The Story of the Goats

So you know, I have never been around alot of live animals except for the typical cats and dogs. Yes, my wonderful in-laws have a farm with many different animals but I just look out the window from safe inside and don't really venture out much. Well, I went to admit a patient last week. When I pulled up, I saw several cats and dogs. No big deal. They were all friendly. After finishing my admission, I was walking out to my car, I noticed several goats.

Not one that looked like this:

And def not one that looked like this:

Or this:

Or even this:

Unfortunately I did see on that looked like THIS. He was sitting under a shed and just watching me. I hurried to my car and drove off not thinking anything of it.
So, the rest of the story...I went back Monday. Got out of the car and headed inside. No problem. When I came back out, I walked around my car and saw that same mean looking ram standing right next to my drivers side door. Now, my sweet hubby, had a very bad experience when he was little with something that looked just like this and that story just kept going through my mind. I tried not to panic and hit the lock button on my remote to make my car horn go off. It scared the goat and he ran off. I quickly jumped in the car and started putting away my bags and writting a few notes. Then, I heard a goat making some kind of goat noise (sorry, Im not expert). I looked up and that's when I saw it. My car was surrounded by 20 of them!! Then some of them started ramming my tires (that are brand new by the way) and my back bumper. I immediately start FREAKING OUT!! Screaming and throwing a fit. After a few seconds, I realized "Hey! Im in a car! They are outside!" So I layed on the horn. Thank goodness this startled them and they ran off. I quickly threw the car into drive and took off! I called my mom to let you know about by not-so-near-death experience. A little later that day, I got a text saying I was going to be getting a package from my dad this week. Well, today I went to check the mail, and found this:

Notice the label:

Haha! Glad that I keep my family so entertained. Thanks Dad for the coffee. And just so you know, I smells nothing like goats. Think Ill go make a pot now. Goat coffee with vanilla creamer--yum!

Look what we found in our yard

Stephen was outside tonight and came in telling me he had found something new. I love that my husband said "Go ahead and grab your camera cause you will probably want to blog this." I love my hubby! I told him he got "giving me flowers" credit for this. Now I have a beautiful vase full of them sitting above my kitchen sink. So pretty! They make me happy :)

Severe Weather Day

They have been saying for several days that we were going to get some bad weather today. We get bad weather all the time in the spring here in west Alabama. I figured it was not going to be good since they started talking about it so early. We woke up this morning and it was quiet. So, I figured I could get on the road and start seeing the patients that needed to be seen today. Well, as soon as I turned on the tv, I realized that plan might not happen. It quickly got very dark and the wind has been blowing like crazy. So basically all I have been doing for the last 4 hours is watch the local stations and listen to James Spann's broadcast on USTREAM:

The laptop

The TV

We looked outside and saw that the FOX 6 storm trackers truck was ACROSS THE STREET from our house. Ummm, this was definitely a sign that some kind of bad weather was headed our way. Stephen laughed at me for running out to the carport to take a picture but hey, this does not happen everyday!! At one point James Spann said to not be on or near Hwy 17. Ummm, this is hwy 17 in the picture. My house sits right on it. Scary!!

This picture was taken about 5 miles north of our house. Looks like the worst of it went just north of Vernon...so far. The siren just went off again and we are waiting to see what happens next.

Me with my laptop and iphone, texting like crazy and updating my facebook status:

My crazy husband who went from window to window and even went out on the porch and then under the carport at one time. I was taking cover while he headed outside for a better view!! I blame his dad for teaching him these habits:

I called my boss and she told me to just stay home today and move all my visit to tomorrow. This did give me the opportunity to get some house work done. I also have all our meals planned out for next week and my grocery list made. Trying to decide if we should brave the store tonight or wait.

Here is Stephen's favorite weather report from today:

If you need me....

If you need me anytime in the next week, just find these two things. Im on-call again! So wherever I go, these two phones go with me. We have been begging my boss for a new on-call phone because this one is on it's last leg. Hopefully we will get one soon but Im not holding my breath for it:

Administrative Assistant's Day

So, today was Administrative Assistant's Day. I made a cake for our lunch at work to thank the girls that make my job possible. Our office would not function without Bjanka and Teresa. It was done very quickly last night after I got home. Not my best work. I usually draw out exactly what I want to do and even figure out how much of each color I need. I knew I had some chocolate icing left from Jim's cake so I knew I wanted to use it. I was not really happy with the results but everyone at work loved it and ate it up!! I only brought a small portion home for Stephen to have tonight!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!!

Happy Birthday to my Mom!! Wish I was going to be spending the day with her but Im home in Alabama working. Boo! I love you, Mom! Hope you have a great birthday. Ill give you a rain check for a cake, okay?

New Purchases

I LOVE LOVE LOVE birthdays and birthday decorations. I have been looking for some re-usable party decorations. I found these things at Kirkland's today and they already match by Birthday place-mat so I HAD to get them :)

The new birthday chair cover. Can't wait to use this for our next birthday party. Who will it be? Who will it be? Mom, this could be you if you want to drive to Vernon Monday!!

