Yay for Friday!!!!!

It's been a week. Wednesday I had an appointment at the granite fabricator. I had to finalize everything & give them some money so we could get started. I'd already picked the travertine I want to use as the back splash & I new the pattern I wanted but I had to choose what I wanted above the cook top. It's a bigger area & I wanted some sort of design. After what felt like an eternity, I decided on something. I can't imagine what it would've been like if I hadn't looked at a thousand pictures online & had someone there to help me. Seriously, I think Dean was right when he said I'd never be able to build a house from the ground up. I know what I like & I know what I want for the most part. The problem lies in budget. I have million dollar taste & I don't have the budget to go with it. Once I picked out how I wanted everything to look he worked up the price. I already had an estimate but of course doing a design is more "labor intensive". I wish they'd just say "you're gonna pay"!  I was pleasantly surprised that what I chose was just $157 more. I know it's for a small area & that's probably a lot but it keeps me under budget & that's all I care about.

I just thought choosing a pattern was tough. Have you ever picked grout color?? Good grief. That was hard & I've done that before. I had a really hard time choosing so I went with what the chick recommended. After all, she does this every day. So, after writing them a check I was on my way home with a pounding headache. I was useless the rest of the day. I laid on the couch & watched Bethenny Ever After.

I didn't do a Weigh In post this week. The scale isn't moving so I didn't feel like boring anyone with that. I'm sure this could have something to do with it.

 My boss brought me this from Cheesecake Bistro. SOOOOOO AMAZING!!! It was a surprise & of course I had to eat it. He told me I'd sweat it out at Yoglates anyway. Yeh, I wish. I don't think I'm burning that many calories. I was planning to just eat half of it but I wasn't going straight home & I wasn't about to leave it in the fridge at work. Things have a way of walking away in there. I just sucked it up & ate the whole thing & yes I felt a little sick afterwards but who cares.

I did go to Yoglates 3 times this week & I've ran twice. I was supposed to run this morning but it was raining. Lovely. Hopefully, the rain will be gone by morning & I can run.  Have a great weekend!

Toodles!

A HOT Weekend!

Saturday morning I was going to walk in The American Heart Association's Heart Walk at LSU. Lydia is in charge of her company's fundraising. She was planning to run the 5K. I'm not there yet so Allison & I were walking & we were taking Logan with us. That was interesting. He was so good. Aside from the having to tell him to sit down in the stroller a million & one times. HA! He loved seeing all the dogs that were with their owners. The walk took us by the LSU lakes which he really likes. He LOVES water & boats & got very excited when he saw both. Somehow he managed to kick off both of his shoes without me ever noticing. Allison noticed one was missing & thankfully, a lady behind us picked it up. I was going to put it back on but then I noticed the other one was missing too. One of the walkers said that someone behind us was bringing it to us. Good grief. I made sure I said I wasn't his mother. I didn't want anyone to think "poor kid, his mom is awful". For a while Logan was leaning around the side of the stroller looking at something. Now I know he was watching his shoes get further & further away! I can't believe he didn't say something. He had spotted some balloons on some of the tents before the walk & he wanted a "RED BAWOON". We promised him one after the walk. The only problem was that they weren't actually handing any balloons out. I had to get a lady to cut one off of their tent for him. I tied it on his wrist & all was right with the world. There were lots of inflatables for the kids to play on afterwards too.

Logan loved it! Thankfully, he loved it all so much he completely forgot about the balloon. We had to take it off his wrist so he could play & "someone" accidentally let go of it & off it went. I know, I know, I'm horrible!

Logan plays so hard he was red in the face & his hair was soaking wet. It was hot! About this point he told us "I want to go home". Poor thing wore himself out. We left & I didn't do much the rest of the day. Katie & baby Quinn were at LSU for the Alumni Volleyball events so I took a nap & Dean & I went to Mass & out to dinner at Monjuni's. It was delicious as usual. While I was at the walk Dean was out buying a new toy.

