Yay for Friends!

The past two weekends have been just awesome.  Interaction w/ fellow Atlantans has been great : ).  On Friday my gal Brandy came to visit w/ her daughter Lynsey. 

Brandy and I have been friends since 1992 and have been inseparable since then. We got to visit and all went to lunch together.  Lynsey is almost 11 months old an incredibly adorable.

She is the happiest baby and I was so thankful for this special visit with them.

Friday night we had our dinner w/ church peeps and it was super yum.  The chili was seriously ah-mazing and the fellowship was great.  Saturday I taught and had a great trip to Trader Joes.  I finally got a cinnamon broom and let me tell you our place smells GREAT! Then I hosted a mini craft afternoon w/ a couple of friends.  Nothing like girl talk and crafts...lol.  Saturday evening we joined our friends Tim and Denise for dinner.  After dinner we hit this brewery with great views of the city.  I of course forgot to take pics of the views but I will say that it was a great reminder of another reason why I love living here.  I did manage to get pictures of everyone w/ their funky brews.

                                          Tim got a brew called Thor.  It made him strong : )

                                      Denise got a Manhattan w/ an aged, oak barrelled bourbon.

                                                    The hubs got an oktoberfest brew.

 This pic quality stinks but you can see that I got the shaft w/ my drink. Just kidding, I sampled a pumpkin beer that was awful and then got a saison beer that was great.

This was called 5 seasons brewery and I highly recommend.  Their menu looked great and it was all organic and local stuff (we had eaten at another good place called Six feet Under beforehand).

Sunday we had a great church service, I made us blueberry chicken sausage and french toast and then we did house stuff.  We finally chose some colors and we painted our guest bedroom a pretty, lavenderish gray.  I will take a picture soon.  I am really happy with the color, as is the hubs.

Today I got to meet up w/ another BFF, Andrea, for coffee and window shopping.  We had a great time visiting each other and catching up. We did deal w/ one of those pesky mall mart vendors...he was very rude but we didn't let it ruin our fun!!  Andrea and I are buds from college and she and her hubs and their adorable son live in the ATL area.  If you know something about ATL is that the 'burbs are huge.  We are about 40 min apart which is not terrible, but we definitely aren't able to get together as much as we like.  It was a great treat : ) An interesting fact about Andrea is she is a runner and doing a BIG one Thanksgiving...whoo hoo Andie!

                                     We probably should have taken this turned around...oh well!

Tonight I am heading to an Arbonne party.  Have you ever used their products?  I haven't but am interested to learn more.  Will let you know if I find any interesting products.  Hope you guys have a great week!

My plan for the day...in pics

The hubs is filming a short film all day today.  So I have made BIG plans for my day. I went to church this morning and this is what I am doing for the rest of the day.

I will let you know how it turns out : )

Our House is a very, very, fine house!

Ok, first off I have to say that I am having a FIGHT with blogger.  I have written 3 blogs, saved them and then come back to work on them later and they are NOWHERE to be found. SO annoying and time consuming.  UGH! Sorry, had to get that out.

The hubs and I moved back to our house a couple of months ago. We bought the house in 2006 and I love it.  It's not the prettiest, newest, fanciest...but it's just right for us.  We choose to buy an older home and live closer in to the city (10-15min) as opposed to living further out in the 'burbs in a newer home w/ a 45min commute.  Our house is a 70s Spanish Mission Ranch. 

                                            Our house back in 2006 right after we bought it.

Since moving back we have definitely started a "dream list".  This is all of the things we want to do to the house.  When we lived here before we did some minor renovations but now that we aren't going anywhere ANYTIME soon (please, dear God...no more moves...k...thx, Lindsey), we are moving ahead full throttle.  Which is exciting...and depressing at times...b/c you need moola : ).  But we will take it one project at a time. 

One HUGE thing that the hubs did several years ago was completely change the look of our den. The den was one of those wood panelled rooms from the 70s. Now some people paint their wood panel and it looks awesome and brings a unique look to the house.  But our wood panelling was the cheap kind that wouldn't have looked great either way.  So Drew tore it down, sanded the walls, primed and painted them and added crown molding.  It looks SOOO much better.  I'm so thankful for my handy man.  

                                    Here is some of the old wood panelling. Isn't it gorgeous : )

                                                                    
My camera just died so I will have to show the updated pics next post. Another big change he and his dad made was in the master bathroom.  Our bathroom had this strange shower/tub thing that was supposed to be a therapeutic type tub...but it was scary.  Booger green w/ metal panelling on the outside that had a fake wood wallpaper.  It was awful and I wouldn't go near it.  The first 6 months we showered in the guest bathroom.  Drew and his Dad installed a beautiful stand alone shower.  They did such a great job and it looks amazing.  I wish we'd taken pics of the old shower...it was hideous. 

It's amazing what a few changes do to make a place look brand new.  Have you done any renovations at your place? What were the best changes? Were any a big nightmare?

Our list is big but we will tackle it eventually...right now I'm trying to pick out paint for the rooms that aren't painted.  Our next BIG challenge this winter is to attack the jungle that is our backyard...scary! Isn't that little brick fence great too : )

Where did she go George?

Sorry I've been MIA folks.  I promise, to my 3 followers, that I'm not gone for good. I have just been SLAMMED with life.  I have lots of news, recipes, and stories to share and I promise I will get back in a groove asap. 

We also have some big news in our life and I'm hoping to share this Friday as part of my friday 5...So stay tuned, all 3 of you ;). And no, it's not the baby type news, akthough that would rock, it's still exciting, life changing news.