Disney World

To say that I am excited about heading to Disney World next week, may be a bit of an understatement! I am absolutely exstatic! I haven't been in over 5 years, and that was a quick trip that I only spent at the Magic Kingdom. I didn't have the funds and let's face it Universal Studios is much cheaper, so I spent 2 days there. I am spending 3 full days at the Disney parks with a park hopper so I can go from park to park whenever I want. I do however think that I will end up at Magic Kingdom every night to watch Tink fly from the castle and the fireworks display.

Aubrey doesn't really do fireworks, so I may have to do that solo, but just ask Heather, I am not afraid to travel around Orlando by myself. I've made Aubrey a couple of shirts to wear during our stay. Here's her Cinderella:

I've finished a Little Mermaid one too and plan to get a couple more done before we leave on Tuesday. This is also part of her Christmas present! I think that it turned out really good! I know that Kali plans on letting her wear it to eat with Cinderella if it's too cold to wear her dress. Otherwise, she's going to be making some outfit changes.

We have dinner reservations to eat at the SciFi restaurant.

This restaurant is so much fun and I just can't wait to pretend like I'm 5 again! I'm still a little bummed that Kent "can't go," but I know that I will have fun no matter what!

Catch Up

-Well, I must admit, I have let my blog go by the wayside. My life has been so filled with "stuff" that I really haven't made time for much computer time. I haven't been keeping up with blogs much less updating my own. Life has been complete chaos for the last couple of weeks and it doesn't look like I will have much down time until next year. Here's my December line up for the rest of the year. Other than working every other week, on my off weeks I will be saying hello to Mickey and friends in 9 days. I leave for Disney world with my family in a little over one week. I'm really excited about it! I'm just nervous that I signed up to stay with the parentals. Kent can't go, so my older sis and I are leaving when she gets off work next Tues evening. I'm not really looking forward to a 10 hour drive/ride, but it will all be worth it when I see tink fly out of the castle:). FYI-that's my favorite part! I come back just in time to go back to work for a week and shuffle myself around to see everyone for Christmas. It's really difficult to enjoy the holidays sleep deprived. But that's another drama filled post. Then, on my next Wednesday off, we head to the beach to celebrate the ringing in of 2011. I'm really looking forward to some good downtime spent on the balcony with some coffee and a good book. I still have a stack of new books that have yet to be cracked so my plan is to read 2. We'll see how that goes.
-A couple of weeks ago, Kent called and said he could get me tickets to the AL game vs Georgia State. It was on a Thurs night and I was off, so it just so happened that Loni already had a babysitter, so she and I had a girls night out to Tuscaloosa to cheer on the tide. We won really big and we went to eat at Pepito's-YUM!!! It was a lot of fun and for the first time in forever, Loni and I had a night out that did not include sewing, cutting fabric, making bows, and without husbands, children or dogs.
-This past Wednesday night, I had some friends over from work and hosted a Southern Living inspired party. It was so much fun and such good food and company! I cooked all day long starting with the desserts: Maple Brown Sugared Pecans, Peppermint Bark, & Salty Nut Brittle. Then I started with the roasted turkey, Maque Choux (really good corn dish), garlic and ginger green beans, & squash casserole. Everything turned out really delicious! Then I topped it off with some caramel apple cider. The only thing that was not homemade were the rolls. I was not about to tackle that one, so thank you sister shuberts!
-I was really happy yesterday for all of you Auburn tiger fans out there! I think that it would be really awesome to have 2 years of teams from the state to have the National Championship. Also, having 2 straight years of heisman trophy winners would be amazing! There is something to be said about how good the SEC teams have been doing these past few years! I love football Saturdays! I'm really liking football Sundays more and more too with the Saints. That's exactly what I'm doing now. Watching the Saints while Kent naps:) It's really a nail biter too! We just scored to go up by 4 with 30 seconds left-not that you care.
-I love my house decorated for Christmas! I catch myself just staring at my tree. Kent thinks that its all totally too much, but I really don't care. It makes me happy!
-Having 3 dogs in the house is a little too much most of the time. As I am typing this, Max is wandering around aimlessly and Lucy & Frankie are napping on top of Kent. It's too expensive too! Especially when 2 have constant pancreatitis requiring lab draws and special formula food and the other has to take arthritis meds. It's really ridiculous! And Kent wonders why we don't have any $$.

