Lincoln City, OR

Well now that I'm back and more settled into my daily routine, I have a few moments to catch everyone up our trip out to Lincoln City, Oregon to meet up with our families for a week at the Oregon coast. Both my entire family and Jason's entire family drove out the beach house, while Kati came to pick up Jason and I in Portland where we had flown into. Thankfully, we were able to get a nice quiet evening alone together the night before and stay in a lovely hotel relaxing and catching up on life. Then the following day, the excitement really began.

It had been 7 months since I had seen my family and a year since Jason had seen his. A long time for both of us. Emotions were running high as we had anticipated every hug and moment we'd get to share together. It was hard to even go to bed the first night, cause you just didn't want to say goodnight. On the whole, it was a great week. But it is family and as everyone can testify, we all have our moments. :-)

The majority of the trip was captured with snapshots of our time together and looking back on these pictures I can't help but smile at how much fun we really did have.

This is the view of the ocean from the beach house we had rented. You could hear the waves crashing at night, which I think was one of my favorite parts about the house.The second day of our week together, we all headed out to the Kite Festival. It was a cold windy day, which I guess is perfect for kite flying! When we weren't out exploring the towns, you could find us either curled up with a good book, working on puzzles (of which 3 were completed within just hours!), playing games

or catching a quick nap.I think one of the most entertaining aspects of the trip was the constant whooping Jerry gave to Jason and my dad in horseshoes. What a competitor!! The man has skillz!
The views of the ocean and all the wildlife was breathtaking!Oops, my sisters are definitely wild, full of life and breathtaking, but not exactly what I was referring to!A few of the family were able to see this seal out lounging in the sun on the rocks - so mad I missed this one! But Scott, Kelley, myself and Jason did see a whale! You can only sit just a tip of it in this picture here. And if this isn't classic Jason and I, I don't know what is. He was always trying to get right up to the edge of the rocks and I was doing my best to stay as clear from the edge as possible!

So it looked like this when we finally sat down to enjoy the view.

Another excursion we all took together was to see the Aquarium in Newport. Jason and I were big fans of the otters. In fact it was the first otters Jason had ever seen in person.
See how mesmerized he was by them?
Jerry's impression of a deep sea diver kills me.
Or how about Jason with the shark teeth!

And no trip to the Aquarium would be complete without our very own cameraman.

Jason did his best to blend in with the wildlife.

Oh and who could forget our attempt at a hike!! Ha! We had no idea what we were really getting ourselves into, so quite a few of us were a bit unprepared. We decided instead to head to the beach for a little sun and Frisbee and attempt the hike the next morning, but the weather had other plans.

Ummm..yummy, Jason doing his best Top Gun Beach scene impression. Ok maybe not exactly, but he was tossing the Frisbee around with Scott and Jerry. I think this was one of my favorite moments captured in a photo - because the times I'll remember most are the ones we all sat around the table eating together or playing games.

Here's to a great family trip together - PEACE OUT!

Back from Oregon

Hey y'all! We're back from the Oregon Coast and have done nothing but rest up since we walked in the front door. Our friend Jeff Batson picked us up from the airport at 9am Saturday morning after taking a redeye flight through Chicago and after dumping our stuff in the living room we crawled into bed and slept till 5pm. You'd think we would have been up all night, but after I read half a book and Jason watched the Boston Red Sox & Yankees game last night, we found ourselves back in bed again for another 8 hours of sleep.

I will say, it was really nice to walk through the front door of our own home and crawl into our own bed. When I woke up I had my beautiful man on one side of me and my sweet Banks curled up next to me on the other, it was sheer bliss.

I'm back at work now trying to adjust to the time change and the hot weather - not an easy thing to do. Once I'm able to get some pictures from my family of the trip, I'll post more details of the week on the Coast. Why is it that vacationing can sometimes be so exhausting?

More to come soon....

Firm Picnic

Every year our firm and everyone's families head out to this huge beautiful farm in Kingston Springs for a catered BBQ, fishing, kayaking, paddle boating, ride the Gator and to play on the inflatable toys.

(this is a Gator)

It is SO much fun. I didn't take any pictures, but my friend Karen got one of us girls inside the bouncy inflatable toy. I don't know what its actually called, but we got crazy in there.

(left to right: Brooke, Catherine (summer clerk), myself, Angela & Kacie)

We stayed till it was dark and the fireflies came out. And the BBQ ribs, heavenly day they were good! Jason had planned on coming this year, but there ended up being a huge conference in town, so Mortons asked all their staff to come in that night. I was bummed out he didn't get to come with us, but we still had a great time. Hopefully next year he'll be able to come cause I know he would love the kayaking, gator rides and bouncy toys!!

One Day To Go!!

This morning my friend Leslie and I had a bonding moment, when we both discovered how insanely OCD we can be when preparing for a trip. I shared with her my 5 page meal and activity itinerary, 3 page packing list and 4 day to do list before I leave. She asked if once I printed it all out, if she could pet it! LOL! Only cause she understands my obsessiveness with lists did I expose this vulnerable side of me. Jason laughs every time he sees my packing list all checked off next to my luggage the night before we head out of town. And not only do I use that list to pack, including a list of all outfits written out down to the color of my undies, but I also pack the list so that when I leave from vacation I'm sure I haven't forgotten anything. I mean, how many of us have actually left our shampoo & conditioner in a guest shower before?? I hate that! Or grab an outfit and leave a very vital piece at home completely ruining the outfit and thereby having to commit a greater faux pas by having to wear the same outfit twice! So not cool.


