Graceland and Memphis

A couple weeks ago we were able to drive to Memphis, TN for a friend's wedding. The sealing ceremony was great and a wonderful reminder of covenants that we have made. It was also a great opportunity to spend time with Richard on the weekend, work free! That rarely happens. Okay well the weekend wasn't work free for me, let's be honest, but work free for a time anyway!

And since we were in Memphis we might as well do something, right? So, we fulfilled a dream...not one of our dreams, but I'm sure somebody has this dream. GRACELAND!!! Yes, I'm embarrassed to say it, but we actually went to Graceland. I have one word to say about it, no two words to say about it...super creepy! Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the historical aspects of it, but I did not enjoy all of the shag carpeting and crush velvet! The sixties and seventies really creep me out. We couldn't use flash inside, so some of the pictures are not great! Anyway, check out the slide show of our pictures!

Fall!!

I love fall! I actually have a day off today (thank you furlough, I don't care if i don't get paid, I need a break!). So apparently it has been close to six months since I have posted anything. Probably because nothing really happens to us, but also because I am a workaholic and never take time to do anything! So here is an update of us for the last six months...

Richard: Is actually busy and getting a little stressed, which if you know Richard at all is unlike him! Of course I am the only one that actually knows that he is stressed, and by stressed I would like to clarify: he thinks about what he needs to do and vocalizes it for about 5 minutes a day. Not exactly the stress case that his wife is. He is trying hard to get his research underway, but little things just keep breaking, so he's trying to get that going. If everything works out, he will be done by May, June, July(who knows?), but the summer lets say.

As for me, I got a job back in August teaching GA PreK again, but at a different school. Teaching has it's perks (the days off), but not sure if those really make up for the 24/7 doing and thinking of everything I have to be doing, and thinking of what I should be doing and am not doing! Just feeling like I am never doing enough drives me crazy! Things are going very quickly and I can't believe that it is November already. Thanksgiving will be just around the corner and I am getting excited for that and to spend time with Richard's family. And then we get to spend some time with my parents and brothers in St. George for Christmas!

So that is what is up with us. Like I said, not a lot going on!

Deep Sea Fishing

My first ever experience with deep sea fishing came this weekend. Everyone else were veterans, but I was the newbie. I was a little nervous about it all, knowing how intense Richard's family can be (not really) :). But I was still a little nervous about being in the middle of the ocean and the possibility of throwing up (never pleasant). Not to mention the last time I really went fishing was when I was like 11. We drove down to Myrtle Beach with Richard's mom and grandma and grandpa on Thursday.

We got up early Friday morning to make it to the boat by 6:30. Grandma and Grandpa stayed and played golf at a course there. We went with Richard's cousins and uncles, for a total of 16 people on our boat, all in our family. It was fun to hang out with everyone, all of the guys talking about the embarrassment that others would feel when they pulled out the biggest fish or the most fish, etc. Nothing wrong with a little (or a lot in this case) smack talk. I was one of 5 women on board and let's just say that the smack talk wasn't coming from us; well Lindel did some smack talking for all of us. We drove out about 3 hours on the boat before we stopped to fish. By that time, 2 people were feeling seasick and they stayed that way up until right before we were getting ready for our 3 hour ride back. I felt so bad for them because of how miserable they looked and I know they felt! I was so grateful for my iron clad immune system and stomach. With half my nervousness gone, I was ready to start fishing!

The smack talk continued from all of the boys, yet they were not catching hardly anything. They had a few good fish here and there, but nothing astounding. After about 20 or 30 minutes, I had only caught maybe 2 fish. Then all of a sudden, I had one on the line and it was pulling! I was reeling as fast as I could and trying to hang on to the pole and let me tell you I was getting worn out quick! I had Richard and Lindel on both sides, telling me to hang on. I had a 7lb. Grouper and the mate had to get his hook to pull it out of the water! I caught the biggest fish first, the newbie! It might not look that big, but it felt huge! Needless to say the guys quieted down for at least a few minutes after that. The girls continued to pull out fish and sharks, while the guys were struggling.

