And The Packing Begins

We are now less than 3 weeks out from our trip to Africa. Tonight, Justin and I went ahead and converted what was once known as my "P90X room" into the "Africa room". We split the room in half, Justin's side and my side, and went through the packing list given to us from our mountain climbing guide. We wanted to go ahead and get everything together so that if there was anything we were missing, we could go ahead and get it. Number 86 on my list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days was to obtain all items needed for Africa. I can't technically cross that off yet because even though we've officially purchased everything, some of the big items are in the process of being shipped, so I'll cross it off once we get everything and start packing it up.



See that red bag? We have to fit EVERYTHING into that bag and one other bag that is being shipped to us that is about the same size as that one (by everything I mean everything for one of us...so Justin has 2 bags and I have 2 bags). Also, that red bag is already 2/3 full because it has my sleeping bag and sleeping pad in it, so I'll be able to fit a few other items in that bag, but I'm banking on the rest of it, including the 60 Liter backpack leaning against the wall, fitting into the other bag that is currently being shipped. Given that we're packing to be gone for 2 1/2 weeks, this freaks me out. Fingers crossed...that's all I can say.

Also, we have finally decided which hotel we'll be staying at while in Amsterdam. There were two we were debating between, but finally chose the Intercontinental Hotel.



On an unrelated note, I felt it necessary to tell all my friends that Justin and I are not going to be sending out Christmas cards this year. It just seemed pointless to us because we're going to be gone so we (and by "we", I mean "I") didn't think it was worth it. So if you don't get a Christmas card from us, it's not because we left you out, it's because we chose not to send any this year. T minus 18 days people!!!

# 30 - CHECK!

Number 30 on my list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days was to go to...



VEGAS BABY!!!

I should give some extra information here. I love to travel. I'm pretty sure all my blog readers know that by now. However, there are a few places that I have zero desire to go to. My top two places that I never really wanted to go to were 1) New Orleans - and that's where we got engaged, go figure, and 2) Las Vegas - because I'm not a big drinker or gambler so I honestly thought there was nothing Vegas had that could hold my interest. WRONG! Oh my gosh, I was so amazed at how many things there were to do that had NOTHING to do with drinking or gambling.

Justin and I went to Las Vegas bright and early on Sunday morning. Funny story there too. I set my alarm for 4:30am so that I could get to my 6:45 flight on time. I didn't realize that I didn't switch the alarm to "on" instead of "weekdays only". Needless to say, my alarm did not go off. But, by the grace of God alone, I just so happen to wake up at 4:34am. How weird! Anyway, I made the flight on time. Justin was flying out of Nashville because he had a 50k in Huntsville the day before so it was closer for him to go out of Nashville. Well, that and there was a deal going on where flying out of Nashville got him more Delta skymiles.

This was just a quick two day trip for us. We stayed at Hilton Grand Vacations, which is directly behind the Flamingo hotel. It was a great location and we absolutely loved our room. We wanted to do the Hoover Dam tour, but we didn't have enough time. In the two days we were there, we literally just went from hotel lobby to hotel lobby. Each hotel is very different from the others and I loved looking at all the lobbies. Another thing on my 101 list is to hike through the Grand Canyon, but again, we didn't have the time to do that. We'll go back and do a hike and camp at Havasu Falls in the Grand Canyon and do the Hoover Dam tour whenever we have time to go back for a full week.

I'll only do commentary when I see fit for the pictures, so enjoy. This is only my favorites. If you want to see them all, look at my facebook page.





This is the inside of Caesar's Palace, but a lot of the hotels had this type of sky painted ceiling. It was awesome!





This is the lobby of the Venetian hotel.









We're at the top of the Stratosphere in these pictures.







Me in front of the Brooklyn Bridge at New York, NY hotel.



We went to see some lions and dolphins at the Mirage Hotel. These lions made me SUPER excited about getting to see them in the wild when we go to Africa...in 22 days. Gosh there's still so much left to do. Sorry, that was a tangent.



These guys were 5 months old the day we saw them. I so wanted to jump in there and play with them, then I remembered a show that Justin and I frequently watch called "Fatal Attractions" and moved on.



PAWN STARS!!! Does anyone else watch that show?? We love it!



We saw the Bellagio water show from the top of the Eiffel Tower in the Paris hotel.







This is in the hotel lobby at the Bellagio. It was one of my favorites. There were giant pumpkins everywhere, some even weighed over 1,000 pounds!! The trees and flowers were all so incredibly gorgeous!!

We had such a great time and I was so glad to have some time with just me and Justin. He's been out of town the past 13 weeks in a row and the only time I get to see him is on the weekends and our weekends are usually full with hanging out with either friends or family while watching football. It was very nice to get away just us. I had a blast!

Saturday with Anderson

I spent this entire past Saturday with Anderson and it was so much fun. Just him and me. Lindsey called me several days ago and told me that Anderson was watching tv while eating breakfast and saw the preview for the 3D movie Megamind. He immediately went into the kitchen where Lindsey was and this is how the conversation went:

Anderson: Mom! I want you to call Auntie M and tell her that she needs to go see this movie with me. I want it to be just like last time where I went to her house and played with the fish and went to the other movie. (Some background...the other movie he is referring to was Despicable Me. Justin and I took him to see that in 3D).

Lindsey: Well Anderson, your daddy and me were going to take you to see that. We were going to get a sitter for your sister and it would be just the three of us.

