Tough times call for creative measures...

In tough economic times, you better brush up on your creativity. The market is flooded with good people who are looking for jobs, so landing something new takes a tough gut, determination and a little creativity. My brother-in-law works in TV as a sports guy, and he's not so sure just how much longer his job will last. To help him rise to the top of the candidate list, he is marketing himself in a different light. His son Coen - my favorite, chubby-cheeked nephew! - helped him out. Let us know if you have any thoughts or suggestions. Any and all are greatly appreciated!

Peace and quiet.

I'm sitting on my couch this morning, calling to make all those fun appointments that you need to have once or twice a year. You know. The eye doctor. The dentist. The gyn.

Anyway, I had a break during my phone calls, and it dawned on me how super quiet it is here. Brady has been sick and home with me the last few weeks, and I didn't realize how talkative he's gotten lately. He's also in to pushing buttons that result in an action, so our TV and his many noisemaking toys are constantly sounding off in an erratic fashion. So now, as I sit and enjoy the quiet, I'm dreaming of a setting something like this beautiful at Lake Tahoe:

More than a month has passed since my last entry...

I've been silent. It's a rarity, I know, but things have been pretty busy!

In the last month, I've gone through a lot. I've also been reminded of a few incredibly valuable life lessons.

Don't let your work define who you are.

• Don't take anything or anyone forgranted.
• You can't ever have too many good friends.
• Love your family - they'll always be there for you.
• Enjoy life to the fullest.
• No matter how bad you have it, there's someone out there who has it worse. Help put a smile back on their face.

It's amazing how things happen in life. While certain life milestones are incredibly hard to understand as they happen, the end result can be pretty sweet. Especially for those who enjoyed my month-long silence.

Look for more posts soon!

Am I really THAT busy?

I just realized today how many things have gone on since my last post in late November, and yet I've managed to be silent for a month. Guess I've really been THAT busy (welcome to life with a 10-month-old)! The good news is that I have some vacation time during these next few weeks, so I'll have plenty of time to post about things going on in Andersonville. Stay tuned!!

A fabulous weekend!

Justin and I have always loved our weekends. They are our time to spend together. But, when Brady was born, they took on a new meaning. This weekend was probably one of the most fun we've had.

Saturday morning, we had an appointment for Brady to participate in a study being conducted by Duke University's psychology department. They're trying to understand better how babies learn to process language. When we arrived, they explained in more detail how the study works. They are sitting babies at 3, 6 and 9 months of age in front of a TV screen that plays an image for them to watch (sitting on mommy or daddies lap, that is). On the left- and right-hand side of the TV, behind curtains, there are speakers. In alternating patterns, they played words in English and Japanese to see how/if the baby reacted to the different sounds (the parent puts on head phones and listen to other music, so they don't subconciously encourage the child to listen to another noise). The researcher watched Brady through a camera in another room and filmed him, observing carefully his movements. Brady was interested for about 5 minutes of the 10-minute test. Then he was interested in everything else! It was pretty funny to watch him. Maybe even funnier was watching Justin try to keep a straight face! Anyway, we successfully finished and Brady got a certificate, a picture of us in the lab and a crisp $5 bill. That's going in the college fund!

When we were done, it was off to watch the Florida-South Carolina football game. This game is always bittersweet. Yes, Urban Meyer has proven himself, and we really do love him now. But, he'll never be Steve Spurrier. The 'ol ball coach's return to the Swamp is always bittersweet. However, we're OK with it when it is a 56-6 BLOWOUT! I won't harp on the details, but I feel like we're on our way to Miami. It's hard to look past our next few games... maybe not the Citadel, but for sure Florida State and then Bama in the SEC Championship... but it just feels like it is our season! OK, no jinx.

Next! On Sunday, we were off to the NC Zoo in Asheboro! It was Brady's first trip to a zoo - and mine! How much fun. We had a blast! While we only made it to the North America side of the zoo (we'll go back for the Africa visit soon!), we saw bears, snakes, spiders, otters, gators, ocelots, cougars, turtles and more! While we couldn't get pictures, Brady's favorite exhibit was the spotted skunk. He was laughing up a storm at the little guy, who was running around like a madman in his man-made environment. It was awesome! Brady stayed awake during our entire visit, and when he hit his carseat, it took him all of 15 minutes before he fell asleep.

Check out our pics!

One amazing weekend!

Chomp, chomp, chomp...

Yes, the Gators play South Carolina this weekend. We're stoked. Spurrier's homecoming games are always fun. And, we're having an awesome year, so hopefully a big win will make it all the more fun. In fact, I found this image and it made me laugh! Oh how I miss poor Spurrier and his visor tosses.

But, it isn't these chompers consuming my thoughts today. Nope, it's Brady's pearly whites. I just can't get over his emerging grill! He's got six teeth poking through, and it seems like there may be another tooth or two on their way through the gums soon. Can't believe he's not even nine months old and his darn mouth is full of teeth!

And, with teeth come fun food! Brady's favorite snack is goldfish! Quite honestly, I forgot they even existed, but the daycare ladies are fabulous! Now, Brady starts kicking and talking to us the minute he sees the bag. And, he's using his teeth to chomp them up. It's so cute! You can totally hear them crunching. It's quite reassuring since we found out the ugly way that he wasn't actually chewing the cheerios. I'll let you figure out the rest.

Thanking MY engineer!

My amazing husband Justin just got his MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's top-ranked Kenan-Flagler Business School, but he'll always be a nerd... er... engineer at heart. I love it, as he and most of his engineering buddies have some pretty endearing qualities.

One of my favorite examples of this came as we were putting our house in Dallas on the market just before moving to North Carolina. The previous owner had done a pretty shotty wiring job on our patio lighting, and long story short, it ended up shorting out some of our other lighting. Rather than hire an electrician, Justin and one of his electrical engineering buddies decided it would be a better idea to do it themselves. Well, I quickly learned that electrical engineers are not electricians. After a few wiring diagrams (bad sign #1) and more lighting shorts (bad sign #2), I had enough legitimate gripes that we hired an electrician (who I was able to joke with about the situation!).

Anyway, maybe it is things like this that make me so fond of TI's new "Thank an engineer" campaign (see www.ti.com/thankanengineer). TI basically created a campaign that ponders what life would be like without engineers, who are behind the technologies we all use on a daily basis without thinking twice. From washing machines to cell phones to calculators, engineers at companies like TI are making things better, faster, smaller, cheaper.

Take a look at what life might be like if it weren't for engineers. And, if you have ideas for other videos, enter them in the TI contest. You can win a Flip video camera!