It's called a "Primo Oval XL". It's one of those ceramic cookers like the "Big Green Egg". Dean's little Weber grill that he's had for 20 years is on it's last leg so it was time for something new. It's not often Dean spends money on himself so I'm glad he decided to get this. We'll get a ton of use out of it. I plan to stain & seal the table. We've already had chicken that he cooked on it & it was delicious. Not the least bit dry. 

Sunday morning we were up bright & early. Thanks Quinn!! HA! Seriously, Katie & Quinn were leaving early to go to Mass & get on the road back to Texas & we wanted to make sure we saw them before they left.

She looked so cute all dressed for Mass. Quinn is one of happiest babies I know. She was all smiles all weekend. After they left Dean & I went to Lowe's. I honestly think Dean would rather set me loose in a shoe store than the garden center at Lowe's. At least shoes don't require any work once I get them home!

I got the pot at Lowe's. I love the colors. The top is more of a brown/rust color but it goes great with the red I have around the patio. I was never a blue fan but I love it now & especially for outside stuff. I bought the plant too. It's a Ballerina Blue Fuchsia. It only wants shade so I have it on the patio. It also attracts hummingbirds. I put all my feeders out too. I haven't seen any of the little guys yet but I'm ready.

I bought 2 hanging ferns. I've NEVER had luck with ferns, or anything else hanging for that matter, but I'm going to try again. I'm not crazy about the black pots but for the last few years I used my hanging baskets with the brown stuff that lines them & I'm thinking that could be why I haven't had good luck. We'll see.

I have a bed in another part of my yard that needed something. I decided that I wanted another Knock Out Rose. I've had a lot of luck with those.  They bloom like crazy all throughout the spring & summer. I wanted a yellow one & Lowe's didn't have it so we stopped at Louisiana Nursery. I didn't end up with a yellow one. I got a "White Out Knock Out". I've never seen white before & I decided I wanted something different.

There was another spot in the yard that needed something so I got a yellow Hibiscus.

I saw these & wanted them. I knew I could find a place for them. They're "Easy Wave Blue" Petunia's. The color in the picture is off. They don't look blue at all. For my peeps that know LSU's colors, they look exactly like LSU purple. They're so pretty! I moved something around & put them in this pot. They also had a very pretty lavender color that I love & may end up with. I need to find a spot for them!

All the mulch has been put down too. I think we ended up somewhere around 110 bags. I love how it looks. We just have a few more things to do & the yard will be where we want it. For now anyway.

Toodles!

Yay for Fridays!

I love when I don't have to work all day on Friday's. I got off early today to pick granite. I took off last Friday to go & get quotes. The other guy got back with me & blew the other people away with his quote. $1000 cheaper. Normally, this would make me wonder but they came highly recommended by people with very expensive houses so I'm going with them. I had to go to the stone yard this afternoon to pick the slabs I want. I knew what I wanted but apparently depending on where they cut the stone will do different things with the colors of the slab. I decided on Giallo Ornamental & the stone yard had a dark & a light. The place isn't far from my office. I'd never been before but the guy said "corner of Airline & Pecue across from the new Woman's Hospital". If you're from around here that's easy peasy. Off I go. Well, I get to the corner of Pecue & Airline across from the Hospital & there's no Tuscan Stone. Yes, I have GPS in my car but you don't need that when you know where you're going. Yes, I have the map thingy on my iPhone but you don't need that when you know where you're going. When I realized that obviously I didn't know where I was going I put it in the GPS. It directed me in the complete opposite direction. When I figured that out I called the place & do you know what they said when I asked where are y'all located??? "THE CORNER OF PECUE & AIRLINE ACROSS FROM THE NEW WOMAN'S HOSPITAL". Um NO YOU'RE NOT!!!  Then they said "across from Industriplex". OK, I made a u turn & was on my way. I admit I'm directionally challenged BUT they are not on the corner, you actually have to go down the street & they're across from the side of the hospital & there's a bunch of houses between the two. WHATEVS! I found it. These are the slabs I picked.

