Baby Brantley and a Wedding Shower

This weekend was a fun-filled weekend full of things to celebrate. First, Chase and Allison Williamson finally had their baby girl, Brantley Rae, this week. Justin and I along with Rob, Yarbrough, Bonnie and Andrew went to their home the day they got back from the hospital to meet her for the first time. She was the sweetest most adorable thing! I didn't take any pictures unfortunately, so I am hoping Allison doesn't mind that I borrow the one she put on her blog.

Meet little BR:



When we went to see her, she seemed pretty tired. She didn't open her eyes the whole time we were there. She was a trooper allowing people to pass her back and forth, but the sweet angel never opened her eyes once. I'll have to plan to go back again when they are more settled in to spend some more time with her and hopefully see her eyes :)

After spending some time with the Williamson's, the rest of us headed to Matt Jones Gallery downtown to attend Bonnie and Andrew's first wedding shower. It was a couples shower and they had an awesome turnout and got a ton of great gifts! The hosts of the shower actually cooked the food on their own! They had a chicken casserole (which was TO DIE FOR) and some white rice with beef tips and salad. So good!! Here's a few pics:



Me and the hubs



All the boys



Lobdell's and Morris'



Bonnie and Andrew opening gifts



This was the best part. Rob had their gift sent to them, but for some reason brought them an empty box, so when Andrew opened it, they were a little confused. We made fun of Rob, naturally, as we always do.



Yarbrough and his girlfriend, Tracy, who is actually a staff accountant at the Atlanta office of the firm I worked for in Nashville.



The Lobdell's

We had so much fun hanging out with everyone. It's always fun when Bonnie and Andrew come in town and we get everyone together. I just wish they could stay longer when they come. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!!

And sorry for not updating my blog in a timely manner these days. I don't really have much free time on my hands :(

#2 - CHECK!

Guess what came in the mail today???



My passport!!! Getting a passport was #2 on my list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days. This means that Justin and I can put the deposit down on our trip to Africa. Yes, I said AFRICA!!! Number 48 on my list is to go to Africa and climb Kilimanjaro and go on a safari. We are currently in the process of booking this trip and plan to go in December 2010. We have to fill out an application with the guide company we're using and they require passport info on the application, so we couldn't fill it out until I got my passport. The guide company we intend to use, International Mountain Guides, is a very well known guide company and does hikes all over the world. They lead teams up each of the seven summits, including Everest. The seven summits are the highest mountains in each of the seven continents. Justin plans on doing all seven and I know he will not stop until he has done them all.

Anyway, Kilimanjaro is the most popular of the seven (and one of the cheapest) to go to. Justin and I will fly out of Atlanta on December 17, 2010 to Amsterdam. We'll stay in Amsterdam for a day and then fly from Amsterdam to Tanzania (Southern Africa). We'll get to relax in Tanzania for a little over a day so we can get use to the time change, although a day is nowhere near close enough to get use to that kind of time change. Tanzania is a whopping nine hours ahead of Alabama, which means there's about a five hour window each day where we could call home. But then again, we probably won't be calling much, other than to say that we're alive and haven't been eaten by anything.....yet.

After that day and a half of "relaxation", we head to the Machame Gate to Kilimanjaro to start our hike. The hike takes six days to get to the summit, but only 2 days to get down. After getting off the mountain on day 8, we'll be able to go to our hotel and take a shower for the first time in over a week! Doesn't that sound appealing?!?!?! And the term "hotel" is even a slight exaggeration. I should just say broken down room with a small bed covered by a mosquito net. That would probably be more accurate.

The next day we'll fly to the Serengeti to do a safari!! I don't know if I'm more excited about the climb or the safari. They are both so incredible and a once in a lifetime opportunity. We'll spend three nights sleeping with the crazy animals in the Serengeti before heading back to the airport for our evening flight back to Amsterdam. Overall this is a two week trip. On Christmas day, we'll be on the mountain two days away from the summit. On New Years Eve, we will be sleeping under the stars in the Serengeti. There is seriously no better way to spend those holidays!! I'm not sure our parents are 100% pumped that we'll be gone, but they understand. We're hoping to convince Gordon, Justin's dad, to come with us. He would love to do these things!

