2010 Year in Review

I am not going to be able to do any blogging for the next couple of days, so I thought I would do my year end post today at work.  It's maintenance week here, and I don't have anything better to do!  Warning: Lots of pictures ahead.  :)

So here is a list of the main things that I did during this year (in mostly chronological order):
- I bought a house.  (and emptied my savings account...)
                                      
- Went to Oaklawn twice.  pretty sure I didn't win, but the point is to have fun right?  See the man in the purple had and fur coat that Lyndsey is pointing at?  I think he looks like Flava Flav. haha.  The people watching there is the best.

                                  

- Went to Guadalajara for 9 days with the IBUS class.  Got sick in Mexico- who hasn't??  This picture is of me and a giant agave plant, which is used to make tequila.  This was my favorite field trip.  After this, we went to the Jose Cuervo plant.  It was awesome.
                                  
- Joined jasmere- which I love and I am a "SuperFan."
- Baby brother was born.
- Went to a few Travelers baseball games.  Got several sunburns.  :)
                                  
- Went to 2 Razorback football games.  Woo pig!  Wish I was going to the Sugar Bowl to cheer them on!
                                  
- Donated my hair for the 3rd time.  This is an after pic.  See how long it is in the Mexico picture??
                                        
- Went to the Greek Food Festival.  Bought more cookies and baklava than I should have.
- Liza and Lisa threw me a house warming party.
                                  
- Went to Elizabeth and Adam's wedding.  This is me and Desi at the wedding.  p.s. It was hot!!
                                  
- Went to Memphis with some friends.
                                  
- Went to the Lake of the Ozarks with the family.
- Started volunteering with Stone Soup.
- Started doing the EDGE for the 5th and 6th graders on Wednesday nights at church.  Here we are playing a game.
                                  
- Went to Nashville for the first time for Laura's bachelorette party.
                                   
- Went to Kansas City and stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge.
                                   
- Had an overhead light put in my living room.  yay!  we can finally see!
- Went to Laura and Hal's wedding.
                                    
- Did Race for the Cure with my mom, who is a survivor!
                                  
- Hosted the Sunday School class Halloween Party at my house.  Here we have a nerd, Little Red Riding Hood, and a pirate.
                                  
- Went to Branson with some of the girls.
                                  
- Went to see Wicked!
                                  
- Started job hunting.
- Went to that dreaded speed mixer.
- Went to the Christmas Frolic at the Historic Arkansas Museum.
- Attended my first ever ugly sweater party.
                                  
- Was Mother Mary in the Living Nativity.
- I graduated!
                                         
- Got my sorority pin made into a ring- almost 4 years later.  :)
                                         
- Went to Mississippi to see some relatives.

That's my year in review.  I am looking forward to the good things to come in 2011!

Sally's giveaway

Sally is doing a giveaway of the game Telestrations.  It looks like a really fun game!  Go check it out!

Another Christmas Post

So I've been slowly taking down my Christmas decorations.  This one is one of my favorites.  I have been making a Christmas tree with my Christmas cards as they came in.  There were some times when I was not really sure if it was going to look like a tree, but somehow it all came together.  They are more or less in the same order that they came in the mail, with a few exceptions to try to balance out the sides.  What do you think?

Christmas Events

I really wish we had just one more day off of work for Christmas!  I have been very busy.  Thursday I went to my grandad's house and we had a chili lunch.  I managed to come home with an extremely ugly orange chair and about 15 fake plants.  How did I get so lucky?  That was not my present, but just that he wanted them out of the house.  I have found a use for most of the plants (some went in the trash) and I am trying to donate the chair. 

Friday, we had Christmas with my mom.  I got lots of presents, including a coffee pot, so now I know how to make coffee.  It's about time haha.  I also got some new sheets so that I can now have a matching set.  My old ones got a huge hole in the bottom sheet not very long after I got them.  I was so mad, but my grandmother made it into pillowcases, so at least it was not a waste.  I tried to make some wreaths out of butter, marshmallows, and corn flakes- but unfortunately they didn't turn out right and looked like slime balls.  haha- but at least they tasted good!!  I got lots of other stuff too!  I only had to take back one dress that did not fit.

