weekend rewind

We had another full, fast and fun weekend (yay, alliteration)!

Friday. Birmingham with the Bryants to watch MS play Samford soccer! They beat Alabama 3-0! GO Bulldogs!


In addition to watching MS start and play the whole game, I was pumped to get to see my best college buds (KRay& Jme) and my sister!

MS post-game, signing autographs :)

After the game, we went out to eat (yes, at 10:15) with the whole gang. Always so fun to get to be together!

We rolled into town at 3am Saturday morning after a long, but FUN day! We're so glad we went.

For some crazy reason, I was up early Saturday morning after only sleeping for a couple of hours... so, I texted Sarah and told her I was on my way to pick her up to go yard sale-ing! We had a great time, though we were mostly unsucsessful at the yard sales. She did snag a rug and I got a shirt & pair of shoes (yep, from a yard sale). We finally went to Hobby Lobby where we knew we wouldn't leave empty handed. Projects to come!

I hurried home to grab a much needed nap before David and I spent the evening wining and dining at Siskin Children's Institute's Star Night. UTC had a table, so I was hosting 3 other young alumni couples. Boyz II Men was the performer, and it was a lot of fun. I thought I would be more familiar with their songs, but there were only 2 that I knew. They looked old and fat, but really put on a great show.

After another late night Saturday, it was hard to get up early for church! We helped in the 3-4 year old class and it was exhausting! I never notice how long church goes until I spend it with a room full of kids!

Kevin and Lynn Bryant went back to Birmingham for another [successful] soccer game, so they dropped the other kids off at our house on their way out of town. We went to lunch and took Hayden to soccer practice, then headed out to their lake house. They're still living out there for the time being, so it was nice to relax. We drove the boat down to CVP to see our Crusade friends from UTC and on the way back I decided to ski a bit. Someone jokingly asked if I wanted to ski the whole way home, but they all agreed that I couldn't do it. SO, of course I had to prove them wrong! It was about 20 minutes and we're guessing 3 or so miles. I am feeling it today!

Needless to say, we went straight to bed when we got home last night!

Now back to the grind! This week is full of anticipation for a great weekend in Columbus for the Altrusa book sale! Read my post about the 2007 sale here.

big D

I love this man.

He's 24 now.

international relations

So last night after David got out of class, we rushed over to the Lookouts game for the Volkswagen employee picnic. Unfortunately we missed all the food and a lot of the people that David works directly with, but it was nice for me to go anyway. I had greatly underestimated the diversity of David's work environment. I mean greatly. I knew that there were a lot of German people and that people spoke lots of languages, but as soon as we walked in it kind of hit me. These people don't speak English! I mean, they kind of do....

For example,
David's direct boss, Javier, moved here with his wife (Iciar?? no clue how to say it) and 3 kids from Pamplona, Spain. He, obviously speaks Spanish. We chatted with him and his wife for a while and I was floored at my ignorance! I just assumed they would have an accent or something, but nope! They know enough English to get them through a conversation, but it is pretty broken and a lot of work. Their kids are speaking English full-time at school, and coming home with homework in English. I was totally amazed by them. I mean, these people have picked up their lives, moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee and just started over. They are learning a new city, language, culture, and [from my observation last night] doing it with such grace.

So David and Javier muddle their way through a day of Spanglish communication, and then throw the CFO, Patrick into the mix. He is insane. He speaks German, Spanish, English, French AND Japanese. Fluently. So, he and Javier speak to each other in Spanish, but he speaks German to the other execs. His wife is French, thus the French. I guess Japanese is just for fun.

The three of them spend most of the time working together, so David is constantly learning and interpreting. David is literally inundated with cultural and language barriers every single day. And you know what? He loves it! He is thriving and doing such a fabulous job at his job. It is almost a non-issue that he has these obstacles. I just haven't been able to stop thinking about how amazed I am by him. Starting a new job is challenging enough, but he is really in an intense work environment. He is pretty spectacular.

David says he's thankful that most of their job deals with numbers. Since the only Spanish he retained from his high school classes is counting from 1-10, he says the numbers in Spanish at work.

ALSO-
The two classes David is taking right now are Human Resources and International Business. Coincidence? No siree. One of his assignments for the HR class is an observation paper on a diverse group of people... one of his assignments for International Business is to begin learning a new language (and give a presentation in that language!).

It's so cool how God has placed David in the exact place his is for such a time as this.

random thoughts

My sister-in-law emailed me a list of random thoughts from people 25-35 years old. Several of them really made me laugh, so I thought I'd share :

-It really annoys me when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

-I wonder if cops ever get ticked off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

-I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

-Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.

-Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I’d bet my butt everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time...

- As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers,but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

-Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

- I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

-When I meet a new person, I'm terrified of mentioning something he/she hasn't already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.

-I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

-I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'

-I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello?Dangit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What did you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

-I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

-If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

-Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem....

-You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

-Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

- While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.

- MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

- Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

- Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies"

-The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.

- LOL has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".

-I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

-I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

-Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

-There is a great need for a sarcasm font.

a weekend equation

5 sweet friends from Birmingham

+

1 Southern Brewers Festival

+

24 years of this boy's life
+
a lot of

=

this giant mountain of laundry,

one very worn out puppy

and a very fun weekend!

he hates being bathed, but...

as long as he is being held up (aka floating on a raft), he loves being in the water! Go figure!

Look at those skinny legs! You should see him soaking wet... he looks like a rat!

Above All Else

week-long anniversary celebration

Since David had this week off from school, we decided to do something little every day to celebrate our one year anniversary. We didn't do anything spectacular, but just getting to spend every evening together was a gift in itself!

Saturday:
My favorite breakfast- delivered to me in bed!

Sunday:

Lake day

Lynn announced to approx 30 people at their house that it was our anniversary.

Cheering ensued.

We got to eat first.

(Yes, we were as sleepy and David as sunburned as we look.)

I had Jackson Bakery re-make the top of our wedding cake

(well, the second layer... I wanted more cake :)).

Monday:

Dinner & a movie

More cake eating

Tuesday:

Lunch date at Amigos

Still eating cake.

Wednesday:
Shopping and dinner at a new restaurant (that we probably won't go back to)

Thursday:
Noises Off at the Chattanooga Theatre Center

And now, it's the weekend!! We don't have much going on, and it's going to be great!

THE wedding

Sarah & Jason are married! They are currently cruising in the Caribbean and loving their vacation I'm sure. The whole day was perfect and beautiful, and I was so blessed to be a part of it!

Now for some pictures!

favorite!

He wore that tie so he'd match the wedding party! Adorable.

Sarah's caption, "Don't even think about taking a picture without me!"