Running the Halls

Hi, I'm Mary

2011-12-11T09:08:00.001-08:00

Wow! I took a longer break than I thought. I thought if you read this you may need a new introduction....
-When I started day shift back in August, I just felt like I really didn't have time to read any blogs, much less keep up with posting on my own. I feel like I've hit a rhythm now, so maybe I will start posting at least semi-regularly now. We will see I guess.
-Alot has gone on since I last posted. We went to Cabo in October for our 4th anniversary and had an absolute blast! Kent planned us a deep sea fishing adventure and we ended up bringing home around 70lb of frozen mahi mahi. So, really our catch paid for our trip. I also wanted to go snorkeling while we were there and purchased us an underwater camera prior to leaving. I probably should've practiced a bit on the video part, but our still shots really turned out amazing! The videos remind me of watching the Blair Witch Project. We actually had our pics taken by someone at the resort that was a "professional." They offered it as a free service and then you only pay for the pics that you want. We have never had our pics taken professionally except at the wedding, so it was nice to get some with great scenery!
-Since we got home, Kent has had 2 unsuccessful pain blocks and the bills just keep coming. I'm really glad that he has insurance, but come on! Can you pay for something!?!
-Since I have to work on both Chrstmas Eve and Christmas day, we are having my big family get together next week. Hopefully I will have everything ready and wrapped! I've gotten a ton of orders for monogramming items for friends and coworkers and I'm down to only 1 pillowcase, so hopefully I can finish up the things I want to do for myself.
-And since I'm having to work the holidays, I am more than ecstatic about our pending New Years trip to NOLA! We have reservations at Emeril's restaturant and Kent is hoping that we will spot Will Ferrell. Kent found out he is filming a movie there now, so he would probably pass out if that dream came true!

Times They Are a Changin'

2011-07-31T15:27:00.000-07:00

Today has been my last official day of being 7 on 7 off. I took full advantage of my last week off! Tuesday I went to the river and hung out with some family. I watched the kids innertube and have a great time. I went shopping and got some awesome deals at M@cys, ate lunch with friends and family, cleaned my house, played with the pups, watched a lot of Sex & the City, sewed, monogrammed, and just hung out like I didn't have a care in the world.
Tomorrow I embark on a new chapter in my life. When I started my nursing career, I worked evening shift. I did that for a year before I went to "the dark side." I've been working nights for 7 years. I've only worked 7 on 7 off my entire career. Tomorrow I start being a full time employee working every week and to top it off, its day shift. That means getting up before the sun, doing something that I have said on numerous occasions I "will never do."
I will definitely miss my girls on nights! I've made great friends throughout the 7 years and will continue those relationships no matter what! I've seen many people come and go and now I am transitioning with them. I will see my night shift friends still, but I can't lie and say that it will be the same. I know it will be different, but I have no doubt in my mind that this is the right thing for me to do. Not only for myself, but for my husband. Honestly, he is more excited about this than anyone. It's been so funny to listen to him talk about this and it's been amazing to see his true feelings shine through.
This entire week, I have had so many thoughts about all of the changes that will be taking place as I transition to "normalcy." I mean, I have to actually wear makeup, have some kind of breakfast options, and I will have to set an alarm clock. I haven't done that on a regular basis since college.
All of that said, I am excited to see what a difference this will make in me. So, tomorrow, I will rise with the sun and drive to work on my least favorite road, with everyone else in Shelby county. I'm just praying that we start of on a good traffic foot!

Completely Random

2011-07-23T01:35:00.000-07:00

-The other night as I was trying to catch up on SYTYCD, Kent starts making fun of all of the wardrobes. He can't understand where they come up with any of the outfits and thinks that they just throw stuff together. Therefore, he decides he will go and find his best dancing outfit. He comes back from the closet wearing one of my tshirt dresses, his lounge pants, a scarf tied around his waist and a neck tie. I thought I was going to pee on myself I was laughing as he came out from the bedroom doing ballet turns and bows. Believe me, there is never a dull moment!
-I made corn chowder the other night for the first time ever and it was delicious! I've been getting the Cooking Light magazine for around a year now and finally made one of the recipes.
-My sister sent me a video text of my 4 yr old niece singing If I Die Young by the Band Perry. That sound pretty awful, but I'm telling you it's the cutest thing. She emphasizes several words and even gets the "ooo-ooo" at the perfect time. She's the sweetest thing EVER!
-Four of my friends from work are engaged and getting married within the next year. I've been looking at dresses, cakes, flowers and really wish that I could get married again. To Kent again of course! But the planning for our wedding was so much fun! We plan to go to Vegas next year for our 5th anniversary to renew our vows at a little chapel with Elvis, so I'm thinking I'm going to get an awesomely ridiculous dress. It's gonna be FUN!
-In less than 3 months we are heading to Cabo! Words cannot adequately describe how elated I am about our trip! We had so much fun on our honeymoon that I can't wait until we are there again and reminiscing over our 4 years of marriage.
-I'm really excited about my side business and some of the outfits that we are planning to start making. Our crab and houndstooth hat outfits have been a big hit and I'm ready to start making more little boys clothes!
-This post has absolutely no direction, but I really don't think anyone is really reading.
-I've read 5 books in the last two months and will probably make is 6. I really have no idea what has gotten into me! I haven't actually watched a lot of TV this summer which is so unlike me! The only shows I've watched consistently this summer are SYTYCD and Swamp People. And if you didn't watch Swamp People, you missed out! It quickly moved up to one of my all time favorites!

Not His Plan

2011-07-11T12:19:00.000-07:00

You don't always get what you want...

Recently, I applied for a different job that would ultimately change my entire schedule. It was a day shift position working Monday thru Friday, no weekends, no holidays. I've been working night shift for over 7 years now and I have felt that I was being led in that direction. I really thought that I had a really good chance at getting the position. Well, a little over a week ago, I received the call to let me know that someone else was offered the position. I will not divulge what the situation is, but I will just say that it was a huge kick in the gut. I was quickly thinking about being in elementary school and being the last one standing when teams were picked for kick ball. It's amazing how our insecurities manifest themselves.
I was never the most popular girl is elementary school. I had some really great friends, but the scars are still there from being a bit heavy and being called "thunder thighs" as I was sitting on the monkey bars in PE. I digress...
Since this situation occurred, it has made me rethink some things. Like I said, I really felt like I was being led into this position. Now I can't help but wonder if it was really God leading me or was it my own voice just wanting something so bad that I convinced myself that it was God. I did have some reservations about working Mon-Fri since I've worked 7 on 7 off for 8 years and have never actually worked that schedule before. But I know that it is something that I could handle. I would love to be on the same schedule as the hubs and not stress so much around the holidays trying to work and fit in 2 family events. It's just tiring. Night shift is starting to get rough. I'm so happy that I have the schedule that I do, otherwise, I just don't think that I could function on a weekly basis.
Its been a rough couple of weeks! The day after I found out about the job, my father in law passed away. He had been in ICU for a week and is no longer hurting or living through the struggles he has had for 3 years since his massive stroke. During this time, I have been so blessed by the love shown from our families, friends, and coworkers. There is no doubt in my mind that the things that happen are for a reason and He has my best interest in hand. When God closes one door, another one opens. For now, I think that I just need to be quiet. Be still and listen-not to my own wants, but to His direction.

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Psalm 34:18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Beach Getaway

2011-06-22T02:15:00.000-07:00

With so much going on these past few weeks, my stress level has hit its limit. Therefore, Jennifer and I decided that it was time for a quick getaway to the beach. I know people think it's crazy, but yes, I've been known to drive to the beach for a quick day trip. Gulf Shores is only about a 3.5-4 hour drive from our house, so woken up early on many occasions to drive down, lay out about 5 hours, and come home after picking up some good seafood for dinner. We have 3 dogs, so boarding gets pretty pricey! Our neighbors look after them for the day and we are back around 11-12 that night.
Well, Jennifer and I decided that we needed a night, and two good meals, so that is exactly what we did. We left a little after 8, got there around 12 and did not leave the beach until around 6. Our cooler was packed with drinks and fresh fruit and we read all day. It was bliss!!!! Just exactly what we needed!
Little did I know when we planned this that the hubs saw an opportunity for a weekend getaway too! He called me on Monday, and asked if I wanted to go back on Friday and spend the weekend. YES!!!! Did you really have to ask me that!?! We spent the weekend reading, laying out and relaxing at the foot of the ocean or by the pool. I feel very refreshed and ready for whatever happens! I finished one book, read The Help, and bought another book our last day there. (I did happen to finish it tonight too.)
Since it was such last minute planning, we found a great price on a condo on the bay. We'd never stayed on the bay before and I admit, I was a bit hesitant since I love oceanfront so much! I had nothing to worry about! It was beautiful! I loved having a view of the pass and the boats coming in daily to the marina. I saw so many red snapper fresh off of the boat, it made me want to go fishing. We sat out on the dock just watching and loving the view. I really didn't take many pics of either trip, but Jennifer posted a quick synopsis of our trip in pictures here.

Here are the few measly pics I took with my phone:

Thoughts

2011-06-11T02:44:00.000-07:00

I've been on a bit of a break lately, haven't I? Although, my life really hasnt been that interesting lately!

I feel like I'm in a weird season right now. I have applied for a new job because my body is telling me that it is time to get off of night shift, so I am in a waiting period right now to see what happens. It's so hard to wait weeks in order to find out if you even have a chance at changing your entire life/schedule around. I just wish things could move a little faster!
I know that there is a lesson in patience that I need to heed, so some days are better than others. I do feel that the first interview went well, so now it's just wait and see time.
I know that whatever happens is going to be the right thing, so I just have to continue to remind myself of that. Everything has already been laid out and I will be alright no matter what.

I am going to the beach for a quick overnight stay on Tuesday with my friend Jennifer and it cannot come soon enough! We simply plan on laying out, reading, and doing absolutely nothing for almost 2 days! We already have our food plans laid out for dinner on Tues night and lunch on the way out on Wednesday. You know that's the most important part-right!?! We just plan to stay somewhere cheap since it's one night and we are not gonna spend a lot of time in the room anyway.

I finally booked our hotel for our Cabo trip in October. I've had the flight for a couple of months, but held off on the hotel thinking that I could score a better rate than was posted at that time. I got a great rate and ended up booking the suite and only went over my original budget by $30. Success! I just looked tonight and the suite is no longer avaliable, so I booked it at the right time! Only 4 more months! Yippee!

Memphis

2011-04-14T02:10:00.000-07:00

For Kent's birthday 2 weekends ago, we traveled up to Memphis for a quick getaway. Last year around my birthday, we spent 10 days at the beach, so I just figured that we could do a mini vacay for his. I suprised him by booking the Peabody hotel for 2 nights with a great deal from Priceline.

We ended up getting there too late on Friday to do anything but check in, so we got an early start on Saturday morning. We headed to breakfast, then spent ALL DAY at Graceland. I didn't get our tickets in advance so we got them when we got there around 10am. Our tour of the mansion wasn't until 3pm, so needless to say it was a little boring waiting 5 hours. We did tour all of the other sites there, but it was just too much of a wait. I guess I should've checked into it before we went. Kent had a really good time seeing all of the memorabillia. Neither one of us had ever been, and Kent wants to go back to tour again when it's not so busy.

After the tour, we got back to the hotel in time to watch the duck march. Word to the wise, get there early if you want to get a good view. I was only able to see about 3 feet of their red carpet march, but it was neat to listen to the history of how it all came about.

Then we refreshed ourselves and headed to Rendevous BBQ. Can you say YUMMO!?! I ate a full order for myself.

Then we headed to Beale Street to listen to some music before calling it a night around midnight. It was quick, but a much needed weekend away for the 2 of us.