I spent the night at my dad's house Christmas Eve because I was concerned about the weather since I live on a very steep hill.  I ended up wrapping presents until about midnight for my dad and stepmom(can you say last minute?).  I didn't sleep much because I was so excited for Santa to come.  Just kidding- I was actually getting sick and I couldn't breathe and had to get up every 5 minutes to blow my nose.  We didn't get up to do presents until about 7.  My sister got a paper jamz guitar and I just have to say that I am glad I don't live there.  It was annoying me, and I was only there one day.  :)

Then we went over for lunch to my grandmother's house for lunch at 1, that actually ended up as lunch at 2.  I got more good stuff there.  I got one shirt that was too short, and I took it back today on my lunch break and got a glass drink dispenser (so now I need to have people over to use it) and a pie plate from Dillards.  And I also happened to stop into Bath and Body Works since it is next to Dillards, and I got a lot of stuff there too!  They had the Christmas scented hand soaps on sale for $1.25!! I was so excited because I love the peppermint scent!

Today at work starts our week of maintenance, and I am so bored.   Everyone else in my office has used vacation time for today because it is so boring.  At least I am off Thursday and Friday!

What's New?

I was just sitting here wondering if I have done anything new to blog about.... oh yeah- I graduated.  haha.  I graduated on Thursday night with my MBA, so it is now ok for you to call me Master Jessica.  kidding- maybe.

That's me after the big event.  It was really freaking cold out and between 3 cameras we managed to have only one with enough battery left to take 4 pictures.  You can tell my family loves me.  :)

So now my life is not so crazy, as all the church events that I am involved with are on a break, school is DONE, and my Christmas shopping is done.

Saturday my sister and I went to this Christmas event at a church close to my house that had ice skating, roller skating, marshmallow toasting, and carriage rides, and alot more.  The ice skating was weird because it was not actually ice, but some kind of floor (it was outside) that they put up that was not even cold!  The roller skating was a mad house because it was inside where it was not so cold!

I finished up my Christmas shopping, and now I have everything wrapped except for one thing that I ordered on etsy, which I am still waiting on.

I am super excited to have Thursday and Friday off!

Full Weekend

Friday night was my Sunday School class Christmas Party.  You have already seen my glittery outfit for that occasion. haha.  I made a mandarin almond salad that was way more trouble than it was worth.  I even melted a spoon when I was making it.

Saturday was very busy.  First I babysat my littlest brother and sister while a Christmas tree was bought and assembled for their house.  Then the sister and I went for a short trip of delivering fundraiser items that had just come in.  I got some really cute cupcake wrapping paper- well, actually I got 2 rolls of that paper because my mom unknowingly bought me the same paper from another kid.  Then we went to the most awesome place ever for lunch- McDonalds PlayPlace. Ha- That place drives me crazy but it is free entertainment at its finest!  Then we did some shopping for some goody bags for my Wednesday night 5th and 6th graders since tonight is our Christmas party.  The bags are super cute, but I forgot to take a picture of them.  Too bad all that cuteness will be wasted on kids who really only want the candy inside.  :)  Then we went to see the move Tangled in 3D.  It was very cute!  Normally I don't care for 3D movies since they hurt my eyes with too much running around, but this time it seemed to be ok.  Both of us liked the movie, and the movie theater was PACKED.  Then we went home and played SSX Tricky on XBOX which is leftover from when my oldest little brother was little.  The poor game is almost worn out.  It is a snowboarding game, and it is not too bad.  My sister would play it for hours on end if we let her.  Then we tried to make cookies, but I didn't have any eggs, so we had to run to Target.  By the time we got home, there wasn't enough time to make the cookies, so we just had dinner and I took her home.  After I dropped her off, I had to make the cookies myself to take to church the next day.

Sunday I played handbells and flute in our two traditional services at church.  I don't think it went too badly.  there was one song that was pretty bad in the 2nd service, but overall I think it was ok.  Then I went to eat lunch with my mom and grandma at Chilis.  Then Sunday afternoon was my church's Christmas kids event, called Cookies and Milk.  I had to be Mary with my littlest brother as baby Jesus in the Live Nativity.  Basically we just sat there for 2 hours and let people look at us.  :)  The event was very well attended and there were lots of fun activities such as ornament making, cookie decorating, and even real horse drawn carriage rides.

Monday night my bell choir played at an assisted living center for the residents.  It was not our best performance, but hopefully they enjoyed it.  The facility was much nicer than I was expecting.

