Old #7

David had some vacation time he needed to use, so we decided to take a short trip to Nashville to visit family for the weekend. We headed up there on Thursday morning and stopped in Lynchburg, TN to visit the Jack Daniels Distillery.

As close friends know, I am a good friend of Mr. JD, especially with JD and Coke or JD Down home Punch. Though, it has been a few months since I have enjoyed the company of the Old #7. I definitely got my fill on the tour.

Seriously, hands down one of the best tours you could possibly take and the best part is it’s absolutely free! Even if you are not into alcohol beverages, the history behind Jack Daniels if very interesting. So if you are in the area I would recommend you to stop by. You pay nothing to get in and it own takes about 1 and ½ of your time. The landscape of the town & distillery are enough reason to stop. The funniest part of the whole thing is that the Jack Daniels Distillery is located in a dry county so you cannot buy any alcohol in the county it’s made in. We didn’t get a taste (not that I would have taken one) but we did get a good whiff of it a few times. That will satisfy me for the next five months. I took a ton of pictures but there were a few areas that you were not allowed to have the flash on, so those might be a little blurry.

The lady in the front is our tour guide Bette. She was awesome. She seriously knew every answer to any question we had.

You can buy your own barrel of Jack Daniels for about $9,000. They remove the whiskey, bottle it and put a plaque with your name on top of the barrel. Plus, you get your name on the wall at the Jack Daniels Distillery for everyone to see. You would be surprised to see how many names were on that wall.

This building was used as the Jack Daniels Whiskey office building up until the 1950's

David & I with Mr. Jack Daniels himself. In real life he only stood at 5'2. They gave him a few extra inches in the statue. He was a very small man.

This is where all the water used to make Jack Daniels comes from and has over 150 years.

There is 13.5 million dollars in federal taxes sitting in this one warehouse alone. They have 77 other warehouses sitting in the county with the same amount of whiskey.

I think the old man won.

It's a barrel shop which sells, you guessed it...barrels.

Thoughts...

~Yes, my blog is on crack and looks different everyday. I will pick a design and then decide I don't like it. I just like to keep you on your toes.

~I'm on vacation the next few days. We are heading up to Nashville to stay with my Sister and BIL for a few days. I'm excited. We're heading up there today. Friday we'll entertain ourselves and of course I've already planned a few things for us to do. Then we'll spend the rest of the weekend with the family. I'm sure I'll post when we get back. I'll try to take pictures this time.

~I have been rocking it out at the gym all week. I've made it everyday so far. I remember seeing a pregnant lady workout at our old gym and at the time it seemed a funny sight. I'm sure I look funny to all the high school guys who are working out when I go.

~Speaking of the gym, there is this stair stepping machine that looks pretty innocent. It's a machine that has real stairs you walk on (kinda like a escalator). Since I have to be careful, I figured I would workout on it so I can get that firm butt for swimsuit season. Yeah well, that thing was the devil. Looks can be deceiving. My legs were feeling it by the end. I'm sure I will be sore tomorrow.

~I found out today that the hubby thinks Anne Hathaway is a hottie. Yay! I'm glad it's her and not some porn star looking celebrity.

~I am convinced the baby is going to be a boy (sorry to those who are hoping for a girl). I'm not sure if it's because we've officially decided on names and my favorite is the boys name we picked or because the baby is already huge. Or maybe its because the baby wouldn't be still when we saw it on the ultrasound and I'm convinced it acts like it's daddy (who never sits still). Who knows? Hopefully, we find out soon.

~It's raining again and though I know we need it...I am sick of it.

~Why is it that nights there is something on tv that I really want to watch I cannot seem to stay awake, but the nights there is nothing good on (like Wednesday nights) I'm not tired? We really need to invest in DVR.

~The hubby is fascinated with Noodling and we have watched the same special on it at least six times (insert eye roll here). Don't know what Noodling is...google it and you will be amazed.

~I'm ready for summer and the warm weather.

~What do you call a cow with no legs? Ground Beef.

~We have officially decided on names. They are not the same ones we've told people like, so we've decided to be mean and not tell anyone until we find out what it is. You guys are all going to have to wait.

