PVR

We had a taste panel focus group for work up in Atlanta. We got up there on Monday, set up, did some testing with some product and then called it a day. We got started at 9:30 that morning and it was 6 before we left for the day. Even though you're on your feet all day, the day goes really fast and it's always moving so you really don't feel tired until you're done for the day.

Laura (works with Young Life) is in the blue shirt. Angela, development team head is in the brown shirt. Tammy, Shona's sister is trying to hide. And then Maria.




Shona is in the pink shirt. She's my boss, a wonderul, godly woman. It's been great working under her and learning so much. Lisa is the blond lady. She'a really nice too. And then Maria again. Tammy is in the background. Good thing she didn't see me with my camera. She would've high tailed it and ran before I could get the shot in. I really am blessed to be working with such a wonderful group of ladies.

This is part of the facility that we use for the taste panels and focus groups. The people that run it are wonderful, very helpful and are always looking to serve us while we are serving our consumers. They're a wonderful group of ladies that take care of us while we work.

We checked into out hotel, Hyatt, took a walk around the complex and then headed off to dinner. Maria, peaking out behind the wall was my roomie for the night. She and I acutally knew eachother because school before we started working together. She's from Venezuela and has been working with me at work with my spanish. She's a lot of fun to work with.


We went to this family style Italian place which was great. I would go back in a heartbeat. The food was excellent and the decor was quite entertaining. :) We ended up staying out a bit later than expected but we managed to get in bed by 11.


So today was the big day. We got to the PVR testing facility at 6:30 and got started and prepped. The first session started at 8:30 and the second session started at 12. It was pretty crazy in the kitchen so I couldn't take pictures today but I got a few yesterday when it was a bit more relaxed.

It sure was high paced and confusing at times but we got great feedback from the panels and all in all we had a great time. The day flew by pretty fast. I'm worn out and can't wait to get to bed since I have an early start tomorrow too. But I do have Thurday off so I'm looking forward to that, getting some rest, cleaning and organizing done and putting my feet up if I can.

Wilkerson Wedding!

Jeff Wilkerson got married this Saturday to a beautiful girl. Her name is Courtney and we're looking forward to getting to know the one who stole Jeff's heart.




The wedding was really pretty and took place by the lake on the Wilkerson property. It was an intimate wedding with just close friends and family. It was good being able to see people we hadn't seen in years too.

The theme was a perfect pair and they had pears as the theme of the decor to favors (pear relish).



The two of them, Jeff and Courtney shared tears during the ceremony as Jeff sang to her, exchanged rings and choked through vows. Pretty much half of those in attendance was in tears. It was really sweet.




The reception followed immediately with food and dancing and no Scott did not dance with me but Sean and Asia danced. They had a great time.



The evening culminated with fireworks over the lake. It was beautiful seeing the works over the water. Once they said goodbye we packed up and headed home. All in all it was a wonderful day.

I did do the wedding cake for them as a gift. The one with the grapes was my creation but they didn't like it since grapes are not part of the theme. So the grapes were replaced with daisys which worked just fine.

Here are a couple pics from the camping trip that we took a couple weekends ago. And if you look closely you'll see the fish Asia caught too. She was so excited.

We went camping on the spur this past weekend. It was a quick trip to High Falls State park and we had a great time.

At first, Scott said that Darren and the boys were going camping and Scott was going to take Sean and Asia. But I wanted to go too and ends up that Kim was going as well. So we had both families on one site and had a lot of fun.

Scott had a ball game on Friday so after I got my work done, the kids and I loaded up and headed down and set up camp. We had a snack, the kids ran around and played and ended up going to bed around 1 in the morning.

Scott didn't end up coming until about 1 because he had to go home after the game, change and then when he got on the road and got about 15 minutes from us, he realized that he needed gas. Well you know how it is with gas now so nobody had any. He drove around for awhile and almost went back home but found some at QT I think. So he made it after all. So once he got to the site, Sean settled down since daddy was there and went to bed. (Sean had planned on staying up all night.) :)

The kids went down some small falls on inflatable pool mats and swam, played in the water, roasted mallows, ate way too much sugar, caught fish and let them go, stayed up late and got up early. In other words, they had a great time.

I'll have to post the pictures tommorrow when I have a little more time after work. We got home a bit too late for me to do all of that.

Until then.

Holy Cobweb Batman!

Scott found this spider, I know cheesy. But I couldn't help myself. :)



But Scott found this spider outside our house yesterday and showed all of us today. He thinks it's a Banana Spider. It's roughly the size of a silver dollar, pretty big I think. But it sure is happy just hanging around outside the downstairs bedroom window.

