It's getting closer...

I received two letters in the mail yesterday. One was from the insurance company with a "notice of authorization" for my surgery. And the other one was from Dr. Butler's office saying they'd received the notice and included my pre-op appointment time. I was also able to pre-register with the hospital. I know it sounds crazy to say you're excited about a surgery, but I really am! I'm ready to have it and be done with it so we can move on to the next step. It's an exciting time!

I forgot to mention in my last post about the goodies that I'd bought to decorate the house for Fall. I bought some new place mats for the kitchen table and stuff for the big vase at Walmart. The place mats are Better Homes & Gardens and they were only $2 each! I went into Walmart with the intention of buying three specific things. I bought one of those things and lots more that I didn't intend to buy. Isn't that always the way it is when you go to Walmart? It's the greatest. I usually keep lemons, limes, and oranges in the vase as my everyday decoration, but I needed something for Fall. So here's a picture of my "tablescape" as Sandra Lee would call it:



Last year, I put a pot of mums on a stand next to the front door and promptly killed them. I just don't have a green thumb. (Funny story: I had bought hanging baskets for the back porch and they were goners within about 2 weeks. I've replaced them with wind chimes. My new collectible! Thomas says they're already more cost-effective!) So I found this cute pumpkin at Walmart too:



My mom had an Uppercase Living party at her house last year and I bought this frame that you hang on the wall and you change out the inserts as the seasons change. It's right inside my front door, so if you come to visit and you forget what season it is, BAM! There's your reminder!



I'm so glad Fall is finally here! Now, if it would just cool off a little...

This one's for Claire!

I've been requested to update my blog, so here it goes!

We went up to Justin's 2 weekends ago and had a great time. We got to meet Kate and she's a great girl. They both seem really happy and are very comfortable with each other to have just been dating a little over a month.

After wrangling with traffic on I-75 in mid-town due to construction, we finally got to Justin's. Shortly after we arrived, Kate came over and we headed to do some walking/surviving on Kennesaw Mountain. They decided that we would go on the paved trail around the mountain instead of straight up the side of the mountain. Well, I knew I was out of shape, but that convinced me whole-heartedly! I had to stop a few times to take a breather and after awhile, Justin must have felt bad for me because he said, "Well I guess we can turn around now." Thank goodness! I forgot to mention that Scarlett was there, but she had a great time!

Once we got back to Justin's apartment, we all got ready and went to dinner at Fogo de Chao. Our new favorite restaurant! In case you haven't heard of it or had the pleasure of going there, it's a Brazilian steak house where you have a coaster in front of you with green on one side and red on the other. When you're ready for meat, you turn the coaster to green and waiters come to your table with spits of different kinds of meat and cut it onto your plate. Once you're full, you turn the coaster to red until you're ready to eat more. There are so many different kinds and they all taste amazing! They have a really great salad bar too, but Thomas didn't even bother with that! After dinner, we went back to Justin's to watch the end of the GA-SC game...it was an intense end!

On Sunday, we had a cook-out involving Mason Burgers (one of Justin's specialities) and all the fixins. He invited several friends over, so it was great to meet some of them. The whole weekend was going great until right before lunch, we were coming back from the dog walk area with Scarlett and the apartment manager came up to Thomas and asked if we were just visiting. He said we were and that we would be leaving in an hour or two. She said that dogs that size weren't even allowed to visit. How ridiculous!! She was probably more well-behaved than the other dogs that actually lived there. She didn't jump or bark or anything! What an outrage!

Thomas and I both worked over this past weekend. It was uneventful and that's the way we like it! I came down with some sort of stomach bug on Wednesday, so I stayed home from work Wednesday and Thursday. I'm feeling better, but still sticking to Powerade and chicken noodle soup.

Patrick and Chun are coming to visit on Saturday, so it will be nice to see them. Mama and Daddy will be coming up to work on Granny's house on Saturday, so we'll get to see them too.

Only a few more weeks to my surgery! I appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers for Thomas and me. Keep them coming!!

On a brighter note...

Okay...I thought that previous post needed to be all by itself. Now, on to what I've been doing since last week.

We had Kristen and Luke over for dinner last Wednesday night. We grilled out steaks and had yummy baked potatoes and tomatoes. And brownies with ice cream for dessert. We enjoyed sitting around just talking and laughing. On Thursday, I just laid around and enjoyed being lazy. I went back to work on Friday for a 3-day stretch. Yuck. I was in charge on Saturday and Sunday and had some pretty easy assignments on those days, so it wasn't so bad. Sunday night after I got off work, Aunt Charlotte and I drove to Augusta and spent the night at Aunt Brenda and Uncle Rip's house (Hey Aunt Brenda!) I always enjoy staying there! Good conversations and good company. :-)

On Monday, Mama, Aunt Charlotte, and I went down to Claire's store to see what she had left to sell. I bought a few necklaces and a purse (you're surprised??). My most exciting purchase was...are you ready for it?...a baby outfit. I haven't bought anything because I didn't want to jinx anything, nor did I want to have something around to remind me I have yet to get pregnant. But Aunt Charlotte brought up a good point (she bought a dress recently and this was her reasoning): we haven't bought anything yet and maybe THAT'S the jinx! That sounds good to me, so I made the decision that I would buy something at Claire's. I knew she had a lot of cute baby stuff and couldn't wait to pick something out. This is what I chose:


Mama also bought a really cute outfit and some pink pants with bunny feet. I think they would go perfectly with a white onesie with a pink monogram (AEM: Amelia Elizabeth Moore). Yes, I have a girl name picked out. Actually, I have triplet girl names picked out: Amelia Elizabeth, Olivia Meredith, and Natalie ??. As for boys, I like Lucas, but I'm not completely in love with it like I am Amelia. Okay...that's enough about baby names. I'm getting ahead of myself!