I am still fighting off some kind of sickness, but it seems to be going away.  Hopefully I will be 100% before Christmas!

Season of Giving

Two posts in one day???  I am super blogger!!  :)

So today while I was catching up on some blogs that I follow, I went to the Cake Wrecks website.  I love this blog and it almost always brings a smile to my face.  They are doing a thing from now until Christmas where they are highlighting a different charity each day and asking everyone to give $1 to that charity.  Now, I don't have a lot to give this year, but I can certainly swing a dollar.  You don't have to give every day- just to the ones that you decide to support.  If you are looking for somewhere to help out this year, check out the Cake Wrecks website.  Some entertainment and some giving!  Today's charity is Give Kids the World.

Because I like to laugh at myself...

As promised, here is my award winning  super awesome outfit from my Sunday School Christmas party on Friday night.  Laugh all you want.  :)

What could be better than a gold and silver sequined "Oh Christmas Tree" shirt?  Not much my friends.  haha.

Aren't you glad you are my friend?

So tonight is my SS class Christmas party, and we are doing it as an ugly Christmas sweater party.  I am super excited about my outfit.  I have an ugly sweater that was dug up out of my mom's closet, my gold skirt from senior year of high school, and I'm trying to hunt down some awesome shoes.  Let's just say it is ridiculous.... and I'm sure you will laugh.  I'll try to get a picture to show you!

Last exam!

Tonight is my last exam for my MBA!  The test is online and we can take it whenever, but I am not sure if it closes today or tomorrow, so I am going to take it tonight just in case.  The first two were not that bad, so I am expecting more of the same.  I haven't studied yet, but it is an open notes test so I think I will be ok.  I have an A already in the class, so hopefully I can just keep it that way!  I'm pretty sure it is not going to keep me from graduating next week either way!

In other news, I went shopping on Tuesday night and got a fabulous new dress and shoes to wear to church on Sunday for the handbells performance.  I figured if everyone is going to be looking at me in the front of the church, I deserved some new clothes.  :)

Weekend- Better late than never

I have had a busy few days!  Friday night we celebrated Christmas with Aunt Speedy since she had to go back home to Missouri.  Then on Saturday we left to take her to Branson at 6 am (!!!) where someone else would meet us to take her the rest of the way home.  The plan was to do some shopping, but there were about 500 million people there so we decided to just eat lunch and then head on home.  I got pretty car sick and didn't do much on Saturday night other than cook some spaghetti and watch the last half of the Auburn-South Carolina game.  I couldn't even think about riding in a car for a nice long while.  :) 

Sunday was the craziest day by far!  I was in charge of my Sunday School class lesson, and then after church we moved the handbells to get ready for our performance.  Then my sister and I grabbed a quick bite to eat and went to the Christmas Frolic at the Historic Arkansas Museum.  We had a fun time looking at the exhibits and playing tug-of-war.  I am not very good at walking on stilts, in case you were curious.  haha.  Then we had to hurry back for my handbells practice before the church potluck, where the handbells played a bunch of songs and I even played the flute with them.

This is also a busy week with some big things happening- like taking my last test ever for my MBA.  Woo-hoo!  I will be done on Thursday, and graduation is next Thursday.  Can't wait!

Long Time, No Blog.

No, I have not fallen off the face of the earth....

I really haven't done too much to blog about, and I was sick pretty much all last week.  Those are my excuses.

On Friday, my mom and brother came over to help rake my leaves (or maybe they raked and I helped- whatever- I bought lunch) and guess how many bags we had?  FIFTY!!!!!  In case you don't believe me, here is a picture:

Nice right?  I am sure the yard garbage people will be thrilled tomorrow when they roll up to my house.

I also decorated for Christmas, but those pictures are on my iPhone and I am not sure how to get them on this blog, so if you want to see it, you will have to tell me how.

Saturday the HOGS played LSU.  And we WON!  It was such a fun game.  I tailgated for all of about 30 minutes since I couldn't find any of my friends.  :(

This is my cousin, me, and my brother before the game.  (And yes, my brother is in no-shave November.  And yes, my mom thinks he looks like a homeless person.)

Don't forget that you still have 2 days left to use the $5 off jasmere code: SF1BCF37A6

Today I got a Rock-It for a gift for someone for Christmas.  It is down to $21, so after the code it is only $16!!  It is a $50 value, so this is super exciting!  You should get one and help bring down the price even more!  (of course, since I bought one, I am super excited for the price to drop some more.)

