Christmas 2010

Joel and I were glad to hit the road last week and head to Mississippi.  We were excited to have some time with our family.  All of our nieces and nephews are growing up so fast and getting big - So every chance we get to see them is great. 

Here are a few pictures from our visit.

This picture makes me laugh.  Sally Sharp had a cute shirt on with a Christmas tree - with a bow on top....she couldn't stop putting that bow in her mouth.  That was her entertainment all day.

 Joel reading to Avi Grace.  Notice her Cindarella dress up outfit :)

Mimi, Sally Sharp, and Papa

Abbi & Sally Sharp

Harris & Nathan  - You can see Harris' favorite part of the evening in the next picture!

 Can you find Harris?

 Grandma scored big with her project boxes she created for all three big kids.  They all LOVED them, but Rebekah made the most use of hers immediately.  Here she is looking inside for the first time.

 Sanders opening a gift.

Somehow I missed getting a picture of Wynn - he is too busy to pose for pictures :)

Also, you can see that I don't have picture of John Michael & Madison.  We were thankful that they were even able to come.  Madison came down with the flu a few days before Christmas, and only got to come to Starkville the morning of Christmas day.  We were very glad they were able to make it!

Hope y'all had a great Christmas season as well!

Christmas Cards & Holiday Fun

So, it’s the Christmas season again!  Joel and I love Christmas, and we really get into decorating our house, sending Christmas cards, watching Christmas movies, and eating all the Christmas goodies!  I am usually the one that spends a lot of time picking out the different Christmas cards that I think are cute and would like to use.  At the end of that process, Joel always helps me pick – usually it is difficult to narrow them down!

This year I am planning to order my Christmas cards from Shutterfly.  I have not used Shutterfly in the past, but I know SO many people that have used them for all sorts of things including prints of their photos, photo calendars, invitations (the New Year’s are really cute!) and for sharing their photos with others.  The last one that I mentioned – Free Photo Sharing – is the one that I see most often used.  

 Logo from Shutterfly.com

Shutterfly allows you to upload your new album of pictures, and send a link to that album to family and friends for viewing.  So imagine, your family just got home from picking out that perfect Christmas tree, and you captured it all.  All you have to do to share those photos is login to your free Shutterfly account, and upload them.  Once you’ve done that the link is automatically ready for sharing!  The best part is that grandparents can order prints of their favorite photos directly from the link you share with them.

Well, back to the task at hand, I have been trying to decide on a Christmas card for the season.  Here are the ones I like the best so far:  Yuletide Village, Paper Ornaments, Elegant Wishes, In His Name, and Christmas Plaid Cherry.  Hopefully I will be able (with help from Joel!) to narrow these down to the favorite one today.  It’s time to get to ordering them!

Samples of a few of the cards listed above: (In this order: Yuletide Village, Paper Ornaments, & Christmas Plaid Cherry). 

**All pictures from Shutterfly.com - See links above for more information on each card

So, why am I sharing all of this information about Shutterfly?  This amazing company is giving away 50 free holiday cards to those bloggers that choose to participate.  Go HERE to learn more about it!  I hope you have as much fun as I did while looking through all the fun choices!

Thanksgiving

Joel and I just got home from our trip to MS for Thanksgiving.  We were very excited to see everyone and spend some time with our family.  We are more aware each day how much God has blessed us with our families, and we are very thankful for each and every member.

Here are some pictures so you can see how much fun we had:

 Uncle Joel & Avi Grace

 Avi giving Sally Sharp kisses

 This is one of the good shots I got of Avi while I was trying to coax her to smile for a picture!  She wasn't thrilled to be taking pictures :)

Uncle Joel & Sally Sharp

Sally Sharp's pretty smile

 Harris is so tall!

 Graham, Joel, Sanders, & Nathan

 Wynn, Sanders, Rebekah

 (Notice Wynn's funny face)

Rebekah & Abbi

 After all of our Thanksgiving fun, Rebekah was worn out.  She found her a spot in the den and curled up and went to sleep! 

As you can tell we had a great time with family and friends this Thanksgiving.  On Tuesday evening before we left for MS, Joel and I got to enjoy a Mannheim Steamroller concert.  Joel took me out to dinner before the concert, and we had a great time on our date.  Here we are all dressed up:

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving too!

Georgia Thanksgiving Celebration

Yesterday Joel and I were able to celebrate an early Thanksgiving with a group of friends here in Athens.  We had a good time enjoying all of the food and company.  Here are some pictures to show the fun:

 Our smorgasbord of food...Rolls, spiral-sliced ham, cream corn, sweet potato souffle, strawberry pretzel salad, zipper peas, green beans, macaroni & cheese, dressing, gravy, and broccoli casserole.

