Thoughts From the Road

* We are in VA after spending the night half way in NC last night.
* Maggie had surgery this morning and I am soo sad that we are away from her but all went well and I left her lots of treats so they could spoil her!

* There is still lots of snow on the ground around here and in all the fields (which there are a lot)

* We are in Charlottesville VA~a cute little college town.

* We are thinking about going to Monticello in the morning

* South Carolina smells~I have noticed this before when in South Carolina!  They should look into some mass air freshining!

* I have been in 5 states in two days.
* I stopped at a TJMaxx in Gastonia, NC today!  I left with nothing :(

* Virginia is known as the "State for Lovers"! Interesting!

* We had a great dinner and drinks at a brewery down the street tonight with my parents and one of      my brothers best friends.  Great conversation and great food and drinks!

* One of the conversations was that "the wedding is about the BRIDE and GROOM~exactly I can't agree more but I will get on this soap box later!
* The friend that ate with us uses the company Cas works for for his teleconferencing !

* I can't wait for the party tomorrow night!  Their are fraternity brothers lined up to tell stories and it is an open bar!  This should greatly amuse me!

* I learned something cool tonight~one of their fraternity brothers* We are in VA after spending the night half way in NC last night.

* There is still lots of snow on the ground around here and in all the fields (which there are a lot)

* We are in Charlottesville VA~cute little college town

* I learned something new tonight.  A fraternity brother of Tom's drowned while they were all together at a lake and my step brother was the last one to stop diving to look for him after everyone had worn out and he also wrote a check to build a memorial for him in front of their fraternity house at Alabama!

* My heart is braking for the people in Haiti!  I wish I could go help!

* I had to stomach Al Sharpton and Rush Limbaugh on the news this morning~bleh, Rush said we are only helping out because Obama is black and so are the Haitians!  Wow what stupidity.  I have watched news in NC and VA today and boths states were missing people from their states that had happened to be there for school/work/charity.  So for his info half the people that we are helping are Americans moron!  And even if they were not it is the right thing to do as humans!  Let me jump off of my soap box of closed minded people.
UPDATE~The news said that 45,000 Amercians were in the country of Haiti!
* I am excited about going to Richmond after this to see my cousin!

* I will change my background when I get back :)

* Oh and I did get my video done!  I did ALL the work and Cas burned it to a DVD! :)

* I am getting ready to crawl in this comfy bed at the hotel and watch "The Real Housewives of the OC" on our flat screen tv! Nighty~Night!

P.S. Also LG gave me an award of sorts last week so I will post that and share my answers to my quetsions that go with it when I get back!  Thanks Laura

Our Family Is Growing

As of a week from this Saturday I will have a new Sister-In-Law Christie!  We will be traveling for the wedding next week.  I am so excited to have another girl at family functions!  Although she has no idea what is in store for her!  She is a lawyer as well as her hubby-to-be!

Also Cas's sister is pregnant with her third child~a girl!

That is her in the purple

Cas's cousin Coley is pregnant with her 2nd child~sex not yet known!

That is her in the floor in navy

And also Cas's cousin Brent's (brother of previous cousin) wife Melissa is pregnant and due this month~with a boy!

It is already standing room only at his family functions!  So we have a lot of new family members on the way in 2010!

Show Us Your Life~Thanksgiving Traditions

This week at Kelly's Korner everyone is sharing their Thanksgiving traditions.

Every year we have two seperate Thanksgiving's.  One in Macon, Ga where Cas's family lives.  His Mom and one of his Aunt's(nurses) and Brother-In-Law(cop) all have the same weekends off so it depends on the weekend they have off.  One year we didn't make it because we had Auburn/Alabama tickets!  They have Thanksgiving and Christmas other weekends than the actual holiday since the family is rather large and that way everyone can go to the other side of the family on the holiday.  At Cas's family Thanksgiving we have tons and tons of food.  So much that you will feel full just looking at it.  Everyone is assigned dishes to bring and it is an all day long buffet!  You eat until you look like they Turkey in the Thanksgiving Day parade!  There is one Granny, 5 sisters, their husbands, 11 grandchildren and their spouse/signifigant others, 3 great grandchildren and two more on the way!  That equals lots of people!  There is never less than 30 people in one house.  We take turns eating at the tables.  You must wear your deoderant cause your gonna be close with one another for the day!  I don't have many pictures :( but I do know this picture was taken for us last year.  We had a cousin-in-law do a mini photo shoot for us so I could send out Fall cards with our new address on them!

