Girls

Allison, Candice, me, Michelle, Em and Steph
Sarah, Candice, Em and Bethany

Olivia, Michelle, Allison, me and Steph

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Last night was girls night and we had a night on the town... we planned on dancing the night away at Fix and imagined in our minds that we would be out well into the morning hours... not so much! We had a fabulous dinner at Bordinos... lots of girl talk and baby talk. It was the first time that many of my girlfriends had talked about having babies in the near future. Near=this year or next. Other than a great dose of girl time, I had a mushroom tart that was different and delicious. I also had several glasses of champagne to top it off. What a great time! After dinner, we headed to a few different bars that have recently opened. All in all, I was home before midnight, less than thrilled with the new "Vegas like club" and certain that I am totally over the "going out" scene. My girlfriends and I decided that we were officially too old to blend in with the college crowd. I had not realized that until last night, it isn't that we are "old" because I understand that 25 is very young, it is just that we are older than 96% of the people on Dickson street. :) I wasn't at all bothered by feeling like the senior citizen at the bar, it actually gave me a sense of calmness. I am so thankful for where I am in life! It's not that I am saying I vow to never go out again or anything of that sort, I have just realized that it's different. In other words.... time for a baby?? I'm thinking this year for sure!

I've Been Tagged!

1. What are you wearing right now?
An American Apparel T shirt and black sweat pants.
2. What's the last thing I read/ are currently reading?
This week's People.
3. Do you nap a lot?
Not really. However, when I was a little girl, I would nap for hours. There was something about Mondays that made me really tired as a kid (and now) and I would come home from school and go to bed. Sometimes my mom couldnt even get me up for dinner. I must have got all my napping out of my system. :)
4. Who was the last person you hugged?
Baby Charlie, he got lots of hugs from his Auntie today.
5. What's your current obsession/addiction?
iPhone apps, Suze Orman, my camera, forever21.com "shop by outfit", big bracelets, new recipes, eye cream, boyfriend sweaters
6. What was the last thing you said out loud?
"Bad Louie" He had an accident in the house... sorry Daddy :)
7. What websites do you always visit when you go online?
I always visit my blog and probably 20 other blogs, forever21.com, gmail, weather.com, foxnews 8. What was the last item you bought?
I bought a massage for myself this morning, it was divine.
9. What is your most challenging goal?
Hmmmm... I dont know. That's too much thinking
10. If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished- anywhere in the world, where would it be?
I would take a winter home in Mexico.
11. Favorite Vacation spot?
Sandestin, FL... wont be long til we are there!!
12. Say something to the person who tagged you:
Thanks Megan for tagging me, this is fun!
13. Name one thing you just can't resist no matter how bad it is for you:
Let's see... too much coffee, Michelob Ultra, Splenda, I think I am pretty good about doing what's healthy.
14. What is your favorite item of clothing?
Right now I am into my American Apparel t shirts, sometimes I sleep in them and then just wear them out of the house to Wal Mart or wherever.. how versatile :)
15. Favorite pair of shoes you keep going back to over and over, even though your closet is over flowing with a zillion others?!
My brown tall boots
16. Name one thing you can not live with out:
My Hubby, I dont do well when he is gone. I love the weekends when we are together non stop.. I always miss him on Mondays.
17. Has a celebrity's haircut ever influence you on your own hairstyle?
Of course! I love Heidi Klum's hair color, cut and syle.

Girls Night!

Tomorrow my girlfriends and I are having girl's night out! I am so excited because we haven't had one (on a Friday night) in quite some time. We get together all the time during the week but that's different than a Friday.... the whole "working the next day" thing always puts a damper on the party :)

We had planned to go to the "Cookbook Birthday Bash" that our Jr League is putting on, but it has been postponed because of the nasty weather. So... we decided that dinner and Dickson street will suffice!

I had a bit of cabin fever tonight (even though I got out and tried to work today) so Jared and I went and had dinner at Kosmos. I swear, I could live on Kosmos' gyros and Flying Burrito alone, happily. Jared doesn't care much for Greek food so he had the chicken fingers. I think those might only be on the menu for children, either way, he enjoyed them. We had a lovely dinner and people watched out the window. There was a ton of people walking up and down Dickson, evidently I wasn't the only one itching to get out of the house!

Hope everyone is safe and warm tonight!

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Ice!

