Thursday, August 5, 2010

Class of 2000

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

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

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

Vacays...

I have always loved going places and I have several trips coming up that I thought I would share and see if you (anyone ever read this thing?) have any suggestions for eating out, places to go, etc.
So this weekend, I am heading to Panama City beach to celebrate a girls weekend for my niece's 16th birthday. There are 10 of us going and we are staying in a 2 bedroom condo. That should be very interesting! Thank goodness only 2 days worth of bathrooms to fight over. HAHA!! I've only been to PCB twice and once was for my senior trip 10years ago. Alot has changed since then!!! I know that we are going to eat at Pineapple Willy's though!


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




DISNEY WORLD!!!!!

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


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

Monday, August 2, 2010

Derby Hat Luncheon

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

I had to decorate my own hat, since all of the real ones are still >$50 at TJ Maxx on clearance. I ended up finding a hat at the thrift store for $2 and spent less than $10 on the decorations on it. I think it turned out absolutely perfect for the occasion:
Every table had a theme and my place setting happened to match me perfectly. (I won't tell you if that was planned or not.)
The bridal party's table was set with the groom's grandmother's china. She passed away before Lauren or I ever met her and we were so blessed that she was a part of the occasion in that way.



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

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday, July 24, 2010

HOT!!!

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.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Books

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?

Monday, July 19, 2010

Furniture Update

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

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.