30 Day Blogging Challenge| Post #5 - Little Brother

"LITTLE BROTHER"

"Little Brother"

Life gave me a brother

To teach me about life

He loves and aggrivates me

And gives me strength and strife

Thank goodness for little brothers

They are special as can be

Don't mess with my little brother 

Or you'll have to deal with ME.

INTRO: Meet my brother Matt! Matt was the typical little brother growing up. I thought his sole purpose for existing was to irritate and embarrass me and then something happend when it was time for college and our relationship progressed into a friendship somewhere in our 20's - things got so good I even agreed to let him live rent free with Joey and I in our two bedroom apartment while he did his college internship. Upon graduating from college, he was an aspiring PGA professional interning at River Pines Golf Course - that dream wasn't enough to pay the bills so he changed course and hit the road for a couple of years as a Recruitment manager for his National Fraternity and from there he became known to me as "Fratty Matty" and now he's settled back into life in Atlanta, proposed to his hand-picked fiance, whom he dated for over three years and is now  working for one of the Atlanta Metro Area Chamber of Commerce. Get to know this face because you'll probably see him running for office in the future.  I love Matt, but he can be a bit random and all over the place at times, so in honor of my favorite trait of his, I"m going to throw some things out there that he'd want you to know. You can also read more about him at Bemister Bound. 


Fact 1: My brother and mom share the same birthday - November 1
Fact 2: Matt could have an entire conversation with some one and speak solely in movie quotes. Most quotable movies would include "Anchorman, Wedding Crashers, Talladega Nights, Old School - really anything with Vince Vaughn or Will Ferrell and he'll throw those out there in conversation (randomly, I might add) and sometimes people just don't get the reference.
Fact 3: Matt laughs hardest when he's laughing at his own jokes. He finds himself so funny, that he usually produces tears and is often the only one laughing. 
Fact 4: His car "the red beast" has more than 200,000 miles on it.
Fact 5: The kid likes to hug. 
Fact 6: He's wanted a JEEP since the day he was licensed to drive; maybe he'll finally get one when the red beast rests in car heaven.
Fact 7: He loves classic rock, blue grass, blues, and a bunch of odd genres I can't even describe. He also thinks he knows more about music than anyone else. To test you, he'll engage you in his little game of "name the drummer, lead singer, bass guitar player in this band." 
Fact 8: He thinks he's a better golfer than he actually is, but don't ever say that to his face.
Fact 9: He participates in marathons and triathalons solely for the t-shirts and stickers. (Thanks, Bonnie)
Fact 10: He has a tattoo. It's a Celtic symbol of three lines (or tricycle tracks) on his left shoulder blade.
Fact 11: He spends more money on his clothes than all of the women in my family combined.

Fact 12: He's a great uncle. Brendyn loves Matt because Matt will rough house with him and he thinks its fun! Kate on the other hand likes Matt too, but Matt treats her like the little sister he never had, so their relationship is now in the aggrivation/irritation stage, but I have no doubt that one day she'll probably call him to go buy her some beer.

30 Day Blog Challenge: Post #4 - Meet the Parents

Meet Greg and Linda. The picture perfect retirees who are currently living in one of the largest retirement communities near Hilton Head, SC --  Sun City to be exact. 


At 30, I am completely envious of their lifestyle. My dad retired from GM almost 6 years ago. My mom has been retired since the day I was born. So she's definitely used to retirement. Both my brother and I are grown, out of college, married and one soon-to-be married (see my next post) so their only real responsibility is their spoiled springer spaniel, the beloved Cooper Boy. 


So when you can wake up and practically do whatever you want, and don't have to abide by any  real schedule or itinerary -- what exactly does one do with all that free time - both of my parents have become avid readers. I love to read, but they finish more books in a month than I could attempt to read in one calendar year. They love to play golf, cards, canasta, shuffle board and they are very social and attend functions regularly on their street, they go to the movies or concerts. ALl the things I would love to do only if there were more hours in the day.


They are very involved with their church. Both of them currently serve as Stephen Ministers.


My mom is also a top "Crumb". She's very involved with "Treat the Troops." Here's a couple of links from some of her recent publicity opportunties.

Pink Magazine: http://itsallpink.com/stories/601-46

Bluffton Today: http://www.blufftontoday.com/news/2010-11-18/%E2%80%98treat-troops%E2%80%99-sends-homemade-love


Each month, my mom organizes her street to bake 300 dozen cookies that they in turn send to US soliders and military serving our country abroad in Afghanistan and Iraq. It's a huge operation, but she really enjoys it. You can read more about The Cookie Lady and Treat the troops here -


Lastly, my parents are very outgoing -- my mom especially. As the former president of the Montgomery, AL Newcomers Club, my mom doesn't know a stranger. She will introduce herself to anyone. Best example: My mom and dad joined us on our recent vacation in Disney World. My friend Amanda who coordinated our trip sent us all lanyards and pins so we could participate in pin trading. One of the things my mom quickly learned is that if you saw a cast member with a pin, they couldn't refuse to trade with you, so she would go up to practically everyone introduce her self, engage in brief small talk and snag their best pin. She was so good, she even got Kate in on the action. Kate didn't even trade she would just point to the one she wanted and they would put it on her lanyard. 

