Paperback Swap

as i've been going through stuff, packing up for our new house (not finalized yet, i hope i don't jinx it) i've been trying to get rid of things. because i am a terrible packrat. one thing i have lots of trouble with is getting rid of books. i read the same ones over and over, but there are some i know i wont read again, but it hold on to them. usually because i paid full price for them and it seems a waste to let 15 bucks go to dump or goodwill. but then, i discovered...

www.paperbackswap.com

you've probably heard about it. or something like it. you list books you are willing to send to other people, and for each one you send, you get a credit to request a book from another member. i put 50 books up yesterday, and already got requests for six! so that, and the two credits you get for signing up, means 8 new books for the price of shipping off the old ones i dont want. i'm really excited about it.

and i know some of you are big readers like me and probably have a hoard of books you don't really want but don't want to get rid of.

funny, as i'm writing this i'm watching labyrinth and it's the scary part with the old ladies with all the stuff on their backs, trying to get her to keep everything. hahaha, so relevant. if only a goblin king would come and take me away. as long as it was david bowie. or jemaine dressed as david bowie.

Spur of the moment Atlanta Trip: day two

today was my first day off in a long time where i didn't have to go anywhere or do anything. so i didn't even leave the house. at all. i filled all of the boxes we brought home with just books! i was hoping we had enough boxes for all our stuff. apparently not.

tomorrow travis is going to smithville to do some massages, and i am going to stay home and get all the work done that i've been putting off since we've been doing house stuff every time we have a day off. hopefully i won't just procrastinate all day.

here are pictures from our atlanta trip. baby panda!!!

i realized i have been to so many zoos this year. columbus, st. louis, gatlinburg aquarium, memphis, nashville at least 4 times, and now atlanta. that makes nine! i think i'm going to say that i'm tired of the zoo right now. no more. until the new year. haha. but the atlanta zoo was really fun!


thomas left for his training for the day around 8 so we had the whole fancy room to ourselves. we took a shower in the nice marble glass walled shower and i got to watch vh1 (my favorite guilty pleasure) while travis straightened my hair.


walked to the car and finished up those cookies we bought at ikea. we were worried about the car. we parked it in an outside lot because i couldn't bear to pay 20 dollars for parking in a garage. but the car was fine.


so it was very hard to decide between the zoo and the aquarium. i had been twice, pretty recently, and hadn't been to the zoo since 2005. but the aquarium is awesome! but the zoo was much cheaper, especially after the unexpected half off we got with my nashville zoo membership. if i had remembered they had a BABY PANDA it would have been the zoo no contest. because even though i am panda obsessed, i hadn't seen a baby yet.

if you want my expert advice, the best time to go to the zoo is right after they open. i mean it. if you arent going to get there until the afternoon, you might as well not even bother.

first we went into their budgie exhibit. this seems to be a new zoo trend. they just opened one in memphis, but it was closed when we got there. this was was excellent! much more fun than feeding lorikeets. i don't know why, it just was. as you can see, i was thrilled.

that one was one of the babies, born during the summer. the millet sticks they give you seem really small for a dollar. but they take forever to eat. i bet i had birds on me for 20 minutes straight!



then as he finished eating all the seeds, little birdie turned around and pooped on my palm. lovely. hahah. still fun.


the lion was so close to the glass, roaring at us! so awesome! weirdly the same thing happened last time i was there, four years ago. still awesome.



their gorilla exhibit was really big and nice. they had so many babies too! so cute and playful and strangely human.



can you see the baby orangutan? he was so cute. the big female was allegedly using a computer in that tree, and the baby just wouldn't leave her alone. he keep hanging on her arms and tumbling down the hill. he was much more entertaining than the keeper talk. there were a bunch of kids in front of us (i was in a good mood, i kept telling kids to get in front of me so they could see) and they were asking funny questions like "do they all sleep in ONE bed?' and "why is their hair red?". for some reason school groups don't annoy me as much as kids with their parents.


so then we went to the panda house! i was cooing over the mama panda, so cute and fuzzy and close to the glass, when i looked over and saw.....

baby panda!!! i have never seen anything cuter. i was beside myself.

he climbed up to the top of the tree thing! so cute.

this poor lady. her video is going to be a lot of me squeeing and saying "omg travis look!" and my loud shutter clicking. haha. i never even got a great picture. i finally tore myself away when i heard a woman telling the school kids with her to keep moving so other people could see.




i love kangaroos. and i always think its going to be exciting to see them at the zoo. but they are always sleeping and sad looking. look at their weird feet!


cutest pig i have ever seen! i can't remember what they are called, but i think they are from new zealand. and it looked like a pig/border collie! there was a cute brown spotty one too.


for some reason sheep wearing collars are really cute to me. maybe because they wear collars in babe.



i held back in the gift shop and only got a little panda cup, and a magnet with the baby panda on it. i wanted one of those tiny glass animals. the ant eater or the african wild dog.


then i forced travis to drive us 10 miles out of town to go to the dwarf house! the original chickfila! i guess it's just fun because it is like an old diner, and they have more stuff than a regular chickfila. and a big dwarf mural. and you get your chicken sandwich on a plate, not in a bag.



travis claimed he was going to get a "hot brown" which sounds so gross. but decided not too because "i don't know what they mean by cream sauce." hahah, what? you can kind of see the dwarf mural behind travis. the dwarves walked back and fourth.

we went back to the hotel to sit out the rush hour traffic and see thomas again before we left (i can't believe i didn't take even one picture of him). we walked to one of the overpasses near the hotel. there was a project in atlanta to put georgia folk out on overpasses. there was some really cool stuff!

he is so obsessed with beards right now! haha.