Tannehill

2011-04-13T02:14:00.000-07:00

For my sister in law's birthday last weekend, she decided that we would all get together at Tannehill state park and grill out. I decided to just go early and take the pups since my mother in law was there. Let me just tell you, three dogs by yourself on leashes is some work! When I first got there I just tied their leashes off on a tree so that I could go and get their cables and bowls. Before I walked off, Max decided to take a leak at the waters edge. Of course he's a little unstable and plopped right in the water. I quickly pulled him up and directed him away from the creek. When I got back from the car, Donna was yelling at me to hurry. Max had jumped back in the water after the ducks and when she tried to pull him back to safety, he got out of his collar/leash and was walking in the water with nothing. Every couple of steps he was going completely under so I yanked off my shoes and socks and jumped in to retrieve the old man before he stayed under. It was disgusting! He attempted several more times to get in the water, but I made sure the cable was short after that fiasco! Poor Lucy really doesn't know what to do being outside for extended periods of time. Everytime we walked by the camper, Lucy tried to go inside. She is not much for the outdoors! After about 5 hours of being outside, Max finally gave it up and got in his bed. He was so tired. When it was time for them to eat, Max decided he needed dinner in bed, courtesy of the hubs. Those are the only 2 pics that I took, but we had a really good time! Our great friend Mark grilled some yummy steaks, and Donna fixed a salad bar that would put Ruby Tuesday to shame.

Pending Vacay...

2011-04-12T03:18:00.000-07:00

If you know me, you know that I'm always planning some kind of vacation. We always do something big in the fall for our anniversary. We went to Cabo for our honeymoon and have been wanting to go back since, but it's just been too pricey. Well, when I started looking a couple of months ago, Cabo was in my price range and I was super excited! I was so afraid that with the way that gas prices are, the flight would go through the roof this summer, so I booked our flight last week. We are so excited! I haven't decided where we are going to stay yet, but I am hoping that those prices will go down a bit before I make my final decision. I would love to stay where we stayed on our honeymoon, but they have built a new hotel right beside where we stayed that is not a palace version so it's a bit cheaper. Every time we've done an all inclusive, we've stayed at the Riu hotels. All three times, we've been very impressed with all of the amenities, service and food. I may just go with the cheaper one and we could at least go and visit the other to reminisce on 4 years ago. But it doesn't matter, because on Oct 15th I will be looking at this:

Words Could Never Describe...

2011-04-12T02:16:00.000-07:00

Over the past few weeks we've had several pretty rough storms. In another life, I really think that my husband was a storm chaser. Or he at least wishes he was. Every time Kent hears that a storms a coming, he goes crazy! He loves to sit outside and watch the lightning, wait on the rain, anything that involves a storm, Kent is all about it. So last week, Kent decides that he wants to wait for the storm to come through. He pulls our rocking chairs out on the porch and sits down to wait for it to hit. I love my husband therefore, I took part. Plus the fact it was already dark and no one could really see what we were doing. Last night however, here was the scene: Waaaaaay closer to the road and let's be honest here-he looks ridiculous! I did not take part in this and fought with him for 15 minutes before he finally pulled it back at a semi appropriate spot. He did for a second have the chair all the way in the road and asked for popcorn to watch the "movie."

My Dad Turned 60!

2011-03-06T23:09:00.000-08:00

Last week was my dad's 60th birthday.

I spent the day in Cullman with Loni getting some orders done then headed to dinner at my mom's. Kent wasn't able to go since he doesn't get off owrk until late and it takes 1.5 hours to get to my mom's from Calera. Plus, I had to go to Cullman during the day and order a bridesmaid dress for a wedding I'm in this summer. Therefore, one trip to Cullman was enough with these high gas prices! Anyway, mom cooked a feast! We had smoked ribs, smoked chicken, fried okra, mac and cheese, green beans (my fave!), baked beans, texas toast, cheesy potatoes, slaw, and 2 cakes. I brought one with me from Edgar's bakery and my mom's pastor's wife made the chocolate cake with strawberries.

It was great to go and hang out up there for a while and just chit chat and celebrate my dad. There were 12 people there and we had such a good time. I also delivered Aubrey's new outfit that I made.

These were my first set of ruffle pants to make and I think they turned out really good! She has hit a growth spurt and they will probably only fit her for a month, but at least I know what I am doing now-ha!

My Pups

2011-03-06T10:00:00.000-08:00

So, Kent and I don't have human children, but we do have 3 dogs that fill our house with an abundance of entertainment! I take random pics of my dogs all of the time, so I'm dedicating this post to my "kids." Lucy is our 1.5 yr old Boston that I know is bipolar! She is sooooooo active and will run circles around the coffee table for no reason what so ever! Honestly though, she's my favorite:) Last week she fell asleep on my chest which is actually unheard of, Kent thought that I had held her down to take this, but clearly I wasn't.

Is that not the most precious thing you have ever seen!?! It is to me! This is a normal occurence in our house-Lucy and Frankie fighting over a toy. I really need to come up with a new dog toy that they cannot tear up. Every single rope, stuffed toy, tennis ball is in pieces within a week of bringing it home. I have tried so many different kinds, but pieces of toys wind up all over my house every time. Apparently this is the only recent pic I have of Frankie-she's my least favorite:) I don't take that many pics of her-oops!

Max is our 14 yr old Boston that we adopted last fall. He has really come into his own lately! When we first got him, he really wasn't interested in us or the other pups whatsoever. Now, he is all about sitting on the couch with us and just standing and watching Frankie and Lucy fight over whatever. He still doesn't participate, but I think that is because he's just old. He's really funny to watch. Whenever he goes to sit in his bed, he is so slow to lay down. Most of the time, he doesn't even make it all of the way in the bed. He'll be just halfway in with his butt on the hardwood.

I think he kind of looks like a gremlin in this pic, but he's so cute! I've shared this pic with some of my coworkers and now I wisn that we could've videoed what was taking place at the time. Who knows, we might could've been winners on America's Funniest Home Videos. Anyway, one night Kent was in the kitchen cleaning up after dinner, and yelled for me to come in there. This is what I saw:Apparently Max's Pedigree wasn't enough and he was still hungry. I know it's gross, but we were laughing so hard watching him climb up on there. We just couldn't stop!

I also need to share this pic. Ellen posted it on her twitter the other day. I was at home by myself and when it pulled up, I might've peed on myself I was laughing so hard at this:

Products

2011-03-05T23:21:00.000-08:00

I always talk about going up to Loni's and working on some of our products, but I don't really post a lot of pics of what my side business really does. Therefore, I thought I would share a few pics of some of our newest products. You can also find us on facebook, etsy, and we have our own webside lilypadsandlollipops.com that you can visit.

Here is one of our top sellers:

The tutu set. It's a tutu, shirt, headband or hat with a coordinating bow. We also just started making the coordinating birthday hat to match. Aren't they cute!?!

This was a special order for a little girl's first birthday party. The party had a monkey theme. It's made with minky and fleece fabric which add a lot of texture.

Here's our matching pillowcase dress and seersucker crab t shirt. It's perfect for brother and sister!

This was a custom applique onesie I did for a coworker's niece. She has sent me several pics of Harper wearing it and she is sooooo cute!

And last but not least, our new houndstooth elephant shirt for all of you AL fans out there. We do have a new tiger applique, we just haven't used it yet. Don't worry, that's coming soon for all of you Auburn fans out there!

Brain Dump

2011-02-23T05:50:00.000-08:00

-I was so excited to see that with the Oscars on Sunday, TCM has been having 31 days of Oscar. That means that everyday, all day they have been playing movies that have been nominated or won Oscars. My DVR has been going like crazy and I have a list of movies to watch throughout my off week. Kent has absolutely no interest in most of the movies, so I'm on my own. I will tell you that some of them have been a struggle! It is so amazing to see the difference in eras through the movies. It's definitely interesting to watch some of the black and white movies. I'm watching All About Eve right now and am really enjoying it. It's on Netflix instant watch until Monday, so I'm fitting it in before then. There are a couple that end on March 1st, so we will see if I can make it. I absolutely LOVE Netflix instant watch. It's totally worth it!
-I'm still in total shock that I have 3 dogs in my house. Max has really been an added comedy act to our household. He just stands and watches Lucy and Frankie fight over all of the toys. Speaking of toys, Lucy tears every single toy up into a million pieces within a week of me buying it. Kent's mom gave them a bag full for Christmas and they have all made their way to the trash after Lucy rips them to shreds. Anyone have any suggestions? She tears up ropes, tennis balls, stuffing out of the stuffed animals, I can't find anything!
-Every year Kent and I embark on dieting and swear that we are going to keep it off. I have come to the realization that I have gotten fat! The first step to recovery is admitting that you have a problem, so I am admitting that I have a problem. We started dieting last week and so far, I have lost 4lbs. I am terrified to ask Kent because I have no doubt it's 10-15. He is way ahead of me every time! We are supposed to be doing no carb, but if I'm honest, doing that makes me feel horrible. So therefore, cooking for Kent at night, there are no carbs, but during the day, I eat lightly. So far, so good.
-I really have had a lazy last 2 off weeks. I have had no motivation to really do anything in my house that needs to be done. I really need to get on the ball. The house is not going to get ready to sell on it's own.
-I'm thinking about going to see The King's Speech today. I've seen 1/2 of the movies nominated for best picture and have heard such good things about it. Kent has not interest in seeing it, so if I'm going to see it, I'm on my own.
-We went to the drive in last weekend. It was so much fun! The weather was in the 60s, so we took the camp chairs and sat in front of the car watching the movie. I've only been to one one other time and that was about 13 years ago, so it was an almost new experience. I think we will definitely be doing that more often this summer!
-Friday is my dad's 60th birthday, so I will be going up to Cullman for the first time in almost 2 months. I am in a wedding this summer, so I also have to go and order my dress. Another good reason to be on a diet!

Oscar Watch

2011-02-16T09:39:00.000-08:00

I have always been a huge fan of the Oscars. Last year, I set a goal to watch all of the movies that have won best picture. I made a list and there are 71 movies on the list. The award started in 1927 and I must say that some of the early ones are tough to watch. I am developing a new appreciation for film. I've been able to mark 40 movies off the list, so I'm more than halfway there. I've seen 5 of the 10 nominations for this year's best picture and out of those, I am rooting for Black Swan. I can't wait to see who brings it home this year! I really wish that I had people interested in dressing up and watching the Oscars. I really think that would be fun. Will you be watching?

Book List

2011-02-15T10:12:00.000-08:00

I realized the other day that I have more than 20 books that I have bought over the years that I have yet to read. Therefore, I have formed a list and vowed not to buy anymore until I dwindle down this list. I really plan to read about 1 book a month over the year, hopefully more, just depending on how many times we go to the beach this summer. Kent just finished up the trilogy with Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and has convinced me that it's a must read. I've started the first one, so we will see how different our tastes really are.

I also have 2 books by Kristin Hannah-True Colors and Winter Garden. I've never read anything by her, but they were buy 2 get one free several months back at BAM.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett, they are making a movie based on this book, so it's on the must list!

I also have several by Jodi Picoult. I know that I have liked several books of hers, so hopefully these will be easy reads.

These are the ones on the top of my list. We will see how this all turns out by the end of the year.

Changes Ahead

2011-02-14T22:37:00.000-08:00

Over the past couple of weeks, Kent and I have been talking about moving. We have lived in Shelby County for the past 6 years, and we have decided it's time for a change. I loathe the traffic! We truly have to plan our days around it. If I'm out shopping or running errands around town, I have to be on the interstate and through the junction before 4pm if I don't want to sit forever. It is truly just a hassle. So, a couple of weeks ago, we were out after church one Sunday afternoon and Kent had taken me to Homewood to see some of his customers houses, when he says, "would you like to live here?" I say of course and that's when the ball started rolling. Our plan is to have the house on the market by the first of June so this weekend we started taking care of some cosmetic things around the house that need to be done. We started the humongous task of cleaning out our garage. This is HUGE! We still have a ways to go, but we did throw away a ridiculous amount of things and started a garage sale pile. We plan to have one in April and whatever we don't sell, take straight to the thrift store in Alabaster. Kent finally patched the hole in our kitchen ceiling from the directv man stepping through about 5 yr ago, and he also finished staining and glossing a new front door. There is still work to be done on it, but it is at least hanging. I started better organizing all of my craft stuff so that our front bedroom can be turned into a bedroom instead of a storage facility that looks like Hobby Lobby threw up in. So if you know anyone that is interested in buying a house in Calera, send them my way!!

