I'll bake you a pie... and update you while I'm here

Or a loaf of bread, or a bun, or a bagel, or some cake.... or whatever else Miss Sara Lee has available in your local grocery store... even sausage, hot dogs, or cocktail weenies (apparently Sara Lee owns Hillshire Farms, Ball Park, Jimmy Dean, and multiple other brands, even in other countries...)  Anyway, Mrs. Lee here.  Yep, I got married!  So go ahead, get out the jokes if you've got'em.  I've already gotten a few laughs. :-) I actually think it's pretty cool... and shorter and easier to write than the former last name, haha!  Not nearly as unique though. :-) I mean, how often do you get to have two Z's in your name?  Good thing that one gets to stay in the middle.  (The other middle sort of stays too, which is always fun...)

I've been waiting to publish a new blog post so I could include some photos from the wedding weekend and the beach, but I just haven't found the time at home to actually sit down, get on the desktop where we keep the photos, organize them all, and get them posted.  So I figured I'd go ahead and get this one out, seeing how I've had it saved for about a week now, and the darn straw thing was the last time I had time to post, and wow was that an interesting one (sike...) ...

I think life's going to be a *bit* slower now (or at least not as hectic), which will hopefully allow more time to be on here and do some of the things I really love and that fulfill me (being married certainly does, but planning and organizing a wedding... not so much, haha...).  Staying active and exercising are one of the top ones right now - I've had so little time to dedicate to that, and now it's something I can finally jump back into full swing.  I plan to really dive into photography a lot deeper than I've been able to as well.  We've looked into some classes, so hopefully I can get all that together soon.  I also have been wanting to volunteer with animals for a long time, ever since I visited the shelter last year (well, for years actually, but that just made it a lot more real).  Also on the list are getting back into my music - my guitar and I have been apart for way too long.  I also haven't read a good book in a really long time, and I miss that so much.  (Any good book recommendations from you find folks for me to get back into it are certainly welcomed!)  J and I have also discussed multiple other hobbies, and I'm really excited about it all, so I'm really looking forward to everything... and having TIME to do it all... or at least attempt to fit it all in.

Not much else has been going on lately.  We've been settling in and trying to get motivated to streamline things a bit and stay active.  It was a tough first week back at work - not workwise, but just getting back into the groove.  I added up the actual days I was gone - I took off from work Wednesday 1/8 through the end of the week, plus all the next week (thereby thoroughly exhausting my vacation time...), then we also had Monday off for the holiday.  So when I came back on Tuesday 1/19, I'd basically been gone from work for two whole weeks.  Definitely makes for a rough start back into the normal work schedule.  I've basically evened out now, and I'm starting to feel a lot better - I tend to get just tired feeling and unmotivated when I'm out of sync like that.  Even this past weekend I felt like that.  But yesterday something got ahold of me, and I actually got a lot done at home.  So I'm hoping this is finally the motivation I've been looking for, and I hope it sticks around.  There are a lot of things I need to get done, plus a lot of things I just want to do and take part in.  And I want to feel energized and excited about it all.

Let's see, what other news is there... I'm in the process of changing my name, legally.  Now there's something fun for ya.  Social security, DMV, passport office, bank, car insurance, health insurance, work email, business cards, work directory... not to mention all the random places.  Blegh.  So far, I've accomplished social security, and that one took an hour waiting at the office, and a few hours off work.  Can't wait to do the rest... I love that my passport was renewed just over a year ago.  If it's been renewed in the past 12 months, you aren't charged for a name change.  But over a year, and it's the entire application and fees all over again... yaaay.

In other (not so important, but still funny) news, Jason got his first pair of "slippers" yesterday.  I don't know what everybody calls them... I live in my Dearfoam ones at home and have always used some as long as I can remember.  I always called them "bedroom shoes" haha.  He's always thought they were silly, but multiple times before, he's complained of having cold sock feet, and I'll offer him a slipper for a few minutes, and he just oohs and aahs at the wonderful warmth. :-) Anyway, he saw some really nice men's ones in Macy's before Christmas that were all nice and cushy and warm-looking.  I never made it back over there for them, but I looked around closer to home for some others.  I never found any worth getting, but we happened to see some while out last night.  We got them home, and after complaining that his foot wasn't going to fit, and some coercing from me, he now absolutely loves them, haha.  So we'll see if the warm, loving feeling for the slippers sticks around. :-)

Nothing much else that I can think of right now.  It's good to be back, and hopefully I can find some time to sit down and get some photos up for ya here soon.  This is the only one I have access to right now...

