The Beach, Scrapbooking Crop, & Birthday Parties

Well, its been far too long since I blogged, and because of that, I have a bunch of stuff to write about.

I'll start off with our trip to Myrtle Beach from Oct 16-19th. We took off on Thursday & Friday that week. I had signed Scott up for a car show down there, so he rented a trailer to take his GTO. We drove down on Thursday, and it took us a little longer than normal since we were towing the trailer. We got to the hotel around 7:00 pm to check-in. Once we found a place to park the car and trailer, we went up to our room. I had booked a "King Studio" room - they put us in a 1 bedroom condo with an ocean front balcony! And it was only about $79-$89 per night! We were so excited. The place had a bedroom with 2 queen beds, a full kitchen, living room, & bathroom with jacuzzi tub. They even had the towels shaped like swans in the bathroom. It was awesome.

We had a fun time down there. On Thursday night, we ate in the hotel and relaxed in the room. On Friday, we went to the car show - it wasn't as big as we'd expected, but there were still plenty of cars to look at. We spent the day at Broadway looking at the cars and shopping around. We had lunch at Senor Frogs (a "Taco Tray"), then went to a "drive in" with the car show that evening at a local burger place. On Saturday, the weather was much cooler and it was raining, so that was a bummer. We went to the mall, had lunch with Cindy and her boyfriend Michael, and went to see the Dixie Stampede that night. On Sunday, we headed back home. It was a great weekend overall.

This past weekend, I went home to see the family. Mandy and I had signed up for a Scrapbooking Crop with Creative Memories for Friday night and Saturday. I took all my stuff to work on my California trip, and after a full day and a half of scrapbooking, I didn't even make it through Day 2 of our trip! It's going to take me FOREVER to finish that thing.

Saturday night, my mom and dad made spaghetti for us, and they had cake and icecream to celebrate my birthday. I got a new (smaller) crock pot, a really cute makeup travel bag, a gift card to Sephora, and a bunch of scrapbooking stuff. I need to start my thank-you cards tonight! After the party, we went back to Shane & Mandy's and played Wii. It was so fun. I can't wait till I get to play that again.

Sunday we went to church and saw Chris & Keri, then went to a few stores before heading to Anne & Scotty's for lunch (chili...it was really good). We played some ladder ball, and Rory & Scotty threw a softball around.

At 3:00 was Leah's birthday party at Amazement Square. That place was awesome! They had all kinds of fun interactive exhibits. I think Leah really enjoyed the party.

After the party, Scott and I headed to Charlottesville to visit Eric, Shannon, & Connor. They fixed lasagna for us, with apple pie for dessert. YUM. Shannon's mom, Kathy, was also there. Connor had grown so much since birth, but he's still a tiny little thing. I didn't want to put him down. I definitely think he looks like Eric - he has his eyes.

So that brings us to today, and I have so much to do (at home) its unbelievable. I need to go to the grocery store, do a bazillion loads of laundry, write thank-you notes, send cards, clean the house, go to the gym, stop by the drug store.....the list goes on. Two weekends away from home will do that, I suppose.

Happy Birthday to ME!

It's my birthday! Yay!

I must admit, though, that birthdays really aren't very exciting anymore. It used to be my favorite day out of the year, but I guess birthdays lose their luster as you get older. Bummer.

Yesterday morning, I woke up early and went downstairs. When I looked out the front door, it wasn't a pretty sight...some apparent teenagers had come through the previous night and smashed all 5 of our pumpkins in the street. We had a huge pumpkin under the tree, which I'm sure is what tempted them in the first place, and 4 small ones on the front porch. All 5 were smashed in the street. The crappy thing is that we'd planned to go to Busch Gardens for my birthday celebration (since I'm working all day today), and this really put a damper on it. Before we left, I got the big pieces of pumpkin out of the street so cars could drive through.

We got home late last night, and someone had cleaned up all the pumpkin out of the street (which made me feel bad). Our neighbors had also left a big pumpkin on our porch with a note that said "Sorry someone messed with your pumpkin. Hope this helps." That was so nice of them. Such nice neighbors.

Busch Gardens was a lot of fun. The weather was perfect and the crowds were low. We did the Brewmaster Club beer tasting, went to a few shows, ate lots of junk food, and watched crazy people ride roller coasters (we don't ride them). This one roller coaster - the Griffin - I just can't imagine how anyone in their right mind would get on that thing! But we enjoyed watching.

On our way back, we went down to Rory's to hang out, then we all went out to dinner. It was a great day. Tonight, Scott and I have reservations at The Melting Pot for dinner. I'm excited! I also have a couple gifts at home that my mom mailed over the weekend, so I'll get to open those tonight.

This coming weekend, we go to Myrtle Beach for the car show. We are leaving Thursday and staying until Sunday. I haven't been down there in a few years, so I'm looking forward to it.

It's Friday!

I love Fridays.

Today I'm going to get my hair cut and highlighted. It needs it so badly! I hate having it done, because it takes FOREVER, so I think it's been about 6 months or more since I went.

We don't have any plans for tonight or tomorrow, but Sunday we are going to Busch Gardens for Howl-O-Scream. I'm excited - hopefully the weather will be good for us. On Monday (my birthday!), we are going to dinner at The Melting Pot. I have to thank Amber for this idea, because she was telling me that she and David went for their anniversary last week. I'm such a copy cat. I hope Scott remembered to make the reservations.

Last night, we went to Target and got some Halloween decorations for outside. We got a big spider and spider web to put on our hedges near the mailbox, and a motion-sensor mummy to hang in the tree. We also got some skull lights to line the driveway. I'm excited to put everything out. Now we just need candy!

Finally, Bathroom pics!

So I was waiting until Shane & Mandy came to visit before posting pics of our new bathroom. They came to visit a couple weekends ago, and I've been a bit lazy about blogging, but the time is finally here! This is a "before" picture - the bathroom was HIDEOUS. Note that this picture was actually taken before we moved into the house, so the Yankee stuff belongs to the previous owners. It was their 9 year old boy's bathroom.

After a LOT of hard work by Scott, our guest bathroom is now gorgeous. At least in my opinion! We put in heated natural stone tile floors, a new vanity, new toilet, new mirror and all new fixtures. Also, a new shower head (one of those "rain" shower heads). We also painted the walls a steel blue color and put in recessed lighting. The accessories are from West Elm, the vanity and toilet are from Lowe's, and the tile is from The Tile Shop.Here's a close up of the vanity/mirror/light fixture.


And this is the beauti-mous floor!