Follow Up

Well Folks -- I thought I should write a follow up to my last post -- if I even have any readers left. I did get to go to the funeral afterall. My next door teacher at work gave me some frequent flyer miles to help me be near my family. Isn't God great? :) It was where I needed to be. I don't really want to write about it much though. It was just so surreal; even seeing her doesn't make her feel truly gone. Please pray for my family for time to heal the pain.

On a totally different note: I'm struggling with an emotion tonight that I don't truly have too often... well is "hate" an emotion? I mean true, teeth-clenching, body-shaking, seeing-red hate. What bothers me the most is while I'm hating him, I'm hating myself too. I hate that I let him get in my head and bother me, that I spent so much wasted time with him, that I knew he would never fit in my world and I tried to force him in anyways. I hate that I was so desperate to have someone that I settled for someone totally wrong for me. I hate that he's trying to make me jealous by saying he has someone -- but he's lied to me before, so why believe him now?? I hate that while I don't want him anymore, I don't want anyone else to want him. Mostly I hate how moronic, ridiculous, and not a match for me that he is. It's not fair to feel like that about someone. It's not loving, it's not Christian. Hate isn't of God, but right now I can't see straight. I'm letting my emotions get the best of me, but I don't know where this emotion is coming from. Well maybe if I'm honest it's coming from disappointment in myself. My disappointment hinges on him and our past together. I regret that year or more of time I was with him. I regret the wasted time that I could have been doing something else -- something better with my life. Why did I fool myself into believing that being with someone who wasn't the One was better than being lonely? Lonely is always better. I need to get used to lonely. Make it my friend. Me and lonely -- we're together now.

I know most of that doesn't make sense, and right now I just don't care! I know it's childish to post this on my blog, but again I just don't care. I know I'm throwing a lot out there but ya know... you get the picture. Whatever.

Aunt Mary

This is my mom and Aunt Mary at the airport after one of Mom's many trips to Michigan when Grandma was sick.


My Aunt Mary passed away this afternoon. I know I haven't blogged in forever, but I can't sleep and I need to get this all out, so I'm sharing it with you, my friends. Aunt Mary was my mom's only sister. Everyone in my mom's family basically stayed in the area where they grew up in Michigan but my mom.

This morning at church LaRae leaned over and mentioned that this woman reminded her of Patty -- Mary's daughter in law -- our cousin. I smiled and thought about the last time I was in Michigan. It was less than a year ago for Grandma's funeral. Before I left, Aunt Mary hugged me close and told me that just because Grandma was gone, it didn't mean I couldn't visit. She said that she and Uncle Ken would come get me from the airport and let me stay with them and that she enjoyed my visit despite the circumstances. That was the last thing she said to me besides "I love you" and I told her I loved her too and that I'd try. This morning before I knew anything was wrong, I thought, " I should really go visit -- watch for cheap airfare deals -- I miss all of them!"

I went to lunch with friends; then I went home to get Sprinkles to go head to the school to do our typical Sunday afternoon work. He played fetch with me and ate ice cubes in the copy room as we waited for my unit's worth of copies. I didn't think to bring my cell phone with me because everyone knew I was at work -- they could wait. I stopped on the way out to chat with some co-workers without even looking at my phone.

As I was walking out of the school, I noticed I had a message from Mom. All she said was "hey it's Mom. Call me when you get this. Ok?" I could tell from her tone that something was wrong. I immediately thought of Nana. I love Nana, but I'm trying to be mentally prepared for a call that she's had an accident or worse since she's so old and her mind is going. Thinking it was that Nana had fallen and gotten hurt or something scary but heal-able, I went ahead and pulled out of the school onto the road.

Mistake.

As the phone rang, my heart started to fill with dread. Something about Mom's voice had been really really wrong. Was Dad ok? In four short rings my mind was already racing through how to deal with the loss of a parent or what horrible thing had happened. My copies were made fo the week. I could get a sub, and they could deal without me. I have 15 sick days built up. 4 rings is all it took for those ideas to all go flashing through my mind. This had to be big, something unexpected, but when you know something unexpected is coming, it doesn't make it any easier to believe.

