HubFest

This past Saturday was Hattiesburg's HubFest. This was my first time to go b/c this is also the weekend of Panhellenic's Southeastern Conference. So usually I am in Atlanta with 2000 plus sorority women. Not this year. However, I have to admit that 5% of me was sad that I was not in Atlanta. I got over that when Owen and I were able to enjoy an event in Hattiesburg. We decided to take Ralphie b/c it was an outdoor event. We also made plans to meet up with our good friends John and Julie and their 2 children for lunch. Owen thought I over committed since we had Ralphie with us. He was not sure this was going to work; however I had no doubts.

Ralphie showed us that he is a big boy and we should trust him more. He was perfect. Really, he was perfect. He walked wonderfully. Sat when I would look at a booth. And then for lunch, he sat under my chair while we ate. He let little children pet him and he did not growl and any of the other dogs. He was just perfect!

Here are some pictures of Ralphie on the way to Hubfest.


Ralphie looking very mature


He is ready to go


Figuring out the new car (he doesn't like jumping up)


Happy Camper, excited about the car ride.

I miss Oprah and Friends

Just three years ago I started to subscribe to XM radio. Oprah and friends quickly became my favorite station to listen to. I never really heard Oprah, but some of my favorites were Dr. Oz, Rabbi Schmuli (SP? wrong spelling on that one), the Petes (even though I think the Rabbi and the Petes aren't on anymore), Dr. Robin and Dr. Laura Berman (sp?). I used to like Gayle King, but since Obama came on the scene her comments have gone all towards him and that is annoying. Anyways, I felt like I learned something everytime I listened to the channel. It is amazing how you can be addicted to something you have had for such a short time. I recently got a new car (great news...and so fun) but it did not come with XM. It came with Siruis. This was no problem b/c Siruis and XM have merged and I am going to get the same channels - well I was wrong. Yep, wrong...apparently there is a package called the best of XM. Owen and I decided it would be worth while for me to get it since I listen to it everyday. I am also a huge MSU fan and like to hear all their games on SEC sports on XM. I called Siruis to get my best of XM and realized my car's Siruis doesn't get those channels. WHAT??? Yep, since we bought a pre-owned, low miles 2006 vehicle I don't get the best of XM channles. I could not believe this news. I kept asking the person on the phone if she was correct. I was clearly in denial. I actually still am in denial b/c now I am having a hard time figuring out what to listen to. I still have my country channel and I have found Siruis has a Catholic channel. That is actually an ok channel. Not a complete substitute for my talk radio, but I am learning to get used to it. I thought the Martha Stewart channel would be like Oprah, oh was I wrong about that. She has a terrible channel. Her hosts do not interact with you at all, it is more like I am ease dropping on their conversation. I did only listen for a day, so I may have heard bad segments, but it was enough for me to take her off the preset list.

So I have had to say good bye to Oprah and my best of XM for now. I know I will be ok and life will go on. But it still amazes me how used to something I could get and when it is taken away, how much I miss it. Life!

Happy St. Patrick's Day and Special Day to Me

Hey Everyone,

Yesterday was one of my favorite times of the year - St. Patricks Day!!! It is also my special day. If you don't know, when I was younger my brother came up with the idea for each member of the family to pick a day out of the year to celebrate as our special day. He at the young age of 4 or 5 thougth it was not fair you were "stuck" with a birthday. My mother who loves to celebrate birthdays thought this was a wonderful idea, so special days in the Rust family was born. I picked St. Patrick's Day b/c of my name and it was in the spring and we are part Irish. My Dad called me, my mom email me, and my brother called from Rome to wish me a Happy Day! Two of my good friends from the Columbus days even remembered my special day on my facebook page (thanks JRoe and Lynn). I worked out in the morning and then my friend Audrey had the girls over for dinner so Owen and I did not see each other much at all (really 30 minutes). In that 30 mintues though he brought me flowers and petifores so we can celebrate a little before I left for the girls night. They were very good. After that I headed to my friend Audrey's! She cooked a wonderful dinner and we enjoyed good friends and Irish music. It was a very fun day and perfect special day!

Here are some pictures of the day :)



flowers Owen brought home for me


Audrey, Fran, Me, Jennifer, Heather and Jami


Fran and Me (I am wearing my authentic Irish Drinking Team shirt, that I got in Ireland. I pull it out special for this day)


Heather, Jami, Audrey, and Jennifer


Ralphie even enjoyed St. Patricks Day with his "Bark if you are Irish" Bone. He is so funny b/c he knew that was his bone even though I did not make a big deal about giving it to him. I wanted Owen to give it to him so he would have something to play with that night, but I also wanted a picture of him. I put the bone up when I left for Audrey's in the living room. Owen said when he got home Ralphie went straight to the table where the bone was and would not leave until Owen gave it to him. It is strange, but Ralphie does know how to communicate with us.

