Yay for Friday!!!

Check out Smart and Trendy Moms' Blog for this awesome Blog Hop.

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We're a week into this New Year, and how've you done with any of your Resolutions, Goals or Wishes?

I'm into book number 3 for the year.  With two books read under my belt, I've got 123 to go.  Pacing myself perfectly.

Book #1 was:

Book #2 was:

I've also been working on my weekly menu planning and actually sticking to said menu.  :)  So far, so good.  I think we strayed one night, but for the most part, we're on track with that goal as well.

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My "PROJECT" for the month of January going into February is to de-clutter and re-organize our den.  Plain and simple.

I have a TON of beach wedding stuff I have to get rid of.  So, I'll be listing everything wedding related on a few Wedding Planning Forums. 

I'm going to organize all of my baking pans.

 (And believe me when I say I have close to 75 or so pans of different shapes and sizes).

After the den is completely organized and looks awesome, I'm headed to the kitchen.  Re-organizing the cupboards for sure!!

I want to use these SnapWare containers.

I will be sure to take before and after pictures of my de-cluttering and re-organizing projects. 

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What do YOU have on your plate this weekend?

As for me, I have a cake & cupcake order for Saturday; a two tiered cake order for Sunday; my daughter's 21st Birthday dinner on Sunday  AND, somehow I have

to squeeze in FOOTBALL both days!!  Yikes!!

Happy Friday and GO STEELERS!!

ELEVEN...EIGHTY FOUR...EIGHTY SIX...

ELEVEN

Mondays left.

EIGHTY FOUR

Days until we sail.

EIGHTY SIX

Days until our vows.

Can you all start freaking out with me please?!? I haven't even ordered my bouquet yet. Nor have I ordered the gals' bouquet. Or the the guys' bouts. What is with me?!? I mean seriously shouldn't these have been done already? Especially since these have to be Silk Flowers? Aye Carrumba!!! I'll be working on that today for sure!! :)

Book Goal

Did you guys noticed that over the weekend, I finished book number 9. I'm very excited! I love to read and can lounge around all day if I could and just read, read, read!

A friend of mine, who is also a Destination Wedding Bride to Be told me about this website called PaperBack Swap. It's a web site where you can trade your books that you have at home. So, if you have books sitting at home collecting dust and you want to 'recycle' them, you can swap them for another book with other readers. You list your available books and other members will be able to see what's in your library. You'll have to mail it to that person who requests it, but in the same token, when you request a book, it'll be mailed to you at the shipper's expense. I just recently signed up, but haven't had the opportunity to actually 'swap' anything just yet. I'll definitely be taking advantage of that today though. It's something worth checking out!!!

Well, I just finished my 'Quiet Time', reflecting on today's Verse of the Day along with my morning Fruit Smoothie, so now it's time to let Jillian do what she wants with me. I know I'll be hurting later this afternoon, but remember.......... I only have 86 days left until I need to fit properly in this:

So, with that being said....let the Shredding begin!

Happy Monday!!!

Interesting Evening!!!

So, the Vikings lost to the Saints. At least they went into OT, so it was a very close game. There was, of course, two very questionable calls at the end of the game which would have made a difference in the outcome, but it is what it is.

It's the Saints vs. the Colts in the SuperBowl. I'm not really a fan of either team to be quite honest, so I really don't care who wins. I have tons friends who are Colts fans, and some who are Saints fans so, may the best team win.

We had a great day at our favorite joint in town, Cool Hand Lukes watching both games today. I made some home made Cinnamon Rolls again and brought them to the restaurant for all to enjoy. Today was Brian's day. It was his team playing so it was all about him. Needless to say, all of our friends were quick to buy Brian rounds of beer. And so despite the fact that Brian doesn't usually drink more than a couple of beers, he tied one on this evening!!! Well, why not?!? His Vikings were playing for a spot in the Super Bowl!!! I am grateful for the fact that #1) this doesn't happen very often; #2) Brian is a FUNNY drunk; #3) we had a great time with friends!!!!!

