Happy Birthday, Gary!

Today is my father-in-law's birthday, so I wanted to wish him a happy one! This pic above is from our Dauphin Island trip in August. He had a blast building sand castles with his favorite grandchild, Ryan Hadley. :)

We're actually headed to Vicksburg tonight to eat birthday dinner at Katie's house, so we'll be hitting the road shortly. My stomach is already growling!

So, to Gary, we love you and hope you have a great birthday today! And here's to many, many, many more!

Another weekend gone already

I can't believe tomorrow is Monday already. The good news is that we had a pretty productive weekend at home. Saturday Derek fixed the door frame in our bedroom (we had to break it back in January when we locked the dog in there one night when people were over - definitely an I-told-you-so moment, but it's fixed now, which is all that matters), I did some touch-up painting in the hallway and the bathrooms and some shopping at Hobby Lobby. We planted a few new flowers, too. It always feels good to check everything off your to-do list. Sounds like a pretty wild and crazy weekend, I know.

Today I have literally spent the entire day in bed with the exception of doing a few loads of laundry and making a quick trip to the grocery store and to Subway for lunch. I feel a cold coming on, and I really can't miss work, so a little cold medicine and plenty rest is my answer. Hopefully it will help because I have too much to do these next few weeks to be bogged down with a cold.

So for now I'll sneeze my way straight to bed for a good night's sleep with the help of my friend, Benadryl. :)

Beth Bice's Birthday!

Try saying that five times fast...

Happy Birthday, Mom! You may feel your age some days but you certainly don't look it!

Have a great birthday weekend and we'll see you next Sunday. I love you!

Slow this train down!

Mid-September through late December is my absolute favorite time of year. It starts with my birthday and ends with Christmas. It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Really, it is. The only problem is that it always goes by soooo fast.

We’ve been busy the past couple of weekends getting stuff done around our house in preparation for my birthday. I’m having some people stay with us for the weekend who have yet to see our house in Jackson . We’ve just been busy little bees… It’s a fun excuse!

And then these past few days it seems like I’ve filled up almost every single weekend with plans from now through Thanksgiving. And of course December is always busy with holiday parties and birthdays, so that, too, will soon be full. Before I know it, I’ll wake up one day and it will already be 2009. Geez…

Of course as if the next few months aren’t enough, I got an e-mail yesterday announcing the date of our 10-year high school reunion in May. Please don’t tell me it’s already been 10 years since high school. I’m fully aware that I’m turning 28 in just a few weeks, which is enough to absorb on its own. The fact that it’s been a decade since I graduated high school is a little depressing to say the least. Where in the world has all this time gone?

Well, since there’s no such thing as a real-life time-traveling machine or a way to slow down the clock, I guess I’ll just sit back and enjoy the ride. Let’s just hope I don’t fall off! :)

September 11th, 2001

Seven years ago today I had decided to skip my Political Science 201 class and sleep in for the morning. I was a junior in college, and I needed my beauty sleep, or at least as much beauty sleep as you could get in a loud sorority dorm. It was a few minutes before 8 a.m. when my neighbor, Kelly Logan, knocked first then walked right in.

“A plane just hit the World Trade Center,” she said. Well, at the time, a terrorist attack was the furthest thing from everyone’s mind. I just thought it was an accident – a horrible accident, of course, but still an accident. I groggily crawled out of bed and walked next door to her room to see what The Today Show was saying about the crash. About 10 minutes later, we watched in horror as a second plane hit the towers. We knew then it was more than an accident.

I decided I would throw some clothes on and head to class to see what everyone was saying about this. We were in class for about five minutes discussing what had just happened when we got word that classes had been cancelled for the day. This was serious. No one really knew what was happening next. Was the world ending? Was there going to be a nuclear bomb? It was terrifying.

I remember not being able to pull myself away from the TV as the continuous coverage of the rescue attempts at Ground Zero played on. I would just sit on my bed and cry. It wasn’t like I had anyone close to me directly affected by it, but I think it was just the overall empathy I felt as an American. Things would never be the same again.

