Boo!

We are now officially in the Halloween spirit since we carved our pumpkins last night. I love decorating the house for any kind of holiday, but Derek really is the Halloween king.

He’ll be such a great dad one day. I just picture him showing them how to clean out all the pumpkin guts, (because you know I won’t go near the guts – they gross me out) and then the kids will draw silly designs that Derek will carve out, no matter how non-Jack-o-lanternish they are. Then everyone will get all dressed up in their costumes to go trick-or-treating (including Derek) and I’ll take pictures and drive my little costumed clan from neighborhood to neighborhood. I’m a dork, I know, but it’ll be fun! :)

Last year Katherine (the other biggest Halloween fan I know) was living with us during Halloween while her house was being renovated, and when the two of them finished decorating (I was clearly overruled), our house looked like the Grizwalds’ Halloween Adventure or something. I’m talking about almost any kind of black-lighted, motion-sensitive decoration they sold at Target was inside or outside our house. It was overkill. We were definitely THOSE people last year complete with a big Happy Halloween banner out front. Geez…

This year our decorations are a little less Target and a little more Pier One. Ha! I will say that when the Jack-o-lanterns candles are burning, our front stoop looks quite festive. I would love to trick-or-treat at our house if I was a kid. And we give GOOD candy, too! :)

Happy Time

I usually don’t do these, but since I was tagged twice, I guess I’ll give it a go. Six things that make me happy… but I’m not writing about Derek because I’m saving my sappiness for a different blog one day. I know you’re waiting on pins and needles. Ha!

1. My big family – Growing up my immediate family consisted of me, my parents and my four grandparents. I’m an only child. My mom is an only child. My dad has one brother who is eight years older and lives out-of-state, so I was used to a small family. Well, I married into a HUGE family. Derek has three siblings, and my mother-in-law has four siblings, so my immediate family isn’t so small these days. I know with bigger families sometimes you can’t avoid drama, but there’s also so much love in bigger families, and I wouldn’t trade that for the world. Don’t get me wrong, I love my three first cousins (and I’m not just saying that, Julie!) but I can’t wait to see how many cousins my children end up having around one day! And I doubt their cousins will live in Oklahoma . :)

2. My animals – We have two very loving pets at home that greet us at the door every time we drive up... our 100-pound Golden Retriever, Bentley Warren Grey (that’s his short name) and our fat cat, Izzy Marie Bice-Grey. These kids keep our house crazy with activity, and I love them so incredibly much. They are the best pets anyone could ever have, and we were just lucky enough to be their parents.

3. Christmas Eve at Granny’s – My granny decorates for every holiday, but her Christmas decorations always take me back to when I was a little girl. There’s just a nostalgic feel to it all, and there’s nothing else like it. From the stockings hanging on the old brick mantle to the hundreds of snowmen she’s collected throughout the years, Santa always loved to visit us at Granny’s and he still does. It’s definitely one of my favorite days of the year.

4. My best friends – I love, love, love to visit with my girls from college, especially the older I get. All we do is sit around and reminisce about the same old funny stories and inside jokes every time, but it never gets old. We can usually pick right back up where we left off no matter how long ago it was that we last visited, and there’s something to be said about that. I hope we’re still that way 20 years from now.

5. DVR – I’m copying Julie’s happiness with this one, but DVR has been life-changing, as sad as that sounds. Whether you admit it or not, we all have our shows we like to watch, and with the invention of DVR, we can now watch them when we want to and not when the networks say we have to! LOVE it! Although Comcast Cable is currently changing up their system so it erased all my recorded shows a couple of weeks ago. I was not a happy camper. But now I’ve reset the programming and all is well. Now I’m just waiting for Sunday afternoon to catch up on all my “stories”!

6. Emoticons – If you can’t tell, I love smiley faces in everything I write. It’s just so hard to express yourself in writing sometimes without being taken the wrong way. Some people hate them. I know this is my blog with my own opinions and rambles so I don't have to justify it, but I’m addicted to smiley faces. Deal with it. :)

Now I tag Lauchlin and Olivia, Cortney and Courtney...

Baby, it's cold outside!

