half of my heart

Happy 2014! We didn’t do anything exciting for new years eve, but when you have an alarm clock that you cant press the snooze button on (aka a baby), staying up late loses its appeal J We made it to 10:30 and then called it a night. I’m looking forward to the days when we can just let caleb crawl into bed with us when he wakes up early and let him watch cartoons or something while we stay in bed a little bit longer!

After I had Caleb, I took 3 months of maternity leave, and then went back to work part time. I work in the office two days a week and then work from home one day a week. I’m very grateful that my supervisors agreed to let me work part time and so far, I’ve been able to keep a handle on things, although I’m super super busy when I’m at work! It’s a really great situation for me! I still get to be home with Caleb a few days a week but I also get to keep up my work skills and am able to contribute financially to the family. Chad’s mom watches Caleb when I’m working and she loves watching him J I was worried that it would be a burden, but she has grown very attached to my cutie-pie!!

Even though I really do have a great working situation, sometimes I struggle with not being able to “have it all”. When I worked full-time, I was “analyst extraordinaire”. I had ample time to pursue my own research and also learn new techniques. I had lots of responsibilities, and I really enjoyed being one of the “go-to” analysts. I still am able to accomplish a lot part-time, but I don’t have time to pursue my own research or first author my own papers. While I struggle with not being able to accomplish quite as much at work, I also struggle with not being able to be around Caleb when I’m at work.  I get jealous of the time that Wendy gets to be with Caleb and get sad that I can’t do everything with him! Sometimes I feel like because I work part-time in the office and am only home part-time, I do a bad job at being an employee and also a bad job at being a mom! I know that isn’t true- I’m valued a lot at my job and I accomplish a lot even though I’m only 60%… and I’m still able to do a lot with Caleb- I’m home with him 2.5 days out of the 5 day work-week, but sometimes Negative Nancy takes over and I get discouraged (no offence to anyone named nancy). Wouldn’t it be neat to have a time-turner like Hermione so I could be in two places at once? J Although if I were able to just choose one magic power from Harry Potter, it would be the power to apparate… how amazing would that be!  But I digress….

I’ll end this post on a funny note. A few weeks ago, I got stuck in the revolving door on my way to work..! There was a yellow wet floor caution sign right by the revolving door, and I kicked it over and got it wedged in the door while I was pushing it around. Luckily, someone was near me and pulled It out of the door. Clumsy Chrissy strikes again ;)

my emotional thoughts today

So.. I dont really think anyone knows this blog site anymore... so this post is for me :) and for you if you're dedicated enough to check a blog that I havent updated in 3+ years! :)

So...since I last wrote 3 years ago, so much has changed!! I'm a mother. Wow. I'm a mom. I've been entrusted with a beautiful precious sweet funny baby boy, and it's up to me (and Chad of course) to care for him..love him....protect him... nurture him.....provide spiritual guidance....make decisions that will affect him the rest of his life....etc.. etc.. etc. Motherhood is tough, overwhelming, terrifying, stressful, tiring, emotional, amazing, wonderful, hilarious, magical, indescribable.

My little buddy is 8 months old. Wow. 8 months old. That means in 4 months, he'll be 1. And that means that soon, I'll only have 17 more years left with Caleb at home, if I'm lucky. And 17 years might sound like a lot... but these past 8 months have flown by so quickly that 17 years sounds like a very short time indeed (as my friend Erin helped me to realize). There's a Wal-Mart commercial that is playing now set to Taylor Swift's song "Never Grow Up". I cant see that commercial without crying. Because that's what i'm thinking continally right now. Never grow up Caleb. Never grow up..!

Confessoin: The first couple of months of Caleb's life were hard. I was a basketcase..! I tought I wasnt cut out to be a mom. It was such a drastic change... going from working full-time and being out-and-about all the time to being stuck at a home with a baby.. alone....A baby who at the time seemed very difficult. I was in pain from L and D- which you expect some pain, but I didnt expect so much pain. And of course with L and D you lose a lot of blood- and you dont sleep- so I was incredibly tired. So before having a baby, I thought yes, a newborn would be hard. which they are. but then factor in pain, weak from losing blood (medical term=anemia), not getting any sleep, and then having to go straight into caring for a newborn without any time to recover....yikes. it was hard. Oh and on top of that, your hormones go crazy after giving birth... so that adds a whole other layer of complexity to the situation! Friends and family kept saying.. just give it time. It'll get better. When you're living in it though, it's hard to upderstand that. it's hard to realize that your body will heal. you wont always feel so exhausted. your hormones will regulate eventually, and you'll be better. I wish I could go back in time and force myself to really understand that. I feel like I kept wishing for time to pass so that I would feel better that I didnt really get to enjoy Caleb when he was so little. He was so tiny....(6lbs 8 oz) so precious then. But like I said, when you're living it, its hard to understand. Next baby I'll know right? except I hear you get to relive all of those emotions all over again...!

