He's here!

Guess who was born last night??

Everyone, meet Ian Thomas Embry! he was born last night {September 25th} at 10:03pm. He was 8lbs 13oz, which I think makes him right between his sisters in weight, but he apparently has a really large head, which I told Shelly must mean he will be really smart.

He was awake for most of the time I was there {which was like 3 hours}, which I thought also made him very alert for a newborn, which is another reason I think he will be smart. :)

Ignore my frizzy hair in this picture. LOOK AT THE CUTE BABY! ;-)

Aww... a little burrito baby! He was cute and snuggly and very content. So sweet!

Poor thing had such long fingernails that he kept scratching his face before Shelly made him some mittens out of socks.

I wrote some more on Shelly's blog, you can check it out if you want to!

My first guest post ever

Alright y'all...I did my first ever guest post today! {As in, I wrote on someone else's blog!} Yep, that's right. Shelly gave me the distinct honor of letting me write on her blog since she never does anymore. {I mean, I'm not bitter}

No really, it's alright. I see her and the babies a lot these days, so I don't really need to read about their lives too. That would be kind of repetitive I guess.

Anyway, in case you didn't know, Shelly is having a baby tomorrow!!!! His name will be Ian Thomas, so ignore the header on her blog that says Jonah, that is now incorrect advertising. I'll probably hack into her blog again tomorrow and post pictures of him!



I have more to say, but I am tired, and it's totally not related to babies, so I will post about it later....

We did it!

Happy 1st day of Fall!

{it's 88 degrees outside}

Meredith and I made it through Day 1 of C25K! {which is 1/3 of the way through week 1, I am NOT even going to THINK about all the days left altogether...}

I can not believe I actually got my lazy bum out of bed at 6 and went to her house at 6:30 and we ran until 7:00! {well, not the whole 30 minutes straight...that's not for another few weeks, since the program breaks it up, but still.} I think that is an amazing accomplishment for me! I am excited for day 2 on Wednesday!

In other news, I had my first 2 tests of the semester today. I think they both went pretty well! My 2nd one was ALL writing, but at least I knew the answers since there wasn't multiple choice, but man, I had a cramp afterwards.

That's all I got for now.

We'll see how this goes...

As I mentioned before, Meredith and I are going to start running! In the mornings! I'm not sure I know I will not feel like it when my alarm clock goes off at 6:00am. Six o'clock alone is enough to make me wish it was still time to sleep, cover my head with my pillow and hit snooze... over and over again. THEN add on the fact that I know I'll be getting up to tortue myself.... die.... okay, fine. RUN. Yeah, will not be thrilled.

I may not appear to be excited. And I know I won't be at 6 tomorrow morning. BUT, in reality, I AM. I am excited. I've always wanted to be a morning-workout-person. There's just the small detail that I'm not generally a morning person. That kind of messes things up a bit. But, everything in life doesn't come easy....gotta work at it.

I'm excited because I know it will be good for me. As I previously mentioned, I can run like a mad (wo)man on the ellipticals, but I secretly envy people I see running down the street for long distances. I wish I could do that. I want to be a runner. I have secret aspirations to be able to run a 5k.... or a 10k.... or heck, if we're dreaming, a marathon. Pshhha... ME? Run a MARATHON? Kristen is cracking up right about now. But, I'd love to be able to do it, as hard as it would be.

I'm also excited, because I know it will be good for me. As much as I hate the actual task of exercising, I really love it. We have a love/hate relationship. I love the way it makes me feel when I'm finished. I love the way it makes me feel when I can fit into my "skinny" jeans {not the style, the size.} I love the energy it gives me. I love that I know it's good for my health and my body and that I'm investing into my quality of life - and therefore I'm not subjecting myself to torture in vain, or even just because I AM vain and want to look good or something. I love how it makes me feel better about myself all around.

I hate the sweat. But I love the outcome.

I'm not sure why it's so hard for me to talk myself into exercising really. Because I hate everything about the way I feel when I don't exercise.

And one last reason I'm excited - one thing that has absolutely nothin' to do with exercise! I'm excited to be able to spend some time with a friend! 3 days a week! Plus, hopefully since Meredith and I will be doing this together, the accountability will help us keep at it.

So, hopefully we won't have to hype ourselves up TOO much more, but starting tomorrow we are going to do this:

The Couch to 5k Running Program!

It's a program that will have you running 5k (3 miles) in just 9 short weeks!!! Yeah, at the moment, I can NOT imagine running 3 miles.

I am interested to see how working out in the morning will differ from working out in the afternoon. I usually work out sometime between the hours of 12 and 3. I've never worked out before I actually started my day. I may hate waking up that extra 45 minutes early, but I think I'll love actually being AWAKE for my first class and having that extra energy boost throughout the day.

