Trip to Georgia!

As Ray Charles would say.....

"Georgia, Georgia,

The whole day through
Just an old sweet song
Keeps Georgia on my mind"

.....So I went for a little visit before I begin my new job and while Misha was out of town for his work!

Tuesday was my driving day (six hours) and I went straight to Mama & Daddy's.  Talked with Mama, Daddy, and Susan after my long drive then went to town for groceries and paint with Susan.  Our plans were to paint Mama & Daddy's master bathroom while I was there (mission accomplished by the way).  Mama made a delicious dish for supper and we really just sat around talking and laughing.  It was so good!!!!  The food + the conversation + being with my family.  Mama and I went through boxes of old pictures that night trying to assign dates to the pictures.  None of those pictures will be posted!  At least not any from middle & high school - what I am now referring to as my "awkward years".  LOL!

 This pic is of my Kangaroo Pouch that Mama gave to me and Susan.  

It's a purse organizer!  

OMG - awesome!!!!

Mama always knows exactly what I need. 

 

It keeps things organized and you can just lift it out to switch purses!  Amazing!

Wednesday was a painting day.  Mama and I prepped her bathroom and put the base coat on the walls.  That took all afternoon!  Wouldn't you know it - I finish the last area that needs paint, step down from the ladder, and cut my foot on some screw!  Ouch!  It's all better now though thanks to my Daddy coming to the rescue with bandages and ointment.  No pictures of painting or the cut foot though!  :-)

Thursday was the day for the real paint!  A nice blue that will compliment their soon-to-be-painted bedroom.  The bedroom will be chocolate brown with this blue color so we decided to implement the blue into the bathroom.  It's a cool faux finish that we came up with using plastic grocery bags.  VERY COOL!  Mama needs to start a blog and post pictures of that - hint, hint.

Thursday night Susan hosted a girls' dinner.  It was SO much fun!  Susan and I made homemade pizzas...YUM!  All my girls came over and we had a blast talking, eating, laughing, and catching up.  Earl the Pearl (plus two of his friends) was there and he even made us a seven layer salad!  AW!  Thank you Uncle Early!

Susan talking, cooking, and cheesing.  :-)

We had some YUMMY pizzas.  Four pizzas total - in no particular order:

Pizza #1 - Red sauce pizza with a six blend cheese, fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, and pepperoni.

Pizza #2 - Extra vegetable pizza with artichokes, spinach, peppers, mushrooms, and olives.

Pizza #3 - White pizza with pesto (thank you Sara J), goat cheese, Parmesan cheese, and feta cheese. 

Pizza #4 - No crust pizza made with marinara sauce, portobello mushrooms, goat cheese, and black olives.

In addition to all that, we had some yummy salads prepared by Sara Jackson, a seven layer salad that Earl made, and yummy brownies that Lindsay brought.  We had an all out feast I tell you!

Left to Right:  Me, Sarah, Susan, Sara, Rachel, Heather, and Lindsay.  

We missed you Gena-Bug and baby Ella!

Friday I drove to Gainesville to take my friend Alona out for her birthday.  She is 8 months pregnant so my gift to her was a pedicure!  

Very appropriate as she can't even see her feet when she looks down!  :-)

We spent the day having lunch, getting a few groceries, looking at baby pictures, watching baby shows on TLC, and relaxing INDOORS just because it is sooooo hot outside!

That night Lyuba prepared dinner and invited Alona & Dima too.

I think that Julia is going to be tall!  No - Alona is not having twins!  

Saturday I drove back to Georgia and did the finishing touches for the paint.
It turned out great!  

That night, everyone came over to Mama's house for dinner.
We had some really good quality family time together and decided that we should take more pictures as a whole.
YaY!  Pictures with Lindsay in September!

Nanny & Papa watching Susan play the Wii. 

Susan teaching Papa how to do Wii bowling - toooooo funny!

Papa was pretty good at it!

Nice action shot!  Good form, Papa!  Too cute!

He almost beat Susie-Q at bowling. 
Notice the score - Susan 168 and Papa 164.  

Not bad, not bad!

Sunday we went to church at Central then came home to load up my things and hit the road.  On my way home (well, to Birmingham) I met up with Aunt Judy in Columbus.  She was on her way to Callaway so it was a nice meeting spot for both of us.  We stopped and had dinner at Cracker Barrel and were able to catch up on everything.  That was so nice and I'm so glad we were able to work it out!  Wish I had a picture of that to post on here, but we were too wrapped up in talking to even think about pictures.  :-)

All in all, it was a WONDERFUL trip.  Very much needed!  I was happy to get back to my husband though.  It's always good coming back to his arms - that's where I belong.  :-)   I am already looking forward to the next trip though!  The next trip will be when we welcome baby Julia to the world! 

Yogurt Lab + Garden Goodies

Just some things from our weekend 

(besides the FUN & AWESOME trip to the lake):

Our date night Friday night consisted of Yogurt Lab (*YUM*)

and a movie from the Blockbuster box!

Checking out the Garden this weekend.  Look at all the red tomatoes!  

I will be bringing some home on my trip to Georgia & Florida.

With all these vegetables readily available, I love making  
Veggie Lasagna and Veggie Quiche.

They are some of my favorites! 

