YIPPEE ~ It's Friday just in case you didn't know!

I'm sooooooooooooooooo THRILLED it's the end of the week!!! I'm soooooooooooooooooooo ready for the weekend!!!! I can't wait to SLEEP IN tomorrow!!! I sooooooooooooo look forward to that!!! Getting up at 5:30am is literally getting up with the roosters!!! Which is NOT cool to me!!! Before me moved up to the lake house I got up around 7:15am!!! This is a HUGE adjustment for me!!!

As you know we are hosting Shane's (Mr. "S" brother) birthday party on Saturday night!!!

Here goes my BIRTHDAY SHOUT OUT to my #1 "FUTURE" Brother-In-Law:

He would soooooooooooo LOVE this BIRTHDAY WISH!!! I think I need to send him my blog link!

I love to entertain!!! So this will be a total treat!!! One thing though...I have a lot of boxes to get unpacked before they get here!!! =( I will manage!!! I will be back Monday with pictures from the Ho-Down!! That is "TEXAS TALK" for PARTY!!!

VERY IMPORTANT BREAKING NEWS..........

The 2008 Secret Ornament Exchange is BACK by popular demand (okay and I begged her to do it again this year)!!!! It's hosted by Julie over at Abbily Ever After!!! Please go join!!! This is the reason I signed up for my blog last year!!! A "real life" best friend of mine (GIANTS FAN) has a blog and I would always check in with her to catch up on the family!!! She blogged about Julie's 2007 Secret Ornament Exchange ~ I seen it and immediately wanted to join!!! At this point I didn't even know what the whole world of blog was all about!!! So to make a L-O-N-G story short I joined in the swap and started a blog!!!

Okay back to the 2008 Secret Ornament Exchange lets beat least years numbers! Julie said we had 38 swappers - hailing from 6 different countries and 12 different U.S. states!!! That ROCKS!!! Last year my swap partner was Steffi at Mausbär´s Nähkiste she is from the wonderful land of Germany. A year later we are still blog friends!!! To me the best part of these swaps/exchanges is making new friends!!!

My blog sister Leigh over at Tales From Bloggeritaville gave me a little BLING~BLING yesterday!!! I was soooooooooooooo EXCITED!!! I love BLOG BLING!!! Thank you my SISTER!!! =)

I was asked to elect seven folks (ONLY 7 ~ I COULD PICK SOOOO MANY MORE) that I felt deserving. This was NOT easy!!! You know I adore you all!!! You do know that...RIGHT?

Sunny Little Blog - For being such a WONDERFUL friend in real life and in blog land!!! You are a GREAT wife and ROCKIN hot mom!!! You give so much of yourself to others!!! You do such an amazing job with your charity!!! You are a DO-GOODER and I love you for that and so does everyone else that is surrounded by you!!!

Marmite and Tea - She is a GREAT friend to me! She is one of the reason's I started my blog!!! She is totally from UK and I can just hear her accent through her blog post and I love it! I've learned a lot about her and different places she has visited from her blog!!! She has taken me places (through her photos and words) that I might not ever get the opportunity to visit!!

CPA Mom - For telling it like it is and NOT holding back! HA! Also, your Friday Funnies make me laugh! You inspire me with your weight loss blog ~ Because We're Worth It!!! You inspire me with your early morning workouts!!! Your crazy busy weekends!!! Your a really GREAT friend and thank you for ALWAYS being there for me!!!

La Vie De Laurie - She stands proud for her cause ~ Save the Ta-Tas!!! She is a TOTALLY amazing person and has done sooooooooo much throughout blog-land to promote her 3 Day Walk!!! She is sooooooooooooo devoted and I think it's amazing!!!! You Go Girl!!!

The Goat - You never know what she is going to blog about! Family, her cat, flipping a house, transplant patients/families they rent condo's to, Works For Me Wednesday (by the way I love her tips)!!!! It's over all a very informative blog!!! I learn a lot from Kristin!!!

Lisa's Chaos - If you don't know Lisa you should really go check her out!!! If you are having a bad day you can just look at her photos and they will make you smile!!! She is a great wife, wonderful mom and a COOL grandma!!!

Wandering DC - I just met Megan this week! Yeah, I know a little soon to be given someone an award! Heck, I don't even know her!!! lol!! We have exchanged a few emails and I felt she is due an award!!! I just LOVE her blog! She is such a COOL chick! Go check her out!!!

Okay for those of you that didn't get the blog bling! Please know yall are loved as well!!! So here ya go this goes out to you from me (and pink panther):

I hope yall have a GREAT weekend!!!

Just a few things....

