A busy weekend

Friday night we shot a wedding - very pretty and very sweet. It was a small ceremony, officiated by the bride's dad, and the only guests were immediate family who were all "in the wedding" dressed in black and white with red roses. It was on a patio that overlooked the river in downtown Chattanooga, and was very pretty. She managed to pull this ceremony together in 3 weeks... impressive.
Saturday I ran to the local nursery and stocked up on flowers and soil. After G & I dug up the grass around our mailbox and dug some holes in the rocky soil, I transplanted 5 flowers to this bed after demoting them from the flower bed around the house. Some I didn't like, others I didn't like where they were.... Then I planted all of the new flowers in their places and other in pots in the front and on our back deck.
I managed to get sunburnt doing all this so I woke up Sunday sore inside and out.
We visited an interesting little church this morning. G passed it on the road Friday and liked the look of it. (Only 2 artists would pick a church based on how the building looked...) Anyway, it was an old stone building with red doors and stained glass windows. Very pretty. The congregation was younger than expected and the minister was very friendly. The music was more mixed than the church we've been going to - more choruses which was nice, and the hymns were more familiar to me as well. There was an interesting mix of people - as you would expect in a small country church in Georgia - but sincere people with a sincere love for the Lord. Definitely worth another visit.
The rest of the day - I've been recovering. I'm sore inside and out - and seem to have sinus pressure as well.
I did get some laundry done...
Hope you all had good weekends as well.

March of Dimes Pictures!

I'm proud of the slideshow my Hubby set up. Take a look at all of our fun last weekend!

Team Aiden

I welcomed Spring - again...

Tonight after work I spent some time outside. The first time since the cold snap. I went around to a lot of the same plants and trimmed off leaves I thought had survived the frost, but did not. I also gave everything a little trim hopping to encourage growth. My roses look a little diseased, but have lots of new buds. I'm hoping with some good sprays I can get them back to being more resistant. I think the frost weakened them a little.
I also cleaned up our back deck and brought out my Madagascar Tree that I thought I killed last year by leaving out too late. I had to cut off about 10 inches - but there were lots of sprouts on the rest. I'm very happy this tree survived. It was one of my favorites last year.

It felt good to be out tonight - today was pretty trying. My plants were therapeutic tonight.

March of Aiden

We traveled to Durham, NC this weekend to join family and friends in the second annual "March With Aiden for the March Of Dimes". Aiden's mom (my sister in law) has raised over $2000 this year for the March of Dimes and people are still sending her checks. I'm very proud of the work she does to bring awareness and help to the causes she believes in. We were the unofficial photographers for the day and will be putting together a web page or slideshow to show the day's highlights.
The March of Dimes was very instrumental in providing the treatment Aiden needed when he was born too early and even now provides funding for him to have sessions to help his speech development.
If Beth (my sister in law) had a blog I would link there with a great big THANK YOU. But since she does not I'll just say it on mine.
Thanks for all of your hard work!
We love you!

Tax Day

We finally got our taxes back from our accountant today. We've had to use one since we started our own business. After we quickly glanced at them, signed them, we hopped in the car to find a post office open late. We finally did, and boy was it open. There was police directing traffic, postal trucks parked in the middle of the road so you could just hand them your mail, and my favorite - a FEDEX truck in the parking lot at the post office. There were also people picketting there - I guess against taxes. Anyway, afterwards we went out to eat to celebrate the fact that we didn't owe anything and are actually getting a little back.
:)

Who's Voice is it Anyway?

I had a 10 minute conversation tonight with Tech Mom, and then she handed the phone to Grandma and said "it's Lauren - she wants to say hi". I told Grandma I was not Lauren and when Mom was back on the phone she tried to apologize.... Grandma said she's worse than her!

I just wanted to share this funny moment.

A Lazy Day, a Busy Day

Yesterday we had planned on working outside but it rained... so we did nothing. :)

Today we got some work done on our boxes and I went through my clothes - very productive.

Hope you all had a good weekend as well.

World's Trade Fair

NeoCon

I will be going here this year. This will be my treat for the torture of the next 7 weeks. All expenses paid.

:)

NeoCon

A great big show in Chicago that the company I work for is involved in. It's impressive and this year I get to go see it- however the next 7 weeks until the show are maddness for me. I kept crying tonight trying to get the house clean and a pie made for company tomorrow night. All I can think about is how much I have to do, and not enough time to do it. I had a 3 hour meeting this morning followed by a 2 hour lunch (a special occasion for a co-worker) and after 1.5 hours of work - the last 2 hours of the day were lost to my computer being worked on. I'm already running behind and it's only begun! I have a lot of people high up putting a lot of pressure on me - they all have faith in me - but I'm pushed to the max.

I guess I just needed to vent...

The Verdict

So, we just returned from being out of town this weekend. We went to visit Camera Man's family and I have been worried for a week about what to do with my flowers. I had roses that were budding, lilacs blooming, and many others springing up with gusto that I was not wanting to part with any of them. They are so therapeutic for me. Every day after work I walk through them and pull any weeds that come up, trim anything that needs trimming and spray if need be. I was just getting into this routine again when the threat of a cold snap came. After much flip flopping I decided to cover them for the entire weekend.
Good choice. The only things I didn't cover were the evergreen shrubs, the butterfly bush, and these Rose Champions which are trying to take over the world and didn't die during winter. After taking a peek when we got home and then recovering for our third freezing night in a row - everything survived that stayed covered. One sheet blew off of a rose bush and lilac bush and it looks like some leaves, and buds are not very happy. I recovered them for tonight. I lost maybe 5% of the leaves on my Leadwort flowers - they must be particularly sensitive to the cold, but a few leaves is nothing compared to the whole plant. Everything else that was covered seems just fine.
My butterfly bush looks like my hair when I step out of the shower. Not a leaf alive on it. It will come back with gusto though. The Rose Champions look like they had been watered and fertilized all weekend - I have a feeling these will need some major cutting back this year. I planted them last year after they bloomed - so I have yet to see them in bloom and have heard they are beautiful. Maybe after they bloom I'll cut them back.

Leadwort


Rose Champion

Critters!!!

Camera Man set this site up for the girls. We've met so many new creatures at house we wanted to share them with others...

Critters

Enjoy.