~We have started to look for houses. We've found a few things we like but, we're not going to rush into anything. We were approved for a loan by a lender. This was a huge relief since we've had a few bad financial situations in the past. Luckily, we are all clear of that now and headed in the right direction.

~Hope everyone has a good weekend!

My own little heaven...

This is my new favorite place. We had driven past it a few times and I repeatedly said I wanted to stop. Finally a few weeks ago I did and I fell in love. I now visit on a weekly basis and never walk out with empty hands.

The name is A Novel Experience. It is a awesome bookstore. Best part is that 80% of their books are used and only $3-5. They are also in great condition for used books. Most books you would never be able to tell they have been opened. Secondly, they have books you actually would want to read. In fact, I bought a book a couple of weeks ago that just came out last year and hasn't even made it to paperback yet. I bought it, a brand new looking hardback copy for $5.

The books are also very well organized and the shop is decorated very cute. I almost thought of it to be something out of a movie. They also support many of the local artist in the area. Each month they have hang local artist's pieces. This month's theme is "the love of dogs" and if I had the money I could have bought all of them. They were great.

They also sell new books and if there is a certain book your looking for they will be happy to order it for you at no extra charge. The owners are three ladies who are super nice and also willing to help or give suggestions. And whether you buy a book or not, they happily suggest you pick a book and have a seat in one of their comfy chairs.

So, if your from or in the area of Zebulon, Ga, stop by and you won't be disappointed.

Akward...

True story...

I've mentioned a few times before that where I work, there are only five women in a sea of over a hundred men. One of the ladies I work with came into the office I work in and started to tell us how she had been having such a bad morning.

When she first came in, the first thought I had was how I thought her shirt was cute and and it looked like something I could wear now as my tummy continues to expand. I had planned on asking her where she got it.

She continues with her story about how her daughter wouldn't agree to a certain outfit for picture day this morning and then moved on to how she got to work someone had taken her parking space.

She then says to make her morning worse, one of the guys asked her if she decided to go back to wearing maternity clothes?

I almost died laughing. I know it's not funny. But I was seriously about to ask her wear she had got her shirt.

Yes, it was mean and people should learn to never ask a women anything about being pregnant unless she looks she is about to go into labor.

Needless to say I didn't ask...I didn't want to make the morning any worse by a pregnant lady asking where you buy your clothes.

More Pics of Baby Mabes

We went to see the specialist this morning and had nothing but good news. The best thing about the specialist is that they only schedule one patient at a time so we had plenty of time to watch the baby on the ultrasound machine. We got to watch the baby for a good ten minutes on the ultrasound machine. The baby measures normal for all the test they were performing the ultrasound for. I also had blood taken again for a Down Syndrome test, but this is just a normal procedure when you go to see a specialist. They said the baby looked good and they for now have no worries.

The baby was once again in perfect position for pictures and test. We got several pictures and the ultrasound tech pointed out all the limbs, heart, etc. The best part was that the baby keep moving around. It was so neat to watch it move around, especially since I cannot feel anything yet. At one point the baby raised it's arm several times. It looked as though it was hitting the top of my stomach telling us to leave it alone. It was cute. The baby was also moving it's mouth like it was talking and every time it did, it blew bubbles. It was really just swallowing fluid which is normal, but we like to think it was trying to talk to us. It is also weighing in at a grand 3 ounces and it's heart beat was still going strong.

We go back to see the specialist on April 22nd. If everything is looking good it will probably be my last time to see the specialist. Hopefully the baby will be in perfect position again and we can find out the gender. I can't wait!

We couldn't believe how much the baby has grown in just a few weeks.

A close up of the head. We could see the lips, ears, and nose. It was precious!

This is when the baby decided to move. Evidently we were bothering Baby Mabes.

This is when the baby was talking. We could actually see the mouth open and shutting. It was amazing! The white cloud above the head is the baby blowing bubbles. We told the ultrasound tech it may have been taking a smoke break. I know we're sick.

I am so in love already.

A Weekend at the Mabrey's

It's the weekend at the Mabrey household. David is off today and tomorrow so I worked my work schedule to be off too. The weather has finally cleared up. Though it is not as warm as it was a week ago, it was nice to finally see the sun after four straight days of pouring rain. Hopefully the warm weather will return soon.

We had a day that started with no plans but of course we ended up running around town all day. We started with breakfast and a trip to the auto parts store. Last night while I was in class, David ran to Ingles to pick up a few items. He went in and left the lights on in his car. Of course, when he got back in the car it would not start. He walked home in the pouring rain with a gallon of milk. I felt so bad, but he refused to call me to come get him while I was in class. So we went for a new battery this morning.

This afternoon we decided to go check out the gym down the street. We had a gym membership while living in our previous county, fortunately we did not have to sign a contract and we were able to cancel when we moved. David has been talking about getting back into shape since its been a few months. Believe it or not, this hasn't been something on my mind lately. Of course, forty-five minutes later we walked out new members of the our local gym. I need to get back to walking since I can go longer than five minutes with out being sick, so I am excited about it. It will also be helpful after the baby is born. I told David that he has to get back in shape so it will motivate me to get back in shape for the 2010 bikini season. So, we'll see how it goes.

In other news, we have been debating for quite some time on what we want to do about our house situation. We have seriously gone back and forth on this for months now. One day we're dead set on buying a house and staying close to family. The next, we don't want to be stuck here and want to just keep renting. After many hours of discussing, we've decided we're ready to buy a house. Whatever happens with his job will happen. We're happy with our situation right now and content with it. In a perfect world he will get promoted somewhere near here where we would not have to move, but we don't live in a perfect world. He has been extremely lucky with the location of the first two positions he has had, but that is likely to not last. Right now is a great time to buy. Especially for first time home buyers. We're not planning on to really start looking till the end of Spring and hoping to move before August. There are some great opportunities the government is trying to pass that will be very beneficial to anyone buying a home, so we're hoping to wait it out a bit to see if they get passed. We have a close friend in real estate and he is recommending us to wait till summer.

So, keep us in your prayers as we add something else to our already busy summer. This evidently is going to be an exciting year for us. Tomorrow I go to see the specialist. I am scheduled to just have an ultrasound and then we'll go from there. I am sure everything will be fine. I'll post tomorrow to let you know how it goes.

A Birthday & Rainy Day

Last night we celebrated David's birthday with the family. We all meet up at O'Charley's for dinner and then everyone came to our house for ice cream cake. I tried to take pictures of David but he in every picture he had his eyes closed.



I told him to keep his eyes open and this is what I got...



He might need to watch it because Miley Cyrus just got in trouble for this.

So far our Sunday has consisted of complete laziness. It has been pouring down rain and one of those days you just don't want to get out of the house. So me and my group have been pretty content just laying around.

It's been awhile...

I should be ashamed to say that our Friday night consisted of going to Ryan's and me asleep on the couch at 7:30pm. I fell asleep on the couch at 7:30 and all I remember is David waking me up around 10:30 to make me go get in the bed. I did not wake up till 8:00 am this morning. I honestly do not remember the last time I slept that many hours in one night. I think I have only slept that long a few times in life. Even in high school I wasn't one of those teenagers sleeping their Saturdays away. I can say that I am feeling good today. Evidently, everything finally caught up with me. Why have all the television stations started putting all the good shows on at 10pm? I am really thinking about talking David into getting DVR. Either that or our Friday nights will continue to be lame.

Tonight we're celebrating David's Birthday with the family. I will try to get some pictures to post. Have a great weekend!

Books, Books, and more Books...

This past weekend I sent Aubry a text and told her I couldn't take it anymore...I had to get my books out of their boxes. That sent us on a trip to Ikea Tuesday night in hunt for a new bookshelf. During the move, our old bookshelves were not tied down properly and had heavy wind damage. Unfortunately they could not be salvaged. Needless to say, I was pretty mad about it.

When I decided that I was going to not unpack everything, I had included books in that group. I couldn't help it though...I love books. I collect books. I cannot have enough books. My books for some reason provide comfort for me. I love having them around. Many times I will just pick up a book, read a few pages, and never pick it up again. I have no idea how many books I actually have. I never get rid of any and I buy a new book every time I walk into a bookstore. One day I will have a library in my house that has nothing but shelves of books and a few comfy chairs.

So we ventured to Ikea and I bought a new bookcase. Now I feel better because all the books are out and in view.



Only thing is that I might have needed to have bought the bigger size...I still have a few boxes that have yet to be unpacked.

I survived...

Thank you for the thoughts and prayers. They worked because I survived. I didn't pass out. I was nervous all morning and poor David, freaking out over the littlest things. To be completely honest, the appointment was kinda a dud. We did get the hear the heartbeat but it wasn't so good since they didn't use the ultrasound machine. To be completely honest, I wasn't even paying attention so much. David said he heard it fine though. Other than that, they weighed me, took my blood pressure, and took my blood. We were in and out of there in less than an hour. The lady who took my blood was extremely nice. I explained what happened the last time and she was extra nice to me. I think she asked me about five times if I was alright. In less than ten minutes she had it over with and had taken five viles of blood. In the end, I was still sitting upright...so I would say it was successful. She even gave me one of her pretty colorful band aides since I did so well. She was really sweet.

Like I said, we didn't really get any new news. I go next week to see the specialist and we get to have an ultrasound done at that time. My next appointment with the normal OB is a month from now. So, no exciting news to report. Now I just hope to not hear anything from them the next few weeks. As the doctor says if I don't hear from them..."no news is good news."

Nervous...

I have my second doctor's appoointment tomorrow. Please pray for me because I am dreading it. They have to take blood. The last time I had blood taken it ended with me passed out. I'm hoping it goes much better tomorrow. I will post after to let you know how it goes.

House Questions...

A few people have asked why I haven't posted anything about our new house. The truth is there is nothing really to post about. I'm not planning on posting a picture of the front of it because we live off a main road and I have had problems with stalkers. Just kidding...
Secondly, I haven't really done anything to "decorate." I haven't had any energy or motivation to do anything. I'm sure most of it is due to the pregnancy, but a little of it also is due to the fact that right after we moved in, they told David to turn in his paperwork for the next promotion. A inside source, off the record, informed us that we would be here for about a year. During our last move, I learned there is a lot of our "stuff" we have that we can live without. I decided to not unpack everything due to the fact that we are going to repack within the next year. We have lived without for months now and I figure what's a little longer. Plus, even if we end up staying in this area, we will definitely buy a house when he gets promoted so either way we are moving again. Other issues are that I am not fully loving the house. I know it is hard to find a perfect house when your renting and I wasn't expecting perfect. Unfortunately, the house isn't in the best condition but it is also not in the worst condition to make the landlords want to do anything with it. It's stuff you don't notice until you move in. The house is just old and it seems to never been really taken care of. Unfortunately, in the landlords eyes the house is in great condition. I guess it is all in the eye's of the beholder. So now that I have more energy I am slowly getting around to doing stuff around the house. I might post pictures as time goes on. No promises...

Can the guy catch a break?

Poor David...when it has come to his birthday this year, he cannot seem to catch a break. We went to the aquarium and we weren't too impressed. Then on his actual birthday he had a crazy day and I had to work and class so we didn't really get to do anything to celebrate on the actual day. Then on Thursday I found out my birthday gift to him was canceled. He is a huge Robin Williams fan and I had bought him tickets to see his comedy show. Due to heart surgery, all of his shows have been canceled. Now I am fighting with Ticketmaster to get a refund. They are postponing the show till fall, but we are going to have a crazy fall so we decided to get a refund. Getting a refund from Ticketmaster when you have bought the tickets online is a pain in the butt. Then today, David decided that he wanted to buy a surround sound system for the tv with his birthday money. He has been looking at them for months and finally decided which one he wanted to buy. He has been to three stores and they are all sold out of the one he wants.

Poor David. I feel bad. We're celebrating his birthday with the family this weekend. I hope this isn't a preview for this weekend.

Weekend update

When I don't go into the weekend with any plans...I end up in trouble. Why you ask? I end up shopping. It all started out well. After sitting in race traffic for the ride home from work, I made it home with enough time for a nap before we went to dinner with David's parents. They had been out of town all week so of course we had to catch up with each other. We took them to a little family owned Italian restaurant in Gtown and like always it was delicious.