Not pictured: Apple pie, Pecan pie, and wassail for dessert

 Another view

 Clay and Marie's beautiful new table worked perfectly for our gathering.

The group

Back Rock Mountain State Park

Our second destination today was Black Rock Mountain State Park, which is about a 20-25 minute drive from Tallulah Gorge State Park.

This state park is at a high elevation, and we definitely noticed the difference as soon as we got out of the car!  I had to put my jacket on, but it was worth it!  We enjoyed the views by sitting and taking it all in.  I hope you enjoy these pictures too.

 This was our first clue that it was going to be a great view from the overlook.  We were treated to these vibrant colors on the road up to the entrance to the state park.

 

  

From this sign you can tell how high we were when we were at the overlook.

 

I was pleased with how the colors showed up in this picture.  It was really pretty to look out over all these mountains and see the vibrant colors among the green.

 

This was the first view we had when we parked after entering the park.

 I love this picture of us with the beautiful scene behind it!

Tallulah Gorge State Park

Today, Joel and I headed up to north Georgia to take in some of the beautiful views of fall.  It was an absolutely perfect day - weather and scenery wise.  We left around 10 this morning and drove to Tallulah Falls, GA for our first stop.

Our destination here was Tallulah Gorge State Park.  We got out and found a nice spot to have our picnic lunch, and then we got ready to do some hiking.  Enjoy the pictures.

This sign tells it all...We hiked down into the gorge to see Hurricane Falls from the gorge floor.  The first "stop" on the hike is a suspension bridge that takes you across the gorge.  It is 310 stairs down to the suspension bridge, and then 221 steps to the floor of the gorge.  Once you go down, you must walk all of it back up - which totals to 1062 steps!  

We had a lot of fun, and really enjoyed all the sights along the way.  We definitely got our exercise in today!

 A view of the steps going down...

 A pretty arbor at the entrance of the trails.  We ate our picnic lunch near here.

We also hiked a trail to Inspiration Point, where you had a good view of Bridal Veil Falls.

 View of the gorge floor from the bottom of those stairs!

 Path on the way to Inspiration Point.

 Suspension bridge - I was a little nervous about this guy, but I went across it twice!  The more people that got on the more it shook. 

 View of another falls at the state park.  This one is called Tempesta Falls.

In the next post, I will show pictures from our second (and last) stop of the day...Black Rock Mountain State Park.

Hope you got out and enjoyed this beautiful day!

Grading - A hilarious take

If you need a good laugh, take a look at the post on the link below.  If you are a teacher, you will especially appreciate the post information and the comments section!

http://notthatkindofdoctor.com/2010/10/the-five-stages-of-grading/

The Monotracer

So, on the way home from campus today Joel and I saw one of these:

Picture from here.

We thought it looked pretty cool, and we got to stay behind it for a little while.  When we stopped at a red light we witnessed the two side wheels fold down to balance it while at a stop - notice the black wheel on the rear of the vehicle in the picture above (it is folded up in the picture).  

I just did a little googling to find out more about what we had seen.  Go here for a pretty good description.  After reading that short article, you should be stunned to find out how much they cost! Around $82,000 - granted it does have air conditioning, navigation, cruise control, and seats 2 - but boy that's a hefty price tag.

So, little did we know what we were actually seeing this afternoon!

Go here to see it in action or just put Monotracer into the search bar on youtube to see more.

UGA Football Game

Today, I got to enjoy a UGA football game with Joel and a couple of other friends.  For those of you that know me, you know I am not a huge football fan, but I wanted to go to at least one game for the experience.  Our friends (and Sunday School teachers) were gracious enough to allow us to go with them this weekend. 

It was an absolutely beautiful day - high of 65 degrees.  I really enjoyed the game (A shutout: UGA 43, Vandy 0) and most of all the company.  Enjoy some pictures from today:

 Debra and Abbi

 Joel and Abbi

 Band Hat - Notice the UGA Arch on the hat.

 Players coming through the Dawg Walk

 Fans watching the Dawg Walk from the bridge on Sanford Drive

 Georgia Flag

 Hairy Dog leading the Dawg Walk

 Mike, Joel, Abbi, & Debra

 This was the cutest couple - I loved their old sweaters.  You can see his wife next to him...she had on a red skirt and cute red and white saddle shoes.

 Team huddle

 Team running out - led by Coach Mark Richt (that link takes you to a page where Coach Richt shares his testimony)

 Today was homecoming - this is the Alumni Band (what a great turnout in numbers!)

 The Redcoat Band

 The graves of the previous Uga's

 Uga VIII being welcomed by the crowd

View of the stadium