Dubby, one adorable Pit Bull!!

We have 1000's of ones here that need homes, but how darn cute is Dubby!?! OMG, he is in TX, but oh it breaks my heart that no one has asked about adopting him, I assume bc of his breed..if they only knew...if they only knew...

Only one Mayoral Candidate..

So my report on the meeting Monday night is kinda, well..blah..only one Mayoral candidate came, Carol Chumney, and she came at the end of the meeting. She filled out a survey ACT (Animal Cruelty Taskforce) had given her and she checked, 'yes' on all boxes, basically stating she is concerned about the animals in the community. But no speech, nothing really..she did had out some info and gave us signs if we wanted them.

Deb Merino gave an awesome speech on Mid South Spay Neuter Services, that I am a part of now: :) Just giving the facts of how important it is to get all animals 'fixed'. 14,000 animals were put down at Memphis Animal Services last year. 14,000 too many. The ONLY way this number is going to go down is to get out in the community and spreading the word that there is a clinic that does it for cheap, under $70 cheap. And for those that can't pay that much, there are options for them, there are Grants paying for certain surgeries, etc. 

So while I didn't learn about any of the candidates, I learned more and more about getting out there and getting pets 'fixed' and controlling the pet population. 

We also ate a lot in Knoxville

So we have made somewhat of a tradition of eating breakfast the Sunday after the first game with my high school friends Jenny, Stacey and now Mary Ann. Heck Jenny and Stacey are really Kindergarden friends from Cedar Bluff. Mary Ann joined us this year, it was my first time seeing her and meeting her new husband Gil.  Jenny brought her kids Maddie and Erica, our first time meeting 2 month old Erica too! I had a yummy breakfast at Mimi's. 

Stacey and Mike

Mary Ann and Gil

TB and Me

The Woods Family, Eric, Erica, Jenny and Maddie

Everyone at Mimi's 

Later on that night we ate some delicious burgers at Rocky Top burgers! YUM, I highly recommend getting a burger there! 

And of COURSE we had to go as a family and get the FREE Chick-Fil-A sand which at Chick-Fil-A. Tony got irritated with me because I wanted to stop at all the Chick-Fil-A's on our way back to Memphis. I only stopped once in Lebanon for a yummy sandwich! 

Vols Open with a huge win over WKU!!

We got up early and walked from the Marriott to the game, on our way in we ran into Jekia, her mom Judy and Mikenzie! Then Mikki stopped by...funny to run into people in such a huge crowd, especially when we were on the phone with eachother not knowing at all where eachother was, then happen to be about 10 feet from eachother in the Vol Walk crowd! Mikenzie is such a cutie isn't she!? 

I love the tradition of the Vol Walk, when the team walks to the stadium. They changed it up a little this year with the team starting at the Torchbearer statue instead of the complex and Gibbs. I have never seen the streets so crowded with such energy in the air! 

We got to Matt Beeler's tailgate we were meeting Jody and Kevin at and ran into my cousins Timmy and Teri and their kids and friends. 

Jody and the girls

There was such excitement on the field before the game!! I love going down there before kickoff and there was such a special feeling this time! The music was even as I call it "Get Crunk" music and not your traditional stuff to please the old people in the stands..

We ran into Andre Lott and Condredge down there as well. 

We had some extra field passes and got my cousin Carley and her dad Timmy on the field. They got so many good pictures that I saw they posted. 

We even saw this guy, ya Peyton Manning. There is a Letterman's room off the field for all lettermen, it is a pretty cool thing with snacks and drinks in it for the lettermen pregame. Peyton came down there for a second and got swarmed!! I so wanted to get a picture, but you know you cant always do that. So I got him taking one with some randoms..

I love our new Jumbotron, it is just soooo nice and so much bigger, much needed to keep up with the other major stadiums in the country. 

Kamron came and sat with us for awhile, we had a few empty seats around us! It was nice!! 

TOUCHDOWN TENNESSEE!!!

