Our Atlanta Weekend

Our weekend in Atlanta was fun if not a little crazy. The worst part was traffic. I may have grown up in Georgia but I really have never spent much time in downtown Atlanta much less Buckhead so the trip was almost as new for me as it was for Graham. The traffic was a bit stressful as well but I think it was more the lack of familiarity with the area rather than the amount of traffic. We arrived at our swanky Buckhead hotel Saturday evening and pretty much crashed. Sunday morning we woke up late and ended up eating brunch instead of breakfast at the Bear Rock Cafe. It was overcast most of the day and rained a little but that kept the temperatures down which made the Zoo much more enjoyable. We spent about 4 hours at the zoo seeing all the animals and most of the bathrooms (Okay that was really just me :-P). After vegging in our room for a while we decided to be cheap for dinner and get everything to go so we wouldn't have to pay a tip. We went to the Cumberland Mall Cheesecake Factory as the one nearest our hotel only had valet parking and I have this issue with paying people to park my car when I can do it perfectly well. The restaurant was SO crowded and all we wanted was two slices of cheese cake boxed to go. This took 30 MINUTES however it was well worth it. I tried the pineapple upside down cheesecake while Graham got some coffee chocolate concoction which was also very good. For our main course we had decided to get pizza from the California Pizza Kitchen at Lenox. Graham had the number with us so we could order and pick it up on our way back to the hotel. He called and was told they closed at 6:30 (it was now 8). 6:30 seems awfully early to me to close but it was a Sunday. Since our dinner plans fell through we decided to get take out from Maggiano's (neither of us had eaten there) and it was conveniently located right next to the Cheescake Factory. Monday we woke up early to try to get the aquarium early but between traffic and breakfast we didn't get there until 9:45. My parents arrived around 8:45 since they weren't sure how bad traffic would be. I would say the aquarium was definitely worth the money but I have some advice for anyone planning a trip:

• Go on a weekday if at all possible
• Buy your tickets online in advance and for the earliest hour you can. If I went again I would get tickets for 8 am as it was so much easier to view the exhibits before it got really crowded.
  
• Check to see what items are prohibited inside. Graham had to run back to our car with our knives (yes I carry a keychain pocket knife) and my gum as neither are allowed. Also, even though they say no drinks you are allowed water.
• The restaurant had really decent food at prices that weren't bad considering they had a captive crowd. Buy the smallest cup size - it's free refills. Also, drinks aren't allowed in the exhibits but take a purse large enough to put the cup in and just dump it out when you are ready to go back into the exhibits. We did this and just refilled between exhibits.
• Go to the Ocean Explorer exhibit first. It's the biggest, most popular, and most impressive. I guarantee you'll want to spend quite a bit of time there just watching the fish in the HUGE, and I mean HUGE window.
• Park in the first parking garage on Alexander St. It's the same price as the aquarium parking and closer.
  

Well I think that's all. I do have a few pictures but not on this computer so I'll post those later.

We Bring Out the Animal in...Animals?

Rhino Love
During our visit to the zoo we were treated to a show by a male rhino. He had his back to us but decided he needed to prove to us how "manly" he was. Let me just say that by the time he was done there was no doubt and the length was comparable to say, my leg! There were no females in sight so who knows what prompted this show. An older guy next to us said "I have got to get one of those!"

Baby Beluga - Almost
At the aquarium we gathered around the Beluga tank to watch the 3 females and 1 male. They are really graceful creatures, quite social, and remind me of really large dolphins. An aquarium employee was giving us a bunch of facts on the Belugas when he paused and said "It is mating season for the Belugas and I believe we are about to see an example of that." Not once, not twice, but THREE Times the male beluga went after one of the females at the very FRONT of the tank. We were "treated" to very close up views of his anatomy. The female was playing hard to get and he never did succeed while we were there but who knows, maybe that night there was some Beluga love.