So Caleb is 8 months old.. 8 months is a really neat and fun age :). He's babbling now "dadada" "babababa" and sometimes the occasional "mamamama"- and I like to pretend that he knows exactly what he's saying when he babbles mamamama. He's doing this army crawl thing.. hopefully he'll get the hang of real crawling sometime soon... I dont know if he'll get crawling down though because my little stinker is so stubborn and wants to be standing all the time! Caleb has a crazy huge appetite. The pediatrian asked me how many oz he normally eats at his 4 month appt and she was shocked when I told her the number... I think he's just so busy all the time that he needs more calories than the average baby! and he might have inherited my crazy fast metabolsim too! :) He's 90th % for height, 75th % for weight, and his head circumference is off the charts.... thats right- off the charts. Some large clothes wont fit him because I cnat fit them over his head. And we have to buy some pretty large hats for him- hats that almost fit me..!

Here are some things Caleb loves:

• Eating food... I think breakfast and dinner time when he gets solids are his favorite times of the day! He kicks his legs all over the place when he's in his high chair because he's so excited!!
• Looking at himself in the mirror. He's so vain :) Which I would be too if I were that cute.
• When we sing to him. And dance with him. My favorite thing to do with him right now is to dance with him with his cheek next to mine and sing him the "dancing cheek to cheek song". I can see his little smile out of the corner of my eye as I'm dancing with him around the room and its so so precious.
• Bath time. He loves splashing in the water and listening to mommy and daddy sing "splish splash" while we lather him up.
• Going places!! He loves being out and about- seeing different people, places and things
• Dogs. Dogs make him smile. Someitmes I think that he thinks he's a dog because he's always with them.
• Standing. He loves standing and walking while you are holding his hand.
• Reading books. He sits there with his legs kicking and smiles when he sees his favorite pages
• knocking down blocks. and taking off peoples glasses
• A new thing that he just started doing yesterday- putting a big toy in his mouth and holding it there while he lets go of it and then grunting until I notice. And then starts laughing and wants me to laugh wiht him when I look over at him and see whatever big toy he's captured in his mouth. he's a ham.

Sigh. my little man is amazing. I want to freeze life right now....never grow up caleb. please?

update!

Updates of whats been going on this summer!!:

-Went to Europe with the family- had a great time! Saw tons of stuff (reference facebook pics), saw old friends, survived being crammed in a car with the family for 2000 miles, ate good food, made some good memories… I can’t wait to go back!! Next time, I’ll bring chad along though ;) 10 days is way too long to be apart…!

-Went to Amy’s bachelorette weekend at a lake house in Hiawassee!! Had a great time catching up with old friends, meeting new friends, and relaxing at the lake- multiple people in Hiawassee asked us if we were going to Atlanta later to celebrate… they were pretty dumbfounded when they found out that we actually left Atlanta to celebrate in Hiawasee! :)

-Chad and I went to PCB for labor day weekend- a last minute spur of the moment decision- We were only going to go for one night, but a couple from our SS class who has a place in PCB graciously offered to let us stay with them for another night!! So our short trip turned into a long weekend. We had a blast!! My stomach saw the sun for the first time in a looooonnnggg time (and subsequently burned- but only a little!!) and it was nice to go to the beach with Chad, even though it was super short… We’re now in planning mode for a longer vacation next summer… we have two free round trip tickets from Airtran (bc of engine trouble the plane had while we were en route to Las Vegas…) so we’re considering either doing a Caribbean trip (and doing an all-inclusive resort type deal) or doing a Seattle/Vancouver trip … any votes as to where we should go??

-We’re meeting some more neighbors!! There was a neighborhood cookout last month where we got to meet some new folks - Chad and I know the neighbors who walk their dogs because we normally run into them when we walk Bella, but we haven’t really had an opportunity to meet the unfortunate neighbors who don’t have dogs :)…, so it was nice to meet some new people!! I also was able to meet more women in the neighborhood by attending ‘Bunko night’. Every month, the ladies get together to play Bunko- people take turns providing dinner and hosting the event and they all sit around rolling dice and talking for a couple of hours :). I was a little bummed about it being on a Tuesday night because it meant I had to miss the season premiere of Glee, but one of the ladies invited me to come over to her place the next day to watch it because she has a DVR….score!

-Weddings Weddings Weddings! Which means showers showers showers!! I’ve been to a lot of showers recently… and the Fall wedding season kicks off on Saturday when Amy marries Allen! One of my coworkers is getting married the following week, followed by my brothers wedding, then my cousin’s (alex’s) wedding, and then Rachel and Scott’s wedding to top it off! It will be a fun Fall :)- and between football and weddings, we have a pretty full calendar the next few months!

-2 yr anniversary! Chad and I celebrated our anniversary last Sunday by going out to eat at a restaurant in Serenbe (called the Hil). We weren’t all that impressed with the food (it could have just been what we ordered..), but we had a good time driving around the community and seeing horses, goats, donkeys, and pot-bellied pigs!

So that’s what we’ve been up to! Maybe next time I won’t take so long to update...

Jeanne Calle

Maybe I’ll update my vacation travels, but for now, something that’s been on my mind.

