Winning Back My Identity

Progress Made:

Received new copy of drivers license? Check.
Received new copy of credit card? Check.
Received new copy of debit card? Check.
Received new copy of savings account debit card? Check.
Received pin number for debit card? Check.
Received new copy of social security card? Check.

Over two weeks later, identity is officially back (though I can't be sure that I'm not now sharing it with someone else...)

The good news is that I'll get to do all of this again when we get married and I change my name. Unless I make him take my last name... now there's an idea...

Makeover...

As you can see, the blog has undergone a drastic makeover. It's like Extreme Home Makeover...only with a blog. And I'm the host (not Ty Pennington...thank goodness...). AND more than likely, this makeover won't make you all emotional like that show does. Or is that just me?

Anyway, I digress. I stumbled upon this SEATTLE template while I was working hard at the office, and decided that while we're not moving to Seattle and are in fact moving to Tacoma, the two DO share an airport. And the airport is named Setac...(Seattle + Tacoma = Setac), so they're basically the same place. Plus, when everyone comes to visit us, we'll drive over to Seattle since they're close. (Less than an hour apart). We'll visit the Space Needle. We'll go to that place where they toss the fish around (once I live there, I'll be down with all of the local lingo and not have to preface the names of popular locations with "that place").

While this new look was very exciting to me (I'm a simple minded gal... it doesn't take much to make me happy), this template could not accomodate me keeping the countdown clock on the right, SO it had to be moved down to the bottom of the page. I know, I know... who scrolls down to the bottom of a blog? The new stuff is always at the top. BUT, just know that when you're wondering "Man, I wonder how much longer until the most fun weekend of all of our lives?" just scroll all the way to the bottom and it will tell you how much longer (down to the second) is left until the big day.

That being said, I have only 3 days left of work. Which means only 3 days until I move back home to prepare, as Michelle has said, "for matrimonial submission and bliss." I'm heading to Atlanta this weekend to babysit Marjorie - yes, for the entire weekend- and I hope to borrow my mom's camera so I can get some good shots. Then after that, it's less than 2 weeks until the Annual Veazey Beach Trip...that which I like to call Veazothon... I plan to never move myself from the beach or the pool and get as tan as is humanly (and safely) possible. Until I write to you all again, I wanted to draw your attention to a new blog: www.emmettandkathryn.blogspot.com. Tucc and Emmett have officially begun a blog to keep everyone up to date with Emmett's golf tourneys and Kathryn's exciting day-to-day life as the wife of a golfer (and that of a pharmaceutical sales rep...). When I move home, I'm sure it will be updated regularly with tales of our nightly viewings of Law and Order over a pitcher (or 2) of sangria... stay tuned...

Gig Harbor Anyone?

I found a new website that I've been pouring over this morning... When I get distracted at work, I tend to do a lot of things. One is scour the internet for pictures of Seattle/Tacoma, etc... houses, jobs for when we move, etc... During my research (and in talking to a few folks about the Seattle/Tacoma area), many folks have recommended we look at living in the Gig Harbor area. So today I found www.gigharborundressed.com. It's the blog of a real estate agent out there, but he has up a lot of neat pictures and it shows a lot about the festivals and different areas of town and what nots that go on in the area. Needless to say, I'm now hooked on the idea and will be spending a majority of the rest of my day googling (and google imaging) Gig Harbor. You should too. It looks absolutely beautiful out there.

Also, stay tuned: I'm going with friends to a Snoop Dog concert in Charlotte tonight (Yep. Snoop). If I still had my camera, I'd say that some new funny pictures will be posted later. But alas, I am camera-less. But I'm sure there will, at the very least, be some hilarious stories. More to come on that later...

A Good Samaritan

This morning, I received a call from one of my credit card companies... she said her name, where she was from, and then asked if I had "lost" my wallet recently. I told her it hadn't been lost as much as it had been stolen--and that the wallet was still in my posession but everything in it had been taken from me by some lower-than-slime coward in the night. (Oh, do I still seem a little angry about it?). Anyway, Karin said she had a man on the other line who called them because he said he had found one of my credit cards. At first, I thought it sounded a LITTLE fishy (as did she... she didn't want to give the man my number, as she shouldn't). She tried to connect our calls to each other but couldn't, so she took down his name and phone number and gave it to me so that I could call him.

When I did, a sweet sounding older man answered the phone. His name is Sheldon. After we get through some formalities (and I'm treating him as he may or may not be the suspect who now is just trying to get some of my information), he says "So are you in Hilton Head too?" (Going through my mind at this point is: "Hilton Head? Hilton Head. Those PUNKS broke into my car and then took a vacay down to Hilton Head?"). I explained to him that I am not... he tells me that he owns a business in a strip mall in Hilton Head and that he had found several of my belongings in the landscaping beside the parking lot, including 2 credit cards and a savings account debit card. I gave him my work address and my work phone number (JUST in case this "Sheldon" was trying to pull a fast one). He ended up calling me back a few minutes later because he said he had gone to take another gander around and was able to locate my check card as well, asked if I wanted him to cut them up before he put them in the mail AND told me he would UPS them to me. What a nice guy...

Thanks to Sheldon, I now have a SMALL bit of my faith restored in the human race. Having a complete stranger find my credit card and going above and beyond to call the company to alert them (and me) that he found it was such a sweet thing to do and made me realize that not ALL people are yellow-bellied worthless creeps who break into cars and take other people's things as if they are their own. I am very grateful to Sheldon for reminding me that there ARE in fact nice people out there... that people can (and do) still watch out for their "fellow man."

Now if only I could convince him to recruit some folks to search the entire island of Hilton Head for my camera and my social security card, I'd be one happy camper...

I Mean, WHO Does That?

I woke up this morning (late of course) and went flying out of the house with Emily to Church. We decided we'd drive and as I opened up my car door, I realized that I was not the last person to be in the car. My purse (which I had stupidly and accidently) left in my car was no where to be found...however, many of the items once contained in my purse were in a pile in my seat and in a pile in the passenger seat. I also saw that my console had been rummaged through (luckily, I hadn't opened that thing in years... the only things the prowlers found in there were some old school Reba tapes and an old leather change purse that didn't have anything in it. Luckily they left me my wallet... which they had totally emptied of EVERYTHING. My drivers' license, my credit cards, my debit card, my savings account debit card, my social security card (yes, I had it in my wallet since I am homeless and didn't have a good place to keep it lately). Most terrible in all of this: They took my camera. My pride and joy. That camera has become famous... mostly because it is constantly in peoples' faces. Aaron had lent me his telephoto lense (which is probably worth more than the camera...) and that too was taken. My only comfort is that the battery was dead and the charger was in the house... take that, car thieves.

The poor cop who first responded didn't know what to do with me. To say I was "crying" is putting it pretty lightly. I'd say the word "inconsolable" is more like it. I immediately began calling credit card companies, banks, Equifax (to put a fraud alert on my social security card) and my car insurance company to make a claim and just to see if they would possibly cover that camera (I'll find out tomorrow when I talk to the claims adjuster...). It really freaks me out that someone was IN our driveway--that they were THAT close to the house. And the crime lab guy came by and dusted for finger prints and told us that there had been a rash of break-ins the night before in our neighborhood- in fact, a car had even been stolen the night before. That made me feel SORT of better. You know, misery loves company. I'm pretty sure I'll never see that cute purse again... nor the camera for that matter. And while that still just about brings me to tears, I'm trying to remind myself, it's just "things." They were just things. I can (one day) hopefully replace them. But like the cops said, we'll probably never find the people that did it... ugh...so frustrating.

So, my morning in a nutshell:

I awoke to something that looked like this:

Saw something later that looked a little like this:

BUT, sadly, don't think any of it will result in anything that even closely resembles this:

Progress of a Slacker Bride-to-Be

What is "proper" wedding planning anyway? Aaron and I have been engaged for the past 7 months and only in the past couple of weeks have I realized that the wedding is only 3 months away. That's really not far. If I think about it in terms of what happened 3 months ago, that was just April. I was travelling to Congressional District Conventions every weekend then and going to Lucy's birthday party and Mary Beck's baptism... really, that doesn't seem like long ago. It flew by. Which leads me to believe the next 3 months will fly by as well. And I haven't really been... well, as "on top" of things as I perhaps should've. Good thing my mom really has. But, as this dawned on me yesterday, I went on a rampage. Mom, Aaron and I had a VERY productive wedding planning day:

Hotel reserved for wedding night? Check.

His and Her wedding bands? Check.

Communicated with travel agent regarding honeymoon location? Check.

Decided on engagement announcement photograph? Check.

Filled out engagement announcement form for newspaper? Check.

Proofs for wedding invitations? Check.

Phew... I feel better. Emily Post would be proud. Now, only about a gazillion things left to do....

Happy Birthday, America...and Dad and Uncle Ron

I'm writing today from a very quiet house that, just hours ago, was bustling with activity. We had in attendance the matriarch and patriarch of the Veazey clan (Mimi and Doc), 2 aunts and 2 uncles (Joyce and Tommy, Aunt Joan and Uncle Ron), 2 cousins (Glen and Philip), 4 Veazey "kids" (Rod, Marcus, Rach and Becca), their spouses (Betty, Emily and Adam... there in spirit was husband-to-be, Aaron), 5 "baby girls" (Anna Gresham, Fran, Lucy, Mary Beck and Marjorie) ranging in age from 3.5 years old to about 8 months old and 4 dogs (Dixie, Gus, Duke and Greta). Needless to say, there was never a dull moment. There were a lot of little pink high heels, play jewelry and even a tutu laying around. Here is our 4th of July weekend in a nutshell... (a larger, pretty detailed nutshell):

Thursday: Doc and Uncle Doc's (dad's twin brother) birthday celebration. Highlights include a fabulous cookout, a lot of time out on the deck, some great bluegrass music playing on the loud speakers and a long night of Nertz with Becca, Rachel, Betty and Emily and a couple of glasses of wine, as the tradition goes. Lowlights include: losing Nertz to Rachel. I'm gettin' rusty.

Friday: Out on the boat, Lucy and Anna Gresham got to go tubing with their parents. Low point being the interube cover breaking while Rach and Anna Gresham were on it, Anna G almost being sucked down into the hole and Rach almost losing her bathing suit bottoms. High points being all of the kids ("kids" meaning those of us ages 26-35 and spouses) swimming "out on the point," some lounging in intertubes and some wearing their life jackets like diapers, reminiscing about back in the good ole days when we'd swim in that very spot as youngsters, mom watching us from the kitchen window, me sitting on the shore making "mud pies" and the boys and Rach begging dad to be able to take off their life jackets--the condition being that if they were able to swim across to the other side of the shore, they were then allowed to swim without their life jackets on. I'm not sure I ever made it to that point, but the shore and mud pies were fine with me; That night, going out on the boat with Doc as our fearless Captain, watching the fireworks alongside many other boats, and then our boat leading the other boats (and probably inspiring them as well) with our renditions of God Bless America, America the Beautiful and The Star Spangled Banner; Finishing off the night with..... another Nertz competition.

Saturday: Rach and Adam headed back to Charleston, so that night, those of us remaining made the 45 minute drive down to Soap Creek to eat; Teaching our parents at dinner about "that's what she said" jokes, and Doc then using that line the rest of the night... for everything.

And did I mention that Mimi and Doc slept in a pop-up camper in the driveway? Classic.

Marcus, Marjorie, Mary Beck and Adam



Marcus, Rod and Dad


Mimi and Doc


Marcus and Me, out on the boat watching fireworks


Me holding Lucy, Betty holding Fran and Anna G, Rach holding Mary Beck and Emily holding Marjorie.


Anna Gresham, me and Lucy


Check out that profile... She looks like her Doc :)


Tommy and Marjorie


Fran and Rod

When In Rome...

Ever have one of those days that just didn't quite turn out the way you had planned? When I woke up yesterday morning, I was still exhausted. I hadn't really slept well and I was still pretty worn out from the busy weekend. I thought to myself "Just get up. Get through the day... you can come home and just relax..." I had visions of CWT class after work, cooking myself a little dinner and relaxing with an episode of Law and Order. Sounds good, right? Right.



OR, you can somehow find yourself spending your night at a Dave Matthews concert at the Verizon Wireless Ampitheater in Charlotte because your friend Michelle won free tickets and somehow convinced you, Matt and Mary Neil to take them and join her. And then you end up not getting in bed until 1 am. Worth it. Right?


Well, Dave was okay. The concert was okay. Coulda been the fact that we were about 6 miles away from him at the top of a hill. Coulda been the fact that for the most part, the only songs that most of us knew were the ones they played on 104.7 about 19 times a day back in 1999. Coulda been either of those... But the entertainment surrounding us couldn't have been better. Drunken, dancing hippies, without a care in the world. We kept our eyes on a few in particular that provided the most laughs throughout the night, staring in awe and amazement at the energy of these people and the total lack of embarressment on their part.


There were times we just couldn't fight it... We couldn't stop our toes from tapping. We couldn't stop our hips from swaying just a little bit from side to side...We couldn't even keep our heads from moving back and forth. And eventually, we decided that if we couldn't beat them, we must join them (if it was possible to move like that as sober as we all were)... and so we did. And I have the pictures to prove it. As always.






On the top is Mary Neil and Michelle practicing what they had learned from their hippy friends dancing down in front of us. Below, we are immitating the others' typical dance moves: I'm doing the Mary Neil, Michelle is doing the Becca and Mary Neil is doing the Michelle.



Michelle went to the bathroom. And came back with this. I'd call that an impulse buy. And then Mary, dancing her little heart out...



Me and Meesh, emulating the moves of our FAVORITE resident dancer, flower dress girl.


Me and Matt, really meaning it...


On top, Mary and Michelle feelin' it. And below that, more friend dancing immitations. Mary Neil is doing the Bill (famous kick), Matt is doing the Abe (the runner) and I'm doing the JoBeth (presenting yourself).



OH, and Dave Matthews was there, too.

Lorrie and Kathleen's Travel Blog

Lorrie and her sister Kathleen depart today for Europe for 3 weeks and while they're gone, they've set up a travel blog. I've posted a link to it on the right, but here it is again for those of you who want to keep up with Lon and Kathleen's travels while they're gone... I'm sure there will be hilarious stories with those two on a 3 week backpacking excursion in a foreign land.

http://travelpod.com/travel-blog/katking222/1/tpod.html

Lucky #13...

This weekend I was a bridesmaid for the 13th time (and 4th time just this year...). The next time I walk down the aisle however, it will be at my own wedding :) But what a way to end my run--as a bridesmaid in Katherine's wedding (my friend since literally birth). We had a great time. The weekend was literally jampacked with activity and everything was beautiful--especially the bride!! And a nice surprise was that Aaron was able to come to town and go with me--we found out Monday he could get leave and bought his plane ticket that day (thank goodness for that voucher I had). It was so great to be with all of our pals from high school. We always have such a blast together and it seems like just about nothing has changed (except a few have husbands now...). Here are some highlights from the weekend:

Lorrie was nice enough to go pick up Aaron from the airport in Charlotte since I had to work, so as soon as he got to town, Lorrie, Aaron and I went to Earth Fare to get some stuff to cook out. Here are Aaron, Emily and Lorrie with a few of the items on the menu:


On the way home Friday, Aaron and I saw something a little bizarre: Bo and Luke Duke cruising down I-20. So of course we took pictures...

Not far behind was a Hazard County Sheriff:




We honked at them, and when they honked back, we both squeeled like little school girls...

Then onto the rehearsal, with Victoria, Kathryn and Jo:

The rehearsal dinner at the Pinnacle Club with my handsome fiance... (check out the cute bowtie)


Then with my pal Mary Neil:

Here's Katherine, looking so pretty and excited before the wedding:

Me and Kat at the reception (which was HUGE by the way... great food, too)

Rach and Adam were able to make it to the reception after a previous engagement.

And last but not least, Rach and I wanted to get in a pic with the Coleman girls, whom we've grown up with. From left to right:

Mimi's husband Allen, Mimi, Mary Charles, Me, Aaron, Sarah, Rach and Adam