Long overdue & Long winded

Since it's been a while since I last posted anything of substance I have a feeling this will be long. Consider yourself warned! :-)

Vacation
Our mini vacation at the lake was nice but boy did it make all of us really miss the beach. There's nothing like not getting to go your usual vacation spot to show how much you really enjoy it. I think all of us are sad that we won't get to go this year but we are all looking forward to next year when our newest addition will be joining us. If we go our usual time, September, she will be around 1! Our accommodations were nice but not so nice that I would buy a place there. These town homes were selling for 400K and on up and the craftsmanship left a lot to be desired. Also, the appliances in the unit were base level appliances and since we saw these same appliances in other town homes it must be their standard. If I was paying that much for a 3 Bed, 3 1/2 Bath town home I would really want something more top of the line. We really didn't do too much. Daddy played golf 3 times and Jack played with him once while the rest of us took it easy and enjoyed reading and the swimming pool. Graham and I went fishing a few times and he almost caught one. A fish came after his bait right as he was reeling it in. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures to post - I completely forgot about taking any. We did have several funny things happen on vacation.

1. The people we rented from are also trying to sell their unit. (550K if anyone is interested). On Thursday I noticed flashes in the hallway from the sun like someone had shut a car door outside. I thought maybe it was daddy returning from his golf game. Then we heard someone at the door. Momma walked down the hallway to be greeted by a Realtor who was surprised to see us there. She said her MLS listing showed the unit as unoccupied. She asked if she could show it and Momma told her it wasn't ours and that we were renting. I guess the Realtor figured it probably wouldn't be nice to impose on us and it's probably a good thing as we are fairly neat on vacation but not "show a home" neat. A few days later we had a lady walk right in when Graham was in the hallway and he asked if he could help her, she yelled sorry and ran out of the door. I'm guessing she was another Realtor. (Just to be completely honest, I had to try several spellings to get the right one for Realtor. :-P )
2. On our first night in Seneca we drove down to Clemson to eat at a place called Calhoun Corners. According to the information in our town house it was rated a really good upscale place to eat. We had no clue what to expect and it was good, and quite upscale. After the salad course the server brought out little dishes of lemon sorbet. I wish you could have seen the look on my dad's face. Momma and informed him it was a palate cleanser between courses. Although it tasted really good Graham said he couldn't eat it as it was too weird to have something that tasted like dessert before the main course.
3. As we were driving back from the above restaurant we hit a major rainstorm. We rolled up to the gate where we were staying (it's a gated community at night) and I punch in the code. Nothing worked. I try and try and try and cannot get it to work. We were about call the people we were renting from when daddy came around to try the code. Evidently water has splashed up on the keypad making the bottom three numbers not particularly sensitive. He had to push incredibly hard to make them react. I was quite glad we didn't have to sleep outside the gate that night.
   

Pregnancy
As I said before my GTT really did a number on my blood sugar but I have now recovered and am feeling much better. I haven't heard anything back from the Dr's office and it's been almost 2 weeks so I'm hoping that is a good sign. On July 17th I go back to the maternal-fetal specialist to have another Level 2 U/S to check the placenta and on the 19th I have my regular OB appt. I'm crossing my fingers that all will be well.

Work
Work has been crazy. I have been putting in some incredibly long hours (for me) trying to get a project done. Working those hours has just left me zapped but I think that project has wrapped up and hopefully life will be back to normal. Thus far I haven't felt the need to cut back my hours further and should I continue to feel as good as I have thus far in my pregnancy I plan to work right up until delivery.

Nursery
Now that our nursery is painted we are slowly but surely getting stuff put in there. We've taken down both of the twin beds which Graham's parents will use for guest room beds until we need them back again. They are currently still stored in the nursery but we plan to take them over to his parents house tonight when we go for dinner. Graham bought the dresser on Monday and brought it home on Tuesday. Since we had Wednesday through Friday off he worked on it to get it stained and polyurethaned and we moved it into the nursery today. It came with plain wooden knobs but I plan to use these knobs instead. I just need to order them as our local hardware stores want an arm and leg for them. Can I just say I love shopping on the internet?

