Just My Luck

I thought I would give you guys a glimpse into how random my life can be at times and how I am usually always caught off guard! And on this particular occasion, it happened at work of all places! We are revamping our website and marketing materials for our company and have hired some people to take things to the next level. The company that we contracted with had a photographer come in all the way from Miami on Monday to take some professional pictures of some of our products, some action shots of our technicians out in the field, etc. They ended up shooting on Monday night until about midnight. (Thankfully I wasn't required to stay and supervise!) After their scheduled photo shoot was finished, our VP decided that we should have some pictures taken at the corporate office (we have another office in TX) and staff for the website as well. This wasn't not known to me at all. Gracie was informed of the impending photo shoot by her husband, who also works for the company and was at the photo shoot on Monday night. So, Gracie strolls in all dolled up in a nice business suit. I commented how nice she looked. We don't usually dress up too much, since we don't deal face to face with any clients on a regular basis. For example, today is Thursday and I am wearing jeans. We are lucky to be able to work in a laid back environment. In typical fashion, I showed up on Tuesday morning not dressed in "business" attire at all. I had on some khaki pants and a tunic. I hadn't fixed my hair and just had it up in a pony tail. I wasn't looking photo-ready. Especially since we had to shell out big bucks to get this guy to come shoot the pictures, not to mention that these pictures will be part of our corporate image. Not good. Not good at all. And since I have an important role in the company, it would not have looked good for me to be all ghetto in our pictures. So imagine me freaking out when they told me that I had to have my picture taken. Oh- and the photographer was arriving in about an hour after me finding out. I was in quite the pickle. So, I rushed off in search of a change of clothes and a curling iron. I should mention that I work in a section of Tallahassee that is not near any type of clothing stores. The only store I could think of was Urban Thread that is a J Crew, Anthro, Urban Outfitter return store and I was hoping that I could find a J Crew suit jacket, pants and a blouse. Or in the least a nice dress to wear. I arrived and much to my dismay, I found out that they didn't open until 11:00! I tried next door at Narcissus thinking I could find a Lilly Pulitzer dress or something to throw on. Again- closed. I was beginning to freak out. Luckily, there is a Stein Mart in the same section of town, so I ran in there because I knew they were open. I was hoping to have some luck because I know that SM rarely has things in my size. So I ran around the store and found a dress almost in my size. I had to go to the Petite section to find it! It wasn't really what I was looking for, but I didn't have many options at this point. I had picked out a dress, tried it on, found shoes, and a pair of earrings all within 15 minutes. Now that takes talent! Then I ran over to CVS and bought a curling iron and a hair brush. I got back to work and frantically started to change and fix my hot mess of hair.

 This is the closest "before" picture I took. Wish I had taken a true before picture, so you could really get the feeling of how ghetto I looked that day.

 I took this picture to send to David to show him how hard I was working! Ha!

Again, this dress wasn't really something I would have chosen to wear, but it had to do in a pinch. But it was an improvement! So I was finally half-way decent enough to feel comfortable getting my picture taken.Then I spent the rest of the morning taking pictures with my co-workers and by myself. It's always a weird day when your office looks like this:

It was a bit stressful, but adapt and overcome, baby. I hate having my picture taken and it was embarrassing, but I survived. Anyways, that was my eventful Tuesday!

Swamp Adventures

I can't believe that today is already Wednesday! I guess I better finish up my recap of my adventures in Calhoun County. David's one request for must-do activities in Blountstown was go to his family's swamp down on the river. I could totally get on board with that because I miss being out in the woods, so I happily went with him. It was my goal of the day to take pictures of every animal that we could find. I was still on the hunt for my alligator, but sadly we didn't see any. Maybe next time we will get lucky. I will warn you that this post has lots of pictures!

First off, David and I had a little dare going on. While we were at the river walking around trying to sneak up on a gator, we came across a tree that had fallen across the water. I dared David to walk across it. He of course, said no and asked me if I wanted to instead. I of course took him up on his dare. I did take gymnastics for years, so a big tree is nothing compared to a balance beam! David really didn't think I would go through with it. I had no problem with it. The only thing I asked of him was that if I fell in the water that he would rescue me if a gator came up to eat me. Ha! (this post sounds more and more redneck by the minute!)

So here I am beginning my decent down the bank onto the tree.

I had to look really carefully to ensure that no snakes were hiding in the crevices of the stump. That was the only fear I had, or that a snake would be chilling out in the middle of the tree sunning.

It was a bit tricky trying to get around that piece of splintered bark. But I finally made it out to the middle!

After getting my picture snapped, I headed back in. This is my "you-didn't-think-I -would-go-through-with-it face" that I gave David when he was truly shocked that I am such a "dare devil." Ha!

Actually it was more of a "will-you-come-help-me-back-up-this-bank" face. It was a bit steep climbing back up! After our little game of truth or dare, we got back in the truck to see what other redneck fun we could find. We started to head towards a field that had just been cut and replanted in long-leaf pine trees that David's dad wanted him to go look at. Plus, its the site of the an old Indian Village and we were hoping that all of the clear-cutting and replanting had unearthed a few artifacts. Away we went. But not before David stopped to pick me a flower out of his truck window for our journey.

Isn't he the sweetest? It promptly got put in a lovely and beautiful Coke vase. Fancy! We finally got to the field and hopped out to check out the status of the long-leaf trees.

