Chateau Elan

Drew and I managed to slip away for the weekend and headed to Brasleton, GA to stay (and play) at Chateau Elan. Chateau Elan is a winery in North Georgia that makes several different types of wine, my favorite being the sweeter Muscadine wines (came home with 6 bottles!). We played golf Saturday afternoon and that was a lot of fun for both of us! Drew actually played; I just caddied for him. Saturday night we ate Dinner at the Versailles Restaurant which was French food which was fine, but the desserts were even better! I literally had a plate full of chocolate before we left dinner (and of course made myself sick!).   The rooms were fantastic, very spacious, clean and well decorated and our room overlooked one of the three golf courses. The spa was beautiful as well with an authentic Parisian feel (well, as authentic as they could make it in Georgia). We both agree that we would like to make another trip to Chateau Elan  in the future. 

Outside of the winery

Playing the Elan course.

One of the suites at C.E. (ours was laid out a little different than this one). 

Dinosaurs!

On Sunday drew and I took our nephew to Augusta to see the dinosaur exhibit at the Civic Center. In my opinion there could have been more dinosaurs (I was thinking there were going to be legitimate fossils and artifacts) but there was none of that. There was however a good number of extra large animal tronic dinosaurs that my nephew loved looking at and touching although I don't think we were supposed to touch. It was fun especially for a 2.5 year old but the person paying $56 to get in was a liytle disappointed! There's also was a kidzone complete with several bouncy houses face painting dinosaur rides and sheer madness. He absolutely loved the kidzone! We went and ate pizza at Mellow Mushroom afterwards then finished of the day with ice cream from Dairy Queen. Drew and I immediately went home and slept for two hours. It was sooooo exhausting!

Spring Pictures!

I hosted my first mini-photography-sessions on March 16th and 17th. I had 16 children participate, which was wayyyyy  to many looking back! I also did not realize how much time I was going to need to edit the pictures. I ended up taking over 1,500 pictures! Obviously I did not edit anywhere close to that figure. Here are some of my favorites (I'll add more latter -- I only have on SD card with me right now).

10 Obsessions

It has been a while since I’ve posted about random topics, most of my post as of late have been catching up on events in my life. So here are a list of my current top 10 obsessions (some of which are new obsessions others are old ones that have just been revived).

1.    Low Carb Strawberry Cheesecake. After I finished writing a paper on Sunday I decided to reward myself with something delicious, instead of driving to the closest Dairy Queen I decided that I would make a cheesecake so I could enjoy it for several days. I have basically ate nothing but Cheesecake since Sunday. I made it with splenda and almond meal crust, so I really don’t feel that guilty about it!

2.  Gelish nail polish. This is a revived obsession, unfortunately I just don’t have enough time to get manicures on the regular! I made time to get one for my birthday 3 weeks ago and my nails still look great (no damaging acrylic either!).

3.  Yoga and Heavy Bag Training (translation: punching bag madness). I found a DVD at Target a while back that had several beginner yoga routines, one of which was a night time wind down routine. I have been doing it in the evenings off and on for the past 2 weeks and I think it honestly has helped me sleep better. I also received a punching bag and gloves for my birthday that we hung out in Drew’s shop. It really is a lot of fun especially after I took the time to do some research and  figured out what I should be doing, plus it’s a really fast workout!

4.  Summer time. Daylight savings time has arrived which means that warmer weather is right around the corner. No additional explanation required.

5.  Urban Decay De-Slick. This was also a birthday present and is a great product (I haven’t used it prior to getting it for my bday). After I put my face on in the mornings I lightly mist this over my face and it helps my foundation stay put all day. I’m not sure about the cost but its available at Sephora and Ulta. 

6.  Iced Coffee. Man that stuff is good! This is also a revived obsession since it hasn’t been as cold outside as of late.

7. Springtime flowers and plants. I made a trip to Home Depot this past weekend and bought all the flowers and plants I needed to replant my big planters for the gate and my pots on the porch. This year I am determined to make sure they survive through the entire summer! (Or at least longer than they did last year!).

 8. Ebay. I don’t normally shop on ebay (not like I do on Amazon at least) but since I downloaded an app on my phone I have been doing some serious stalking of a whole array of different items. I also enjoy finding strange and unusual items on ebay and just watching to see how much they sell for which has only reinforced my belief that there are more crazy people in this world than sane. 

