Monday

I don't like Monday's. I especially don't like today knowing it's my last week of having at least a day off for a holiday for a long time. It's also getting close to tax season & that means working Saturday's. I'm worried a bit about this tax season. Last year was sooo easy & I only had to work 2 Saturday's. I think I was lucky.

Saturday we spent the day at Dean's parents house. His brother & our niece & nephew were in town. Sunday I went to lunch with my friend Vicki, her niece Simone & her son (our Godchild) Lane. I didn't take one picture either day. Epic fail.

Have I mentioned that I'm not well yet. I'm much better. I have a couple more days of my third round of antibiotics & then I have to have a CT scan of my sinuses. Yay. That's sarcasm people.

I haven't ran in 3 weeks. It seems so much longer. I haven't done any sort of working out in that amount of time. I'm supposed to run a Half Marathon on January 18th but that's not going to happen. I was thinking I'd drop down to the Quarter Marathon but I swear I don't know if I'll make that. I may have to drop to the 5K. I'm frustrated & discouraged & I'm in a funk.

I got this nifty little thing for Christmas from Dean.


My bike will fit on it & I can ride it inside. I've been wanting one for awhile. I was very excited about it. So excited that 4 days after Christmas it's still sitting in that box in that exact same spot in the living room. Told you I'm in a funk.

The weather's been yuck. Cold & rainy, then hot & rainy, then cool & sun for a day, then warm, rainy & muggy, now cold. We have a wood burning fireplace that we never use. We decided to buy gas logs since we already have gas hookup.


Isn't it pretty? They were installed the day after Christmas & it hasn't been cold enough to turn it on since.

Some good news is that our office is closing at 1:00 tomorrow to give everyone time to get where they're going to watch the LSU game.  That was unexpected so it was a nice surprise.

I have a list about a mile long of lots of things I want to get done around the house in 2015. I'm sure they won't get done though. I used to be willing to do things ourselves but I'm over that. The majority of the time whatever it is I do doesn't turn out like I envision. At this point I want to just hire someone to do everything which is why I'm pretty sure it won't get done.

Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays!

Toodles!

Our Christmas

The last several years we have a tradition of going to Mass and then going to dinner with some of our neighbor friends to Ruffino's.

The food was delicious as usual - crabmeat cheesecake, veal Michael, a wedge salad, wine, white chocolate bread pudding,  but our service was not good.

Me, Amelia-Ann, Stafford, Suzy, Santa, Alexandra & Sheri

After dinner we all go home, put on our pajama's & head to our Christmas Eve pj party 2 houses down.

Almost the whole crew. We play the white elephant game, have some drinks & cookies & laugh  A LOT!

 

Christmas morning Dean was up bright & early to cook his seafood gumbo. My contribution to this years gumbo was 2.5 hours of my Christmas Eve that I spent peeling & deveining shrimp!

Logan got a Scooter for Christmas

 

We grazed all day. There was way too much food but it was so good! Gumbo, ham, potato salad, crawfish pie, crab pie, deviled eggs, spinach dip, meatballs, pinwheels, rice dressing, rolls, cream cheese & pepper jelly. Not to mention the pies, cake, cookies & candy. All that for 15 people.

 

We took a break from food long to open gifts.

 

 

 

 

 

Once all the gifts were opened a rousing game of baseball happened.

 

 

The cousins on my side of the family.

Brooke, Logan, Brendan & Dylan

 

 

Me with my brother & my Godchildren. Getting this picture was an act of congress. Brendan is not at all interested in pics & I had to beg him.

 

My parents with Logan, their only grandchild.

 

Lydia, Logan & Scott

 

Me, Logan & Dean

 

Their funny face pic!

 

 

We had a fabulous day! Saturday we'll be in Bayou Pigeon at Dean's parents house to do Christmas with Dean's brother & his kids.

 

How was y'all's Christmas?

 

Toodles!

Merry Christmas!!

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas!!!

