A-Day in Auburn

Meredith and I decided to go to A-Day in Auburn today because the reality of going to many/any games with baby in tow are highly unlikely! We left B'ham at about 8:30 am to make sure we made it to our friends tailgate on time. When we arrived at the top level of the parking deck by the stadium, no tailgate was to be found! So I called Steve, and he admitted that they were running behind, and that he "dropped the ball". Meredith agreed with him wholeheartedly, and so did I. Boiling peanuts before a game is fine, as long as you start HOURS before the game, not MINUTES. After a brief tailgate with no food, we went into the game and had lots of fun. Every time I go back to Auburn I am reminded why, of all the places I have been, it is still near the top. In the car Meredith and I talked about how we missed it, but it looks very different in the 4+ years we have been gone! The A-Day game left me even more excited about our team this year, and I think the players are more excited than ever. You could just see it on the field; everybody is getting a chance to show what they can do. We drove back after the game :( and stayed home and watched some good movies. I Am Legend was good and scary; Into the Wild was phenomenal! I highly recommend that movie to anyone who has ever had the desire to set out on a journey and not know where you will end up. Got to get dressed for church now!

I wish we could have her parents declared "unfit"

For the past few days, we were blessed to babysit our dogneice, Chloe. She is such a sweet, pretty dog! She is very well behaved, and she just LOVES me and Hays. Mostly Hays, but she likes me too. She is very needy, and doesn't have any idea that she is as big as she is. She has to follow you everywhere and sit in your lap most of the time. Every time we would walk out of the door and come back inside, she would give us hugs, where she literally puts her front legs around your waist and hugs you!

Alan and Sandi came back through town yesterday and spent the night. They were taking her home today, and I am going to miss her! Here are some very sweet pictures:

She sure does love her uncle Hays! I have a sneaking suspicion that he likes her too, just a little.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

My mom is in the process of remodeling her bathrooms, and she is completing them one at a time. Here are some pictures of the first one, all finished. I picked out the towels and curtains (shower and window). I wish I had a "before" pic to show you, but all you have to do is picture what it would look like if someone threw up Pepto Bismol and then called it "pink tile." This is much better, and it is so pretty!




Here is a funny fact! I didn't exactly know that you had to turn the water knob in a different direction to make the water warmer, so I had a very lukewarm shower on Easter Sunday! These are facts you should tell those you love, if it so happens that your shower may be confusing.

Shower the People

Let me explain...yesterday morning when I was in the laying in bed not wanting it to be Monday, I hear Meredith struggling with the shower in the bathroom. I pop out of bed completely expecting to be able to solve the problem with a little elbow grease and some manliness, and seconds later walked away defeated and concerned. When we turned on the bath faucet and tried to turn the knob for the shower to start, all we heard was a rattling/vibrating/sputtering/knocking noise from inside the wall, and no water was coming out of the showerhead. All I could picture at that moment was a leaky pipe expelling massive amounts of water into the wall's interior (made worse by not knowing what the heck was wrong). So Meredith agreed to take a bath instead of a shower. This posed a major problem for me. Last time I took a real "bath" I don't think I was old enough to know my name. I decided instead to use the guest room shower, which turned out to have the same exact problem! I was almost to the point of walking out back and showering with the gardenhose, but there was enough of a trickle from the showerhead to clean up. Going back to the bath thing, if any man tells you he just took a "bath", you should immediately be suspicious of his character. Men were not created to desire a "bath". With that being said, it turns out the problem with the showers was that there was air in the water lines, so I turned off the mater main, ran all the faucets/showers in the house until they ran dry (also purging said air in pipes), turned the water back on, and magically, the showers returned to their previous mediocrity of water pressure. Better than a "bath", I guess! In my careful planning of this process, I turned off the water heater in the outside storage closet to alleviate the risk of burning it up if it were to run dry during the experiment. Well, guess what I didn't do yesterday? TURN IT BACK ON! So this morning Meredith had what I can only presume as a lukewarm shower at best. After she showered, I proceeded to turn it back on and let it warm up. Folks, you have never felt a shower this cold! I stuck my bare leg in expecting a hot blast of shower water and was welcomed with arctic sub-zero water. It's kind of like ordering a Coke from a fast-food place, taking that first sip and expecting Coke, and getting unsweet tea. An instantaneous shock followed by immediate disappointment. I got dressed, ran outside into the 33 degree temp, and flipped to breaker back to "ON", and enjoyed my ice shower. Oh yeah, shampoo also doesn't wash out very well at that temperature. I can only pray that my next few mornings aren't so eventful

Moral of the Story: Don't take plumbing or hot water heaters for granted, you will miss them when you are without!

Stuff White People Like

I came across this website http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com somehow and it is HILARIOUS! It is a list of stuff that white people like, and an explanation of why they like it. I guarantee that it will remind you of yourself or someone you know!
I did not watch much of the Bachelor last night, but I have it DVR'd and I will watch it tonight somehow, between American Idol and Dancing With the Stars. Don't tell me what happened!
I am hoping that Hays will post about the incident with our water pipes yesterday. The scary noises alone are worth blogging about!

How could I forget?

