2 yr. Pictures

Memorial Day is how we gauge Jamba's birthday, because it was on Memorial Day 2008 that we "rescued" Jamba and brought her home.  To see her "baby" photos click here!  Here are her 2 year pictures:

The cutest ever!

Blue Steel

High Fashion

Jamba was pooped from the photo shoot.

The light's weird but I like the picture - she was trying to bat at the camera strap.

And a movie for your entertainment: click here! Jamba hates dents in the carpet and she attacks them to smooth them out whenever we move a chair or the coffee table.  I was washing the sheets and chaning the mattress cover when she discovered some dents she couldn't smooth out.  She spent a good 10-20 minutes trying though.  This is the first time I noticed her doing it and grabbed my camera.

At the ripe age of 2 Jamba has become more cuddly and less of a menace.  She still enjoys fetch, tag, and her version of hide and go seek (more like I see you hiding around the corner and I will hunt you down and attack!).  She loves bottle caps and small round items like skittles that slide around easily to chase.  She loves being outside: rolling on the concrete and biting the grass, chasing insects and jumping at low flying birds.  When she can't be otuside she sits in front of windows and just stares for long periods of time.

In Memory

pictures from "Today" Women in Uniform (click for link)

Memorial Day is a time to reflect and honor those men and women who served in wars past to gain freedom and give equality.  It's also time to thank the men and women who serve today to protect the freedoms of our country.

My own grandpa was a Seabee in the Pacific Islands.  I know one thing he did was underwater welding in one of these:

 

"During the Second World War, the Seabees performed now legendary deeds in both the Atlantic and Pacific Theaters of Operation...Seabees in the Pacific Theater of Operations earned the gratitude of all Allied fighting men who served with them or followed in their wake. Their deeds were unparalleled in the history of wartime construction. With eighty percent of the Naval Construction Force concentrated on the three Pacific roads, they literally built and fought their way to victory.

"In construction and fighting operations, the Pacific Seabees suffered more than 200 combat deaths and earned more than 2,000 Purple Hearts. They served on four continents and on more than 300 islands."

(Info pulled from the Department of the Navy -- Naval Historical Center )

I bet Arlington Cemetary would be really cool on a holiday like this.

Motor Mount, Motor Mount - goes so FAST!

This is Bryce's newest "improvement" to his Speed3.  This is a motor mount.  This one is specifically designed to be stiffer so the engine doesn't move as much in the engine bay at full throttle - during acceleration. Basically it makes the engine hold still so he can shift smoother. :)

This is the stock motor mount.

This a comparison between the old one (left) and the new one (right).  Bryce would like you to take notice of the gaps on the old one and how solid the new one is.  You can push the old one in with your hands and the new one is noticeably stiffer.

Beauty shot!  The new motor mount is in place and ready for a test drive.

We never posted pictures of the previous additions to his car so here they are!

New bypass valve, K&N air filter, short ram intake and goes down to the turbo inlet pipe (not pictured).

Vent pod boost gauge inside the cock pit.

Talkin' Trash

Georgia has dumps in most of the communities so you can take you plastics and glass and household waste, large boxes, scrap metal and even your car oil here and dispose of it properly.  We've been to ours probably as many times as you can count on one hand but this last time Bryce made a great discovery.  Check out the signage on the bin.  See if you can catch it.

Still looking?

Ok, so look one more time and at the last word.  It's supposed to be Waste, but the original spelling was Waiste - which is not a correct spelling for either homonym. :) Nice!

How to get to Cleveland, GA

Since the parentals live in the mountains of northern Georgia we on occasion have driven up there and have figured out a pretty good set of directions. We decided on the last trip up there (winter of 2009) that we should take pictures and document the trip.  Things that we have become accustomed to may be entertaining to those who don't see the wonderful sights.  (Or you may wish I never made this post which coincidentally made you waste time reading it.  If this is your feeling, I sincerely apologize.)

This is how you know you're getting close:

Pass the giant rocking chair sitting right by the road in an open field on a country backroad. (this has to be listed somewhere on the list of the largest in the US right - even if it's not #1?!)

As you drive into 'downtown' or the 10 square feet of Cleveland's square you'll see the Dairy Queen which usually has birthday wishes up for someone (who probably bought one of their ice cream cakes).  I guess this time it's Jesus' turn.

Another few feet down the road you'll see the Babyland billboard - where the cabbage patch babies are birthed.  Yes, there's a birthing room there.  You have to look closely at the picture but the stork is there. Babyland just recently moved to a bigger and better place - still in Cleveland.

See the courthouse right in the middle of the road.  Drive around it.


And then on the other side of the square you'll see this beauty-Bryce loves to quote it to me or very nicely tell me some reason why he does or doesn't buy me flowers....

And last of all you know you're close when you see on your right Yonah Bowl and Skate.  Bryce and I find it quite humorous and this is where are country bumpkin accents kick in (if they haven't already) and we like to see how 'hick' we can get in our speech and conversation for the next 5-10 minutes until we arrive.  "Yonah bowl?"  Yonah is pronounced Yo-nah, like Jonah but with a Y startin' it off.  We were not educated about it the first time we saw and thought it was yawna like a southern "you wanna" but it still works either way you pronounce it.  Besides, no one really pronounces anything correctly around here anyhoo.  Salmon with the 'l' pronounced is most definitely accepted and widely used.


