Happy Halloween

Okay, I was at WalMart this morning because I needed to get some eggs. Well I decided to have a little fun too, and I thought that Kent would enjoy this. Gus and Frankie didn't really enjoy it all that much, but I got some good laughs from it and the police officer riding through the neighborhood stopped to chat about how cute they were.

Neither of them were liking the elastic straps around the back legs.

And finally, Frankie the Weenie...dog. HAHAHA!!!

Hangin' Tough with a Pocket Full of Sunshine!

OMG!!! Words cannot truly express how much fun I had last night at the concert. I had so much fun with Shannon, Erica and Brandy!! We met up around 1ish to leave for the ATL. We checked into our hotel and changed-thanks Shannon-for the Boys. Had to get a little glam :) We stopped and picked up some grub at the Wendy's across the street and when we walked in, we were amongst about 50 other ladies our ages going to the concert. It was at the Gwinnett Center right outside of ATL. What a nice venue! Anyway, the whole time we are stuck in traffic, we see all of these other vehicles with stuff written all over their cars. We had nothing, but found some things hilarious. Such as: My heart belongs to Donnie; NKOTB or Bust, ATL bound, We've been waiting 15 years for this, etc, etc. We got to our seats-7th row on the side lower level. WOW! There were some major '80s rejects there. I mean, I know that I am at this concert too, but I was wearing normal clothes with my hair fixed like it always is in 2008! We saw some homemade puff paint t-shirts, crimped hair, leg warmers, spandex, huge buttons and finally- my fave- the sequin headband with the side ponytail. CLASSIC!!! I took pics of some of these, but I will not post them to protect the innocent. Natasha Beddingfield opened first. She was amazing! She was only on stage for about 25 min, but she put on a great performance. I knew most everything that she sang too, which always makes it more fun. Then Lady GaGa performed. One word sums it up-weird! I could've stayed out in the lobby during her 20-30 min. Then on to the big show! After they played a short video of some old school pics and wording, they opened with a new song-Single. Great beginning to the show, very upbeat! They played all of the great vintage songs! We were jumping up and down, screaming every word like we were 12 again! They also came out to the floor like right in front of us on a revolving stage to sing a few songs, so we got an even closer look! But when Jordan busts out in his high voice singing in an open white shirt with the wind machine blowing on him-I really was 12 again! I was infatuated with him so many years ago! Such sweet memories! The show lasted about 3.5 hours and I didn't want it to end! When they left the stage the 1st time, the audience started singing the words to Hangin' Tough. Then they busted back out with Step by Step and Hangin' Tough to finish it off. It was definitely a night that I will never forget! Now I am 26 again and in the real world at work. It's really a bummer to have so much fun then get kicked back into reality. Maybe I will win the lottery, quit work and become a groupie-A girl can dream! Here are a few pics of our great night:

The beginning to the best concert ever!

I can't believe we are really here!

Crazy screaming mid 20s-30 year old ladies-What What!!!

Revolving stage in front of us:

Be Still My Heart:

Brandy & Erica:

Shannon and Yours Truly:

I think I may have shed a tear when it was over :(

Almost time-NKOTB!!!

At the begining of this year, one of my dreams came true. Some people can think that I am crazy and that is fine with me. When I was a wee child, I had a slight (maybe, huge) obsession with New Kids on the Block. I was completely in love with Jordan Knight. They were very important to me. I had the huge buttons, the sleeping bags, the t-shirts, the posters, etc. So when I found out they were getting back together and going on tour, I was super pumped. I know, I know, some people (my husband) think that I am absolutely absurd for being that excited about it. I am however, not the only one. Tomorrow night, I will be in ATL for the concert with 3 other girls from work. I can't believe that it is here. When they appeared on the Today show, I was sitting on my bed calling my older sister. Needless to say, she's not as big a fan as me, but I was singing every word to their medley of Hangin' Tough, Step by Step, Cover Girl, The Right Stuff, Please Don't Go Girl, the list could go on and on. Our tickets are on the 6th row since I bought them during the presale so I know that we will have a great view. I will be able to relive my tween years to the fullest! They have changed quite a bit and I am not so sure of the new music, but I will tell you that when they sing their vintage songs, I will be acting bananas!!!