#1. AS of yesterday gas is $2.88 at the local station by my office! I'm sooooooooooooooooooo loving it!!!! It came at just the RIGHT time with our L-O-N-G drive!

#2. I was at the local convenience store Saturday night when this girl walks up to the counter to tell the cashier, "I think I just won big" as she was standing there holding a lottery ticket. I look at the scratch off and I couldn't believe my eyes! She just won $20,000!!! I told her you DID just WIN BIG! She just hugged my neck and jumped up and down in total excitement! I just about had tears in my eyes for her joy!

#3. It's Thursday and I'm dead on my butt! I just wanted to stay at home and not come to work today! I'm tired and I don't feel good! My side is killing me and I know it's my spastic colon kicking it up a notch! I was in bed at 8:15pm last night! I think the stress is getting to me! The L-O-N-G days, early mornings, boxes every where!

#4. This weekend we are having a b-day party for Mr. "S" brother Shane! I'm excited! I love hosting parties! It's not going to be a BIG party! Just a few of us ~ mainly just friends and family! We are going to break the grill out! He wants cookies instead of cake! Easy! I'm going to get him a cookie cake from Great American Cookies!

#5. It was really chilly out this morning at 58 degrees by this afternoon we will be in the mid-80's!!

#6. Mr. "S" grandma is back in the hospital and it's NOT looking good! We talked to Mr. "S" mom yesterday and she said grandma is calling for grandpa and her mom and dad!!! =( Cathe - Mr. "S" mom is a total wreck! Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers!

#7. I thought we needed a new dishwasher ~ the one that came with the house wasn't cleaning very good!!! Well, as of last night if did a dang good job!!! Thank goodness!!! That will save us $300-$400 at Sears! I was actually doing some online shopping for a new dishwasher yesterday! I was fed up as of Tuesday night after I washed this ONE load THREE times!!! I finally hand washed them! Then I thought to myself last night - I will give you ONE last chance and I'm so glad that I did!!!!

#8. Do you know the #1 song when you were born? Go Visit this site and find out: http://www.joshhosler.biz/NumberOneInHistory/SelectMonth.htm

My song is: "Let Your Love Flow" by The Bellamy Brothers

Mr. "S" song is: "That's the Way (I Like It)" by K.C. & the Sunshine Band

There ya have it...just a few things! =)

HAPPY THURSDAY!!

Who doesn't love a giveaway?

Well, if you don't like giveaways you are just crazy nuts! Everyone loves a GREAT bloggy giveaway ~ I know I do and that is why I'm doing this post!

I just ran across a new blog thanks to Smile! Its Becky! ~ Well, she is a new bloggy friend too ~ thanks to the Secret Santa Soiree!!! If you haven't signed up you really really need to because I'm in it and I could be your Secret Santa! Ha! How cool is that? Okay I'm off track!!!

The blog site is Wandering DC and Megan is giving away a $25.00 gift card to Target ~ This is her first 1st giveaway!!!! So please go say hi, enter the contest and please tell her I, Me, "J", Musings From Left Field sent you because linky love is the best love of all in bloggy land!

First of all I love meeting new bloggy friend and secondly I love a bloggy giveaway! So I feel the need to pass it on to you ~ my lovely blog friends and avid readers!!! =)

Good Luck To Us!!!!

Yesterday was just Monday!

Yep, it was just Monday! First day in the work week ~ wishing it was the last ~ I'm already ready for the weekend! Yet I'm still trying to recover from this past weekend! Over all it was a good day!

I wanted to get home after work and organize the bedroom but I didn't have the energy! It just didn't happen! We did get home and get the BIG HUGE sliding glass blinds up! Our sliding glass doors aren't your standard sliding glass doors! I believe standard is 6" our sliding glass doors are 8'! We love them! It made it so easy moving our stuff in! Any ways as soon as we got home Mr. "S" started putting them up while I baked him a pizza and I heated up left-over steak from Saturday night! Um-Um-Um good! Mr. "S" isn't much of a steak eater ~ I'm happy to say it was all mine and boy was it good! I just popped it in the oven on a pie plate and heated it up with a little bit of my dad's special marinade we call it "sop"! We call it "sop" because we "sop" our meat while we grill it! It give your meat flavor and moisture! After dinner we watched "Baby Mama" thanks to Red Box for texting my FREE movie rental code yesterday ~ we both loved this movie and I can't tell you how many times I laughed out loud! It was GREAT! If you haven't seen it ~ go out and rent it!

Well, that was our Monday!

