Annoyed

I know it's been awhile since I posted but this stupid brace is cramping my style. I can type with it but much slower than my normal speed & I find that after spending a day at work on the computer my hand is tired. It doesn't hurt bad but it's definitely different from the weekends when I manage to stay off the computer. So that's what I did this weekend. I only got online to check my fantasy football scores. I did look at Facebook & check email from my phone. I mean who can go a day without Facebook right?? Suffice it to say the brace is annoying.

This weekend was rather slow. Friday night I hosted "The Worst Book Club Ever". As usual we had a lot of fun. We ate & chatted. I've noticed a developing theme at these parties. We talk less & less about books at each one. Normally, there's a lot of book swapping going on but that even slowed down this time. I know I'm up to my eyeballs in books. Aside from my Nook, which I love by the way. If anyone is thinking of getting one for Christmas I highly recommend it. Anyway, aside from my Nook I have a stack of books from my MIL that I'm trying to get through. I planned to do a lot of reading on the ride to Disney but Amelia-Ann informed me that she's going to bring board games for us to play. Not sure how that's going to work out.

Saturday, I did a little Christmas shopping. I was able to pick up a few things before I got too aggravated. Traffic was annoying, the one handedness (I don't think that's a word) was doubly annoying. Something that I didn't think about was signing the credit card receipt. Yeh, my signature looked like a celebrity autograph &  I had several funny looks. Whatevs people. No shopping trip is complete this time of year for me without some sort of decorations. I picked up a couple of things at Hob Lob & Michael's. After my shopping trip Dean & I went to Mass & then to dinner at Monjuni's. It's one of my favorite Italian restaurants. I had the vegetable lasagna. Soooo good!! Then it was home to watch football & listen to LSU on the radio.

Nothing too exciting this weekend but I am excited that I have a short work week this week. I'm off Friday. I hope to get all of my Christmas decorating done this weekend.

Toodles!!

Outdoor Wednesday at LSU

I told y'all about our day of tailgating Saturday. Here are some pictures that I took. A big tradition at LSU is watching the band march down the hill. One of our friends has a prime tailgating spot so we watched from there. A lot of you may not know but LSU's mascot is Mike the Tiger & we have a live Bengal Tiger. He rides in a trailer down the hill, into the stadium & around the field during pregame. Well, sometimes he does. He lives in a multi million dollar habitat. Apparently, it's made him a diva because on a regular basis he refuses to get in his trailer & nobody makes him. This week we played Alabama & I guess he even knew the importance of the game because he cooperated. Here he is.

These are the LSU Golden Girls

The Flag Corp

The Golden Band From Tigerland is how the LSU band is known.

The police are on horses to keep the crowd back.  There are over 100,000 people on campus & a large number are intoxicated. If the po-po wasn't there I can assure you there would be multiple fools attempting to march with the band.

There they go.

I had to include this picture again because I love it so much!

I'm linking up to Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Daydreamers.

Toodles!!

NO MORE BIRDS!!!

The doves are done & so am I! Thankfully, Amelia-Ann & Claire, my 12 yr. old neighbors helped me & we finished last night. I've mentioned that my hand has been killing me due to the doves. At least I think that's what it was. I thought it was on the mend because it didn't bother me much over the weekend. Apparently, that was because I didn't do anything that even resembled work. Needless to say after a full day of work Monday my hand was killing me. This afternoon I went & had my neighbor, Matt check me out. He was a trainer in the NFL & now has a company that fits athletes with braces. After twisting & turning & pulling he determined that I have a big long word that basically means tendinitis in another big long word that is the tendon that runs between my thumb & index finger. Lovely.

This is what my right hand/wrist looks like now. Matt has this cool little machine that looks like a food dehydrator. He put the brace in it, heated it up & the brace softened. He put in on my hand & molded it to fit me. Apparently, I need to wear this thing for 2 weeks. By wear it he means have it on all the time & if I don't have it own I'm to ice it. Ugh. What a pain. He said the alternative is to go to the Doctor & have him give me a cortisone shot. I don't do well with needles so I'll be wearing the brace.

That's all for now because it's difficult to type with this thing. I blame the birds.

Toodles!

Roll Tide????

I think not. LSU 24 Bama 21.....

This was one of those weekends that I needed to come to work to rest! I love those but the weekend just flies by. We started off Friday night with company from Texas. Our friend Kevin & his son Max were in town for the game so they came to our house for dinner. We've had our first cold snap so Dean cooked a big gumbo! What's really weird about this weekend is that as busy as we were we didn't eat out once! That NEEEVVVVEEEERRRR happens.

Saturday was game day. LSU vs. Bama. This is always a huge game but now especially since Saban took the Bama job. The weather was going to be good so we decided to tailgate. We left about 9:30. It was BEAUTIFUL!!! In the 60's all day & sunny. Just about perfect weather. Our plan was to go from tailgate to tailgate visiting friends all over campus. We started out at D-Mill's (that would be short for David Miller). We met David back when he played baseball for LSU. 

