Birthday Recap

Today is Elissa's last day here with me :( So sad.

(We've already planned a Nashville trip for me and a visit to Chattanooga for both of us, though... We like to plot. We're like Lucy and Ethel. Or Lucy and Lucy, as Lissa's boyfriend likes to say...)

Anywho...

My birthday (days) in pictures!!


March 23rd: I turned 25!

We went to lunch with Andy and Suzie at Surin West - SO yummy! Here's me and Mark outside the restaurant after lunch


Mark had to go back to the library and do some reading/work, and we all headed home to eat cake. Yummy! It was a strawberry cake with cream cheese icing. (I changed shirts, because it was hot.)

Looking cheesy...


We finally got patio chairs! Now we can eat outside!


Andy and Suzie


Me and my BFF :)


Then Lissa and I headed into downtown Homewood to wander and look around. She might kill me for posting this picture, but I don't care :)


One of the places we went was Penzy's - an AMAZING spice store. If you have one in your area, you should totally check it out. I got some curry powder, some spice du provence, and some AMAZING cocoa powder. Like, God might serve it in heaven. Or make things with it. Or something. Next on my list to get there: extracts! Double strength vanilla (I DIE), almond, orange, lemon, oh my yummy goodness...



And then, that night (curses to me for not making pictures - do you guys ever do that? Not make pictures, because you're too busy actually DOING whatever you're doing to get your camera, then totally, totally regret it later?)... Matthew (Lissa's boyfriend) came over and we ate dinner together. Lissa and I made yummy pasta - we dubbed it April's Birthday Pasta, per Matthew's request for a name. It was angel hair pasta, asparagus, mushrooms, grilled chicken, and sundried tomatoes in a white wine cream sauce (complete with garlic and my new spice du provence!)

We ate outside. By candlelight. On my gorgeous patio table. With Frank Sinatra playing in the background. It seemed like something out of a movie. It was perfect.

WHY DID I NOT TAKE PICTURES OF THIS????

Anyway, nothing I can do about it now, so moving on.

My birthday presents from Mark came a day late. TOTALLY worth the wait. A pretty, breezy, precious sundress from J. Crew - quintessential summer!


And a close-up of the lovely fabric. I love it! It's so pretty!


And - I finally have some cute black flip-flops! (That actually go with the dress quite well.) Aren't they cute? Thank you, dear husband, for feeding my new J. Crew addiction :)


Our plan was to go see Alice in Wonderland in 3D. That kind of didn't happen... because we shopped all day long!!

(I think I might be able to get away with posting this picture because it's worse of me than of Lissa.... squinty squinty!)


I totally said "Screw you!" to winter and wore a sweet cotton-knit sundress. And it was perfect. Perfect sun, perfect weather, perfect company :)

I bought another one of those favorite-ever bras from VS. And some jewelry from Charming Charlie's, which may or may not become my new cheap jewelry obsession... And then we went on an intense search to find Elissa a spring dress to wear on her date with the boy.

After much searching, we finally found one (PERFECT - white seersucker, looked amazing on her) only to realize that there was a tear in the seam. The nice lady (rather talkative with a rather annoying voice, but hey, if she's helpful...) gave Lissa a discount on the cute sweater she found to wear with it, and found another store close-by which had 2 of those same dresses in her size.

So I headed home to eat, and Lissa ran out and picked the other dress up.

She got home, and it wouldn't zip. Absolutely. would. not. zip. The same dress in the same size at the other store fit PERFECTLY and zipped with no problem. The new dress was mislabeled. And Matthew was on his way. Elissa had NO other appropriate clothes...

So, in a frantic scurry, I called Matthew and told him that we were having a wardrobe crisis, that Lissa had to leave and fix it and she would be back. She dashed out the door, and was leaving as Matthew pulled in. He is a good sport (I think he thinks we're funny) and she came back a little later in her cute pretty new dress (this one fit - thank GOD they had another) and looked adorable! Crisis averted!

Aren't they cute?


My friend is so pretty!


Yay for friends!


So today, I'm not sure what we'll do. I want to go to Cantina since we didn't get to go on Monday night, and I'm sad that Lissa has to leave :( But what a good birthday it has been! And, to make it even better, next week my best friend from college, Kristine, is coming to visit! Happy day! I love my friends :)

(And my sweet, sweet hubby who I get to see all the time. So glad at least he's not far away from me!)

