Fairy Godmother Reunion with Princess Kate

Amanda named us Kate's Fairy Godmothers and we have really latched on to the title. Heather, Lindsey and I drove to Memphis this weekend to meet one of the Kappa Delta New Member's for the Class of 2027, Miss Katherine Tally Cantrell.

Seriously though, Kate is perfect. I was a little nervous about holding her, because I really felt like I would hold her little head wrong, but let's face it, I'm a natural.

We are obsessed with this little girl!!!! She spit up a little on Lindsey, and we all got jealous.
Here's Kate, Heather, and Kate's Mom, Amanda:
Amanda and Luke were invited to a wedding, so we volunteered to baby-sit. This is when the fun really started. As soon as they were out the door, we decided that we had a little of Anne Geddes in us, and proceeded to dress and arrange Kate in various poses and in various outfits. We got carried away to say the least. Here's a group shot of all the fun:

Yes, there is a crying baby, and we still took the picture.

I took some other pictures of Kate and put them on my photography blog. Click here if you want to see them.

I also want to backtrack a little and cover a little more of Birthday Week '09. I had a surprise party at my favorite restaurant (Los Casadores, duh) and I just appreciated it so much. We have such wonderful friends in Mobile and we are so blessed! Also, Amanda (also known as Kate's Mom) handcrafted a birthday banner for me. She is busy with a newborn but still made a banner for me. I have the most loving friends and family ever. I love ya'll!

My sweet Office Friends

I had to work from noon to 9pm last night. When I walked into the lobby, I saw a few of my co-workers wearing Hawaiian lays, but this place is weird, so I didn't think anything of it. Then I walked into our Rep Room and everyone had on Hawaiian gear and they had decorated my cubicle (yes.... I work in a cubicle these days....)

When I got off work, I made Caleb watch Twilight with me. Despite what he may tell you, I know that deep down, Twilight is his new favorite movie. Do not be fooled- he loved it. He also thinks Edward is a dreamboat. He may tell you otherwise, but now you know better, hehe.

Super Bulldog Weekend and Happy Birthday to ME!

We took a much needed trip to Starkville this weekend and just had the best time with our family and seeing old friends. I saw people that lived on the same hall as me our Freshman year and we just can't believe how old we are. Caleb saw a ton of old friends too. Here's him with the Parks Boys outside Old Venice.

After a really long wait, we were seated at a table and as the waiter took our order, he would say whether or not he was going to "put in the order" which turned out to mean it wouldn't show up on our ticket. Most of everything we ordered, he didn't charge us for it. It was very strange.

Birthday Week has begun, by the way. I will be 26 on Tuesday- gross. I have to work until 9pm though so I celebrated this past weekend. We didn't have a "6" at the house, so we stuck a "2" on there. That cake is delicious and I plan on eating the rest of it when I get home this evening, broo-ha-ha-ha. Here'a picture of me and McRae. I hear we look alike....

I've already opened gifts and am proud to say we're the owner of a very nice doggie bed and doggie necessities such as leash, collar, grooming supplies, etc. Dog not included however, still need to get that. We'll be in our house in a month so PJ Joey will be coming home soon. Look out readers- you will be bombarded with probably thousand upon thousands of pictures as soon as PJ Joey comes home.

Caleb got me a pair of rainbows and I'm really liking them, and his parents got us tickets to see one of my favorite singers, Brandi Carlisle. She's playing May 23 at one of our favorite restaurants on the causeway. A friend of ours informed us last night that Brandi Carlisle is a raging lesbian. Did not know that. She said to expect a lot of lesbians to be at the concert. Fabulous. Caleb will probably be the only guy. I had already planned out my entire outfit: hippie dress, rainbows, braided pigtails. I might tone it down though since Blue Gill will be teeming with the "ladies." I don't want to cause anyone to stumble.

Oh Creepy Me...

Apparently I am talking in my sleep. Caleb says that when he's come to bed the past few nights from studying, that I'm sitting straight up and talking gibberish and that MY EYES ARE OPEN. That is so weird. He said that last night I sat up, said something weird, then told him to shut up (which I promise we don't say "shut up" to each other) and then I went back to sleep.

So all of my friends that I grew up with and spent the night at your house or if I roomed with in college or cheerleader camp: Did I talk in my sleep? Snoring while ill with Bronchitis doesn't count.

Could this just be a weird phase? Why are my eyes open? I am perplexed.

Easter

The Easter Bunny did not visit me for the first time in my life. I hear he left a few cadbury eggs at my parent's house, though, so I will collect those this weekend:)

We had a wonderful Easter though. We are just really loving our church here in Mobile. I stole all of the following pictures from Alison Rudd's facebook, but here is a group pic of the College Sunday School class we "help" with. Honestly, we don't help at all, but we want to pretend like we're still in college I guess.

They are such a fun crew. Some of these girls come to a Bible Study we have in our aparment and they are just adorable.
This picture is a lesson for everyone out there. I remember when I was growing up, my sweet little mama would always remind me to "sit up straight." Case in point. No matter how cute your dress is, if you have bad posture, you look terrible.

This dress is also a consignment buy. Emily Stringer will be proud that I have totally gone "consignment." It is just the way to go.

Recap

So much to write about and so much free time at work....