Speed Mixer

Last night was the speed mixer put on by the UALR College of Business.  This was my first speed mixer to attend.  It was not as awkward as I thought it would be, but it turned out that there were no employers there looking for an employee in any role that I would want.  It basically was a waste of time, which is unfortunate.  I did talk to one of my friends who told me about another job with my current employer (she works here too) and I applied for it last night, and 5 more today.  This is a tiring process!

giveaway winner update

One of our winners decided to give up their jasmere voucher code, so I redrew for another winner through random.org and this time Lyndsey was chosen!  Congrats Lyndsey!  I will email you your code.

jasmere giveaway winners!

So the $10 jasmere voucher code giveaway is over.  We had 4 people enter with 6 total entries.

The winners are Sally and Karen.  I will be emailing you shortly to confirm that you do indeed want this prize.  If you don't want it or don't respond within 24 hours, I will choose another winner.

Don't forget that you can still get $5 off with this code  SF1BCF37A6

Congrats Sally and Karen!!

Less than 7 hours left!

Don't forget to enter the giveaway for the $10 jasmere voucher code.  If for some reason you are having trouble leaving me a comment, just email me or send me a message through facebook.  Just so you know (in case you are figuring out your odds...) this is how Karen entered.  Just wanted to keep everyone informed so we don't have any drama.  :)

The giveaway ends at 8pm CST tonight!  Also don't forget about the $5 voucher code in the post below.  Anyone can use it- just once per person though.

My first giveaway!

Do you know about jasmere?  It is this awesome website that offers a different deal everyday, usually from small companies.  Jasmere uses a social shopping method, in that greater numbers of buyers mean lower prices for everyone!  It is so fun to buy something, and then at the end of the day your card is charged less than you expected!  Everyone pays the same low price after the deal is over.  I first heard about jasmere in a magazine, and since I joined I have bought several things both as gifts and for myself. (and even won a free tote bag because I was a fan of the day on facebook.  you should go "like" jasmere on facebook for your chance to win too!!).  Sometimes the deals are products, and sometimes the deals are voucher codes that you can use to shop on the company's website.

Anyway, so here's the deal.  Two lucky winners will each win a $10 discount code to jasmere.  It can only be used one time, and expires on 12/1/2010.

Join jasmere here.  You can get an email every day telling you what that days deal is and the starting price.

You can earn three entries into this giveaway.

• Join jasmere, and leave a comment telling me that you did (or that you already have joined)
• Become a follower of my blog, and leave a comment telling me that you did (or that you already are one)
• Blog about this giveaway, and leave a comment with the link to your blog.

Be sure to leave a different comment for each entries.  AND- if I don't know you in real life, please leave me some way to get in contact with you.

The giveaway will close on this Thursday night at 8pm.  Only comments left before that time will be eligible.

And if you don't win, don't worry.  Everyone is a winner here!  I have a code that everyone can use one time per jasmere account for $5 off.  It also expires 12/1/2010.  This is a great chance to get a great deal on some Christmas gifts.  Here's the code:  SF1BCF37A6

Happy shopping!  (ps I do feel obligated to let you know that I will be rewarded somehow if I am the person who has the most shoppers use their $5 off codes.)  But I seriously love jasmere and look at this site everyday!

The Weekend

This weekend I was pretty busy, as usual.  Friday I was supposed to pick up my sister from school, but she ended up being sick, so I stayed at home with her.  It is really not that fun being stuck at home with a sick kid.  :)  I also went to the last card meeting of the year (which my sister told me should be called a card fest and not a card meeting because all you do at a meeting is talk about boring things. haha.)  where I helped make precisely 50 million thank you cards.  I even bought some of the thank you cards at the sale at church on Sunday.  I plan to use these if I get any graduation presents (hint hint).

I went out to eat with a couple of friends that I never get to see on Saturday. I also went and picked up my angel tree kid and started doing some of the shopping for her.  I have a 3 year old girl and I got her some really awesome stuff, including some light up tennis shoes.  Who doesn't like light up sparkly shoes???

Sunday I did a lot more shopping.  I got 2 baby presents and 1 shirt for $3, so I'd say that was successful!

Happy Veteran's Day!

