New Year Memories for 2011

I promised to tell you about my trip to Atlanta for the Falcon's football game... so here it goes!!

It all started with David surprising me with Atlanta Falcon Football tickets on Christmas Day!

He also gave me this great Falcons shirt, which I immediately planned to wear to the game!

As the week after Christmas was quickly passing by, David and I talked and decided to treat ourselves to a night in Atlanta before the game on Sunday. We love to use Priceline and try and bid for cheap hotel rates at fancy 4 & 5 star hotels! David waited until Friday, December 31st, and placed his bid on a 4 star hotel in the Atlanta area called "Buckhead". It is one of our favorite places to stay. Priceline took his bid and we were able to get a GREAT room rate at the VERY luxurious Intercontinental hotel!!

So, on Saturday, we drove up to Atlanta. The weather was not so nice. It was a VERY wet and rainy day! (The last time we went... it snowed!) But, we didn't care!

I took these two photo's of the hotel while David "ran" (literally!) inside to check us in.

Not a very pretty day.

Here are a few photos of "part" of the lobby. It was SO BIG and GRAND, that I couldn't take it all in!

I wish this photo had turned out better. This chandelier was so beautiful! I loved the glass "ornament-like" pieces that hung from it!

You probably think I'm a bit crazy for getting so excited about staying at such a fancy hotel, but when you are on a "2 star" budget, you tend to get excited about "4 star" hotels! **Smile**

Here are a few photos of our beautiful room. It was decorated in the colors navy blue, white & yellow. VERY pretty!

The bathroom was wall to wall marble! Beautiful!

We had never stayed in a hotel that had a seperate tub....

and shower!!

So LUXURIOUS!!

Here's our view out of our window. Of course, it was raining, so it wasn't very pretty.

The pool was HUGE!

It's hard to see, but the courtyard was very pretty!

We got a laugh out of the mini bar!! The sign inside the door of it read.... "When and item is removed for more than 20 seconds, you will be charged for the item." -- YIKES!! -- David said, "Shut the door and don't touch a thing!!" He was laughing of course and all we could think about was Kevin's room bill in the movie "Home Alone 2, Lost in New York".

We decided to take a walk (Yes. In the rain!) and check out a few of the stores nearby.

Here's a look at our hotel from just up the very wet street.

After stopping by a couple of stores, we ended up at this place - Gordon Biersh - a beer brewery and restaurant. We had a couple of beers and watched a quarter of college football on the TV's that were on. It's a fun place to sit and "chill" for a bit. I love sitting at bars and looking at all of the different liquor bottles that are displayed, too!

Next, we went next door to one of my favorite stores... Marshalls. It's kind of hard to believe that a place like Buckhead would have this great discount store in it's vicinity, but IT DOES! We went in there to just browse and also to look for some bubble bath so that I could take full advantage of that fabulous bathtub, back at the hotel!

We found some bubble bath, but we also found.....

ATLANTA FALCONS JERSEY'S!!!!

I have been wanting one and they actually had one with my favorite player's # and name on it --

Roddy White!!

My eyes lit up as soon as I saw it and David was a sweetheart and bought it for me!

After our afternoon of walking around and shopping, we headed back to the hotel for a little while and then later went to a mexican place for dinner. I didn't take any photos there. Oops!

This is the coffee shop that we stopped at on our way back to the hotel.

This was the sunrise out of our window on Sunday morning.

We left the hotel fairly early and headed into downtown Atlanta to do some exploring before the game at 1:00pm.

As we drove through downtown Atlanta, we passed many places that we have yet to see.

This is the Georgia Aquarium. It opened in November of 2005.

The World of Coca-cola. It opened in May of 2007.

Then, we arrived at the Georgia Dome, home of the Atlanta Falcons!!!!

We parked the car and decided to brave the cold temps (Which were warm when we arrived the day before!!) and walk around this part of Atlanta. It's funny, because as a teenager growing up on the outskirts of Atlanta... THIS was the area that my friends and I always came to! I hadn't been here since I was in high school! Of course, it has all changed thoughout the past 30 years!

