Fun Fridays

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Today is Fun Friday and to be honest, I actually don't have much FUN planned for the next couple days.
Our Halloween festivities were last weekend and since the upcoming weeks will be busy for us, we will probably be lazy bums

Maybe I will muster up some energy to carve a pumpkin. Everyone on the blogs have such creative ideas!
Like the dog pumpkins? I love that! Too bad they don't have a Westie template.

Chihuahua lovin.

I'll have to see how energetic I feel Saturday.
There are a few ideas I have floating around so it depends on what hits me.

Sunday, we will head over to my momma's house for lunch to celebrate my birthday since my aunts will be in town. We will probably be forced to play board games and sing Broadway show tunes. Honestly, I think they are trying to turn us into the Partridge family since they don't have kids of their own. Thankfully there will be wine. I know this because I will be bringing it.

That evening, Kevin and I will head over to his parents for dinner. They would also like to celebrate my birthday. Apparently, no one thought to acknowledge the day of my birth within the WEEK that it happened. I guess if they want to stretch it out throughout the month, that's okay with me.

As long as there is cake, I won't hold grudges. If any of my family members are reading this, I would prefer the mint chocolate cookie cake from Cold Stone Creamery.

Birthday noms.

 
So, do you have big plans for the weekend? Or will you  be bored like me?

HAPPY FRIDAY!

I Can Tell You Secrets, Right?

This afternoon, I was reading Weddingbee and came across Mrs. Barette's "Lessons on Lashes" and it got me to thinking about my own facial hair situation.

So, now I think it's time we take our relationship to the next level. I think of you, my readers, as friends. You know things about me that other people don't and of course, some people know things that you don't. And it's time to come clean. I want to let you in on one of my deepest darkest secrets and my friends and family can tell you all about it. (Since I know some of them are reading)

Ready? I trust you. And I love you, soooo....

I. Have. No. Eyebrows.

You heard me right. I have no eyebrows. Okay, I have a few and I've actually talked about it before, on the Weddingbee boards, and found out that there is a name for it: trichotillomania. It means the self-pulling of hair.Yeah, I totally have trichotillomania. It quite possibly makes me sound like a nut job but whatev's. It's reality.

Anytime that I'm nervous or scared, I find myself pulling at my eyebrows unconsciously. (Another reason I don't watch Saw.) In the past several years, I've become more aware of this action and can stop myself but when I was a kid, I guess it was more of a nervous habit. Kind of like biting your nails or chewing your lip.

I guess you think I'm crazy now huh?

Well, let's get in a little deeper. (That's what she said)

 Now that you know... here's a picture.

Me, truly SANS makeup.

See? There are...um...a few. This was taken 6 months ago, before my wedding, and for the Weddingbee board post. Ever since then, I've used countless serums and creams and such but nothing really seems to work. I have to say, I am intrigued by Latisse, I wonder if it would work on eyebrows?

Well, until I find an eyebrow-regenerating-miracle, I'll have to stick to filling in my pathetic excuse for brows. 

Enter: Bare Minerals.

 {source}

I was introduced to Bare Minerals by my best friend and I will swear by it until the day I die. Which will probably be by lightning, or by a shark bite. Actually...in my dream last night, it was a tornado... but I'm off subject.

Their brow powder is AMAZING and fills in perfectly. I've found that a pencil just looks very blunt but the powder is just smooth enough and blends perfectly. Other powders I've tried seem to not last very long but I wore Bare Minerals brow powder during my wedding and it stayed tried and true.

{source}

(The color I use is the dark blond/ medium and I use a small angle brush.)

After ten years of painting these suckers on, I've got it down to a science.

So there ya have it. My deep dark secret. Well, one of them anyway.
What are you hiding?

All I Want Is A Singing Telegram.

Yesterday, which you may already know, was my birthday. And when I woke up, I had three sweet text messages from some friends wishing me a happy birthday. I'm relatively sure they were all trying to be the very first one's to wish me well but sorry, Kevin beat you all to the punch. He said it as he was leaving for work. But we'll just pretend it doesn't count because I doubt anyone else was coherent at that hour anyway, including myself. I probably thanked him and then rolled over, wiped the drool from my face and screamed about being cold. I have no memory before 5 a.m. so who knows.

