I missed an entire month???

I looked at the calendar and then looked at my blog and realized that I had missed the entire month of March. Wow. Sorry about that, let me see if I can catch up.

Valentine's Day

Somehow between the snow, a marathon, a mini family reunion Paul and I managed to take a few minutes to celebrate. Paul gave me a dozen red roses and he took me to the Vera Bradley store in Birmingham to shop. Yippee. I got 2 more pieces of my Vera. I gave Paul a digital picture frame with the following pictures.
Picasa Web Albums - mdhdifferent - Exported Videos#5438491052792619714

Visit to Vulcan

Saturday after Matt picked up his race packet we ventured out to sight see a little. One of Birmingham's famous sites is the VULCAN on Red Mountain. Just in case you didn't know Vulcan is the Roman god of fire and forge. The statue is 56 feet tall on a 124 foot pedestal. He was built for the 1904 Expo as Birmingham's contribution. He was returned to Birmingham and eventually placed on the Mountain. In 1946 his spear was removed and replaced with a torch that would burn green as long as no traffic fatality, if there was a traffic fatality the light would glow red for 24 hours. In 1999 when the statue was renovated the torch was removed and the spear replaced (not the same one, they lost the original spear Tell me how do you lose a huge spear?) We walked around the grounds and took in the view.

Matt's Mercedes Marathon

Matt ran in his first full marathon this weekend in Birmingham. Aunt Dianne and Uncle Jeff joined Paul, Mark and I for the weekend. Matt did great, 3 hours, 58 minutes and 2 seconds. His goal was to finish under 4 hours and he did it. We got a workout just running from block to block to see him run by. I am so proud of him. He had a goal and accomplished it. We had a super weekend of family and fun and food. We missed having Lauren along but she was back in Starkville studying for her upcoming CPA exam. She was "protected" by Duke and Annabelle, Thanks so much Lauren.

SNOW DAY

They predicted it, I tried not to get my hopes up but I did and it really came. I woke up at my usual time, ran to the window, saw all the snow and then checked email to make sure my office was closed for the day!
It was, plans changed, we took a few pictures and then left the snow to hit the road to Birmingham. It was so much fun seeing all the snow along the way.

North or South

Seems like lots of North vs South things are going on this week. Of course the most talked about is Saints vs Colts. (I don't want to hear about how Indiana isn't really in the north, it's above the Mason-Dixon isn't it??) But the big news item concerning the North vs South is between Punxsatawney Phil and General Beauregard Lee. Seems Phil said six more weeks of winter and Beau said spring is just around the corner. Well I'll take Beau then, I like cold weather but enough.
What do you think?
OR

Say it Ain't So

It was a very sad day at the Different house. Paul, Mark and I had been to Starkville to clean out Mark's apartment and the plan was to get back home just in time to watch the Saints in the play off game. And we did great, time wise, but as soon as we arrived home and turned the TV on we saw a very sad sight, a blank screen. We think lightening hit our Direct TV dish and fried the receiver. Anyway without a receiver there is no TV since we still have an analog TV. But the good news is Direct TV sent a new dish/receiver:),bad news we were without a TV for over a week. :( So while I was out of town last week, a new tv was purchased. We now have a brand new HD TV, It is super.
Of course since our cabinet was built before we even knew what high def was, we had to do some retro fitting. Thanks to Mark and his design and his Daddy as his sidekick helper, they designed and built a support for the new TV. I forgot to take a picture of the new TV in action last night.(acually I didn't forget I just didn't want the first picture of the TV to be an Ole Miss basketball game. ha)
I'll try to take care of that tonight but until here is the work in progress.
THE SAD, EMPTY HOLE

WORK IN PROGRESS

ALMOST FINISHED

MORE PICTURES TO COME

Long time no Post

Where has the time gone, I just looked at the calendar and January is almost gone. So much has happened. Meme and Paul had great birthdays. We all gathered in Hattiesburg to celebrate Meme's birthday on Jan. 15 and Paul's on Jan. 16. Here are a few pictures of that great weekend.





I hope both of them enjoyed their special days.

Cold Weather, a Roaring Fire and Hot Cocoa

The weather here has been VERY cold, at least for this part of the country. I just knew we would get to see some of the white stuff but only a few flakes showed up. Oh well, I guess that's just as well. I did get to have several roaring fires in the fireplace and while I love hot cocoa, I didn't want the calories that go with it. BUT I found this great recipe for homemade hot cocoa and oh my was it good.

1 tablespoon HERSHEY'S Cocoa
Dash salt
1 cup nonfat milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Sugar substitute with sweetening equivalence(Splenda) of 2 tablespoons sugar

Mix cocoa and salt in mug. Heat milk in microwave at HIGH (100%) 1-1/2 minutes or until hot. Gradually add hot milk to cocoa mixture in mug, stirring until well blended. Stir in vanilla and sugar substitute. 1 serving.
or you can use the recipe on the cocoa box and just substitute splenda for sugar and use non fat milk.
EVEN BETTER if you really want a rich taste mix about 1/3 cup of fat free half and half with 2/3 cup non fat milk.
So make up a mug of this and sit by the fire and relax.

Happy New Year 2010

I hope everyone had a wonderful new year. Paul and I had a great evening, we ate dinner at Rusty's and then came home and watched "UP" super cute movie, but with a little sad touch we weren't expecting. New Years Day we gathered up most of the decorations. Since my knee is still hurting some, my sweet hubbie took all the ornamemts off the tree. We made a trip to the grocery store and stocked up on healthy food again. Got to get rid of all the sweets around the house too. It was kinda a sad day too, we sure miss Papa. Paul had to go into work Friday night I know 2010 will be a great year with lots of wonderful events.
We are already planning a trip to watch Matt run his first marathon. It's cold here and I hear snow may show up some where this next week.