New Orleans

For the last 3 years, we've gone out of the country mid October on either our honeymoon or anniversary trip. This year, we decided to go to Gulf Shores for an extended vacay in Sept, then have a weekend in New Orleans to hang out and watch the Saints play. I was never into NFL football before I started dating Kent, but now I love it and am even remembering names of some players and who they play for. I mean, after 5 years, you are bound to catch on to some things right? Anyway, the Saints have always been Kent's team and we've seen them play in Atlanta twice since being married. So we headed out this past Saturday for our road trip to New Orleans. I really want to ride the train, but since we were limited on time, driving was a better option. I booked through priceline and our hotel was about halfway between the Superdome and the French Quarter. We got there 2 h before check-in time, but within 15 minutes, they had us in an upgraded room and gave us a discount on our parking. Thanks Quality Inn! After settling in, we headed to eat. The Acme Oyster house was on Kent's list, and since I've only been there once in my life I don't really know what/where to go.

It was delicious and we watched the first half of the Auburn/LSU game. After that we walked around and went to Jackson Square, watched a street show and headed to Bourbon St.

We watched football in various spots and had a really great time. Sunday morning, we headed to Cafe Du Monde to eat some beignets and stuff ourselves with powdered sugar! I asked Kent to take a pic of me eating one, and I'm posed and ready when he blows the sugar all in my face.

Thanks hun! It was funny though. Then we headed out to the Superdome.

Our seats were 3 rows from the tip top but right on the 45 yard line. The Saints played like crap and handed the Browns the game on a silver platter, but we still had a great time with the experience. The ceiling of the superdome still has some holes from Katrina. After the game, we headed to eat at La Bayou on Bourbon St. Kent had a roast beef po boy and I had a New Orleans poboy (shrimp, fried green tomatoes, and remoulade sauce) that were delicious!

We went to Pat O'Briens piano bar which was a lot of fun and then just kinda made rounds listening to live music and watching other NFL games that were on. We also found these two Browns fans that I HAD to have my pic taken with!

I must say, that hair is amazing! Especially after wearing a hat all day! Haha!

It was a much needed weekend with the hubs! Now we are back to reality with sewing, monogramming, nursing, etc. Now the countdown is on for Disney!!

Tailgating...

So my birthday gift from hubs was tickets to the Alabama Homecoming. We've never been to an AL game together before and it's been almost 5 years since I've been to a game in T-town, so you can see why I was uber excited about my gift! The game started at 8pm, so we had all day to tailgate. We ended up trading our two tickets for 4 tickets and had another couple that met us there. We timed it perfect and got to park right beside each other in a field, so we just set up our tailgate right there. We brought the satellite, TV, grill and snacks. It was soooo much fun! We watched the Auburn game and grilled hamburgers, bratwurst, and andoille sausage. Yummo! We might have turned into slight rednecks when the sun was going down though:)

After the Auburn game, we packed up and headed to Denny Chimes, said hello to a coworker and went in the game.

It was a little bit closer than we all expected, but we pulled out a win. Bummer of the night, was that I had to go straight to work afterward. Thanks Savannah for staying for me:) I was only 2h late, so that wasn't too bad.

Ankle Problems

December will mark the 10th anniversary of me being hit by a drunk driver. I was heading to work one morning and BAM! my life changed in an instant. I was incredibly fortunate that my only injuries were a "crushed" ankle and a knee that was cut wide open. I was in an ankle cast, using crutches and going through therapy on and off for about 2 years.
Fast forward 10 years, and the ankle is showing signs of rebellion. I've always had some struggles when I stay up on it for extended periods of time, such as going to Six Flags or working doubles, but lately it has been unbearable. Working these arts and craft shows have proven to be much more difficult than expected. By the end of the day, I am limping from place to place, sometimes crawling from the bedroom to the bathroom.
I took the initiative to go to the doctor and have it checked out. I had just had enough!
So essentially, I will always have problems. I have severe arthritis in my subtalar joint, which is the most used joint in your foot that supports walking. Isn't that wonderful! I'm 28years old and I have "severe arthritis." I was really throwing myself a pity party after going to the doc. I'm just not that happy about it. But we are taking it in three phases.
Phase one is starting Mobic-a prescription arthritis med, changing shoes, wearing an ankle brace and wearing new insoles to my shoes.
Phase two is having a CT to evaluate the joint and doing shots in the joint.
Phase three is having my ankle bones fused together.
So far phase one is doing the trick and I think that I am going to cancel my phase 2 appointment. I've been to New Orleans walking around half the country, and did great! I must say that it's a relief! I am sure that I will eventually have to move to the other stages, but hopefully that can wait until much later on.

