31 Oct

Happy Halloween

This is our first Halloween in the new house. I bought a bag of candy at Sam’s, but thought I would be eating most of it. In our previous two houses we have not had a single trick or treater. A neighbor warned me that there might be a lot of kids so I did pick up another big bag of candy at Sam’s. The kids started knocking on the door at 5. Evidently we live in the “cool” neighborhood because there was a steady stream of parents in cars dropping the kids off. We had somewhere between 150 and 200 kids show up for treats. I ran out of candy at 7:30 and had to turn off our porch lights.

Here is Madison in her very cheap lobster outfit. I am not a fan of clothes on dogs, but I thought this was too funny. Wade said she was depressed and took it off. Looking at the picture, maybe he’s right.

My adorable neighbor Emma is a princess.

Wade and I even managed to carve some pumpkins in between handing out candy.

30 Oct

Success!

I made cookies again – with new baking soda and new baking powder. They were perfect. I no longer feel like a baking failure. The sad thing is I have made so many cookies lately that I am sick of them. At least I know I can make them if I want.

Our small group (aka bible study) meets on Monday nights at James and Kendall’s house in Greenville. Wade and I both had bad headaches, but we showed up with smiles on our faces. We were all downstairs talking when a pitcher of ice tea cracked in half. Suddenly Wade, me, the floor, the rug, the table, and the dog were all covered in ice tea. Talk about a wake up call! We got everything cleaned up and then sat down to begin the bible study. Then we discovered the DVD wasn’t in the case. We all decided to make it a social event – one couple was missing anyway – they had been to DC to run the Marine Corps Marathon. Here is a picture of the group minus the Wybengas.

Top Row – Jake Miller, Wesley Harden, Kendall Pickens, James Pickens
Bottom Row – Me, Kristi Miller, Caroline Harden, Wade

29 Oct

Family in DC

I not only have an Aunt and Uncle in DC. I also have cousins. Tyler and Katrina spent the night at my Aunt’s and loved our costumes. This is the first year they have both not been really shy and taken time to warm up. Tyler loved all of the detailed work Wade was doing on his costume. Katrina just liked having a playmate.

28 Oct

Friends in DC

Wade and I both slept in and got up just in time to get Marshall and his friends from the airport. Marshall and a few friends are in DC to run the Marine Corps Marathon. We managed to get all seven of us in our car and deliver them to their hotel, which is conveniently right down the road from my Aunt’s house. We had lunch with them and then headed home to finish up our costumes.

I made another airport run to deliver Jamie Richey to the official B and B Party House and then returned to my Aunt’s for dinner. Wade and I got dressed up and headed out the door. I think our costumes are self-evident, but I will explain. We are both working games. Mine is the simple Tic-Tac-Toe and Wade is Operation. Yes, Wade’s costume works. His nose lights up and he buzzes if you hit the metal while trying to get out the pieces.

Wade had a great night. His costume held up and continued working all night and he won first prize in the costume contest. The prize is a mug picturing previous years’ winners and a bottle of alcohol. We don’t drink so I believe Jamie ended up with the bottle. Wade did finish the evening off with a try at the ice luge with Traci.

27 Oct

We Started Our Trip with a Bang

Wade and I left around 2 pm for our annual trip to Washington DC for a Halloween Party. This year we decided to drive instead of fly. The thinking was we now lived a little closer and our costumes wouldn’t have to be packed away and then repaired upon arrival. You know what they say about the greatest plans…. About 80 miles into our 500+ mile trip, a car ran into my back bumper. I don’t really fault the driver. The rain was bad. Everyone in front of me was stopping suddenly for another wreck. The red pickup truck directly behind me had to swerve to the side to avoid hitting me. The small car behind him had no idea what was going on. Thank goodness only my bumper is cracked and we can continue on the trip. The worst part was waiting 2 hours for the police to arrive.

The crazy part is Mandy, a girl from our church, recognized us on the side of the road and pulled over – this is about 2 minutes after the wreck. Before I was even off the phone with 911, other friends from church were calling to check on us. What a cool group!

A side note on the intelligence of policemen. A single cop handled all three accidents in our immediate area. He started with the wreck farthest away. To get to the second wreck, he backed up the interstate. I’m so glad we have fine law-abiding citizens to uphold the law!