Centennial Olympic Park was also not there, back in "the day". It was built and used for the 1996 Summer Olympics that were held (mostly) in Atlanta, Georgia.

The CNN Building that you see here, WAS there back in "the day". There was an ice skating rink on the bottom level that we would hang out at occasionally.

Here's a closer look at the Georgia Aquarium.

Back at the Georgia Dome, there were all kinds of festivities going on before the game. Lots of vendors and pre-game activities, mostly for the kids.

About 11:00am, we headed inside to find our seats and GET WARM!

Our seats were rather high up, but I didn't mind. I was just glad to be there!!

While we were looking at our programs and taking it all in... we had an unexpected surprise!!

Some friends that we had not seen in 10 years tracked us down and surprised us with a hug!!! They knew that we were going to be at the game and found out where our seats where and came looking for us! We had no idea that they were there! It was fun to see them after all of these years. I only wish I had gotten pictures of our reunion! Oh well.

Here are some of the players as they "warmed up".

Matt Bryant, the Kicker

Matt Ryan, the Quarterback - also known as "Matty Ice"

My man --- Roddy White, one of the best Wide Receiver's in the NFL!

Yours truly, a VERY excited fan!!!

Pre-game show

Do your thing, Falcons!!

Atlanta won the game 31 to 10!!

We have now clinched the Division Title and also have Home Field Advantage for the playoffs!!

What an AWESOME weekend!!

2011 is Looking Good!

WOW!! I hope that you all had as wonderful of a New Year's weekend, as I did! The first two days of 2011 were AWESOME for me!

If you remember from my Christmas post, David gave me two tickets for Sunday's Atlanta Falcon's game. I was SOOO excited and thankful that he did this for us!! We decided to make it a bit more fun and drive up to Atlanta and stay the night, before the game.

Atlanta is about 90 minutes from our house, but when you go up there to stay... it feels like you are a million miles away!

I'm going to wait and post more about our weekend later. I just wanted to "pop in" and give you a "pre-post" before the real one! I need to download my pictures and catch up on a few other things before I sit down and write.

Happy New Year to all of you! I have to catch up on my blog-reading, as well!!

New Year, New Calendars!

I have an obsession with calendars.

I look forward to getting a new one (well, actually... several!) when the new year rolls around.

I buy one for my kitchen. I try to look for a "nice" one that matches the colors in my house. On it, I only write the birthdays of our family and friends. This year, I bought this one to hang on my wall ---

Last year, I had one that was similar, but buy a different artist.

I also buy one for my office. I gave up on trying to find one that "matches" the room, and just look for one that I like instead. For the past few years I have gone with one that was "cute". This year, I picked one that has pretty photographs, instead. Here's a picture of the one that I picked to hang in my office.

I love porches and the beauty that comes with them! Like the calendar in my kitchen... I will only write birthday's of my family and friends. I may add a few "other" friends to this calendar, as well.

I usually don't carry a "pocket calendar", although... I should! I have just never liked having to write in those tiny little boxes that only pocket calendars can provide. This year, I received one from one of my students. We'll see how I do with it!

My favorite calendar is the one that I write EVERYTHING down on!! I like for it to have big blocks in which to write, but I also like for it to be portable. This past year, I had this one....



I liked how it was "spiral bound" and that it had tabs and big blocks to write in. It also had a beach theme, which was nice. I use this calendar to write down ALL of my appointments and upcoming events. These are the calendars in which I SAVE, because I can look back years later and it is kind of like a "diary" of our family's life for that year. I have calendar's from way back when I was in high school, believe it or not! I can't say that I have one for every year since then, but I have many of them!

This is the one that I bought for my EVERYTHING CALENDAR for this year.

I really liked the look of it, (and... it was cheap!) but, I am kinda' wishin' it was spiral bound like last years was. I don't know. We'll have to see how it goes. Last year, I think I bought three before I was finally happy with the one that I actually used! LOL!

I have tried using "daily" and "weekly" calendars, but always go back to the "monthly" ones.

What about you???

Do you enjoy buying a new calendar each year?

Do you buy or use more than one?

Which kind do you prefer?