Thanksgiving Weekend

From my last post you know that for Thanksgiving Nathan and I visited my best friend, Melodee and her little family in Miami, FL. Mel prepared us an AMAZING traditional Thanksgiving dinner. For the first time in my life I liked the sweet potatoe casserole. And since there were only 4 of us plus Kyle, their toddler, there were plenty of leftovers. YUM!!

The guys hung out that day and watched football. (I don't know how I ended up with no pictures of Mel's husband, Stephen. )

That night we walked off our turkey-induced comas by taking a trip to the beach. The water was warm enough to take a swim--in November! Gotta love Miami!

As the sun began to set, we enjoyed the beautiful colors, and also got to see a very large cruise ship leave harbor.

Nathan enjoyed collecting shells and coral pieces for our saltwater aquarium.

The next day the guys went fishing, leaving us girls (and Kyle) to ourselves. We decided to embark on an activity our hubbies would probably find uninteresting...a visit to the botanical garden, Fairchild Tropical Gardens, an 83-acre park just south of the city. It was the most perfect weather. My green thumb was just itching as we explored many plants that I have never seen before, at least not as up close and personal as this.

It was breathtaking and calming...

The next day we went to Bill Bagg's State Park--one of the top 10 beaches in the U.S. Everyone must have been out shopping because there were very few people there. We enjoyed chasing Kyle around. Nathan built a sand castle (and dug a hole big enough for him to stand in). The lighthouse was closed for renovation, so we couldn't go for a tour to the top, but the scenery was beautiful.

It was such a relaxing Thanksgiving weekend. Thank you to Mel and Stephen for letting us crash your pad, and for showing us a great time--so great that we can't wait to visit again!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We're enjoying Thanksgiving weekend visiting my best friend, Melodee, her husband, Stephen, and their 16-month old son, Kyle, in Miami, FL. Mel and I have been best buds since 7th grade. It's so much fun being here and hanging out. Today I am thankful for good friends who lift me up.

Unfortunately I forgot to pack the cord to my camera, so I can't upload photos until I get home, but if you want to see our dinner and some pictures of the day, visit Mel's blog at http://melodeecooper.blogspot.com/. We basically took the same photos today.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!!!!!!!

Friends

OK, people, let's have some fun. See how much you really know about your friends. If you want to participate, place an X by all the things you've done and remove the X from the ones you have not. Feel free to add a notation, if you wish. Then, answer the 30 questions at the end and send it to your friends or put it on your own blog. Hey, it's all in fun, right? And besides, no one is twisting your arm to participate.

( ) Gone on a blind date
(x) Skipped school (more times than I'd like to admit)
( ) Watched someone die
(x) Been to Canada (Niagra Falls)
(x) Been to Mexico
(x) Been to Florida (whaduyaknow? I happen to be here now!)
(x) Been on a plane
(x) Been lost (Yes, but Nate says I have a pretty good sense of direction. I'm the one always finding new ways to get places and saying, "Hey, let's try this road..." Sometimes it works out good and sometimes not so good, but I can usually end up where I intended.)
(x) Been on the opposite side of the country
(x) Been to Washington, DC
(x) Swam in the ocean (Pacific, Gulf of Mexico, and Atlantic)
(x) Cried yourself to sleep
( ) Recently colored with crayons
(x) Sung Karaoke
(x) Paid for a meal with coins only (isn't that a rite of passage for a teenager?)
(x) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't
(x) Made prank phone calls (Is your fridge running...well you'd better go catch it. Yeah, not my proudest moment. I think I was 12.)
(x) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose (ooooh. I just hate that.)
(x) Caught a snowflake on your tongue (I love to eat snow. Need to visit the country in the winter so I can eat "clean" snow.)
(x) Danced in the rain
(x) Written a letter to Santa Claus (Fond childhood memory of the year I was six. Thanks, Mom!)
(x) Been kissed under the mistletoe
(x) Watched the sunrise with someone you care about
(x) Blown bubbles
(x) Gone ice-skating
( ) Ever had any major surgeries?
(x) Been skinny dipping outdoors (Walden Pond--eat your heart out, Thoreau)
(x) Danced in the snow
(x) Gone to the movies
(x) Got a speeding ticket (One. About 5 years ago. I was singing along with one of my favorite songs on the way home from Nathan's house late at night. This was before we were married. Let's just say I was a little distracted by my thoughts :)
( ) Gone through a divorce