I did get to look at my new xrays and compare them to the ones from years ago which was pretty cool. Here's my CT from the day of the accident:

If you look at the ankle on the left, you can see in the middle there is pieces of bone just floating around in there:)

And here's my xray from the other day:

On the picture on the left, you can see a white line in the middle of the ankle. That's arthritis!

This is how you walk around if you are me:

Just because I need to wear a brace at times, doesn't mean I can't still wear cute shoes!!!

Memphis

The reason I have been MIA for a while is because of my side business. We were in a show two weekends ago in Huntsville and in about an hour, I am leaving work. We are heading out to Memphis for our first HUGE show. Wish us luck! I'm a little bit nervous about it. Especially since we have never been and don't really know what to expect. We have a lot of new products and I am praying for a good following and start of a customer basis in TN. I'll let you know when I get back on Monday...

College Football

College football started in full swing while we were at the beach. I am loving it! I love watching ESPN college game day, I love watching football! We went to watch our niece cheer last night and the game was sooooo good! It was back and forth during the first half, and then Hueytown ended up winning by 2 touchdowns. I just love watching how much these high school boys get into pumping up the crowd and motivating each other. Kent bought me tickets to go watch my favorite team on Oct 16th.

YEAH!! We've never been to an AL game together, so i am really excited! We've seen his GA Dawgs play 3 times and it's about time we go cheer on the Crimson Tide together. I must admit that GA is now my #2 team. There are 2 reasons for that. #1:

The coach! I just think that he is a true role model for college students and he stands for what he believes.

#2:

UGA!!! Enough said!

Gigi's Cupcakes

One of the reasons I am excited to go to Huntsville for our arts and craft show today is because I am going to be picking up some of these:



The coconut snowball

The lemon dream supreme

Cupcakes from Gigi's!!! I really wish that we had somewhere close to my house that had such a variety of cupcakes that taste this good! I love some Edgar's cupcakes, but they just don't have enough variety. Just look at the menu for Gigi's and you will see these plus Key Lime, Mellow Cream, Merry Margarita, Midnight Magic, Miss Princess, Orange Dreamsicle, Peach Cobbler, Peanut Butter Cup, Scarlett's Red Velvet, Southern Comfort, Strawberry Shortcake, Summer Fun just to name a few. (Go ahead, click on those links and your mouth is going to be watering and you will be heading to either Huntsville or Auburn!) Every single one that I have tried, I have loved and wanted again.

On second thought, maybe it's good there's not one close to me. I might gain 100lbs...

Beach Part 2

We got back from the beach around 6pm on Monday night. We had so much fun!! Other than being almost swallowed by a Portuguese Man of War on our last day in the ocean, it was perfect. My face was literally about 3 inches from being that thing's lunch! It is highly likely that I screamed like a little school girl upon seeing it and make Kent drag me all the way to safety while I stayed safely on my raft. I did not step foot back in the ocean after that. At least is was our last day right!?!
Anyway, we spent soooo much moolaa on food, but I wouldn't change it! We tried a total of 3 new places while there and all three were wonderful! If you are in the Orange beach area, you need to try out Flippers! It's a little farther out and on canal road, but that food was so good and they had some pretty cheap lunch specials. I read an article in Southern Living magazine and I am so glad that I read that article.
I finished reading Barefoot by Elin Hildebrand and started Beach Music by Pat Conroy. I still have about 150 pages left, but I am really enjoying it. It's 800 pages long and has a bunch of history mixed in the novel. These are my first books by those authors and I will definitely be reading some more by them.
I just love Gulf Shores/Orange Beach so much. I think that Kent and I will end up living there in a couple of years. I am just so much more relaxed and have such a better outlook on life while I am there. That may just be that I don't have to go to work and deal with people, but I'm just going to say that it's a sign...
Now I am back in the "real world." Working and losing sleep, just your typical night shifter.
I am heading to Huntsville when I get off of work for our arts and craft show. It started yesterday and we have done well so far, just pray that it continues through the weekend.