Christmas in New Orleans

I really can't believe it's Monday already. Such a busy weekend. Which is why I wish we had a couple more weeks between Thanksgiving & Christmas. Our weekend started with 2 Christmas parties Friday night. Both were a lot of fun. 

My friend Allison & I have a little tradition where we go to brunch every year for Christmas. This year we decided to head to New Orleans. We wanted to eat somewhere different & there are several hotels that go all out for Christmas so we decided to make a day  of it. 

We started with brunch at The Ruby Slipper. 

There was a 40 minute wait so we had a drink. 

I went with a bloody mary & Allison had their brandy milk punch. I wasn't a fan of the punch but I think if you like egg nog you would enjoy it. 

For my meal I had the Catfish St. Peter. It's Pan-seared Mississippi farm-raised catfish over cheesy grit cakes, topped with poached eggs, sauteed spinach, tomatoes, a skewer of grilled shrimp, finished with a Creole mustard hollandaise. The Creole mustard hollandaise was so good.

The whole thing was amazing. It may be one of the best meals I've ever had. Once brunch was finished we headed to The Roosevelt hotel. 

It was so pretty! The Teddy Bear Tea was going on along with a wedding reception & the bowl game had just finished so there were people EVERYWHERE! It was fun to see all the little kids dressed up in their Christmas outfits for the tea. It was also fun watching an adorable little girl about a year old dressed in her beautiful white smocked dress with a gorgeous white faux fur shrug screaming her little head off while rolling around on the floor of The Roosevelt! It was a lot like Disney World. You know, the happiest place on earth isn't so happy & over stimulated kids are having melt downs everywhere! 

These trees were lining the lobby. They were gorgeous. 

Next up was the Fountain Lounge for a Christmas drink.

This was called Mrs. Claus' Cookie. It was vanilla vodka, brown sugar syrup, cream, vanilla extract & sprinkles! It was so good! Definitely have to think about recreating it.

The next stop was the hotel at Harrah's Casino.They always have a gingerbread house & it's something different every year. It's been a  Mardi Gras float & all sorts of things.

This year it was St. Louis Cathedral. That's the big, beautiful Church in Jackson Square.

The Christmas tree at Harrah's

Fulton Street had some decorations. They have snow & stuff at night.

This was the tree at Fulton Street

We went to the Windsor Court next. They were having Christmas tea so there were a ton of people there too. I loved the tree.

In case you're wondering that's not a real Santa. The tree was so fat & I love FAT trees. I hate this skinny tree trend. I have a skinny tree now because I couldn't find a fat one. It's not nearly as pretty. 

We decided we needed some sort of coffee treat so we went to The Shops at Canal Place to Starbucks. I had my first Peppermint Mocha. It was good!

They also had a huge tree. 

By this time we were ready to head home but Allison's sister & her friend were just getting to New Orleans so met them at The Delachaise for a glass of wine.  I'd never been there before & it was a cute little place. They have tons of wine by the glass along with all sorts of other drinks & small plates. 

Contrary to how this post sounds we are not alcoholics & our drinks were spread out over the course of  8 hours! 

It was a really fun day! 

Are y'all ready for Christmas?

Toodles!

Catching Up!

Things have been a bit crazy. I ended up at the ENT last week & as it turns out I had a sinus infection, an upper respiratory infection & tonsillitis. That would explain why I felt so bad. I was on steroids, an antibiotic, 2 nasal sprays & Mucinex. I was pretty much in a fog all week. I worked Tuesday-Thursday & then I had vacation to take or lose so I was off Friday, Monday & Tuesday. It would be so nice to actually be able to take off around Christmas but once again that's not happening. I've worked full time for something like 20 years & I can't ever take off close to Christmas because of some reason or another. Mostly because of seniority. It sucks, I hate it but I can't do anything about it. Moving on.

