Posting trouble

Is anyone else having trouble posting pictures from computer (not cell)?

I'm alive

Wow, oh wow am I behind!

I am going to have one heck of a post for you all this weekend.  I'll be catching you all up on all of the fun fall festivities that have been going on - stay tuned!

What's in my makeup bag?

Lately I've been doing a lot of reading on The Small Things Blog and loved Kate's post about what kind of facial products she uses to get ready for the day.

Michael went out to a show tonight and I decided to stay in and give all of my jewelry and makeup a good cleanse. I like to give all of my makeup tubes, lids and containers a cleaning with a baby wipe every once and I while. I was then inspired to do a post of what's in my bag.

(Just a note that I don't wear all of this stuff at once.)

I start out with the Clinique 3-Step system.

After moisturizing with Cliniqe's Dramatically Different Gel Moisturizer, I have been enjoying this new liquid makeup by Clinique. I got this Even Better makeup with SPF 15 with their last free gift. Before I was using Clinique's Acne Solutions liquid makeup, but will be making the switch when the sample is gone - it's lasting forever!

The little grey tube is Mary-Kay's yellow concealer. I have used this stuff since about 9th grade and it is the ABSOLUTE best concealer I have ever used. It's very yellow, but only takes the smallest dab to help cover those pesky pimples.

Under my eyes I have always used Benefit's Lemon-Aide. It's in the little black flat compact. I have used this stuff since the first time I went to a Sephora in Atlanta probably 5 or 6 years ago. I used to stock up on my Atlanta and NYC trips to Sephora, but thankfully now it's conveniently located in JC Penney.

Since reading Kate's post on TSMB, I got curious about this M.A.C. under-eye concealer she said she used. I went and did some research and read some reviews and all were great. I tried it out and thought it worked great, so I bought some today. It's $3 cheaper than the Lemon-Aide so hopefully it will work just as good or better!

I then use some Clinique Perfectly Real compact makeup. I've used Clinique powder since about 8th grade and really used anything else. I did buy some Bare Minerals before, and think it's pretty good. I more or less just use that when I want more coverage for an 'evening' look.

I love the Bare Minerals brushes so much, I use them for my Clinique blush powder. I also got this in one of the recent free gifts and love the color - great fall color, "Sunset Glow."

For my eyes I use a cheap Cover Girl white eye shadow. It's very sheer and not that really white look that was cool in like 1999. I then put this Loreal gold dust on top. It says it's gold, but it's definitely white. I've had this stuff forever and am sad they no longer make it. It's the stuff in the little cylinder container next to the blush. I'm sure I can find a good replacement when this stuff is gone. After all these years I still have about a half of a container left!

For my eyeliner I start about 1/4 of the way from the inside of my eye and go out, thickening the line as I go. I have really small eyes (I think) and try to make them look as big as I can. Clinique's Dark Chocolate Quickliner is excellent and stays on all day. When I want a bolder look I will whip out the Almay liquid eyeliner. I recently decided to give liquid another go and am glad I did.

I got this crazy pink space-age looking eyelash curler from Target for just a few bucks and love it. It works way better than the $15 one I got from Sephora. I use that, then put on one coat of Neutrogena Healthy Lengths mascara.

Sometimes I'll wear a little lipstick. I usually go with Clinique's Tenderheart or Black Honey.

If you have any good products you would suggest - please let me know. I love trying new things!

And just a quick update...it has been one week since I last saw my super-sweet Ceecee. Thank you all for your prayers, calls, texts and messages to check in on his return. I will most definitely let all of you know when he comes home.

Empty

I am generally a very emotional person. I cry at weddings, at engagement or baby news and when I’m just sad. I have learned to control these emotions quite well as of lately, until my super sweet kitty Ceecee went missing. I last saw him on October 6th in my garage. It is very out of character for him to just up and leave, especially because he is neutered, which decreases or eliminates their desire to roam.

Nothing in life has trained my emotions to deal with such a lost, empty feeling. The butterflies in my stomach will not go away. The questions will not stop running through my head. Why did he leave? Where is he? Did someone take him? He is hurt? Alive? Lost? Is he coming back?

Being here at home I simply cannot stop going to the door to see if he is there. I have scoured our yard, neighborhood and woods behind our house since Saturday morning with no signs of Ceecee boy. Fliers of posted throughout my subdivision and the adjoining neighborhood.

