DR. GRACE BRANNON!!!!

I am THRILLED to announce that my sweet sister, Grace, got into Auburn University Vet School today!!!!!! What an answered prayer! I could not be more proud of her and for her!!! :)

When it rains.... it pours...

Well, it's been quite a week... you've all seen what happened with the computer, which we still don't have back because too much other stuff was going on for me to get over to pick it up on Friday... then came the car trouble... to begin with, somehow water got all underneath, but inside my car... under the passenger side..which they said was probably a clogged sun roof drain... i so took it in at 8am fri before 10am class..having been told it would be a quick thing, i didnt bother finishing getting ready b/c i would be going back by the house before class (didnt dry hair, put on makeup or brush my teeth... or feed miley). around 9:00 i'm like... ive seriously gotta go... they take me back into the shop and say they immediately had to stop on the water situation b/c there was a huge oil leak! Apparently express oil change didnt put what is called an O ring back on when they changed my oil and that is what holds the oil in and is VERY important.... they also tore up a plate guard thing that is under my dar... the oil thing could've cost us $20,000 (to get new transmission or engine according to the guy at VW) if not found when we did-praise the LORD. So we're pretty pissed at Express and needless to say will be taking it up with them for the bill (not the water stuff b/c it wasn't their fault..but the oil and guard plate was...and any damages caused by their blatant disregard for my car. So after waiting around for the shuttle for about 30 min and no time to run home to finish getting ready, i finally get to class where my group got a crappy grade on our lab report... you know...when it rains, it pours...these week has been quite the shower. I feel like usually something good can be found in the midst of bad things happening. Fortunately some good things have come out of the bad this week... if i hadnt messed up the computer on monday, we wouldnt have found out that our internal hard drive was going bad and it couldve really crashed..... and then if i hadnt had water fill up in the car, i wouldnt have taken it in and they wouldve have found the oil problem with the O ring...so, blessings... just tiring, frustrating ones to come by :o)

On a side note, I would like to brag on my sweeeeeet hubby Joshy G. He came to UAB to meet me for lunch, and brought me a toothbrush, tooth paste, and my makeup. Is it surprising to anyone at all that his love language is Acts of Service? :o) He's such a blessing to me.

"Body by Josh"

Most of you may not have heard, but Joshy G. resigned from his organic food sales job about a month or two ago. We talked and prayed about it, and decided it was the best thing to do. He wasn't happy anymore and because sales were down due to economic crisis, having to pay for gas to and from Atlanta/around town made the job actually cost us money. Bless his heart, he said that after he put in his notice, the sun actually seemed to shine brighter when he walked outside. All of that to say... He is doing personal training full-time and loving it! So... I wanted to get the word out, especially now that the weather is getting so beautiful and people are getting back in bathing suit shape.

Right now, Josh teaches 3 group fitness classes: 1 @ 5:30am in Crestline, 1 @ 5:30am in Liberty Park, and 1 @ 9am in Liberty Park. They are open to everyone and to all fitness levels. He also does home training that can be one-on-one or with buddies, if you'd like. You do not need to have a home gym for him to home train you. It is great accountability! Josh works with clients of all ages and is also open to starting more group fitness classes in other parts of town if people are interested. If you have questions or are interested in some personal training, you can e-mail josh at campmojo08@gmail.com. I'd appreciate it if you'd help spread the word, too! :o)

MAJOR trauma for the Gamble fam...

So, yesterday morning as I was getting ready for class, I stopped at the computer to check my e-mail. Since the internet wasn't working, I decided to shut down and restart the computer, which typically works just fine. Well, I guess the restart process was going a little too slow (so slow that I thought the screen had frozen up) and I proceeded to press the F10 System Recovery option... which eventually resulted in basically removing everything precious and valuable on our computer... all of our pictures (including honeymoon pictures!), itunes (josh's greatest concern), important documents (including our wedding guest list that I'd worked on for at least 9 months), resumes, and more... Needless to say, it was very traumatic, and I fell apart. Poor Joshy G. You know he was pissed at my mistake but also knew the tremendous remorse and heartache I was experiencing over possibly losing our pictures of precious memories. I left our friend Dave C., who we consider our token computer genius, a desperate message on his cell phone. He texted back (he was at work) and said he wasn't personally capable of recovering all of our stuff, but suggested a local guy who could. I called the guy, took him our computer tower (for our hard drive), and prayed. The guy said that unless I'd somehow completely over-written our hard drive, that he should be able to salvage most of our stuff. He told me that it'd be about 24 hrs and that if I heard from him before then, it meant it was a lost cause. Since I took him our tower yesterday around 11am, I'm taking it as a good sign that I haven't heard from him yet.

