It's a New Year!

Although I hate to see the holiday season end, I do love the excitement of a new year. I hope 2011 is a GREAT one for you all! We had a fun night last night with friends, slept in this morning, and started the day off with blueberry pancakes! I'm enjoying the last of this ridiculous holiday calorie-fest, but it's back to Moo Goo on Tuesday (when I return to work).

I know lots of you are coming up with goals and resolutions for 2011, as are we. We still have to have our "sit down" goal-planning session this weekend, but I've got lots swimming in my head already. But for any goal or resolution - if you're really serious about it - you have to have a defined plan. That includes (1) a measurable goal and (2) a set time frame. You can't just say, "Oh I want to lose weight in 2011." Duh, who doesn't after all those Christmas cookies? But good luck with it if that's as far as you can define it! You need to have a reasonable goal of, say, losing 15 pounds in 4 months. Otherwise, how can you really say you reached your goal if you didn't have a true finish line?

Worthy goals often mean we have to *start* doing some things and *stop* doing others. Many times we have to sacrifice more to achieve a goal than actually "do" more. Maybe it's about learning to say NO to something. Either way, you often need continued encouragement or a good ass-kicking. A great way to keep your goals in your face all the time is to write them down and post them on your bathroom mirror. We keep our debt snowball on ours and it mockingly stares us down every morning and every night. Eye on the prize! I hope you'll all spend some quality time mapping out the next 12 months. What is life without setting goals? Everyone dreams... so pick a dream, make a plan, and BAM - you have a goal. Financially, professionally, spiritually, relationally... where do you want to be at the end of this year? In five years? Ten years?

We've definitely got lots of big hope for 2011... I feel like I say that every year. But I still manage to be full of hope for each new year that comes. Have fun setting goals and I'll be sharing some of ours soon. Cheers!

Woo hoo!

My out-of-office assistant was officially turned on yesterday afternoon. I'm off today and tomorrow and then we have a leadership conference thingee outside the office on Monday and Tuesday... so I won't be back at my desk till next Wednesday! And THEN... I'll be off that Friday and following Monday... gotta love life after 4/15.

So we've got a fun weekend planned! My parents are renting a lake house over the weekend, so we're going to join them tomorrow night with the dogs. Well, Gertie will be spending the night with one of her buddies, as our three dogs plus my parents' giant Golden is a bit too much dog. But Belly and Charlie will be lake bound (just don't tell Gertie - as far as she knows, they're going to the vet). We actually live right by Lake Lanier, but this house is on the more northern side of the lake. So it's a nice little getaway without being much of a getaway.

And Sunday I'm hosting another clothing swap!!! SO excited... it's been like 18 months or so since I last hosted one, so it's been far too long. And y'all know I've been on serious shopping hiatus forEVER, so momma needs some new clothes! They're so fun anyway, but I think with everyone being a little more budget-conscious these days, people appreciate them even more. I hope I get away with some fab loot! And I still have quite a bit of stuff to purge from my own closet even though I haven't added much too it lately. So that's part of what I'm doing today... getting my closet cleaned out!

If you're not familiar with clothing swaps, here's the Buford Betty swap how-to. The only rule I have is that you must bring at least 5 pieces to participate. Other than that, it's a free-for-all. People always bring way more than five pieces - it's never been an issue. It's such a fun get-together with the girls and it's very easy and cheap to do (or this girl wouldn't be doing it).

I'm about to get dressed and hit up Costco. Then I'm FINALLY getting a haircut today alla Great Clips. Old me would've turned my nose up at that but new me is thrilled. I don't have any problem getting a 'tweener cut at a cheap place. Just gotta get those dead ends off. More like murdered. Ugh, so overdue for this.

Gotta go compile my to-do list... later!

Two patients with little patience.

Charlie made it home this morning and he is doing great! Well, he's NOT liking being confined to a crate while his sisters run around and play. But the surgery went well and he should make a full recovery. It'll be a long one, and he's our whiner of the three... so we're preparing for 6 weeks of lots of whining. Good times! Here's a pic the hub took this morning when he picked up Charlie...

How cute is his bright yellow bandage? Poor buddy... he would so be enjoying this sunshine today!

Ahhh... and the second patient would be ME. I best not go into detail here while I still have a queasy stomach... but yeah, had a little too much fun at the firm's April 15th party. And holy crizzap, am I paying for it now. Absolutely worthless. It was all I could do to drag myself in here to get on the 'puter and do my drawing for my giveaway. I announced the winner this afternoon, so hop over to Make Room for Style and take a peek.

Let's hope for a more productive day tomorrow! I'm never one to sit still and I've got a to-do list a freaking mile long.

