Just sitting here on the couch on a lovely Saturday morning waiting for my Grandpa T to arrive.  He lives in St. Paul, MN and he is just traveling around for about a month or so.  He has been cruising around Texas for a while now and will be headed here for an over night stay today.  He is bringing his girlfriend, now I haven’t made up my mind about this one yet.  Sometimes I like her and sometimes I really miss my Grandma T.

Most of you have heard the stories about Grandma T being a ghost in the Clubview House.  I think if there is anytime that she will make an appearance here in Texas it will be when Grandpa and his “friend” visit for the night.  Just in case I will make sure I clean the floors, catch up on the laundry and clean the coffee pot, if Grandma T arrives I would want her to be comfortable!

I am off  to start my chores, but I will leave you with a picture I found on Craigslist this morning while looking for patio furniture!

It’s 5 Question Friday, join in the fun.

1. How much time do you spend on the computer a day?

Being unemployed I spending tons of time surfing on the internet, but even if I was working I would still be on a computer.  I would say 8 to 10 hours a day, everyday!  Yeah I know that is a lot but that’s who I am.

2. Will you pay for your children's college or raise them to pay for their own way?

Yes, absolutely, we both feel very strongly about paying for our children’s college but we will teach them financial responsibility as well.

3. Have you ever been in a car accident?

Only by myself, I only hit stationary objects, mailboxes, garages, curbs, etc.

4. What is your favorite book?

“US Weekly” magazine, yes I know it’s not a book, but I am not a book reader.

5. Do you make your bed everyday?

NOPE, who does that?

What’s missing you might ask, the table!!!!  The only thing I haven’t decided on is the table.

I found a table at Target.com that I like but it doesn’t have free shipping for the color I want.  The Black and White ones have Free shipping, what is up with that?  $112.00, is alot for shipping and of course they don’t sell it in store. I am still at a crossroads……that’s where you come in.

Option 1-

http://www.diningroomsdirect.com/HD6061A-MO3030.html

Option 2 –

Option 3 – this is the one I wanted but the shipping is $152.00, WOW!  It is still cheaper than option 1 even with the shipping, but it is the principal.

With the above Design Plan and knowing what kitchen looks like, which one gets your vote, Option 1, Option 2, or Option 3??????

(Even if you don’t typically comment, please do!!!)

Rug - Overstock

Chairs – Overstock

Lighting – CB2

Curtains - West elm

Trash Can - Wal-Mart

Bogo hasn’t enjoyed what moving to Houston has done to his “life style".”  Bogo is a indoor/outdoor kitty.  In Houston we have made him stay inside for the time being.  The plan was that he was going to stay in for about a month.  We have been in Houston about three weeks now and Bogo is outside having his first full day of adventures as we speak. 

Yesterday while I was in the office on the phone with Eric, I looked out the back door and noticed that Luke was outside.  WHAT, LUKE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUTSIDE…….then because I was inside and he was out I realized that he couldn’t hear me.  I ran outside and shut the door behind me just incase Bogo was still inside.  No such luck, but he was in the yard sniffing freedom.  I let him explore and then when he was near I scooped him up and headed in.  That was until I got to the door and realized that I/we were locked out.  When I went out to get Luke I realized I shut the door and the handle was locked from when I had locked it earlier and meant for it to shut. 

I put Bogo back down and for the next hour until Eric arrived home Bogo, Luke and I hung out outside of the house.  I watched him cross the streets, disappear into back yards and play on the school playground. 

Today I figured now is as good as anytime.  I left the house about 11 to go run errands and let him out then.  I am back home and there is no sight of him yet.  I expect that he will be home sometime this afternoon as I see him being hungry/thirsty because it is a LONG way to Zoey’s House for his typically mid day feeding. 

Clad with his BOGO take containing his name, phone number and current address I wish him a happy day of play!!!!

Eric and I went to visit the Houston Wall of Water.

Hosted by, Mama M………

If you don't have a blog, but want to join in the fun...feel free to post your answers in the comments of any of the blogs along the way!

1. What's your guilty pleasure?

Hmmmm, I really can’t think of anything I truly enjoy that I would feel guilty or embarrassed about, clearly I need to become more interesting.  I you think I have a guilty pleasure please feel free to share!

2. What is your favorite TV series?

Hands down “Gilmore Girls” I know that it is off the air but that truly shows how much it is still my fav.  I have all 7 seasons on DVD and recently had to replace season 6 because I really did watch it that much!  In second place would be “Friends”, again not on TV anymore and again I have all 10 seasons on DVD and again will need to replace a few soon because I watch them so often.  Maybe if I quit watching the DVD’s I would have a favorite current series.

3. Can you speak any foreign languages?

NOPE, I actually ended up taking Spanish I twice, yeah that is how much I suck at Spanish.  Now I live in Texas which is fairly close to being a bilingual state!

