Friday

Awhile back I had a Shellac manicure. I love them but getting the polish off is always a challenge if you want to do it at home. Someone told me to get a cotton ball & put Pure Acetone on it & attach it to your fingernail with aluminum foil & it will just peel right off. I looked at Walmart to see if they had the acetone, not expecting them to, but I was pleasantly surprised.
When you open it this is what it looks like.

I remember when I was a kid my mawmaw always bought fingernail polish remover like this. It's soooo much easier & less messy. Just stick your finger in. Well, I chose to do that & not the cotton ball/alum foil because I was just lazy. It definitely gets the stuff off but it didn't just peel off. I did use it the other day to take off my regular polish & it worked great & I had on a dark pink. You know one of those shades that requires a zillion cotton balls.
It's officially Christmas at my house! All this stuff was delivered the other night. I feel really bad for UPS & FedEx drivers this time of year. When we went to sleep at 9:30 Wed. night none of this stuff was there. When I left for Yoglates at 5 am Thursday morning it was on the porch.There was more this morning when I left to run.
Among those packages was a left & a right foot!  I can't remember if I mentioned on Thanksgiving morning when I went to put on my new boots I had 2 right feet. I rarely try on both shoes when I'm buying them. I try on the right & move along. I got online & ordered a pair because I figured the store would be sold out after Black Friday. I had to work not to mention I had no desire to brave the wildness.

Have a great weekend! I've got a cookie exchange & a friends birthday dinner this weekend. What are y'alls plans?

Toodles!

Thanks!

Thanks for the tips on resizing my pictures! Special shout out to CAS at An Oasis in the Desert for telling me about Picasa. I've used Picasa before but I never thought about sizing them. I know there are other ways to do it but this was really quick & simple. Just what I need. Sometimes I wonder if I have ADD or I'm just that impatient.

 

After I took the Hernandez family pics Saturday, me & Cael took a couple.

That kid is just too cute with his glasses & no front teeth! I can't wait to see which pics Allison decided on for her Christmas card.

I broke down & ordered an Erin Condren planner for next year. I love the one I got last year but this year there were no coupon codes or groupon deals. I looked around but I didn't find another planner that I liked as much. There are improvements this year too. Laminated tabs & the spiral thingy isn't plastic. It's metal or something. Definitely more durable.
I've always been a fan of plaid. When I checked the tracking info I thought it was hilarious that it was mailed from Compton, CA. My little plaid life planner came to me via COMPTON!! HEHE!

Toodles!!

Help!!!

Does anyone have any tips on uploading pics? Since I got my DSLR camera it takes FOREVER to upload a pic to the blog. I'm sure it's because of the size of the pictures but I can't seem to figure out how to fix it. I have a Nikon.

How was Thanksgiving? Ours was very nice.  We spent the day at Dean's parents with Dean's cousins, brother, niece & my parents.

I had to work Friday which was super annoying.

Dean went fishing with his dad & my dad & brother Saturday & I took Christmas card pictures for my friend Allison. We got some good ones. I can't wait to see which ones she chooses for the card. I went to lunch with Allison & her family & then it was home for me to do more Christmas decorating. For the first time in forever I'm not very into it. I'm not sure why but I'm blaming it on work. Everything that isn't normal is being blamed on work these days. Needless to say it isn't finished but it may be finished. HA!

I did manage to do some Christmas shopping from my bed Friday night. I had a glass of wine, my laptop & I was watching Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. It was delightful.

Toodles!

Feliz Navidad!

Imagine it said in the voice of Speedy S. Gonzalez Esquire! He always made me laugh. I know it's not Thanksgiving yet & I'm talking about Christmas but I'm one of those people that just isn't that interested in Thanksgiving. I know that irritates people but I just think Jesus' birthday is more important than a bunch of pilgrims. Just my opinion.

See this
Yes, those are passports & Dean's wallet. Know what that means???

WE'RE GOING ON ANOTHER CRUISE!!! In 2.5 WEEKS!! You get great deals when you book so close to the cruise date. Because of my mean co-worker I'm taking a random week off in December  to use up the rest of my vacation days for the year so I don't lose them & Dean is taking off the same week & we decided why not book a cheap cruise?? That's the ONE good thing about not having kids. We can just do what we want. I'm very excited!

In other exciting news, look what I finally found.
Boot socks!!! Yay!! I had to make a Sam's run yesterday at lunch & for some reason I actually thought to look & there they were. 4 pair for $9. I also found some wrapping paper this morning at CVS! I was shocked! Maybe I'm on a roll!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I NEED a basement!