Day in Auburn

2011-02-03T01:44:00.000-08:00

My older sis turned 30 last week, so Kali Aubrey and I traveled to Auburn to take her out to lunch on Saturday. I'm awful and didn't take any pics of all of us. I did however, ride in the backseat with Aubrey on the way home from lunch and played photographer for her. She was instructing me on what to take a picture of. It mostly consisted of her holding all of her items: Here she is with her puppy whose name was Roxy on the way to Auburn and Sparkles on the way home:

This is her holding her DVD, little TV (her dad's iTouch), her my little pony, Roxy, her leapster, and her new pom poms:Here is "us"and lastly, here is Roxy wearing Aubrey's new pom poms as bracelets:She is just so much fun! We watched the first 10 minutes of Mary Poppins about 3 times since she has to restart the movie each time she gets in the car. She loved the fact that I knew all of the songs and could sing them to her. We had a really great day that included a stop at Gigi's cupcakes, lunch at an Irish pub, browsing through some bookstores, and just chatting at Ashley's. It was a great all girl day celebrating Ashley's 30th.

Great Break!

2011-01-31T06:04:00.000-08:00

Every year, our church starts out with 21 days of prayer and fasting. Each year I try to fast from something different. This year I chose to fast from all social media and carbonated beverages. I did social media last year, and I must say I think that it was a good choice to do that every year! I admit, I become way too consumed with what is going on around me even with people that I don't really know and it's great to take a step back and focus on what is really important! Facebook, twitter, and blogs are not what makes the world go round, even though sometimes I act like it. I had several prayer focuses for the 21 days and I am already seeing results and having peace about many things that are going on in our lives. Hopefully soon I will be able to share more, but please continue to stand in prayer with me over direction and peace for what is to come in 2011. And before you start asking, NO-I'm not preggo:)
Hopefully this week, I will be able to start blogging on a regular basis. I've decided I really want this to be more a journal for what is going on in our lives. Just because I don't have pics doesn't mean I can't blog. It may be boring, but really, that's my life. After a certain point, it's just another day.

Goals

2011-01-06T07:13:00.000-08:00

I've never really been a fan of "resolutions." I think that its really the word, it seems easier for me to come up with some goals for the year, and that's my time frame-1 year. So here we go:
1. Read at least 12 books this year. So that's one a month and hopefully I will be able to do more. We will see. I'm almost finished with my first one, Water for Elephants, and I am LOVING it! I just downloaded 7 free books on my kindle iphone app, so I have plenty ready for me to sit.

2. Go to prayer every day that I am not at work. Next week starts my church's 21 days of prayer and fasting. There are some personal things that I will be focusing on as far as my prayer goes and for the fasting, I am choosing to give up several things. I'm giving up all social media. That means, no facebook, twitter, blogs, anything. I've been slowly weaning myself from all of these so I won't go completely crazy when I cut it all out.

3. Use a planner and stay more organized. I always buy a calendar every year in hopes of keeping up with it, but it seems that I really only keep it up for about 2-3 months then I just stop keeping it. There's really no reason, I just go lax on it.

4. Build my savings account up by $5000. This should be a simple task since both of our cars are paid off. It should be more than this, but of course we are already starting to plan our vacations for the year.

5. Go visit my extended family in Cullman once a month. My grandmother is in her 90s and I am going to make it a point to go and see her and my great aunt and uncle. My grandmother is hilarious! My Aunt Lee and Uncle Pat are both two of the absolute sweetest people you will ever meet in your life. I haven't seen either of them in several months and they are not in the best of health, so I want to go and spend some time with them.

So hopefully in December, I will be able to make a list and say that all of these goals have been met!

Holiday

2011-01-05T11:35:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone, if anyone is reading... Hope all of you had a great holiday and enjoyed some great time with family! I was completely exhausted after all of our tours and we enjoyed some nice down time at the beach last week. It started mid December with my family traveling to Disney. I rode with my older sis and we finally got to the Coronado Springs at 3am. We then got up and ready around 7am and headed to Hollywood Studios. We spent the full day there and Ashley and I headed to Epcot for their fireworks display. Loved it! I was totally bummed the next day when I found out I had missed the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom. Apparently they don't have those every night:( Oh well, the vacation went on... The next day we spent an entire day at the Magic Kingdom and went to Downtown Disney and ate a Planet Hollywood for dinner. I spent a lot of time getting an autograph book signed for Loni's kids, so I have tons of pics of me with characters. It's quite funny. Friday we spent half of the day at Animal Kingdom and the other half at Epcot. Kali and I got to spend some time together that night when her hubs took Aubrey back to the hotel to play. We ended up catching the bus and heading to Hollywood Studios to ride the Rockin' Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror again since those are our favorites. We went back to Planet Hollywood for dinner and ordered the two most expensive things on the menu since it was our last meal to eat on our dining plan. She had an entire slab of ribs and I had a steak that we maybe ate about 1/3 of. Saturday, we went back to ride our two favorite rides as a send off and it started raining. We went to Downtown Disney to finish our souveneir shopping and headed home. I got home around 10pm to my sick little puppy. Lucy had scratched her eye and had a severe infection, so she was on 3 different eye ointments and a pain med twice a day. There was even some talk about her possibly going blind and losing her eye. Thank you Lord it never came to that! She's fine now, she will always have a small scar right in the center of her eye, but you wouldn't know it if you haven't heard about it. The following Monday started my work week back and was Christmas week so that was a definite whirlwind of get togethers and lack of sleep.

Disney World

2010-12-11T01:28:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-05T12:46:00.001-08:00

-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

2010-10-27T23:16:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-10-27T23:08:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-14T03:41:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-30T02:52:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-18T03:12:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-18T03:04:00.001-07:00

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

2010-09-18T02:52:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-07T16:29:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-08-22T01:23:00.000-07:00

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:)

2010-08-14T13:42:00.001-07:00

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

2010-08-14T13:26:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-08-05T02:11:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-05T01:54:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-08-05T01:34:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-02T21:52:00.000-07:00

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:

HOT!!!

2010-07-24T02:46:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but I feel like it has been waaaaaay hotter than normal lately! Our air conditioner has been running non stop every day and it still struggles to stay less than 78 degrees in the afternoons. A couple of weeks ago, I bought some new curtains for our dining room because it seems like when the sun sets, it's just beaming right in. Our dining room and kitchen are open to each other and the walls are a brick red with white trim wainscoting. It was hard to find curtains that would look good in there, so I went with some that I had in my old house. Unfortunately I had to re buy them since I had to "leave all window treatments" in the contract. That's okay, my house sold in 6 months with a downward spiralling market! This is what I got:
So today, I decided that we needed to put some in the den since the double window is facing where in the sun sets too and the ceiling is vaulted. I chose some panels that are room darkening and have a flannel lining and claim that they are "energy saving." We'll see! I have no doubt that my power bill for this past month is gonna be outrageous!!! I'm just wondering if they will really make a difference. Anyway, I chose to go with some crimson panels since the walls in our den are a khaki color and you can see the dining room/kitchen through the arch. I bought these:JUST the panels! I did not buy that valance, I will never buy that valance!! It has lace on it *shudder*!!! I've never really been that in to having curtains on every window, but I'm also not that big on a hefty power bill either, so I guess it's the lesser of two evils.

Books

2010-07-20T03:03:00.000-07:00

So even though I haven't had a lot of time to truly sit down and read, I've been pretending that I have all of the time in the world. I've bought 8 books in the last couple of weeks. I guess I am just lining up my reading list so that I will be prepared for when we leave for the beach for 10 glorious days! :) My book club is currently reading Francine Rivers' Leota's Garden. I'm only about 90 pages into it and I think it's going to be good.
Anyway, I've bought these books this last month so let me know if you have read/heard anything about them:
-An American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
-Breaking Dawn (no I haven't read it yet, but am totally caught up with the others!)
-Beach Music by Pat Conroy
-Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
-True Colors by Kristin Hannah
-A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers
-An Echo in the Darkness by Francine Rivers
-As Sure as the Dawn by Francine Rivers

I also bought Eat Pray Love thinking that I was going to read it before the movie came out, but I don't quite think that is going to happen.

Have you read anything lately that is worth picking up?

Furniture Update

2010-07-19T15:07:00.000-07:00

Well this past week was week #6, so my furniture was supposed to be here. I called on Thursday and was put on hold several times before I talked with a manager. He was very nice and apologized greatly. It was late in the day and the manufacturer was closed so he said they would call me back the next day with a status report.
Well, I worked day shift Friday and missed the call from my salesman that my order had been backed out and I needed to call so that we could discuss "other options."
I was very confused so I just stopped by there on my way home from work. My salesman was with another customer but I ended up speaking with a manager. The furniture that I ordered had so many orders that the new shipping date for everything would now be the end of September.
WHAT!?! My options were to wait with a discount, choose a different set with a discount, or just cancel all together. I was a little bit stunned and wanted to talk to hubs about it before making a decision.
Well, today, I went up there and chose a different set. Even though I was quite upset about the whole issue, everyone up there was very accommodating. It helps that I understood that it was not their fault. They told me what the computer was showing at the time.
Anyway, I ended up getting a set that I had really liked at the time, but chose not to get it because it was a little too expensive. With the discount, and the fact that I had already paid the bulk of the total, this new set was only $100 over my original price range. Plus the fact that I have worked a LOT of extra the past two work weeks, that $100 is taken care of:) Well, without further ado.....

Our new bedroom furniture! It has a lot more storage space than the other and the dresser is the high top, so I am very happy with the change. It's supposed to be here in 2-3 weeks, so here's hoping!!!

Busy

2010-07-19T08:52:00.000-07:00

So much has been going on in the last month, that I feel like I haven't had time to really just sit and think. I've been crazy busy working like a maniac. My last work week I worked two doubles and two twelves, stayed up 2 days for over 24 hours and really didn't feel like "myself." My past two off weeks, I've had one day that I was actually at home and purposefully did nothing. I don't know how it got like that. It's like I was just going throught the motions and only halfway getting things done. I didn't like it!!!! Therefore, I am taking the time to just sit and be still. I used to think that it was important to be involved in everything and if I didn't have something to do, it was weird. I am at a point now where I want to do nothing! I want to just sit and figure out where this life is taking us. There are so many thoughts about is this the time to start a family, are we ready. I know that we will never truly be "ready," but I don't want to wait forever. This October will be our 3rd anniversary. But there is so much to consider when thinking about it.
Both of our cars will be paid off in a couple of months. I only have one more payment for mine and about 3 for Kent's. I want to get some of our debt paid down. We are still paying on Kent's student loans and we have more credit card debt than I ever wanted. So hopefully we will take advantage of no car payments for a couple of months and get this debt to a more reasonable amount.
I want to spend more time with my family on my off week instead of trying to catch up of everything I didn't do when I was at work. Most people are jealous of the fact that I have every other week off, but most of the time I am just trying to catch up. Working night shift is hard. Flip flopping every other week back to a normal sleep schedule can be difficult. I've been so exhausted recently that it's made it a little easier.
Anyway, I feel a little better that I actually wrote this out. I want to get back to regularly blogging. It is something that I have enjoyed over the last two years, and I do have a lot to catch up on.

Outfit

2010-06-12T03:46:00.000-07:00

Kent's first cousin happens to be marrying my BFF's sister, Lauren in August. Everyone is Kent's family has been talking about what to wear, what to wear. I found this dress on shabby apple and fell in love with it.

I got it and it actually fits! I've been on the lookout for the perfect shoes and when I saw Sex and the City 2, I fell in love with Carrie's Christian Louboutin gold glitter shoes. Well, I cannot afford the hefty price of $900 for a pair of shoes, therefore I needed some knockoffs! I've been searching for some and finally found some that I love!

I found them on endless.com and they had free 2 day shipping, so they should be here on Tuesday! And for $40, they are perfect! I am so excited about this outfit. They are getting married at the Tutweiller Hotel and I just know that it will be beautiful! I can't wait until August!

Furniture!

