Friends

I was sitting here the other day thinking about this post. I count myself blessed to have so many friends that I could call and have help me at a moment's notice. While this is a blessing, I sometimes feel like I don't have any friends, weird huh? I sit on my computer and talk to people. I'll sit and talk to my husband. I'll talk to people while at work. And yet, here I sit while at my mom's and have only seen friends who happen to be visiting others while in Nebraska too. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining by any means, but what happened to the days of spending all our time with friends? I look at my oldest son whom I've hardly seen the last few days because he's been hanging out with his old friends. Lucky him. Why as adults we don't do that? Is it because of our own priorities in our lives? Are we too busy for our friends? Do we rely too much on technology these days to communicate for us?
I just happened to be thinking about all this the other day, and I think it was because I miss my friends here in Omaha. While that that's true, I truly appreciate and care for all my new friends that I've been fortunate to meet since moving to Georgia. Maybe it's just because of the different paths we seem to take now as adults.
I am just so thankful for all the people I consider my FRIEND :-)

Best Shot Monday

The boys and I headed to St. Louis to meet up with mom this past weekend. We had some time, so we decided to go up in the Arch. This is one of my favorites from the visit.

I can't wait!!!

Tomorrow I am headed to St. Louis to meet my mom!! She's going to take the boys and me back to Nebraska with her for a few weeks. I am looking forward to seeing friends and my baby sis ;-)
While we're in St. Louis for a few hours, I'm hoping to take the boys up in the Arch. I'll post pictures of our time in Nebraska and in July, the boys get to spend a couple of weeks in Arkansas with my in-laws. Gotta love some kid-free time!! Can't wait for the next couple of weeks!!

Friday Fill-ins 6/19

If you'd like to play along, click here

1. All children alarm their parents, if only because you are forever expecting them to do something completely uncharacteristic.

2. Show me a good loser and I will show you a bridge for sale in Brooklyn.

3. Scrapbooking and hanging out with friends is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs at one time.

4. Too bad that all the people who know how to run the country are busy spending our money and not listening the people.

5. I have yet to hear a man ask for advice on how to combine work and family.

6. It is impossible to think of any good meal, no matter how plain or elegant, without salt or pepper in it.

7. As for the weekend, tonight I am looking forward to seeing my mom in St. Louis, tomorrow my plans include heading back to Omaha with my mom, and Sunday, I want to relax and see my sister.

As we get older...

I think we really do get wiser...lol ;-)
I was thinking about this post today while I was working out. If I would have known 15 years ago that I would be so concerned about my health and such, I probably would have not eaten so much fast food in college...lol.

We joined Lifetime Fitness last month, and we have all enjoyed going together as a family. Alex is excited about his birthday in August since he will be considered an "adult" at Lifetime, so he'll be able to hang out upstairs with Cory and I on the machines and weights. Today, I was pretty proud of myself. While the weight may not be coming off as quickly as I'd like, there are other benefits for me. I was able to run on the treadmill for quite a while today. Doesn't really sound like much of an accomplishment, but I used to not be able to handle even a minute. My endurance is increasing, and I know that in the long run I will get to my goal.

Just need to keep pluggin' away....

Shimmerz Blog Hop and Prize

My lovely enabling friend, Kendra, just introduced me to the world of Shimmerz. :-)
They are having a blog hop to celebrate their first birthday.

You can check it out here.

Pictures Part III

After spending the day at Fernbank Museum, we headed downtown to Turner Field. The Milwaukee Brewers were in town, so Cory wanted to cheer for the home team (he's from Kenosha about an hour from Milwaukee)

I went up to the top of the stadium and took this picture.

Atlanta Skyline from the top of Turner Field.

These benches are up near the top of the stadium. The view of downtown was from these benchnes. The boys thought they were fun to sit on.

One of my BFFs from college - Christy. She's an associate professor at a university in Pennsylvania, and was in Birmingham visiting her in-laws. We haven't seen each other since before she moved to Pennsylvania. It was so good to see her and her family. The kids all got along great - especially Ian and Michael, they were the best of friends all day long.

