Thankful Thursdays

I am participating in my first swap!  I'm excited!  I'm still pretty new to the blogging world, but I love the new bloggy-friends I've made so far!  So...I've decided to participate in



I'm really excited!  Thanks Sandy!

Now...on to Thankful Thursdays!

I am THANKFUL that...

...is only 16 days away!

...Thanksgiving is only 3 weeks from today...and that I can agree with this picture above!

...fall is here and we have a cold front blowing through today!

...this will be on TV soon!

...for John and all his love!

...for the Lil' and her crazy self!

...for awesome and forever friendships...

AND...

My family!

Oh yea...and pumpkin cookies :)

Wednesday's Ramblings...

It's over!  The horrible, attacking ads will now stop interrupting my regularly scheduled programing!  The ballots have been counted...well, all except for the Florida governor's race, and the people have spoken.  I love election day.  I'm a political science major, so I get into it.  I'm pretty pleased with how everything went down, especially locally...minus one tax increase...my poor property tax...

 

WAS DENIED!  The construction industry in Florida is safe from any more harm...for the time being...yay!

Last night, John and I painted the master bedroom.  It was this color before...minus my beautiful artwork...

Afterwards...while watching the election results until midnight...ha!

It's like a green/grey color.  Definitely made a huge difference in the room.  Only the rest of the house to go now...ugh...

Christmas is only 52 days away!  Ahh! and Yay!  (My favorite Christmas movie above!)

Not sure if anyone watches

but the end of the episode last week was horrible.  I really like Charlotte...who was that horribly, crazy dude that attacked her?!

It's Wednesday!  I'm off to lunch with Ashley!  Packet pickup for our race Saturday...and maybe new shoes!

Weekend Pictures

My friend Melissa from high school

Getting ready for the game to start

My love & I

Cornhole...John & I had quite a winner streak going :)

Lots of people

Naptime?  Actually not...for once ;-)

The trash pile...

...be proud you lazy fans...

AND...

Another thing knocked off my 101 in 1001!  Make Gator Cupcakes!

Weekend Recap

Hi my bloggy friends!  It's once again Monday, which means the lovely weekend has come to an end.  What a weekend it was.  John & I drove up to Jacksonville for the weekend to spend time with some friends and tailgate.  We went with the Jacksonville Beach Gator Club on buses from the beaches to downtown and had a l-o-n-g day of tailgating.  We got there at 9am, we left at 9pm.  It was fun, but man, we were we exhausted!  So was Lily after a fun weekend playing with Cady.  Here's Lily this morning at the office, relaxing on her lion...man can I related...

The Gators looked like a football team...with an offense and everything!  They even let Brantley THROW the ball!  Not that they played super stellar, but it's a vast improvement from the Mississippi State game!  Yay!  I will have pictures later to post, I just haven't gotten around to putting them on the computer since we got home late last night.  We would have been home at 7, but poor John forgot his laptop, so an hour in to the drive, we had to turn around and head back to get it.  But thankfully we got it and he is now able to be productive at work today :)

Anyway...back to Game Day...

So we decided to walk around for a while and check out the sites.  It is, after all, called the world's largest cocktail party, so there are always sites to see.  Florida-Georgia has been my favorite rivalry as long as I can remember, until this past weekend. The Georgia fans we were around were rude, crude, and horrible.  Wait until I post pictures, they had trash up to my shins that they just left at their tailgate site.  I have never been talked to the way the Georgia fans were screaming obscenities as we walked by them.  Rivalries are supposed to be fun...not ugly.  We are the SEC.  That should bring us pride in having exciting games to watch and a great history within the teams.  Instead, some ignorant fans ruined my taste for the Bulldogs.  I know not all their fans are like that, and I'm sure there are those Florida fans out there, but how ignorant.  Grr.  The worst were the "ladies".  They were all dressed up so cute, then they opened their ugly, vulgar mouth, and they were only a lady by appearance.  It was seriously ridiculous.  You take a back seat now Georgia...good riddance!  I'm glad we won though!  We needed it after three losses in a row!

I will do my best to download those pictures and have them up by this evening...if not tomorrow!  The next few weeks bring lots of fun and I can't wait!  Tonight, John and I will be watching:

Hope it's worth the wait.  John has been dying to see it.

Happy Monday!

Wedding Wednesday

Can I say, it is a relief to see my wedding day ticker and see 4 months on it.  Nevermind the 3 weeks and 6 days that follow.  It says 4 short months!  And today is more about cakes!  Then I'm done with them, I promise!  We found three flavors we like a lot.  So, three flavors we will choose!

Here are the little beauties of yummy deliciousness...and Lily, waiting for her share...

John's serving it up!

