Bun in the Oven!

Well, the time has come to officially share our news with the world... or at least the blogosphere. Will and I are going to become parents later this year... roughly around October 10th, 2007. We have been slowly leaking the news to family and friends, but enjoying having this little secret to ourselves for a while too. Anyway, we're thrilled and will naturally be posting updates along the way. Woo hoo!

Something sticky...

Yall wanna hear a funny story?
So Will and I got outta town this weekend, went to the mountains, it was awesome. Just the two of us.
Well when we got home yesterday, there was a puddle on the floor in front of the fridge. Not water… something sticky…

It seems that a certain Mr. Gibbs snuck an ice cream snack before we left on Friday, and then put the ice cream INTO THE FRIDGE…

So I got to clean out the fridge, move the fridge, and clean the floor too last night. Spring cleaning checklist: refrigerator done.

old dog... new trick?

What do these two pictures have in common? Well, they are both objects in our house that are left alone most day and night in the living room. Until recently, JH has really had model behavior. All our friends and neighbors wonder how we got such a wonderfully obedient and beautiful dog. Well it just happened to us that way. But this week, JH has taken notice of our sofa, with it's beautiful new pillows (that coordinate with our drapes) and our comfy afghan hand made by mom. He has decided that maybe the sofa and those pillows and afghan needed to be kept warm at night, or during the day. So a common morning and evening surprise was Jim Hargate curled up in the afghan with his head on a pillow, on our nice new sofa. Needless to say, we aren't impressed with his new trick.

a snapshot of a date...

evelyn and floyd recently visited the new Snapshot cafe for a little mid-week date. We really like this new little place at the corner of Poinsett Hwy and Rutherford... and had a wonderful mini-date. Since the cafe is named "Snapshot" I decided to be very cheezy and take one or two...

New Wheels...

Yes, it's official. Black Beauty is gone. We are currently taking naming suggestions for our new car which evelyn will be driving. We are very excited to announce this new addition to the Gibbs' household. She and Greg (our Matrix) will keep each other company quite nicely we think!

Home Economics... and great family...

So, my sweet mother-in-law offered to have drapes made for our house a few months ago... anyone who knows me also knows that decisions such as picking out fabric tend to drag on... and on. But finally we settled on choices for the kitchen, dining room, living room, and master bedroom. The actual process of getting them made and hung took less time than my decisions! I honestly didn't know how great these window treatments would be until i saw them. THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL!!! And it is so great to have the venetian blinds gone. Hurray! I guess calling this "home economics" is taking credit for work i didn't do, but it's still a project for the home which required decision making skills that I do not exercise regularly...

I do also need to put a plug in here though for my mom too... she and I made little curtains for under my sink and buffet in the kitchen, and a bedskirt for our master bedroom together. These little projects were really fun (I will admit, we both felt like we were wrestling an elephant at some moments while figuring out the bedskirt) but we are very proud of our handiwork on those items.

So kudos to our great family being generous and helping to make Will and I create our home!

i know, i know... it's been a while

disclaimers: we have been busy bombing our basement, working on various home-ec projects (that are nearing completion) and car shopping. So when one of the above is worthy of a picture, i will surely post it. Unfortunately, the bombing only produced a pile of gross dead house flies (which made the bomb successful, but is too disgusting to post). The home economics projects actually need to be completed before i take a picture. You see, a pile of beautiful drapes on the bed isn't quite as nice as when they are installed on the windows. So that is coming soon. And car shopping... well, I'll just let yall wait excitedly to hear the news when it is official. But suffice it to say, Black Beauty (aka, "Lemon") and i are finally parting ways. It's been a wild ride, but it is time to move on. Alright... more soon!

motley crew

This picture was taken at the office christmas party a couple of months ago... but i thought yall might just like to see the wild bunch of folks i work with on the state staff... I'm not even going to try to name everyone; as you can see we had to squeeze just to fit in the photo!

St. Valentine's Affair

There's a little party going on for the Valentine holiday this Saturday night at 201 Bradley Blvd... for anyone in town or interested, swing by! It's guaranteed to be a good time, if not just for the free comic relief that will be provided...

an over due picture... O Tanenbaum!