Friday night Dean & I went to dinner at Roberto's. You know, home of the best shrimp poboy EVER???!! The only problem is they only serve it at lunch. Oh well. I couldn't decide what I wanted so I got a seafood platter. IT WAS EMBARRASSING!!! The thing was huge! Seriously, I didn't even think about taking a picture because I was trying to somehow hide the fact that I have this mountain of food & Dean's next to me with a soft shell crab & some asparagus. We were there for Dean's birthday which was Saturday. The food was delicious! We even had blueberry bread pudding. It was soooo good!!! I also had a to go box.
Saturday we went to my parents. Logan was staying with them so we thought we were in for a wild afternoon. Sadly, Logan has some sort of virus & he pretty much stayed in my mom's lap the entire time we were there. He didn't even perk up when we told him we had a "prize" for him. Poor thing.
LSU played at 2:30 Saturday. We went to the Baxter's where there was a ton of dips. Everyone enjoyed them.

Even Gilley. So much for the 7 layer dip. I'm not sure how he managed to do this without anyone seeing him until it was too late but he did. After the game we had dinner. Kitzia made spaghetti & meatballs.
Sunday, I started the Christmas decorating. I need a basement. We don't have basements in Louisiana. Apparently, it's something to do with being close to sea level. We have attics. So not the same thing. We have pull down steps, they aren't climate controlled which means 250 degrees in the summer & freezing cold in the winter, stuff is all dusty, & there's no place to spread everything out so you don't make a mess in your house. Which is why I need it. My house looks like a tornado hit it. Seriously, all I was doing yesterday was the big tree & just about every room in my house is a mess. Even a bathroom has stuff in it. Annoying.
Onto another rant. Where do you find good wrapping paper. By good I mean pretty. I don't want stuff with cartoon characters on it or a zillion Santa's or anything that looks remotely kiddie. I want PRETTY PAPER!! I've never had this problem before. Last year I decided to use all of  the paper I had & none of it matched anything. It was all the paper I'd bought over the years from someone's kid. None of it was what I'd call pretty & it didn't look pretty under the tree but I wanted to be finished with it.  The only places I haven't looked is Rite Aid, CVS & Walgreen's. I'm not holding out much hope. Hobby Lobby was even a disappointment. Where do you find good paper??? Annoying.
Toodles!

"Thank God We Woke Up This Morning"

No, I didn't come up with that on my own. All the credit goes to an inmate at Louisiana State Penitentiary aka "Angola". One of the lovely "perks" (that's sarcasm people) of my job is that I get the mail from Angola. We get A LOT of letters from inmates. Apparently, there isn't much to do in prison. So much for all that license plate making. They write to us about all sorts of things. They change their address - they move from cell to cell A LOT. They put their paper on "vacation" when they're moved to "the dungeon" aka lock down for bad behavior. They write to complain that they're not getting their paper. They write because they want back issues of the paper because they had a court date & want to read about themselves. Yes, I'm serious. Some of the really bad inmates have high profile attorneys that write us letters because of all of the above issues. It can be entertaining, sometimes it's really obvious that they've been reading the dictionary because they try to use every big word they know in one sentence, but mostly it's just annoying. I'm of the belief that if you did something bad enough to get yourself sent to prison to begin with you don't deserve privileges. I think instead of reading the paper they should sit there & think about what they did & who they hurt. But that's just me. I've been known to google some of these guys just to see what their in for.

So today one of the letters I received said "Thank God We Woke Up This Morning". It's pretty amazing that someone that is stuck in Angola for who knows how long is still thankful to be alive. I'm not sure that I would be. Awhile back one of the letters was from someone on Death Row. That ooged me out. I'm talking chill bumps when I saw the return address! Thankfully, a lot of these letters don't require a response & the ones that do DO NOT have my name on them. Today's inmate also said that he hoped I "have a smooth day".

Hope y'all have a "smooth" weekend!

Toodles!

Happy Hump Day!

That's the thing about being off on Monday. Wednesday gets here fast & it's great! Sadly, aside from Thanksgiving Day I don't have any time off until December. Then it's a whole week though!

I started my morning off with my first red cup of the season!
A grande Caramel Brulee Latte nonfat no whip. Just think I used to be so intimidated by the Starbucks ordering process! What is it about these little cups that make me so happy?? I guess because it means Christmas is coming & that's my absolute most favorite time of the year! I had time to go to Starbucks this morning because I decided that I didn't want to get up at 4:45 to run in the 30 degree weather. We're having a cold snap right now so I'm going to run after work in the 50 degree weather.

