Screen on the Green

One of the coolest things in the ATL during the summer is the Screen on the Green. My roommie, Amber, and I tried to go last year, but that didn't work, so when it came around again this year, we made a plan to try it again.

Our rain-out experience from last year had us check and double check the weather reports. Wouldn't you know it...isolated chance of showers! It was sunny and beautiful where WE were, but downtown is a good 45 minutes away.

What the heck! Ya only live once, so we packed up our blankets, beach chairs, and sandwiches and headed downtown.

And, boy, were we glad we did! It was SO much fun!!


This was our view.


Me and Amber


Amber's friend, ZVB, joined us

We got there a couple hours before the show to ensure good seats. This proved to be as much entertainment as the show! If people watching was an Olympic sport, I would have a gold medal, for sure! I only got a couple of shots...

The "Crotch-Grabbing, Chest-Barin', Homeless Dancin' Fool".


The "Uh..." well, I have NO words for what he is! He walked around the whole night flapping his wings! WEIRD!

Aside from those 2 lovely characters, I wasn't able to get a shot of the sexually explicit couple practically fornicating right in front of us! No one wants to see that!

Or the lesbian couple who couldn't keep their hands off of each other. Trust me, NO ONE wants to see that mess!

Finally, it was time for the movie: Footloose! An 80's classic!

Of course the movie was good, but the best part was the last 3 minutes of the movie when Ren comes back in to the dance and declares: "LET'S DANCE!!!!!!!!"

The most amazing thing happened. The WHOLE park (1000+ people) got up, as if on cue, and began dancing!




For that one brief moment, all was right with the world! Faith in humanity was restored!

It was such a fun night!

A Day at the Lake

I got to spend the weekend with some very good friends, the Thorntons! Practically my extended family, I have known them for 27 years. We have taken family vacations with them for over 20 years. Recently, it's been harder and harder to get together for vacations because of everyone growing up, getting married, having kids and just life in general.

This weekend, however, we were able to sneak away for a weekend to Lance & Staci's lake house on Lake Hartwell. We had so much fun! They have a 2 year old, Stephen, who was a perfect playmate for my 2 year old nephew, Evan.

They were inseperable. What one did, the other copied! We laughed at them the whole weekend!



Then it was time to hit the water! The boys loved jumping off the dock and swimming in the cove.




Yeah, it kinda looks like they're swimming in a ses pool, but it had just rained so the water was a little stirred up!

Then it was time to take the boat out! We drove around and anchored the boat and all jumped out and just swam in the lake.






We had a good dinner that night then all the adults sat around talking about the days of yore! We talked about everything from Obama's "refusal" to pledge the flag to the family at church who used to have to bolt their furniture to the wall because of their hyper kids. It was so good to laugh. But the highlight of the night came at about 11:45 pm when we (or I guess I should say I )decided to prank call an old youth pastor.

The next morning was Sunday and it's always been a tradition on our vacations to "go" to church on Sundays. "Going" to church consists of finding what church is on TV at that time. This time it was none other than Mt. Paran North COG. We watched it live via video streaming.


While the adults were watching church, the little ones were in the nursery :)

Looks like Mandi had nursery duty today!

After church we took the boat back out for some tubing. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of that because I was doing the tubing! We ended the day just lounging around on the dock.



Then it was time to head home. Evan was entertained by Curious George.


We had a great time and can't wait to do it again soon!!

Happy Birthday Brooke!

Last night we celebrated my niece Brooke's 6th birthday. She is a pistol!!


She is really into American Girl right now, so all of her gifts were either accessories, clothes, or gift certificates and money to the AG store.



Because every doll needs a trundle bed for when her dolly friends spend the night!

Cake time!




What do we have here? A little American "Boy"?!?!


Happy Birthday Brooke! I love you :)

Part 2 of...Battle of the Bricks

Remember my neighbor problem I was having a few weeks ago?

Well, my poor roomie awoke at 7:00 this morning to the sounds of drilling and excessive yelling of expletives. This is what we saw:


Yay! Slowly but surely. Now we'll just see how long it takes to replace the plants!

A Medieval Father's Day

I had the bright idea to do something different for Father's Day this year. Partly because I really couldn't think of a single thing to get my dad, but mainly because I thought it would be something fun to do as a family. We went to Medieval Times. It was quite the experience.






We cheered for the red knight...who, unfortunately, got "killed" pretty early on. There's no utensils so we had to eat with our hands! Messy!

But we had a good time!!


It's definitely something that everyone should experience at least once!

Camp Rocks rocked!

I'm home from one of the most physically challenging, exhausting, tiring, sweaty, mind-numbing weeks of my life. So why do I do it every year?? Because it's CAMP ROCKS! I've been involved with Camp Rocks since the beginning, 2002. However, I've been going to camp since I was in 1st grade. I help direct the week of camp with Cindy who does ALL the prep work leading up to camp. Kristen also works at Camp Rocks and she has a really good post about the week. I had a really good post last year about camp and had every intention of doing that again this year. But for some reason, I found myself more busy than usual. NO time to snap a picture?? What has this world come to?

Here's some of the only pictures I ended up with. It's some of the staff unloading all of our camp supplies back in the storage room after the whole week was over.



These next two pics are so hilarious to me b/c if you knew Jason you would know that the tag on the front of this truck ("Redneck") does NOT match Jason at all!!



Don't worry...next year will be a much better post! What are your camping memories?

A little slice of heaven on earth!

I have just experienced the most delectable blend of flavors known to mankind! If you do one thing in your life, make these brownies!


1 box (1 lb 6.5 oz) Betty Crocker® Original Supreme brownie mix
Water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on brownie mix box
1 container (1 lb) Betty Crocker® Rich & Creamy vanilla frosting
3/4 cup salted peanuts, coarsely chopped
3 cups crisp rice cereal
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 bag (12 oz) semisweet chocolate chips (2 cups)

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottom only of 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray or shortening. (For easier cutting, line pan with foil, then grease foil on bottom only of pan.)
2. Make and bake brownies as directed on box for 13x9-inch pan, using water, oil and eggs. Cool completely, about 1 hour.
3. Frost brownies with frosting. Sprinkle with peanuts; refrigerate while making cereal mixture.
4. Measure cereal into large bowl; set aside. In 1-quart saucepan, melt peanut butter and chocolate chips over low heat, stirring constantly. Pour over cereal in bowl, stirring until evenly coated. Spread over frosted brownies. Cool completely before cutting, about 1 hour. For bars, cut into 6 rows by 4 rows. Store tightly covered at room temperature.
High Altitude (3500-6500 ft): Follow High Altitude directions for 13x9-inch pan on brownie mix box.

Nutrition Information

1 Serving: Calories 400 (Calories from Fat 180); Total Fat 20g (Saturated Fat 6g, Trans Fat 1g); Cholesterol 20mg; Sodium 230mg; Total Carbohydrate 49g (Dietary Fiber 2g, Sugars 36g); Protein 6g Percent Daily Value*: Vitamin A 0%; Vitamin C 0%; Calcium 0%; Iron 10% Exchanges: 1/2 Starch; 3 Other Carbohydrate; 0 Vegetable; 1/2 High-Fat Meat; 3 Fat Carbohydrate Choices: 3
*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

I've included the nutritional information (although you probably don't want to see it!)

It truly is like nothing I've ever tasted. Let me know what you think when you make 'em :)

New 'do

Time for a little change...with the hairstyle, that is.

Before:




After:


OK, so not a drastic difference. Thankfully, my hairdresser is one of my dear friends, so she knows how to read my mind! Thanks Jodi!!