9. Photography. I am getting excited about doing me first round of spring mini-sessions this weekend. Will post pictures next week (hopefully). 

10. Downton Abbey. This is a show that comes on BBC America about a family in England based in pre-WWI era. It’s a drama that claims to be historically accurate about the period. My favorite character just died and I’m not too happy about that, hopefully I will stick with it though. I find myself talking with a British accent and wishing I had a house fully of maids, butlers and cooks after I watch the episodes! Drew has yet to respond to my bell ringing…….. rude. 

27th Birffday!

My 27th birthday has come and gone but it was an amazing birthday thanks to my wonderful family and friends! My mother and sister-in-law Kim went to great lengths to throw me a surprise birthday party and it was definitely a surprise party! Kudos to them for finally getting one over on me! They both work their butts off preparing ((way too much!)) food, hanging decorations and corralling people to come to Louisville on a Monday night!

Looking back on the clues now I could have probably put it together (Drew was super anxious about being on time, didn't want to go ride the ranger around, kept stressing that we didn't need to get dirty before we went to Kim's -- wow we sound super hick-ish!) but I just chalked it up to his occasional strange behavior! I really never expected a surprise party! It was great to see everyone together and I was truly overwhelmed with everyone's love and support! I am blessed beyond measure! Here are a few pics:

 

I also had to bite the bullet and update the about me section of my blog! 26 no more!

 

LAS VEGAS!

We have been back from Las Vegas for almost 2 & a 1/2 weeks now and I'm just now getting around to writing about it. We had an awesome time and I think we stay just long enough (to spend more money than we planned on spending and eating more than we should have!). Oops! We stayed at Caesars Palace again but this time we stayed in the Palace Towers which were almost identical to the other towers (I think these rooms for just a little bit larger though). Here are a few pictures of our room:

We also went and saw The Beatles: Love Cirque du Soleil show at the Mirage on our first night and it was truly amazing! That was my first Cirque show and I was blown away by how great it was produced and executed. The only thing I wish we would have done differently was going to the earlier 7:30 showing versus the 9:30 showing because we were all dragging by the end of it! They wouldn't allow photography inside but here are a few we snuck in! Ha!

Of course we gambled some too (playing blackjack and penny slots for the most part). My biggest win on the slot machines was $120! We walked across the street to play blackjack at the Flamingo because it was less crowded and the tables were much cheaper! I forget how much fun it can be when you're not losing all your money! We also tried playing craps for the first time and that game was just that ((crap))!

Of course we tried a ton of different restaurants my favorite restaurant was this little chocolate dessert place near our elevators literally everything was chocolate! My least favorite restaurant was Gordon Ramsay's Pub and Grill I thought the food was horrible but that is also because I'm not a fan of European style food; chicken fingers for this gal please!

Serendipity 

I also made a trip to the spa one day while the guys were out gallivanting. It was a beautiful spa but I can't say that it was worth the price of the services; yowza! Drew and Mr. David also went and drove sports cars at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on our last full day there ((Drew's Valentine's Day present)). Mr. David drove a white Porsche and Drew drove a Red Ferrari. They both enjoyed it and Mrs. Cheryl and I listen to them talk about it for the rest of the day! Here are few pictures for

Great trip, great weather, great family... GREAT time! 

Catch Up!

A couple weekends ago we had a girl’s evening in Augusta and went to see the Price is Right Live Show! The show was hosted by Jerry Springer himself; yes that Jerry Springer (“Jerry, Jerry, Jerry!”). We all met up at Mellow Mushroom for dinner before the show and then went over to the Bell Auditorium. I was pleasantly surprised at how entertaining the show was; Jerry Springer did a great job as host! The line to sign up and participate was ridiculously long so we skipped that part, which I am glad we did because none of the prizes were worth standing in line for several hours (to me at least). There was no photography allowed so we couldn't get any pictures though :(

 Valentine’s Day! Valentine’s Day was a little over a week ago. Drew and I normally don't do anything extravagant for Valentine’s Day mostly because everything is so far away from where we live and I'm not a big fan of crowded places. Last year we rented a movie and ate Lucky Charms in our PJ's which on a scale 1 to 10 was a 15 in my book! This year Drew decided he was going to cook dinner for the two of us. This is probably the fourth time he's ever cook dinner for me so we were both pleasantly surprised when everything turned out great! He cooked steak, grilled onions, grilled asparagus and made a caesar salad. He did a fantastic job and did the dishes too! We even ate in our dining room which was the first time that has happened in over a year, it was nice sitting there just talking to each other with no distractions, the dogs didn’t know what to think about it because they couldn’t sit in their usual spots around the kitchen table.