Louie all snuggled up :)

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This ice storm has been crazy!! We had power all day yesterday and as soon as I dozed off to sleep last night about 11:30, it went off. I called the power company to report it and she said "it has been declared a state of disaster and could be a week before it comes back on." So... we said a prayer and got a bunch of blankets and snuggled up! Throughout the night it would flicker on and off and on and off for what seemed like a million times. Every time it came on, things would beep in the house and wake us up. About 3:30 I woke up to Jared bringing more blankets in the room. He was like "are you ok? I am freezing!!!" Then he covered Louie and I up with about 22 more blankets. :) We were fine and the power came back on this morning. YAY!

Jared and I got out earlier today to check on our rental properties, we were afraid they may have been damaged by the storm. They are all ok except for a fence in the backyard (the fence in the pic above). Luckily, there isn't any structural damage...  just a bunch of limbs down and a big mess! After we checked them out, he drove me around for an hour or so to take pictures of all the ice and the damage. He kept saying "ooo get a picture of that" and "take one of all this." I ended up with 109 pictures that pretty much all look the same. He is so cute about me with my camera, he thinks all the pictures I take are so good :) It really is such a mess out there, there is a lot of work that has to be done. We saw an elderly man standing in his yard just staring at all the branches down (there had to be a thousand). He was in such disbelief and had a small hand saw in his hand. I don't think that will quite cut it.. literally :) Poor old man, I felt bad for him!

I hope everyone is staying safe and warm!! What a lovely couple of days it has been!

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College Tokens

I am sure that some of you have heard of this, but I bumped into one of my college friends, Kelvin, the other night at Theresa's and he told me about his cool website. Its called collegetokens.com. You go to the website and enter your phone number and then you click on all these great coupons and deals at local places and it sends you a coupon via text, instead of having to clip them and carry around. All you have to do is show the store the coupon on your phone and they acknowledge it! WOW! I just sent myself like 10. Some examples are: Flying Burrito (my obsession), MACA, Marketplace, CommonGrounds... the list goes on. I am pumped! Oooo and another favorite, buy a manicure from Fancy Nails (by Sonic) and get the french polish free. I always thought it was ridiculous they make you pay an extra $5 for that anyway :)

Check out the website!

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New Look!

I decided that I would give my blog a makeover! I put this collage together earlier and I thought it turned out super cute! I have a few different posts to do but I am so cozy that all I want to do is snuggle up and go to bed. I am praying for a lot of ice so I can continue that through tomorrow! I am hoping to wake up to a blizzard, put on a crock pot of chicken chili, catch up on blogging, and watch movies all day... maybe I would even venture down the street to see Jess and Charlie. What a lovely day it would be :)

Hope everyone is doing well and keeping safe and warm!

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Paint the Town Red

Jar and I, someone get this girl a spray tan!

Maybe it's the camera :)

Candice and Jimbo and Denny and Steph

Ha! its actually the opposite.

Steph, me and Mo

On Friday we went to Paint the Town Red. It was really fun, there was a ton of good food, wine, friends and music. Jared had school yesterday so Mo and I just lounged around in our pjs and watched Sex and the City on DVD. Last night Jess made a big pot of chili and cornbread so we went over there for dinner. It was delicious! I got a ton of work stuff done today. Work has been pretty busy so far this year but I am loving the new drug that I have and can't complain! Here are a couple pics from PTTR, I didn't take too many because I didn't have my good camera... my purse was too small. Speaking of camera, my mom and I are taking a photography class on Wednesday at the Embassy Suites. Nikon is putting it on and the tickets are $25, you can get them at Bedford. They said that you should learn everything you need to know in just 2 hours!! So... expect to be blown away with my pictures from Thursday, on. Just kidding!

Jared and I went to eat early tonight for our date night so I could get home to watch the 100th episode of Desperate Housewives!! Can't wait to see what happens!

Have a fabulous week!!

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Update

The mouse went to mouse heaven sometime yesterday. I believe that we are now back to normal, just in time for Jared to get back home (things always happen when he is gone). Anyway, I am hopeful that there are no more of his friends in the house.

I totally dropped the ball on taking pictures at tennis tonight, I will have to remember next time. We got signed up for our team tennis, so that should be really fun. We start next month and play until the spring (how I long for the Spring!!!)

Its been a long week with Jared gone, I don't do well when he isn't here. I am so thankful that he is back home with us!

We hope everyone has a great rest of the week, we are looking forward to Paint the Town Red on Friday!

I don't normally watch American Idol, but its on right now and I am confused at the rejects on there?! What in the world?!? Who are these people?

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There is a Mouse in the House!!!!!!