David & his wife Jessica & Dean & I. This reminds me that I must take a picture of my ADORABLE shirt that I bought Friday.  My cup of blueberry lemonade is blocking it! Trust me when I say I was all blinged out!

After a stop at Deep South Tigers we moved on to our "fancy friends" with their chandelier hanging from their tent.

 How cute is this??? She made it from an old light fixture, spray paint, Christmas ornaments & the feathers were an LSU wreath that was hanging on the door of her LSU room at home. It fit perfectly. We had Mimosa's here. Ole Miss just thinks they're the fancy tailgaters!!

We stopped at another friends tailgate party to say hey & found this guy.

I'm guessing the majority of you don't know who that is. It's me with Gary Sheffield. If you're a Major League Baseball fan you know him. He was in town for a baseball banquet that was held Friday night. He & his wife were both really nice. We chatted for a bit & then moved on to the next party!

We went to my work friends party. We didn't get to hang out with them for very long because it was getting close to game time & they all needed to go into the stadium.

This is Stan & Renee & Dean & I. Again, the drink is covering my really cute shirt! After this we had to make the trek back to our car so we could get home for kick off. Living where we live is ideal for game day tailgating! We're 3 miles from the stadium so we didn't miss a play.

Scott, Lydia & Logan came over to watch the game with us. Logan never stops moving.

It's virtually impossible to get a good picture of him! He was all decked out in his LSU shirt & hat.

Logan loves his lawnmower. Notice the sippy cup of ice tea. He pushed the mower all over the house with the cup like that. It fell off a couple of times & he immediately put it back on the mower & took off. HAHA!

At one point we looked up to find him like this.

I've said before he's a daredevil. After the game, which by the way, LSU WON!!! Woo Hoo!! We did not see that coming. For those of you that don't know, Les Miles is a moron. Yet, he continues to win despite that fact. Shocking. Anyway, after the game Scott & Lydia went to dinner for their anniversary & Dean & I kept Logan.

Here we are trying to get him to look at the camera. Epic fail.

  Speaking of epic fail, do you see those mums??? I CANNOT keep them alive. I don't understand.

FINALLY! He's looking at me but no smile. I guess I can't be too picky. We had so much fun with him. He kept us laughing all night!

Sunday, my neighbor had what she called "Holiday Market at The Mitchell's". The idea was to help us with our shopping since we're all going to Disney the week before Christmas. Things got a tad bit out of hand & there ended up being 9 "vendors" there & about 80 "invites" went out to people in the subdivision. Thankfully, all of those people didn't show up! There was a nice turnout & I was able to pick up a few cute gifts, drink a little wine & eat a few snacks! It made for a very nice afternoon.

So, now it's Monday & I MUST finish those doves....

Toodles!

OW!!!!

Birds are hazardous to my health. No two ways about it. I don't know if anyone remembers this post. Well, the birds are at it again. Just in a different way this time. I am on the "Socially Responsible Christmas" Committee at our Church. Basically, there are a lot of non profits in the city that we collect donations for. We make ornaments with a list of needs to represent each organization. The ornaments are in Church for a couple of weeks for Parishioners to take. They purchase the stuff & return it to Church & we deliver it to the non profits. You may remember the lambs from last year. This year I'm making doves. Clearly, birds are out to get me. I have to cut 50 doves out of felt. Not the thin, flimsy felt. The stiff hard felt. That's important to note. Here they are.

Did I mention I had to trace them all onto the felt? That wasn't real easy either. Anyway, for a couple of days earlier in the week I felt a funny twinge in my wrist. I didn't think much of it UNTIL I woke up several times during the night with it throbbing. I mean it hurt BAD. Since then I've been taking Advil. It still hurts but it hasn't interrupted my sleep anymore. The pain has moved a little. It's still in my wrist but it's towards the inside of my wrist & up through my thumb & the area between my thumb & index finger. All I can figure is it was the dove cutting. Needless to say the last 8 doves haven't been cut out. I think Dean is going to have to do them. I'm trying really hard not to use my hand but it's my right hand & I'm right handed. Have you ever tried this??? I'm not good at it. AT ALL! Some of the most mundane things cause the most pain. Like picking up my purse. Who thinks about which hand to pick their purse up with?? I do now!

Right now this is what they look like. 

At some point this weekend I have to glue them together & put eyes on them. I'm thinking that will be happening during the LSU game. We play Alabama this week. I don't anticipate it being a very pretty game. Of course Little Nicky on the sidelines is always good for a few laughs.

Oh well, that's all that's going on with me. I'm off to the mall at lunch. Another Penney's coupon!!!

Toodles!

Can we skip Thanksgiving??

