Oh How I Long For A House...or at least a toilet

We spent one of the first nice nights of Spring out at the river and did a little camping. Now, I am the biggest outdoors woman around, but even I would love nothing more than to pull up to my cabin on the river...not my tent. However, I know all good things come in time and we will eventually have a house there. The hard part is done, the lot, the clearing and the dock. Slap a house up and we will be finished! Anywho, we decided to do a little fishing, cooked some hotdogs and the other typical camping stuff. I did a little night fishing and David enjoyed the stars on the dock....










The night was not as restful as I had hoped. We left Wilson at home after his last camping expedition where he would not lay down and stood on our heads the entire night, keeping both of us from getting a wink of sleep. So, we thought this time, we would be in the clear with him sleeping peacefully at home. Well, note to self....camping in the winter and camping in the spring are two different situations. You see, for all of you non outdoorsy people, let me explain Mother Nature to you. You see, in the winter, a lot of the creatures/animals, etc. are a little more subdued. Maybe hibernating, or just not really operating at 100%. In the Spring however, they are up and awake and letting the world know it. I have never in my life heard so many noises that I couldn't identify. You would think the peaceful sound of the frogs and crickets would lull you to sleep which usually does me. However, about every 10 seconds there was some screeching sound that would almost make you wet your pants and then some animal noise that sounded like an old car trying to start. Needless to say, there wasn't much sleeping on our parts. So, as soon as the first light popped out of the sky, I was out of the tent and on the dock for a little morning fishing...







I caught a little bass and felt terrible, but I had to go wake David up to take my picture with it. He did, but his words to me were, "Next time, bring that back to me on a biscuit."


If you will remember from one of my previous BOW sessions, I took an outdoor dutch oven cooking class. So I of course came home and bought all the necessary tools for dutch oven cooking outside. I have the little charcoal starter thing, but I have never had it work quite right for me. It never really gets the charcoal going. So, genius here decided to give it a little help. I had one of those fire starters and I broke off a tiny piece....I mean tiny, like the size of a box of matches. So I put it under the charcoal starter and thought that might give it the little boost it needed to get started. So, I did that, set my timer and then went back to fishing. Well the next thing I knew, I was looking back as flames were shooting up out of the charcoal starter like a forest fire was about to erupt. I went running back there, kicked the starter over and tried to put it out...

Thank goodness David had the camera to document me almost burning the lot to the ground. Anywho, the plan for breakfast was scrapped and we went to Sportsmans Park for a delicious pork chop biscuit, so all was not lost. So now you can see my desire for a house, an inside toilet, a stove...but like I said before, all good things come in time. Lets just hope its quickly before I do some real damage out there!

Jimmie's Surprise 70th Birthday

A couple of weeks ago, we threw a surprise birthday party for David's Dad at Casa Blanca. They are local celebrities there, so we thought it would be the perfect place for the party. So after much planning/stalking and lots of misunderstanding from the Spanish speaking staff and myself, we pulled it off. I am known there as the loco blanca senorita, or for those of you that are not bilingual, that would be Crazy White Lady. Anywho, the party was great, had wonderful food and lots of good fellowship...

Marc Broussard Concert

For Valentine's Day, I got David tickets and Meet and Greet passes for the Marc Broussard Concert in Birmingham. It was on a Thursday night, so after work, we zipped down to Workplay in Birmingham. David is a big fan of his, and I listen to his music some, but after this concert, I really like his music. He is extremely talented and so nice and down to earth. He invited David to shoot pictures of him backstage at another concert and so I am sure we will be heading out to another one soon. Here are some shots from the night...





He did a special acoustic performance for some of the crowd....

BOW Weekend

This was my 3rd time to go to BOW (Becoming an Outdoors Woman) which is sponsored by Outdoor Alabama. It is literally two of my favorite weekends a year! This time, we had to deal with rain, which was the first time we have had bad weather, but it was still so much fun! I took Pistol I, ATV Handling, Fly Fishing and Mountain Biking. I did pretty good in my pistol class, coming in 2nd in the Top Gun competition...I of course was disappointed as we all know, 2nd place is the 1st place looser. Still a blast though. One of these days hopefully I will lighten up and not make everything a competition. (Not counting on that any time soon though!) ATV Handling was also a blast. They taught us the basics of riding ATV's, servicing them, changing the oil, etc. We got to go riding through the rain which was pretty fun. Fly fishing was a skill that I have never had before. It was fun, but a whole lot of work. I think I will stick to regular fishing. Before the session was over I thought my wrist was going to snap in half from all the movement back and forth with that giant pole! Last but not least was my Mountain Biking class. I know David was glad I took it because I have never known how to change the gears on my bike when I am riding it and they taught us that. They also taught us how to change a flat tire which was pretty neat as well. Once again, BOW was a success. I absolutely loved it and got to meet back up with some of the wonderful friends I have made there over the past year. I can't wait until October when its time to go again!!!

Gatlinburg CYC Trip

Back in February we went to Gatlinburg for a little mini vacation. We left Wednesday after work and came back that weekend. It was absolutely fabulous. We stayed in the most awesome place....Mountain Glory 2 It was the best cabin we have stayed in up there. The location couldn't be more perfect. You felt like you were in the middle of no where, but literally you were 5 minutes from either Pigeon Forge or Gatlinburg. It had an awesome hot tub that we stayed in for the majority of the time and the view was beautiful. We played pool, ate way too much and just had a blast. I highly recommend staying at Mountain Glory 2 if you are ever in the area. It will not disappoint!!

We goofed off a good bit in Gatlinburg....watched taffy being pulled, which is a must for Gatlinburg, ate at delicious restaurants and shopped till we dropped. I haven't been to the mountains in several years and it was really nice and a much needed getaway. We also went up there to hear Justin play at the CYC conference which was really cool. His group did a great job and the kids all really loved it! Here are some shots from the weekend...

Here we are eating....suprise suprise!!





We went to the arcade for an afternoon of fun!




Back at the cabin....this should be on awkward friends photos.... :)


Maybe this one too....




So happy to be here....except Justin




Justin playing at CYC


He forgot his slide, so he bought a shot glass to use instead...very crafty...

Ski Trip with Steven

A couple weeks ago, Steven and I headed out on a ski trip after one of his soccer games on Friday night. We were going to Cataloochee Ski Resort in North Carolina and had a long way to drive. I am like an old lady and can't drive at night if I am sleepy because I will end up in a ditch. So, Steven promised he would help keep me awake for the drive. By Madison, he was snoring so loud, he was fogging up the windows. Anywho, we finally made it there and got ready for some fun. I have never been skiing before and wasn't nervous about going until my friend Micah went 2 weeks before us and broke her tailbone. I kept imagining me and him up there and me breaking something....who would drive home??? I am glad to report there were no injuries. I only fell once and got the hang of it pretty quickly. I did order this awesome ski suit that drew quite alot of attention because of its color. My motto has always been, if you dress the part...you can probably do it. So, my outfit looked like a real skier, so hopefully I fooled a few people!! It was a great time and awesome to spend time with my Steven!

Baby Alex is here!

My cousin Joy just had her baby boy a few weeks ago and we made the trip down to Birmingham to visit them in the hospital. Joy did such a good job of not telling his name throughout the ENTIRE pregnancy. It just about drove us all crazy though because we couldn't get anything monogrammed! You know us Southern Women....we need the babies name on EVERYTHING! He is so precious and was quite the big boy weighing in at over 9 pounds. Here are some shots of that sweet baby!