I know it's not the greatest pic but it was with my iPhone & outside in very bright sun. I chose what I wanted & the guy said they were reserved for someone but they'd call the stone yard in New Orleans to see if they had it. The chick came back & said what they have is reserved & the next shipment gets into port on April 20th. Translation: Gets into port in New Orleans on April 20th maybe, sits there for days or maybe even weeks waiting to go through customs. 4 months later you get your stuff. The chick was like "oh you're familiar with this". Yeh, my dining room furniture sat in customs for who knows how long. My "in real life friends" aren't surprised by this because crap like this always happens to me. I was not waiting. NO how, NO way. The chick said she wanted to show me one more slab so off we went. She went straight to the one I'd chosen. "That's available" she says. YAYYYYY!!!! She thought the guy was talking about a different slab. I told her I didn't want to see it because I might like it & I'm not willing to wait indefinitely. Not to mention I'm very indecisive. Don't give me too many options. So my name is on 2 slabs of this & I meet with the fabricator Wednesday to finalize things. I also decided on the back splash material. It's tumbled Travertine in the color "Storm". I completely forgot to take a pic but the fab guy is supposed to have a sample for me to bring home. I'm very, very excited!

Our good friend Katie is staying with us this weekend. She played Volleyball at LSU "back in the day" & this weekend is Alumni weekend. Her hubs, Sean, wasn't able to make the trip this time which is a bummer but we're happy to have Katie & baby Quinn.

She was all clean from her bath. I love babies after their baths. The last time we saw Quinn was last summer & she was just a baby. Now she's crawling all over & will have her 1st birthday in May. Dean fried fish & shrimp & we all hung out visiting. We're babysitting now while Katie goes & hangs with her volleyball friends. Quinn is really easy. She's sound asleep!!!

Toodles!

Weigh In Thursday

I've lost .4 lbs. this week. Not ideal but at least it's not a gain. Aside from the best shrimp poboy ever & that cup of crab & brie soup I had, I did well over the weekend. Then Monday when I got to work I realized I'd forgotten the tortillas I use to make my wrap so I had a wrap from the food truck. It was DELISH!! I don't know the calorie count but it was a whole wheat tortilla, grilled chicken & a sensation salad mixed in. So good. Well, then Tuesday they were filming a movie in our building. For those of you that don't know Louisiana is now a hot bed of movie making activity. Apparently, the state gives some kind of crazy tax breaks. Anywho, we got an email Monday that a movie would be filmed in our building. It ended up being filmed on my floor. I couldn't eat my lunch in the normal area because it was set up with laptops & other assorted movie making crap. One of our conference rooms was wardrobe. It was neat to see. The movie is called Knights of Glory. We couldn't find anything about it online & were assuming it wasn't a big budget thing & nobody important was in it. HOWEVER, my friend Wendy's boss was in the elevator with some of the crew & she asked if anyone famous was in the movie to which they told her a name. She didn't know the person & they said it was an actor from The Big Bang Theory. We LOVE that show! Apparently, by the time she got back to Wendy she had no clue of the name of the person. Well, I made about a million trips to the bathroom & the kitchen to get water. HAHA! I saw several actors (I knew they were actors because they were wearing business suits & we were told they wanted to use our big conference room to film some scenes about business men meeting). So Wendy saw a sign posted by the elevator that said something about dressing rooms for "Jim, Luther & Clare". Soooo, we're assuming that Jim Parsons who plays Sheldon on Big Bang was the one here. I was very bummed that I didn't see him. He's soooo funny!!!

Wow, I really got off track. The whole point about the movie being filmed was that they took over our lunch area & I don't eat at my desk because I'd get interrupted ten million times & I didn't really want to go anywhere else in the building. I needed to run by the nursery to pick up a pot so I decided to go to McAllisters for a club sandwich while I was out. I'm guessing that didn't help the weight this week.

I've kept on track with my workouts this week. The rain messed up my run schedule last week but Saturday evening after we worked in the yard I finished Week 3 of C25K. I wanted to do day 1 of week 4 Sunday evening but I was tired & thought I probably shouldn't push it by running 3 days in a row. I went to Yoglates Monday, got up at 4:45 & ran Tuesday, went to Yoglates yesterday & I'm going again today, tomorrow morning will be another 4:45 wake up call. Yikes!

Toodles!

Plants!