Jamaica

Well, unfortunately, I am now back at work. Back to the same ol' routine. Back to reality! It has been a wonderful vacation!! I do believe that we wrote a new definition to the word lazy!!! We lived in the ocean for the first 2 days, just lounging around, soaking in the sun. It did rain everyday that we were there but it was mostly a short afternoon shower, except on Thurs and Fri. Those days, it rained about 4 hours each day. During the afternoon short showers, we chose to take an afternoon nap. :) Bliss!!! Then Wed, we took a sunset cruise from our hotel, went snorkeling and saw a huge stingray digging in the sand, an anchor and cannon from a sunken pirate ship, and tons of other sea creatures. It was really awesome. Then we went swimming through a cave and to Rick's Cafe. It was a restaurant on the edge of a cliff where there was an awesome view of the sunset. There was also a place to cliff jump. Which Kent nor I partook in. We really aren't the daredevil type. We just enjoyed watching other people try to gain the courage to jump off. We ate, then we were on our way back to the hotel. Then we spent the remainder of the days in the pool and lounging around. We did venture out off of the hotel grounds on Friday since it was our last day and we thought we would take in some of the local shops and ate at Margarittaville. Their shopping center was Times Square Shopping Mall. I've been to NYC 3 times and when I think of Times Square, that's what is on my mind. Nope!!

This was it. There were about 12-15 shops that had essentially the exact same items. i bought 2 photo albums, a pair of flip flops and Kent bought a hat. Then we had lunch:

Of course it started raining while we were there, and our taxi driver had a blow out on the way back making me think that he just took off with our $$ and souveniers. Alas, he came back and we spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool. On Sat, before we headed to the airport, Kent had made friends with our taxi driver and he was taking us on the west side to get some lobster. We had heard from other hotel guests that the lobster there was the best. So they were right!! It was the best lobster I have ever eaten!! Not too bad priced either!

Well, I guess I will leave you with some more of my pics. I only took about 100, but I will spare you and give you a glimpse:

The view from our balcony:
Our sunset pic:

One of the many towel arrangements we came back to: I loved this tree!:

I am really good at taking pics of ourselves: And finally, one of just the beautiful sunset:

Back!!

Before I post about Jamaica, I wanted to go back and post about the Breast Cancer Walk. I can't believe that I never posted and gave it the full attention it deserves. I think that between all of the reminiscing about the wedding, the trip and the time with no modem, I was a little crazy. Anyway, On Oct 11th, Heather and I did the Breast Cancer Run/Walk at Linn Park. If you have been reading my blog, you know that my grandmother had a single masectomy at the end of Sept, so I did this in honor of her. Heather decided that she would join me and our church's team for the walk. We had a really good time and it was awesome to see how many people were there and how many survivors were there. Very inspirational!!! Our Church of the Highlands team was headed up by Monique who is a 4 year survivor herself. After we finished the race, Monique had invited the team back to her house and had cooked an amazing meal!! Home made lasagna and eggplant ziti, salad, bread, desserts, desserts, desserts. OH My!!!! It was amazing! It was a really great day, topped off with a great meal with great fellowship with some awesome people!! Thanks to Monique for doing such a great job at leading our team!!!

Be Back in a Week...

I am signing off for the next 8 days. When Kent gets off work tonight, we are headed to ATL to spend the night with my uncle. Then we must be at the airport at 6am eastern time to check in for our flight to Jamaica. We are staying here:

until next Sat. Pray for safe travel and at least one day of great weather. I looked at weather.com everyday is a 30-60% chance of scattered thundershowers. But that will be alright. A rainy day in Jamaica is a better day than a sunny day here at work. :) I hope you all have a great week and weekend. I will meet you in the blogging atmosphere soon...

Service Banquet

Thursday night, our service awards banquet for work was held at the Cahaba Grand Conference Center. This was to recognize people working for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, & 40 years. I have been working there for 5 years. There were three people honered that had been there for 40 years. They played a video and had coworkers video messages to them playing before they received their award. One coworker made the comment, "It's really hard to imagine someone working in the same position for 40 years." That really made everyone laugh, but I really feel that way too! I mean, I'm not turning in my notice any time soon, but to do the same thing for 40 years, almost seems impossible. I just can't wrap my mind around it. I know that 5 years has really flown by pretty fast, but 40 years. That's crazy to me. The banquet was nice and the food was really good. The pic is of Heather, myself, and Beth. Heather has worked there for 5 years and Beth has for 10 years. It was a fun night, until I had to rush to get ready to actually go to work. Sad times. HAHA!!