Don't get me wrong, I'm all thankful & all for everything I have & my friends & family but I am so ready for Christmas! When I say ready, I don't mean ready in the sense that everything is done ready. I mean I want to start decorating, I'm ready to go to Disney, that  kind of ready. Generally, at this time of the year I have the majority of my shopping done or at least know what I'm buying. This year? A grand total of 2 gifts have been bought with pretty much no idea on the rest of the people I buy for. There's really no excuse for it. At least none that I can come up with. So what did I do this weekend when we were out shopping? Buy some gifts? NOPE! I bought stuff that I really, really wanted needed! More Christmas decor!!! WOO HOOO!!! It was all 50% off. How could I NOT buy it?

 I love reindeer! I have lots of them in all different styles. (I know the pictures are terrible. They always look so much better on the phone when I take them).

I have Fleur de Lis' all over throughout the year. I also had them in my first house before it was the "in" thing to have!!!

 Love the big crystal!

 I love the long dangley ornaments. They look really good on the tree.

This Fleur de Lis might be my favorite. You can't tell from the picture but it's big. Like somewhere between a 5x7 & 8x10. I love big stuff on a tree!

I did buy one non Christmas thing.

Nope, not a gift. Well, I guess you can say it's a gift but a gift for myself. Anyway, you people know how I love JCPenney's because of the coupons & sales. Well, they sent a $15 off coupon for my birthday plus of course I had a coupon for doing a survey the last time I bought something. Anyone care to guess what I paid for this little cutie?? $6.00. Yep, you read that right! This $44 sweater cost me $6.00. Can't pass that up! THEN when I got home from work a $10 coupon was waiting for me in the mailbox!!!

Oh! On a completely random note & unrelated note - No Thugs won again this week!! WOOO HOOO!!! We're at .500 now. That means we ARE NOT IN LAST PLACE!!! Yay us!

Anyone else ready to decorate??

Toodles!

Happy Halloween!!

When you're 37 years old, you shouldn't feel like I do the day after Halloween. Seriously. I didn't run wild from house to house or even indulge in a ridiculous amount of candy. I only had 1 tiny 3 Musketeers. I did however have 4 glasses of wine which apparently will cause a massive headache in the morning. I've taken 3 Advil & had a Dr. Pepper & I still feel like total crapola. Ugh. Not to mention I'm exhausted from all of the weekend activities!

Friday was my birthday. Dean & I had dinner at Mansurs on the Boulevard. SOOOOO good. We had the crab cakes for an appetizer. I'm on some sort of crab cake kick (say that 3 times fast) lately. LOVE THEM!! The lettuce wedge was one of the best I've had. Probably because it had lots of dressing with lots of blue cheese crumbles in it. For me the more dressing the better. Then for my entree I had the Shrimp Vacherie which is seafood stuffed shrimp that are fried & served with Creollaise (a sauce that was to die for) & rosotto. I really enjoyed it!

Saturday, I went with my mom & did some shopping. I didn't buy much but we went to a store in town that's going out of business & they had a ton of Christmas stuff. Everything was 50%. I picked up a few things but this place is really expensive for the most part so at 50% stuff was still pricey. We ate a late lunch at the Chimes. Yes, if you're a regular reader you know that we ate there Wed. night! I wanted a cheeseburger & theirs are really really good plus my mom had never been there so off we went. DELICIOUS!!!  Dean & I went to Mass Saturday afternoon. Our Church Fair was this weekend so after Mass we hung out there. There were a ton of people that we knew so it was fun.

There's a Christmas store in town that's going out of business that was having a 50% off sale. This store is like the other store we went to Sat. in that they're pretty expensive. I'm guessing that has something to do with why they're both going out of business. Anyway, I picked up a few ornaments there too. The place was full of stuff but I didn't find a whole lot that I liked which is really unusual.

Halloween is a really big deal in our subd. Before Trick or Treat starts there's a party down the street with food & drinks & train rides for the kids.  We went down there for a little bit & then just a few houses down from us a neighbor cooks jambalaya & has desserts & chips & dip so we hung out down there most of the night. All the neighbor kids looked really cute but only a few would pose for pictures. This is Amelia-Ann as an "80's girl".

Here's Amelia-Ann & Allie. They didn't plan to both be 80's girls!

Amelia-Ann & her cronies, Gretchen & Maddie. I don't remember what Gretchen was supposed to be but Maddie was a dead cheerleader & apparently, she kept laying on the ground playing dead. I missed it but Dean witnessed it. They're too funny!

Amelia-Ann isn't shy can you tell??

This is our Godchild Abigail. She was Barbie. I think she'd just about had enough for one day!! That's her twin Gavin in the background. He refused to be in the picture.

Me & Anna were hanging out watching the "Fashion Show" that we weren't notified of. Amazing what some of the moms were wearing. Dresses & knee high boots. Really cute stuff but good grief they were walking the neighborhood trick or treating with their kids! I did have my hair fixed but it was HOT so I pulled it up.

Dean & Allie were talking Volleyball & discussing strategy. 

We had a really good weekend but I sure hope this day goes by fast because I need to lay on the sofa & recover!

Toodles!