I was able to get a ton of stuff done during my time off. Friday I got my hair & nails done & was able to go to the jewelry show with my friend Steph. We didn't buy hardly anything. Highly unusual. For dinner our group went to Caliente. Typical Friday night.

Saturday I was really not feeling good so there was a lot of laying around until it was time to get ready for Church. After Church we had a Christmas Party to go to. That was fun.

Sunday I finished my decorating. Finally!

Dean was off Monday & Tuesday too. We got a lot of shopping done. It was good to get everything finished. I had yet another incident with Target. So done with that store. I realized after I returned the Fitbit that they didn't refund my money for the extended warranty I'd bought. They gave me a bunch of crap about how the UPC code wasn't on my receipt so they couldn't refund it. Funny, I had the correct receipt the FIRST time I returned the Fitbit. Which I explained to this chick multiple times because she felt the need to tell me multiple times she needed the UPC code. I was nice but I wanted to tell her that I heard her the first time & it didn't matter how many times she repeated herself it wasn't going to change anything. I finally just said to get a manager because I was tired of dealing with this fiasco. At that point she explained that she's a supervisor & can take care of it. REALLY????? WITHOUT A UPC CODE??? That really annoyed me. BUT that's not the end of the story. At some point when I was waiting for the Fitbit to come in Target emailed me a $10 gift certificate that I could use online or in store. Knowing that I was going to Target I followed the directions & added it to my online account. All I have to do is show the cashier my phone. Yeh right. I showed her & she said she needed a UPC code. SERIOUSLY?? I showed her the email & she called a manager who told me the same thing the cashier said. By this point I was getting really tired of people repeating things to me. I showed the manager the email. Eventually, someone showed up that could do some sort of override & then proceeded to tell me next time I needed to do this & that. I calmly said that there won't be a next time because I'm done. Seriously I'm done and I mean it. I'm not in love with the store to begin with & this certainly didn't help their cause. Whatever.

We did a lot of eating out while we were off. Tuesday we just had a couple of gifts left to buy so we did that & stopped at Mike Anderson's for lunch. It was cold & I was in the mood for seafood gumbo.


It was delicious!! That's a crab in the middle of the bowl.. I had a side salad too. They have the best ranch dressing ever!!

All of the presents are wrapped and under the tree.

I finally thought to take a picture of my tree.

I think it's prettier in person.

I haven't ran since the Reindeer Run that was almost 2 weeks ago. I didn't feel like it since I was sick & then it was colder & I didn't think it was wise to get out in that. My plan was to run tomorrow but there's a good chance of rain so hopefully it'll happen this weekend.

We have a busy weekend coming up. 2 parties tomorrow night, Christmas brunch with a friend Saturday, Christmas with Dean's family Sunday & going to look at Christmas lights with friends Sunday night. It's going to be Monday before I know it. UGH!

I think I'm caught up.

Toodles!

December!

I really can't believe how fast time is flying by. I desperately need 2 more weeks between Thanksgiving & Christmas. 

Thursday night was our first Christmas party of the season. This year is busy! My office party was at The Blend. It's a wine bar & they do small plates as well. They had a buffet for us. This is the same place the party was last year. It's nice but the food was better last year. 

Me & my friend Mary Kay who also happens to be my boss's wife.

I have such a hard time with week night functions. I didn't get to sleep until 11:30 & 6 hours of sleep just isn't enough for me. Thankfully, Friday's are short days for me. After work I ran some errands & then went home to take a nap. I needed some sleep because I had a race to run Friday night.

Me & Allison

Our crew - Hillary, Anna  & Allie on the front row & me, Allison, Jackie, Cindy S. & Kate. It was the Reindeer Run hence the reindeer headbands. 

