Sunday Social

It is seriously 11:23 and I just got out of bed a few minutes ago. Yesterday I never left the house. Lazy weekends are the best. I am kind of disappointed that I have to run to Kroger today! Although tomorrow is a holiday, so another home day, and I work from home Tuesday, soooo....staying in might start to drive me nuts by then! (Well, I say this, but then Wednesday will roll around and I will whine about how I have to get up and leave)

It's Sunday social time! This weeks questions are all about 3's...



1. Top 3 favorite kinds of food

Southern, Italian & wine - that counts for a food, right? :) 

2. First 3 things you do in the morning

Put my glasses one, check my email, turn the tv on - priorities people!

3. Last 3 things you do at night

Take out my contacts, wash my face, and usually play endlessly with my iPhone until I fall asleep.

4. 3 TV shows you NEVER miss

Modern Family, Dance Moms, Dallas

5. 3 places you want to visit

Italy, Australia, Greece

6. 3 people you can always count on

Rita, my sissy & my cousin Em

Come on Spring!

You know what I hate? Winter. You aren’t going to find me outside making snow angels screaming about how beautiful the snow is. Of course, I’m a southern girl, so – a lot of northerners make fun of me when I panic when the word “snow” comes into play. In our defense, we aren’t really prepared for it the way folks up north are --- and our drivers don’t know what we’re doing. Myself included – last snow day (okay more like flurries) consisted of me rushing out of work early, driving 20 mph on the interstate while people rode my ass behind me and calling my sister while I sobbed, telling her about my freaking out while I passed a ton of cars on the side of the road. (Apparently I launch into drama queen mode during snow days) This week Nashville went from flooding, to tornadoes to ice warnings – good grief! And, you can imagine what ice does if just flurries throw us in a tizzy! Thankfully, like any good Tennessean – I went to the store Monday and got my milk and bread before they sold out. But seriously, can we kick this weather to the curb and spring just hurry up? Besides, I really need to be in flip flops, no one can see how adorable my painted toenails look when I have to wear boots all the time. ;)

And while I’m mentioning things I hate, let’s discuss the inhumane news of the day – Disney has cancelled the 3D release of “The Little Mermaid”. Whaaat? Doesn’t Disney KNOW that the twin cousin & I already PLANNED this out? Rocking Little Mermaid t-shirts and driving to our halfway marks to see this in the theater? I mean – it’s the Little Mermaid! The best Disney movie ever made. We feel jipped. ;)

So, I was hesitant to tune into Idol last night because let’s not lie: I cannot stand Nicki Minaj. But I love the audition period, and I love Keith Urban, so I tuned in. I’m not surprised it wound up being low ratings, really. It wasn’t anything spectacular. Nicki and Mariah’s arguing is already annoying – I was over it the first 10 minutes in! (But I will say: Mariah EARNED her diva status, and everyone knows it! She’ll even readily admit it!) There were some super talented kids on there, definitely – and a lot of not so talented kids on there. I don’t know, am I the only one thinking Idol just really needs to call it quits? I used to be such a faithful watcher, but the past few years I’ve wound up turning it off after the audition periods.

Just so I don’t completely sound like the negative nancy in this post, let me just say: it’s a HOLIDAY WEEKEND this weekend! I’ve gone over in my head a million times on how to take advantage of the long weekend, but vegging on the couch seriously sounds like the best option. I’m allowed to be lazy on holidays, right? I did start looking at my “Crafty” board on Pinterest so I could maybe start a few projects I’ve really been thinking about - maybe it’ll jumpstart me into hanging up the frames and stuff I got for Christmas? They are still sitting in the boxes!

Happy Almost Friday!

Happy Birthday K-Man!

11 years ago today, my mom & I beat my sister and brother in law to the hospital to welcome this sweet boy in the world. At 6:04 am, Kadin Michael showed up as loud as could be -- and immediately became the most important boy in my world. Because Mom was the first person to ever hold Paige, my sister made a point to make sure I was handed Kadin as quick as possible. My sweet boy even wore his "My Aunt Loves Me" outfit home from the hospital.

My sweet Kadin has grown so fast, and has gone from being this sweet faced baby to a little boy whose  going to be in Middle School soon.  Time has flown by.....there are so many days I want to go back to when he was this tiny little man, but he's grown into such a sweet boy that I cherish my days with him now.  I have never missed a birthday or a holiday --- or any big event for that matter -- with this kid and I never will.

There isn't a day that I have Kadin that he doesn't tell me that he loves me, or thanks me for taking him somewhere (or buying him something), or his newest was, "I wish this moment with you could last forever!".  Almost weekly, we joke at how he reminds of us me instead of my sister -- his finnicky eating habits, his grades at school, his quirky little habits -  he's so much like Aunt Nicole it's crazy! 

Happy Birthday to the sweetest, cutest boy on the planet that I love more than anything in the world!

Sunday Social

Sunday Social is all about introductions today, so I thought I'd chime in! 1. What is the name of your blog? How long have you been blogging? Girl & Her Camera, which is pretty self explanatory. It was just a good idea to have my own personal blog for some random images, to keep my business and personal photos separate.

I've lost count -- off and on for years. Seems like I'd start and then stop, start and then stop, etc. 

2. Why do you blog?

Mainly to document  -- I actually used to be pretty fabulous about writing everything down and keeping scrapbooks of my photos, but it's just so much easier to blog it and always have it to look back on. Plus,  it was a great way to keep up with some family that isn't on Facebook, etc, and ensure they can log on and see what the kiddos are up to. My family is so all over the place, it's a great place for everyone to be able to see what we're up to!

3. What is the first blog you ever followed?

Is it terrible that I don't remember? It would go way back to the Livejournal days- no wait, Teen Open Diary days!