Justin and I have been looking at blogs related to Kilimanjaro (see one of them on my "Blog Love" list to the right) and youtube to find videos of others who have done the same thing. We've found some pretty interesting ones...



I so hope that happens to us!



I so hope this does not happen to us!

I'm slacking, I know

Yes I know, it's been a while since I've made a post. A couple of people have said something to me about it. I'm sorry, it's just that this is my busy time of the year so I don't have a lot of free time. This week at work is our first 50 hour week and next week is the same. The next two weeks after that are 55 hour weeks (and also when our working on Saturday begins) and every week after that until April 15th will be 60 hour weeks. I really think busy season this year will fly by for me. Let's hope so at least :)

Something I can mark off my list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days is that I went through all three closets in our household to sort out things to give to goodwill. I had a trunk full of stuff we took to the Salvation Army right when we got back in town from being in Nashville for Lillian's wedding. So that takes care of # 20.

Last week was not a good week for the world. So many tragic things happened. First was the earthquake in Haiti which as we have all heard was completely devastating. Our church is putting together kits of basic household items that we're shipping out to them. In fact, it's my awesome mother-in-law that's heading it up. She's such a good person. On top of that, a guy I went to high school with, Matt Miller, passed away tragically this weekend while he was duck hunting with his dad and few others. I didn't know Matt, but Justin did. He graduated from Hoover a year behind me, but he was a member of Saint Mark before he moved to become a pastor of his own. Please pray for his family. I hear his dad is having a really hard time since he was there to witness it. They need all the prayers they can get.

Finally, there was a devastating fire in Hoover at the Days Inn on Saturday night. Justin and I were driving from our house to Blockbuster because we planned on staying in and just renting movies that night. We took Tyler Road which brings us out by Ellis Piano on Hwy 31, essentially directly across from the hotel. Justin looked at the sky and said "wow look at those clouds" and then as we got closer, the fire appeared into our view and I said "or the smoke". I can't begin to explain how huge the fire was. When we drove by only a few cops were there, no ambulances or firetrucks yet. However the fire was literally burning the entire back portion of the hotel, which leads us to believe that some gas lines or something had to have burst (we're speculating of course) because there's no way a fire got that far out of control before firetrucks were called. Tragically, four people died in the hotel because they were trapped in their room. It was four college girls from Mississippi, ages 18 and 19. I can't imagine being their parents. Please keep them in your prayers as well. I didn't have my camera, but managed to get a picture with my phone. It's incredibly blurry and you can't see much, but you get the idea.



Please keep all these things in your prayers please. We should all thank God everyday for each and every breath he allows us to have, because it can get taken away so quickly. I hope everyone has a great week!

#31 - Check!

Ok this was done a a few months ago, which is probably a few months later than it should have been done, but I'm just now getting around to crossing it off the list. Number 31 on my list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days was to make a scrapbook. Apparently making a scrapbook with paper and scissors and borders and cutouts was "so 2008". Now they have invented Shutterfly. It makes scrapbooking so much easier for those of us that lack creativity :)

Funny story behind my scrapbook. I had a book made for my mom of wedding pictures as her Christmas present because she didn't order an album from my photographer. When the book came in the picture on the front was slightly crooked. Me being the way too detailed and picky accountant that I am, I noticed it immediately and called to have them send another one. Question. Why do American companies insist on their customer service departments being comprised of all foreign employees that can barely speak English?? Needless to say, after a lot of arguing they gave me a free album on my account for me to order a duplicate. After some thinking, I decided not to order another one because in all honesty, no one else noticed the picture on the cover was crooked. So instead of spending all that free dough on ordering another one, I used it in making me and Justin's honeymoon album. Behold, a few pages of our honeymoon album....