But I believe I'm pretty set to go. All I got to do is pack the bags and count down the hours till I'm on that plane!!! Our laundry is washed, the bathrooms cleaned, the snacks bought, the ride to the airport arranged, the boss' taken care of, my beach books picked out, batteries charged, the pedicure done, the legs shaved, the travel packet and driving directions set out....argh! The anticipation is killing me!!!


Oh and this is my new do and sunglasses for the summer :-)

I Smell Books

I started a new blog dedicated only to the books I'm currently reading and the reviews I give them....cause that's how I roll.

http://www.ismellbooks.blogspot.com/

Another lesson in southern living....

So I've learned about yet another very Southern tradition known as the "Wedding Portrait". Or is it more than just a southern thing? Have any of you heard of this? Apparently, the VERY traditional thing to do here is 2-3 months before your actual wedding to have a photo session with your photographer in your wedding gown, just the bride alone and then take those portrait pictures and send them out with your wedding announcements! AND also use that photo in your announcement in the local paper. Just the bride in her dress, no groom in the photo at all. WEIRD. PLUS, that portrait of the bride is displayed at the reception. Now I know of many engagement photos that are used in invitations and displayed at receptions, but nothing this formal of just the bride. It all seems very strange to me. And yes, this type of thing still regularly occurs here in the South, because I learned of all this from my friend Brooke who is attending her friend's "bridal portrait" session on Thursday.

What do you all think of this? Have you heard of it before? Is it just a southern thing?? Can you imagine paying to get your hair and makeup done TWICE!?

I need your thoughts people.

So You Think You Can Dance - Season 4!

So another season of So You Think You Can Dance has begun!! This has to be my absolute favorite show EVER! The choreography is breathtaking and I just love everything about this show.

The best dances of the season so far:

"Beautiful" by Chelsie & Mark, choreographed by Mia Michaels


"A New Day Has Come" by Twitch & Kherington


My favorites for the season are:

Twitch

Chelsie H

Mark

Kherington

Joshua

HUGS All Around!

Yesterday our firm celebrated 20 years of community service through our corporate philanthropy program called HUGS. It stands for Hope Understanding Giving Support. We often do fundraisers for various charities like Race for the Cure, Breast Cancer Awareness, Homeless shelters ect.... I'm glad our firm provides opportunities where we can get involved in our community.

Anyway, in celebration of the 20 years we had a big ol party and had to wear these matching and gigantic white tshirts, so I thought I'd include a couple pictures that had been taken.

Kacie & Brooke totally cheesin it up. We do have guys in our office, but mostly the women showed up. You can see me there in the front on the far right sportin the new short do and Brooke is next to me behind the guy in the suit. Kacie is on the other side of the guy and in front of her is Mary our Office Manager.

Show Me The Money!!

That's what I said to my Office Manager when I met with her for my yearly review this morning. She smiled and told me I was getting a raise - yippeee!!! I asked her if my guys were pleased with my performance and she said very much so.

It comes at the perfect time, cause summer is pretty slow at Mortons and I really don't want my hunny to have to get another job. So hopefully this should give us the boost we've been needing lately. I snuck into an empty board room to call Jason and give him the news. We're both pretty stinkin excited.

Later my attorney Paul came out to ask if I had been told or not and I said yes, that I was very happy and excited. He said he had actually tried pulling for more, awww.... I freakin love my job. During a time when the economy hasn't been doing well and is affecting many people, I feel very blessed and am so grateful that God has continued to take care of us.

Jason's Sleep Adventures

Around 6am Tuesday morning I wake out of a dead sleep to Jason's singing. No actual words were coming out, he was just "ahhing" out some notes, then he'd drop down into a hum. So I shushed him and he responds with "what?" as if he's all hurt I've shushed him. So I tell him, "honey your singing" - so he stops and falls back asleep.

A couple hours later my alarm goes off to get ready for work. I'm getting dressed and start to giggle remembering his sleep-singing from earlier in the morning. He sorta comes to and we had this conversation:

Jason: "whatchya doin?"

me: "sorry honey to wake you. Do you remember singing this morning?"

Jason: "I was on a slave ship."

me: "are you telling me you were black in another life?"

Jason: "that's why I like reggae"

me: "then I will call you Jamal"

Jason: "ok"

Later last night on the way home from Jason's softball game I brought up the singing again. He was like - "what are you talking about?" ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Not only did he not remember singing, but he was also sleep-talking through our ENTIRE conversation that morning!! I'm telling y'all, he's a trip when he sleeps. You never know what to expect from him. When I recounted the entire conversation to him on the way home, I was afraid he was going to drive the car off the side of the road from laughing so hard. He was wheezing and choking because he was so floored that he said all of that.

Unbelievable.