I hope you all had a great day of wearing green!

Is it Monday?

Today feels like a Monday because I have been out sick all week. I caught the flu (or at least that is what I think I had). Owen was sick the week before with the flu (that is what the doctor told him he had). On Friday I started to feel sick so I went straight to the doctor b/c I was hosting a baby shower for my friend Deven. I was told I didn't have the flu and was given some preventative medicine. I think the medicine made me more sick. There were 5 hostesses and my part was to have the party at my house. Which I was so excited to do. But with not feeling good on Friday I wanted to make sure I got well or was not sick on Saturday. Saturday morning came and I felt ok. After the shower though, my health took a turn. Today is the 1st day I feel "normal" and am back at work.

Here are a some pictures of the shower. Thanks to Taylor I have the group shot. I took it from her blog. :)



The hostesses: Taylor, Deven (mommy to be), Paige, Emily, Jennifer and me


I got to use my Grandmother's coffee pot. First time use for me.


The flower arrangment. I wanted to something different with the flower arrangement and when I found this wicker basket, I knew it would be a perfect "vase". I think my idea was a hit.

Our good puppy dog

Owen got the flu this week. He is at home getting better. Our sweet puppy dog is being so good while Owen is at home. I thought I would share a picture of Ralphie. We had this travel kennel out to see if he still fit it in. We got when he was a baby and he hated it, now he likes it. Ralphie moved this kennel to face the living room, we think to be able to see Owen. If you do not know, Ralphie is a bit of a decorator, he likes to rearrange his furniture (food bowls, kennel, etc...)

Bachelor - Random Thoughts

I am fully disclosing to you all that I am a reality tv junkie. I was not always like this, in fact I think at one point I was against reality tv. I know I was against the bachelor when it first came out. My good friend Dara got me hooked on it. She came to visit me when I lived in Columbus, MS right after college and she was in school at U of Alabama. It just took one show to get hooked to the bachelor. After that I would watch them faithfully. One year I even applied to be on the bachelor (sad I know...but was at a turning point in my life. I was graduating from MSU with no job and no place to live...I was looking for an adventure). As you know I was not chosen and thank goodness for that. It is now 2009 and I am still hooked, even after the horrific final rose ceremony this year I think I will still watch. Why I am not sure? But this year I got a little more involved. I read websites about it and even read the spoiler...which I would not do again. It did ruin it for me. Today, I searched for Jason, Melissa and Molly on facebook. Again a sad state...I did not request them to be my friend. I will not go to that level, even though I think I know them better than I know some of the "friends" I do have on facebook. But still will not befriend them. Back to my original reason for posting today. Why am I addicted to reality tv? I don't have an answer for it, but I thought after the staged, maybe not staged episode from Monday and Tuesday I would not want to watch it. But that is not true...I will watch again to see who Jillian chooses to be her husband.

The Moldunes go to Jackson

Owen and I think that we live in our own little bubble sometimes, so we have coined our travel name the Moldunes (Norm and Erlene to be exact), because every small exursion ends up being an ordeal and we usually have a fun story to go along with it. This weekend was no different. Owen is the market for a new car. He wanted to leave his truck lifestyle and buy a sedan. So we head to Jackson Saturday afternoon. Owen is wearing a short sleeve polo and I thought it would be a good idea to wear long shorts. I don't know why we thought this was a good idea, but at the time it was. Owen said walking Ralphie that morning he was hot. I was hot earlier in the week so didn't want to be hot test driving cars. As we are driving 80 miles north on Hwy 49 we realize that the windows feel very cold and it seems to be very windy. Once we get to Jackson, we eat lunch and then we start to notice that everyone in the resturant has on their winter wool coats, scarfs, gloves, etc...and we do not have any of those things on. In fact we were freezing. Owen and I then realized this rainy, gray, and cold day would not be fun if we did not put more cloths on. After lunch we made a detour to Stein Mart. Owen and I raced to see who could find what they needed first. I actually won this competition. I really could have used a coat. I was positive they would have coats for 75% off...but there were no coats to be found. Once we got properly dressed for the weather...we went and test drove cars. We had a great day and actually drove home in a new (well pre-owned) sedan.