Momma, Daddy and my grandmother bought our bassinet/pack and play and that arrived on Tuesday and is now set up. I still need to wash the sheet that goes over the mattress but other than that it's ready to go. I was also excited to see that a few items have been purchased off of my registry. Most notably is my car seat! :-)

Birthdays
Graham and I both celebrated our Birthdays the last week of June along with our anniversary. I told Graham I really wanted a nice watch for my birthday/anniversary. I haven't had one for a while, mainly because the type of watch I wanted was more than I wanted to spend except for as a gift. I gave him my qualifications (silver tone, a scratch resistant crystal, preferably a citizen eco-drive) and he went to work. He did a bunch of research and found 3 he thought I would like. He very nicely offered to let me view them to see what I thought and I'm glad he did as one of the watches was not exactly what I wanted. I told him to pick from the remaining two and on my birthday I got to wear it. I've very much enjoyed having a watch again and it's exactly what I wanted. He did a great job. It's basically this watch without the diamonds.

For Graham's birthday I planned a trip. He has mentioned so many times that he would like to go to the zoo or aquarium. Next weekend, after his cousin's wedding on Saturday, we will leave for Atlanta and stay at a hotel in Buckhead. On Sunday I have tickets to the zoo and on Monday we have tickets (along with my parents) to the aquarium. I haven't really planned out anything else except that we'll eat at the Cheesecake Factory. We really didn't go anywhere special for our anniversary so this will be our anniversary dinner.

Other odds and ends
I've enjoyed my time off this week by working on a crochet project for our newest addition as well as birth announcements. I found some really cool scrapbooking cardstock at Hobby Lobby that I cut into 6x6 squares. I've punched holes in each one for green coordinating ribbon I tied at the top. Once the baby makes her arrival I'll print out the details on white 4x4 cardstock and then glue it onto the 6x6 squares, pop in an envelope, and I am good to go. I spent a lot of time today going over who I need to send announcements to. Right now I am at 70 and plan to make extras just in case. Thankfully I already have 52 done and they really didn't take that long. The other nice thing was almost everything I needed to complete this project was on sale at Hobby Lobby this week! I still need to find/make envelopes, address them, and get stamps.

Well I think that about wraps it up. Congrats if you made it through the whole thing!

Bummer

Well I got a phone call from the lab this morning that I failed the 1 hour test - but just barely. She said the cutoff was 140 and mine was 146. So, I get to spend the morning of my birthday having the 3 hour test. What fun!

To balance the sad note here's a happy one:
We're heading off to the lake for the rest of the week. We are staying here which is in this development. I really recommend VRBO for finding a place to stay on vacation. We have gotten some great deals and I can't say I regret any of the places we've stayed. Some weren't quite what they seemed online but you get that with hotels as well.

A comedy of errors

This past weekend Graham and I rented a cottage in Brevard. We didn't have anything special planned, just a weekend away in the mountains. Friday evening we ate dinner with my parents and their pastor and his wife as they were in the area at Ridgehaven (PCA facility in Rosman).

Saturday we took our time getting ready and also enjoyed using the hot tub. It was quite cold outside but the hot tub was nice and toasty so once you were you in you really didn't notice the cold. After lunch we decided to go driving in the Pisgah National Forest to hike and see the sights. Graham had driven the previous day so I was itching to drive my new car. Unfortuntely while backing out I hit a steel cable (the kind that comes off of a power pole) and so now my new car has a few lovely scratches on the bumper. The good news is it isn't bad, there isn't a dent and it's on the plastic part so hopefully it will be a fairly easy and inexpensive fix. I was too upset to drive so Graham took over and backed out successfully. Our first stop was Looking Glass Falls which was very pretty although I was expecting to have a bit more of a hike to see it.

