My Friend's Leaving Me

One of my favorite co-workers is leaving Pennington :-( She has a job opportunity that will allow her to spend more time with her three children so I don't blame her at all but she's going to be sorely missed. She makes the work day more fun and endurable. Our offices are across the hall and we're constantly shouting back and forth at each other and sending each other stupid emails. She and her family live close to us, so I know we'll stay in touch. It's definitely not good-bye but as someone said last night, it's the end of an era. We went to dinner with a few co-workers last night to celebrate her new job. The first picture is of me and the guest of honor, the second one is me with my BFF.

The third pic is of me and the hubby at a comedy show after dinner. We went to see Chris Porter who was on the TV show Last Comic Standing. He's funny but a little too potty-mouthed for my tastes. I think we actually both enjoyed the guys who opened up the show more than we enjoyed him. But it was a really fun night overall!

I won! Or did I?

Last night, I went to a bridal show with my friend (we'll call her B) who's getting married in October (I'm a bridesmaid). I learned those things are a lot less stressful when you're not the bride. There was a TON of food there, which was nice but we were a little disappointed because we'd already eaten before we got there. Didn't stop us from eating again, but we couldn't fit quite as much in as we'd have liked to. B played a game and came in second. It was a mix between a scavenger hunt and musical chairs. The brides had to run and find something (like red lipstick, a belt, a Blockbuster card, etc.). Each time they went running, the DJs took one chair away so the last girl back was out. It got down to B and one other girl and the DJs told them they had to bring back a square of toilet paper. The other girl took off in a dead sprint to the bathroom and B just stood there and said, "She obviously wants it more than I do, she can have it." That's so B! I would have totally sprinted after the girl.

The DJs were drawing names for door prizes off and on the whole night and the last winner they called was ME, except, 1) I wasn't a bride (and only brides were supposed to win) and 2) they used my maiden name, when the only name I'd signed the whole night was my married name! I was a lot confused and a little creeped out that they knew who I was. But I for sure wasn't going to turn down the prize. No way, no sir! It was a nice bottle of champagne and two champagne flutes, which I of course gave to B since she's the bride (she said we can save it for the bridal luncheon with the bridesmaids, so that's nice). I asked the man who was drawing names how he knew who I was and he pulled out the paper with my name on it. Except it wasn't me! There was another girl there (who had obviously left before the drawing) with MY NAME! So completely random! Amber's not that common of a name and my maiden name definitely isn't common so I never would have expected that to happen. It was actually a little diappointing to realize that there's someone out there with my exact name. I thought it was mine, all mine. But at least we got champagne out of the deal! :-)

Little Wonders

Some people laugh when they realize that I carry my camera in my purse 24/7 but I'm ok with that. Because if I didn't, I wouldn't be able to capture and keep moments like these. Like one morning this week, before I went into work and started a crazy hectic day, when I was able to just sit and relax and enjoy God's wonderfully artistic work for a few moments. When I was reminded that He cares about me so much that He goes out of His way to create moments of pure peace and beauty like this simply so that He and I can enjoy them together.

DISNEY FUN

Here are some of our pictures from Disney. If you click on the collage, it should make the pictures bigger and more clear. If you're interested in seeing all of them, let me know and I'll send you the link to the whole album.

As I mentioned before, we had a blast! We went with a good friend of mine, Natalie, and her boyfriend, Britt. It had been quite a while since either Jeff or I had been (and when I went, it was only to Magic Kingdom) so it was almost like experiencing it together for the first time.

We started off Monday at Magic Kingdom. As we were walking in, Britt slipped and fell, scraping his shin really badly. We had to go to First Aid with him to get it bandaged and the nurse gave us all 2 Fast Passes to any ride we wanted! Jeff was nervous about the roller coasters at first but ended up riding them all by the end of the trip... and enjoying them!

On Tuesday, as we arrived at Animal Kingdom, I realized I'd forgotten my park pass at the hotel so Jeff and I had to drive back to get it. I was devastated, thinking I'd ruined everyone's day, but when we got back to the park, we found out that Natalie and Britt had won Dream Passes for all four of us, which allowed us to Fast Pass each big ride in the park once that day. Only 150 people out of thousands won the passes so we were very fortunate to have them! Tuesday night we had dinner at Rainforest Cafe. Jeff and I had never been and we really enjoyed it.

