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Monday, September 29, 2008

Pre-Birthday Dinner and such

Cutler went to Selma this weekend to stay with his G and PamPaw so Anthony and I took the opportunity to do some things we have been wanting to do. Jennifer came by Saturday around lunch so we could catch up and she could show me her ring...again, I am so excited she is engaged.We ate lunch at a fabulous little cafe on the Alabaster/Pelham line called The Red Geranium. I had a smoked turkey and mozzarella panini and oh my goodness! the mozzarella was fresh and it had tiny little pieces of tomato and basil on it and in my opinion it was a little slice of heaven. Later in the day, Anthony took me to McCormick and Schmick for dinner, kind of a pre-30th-birthday dinner of sorts.


I had BBQ Shrimp and Grits and A had a fillet, shrimp scampi and their signature vanilla creme brulee. All of this was absolutely wonderful. During dinner we decided we are going to start going to a different restaurant every 3 months or so for date night, we have not had date night in over a year and we rarely make time to do that anymore. We did have to talk to Cutler while we were there, no way we could go all night without talking to him!

Anthony on the phone with Cutler:

Lori's dinner:

Anthony's Dinner:The dessert tray:Anthony's choice for dessert:Since I did not order dessert, I ate the strawberry off Anthony's:After dinner Anthony and I went to Academy to purchase a few items for Cutler's room. Here is what it looks like now:

And finally, a picture of a very happy Cutler in his "new room" as he calls it.

Get ready for a new camping story soon...we are headed back out into the woods in two weeks!

L

Friday, September 26, 2008

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.....oh and Wedding Bells too!

A few of you have called over the past few days and I have not been available to answer so I think it is time for me to explain myself, but before I do I have BIG, WONDERFUL, GIGANTIC, SHOW STOPPING news......


My best friend in the whole wide world (Jennifer, for those of you who can not figure that out)
is ENGAGED, I am not sure who is happier, me or her....

You see, we have been best friends for about 20 years or so and I think I have helped her plan out a bazillion imaginary weddings over those twenty years. Well most of them were in the first 3 or 4 years. I think this is my next motivator to continue losing weight. I am still down my 44 pounds but this will encourage me to keep going, seeing as I have to wear a PINK bridesmaid dress with a BOW on my butt....



Now for this week:


Yesterday I was in Chicago for work, we started the day off with a 7 am flight out of the Ham, directly proceeded by an hour cab ride into "The City". We had a meeting, some lunch and walked a little and off to the train we went. After an hour and a half train ride, we walked about 2 miles to our next destination to meet some more. Now comes the hour and a half cab ride back to the airport followed directly by another two hour flight home. Note to self: you worked at least 16 hours on Thursday so why in the world are you even in your office today.

I took a few pics along the way for your enjoyment!





This is the view from the outdoor cafe we ate lunch at, and below is the menu.


I took this one while walking to the train station.


Sears Tower.





Random shot while riding train.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Shoes and Teeth!

Cutler is officially signed up for soccer and he starts next Thursday. I realized yesterday that my child has NO tennis shoes and they need those to play indoor soccer. Now most of you know that my son LOVES shoes with all his heart. he is the only 2 year old boy I know that has at least 5 pair of shoes in his closet at all times. He not only loves shoes but he is very particular about them and has to pick them out himself. Now when I take him shoe shopping it usually takes at least 30 45 minuts for him to pick out a pair of shoes and last night was no exception. he started out with 14 pair of shoes lined up on the floor, I told him some of them were not soccer shoes so he put those back. We finally narrowed it down to three pair, he tried those same three pair on THREE different times. I swear, it has to be like having a girl! Here is the result of our shopping trip:

For the record, these shoes are actually blue and orange, not pink and black...sorry that is what you get with a crackberry camera.

Nice kicks huh???


Now for the teeth part. Cutler had his first dentist appointment this morning and it went wonderful. Now last night during our hour long shoe shopping trip we discussed what was going to happen at the dentist in great detail and by the time he went to bed last night he was excited about going. He woke up this morning ready to go.

That's it for today!



Monday, September 22, 2008

Oh my my what a beautiful bride...

So this weekend was Cutler's first wedding, my younger cousin from Prattville was married at 6pm Saturday night and Cutler was the ring bearer. He did a fabulous job! We headed down to Prattville Friday night for the rehearsal and dinner and ended up back at my cousin Tiffany's house around 9 or so. After everyone was comfortable in their pajamas, we decided to play Rock Band. This was my first Rock Band experience and man oh man it was awesome. I rocked the drums to some Bon Jovi and loved it! Saturday was the wedding itself and besides a few family drama situations, it all went well. Here are some pics for you to enjoy.



and here are a few of our family








Mom, Charlie, and Cutler
Dad, Dena, and Cutler

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

The Playground

So yesterday I had to bribe Cutler to get out of bed and go to school, the bribe was that I would take him to the playground after dinner while Daddy goes to his meeting. We ate dinner and then left for the park and here is what happened:









Peace Out!