I did get one call this morning in response to my fliers. A potential Ceecee sighting one street over from mine, but sadly when I got home I was not able to find him. I did spot a Ceecee look-a-like over the weekend and wonder if this is who was spotted. I’m not giving up hope that he will return. Many friends have reassured me that their cats have gone missing for 1, 2 or 3 weeks and returned to their surprise. I hope and pray with all my heart that the Lord will bring our little Cee Monkey back to us safe and sound.

I still feel like I’m going to wake up from this horrible nightmare and he will be there under my neck purring, like always. He is never not purring, EVER. It was the strangest thing. Even at the vet where most cats are terrified and angry, he would just sing the whole time. I love my Beebee, don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to leave her out. She is still gracing our family. She is my heart, but her brother just had some aura about him that just lifted you up because he was ALWAYS in such a loving mood.

It’s so hard to go out looking for him. Calling his name and praying you hear his little ‘maow’ back, not ‘meow.’ He is very vocal and loves to talk. Calling for him and wondering if he can hear me is just so sad. Seeing the geckos in our bathroom window at night also hit me hard and make me miss him so much more. He loves to sit up there and watch for the geckos on the outside of the glass. Each time when we come home and he’s not sitting in his typical chair in the garage just makes me so sad. Waiting and watching the door go up to slowly reveal the empty chair just breaks my heart all over. Driving through my neighborhood every day and passing so many of his ‘missing’ signs with his picture just tears me to pieces. I drive by and think, I put that sign there and that is MY cat that is missing. Lord have mercy.

I will keep everyone posted if he returns. Our family appreciates your prayers. We miss our sweet little man so bad.

Pinterest

Have you heard of Pinterest?

If not, welcome to your new favorite website. Thanks Suzanne for the new obsession!

This website has really made idea saving more easy. Before, I was saving images from online in various folders on my computer for future reference and safe keeping. If you know me, I am a planner! I plan for everything. I have folders for wedding inspiration, baby room inspiration (never too soon to start planning, right?) DIY project ideas and décor inspiration. Before I would Google search my ideas or simply save the picture after stumbling across it on the Internet.

I love this!

But now my friends, it’s all saved on Pinterest and I get to share my “pins” with my friends as well. It’s also fun to look at what other people have “pinned.”

Searching ‘fall décor’ was dangerous, very dangerous. At this rate I’m going to be changing out the filler in my hurricane vases every day because there are so many easy ideas for filling these things. I mean, I fill them with fresh cranberries for the holidays, but would have never thought to fill them with candy corn for Halloween. I’m not too much on actual Halloween decorations – I like to stick with pumpkins and more fall-related stuff – but will definitely be buying some candy corn very soon!

I have held back from searching for Christmas stuff at this time. I would obsess over it and have the house full of all-things-Christmas the day after Halloween. I did get my Christmas tree last year the DAY they were available at Home Depot (I spy HD right outside of my work window) and unfortunately the tree was a little dry and turning brown come Christmas day (yes, I kept it watered). This made me a bit paranoid about having the lights turned on because I am horribly afraid of a fire. I just can’t bring myself to buy an artificial tree.

Ok, see, I start thinking about Christmas and get overtaken. I hope you will check it out - you won't be sorry. Put on your craft hat, head to Michael's and grab your glue gun people!

Random weekend post

Fall is definitely in the air, even if it is not offiicially here until Friday. What else comes with the cooler weather? The sickness. Michael had it, then I got it. It was a relaxing weekend to say the least.

At least I got up for a bit to help Michael out with some seasoning the our baby back ribs. My container of brown sugar was left empty, so that meant it was time to rejuvinate my brown sugar bear. Have you heard of this little guy? I got him at Bed, Bath & Beyond about a year ago and he is great! No more hard, clumpy brown sugar. You just soak him in warm water for a few minutes...

Then add him in to your container filled with brown sugar. Always a fun little surprise whn you go to get some brown sugar.

Did I mention I was sick in bed most of the weekend? I wasn't alone. Ceecee boy isn't sick but was good company. He's such a little snuggler! I hope he enjoyed his time in the bed because the bed linens have been washed and will remain kitty free. No worries Cee, you'll get your bedtime snuggle time next weekend when it's almost wash time again.