I forgot to mention in my previous post that we stayed at the same hotel as the 34th Annual Atheists Convention, so there were some interesting characters there. I didn't speak with any of them, but some of them were quite weird, and some of them were completely normal looking. Needless to say, mixing a bunch of conservative Southern men with a bunch of atheists was a sight to see.

Minneapolis and Back!

I just took my first trip to Minneapolis, and I have to say it seems like a pretty cool place, that is if you aren't looking at it through a conference window! My company had a 3-day training session up there, so I began my journey at 4:15 on Wednesday morning when my alarm went off. My morning didn't exactly get started off right, because when I was standing in line to put all my stuff in the grey boxes (you know, to run it through the x-ray), there was an opening at the front of the table where I could load up my stuff, so I proceeded to do so. In my tired state, I guess I was unaware that I "cut in line", because I sensed eyes burning into the back of my head. I turned around and saw one of the most hideous old men in this galaxy scowling at me, and proceeded to smile and say "How are you?". He stared at me (scowl continued) and said with every bone of seriousness in his body, "I was fine until you jumped in front of me!". For some reason, my triggered response was "WELL, EXCUUUUSSE ME!!". Then I moved my stuff and let him by, ignoring the other people I broke in front of.

Moral of the Story: At 5:15 in the morning, there is no such thing as "airport etiquette.

I had a layover in Memphis, and because of the storm system that was passing through that morning, I sat quietly in my airplane seat on both flights choking back the urge to puke due to the turbulence. Turbulence + mild claustrophobia= unpleasant trip. When we arrived in Minneapolis, needless to say, I was relieved. I will spare the boring details of the conference, but we did take a stretch limo to the Mall of America, which was slightly less grandiose than I expected. It is really just a big mall with a small amusement park in the atrium. I think I covered every square foot of the mall, and I noticed quite a few stores that had 3 to 4 locations IN THE SAME MALL. There were 2 GameStop stores and 4 Lids stores (hat store). I thought that was a nice tribute to our lazy society. We ate at Rainforest Cafe, which was fun if you enjoy eating with fake gorillas staring at you. The only other 2 notable events were as follows: at the dinner Thursday night, we were treated to some "surprise entertainment", which turned out to be a Hawaiian, ex-NFL defensive tackle named Ezra something singing karaoke for about 30 minutes. This quite possibly may have been one of the more bizarre experiences of my existence. Initially, I was thinking, "oh, this guy must be a really good singer!". Boy, was I wrong. His opener was Alicia Keys' "No One", and I have to say that "No One" else, especially male, should ever be allowed to sing that song. He then sang some Carpenters song and James Blunt's "You're Beautiful". Soon after that I think I blacked out and began bleeding out of my ears. Fortunately, the entertainment didn't last long. After the performance, someone told me that they thought he was the player who came out of the closet on 60 Minutes, and I can't say I was surprised by that information. The final highlight was the 4-6 inches of snow we got on Friday. Seeing lots of fresh snow in a big city is really beautiful as long as you can return home to a snowless environment when you please. To summarize, I recommend a weekend trip to Minneapolis when no conferences are involved and you have time to explore. I would also recommend going when it snows, because there doesn't appear to be a reason to be there in the summer!

Eating, sleeping, watching movies, and cleaning

If you can't tell from the title, I'm on Spring Break! Woo Woo! I didn't make any big plans this week, since Hays is going to Minneapolis and I won't see him half the time, so I haven't done much. So far the highlight of my official spring break week has been having a few girls over and watching the premiere of Dancing with the Stars and The Bachelor! I am waiting anxiously for the recap! You can check it out for yourself here: http://www.ihategreenbeans.com. I can imagine it will be hilarious, as some of the girls were psycho, and only a handful could be considered normal or cute. I have to say that after watching the clip of the Bachelor dancing at the end of the show, I officially heart Matt Grant. I want him to move here and be friends with me.
Also, it has to be mentioned that Steve Guttenberg was too cute last night and he did not dissapoint me.
Tomorrow morning I am on my way to Dothan to see my bro and SIL. I am very excited, and hopefully the weather will be good and warm!
Margaret Anne is doing well! She seems to be moving around a little (I think that's what I am feeling), and was active during all of the TV excitement last night! It could have been from all of the shrieking at the TV and yummy appetizers, but who knows. I will keep you guys updated. Think of me this week while I am super relaxed. I need it!

So Sad, but SO Wonderful

Well, after Monday's wonderful excitement, I was FINALLY able to watch the Bachelor "where are they now" episode, and let me tell you, it was GOOD. I know, I am a little old and pregnant to be interested in The Bachelor, but we all have our vices. I am SO excited about the new season, they seem to have wrangled together some pretty scary girls. I just want to remind all of you blog readers out there that haven't checked out my Bachelor recap link, that the girl that writes it may possibly be the funniest girl alive. Her use of the "Jim Halpert" face is priceless. Let's all watch the Bachelor this season so that we can laugh, read, and comment.
Yes, I also love "Dancing with the Stars." GO STEVE GUTTENBERG! I haven't seen you since "Three Men and a Little Lady." Oh where have you been?

