I'm out...

After three full days of battling the swine flu with an overflowing inbox, conference calls and press briefings, it's time... Later gators. Please hand me a Corona.

Heaven on earth

We had a wonderfully relaxing weekend with some good quality time at Eagle Lake. We headed out there Friday night after work and spent the evening having a feel cold beverages outside with Derek's parents and enjoying some old school Fleetwood Mac on the record player. It was so nice and cool outside. Even Bentley took advantage of the peace and quiet by fetching a stick and going for an occasional dip in the lake.

Bless his heart... It was definitely his own little idea of heaven out there. Usually during the summer we don't bring him because he can be a handful with a crowd, but he's getting better as he gets older, and this time he really proved that he could behave.

On Saturday our friends Drew and Kristin came over from Jackson, and we took the pontoon boat out for the afternoon. It was really choppy, but we made the best of it and enjoyed some good sunshine. It feels good to abandon your weekend to-do list for once and just enjoy the springtime weather!

Once we made it home last night, we were all worn out, especially Bentley. He played so hard that he was snoring in his sleep and dreaming about swimming. Maybe we should take him places more often. :)

Bye Bye, Birdies

For the second year in a row, a mother bird has built her nest in my spring flower arrangement inside our carport. I guess it could be a pretty safe place to raise your babies if you just ignore all the in-and-out backdoor traffic, which is quite a bit considering that's where we park and where the laundry room is.

It's all cute at first... Mama Bird builds the nest from dryer lint, pinestraw and Bentley's hair, and then before you know it, she has four or five pretty little eggs all snuggled in the warm little nest. Then the babies hatch, and then they start to poop. Everywhere...

So gross... Obviously, it only gets worse the longer the babies make the nest their home. Last year I was able to clean it off pretty easily, but this year is different. There is poop all on the greenery and and flowers, on the outside of the iron basket that holds the arrangement AND down the carport wall.

These cute little poopy birdies have finally flown the coop, and now it's time to clean. I'm grossed out just thinking about it. Happy Spring.

My totally lazy, unproductive and wonderful weekend...

I don’t think I’ve felt this rested on a Monday in a super long time. I did nothing, and I mean NOTHING, all weekend, and I don’t feel the least bit bad about it. At all…

The only semi-productive happenings of the weekend were starting the ordering process for a new sliding glass door (woo-hoo!) and carefully selecting a couple of nice, fluffy, girly books to take to the beach.

First, the door… our poor sliding glass door has needed to be replaced since we moved into this house almost two years ago. It’s been on the to-do list, but it’s never been a priority. Well, the door has come off its track one too many times and now is missing its wheel, so it really barely slides at all. Plus, if it rains, you can really give up on trying to open it. It’s pretty sad.

So, we gave in and finally took the plunge into replacing it. We love the look of French doors, but the original opening is eight feet, so we’d have to add side panels. We also like how opening the sliding glass doors actually opens the living space, so, here’s what we decided…

Ta-da! French-style sliding glass doors! The inside is unfinished wood that we can stain the color of our wood floors, and the outside is white to match the white trim. I can’t wait! It's just another excuse for a party if you ask me…

As for the books, we have this used book store down the road called the Book Rack, and I could spend hours in there looking through all the books and picking out one that I like. I lucked up this weekend and picked out two books – Bundle of Joy by Ariella Papa and Whacked by Jules Asner – that fit my beach book checklist of having girly drama, a non-British author and a pretty covers.

I just have to set them aside and not let myself start reading them before vacation.

Other than that, I caught up on my DVR’d shows and movies over the weekend and got plenty of beauty sleep. I think I’d be a lot more productive if every weekend was as totally lazy, unproductive and wonderful. :)

Bikini, you and I are not friends...

Okay, so I have a little over two weeks to go until I have to be bikini-ready. Can I do it? I think I can with the help of plenty of water, portion-controlled meals and plain, grilled chicken. That’s my plan anyways…

It’s been very clear to me that my metabolism has slowed down tremendously in the past couple of years, so it’s a bit more of a struggle these days to drop a few pounds, but it’s nothing that some strong willpower can’t handle (It can’t hurt to make sure there are no tempting foods – chocolate or potato chips – in the house either!)

