Alive and Kickin'

We're still alive, I promise...

Spring has officially arrived and we're as busy as ever. It's like everyone came out of hibernation all at once. Our social calendar is full, we moved out old (and best) tenants last week, we moved in new tenants this week, we're slammed at work, and we're taking a mini vacation to St. Louis this week. AHHHH! I need more hours in my days. Sometimes I can't keep up with myself. I don't know how Sean does it...

Here are a few pictures from our early St. Patrick's Day celebration: Franklin's Brewfest. It was a blast! We met up with the most fun group of friends and tasted at least 30 beers while we roamed and shopped up and down Main Street.

So like I said, this week we're heading to St. Louis for a mini vacation. I'm so excited to spend an extended weekend with the Jensens. They are my favorite family of all time (besides the Waltons...but they were fake, so that may not count). The weather is supposed to be beautiful, and apparently St. Louis has a lot of fun (and free!) things to see and do. I'll update you upon our return!

Happy Springtime, y'all! I hope you're enjoying the early blooms and beautiful weather.

Sleep, Sheets and Zooming

I am sooooo sleeeeepy this week. I guess I should clarify by saying that I'm more sleepy than usual. I'm naturally a tired person, always requiring more hours of sleep than the average bear. I love going to bed early AND sleeping in late. Yes, both of them...preferably in the same sleeping block. Getting 10 hours of sleep each night sounds like heaven to me. I usually get 7.5-8 hours of sleep, but it rarely feels like enough. By the time I take my last bite of dinner I'm ready to CRASH on my pillow. Tonight I'm trying to make it until 9:00 before I retire to the bed. For some reason I fear that if I go to bed before 9:00 it makes me weird or crazy or sick. I don't know...Of course, there are some nights that I give into my body and say, "YES let's hit the sack now. I don't care that it's only 7:45!!!" Most nights I force myself to stay awake so that I can: talk to my husband, clean dishes, watch a TV show, pay bills. You know, all that fun stuff that you're supposed to do while you're awake.

I probably shouldn't share this with you (Sean is going to die of embarrassment), but I think it's kinda funny. Several weeks ago Murphy was *zooming and he ripped our sheet. The fitted sheet. The one that you lay on. The bed was unmade (so what - you're not going to say that you make your bed everyday, are you? I sure hope not...) and Murphy zoomed onto the bed. His claw ripped the sheet. At first it was an innocent rip, maybe just an inch or two. Of course, we were frustrated by the fact that we have to buy new sheets, but we realize it wasn't Murphy's fault. We allow him to zoom and we also allow him on the bed, so he wasn't breaking any rules. It was just an unfortunate accident. The rip was so small at first that I actually considered mending it by hand. You know, with needle and thread or a patch or some tape or something...but of course, I kept putting it off. Each night as I tossed and turned, the rip would get bigger and bigger. Now the rip in our sheet is practically the entire length of our mattress. My entire side of the bed is basically 100% exposed mattress pad (which is just as soft as the sheet, by the way). The sheet has been ripped for so long that I'm completely desensitized to it now. I used to be shocked every night - "Damn - I forget about the ripped sheet!!! We need to go buy a new one. We'll do it this weekend...." I PROMISE that I'm going THIS weekend. We have a BB&B coupon and everything. I'm totally going...I MUST go...I'm starting to feel trashy by sleeping on a ripped sheet and exposed mattress pad every night (and being ok with it).

*zooming - To fully understand, you must visualize our upstairs floor plan. At one end of the house you have our bedroom. At the other end is the bonus room. There's a long hallway that connects the 2 rooms. Occasionally, Murphy will get a random burst of energy and decides to run the entire length of the upstairs. All of a sudden he just starts speed running from the outer wall of the bedroom to the outer wall of the bonus room as fast as he possibly can. He'll do about 4 or 5 laps before he finally stops. It's hilarious to watch, mostly because he goes SO FAST! One day I just yelled "Zooooooooom" as he was doing it, and it kinda stuck. Sometimes zooming involves a leap onto the bed before he heads back the other way. We don't know how to predict this behavior.

Things I've Learned from People

This is just a brief thought that crossed my mind tonight. Obviously, the list doesn't represent ALL of the things I've learned, nor does it highlight all of the many wonderful people in my life.

Things I've Learned from People...

Love. Patience. Partnership. Trust. - from Sean

How to knit. Parenting skills. Love for the Lord. - from Vickie and Rick

Kindness. Laughter. Confidence in myself. - from Tonja

Loyalty. Inspiration. True friendship. - from Sherri

Good posture. Take your vitamins. - from Mimi

Catching up...

I apologize for the long delay between posts. I know you've been DYING to know what's going on in our lives (haha, yeah right.) The past month or so has included:

-a romantic Valentine's day, complete with chocolate treats from Merveilleux Confections (tah. die. for.)

-dinners with each of our parental units

-Murphy had a doggy play date with his Aunt Casey and Uncle Shiloh

-a yummy frozen yogurt treat from Sweet Cece's

-showing the rental house a talking to potential tenants

-going with Sherri to try on her wedding dress

-spending the day with my Stepdad Jimmy for his birthday

-washed cars

-cleared the garage so that BOTH CARS fit, woo hoo!



And most recently - last weekend, actually - we attended a fundraising event called "3 Blind Wines" at The Factory (a.k.a. our wedding reception site). 3 Blind Wines is presented by Franklin's Next Generation Heritage Foundation, and proceeds from the event go towards saving the historic Franklin Theatre. Since Sean's store prints all of the marketing materials for the event, we've been invited to attend for the past 3 years. This year was definitely the biggest and the best so far. We had a great time drinking tasting wine with several other couples, including friends from work.

Unmarked bottles like the one seen below were scattered all about the reception hall. Hundreds upon hundreds of bottles. They were everywhere! The point of the evening is to vote on the best bottle of wine. The team with the most votes gets about 300 bottles to take home. How long would 300 bottles of wine last in your house?

(the wine marked #404 was my favorite)