What would I do with $128.6 million?

Funny you should ask, because I'm going to tell you! Evidently someone in Georgetown, KY won this life changing amount of money. Whoever it is, they aren't talking! If it's John and Lacey, I'm hoping they'll let us in on their secret sooner or later... and maybe share just one million of their 128.6! Oh, a girl can dream, right?? So here's just a few things I would do with the money. Keep in mind I would do these things RIGHT AWAY. The more charitable things would come later. Those aren't as much fun to talk about though.

First, I would quit my job. I might not even tell them I was quitting. It would just be understood.
I would buy a beach house with a view like this:

And a couple of these babies...

And this, because I've been drooling over one for a few months now.
Also, season tickets to UK basketball would be awesome!

I would also give my family and close friends enough money to be comfortable. I mean, I can't even imagine how you could spend that much in a lifetime! Billy and I would spend the rest of our days traveling and living STRESS-FREE!

But, in reality, I can't quit my job, won't ever own a beach house or a Mustang Shelby. Possibly I'll have an iPhone soon, but we're still trying to work that out! What would you do with $128.6 million?

Wordless Wednesday

Up on the roof there arose such a clatter

As newlyweds, there isn't a whole lot that my husband and myself can do without assistance when it comes to home maintenance and handy work. We have figured out somethings on our own, but the big stuff usually requires assistance. What I'm saying is, we are not professionals... not by a long shot! So when I gave my husband puppy eyes and asked him to hang icicle lights on our house, I knew it wasn't going to be easy. He agreed and we arranged to borrow a ladder. Everything was going according to plan until we actually tried to get started!

First of all, this ladder did not seem very sturdy. I'm sure it was, but I would not have crawled up it. Secondly, the ladder only reached high enough for Billy to climb on the lower part of the roof. This means he would have to walk on the roof to get to the higher part. How he was going to do this and get the lights up, I'll never know! Anyway, long story short, I would not let him climb on the roof! He was making me nervous and he never even climbed above the 4th step.

After we x-ed the icicle lights idea, I remembered I had bought some LED lights after Christmas the previous year. I thought we could just put those in our bushes and put out the light up reindeer. That would look good right? Right. I go get these lights, and I realized that I bought the 'mini' strands. They are only 4 feet long. We have 5 big bushes. Not even one tiny strand per bush! X that idea too. If you're keeping count that is the second 'x-ed' idea in less than 30 minutes.

Now I'm trying to figure out how to save Christmas and salvage what's left of my hope of having lights outside for the first time! We have two trees in our yard. One is a huge 20 feet tall Bradford Pear or something. The other is a 4 foot tall, half dead, Japanese Maple (or something). Guess which one ended up wrapped in 'mini' LED lights?!



Did you guess right? These pictures are way too dark to tell, but the tiny tree got wrapped in lights. I think it turned out ok, but definitely not great. It's a solid showing for our first time, but there is room for improvement! Here are some more dark picture of the outside decorations!

This wreath is white with pink, green and purple ornament balls on it. I just love it!

My Dad made this snowman cut out for me a couple of years ago. It's painted on a big piece of wood. LOVE!

The goal for this year was to put out Christmas lights, and we accomplished it! We even got the set up on a timer! I'm so impressed! The goal for next year is to get the icicle lights up... somehow.

FREE computer?

MckMama and Kelly are giving away an HP touch computer? Count me in! Check out their blogs for a chance to win for yourself!

Christmas with the Duncans

I've shown you my trees, now it's time to show you the rest of the decorations! My favorite thing about having a fireplace is getting to decorate it for Christmas. It's easily my favorite thing about the fireplace because we have never lit it and it is really just in the way the rest of the year!If that doesn't look like Christmas I don't know what does!

*Please ignore the printer sitting in the bottom right of the photo and the dog toy on the bottom left* Thanks.

Maybe you've seen something like the tree on the left? It's an antique that a few people in my family have. I had admired/stared at this one that was my dad's all season last year and wouldn't you know he gave it to me! I'm not sure why, but I just love it! The snowmen on the right sing some silly song about eating too much. It's cute.Nothing says Christmas like a fiber optic village!That little guy on the bottom appears to be getting smashed!And last but not least, the reason for the season! There are scripture verses written on all the figures.