Daring Bakers

I LOVE to bake. My family and friends all know this about me. I have a teensy-weensy obsession with yummy food. It makes me happy and when eating something especially delicious I tend to wiggle back and forth in my seat. Jason thinks I'm weird for this, but what can I say, its one of my quirks. Even last night I sat there wiggling away as I was enjoying my boiled and buttered artichoke - yum!!

Recently I decided to join up with a group of bloggers called The Daring Bakers. It's basically like a club of more than 1000 members that love to bake. Then at the beginning of each month, a couple of the members come up with a challenge for everyone to do for that month. At the end of the month on a given due date we all post our results of how our challenge turned out. There are even rules we have to follow in order to maintain our membership.

It's actually very cool and I visited a ton of websites to see how their May Challenge of the Opera Cake came out and it was fascinating to see all the different results. So I was hooked. I love to bake anyway, so this sounded like a lot of fun and I'm completely excited about it.

(this photo taken from: A Beautiful Mosaic)

(this photo taken from: Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats)

(this photo taken from: anm8rchick)

(this photo taken from Fud or Something Like It

(this photo taken from: Taste and Tell)

I'm telling you all this because once a month you will see my posted results from the challenge and you might wonder what the heck its all about. Now you know :-)

My first assignment comes in July, so really you won't see anything from me till the end of that month, but I still wanted to fill you all in on my new venture!!!

My Peeps

(Angela, Me, Melissa, Brooke & Kacie)

I happen to love where I work. Maybe not necessarily what I do particularly, but I take pride in doing my job well. I love having a 9-5 job where when the day is through, I leave it all behind me and enjoy my evenings and weekends. I LOVE that my boss' NEVER call my cell phone nor do they desire to even have my cell phone number. I love that I have a great working and sincere relationship with all three of my attorneys. They may drive me a little batty sometimes, or even a lot of times, but they are respectful, genuine, honest and appreciative - and I'm so grateful that God has placed me here. In addition to the great guys I work for, I also have some awesome co-workers. I've developed numerous friends from work that I hang out with on a regular basis and we really have a great time together.

(Myself & Angela)

This last Monday evening a group of us got together for dinner at Cabana to wish Melissa well as she and her fiance Scott move to North Carolina. We sat outside in the perfect 80 degree evening weather sipping drinks, enjoying some delish food and having some great conversation.

(David & Scott)

(Melissa & Kacie)

Even while we were there, Jay Demarcus from Rascal Flatts walked in with his wife and sat behind us for dinner. Only in Nashville.

(Me, Angela, Melissa & Kacie)

Simply The Best

Jason had the night off from work yesterday, so I had asked if we could plan on having a quiet night at home. In order to recharge my batteries, I have to have down-time and the last week has been draining me with a lot of running around.

So I get home from work and to my surprise there's a lemon cake and a card sitting on the dining room table. I was wondering what we were celebrating, but was excited all the same! Jason looks at me and says, "Happy 30th Birthday!" Huh? He explains since he was never able to bake me a cake cause I was so sick over my birthday, that he owed me a cake. How cute is that??!!! Lemon cake is my favorite, and believe me I know that I've been blessed to have married a man that can bake!! The card was really thick too, so I ask if he wanted me to wait and he said, no to open it right then.

Inside the card, there was a printout description of the Columbine Bed & Breakfast in Louisville, Kentucky. Sweet! The weekend of my birthday Jason had asked for work off to surprise me with a weekend away, but because I was sick we were unable to go. So he had rescheduled another weekend away for us! The description of the room and bath sound wonderful - sleigh bed, garden view, marble fireplace, claw foot tub - I cant' wait!

As I turned to the next page, there were printouts of tickets from Ticketmaster. I wasn't quite sure what I was looking at, so I went to the next page and saw this:

Whoohooo!!!! 28th row to see Kenny Chesney, Keith Urban, Gary Allan & LeeAnn Rimes!!!!!!!! This will be the most freakin awesome concert ever!!! The concert is being held at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on September 13th, which means we're going to stay at the B&B through the weekend and make the drive up to the concert on Saturday. I was so excited that I started jumping up and down screaming!! A weekend away with my man at a beautiful b&b, an awesome concert that will be sure to last for hours...it really doesn't get better than this!!

I love you sweetie and am so grateful for you, you really are simply the best ;-)

Oh I totally dig this

I checked out the link on Rachel's site to goodreads.com and now I'm in love.

To be able to list all the books out that I've read, want to read, am currently reading and even create my own lists is an oh-so beautiful thing. I used to keep a list in my Outlook at work, but this is SO much better. Plus I can read others reviews, descriptions and see the book covers.

You can check out my to-read list by clicking here. Then I added the widget on the right side of my blog with my summer reading list. It even automatically updates when I update my page in goodreads.com. Did I mention yet that I'm in love with this thing???!!!

I SO recommend this site. Love it, love it, love it. I'm sure this old news to many of you who've already heard of this site, but where have I been??!!

If you become a member yourself add me as your friend by looking up my name - Kimberly Keith!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today my mom turns 39 ;-)

Love you Mom! Wish I was home to celebrate with you!!