Happy Birthday Nannie!

Today is my grandmother's birthday so I wanted to give her a little shout out on this here blog of mine.  It's easy, but also a little sad, to remember her birthday because it's on the anniversary of the Titanic sinking.  Her and I have that in common, our birthdays were both on sad days...I was born on Hitler's birthday, which is also when the Columbine shooting happened.  On a more happy note, my grandmother's birthday always marked the first official day that we were allowed to go barefoot as children.  My mom wouldn't let us step outside without shoes on until Nannie's birthday.  I'm glad that our birthdays are so close together, just 5 days apart, because we usually get to celebrate our birthdays together.
My grandmother is such a wonderful, caring, and encouraging grandmother and I truly don't know what I would do without her.  She has always been one of my best friends and is always available for good advice.  She has definitely helped shape me into the person I have become and I will be forever grateful for the love that she has shown to me and the rest of her grandchildren.  So Happy Birthday Nannie!  I hope it's the best one yet!

A picture from last Mother's Day.
In the front is my mom and Nannie, and in the back are me and my sister.

Cape San Blas

Two weekends ago Timothy and I spent a few days down in the gulf at Cape San Blas where Timothy's parents own a beach condo.  We've been several times and it's always such a nice little getaway, even if it is just for a couple of days.  Here are some pictures that Mrs. Lois (my mother-in-law) took with her new  camera.  Enjoy!

After dinner on Saturday night

Mr. Tim jokingly pronounces Mrs. Lois' name Louise (Loo-eez) sometimes, so that's why I got the ship's name in the background.

 After dinner we went to the beach to watch the sunset.

 It looks like Mrs. Lois' hair is on fire here

Mr. Tim and I then had a little fun jumping in front of the camera while someone was trying to take a picture (Mr. Tim's was a little prettier than mine)

Hope everyone's having a good week!

Grandparents!

This past weekend my grandparents came to visit us and to see our house.  They got here Friday right after I got off of work and they treated us to dinner at Granddaddy's BBQ in Thomasville.  It was so good!  Friday they also gave us some goodies: some nutty buddy bars, some cream soda (yum!), and my grandmother gave me her home economics book from high school. 

 Timothy said "oh did ya'll get to keep your books?" And she said "no, I just kept it."  Haha.  My grandmother, the rebel. :)  The book was titled "Experiences with Foods."  Believe me...I have had some gooood experiences with foods!  It's been neat to look through it and see all of the pictures of women in their high waisted poofy dresses and bouffants pulling a roast out of the oven for their husband who just got home in a suit and tie.  I love old books and cookbooks, so that was right up my alley. 
For dessert Friday night we had some homemade apple cake that my grandmother had made.  There's a bit of an inside joke behind that cake.  When I was about 10 years old, I think, I was spending the night with them one night, when my grandmother and I decided to make a homemade apple cake.  We got all the ingredients together, measured them into a mixing bowl, and then put the mixing bowl in the stand mixer.  We turn the mixer on what we thought was low, and the thing just takes off.  Batter is flying everywhere, and we're screaming and grabbing at the bowl trying to get it to stop!  I think we ended up just throwing a towel over the whole thing.  We had a really good laugh about it once we finally got the thing stopped, and then had to spend like 10 minutes cleaning the batter up in random places around the kitchen.  We still talk about that day and laugh.  It is definitely one of my favorite memories with my grandmother.  My grandparents have always made me laugh and take the time to teach me things and do things together. 
Saturday morning me, my grandfather, and Timothy made brunch.  PawPaw taught me some of his tricks, since the "big country breakfast" has always been a specialty of his.  We made biscuits, country ham, eggs, and hashbrown casserole and pigged out. 

PawPaw and husband making breakfast (I would include a pic of myself but I was looking rough!)

 We then spent some time on our back porch enjoying the beautiful day and PawPaw gave us some much needed advice on our grass and plants.  My grandparents have always been a wealth of knowledge and so encouraging to me and my sister and I will forever be grateful for that.  My Nannie is also one of my most religious blog readers, and gives me motivation to get on here and jot down a word or two every now and then.  Love you Nan and Paw! 

Us on the porch.

