Happy Birthday Michael!

Happy Birthday to my best friend, my husband. I have the most wonderful man who stands beside me in life.  He is always supportive, always loving, and always caring.  Okay…maybe not always, but pretty close to always.  He knows how to make me laugh and smile.  He knows when I am sad or disappointed how to cheer me up.  He is always honest and that is a fact.  We definitely compliment each other and keep each other in line.  My friends always tell me he is perfect for me.  He knows when to tell me to get to the point and when to shut up.  Trust me, I need that.  I am truly blessed to have him in my life and thankful for how good he is with our baby dog.  Based on this and how wonderful he is with our friend’s kids, I know someday he will be an exceptional father.  He is a man I am proud to call my husband and to share my life with and all the good and bad life throws our way we will be there for one another no matter the circumstance.   

“The emotion of love in spite of romantics is not self-sustaining.  It endures only when the lovers love many things together and not merely each other.” –Walter Lippman

4 days...Pictures!!!

This past weekend Michael and I were very busy.  My friend Megan has moved back and is staying with us and Sunday we had family pictures in the morning and a birthday party in the afternoon.  For our family pictures it was just Michael, Gabby, and myself.  Our good friends the Strieglers are wonderful photographers.  They did our wedding, my bridals, and our engagements.  I think they did a great job.  I am sure working with a dog is a lot like working with a kid...difficult.  Gabby was great and she listened.  There were a few times a thought she might bolt due to birds or squirrels, but she stayed and looked at the camera.  Check out his blog Striegler Photography to see some of our pictures.  Also check out his website his pictures are amazing. 


http://www.strieglerphoto.com/

5 days…

So today’s post feels pretty random, but sometime that makes the best thoughts.  I love to read good books.  I have a real love for books by Nicholas Sparks.  What girl doesn’t enjoy a good love story?  I mean seriously the man knows how to make girls believe in true love, fate, and all lovey dovey stuff.  I have read almost all of his books and usually enjoy them.  I have a few favorites.  So last night I was playing online and discovered that my favorite Nicholas Sparks book will be opening in theaters this Spring.  I can’t wait to see this movie.  I am super excited.  If you haven’t read “The Lucky One” then you have to read it before the movie comes out.  This book was better in my opinion than “The Notebook.”  Michael loved the movie “The Notebook” and I know he will probably like “The Lucky One.”  He is a true romantic at heart, even though you would never expect it.  I have to say one thing.  I am not a huge Zac Efron, but I definitely might become a fan after this movie comes out.  Especially if he does a good job with the main character.  Plus watching the trailer, he is looking older and this role is definitely an adult role.  I guess we will see if I end up becoming a fan.  Check out the trailer.  

Christmas is around the corner…

I can’t believe Christmas is almost here…I have 4 more work days left.  Michael and I have finalized our vacation plans.  I can’t wait!!

We are going to Crested Butte, Colorado.  It is one of my favorite places to ski.  The last time we skied I took Michael to my favorite place to ski, which is Copper Mountain.  Love that place, but Crested Butte is also a great place to ski.  We will be leaving in a few short weeks.  I love planning quick vacations.  We will be skiing for three days and we plan on having one day to ourselves to enjoy the view and the town. 

The hotel we will be staying at is called the Elevation Hotel and Spa.  The hotel itself has been there for years, but they remodeled it and I am so excited to be staying so close to the slopes.  It will be a nice getaway vacation for the two of us.  I do wish we were going with some other people.  It is always more fun when you have a group to ski together.  I am so very excited.  Skiing was always my vacation choice, so it is wonderful that my husband enjoys it as much as I do.  I guess this little trip is a nice Christmas present to ourselves.  Can’t wait to see the mountains. 

We actually didn’t book it until this morning, not last night as originally planned.  We were a little torn on what to do.  I had a dream last night about the mountains and skiing, and I woke up this morning, called Michael and said lets do it.  He, of course, didn’t require any convincing.  He was ready last night.  I always have a little reservation about skiing since I have had two knee surgeries.  Skiing is fun and so enjoyable, but knowing the last trip to Crested Butte required my first knee surgery made me a little weary.  I will take it easy skiing only blues this year.  That’s what I did a few years back when we went, so hopefully I don’t get the desire to go down the blacks.   I just can’t wait to hit the slopes!!!  Colorado is definitely a place I could see myself living.