Now on to our Tuesday....
We woke up this morning to rain and lighting! Not good when you drive 65 miles (to my office and Mr. "S" is 85 miles) into work! Traffic was an absolute nightmare and we were making such good timing until we were about 15 miles from my office! Then it just shut down, dead stop, total halt! It was bad! Mr. "S" finally crossed the freeway through the grass to hit the feeder street (some of you call a feeder a frontage road or an access road)! This helped with timing I assure you!!!! Even though it's illegal! lol

Now on to gas prices....
What are the gas prices in your city?
I'm sooooooooooooooo pleased to say that gas is $2.99 at the local station by my office! We were thrilled yesterday when we filled up for $3.25! Gas was a HUGE deal breaker when we thought about moving up to the lake house! We truly didn't know if we could afford it? We drive 160 miles round trip each day (Mon - Fri) but our house is sooooooo worth it to us! Yeah, I know crazy huh? Any ways we feel soooooooooooooo blessed (Thank You God) that the gas prices have dropped tremendously this week! Especially since it's only our 2nd week to do the drive! I'm sure gas prices will go back up but it's soooooooooooo nice to know they are dropping before they do go back up!!!! I was terrified to think we could be paying $4.00 a gallon and here we are seeing it at $2.99! When "IKE" hit we were paying $3.69! We feel sooooo blessed and it seems like our move was the right decision!!!!

Happy Tuesday!!!

I want to leave you with this little funny:
THE WORLD'S SHORTEST PSYCHIATRIC JOKE
A man walks into a psychiatrist's office wearing only underwear made of Saran Wrap. The psychiatrist says, "Well, I can clearly see your nuts"

I would LOVE to WIN this BOOK!!!!

You have to go check out this GREAT giveaway going on over at Restyled Home for Author Matthew Mead's latest book, Entertaining Simple!!!!! Mathew Mead and Wiley Publishing are giving away 20 "FREE" copies!!! Yes I said "2-0" which translates into twenty!!!!

Yall know me and yall know I love to entertain! I love hosting get-togethers! I love parties! From what I've read this is the book to have! Restyled Home says, "Matthew never sends you on a wild goose chase for far-out ingredients, expensive floral arrangements, or makes you regret not having registered for Royal Albert's finest china".

Entertaining Simple can also be purchased (just in case we don't win) at bookstores across the U.S. and Canada! http://www.entertainingsimple.com/index.php?option=com_flippingbook&book_id=2&Itemid=1

To buy Entertaining Simple for you or as a "early" Christmas gift, CLICK HERE.

Entertaining Simple is out just in time for the holidays!!!

Weekend Recap

Friday was the longest I've sat up at work and waited on Mr. "S" to pick me up - I was at work till 6pm...traffic was really bad!!! That is the con! The pro is ~ I was able to catch up on 90210! I really miss watching TV!!!

After Mr. "S" picked me up we went to Home Depot and bought some queen palms to plant in our back yard! I will post pictures later!

Saturday I was able to sleep in!! That was NICE! We went and looked at storage sheds ~ I think we found the one we want!!! We went grocery shopping to stock up on basic fridge stuff we lost from "IKE" such as mustard, miracle whip, ketchup, salad dressing, pepper sauce! We also bought stuff to grill out Saturday night! Mr. "S" had a friend coming over from Ohio! He is in Houston working as a contractor for Comcast to repair cable tv lines! He almost had me convinced he could hook-up our cable to our house instead of waiting on the local company to come out! HA! Any ways back to grilling out! We had one heck of a dinner Saturday night! We grilled steak, shrimp, chicken and boudin - I also made baked potatoes with all the fixings, baked beans and crescent rolls!!!!! YUM-O! I had to show that boy what some REAL Texas cooking was like!!!!!!! =) We had a GREAT time!!!!!!! Mr. "S" and "D" cut down two trees that were damaged by "IKE" ~ so we made a HUGE bon fire!!! We sat up talking till 4am Saturday night/Sunday morning! Needless to say we didn't get much sleep! We were back up at 8:30am Sunday morning going to eat breakfast at the cafe that sits waterfront in our subdivision!!!

Yesterday we stayed busy unpacking, organizing, cleaning, installing a new bathroom door, moving the back steps around and planting our queen palms! We got a lot accomplished! I still need to work in our bedroom! My clothes, shoes and purses are still boxed up! It's horrible! I can't find anything! The bad part is ~ I don't have any storage space ~ so I don't know how I'm going to organize anything in our bedroom? I bought a "under the bed" storage container to store my purses and flip flops in! I need to test it out to see if it will fit ~ if so I will be going back to by 2 more!

Overall we had a GREAT weekend!

The best lunch ever......

