the dog park...

In an effort to enjoy the sudden change of weather here in B'ham, Jennifer and I took our pups out to the dog park to run off some energy...

Looks like fun doesn't it? Sometimes I wish I was still a kid who got to have playdates like this...

Hodgepodge

Our sweet niece Campbell gave us a little scare over Christmas... In sum, she had an infection in the skin around her eye that earned her a hospital admission for some IV antibiotics. A head CT on admission showed a mass in the sinus under her eye. She was sent up to Children's Hospital here in B'ham for further evaluation, and the mass turned out to be a giant wad of encapsulated mucus. Never have we been so excited to hear a diagnosis of snot! She did require surgery to drain it (don't worry, they took pictures) and a few more days in the hospital, but according to Lizzie she is feeling almost entirely back to normal now, PTL!

Here are a few other things I am loving these days...

1. That's right folks. We bid the Jetta farewell, and upgraded to a 4Runner! Unfortunately this is not ours in the picturesque location shown above, but you get the idea. It has made me much more excited to drive to the hospital in the early morning during this bitter cold weather we have been experiencing.

2. Speaking of remedies to bitter cold weather, these lovely travel mugs given to me by my sweet MIL at Christmas are fabulous. For those of you who require that eye-opener of caffeine in the morning, I highly recommend them. They are lightweight, dishwasher-safe, and stay vacuum-sealed (and therefore hot) for hours.

3. Photos of various Alabama fans with the National Championship trophy at Wal-Mart that have been popping up on the internet. Just fantastic...

                  

4. All things Gap Body. Incredibly comfortable and always tagless, need I say more? My most recent purchase...

5. And finally, I get to reunite with these people in a few short weeks!!!! Little Lucy is now over a year and a half old... good grief, time sure flies by fast!

Christmastime

After a full week in Montgomery, we are back in Birmingham... Our week was filled with delicious food, family, children, Christmas decor, coffee, relaxation, and did I mention all the delicious food? The week in photos...

Hope your Christmas was merry!

6 weeks later...

We are still alive! My apologies for the extensive blogging hiatus. Life has been nothing short of crazy the past several weeks, and blogging just didn't quite make the cut on the priority list. The good news? Both Walker & I are off until Jan 4, and excited doesn't even begin to cover how we feel about this time to rest. To catch you up since the last post (be forewarned, it's a long one)...

These two found out they are going to have a baby! Baby G will be making his/her debut in late June, and we are so thrilled to be adding another kiddo to the family!

We moved! It's a long story, but in sum, one of our neighbors was leaving the country for a couple of years and wondered if we would be interested in renting her (much bigger and nicer) home while she was gone. As much as we loved our little 2 bedroom/1 bathroom, we couldn't turn down the extra space (and cheaper rent!). Several weeks later we packed up our things and moved 2 doors down to our new home!

Sort of big for our tiny family, right? It took us awhile to make it feel homey, especially with our crazy schedules, and although we still have a long way to go, we are now quite cozy in our new place. The new home came with an added bonus that we are still getting used to...

That's right folks. This dog-loving, cat-disliking couple is now responsible for the care of two felines. Part of the reduced-rent deal involved taking care of Dr. Barbara's two cats (the other looks just like this one - we have trouble telling them apart). Formerly named Micah and Ashley, we have renamed them Garfield and Chloe. Classy, right?

We headed to Montgomery for Thanksgiving, and although it was only for a couple days, we had a wonderful time visiting, and it made us even more excited about being able to get away for several days at Christmas. I was a poor documenter of the occasion, but did snap this sweet one of Matt and Lauren...

A couple of weeks ago we hosted a dinner party to celebrate Fran's 25th birthday. Close friends desperately missing each other + a wonderful occasion to celebrate + delicious food + wine + Cranium = ridiculous amounts of fun.

Since Walker & I finished up last Friday, we have enjoyed sleep, coffee, pajamas, hot chocolate, Christmas decorations, shopping for and wrapping gifts, chocolate bark, delicious homemade meals, and quiet nights at home. Hooray for a time of rest and Merry Christmas to everyone!

Adeline Elizabeth

Meet Adeline...

Lizzie and Brian welcomed daughter #2 into the world on October 31 at 11:53 p.m. Her sister Campbell loves her...

As does her aunt...

Newborns can only be so entertaining for a 20 month old, so we spent lots of time outside playing with Campbell on our visit...

She loves Bella...

And Bella loves her. Although on this particular afternoon, the chicken pictured below seemed to be Bella's favorite source of entertainment (the chicken's interest in Bella was not mutual)...

Congrats to Lizzie and Brian for their beautiful daughter, and hooray for adding another niece!

Humor in medicine

The other day one of my residents got a call from a pharmacist... apparently someone stole one of her prescriptions, filled it out themselves, and attempted to fill it at a pharmacy. What was the prescription for?

"Mofeen, 1 gallon"

For anyone confused, "mofeen" = morphine, and it is most definitely not dosed by the gallon :)

(just a little tidbit to fill the gap since my last post... one to come soon with pictures of our two sweet Norris nieces!)

Reviving Old Furniture

So we picked up this old piece of furniture pictured below.  The piece came from my Great Aunt's house.  And yes, it screams 1970's.  So we had the idea to try to revive the old lady and make it useful as we move into a bigger house.  In a picture by picture slideshow below, I'll explain how we did it.

The before picture.

As you can see below, there were sweet 1970 like grooves that not only were stylish but also doubled as handles.  Sadly enough, we had to pull out the grooves in order to make the drawers flat all the way across.

After removal of outer groove.

Next step was to fill in the holes in the drawers with puddy.  Once the puddy dried, we sanded it down.  This step was repeated a couple of time in order to make sure that the hole was completely filled and smooth all the way across the drawer.

Once the holes were puddied.

Before starting to paint, we sanded down the entire chest along with the drawers with an 80 grit sandpaper.  This removed all of the original wood coating.

Furniture sanded down.

Our next step was to paint a base coat.  This base coat would be the color that would come through when we later distressed the chest in order to give it an antique look.  We used a bluish gray color and put on two coats.  Below is a picture after the base coat was applied (along with a great shot of my knee).

Base coat.

We then painted the top coat which was an off white.  We ended up using three coats of the white.  Once it all dried, we then used a 120 grit sandpaper and slowly distressed certain parts of the chest.  After we had distressed the piece to our (Emily's) heart's desire, we applied a glaze over everything to give it a smooth finish.  We also went to Lowe's and picked up some handles that we thought would go along well with the style and color.  Below is the finished product.  It's kind of hard to really see the full look in the big picture.  The first one will give you an idea of what it truly looks like.

Up close shot of the drawers, handles and distressing.

The whole piece...its not great lighting in this shot.

We're no professionals, but hey, it was fun and we learned some interesting things in the process.