Here is my Dad and I skiing last time we were in Crested Butte.  We got 3 feet of snow, and it was amazing.  Fingers crossed for fresh powder.

  The beautiful peak!

Christmas is coming!!!

I have been so busy and I have also been sick that I haven’t been blogging.  I am bad.  Michael and I decided to exchange gifts early this year.  We can’t ever wait to share what the other has picked out.  My favorite part of Christmas is definitely giving gifts.  I was proud of my gifts to Michael and my family.  Can’t reveal the family part yet, but Michael got a new set of irons and a driver.  That was his big gift for his birthday and Christmas.  I also got him a Hot Sauce of the month membership.  Sounds silly, but Michael LOVES hot sauce.  He was super excited.  I think of all his gifts his favorite wasn’t the clubs or the hot sauce but I got him the Goonies on Blu-Ray.  It is his all time favorite movies.  He was so excited that he wanted to watch it immediately. 

Michael got me something I have been wanting on and off.  I wanted a Kindle, but I am glad I waited since they just released the Kindle Fire.  You can watch movies, play game, listen to music, and read.  Michael got me a Kindle Fire.  I have already completed one book on it, while I wasn’t feeling good.  It will be great for all the traveling I currently do for work.  I can’t wait to use it on an airplane.  HAHA!  Speaking of airplanes…I think we are planning our next vacation.

We are wanting to go skiing.  I can’t wait.  I used to go every year, but lately it hasn’t been near that often.  I think we know when and where, but just got to plan out the details which we will probably do it tonight.  We are thinking about going to Crested Butte.  You can fly into Gunnison which is very close 40 minutes from the slopes.  I have skied Crested Butte a few times, and normally I like going to new places to ski, but it is so easy to get there from Arkansas.  Michael hasn’t been there and I know he will love it.  I will share details tomorrow, hopefully we book it tonight.  Oh and if we do this it will be in a few weeks…

17 Days...Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my Mama's Birthday!!!  I got to spend two days in Fort Smith this week and got to hang out and do a little Christmas shopping with her (which is why I miss day 18).  My parents are also coming to see us tomorrow and we are going to go out to dinner for her birthday.  I want them to eat at this newer Mexican restaurant in Fayetteville called Posta Plata.  It is more a fine dining place than the typical Mexican restaurants in our area.  I am excited to take her there.  My Mama is the best.  Always there when I (we) need her.  She is always patient and calm.  If there ever was a crisis you would want my Mom there to help and direct.  She is a little OCD, which I believe she passed on to me.  Don't let her in your bathroom it will be rearranged.  HAHA! Love you Mom!!  I am not complaining.  She is the world's best Mom and I am so glad she is mine.  Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Us before a Mother/Daughter 5k

19 Days

I feel like Christmas is sneaking up on me.  I am officially done with all of my Christmas shopping and birthday shopping.  Michael and my mom have birthdays this month.  


I have thought long and hard on what I should write about today.  I think today, I am thankful for today.  Sometimes we forget what's important in life.  The little things or the people who are really what's most important.  My family and my friends are who I rely on the most in life.  You know there are people in your life who you become friends with and they stay with you forever.  I have some really great friends.  I have had some friends who are great, but I don't talk to them as much as I used to or should.  Then a situation comes up and it makes you realize that life is short and there are things that are more important.  I know this might not make sense to some of you, but to others it will make perfect sense.  If you haven't talked to a friend in awhile pick up the phone and say hello and ask how they are doing.  You might be glad you did. 

20 Days and Counting

Sorry, I didn't get a chance to do day 21.  We had a very very busy Saturday.  Which brings me to my day 20 item.  I love December and Christmas because it means I get to be extra busy with parties.  We had two different parties yesterday.  Michael and I had a blast.