L

Monday, September 15, 2008

Cult Members...sign up here!

OK so I promised pics and more info on Kid's Market but I have no pics, so info will have to do. Kid's Market is a consignment sale that happens twice a year. A friend, who we will nickname K, and I attend this event every year. So here goes how it works:

  • Sign your life away as a kids market cult member(virtually) forever
  • Sign up at http://www.kidsmarketandmom.com/ to get a contributor number
  • Find all gently worn clothing and shoes as well as any toys that are in working order that your child no longer needs and put them in one place
  • Decide what you want to price all said items (not yard sale prices but not department store)
  • Print tags online and follow instructions on the website to get your items ready
  • Once all items are hung, pinned, taped, bagged, stuffed and pinned again, you can relax
  • Go to bed really early the night before Receiving Day
  • Drive to the drop off location and try to arrive prior to 3:30 am (no I am not kidding)
  • Go to the front and sign in to get your contributor number (this number could be considered gold in some eyes)
  • Sleep in the car with buddy (it seems normal if you have a buddy)
  • Wake up in time to line up according to above mentioned number to take your items in
  • Sign the "REAL" cult contract
  • Go home and sleep most of the day away

All of the above was done for this:

  • You are now a contributor and get to shop prior to the public
  • If you are in the first 200 (which I am, thank you very much) you will shop first and get dibs on the good stuff, aka... a big power wheels four-wheeler for $50 last year!
  • We shop on October 2 from 4pm-midnight
  • I end up buying most of C's clothes and shoes for the fall and winter here
  • I usually spend about $150 and when I receive my check for the items I sell it is very close to the same amount
  • After my initial investment of $150, the first time I shopped, I am basically breaking even time and time again and getting great name brand clothes for $1 a piece

Here are a few pics from a prevoius kids market:






Now there are some of you out there that think I have lost my mind for doing this but it has become something I actually enjoy. I have never been a bargain shopper in my life, but since I had a child I have taken it on as a hobby. I love a good hunt for a bargain!

Monday, September 8, 2008

Nothing, nothing at all

Do you ever remember times of boredom, when you just had absolutely nothing to do? I remember those times but they are starting to become part of my long-term memory now instead of the short-term. Lately I have been dreaming of such times in hopes that sooner rather than later I again will have such a peaceful day. OK, enough with the sappy, I WANT A DAY TO DO NOTHING!

OK I am over that now, so this weekend we did not do a lot but we did something. We went over to a couple friend's house Saturday to watch some football and eat but we ended up talking too much, watching no football and eating. Cutler had a great time and his buddy Heather bought him a monkey pillow and blanket that he is completely in love with. He took it to daycare this morning and I should have taken a pic, I promise to insert a pic soon.
We went to church yesterday morning and met our small group at Cracker Barrel for brunch. A couple in our small group has not been able to attend lately due to being on bed rest and in the hospital (she is pregnant) and I received the most wonderful text last night saying that their beautiful daughter had been born at 8:20 pm. we have prayed over this family for so long and are ecstatic about this arrival.


So we had a fairly non-eventful weekend but have a very eventful week ahead. Thursday after work I will be assisting with preparations for the SBA second annual health conference. Friday I will be working the conference mentioned above, and Saturday is drop off for Kids Market.


I am pretty sure there are some of you who have no idea what kids Market is so check back in tomorrow and I will inform you all about it. I might even include some pictures.

Here is a pic of Cutler and I goofing off last night, grainy but it is from the crackberry so what do you expect?


Later!

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

So I survived!

The Turner's first camping trip!




So camping ended up being a truly wonderful experience. I had so many reservations that stemmed from a fear of the unknown but I am over them. We camped at a location on the Ocoee called "River Rats" and there was a pretty large group of us. The group aged from 2-late 50's and had a great time. We rafted the Hiwassee on Saturday, Cutler thought it was awesome to go down the waterfalls, and then the men kayaked and rafted the Nantahala on Sunday. We grilled,ate, slept, ate, talked, ate, played and then made S'Mores! YUM!!! I weighed in this morning and gained a little weight from the excursion but nothing a disciplined week won't take care of. I forgot to take pics until Sunday when the boys went down the Nantahala and yesterday as we were packing up camp but at least there are few for Proof!This was Anthony's first trip down the river alone and I think he is totally hooked now, and I am sure there are many more camping/rafting trips to come. Enjoy!

Anthony on the Nantahala.


Group on Nantahala.


Jason.


George.


Campsite.


Group getting ready to leave...(no showers prior to this pic)


And I can not leave this one out. We had about 8 tents set up and one guy came in an RV, Cutler and his buddy GA decided to drive the RV before we left yesterday (I think they worked on a plan all weekend for this one).



We bought Cutler a T-Shirt from the Hiwassi Outdoor store to show off at school since he went white water rafting this weekend. here is a pic from this morning about to go in to school.



Anthony took some pics with the waterproof camera on the water so as soon as those are loaded I will post more.


Later,
L