Pictures Part II

What's more fun in summer than hanging out and swimming?

The boys would stay in the pool all day, everyday if we let them.

Catching Up on Pictures

I was able to upload some recent pictures from the last couple of weeks. I've blogged about them, but thought I would finally catch up on posting them though for you to see too.This is one of the first views of Tallulah Gorge at Tallulah Falls State Park.

Cory and the boys at the Gorge.

These are near Hurricane Falls, the largest waterfall at Tallulah Falls.

I'll post a few others in my next post ;-)

Best Shot Monday

I have been reading my friend Jayne's blog, and she's been playing along with Best Shot Monday. My dear hubby took this picture for me yesterday when we were enjoying the sculpture garden at the Birmingham Museum of Art.

I love how the reflections of the painting and the tree show up in the reflection.

Friday Fill-ins 6/12

1. I grew up thinking that I wanted to be a teacher, wife, and mother.

2. My iGoogle page was the last website I was at before coming here.

3. Why don't you clean your room? (I sound like a broken record everyday saying this)

4. Cory's hugs help me relax.

5. Thanks for the memories.

6. (not sure what to put in the blank here that) was off-putting.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I am looking forward to recovering from spending the day scrapbooking at Archiver's with SS friends, tomorrow my plans include a trip to Lifetime, and Sunday, I want to also go to Lifetime and hope to scrap a few more pages.


If you want to play along with Friday Fill-ins, click here

So today was...

my birthday. Nothing too exciting, but I can celebrate another year of blessings (which reminds me, I am behind on doing pages for that album). I am excited though to spend time with Cory and the boys. We really do all get along and enjoy being together. It makes a difference when there is no other family around.
I am planning on meeting one of my BFFs, Jen, for coffee tomorrow though. We haven't seen each other for a few days (even though we're less than 10 minutes from each other). Friday I am planning on meeting some other friends at Archiver's to socialize and maybe get some scrapbooking done. If all goes well, I may even get to see a best friend from college who will be in Birmingham this weekend. It's been years since we've seen each other and just recently found each other on Facebook (gotta love technology). Hopefully, her schedule will permit a visit :-)
Anyway, life is good and I am enjoying yet another year!!!

Today's Adventure

Gotta love summertime! The weather is gorgeous and, for some reason, we tend to do things that we don't do any other time of year.
Today, Cory, the boys and I headed to downtown Atlanta. We spent some time at Fernbank Museum (we had bought a family membership a couple of months ago). The boys love the science room. They get to make these giant soap bubbles (if I could upload pics from my camera, I would share with ya), get to see how a tornado is made, play with a "lightening" ball, and sit in one those concave seats to talk across the room to each other. Cory ends up having just as much as the boys since he loves all that science stuff.
I finally got to see their rose garden in bloom. I just love roses. They smelled and looked so pretty. Ian probably would have picked me a couple if we wouldn't have told him that was not allowed.

After the trip to the musuem, we ate dinner at Alex's favorite drive-in --The Varsity (America's oldest drivein). It is not the best food by any account, but the boys, especially Alex, love it. The onion rings are pretty good, and Cory has become a fan of the slaw dogs. I'll stick with my burgers.

After dinner, we headed to Turner Field for our first Braves game. The Milwaukee Brewers are in town, and since I am married to a Cheesehead, we had to go this weekend (he wouldn't have minded seeing the Cubbies earlier this week either). We had pretty good seats down the first base line. We did end up walking around the stadium during the game since we had not been there before and I wanted to get a good picture of the giant Coke bottle and Chick-fil-A Cow out in left field. We did manage to get a couple of nice pictures of the field, and the Atlanta skyline from the told of the field. There were even these giant Coke bottle shaped benches you could sit on and look at downtown on (once again, I wish I could post a pic or two for ya).
We had a good time, and the Brewers won (Prince Fielder hit 2 homeruns). Can't wait to go to a Gwinnett Braves game now (they are just down the road from us).