Meet Margaret Anne Latimer!

Today was wild, and I don't feel like elaborating because I just got home, but here are some pics of Margaret Anne! Everything looks great as far as development, and the doctor told us she "looks smart" :). We will have much more to say tomorrow!

Great Weekend, and a BIG day today!

We had such a great weekend! We went down to Dothan on Friday night to see Hays' dad on his 60th birthday, and had a wonderful meal, then we got hang out with the fam for a while. On Saturday we got up early and came back to Birmingham because Alan and Sandi were coming in town for their four day weekend. They stayed a night without us at our house, but we got there early enough on Sat that I didn't feel like I had missed too much fun! Saturday my parents came, and we went out to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. We all ate WAY too much! We had a very busy day and came home exhausted! Yesterday we went to eat at my Aunt Donna and Uncle Tim's house (a Sunday tradition), and had a great time and ate way too much AGAIN! We went to the Galleria to walk it off! Then we came home and watched "300," which was a really good movie! I stayed up about 2 hours later than I usually do, so I am exhausted, but it was SO worth it!
Also, today is the day we have a big appointment! We have an ultrasound to find out the gender of the baby. I hope that "Bud" cooperates. I will be drinking a SMALL amount of Mountain Dew and walking around some beforehand to make sure Bud is awake. Hopefully everything will look okay and we will all know Bud's real name before the end of the day today! We will be sure to post and let you guys know how everything goes. I had interesting dreams last night that also did not help me get any rest. First I dreamed that Bud is a boy, which is confusing because I already dreamed a girl. Also, I dreamed that we went to the wrong waiting room and missed our ultrasound, AND that Hays forgot to bring the tape, so we missed everything. AAAgh!

What words drive you crazy?

OK, we all know that every one of us has words that we absolutely cannot stand. Most of mine tend to be made-up words, because most of them sound ridiculous but are generally accepted by the masses. What qualifications are required to make up a word that is then added to the Webster's dictionary? It seems all you have to do is take two words and combine them, which is idiotic if you ask me. This has even flowed over to naming celebrity couples. For instance, "Brangelina" (Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie) or "TomKat" (Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes). I think I just puked in my mouth a little when I typed that last one...what a creep Cruise is. Oh, and let's not forget "Vaughniston" (Vince Vaughn/Jennifer Aniston). Anyways, I thought up this post because my work email gets bombarded with subjects advertising "webinars". "Webinar" (Web Seminar) is quickly becoming the word that drives me most crazy. Hopefully "webinar" attendance will be so low that the business world will eradicate this word from acceptable workplace jargon. So I pose this question to you: what words make your blood boil when you hear them? Are they made up words like "crunk" or "blogosphere", or are they real words like "commode" ($1 to Meredith, she HATES that word!). Your feedback is appreciated...scour the depths of your mind for the word you detest and post it!

Meltdowns and such

This weekend I had two meltdowns. The first of which began Saturday morning while Hays was gone to play golf. I got up and got dressed to go and buy some pants for work. It was hot out, so I wanted to wear jeans and a short sleeved shirt. Well, after trying on some shirts from last spring that I was sure I could wear this early in the pregnancy, I realized that I am bigger EVERYWHERE. So my cute shirts no longer looked cute, just too small. I started to feel so GROSS. Now I know it's healthy to get bigger and I am okay with that, I just wasn't prepared to face it this early. SO, not only did I buy some more pants, but I got some cute maternity shirts, too. It made me feel a lot better to have clothes that I can actually feel comfortable in! Hays wasn't too excited about me spending a little extra money, but I told him when his body changes this much he could spend all the money he wants on clothes. He seemed to agree with me then.

Meltdown number 2 began on Sunday when we got home from Sunday lunch. I decided that it would be necessary to completely clean our house because it hadn't been cleaned in about a month and we won't be able to clean next weekend. It seemed like everywhere I looked, all I could see was dust or dog hair. And Daisy smelled RIPE. And the carpet had these "mystery droplings" on it that needed to come up. SO, what I thought would be an hour of cleaning turned into about 4 hours of cleaning, with Hays cleaning also. I talked to a friend on Saturday who said she was cleaning her baseboards. I think she is in the "nesting" phase of her pregnancy. This made me look at my baseboards, which I realized were disgusting! Hays was not happy however, when I asked him to clean them. I would have done it myself, but I was in the process of scraping week-old burnt on gunk from the smooth top stove. He did agree with how dirty they were, though. We got a lot of cleaning done, but not without lots of obsessing and nagging on my part. I had to clean the bathtub twice because it just didn't look clean enough! I had Hays move the shower curtain rod up a few inches, and in the process the paint came off the wall in those places. So THEN I have to break out the "Waterfall Mist" paint and paint the bare spots on the wall. I am lucky to have a husband that puts up with me! He even vaccuumed the furniture, the stairs, and steam-cleaned the "mystery droplings!"

I wrecked my back in the process of all the kneeling and scrubbing, which caused the mini-crying spell I had later. Oh, the JOY of pregnancy hormones.

To satisfy those who I love, who read the blog and actually comment, I will put up a belly pic as soon as I can remember to get Hazer to take one!