Recap of November

Hello! It seems like it's been forever since we wrote in here, so I thought I'd give a little update. I only have 10 minutes left of my lunch break so you may not get much of an update, but I'm going to write as much as I can!

Last time I wrote I told you all about my moral dilemma. After trying to return the table once, I called again and they actually sent me what I needed in order to send the second table back, so I returned it. It definitely made my conscience feel better, so I'm glad I did. It's a great gift though, so I suggest it to anyone looking for a cool Christmas gift to give!

November went by crazy fast! It was pretty busy and a lot of fun. Here are a few highlights:

• Trent's sister Abbie turned 17 and finally got a cell phone! We had fun trying to get her to open that package that was mysteriously ringing!
• Kelsey, Greg, and I went to see Lady Antebellum at the Fox! It was an amazing show, and their first headlining tour. For those of you who don't know, the two guys in Lady A are from Augusta (my home town, not counting Iowa), and one of them is our good friend Michael's brother. They went to my high school. It just makes the show that much cooler to see that you can come from little Lakeside High School and get nominated for 6 Grammys a couple years later! Anyway, we had such a great time and even got to see Michael and his sweet fiance Cat after the show. Love them!
• We went to the KSU v. GA Tech basketball game with Kelsey, Greg, Steven, Jennifer, Taryn, and David and it was amazing because KSU won! Didn't really matter to us that GA Tech is awful this year because we are just little KSU. Anyway, it was loads of fun!
• We went to the Dave Matthews concert at Philips Arena and were front row! Trent, Paul, and Mike went at like 11:00am and were first in the line for General Admission (for the fan club members). I'm not a big DMB fan, but the concert was really good, and the front row was amazing!
• We had a murder mystery party at our house with some of friends and it was so fun! It was a huge hit and we're hoping to make it an annual event. I definitely recommend trying one. They're awesome!
• We had Thanksgiving with Trent's parents and Abbie at our house for our first holiday married and in our new house. It was delicious. Then my parents came for actual Thanksgiving for 5 days and we did tons of nothing, and also a few somethings. We saw Harry Potter in IMAX (SO freaking good) and played a bunch of games! Good time with good people.

So November is going to be tough to beat, but I'm thinking there may be a few things that will be awesome coming up in December! More on that closer to Christmas :) I'll leave you with a few pictures from November's events!

Trent and Paul with Dave in the background.

Dave Matthews and Stephan in the front row!

Brasstown Bald

Our Murder Mystery Party Group

The Answer... kind of

Thanks everyone for the ideas and thoughts! This is what I did...

Of course I couldn't just keep it without calling and talking to them first. As Kriya mentioned on the last post... WWJD? I just couldn't bring myself to keep it without telling someone at the company first. So, the next morning after the second table arrived, I called the customer service number for the company I bought the table from, and they thanked me profusely for letting them know. They then told me that UPS would be sending me an email within 48 hours that includled a packing label. All I would have to do would be to print the label and put it on my second table and then drop it off at any pickup location for UPS. Easy enough since UPS picks up from my work, and we actually use the same system with UPS when picking items up from customers. Easy peasy.

However... I never got an email from UPS with a packing label!! Now I feel like I'm at square one again! Should I call AGAIN, or should I just count the first call as my attempt to return the table and assume that they just don't need it back very much. I don't know what to do! In the meantime the tables just sit in their boxes in our garage... oh such a dilema :/

Moral Dilemma

Okay, so I have a moral dilemma. I'm going to tell you about it and then before I tell you what I did, I want to hear your suggestions and what you THOUGHT I did....

So here's the story. For my dad's birthday (which was October 14), Trent and I ordered this rockin gift. It's a plastic picnic table that folds up into a little carrying case and has 4 chairs attached. Here's a picture of it so it makes more sense.

Anyway, we got it for his pontoon boat because there are no table-esque things on the boat, and sometimes you just need a table when you're out on the water! It's waterproof, outdoor proof, etc. Wwe thought it would be perfect! So, we ordered one.

Unfortunately it didn't come before dad's birthday celebration with us, but it did come last Friday. And then... it came again on Monday. We got two! My first thought was that they charged us for two and I would have to call and complain, but when I checked the bank account, we had only been charged for one! So the dilemma would be: should we keep the extra one and have one for ourselves, or should we return it? It is a pretty cool thing that would be great for tailgating or just going to the park for a picnic or something like that. Trent voted I do this. At the beginning I was thinking that it is exactly like stealing and I would have no part in it, but then it did sound like a cool thing to have!

So I talked to my mom about it and she had an interesting thought... she once bought my dad an Iowa State football helmet that really wasn't a football helmet but a chip and dip holder thing. Anyway, the accidentally sent her a UGA one (yuck) and when she sent it back to have it replaced, they never sent her a new one! So, she decided that this was just like an exchange for a table instead of a new helmet. But then she said the RIGHT thing to do would probably be to send back the table. She said I should sleep on it. I checked and there was a label included for returns, but then I still would have been charged for the shipping...

So... what would you do?? What do you think I did?? I'll let you know in the next couple of days, but I want your opinions!

Lately

It's been a little while since we've updated, so I'm here to keep in you all informed on our life. Especially since I know you all have been wondering :)

We were out of town every weekend for what seemed like forever, but one of those weekends just happened to be the marriage of two of my(Erin's) best friends- Mandy Finnell and Bryce Howie. They got married in Charleston, SC where Bryce's dad lives. Since I was a bridesmaid in the wedding we got to go for the whole weekend and do fun stuff like the bridal luncheon, rehearsal dinner, and get pampered the morning of the wedding! Everything went smoothly (even though it POURED rain on our way to the rehearsal dinner which was supposed to be outside so we were all drenched. Nothing like karaoke after dinner to make everyone happy again) and the weather was perfect on wedding day. Mandy was the most beautiful bride I've ever seen and I was so happy to see her marry her prince charming, Bryce. We all go way back to middle school and it was so precious to see best friends become man and wife :) Here are some pictures to help you relive the moment.

These past couple of weeks have been dedicated to sports- two fantasy football leagues for Trent, watching every Braves game to see if they can hold onto their number one position, and the start of college football. I wasn't ready for all sports all the time, but it's fun to see Trent be so passionate about something. We are planning on going to 2 Braves games in the next week or so and we are confidently getting ready to save up money for the World Series, which will be held in Atlanta once they make it! See the optimism? For any of you out there that aren't Braves fans you'd better stop laughing! We'll see who's laughing in a month or so!

My quick story for this blog post happened this past weekend in Augusta. My uncle and cousin came down for a visit to my parent's house at the lake so we all made the drive down over the long weekend to do some boating, skiing and tubing. It was nice to finally relax a little! Ellie even go to come although we left her little doggie lifejacket at home on accident. Oops! She's a good swimmer though, so no worries. Unfortunately Trent's wedding ring can't swim on it's own... he lost it the first time he jumped in the water! The rest of the weekend everyone made sure they didn't have their own rings on in the water and it was a joke that made it's way to the surface quite a bit (Trent would tell you I brought it up everytime, but it wasn't me EVERYtime). I was pretty sad about it at the beginning... after all our children won't get to see the ring that was blessed at our wedding ceremony... however life goes on and it's only a symbol. We ordered him a new one right when we got home from Augusta. He got a smaller size this time and won't be wearing it in the water in the future.

Hope you all had a safe Labor Day weekend! Hopefully the rest of this week will go by fast! I'm ready for another weekend.

The best time of the year!

