Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Cindy...

I have only mentioned Cindy once before on the blog, in this post, but those of you who know me, know her well! She is my car, a 2001 Nissan Sentra that I have had going on 10 years!!! Most people get a new car not long after college graduation, it's a mark of achievement so to speak, but not me. Nope, my mark of achievement of no car payment! :-) (for now anyway)
And up until this year she has put up with me and my "not so skilled" driving abilities. Every incident we have had, has of course, been my fault, until now! Now she is getting old and stubborn and wants too much attention and my money!!! After that post, we had to spend a decent amount of money on her to get her computer fixed. Who knew that they a computer tells you car everything it should be doing. I sure didn't! Until it BROKE and cost us over $1,000 to fix!!!! Geez Louise!

And now,this morning, I take her in to get her tires rotated so she will drive more comfortably, just like a good owner should do and what does she do??? She needs new brake pads and rotars! What? Seriously? Right before Christmas? Just a bit over $300, that's all! So in the last 6 months we will have had to shell out almost $1,500 on a 10 year old car when I  really want a new one anyway!

And with Thanksgiving just a few days away, I stopped to cool off think, at least I have a car. At least we haven't HAD to buy a new car and can do it when we are ready too. And even though there is a TON of other things I would rather spend that money on, or "save" since we are on the Dave Ramsey plan right now, at least we were able to fix her. It is so easy to get wrapped up in crappy things that we have to do that it is hard to remember and be thankful for the not so crappy things.

So as I still cool off from not being very happy with Cindy, I am really trying to focus on the many blessings in our life and not sweat the small stuff!

"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever."
Psalm 107:1

Monday, November 22, 2010

Breakfast with Santa...in November?!?!

Okay so in most cases, it is a bit early for a visit to see Santa and I have, up until this year, been a very anti Christmas before Thanksgiving person, but our society is making it harder and harder to be that way.

I have been a member of the Jr. League of Tuscaloosa for the past 3 years. I was one of those members that just signed up for things to get my hours in, and check off my "requirements". This year I decided that I was really going to get involved and meet new people. So for the 2010/2011 year I have the title of Fall Fundraiser Publicity Chair! There are 3 main Fall fundraisers, BBQ Sales, (great for football season!) Breakfast with Santa and then the New Year's Eve Gala. So needless to say, I have been in the talks about Ole St. Nick since September! Being in Tuscaloosa, we have to plan around the football schedule and of course we want to make sure we do it earlier enough for all the parents to get their pretty Christmas Cards ordered! So November 20th it is!

(Disclaimer: yes, I have my tree up but that is only because we are leaving town for Thanksgiving and no one will be back to visit our house before Christmas so I thought I might as well put it up before this weekend so we could get some pictures in front of it. But don't doubt that I still have my pumpkins on the mantel!)

I knew I wanted MG to come down this year since she didn't last year and she is really now getting to the age, 3 and a half, where she is into the whole Christmas thing. Well, of course she wanted to bring her cousin Maci, so we had a great little girls night, plus Ted and Bella Baby, Friday night. We went to Cici's Pizza for dinner... Thank goodness for the salad bar at the place! It is only $4.99 for a reason people! And then went home to enjoy some movies, popcorn and have a "slumber party"!

Bella was really excited about this "slumber" party!

Bathed, popcorn in hand and ready for the movie


The next morning we were up and had some great entertainment from the lit story teller herself, MG. She went on and on and on for about 10 mins about a fox outside, who was up and tree, everyday and every night, yadda, yadda, yadda. Now I understand when my mom would ask me to be quite just for one minute! :-)



At least Maci knew what she was talking about and was entertained!

You can't help but love that wild red hair!

The next little bit, was consumed of us getting ourselves ready plus two little 3 year olds! Wow, what a job! They should really have classes on these types of things!

But we successfully did it and were off to Breakfast with Santa!

We ate, we saw Santa, wrote him a our letters, which by the way, they will get getting one back from him as well, Shhhh...and did some crafts!



Great weekend with the family. (and Santa)

Thursday, November 11, 2010

And $130 later...

Bella was diagnosed with a cold!
Yep... that is correct, it took $130 to find out that Bella had a cold. Really starting to wonder if pet insurance might be worth it!
She has had a terrible cough for a week and it wasn't getting any better. Other than the cough, she has been perfectly fine, running, playing, eating.  But those puppy mother instances kicked in last night and I insisted that Ted take her to the vet. Since is has the day off today for Veteran's Day, I figured this was his fatherly duty! A few shots later and some medicine should fix her right up!
This could have been a result of us not turning on our heat yet, and this is what she looks like in the morning!
It's not like we don't have any heat... Ted builds fires at night. She is just a baby when it comes to the mornings and being cold!