Saturday we spent the majority of the day working in the yard. Dean was making some adjustments to some drainage & putting the rest of the mulch down. We still have to buy more. I planted flowers & Dean also moved a couple of plants around.

This is 21st century phlox. I got it off the clearance rack at Lowe's for $3.00.

Dasante Blue Delphinium

This is my favorite! Pink Hydrangeas

Aren't they gorgeous? I hope I can keep it alive.

The Dianthus were on clearance for $1.00. The plants looked healthy for the most part. I figured for $1.00 I might as well see how they do.

I wanted something to put in pots on my patio so I got Impatiens

I got 2 different colors. It's hard to tell in the pictures but some are a bright pink & some are more of a purple. I also got some mini snapdragons that were clearance for .50 each. I got a few of those & planted around my mailbox. I forgot to take a picture though. We also planted a Knock Out Rose in a spot to replace a Gardenia that never did well & eventually bit the dust this year.

I don't know about y'all but our weather has been crazy nuts. I have plants that never went dormant & stuff growing that doesn't normally grow at this time. My begonia's & geraniums have been blooming for weeks. We're supposed to get a lot of rain the next few days. I'm glad because the rain water makes such a difference & with all the new stuff we moved & planted it needs some good rain water but I'm not happy about it because it will probably interfere with my run schedule. I ran this morning & my plan is to go again Friday morning. It's tough getting out of bed at 4:45 but it's great to have it done.

Toodles!

Busy Busy!!

Again, it's Monday & the weekend flew by & there are still things that I wanted to get done that I didn't. Oh well. I ended up taking off Friday. I wanted to get some estimates for my granite counters. I was wide awake at 3:45 am. Thank goodness I didn't have to go to work. I went for my run & was out the door on the way to the first granite place at 7:15. I found a granite that I liked & surprisingly, it was an "affordable" granite. So, the guy tells me that he'll have a quote for me today. Huh? I thought they'd give me the quote while I was there. Oh well. So, here I sit not so patiently waiting for that estimate.

Next stop was my parents. I visited with them & my brother a little. He's recovering from surgery on his pec muscle. He completely tore it away from the bone working out. OUCH! Next stop was lunch with Allison & her mom at Roberto's. You know, home of the best ever fried shrimp po boy!!!! YUM! It only took me 55 minutes to get there from my parents. Traffic in this town is horrendous. Not to mention there's just no easy way to get there from my mom's. After lunch I was off to the next granite place. I really liked the girl I dealt with & I found a granite that I like even more. She told me she'd have an estimate for me later that afternoon. I was very excited about that.

Next stop? Home Depot. Along with new counters & back splash I want to paint my cabinets. I picked up a few samples. I love that Behr has these small containers that you can have mixed to whatever color you want & they're only $3.00. The plan is to test them on some old cabinet doors I have from when we replaced the built ins in the living room. That's a project I didn't get around to. Speaking of Home Depot. I don't know how anyone works in that store. It was sooooo hot! I was about to die.

Then it was off to Bed, Bath & Beyond. I'm completely out of tea K-Cups. I bought Tazo Awake which I really like & I was thrilled to see they had the Tazo Zen which is the green tea. You wouldn't believe how much better it is than the other green tea I bought. When you make the Tazo & pour it over ice it taste exactly like what I buy at Starbucks!! Soooo good!

I finally made it home about 4:00 & then we left at 5:00 to grab something to eat & go to the LSU baseball game. I enjoyed the game but they played 10 innings & I was TIRED!

Saturday we were up early to go hang out at Lowe's. Y'all, hanging out at a nursery or the garden dept at Lowe's makes me sooooo happy! Love, love, love! I bought some plants & spent the day in the yard planting. I'll do a separate post on that. I skipped the baseball game Sat. night because I was tired. I did make myself do my run.

Yesterday was another early morning with 7:00 Mass & grocery shopping. I managed to get a nap in when we got home. We went to the game & I got to see Logan. He was at the game with his parents & some of their friends.

He had fun I think.

Toodles!