It's Veteran's Day!  A big thank you to those that have served our country both in the past and present!

I really have the day off today, but they let me work today and have tomorrow off.  I am all about long weekends, and let me tell you, I have some big time party plans tomorrow like going to the grocery store and an elementary school carnival.  I am also glad that they let me work today because I have class tonight ( my school does not celebrate Veteran's Day, I suppose), and I did not want to be off all day and then still have to go to class tonight.

I did have a job interview yesterday.  It was an hour of questions/answers and an hour of a computer exercise.  It was interesting, I suppose.  Today I got an email for 2 online tests that I have to fill out, so we will see what happens.  I am also planning on attending a speed mixer (which is really awkward, haha) next Thursday, so maybe I will come across some job opportunities through that experience.

I don't have anything major planned for this weekend, just a bunch of little things here and there, but hopefully it will be a fun one!

Branson

I went to Branson this past weekend.  Five of us went there for a little girls' weekend/shopping trip.  We had a good time and practically shopped til we dropped.  :)  I had the intention of buying Christmas gifts for other people, but I only got 4 gifts, and ended up with a bunch of shirts for myself from Banana Republic and Gap.  We shopped at Tanger Outlets and also at the Branson Landing.  Here is a picture of our group before shopping at the Branson Landing.

We sure were tired after all that shopping.  I would say that it was a successful trip!

Wicked!

Last night, I went to see Wicked.  It was very good, although I did stay out way past my bed time on a school night.  :)  Here is a picture of the girls before the show started:

We had a fun time!  I also have a test tonight at 6 that I have not really studied for.  I looked over my notes a little, but I am just not motivated for this class.  I mean, I barely studied for the last test and I got a 97, so I have some wiggle room.  I know that is not a good attitude... but really, just telling the truth.

And today I am working on my graduation announcements!  Woo!!  Only 5 more weeks until I get a free night again!

Halloween Weekend Recap

This weekend was super busy, as usual.  Friday night, we had an event at my church where several 5th and 6th graders from different Methodist churches got together and we went trick or treating for UNICEF.  I don't know how much money we raised, but it was a good time.  People were kind of shocked I think when we showed up on their doorstep asking for donations.  A lot of people tried to give the kids candy.  Then Karen and Ashley came over to decorate.  Here are some of the decorations:

Saturday was a busy, busy day.  I ran all over town to some estate sales and garage sales and thrift stores looking for a table for my entryway.  Still no luck.  I did find one at an estate sale, but it was already sold.  I also had a few things to pick up at Sams.  After I got home I had to clean and start cooking for the Halloween party that night.  Here are some of the things I made:

A pumpkin cake (that was really carrot cake) and mummy dogs!  I thought the mummy dogs were especially cute, and super quick and easy to make!

All kinds of characters showed up to the party.  I was a band nerd, in case you can't tell.  Here are some of the other guests.

I had a visor as part of my costume too, but I took it off shortly after everyone got there because it was itchy and hot!!!  There were many other characters there too, but I failed to take a picture with everybody.

Last night I patiently waited for trick or treaters, but we ended up only having about 10-15.  I still have some candy left over.  I was trying to be very generous with passing out the candy so that I didn't have any leftover.  Oh well. I am sure it will get eaten.

I hope you had a good Halloween weekend!

Job Hunting

So today I applied for my first job this time around.  The job hunting season is officially upon us (or me).  Let me just say first of all that I forgot how much fun (not!!!) this whole process is.  However, I am graduating in December and happy to move on to bigger and better (and hopefully more fun and with better compensation) things, and this is a necessary evil.  Wish me luck!!

Photo books

Today was another awfully boring day at work.  I had about 8 minutes of work to do today.  The rest of the day I have just been sitting at my computer and waiting for people to update their blogs.  So for that my friends, you fail.  :)  There has not been a whole lot of action in the blogging world or on facebook today.  (or it may have to do with the fact that I have been checking it every 5 minutes.)  Seriously, I need a new job. I started today looking for real.  Here we go, I guess.

In other news, I had a coupon code for a free 8x8 photo book on Shutterfly (as in I only had to pay shipping).  Let me just tell you that I think this is amazing.  I made it for my Great-great- Aunt as part of her Christmas present.  It was so super easy!  All I had to do was log into my facebook page and pull the pictures off and it rearranged them in order and grouped them and placed them on the pages.  All I had to do was add the captions and pick out the page colors that I liked best.  I am telling you that I will definitely be doing this again!!  I am terrible about printing out pictures, since they are all just stored electronically. 