Plus they are my own recipes and they are delicious if I do say so myself!  :-)

Making the Quiche:

Veggie Lasagna:

Well, I'm getting ready for my trip to V-town and G-ville!!!!  I am so excited!!!!!!!!!  

Can't wait to see everyone!

BBQ at the Lake

In August I will begin my new job with Sav-A-Life.  Very exciting!  They hosted a BBQ party this weekend for board members, staff, and family so we were invited.  I haven't even begun work there and we are already partying with them!  :-)  It was a blast!  It was a great time to casually meet everyone, their spouses, and their families.  What an awesome way to begin a new job - at the LAKE!!!

The barbecue was delicious and we got to play in the water all afternoon.  It was SWEET!  The lake house that we were at was amazing.  It was seriously a million dollar lake house.  It was unbelievable!  Here's a pic of the back porches leading down to the water:

Boat Party!!!

The boat that we hung out on all afternoon - SWEEEEET!

Both Misha and I decided to try wake-boarding for the first time.  The hardest part is getting up out of the water.  Once you have accomplished that, you're golden.  It's similar to snowboarding, but just in the water.  We definitely want to do it again!

Here's Misha about to dive in!

Wahoo!  He's up!

Here is a short video of me actually getting out of the water....then screaming and falling.  LOL!  

We need to practice our wake boarding!

We had such great fun playing at the lake house all day.  I would LOVE to someday have a place like that....well, at least a place on the water.  :-)

Blackberries

Remember those wild blackberries that Misha and I came across?  Well, we went back for more this past Saturday.  We picked a ton!!!!  I think it was like 5 quarts total.  The thing is, while we were picking berries in the middle of the woods....it starts raining.  Very lightly, then stops.  Great!  It cooled off some....then it begins POURING.  We are seriously standing there in the middle of the woods and are soaked to the bone.  It was getting a little scary b/c we had to SPRINT for cover because there were a couple of power lines/poles near us.  That combined with lightning is SCARY.  Anyway, we didn't get struck by lightning and it was kinda cute b/c we were soaking wet, but standing together hugging each other in the middle of the woods in the pouring down rain.  It was a moment.  :-) 

Here's all the blackberries we picked:

Can you tell we snuck a few blackberries? 

Which One?

Okay - I need your opinion!  Which name do you like? It's for a shop.
Think stationery/party shop.

Products & Services:

- Invitations

- Wedding Accessories
- Gift Registries
- Rentals (chairs, tables, linens)

There would also be wedding planning, coordinating, and directing services although it would primarily just be the shop.

Just a few images to give you a visual:

Here they are (in no particular order):

- The Wedding Nest
- The Party Garden
- The Event Shoppe

If you were in that market, which shop would you step into?
The Wedding Nest?  The Party Garden?  The Event Shoppe?  

I really want your opinion!  Please leave a comment and tell me what you think! 

Our Fourth of July Weekend

Since we moved to Birmingham, Misha and I have really been spending a lot of quality time together. I mean, we really don't know anyone else up here! :-) It's good though - I think it has really helped us bond and depend on each other. It's been good for our first year of marriage.

Anyway, this is what our holiday weekend consisted of:

Date Night on Friday. This is me posing with the "Mariachi Band" outside the Mexican restaurant that we ate at. We also went to see "The Back-Up Plan" with Jennifer Lopez. It was all about pregnancy - definitely a chick flick - but pretty funny. It was really funny watching Misha during the movie. LOL!

Misha was really happy b/c they had flan. He loves that stuff.
Me...not so much.

Saturday, we mostly hung out around the house.
We did have our first tomato crop this weekend! YaY!!!

We are such an "old couple" because we went to Lowe's on a holiday weekend to purchase new window blinds for the house. Haha!
We also purchased a new bow & arrow target for Misha to practice on.

So Sunday we went to morning church services and then got into some interesting things that afternoon. We went to a flea market (hilarious - I love to people watch there - you see some really interesting things) then Misha got the crazy idea that he wanted a rooster. Where this came from...I have no idea. Anyway, we went to a local farm and bought a rooster. The guy was really nice and gave us some fresh farm eggs too.

I named the rooster Henry, although I know you're not supposed to name the farm animals. Henry did not make it very long in our yard.
I'll spare you the details.

Sunday night we enjoyed the fireworks in downtown Homewood. It was so nice! We had a picnic of turkery burgers, strawberries, and blueberries. There was live music, a ton of people, great fireworks, and a very patriotic spirit. Didn't get that good of a picture of the fireworks though. I even had the camera on the fireworks setting. Oh well!

Me & Mish

Misha's interpretation of fireworks. Haha!

Misha was off work Monday so we spent the whole day together. He made a traditional Ukrainian dish called green borsch. It has spinach, potatoes, rice, mushrooms, and......chicken. Need I say more? Anyway, Monday afternoon we went for a hike at Moss Rock Preserve and came across TONS of ripe wild blackberries!!!!! YUM! We picked (and ate) at least four handfuls each plus the ones you see here. We are going back later this week with a basket! Hopefully they won't be dried up. I want to make a blackberry cobbler!!!


Well, that's it. That was our Fourth.
This week I'm concentrating on my workouts, doing some business marketing research, and refinishing two pieces of furniture.

Who knows....it may be blogged about!