Weekend with Friends

this weekend we went up to birmingham to get together with david's three best friends from childhood/growing up. walt and his wife april live in birmingham, jordan lloyd and his wife ellen live in jackson, tn, jordan christie and his new fiance rebekah live in pensacola and of course david and i live in atlanta.

it is so much fun when we are all together and it doesn't happen enough. i have been extremely blessed in my marital situation. i have in-laws that i love and absolutely adore. and also, david's best friends have wives (and future wife) that are absolutely amazing. when the four of the boys are together it is seriously hard to remember that they aren't brothers. anyway, it doesn't happen enough - them being together, that is. and we have all become one big family. i love it.


this time we got together to celebrate two glorious events: jordan and rebekah's engagement and the birth of walt and april's baby boy, charlie - the first of the next generation.

here are some of the highlights:

Missing My Blond Hair

hope everyone had a great easter! we sure did. david was even a small part of the redonkulus good friday service at buckhead church where we go...they are supposed to have a video up on their blog this week, so i will be updating on that later...

but in the mean time, i miss my blonde hair. mostly because brown hair is a big ole spotlight on what's wrong with your face. but i really like the "wow, you're eyes are so blue" comment. also, i am just trying to keep from chopping it all back off and i have to have change some other way. anyway, let's let you vote...brown or blonde? (and sorry, since my computer crashed the mustache picture is the only brunette one i have access to via facebook).

The Romanov They Hid

so, right now i'm reading this book:

it's a 1,000 page history of the romanov rule of russia that i got for 6 bucks at a used bookstore in auburn (oh, how i miss you gnu's room). anyway, whenever i'm reading about any historical figure that i am unfamiliar with i like to wikipedia/google image search them to see portraits and whatnot. i just like to have an image.

so yesterday i'm reading about sofia - half sister to peter the great who tore down the constraints of traditional womanhood to force herself into politics as regent. she was dominating and brilliant. and in an age where most tsar's daughters were left to live a life of virginity (few western european princes would have them, and they were considered above even the noblest russian) and obscurity, she took one of the most powerful men in russia as her lover. so as i'm searching her, i expect to see an attractive but powerful woman (much like catherine the great or elizabeth I). but this is the picture that comes up:

"surely this can't be right!" i think to myself. after all, i just took a stab at the russian patronym of alekseyevna that would set her apart (i mean, why even read if you can't learn cool things like russian patronyms) but i skimmed the article and it was the same woman. so i continue reading my book and the next paragraph says this: "...her appearance evidently bordered upon the grotesque. in the memorable words of one of her contemporaries, she had 'a shapeless body. monstrously fat, a head as big as a bushel measure, [and] hair growing on her face'."

all that to say, i never would have known that there was a russian grand duchess who looked like a man, yet was able to still get someone - an attractive man, nonetheless - to sleep with her (and of course she did lots of important things, too) but now i do.

so take a look. it's in a book...reading rainbow...

Mad Men

so since we don't have cable, we watch all tv shows either on hulu.com or on dvd. the latest gem we have become obsessed with is mad men (and yes, another side effect of not having cable is being about a year behind). we just finished season 1 and it was ridiculous. i think revolutionary road stole a page from amc on this one. anyway, if you are bored this summer while everything is in re-runs (on the nights "so you think you can dance" isn't on, of course) you should netflix it and get addicted too. that's all...

(you would think that since i can't blog as often these days, i would have more to write about. apparently not.)