Mom answered. Her "hello" sounded defeated, drained, lost. I don't recall what was said in between "hello" and "Aunt Mary passed away today." My face crumpled, I pulled over immediately (I hadn't gotten far), and choked out, "how? when?" Last week Aunt Mary had a pain in her leg, but they'd been walking about a lot at the grandkids' sports games. This morning she started to have trouble breathing. The called an ambulance around 10 am. At the hospital the doctors thought that it might be a blood clot in her lung, and they decided to move her to a different hosiptal. One of her sons and her husband were with her at the hospital, talking with her. Her brother was on his way. She told the nurse that she needed to go to the bathroom before they left for the other hospital. In the bathroom she had a seizure and before they got her back to the bed, she was gone. She was 58.

When I was talking to Mom we took some time to talk about memories of Aunt Mary. We would visit Michigan about once a year when I was little. I used to call Aunt Mary at work and ask her if she could come and play. Mom said that meant a lot to Aunt Mary. I loved her so much. She was always so fun! As I got older, Aunt Mary and I would always pick up right where we had left off: with a strong, loving bond. We got in trouble together and laughed (a lot) together. She loved me, and I know she missed getting to see me more often. I missed it too. The last couple of times I visited she would stay up late chatting with me about anything and everything. I cried with her the first night I saw Grandma this summer. I cried at the nursing home and I cried in Aunt Mary's arms that night. Our mutual sorrow for the loss of Grandma's motor abilties came out in our tears. She was an amazing, loving, Christian woman. I wish I'd had more time with her. Mom said that Aunt Mary really appreciated my last couple of visits and enjoyed that time with me.

It's just so sudden. I don't know how to handle it all really. This is the first family member that has passed so suddenly and whose funeral I won't get to attend. It's too far away and costs too much. I don't know how to handle not getting to say a formal goodbye to her. I don't get how I am supposed to mourn without my family. How can I get through this without a hug from/for my mom? Ah, my mom, I can't imagine losing LaRae. I think that's why this is hitting me even harder. Mom lost her sister. Everytime that hits me, it just makes me cry again. How can you go on without your sister? The bond between sisters is like nothing else.

This afternoon I've traded between shock and sobbing. I don't know how I'm supposed to just pick up and go on as if this world isn't missing someone I love. I feel a little cheated -- like she was too young to die -- I mean, she wasn't super young, but she wasn't old enough to die! I'm not ready for my aunts and uncles, my parents, my loved ones to pass on. I need some advance warning! They can't just be snatched away like this! I went grocery shopping tonight to distract me (just sitting on the couch wasn't cutting it anymore), and it felt so fake. Like I shouldn't be shopping. I don't know how to really explain it.

I am so deeply sorrowful. I am fearful that I will spend a lot of time crying over the next few days. My plan is to hole myself up in my classroom. If I don't talk to my friends, I won't talk about it. Then I won't break down at school. I don't want to break down in front of my classes.

It's almost midnight. I'm going to be a zombie tomorrow.

Please pray for my family. They say Uncle Ken is in shock. Please pray for him especially. He will need all the strength God can give him when it all really sinks in. I can't see him without Aunt Mary. She had two sons, both married with lots of kids each. So many loved ones that she has left behind. Please pray for strength and comfort. Death is never easy, but someone passing so unexpectedly, so suddenly is even harder it seems.

I guess I'll end this entry with my feelings of hope that are getting me through. I AM comforted that she's in Heaven. I'm sure Grandma was just as surprised to see Aunt Mary there so soon as we were to lose her so suddenly, but I bet Grandma is taking her on the grand tour now. Aunt Mary did have some health problems -- I bet they're dancing across the golden streets together. (Ya know, I still email Grandma. I emailed her tonight.) Shelley now has most of her grandparents, an aunt, and an uncle with her -- people I've had to love me my whole life. I believe we know each other in Heaven. I believe I'll see Aunt Mary again. My hope is in Christ and the grace that He gives. Without hope and grace, without faith in the promise God has given us, death would be final, but with all of that, with the hope, the grace, and the faith that I cling to, I know it's only the beginning. I still miss Aunt Mary. I am still crying. I am still mourning the loss of a great woman, but through it all, I still have hope.