Rain, Rain, Rain…

It seems that we have had more rainfall in the past few weeks than we did for all of last year combined! We desperately needed the rain but I have had enough for a while. Our yard is a disaster from the builders driving to the shop in the soggy grass. Plus the dogs have cabin fever from being stuck inside too much (well, Reagan does at least). Thank goodness the sun has decided to make its appearance today. Here are a few pictures of the rain and mess:

From left to right: The river running by the shop (aptly named Cary Creek), the golf cart path completely flooded, a Mustang in a full ditch by Wal-Mart and the Ranger stuck in the mud. (Drew's fault!).

 

Per usual I have waited until the bitter end to buckle down on my school work for the class I am currently enrolled in (Advances E-Business Strategies (ie, super boring!). I received an email from my professor last week wanting to make sure everything was okay because we only have 3 weeks of class left and I still have SIX papers to turn in… ooops - my bad! So I have spent most of this weekend writing papers trying to get somewhat caught up. 2 down so far… After this I will have ONE class left which I have put off taking from the beginning. The class is Micro Business Economics II and I severely despise economics. I hope to be finished with all of my classes by the end of May! Halleluiah!

                                                            Basically....

 

Tomorrow is my 27^th Birthday – Yikes! As a treat to myself I am going to invest in some precautionary wrinkle cream...  30 is approaching at an alarming rate!

Oh, and we spent most of last week in Las Vegas!! I’ll write a blog post about the trip later this week! It was A LOT of FUN!

Fat Saturday Pub Crawl

Last night was the third annual Fat Saturday Pub Crawl in downtown Augusta. Drew and I had to run to home depot first to return a commercial carpet cleaner we rented Friday night to clean our carpets and couches (I know, what a lame Friday night! --But our couches and carpets are like new again!). We also stopped and ate dinner at Firehouse Subs (which is one of Drew's top 10 favorite places to eat) before heading downtown. We met up with everyone at 1102 Bar and Grill first, which was nice because they had a table so we could sit and chat before the madness began! Drew and I only made it trough half of the bars on the pub crawl before calling it a night. Drew was rather entertaining on our hour long drive home might I add! I was a great time though and we are already looking forward to Fat Saturday 2014!

Photo Updates

We have had (mostly) remarkable weather for this time of the year these past 2 weeks or so and have even ventured into the 80 degree realm on a day or two! Yessssss! I for one think it should be 90 and sunny year round but very few others share this sentiment with me. Anyway, on to the pictures... I was able to get together with Catherine and Amanda on Tuesday evening of last week to take pictures of their sweet daughters. Both Savanna and Emma decided that they were going to be serious models for the shoot though! We managed to get one smile out of each, but we sounded like a group of idiots in the process! "Are you going to smile for us? Awww smile for us! Smile for mama! Be a sweet girl! Sssmmmiiilllleeeeee!" 

 I also took pictures of my nephew on Saturday because he is 18 months old now! Wowza! I have been taking his pictures for a little over a year now at different milestones and it is so neat to look back on the pictures and see how much he has changed in such a short period of time. 

Here are a few of my favorites: 

Savanna (3 months old)
(This was actually the first one I took of her on Tuesday so I thought this was going to be an session and we would get lots of smiles!)

But boy were we wrong! She stuck her tongue out at us and that was it for facial expressions for the day! How cute was this though?!

Most of the pictures looked more like this though:

She is adorable either way! We are hoping for a better performance when she turns 6 months old! :)

Savanna is the baby that was cooking during these pictures: Catherine and Lee

Emma - 4 Months Old

She was such a little doll; this was kind of a smile, right?!

 

Here are her proud parents, Robert and Amanda. (Still no smile from Emma!) 

Lastly, here are 18 month pictures 

We had no issues getting laughs or smiles out of this guy though! 