Weigh In Thursday

I weighed in yesterday but I got busy at work & then I was super tired at home so I didn't get around to blogging. I'm down 1.2 lbs. this week. This is a little misleading. The week of the cruise I gained 1.7. I was very happy with that because I had a lot of pina colada's & a lot of dessert. I lost that the week that we got home but then there was book club & other various eating that went on. Needless to say I'm up  from my weigh in before the cruise but the scale is heading in the right direction again.

The scale seemed to have stalled a bit. Wendy suggested that I may need to increase the calories I eat since I'm running & doing yoglates. I tried that & it worked. I'm ready to be at my goal weight. Yes, I know eating out isn't helping but I love it too much to give it up completely. However, I am rethinking the BBQ nachos I had Sunday.

This week I ran Sunday. It was the first day of week 3 of C25K. The plan was to run Monday afternoon when I got home. I couldn't go to Yoglates because it was my co-workers hair day so I couldn't leave work early. She gets her hair done every other Monday & leaves early. Well, it rained & rained & rained & rained. At one point it really looked like the pool might overflow. When it wasn't raining it was thundering & lightening. Needless to say there was no running going on. I went to Yoglates Tuesday & Wednesday & I'm going today so I'll run tomorrow. I don't want to do both in one day. That's tiring. Speaking of tiring & Yoglates, whoever came up with this weeks routine has lost their mind. It's HARD!

I've seen this pic a lot on pinterest & it makes me laugh every time I see it because it's so true.

HILARIOUS!!! I think so anyway.

Toodles!

Tuesday Randoms

The weather is really messing with my schedule. Yesterday was supposed to be a run day. It rained ALL DAY LONG. At one point last night I wondered if the pool was going to overflow.

Speaking of running, what is it with weenie dogs? There are several in my neighborhood & they go into full on attack mode when I run by. By attack mode, I mean they come charging out of unseen hiding places, with that yappy bark & then stop at the edge of the driveway & continue to bark & bark & bark. They're adorable but I will not own one. That yapping gets on my nerves.

In the near future I will start getting quotes on new kitchen counters. Dean says he has absolutely no interest in this project & his only input will be to ok or veto the price tag. That could be good & bad. He will however, help me paint the cabinets. Thank goodness for cheap labor. Do y'all know how much people charge to paint cabinets??? I got a quote. No way Jose. Of course I may regret that later.

All 70 bags of mulch is put down in the backyard. No, I don't have pictures because 70 bags was not enough. We'll be buying about 30 more this week.

The $25 brush is slowly changing my life one day at a time. If I could grow a third arm to go with the 2 freakishly long ones I already have it would be AWESOME!

I was sad to hear that Jenny Garth & her hubs are divorcing.

According to my mom & my friend Allison I must start watching this GCB show. Anyone else watching?

We have food trucks that come to work & today was a burger truck & the specialty was a cheeseburger with fried dill pickle spears on it. One of the boys came by my desk to show me. I wanted to punch him in the face. It looked amazing but I stuck to my willpower & ate my low calorie wrap. Now I sit craving a shrimp po boy from Roberto's. 

Toodles!

OPI

Lately, I've really been loving all the "Easter Egg" nail polish colors. I had it in my head that I wanted a shade of lavender. I saw the Kardashian OPI Collection in a CVS sale paper. One of the colors really jumped out at me.

It's called One Big Happy Fame-ily. I took several pics & none of them really captured the true color. It's a little darker than what it looks like in this pic. Dean went to the LSU baseball game Saturday night & I stayed home because it was a little cool. I caught up on the DVR & gave myself a mani & pedi. This is what it looks like on my nails.

I really like how it turned out. Next up? Some sort of minty color. Anyone have one you love?

Toodles!

I found a Stylist!!

