Girls Trip - Atlanta 2009

This past weekend I went with 11 (yes, 11!!!) other girls/ladies (never know what I should call everyone else since I hardly qualify as lady) took an overnight trip to Atlanta. Atlanta is a mere 4 hours away from Nashville, and I am ashamed after finally visiting that I haven't gone down before. It was awesome.
The awesome group of girls that me join them.
Front row: Amber, Carmelina, Kelly, me, Jeanna
Back Row: Lisa, Melea, Kelly, Vicki, Mandi, Vadra, Catherine, Nita.

Some highlights from our trip:
-there was a prize for the smallest overnight bag packed. I thought that was a serious competition. I won. By a landslide. I guess it would be more like I won by packing everything I needed in a tiny child's purse and didn't even bring my normal everytihng-in-here-I-can't-live-without-for even-a-trip-to-the-post-office-or-grocery-store honkin' big purse with me. I thought the prize would be some free lipgloss or make-up from Kelly the coupon queen & trip organizer, but no. It was $30 to IKEA. YEAH! {see the group picture and me holding up the tiny white purse? That's ALL I brought. I did manage to fit clean undies in there.}
-we got to go with just friends, no children or husbands, overnight. Some husbands had it worse than others: I had only one munchkin to leave with Tyler, while Mike and Jason had 3 kids each, and Danny had 5 to wrangle sans-mamma.
-we ALL crammed into a 12-passenger van so generously lent by another family at church. It was a VERY loud, cheery ride down and back (OK, slightly more sleepy on the way back).
-ate at Papasito's for dinner. The mango margarita I ordered was spectacular, only to be eclipsed by the fabulous fajitas.
-we stayed at the Westin. Those rooms were AWESOME. Since about half of us stayed up until 2:30, it's a good thing, too. What happened in room 1604 stays in room 1604...
The view of Atlanta from my hotel window.
-IKEA rocked! I zoomed on through in about 2 hours, and went over-budget a little, but not too badly. I got a new fruit bowl for the table that I have been eyeing for quite some time, and some other awesome stuff.

Shennanigans at IKEA. I got several of the girls to pose in their displays. I, of course, pretended to be on the pot.It was just a really fun time together. I would do it again in a heartbeat!

A big thank-you to Heather who lent me a camera for the trip. My new one arrived yesterday, just a bit too late.

Recreated video of today's choice interaction

Maggie picked a colorful word. It's one we both Tyler and I say (I'll cop to saying it more than Tyler, but he does say it from time to time), unfortunately. I love, and hate, that Maggie is a sponge.

Since I don't have a camera at the moment, a recreation will have to do. This website is killer! You can make your own animated movies. This took me about 30 minutes from start to finish. So without further ado, sit back, relax, and DON'T be drinking anything while you watch, you don't want to get any pop on your computer screen.

So This Is Love

Caution: Mushy sentiment below the photo.
You can't see all the dirt, but our hands are caked in car grease. My Explorer has been having some problems lately, and we decided to tackle the spark plugs and wires ourselves to save some money.

So how is this love, you ask? It's love because I agreed to help Tyler after we, put Maggie to bed at night, in the cold, to work on a CAR (EW x 3). It's love because he asked me if I would help him because it would help him out. It's love because we saved $200+ doing it ourselves (based on the quote from Midas). It's love because he let me do some of the work. It's love because we both ENJOYED figuring out how to wiggle our hands into the tight spots to change the plugs and route the new wires. It's love because TOGETHER we got it done in 2 hours, whereas if Tyler had to do it himself it would've taken 4 or more. It's love because we did the whole thing with nary a raised voice (which for everyone that knows us is a miracle from God Himself).

It's love because after almost 10 years of marriage and nearly 15 years together we have FINALLY LEARNED what it means to work in harmony. And it was wonderful! I love you, Tyler. Happy Valentine's Day.

Happy Valentine's Day

I forgot about the webcam. I am such a dork. So here's a cute one with Mama and Maggie.

Still No Camera, But Maggie is Still Cute

This afternoon I said something inane about us getting ready and out the door, and Maggie replied "that makes ANY sense, Mama" - and used it properly even though it's bad grammar (but "that's DOESN'T make any sense" would not have worked as a response to what I said). Then, when I asked her to repeat herself so I could confirm what she said, she said it exactly the same, again. So cute!

Eureka!

Maggie fell asleep in the car today on the way home from a friend's house WITHOUT HER LAMB. That's right - took a nap sans lamb. Yay! I have to say the transition to life without lamb has been pretty much without incident (although I did notice a huge jump in whining for the first week).

Remember this photo? When we picked up New Lamb on one of our trips to Seattle? I reread that post, and I had planned to keep New Lamb hidden until we had to trash Old Lamb. Ha!
I love her eyes in this one, so mischievous! And I love that she has hardly any hair here - she was 16 months in this.

It's all the way dead... waaaah!

My camera has kicked the bucket for sure. I can't get it to work AT ALL now. So until I get my birthday present (can you guess what that will be?) which I am hoping Tyler will let me have early, I'll go through what I do have and post those pictures. And, I've been told that I have to get cheap cameras from now on because I keep dropping them.

In all fairness, the first camera was dropped, and the battery case broken, but tape worked just fine. I had to replace it with this one after our house was burglarized and it was one of the stolen items.
Pictures of the damage, and one of Maggie

Gonna Need a New Camera

My camera, a Canon Powershot S2 IS, is on the fritz. It gets the fatal "e18" error that Canons get. It means either: there is dust/sand/grit in the lens gears, or the gears are out of whack from being dropped. I am betting mine is a combination of both. I have "fixed" it for now - a deliberate whack of frustration on the coffee table after trying all the suggestions I found on websites did help, but I bet my camera is on a slippery slope to the landfill.

So, all my blog readers, would you leave a comment on this post and let me know what kind of camera you have and if you like it? I prefer a cameras that are just a step below an SLR - I like the additional features, but not the hassle. And, I like ones that are heavier feeling. Post away, lurkers, post away.