First of all, thank you to my wife for not insisting that we get married in the fall. There are very few Saturdays over the course of the next several months that I will not be very interested in CBS, NBC, ABC, and ESPN....and if you don't know why, ask your husband or boyfriend.
But seriously, what a great time of the year! We have finally (crossing my fingers, at least) past the hottest weeks of the year, and just a few more days and we'll be done with August, which always has a way of throwing in a few more days with the temperature sneaking towards triple digits. Once again, the Braves are in first place and I feel like a kid again! How awesome is it watching Bobby's boys pull it out in the last inning all year long? I think they've won as many games in the last at bat as McCann has thrown bats into the stands this year! And as the seasons change from MLB playoffs to the wonderful world of college football....this is definitely the greatest time of the year!

Unfortunately, I have discovered some of the not so great things about this time of the year as a homeowner. Several of you may have heard this story already, so bare with me. I'll try to make it less painful than it actually was.
As the contractors finished up their work on our house a few months ago, they informed us that we had a squirrel in the attic. We didn't hear it for a few weeks, and I never saw it in the several trips that I made up into the attic. Well, as the season for hoarding acorns and nuts grew closer, our little friend became a little more active. We began to hear him (or at least I would) every morning as the sun began to shine. Finally, about two weeks ago, Erin and I had some time after work one Monday so we ran over to Home Depot to pick up a trap and get the little fella out of there. When we got home, I headed up stairs and placed the trap in what I thought was a great spot to pick of our little house guest. As I slept that night I had dreams of little rodents with x's in their eyes...sorry to all of you animal lovers out there, but he wasn't paying any rent and was driving poor little Ellie nuts (no pun intended) and she wouldn't stop barking at the scurrying across the ceiling.
The next morning I once again heard the creature running around all over my attic...and then all of the sudden.....it stopped....and then got MUCH louder. I can imagine that if I had been running around and then thought I had found free breakfast, only to find myself caught in a cage, I would have made a lot more noise as well. So, I decided to head to work, let the little guy tire out, and take it to the lake later that evening.----8 hours later---I got home from work all exited to prove my superiority over the squirrel that I didn't even change before heading up into the attic. I pulled the stairs down out of the closet ceiling, turned my headlamp on, climbed the stairs, peaked over the ceiling to find.....nothing. The trap was empty. It had never even gone off. So, I continued up the ladder to move the trap in hopes that a new location would prove a better spot. No sooner had I placed the cage in the perfect spot that I began to feel something that I didn't expect to feel....a loss of balance. I'm sure my arms waved around for a split second, I took a step backwards to try and catch my balance, managed to find one of the rafters, tried to take another step as I still had not regained my balance...and this time I was not as lucky with my foot placement. If you manage to make it by our house before too long, you will still see the Trent size hole in the ceiling above our two-story foyer. Luckily for me, I have seen enough Kung Fu movies in my day to know that when you are falling through a ceiling, you need only stick you arms out to catch the rafters. I did just that, and barely saved myself from the 20ft fall of doom.

All the while, Ellie continued to bark.

Two days later I caught the squirrel and Shapour took him to the lake.

Music and Life

Do you ever have songs that remind you a specific day, or mood, or place? I definitely do... with a lot of songs actually.

Today this came to my mind while driving home from work and listening to the first Colbie Caillat CD. The whole CD brought me back to the fall of 2009 when I was interning at the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Immediately I imagined myself driving my brother's old Ford Explorer with it's ripped leather seats and the broken cruise control button barely hanging on to the steering wheel, on my way to MAW. I drove his car every other month (that's a story in itself for another time that you should know if you know mine and Kelsey's car situation throughout college) while my brother, Steven, was living in Chicago. I could literally smell the way the Make-A-Wish office smelled, and I thought about my life at that point in time. It was actually a pretty hard time that I was going through with a pretty bad breakup and my confusing feelings for Trent (give me some slack... Trent wanted us to start dating the day my ex-boyfriend and I broke up. I was a little confused and not too eager to jump into a new relationship). Colbie helped me through that time with her lyrics, and if someday I meet her again (yeah, I met her once... she told me she liked my purse) I will let her know how therapeutic her songs were to me. Anyway, I enjoyed going back to that time and thinking about the great time I had at Make-A-Wish, and how I am happy to have gotten through my mini quarter life crisis to where I am today.

I also have a few other CDs/songs that bring me to specific places and times in my life. The newest Boys Like Girls cd reminds me of the hunt for a house to buy with Trent. It was a new CD to me when we first started looking, and I got the know the songs throughout the hunting process. I can still smell the houses when I listen to that CD, and some songs remind me of specific houses. Weird how that happens.

The song 3 by Britney Spears, which I hate, also reminds me of one particular house that we looked at. We got lost in the neighborhood on the way out and that song was playing on the radio.

Just a little look into my train of thought today in the car. I'll leave you with the lyrics of Colbie's song that was my "song" for Trent during that period in my life.

Feelings Show:
You told me
You'd wait here patiently but
I wonder if he's kidding
Well maybe he could be serious now
Maybe not
Maybe not
Because'

Love is crazy
Pretty baby
Take it real slow
My feelings show
All you have to do
Is never ever let it go
My feelings show
And I want you to know

I'm sorry it's taking me so long
To find out what I'm feeling
I wonder if it will come to me
Maybe not
Maybe not
Because'

Love is crazy
Pretty baby
Take it real slow
My feelings show
All you have to do
Is never ever let it go
My feelings show
And I want you to know
My feelings show

I want you to know

What I'm trying to say is that
I'm feeling a change and
I'll let it take all over
If you need time away
I won't ask you to stay
But I don't want to lose you

Love is crazy
Pretty baby
Take it real slow
My feelings show
All you have to do
Is never ever let it go
My feelings show

So it's been a couple of weeks since either of us has written a new blog entry. I'd say it's because we've both been pretty busy. After we got back from Orlando I (Erin) had to go back to work (which is always tough after vacation) and got some new responsibilities. This is definitely a positive thing, but as everyone knows, change takes some getting used to. But I'm very happy with this new responsiblity and find myself being much busier at work, which I needed. So that's good! The Friday after we got back from Orlando we had Kinsey & Jason's reception at the church. It was really nice and everything looked great, including the bride and groom, fresh from their honeymoon. The next morning I was up early and headed to Hilton Head to spend some quality time with some of my girlfriends. It was so much fun, and I loved seeing them, but I can't help but miss Trent when I'm away from him (yes, you can gag right now). Then this past weekend I went BACK to Hilton Head to spend the weekend with the Stapleton's. Trent ended up having to work, but they were nice enough to let me still come hang out with them. Another fantastic weekend in one of my favorite places on Earth, and another weekend away from my husband. This weekend brings Mandy's bachelorette party at Chateau Elan, and I'm sure another weekend full of fun!

Mandy and Bryce's wedding is in less than 2 weeks! I can't believe it! The wedding is taking place in Charleston, SC and it's going to be very beautiful! I can't wait to be a part of such a special wedding. Photos will definitely come soon.

I don't really have any funny stories to tell, so I'll leave on this side note, I am in need of some suggestions for books to listen to on CD. If anyone has any I can borrow, please let me know! Or if you have any books that are must reads (or listen tos), please let me know. I'm always in the car for so long going to and from work, and I find that books on tape make things go by a lot faster.

Thanks!

Orlando

Okay, so definitely the most important thing that happened when we went to Orlando was the marriage of Kinsey Stapleton & Jason Salisbury. I must tell you that those two are two of the most in love people I have ever seen. It makes you love love, even if you already did! It makes me happy that they are now bonded as one together, under God. They're perfect for each other. Not an eye was dry anywhere in the vacinity of their wedding. It was beautiful. Here are some of the pictures! Congratulations Salisburys!







We also stopped by Disney World and Universal Studios! I won't go into much detail, but The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is unbelievable! SO real! We had Butterbeer, Pumkin Juice, rode a hippogriff, and got a tour of Hogwarts! Seriously, amazing! Small, but really cool. Here are some pictures of that, too.