4. How many pairs of shoes do you own?

I can honestly accurately say I ONLY own 54 pairs of shoes, yes I know that is crazy nothing for me!  I totally down sized for this move.  I clearly have a little more downsizing I can do because I do not need 9 pairs of “winter boots” in Texas. 

When I called Eric and told him how many (little) I had left he seriously was concerned that it would not be enough and promised to buy me more on the other side ie Houston, love him!

5. What's your favorite kind of M&M's...peanut, almond, straight up regular, etc.?

Hands down Peanut Butter M&M’s.  Every Easter and Christmas Mom puts them in my stocking and Easter Basket, and I literally eat the whole bag in a matter of 2 or 3 days.  Sometimes you just can’t care how things make you feel….I guess PB M&M’s might be my guilty pleasure, as I know I shouldn’t eat them and feel a little guilty about eating so many at one time, but am totally going to have them anyway, but only twice a year!

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My kitchen is currently a catastrophe!  The kitchen is certainly one of the toughest areas of the house to pack and unpack.  You have no clue just how much is actually in there.  Then you have to carefully wrap and then later unwrap every single item that could possibly be broken.  I am very pleased to report that nothing NOTHING at all has come up broken!  Pretty cool hunh!  (That is in the kitchen, there are issues from the moving process, but this is about the kitchen.)  Thanks to Jen and Becky, Pizza and Wine, my kitchen “stuff” made it here in one piece.  (My mom of course helped to, she actually helped in every room and I remember that every time I try to even move a box, I know that mom packed that one, for such a small person she sure does pack a heavy box!)

Jen you will have to let Becky know that everything made it here safely, as I know you read my Blog and she was so concerned about my precious wedding gifts, that honestly aren’t too precious considering I kept asking you guys “Where the hell did you get that.”  I clearly haven’t seen these items in years!

I am not done with the kitchen yet, I am sorta at a stopping point because when you wrap items in newspaper you end up having to wash most of them before putting them away.  I am currently waiting on the dish washer before I can make any more progress.  Good news, all the boxes in the kitchen are empty!  Bad news…….my  kitchen looks like this:

And this…..but there are NO more boxes….in my kitchen that is.

Bogo loves playing with boxes and newspaper, ie packing supplies.  If it wasn’t for our awesome car ride I would say that he is a pretty big fan of this whole moving process.  This whole time in Birmingham and now here in Houston he has enjoyed rolling around in the newspapers and tunneling his way in and out of all the boxes. 

I of course haven’t been able to catch in the real action process.  Today I was able to get a pic of him bird watching.  You know how birds fly south for the winter, well we are in the south and this is where they have flown.  Bogo is certainly a fan of that.  (Eric not so much he has an awesome bird poop story that might challenge Becky’s story) Today he has been basking in the kitchen while I finish up the few kitchen tasks before I am able to move kitchen over to the completed list.

Back in January I was able to travel to Montgomery to visit my sweet friend Robyn.  Not that going to visit her is not a enough of a reason, but this particular reason for my visit was very special.  My travels were due to Robyn’s baby shower!  What a blessed event this was. 

Robyn and Vernon are such wonderful people, that deserve all the blessings that the Lord has in store for them.  Robyn and Vernon had to wait longer than they may have wanted to become parents, to play the role that Lord always intended for them to have, but there wait is over. 

I was so glad to be able to attend this shower and to also be able to spend some extra special time with my wonderful friend Robyn.  It was truly what I needed in the absence of my Eric to be able to spend time around such an inspiring couple who we will be blessed to gather inspiration from for many years to come.

I was beginning to worry that I would not be able to meet Baby Ian because he was going to be due the very last day of February and with my travels I did not think that I would still be near by to visit.  Robyn’s doctor decided to take him early and she was induced on the Wednesday during my last week of work.  I got the call mind afternoon on Thursday (my last official day of work) from her sister Lynsey that indeed Ian has arrived.  I was sure to ask Lynsey if it would be okay for me to visit on Friday and she said, “why of course that would be okay!”  I was so thrilled that I would be seeing this family together before I traveled off to my new home state of Texas, which actually is where Robyn is from!  (First thing I did when Eric mentioned Texas was goggle map Houston to Robyn’s home town, 9 hrs!  Almost the same distance as Montgomery and Houston, ughhh no dice, I think I told Eric that was a deal breaker!) 

Friday when I arrived at the quaint little Baptist East in Montgomery I found that Baby Ian had just been taken away and I was now in NICU.  Unfortunately the Lord knows who can handle these types of situations and who can not!  I found Robyn as usual to be calm and collected as she explained to me why they took her strong full term baby boy away.  I observed her conversation with Ian’s nurse and remember looking at her in awww as I watched her accept and trust in everything that nurse was telling her. 

In the end Robyn and Vernon did have to go home without their sweet little boy, but a week later,  Ian got to join them in their home as a family.  They are all at home and enjoying this special time together as they bask in the joy of their baby boy. 

I hate being so far away but am so blessed to know that Robyn is a fabulous photographer and through this talent I will feel like I am there watching Ian grow into a little man. 

