May Saturday Pictures

Sunday we had our May Saturday lunch.  After lunch we went to the mall so Kaley could ride the carousel.  She told me "I think this is kinda fun.  Yep I surely do."

Sis and Kaley dancing in the parking lot after lunch.  My Grammy doesn't really approve of this type of behavior. ha!  People probably think are family is nuts!  But I'm ok with that..... because we kind of are!

Me and Trey

Cassie and Trey

Me and Sis

Me, Trey, Sis (Kristen), Candace, Cassie, Kaley, and Grammy---- Logan was sick and didn't get to join us.

Two Peas in a Pod!

My Sister's last Sports Banquet

This past Thursday night was Cassie's sports banquet.  She went with her friend Nathan.  She looked gorgeous!  I can't believe it's her last one!  

I need some kids of my own..... one day!

I babysat Kaley, Logan, and one of my best friend's little girl a few weeks ago.  I thought I would be the fun one and let them make cookies.  I didn't really think it through enough though.  Those little ball sprinkles are from the devil!  They went everywhere!  Here are some pics that are in random order:

Logan and Addi eating their cookies.

He's taking here on a date.  She doesn't look too impressed!

Addi trying to share a cookie with Logan

This boy melts my heart!

I took Kaley's shirt off to avoid ruining it with blue icing, only to find that she was wearing a bra.  She is obsessed with bras.  She tried to get me to take a picture of just her in her bra, but her pose was a little too provocative! ha!  I told her "girls don't do that."

Look at Logan's smile!

I always put Addi's hair in pigtails when I have her!  I can't resist!  She is so cute!

These next two are her "modeling pics."

He helped himself to some cereal.

Baking/eating the cookies.

Check out Addi's Cowgirl boots!

Past Due Pictures

These pics are from tailgating on the quad for the Alabama vs Auburn game in Tuscaloosa.

My dad getting the grub ready.

Me & Charli

The girls watching the game. 

Me & Ryan (He must be trying to seduce the camera.)

My sister looks like a lizard in the picture.

My dad watching everyone paying hundreds of dollars for tickets right before the game.

Me & my friend Kyle.  

Side note:  He and my sister managed to pay a gate worker $20 each to let them slip into the game without a ticket!

Several of us before the game.

Happy May Saturday!

December 17th is a special day in my family.  Basically when my cousin was first born 24 1/2 years ago, my grandmother started this tradition called May Saturday (It's not in May and it's not on a Saturday, so no idea why it's called that!).  I think she saw it in an old Shirley Temple movie.  Basically the gist of it is that you choose one day a year, and on this day you make a special effort to be with the ones you love.  

So every year since I can remember on December 17th (only my grandmother knows why this is the date she chose) we get together with my grandmother and my cousins.  For 6 1/2 years it was only me and my two cousins Candace and Kristen (Sis).  Then my sister came along and their little brother.  And now it's the five of us and Kaley and Logan (Candace's two kids).  And for every May Saturday my Grammy gives all of us a Christmas ornament.  When we were younger we would have tea parties (with real tea, crumpets, "cream," and sugar) and make cookies, but now we usually just have dinner or lunch together.

So Happy May Saturday everyone!  This is the first year I am actually home to celebrate.  So I'm off to see my Grammy.  Unfortunately, we all are grown up now and it's harder to meet on the actual day, so we are having May Saturday lunch on Sunday.  (I know that's so confusing!)

My Grammy has tried so hard to leave us with so many great memories and traditions.  I never appreciated them until I got older!  She loves the Gilmore Girls and now every Thursday night is Gilmore Family Dinner! haha!  We all meet at her house and eat together.  Another special thing with my Grammy is that we all have nicknames.  They were given to us when we were born and to this day she still calls us by them.

Candace:  Cupcake

Me:  Princess (Because I am! ha! jk!)

Kristen:  Cricket

Cassie:  Peaches

Trey:  Prince of the Forrest

Kaley:  Mia (Short for Pinchetamia....not sure about spelling= Which means "Little Darling Mine")

Logan:  Hunter

If you aren't around us, it just seems crazy, but it is one of those special things just between us.

This will sum up all of the grandkids relationships with my Grammy:

Monday I was in the car with Kaley and Grammy and Kaley tells Grammy: "Grammy, I just only like to go shopping with you because you let me have whatever I want."

That pretty much says it all!

New Do

I have said several times that I want to grow my hair out for Locks of Love.  Every time I end up cutting it off before it gets long enough to actually donate it.  But this time I'm convinced I'm definitely doing it.  I have a little ways to go before it's actually ready.  I don't want to end up with a cut up to my chin, so I'm letting it get pretty long.  

Here is my long hair inspiration:

My short hair possibilities:

I want it to be below my shoulders for sure.  

Sorry for this kinda superficial post.