In February of 2009, I came to work and saw several coworkers crying and found out that the head of our department, who had retired a couple of weeks earlier, had been murdered in her condominium in midtown during a robbery… It was a very trying and emotional time for everyone and it was incredibly sad … especially witnessing as each new person was told the news upon his or her arrival into the office …. I didn’t know Jeanne that well- I had just started working as she started transitioning out of the American Cancer Society so I only had a few interactions with her. However, her loss was very hard for a lot of my coworkers.. she had been at ACS for 20 years and had developed close relationships with a lot of the people on staff. Fortunately, the man who murdered Jeanne was arrested the day after Jeanne’s body was found- he had returned to the condominium to attempt to steal more things but was stopped by security and was later apprehended by police.

I learned a couple of weeks ago that the killer was finally going to be tried starting on August 23…. I couldn’t believe that it takes over a year and half for a trial to occur!! And my heart was hurting for all of my coworkers because I knew the trial was going to be very emotional for all of them. I’m sure many of them would have attended the trial out of respect for Jeanne, and I know that that would have been really really hard……. So I was praying that God would wrap his comfort around everyone, bring some peace, a reassurance of his presence… and I was worrying about it a lot.

In a surprising turn of events, we found out yesterday that the murderer was going to go ahead and plead guilty, with no pre-agreement on his sentence, and waiving all rights of appeal- meaning that there was no longer any need for a trial. The judge sentenced him to life in prison. This is good news as it is the same sentence he would have received if convicted by a jury, without everyone having to go through the heartbreaking ordeal of a trial. So I guess it ended as best as it possibly could, even though that seems weird to say under the circumstances.

Jeanne was an amazing researcher (just go to google scholar and type EE Calle…!!) and a great friend to many here at ACS. I’m sure her legacy will live on for many years to come…

Here’s an article written in her memory that was published in Cancer Research:

http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/69/7/3238.full

-Chrissy

digital piano!

Chad and I just ordered a digital piano.... should come in in a few days.. I'm so excited!! I grew up playing piano but haven't really had easy access to a piano since I started college, so I'm anxious to get back to playing and see how hard it is to pick up where I left off!

I would love to have a real piano, but we don't really have the space. The only way to make it work would be to put a flat screen tv over the fireplace to free up a space big enough to put a piano... and that would mean buying a flat screen tv since chad and i havent upgraded yet (yes i know, we live in the stoneage) and dealing with a hard installation process (since I hate wires, they would have to go into the wall somehow.. and we would also need to lower the mantle so the TV wouldnt be too high... which is a large task we're not ready to tackle at the moment!) So we decided to get a digital piano instead, which is much smaller and can easily fit on one of the walls without having to drastically rearrange our den or make things look too crowded. Other advantages of a digital piano- no tuning required every year! and I can still play if chad's watching tv bc I can just plug in my headphones!

Chad and I have been shopping around for a month or so and we made the mistake of trying a top-of-the-line digital piano, even though it was way out of our price range.... after that, none of the basic digital pianos which were in our price range sounded good to me... but then we found a great deal online (50% off...!) on one of the nicer digtal pianos (a roland piano that has all of the specs that I really wanted..!) The website said it was an 'open-box' item and we called and they said they couldnt see anythign wrong with it, so we ordered it on tuesday! I'm crossing my fingers that everythings going to look/work right when it comes in! If not, its no big deal since we can just return it... I just hope nothing is wrong with it bc I'm so excited about getting such an awesome digital piano! Chads excited too, although I think he's going to annoy me to no end by experimenting with all the different 'voice' options the piano has.  I'm very grateful to have such a sweet husband though who would rather me have a digital piano than to buy a fancy new flat screen tv or some other cool technological gadget :)  Chad says he wants to learn how to play piano.... we'll see how good of a piano teacher i am and how much patience I can muster... :)

In other news, I'll be in France next week!! My parents and sister are going, and they invited me to tag along! Sadly, Chad has to stay behind bc he doesn't have enough vacation days, but in my absence, he gets to watch Bella as well as my parents 3 dogs. It should be a fun and hilarious time for him since Bella and my parents 3 dogs combine to form a veritable mess of craziness.. I laugh everytime I think about poor Chad coming home from work and being greeted by the goldendoodle, the golden retriever, and the two dachshunds ready to play.. they are going to drive him bonkers, and i can't help but smile when i think about the look of amusement mixed with exasperation that he's going to have on his face...  sorry Chad!!! :)

a bientot!

grand canyon & las vegas!

so.. I keep wanting to post pictures to the blog to recap what Chad and I have been up to lately, but it seems whenever I think about updating the blog, I dont have the camera with me. and then I don't end up writing. well, I don't have the camera this morning either, but I'll go ahead and write about whats coming up and then I'll recap whats been going on later...maybe...?? so.. stay tuned for a recap later on- (i know yall are waiting in suspense....)

whats coming up.... Chad and I are super excited!! We're going on vacation to Las Vegas and to the Grand Canyon in a few weeks! .. We'll spend some time in the Grand Canyon hiking and enjoying nature and then a couple of days in Las Vegas doing who knows what (any suggestions??) I've never been to Nevada or Arizona so I think it'll be a really neat experience- traveling is pretty much my favorite thing ever.