Next up -- My brother Matt.

30 Day Blogging Challenge | Day 3 | Meet My Better Half

I realize I'm already a couple days behind on the blogging challenge; on a side note, I was in recovery mode Sunday from too much adult birthday celebrating, which thanks to my husband I was able to veg on the couch while he  got up at 6 am and attended to both of our kids while I laid in bed and on the couch for most of the day with a vicious hangover. Love. Him. For. That.


To introduce you to my husband, I'll stick with the same format as I did for myself (a photo and 10 facts).

Fact #1: If my friend Emily Powell had never had class at Auburn with Joey, we probably would have never met at Buffalos to celebrate her graduation from Auburn. (Although she did attempt to hook him up with another one of my sorority sisters. Thankfully, her first matchmaking attempt didn't work out! )


Fact #2: We rubbed each other the wrong way the first night we met. A second favorite story that Joey loves to tell about me is the first night we met. I met my future husband at a bar in Auburn, he came out for Emily's graduation party and we pretty much did a bar crawl that night. At the second bar we went to we ended up next to each other waiting to order a drink. I get my snazzy SouthTrust check card out of my sorority wallet and I look over to see Joey writing a check, so I ask in a snotty sorority tone, "are you starting a tab with a check?" to which he replied "yeah, you gotta problem with that?"; But it all changed when he came over later that night and asked me to dance.


Fact #3: He didn't follow the "3-day rule" - he called me the next day! 


Fact #4: He surprised me with a proposal (a year and 4 months later) at my house on Christmas day. We were married on June 5, 2004 in Auburn, AL. 


Fact #5: Joey makes prize-winning Chilli. His chilli recipe won first place a few years ago during the Enterprise- Rent-A-Car chilli cookoff. It's really the best. And he won't even tell me the recipe. That's really the only secret we have from one another.


Fact #6: Joey is a great dad! My kids absolutely adore him except when he's dishing out a spanking or a time out. One of my favorite things to listen in on is when does bed time stories with our daughter at night. He doesn't read, he adlibs a bedtime story about Princess Kate and her friends and she totally loves it. (Brendyn loves to rough house with daddy but is still very much a mama's boy -- I guess that's the way it should be)


Fact #7: My husband is a great cook. If you've read my fact's you'll know that back when we moved into our new house, and he got his new Big Steel Keg, I gave up my cooking duties. But he's much better at it than I am. I'm very much a by the book, follow the recipe type of cooker, and I'm jealous that Joey can create marinades or rubs without any direction, he just instinctively knows what something should taste like.  We usually like everything he makes - the only exception is his Shepard's Pie. We occassionaly tease  Kate that we're having it for dinner and she cries. Ha!


Fact #7: He's a romantic. One of my favorite anniversary celebrations is on our fourth anniversary, he surprised me with a champagne toast and brought the champagne glasses we used the day we got married to  one of our favorite restaurants, Aqua Blue in Roswell, GA. He also did a gift bag filled with my favorite things. Still one of my favorite anniversaries to date.


Fact #8: He's afraid of heights. In college, Joey worked for the fire department while he was in school and he almost didn't graduate from the fire academy because they had to repel down the side of Jordan-Hare stadium and he said he couldn't do it. 


Fact #9: He's thoughtful. While I was still living in Auburn, my mom and I were going to come up to Atlanta to go dress shopping and spend the night at his apartment, and he freaked out because there weren't enough places for people to sleep and we said that we could camp out on an air mattress and that night he went to Home Depot and bought wood to make a "daybed" for my mom to sleep on. The not-so-finished project looked more like a karoke stage. We still tease him till this day -- he claims it could have been a lot better if he only had the right tools.


Fact #10: We make a really great team! 
"When the sun shines, we'll shine together; Told you I'll be here forever;Said I'll always be a friend; Took an oath, I'll stick it out till the end...Know that we'll still have each other; You can stand under my umbrella; You can stand under my umbrella"

30 Day Blog Challenge | Day 2 | Our Blog Name

This is probably the easiest post I'll have to write during this entire challenge.  I started my blog a little over two years ago, and it started out about me and my husband and how we met, fell in love, got engaged, got married, found out that we were expecting a daughter and then three years later a son and now I write about the daily life in the Dufour house. It's a way to record the daily happenings and the funny moments that we share with our hilarous children.  It is my greatest hope that it will be a way to preserve the history of our family and one day they can take a look back and read about what they were like growing up and all the trials and tribulations Joey and I experience with them as parents. The meaning behind our blog name. Well, I'm a pretty straightforward person, so our blog name is The Dufour Family and I chose the name because this blog is my way to update friends and family on the daily happenings within our family and to report on the milestones that we accomplish together.

30 Day Blog Challenge | Day 1 - The Intro, The Picture and 15 Facts about Yours truly

Recent Photo: Me (on the right) with my two co-workers Lindsey and Amanda attending the Grigsby -McCracken wedding reception at the Capital City Club.

