Bachelorette Party and The Bachelorette on ABC

We had my sister's bachelorette shin-dig a couple of weekends ago. She's getting married this weekend. We had dinner, then saw Sex and the City 2, then back to my house for a lingerie shower. We didn't get crazy, but she had fun. Here are some pics...

Engagement Ring cookies and bra & pantie cookies that Amanda made. Soooo cute and yummy!

This is my "dressing room", aka the master bedroom in my new place. I put my bed in the 2nd bedroom and use this room as dressing area. It's worked out really well so far. It's a big room and the master closet doubles as the laundry room. This way all of my clothes stay on one end of the house.

I bought those plates and punch cups at a living estate sale for my friend Molli's grandparents.

On another note: Is anyone else watching this season of The Bachelorette on ABC? I've been watching these shows for the past couple of years. Some seasons just don't have the entertainment value as others. This may be one of those seasons. Bachelorette Ali doesn't really seem very "into" any of the men. Except maybe Roberto. I have a feeling he'll be in it to the end.

I have arrived

It's official. Autumn is here. It's been raining for what seems like 3 weeks straight in NEA. I haven't blogged in a while. I guess I've been busy enjoying the fall festivities.

Hannah, friend Amanda & myself at a football game. Go Red Wolves! After the game Hannah and I had a little birthday party for our friend

Brittney. Oh, and before the game I went with my sis & mom to look at wedding dresses. Hannah

's getting married!!! in June. I'm going to be maid of honor. Very exciting. She was able to narrow it down to the type of dress she's wanting, but we did not make a purchase that weekend. We're going to Memphis for a girls' weekend in a few weeks and we'll go to David's. They've already decided to have the wedding at church, then have the reception at the new Hilton Garden Inn in Jonesboro. It just opened and it's a wonderful alternative to The Holidome. You J-town folks know what I mean. :) It's new and modern and hip.

The next weekend was Pumpkin Hollow, a place in Piggott, AR for families and people of all ages. This is a picture of my assistant, Kelsey. She grew up in Piggott and has worked at Pumpkin Hollow since she was old enough to pick up a pumpkin!

We went at night and went through the 3 haunts - Forest of Freight, Mad Skull Mine & Bubba's Butcher Barn. We went for my friend John's birthday and the poor guy... he probably had bruises from me gripping his arm in terror. I do not do well with scary things. However, this was a really cool get-out-of-town-for-the-evening trip. The folks at Pumpkin Hollow do an excellent job. It wasn't cheesy or cheap. Believably scary.. and here's a picture of the full moon.

And last weekend I went to my friend Amanda's for chili and scrapbooking. It was supposed to be an all-night craft-fest, but we were tired. But I did get my spread for Little Women finished. Hard to believe this time last year I was playing "Marmee" in Little Women. Oh, that was so much fun, but so much work! The Jonesboro Foundation of Arts, of which I am now a board member, is doing "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" this weekend. I'll be in Little Rock for Race for the Cure, but I'm going on Sunday when I get home. I've never been to Race for the Cure, but I'm very excited!!

ASU v. Mississippi Valley

Ok. So, I lost my camera. BUT I Found my old camera a couple of months ago. I had given it to my dad. Call me an Indian Giver, but I took it back. I'll spare you the camera story, but I haven't been boring since my last post. I just don't have the pictures to prove it, so I'll move on.

Saturday was the first home football game for the Red Wolves, formerly the Indians, at Arkansas State. I went to the tailgate festivities with my friend Amanda. Pictured at left. I wore a Michael Kors top that I bought last winter. I bought it marked down and specifically for a football game. Mission accomplished. :-)

Pictured at left is junk food I ate from the concession stand. Oh, to have my college metabolism back. I drank a Mt. Dew everyday in college... However, I woke up sick in the middle of the night Saturday. ...as a result of this indulgence.

Ok, I sat behind this fella. The guy that had the nerve to wear a Razorback cap to an Arkansas State game. Big pet peeve of mine. I have nothing against the University of Arkansas. Why would I right? But my thought is this: If you are a huge fan of the Hogs; Then why didn't you go to school there???

Oh, and apparently I also sat behind a girl named Candace. Either that or she got taken for by a tatoo artist. Tramp Stamp on a Very large white girl. Lovely...

Oh, and we killed 'em. 61 - 0. Followed up by a casual evening at Amanda's. The Bishops were in town for Labor Day.

Hot Tamales!!!

The Hispanic Community Center in Jonesboro had a fund raiser recently and sold homemade tamales. 9$ for a dozen in chicken or pork. Wrapped in corn husks and everything.

So, I had the Hurdles over and Hannah and her boyfriend ate too. It was yummy! Amanda helped us clean up. Awesome!

We will definitely be ordering more in the future.

Take me out to the Baaaaallll Game! Take me out to the Crowd!