It's me on the beach on the honeymoon... North Carolina's beach, that is... in January. :-) No tropical clear waters and swimsuit, just windpants and a sweatshirt, haha.  J captured this one of me, which is rare because I'm hardly ever in the photos, since I'm usually behind the camera.  But on this trip, we both had to share, haha - we discovered that it's not going to be too long before we both need our own camera.  We came to the realization that he's definitely the landscape photographer - he loves the lighting, colors, speeds... which I'm still trying to learn.  But I'm the people and action photographer.  I have hundreds of bird photos from the trip (in my defense, I saw more birds this time than I EVER have down there before... plus I finally had the right kind of camera to capture them).  I also love capturing the people at our familiy events, and I'm always the one that tries to convince J to pose for a picture with me wherever we are.

Haha, what a far cry we are from when I was a kid, going everywhere with my 35mm Olympus, carrying around plenty of extra rolls of film, running off AA batteries, asking Mom and Dad to take me to Eckerd Photo to drop off and pick up my many packs of photos, spending all my money on prints that you can never anticipate the outcome of until you see them...  (Which reminds me, I've got a huge bin at home of photos I need to take the time to transfer to digital - what a task that will be!!)  Or for a different perspective, what a far cry we are from when J was a kid, running around with his Polaroid. :-) But now, we can take 1000+ high resolution (aka HUGE) photos on this crazy, teeny-tiny invention called a memory card, or even 2000+ smaller photos... and with 4 cards so far, I can go quite a ways... we even have a hard drive dedicated to photos and movies alone, which is going to be full before I know it.  We have so many awesome photos and wonderful family memories we've been able to capture (and ensure were actually captured).  It's just so hard to look back at the little 35mm (which is probably still in a box with my old photos, haha!) and imagine trying to capture the same memories and photos.  J has even commented multiple times at how much he can learn now with digital, vs. his film SLR that he learned on years ago.  I just love it.

Anyway, back on TOPIC - in this photo, I love the reflection he captured on the wet sand.  He can just look for and find things like that, which never ceases to amaze me.  Our rule is that you can't go to the beach without getting in the ocean.  It actually warmed up to the 60s at the end of our trip, so we decided to go out barefoot for a while. The water was still cold enough to make your feet numb after about 5 seconds, haha, but it was definitely fun, and definitely worth it to feel the sand under my feet.  I absolutely love it, and there's nothing like it.  More photos to come! (Including some AH-MAZING sunsets from the landscape guy...)

The straw dilemma

So this is pretty pitiful, and probably not interesting to many... but I'd like to see what people think about this.

Every time I go to Chick Fil A, which is pretty much the only place I get take-out, they give me straws in the bag to go.  I take it home, and Jason and I don't use straws - we take the lids off and drink from the cup itself.  I hate to be wasteful though, so I put the straws in a drawer in the kitchen.  The other day, while searching for something else in that drawer, I got fed up with the mound of straws.  So I took them out, and I was amazed at the amount.  I've probably been keeping them for at least a year, and I don't even get take out food that much.  I started keeping them just as a thought of, "Hey, I might have some other use for them some day, or might run into a time when I need straws."  (Hahahahaha, right...)

So here's what came out...

I keep my asparagus rubber bands... I rather think the straws now rather fondly resemble asparagus from the store...

These picture actually don't make it look so bad.  But I promise, I was having issues even holding them all at once.  They were OVERFLOWING in my kitchen drawer, where they probably took up 80-90% of the space.

As far as I know, straws aren't recyclable, which is sad, because I'd have many to throw that way.  So does anybody need a bunch of straws?  I just hate throwing things away.  And how do I stop the pile from growing even more?  Do I hand them back every time after fishing them out of the bag while in line at the drive thru before I pull away?  Can I take my asparagus bunch of straws back to Chick Fil A every now and then and tell them I don't need them?  Or maybe just throw them into the straw container at the condiment counter? :-) Should I tell them as I order my food that I don't need straws?  Haha, because those people are so speedy that I don't even have time to do that when I pull up to the window before I get my bag handed out to me.

