Tuesday, November 15, 2011

If You Wanted to Know....

Steve graduated from his residency at UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) in June.
We moved from Birmingham to Chico, CA in July.
Steve got an awesome job as an Optometrist at Chico Eye Center, and it is going great!
I'm still a stay-at-home mom for the cutest and funniest little boy, Austin!
And, in April, we'll be having a
GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday, May 29, 2011

The Alabama Bucket List

We're getting ready to move now, and I had a few things left on my Alabama bucket list to do.

But before I get into that, I should probably mention that we are moving to Chico, CA! I feel like I am going home. I was so happy just that Steve had an opportunity to interview at a place in California, because there were a lot of opportunities that we heard about, but not a lot out West. I would have even been okay with it if we went elsewhere, as long as I knew we tried looking in California but it wasn't the right thing for us. Ultimately, I wanted the best opportunity for Steve wherever that might've been, but I'm so, so happy that it is in my home state!

So now to the bucket list: there were a few things that I felt like I just had to do while in The South. This Saturday, I crossed two big ones off my list! One of them was to see a Civil War site/reenactment. I heard of one that only happens twice a year, in Tannehill, Alabama. We went down (about 40 minutes away) and it was awesome! There were cannons, horses, soldiers all dressed up in authentic uniforms, and even a confederate band! We watched a battle (where the South rose again, I might add) and we drank "Ole Doc Bell's Wizard Elixir", aka homemade Root Beer and Birch Beer, and we loved it! On our way home, while watching the Alabama countryside fly by, we were sad to see many very large trees that were uprooted and blown over from the tornadoes, not to mention the homes that were damaged and rooftops covered by tarps.

The other thing we crossed off my bucket list was going to Bojangles (a restaurant chain here in Alabama, originally out of S. Carolina). So we did that on the way home, since we saw one right off the highway. It was so good! It was basically biscuit sandwiches and southern sides. But the best part? A fried sweet potato pie! YUM! Too bad I didn't know about these sooner....or maybe that's a good thing.

Check out all our pictures from the day, we can prove these have been crossed off the list! It's been a great Alabama weekend, and it's not even over yet!

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Wow, so in re-reading my previous post, right after I talk about academic stuff, blah blah blah....there are these glaring grammatical errors. Fantastic! I blame it on being sick at the time. Anyway, I read on someone else's blog a fun post idea: a 'like & dislike list'. I think I will make one of my own.

Likes:
*Spring
*Weather in the 60s+
*A just-cleaned bathroom
*A favorite TV show to watch just when the baby goes down for a nap
*A baby who loves to be outside just as much as his mom
*A room with lots of windows
*Singing with a choir
*Making progress on crafty projects
*Sunday naps
*Cookies without nuts
*Road trips
*Historical Sites
*Going out to eat
*Hosting friends/family at our house
*People who tell me my baby is cute
*Playing tennis in perfect weather
*The shampoo they give you before a haircut

Dislikes:
*Doing Austin's laundry
*Dishcloths
*Dog poop all over the area in front of my patio
*The last portion of cereal left in the box no one wants to eat
*Mealy bugs
*Overtime
*Cooking dinner
*No good prime time TV
*Moving
*Drying my hair (monotonous!)
*Allergies
*Cold weather
*Rude people
*Messes (mostly cleaning them up)
*Raw meat
*Houses painted ridiculous colors on the outside


Well, that's all I can think of for now, but I'm sure I'll be adding an addendum later.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Projects and the Good Ol' Days

Well, it seems like we only get to the blog when we're sick--probably because it slows us down from the normal day-to-day. Today, we are all sick, including Smingers--he has sneezed in BOTH mine and Steve's faces during his kitty-cold, which is disgusting. Austin seems to be getting better, and Steve probably has the furthest to go, because he got the bug last. Since we missed church so we wouldn't get anyone else sick, I started going through my old stuff that I've been meaning to scrapbook, starting from when Steve and I started dating in college. It was so funny to look back on all that stuff--we were always writing each other little notes, scrawling little jokes on scrap pieces of paper. I even saved little post cards or plane tickets from trips we went on, which I am actually glad I did, because I didn't remember half of it! The only problem is, all these 8+ years later, I STILL haven't organized it into an actual book. (P.S., I am not a scrapbooker. If I can just staple them into the book with a few captions and headings, that will be a really great feat for me.) Let's hope that I can get this project done while I have time and the will to do it!

While looking through all the college stuff, I have to say that looking back, college was fun--but much funner socially than academically! Being very academically driven like I was, I took all my classes probably way to seriously. It paid off--I never even got a "B" at BYU-I, but I would get way stressed-out and study A LOT. So I am really content with my life right now and happy with what I'm doing now--taking care of Austin, deciding for myself how I will spend my time, and ever, ever grateful for finding something that I loved, getting a degree in it, and being able to use it in every day life however much (or little) I want! I love that there are so many opportunities out there to learn more about plants and ways to teach others about them too. I hope I don't take any of them for granted!