Next we headed north and stopped at the Cradle of Forestry. I can't say it was the most exciting place I've ever been but they did have some nice trails and we got a free tree out of the deal. Graham found this saw blade outside the gift shop and thought it was quite nifty. On our way back down the mountain we stopped at the Mt. Pisgah education center which is also a fish hatchery.

Saturday evening we decided to rest our tired muscles in the hottub. Now let me preface this story by saying that we discovered previously that you could exit the cottage without actually unlocking the door but when the door shut it would be locked. I'm not quite sure why you'd want this feature in a household lock but evidentally these people did. I ventured out into the cold first and hopped into the hottub. Graham soon followed and as soon as he got all settled in the water I asked "Did you remember to unlock the door". He slowly answered "No....". With a sinking feeling I hopped back out to check the door and sure enough it was locked. It was only 6:30 but it was quite dark, quite cold, and all we had were our bathing suits and towels. No cell phones, no keys, no nothing. Fortunately there was another rental on the property so Graham ventured over, in swimming trunks and towel, to see if possibly their key would fit our lock. No such luck. Next he tried calling the people we were renting from to have them come let us in. You'd think with 4 numbers you would be able to reach someone but no, Graham only got voicemail. He left messages and then came back out to wait with me in the hot tub. Before he got in he decided to try the windows to see if any were open. The last one he checked had a bent screen (perhaps someone else got locked out) and he was able to get the screen off and the window open. He then called back and left an additional voicemail to let the landlords know we had gotten in. During this time the neighbors came by to offer to let us sit in their living room while we waited. Although it was kind of them to offer I would have been mortified to have to sit in their living room with just a towel and swimsuit!

Sunday was quite the opposite of Saturday. We woke up around 8 and took our time getting ready. We stopped at an orchard on the way down to get our usual fall apples and cider and were home before 1. An eventful but interesting weekend!

Vacation Day 4

As promised Wednesday started out beautifully sunny. The boys went to play golf at a course on the other side of Panama City. They returned late in the day sunburned and worn out. The girls spent the morning at the close by town of Seaside (where the Truman Show was filmed) and did a bit of shopping. I was the only one who bought anything. There's a neat glass shop there that carries interesting Jewelry and each year we've stayed here I've purchased something. Not many pictures from today except a few of Jacques. You're allowed to take pets to the pool as long as they don't go in the pool and stay 4 feet from the pool edge. Jacques has decided this is the life he was meant to lead.

I also got a better picture of the pool from our balcony. It doesn't capture
the whole thing but the other side of the pool is a mirror image of the side closest to you so just imagine that.

Vacation Days 2 & 3

We were greeted Monday morning with rain - lots and lots of rain. Fortunately the forecast after Tuesday was lots of sunshine so we decided to make the best of it and have "indoor fun". For the girls that mainly consisted of reading the myriad of books we had brought with us. The guys alternated between books and computers with computers take the majority of the time.

Monday was also Jack's 28th birthday. He took a birthday dip (not in his birthday suit!) in the icy cold pool. He had requested Boston Cream Pie for his birthday cake so after a dinner of Lasagna (wonderfully prepared by yours truly) we enjoyed that. He received golf clubs from my grandmother, a video card from parents, a putting practice thingy from Julie, and Spongebob Squarepants Monopoly from Graham and me. Jack has even offered to share a piece of his cake with you! :-)

Near where we stay is this very large very weird looking house. It's right on the beach and has been under construction both times we have stayed here. Jack, the man who doesn't know what stranger means, asked a security guard up the road about the house. The man the house is being built for does road construction in the Panama City area. Evidently road construction pays REALLY well down here. The reason the house looks so odd is that there aren't any corners and it's constructed completely out of concrete to make it "hurricane proof". The rain did clear up enough in the afternoon for Jack, Daddy, & I to go to the driving range. Lest you think I am a golf addict I only went because I was tired of sitting around reading. Graham spent most of Monday traveling to Pensacola and back. A good friend from high school and college recently got married and is now stationed in Pensacola. Graham figured 2 hours was about as close as he would be to him for the near future and decided to visit. After riding for 8+ hours on Saturday I decided my behind couldn't take 4 more hours of that so I let Graham batch it for the day.