Finally... an overdue picture of our first tree at Bradley... we actually didn't put a tree up for the past two years in a row due to the various moves across the state and back. Needless to say, i was ready to pull out the boxes and deck the house. But since we rushed into it (the weekend of Thanksgiving) i was also just as ready to take big Bertha down and and hurl her out of the house two days after Christmas. According to Will, I unilaterally stopped Christmas dead in it's tracks. (Apparently he wanted to let it linger on, "at least through the first week of January." No, no, i will not allow us to be that family.)

More Bradley Blvd Snowy Pictures...

Just a few more pictures in the neighborhood from yesterday's "snow day" . Pictured: Our house, the road behind our house, and our dear neighbor Karen's house...

sweet Jimmy Jim...

So, Jim hasn't gotten much play on the blog lately, so i thought i would update you all on what he has been doing lately. Laying around, sleeping, waking up, and dreaming about great chases pretty much fills up his schedule on a daily basis. Here are a few recent pics of him in "action".

Does this look like the face of someone who's serious?

sister, bring it on... let the blog wars commence. (for those of you not previed to Shinny and i's conversation... we are having a snow-day blog war. Just for kicks and giggles. Please see other family blogspots for more entertainment...)

Things not to discuss at lunch...

So, when people make a request for federal funding, they typically come to you for everything imaginable, and even those things you'd rather not imagine. Like Wastewater Treatment. They then decide, "why not go to lunch to discuss the process and the upgrades, and how many millions of dollars need to be spent on this project?" I guess that people in this business (and plumbers) just don't have a gag reflux.

At least this time we didn't go take a tour after lunch. Now that was the highlight of 2006 for me.

Senator Jim DeMint on Earmark Reform

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LV3WHmBsUo

This is my boss. This is my boss hard at work.
For those of you in the private sector
(who live normal lives are not totally focused on CSPAN2)
the above video offers a good glimpse at what has been happening
on the Senate floor late last week/early this week.
Just so you know, Senator Jim DeMint is shaking things up.
And well, we're proud.

WIlliam F. Gibbs

Well, for those of you who don't know William F. Gibbs, allow me to introduce you. This is my hubby. He is also a fabulouso musician, and i invite you to take a listen. Four of his songs that will be on his forthcoming album can be heard here: www.myspace.com/wfgibbs. Hope you enjoy!

One of the many Christmas Parties

So i have been REALLY behind, but hope to slowly update from our holiday festivities... here is a picture from one of the parties of the season - at Will and I's house actually. The Riverside crew (all of my high school friends) love to get together a few times a year. We had a great time catching up and enjoying one another shortly before Christmas.

thanksgiving in the mountains

evelyn and floyd drove up to the mountains on wednesday afternoon (with JH in tow, of course) for the annual tree hunt and some terrific r&r time. we enjoyed a terrific turkey day feast with neighbors from all over the cashiers-highlands area. on friday, we set out for the annual tree hunt at a christmas tree farm down the road. these pictures are actually of last year's tree... and that tree had a lot of influence over the hunt this year because the '05 tree was 17 feet tall. as you can see from the pic of floyd, evelyn, and amy in front of the bound tree once we got it in the house, the top of the tree is well out of the picture. also featured is a picture of me hacking away at the trunk so as to fit it into the tree stand. as a result, the 2006 Gibbs' family tree is 1/2 the size... a nice, manageable 8 or so feet tall. E&F will be bringing home their tree (which i hope to post soon) tomorrow and letting the season begin with a bang as we set up for our first christmas at bradley blvd. woo hoo!!

A note from Colorado!

So, while poor Floyd is back home recovering from his hand surgery, Evelyn is enjoying a few days in Colorado with the sisters and the nephews. Garrison, Daniel, and Olice are having a great time playing together... and Jack Greer is pretty happy to just sleep or eat in the background. Aunt Nancy asked Garrison yesterday, "You have a lot of Aunts, don't you?" To which he said, "Where are all the Bees?" I don't know how we resemble ANTS, but apparently, there was an interesting connection with Bees made in his little head. Pictured: Daniel and Olice in the tub, Daniel destroying the choo-choo train track that Garrison had labored so hard to make... and the three big boys posing for a picture.

Hallowent

So, Halloween came and went last night... and i just need to express my disappointment with the trick-or-treaters. We had 2. Two people! I will give kudos to those two little boys for their costumes: one was "Capt. Jack Sparrow" and the other was "Jeff Gordon". But i am still wondering, where are all the trick or treaters? Have we forsaken door-to-door altogether for church events and fall festivals? Come on! There are still some very nice people who love to give out candy... for one, me.