So now I need your opinions and advice.  Which sites do you like best for doing photo books?  And which do you think has the best deals?

Another busy weekend

This weekend was another busy one.  (And one in which no pictures were taken...)

Friday started out pretty laid back.  I ate dinner at my mom's house and went to the grocery store. 

Saturday I hit up a bunch of garage sales.  I am still looking for that perfect table/dresser for my entry way.  I can't seem to find one that I like that I can also afford.  Isn't that how it always works???  I drove all over town, and didn't buy one single thing.  Then I babysat littlest brother and little sister for a little while.  We played outside and tried to decorate a pumpkin.  Then it was time to watch my Hogs beat Houston Nutt's Ole Miss Rebel Black Bears.  I swear that is the dumbest mascot I have ever heard of.  Anyway, it was a crazy game, and lasted forever.  I am glad that we finally pulled off a win against ole Houston.  Then I had my birthday party with my dad's family.  We went to the Purple Cow and I ate way too much.  Who can turn down one of their milkshakes???

Sunday, we played handbells in church.  We played Blessed Assurance. Someone recorded us, so I am trying to insert the video in here.   I had to get it off of Facebook, and for some reason it only recorded the first few seconds to my computer, but anyway, here is a sample.  :)

I think we did ok in the first service, and much better in the second service.  After church, I went to serve food to the hungry at Stone Soup.  We served 109 people and passed out soup kits for 220 more people.  We had a lot of volunteers and it was fun.  After that, I headed back to church for the women's Bible study.  We had some bad weather, including a tornado warning.  I sure was glad to be home!

Today, I have to go early to handbells practice to play the Christmas music on my flute for the director.  Nervous!! Wish me luck!

So bored

I am so bored at work today.   Yesterday I had about 10 minutes of work to do, and today I have none.  You might think that is awesome, but really it is just boring.  Every now and again it is ok, but not all the time.  I hope that my next job is a little more exciting.  Don't worry- it is common knowledge around the office that I am looking for a new job upon my upcoming December graduation.  :)  It is not a secret. ha.

So not much has happened around here.  I did finally cook something at home.  I made this recipe that I got a really long time ago on Kelly's blog during a favorite recipes link-up.  Her's definitely looked better.  And please excuse the seasoning burnt on the side of the pan... I forgot to add it before I put it in the oven, and when I tried to put it on without taking out the dish, I got lemon pepper seasoning everywhere.

It was super easy and pretty good.  Just olive oil, salt, pepper, lemons, green beans, potatoes, chicken, and lemon pepper seasoning.  I am glad I finally cooked something so that I don't have to eat out of the cafeteria every day. 

I also made some cupcakes for my Wednesday night kids.

Now, I am an avid reader of Cake Wrecks, and I know that they always make fun of chocolate icing swirled like that because it looks like a pile of poo.  SO in my defense, I only had 30 minutes, and frankly, I didn't care.  :)  The cupcakes were delicious even if they did look like crap. (ha.)  They were chocolate and the ones on the left had cream cheese icing that I colored orange and they have Halloween sprinkles, and the ones on the right had chocolate buttercream icing with candy corn on top (obviously).  I think they were a hit, considering we had 5 kids, and none of the cupcakes made it home.

That is really all I have to share today.  Obviously both my work and personal lives have been very boring this week!!

Jam Packed weekend

Friday night on the way home from work, my mom called to see if I wanted to go to the fair.  I saw the monkey show, the alligator show, and some bad band that nobody knew the songs.  The monkey show was actually really cute and funny, and the alligator show was not.  We didn't stay really long because we knew that we had to get up early and go to the Race for the Cure.

On Saturday morning, I got up at 5:00, which is an hour that I haven't seen in a while.  :)  My mom and I went to the survivor breakfast.  We made it there, even though we couldn't find the survivor parking lot and I drove the WRONG WAY down a one way street.... The breakfast was nice and then we went to look around.  My mom missed the survivor picture because the line for the bathroom was so freaking long.  The walk was a success though.  Almost 46,000 people participated, making us move up to the #3 largest race in the country.  Woo-hoo!  There were people everywhere.  Here we are before the race started.