Christmas Survey

1. Wrapping Paper or gift bags: Cute paper with matching ribbon
2. Real or Artificial Tree: fake, but I might consider a real one once I have my own house
3. When do you put up the trees? It's different every year
4. When do you take the trees down? We keep ours up as long as possible.  Usually sometime after New Years
5. Do you like Eggnog? no.
6. Favorite Gift received as a child? It's probably a tie with my jeep, trampoline, My Buddy
7. Hardest person to buy for? My mother.
8. Easiest person to buy for: My grandmother.
9. Do you have a nativity scene? I don't personally, but my mom does
10. Mail or email Christmas Cards? none
11. Worst Christmas gift? A pullover my grandmother bought on ebay.  She was trying to be cool and get us some Northface stuff.  When I pulled it out of the box I was laughing hysterically but trying not to cause a seen and hurt her feelings.  The pullover was monogramed with someone else's initials.  It was hilarious!  To this day, she still doesn't know.  I didn't have the heart to tell her.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? White Christmas.  I love old movies and musicals.  But Christmas Vacation is also up there.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Depends on when I have money
14. Have you ever re-gifted a present? yes! 
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? all the holiday desserts
16. Lights on the tree? white.  And lots of them!
17. Favorite Christmas Song? Oh Holy Night with Rich Valenta singing it!  (You G-dale people know how amazing this is!) and Mariah Carey "All I Want for Christmas is You."
18. Travel at Christmas or Stay Home? Both 
19. Can name all of Santa's Reindeer? yes
20. Angel on the tree top or star? neither
21. Open presents on Christmas Eve or Morning? both.  We choose one for Christmas Eve and the rest on Christmas morning
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? traffic
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Bold and bright ones
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Something that's out of the norm.  I get so sick of the ham and dressing stuff.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? IPOD Dock for my IPOD.  That's the only think I can think of.

Weekend Review.

Friday:  

I had lunch with some of my favorite people.  Courtney, Breanna, and Lacey.  These are some of my best friends from high school.  Courtney, Breanna, and I see each other all the time, but it is rare that we get to hang out with Lacey.  She is married and has a sweet little baby girl (and lives across town), so it's a bit harder for her to find the time.  We ate at one of my favorite places, Cocina Superior.  I love their filet tacos!  They are fab!

After lunch we walked around the mall while I searched for my gifts for the angel tree at church.  Because I haven't worked in a while, I was definitely on a budget.  I prayed before I went that I would be able to get everything I needed (two shirts and a dress for a 7 year old little girl) for $20.  But, I didn't want to have to settle and get something ugly just because I was on a budget.I wanted to find something the little girl would love!

I knew $20 would be a stretch to get all three items, but I was willing to really look and at least try.

Well..... I went to to Macy's first and found a very cute shirt.  It's short sleeved, which isn't ideal for right now, but it will be so cute with a long sleeve shirt under it and then she can wear it in the summer also.  Total cost of this purchase:  $1.67.  It was waaaayyyy marked down!  Amazing!  

Next we headed to Belk.  They are such a hit or miss place when it comes to finding the big deals and sales.  You either get it for great or you pay full price for it.  But they have great things!

With the help of my two friends, we were able to find the cutest pink shirt with different color polka dots all over it.  I wish I had the money to buy her some cute skinny jeans to go with it and some shoes.  But I know she will be precious in the shirt!  Then we had to find the dress.  Dresses are way more expensive than shirts.  And I was completely shocked to find that kids clothes are almost as expensive as adult clothing.  All of the dresses needed tights to go with them and the cheapest tights I saw were $15.  I refused and kept looking.  Finally we found a cute red dress that came with the attached tights!  2 in 1!  I love those!

Total cost of this purchase..... Cute pink shirt:  $4.27; Cute little red dress with included tights:  $13.97

Everything I bought was on major sale.

Total cost of all of the cute clothes:  $19.01---- That was awesome!  

Friday night after shopping, I did my friend Autumn (more to share about Autumn later) and her sisters hair for a Christmas party.  Then a big group of people went bowling.  I must say, my bowling has really improved over the past few years.  I have bowled a 131 and 132 the past two times I have went.

Saturday:

Saturday morning I got up and went to the Gardendale Civic Center at 7:15 for their annual Breakfast with Santa.  Basically people buy tickets and eat breakfast and then everyone has their picture with Santa and all of the kids get to make around 12 crafts to take home with them.  I volunteered to work one of the craft tables.  All of the kids were so cute and had a great time.  Their parents on the other hand, were a bit crazy!  One little kid was taking his time and perfecting his popsicle stick christmas tree while his mother is having an anxiety attack standing behind him because she was loosing her patience!  She finally grabs the sequins he is placing on the tree and says, "Just put the stupid things on there!"  Then she looked up at me and just smiled.  There were lots of inpatient parents there.

