Okay, okay, I know this is by no means original, but I couldn't resist.  I am so excited about my early birthday present... a new MacBook!  I had to take the obligatory funny pictures which is one of the coolest things about a mac.  We've been talking about getting a new computer for me for a while.  I had finally talked myself out of it and resigned myself to my old HP, when Chris called me at work and said we should go pick up my new MacBook that evening!!!  I was so pumped!  Apparently he had been thinking about it for a long time and talking to different people about it and finally decided that was what we needed... he couldn't wait any longer.  So I have been having fun with my new "toy" and spending way more time than I should on it at work.  Which reminds me, I'm at work now and I should probably start doing things productive.

as a side note:  I feel like I've joined some kind of elite group of mac users... when I ask people how to do things that I used to do on my HP and I want to do on my new mac such as delete forward, two people have responded this way, "I don't know... that's a PC thing, I have never wanted to do that anyway."  Come on... wouldn't you rather delete forward than use the arrows to move forward and then delete backwards?  Give me a break.

another funny side note:  Chris usually calls me baby and Emory girl, but sometimes he gets mixed up and it comes out like this, "Hey will you get me a glass of tea, girl?"  haha, not very endearing.

The Chorus Line

Yikes, we havn't posted in almost a month, I guess we're still getting the hang of this blog thing. So I have to brag on my precious husband who bought us tickets to go see The Chorus Line this past weekend... it was a total surprise! For those of you who don't know, this is a broadway musical, and it was playing at the Fox theater in Atlanta. If you ever get to come to Atlanta to visit us, you have to try to see something at the Fox... it is the most beautiful theater I've ever been in (well, the theater in Vienna where we saw the Symphony was pretty amazing, too). But it really makes the shows even more exciting, and this one was amazing. How you find so many peope that are so incredible at both singing and dancing is beyond me. Anyway, we had a great time... and sweet Chris let me get all dressed up and he even put on a tie for me (if you know him at all, you know that this brings him no pleasure at all-he only did it for me).

We took Emory to the dog park for the first time on Saturday, too, and I didn't have my camera!!! I was really mad at myself because she was so cute playing with all the dogs. The funny thing is, she didn't interact with the dogs nearly as much as she did with the children there. She seems really drawn to them and they love her. This makes me really excited because of course I want her to be so sweet with our kids. After the park, she was so exhausted she slept the rest of the day. We took some pictures of her later on that day, so you can see how much she has grown in just a month!

She really is so sweet and you will love her as soon as you meet her!

Wilmore, KY

So I totally dropped the ball on taking pics this past weekend, but thanks to Chris we have a few. I count it my own fault that there is only one extremely unflattering picture of me, below.

However, the lack of pictures does not reflect the lack of a good time. We had so much fun hanging out with Anna, Don, and the boys and checking out their new town. We got to take Emory with us, too, which I think the boys really enjoyed. As you can tell by the picture below, she has not mastered walking on a leash yet. If me and her are both attached to the leash and I am the one holding her, who is really in control?

Chris and I stayed in a bed and breakfast about 1/10th of a mile from Anna and Don's house. For any of you planning to go visit the Caulleys, the cost of "the homeplace" b and b is 50 dollars a night, and 52 if you want a queen bed instead of a double. So, as Chris would say, we splurged and got the queen. What the heck, you only live once, right?

Saturday morning, Carol fed us a delicious breakfast of french toast with berries, bacon, fruit, juice, and coffee, and we ate with Carol and her husband, Art. Following breakfast, they taught us some Jewish folk dances, and then we were ready for the day. We walked with Anna, Jon David, Luke, and Wendy (Don's mom) to go see campus. We met up with Don and ate at the one Mexican restaurant in town, which was surprisingly good and authentic tasting. I guess with a name like Jose you have to make good Mexican food. I would definitely recommnend it to anyone visiting Wilmore. There's also a really cool coffee shop (ahem... dad).

Mostly, it was just really nice to be with family and hang out. Anna and Don have some really cool neighbors, and I can already see God helping to build a network for them while they are there.

Overall, Chris and I thought that Wilmore was a really neet town. It's small, but the people there are not backwards, they are just simple. They live simply- which is surprisingly not easy to do, especially in Atlanta. The seminary in town gives the whole place a very Christian feel. It was a breath of fresh air.

