dear beach, be there soon...xoxo

Tomorrow evening the hubby and I are leaving for Florida.  I cannot wait!  On Monday, some of his family will join us, but he was so thoughtful to book us an extra two days for some "us" time!  I look forward to walking on the beach with him, having delicious dinners, & finding those great cover bands we always seem to find!  We haven't stopped thinking about it all week.  What I wish I could stop thinking about are the MOUNDS of laundry that quietly await my attention at home!  It seems as though everything we want to take just happens to be in the dirty clothes.

I always enjoy dinners at the beach at this place....

Ahh, Captain Anderson's.  Not only have I always loved the food, but this wonderful restaurant is special to me now because this is where we went to dinner to celebrate after Male Hale popped the question on the beach almost 2 years ago!  I cannot believe that in less than 2 months we will be celebrating our first wedding anniversary!  AND...we will be spending our anniversary in.....

I have been to Vegas twice and had an incredible time during both visits.  He has never been before and I cannot wait to see his reaction and his mind going in 49382489 different directions about where we should go and what we should do!



Well, guess I should start making my list of what to pack for the beach!  I hope we don't run into any problems with the oil situation...but as always, I'll be sure to document everything with pictures :)

Happy Thursday!

girl, you're starting to grind my gears

Love that phrase!  Plus I found my gears grinding more than once today.  Here's what set them in motion.....

• Went to Target on my lunch break...bought some bandeau bathing suit tops....only to find that everyone had swiped the mini strap that comes with it from ALL the green tops (which of course was one of the two I had selected).

• I wake up everyday and look in the mirror and realize I have black eyebrows and blonde hair.  I pretty much came out of the womb with these full, dark brows...and I'll admit I color my hair to be brighter blonde than it naturally is....but when someone asks me, "have you ever considered dying your eyebrows?" I have to think good thoughts and take a deep breath.  Have people ever seen what happens sometimes when you try to dye jet black hair to blonde?  Your result is orange.  Please accept me for the crazy way I am, xoxo.

• Just witnessed Alex Trebek be a complete jerk to someone who got an answer wrong by saying, "and that puts you even more in the negative..."  As if the contestant didn't know?!  They probably already felt bad enough for getting the answer wrong in the first place.  Please refrain from sprinkling salt in wounds Alex. 

Bouncing to another random topic, after contemplating the "which 3 people would you want to have dinner with" question, I do believe I have reached my answer.

Betty White
Cesar Milan (for the non dog-enthusiasts...The Dog Whisperer)
Jack Nicholson

I'd close the place down with those 3.  Who are yours??

what I gotta have & Boston

I've started noticing how much I love the little things in life....and I would be so unhappy and disappointed if the following didn't exist....

chips & salsa

diet dr. pepper

hulu.com - how else would I catch up on shows?!

my book club

forever21.com  (recently I visited a Forever21 in Massachusetts that had TEN rooms full of clothes!)

$5 bang bang shrimp nights @ Bonefish

coupons


This past weekend I went to Boston to celebrate my friend Jacqueline's bachelorette weekend!  I cannot wait for her to marry Eric...it's going to be an over the top wedding and they are 2 amazing, good-hearted people.  Here's a few pics...

When I found out we had a party bus to transport us from place to place, I was pretty pumped.  I must say, I think we had more fun on that thing as opposed to any of the time we spent in the bars.  The weather felt wonderful!  It was such a nice change from the 90 degree HUMID heat here in the South.  I look forward to a weekend getaway to Massachusetts for their wedding with my hubby!  I will say I felt like somewhat of a language freak when I kept hearing "oh my gah, say that again, I want to hear you say that again!" :)

needless to say when I parted from these gals, I told them "see YA'LL again real soon!!!!"

BP is serious BS

Everyone knows I am a HUGE animal lover, but I am absolutely terrified of birds.  I don't care for them...at all.  But when I watched this video this morning, I couldn't believe my eyes.

Seems to me like those photographers and videographers would have an ounce of compassion in them and put down their damn cameras and do something to try to help when a creature is laying there with its limbs practically stuck together like glue while trying to escape the waves crashing over it.  UGH!

We have a trip planned to Panama City later this month and it seems that the more coverage we watch of the oil spill, the more and more we think we're going to have to call for a refund and issue a detour :(  I am totally astounded and sickened by the results of this catastrophe.  I can't watch anything without hearing about people losing their jobs as fishermen who just happen to be the sole provider for their families.  It seems at some point throughout every day I watch gloved hands pick up globs of oil that have collected and I try not to envision what the ultimate outcome of this will be.


I sure hope Tony Hayward has some trouble sleeping tonight, tomorrow night, and the next...and the next.....

Where oh where has my spare time gone?

Oh where oh where could it be?!

Probably spent....

or...

or getting the energy out of....