I realize that I'm not the easiest person to travel/vacation with, but thankfully Chad likes that about me (or at least he tells me so...haha) Whenever I go on vacation, I have to always be doing something.. I can't just sit around and relax. So no sleeping in late or lolly-gagging around. I'm pretty spastic about it actually-if Chad wants to sleep in, I poke and prod him and call him a lolly-gagger until he finally gives up and agrees to join me in whatever thing I want to that morning. (after-all, if all you wanted to do was sleep in or sit around relaxing, you could have just stayed at home.. right?) I just hate the thought of missing out on something or not taking an opportunity to do something that I might never get to do again! so.. we're going on vacation, but it might not be all that restful.. :). and in addition, it seems when we go on vacation, we have to cram it all in in a short amount of time because Chad gets woefully less vacation time than me (2 weeks as opposed to 5 weeks), so that makes me all the more spastic... :)

I blame my parents for my spastic nature- thats how we grew up doing vacations. Chad's family seems to chill out and relax more, so Chad definitely had to get used to the Clements way of vacationing (he's vacationed with my family a few times). Chad also had to get used to the "Clements pace"- apparently we walk a lot faster than anyone he ever hung out with growing up- I think we've built up his leg muscles/endurance enough now though that it doesnt even phase him, and he can keep up with the fastest Clements in the bunch- (sorry for the digression...)

anyway, all of the rambling to say that we're going on vacation in a few weeks and we're super excited!!! :)

Update!

So… ivy is 80-90% pulled up, but right now I think we’re in the ‘origin’ of it all… the vines are thicker and harder to pull up and are crazy intertangled…. This is where the granddaddy vines live. And they are not giving up their claim on our backyard very easily…..thankfully chad and I haven’t gotten too much poison ivy this past month and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel… now if we can just finish pulling it all up before all of the bugs start emerging! (ive warned chad that once this starts, I’ll be MIA and he’ll have to finish the job all by his lonesome!) We’re piling up all of the ivy that we’ve pulled so far into a huge mound right over our fence line. When we’re all done, I’ll have to take a picture of the mound and post it so you can see the extent of our work.. its insane!! And we have to figure out what to do with the hhhhuuuuuge pile… maybe pour tons of gasoline on it and torch it all…..

In other news, last week I started noticing that my Civic was acting a little weird- when it would switch gears, it would rev up before sticking and I had a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with the transmission- I figured it wasn’t really that big of a deal though because my car only has about 70k miles on it and it’s a Honda- supposed to be a reliable car, right? And I know nothing about cars, so I was probably wrong anyway and my car was perfectly fine- so I just put it in the back of my mind.

....So… I absolutely hate putting gas in my car. (I guess I inherited it from my mom who refuses to put gas in her car- she’d rather run out of gas than pump gas so my dad has to stay on his toes and make sure that he fills up her car when it starts getting low!!... but I digress…..) My car was on empty, so Chad switched cars with me so that I could drive his car to work and he could fill up my car on his way to work. I am super glad that Chad drove my car to work that day, because while he was driving it, my Honda all of the sudden went kaput (well I’m not happy that it died on chad, but im glad it didn’t happen with me driving bc I would have become a major stress-ball- especially if it happened on I-85.. I don’t think it would have been very pretty to say the least …). It wouldn’t accelerate at all and he had to coast to the side of the road (highway 74) and call a tow-truck to take it to a repair shop. A tow-truck!!! My poor Honda Civic that has never ever given me any trouble at all had to be towed!!

So the verdict is, my car needs a new transmission (well actually its going to get rebuilt). Did you know that transmission work is EXPENSIVE!?! It hurts to think about what we could have bought with the money we’re spending on the transmission!! (not that we would have, but still, you know?) We could have taken an amazing vacation, or bought some awesome furniture, or paid for someone else to deal with all of the ivy! So anyways, I’m trying not to think about how much it is and to just acknowledge it’s a necessary part of life- part of owning cars- part of growing up. Thankfully, Chads dad is away on business this week so we can borrow his car and we don’t have to worry about getting to work at the same time with one car when we work in completely opposite direction!

On that note, happy spring! Wasn’t Saturday beeea-utiful!!!??

Poison Ivy. An enemy of mine.

Poison ivy and I do not get along. 25 years of a hate-hate relationship that doesnt seem to be getting any better as time goes on... Ive been horribly allergic to poison ivy for as long as I can remember, but a particularly bad incident happened during a summer in college when my brother and I went to visit my cousin in San Francisco. We went on a hike through some woody terrain in Big Sur and although I rinsed off in a creek near the end of the hike, I came back to Atlanta with an oozy rash all over my inner arm (one spot I guess I didnt rinse off well enough). You couldnt see any skin on the majority of my inner arm bc the rash was so huge (I’m not exaggerating at all). I had to go to the doctor and take steroids to finally get the rash to go away, but it was a month of awfulness- I was itching and oozing over everything - it was disgusting. (i'm sure youre getting a beautiful image in your head right now....)