So, I don't know if I mentioned this in the previous few posts, but the main event while visiting Molli & Marty was to attend a Texas Rangers v. Boston Red Sox baseball game. This is a picture of Molli, Amanda and me Saturday before leaving the house.

It was so nice having their nice new house to spread out and enjoy. Here are "the kids" watching TV and playing games.

We went shopping in Arlington before the game. It was incredibly crowded.

And here we are at the stadium. It was a good time. Our seats included an all you can eat buffet. Hot dogs, chicken sandwiches, nachos, peanuts, hot dogs, soda. None of it was all that great, but it didn't cost anything. That was nice.

Me & my good friend Shaun - the ultimate Red Sox fan.

Visiting the Bishops

Well, I made it to Texas! All by my little self. :) I drove from Jonesboro to OkCity to Aubrey, TX without getting lost really. Thanks to my sis's trusty GPS. I met up with my friend Molli and got a tour of her new house in Aubrey, TX. I love it! Here is a picture of her and her husband Marty. She cooked brownies and served it with ice cream. Yummy!

We had dinner at Mr. Chopsticks. It's a delicious hole in the wall place near the the University of North Texas campus in Denton where Marty is in the the PhD program. I love that place. I had a Philadelphia Roll & some fried rice.

About to hit the sack and wait for the rest of the crew to arrive. They'll be in late tonight. So glad I was able to drive down from OKcity today.

This Land is Your Land

So, this weekend I went to Tunica, MS for a Counting Crows concert. I'm a big fan, so I jumped at the opportunity to see them live. It was a wonderful show. I don't have any pics of the show because I've been having some technological hi-cups, but I'm all better now. Long December was my class song in high school so it was cool to hear them sing it in person. My favorite part of the evening was the very end. It was as if Adam Duritz knew I was going to be there because he closed with a big push to get people to register to vote and encouraged them to get to the polls. Most everyone at the concert was my age-ish. So then the finale was This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land. I am one of the most patriotic people you'll ever meet and this was sooooo cool! He sang all the verses and chorus. Most people, myself included, had never heard the verses. We all sang the chorus together. Ahhh I am proud to be an American.

Now, the Tunica part. I'd never been to Tunica before and for those of you that don't know, Tunica, MS is a casino or rather a cluster of casinos a few miles south of Memphis. You have to drive through a southern ghetto of sorts to get there from Memphis. I was raised in a very conservative Southern Baptist home and church. Tunica is like a dirty word. Now, I have a masters degree in business. I know my chances at gambling. They aren't good. So, I didn't gamble. I watched a couple of my girl friends play the slot machines and they lost. Quickly. Did not interest me in the least.

I wished I'd enjoyed the tourist spot more, but it was a disappointment. Our hotel was pretty nice and new. Two things that really stuck out to me from my experience were smoke and gluttony. Smoking was allowed indoors there. I do not have a problem with people smoking. Not at all. But being around smoke is not enjoyable for me because I do not smoke. It smells and makes it difficult to breathe. But like I told my friend Amanda, if you're a smoker this is the place to be.

I think almost every place to eat there is a buffet. Lots of waste. I got like 7 desserts and just "tried" each one. I felt guilty for wasting food. :(

Don't think I'll go back to Tunica, but I did enjoy the concert. Here are some pictures of my breakfast this morning at Paul Deen's breakfast... you guessed it... buffet.

The Johnson's new Casa

My friends Brittney & Michael Johnson got married in March and just bought their first home in July. They had us over for homemade ice cream Saturday night. Here is a pic of her cute! kitchen. Also, she had the ever-so-clever idea to use a shoe storage door hanger for all of her kitchen utensils that wouldn't fit other places. I'm so happy for them!

A Cold Day in July

My mom, sister and I had a small garage sale on Saturday. It was unseasonably cool on Saturday in Jonesboro. I wore a sweatshirt until noon. I had been wanting to get rid of some books so I won't have to move them ever again. They're so heavy. An once I've read a book, there's no need to keep it unless it's something I'll look at again. So, now when I buy & read a book I pass it off to someone else that might like it.

We made about $80 total on the sale, which I didn't think was bad considering we didn't put an ad in the paper and didn't really have anything of any value. The most expensive items we had were two chairs -- sold for $10/ea. I came away with $25. Again, not bad considering nothing I had sold for more than $1. Most things were a quarter. The goal was to get rid of some things and hopefully make a little money at the same

time. I don't like messing with getting a receipt at Goodwill. Plus, it was just a good day spent with family outdoors.

Saturday afternoon I helped my new boss prepare food for his 30 year class reunion. Kinda fun actually.

