My Best Friend

December 20, 2003

A very cold, very wonderful day in Florence, AL for two young people. 

She wore a dress made by her mom.

He wore a slightly too big tux with a handpicked kravat.

Theirs was the first wedding in the new church building, finished just weeks earlier.

She was a little nervous.

He smiled when she walked down the aisle.

She forgot there were other people in the room.

They had Christmas cookies.

A 15 foot Christmas tree.

 and delicious chicken salad sandwhiches.

They were surrounded by their friends and family.

They were so happy to be there.

They had no idea what they'd see together.

But they knew they'd live happily ever after.

And they have.

Happy Anniversary to my best friend!

Love, Ashley

Ladies Night

I love my friends!

Jessica and Heather posing at dinner.

 More posing.

 Ladies night dinner at Bella's. DELICIOUS!

The Christmas Dogs

 

 

Stevie and Wil love Christmas time.

 

Steve's shirt is an elf outfit. Wil's says, "Santa, I can explain...". Both are pretty appropriate.

I found him in this bag the day after I just purchased them a new doggy bed.

He's come around to the bed, but apparently a bag with a fleece blanket inside would have been just as good. 

With a Thankful Heart.

 

Thanksgiving 2012 was absolutely wonderful.

We had a delicious breakfast at Grandma's

 Elizabeth was pretty excited to start the festivities. 

She was first in line.

 

We colored and played with Gray. 

 We had turkey on Thursday AND Friday.

My mom made my favorite - Turnip Greens.

Steve and Wil froze in the cold weather but loved warm blankets and snuggles.

 We finally saw some fall colors.

(These fall colors were improved with the help of Instagram)

It was wonderful to be home for a wonderful holiday. The weather was crisp and cool. The food was delicious and the company kept was so nice. I'm very ready to be home for Christmas!

'Tis the season

Getting my house ready for Christmas!!

Helped my Momma with her tree over thanksgiving.

Chagrin Falls....

chagrin - A keen feeling of mental unease, as of annoyance or embarrassment, caused by failure, disappointment, or a disconcerting event


Yeah...

so...

I couldn't do it....

I couldn't stay off....

um...

I couldn't stay off.....

FACEBOOK.

If you're grinning and laughing at me go right ahead. I'll wait. I deserve it....

 ...

...ok, that's enough.

The story goes, I wanted to send Happy Birthday greetings to a friend from high school a few weeks ago. I realized I didn't have an email for them. But I really wanted to communicate with them and let them know that even now - over 10 years later - I remembered their special day. And I realized the main way I communicated with them before. I realized the reason I probably was able to remember the birthday in the first place. Facebook.

(I remembered their birthday not because Facebook told me to, but because seeing person's name pop-up on your feed keeps them in your mind so you put dates and memories together much quicker.)

So I logged back on.

And Facebook sent me a very smarmy, passive aggressive polite email welcoming me back. Letting me know that my account was reactivated and if it wasn't me I needed to check on that (of course it was me - and they knew it too...).

I was glad I did. I found out about baby blessings that are on the way, new jobs, health accomplishments and other big news. I also found out about more mundane stuff, but it felt good to connect on some level again.

I dropped off the facespace because sometimes it was hard for me to see other's lives and compare my current life situation with other folks. It was good to be disconnected. I was not jealous or envious of other people's jobs, houses, children, diets, traveling, etc. I was happier on a certain level.

The contrast of that is I was lonely on another level. I was left out of the loop with certain events and jokes even within the friends I have in Tampa who I see almost every week. I had a cousin move to Maryland and I had no idea he and his family were even thinking about leaving Alabama. All of these are normally things I'd know because I was on Facebook.

I'm going to have to work to find a medium. I'm going to continue to use Facebook to share in my friend's happy and triumphant moments, but I'm also going to have to work to not compare my life with others. No one is exactly like me and no one else has it as great as they pretend to on Facebook.

Any advice for this would be greatly appreciated. Is there a way to have my cake and eat it too? (side note: where did that statement come from? Who in the world would have cake with the intention NOT to eat it. I mean, why does it have to be so special to both have and to eat?)

I think the self imposed break helped me break the Facebook checking habit I was developing. I'm getting a phone upgrade this week and I may not even activate my Facebook app - just to keep the temptation to constantly check it at bay.

Continue chuckling with your smug feelings of superiority. ;-) I am definitely eating crow over this one. Oh well, we'll chalk it up to a research experiment for my Master's in navigating social networking as an adult. My thesis will be entitled, "She Thought She Knew Best - But Boy, She Proved Herself Wrong: A Study of a Failed Experiment".