From my many itchy experiences with poison ivy, I'm very good at spotting it, but somehow, that tricky poison ivy always manages to leave its mark.. I can be 50 ft away from it and boom, I'm covered. So, when we moved into our house and I noticed some poison ivy in the backyard, I knew it as going to be trouble.... and boy has it been trouble….

Our poison ivy is particularly hard to eradicate and avoid bc its mixed in with the English ivy that covers half of our backyard, so oftentimes you cant see it until you’re literally standing in it. Chad and I are trying to get rid of the English Ivy bc its taking over the yard, choking our trees (sad I know) and also creates a haven to many wonderful creatures that we want get rid of (snakes, ticks, spiders, etc). Much to my dismay, in our attempt to remove the English ivy, we noticed that the poison ivy was growing up the majority of our trees, some with vines as thick as my thigh (and even comparing it to my thigh, that’s pretty thick)! We even spotted a tree that was actually dead but looked like it was alive because the poison ivy had grown up it and had tons of leaves hanging off of it… (just what I always wanted.. my very own poison ivy tree!) To further complicate matters, our dog loves running through the ivy and then when I pet her…, another way that I can get poison ivy.

We’ve been able to get rid of some of the English ivy and Chad has sprayed all of the poison ivy that he can find, but until we are able to totally get of the English ivy, I guess I’ll have to resign myself to being itchy :(. Today I’m sporting a few rashes on my arms and a nice spot on my eyelid that looks like I haphazardly applied some red eyeshadow.

Unfortunately, I’m not the only casualty in this war with poison ivy. Chad, who has never gotten poison ivy in the past, has been able to share in my itchy experiences- a few months ago, Chad and I had matching poison ivy rashes around our wrists just above our glove line and wonderful splotches on other places from where Chad accidentally weed-whacked some poison ivy and sent the juices flying . What a wonderful way to bond with each other….

Check for updates in the future on how our Operation Ivy Removal is progressing…

In the meantime, here are my tips on how to relieve the itching associated with poison ivy without actually scratching the rash- (bc scratching inevitably turns the rash into an oozy mess, which is best to avoid) All of these tips have been tested and proven by me to alleviate the itch- at least for a few minutes…

(1) Slap the itchy area as hard as you can
(2) Pour scalding hot water over the rash
(3) Apply duct tape to the rash and quickly remove (this method works but is discouraged as oozing can soon follow duct tape removal)
(4) Scratch in the immediate vicinity around the rash (this tricks your brain into thinking you’re actually scratching the rash, buying you a few seconds of peace)

And my personal favorite…

(5) Put the hair dryer on the hottest setting and blow-dry the rash for as long as you can stand it. In my experience, this method works the best and doesn’t necessarily result in oozing.

After doing any or all of the above methods, quickly apply calamine lotion. Although the lotion might not alleviate the itch as successfully as you would like, at least you look cool with random pink patches all over your skin.

Snow!!

so in the spirit of non-MARTA related posts.....

It snowed pretty intensely all afternoon here in Tyrone! I would venture to say it was around 2-3"- maybe more? I was constantly watching the radar at work to see if I needed to duck out early because I have no experience driving in snow....luckily, our office decided to close at 2pm so I made it home before snow started to stick on the roads. Bella loved the snow and played in the backyard for around 3 hours before deciding she wanted to come back inside and get out of the cold!! The snow was really awesome... not the normal slushy snow that I'm used to getting in GA, but solid snow that you could pack down and make into some really awesome snow balls! Playing in the snow was a great way to kick off Valentines/Presidents Day weekend :)

 

 Bella chilling in the snow

 

Bella displaying the numerous ice/snow balls that formed on her legs!

 

Our front yard looking beautiful covered in snow!

 

Chad trying to sled in our front yard- didnt work too well.. haha :)

  

Chad putting the finishing touches on Frosty!

 

Frosty close up! In case you were wondering, his eyes are made from pieces of a chocolate bar and his mouth is a rotten banana. Chad and I were joking that the carrot is going to get eaten tonight by some of the deer that like to destroy our plants... we'll see if Frosty and all of his body parts survive until the morning...

2 more marta encounters

I really should just name this post 'Adventures on MARTA'!! :) When I'm sitting in front of a computer, it's normally right after I've ridden MARTA so its fresh in my mind... maybe in the future I'll actually post about my life outside of public transportation. but that day is not today.

1) So this morning, I said goodmorning to the newspaper man (mentioned in the previous post) and he walked towards me, which is weird bc he knows by now that I never buy a newspaper. He proceeded to hand me an envelope that said "you so sweet" on the outside. When I opened the envelope, there was a hersheys bar inside! So I guess I now have a MARTA valentine.

2) Yesterday on my ride home from work, a short gray-haired man stood up and stood in the middle of a very crowded train and asked 'does anyone have a cigarette?? I'm nic-ken like a chicken'. It made me laugh- I've never heard that phrase before.

In other MARTA news, have yall heard about the controversy of the naming of the 'yellow line'? Apparently the route takes you to a large Asian community, and some people living in that community were offended that they decided to name the route 'yellow'. MARTA has caved and will now rename the line the 'Gold line'- which will cost xxxx amount of dollars to do. Awesome.

