Happy Spring!

Ok, so I know the official start of spring is next weekend, but it sure felt great this weekend, so I say Happy Spring! I am so glad the weather has been so nice and I hope it stays for good this time. Trey and I took advantage of the beautiful weather this weekend and had a cookout with some news friends we made from our church retreat on Saturday.

Today we decided to spend some time outside making our front yard look better. We had some bushes that the builder planted when we moved in, but they just never seemed to grow. We thought it would be nice to add some more color to already beautiful pinkish purplish bushes (who knows what they are ? :) ha- and bought some pansies. I love how it turned out! It's so nice to have color and I can't wait for our knockout rose bushes to start blooming. Won't be long now...

Getting started...

Finished product (I almost wish we'd bought more)...

Abuela's 80th and Babysitting Little Kevin

I have been very fortunate to have all my grandparents around to watch me and my brothers grow up. I know I may be biased but they are the best grandparents in the world!

Last week my abuela (means grandmother in Spanish) celebrated her 80th. All of my other grandparents had a big bash for their 80th birthdays but abuela wanted something low key. So we all headed to a family favorite- Olive Garden. It was mmm mmm good and little Kevin (or should I say little Jon- looks just like him when he was a baby) stole the show in the restaurant. He kept turning around and flirting with this little girl at the table next to us. He's going to give those ladies quite a time batting his pretty blue eyes at them (as you can see more of in the pictures from last night when I helped Lisa out by watching him so she could go to a birthday dinner for her brother).

Little Jon

Good-bye Honda Accord! Hello New"er" Honda Accord!

Yep, we finally bit the bullet after much debate and back and forth. Trey decided to put my 1997 Honda Accord on Craigslist and Autotrader 2 weekends ago just to see if anyone would make an offer. We listed it at $3800 and by the next morning Trey's phone was blowing up with offers. We couldn't believe it! We hadn't even found a car for me yet so I was getting worried that we'd sell mine before we found one with all the features I was looking for. By mid- week we realized it was going to sell and my brother gave me insight that we had listed it too low. Hondas are well made cars and I guess mine had low miles for how many years I'd been driving it so we upped the price $500.00. And- people kept calling! We finally agreed to meet with a very persistent mother buying for her daughter on Thursday night after work...

First of all, who the heck goes to buy a car in the dark, in a parking lot with 43 hundred dollar bills in her pocket... and for that matter what crazy fools go to sell their car in the dark like that. I told Trey I left my rings at home just in case we were mugged. haha It was bizarre to say the least.

But, thankfully we met her in the well-lit parking lot of Rooms to Go by Perimeter Mall. She wasn't a psycho and she was ready to buy on the spot. I convinced us all to go to Panera down the street where we made our trade. It was so funny seeing her lay out the hundreds on the table. I politely excused myself to the bathroom to check to see the Ben Franklin symbol in the corner- just to be sure ;) ha.

We walked away with $4300, 1/4 of the original purchase price 14 years earlier of my beloved Honda Accord with 146,000 miles- my first and only car to that point. As much as I was ready for a new car, I have to say it was a sad moment seeing that girl strip my tag and put hers on. I almost didn't want to drive away.

The next day Trey got a ride to work with our neighbor and friend Brian and I took his car to work. I joked to Trey that if we didn't find a car that weekend he'd be walking to work. ha But as luck has it I picked him up from work that day and we went looking for a newer Honda Accord and found one with all the features I wanted that night. The deal we made was to buy another Accord for now and then when we have kids I get to pick the SUV and Trey will take the Accord for awhile... good compromise :)

Anyway, we ended up at Gwinnett Honda around 8 pm Friday night and with Trey playing bad cop, me good cop we found my car! It's a 2008 Honda Accord EX-L with navigation and I love it already. It has so much more pick up than my last car with a V-6 engine and it's been fun to drive around. I couldn't believe what a deal we got with low miles and everything. The dealership stayed open til 11:30 pm to push the deal through and the next day I went to pick up my new car!