Nikki and Alex Hashemian came to see us, Nikki is a Senior in high school and Alex is a sophomore at UT now! So crazy, Tony 'appeared' at Alex's 13th bday party and played football with the kids. They have grown up soooo much! 

Ran into Stacey at the tailgate post game!

Tony and Mark at the new press level/club level side of the stadium. Mark was telling us that this was to all be bricked by next year, but painted to look like it now. 

Gotta love the Vol Navy!!

I love my city, Knoxville..

Sunset from Sugarwood, our backyard :)

Trip to Knoxville for Labor Day, The Game and Wedding Planning

So after being engaged for over a month, we finally made it to Knoxville for some wedding planning. Yes, yes, yes, I am super late with the pictures, but here we are finally grabbing a bite to eat after going and going...we stayed downtown at the Marriott so we would be downtown and ready for the game early the next day.  This was the view from our balcony at the Marriott. 

Later on that night we met Matthew in the lobby bar for a couple of drinks. The bartender worked at the former Michael's in case any one is looking for him. We then met Ashley at Ruth's Chris for some delicious appetizers and cocktails. I had not seen Ashley and Matthew in a long time, especially Ashley, so good seeing old friends! 

Fuelish Pleasures

Ok, so I am on my way to a mayoral debate at the library (more on that later) and I realize I'm almost out of gas. So I stop at the gas station at Kroger on Trinity. I'm talking to Brooke about the Ole Miss game when some man jumps out of his truck yelling, "You are going to blow up everyone!!" I'm thinking, "Is he talking to me!?" Well, yes he was, he continued to yell, "Stupid Bitch, get off the phone, you are going to blow everyone up, get off the phone selfish girl". I have no clue what he is talking about, but then quickly think back to a stupid email that I got saying that talking on the phone can cause friction and blow up something. Then I think to myself, who believes this crap?  Then I realize this crazed man in my face does!! Well I have a major temper, so with Brooke on the phone, I begin to yell back at him, "You stupid uneducated idiot!, That is a old wives tale, that does not happen!" So we go back and forth for a minute with none of the bystanders doing ANYTHING. Brooke must think that I am crazy, and she gets off the phone with me. Well this man continues to yell saying, "Its on the pump, read the pump", I am trying to check out the pump while not being obvious, and there is nothing about being on a cell phone. By this time the man and his wife pull off.  I don't even know if they got gas, I guess they thought I might blow them up. Well Courtney calls me around this time and she looks it up on snopes and yep, its FALSE. What a jerk to verbally attack me over some stupid email rumor!!

Woofstock Memphis 2009 this Saturday

Woofstock Memphis 2009

Saturday, September 26

11 am - 5 pm

Overton Park Lake

music, food, pet adoptions by animal rescue groups,

 a silent auction and craft vendors

Live music by

Memphis Blues Society

Electric Nobody

Greenleaf

Darren J and BlackKat Bone

Patty Harper and Faultline

 

vegetarian and "festival" type food

Leashed pets welcome

The donation of a bag of dry dog food would be appreciated

 

New Blog for Shelby Angel

Check out the blog for Shelby Angel, I just added to "Who I Check Out". An amazing story worth following...

Tony's Comments on the First Night of DWTS

Ok, so I got Tony to watch because fellow St. Thomas Aquinas alum, Michael Irvin is on there. We are currently watching the first episode from last night...the men..

When the show opens they show the whole cast...

"How the heck is he gonna dance with big ass Macy Gray?"

Donny Osmond predance segment

"Is his sister the lady off So You Think You Can Dance?" ahhh, no that is Mary Murphy

Donny Osmond performing..

"Are they dancing to church music?" ahhhh, no..All that Jazz?

"Why the heck are the Jackson people there?"

"Is that Jermaine? They are popping up everywhere!"

On Cheryl Burke and Tom Delay..

"She doesn't like him very much"

"I bet this is going to be good"

Flowers in my backyard..

These are some of the flowers growing on my fence. Remember when my neighbor was cutting all of these down. I guess they are 'weeds', but they are so pretty...I am going to miss all the ivy and vines growing over the fence...