Me, Allison & Karen after the race. We're all very happy that the race is over at this point. It was HOT -  like almost 80 hot. The 5K wasn't actually a 5K. It was 3.5 miles. They need to be a little more careful when they measure the distance. 3.1 to 3.5 doesn't seem like a lot but some people never run more than 3.1.  Let's just say this race wasn't the most organized. I was happy with my time. I did the 3.5 mi. in 33:27 which is fast for me. I didn't realize my watch battery was almost dead & it went dead before the race started. I had no idea how far I'd ran or what my pace was at any point in the race. Some people like that, I don't. All in all it was fun. There was a ton of stuff going on downtown for Christmas & it took Dean 30 mins. to park & he wasn't close. He said never again. After the race me, him & Allison went to Caliente to eat. We were starving.

Saturday morning I was up early & was able to get more errands done & then it was time to leave for Mississippi. Me, Dean, Dennis, Jackie, Matt & Suzy were going to Biloxi to the IP Casino to see the Gin Blossoms & Sugar Ray. I was so excited! Some of you may not know who they are but they were very popular in the mid to late 90's. I didn't care about Sugar Ray, I just wanted to see Gin Blossoms. Matt & Suzy have a house in Pass Christian, MS which is 30 minutes away so we all stayed there.

Lead singer of Gin Blossoms - we had great seats!

Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray

The pics are awful but hopefully I'll have a new phone soon.

The concert was so much fun & we enjoyed Sugar Ray a lot too. 

Sunday morning we came home. I was feeling awful. Sore throat, ears, the whole bit. I went to a Kendra Scott party Sunday afternoon that a friend was hosting. They have such cute stuff. 

Yesterday when I woke up I was still feeling bad so I took a sick day & went to the ENT. The strep test was negative but she diagnosed me with a sinus infection, an upper respiratory infection & tonsillitis. I've got antibiotics, steroids, nasal sprays & pills to help with the cough. Hopefully, they'll kick in soon.

Toodles! 

How Many Fitbits Do You Have??

We currently have 2 in our household and neither are mine. I ordered Dean the Fitbit One for his birthday. For reference, his birthday was November 17. I don't enjoy dealing with lines or crowds or traffic. Plus, I do enjoy Ebates and getting cash back. Soooo on November 3rd I ordered the Fitbit from Target. I chose Target because the Fitbit's were the same price everywhere but there was more cash back to be had at Target. I've said before that I don't understand the love affair between everyone I know & Target. I'm less enamored than I was before & that's saying a lot. 

Here's the Fitbit.

I bought the One because it can be worn on your belt or in your pocket. Dean isn't a bracelet guy so I thought this was perfect. I received the email from UPS saying that I would receive my package on November 5th. It was being shipped from New Orleans. Yay! Easy Peasy!

The next day I checked the status & it shows that delivery would not be the 5th but the 9th & the package was in New Jersey. Geography isn't my strong suit but I do know that New Orleans is only 60 miles from Baton Rouge and New Jersey is much further. Clearly there was a problem. Well, to make a very long story not as long, every single day the status changed on UPS's website & the message "there was an error in sorting" (really????) & delivery was delayed a day appeared. Yet it was still sitting in New Jersey. After a few days I contacted UPS & they were absolutely no help. They would just tell me what I could see for myself on the website. I contacted Target & they told me it was a UPS problem & they couldn't do anything. Well, then I was mad so I took to Twitter! FYI - when you tweet a complaint to a company they generally respond & respond FAST! I got zero response from Target but UPS contacted me & I dealt with a very helpful girl who finally confirmed that my package was lost. She told me to contact Target so they could ship another one. Yeh, Target wouldn't do that. They called UPS & was told it wasn't lost. This went on for a couple of weeks & there were a lot of emails & phone calls. By this time Dean's birthday had came & went. I was so mad that I told Target I just wanted my money back. They wouldn't give it to me & said I would have to refuse delivery when the package arrived or return it to the store. Well, you can't refuse delivery or return something that HASN'T BEEN DELIVERED!  

