The One With The Facial Hair

I have some long overdue pictures of my hubby the day he shaved his beard. It's already almost grown back to it's full glory. I have to say the mustache, while goofy at first, has done a lot for him. His beard looks much less Amish when a mustache is added to the mix.

Here he is looking a bit like Chuck Norris: Awesomely lethal.

Now he just looks like he wants to sell you a used car. A little creepy I know, but, this is not his everyday face. I promise.

Workin' hard. Beauty, no ART, like this is work, my bebbies.

He's smiling great in this picture but the facial hair looks a bit unkempt and unfinished.

He Drinks Your Milkshake.

Looking all clean, shaven and wholesome. Extremely handsome as always.

Matt decided to do this transformation during our lunch break while we were home in the middle of a work day. This entire shaving process took about 10 minutes. He was a good sport to try all the styles I suggested and pose for the pictures. He even kept the awesome sideburns. Love you sweetie!

Home Sweet Home.

We had a wonderful trip home. I got to eat at Ricatoni's which is probably my favorite restaurant in all the world. Seriously, I've had some pretty good meals elsewhere but nothing tastes as good as the food at Ricatoni's and it smells so good too. I always get some Ricatoni's dipping spices in my stocking for Christmas. Speaking of food I can't get in Tallahassee, I always buy a couple of packages of Bishop's BBQ when we're home too. It makes for a great supper for me and Matt. You can't get BBQ that tastes that fresh in Tallahassee, even if you bought it at a restaurant. Bishop's is just that good.

I also miss Trowbridges, Court Street chicken fingers (yes I know it's not there anymore but for a while in high school and college I ate there almost every Friday night), Princeton's baked potato soup (again, I know it's gone), Sparky's hot dogs, Palace milk shakes. The other day we were discussing places we ate during college at work and I thought about City Cafe and Hooligan's in Tuscaloosa. Just writing about these delicious restaurants makes my stomach growl.

I had a great birthday. It was wonderful to see family. I had been looking forward to going home for so long now that I'm back in Tallahassee it's kind of a let down. I'll have to plan another trip home so I'll have something to look forward to.

Happy Birthday!

Today is my 27th birthday. We are heading home this afternoon for weekend birthday festivities. It should be a fun break. I haven't been home since Christmas so this visit is LONG overdue. We've done a few birthday celebratin' things this week. Tuesday night Matt took me to see "Juno", it was a fun movie and we laughed a lot. We really related to the couple who was trying to adopt until the husband turned into a bit of a jerk. The lady who loves babies (me) the guy who likes music and played in bands (Matt) living the yuppie lifestyle. If they had dogs it would have REALLY been like us. I enjoyed the plot and the dialogue and the soundtrack was AWESOME. I went to Target and bought it immediately after the movie and we have listened to it constantly ever since. It's just great music to listen to. Definitely my and Matt's style.

We don't have any trips planned for this month and that's unusual, but, Matt mentioned going to Destin to shop if I got money for my birthday so that's always a possibility. We're going back to Disney for sure in May and maybe again sometime sooner. We got the special on tickets the last time we went and we had planned to go to EPCOT for my birthday. We just haven't nailed down a specific time.

Steve and Wil are very concerned because I've packed the car, but, I haven't put them in the car yet. I'm going to finished packing up and I'm sure the dogs will be in the car waiting when Matt pulls up after work. They are always VERY sure they will not get left.

The Happiest Place on Earth...

Cinderella's Castle. Isn't the sky incredibly blue?

Marg doesn't like this picture, but, I think we both look great.

Playing on the Barrel Bridge on Tom Sawyer's Island, one of Matt's favorite parts of the park. It's absolutely gorgeous. We're very happy to be there if you can't tell. :-)

Matt is trying to find our way out of Injun Joe's cave.

Having a blast on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. My hubby is a pretty awesome photographer.

I've got to get me some of these ears. Seriously, I'd probably wear them around the house like houseshoes for my head.

Matt and I on the Disney railroad and the entrance to Magic Kingdom.

