Christmas Show

When Mom came to visit in November, it just happened to be the Southern Women's Christmas Show. We had a lot of fun. We got our tickets early & on sale (thank you Harris Teeter). We left my apartment and we were in line to park before 10am. We walked in a bit after 10am and it was CROWDED (and Friday). We worked our way backwards and had a great time. We sampled wine and wine-a-ritas, bought ornaments and I now have a subscription for the paper to be delivered Fri, Sat & Sun for less than the Sunday paper itself...SCORE!

Mother and I conquered the Christmas Show and rewarded ourselves with a delightful lunch at Chick fil A!

Non Thanksgiving Thanksgiving

In the beginning of November, my mom came to visit for a few days. Since I was unable to go home for Thanksgiving, we decided to have "It's Not Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Dinner"
It was a lot of fun and we laughed A LOT!
Here is Mom carving the turkey breast (because really, we did NOT need an entire turkey!)

You'll notice the BEAUTIFUL card table I borrowed from A & J in May 2010 that I'm still using as a table. Well, I don't really ever use the table but it's nice to have. Since mother and I were having a "real" dinner which should not be enjoyed on the couch, I used the "chair in a bag" chairs as table chairs. Great idea until ya sit down and the chair is way shorter than the table. :)

Part of our feast! As soon as we sat down we realized we forgot the broccoli (thanks to steamfresh bags it was ready in under 5 minutes!)

We also had this AWESOME cake for dessert! Oh my stars it was AMAZING! It's called William Tell Apple Cake and you MUST make it! The icing on the top is divine! But with ingredients of butter and brown sugar it has to be good, right?!?!?!

Overall, "it's not thanksgiving thanksgiving" was a lot of fun. I'm thankful my mom spent 18 hours in a car to come visit for a few days and create new memories!

*since I'm writing/posting this in December, I'll let ya know that Santa brought me a BEAUTIFUL table & chairs for Christmas so now I have a lovely place to eat meals!*

Code Orange Christmas

Readers-

It's no secret. I LOVE my church! I mean I think about moving and I realize "Megan, if you move, you won't have Elevation" and then I realize how much my life has changed and how truly blessed I am to be surrounded by such awesome people and I come back to my world. :)

Now, anyone that attends Elevation will most likely tell you they love it, they are proud of it and they are involved but it's not for everyone. And that is definitely ok!!!! However, I wanted to share the link below. I wish it was the entire Worship Experience from beginning to end so that you could fully grasp the energy and excitement and message, but it's a few snippets and Pastor Steven's sermon and it really is just powerful. Even sitting at the computer I am PUMPED!

Code Orange Christmas @ Elevation Church

www.elevationexperience.com

I can't watch without crying. I can't think of the service I attended without getting teary eyed. It was powerful. It was awesome. It was just amazing!

I mean the Global Choir! That was AWESOME!

Code Orange Christmas:

6 locations

30 services

2182 people stood to their feet to profess Jesus as their savior!

Merry Christmas!

God is. God was. God will be with you!

Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone had a VERY Merry Christmas!

Freaky Friday!

Oh my stars!

The Panthers Pumpkin I threw out after Halloween. Well, the pumpkin to the left and the 2 I had in my kitchen, I kept around until Thanksgiving.

After Thanksgiving (more like before I left for Christmas) I put the pumpkins outside behind the shrubs with all intentions of throwing them out.

But I forgot and they experienced their first snow...

Apparently pumpkins DO NOT like snow!

Now I need to obtain a shovel so I can toss them in the dumpster.

Go me!

There's No Place Like Home!

Hello 2011!

Before I begin my 2011 "New Year, New Goals" posts, I must recap Christmas!

I am SO FAR BEHIND when it comes to blogging!

I went home for a week for Christmas and it was glorious! I was so glad to be home and after a very hectic November and December, it was so nice to not wake up, shower, eat and work for 14 hours a day, 6 days a week, rise and repeat. I literally stayed in my pjs for 12+ hours one day watching a NCIS marathon, eating cheese balls and Christmas cookies with not a care in the world and I felt like a new person.

Anyway, it started snowing Christmas Day before dinner/after lunch and by Sunday, it was intense! I was getting a bit stir crazy being in the house for almost a full day so I went outside to join mother in the snow removal process! Doesn't she look thrilled?!?