This weekend to Orlando starts a lot of weeks of fun adventures to come... so check in with us to see what's up next weekend... Kinsey & Jason's reception, and Hilton Head for Erin!

Little pieces of inspiration

It's 11:28 PM and it feels just like old times! It has been several weeks since I have last needed the aid of the blog to put me to sleep. I must admit that I have succumbed to the laziness of having a tv in the bedroom. And, to make it worse, for the past three months we have had all of the movie channels included in our cable package as a new customer bonus. In fact, at this very moments, Hook is playing in the background. It has been wonderful bits of inspiration, such as Hook, that has persuaded me to lift up this laptop and free the mind before getting to sleep this evening.
I think Erin has done a great job of updating everything involving our married life thus far, so I'll try and just write a few lines about nothing at all. I have explained to a few folks in the past few weeks that I never really had a motive behind writing these blogs. I was not trying to influence anyone to think a certain thought or act a certain act, but it truly was so that I could fall asleep. If I could clear my mind just long enough so that I could fall asleep, then the entry was successful. I never went back and proofread the thing, or double checked the spelling...because I didn't care. I never really expected someone to read it in the first place. I rather suddenly realized today that that was not the case. I love the fact that people can become somewhat interested in what goes on in our lives! And as the tv is chanting " Run home Jack" instead of "Homerun Jack" it becomes even more clear how important the things we say and do really are. I have had several experiences this weekend that can better illustrate that point:
As most of you know, I run a barbecue joint and that means that the 4th is a very busy day for me and my store. Thankfully, we are not open on Sunday, so I actually had the 4th off this year, but we took care of business on Saturday. For those of you that have never worked at Barbecue Street or do not know someone that works at the store, the day of the 4th celebration goes something like this for my self and the owners: 6:00 AM arrive at the store, by 8:00 AM have had to chop nearly 200 lbs of barbecue meat and gathered and loaded the vans with enough sides, drinks and paper supplies for 1500 people for an all day catering, by 10:30 AM have the store ready to open for business, 3:30 PM head to downtown Kennesaw to set up a booth for drink sales during the fireworks celebration, 10:00 go pick up the booth while fighting the ridiculous people traffic, 12:30ish Am the next morning help unload the 1500 person catering and close up the store and finally get home and get some sleep. In a nutshell...it's a long day. Well, fit in there at about 11:00 PM back the van up to the trailer in the parking lot. While doing so, my headlights were shining on to the road in front of me where nobody was. Well, as I was backing up, two police cars pulled up to the light directly in front of me...and unfortunately my lights were shining right in to the first car. Instead of ignoring the lights or shielding his eyes or just plain looking in the other direction, the police officer(if he even deserves to be called that right now) decided that the proper way to protect and to serve would be to turn his spotlight on and shine it right back in to my face, so as to blind me as well. ---This is an example of how little tings can negatively effect in a bag way. I'll be honest, I think a lot of police officers are on a power trip...and this certainly did not help improve my opinion. I am sure there are a lot of good officers out there, but my experiences have not been helped as of late. It's kind of like during WWII. I am sure there were thousands of really good German people, but ask a WWII veteran what they think of Germany being in the World Cup Finals and I am sure they will gladly share their opinion (Go Netherlands!!!)
The next day while Erin and I were walking to the lake to see the fireworks, we were walking behind an African American family. We got close enough to start to hear what they were talking about, and it was quickly understood that there were not above making rather quick judgments...the same kind of judgments that if I had said the same thing about a black person, I probably would have made it on the evening news for starting a race riot. Now, I am not a racist person or easily offended, so it didn't bother us too much, but it was the principle of the matter. How did we allow for so many double standards to be established?
Today I had some better experiences, but they don't make for an exciting blog entry, but I will say how great it was to see Greg get on to a roller coaster and see the terror in his eyes as we climbed the first hill on Goliath this afternoon.

Honeymoon!

I am giving in and writing about the honeymoon basically to get it over with. That sounds awful and makes it seem like it was an awful time and I just want to move past it, but that is completely not true!! It is just the fact of sitting down and writing it. But here I am, going to do that now! Don't worry I won't give every detail of every day because you'll probably be terribly bored by the end of it.

We left for San Jose, Costa Rica (the capital) on Sunday evening around 7:00. It was almost a 4 hour flight, but they're two hours behind us so we got there around 9:00. After a slight issue with our luggage (don't worry, we left the airport with all of it) we met up with our rental car guy who took us to go sign the papers so we could start our 2 hour(ish) road trip to La Fortuna that night. He gave us lovely tips and information about staying safe ("Don't worry, they won't kill you, they'll just rob you") and gave us our GPS and we were off. Trent was the only one that could drive because the car was a stick shift, and it was a good thing. I would not have been able to drive on some of those dirt mountainside roads. I was having a hard time just riding! He did wait until we were on one of their highways to tell me that one time he almost lost control of the car and sent us flying over the edge of a cliff. Thanks, Trent.

Anyway, we got to La Fortuna late at night and accidently didn't set our clocks behind two hours so when we woke up in the morning we thought we had missed breakfast and decided to just start our adventurous day. Little did we know it was like 7:30 in the morning and the town was still asleep. Oh well. We spent the day hiking the base of the Arenal Volcano, swimming a little to cool off from our hike, eating, sleeping and checking out the natural hot springs. Those were pretty cool because the ground was all pebbly and sandy, but it was like being in a hot tub.



The next day we took another road trip to our next destination, Manuel Anonio. This road trip was more like 5 hours. It was a really pretty drive though, so not bad. Manuel Antonio is on the Pacific Coast of the country and completely covered in rain forest, but also has nice beaches. We hadn't eaten lunch that day so we opted for an early-ish dinner once we finally made it to the hotel. Our hotel, by the way, was a cool little hotel on the top of a winding dirt mountain road with an amazing view. It was my birthday so we made ourselves look good and journied to a nice restaurant with another amazing view of the ocean. And then the storm came... it started out slow and kind of faded but then came back full force. The electricity was out for much of the second half of our dinner and never really came back fully. We were eating dinner by a candlelight that kept getting blown out by wind (did I mention it was a restaurant with no sides- very open?). When there was a break in the rain we headed back to the hotel for safety, and bed time. I had to sleep with headphones because the storm was SO LOUD and as most of you know I am TERRIFIED of storms.

So the next day we had planned on doing our zip line through the forest tour. When we woke up, however, we realized that damage that the storm had done. We decided we would make it a pool day instead. We took a nice walk down to the beach (complete with about a dozen monkees playing and finding berries to eat) and took some pictures. Unfortunately that's when we found out that we shouldn't swim in the ocean because the storm had churned everything up and it probably wasn't safe. Then we walked back up and found out that our winding dirt mountain road was closed because the storm and knocked down trees. Then we found out our pool was closed from storm damage. The phone lines were out. The internet was out. The cable was out. Hm... okay. So we hung out at the hotel for a couple hours and they finally opened the road. We ventured into the town and took tons of pictures of the damage that had been done. There were power lines and trees down EVERYWHERE. The National Park was closed until the week after we left because of all of the trees that had fallen so we didn't get to do that either. We made the most of our stay there though, I think. Hung out, relaxed a lot.

The next day we did our zip line tour which was really cool. Roads were closed again and power lines were still down so it caused some obstacles but we still go to do it! The rain forest is awesome and even though the only wildlife we saw on our tour were some toucans (too far away to get a picture of) you could still feel it all around you. The next day we had to pack our bags and drive away from our adventurous hotel. I was a little relieved to finally hit some highways again and be off the roads I was afraid were going to crumble beneath us. We spent our last day in the capital city of San Jose and found a cool market in the middle of town.




