Take Me Back..

Not only do I miss all of my friends like crazy, but the weather is beautiful too. Not a good combination when your stuck at work. At lunch, I realized just how pretty it is outside and started thinking of the thousands of other places I'd rather be, than work... And this the first place that popped in my head:

My Bachelorette Party

On this Friday afternoon, I want to be back here:



Meagan Rae's Lakehouse

With These Girls:

DOING THIS:

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!!

Wee Bit of Me Wednesday

{one} what color is your kitchen?
It is a greenish color.

{two} do you have a good luck charm?
Nope!! Obviously not, I have the worst luck known to man ha.

{three} do you prefer to write with a pen or pencil?
Pencil. I can't control my writing with a pen. One letter will be tiny and the next will be huge.

{four} can you use chopsticks?
No. Absolutely not. No matter how hard I try. I eat sushi with my hands and fried rice with a fork. I'm sorry if that offends you.

{five} do you prefer baths or showers?
Depends on if I'm in a hurry or not.

{six} what is your favorite salad dressing?
Ooo I like lots of kinds... but my favorites are Blue Cheese.. but I also like ranch, itialian, vinegarettes... I like it all!

{seven} can you sing the alphabet backwards?
I have never tried, but I can tell you right now it would take a while to get it right.

{eight} do you have any allergies?
I am allerigic to all kinds of stuff. They are not as bad now as they were when I was little, but here we go..
carpet
milk
soybeans
dye in new clothes
animal fur
hay
etc... etc..

{nine} crunchy or creamy peanut butter?
Creamy

{ten} have you ever hitch hiked?
Heavens no. I would be scared to death.

Not Catholic.. Not from New Orleans.. But...

I'm not catholic nor am I from the Coast/New Orleans areas, but I still like to partially participate in the Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday.

This year my participation in each goes a little like this:

As we all know, I  love am obsessed with the idea of any type of themed party, so I could not let Fat Tuesday go by without a little celebration. We had a small New Orleans style supper at our house. I put on my green polo t-shirt with the purple horse and hung some Mardi Gras beads from the light fixture above our kitchen table and threw the rest in the bowl in the middle of the table. Kendol cooked Crawfish Etouffee and Stephanie brought down a King Cake!! Stephanie, of course, was festive along with me, in her purple and white striped shirt and purple, gold & green glitter top hat with a mask on the front!! I would say it was a success!!

As for Ash Wendesday, the first day of lent, I have decided to attempt giving up something, for the first time in my life. As I tried to decide what is was I wanted to give up, I came up with a few different things that I am going to attempt to give up/work on.

First of all, I am going to try and not eat chocolate for 40 days. Used to, this one would be simple bc I have never really been big on sweets, but these days I'm like the "cookie monster" of chocolate. If I see it, it's going in my mouth. And that's not good, when there is a candy bowl at the front desk of your office and a "Cups" downstairs for hot chocolate.

Secondly, I am going to try and cut off soft drinks all together. Last year I was successful with cutting out
cokes, but now I resort to Sprite. I only have one a day (maybe) during the week, so this should not be too hard.

Don't freak people who know I used to couldn't function without coke...I still have a coke occassionally (and by occassionally I mean maybe twice a month) but I would say that that is considered cutting out cokes for someone who used to drink 3 or 4 a day... at least.

Thirdly, I need to majorly cut back on bread. O my lordy, I eat so much bread. Notice, I said I am going to cut back not cut out. I believe it to be impossible to cut out bread all together bc let's face it... That would mean I could not have a piece of bread with my spaghetti, a sandwich of any kind, pizza, a sloppy joe, a hamburger, Beagle Bagel, a roll... I mean come on.. cutting out bread completely will never happen, but I am willing to attempt to cut back some.

And last but not least, I am going to get back hot and heavy in my workouts again!!

I will let you know how this all goes. I am going to go ahead and say it's going to be a complete disaster, but hey at least I set some goals in the first place. That's the first step, right??

As they say.. "It is better to have tried and failed than to never have tried at all."

Over the Weekend

WHEW!!! What a weekend it was.

Busy Busy Busy

A few highlights

*steaks, squash casserole, asparagus and brownies

*slept til 10

*got my hair did

*lunch at Bonny Blairs
(p.s. there was a wedding right before we got there..
keep in mind this is an irish pub.. harley davidson motorcycle cake toppers)

*got my nails did

*wedding and reception

*late night at Underground 119- delicious food

*slept til 11

*lunch at wild wings

(are we seeing a pattern yet.. All I do is eat, eat, eat..)

(no matter what, what, what... Ok, I'll stop)

*three hour nap

*Kendol cooked seafood pasta for supper

*the defenders

*chicago code

*sleep.. again

And since we all know I can't go very long without adding something to the house... I finally put something in the precious frame that I got for Christmas. I framed a Crechale's menu, which is where Kendol and I went on our first date!! Love it!

Finally Friday

One more hour and it's time for one of these!

Let the countdown begin... NOW

HAPPY FRIDAY FOLKS!!

Thankful Thursday

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever.

~1 Chronicles 16:34

A Few Things I'm Thankful for on this Thursday!

~ Lunchdates with Best Friends
You don't realize how precious these little dates become as you get older. Example: Being that Mallory and I grew up next door to eachother and lived together 3 of 4 years of college, (the other year we lived in neighboring apartment buildings) it's still weird for me to not see her every single day of my life. Considering that we only live a mile apart, you would think it would be super easy to still see each other all the freaking time, but we really don't. With work during the week and differing weekend plans, it seems to get harder and harder, but I guess that's life. So, you learn to really cherish these little lunch dates.

