Birthday Celebrations

Growing up having a summer birthday had its pros and cons. You were always out of school for your birthday and you could have pool parties. I pretty much had some sort of pool party almost every year. Though, having a summer birthday a lot of people forgot about it since you did not have your locker decorated by friends to remind others, the school announcements didn't exist in the summer, and all those other things. Now with facebook, people do not seem to forget it as much. This year my birthday was so nice, not only did I get to celebrate it with lots of friends and family but I had multiple get togethers. I guess it makes up for last year....

To start off my birthday, some of my high school friends (Allison, Tony, Matt, and Summer) came out of Gwinnett County to meet Russ and me for dinner at Noche in the Virgina Highlands. Noche is a tapas restaurant that did $10 all you can eat tapas on Monday night. We had a great time and enjoyed the food, drinks, and atmosphere. We ended the night with water-ice from Ritas!!

Russ, Me, Allison, Tony, Summer, and Matt at Noche

Kara's birthday is six days before mine and Father's Day always falls somewhere during that time or on my birthday so instead of doing three separate celebrations we combined all three this year. Since all of us were actually in town for the weekend before my birthday and Father's Day, Dad planned a trip up to the North GA mountains as a family. We decided to go on a picnic then go hiking up to Amicalola Falls. Mom cooked fried chicken, coleslaw, and pasta salad for the picnic. We enjoyed a beautiful drive up and had a great homemade picnic lunch. Mom decided to stay behind and read while the rest of us hiked. It was a steep hike but the end view was worth it. We had a great family day together, which does not happen very often these days.

Top Picture: Mom, Russ, and I at our picnic
Middle Picture: Kara, Dad, and I at the top of the Falls
Bottom Picture: Russ and I on the way down from the Falls

Jersey Boys came to Atlanta and played at the Fox. I told Russ months ago I wanted to go to it while it was in town. I love going to The Fox let alone to see a musical. It was here during the month of June so we ended up getting tickets for Sunday night which was part of my birthday gift. Thanks to my Coke discount, we got half off the best seats in the theatre! Russ and Ihad our date night for the weekend seeing the show. It was a great show, I highly recommend it if it comes near you!

Outside of the Fox Theatre

Since I was going to be out of town on my actual birthday, Russ cooked me dinner the night before. He made an amazing dinner, Shrimp and Grits, a recipe from Southern Living!! He also remembered how I prefer cookie cake over other desserts so he completed our dinner with a yummy cookie cake.

Thursday (my actual birthday) I spent at work then drove up to Nashville for Sheryl's wedding weekend. On my way to Nashville, everyone called me to wish me a Happy Birthday! I think I only drove 10 minutes out of a 4 hour drive where I was not talking on the phone. It made the trip fly by. When I got to Melinda and Jonathan's we went out and had drinks and Emily Anglin joined us! It was such a great birthday! I spent the rest of the weekend with all my friends from Tennessee, I could not ask for anything better!

Me, Sheryl, Melinda, and Rachel at Sheryl's Rehearsal Dinner

Thanks everyone for making this past birthday one of the best birthdays!!!

Sleepover at the Dunlaps

Three of my little cousins, Blakely, Amberlyn, and Sydney came to Atlanta for a week to what they called "Camp Aunt Jacki." I was on one of my many business trips so I only got to see them on Friday. Mom took them to the GA Aquarium, American Girl Store and Bistro, Painted Pottery, and went swimming every day. I drove out to Lawrenceville and had dinner with Mom and the girls after work on Friday. We then went to Mom's house to create a scrapbook of their week in Atlanta. I thought it would be fun for them to come to my house and spend the night. So after we completed the scrapbooks, we all went to my house for a sleepover.

When I got off work, I did a little shopping for the girls. I wanted to surprise them with something and what would a sleepover be without matching pajamas? So of course, I get them cute pajamas. They loved them and as soon as I showed them they had to try them on. We proceeded with a photo shoot of them (that was the theme of the week, I was informed) then hung out at the house. Russ was busy writing his paper for Law Review so he was no fun but the girls still managed to go bug him (which he secretly loved).


I finally got them to bed at 3:00 AM, I have no idea how they were able to stay up so late. The next morning they wanted to make Russ breakfast so while I was outside planting plants with Dad they made Russ eggs. Russ entertained them that morning so I could get everything planted. Sydney did help me take out the plants out of their containers for a bit.

Russ took them to the park and of course they got bored in about thirty minutes so Russ took them to lunch. I think Russ enjoyed having them so that he had an excuse to go to McDonald's for lunch!

Landscape Design

Back in May, Russ and I had a landscape designer come out to the house and create a landscape design. Besides the basic yard maintenance and grooming of all the weeds and ivy, we have not done much to the house. The people before us just let every grow so we had to do a lot of cutting back and clean up just to begin making the yard look presentable and we still have a lot to do.

The great thing about a landscape design is you can take pieces of it at a time to implement. A couple of weeks ago, Dad and I had a Father-Daughter Day and went looking at plants for the first phase of our landscape design and concrete pavers for our future patio. After looking at numerous places we finally found a great place, Northside Nursery. They took great care of their plants and the prices were just right!

We bought plants to go underneath the new bay window and couple to go along the front of the house. I was not thinking that I would not have time to plant them since I would be out of town for the next couple of weeks so I had to make sure either Russ or I would water then daily.

We finally got a chance to landscape the front of the house, unfortunately it was during the hottest weekend in Atlanta so far. Dad and I were outside working from 9:30 to 2:00 in over 100 degree weather. Needless to say, we put the remaining landscaping and patio work on hold until September or when it cools down.

I cannot believe the difference it has already made to the house!!! I cannot wait to work on another phase.

Below are pictures of the before and after...

Way Behind

Sorry for the lack of blogs lately. I have been traveling none stop over the past month and have not had time to write a quality blog (basically means, random story with pictures). I am going out of town again this week but once I return I will begin blogging again. Here are some blogs to come:

1) Birthday Celebrations
2) Paschall-Taylor Tennessee Wedding
3) Landscape Design
4) Sleep-over with Russ and Brittany
5) 4th of July Weekend in Gatlinburg

A New Russ - Part 2

In case you were not able to see the differences on Russ here they are:

1) Summer Hair Cut (in everyone's language: he got it cut really short)

2) New Wedding Ring - We finally replaced his wedding band since he lost it a couple of months ago. Though, it is not the exact same one it will do for now.

3) No Facial Hair - That's right he finally shaved off his goatee. Russ is getting ready for internship interviews at the end of July and thought it was time to let go of his "youth."

4) Smart Guy - Russ got his grades for his first year in law school and did an amazing job! (OK, I know that is nothing to do with the "New Russ" but I had to brag for a moment....)

A New Russ

Notice anything different about Russ?