Although, my mom has mentioned wanting to try it too, in the evenings... I wonder if it would mess up the c25k schedule if I did it twice a day? Or maybe 6 days a week instead of just 3. But we'll see if she's even serious.

I have a goal: I'd like to be able to run the Race For The Cure on October 11th. I know I'll only be like 3 weeks into the program at that point, but I'm just hoping to be able to complete it without dying or coming in last.

Anyway, I will try and post frequent updates to let y'all know how it goes! If anyone wants to join in and try the program along with us, we are starting tomorrow {so you could start any day this week}, so if my calculations are accurate we should be running 3 miles by November 24th or so! Just in time for Thanksgiving!

Movin' on UP

To a great big MANSION TANK!

Obie and Zeke's house before-

a teeny tiny 10 gallon

a turtle apartment, if you will

but last night, they spent their first night in their turtle mansion!

110 gallons of swimming space!
GLORIOUS

at first they had me worried, they just kind of sank to the bottom

and Obie had a hard time swimming back to the top at first

he just wasn't used to swimming that much, but he quickly figured it out

and they LOVE IT

Zeke really loves sunning.

They have the same type of basking dock they had before, but this one is bigger {big enough for both of them} and doesn't sink into the water! They also now have a heat lamp for basking, which they seem to love!

Obie loves this log. I found it at the pet store...it was kind of expensive, but I thought they could use another floating thing in case they didn't want to share the basking dock. The box said it was great for turtles to play & sleep in - and he does sleep in it! it's so cute!

I got to wondering who sat around and studied turtles' behavior long enough to be able to create a log that MY baby turtle {and turtles everywhere} could figure out how to use so fast.

Anyway - I am so happy we FINALLY got this tank set up! It is so neat!

If anyone else is setting up a tank for red eared sliders, feel free to ask me questions, I sure know way more than I ever thought I would about them.

Kappa Delta Bid Day

Bid Day is always fun.. and I LOVED getting to see everyone! It was a little rainy but it was a good time! I miss everyone SO much! These girls are my favorite in the whole world...

love love love.

And welcome to the newbies =]

"Let us strive for that which is honorable, beautiful, and highest."

Babies' Birthday!

Went back to TN this weekend for the first time since I moved. It was so nice to see some people I have missed and two of my favorite babies!

Today was Madison and Savannah's birthday party!!!! Madison turns 1 on Sept 30th and Savannah turned 2 on the 7th. And TODAY was Amanda's birthday!!!

Today was ALSO Bid Day at Union, so I went to that for a little bit in the morning, left to go to the birthday party, then went back to say bye before I left. {but more on that later!}

Aren't babies' birthdays the best? Especially 1st birthdays... first experience with cake is always exciting! I can't believe little Madison is already a year old!

Fix A Flat to the Rescue!

This is a story about why I almost didn't make it to Tennessee on Thursday....

So, my mom and I agreed to switch cars for the weekend since her's is nicer with a lot less mileage, so that way I'd hopefully be less likely to break down on the side of the road and die during my journey south.

Dern good thing we switched cars.

THIS GINORMOUS nail was piercing through my tire causing it to spring a leak!

Which, in turn, made the tire do this:

Which my mom found at 6:00am right before she headed off to work.

Which meant she woke me up at 6:01 screaming, "Lynn! You have a flat tire!"

Which made my face do this:

Because, well, for one, it was 6:01am, and for two, I started thinking, "Oh no! I can't leave mom home alone with no power AND no car. She'll be bored out of her mind! Plus, she has to get to work. Oh no, Oh no, oh no, I am not going to be able to go to Tennessee. Oh no. And she has to work today AND tomorrow...so we won't even be able to get it fixed until Saturday. OH NO."

BUT that is not how it happened! Mom got the day off work and we devised a plan...

Call Big O Tires and see how much it costs to repair a flat.

15 dollars.

Perfect.

But, how do we get the car down there?

FIX A FLAT!

Isn't she a good hand model?

So, she fixed the flat enough to get it to the Big O Tires store.

Where we purchased 4 brand new tires for Maxine.

Which was way more than 15 dollars.

But, it made my face go like this:

because that meant I could go to Tennessee! Still on Thursday!

YAY!

And I shall write about it soon....

I'm back!

WE FINALLY GOT THE POWER BACK!!!!!!!!!!

Hooray!!! 6 whole days without power. However, I guess only 4.5 for me since I went to TN for a bit. And now, we have a lot to catch up on! I have lots to write about, and apparently lots to read about with 128 posts in my Reader! So...let's get started..