*UPDATE* I just heard from the guy and he said that things were looking good...finding a lot of stuff, but that our hard drive had some bad spots on it (also meaning even though I did screw up, our hard drive was going bad anyways, so it's good we caught it now), so he recommended getting a new internal hard drive and said regardless of whether we did that or not, we needed an external drive to back up everything so this would not happen again. I've gotta talk to Josh and get back to him about that, but I definitely went straight from the computer guy to the store to buy an external hard drive yesterday. Sometimes you have to learn lessons the hard way. Trust me, I've learned mine and would like to encourage all of you to go right now and back up anything you don't want to lose!

Side note: For those concerned, I did remember that I'd uploaded our honeymoon pics to snapfish and some of our other pics to fbook, so that made me feel a little better.... and I have 1 single hard copy of the wedding addresses... and apparently since you buy the license to the songs on itunes, they can give them to you again if you lose them. So... while yesterday felt like a big storm of poop, it could've been worse, I suppose. Still very traumatic!

Happy Birthday, Joshy G!

Yesterday, March 11th, was Joshy G.'s 27th b-day. He and I had some special time alone when I took him to lunch at Salsarita's (his choice) and then treated us to pedicures (with Christmas money)! I finally talked Josh into trying them a few years ago, and he loved it... I think all men would if they'd just give them a chance! They are especially great for Josh b/c his feet get so calloused from cycling. It was nice to have time to ourselves and be pampered b/c we really don't ever go pamper ourselves... especially not together. After our pedicures, I dropped Josh at home and met up with him mom, Regenia, who came to town for his b'day dinner that evening. She was SUCH a huge help! We ran errands: bought b'day presents (Josh's parents, the Brannons, the Turners, Miley, and I all went in together to get him a Wii, extra remote, extra nunchuk, and WiiFit---he's been wanting a Wii for well over year!), wrapping paper, plates/napkins/plasticware, flowers, and more. After our errands, we came back to the house and got to work! My mom was very generous to provide the chicken tetrazini. Regenia and I made a special green bean recipe (fam friend Sandra C. made them for our engagement dinner-they are amazing!), caesar salad, bread, and, of course, cake! I was very proud of the coordinating decor and tableware. We also used special linen placemats my mom and I found down in St. Maarten the summer before our wedding. There was a great turnout (I wish I could've invited even more, but our little house only seats so many for dinner...) and it seemed like everyone had a great time! We are so blessed to have such incredible friends and family with whom to celebrate!
Here are some pictures from the day:Sweet Miley lays in the bathroom everyday while I get ready.
The birthday boy!
On our way to lunch and pedicures :)the spread...
that's right.... coordinating flowers, plates, napkins, and plasticware :o)
the drink station...
We moved the kitchen table into the living room so everyone could be together...
He loves cake :)
He is SO precious to me.Happy birthday, sweetheart! I hope you felt special and that we'll have many, many more to celebrate together!

I love you. So. Much.

Lake Martin weekend with the Keevers!

Last weekend, Josh and I made our first trip of 2009 down to my parents' lake house at beautiful Lake Martin. It was so incredibly relaxing and the weather was gorgeous! On top of relaxation and gorgeous weather, we had wonderful company-The Keevers! It was Keev and Wyatt's first trip to Sweetgum Cove. Eden had been tons of times in high school, and Buck got to come with us March 2007 for my bachelorette weekend. Miley had her first trip back in August when she was only 3 months old. This was also Josh and my first weekend to host another family at the lake! As Eden said in her post, we did a whole lot of nothing... and it was glorious! We relished the time to visit with each other, laid out on the dock, loved on Wyatt, watched the puppies romp around on the beach, and watched a few movies. I have always loved Lake Martin and my parents' lake house, but now that I am growing older and have a (very small) family of my own with Josh and Miley, I'm more appreciative of it, and excited about what is to come: more trips with friends.... bringing our babies to the lake (once they come)... going to the lake with my sisters... and eventually with their hubbies and babies... life, I guess! :) Here are some pics from the weekend...Sunset the first nightSaturday AM... so peaceful!A quick bottle before we head to lunch at Sinclair's!
Wyatt and his mommy holding hands at lunch...
My sweet heart Joshy G.
Miley and Buck had a FUN time! They're buds :)
Wrestling over a Propel bottle...Miley stole it...The Keever fam!
Those cute shorts were Uncle Trey's when he was little!
Joshy G. relaxing with a People... haha
Love that little belly...
Miley looooves babies... so, of course, she needed to be close to Josh and Wyatt :o)
Pretty baby blues...
"Get your own box..."
Miley's other buddy, Barney, came over to play periodically throughout the weekend. He's a GREAT playmate, b/c he's only about 5 mths older than she is, and has lots of energy, too!After getting her bath, Miley was wiped OUT from playing so hard with Buck and Barney!

