we're home!

I think that Shelley is planning on using this as her Christmas card picture this year so hopefully I am not ruining anything but just thought that you should see proof that we really did scuba dive together! :)

going "stealth" - as they say.

My friend A talked here about going into "stealth mode" where you don't know where she is - and she likes it that way - and if she doesn't answer the phone, then she probably doesn't want to talk to you.... Well, I am going into stealth mode for the next week. I'm not quite as overt as she is - and I probably DO want to talk to you - but I will be phone and internet free for the next week (by choice!). I will have my phone on me and I will check is periodically but I will mostly be enjoying the crystal blue waters of the Turks and Caicos islands, spending time with Chad and the family, and hopefully eating my weight in good seafood.

See ya in a week!

wanna help? i didn't think so.

So I thought that maybe if I publically announced all of the things I have to get done before we leave town on Friday then I will actually have to stop procrastinating and do them. So, here is it, the most intmidating to do list ever (ok, maybe that was an exaggeration):
- laundry. lots of it.
- fold and put away said laundry to I can effectively pack
- set out clothes to pack
- set out scuba gear to pack
- buy Dramamine.
- sweep floors
- mop floors
- change sheets
- clean kitchen, put away dishes
- pack
- clean out litter box
- set out animal stuff for dog/cat sitter
- get travel paperwork together
- give Gwen a bath and give animals meds
- finish up work stuff

I am sure there are a ton of other things...that is all my brain can think of for now.

maybe helpful - need a house?!

We have sweet friends who are officially putting their house on the market because they need something that is better for children (woohoo!). Not that posting their house on my blog is going to help it sell any faster since I have about 3 readers, none of whom live in Chattanooga, but hey - it can't hurt right? Any advertisement is good advertisement!!

So, if you are looking for a beautiful, well-maintained home in a lovely neighborhood - which is super convenient to shopping, grocery stores, and easy to get to from downtown - THIS is the one!

Check it out on her blog and see a link to their MLS listing! 

about time.

Sorry, it is about darn time for an update!  Great things are happening to us this week and we had a wonderful week last week. I am continually reminded of God's faithfulness in knowing the perfect time for things to happy in our lives and for pouring out blessings on our sadly undeserving little lives.

We sold my car this past week. After multiple rounds in the newspaper and on Craigslist, it appears that the third time really is the charm. Sold it to a sweet mom for her teenage sons to drive and to get her back and forth from Cleveland to work. They were excited and kept thanking me and I kept telling them that it was ME that was thankful that they were allowing us to get something different that worked better for us. The son even said "I didn't sleep last night I was so excited!" which blesses me a lot. I have a lot of great memories in that car - from it being a surprise the night my parents bought it for me - Thanks mom and dad! - to doing the long-distance relationship thing with Chad until we finally got married. It's taken me a lot of places and hopefully they will love it as much as I did.

Got to see Harry Potter yesterday. It was a great movie - one of my favorites of the series. However, I am a bit sad that it is over! I absolutely loved the books and wish the story kept going on for much longer but it was fun while it lasted! Now, I can re-read the books again and enjoy them even more!

Then, last night, we went to the Honda dealership to just look at a car and came home with one!! We've been looking at used cars for sooo long and disucssing the details and how much we want to spend and hemming/hawing about things that I am thrilled that it is finally done! And it just happened to work out that we got one the day we sold my car. Talk about Amazing Timing. We got a 2008 Honda Fit and it is - in keeping with tradition - bright red! It gets almost double the miles per gallon that I was getting so hopefully it will be a money saver for us! We've saved and been very thoughtful and were cautious about what we were willing to sell my car for and were blessed with a gift from my mom. All that together means that we were able to pay cash for this car, which we are incredibly proud of. We didn't want another loan - other than our house - and don't like debt hanging over our heads so we are thrilled that when they cash that check we will be debt free on this car!

Lastly, we leave for our trip to the beautiful Turks and Caicos on Saturday of this week! We could not be having a better week though we have a TON of stuff to get done between now and then! Exciting times ahead!!

praise the Lord!

We have a buyer for my car. I am so excited. It means that we can finally start looking at other cars and making a decision about what we will do next. She is going to bring me the money and we will sign the paperwork on Saturday which is good because I need to drive it the rest of the week, including a trip back down to Atlanta. We are even getting pretty close to what we really wanted to see it for so that is good news in itself. So, praise the Lord for His timing.

sigh of relief.

My Chad is finally home. After 16 days gone from home, he's back and I am thrilled. Our official trip countdown can begin and we are already at 13 days! I think even Chad is getting excited.

