Philadelphia/New York City...Here We Come!

Brent, Jeff and I are leaving this afternoon to spend the 3 days in Philadelphia, with one of those days in New York City. This is the first time I have ever been to this part of the country, and I am very excited about it. The real reason for the trip is for me to attend the Public Relations Society of America International Conference, which should be interesting as well.
I'm praying that we will make it there safe today and will have a great time without incident. We get back late Tuesday afternoon, and hopefully I'll have some great pictures to post!

Pray for Santos

When I was in Honduras this past January, there was a young man named Santos who came to our clinic. He had been in an accident and lost both arms below the elbow. The caring medical professionals looked at his situation and decided to pull out all the stops and try to get him arm prosthetics. His family is very very poor and there is no way they could ever afford the various doctors and therapists, not to mention the actual devices. Many people have donated their talents, time and money for Santos to get his prosthetics, but now that they are ready to be fitted, he has refused them. He thought he was getting prosthetics that looked and worked like real hands, even though the doctors told this was impossible due to the severity of his injury. (The prosthetics that will work best have hooks on them.)He will be missing a chance of a lifetime if he turns them down, and I can't imagine going through life with no arms. Whatever his reasons are, our Honduras team is praying for God to intervene and change his mind, so I am asking my friends to do the same. Satan always rears his ugly head, but he is no match for our Awesome God!

New Carpet...and a New Niece

So after all of our painting and other home remodeling projects in the past year, Brent and I decided to pay a visit to Sherwood's Carpet One and see what kind of specials they had going on. As it turns out, there was a beautiful mushroom bisque semi-shag that was just begging for us to take it home. This past Friday, the carpet got to come home with us. The two hombres installing it too less time to take the old carpet up and put the new down than it took us to take all of the stuff out of the rooms and then put them back. But after all of our hard work, the bedrooms are freshly carpeted and the closets are semi-cleaned out. The big move weekend is coming up, and I'll be moving my stuff into 18 Matthews Lane the last weekend in October.

Also today is the birthday of my new niece - Caitlyn Leigh Smith. Brent's older sister Kelly had the baby this morning via C-section, and we are wishing them the best of luck and a speedy recovery. The baby is really about a month early, so they will both have to stay in the hospital for a few days. Hopefully sometime next year we will be able to travel to Arizona to see them.

Here is a before and after of the bedroom....I want to post more pictures of my soon-to-be-new house, but I first must pick it up before I can take pictures. And since I'm leaving for Philadelphia/New York City on Friday, I don't see that happening anytime soon!


Yeah - this used to be the blue room, but thanks to Jeff, it's now "Cabot Taupe."

Trapnall Hall.....64 days and counting.

This week, my mom came up and we went to see Trapnall Hall to get a better idea of how the reception will be laid out. I absolutely love this house and think it would be so cool to work at an old home like this. They will decorate the week after Christmas, so it will be all ready for the reception on the 15th. (An added bonus!)

Here are some pictures of the inside....






I've also come down with an upper respitory infection this week and have lost my voice. I've felt pretty crappy all week, but woke up with the raspyness on Wednesday. I broke down and went to the dr. yesterday who gave me some high-powered antibiotics. Hopefully it'll knock it out ASAP because I am too busy to be sick!

PartiGras 2007

The third annual PartiGras took place this Saturday night, and everybody had a great time. This tradition was established before I arrived on the scene, but every fall we invite our friends over for a backyard cookout and it has morphed into a rather large event. Between my friends, his friends, our friends, and work friends, we probably saw 30 people during the course of the evening. Our backyard is large enough for everybody to mingle, except we didn't plan on the weather being so dang humid. Even tonight as we were picking up, I was sweating! Hopefully next year it will be more fall-like.

We would like to thank the ever-fabulous Steve and Rob for donating the hamburger meat, and for Monkey for her help and company during the preparation this weekend. We'd also like to thank everybody else who brought chips and dip for all of us to snack on. The food was delicious!

This coming week will be very busy. My mom is coming up to help finalize some wedding plans, and then we're going to be getting ready for new carpet at the house. This will require us to move all of the furniture and clean out the closets (which need to be done anyway). Only 69 days to go until the big day!!!

Monkey and I at PartiGras - thanks for all of your help!!!!

The future dentist and I - good luck on your interview this week!!!

About Brent

1. Who is your man? Brent Haywood - or B-Money or Robear
2. How long have you been together? November 15th will be our 2-year anniversary. One month after that, we'll be Mr. and Mrs.
3. How long did you date? See above.
4. How old is your man? he's 6 months older than I am. Right now he's 28 and I'm 27 (but in 3 weeks, I'll join him)
5. Who eats more? Of course Brent does.
6. Who said "I love you" first? I think it was a mutual realization.
7. Who is taller? Brent - he's about 6 feet
8. Who sings better? I do!!! He doesn't even try.
9. Who is smarter? Depends on what you're talking about, but I'd say we're equally intelligent. (I may be a little more) ha! He has different talents than I do.
10. Whose temper is worse? I think mine. Brent is usually calm and cool, but when aggravated, can come up with a snappy comeback.
11. Who does the laundry? I do, but I will ask for his help in the folding and putting up of said laundry.
12. Who takes out the garbage? We both will.
13. Who pays the bills? We're just figuring this out, but I pay the bills, and we tell each other what we spend.
14. Who is better with the computer? I'm good with designing stuff, and he's good at fixing the computers.
15. Who mows the lawn? I usually mow, and he weed-eds and gets the blower out. I like the exercise, as long as it's not 1000 degrees outside.
16. Who cooks dinner? I do.
17. Who drives when you are together? Depends on where we're going, but I'd say it's about a 50-50 mix.
18. Who pays when you go out? We both do.
19. Who is most stubborn? probably me...but I'm working on it.
20. Whose parents do you see the most? Mine because his mom lives in Arizona.
22. Who kissed who first? I think I started it - in Sarah and Jeremy's driveway!
23. Who asked who out? We met on Match.com, but I think he asked me out on the first date.
24. Who proposed? Brent - on his birthday! (It was a huge surprise).
25. Who is more sensitive? I am - he's always making fun of me for crying at stuff.
26. Who has more friends? Probably me. But he comes in a close 2nd with all of his HS buddies.
28. Who has more siblings? It's a tie - we both have one sister
27. Who wears the pants in the family? Depends on the situation. Most the time I would say it was ME!

I love October

This weekend, Brent and I traveled to McGehee to register at the shops there. It didn't take too long, and I'm excited to see what we get next month. I love going home this time of year because it is harvest time, and there are rows and rows of white cotton. When we passed the cotton gin, Brent asked what that smell was. Of course I immediately though back to the time when I was younger, and Pa and Uncle Sluggo was still picking cotton. Sarah and I would go out to the field with Ma, and we would get to "tromp" the cotton and have a grand time. (These days, there's no tromping - just huge modules that compress it into big bricks). It also reminded me of when I was in school and Friday night would be so exciting getting ready to go to the football game. We'd stop off at Lawsons, have a hamburger, and then make it to our seats just in time to see the players run through the paper sign. You could always see the lights of a cotton picker in the background because our field and school were surrounded by cotton fields.

On our way back to Cabot, I pulled off the road at Winchester and drove to this old house that I remember my other grandmother (Nannie) living in with Mama Lila (my great-grandmother). It was just at the end of this cotton field, so I decided to get me a stalk and bring it back home with me. Brent looked at me like I had lost my mind, but I had a decorating idea in mind. Fall is my favorite time of the year, and I can't wait to get my fall decor out and put up wreaths at the house.