Jan 31, 2012

Announcement

A little poem...

I do not have a face to see or put inside a frame.
I do not have soft cheeks to kiss; I don't yet have a name.

You can't hold my tiny hands, nor whisper in my ear.
It's still too soon to sing a song, or cuddle me so near.

But all will change come October 6th, when they say I'm due.
For I'll be your son or daughter when I finally meet you.



Ok there it is, I can't hold it in any longer.


Baby Jones is due this fall :)

Jan 27, 2012

I LoVe ThE sKy!!

DAWN
 
 
 
 
DAYLIGHT
 
 
 
 
 
DUSK
 
 
 
 
NIGHT
 
 
 
 
NATURE'S FURY
 
 
 
 
 
 
No matter if it's light or dark, quiet or loud....the sky is amazingly beautiful
 
 
 

Jan 25, 2012

Happy Birthday Trevor!

At 12:15am 16yrs ago, a little baby boy by the name of Trevor was born, my very own little brother (of course he was Michael's little brother too). I couldn't believe it, there he was just a few ounces shy of 6lbs and perfectly healthy.

The years passed and my admiration for this cute boy continued to grow and grow. Although he would annoy me sometimes when I had friends over - he was determined to get in my business, he was always my buddy. If we weren't watching Thomas the Tank, we were watching Toy Story (and even sometimes Teletubbies). Trevor and I were closer than Michael and I ever attempted (although we are close now and I'm very thankful). Trevor followed me around and annoyed the heck out of me, but deep down I always loved him and I still do.

I was of course happy to be present during his first trip to Disney World, I think I may have even been more excited for him than I was myself. It was during our trip to Disney that he broke his fear of roller coasters and rode every.single.one.


Happy 16th Birthday to the best younger brother, ever! I love you Trevor ;)

A heavy heart

A friend of mine from work had some horrible news yesterday. 
 
She went in for her routine 16w check up, but when the nurse hooked up the heart monitor she couldn't find a heartbeat. 
They found her little baby on the ultrasound, but he/she wasn't moving, just curled up sleeping soundly. 
They scheduled her to deliver today. 
 
I can't imagine experiencing a miscarriage, and I certainly can't wrap my head around having to deliver the baby as if you were 9mos along. 
 
 
Good luck today Kristin.  You are in my thoughts.
 

Jan 24, 2012

Unbelievable

Here are some photo's of houses that were destroyed in yesterday's EF3 tornado.
 
 
Location: Clay, AL
 
Storm damage-2, 1/23/2012
 
Storm damage-2, 1/23/2012
 
Storm damage-2, 1/23/2012
 
Storm damage-2, 1/23/2012
 
Storm damage-2, 1/23/2012
 
 

Jan 23, 2012

Thinking of Alabama...

I got a text from my mom early this morning saying they had a tornado. I thought it was a joke, because this IS January, right?!? Unfortunately it wasn't a joke.

Luckily they had mild damage compared to other places even as close as 1/2mi away. There are roughly 35,000 without power and a lot of people are even without homes. My mom lives in Jefferson County which is where the worst of this seemed to occur.

Currently the death toll is at 2, and many injuries have been reported.

Please keep my family and all of the other families in Alabama in your thoughts and prayers today and the weeks to come as they rebuild.

Jan 22, 2012

This girl rocks

Hardy found this video last week from one of the music websites he frequents (he's a huge metal-head). 

I think this might very well be the cutest/coolest 8yr old EVER.  This is a short video of Juliet singing about her dog, Robert and her stinky fish.  I think my favorite part of the entire clip is her "mosh" pit composed of stuffed animals on a trampoline while she jumps.  This girl has got some cute faces!


Jan 20, 2012

Instakitty

Tinker Bell was in the mood for a photo shoot and I was happy to assist...with the camera needs of course

Weekly recap

This is going to be a sour-puss post...sorry


- I hate income taxes, so much. We might end up canceling our trip to Disney :(

- I have a zit the size of Stone Mountain on my chin and it has a 10mi radius of pain.

- Our house payment increased for the escrow fluctuation....never fun

- I've been crampy the last two days and it's making me ill.

- I think all of this rain is to blame for sadness and overall depressed feelings. You know with snow everyone smiles (almost everyone).

- I'm behind on laundry.

- Flower keeps trying to dominate Tinker Bell and it's driving me nuts! I hate hearing them wrestle in the night and howl/growl.

- I feel bad for complaining because I know somewhere someone has it nug worse. I should be more thankful.

So bla bla bla. And wah wah wah

Oh yea :)

Breaking Dawn Part 1 comes out on dvd/blu ray Saturday February 11th!
 
What a great Valentine's gift to myself ha ha
 

Inspiration

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Jan 19, 2012

SOPA/PIPA

Did you happen to notice yesterday several websites were "down".  Google's logo was blacked out, Wikipedia would let you search, but then quickly turned to a blocked page. 
 