I just didn’t believe how much “bigger” Bogo had gotten until I looked back at a few pictures.  He really hasn’t gained weight!  He currently weighs 10.8 and I remember him being in the 10 lb range during the summer.

Bogo in July 2009, 1 yr old

Bogo, October 2009, 15 months, growing in length.

Current Bogo with a full mane of fur!

We are hoping for his sake that he sheds some of that fur due to the Houston heat or he will certainly be panting come spring.  Have you ever seen a cat pant?  I hadn’t until sweet Bogo, it is a sight!

The weather where the PODS started out and then the weather where the PODS ended up, in the words of Chandler Bing, “Couldn’t BE more different.” 

Yesterday the Pods were picked up from the house in Houston.  When they were delivered in Birmingham the site was a little different.  It was SNOWING.  The snow was actually coming down while the guy was outside placing them.  His poor little hands were purple.  I ran inside and grabbed a pair of “man gloves” that I had laying around and gave them to him.   For some reason God had me accidently forget to pack these and I am glad he did because this guy was so gracious.  No big deal really, but it did make me feel good that I was able to give him something that helped keep him a little more comfortable.  After all he was standing outside in the snow maneuvering my PODS while Luke and I were watching from the inside with coffee in hand.  After he had delivered both PODS it continued to snow.  It reportedly snowed for five hours. 

I woke up the next morning at my parents house ready to load up my Birmingham life into two PODS.  I looked out my window from the second story and could not only see that there was still snow on the ground but that the whole neighborhood was covered in snow for miles!!!  What to do!  There wasn’t anything else that we could do but pack up the PODS. 

We went down to the house and Dad quickly formulated a plan that we would move everything into one room and then move it outside.  The one room plan took about 30 minutes and then loading the truck took about another three hours.  That was it, my whole Birmingham, AL existence was ready to travel cross country in about 3.5 hours worth of labor from my Dad, my in-laws and neighbor Mark. 

It took the PODS about six days to make it to Houston, TX which was fine with us because we had another two weeks until we actually needed them to be delivered.  Once we were sure that everything was going to close on time (no thanks to our mortgage company, that’s a whole other story), Eric scheduled them to be delivered to the Houston house. 

In Birmingham the PODS had to go on the street because they couldn’t get them in the driveway, in Houston the street was not an option.  We live in a school zone and you can not park PODS in a school zone, not a option.  The PODS guys said that they would put one in the driveway and the other on the grass.  I am thinking there is going to be a freaking POD in my front yard!  Eric and I were both surprised to see that they fit in the driveway rather nicely and that the one POD went over onto the grass about a foot, not a big deal at all.  Due to scheduling the PODS were delivered Thursday, unloaded Friday and Saturday and then picked up on Monday. 

I am sure that you can get a sense of the weather from the sunlight in this photo, but just incase you don’t truly understand the temperature difference of Birmingham and Houston……I took these pictures while standing outside barefoot!  (Katie, I know you are cringing knowing that I am one of those people that walk outside barefoot, but I am, me and my dirty gremmie feet were outside barefoot!)  Wearing a short sleeve shirt!  Craziness I tell you, CRAZINESS!!!  I certainly am enjoying this weather change as my friends in B’ham are currently preparing for more snow fall.  Check back with me in the summer on this subject I am sure I will be sweltering and not bragging so much about my barefeet because they will be frying on the concrete like a egg!  Until then, I am LOVELY the weather here in Houston!

Here our last little POD is being carried away but the robot.  It really is rather interesting to see them suspend these little guys in the air like this.  And much more mind easing when it is just suspended over your driveway and not actually over a portion of your house  like is was when they were delivered on the other side. 

We have arrived in Houston!!  Bogo and Luke along with myself all made it here safely without anyone getting lost along the way.  We are very thankful for being able to stop off at my Aunt Dorie’s in New Orleans for an over night pit stop on our journey to Houston.  Bogo especially was grateful for the pit stop as he is not much of a car rider.  He defiantly let that be known by “singing” to me during the entire trip! MEOW MEOW MEOW , yes it went on and on and got louder and louder.  For the most part he did pretty well.  He traveled in a dog kennel the whole way which housed his litter box, food and water, and bed.  He so desperately wanted to get OUT!  He was already mad at me because I wouldn’t let him go out at Mom and Dad’s so that I would be able to leave in a timely manner without having to catch him.  I did find out on the trip that he liked the fresh air blowing on his face.  Once I figured this I left the window part way open the rest of the trip.  The next day I went to do this right away hoping that it would again work.  Surprisingly enough it did, but it shortly started to rain and my sanity shortly went right out the window.

Luke on the other hand was a trooper, all he really wanted to do was sleep, but Bogo was making that increasingly difficult.  Enough though Luke stuck it out and didn’t complain a bit.  He just laid down and rode because he brother like a good little passenger. 

