The Storytelling Goat and Other Saturday Follies

This Saturday was as fun as a barrel of monkeys (after Jason and I got over our typical outing sourness). We went to Downtown Birmingham to Pepper Place Market to get some local produce. I didn't have a solid idea of what I needed so we just kind of looked around purposelessly, which gave Jason stomach cramps. The man likes to have a plan. We ended up with some peas, squash and peaches.

Then we went to 5 points south and wandered around looking for somewhere to eat. Due to our general indecisiveness, I wound up having to make the decision, a decision which no one was happy with. But I'm not going to saturate my blog with bad restaurant reviews. SO after we ate, we walked around for a little while and found:

A goat reading a story



To a deer on a dog's back.
I love downtown.

I also found Quinlan Castle

I hope they do something with it, it's too cool not to!

We also went to a HUGE yard sale coordinated my my dear friend Tina's church to help a local community. We bought SO MUCH STUFF we had to bring the car around to get it. We only spent TWELVE DOLLARS!

Joe racked up the most,

He is set for a while on clothes. Many of them were brand new!

I also got some clothes (expensive brands that I wouldn't normally buy) AND

This beautiful brand new bundt pan and a brand new salad spinner in the box.

How can this day get any better you ask?

Only with a trip to Costco to finally buy the furniture I've been drooling over for my foyer.

This cute little bench,


And this fun chest to match the artwork!

But wait, there's more...
We ate dinner at Joe's Italian which I LOVE and had this for desert:

I hope y'all know I only eat stuff like this once in a blue moon, but my goodness was it worth it!

What a wonderful day!

Two Years (!!!)

Today is our anniversary! If you couldn't tell by my headline, it has been 2 years. Two years may not seem very significant to, say.....my grandparents who have been married for 50+ years, but I'm very proud of it.

How it started: I met Jason while waitressing (yeah....I know). I admired him from afar and one day something just clicked with both of us. So, no, it wasn't "love at first sight." I've always been a very self reliant person. You will never hear the words "meant to be" or anything like that come out of my mouth. I believe we make our own futures. But, let me tell you, when I started dating Jason, I got slapped across the face with a healthy dose of "meant to be."

I love him so much. Our personalities go together like warm pecan pie and ice cream.....but our temperaments....more like pickles and cheesecake! He is very sweet, easygoing, and patient. Me? Well, I'm none of those things. He keeps me grounded.

We got married on Friday, the 13th of July 2007. Our wedding was very low key and I wouldn't have had it any other way.

We were supposed to get married on the beach, but my sensitive eyes got the best of me and I decided I couldn't do it without my sunglasses, so we got married in a gazebo instead.

It still made for good pictures.

We had our reception at the hotel bar! (Yeah...I know)

This was my Daddy's favorite photo.

Then we went back to the beach for a few more pictures.

That sand was HOT!

Then we left! Like I said, very low key.


Joe and I both love him so much! I know we'll celebrate many more anniversaries together.

The Best (or Worst) Way to Spend a Sunday Afternoon

Here's how it started. I wasn't too fond of the idea. I wanted to stay in the house.
You see, I can tolerate almost anything, but there is one thing I just can't deal with.

Wet grass on my feet. I have a very hard time walking barefoot in wet grass.

Scratch that....my child would have to be on fire in the middle of the yard for me to walk barefoot in wet grass. My Mom says she took me out to the middle of the yard and left me when I was a baby. Rather than walking back to her, she says I stood there and screamed until she came and got me.

Serious stuff I tell you. But I digress.

Our neighbor Mr. Brad came over to get in on the fun.

Does his bathing suit remind you of anything?


Safety first.


The males of the bunch LOVED this.

I however, huddled on the sidewalk trying to keep my feet dry, thinking the camera in my hands would grant me immunity.

Boy, was I wrong!

For the people who were normal and enjoyed playing in the wet grass on a hot July day, it was refreshing.

For me, well, I went in and read a book on the couch with the new Kitty.

The Ugly Side of Weight Loss

Losing your pants in Lowe's, that's the ugly side of weight loss.

Now, it takes a lot for me to get embarrassed, but let me tell you, this morning, I was embarrassed! I was in Lowe's and I squatted down to pick something up....when I stood back up, my pants stayed down low! OH MY GOODNESS! It was absolutely traumatizing! I made NO eye contact the rest of the (short) time I was in there. The good news is that these shorts are a size 10 and fit me like a trash bag. They are going to be donated to Hannah Home TODAY!

*Segue alert*

Why was I at Lowe's at 8 this morning? Because I needed a few little things to finish Jason's first woodworking project. Jason is not known for being extremely handy. He has taken it upon himself to remedy that. He got some ridiculously expensive tools for himself for Father's day and put them to use immediately. He has big plans for the future....we'll see. I've already made him a list.

Here is his first project. He built it, I'll finish it. This is a shelf for the wall in Joe's bathroom. It's not quite finished, I'll add some pictures of it when I finish it this afternoon.




If you're ever unsure.....WEAR A BELT!

CityFest!

First, let me apologize for the lack of pictures....I forgot to take my camera and yes, I know...I suck at life.