The Beach

We've been at the beach since Friday and I am having the best time! I worked Thurs night and Kent worked half a day on Friday, so we didn't leave our town until around 5pm. We still had a lot of packing and loading to do since we brought the dogs with us, so let's just say that it was eventful. Lucy does NOT like to travel, so we stopped at WalMart and bought some children's Ben@dryl to attempt to calm her down. She did NOT enjoy that and it did absolutely NO good! She sat in my lap and trembled the entire way! We got to the condo around 9 and started unloading. We found out about a month ago that our condo had been overbooked for the first 3 nights of our stay. The lady was wonderful and did get us into a condo below ours so we just had to move up. We had gotten such a great deal that we couldn't find a better deal at all. I didn't like the fact that we had to move, but money wise, it was well worth it. Since we knew we were going to move, we really didn't unpack anything, we just lived out of our suitcases.

Our first full day, we went to the grocery store and got a few snacks since college football started!! We had pizza for lunch and we watched Kent's Dawgs win big. We took a nap and got ready for my official birthday dinner at Louisiana Lagniappe. Kent was rushing me to get ready and when we got there I realized why. My parents had driven down to eat with us and stay the night! What a wonderful surprise!!! I couldn't believe that Kent had orchestrated this! It was so sweet and such a great birthday gift! Dinner was so delicious! I tried every one's dish and decided that my crab cakes were the best. My mom thought that her jambalaya was since she had been dreaming about it since the day that Kent called and told her where we were going.

After dinner, we went back to the condo to watch my parent's Auburn Tigers, and so I could check on my Crimson Tide. All of our teams won, so it proved to be a great day for all of us!

After the games, we all took a stroll on the beach, and Kent's mom and step dad arrived around 10:30pm. I knew they were coming so that was not a surprise:)

The next morning mom and I went for a looooong walk on the beach and it was so nice to just have some mom and daughter time before they hit the road.

The weekend was super fun and now we are all unpacked on the 8th floor with everything in order. We've also eaten at our all time fave Bahama Bob's and of course Lulu's. Tonight Kent and Kenny are cooking and Donna and I are watching HGTV and blogging. After 2 full days out in the sun, I am ready for a laid back night. I didn't bring my camera cord, so there are no pics right now, but maybe when we get back I will add...

Ready for my off week!

That is the biggest understatement of the year! I have really worked a lot in the past week and I am on my 9th day in a row with one more to go. I also have one 12 and 2 doubles in that mix of days, but who's counting right? It has been a really weird week and I am incredibly ready for our vacation! In less than two weeks, I will be enjoying myself, reading books, and sunbathing for 10 straight days! The other night, I started making a list of what all I want to do and where I want to eat during our time and really see how much $$$ I should plan on for our meals. I emailed the tentative schedule to Kent and boy did he have a time with it! He just didn't understand my concept! Whatev! He wanted to go to the water park one day while we are there, but it's only open on the first full day that we are there and I don't want to feel rushed since that's the night that we are going out to a "birthday dinner" for me. We are going to cook several nights in the condo since we will be glued to the tv while the Saints play and it will be the first Saturday of college football. I can't wait!
Kent also informed me yesterday that as my birthday present he wants to get me tickets to an Alabama game! YEAH!! I haven't been to a Bama game in like 4 years and it's about time we go to one! We've been to a Georgia game every year that we've been together so we have to make it fair right!?!
Yesterday at work, I felt like I was on my own episode of mystery diagnosis. At around 5am I started itching and noticing a couple of bumps on my forearm. By 6am it was all over my arms from my wrist to my elbows. I thought I was gonna scratch myself to death. They let me leave a little early and I stopped by WalMart and got some meds. So if you saw a crazy lady tearing open a box of Benadryl walking out to her car, it was me. I got home, bathed 3 times and got in the bed. After 50mg of Benadryl, this girl was OUT!!! I really slept good though! I woke up around 5:30 and there was only a couple of red dots left. I still have absolutely no idea what it was, and I probably don't want to know!!!