Saturday afternoon was a bit of  a sad one.  Bama finally met it's first defeat against Florida.  That's all I'm even going to say about it.  We did have a big group of people who got together to watch the game, so the fellowship was a lot of fun.

After the game a few girls went to see the movie "Four Christmases."  It was really cute.  Definitely not as good as Sweet Home Alabama, but I love Reese Witherspoon!  Seeing her with Vince Vaughn was a little weird though.

Sunday:

Sunday morning I made it to church early for the first time in a long time (not shocking to many of you!).  Sunday night was our College/Singles Christmas party so I went to Autumn's house and made snacks to take to the party.  We made sausage pin wheels and truffles.  All of the truffles I have had in the past are made with cream cheese and oreo cookies dipped in almond bark.  We did ours with german chocolate cake mixed with a tub of cream cheese icing dipped in almond bark.  They went over great with a lot of people and not so good with some.  The "texture people" didn't care for the cake/icing mixture.

After cooking for about 3 hours we went to the party.  It was a lot of fun and everyone brought so much good food.  After eating we cranked it up with some karaoke..... it was hilarious!

Tonight we are going back over to Autumn's to sort through all of the angel tree gifts that we collected so that we can deliver them on Wednesday.

The Fur.

Lately the college and singles at church have been doing mission projects on Sunday afternoons. We are really trying to reach out to the Senior adults and single moms in our church and community. We haven't gotten to do a lot for single mom's yet, but we are doing an angel tree to help some of them out for Christmas.

The big thing we have done for senior adults is yard and house work. They are sooo appreciative and love it when we come over. Especially the widows. I think a lot of them just get bored and enjoy the excitement that 20-30 college and singles bring to their home.

So last Sunday we are at the home of an anonymous lady. I will call her "Betty." Actually, that really is her name. Anyways, we go in Betty's house and she shows us everything she needs done (which was only planting some flowers). Everyone has walked outside except for my friends Charli and Chad and me. At this point the three of us are just walking around the house as Betty shows us all of her Alabama memorabilia. Which was A LOT! She is a huge Bama fan and has two season tickets to all of the home games. She and her sister go together. They are in their 70's and that cracks me up! Before we could ever actually look at the China cabinet filled with everything University of Alabama, she was leading us into her guest room. So we looked at her framed turf straight from the field in 1982 and her d

ancing 'Big Al' and then she started going through her closet. While Ms. Betty is pulling out all of her old clothes, shoes, etc we look around at her pictures and everything else in the room. It was at this moment that I noticed the fur coat lying on her bed. So trying to butter her up and make the old lady feel good, I begin to make a big deal about her fur coat. Example: "Oh Ms. Betty I looooovvve your fur coat!" Well of course I didn't looooovvvvvveeee it. It is a fur coat, so I loved it as much as you can love a dead animal that wraps around your body. But I would never wear it. Fur coats just aren't me. Not because of PETA or anything, but just because you don't see many 24 year olds wearing fur these days. I don't think it is really a reflection of your social status like it used to be.Anyways...... before I could say anything else, Ms. Betty has picked up the jacket and is beginning to put my arms in it and wrap it around me! I know m

y eyes were huge! Charli and Chad are hysterical at this point. They are trying to stay composed but did a terrible job at it! So these are Ms. Betty's exact words to me, "Well hunny, I was going to give this to a homeless person, but if you love it so much, then you can just have it!" And she was serious and very excited to be giving it to me! She was very insistant that I wear it around that day. So I walk outside and everyone just looks at me. I lost it I was laughing so hard. All I could do was pick up a rake and begin raking the leaves while I'm wearing the fur coat.

My friend Joy, who knows everything about fashion and used to work at Gus Meyer, comes over and inspects the jacket and informs me that it is actually a real fur. I honestly thought it was fake. Ms. Betty was so excited and kept telling everyone how good it looked on me. I just smiled and kept asking her if she was sure that she wanted to give it away. She said yes.

Before we leave the Senior adults houses, we always try and pray over them. So at the end of the day, everyone gathered around Ms. Betty and prayed for her. My friend Stephen was behind me and he kept petting me throughout the prayer (Because I didn't take the jacket off in fear of hurting Ms. Betty's feelings).

The day after Thanksgiving I did decide I would run to the mall and just check out the sales. What a disappointment they were! But I did check out the furs in Belk and one that looked similar to the one given to me had a price tag of $8000! That's not a type-o. So who knows!

I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to do with this coat. The sugggestion I have received many times is to sell it and give the money back to the ministry or use it to do more mission work. I just don't know how much someone will actually pay for it.

So if anyone is looking for a mink coat that's in great condition, PLEASE feel free to let me know!

Here is Charli and April modeling my new coat!

Stacey modeling the fur!