Let me tell you about my Sunday {September 14th}. Mom and I went to Wal-Mart to get some groceries. We noticed when we went in that it was kind of windy, but it was also sunny and warm, so it was pretty nice. We actually thought it was fun. Because it was more than breezy but not crazy. About an hour or so later, we came out with our groceries and made the trek alllll the way out to the car {Mom likes to park all the way out in Egypt because she's afraid carts will run into car if she parks closer.} This time it was REALLY WINDY! Like crazy windy! As we were walking, the little rocks and gravel in the parking lot were hitting us and it hurt because they were moving so fast. The roof on Wal-Mart was coming up like it was about to blow off. Some Wal-Mart workers were running down the parking lot trying to chase carts that were blowing away and blowing into cars. As I tried to open my car door, it was so windy that I was literally pulling back on it with all my weight and it would still not open. Mom tried to take the cart to one of the racks, but she could barely move it because it was lifting up off the ground about to blow away.

As we drove home our car was shaking and moving back and forth. {Keep in mind this whole time it was still sunny and windy, it never stormed.} At this point the wind went from fun to scary. We started seeing trees and power lines down EVERYWHERE. Trees had fallen into houses and cars. All we wanted to do was get home safely! We finally got to our neighborhood, but our main entrance was blocked with a down power line. I think you can technically run over them in cars, but we weren't going to chance it. So we tried another entrance, when a power line blew down as we were about to pull through! We tried another entrance and there was a tree blocking the whole street!!:

We had one last way to get to our house, but if it was blocked, then we were out of luck! Luckily, we made it.

Our power was out when we got home {and just came on again this afternoon}, and we had a bunch of trees down in the back yard.

This tree barely missed the back of our house!-

A tree split-

More in the back yard-

A tree fell on this house-

We were scared!!!

When I went to Louisville on Tuesday to babysit, I saw a HUGE Oak tree that had fallen straight over, the roots and land came up with it. It was the strangest thing.

I heard 90% of the area was without power for at least a little bit.

The whole storm was so weird. I had never seen anything like it! The aftermath reminded me of the tornado only no houses were damaged unless trees fell into them, but the storm itself was weird because it never actually stormed. It was sunny, just super windy.... so weird.

Anyway...that's why I've been gone this week. I'll write about TN soon...I'm uploading the pictures now! :)

Phew!

What a CRAZY week it has been!! I am FINALLY posting from a real computer! But only because I'm in TENNESSEE! I talked to my mom earlier and she said we still don't have power at home, but I keep hearing it should be on by tomorrow night. Hopefully!

I have sooo much to write about, so as soon as I get home I'll probably have about 5 new posts! Assuming we get power back by then...

Just wanted to check in!! Hope everyone has had a great week! :)

Ike came to town....

So I am posting this from my trusty BlackBerry because we don't have power - no tv, internet,radio. Nothing.

Yesterday was such a weird day. I'll do a post about it,complete with pictures, when the power gets back on (which I heard could be anywhere from 3 to 12 days. Lovely. JEA in jackson was WAY faster after our F4 tornado) anyway... Hurricane Ike stopped by for a visit. I was unaware that we could get hurricanes around here but apparently we do. It was so strange because it wasn't storming - sunny, warm, just VERY windy! Mom and I were at the store when it happened. At first it was kind of funny until we left the store and there were trees and power lines down EVERYWHERE.

Anyway...if anyone needs to get ahold of me, you can email me, facebook me, call or text me. I'll be able to get it on my phone...until it dies again.

Mom's birthday and..... Twitter???

Today for Mom's birthday we didn't do a whole lot.... Dan took us out to eat at Olive Garden, and then Dan and I had lots of interesting political discussions. But that's another story. Anyway, we ate at Olive Garden {SO GOOD} and then went window-furniture-shopping. Not as in shopping for windows, but as in window-shopping for furniture.

Then Dan tried to take a picture of me & Mom.... however, every time he did, we couldn't tell that the camera did anything. It didn't click or flash or anything. He kept saying he was taking them, and Mom and I just stood there for like 5 minutes while Dan kept saying he was taking a picture. Finally he was like, "I swear I took 4!" So I took a look at the camera, and sure enough he had taken 4.... 4 on the setting where it takes multiple pictures with each click. So really he took all of these:

Isn't this thing neat? I downloaded Picasa from Google and made it. Does anyone else have Picasa? It seems like a pretty neat little program...but so far all I have done is make that collage.

Ever since I taught my mom how to use the zoom on my camera, she certainly does use it!

Pete came along with Dan for the birthday fun!

me & the Birthday Girl!!!!

