Proposal Tears of Shock and Joy

While we were in Charleston and Doug proposed, there was this lovely lady having dinner with friends who photographed our beautiful event and when she returned to Indiana from her vacation, she emailed us the photos . . . . here is what she captured . . . . (both Doug and I are crying and smiling at the same time . . . it was a great night)

Clueless . . Oblivious . . . Engaged !!

Friday morning, July 18th, we got up and had "Family Time" at Chick-fil-a. We ate a great breakfast together at 7 a.m. in Covington and then dropped the kids off at Mom and Dad's house and said our good-byes. Little did I know, the night before, Doug had gone to my son and asked him if he would mind if he proposed to me on this beach trip so that we could get married and become a real family. Little did I know, Doug had already gone on Memorial Day to both of my parents and asked for their permission and blessing to marry me and told them of his intention to propose eventually. At that moment, I was Clueless . . . Oblivious . . . . but, I was about to become Engaged.

We got to Kiawah at 1 p.m. and picked up our keys and went to the condo. We unloaded as fast as we could, fixed a quick drink and ran down the boardwalk to the beach before the sun went in (it was sort of overcast) - we walked on the beach for a little over an hour and just hung out and held hands. Doug wasn't even acting weird or anything - he was cool as a cucumber (how could he be so cool?) Then it was time to get ready for dinner - I went in and took my shower and I guess when I was in the bathroom, Doug slipped the ring in his pants pocket. He had had this ring hidden since July 4th weekend - he had it made for me by a jeweler in Long Island, NY and the center stone was purchased and placed in the ring by a jeweler couple (Dan and Tina) in Alpharetta, GA who Doug met through my best friends Kerry and William.

We drove to my favorite restaurant in downtown Charleston called The Boathouse located on East Bay Street. It's one of the places my late grandfather liked the fried oysters with jalapeno mayonnaise from. Doug had called several days prior and worked out the details with the Chef, the Hostess and our Wait Staff on every last detail of our food and the proposal. We ate our entire meal and when the dessert arrived, the ring was placed on top and on bended knee Doug proposed. I cried for 30 minutes (don't let Doug fool you, he shed some tears too) but eventually he beat an answer of "yes" out of me and the entire restaurant erupted in cheers and applause. It was very "movie like."

The rest of the weekend, even with a tad of overcast skies, was the most beautiful weekend of relaxation and fun, great conversations, great food, laughter and surprises I've ever enjoyed. This was truly a story book vacation for me all because of Doug. I can't wait to marry this man!!

We Don't Get Out Much

Doug and I have been dating for just shy of two years and have never gone on any sort of trip or vacation type thing without the kids. I'm 40 and Doug is 44 (probably shouldn't reveal our ages but too late now) but we just enjoy having the family time and there's rarely any time to actually spend apart from the children if you really think about it. I mean, there's sporting events, scouting events, dance, school, concerts, Church stuff, dinners out, family events. There's just always something we go to that involves all of us. And frankly, that's ok - we like it that way. However, this weekend, we're actually going to the beach, just for the weekend, without the kids. Zachary has agreed to help Uncle Ed cut some trees down in the back yard and Abbey Grace is going to play with Olivia and Noah so they'll be in Augusta and Doug and I are going to dash on down to Kiawah Island for a quick weekend of seafood and sand. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it . . . I haven't been to Kiawah in years and love Charleston anyway. We're going to bee-bop on down and eat some sea food, walk on the beach, stroll around Charleston and shop some. The great thing about Doug is that he loves to shop, loves to eat great gourmet food, he loves to walk on the beach with coffee or with a cold beer, he likes to sit on the beach with a great magazine and just listen to the waves, we enjoy the EXACT same things - we'll take the camera so I'll put some photos on here next week - I'll also give my camera to Aunt Sharon and let her photograph the kids doing "work" at their house!!

The Real Deal

Here are some great pictures of Abbey Grace's "REAL" 6th Birthday from Tuesday, July 15th. I had to work during the day but when she woke up, Honey and I told her all about the day she was born, how I had my C-Section and how beautiful she was. How her big brother held her and rocked her, who all came to the Hospital to see her that evening. Then, she and Zachary, Honey and Granny went to the movies (she and Granny saw Wallie - sp?) and Zachary and Honey saw the new Indiana Jones movie. They spent the rest of the day at the pool. Abbey Grace wanted to go to Zaxby's for dinner so that's where we went and then had cake and presents at our house after work. It was a nice day again! Enjoy the pics!!

Boys Day Out

While Abbey Grace was having her Birthday Party on Saturday, Doug took Zachary and Noah to the gun range at Charlie Elliott Wild Life and Nature Preserve in Mansfield, GA to shoot guns. Zachary needed to finish his riflery merit badge from Boy Scout Camp this summer and Noah had never been to a gun range so Doug and his best friend Brian took the boys out for "guys day." Here are some photos . . .

Happy 6th Birthday (Early)

Don't need much explanation here . . . It's the Birthday Girl!

These are the boxes with stickers etc. that the girls decorated.

The birthday girl with her friends and the beautiful cake my friend Kerry made.

Here's Abbey Grace and Olivia (my Niece) with a hand-made painting

of U-G-A that my best friend Kerry also made. BEAUTIFUL!

The girls hard at work on decorating their cakes.

This is my friend Kerry and her daughter Lauren.

The girls . . . including my lovely grandmother, Peggy (she was a HUGE help)!

Honey and Pops gave Abbey Grace a Guitar. She got Guitar Lessons from Granny.




Here's my little musician. Too cute!