Emory

Last Thursday, January 29th, Sarah and I got our new puppy Emory. Emory is a 6 week old Labradoodle; half lab and half standard poodle.I am not sure if it's because she is ours, but Sarah and I think she is cuter, smarter, and more fun than any other puppy we have ever seen or has ever been born. We have had very few "potty" challenges the past couple of days. Sarah especially loves how much Emory loves to cuddle. Emory will play for 30 minutes to every 1 hour of sleep. We realize this behavior is short lived so we are really taking advantage of it.

The coolest thing about Emory is...SHE DOESN'T SHED! Because of the poodle in her, we don't have fur around our house or on our clothes. I am not sure how big Emory will get but her mom was 75 pounds and her dad was 70. I was of course hoping that she would grow to be 90 lbs but I guess 75 is okay too.

I wish I had some fun stories about Emory like...

the other day Emory was so excited that she ran through the yard, kicked a football which hit a boy with a broken leg and knocked him down when all of the sudden she saw an old lady being mugged by... well a mugger... and Emory ran over, scared the bad guy away and was the hero of the day for saving the old lady...the next morning we ended up on the Today Show where Emory showed Matt, Meredeth, Ann and Al all of her tricks....

But for now she is still a very young puppy so all she does is eat/drink, play a little, pees/poops, and sleeps. We are sure the fun stories are soon to come however.

Below are some pics of me giving Emory her first bath. I don't know if she liked it or not but she did convulse so probably not.

January!!!

Chris blogged about several things in his last post that I have some pictures for, so here is the last month of our lives at a glance... with pictures:

Here is sweet Daisy at Grant's pirate birthday party. Behind her is the toy parrot that would repeat everything you said, except in about one octave higher voice. This was very entertaining, and Daisy's giggles turned into sounds created in a decible I had never heard before.

And I got to paint a cool pirate mustache on Grant A.K.A. "Ladies Man"

Let me just pause and say that if anyone knows how to add pictures without them automatically going to the beginning of the post, I would love to know how... who writes their blog in reverse order anyway?

Okay, so the pirate ship is the cake... amazing, I know, and we also had a cake for Amanda, who's birthday is Jan 20. Quick funny story about the cake for Amanda: When Chris and I went to pick up the cake, they first brought out one that said "Happy Birthday Christopher" which is ironic because his birthday is the day before Amanda's. Second, when we went to check out, the woman bagging the groceries asked if the cake said Happy Birthday Aquanda... no... we told her it didn't say that... it said AMANDA. Well, she said, they must have messed it up and then they couldn't really fix it... bummer

Well, onto Chris's birthday. We went to RuSan's (a sushi place) with a bunch of friends and had a great time. The waiters sang happy birthday and then made Chris stand on his table while they sang something else (we have no idea what) and everyone clapped and Chris ate up another chance to be the center of attention. (Just kidding Chris, I know you love to be in the background).

Friday night, Amanda called us and said that her and Vince had two extra tickets to the Diamond Rio concert at Wild Bill's (apparently the biggest honky tonk in America) so I got to go and wear my new cowboy boots and totally fit in... although I was a little too fully clothed to completely fit in, but anyway, here is the best pic I could get of the band. We had a lot of fun hanging out with Vince and Amanda and people watching. All I have to say is, be careful what you do, because you never know when one of your highschool teachers is standing behind you!

One last story, on saturday, Chris and I went to tour Oakland Cemetery, which has so much history surrounding it. We got to see all the graves from the confederate soldiers and learn a lot about Atlanta history. It was really fun and a beautiful day to be outside. It's amazing to think how far this country has come, when we go to a cemetery where all the black people are burried in a separate plot in the back. On top of the grave of Atlanta's first black mayor was a newspaper with Obama's picture on it... pretty awesome!

just so you know..

I thought I should post something since we haven't posted anything since January 6th (i know, we're losers).



Things have been pretty slow here in ATL. I think now that the holidays are over people have started doing more boring type stuff again...work. My mom flew in from New Mexico on January 14th. January is a pretty big month since it's my nephew Grant's birthday on the 11th, my birthday on the 19th and my sister's birthday on January 20th. I must say I had an awesome birthday. For some reason, this year, we had a few days of celebration.



