What do you do when you live apart from your spouse?  Apparently we go to baseball games.  I imagine Dave gets as antsy in Canton as I do when I’m home alone looking for something to do.  What better way to pass the time than with an American tradition.

Dave has been going to Indians games (I haven’t been with him thus the lack of pictures) and has tickets for several mores games already.  Our neighbor kids play competitive baseball/softball and I’ve been tagging along to some of their games.  They’re already thinking about playing ball in college so we all jumped at the chance to go to watch Ole Miss vs LSU a couple weeks ago.  As Ole Miss alums Bryan and Megan have been to several and with the college ball interest the Williams had already been to a few, but it was my first college baseball game and first time to the University of Mississippi.  It’s no big 10 but it’s alright for an SEC school that’s not UT .

Thankfully the rain blew through quickly and since the Rebels had already won the first game of the night we were hoping they could pull out another win over the Tigers.  At one point we were going to run in for drinks when Jerry insisted no one leave until the “disco” dance…he had missed it at the other games.

Everyone in the crowd joined in on the dance.

At the bottom of the ninth the game was tied 8-8 and into the 10th we went hoping for a win.

We sat infront of the infamous “throw it in the dirt guy”.  No kidding that we were watching the away game on tv the next weekend and could hear him even on TV yelling at the opposing pitchers “throw it in the dirt” with everyone responding “DIRT!”   

Thankfully Zach and Page were looking out for me.  This was them yelling at me as a foul ball came flying into the seats right next to us!  After they saved my life I put the camera down for a bit and payed more attention the last 2 innings.  Ole Miss scored in the 11th ending the game at 9-8. 

I’m thankful for my friends that keep me entertained while Dave is away.  I know he hates to miss the fun here, maybe before too long I’ll be able to tag along to the Indians games.

My next door neighbor Jill awarded my blog the Happy 101 “award”.

It’s sweet of her to do since I far from deserve an award.  I’m probably the most inconsistent blogger out there.  But nevertheless, according to the rules of accepting this honor, here are my top 10 things that (in no particular order) make me happy followed by a shout out award to my favorite part time bloggers:

1) My hubby.  After (almost) 5 years I still get butterflies in my stomach when he kisses me.  I’m so very blessed to be able to go through all of life’s ups and downs with my best friend. 

2) My furbabies.  There’s nothing like a puppy that loves you to make you smile.  I love their kisses, snuggles, playfulness and even when they’re rotten.  I miss them dearly right now with them while they’re at Dave’s parent’s during the move.

3) A good book.  I love to read and I devour books on a regular basis. I think I drive Dave a little crazy with my reading sometimes.  I’m just about convinced that a Kindle needs to be at the top of my birthday list so I can stop traveling with 3 and just take one thing with me that will hold as many as I want!

4) My family.  We’d better see more of each other when we get to Ohio!  I talk to my mom at least once just about every day and I love it when my dad calls me on his way home to check in. My sister and I, like any other siblings have had our ups and downs, but no one knows me quite like she does and I can’t wait to live closer to her. 

5) My Memphis Family.  I’ve said it before, we’ve loved every place we’ve lived but there’s something extra special about Memphis.  Our friends here have become part of our family and I know that they’re friends for a lifetime.

6) Sunshine and summertime.  There’s nothing better than waking up to a warm sunny day.

7) Happy hour at Sonic.  I love me a Sonic sweet tea!

8.) Speaking of summertime:  flip flops.

9) Disney.  Movies and music primarily because I haven’t been in several years, but Disney things make nostalgic and feel like magic and fairy-tales really do exist.

10) The Beach.  There’s nothing like hearing the crash of the waves, digging down to feel the cool sand between your toes and laying back with a good book in the sun.

And now (drum roll please…..) I the unworthy blogger would like to bestow this award on two much worthier bloggers:

Jennifer and I have been friends since high school and Columbus meetups are one of the highlights of our move.  Visit her sweet blog to read about her Disney enthused family including the cutest twin girls.

Becky and I met in Hartsville during my first job with Sonoco.  We’ve recently caught up with each other on facebook and I’m enjoying reading about her adventures in remodeling her new home: Fireflies and Magnolias.  I am not a decorator nor a fixer-upper but after reading Becky’s blog if I could find a house in as pretty of an area as her’s I would jump right in.

Happy 101 Rules:

1. copy and paste the award on your blog.
2. list who gave the award to you and use a link to her/his blog (or hyperlink).
3. list 10 things that make you happy.
4. pass the award on to other bloggers and visit their blog or on facebook to let them know about the award.

Theresa and her husband Matt moved here from Virginia Beach last year and we all know she misses her hometown terribly.  When we found out her VA friends were coming to visit here in February we decided it would be a perfect time to have a baby shower.  Her friends were more than happy to help keep it a secret from Theresa who is notoriously hard to surprise. 