The boys (Doug, Zachary and Noah) went to the gun range while we girls had this fantastic cake decorating party. I'll post some pictures of their trip to the gun range when I get a chance. The birthday party was a blast - lots of work for me but fun for everyone for sure. I feel like everything turned out perfect and Abbey Grace will have something to talk about for years to come on this one! Happy 6th B-day little girl!!

Carver's Atlanta

Today's "dive lunch" at the office was Carver's Grocery and Country Kitchen on Marrietta Street in Atlanta. This place has NOOOO website. It's truly a "dive." But, the best food I've had in a while (well . . . since we went to Busy Bee). Ok, so you leave the office at 11:15 to assure your place in line outside the door. The line stretches out the door (the doors are the old grocery store doors of the "screen variety" that slam in the wind painted hot pink). Yum. The aroma meets you at the double screened doors of fried food goodness. Again . . . yum. The menu appears on a dry-erase board consisting of probably 10 meats and at least 20 veggies to choose from. And oh, let's not forget the home-made desserts. So, you get up to the little window thingy and order (the fella in front of me . . . one of our summer associates . . . ordered what would have been a "Zachary meal") . . he said "yeah . . . give me the uh Fried Catfish, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Fried Potato Cake and Gravy and throw some gravy on that Catfish fillet too will ya!!" I was like "God Eugene . . you gonna nap this afternoon when we get back to the office?" He just smiled - then it was my turn . . . I had country fried steak with gravy, mashed potatoes and fried okra (hold the dessert please). Soooooooo good! What you do then is sit with folks you don't know too so, you basically just go to the dining area (which consists of 6 card tables with card chairs) and cop a squat. My friend Lisa and I sat with another summer associate of ours (Len) and about 5 people we didn't know and will never see again - it was a blast. We all shared salt & pepper, napkins and hot sauce. How cool is that. Anyway - it was a great time and great food. Attached is a picture of Lisa's plate (fried Chicken, fried okra, lima beans cooked in ham hock). Gooooood stuff!!

Abbey Grace Turning 6

So, when you ask a little girl what she wants to do for her Birthday Party and she says "have a Sponge Bob or Scooby Doo Party" and all you can think of is . . . . AGAIN? Then what?

I had no idea what to do for Abbey Grace's 6th Birthday this year until I was email chatting with one of my friends in PA and she told me she did a cake-decorating party for her little girl Grace and it turned out lovely. BAM . . . It was on!

This Saturday, I'm hosting 8 little girls (and a boy) to my house for a cake-decorating party for Abbey Grace's 6th birthday (her birthday is really the 15th but we'll do the celebrating this weekend). I went out of control and invited 13 girls, luckily some will be out of town because this has gone bonkers!!

I started with the above-invitations and it has spun out of control from here. Each little girl will get a 10" box, cake board, doily, a set of stickers (foam and non) to decorate their cake box with. Then, we'll move on to the cake decorating (and oh, they'll each get a tiny spatula with a lovely GA Bulldog themed bow around it - spatulas all in red and black - this a DAWG-gone-good party).

The tiny 6" cakes are two tier chocolate (baked them myself, two weekends in a row), popped them in the freezer until this weekend. Each kid gets a thing of white icing, a tube of red gel icing (again, gotta stick with the GA colors) and various sprinkles.

The girls can take home their decorated cakes, decorated boxes and spatulas. How delightful! Maybe the party will bring some inspiring chefs? Maybe just a huge mess for me to clean up? Stay tuned for photos . . . .

Picking Up The Kids @ Camp

Saturday, June 28th was our trip to Warwoman Dell (and Athens Y Camp) to pick the kids up at Tallulah Falls. We started out early again and got Zachary from Camp and headed back to Warwoman to meet Sharon, Ed, (Olivia and Noah after they had been picked up from camp) and Granny, Mom, Dad and Ed's parents and Niece and Nephew (The Enoch's and Alex and Nicholas). We all brought a covered dish to share, fried chicken, sandwiches, chips, desserts, fruit, etc. and had a great time just sitting in chairs all day listening to the creek go by. The kids played in the woods, we took walks, had lunch and played checkers, cards etc. It was a really nice day with family!!

40's Not So Bad ! ! !

So, I made it through my 40th birthday on Friday of last week. I came into the office and was greeted with this wonderful card and present from Southern Living Home from my dear friend Lisa (who is our paralegal). When my boss Dorian got here, he brought a huge thing of Dunkin Donuts and sent and email for everyone to come by my desk to "share" - and they did! Drones of folks came by to chat and eat breakfast at my desk (and groan about me being 40 but said I didn't look it - thank heaven!!) Then my other boss Anna came in and brought a huge vase of beautiful fresh flowers for me. I had numerous emails, calls etc. . . . Lunch time. . . . so then it was time to head out to lunch. OH, first, I got another huge flower arrangement from my friend Kerry and her husband William (a mongo Margarita glass filled with white daisies, two straws and two limes . . . how "me" is that?) ok, so we head to lunch at Rosa Mexicano at Atlantic Station - yum! I was dismissed after lunch for the day (had to dash back to the office to send a local counsel a deposition transcript before I headed home though. When I got home, Doug had surprised me by decorating the entire house with "40's" stuff - balloons, banners, flowers etc. Too cute! We went to dinner with Mom, Dad, Granny and Abbey Grace and had a beautiful meal and opened presents at the house after dinner. It was a GREAT evening and we had a wonderful time. Turning 40 wasn't as bad as I had imagined - I don't even look that different. Whew!