I love you all. Thanks for reading. Please pray.

Frank

I've been absent from blogging. Sorry I'll get back to it soon, but until then, I was looking at
PostSecret today and came across a video of Frank Warren speaking at a Post Secret event. Amongst all of the secrets in that video and on the web page, this one statement Frank made stood out to me the most:

Frank said that when he put his last book together he learned "that all of us have a secret that would break your heart if you just knew what it was."

Just think about that and all it implies. I think that's profound. I think what he's done with his books is profound. What an amazing project and an amazing man.

Does this mean summer is over??

Sigh. The pink highlights are gone. They had faded to blond mostly a couple of weeks ago, so I had started getting my hair wet in the pool which sped up the process. When I noticed on Tuesday that the pink was finally gone from my bangs, I knew that I had to dye my hair back. Paul says me reverting back to my natural color signifies that summer is really over. I think he's right.

Yesterday I bought some "soft black" hair color at Walmart. Today LaRae helped me to dye my hair back to its natural shade. I'm not sure it even looks natural. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure what natural looks like on my hair right now. I think the perm then the relaxer and then the summer sun had lightened my hair a little. Not helping matters, when I first got the pink, the girl bleached in too many highlights and covered some with brown. Yes, you read that right -- brown, not soft black -- thus creating hot pink and brown lighter than my natural hair color highlighted chunks. It wasn't too noticeable, and so I loved it! Anyways, my hair obviously looked a LOT lighter after the highlights. Now since I've had the blond highlights (chunks) for a couple of weeks, my hair has looked really light, so going back to black is really weird. What do you think?

In a sense, I look in the mirror now, and I think, "ah, there you are! It's good to see Joanna again." Already though (less than 12 hours since the dye job), I am missing the girl with the hot pink highlights. I am missing the looks I would get walking through a store. I still giggle thinking about when I flew into GA right after I got the pink highlights. I was walking through the airport with Sprinkles (in his awesome Ed Hardy-esque dog carrier) in his bag on my shoulder and listening to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on my iPod when I noticed people kept looking at me. Perhaps it was my cool grace, my confident stride, my amazing bag they all envied (after all I was "the girl with the amazing petflys dog carrier), my sweet puppy sticking his nose against the grates on his bag, or even my sweet little pink iPod shuffle that caught their attention. I didn't figure out why people were staring until my mom's eyes immediately zeroed in on my hair when I walked up! I was so used to it already that I was clueless. I can't believe it, but I miss the attention. I miss feeling like I was daring enough to finally do something totally out of the norm for most people -- something that would prompt people to say things like, "that totally rocks my face off" or "I've always wanted to do that but I'm not cool enough to pull it off" or "wow that's awesome!", etc. Always good reviews. (On a side note: I'm not cool enough to really pull it off, I just have always wanted to do it and went for it!) It was nice. Black hair doesn't exactly turn heads though, does it?

That expression doesn't quite have the same fun effect that it did in the picture of me with the pink highlights a few blog entries lower than this one now does it? Oh well, I'm embracing weird faces for the camera though -- here's another:

I'll get used to being normal again. I honestly really do like the black shade that my hair turned out. There's a bit in my bangs that still has a hint of red tones if you look closely, and in the back underneath there are a couple of blondish patches that don't show unless you dig for them. The cover up job was a success! Thank you, LaRae! The giggles that ensued from coloring my hair built a fun memory that made it so much easier to say goodbye to crazy fun hair color (even though it had already faded out). I love you! Thanks!