I had been talking to Eric along the way and telling him that I was close to his office.  I had to go by and get the house keys so that I could get in the house.  He was about to go in a meeting and we were trying to meet up before then.  I was about 13 from his work and knew that I would be there shortly.  Little did I know that in Houston not even during rush hour of any kind that the last 10 miles would take a hour.  Yes and HOUR, was there a wreak you might ask, NO, just general everyday traffic.  Welcome to Houston, it is going to be an interesting ride and hopefully you don’t have to be anywhere soon!!

“Tell me how you met your Valentine.”

In the sprit of the holiday I will “try” and participate in a fellow bloggers Valentine’s Theme Week.  This is a pretty busy week for me so I wasn’t going to do it.  I am still not going to promise to participate everyday, but at least I will get one day in.

How did I meet Eric………

I meet my Eric in a Bar on penny pitcher beer night.  The bar, Club South, is a whole in the wall, that my brother, myself and our friends had been frequenting for the weekly karaoke on Wednesdays.  I would later find out that Eric frequented Club South more than us.  This was honestly Eric’s second home at this point in his life.  Who knew that they serve food there, well probably only Eric and Robby because this really was their place of comfort.  Not really a good sign in my opinion, but I don’t think that I really knew this until much later on in our relationship.

Eric was actually on a date with my brother’s friend Sam.  It apparently wasn’t going very well because he came chasing after me.  In Eric’s defense he would tell the story as……he went on one date with Sam and it did not go well and then they planned to meet at Club South as they would have both been there that night anyway.  They made these plans the week prior be before their one date that didn’t go well.  Anyway, he was apparently checking me out and decided to chase me down and find out “my story” when I was away from my possie of protection.  That consisted mainly of Kyle and Brother John and possibly many other nosey boys that seems to think that they were entitled to protect me because they knew Brother John. 

I went upstairs to the ladies room (which by the way is one of the grossest places in Birmingham, Club South’s major fault was always that bathroom, but they have sense redone the one downstairs.)  Eric saw the free moment and intersected my journey back from the bathroom.  He starts chatting me up and moments into our conversation JOHN and KYLE are standing next to me.  They are standing so close to me that you couldn’t get a piece of paper between me and them.  They, my protectors, were glued to me because heaven forbid someone talks to “little Cassie” we can’t have that.  At this point Eric says, “it’s getting crowded, I am going go”, then he walks away.  I glare at JOHN and KYLE, and Kyle says, “what we are just standing here.” 

I go downstairs with my protectors and sit at our table all pouty like.  At some point John and Kyle weren’t paying attention and somebody else comes and sits by me, but they actually knew him so I guess that’s why they didn’t mind as much, but he was hitting on me.  I ended up asking him just how OLD he was and why was he in a bar hitting on college girls and didn’t he think that maybe he needed to find a new group of people to hang out with because I certainly don’t think that you should be at my table.  Turns out that he was a little sensitive and left.  FYI, he was 12 years older than me and had less hair than my Dad.  He later comes back to my table.  JOHN and KYLE were up singing and Cousin Daniel was over hitting on Eric’s date. When this guy came back to my table he was not alone, he had Eric with him.  Turns out he knew Eric too.  He introduces him to me and says, “here this is Eric he is closer to your age.”  Eric promptly takes a seat and begins chatting me up again.  JOHN and KYLE are starting to pay attention again and shooting looks of disapproval to me from the stage. 

As Eric is hitting on me I am asking him about Sam and why he is not with her and why he is talking me.  He begins to ask me why I am not with any one and says, “a pretty girl like you should have a boyfriend”, and I say, “well I do have a boyfriend.”  Then when he sees me texting on my phone he says, “is that your boyfriend?”, I respond “no this is the guy I am cheating on my boyfriend with.”  I think that may have been the moment that Eric I knew that we were two unfaithful peas in a pod. 

And before my protectors whisked me off two the part 2 bar of the evening, Eric gave me his number and then I waited two weeks to call him.  Eric would say. “after I had broken up with all of my boyfriends.”  Eric speaks the truth.

Any surprises?  Did you know the story, anything I missed?  Have you know us all this time and actually not known our scandalous tale of how we met?

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Through out the year we have a found money competition.  The competition is the collect all the money that you “find” throughout the year and put it in a bank and then at the end of the year we count it all up and see who has found the most money.  You can find it outside, inside, on the floor, in soda machines, anywhere.  You can’t find it in the bottom of you purse and say that it is found money, you mat have lost it and then found it but it was still your money so it is not found money.  Also you shouldn’t rob a bank or anything that wouldn’t be found money that would be stolen money, but there are other reasons not rob a bank besides it not counting as found money!

The competition part of it is because many other households in my family participate too and we all add it up at the end of the year and who ever finds the most wins the title of the winner.  Yeah not much of a prize, but it is kinda neat to see how much money you can collect through the year by just picking it up off the floor.  I honestly don’t find nearly as much outside as I do inside.  I tend to find more money in restaurants, movie theaters, grocery stores and such than I do in parking lots! 

No matter much or how little we collect we will always beat my grandparents and we will always lose to my parents.  It is just the way the money falls!

