You want food? We got food...

Before I start, please see a few of my favorites from our recent trip to the beach (Navarre) with Jarren's parents and Haley & Devin. It was so relaxing-we never really had any plans. We just went! Weather was great and the food was even better. You just can't beat a shrimp boil one night, crab claws the next, crab cakes for lunch and grouper the next day...anyway, here are the pictures!About to go out to eat for dinner one night.

Just goofing off!

We're having our good friends Teri & Thomas Brandon over for dinner tomorrow night and I'm pumped about cooking a nice meal for someone else besides just J & I! Those who know me know I actually really really really like cooking. I'll include recipes and pictures in my next blog post...)although at the rate I'm going who knows how long that will be). Just to make you salivate, we're having:
Steak
Cajun red potatoes
Greek salad (that Teri's making)

Then, we're all going to hear Ugli Stick at The Sports Page! Fun times...ADPi Christmas Cocktail 2004 anyone?? : )

LinkedIn

I joined LinkedIn today and I want all of you who read this to do the same! Just click here and get started. It's like a professional Facebook. At work, we're learning all about social media and how Twitter and blogging is the new thing. And since Jarren NEVER writes on the blog, I'm thinking about letting this take a more professional twist...and plug TotalCom while I'm at it! So hopefully ever so often I will be posting a tidbit of something interesting I've learned from the world of advertising. Some will be funny (as we do tend to have a blast working on things here at the Ward Ave. house!) and some will be serious. Short blog post today... Go join LinkedIn and invite me in your network! Please!!!

ATL, here we come! And a rambling thought to Alabama Power...

No, we're not moving to Atlanta (much to my mother's dismay)! We're headed there today to visit the 'rents as soon as that 5-o-clock whistle blows for the day. We're actually going to help her distress her white kitchen cabinets. They need such an update and this will really warm them up. I can't wait to post before and after pictures for her to see. Should be good fun!

I really don't have much blogging to do today, I just realized I need to keep up better with it. Which seems to be a recurring theme to all my blog posts. I'm really trying to keep a handle on it all because the social media world is taking the advertising world by storm - literally. It's HUGE. You're not anyone if you aren't posting your ads to Facebook and YouTube and updating with a blog and Twitter. It's confusing just to keep up with the world we're in with all these things coming at you. To quote a line from the movie "He's Just Not That Into You" (which is a terrible movie, btw), "...and now you just have to go around checking all these different portals just to get rejected by seven different technologies. It's exhausting." I couldn't agree with her more. Sometimes even my own husband rejects me with that fabulous technology known as the cell phone by not answering my phone calls about 68.4% of the time.

So all this reliance on technology got me thinking on how reliant we are on it. For example: last Friday night, Jarren and I decided to go see the new movie The Hangover (HILARIOUS, btw. Even if they do show most of the funny parts in the previews). Anyway, it's a 7:30 movie and we have to get there early for me to see the previews (in my humble opinion - the BEST part of any movie). So we're sitting in the theater at 7:15 when the screen goes black and the emergency lights come on. Seems a transformer has blown due to the overactivity of air conditioners considering the sweltering heat wave that has crossed Alabama the past 2 weeks or so. And my thought is, we live in Alabama. Of course it's hot in the summer. 100 degree + days in the middle of June aren't completely uncommon. It's 2009. Do we not have the ability to recover from people just trying to stay comfortable? Apparently not because it took over 4 hours to restore power to a large chunk of the county. We finally got into our house at 11:30 that night. You read that right - 11:30 to get into our house. Why you ask? Because we are so reliant on power and technology that when the power went out, our only entry into our house currently (the garage door opener), wouldn't work. We tried for 30 minutes to break in and didn't succeed. Which makes me feel good that we couldn't even break into our own home... And you know what we learned from all of this? Nothing. Because we still rely on that power to fuel our lives. Moral of my rambling? I don't understand all these left-wing nut jobs rambling on about renewable energy and save the planet and global warming (which I don't believe in, btw. Argue with me all you want on this point, I do not believe in man-made global warming) when we can't even get power restored to a major Alabama city in a timely fashion when the only reason for the power outage in the first place is people running air conditioners a little cooler. It's summer in the South in Alabama (as I've stated). It gets hot here every year, just as it has for decades. Be prepared for this, Alabama Power.

