So, I no longer work for TLS! I can't tell you how excited I am. I thought the day would never come. I interviewed with the Girl Scouts of North-Central Alabama about two months ago and never heard anything from them. It was a tough interview, but I thought I would really do well at the job. Well, as you can imagine, from the picture to the right, I was offered the job on Monday. I didn't want to post incase anyone was "watching". Yesterday I handed in my resignation. It was a great feeling to finally have that cloud lifted from over my head. I've heard all sorts of things are being said about me, but I don't care. They were already being said before. I'm so much better than that place was letting me be. Today I am going shopping for clothes for my new job. I'm the Community Development Manager for the City of Madison, Decatur, Cullman and Hartselle. I get to work from my office in Huntsville or from home. Have great hours and benefits. It's wonderful!

Seester Came to Visit

So, Jess has come and gone. But here is a picture of the two of us! I miss her already! Tomorrow is her 21st birthday. It's hard to believe the youngest of all of us is 21! We're turning in to old farts! We had a great visit and have made wonderful headway in getting her and Andrew to move to the Huntsville area! Now we just have to wait two years for her to graduate and get married. Time will fly.

The Fourth

The 4th of July has come and gone, which unfortunately means work is creeping closer every minute. How I dread to go back! Last night was fun. The fam and Ash and Lucas got together and played some beer pong. Mom was pretty good. Dad, not so much, but very entertaining. Andrew, Jess's fiance got a little "tipsy" as he was calling it and we ended the night with my mother force feeding Dan and Andrew shots of Strohl. Needless to say, the two of them are definitely feeling the effects today. We had our own private fireworks show too. The next door neighbor, Ed, was shooting of some crazy expensive fireworks. Had to have cost him about a $1000.00 easily. Also seemed pretty dangerous, but better him than me. Other than my dad's habit of not cooking burgers all the way through, I think the Linares had an okay time. I'm glad they came over so my parents could meet them. Ashley brought some great pasta salad, a kind I've never had before and these cake balls that will be the blame for my 10 lb increase in the next day. I still have no idea how she made them. I made guacamole and spinach artichoke dip because they are Jess's fav's. Today Jess and Andrew are coming over to go eat lunch and we are celebrating her 21st (with cake not beer) tonight. That's the recap, I will get pictures from Jessie and Ashley to post soon.

YAY!

Seester and her fiance, Andrew have arrived safely! Ashley and I had some great Long Islands last night...and my last day of work for the week has arrived. Tomorrow is the Fourth of July and it will be great. Cookout over and Mom and Dad's. Jess, Andrew, Dan, Ashley and Lucas are going to be there. I'm very excited! That's all for now!

We're Safe

So, we made it through the camping/canoeing trip in one piece. That's the good news. The trip was actually really great. We got an excellent camping site right next to the river. I helped Dan pitch his first tent ever. Our tent and Aida & Chris' tent were the same size. Ashley and Lucas showed up with Hotel Linares as their tent! Dan and I brought a blow up matress, so we caught hell for that. The others had to sleep on rocks in their sleeping bags. Either way, after we set up camp we headed down to the river. I think it's safe to say everyone had begun the hydrating process. So, coolers in hand, we headed out. It was a ton of fun. We stopped at a waterfall not ten minutes into our 8 mile trip. It was beautiful, so of course, we had to get out and take pictures (after the climb). For awhile it was just the usual, floating, swimming, jumping off dangerous rocks and ropes, stopping to shotgun some drinks...then we got out and Ashley's shoe got sucked right off of her foot into the river--not even the river, the mud! We dug for about 20 minutes, which just shows how much we love her (and by we, I mean Aida and I...the boys were not helpful). Following that, Ashley continued to canoe with one shoe. We got about 3/4 of the way done and stopped to climb another rock wall to make a jump. Ashley tried, I tried. We failed. SO Ash was standing barefoot on a rock when suddenly she went crashing down. It looked like she had cracked her head open, but no worries, just her chin! She chipped a tooth too. It was bleeding but wasn't too bad, but we hurried the rest of our float along to get back to camp. After we got back, we realized we didn't have anything left to drink, so Ashley and I took a drive "to town". Half an hour later we arrived to find it was a DRY county. Two very helpful bag boys sent us on our way across the county line. An hour and a half later we returned to camp. Dan was sleeping. Lucas and Chris were already hungover and Ashley and I were grouchy from lack of food. We ate. We slept. No games, no smores. The moral of the story: Don't drink all your drinks before you get back to camp!



So, two days have passed and now I am finding the results of drinking and canoeing. I hurt places I didn't know could hurt and I have bruises and cuts in even more! It was well worth it though, and we are already planning another trip. I think we will camp first though, and then maybe plan a canoeing trip. We have to ease ourselves into these weekends!



On another note, played a mixed doubles match tonight with my crapped out racquet. Won in a third set tie breaker! Woot woot.



I'm up working and it's late. I need to put down the coffee cup. That's all for now.

Camping Trip Essentials

So last night, I got an email from Ashley (you will all be hearing a lot about her since she's one of the only normal people I have met), explaining the essential items we needed to bring on our camping/canoeing trip tomorrow. The list goes something like this (ranked by importance):

1. Drinks (Beer or girly drinks, you might want to throw a couple bottles of water in there)

2. Snacks

3. Tent/Blankets

4. Did we mention bring drinks???

So, tonight after dinner with my parents (more on that later), we headed to get the essentials. I made the first stop, after calling Ashley and Lucas to discuss just how much we would need. Of course, that's still TBD. I had to stop at Publix in Madison because at the Wal-Mart in Athens where we live they don't sell alcohol! Then off to Wally World with Dan where we got a tent, bug spray, and of course....a cooler for those ever so important drinks. Oh, and we got food. Very healthy assortment of cookies, chips and hot dogs. Yum!

So now, here I am up late, when I have to be in Ardmore (Tennessee for my Virginia folks) to meet Aida, Chris and the Linares. Then off to BFE we go. Should be fun! If you don't see a post for awhile, send out the search dogs. That's all for now.