4. What is your favorite post you wrote in 2012?

Since I restarted the blog in 2012, there isn't a massive amount of posts to choose from :) 

5. What are your blogging goals for 2013?

I don't know that I really have any - I'm not a blogger that is trying to advertise or make money off the blog, I'm blogging to document...so I guess, blog more? 

6. Top 3 favorite blogs to follow?

Galloping Around the Cosmos - of course! My twin cousin, who will be back to blogger soon whether she realizes it or not :P

Kentucky Blonde - I love reading her blog! It helps that she has a love for Kentucky Wildcats!

Little Baby Garvin - you have to check out her blog at the very least to see her creativity with chalk boards -- amazing! 

The end is near....

I can't be the only one who feels like this week is lasting forever, right?! I cannot believe it's only Wednesday (don't get me wrong - I've been waiting for tonight to get here since Modern Family came back tonight!). Here I was, all ready to get back to my normal routine - but I wasn't really ready for the incredibly long first full week back! Thank goodness Friday is near....

However,  I have been so crazy productive this week --- it's been nice to have free time lately to GET other stuff done! I'm done with my work out, made dinner, and ready to veg for the night and it's only 6:15 - total success!

My goal this week is to somewhat re-vamp PLN - and that's it! And then, Monday is this handsome boy's birthday:

I cannot believe he's almost 11 - seems like just yesterday I was in the delivery room crying! I was the first person to hold him after my sister and brother in law, so I totally believe that's why he's MY boy ;) He's got a party Saturday with his class from school, but first thing in the morning, Mom & I are taking him to iHop, and then to Lowe's for his Build & Grow session. Then our family party for him is Sunday. He is so stinkin' cute on his birthday, and I love watching him open his presents! So this weekend is ALL about my little K-man! 

I've found some great blog challenges on a few of your blogs and on pinterest -- I've got to jump on board, but without needing to blog every day. Is it cheating to do the 365, but post a roundup of it each week? And, a basic 365 or should it be the monthly challenges that require certain things to shoot?

Tomorrow is the UK-Vandy game! A big game here --- LET'S GO BIG BLUE!

Weekend Ramblings...

I saw this on Pinterest tonight and fell in love:

This list is so great, and made me think of how some of these truly work. I can't tell you how many bad days I've left the office and immediately turned on my favorite song in the car to jam to -- and usually I forget what I was mad about and move on. Let's just say the "Cook a Meal from scratch" is so never going to happen in this house though :) 

Speaking of Pinterest....I've been looking up 12091021 things on there for decorating and crafting ideas. Since I've made the decisions to cut back on some work and have more "me" time this year, I am going to finish decorating this place, and change it up a little bit. I cannot believe I've lived here 2 1/2 years and still haven't fully decorated. Not to mention, I have major organization that needs to be done - especially in the kitchen. 

I spotted this, and thought it might be super awesome for the cupboards, and make my own labels to match the color scheme of my kitchen.

I was thinking of doing this for the hallway  -- especially the quotes. The hallway is where I keep Granny's urn with a framed picture of her. I was thinking this whole wall that I keep that on would look so great with family portraits and quotes.

While on pinterest, I discovered Craftgawker -- has anyone else seen this? It's an insane amount of awesome craft projects to do. It's also addicting like pinterest -- I discovered it today and spent two hours on it. I can already tell what my 2013 is going to be full of....

Shrek the Halls

I'm back to the internet world! Okay, not that I was ever really without internet, but..my Macbook crashed! Yes, again! It crashed in November, and I had to replace the hard drive. I couldn't complain, it was still on the same HD from 07, so 5 years - not too shabby. I bought a new Seagate drive at Best Buy, and it's been running like a champ since. That is until the other day when it refused to boot up after I shut down one night.  And it turns out, that brand new drive was dead already!  Best Buy couldn't refund me since it was past the 30 day mark, so I sucked it up and went to MacAuthority, got it taken care of-and then shipped the dead drive to the manufacturer along with the notes from the technician.

So, I can finally catch up (and I can start revamping the blog! The new look is up, but I haven't finished everything I wanted to put up!)! Sunday, Sam, the kids, John and I all headed up to Opry Mills and then Opryland Hotel to scope out the lights, just to see if they'd done anything different this year, and to take some family pics since we had Salem in town. In the midst of taking pictures we spotted Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, and Alex the Lion - because they are all part of the Dreamworks packages that Gaylord did this year. Bummed that he couldn't meet Kung Fu Panda or Shrek because we weren't package holders, I promised Kadin after pictures I'd take him over to see Shrek the Halls on Ice!  As we went up to get our tickets, Kadin took my hand and said, "I wish this moment could last forever!!" - pretty sure I melted at that point. Love this freaking kid!

Just a few pics from Shrek the Halls, they did SUCH a great job on it this year! And fabulous to know: we went December 30th, and the last day for it was January 1st. The entire gift shop was 50% off all the merchandise. Excellent time to go - they still have a huge amount of the merch left. Instead of souvenirs, I took Kadin to dinner and then Walmart to let him pick out a wrestler he wanted. Because you know, I'm a sucker, and he knows Aunt Nicole will buy him anything he wants. (And it actually played out like "Kadin, I need to stop by Walmart real quick to grab some party supplies for NYE".."Sure, can we go look at the toys when you're done here??")

One of the first exhibits. 

This shrek was SERIOUSLY ginormous! 

K-Man with Puss N Boots! He got so excited he just had to put his arm around it. 

Kadin going down the ice slide! He was so cute when he first started sliding down. 

I kept telling him to hold his feet up to make him go faster, but he didn't understand.

Absolutely terrible, obligatory self inflicted picture with cutie pie!

One of the last exhibits -- even the babies were represented so cutely :)