Basal basics?

OK so tomorrow a.m. I'm going to start this whole Basal Body Temp tracking thing. I've got a kind of timeline laid out for slowly getting back into baby-making gear. My next cycle is due to begin this weekend, so for this first cycle of '09, I'm just trying out the BBT tracking. Next cycle I plan to get back on my meds (one of which I only take in the second half, so I kinda need to know what's going on - hence the tracking). Then in April I plan to start acupuncture. I'm excited about that! Not sure how often... maybe a couple of times a month? No idea... but we'll figure that out later.

So for now I've got to conquer this BBT nonsense. I've never done it before, so if y'all have any hot tips, please enlighten me! I've got the special thermometer, which came with a chart. But being the nerd I am, I'd love to dump my readings into software or something that makes the charts for me. I know I can find some online, but do y'all have any sites you've used that you love? I'll be on the hunt for that soon...

The life of a star.

It's rough, y'all. I'm so exhausted and I haven't even set foot in front of the camera yet! Three crew members came to our house last night to get shots outside the house. Our house looks so cool in the shots! We had a full moon - or mostly full moon last night and the sky looked pretty eery. Very Halloweenie. They took a shot of the house, shots of the moon, and a shot of one of the guys driving a car up and down the road. And they got a good feel for the lighting in the kitchen and marked where lights would need to go and used all kinds of fancy words that the hub is determined to add to his everyday vocabulary. And of course he's best friends with them all at this point, naturally. He could have an indepth convo with a doorknob - so, yeah... BFF.

We did our Whole Foods run yesterday and my mom came with. It was fun - but weird. Just getting random stuff with someone else's money. I'm heading out the door now to spend the rest of our $400 at Kroger. We spent just under $300 at Whole Foods. And I still don't know what I'm gonna wear for this thing... lots to do! Gotta run!

And now I can breathe!

Ahhh... too big major exhales! The shower on Saturday went off without a hitch, and I also finished this really big project at work I've been hammering out the last several days. I had to come in to the office yesterday to crank through it and I wrapped it all up in a nice bow early this morning. Now that I'm over those two humps, I feel much more relaxed. Work is still crazy busy - our last two major deadlines of the year are approaching, but I got that one big monkey off my back now, so I'm feeling purty good.

Did y'all have fabu weekends? We didn't make it to the game of course since we were in shower mode all day Saturday. We just had Larry Munson on the radio while we got la casa in tip-top shape. Belly and Charlie got shipped off to grandma and grandpa's for the day and Gertie stayed for the festivities. She is a spaz around her brother, Charlie, but when she's alone she is totally chill. And she's the only one of our three that doesn't try to jump on people. So she was the lucky girl who got to stay and hang out for the party.

I was actually rather calm all day Saturday, despite my long-ass to-do list. I usually have to down glass of wine about two hours prior to any hosting duties to prevent freaking out, but I was pretty darn relaxed for whatever reason. No wine required. MIL and FIL came in town for the shower (the groom is a childhood friend of the hub's, so they were on the guest list). It was great to visit with them even though it was less than 24 hours. Here are a few pics of the setup...



The wine station - a rather popular spot. You just never know who's gonna drink what. Especially at a shower because it's really the bride and groom's guest list, not yours. We just did beer and wine. Neither the hub nor I drink beer so I never know what kind or how much to get. I always consult my beer-drinking friends. But this crowd turned out to be wine people, so we have a bunch of Bud Light in our fridge now with nowhere to go. And it'll sit there till someone else takes it because it sure won't get consumed in my household.




My food table turned out nice... I'm so darn picky with the setup. I think I switched it up some more even after taking this pic... I'm extremely anal about how the heighth of everything balances out. I suppose it's the libra in me. That or the crazy.



And my cutie favors were a hit! Most of them were taken, but the good girl that I am saved my Wally World receipt and I'm totally returning the leftover ones. I gotta check their return policy... anyone know if they'll take back candy like that? They're those movie theatre size candy boxes.

I had several other cute little extras I wanted to do but as I mentioned earlier, time just didn't allow. The hub had altered some popular movie DVD covers with the bride and groom's faces. (It was a movie-themed shower, remember.) We were going to print those out and display them, but yeah... didn't happen. I also had planned on displaying some funny movie quotes around the house, giving the food funny names - spoofing titles or actors and whatnot... oh and I was going to do wine tags with movie couples' names (like... Sally Albright and another for Harry Burns). Oh well... mopping the floor was higher on my to-do list.