Finally, for those skeptics out there who don't believe that the color in these pictures is my natural hair color, I'm going to put up one more picture. This one is me student teaching my last semester at HU. (I was 22.) Ignore the horrid bags and shadows around my eyes. I was soooo busy, sleep deprived, and stressed at that point. I'd recently had surgery on both hands and was still teaching after only a week of recovery, so it was a bit crazy there for a while. :-)

Now I feel like I'm ready to go back to teaching. I'm ready to dive into putting my classroom back together and to delve into Geometry (which I'm teaching this year -- hurray!). Well, let's take baby steps actually -- I'm ready to start getting ready to go back to work. Give me another week to be ready for kids. :-)

On a quick side note - the assistant principal in charge of dress code is using a lot of my pics of my pink highlights for the slide show about what is NOT ok to wear. :-) She said she'd try to work in who it is in the pictures to give me some advance "street cred" with my kiddos. LOL. I'll also have the pictures up in my screen saver that ends up coming up during class, and I know they'll be in the staff slide show of our summer fun at in-service, so at least more people will get to see that I actually went through with it and was daring!

I'm signing off for now. Hopefully I can keep my blog up to date a little better. I've been spending a lot of my time lately learning PhotoShop and making designs for t-shirts for the DISboards. I know it's a silly excuse to not update, but it's been really fun! The link to my photobucket with my designs is in the last blog entry -- I've added a lot, so go check it out!

I'm a Moron!

It's 1:23 am. I am sitting here with Sprinkles asleep beside me, except for when he is woken up by me giggling or exclaiming over what just happened to me. I have to share with the blogosphere -- he doesn't understand English. :-)

I've been spending a lot of time learning Photoshop over the past week or so. LaRae got me started looking at designs (DISigns) on a Disney message board, and while some DISigners will make t-shirt DISigns for people for their trips, I decided to try my hand at making my own. So I've got this handy trial version of Photoshop CS3 on my computer, and I'm hardcore learning the ropes. We're talking made my DISigns for t-shirts for EVERY day of my trip, stayed up numerous nights until 3 am, and dream about new things I want to try and do once I do go to bed. (Here's the link to my DISigns if you are interested... notice multiple albums. I AM NOT selling these designs. I am using them for MY personal shirts. I do not produce them in mass, nor do I sell the shirts. Just thought anyone reading this should know... lol.)

I have finished my DISigns for our Disney trip in January. (I want to make my shirts before summer is over, so they'll be ready before I start really working again.) Tonight I'm just playing around in Photoshop while watching TV. I'm big on keyboard shortcuts, so I am using them but not paying super good attention. I finally figured out how to make Tinkerbell "sit" on my name without lots of trouble, and I go to type my text layer of "Joanna" and the "J" and the "O" will not type. No space, no nothing... will not type. The lower case "j" and "o" are showing as "1" and "6" though. Hm... I try it again... still not working. I figure Photoshop has a glitch, so I open Word. Nope, still not working. (Mark it -- time is about 11 pm at this point!)

Panic is starting to rise! (I bet some of you have already figured out the issue, haven't you??) I decide to try to type all the letters on the keyboard (upper and lower case), and the 7, 8, 9, -, u, i, o, [, j, k, l, ;, ', m, ., and / are not working. They are however typing numbers instead of some letters and making my cursor jump about the page. (Oh yeah, some of you really just figured it out, eh??)

I am in full on panic mode now! I am envisioning taking my district-issued laptop to the hell that is summer tech support. They do a great job, but in the summer time, if you have a laptop issue, you might as well kiss your laptop goodbye because work orders take a while! Can I stop and mention that I am actually really tech-savvy? I am good with computers! I pick up computer stuff really fast! So I decide I can fix this on my own. Granted, I can't just try restarting because my logon uses a lot of those "missing" letters, so I start doing virus/malware and spyware/grayware scans figuring that one of the fonts I downloaded might have had a virus. Well that's taking FOREVER, so I decide to search on my control panel, figuring that somehow the key assignments for my keyboard have been messed up. Keep in mind: I can't really type; all I can do is click with my mouse!

Ah, the panic! I am in a cold sweat. I have sat up completely on the couch - this is serious...no more lying about! I am trying to think of ANYONE who might be up at midnight (mark it!) that could possibly help me... no one comes to mind. I decide to persevere.