Tuesday was more of the same except the forecast was for the rain to clear out by early afternoon. We used the morning hours to go shopping at the "premium" outlets in Destin. The boys went mainly to look for golf items. Although they were not successful in their endeavor Julie and I found a great sale at the Ann Taylor outlet and outfitted ourselves for fall. Julie had toasted her chest pretty well on Sunday at the beach and pool. Some of the colors she tried on made her look REALLY red which I, of course, made fun of. We ate lunch at Pompano Joes and then headed back to the condo since the skies had cleared up. The boys wanted to head to the beach because the storm had brought in some decent waves. Julie and I stuck to the beach where we read (more reading!) and took pictures.


Graham and Jack decided to call it a day after they both saw Jellyfish in the water. Graham earned the title "Jellyfish Virgin" because we discovered he was the only one who hadn't been stung by a jellyfish. We went to the pool for the rest of the afternoon where the only dangerous marine life was our husbands. :-)

Vacation Day 1

We arrived safely Saturday evening and were all ready to do something other than ride & drive. Unfortunately the pool was closed until Sunday morning "as required by Florida law". Every year we've come to this area we've eaten at Bruno's pizza the first evening. Graham and I went to pick up the pizza and were told it would be a few more minutes because one of our pizzas "looked gross, and we wouldn't have wanted it." I don't know if this was supposed to make me feel better or not since I assumed they were using the same ingredients on the pizza they remade.





Sunday morning we awoke early (for central time) and decided to take Jacques to the beach. This was his first time seeing the ocean and we weren't sure how he would react. I think if he could talk he would have told us that his dog breed was not intended to go swimming in the ocean.

We sat on the beach for a while during which the boys explored the very clear water. According to the flags posted by the county there was "dangerous marine life present" but the only ones we saw were man eating fish (small fish that nibbled their toes). The girls decided it was too hot to stay out by the ocean and headed inland to enjoy the large pool. This is my idea of vacation - a pool close by for when I get hot and comfortable lounge chairs by the pool where I can read. I didn't get a picture at the pool but you can see it in this picture I took of Jacques on the balcony.



After lunch Daddy, Jack, Graham and decided to play golf at a 9 Hole Par 3 course in Destin. This was mainly for my benefit as I've only played two other times and my golfing skills are...improving. (When you're really bad it's hard to do anything but improve!) I actually did quite a bit better this time than I did a few weeks ago and it's starting to be more fun although it is a lot of work to try to remember everything involved in a good hit.

I have a few pictures of us showing off our mad golfing skills! The 8th hole was quite a challenge. It was a long drive (for a par 3) and it was over a marshy area with a water hazard off to the right. I was playing the closest tee box so I didn't have to worry about the marshy area but the guys tee-ed off from the farthest tee box. I think it was 300+ yards? Daddy tee-ed off first and was quite pleased with his shot. Graham went next and put some crazy (unintentional) spin on the ball which caused it to make a nice curve onto the fairway. Jack went last and made another amazing shot. (It's quite rare for all the guys to do well on the same hole, especially one so challenging.) We all congratulated Jack on his awesome shot and the first thing to come out of his mount is "I pulled my butt cheek!" This caused us to christen Hole 8 as "The Butt Cheek Special" What made it even more interesting was the sponsor of the hole: Paine-Webber.

Several times Jack referenced getting into his reverse K position. I didn't realize what he was talking about until I watched him from the side. Since he's left handed the K actually looks correct.


After we finished the last hole we saw this little boy practicing on the driving range with his dad. I definitely think he is the next Tiger Woods!