2010-06-11T02:58:00.000-07:00

Back in September of '08, I wrote a post and asked everyone's opinion about some bedroom furniture. Well, guess what I finally did!?! Bit the bullet and finally ordered some! I didn't order any of the 3 that I posted about, but I am super excited about what I did order. When Kent moved into our house, he had a hand me down king size bedroom suite. It's good, it's just not my style. It's a little older and is solid oak. It's done the job for several years, but I wanted bedroom furniture when we first got married, because I just thought that it was the one bedroom that is truly "ours." We registered for bedding, got all of it at our showers and I have refused to put it on our bed until we got new furniture. Yes, it's been 2.5 years and my new bedding is still in the closet. Kinda sad really, but I just wanted to redo the entire thing. I haven't decided if I am going to paint or not, but I am shopping for a rug. We put hardwood down, and I think that a rug would look great coming out of the end of the bed. Here's what I ordered:

And this is our bedding that will soon be taken out of the boxes:)

I cannot wait to get all of this out and put together. I only have about 5 more weeks until it's delivered:) Now I need to find a rug!

MIA

2010-05-25T03:38:00.000-07:00

I've really not blogged much lately. Mainly because I don't really have anything that interesting going on in my life right now. But here's a recap of the last couple of weeks.
-Kent went to the Hangover music festival a couple of weekends ago in Gulf Shores - without me! So that he could see Ben Harper and Trey from Phish. i had to work and he essentially decided at 5pm on Saturday night that he was leaving at 7am the next day.
-I went to the the Tim McGraw/Lady A concert and had a blast sans the hubs! He loathes country music and would rather die a slow and painful death than be succumbed to hours of listening to my favorite genre of music. Therefore, I went with some girlfriends and sang almost every song they played. I wore a plaid dress and a cowboy hat. Kent told me that I should under no uncertain terms should I bring the hat home and that it was absolutely ridiculous to be wearing "a costume" to a concert. Whatever! I had a great time:)
-This past weekend, after attempting a 5k. (I did finish!) We went to Tannehill to the Blues & BBQ festival. I've also never been a great fan of the blues, but hearing it live is waaaaay better than listening on the radio! Anyway, we are sitting there in the scorching hot sun and Kent see's this older lady wearing a blue jean onesie. I realize that we are supposed to call them rompers, but seriously people-you are wearing a onesie! And might I add that said onesies should be left for only small children!!!!
-We also have been to the movies several times in the past couple of weeks. Date Night was super cute! I absolutely love Steve Carrell! So anything that he is in, we're probably going to see. The same night, we turned right around a went to see A Nightmare on Elm Street. Of course it was a cheesy remake, but I love a cheesy horror film! Iron Man 2 was so good. I am a huge fan of Mickey Rourke! And I love the fact that RDJ has really made a comeback after all of his troubles! The final chapter of Shrek was really cute! I really might have to take out a second mortgage if the price of tickets keeps going up. It's just ridiculous! Then last night, we had to go and see MacGruber. OMG!!! It was soooooo ridiculous! Kent loves this kind of humor and to be quite honest, I'm a little over it! This week is what I'm really excited about though! Sex and the City 2!!!!!!! Carrie me away! I've seen every single episode of the TV show and the first movie on more than one occassion.
-I just read Emily Giffin's new book yesterday. Every book that I have ever gotten of hers, I've read in less than 2 days. I just love them all and wish there were more!
-My book club had our first meeting and we had a great time! Even though several could not make it, the 4 of us that were there had a great lunch and great discussion about our first book. I started our new book yesterday and our next meeting is scheduled for 6/30. Which is also the day that Eclipse comes out:=) I don't think I will make it to the midnight showing this time, but I will definitely catch the matinee the next day!

Attn all moviegoers!

2010-05-03T14:20:00.000-07:00

If you know me, you know that Kent and I love to go to the movies. Last night, after I woke up, I decided that we would go to the movies. I've really been wanting to see Date Night with Steve Carrell, so we went to the matinee. It was a little slow at first for me, but it turned out to be really funny once it got moving. We went to the car after the movie was over and Kent asked me if I wanted to go see A Nightmare on Elm Street. We had about 20 minutes before it started, so we just sat in the car and played on our iphones.
About 20 minutes into the movie, I heard a child start crying. Are you kidding me!?!
#1-Who brings their approx 2yr old to a horror movie!?!
#2-If you do #1, get your butt up and take your child out of the theater when they start crying!

I did not pay about $20 to go attempt to watch a movie and listen to your baby crying!

Talk about getting very irritated! I might have shushed a couple of times and then, when the childe started screaming and crying for about the 4th time, I yelled out "Come On!!" A couple of people started laughing and one person clapped.

I am all about taking your child places and doing things, but seriously!?!

Lobster Night

2010-04-25T03:24:00.000-07:00

As you can see, I have yet to upload pics to my last post and I won't have any for this one either until I can find my camera USB cord:( I know it's at my house somewhere, I just can't find it at this specific time.

Anyway, I have a group of girlfriends that I have become really close to from church. We all serve on the hospitality team together and we have really become close over the last 2 years. Each month, we plan a girls night out. If your birthday is that month, you get to choose where we are going to eat/do. Monique's birthday was at the beginning of this month, so she decided that we were going to have our first annual lobster race and execution. She ordered live Maine lobsters that were shipped to her house. Before we cooked them, we had to race them. Most of us already had names picked out for our lobsters from talking about them at work all day. My lobster was Joe. (First name that popped into my head.) We sat them on the starting line and they all just sat there. I was laughing so hard that Joe came in last because I was just standing there watching. Cathy pushed Henry out in the lead and we quickly put them in their respective pots for cooking.
Monique is such a wonderful hostess and had such a beautiful table decorated all things lobster and centerpiece of pink tulips. Our menu included our lobster, salad and twice baked potatoes. Then for dessert, we had an assortment of Edgar's cupcakes to split and share. YUM!!
We all had to be refreshed on how to crack our lobsters (thanks, Jim) and we were off! The company that we ordered the lobster's from sent us bibs and wet wipes to help us try to stay fresh and clean. However, your girl here, can't do anything complicated without dropping, splashing, or just completely messing things up. I was telling a story about eating lobster while Kent and I were in Negril, Jamaica and I completely lost control of my lobster claw and splattered the white filmy stuff all over myself. I'm talking in my eye, on my shirt, all over my face, it was everywhere. Everyone had a really good laugh as I tried to continue with my story.
We had such a good laugh and were having such a great time when the execution was complete.
After stuffing ourselves silly, we moved on to playing the Wii. Cathy's birthday was in January and we have attempted to go bowling twice, but each time, the alley was full and we would've had to wait until after 9:30pm. Honestly, that's past several of our bedtimes:) So we settled for Wii bowling. Cathy whooped us all, and she finally got her chance to show her skills.
It was such a great night spent with such dear friends. Next up in May, we are off to the Tim McGraw/Lady Antebellum concert for Carrie's birthday.
Cathy and I have planned to shop for cowboy hats to wear. I was really wanting to get some cowboy boots, but I don't think that will be in the budget. I might just have to stick with the hat.

BBQ

2010-04-18T23:29:00.000-07:00

So I've totally been a blogging slacker lately, mostly because I really don't think that my life is all that interesting right now. We just haven't had a lot going on lately. But this weekend, we did cook in a BBQ competition this weekend in Auburn. I blogged about it last year when it was a mud pit, but this year, the weather was wonderful! We got there Friday afternoon. Kent dropped me off at my sister's work so that I could catch some sleep at her house while Kent and his parents set up the camper and smokers.
We had a crawfish boil on Friday night and I ate entirely too much food! We got in bed around 11 and woke up at 3am to start the smokers. I sat by the fire and read my book, while Kent was working :) We cooked until we started turning in boxes at 11am. We cooked chicken, ribs, pork, and brisket. We ended up with 7th in ribs and got a small check and iron skillet. We didn't place in anything else, but we had a great time! For our first competition by ourselves, I was very happy with one name call.
After this weekend, I totally feel like we need our own camper. I have developed a love for camping after going with Kent's family on multiple occasions. I've been on the lookout on craigslist and the classified section for a great deal, but I think that I might go to a couple of dealers and see what they might can do. I've heard you can get a good deal on some with this economy. I just want something small. Hopefully within the next year, we will have one. Both of our vehicles will be paid off in a couple of months, so that will be a huge relief! My goal is to be free of car payments until the first of next year and then buy Kent something nice. He's got over 250,000 miles on his truck, so I'm hoping that it will last that long.
I forgot my camera, but hopefully I will be able to upload some pics of the weekend in a couple of days.

More Ramblings...

2010-04-09T01:01:00.000-07:00

So I am sitting at work, reading blogs, making tutus and trying not to fall asleep. I am working for someone tonight so this is really the middle of my off week. I have already had 1 cup of coffee and feel the need to make some more.
Lucy got spayed yesterday. I picked her up this afternoon and she forgets that she's in pain and jumps up on the couch and just whines. It's pitiful. She just doesnt' understand that I can pick her up and put her wherever she wants to be without trying to hurt herself.
Next weekend we are in a BBQ competition in Auburn. Should be interesting! We did it last year with a friend and this year it's just us competing against them. Kent's been practicing like crazy and I must say that I am quite sick of pork!

Ramblings...

2010-04-03T23:36:00.000-07:00

Well, Lilah found a new home a couple of hours after I last posted. She is now with a family with a place on the lake and 2 kids that love her! How wonderful! My husband truly thought that he could bring her home, I would fall in love with her and we could keep her. He quickly found out that was not going to be the case! I did give him the option to fence in the backyard in order to keep her, but he then came to the census that we couldn't afford that.

Last weekend we were in Huntsville again for the Junior League Spring Market. I must say that it was a bust. We paid around $500 for our booth space and at least we made that back. If we would've had to pay for hotels, we would've lost money. Thanks to my friend Amanda, I stayed free about 10 minutes away from the civic center. I must say that the highlight of my trip was getting some more Gigi's cupcakes. Loni and I each bought some and shared them. I even bought a couple of extra to save and take to work to share on Monday night. I will say that so far the coconut and red velvet are the bomb!

I got an iPhone on Monday!!! I'm super excited about it! I've waited a year and a half for my Verizon contract to end. It ended on Thurs and on Monday, we both have iPhones. I'm still figuring everything out, but I'm totally attached. It's awesome! We actually ended up cheaper than what we were paying for both of our old phones. Kent has to have Sprint for work with the whole push to talk CRAP! So now that has been turned over to his job to pay for and we are with AT&T.

Lilah...

2010-03-24T09:18:00.000-07:00

Kent came home yesterday with an abandoned dog. She was in the middle of nowhere with no collar or tag, so we are seeking a new home for her. I would love to have her if my backyard were fenced in but it is not. I just can't handle 3 dogs in the house, especially one that is going to be big. I've named her Lilah, just so that we can call her something. Isn't she cute!?!She's very sweet and here's how she slept last night:

She only woke up once whining and Kent let her out and she came right back in. She's been very gentle with our little ones, so I'm sure she'd be good with kids. She's followed me around everywhere and really loves to eat:)

Spring Market

2010-03-22T00:37:00.001-07:00

Loni and I just finished an arts & crafts show in Huntsville and this weekend we have a booth at the Spring Market. So if you are in Huntsville this weekend, come and visit us at the Von Braun Center. The Easter bunny will be there on Wednesday for photos. Here's the link so you can preview the shops that will be there.

Book Club

2010-03-22T00:29:00.000-07:00

So I never really read books that I was supposed to read in high school, but since I've "grown up" I enjoy reading. I do however, go through phases and will be really into reading and then it seems I just get tired of it and take a break. I've always thought that the concept of a book club is really neat and secretly wanted to be a part of one. Guess what!?! We are starting one! A few girls that I work with always seem to trade out books and be interested in the same type of fiction. So here is our first choice:

I've seen it at the bookstores several times and the reviews are pretty good. Have you read it? Is it good?

We set a realistic goal of one book every 2 months, so I have no excuse! We are planning on meeting at either a coffee shop or restaurant to discuss the books. I'm very excited!!!

Alice

2010-03-04T00:26:00.000-08:00

Who is excited about the new Alice in Wonderland movie!?! I really love Johnny Depp and I think that everything that Tim Burton has a hand in is absolutely incredible, so combine that with one of my childhood faves and we have ourself a winner. At least I hope!
Kent and I will be going to the theater by our house at 7pm tomorrow night, so I will let you know how it goes.

