Invitations

A sneak peak at our invitations! Went to the press check on Tuesday, and they're looking good.


Bruce and Jack at Prographics - these guys are awesome.


Big bad printers

Bring it!

(picture courtesy of NotCot)

Great job today Obama! Now fix it! =)

Babyland General!

So the intent here was to go hiking for the day in North Georgia. We've done this a few times, but never in Helen. I've heard of Helen, GA before, knew they had an Octoberfest celebration, but had no idea it was Little Germany! Like, literally, they built it to look like a mini German hamlet. It's very cute, but obviously very touristy, and pretty much all we wound up doing there was eating and spending money on food and eating.

But first! We stopped on the way up there at Babyland General, which was by far the best part of the trip. Babyland General, for those of you who don't know, is where Cabbage Patch Kids are born. There's a magical tree that they are birthed out of, and you can go there, see a birthing (don't worry, there's pictures of one below!) and adopt an original Cabbage Patch Kid (for between $175 - $375 - eek!) My cheap-o Toys R Us one certainly didn't cost that much.

Just a warning - these were impossible to edit, so there's a lot of pictures!








Is it just me or does the receptionist look like a Cabbage Patch?


Premies


Baby with adoption certificate


Kinda creepy - preemie in an incubator


Checkup area with the stork


Hope, Judson, Matt, and Tupes


This was the cutest thing - these girls had brought their Cabbage Patch Kids in for a checkup and were anxiously watching to see if they were in good health.














The base of the magic birthing tree


The doctor getting ready for a birth


Lifting back the lettuce flaps...


Thankfully, it wasn't a "branch" birth - his joke, not mine


It's a girl!


Realized after we took these that it looks like these guys are smoking, but really it's just lollipops!




And on to Helen:

Christmas

Some pictures from Christmas: We went with Melissa, Allen, and Dominic to see the lights at Centennial Olympic Park. FYI - they're not that exciting! =)


Dominic and Elmo all bundled up


Dominic, Allen, and Melissa in front of the giant fake tree

Then we went to Lynn's for Christmas Eve. We had a nice gathering - Larry and Nancy came, Josh's grandmother was there, Terry joined us, and Paige and Dan joined us as well. The dogs were very happy to have so many people to give puppy dog eyes to in exchange for food.


Lynn, Terry, Paige, and Nancy


Jean, Josh, Dan, and Larry


Turducken!


Lynn's tree


Cali loving Nancy


My iPhone from Lynn!


Lynn and Paige


Bailey getting into the spirit

New Fear Year

So I usuallly try to only post about happy fun things and perpetuate a positive attitude, but there's been a lot of crummy stuff going on lately. Some family members are now or have been laid off / taking pay cuts / not finding work, which is always tough. And thank god, no one I know personally has been touched by violent crime, but it's now at two degrees. Friends of friends have been robbed / attacked / etc.

But what's inspiring me actually getting this out on (virtual) paper was an incident late last night. One of the bar-restaurants we go to sometimes, The Standard, was robbed at 4:30 in the morning as they were closing, and a worker was shot in the head and killed. This is just tragic and unnecessary. Offical AJC article is here. But gist of it is, the bartender and a girl who worked there were closing up when 4 armed gunmen threw a brick through the front door, came in, and made the bartenders lie face down in the office while they took money. The girl somehow hid, but the robbers shot the guy, who was only 27 years old, twice in the head and twice in the legs and then took off. He died a few hours later at the hospital.

This is the third or fourth incident I know of in the last month that has been in the East Atlanta general area. It's getting out of control.

UPDATE: Yay for the community - there were so many donations that the reward for finding the murderers went from the standard $5,000 for a "heinous crime" (as opposed to $2,000 for a normal one) to $21,870!