Dang* Good Dog!

"This is a very sad day for the entire Bulldog Nation" - Damon Evans

Uga VI died last night in Savannah . . . saddest news ever. 

I think we feel an extra connection to this guy since he was Georgia's mascot while Paul and I were both at UGA, we kind of got used to seeing his massive face around here. He will surely be missed! We're glad to know that Uga's son is ready and waiting to come in and take over the air conditioned dog house and the ice pack beds during the football games, but we'll sure miss this dude!  

Go Dawgs! 

Little Gangsta

Here's Mary all dressed up like a little gangster earlier this week - she's got on about three bracelets, two watches, two necklaces, some rings, and fistfuls of jewelry in both hands. The backwards visor just topped it off. As much as I'd like to say I dressed her like this myself - this was all Mary.  

Pardon the mess in the pictures, but these are a nice peek at what we've been up to lately! We've been moving for the past two weeks - getting everything out of our apartment and into our house, which means nothing but cleaning and unpacking! I am down to these boxes of random odds and ends that don't have a place yet. I've been tempted to tape up a few of them and just throw them in the trash. I would seriously do that. I'll post more pictures when life is a little more organized.  

Birthday Pounds

At the beginning of this week, I got this kick to get healthy! I was excited about working out more and eating nothing but goodness. So, Monday I made a decent dinner and then took a run with Mary in the jogger stroller - I felt great by the time I got home! I vowed that night to keep it up - plenty of exercise and no junk food. Easy! 

I probably shouldn't have made my new resolutions the day before my birthday. Paul showed up with Krispy Kreme donuts for breakfast, I had a huge bowl of pasta for lunch, followed by chocolate pie, then pizza for dinner and cupcakes for dessert. Paul knows how much I love junk food - but I never buy it because I would seriously eat it all in a day - so he got me tons of my favorite treats for my birthday . . . candy bars, sour patch kids, gummy worms, Coke, popsicles, Milano cookies . . . I feel like I'm forgetting something. Naturally, I enjoyed the junk food and took the day off from exercising. It was my birthday, it was good for me.    

I got back into the swing of things the next day! Until I went into the kitchen and saw extra donuts from the day before . . . and all the candy that I didn't knock out in one sitting. So, my modo for the week is to finish it all off as quickly as possible so I can get it out of the house and be done with it =). Good news - I'm still keeping up with my running - albeit I may be huffing up every hill in the neighborhood!  Bad news - we're heading to a dessert party for the rest of the night. Sheesh.  

Our 3rd Anniversary

I forgot to mention in my last post that we were celebrating our 3rd Anniversary this week.  We always look at the "traditional" anniversary gifts for each year - and apparently you are supposed to give leather as a gift for your 3rd anniversary. I thought about getting Paul a new leather watch, but I'm kind of in love with Swiss Army watches and I'm definitely not ready to drop $200 for a new watch . . . so it was a good thought, but just a thought. Paul wanted to get me a new pair of shoes - leather I guess? - but since he couldn't pick out a pair of shoes for me to save his life, he told me I could pick out my own. So we skipped the anniversary presents this year and just took each other out to dinner! 

We went to Harry Bissett's downtown (yum!) and walked over to North Campus before the sun set. Just for the heck of it, we took a break from walking in the middle of the Broad Street. Kind of a nice place to sit and watch the city when it's not too busy. 

We revisited Herty Field before we went home - a spot on campus where we kind of say we first fell in love =). We spent so much time out there when we first started dating, so it's fun to go back out there and realize how much has changed and how much has happened since our first Spring we spent out there together. It's kind of lost it's ambiance now that the fountain is shut down, boarded up, roped off, and fenced in because of the drought - but the flowers are still pretty and the memories are still fun.  

We're planning a trip to the beach in the next few weeks, so I told Paul to skip the bouquet of flowers for the occasion and I'd put the money towards something more fun (is that lame?). BUT I still came home with three beautiful flowers by the end of the night. SO Happy Anniversary to us. 

Happy Anniversary!

The Atlanta Zoo

Mary and I took our first trip to the Atlanta Zoo a few weeks ago! My friend Krista bought a pass that lets her bring a guest with her to the zoo every time she goes - and since our kiddos are both under 2 - they are totally free. Mary and I were honored to be Krista and Thatcher's first guests to the zoo =). 

The zoo isn't too big and it's super shady - in a good way - so it was perfect for pushing these little munchkins around in their strollers all afternoon. 

The biggest hit of the day was hands down the "Pananda's!"

This big dude was taking a snooze right up against the glass - so with plenty of coaxing, I convinced Mary to touch the glass. Much to her delight, he never moved and she got to pet him all she wanted. Not everyday you get that close to a panda bear! 

The BEST part of the day was when we headed to the panda gift shop and Mary grabs a panda, runs to the cash register, says "please" while she hands the panda over the counter and "thank you" after the lady takes it from her. She stood there and waited like she was going to get every panda she handed over - and there was a pile of them! Even if she's been watching me shop a little too much, she's super polite and knows not to shoplift - so I feel like a pretty successful parent. 

I did get her a stuffed panda after her all her hard work shopping - which she hasn't let go of since. It's been ALL things panda's around here since the zoo.

Here's a rockin' picture of us the four of us at the end of our trip. 

Yay for good friends and the zoo! 

Petting Zoo Season

Once upon a time, I took Mary to a petting zoo. She thought the animals were pretty cool . . . from far away. The little goat by the fence was much too scary to touch, so we kept our distance and never even went into the petting area. 

A week later, we took a family outing to pick strawberry's and Paul took Mary over to see the animals. Mary was extra curious about the animals, but convinced Paul to do all the petting. If a sheep came too close to the fence, Mary was gone. 

Somehow or another, Paul came mighty close to kissing a lovely lady sheep all in attempts to show Mary that sheep are super nice.  

The next week, we ventured to the Atlanta zoo and once again found ourselves a happy little petting zoo. This time, we actually went IN the fence to see the animals. Mary decided she would be safe hiding behind Thatcher, even though he is half her size, he made a nice little barrier between the girl and the sheep.  

At least, until the sheep moved and Mary cried and wanted me to hold her until we got out of the horrifying petting zoo. 

THEN, being the good Mom that I am, we somehow found ourselves at the petting zoo at Stone Mountain. Not sure why I even made the effort to walk the paces to the petting zoo, but somewhere in my mind I was sure Mary would love the animals this time around. 

Not happenin. She started saying "no, no, no" as soon as we got there and, like all of us, found this goat in the baby pool to be completely sketchy. 

I think it's easy to say that we've had a little petting zoo overload this month. I don't know why we've tried this many times to get our daughter to put her hands all over some mangy animals, but it's supposed to be fun, right? Maybe someday she'll be begging us to let her pet a goat, but for now Mary likes her animals best if they cannot move, breathe, or look at her.