I'm Still Here!!

Good morning, dear bloggy friends! I have not, as you are all probably thinking, fallen off of the face of the earth...

Saturday and Sunday I worked (as always). And then early Monday morning I headed out to visit my sister, who is on spring break. We've been so busy shopping and eating (what my family does best, at least the girls in it) that I haven't had a chance to even look at Blogger until late last night, and then it took me about an hour to get caught up on all the blogs I follow!

I leave today to go back to my (sick) hubby (who I left, sick, on Monday to come here. I'm so mean.) He has a little bit of a cold, pretty much cured by Dayquill and sleep, but as soon as the Dayquill wears off, he feels bad again.
(Confession: when he first was sick on Sunday, and called me to tell me, I did not believe him. His complaints? "My nose is stuffy, and I'm tiiiired...." said in a pitiful voice. Sunday was a bad day at work, and I was going and going nonstop, and I was thinking in my head - did NOT say - "MY nose is stuffy year-round from allergies, and what the heck do you think I feel like today? Pampered? I'M TIRED TOO." But I didn't say that. I said, "I'm sorry." And told him to go get some medicine.)

So, a few high points of our little mini-week:
-I went shopping with my mom and sister on Monday. My mom is on a mission to find some spring clothes, and she's done really well - I'm so proud! I also got this sweet little cardigan to wear this spring!

-Yesterday was my Kelly day while Mommy and Ninny were at the dentist. It started out a little crazy - I had dropped my car off the day before at our family's tried and true service station to get my oil changed and a burned-out headlight replaced. Mommy dropped us off on Tuesday morning to pick it up, but when I went to start the car, all the lights on the dash made this horrible clicky noise and blinked a lot, and the car wouldn't even begin to turn over. Lucky I was already at the station... The guy said that the battery was the original, and since the car was 4 years old, that's about as long as a battery can last. He showed me a lot of icky corosion-y looking stuff, and said something about the battery boiling to stay charged, or something. So they tested everything, and sure enough, it was dead dead. At least the alternator is fine... And I'm glad that it stopped there rather than at a gas station on I-59 in the middle of nowhere today.

-After that, I took Kelly out to lunch at Rain, which is this little Thai place sort-of near the mall, where we got to sit in the Rain room and eat yummy yummy Thai curry :) Then we went to Target. Kelly had a gift card, and got a cute little crocheted hat. I was looking for a floppy beach hat to wear on our cruise, and Mark requested pictures. So here we go...

This was the first one I tried. Maybe a bit large...


This one was ADORABLE. I nearly bought it. But my swimsuits are black and turquoise (and hopefully navy, if I can find a navy top...) and it just wouldn't go...


Umm .... less than stellar...



But this one was perfect! It lays properly, it's easy to wad up (for packing) and still holds its shape, it's a good color... I found my floppy hat :) I cannot WAIT for our cruise!



-After Target, we made a short WalMart run to get Kelly a phone charger (cause she left hers at school), then went to Francesca's collections where I got nothing but tried on rather a lot, went to Fresh Market to get bread for dinner and a snack, and then came home. Busy day!

-Kelly's BFF Cassie came for dinner, and after dinner we played with the "adult" Mad Libs book we found at Francesca's (actually, I did buy something there. I lied.)

-And today, I'll be driving back to Birmingham.

Thus far, it is a successful and lovely birthday month. The weather is cooperating (or has until today - it is dark and cloudy. Boo) and I've gotten to see Kelly! Yay!

J Crew wishlist...

All these pretties make me want it to be spring SOOOO badly...

And also make me wish that I had an unlimited clothing budget. Sadly, that is NOT the case :(

Let's start with dresses...

So pretty, so soft, so floaty - perfect for a spring-time wedding or something like that. Garden party, anyone?



This is just plain cute. What can I say?



Ahh, cotton knit. Nothing in the world like it :) I love me some cotton... And I bet with the empire waist, it would hang really well too...


This dress IS summer to me. A picnic, a day at the beach... something about a white summer dress just screams "BUY ME NOW!!" to me :)


I love these shorts - such a cute color.

And now onto tops. Soft cotton tops are my go-to for the summer, paired with a skirt or some shorts..