We spent Wednesday (New Years Eve) at Epcot. It was a REALLY long day; we were there from 8 am Wednesday to after 12am Thursday (over 16 hours total) but it was fun to ring in the new year with so many people.

Thursday we went to Hollywood Studios, which was Jeff's favorite park, I believe. It was either that one or Animal Kingdom. As we were getting ready to leave, Britt tripped on a curb and fell AGAIN but thankfully he wasn't too hurt this time.

Friday, we went back to Epcot since we hadn't had a chance to ride some of the rides because of the massive crowds that had been there Wednesday. We finished there fairly early so we left and went to Downtown Disney, where we shopped a little and had dinner at Planet Hollywood, another first for me and Jeff.

We drove back Saturday, exhausted but glad we went. The crowds were horrible but thanks to all of the free Fast Passes we were blessed with, we were able to see and do pretty much everything we wanted. I don't think we'll want to go back until we have kids (that are old enough to walk... no bringing strollers to Disney for us!) but it was nice to be able to experience it once by ourselves before the kiddos come along!

Happy Blog #1

I'm going to start posting "Happy Blogs", an idea that was inspired by a friend's "Happy Book." She has a pretty book at her house that she keeps by the sofa. Anyone who comes over can write things in it that make them happy. It can be two things or twenty things. You can be as brief or as lengthy as you want. Every time I go to her house, the first thing I do is look at the Happy Book to see if there are any new entries. It's so much fun to read what others have written; it reminds me of things that make me happy too that I don't usually think about. But my favorite part is reading my entries from years past to see what made me happy at that point in my life and see how it compares to my life today. For example, one of my old entries was "cancelled classes." Reading it made me happy that I don't have classes anymore! My old entry "hot boys in baseball pants" made me happy that I now have a hot husband I get to see in baseball pants every season for as long as he chooses to coach!:-) So once in a while, I'll post an entry here of things that make me happy (they'll be completely random and in no particular order so don't be offended if I mention your name but it's "lower" on the list than, say, pickles) and I hope you'll leave comments about what makes you happy!

1. first things first: my Jesus. He is the ultimate source of all my happiness.
2. LSU
3. babies' cheeks
4. smelly soap from Bath and Body Works
5. smelly cat
6. chips, salsa and green sauce at Ninfa's (it's important to dip the chip in the green sauce first, then the salsa. much better that way.)
7. Friday afternoons when it's almost time to leave work (like right now)
8. too-big Covington High sweat pants (quite possibly the most comfortable piece of clothing ever invented)
9. finding a lump in the guest bed sheets and discovering that it's Easton (our cat) buried under there
10. outlet malls

Vacations and a Baby (Not Ours!)

Jeff and I had a great time in Disney World the week after Christmas. I'll post pictures whenever I have a few minutes at home, maybe tonight. Now we're trying to decide where we want to go for our summer vacation. We were thinking about Seattle because Jeff has always wanted to go there (I'm not even sure what there is to do there but I'm sure we could find something fun) and then someone suggested that we should go on an Alaskan cruise while we're up that way. Which sounds great but the only cruises I've seen (in my very limited research) are 7 days or longer, which would have us up there longer than we'd probably be able to pull off with work. We also don't know anything about the weather in Alaska around the time we'd be there (probably end of July) and someone at work mentioned that they have tons of insects at some point during the year. So obviously we'll need to look into the idea further before we can decide anything. If anyone has suggestions of great summer vacation spots or knows anything about Seattle and/or Alaska, let us know!

Changing subjects completely, I found out yesterday that a very good friend of mine (one of my bridesmaids) and her husband are having a baby! She is due in August and I'm so excited to have a new baby in my life! It's crazy how many people I know who have recently had a baby or are pregnant. I guess I'm just to "that age" now. It's so much fun seeing everyone settle down and transition to the next stage of life.