Currently Listening to:

the morning benders - waiting for a war

What Can You Do in 48 Hours?

I have 2 days home before I get on another plane. What to do?

• Sew the panels for our Sukkah
• Get one of my houses to closing even though everything has gone wrong
• Show property and write another offer
• Tie up all the loose ends of the production I just finished
• See my husband
• Have a small breakdown from all the stress
• Get our dog healed
• Get our house cleaned (minus my desk)
• Pack

Once I get that finished I can start the oh so important task of catching up on all the TV I've missed. Should be a pretty full time.

Hilarious / Poignant

Thanks go to another blogger friend for turning me on to this.

Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo.

We Don't Even Have Time For Words This Week

Well maybe a few words to explain this one. This was the sunrise we saw just before we went to bed on Wednesday morning.

Currently listening to:

I haven't spun this one in a while...it seemed appropriate given the hour of this post. Tiff and I have flip-flopped our sleep schedule to accommodate two all night shoots she has this week. It feels a bit like we have the world all to ourselves.

Sean Hayes - 3A.M.
Album: Big Black Hole and the Little Baby Star

Stork

Just had this dropped off at our door.

Should be a very different Friday night at the Fykes house.

The 615 Guild

First things first, I have to give props to Scott Lee for the awesome logo design above.

Isn't guild an interesting word? It has an air of mystery about it while also invoking importance and power. Or at least that's what we thought when we were brainstorming what to call our newest venture.

The 615 Guild is a group we've started with the purpose of business networking and referrals. We could have joined an existing group, but where's the fun in that? Or maybe Tiff just knew the spot of realtor would be filled in existing groups, so we decided "let's just make our own." We got together a few fellow business owner/friends and now four months later, we had our first "official" meeting this morning. As of now our group includes:

Patrick Baker - Life & Casualty Insurance
Melody Barker - Massage Therapist
Heather Cartee - Independent Senior Sales Director-Mary Kay
Tiffany Fykes - Realtor
Joshua Fykes - Architect
Scott Lee - Full Service Design

We're currently looking for a personal banker, mortgage banker, a chiropractor, general contractor and photographer. If you know anyone who might be interested, tell them to get in touch!

Thrill of the Win

I get caught up in winning. I feel like I have grown up a little bit and I'm not quite as fiercely competitive as I once was. I can now play games on teams where the rest of the team is slacking and control myself to the point of not losing friends over the situation. However, every once in a while I just get caught up in it. It is why Vegas was borderline not fun for me. Too much losing and not enough winning.

Well at the Youth Encouragement Services auction I won nothing I wanted. Do you see the term "I"? There was no "we" at this event there was only "I" and I wanted to win. However, not a single thing that I wanted to win went home with us. I really wanted the Southwest vouchers and bid $15 over their value but I was able to walk away. Luckily I didn't get sucked in because they went for about $150 over the value and then that wouldn't have made what comes next possible.

Just before the end of the auction they cut the starting bid on all remaining items left with no bids and let me just say when it comes to a deal and winning "I WILL WIN." I feel no shame in saying after that announcement I was the first one out the door.

So instead of a DVD set, a Kroger gift card and a Southwest Voucher we went home with about 20 things.

Including but not limited to:
Scuba lessons/certification for Joshua and I both
Business headshot for Joshua
2 oil changes
Haircut
2 Christmas presents that shall remain nameless
Tickets to the Frist for clients
2 months membership to a gym

So #1 I got to win a LOT of stuff and #2 our money went to help kids and support a ministry we are involved in. Seems like a Win/Win to me.

Europe take Note!

I love when international trips show up on our front doorstep. I know so many people think we are crazy for letting strangers stay at our house but it's an opportunity so many people are missing. We get to see American culture through another country's eyes. We get to learn about how other people live and what is important to them.

Enter Germany!

These couchsurfers experienced a "game night" at our house and they also came with us to church. When we asked them how that compared to German church they said it didn't. They also said if they had a church like that in Germany then they would actually go. So if anyone wants to start a Fellowship Bible Church in Germany let me know and I have 2 names for you.

On another note it is amazing their grasp of the English language. They played Taboo with us. TABOO! Could you imagine playing taboo in another language?

INTERESTING FACT ABOUT GERMANY: You have to have at least 6 years of two foreign languages to go to university. So they learn German, then six years of English and still have six years of something else. I wish my kid was going to spend 6 years learning 2 other languages.

Currently listening to:

Low Strung - Fix You
(the whole album is fantastic, amazing reinventions of great songs)

You still There?

It has been over a week since we blogged. This could be a record for us here at the "Outside of Normal" blog. Its not that we don't have anything to write about, it's actually quite the opposite. We have tons to tell you about but life keeps getting in the way.

Since we posted last we've had German couchsurfers, the last day to wear white pants has come and gone, we attended Youth Encouragement Services fundraiser dinner and took home half of the silent auction items, our community group got some new members and then today I watched Joshua be inducted into Rotary.

All of that comes with their own stories and hopefully this weekend I'll be able to write them all down for you. Until then I'll just deal with the huffs and puffs that happen when you stop by the site and the content hasn't changed.

All I want for Christmas

I'd rather it didn't look quite like a beer barrel but a rain barrel is the #1 thing on my list this year. How grown up is that?