Hag-A-Licious

Today I dressed up for work. Check me out. I was an old hag. I know what you're thinking... Jay's a lucky man.

JH came by my house this morning. She was Sandy from Grease. How cute is she???

This is Michelle from work (my lunch buddy). She was a punk rocker. We were the only 2 who dressed up.

And because I love you, I want to leave you with this - pure Hagaliciousness! Happy Halloween!

Lovin' the Night Life

You know what makes for a great night?

My Hubs...

My Yankees in the World Series...

And some yummy food...

The Best of Intentions

Hmmm... Today didn't quite go as I intended. For instance, I intended to get up at 5 and go to the gym before work. Didn't happen. I did NOT intend to get a snack when I went to the gas station. Did happen. I intended to drink a lot of water today. Didn't happen. I did NOT intend to watch TV all night. Did happen.

Too often I have days like this and get upset with myself. But right now, at this moment, I'm going to think on the bright side and tell you about some things that I didn't intend to happen today. They did happen and I couldn't be happier.

• I didn't intend to see the cutest picture of my youngest nephew on Sister's blog, but I did.
• I didn't intend to enjoy the most wonderful weather today, but I did.
• I didn't intend to laugh a bunch today, but I did.
• I didn't intend to fall even more in love with my husband today, but I did.

Did anything great happen to you today that wasn't on your agenda?

Holiday Swap

How fun is a Holiday Swap???? A Girl and Her Blog is hosting one this year! After signing up, she'll pair each person with a partner and you'll send them a $10-$15 gift. You're supposed to send them something that fits their "bloggy personality". I can't imagine what someone would pickout for me based on my blog posts. Oh dear...

Advice

Just an FYI. If you're making a Chicken-&-Rice casserole and say, go to Wal-Mart to buy the ingredients - one of which is Cream of Celery - and they have those can dispenser things - make sure the dispenser for Cream of Celery actually has Cream of Celery in it and not say, Chicken Noodle soup. (Wow, that was a long run-on.) I'm definitely not saying that I opened the can and ALMOST poured in the Chicken Noodle, because that would be crazy to think that I didn't look at the can before buying/opening it. But in case your interested, Chicken & Rice casserole tastes just as good with 2 cans of Cream of Chicken instead of 1 Cream of Chicken and 1 Cream of Celery. I'm just saying...

Did you miss me?

Sorry I've been MIA for the past few days. It's been a crazy week. I went on a field trip with Mama Hen & her kiddos Tuesday and somehow throughout the day ended up losing my voice. That night my throat started hurting and by the time I woke up Wednesday, it was really killing me. I felt horrible.

I made an appointment & went to the doc. Ya'll, my doctor has the personality of a .... OK, I couldn't think of anything because she really has zero personality. Every time I go, I explain my symptoms, she says, "Um hum", takes a gallon of blood, whips out her prescription pad with lightning speed, writes something illegible and sends me on my way. When I leave and get in my car, I always find myself wondering, "What just happened in there?"

Her diagnosis: a virus. I didn't even ask her to be more specific because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have gotten anything more specific. I got my prescription filled and slept the rest of the afternoon. (By the way, when I read the paperwork later, the prescription was for sinus relief - what? huh?) I guess I did have some sort of virus because I ended up puking my guts up Wednesday night and felt a ton better after that. Since then, I've just felt kind of week and still haven't recovered my voice fully.

In other news, Winter has come to town! I'm not usually one to like cold weather but I have to admit, it made me feel a little giddy today. I got to wear a cute scarf when I was out & about and I was loving it! Tonight I'm all snuggled in watching my beloved Yankees play their 2nd ALCS game. BTW, they won last night!!!

Here are a few things I love about winter:

Chili - oh my, we might have to have this tomorrow night!

Caramel Apple Spice from Starbucks....

(Photo from the Starbucks website)

And don't forget hot chocolate, cozy fires, sweaters... hmmm, maybe I like winter more than I thought!

Girls Just Want to Have Fun

Graci, Hope, Caroline & Olivia spent-the-night here Friday night. Yes, I know what you're thinking. Even their parents thought I was crazy.

Here's the girls making edible Halloween necklaces. They were so cute. They also made a Fall project and a Halloween project but I didn't get pictures of that. I was too busy making sure my table didn't get destroyed.

We also make pumpkin-shaped cupcakes. A couple of them thought it was hilarious to "ice" their face.

I'm pretty sure this isn't generally accepted behavior, but I let them go crazy climbing on the cat tree. It wasn't without incident. Caroline fell from the third tier and hit the TV trays on the way down. It was a pretty traumatic 3 minutes, but I swiftly took action and whipped an ice packet out of the freezer, applied to foot and saved the night.

The girls slept on a big pallet in the living room. Scratch that - they started out on a big pallet in the living room. Three ended up on the couch and one ended up in a chair. There were multiple combinations throughout the night. I told them they could stay up as late as they wanted to as long as they were quiet. You win major cool points when you do that and lets face it, 99% of the time, they don't make it past 10.

I really couldn't have asked for them to be any better. They were precious. We got up Saturday morning and sent Jay to Chick-Fil-A to get us breakfast. Then, they had one last thing they wanted to do before their parents picked them up at 10. They wanted to make "I love you" signs for Jay.