New birthday banner. Of course, I had one from Walmart but this one was much cuter, it matched the other items, and was on sale. Soooo, I had to get it too :)

A-Day Game

We spent a beautiful spring day in Tuscaloosa today at the A Day Game and doing some shopping. Before we left, we stopped and took some pics in front of our azaleas that just started blooming in our front yard.

We walked around campus for a few hours. There was a HUGE crowd today and tons of tailgating. We even found a a tent serving free BBQ. It was yummy, especially cause it was FREE!!

Of course we had to stop and take a picture in front of the stadium before we went in.

On our way out we took a couple pictures(yes, I know, even MORE pictures. I def pushed Stephen to his limit today) at the Quad.

After some serious power shopping, we headed to Hokkaido for supper.

And someone must have slipped and told the waitress that it was Jim's birthday because they all came out with the birthday bong and then made the entire restaurant sing to him. Oh, he really loved it! Ha ha just kidding!

It was a great day and of course Bama won! But I guess that does not count since they were playing themselves. Ha ha! Ready for the next football season to start.

Friday Night

Tara and I made Jim a birthday dinner tonight. We had the Neely's shrimp and grits. Click here for the recipe. It is a super easy and very yummy dish!

I made Jim an almond sour cream cake with chocolate butter cream. Of course, it had to have some kind of bikes on it. I tried something new and piped them out of white chocolate and let them dry and then propped them up on the cake. It turned out better than I thought.

Tara put all 29 candles on it. Ha ha! It took up the whole top of the cake!

We are all going to head to Tuscaloosa tomorrow for the A day game. We will get more pics and Ill post later this weekend so check back soon.

How we have spent our time

So we are now obsessed with 24 and all things related to Jack Bauer. We started watching season 1 last week on Netflix and finally finished it last night. It sucks you in!!! We would come home from work, do only the necessary chores and hit the couch to watch 24 until we made ourselves go to bed. We are holding off to start Season 2 for a few days. I have things I must get done like make a couple cakes and get this house cleaned up. Not to mention, I have been working extra everyday because our schedule is crazy right now and Stephen is super busy with drawings for school. Oh well, don't worry, Jack! We will be back and soon! We already have the next 4 seasons saved on Netflix ready to go.

Our Weekend

So we have had a busy week. I have worked and worked and worked! Stephen was so nice to pass on his sinus infection to me and I can't shake it! We decided to head to Columbus last night for a trip to Lowe's and meet up with friends at the BBQ festival that was on the riverfront this weekend. It smelled so good there. The actual contest is today. Wish we could have gone back to taste test everything. I did get to try some fresh boudin made by someone from Millport. That was unexpected! It was really good too. My favorite was the large bag of boiled peanuts I got. They were sooooo good! After we got home we both crashed. I even slept until 10:30 this morning and it was much needed. Stephen was too excited to sleep in. He was ready to get up and start weed eating with his newly purchased weed eater :) He has been working on our yard for 3 days now. It took one day just to pick up all the pine cones and sticks. I did help with that day but have not really been much help since he started the mowing. While he was outside today, I decided to head out too and clean out my car. It was a disaster! Look to see what happens when you are a home health nurse living out of your car all day, everyday.

The Before:

The After:

The essentials for every home health nurse. I don't go anywhere without them:

My hardworking hubby:

Almost finished:

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!!! We started our day at the early services at Mt. Vernon. It was a great day in church with some great friends. We took a couple pictures before we went into the service. Stephen looked a little drugged in some of theses. Notice I said we went to the EARLY service. Plus he has had a cold for the last few days and had a dose of something from the medicine cabinet before we left.


While we were in church the sun decided to come out so the girls decided we needed to take just a few more pictures. Thank goodness we have such patient husbands who were so willing to stand there and look so handsome and smile for the camera :)

Girls picture:

Me, Tara, Rhyan

I decided to put on my Martha Stewart hat and host Easter at our house this year since we actually have enough room at our new house. We had Stephen's parents, brother and his paternal grandparents for lunch.

The Menu:
Peppered Pork loin
Rice and gravy
Parmesan creamed corn
Balsamic vinaigrette green beans
Strawberry jello salad
Crescent rolls
Stuffed eggs (my mom said you can't call them deviled eggs on Easter :) )

Coconut cake
Eclair dessert

Thanks Mama Deb for helping with the desserts, eggs and salad!! We will be having some of the leftover coconut cake for supper tonight :)

Then after visiting for awhile, I made everyone get up from their comfortable spots in the den and go out on the porch for pictures. Its okay cause they love me enough to put up with it. I mean, come on! Its a memory! We need pictures! What else would I blog about!?!

All in all, it was a great holiday. Missed my Pourciaus/Winters but it was nice to make new traditions here and in our own home. Now that the mess is cleaned up and the pictures are downloaded, its time to chill and spend of the rest of the day remembering what the real reason for Easter is, not the stuffed eggs or crescent rolls. Its about Him!! Praise God! He is risen!!! And that is why we can get up each day and face this crazy world we are living in now because we know that this is not all there is. Looking forward to celebrating Easter in heaven one day. Can you imagine the celebration that will be!?! Wow!