Wait! I recall and find the character map. I use it to slowly "type" out my search query for google, and I search for an explanation of what has happened along with a solution for how to change my key assignments back. By 12:30 I still have not found anything. I am honestly spazzing HUGELY internally! In my mind's eye I am running circles waving my arms about my head -- in reality, I'm sitting on the couch frantically typing and clicking away whist exclaiming to Sprinkles that his mommy is a moron and has broken her computer! I'm also betting that my computer will come back from tech support minus a lot of files I need, so I'm really starting to panic that I have to fix my computer myself!

Eureka! As I'm speed reading around 1 am I see something about keys with letters that have numbers on the front or something... What?! I look at my keys -- moron! Your keys on a laptop have the ability to "number lock" them to have the number keypad. I never use this feature because I have a USB number pad that I plug in for entering grades and such. If you haven't guessed it by now, at 1:20 am I pressed one simple key, the one that says "NumLk" on it and turned off the number lock thus enabling me to type normally again. Yep. I'm a moron. Right as I pressed that key, my virus scan popped up to tell me I did not have any malware, viruses, spyware, or grayware. Hurray! My computer is safe and usable!

So here I sit fully awake (because that freaked me out) and feeling stupid. Sprinkles is asleep draped over the edge of the arm of the couch. He woke up for a bit after I laughed (a bit maniacally) when I figured out the issue. He doesn't really care. Oh well. I guess it just goes to show you that the biggest problem on your computer can be something super simple. :-) Or that for a smart girl I can be sort of dumb sometimes.

Dixieland, Part II

Wow, wasn't my last post long and picture heavy?? Well this one is going to be too, so hold on for the ride! (Again, if you're reading this on Facebook, go ahead and visit my blog, so you can see all of the pictures!) I know I said that I'd talk about travelling Airtran in my next post, but that one will have to wait a few more days. Check back for it later.

While I spent most of my time with family, I did spend quite a bit of time on the side with friends. The majority of that time was spent with Katrina and Kelly, two friends I grew up with from church that I have held near and dear to my heart since childhood. When Woodstock C of C split when I was in elementary school, the three of us were about the only 3 young girls left. Kelly is a year younger than me and Kat a year older. We banded together and became these 3 musketeers of sorts. Katrina and I both ended up at Harding together. :-)

I spent one evening at Katrina's with her, her baby (Briley), and her hubby (Dave). We played Guitar Hero until Dave got home, and then we went out for Mexican food. Some of you in Texas have heard me lament the lack of "white cheese dip" in Texas. I got my fill of it when I went back to Georgia! Friday night I went to Katrina's apartment again, and Kelly got to join us with her youngest daughter, Cheyenne. We played more Guitar Hero and lots of Nertz and even a game of Spades - sigh, I miss playing spades! I didn't leave until around 1:30am! We had a blast though! We got to get together one last time on Sunday night, and we didn't leave until around 12:30am. Below are some pictures of the fun we had.

These first ones are Kelly and I playing Guitar Hero. I finally got to where I could play medium, but we LOVED to battle it out on easy playing "Slow Ride!" Look how serious we looked when we weren't purposely trying to smile for the camera! By the way... I won!!!

These next ones are the three of us playing Nertz -- a fast paced, multi-player, solitaire game. Lots of screaming and laughing happened while we were playing this game! Dave, Katrina's husband, is a SAINT for putting up with us for THREE nights!

Finally here are a ton of pictures of us goofing around with the camera timer. We tried to take nice pictures at first, but we got too silly to do that well. There's one with me holding up my hands bc I went to smack Katrina on the "rum" (the word I made up accidentally mixing "rump" and "bum") only to smack bare skin -- she's a dare devil trying to moon the camera -- lol! Good thing the camera was too high for that!It was so hard to say good-bye to these two girls. I miss them so much and being there made me realize how much I miss them. How much I miss that sort of friendship. You know I can count on one hand the people who aren't family who I actually hang out with?? I mean, I have friends at church who I do small groups with or go to lunch with after church (if my family is going too bc if they're not there, I typically get forgotten when the invite to lunch happens), but I'm talking about that friendship where you can call the person (or couple) up and say, "hey let's do dinner" or "wanna do something?". I got really depressed a while back when I realized this. Sometimes I don't think people see value in doing things with a single gal -- you don't all have to do things with other couples. I don't act like or feel like a 3rd or 5th wheel when I'm with other couples. Ask me! I'll probably come. :-) I digress -- I've just been feeling a little lonely sometimes lately. I had so many friends in college. There was always someone to do something with. I miss that.