So what to do with the extra?

My favorite Christmas commercial

Just thought I'd share it... I think most people have probably seen this many times.  It's been around as long as I can remember, and it comes on every year.  I used to play handbells too, so it's fun in that respect.  My favorite part is the little sigh of exhaustion at the end. :-)



(Those of you on FB will need to go to the blog to see the video...)

I gave in to the holidays

So I've been a total blog slacker.  Not without reason though - I am getting married in just a few short weeks, after all.  I hope things will slow down significantly after that, but somehow I have a feeling that they won't anyway.  We shall see.

Well, I know I complained about everybody and their brother bringing out Christmas way too early, even before Halloween for goodness sake!  But last week something got into me and I finally gave in.  I figured it's a week out, it's ok.  So I went upstairs, moved the stuff away from the wall, and opened the little door to the lovely attic crawl space that is such a *great* perk of apartment living (you know what I'm talking about... the little child-size doors that open to a dark space of plywood and insulation up under the roof, which serves as your "storage space").  I tried to hold my breath as much as possible to avoid all the dust as I continued to get aggravated at the lack of storage space, as I always do.  After pulling out numerous boxes, bags, and bins, I finally found a few things worth keeping out.

My first item on the agenda was the lighted garland.  Here is the final result (this is something I usually do each year, so it was an easy choice to pull out)...

(Forgive the cell phone photos... these are of the stair railing.)

The little bow is either from my mom or one of the grandmothers, I can't recall... but I think it's fun.  Cute Santas are always fun.

Thank goodness I'd kept all the garland in a box together, along with the bow.  I even labeled the box before I put it away last year - probably knowing how annoyed I would get trying to find it again if I didn't do so.

I usually have a mid-sized tree I'll put up, but I decided against pulling all that out this year.  At my bridal shower a few weeks ago, they had a little tree, and everyone brought different snowflake ornaments to put on it.  It turned out beautifully, and it's also very special to me now since so many people contributed to it.  So I decided just to put that up in my place instead of the big tree this year.  Here it is...

All the snowflakes are from family and friends.  There are even some famiy heirlooms on there that have been handmade and around for a very long time, so it's a great keepsake.  And I've got a tree up now. :-)

That's all I did last week, but everyone around here was hanging up wreaths on their doors, so I decided to go dig mine out too on Sunday.  The wreath was in its own box.  But I had to do MUCH searching, digging, box shifting, and sneezing before finding the hanger.  Unfortunately, for some reason, it was put up in a big bin labeled "Christmas Stuff" - haha, what was I thinking?  THAT's a title that's going to help me out a lot.  Anyway, here ya go (bow credit to my mom, hehe)...

So, that's it for the Christmas decorations.  There are about 10 more boxes of stuff I could drag out up in that darn little storage area, but I wasn't going through that hassle this year.  I also gave in to some hints by a certain someone who really wanted some sausage balls, so they got baked this weekend as well.  I even find myself stopping on the Christmas radio station every now and then to hear the rest of the song.  Most still get on my nerves, since it's all basically the same set of songs done over and over different ways by different people... but hey, I guess that's just something to deal with.

Honestly, I truly hope everyone is having a good holiday season.  Spend time with the people who are important to you, and make sure they know that.  Remember the true reason that we celebrate Christmas, which is our Lord.  It's easy to get swept up in the holiday craziness all around us, so just make sure you take a few steps back and keep it all in perspective with what (and who) is really important to you. :-)

Grease

Just had to share that I'm sitting here on my couch, working on wedding plans, and watching Grease...  and laughing...  and singing along (haha, should I be embarrassed about that?)...  Greased Lightening just went off.  What makes me laugh even more than the movie itself and all of them dancing and flying around is the fact that I know all the words.