Happy Valentines Weeekend!

MARTA encounters

Some of the folks I’ve encountered on my adventures on MARTA- never a dull moment..!

Every morning, I’m always greeted by the same newspaper man. He always tells me good morning- how are you? And have a good day! Except today he switched it up to have a good weekend. He makes my day more cheery and he’s always there without fail- so maybe one of these days I’ll switch it up and actually buy a paper (even though I get my news from the internet)

Last week, I had the good fortune of getting on a train with a crazy Asian woman. She was sitting in her seat looking around and speaking Chinese quite loudly and animatedly like she was having a conversation with someone. Except she wasn’t having a conversation with someone- just a conversation with herself.. she looked quiet normal, so it was surprising to see her doing that (there are plenty of people who get on MARTA talking to themselves, but its normally because they are rather inebriated). People kept their distance from her, but as the train started to fill up, a lady wound up sitting next to her who didn’t know she was a crazy talker. The look on her face was priceless when the Asian woman started talking again… I had a hard time that morning not laughing out-loud.. The lady quickly changed seats at the next stop.. I was trying to think of a legitimate reason for the Asian woman to have been talking like that- maybe she was praying out loud? Or practicing for a presentation? Or maybe she was just crazy? I wish I could have understood what she was saying!

For those who watched the Atlanta auditions of American Idol, you are familiar with the “pants on the ground” guy. I’m sure you can look it up on YouTube if you don’t know what I’m talking about… So several months ago I get on a train to go home from a work, and there’s a man who’s in the aisle singing some really weird song about ‘pants on the ground’ and all the sudden he gets down on the ground on his back and starts gesticulating around doing some sort of weird dance. I thought he must be some crazy or drunk guy and I started to get a little worried that he was actually going to take his pants off- People were looking around the train thinking “what is going on!!?!” Thankfully, he kept his pants on. Well, this guy was the same guy on American Idol! So I’m thinking I must have seen him right after his American Idol auditions- it all makes sense now!

About twice a month, I get on a train with an African woman (meaning born in Africa- she has a very thick accent). She gets on the train, stares straight ahead, and starts preaching about the second coming of Jesus. I can’t understand anything she’s saying except when she says “Jesus Christ” and an occasional other word or two. One time, another passenger got quite unruly about it all and started standing up and speaking something else really loudly to drown out the voice of the African woman- and she proceeded to speak even louder. It was like a shouting match was going on. She was actually on my train yesterday, but thankfully no shouting matches happened.

About three times a month, I see a rather angry woman who walks up and down the train asking for money. She gets very cranky if you don’t give her something, and she makes it a point to ask everyone on the train for money. I’m actually scared of her because she seems like a rather violent women so I sort of shrink in my seat whenever I see her.

So these are just a few of the MARTA characters that I’ve encountered…I’m sure I’ll have more postings later- this is all I wanted to write about for now :)

Happy Friday!

Emily Piper McGill

My friend Emily passed away on Monday morning. She was in my pledge class at Phi Mu and was involved in CCF, the campus ministry I was involved in at GT. She was the best of the best. A woman of incredible faith who made everyone around her feel loved and cherished. A woman who devoted her life to serving others. A women, that as Joe, her husband said, lived more in 26 years than most people live their entire lives. I will miss her. I will never forget her incredible smile, her zest for life, her willingness to try new things, the way she made others feel, her incredible faith...

I never realized she said this, but according to our campus minister, right before her first surgery when her brain cancer had just been discovered, she looked at Rick and said- "The worst thing that can happen Rick is I will get to see Jesus sooner than you." Its hard not to be sad about the loss of such an incredible girl, but I rejoice in knowing she's in a better place.

Here are some of my pics that I have of emily that make me smile (well all of her pics make me smile, but I narrowed it down)-


Emily having fun on a cruise we took in college :)



Emily enjoying her food on the cruise with Laura looking on



Emily looking beautiful at one of our Phi Mu formals



Emily and I at CCF



Emily hugging Lindsey at mellow mushroom



Ashley, Bethany, the chick-fil-a cow, Emily, and I at the Mission Massai benefit concert


Emily, me, and Ashley sitting outside of Phi Mu


"There will be a day, with no more tears, no more pain, no more fears. There will be a day, when the burdens of this place, will be no more- we'll see Jesus face to face"

muddy pups

Here's a quick picture of our mischievous puppy, Bella, covered in mud. Hopefully it'll make yall laugh as much as it made Chad and I laugh :)

6 years ago

Today, Jan 13th, marks the anniversary of day I will never forget- a day when the world lost 2 amazing people.

they will walk and not grow weary- they will run and not be faint.

http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2003_04/fulltext/sr1093.htm

No Heat!!

I left work early yesterday because I wanted to make sure I had plenty of sunlight to see the ice on my way home- the interstate was ok, but just like my morning commute, as soon as I got off the interstate, ice was everywhere- I saw at least 4 cars on my way home which were stuck in various ditches on the side of the road! Thankfully, I made it home ok.