Speaking of Veteran's Day... Thank you to all the Veterans and their families for making a great sacrifice for our country! Proud to be an American...


Happy Thursday, Happy Veteran's Day!


Friday, November 5, 2010

Baby it's cold outside...

And I am so excited about it!
(and I LOVE that song.. the Rod Stewart or Dean Martin version preferable!)
We got a load of firewood delivered to the house this morning and can't wait to use it this weekend!

Other plans, besides being lazy, on the agenda include:
  • Dinner tonight with The Baxters and Sarah and Nathan coming in town from Destin.
  • 3 F's tomorrow... Football, Food, and Friends! Can't think of a better way to spend a chilly Saturday.
  • Relaxation and snuggling with Bella. She is a huge baby when it comes to the cold.
  • And some stocking up of the freezer.
It is so nice to have single servings of food frozen for lunches or when we don't fill like cooking. I plan on making this yummy Taco Soup that Mrs. Smith posted on the other day and my Memaw's Beefy Noodle Casserole. I am not sure what the real name is but that is what I called it when I was little.

Beefy Noodle Casserole

Ingredients:
 1 pound ground bee, 1/2 cup chopped onion, 1 envelope beef/mushroom dry soup mix, 2 Tbsp ketchup, dash of pepper, 1 1/2 cups water, 1/2 package of egg noodles (the small ones), 1 cup sour cream,
1/2 cup crushed corn flakes (I never use these but it says it one the recipe)

Directions:
Brown ground beef and saute' onion
Stir in soup mix, ketchup, water pepper
Cover and simmer for 15 mins.
Cook noodles
Fold in meat mixture and sour cream with drained noodles
Melt butter with crushed corn flakes and top casserole (again, I skip this part)
Bake at 350 for 20 to 30 minutes!

Happy Weekend!
Pictures to follow.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Ramble On...

Love that song by Led Zeppelin and that is exactly what this post will consist of, my brain rambling! :-)

Last time I blogged I was headed to met Mr. Parker Moore for the 1st time. He was perfect in every way! He was so good while Michelle and I visited for the day. Lindsey is the 1st out of our college group of girls to have a baby so us "Aunts" have been filled with excitement since the moment we found out we were expecting our little "panda".  As you can tell from this post here.
(Side note: we call him a panda because that was our sorority's mascot in college, AOII! Dorky, we know!)
He was about 2 weeks old when we met him and all he did was sleep, eat and tinkle! (all over his clothes just like most little boys do!) We even were able to go out to lunch with him.
Michelle and I loved spending the day with Parker and mom and can't wait to do it again!


Look at those sweet lips!

Last weekend was Halloween so we headed up to good ole C-town, Cullman, AL. We figured since we didn't have any kiddos of our own we would go enjoy the holiday with the fam and see little MG.  Of course this also consisted of Bella Baby tagging along for all the fun! She loves her step-sister, Bren,but  am not sure how much Bren loves Bella!

We also did a little pumpkin carving. Every year Ted and I have a little contest to see who's pumpkin is better. Last year we weren't home so we just sent pictures via text. Mine won. This year Ted was thought for sure he would bet me. The judge, MG! We would ask her which one she liked better when she got there and you can't argue with a 3 year old because they always tell the truth. I went a little more artist and did and owl sitting on a tree, with a pattern of course. And I will be honest, it was one of those that you can't really tell until it is night and lit up. So I just knew MG wouldn't know what it was. Ted had a funny looking little face that was pretty cute. Not to mention Ted's was on a big pumpkin and mine was on a smaller one. We all know kids like the "big ones" so I thought for sure Ted had won it this year. A little while later MG came bouncing in the door and Mimi said MG, did you see the pumpkins outside.
MG: yes
Mimi: Well, which one did you like better?
MG: as she is rolling around her little eyes Um...The OWL!!!
She wins me over very time!

MG was Cinderella! She loved getting dressed up and I loved watching!







And in case you noticed in the picture above... I got a new toy! The , other, love of my life... a Canon EOS Rebel T2i WITH an extra lens.
Needless to say I am in LOVE! There is nothing better than a good picture. One thing I love, love, love in houses are photographs everywhere! It is what makes it a home. So I know I will get my money's worth through the years. Now, I just have to convince Ted of that! ;-)



Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Wordless Wednesday...

New Blog Design....
Happy Hump Day!
(Blog catching up is rising to the top of the To Do List!)