Hope everyone's week is going well!

Company!

Thursdays are the days for my long runs of the week.  The plan is to run 3 days a week.  The first two days are pretty easy, a lot of intervals.  And the 3rd day is a longer run that gets longer and longer each week.   I decided that each week I would do the first two days of running on Monday and Tuesday, and then do my long run on Thursday.  That way I get the running over and done with during the week and don't have to worry about it over the weekend.  And over the weekend, hopefully I forget how miserable running is and hopefully get some of my motivation back. 
But anyways, today I was scheduled to run 2 miles.  Last time I was running regularly, about a year ago, I had some problems with my right foot.  The muscle on the top of my foot spasms about every other step.  It doesn't neccessarily hurt, it's just really uncomfortable.  It draws my toes under and doesn't matter the amount of stretching, type of shoes, surface I'm running on, icing, bengay rubbing, or complaining I do, it always happens.  It's kind of discouraging and at one point last year, I had it x-rayed to make sure I didn't have a stress fracture.  The x-ray I had done didn't show stress fractures (kind of making it pointless to even have it done) and the doctor suggested a more expensive x-ray.  Didn't have that done.  And after not running for about 8 months, it's still doing it, so it obviously isn't a stress fracture.  So today while I was running, my foot was spasming and my shins were hurting (my lungs are totally fine, as are my thighs and calves) so I more or less shufflejogged the two miles.  But I got it done!  Anyways...somebody call the waaambulance right?  And so I went to McDonalds for dinner to reward myself.  Yep, getting fattening food, while wearing these pants.  But anyways...I promise I'm not going to become one of those people who only talks about working out all the time. 
In other news, my grandparents are coming to visit us this weekend.  Yaaaay!  I'm so excited for them to come see our house and visit with us.  Hope everyone has a quick Friday!

Family

As I mentioned earlier this week, my family came down to visit this weekend.  We had a great time, even if the weather wasn't very agreeable.  They didn't get here until late on Friday, so we just stayed up and talked a little that night.  Saturday, Timothy and my brother-in-law Robert played a little golf and then we all went down to Tallahassee to go to the Pig Fest.  They had some bbq vendors and some craft vendors as well, but it was kind of a let down.  I don't know if they were supposed to have more vendors there that didn't show up because rain was in the forecast, or not.
I pathetically only got one picture the entire weekend, taken on an iPhone, of me and my dad.

   
No doubt I am his daughter, huh?  We look just alike!
We did a little shopping after the festival to waste some time.  I got a cute bathing suit for a pretty good deal, so that was a success.  My parents then treated us all to Carrabba's for a late Valentine's Dinner.  It was very good!  My really cute niece was cracking us up during the dinner by eating lemons.  She'd lick the lemon and then make a hilarious face and say "hot hot"!  (meaning sour)  I felt bad because we kept giving her lemons so that we could see the face she was making.  I started laughing so hard that I had tears in my eyes.  Yes, we got a video of it.  And yes, I am going to exploit my niece for the sake of a little humor on my blog post. (Don't worry, I got her mother's approval first)  Check out the face at second 14.

Once we got home that night we played a little Scattergories.  My mom won the first round and either my husband or my dad won the second round, I can't quite remember.  This morning we got up and ate a breakfast casserole I cooked in the crockpot overnight (recipe here) and my dad's famous (and delicious) waffles.  I was sad to see them go, but glad for the memories that we made.  Looking forward to our girls trip to Hilton Head in two weeks!  Hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend!

Well hello, beautiful!

Remember in this post when I was talking about my overachieving amaryllis stem?  Well it finally bloomed yesterday.  See how pretty?

It has 3 more blooms on this stem that are about to bust open as well.  I'll try to get a picture of all of them when they do. 
Had a great day today 'cause I got to see my parents!  My mom called me last night and asked if Timothy and I wanted to meet her and dad in Albany for dinner because they had decided to camp in Cordele.  We definitely agreed and met them around 4:30 today for a little shopping and dinner.  It was a wonderful surprise for the weekend.  Miss my family so much, so it was good to see my parents even if for just a couple of hours. 
Hope everyone had a great Saturday!