Random Pictures

The circus is town this weekend so here are a few pictures of Elise until I can do some longer and more interesting posts. Enjoy!

Seriously?...It's only March

When people find out that I used to live in Chicago and now live in the South they usually ask me if I like it down here. That's a hard question to answer. As in any situation in life, there are pros and cons. Here is one of the biggest cons...

IT'S WAY TOO DANG HOT DOWN HERE!!

I am not a hot weather person and it gets hot and humid here early in the year. In the summers, the temperatures are usually in the 90's and get up to the 100's. This does not make for a pleasant afternoon outside. When I go to the grocery store, I have to take a cooler along to put my ice cream in otherwise it melts too much in the time it takes me to load my items in my car. This is ridiculous in my opinion. In Chicago it seemed that the evenings provided a bit of relief from hot temperatures. Not so in the South. The lows only get down into the 80's at night. This does not make for a pleasant evening of sleeping.

Anyways, it's been in the mid to upper 80's for the past several days and we had to go ahead and turn on the air conditioning. It's only March and we now have our air on and will continue to have it on until October! This is ridiculous in my opinion. Our house is extremely hard to keep cool and keep the cost low. So, we have our thermostat set on 85 degrees. If we set it at 84, it runs all the time and our electric bill will break the bank. So, if you stop by one afternoon in the summer and find me hanging out at home in my bathing suit you will know why. And the bugs! Don't get me started on the bugs down here...but I'll save that for another post. Stay cool!

Is this day 7 or day 8?

I'm not sure if this is supposed to be the last day of my 7 day blog posting challenge or if it was yesterday. If you count the day in which I wrote about posting for the next 7 days, then this is day 8 and I am an over-achiever. If not, then this is day 7 and I am done. I'm not sure. You decide.

Zoo Deal

I am writing to sing the praises of a Memphis Zoo Membership. Several of my friends have one and talk about how often they go to the zoo. I like the zoo, but my feeling is once you've seen one monkey, you've seen 'em all. So, I was skeptical at how many times I would go and whether or not it would be worth it. I decided to go ahead and take the leap of faith and purchase one. It cost me $99. This includes, free parking, free admission for all three of us, free admission for one additional guest, 15% off all gift shops, special invitations for all zoo events, free admission to any exhibit that charges extra, and our own express line for admission. This is good for one whole year and they claim if you go to the zoo more than two times, you come out ahead. This must be true since the admission prices are outrageous in my opinion.

Anyways, we went today with my friend Jen and her two kids. We had a great time and Elise loved seeing all the animals. She is really getting to a great age for the zoo. And since the zoo is only about 10 minutes away and I can go as many times as I want and not feel like I need to stay all day and to see every single one of God's living creatures in the place to get my money's worth. We stayed for about 2 hours, met Jer for lunch and then went home for nap time. It was great! I can go back anytime, see the things I missed and not sweat the price.

So, there you have it. I'm sold. Looking forward to a great zoo season!

Stay tuned tomorrow for some fun pictures. (Let's just say that a lot of kids almost got a very graphic education thanks to some frisky giraffes.)

Only in the South...

...can you drive down your street in the morning and see a little girl in her pajamas on the front lawn with her mother standing next to her in her robe, hair wrapped in a towel, brushing her teeth while waiting for the dog to do his business.

She likes to come prepared

I was rushing around one morning (there's a shock) to get ready to take Elise to school. As I was looking for my shoes, I told her we would be leaving in a minute. I turned around to find her waiting patiently for me to put my shoes on so we could leave. How could I not take a picture of this? It was worth the late arrival.

Wait...What did she just say?

We went out for lunch with some friends today. Our first choice of restaurants was closed, so we walked over to a new place none of us had ever been before. We walked in and almost everyone looked up at us like we were drifters who had wandered into town and obviously didn't know this wasn't a place for people like us. We confidently walked to the back where there were two empty tables. As we were putting the tables together so we could all sit together, the waitress comes out of the back, stops as soon as she sees us, and says, "C'mon...are y'all serious?" We all looked at each other wondering if she had actually said that out loud. She did. We left.

Mmmm...Breakfast...

I love going out for breakfast! It's not often that our family goes to a restaurant for breakfast since my husband thinks it's a rip off. He's always saying that it pains him to pay for breakfast since he can make the whole meal for a fraction of what they charge. He's also famous for downing a large glass of orange juice while standing by the kitchen sink before we leave for the restaurant. There is absolutely NO WAY he will pay for a glass of juice when "we have orange juice at home."

But, every so often we do get to enjoy a breakfast out. This morning we were able to do just that with our small group from church. We went to The Blue Plate Cafe, a good ol' southern breakfast place. I had a bacon and cheese omelet, home-style potatoes, coffee, and my absolute favorite, biscuits and gravy. Not the healthiest of meals, but as you have read, it's not one that I get very often. And it was yummy! And no one in our group ordered juice.

Tennis Anyone?

Every year Memphis hosts a professional tennis tournament called the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships to benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. They get several big names and the best of the best have played and won. The event is held at The Racquet Club of Memphis, the only private club in the world to host a professional tennis tournament.

This year we were invited to attend one of the matches by one of Jeremy's co-workers. We chose to attend the women's singles finals which matched Israel's Shahar Peer against Venus Williams. What a treat it was to see Venus play! I have never been to a tennis tournament before and was so excited to find out we would get to see the previously #1 ranked women's player in the world (She was ranked at that time as #54 due to injuries).

Before we headed to our seats we were treated to a buffet dinner in the dining room at the club. It was pretty good, but we were some of the last people to arrive so most of the food was almost gone. After dinner, we headed to our seats and were excited to find out that we were in one of the luxury boxes. And, we were right next to the press box that had all the local TV stations with their cameras and announcers. Don't worry all you Seinfeld fans - I made sure I didn't eat any ice cream sundaes in case the cameras were watching!:)

The game was exciting to watch. Peer didn't really seem to have a chance. Venus wasn't messing around, she came to play and it was over pretty quick. But it was fun to be there and I hope to get a chance to go again next year.

I'm Baaaaaack!

So, I've been gone from my blog for a while, but I'm back. Elise is at school today and I am home by myself until 2:00 with nothing pressing to do, so I guess there is no excuse for me not to post something new. Things have been pretty busy around here, but that is no reason for me to ignore this blog. I somehow find time to play solitaire and surf the internet, so I obviously have time to say hello and give people some updates.

That being said, I am giving myself (and anyone else who wants to join me) a blogging challenge.

The challenge is this: I will post something new everyday for the next 7 days in a row.

It might only be a picture, or a quick statement or two, but I will have something new to look at everyday for the next week. Hopefully, this will give me the kick in the butt that I need to be more diligent in keeping those who care up-to-date with what's been going on in our household.

Stay tuned and see you tomorrow!