The Martins, Acapella

So in my search to find the name for that hymn the chimes played last night that I just can't remember for the LIFE of me, I've been scrounging around the internet for lists of hymns from hymn books and all.  For some reason, a song rang a bell in my head that I know well from years ago.  My grandparents like the Gaithers, and I grew up with a lot of the hymns and songs they sang.  So yes, I'm a gospel fan. :-) With my parents, we had some CDs of music from some absolutely amazing groups that would perform on there.  This was one of them... their performance of "The Doxology."  I found videos of them on youtube, and I've been sitting here for over an hour, while I wrote the last post, listening to their various songs.  It captures me.  It's just incredible what these people can do with their voices.  I don't care what kind of music you like - you can't deny the beauty in this harmony and in the amazing talent they have.  It gives me goosebumps.  Plus, the message in itself and the song are beautiful already on their own.  (Tip:  Seriously, don't watch... just listen first.)



If you want more, check this next one out from the same group... totally different feel and is a bit bouncy at the beginning, but the last half is insane.  Gospel doesn't get much better than this.

Haha, and a hilarious tip from a comment at the bottom - check out Mark Lowry at 1:36. :-)



And now, I must go to bed... with some great music in mind.  (By the way - I enjoy this in my head MUCH more than Christmas music!!  Yes, I'm still putting it off as long as possible! :-) )

Thanksgiving and more

I'm thankful for so many things I've been blessed with in my life. I often find myself thinking how thankful I am for even the smallest things... Like my fuzzy slippers that keep my ice-cold feel warm (speaking of... I just reminded myself to go get them!)... Or the little toaster oven that can bake just a few cookies in under 15 minutes from start of preheat to eating time... Or the dimmer switch in my bathroom that my handy man so nicely installed for me (after months of me begging him to grab one and put in, hehe) so I don't blind myself in the mornings with crazy-insane bright lights... who ever thought that was a good idea anyway?? It's so much better to get ready in the half-dark bathroom. :-) At least it is for my eyes.

Anyway, back to the subject. Small things are so important. But the big things have the huge impact. One of the things I am most thankful for in this life is family. Mine is incredibly supportive, loving, caring, funny, and so great to be around... and that's extended family as far out as I've ever met. Not much goes on around here without family being present... holidays, of course, being a primary example.

This year's Thanksgiving was a little different schedule than we're used to, but so far, it's been a blast. We're actually having another get-together tomorrow, so a few of us are getting two Thanksgivings, haha. Yesterday was hanging out with the Ezzell clan, and I so enjoyed it all. I absolutely love my family, and I mean that in all honesty. It's just good to spend time with people.

So, now that the sappy part is out of the way, here's a little photo-story of Thanksgiving, yesterday...

(All that really happened prior to this photo, that's worth mentioning, was before we even got out of the car at the grandparents' house. Jacob and I went earlier than everybody else, so I could make my casserole and we could hang out with them a bit. As we turned onto the street they live on, my heart jumped into my throat at the sight of a fire truck down at the next block. I know my eyes are bad, but I always think the worst, and it certainly did look to be near their house. Jacob, always casual and unassuming, assured me it was nothing. Turns out, the truck was actually at the house right next door to the grandparents' house. The guys were in the process of leaving, and nothing appeared to be wrong. Haha Grandmom didn't even know they'd been there, so there obviously wasn't a big to-do. Thank goodness. So we proceeded with our morning. :-) )

I made my casserole at Grandmom's...

While the guys did the usual... :-)

Dad did come play Turkey Carver for a while...

So I took Dad's place in the hang-out room...

Took a few pictures before the meal...

This is actually my only food plate shot... this is one of Jacob's "pose" faces - haha, I promise he really was having a good time :-) ...

I got evidence of everybody chowin' down...

Jacob and I took our usual places at the "kids" table (as it will probably always be called) - no worries, we still like it...

Got a shot of the dessert spread (and a dog trying to be sneaky) before we dug in...

All we Ezzells have our quirks... Alli's is apparently a love of mac and cheese (we already knew that one!) alongside chocolate dessert... (no worries, she did at least admit that the bites with both tasted strange, haha)...

And a nice shot before we left...