In an upcoming post I will show you our outside Christmas lights! I am so proud that we actually got some up this year! 'Tis the season!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

The temperature is finally dropping, Starbucks is serving holiday coffees and I have been shopping like a crazy person! It must be getting close to Christmas!! (although, the shopping like a crazy person has been known to happen when it wasn't Christmas) I love Christmas because I like to drive by and look at Christmas lights or snuggle up and watch a Christmas movie. Also, Christmas is just a great time of year! A lot of happy memories I have center around the holidays and I am always so excited to get together with family and friends for celebrations. Another thing I love about Christmas is dragging out all the decorations and making my house feel more like a home. The house just feels cozier when the Christmas decorations are out! I would have put them up in early November, but Billy would not allow it! Without further ado... here are some shots of the indoor decor!

This is our main tree that is in our living room. Our tree doesn't have a theme because when I was growing up our trees were always full of hand made ornaments and other sentimental ones we gathered over the years. I do think themed trees are beautiful, but for my tree I stuck with what I know!

Most of our ornaments were given to us, or we bought them for each other. The white and red one was made by my grandmother.


And of course we'd have Superman flying around on our tree!

Our second tree is in the dining room. I wanted a tree that could be seen from outside, so that is how it ended up in there! It has red lights and poinsettias instead of ornaments. Possibly that was too much red, but when I bought the stuff the day after Christmas last year it sounded like a good idea. I'm not so sure that I like it, but it's staying for now! It also needs something on top. I think a star would look weird... maybe a huge poinsettia?! haha

I have to say, the big tree that is in the living room is a dream to put up. It is 3 pieces, pre-lit... pure joy! The tree in the dining room, I found out this year, is one where you put each branch in individually. WHAT?! I did not know they still made these! It was not fun. If you don't already have a tree that puts itself up, I highly recommend purchasing one. The day after Christmas, of course!

Things

I haven't blogged in quite a while... guess you've noticed! Not much has been going on and I've just not felt inspired. I've been trying to think of inspiration all night (well, maybe for just the last 15-20 minutes) and here's what I've come up with - a list of random thoughts!


1. My life would be much easier if: I had a dishwasher that worked, could teleport to work in .5 seconds, or if I could inherit a substantial of money.


2. I am going to see New Moon tomorrow with my SIL, a couple of her friends, and Billy's cousin. I could not be more excited!!! I wish I could take off work and sleep late so the movie time would get here quicker. I won't, I promise.


3. Starbucks has started serving (brewing?) their holiday flavors and they are just as delicious as I remember. Today I had a WHITE chocolate peppermint mocha for the first time and it was a-ma-zing! It tasted much like the regular peppermint mocha, but sweeter. MMM!


4. I am completely ready for Thanksgiving, Christmas and all things holiday. I have wanted to put up our Christmas decorations for at least a month! The hubs wouldn't allow this crazy behavior, so they still aren't up... but trust me, they're coming! I'll be sure to post pictures because our Christmas decorations are much more impressive than our Halloween decorations.


5. I actually like the "Party in the USA" song by Miley Cyrus. However, I was not too happy about her "Twilight" bashing comments I heard on the radio. She said "I’ve never seen it and nor will I ever." Miley, if a 23 year old woman can jam to your songs, anything is possible.


6. College basketball season has arrived :):):) AND the Cats are looking impressive already! No, they aren't great but I think they will be! If nothing else, they will be fun to watch.


7. I need to diet. Yeah.


8. I want a tattoo. I have always wanted one, but I just have no idea what to get! If it's going to be on my body forever, it's got to be good.


9. Oh... here's a big one... While on vacation to FL in October I found GRAY HAIRS! OMG. I've found some, like one at a time, over the last year or so. I've never found more than one until now. There were so many I could not pull them out!! I had a small freak out, but then moved on. Right now they just make my hair look shimmery in the light! lol I'm just hoping I don't have to start dying my hair at age 25. SHEESH!


10. My dog is probably the best dog you could ever imagine. We've had her since June 2008. We house trained her with a crate which worked amazingly well. Up until I was gone on vacation, she spent the night in her crate and the day while we were away at work in her crate. It broke our hearts to lock her up so much, but attempts to leave her out had resulted in poop on the floor. While I was gone on vacay Billy decided to try leaving her out overnight and she didn't poop! He left her out every night that week with no accidents. Then we tried leaving her out during the day... long story short, she now is crate-free and is also accident-free since mid October! I'm so proud of her! She's so good and such a sweetheart. Best.Dog.Ever. :)



Alright, that's enough! This is getting a wee bit ridiculous! Please excuse this random post in list form because I was too lazy/uninspired to form it into a comprehensive piece. I hope you all have a fabulous weekend! I'm hoping to start blogging more regularly, but I make no promises!