Friday Fill-ins 6/5

I haven't played along on a Friday in a while. If you want to play, click here

1. I love my new Georgia home.

2. My favorite thing for dinner lately has been salads.

3. So glad that I don't have to listen to bark! bark! bark!

4. A nice long walk at the Greenway is something we all enjoy doing.

5. I love hearing some good news.

6. When all is said and done, I love my life and wouldn't trade or do anything differently.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I am looking forward to doing something with the boys, tomorrow my plans include nothing right now, and Sunday I want to go to Lifetime.

Best Friends

Isn't it nice to have friends whom you can go months without talking to and then pick up with as if all that time hadn't gone by? Although sometimes those months go by and you do realize that you miss your friends and should probably call them or email them.
Today was a great day :-)
I had a surprise IM pop up from a best friend whom I haven't talked to in months. I was so happy to talk to her again. I realize that I probably should have picked up the phone and called or tried to IM her, but I didn't. I won't make that mistake again. My dear husband, being the wise logical one of the two of us, so often reminds me that I need to quit thinking that people are mad at me or something and just talk to them. How'd he get to know me so well?!

Anyway, I am so glad that I talked to my friend today. I have missed talking to her the last couple of months.

One of many lazy summer days

Summer is a such nice time to catch up and hang out with friends. To not worry about the time or anything.

Today the boys and I headed over to Kennesaw to see my good friend, Marta. It's been a few weeks since I've seen her, so it was nice to chat and catch up with each other. The boys had a great time swimming in her pool. She has all the cool toys for the boys to play with (pool, Wii, PS system).
I also took her my dead hard drive to see if her fiancee could salvage my files. Cory doesn't have what he needs to try and recover the files, so hopefully Marta's fiancee can help. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. If not, does someone know a good computer person who can help?! :-)

I'll catch up and post some pictures tomorrow.

Forgot to mention....

That Cory and I celebrated our 13th anniversary yesterday. I cannot believe that it has been that long. The time has flown by so quickly.
I cherish the years we've had together and look forward to all that life has in store for us.

Has it really been that long?

Well, here goes another new year resolution out the window....lol.

I had every intention of blogging about my non-exciting life everyday, but evidently my non-exciting life has kept me away for quite some time.

I guess my last entry was on Ian's birthday. He had a great time celebrating with a couple of friends at Chuck E. Cheese and then proceeded to stay up until 3:30am with E. :-) Wish I had his energy some days.

Spring break was the first full week of April. Mom was able to come visit and spend the week with us. It was so nice to see her again for the first time since moving. It was hard to say goodbye at the airport :-( Hopefully, the boys and I will be able to get to Nebraska here in a couple of weeks.

May brought the end of school for the boys and I. Both Alex and Ian did really well this year. I was proud to see how well they both did academically (both on honor roll all year). They loved their schools and will miss them next year. They are both excited to start new schools again though in August (our address was part of a re-districting before we moved. Their new schools open in August).
I finished up my first year teaching down here in Georgia. I loved every minute of it, including the fact that I spent the year in a trailer. I will be teaching advanced algebra (11th &12th graders) next year and also have my own classroom inside the building (no more trailer :-( which I'm kinda sad about. I was close to the main office and copy room. Now I'll be at the other end of campus). But I am excited for next year already.
My doctoral classes are still going on. I am in week 6 of my current class. I am looking forward to getting back to work on my dissertation. I encountered a road bump in that process, but it will work itself out and all will be good again.

Other than the occassional trip to the pool or Lifetime Fitness (we joined last month, and we are all enjoying it), our summer has been uneventful.
Oh, we did take an improptu trip last Saturday. I found information about one of the state parks here in Georgia, so we thought it would be fun to go exploring. Tallulah Gorge was gorgeous! Once I can upload the pics from my camera, I will post them (my hard drive that stored my pics died on me, and I am hoping to recover all those pics. In the mean time, I need to reload my photo software, so I can upload from my camera again.)

Well, thanks for sticking with me thus far in my posting. I should be back tomorrow ;-)