~ Saving Money
Yesterday, Kendol and I finalized the re-financing on our house. We now have a much better interest rate and I am now part owner. (Go Me!!) In this day and time, any way to save money is AWESOME!!

~ Kendol
I am so thankful to have a husband who still "courts" me as older people call it. Last night Kendol took me to Bonefish. YUM! My fav.

~ The Weather
O the weather just makes me so so so so so happy!! The only positives for me, with cold weather, are cute scarves, sweatshirts and the possibility of snow. Otherwise, I am against it all together. So the fact that it's warming up and absolutely perfect outside puts a huge smile on my face. Not to mention how much prettier everything is in warm weather.




The pretty trees that surround my parking lot are already blooming!!
Ok, so now that I see this picture, it actually looks like there's snow on the trees.  But I assure you, those are flowers and they are beau-ti-ful!!


~ Baby Hayes
I mean what a precious blessing this little one is. Not to mention, she is the prettiest baby of all times. Maybe I'm biased, but I think it's true. She can laugh now and it's absolutely hysterical. She is trying her hardest to sit up. It's amazing how fast they develop and learn things.

Every good and perfect gift is from above..

~James 1:17

~God's Master Plan
I don't know about you, but I am one of those people who loses patience when things don't happen the way I want them to, when I want them to. I always have to remind myself that God knows best. And that He has a very specific, perfect plan for my life, even if I don't understand it, at the time. At the end of the day, no matter how bad we want (or don't want) something specific to happen, it is always so comforting to know that He already knows what is going to happen and when. His timing is ALWAYS perfect!!! We just have to have faith in His plan. I'm so thankful for his perfect plan for my life!!

Well, I heard a song on my way home yesterday that reminded me of how Great our God is and how perfect His timing is for each of our lives.

"Oh, but no one knows
Not you or me
It might be tomorrow
or it might never be
Oh, but don't lose faith
Put it in His hands
'Cause it might be
that He has a bigger plan
Than you had in mind
Miracles happen
In God's time"
~Randy Houser

Surrender yourself to the Lord, and wait patiently for Him...
~Psalm 37:7

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
~Jeremiah 29:11

HAPPY THURSDAY EVERYONE!!

AKA

HAPPY FRIDAY EVE EVERYONE!!

Callie's Red Carpet Re-Cap

Ok, in case some of you may not know, I absolutely love anything to do with fashion. As some would say, I have "champagne taste on a beer budget."

In other words, I love all types of designer things and someday.. yes, someday i will have these things I dream of. But for now, I have to live vicariously through famous people. And one thing with famous people that really stresses me out is when they dress so ridiculous. You have all of the money in the world and THAT'S what you wear.

Let's go over the oscar red carpet for a second.

Case in point...

SERIOUSLY??
What the H-E-L-L is this?
There are no words.
Moving on.

SERIOUSLY??
I love you Emma. I think you are darling.
BUT... You can afford the whole dress.
This is the ultimate definition of a "mullett dress"
Without the Rat Tail it would be cute.

Come on Claire.
This looks like a blanket/robe.
Get it together.
Put forth a little effort, it's the Oscars.

It was still February Nicole.
I know we are all ready for summer,
but there is no need to dress like a sea shell.

"O my gosh, did Mandy Moore show up naked?"
Come on girl, you can afford the ole spray tan.
There is no need for your gorgeous dress to be ruined
bc it's the same color as your skin.
This can be prevented.

I'm with Perez on this one.
She looks like a giant doily.
Or the first thing that came to my mind were the tatted snowflakes that I put on my Christmas tree. Although I absolutely love them for my tree, they are not ok indress form.

I'll be the first to admit that I have an unhealthy obsession
with the Kardashian/Jenner family,
but sometimes I wonder if they have superhuman breathing powers.
 Must everything they wear be so tight??
There is no way they can breath..
and how can they sit down without ripping seams??
I can't even breath just looking at them, sometimes.
With that said, I love anything navy blue and I love the dress.

Although she looks precious in her dress, this is my least favorite hairdo. It's like an instant facelift. (maybe that's what some of them do it) I love an updo, but there is no need to slick your hair back so hard, it pulls your eyes back. And p.s. if your hair is slicked back that much, i'm pretty sure there is no need for a headband.

This was one of my favorite dresses of the night.
No frills and nothing special, but it's different for Oscar Night
 And I'm all about being different.
You can't ever go wrong with a classic, timeless look.
Not to mention it fits her like a glove and she looks amazing.

Jennifer Hudson
Girlfriend's killing it these days!!
She looks so awesome.
Some say the orange is a little much for February
 and the dress was a little much to just be presenting. I completely disagree. There are very, very few people who can pull off bright, fun colors and if you are one of the few, you might as well go for it!! Plus, why wouldn't she want show of that new body of hers.
LOVE HER!!



This girlfriend has also been killing it these days.
She finds dresses that fit her body type perfectly
and they always have an Audrey Hepburn classic
look to them, which I love!
Simple, but perfect for her.



Although, sometimes I'm against wearing red on the red carpet, I can't say that's the case here. She looks stunning. Out of all the dresses the other night, this is probably the one that I would have picked to wear.

Or maybe I would have picked this. Simple, but still fun and sassy. Not to mention, she is just stunning.

Ok, that's all I have to say about that. Sometimes, I just don't understand what goes through their heads or their stylists heads when picking out what they are going to wear to these events.

And what's even worse, is their street style. Good Lord... don't even get me started on that. I'll save that for another day.

Ok I had to do it... Just one.