Mom was dead serious with the mask,

we aren't kidding around here, we wanted the mouse to know

we mean business!!

In case you are wondering... this is my SWOLLEN knee, ouch!

After my spill
What kind of guard dog is he??!

OH MY GOD!!! I am very, very stressed. Two disclaimers before you read on... #1: my house is super clean, we aren't those people that leave take out boxes all over the house (does anyone even do that?) anyway, I feel like the kid that got lice in elementary school, when they always say "the cleanest kid can get lice" well... you get the point. #2: I know I am a girly girl so don't judge me at how freaked I am at this. Everyone has there thing that scares them... spiders (Jared), snakes (Stephanie), well to add to that... mice (Sarah).

To start off, Jared found a dead mouse last night in the laundry room. Writing that just then made my feet tingle and I had to pick them off the floor in the event one scattered across my toes. Ok, then we found mouse leave behinds in the pantry. OMG!! SO, Jared was gone after work this afternoon and I was soooo freaked out. My saint of a mother volunteered to come over and clean out the pantry and help me solve this problem. THANKS MOM! She took everything off the shelf and wiped down the entire pantry for me. I stood way back and only had one scare at first, when I was peaking my head in the pantry and our lab, Charlie, came over and licked my foot. I almost died... I so thought it was a mouse. Mom and I would poke at things with the broom before we would be brave enough to pick up the boxes. He had been into all sorts of things (oatmeal, coco mix, mac and cheese... even Crisco, gross!!) As we are almost done, the unthinkable happened. I was standing in the kitchen when mom saw the damn mouse!!!!! He ran across the laundry room and under the washing machine. We are both screaming, the dogs are barking and in an attempt for me to run away, I plowed into the vacuum cleaner and fell to the ground. (Haven't posted on this but did I mention my right knee has been soooo very sore and hurt lately) and if course, I banged it and busted it to where it was bleeding. Go figure. So, here we are a few hours later and I think the mouse is still in the laundry room... I don't know though??? I checked my entire bed tonight when I got home before I sat down. Do they get in beds? Heaven forbid they do. My dad put traps out, but I am not about to go check that thing. This mouse has made me a mess! When I walked out of a meeting tonight at the Springdale Holiday Inn, I couldn't even remember where I was or where the car was parked. It took me almost 10 minutes before I realized I was on the wrong side of the building. WOW!

So, now I am off to enjoy what's left of this disastrous evening with the following:

The Bachelor

Please, please pray for a mouse free house. Otherwise, you can find me at the Raddison:)

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Busy Bee

Their new living room

New BathroomAmie and Jennifer hard at work New Bedroom
The helpers- Jennifer, Amie, Stephanie, me, Polly and Jeannie

When they walked through the door... so exciting!
Group shot.. that's Polly's little one, Stella

on my lap, such a sweetie
Charlie and I in our jammies
Charlie and Uncle working on the electronics
Look at that sweet face

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On Friday, we did our third "While you were out" for our friends that are consumers of LifeStyles. This time around, we redecorated the home of two lovely ladies, Rachel and Angela. These pictures don't do it justice, because I don't have "before" pics. Basically... anything you see in the pictures, wasn't there before. Literally, everything was new. They didn't have a whole lot and the place really needed a cleaning. I am not so good at decorating, that's what Stephanie and Jennifer are for :), but I can clean like no other. So, I was in charge of cleaning the kitchen, working on the bathrooms and little odds and ends in between. Jared came over to help hang stuff like pictures, mirrors, and curtains. It turned out to be a huge success!! When they walked through the door, Angela came over to me and gave me a hug and said "i love you, thank you for doing this." It melted my heart and brought tears to my eyes. Of all the volunteering I do, I rarely get to really change the life of someone and see the results first hand, but with this, I really see what a difference one can make. I am so proud of what we all did for those women, thank you Jeannie for introducing me to all these wonderful people.

On Saturday, we were SUPER lazy around here. We lounged in our pjs all day and played guitar hero. Jess and Mark had a date afternoon/night so we got to keep Charlie. We hung around the house all day and then we went to Noodles for dinner. Yum! Boy, its a different story trying to get ready when you are keeping a nine month old. Whew, I have a new respect for all mothers :)

Today I woke up and was in the mood to get stuff done... I started with catching up with all my work stuff, then continued with cleaning the house, doing laundry, making a Wal Mart list, redecorating the living room, writing out my goals for 2009, going to the mall, and to Masons, going to Wal Mart, cooking dinner, making a list of baby names that I love, and now... Watching DH and blogging. What a day!