1. Any nickname? Pee Wee Jones (only Dad and Mom call me this)
2. Favorite Drink? Diet Pepsi
3. Mother's name? Terry
4. Tattoo? nah
5. How much do you love your job? I LOVE it. It is a lot of stress, but I do enjoy it nonetheless.
6. Birthplace? Heber, UT
7. Favorite vacation spot? So far, Key West, FL.
8. Ever been to Africa? Not yet
9. Ever eaten cookies for dinner? Can't eat sweets in place of meals. Gives me a belly ache.
10. Ever been on TV? Nope--unless you count security cameras
11. Ever steal any traffic sign? yes
12. Ever been in a car accident? If you can call it that. I backed out of a driveway into the neighbor's car when I was 16. That's it (knock on wood).
14. Favorite salad dressing? My homemade basalmic vinegar.
15. Favorite pie? Apple or pumpkin. I love cheesecake and recently had pumpkin cheesecake for the first time. I was pleasantly surprised.
16. Favorite number? Honestly? Ya know, I've never understood the point of having a favorite number. I think every time I answer this question I pick a random number, so it's probably different every time, which means, I guess, that I don't really have a favorite.
17. Favorite movie? When Harry Met Sally
18. Favorite holiday? Christmas
19. Favorite Dessert? cheesecake
20. Favorite food? Filet Mignon wrapped in bacon.
21. Favorite day of the week? Saturday. It's the only day I get to do whatever I want.
22. Favorite brand of Body wash? Whatever is on sale and smells good.
23. Favorite toothpaste? Colgate Total mint stripe
24. Favorite smell? Eucalyptus or sandalwood
25. What do you do to relax? read, garden, sing along with mu iPod.
26. How do you see yourself in 10 years? Thanks, Mel, for pointing out that we'll be coming up on the big FOUR-O. Let's not talk about that. Hmmmm....10 years from now--hopefully I'll have at least three kids, the oldest being no younger than 9 (yes, that means we're trying); have finished my bachelor's degree; obtained my CMA (Certified Managerial Accountant--like a CPA for business accounting); own a home; out of debt; living in either Boston or Salt Lake City.
27. Favorite color? Same thing as the favorite number. I have a hard time deciding. I like purple, pink, blue, green, red. Not usually yellow or orange so much.
28. Furthest place you will send this message? Going to my blog.
29. Who will respond to this the fastest? This is what Mel said: Amber or Chrystal? They like to have ideas of things to put on their blogs. Guilty as charged.
30. Is your best friend male or female? Male: Nathan, Female: Mel
31. Are you, or if retired, did you pursue your desired career field? Yes.
32. What will people think after reading this? "I need to put this on MY blog!!!" (Amen to that, Mel.)
33. Are you happy with your life and the way things have turned out? Not yet. It's still in the making. Happy with some things, and still enjoying the journey on others.

It's Beginning to Look a Little Like Christmas at Twilight

This year I went against my cardinal rule of no Christmas anything until after Thanksgiving. I heard about the lighting of the 50-foot Christmas tree at one of the places in Atlanta and I wanted to go. So last night we went with our friends, Mike and Megan Armstrong. It was a little anti-climactic though because we went to dinner first and ended up arriving with only 5 minutes left for the countdown. I was expecting something more breathtaking. But it was still very pretty, and they had snow machines blowing fake snow all over us once the tree was lit. It got me in the Christmas mood. Now I have to back up and get ready for Thanksgiving.

Yes, that's my dorky husband flashing his "gang signs."

