in the midst of the darkness...

Last night. Oh last night we had a crazy storm....rain, thunder, lightening and hail. I was at work until 10pm. I live close to where I work and everything was fine. My apartment complex however, did not survive the storm and was pitch black and powerless. I didn't really want to pretend to be Amish and I left my window open and I'm petrified of the pitch black darkness and my flashlight was in my room and ......you get the point. It wasn't a good combo. So, I went to Target to buy a flashlight. Well, buying a flashlight when half of the town is out of power is like buying milk or bread when they're forecasting snow. I had the option of a heavy duty (literally) flashlight or Toy Story. I went with the heavy duty can last forever and hit someone over the head if they try to attack you in the darkness flashlight. I know, you probably think I'm crazy by now but I really did watch too much Rescue 911 when I was little and followed that with CSI until high school when it just got too freaky and I had to stop watching. Yes, I do love NCIS and that doesn't bother me. Anyway, I hung out in Target testing the lawn furniture until 10:45ish since they closed at 11. I went home with my flashlight and could not figure it out. I know that sound crazy but the flashlight didn't come with instructions and I tried every battery combo and nothing worked. So, I called my AWESOME friends Adrienne and Jeff. They had power so we decided I should just spent the night at their house (because they are awesome like that) and Jeff fixed my flashlight. Apparently it does matter what way you put the spring in. Who knew! They came over with their flashlights and walked through my apartment so I could grab some pjs and off we went. This whole thing made me realize how blessed we really are to rely on something so simple as a light switch. These poor people in our own cities that are homeless or in other countries make it work and I freaked. I hate the darkness. But I do love the song that we sing in church...

"in the midst of the darkness You're the light that guides me through..."

Happy Birthday Dean Dome!

Today, the Dean E Smith Center, home of Carolina Basketball, celebrates it's 25th Anniversary!

I've had quite a few great moments in the Dean Dome, so I wanted to share a few pics from some of them!

To have that much talent under one roof is crazy!

April and I were lucky to sit 4 rows behind the bench to watch 100 years worth of basketball greats!

Tyler Hansbrough passed Phil Ford in scoring...

On game days in the Smith Center, your surrounded by at least 21,750 of your closest friends

100 Years of Excellence

Today is game day in Chapel Hill!

GO TAR HEELS!

Beat those Clemson Tigers!

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!

Kick off your shoes

First off, you should probably know that I am very organized and I like to plan things in advance. I love my color coded agenda book.

However, what I'm about to type will shock you.

I received a text message from my friend April while I was at work Saturday.

At 2:30pm she asked me what time I got off of work and if I had plans.

Well, let me tell you...I had the most random yet exciting weekend that I've had in a long time!

I left work, went home, threw random clothes in a bag and hit the road!

90 minutes later I was in A & K's driveway

and we were on our way here:

Keith and April waiting for the fun to begin!

April and I!

Now April and I have been friends since my freshman year of college, her senior year. We've had a ton of fun times together. I mean, I was her MOH when she and Keith got married, so clearly, the 3 of us get along great! However, we learned that things don't change as we age which is great! April and I dance and have a grand ol time and Keith hangs out watching and shaking his head!

Sunday for lunch we went to one of the fine dining establishments I miss the most...

Tokyo Express

and I enjoyed Teriyaki Chicken with Fried Rice, Broccoli and Carrots. Sweet Tea to wash it down.

April and I went grocery shopping, home to bake some cookies and just lounge and then I went to visit the kids I used to babysit.

We watched the Panthers win, ate dinner and then Susan and I decided to be creative and make Tyler's Halloween costume. He's going to be an Indian (MJ's going to be a Cowgirl). Well, we stopped in the gas station for the Sunday paper since it always has a 50% off coupon for ACMoore and my college suite mate Katrina (who I saw at Steph's wedding) happened to be in the same gas station on her way to Chapel Hill! however, I saw her car, looked around the store, couldn't find her, checked out, called her and she had already hit the highway so we missed one another...but how random!
Anyway, next to ACMoore is a massive Halloween store so we bought Tyler a costume (he's only 22 months old) and found this:

Overall, it was a random but amazingly exciting/fun weekend!

It's kind of nice to not have a schedule.

3 inch killer bees!

I apologize for the quality of this photo, but I took it from inside my front doorway.

For the last 2 weeks, I have had a self diagnosed "3 inch killer bee" epidemic in front of my apartment.

Literally, the bushes are a breeding ground for them!

Every morning when I leave for work, I open my door to at least 30 of them. No joke. I counted one morning as they buzzed by.

Naturally, I waited a few days and called the apartment people to place a work order for maintenance to remedy the situation. I came home from work and the exterminator left a note that he had sprayed and everything should be fine.

Wrong!