TRICK-or-treat

I had been saving this post until I could upload my pictures. However, it seems that is just never going to happen so you'll have to use your imagination! A couple days before Halloween, Billy and I carved pumpkins. Mine was a mask type face and his was a vampire getting ready to bite someone. He usually draws his own, but was feeling a little uninspired this year. I digress!


Halloween night we went to Anderson Co to my grandmother's house. Every Halloween we go over to her house, eat chili, play cards and hand out candy. Last year Billy and I stayed home to hand out candy, but decided to go this year. Anyway, as we were leaving I was loading stuff in the back seat of my car and I see this white thing sticking to my car. It's dark outside so I'm not sure if it's a bug or what... so I get closer only to discover that my new-to-me car that I am in love with has been egged! CRAP! I drive that Neon for 6 years and never get egged and I have my car for 8 months and here come the eggs! After saying a few choice words, I drove to a car wash and everything was solved. The hubby and I get home safely and head to bed around 1am after watching some tv.


Cut to Sunday morning. I open the door so the dog can look out only to find that our pumpkins we so lovingly carved 2 days before have been SMASHED to bits in the road! Some punks snuck up on our front porch and stole our pumpkins! I would feel better about it if they stole them and took then home to admire, but NO, they stole them and then immediately smashed them in the road! The scene outside our house looked something like this...

Now I have seen these things happen in the movies and maybe heard about them happening to other people. Just my luck I get not one but two Halloween tricks in the same year! Total bummer. The upside is that I had a good time at my grandmother's house and the pumpkins were good while they lasted! I hope you all had a trick free Halloween!


UPDATE: Here is my pumpkin
And here is Billy's pumpkin.
And here are our masterpieces smashed in the street! OY.

Cookie confession

Remember this post? The one about the cookies/runny mess in my kitchen? I discovered something just a minute ago while making sweet tea (my guilty pleasure of the moment). It's big news... and more than a little embarrassing. Of course I had to update! :)

So I store things like sugar, flour, powdered sugar, brown sugar, chocolate chips, and salt in these sleek little guys:

Notice they are unmarked... and you can guess where I'm going with this. Tonight I opened one of the larger canisters looking for the rest of the sugar only to find what I used as flour for my oatmeal raisin cookie recipe. It looked a little funny, and I might still be obsessing over what went wrong with those cookies. I stuck my finger in to get a little taste..... can you guess?

IT WAS POWDERED SUGAR!

So the bad news is I'm a crazy loon who cannot tell the difference between flour and powdered sugar! The good news is that I can still probably make oatmeal raisin cookies. We shall see. Note to self: powdered sugar does not substitute for flour!

MckMama giveaway

I'd like to give a little bloggy love to MckMama. Reading her blog is such a joy! Those kiddos are super adorable and her photography is perfection! (I'd suggesting following her blog just for the photos alone!) Anyway, MckMama is hosting a giveaway of a $200 gift card from Best Buy for a new appliance!! Check it out here: http://mckgiveaways.blogspot.com/2009/10/amazing-best-buy-giveaway.html

Here is a link to her blog as well: http://www.mycharmingkids.net/

Panama City Beach, FL

As you know from an earlier post, I spent last week at the beach with some of my family. Billy did not join us and it didn't feel right without him there! I did have a lot of fun though! Everyday except the day I was sick and the one day of shopping was spent lounging on the beach with highs in the upper 80's and low 90's. It was amazing! Our last day it was pretty chilly in the morning because the sun wasn't out, but other than that the weather was perfect!

Besides the day above when a storm forced us in early, we were on the beach from about 9am-4 or 5pm only going back to the house for lunch and potty breaks! I don't know if it was because our beach was a private beach or the time of year, but we pretty much had the beach to ourselves. There were hotels nearby so we could at least see some people, but all around us was usually just birds.

The picture below is my cousin, Alisha in the water. The water was clear blue so you could see your feet at all times! You can't tell from this picture but there was also a big sand bar out about 10 feet. To get to it you would be in water up to your waist and once you were on it the water would be up to your shins. It was weird!

We only ate out once which was nice. We ate at Margaritaville... and yes I had a margarita! It was delicious! Here is a picture of the ceiling.

And this is my crazy sister, Morgan in Margaritaville.
After eating we walked out on a pier. The picture below is looking back at the shore. We didn't see any fish while we were out there, but we did see quite a few jelly fish!
Driving back towards home at every stop we could feel it getting colder! I am still adjusting to these chilly fall temperatures we're having here in KY! I am glad to be home, but not looking forward to returning to work. :(

Cookies?