At this point I was really furious. I ordered another Fitbit from Amazon. It was cheaper, no tax & there was a special Ebates cash back deal. I contacted UPS one more time & told them Target wouldn't do anything because of the status. The response I got was that there was "movement" on my package that day. Yeh whatever, believe it when I see it. The status changed & showed delivery would be November 26th. I was planning to call the credit card company & dispute the Target charge & let them deal with it. I decided to wait until the 26th & just see what happened. When I got home on the 26th there was the Fitbit I ordered 2 days before from Amazon. I don't even have Prime! Later that night when we got back from dinner the other one was by the front door. It's going back to the store Friday. I realize it was UPS's fault but I was not pleased with how Target handled it & nobody that I spoke with was helpful. They kept telling me if I didn't receive it to call back. 

Needless to say I don't forsee a lot of Target shopping trips in my future. 

If you shop online & don't use Ebates you're missing out. Here's a link 

http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=ohao67i6EBswYIWMn45LPA%3D%3D&eeid=26471

Toodles!

Thanksgiving Weekend!!

About 12:15 Wednesday I got my wish. The office closed! YAY! I went & ran a few errands & got my nails done. Dean got off a little early too. We always go to dinner the night before Thanksgiving. We went with out friends Cindy & Brad & Jackie, Dennis & their girls, Allie & Anna. We had a nice dinner. 

Cindy & I decided to do our own little Turkey Trot Thanksgiving morning. I needed to do something to offset all of that food we were going to have.

Post Trot Selfie! It was cold!

We did a total of 5.66 miles. I ran about 2.5 of those miles. Cindy wasn't feeling good so I ran to meet her & we walked & then I ran home. 

What better way to warm up on Thanksgiving after a run??

It was so good!! I bought the Winter Wonderland Pack from Bed, Bath & Beyond. The other flavors are Golden French Toast & Gingerbread. They're all really good. 

My parents & Dean's parents & grandma came over for Thanksgiving lunch. This was Scott, Lydia & Logan's year to spend the day with Lydia's family so it was pretty quiet. 

Thanksgiving night Jackie & Dennis came over to watch the LSU game. Jackie wanted to go to Walgreen's to do some shopping. HA! Off we went. 

Friday morning we were up early decorating. Well, Cindy & I were at Royal Standard because they had cute a door mat that I wanted. That was the extent of my shopping in a store on Thanksgiving/Black Friday. I did the rest of my shopping online & after going over my list this morning I realized that I'm almost finished!

When I got home Dean had my trees up ready to be fluffed & decorated. That took the majority of the day. I'm so incredibly slow. 

Saturday morning Cindy & I ran. 

I ran the whole 4 mi. & Cindy did some walking & running. She has longer to train for her race than I do. We run, she'll stop & walk some & I continue running & then turn around & run back to her & then she runs with me. If anyone's watching I'm sure we look ridiculous but it works. I really like having a running buddy.

After our run I had to go to Church to get things ready for our Giving Tree Ministry. Once I finished there I went with Jackie & her girls to my very first trip to Costco! I found some good deals. Once we finished there we went to Albasha for Greek food. The chicken schwarma salad was sooo good. I even tasted the gyro & it was good too. By the time I got home it was time to go back to Church for Mass & after that off to Jackie & Dennis' for burgers & to watch the Alabama Auburn game. Things were looking so promising for awhile & then everything fell apart for Auburn. Oh well!

Needless to say, I got zero decorating done Saturday so that means I spent the majority of Sunday decorating. No, I'm not finished. Seriously, I'm sloooooowwwww. 

A few weeks ago I bought a box of pumpkin pancake mix from Trader Joe's. Now, we all know I'm not a cook BUT I thought since it was in a box it couldn't be that hard. Well, last weekend I decided I wanted to make them. I read the directions & decided they were not easy, they were well above my pay grade. Dean was busy but he told me he'd make them for me another time. Sunday for dinner was that time.

They were soooo good! 

This morning I was up bright & early to run with Cindy. 

We knocked out 4 slow miles. 

How was Thanksgiving? Did y'all shop?

Toodles!