Black Eyed Peas!!!

2010-02-18T01:22:00.001-08:00

How much fun did I have you ask...OMG!!! SO much fun!!! I totally could've done without LMFAO though. I felt it very inappropriate to have a 10 yr old sitting next to me while the group is singing about positions in the bedroom, if you know what I mean! Then Ludacris came out and I couldn't believe how many of his older songs I knew. I must be a secret Luda fan-Haha!

Then the Black Eyed Peas came out. The effects, the lighting, everything was amazing! In the middle, each member took a few minutes and sang a little by themselves. During Fergie's part, she sang Fergilicious, Glamorous, and Big Girls Don't Cry. I don't think that I have ever sang that loud at a concert. Jennifer and I were singing at the top of our lungs having so much fun!

The encore was Boom Boom Pow and I Got A Feeling. This is one concert that I will never forget! Thanks Jennifer! I had a blast and can't wait till our next adventure!

Sips 'N Strokes

2010-02-18T01:17:00.000-08:00

In January, a couple of my friends and I went to Sips n Strokes. We are all Alabama fans and we were painting an abstract version of Bear Bryant's hat. We had a great time hanging out and laughing at each other. I am truly not an artist, but mine turned out okay. I didn't get a shot of all of our finished product, but this is me & Loni with our masterpieces:

Fun with Aubrey

2010-02-18T01:15:00.000-08:00

I got to keep our niece several weeks ago and just wanted to share a picture of part of our day. Kali told me that if I had stickers, I would be her new best friend. Well, does this tell you something...

We are closer than ever! It was so much fun!

Concerts

2010-02-13T08:23:00.000-08:00

I'm incredibly excited about tonight! It's the Black Eyed Peas concert and I am going! I also just bought tickets to go see Tim McGraw and Lady Antebellum in May. I have always enjoyed going to concerts and seeing live music. Tuesday, I was out with some girlfriends from church and we decided that our girls night out in May is going to be the Tim concert. I guess our next GNO will be buying cowboy hats to wear:) Kent has absolutely NO desire to go to either concert so it is a girls only affair! I'm really looking forward to going with Jennifer tonight! We went to the Celine Dion concert together before and had a blast, so I know that tonight will be no exception! Well, now I have to decide what to wear...

Fasting...

2010-02-03T02:54:00.000-08:00

Every January, our church does a 21 day period of prayer and fasting. The main thing is that you must fast something that is very important to you therefore, you can focus on what is really important. So much of my time over the last year has been consumed with social media. I'm on twitter, facebook, and blogs for a good amount of my time each day. Last year I fasted meat and was a vegetarian for 3 weeks. It was hard, but I have always loved veggies, so it wasn't THAT much of a sacrifice for me. Don't get me wrong, anytime you tell me that I can't have something, it only makes me want it that much more. It's just my instinct. This year, the week before the fast started, I couldn't decide what to fast. I thought about doing meat again, but hubs has decided that we are going to be on the Atkins diet, so that would've been me with no carbs or meat. Just not really that feasible. So Wednesday night before the fast I thought that I had left my iPod charger at work. Well, when I got to work, I couldn't find it and went BANANAS! I was completely beside myself about the fact that I wasn't going to be able to check my email, facebook, or look at twitter for the next 8 hours. It was truly ridiculous! I thought about my actions and decided that I would give up all social media for 21 days. GASP! I didn't know about making it 8 hours, much less 21 days.
Well, guess what!?! I made it! Surprisingly enough I really didn't miss it all that much and my time was much better spent. I worked on building up our inventory for our business. I (tried) to read a book. And of course, I watched A LOT of movies.
I don't have any last affects such as tremors, twitches or shakes. So I am okay. The world is still turning and I am still ticking. I will continue to blog, be on facebook, and twitter. However, I will not let it consume as much time as I let it prior to the fast.
It's amazing what God will show you when you slow down and listen!

Convo at my House Tonight

2010-01-05T20:26:00.000-08:00

Kent: I'm starting the no carb diet. I am eating a grilled chicken salad tonight and an omelet tomorrow. Are you going to do it with me?

Me: *sigh* yes

Kent: What you don't want to eat healthy?

Me: I'm a b!$#@ when I don't eat carbs.

Kent: You're a b!$#@ when you're on any diet.

Me: What can I say, I love food!?!

New Years at the Beach!

2010-01-05T01:31:00.000-08:00

I have a truly unhealthy love for the beach! It just seems that I can't get enough, and truth be told, we should probably just live there! Maybe one day in the future I will own a beach house...

Anyway, we spent 4 blissful days at the beach with Kent's family over last week. As I mentioned before, we had a blast! We drove down on Wednesday and kicked off the good eating at one of our faves Bahama Bob's. Crawfish po boy-you are my friend! Here's Kenny and Donna on the way down-can you say Beverly Hillbillies!?!

Then Thursday we took it easy, ate a late breakfast at Big O's and headed to the outlets for some shopping! Friday, we cooked-all day! We started out cooking breakfast, then I assembled my apple pie and had to let it sit and marinate in the fridge for a while. I forgot to take a pic of it before it was cut but it was so pretty! It had stars all over the top!

At 3pm we started cooking the main meal. Kent had already smoked 2 boston butts, so we just had to heat those up. But oh my! We had mac & cheese, hashbrown casserole, cabbage, turnip greens, hoppin john, cornbread, potato salad, and rice. I'm sure I've forgotten something. It was a feast! It was oh so good too!!! The men did a lot of this:

And I got to hang out with my BFF Heather

We played spoons, pit, pictonary, scategories, put a puzzle together, played Wii, watched football, and read by the fire pit. But mainly, we just spent a great time with our great family! Some had to leave on Saturday so we all had lunch at Lulu's and headed to the state park pier. Can you say cold!

We got to see someone catch a big redfish and then it was time to head back to the house. We just ate leftovers for dinner and started packing up everything. Check out time was at 11, so Sunday we got Shrimp Basket to go and headed back to good ole Calera. We couldn't really go in anywhere since we had the dogs. People might frown upon us for leaving them in an extremely cold car by themselves. I really think that they enjoyed being at the beach as much as we did! So many people meant so much play time for them. They were pooped by Friday night!

Now it's back to reality! What a bummer! But this little face is so precious!

The rest of Christmas

2010-01-05T01:22:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more pics from our family Christmas get togethers.

This is a truly messed up attempt at a family picture with Kent's family. This is unfortunately the best one since hubs decided to act a hot mess the entire time.

This was prior to all of the shenanigans-Kent and Donna (my mother in love)

This is Lauren and me:

Fortunately for me, Lauren is my BFF's sister who just so happens to be marrying Kent's first cousin. Therefore, Heather and I will be semi related. (Haha!)

We also traveled to Cullman for both my mom's side and my dad's side of the family. This is all of the grandchildren with our 90yr old grandmother. She's still feisty as ever! Take in mind that this was after I had been up all night working, so yes, I look a hot mess!

Aubrey cheesing for the camera:When Aubrey was first starting to make some decisions about who she liked and who she didn't want to have anything to do with, Uncle Greg was top on the list of her , "I do not like you" list! Every time he would come into the room, she would start screaming. I call this progress! She now loves him!

Happy 2010!!

2010-01-02T08:33:00.000-08:00

We have been at the beach since Wednesday and it has been soooooo much fun! We have eaten way too much food, been way too loud and had too much fun-if there is such a thing. We rented a 6 bedroom duplex on Fort Morgan road with a wonderful view of the ocean. I haven't made it quite to the ocean yet, but I have thoroughly enjoyed sitting on the balcony with a cup of coffee reading a book. The dogs have had the time of their little lives. Sometimes Lucy doesn't quite know what to think with so many people around. Well, we are off to Lulu's for lunch so I will catch ya later! Hope everyone is having a great 2010 so far!

Big Green Egg

2009-12-23T03:23:00.000-08:00

**Side note: this is the 4th time that I've posted tonight so scroll on down to start from the beginning.**

In the previous post, I explained how we surprised Kent with his present Saturday night. Well, here it is all put together. Kent had to cook on it Sunday afternoon and we had some delicious smoked chicken.

Lucy didn't really like the fact that we were outside and she wasn't...

First Family Christmas

2009-12-23T03:02:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday, my immediate family came to our house for our Christmas get together. It was the first of many this week. I have 4 more starting Thursday night. Add in the fact that I am working night shift and trying to sleep and make all of the family Christmases, it's going to be a week of not sleeping! But that's okay, it's not about me! I've gone without sleep before! I started the prep early in the week trying to get some things done in the house. Friday night, I made a home made carrot cake. YUMMO! Then Saturday, everyone was coming around 4 to hang out, open presents then eat. I planned the menu a couple of weeks before hand and finally got everything together. The highlight of the night was watching our 2yr old niece open her presents. She had such a great time! She tore piece by piece of the paper off and had to hand each tiny piece to someone.

After she finished, we all opened our gifts and Kent was totally surprised!!! Both of our families had gone in together to buy him a Big Green Egg. It's a top of the line smoker/grill. If you know my husband, he LOVES to smoke BBQ and put anything on the grill. We own 4 smokers and grills so I was hoping that since he got the top of the line, we might can get rid of a couple. (Wishful thinking.) I had wrapped the nest and accessories for him to open and the egg was in the back of my sisters truck wrapped in a sheet. When he opened the nest, he just kind of looked at me. I asked him if he would like to go outside. He had absolutely no clue!!! Such fun! My sister got some good pics of him opening up the nest and his surprised face.

Then we ate...and ate...and ate. Our menu consisted of coconut shrimp, grilled shrimp, roasted potatoes, green beans, corn salad, and grilled corn on the cob. Plenty of desserts and some caramel apple cider to top off the night. After dinner, Aubrey had to dress up in her Cinderella costume and cast spells on all of us:Such a great night with such a great family!!!

My Christmas Tree

2009-12-23T01:57:00.000-08:00

At the request of some fellow coworkers, I took some pics of my Christmas tree. I decorated our unit's tree and I thought it turned out really well. I've gotten so many compliments on it, but it's just not really my style. It's very classic, while my style is quite the opposite. Here's a comparison:

My tree at home:

My two favorite ornaments were a wedding present from my favorite patients-red and green polka dots with our initials in black and white polka dots:

The topper is just an explosion of sparkling snowflakes and dots. This doesn't really show you the true colors, but they are silver, hot pink and green.

I must apologize for the next pic, I totally forgot that I don't know how to rotate it so it's sideways, but it's a good pic of how it looks all lit up.

The rest of my decorations are just bright colors. I got my teal tree skirt from Pier 1 on clearance a couple of years ago and I still love it!

Here's the tree I decorated for work. Very classic, just red and gold.

I thought that the bells would be a different kind of topper and I love the fan of peacock looking feathers coming from behind it.

Crafts & Cupcakes!

2009-12-23T01:51:00.001-08:00

The first weekend in December was our 3rd time to be in an arts & crafts show. It was in Huntsville on that Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We did really well and plan to continue to be in the NEACA shows up there. We had some new items that really were a hit and if you need a personalized badge reel, I can hook you up!

Well, Loni's chiropracter had told her that he was probably going to be coming with his wife to the show and asked if we had ever had Gigi's cupcakes. Neither one of us had even heard of them, so he brought us a sampling. OMG!!!!! Can you say heaven in a box!?! He brought us a mint chocolate apple spice, coconut, and regular with pink icing. Can you see how amazing they were?

And do you see how high this icing is?

I might have to make a special trip to Huntsville just for Gigi's!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving

2009-12-08T01:46:00.000-08:00

The holiday traveling season has truly began! The fact that we live about 45 min from Kent's family and about 1.5 h away from mine, means that we are just constantly in motion throughout the holiday seasons for all of our get togethers. Kent's mom and I both worked Thanksgiving day. She works days and I work nights. When I asked her what we were going to do, she had decided that we could all just eat a Cracker Barrel that night, then cook one night the next week. We already had plans the Sat afterward for my family's dinner. Kent has never been a big fan of Cracker Barrell (crazy-I know!), so when he found out his mom's plans, he decided that he would just cook everything himself. He mixed up the dressing a couple of weeks ago and froze it so that he would be ahead of the game. His sis made homemade mac and cheese and he fixed the rest. The menu was: fried turkey, smoked ham, black eye peas, green beans, mac & cheese, rolls, dressing. Way too much food for all of us, but it did provide us with plenty of left overs for the rest of the weekend. Here's the happy cook. So proud of all of his creations!