I love love love this color :)


Can you tell I like embellishments? This top would look really cute with the rosy shorts, I think...


Love this top. You could dress it up, you could dress it down, and it looks like it'd be nice and cool and breezy...


Seriously. I like embellishments. And also pastels.


Once again, love the color. I'm not sure how all the little ruff-ly things would look right around your face - I'd have to try this one on to get a better feel.

My hubby says that this is why I don't have winter clothes.... I want it to be spring/summer all the time, and thus will buy/shop for/look at warm-weather clothes ANYTIME they are in stores, in hopes that the clothes will bring the weather along with them. (It doesn't work, by the way - it snowed today, despite all my droolings over tank tops and strapless dresses....) Oh well. Maybe we should move to California....

Jackpot!

Today's Bible Study was awesome :) Really, really wonderful.

And today's shopping trip was pretty rockin' too...

At Renaissance, that amazing consignment shop, I got a pair of brown (SUPER soft) corduroys (Express), a cute little black 3/4-length cardigan (Gap), a gray v-neck cable-knit sweater (Tommy Hilfiger), and some sweet little cuffed khaki capris (Gap) ... all for a grand total of... get this ... $50!!!!! Love that :)

And then I went to Gap. And my bank account cried a little, especially after that lovely lovely cheap shopping experience. I got a pair of sunglasses on sale for $15 (score!), and my new jeans. Not the skinny kind - they weren't fitting very well. Instead, I got the Real Straight type ... and I LOVE them :) Yay for new clothes!!

ALSO!! I just fixed my blog. It was stupid. I just had the tab on "Edit HTML" rather than "Compose"... how dumb of me! Oh well ... at least it's all better now.

AND! I forgot to write about the crazy dream I had last night...

I dreamed that I gave birth to a baby girl, and right after that, a baby boy (but they weren't twins.) Apparently Mark had gone to sleep right before I left for the hospital, and I didn't want to wake him up, so I had the babies without him. The main thing that stuck out to me during the birth process was that I didn't have to have an episiotomy, and my baby was not ginormous (like any of my real children are destined to be - thanks, genetics.) And when I called Mark to tell him that they were born, he was SO PISSED that I didn't wake him up. (Understandable, I know.) And then somehow I was released from the hospital with the babies that same day, and we went to visit the grandparents (who were not either of our parents) and they didn't seem to be very excited about seeing these new babies. And then I woke up.

So. Strange. (And no, to all you inquiring minds, I am not pregnant.) I think it's probably due to the fact that I've been working a lot, and those days that I work are so insanely busy, with babies everywhere.

Hope everyone has a fantastic Thursday!

Fellowship and skinny jeans :)

Last night, Mark and I attended a new (to us) small group connected with SVCC (the church we were going to before I started working every single Sunday.) It was lovely - I really, really miss community and fellowship and being around other married people. (Not that I don't love Andy and Suzie, who are our best married friends!) I miss discussion and bouncing ideas off of other people. God meant for it to be this way. God created us as relational beings for a reason. And it's nice to experience that again - I miss Sundays so much sometimes, and this won't be a replacement, but it'll help get us connected again.

And this morning, I'm going to the Ladies' Bible Study at church. I had to miss last week because we were in Chattanooga, but I really enjoyed it a couple of weeks ago, and am looking forward to making it a weekly thing. It also makes me get out of bed at a reasonable time instead of lazing around and getting nothing done.

And this afternoon, I might just have to run over to the Renaissance consignment boutique that I got a tip about from a nurse at work... They're having a HUGE sale, and their stuff is really, really reasonably priced to begin with. I need a new pair of skinny jeans (that actually fits properly, rather than being insanely low-cut so that they creep way down in the back), and I'm hoping to find some for cheap rather than going to Gap and shelling out a bunch of cash. That's what'll probably end up happening, but we'll see...

LOVE

And, I'm still having issues with my blog, and the html. Dumb polyvore. So fun to play with, but it's totally messed up my posting format. Does anybody have any suggestions on how to fix it? (I'd rather not start a whole new blog...)

More new pretties!

Whenever I go home, my mom and I always find some excuse to go shopping. This time, she had birthday money to spend. She is forever talking herself out of things, so her grand total of purchases today consisted of a $3 pair of Ann Taylor Loft pants (what a STEAL omg) and a $15 purple turtleneck from J. Jill. Not quite the spring wardrobe she had in mind, but c'est la vie... I'm sure she'll find some pretties eventually.