PCB:)

The morning after the wedding, we left on a girls trip to Panama City Beach to celebrate my niece's sweet 16. We got to our condo around 11, changed and layed out by the pool since check in wasn't until 3. There ended up being 6 teens and 6 adults in a 2 bedroom condo. Honestly, it really didn't feel like it! We weren't in the room very much and all of the girls were in the master with a king size bed and 2 air matresses. We ate at Margaritaville, Hammerhead Fred's and Pineapple Willy's. I must say that PW was my absolute favorite! I went sky coasting for the first time and we just relaxed by the pool and now I have a wonderful tan line.

And let's be honest, going to the beach with a bunch of teens and adults that look great in their bikinis has inspired me to get my fat tail into shape! Today is day 4 of doing Jillian Michaels 30 day shred and so far I'm down 0.8lbs. I just need to stay committed and motivated!! I mean, I have another beach trip in 3 weeks and plan to lose 10lbs before then!

Blaine & Lauren's Wedding

Last Friday night was Blaine & Lauren's wedding. I had never been to a wedding at the Tutweiler Hotel, but it was beautiful. It had been raining on and off all day, but when the time came for the wedding it stopped. Just until they started saying their "I do's." The wedding was outside and since we are family, we sat up close, so we got drenched. But it was still perfect! They brought out umbrellas to hold over the couple and it just so happened the maid of honor was the bride's sister, the best man was the groom's brother, and the officiant was the groom's dad. Did you get all of that!?! Therefore it became a family affair all scrunched up together to finish the ceremony. I didn't get any pics of the ceremony, but I did get some of the reception. The groom doesn't really like sweets except for donuts, so his "cake" was a tower of krisy kreme with strawberries mixed in. Can you say YUM!?!

Here we are right after coming in looking like wet dogs:)

I also took the opportunity to to snap a pic of Kent with the groom and one of his other first cousins.
Here is the beautiful couple dancing their first dance as a married couple...It was so much fun! The food was delicious and the band was really good. Of course I had to take a self portrait of Heather and I:) It just wouldn't be the same if I didn't!!

And let's be honest, I'm really good at it!! I wore my new dress and Carrie Bradshaw inspired shoes that got lots of compliments:) Congratulations Blaine & Lauren! We love you both!!

Funny videos...

The past couple of work weeks, Jennifer and I have been watching a lot of funny videos online. If you love Zach Galifinakis as much as we do you have got to stop what you are doing and watch his skit on SNL Pageant Talk. I can't tell you how many times we have quoted pieces of that while we are at work. Even posting quotes as our facebook status.
I tried to upload some video clips, but unfortunately this computer is not letting me. Sad day...

We've also thoroughly enjoyed the trailer to the new movie Due Date that I have to wait until November to see.

Lastly, words could never truly describe this if you haven't seen it...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJGBP96pB_c

Class of 2000

This year is my 10 year high school reunion. I must say that I have mixed feelings about it. There is a part of me that is excited about it, and a part of me could truly care less. However, I am having a blast looking through music from our high school days! Here are some of my choices for our mixed CD...

MMMBop by Hanson
Tearing Up My Heart by NSYNC
Waterfalls by TLC
This is How We Do I by Montell Jordan
Amazed by Lonestar
Good Riddance by Green Day
I'll Be by Edwin McCain
Hanging Around by Counting Crows
Wanna Be by the Spice Girls

It's been really interesting to look back and see what I really listened to back then. I also have decided that some songs are best left in the 90!!! Like Sysco-the Thong Song, Anything by Ricky Martin, Oops I did it again by Britney Spears. Lets be honest, if I never hear any of those, my life would be complete!

Vacays...

I have always loved going places and I have several trips coming up that I thought I would share and see if you (anyone ever read this thing?) have any suggestions for eating out, places to go, etc.