Pretty cool looking I think. I've never seen one of these around the house before until now.

Family Visit

Carter and Christy brought Sean and Asia home yesterday. Johnny and Laura took them home with them after our Disney vacation. So it was great that they got to stay down in FL for a bit.



So we had a full house for 24 hours. It's always a quick trip when the Grants come up becuase Carter has all of his animals that he needs to take care of. So they never get to stay for very long.



But we had a great time. The kids had fun with each other. The house was really loud for pretty much the entire time. They played wii, jumped on the trampoline, ran around and Camryn even did a little cooking too.



It was sad saying goodbye. Jace cried because he didn't want to go and he wanted Asia to come home with him. It was really sweet. The kids don't get to see thier cousins very much so when they do get that time they really enjoy each other.

Fun Pictures







We had so much fun. I really could go on and on about it. Asia wants to go again next year. Hopefully we'll be able to. It really was the perfect time to go. There was hardly anybody there when you think about how crowded the parks are normally.









But the kids got to eat some fun foods. They got tons of souvenirs. And we got to do a lot of magical stuff. We're home now tired but happy and looking forward to next time.

Animal Kingdom





This park was pretty cool. We didn't do a whole lot of rides at this park. But we also didn't spend a lot of time here either. It was pretty hot so we only stayed for a couple of hours. Sean and I rode Everest Expedition which was pretty intense. I didn't really get to experience the ride becuase I was comforting Sean teh whole time but it was still pretty cool.




We did do a water ride which Asia loved. Laura, Sean and Asia got soaked. Johnny, Scott and I got wet but we didn't get it nearly as bad as the rest. I literally had to ring out Asia's dress afterwards.



The Safari ride was pretty cool. We got to see a lot of wildlife on location. Animal Kingdom really is a zoo on steroids in my opinion. An older crowd enjoys this park a bit more because it's more educational. But the kids seemed to enjoy it since a lot of characters were at the park this day.

Disney World!

We had the best time. We arrived at the park at 8 in the morning and stayed until the parks closed. We got in as much as we could the first day and we pretty much did all of it.



We spent most of the day at Magic Kindom and then had a late, late dinner at Epcot the first day. The kids including me had so much fun on the rides. And Sean is now big enough that he can ride some of the bigger rides with me since Scott isn't a fan of the coasters.



Asia loved all the characters and her favorite rides were Peter Pan and the Haunted House. Sean loved Pirates of the Carribean and I think since he wanted to do Space Mountain again, I think he liked it. Now I will say that I felt pretty bad when we got on the ride Everest Expedition. I had told Sean that I thought it was like Space Mountain. Well, it's a pretty intense ride and he got pretty scared. At several points he was wailing but no tears were flowing because he was too scared to cry. By the end of the ride he had calmed down but the funny thing was he said, "Mamma, I didn't even man up until the end of the ride." He was pretty excited to still be alive and when asked if he wanted to do it again he said, "No."



The parade was beautiful and the kids especially Asia was completely awed by the charaters. It was really cute to see her face as she waved to them. It was fun seeing her amazment that all of her favorite princesses are really "real". Sean is too big now for all the make believe but he really enjoyed everything. He's a thrill seeker so he enjoyed the rides a lot.



The day ended and we headed back to the resort for some much needed rest. We were going to need it for the next day.

On the Road

We had the best time in Florida! Scott and then Johnny reluctantly agreed to do a timeshare vacation at teh Westgate Resort about a mile from the park and we had the best time. We got to spend 4 days and 3 nights at a 5 star resort and got a couple passes too in the package for an amazing price.

After Scott's ball game on Friday at about 12:30 we headed down towards Lake City. We had originally planned on leaving early Saturday morning but Scott wanted to get on the road. So he laid the seats down and the kids slept and I rolled around in the back. :) About 5:30 we arrived at the hotel in Lake City and Scott got to crash for a couple of hours.



We arrived at the resort right around lunch time. So we unpacked and the kids headed down to the pool to swim. We had a light lunch, had dinner later and then just relaxed for the rest of the day to get ready for Disney World!

Wahoo!!!!

I love my pots and pans that Laura and JOhnny got me for my birthday. I've had my eye on this Wolfgang Puck cookware set for the past couple of years. So since I've got them, It's been fun playing and experimenting with my new set.



The inagural mmeal was Steak Diane, oven roasted asparagus, sour cream smashed potatoes and a garden salad. It was so much fun!



But what I"m excited about is that I was able to make candy for the first time. I made homemade butterscotch caramel. I'm going to start trying new recipes and flavors with the caramels now. Fun!