Jason and I, along with our friends Chad and Jessica, went to CityFest on Saturday. It's put on by the city of Alabaster and is pretty much awesome! There was lots of music, food, arts and crafts and a whooooole lot of kiddie stuff that I stayed away from since Joe wasn't with us.

It was estimated that there were 50,000 people there. Not bad for the suburbs!

Oh, and it was all FREE!

I even found something moderately healthy to eat, a chicken pita. I had to kneel on the ground hunched over a towel to eat said pita due to it's messiness and my neglectfully wearing a white skirt.

We saw some great bands like The Michael Warren Band, Act of Congress, The White Oaks, Tonic!!! (I love Tonic) and the culminating event was Terri Clark (who I also like, but more on her later)

It was an outdoor concert so we brought folding chairs which we set up about 50 yards from the stage. The reason I say it was 50 yards is because I have NEVER seen a T-shirt cannon shoot as far as it did. NEVER.

In between shows, I was sitting on the ground, eating aforementioned pita when they started shooting T-shirts. I kept on about my business of eating, not phased by the firing of T-shirts, because surely I was out of firing range.

That was.....until......Jason (who was sitting right behind me in a chair) jumped up and one-footed it over the back of the chair. and GRABBED A FLYING T-SHIRT right out from under the nose of an old lady all while holding a DQ dilly bar in his mouth!

It was amazing....at least, what I could see of it from under my arms while curled in the fetal position was.

I have never loved him more.

Now, back to the music. Tonic was awesome and I totally had 90s flashbacks with their songs and I liked some of their new ones too.

Terri Clark is very country, not even like something I could normally trick Jason into listening to. I saw her in 6th grade opening for George Strait and loved her then...still do. We left about halfway through to beat some of the traffic and Jason just sat and listened to her like a good husband.

To say Jason doesn't like country music would be a severe understatement. I however LOVE it unapologetically. As a matter of fact, I am absolutely dying to go to Opryland & the Grand Ole Opry. Jason, however, would rather take a silver bullet to the scrotum than spend the day immersed in the history and culture of Country music.

Maybe I'll take him to Dollywood to get his feet wet.

The Bird; A Hitchcockian Tale

We have this problem with birds. It's not really our problem, it's more or less the birds' problem. You see, our living room has ceilings that are about 25 feet high and way up on the walls are 5 giant windows that you can see in my snow post. We have some extremely dull birds around here who smack right into these windows on a regular basis. Sometimes it's just a tap, but sometimes it's startling how hard the birds hit. As most of y'all probably know, I'm not much of an animal person, so you're probably thinking I'm heinous and cruel for letting this behavior continue, but alas, I assure you I do my part to break the cycle of destructive bird behavior. I let those windows get as filthy as I can stand to cut down on the amount of open sky they see reflected. We had a bird print until recently when I bought Windex that attaches to the hose. A-MA-ZING!

Spring has brought new flock of idiot birds to the neighborhood apparently.

This story is being recounted second and third hand, but I assure you I would have given a vital organ to have been present for this. My husband didn't even have the decency to take pictures for me. Can you believe that? I can.

It was Thursday afternoon and Jason heard a bird smack against the window. He was alarmed as it was extremely loud and this was the first casualty of the season. It was so loud, in fact, that upon going outside to see if the window was broken, he found the bird lying on it's back being examined by the dog. Luckily for the bird, my husband is much more of an animal-liker than me. I would have...let nature take it's course...but sweet Jason dragged the dog away, gloved up and went to work.

Here is the part of the story where I would like to tell you that Jason administered bird CPR, but luckily for me and, well...everyone, he abstained from putting his mouth on the bird's mouth. He did, however give a few tiny chest pumps and "raise it up and down a few times to try to get him to flap his wings." This went on for a few minutes, I'm told.

Upon noticing that it was almost 3:00, Jason knew he had a decision to make, it was Joe or the bird. He carefully laid the bird on his side on the patio table and left him, in stable condition, to sort out his concussion while he retrieved Joe from school.

When Joe learned that he would be returning home to an injured bird that he would potentially be able to hold, he was ecstatic. He couldn't wait! When they got back home, the bird was still on the table and quite concussed. Jason picked him up and did the up-and-down thing again. When he sat the bird down to give Joe the gloves, the bird sat up, looked Jason square in the face, gave a tweet of gratitude and flew away.

Joe didn't get to hold him but was extremely impressed that Jason was able to rehab the him with no formal bird training. Joe said "Mama, you should have seen Daddy, he held him so gently (cupping his hands) not like those bird mythologists, they just hold 'em like a chicken wing (making a fist)."

Yes, I quoted that directly from Joe's mouth.

Once again, I wish I could have been there. All that's left is the story and some poop on my porch.

Why You Shouldn't Make Fun of an English Major

I won something, but I'll have to tell you about it later. It required me to think of something catchy to go with Rambling Robinsons, a tag line, if you will. I was bouncing some ideas off of Jason and decided to read him some lines out of a certain...work.

He decided to make fun of me, summoning his inner Shakespearean baritone and yelling out "thees!" and "thous!"

Me: *eyebrow raised*.....*blink*......*blink*

Me: "That was Led Zeppelin"

Jason: oh...