This was us last year in Macon on his Granny's front porch

Then we go to Birmingham for actual Thanksgiving to spend time with my Dad and his wife.  We have a much smaller crowd there!  2 parents, 3 children (me and my two step-brothers), Cas and my step-brother Tom is getting married so that is one more.  We also have a family friend that joins us so usually we have 6 and now we will have 7!  We all fit around one table in the dining room.  We have the usual turkey, green beans, sweet potatoe casserole, etc.  We also have two types of dressing.  One is a southern dressing and the other is more of a northern dressing.  The guys watch football all day of course.  I like to get up and watch the parade and I start scouting the sale papers for the best deals on Black Friday.  I make my list of where I have to go 1st and what is most important to try to get for fear they may go quickly.

This was us last Thanksgiving in Birmingham

 

Cas setting the table

My Dad cutting the Turkey.....the skin is my favorite part!  I know it is fattening!

 

 This is Calico.....she literally came up to the dining room window while we were having our Thanksgiving meal two years ago.  We were eating and I looked over and there was that extremely scrawny, at the time, kitty sitting in the window out in the cold.  Luckily for her there was turkey leftovers and I with a soft heart for animals!  I snuck her some of the goods!

That is right you go ahead and thank me......."Thank you for convincing those parents of yours to take me in and spoil me...meow meow.......I am sorry for the times I have bitten you and clawed you....I shouldn't do that you fed me and these people gave me a forever home.....meow meow!

This year the Auburn/Alabama game is on Black Friday so Cas will be with the boys and I shall be hunting for deals or window shopping!

This is just a few weeks away!  We are doing Birmingham Thanksgiving and Macon Thanksgiving all the same weekend this year. Lots of driving!

What is your favorite thing about Thanksgiving?  What is your favorite recipe?  I just love some southern sweet potatoe casserole with the brown sugar and or marshmellows!

Fall Blooms

I just wanted to share some pictures of our pretty Iris's with everyone.  We bought this Iris at Easter time.  My Mom loved Iris's and we saw this at Home Depot during Easter so Cas bought me this pretty one.  The name of it has something to do with "memories", I can't remember the name of it exactly but it was perfect!  We thought since it had bloomed in the Spring that it would not bloom again until next Spring so we were excited when  Fall started and our pretty Iris started blooming.  Cas's Mom bought this bird bath for him last Christmas and Cas bought me the little statue sitting in the middle of it.  We were at a nursery in Birmingham and he found it, it is an angel holding a rabbit!  My Mom collected rabbits so this was perfect!  We started on this project this Spring and moved the bird bath in the middle of the yard and and started planting Iris's and purple(one of her fave colors) flowers around it.  We just have to find a bench to put out there.  So Summer is nice because we always have a bunch of pretty flowers blooming but it was just as nice to have these fall blooms!

Adventures in Babysitting

I kept Drew today for Renea while she had a Doctor appointment.......

We read some books, he napped, and swung and then against my better judgement I felt sorry for this critter!

 It was cool outside and we weren't doing anything so I was nice to said pooch and took him and of course Drew outside. I figured Drew and I would rock on the patio and kick the ball for Tag. To make a looong story short I ended up getting locked out of the house with a baby! When I turned the knob it wasn't locked or so I thought (I was later informed that "Yea it does that....sigh....thanks for the tip)
After I realized we were locked out without a phone I was hoping to see the neighbor next door that I know they know. Well she wasn't home and I tried a couple of other neighbors to finally find one of them home. Drew had eaten and been changed but I was worried if we "just sat it out" that he might get upset and need something quick! I just wanted to call Renea and see if she had a hidden key somewhere so incase he needed something ASAP I wouldn't have to break a glass pane on the door (and have to pay for it)! I finally reached her and she was on her way home. She laughed at the whole thing and Drew wasn't phased at all!

Hmm I wonder if he will want to hang with Auntie Melissa again??

He is thinking about it!