After the lighting of the tree, the night was still young, so we decided to wander over and see what movies were playing. I don't know how we did it, but we ended up convincing the guys to go see "Twilight" with us. I know--I had to pick my jaw up off the sidewalk too. Actually, they kind of offered. At least Mike did. He had read the book with Megan and thought it had potential to be a good movie with all the vampire scenes. I had a hunch that the guys were going to be gravely disappointed for lack of "cool vampire action scenes," but I wasn't going to say anything. It was either Twilight or the new James Bond movie and I was not overly excited about that prospect. After the movie I didn't hear the end of how stupid it was for about an hour--but hey--I got to see it and didn't have to wait a month to see it with my mom and sisters. My review: it was what I expected--nothing more--nothing less--a cute teenage love story--with lots of "dreamy" scenes. The movie captured the "teen love" and the awkwardness very well. The baseball scene was done well, but the meadow scene and the flying/running through the forest were totally disappointing. Would have been happy with the rental. I know, I know. That may be blasphemy to some of you Twilight fans out there. I'm just not one--at least not a big one. But I probably would be if I were about 15 years younger.

Eats, Shoots and Leaves

Ok. So you're going to either totally agree with me on this, or think I'm a total dork. Either way I have been dying to share my feelings on what I deem to be one of the most entertaining books ever written--"Eats, Shoots and Leaves" by Lynne Truss. What on earth is a book with that title about? Well...
"A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.
“‘Why?’ asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.
“‘I'm a panda,’ he says at the door. ‘Look it up.’
"The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.
"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

If you don't get why that's funny, you can stop reading this blog entry right now. This is "A witty look at the amusing foibles of punctuation" (Reader's Digest). The version I purchased comes complete with a punctuation repair kit consisting of stickers of various sizes of commas, apostrophes, semicolons, colons and periods so that those of us who are punctuation sticklers can go forth and correct the punctuation bloopers that drive us crazy every day. At this point--if you're not a stickler like me--you may be wondering what kind of crazy person cares about punctuation outside of English teachers. Lest you deem my nit-picking as unimportant, let me share a little excerpt from the book to illustrate why punctuation is important and why I am uniting with other sticklers in the cause for punctuation justice.

Compare these two sentences:
A woman, without her man, is nothing.
A woman: without her, man is nothing.

There you have it. The amazing work of punctuation at its best (note: not it's best). That one drives me especially crazy day in and day out. C'mon people--what grade do we learn about contractions--1st grade? “Its” and “it's” are NOT interchangeable!!! Holy cow.

One ironic thing is that I unintentionally purchased the British version of the book (the author is British). I was not aware that there are both American and British versions. Not very far into the book I noticed a period outside quotation marks. Oh my. I was aghast. In a published book on punctuation, no less! But then soon the author explained that while in American English the ending punctuation mark is ALWAYS INSIDE the quotation marks, British English allows some kind of strange willy-nillyness--inside or outside. I can't quite figure out if it's arbitrary or if there are rules to the use. But IT'S DRIVING ME CRAZY!! Every single time I see that stupid period outside like this ". I feel a compulsory need to correct it to this." Lesson learned: When purchasing a book written by a British author, always look for the American version. Blurg.

So as you can see, I'm a little passionate about this. I'm only half way through the book and I LOVE it. I keep trying to share little blurbs with Nathan because I find them so amusing, but he gives me the stink eye and has asked that I refrain from any future "read and telling." So I am forced to share my thoughts here without infringing on copyright laws of the book. I also missed my book club meeting about it because I went visiting teaching instead. Boo hoo--but duty called. So, sorry to all you who are still reading this and thinking I'm totally strange. But maybe there are a few of you out there who share my same passion for punctuation. Do share, and then maybe we can debate whether you think the Oxford comma should stay or go. In the mean time, do understand that while I may internally be cursing your blogs, texts, and emails for their lack of punctuation (that was using an Oxford comma, by the way), I will refrain from scolding you, and will continue to bite my tongue. But be aware that it's starting to get a little sore from the biting.

Have You Ever?