#200

2009-12-08T01:25:00.000-08:00

Well, I know that I've been a little MIA these past few weeks, but last weekend was our Christmas arts and crafts show that we were in, so I'm about to be settled back in with my normal broadcasting of my boring life.

This is my 200th post. That's bananas! I really don't have anything exciting planned, just wanted to catch up on all that has been going on these last couple of weeks. Two weekends ago, Kent and I went to the GA vs KY game. I had gotten Kent the tickets for our anniversary. He's a big GA fan and had never been to a game at GA. We've been to a couple of GA vs AU games, just never in Athens. This was also my first time to ever go to Athens. What a great time we had! We got there early and ate at Mellow Mushroom and walked around the shops for a little bit before just sitting in chairs beside our car just talking before we went into the game. The stadium is beautiful! The entire set up is really neat and there is a road that you can walk on that is directly beside the stadium end zone.

We were a little sad before we left since UGA had passed. The mascot is such a vital part of the GA tradition, so they played a little memorial video before the game. The dog house was right below us and had a black wreath on top.

But don't worry, Kent did get to see an English bulldog as we were walking to the game. Of course he had to have his pic made with David Pollock.

And of course I got my history lesson throughout the day on mindless facts about GA. We drove about an hour toward home before we stopped for the night. The next day, we went and ate a The Varsity on our way home. I've seen it on the Travel Channel on the show Hot Dog Paradise. It's very interesting that this small hot dog restaurant can sell and feed to around 10,000 customers a day. We got there right as it was opening so it had not gotten too busy yet. We just had the most popular items-chili dogs.

Even thought GA didn't win, we still had a great time spending the weekend together not at home.

Wish List

2009-11-25T02:00:00.000-08:00

Last year, around Christmas, I posted a this wish list. Mind you I only got one thing listed, (only because I bought it-hubs does not take hints) but I thought I might as well do it again this year.

I would still love to have the Kindle...

However, I did download the free app on my iTouch and it works the same, just the screen is sooooo much bigger on the Kindle.

New boots...

I went to DSW last week and found these boots. Are they not awesome!?! I carried them around for 30 minutes contemplating whether or not to buy them. Suddenly, I had a come to Jesus moment and He told me to put them up and immediately leave the store. I obeyed, reluctantly and am so glad I did. I ended up with a $165 vet bill on Monday that was supposed to be around $70. No boots for me. (At least right now.:))

I've always wanted some Dansko shoes for work. A lot of my coworkers have some and always talk about how comfy they are. Well, last week I saw these:These are screaming my name! Zebra print-OMG!!! It is an obsession, but I LOVE it!!!

Books: I have a list of books that I would love to have the time to read:

Karen Kingsbury-Take Two, Shades of Blue

Stephanie Meyer-Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, The Host

Sophie Kinsella-all of the shopaholics books

Lastly, I would like to get a new Blu ray DVD player that has Netflix streaming with it. Our blu-ray player has been on the fritz and the price has gone waaaaay down since I bought ours last year.

Time flies!

2009-11-25T01:52:00.000-08:00

WOW!!! Is Thanksgiving really tomorrow!?! These past couple of months seem to have just flown by and I can't seem to catch up. Loni and I are in an arts & crafts festival next weekend, so all of my free time is consumed with making bows, bow holders, letters, sewing, painting...... the list goes on and on. I have yet to put up my Christmas tree and I must say that it is stressing me out! My family is coming to our house on the 19th and I really wanted to have my Christmas village out, multiple trees up and the house to be more organized, but I don't think that it will be up to par. We just have so much clutter! Last week I bought a new cube shelf for my "craft room" and tried to organize things a little better, but now that I have been working non stop on items, everything is just strewn about. I know Kent is about to have a conniption fit because of all of the stuff I am working on. Hopefully after next weekend I can put it all away for at least a month and reorganize my life and house! That's the plan anyway!

Is everyone else as busy as we are around the holidays? I have my schedule of all of the get togethers and we are booked solid on Saturdays until next year. I guess that's all a part of being married and trying to work all of the get together's in without hurting anyone's feelings. But I must say that it is incredibly tough when you work night shift, have to sleep at some point, and live 1.5h away from my family and 45 min away from hubs family. Oh well, that is the life we live...

Pageant

2009-11-16T03:18:00.001-08:00

Last Tuesday night was my niece's beauty pageant. They had a Las Vegas theme and I thought that I was going to roll in the floor when I found out they were having an Elvis impersonator.

He sang several songs then the pageant began. They divide them into their grades and there was only 7 people in Lindsey's group. Therefore they only had a winner and a first alt. They also gave awards for teacher's choice and most photogenic. Lindsey won first alt and I couldn't be more proud! She's beautiful and she carries herself with such grace!

It's so hard to believe that she's only 15...

Fun With Lucy

2009-11-16T03:11:00.000-08:00

So apparently, my blog has gone to the side while I am busy trying to puppy train and build up inventory for our business since we are in an arts and crafts show in barely over 2 weeks. Add that and the fact that this has been my work week-my life is nonstop right now.

So, I thought I could at least show you some pics of my sweet puppy love. She LOVES to play!!! She also has no intention of letting me get much sleep during the day either, so sorry if you've been around me, I've been a bit cranky. She especially loves the rope toys that we have.

Playing tug of war with Frankie:

Kent bought her a little be that she is quickly outgrowing, but she still loves to sleep on it:Can you say ridiculous!?! Then for Halloween, she had a pumpkin bandanna:She's just precious!

Longest post ever!

2009-10-29T02:36:00.000-07:00

We flew into Cancun airport and had a private car pick us up and take us the 45 min drive to our hotel. It was really good timing since we got there right at check in time. We unpacked everything and then went to get something to eat. It was around 4, so we decided to go ahead and go to the beach. As soon as we stepped foot onto the sand, it started sprinkling. We thought that maybe it wouldn't last and got into the ocean. Well about 2 minutes later, it started pouring down rain so we went back to our room. We got ready and just walked around the resort for the rest of the night. We ate at the buffet and went to bed a little early since we had been up since 4am. Sunday and Monday were spent just lounging by the pool and ocean just trying to soak up the sun. Everyday we were there it rained. But most days it lasted less than an hour. Tuesday was a really pretty day and we had booked a snorkeling tour. We paid for a group tour since it was way cheaper, but when the tour guide got there, we were the only people going that day. Therefore, we ended up with a private tour for the group price. Nice! Kent had given me snorkeling equipment for my birthday. Everyone was oooohhhing and aaaahhhing over it. I was a little nervous to put it down the way they were talking about it. We started off by snorkeling around turtle bay. We were swimming with humongous sea turtles! They were a little bit intimidating when they came up for air right beside you. We snorkeled around a coral reef and saw tons of different fish. We saw a huge barracuda and a grouper. Then we took a drive out through a Mayan village. Next stop was the cenote. It's just a cave of freshwater in the middle of the jungle. The clearest water I've ever seen. They said that it stays the same temp year round-COLD!!! I had to get adjusted to it! We swam through different caves, saw some great static tides and saw a lot of bats flying around. The only fish in there were just little bitty fish that you can buy at WalMart. When we were leaving out, our guide stopped at one of the villages and we got to feed a spider monkey. It had the biggest hands and feet ever!

When we were leaving, Kent spotted this giant lizard lurking on the tree next to our car.

That night, we had reservations at the steakhouse restaurant in our resort and I tried rack of lamb for the first time. I really like it! I will definitely be ordering that again. After dinner, we walked to 5th Ave. Lots of shops and places to eat. You can also catch the ferry to Cozumel there too. Of course, every time you walk by a shop or booth, people are standing outside trying to get you to come in and buy something. I have a knack for ignoring people. Apparently Kent needs more practice. When we walked over toward the beach, Kent started talking to one of the excursion people. I proceeded to keep walking trying to get Kent to follow suit. 20 minutes later, Kent has signed us up to go see a timeshare opportunity in the morning. On my nerves! Kent of course has absolutely no intention on going and wastes about 30 min of every ones time. The next day, we went back to eat lunch and strictly avoided that street and booth. We ate at Los Rancheros. We shared the Mexican platter with chicken and steak kabobs, fajitas, sausage, ribs, beans, chips, salsa, rice, veggies, and quesadillas. They served it on a ceramic pig that had a candle in it to keep everything warm. The food was soooooo good! Here we are at the restaurant:
And here's our food:
Every night there is a different show for our entertainment. Wednesday night there was a Michael Jackson show. They reenacted most of the greatest songs.

Thursday was our last day and we planted ourselves on the beach and by the pool. Here were my views:

It was a great relaxing vacation! I read 3 books, we watched a couple of movies, and just spent some great quality time together! Can't wait to see what the next few years have in store...

A few more pics:

Lucy

2009-10-28T01:54:00.000-07:00

Friday, on our way home from the airport, we made a detour in Alexandria to pick up our new puppy. She's a full blooded Boston Terrier and she is PRECIOUS!!! She is so cute and so much fun. (Except when I am working night shift and trying to sleep during the day.) She just bounces and hops everywhere. She love to chew and bite-everything! Kent bought her a little bed and she sleeps with her back half in it and the front half on a pillow. We took her to Tannehill Saturday so that our niece and nephew could play with her. This is how she chose to ride:

She climbed up there herself and eventually layed down and went to sleep. :) Frankie is having a tough time not being queen of the castle anymore and pretty much just ignores her. But in time I know that will get better.

Teaser Post

2009-10-28T01:49:00.000-07:00

So I started this post, added tons of pictures and then somehow deleted all but 6. This was going to be the Picture Overload post, but instead, just a short version. We had an absolute blast! I will write more details from the trip tomorrow.
When we walked into the lobby, this was the arrangement:

An abundance of my favorite flowers: stargazer lilies.

I thought about Trina when I saw this:

Huge vases of peacock feathers in the lobby.

Every day we had a different towel animal.

Here was our view from our balcony:

You can't see it in this pic, but we could see the cruise ships at Cozumel.

And here we are lying in a hammock one night after dinner:

I'll post more details tomorrow with more pics. Descriptions of our meals and snorkeling adventure to come...

Long Day!!!

2009-10-28T01:47:00.000-07:00

The Thursday before we left to go to Mexico my BFF Heather finally had Addison. I was able to be at the hospital and meet the little cutie shortly after she was born. That Friday was the day before we left. I had a big day planned since I still had a lot of packing and cleaning to do before we left at 5am Saturday morning. I had worked that Thursday night, so I got home from work and slept about 3 hours. I woke up and finished Heather's hooter hider that I was making for her before I went to see them one last time before leaving for a week. I also planned to go to the post office and mail out a custom order from our website so they would get it while I was gone. I was rushing around before I left and apparently left my brain at home. I got to the post office and had left my wallet at home. I had a $10 and thought surely that would be enough to mail off the package and then realized that I had left the address at home too. Awesome! I was trying to get everything done early so that I could be home around 4. I live in Shelby County-Traffic. is. HORRIBLE!!!!! If I have to drive during the day, I plan my day around the traffic. My plans were quickly changing and I thought that everything would work out just in the opposite schedule. Go see Heather, come home and make it back to the post office before 4. Life was good. I thought. I was so happy to get to see that Heather was feeling better and I got to hold Addison for more than 5 minutes, the hooter hider was a hit. Life was good. I was trying to leave around 3 and suddenly realize that there are no keys in my purse. Life was NOT good. I drive a Volvo. I have no wallet. I live in Shelby County. Everything was quickly crumbling. FYI-the security dept at the hospital can break into your car if it's a 2000 model or older. FYI-it costs at least $80 for a locksmith to even show up where you are. FYI-my husband was in the middle of a meeting and ended up not getting home until after 8:30 that night. FYI-I still haven't packed a single thing in a suitcase and I leave in about 12 hours.

