The Great Outdoors...

Ever get in the what-do-we-do-today rut?  Well, the Morris family does.  So on this day we shook the cabin fever by heading out to the great outdoors.  We visited Oak Mountain State Park.  Noteworthy to mention it's the state's largest park and even more noteworthy to mention we got in F-R-E-E thanks to a coupon book we bought as a fundraiser recently.  That sucker has paid for itself many times over!

First stop was the Alabama Wildlife Rescue Center. 

 

They advertise having rescued wildlife on display so that we the peeps can see the amazing work being done to keep wildlife wild and free.  Let's take a look:

That's Rob, Mikayla, and Madison checking out the owls.  Pretty cool stuff...Rob couldn't pull himself away!

There were birds' nests to view...

...and two live snakes.  Ugh!

That's about enough of the wildlife...let's go out into the wild!

"C'mom," says Madison to Mikayla.  "I'll hold your hand."

"Nah, I'll go first," decided Mikayla.

We went on a little (100 degree) hike.  Matt wanted to take control by getting the proper instructions/directions...

...which was a good thing, because I was busy forcing family photo ops on the Morrises:

It was so hot, but we really did have "different" fun!  We walked, laughed, and sweat off about 5 pounds each!

Don'tcha just love, love, lurve this picture of Caroline? 

To say that Oak Mountain has a beach is like saying Gatlinburg has Olympic-quality ski slopes...sure there's a sand, which qualifies as a beach.  There is a lake that has cooled off and refreshed many people.  We planned to go have a picnic evening dinner at the beach area.  But this area is just very simple and make-shift.  One would almost say it's not even memorable.  One would only say that if one missed seeing this:

or this:

Well, that just about ended the day's outing.  I mean, we can now say "We have seen it all," agree???

Once more just for giggles:

All joking aside, this was actually a fun day.  We sweat like fattened hogs in this good ol' southern humidity, but it got us out of the house and together for some Great Outdoors.  'Bye until the next outing!

Happy B'day Mommy!

Well, better late than never, but I wanted to share with you guys my wonderful 3* birthday!  My actual birthday fell on Sunday August 15th.  But in typical ~me~ fashion, I managed to squeeze in multiple celebrations.  My good ol' dad was in town on Friday, so we went out to eat.  Dad brought me a surprise, too...

That's my surprise -- my Aunt Joyce joined us.  It had been toooooooo long since I had seen her and I reeeeeally enjoyed catching up.  It had been a little bit since the kids had seen their Papa Joe, so they were loving some P.J. time.  

I am sad to report I didn't snap any pics of Vishell that night.  I enjoyed her company, too.  Love you Lady V!

Took a break Saturday, but Sunday we went to church, then it was time for more celebration!  Ate at Mom's house.  Caroline looked aMAYzingly fabulous and oh-so-frilly.  Thank you Aunt Joyce for her 1st tutu!  But when you look as darling as she did, you get to refuse looking at the camera whenever you wish...

 

Cake time!

(L-R Rob, Lauren, Me, CC, Micah.  Nope, I'm not telling you what I wished for!  But I wish I wished for more of that delicious cake from Edgar's!)

And for the finale...(Are you keeping count?  This would be my 3rd b'day celebration...) My best and some dearest friends in the world and I all got together.  Amber and I discovered that among the plethora of commonalities we share, we also have the very same birthday.  I think I was born about 2 hours earlier at a hospital across town.  We have been best friends since age 14.  I'm not telling you how many b'days we have celebrated together, but it IS less than 20!

My sista-from-anotha-mutha Kylee joined us, and my dear Cajun besties the Stewarts (Lorie, Shane, and Whitney) were in town.  We tried out Chuy's, the newest Tex-Mex restaurant in town.  Delicious food, great prices, but I will probably wait until the hype dies down before returning.

Funny story: Chuy's has this great patio area.  Despite the 100-degree summer we are having with 80% humidity, we all decided to sit outside since it would likely get us a table more quickly.  Well, before we even received our drink order, this happened...

Okay, that didn't photograph well.  You would normally be able to see shopping and blue skies behind our husbands.  What you actually can barely see are sheets of driving rain.  Those little pines are blowing in the wind!  I'm talking major shower here, folks!  Good thing I talked my hubby into taking this before dinner:

That's a wrap, people!  See ya next August 15th (and 16th, 17th, etc.)

So Long, Soft Pink!!! (A.K.A. New Kitchen Countertops)

As of August 2010, we have lived in this house for 5 years.  I really do love my house, even though we have outgrown it.  The house was built in the mid 90's, but both the builder and previous owner had impeccable late 80's taste.  I wish I had before-and-after pictures of everything we have redone...Our hall bath's wall-paper was truly a Miami Vice airbrush-esque look.  There was mint green, baby blue, peach, cream, etc. splatters on a white background.  We have painted, replaced metal mini-blinds, tiled over laminate floors, and more.  Ironically enough, the thing I loathed the most was the thing I learned to live with the most complacently...my kitchen countertops!

Enter my sister-in-law Mary.  She is starting a side business called Fantasy Faux.  She loves to faux-finish anything that isn't moving or breathing.  Her first love is furniture re-do, but she also can do countertops.  Guess who she chose to be a guinea pig and practice on?  Moi, Myself, Me!

Here are a couple of before shots...the countertops were supposed to be neutral...

but they were textured and they had pink swirly designs in them...

So, the first thing we decided to do was try to smooth things over by sanding the fool out of them (pun intended).

Hmm, that didn't exactly work.  Talk about resiliency.  These 'tops may be mighty ugly, but they were built to last.  So on to Plan B.  Mary concluded that we would be putting quite a bit of layers on top of them...that would smooth things out anyway.  First step, primer. 

...aaaaaand buh-bye pink!  I'm loving it already!  Now, about that stove.  It's going to really be in our way.  So we pulled it out, revealing another dark secret...how do you like my red kitchen?

Yeah, I like it too!  Much better than the old wallpaper that I lazily never finished painting over!  Hahaha.  Okay, next step, the base coat.  We chose a warm okre/mustard color.  Almost too mustardy.  I'm craving hot-dogs fo' sho'!!!

Okay, maybe it's not so bad.  I guess all these paint fumes are just getting to me!  Let's get back to work.  The next steps went from exciting to waaaaay scary.  I freaked out more than once.  Have I made a huge mistake?  Have I gone from guinea pig to lab rat?  But I know and trust Mary.  I have seen her work.  So I bit my tongue.  Well, until the last night.  Anyhoo, enough talk.  Let's paint:

And finally, we were through with the coloring part.  Here's my beautiful niece Lauren showing off the almost-finished-process and her fabulous new haircut:

Now, keeping in mind that #1 this is a painted surface and #2 I tend to lean toward the careless side of life, we decided to put a truckload of two quarts of poly-acrylic clear coat on top.  Not only will this seal the painted surface, it will also give the countertops the glassy surface associated with real granite.

That would be my brother, David, applying the first layer of poly-acrylic.  Just like a gym floor, right Dave?  Well, with no further ADO...I present the finished (almost) product:

I'm still waiting for the poly-acrylic to finish setting before I can accessorize again.  Ugh, patience is so hard!  How about a little before-and-after again?

So long for now...I'm off to watch paint dry!  Heeheehee...