Anyways, while I went out with friends for the night, Mom and Dad puppy-sat because Sprinkles didn't get along with Brody, Katrina's hyper little jack russell terrier. They said he was really good for them, but he would sit in one of their laps, then move to the other, and then go around "looking" for me, and then repeat the cycle. :-) They would go to bed before I got home, so he actually slept in their bed with them! The first night Mom woke up and told Dad to take Sprinkles out to potty around 1:30 (right when I was about to leave to come home). She doesn't recall doing that, but Dad was waiting for me with Sprinkles on the patio when I got home. The second night, I got home and walked into the bedroom to get Sprinkles, and he jumped up on Mom's hip and barked at me like I was a burglar! Somehow Mom slept through it and Dad almost did too. I whispered, "no no no shhhhh! It's me silly!" to which he barked at more, so I got closer and whispered to him again and reached for him. BIG MISTAKE! He jumped straight up in the air and landed smack dab in the middle of Dad -- right on his stomach! Well Dad just about folded in half! His feet came up as his head came up as the air "whoofed" out of him! As an observer to the whole thing, I of course got the giggles and quickly grabbed the dog and backed out of the room whispering my apologies! All in all, they had a good time puppy-sitting though I think!

I also got to see another friend I grew up with: Katie. We grew up down the street from each other and were best friends from 3rd grade on. She was a year behind me in school, but we still hung out a lot. It was soooo good to catch up with her over brunch at IHOP. I only have one picture of the two of us that the hostess took for us. The waiter was getting sick of us I think. He kept asking if we needed anything -- it's not like he really needed the table! Anyways, Katie is a professional ballerina! How cool is that?! I wish we'd had more time to spend together.

Those were the only friends I saw in Georgia (aside from all of the lovely people at Woodstock C of C that I love so dearly and miss so much!). I posted on Facebook that I was coming, but no one really contacted me. I think I got to see the best friends from Georgia anyways. :-) I wish they all lived closer. Heaven knows how much the visit meant to me. The time I spent with my friends was precious. There's something to be said for friends you've had since childhood. You can pick up again where you left off fairly easily. Old jokes resurface and new ones are created. Laughter leads to tears of joy and the comfort and ease with which you communicate and love each other is astounding. These girls have a special place in my heart and always will. I miss ya'll already!

Dixieland, Part I

I just got back from my almost 2 week visit to Woodstock, Georgia yesterday. This post is going to be about family time. In a few days I'll post friend pictures and will devote some time to the experience of travelling and Airtran. Mom and I took quite a few pictures, so I'm trying to put as many in this post as I can. Sorry if it takes a while to load! (So if you're reading this on Facebook, go look at it on my blog instead, so you can see the pictures!) Enjoy!

When Sprinkles and I arrived at the Atlanta Airport (my favorite airport by far!), Mom met us at baggage claim. She had NOT seen my hair yet. Her reaction was polite: she smiled all big, and as she hugged me she said, "oh wow! That's fun! Now I know what Sue was talking about!" I had emailed two of her friends, Pam and Sue, with the address to my blog saying to look but not mention it to Mom or Dad. Sue apparently sent a "I know something you don't know" email that morning to Mom. She decided it was cute. :-)

From the airport, Mom and I (with pup in tow) headed to Lake Butler, Florida to see Nana on the farm. Dad was already there; he noticed my hair at once. As expected, he smiled and laughed a bit. He's always pretty accepting of whatever crazy thing I do (like another piercing in my ears or a tattoo) as long as it's not toooooo insane! Nana however said, "oh Joanna! You've changed your hair! I sure did like it the way you used to have it!" Ha ha ha! Priceless! After a while people around me stop noticing the pink -- she did too. Sprinkles did GREAT on the farm. He loved to go sit in Nana's lap! (The top picture is Dad and I hand-churning ice cream while Sprinkles sat in Nana's lap to watch.)