The funniest thing about the shower though was the mix of people. Don't know if I mentioned it earlier, but the bride's family is huge. She's one of 8 kids, so in a family that big, there are bound to be some freaks. I had met some of her fam back in July at their engagement party, but not all of them. So the eldest (I think) brother came to the shower along with the bride's parents and as SOON as he came in the door I could tell that he was high as a kite. The hub actually answered the door and I was back in the kitchen, but I could see the front door. Well bride's parents do the normal obligatory small talk with the hub at the door, but brother (who I think is 40ish?) immediately darts (and I do mean DARTS) for the kitchen. There are several of us hovering around the kitchen island (the wine station - I told you it was popular), but he just kind of maneuvers his way around us to grab some cheese and crackers and then jumps over to the wine and starts rummaging through it to see which one he wants. Hurriedly pours himself a very full glass and then takes off. Like seriously didn't say a word or make eye contact with any of us in the kitchen. No "pardon me" or "hey, I'm so-and-so" or "oh, this looks good..." Nothing. Never seen this guy in my life. It was beyond weird!

So five minutes into his stay we've already figured out he must be the black sheep. Oh dear... He didn't cause any trouble but it was pretty entertaining, to say the least. I believe he had two entire bottles of wine all to himself over the course of the evening (thank God for 2-buck chuck). And I think he hit on every unrelated female there that moved. I was busy playing hostess, so I really didn't catch any of that - thank goodness. He was apparently very interested in seeing my SIL (who was also there) "later." As in later that night? It was all very odd... and I totally didn't notice this during the shower, but afterwards we were all talking and apparently, black sheep brother, bride's parents, and one of the sisters mysteriously disappeared out the front door for 15 or 20 minutes mid-shower, and then came back in the house in a much more mellowed-out kinda mood! OMG! I find this just hilarious given that my sheltered self has never ever seen an illegal drug in life. And here we have party guests getting lit in my front yard. Too freaking funny... I suppose you've figured out by now that the bride's parents are total hippies. They are perfectly nice and loving people, but yeah - total hippies. And it's even funnier because the groom's parents are ultra-conservative. Oh this wedding is gonna be awesome!

Yeah so entertaining if nothing else... the shower was great. We were all pooped, including Gertie... It is hard work being a party girl, you know!


Alright... there's still work to be done, so I best get to it. I will pop back later with my party menu and my total budget. I stayed on budget and the food was so fab and easy to do, so I will share. Hope your weeks are off to a great start!

:: One year ago today ::

Headless chicken.

That's me today... runnin' around like a chicken with its head cut off. This shower-on-a-budget I've been planning for the last couple of months is suddenly here. I had all good intentions of taking yesterday off to prepare for tonight's festivities, but y'all know that didn't happen. I ended up working a 10 1/2 hour day instead. So a lot of my super cute extras that I wanted to do for this to-do got thrown out the window just for time's sake. Oh well... it will still be over-the-top cute, because that's the way I roll. Alright... I'll be back on the other side with some pics! Hope y'all are having a great weekend... Go Dawgs!

Pass the coffee, please.

It's 6:45am and I'm already at work. Surely this is a crime somewhere. Where do I turn myself in? Oh and does anyone know if they figured out how to clone people yet? If so, give me the recipe. I could definitely use another *me* today to get through my to-do list. Let me know, thanks.

:: One year ago yesterday ::

A quick thanks...

...to the two lovely ladies at Life's a Peach and The Pink Putter for handing Buford Betty a Diamond Award! That is bloggeriffic news and I can't wait to pass it on! I promise I'll hop on soon to make my acceptance speech and spread the love. This week I'm bizzy (that means crazy busy) at work with deadlines and bizzy at home trying to get a big wedding invitation order out the door (translation: not much time for blogworld). Thanks so much, girls! Thanks for reading! Back soon...

I like Fridays. Fridays are my favorite.

Happy Friday, y'all! I am so ready for a weekend since I was robbed of one last week. And our house looks like shiz since we got rid of our maid. Yeah that was one of "those" items that got quickly nixed once we started on this penny-pinching plan. I can pick up and organize stuff all day, but I detest cleaning. Though we do have quite the supply of cleaning products. The hub has a bizarre obsession with cleaning stuff. I wish I could say he was equally obsessed with using those products. Anyway, so I'm hoping to get some of that fun stuff knocked off the list this afternoon. We get to leave early (from work) today, so I've got my to-do list and I'm ready to go!


Anyway, here's a little Friday treat for you... I'm finally getting around to posting after being tagged by both Pink Lemonade & Peonies and Pinot & Pacifiers. Thanks, girls!

The rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share 5 songs you are embarrassed to admit to others that you like and tell why.
3. Tag 5 random people at the end of post and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So here goes...