Yesterday I called in sick to work and stayed snug in my bed all morning. I was feeling a bit under the weather from my sinuses, but more than anything I think I just needed a few extra hours of rest on a cold Monday morning. But I did take some sinus medicine and amazingly felt much better by the afternoon.

We battened down the hatches last night with a cozy fire and some hot chocolate to keep warm while we watched some shows we had DVR’d over the weekend. Derek’s taking up almost all the space on our DVR with Halloween movies this week, so I figured I better watch what I had recorded before it “accidentally” got erased. :)

Last night we put an extra blanket on the bed to avoid turning on the heater. We had planned to try not to turn the heater on until at least later next month, but that all went out the window this morning when I woke up as frozen as an icicle. Before I even jumped in the HOT shower I hurried to the hallway and cut on the heater just to get the chill out of the air. I’m usually one to just put on a big, oversized sweatshirt, fleece pajama pants and a pair of warm wool socks when it’s chilly, but frigid mornings can be miserable.

Looks like tonight will be just as cold, so I might as well say goodbye to our pretty summer plants and hello to frost on the ground. Brrr….

Good times in Dixie

Friday night we went to Hattiesburg - the Dixie Community Center to be exact - for my Granny's 80th birthday party. It was in honor of her and four friends who all turn 80 this year. Her actual birthday isn't until Christmas Day, but it's always fun to celebrate a little early. There were two other people under 50 (one of whom drove us all for the night) there besides Derek and me, but it meant a lot to Granny that we came, so we enjoyed the open bar and had a good time just for her. :)

I saw many "old" family friends who still remember me as the little girl who served cookies and impatiently waited for the annual Christmas Eve party to end at Granny and Pap's house so Santa could come visit. Most of the guests have been friends of Granny's since before my parents were born, and let me tell you, these oldies but goodies still know how to have a good time. Only now, they may be not so spry on the dance floor. :)

Here is a pic of me attempting to teach my mother the Electric Slide.

She just couldn't get it, so finally we just gave up and had more wine. Deane, our DD, took us all home at 9:30, and we put Pap and Granny safely to bed.

We came back to Jackson Saturday, and as we were entering Richland, our friends Josh and Lauren invited us over for burgers and football. Since it was such nice weather out, we accepted the invite and spent the afternoon on their back patio. They introduced us to a marinade called HogWine. If you haven't tried this, use it on chicken wings or in our case, deer sausage to add a tasty kick. Yum!

Last night, since it was a bit chilly, we had friends over to enjoy the inaugural fire pit of the season. It wasn't a late night, but a good time nonetheless.

Today's been pretty lazy. We had lunch with Katie and Neil, who were in town for a wedding, and Trey brought over a load of seasoned firewood. Now we are ready for the cold weather forecast for the week. It is supposed to get to the lower 30s the next couple of nights here, so bundle up!

Everyone have a nice week and a HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I'm sure I'll be blogging about that soon. :)

Chestnuts roasting...

The best part about the house we live in now is the fireplace, hands down. It was high on the wish list when we were looking at houses here, and we haven’t been disappointed. I don’t know what in the world we did before we had one! Actually, I do. We had these old built-in space heaters in both bathrooms and both living rooms in Vicksburg. They were great at heating the rooms, but they lacked the overall ambiance of a fireplace.

We made our first fire of the season Monday night. Derek just couldn’t wait any longer. We had some pine that we chopped up after the tornado in April ready to burn, but now we're out. I guess it’s time to get our annual load of wood, but in the meantime we’ve had to get by on the pre-bundled wood at Kroger. It burns so fast you might as well be burning a $5 bill, but it works fine for an hour or two.

There is just absolutely nothing like a cozy little fire to help wash away a stressful day. On a cold winter (or fall) night, curling up in warm socks, pajamas and a blanket and just watching the glow of the fire is so relaxing. And of course it goes hand-in-hand with a nice glass of red wine.