Well, it wasn't food for lunch but it was on my lunch hour ~ now that I think about it ~ it's one heck of a diet plan! So it made it the BEST lunch hour EVER!!!! =) I went to the Aveda Spa on and received a FREE Express Aromatherapy Facial! Yes, FREE!!!! It was sooooooooooo wonderful!!!! This is where I get my hair cut on a regular basis! After the hurricane the owners were so kind to give away one of the following three Spa Services due to hurricane "Ike" to their regular customer!
Express Facial (Value $55)
30 Minute Massage (Value $55)
Express Pedicure (Value $50)

Let me just start off by saying it was heavenly! I had never had a facial before! I'm really weird about my face (someone touching it) and my skin tone! I have oily skin and I'm always thinking I'm going to turn into one BIG zit (I think it has to do with the weather in Texas)! I wasn't to sure about having someone put a bunch of foreign products on my face! I was worried I would walk out of there with a huge zit or at least wake up the next morning with one! Well, that wasn't the case! It was soooooooooooo fabulous! It wasn't just a facial - I got a foot soak, she massaged my neck, shoulders hands and feet - I had HUGE knots in my neck and shoulder area she worked out! She washed my face, massaged my face, put hot towels on my face, misted a aromatherapy spray over my face and applied a mud/clay mask to pull out the impurities! I'm hooked!!!! It was WONDERFUL!!! I sooooooooooooooooo needed that down time!!! This could not have came at a more PERFECT time ~ it was the PERFECT week to have a FREE facial!!!!

I would like to report I woke up this morning "zit free" which was my greatest fear from getting a facial!!!! I will now book my next appointment! They sold me!!!! My face is baby butt soft!!!! Not that my face is rough but it's just soooooooooooooo soft!!!


The weather is soooooooooooo nice out! You can tell fall is upon us! October is the BEST time of year! I love fall decorations! I love Halloween! I love dressing up for Halloween! I even noticed a few Halloween contest going on in bloggy land!
Leigh at Tales from Bloggeritaville is hosting a Bloggeritaville costume contest ~ keep checking her site for details! I also noticed Shannon at Bless Our Nest is hosting a Pumpkin Carving Contest!!! How cool is that? I just LOVE Halloween and all the festivities that comes along with it!!!! So go to Leigh's and Shannon's blog for more info!

It seems as if Leigh and Shannon have the contest for October & Halloween covered! I'm thinking I'm going to host a contest for Thanksgiving! Help me out here! I'm thinking I will give away a gift card to the best TURKEY DAY SPREAD! I know how all of us bloggers LOVE to take pictures of what we cook, eat, serve and decorate! So why not make a FUN ~ EXCITING ~ COOL contest out of it?!?!? I will NOT be the judge! I don't want my blog friends to think I'm bias! =) I will have a non blogger pick the winner! So what do you think? Will you be joining the Turkey Day Fun?

I'm sooooooooooooooooo ready for the weekend! This has been one L-O-N-G week! We have a few projects we are going to work on over the weekend (closet doors and bathroom/bedroom doors)! We are going to try and unpack everything! We are going shopping for a storage shed! We are going to the grocery store to fill up our NEW fridge - It's still empty from "IKE" (I love going to the grocery store)! We have been on the road so much (moving/packing) we have been eating nothing but junky fast food ~ last nights dinner was Taco Bell! I'm sure I've gained ever more weight! We just haven't unpacked the scales!!! I think I might just keep them boxed up! lol

I'm A Secret Santa Are You....

If your not a Secret Santa you need to join us in some bloggy Christmas fun!!! It's a little early for me to be thinking about Christmas only because I'm a HUGE procrastinator but I said what the heck! I'm going to do this! It sounds like sooooooooooo much fun! I'm all about fun and meeting new blog friends!!!

Decisionally Challenged is hosting the Secret Santa Soiree and if you want to be a part of this fun and exciting swap you have until October 18th to sign up!!!

This Secret Santa Swap takes me back to last year (around Christmas time)!!! It's one of the main reason's I started my blog!!! I would always read my BFF's blog ~ Giants Fan just to keep up with her day to day family life!!! I had no real idea what a blog was or how to use it?!?!? I was all about my myspace page at that time!!! Well, once I realized the network, friendships, camaraderie and compassion you all have in bloggy land I was hooked ~ it was like a huge internet family of GREAT ladies (at least the ones that I have ran across are GREAT)! Giants Fan warned me how easily I would be hooked!!!! Okay let me rewind - I got off track as I usually do - one of the many reason's I started this blog was the Christmas Ornament Swap that Julie hosted last year! Giants Fan blogged about Julie's swap and I asked to see if I could join in on the fun! Julie was great she let me join without a blog! Well, Giant's fan, Marmite & Tea and Julie encouraged me to sign up for a blog so here I am today!!! Almost one year later!!! All because of the swap!!!