The trip was definitely an adventure. Not what I expected (with the big storm), but it was a great vacation and an amazing way to start our marriage. Someday we will go to Costa Rica again during the dry season (did I mention it rained every day?) and check out a beach or two. Definitely recommend going there. It's beautiful.

This is what you have all been waiting for!

I feel like such a bum because I have not posted anything on here in months and I have no good excuses for ignoring these empty pages. But, I have a surprise for everyone this evening!! As Erin has explained, we are finally married and enjoying married life. On a side note, what kind of an answer do people really want when they ask "How's married life"? I don't get it. First of all, in the first three weeks of marriage, not much has changed. We haven't even received our wedding license on the mail yet, so as far as border patrol is concerned Erin is still not a Stapleton. So, in response to that question, which I have probably been asked 1,000 times in two weeks, married life is great. It has instantly reduced our car insurance rates, and that is wonderful!
Speaking of car insurance, do I have a story to tell! I couple of years ago, in fact just before Erin and I officially became a couple, we took a trip down to Panama City for a very good friend's wedding. On the way back, I got pulled over for speeding in Alabama. Say what you would like about me getting pulled over, but I am a responsible driver and was just enjoying the empty and open Alabaman highway with a beautiful girl in the car next to me....I don't see anything wrong with that. Long story short, I paid the bill a few weeks later over the phone after I received it in the mail. The ticket came in the Summer of '08, and the payment took place in probably August of '08. Flash forward to June '10. We had been home from our honeymoon for a few days and it was time to get back to work and take care of the things like opening a car insurance policy for Erin and I. Everything was going great, Erin's report came back good and the agent assumed that mine would be good because I had been active on my parents policy for years. She quoted me at a wonderfully low price for 6 months and I was ready to sign on the dotted line when she pulled up my license report to find that my license had been suspended...since November of '08! I assured her that she must have been mistaken because there was no way that it had been suspended and I wouldn't have known about it...but sure enough, a court in some small city in Alabama had requested the suspension of my license for an unpaid ticket.
Now, I knew that I had paid the ticket because I spoke with a clerk at the court office and paid with m credit card over the phone. So, I quickly called the court to figure out why they had suspended my license. Come to find out that the ticket had been underpaid by $.78! 78 cents!!! Really? It probably cost this court more money in paper work to have my license suspended than to forget about $.78! But don't worry, I'm sure they made it all back in late fees! Luckily, the maximum late fee that you can be charged for a late ticket is $100. I say that because it had been nearly two years! I don't even want to imagine what it would have been if they didn't have a cap on their late fee penalty!
So, $110.78 to the Alabama traffic court, $35 to the Georgia DDS, and 2 1/2 hours of the crowded DDS office, I am a legal driver once again!
We are trying to figure out how to get the wedding slide show uploaded so that everyone can see it. If anyone knows how to upload something that is made with iDVD to the internet, please let me know

New Look

It's Erin again. I'm sorry if you get bored with my posts, but Trent just hasn't updated in a while and I don't want you all to be bored!

So I changed the look of the blog a little bit... what do you think? I told Trent I wouldn't make it too girly. We'll see what he thinks!

I hope everyone has been doing well lately. I don't have a big topic to write about or anything and I just haven't been able to bring myself to write the Honeymoon blog. I feel like I've told the story so many times already that I can't sit down to write it, too. But I'm sure one of us will sooner or later. Kelsey and Greg have been living with us since we got married (in fact they moved in while we were on our Honeymoon). They'll be with us for about two months. I'm sure a lot of you think we are nuts to have roomates while being fresh Newlyweds. It's really no big deal, though. Nobody has really gotten in any fights yet and we don't really get in each other's way. I went from living in that big house by myself to living with 3 other people and a dog! But I enjoy the company.

Another new look I'm getting (besides this rockin new blog template) is my new iPhone 4!! I preordered it the first day you could and cannot WAIT for it get here! I just spent the last 45 minutes of my lunch break searching for a new cover for it! Ugh, I just can hardly contain my excitement! My original iPhone that I've had now for 2-1/2 years is done with me. It keeps crapping out on me one way or another. It knows I am replacing it and is getting back at me. A few pieces fell off recently, it gets stuck on certain screens, it goes REALLY slow now, and the battery has just decided to go super fast over the last week and die on me while I'm driving in the rainstorms we keep having every evening. Oh well... only 6 more days until the new one! Someone let me know if they find a good cover for the new phone!

I want to make a quick shout out to Miss Cecelia Bree Benich who was born yesterday! I can't wait to meet you Bree! If you're anywhere near as fun and cute as your brother (which I know you will be), we'll be best friends :)

That's all for now... have a good weekend everyone!

Wedding! Cont.

So the ceremony started a little bit late, but everything was going smoothly. I was waiting in the bridal room while the bridemaids began to walk down the aisle and I was laughing about how funny it would be if Ellie (our Yorkie flower girl) would poop going down the aisle. This comment even got me a compliment from the bartender who was in the room with us that I was in the top 1% of calm brides he's ever seen there. I was proud of that compliment because if you know me, I am kind of always a stresser and a worrier, and not very often the calm one. But I know that my marriage to Trent is right and I just couldn't wait to make it official! So I wasn't stressing or worrying about it.

When it got to be Wade's turn to walk down the aisle with Kelsey and Ellie (we tried to make it as fun for him as possible) with his dad sending him off and his mom at the end of the aisle with M&Ms and trains waiting for him, he didn't want to do it! No worries, it was the effort that counted. At least he looked adorable! And Ellie got a laugh out of everyone. The Jazz festival was supposed to have a break during our ceremony time, but of course, they were running behind as well, and so we had a little tune for the first few minutes of our ceremony. Once again, no stressing so we made the best out of it and did a little dance at the front. Rod, our officiant, gave a very personal and perfect homily for Trent and I, and made the ceremony very special. It all went by so fast. No matter what may have happened during that wasn't supposed to happen (the wind blew out the candles to light the unity candle with, I couldn't find the kleenex that was in my dress pocket, YES I had pockets in my dress, and a lovely Jazz festival patron who decided to yell at us during our ceremony about the large mistake we were making- shout out to all the wonderful men in the audience who later told me they were 2 seconds away from getting up and hitting that guy in the mouth), it was absolutely perfect- and rain free!

Trent and I left to take pictures while the reception got started, and walked around the park for a while. I was sort of sad because the awesome park with the awesome view of Atlanta's skyline was covered in tons of people watching a concert, so we had to find some more secluded areas to take photos. I think they turned out spectacularly, though. Our photographer Kate Byars (www.katebyarsphotography.com) was amazing!! Check out her website for more pictures.

The reception also went by in a blur full of yummy food that we never got to eat (I heard it was delicious), a photo booth for our guests which created the best and most hilarous guest book ever (I DEFINITELY recommend having one of these at any event you throw), a green cake which Trent and I smashed in each other's faces, and many great friends and family members. We absolutely loved every minute of it. Special thanks to my parents for throwing the wedding of my dreams.

Hopefully you all could make it to the wedding and hopefully you loved it as much as we did. If you weren't able to be there, here are some pictures to help you feel like you were! Honeymoon blog coming soon!



Love,

The Stapletons

Married!

Hello everybody!!

We did it! Finally, we got married!! We are now Mr. and Mrs. Trent Stapleton. I thought I would write a little summary of wedding weekend first, and then do another post a little later for the honeymoon. This will be Erin's version of the story, so if any of you read this only for Trent's witty entries, I'm just warning you. I'll try to be witty, too. TRY being the keyword...

The weekend really started on Thursday when we had a birthday dinner for my sister-in-law Jennifer, myself, and my twin Kelsey at Henry's. If anyone has not been to Henry's in downtown Acworth, you should pretty much stop what you're doing now and head down there. It's delicious. Cajun, but even I like it, and I think mild things are way too hot to eat. Just my family got together and celebrated, and it really kicked off the weekend for us. Family started getting into town, and it began to sink in...