Our grand total for this year was $19.91.  We collected a little over $2.00 more than last year.  Eric and I really slacked of this year once we started living in different states found money wasn’t at the top of our to do lists.  We started 2010 off strong, we are looking forward to beating last years total.

Did you participate?  Will you join in next year to see just how much you could collect if you just picked up what you see on the ground?  Have you ever heard of found money before or is this a first?

My friend Donora, who blogs all the time, has been participating in “Five Question Friday” for a while now.  I figure that I may as well give it a try and that it will also give me at least one post a week!  And of course who doesn’t want to know more about me, ha!

Five Question Friday is hosted by Mama M.

Questions for Friday, 1/29/10:

1. Would you ever vacation alone?

No I would NOT vacation alone.  I had dinner alone last night and that SO DID NOT go well at all so I will not be vacationing alone!

2. Do you go the speed limit?

No, I go 5 miles under the speed limit and Eric goes 5 miles above.  I figure that we are evening out the roads.

3. Why did you start blogging/following blogs?

Because my Eric said that I needed to and because he used to blog for our family and wasn’t keeping up with it so I finally gave in.  I follow way to many blogs that is why I am not good at posting myself.  I read an average of 250 blog posts a day, yes I know, I really should scale down my Google reader, but then what would I do with my time.

4. Where do you shop for yourself?

Everywhere, but really anywhere that has an online store.  I don’t like to shop, but I love clothes, come to figure it out, I do like to shop I just don’t like to go to the store.

5. What was the song that you danced your first dance with your spouse to at your wedding...or...what song would you like your first dance to be to?

Hmmm, didn’t dance at my wedding, because I didn’t have a wedding, we got married at our engagement party, as a surprise to everyone except to us and the minister.  Not much of a music person, so I may have put that list on my list of things to work on, “come up with a song.” Consider it added to my list.

Happy Friday!

Any surprises on my answers?  Anything you want to know more about, just ask!  Also if you participate let me know in the comments so I can read yours!

Truth be told, Eric and I haven’t spent too much time in the Magic Kingdom in years past, but we made up for it this trip.  We always thought that this was a place for kids and just wasn’t a place that we wanted to spend the most time in.  Well we were wrong.  The Magic Kingdom was freaking awesome.  The Magic Kingdom is what Walt Disney World is about.  Also being a slow month such as January and now that all the marathoners were starting to leave we were able to spread out a bit more and really enjoy the park.  We had a blast!!!!!   We had the big kid Walt Disney World experience. 

At the entrance of the park they still had the Christmas tree up, which we both thought was such a treat to be able to be at Walt Disney World still with the holiday sprit in the air.

The must have known that we were coming because right when we arrived through the magically gates of the Magic Kingdom a parade started come right down the center isle.  Eric and I were quickly moved behind the safety rope lines so that we could enjoy the parade with the others.

Our buddy Mr. Incredible came by to show us his mighty holiday float!  Side note –Eric and I have our first date at the movie “The Incredibles.”

After the parade we set out to make sure to hit a few rides.   

Our favorite must sees:

Pirates of the Caribbean

Jungle Cruise

Haunted Mansion

It's a Small World

Cinderella's Golden Carouse is not a favorite of Eric, but I really think that you should always ride a carousel when giving the opportunity, yes I am the person that will ride it in the mall, I can’t wait to have kids to get too do this more!

After a few rides on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad these sweet girls offer to take our picture together!  Yes rollercoaster's, I can handle, weird hunh, but I am still limited, maybe I should say level 1 rollercoaster's.

Eric was rather disappointed that Splash Mountain was under construction.  It had even warmed up to about 45 degrees at this point in our trip and we were going to give it a whirl, but we couldn’t, so sad!  Eric really does love this ride, he is so cute when he is at Disney World, super excited!!!!

We are very excited about travel to Disney World a few years down the road with our family in tow and see how the park will have changed.  Interestingly we were able to see a preview of the new construction on the castle.  You know the castle is actually fairly small and they are actually making it more of an attraction!!! Super fun, we can’t wait to see how this has progressed in a few years!

This concluded our Walt Disney World Adventures!

For the second day of our Disney Trip Eric and I headed off to Epcot.  It was still very cold in Orlando and we were all bundled up and racing from ride to ride to try to get in somewhere.  This racing through the cold didn’t yield any pictures.  Along with not taking pictures we were apparently not reading the signs to the rides and ended up on a not Cassie appropriate ride.  I am not good with any type of transportation i.e., boats, long car rides, planes, really transportation is just not my thing.  I have horrible motion sickness and due to my Crohn’s my stomach doesn’t absorb medication therefore dramamine may or may not work, just depends on how I am “feeling’ that day.  So we typically would avoid me riding a ride that “may cause nausea, claustrophobia, anxiety attacks”, yes this is certainly a ride that we would avoid.  Although having not read these signs we ended up on this ride.  What ride you might ask, I have no clue!! “Eric, do you know what ride this was?” All I really remember is that it was some sort of space simulation ride.  The problem with the ride was that there were all these “urgent” “stop” “abort”, buttons, when I started freaking out!!!!!! Eric tried to get us out, I am screaming “HELP, HELP”, trying to get out of this ride and everyone else in the canister, thought that I was just really into the experience.  So not the case!  Really this is kind funny now, but ughhh, not so much at the time.  I just looked straight head and went up and down with the ride and did my breathing exercises and eventually it stopped!  This was pretty much the last ride that I went on in Epcot!