I've mentioned before that I was looking for a new Hair Stylist. I really liked the last girl that did my hair. I'm not exaggerating when I say it was the best hair cut I've ever had. Last week I called to make an appointment. "She doesn't work here anymore" is what I got. Well, isn't that just great. I made an appt. with someone else because they couldn't tell me where Alexy went. I wasn't overly excited about that. I feel like I got lucky finding her & I didn't want to take another chance on someone else new. I turned to Facebook. No luck. I couldn't believe that. She's in her 20's. I know she has Facebook. I went to Pinterest & found her & there was a link to her Facebook page. YAY!!! One of the reasons I left the girl I'd been going to for years & years is because it's about a 45 minute drive & hard to get an appt. I was very excited to see that Alexy's new salon is 5 mins. from work & about 20 mins. from home. Pretty much everything except Canes & LSU is 20 mins. from my house so that's no big deal. The salon is in an old house that was fixed up. It's really cute. I was getting a cut & highlights. The owner of this salon is from Baton Rouge but she lived in Los Angeles for 20 yrs. & was a Stylist for movies. I think she's brought stuff she learned in L.A. to B.R. After my head was full of foil she put me under this thing that looks like a dryer.

Instead of a dryer, it's a steamer. It cuts the processing time in half. It's great! This is how the front turned out.

I've been noticing that as I'm getting older I've got the eyelid droop going. It's very noticeable in pictures so I've been trying to open my eyes more. This is a little ridiculous though! Here's the back.

It was such a lovely day in B.R. Nice & cloudy so the pics don't show my highlights very well. She styled my hair entirely with a hair dryer & round brush. I've never had anyone do that. Not to mention that it stayed all day. Even after a little nap. I decided to that this brush could change my life so I bought one.

I've probably lost my mind because I paid $25 for this thing but I'm thinking of it as an investment. She told me that I could throw away all of my other brushes & this one would last forever. She wasn't trying to sell it. I asked her. She also gave me lots of hair tips. She said that mine was in great condition which is a surprise because it's been like 12 weeks since I've had a hair cut. She said that ideally you should only wash your hair at most twice a week. Well, with all my exercising that isn't going to happen. She said to only shampoo my roots & around my hairline. It keeps your hair from drying out. She also said to use sulfate free shampoo & conditioner. I'd heard about that but I wasn't sure if it was hype from the shampoo companies. Yay for finding someone I love!!

Toodles!!

What does it mean??

I had a dream the other night. Let me start by saying I've always had very vivid dreams. I can remember when I was a teenager dreaming that something was falling on me & it was very heavy & I was having to hold it up off of me. I woke up & I was in my bed but up against the wall, sitting up, holding onto my window seal. Another time I woke up to find that I'd taken a bunch of pictures off of my bulletin board that hung by my bed. So, the other night I dreamed I was driving on the interstate & as I was approaching an overpass that was being worked on, the worker dropped a screwdriver & it fell all the way to road. He was livid & was hollering & screaming as I approached. I continued to drive. Next thing I know I was being arrested for not stopping. Apparently, it was against the law to drive by a dropped screwdriver! Not only was I arrested but I had to spend the night in jail. I asked if I could bring my Nook & they told me no. My mom appeared from somewhere & I told her that I was arrested & had to go to jail to which she said, "OK". Really?? Anyway, the jail looked like a mall. People were sitting around eating. It was very nice. As the cop escorted me to my cell I saw a guy reading a book & questioned the cop. He said I could have books but not a Nook or my phone. So I told him I needed to go get a book. He said OK & off I went. Next thing you know I was out of my cell & telling my mom that they were making me stay another night. That's when I woke up. Very odd.

Last night I dreamed that me, my friend Vicki, my cousin Leslie, her mom (my aunt that died 16 yrs ago) & other assorted people that I don't remember were going to the Academy Awards. We were all decked out & sitting outside somewhere waiting on a ferry to take us to the show. I was using someone's very nice camera & the next thing I knew it was gone & my cousin said to "go find that guy that thought it was his". Off I went. Then Vicki starts hollering to "come on, the ferry's here". I left the camera & took off running to the ferry. What's also funny is I distinctly remember posting on Facebook "About to go to the Academy Awards!! AGHHHH!!!". So weird!