So this weekend, I am heading to Panama City beach to celebrate a girls weekend for my niece's 16th birthday. There are 10 of us going and we are staying in a 2 bedroom condo. That should be very interesting! Thank goodness only 2 days worth of bathrooms to fight over. HAHA!! I've only been to PCB twice and once was for my senior trip 10years ago. Alot has changed since then!!! I know that we are going to eat at Pineapple Willy's though!

On Sept 3rd, we head to Gulf Shores for 10 night. For our anniversaries, we've been to Mexico and Jamaica. Kent decided this year, he wanted to stay local and spend a full week in Gulf Shores. We go there a lot, but we've never stayed more than 4 nights, so he wanted to "live down there" for a little while. (He's weird sometimes.) He decided this before the whole oil debacle, and never wavered about continuing our plans. He says we need to go and support our local people. And I totally agree! We really lucked up with an amazing rate, and were able to stay 10 days. We are leaving when Kent gets off work on Friday and that Monday is Labor Day, so he's still only having to take 5 days of PTO, so it worked out perfectly. I did have quite a scare Monday when I received a call that our condo was double booked for the first 3 nights we are there. After a full day of emailing and researching, the lady called back with a solution. We are staying in the same complex, we just have to move condos on Monday. It's not ideal, but I really couldn't find a better price that was beach front that allowed dogs.

We are planning on cooking some while we are there too, but we must visit our favorite places! Like Bahama Bob's, Lulu's, Big O's for breakfast, Wolf Bay. Do you have any musts when you go down there?

And my last vacay that is planned for the year is in December. Guess where I will be!?!

DISNEY WORLD!!!!!

I cannot tell you through this computer how incredibly excited I am about this!!! My sister started planning a trip a couple of weeks ago, and now it is a full blown family vacay! (Except my husband:( He claims that he doesnt have the time to take off of work, but let's be honest! He went when he was 13 and claims it was the worst time of his life and never wants to go back.) I have been 7 times and have wonderful memories of my time spent there!

I cannot wait to watch Tinkerbell fly out of the castle at night. That is my absolute favorite moment there! I love eating at Sci Fi restaurant, riding the Hollywood Tower of Terror, riding the Rockin' Roller Coaster, and playing the Buzz Lightyear game. When the clock strikes midnight on December 14th, I will turn into an absolute child! I have absolutely no shame about it and wish that I was leaving tomorrow!

Derby Hat Luncheon

Yesterday, I was honored to help host a Bridesmaid Luncheon for Lauren and her girls. We had a derby hat theme and it was so much fun to see what everyone came up with for their hat. I of course bought a new pair of Steve Madden shoes that were the inspiration to my outfit. Honestly, I saw the shoes and wanted them incredibly bad and used the luncheon as an excuse to buy them. :)

I had to decorate my own hat, since all of the real ones are still >$50 at TJ Maxx on clearance. I ended up finding a hat at the thrift store for $2 and spent less than $10 on the decorations on it. I think it turned out absolutely perfect for the occasion:

Every table had a theme and my place setting happened to match me perfectly. (I won't tell you if that was planned or not.)

The bridal party's table was set with the groom's grandmother's china. She passed away before Lauren or I ever met her and we were so blessed that she was a part of the occasion in that way.

The grandmother's table was dressed up in gold. It was very classic and very timeless.

The mother's and other's table was set up with a very modern set. It helped tie in mine and Traci's place settings.

The cake was made to match the design on the bridal table's china. It was delicious! I of course somehow ended up cutting the cake and after cutting about 3 pieces the entire front row of cake fell off of the glass and I caught it with my arm before it hit the floor. I think that my watch still has icing in it.

We had a really great time and the sunroom was perfect for some bridal party pics! Don't they look ready to go to the Kentucky derby!?!

And of course, I had to snap a pic of Heather and I...

Kent came to help my father in law serve and prepare our plates, and he needed to poke fun at us about the hats and make his own version. Here he is with our niece who turns 16 in a couple of weeks. (The pic is a little dark, but he put a fern leaf sticking out of the back of his hat.) We are headed to PCB this weekend for a girls weekend to celebrate and I am sooooo excited!!
Lastly, here are a few of our hats all lined up showing off our artistic creations: