A day in the life of a Georgia Peach Blossom

It’s often that I am minding my own business when I am smashed in the face with the realization that I’m not in Utah anymore. I am in Georgia. It’s the South. It’s literally DAYS of straight-driving away from where I am from, and, as the movie Sweet Home Alabama says “people need a passport to come down here.” I haven’t gone to Civil War Reenactments (although if anyone hears of one, my dog and I will BE THERE). I haven’t even gone to see beautiful Savannah, which has charm, class and historic homes to tour (all of which I would love, and Matt would go to if I made him). These are just a few things I’ve run-into in my day-to-day life that remind me to get my passport renewed…

“Do you cross-stitch?”

I work at an engineering firm now as an admin. It’s not exactly related (even vaguely) to my degree or anything I’ve done before. And I might as well be getting paid in peanuts because… well… let’s just say the Cost of Living is quite a bit lower than what I’m used to. But it’s a job that takes up some of my life, and gives me purpose 4 days a week. Plus, I wear jeans to work about half the time. And I loves me some jeans. Anyway… my boss started chit-chating with me yesterday

Boss: “So, Sarah, what do you do for fun?”
Sarah: “umm… “ (thinking: what can I tell people that I like to do that won’t sound ridiculous or obligate me to be “in charge” of anything at this office?) “I like to hike.”
Boss: “Hike? I meant like… Do you cross stitch?”
Sarah: ”… no. I definitely don’t cross-stitch.”

Clearly you don’t know me very well.


“Local events: Monster Jam Trucks”

On MSN.com there is an updated area at the bottom that talks about local events. Below are the links I had options for. (Although, to be fair, I think MSN doesn’t know exactly where I live…)

Free H1N1 Vaccines For Greenville County Students

Police: Man Robs Stores For Drugs And Money

Personal Paperwork Found In Building

Find more local news

Monster Jam Trucks

Monster Jam Trucks

Monster Jam Trucks

Find more local events

In fact, I KNOW it doesn’t know where I live because I just updated my location, and the local news and events were even better.

Sanford Bishop, Jr.'s mother-in-law passes away

Billins, church mark fifth anniversary Sunday

AARP volunteers offering free tax help at Columbus

Public Library
Find more local news

Columbus Cottonmouths vs. Fayetteville FireAntz

Columbus Cottonmouths vs. Huntsville Havoc

Columbus Cottonmouths vs. Mississippi Surge

Find more local events

Fort Benning, GA

FYI: the Cottonmouths are minor league hockey. Which, I am sure, is WAY popular… in the third largest city in Georgia…? And I’m glad that there’s a story about a CHURCH having a 5th anniversary. Big News, people. BIG NEWS!

“No wonder you look so foreign.”

My neighbor is from Korea. She’s a wonderful woman named MinJong. She’s lived in the states for about 3.5 years. We made a deal that if I taught her to bake a cake (awesome and simple) she would teach me to make eggrolls (which I have tasted and are DELISH!). We haven’t gotten to the “eggroll” part of the bargain yet, but I can. not. Wait.

One day I mentioned that my father had a green card because he is a Canadian Citizen. To which Min Jong replied “ooh, that explains it. No wonder you look so foreign. … I mean beautiful.” Right.

“He just runs around on my 6 acres with the other 28 dogs I have at my house right now.”

Once upon a time we were on a search for a dog. We went on petfinder.com and started looking for adorable lab-ish dogs to rescue. We found one dog we especially liked. I think his name was “lucky” or some other ridiculous name that dogs in shelters seem to have. Matt and I went to the rescue (just across the river in Alabama) only to find that it was a storage room (at best). Later that day I called the rescue and she said she doesn’t keep dogs at that facility, she keeps them at their home. “Even better!” I thought. Then she asked what kind of dog I wanted. I said I wanted the perfect kind “lots of energy outdoors, maybe a dog I could run with, but be calm inside the house.” “Well, do you have a big yard” this woman asked. “No,” I replied, “I am planning on taking the dog outside regularly and exercising them then.” “Oh, well” the woman explained “I’m sure Lucky would be fine with that. He’s just never been on a leash before. But he’s really good when he’s in my house. All my dogs come into the house in group-shifts for about an hour a day. He hasn’t been leash trained or anything though, so you’ll have to work with him on that. He just runs around on my 6 acres with the other 28 dogs I have at my house right now.”

We didn’t get the dog “lucky.”

Instead we drove about an hour and a half away to a real dog shelter and got the world’s perfect rescue dog.

“Boiled Peanuts 100 feet”

Umm… apparently in Georgia they make boiled peanuts. And this is almost exclusively IN Georgia, and there are signs for said boiled peanuts EVERYWHERE. Apparently they boil them with the shells ON. And they take on a whole new flavor. I have been afraid to try said flavor, but if anyone wants to come here, we can try them together.

for the love of random...

Here’s what I remember from probably three viewings of “Bananas in Pajamas.” (all of which were at least a decade ago, and probably more.)

Apparently these two bananas named “B1” and “B2” are Australian and live together in a house. And they have a pretty good children’s television life. I mean, they don’t even have to change out of their pajamas (which sounds pretty awesome) and they do fun things like go on picnics. But on Tuesday they have some sort of arrangement that they chase teddy bears… or the teddy bears chase them… I’m not really sure, because my version of the theme song goes like this: BaNAnas in paJAmas are COMing down the stairs. BaNAnas in paJAmas are COMing down in pairs. BaNAnas in paJAmas are CHASing teddy bears. EVery Tuesday THEY all try to CATCH them unawares.” (I added the capitols to add dramatic downbeats.) And that makes no sense. Plus I think I’m missing a verse in the middle.


For almost no apparent reason I had the Bananas in Pajamas song stuck in my head today at work.

I thought I’d share… you know… for random-sake.

Where in the World is Carmen SanDiego?

Sometimes I want to tell people what I'm thinking.  And right now I've already told my dog, but he seemed to care not that much.  Mostly he wanted me to throw his squeaky hippo so he could go get it.  NOT really what I was looking for.  Okay, so here goes.  Right now, this is what I want to be doing (ideal scenario)...

Disneyland.  Just getting off Pirates and have a fast pass waiting for Indiana Jones.  With my husband (so he could see that Disney is a FANTASTIC place because the only time he's been that he remembers he was with not as awesome as me people and in AUGUST in FLORIDA), and my friendses.  Also, I want to be eating honey caramel popcorn (even though it isn't really in that area to purchase... we'll just pretend).

And now, because I'm thinking Disney... a few Disney memories.

(clearly I just have scanned pics of the latest trip... 

maybe one day we'll have old photopaloosa.  but probably no.)

- This one time, on Choir tour, I got into a water fight on Splash Mountain with Brooke, Gurney and Jon (was it Jon?) and we got wet enough that I had to buy boxers to wear on the bus ride home that night because my pants were still wet.
- This one time when I went to Disneyland with Dallas, Allison and Scott, Scott pretended to pull chocolate coins out of the water on Pirates of the Caribbean.  And even though I knew they didn't touch the water, I don't think I ate mine... (that water is gross)
- This one time at Disney WORLD the workers there thought Ashley Stolworthy's laugh was so great that they let us go on the Tower of Terror twice in a row - just to hear her laugh. (that's me playing air-guitar because it was AWESOME)

- This one time I said to Dallas "what do you want to do this weekend?" and he said "go to Disneyland" and then we went to Disneyland with his brother Clint.  That was my first time at California Adventure and my first experience with Soarin' over California.
- This one time, at Disney WORLD I said to my sales manager "I have two hours until our next meeting, can you drop me off in a park?" and I went through all of MGM Studios in 2 hours, by myself, in a skirt and heels.  And the Tower of Terror is way scarrier by yourself.
- This one time, at Disney WORLD I had to wear a brace on my hand because I was going through thumb physical therapy from when I fell off a mechanical bull the wrong way.

Alright, friends, those are all the Disney memories for the day.  Thanks for letting me get some thoughts out.

What do you want to be doing now?

Somebody's got a case of the Mondays!

For anyone with a case of the Mondays, here is Matt's favorite "trick" the dog does.

This is his normal face...

And this is "Shar Pei Face!!!"

Today the Shar Pei in the Lab/SharPei mix is really coming out.  Good job, everybody.  And happy Monday.

On to the next!

A few highlight pictures from Christmastime.  I want to post them, I said I'd post them.  Let's post away and then get on with more relevant holidays.

That isn't to say that Christmas wasn't wonderful, and being home wasn't absolutely amazing.  It was.  But as I was walking my dog this week I saw someone with Christmas decorations up and said, aloud, IT'S TWO WEEKS PAST NEW YEARS!  And I'm kindof a "take down Christmas stuff before New Years" kind of a girl. 

So, here it is, a trip home in a few pictures... the highlights.

OH, THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS.

This is my parent's house.  It's wonderful.  I walked in there at 12:30 AM Christmas morning.  I know my mom doesn't feel like it's "her house" and has a hard time associating "home" with it, but I suppose when you're grasping at straws, you'll take a straw.  It was wonderful to walk into a house that felt like home.  The tree was lit, my parents were awake and wrapping presents or sneaking cookies.  That was the longest I've gone without seeing my parents ever.  And being home felt so refreshing.

WHEN BABIES ATTACK!

This is Oliver.  He's my youngest nephew.  He was born right after Matt and I got engaged.  And he is wonderful.  And when I left he was a baby.

But now....

Mobile, walking and attacking baby.

I had heard that Oliver was walking, but seeing it for the first time really did make me cry.  I was standing there and kept thinking "listen, family, I know you've been seeing this for a month, but this is a special moment!  Show some feeling, this little dude is walking!"  They didn't.  Obviously because it's not new to them... but it was new to me and, dang it, crying is a totally acceptable answer here in my eyes.

I should also point out that I should have taken pictures of the rest of my family.  I spent most of my time with them, I etc etc etc.  but I just don't think about taking pictures myself, when my dad and his million dollar camera are around (ummm.... million might be a slight exaggeration, but whatever.  I'm sure you've all seen my dad with a camera.  feel free to go to http://www.davidtimms.com/ if you'd like to see some snapshots of his work.)

... WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS

I loved seeing my people.  This is Jon... about 40 mintues before punching started (see previous post).

Becky.  (this was the pose she struck when I walked into the movie theater.  Priceless.)  And you may say "ooh Sarah if you were really friends you wouldn't post this..." but I say "we ARE really friends, and you should see the pictures of me on her blog.  They are hideous  Ugly pics are what you do around your real friends."

Crystal.  (who, in the most Samantha and wonderful thing in the world, offered me her hair appointment with our mutual stylist, Lisa.  Luckily Lisa is some kind of a saint because she worked me in AND Crystal still got to have her hair done.  But this is, for both of us, pre-hair.)

Elisha.  Okay, I didn't see enough of Elisha.  (I didn't see enough of anyone, but Lish I should have seen more.)  But we did have a lovely lunch, gift exchange and mall adventure.  It's amazing how many things we can cram into three hours.  With this lady around, I plan my life more effectively.  I have to or else I look stupid.

OOH, HELLO.  COME ON IN.  I MISSED YOU.

I missed the following things and helped myself to them while in Utah: I missed Cafe Rio.  I missed risotto cakes.  I missed Red Mango.  I missed knowing where everything in the city was.  I missed driving around in my old car I sold to my parents.  I missed Arctic Circle shakes.  I am currently jonesing for a Sconecutter.  I missed Van Winkle Expressway.  I missed Papa Murphy's take and bake pizza. And I missed having a whole wall of rootbeer options.  I love rootbeer and am sad because in Georgia if you get it in two flavors, that's noteworthy.

ALL IN ALL...

(Ooooh... I didn't mention Scott.  This is Scott.  he taught me how to do lifts in Jr. High. Like partner lifts in dancing?  He also taught me that even if you don't see someone for like 8 years, it doesn't mean you're not friends.)

During this trip I was reminded that I am a social person.  I forgot that being so isolated from people and strict schedules.  I forget that I used to have a whole different style of life.  It was faster.  There were more hours in my day (I swear to you, or else how would I have been able to work so many hours, commute for so many hours, find my sorry way to the gym, cook dinner for my husband and have a thriving social life... without "vitamin D"). 

And now back to life, back to work, back to dog, back to husband (who can live in the woods?)

It was great to be home.  But I felt really divided.  It was still home, but I wanted to come back, too.  I missed my family here (small though it is).  So I look forward SO much to visiting home again.  Those are people who mean something in my life.  They all do.  And they all have known me for so long, that we can go for months without seeing each other.  So even though I have a life here, too.  My people are back home.

P.S. Becks, at least I didn't use this picture.  For those of you who aren't aware of this fun game... just take a camera, point it at your friends faces and have them blow a raspberry as big as they can.  While they're doing that you take a picture.  Hilarity ensues.