Goodies from the Blog Swap!

A special thanks to Sandy and Ilene for hosting this swap!  It was a lot of fun and I'll definitely participate in another swap if presented the opportunity!

As I've mentioned, Gena @ Small Burst was my swap partner.  You should check her out, her blog is fun to read and she was some beautiful things on there!  I was so excited when my package arrived!  I quickly ran upstairs to open it....

It was so pretty!  I wish I had a knack for presenting presents like that!

After opening up, I found...

Finger-less gloves!  Perfect for my iPhone holding hands, plus super cute!

and...

Things for baking!  I can't wait to find a new recipe to try!  With a cover like that, doesn't it make you want to dive right in?  Oh, and did you see the measuring cups?!  How cute are they?!

Thanks so much, Gena!  I loved the goodies :)  It's so fun to become more personal with other bloggy-friends out there!!

BREAKING NEWS!

Florida fans, all around the country are a little sad this afternoon following the resignation of their wonderful head coach Urban Meyer.

Let's take a walk down memory lane...

Thank you...

....for 2 National Championships!

...3 trips to the SEC Championship game, with 2 wins...

...for showing the world how a coach should treat his players...

...and for being an example of Sportsmanship and a class act.

Whether you love the Gators, or hate them, you cannot take away the class and talent this man possesses.  Thanks for 6 great years Urban.  You will be missed :(

Baby, it's COLD outside...

There was ICE on my car this morning.  

The picture didn't do it justice.  For us little thin-blooded Floridians, it's COLD!  Especially when you just don't have the correct attire in your closet to wear to work when the weather is cooler than like, 60*F.  I know, I know, those of you up north are laughing at us wimps, but you can't handle our heat!  :)  Thanks to my lovely swap partner, Gena @ Small Burst, I had such cute gloves to wear!  They came just in time for our cold snap!  I'll be posting on that this evening, I haven't loaded the pictures yet.  I'm so excited to share!  

In other news, I still haven't gotten to decorating the Christmas tree :(  I did manage to get the lights on last night, but I'm finishing it tonight! No exceptions!  The first few weeks of December are busy for us every year.  We have a lot of dinners to go to and I just haven't had time to do the tree.  It will get done though!  I did find out that our tree doesn't have a "good side".  Hopefully the ornaments can smooth that out a bit!


Story-time:
So last night, we took some of our clients to a nice steakhouse, with a private room.  For a private room, you have a minimum at most places so it is worth their while to reserve this room for you and your guest, which is totally understandable.  They are a business.  You sign a contract and commit to this.  Well, we had a few people cancel, so we knew we weren't going to meet this.  The server comes in, and starts taking our drink orders.  A couple people order water, and he actually says: "You know to have this room, you have a $___ minimum, so you might as well get what you want because you're paying for it whether you consume $____ amount of food and drink or not".  My jaw drops.  I start fuming.  You actually just said this in front of our guests?!  This is a very well known steakhouse.  You're not known for your inexpensive fare.  And you have a server that actually talks like that to your guests...and when your staff knows that these are our clients...our guests for dinner?  Way to make those we were trying to treat feel uncomfortable.  The manager of sales came in to check on everything a few minutes later and we had a little chat about my disappointment in this presentation, and how tacky it was.  We have another dinner already under contract next week at this same place, and I'm not looking forward to it.  That guy shouldn't have a job there, in my humble opinion.  He was pushing food items on our guests all night, which was just awkward.  His "helper" staff was amazing.  Too bad he gave the place a bad wrap.  I will not be going back next year, after booking a few dinners a year there for the past 5 years.  Thankfully, we had awesome clients with us last night, that just let it roll off.  Unbelievable...
The End.


Hope you have a happy Wednesday!!  We're getting closer to Friday!  Plus...17 Days to Christmas!!!

The start of a new week!

There are exactly 19 days until Christmas! 

In case anyone is wondering...:)

I thought I'd start today off with a few faces of Lily.  It always makes me happy, and today, since it is Monday and those tend to be a little rough, I thought I'd share a few.

 Last night, Lily begging...not that great of a shot, but it shows her little tongue she gives you that makes her irresistible

  

 Begging Lily...she's got this down if you can't tell

This was Lily this morning.  It was 41*F on my way to work which is wayyyy too cold for these Florida girls. Lily had an arm wrapped around each side of my waist using my stomach as a pillow.  I thought she was too cute :)

Hope everyone had a good weekend.  This one was a little more easy going than the past month has been.  Friday we had my company's Christmas party, it was at one of my favorite steak places, but I took it easy.  We have 5 more "fancy dinners" to hit up by next Tuesday, so no need to overindulge. I'll be sick of eating anything by then.  Ha!