The first party we went to was a gender reveal party.  Our dear friends the Reagan's are expecting their first child.  They wanted to do something special.  I love the idea of a gender reveal party.  They had all their family and some close friends.  Everyone voted.  Michael since the beginning said I bet she is having a girl and I said boy.  We watched the ultrasound video and at the end it showed us that it was a girl!!  YAY for them!!  It was a lot of fun.  It was good to share something so special with friends.  I can't wait to buy that little girl some cute clothes and hair bows.  She will be a very stylish little girl, I just know it.  After the party, we came home watched a little football before heading out to our second party of the day.  


Saturday night, our friend Will was having a birthday party for his wife and my friend Laura.  Laura and I have been friends since I was nine.  She is a great person and a great friend.  I was extra excited to hear that her party was at her favorite restaurant, Cafe Rue Orleans.  I have eaten there only a few times, but I love the food.  Michael had never been here, so he was also excited to try some place new.  We had a fabulous Shrimp Pontchartrain, Jambalaya, Red Beans and Rice, and other great items.  The Shrimp Pontchartrain was the BEST.  I seriously could have eaten it all and then some.  It is a pasta with a Tasso cream sauce and shrimp.  The shrimp was so tender and fresh.  Fresh seafood is hard to find here in Arkansas, but occasionally we find a restaurant with fresh seafood and I want to go all the time. 

22 Days Until Christmas

One of my favorite things to do for Christmas, and I do this all year is collect ornaments.  Since I travel all this time and Michael and I vacation a few times a year, I wanted something to remember our trips.  Some people collect magnets and I like that idea but one I would have tons of them and two I have a stainless steal fridge.  Magnets were not going to happen.  Then I thought I could collect shot glasses.  Well, we don't drink a lot of shot glass type drinks, so that wasn't a great idea.  Then on one of my work trips, a co-worker suggested ornaments.  She does that for her trips.  I thought that is a GREAT idea.  And so it began.  We have collected lots and it is fun to put up the tree and think about the trips we have been on and the places where we got the ornaments.  It is perfect and very memorable.  I have some that are especially meaningful to us and that makes our Christmas time very special.  Here are a few of my favorites.  It was hard just to find a few I loved.

From our honeymoon to St. Thomas, when we went to St. John.

Our most recent Hawaiian vacation, from the Big Island.

Bachelorette Party

Work trip to Phoenix (where I saw Urban Meyer and tons of other NCAA coaches)

Ornament we received from a friend, but the first one to include Gabby.

23 Days til Christmas

Love this photo of us from my wedding

Today, I am grateful to one Very Big and Great thing.  My bestie, who currently lives in South Florida, has been working for a little while on a new job.  Well same company just a new position.  I have been dying to tell the world, but didn't want to jinx it.  Why would talking about it jinx the new job?  BECAUSE SHE IS MOVING HOME!!!!!!!!!  YAY!!!!!!  I have known it was a possibility for a few months.  I don't know...seems like 6 months.  A few weeks ago she accepted the new job.  I should let Michael talk about what I did after/during the call where she told me.  I should also say she told Michael first...she was looking for me.  Needless to say I was told on the phone in Wal-Mart.  Too bad you can't find the tape.  I did a little dance and song.  I think all night I kept saying I get my friend back I get my friend back.  Michael just laughed at me.  She should be completely moved back in 2 weeks, before Christmas.  SOOOOOOOOO excited!!!!  We have been friends since high school and lived 5 doors away from each other in college and in the same apartment complex after college.  I am really excited to share clothes again and she is excited to have me cook for her again.  So today, I am thankful and grateful that my best friend, Megan, is moving back to Arkansas.  LOVE YOU!!!! 

Doing what we do best...getting tan on the beach

Old Old Picture, from College (okay not that old)

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving.  I know we did.  I am pretty sure I could have skipped meals for two days and my body would have still thought it was full.  My family is wonderful.  We always have a big group for Thanksgiving, probably had 25-30 this year.  A big group of people means LOTS of good food.  My favorite is my Aunt Jackie's chocolate fudge.  I am pretty sure I almost made myself sick on it this year.  Everyone brings a side and a dessert.  Yummy yummy.  