Again, all smiles! 

This was my favorite picture we took that day! 

Drew's Shop

After what seems like an eternity of building this shop we are finally nearing completions. I am soooo excited about the completion for several different reasons but my main excitement is to finally get the garage cleaned out! We have been maneuvering around a giant lawnmower parked between our cars since last summer.

Here is the exterior. The roll-up doors should be installed later this week. (Emphasis on should).

Here are the interior walls; smooth plywood. 

Brigham's Pictures

I meant to post these pictures last week but got sidetracked as usual. Courtney brought Brigham to the house 2 weekends ago so that i could take a few 3 month pictures for her. He is getting sooooo big and the weather was great (warm enough for gnats to harass us!). Here are a few of my favorite pictures:

Sitting up like a big boy! 

Enjoying some sugar from his mommy.

Happy that the pictures are almost over :)

Man Shop Update

Here is a picture from yesterday of the progress on Drew' shop. It is moving along... slowly. The roof is finished and the electrical on the inside is basically complete. We still have to finish the tin on the exterior walls, install the roll-up doors, insulate interior then finish the interior walls and pour the cement pad on the front. Now that I think of it, ignore what I said int he post below about it being finished in 2 weeks!

January Catch Up

Well we are already half way through January and this is the first opportunity I have had to post a few things in a while. They say time flies when you are having fun... apparently time also flies when you are working all the time!

Here are a few highlights from the past couple of weeks:

Drew and I went to San Francisco in 2007; we went for a wedding but spent a few days touring the area and went to Napa Valley as well. One of the wineries we toured was Viansa Winery. We bought a few bottles of wine and had them shipped to us (one of which we have saved for the past 5 years). We finally decided that we would open it and try it out to see if it had actually improved with age. I had wrapped the bottle up several years ago so that we didn't accidentally open it (and it worked!). What didn't work however was the cork. Dang it! Half way through opening the bottle it broke off so we just went at it with a knife 'til we made a hole big enough to pour through.  I think the flavor got a little more 'smokey' with time in addition to the small shards of cork it wasn't half bad!

Viansa Winery in 2007

Zifandel bottled in 2005

My poor Annabelle had to have dental surgery last week. I was petrified.  Actually, I think petrified isn't a realistic description of exactly how scared I was for her. Fortunately everything turned out fine and my sweet little baby is feeling much better (less 12 teeth). She is however disappointed that her mouth is healing up and she isn't getting hot dogs for dinner anymore! 

Annabelle doing what she does best..

Leaving Dr. Ford's office.. Poor baby was still doped up. 

Drew and I decided to do something really low key for New Years versus years past. We actually didn't nail down any concrete plans until New Years Eve. We ended up heading over to two of our good friend's house (Gaines and Kathryn) and met up with a few other friends there. We enjoyed spending time with friends and we were actually back home and in the bed around 12:30! Win! 

Happy New Years! 

I had full intentions of getting a group shot at Christmas of my family and Drew's family, I even pulled my tripod out and got it set up. I decided before everyone got there to put the tripod and camera in the side bedroom so that it would not get knocked over in the madness. Well... I forgot all about it and never got a picture.:(  Drew and I did get a family photo earlier in the day:

Christmas Eve 2012

The shop is coming along nicely! I am optimistic that it will be completed in the next two weeks. I will add a separate blog post later this week with pictures and a full update. Drew is very excited about the progress on his "Man Shop".

Last week Blythe Elementary School called up to our office and asked if we had any volunteers that wanted to come and read for Book Day or Reading Day (something like that). Of course Lori and I jumped at the opportunity to go! I read a book called the Stray Dog to a group of 3rd graders. The book started out sad but ended happy! After finishing the story all the kids had to tell me stories about their pets including a few traumatic incidents... yikes! 

Reading is F-U-N

We nailed down final trip details for our Las Vegas getaway next month! We have the flights and hotel booked now and we are really excited to go! Drew's parents are accompanying us on this trip and we are really excited to get away with them on a real vacation (it is much overdue). We are staying a Caesars Palace again this time. Yippie! 

2009

Today is also Justin's 29th birthday! I can't believe he is only a year away from 30.. which means I'm getting a lot closer to 30 too. Eeek! ;) 

Happy Birthday!