However, upon arriving at home, I realized the house was very cold. 53 degrees to be exact!! I checked the thermostat and the heat was definitely not working. This has happened in the past and Chad has been able to fix the problem, but this time, he couln't fix it (something with the ignitor in the furnace). We proceeded to call repair-people to come and fix the problem, but everyone was busy or refused to come out with all of the ice on the roads. So Chad and I spent a very cold night last night!! (we stayed at home because I was too scared to get back on the roads last night!) We dragged some mattresses upstairs into the office and shut the door and turned on a space heater and stayed relatively warm (I had 5 layers of blankets). However, this morning when we went downstairs, the house was a chilly 39 degrees!!! ......Of course the furnace would decide to stop working on the coldest night ever (our thermometer said it was 12degrees outside this morning!)

Thankfully, the heater repairman guy just arrived so we should have heat restored sometime soon. Until then, Chad and I will continue to wear our winter coats around the house! :)

Emily Piper McGill

This post is about my friend, Emily Piper McGill- one of the sweetest people you could ever meet. She just exudes so much love and light and happinness. For those that know Emily, you can keep up with what's going on here (a website that Joe made)

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/emilypipermcgill

Please keep Emily, Joe, and her family and friends in your prayers

Ice!

So, just one more mention about creepy marta guy.. he hasn't bothered me since, and I got pepper spray and a taser for Christmas- so I'll be prepared if he approaches me again...

In other news, the roads are crazy today!! I listened to the news this morning, and the anchors encouraged everyone to stay home because of the icy roads- I thought it was just typical Atlanta paranoia, so I proceeded to drive to work... bad idea!!! The fact that our driveway was covered with ice should have clued me in about the rest of the drive....but I figured that the actual neighborhood street would be less icy than the driveway. and it wasn't. So I figured that the busier road outside of our neighborhood would be less icy, and it wasn't...it was absolutely covered.. so I started to freak out! There was a car coming up behind me, and I wanted to drive really slowly so I decided I would turn into a neighborhood up ahead and let the car pass me. Unfortunately, when I pressed the brake pedal, I lost complete control of the car- Luckily, I wasn't going very fast so my car only slightly ran off of the road. The guy in the car behind me got out of his car and helped me get my car out of the ice (thank you random stranger!)

By that point, I figured there would be less ice if I continued to work rather than turning around to go back home, so I kept driving. Luckily, I-85 was ok, but once I got off of the interstate, it was horrible again! When I finally made it to the parking lot, it was so icy that I couldnt even see the lines for the parking spaces, so I just sort of made up my own space (hopefully my car will be ok!).

People are slowly trickling into work now and everyone has horror stories of the ride in.- apparently on Williams street (which is in the heart of downtown) there is so much ice on a hill that cars can't make it to the top and are sliding backwards. Everyone walking on the sidewalks are afraid that they are going to slip on the ice or that cars are going to lose control and drive them over.... Its verrry scary out there. I really can't believe that work wasn't cancelled- I'm positive that someone is going to get into a wreck coming to work...

The main problem is that GA DOT is spending all of their time keeping the ice off the interstates (the interstates keep refreezing) that there is absolutely no way they can get to the secondary/surface streets.. anyways, moral of my story- stay home today!!!! Do not go to work!!!! I'm so scared about my drive home.... maybe I'll just stay here overnight..

MARTA update

ok.. so when I created this blog back in August, I really did mean to post on it pretty regularly... so yeah... maybe this will be a post every few months thing :)

Anyways, since i've only written about MARTA/transportation so far, how about I continue with that theme for at least one more post... I'll update yall on the status of my "fellow traveler"! So, over the course of the last 3 months, I have been able to deduce who the 'fellow traveler' is (he described himself in the note he left on my car- skinny gray haired man). However, I decided to not let on that I knew that it was him. I would always keep my distance if I saw him on MARTA, I would walk as fast as I could to my car so as to avoid any sort of contact with him, I would never make eye contact with him- pretty much did my best to not ever be in a situation where he was near enough to talk to me.

Well, for the past few weeks, I have seen this guy pretty much everyday(whereas in the past, I would see him maybe once a week or so). I always make a point to see where he turns out of the parking lot, just to make sure he's not going my direction and wasnt following me- and he would never go my direction....until a couple of weeks ago. And then his pattern changed! he started going my direction and I had this sneaking suspicion that he was following me- just based on how he was driving- so whenever I see him around me, I get off at a different exit, go to Publix, etc... (this has only happened a few times, and I'm probably being paranoid and he's not following me at all, but it doenst hurt to be cautious, right?)

So this all leads up to last Friday, where "fellow traveler" decided to talk to me. I was leaving through the fare gate and he sort of blocked me from exiting and asked me if he could walk my direction. I was really caught off guard and I panicked so I just said... 'ok...' and then he proceeded to explain to me how he felt that we shared a mutual attraction and how he was worried about messing things up. I was pretty much in disbelief when he was talking but I finally answered- 'no- theres no attraction' or something like that, and he said 'ok- i'll leave you alone'. I proceeded to my car and locked the doors and just waited for about 5 minutes until I was sure that he had already left the parking lot.

so that happened Friday, and Ive seen him a couple of times since then, but he hasnt approached me or anything. so hopefully that was the last time I'll have to worry about fellow traveler. Looking back, I probably should have told him that no- he couldnt walk in my direction- but I was scared- I didnt know how he would react if I made him angry, so I just said ok.