Puppy dreams...

today i'm torturing myself by looking at the puppies available from the place i want to get my puppy! i wish i could get her now!!! look at these babies!









i want one!!

tomorrow we will know if our loan got approved. it most likely will but travis and i are still really nervous.

another stamp i made recently. it's ok. next up, a self portrait, and a harry potter stamp. i haven't decided what to do yet.

travis' beard is thicker than i've ever seen it. here it is on day 3:

and then here is is on day 6:

he is so cute. even if the beard is weird.

Spur of the moment Atlanta Trip: day one

we are now in atlanta is thomas' super swanky hotel room. down pillows! a big marble shower, and a nicer kitchen than any of my friends have in their house. it's pretty awesome. here are a few pictures from our day...

it was a beautiful drive down. interstate 24 from nashville to atlanta is really nice. especially in the fall. all the mountains and nice foliage. i've gotten so good at riding in the car since i had that pageant job. i guess if i can stand riding in the car for 18 hours, 4 is nothing.

we stopped at this nice rest stop on an island in the middle of nickajack lake. i don't know why we don't stop there every time! so nice!

look at travis' beard! someone as me how it was to kiss it. actually, i have no idea. i haven't kissed him in four days!

then we got to ikea! travis had never been before. somehow, even though i've been there multiple times. we were getting ideas for when we decorate our new house.



yum! ikea lunch! travis got meatballs, and ligonberry drink. i love that garlic bread. and only 50 cents! yum yum yum.

we were there for about 3 hours. looked at a million things, made tons of notes. bought a few little things. a tray. a grater. some magazine files.

then we went to the atlanta whole foods. hahah. of course. can't keep away. it was just like the nashville one. except there was a wine section.

we met thomas and went to the mellow mushroom for dinner. so good. as you can see i'm eating very healthy today. hahah. i don't know why i didn't take any pictures of thomas. ill show you his hotel room tomorrow. it's so fancy i can't believe it!

the view. we are on the twelfth floor.

now it's time for bed. look at that cute panda i got at ikea!

we are going to the zoo or the aquarium tomorrow. i can't decided which.....

Halloween!

i made this cake. it didn't turn out as cute as i envisioned. and then no one ate it! so now i have this giant cake sitting around tempting me.


look at how big scurvy is now! what a sweet baby. i was trying to take a picture of her barking, but she jumps when she does it. so cute.



working on caramel apples. these turned out so adorable, but then no one ate them. as usual we over prepared. haha.



i drew it. he carved it.


thomas' idea was failed from the beginning. obviously not going to hold up. ..

hahahaha. total fail!

did i mention kyle is back from his internship in new york city? I am so glad! he was a time traveler? marissa was batgirl. so cute. brittany came as sweeney todd. definitely the best costume. 

for some reason thomas has wanted to be a "fat cat" for the last few years. this year his wish finally came true. i went to dillards with him to find a "flashy classy" tie/pocket square combo. hahah. he wanted shiney paisley. 

here are some of the other costumes.

marc was george washington. perfect.

i was a fox. it wasn't as cute as i had hoped. i dyed a sweater and leggings and a tail i made of felt, and made the ears. but no one could tell what i was. wah. also, i can't seem to make a normal face. 

we walked to the piggly wiggly to pick up sauerkraut. which smells terrible by the way. 

crystal was "our kitty of gaudalupe" hahah. whatever that is.
dana was a panda bear! cute.
when we got back to the house jeremy was there. his friend bought this mask for him and it was hilariously too small. we couldn't stop laughing at it! why do they make a kids mask of that???

next it was time for donut tree! i saw it in some magazine and for some reason i HAD to try it! so you hang up donuts and then eat them as fast as you can without using your hands. so fun!!! i was surprisingly good at it. but austin won. his fell on the floor but he bent down and ate it anyway!!

but as you can see i'm a good loser. haha. austin won a portrait of crystal.

for dinner we roasted hot dogs on the fire outside, had corn with black eyed pea eyes, and sweet potatoes. so delicious. and dana brought vegi mummy dogs. brittany made home made caramel corn! it was so good!

i tried to get a dance party going by putting in my personal michael jackson mix. dana got down with me, put everyone else pretty much moved into the room and then just watched. haha. i don't know why, it's not like i'm a good dancer and am intimidating. then thriller came on...

jennifer tried to teach us the dance. i like how this picture makes it look like we all know it.

then we left to go to nettie's party.

our hosts. marge and fat homer simpson. so perfect.
ryan was aldo from inglorious basterds. kevin was max. i wish i had gotten a full picture.

bethany came as elaine from sienfeld. haha. her husband john was kramer, but i never got a picture. his outfit was perfect!

i drove us back to crystal's and we watched casper, and then when to bed. travis and i slept in the twin bunk bed. soooo uncomfortable! 

in the morning we went to the biscuit house, of course. what a good halloween.