Then I came home and made cookies. Cranberry & Walnut. Made from a chocolate chip recipe of my Aunt Jackie's. Sooo yummy. I made them for my movie guests. I made the chocolate chip recipe on Sunday to take to work. I promised the guys at work I'd make cookies for them when they put my new desk together. More on that soon. A bunch of friends came over that night to watch "Election" and eat watermelon. Good day.

Night in Memphis

Last night I went to Memphis with some of my closest friends: Matt & Amanda Hurdle, Michael & Brittney Johnson, Andy & Lori. We saw Wicked at the Orpheum then went out to the Wolfchase area to eat at The Melting Pot. The show was stupendous, as expected, and dinner was fabulous as well. Oh, I have to tell about our waiter! So, my friend Matt is from a town called Weiner, AR. Yes that's right. That alone is funny. His wife Amanda mentioned something to him about going to Weiner soon or something and the waiter overheard this. One the led to another and our waiter, Zach, admitted to having a tatoo of a hotdog with wings on his torso. This was funny, but I really didn't believe him. I mean, seriously. Then he had a fairly believable story about helping out a tatoo artist buddy right before the guy went into the army. So, he ended with this tatoo. As the night went on, it was a joke, but I still felt like he was putting on to get a good tip. So after he brought the main course, I said, "This is all wonderful, but you know what I'd really like to have right now? A hot dog!" hahahaha So he puts his pitcher of water on the floor and lifted his shirt right there at the table and showed us! Sure enough. There was a hotdog with intricate wings tatooed on his ribs. Ha! Made for an interesting evening.

I put up some pics of the evening.

It's the weekend

So, I'm sitting on the couch at 10:20 on Friday night watching Will & Grace. This is really the "right" place to be blogging instead of on company time... hee hee.

I just got home from Amanda's. Matt's deer hunting and so I went over to help her hang some pictures on the walls. The house is really coming together. It's amazing how much cozier a home can feel w/ pictures on the wall. It was funny. I felt like my mother because I was all making decision for her. If the situation were reversed, I'd NEVER the the stuff on the walls. She was glad I came to help.

We're going to Aida tomorrow night at Valley View high school.

It's cold and rainy this weekend. D-Now is in action at church. Hannah is doing that & Andy, Lori & Shaun are in Florida for a small vaca to see the Blue Angels. Andy's bro-in-law, Dustin, has a bro-in-law that's an Angel. Very cool thing. I would've gone too, but really couldn't afford it plus I'd been off for two week for surgery and i didn't need to take off two days this week.

I bought Life insurance today from Northwestern Mutual via Gene McIlvoy. Gene called on me about a month ago and I finally decided to purchase $35,000 of whole life ins and $100,000 of term. It's $40/mo. and the whole life builds cash value. I'm glad I did this. Even though it is very odd because I can't imagine dying and needing to have life ins. It's really just for a type of savings.

I'm loving my new Christmas CD. I may get my xmas decorations out tomorrow. It depends on if I get the house clean first.

I went back to see Dr. Haughey today for my foot. He basically dismissed me. Everything looks good. :)

I haven't talked to Tiffany since Brian's funeral. I called her on Wed. night and left a message, but she hasn't called back. I bought her a massage from Roman touch. thought it'd be a good way to relax. I mailed it today with a card.

signing off

Listening to Christmas Music

It's Thursday, 4:19pm. I'm at work and ready to head home. I've recovered very well from surgery. I can walk very normal now and I wore my Born boots yesterday without much complaint. I've come a loooong way in three weeks.

Barak Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States Tuesday. I didn't vote for him, but I'm OK with this. I voted for John McCain/Sarah Palin. However, overall, I do think it is a major step for the United States to have elected a man of color. While Obama is not an African American like most black people are African American, I still see it as if we've elected a black man. His wife is an African American. His father is Kenyan and his mother is apparently Hawaiian or something. It's interesting to see the media starting to switch gears and find things to attack him. It's not bad yet, but it's coming.

Paul McKinney said something in class last night that was enlightening. He said although we may not have voted for Barak Obama and may wish that he was not in this position, he's still the president (or will be) and we, as Christians, still have a biblical responsibility to pray for him. God is all-powerful. He put Mr. Obama in this place for this time and our faith in God should recognize this. If it doesn't, then we have a small faith and aren't realizing the supremecy of our God. Our God holds this world in His hands.

I am listening to Christmas music today. I'm trying to get into the mood. This is the first Christmas in a looong time that I won't be worrying about finals or projects. This year I can just relax and enjoy the Holidays. I usually don't enjoy the Holidays because I'm the only one of my cousins not married or in a relationship. It's a little depressing... But, I'm trying to have a better attitude.

Tonight is Lori's movie night. She's living in Harrisburg in her dad's workshop that they renovated for her to live in. We're eating at some new Mexican place before the movie. I'm excited.

David Baldacci released a new book in the Camel Club series on Tuesday. I may buy it this weekend. I have a 15% coupon for B&N.

Signing off.