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?

Sheryl's Last Fling Before the Ring

One of my good friends and roommates from college is getting married this weekend. She has been dreaming of this day since she was born! Sheryl finally met the man of her dreams and having the wedding she always wanted. But...

before she can tie the knot she has to have one last fling with us girls!Some of us girls made a pack back in 2006 that after we graduated we would get together the first weekend in June every year....no excuses! Last year we got together for Melinda's Bachelorette Party in Gatlingburg and this year it was just us girls in Asheville for Sheryl's Bachelorette Party. Next year we might have another Bachelorette Party for the First Weekend in June if not we will plan a trip together somewhere!!!

Since we live all over and we wanted as many people to come that could we decided to do it in a neutral location and made the drive as short as possible for all of us so we went with Asheville. (Rachel came from Wilmington, Sheryl and Amy came from Murfresboro, Melinda came from Nashville, Avery from Houston, Laura from DC, and I came from Atlanta)

Rachel and I both arrived before everyone so that gave us time to decorate the room before our Bride-to-Be showed up and set up everything. I made goody bags for everyone that included a bottle of wine (Two Buck Chuck) and a monogrammed polk-a-dot glass!The rest of the girls showed up later that night and we quickly got into the wine and having a good time, some how we all managed to stay up to 4 AM. We caught up with each other, shared interesting "ice cream" stories, and played Apples to Apples! it felt like we were all in undergrad together again. The next day we went to the Biltmore so Sheryl could see "The Big House.". We took a picnic lunch with us and found a place to have lunch together. We then toured the beautiful house and took lots of great pictures! We went to the winery to do wine tasting and took an additional glass on Red Wine and Chocolates. Avery came up with a great idea to buy champagne and go enjoy it in the gardens at the Biltmore. Well on our way over to that part of the estate, the champagne bottle decided to explode and nail Avery in the face on top of going all over the car. Thankfully Avery is ok and we didn't loose too much of the champagne. We enjoyed the gardens and took some more great picture of us all!Saturday night was the main night for Sheryl. We went to dinner at Bistro 1896 which was on the square of downtown Asheville. The atmosphere was perfect and the food was amazing! We went back to the hotel to dress up our Bride-to-Be for her night out on the town and showered her with sexy lingerie for her honeymoon. Of course, it would not be a complete lingerie shower without Sheryl receiving a Moo-Moo from Rachel! It was priceless...

We went Saturday night and had such a great time and our Bride did as well. We ran into other Bacherlorette Parties and our Bride was decked out so much better than the others! Sheryl was nice and shared her shots with them. After a fun night in Asheville and a crazy taxi ride home, we continued our party in the hotel and once again stayed up until 4AM. I do not know how I managed that, I am usually in bed by 10PM.

Sunday was a sad day, our weekend was coming to an end and we all had to head back to our towns. We made one last stop together for Brunch at Moose Cafe (recommended by Southern Living) and it was delicious! After our goodbyes, we headed home with lots of memories and great pictures!

The great thing about all of our Bachelorette Parties they all have been something different and so much fun! I had the traditional one night Bachelorette Party, Melinda had a joint one with Jonathan and rented a cabin for the weekend in Gatlingburg and Sheryl had a Girls' Weekend in Asheville.

I love any excuse to get together with my friends. I am so glad Sheryl had a memorable weekend and cannot wait to share her Wedding Day with her. She will be such a beautiful and happy bride!