It was a wonderful weekend, and we are really looking forward to getting back down to the lake house as soon as possible. What a tremendous blessing we have in the lake house!

I couldn't resist....

So, I saw this on a friend's facebook page and HAD to share it with the world... Josh and I laughed until we could not breathe.... and I'm willing to bet that you will, too. Poor baby.. Bless his heart. Enjoy.

Bizkit the sleep walking dog

Miley playing in the snow!

What a GREAT way to end an already amazing weekend! My bff, Joy, and her husband, Luke, came over to visit us on Thursday (thru Sat evening). The last time we saw them was in November, so we were so glad to finally get to see them! They also brought their pug, Captain Jack. He and Miley always have so much fun together and are the best of buddies! It was also their first trip to B'ham together, so Joy had lots that she wanted Luke to experience and most of it revolved around food memories from high school: Donato's Pizza, Milo's, Purple Onion, and O'Henry's Coffee. Other than food, we caught up on the lastest, reminisced about old times, showed Luke B'ham, shopped at the Galleria, met up with another friend (Lauren), shopped around Homewood, ate at Sekisui, took the puppies on a hike at the trail in Vestavia I've previously blogged about, and more. It was a fantastic weekend, which, of course went too fast! Luke is the youth pastor at their church, so they had to head out Saturday evening in order to be home for Sunday church. Josh and I just hung out at our house Saturday night, and... if the weekend wasn't already amazing enough--we woke up to SNOW Sunday morning! It was absolutely beautiful. I'd forgotten how beautiful and incredibly peaceful/soothing/calming snow is. It definitely made me want to get out to Colorado asap (which I know Joshy G. will love to hear b/c he's been aching to get back out there after our family trip to Keystone in Dec. 2007). I'll post some snow pictures soon, but wanted to post the video we took of sweet Miley playing in the snow! As you can tell, she loved it!


Any new guesses on what breeds you think Miley has in her???

Last bit of February...

In my Valentine's Day post, I told you about our new grill...well, here it is! It's definitely nicer than the Walmart $30 grill we had before! haha. Josh is loving it!Which leads me to the rest of the post... On the weekend of February 22nd, my bff Eden and I threw our friend, Beth, a post-baby shower at my house and had so much fun throwing it. Since Eden and I have very similar taste, particularly when it comes to showers, invitations, etc. we complimented each other very well as co-hostesses. The fun really all started on the Saturday before the shower. Eden came up Saturday morning to have an "Eden Day." Eden left Wyatt at home with Daddy Josh (his first time to keep Wyatt overnight alone-apparently it went very well-great job, Josh!) and headed up to Birmingham! She got her hair done... nails done... dinner with her step-dad, Frank... and then she met up with me and my family out to dinner and got to catch up with them. After dinner, we ran to Wal-mart to pick up a few household items and then she and I dropped Josh off at home and ran to Publix to shop for the shower food. After Publix, we started an evening of preparation and serious girl talk! We popped open a bottle of wine I'd been saving for a special occasion---and a girls' night definitely qualified! It was so much fun, and I could tell Eden had such a great, relaxing and much-needed day to pamper herself. She was relaxed and almost giddy she was so chatty :) I loved it. The next morning, the shower went really well. Beth had a good turnout, got some fantastic presents, and everyone adored getting to meet baby Maddox!The spread..fruit/fruit dip, strawberry cake w/ cream cheese icing, cheese/crackers, muffins, lemon/lime water, lemon/lime sweet tea, and chicken salad sandwiches on rye. It was delicious!

And, of course, you can't come to a party at the Gamble Residence without a cake! It's a clothesline with a few items hanging on it and a few sitting in front... car seat, diaper bag, towel, etc.

Here's sweet baby Maddox! He was such a good baby throughout the entire shower!

If you know me... you know I LOVE a clean, straight house... but don't like to clean like some ladies do. I know... such a dichotomy! However, I also don't like people to come over to a dirty or messy house, so while we might straighten and do a light cleaning for company, we definitely do a deep clean for events at our house! Therefore... having spent the time scrubbing the house clean for the shower, we decided to put it to good use and have our Sunday School Social at our house that evening, too! We LOVE having people over to our house! I loved hearing the laughter and chatting circulating throughout the house... Miley and Cooper chasing each other from room to room... Josh manning the grill... and wonderful fellowship permeating through our home. Sweet Cooper turned 2 that Saturday, so Brooke brought a b'day cake and we all sang to him. Fortunately, I had a 2 candle from when I made Josh's 26th bday cake last year!