Here are some pics of the upgrades...

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Snow day!

It felt like I was a little kid dreaming for a snow day so that I could stay home from school. This time it was staying home from work and it felt great when Trey and I looked out our windows last night around 8:30 and noticed the ground was already covered! We woke up this morning and it was a winter wonderland outside. It was so pretty and so deep!

We had so much fun playing in the snow and hanging out with our neighbor at the horse barn he works at off Paces Ferry. Definitely wouldn't recommend driving around in this weather. We only made it because he had snow chains on his jeep (and even then it was a little scary). Looking forward to another day off tomorrow! Our office already posted the cancellation. Yay! :)

Trey and Jay

We Love NY!

Trey and I spent last weekend in NYC and had the BEST TIME EVER! We stayed the first night with my good friend Anne Cary and her boyfriend Steve who live in the Upper West Side. They have such a cute apartment and while Trey and I love our new house we kept saying how much fun it would be to live the true city life like them. They live in what feels like the heart of everything with fun shops and restaurants within walking distance and of course the subway is close by.

We checked into the Doubletree Suites in Times Square on Friday morning and stayed there the rest of the trip. It was such a prime location and conveniently located literally next door to the broadway show we bought tickets to- West Side Story (which was fabulous)!

We spent the weekend milling around the city, ate at yummy NY restaurants, experienced the NY night life scene, went ice skating in Bryant Park and my favorite past time- shopping!!! Though I must say I was a good girl and managed to get through the entire weekend only buying 2 purses (one for my mom) and a hat ;)

It was so wonderful being in the city at Christmastime, seeing all the displays, fancy lights, the Rockefeller Tree and of course spending time with Anne and Steve. I miss AC so much and it's always a blast when we get together.

Too bad my brother Ryan couldn't make it down from Albany like we planned. His dog Buster got sick but thankfully we found out it's not cancer! :)

Trey and I can't wait to go back to NY and hope to make this a tradition. It was the perfect getaway.

On top of the Empire State Building

In front of my favorite store in the world (biggest Macy's EVER)

It's unbelievable to stand at Ground Zero and see the progress (or destruction) that 9/11 caused. It's going to take forever to rebuild.

New York Stock Exchange

Battery Park overlooking the Statue of Liberty (we'll make it out there our next trip)

See what I mean? Look how close Doubletree Suites is to West Side Story at the Palace Theatre. Can't get much closer.

Times Square was crowded at all times of the day- it's was unbelievable how many people were in the city this weekend.

Rockefeller Center

Saturday morning in Times Square- so crowded!

Santa pub crawlers making their way through Central Park

Central Park

Trey insisted that we get this shot. How appropriate with the limo behind him. One day Trey... one day... ;)

Ice Skating in Bryant Park

View of Times Square from our hotel room

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

I love this time of year more than any other! It all starts around mid- November for my family because we all seem to have birthdays around each other. My nephew Alex turned 1 on Nov. 16, my brother Ryan turned 30 on November 20th and I turned 27 on the 23rd. It's a great way to start the holiday season with birthday parties, Thanksgiving, tree lighting at Lenox, getting out the Christmas decorations, and my favorite... shopping! Trey and I had a great Thanksgiving week and I can't believe it's back to work tomorrow. It's going to be a great month!

My Birthday dinner at Maggiano's Buckhead...

I finally got Alex to smile with me...

Alex loved sitting at the head of the table!

Alex with Abuelo and Mami at Thanksgiving dinner...

Tree lighting at Lenox on Thanksgiving night...

My brother Ryan, Trey and I met up with Justen and Jen and got to see the pre-show with Katherine McPhee. It felt great out for a November night- as you can see we're not wearing coats.

Birthday dinner at Orient Express with the rest of the family and some friends...

Ryan's 30th Birthday party at our place...

Mami loved having both little ones around...

Nana and Grandfather...

Our real tree that we bought today- along side our other new addition to the Spivey family room- Trey's favorite buy of the week- 55 in. LED tv!