By the middle of the day, things were about even between the guys and girls. Everyone was pulling out some good fish, some little fish, etc. But no one had matched my big fish. Then Brianna was reeling up to rebait and she ended up catching a Mahi-Mahi! It was a really pretty and colorful fish. And it was very long and weighed probably 4 or 5 lbs. Now the guys were getting a little down! All of the guys wanted to catch a Mahi so bad! Uncle Mark was the only one to get another Mahi, towards the end.

I was still in the lead for biggest fish, but on our last hole I got beat! Jared had a huge fish on the line! He pulled out another Grouper, but this thing weighed probably 12-15lbs! It was ginormous! So Jared went away with the biggest fish and I had to settle for second! But I was okay with that.

By the end of fishing, everyone was worn out, especially me and Lindel. Because we had been reeling in so long all day, by the late afternoon, even the baby fish seemed huge when we were reeling them in. My arm was dead! Anyway, we made it back with a ton of fish and we payed the ship mate to clean and fillet them all. It would have taken us forever, but he did all of the fish in less than 2 hours! Once we had nothing but meat, we probably had 50lbs. of fish!

It was a very fun trip and my muscles and bruises are finally starting to recover! I would have taken more pictures but my hands were a little covered in Squid and fish guts, so these were the only pictures I got at the end, after my hands were somewhat cleaner!

Memorial Day and Such

So I thought I would post a few pictures that my mother-in-law Lindel took of last weekend in South Carolina. It was my last day of school last Friday (22nd) and Richard picked me up and we headed to South Carolina. We got there late Friday night just after Sarah and Ryan and the kids got there. On Saturday I refined my domestic skills by making several quarts of strawberry freezer jam with Sarah...so good! Richard disappeared as usual with a chainsaw and tractor.

That night was Grandma Hawkins 80th surprise birthday party, but unfortunately one of her friends called her about 2 hours before the party and told her that she wasn't going to be able to make it to her suprise birthday. Fortunately, she was still somewhat suprised at the people that Lindel and her sister Deborah were able to find and invite to her party. It was a fun night for her with lots of people and lots of food! I was able to help out using my amazing catering skills...I restocked food! Richard will make fun of me for posting that because according to him, "You love doing that stuff!" and he's right, I do!

Sunday was nice and relaxing. Monday we went to go see Night at the Museum 2 and just hung out with the fam. And we played with Daisy, Sarah and Ryan's cute puppy. It was a great weekend out of Atlanta.

Happy Anniversary!

So has it really been three years? Insane in the membrane. Three years full of 4 schools, 4 states, and lots of tuition. Oh and lots of fun too! Even though we are starving students, I decided to give my husband what he really wanted for an anniversary present...a night at Atlanta Braves baseball. I splurged and spent a total of $30 for both of our tickets, which were four rows away from the left fielder! So cool. And who were they playing...none other than our old team, the Houston Astros. We were just about to our seats when the Braves hit a home run! Perfect timing as usual.


It was a night of Richard heckling the left-fielder, Carlos Lee aka El Caballo (the big horse), in Spanish. After Lee was caught trying to steal second, Richard yelled, and I quote (in English): Hey, little horsie, maybe you could have made it if you weren't so fat!" That's my husband. At least the Mexican Astros fans sitting next to me laughed!

It was a perfect night of weather, right up until the 7th inning where it started to rain. It started as a light sprinkle and I wanted to wait it out. Then I realized that it was pouring as we ran the mile to our car. But even that was great, just to get to laugh and run in the rain! Good thing we didn't wait out the 2 hour rain delay, since we left at 10 when it started raining. At least the Braves won! The festivities continued onto our actual anniversary, today. We had lunch at Papasitos, one of our favorite Mexican restaurants ever! I thought that it only existed in Houston, but low and behold there is one in Georgia, right up the freeway. Sweet!