Friday was a packed day starting with a morning rehearsal at Piedmont Park. Thank God for my friend Ashley who did the run through with everyone and told us all where we needed to be and when. THANK YOU Ashley! It was very smooth frankly because we had awesome bridesmaids, groomsmen and family. Wade (the ringbearer) also made it all the way down the aisle during the rehearsal like a pro and gave us all hope that it would work just the same way during the actual ceremony.

After the rehearsal the boys went off to play a manly game of Whoorly Ball (I have NO idea how to spell that, so please don't judge me). If you don't know what this is, I like to describe it as lacross in bumper cars. You each have your own bumper car and those little hand net things and try to score goals. It can get pretty violent... I'm pretty sure some of the boys had bruises afterwards. The girls had a really nice lunch in the way cute Viriginia Highlands area and then kind of dispersed and did nails.

The rehearsal dinner was DELICIOUS at a yummy Italian place called Scalini's. We had a really great time with my family, Trent's family, and all the massive bridal party that we had. In case you didn't know, there were 11 each of bm and gm plus a ring bearer and a lovely Yorkie flower girl. We played a slideshow I made that I am going to attempt to post on this blog a little bit later so you can see baby Erin & Trent. Pretty cute if I do say so myself. So a huge thanks to the Stapleton's for a wonderful rehearsal dinner.

Wedding morning came with a lovely forcast of thunderstorms starting at 1pm and going through the rest of the day. I kept my fingers crossed for this to be false since the ceremony was supposed to be outside. Girls went to the hotel and got all pretty with hair and makeup, and the boys met for some fun foozball games at the Stapleton household. Ceremony started at 6:30 and ladies had to be there at 3:00 to start getting dressed and take pictures. When we got there the ceremony was all set up and ready to go... under the tent. I was slightly heartbroken, but they assured me it was only a precaution and it would be much easier to move the setup outside than it would have been to move it inside. So I put my heart back together and got ready for pictures. I got the girl's monogrammed umbrellas for a gift and had them bring them along just in case. We got some really cute photos of the umbrellas and the girls. I love them! I also had a pair of galoshes (again, I can't really spell well) that I had as another precaution. Boys arrived at 5 for pictures, and still no rain!!

I was waiting in the bride room trying to stay calm and be thankful for some air conditioner when I was told that they were moving the ceremony setup outside! The rain had held off! I couldn't have been happier! Although the ceremony would have been fine in either location, and the wedding ceremony is not about the look of it all but about the joining of two people into one, I still had always pictured the ceremony outside, so I was very relieved. The next thing they told me was that the cake had yet to arrive. Ha! Oh well, I thought, as long as it's here before it's time to cut it, I don't mind! The ceremony got off a slightly late start because of some lovely traffic caused by the Jazz festival that was going on, which also provided the backdrop and background music for our ceremony. No worries, though, it allowed for some extra people to join the audience.

**The rest of the story will be explained in the next post...

My Apologies

So, It has been over a month since I have let the pen hit the paper, and for that I do apologize. Life has been far too busy, and I think that most of you will understand why. If not, I will proceed to explain.
I believe that the countdown is now to 9 days. 9 days! That's soon. There are still plenty of things left on the registry! But, in all seriousness, we are very excited. In fact, we have just decided this evening that we are most excited for the week following the wedding. And we have also recently decided that we should have saved the money and planned a week stay at a hotel in Alabama...as long as it meant that neither of us had to work for a week! I suppose that we'll keep the week in Costa Rica...because that definitely means no work!
As far as I am concerned and understand, I believe that everything is ready to go for the big day...if you ask Erin, there is still plenty left to do. But we'll just about there and we are all set and ready to go!
Erin is still enjoying here job. Despite the desire for the week off, we are both enjoying our jobs at the moment. Barbecue Street and I have a love/hate relationship. But it is a healthy one. Speaking of that work relationship, I have been toying with the idea of prolonging my time at Kennesaw State and continue on at the restaurant full time for about a year or so longer. Let me know what you think, but here is the scenario: First of all, I have had overloaded semesters since I have started at Kennesaw, with the hopes that I could graduated as early and as quick as possible. I am finally to the final few semesters and I am looking at a full semester this summer, one class with TOSS (it's like student teaching) in the fall, and student teaching next spring...which would mean that I would graduate next May. The problem with that are as follows:
It would be a lot of work..but that is no excuse. I have had full semesters plus a full time job my entire college career. But I will not be able to work full time at the restaurant during TOSS or student teaching...so, in essence, I will be able to work full time for the next 4-5 months, and then I will have to cut my hours back a lot. I will be able to work 1 day a week during student teaching. In other words, Erin and I will be eating a lot of ramen and living off of what I can grow in the garden this summer. And, the biggest problem of all is the job situation. The state is not really in any shape to be hiring new, inexperienced teachers...seeing as they just let many of them go. That's a little scary. We just bought a house and I don't want to be out of work for 1 1/2 semesters only to find out that I still don't have a job.
Now, if I would slow down the graduation process, here is what I am looking at. I will not reach the goal of graduating as early as possible...which was the whole point of all of the work for the past couple of years. But, I would be able to work for the next year, in a good job with plenty of job security. I could spread out the remaining classes that I have left, maybe even get a minor in something. So...not that you know the readers digest version of what I am up against, let me know what you think. I have until Wednesday before classes begin..so I am giving myself until then to figure it out.
And here is the picture that I promised:



We are hoping to look like this at the end of the Warrior Dash on Saturday. The first of our annual Warrior Dash run!...maybe! We'll see how this first crazy one goes...but wish us look. We are hoping that we all come out unscathed and still able to walk without the aid of others!

Quick Update

Hi!! It's Erin (if you couldn't tell by the exclamation points).

I thought I'd give a quick update since neither of us really write in here all that often. The main reason for this is because we don't quite have internet hooked up yet at our new house. Of course, Trent still does at his parent's house (where he is living), but he's definitely at our house more often.

Here are the highlights of the past few days/weeks. They are finishing the house work TOMORROW! Hallelujiah! If you have talked to me personally in the past few weeks you should already know how I feel about contractors, but if not, I DON'T like them very much! haha They're difficult to work with. BUT tomorrow is the last piece of work they will be completing... resurfacing the guest bathtub. I can't wait for them to be out, and all the holes in my walls to be patched (which is happening as we speak).

We do keep finding lovely little things that go wrong with the house, but what else can you expect with a 20 year house (or if you're part of my family as my dad would say)? The brand new fridge decided to leak all over our new hardwood floors, but that guy is coming to fix it today. The outlets in both of the bathrooms decided to stop working, and then to start working again. At least they work now! There is a lovely leak from the Master bath that we have yet to investigate. But, of course these are all tiny little things that don't matter because WE HAVE A HOUSE!! It is actually starting to sink in, that it's all ours. The first mortgage payment helped that sink in...

I have also decided we have a ghost. He's a friendly ghost, though, so we've been calling him Casper. He just likes to move things around and such. But no harm, he keeps us protected at night.

Now that the contractors will be done, Ellie gets to come live with me! I CAN'T WAIT! I have missed my baby so much, and I know she'll be missed over at the Stapleton house, but I need her back! She is going to stop loving me the most I can't handle that :)

Not a funny post like Trent's, but just a little update for everyone. The wedding is in 33 days, and we are so ready! Can't wait to be married!

Ta for now. And just for you, Trent, I posted a picture of the house. It's a "before" picture, though, so it looks much better now. We'll post pictures soon.