We realized that I was not properly equipped for snow removal as I do not own any snowy weather head gear...aka a beanie. So, I threw on a fashionable baseball hat and my jacket hood wouldn't stay on...it was a mess, but made for a great laugh!

Mother and I took a break from the snow....I mean really, it just kept snowing! It was so pretty! I decided we needed to get out of the house and that a declared "State of Emergency" wasn't going to stop us.


Since I hadn't seen the kiddos in almost an entire day (which is unheard of when I'm home because I usually spend breakfast to afternoon nap time at their house or after nap to dinner) we loaded up the kids gifts from Mom, put them in trash bags so they wouldn't get snowy/wet and walked through our development, down a "main" road and through the next development to get to the kiddos house. It was quite the trek!

Here's mom holding the goods....

And my bag of goods.
But it was worth it!

The kiddos (including the 3 neighbor kids) LOVED Lite Brite...but really, can you blame them? I LOVED Lite Brite! We hung out for a bit and then decided to be rebels and the kiddos dad drove us home in his "manly I can drive through anything" truck.

More to come.....

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

"for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord"

-Luke 2:11

Have yourself a Merry little Christmas!

Christmas Cheer is Here!

Yesterday I was in quite the holiday funk, but today....I snapped out of it!

We all know that God works in mysterious ways and when I came home from work yesterday, I went to check my mail and I got my first Christmas card of the year! It made me happy!

Now I just need to find somewhere to display Christmas cards!

Anyway, here's what I've done so far to get ready for Christmas.

It's kind of random, but for now, it'll work!

As soon as you walk in the front door, this is what you'll see.

I just love this mat! I found it in Hobby Lobby for 50% off and it reminded me of home.

I really liked the wording of this sign. So I hung it on the coat closet door.

It's the first thing you see when the front door opens.

I had this sign on the closet door until I found the one above. I thought this one was funny, and it was also another Hob Lob 50% off find! I just need to find somewhere to hang it.

The side table contains the ornaments that didn't make it on the tree and some snowmen that I didn't have anywhere else to put!

Here's an aerial view of the ornament tub/snowman. Please disregard all of the bags around the table...I sort of drop everything by the door when I get home!

My tree! Lit and decorated! I found an "M" made out of jingle bells to act as the Star/Angel topper. And yes, to the right of my tree is a bookcase which is really a picture case since it doesn't have any books on it and to the left of the tree is the boardum....it's a bulletin board that contains index cards with funny moments/sayings. It's kind of like a happy board of memories.

Just a close up of the ornaments I found...

Since I haven't bought/wrapped any presents, I decided to put some Carolina under my tree! I've collected a fair amount of sports related ornaments over the years and generally have a sports tree. However, this year I forgot to bring all of my Christmas ornaments from home to NC, so I had to buy new ornaments. Instead of mixing the basketballs with the green/pink/blue balls, I just kept them in the box and put them under the tree. I also don't have a tree skirt so I took some fabric that I've had for awhile and just bunched it under the tree. I was going to make a memory board but never did. Oh well!

This is the tiny tree I bought last Christmas and I added some glitter ornaments to it this year and put it on the counter. I also found a nativity scene in walmart that I really like.

Last year, Stephanie made everyone stockings and we hung them in the apartment. Well, this year I decided to tape mine to the counter.

I found this plate in Marshall's for $2.00 and just knew it would be cute for the kitchen! It's also a great reminder for when I start to bake Christmas Cookies! :)

I found these angels in Hobby Lobby (for 50% off) and thought they were cute. They are currently next to my tv stand.

And the random gifts I've acquired.

So that's that! Nothing too exciting but still some holiday cheer!

Bring on the snow!

overwhelmed

Sometimes I'm sitting in my car at a red light, and I look to the right and left and see the decorated houses and the nicely lit Christmas tree front and center in the window and I think "how do they do it?"

I'm a very organized person.

Those that I work with would probably say I'm a bit OCD

(in a moment of tiredness this week, I did convince a customer to purchase an extra something they had chosen so that when packaged, their box would look symmetrical...presentation people!)

about things because I often nicely lecture them on the importance of putting things back where they found them and completing tasks as they are assigned. I mean really though, it's a great system because during the rare occasion when I'm not at work, I can walk them through what they need to do/where they need to go to find something and everyone is happy! Or maybe it's just me. :)

However, this week I've been in a bah humbug mood.