Pressure - David Bowie f. Queen (and yes that is David Bowie featuring Queen, not Queen featuring David Bowie). I don't guess this is really embarrassing other than the fact that I think David Bowie is freakishly HOT! And I jam to this one. Vanilla Ice can stick it. You stole it and you know it!

Tammy's in Love - Debbie Reynolds, et al. OK yes, this one's embarrassing. I love all the Tammy movies... Tammy and the Bachelor, Tammy and the Doctor... do y'all know these? Well I occassionally break out into song with this one.

Area Codes - Ludacris. I'm sure many think he's rather foul, but I love Ludacris. I saw him on an airplane once and our eyes met. We had a moment. He was thinking I should be in his next video, I'm sure. This one is totally in my running mix on my ipod.

Love in this Club - Usher. I LOVE this song right now - and that's not embarrassing, but I would be terribly embarrassed if two people really started going to town next to me in a club. Usher may not care who's watching, but *I* do! Does this really happen? Guess I should stop worrying since I don't go to clubs.

I Kissed a Girl - Katy Perry. Yeah this one is just too catchy and I can't help it. I think it's funny and I totally crank it up when it comes on.

I also could've named like 30 songs from Britney Spears, but well, no embarrassment there. She takes up half my ipod.

Well, not to be a rule breaker, but I think most everyone has done this one... so tag, you're IT if you haven't!!! Hope y'all have a great weekend! :-)

:: One year ago today ::

Would y'all believe...

...that I actually marked *everything* off yesterday's to-do list? Every last thing! That's got to be a first. I'm usually quite overly ambitious with my daily to-do's, so it was rather thrilling to pull that list out this morning and realize I did every little task I set out to do. Ahhh.... so satisfying. But look... I have a whole new list for today. ;-)

I'm hoping to get in a good "catch-up" post this weekend, but here's something to nibble on for the time being... I came across this post the other day and it really got me thinking about selling my wedding dress. Never really gave it much thought before, but I was like.... why not?! I mean what am I going to do with it? I always thought I'd eventually preserve it, but I hadn't even had the darn thing cleaned yet. It's a Reem Acra gown and undoubtedly the most expensive piece of "clothing" I'll ever have owned, but y'all... it's just been hanging in my closet in a bag for the last 5 1/2 years. Seriously I do not envision any of my imaginary daughters ever wanting to wear it. If they're anything like their mother, they'd want something new and bright and shiny and all their own. And I was fortunate enough to have a fabulous photographer who took a ridiculous amount of photos - so I have endless images of me in the dress. So really, what's to miss? If we (meaning the dry cleaners) can get all the stains out (and that may be a big IF), I think I can probably get at least 2 G's for the gown. I already asked my parents and they are fine with it. My mom said it's kind of cool to think about the gown having a second trip down the aisle. I think so too!

So girls, what are your thoughts? My dress is actually at the cleaners right now so I'm sold on doing this, but just wondered what you guys thought. All my girlfriends that I've mentioned it to have eagerly answered, "Sell it!!!" Did any of you ladies part with your beloved dress? Any regrets? The dress definitely has sentimental value, but I have other pieces that mean way more to me. My tiara is staying with me for sure. It was custom made and I adore it - and that is something I could imagine my daughter wearing on her wedding day. Y'all know I'm really an accessories girl, after all.

Back to the grind!

I'm back! I had a wonderful staycation and feel rather refreshed about life in general. It's amazing what a good week at home can do. I knocked a lot off my to-do list, but I could still use another week or five. Who couldn't?! I've missed y'all and I'm finally getting back to catching up on blog reading. Back with more later...

Staycation!

I hope you all had a fabulous 4th! We had a ton of fun at the Peachtree. The hub did really well - though he was a little nauseous afterward. It was amazing how well organized it was. And being down there made me really want to run it. So I'm definitely in next year! Even just spectating, we ended up walking several miles... so geez - I might as well run the darn thing! And as I anticipated, it was definitely great people watching. From one dude running in "hot pants" and a cape, to firemen in their full fireman getup... it was quite a site to see. The hub and his pals were in the 5th group to start (there were 9 total - making up about 60,000 runners). The race started at 7:30am but his group didn't take off till nearly 8:30. So there was a lot of standing around and waiting at first - which you'll see in some of these pics. An unbelievable amount of people! I'd love to see a bird's eye view of all of this...

The hub's group waiting to start the race.

Helicopters everywhere... I happened to catch 3 hovering together. Can you see them?

One of the groups getting ready to go. The volunteers are in the yellow shirts.

Finally moving toward the start line! That American flag was HUGE - and it gave me an awesome sense of pride.