We then toured the countries and reminisced about being there 3.5 years ago for our wedding anniversary.  Along with this we realized that we really don’t need to come back to Disney World until we have kids because we really have done all that there is too do and we are a little burnt out on this place.  (Please not that it is awesome, I think I was just bitter from this ride, and that made for a crappy day!)

Update – The name of the ride is Mission: Space.  It was supposed to be something about cooking in space and like preparing meals and such, but like I said above that was so not what it was about.  It was like a space fighting ride because of course we ran into danger on our way to complete our space mission!

A summary of the Mission: Space ride.

Eric and I arrived in Disney World on Friday and had just enough time to settle in a go to race Expo too sign in for the weekend then it was back to the hotel to find a good place to have a carb-filled meal.  We ended up walking around “Downtown Disney” which was very close to our resort.  We found a nice organic pasta place to have our pre-race carbo loading meal.  After our meal Eric and I bared the frigid temps to find KIKI (our rent-a-car, she was/is a KIA).  KIKI took us back to the hotel and there we stayed until 3:00AM, when it was time to go check-in for our race. 

Saturday Morning was made up of our race adventure. We arrived back at our hotel about 10:00AM and then we rested for a bit before getting back out into the cold to experience a fun filled Disney weekend. 

We choose to take our first Disney Adventure in Hollywood Studios, which until two years ago was MGM studios, to us old school Disney goers.

It is now about 2:30 and we were a little hungry.  We hobbled through the gates and realized that the cold is certainly making our muscles a little more tired.  Still bundled up in boots, scarves, hats and gloves we shouldn’t have been feeling the cold, but we were.  We ended up picking the TV Dinner. (Yes, I spelled that right it is Dinner, not Diner.)  This was a strange little quaint restaurant.  The waitress’ were supposed to be your Mom and had a rude Mom attitude.  It wasn’t anything like my Mom, because my Dad is the cook in the house, but it was still fun.  I think it is neat that the longer that the restaurant is around the decor becomes more appropriate verses dated.

This is a picture of the TV in the living room, where we were waiting to be seating until our table was ready.  At first we were kinda like, this is weird, but it was actually really neat and the food was great too!

Our first rid choice: The Tower of Terror.  The TTOT adventure started in the while we listened to this crazy lady in her mid 30’s talking berating her friend and also involving her friends daughter about how it was rude of her not wait until she work to head out to the parks.  This lady was ridiculous and the line for me was when she said, “Ashley (her daughter), agrees with me, don’t you Ashley?”  Seriously lady you are in the Happiest Place on Earth, be happy lady!  We finally get on the ride and after putting pennies on our knees to see if they would stay, which they didn’t, we realized that there must be a ton of found money down there.  Another thing that I realized is that this ride either got scary since the last time Eric and I were there 3 1/2 years ago, for our first anniversary, or I have become much more of a scaridy cat.  Eric agreed that the ride was actually a little more intense than it was the last time.  When we were there a few years back we rode it 3 times, I think that we had just discovered fast passes. 

We rode a few more rides and quickly realized that the water rides were still-water rides despite the cold because there is not a whole lot that they can do about the pre-programmed rides.  We knew that it really was cold outside once we realized that they were using the pre-recorded tour guide tapes instead of making tour guides stand out in the cold with us silly tourists that were out in this 19 year record cold weather.

We didn’t really notice anything new at this park, from the last time that we were there, except for the name change of the park, but that was really it.  We choose to go to this park on the day of our race because it is the smallest park and thought that the park with the least walking would be the best idea for us.

Tune in next for our Adventures in Epcot.

Eric and signed up to participate in the Disney Half marathon in January of 2009, for the race that wouldn’t be taking place until January of 2010.  This race fills up within week upon opening up.  When signing up we had no idea that we would moving during this time, not be living in the same state, and I had no clue that I would training for this race ALONE.  All that aside we did it and we did it under my goal time with 37 seconds to spare!  Yes, I realize that I cut it close, but under a goal is under a goal!

Of course the actually day of the race happened to be the coldest day on record in Orlando in 19 years.  Not only was it cold, but it was wet.  We knew about three days prior to the race that ice pellets would be joining us on this 13.1 mile adventure.  I think that I could have even handled the wet, I often enjoy a nice refreshing rain during a long run.  But wet and cold at the same time do  not make for a happy Cassie.  It wasn’t until about mile 8 that I looked down a both mine and Eric’s feet and realized that we both had water shooting out of our sneakers every time we put our feet to the pavement.  Not only were we spewing water but all the other runners were too.  We were not the only wet footed runners around. Even with this challenge we kept running! 