Back to work for two weeks - hopefully I will have something better/more exciting to say in the near future. Early morning tomorrow after a week off (ugh!) and my gym buddy is ditching because our schedules are changing. Gonna make it so hard!!

happy to be home.

Finally back in Chattanooga after so many days away (seems like a lifetime but 5 days about sums it up).  Gwendolen and I are travel weary - feels like we have been in the car for days. We spent the night with my sister and Frannie last night and between their 3 dogs and 4 cats, Gwendolen was super ready to be home. She is taking a well-deserved nap at the moment and I am putting things away from our trip. I'll do a couple of loads of laundry today and tomorrow and anxiously await Chad's return. He will be exhausted and super ready to be home and I will have plenty of smoky laundry to do! I can't tell you how happy I will be to see the guy - the whole theory of "absence makes the heart grow fonder" might actually be true. 16 days apart is far too long...and now I am looking even more forward to getting to spend a week on a tropical island with him. The countdown for that trip starts now - 2 weeks from tomorrow!!  I have a couple of big work things coming up for the next few weeks so at least I will stay busy and not have issues with focusing!

Scuba class tonight for me and the rest of the crew (minus Chad, of course). It isn't as much a training class as it is a test out all of your equipment kind of class. I have some new stuff that I need to use before we go and I will be renting some of the more expensive stuff so I will be using the specific things I will be renting for our trip tonight. Looking forward to a bit more pool time and some hanging out...

Have a couple of people interested in my car. Hope something works out on that front this week!

traveling fiends.

Gwendolen and I are in Atlanta spending the day with my sister and Frannie. Their house is home to 4 cats and 3 dogs so to say that Gwendolen is stressed out is probably an understatement.  She is nervous and worked up and sorta freaked out. Hopefully she will settle tonight and will sleep some so she won't keep me up. I will be thankful to get home tomorrow to get a few projects done and get ready for Chad's return on Saturday (I can not tell you how much I am looking forward to that!!)

i've arrived.

I got to Columbus about 5 yesterday after having left Chattanooga about 1:30. Not bad drive, traffic wasn't even that bad, but I did hit a few pretty nasty storms south of Atlanta - an especially bad one just as I was getting into Columbus. Gwen was nervous but we arrived safe and sound. No big plans today - hope to get to see my bff tonight if she gets back into town in time. I am going to make PW's Cinnamon Rolls today and hope to give most of them away to friends and family that I will see this week. But of course, keep just enough to ruin my diet. :)

Headed to north GA tomorrow with mom and the cousins to go to a museum. I get taken a lot of cool places with my mom - she makes sure that I am somewhat cultured. Chad is fine - a bit tired but hoping for an afternoon off in the near future (tomorrow maybe??) to eat a real dinner and head to the beach.  More later...

can you believe it?

I'm not saying that my sweet husband can be a distraction but it is apparent that I would rather spend time with him than clean or do yard work on a normal basis.
Why do I say that, you ask? Here is a list off all the things I have gotten done in the week he has been gone by way of a recap:
- gave Gwendolen a bath singlehandedly (an accomplishment!!)
- gave Wooby her topical flea/tick/heartworm medicine (required me to wrap her in a towel while she screamed at me - not fun.)
- re-caulked the master shower
- did approx. 6 loads of laundry
- folded put away approx. 12 loads of laundry (don't ask - it's embarrassing)
- 3 loads of dishes
- 2 craft projects (at least one can be seen here)
- mowed the grass in the front and back yard (p.s. the palms of my hands hurt from pushing the lawn mower. does that make me a pansy?)
- vacuumed every room in the house with carpet
- swept and mopped/swiffered all the hard wood floors
- went to the gym 4 out of 5 days this week (skipped on lawn mowing day - thought I would get my workout - and I did!)
- weeded and mulched front flower beds
- cleaned off dining room table
- cleaned bathrooms
- changed sheets on the bed (technically this is tomorrow morning so we will come home to clean sheets next weekend but I will consider it done)
- washed/dried/ replaced cover for couch so it will NOT be covered in dog hair when we get back next weekend (since the Gwen-hair-machine is going with me to leave hair at my parents house...wahaha).
- bought tomato cages and put on tomatoes cause they were getting out of control (still need 2 more - we had more 'maters than I thought!)
- bought sale signs for my car (giving in!) and put them in the windows

I am sure there were other things but I can't think of them at the moment.
Also, I did my best to not eat out, to eat healthier, and to not buy groceries this week - attempting to eat stuff we have in the house. I did fabulously! I only ate out once and it was with Chad's family so it was sort of excused. I finally treated myself to Chick-fil-a while running errands today but I had a gift card so I didn't even spend money on it - which was my goal this week - spend as little money as possible and get tons of stuff done!