I was so upset with myself. I ended up calling my mother in law who came to the rescue and took me home. I tried for about 15 minutes to unsuccessfully break into my house then my neighbor came over and it took him about 2 seconds. Good to know. I think the dead bolt will be locked even if I am at home from now on. I retrieved my extra key, my wonderful mother in law got to see our house in a very disastrous state (embarrassing!!!) and then helped fold a monstrous pile of clothes. The night was not a total disaster since I got to spend it with one of my favorite people just talking it up as we sat in traffic. I also decided that since the day was already totally gone, we might as well have something good to eat. I <3 Zoe's!!!

I ended up getting home around 8pm and only stayed up till a little after midnight finishing up what I had planned on doing that day. Then we woke up around 4 and headed to Atlanta to catch our flight.

Kari Jobe

2009-10-13T23:18:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday night, Kari Jobe was at our church. Amazing doesn't even begin to describe how it was!!! There were many times I was brought to tears just from the presence of God being so strong. There were so many people there, they had to send people up to the overflow room. I have since downloaded her CD on iTunes and have been listening to it non-stop. If you haven't heard of her, go to her website NOW!!! Or you can just hop on iTunes and take my word for it, it's definitely worth it!

Scary Story

2009-10-13T22:59:00.000-07:00

The other day, I was reminiscing about one of my trips to NYC and remembered a sticky situation we were almost in. When my younger sis graduated from high school, we went to NYC. There were 4 of us ranging in age from 18-23. I had been twice before, so I kinda knew a little bit about how to get from here to there. Especially when you mainly want to do all of the same sight seeing and buying Coach or Louis Vuitton purses on the street. I may or may not have several of those. :) Anyway, if you've been, you know that you are approached by numerous people in front of stores asking if you would like to buy a name brand purse/bag at a discounted price. Said bags may be knock offs or stolen, but this process is completely illegal. (Didn't know that for a while.) Anyway, three of us were on our way back to the hotel when we were approached by a man. I said sure and proceeded to follow him into a building. I had heard of the "back rooms" before and just thought that he was going to be taking us there. Well, he proceeds to get in line for the elevator. We are right behind him and I see him motion to two other bigger men. This is the point that the knot forms in my stomach. I fiddle with my phone, trying to think of a plan to get us away when the elevator door opens. One look and the Lord took over. I threw my hands in the air and starting saying, "Claustrophobic, OMG! Claustrophobic!!!" and high tailed it out the door with my sis and her friend following me. The men were saying something about stairs, but we were so far out the door almost running toward our hotel before ever looking back. My life flashed before my eyes with a headline reading "Three Holly Pond Girls Missing in NYC." Needless to say, we never walked along that part of the street again, nor attempted to go into any "back rooms" from that point on. I love some Coach and Louis Vuitton, but I love my life so much more! I just thank God that my instincts kicked in when they did and we never had to find out what might have been.

Have you ever been in a scary situation?

Two Years Ago

2009-10-13T00:05:00.000-07:00

Two years ago today, I married my best friend. We've been through quite a bit in our first couple of years, and we've made it through stronger than ever! I can honestly say that I love him more today than yesterday. I never really understood that expression until now. I guess that comes with getting older. We have so much fun together. Even though he can get on my nerves at times picking on me. I know that all of my sewing and crafting lately has driven him a little batty lately too. :) I am so incredibly excited to see what the next years have in store for us. Saturday, we are leaving for Mexico for 6 stress free nights, then we are coming home and picking up Lucy to join our family. It's going to be a good October!

New Addition...

2009-10-05T15:29:00.000-07:00

Meet Lucy-she's my new puppy:

She's 5 weeks old in this pic and I will be going to visit her this weekend. We are not bringing her home until we get back from Mexico since we will be gone for a full week. I just don't think it would be fair to bring her home, then leave her for a week. Isn't she precious!

Countdown is On

2009-10-02T23:50:00.000-07:00

I 2 weeks, I will be on my way here:

I am a little overly excited at this point! I went on a shopping spree a couple of weeks ago to Macy's since I had a $25 off a $100 purchase. I ended up with 5 shirts, 1 pair of shoes, 1 pair of shorts and 1 dress. I only spent $86 out of pocket. I was super excited! I bought a few things off of Forever 21 the beginning of this week too. This next week, I will be going to Brookwood mall to spend my gift certificate from my wonderful girlfriends! YEAH!!!

Beach Getaway

2009-09-28T13:41:00.000-07:00

Last week, I went on our "annual" work girls beach getaway. I say "annual" very lightly since only 3 of the 7 girls from last year went. I guess when you are 38 weeks preggo, it's not that great an idea to travel 4h away from home-Heather or just had a baby less than 3 months ago-Jennifer. (We missed you girls!) But, we had 9 ladies this year. We stayed at the Lighthouse condominiums, which I love! We left on Monday morning and stayed 3 nights. We had a blast! We stopped and ate at Lambert's on the way down and had a pretty low key night. Wednesday the weather was PERFECT!!! I even got a little pink:) I planted myself on the oceanfront at about 8:30 am and stayed until about 5. Minus the time it took to eat lunch at Bahama Bob's. YUMMO!!! My favorite! I got to meet up with one of my long ago co-workers since she was down there for a wedding, which was awesome! I started reading a new book, but only got about 1/2 way through it. I definitely overshot how much I was going to read! I took 3 books and only read 1/2 of one. Oh well, it was great to catch up with friends!
Haley and I with a sweet view from our balcony:

The whole gang:

Haley, Jillian, and Savannah at Live Bait our last night out:

When I got back, Kent told his friend that we would watch their 2 kids while they were away for the weekend. Guess what, they brought the stomach bug with them. I was up all night Sat night, Kent was up all night last night. So, I'm glad I had a break at the beginning of the week. Unfortunately, it's back to work tonight for 7 days. UGH!!!

New Items!

2009-09-14T23:34:00.001-07:00

Check out the etsy store ! I just added 5 new items!

Taylor Swift

2009-09-14T22:23:00.000-07:00

Friday night, I took my friend Brooke to the Taylor Swift concert. Brooke turned 16 this summer and the tickets were her present. The only catch was that I was going too! :) The concert was a sell out, so I bought our tickets off of ebay. I got a great deal and only paid about $10 over the original cost. We were in the upper level about halfway down the civic center, so we really had a good view. A new group Gloriana opened up first and played for about 30 minutes. I have heard one of their songs and I really think they did a great job! I am going to look up more of their music.

Then Kellie Pickler played. I was very impressed! I could sing along with a couple of her songs.

But then it was time for the big act. In which I knew EVERY song...
We had such a great time! Even though Taylor is 17, you would never know it! She put on an incredibly great show! We didn't leave our seats until 11:15.

A couple of months ago, I watched a Dateline special on Taylor Swift and found out that she designed everything. From the wardrobe, to the lighting, to the special effects, etc. So now that I got to see it in person, it was great for it to come full circle.

At one point after one of the songs, the crowd was just going crazy! For about 5 minutes straight, she just looked like this:

Like she just couldn't believe everyone was that loud. She finally got everyone to hush and said that she would never forget that moment from Birmingham.

Sweet "Tater" Festival

2009-09-14T22:15:00.000-07:00

Labor Day weekend, Lily Pads & Lollipops made our debut at our first arts & crafts show. It was the sweet tater festival in Crane Hill. We had a 18 x 12 foot area to decorate and set up as we wanted too. It was half a day on Sunday and all day on Monday. Sunday it rained, and rained and rained. It was quite the swamp! By about 1:30, the sun came out and there was a good amount of people that showed up. Monday a lot of people came, but we didn't sell much more than we did on Sunday. We did make a profit and are putting it toward our next show, which starts Friday!

Loni got a call Friday morning that there was a cancellation at the NEACA fall festival at the Huntsville Civic Center!

So we are working our butts off to get more made before then.

Anyway, here is our display. Let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions to make things stand out more...

The Bow Table

Burp Cloths, Hooded towels, wipes cases & tag blankets

Bow holders hanging in the background and a table displaying the diaper and wipes cases that I made

Special order nursery letters

"It's My Birthday!!"

2009-09-04T00:39:00.000-07:00

If you have been anywhere around me in the past week, you know that my birthday was Thursday. We started the festivities last Sat night when my parent came down and took Kent and I to Firebirds at Patton Creek. I'd never eaten there but several people told me how good it was. I ordered the wood grilled salmon with parmesean mashed potatoes & steamed veggies. It was sooooo good! I forgot to take my camera, so there are no pics. :( Monday, my sister, niece and mom came down and we ate lunch at Cafe Lazio. I love their greek salads. Neither my mom nor Kali had ever eaten there, so I introduced them to a new restaurant. Everyone loved it except for Aubrey. She really wasn't in the mood to eat lunch.

Wednesday night, Kent gave me my present-snorkeling equipment!!!! I am so excited! When we were on our honeymoon and last year when we went to Jamaica, we had to rent our equipment and both times, the masks and mouthpieces were too big for my face. Now I have my own and it is scuba grade, so that when we get scuba certified, I already have some equipment.

Thurs morning, I received several phone calls and texts, but when I woke up, my facebook had blown up with the messages! Thank you all so much! I have such an incredible group of friends! Then I had to get ready to go to Superior Grill. My favorite kind of food is anything Mexican and they have the best cheese dip! So we met up with Kent's family & my BFF Heather.

They even brought me a super cute cake from Edgar's. Can you say YUMMO!!!

Of course, the waitors sang to me and called me "mamasita." Unfortunately, no sombrero.
Then my sister-in-law decided that the box needed to sing to me too.

We had such a great time!

Then, tonight at work, my wonderful co-workers threw me another Mexican fiesta! It wasn't a surprise, but when I walked in the door, they were having fun!
They had me quite the spread! Chicken, ground beef, a quesadilla maker, nachos, burritos, rice, awesome guacamole, cheese dip, whatever I wanted. I stuffed myself yet again! And to top it off, Sue made her famous pineapple cake...

So thank you to everyone! I am truly blessed beyond what I deserve having the greatest family, friends, and coworkers ever!

What I've Been Doing...

2009-09-04T00:35:00.000-07:00

I posted about my new business venture a month or so ago, and showed you our websites. Well, on Sunday and Monday, we are going to have a spot at the "Sweet Tater" festival in Crane Hill. So that is why my house looks like this:

Dining room table set up with diapers & wipes cases galore. Living room floor is stationed with my hot glue gun and ribbon for making bows.

Another pile of stuff in the living room floor, incredibly organized-HAHA!!!
So, my days have been spent making bows, sewing up a storm and hot glueing anything and everything within my reach. I wrapped two frames and made a cute display for all of my bows, but all of them don't fit. I have 200 mini flower clips and about 100 toddler sized bow. I'm working on more, but we will see how much I can get done before Sunday:

I've just been so incredibly stressed out wondering if we are going to sell out and not have enough stuff, but I have gotten over myself and realized that if we sell out, that means $$$!!!
So, if you don't have anything to do this weekend, come and check out our tent at the festival!!!

Stressed!

2009-08-31T22:52:00.000-07:00

That word sums up my feelings! We have a booth for the "Sweet Tater" festival this coming weekend in Crane Hill. I made a to-do list of everything I want to get done before Sunday. I might have sat down on my couch and thrown myself a slight pity party. Almost every night last week, I woke up thinking about what all I need to get done, worrying that we weren't going to have enough stuff, or that we are making all of this stuff and no one is going to buy anything. I really think that we will do well, I just can't help but wonder what is going to happen. Especially since this is our first one to do. AAAAHHHHH!!!!
I need prayers for patient and calm nerves. I really want this to do well!

Best Pictures

2009-08-20T22:47:00.000-07:00

Kent asked me the other day if I had ever seen the movie Platoon. I had not, and he just couldn't believe that I had not even heard of it. It won Best Picture at the Academy Awards in 1986. We watched it the other night, and since that night, I have decided that I want to watch every movie that has ever won best picture. I made a list last night, and frankly, I was surprised to see how many I have already seen. I've seen every one since 1996, and 11 others scattered throughout the years. I just added some to my que on Netflix, and a lot of them are ones that I can even watch on my computer. How exciting! I'm giving myself a deadline of 1 year from today. Hopefully it won't take me that long, but I know some of them are going to be ones that I will not enjoy. Such as Ghandi, The Last Emperor, The Deer Hunter, Ben-Hur. Those might take a little encouragement! So, as if I didn't have enough movies on my list, I have about 50 more that I'm going to add.