Betty Crocker, I am not. This post is proof! Around labor day I tried to make oatmeal raisin cookies from scratch to take on a trip. I found the recipe I had used before and headed to the grocery store. After getting home with my loot I started baking. As I was mixing everything together it seemed too runny, but I figured it would work out ok so I kept going. I measured the cookies onto a cookie sheet and popped them in the oven. I kept an eye on them because they seemed not right. After about two minutes the cookies were running everywhere. Being the genius that I am I decided to wash those off and put some batter into a muffin pan. You know, to hold it while it got all runny! LOL This method appeared to be working after the first 5-7 minutes so I walked away. When the timer went off I returned to this nightmare...DAMN. I know, you're going to tell me I used the wrong kind of flour, but I didn't! The recipe called for all-purpose with baking soda. I tried this same recipe (that I have used successfully before) the next night and got the same result. It didn't take me as long to figure it out the next time. I even called my MIL and got a new recipe... same thing again! Finally I gave up/ran out of time and just bought some cookies at Kroger :) That solved the cookie problem but not the problem of the huge mess in my kitchen from making 3 batches of runny cookies! After this disaster I'm afraid to bake again!

Surprise!

I am leaving for the beach tomorrow morning at 5:30am! I haven't been meaning to keep this a secret, but I realized today that I hadn't mentioned it yet... so surprise! I have been looking forward to this since we planned it way back in July!! My dad's family knows someone who recently bought a house in Panama City, Florida and they only rent to family and friends. SO, the women in my dad's family decided to take a little ladies vacay! Billy was actually invited, but he decided not to join us for some crazy reason! Actually he isn't joining us because he needs to stay home and work/play softball on the weekend/going out of town with 6 women might not exactly be his idea of a fun vacation. :) Billy and I tried to plan a beach vacation over the summer but it kept falling through so we went to Gatlinburg instead. It was the economical choice and it allowed me to take a week off now for this vacation! It feels weird going on vacation without Billy, but trust me, I'll deal! I will miss him and Laney, but again... I'll deal. Maybe the sand, sun and surf mixed with margaritas will ease my troubles ;)

Speaking of Laney, Billy has taken her to spend the weekend at my MIL's house since he will be away playing softball most of the time. On my way home from work today I was thinking about how excited she would be to see me, but I realized she wouldn't be here. SAD! When I get home from work she is always pumped and wallers around and steps on my feet (weird, I know). Then she'll lay down beside me on the couch and just wag her tail! She's been a part of our little family since a month after we were married, so she just makes it feel like home. When she's away I miss her way too much! We really do treat her like a child and she is spoiled rotten as a result.


Welp, it sounds like Billy may be home so I will wrap it up! Think of me next week lounging in the sand with my toes in the water while you all shiver in this crisp fall weather we're having! Try not to be too jealous! I'll post, hopefully with pictures when I return!

Worry

I have had a lot on my mind here lately... Hopefully this post won't alarm any of you, but I'm not exactly going to say what it is I've been worrying about! I will say that no one is sick, or hurt, or in danger, or anything else like that. I've just been worrying about something, stressed is probably a better word, but worried worked better for this post! As we've all entered (pseudo-entered?) the grown up world, I have been reflecting on things that used to cause so much worry or stress that just don't seem like that big of a deal anymore. Here's my list, feel free to add your own in the comments!

1. Who is dating, broken up with, talking to who.

2. What to wear the first day of school (does anybody actually remember what you wore the first day of any school year, let alone what someone else wore??)

3. What color shoes you should wear with your new dress, shirt, skirt, outfit. I know, this still is a worry sometimes, but in the big scheme of things nobody cares what color shoes you have on!

4. What to name your Tamagotchi...

5. Or, just worrying about your Tamagotchi in general!

6. Obsessing over stupid boys so much that friendships are ruined and countless hours of your life are thrown away.

7. Having the coolest SpaceMaker, Trapper Keeper, Lisa Frank folder, etc.

8. Who you were going to sit with at lunch or on the bus.

9. Getting your homework done. I know I stressed about this from 1st grade through college. I know the homework needed to be done, but looking back I wish I hadn't stressed about it so much.

10. How to fix your hair. In middle school I woke up at 5:30am everyday and took a shower. Then I'd go back to bed for a little bit before getting up and spending an hour on my freakin hair! I'm not sure if you all remember my middle school hair or not, but I can tell you it wasn't worth it!! lol I so wish I had a picture of that on my computer.