Several years later I was working at the newspaper and I interviewed someone who was living in NYC during 9/11. She said for a few days following the attack, the traditionally cold nature of native New Yorkers disappeared. She said strangers passed each other on the sidewalks and actually made eye contact. Everyone had experienced the same emotions. Everyone felt vulnerable.

I took the photo of Ground Zero above when Derek and I spent a week in New York in 2005. Almost four years after the attacks, it was still so somber. St. Paul’s Chapel across from the twin towers had been turned into a memorial for 9/11. You could see where the firefighters had scratched all the pews with their equipment as they sought refuge there for a few hours of rest during the rescue efforts. There were photos, cards and letters on display in memory of those who lost their lives that day. It was impossible not to feel a surge of raw emotions as you just took it all in.

As I mentioned in my Hurricane Katrina blog a few weeks ago, there are very few vivid memories we all have of where we were when history was made. This was a biggie. Whether you were 20 years old or 80, you’ll never forget it. I’ll end with a quote that I read this morning from NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

"Today marks the seventh anniversary of the day our world was broken. It lives forever in our hearts and our history, a tragedy that unites us in a common memory and a common story ... the day that began like any other and ended as none ever has."

Ain’t that the truth.

We may not be the champions, but...

I think we ended the season in fourth place! Not too bad for our little softball team. I don’t think we had all of the same people on the team from one game to the next, but we still did pretty well in the end. Above I’ve posted our “team photo” from last night - just ignore my cheerleader pose.

Last night was the championship play-offs. We played in the first game at 6:30 and lost like 7-2 or something close to that. It wasn’t a horrible game, though, and given that it’s been a month since our last game because of the rain, we came out of the woodwork just fine, I think.

Katherine and I both were lucky enough to make it through the whole season without gloves of our own, and actually during only one game did we have to borrow the other team's gloves while they were at bat. But I have a feeling I may get a glove for Christmas if Derek has anything to do with it. I think he was embarrassed for me.

Again, we were so happy to have the opportunity to play with Katherine’s law firm. We had so much fun, and hopefully we’ll be able to do it again next year. My husband the perpetual coach will be sure to make me practice before then, I’m sure. :)

A little bit of normalcy

Pardon my absence, but this past week has been absolutely crazy at work with Hurricane Gustav. We were working 12-hour days almost all week, and it has totally worn me out. I was lucky enough to take off yesterday and enjoy a long weekend, which has been so nice. I feel like I'm morphing back into a normal person. The bad news is that it seems to be somewhat short-lived with Ike heading our way towards the end of next week. Ugh...

I hate hurricanes. I don't know anybody who enjoys them, but with my job now, a pending storm means emergency operations at work so that we can make sure people know where to go for shelter, what to do if they lose power (food and water-wise) and what health issues to take into consideration when it's time to clean up after the storm. It's really the same messages over and over again, but emergency operation days mean LONG hours, which no one looks forward to.

Fingers crossed Ike will wear itself out before it gets into the Gulf, at least that's what I'm hoping. We'll just have to wait and see, but I sincerely hope the storms that are on the radar right now are the only ones we'll have to deal with this season. It makes for a long September, that's for sure.

Because of Gustav, our Destin family vacay was cancelled. It wasn't looking too good for the weather down there, and I wasn't even able to get off work until yesterday. I'm a little sad about it considering I could be sitting on the beach right now with a cold beer soaking up some sun, but I guess there's always next year.

We're enjoying our long weekend at home for now, just doing some things around the house and getting some rest. Although it would be a lot more enjoyable if the sun would come out! It's been so long that I've forgotten what the sun even looks like.

So here's hoping we all have a not-too-worrisome next few days on hurricane watch and that Big Bad Ike doesn't beat us up too bad down here. I'm just focusing on the power of positive thinking! :)