Marking this off my list puts me at marking off 33 items, which is about 1/3 of the list. I started in May 2009, so that gives me to about February 2012. Being 1/3 of the way there is pretty darn good! Though, as Justin and I have pretty much planned our trips (I should say rearranged actually), I know that there are many things on that list that I will not be able to knock off by February 2012. But instead of being defeated by the list, I will keep working towards completing it. I may not be able to knock it all out by the deadline, but I'm going to keep going until I get them all done.

As I said in an earlier post, Justin and I had originally planned five trips in 2010. The biggest of these was our trip to climbing Half Dome in Yosemite. Well, we made a decision while in Nashville for New Years. We decided to push all of our trips from 2010 back to 2011. The reason we decided to do this is because we had one trip planned in 2011 that we just can't wait that long to do, so we moved it to 2010. You may think it's strange for us to know what trip we wanted to take in 2011 already, but it's actually not considering that it would take us almost an entire year to save up for it. We have pushed our Kilimanjaro trip up to December 2010. The only trip originally planned in 2010 that we will still be going on is our trip to Seattle. It's already going to be hard to go almost a whole year without taking trips, so I absolutely had to do at least one. So I'm keeping that one :)

Justin and I will be leaving for Africa via Amsterdam on December 18, 2010 and returning January 2, 2011. Yes, you saw that right. That means we will be in Africa on Christmas Day and New Years. We wouldn't have it any other way! Justin and I are seriously one in the same. We both get way too excited about things and plan them way far in advance :) More updates to come on Africa!!

A Wedding To Start The New Year

Justin and I went to Nashville for New Years last weekend, mainly because I was a bridesmaid in a wedding. Lillian and Craig tied the knot on January 2, 2010. It was the most beautiful wedding I've ever been to. Lillian is an event coordinator for a living so you know she had every tiny detail planned out. She is also known for being a trendsetter when it comes to fashion. She just loves accessories and that also came through at her wedding.

The festivities started on New Years Day at the rehearsal at the chapel and then the rehearsal dinner at their favorite restaurant, Tayst. The food was delicious and we had so much fun! The next morning, all the girls got ready together in Lillian's bridal suite at the Marriott then we all got shuttled over to the church where we took pictures and then sent Lillian on to be Mrs. Turman. In my personal opinion, the best part (and most creative, too) of the wedding was after the preacher pronounced them husband and wife. Lillian arranged to have an all male A Capella group sing "Oh Happy Day" as they walked back down the aisle together. It was AMAZING!



It wouldn't have been a Nashville wedding without some of the extras Lillian added. She had her and the Groom's placeholders for their namecards at the Rehearsal dinner be cowboy boots and instead of using a framed picture for everyone to sign, she had everyone sign a guitar that they are going to frame and hang in their house. SO CREATIVE! SO LILLIAN!





Walking through Lillian's reception was literally like walking in a real winter wonderland. I just LOVED her decorations. White feathers GALORE!!!





This is Justin and I at the reception. I must send a shout out to my husband because he came with me to Nashville to watch Lil get married knowing he would be missing a TON of football games and he did it anyway. He also never complained once when I spent maybe a combined total of 10 minutes with him at the reception because I was trying to take as many pictures with Lillian's camera as I could. I have a pretty incredibly husband. I love you bay!



I couldn't make this blog post without adding this part. Lillian knew there would be lots of kids at her wedding reception, so she had a kids room added that had Papa John's pizza and DVD's playing for kids to watch. Guess where I had dinner???



Lillian had such a good time at her wedding and that made me happy. Lillian is such a kind person and is the type of person to do what others want instead of what she wants, even on her wedding day. But she found the best of both worlds and had a smile on her face and partied her heart out at the reception. God bless people like her. Love you Mrs. Turman!