It wasn’t til about mile 11 that I was done, I had hit my wall.  Eric by the way is doing well as he is politely staying with me and running my pace.  While hitting my wall, I remember quietly beginning to yell at my Eric and telling him that this was his idea, it is wet and cold (because by the way he made the weather bad!), you weren’t home to train with me, you should be talking to me and entertaining me, you are not a good running buddy and then my favorite one and probably the favorite phrase of everyone around us……in my pitiful crying, winey, Cassie voice, I loudly said, “see you lied to me again, you said this was the last hill, you lied to me! You lied to me! What is wrong with you, you keep lying to me!”  At this point this guy in front of us, who totally got out of my way when I ran through him and charged my last hill, was cracking up laughing at me yelling at Eric about lying to me about the last hill.  Then we hit mile 12 and I was good, I was past my wall and just kept on going.  I had my little pity party and about 300 other runners heard it, as I was still passing people and charging through the crowds as I was telling Eric what I thought about him LYING to me about these dam hills.

All in all it really was a good run.  It was extremely crowded, there were 40,000 people that ran this race.  The half is very popular and it was actually very popular among walkers.  People that plan from the get go that they are going to walk to whole thing.  I have no problem with that I just think that in such a crowded race that the walkers should be on one side and the runners should be on the other.  I spent and extra .5 miles weaving in and out of people during this race.  Along with the first mile taking 16 minutes and taking two bath rooms breaks at an average of 7 minutes a piece.  I think that we more than made our time goal.

We were a little disappointed that we starting in a parking lot and then ran about 4 miles to go through the magic kingdom for 2.5 miles and then ran that 4 miles back again on the Disney interstate up and down on ramps, then we finished with about .75 in Epcot and that was about it for the parks.  It was a little more boring than we had anticipated, I think 9 water stops and character stops make it a pretty unique race.  Eric and I certainly don’t plan on making this a yearly thing, but once we have kids we totally plan on going back and possibly running the full.  I don’t think that the goofy challenge is in my future, but maybe in Eric’s.  If you run the half on Saturday and the full on Sunday you get the Donald Duck medal for the Half, the Mickey medal for the Full and then you get the Goofy Medal for completing both races back to back.

(Photo Credit Action Sports International)

Wishing I was in such a warm outfit!

The START, we didn’t start until 46 minutes in, but they did set off fireworks for each coral, too FUN!

Our coral starting, if you look halfway back on the right you can see my bright yellow poncho and the dark blob next to me is Eric wrapped up in a blanket, it was really cold!

Me wearing 3 shirts, a sweatshirt and a poncho! There are many more pictures of Eric than I because his number was showing most of the time.

Eric running, with a Mini Mouse impersonator behind him.

The FINISH!

Close up of the MEDAL

Caroline had her baby, Mackenzie Layne Goodrich.  I woke up to a text message written by Jake from yesterday saying that Caroline had her baby Monday @ 8:39 PM.  I immediately texted her with a Congratulations and told her that I would wait for her to call me when she is able.  Within minutes she called me to tell me all about her birth experience. 

Caroline had a normal day on Monday January 11th, 2010.  She went to work and during her work day she started having contractions, but didn’t work too much about it because she had been experiencing them here and there.  Once work was over she went home and began her evening with her husband, Jake.  She took a bath to see if that would make her feel better, it didn’t.  Jake said I am giving you 15 more minutes and if you don’t start feeling better we are calling the doctor.  With that she stood up and her water broke!  Off to the hospital they went.  Once at the hospital it took a little while to get her into a room.  Once in her room with the nurse she questioned her about still having enough time to get an epidural.  The nurse said, “Oh honey, you have plenty of time.”  The doctor comes in a little later and says, “Lets see how you are doing.”  Before starting to examine her.  At this point Caroline responds, “I feel like I need to push.”  The doctor confirms that Caroline is indeed ready to push.  She tells her to decided who all is staying during the birth and instructs everybody else to leave the room.  Caroline chose to let her mom stay mainly because she was already helping by holding her hand.  And of course that her husband Jake will be staying too.  At this point it is too late for Caroline to have her beloved epidural.  Now I don’t claim to know anything really about her birth plan as I don’t live near her nor see her daily.  However I feel confident in saying that she totally planned on having that epidural.  Plans are made to be broken.  Caroline made it through her naturally childbirth just great.  Before 9:00 she had her 7lb 7 oz 18 1/2 in little girl in her hands.

When I first talked to her the first thing that she said was, “She perfect, I love her!”, with such joy in her new parent voice.  I am so happy for Jake and Caroline and their new bundle of joy.

I loved how excited Jake is, I am not surprised at his excitement, but still love his expression here.

Like Jake says on his Facebook, where I stole these pictures from, “cribs show just how little babies are.”

Jake’s mother, Nancy, made all the bedding and curtains for this nursery, it is just amazing!