There were so many people that you seriously couldn't walk.  It took us forever to get started, and I am pretty sure that the runners finished before we even started walking.  There were several places where the sidewalk entertainment caused a traffic jam because people wanted to stop and watch, which slowed us up even more.  This is how long it took us:

Um yes, almost 2 hours.  It was only a 5K in case you were wondering. :)  Hopefully next year I can get closer to the front of the line and not be caught up so much in all the congestion.  At least we finished, though.  It took us so long that my mom actually missed the survivor parade.  We did at least find the survivor luncheon.  It was a long day all in all.  After the race, we hit up 2 estate sales, but didn't find anything.  I am still on the hunt for an entryway table or dresser that I can use for an entryway table.  Then I picked up my sister, and we settled in to watch the Razorbacks take on Auburn.  Let's just say that the officiating crew was less than stellar, and maybe we would have lost anyway, but man that was frustrating.  Our backup quarterback ended up playing for more than half of the game because Ryan Mallett got a concussion in the 2nd quarter.  I was actually pretty impressed with Tyler Wilson even though he did throw a couple of interceptions.  Since he has had virtually no playing time, I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  I'm glad he got the chance to show us what he can do, since Ryan has been getting all the attention, and he sure does get on my nerves!  After the game, we were going to go to Purple Cow for dinner because I have a free milkshake for my birthday, but we were too tired so we decided to eat at home.  Popcorn and brownies are a good dinner, right?  Sister of the year award, right here!

Sunday we went to church, and then to Tropical Smoothie (one of my favs!) for lunch.  Sundays are kids eat free days, at least in our area.  Woot!  I especially hate to take her to new places when I am not sure if she will like it, so I am glad at least it was free.  She is still too chicken to try a smoothie though.  I just don't get it.  :)

Then we went to Lily's 2nd birthday party.  It was good fun, and my sister jumped in the bounce house for probably a solid hour until cake time, and then played in the sand box.  All the adults where hiding in the shade.  Why is it still hot out?  I even ran the air conditioner yesterday.  Arkansas weather is just crazy.  Then Sunday night I had Bible study.  It was kind of a scary one.  We are going through Revelation with Beth Moore, and so far it is a good one.

Today is handbell practice.  It is our last practice before we perform in 2 services at church on Sunday.  I hope it goes well!!

Lately

Last Saturday was Laura & Hal's super fun wedding.  It was in Benton, and the reception was in Little Rock.  It actually worked out perfectly because we were able to watch the first quarter of the Hogs vs. Texas A&M game and then listen to the 2nd quarter on the radio while we drove to the wedding.  There even was a little fair or market or something across from the church that had cotton candy, but we thought it might be frowned upon to bring some cotton candy into the wedding.  Unfortunately they were gone by the time the wedding was over.  Sad day. Then the wedding happened during half time which was super and then we got to listen to most of the rest of the game driving to the reception.  We missed the very end because Andrea and I couldn't find how to get into the parking deck and so we parallel parked (yay me!) in front of the building and then ran inside because we were stupid.  Everyone was checking their phones for the rest of the time.  Rude, I know, but I don't think anyone really cared.  See:

This is Andrea, also known as Bandie Andie.  :)  She even caught the bouquet.  We had a little fight about it:

 Here is a picture of me and the bride:

After the wedding, some of us were invited back to the hotel with some of the groom's family, including his sister Desi.  This is me and Desi.  (And yes, I look crazy in all the pictures I took that night)

We stayed out way too late lol.  I had to get up the next morning and do the Sunday school lesson for my class, and man, I was dying. haha. 

In other and completely unrelated news, I got Lily's birthday present the other day, and I wapped it yesterday.  I decided to make a bow for it using the tutorial I found here.  I am pretty proud of how it turned out, considering that I made it. haha.

The only thing I would have done differently was use a paper that was not white on the back side, so that there was more color showing instead of the white.  Oh well, I think it is fine.  The only things that I did differently from the tutorial were that I used wrapping paper instead of a magazine page, and I didn't exactly measure the strips I cut- just sort of eyeballed it, and I used plain Elmer's glue instead of staples and glue dots.

I'm hoping to make some more of these for Christmas!