I, on the other hand, who have spent way more money than is necessary lately, found the BEST deal on this awesome pair of Sperry boots - they were half off - just $40!! Here they are:







So excited :)

Being home has been fun ... we watched American Idol and part of the Olympics last night, and today we went out to lunch (and then we went shopping, while my dad and grandma and Mark all went back to the house.) Daddy has to work tonight, but we might just engage in a rousing game of Mexican Train Dominoes ... we'll see. Tomorrow we'll leave, and then it's back to the weekend grind again. Why does my time off always pass by so quickly?

MY weekend recap

It seems like a lot of people blog about their fun weekends and what they did ... here's what my weekend was like:

Saturday: The start of the weekend of Mark's broken diet ... but that's okay. He wanted tomato soup from Panera, so he picked me up from work and we went and ate.

Sunday: On a whim, decided to go to CPK for V-day night - and we got seated immediately, because we have connections. Connections are good :)

So, today so far I've done nothing. In fact, I'm still in bed. I really need to do some laundry and some serious scrapbooking today - hopefully I'll get that accomplished. I also need to cook for my poor hubby who desperately needs to get back on his diet.

But... despite all the breaking over (and missing two workouts) - he still lost 3 pounds this last week! Grand total: 8 pounds in two weeks, thus far. His pants are getting too big, he's at the tightest hole on his belt, and his blood pressure is staying nice and low. Yay for my sweet hubby!

So, changing subjects completely:

This morning, I'm ordering some swimsuits for our upcoming cruise. I'm really tired of all of my current swimwear, and a lot of it is ill-fitting (mainly because it's so cheap), so I figured I'd cave and shell out a decent chunk of cash for some nice swimsuits. I'm getting two from JCrew.com ... This one (in antique violet) and

This Combo (in deep peacock.)
I also want to find maybe a cheap just plain black bikini ... and that will complete my new swim collection :) What do you think?
I'm having a bit of a hard time justifying my splurge, but we just got a really awesome tax return ... so maybe it's okay?

Hope everybody had an excellent Valentine's Day!

Pretties!

Before I leave for my date with Laura, I wanted to show you my pretties from my shopping trip today!






Yay for cheap shoes from Target!!

Unfortunately, I have a gripe with Target. I know, it's blasphemy to say that, but I went today in search of a cute dress to wear tomorrow night on my early V-Day with Mark. Target had NOTHING that I could wear. Everything was too big. They either need to make their clothes more true to size, or they need to make the smallest size they carry a zero instead of a two.
That's the thing about being skinny - and I know I have the potential to catch a lot of hate for saying this - but it's sometimes really hard to find clothes when you're skinny. At least - affordable ones. Oh, the $200 dresses look GREAT on me ... but $200 doesn't fit in my budget. So my options are either cheap and skanky (Forever 21, etc.) or too expensive and classy-looking. There's no in-between, apparently.

Oh well...

At least I got some rockin' shoes out of the deal. And at $12.99 a pair - I think that's pretty worth it :)

Off to dinner! Yum yum!

Domestic Goddess (and Blogger addict)

Lately, I have been addicted to this blog. And finding new people to follow. Maybe it's because I've been off four days in a row now? (Crazy, I know... I love it!!)

Current update (rather than just posting 2 and a half year old wedding pics...):

-My new love:
This!
Which matches PERFECTLY with my current bedding:
This!
(Even though it doesn't look like they match in the pictures...)
Now I just need some new shams, because all we really have is the matching pillowcases, plus some off-white ones, and our bedding will (finally) be complete.
I also got a new ottoman for upstairs, and some new pillows during that shopping trip. It was a good day :)

Also! Today was SO productive for me!! We opened a savings account (again, finally), because we have a decent bit of extra cash from me working extra, and Mark's refund check, etc. etc. That brings me a lot of peace of mind. We're also going to get a pretty nice tax return, so that (or part of it, at least) can go into savings as well. For the first time in quite a while, I feel like we're getting a handle on things, financially. It's a nice feeling. We're definitely not where I'd like to be, but we're definitely not doing too shabby, with only me working, especially.