Technological impairments

It's not that I don't know how, because I know I could if I tried, but I'm jealous of everyone with photos in their blogs. Does anyone want to be in charge of uploading my photos onto my computer for me so that I can use them in here?
It has been a couple of very interesting days, and that's where the sudden need for photos has come from. I can think of at least three (3) times since Monday that I have thought to myself "I wish I had a camera right now". Writing about them would just not do them justice, so I won't even try, but just know that I have seen some excitement this week!
My brother told me about blip.fm today, and I'm not sure how active I will be with it. I'm still a little confused with the idea behind it. I already really like my music, and enjoy everything that is on my iTunes. I'm not sure if I want to listen to what someone else wants to listen to. For example, the station I am on right now started with a little Gordon Lightfoot (which isn't bad, but if I were choosing I don't think he would have made the cut), MC Hammer (You Can't Touch This....and I won't. This song belongs everywhere), and now it's on to some other kind of nonsense that I have never heard of. Unless there is anyone else with such a satisfied taste in music as I have...in other words, someone that could listen to the same songs a million times and never get sick of them...I'm not sure if Blip.fm is for me. But, regardless, if you are interested in seeing what kind of blipper I become, my user name is tstaple1. In fact, if you are looking to follow me on any kind of social networking site, tstaple1 is probably the screen name..so go see what you can find.
I succumbed to the temptations of the digital age this evening. Erin and I have been looking in to getting the internet at the new house for a few weeks now. She is going to be officially moving in this weekend after the showers are finished, so I wanted to try and have the internet installed so she doesn't die of boredom while at home. We had also decided that we wouldn't get cable yet and save the extra 30 or 40 bucks a month. So I went out and bought a digital antenna, and we were well prepared to continue watching tv on the internet. Neither of us have had cable in oer a year now, so it is not a big deal...until I started finding pricing deals for cable! I got sucked in by the great deals! Now, I am not a cable salesman, and I am not trying to get a job with their marketing firm, but as cheap as Dish was going to give us cable, I couldn't resist. The good news is Erin will no longer be watching the freshly painted walls peeled to pass the time!
My goal for the next entry is at least one picture.

I couldn't think of any clever title for today's entry. I tried to think of something to allude to how busy the past few weeks have been...but nothing I could think of would do it justice. On top of being a full time students, a full time restaurant manager, and purchasing and working on a new home...blogging has been pushed to the back-burner. Nevertheless, much has happened and deserved to be noted.
House update:
Everything is going well. After clearing up the original miscommunication with the contractors, work has preceded quite nicely. The new hardwoods are in place and look great. I have, as of last night, finished installing all of the new ceiling fans and light fixtures. Greg and I somehow managed to squeeze the new fridge into place without destroying anything in the process. I replaced the leaking water valve for the dishwasher. The new hot water heater was installed today and seems to be working just fine. Met a new neighbor, his name is Hudd. Shapour and I have leveled and planned out nicely the first tier of the new garden...by-the-way Shapour, if you are reading this, I need to get the second one finished and get some things planted... you up for playing in the dirt again? The painters finished painting the house today. It's nice to have these things being taken care of!
Wedding update:
I believe things are right on track. But we'll have to ask Erin to get on soon to give a complete update on that.
Life update:
Life is good. Once again, it has become an extremely busy time for both Erin and I. She is trying to pull all f the loose ends together and get things ready for May 29th and I am trying to pull all of the loose ends together and finish the semester strong. Unfortunately it has kept us apart for longer than we would like, but when we both actually have a free night it makes it that much more enjoyable to be able to spend the time with each other. We are getting very excited about the wedding and getting to see some old friends that we haven't seen in a long time! To Mr. Ben Cragun, if you are reading this, thanks for the package from Gallina. I finally got it in the mail this week. I can hardly read Russian handwriting anymore, but I was just able to make out what she said. So, thanks for getting it here, even if it was 3 years late.

Sweet Caroline!

I hope that someone else out there just enjoyed watching Neil Diamond belt out "Sweet Caroline"during the middle of the 8th in on the opening day of the greatest sport in the world.

It sure is nice to have baseball back once again! The Braves are opening tomorrow, and as the commercials are saying, "this is the year"! Spring has definitely arrived! In fact today you could have argued that it skipped right over and went right into summer!..and they games back on, I'll be back in a few minutes...

I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter. I certainly enjoyed procrastinating the papers that I needed to get written! 9:30 class was cancelled, so it'll give me something to do in the morning! But for now, once again, baseball season has begun!

As for the day, we spent most of it trying to get Erin moved in. Our plan was to get Erin moved in and ready for tonight to be her first night staying in our new house. The appliances were delivered by Lowe's today, so while Erin organized book shelves and made her bed, I was installing ceiling fans and tried to pretend like I really knew what I was doing. I can proudly say that now I do know what I am doing when a ceiling fan is concerned! Nothing blew up, I was not electrocuted once (which is something that, historically speaking, has plagued my electrical work) and all of the lights turn on and all of the fans spin around.
The big hiccup came when I headed downstairs to the basement to light the pilot light for the water heater. We are having a larger water heater installed in the next few weeks, but Erin was not looking forward to a cold shower at 6:00 AM...and I can't blame her...been there, done that! Of course, as I sat down and checked all of the gas lines to make sure everything was on, found the pilot light, prepped the tank, and felt confident that everything had been done correctly, I lit the match and moved cautiously toward the water tank and....nothing. Absolutely nothing! I tried for a few minutes before realizing that there was no gas going to the tank. So, Erin is bunking at Kelsey and Greg's place for the next few days, at least until we get the new water heater installed and ready to go for her.
The contractors are getting started in the morning. We are hoping that they work ahead of schedule! That is probably not going to happen! But, we can still hope, right? We are really looking forward to getting all of the work finished and getting the house in order...just in time to actually start to have a monthly payment! This month long grace period after closing couldn't be long enough! Once again, any donations can be sent to our new address!
The big event for the past few days was the beginning of the new garden! One of these days I'll get adventurous enough to take some photos and learn how to upload them here...but Shapour and I dug out the foundations for my new garden on Friday! We have a beautiful upper tier, a nice little stone path, and we still have some work today for the lower tier, but it is definitely a garden! Enough to make your average home gardener jealous!
And in one more out, the 2010 baseball season will have begun exactly how I could have hoped...with the Yankees losing! I'm off to enjoy this last out!

Conquered!

I really enjoy a good play on words. I wish I was witty enough to use word plays in my every day conversations with people, but we can't always get what we want, right? But if you can use a good play on words in an every day conversation, kudos to you my friend.
I started back at the gym this week with Shapour. It has been since high school that I have done this kind of work out. Sure I have been good (at times) about going and running and doing some weight lifting here and there. But we started back doing an actual routine. And I am paying for it! It's not so bad as I lay here this evening, but this morning and last night I was in trouble! I began to think that I may never walk again...at least without a hobble! But it is really good. With the countdown to May 29th getting lower and lower, it's time to get back in shape! ... At the same time I'm not looking forward to tomorrow around 2:00 PM when I head back to the gym!
For any of you keeping up with my late night sleep aid, you may understand the excitement when I walked into the hosue this afternoon to se that all of the wallpaper was striped from the dining room! Thank you very much to the unfrtunate souls that were designated that task while I was at work last night! I worked my way through the bathroom wallpaper today. And I have only solidified my hatred for the dreaded stuff. The wonderful people(and I am using that term very very loosely) that wallpapered the house never painted the drywall before putting it up in the bathroom. For those of you that don't know, that equals disaster for trying to remove it. Needless to say, it was a long evening ripping the walls to shreds! The good news being, the wallpaper is all but gone from my memory!
A former co-worker came in and ate last night with his wife(who also happens to be a former co-worker) and we chatted for a minute or two about old times. He was surprised to find out that I was now the GM of the store(which I don't think is so hard to beleive!!!), but her asked how I enjoyed that. I continued to explain why it is an awesome job, yet an awful job almost constantly. I'm sure this is the case for most jobs. While I do love the people I work with and the people that come in and eat at our restaurant, there are just certain things that I have to deal with that I just don't to have to deal with! My most recent adventure has involved pickles, and if you care to be entertained by a fairly wild story, just ask. It does a require a more private setting in an effort to protect the identities involved from public ridicule.
I had better by off now. Like I said, the gym is destroying me and I have just a few hours before having to head back there again! But, first I must share this list. I hope it is understood...if not, think about it for a minute and it should come to you.