Get on over to Decisionally Challenged and join the Secret Santa fun!!!!

Tired......

Exhausted...
Worn-Out...
Tired...
Drained...
Fatigued...
Beat...
Pooped...
Sleepy...
Lethargic...
Sluggish...
Weary...
Depleted...
Useless...
I could go on and on and on but I won't!

Yesterday we took our last two loads of stuff (junk) out of the apartment! We cleaned the place top to bottom in hopes Mr. "S" will get his deposit back! At this point we are so tired it's hard to function! For real! I mean it! If you only knew all the stuff we moved! There are STILL boxes piled alllllllllllllllll over the house - we just keep making trails between them from room to room! After last night I told Mr. "S" I don't want to pack or unpack another box the rest of the week! I think I might leave it as a weekend project! I can't bare the thought of dealing with another freaking box ~ full or empty!!! We will have one heck of a bon fire once we get all the boxes unpacked! =)

I was so tired on the drive in this morning to work that I slept the whole way(I got an extra hour of sleep out of the drive)! Thank goodness Mr. "S" is the morning driver! I would have never made it this morning! When I got to work (an hour early) I sat at my desk and watched 90210! I haven't really watched tv since "IKE" so I'm so behind on my shows (we don't have cable or Internet at the lake house ~ we are waiting for the local company to do a site survey for new construction )! In the afternoons when I'm waiting on Mr. "S" to pick me up I will catch up on my blogging because I sure do miss yall!

Other than that things are going great! It's such a GREAT feeling to know we live in a house that we will soon own! It makes everything we've worked for soooooooooo worth it!!!

We still have a lot of touch-up work to do around the house but we will do that as we get the time!

Our list consist of:
Painting the guest bedroom (walls and ceiling)
Finishing the window/door trim and crown molding
We need finish the flooring in the kitchen (where the fridge will be)
Hook up the ice maker and water
Install doors for the bedrooms, bath and laundry room
Paint the doors
Hang blinds in the kitchen and guest bedroom
Touch-Up paint throughout the house
Hang the blinds for the 8' sliding glass door
I'm sure I'm leaving things off.......
Even though we are living in the house we still have a ton of work to do!

Please know that I'm missing you all! I'm hoping our life will be back to normal (very soon) so that we can adjust to our new schedule!

Well, We Did "IT"!

We moved this past weekend! The lake house is now our home! I took off work Friday to pack up the apartment (which was soooooooooooooooo boring)! I was soooooooooooooo happy to run out of boxes Friday afternoon!! =)

Even though I was off work to pack I managed to have a WONDERFUL lunch (Sushi - YUM) with two of my best buds Danielle and Cassy!!!

Friday night we went to the Braves vs Astros game thanks to one of my vendors at work!!! We had a GREAT time even though the Braves lost! =( My brother and Danielle went as well but they had different seats than us. I didn't really take pictures during the game but I took a few pictures after the game of the Friday night fireworks! Here are a few firework pictures that I thought turned out pretty cool!













Here is the ONE picture I took at the game! Brian McCann's (Atlanta Braves Catcher) butt! =)

Here is a picture we took inside Minute Maid Park Power Zone (acting like DORKS):

We took these pictures in the parking lot waiting for my brother and Danielle:

I wished I would have taken pictures of our move! Yall would have laughed! First vehicle in line was my brother's truck with a trailer (all loaded down) then me in my Durango (loaded down ~ I couldn't even see out the back window), then Mr. "S" with his truck (it was loaded down with our NEW fridge and a ton of boxes) and last in line was my aunt with her BIG Lincoln Town Car (loaded down front and back seat as well as the trunk)!!!! It was funny!!! We were like this l-o-n-g crazy driving convoy!!!! We didn't get everything moved like I was hoping! I still need to go back to the apartment today and pack more stuff and clean! UGH! I'm only working half a day so I'm hoping I will get done so I can turn our keys in tomorrow on my lunch hour!!!


This is a picture of our new fridge! It's not in the kitchen yet! We still need to get the water line to hook up the ice maker and water!

Close up of the fridge! I'm not crazy about side-by-sides but I'm so excited to have a ice maker and water dispenser! I go through bottled water like crazy! See the pretty flowers on top of the fridge ~ Danielle got those for us! =)

This is looking into the living room from the sliding glass doors! Stuff is just piled every where! I can't wait till everything is organized! It's such a mess! I just wanted yall to see the inside of the house with some furniture!