These look like something in a Dr. Seuss book to me :) So pretty and unique...

An Outhouse!?!

So yesterday we met a guy about a fence ;) for our new house that we are purchasing in Lakeland. Let me tell you dog lovers, we totally do everything for our two precious pooches! First off I couldn't get my mind off of this house when we initially saw it bc of the great piece of land it is on. Its on under an acre, but backs up to 70 acres of wooded land. Yes of course my number one on our list was no neighbor behind us. Mainly....because of Lennox and Lane. I wanted them to have tons of space to run around and not having a neighbor behind us allows for less barking, etc. We currently have a NBU (neighbor behind us) that has a pool and all you see is him cleaning and that big long pool cleaning thing poking up and down. Lennox and Lane hate this!! So let's eliminate all problems and not have a NBU. 

So back to the guy about a fence...Jack is our fence guy. We instantly had a bond the first time he came out when I found out he was in animal rescue. Not only dog rescue, but Pit Bull rescue and horse rescue! He lives on an old Greyhound training farm in Arkansas and always has dogs dumped off. We instantly bonded when he talked about Pit Bulls. And of course he is the man to build our fence because he know how agile our boys are. We currently have a 6 foot shadow box fence and I have seen Lennox almost clear it and Lane getting super close. We were initially going with one kind of material, now we are going with steel. Try to bend that boys! 

So we are walking the back part of the property and discover none other than and OUTHOUSE.  Yes friends, we live in Tennessee, but an outhouse is seldom used in my vocabulary!! Well we have one that could be on our property. We wanted to bring the fence out a little more unlike the current little 3 foot one that the previous owners have left us. Problem is, it might get in the way of this outhouse!! 

OMG, so today I called the city of Lakeland and they sent a super nice man named James out to inspect it. He said it does indeed need to go, but now we have to figure out if it is soon to be OUR outhouse or the people who own all that land. 

Whew..why can't things be simple for us so I can just focus my extra time on the fun wedding stuff!?! No..I have to deal with an outhouse. I have to go back out and get pictures to post!! 

Been engaged 2 months now..

OMG, it has flown by...much, much respect to the brides that can plan a wedding in about 6 months.  I really have NOTHING set in stone yet. We went to Knoxville during Labor Day weekend and looked at so many places. We really narrowed it down.  I am really just ready to decide and pick a place. It is just that there are so many things you have to decide. If we do it outdoors, the weather is a big factor, and most of the places we looked out for outdoor weddings, were pretty far out and should we expect all of our out of town guests to drive that far in search of a place I could barely find? Plus, the outdoor places were a lot more expensive to rent, not including a tent for a back up. And most of those large homes that we would rent really are not in the Knoxville area where I want my out of town guests to see. I am really proud of my city and love it. Plus Tony and I met on campus, in the downtown area. So that is weighing a lot on us. 

I think once we get the place and if we need a caterer, some include a caterer, I will feel more secure. I'm really ready to have the date and to send out a Save the Date for everyone. We are forsure looking at July 2010. 

I have subscribed to some bridal magazines and I have those, so that is exciting. And I love checking out all the bridal blogs. There are soo many great ideas! 

Kanye At It Again..

Check it out...

I feel like Lucy, I have DOG GERMS!

Remember this? Ha...well last night I had just fixed Lennox and Lane a big bowl of water in the 'community kitchen' bowl and in usual fashion, they both dunk their heads in the bowl and dribble it all around the floor. I usually wait til their are completely done to wipe it up.

Well I went into the kitchen last night to take my birth control pill and I totally dropped it, it went rolling and rolling....YES..into the puddle of slobber and water and DOG GERMS! EWWWW..Well I still had to take it. There is no 'back up' birth control packs...

I went to bed last night and I swear my stomach was killing me bc of the dog slobber I swallowed along with that pill!! Now I don't mind when they give me a kiss, but for the pill to roll in the slimy water on the floor...

EWWWW...