The Introduction: Hello & War Eagle! I'm Amy, a full-time, working mom currently living in the North Georgia suburbs. Here you can read about me, my husband and our two outgoing and fun-loving kids - you'll hear about our triumphs and challenges as we try to successfully navigate adulthood and get an inside scoop into our parenting style - not that we really have one. 

So, onto the 15 facts:

Fact #1: I am newly brunette. Would you have guessed that I used to be a blonde? Yep, all my life actually. After two kids and turning 30 in February, I took the plunge and dyed my hair brown.  So far I'm loving it, and I have received lots of compliments, but my parents (my dad is the worst) are having a hard time coping with the dark tresses and he asks me when I'm going to go blonde again. NEVER.

Fact #2: My birthday is exactly one week after Valentine's Day. I don't exactly like it because I enjoy all holidays where I should be recognized for the special person that I am, but Birthday trumps a card, a dozen roses, and candy every year and I will aways feel that way. So I tell my husband to put the extra effort into  celebrating the day I was born.

Fact #3: Both my husband and I graduated from Auburn University and since it was the place where we met and fell in love, we also decided to hold our wedding there six years ago. We are going on lucky 7.

Fact #4: I missed my chance to be a millionaire. Yep, it's true... just ask my husband. It's his favorite story to tell anyone with a working set of ears about our first trip to Las Vegas. So after many drinks, I failed to listen to him by not betting max credit inside the Paris Hotel on the Blazing Triple 7 slot machine and what happend... I lined 'em up around 2 am Vegas time and walked away with nothing. Sad.

Fact #5: I have a four-year-old daughter and a 16-month-old son. Both adorable, funny and downright mischevious.

Fact #6: I work full time. I have a great job in public relations and I get to travel to some pretty cool places for work.

Fact #7: I am a huge Sex & The City fan, and on my first trip ever to NYC I saw Sarah Jessica Parker as we were walking into Tiffany's and I screamed so loud (out of pure excitement) that she left immediately before I could get a picture of autograph.

Fact #8: I received the "Social Butterfly Award" from my sorority three years in a row.

Fact #9: I love to eat, but I hate to cook. Since we've moved into our house, I've managed to remove cooking from my list of daily duties - yes, you can call me a pure genius, but fortunately for me my husband loves to and is really good at it. So upon moivng into our new house, my husband bought The Big Steel Keg, and to let that thing pay for itself, I've bestowed the nighttime dinner duty upon him. So far it's working just great. I clean, he cooks. Life is grand.

Fact #10: I hate clowns. Period. Growing up, my grand parents used to have a picture of Bozo the Clown hanging up above the toilet in the downstairs bathroom in the basement. My brother and I used to be really cruel and hold the handle so you would be stuck in the bathroom with Bozo which was truly terrifying as a child.

Fact #11: I get really pissed off when someone other than me does the crossword puzzle in my People magazines.

Fact #12: Even though I'm 30, I'm still a 14-year-old at heart. I love Twilight, Pop music and my teeny bopper TV shows - I'll talk more on those later.

Fact #13: I set my brother up with his fiance, who also happens to be my colleague at work.

Fact #14: I am really outgoing and I'm very talkative. I used to alway get in trouble in middle school and high school for talking to friends during class.

Fact #15: In a chicken nugget eating contest against the guys in our neighborhood, I ate 32 out of 50 McDonalds chicken nuggets and now, it completely repulses me to look at a nugget.

Up for a Challenge - A 30 Day Blogging Challenge

So, If you've been to my blog lately, you'll know instantly that one thing I haven't been doing lately is blogging, consistenly. That's my problem with the whole blogging thing is that I don't always get a chance to sit down after a full day of work and a full evening of playing Mommy to think about a blog post or way too many things have happened and I run out of steam at the end of the day to create a captivating post. So, thanks to my friend Katie, I am stealing her idea and logging back onto my blog since our September trip to Disney World, and I'm going to tell you a little bit more about me, my family, our likes, dislikes and everything in between. So, away we go.  I encourage all of my friends, followers and readers to enjoy and start your own challenge, and keep me inspired as well.

Day 1-Introduce, recent picture, 15 interesting facts

Day 2-Meaning behind your blog name

Day 3-Your first love (I'm changing this to "Your spouse")

Day 4-Your parents

Day 5-Your siblings

Day 6-A picture of something that makes you happy

Day 7-Favorite movies

Day 8-A place you've traveled to

Day 9-A picture of your friends

Day 10-Something you're afraid of

Day 11-Favorite tv shows

Day 12-What you believe

Day 13-Goals

Day 14-A picture you love

Day 15-Bible verse

Day 16-Dream house

Day 17-Something you're looking forward to

Day 18-Something you regret

Day 19-Something you miss

Day 20-Nicknames

Day 21-Picture of yourself

Day 22-Favorite city

Day 23-Favorite vacation

Day 24-Something you've learned

Day 25-Put your iPod on shuffle, first 10 songs

Day 26-Picture of your family

Day 27-Pets

Day 28-Something that stresses you out

Day 29-3 Wishes

Day 30-a picture