Last night I had dinner with friends. My friend Veronica moved to Houston a few months ago & was in town for work. I had some time to kill before dinner so I went to the mall. I was looking for brown boots. While in Macy's I came across the pajama section. They have some really cute stuff for winter. Now, this is the LAST thing I need to be looking at. I have enough winter pj's to last SEVERAL years. They were really cute though. I didn't find any boots at the mall. Truth be told, I didn't look very hard because the mall is kinda scary now. There was a lot of "interesting characters" as Allison would say. I don't know if I'm getting old or it's just that the world is so different now but the last several times I've been to the mall it ooged me out. Go figure.

Anyway, I moved on to Shoe Station. My most favorite shoe store ever. It's a rare day that I don't find at least one pair of shoes there. Let me tell you, it's a really sad day when it does happen. Luckily, they didn't disappoint last night. I got these

Aren't they beautiful??? I love the color. I was planning to get a dark brown but when I saw the Cognac I loved them. They're Madden Girl aka the lesser expensive Steve Maddens. I love a wedge heal too. I have a thing for wedges, salads & heals. Interesting. Does anyone know where I can get some boot socks? Please don't say Target. I stopped at Target because we ate at Olive Garden & they share a parking lot. I've mentioned before how I don't understand the greatness everyone says is Target. I like the toy dept. I seem to always be able to find good stuff there. Other than that I don't get it. I didn't see any cute clothes. They actually had a whole section of swimsuits out. They weren't leftovers either. It was a "2013 Swim Preview". Yeh, in the 30 degree weather. Anyway, no boot socks which is where everyone I've seen in blog land &  twitter has gotten them. Sigh.

Toodles!

A long weekend!

It's been great sadly, it's coming to an end. *sigh*. Saturday morning I went for a run & then we went to Dean's parents & visited. Saturday night we went to our friends Cindy & Brad's to watch the LSU game. I didn't see much of the game. We spent the majority of the evening talking.

Sunday morning after Mass Dean & I went to breakfast at Another Broken Egg.
I had the shrimp florentine omelet & an english muffin. It was DELICIOUS!!!

Last weekend I did some shopping.
You can't tell in the picture but the sweater is very sparkly. Perfect for a Christmas party!
When we were in NOLA we shopped at Loft. Everything was 40% off. This shirt is cute on & it's a pretty teal color.
A sweater vest in shades of gray.
This top looks plain but it was really cute on.

This sweater is a greenish teal color if that makes any sense. I took all of the pics with my phone so they're not great.
Purple skinny's!!
Dean & I went to Sam's this morning & I got this winter white puffy vest. It has a fur lined hood! Sooo cute. There's no need for PETA to get in a tizzy, it was $25 so I'm pretty sure it's fake fur.
I used birthday money from my mom & Dean's mom to by myself some new perfume. Awhile back I knocked my perfume bottle out of my cabinet & it shattered into a million pieces. After smelling about a million different types I decided on Vintage Bloom by Jessica Simpson. I also had a horrible headache.
I bought the perfume at Ulta & they had a free gift with purchase.

Once we finished shopping we went to the movie to see Alex Cross. It was good but so intense. When we left the theater I was a nervous wreck & felt like I needed a drink to calm down. Has anyone seen it?

Toodles!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

T.G.F.L.W.

That means "Thank God for Long Weekends!". That's what I had last weekend & that's what I have this weekend. Sadly, it's only 3 days this week but I'll take it.

What's been happening since my last post?  I was off Monday. I have lots of vacation to take before the end of the year & I have a not very considerate co-worker that has taken the weeks of Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Years off so I'm stuck with random days off. What I learned Monday is that I have the potential to be a fabulous housewife! I'm talking June Cleaver without Wally & The Beave. I'd even wear the pearls. No dress because my yoga pants are just too comfy. I ran, I grocery shopped, I did a gazillion loads of laundry, I cooked & it was good & it wasn't easy & I didn't have to call my mom. It's really a miracle actually. I was exhausted by the time Dean got home but I'd do it everyday if it meant not getting up at 4:45 every morning.

Then there was the election. I voted early at lunch one day because I did not want to stand in a ridiculous line. Of course after the election I wonder why I went to the trouble because I think one of the people I voted for actually won. We had a ton of people to vote for too. Oh well.

I went to Yoglates Tuesday, Thursday & Friday. Yay for going 3 times this week. I've been trying to get back on track with that. I ran Monday &  Wednesday morning.

Work has been better the last two days. I'm actually sitting at my desk blogging & I don't have anything that has to be done before I leave today. I've only worked late a couple of days this week & today I'll actually only work 8 hours! YAY!!