I know I've been skipping Weigh In Wed. I'll be back with that next week. Between the cruise & doing updates & forgetting, I've been a little off track. I did make it to Yoglates 3 times this week & we've got some crazy stuff in this weeks routine. Imagine doing a squat, coming up, pivoting to the back, squat, travel to the right, squat, travel to the left, squat, pivot to the front, squat. Yeh, that's 1 rep. We did 8. Then picture yourself doing a push up & when you come up jumping to bring your legs in with your butt sticking up in the air, doing a push press & then jumping back to the push up position. 1 Rep. We did 16. I shouldn't say "we" because "we" did NOT do 16. "We" did whatever "we" could do which was somewhere around 11 or 12.

I've also completed week 2 of C25K. Yay! I got up at 5 this morning & did it before work. It's supposed to be a rainy weekend. Not looking forward to that. It rained through my last 3 runs but not hard so I finished. I was so worried I wouldn't be able to. I really like working out in the morning!

Have a great weekend!

Toodles!

Hat Woman & Shoes!

Saturday was book club. You may remember I'm a member of what was dubbed "The Worst Book Club Ever". We do read books & sometimes even the same books, just not at the same time. Like now, everyone is on the Hunger Games bandwagon. Everyone, but me, that is. I read Twilight & some other absolutely ridiculous book so I'm pretty much done with anything that isn't "normal". When I say normal I mean no aliens, vampires, wolves or whatever Jacob was, dystopian, etc. Anywho, Saturday evening I was making a stop at a local family owned grocery store, Calvin's, if you're from the area, to pick up what has got to be the absolute best chicken salad EVER! I parked & saw this.

Yes, it's a random chick with a really big hat on sitting in front of the grocery store. It's hard to see just how big the hat is because her head's turned & it's black & blends in with the background. Trust me, it was big. Hat Lady was selling tickets to some sort of raffle. I have no idea what it was about because luckily for me when I was going in she'd already nabbed a lady & was giving her the spiel. She was dressed very cute & the hat was cute too but it was very strange to me to see someone sitting outside of a grocery store dressed like this. On to book club. As usual, the food was divine. It's very odd considering that very few of us actually cook, yet we always manage to have too much good food. Between, the chicken salad, my friend Vicki's cheesy raspberry dip (sounds weird doesn't it?? It's amazing!), and this

I felt sick. This bowl of goodness is a diet blower waiting to happen. Thanks to Wendy, we know that it's 670 calories per cup. I'm pretty sure I ate at least a cup. The good news? There's no way I will ever make this concoction because of the 17 million steps involved. There are Reeses to be cut & then cut again, brownies to be baked & cut up. YES, there are brownies in this too. Pudding to make & mix with Cool Whip. Allison used low calorie Cool Whip. Thank goodness! I can't imagine eating this with regular Cool Whip & not saving those 10 calories. (That would be sarcasm). Then you layer the whole concoction. It was delish but good grief. We did actually talk about books this time but we also did Zumba. Allison's been going for awhile & she gave us a demo & taught us some of the moves. I can see why people like these classes. It seems to be more fun than actual exercise.

While I was on the cruise I started C25K again. Sunday morning I started Week 2. I hate that I've had to start over but after being hurt for so long I think it's the way to go. It's definitely been easier this time around. So far anyway. Yesterday, I had a dentist appt. so I got home from work a little early. I went for my run. The weather was awesome. It was in the low 70's & there didn't seem to be any humidity. After my run I helped Dean tackle this "little" project.

That's 70 bags of mulch. We got 24 put down in the backyard. I don't think 70 is going to be enough. It's so pretty though. I'll have pictures once we're finished. 

Today at lunch I ran to Shoe Station. Y'all know I love that place. What makes it better is this week there's a 25% off coupon. Normally, they're only 20%. Far be it from me to waste a good coupon. I got these & they're so comfortable. The brand is that  b * an o with a line through it * c.

 Yes, I took the pics in my car. I did it while I was thinking about it. I got these too.