Have you done any of the things on this list? Just copy and paste this to your blog and highlight or bold the ones that you HAVE done.
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world (both)
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Visited the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported by ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
87. Visited the White House
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone's life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Been anywhere outside of the United States

I'm a Georgia Voter - my sticker says so

I've been fretting for weeks now about waiting in line at the polls to vote. Record numbers of registered voters voted early in GA, and I was so worried about the lines today. Yes, I procrastinated casting my vote until the last possible day in a few of the last possible hours. I have so much to do at work that I really shouldn't have taken the time off, but I left work at 4 p.m. and headed to the polls to cast my ballot. And....there were NO lines. Seriously, I walked right in! It took me longer to find the rinky-dink lions club building than it did to actually cast my ballot. I had used an online tool provided by the local paper called "Build My Ballot." It was really cool. I put in my address, and it gave me my voting precinct and all applicable votes I would cast on my ballot for my specific district, gave a comparison for all those running for the different offices, and had a spot for me to mark which one I chose. After printing that out (took me all of 45 minutes to read through it all and make my final decisions), and taking it with me to the polls, I cast my ballot in such a short amount of time that I was home by 4:45, even after getting lost a few times trying to find the place. I have to admit that when I walked out of there I felt good that I had done my civic duty. Especially knowing how many people (including women's sufferage) have made it possible for me to have a say in things. Oh, and I am glad I live in the USA. I was listening to a radio program on the way home that was talking about countries (like Austrailia) where a citizen can risk being fined and possibly incarcerated for not voting. I've never thought about that side of things before--being forced to vote. Interesting. So today I'm thankful that I was able to exercise my freedom as a United States citizen to vote in such an historic election. Besides, I got a cool "I'm a Georgia Voter" sticker with a GA peach on it.
GET OUT AND VOTE!

Happy November 1st!

What a beautiful day we had here in ATL today. It was 72 degrees, sunny, warm, blue skies, beautiful fall colors everywhere. Nathan and I got out of the house and went to the park. I guess I should get more in the habit of taking pictures when we do stuff so we have pictures to put on the blog. It was a great afternoon.

Last night we celebrated Halloween with some friends from church at a party. It was a good time with great food, good friends, interesting conversations, fun pumpkin carving--an all-over fun night. Some of our friends took pictures of the pumpkins. If I get one from them, I'll post it. Nathan has been recording scary movies on our DV-R from TV for the last few weeks, and I know he's secretly hoping I'll relent and watch one with him. I think he just wants me to get all scared and snuggle up to him for comfort and reassurance. I hate scary movies that have no resolution. I've watched a few with him in the past, but I have to psyche myself up for it. I know, I'm such a pansy.

So today we went out to run some errands and did some window shopping, and I saw a t-shirt with this saying. "If you don't vote, I don't have to listen to your opinion." I liked that. I'm trying to psyche myself up for the long lines Tuesday. Just couldn't bring myself to stand in line for 6 hours to vote early!!! Holy cow. A record number of early voters (2 million) have already cast their ballots in the great state of GA. It's amazing to see so much enthusiasm and people taking action. I love it and am excited to see how things turn out Tuesday. It will sure prove interesting.

So we have some pretty big news. Last Friday Nathan accepted a job with Bank of America. The offer was as good or better than any others he had or expected to receive, and the program is great. The job is a position as a Junior VP in a 3-year fast-track leadership rotational program of operations management within BofA. It's exciting to see the light clearly at the end of the tunnel now. Many of you are curious where this job will take us geographically. Well.....so are we! We won't know for sure until January where the first assignment will be. Some possible locations I know of are their headquarters in Charlotte, NC; San Fransisco, CA; San Antonio, TX; and Chicago, IL. Our hope of hopes is that it will be Charlotte because I can transfer there within my current job, which would be a huge blessing. Plus, that would mean Nate's dad would be only a 6 hour drive instead of 10. It would be awesome to be closer to family again. Nathan shared this info with the recruiters, and they said they'd take it into consideration, but no promises. So now we get to play the waiting game until January. But at least that's one HUGE decision off our shoulders. We're excited about it!!!