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!