After checking on the trees, we got to walking around looking for some pottery. Little did we know that this guy was watching us.

If you can't tell, that's a Diamondback Rattlesnake. Thankfully, he rattled at us so we were able to not get to close to him before we saw him. We debated on leaving him alone, but ultimately decided to kill him because his dad is out in this field quite often and it's dangerous to have these guys running around, especially when his dad can't hear them rattle.

He was a pretty good sized snake, about 4 feet long. He was an evil looking thing. Have I mentioned that I hate snakes? Cause I most certainly do! While we were attending to the snake, we came across Morla.

When we first spotted him, we thought he was a gopher turtle, but he was not. And for all of you, this is why I named the turtle Morla:

Hope I'm not the only Neverending Story fan. We came across a few deer and some hogs.

David tried to catch a piglet for me, but as it turns out, he's not as fast as he used to be :)

My favorite find of the whole day was coming across a pair of peacocks...in the middle of nowhere. We still have no idea where these guys came from!

I wanted to catch them and take them home to my parent's house, but David put his foot down and told me he wasn't going to be pecked to death trying to catch them! Speaking of birds, we also came across a stupid guinea, just running down the road like a dodo!

After our adventures in the swamp, we went over to David's family's river house to go check on some wild cats that have taken up under his mom's porch that she wanted gone. We searched and I finally found the kittens.

They look pretty cute, but don't be deceived. They are truly wild and I understand why his mom dislikes these kittens. They are pretty feisty and hiss and spit every time you walk by them. Cute will only take you so far when you have a bad attitude.

After our long day traipsing through the woods, it was nice to sit back and relax on the porch for a spell and enjoy the view of the Chipola River. The perfect ending to a long day.

So that wraps up my weekend adventures!

Say Cheese!

Today, I thought I would share a few pictures that I took this weekend. Poor David and Moxley were subjected to my camera all weekend. But it was fun. David got off from work early on Friday, so he was in Thomasville by the time I got home from work. I love it when that happens and we get to spend an extra evening hanging out. We debated on going and hitting up the night life of Thomasville (yeah right) but ultimately decided on staying home and firing up the grill for some yummy steaks. Plus we had Mox to contend with since he also made the journey, since we were headed home to Blountstown for the weekend. Bentley was excited that he had a visitor. Before he and Stacey headed off to west Florida for her to go see her mother, Bentley and Moxley got to run around the yard and play.

Of course, I don't think Bentley appreciated having to share his tennis ball with Mox. And to show his disapproval, he decided to pee on Mox. Mox, of course, was oblivious to it all. He was too excited to be running around the yard with a tennis ball to notice!

He sure is a sweet dog. No wonder a Golden Retriever is one of the favorite dogs of all times (He still isn't a dachshund, though...). Much to David's dismay, I made him and Mox have an impromptu photo shoot. I love making people uncomfortable and awkward with a camera constantly clicking in their face! The pictures turned out really good, I just wish I made David take off his sunglasses. Oh well! There's always opportunities for more pictures down the road!

Aren't my boys so handsome? I love these two guys and they are quite a pair! I wanted to do a photo shoot on Sunday at my parents house with me, David, and the dachshunds but luckily for the boys, it was raining and nasty, so we never got the chance to and I am sad about that. Maybe Father's Day weekend will provide better weather conditions. On Saturday, we headed to Blountstown. We got into town around lunch and were sad to discover that neither my mom, nor his had fixed anything for lunch. (we are pathetic, aren't we? ha!) So we went through the drive thru at Burger King and grabbed some food and road around town to eat, taking in the sights of our beloved hometown. We made the obligatory trip down to the river landing and went in search of the llama that used to reside in someone's front yard in a neighborhood in the middle of town. And I can't make stuff like that up. We ended up on the west end of town on the way to my parent's house and did a ride through of the park. I of course persuaded David to go for a brief walk on the trail through the swamp that leads to the Pioneer Settlement.

I haven't been on that path in a long while, so it was nice to take a quick walk down memory lane with my fella.

David was a sport and let me take some more pictures. Bless his heart for putting up with me, is all I can say! This was how our conversation went:

Me: Ok...walk down the path like a runway model, then turn around real sexy like and make a Zoolander face.

David: Really? How about I just walk away from you.

 ME: Where are you going? You don't want me to take your picture?
David: No.
ME: Please?
David: Ok.

David: How's this?
Me: Good! Now come back and let me get some close ups.
David: Sigh....
ME: Ok, now stand like you are on the cover of GQ magazine

 Me: Ok, good. Now do the thinking man.
David: I'm done. (hands on hips) Your turn!

I protested because I really don't like for my picture to be taken. But he had been such a good sport, that I decided to let him play Ansel Adams since he allowed me to play Annie Leibovitz. I was a much better sport than he was. I will go ahead and warn you, this isn't pretty!

Told you! Now you see just how ridiculous I really am. But we had fun. Life isn't fun if you are too serious and just can't have a good time! After our photo shoot we headed back, but took the time to read the graffiti all over the little pavilion. We caught up on on the drama of the teenagers in town. But my favorite thing I read was this:

I had to laugh because walking down the path, I commented to David that this trail looked a little "squatchy". Thanks to our love of watching the show Finding Bigfoot that word is constantly in my vernacular.

So that is our little mini-adventure and our photo shoot outtakes. Tomorrow, I will post about our encounter with our very own rattlesnake.