The cops finally finished up our police report and we continued on our journey. It rained the entire way, which played havoc with the traffic. The 7.5 hour trip took a total of 12+ hours. We got to my Aunt and Uncle’s house a little after 1 am.

26 Oct

Wedding Bells are Ringing

A voice from the past called to talk tonight. My old college boyfriend (and one of Wade and I’s good friends) called to say he was engaged. Marshall (some of you know him as Mitchell) has finally proposed to Tarver. Five years of dating and now he is ready for marriage! It was great to talk to him. We are all going to be in DC this weekend and try to meet up.

24 Oct

Cookies – 4, Me – 0

There is an ongoing war at my house between cookies and myself. In the last month, I have made all of my favorite cookies and they have turned out perfectly. However, something then went very very wrong. I have tried chocolate chip cookies (which I am known to have trouble with), chocolate chip cinnamon cookies (which always turn out), oatmeal cookies, and chocolate chip cookies again. The cookies come out very flat and appear unappetizing. Surprisingly, they still taste good. I have tried real butter, margarine, switching out my flour, cooking at a lower temperature, etc. My next guess is to buy some new baking soda and baking powder. I have no idea if it will make a difference, but I have had them since before Wade and I were married.

As a side bar, I used a wooden spoon fresh from the dishwasher to stir my cookies tonight. It was still warm, but that didn’t really register. I noticed the spoon seemed less rigid than normal and pretty soon it broke in half. Wade dislikes my plethora of wooden spoons so he was more than happy to see one bite the dust. Madison had fun with it though.

Now I am off to eat cookie dough – the only real reason to make cookies!

23 Oct

A Bad Day

Today was just a bad day. Nothing seems to be going right – church stuff, work stuff, etc. Our internet even decided to go out for the day.

Actually, the internet going out is kind of funny. It went out at about 10 am and was out all day. I haven’t had any work lately so I wasn’t using the computer, but Wade looked at it when he got home. He diagnosed it as an error on the cable company’s side. We tried to call, but all of our account information is on the internet. We get paperless bills and pay the bills electronically. I had no idea what our account number was. Not to mention that they don’t like it when your phone (our old one) is in a different state than your address. When we finally got to a person (this is around 1 am), we realized that we weren’t paying for internet. I had requested it when we got cable service, a man even came out and set it up. I never looked at the itemized bill, I just paid it – bad on my part I know. The worst part was that I couldn’t sign up for internet service till the next morning at 7 am. I was up till 4 am messing with this. I got a couple hours of sleep….

21 Oct

Game Day

Wade’s Aunt Louise and Uncle John have recently moved to Greenville. Wade’s grandparents stayed with them for the weekend and Wade’s parents stayed at our house. We all got together on Saturday for the GaTech vs. Clemson game. In a sea of orange, we were some of the few GaTech supporters. Brad drove up from Atlanta so we had a total of four Tech graduates (Uncle John too). It was sad that we lost the game, but getting the group together was fun.

In honor of the upcoming holiday, Wade carved a pumpkin before the game.

20 Oct

Apple Peels

Wade’s family is coming to visit and arrives tonight. I am cooking dinner, but the best part is the apple crisp for dessert. As I was peeling the apples, Madison plopped down right in front of me and just stared. I gave her one of the apple peelings and she loved it. Of course she did, she loves anything coming from a human hand.

18 Oct

Another Day with Emma

Danielle called and asked me to watch Emma today. I said sure. Emma wasn’t the perfect angel today. About lunch time she got very grumpy and said she wanted to take her nap. I wasn’t about to argue. She woke up from her nap a different person (that’s all it takes for Wade sometimes too). We had lunch and went to the park. Then it was back for one more viewing of Sleeping Beauty (it had been playing when I arrived).

17 Oct

Family is Invading

This week we have my mother, grandparents, aunt, and uncle visiting and Wade’s parents and grandparents. My family is in town for tonight and Wade’s is coming to spend the weekend. My mother called to let me know they were running a few hours behind her anticipated schedule (no surprise there), but they arrived in time for dinner. Then we made chocolate chip cookies and talked. Mom stayed at our house and everyone else was at the hotel. Wade went to bed at a decent hour, but mom and I stayed up late talking.

My family: Granddad, Grandma, Mom, Aunt Beverly, and Uncle Tommy.