**************************

I have become quite involved in the coupon scene.  I watch weekly ads as if they are a company I have stock in!  But with coupons and scoping out all the grocery ads...I did save $46 at Publix last week!  I made sure to stock up on things I can bring for lunch.  My goal this month is to bring my lunch to work everyday and see how much it saves me.  I can be the world's worst about just not putting anything together in the mornings and thinking "oh, I'll just run out and grab something".  Well with doing that I have learned that the days of $4 and $5 lunches are over my friend! And after a week of buying lunch, I realize I could have put a tank of gas in my car for what I've spent on food.

I am cleaning machine these days...but no matter how much this machine runs, there's STILL always something.  Dust falls again as soon as I turn my back...dishes are filling up the dishwasher the second after I unload it....the hamper has a mind of its own and has decided to be bottomless....and my vacuum gets more action than a newlywed couple!  I love the feeling of sitting in a clean house, but lately that feeling usually only lasts for a day or two.

Jasper seems to be getting bigger and bigger by the day.  I promise there are times when I wake up and think, "he is bigger than he was when he went to bed".  I am so glad the rain has tapered off.  Not only does it suck taking a dog with huge paws that always seems to find puddles to potty in the rain, but he starts getting cabin fever and doesn't understand why he's not out at the dog park or running laps in the yard.  Those are the days you just have to keep your fingers crossed when you leave him at home because sometimes boredom and curiosity get the best of him and you never know what he might decide to start playing with!

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend and a happy, happy Mother's Day!!

Today's Top Story

Well I wish I had one!  I haven't blogged in forever...I've been consumed with each day's routine.  I find myself wanting to just go home and do absolutely nothing after work & hope that we don't have any existing plans....and then there are days I hope that there will be something to look forward to when I push aside all the files on my desk and walk out of this dreary courthouse.

My friends Liz and Katie made a confessions post that inspired me to get real with myself.  You never know if putting something out there, will in turn, bring you help or bring you just what you've been looking for.

*I hardly ever, ever, ever like what I see in the mirror.  It's more than annoying when people say you're just doing it for attention or fishing for compliments because they have no idea how much your own disapproval of yourself can really break you down.

*I often regret how I chose to live my college experience.  I spent my freshman year at a university away from home and wish I had actually enjoyed it and could have lived the typical college lifestyle.  I came back to my hometown's university and could have become involved in a sorority or lived on campus or become more involved somehow, but chose to live at home and work 2 jobs.

*I look back on how horribly I treated some people in my past and it makes me sick to my stomach.  I was such a selfish person at times.  All signs point towards I am, in fact, the reason they did not make it into my future...and I wonder what life would have been like if they did.

*I am a firm believer that girls who grow up without a father figure truly suffer in more ways than one.  I have let guys walk all over me, I have been needy, I have wanted so badly to feel needed, and at times thought a guy was capable of filling any void or fixing the wrongs in my life.  Oddly enough, I was always the one to end relationships.  I constantly stop and thank God for giving me a husband that loves me on my good days, on my bad days, at my high points, & at my low points.

*I think I'm at the point in my life that it's just like the Sugarland song says, "there's gotta be somethin' more, gotta be more than this..." I want to find what it is in life that makes me want to get up each day and go out and make a difference.  I am burnt out.  I want to find out what I am passionate about....and when I find out what that passion is, I want to turn it into a career.


"It's my life, so it's mine to make." - Sugarland

Haven't Met You Yet...but I finally saw you!!

Love that song of Michael Bublé's!  And the time finally came this past weekend for us to hear it LIVE!  And yes, he is just as charming as you would think he would be and oozes dreaminess whether he's singing or simply talking.  His voice in concert sounds exactly as if you popped in a CD and listened to it.  He cracked jokes and talked about his life and even the hubby said, "this isn't so bad after all." :)

I love his style of music and his musicians were absolutely amazing!  I think I have almost convinced myself that I want to learn how to play the saxophone!  I know how to play the drums and the clarinet, but their sound is nothing like what can come from that instrument!

We had a wonderful getaway, even if it was just for one night.  We stumbled upon a great mexican restaurant before the concert and met up with male Hale's cousin and her friend who had MB's tunes going on our way to the concert and made us laugh the entire time :)  We went out afterwards and went back to our hotel room with a KING size bed.  Now this may not be a big deal to some couples, but for a couple, such as ourselves, that crawl into a full size bed every night, it's a huge deal!  But hey, I guess I look at it as, I never ever get cold at night! :)  

We went out and about around Atlanta the next day and had a wonderful lunch at a restaurant called Twist.  They are known for their martinis and sushi and raw bar.  My crunchy shrimp roll was the absolute best I had ever, ever tasted....and my Peartini....so good I would have slapped my momma!!
We sat and talked for quite awhile after we were finished and it was so enjoyable to be off work and enjoying each other's company.  Love that guy of mine!

Hope everyone is sporting their green today and enjoys the day!  I got some of these pics in an email and they made me smile, so thought I'd share!