So, there's my list of things I used to worry about that just seem silly now! Feel free to add your own. If I think of more I'll add them. I was stumped at #10, but I know there must be a million more!

Lacey's Final Fling Before the Ring

Guess who's getting MARRIED this weekend :)

What's better than a weekend with the girls including this room...lots of dancing, drinks and dresses?

Almost nothing.


This past weekend was Lacey's bachelorette party, as you can see from the first picture. Lacey, Alex and I stayed in the Hyatt in downtown Louisville. Our room was super nice! We were on the 14th floor and had an amazing view of downtown Louisville to go along with this posh room!


Friday night Lacey, Alex, Whitney and I ventured down to Connections for a drag show. We were all pretty nervous because we had no idea what to expect. If you've never been to one of these, trust me when I tell you whatever you're expecting probably won't even come close! It was a lot of fun! The drinks were expensive, but that was fine because we walked about a mile anyway and had to walk back. Needless to say I won't post pictures of that night. I'm not even sure we took any... it was an experience that's for sure!


Saturday Lacey, Alex and I went to Louisville Stoneware and painted our own pottery. We were pretty bummed when we found out we couldn't pick them up for 10 days! I guess they have to wait in line to be fired and glazed. We all really enjoyed this and are already talking about going back! If anyone is trying to think of a creative Christmas gift, I suggest this place. The pottery is already made and you pick whatever you want. They supply the paint and you just go to town!


After pottery painting we went to get mani-pedis. Normally this is a relaxing experience, but we had a nail tech that pretty much harassed us! It was funny and he was only kidding (I guess)! So we are ready for the wedding in the nail department. Believe it or not after getting our nails done we went back to the hotel and laid in bed for about 3 hours! We were all feeling sickly in one way or another (not hangovers MOM). HAHA After our down time we were pumped and ready to go out to 4th street! At this point, pictures will explain better than words, so here is our night at 4th street in pictures!


Lacey and her MOHs
Dancing the night away!

The whole group on Saturday night.


I hope everybody who came out had an amazing time. I know I did! I am so excited for Lacey and John's wedding I can hardly stand it! Hopefully I'll see a lot of you readers there :)

Labor Day Weekend

This weekend, the hubby and I packed up the car and headed to Jamestown, KY with my dad's family. The picture above is the house that we stayed in and the view of the lake from the back deck. We go on a weekend trip somewhere in KY every labor day weekend. This year there were 12 of us on the trip. Talk about a full house! We do a LOT of eating, card playing, and sight seeing. This weekend was especially fun because we rented a boat like this one...We started out just sliding down the slide, but then my brother had the bright idea to jump off the second level. I did it once and I was scared to death! On top of that I got a nose/mouth full of nasty lake water. Needless to say, I was done jumping off the top. My brother jumped off probably 20 times though!Here are the 5 kids in the water. My family still considers me a kid... it's true. Sadly, Billy didn't join me on our boat outing, but we had fun anyway! The next two pictures are pics of our views. This little excursion reminded me of when I lived on the KY River with my mom. We had a pontoon boat (not double decker) and we had friends with speed boats for tubing :)
Other than the boat ride, we ate spaghetti, pizza, brownies, cookies, chess bars, all kinds of chips, chicken salad, ham salad, cheese ball, pinwheels (so amazingly good), oriental salad and lots of other things I can't think of off the top of my head.


Here is the recipe for a ramen noodle salad that sounds very close to the one my family makes:


DRESSING:
1/2 cup oil
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup vinegar
seasoning packet from ramen noodles


SALAD:
1 pkg. broccoli slaw mix
1 cup sliced almonds
2 pkg. chicken ramen noodles (broken up)
2 cups shredded/chunked cooked chicken


Mix oil, sugar and vinegar. In large bowl, mix together broccoli mix, almonds, chicken and broken ramen noodles. Add dressing and toss. Let stand for a few hours.


We had a wonderful weekend, but tomorrow it is back to reality complete with work and other fun obligations of adulthood! This week I'll also be gearing up for Lacey's wedding festivities, starting with the bachelorette weekend this coming weekend!

***UPDATE***
I forgot to mention that the CATS won their season opener vs Miami OH 42-0!!! I didn't get to see the game because I was out on the lake, but I was pumped to hear they played well. Next the boys play UofL. I won't get to see that one due to Lacey's wedding, but you better believe I'll be updating when possible! GO CATS!