It could be because for 4 straight days I came to work at 8:00am or 8:30am and didn't leave until 8:00pm. I even had the oh so glamorous moment of working in the office for a few hours one day this week and I tend to "Pebbles" my hair when I spend a lot of time looking at the computer/print outs (ya know how Pebbles from the Flintstones would have a pony tail on the top of her head) and I walked out of the office to assist a customer with their order and the gal that was working the counter was giving me these looks and I couldn't figure it out until after the fact that I had just spent 15 minutes assisting a customer with a large holiday order, answering all of her questions, planning everything out and the whole time, I had Pebbles hair. Don't let the black dress and heels fool you people!

Perhaps the bah humbug comes from the fact that I receive e-mails throughout the day about "Holiday Gift Giving" sales/deals/items/specials and I realize that I have not purchased a single gift. Christmas is exactly 3 weeks from today. THREE WEEKS! Granted, I have a few stocking stuffer type items that I've found and think "so and so would get a kick out of this" so I buy it but I have a small collection of nothing in the corner of my dining room aka storage room. But I have yet to step foot in a mall or store that would have what I'm looking for.

I have a green blob in the corner of my living room that should be a nicely decorated Christmas tree. Yep, took that thing out of the box 10 days ago, put it together and that's as far as I got. I was so excited when I purchased my 1st ever fake Christmas tree. It's pre-lit which adds to the excitement. I had all these ideas about the theme of the tree and I have yet to purchase a single ornament. Now I'm not complaining, though it may sound that way, but I'm mad at myself for not taking the time to do what makes me happy. I realized that I've spent the last few weeks helping everyone else make their holiday gathering awesome that I haven't taken the time to enjoy the Christmas Cheer as well.

I did enjoy a Peppermint Mocha so I guess that counts as holiday spirit!

However, when I finally left work BEFORE 8:00 yesterday...I left at 6:00 thankyouverymuch. I had all these plans to Griswold Family my apartment in a classy way and I fell asleep on the couch at 8:30.
Yep, 8:30 on a Friday night. I'm a party animal!

That's all going to change today! I'm going to leave work before dark and DECORATE!

Awhile ago I purchased clear glass ornaments, ribbon and feathers and somehow, I'm going to make it work. I have no idea how, but I'm going to add some flair to my tree. I'm going to purchase green, pink and silver ornaments and hang those along with the blue ones I picked up a few weeks ago.

And when I am all done, I will finally get back on the blog train and post more often and post my holiday decor. But for now, we should all take a lesson from Santa and head to the beach/relax!

Thank you Hob Lob for providing cute doormats for 50% off! WOO HOO!

Hope everyone else is in the Christmas Spirit!!!!

I'll be joining you soon!

Non Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Dinner

On Saturday, Adrienne cooked her very first turkey!

We named Saturday dinner "Non Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Dinner" and it was AMAZING!

However, first I must report our Black Friday Craziness because it was memorable!

On Thursday, we walked over to Starbucks and noticed that 5 people were already in line at

Best Buy.

AT NOON.

ON THANKSGIVING DAY.

SERIOUSLY!!!!!!

In line. 18 hours BEFORE the store even opens! On Thanksgiving.

Now, I decided I would've be impressed had someone had a grill/turkey fryer/tent in the parking lot and treated their insanity like they were tailgating, but not so much.

So, at 9:30pm that night, we decided to drive by Best Buy to track the line.

We counted maybe 20 people.

Well, Adrienne and I decided that we would get up and go shopping at 6:00am but we didn't really have much of a plan. I had to work at 9:00am so I didn't want to do anything crazy, but we didn't want to miss out on anything either. It turned out that we had been up since 2:30am and since we were still awake, we decided to go to Target for the fun of it, but first we drove through the Best Buy parking lot and the line had tripled! It was crazy!

So, we drove to Target and decided that the line outside was too long so we were going to go to the next target (which is literally 5 minutes down the road if that). We got there and the line wrapped around behind the building. It took 10 minutes for the last person in line to enter the store. Needless to say, by the time we made it in, men were already at the register with their massive tvs. Target employees handed us store maps as we entered and it was just funny!

4:00AM....ready to embrace Target...for the FUN of it!