Anderson: I don't want to go with you. I want to go with Auntie M.

MELT. MY. HEART!!!

So on Saturday I met the kids at IHOP with Mom and Mike (another usual tradition when the kids come in town) and after we ate breakfast I got Anderson and we headed to the movies. Here's a few pics of little girl at IHOP:



She loves her Funny Face pancake.





Anderson is so adorable when he goes to see a movie. You'd think as young as he is that he would quickly get distracted, but not Anderson. He was glued to the screen the entire time.



After the movies, I took him to the McWane Center, another thing he loves to do with Auntie M. Here's some pics from that:



This is Anderson in the Hurricane wind machine. It creates hurricane force winds. He looked like he enjoyed it at the time, but later told me it scared him. I'll note not to let him do that next time.









He was EXHAUSTED when we left. We left McWane Center around 4:30 and in Birmingham, it's dark by then so naturally he feel asleep on the way back to mom's. But he didn't wake up, even when I pulled in the driveway and turned off the car. Even when I called his name and told him to wakeup. Even when I went to get mom to show her how badly I wore him out. Even when mom opened his door and unbuckled him from his carseat. Little man didn't wake up until mom literally picked him up from his carseat. He was so tired...



On an unrelated note, mom took little girl shopping (her absolute FAVORITE thing to do) and bought her a sweet little pair of bright pink cowboy boots from Target.



Pink is her favorite color. Just ask her. She'll tell you over and over and over and over again. God I love them :)

And my favorite part of the day...

I told Anderson that he had to eat his whole pancake at IHOP if he wanted to go to see the movie. His response was "I can't eat the whole pancake Auntie M. I'll get fat". Kids truly do say the weirdest things...

There are so many things I need to blog about and I truly just haven't had time. I'm hoping I will soon. I'm very ready to share my Big Oak Ranch experience, I just haven't had time to upload the pictures. It'll hopefully happen this week sometime.

#22 and #96 - CHECK

Number 22 on my list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days was to go to Sips-N-Strokes. Thursday night, myself along with my friends Ashley, Tiffany, Allyson and Carina did just that. We started out with dinner at Margarita Grill and then headed to the Pelham Sips-N-Strokes. Here's some pics of the event:















Number 96 on my list was to try a glass of wine. I was able to also knock this one out while also knocking out number 22 due to obvious reasons. Pictures is the best way to sum up how this experience went. Behold...









Translation: I am not a fan of wine.

Big Oak Ranch

Today, at our staff meeting, we watched a little video about Big Oak Ranch. I had never heard of this organization until today. So many people got tears in their eyes in the staff meeting. Not something I thought would happen when I drove to work this morning. Anyway, Big Oak Ranch is a place where kids grow up when their parents won't raise them or have abandoned or abused them. Some examples in this video of children's stories that are living at the ranch included a little boy who had burns from the waist down from when his mom poured grease on him and a little girl who had been raped and beaten by her father. John Croyle (the founder) also mentions numerous parents from million dollar homes who drive up in a Mercedes and open the door for their kids, push them out, then drive away.

I can't fathom a parent would do such things to their children. There was a story that I noticed in the news this week of a woman that got annoyed by her child crying for attention because his mother was playing Farmville on facebook instead of paying attention to her 3 month old son so she shook the baby out of frustration and killed him. She pled guilty to second degree murder. What kind of world are we living in???? Watching this video brought tears to my eyes...AT WORK. The video isn't on youtube so I can't link it directly to my blog, but you can click here and it will take you straight to the video I am talking about. Bama fans out there, this is Brodie Croyle's dad we're talking about. He could have made MILLIONS in the NFL, but decided to stop playing football after college and open this ranch instead.

My favorite (and most emotional) story on the video is of a little girl named Shelley. Shelley was being raped and beaten by her father and John Croyle went to the courts to ask for custody of her. At the time, there was only one ranch and it was for boys. Because of that, the judge ruled it unsafe for Shelley to live there and she remained with her father. Seriously??? More unsafe than being raped and beaten? A few weeks later, her father beat her until she died. This inspired John to open up a girls ranch and he named the road leading into the girls ranch "Shelley Drive".

So where am I going with all this? Well, I have been so inspired by this organization that I am going to start donating to it and volunteering my time at the ranch. Next Thursday, a group of work friends are going to the boys ranch and then on Friday, another group is going to the girls ranch. I'm going to try to go to both if my managers will allow me. If you're interested in donating to help Big Oak Ranch provide for neglected children, please click here. It tears my heart up that parents do this to their children and they don't deserve it but in order for them to have the future they would have had with a good family, they need our help. Any donation helps!!! It takes about $3 million per year to run these ranches and they are entirely funded on private donations, so help these kids out. If every person in the workforce gave as little as $5...man that adds up.

But you don't even have to give donations. Like the website says, prayer works wonders. These kids feel abandoned by their parents and there will always be an adjustment period for them. Please pray for them as they adjust to this new lifestyle and that their emotional wounds from the scaring their parents left on them will heal. Also pray that the ranch will always find a way to make ends meet so that it can bring in more and more children. And don't forget about the staff working there. There are families that have given their lives to this cause. They open up their homes to numerous children that are not their own, but they take responsibility for them. Pray for them. And pray that God continues to put such amazing influences in these kids lives. I so look forward to doing more with this organization!