Also.... does anyone use Twitter? Can someone explain it to me? I mean I guess I understand the concept...which is to post random updates of what you are doing throughout the day? Is that right? So kind of like Facebook status updates? I'm not sure. Does anyone use it? I keep hearing about it.... what is the attraction? I signed up for it, but I am not really sure what I'm supposed to do with it.

...but you can follow me on twitter if you want to! :)

Happy Birthday, Hot Momma!

Happy Birthday to my amazing Mom!!!!!!!!!!!

I love you so much!!!

Hope you have a wonderful birthday! :)

I Brake for Turtles

Today could be classified as a perfect day. Why?
• TGIF
• it's cloudy
• kind of rainy {which I LOVE!}
• it's 72 degrees!

And I've already had a quite productive day and it's only 11am! AND I've been out of bed less than 2 hours. Which makes me feel even better!

Plus here soon I'm going to watch Baby Mama {finally! been wanting to see it since it came out} with Shelly.

Anyway. On to the point of this post...

Meredith and I are going to try to start running in the mornings next week. {I know, right.... ME? RUN? In the MORNINGS? It's a crazy thought, I know. I'm not sure I believe it either.} But nevertheless, we are going to give it a shot.

And since I don't want to be a horrible friend and let Meredith down by running for 5 seconds and then gasping for breath {wash, rinse, repeat}, I've been training, conditioning, and readying myself for this undertaking.

And by training, conditioning, and readying myself, I really mean that Tobey and I have gone for a 20 minute jog the past 2 days.

Yes, that's right, a jog!

I'm going to be SO ready for this! yeahhhhh.....

I can run on the elliptical machine like nobody's business for 45 minutes {in the gym - with a fan blowing on me - and my music blasting into my ears from my BlackBerry - water bottle in hand} but I usually pass out in approximately 5 seconds if I try to do anything resembling running outside.

So, I am pretty proud of myself, and my little dog, for actually jogging. Outside! {Tobey is a great running buddy... he actually keeps up the whole time!}

Anywho... this morning on our jog, we were minding our own business just happily running down the street, Tobey watching for squirrells, and me praying that nobody actually SEES me awkwardly trying to run down the road.... when lo and behold, I see a big lump in the middle of the street.

At first I thought it was just a big leaf, or some sticks, or something. But it was moving! Slowly. {about as fast as me} Once I got closer to it, I realized it was a turtle! Crossing the road! Everybody say, "Awwww." It was so cute!

I'm not sure what kind it was {because it wasn't the same kind as Obie and Zeke} but it was cute. And bigger than them. And there was no way I was going to just leave it there to get run over by some less-caring meanie who does NOT brake for turtles. I CAN NOT be held responsible for the death of a member of Obie and Zeke's extended family. Do you KNOW what that would do to me?!

So... I helped it along its way and took it across the street.

I told it to be careful. It thanked me for helping it {by sticking his head inside his shell}.

And we parted ways.

And of course, I went back after my jog to make sure he was okay, but I couldn't find him.

I will assume that he made it home safely.

A Change is a Comin'...

Yes, it's true.

And I'm about to make a big one.

Like, life-altering big one.

If you are the praying type, I could use a little extra :)

Will explain later.

It's nice to be 20/20 again...

So last night the madre and I were watching the Fox special on Sarah Palin and I mentioned to my mom that I thought she slightly resembled the Alaskan governor when she wore her reading glasses {because my mom doesn't wear glasses all the time.} She replied, "Really? I kinda thought so too!" hahaa.

Mostly, I think it's just the hair. But we took some pictures just for comparison... take a look:

{Sarah Palin is on the left, just in case you think they look soooo much alike and can't tell who is who}

We had a pretty good time with our little photo shoot! HAHAHA

On to another subject.... I picked up my glasses today! {Maybe I look like Sarah Palin, too? Naaahh} Since I will have to wear them some, which I'm sure will mean in public, I might as well introduce them to the bloggy world. So, here you go...:

What do you think?? They are still a little loose I think, even after having them adjusted. So I'll probably have them re-adjusted again soon and they'll fit a little better. I just feel like they need to go up on my face just a teeeny bit more. But, as I mentioned before, I am a totally inexperienced glasses-wearer, so maybe not?

Anyway - it is sooo nice having them though! I've only worn them for maybe 30 minutes today, and it's fun! I didn't realize how blurry my vision had actually gotten {really, it's not all that bad... I just hadn't really realized it until the glasses made me see perfectly again....} Here's a little example for you:

Without glasses - not horrible & I could do without the glasses, but it's just not as crisp & sharp as it could be.

SO MUCH BETTER. Just a tad sharper & it makes all the difference.

I'm only going to wear them at school & while driving.

Okay... I'm off to eat some pita pizzas! Yum!