A Cat named "Mo-Mo"

We have a stray cat that the entire neighborhood adores. He belongs to nobody in particular, yet everyone feeds him and looks out for him. Brian and I have named him "Mo Mo", short for Maury...which is a nick name for Maury. :) Well, since it's been raining the last week, poor Mo Mo has been taking refuge underneath cars to keep dry and out of the elements. Three days ago, Mo Mo curled up into a little ball and plopped his happy little butt at our front door. Brian literally has had to step over him on his way out the door every morning. Well, with the weather being as bad as it is, I made a little shelter for Mo Mo. I took a large Rubber Maid storage conatiner, set it on it's side, put a rug in it along with a few American Airlines blankets in it and placed it outside our front door, to the left. Sure enough, Mo Mo took refuge in there to keep warm. Well, for the last three days, he didn't budge. I really didn't think anything was very odd because I figured that I just happened to check on him at the right times... I never saw him leave or anything...he was always in his little home.

Well tonight, with Brian being a little intoxicated, he decided something is wrong with Mo Mo because he hasn't moved from the shelter I made for three days. Brian wants to keep Mo Mo in the house for the night because it's expected to rain overnight and it's obvious there's something wrong with him. After discussing it for a few minutes I relent and gave permission to have this cat brought into our home. BUT.... the RubberMaid home along with the cat has to stay in the bathroom with the door shut! Ya think that worked?!? Nope.

Intoxicated Brian + Stray Cat =

After approximately 15 minutes later..................

I was able to get Brian in bed and the cat back outside where he belongs! It was difficult convincing Brian that Mo Mo would be fine outside. I even put used an extra blanket to drape over the RubberMaid container to keep it a little warmer for him. He'll be okay. He's a cat. Cat's can survive in nature! :)

Off to bed I go now ~ it was a long day!!!! Hope everyone had a great Sunday!!!

P.S. ~ I finished my 9th book of the year this morning! Woo Hoo!! :)

Horry for Booked Cabins!!!

Catalina Island Baby!!!

I get an email from Carnival Cruise today with ANOTHER guest booking confirmation! Yipee!

We now have a total of 16 cabins booked into our group and one booked outside of our group!
Total of 34 guests cruising with us! Woo Hoo!!

The sad part is that although our friends that booked today IN our group, they're not guaranteed to be dining with us because the early dining option is completely filled up at this time. So, although they're on a waiting list, chances are that they may not get to dine with us!! Boo. An option I have, or so I was told, is that I can speak to the Maî·tre d' upon arrival and let them know the circumstances to see if they can accomodate us. I suppose we can always try.

Other than that, I'm completely excited that we have that many people sailing with us. I know that there is a possiblity that some may have to cancel at the last minute, but I'm fairly confident that at the most, there will be only one couple that has to bow out at the last minute. And of course, that's for health reasons, so I'm totally okay with it.

Did I share with you all my great TARGET find yesterday?!?
You all know I absolutely ♥ shopping at Target right?!? Anyway, I was going to buy the Crystal Light Juice Packets for my Welcome Bags for my guests cruising with us. (Actually, they're Target's Market Pantry Brand ~ they're the exact same thing, but tastier and cheaper!!!)

Well, normally they come in a box of 10 packets for around $2.49 or so. So I figured I'd have to purchase three boxes ~ roughly $7.50 and each Welcome Bag would get one juice packet in their travel mug.

What do I find in an end cap?!?

A Plastic Travel Container with 5 Juice Packets inside for $ .99!!!! Yes!!! NINETY-NINE CENTS!!

So little 'ole me purchased an entire case of 24. Now, each Welcome Bag will have a nice travel container with 5 juice packets instead of having just one! :)

Did I mention that I ♥ Target?!?