Thank you.

Update on Jarren

So I realize I have not updated this blog since April and that means I'm a VERY bad blogger. But we've been so busy! We've had several showers for friends getting married and visits with family, etc. But then I also realized that I need to update on Jarren.
Last Tuesday night, we were up all night with him violently ill. He kept saying his stomach hurt and he was violently throwing up and alternating between hot and cold. We went to the doctor as soon as they opening thinking it was probably food poisoning or something because he ate at nasty Bandito Burrito Tuesday night while I was at Bunco.
Turns out, doctor was afraid it was appendicitis and sent us to the ER via ambulance. THAT was an experience and probably cheap, too.
We get to the ER at Huntsville Hospital and of course had to wait WAY longer for everything - to see the doctor, to get the CT scan, etc. Well, turns out it WAS appendicitis so Wednesday afternoon at about 4:45, Jarren went in for surgery to remove it. He's doing great now and we went home before 8:00 am the next morning. They didn't even have to use stitches! They were able to do it minimally-invasive so he's just been really sore. Friday was a slightly rough day for both of us (him because he was irritable and sore and me because...well...he was irritable and sore). Saturday he over-did it a little which made Sunday a sore day. But he went back to work yesterday (Monday) and seems to be doing great! We go back to the doctor Friday to get the little butterfly tape removed and hopefully get the all clear to get back to normal. I miss snuggling up to him in the bed!!!
So that's the update with J. Praise God everything went smoothly and he's almost back to normal!

We've Lost a Bedroom...

We're officially all moved in and yes, we've lost a bedroom. To the dog. Tank has officially declared one of the guest bedrooms as "his". He even sleeps on the bed in there at night. All night long. It's the only place he'll go these days. Even when J and I are in the den watching TV, he won't hang out with us anymore. He goes to his "room" and lays on the bed. I'm not sure if I should be alarmed at his sudden affection for this particular room or relieved that he doesn't sleep in our room and jump on and off the bed 50 times a night where we hear his little toenails every time he does it. Right now, I'm leaning towards relief since I'm getting more sleep.

Moving went great! It was a lot of hard work and we had so much wonderful help from our wonderful family and friends. We couldn't have done it without them! We're busy trying to do what I call "finishing touches" so I'll be sure to post some finished pictures in the next week or so as we get more done.

Best website ever!

So everyone does it, but every once in a while work just gets to you and you have to take a 5-minute mental break to make sure your head doesn't implode. Or at least I do. I love my job, but sometimes I get so overwhelmed and so stressed, that it's better for me to take a step back and take a small break so I can approach a task from a different angle. Admit it...you know what I mean! Anyway, I have found the greatest blog website to help me take that break and get a good laugh. Some of these pictures are hysterical and I find myself laughing out loud at them. Some, however, are cheesy. But usually those are few and far between. So here is the website and it is about the funnest thing you'll ever see! Tons of different people post on it and I've attached one of my favorite images from it here:

Yeah, so I know you're thinking what's with all the misspelled words and it's called "doggie speak" and it's how these people who post think their dog (or cat for this version) would type and talk if they could. Kind of like baby talk on steroiods a little. I already have my sister hooked. Try it for a week...people post almost continuously on it. Tell me you don't find yourself doubled over a time or two!
So there is your good cheer for the day!

The House...by popular demand...

So, my mom and Jarren are both harassing me to put up more current pictures of the house progression. It's not really so much a progression anymore as a "finalizing little details" process since we're moving in two days! So here they are with minor descriptions. You can see better "before-and-after" transformation pictures on my facebook page. So here they are (P.S. you can make each picture bigger by clicking on it - maybe this is a trick the seasoned bloggers know about, however, I did not so there you go!):

View of the finished den

Dining/Bar room (this is actually an old picture before the tile was grouted...I'll put a newer one up soon with no furniture eventually).

2 Kitchen pictures (see, there's the grouted tile!) with distressed cabinets and new knobs

Close-up of the kitchen cabinets

2 pictures of the master bedroom

New master bathroom! Probably the biggest transformation!

New guest bathroom (made out of an island closet and wasted hallway)