I also cleaned the entire house. Well - the entire house minus the office. But the bathrooms are scrubbed and clean, the bedroom looks AMAZING, laundry is FINALLY getting under control. Downstairs is vaccuumed. The table is clean. Yay!!! What prompted me to do all this, you might ask? Well, everything needed to be cleaned for one thing, but I had a Mary Kay facial scheduled for tonight, and there is no motivator like a stranger coming into your house! I even made cookies and had smelly-good candles on the table. Aren't I just Miss Hospitality?

As if all that cleaning wasn't domestic enough, I came up with a new little decorating idea for our bedroom! It's practical, too. Several months ago (around Thanksgiving, maybe?), I bought this little gem on sale at Hobby Lobby for like $10:


This picture doesn't do it justice (probably because I took it with PhotoBooth on my Mac), but it is SUCH a precious basket! It also matches perfectly with all the colors in our bedroom and bathroom. But I didn't really know what I was going to do with it. It's just sort of been sitting up there on the dresser, catching lonely socks and being hidden under massive piles of clothes. Until today...







It's my new book-keeper! Sadly, I will have to get up and get out of the bed to get a book in the mornings, but what I like is that it will keep all the books I'm currently reading sort of together in one place rather than being strewn about the floor (where most things usually end up.) Things I'm reading now (since my Mac takes pictures backwards...):

Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Food Rules by Michael Pollan
Cure: Unknown by Pamela Wientraub
The Complete Works of Jane Austen (I got a bit bogged down in this one)

And I'm about to start The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (my very most favorite author ever!)

So excited! (About the books, and my book basket!)

To do tomorrow:
-Iron like crazy.
-More laundry. Even though I've made a dent, it never ends.
-Make Mark a grocery list for this weekend.
-Get my passport? (For our cruise!!! We leave in 94 days!!!)
-Figure out how to cook a new chicken recipe.
-Clean the kitchen AGAIN. Honestly. I don't know why it can't figure out how to clean itself...

And on that note, I think I will go wash my face, put on my pjs, crawl into my comfy, comfy bed (I LOVE our bed), and read my new book. I'm such an old lady...

Lazy Day :)

My big accomplishment of today:

Mark and I decided on and booked a cruise!

Other than that, I've pretty much been in bed all day. After my crazy week at work, and then Mom and Thomas coming, I've needed some "me" time. Yesterday was a "me" shopping day :) One of the nurses from work told me about this awesome consignment boutique, and I went there - I got a sweater and a dress for $26 :) I also found a pair of black heels for $9. And I went to the Summit, browsed around in White House Black Market, and found this pretty little number on sale! I figure it will be perfect for the formal night on our cruise :)

Speaking of which...

We are sailing in May on a Carnival cruise to Ocho Rios, Jamaica and Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands!! It's a 5 night cruise, and I am so excited :) It will be so much fun! Perfect ending to Mark's semester and a nice break from work for me.

Now if I can just make it to May....

Check!

To-Do List: halfway complete. Activities done today:


-Went to the Galleria to find shoes. Realized that Foot Locker is now Rack Room, which had a blatant lack of employees who knew what they were talking about. Left, went to Dick's. Had an EXTREMELY helpful employee there, found shoes.

See?


They're not my favorite look ever, but they're comfortable. I was looking at Nike's, but they have like NO arch support whatsoever, and if I'm going to be running 13 miles ... I need arch support.

-Went to Whole Foods for a few things (namely mint leaves and Ginger Miso dressing), ate lunch at their salad bar. (Which, by the way, is the best thing EVER. If you have a Whole Foods and haven't been there, go. If you don't have a Whole Foods where you live, that is a very, very sad thing, and I feel sorry for you.) Used my shopping bags, and felt enviromentally friendly :) Mark calls me a hippie.

-Went to Publix, bought the remainder of my groceries. Love Publix, too. Used my bags there as well, still hippie :)

-Went to the package store near my house, got some rum to make Mojitos tomorrow night when Andy and Suzie come. Yum yum yum - taco soup and mojitos :) It'll be a fun time!

-Came home, put groceries away, crashed on couch. Blogging now :)

What's still left to do:
-clean out my car so andy and suzie and their luggage will fit
-clean the entire house.

no big deal :)

Tonight, I'm making grilled chicken with tangy peach glaze, asparagus, and mashed potatoes for dinner. So excited! Time to cook...