Have you seen the Rockettes??

I almost didn't make it to the Rockettes last night. I started my trip an hour early, stopped and got gas, moved along quite well down the interstate until suddenly I came to a dead stop.. Yippee! 45 minutes until showtime.... So I quickly and cleverly got off the interstate and left everyone going home from Thanksgiving on the interstate... hah! So I happily sped along my new shortcut for maybe 3 minutes until I came to lovely blue flashing lights. The friendly police was directing ALL the traffic off the interstate onto my shortcut. Thanks. With a closed interstate and 45 billion (underestimate) people on my new 'shortcut', we didn't move too fast. I arrived at the show surprisingly only 12 minutes late, hurried, and sat down gasping for air and trying to lower my blood pressure. I heard 3 seconds of music and 'now the Rockettes!' before the lights came on and an announcer said, "Please remain in your seats we are having technical difficulties and will resume the show shortly."
WHAT?! Blood pressure again...

Anyways, things got moving along finally and the show was amazing! I could probably google some much better video of this but I'll let you pretend like you were sitting in my lap instead.

Not Me Monday

It was most certainly NOT ME that ate almost an entire cookie sheet of these amazing Rolo/pretzel/nut combinations during Thanksgiving break. I think it may have been my husband, but since I'm still trying to not gain back 4lbs lose 10lbs, it was certainly NOT ME.

However, I'm pretty sure I should share this 'recipe' so you can NOT eat a whole cookie sheet as well. (I'm not sure it counts as a recipe since you really just squish a bunch of stuff together, but here you go).

Buy those little checkerboard pretzels (they work the best).
Then unwrap 200 rolos - that's the fun part!
Put a rolo on top of every pretzel and put it in the oven on 350 for 3.5 minutes.
Pull out and quickly (!) put a nut on top, preferably Almonds or Pecans.
Put tray in fridge for 30 minutes so the chocolate hardens again and then you can pull them out and bag in cute little bags for gifts! (Or not eat them all by yourself...either way).

Quick recap: Thanksgiving, Auburn & Animals

Here is a list of how this week has flown by already:

1. Stray boxer that Ben volunteered us to help went back to his loving family Tuesday night (thank goodness... there is no more room at the inn!):2. Thanksgiving & family:

3. Auburn game (very close! As Hogan put it: "We won 58 minutes of the game.")(Not the picture you were hoping for?! Me either.... let me try that again.) Ben and I were in the Alabama section. We had amazing seats (if you were an Alabama fan!) Right above the football team's locker room.

4. Christmas Card Pictures! (This is the runner up):
5. Old roommates!!! :) Whitney came in town from Seattle for Thanksgiving.
6. ANOTHER dog found his home. Seriously, God is just putting them all in my driveway. This little guy was missing for 5 days showed up on my porch this morning. He had wandered 10 miles!
Next up: Little brother's birthday tonight!

Oh how I love my mailbox.

(This isn't really my mailbox, but I'd give anything to have it. You can learn how by clicking on the image.)

You probably know that I am checking my mailbox frequently in hopes of receiving the results from the National Counselor Exam, well I haven't heard yet. BUT! What HAS come in the mailbox this week has made the wait a little less unbearable.

I have received all these for FREE! Yes... free! :)

Are you wondering what the heck this is? An almond tin of course! You don't know what an almond tin is?! Okay... I'll tell you. It holds the 'perfect serving size of almonds'! (I should have read the packaging better, I think its like 23 almonds. Cute!

This is my favorite! I read a blog about a woman couponing to disney and she was writing all these companies for coupons (5 a day!). Well, I am not going that far but I have written a few companies telling them I like their products (when I really do) and Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom cleaner was one of them. They had a free Scrubbing Bubbles coupon in my mailbox in 2 days!!


I think this one came from becoming a fan on facebook. Not too shabby.


TONS of $1.00 off 1 Pantene item coupons.


This one was SUCH a surprise. This one came straight from L'oreal. A full-size L'oreal Telescopic Explosion Mascara! Who needs NCE results when you have this?!


Another full-size makeup item! $$$ :) This is Glo Mineral Eye Shadow, also a facebook promo.

"Not Me" Monday

This is a funny one that some of my favorite bloggers have been participating in, so of course I have to join the crowd.

Today I most certainly did NOT download the entire first album of Glee and sing every song at the top of my lungs all the way home from work pretending I was Rachel... not me!

(Nor did I pretend enthusiastically that I was Archie...)