So at 4:45am, when we noticed the line wrapped around the entire store and we found "normal" items, we decided to hide our loot and come back for it later, ya know after the sun came up! We hid some DVDs, Catch Phrase, Flannel Sheets and whatever else we fit in the "ribbon bin". Clearly, we found important high dollar items! :)
We left Target, headed back down the road, hung out at Starbucks and were 1st in line at Jos A Banks when they opened. Adrienne had a blast and completed all of her shopping for her bro and husband. I however, almost fell asleep amongst the color coordinated ties but was in attendance for moral support! As we left, the sun made an appearance and I realized that I needed to shower and head to work (I did take a 3 hour nap from 11:00-2:00). I took a 45 minute cat nap and had a great day at work.

However, after work Adrienne and I headed back to Target....18 hours later...and found this:

ALL of our hidden loot!!!!! It was a Christmas miracle! And it was all still on sale! Woo hoo!

SATURDAY:

It was time for Non Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Dinner! Here's A with her AWESOME turkey! Seriously, for never cooking a turkey, it was DELICIOUS!!!!!
5 side items. 1 oven. Skill!

She was really proud of how it turned out.
"WOW! It really does look like a turkey!"

Overall, as much as I missed not being home with my family for Thanksgiving, I had a GREAT and certainly memorable Thanksgiving. I am so thankful for the friendship I found in Adrienne and Jeff and thankful for the crazy shenanigans. And I'm thankful that Jeff understands that Adrienne and I are 1 dance move short of a musical comedy. :)

Oh....I also learned to hoola hoop after Non Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Dinner!

More on that later....

Halloween 2010

I am fully aware that this post is almost an entire month late. But, better late than never, right?!

Today, I bring you Halloween 2010

My inside "decorations" complete with an Apple Cinnamon Candle burning!

The hilarious card my mother sent me

It's funny because I called her about sheets!

As you know, I mentioned that I really wanted to have a Pumpkin Carving Party!
Well, since I live in an apartment and don't really have a whole lot of space for a group of people and their pumpkins (and don't really want pumpkin guts on my carpet/my apartment to smell like fresh pumpkin), we had a party at Adrienne's.

My mother sent me a recipe for "Melting Witch Puddles"....the photo attached to the recipe was awesome, mine, not so much.

Adrienne was supposed to make Nutter Butter ghosts, but somehow she handed me a bag containing white chocolate and Nutter Butters with a look of disgust and made me dip them for her :)

Since I was handing out candy at Adrienne's, I didn't want to be the mean neighbor so this is what I left:

I took my candy to A&J's the night before, but at 3:30 in the afternoon Buzz Lightyear knocked on my door....so I gave him Oreo 100 calorie packs, fruit snacks and Coconut M&Ms. I decided to take what I mini bagged item I had in my pantry but wasn't in love with and use it as my Halloween treat. The way I see it, it's better than giving out canned veggies and salsa.

In case you 're wondering, I carved the Panther logo in my pumpkin but wrote "Panthers" with a Sharpie underneath the logo instead of carving the letters. The carving contest was getting cold and dark (we carved in the driveway) and I couldn't feel my fingers to continue gutting and carving. Needless to say, I was not crowned the winner of the "1st Annual Carving Contest" Boo!

Hope you're Halloween (last month) was great!

My life should be a reality show...

Seriously! Some days I stop and think to myself
"If a production crew followed me around with cameras I'd probably be a millionaire by now!"
One day last week I left work and went straight to the grocery store to buy chicken and a few other ingredients for the dinner that I was going to make as soon as I got home. Well, the lines were kind of long and I was hungry so I decided to use the self check out lane. I'm kind of a raw meat juices touching my bag of pretzels/eggs/waffles/oj freak, so I had my chicken in a bag (to prevent cross contamination of course!) and the bagged chicken wouldn't scan. The clerk had to come type in a code and then he bagged the chicken and placed it above where my groceries were and I proceeded with the rest of the items in my cart.
I got home, unloaded my car, preheated the oven, unpacked my bags, changed out of work clothes and into comfy clothes, and started to put together the chicken dish (Salsa Chicken, McCormick seasoning bag style...not that phenomenal if you want my opinion) and all of a sudden, I can't find the chicken! So I look in my car...no chicken. I call the store, they have it. Thankfully the grocery store is close to my apartment so it didn't take long to go back for it but I had to turn the oven off, cover what I had already assembled, get back in the car and it was just a hassle.
-See, made for tv!

Fast forward to last night.

I stopped by Target after I got out of a Small Group meeting to get a few things for a dessert that I want to make tonight. Target didn't have everything I needed to so just went to HT since it's in the same parking lot. I noticed they had a TON of bigger pumpkins and they were now a VIC special of $3.99 (they were $5.99 last week) so I just knew I needed one for the

Pumpkin Carving Party next weekend!