Some of my goals (there are 31) are to: learn to knit and to use my camera, eat a balanced meal more often (the kind you see on the food pyramid), spend less money on myself, go for a walk when I have time, worry less, cook more... the list goes on. I made dinner tonight that consisted of fish, mashed potatoes, fruit, and asparagus. Balanced meal... check!

I am off to get a good night sleep! I hope that everyone has a fabulous week!

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I heart tennis..

I have decided that I love tennis!! For our group, it is all about having a good time while we play, laughing with and at each other, and catching up on the latest gossip. Our wonderful tennis coach, Zach, has to hear all about what is going on in our lives... Poor Zach! He will be trying to explain something and then all the sudden we will be talking about self tanners. How does that happen? That happens when you put 7 girlie girls together for an hour that haven't had the chance to catch up in a week! We just signed up for team tennis so this could get pretty serious :) All in all, it's exercise minus sweating, hanging out with friends, learning something new and wearing cute outfits :) This is so up my alley, my only regret is that I didn't start playing sooner! Also, I get a weekly update of Abra's baby bump. We always make her show us her bump and each week I think she will reveal a big bump... but she remains cute and tiny. He will get bigger in there soon enough and we will get to see it happen each week, how exciting!

I keep meaning to take pictures of us at tennis... Girls, I am declaring next week, picture week :)

Hope you guys are having a wonderful week!!

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My break has come to an end...

So Serious!!

Sweet Lou Lou

After being off work for 16 days... it has sadly come to an end. When I woke up at 10:30 today, it dawned on me that I will have to get up almost 5 hours earlier tomorrow. That's going to be a nice wake up call... literally. I really can't complain, I am more than grateful to have had the time off that I did, I haven't been off work that long since college! (Except when I had my tonsils out, which clearly doesn't count). The funny thing is, about three weeks ago, Jared asked what I would do with all this time off and my reply was, "work out in the morning, pick up the house, laundry, make dinner... the normal things that I would do if I stayed home! Duh!) Ha! I have yet to do any of those things.... actually, that's a lie, I cooked dinner twice :) This would probably be a great reflection of what life would be like for me if I stayed home... I would have high hopes, but when it comes down to it, I just love to sleep! Have you ever heard the saying "if you want something done, give it to the busiest person you know?" This is a very true statement, the more time I have, the less I get done!
Anyway, enough on that... here are some pics of the view that I have been watching all afternoon, my husband and brother in law busy at Guitar Hero.

Also, some pics of Louie from earlier today.. I have been worried about him all day, not sure he is feeling up to par.. I'll have to keep an eye on him over the next couple days, we may be headed back to the vet...

I hope that everyone has a great week!

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A New Year!

Charlie still sleeping... I had to prop his head up

with my scarf :)

Happy New Year everyone!! We are so excited about 2009. I have a feeling it will bring lots of change for us... then again, you just never know. It's funny, the feeling that New Years brings, makes you wonder what will be different in your lives this time next year, and then you think about all that has changed since the last one. Jared and I laugh because we are such planners that we want to have it all laid out for us, but everyone knows that can't be done. I asked him the other day if he thinks we will have a baby in 2009, if we will have the same jobs, if we will live in this house... the fact is it could all stay just the same or it could all be different. All that we ask God for is that we stay happy, healthy and in love. Also, the same for our friends and family.

NYE was a great night! We had a blast here in town, celebrating with our friends. We went to dinner at Bordinos then to Uark Bowl to see Boom Kinetic. What fun!

Yesterday was spent being lazy around the house... then playing Guitar Hero with the family last night. I am actually getting pretty good. :)

Today I had to take Louie to the vet this morning for a small surgery. He had a tooth that needed to come out and the rest were pretty dirty and had to be cleaned. Go figure, I think my teeth would be in bad shape if I hadn't brushed in 4 years! The vet said that I should start brushing regularly and of course I felt terrible that they were so dirty... but what do you do?! Anyway, I was a nervous wreck all morning after I dropped him off because I am sure most of you know of his health history... and it's not the best to give him anesthesia. But, he did really good and I just got him home. His breath used to be terrible and Jared and I laughed in the car on the way home because I swear it smells like he is chewing on a tic tac. Ha!

I have been watching Charlie this afternoon and he fought sleep for about an hour. I asked Jared to try and get him down while I took a shower and you can see in the picture how I found them... he even slept through the ride to the vet... and is still asleep. This is some easy babysitting :)

We hope that everyone had a great NYE and has a great start to 2009!

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