What these two websites and many others were doing was protesting SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) - this is a bill that if made a law, would give the U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders ability to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods.
 
The original proposal would allow the U.S. Department of Justice to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement.  Depending on who makes the request, the court order could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators from conducting business with the "allegedly" infringing websites.  It would also bar search engines from linking to such sites, and further require internet service providers to block access.  The bill would grant immunity to internet services that voluntarily take action against websites dedicated to infringement.
 
If this bill is passed to censor the internet it would be a direct violation of the First Amendment.  This would highly effect user-friendly sites such as YouTube, Etsy, Flickr and VimeoThis would also mean legislation would enable law enforcement to take down an entire domain (such as blogspot) due to something posted on ONE single blog. 
 
How does that sound??  Punishing an ENTIRE community for 1 minority??  Nonsense.......seriously what is our country coming to?
 

Jan 17, 2012

Disney fever

To say I'm excited for Disney World is an understatement...
...I'm antsy
...thrilled
...anxious
...impatient!
I'm ready to go NOW and possibly never return.  I was thinking I could show up in a Pocahontas costume with my hair in braids and see if they would just hire me on the spot as an actor?!  I doubt it...I'm not nearly slender enough for Pocahontas.
It doesn't help that I torture myself at work and listen to the Walt Disney World soundtrack we bought a few years back.  It's a two disc set with songs from all of the parks. 
Some of my favorites:
Soarin' (theme from Soarin' in Epcot) 
One Little Spark (theme from Journey Into Imagination w/ Figment)
***I absolutely love this ride and sing along when we ride it!
Swisskapolka (theme from Swiss Family Robinson tree house)
Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me) (theme from the obvious, Pirate's of the Caribbean)
Grim Grinning Ghosts (theme from The Haunted Mansion)
***One of my top 5 favorite rides from Disney
It's a Small World (theme from It's a Small World)
***You have to love this song, I don't care who you are!
Star Tours (theme from Star Tours at Hollywood Studios)
***They recently updated this ride, I'm curious to see if the soundtrack is the same
Indiana Jones (theme from Indiana Jones stunt show)
There's A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (theme from Carousel of Progress)
***This ride, even though not as thrilling as a roller coaster, will always be one of my favorites and it's another one you can sing along to.
Energy Adventure Medley (theme from Ellen's Energy Adventure)
***Another one of my favorites! 

Jan 16, 2012

Yummie food

One day last week I was at Publix after work and passed the seafood section, normally I keep on walking because I can't stand the smell, but that day I decided to stop and get 1/2lb of peeled/de-veined shrimp. I took it home and asked Hardy to try and make shrimp scampi, I figured it would be easiest. I've never cooked shrimp myself, unless it was in one of those frozen dinners (Voila, Contessa..etc).

In my opinion, the outcome was better than Red Lobster and that says a lot considering that's the only place I'll eat shrimp (I hate cold shrimp and fried shrimp). Since I found it so tasty, I thought I'd share the ingredients...he added all of these without measurement, so feel free to go over or under.


Hardy's Shrimp Scampi

-Shrimp (peeled/de-veined)
-White wine
-Paprika
-Parsley
-Melted butter (we used 2 tablespoons)
-Minced garlic

He mixed all of this together in a bowl with the shrimp while heating some oil in a pan on the oven. Add shrimp to pan (remaining juices and all) and cook till opaque/pink.

We ate a salad and baked potato with it and that seemed perfect, but I'm sure it would be tasty on some pasta too.

Jan 15, 2012

Golden Globes

I don't generally like award shows except to see some of my favorite actors/actresses/musicians.

Within the first 20mins of tonight's awards I saw the beautiful (in my opinion) Johnny Depp :) so my night was pretty much set!

I was also so excited, the one and only award I was crossing my fingers for was Jessica Lange for best supporting actress in American Horror Story - and she won!!

Screenshot of Jessica Lange playing Constance Langdon on AHS.

Jan 13, 2012

A little Journey to get you through the day

 
About 6yrs ago I bought Journey's Greatest Hits after hearing Separate Ways almost every day on a local radio station.  Most people only know of Don't Stop Believing, but Journey has a ton of great songs.  I can listen to this album from start to finish repeatedly.  It is an especially GREAT listen while I'm at work, it's soft enough to play throughout the day without interrupting anyone else.  So if you're a fan of "soft-rock" so to speak or 80s' music in general, if you don't own this CD you're missing out.
 
Just sayin'
 

Its a blustery day

Winnie the Pooh: Happy "Winds-day", Piglet.

Piglet: Well... it isn't... very happy... f-for me.

Winnie the Pooh: Where are you going, Piglet?

Piglet: That's what I'm asking myself, where?