Welcome to Meredith- would you like to buy a t-shirt?

I really enjoyed my college experience at Meredith--and trust me, you do just have to experience it-- including every single t-shirt that came with a tradition, event or fundraiser.
I knew that I wanted to have a quilt made and earlier this year had decided on the company I wanted to use, since no one in my family is a quilter, and had ordered some samples of their fabric for the binding and backing. In September I received an email that they were having a sale, so I went ahead and got everything together and shipped off my shirts. This was supposed to be my big Christmas present, but Joel's kind of letting that slide :-) Here she is:

Now you Meredith girls know that this is a VERY small representation of a proper shirt collection. I picked out 4 of my favorite shirts from each year because some were just plain ugly, bless their hearts (though I did include the sadly tragic Ring Dinner shirt, just because I couldn't leave it out). So I still have some shirts to wear and will have this quilt to remember some of my favorite memories!

So as soon as I mention tiling....

Joel gets ants in his pants and decides to go ahead and rip up the linoleum! This was all fine with me though since I had the least envolvement of any project we've done so far! He started the demo on Thursday of last week and started on Saturday morning laying the tile. He officially laid the last tile today, but still needs to grout-so I'll so you some before and during pictures for now-

Goodbye ugly, stained and scuffed linoleum!

I think he actually had fun using his new scrapper.

Hello, wonderful Italian tile!

Blueland and the weekend

We went to "Blueland" to see the Atlanta Thrashers play their home-opener on Friday. The most exciting part was getting to see their first banner raised- the Southeast Division Championship banner--we even got our own little replica banner.

On Saturday Joel went on the annual church golf outing, so I used the day to do some "fall cleaning", try out a new apple pie recipe and catch up on some laundry. It seems like we're still catching up from being on vacation. That and we're still coming down from vacation high. ha ha

Sunday was pretty normal--church and then we picked up lunch at Bojangles (sorry Josh, we had to) and watched the Panthers game--they finally won!

For now we're looking forward to our weekend in the mountains, Christmas and planning next year's vacation to Yosemite. We made a trip to REI last night to check out their fall sale, and Joel picked up a few things. I'm keeping an eye on online sales--there sure is a lot we will need! Oh, and Joel's planning on tiling the kitchen sometime in November (you knew we couldn't resist taking on a new project!)...so stay tuned for some before and after pics!

Ya Mon, No Problem

We are back from our wonderfully fantastic trip to Jamaica! We got back on Thursday morning at 2am, since our flight was delayed for 3 hours, and I haven't had enough energy to begin to put this post together. I'll try to let the pictures speak for themselves, and will spare you the day-by-day run through. The first picture was taken just outside the resort, where the beach is very private and untouched. I had read a review online that you can check out with the guards and are free to wander the beach. We had a fun morning out there all to ourselves.

This was the view that was right outside of our room. There was a pool to the left, so we often used our patio door to get back into the room, rather than going around to the front. All of the rooms are ocean facing, not necessarily ocean view. But we had the best of both having a ground floor room and a nice view.
On Monday we did the only excursion of the trip and went horseback riding. Joel and I had never rode before, so it was a fun experience. A little scary for me though, as halfway through the trip my horse, Big Red, decided that she needed to get to the front of the line and took off in a full on gallop for about 50 yards...that definitely got the adrenaline flowing! Luckily I didn't fall off!

This was one of our favorite meals, outside on the patio facing the ocean. Most of the food was very good and we definitely stretched out our stomachs--we can't seem to get full off of the meals we are eating at home now! Most nights after dinner we played pool or table tennis at the games center. I even beat Joel a few times :-)

These are some photos that the Sandals photographers took on Tuesday. That morning we went on the glass bottom boat ride, tried out snorkeling (I'm getting those developed and will post any good ones) and attempted to sail.

These pictures are from our last day...we had breakfast,

and had a last stroll along the beach before packing up. Then we had lunch and our last drink--see Joel with his sad face. We really loved Sandals and the Jamaican people!

Sandals, Jamaica!

Joel and I took Michael Scott's advice and got 2 tickets to Sandals, Jamaica (Sandals Whitehouse to be specific)....we have never been so ready for a vacation! We'll be back next Wednesday night and I'll maybe get some pictures up by next weekend!

Tour Championship

This past Sunday, Joel and I experienced a new first together--attending a PGA golf tournament--the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. I scored the tickets through work (of course).

We enjoyed some barbecue in my company's suite and then secured a spot alongside the middle of the 1st Fairway--it proved to be a good spot since most of the first drives landed close to where we were standing. We saw Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia, and Mr. Tiger Woods-the winner of the Tour Championship and the first annual Fedex Cup (10 million...not too shabby).

Us in our complementary commerative photograph--I was glad they had this because they didn't allow cameras on the course!

Dave Matthews Band--Green Concert for Piedmont Park

Even though I've had a couple of busy weeks at work and I know that I have some long days ahead as I go through my first year of budget planning, I really can't complain because my position includes some really awesome perks. The best one so far has to be the VIP tickets that my manager gave me and Joel for the Dave Matthews Band concert in Piedmont Park. My company was a big sponsor and I helped with some of the administrative details for our sponsorship. It was really an awesome event and it raised over one million dollars for a 53-acre expansion of the park. The VIP experience was awesome....we had free food (including Ben and Jerry's ice cream, which I was very excited about) and drinks, nicer bathroom facilities with short lines and were able to actually sit down and enjoy the show from our area on the hill, as opposed to standing up for six hours with the other 50,000 fans. It was an awesome date for me and Joel and a night I won't soon forget.

I had the best date there :-)

Enjoying my Ben & Jerry's

That's a lot of people, and a lot of port-a-potties

and my newest fav picture :-)