I got my hair cut again on Tuesday because I just wasn't loving what I had done 2 weeks ago. Jenny is such an awesome hairdresser; I've been going to her for 12 years. She didn't even charge me to re-do my hair.

I went back to work on Wednesday and Thursday for 2 days in Medical Surgical ICU. It was kind of crazy, but manageable. On Thursday, I had 9 ventilators...and there are only 10 rooms in the unit! I enjoyed a nice bottle of Riesling last night to relax after 2 crazy days.

Tomorrow we're headed up to Justin's for the rest of the weekend. He knows of a dog park that we can take Scarlett to and we may even hike some trails around Kennesaw Mountain. We have plans to go to Fogo de Chao tomorrow night. It's a Brazilian Steakhouse and apparently an experience to be had. Can't wait! Then on Sunday, Justin is making his Mason Burgers that have become world-famous. I can't believe I haven't had them. There's something wrong with that! I'm so glad we get to spend some time with him. I haven't seen him in such a long time! And we get to meet the girl he's been dating. Yay! My peeps have significant other peeps (Kristen and Justin, that is)!

Well, I think it's time to go wake Thomas up and see what we're doing for dinner. I'll post more after this weekend...Have a great one!

September 11th

September 11, 2009. It's hard to believe it's been 8 years since that horrible day. I remember waking up and getting ready for class (I was a sophomore at Mercer) and I always put my make-up on sitting on the couch watching T.V. The first thing I saw was the Pentagon and I didn't realize what was happening. I didn't even know about the World Trade Center yet. I called my dad and asked him what was going on, and I remember him saying: "We're under a terrorist attack." That was hard to grasp because I didn't think anything like that would ever happen. I knew the United States had enemies, but never did I think they were capable of doing anything like they did. As I was driving to school and listening to the radio, the towers collapsed. When I got to my Anthropology class, a lot of people didn't even know what had happened because they'd been in class all morning....our little cocoon of Mercer...safe and sound. There were still a lot of rumors going around...like a plane headed to Chicago that would be shot down before it could crash. By the time class was over and I headed to my Chemistry lab, classes had been canceled for the day. When I got home, I decided I didn't want to be alone, so I called Aunt Charlotte. She was still working at the Base, but had stayed home that day for some reason. I packed J.R. up and went to her house and we watched the news all afternoon and evening. Uncle Tommy was at work at the Base and couldn't leave because they were under lockdown. When I got home that night, I was still kind of scared to be by myself.

The next day, classes resumed and Mercer went back to some kind of normal. I remember buying copies of The Macon Telegraph and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. I still have those. Over the next several days as I watched the coverage, I kept hoping they were going to pull survivors from the wreckage. I remembered how they pulled people from the Oklahoma City Bombing site for a few days afterwards and I was hopeful they could do the same this time. But it didn't happen.

When we went to New York City in December 2004, we visited Ground Zero and it was quite strange. I had actually been on top of the World Trade Center on a previous trip and here I stood where it used to stand. In fact, when I went to NYC with the high school band in November 2000, we drove past there. And less than a year later, it was gone.

Eight years later and I'm 27 now. We're still at war and trying to catch the people who are responsible. I'm confident it will happen one day, but I know it's going to be a long road. I'm so grateful that there are people willing to go to work every day trying to find these people. I don't think I could do it and I'm so glad my loved ones are safe and sound here. I hope everyone remembers the people who've already given their lives and those who put their life on the line every day. I hope they remember not just today, but every other day.

It's September!

September 2nd, to be exact. I can't believe we're already in the ninth month of the year. Only 3 more months until 2010! I remember when I was in elementary school, we all thought we'd be riding around in flying cars and people would be living on Mars by the year 2000. I guess we have a few more years to go!

Today has been an absolutely beautiful day. It feels amazing outside! Kristen and I met Mama and Aunt Charlotte for lunch in Macon along with some other cousins. Their cousin, Iris, is visiting from Texas, so they wanted to get together for lunch. We ate at Molly's Cafe and it was pretty good. The only bad thing was this massive air conditioner they had blowing on our table. I was even cold and I NEVER get cold! Kristen and I ran some errands after lunch. We had to go to Walmart to get groceries for our double date tonight at our house! She and Luke have been seeing each other for about a month and I had said when they first started dating that I wanted to have them over for dinner at some point. We're having Thomas' world famous steaks. Yummo! The rest of the family is jealous that I'm getting to have him over first, but he already knows me, so it's no big deal...at least to me!

I have one more day off this week and I plan on spending it on the couch. Or somewhere similar to it. I've got to get myself psyched up for 3 days of work this weekend. Boo. I might be going to Augusta on Sunday when I get off work. Mama and Aunt Brenda (Hey Aunt Brenda!) are giving a post-wedding shower for Ryan and Jennifer on Monday afternoon. We'll see if I end up going.

Well, it's time to get started on dinner! Later alligators.... ;-)