1)Me>pickle
2)Gym>my legs
3)Me/steamer>wallpaper
4)March Madness>my bracket

I'm not sure if it is the writing or the early mornings (Shapour is convinced it is the workout), but I am exhausted tonight. I'm hoping that it is the writing and the jujube seed.

I felt old again today. I have a year left in school after this semester. I'll be taking 3 classes in the summer, and then I have two semesters worth of students teaching, and then it is off to the real world. I am in my final education class this semester and today I was finishing the observation hours for that class. The high school that I was assigned was about an 40 minutes away, so needless to say, it was an early morning. The part that made me feel old came after I got to the school. I was the first one there this morning(probably because I was the old fart in the group), so I was chatting with the teacher that was in charge of our observations. We went and made copies, checked to make sure all of the department teachers were there, etc. You know, the same ole same ole teacher stuff that has to get taken care of every morning.
3 more students showed up from KSU to participate in the observations at this school and as we were waiting for our assigned classrooms we did what every undergraduate student does...we compared classes and experiences and professors. This was fine until I realised that all of the professors that the other kids were naming off were freshmen professors. They had all graduated in 2008! Normally that wouldn't make me feel old...but one of them said something along the lines of "Oh. Wow! My older brother graduated in 2004!) Am I really old enough now to be feeling all of these mixed up emotions about my age!? Of course not..and that's why we went and hung out at Kent's place this evening so we could feel like kids again!
No news as far as the wallpaper goes. I am dreading the moment I have to walk back in to one of those rooms! But we are moving tomorrow, so I cannot put it off for too long. I have gotten some good advice from a few folks, and I am hoping that it is really much easier once I am using all of the correct methods and tools.
I must say that laughing is a wonderful thing.
I also must say that making someone laugh is a wonderful thing.
And lastly, I will say that having a group of people that laugh, make each other laugh, and laugh at each other(not in the mean ha ha you fell down way) is a wonderful thing.

House Troubles

Hi it's Erin! It's the first blog that I am writing on here. I told Trent that since my name is in the web address, that means I should get to write an entry or two along the road. I have decided that it is time for my first one.

The topic of my blog is going to be the new house. First I want you all to know that we are very excited about owning our first home, especially together, and we hope to make this our family home for a very long time. If you know us well then you know that we've been trying to find a house to buy for about 8 months, and this house was the eleventh one we put an offer on. Yes that is 11. But apparently in our lives, 11th time's a charm! God has a funny sense of humor! But He did bring us what we think is the best house we have seen so far!
With that being said, I wanted to write about how amazing Trent has been throughout this process. Again, if you know us well, you know that I am the one that tends to get a little emotional and have pretty quick reactions to things. Trent is the calm one who looks at things rationally instead of in the heat of the moment. I love that, and he seems to calm me down at times. Since we finally managed to become homeowners, he has been even more incredible. As Trent mentioned in his last blog entry, he is currently swamped with school work to do, as well as balancing that with working at the restaurant. On top of these things, he has still managed to come to the new house every night and do things he hates to do- like tear wallpaper down. The first night we had the house we went over there and I had him change out some light fixtures in the kitchen. What would I do without him? I promised him he wouldn't have to touch a paintbrush, and I'm trying really hard to keep that promise! Last night he started touching up some spots that Kelsey and I had "missed" and I told him he wasn't allowed to paint (because he HATES it, not because I'm THAT controlling.)

Today, Trent was nothing less than the amazing person and soon-to-be husband that he is. I got a phone call around 2:30 this afternoon while I was at work from the contractor who said that our neighbor had called the realtor who sold us the house who had called him (haha long story short) to tell us that our house was leaking water!! Of course my heart sank because we had only owned this house for 3 days, and it was already flooding (in my mind.) They sent someone over to the house to turn the water off and see where it was coming from, so I called Trent, who was in class, to let him know what was going on. He then left school and went over to the house to check on things himself. He caught the contractor just in time before they were going to break a window to get in, and found that the source of the water is, thankfully, probably just the sprinkler system. The only water in the house was a little bit in the basement. God really took care of this one for us! And thank God for the sweet neighbor, too. And Mr. Trent is once again the best man in the world :)

I also wanted to thank Bethany, Mandy, and Kelsey who have been helping with the paint. Especially Kelsey (no offense other girls) because she has come over every night this week to help. And to Trent's family who came over the first night and helped switch out knobs and brought dinner to help us celebrate.

Anyone who is planning on coming to the painting party, thank you in advance! I promise it won't be too miserable, and there will be some free Barbecue Street food in it for you.

I look forward to sharing this house, and my life, with a wonderful, wonderful person!

Wallpaper

The past couple of days I haven't needed the extra writing at the end of the day. The weeks following spring break are always the longest and most awful weeks of the school year. It's full of papers every week and reading every night, so I have had plenty to fill the void of missing the blog the past few days.
But a lot has happened.
Erin and I closed on our house Monday without any further hindrance. She has already begun with the painting. Thanks to those of you who may have already come and helped her out with that. She has even planned a painting party for the weekend...so if you find yourself with nothing to do on Saturday evening, be sure and give her a call!
With the new paint comes the joys of wallpaper! It should never have been invented! Curse the human being that thought gluing paper to all of the walls in a house would be a good idea! While the girls have been painting, I have been trying to get the wallpaper off...so we aren't like the previous owners and just paint over the wallpaper. Any advice for a good way to get it off? I truly have been having a miserable time with it!
Believe it or not, I am actually feeling like I am going to be able to fall asleep this evening, so I am gonna cut this short. I really wanted to give the update that the house is underway. Also, as a reminder in case you have already forgotten, NEVER hang wallpaper in your house. I think the only good thing that may have ever or could ever come from wallpaper is.......

yea, their really is nothing good about wallpaper

Childhood officially ends in the morning

Erin and I close on our house in the morning. Please send any cash donations to our new address:
2308 October Court
Acworth, GA 30102

I told Erin that I would finally write the background blog, so here goes nothin'....

