

Ramblings...

Good Afternoon Y'all,

I still don't have a computer... Its pretty devestating. I really feel completely out of touch. I am trying to save the battery on my Ipod and that means that I can't surf the internet on it but I haven't had access to facebook or my WKU e-mail account in about 10 days! Its driving me crazy. Also, what's driving me crazy is that I have all these pictures that I would love to post but can't. :( BOO...

On a positive note, we did get Drew's truck on Saturday and we absolutely love it. It had 9 miles on it when we got it and we've now driven it everywhere! Drew is like a kid in a candy store :)
I also think that we might have his car sold which is even more fantastic, it'll be nice to have that money for the truck!

I found this picture on line and think that it is the same color as the one that we bought. It is called "Candy Red Metallic" or something like that. Drew's truck is a Lariat so it has different wheels and also has chrome on the grill, but other than that it looks pretty similar to the truck in the picture.

By the way: It got crazy cold here today and I was not very smart about it. I actually went to work with out a coat. Since I have been here the temperature has dropped about 25 degrees and the wind is blowing like crazy. I had planned to go home at lunch and pick up a jacket but ended up going to Panera with Kellen instead, so now I am coatless. Bummer.

Well, I'd better make this short because I'm still at work, but I hope that y'all have a great day! Maybe someday I'll get my computer back and be able to show you Drew's actual truck and our Christmas decorations. I'm getting a little lost without it!

Roses & Thorns

Well, I thought that I would follow in K-Law's foot-steps today and do another Roses & Thorns post...

• Roses to Drew's new truck. We are picking it up tomorrow and we are so excited. I haven't really mentioned it because I was pretty afraid that it would fall through, but its official so here we go. Drew is getting a 2010 Ford F-150 Crewcab Lariat. It is a gorgeous red color (not like fire engine, its a little deeper) and we love it. We were driving around the car lots last Saturday and found it and both fell in love. Tomorrow, it will be ours!
• Roses to Fridays. Seriously, I'm ready for the weekend.
• Roses to winning my huge bank bid. Thank you very much because I'm pretty glad we're keeping thoses millions.
• Roses to having my Christmas trees up and most of my shopping done. Now, I just need to get everything wrapped.
• Roses to my sweet hubby. Even though he drove me insane about this truck, I know it was only because he wanted what was best for us. His financial planner mind just works a little differently than mine sometimes!

• Thorns to my laptop being completely non-functional. I don't know why my hard drive decided to crash, but that is really upsetting. I'm sad that its in the hospital because I really have some pictures that I would love to post!
• Thorns to cold weather. It was 23 degrees when I got out of bed this morning. Man that is cold.

Oh wow, I just realized I don't have a lot of thorns today. I guess that is good. I guess that means that life is good :) So since life is good, I guess that I will end this now. I'm at work and need to get to lunch. I hope y'all have a great day!

broken computer...

Well, I am sad. My computer is completely messed up... In fact, it is currently at the Computer Hospital hoping for a cure for its illness... Therefore, I am computer-less (except at work, where I really shouldn't be blogging, even though I am right now!)...

Maybe, I'll be able to fill you all in on our Christmas card pictures, Thanksgiving meal, Christmas trees, and Drew's possible new truck soon but until then we'll just use that as a teaser. As you can tell, we've had a busy week!

Hope that your day is great and that I can post all my pictures soon!

Scooter's Post

Well, I promised her a post last week when Kelly did the "Show Us Your Life - Pets" post and here it is...

Scooter is the closest thing that I have ever had to a child. She is my life and I absolutely adore her. Honestly, I probably love her more than anybody should love a dog. The problem is, she really doesn't realize that she's a dog... I'm pretty sure she thinks she is a child. She loves to be carried, held on your hip, and sleep in the covers. She has also picked up this horrible begging habit. She ADORES barking...

I really can't say too many bad things about her though, she's a fabulous dog. She is a four year old "rough coated" Jack Russell Terrier (explains the barking...). She is the first JRT that I have ever had and I was pretty scared when I got her. JRT's are extremely dominant and intense dogs and she fits the breed perfectly. I looked up Jack Russells on Wikipedia once and died laughing... I'm pretty sure they used her as a model. We make do though and even when we don't agree, it all works out. She's dominant, but I'm the boss :)

She is my travel buddy and goes everywhere with me. She has stayed in multiple hotels and loves to go camping at the lake. Not too mention, she's pretty freaking cute... Check her out :)

At about 3 months old, the night that Mom bought her... So cute :)

When I got my Canon Rebel... She's a great model... Check out the ear, its always like that!