Ok, I admit it. I have a Disney problem. Matt and I probably seem weird to people who don't understand. It's just hard not to love a place that makes us both so happy. He and I always have the best times when we go, and we always find something new we've never done before. We've actually got a lot of Disney planned for this spring. We're going back in late March for my birthday and again in May with a friend. We got a special deal on Florida resident tickets so it's not as expensive as it sounds. We had an awesome time with Margaret. She flattered us and said she'd never go back to Disney without us. Matt and I have a well developed system that allows you to do just about everything in one day. We skip some of the younger rides (carousel, winnie the pooh, small world) because the lines are so long. Don't get me wrong we love those rides too... but we work in what time allows and we never usually wait longer than 20 minutes at each ride. Most times less than that. Maybe we should write a Disney guidebook. I'd say we know a lot of secrets and tricks...maybe writing the book would help us discover MORE secrets and tricks. I can't imagine getting paid to visit Disney and have fun~! haha.

Stay tuned for another blog soon. Matt shaved his beard yesterday (during his lunch hour) and I have some awesome beard shots. His facial hair made for some great laughs.

Gatlinburg

Laurel Falls in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Matt and the Pickle (Wil) brave the rapids of the waters flowing past the Chimney's picnic area.

I climbed over the rocks to make it to these trees in the middle of the stream.

Cades Cove 2008

The Great Smoky Mountains

We had a WONDERFUL time in the mountains. It was truly relaxing. Gatlinburg was gorgeous. The weather was chilly, but sunny. It was perfect mountain weather. We went to Disney World this past weekend with Margaret. We got some great pictures in front of the castle. It was a perfectly beautiful day. The sky was as blue as the blue tiles on Cinderella's castle roof. I'll post more pictures later this week. Matt and I have been so busy, we're looking forward to having a quiet week and weekend.

Gatlinburg

We had a great trip to Gatlinburg. It was very relaxing. The mountains were beautiful. I'll post some pictures up later today. We played and hiked in the park. We went ice skating. We shopped and at delicious pancakes. It was a really fun time. I told Matt I would rather have a house in the mountains than on the beach.

Heather is still doing ok, but definitely needs prayers.

Follow-up

Thanks for your prayers. Heather is at home now and is doing fine. She and several other girls took shelter in a bathtub in her dorm. She was the last to get in the tub and her legs got caught. She's pretty banged up and bruised, but she's walking and is home safe. God was truly watching over that campus.

Prayers!

Please keep Matt's cousin, Heather, in your prayers. She attends Union University in Jackson, TN. The campus was leveled last night with tornados moving through the area. Her dorm was damaged and, from what I have been told, she was trapped in the rubble in the aftermath. I do not know the extent of her injuries. All I really know is that no one had any life threatening injuries. Please keep her and her family in your prayers. Thank you!

"Antique" Pictures

I finally got our old pictures off of the old computer and saved on a thumb drive. Now we have them all backed up. Here are some oldies...but goodies of course.
This is us at the Disney Studios on our honeymoon. It was so much fun.

Here is Steve when she was a tiny puppy. She had just barked at me for the first time. I don't think she liked the camera.

Here we are on our first day as a married couple. Our friends stopped by Tuscaloosa on their drive back to New Orleans and came by for a visit.

It was fun to see all these pictures again. We're super excited about Gatlinburg this weekend. I hope I'll have fun pictures of snow next week!

This week is an exciting one. We are heading to Gatlinburg on Friday afternoon for a weekend trip! Matt suprised me with this trip for Valentine's day. We've both been talking about seeing the mountains for a while now. He even arranged for a hotel that accepts pets so Steve and Wil could come! We're planning on hiking in Cade's Cove, shopping at the outlets, ice skating at Ober Gatlinburg and having delicious pancakes with maple syrup. We hope we'll see some snow. Matt wants to take something to use as a sled because a person he works with went up a few weeks ago and told him about an area where people were playing and sledding in the snow. I'm really excited.

Today is a beautiful day so we'll probably take the dogs to the park or for a long walk. I think they'll like that. We dont' have any plans this weekend. We're just taking it easy since we'll be gone next weekend. Margaret is coming down the weekend after Valentine's day and we're super excited about that. Matt is making plans for her arrival already.

I'm working on getting our old pictures from Matt's law school laptop saved onto a thumb drive so we'll have them in case the laptop breaks down. I'll post some of the good ones on here. I haven't seen those pictures in a while but there should be ones of our first apartment, Steve when we brought her home, our wedding and our honeymoon. They should be fun to see. There are even pictures from our first time we went to Gatlinburg on our 2nd anniversary. I remember thinking I had this marriage thing down then...and I really had NO clue ....I suppose I'll just keep learning more and more every year. :-)

Have a wonderful week everyone! Happy Groundhog Day...our groundhog saw his shadow....6 more weeks of winter! ugh! (right?)