In Memory

Last week, Marc's Aunt Parshie passed away. She had been ill for a while, and we are so glad that she is in a better place and no longer suffering. We will miss her greatly.

This was our third funeral in 7 months and the second time in 6 months that Marc has been a pall bearer. It has been rough. But we hope that the rest of the year brings only happiness and good health for those we love. Here are some exercpts from her obituary:

Parshie Evelyn Fortson Mulkey joined her Savior, Jesus Christ and her beloved husband of 47 years, Guin Vickers “Chick” Mulkey on January 21, 2009 after a six month courageous battle with Myelodysplasia. Known to many as Parshie and others as Evelyn, she was loved and respected by all.

Parshie Evelyn was born July 27, 1923 in Dothan, Alabama to W.A. “Willie” and Zora Wade Fortson. She was the oldest of a family of five children, two brothers and two sisters. After marriage to Guin Vickers “Chick” Mulkey and 20 years of moving as a military family, they settled in Milton, Florida in 1957 where she has remained. Evelyn worked in the Santa Rosa School System as a school lunch worker. She worked in Canal Street School, Bagdad Elementary School and Hobbs Middle School. Evelyn was a member of First Baptist Church of Milton where she was a member of the Faith Sunday School Class and the XYZ group.

Evelyn was preceded in death by her parents, W.A. “Willie” Fortson and Zora Wade Fortson, of the Wicksburg Community, just outside Dothan, AL; her brother, T.W. Fortson, of Jay, FL; and her sister, Frances Ellen Burdett, of Milton, FL.

She is survived by her only child, Judy Waite, and her favorite son-in-law, Thomas V. “Tommy” Waite, of Milton, FL; her brother, Charles Rex Fortson and his wife, Janette Deese Fortson, of Dothan, AL; her sister, Mary Janice Fortson LaMotte and her husband, Charles “Chuck” LaMotte, of Pensacola, FL; and many loved nieces and nephews.

We've Been Obama-ized

I am sure, regardless of your political leanings, you saw the Obama poster by Shepard Fairey. Regardless of your candidate of choice in the 2008 election, it is a lot of fun to download your own photos andturn them into Obamacons. And you can do so at this website. Check us out!

Who Needs Sleep?

Lullabelle is really fighting a nap. Because I'm in the kitchen and I could drop a yummy morsel of food on the floor. So she dozes off while sitting up. MUST. FIGHT. THE. Zzzzzzzzzz

Goooo Dawgs! GymDawgs, that is.

My god daughters joined me for a Gym Dogs meet on Monday. It was the annual "pink-out" meet, where we all wear pink and they raise money for breast cancer research. After pizza downtown (What did you expect? There's a reason they call me Mary Pizzas!) we made our way to the Coliseum to watch a great meet between UGA and Utah.

As you can tell, the girls got into the pink-out spirit! And I had a great time explaining how we wanted to cheer for Georgia. By the end of the meet, the girls were proclaiming that they did not like Utah. :-) The harder part was explaining the breast cancer ribbon, and I hope I gave an adequate explanation - that people get a disease called breast cancer, and we were wearing pink and the gymnasts had the ribbon on the uniform to show that we want them to get better.

The younger Carlton girl had on a lovely new purple heart necklace. She totally floored me when she told me that it was fragile, and that all hearts were fragile except for those made of stone. She may have meant stone in the literal, heart-shaped stone sense, but I like to think that she is already a profound young lady.

Please excuse the rant, but. . .

I am cold. SO cold. Wearing lots of layers, sleeping with three blankets, using a heating pad to warm the tootsies. If it's gonna be this cold, could I at least get a snow day out of it? I think I could handle 19 degrees if I could stay in bed!

Who Does Lullabelle Love Most?

MARC!

Mamma Mia!

This weekend I traveled to Augusta to see my lovely friends and take in some Abba. My former colleague Betty recently had a birthday, and Connie and I wanted to take her to dinner and a show to celebrate. We learned that Betty already had tickets for the matinee performance, so Connie and I got tickets with the plan that we would sit in our separate seats and then join up for dinner after the show.

Only problem - we bought tickets for Saturday, and Betty's tickets were for Sunday.

Connie and I went to the show anyway and were filled with the joy that can only provided by the music of Abba, and then prepped Betty for her viewing the next day over drinks and dinner! We had a lovely evening and I am lucky to have such fabulous friends. I just wish I could move them to Athens!

Do a Little Dance. . .

What happens when you let Marc loose in the Universal Studios gift shop:

This is for you, Melissa

When I was in high school, our drill team was awarded the privilege to dance in the Cotton Bowl Parade. I guess NCA and UCA are still doing that, because we had cheerleaders during the Capital One Bowl pre-game festivities and dancers during the halftime show.

This year, one of those dancers was male. And boy, did he love to dance!

So Tired.

After a combined 14 days away from home, we were all tired and in need of some rest. We were also in need of some clean clothes Who knew that dirty clothes also provided comfort for a Lullabelle nap?

Glory, Glory to Ole Georgia

We just got back from a trip to Orlando for the capital One Bowl. We had a great time, but are very happy to be home!!

Our bowl trip started with a visit to an outlet mall with lots of great stores. Unfortunately, it was VERY crowded and we didn't have much time. So after checking out a few select stores (and getting a fabulous coat at the Ann Taylor store) we sat in nasty traffic trying to get to dinner at. . .


Epcot Center! We didn't ride anything - it was an in-and-out visit for us to get dinner with the University party. After sitting in the traffic, Marc and I were tired and irritated and Epcot was pretty crowded. So we headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest as we prepared to visit. . .

Universal Studios! My co-worker Meg joined us as we toured the park. We got their when they opened at 8am so the crowds wouldn't be too bad. And they weren't. We had lots of fun. Marc particularly enjoyed the Simpsons ride :-)

After the park, lunch and a nap, Marc and I had a New Year's Eve dinner at a wonderful restaurant, Christinis. I had a delectable Chilean Sea Bass served over baby shrimp risotto. Yummmmm. We returned to the hotel to toast in 2009 and get ready to. . .
Cheer on the Bulldogs! We had a pre-game lunch and then headed to the stadium. Our seats were great - about 17 rows up on the 35 yard line. We could even watch Matthew Stafford keep warm when Michigan State had the ball.

Georgia fans were out in force. Check out this little guy - he was UGA from head to toe:

The first half of the game was stinky, but Georgia finally arrived to the game for the second half.

And we won - YAY!!!