Just a few of the exhuasted runners after crossing the finish line!

So we definitely had a blast. Although riding MARTA back up to our car with hundreds of smelly runners... NOT so fun. Sweaty sardines.

Well this weekend kicked off my week-long STAYcation! I've seen several of you posting about what you'd do on a staycation... well I'm actually taking one this week! I've got a big old to-do list that I'm getting ready to tackle and I'm super excited about it and really motivated to get a lot of stuff done at home. So I've got several days at home to work on different projects around the house. And then Friday we're leaving to visit MIL and FIL up in Tennessee. That's going to be a nice little getaway and we're really looking forward to it. So I'm going to really do my best to "un-plug" this week and focus on my to-do's. I'm so bad about "hopping" on the computer to check email and then oh, three hours later... yikes. So I really am going to take a good bloggy break this week as well. So y'all have a fabu week. I definitely plan to! :-)

:: One year ago this past weekend ::

(Been busy... oops!)

I wanna play!

I'm taking the liberty of tagging myself via bestest since everyone seems to be playing this game!

1. What were you doing ten years ago?
I was... a junior in college. Probably in summer school. Probably wishing I wasn't in summer school.

2. What are five things on your to-do list today?
-Get documents/info to my realtor.
-Try the BodyAttack class at my gym (which I've been scared to do).
-Hopefully survive yoga after the above class.
-Finish yesterday's unfinished laundry (yeah right).
-Run at the park with the hub if I haven't keeled over from #2 and 3.

3. Snacks you enjoy
I'm a big snacker... there are many...
-yogurt
-fruit - esp apples, strawberries, blackberries
-100 calorie packs
-Del Monte 100 calorie canned sliced peaches
-Luna bars
-a Starbucks (usually a tall NF capp, or a tall NF iced latte)
-Tutti Frutti!!!!!!

4. Places you’ve lived
-Montgomery, AL
-Tucker, GA
-Duluth, GA
-Athens, GA
-Dunwoody, GA
-Buford, GA

5. What are 5 things you would do if you were a billionaire?
-pay off debt, and of course have a lil shopping spree!
-quit my day job and save cash for my dream job plans
-give to friends and fam
-meet with a good CFP to see how much we need to put away to be comfy and how
-give the rest away (and fast!) to my church and other charities. I honestly have no desire to be "rich" nor do I want the responsibility that comes with it. As long as I can pay my bills and have a little fun from time to time, I'm happy.

Tag, you're it - if you wanna play too. :-)
Back to work... stop distracting me!

Home Inventory.

I know, I'm working - for real, I am. Just need a quick break to munch on some carrot sticks and tell y'all about this cool product I read about last night while updating our Quicken stuff (evidence of my Type A half). Quicken has all kinds of different software products, but I think this one is totally cool and very useful. It's called Quicken Home Inventory Manager and you can download it or buy the software in store anywhere. It basically helps you create an inventory of all your belongings with photos, receipts, appraisals, etc, etc... so you have it all in the event of an emergency and for insurance purposes. And they let you back it all up on the web so you can access your info from anywhere, anytime.



Taking an inventory of our stuff has been an item on our to-do list forever. (Somewhere around that one about cleaning out the basement.) One of our good friends works with a major insurance company and she's always stressed how important this is. She said if nothing else, go around your house with a video camera and capture everything you own. She said to even go in your closet and make sure to get those nicer pieces on camera and quote the price as you're taping. We really saw how vital this kind of info can be when a couple very close to us lost their home in a fire a couple of years ago. It was a total freak accident... a contractor had been to the house to do some work and left. An hour later the house was on fire. Everyone was fine - the dad was the only one home, but they lost everything. They were literally left with their lives and the clothes on their backs.

Dealing with insurance was such a hassle for them. I mean nothing is easy - but y'all would not believe how they nickel and dime you! An insurance dude - an assessor I guess - that came out to the house was literally going through (what was left of) their kitchen cabinets and taking note of everything on hand. He was like "OK... bottle of soy sauce, half consumed, so that's about $0.99 to replace..." Soy sauce... are you freaking kidding me?! So if they're like that with your pantry, imagine how they are over belongings you actually care about!

I feel like this has become a public service announcement all of the sudden! But yeah, point being, everyone should set aside time to take a real solid inventory of their belongings. Furniture, clothes, jewelry, china... everything. You obviously don't need software to do that - but sometimes fun tools like that get me motivated, so I thought I'd share. At the very least, I think the video camera idea is a good start. I hope none of us ever have to face such a scare, but better to be prepared for one. I think I'll bump this one up a few notches on the list...