Saturday, I got to sleep in!  What?!  I didn't think I'd see the day when that would happen again.  Of course, it was only until 8-ish, but for me, that's happy.  I got out of bed almost an hour later (woo!) and did my last Insanity workout of the week. (Check out my new Insanity page on the top tabs.  I'm tracking it day by day as best possible.)  Then, John and I went to his parents' house to help with their bathroom renovation.  

Sunday, was wonderful.  Another morning of sleeping in...woo!  Got started about 9 with my day and cleaned, cleaned, cleaned, and organized.  The house is finally back in order (almost) from the tiling project AND we got our Christmas Tree!!!  Decorating commences tonight...after workouts.  I'm so excited!!!

Happy Monday!

Five Question Friday

1. What's on the top of your holiday wish list and why?!

The top? Hm…well, I have

OR

for wedding shoes

or

for fun!

Oh and I would like to take the Harley Motorcycle class & a cake decorating class at Michaels. And Decisions Points by George Bush…I wanna check it out.

2. What is your favorite Christmas gift from the past?

John gave me pretty earring last year that he drew a design for…so probably those. He’s awesome at picking out jewelry and he always draws the designs for me and has them made. He’s also done it with a cross necklace and some Gator earrings! Gotta say, I'm pretty darn lucky!

3. If you had life to do over, what would you be when you grow up?

I would probably be something dealing with sports. Maybe a reporter or a trainer of some sort. Then, I’d get to use that awesome knowledge on myself. I’d probably like to not sit in an office every day. Not that I don’t usually enjoy my job. Just sayin…

4. When do you put up your tree?

The first time John & I did a tree was last year at his house…after begging (shamelessly of course J) It was a couple weeks after Thanksgiving, but we didn’t take it down under the middle of January. Hey, in my defense, it was still green and didn’t quite draw blood with the poking yet. Our first tree:

As you can see we ran out of blue lights 1/2 way down, but hey, it's a work in progress! We'll be better this year and

I’m hoping to get it up this weekend this year. We have a Christmas party at the house next weekend and it’d kind of suck without the tree. (Plus, I’m sure I’d have a couple ladies getting after me J)

5. What is your favorite Holiday?

Christmas! Christmas involves lots of yummy food and time with those I love. And really, the way my life seems to work, we stretch the celebration over the whole month of December! For John and I, it starts tonight with my company Christmas Party @ Texas de Brazil. Yay meat!

Plus, when else could you get away with eating this one time a year treat:

One of my favorite junk items at Christmas...Reese's Double Decker Fudge. You can find the recipe here. My mom and I make it every year. You should try it, I promise it's worth the work and calories to just get a small taste of this delectable goodness!

or these:

or even, these:

Thankful Thursdays

I'm thankful it's almost time for:

and even though the experts say Jesus wasn't born in December, I'm still thankful He came and we get to celebrate!

3 months, 3 weeks & 3 days!!

PLUS!  The sending of the 

started this week!

My partner is Gena @ Small Burst!  Go check her out!

Dress Drama=OVER!

So yesterday, I went up to take care of my little dress issue.  Everything worked out fine!!  Once she took the dress out of the hanging bag and actually put it up against the dress I tried on originally, versus bright white and ivory in the same fabric, and it was definitely the same, correct diamond white color.  I wish we would have done this originally, but the way the sales lady was acting, I just had assumed the worst.  And then, this little snafu never would have happened ...

After we did in fact, confirm the dress color, I was then put in the dressing room. alone. with the dress.  I still was feeling a little resentment after the whole ivory situation (it's stupid, I know) and stared down the dress for a little while in the dressing room, trying to get over it.  After the dress and I came to terms, I tried it on.  It was a perfect fit!  Since it ties in the back, the seamstress said that the only alterations I would probably need was the bustle.  Woo! & the whole money thing...worked out :)

Thanks for all your encouraging comments yesterday!  I am usually not one to freak out or be dramatic but I was feeling pretty bummed about the whole thing.  I think it's that anything I'm wearing (and that is literally from head to toe and anything in between, anywhere!) John wants to know nothing about...until he sees me.  It's sweet....so I definitely want it to be perfect!  Talk about pressure!! ;-)

We've made it 1/2 way through the week!  Yay!  I have dinner tonight with some of my favorites :)  Should be a good day!