And, though it's not officially fall doesn't mean my house can't smell like it's fall, right? I'm back on the Bath & Body Works smell kick for a while. Thankfully they had a big sale - 6/$24 - wich included the warmers. All of my warmers of theirs had died and wouldn't get hot anymore. I love some of their new fall scents. Currently I have Leaves. When these are up I will change them out to the Sweet Pumpkin. Speaking of pumpkins, I spotted the first pumpkins of the season and couldn't resist buying them. Michael reminded me that my pumpkins last year didn't last until Halloween (they weren't even carved). Well, oh well! If these won't last I'll just have to pick up some more. This is one of my favorite seasons and I definitely have to max it out.

Saturday was Suzanne's birthday! Friday night I joined her and some of her friends for a pajama party complete with Papa John's pizza, American Honey and my FIRST viewing of Sixteen Candles. Yes people, I had not saw this before, but I really enjoyed it! It was a great night!

Well, not to get too ahead of myself. Earlier in the week I went to check on the kitties outside (we leave their food in the garage since they are technically outside kitties) and what do you know, Ceecee had a girlfriend with him on the couch. I stood there in shock and Michael came to see, this is who was making her little self at home.

So anyways, back to Friday night. I'm leaving Suzanne's and Michael calls. Said this kitty had been hanging out with him and some friends and he ASKED IF WE SHOULD KEEP IT. I wasnt sure if I heard him right. Did you just ask ME if we should keep it? Me, miss animal lover, heart of gold for animals, would live on a farm with 100 cats and dogs if I could, ME? So I get home and she is just loving on everyone who was over. I stayed up for a bit since there was an impromptu bon fire at our house. She sat on my lap most of the night. I fed her and Michael finally had to bring it to my attention that she had been eating all night and wouldn't stop. I guess when you have lived your lilfe this long without a home or regular feedings you just want to eat as much as you can.

Instead of continue to call her "new kitty" or "little kitty" I started calling her Liddy. I'm not sure how old she is yet (going to the vet this week) but she seems so petite, and was skin and bones. She's a sweet Liddy kitty. I hope when she goes to get spayed this week that she will still want to come around.

Hello Goodbye

"I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello."

On Monday I did the unthinkable. I said goodbye to my beloved XC90.

 

I knew "Betty" was going to be upset. Then I knew she was really upset when they parked my new Accord right next to her. It made the transition easy, but actually seeing my old car sitting next to my brand new car was pretty sad. I couldn't help but shed a few tears.

The XC90 is still my favorite car I have had. But WHY did she have to be such a gold digger?  Instead of  preparing to invest MORE money into her, it was time to say goodbye. I opted to go back to Honda. Yes, it's my fourth Honda and third Accord. I really didn't know what I wanted to get, and I'm pretty partial to Honda for some reason anyways. 

Not the greatest pictures from my phone.

I tell you what, it's weird going from a SUV to a car again. I have to actually watch out for curbs now, and be careful not to pull up too close in parking spots. The bonus, I don't have to get premium gas anymore! Goodbye bad gas mileage and super pricy gas, hello good fuel economy and sparce gas station visits.

It's good to be back on team Honda. Let my OCD kick in now with having my first brand new car. I know I will die at the first spot or scuff, but I keep reminding myself - it's just a car and it WILL get a dent.

Another guardian angel

My sweet Aunt Kay is now in heaven with the Lord. After an 11-month battle with cancer, she is now home with our Savior.

This weekend was one of the hardest weekends in my life. The pain I felt for my cousins, parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents and all of my Aunt Kay’s friends and family left my heart so heavy. I pray for everyone’s peace during this time and know that as we are followers of God, we will see her again. I tried not to think about this as ‘goodbye,’ but more of a ‘see you later.’ I tried not to mourn the fact that I will not see her again, but celebrate her wonderful life she had and know that she feels no more pain. She is in the best place she can be right now. As the pastor said during the morning service, “she’s eating breakfast with the Lord right now, then she will eat lunch, and dinner with the Lord as well.” How lucky is she?

My Aunt Kay with my cousin (one of her daughters) Natalie.

We will miss her deeply until it is our time to join her.

DIY - goodbye carpet

Hello hardwood!

While we have redone the floors in every room in our house, the last room to get some TLC was our bedroom. With dogs and allergies, carpet is not our friend.

Thankfully Michael is super handy! Patrick came over to lend a helping hand and the fellas finished 'project hardwood floor' in about 5 hours. Props guys!

We also upgraded to some taller baseboards, which makes a HUGE difference.

It is so nice to have all of these pending projects finally checked off the to-do list. Do you think we could really be done with DIY projects? Absolutely not! We are now exploring the idea of a screened in back patio. We shall see where that road takes us...

