Let the Celebration Begin!

Some people like to celebrate a birthDAY. I'm not one of those people. I like to celebrate for at least a week! So to start this week off right, we went to The High with Mark's family. If you haven't been to see the Terracotta Army yet, I would definitely recommend it. It is seriously fascinating learning about China's First Emperor and seeing statues from 200 BC! After the exhibit, we had a great lunch at Tap followed by some chocolate pie (Thanks Karla!). So far, 29 isn't looking that bad...

100 Things I've Done (Almost!)

Found this fun tag while blog-stalking today...thought it was pretty fun.
If you want to join in, just copy and paste the list below - put the ones YOU have done/experienced in bold.
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band/orchestra
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Learned to play an instrument
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating – SICK!
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Seen Mount Rushmore in person

Tour of Turner Field

This is definitely belated, but a few weeks ago (ok...maybe more like a month ago) we had another super touristy day - just like I like! :) Mark's mission friend Adam was in town, so the 3 of us went on the tour of Turner Field (which I would recommend, for sure!), lunched at The Varsity, and then went on the tour of the CNN Center (you kinda need to do this once if you live here, but it's really not that cool - and they don't let you take ANY pictures!). The weather was amazing, and we really had a fun time.HaHa...tomahawk chop! Mark and Adam in the dugout

Gettin a J-O-B

Although he's still nearly a year from graduation (August 2009 can't get here fast enough!), Mark's obviously an amazing employee that Motorola just can't get enough of. After he completed his last co-op semester and told his boss he would be continuing with school full time til he graduates, they made him an offer. Last week he went ahead and signed his letter of intent, so it looks like we'll be sticking around Atlanta for a few more years.
So now there's only one thing left to do (and if the first answer you thought of was "Have a baby" you clearly don't know me at all). The correct answer is: start planning our trip to celebrate!
Any ideas of fun places to go?

Halloween 2008

So I know I've been slacking on blogging...sorry Michelle! Halloween was a pretty mellow holiday for us this year. Although I did get into the spirit by baking pumpkin cookies, we didn't have any big plans or reason to dress up - I wish we could've flown out for the party, Nat! We did start the Halloween week out right by carving pumpkins with Chad, Stacey and their kids. I've gotta say, I loved mine! (Yes, I did just finish reading the Twilight books!)
Me, Khira and Ashton with my finished pumpkinMark and Ashton's ghostThe finished product - Chad's two faced jack-o-lantern, and my vampire

On Halloween night, we went with Chad and Stacey and some other friends to take their kids trick-or-treating to what I like to call the "Halloween Wonderland" - an entire neighborhood that decorates like nothing you've ever seen. We had a great time freezing our butts off together.My last minute costumeThe scariest house...I'm pretty sure that's a real skeleton hanging there

That night, I ended up getting really sick, and spent the rest of the weekend in bed. So I gotta say, not the Halloween I'd hoped for. But it still had some fun times.
Side note: I'd like to point out that Mark is not in any pictures. That's because, although I did just complete 2 photography classes, he still takes way better pictures than I do. Bummer.

Weekend Fun

Did I mention I like to plan activities? Good thing Mark's nice to me and goes along for the ride. Here's a summary of our fun day last Saturday.
-Wake up early to get ready and leave promptly at 10:00. Drive about 45 minutes to Braselton, GA. Drink some free chocolate milk and put on our hairnets for a tour of the factory at the Mayfield Dairy. Eat some delicious ice cream for a great deal - $1.50 for 1 scoop (their 1 scoop is really about 2-3 scoops).-Continue on our journey by driving another 30 minutes or so to Cleveland, GA. Visit the birthplace of the Cabbage Patch Kids, Babyland General Hospital. Stay about 5 minutes, laughing at the crazies who treat the CPKs like actual babies. Really, this place was a trip: the employees wear scrubs, and "deliver" the babies; you have to sign "adoption papers" to buy one, etc. -Drive a few more minutes to Helen, GA and have lunch at our favorite lunch spot The Nacoochee Grill. Yummy!-Scratch my original plan to go floating down the river (we'd originally planned to do this fun Day Trip a few months ago). Instead decided to check out the Black Forest Bear Park. Feed apples and bread to about 20 bears, while marveling in the fact that this place was legal. It was seriously bear prison - small enclosures entirely of cement. Heartbreaking!-Decide to avoid the crazy traffic Oktoberfest brings to Helen, and head home just in time for Mark to head to the Priesthood session and me to head to Lauren's to finally watch the Sex and the City movie!
All in all, I'd say it was a pretty fun and successful day.

Niceville High School class of '98...oh yeah...

We had a couple of fun visits with my family this summer...the first time we went down to surprise my mom for her birthday; a week later, my mom and dad stopped by (on their way to and from North Carolina); then a few weeks later, Amy, Jason and the girls came up for a week for Amy's birthday; a few weeks after that, Mark and I headed down again for my 10 year high school reunion. Clearly this was before Atlanta ran out of gas :) We had a fun time seeing the fam, and reuniting with my old friends. Some of the highlights...
Swimming in the Kelly's pool...Emma and MarkMaddalyn was making the funniest faces/sounds
Dinner at Jason's restaurantA bunch of us met up for lunch at Giuseppe's before going on the school tour
L-R: Amanda (yes, Amanda from The Bachelor...a real live celeb from little ol' Niceville!), Jenny, Ashley, Me, Sabrina, LinnChristina, Alyssa, Amanda, Me - reminiscing about the good times...Mark was shocked that we remembered where our lockers were. I had to tell him "the main hall was where all the popular kids' lockers were". Yeah, we were cool :)
The "prom picture" before we left for the official reunionTyler wanted proof that he had hot friends...his words :)
Jenny, Ash, Amanda, Courtney, me, ChristinaTyler, Mikey, Craig D (aka my prom date!), EricWe are pretty cute together, right?
Christina's husband, Brian, was quite the entertainment, as he karaoke-ed to Bon Jovi, and then followed it up with KC & JoJo.