And along with dessert always comes the time to sit around and have good conversation. I like getting little slice-of-life videos, and I grabbed one of a funny story here. Dad is talking about the happenings of their wedding day - Granddad had to go into surgery that same day, so Mom and Dad left from the wedding, in all the attire, and drove straight down the Interstate all the way to see Granddad... and headed right into the ER after hours to go find his room.

As we were seeing Connie and Steve and the girls off outside, the 6:00 bells began to chime at the church down the street. This is something my dad grew up hearing, as they ring hymns every day at 6PM. It's such a beautiful sound... I captured a bit of some of them. It was dark out, so the video might be boring if you don't like hymns. But I grew up with so many of them in church, and all of these were ones I knew by heart. I loved sitting out there last night and listening to them. Since it was Thanksgiving Day, they added an additional fourth song, since they usually only play three. Yesterday's selections were fitting... "Because He Lives," a song I'm racking my brain for but can't remember for the lift of me, "In the Garden," and "How Great Thou Art." These videos are of the last two, in respective order.

So that's about it for Thanksgiving 2009, Part 1. Part 2 comes tomorrow.

Today was an interesting break inbetween the two. Last year was one of the few years I've ever actually gotten up early and fought the crowds to get some Black Friday deals, and I definitely scored on some stuff then (although I basically got all Christmas shopping done then!). I'm trying to not spend much this time around though, despite the fact that there are SO many good deals, and so many things I'd like to have. So in my typical sales paper browsing I do on Thanksgiving Day, I made a list of the few items I was looking for. And last night, I was thrilled to find that many of the places I was considering going today had everything online too. So I was able to get one item I wanted online. I ended up able to get up and take my time this morning, and Jason and I headed out late morning to check out a few things. Wolf Camera was a cinch, and they even let you order the items that are out of stock in the store at the sale price... I love it when stores don't pull the rip-off with the fine print (3 minimum per store, no rainchecks... blah blah blah). Kohls was a different story... I only wanted a few clothes items, so I walked towards the line areas with said items in hand. Haha, I think my jaw probably dropped when I saw the line. It was INSANE. I honestly can't believe people were waiting in it - some only had a few shirts or what not. Haha, so I promptly turned around and put the items back. Jason had dropped me off, and was so ready to get out of the parking lot - apparently it was a mad house. And this was even at 1:00... guess people were trying to make the doorbuster deadline, haha. The mall was even worse... so we stopped and called it a day.

Something noteworthy did present itself before our first stop today. We parked right in front of the camera store, next to the sidewalk. There was a man there tending to his baby in a stroller, and there was a puppy right next to them, with his leash tied to the bench. The man was kind of grinning at the dog but not interacting, which I found odd. When we came back out of the store, the man was gone, but the puppy was still there, confirming my thought that the dog didn't belong to the man.  A few people walking by kept crouching down to pet it a while, but then would get up and keep on walking. I kind if asked aloud to Jason what we could do, because someone obviously had left it or was too busy with their shopping to make arrangements for their dog. We left, because people kept stopping and tending to the dog. I was pretty worried (aka ticked off) though... animal cruelty and negligence is something I don't take lightly at all. I won't get into all that... but it just makes me angry - no matter if someone actually left the dog there on purpose, knowing that a kind stranger would take care of what they're too lazy to do themselves... or if someone was just so incompetent and uncaring that they decided to tie up their puppy while they did a little shopping or had lunch in a nice heated restaurant. I don't care, there's no excuse. We had lunch nearby, so we drove back by afterwards to check. I was fully prepared to pull the guilt trip and at least beg Jason to drive us to take the dog to the SPCA adoption center if it was still there, because it certainly didn't deserve to go back to the people who left it there, even if they did plan to come back. (Yes, I had already jokingly mentioned "rescuing" the puppy ourselves, and let it become part of our family... and how it could conveniently save us adoption fees in the dog we eventually want to get, haha... and that "joke" was quite denied... oh well, in due time.) Thankfully, the puppy wasn't there any more. I'm happy that it's at least out of the cold. I can only hope that it's with somebody more responsible now. If I could have, I would have had no problem taking that dog home without even a note left on the bench. I just pray he's happy, warm, and cozy - it's reeeeally getting cold out tonight!

Hope everyone had a great holiday yesterday and is getting to enjoy a long weekend...