Shwanky Valentine's

This was the best Valentine's Day ever! My husband actually did something spontaneous. It's like a miracle. He called and made reservations at a shwanky restaurant, One Midtown Kitchen. It cost way more than I care to think about, but it was pretty cool. We spent the day just hanging out together, something we hardly do. He got flowers for me and managed to hid them in a box in our apartment for two days. Pretty ninja like!
After dinner, we came home and got ready to hit up the movies. And just to prove that my husband is amazing (and no, not a pansy) he took me to see He's Just Not That Into You. I have to say that I had mixed feelings on the movie. I went through several emotions, a lot of which was anger (I know I sound super gay right now) and actually cried. There was a point in the movie where I started crying not so much because of the movie, but because it reminded me of Richard and what he actually does for me all of the time. I know that I pick at him for having no emotions and being a nerd and this and that. But while he may not be super romantic or understand my crying, he listens to me, he cooks, cleans, does the dishes, leaves me alone when I don't want to rehash my crappy day...he takes care of me and loves me no matter what. He really is my best friend and I love him so much. I kept bugging him about being spontaneous and junk like that, you know not important stuff. And he pulls out this Valentine's Day like a pro! Now he's nervous that he has set the bar too high, but honestly I will love him even if we order pizza and lock ourselves in our room to watch a movie when we have kids. Okay, wow I didn't realize that this was going to be this cheesy and lovey. Sorry about that. But I guess I don't really get publicly gushy all that often so maybe it's good every once in while. (And no, he is not planning on hurting me in this photo!)

A Redneck Christmas...the story

We spent our Christmas break with Richard's family in South Carolina. I call it a Redneck Christmas because of a special Christmas present to Dad Marsh from his kids: A new Husquavarna chainsaw. We have had it at our house since the middle of December and I thought Richard would bite his leg off if he had to wait another minute to try it out. Much of our break consisted of food, food, more food, chainsaws and wood, along with more chainsaws and wood, fires with hotdogs and marshmallows and playing games. It was a fun time and great to be out of Atlanta for a little bit.

The party started Monday the 22nd, with dropping Sarah and Ryan and their kids off at the airport, ready to go to Arizona to spend Christmas with Ryan's family. About 20 minutes later, after Jim threw up in front of the ticket agent, we picked them back up from the airport and took them home so they could get ready to come to South Carolina with us. We went on ahead of them and within 2 minutes the chainsaw was out and presented to Dad, although I honestly don't know if he ever got to run it because Richard and Robert never let it go. With Richard, Robert and Dad busy looking for things to chainsaw, Mom, Kerry, baby Vanessa, and I prepared to make some homemade candy including fudge, English toffee, caramels, and southern pralines.

Sarah and Ryan and their kids made it later that afternoon and we had the whole family together for Christmas for the first time since Richard and I got engaged. Out of the 12 people and by late Christmas Eve, 14 people once Chris and Hollie made it, 7 of us were sinusy, throwing up, or worse! But glad to say my iron clad immune system and Kerry's "Hobo" immune system, stayed true as we never got sick. I'm sure it's coming eventually. So with legal American drugs and a few possibly illegal Mexican drugs, we managed to get everyone well enough eventually.

We had our first fire outside on chilly Tuesday night. Wednesday, Christmas Eve, things warmed up to "normal" Carolina weather, a cool 75 degrees for our fireside Nativity, acted out by Jim, Savannah and a doll. We added baby Caroline and baby Vanessa to the manger (a doll stroller or buggy if you're in the south) but merely for the photo op as we decided they would not like staying in it while we read the Christmas story. Christmas morning we got up around 7:15 to see Savannah and Jim get their Santa gifts and to open presents as a famiy. Dad started a new tradition to make breakfast for everyone: He asked what kind of ceral we all wanted and then proceeded to not pour it for us. Not quite the Egg McAndrews that I'm used to with my family, but oh well. The afternoon was spent at the "Family Compound" as my family calls it, up in Properity, SC. That is where all of Richard's Mom's immediate family lives. We cooked our own steaks and had a potluck of baked potatoes, salads, and desserts. We followed with a tractor ride with Pop around the property.