Tonight we're going out to eat. You know our usual Friday night routine. Tomorrow we're going to Dean's parents & then to some friends to watch the LSU/Miss. St. game. I'm thinking about putting up my Christmas tree Sunday. We're going to Dean's parents for Thanksgiving this year so there's no reason not to. That was my week. How was yours?

Have a great weekend!!

Toodles!

Saturday Fun!!

Once the guys left to go fishing the girls went to Cafe DuMonde for beignets. They were delicious.
We sat outside. Before we left we had lunch at Drago's. It was delicious too. After lunch we left for Pass Christian.
Here's the kitchen. I LOVE her granite. It's Alaskan White. If we ever do an outdoor kitchen I think that's what I'd choose. The house is really nice! It's 22 ft. off the ground. A must considering the surge from Hurricane Katrina was 16 ft. high in this area. It's 2 story. I just realized I didn't get any pics of the outside. Next time!

The view from the porch. Dean was fishing off the pier.
The bar area which we all helped stock.

Isn't my drink pretty? It's a "Midnight Flight to Malibu" aka "the blue drink". We all watched the LSU game. What a disappointment. Never in a million years did I think it would even be close, much less us be that close to actually winning. Oh well.
Sunday morning was really foggy.
The rain was coming.

Then we saw what it would be like to be there during a hurricane! HA! The wind started & the rain came. Stuff on the porch was blowing everywhere. It was wild. Luckily, it only lasted about 20 minutes. Once the rain was over we headed home. It's about a 2 hr. drive to Baton Rouge.

Toodles!

Friday in NOLA

I took off work Friday! Yay!! I ran a few errands & met Dean at Caliente for lunch.


Shrimp quesadillas on a wheat tortilla. Soooo good!

Then it was home to pack. I hate packing but it had to be done. We headed to New Orleans with our friends, Dennis, Jackie & Kitzia. Kitzia's hubs was already in NOLA for a meeting.


While we were waiting to check it I looked at our stuff & thought it was funny.

We had tickets for Boudin & Beer. It's a fundraiser for Emeril Lagasse's foundation.


We look like Smurfs thanks to the lighting in the bar at the hotel!


We had charbroiled oysters from Drakes. Soooo good!! Then it was off to The Foundry for the event.


I wanted to take this home & put it by my front door!!


This was my favorite thing!!! Fried oyster on top of grits served in the oyster shell!! There was tons of food & drinks!


Dave, Dennis & Dean


Jackie, Kitzia & me


I ate this.


It was the first thing. For those of you not from the south, a nutria is basically a river rat. I feel sick just thinking about the fact that I ate it & it wasn't awful.


There were chefs from all over the country there with all sorts of specialties. Mario Batali was there & Zac Browns chef! At one point I turned around & Emeril was walking right by & he said to us "Hey guys!" Very cool.


That's Dennis with Sammy Hagar! Sammy makes rum now & they were serving it. He was even bartending for a bit.


Me, Suzy & Kitzia


Dave, Matt, Suzy, Dean & I


Key line pie!


Gelato with chocolate sauce & cracker jacks. I don't like cracker jacks but loved the gelato!


The girls!

The boys all left early this morning to head to Pass Christian to go fishing. The girls are leaving after while. Matt & Suzy just finished building their camp/vacation house on the bay in Pass Christian. We're going to hang out & watch the LSU game & spend the night.

Have a great weekend!

Geaux Tigers!!! Beat Bama!!!

Toodles!!!

Location:Fulton St,New Orleans,United States

Happy All Saints Day!

That was the best I could come up with for a title. I'm not feeling too creative today. I managed to get out of the office a little before 5:00 yesterday so I was home in time to enjoy Halloween with all our neighborhood peeps! We all go to Jackie & Dennis's to eat. Everyone brings something.
Notice the large bottle of wine? That was my contribution. Thankfully, my friends understand the ridiculousness of my work schedule (worked til 7:00 Tuesday night) & told me not to bring anything.

The pizza was Cindy's contribution. She's a self proclaimed hot dog snob. I did good with my eating. I had 2 small pizzas of thin crust pizza & the icing off of a cupcake. Suzy doesn't like the icing but wanted a cupcake. I gladly took care of that problem. It was delish!!

You may have noticed I've been lacking in the Weigh In post. I'm still working towards my goal but I'm starting to wonder if I'm ever going to get there. I know my body is changing in a good way so I'm trying to not be as focused on the scale. All of my clothes fit fine even though according to the stupid scale I'm up a couple of pounds.

My workouts for the last several days are:
Saturday - 2 mi. run (20 mins)
Sunday - 2.87 mi. run (30 mins.)
Monday - off
Tuesday - Yoglates
Wednesday - 2.5 mi. run (30 mins)
Thursday - Yoglates

Toodles!!!