After heading off to work and almost running out of gas on a back country road (eep!), I arrived to see that our resource officer had put post-it notes all over my desk that said "happy birfday" along with a bag of Tootsie Rolls. Another co-worker of mine brought in a cake and a birthday card so my day started out pretty well.

Then, sometime around lunch, it dawned on me that I would possibly be receiving something special from the hubs. Ooh, maybe flowers? Maybe candies or balloons? Or even a life sized bear that sings "Can't Get Enough Of Your Love Babe" with a big I LOVE YOU stitched on his belly. That would have been awesome. There had to be some sort of delivery right?... Well, nothing came and by three o'clock, I was a little miffed. No, I'm not greedy but I just want all my colleagues to be extremely jealous of my awesome sexy thoughtful husband and our fantastical magical perfection of a marriage {snort BAHA}. Is it too much to ask that they think he does sweet nice cutesy things for me all the time? Well, it was, because I didn't get any kind of special delivery. Not even a singing telegram by a pimply kid in a dumb outfit. (Do they even do those anymore? Hmm.) 

I know, I know! I'm a bad wife. He's a wonderful husband and I should be thankful for what we have. I shouldn't even think those things! 

Well, he totally made up for it ...

After I got home, I was sitting at my computer, and Kevin came up behind me and handed me a sweet little card. "For my wife, no hand I'd rather hold, no voice I'd rather hear, no one who matters more to me than you. Happy Birthday." Yeah.... perfect card!....and then he kissed me and walked away. 

AND THAT WAS IT. 

.
.
.

He totally psyched me out! 

I was about to burst into tears....until...

Twenty minutes later, he came back in the room with a little brown box and inside that box?

WAS A KINDLE!!!

I was so ecstatic! I've been wanting an e-reader for a while and now I know he really listens.

I still need to figure out some of my settings but he got the 3G model so I can download books anywhere even without a WiFi connection. One of the FAQ's I get is "why did you get the Kindle rather than an iPad?" Well, price to be completely honest. I knew the iPad would be out of our budget and the Kindle would have everything I wanted. It's slim, lightweight and I don't have to carry 6 books with me when I go on vacation now. That is the biggest perk for me. I read like a maniac when we travel and this will be so much easier!

So, while I toyed around with my new gadget last night, Kevin fixed me a delicious steak supper and after that, we watched the horrific live singing on Dancing With The Stars and flipped to Boardwalk Empire. Speaking of which, I'll have to go back and watch from the beginning. You into it? 

I'm kind of confused.

I like to think that my birthday will be a two week long festivity because first of all, I'm the only one in my office today {woohoo!} and then I still have two family dinners this week to celebrate. Then, next weekend, I'll be spending the weekend at my bff's house because she got us tickets to see Dane Cook.

That ends my birthday fun. 
I had a wonderful day and wanted to thank all my bloggies for your fabulous comments yesterday too. You're the best.

Now, someone come over here and show me how to use this Kindle! I'll bake you cookies.  

Best. Weekend. Ever.

There are no words to describe how much fun I had this weekend so I’m just gonna jump right in.
(PS-I apologize in advance for my tiny pictures. I used Windows LiveWriter for the first time.)

Every fall, our friend’s Kenny and Jennifer throw a Halloween party and this year definitely didn’t disappoint! It seems to get better and better each year. The costumes were great and the kids were all adorable. 

Lilly was a fairy but I’m not sure where her wings got to.

A pirate with my niece Abby, a “skeleton sweetie”

Natalie as a diner waitress.
Look at that pose, such sass!

This little cutie won best child’s costume.
He’s a heartbreaker for sure!

 

We had a pretty good spread of food too! 

Question, have you heard of black vodka? My sister in law made a Black Widow Martini with black vodka (smelled like nail polish remover) Chambord and grape juice. I had never heard of black vodka before Friday.

The kids weren’t the only ones dressed to kill, Kev and I came to win but the competition was strong! We will have to put on our thinking caps next year.

Batman and one of our hosts, Jennifer, as Batwoman.

A pimp and his two…um…lady friends.
Your eyes do not deceive you. They are all men.

One of the winners, Little Red Riding Hood and his wolf.
Yeah, another dude wearing a skirt. 

My sister in law, Chasity, went as a cherry pie.
Her husband, Gary, was the competitive eater.