So what Yonah do now?

Baby Season

No, this is not an announcement. :) We have several women in our ward expecting this month and in the next few coming. We had a baby shower today for two of these women - both are having girls. One, I visit teach. She's close to my age and it is their first child. The other sweet woman is having their 4th but had given their baby stuff away since their youngest is now 2. I did games and decorations - that seems to be my assignment each time. I found this idea and tutorial a while back and kept it for such an occassion as this. I used bigger flowers but think it turned out super cute. It was swagged above the table of gifts. Originally we were going to swag it a couple times in the middle of the room so we made the string pretty long - maybe 15 or so feet and the flowers would be further apart. We ended up just hanging it from the two air vents and it worked out great.

One game we played was Pin the Pacifier on the Baby. The baby was posted on the wall and the pacifiers were cute little pink ones. All-in-all, it was good. I just wanted to show my cute garland off. (Thanks DeLynne for helping me make the flowers.) Also, DeLynne did a great baby gift as a flower box She has lotions, and cucumber-melon baby wipes, a cute color coordinating outfit, (coordinating of course) hair bow, and some wash cloths...super cute. I'm going to throw it out there that I did the little card on the front. :) The one's last name is Wright so W and on the back it says, "What whirl...it's a girl!" and the other's last name is Seagraves so S and on the back it says, "Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice..." Hold your applause. :)

"So give me wuch ya promised..." Dancing with Tyce Diorio

There are perks to living in Atlanta I guess. One of them would be Dance 101 a really cool dance studio a friend of mine and I discovered and enjoy going to occassionally. Another perk connected to this is Emmy winner Tyce Diorio. He is really cool and fun and a great dancer/choreographer. I feel priviledged to have gotten this opportunity. And to prove that I did it here are some pictures. The girl in the second picture you may recognize as Mollee from So You Think You Dance season six. There was another guy from season 4, but I didn't watch back the and he was pretty cocky so I didn't care much....rude? sorry. We did a broadway jazz number, but it wasn't all jazz hands and stuff. Pretty fun choreography. I have a video of the dance if I can figure out a better way than uploading straight to here... I'm so impatient with uploading. The song is "I gotcha" from Fosse. **CORRECTION: here it is on YouTube from someone else...I'm in the back, off to the side (waiting my turn) standing up on the bench recording with my camera. :)

It was pretty awesome and only $40 for 2 hours. Oh, by they way, he told me in front of everyone that I have great feet...only to say my arms could be stronger. :) anything you say Tyce. "Where's the redhead with good feet?" "Your feet are great, but if you don't have strong arms to go with the feet then the feet don't get the credit..." I was by no means anywhere close to being one of the best dancers and I realize I will never be that good but I enjoy it and I'll take a compliment and critique from Tyce Diorio any day. :)

Be a Winner - Not a Loser

We get invites to churches pretty often in our mailboxes or on our door with flyers. This one came and we found it particualrly interesting. On a side note, we have someone who just moved from Northern California and they commented about all the choices you have in churches down here - including the drive through churches. Only in the South. :)

It's all Greek to me

Bryce and I visited Athens, Greece for 2 days over the Valentine's Day and Presidents Day weekend. We flew out Friday afternoon, landing Saturday morning and flew back Monday morning, landing Monday afternoon.

The pictures you can link to (it's been updated and there're lots more along with comments) by clicking here: Awesome Greece Pictures!

A few videos we put on YouTube:

Guard Dance 2 of 5 and Guard Dance 3 of 5....the whole thing takes about 10 minutes. The two videos are 2 minutes. Just a taste. :) They start under the awning (sp?) and end up back at the same awning. then two guards in army uniforms checks them and make sure the two guards are in order and that their tassles are straight. :)

You can catch this sweet ride through town...

You can see some of the left over partying in the square. Live band. dancing donkey toys, and little girl in an outfit. :)

A 360 of some of the Acropolis grounds. The theatre you see - according to the plaque - went up the wall. I'm sure it was something to see.

Deal of the Day

It's that time of year again. Sales are abounding and Bryce is ready for new clothes (he's ripped the sleeves on a few of his shirts). I usually sneak in a couple looks here and there and found, might I say, the Deal of the Day.

Place: Ann Taylor

Item: Yellow three-button coat

Where in store: on clearance of course - with an additional 40% off

Unexpected: one loose button

Sale sticker says 79.99. Take 40% off and I showed the cashier the loose button and received another 15% off. $43 after tax for my coat.

Big surprise: Original sale tag is for 199.99. Original retail is $268.00 That's about 85% off the original price of the coat. Not to be out done, I did find Bryce some mighty good deals as well. Bass had $60 pants for $23 (50% w/additional 20%) and they had shoes BUY 1 PAIR get 2 PAIRS FREE (or get 1 pair 50% off). We received $5 dollar coupon toward Van Heusen from Bass and used it to buy a belt for $8 - originally $45 or something crazy like that (60% off w/additional % I can't remember and our $5 coupon). He bought another very nice pair of pants there as well.