I'm thinking of applying to have it published....

(and if you're on Facebook - feel free to drop by my page to say "Hello".)

Christmas Shoes....

Ugh, the "Christmas Shoes" song.

My Christmas nemesis.

I started listening the the Christmas music radio station this morning on my drive to work. I just found the station yesterday.

I've only been listening for about 10 minutes....

And there it was, the chimey start to the cheesiest song in Christmas history...(Which is saying a lot...have you heard "I Wanna Hippopotamus for Christmas"? Cheesy? Yes. Awesome? TOTALLY!)

Why is this boy alone in a store when his mother is gravely ill? What do these shoes look like? For some reason I imagine a red suede pump (watch When Harry Met Sally).

Ugh - the Christmas Shoes song.

On a good day I turn it off or change the channel.

On a bad day I cry like a baby over that poor sweet wittle boy who wants to buys shoes for his momma, but doesn't quite have enough money.

Let's hope it's not high on the rotation at the radio station.

Memories are made of this...

Me and My Aunt Nancy at her wedding in 1985. I was 4 years old and the best flower girl that ever there was.

I'm heading home to Alabammer for Thanksgiving this week. It's got me all sentimental. 

I "scanned" (scan = took photos of old photos with my phone) these photos while I was home over Labor Day weekend.

Enjoy the awesomeness of the 80's.

Once a Brave's fan, always a Brave's fan. Sorry TB Rays....I believe these were souvenirs brought to me by Daddy. But we went to Atlanta a lot when I was little so they could be my own choosing. I also think this photo was taken pretty late at night which explains my face. I promise I really liked the Braves.

This was the Christmas I woke up to find a playhouse in my living room. A FREAKIN' PLAYHOUSE!! Well played Santa. I was estatic over the "office" that was already set up for me. A phone, a mickey mouse chalk board, a strawberry shortcake table and chairs set and a typewriter. Yes, that's right, a typewriter.

 

 

 

 

 

Photographic evidence of my sweet typewriter. When I was little I wanted an office SO SO bad. My 3 year old sefl would be very impressed with my current set up at USF. Also, note my sweet footed Alabama PJs.

 

Ain't never been nothin' but a Bama Fan. Roll Tide. Christmas 1984 - I am 3 years old. About to turn 4 in March and gain a baby sister in May.

This was my "baby" that I carried everywhere. She has a safe spot in my house in Tampa even now.

Andrea an I apparently got a kick out of the Llamas.

This is me attending to another one of my "babies".

Me at a Brave's game in the 80's

Me and Daddy surveying the snow damage around my Grandparent's house.

Me and Bradly - This was when we visited the hospital when Andrea was born.

Me with my Alabama pom poms. I look worn out - probably from cheering too hard.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Election Day!

Have you voted today? 

I did! 

Don't forget!

More Mexican

 

Sunshine behind the clouds.  

None of these photos are in any sort of chronological order - but I don't feel like changing them around. It IS a Monday after all.

We went out on a catamaran on Thursday. It was a wonderful way to spend the morning. Tropical Storm Sandy was churning past the Bahamas at that time so she had kicked up some of the currents and silt in the Caribbean. Visibility wasn't great - but there were TONS of fish. More than I had seen in the area before. I think the combination of currents and low visibility helped us see more fish than normal.

 

You can see the little dots of stuff in the water that clouded up all my underwater photos. 

 

 My clearest photo of the day.

The Monday after we arrived we headed to Xplor, an outdoor amusement park set in the Mexican jungles. You can zip line across the trees, swim or raft through underground rivers and ride ATVs along paths and through caves. It was a blast. Our friends - who came along to Mexico for the first part of the week - were there with us and we had an awesome time. 

This was a great activity to do off-season as the lines and crowds were much smaller than normal.

The park has several cameras that automatically take your photo in spots throughout the park. You can purchase a USB with all your photos at the end of the day. We had a blast with the automatic cameras.

Zip-lining across the jungle. You can see Matt in the background zipping along behind me.

 

Me and Jon on front of Explor's heart. This was at the center of the park. They played a constant beating noise which was annoying but it helped you find your way back to the center of the park (and the food).

 Me, Jon, Matt and Bob in one of the caves on our way to swim in the underground rivers.

Me and Matt - (and you can see Jon in the background)

 

Swimming in the caves.

 

Heading to the rafts.

 

Driving under a waterfall and getting soaked.

 

Rafting through the caves - my arms were tired.

 

Sunrise on the first day we were there. The glow on these iridescent clouds was beautiful.

 

Sunset from the plane ride home.

 

Farewell Mexico - See you next year!