Best friends

So I'm a bit late on this post. Why is it so hard to plug my memory card into my computer and download pictures? They need a Nikon DSLR with wireless and a Facebook and Blogger button!

My bff Jacky celebrated her 20-something-ith birthday on August 20th and we had a great time celebrating with her and her boyfriend Joe's family. Jacky and I have been friends since 9th grade and she is THE person I can tell anything to! We can also relate in more ways than one, joking about how we are two of the very few people in our graduating class who are 1 - not married or engaged, and 2 - do not have a picture of a child as our profile picture on Facebook.

Joe's sister and husband cooked up quite the seafood feast! They caught their own blue crabs down in the Bayou and cooked them up with shrimp, corn, potatoes, Conecuh and onions. I finally learned how to properly crack, shell and eat a blue crab.

Singing Happy Birthday, then eating super-yummy cake! Or cakes, I should say - she had two!

Happy Birthday, bff! I can't wait to see where our lives and friendship take us on down the road!

Random before the real

I’m a bit behind on blogging. I have so much to write about and decided instead of one huge post, I would break it up. I still haven’t posted about my best friend Jacky’s awesome birthday shindig either. That is to come along with our super fun beach weekend down in Gulf Shores this past weekend.

Today is Monday, nothing fancy. I get to work and my friend Suzanne steps over with her hands behind her back and said she saw something at Fresh Market and thought about me. Then she whips out these!

In case you haven’t read some of my past posts about Chill, the best yogurt place in the world, I love to put chocolate covered sunflower seeds on my yogurt. It’s one of their toppings and is absolutely wonderful. Suzanne remembered I said I had not been able to find these in-store. So today I got to sit at my desk and enjoy my Monday to the tune of my tasty chocolate covered sunflower seeds.

Then, I get home from work and from visiting my parents for a bit and this is what I find from my sweet boyfriend on the kitchen table.

The artificial flowers I keep in there regularly were removed and replaced with these. See, I’m not a “OMGosh I need flowers” kind of girl, and he’s not an “OMGosh I have to give flowers” kind of guy, so when something random like this does happen it means all that much more to me. I love my Michael!

It’s moments like this that really hit me and make me realize how lucky I am to have the fantastic friends and great boyfriend I do have. Cherish every day because you never know what comes next.

Dinner in a flash

With all of our fun DIY projects around the house, cooking has been the last thing on my mind. I have found one alternative that doesn't taste like it was whipped up in 7-8 minutes.

These little Celentano beef raviolis are quite tasty! They're in the freezer section of Winn-Dixie and are usually a steal at 3/$10. They also have cheese ravioli. These guys boil up in about 8 minutes on the stove and while they're cooking I heat up the sauce in the microwave. I found this new Prego Veggie Smart sauce, also at Winn-Dixie, and I don't know what it is but I like it so much better than traditional Prego.

Serve it with a side salad and you wouldn't know you weren't at Olive Garden! Or, you can bring Olive Garden to your house by purchasing their dressing at your local restaurant. It's a definite staple at my house. For only $5 you get to enjoy the best salad dressing on Earth, AND the bottle makes the cutest flower vase once it's all gone! Win-win!

Flashback to the 90s

We're going back, way back!

Today at work my team (or a few members of my team) pulled out our old 90s gear and wore it to work. Talk about hilarious! And no, this wasn't just a random thing we randomly decided to do. We are trying to show the TeleVox sprit of our company for a 'Pass the Camera' contest. Our company was founded in 1992, so what a better way to show the spirit than dress like it's '92, right?

I didn't know which way I wanted to go with my 90s look - flannel grunge, windsuits, "mom" jeans with a baggy t-shirt tied to the side with side pony and Keds, Clueless, Hanson (Ok, stop laughing)...

The winner was - 90s, Clueless! Uh, as if!
I turned the movie on and instantly knew which clothes to put together to get the look I wanted. Funny thing is I wore my get-up in to work and several people on another team who had no idea we were dressing up 90s complimented my outfit saying I looked very cute today. I found this SUPER funny! See I don't wear a dress with tights, heels, headband and choker necklace very often or never, more less to work. We are a 'casual Friday and every other day of the week that ends in Y' company, so it's jeans and flip flops for me, every day.

Here is a picture of my team. I loved how 90s everyone looked! Suzanne, Bobbi and I can't get enough and are already planning our themed wear-to-work Halloween costumes. Bobbi and Suzanne are the flannel wearing grungies in the photo, or as Cher in Cluess would say, the loaders.