Are you kidding me??? Jay went to a football game Friday night and didn't even get home till after 10. I'm pretty sure I didn't see him anywhere while we were making projects and cooking cupcakes and playing and taking pictures. Is that a woman's fate in life? She does all the work and the man gets the "I love you" signs??? Here they are making their signs.

Except for Hope. This chick marches to her own drum. She informed the other girls that she wasn't making a sign. She just didn't feel like it.

And I'm pretty sure I'll never be the same - in a good way!

Yankee Pride

I cannot let this day go by without mentioning how PROUD I am of my beloved New York Yankees for #1 - being the American League East Champions and #2 - winning the first game of the playoffs in their Division Series!!!!

Have I mentioned that I love the Yankees?

Have I mentioned that Derek Jeter is my boyfriend? He totally doesn't know but that doesn't make it not true. (Don't worry, Jay is ok with it.)

Sleep, where art thou????

What is up with me not being able to sleep lately? Sleep! I love you, I miss you, I need you...

So, I'm up, catching up on my blog reading. Seriously, I'm so glad I found this bloggy world. Between it and reality TV, my fascination with other people's lives is in overdrive! Here are some things I'm really excited about in the bloggy future:

I learned from Paulina that Rhianne at For the Easily Distracted is having a photo swap. Basically, you sign-up, get paired with a partner, send each other a roll of film that you've taken and the other person develops it and puts the pictures on their blog! How fun is that?

And... I think I've decided to participate in formerly BooMama's and now The Nester's Christmas Tour of Homes! Sometimes I get lax about decorating for Christmas so this will be my motivation - super excited!

Oh my word, it's now tomorrow. For the love, what am I going to do?

My Wedding Day

Eleven years ago today - I became Mrs. Jay Sharpe. I can hardly believe it. On one hand, I can barely remember life without him and on the other, it seems like 11 years have gone by in a flash.

I wish I could remember every little detail of my wedding day but it all seems like a blur. Now most girls would have gone that morning and had there hair and nails done but I thought all that was silly. I threw my hair up in a bun, did my own makeup and nails and hopped in the car with my parents for the hour and a half drive to Clanton.

The wedding was at 2 and the weather was a lot like it is today - perfect. It was sunny and just the right temperature. I don't remember being nervous. It didn't seem like I had anything to do but wait.

And then before I knew it, I was walking down the aisle. I would give anything to have a picture of Jay's face. No, not because he was staring at me with love and wonder and amazement - because he looked SCARED TO DEATH!!! I'm talking terrified.

Here we are. I was 24 and Jay was 27 but I think we look like babies. And as I mentioned in the last post, this is Sister's dress. The one that made me feel like a princess. And look how handsome Jay is!

I wanted you to see how cute our cakes were. I remember my Mom and I flipping through the caterer's book and seeing these cakes with the icing bows on top and we both knew instantly that these were the ones.

You might be wondering why in the world I'm blogging when it's my anniversary, so here's the scoop. Jay has to work this weekend so we couldn't take a little anniversary get-a-way like we usually do. A couple of nights ago I got a little sentimental and decided that we just had to do something. So, I booked us a room at a really nice hotel that's close to Jay's office and he'll meet me there when he gets finished with work. We plan to go have a nice dinner and just relax for a night - away from the cats, away from the laundry that is screaming at me from the hamper, and all the other things that can be distracting.

This is my favorite wedding picture - we're leaving for our honeymoon.

More on this tomorrow....

The Night Before My Wedding

Want to know what I was doing 11 years ago, 11 years ago on October 2nd? You do? Great, I can't wait to tell you! Eleven years ago, right about this time, I was thinking about how the next day, I was going to become Mrs. Jay Sharpe. I had just been through 6 months of engaged chaos and now it was all over. I was about to marry the man I loved. Sigh...

A little background: My sister had a really big wedding a few years prior and I vowed I would never go through that. I just didn't "get" why anyone would want to sit and look at flowers, invitations, etc. Eloping was more my speed but my Mom made me promise her I wouldn't.

I'm the type of person who likes to make things happen. I don't agonize over decisions. Whether it's a purse, outfit, sofa, house, etc. I pretty much know right away if I love it or hate it and I pretty much never second-guess myself. I have no idea if that's good or bad but in my mind, it's worked out pretty well.

I bought a dress 2 days after I got engaged. It wasn't a wedding dress but I loved it and thought it was perfect. It was very plain - not white - and so me.I had not made one single wedding plan but I knew they would end up revolving around this dress.

We were engaged for 6 months and in that time, I felt like I couldn't make a decision to save my life. I had one idea after another about where I wanted to get married but for one reason or another, none of them panned out.

One day my Mom and I just sat down and it hit us - why not get married at my Grandparent's small country church in Clanton. Once that decision was made everything just fell into place. It was like boom, boom, boom... invitations, announcements, flowers, catering, photographer - everything was just done.

You know what didn't fall into place? My dress. It just didn't "go" with a small country church wedding. So about 2 weeks before the wedding, I called my Sister and asked if I could wear hers. She agreed and I tried it on. The dress was SO NOT ME, but I think that may have been what I liked about it. I felt like a little princess, which is something I had never felt like in my life.

More tomorrow....