Cake!  I think the heart plate is perfect for wedding cake tasting :)

We are picking chocolate peanut butter, cookies & cream, and lemon!  I honestly think I liked the lemon best which is quite unexpected to me.  I'm not huge on chocolate, but the combinations with it are awesome!

Friday, I am going to meet up with our caterer and finalize everything.  I'm excited and ready for this planning to be complete!  Just a few more steps...

All this cake is making me hungry...is it lunchtime yet?!

Ramblings...

First and foremost...

TODAY IS FIVE MONTHS UNTIL OUR WEDDING!!!  

I'm so excited!  It feels like this time if creeping by...almost, but I know it's just because I can't wait!!!

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Lunchtime favorites...
So, recently, I've decided to limit my eating out, especially during lunchtime.  I've been looking for different alternatives, so I thought I'd share some quick, easy, and tasty (and usually healthy) lunch ideas I've found.  I just add a piece of fruit, some carrots and one of these:

Most I have found are between 200-400 calories per serving.  All you do is follow the microwave directions and eat.  Can't get much easier than that at the office.  They cost $1.95 at Publix and they taste pretty good.  I wouldn't say they are quite as good a home cooked or anything, but they are a lot better than I expected.  Just watch out for the sodium counts in those things...sometimes they can get a little high.  There are TONS of variety with these.  I've had my best luck with the pasta and red sauce meals so far.

If you're a fan of soup, these little gems are pretty good.  I haven't tried the soup in the picture, but the Mexican-Style Chicken Tortilla and the Southwest Style Vegetarian are pretty yummy.  Best of all, they are low in calories and easy to prepare.  Plus, it's the perfect time of year for soup.

I love these little guys.  Sometimes, you just feel like Mac & Cheese.  Just add water and heat.  They have 220 calories and are around $4.00 for a 4 pack.  They also have ones with broccoli added if you're feeling feisty.  

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Lastly...

When I was buying some of the above at the grocery store yesterday, there was this woman in the store that made my blood boil.  She was checking out with her husband and three daughters in tow.  The oldest had to be maybe 7.  She was helping her mom by putting bananas on the conveyor belt.  Not sure what happened prior to this, but she yelled "STOP IT RIGHT NOW!  I CAN'T STAAAANNNNNDDDD THIS ANYMORE!" to her daughter...like a violent, hateful, ugh, I can't even believe she'd ever yell at anyone, much less a child like that...it was that bad.  In fact, it was so loud and scary sounding, that managers were running from all over the store to the front to see what was going on.  Pathetic.  I felt so sorry for those little girls.  I understand at times it must be frustrating to be a parent.  Much more frustrating, than my non child-having self can imagine, but when does it seem right to yell like that at anyone...especially a child?  And for the father to allow this and for this display to go on in a public place is unimaginable to me.  What happens at home?  From her outburst, it leads me to believe she can't control her temper...at. all.

When I was checking out, I asked the cashier what had happened, and she explained to me exactly what I saw.  She had no idea where it came from. Usually I'm the one saying that kids don't have enough discipline in their lives anymore, but that is definitely not the right way to instill this into children.

Would you have said something?  Or done anything?  What can be done to people like that?  You can't treat a child like that.  They're going to grow up treating others the same way, or scared and scarred.  WTF?!

Weekend Recap

Friday, I happily picked up our yummy cakes.  More on that Wednesday!  While eating dinner and cake, I watched

while John worked a little.  He thought it was a horrible movie, but I liked it.  It was the first time I'd seen it, but it had been on our Netflix list for a while, which kept getting pushed down.  I put it at the top last week after I had finalized our NYC plans...just because :)

Saturday morning, we got up and ran 5 miles + the Harvest Hustle 5K which took us to 8.13 miles.  It was a pretty early morning. We got done running, met one of my friends and her hubby for breakfast and then headed home.  I wanted to squeeze in a nap before my awards program that night, but it was a failed attempt.  I blame Lily.  Before I knew it, it was time to get ready for the awards ceremony.  I can now cross off two things from my 101 in 1001 after this evening!  

I found a pair of heels I LOVE to wear

And...

Practice curling my hair and actually did it myself for an event!  I ended up actually pulling it up in a ponytail and putting a flower in it one of the ladies had made for all the presenting ladies, and it turned out pretty cute.  No pictures though, it was a little busy!

After the awards ceremony, we were exhausted but had one more stop to make on our way home...our friend Marc's birthday party! which was a good time.  It's always fun with our group :-)

Sunday, we took the boat out.  It was a nice day.  We had bagels on the boat, cruised around looking for houses that might be for sale...that we can afford...canal lot at least...pleaseeeee!!  The boys did a little wake boarding/surfing, and pizza from Mama Mia's!  It was a great day!  Plus, my love is happy since he's been dying to go out on the lake lately.

Busy and fun weekend!  Back to the work week now!  Happy Monday my bloggy friends, hope it's a good one for you!