On Friday Sarah and I went to this great restaurant next to our house called Valenza. It really is one of the best Italian places I have ever eaten at. When we first moved to Brookhaven, our really good friends Kelly and Niki gave us a "welcome to the neighborhood" gift card (thank you guys). There's is nothing better than eating an amazing dinner for free. Since it was the only night that Sarah and I had alone, Sarah went ahead and have me my birthday presents. She bought me this really cool book called "The Tipping Point." I have read the first couple of chapters but don't really want to explain and you'd probably be bored anyway. She also bought me this really cool leather fossil watch. It has one of those thick leather bands and it makes my wrist look much cooler than it really is.



On Saturday we had a birthday party for my nephew Grant. The theme this year was pirates. Sarah was in charge of tattooing the kids (I tried to help her but had to stop after making this little baby cry. I didn't realize babies didn't like their foreheads tattooed). We ate hot dogs, had a ship cake, played games, and really "went over bored" with the fun...ha. Sunday their were more festivities. On Monday (my actual birthday), Sarah planned a party for me at Ru Sans. It was really fun eating sushi with our friends. I love telling people that we are sushi eaters. It makes Sarah and I sound really cool...However, the kind of sushi we eat is really not that out there. We try to always look for the sushi that is half way cooked, with cream cheese, and flash-fried. Leave it to Americans to find a way to even make healthy Japanese food calorically ridiculous.



Even though Sarah and I haven't had a extremely eventful January thus far, we have some exciting things ahead that I will be excited to blog about. To preview those things in order to keep you on the edge of your seat...



On January 30th, Sarah and I are going to the Killers concert. Sarah got me really awesome seats for Christmas and I am really excited.



The second week in February, Sarah and I are going to see Anna, Don, John David, and Luke in Wilmore, KY. Facts about Wilmore:

- Wilmore is home of the Icthus Festival

- Wilmore is 2.6 square Miles all of which is land

- Population 5,905

- There are 3 banks, 4 Dr's offices (2 GP. 1 dentist, and Animal clinic), 3 grocery stores (1 in a

chevron gas station), 4 motels/hotels, and 7 restaurants...glory



and Lastly, Sarah and I are about to get our Labradoodle. I know she is going to be amazing and i can't wait for you to see her...actually I can't wait to see her either.



OH Yea --- We are very proud of our new President!!

Trip to Charleston

On New Years day, Sarah, Buddy, Maurine, Cody, Wes and I went to Charleston, SC. We rented a house about 10 miles outside of downtown called the Lord's House. When arrived, Sarah and Maurine cooked an awesome fondue dinner which included a side of chicken and greenbean bundles; the food was really delicious. We spent the rest of the night just hanging out playing catch phrase, apples to apples, and our new game, Befudiom.

The next day (Friday), we went to Ft. Moultrie. The fort has been around since the revolutionary war and is really cool.

This is a picture of me and the boys pretending we are climbing over the walls to attack the fort. Don't we look intimidating?

A photo for the front cover of our new Album...

This is me riding "shot gun" ...HA! Can't you see why Sarah married me?

Sarah, Wes, and Cody pose for a nice family photo (above). Sarah thought this was a really big telescope...turns out it was a gun.

After Ft. Moultrie, we all went to downtown Charleston. We shopped, ate fudge, walked to the battery, played on the Charleston swings and had a lot of fun. That night we ate dinner at very rustic fish joint.

On Saturday, the 6 of us chartered a boat out to an island that has the 6th oldest lighthouse in America. The man who charted the boat was Captain Gresh. Captain Gresh gave us a lot of information on Charleston, lots of history and had a lot of really cool stories about the land and water around Charleston. The ride on the boat was very cold. Poor Sarah had on lots of layers and still froze. This is a picture with our "we are miserable" looks on. While we were heading back to land captain Gresh scooped up this jelly fish. For some reason, this particular kind of jelly fish does not sting. We also came across some dolphins. It was difficult to get a good picture of them, but it was really cool watching them swim and play. I asked Captain Gresh if I could get out and ride their fins and he said that in Charleston, messing with a dolphin is a $20,000 fine and up to one year in prison...Glory bE!

So that's our trip to Charleston, SC. The city is really cool and a lot of fun...and now that we are gone...it will never be the same...