Another winner was Dog the Bounty Hunter and his wife.


And finally, Kevin and I…

     

The cop and the inmate.

Our idea came together last minute but you better believe we will step it up next year.

Saturday morning, my sister and my friends kidnapped me. Turns out, my surprise weekend destination was the Shops at Short Pump in Richmond! I was very excited. I have wanted to go back since Kevin took me there several months ago.

We arrived around lunchtime and decided to slip into the Cheesecake Factory for a bite…a first for me. I don’t know how I’ve never been inside this restaurant because it was amazing.

My sister, Heather, our friend Kristin
and my former roommate, Lindsey 

Myself in between my other former roommates,
Michelle and Angela.

I got  the Caesar salad, turkey sandwich and artichoke soup.
It was so good but I wasn’t warned about portion size! Holy moly!

Of course, the coveted cheesecake. I wanted to get the Snckers but got outvoted.
Chocolate and pumpkin it was.

After lunch, we proceeded to attack the stores.

   

It’s safe to say Michelle did the most damage!

Once we officially shopped til we dropped, we headed back to the hotel to get pretty for dinner.

We had reservations at Maggiano’s, which was UGH MAYZING.
I say UGH because we all ate way too much.

The food is served family style so we got two different salads, two appetizers, four different entrees, and two desserts to top it all off. I give this place ten million starts because the wait staff was superb and the food was some of the best Italian I’ve had. We chose spinach dip (pictured above) and bruschetta (not pictured) as our apps. After we worked through those, we weren’t quite sure how we’d eat our meals but we picked out the gnocchi with tomato sauce, linguine alfredo, chicken marsala and four cheese ravioli. They are pretty standard so we knew everyone would like what we got and let me tell you, that was some of the best pasta I’ve ever had. The gnocchi was perfectly cook. The linguine was al dente. Man oh man, did we eat our faces off.

For dessert, our two favorites were the apple-turnover-thingy (what? I can't remember what it was called besides delicious...) and creme brulee which was out of this world.

My ass probably grew three sizes this weekend but it was all so worth it.

My girls always know how to have a good time and we such a blast. It seems like we laugh at everything and nothing all at the same time. This weekend was spent quoting The Jersey Shore, making jokes about the horrible concierge, and being hit on my creepsters. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to celebrate y birthday!

Now, not that I’m greedy, but I’m excited to see what Kevin has planned for my real birth DAY which is Monday the 25th. (Both my grandmother and father wished me happy birthday on Saturday... hmm, me thinks they are confused.) 

Hope you all had a great weekend! Cross your fingers hubs cooks me my birthday dinner! 

Fun Fridays: I WON I WON!!

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 This weekend is already off to a great start, I woke up this morning and found out I won a CSN gift certificate from Jacin's blog, She Said Yes! If you don't already follow her, head over there. She's cooler than a polar bears toenails. :D

As far as our weekend plans go, tonight, Kevin and I will head over to our friend's Kenny and Jennifer for their annual Halloween party. This year has been difficult for my costume ideas, first, I started out wanting to dress up as the Orbit gum lady and then switched to Paula Deen

But in the end, I ditched both of these ideas. Wigs are $30 people, and I'm cheap. So, Kevin and I came up with a pretty standard couples costume and I think will be pretty cute. I'll have to report back to you with pictures from the party. It always proves to be a good time and I'm excited to see what everyone else comes up with as far as costumes go.

Last year, I went as Lady Gaga for their party (no pics found for that, booo) and then little red riding hood for my party. It was a last minute idea. Can you spot a little furry Hugh Hefner?

Hugh Hef with Natasha (peacock) my sister, Heather (sailor) 

me and then Angela (slutty school girl).

A closeup of Bodie's costume from last year

I took a toddler's red tee shirt and cut it up the middle. Then, I sewed a ribbon of black silk on the bottom for trim and made a bunny stencil out of cardboard. I just used gold spray paint I had lying around and sprayed it on. After that, all I did was tie a black ribbon around his waist and voila, a smoking jacket! 

Saturday morning, I'm being kidnapped. I've only been told that my sister and girlfriends are taking me on an overnight trip and that I should bring two casual outfits and one nice outfit for dinner. At least they told me what to bring, but other than that, nada. I have an inkling of where were going but anywhere with my friends will be fun.