5 Question Friday

Mama M over at My Little Life is having a blog carnival for 5 question Friday! So here it goes...

1. Are you a Black Friday shopper?

YES! I love love love it. Something about digging through the ads on Thanksgiving day, making a plan of what stores open first and what stores have the best deals, clipping the extra savings coupons (which you know are my favorite),waking up at 4:30 am and convincing my husband to come with me (even MORE fun!).

Last year I was a little disappointed in Macy's because I planned and planned my Macy's trip out to buy Ben's 'only-shoe-he'll-wear' Wallabees for $89.99 (originally $120). Well, I ended up missing the deal. So I went later the next week to buy them and they were 50% off AND I had a coupon. Ended up paying $45!!! SUCH a better deal than was advertised on Black Friday. So Macy's is now off my Black Friday list. Walmart, however, definitely still on the list.

2. What was your favorite childhood toy? (Think Easy Bake Oven, Cabbage Patch Kid, Shrinky Dinks, etc.)

I'm going to have to go with Skip-it on this one.

Mainly because I got it for my birthday one year (I know not Christmas) and I had never been so excited to get a present in my life. I immediately started 'skipping-it' and whacked my best friend in the ankle, who proceeded to cry hysterically the rest of MY birthday party. I mean c'mon.

3. Favorite Christmas movie?

Can I tell you what my LEAST favorite Christmas movie is instead? National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. If I never saw this movie again it would be a wonderful thing. It makes me so uncomfortable and anxious.

But okay, okay, I'll play along... I'm going to go with Ghostbusters II.

(What? You say that isn't a Christmas Movie?! Wanna bet... its on this list, so I win.) Don't you remember the crowd of people singing Auld Lang Syne outside the museum when its encased in a big pink blobby shell?!

4. What is the "must have" item on your Christmas list this year?

My real must have item is a vacation. I'm not 100% sure what Ben and I are actually giving each other for Christmas, but a cruise/vacation WILL be included. We are looking to go on a cruise in March. This will definitely be a splurge and much-needed vacation! I am so excited. I've been trying stop being a scrooge (See # 3) and do something fun and this definitely falls in that category.

5. Do you go all out with decorations or do you keep it simple and classy?

Again, see # 3 and # 8. Ben and I have never had a Christmas Tree. Partly because we were poor newly-weds in school and partly because last year we were in North Carolina for Christmas visiting his family and the year before we were in Florida visiting mine (I know, I'm full of excuses).

However, last year Ben's amazing Aunt Anne gave me a TON of beautiful Christmas ornaments, a tree-skirt, lights, etc. So the ONLY thing I have to come up with this year is the tree! (It was so daunting to think about starting from scratch with buying Christmas decorations. No one told me I should have registered for some when we got married... that may have helped this problem not go on for so long, but this year WILL be different and we are going all out (which hopefully will still fall in the category of simple and classy).

Waiting....

In case you are wondering what kind of images pop up in google images when you type in the word, "Waiting" - here ya go! Interesting... huh? (I look just like the one on the end right now).

It has now been 33 days since I took the NCE and I'm still waiting to hear about the results. It said 6-8 weeks, so I guess I still have a minimum of 9 days.... its killing me! I read a ton of blogs of people who have taken the NCE and many said, just when they forgot about it, the results came in the mail. Well... 33 days and counting and I haven't forgotten about it.

Speaking of... I recommend this song to everyone:

"These are a few of my favorite things...."

Keely over at Mann Land 5 is hosting a blog carnival on her favorite things! Well I thought it was fun, and she's hosting a giveaway, so why not?


I sat here for a moment and tried to think of my favorite things and all that comes to mind is candy... hmm... so i guess that should be # 1. (Yeah, yeah, I know.... #7, lose 10lbs, I'm working on it).

#2. Because I changed the music at work today to Christmas Music, my all time favorite christmas song is..... "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"

That is a fun version of it, by Rascal Flatts.

3. This one is really funny... Ben always looks at me weird when I get so excited, but I love when I pass a TON of motorcycles on the road. I'm not even sure what to call it, motorcycle convoys? But they are a few of my favorite things, haha! (This also applies to many of the same vehicles in a row, ie - army convoys, alabama power trucks all going somewhere, etc.) :)

Look at this picture and tell me you don't agree:

4. EOS chapstick.

This wonderful product came free to me from a promotion on their website, but I've been told that they are available at Walgreens. It is by far the best chapstick I've ever used (as an addict of chapstick, I've used just about anything in a moment of crisis), its not all waxy and gross like most brands. It is 95% organic and all natural. AND! Look how cool it is! Ben even says he wants one (don't tell him I told you).

