#16 - CHECK!

Another thing off the list! And this one was DEFINITELY one that I wanted to do. Number 16 on my list was to get new countertops for our kitchen. When I moved into Justin's house, he had bright white appliances and blue countertops. It was absolutely awful. Upgrading to all stainless steel appliances is also on the list, but we still need one so I can't knock that off yet. Feast your eyes up what once was...




And now...





Justin and our friends Trevor and Wade worked on it for hours! When I got home from work I was completely shocked to find out that Justin had already bought a stainless dishwasher, something we were going to hold off on doing for a little bit. We already had a stainless stove and microwave, so we needed a sink, dishwasher and fridge. We knew we'd get the sink when we got the countertops because you have to install them together. When Justin realized that he had to take out the dishwasher to install the new countertops, he figured he'd rather not have to do that twice and just went ahead and bought us one.

Some pics of the boys hard at work...





Like I said, we are waiting on buying a fridge to be able to knock the all stainless kitchen appliances off the list. We haven't picked out the exact fridge, but we know what basic kind we want.



We know we want the double door with the bottom freezer and we've found a couple we like. We won't make this purchase until after we get back from Africa. Right now most of our funds are going to save for that bad boy! After we get back from Africa, we will purchase the fridge along with replacing the carpet in the living room with hardwood floors, another thing on my 101 List. I can't wait to see what our house is going to look like when we're finished with it. We're also planning on buying new dining room furniture and a new coffee and end tables for the living room. YAY for re-decorating :)

#49 - CHECK!

Taking Anderson to the McWane Center by ourselves was number 49 on my list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days. Since my mom is a sucker for those kids and she lives in Birmingham, there was no chance I would ever be able to take Anderson or Lydia to the McWane Center without her wanting to come. So today, my mother and I took Anderson and Lydia there for the morning. Anderson LOVES the McWane Center. Lydia loves it too, but she's a little too young to understand everything you can do. Pictures will sum it up :)



This is Anderson and I at the shark and sting ray tank. He was afraid to touch them though. And it was weird for me to touch a baby hammerhead considering they're one of the most dangerous types of sharks. Very cool stuff though!



Lydia on the other hand probably would have jumped in the tank and swam with them if we would have let her.



I love this picture of him! He just LOVES fish! He associates Justin and I with the salt water fish tank that we have at our house. Every time I talk to him, he wants to know about the fish and when we're going to get more.



Little man and little girl :)



If there's something Anderson loves more than fish....it's Dinosaurs!! They had a play area with dinosaur bones and it was covered in stones and the kids got little brushes to uncover the bones.



The funny thing was that apparently Lydia thought the brushes were for make up :)



Me and little girl playing in the dinosaur sand box!



Anderson and Lydia were competing for making handprints.



Sweet precious Lydia fell asleep sucking her thumb!!! She is so adorable!



And while at lunch with Justin and our friend Wade, Anderson learned how to cross his eyes. He was cracking Justin and Wade up and he just loves it when people laugh at him, so he kept crossing his eyes OVER AND OVER AND OVER again. It was hilarious!

I'm actually marking a bunch of things off the list this weekend so I'll post some more soon. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!!

Flashback Friday - Car Wreck

So I've been noticing some of my friends doing posts called "Flashback Friday" and I figured I would jump on the bandwagon since I have nothing to blog about these days because I'm so busy with work. This week's Flashback Friday took place in February (I can't remember the actual day) of 2004. I was driving from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham late at night after I got off work at Applebee's. I was scheduled to judge the Alabama State Dance Competition being held at UAB the next day, but I needed to work the night before, so I drove back when I got off work, probably around 11pm.

When on the interstate, I noticed traffic was bumper to bumper on the other side of the interstate. I still have no idea why the traffic was so bad, but some people were driving out of the traffic into the median and turning around to go back towards Birmingham, the same direction I was going. I was in the far left lane and a grey explorer pulled directly in front of me. I guess he/she didn't see me in the lane, but I managed to swerve across three lanes of traffic (going 70+ mph) and hit a ditch. My car rolled up the hill on the right side of the interstate and then back down the hill. All in all, the report says that witnesses said they saw my car flip about 6-8 times. I don't remember any of it. I remember seeing the explorer and changing lanes, but nothing after that. I woke back up as soon as my car stopped flipping and got out of the car on my own. I remember freaking out and a TON of people stopping to make sure I was ok. I kept telling one woman "my mom is going to kill me, I am so dead". I guess I didn't realize how bad the accident was at that time. I just knew my hand was in an extreme amount of pain.

The ambulance got there, it seemed in seconds, and took me to DCH, the hospital in Tuscaloosa. I had seven stitches in my middle finger and the skin on my right hand was pretty much gone, but that was it. I had no concussion, no broken bones, nothing. This incident changed my life forever. I can't really explain the way it went in my head, but God talked to me that day, and it changed everything. Nothing has been the same for me since. I have a closer relationship with God because of this and I essentially rededicated my life to Him after this. Anyone that comes out of that car alive has someone upstairs watching out for them. That's what my doctors kept telling me. Everyone said I was incredibly lucky to be alive, not to mention to walk away with only seven stitches and a bad headache.











I had this cross on my rearview mirror at the time of the accident. It was the only thing in the car (other than me of course) that didn't get thrown out. My CD's were found outside the car on the hill that I flipped on, some of my school books got thrown out of the car as well, but this cross stayed in place. It had two rhinestones missing out of it, but it was still completely intact. This same exact cross is on my rearview mirror today.

The downside of the whole thing was that the person that pulled out in front of me causing the accident got away. Ten cars (and one 18-wheeler!!) stopped to check on me, but unfortunately no one ran after him/her. Since I didn't hit anyone, my insurance claimed the accident my fault and my car insurance sky rocketed for the next couple of years. But I guess that is nothing compared to what could have happened...