I'll start with The Office Party from last Friday night. Liz dressed up as Dwight, then Stephen really ran with the picture. This picture just makes me so happy. Saturday was more than excellent. I didn't have to work! Caleb "took the day off" and we drove all over Mobile (shopping) and it was just a great day. And oh, the best part was that we went to Sam's Club and they were having a CHEESE EVENT! They had tons of little hair-netted ladies serving various types of nice cheeses. I had several types of gouda, mozzarella, and other fancy cheeses I can't spell. It was a classy time.

Sunday I flew out to St. Louis as mentioned previously. I have flown a lot by myself for these projects but ne'er have I had to get myself from the airport, rent a car, then get to my hotel. Then stay by myself in the hotel. Honestly, I had a knot in my stomach about it, but it all went very smoothly. Although at Avis, they just processed my paperwork and told me to find "G13" and the keys are on the dashboard. Well it was pouring down rain, and of course I had only packed short sleeves because I live on the Gulf Coast now and it's always 82 degrees outside. I floundered up and down the rows in the parking lot looking for G13. I found it and it was a Dodge Journey, which I now covet. They are awesome vehicles if anyone is looking into buying a car.

So back to the part of this story where I only packed short sleeves..... it SNOWED on Monday. I referred to it all day as the Snow Storm of '09. I tried not to whine about being cold all day, but lets face it- I'm a whiner ("nothing ever suits me" -Blake Bousson). But a ray of sunshine did bless my day in the form of RO TAYLOR!!! He is at seminary in St. Louis so he stopped by to visit me for breakfast Monday morning. It was so great catching up with an old friend. Who doesn't love Ro Taylor.

(This is a picture of Snow Storm '09)

From there, I met up with Noah who is the Ministry Coordinator for the project and a Group Leader who is bringing a group to the project and we toured the Lodging Facility and all the Church Planters we'll be working with during the project in July. I'll give you a quick rundown of the church plants we'll be serving:


1. Cross Haven- launched in 2007, meet in an elementary school

2. Redeemer- launched in September of '08, about 180 people are already attending

3. Red Tree- meet in a bar! Run about 120 people combined in the morning and evening service
4. Crosspointe- minister to the large immigrant population, which is primarily Bosnians, but also a large population of Pakistanis and about 25 other ethnicities seeking refuge in the U.S.

5. August Gate- launching this August; the demographic of this church is 20-35 yr olds.

So on the way back, I got to the airport 5 hours early and sat in terminal A3 pretty much all day. As I was boarding the airplane, for some reason I looked back and something caught my eye- a familiar face. I thought to myself, "that guy looks a lot like Stephen Arant." I looked back at the guy again and he was staring at me funny too, and lo and behold, it WAS Stephen Arant. He had been sitting in A3 since 1:00pm. We had both been sitting there for 4 hours and could have been catching up. Anyway, I thought that was such a coincidence.

Well that's the end to this long post. OH! And I read the book "Night" and "Marley and Me" while sitting in A3 and I have to say they are both really good reads! Night is very short but very powerful, so even if you don't have a lot of time to read, this is very doable. And I was hesitant about reading "Marley and Me" because for some reason I thought it would be really hokey, but it wasn't and I actually cried at the end- like big time boo hooed in A3.

Engagement Pictures and St. Louis!

I took some more engagement pictures yesterday if you're bored and want to take a look. I put more on the photography blog, so you can click here.

I didn't take every picture in RAW this time (whew!) so uploading the pictures was infinitely easier.

I also want to say a big thanks to all the suggestions for vegetables. It really helps! I am back to being motivated to eat fun new veggies. To the butternut squash: you did not best me! I will continue to try new vegetables.

And finally, I'm going to St. Louis Sunday through Tuesday to do some pre-project planning for the PowerPlant week in July. Some of the Group Leaders are coming along so I'll get to meet them, as well as see where we all will be staying and where we will be working. I'm very excited!

Broadening my mind, one vegetable at a time.....

I realized a while back that we were only eating about three vegetables in meals I cook: green bell peppers, onions, tomatoes. I guess lettuce too, in salads. But that is really it. Oh and maybe broccoli from time to time. Maybe.


There are so many vegetables (and nutrients!) that we should probably be eating, so I thought I would introduce some new foods into our diet. I made eggplant parmesan one time but didn't really know how to cut into the eggplant and if I was supposed to get all the seeds out or not. Haven't tried it again. I bought a mango last week to be exotic and watched a youtube video on how to cut it. The mango was ok, but nothing I want to dump my grapes over.


And then there is the butternut squash from last night. I found a recipe for "Butternut squash and bacon pasta bake" and thought, "it has bacon in it, so it has to be tasty, and squash is probably really good for you, so let's do this thing."


First of all, I didn't know what a butternut squash even looked like, so I walked up and down the produce aisle examining the labels and got sprayed with the misting water more than once until I finally found them. They look like this, in case you are wondering:

You have to peel that sucker and chop it up into bits as seen above, but what they don't tell you is that the peel is actually a titanium derivative and it is virtually impossible to peel. No kidding, I was SWEATING trying to peel that thing. SWEATING. Something you shouldn't be doing while leaning over food. I also almost lost a finger. Plus, it took so long to prepare and I was STARVING so I ate an entire tray of Peeps which completely negated the health benefits of the butternut squash.

So all that work and honestly, I hated the taste. They taste like potatoes. So why do all that if it's just going to taste like potatoes? Very disappointing. Unless I hear that butternut squash is a powerfood and is extremely high in fiber and has other redeemable qualities, then I may try it again.

Otherwise, do ya'll have any suggestions on beefing up our vegetable intake? Are there other fun veggies out there I don't know about?