The next day we had our family photos, headed up by Kerry, the apprentice haggler. We managed to get good family photos and some super cute photos of the grandkids all for the amazing price of $200, or wait no that's how much it was supposed to cost. She managed to get it down to $40.00! Simply stunning! Saturday was junking day for the girls and Unreal tournament day for boys. We went to several thrift stores and got some great stuff at a great price. I added to my school debt, once again, getting more and more things for my class. After junking, we set up the quilting squares so that we could tie Robert and Kerry's Christmas quilt. Unfortunately, the weather forcasters that said the fog would burn off by noon were only off by like 48 hours. So we quilted, in the fog for about 4 hours. We finished just before it got dark and as the missionary couple and their family showed up for our fire cookout ( if you are keeping track this is fire number 3 since coming). More hotdogs and several JetPuff marshmallows for Sarah, we had a foggy, but fun fire that night. Church on Sunday, were the people visiting outnumbered the actual members of the branch (twig as Lindel calls it).

Monday marked my day to start getting all of my projects done that I had planned to do for school. Kerry helped me, as the boys went to stain the dock at the lake property, because they had cut down all of the trees that Mom would allow them to cut down or they didn't want to split the cut wood by hand. We managed to get 8 animal hats done and some personal work space mats cut out. Kerry and Vanessa made it on a plane to New York to spend some time with her cousins, but Robert didn't make it, so he came back to be cheap labor.

The next big event was the New Year's Eve party. We spent all day cleaning the house from the tornado that hit it over the last week and 1/2 . After several hours of cleaning, cooking, and planning, we had the party ready, with quite a spread and yes...another fire with hotdogs and marshmallows (I love that!). We had about 40 people show up, not the usual 100 that the in-laws are used to, but hey more food and fireworks for us. Yes, thats right, fireworks. And not these junky ground ones like everywhere else. We are talking, in the air exploding lights, mortor, loud boom fireworks. Along with a few dry ice bombs and some snap dragons and sparklers for the kids, we had a great show. Although it was really cold, we had a nice warm fire to warm up at with some coco, or you could go inside to play games until we waited for midnight.

New years day marked another junking day, with a trip to the Goodwill clearance center. This is the best thrift store ever! It is all of the stuff that has been at Goodwill for too long, so they bring it here dump it in these huge bins and then sell everything for $1 a pound. Heaven! I was able to find more stuff for school along with a few items of clothing for Richard and myself. Mom and Sarah got several things as well and then a trip to Wendy's for lunch with the girls. Then it was back to getting school work done. I got almost everything I planned, plus some stuff that I just came up with, done with the help of my mother-in-law, the master seamstress. The sad thing is, I did all of this work and spent all of this money for school and I fear it will get destroyed or something like that!

Today, everyone did their own thing. Hollie and Sarah went back to the Goodwill clearance, Mom, Dad, Savannah, Jim, and Chris saw The Tale of Desperaux, Ryan stayed home with the baby, and Richard and I ran errands. Then I went to get my haircut, always a terrifying experience for me, but it turned out good. Then a tense game of Mexican Train dominos, the favorite game of the break, interrupted by a family trip to Cici's Pizza, only to be continued with Mom as the winner. It is quite possibly the longest game, other than Monopoly, but it is so much fun! And now we are watching the Utah vs. Alabama game and wondering if Utah is going to pull it off.

All in all we have had such a fun time being here, hanging out with family, and taking a break! And now you know why I don't blog very much. I explain way to much. Hope that everyone had a great Christmas and New Years.