Now I’m ready to put up Christmas decorations. :)

Beer, Brats, Bands and a Baby Shower

This weekend was a pretty busy one. Friday night we hit Jacktoberfest downtown for a night of German beer, German food and great Mississippi music. This was our second year to go to this little outdoor festival, and I really think it’s one of Jackson’s best kept secrets. Neighbor Ben was on the planning committee and spent the whole night grilling burgers and brats. The weather was absolutely perfect for a night outside, and they had local art vendors lining the block of Congress Street from Capitol to Amite. My sweet husband even surprised me with a beautiful necklace I had been eyeing. I think it was originally supposed to be one of my Christmas presents, but a few beers later, he was feeling generous and decided to go ahead and give it to me. :)

Saturday afternoon I headed to Vicksburg for a baby shower for my friend Cortney. She and her husband, Fico, are expecting Baby No. 2 at Christmas, and considering I hadn’t even met their first baby, Victoria, I was excited to see both Mom and 17-month-old Victoria. Let me tell you… Suri Cruise has nothing on Victoria Linares! That baby is beautiful, and I’m sure little Gabriel will be mighty handsome himself. It was so good to see Cortney and all my old Vicksburg friends. We had a nice visit before I headed home.

Saturday night we rented a movie and ended up having an impromptu movie night/game night at Ben and Tina’s. There’s something about lounging around in pajamas drinking wine at the neighbors’ house that makes an ordinary Saturday night super relaxing. It was a lot of fun, and we all agreed that while we may not be as wild and crazy on the weekends as we used to be, there’s certainly nothing wrong with a lazy Saturday night at home every now and then. We actually talked about watching each other’s wedding DVDs next time (well, really this was Tina’s idea after a few glasses of wine.) The guys weren’t really up for it, but it sounds like a great idea to me! Ha! I’m sure we can incorporate it into our next pajama party when we plan to watch “Sex and the City” for the third time. :)

Bring on the Kleenex and NyQuil

Because of my job, it's been beaten into my head that you can't actually get the flu from the flu shot. We tell reporters this almost every day this time of year. But I've always believed this myth, and to some extent I still do. Every time I get a flu shot, I start to feel a little achy and just pretty bad in general for a day or two. And I know I'm not alone. While my boss will argue with me that it's just the vaccine "working" in the body, it seems like a pretty strange coincidence to me.

Regardless, I guess a couple of days of mini-flu symptoms is a lot better than the big bad flu itself. I had it once about five years ago. We were at Derek's family's Christmas in New Orleans and I was SICK AS A DOG. Never, never, never again do I want to do go through that again. It was just plain nasty.

Anyways, I guess I'm still on the fence about this because I just spent half an hour trying to convince Derek that you can't actually get the flu from the vaccine, all the while also trying to convince myself. He got his shot last week and now he feels like crap. I just drugged him up with NyQuil and put him to bed. So while I try to make myself believe this "fact", I just took some Sudafed myself because I feel the flu... I mean, a cold... coming on. Ugh.

Girl Time

This weekend I had some much-needed girl time with some old friends. Derek headed to Starkville for the weekend for the State-Vanderbilt game, so Friday night I was able to spend an hour or so catching up with my friend Cassidy over in Japan.

She just moved into her fabulous new house over there (it has heated floors) and was planning on doing some yard work this weekend. Apparently there is a place on the naval base that you can borrow tools, so she borrowed a weed eater to cut her grass. She said the grass was so high that when she drove up the other day some birds flew out of it, so it was time to tidy it up a bit. Long story short, if you need a laugh on this wonderful Monday, picture Cassidy (who didn’t know how to fill up her own car with gas until college) in galoshes, sweat pants and goggles trying to figure out how to get the weed eater cranked.

Saturday I hit the road to the Coast for a wedding shower at my friend Christy’s house. Her sister, Ashley, is getting married Thanksgiving weekend, and really since college, all of Christy’s friends have become Ashley’s friends, so it makes for a fun and easy get-together. The picture above was taken after the shower (notice the no-lipstick look thanks to the mimosas). Christy refused to get in the picture because she was elbow-deep in the sink cleaning all her fancy dishes. She really is the best hostess ever. Her showers look like a cross between Martha Stewart and Southern Living.

After the shower, we spent the rest of the night catching up on the back porch and topped the night off with a late night delivery from Domino's. It really was a great weekend until Derek and I both made our way back home on Sunday.

