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!

Sweet Single Samples

The other day I stumbled across this display in the grocery store:

I realize it looks like a bunch of cheese but it's not! Maybe if you click the picture it will enlarge and you"ll be able to see that the shredded cheese is about a cup, the slice package is 4 slices I think and the cube packages are mini too. How smart! Great for cooking with smaller quantities and great if you just want to sample something!*

*Kraft does not endorse this post nor did they ask me to write it. I don't even know anyone at Kraft. I'm just excited about their smaller portions!

Day of Fun!

About a month ago, ABC and I had a "Day of Fun".

It was approximately a bajillion degrees outside but that didn't stop us!

We were going to have a pool day but even the pool was a few degrees below a bajillion and there wasn't a breeze so it was pretty miserable. We had a to do list and we conquered it and took pictures along the way. You're welcome! :)

Our first stop was Hob Lob. Oh how I love it so! We found these funny (and overpriced, hello 40% off coupon) items that we posed with....because apparently some people need an artichoke decorating their counters?!

We left Hob Lob and headed to Costco. The samples were pretty good that day. We were pleased. The receipt checker laughed when we asked her to take our pic because we were documenting our day of fun. I like the expression on the lady's face that's standing behind us...
We rewarded ourselves with a delish lunch at Cantina 1511 complete with guac! Loving the brand marketing with the coaster placement :)

We forgot to take a picture of our long, goose poop filled walk through Freedom Park. It was blazing hot and we joked that we sweated (making it a word for the purpose of this post) out a whole lotta chips and salsa!

The ultimate destination of the day......

MENCHIES fro yo! They have RED VELVET fro yo that's outta this world! And the toppings! Oh my the topping selection. If you live anywhere near a Menchies....you must check it out. You'll thank me later!

ABC left a few days after our Day of Fun for an over the pond excursion. She finally returns to the states on Monday and I am so excited!!!

I miss you dawg!

My Mom came to visit a bit over a month ago. While she was here, we were doing something and ended up watching the first round of the NFL Draft. We found it humorous that the gentleman drafted 12th to play for the New Orleans Saints, after listening to a letter his father wrote him, began to cry and say "I miss you dawg!" We weren't really sure what that was all about, and really, where's the respect when you refer to your parent as "dawg" (yes, it must be spelled dawg because that's what it sounded like, not dog) but apparently the draft picks father wrote the letter from jail.

Moving on!

It was so nice to have my Mom here! We pretty much just hung out by the pool, did a little shopping, ate dinner outside while listening to a concert, walked to Chick fil a for ice dream cones, went to church and had a cookout with some friends from eGroup. It was great! And, mother proudly told everyone that she has a lot of vacation days so I'm sure she'll be back soon for more fun!!! :)

Thanks for the ceiling fan & lots of laughs!!!

I miss you dawg! :)

Sale Shopping!

I am a REALLY good sale shopper!

Yesterday after work, I ran some errands with ABC. Well, she was shopping for dinner items and I was just browsing. Until I remembered that I signed up to be an e-Vic member at HT.

WELL, I LOVE Chicken Cordon Bleu. I mean, I LOVE it. I think the majority of the scholarship dinners I attended in high school served Chicken Cordon Bleu and I was thrilled!

I recently discovered B @ rber Raw Chicken Cordon Bleu in the freezer section that's individually packaged and you can bake in your oven or toaster oven. Well, as an e-Vic member, it was ON SALE for 50% off. Carrots were on VIC and then eVic too...

SO....are you sitting down? Because this is AWESOME!

Baby Carrots were $1.99

I bought them for $1.20

....

Chicken Cordon Bleu was $12.79

I bought it for $4.34

WOO HOO!

I spent $5.74 and SAVED $9.15

Grocery Carts.

I love to go Grocery Shopping.

Weird, I know.

But I love reading the weekly sales papers and finding what's on sale that I not only need but also have a coupon for. It's like a game for me...and I'm really good at it!

What I don't enjoy is when I have a cart that squeaks or doesn't turn well. It's like the wheels don't want work and move forward or turn nicely and I find it frustrating. The worst wheel experience I had was in Ikea but that's another story!

However, I was leaving the grocery store the other night and walked by this...

I think these boxes are on their way to the Land of Misfit Grocery Cart Wheels!

Snow Day Fun!

Almost two week ago we had a nice little snow fall! The store was closed so I worked from home but decided it would be best to clean off my car as the day progressed. I'm really glad I did because Tuesday was nothing but ice and well, that's no fun to remove from your car!

I owned an ice scraper that also had a brush on it but for the life of me, I have no idea where it is. So, I used a squeegee to remove the snow from my windshield! Whatever works, right?!

Adrienne and her husband live within walking distance from my apartment so A came over for the afternoon so we could go exploring. We found this snowman by the apartment mailboxes! How cute!
We walked to $tarbucks.

And Target.

Poor A couldn't decide which SUMMER cover up to purchase. I think all the snow was getting to her!

Of course I found this. That "As Seen on TV" section is just too funny.

I mean with "Dramatic Results in Just 2 Minutes A Day" it has to be good, right? ha ha

We left Target.

And walked back to Harris Teeter.

And walked back to my apartment only to discover how deep the snow really was.
After our adventure, we decided it was time to "Wine Down" with some cocktails and that it would be best to have a slumber party. I mean after all, the news kept mentioning "power outages" and well, apartments just don't have fireplaces so I spent the night at A&J's house.

***I am SO thankful for such great friends that live so close!!! I really have no idea what I would do without this amazing couple. When I need help putting together a lamp (don't ask) or setting up a DVD player or anything like that, A just sends J over and wa la. We've dubbed him "man hands" since he's so handy.***

Anyway....

A makes the best guac I've had outside of a Mexican restaurant! I mean we had a method to the madness of walking to HT and Target...we needed snowed in supplies!

Tuesday it was really icy and gross but we headed Uptown after lunch and it was so foggy. It was crazy!

We went back to HT to find no bread....

No milk....

But we had a great snow day! Poor J thought we were nuts walking all over the place and documenting our trip but boys just don't understand! We think that's why he hid upstairs watching the Oregon v Auburn game. Or maybe because we were just too excited to read gossip magazines, watch The Proposal and watch reruns of HIMYM, Greys and Modern Family!

Waxhaw

A few weeks ago, Adrienne and I decided to visit Historic Waxhaw for the afternoon.

It was a rather amusing trip to say the least and we saw the longest train ever!

It was a bit chilly so we went to the Dairy Barn for some Hot Chocolate. It was kind of like Cracker Barrel on the inside...they even had a cd player on the floor that filled the place with the sounds of crickets.

Sadly, we didn't ride Quick Silver ha ha

We found the coolest bookstore!!!!

And the man working told us everything we needed to know about books and Waxhaw. I think he may be the mayor...and if he's not, he should be! He even offered to take some pictures. I think our visit was the highlight of his day!

We walked across this bridge and as we walked you could her the birds chirping/tweeting.

They must live under the bridge.

The moon!

Thought this was cool

Yea, all the black specks by the water tower are the birds that live under the bridge...

And the massive train...

Overall it was a fun, random, trip!

I think everyone should visit "historic" places every now and then.

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....