My side item is my Granny's dressing/stuffing.  As she got older and it was harder for her to stand for long periods of time, I started going to her house the day before Thanksgiving and helping her make her dressing.  It is made from scratch and it is probably the only thing in the world I can make without measuring a thing.  I taste and eyeball each ingredient.  I do it the way we used to make it, even though it isn't exactly the original way.  The original way was made with real eggs and the way we made it was with egg beaters (my Granny had high cholesterol...like ME).  So, I made it the day before, and I actually messed up a batch of it.  I grabbed Southwestern egg beaters instead of the original ones.  I noticed of course after I poured and smelled it.  YUCKY!!!  I got really mad and went to the store bought all the ingredients again and started over.  I really was more sad than mad.  In all the years I have been making it with her and now the two years I have been making it on my own I have never messed up.  I will say this, the do over batch was the best I have ever made.  In my opinion.   


So we had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our family and Saturday night had some friends over to the house for a little football watching and a game night.  It was a great way to end the holiday.  


Now, my house is ready for Christmas.  It is decorated and the lights are up on the outside of the house and Christmas music is playing.  Yes, while I work I play Christmas music.  It puts me in the best mood no matter what.  I will be doing a little Christmas count down.  I will share all my favorite things about Christmas over the next 24 days.  

Hawaii Day 3

There is one thing you have to see in Hawaii if you only have time to see one thing.  Pearl Harbor.


Pearl Harbor is a great historical location.  Our third day in Hawaii, my family went to Pearl Harbor.  Michael and I went the first time we were in Hawaii, but they have updated and change a lot of things, so we knew we had to go again.  I have once piece of advice if you are planning to go to Pearl Harbor....arrive EARLY.  Going to the Arizona Memorial is free.  Yes FREE.  They hand out cards if you want to go to the Memorial and it has a time stamped on the back.  We arrived a little before 8:00AM and our time was 9:45PM.  Don't worry about finding something to do with that time.  They have changed the area and there is so much to see.  The area is updated and beautiful.  So, we walked around the area.  We checked out submarine information and looked at anchors and all kinds of interesting things.  When it was our time, we went into a theater and were shown a documentary about the day Pearl Harbor was attacked.  It makes things somber and then they load you up on a boat and take you to the memorial.  The saddest parts of the memorial are knowing the men on the Arizona were never brought to the surface and the fact that oil is stilling leaking from underneath.      

You can really look through and see things

Submarine

All who died

Oil coming to the surface

Arizona Memorial

After our tour over to the Arizona, the family went over to the Missouri.  The Missouri, or Might Mo, is the last Battleship ever to be launched and decommissioned.  She was also the location where Japan surrendered to the Allied Forces ending World War II.  Now that you have a little historical information on the ship, let me tell me my personal opinion.  I have now seen this huge ship twice now.  It is very cool.  Especially if you like history.  They have tours of the entire ship, and tours of just a few decks.  Michael and I have done both.  The longer tour is awesome and was super fun.  I think my parents got a lot out of the shorter tour.  I knew a few more bits of information that I learned from the first tour, that I was able to share with them.  I also learned a few things I hadn't learned in the first tour.  So overall I recommend taking the tour and seeing the Missouri.  

Big guns

Where the Japanese surrendered

Mom, Dad, and Eric hanging out on the top deck

View from the top deck of the Missouri

Resting our feet

We were pretty exhausted from all of our walking around that I decided we would take my parents over to see Hickam Air Force base.  Michael and I stayed at our friend's house on base and they wanted to see where they lived.  We decided to take everyone to their house to relax before our next big adventure.  Our plans for the evening were to go to Paradise Cove.  Paradise Cove is a luau.  It is very amazing.  We were apart of the deluxe package.  This package gets you the VIP treatment.  HAHA!  Well it gets you free drinks, front row seats, table service, pictures, and a souvenir.  So, really you get nothing.  On Oahu, this is the Luau you have to attend.  They have great dancers, and the food is good.       

Dad won a prize

Waiting for the show to start

Making head pieces.

South Oahu on Dwellable