Take me out to the ballgame...

I was really excited to score my boss's fantastic seats to the Braves game last night. We always have a great time (even if they don't pull through for us in the end) and it's definitely more fun for free! We brought our friends (and new neighbors) Griffin and Caitlin and, although it did get surprisingly chilly, we had a really fun time. The highlight of the night was Caitlin's dream come true of making it to the jumbo-tron...

5 Things...

Thanks for the tag, Melissa!

5 things I was doing 10 years ago:
1. Graduating high school
2. Working as a Cocktail Waitress at the Beachwalk Café
3. Moving to Provo to start BYU4. Living in the dorms with 5 great girls
5. Hanging out all the time with Katie, Becca and all the Alpine boys

5 Things on my To Do list:
1. Get caught up at work from leaving early on Thursday and taking the day off on Friday2. Finish cleaning/organizing our apartment from the big move last weekend
3. Go to Macy’s at Lenox– hopefully find a dress for my high school reunion
4. Go grocery shopping
5. Call Michelle, Shari and Chelsea

5 Favorite Foods (of the moment):
1. Sushi, especially a Super Crunchy Roll2. The delish “chocolate mousse with chunks of cheesecake” cake from Café Intermezzo
3. Crème brulee
4. Masaman curry
5. Papa John’s Pizza (with the garlic dipping sauce)

5 things I would do if I were a billionaire:
1. Quit my job (duh)
2. Buy a small home near a major US airport (to make all the travel easier)
3. Travel the world4. Help my family/pay off debts
5. Hire a personal trainer, personal chef and a housekeeper!

5 bad habits:
1. Being lazy and NEVER working out – I’ve got to change this one soon!2. Eating too much junk
3. Watching R rated movies behind Mark’s back :)
4. Not flossing regularly
5. Being too blunt...is that really bad?

5 places I’ve lived:
1. Yorba Linda, California (birthplace of Richard Nixon)
2. Niceville, Florida (home of the Boggy Bayou Mullet Festival)
3. New Canaan, Connecticut (home to Harry Connick Jr., and – according to Wikipedia – one of the most affluent communities in the US…“CNN Money ranked New Canaan first in the nation with the highest median family income”)
4. Hot-lanta (birthplace of not only Julia Roberts, but also Ryan Seacrest!)
5. Paris, France (like I need to say more)

5 people I tag:
1. Katie
2. Christi
3. Jennika (it’s about time you update your blog!)
4. Michelle
5. Anyone else who wants to!

Defying Gravity

When I lived in Connecticut, being right next to Broadway was one of the biggest perks for me. I got to see some amazing shows (Aida - twice!, Chicago, Mama Mia, 42nd Street, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Urine Town, Rent, Nine, etc.) and also had the opportunity to get tickets to the opening night of a new show...something you may have heard of called Wicked. Unfortunately for me (and the poor sap who paid for the tickets) production got pushed back a week and the tickets were refunded. Sad story, right?Then, a couple of years ago, Wicked made it's way through Atlanta. At the time, I decided that I didn't need to buy tickets for every show I wanted to see (it does get fairly pricey) but as I've grown older I've also grown wiser. I've rethought that position and am now living in the moment. So when I heard the show was coming to The Fox again, I jumped on it. Good thing our 2nd anniversary is next week so Mark can count the tickets as my present :)
This past Saturday morning I woke at the crack on dawn (Side Note: On a Saturday, the "crack of dawn" is anytime before 10 AM) and headed down to the theatre to wait in line for the 8:00 AM box office opening. Ticketmaster wasn't getting my $15/per person service charge! I got to The Fox promptly at 8 and was less-than-thrilled at the line that wrapped it's way down the street, around the corner, and down the side-street. But the next 2 1/2 hours ended successfully, with me scoring great seats, a goody bag of Wicked paraphernalia (tee shirt, magnets, stuffed monkey, buttons) due to winning a raffle (thanks B98.5!) and also free passes to The Rocker (thanks again to the radio station).
So as I'm anticipating the show, and trying to learn the songs, I'm hoping to take inspiration from Defying Gravity...especially as Mark and I move into our new apartment this weekend. Did I mention it's on the 4th floor? Wish us luck!

Bed, Bath & Beyond

Yes, it's that time again...moving time! I realize that many people like to settle down, buy a house, accumulate possessions, etc, etc. I am not one of those people. The thought of buying/owning a house is not something that crosses my mind very often...and if it does, it is not a happy thought. If I owned a home, that would mean I was tied down to one area for an extended length of time; I don't relish the day when that is true. For now, change is welcome and wonderful. So on August 9th, we'll be moving to a new apartment and we're really excited about it. No more upstairs neighbors, no more dirty carpet, and no more Brockett ward. Hopefully, the new place'll live up to the hype...racquetball court, brand new appliances/carpet/paint, even granite countertops! (I'll let you know once we're there!)
Since we're leaving good ol Amli at North Briarcliff, I thought I'd share some pictures to say farewell. RIP Amli.
Our first big purchase after we got married...our (little used) dining room table.
Sweet wall art, courtesy of Ikea (our office is through the door...it was too messy to make the blog).
The second big purchase was our bedroom set; we love it!
Just like on Cribs...where all the magic happens ;)
Yes, our TV is bigger than yours. Just accept it.Probably the cleanest our bathroom has ever been - sorry, Mark!