BLACK FRIDAY

Well we did it... for the first time in our lives Luke and I got up at 4:00am on the Friday after Thanksgiving to go shopping. Luke's mom wanted to purchase a flat panel TV and Walmart was having a ridiculous sale... so Luke and I agreed to go with her.

4:28am and a full pot of coffee... that is the only way LG and I got out the door that morning.

This is not a joke people... look at these people with their hands on TV's to claim them before the shrink wrap has even been cut off of the pallet!!

But we were just as persistent as the other people, and in the end we got one! (I tried to load the video so that everyone could see the pure chaos of 5:00am on Black Friday, but I couldn't get it to load. Thanks Chris for all your help anyways... hopefully I will get it working soon and I will be able to post it.) However, when we got to the car to load the new TV and Stand we realized that Dale and Noelle had left their ENORMOUS double stroller in the trunk of Ms. Donna's car. So the TV and Stand went in the back seat and Ms. Donna and I both squeezed in the front seat.
But we didn't stop there... we proceeded on to Linens n Things, JCPenney, Gamestop, Bath & Body Works, and Rooms to Go all before 8:30am!! Now that is what I call a productive morning.

We seriously could not fit anything else in the car. And of course our wonderful chauffeur was there the entire time. Let me tell you I am a blessed wife to have a husband who will go shopping with his mother and wife at 4:30 in the morning!!

Baby Graham

On Thursday afternoon I captured this adorable picture of Graham. It is the first picture of him truly smiling!! He is a pretty sweet baby, and I am so glad that we got to spend a few days with him.

Pumpkin Cookies = True Adult

This post marks one of the rites of passage into adulthood in our family. This Fall I put my domestic skills to the test when I cooked a pumpkin (and the seeds of course), pureed it, and used the pureed pumpkin to make a plethera of harvest items.

On Tuesday night I spent a solid 5 hours making two patches of pumpkin cookies and my very first "real" pumpkin pie. The evening was difficult to say the least. On my first patch of pumpkin cookies I totally melted the butter instead of "creaming" it. Now for all of you Betty Crockers out there (such as my sister Elizabeth) you all know that there is a BIG difference in melting and creaming butter... I did not. Apparently, if you melt your butter your cookies will be flat. So the first half of the pumpkin cookies came out as flat as a pancake. At this point I panicked and called Mom, who did not answer, and then the next best thing... Elizabeth. She let me in on this little secret and told me to add flour to my batter. I did that and made little mini muffins (with my fabulous pampered chef muffin pan) for work. And let me tell you they were a HIT!!

So the next patch of pumpkin cookies I "creamed" the butter and take a look at how fabulous they turned out.

However, after I had made my first pan of cookies I realized that I had not put any brown sugar in my batter... For The Love! So I added brown sugar and proceeded with my baking. Here is my Beautiful display of pumpkin cookies. Not bad for a first timer!! (Can you tell which ones don't have brown sugar ?!?!)

Now on to the pumpkin pie. Mom had told me that you had to put "tin foil" (not aluminum foil) around the edge of your pie crust so that it does not burn. However, that is for pecan pies, not pumpkin pies... I am apparently not a good listener. So here is my pumpkin pie in the oven with tin foil on it.

Every thing was looking great until decided to take off the tin foil, which then proceeded to rip part of my crust off!! YIKES!! So needless to say the pie wasn't as aesthetically pleasing as I would have liked for it to be.

But things only got worse on our drive to Vero Beach Wednesday afternoon. We were traveling down Hwy 60 at a reasonable speed when someone came to a dead stop in front of us. This forced us to slam on brakes which caused Rage to become airborne and hit the dash, and forced my beautful plate of pumpkin cookies into the floor on top of my pumpkin pie.

As you can see the top row of cookies lost their tops, but all in all they faired pretty well. The pumpkin pie on the other hand didn't look so hot. But I must admit it was pretty tasty and I think everyone enjoyed it despite the way it looked.

So all in all I think my first pumpkin cookie/pumpkin pie experience wasn't too bad. Hopefully I will get better with age... and time.

BIG MAN... little chair

Tonight I came into the living room to find the following scene...


Obviously this picture needs a little prefacing...
Luke got an early Christmas present this week, his new XBOX 360. He got this present early because I am going to be in Colorado in two weeks and I couldn't have my dearly beloved being bored while I was away. But back to the scene... a few months ago I sold Luke's two adult sized Papasan chairs at a yard sales. He was very upset and has complained about me selling them since that time. So in the absence of his own Papasan chair Luke decided to steal Rage's Papasan chair to sit in while he was playing XBOX.

As you can see from the picture above Rage had to find a new place to sit on the sofa.

Rage is not so sure about these new seating arrangements!!

Never a dull moment at the Graham House!

But I must say "It takes a BIG man... to sit in a little chair."

Our Little Model

This past weekend Luke's mom, his sister Noelle, her husband Dale, and their two babies Aly and Graham came for a visit. We all had a wonderful and restful weekend together. On Saturday afternoon we all took a walk down to our community pool and playground. Aly was in a very happy mood, which made for a wonderful photo shoot opportunity. Here are some of the awesome shots that Luke and I captured of our little model.

Please take note of the pink Tutu and pigtails... Aren't little GIRLS the best!!

Life of a Rockstar!

Luke has been in Knoxville, TN for the past 12 days recording three additional songs for the new album, which will be coming out early next year. During this visit he has had the opportunity to work and hang out with some pretty Awesome people in the music business.

Marcos Curiel, the guitar player from POD, was in the studio for 5 days, co-producing the two songs that he co-wrote with Since October. This was a very cool thing because Marcos has had a big influence on Luke as a guitar player over the years.

Tooth & Nail also brought in Brad Noah, the guitar player from Disciple, to do some "shredding" on an existing Since October song. This was very exciting for the guys because they are big Disciple fans.




And of course there is Travis (the guy with the "stache" in the picture above) Since October's Producer, whom all the guys love to hang out with. What a blessing Travis has been to the guys not only musically, but spiritually as well. Travis has been a wonderful person in the ministry of Since October, and has been a constant source of encouragement.



So that is what our resident Rockstar has been up to for the past few weeks... Having a blast working in the studio!!

Rollin, Rollin, Rollin

Today our first semi filled with furniture for Blue Sky left CID's warehouse here in Tampa!! This day has been surreal in many ways. The past 18 months of my life (career wise) all led to today. A 5000 square foot warehouse and several office site storage units that have been packed to the ceiling with furniture... enough to fill 40 condos (ranging from 1 - 4 bedrooms) and common area furniture for a hotel... just started to unload into 11 semis headed to Breckenridge, Colorado. Blue Sky has by far been the most stressful project I have EVER worked on! I have had to create more spreadsheets than Carter's has pills (that's for you mom), and I have had several crash courses in construction, electrical, flooring, large quantity artwork & accessories... you name it I have had to become a semi expert in it. I have definitely felt a wide range of emotions today from excitement, to anxiety (thanks Cathy for telling me your story about one for your past projects when a semi jack knifed and all the furniture burnt to ashes), to relief, to pure Joy!! Although I have complained many, many times about how stressful this project has been it has been a pure honor and joy to have this be my very first commercial project. God has blessed me beyond belief in my career. I have had opportunities, clients, and projects that most 24 year olds do not get at this point in their career. It has been an experience beyond anything I could ever imagine, and once again God has blessed me "immeasurably more than I could ask or imagine."

I have attached the link to the Blue Sky website if you would like to take a look. I am currently scheduled to be onsite November 29 - December 5th styling the units and turning over the property to the management company.

http://www.blueskybreckenridge.com/