Little Avery Isabella won’t be here until  the end of June, but she’ll be one of the best dressed little babies around.

I hear Jessica is now making these tutus to order.  Unbelievably cute! 

Shower games are alright, but we skipped the traditionals and opted for onesie & bib decorating. 

This shower activity has been a staple for the last few my sister and I have hosted.  Anna originally snagged the idea off of our favorite show Gilmore Girls for her dear friend and then I used it at the shower I hosted for Jennifer.  All of our previous onesie decorating adventures have simply involved stencils and paints.  While they always turn out cute I wanted a way to make them a little cleaner and more usable.  My google search came up with just one linkthat showed how to use fabric in an easy way for the group.  So easy and super fun and no iron required!  We used stencils and die cuts as our templates, then fabric paints and rhinestones to spruce them up even more.  Even the self-proclaimed “non-crafters” made adorable onesies.

All in all we had a great time.  Check out the picasa album to see more pictures including the visit from the daddy-to-be.  We can’t wait to meet our newest little neighbor!

…that I’m a terrible blogger.  No that’s not really what I was going to say although it is true.  I follow many other blogs and they are all perfectly capable of entertaining with clever posts avoiding spilling anything they shouldn’t.  I’ve tried many times over the last couple of months to get on here and ramble about New Years (we had an awesome party) or our Memphis “blizzard” (6″ of snow shuts the city down)  or airport madness (power outage in Charlotte for 2 hours) or my recent ski trip (in my defense I just got back Thursday) but all I wanted to do was type:

WE’RE MOVING AGAIN!!

But I wasn’t allowed to because nothing was official.  We’ve learned our lesson that it’s best to just not say anything when there’s a pending move because chances are something will go wrong and it will fall through.  It’s like Murphy’s law for us that if we tell anyone other than our closest family and intimate prayer chain that it will fall apart.  More than likely those opportunities were not in God’s plan for us and their falling through was completely unrelated to our lack of discretion.  But in my own weird mind, that’s the way I looked at it.  Maybe that’s why I wanted to tell you so badly…because it would fall through?  Oh but not really.  It’s not such a bad thing, just very bitter sweet. 

See we’re moving back to Canton, OH.  That means better job for Dave on days (WOOHOO!!) and closer to family.  All very good considering we’d like to expand ours in the next couple of years and a husband working nights doesn’t make that easy   But it means leaving our Memphis family. 

This was the hardest decision to move we’ve made yet.  Every other move it’s been “time” as in we’ve known we were ready for a change and the next step was always clear.  This one while we knew it was the responsible “time,” (career, location, etc) it’s not the easiest to leave the wonderful friends we’ve made here.  That and Memphis is awesome in general so it’s hard to leave.  Between that and the horrible housing market this move, for me anyway, is a leap of faith.  Without going into the boring details and drama of it all, our company is as always doing what they can to help but the economy has taken it’s toll and relocation programs are no exception.  This means that Dave and I could potentially live apart for 6 months this time.  Basically every day before the 180th day that the house sits on the market is another nail that I chew off (oh wait I quit biting my nails) and more time away from my hubby.  He’ll be able to come home every few weeks and I’ll still have my monthly trip up to our main offices so it’s really not going to be so bad but it sure sounds like a long time!

So now that it’s official I can stop holding my breath, Dave can stop clenching his jaw in his sleep and we can get caught up around here.  I’m going to work on getting pictures posted, the site hopefully reformatted along with keeping you informed of the move.  Let me just tell you that relocation has it’s ugly moments and I’ll try to share all of the juicy details…which at one point or another usually includes my wanting to throw telephones out the window, fly to the relo company’s undisclosed headquarters and have a throw an in person hissy fit to my agent, or the temptation of getting in my car and following my lost mattress to Utah.  Ah it should be a fun few months.  Say a prayer that we keep our sanity and that the house sells quickly. 

Until next time,

I tried.  I really tried hard this year, but between travel, uncoorperative printers, pictures in general, etc Christmas cards just aren’t going to happen this year.  I gave it my last ditch effort today but when Costco said I couldn’t pick them up until tomorrow at 11am I quit.  I’m leaving on a jet plane (you’ll thank me later for putting that song in your head) at 6am tomorrow morning and if I don’t take them with me they’re likely to turn into Valentines.  So I called my mom and laughed with her about my catastrophic attempts at printing cards when she finally told me I don’t have to send them.  Apparently I needed my mom’s permission to quit (she’s not big on sending Christmas cards anyway).  She assured me that no one’s Christmas would be any less merry because I didn’t send out cards.  So I did it, I’m officially boycotting Christmas cards this year and going with the “it’s the thought that counts” motto.  So here’s to not putting more stress on yourself than is already neccessary this time of year.  Merry Christmas everyone!  Here’s what you would have gotten in the mail