This is probably my favorite picture, I think she was only about 6 months old.Well, I hope you guys enjoyed my Scoot Dogg post... I am going to grab some dinner and then start packing to head home tomorrow... I can't wait, no more work until one week from today!

Sunday Chatter...

Wow, I can't believe that it's Sunday night already... weekends always go by so fast. Luckily, this week and next week will be short weeks. I am taking off Friday of this week and Monday of next so that I can hang out at home with my parents and also my grandmother. Mom went to Atlanta over the weekend and brought Nanna back home with her. I am glad because I haven't seen her in a really long time.

My friends, Katie & Brittany, and I went and watched New Moon Friday night. It was ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS! It completely exceeded my expectations! I definitely started out team Edward before the movie (and still am) but WOW... Jacob is gorgeous. A 17 year old really should not be that attractive. When he puts his head in the car window and says "Bella, I'm begging you. Stay, for me" I wanted to say OK! I'LL STAY! TO HECK WITH BELLA! New Moon should be all about Jacob :)

Rocking our "Team Edward" tshirts that Katie & Brittany made...

We waited an hour and a half at the theatre because we were afraid we would get bad seats. Luckily, there were only about 50 people in front of us and our seats couldn't have been any better. It was definitely worth the drive to Lexington and the wait at the movies. Plus, it was great to see my friends for the weekend!

I hope that everybody had a great Monday and that you all enjoy your short week!

Show Us Your Life - Max Man - American Quarter Horse Gelding

Well, Kelly at Kelly's Korner is having another "Show Us Your Life" post and I really had to participate. I feel bad, because I don't have any pictures of Scooter here at work, but I do have pictures of my Max Man, so I guess that this post will be all about him...

Heza TeTotal Mister - Max

Max has been in my life for almost 12 years. We bought him when he was an 18 month old stud colt. We had him gelded and then broke him when he was 2. My parents told me that I probably wouldn't be able to ride him until he was 5 or 6 because I was 13 and they were afraid that he wouldn't be well behaved. Well, that didn't last long because I rode him the first day he had a saddle on his back. He is completely dead headed and wonderful.

Since I have had him, Max has been a pet therapy animal (he has gone to nursing homes & schools) as well as an accomplished show horse. As a 3 year old, he was Kentucky 4H Reserve State Champion in their snaffle bit futurity. He was also KY 4H Res. State Champ in showmanship my last year. There were over 40 kids in the class. He also has points in the American Quarter Horse Association.

Winning the circuit championship in Showmanship for the WTQHA Summer Circuit!

More than that though, Max was a great buddy for me. He and I know each other inside and out. I really feel that he has complete trust in me and I know that I have it in him. I miss him terribly as he was always my stress relief and I can't have that with him now. He lives with my parents at their house until I can find a way to keep him here.

Well, since we're posting pictures, I have to post this one too. This is Lightning and he was my first horse that I got for my 8th birthday. I'm sure that my parents regret buying him - ok, probably not, but it sure cost them a ton of money in the long run!!!

Hope you guys have a great day! I will have to give Scooter her own post in the next few days so that she doesn't get sad :( I'm so glad to get to see her and my hubby tomorrow!

If only I can survive until tomorrow!!!

Well, the tickets are bought and I am ready. Freaking Twilight, here I come. Now I just have to survive until 9 tomorrow night!

By the way: Drew is at home this week and has apparently been watching WAY too much TV because he asked me earlier if I was Team Edward or Team Jacob?? My response was Edward all the way... He answered saying that he was Team Jacob, because werewolves are so much cooler!

So really, which are you?

Team Edward?

or...

Team Jacob?

Hope you guys enjoy it as much as I'm sure that I will!

Lonely Week!

Hello Blogger Friends,

I hope that you all are having a wonderful Sunday. I am, except its really quiet in my house. Mr Richey has headed to WKY to do some deer hunting on his parents farm for the week. I am sad because he and Scoot are gone :( I have to be in training a couple days this week and am also headed to Lexington this weekend so he took her with him. He did fix me a great breakfast this morning though, so I guess I shouldn't complain :) I told him that considering what I ate this morning, I may not eat the rest of the day!