On another note, Loni and I are going to participate in and arts and crafts show on Labor Day weekend in Crane Hill. So next week, I will be parked at my sewing machine. I have my list of items that we are focusing on having, so I need to stay on target. I have 2 weeks to make up a BUNCH of stuff! Wish me luck! And if you haven't seen our website or our etsy store, check them out and let me know what you think! We have so many more items that are going to be introduced to our websites within the next month, so keep checking it out!

Baby Shower

2009-08-19T23:10:00.000-07:00

Sunday was my BFF's baby shower. Baby Addison will be arriving somewhere around Oct 8th. I've already told her she can't be a late first baby because "Aunt Mary" is leaving for Mexico on the 17th. Heather might have a conniption though if Addison was that late. :) It was a great shower and she got soooooo many clothes! I was one of the 17 hostesses, so I made sugar cookies. They definitely aren't professional, but I thought that they turned out really cute:

Baby carriages, bottles and flowers with Addison's initials. Yes, she's having a girl, but the nursery is a "Tiffany blue" so I tried to match. Addison even joined in on the gift giving and sent her daddy a gift.

Here's the cute sign in table. You can see a couple of super cute maternity pics that Heather's mom took at the beach last month.

Of course, before I left, I had to take our pic since I am a professional at taking my own picture:

Happy 90th Birthday!!!

2009-08-19T23:05:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago was my grandmother's 90th birthday. Yes-90!!!! We threw a party for her at her home church in Cullman and had such a great time! She has 7 brothers and sisters so there were plenty of cousins, extended family and friends who made the trip to see her.

I've never been really close to many of my extended family, but it was so nice to catch up with some of them. There were a few moments that left me a little speechless, but that's what happens when you are around so many people. Like my cousin who asked me where my baby was, and then argued with me about the fact that I don't have one. Or the time when Kent thought that we had hired a professional photographer. It was really just a cousin taking a very uncomfortable amount of pictures of everything. Hmmmm, wonder if he has a blog? Oh well.

We of course had family picture time. Kent and my brother in law were extremely interested in having so many people take so many pictures of us. My dad only has one brother, and he and his wife have one son. Therefore, I only have one first cousin. (My uncle on my mom's side is a lifetime bachelor, with no children-that he knows of. HAHA!!) So here we all are:

My cousin is on the left, 23 and single. Anyone interested? Here is mamaw with her 4 grandchildren. Aubrey was definitely NOT interested in having her picture taken at this point. She was waaaaay to busy playing with the other kids. Ashley divided us up with the married ones on the right, singles on the left.

Here's just Mamaw Ezma:Isn't she just too cute! She's had strokes in the past and there was a period last year that she had to move in with my parents and my uncle, but she is back to living by herself and doing for herself. She's not as independent as she would like, but in her words, "That's what happens when you get old as dirt."

Last pic is of me and my mom. I don't have enough of these...

Movies!

2009-08-18T23:06:00.000-07:00

As I have blogged about numerous times before, I love movies! If you are from the Birmingham area, on Tuesday nights at the Carmike at the Summit, it's stimulus Tuesdays. The movie tickets are the same price, but you can get a small coke and popcorn for $1 each. That's a great deal! I love to go to see a chick flick with my girlfriends from church so last Tues we went to see: Julie & Julia

I love Meryl Streep! I thought that she did a great job of portraying Julia Child. The movie was a little longer than I thought that it should've been, but overall, I really liked it.

Last month we also went to see

I chose not to read the book prior to seeing the movie since I've been disappointed in the last couple of movies I've done that with. I have since read the book, and I'm happy with that decision since the ending is totally different. One of my friends had warned me that I would probably cry, so I took some tissue with me. I was made fun of since I couldn't find my small package of tissues and my purse was huge, therefore, I just stuck a box in my purse. By the end of the movie all of us were crying and Monique retracted her statement. :) Great movie, but much better book!

Anyone want to participate in stimulus Tuesdays, let me know. I love a good movie! Some I am looking forward too:

I LOVE Rachel McAdams!

Because Bradley Cooper is HOT!!!

Kherington from So You Think You Can Dance is one of the main characters and I love to watch people dance!

Madea is HILARIOUS!!!

I have always been on Team Jennifer!

Booked and ready to go!

2009-08-18T22:40:00.000-07:00

For our anniversary this year, we had talked about just going to Gulf Shores for the week. Then I did a little research and found that I could redeem my Delta Skymiles and fly to Cancun for FREE!!! Therefore all we have to pay for is our hotel. We love the all inclusive since your food and drinks are included in your upfront price. I booked the flight 2 weeks ago and on Sunday night, I finally decided which hotel I wanted to stay at and we are booked and ready to go! We stayed in a Riu All Inclusive hotel for our honeymoon in Cabo and our 1st anniversary in Jamaica, so we stuck with that hotel chain. I picked Playa Del Carmen since it's right outside of Cancun but is a little more laid back. We are staying 6 nights, so hopefully one day we will venture out to Xcaret-an eco theme park that looks amazing! I want to see and do some of this:

I love that we can take these trips! I just feel so incredibly blessed to have married a man that has my same travel bug and loves the beach as much-if not more than I do.

So, on Oct 17th we are heading to Playa del Carmen to stay here:

And hopefully my view will look like this:

And I will be spending a lot of time lying around in one of these chairs:

I am so incredibly excited and I've already started the countdown. Less than 2 months away!

Oxford Trip

2009-08-06T23:59:00.000-07:00

I've been a little absent due to the passing of my precious Gus. It's been harder than expected, but slowly I am getting better. Now, we can catch up on all of the weekend shenanigans...

As you know last weekend, Kent was in a wedding in Oxford. We left bright and early on Friday morning since Kent was playing golf with the groomsmen at 9am. I dropped Kent off, and had the day to myself. Thanks to Suzanne I knew to head to the Bottletree Bakery for breakfast. I had a mocha and a cup of granola in this quaint little bakery and read for about an hour. Then I headed to the square to check out some of the shops. I loved the bookstore and a little store called Peridot. Most of the other stores were a little too rich for my wallet, but it was nice to just browse for a while. I headed over to the hotel to see if I could possibly check in early, but since everybody from the wedding was checking in and none of the rooms were ready 2pm was the earliest. I found an antique store that I spent about 1.5 hours in just looking around. I wanted to buy so many things, but since I drive a compact car, nothing I wanted would've fit. I left empty handed. I spent the rest of the day just riding around looking at some wonderful architecture and giving myself a tour of the Ole Miss campus.

By the time I could check in, Kent was at the hotel. We had a late lunch at Boure of some really good cheese dip. It had andouille sausage and green chilies...YUM!!! Then it was time to get ready for the rehearsal. They got married at a gorgeous older church with a huge stained glass. The rehearsal dinner was at the Rib Cage with grilled chicken, new potatoes, green beans and lemon ice box pie.
Then we were off to Old Venice Pizza's Burgundy Room for a "Party on the Eve." I met one of the groom's cousin's and we quickly became "best friends."

We hung out the rest of the night and then again at the reception. Too bad Katie lives all the way in D.C. We got back to the hotel around 1.

Kent with the groom:

Saturday, I was awakened by the phone call about Gus, so I stayed in the bed the rest of the morning. Kent had a groomsman's breakfast at 10 and when he got back, we slept the day away. It was exactly what I needed. Kent had to be at the church for pics at 3:30, so I dropped him off and went back to the hotel to get ready.
The wedding was beautiful and the party left on a double decker bus.

The only time I've ever seen Kent in a tux. (he says the last too):

The reception was sooooo much fun! They had a live band, plenty of great food, and the cake was fabulous! Oh, by the way: LOVED my dress. Very comfortable and fit great!

Every single time I tried to get a picture of Kent and I, he would either look away or not smile. His philosophy is that you only smile 10% of your life, so why would you want a bunch of pics looking different than any other time. On my nerves!!!

I Miss Him!!!

2009-08-03T17:21:00.001-07:00

This past weekend, we were in Oxford for a wedding that Kent was in. I took the dogs to the vet to be boarded on Thurs afternoon since we were leaving at 5 on Friday morning. On Saturday, at 8am, I received a phone call from the vet that Gus had passed away sometime during the night. No explanation, no one has any idea what happened. They were there at midnight, and everything was fine. The first person got there at 7am and found him. I am just incredibly heartbroken! I didn't have anything to do all day on Saturday after I got the call, so I just laid in the bed. I am just in shock!!! He wasn't sick, he was acting like his spunky hyper self when I dropped him off on Thursday. It's just such a hard pill to swallow that I will never see him again. Our other dog-Frankie, is pitiful. As soon as we got home yesterday, she went straight to his cage, sniffed it and jumped up on the back of the chair. She just really doesn't know what to do. They were always playing tug of war with the rope or fighting each other for one of our affections.

It just sucks and I am soooooo sad!!!! It feels a smidge better to type some of this out too. So thanks for listening to my grief...

New Dress

2009-07-26T03:59:00.000-07:00

I ordered a new dress yesterday for the wedding that we are going to next weekend. Tell me what you think:

I loved the back too!

I paid $4 extra to have it sent with 3-4 day shipping which made it right under $50. Since we are leaving bright and early Fri morning, I thought that I should be safe.

I haven't been to a wedding that I have not been in, in about 2 years, so let me know if you think this is appropriate.

Addiction...

2009-07-26T03:52:00.000-07:00

The first step in recovery is to admit that you have a problem. Well, I have a problem.

I am seriously addicted to the game Ranch Rush. I was playing games online the other night on yahoo, just playing all of the free games, and came across this. I have since downloaded it on my iPod and have been playing it non stop. It's seriously a problem. When I find a new game, I want to get through all of the levels and win. I did this last year with Critter Creatures on my phone . We headed to the beach and I started playing it when we left Calera, and did not stop playing it until we could see the water. I I guess that's why the numbers on my phone are now rubbed off. also got addicted to Hot Dog Bush on Yahoo at work.I never knew that I was quite so determined to finish a game. It's quite ridiculous!!! Go see for yourself...

Oxford trip

2009-07-23T03:21:00.000-07:00

Next weekend, Kent is in a wedding in Oxford, MS. It's a guy that he's been great friends with since high school, but life has seperated them throughout the years. I've met the bride and groom on multiple occasions, but we don't really get together with them that often. So, I thought that I was in a dillema next weekend. A couple of weeks ago, we went to a couples shower and to be honest, I felt out of place. I have never been that great blending in with a huge group of people that I do not know. I am a little reserved, and just kind of soak everyone in for a while before I will open up. As I've said before, Kent is quite the socialphobe when it comes to big get togethers, so I wasn't looking forward to the shower. Well, it came and went and I was introduced to all of the people taking part in the wedding. (There are 12 bridesmaids and 12 groomsmen.) We had a good time and Kent got to reconnect with some old friends that he hasn't seen in years. I still felt a little out of place since I really didn't know anyone there besides my husband.
I found out last weekend that we have to be in Oxford at 9am on Fri morning for Kent to play golf with all of the groomsmen. I was really bummed since I've never been there and had no clue what I was going to do all day and we can't check in the hotel until 3pm. Then I remembered my friend Suzanne lived there. I emailed her to see if there was anything to do by myself all day. Well, Suzanne gave me the hookup! She has recommended that I start by going to Bottletree Bakery for breakfast (featured on Oprah), she recommended a spa for a mani, pedi, massage, multiple shops to check out in the square, and plenty of options for a great spot to eat lunch. Now, the trip that I was once dreading is turning into a day of pampering myself. So, thanks Suzanne!

Summer

2009-07-22T03:10:00.000-07:00

Things I love about summer:
-Riding to work with my sunroof open.
-Going to the beach every chance we get. Even if it's just for the day. (Yes, we've done that on 3 different Saturdays now.)
-Sonic and their new Cherry Limeade Chiller.
-Colorful flowers in my flower beds.
-Bright colored clothing-yellow is my fave right now.
-Homemade ice cream
-ice cream in general, every day...
-So You Think You Can Dance

What are some of your summer faves?