Saturday is when it all went down hill...I got up and rushed over to Aubry's because we had to hit up the Kohl's sale. I have been on the hunt for a new comforter set for the guest room and luckily I found one. I also found some clothes I can grow into the next few months, a pair of sandals, and new sunglasses(I did break mine last week). Then we headed to target where I found several other maternity clothes on clearance. That's why I get in trouble...I go for one thing and end up with ten. I don't think David was too mad about the clothes because I have been complaining nothing fits. By the way,target has the cutest maternity clothes.
Saturday night we did what every person in Gtown does on a Saturday night...head to Walmart. Then we got a short visit from Aubs and Barry when they stopped by our house later that night. They had to attend a wedding and looked so cute all dressed up. They are the cutest couple!

Sunday I hung out at the house and then Aubs came down to hang out with me. David and Barry went fishing and Barry gave David a golf lesson. David has decided to take up golf now. We'll see how long it last. When the boys finally decided to come home, we grilled out and watched a movie. The sad realization I had this weekend was that I am too old to hang out after 10pm on a work night. I was dead all day today. I seriously had to take a two hour nap when I got home from work.

Overall the weekend was a nice one. The best part was the weather. It was in the 70's all weekend and beautiful. I wish it would stay like this but I know it is already supposed to get colder next week. In other news, I was a little stressed because we were to start negotiating a contract in my contracts class tonight. My group (without my say so) decided I would be the negotiator. I was kinda nervous because two of the other people in the opposing group are pretty vocal in class and I was afraid they would tear me to pieces. Overall, it went pretty well. I even impressed myself. I negotiated and got everything we wanted and the other group seemed pretty happy with what they got. Who says I can't negotiate and haggle?

On my mind...

~I have battled all week with the fears and "should we?" of going for the first trimester screening that the doctor wants to send me to due to our families medical history. After many conversations with David, my mom, and Aubry I am okay with it now. I know that it is not going to change anything. We will take on whatever challenges God gives us as a family. I am going to go ahead and go through with it and it's results will only be to prepare us for what may come. Either way everything is going to be okay.

~I am still not showing. I just look like a little chunky girl that people probably look at and think maybe you shouldn't be eating that. I feel like none of my clothes fit already. I cannot wait till the weather warms up, I have a closet full of sun dresses that look so comfy. I plan to pull a few out this weekend when it warms up.

~After several weeks of debating, I have decided that I am not going to return to school till after the baby is born. Several reasons...I haven't been into all this quarter and am barely hanging on. I don't think it's going to get any better the closer the baby gets here. Also, we owe uncle Sam again this year and that money could be put towards paying our taxes. And last, I have wanted to be a stay at home mom my entire life. I actually have that opportunity and I want to enjoy it. Don't worry I will go back to school eventually...I always do.

~Did I mention I cannot wait for the warm weather?

~I scored tickets today to see Sugarland this April for Aubry and I. I am super excited because they are one of my all time favorite Groups. I know all their songs. I've only seen them once before but this will be the first time I see them
headline.

~I am also going to see Gone With The Wind at the Fox Theatre with my mom in April for the 80th anniversary of the premiere. I got my love of the movie from my Mom who is also a GWTW fan and I'm excited that we both get to share this experience together.

~I have no plans for this weekend. I'm not sure I should be happy or sad about that.

~I cannot wait for the warm weather to come and stay. Did I already mention that?

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Mad

I am so mad with my husband at the moment. Monday night at 10pm we are laying in bed and he informs me...

Hubby: "oh yeah, I need you to go buy me a shower gift and a house warming gift by Thursday. We're having a thing for people at work and I need to bring a gift."

Me: "why are you just now telling me and who is it for?"

Hubby: "I forgot and it's for two different ladies at work. One is getting married again and the other moved into a new house."

Me: "Are they registered?"

Hubby: "No, they said your wife would know what to get them."