So go visit Keely and blog about your favorite things!

Fight for Preemies

November is Preemie Awareness Month & November 17 is when March of Dimes has taken today to Fight for Preemies! Read more about the Fight for Preemies event at Bloggers Unite.


This is Ava (as you probably know). Born 6 weeks early and spent 3+ weeks in the hospital. There are so many more babies I know though that have been born way earlier than Ava and spent MUCH longer in the hospital. Spread the word about the Fight for Preemies!

Treats from Tallahassee

This weekend two of my cousins from Tallahassee came up for a visit: Ivy & John! My grandmother was also in town staying with my parents. It was a quick trip, but we crammed in as much family time as we could and invited over all the rest of the Birmingham family members for dinner Saturday night.

Here is little Ava cracking up at her Pop-Pop:
Ivy, Ava & Sierra (Sierra was in love with Ava)My gramma, me & my dad

Austin, John & Stevie

Unfortunatley, I realized after they left that I didn't take hardly ANY pictures... I was so glad to visit with them and have them come to Birmingham though! I won't get to see them again until January.

Update to #7 - Lose 10lbs

So as promised, here is an update to #7: Lose 10 lbs.

Well I started this process about 2 or 3 weeks ago (really it feels like my whole life, but I'm going with 2 or 3 weeks) and I've lost a total of...... 4lbs!!! Which makes it sound like 6lbs to go isn't that bad, but I've been here before and its not so easy. I have been eating a ton of salads, good for the weight loss, bad for the budget. My new kick is any buffalo chicken salad, although when I try to get it grilled I usually end up with some sort of chef salad... No thanks. So hopefully we'll have some good progress coming up, but family is visiting this weekend, then Thanksgiving and all the really good treats that come with Christmas. Yikes!

What happens when I losen the grip a little.

You may know... I have a hard time letting go of the money. (See #3) Well, Ben has been telling me and telling me we needed a new faucet for several months. (I'm very sad I forgot to take an actual 'before' picture, but this one w/ the old sink on the porch will have to do). I found this faucet at Lowe's while shopping for the new one. Wanna know how much the builder spent on it? A big fat $29.98! It didn't take long for the cap to fall off and it start to leak.


Now, if you know Ben even a little bit, you know that he LOVES to spend money. So while we were looking for new faucets, Ben mentions that we probably need a new sink to match too. Um... no. So we leave Lowe's and give up on the whole idea. Well, several weeks went by and Ben again mentions we really need a new faucet. I finally gave in and agreed. I even went by the post office that day to pick up a change of address packet (for the 10% off Lowe's coupon, of course!). Well, we picked out an amazing faucet and yes... a new sink. But I can't even express the difference it makes in our little kitchen.

Before: (Sort of)


After:
I think its wonderful and am so glad Ben persisted with the faucet/sink issue. He even installed the whole thing by himself. I watched and asked why he didn't need to read instructions a few times, but turns out he didn't need to read them after all. We struggled with the white color, but we don't have anything stainless in our whole kitchen (except the old sink) and cabinets are white, tile is gray and counter top is dark gray speckled, so it looks very 'clean'. What do you think?

Peanuts and Parades

15. Go to the peanut festival. (one item crossed off the list!)


This weekend was a very long awaited trip to Dothan to see one of my best friends, Emily. Ben was sweet enough to drive me there and participate in most of the things I wanted, including watch the over 2 hour parade early Saturday morning. Below is a picture of everyone picking peanuts up off the street! (See #14a - eat peanuts off the street.)


Beautiful day at the peanut parade!
No one else thought this was as fun as I did....
Few things that were not on the list but are firsts and have been accomplished before turning 27 this weekend:
28. Try a fried snickers. (Yes, I know... the thought of it makes you want to throw up, me too, however it was pretty good!)
29. Try a fried oreo. (I'd skip this one if ever offered it again... yuck) I'm sure you are wondering how #7. 'Lose 10lbs' is going about now, huh? I'll update about that one shortly!

Trying to avoid all the carnies at the peanut festival.

Not only is this dog named Woodle, but his little half chihuahua-half boston terrier self is pretty much the cutest dog I've ever seen.




Cooking out for the Alabama game in our Auburn-wear.

We even got to see a demolition derby!

Now just waiting on Hurricane Ida to pass by so Ivy, John & Gramma can come up for the weekend! Do you have any suggestions for fun things to take my family to while they are in town???