I looked at them all and realized the one I wanted was in the middle and a few pumpkins needed to be moved. So I stepped in the hay/straw, planted my foot and started moving pumpkins to get to the one I want. I grab it, hold it like a football and start to work my way out of the pumpkins. I step back and am missing my shoe. Yep, when I planted my foot it got wedged between 2 pumpkins and the more I moved, the more it stuck. So I had to put my pumpkin on the sidewalk and retrieve my shoe...as customers walked by because I was in the front of the store by the cars.

-Such a shining moment...but that's not all!

I proceeded to enter the store and grab the 2 items I need and after I checked out (with my one bag that I remembered to grab) I left the store to walk to my car and this was parked next to me:

Apparently the driver of the car had been shopping for a LONG time! :)

And this morning:

I ironed my shirt, ate breakfast, dried my hair, put my shirt on....stood in front of the mirror and realized I only ironed HALF of it.

Needless to say, I'm now wearing a cardigan that required no ironing!

Happy Fall!

I LOVE Fall

I LOVE Candy Apples

(the candy part, not so much the apple. I mean I love apples alone, not with candy coating)

I LOVE Pumpkins and Pumpkin things

Well, it's certainly not fall like weather outside and that kind of makes me sad

But....

my Mom ROCKS!

Mother found Candy Apple Mix (which I still can't find in stores)

and

Pumpkin Spice ice cream topping

(which I've looked for and not found, but only looked for because Mom found it)

I am SO excited!!!!

I can't wait for it to be a bit cooler so I can make Candy Apples

(with a hint of cinnamon before dipping....yum!)

As for now, I just want to have a Pumpkin Carving Party where everyone can drink Hot Apple Cider, eat Candy Apples, have a great time and hand out candy to the Trick or Treaters!

Hello Blog World, It's Me, Megan!

I "forget" to blog because I remember to go to work, cook, clean and sleep. I also feel like I haven't done anything worthwhile, gone anywhere exciting, found anything humorous or really have much to report at all.

So let's recap some things!

TV:
I was amazingly disappointed with the Grey's premiere. My favorite premieres happened to be NCIS, Big Bang Theory and Glee. Naturally, DWTS is always new and exciting...each week is like a premiere week! I thought everything else was just sort of blah. It seems to be a slow intro to this season of television viewing which means only good things are to come! I'm excited about watching everything else again this week/weekend.


LIFE:
I played Bingo with some people that live in the same apartment complex the other night as part of a "Social Night Among Residents" and won a $5 gift card to Target! It was pretty awesome.

I went to Hob Lob to look for some inspiration to hang on my living room/bedroom walls since they are empty and sad. I don't really know what I want but I know I'm tired of looking at nothing! I kind of think I want a skyline picture in black and white to hang above my tv....just need to find what's in my head. Anyway, I ended up buying a super cute Halloween sign to put outside of my apartment...and it was 50% off!


I'm excited to decorate for Halloween. I've never had my own apt to decorate. I kind of want to have a Halloween party too! Really though, I just want to carve a pumpkin.


BAKING:
I decided since it's Fall and Football Season, I needed to make Buckeyes! Let's be clear that I am not an Ohio State/Big Ten fan, but I enjoy consuming Buckeyes. I've never really made them myself, I've either had them from the lady who shared the recipe with me (who happens to be from Columbus and an OSU Grad) or my Mom has made them.

I'm a firm believer that it's all about the Nabisco Grahams and the Skippy PB (even though I eat Jif if I'm making a sandwich...weird, I know)

I was not aware of how much of a mess I would make. It may have something to do with the fact that I tend to not choose a pot/pan/plate/bowl big enough...

Yes, I did use a metal spoon with that pot. I'm sorry Gramma, you did teach me better but I didn't obey. I did not however scrape it along the sides/bottom...I used that spoon to scoop out the mixture. Yum!

I was also unaware of how long it would take to form the peanut butter balls. This is half of them. I probably would've made more but I was getting bored and well, I ended up with Buckeyes the size of golf balls towards the end!

I did not take a picture of the dipping process or the finished product but I will tell you, they were amazing! I gave away a good portion of them, ate some and still have a container in the freezer for whenever I feel like some PB&Chocolate goodness!

That's about it for now!