Back to School Blast

This weekend is the annual Back to School Blast at Metropolitan Church of God. Several hundred of people from the church will be volunteering, including Jeremy and myself. Last year they gave out more than 2,000 backpacks filled with school supplies, several eye exams, hearing tests, haircuts, etc. This year 4,000 backpacks have been stuff and ready to go. We find out our assignments tonight at church and the event will be tomorrow from 8 am - 1 pm.

There is some fun with the inflatable games and skits. I do know that the gospel will be presented several times during skits. There will also be an evangelical team that will be walking around praying for and with those who show up.

Pirates

This past weekend we went to the movies to see "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest". I like the movie a lot. In my opinion the first was better because it had more of a plot. Jeremy liked this one simply for the fact that it had a lot more action. All in all it was set up as a bridge between the first and third ones. I can't wait for the third one to come out.

Here are some pictures taken off of msn movies website of scenes from the movie:

Finally SOLD!

After Jeremy's parents finalized their divorce, the house went up for sale last September. Earlier this week they finally had an offer on the table that was reasonable. So the people want to move in the house asap, which means Lynette has less than 2 weeks to move out. They actually close on the house on July 14th and the new owners want possession immediately. I am helping Lynette this weekend to pack up and get ready for the movers to take her to her apartment. She will be in the apartment until her house is ready, which hopefully will be by Christmas this year. It will be fun for her to pick out new stuff for the house. I wish I had a new house to decorate (and the money to do so).

All in Days of Fun

Is it Wednesday already? Where does the time go? I know that I sure could use another weekend to catch up on some much needed sleep.

Last Friday, Jeremy & I met up with some friends, Caleb & Maria, at Cocina Superior. It is a great TexMex restaurant for the under 40 crowd.






Afterwards we went to see the movie, Click, starring Adam Sandler, Kate Beckinsdale and Christopher Walken. It was definitely a good movie, but could be viewed as a rental-type. Most of the critics didn’t like it because it is typical of a Sandler movie. But it did have a great message running in the story line that is prevalent to most of us who have a fast-paced life.

The rest of the weekend was a blur of us doing house work and yard work. It did finally rain on Monday, which we are thrilled about. We had been 3+ weeks without any rain. (Sure it had rained in downtown B’ham, but not so much as a drop at our house.) But with the rain came horrible wind. I had just gotten home on Monday and emptied the car of the groceries when the rain came down. Then came the wind which was worse than any hurricane winds we have ever had. I heard a loud thud hit the house. I scrambled to put some old clothes on and flip-flops to see what had happened. The rain was pounding on the front door and I really didn’t want to get wet, but I did. The thud was the teak wood chairs on our front porch hitting the house. One chair had already made it across the street and the other was in the yard. I scrambled to get them back on the porch and against the wall, when I saw the break. The side that holds up the back of one chair was completely broken. I was not happy since this was my birthday present last year. It hadn’t made it a whole year before being broken!


Last night we ate dinner with Caleb & Maria again and then went to see the Birmingham’s annual “Thunder on the Mountain” fireworks show launched from Vulcan Park. I have only been once before but this year was kind of crappy. The music was very hick-ish and the fireworks lasted under 20 minutes. Then it took us forever to get home since there was a huge turn out. It was like leaving an Auburn football game. I think next year we will try to go back to Lake Martin if at all possible.

Weekend at the Lake

This past weekend, we spent the day at Brittney's family lake house. Trent is doing his one-year dental residency out in Colorado, so their families had a going away party for them. They have 3 cabins at the lake and each is decked out with antiquities.


We stayed in the main cabin that had 5 bedrooms and 4 baths. We were at the one cabin that led down to the water by wooden stairs.

All the cabins had porches, with at least one facing the water. There were some screened in porches as well. Brittney's dad has spent the last 13 years building these cabins up and the whole area. There is a fire station, a place for his John Deere and a post office. We will have to wait and see what he comes up with next.





By the way, these cabins are not a place that you would pop by to say hello, because I know we spent 15 minutes on the dirt roads after traveling 30 minutes out of Jasper. It is a good ways away from civilization.

Slow Weekend

Not much going on around here. We had an uneventful weekend. Friday was just a night to rest, which was much needed after a long week of work.

Saturday we did a little shopping in hopes of finding exactly what Jeremy wanted for his birthday. That was to no avail. So we stopped by a new neighborhood on our way home. The prices are great, but we can't agree on which we like. We will keep on looking. It may be a couple of years before we actually go through with buying a new house, so I will try to not get my hopes up.

After house hunting, we met Kris & Sara for dinner and bowling. That was a lot of fun. Kris & Sara used to go a lot and even had bowling shoes, we assumed they would kill us. It has been over 2 years since I have been and Jeremy told us that he hasn't been in ages. I still don't believe him. During the 2 games we bowled, he got 2 turkeys. (For those of you who don't bowl, a turkey is 3 strikes in a row.) I started out horrible and then progressively got better. But all in all, it was a fun time spent with friends.

Ocoee "Guy" Trip

Jeremy left me on Friday to go hang out with some guys from our Sunday School class. They stayed in a cabin close to the Ocoee River. Neither one of us have been in years, so I know that he really did enjoy it.

Jeremy is the one on the front right. He really does look scared. Jeremy was the first one to fall out of the boat, but he wasn't the only one. Their guide fell out after getting them unstuck.

This is the other boat of guys floating down the rapids.

Of course I had to stay in B'ham and work this weekend. Fun, fun! Of all the branches that I have worked this was the filthiest. One of the contractors helped me to clean and we still left it dirty. The floors were vacuumed twice and trash was picked up. The only thing we didn't do was dust the baseboards. I hate doing that! I definitely need a few days off after all of the hard labor. :)

This was one of the dirtier offices. As you can see it still was a mess, after the first cleaning.

Day of Fun at Oak Mountain

I have lived here in Birmingham nearly four years, but I have only been to Oak Mtn State Park once. That was only because the church I attended in 2002 had a singles day in the park. But while I was there, I only went to the pavilion and beach part.

So on May 20th, Jeremy took me on a few hiking trails. I am definitely not made for this type of thing. I would not survive hiking on steep inclines for a long period of time. But then again, it is always better when you are not hiking in 90 degree heat. After 2+ hours of walking, I was done in. Jeremy took me back to the house and returned to the park with his bicycle. I don't know where all his energy comes from.

We took the camera along and have some pretty decent shots of the park.

One of the many dried up streams. We hadn't seen rain in a while.

An Owl was hanging out at the Wildlife Center.

The waterfall at the end of one of the trails. I never made it down to the bottom, but Jeremy did so he could take a picture.

Shana's Wedding

On May 6th, Shana (one of Jeremy's college friends) was married in the gorgeous Rosemary Beach.


We were invited to the rehearsal dinner on May 5th, which was at a pool. The pool looked like one of those that went on forever because the water flowed over the sides. The wedding was held in the town hall followed by a reception on a grassy knoll overlooking the Gulf. There was a huge white tent with lots of room for dancing and socializing. Well the pictures speak for themselves.







Rosemary Beach - I have never seen a place so rich and European looking on this side of the Atlantic. I mean the homes are in the millions of dollars. If we ever win the lottery, we would love to own a home there.


Here we are all dressed up.

Trip To Chicago

Since early April, Jeremy and I have been traveling quite a bit. The first weekend of April we went to see his dad in Chicago. Of course I haven't ever been so I got to do all of the touristy things.

Most days were quite comfortable, but there was one day that is was extremely gusty. Seriously we almost were blown into the street while we were walking around. Below are some pictures of our time there. Hopefully the next time we go, it will be a lot warmer.