Lyndsay's Birthday!

Lyndsay had an extra special birthday this past weekend. I'll try to recap quickly. On Friday, my parents drove up from South Carolina to visit. On Saturday morning when she woke up, she had a special surprise waiting--and by that, I mean sleeping--on her couch.

Thanks to a great deal from Southwest Airlines, our friend Mary Beth flew in from Los Angeles for a weekend visit!
It was great to see Mary Beth--she sent to Samford with us and lived here in Nashville with us for a while when she was in grad school at Vanderbilt. But then she up and went to California as part of a grad school opportunity through Notre Dame. We can't blame her...but we do miss her! So getting to spend some time with her was great.

So then around 9 or 10 AM some more friends began showing up and we helped Lyndsay complete one of her new years resolutions...paint the kitchen!

Lyndsay had picked out a nice yellow color that she wanted to kitchen to be painted, so Mary Beth, Lyndsay, Lindsey, and Elizabeth helped make her dream come true...along with some help from me and my mom. Not sure where Dad was during all this. He somehow managed to dissappear off to Home Depot, and didn't make it back until after we finished all the painting!

About that time, Lyndsay's family began to arrive--first her mom, then Brad and Jackie, and Mitch and Brittany. We went out for lunch at Las Palmas and had a great time.

Then the girls went shopping while my parents and I prepared for the evening birthday party. We cooked dinner, and some friends came over and we all hung out, played games, ate cake, and hung out.

It was a great day! Here are some more pictures from throughout the day.








And Here's some video of us singing Happy Birthday! (You will note the one thing I managed to forget in all of my birthday party preparations...candles! We had to light a big scented candle and stick it next to her cake for her to blow out. Silly, yes,...but it got the job done.)

The Indo Board

So the other day Jacob, one of my coworkers, brought in a new office toy. It's called the Indo board. It's a board that you balance on and rock back and forth. It's pretty cool. And kinda scary. And about the most fun office distraction since the Airzooka.

So today Wes is out on it, and I'm in my office working, and all of a sudden I hear the sound of wood smacking against something, and a loud and mildly sickening thud. I come out of my office to see Wes flat on his back in the middle of the office, and Brandon and one of our new interns Maria trying hard not to laugh....but not trying well enough, as Brandon even laughed so hard he just about started to cry.

Apparently what I missed was Wes totally wiping out on the Indo Board. But...I did manage to get some video of him laying on the floor moaning in pain. Because that's what friends and co-workers do. We don't kick you when you're down...we videotape it.

Sheri's wedding

Us with Sheri and Nathan
Originally uploaded by ScottCrews

This past weekend we went to Birmingham to see Sheri, our friend from Samford, get married. It was great! We've only gotten to meet her new husband Nathan a couple times and we really like him. We're very excited for them!

Samford makes the top 140!

Has anyone seen this yet? I'm sure this has been out for a little while, but I just found it the other day. US News and World Report put out their standing of top schools for the year, and for the first time, Samford was eligible for consideration in the same league as all the big state schools. I'm not sure why, but I think it's pretty cool...

So Samford came in at number 118, tied with several schools...and BEAT University of Arkansas and Kentucky, along with Arizona State.

We also weren't far behind Alabama (91) Auburn and Tennessee (tied for 96). Furman wasn't ranked. (though I'm not sure they're eligible)

Eeking ahead of Samford were Florida State and Univ of South Carolina, tied for 112.

Here's the link:

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/t1natudoc_brief.php

Reading Costs Too Much

I spent $280 bucks on books today! And I'm only in TWO CLASSES this semester. And all the books I bought are USED!!

This is unbelievable. I never paid this much for books at Samford. Maybe I got lucky or something. But I only remember having to pay over 100 dollars for a single class maybe twice. I haven't had a class for under 100 dollars in books here at MTSU YET!

Completely ridiculous. bleh.

Guitar Hero

Tonight we got to hang out with Rachel and Chris, who happen to be in town for the holidays. We had a lot of fun visiting, playing pool, and playing guitar hero. I took a couple of pictures and made a video of Lyndsay dancing to Weezer while rocking out at Guitar Hero. Enjoy.

The other half of Christmas

IMG_0063.JPG
Originally uploaded by ScottCrews

Lyndsay and I had Christmas with my family this past weekend. We went to Pigeon Forge, TN, since it is about halfway between us and them. We exchanged gifts...and I got a sweet new camera! It's a Canon SD850 IS...so far, I really like it.

Here's a picture I snapped as we were leaving the Dixie Stampede. Yes, that's right--we embraced the touristy mania of Pigeon Forge with none other than a trip to the Dixie Stampede. Lyndsay wanted to go to Dollywood, but we talked her out of that one.

The stampede itself was good food and good fun. There was one part where these little kids from the audience were supposed to chase some chickens across the dirt floor. Two white chickens, two black. Well..in the middle of the race, the male white chicken decides he can no longer withhold his lustful passion for the female black chicken, and he jumps on her and pins her to the ground. Everyone just kinda stopped and stared there for a few seconds.Then the white chicken decided he was done, jumped to his feet and ran across the finish line, making the black chicken team the losers. Kinda crazy strategy for a chicken, eh?

But back to the topic of Christmas. It was fun, and we good to see the family and get a lot of rest.

Back to work in the morning. Happy New Year!