Sarah's giveaway

Sarah is having a giveaway on her blog.  Click here to visit her blog and see her cute daughter Ava!!  She is a Pampered Chef consultant and they have some awesome stuff, so go check it out!!  They even have polka dotted things, which you know gets me everytime.

And now I feel really old because I first met Sarah 7 years ago.  :)

Weekend

So, I had the most amazing weekend ever.  Unfortunately I forgot my camera cord today, so I will only tell you about what happened where I don't have pictures to document (or that I stole off Facebook).

Friday night we celebrated Ashley's birthday.  Here is a picture of me and the birthday girl:

We had a fun time.  The party was at 1620.  This was my first time to eat at 1620.  There were lots of friends there, so it was a good time.

Saturday I went to a wedding, which I will tell you about later when I have my camera cord.  Also the HOGS beat Texas A&M... woot!  We watched the first quarter and part of the second, then listened to the rest ofthe first half while we drove to the wedding.  Luckily the wedding took place during halftime, so we didn't miss anything.  :)  We got to listen to it while we drove to the reception, which was about 40 minutes away.  We didn't get to hear the very end, so everyone was looking it up on their phones during the reception... rude, I know, but necessary.  :)

And on Sunday, I was super tired because I stayed out WAY past my bedtime on Saturday, so I decided to hit up Starbucks before church.  Man, everyone else in town decided to do that too.  I was so frustrated because I had to wait 30 minutes, and also I had the Sunday School lesson for my class in my car.  I tried to call everyone I could think of to give them the lesson to start on, but of course nobody had their phone on.  If you know me, then you know the thing I hate most is being late.  I was pretty stressed out!  When I got up to the window, the lady said, "Your drink is free today!  The person in front of you paid for your drink!"  Woo-hoo!  That helped to make up for the fact that I spend 30 minutes in line.

I can't wait to tell you about Laura and Hal's wedding, but I will have to show you the pictures too!  Soon, I promise!

Busy Busy Bee

Ya'll- this weekend is so jam packed.  I can't wait to do a post afterwards to tell you all about it.  Right now I am trying to do some cleaning since Bandie Andie (haha) is coming to spend the night.  I still have to figure out what I am going to wear to Laura's wedding...... 

I just had to tell you how my test turned out:

Woot!  I was worried about how I did because I didn't think I talked enough about economics.  Our exam was very strange and was about school systems, but apparently the professor liked it.  Oh and my lack of studying scared me a little too!  :)

Check back in after the weekend to hear about all the happenings around here!

Kansas City

Last weekend, I went to Kansas City.  There were 6 of us in the car, one of whom is only 5 months old.  It went pretty well, all things considered.  We were going to visit my grandmother's aunt, Aunt Speedy. (and yes I have on a swimsuit in this picture (not naked, haha.) and no makeup and crazy waterpark hair.)

We drove up on Saturday, and spent the night in a hotel in Missouri. (The "Hamptonton Inn" if you ask my sister).  Nothing terribly exciting happened that day, except that I had to share a room with my dad and stepmom who I forgot snore like freight trains.  Never again, my friends, never again.  After getting 1 hour of sleep, and 2 football game endings, 3 episodes of Iron Chef, the Blind Side, and countless computer games, it was time to get up and complete our drive to Kansas City.  It really was only about 30-45 minutes away, but we couldn't get in our hotel there on Saturday night.  Sunday we checked into our hotel:

It was awesome and it even had a water park inside of our hotel.

See that big green bucket on the top?  Well it dumps out 1000 gallons of water every 5 minutes on unsuspecting guests who happen to walk by.  This is what it looks like:

I have a picture of me and my sister standing under the water, but unfortunately it is turned sideways and I still haven't figured that one out... ha.

We did eat some BBQ, not my favorite but whatever.  You do what you gotta do.  :)  We ate at Arthur Bryants, and they didn't have chicken, which is my preference, so I ended up with pork:

oh and this next picture cracks me up.  We were going back to our room when my dad said something about how bad my hair looked, so I had to take a picture to see it....  This is what you look like after having that bucket dump on your head 3 times:

Notice the "Thumbs- up" in the bottom. haha.  All for the blog, my friends.  Who else puts pictures of themself with no makeup and crazy hair?  Um me haha.  all for your laughing pleasure.

And this trip helped me check one thing off of my 30 before 30 list.  I have never been to Kansas before, so that checks off #26, visit a new state.

One down, 29 to go.