First we learned that our air conditioner wasn’t blowing cold air, so we headed off first to Walgreen’s, then to McDade’s and Kroger, and finally to Lowe’s to find the right size air filter. After a tasty dinner from Subway, we curled up on the couch to watch a movie. Wouldn’t you know about 20 minutes into it, our stupid DVD player breaks! So we begrudgingly headeded off to Target to buy a new one. We FINALLY got settled back in about 8:30 and finished our movie and went to bed. I’m glad I decided not to cook last night because the way our luck was going yesterday I could have burned down the house. :)

I just need to win the lottery...

Geez… I can’t believe it’s already Wednesday. This week is flying by because work has been so crazy lately. Derek and I both have had a hectic couple of days… the kind that once you finally get home you’re too tired to even talk about it. Maybe zombie-like is a good way to describe it.

Derek has a big release coming up that he’s been working on and several presentations to give to his supervisors and his supervisors’ supervisors. I’ve had our annual flu season kick-off that’s kept me scrambling and our quarterly board meeting today. It’s just been nuts.

It’s really depressing when you think about how much time you actually spend in a place that’s not your home and with people who aren’t your friends or family. Unfortunately, it’s just necessary for most of us in order to pay the bills. I think the problem comes in when your 8-5 life wears you out so much that you can’t even enjoy your After-5 and weekend life.

At least this busy time of year at work means the holidays are right around the corner. I can’t wait for a few days off to relax and enjoy some down time. I think we’ll both really need it by then… only about six more weeks to go. Ha!

Visiting Vicksburg

Last night we headed back to our old stomping ground in Vicksburg for a night out with some old friends. Jennifer Lynne and Stephen were in town from Oklahoma City, and Leslie was in from Houston, so we took advantage of everyone being in one place for a change and headed west.

We went out to dinner and then to The Loft downtown. It's been a year and a half since we've seen Jennifer Lynne and Stephen, so we had a lot of catching up to do. It was so good to see them and hear about their wedding plans and what's been going on in the big OKC. The weather was great, so we sat outside on the balcony and visited over a few cocktails.

Here's a pic of our group at The Loft, plus some random old guy who jumped in the picture. I mean, who does that?

Here are the girls...

And here's Derek with Lenny. They've been friends for going on 15 years now.

So after closing down the bar last night we spent the night at Katie and Neil's and headed back home this morning. It's been a lazy afternoon for us, and we're about to settle in on the couch for the rest of the night. It was good visiting Vicksburg, and it's always good to see old friends back in the place where it all began. :)

Just Like New!

Last week we finally finished updating our guest bathroom. You've seen our progress so far in replacing the green floor tiles and green toilet, and now we've replaced the ugly green sink. It was actually a pretty cool process, so I don't feel bad giving these guys a shameless plug for the great work they did.

Years ago when I was working at the paper, I did a story on porcelain reglazing for our Home and Garden special section. My editor had her old bathtub reglazed, and it made an amazing difference. So when we started talking about updating our bathroom, this was just what I had in mind for our old sink. I called around and had Integrity Restorations come give us an estimate.

The kicker for us was the fact that our sink is inlaid in the tile, and in order to actually replace the sink itself, we would have to tear out the tile on the counters. The green might not have bothered us so much if it wasn't totally rusted by the drain. It, too, was original to the house, meaning about 50 or more years old.

The "reglazers" got here about 10 on Friday morning with a trailer full of chemicals. They laid a tarp down from the back door to the bathroom and step-by-step cleaned out the rust, filled in the holes the rust left, primed and reglazed the sink with an acrylic compound. It looked like the scene from E.T. when everyone's walking around with hazmat suits. But we opened all the doors and windows and let the house air out so it wouldn't smell so strongly. Five hours later, the sink was shiny and white! It was incredible. Here's the before while they were cleaning the rust...

And here's the after... it looks like a brand new sink!

Needless to say, we were super happy with the results. It saved the old green countertops, but made the bathroom finally look finished. It's a great option for anyone who has older sinks or tubs that need a little freshening up. And the guys felt so bad about getting to our house a little late that they threw in a finishing cleaner on the kitchen sink, too. Now that's good customer service. :)