At that point I was irritated. He could have told me last week so I had enough time to actually go to a real store besides Wal-mart, which is the only thing we have down here. Plus, I am a practical gift giver. I don't like to waste money on buying things that people are never going to use. I am one who faithfully uses the baby or wedding registry when shopping for those kind of gifts. I had no clue who these people were. In fact, he didn't even know the name of the lady getting married. The other part of my frustration came that he told me on Monday and he knew I had a busy next two days ahead of me. So yesterday after work and before I head to class I go and take care of his gifts. I had them wrapped with the card on top ready to be signed and taken to work. After a argument on whether or not I should sign the card (I didn't see why I should have to), he goes on his merry little way with his gifts.

I became mad when I received this call...

Hubby: "hey, so-and-so forgot their gift. Can I give him the gift for the housewarming party and we can go get something else?"

At this point I lost it. I yelled so loud evidently so-and-so could hear me on the other end of the phone and decided to run to Wal-mart and just be late to the little party. I informed him that was his call and if he wanted to give his gift away do not expect me to go buy another. He was on his on. Of course, after that he decided to keep his gift.

Sometimes he just makes me so mad.

Thanks, I needed to vent.

Happy Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday David!!! Today is my hubby’s 27^th birthday. He is old!!! It didn’t occur to him that he is going to be old till a few days ago. We had the realization that we are in our late 20’s now. We can no longer say that we’re in our mid 20’s. I don’t know why but that just makes us feel old.

I have evidently caused a little confusion by my facebook status. Today is David’s actual birthday, but we were both off yesterday so we decided to go ahead and celebrate. Thank you for all the birthday wishes. I did pass them along to him. I had came up with the plan to finally make a trip to the Georgia Aquarium. We are probably the only people in the state of Georgia that had not yet been to the aquarium and for the past four years all I have heard is how wonderful it is. They had a Titanic Exhibit that I have been wanting to see for awhile and it was only here for a few more months. So, I had figured he would enjoy the fish and I would enjoy the Titanic exhibit.

Overall, we were actually kind of disappointed with the aquarium. I thought it would be bigger. Especially since its claim was that it was one of the largest aquariums in the world. I thought the Tennessee Aquarium was much better. I prefer the setup of the Tennessee Aquarium and it seemed to me they had more fish. The Georgia Aquarium claims it has more fish than other aquariums, but it seemed that they had a lot of fish crammed into a few tanks. Plus, several of the exhibits were closed. Two of my personal favorites, the penguins and the otters were closed for remodel. The penguins were on vacation it said. What? How do penguins need a vacation? I didn't get it. Reality it was just closed for remodel, but how can it be closed for remodel when it just opened four years ago? Anyhoo…I was rather disappointed with the aquarium part.

We did decide to pay the extra few bucks to get into the titanic exhibit. The Titanic exhibit was pretty interesting. Evidently not many people were into paying the extra few bucks, so we were the only two in there the majority of our time there. There were hundreds of artifacts that were recovered from the wreckage that have never been on display before. Plus, they had a replica of an iceberg that you could touch that gave you the idea of how cold the water was. It was freezing and the actual water that night was even colder. It is amazing that anyone survived. When you first walk in they give you a boarding pass that has the identity of a actual passenger on the ship. My passenger was a 24 year old girl who was newly married and pregnant with her first child (crazy?). At the end of the exhibit they had a list of all the passengers on board and you could look to see if you survived the wreck. Unfortunately, when we got to the end we looked at the list for a few minutes and didn’t look to see if we survived. We were both second class passengers and it looked as though our chances were 50/50 of survival. I of course having better odds being a woman. The Titanic exhibit completely made up for the rest of the aquarium. I would recommend it if your into those kind of things. They didn’t allow photography in the exhibit so I don’t have any cool pictures.

We ended our night with dinner with our friends the Pope’s. We hadn’t seen them in forever since they spent a month in Arizona. So, we were excited to see them. We had a good time as always and a delicious dinner with yummy dessert. We think Josie might even be okay with David now. When we left she gave him a hug and a kiss. That is a big step for those two…we were starting to think she would never like him. Plus, some friends of ours welcomed a baby girl into the world yesterday afternoon. Congrats Amy , Scott, and big brother Luke! We're so happy for you guys!