 My former roommates at my wedding. 3020 for life!

Not a whole lot going on Sunday I think. After I get back from my trip, I assume Kev and I will do our normal Sunday routine of grocery shopping and preparing for Monday. Ahh, marital bliss, am I right?

Any big plans for your weekend?

I Think I'm Officially Old...

I didn't plan on it, but I stayed up until after midnight watching the finale of Teen Mom

 (anyone else catch it?)

I just couldn't stop watching. The part I really wanted to stay up for was to see Dr. Drew lay into Amber and then Catelynn's mom. I love his methods. He seems to pull the truth right out of people. This topic seems to have been all over the blogs but Amber's anger is a serious issue. I'm so glad Dr. Drew played the footage from the episode where she hit Gary. I hadn't seen it and didn't realize that she hit him multiple times.
HINT: don't hit people...especially when your on national TV.

It never fails, Catelynn and Tyler always bring me to tears. Here I was, laying in bed at 11:30 at night with Kevin sound asleep beside me. Both him and the dog were snoring away and I'm bawling like a baby at the television. (The clip they showed of Carly walking?! Kills me.) They are so mature for their age and have learned so much from the situation they were put in. She has got a good head on her shoulders and it seems she's worlds away from ending up like that padded-room-bound mom of hers.

So anyway, I was up super late to catch the end of Teen Mom and when I woke up this morning -- I felt like death. You guys already know I am the furthest thing from a morning person but this time of year just makes matters worse. With the days getting shorter and shorter, it's pitch black outside when I get up for work. Not to mention, Kevin usually throws his blanket on me and tucks me in before he leaves at 2bygod a.m. so I get nice and toasty. And it never fails, the only time Bodie wants to cuddle is when my damn alarm goes off.

Oh yea, he gets all up in my grill.

These moments are the ones I savor. All nice and warm with Bodie and it's dark and quiet. Oh so excellent. But alas, I must be a grown up and go to my boring lame sucky awesome job.

I guess with my birthday looming, I just feel so OLD... I better get my act together because my young and single best gals are taking me out this weekend. I'm ready to get crunk! (We say crunk still right?)

Truth Is, My Head Looks Like A Potato

Potato, not potatoe. (I'm learning all kinds of correct spellings this week.) Anywho, why am I talking about potatoes? Because I'm a crazy chick who is self conscious and a freak about her bangs. They have to cover my giant forehead at all times and right about now, your about to see a whole lotta head. (That's what she said.) And in my opinion, I look like a potato. Remember Hey Arnold,
the football head kid on Nickelodeon? Well, I think of him and how we both have funny shaped heads when I see a few of these upcoming photos. My potato head is round and I feel that it's best covered with fluffy bangs.

Remember back when I talked about having our family portraits taken? We just got the proofs back and you can totally tell that it was a blustery day. I was in a good mood so I didn't really care at the time but now I really wish I had some damn Aqua Net that day. 

Enough negativity from me, because they actually turned out pretty good. And as whiny as I sound, I'm pleased with how most of them came out considering it wasn't the most gorgeous day outside.

 A decent shot of me and hubs, even though he kinda looks grumpy. 

Probably because I made him untuck his shirt.

 The whole fam. 

My two nieces are on the far right with their parents, Chasity and Gary. 

Kevin and Gary's mom and dad are in the middle.

 I know I'm biased because I'm related but I stroke out when I see this. They could model for Baby Abercrombie or something.

 Alrighty then, there's my forehead. Dang Mother Nature. 

I finally quit trying to fight the wind and just semi-smiled for the camera. 

At least Kev and I match, now we both look bald.

  Gary, Chasity and their girls. I really like this one.

 We almost forgot this post but I'm glad we didn't. The guys look great. This one is another fave.

 Oh hey, the wind is back & despite my receding hairline, I really like this one too. 

All the girls together.

 The whole clan, traipsing down the beach.

Okay, I know I'm probably being hard on myself with the whole Frankenstein forehead deal, but I really am happy with how the pictures came out. Oh, and you can't tell it, but during the whole photo shoot I kept yelling obscene things at my brother in law to get him to smile, and it worked. So, for future reference, if you need to get someone to smile, just call them a dork and that their ugly is showing.