Tour de Georgia

Our trip to Georgia (in photos):

Day One: lunch with the nieces at BK...

my little cousins Carlie and Keri graduate from WCHS.  These two were such a part 

of my high school days. They were my little sidekicks and my biggest supporters. :) It makes 

me very nostalgic but I was so glad to be able to see them graduate 10 years (I'm old!) later!

Day Three:  Cruisin' in my "rental" car from Dixie Auto Salvage. Who really needs a mirror?

Day 8ish:  Mae Mae's Dance Recital

 {tap routine to Flintstones - Maley behind Fred}

{cousin Cooper is so proud and can't wait to get a trophy like this of her own!}

{B-Dub saved the day and went and got the flowers we all forgot}

 Next Day:  Ladybug said she'd drive me back to Mississippi

KK shows off her green thumb

Farmer KK has a pretty impressive spread 

(of course let's give credit, where credit is due - Chipper did a lot of the "ground work")

We finally get on the road....blowout 5 miles into our trip.

{Yes we are towing another car behind us and this was after 

B-Dub and R-Dub had already spent 5 hours trying to get the vehicles ready 

to go.  Let's just say this was the straw that broke B-Dub's back.
Chipper came to assist and we waited until the next morning to leave.}

Next Day:  We finally make it to Gainesville to spend a couple days with friends on Lake Lanier.

{Does anyone have a cold Miller Lite?}

Day 11: Home Sweet Home and the plants survived! I think my neighbors

may have took pity and quenched their thirst a couple of times...

Well, just some typical times - unfortunately there are some other great parts of our trip that I didn't get on camera.  It was so good to catch up and spend some quality time with good friends and most all of our family

P.S. I'm already back in Georgia...flew back down last night for another brief stint. Charleston bound in the morning for a Bachelorette Celebration! I'll be riding shotgun with Bessie to most likely witness Sarah's most dramatic night yet :) 

{us-just a few (11!?) years ago}

Stay tuned for more typical times...

reduce.reuse.recycle.

my failed attempt at recycling some old magazines....bag busted.

B-Dub's response? Reason #102 not to recycle.

But I will not be defeated! I will get my clean living points! I picked it all up and put it in the back of the car to drop off at the recycling bin. Yes, it's still in the back of my car a week later. 

g-e-o-r-g-i-ayyy

After living here for almost 2 years, you'd think seeing a GA tag driving around town wouldn't excite me as much because surprisingly it's quite common.  Well, it's common to see a tag from the state of GA...not as common to see a University of GA tag (or sometimes a "G" sticker)!  However, it does happen from time to time and I get so beside myself for about 5 seconds.  We were shocked when we first moved here, but I guess a good many kids from GA (or at least the ATL area) come over here for school.  Anyway, everytime I see one I find myself wanting to signal to the other person somehow - you know, just some sort of, "hey, me too!" or "go dawgs!" or "isn't GA the greatest state!?!"....so any suggestions??????

oxford town

For those of you that have visited us out here, I'm sure you can see why we chose this place.  It really is a fun, interesting little place.  A lot of folks say it's like Athens about 20 years ago....and you know we love Athens. :)  It's got all the same features - historic downtown area chock-full of little shops and awesome restuarants, plus all the artsy fartsy stuff that makes for a cool, eclectic town!  A few weeks ago, one of the blogs I follow very randomly posted this "city guide" for Oxford.  Check it out! For those of you that haven't been to visit us yet, maybe this will inspire you to make the trek across 2 states! For those of you that have made the trek, maybe it'll inspire ya to come back!

Link to "the guide" - Oxford, MS

there are fun {free} things to do like this concert in The Grove....

or hang out with B-Dub in his Snuggie....

b-day mail

It's normal to receive mail addressed to your 2 year old nickname, right?!

This photo was taken "polaroid style" in honor of the sender himself.  Those who know Papa Roger, know he loves some polaroids (and disposable cameras)...who wants to mess with one of those complicated digital things?

My namesake great-grandmother, Willa Bell, was really called Willie Bell by her father and so this nickname was born.  Amelia Willa aka Sweet Willie aka Milly...I'll stop here...I have a lot of nicknames but I'll spare you!  This one is just particularly "sweet" and worth sharing.

P.S. The day after I wrote this post, I kid you not, we received a save-the-date card addressed to Brent & Mildawg Cole. Normal.

twisters

Sorry for my hiatus! I've had several complaints from you followers and I apologize. :) Life outside of work came knocking right after the tax deadline and I haven't slowed down since! I celebrated my 28th birthday - thanks for all the calls, emails, texts, etc!  I somewhat got our house back in living/working condition.  I made the long journey home over Easter weekend to see some cute egg-hunting-munchkins and make a car swap with RWC.  I got home Monday night and it started storming and hailing 30 minutes later.  I'm sure you've heard about the big storm that swept the South by now, right?!? Tornado sirens started sounding Tuesday evening while I was in Kroger doing some grocery shopping. I waited until they went off and made the quick drive to our house.  We woke up several times that night to bad thunder.  The next morning, as I was getting ready for work, they issued another Tornado Warning.  I waited this one out in the downstairs bathroom.  I finally hopped in the car and hurried to work about 10 am once the Warning had been lifted.  As I'm gathering my purse for my lunch break around 12:30ish the sirens start sounding again and we learn another Tornado Warning has been issued until 2 pm.  My co-workers and I wait this one out in the basement floor of the office next door.  Just before 2, a tornado touched down southeast of town, making a path only a few miles from our house!  My co-worker's good friend lost their home (click on the link below for photos).  Devastating.  Thankfully, we "weathered" the storm ok...B-Dub was at school each time, by the way.

Photos of the damage: click here

smoothie kick

we have been on a smoothie kick around here lately.  back in january, i did the tracy anderson 30-day method and a lot of the recipes on the meal plan called for breaking out the ol' blender.  b-dub was ever so nice and helped me out a lot with all the food/meal prep.  anyway, i think once we had the blender dusted off and saw how easy it was to make something so super delicious and so super healthy, we were hooked!  

this is a recipe we have tried (and love!) that is awesome for sneaking in some healthy greens.  i promise you do not even taste the spinach! 



































{image via one charming party}



also, wally world has this new "blend and go" mini blender that is so convenient!  we got one last week and we really like it so far.  it makes the whole process even easier since you don't have to worry with washing out the blender, making a mess pouring your smoothie, etc. love it! but the ol' standard blender works just fine, too! y'all give it a try!

{oster my blend personal blender}