Cute huh? I love Corky's flip flops. They're so comfy. I bought a pair last summer because they were so cute. I had never heard of them & had no idea how comfy they were. I should've taken a better pic of the heal. They're not flat. They have a little wedge. The best part? $19.99 + the 25% off. Seriously, who passes up $15 flip flops??? Not me, that's for sure. They had them in a couple of colors but I don't have any green flip flops & these are really bright. Perfect for summer. I had to wait in line to check out. Not ideal when you're on your lunch break. Y'all may remember me talking about how I'm not a fan of check writer's. No offense if you write checks in a store but I hope you start filling out the check while the cashier is ringing your stuff up & not wait unitl she's completely finished to get your check book out of your purse. If you do that you'll get an eye roll from me, but you won't notice because you're too busy digging for your check book. Well, I had a whole new experience today. The lady's total was $55.01. What did she do? No, not write a check. She pulled out a penny & her credit card. HUH? Why would she do that?? Well, that would be because she wanted the penny to pay for the .01 portion of $55.01 & she was charging the $55. Umm, wierd much?? I think so. The cashier apparently thought so too because she kept asking her "you want to use the penny?" To which the customer kept saying "yes, you said it was $55.01 right?". Sorry but I think this is the weirdest thing ever. For the life of me I can't figure out why someone would do that. Do you know how much longer it took to handle the transaction that way? I do, I wasn't enjoying it. That's why I try not to shop at lunch.

Toodles!

A sea day

I woke up sometime during the night/early morning Saturday & the ship was really rocking. When I got up Dean said he'd never seen waves so big.

When we turned on the TV it showed 20 ft. seas & 52 mph winds. It was like being on a Disney ride. You couldn't walk straight down the hall & when we went outside there were times it felt like we were going to take flight. It was wild! There was a lot of people sitting around with their heads in their hands not feeling so good. I felt bad for them. We ate breakfast, we walked around, we laid around & read & all the boys played a game with a little ball on the basketball court that's enclosed by a net. It was a very relaxing day. I had THE best 2.5 hour nap ever. It was like being rocked to sleep.

Our last dinner for 12. I was ready to come home to my bed but I miss our dinners. Last week was a rough work week. It's tough to work all day without a nap when you've taken a nap every day for a week!

Toodles!

Cozumel

WAS SOOOOO FUN!!! I'd read on a blog about an excursion called Salsa & Salsa. On this excursion they teach you how to make a bunch of different salsa's & then teach you to salsa dance. I highly recommend this. It was worth every penny. We took this pic from Cozumel. It's our ship & another Norwegian ship.

We were able to walk around for awhile before the excursion.

Be still my heart!!!!STARBUCKS!!!! Very exciting.

I had an iced green tea. YUM!! We got loaded into vans & were brought to a resort.

Pretty huh?

We were ready to start cooking.

Cliff & Sheri.

The rest of the crew!

As we walked in the building there was a table of frozen margarita's & bottled water waiting. I'm not a margarita drinker at all but these were AMAZING!!! Sooo good! There were waiters everywhere to fill up that glass every time you took a swallow. Crazy! That red looking drink is some non alcoholic drink that was almost like a flavored tea. It was good too. The first thing they taught us was how to make a margarita on the rocks & a strawberry margarita. The frozen one was my fave.

Jackie & Dennis ended up on stage. As you can see, Dennis isn't happy about this development. Jackie, however, was having a ball. You can guess whose idea it was to go on stage.

This was our table before we got started.

Dean was chopping up a very hot pepper. This is how we do things around our house, Dean cooks, I watch. We put very little of this pepper in our salsa & it was HOT!

Me doing what I do best - EATING! We made guacamole. YUM! We ended up making a 6 salsa's & a guac. The salsa we made with green tomatoes was the best! Next up was dessert.

This is some sort of vanilla bean ice cream that you can only get in Mexico. MOST AMAZING THING I'VE EVER TASTED. It was FABULOUS!!!

Then they had us add this stuff. Fruit & coconut. It was good but nothing like the plain stuff. I always knew it wasn't a good idea to add fruit to ice cream.

And now we're Salsa dancing!! They taught us on our own before we danced with our partner. I see why Zumba is such good exercise. My thighs were killing me by the time we were done! So fun!

Once we finished dancing we went & shopped a little & then got back on the ship. We had dinner & then more dessert. The chocolate buffet was that night. It's sooo pretty! There's chocolate everywhere!

Mickey was waiting when we got back to the room!

Toodles!