No we really don’t have a problem, but what else can you say about Houston!  The whole time Mom and I were putting up my Christmas Lights she keep saying, “Houston we have a problem.”  For nothing more than the reason that now because I will be living in Houston she seems to think that she should start working this phrase into common conversation, even when it doesn’t really fit. 

Over New Years I took my first trip to Houston to visit with my Eric.  To recap-Eric moved in October right after our cruise.  He is renting a room from a girl that he doesn’t know and really still doesn’t know or see much.  He came home for Thanksgiving which was him coming home 6 weeks after he first left for Houston.  Then he came home again for Christmas, which was four weeks sense his last visit at Thanksgiving.  Then I went out there the next week for New Years.  We actually agreed to move to Houston without me ever having been there. 

The point of this trip was to first and foremost show me around the city and get me a little more comfortable with the whole idea of living there.  Considering after all it was already a done deal so I might want to get used to it.  The second reason would be for us to look for an apartment.  Most of you know of house history.  (We currently own our third house in our four years of marriage.)  Considering we have been in this house for two years now that means it is of course time for us to move.  We really tried to look for an apartment but we are not apartment people.  I think it is probably because we have pets, but it is just plan hard to go to living in an apartment after you have typically always lived in a house.  Long story short we are now house hunting. 

While we were driving around neighborhoods in Houston we ended up on a dead end street with about 8 peacocks!  Yes, peacocks in peoples front yards and they were just running around wild.  I felt like I was in my car at the zoo. 

Just walking around like he owned the place.

There are four in this picture, they blend in rather well.

This is not a great picture, but check out those tail feathers!

Tonight I was at CVS minding my own business, when leaving the store I was chased down by a shopper.  Now I often get chased down in CVS, but this was a new one.  People typically want to see my coupon binder and then they want to talk to me about the stuff I bought and how I saved all this money and so on.  This actually happens so often I actually carry around several typed pieces of paper that have the links of savings blogs that I follow on it.  Although this was not the reason.

This lady wanted to see my outfit!  She actually insisted that I come to her car to show her daughter how cute I was, HA!  I said how about I wait right here and you come to me, I promise, I won’t move. (Just in case she wanted to kidnap me, you have to be careful.)  Her and her daughter marveled at my outfit and wanted to know where I got each item. 

Now I take pride in my outfits, at work I am actually referred to as the “fashion police.”  I have been know to tell people that they really should not wear that combination of pieces and then I tell them what in their closet would work better. (This is attributed to my fantastic memory to remembering peoples clothing, phone numbers, DOB, etc.) Although I would have never thought that someone would stop me on this particular outfit.  I didn’t work today, meaning no make-up, I am wearing a t-shirt, jeans, a wrap sweater, then upon running out to CVS I threw on boots, a jacket and a scarf.  And with that these people wanted to replicate my outfit and take my picture!  Yes they actually took my picture!! 

I felt the need to take my own picture when I got home.  I mean really if the gals at CVS think I look cute, I may as well post a pic along with the story.

(Along with trying to get better about posting pictures of myself!  We all know how much I HATE to be photographed, but that’s another story!)

I don’t think that this is anything to get excited about, I certainly have better outfits in closet, but I got to say they made my day.  They were a little too excited, but still they made my day!

Just in case you didn’t get the memo, our house is for SALE.

If you happen to know anyone that may be looking for a cute 3 bedroom/2 bath home in Birmingham, please pass along our info.

http://www.forsale-byowner.com/listings/4700-4799/4707.htm

Considering that my I have know Caroline FOREVER, naturally my Mom decided to take this road trip with me.  From Birmingham, AL to Beaufort SC we went.  With my parents and I living on the same street road trips are a no brainer.  Also with Mom not really liking to drive and me being a horrible car rider, really any type of transportation is not good, we were stoked to take a Cassie – Mom adventure.  Mom and I started out early on a Friday Morning and arrived around 3:30 eastern time as we lost an hour on our way to Beaufort due to the time change. 

We made plans to stay with Mom’s friend Ginger.  You might say that Ginger is Mom’s Caroline.  Mom has known Ginger sense I was in Kindergarten.  Ginger and Mom were actually in Kindergarten too, Ginger was and always has been a kindergarten teacher.  And when I started school my Mom went back to work and she became Ginger’s aid.  Ginger was the one that inspired and encouraged my Mom to become a teacher.  Also one of the people that Mom attributes her teaching success’ to today.

We had a wonderful visit with Ginger and her sister Pat.  Pat brought Ginger back down to Beaufort to recover from a surgery that Ginger had just the day before our visit.  Ginger was not super comfortable during our visit, but we are so glad that she was still willing to have us even though she was under the weather.

Ginger and Mom

Pat, Ginger and Mom

Mom and Sable.

I won’t post any pictures of Ginger lying around in bed, mainly because there are many post surgery pics of myself that could end up on the internet easily!   Mom always loves to bring the camera to the hospital.