I opened the door the next day and they had multiplied! Adrienne thought I was crazy, so I made her come visit and sure enough, she came before lunch and at least 20 of them were waiting for her.

So I went back to the apartment people and the exterminator came again.

The message that was left for me went something like this:

"Um ma'am, you don't have '3 inch killer bees' you have what's known as Cicada Killers. They won't hurt you. Well, the female will if you make her mad, so don't do that. But if you take a closer look they are all over the area and will be gone in about 2 to 3 weeks. You do have a large amount of them but spraying won't do nothing. We sprayed anyway but they aren't going to leave for a few more weeks. They are good for the environment though cause those Cicadas are loud"

So I googled "cicada killers" and came up with this lovely definition courtesy of Wikipedia:

"Cicada killer wasps are large, solitary, ground dwelling, predatory wasps. They are so named because they hunt cicadas and provision their nests with them, after stinging and paralyzing them. There are 21 species worldwide. The highest diversity occurs in the region between North Africa and Central Asia....and your apartment!"

and this definition

"Adult Eastern cicada killer wasps are large, 1.5 to 5 cm (2/3 to 2 inches) long, robust wasps with hairy, reddish and black areas on the thorax (middle part), and are black to reddish brown marked with light yellow stripes on the abdominal (rear) segments. The wings are brownish. Coloration may superficially resemble that of yellowjackets or hornets. The females are somewhat larger than the males, and both are among the largest wasps seen in the Eastern United States, their unusual size giving them a uniquely fearsome appearance. European hornets (Vespa crabro) are often mistaken for Eastern cicada killers."

I also thought I'd include this picture from the definition. Really though, how am I supposed to walk to my car and stay away from those stinging females when they resemble one another so closely!

My oh my how I'm so pumped to be looking at that "uniquely fearsome appearance" for the next 2 weeks! Woo hoo!

Birthday Weekend!

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26

was my actual birthday!

I went to work as I do every morning and after the lunch rush had come and gone, a gentleman walked in to deliver these:

My 3 favorite kiddos in the entire world, T, K & J sent them to me!!! :)

It was a very pleasant surprise! Aren't they pretty!!!!

I came home from work, packed up my things and headed to the somewhat old stomping grounds. Of course by "old stomping grounds" I mean where I lived before moving to the QC in September!

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27

was Jonah's 1st Birthday!

Saturday morning I woke up and went to a far away town to try on a bridesmaids dress for my friend C's wedding in July and after that I came back to the old stomping grounds and went to a birthday party for a very special little boy!

Sweet Jonah turned 1 year old Saturday! I have never gone to such an AWESOME party before in my life! I'm talking balloon animals, ring toss, pin the tail on the donkey, popcorn, cotton candy, photo booth, lollipop tree, petting zoo and this amazing cake:



Watching Janel put it together was like being front row and center for one of the Food Network Challenge Cake competitions! It was awesome!

Of course, the highlight of the party was this little guy!

I'm sure Patrice will post party pictures so it's definitely worth checking out! She did a phenomenal job planning the party and hosting the party!

After I left Jonah's Celebration of the Century, I met A & K for Birthday Dinner followed by a basketball game. It was so fun to hang out with A & K again and to also see so many people at the basketball game that I haven't seen since I moved.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 28

was birthday dinner in the QC w/friends

After work I met some friends for Birthday dinner at a restaurant that I hadn't been to yet. It was yummy! As we were leaving we decided that we should get together once a month for lunch or dinner and try out all the restaurants in the area that we've never been too! I think we are on to something with this plan!

We probably won't be invited back here due to the status in which someone, ABC, left the tablecloth!

The great thing is, ABC wrote that upside down! Don't fret...it's just a thick piece of paper they put on top of the linen!

I think it's safe to say I had a great birthday filled weekend!

I am blessed with such an awesome group of friends not to mention a wonderful family!

100th year. 500...600...700...wins

I'm a HUGE college sports fan. I will watch almost any sporting event on tv but love to be there in person. With that being said, I have been blessed to attend at least one Carolina Men's Basketball game a year since 2005.

For those of you that are not aware, this 2009-2010 season marks the 100th year of Carolina Basketball. How awesome! The season started off with a 100th year pro alumni game in September. My basketball game attending partner in crime, A, and I were there....4 rows behind the "Blue" teams bench!



We had a BLAST!

In December of 2006, UNC's Head Men's Basketball Coach, Roy Williams, achieved his 500th win and I was there (A too but we didn't sit together). On November 29, 2009, Roy Williams achieved his 600th win....and, you guessed it....we were there! We even allowed A's hubby K to join us! :)



Here is A & K! Aren't they just the cutest!



A & I decided we should get our tickets now for November-December 2012 for Roy's 700th!