We had a big work event last night that was lots of fun. It was the "Charity Ball" for the Free Clinic in town. It's so neat to see everybody dressed up (men in tuxes and women in lots of different kinds of dresses). My dress this year was bright red and I'm proud to say that I didn't stand out nearly as much as I thought I would. There were lots of bright dresses but of course, lots of black :)

Also, on a sad note, I really think that I'm about to need a new laptop... Mine has really just gotten very difficult to get along with. It freezes and complicates my life nearly every time that I use it. I'm not sure what is going on, but it definitely makes me sad.

Anyway, this is short but I don't really have much going on today except for a tremendous need to clean my house... Anybody who wants to come and help, I would be glad to have you volunteer. Since I don't have a man and a dog here, I guess I'd better get started!

Have a great day :)

Dinner for Tonight...

Well, after spinning tonight I'm planning on cooking this lovely soup for dinner. I have wanted to cook it for probably three weeks... Seriously, I've been packing around the recipe just waiting to buy the groceries for it. Well, now I have them :)

Pasta Fagioli (like at Olive Garden)

Ingredients:
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons dried parsley
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
salt to taste
1 (14.5 ounce) can chicken broth
2 medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1/2 cup uncooked spinach pasta
1 (15 ounce) can cannellini beans, with liquid

Directions:
In a large saucepan over medium heat, cook celery, onion, garlic, parsley, Italian seasoning, red pepper and salt until onion is translucent. Stir in chicken broth, tomatoes and tomato sauce, and simmer on low for 15 to 20 minutes.
Add pasta and cook 10 minutes, until pasta is tender.
Add undrained beans and mix well. Heat through. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.

I am very, VERY excited... Now I just have to survive spinning...

Roses & Thorns

A couple of the blogs that I read to "Roses & Thorns" posts on Fridays and since I'm sitting here bored at work, I thought I'd give it a try :)

• Roses to my RFP (banking bid) being done. Good Lord I have never been so stressed. 318 pages of crap that I only moderately understand is just really too much. Anytime that work wakes you up at 5:30 and causes you to be in your office a 6:45, that is an issue. As I said, Hallelujah that its done!
• Roses to a freaking beautiful weekend. We are supposed to have temperatures in the 70's with sunshine. I think we had weekends in the summer that weren't this warm!
• Roses to Homecoming. Yeah, the Tops suck, but its still a fun weekend. I have a luncheon for it today and then I'm working the street parade this afternoon. Oh the joys of being an Alumni.
• Roses to the Charity Ball. Its kind of like adult prom, I guess. I get to find a pretty dress and Drewby gets to rent a tux. Not to mention, that I am definitely having my hair done since we all know I'm not capable of doing it myself!
• Roses to Mom coming up and going with us to the North American on Sunday. Yeah, I know, its a livestock show. Not that many people get excited about it, but I sure do!
• Roses, most importantly, to being an American. Especially in the light of the tragedy at Fort Hood. I am so proud to be an American, proud of our American Service Men & Women, and so completely humbled and grateful for their service. God Bless All of You and Your Families.

• Thorns to Tai. Why did you have to die? Yeah, I know you weren't mine any more but you were so cool. We had such a huge time together even though I only had you for a while. I missed you already but now I miss you even more. You'll always be my juvenile delinquent. I love you, Big Guy.
• Thorns to Halter Horses. This stems from the point above and I really just don't know what I want to put here. Thorns to making horses that basically aren't built for the long haul. You people know what you are breeding and you know that they're not durable. Their legs aren't, their feet aren't, their bodies aren't. Thorns to all you breeders and the idiots like me who have shown them.
• Thorns to not having a "pony". God I want one so bad.
• Thorns to being pretty broke. Yeah, I know, not that broke... but still broke.
• Thorns to day light savings time. I really hate that when I leave work at night I have to turn on my head lights. Really, I don't think that anything could be much more depressing than that!

Oh well, that's all my Roses & Thorns. Sorry for the rant about the horses. I just get so frustrated. Anyway, y'all have a great day and enjoy your beautiful weekend!

Halloween Post (a little late)

Well, here are my Halloween pictures that I promised. We had a great time! Drew stayed outside and passed out all of our candy while I got ready for the party that we went to. Our friends Jenna, Kaleb, and Kellen ended up going with us and it was lots of fun! I had my own personal Super Man for the night.