16 Oct

Celebrating Small Things

Let’s celebrate small things. I got all the laundry done – six loads. I cleaned. I watched a movie – Benny and Joon. I got a check from Scientific-Atlanta – just a few more to go. I ran errands. I got a great deal on an unpriced item at Wal-Mart. I changed the sheets on all the beds. The new recipe we tried for dinner was great and easy to make! Madison didn’t escape from her fence – like previous Mondays. We were on time for bible study. I finished my book. Wade cleaned up his office. I didn’t cough all night long.

15 Oct

Eerie Similarities

Wade and I had a strange encounter at church today. I was working the information table when a young couple stopped to ask questions. Through our discussion I found that they had moved to Anderson from Atlanta. They had attended Buckhead church in Atlanta. The guy graduated from Tech and worked as a designer for Electrolux. It could have been the story of Wade and I. I introduced them to Wade and we made plans for dinner this week. Now if only we can get them to volunteer for the host team and carpool on Sunday mornings!

14 Oct

Pumpkin Carving Extravaganza

Once again Wade and I had our annual pumpkin carving party. We have had it in three different locations in three years. Hopefully next year we will still be in our same house! Just to recap, here are pictures from the previous two years.

None of the Atlanta people made a return trip, but we had people from both Anderson and Greenville. We had singles, couples, kids, work people, church people, and neighborhood people. I didn’t get the chance to carve a pumpkin, but we had a few extras and one has my name on it.

While painting our living room, we had done some test painting in the dining room too. We were trying out various shades of red. Wade suggested painting over the red with orange. Then we let people sign the wall. The room will eventually be painted, but for now we are going to have fun with it!

11 Oct

To Memphis and Back in 36 Hours

Wade took off from work after lunch on Tuesday and we started our trip to Memphis. For this one we left the dogs at home with an intern from Wade’s work. It is very convenient to have people without homes or families who don’t mind staying at our house. We got to the Burch house around 9 pm and visited for a while.

The visitation was at 10 am today, followed by the funeral at 11. There was quite a bit of family – the favorites being Wade’s little cousins Marie and Tina.

Directly from the funeral we started the long drive to Anderson. We did make a stop in Madison, AL to have dinner with our friend from college, Daniel. We were dropping him off in his work parking lot when I heard someone calling my name. I turn around and one of my sorority sisters from college is walking towards me. I knew Tracey had moved to the area, but I didn’t realize she worked for the same company as Daniel. Do you hear the tune, “It’s a small world, after all” playing in your head?

09 Oct

They Look Cute, Don’t They?

Today was just a Houdini day. The area between our backdoor and backyard is not fenced in. Normally the dogs happily run from one to the other. Today Tubbles decided to run off. By the time I had Madison secured inside the house, Tubbles was nowhere to be seen. Of course this is one of the few times she doesn’t have her collar on, she doesn’t respond well to her name, and I wasn’t sure she was smart enough to find her way home. I spent an hour looking for her, but found nothing. Nobody I talked to had seen her so I still wasn’t even sure which direction she ran. I sat down for lunch with Wade and then went out to look some more. Who was sitting at the backdoor waiting for me but Tubbles? Thank goodness!

Later that evening Wade and I were eating dinner when there was a knock at our door. We looked at each other and said “Madison.” Sure enough, our mean neighbor (who I have decided is no longer mean) had sent her granddaughter over to tell us Madison was running loose. She had once again jumped the fence about 10 minutes before we had to leave for Bible Study. The good news is she came running when I called. She will now be an inside dog until we figure out where she is escaping.

Why oh why did they both decide to run away on the same day?

08 Oct

Sunday at Home

The girls and I woke up early to head back to Atlanta and Anderson. This was the view from our window – amazing!

I then took a nice hot bath and a two hour nap. I think there was supposed to be some flag football in there, but that didn’t happen. On the way to Fellowship Connection that night, we learned that Wade’s Great Aunt Viola, had passed away. We drove to Memphis just a few weeks ago to visit with her after she broke her hip. We will be leaving for Memphis Monday or Tuesday.