100 Books Goal

Here we are....19 days into the New Year and I have read a total of 6 books to date! Yipee! Here at the books I've read:

1. Summer at Willow Lake - Susan Wiggs' Lakeside Chronicles series


2. The Winter Lodge - Susan Wiggs' Lakeside Chronicles series


3. Forgot the title to this one, but I'll come back to it soon! :)


4. Dockside - Susan Wiggs' Lakeside Chronicles series


5. Snowfall at Willow Lake - Susan Wiggs' Lakeside Chronicle series


6. Just Breathe - Susan Wiggs

I'm currently into my 7th book ~ and it's a Harlequin SuperRomance! :) So it'll be a quick read. I figured I should get all my reading I can in since the next 6 months are totally fun filled!!!

Hope you all had a wonderful Tuesday!!

"Knowledge is Power"

Yesterday I did a very small wedding cake for a client. It was just three 6" cakes, very plain, simple and easy! Love those kind!!!

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20 years ago yesterday, I gave birth to an amazing, precious and cute little baby girl who captured my heart the minute I laid eyes on her cute little dimples! Today, she is a very well educated, beautiful young woman who has a great head on her shoulders. I am so very proud of her in so many levels! She attends college full-time and has two part-time jobs which she simultaneously juggles. (Sometimes at one of the two jobs, she puts in a 40 hour week).

HAPPY 20th BIRTHDAY ASHLEE

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Yay! I've just finished book #2 for the year 2010 ~ 98 more to go to reach my goal of 100. Yipee!! I finished Susan Wiggs' 2nd book in her "Lakeside Chronicles" series. I found out that there are 4 books instead of the three that I previously shared with you guys.

I am a person who absolutely loves to read! I spend every.single spare moment of my day reading. Some people say I read too much however, I don't believe so. I read an array of subjects, if you will, including fiction, drama, romance, biographies, and many, many more. When I was a little girl I was once told "Knowledge is Power" and I've always kept that quote in the back of my mind while growing up.

I remember also, in 7th grade, I had an Language Arts teacher who started each day with a "Word of the Day" which was written on the chalk board. We had to look up that word, write it's definition and then use it in a sentence three different ways. I learned so many new words that year; periodically, I find myself using words that I learned back then. One of the words that I remember like it was yesterday is "Discombobulated" ~ each and every time I used that word, it reminds me of the "Word of the Day" words back in Junior High.

In 8th grade, I no longer had that same teacher so I made it a point to continue with the routine on my own. Every evening while I was doing my homework, I would break out an Encyclopedia and randomly pick out a word. You know, open to a page, close my eyes, then point to a word. I would then look that word up in the Dictionary and write it in my "Word of the Day" Journal.



Funny, because when my mother diciplined me she would pick a page out of the dictionary and make me copy one entire column (there were two columns per page in our dictionary). Yes....punishment at it's best! I learned many words that way as well. I was really excited when there were words that I already knew from my "Word of the Day" knowledge thru school!

So, my lovely bloggesphere friends ~ today's Word of the Day (according to Merriam Webster) is:

"Cosmeticize".
Meaning: to make (something unpleasant or ugly) superficially attractive.
Example Sentence
The authors of the legislation have cosmeticized it with tax breaks and tax cuts.

You've now (potentially) have learned a new word!!!

Something else that I've been doing on a daily basis is keeping up with my "Verse of the Day". I update it daily on my blog which you can view here. There are days when I don't blog about something, but I most definitely take the time to update the Verse of the Day for sure. It's something that helps me define who I am and I try to apply what I learned to my everyday life. It's my Quiet Time for the day should my day become to0 hectic.

On to another subject!! The other day I posted tons of pictures of our overnight road trip to Los Angeles along with a narration of what we did. Well, the 30+ degree temperature change in the climates from one day to the next really took it's toll on Brian. He's been under the weather since super early Friday morning! Poor guy! Needless to say, he stuck it out at work on Friday afternoon and immediately bundled up and went to bed. He spent the entire evening in bed and then yesterday, again, he spent the entire day in bed!!! He's been taking some Cold & Flu over-the-counter meds since Friday so I hope he'll be feeling better today. I was keeping my fingers crossed that it would be a 24-hour bug, but I highly doubt it. His first California cold!!!

Hope you all have a WONDERFUL Sunday!!!