I'll give a quick recap of our histories before we met first -
I (Trent) was born and raised here in Georgia. We never moved as family, at least as early as I was capable of storing anything into my long term memory. I graduated from high school in 2004 and worked for the next several months before embarking on a great journey to the other side of the earth for my mission for church. It was two very exiting years spent Russia, up and down the Volga river region. Met some wonderful people, learned a lot about everything, fully understood how much I hate cold weather, how much I love America. Not that Russia was horrible, but it was very different. I would love to go back and visit...but for maybe two weeks and two years. And then I came home and began working at Barbecue Street again in February of 2007.
Erin was born in Iowa, moved to Texas while her mom studied at Texas A&M and got her Doctorate, and her family moved to Augusta when she was in middle school. After graduating high school, Erin and her twin sister and their best friends moved to Kennesaw to attend Kennesaw State University. While at school in Kennesaw, Erin and her sister were offered jobs at Barbecue Street, and so Erin became one of the greatest servers that the restaurant has ever had.
Now, as I mentioned yesterday, my memory has fled me quite a bit, so I may get time-frames mixed up a bit. But, when I started back at the restaurant, I began as a cook. So I was always in the kitchen, and Erin was still serving. All that separated these two love birds was a chopping block and a steam table....and a boyfriend. I'll try not to embarrass Erin too much while doing this, but that is an important part to our story.
Those of you that know Erin and I, we have always enjoyed...and been very good at...a little flirting. Who doesn't, right? But it was not long before the whispers began and our friends began to notice things. The problem was, once again, somebody had a boyfriend. And we both understood that, and neither of us wanted to be in the wrong. She told me pretty soon after all of these whispers began that she had a boyfriend and was not interested in acquiring a second boyfriend, and I didn't want to be the jerk that came around and tried to ruin someone's relationship. So we settled for friends for a while.
As you should have put two and two together by now, Erin's previous boyfriend eventually left the picture...Once again Erin I apologize if this is embarrassing...and by this time I think we both knew that we had found someone that was making us happy. Erin wanted some time to figure some things out and I was willing to give her the space. I had waited for her already, if it meant waiting some more I was more than willing. By the time our first official date came around(which was an awful movie that I don't think either of us will ever forget)we had built a fairly solid foundation to build a relationship upon. During this period of "courtship" we had been able to meet each others friends and had even taken some trips together with our friends. I'm sure some people may have thought it was silly how long it took us to make things official and begin dating, but I was very happy just being around her. It didn't matter to me if we were dating yet, but I would do everything I could to be places if it meant that was even the slightest chance that I would see her and get to talk with her. There was about a year or so of overlapped time when we were both still in school, and I would sometimes take an extra long way to close just because I hoped it would give me a better chance of running into her (yes, just like you would do in middle school).
I believe it was this year or so of what we now refer to as "fake-dating" that has made us such a solid companionship now. I'm going to brag a bit right now, but we had our second session of pre-marital counseling this evening, and the fellow that is our counselor has told us a few times of how impressed he is with us as a young couple preparing to get married. Our solid foundation of "fake-dating" definitely gives us something to lean on and build off of.----gotta wrap this up now, I'm getting long winded!
So, we began dating in July of '08, first mentioned getting married in August of '08(once again it was the year of "fake-dating"), I bought a ring in February of '09, and we planned a trip with some of our best friends to Fall Creek Falls in June of '09. On June 7th, we hiked to the base of the main falls and began taking pictures with our friends. Our good friend Chris happens to be an aspiring photographer and brought some nice equipment with him. Erin and I walked out for our turn to take a few photos, and while Chris was switching his lenses around, I turned to Erin and told her that I loved her. The next part I am sure was very smooth, no shaking, and no nervous stuttering at all...but I reached into my pocket and got down on one knee and asked her to marry me, to which she of course replied she would. I'll never let Erin forget this, but she was so excited that after I asked we both hugged and when I asked her if she wanted to put the ring on she did just that...she put the ring on. She took the box from me, took the ring out, and put it on her finger. So, Rod, if you are reading this, when it's time to exchange rings, make sure she lets me put the ring on her finger!
It really has been a wonderful few years since we have met, and I would not change any of it for a bit. Looking at Erin and holding her hand let's me know that there is absolutely a reason for everything. While tomorrow we may be buying our fist home and entering the world of grown -up mortgages, I am so happy to know that I get to be a grown -up with Erin that we get to spent the rest of our time together!

Getting too old for this!

My bracket is officially destroyed. And that is all I am going to say about the awful sport of basketball.


Odd how sometimes an hour goes by really quick, and other times it lasts at least an hour and a half. Today was one of those days when 60 seconds was hardly every truly 60 seconds. As we were closing the store this evening, one of the waitresses said to me, "I'm getting too old for this," and I had to agree. We both started working at the restaurant about the same time and I used to beg for as many hours as I could get in a week! There was hardly an hour of the week that I wasn't at the store...by choice! I worked nearly 80 hours a week most summers. Today I worked from 8:00 in the morning to 11:30 at night...and I am beat!
I also cannot remember things like I used to. Back in the good ole days, when I was working 80 hours a week, I could remember all sorts of things. I would see a hundred or so people a day working back in the take-out area, and I could tell you most of their names and what they were most likely to order. I was talking with a table this evening, a really nice middle-aged couple that come in every now and then, that apparently remembered everything we talked about last time. It has probably been 6 months since I have seen them. What made it even worse is the wife could remember my name, yet I had no idea what their names were. Now you may think that is OK because I see hundreds of people in the restaurant every day. But there is another couple that comes in every Friday night, order the same things, and we always have a nice conversation. Once again, they know exactly what my name is but for the life of me I can never remember either of their names. What ever happened to being able to remember every face that I saw in that store?!I'm going to tie this up quickly. Because I am getting too old for this, and my feet hurt, I've got two points to make this evening.
1) What a beautiful thing life becomes when you surround yourself with good people. I have been blessed to have a wonderful group of friends and family (old and new, near and far) that change everything for the better. We went and had dinner with some friends last night and it was an awesome time. Not because the food was so wonderful or because we had the coolest table in the world, (it had a fire pit in the center of the table!) but because we(Erin and I...at least I hope Erin agrees with this)knew that the people that were with us wanted us to be there. And I hope that those that were there know that we wanted them there too.
2) Enough of the sappiness...While I've got three minutes left in the day, Happy first day of spring, it has been a long winter that I think we are all glad is over...and Happy Iranian New Year. My freshly liberated friends Shapour informed me that today is the Iranian New Year...a time for change and a time for improvement. Seems perfect Spring and New Year all bundled into one!

Style

I have really been thinking about what to officially name the blog. Sure, "And so it begins" was clever...for the beginning. But I cannot leave it that forever. If you've got any good suggestions, I'll tale them. I was thinking tonight I could title each individual post a new Dave Matthews song. That's just how obsessed I am. So maybe I could think of something clever with music and what's actually happening in real life. How exciting though! Relating these daily entries with a different Dave song each day! It would do wonders for my creativity skills.
We spoke in my Inclusive Education class the other about gifted students. I'm not ashamed(or humble enough) to admit that I was a gifted student. That's right. Smarter than your average bear. The keyword here is was! Things have caught back up with me. But we talked about how gifted students were supposed to excel in 3 specific ares, one of them being creativity....and I began wondering how in the world I was considered gifted if you had to be creative! So, maybe relating these song titles to everyday occurrences will boost my creative thinking skills.
Spring has finally arrived! I got up early this morning because I had a dentist appointment. I full expected to come home and take a nap, but it was so nice that I couldn't stand it any longer and headed over to the park for a run. I was amazed at what I saw. Now, I have sen this a few times before. When I lived in Togliatti, a city in Russia, I would often since this once or twice a week. And I have begun to see it on the campus green at the university. But now it is in my own backyard and I'm not sure how to handle it! Now I know there is a technical term for what is going on, but I'm not sure what it is. The only reason I know there is one is because Kent told me what it was yesterday...as if it was normal and in no need of any strange responses. It was a group of maybe 8 or so guys...there may have been a few girls but I never ventured close enough to see...that were battling out with foam swords and shields. As if they were medieval knights fighting for the round table. I just think it is bizarre. And I'm trying to figure out if this is a next generation thing, or if these just kids missed out on video games. Regardless, I have been surprised to see this as often as I have. I love the Russian people, but they were known to do some very odd things(at least to us silly Americans). So when I saw this in Togiatti, Ben and I had a good laugh about it and I think we even took a video of it...with the lion dog...so that we could prove that people were fighting like knights when they didn't believe us. I suppose it is just the new style.
I apologize for the randomness this evening. But really I don't. If you read yesterday you would understand that this is really just my Free therapy so that I can get to sleep. You really should expect something a lot more random and out of place then what I have written tonight. But thanks to those of you that are reading, I hope that you really are enjoying it. I try to be at least a little entertaining.