I've had people tell me I should definitely get a police report, but he seems harmless. Then again, its super strange that he would leave a note on my car in August and then not approach me until now- that means he's probably been thinking about it for 4 months... which is a little scary. anyways.... what do you think?? (if you even check this blog anymore.. haha)

MARTA and cars

so, in continuing with the MARTA theme, I had a lot of people tell me to try to change up my routine a little bit in the morning- for example, park in a different place... So taking other people's advice, I parked in a different place on Monday morning. Well, when I got to my car Monday afternoon, I saw that another car had backed up into my car and damaged the front right of my Honda (there are dents, scratches,- it looks pretty bad). And when I actually wanted there to be a note on my car (from whoever hit my car), this time there was no note! I was pretty bummed about it- thankfully our insurance will fix the car bc we have Uninsured Motorists Protection, but we'll still have to pay the deductible. I got a quote yesterday and the repair work will cost over $1,000!!! Incredible huh. I've been keeping my eye out for a damaged blue car in the MARTA parking lot (bc that was the color of the paint that was on my car) but no luck yet. and in thinking about it, I dont really think there's much I could do if I do see a damaged blue car... i doubt anyone would be intimidated by me and fess up to hitting my car!!

Anyway, after leaving the car shop yesterday from getting the repair quote, guess what happened? Someone crossed three lanes of traffic and hit my car!!!!! Luckily the damage isn't too bad (I didnt call the police or anything). There are some minor scratches on the back right of my car but no dents- we're hoping that when we get the front right repaired, they can buff out the scratches on the back. I got the name, phone number, and license number of the girl who hit my car, so hopefully she'll pay for the repairs and I didn't make a bad decision in not getting the police involved. The passenger in the car that hit me was pretty belligerent about it all- he was complaining that he wasn't sure if I had my blinker on and that he had class in 20 minutes- I replied that if he wanted, I could call the police so that they could tell him that it was not my fault... The driver told me not to listen to the passenger and that she knew it was her fault.

As an aside... even if I didn't have my blinker on (which I'm the queen of using my blinker so I doubt thats the case), it still doesn't excuse the fact that that the driver crossed three lanes of traffic to hit me in the side of my car- it wouldnt have mattered whether I was turning or not- the driver still would have hit me. In addition mr. passenger, I don't really care if you have class in 20 minutes- maybe your friend shouldnt have hit my car! Goodness.... that passenger made me so angry- I'm pretty good about keeping my cool and being understanding, but I guess the combination of the hit and run that happened to me on monday and the attitude of the passenger on Tuesday almost made me lose my cool.... I mean come on!!! I'm saving your friend from getting a $150 police ticket!! so you could maybe show a little bit of remorse mr passenger (the driver was fine).

anyway, thats just me venting. Thankfully I have a great husband who calmed me down (over the phone bc he has classes on Tuesday night). On another note, I'm super thankful that Julie and Matt are ok after their terrible wreck on Saturday. Compared to what happened to them, these last two days for me are like butterflies and sunshine!

Hope everyone is having a great Wednesday!

Time to start blogging :)

Hello Friends!

I guess it's about time I jumped back on the blogging bandwagon! :) In future posts, I'll give updates on whats going on in the life of the Newton's (ex new house in tyrone, chad starting school at tech...again!, our puppy...) but for now, I wanted to share something that happened to me yesterday...

So I take MARTA to and from work everyday- it probably takes longer than it would for me to drive to work, but it saves a little bit of money and allows me to catch up on my reading!! (although I really need to go to the library to get some books- I'm rereading the HP books in French, and as you all know, I've read these books wayyyy too many times! haha). So yesterday, after walking to my car after getting off the train, I saw a hand written note folded under one of my windshields. I won't write out the entire note (its pretty long) but the gist of it was:

"Dear fellow traveler... I've seen you on MARTA several times. A few days ago, I smiled at you and was friendly, because I tend to be friendly when I see people like you, and I think you took it the wrong way. I am married with kids and was just being friendly. I'm sorry if I freaked you out. Sincerely, your Fellow Traveler."

In thinking back to the previous days, I don't remember feeling overly freaked out by any one person in particular- and I guess his note was thoughtful... but now I am a little scared! not of the 'fellow traveler' necessarily, but it makes me realize that it would be fairly easy for a person to remember where I park, what car I drive, when I get to MARTA and when I leave to go home, because I'm pretty good about following a set schedule- and I tend to park in the same general place. Makes me feel a little less safe I guess. I'm sure I'll forget that this happened in a couple of days, but until then, I'll probably be a little more cautious than normal- walk around my car to make sure noone's there- etc. And maybe you should be too!

so 'fellow traveler', I appreciate your note (sort of) but I think it did more harm than good!

-Chrissy