Our football crew for Sunday nights Titans game. We even got to see them pick up a WIN!

Sorry this is so short but I hope y'all have a great night!

5K, Not In The Rain!

If you can believe it, it didn't rain. I got up this morning at 6 and it was pouring but by the time we left at 6:45 it had quit. I was thrilled. Granted, it was cold (54 when we came home at 11), but at least it wasn't cold and wet. There were lots of people in Halloween costumes which was pretty fun. One guy dressed up as Frankenstein and ran the 10K. He was hilarious and as they passed under the finish line they announced him as "Frankenstein". NICE.

Drewby and I both did pretty well. Truthfully, we each ran our races faster than we thought we would. I had been running the course in between 33 1/2 minutes and 34 minutes... My time today was 32 minutes and 10 seconds. I placed 50 out of 130 entries. I don't think that's bad for somebody who hates running and hasn't really ever ran in their life. Drew's goal was to run the 10K in 52 or 53 minutes, he finished in just short of 50. Like I said, we were both pleased!

Stu Pay & Drew getting ready to run the 10K.
Getting ready to cross the finish line.... YAY!

Drew and I right before my race.

Stu Pay's wife Sarah and I before the 5K. She won our age division out of 130 entries!

Now we are watching one of the Halloween movies on TV and I think I might take a nap before we go to our Halloween party tonight. Hope y'all have a great day!

5K in the rain??? I HOPE NOT!

Man I'm glad its Friday. This has been a pretty stressful week at work. We have a MAJOR contract that we are rebidding and I guess its my responsibility to put it together. Apparently I'm doing okay though because when my boss left this afternoon he called and asked if I had plans for Sunday (which I kind of did). He then told me that there were 4 Titans tickets down on his desk that I could have. SWEET :)

Poor Mom and Dad, they had been my Sunday plans. I did at least ask them if they wanted two of the tickets, to which they said no. Mom said it'd be TOO COLD.... Well, probably so, but they're free tickets. Also, I do realize that the Titans are 0-6, but still, they're free tickets. So now we are taking a girls trip to the football game on Sunday.

Tomorrow is mine and Drew's big race. If you'll remember, Drew is running a 10K and I am running a 5K. I really feel ready. What I don't know about is the weather. We are getting a major rain system right now and its supposed to keep raining tomorrow morning. They have decreased the rain chance from 90% to 30% but still... I'm not so sure.

After that, of course Halloween is tomorrow and Drew and I are going to a party. He is dressing up as Superman and I am going to be a cheerleader. Until I tried on the uniform Wednesday night, I had never worn a cheerleading outfit. It was pretty funny! I decided that it was a good thing I've been doing all this running so at least maybe my legs will look decent in that short skirt! HAHA! Believe me, I'll put up pictures!

Have a great night!

WAHOO!!!!! Time for celebration!!!!

Well, I'm not sure if this is an appropriate thing to blog about or not, BUT... I just paid off my car!

That's not my car, mine is blue and has a spoiler, but you get the point. Anyway, I'm super excited. No more car payment (at least till we break down and buy Drew a truck...)!

Hope you all have a great day too!

Fall Decorations as well as other things :)

Well, I am a little late in posting about our fall decorations. They are a pretty minimal anyway. I don't really have any fall decorations so really we just have pumpkins. There aren't any mums either, which is crazy. I did plant some at the back of the house, so hopefully they'll be beautiful next year, but this year they had already bloomed and weren't quite so nice.

Like I said, just some pumpkins. I do love the topiary pumpkins though and of course my little scarecrow.

Here are our carving pumpkins as well as another topiary.

The front of our house with pumpkins and my scarecrow. I think it looks festive :)

The fall is kind of a sentimental time for Drew and I regarding our house. Two years ago at this time we were in the process of completely gutting it. Our house was built in 1978 and when we bought it in 2007, everything inside was basically the same. It had horrible wood panelling, horrible wall paper, and orange shag carpets... among other things. We renovated it in one month and Drew spent his first night here on Halloween 2007. It is still a work in process but at least we aren't constantly doing things anymore. We have redone all the landscaping, repainted the whole house, including ceilings, replaced all the flooring and soon we will have replaced all the light fixtures. Total redo, but we love it!

Anyway, hope you guys have a great day and weekend. We have a wedding to go to today and need to go to Sams and the grocery store. Have a great Saturday!