07 Oct

Cool Crisp Mountain Air

My friends from SA made a trip to the mountains. Maryellen used her connections to get us a great deal on a condo with an awesome view. Carol, Tina, Maryellen, and I headed up there on Friday evening. We had dinner in Gatlinburg and then stayed up late talking. Saturday was a riot. We went shopping that morning, spent the afternoon talking, had dinner outside with a bluegrass band, and then went back to the room to play cards. We eventually put the cards up when we did more talking than playing. What great conversations! We had four people with different ages, experiences, upbringings, etc. We even got a call from the front desk asking if there were any kids in our condo. Evidently there had been a noise complaint – oops!

Aren’t we cute? The bottom row is Carol, Tina, and Me. Maryellen is the scarecrow.

04 Oct

A Day of Girls

I spent my day with a two year old. My next door neighbor has a part time job and has found reliable childcare difficult. I offered to watch her daughter, Emma, today. Emma is a great kid and I am always amused at her antics. We played hide-n-seek, princess, doctor, played with my dogs, ate pizza, and watched a movie. I must have worn her out – she took a three hour nap instead of her usual one hour.

I quickly changed clothes and headed to Greenville for a Girls Night Out dinner at California Dreaming – always a fun time.

03 Oct

Flat Goes My Tire

My car is too smart for my own good. While leaving a friend’s house the other day, a new light appeared on my dash. After consulting the manual, I realized the tire pressure in one of my tires was low. I looked at the tire and it didn’t look flat, but I wasn’t sure how far to drive on it. I ended up finding a gas station with air a mile down the road. I filled up the tire and thought the problem was solved. The next day I had an oil change so I know the tire pressure was checked again. Then the following day at 4:50 pm, I got in my car to run some errands. The light on the dash told me the tire pressure (in the same tire) was once again low. At this point I realized maybe I had a hole in my tire. Sure enough, there was a nail. I rushed to a Firestone (I wanted it fixed that day) and they fixed my tire. Now it is good as new. Next time I will check for something in the tire instead of just filling it up with air. Smart aren’t I?

02 Oct

Free Time Galore

I woke up this morning with nothing to do. What an odd feeling – not as good as you would think. Scientific-Atlanta has run out of work for me so I am just floating free. I’ve even finished all of my major house projects. (To clarify, the projects I can do without Wade’s help. There is still lots to do.) Today I am going to spend running errands and doing chores, but I have the feeling I am going to go stir crazy very soon.
Here is today’s agenda:
– get permanent retainer replaced
– wash my car
– give Tubbles a bath
– go running
– take Tubbles for a walk
– drop off an envelope at the post office
– make dessert for our group meeting tonight
– clean and polish door hardware
– clean up Wade’s shop
– finish my book
– respond to emails
Maybe I’ll add things as they come up today.

01 Oct

Sorority Rush Disguised as Bible Study

I have mentioned our new church, Catalyst Church. The church doesn’t have Sunday School. Instead, people are broken up into small groups of 6-8 singles or 6 couples and meet once a week in someone’s home. This provides a much more intimate setting and a chance to really open up and connect. I haven’t had a good bible study since college so I was excited about the small groups beginning. Small groups are formed at an event called GroupLink.

Today was the big day. Everyone interested in small groups arrived at the appointed time and put on name tags. We were then directed to a room with tables labeled by stage of life – Age 20-30 single female, Age 20-30 single male, Age 20+ married with kids, Age 20-25 no kids, Age 26-30 no kids, etc.

Theoretically this should have made forming a group very easy. The problem comes from the fact that a lot of us know each other from our work at the church and are at separate tables because of only a small age difference. Wade and I ended up sitting at a table with 7 couples. The limit was 6. It took us an hour to figure out a way to split our group that people were okay with. We tried to separate the group by age, pregnancy, church staff, etc. Wade and I kept giving each other looks – we were both thinking this reminded us of sorority rush.

There was one group everyone wanted to be in, nobody wanted to be mean, and everybody wanted everyone else to be happy. The funny thing to me is that this is an 8 week trial group before choosing the group you will stay with for 12-24 months. All is well now and I have to admit that I am excited about the group – we are meeting for a get-to-know-you dinner tomorrow night. There is even one couple that had visited church for the first time this morning – they rock!

The tables at the meeting tonight were decorated with gourds and Wade brought home a mini pumpkin. He wrapped up his evening by practicing for our pumpkin carving party. Because he no longer has an active blog, I am posting a picture for him.