We all drove back to Georgia on Sunday afternoon, and most of my time was spent with my family. Every morning except the first one I got up and went to work with Mom at the church office and goofed around there until she got off early at 12:30. Sprinkles even went with us a couple of times and played with the preacher, the Spanish preacher, the other secretary, and anyone and everyone who walked in the door! Everyone loved him! I should have known better thinking that I was going to get almost 2 weeks away from VBS planning though; also should have known better thinking that I would get out of painting backdrops and doing HUGE decorations this year. I helped paint one of Woodstock's backdrops and then helped decorate their stage for VBS! It started last Sunday night. Here's the backdrop I worked on:

Looks pretty good, eh? It's "Outrigger Island" -- a Hawaiian Island theme thing. Mom made that surf board; totally know who I got my talents of making paper into awesome decorations from! In the afternoons, Mom and I would go to lunch or shop or go to a movie until Dad got home from work.



When Dad got home, we would sometimes visit outside on the patio. Sprinkles really enjoyed the giant backyard, I think. He didn't stray far, and he loved to come jump up in Mom and Dad's laps. We only had one little scare when he found a brick of rat poison by the shed. He didn't ingest any, so he was ok -- his mommy just panicked a bit! (Hey, I didn't cry though - wonders never cease!)

I know Dad's eyes are closed in this picture, but I really liked how it showed how relaxed Sprinkles was in his lap. He really just naturally went to Mom and Dad and lounged on them!


Since it had been so long (a couple of years) since I had visited Georgia, I wanted to do some tourist-y stuff. One of the first nights back we met my aunt, her son, his wife, and their 3 kids for dinner and then went to the Laser Show at Stone Mountain, which I mentioned a while back here. Here I am standing in front of the 3+ acre carving. "The Memorial Carving depicts three Confederate heroes of the Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee and Lt. General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson." Ah, good ole' Southern Pride -- can't beat it! The Laser Show was in its 25th year... just like me. :-)

The World of Coca-Cola has been torn down and rebuilt since I was last in Georgia. It is by far my favorite Atlanta attraction, well right after Stone Mountain. Basically it's a museum dedicated to Coca-Cola. The remodel really upgraded World of Coke and made it more organized... more categorized. There was a whole section of memorabilia, another of "artifacts", another showing a 4D movie, yet another showing Coke in pop culture. One section was a real working bottling plant -- much smaller and slower moving than the real thing, but it bottled coke in glass bottles that they gave you as you left the attraction. There was a smaller movie area where you could watch Coke ads from around the world and from the past. That was really fun! The tasting area is the last part you go in before the gift shop -- actually you can go in and out of it, so if you're thirsty, you can run grab a cup of coke and head back to continue looking around. There are 60 flavors that you can taste in 5 hubs in the tasting room that are organized geographically. The sixth tasting hub is devoted to Coca-Cola brands (anything with the word "Coke" in the name). It's really fun! Here I am tasting some Cherry Coke -- real daring of me, eh? Below are 2 more pictures in the World of Coke. The first is Mom and Dad in the lobby in front of this cool, giant, Coke bottle from, um, somewhere I couldn't pronounce. The second is the 3 of us on the couch from American Idol! Yes, THE COUCH. I don't watch the show... but that was sort of neat. :-)

It's almost midnight, and looking at all the pictures I have left, I realize I'm going to have to put up an entire post about time I spent with friends. I don't want to relegate them to a tiny mention at the end of this post! I really had a blast with Mom and Dad. I can't tell you how nice it was to just have some time with them and Sprinkles -- to just enjoy them. :-) I don't get a lot of alone time with my parents anymore because they like to spend most of their time with the grandkids with us when they come here. I don't blame them, but this was a nice change of pace. I need to visit again sooner rather than later. Hope you enjoyed seeing part of what I was up to! Check back in a couple of days to see more!