It's a great day at TeleVox!

DIY

The time has finally come for replacing the flooring in our master bedroom and bathroom!

The carpet is out, ready for hardwood to go in. We're going with the same 5-inch Brazilian walnut that we have in the rest of the house.

For the bathroom we are replacing the vinyl with porcelain tile. We found some tile at Lowe's and it was love at first sight. It is a light white with bits of cream and baby blue. The blue is very subtle an really ties in great with the baby blue/powder blue walls.

These are the last rooms in the house to be touched besides a coat of paint.

Meanwhile, as fun projects go on at home my poor car is at the hospital. Her transmission is sick. I am morbid. I replaced the transmission in old my Accord at 67k miles, now possibly my XC90 at 92k miles. I'm praying for a miracle and it not need to be replaced. Please Lord, I beg. Beg.

PEEK on my porch

Yeah, so there's always time in the future to have the long front porch with the rocking chairs, right? Ok good.

Here is our little porch - at least the rest of the house is pretty spacious. If you only knew how difficult it was to find the curtains for those little side windows. I liked the look of the house without them, but always felt like I was being watched.

Want to participate in a different PEEK theme each week? Visit The B Keeps Us Honest to meet Jessica and check out her awesome blog! Next week she will have us peeking at each other's Internet browser bookmarks.

When the cat is away, the mouse will...

Have girl's night!

Michael has been in Athens, Georgia since Sunday. He's coming back today! Yay! I missed him a lot, but what better way to pass the time than girl's night.

Last night Rachel and Kristen came over for dinner. I made lasagna and they were kind enough to actually eat it. I at least had enough lettuce, Olive Garden salad dressing and bread sticks in the event the lasagna was not edible. It was great, if I do say so myself. We had a blast! I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. Kristen and I have been friends since 7th grade, and Rachel and me since 8th grade. We all went to BHS and were best friends.

We talked about our lives currently, their super cute kiddos and laughed and laughed about some things of the past. Last night was good for my soul!

Cruise in retrospect - one year later

Wow, I can't believe a year ago today this was the view I had for a whole week.

On August 7th, 2010 I embarked on my first cruise with my best friend Stephanie, her mom Darlene and step dad Marty. We had an AMAZING time on board the Oasis of the Seas.

Cruises are awesome! I think it's the best way to take a vacation. You don't have to cook, clean, iron, work, or make the bed. The only time the alarm clock is set is for a fun excursion of the last day of the adventure. Oh, how nice!

Also, spending so much time with Stephanie is wonderful. She lives in Williamson, GA (close to Atlanta) a whopping five hours from Mobile. We make the most out of our visits. I'm so glad she introduced me to cruising! Since this cruise last year, we went on the Navigator of the Seas back in March. I think I need at least one cruise per year in my life.

Aside from going to Labadee, Haiti; Cozumel and Costa Maya, Mexico...we had a ton of fun on the ship. Marty and I took our chances up against the FlowRider. It was there on the ship. It was free. Why not?

Ouch!

I got the hang of it as well. They compare it to surfing. I have surfed out in the Atlantic Ocean and it was WAY easier than the FlowRider. August 10th this year will mark one year since I broke my coccyx (tailbone) on the FlowRider. Still waiting for that to be 100 percent better.

With water rushing at you at however many miles per hour (a lot), I couldn't take any chances of rinsing my brain with that much water shooting at me. Nose plugged - check!

Crash and burn

I had better luck on land with Freida, the Albino Burmese Python in Costa Maya, Mexico

They are so sweet!

We loved our wait staff, but Mesut was hilarious. He waited on the table next to ours, but we kept stealing him away. "Two sour dough for me, please."

The Quest = hilarious! Adult game show on the ship. My split demanded a replay on the big screen.

Dinner fun!

Another thing I miss about cruises are the towel animals. I need to learn how to make these!

Until next time!

Dinner on a dime

With Michael being on this juice diet, it's hard to want to whip up a big dinner only for myself.

I was trying to think of something quick and easy to have for dinner. I didn't want to just get frozen dinners, and knew cereal would get old fast.

I saw Bagel Bites in the freezer section and decided I wanted to make my own, homemade.

I grabbed a bag of 12 smaller bagels there at Target, pizza sauce and mozzerella cheese. I toast the bagel in the toaster while heating the sauce in the microwave, top with cheese then pop in the microwave to melt the cheese.

Fast, cheap and delicious!