So it’s off to the grocery store tonight to stock up on lean cuisines, fruit and frozen veggies. I’ve thought this through… I figured if I wasn’t spending time in the kitchen COOKING food, then I could spend that same amount of time exercising, right?

Hopefully I’ll have some progress to share next week... wish me luck in my battle of the bulge! :)

Hippity Hoppity...

A busy Easter weekend gone already... Saturday morning we headed out to Eagle Lake to visit with Derek's parents and get the boat cleaned up and ready for summer. Dressed in a little strapless top, I thought surely I could get some sun while we worked, but I was definitely not dressed appropriately for 55-degree weather. It was cold! Nevertheless, we suffered through the icy breeze outside and got the pontoon boat sparkling clean and ended up getting a little sun in the process.

We headed into town late Saturday afternoon to get ready for Jennifer Lynne and Stephen's crawfish boil and around-the-house shower at Leslie and Will's house. We planned this a while back knowing everyone would be home Easter weekend, and we had a great time! Neil boiled the crawfish, and they were delish. Pretty spicy, but I don't think there were any complaints since all three sacks were eaten without any leftovers. :)

Here are a few pics from the night, starting with the girls...

My sisters-in-law...

The soon-to-be bride and groom with one of the hosts' gifts... Next time we see these two will be at their wedding next month!

After a fun night, we woke up this morning for Easter lunch at Mamaw's house. We ate too much, as always, and then headed home just in time to beat the nasty thunderstorms that have hung around all afternoon. Unfortunately we missed our niece's Easter egg hunt, but we didn't want to risk getting stuck on the highway in bad weather. I can't wait to see pictures of Ryan Hadley in her precious Easter dress though. :)

Happy Easter!

Just call her Benjamin Button...

We had girls' night last night at Cinco de Mayo for Meredith's "23rd" birthday... Why keep aging forward when you can just age backwards, right? :)

Several margaritas later, we convinced the waitress to take our picture with our two imaginary friends, Katie and Jessie (plus baby Helen), who couldn't be there last night. So this one's for you girls...

Happy Birthday, Mere! Love you!!

Bye Bye, Scotty...

Scott got sent home last night on "American Idol." I'm happy about this. He really goobed me out, and I hate saying that because I don't want people to think I'm being mean. I'm really not. I just didn't think he was that great, and I'm not sure the world needs another Michael Buble or Josh Groban... Just my opinion, people. Now I'm ready for the real competition to begin...

Some people...

I work with a few people whose goal in life seems to be making everyone else work a little harder so they can just take it easy... Poor Derek hears the brunt of my complaints about said co-workers, so I just want to complain to someone else for a change... So read on if you care, if not, it's off my chest...

I just get really tired of doing other people's work for them. I wouldn't mind if there was an actual need for it, but here I am actually doing what's asked of me plus what's asked of them just because essentially I'm a proficient worker and they don't want to do it.

All of the people I'm referring to have the same lazy work ethic that gives state employees a bad reputation. I feel like sometimes my sole purpose is to defy that stereotype. Some of these people actually think they deserve a break because they work for the state. They think that their job is safe and guaranteed regardless. I actually heard one such person say, "Well, in this economy, I'm just glad I'm not the last person hired because you know what they say - last one hired is the first one fired, so I don't have anything to worry about." Seriously... THAT's what I get to deal with everyday.

I'm thankful every day that I have a job, much less a job that I enjoy most of the time. And you better believe I try to improve myself and learn everyday. Imagine that!

I despise poor work ethic. I don't think any job should be guaranteed. I feel like it should be deserved. With layoffs left and right these days, I guess I would just assume people wouldn't take their jobs for granted and would actually try to prove their worth, but I guess that's asking too much. And you know what happens when you assume...

Busy Weekend

My parents came up for the day yesterday and brought my grandparents for a quick visit. It was our "Easter" get-together since we won't be able to make it to Hattiesburg next weekend. We grilled some burgers and sat out on the deck enjoying the beautiful weather. After lunch, my parents were curious to try out Rock Band, so we played a few songs. My mom thinks she was a drummer in a previous life, so of course she couldn't wait to rock out. I got a short video on my camera of Derek and my parents playing "Eye of the Tiger." Derek is usually the guitarist while I sing, but I think he did pretty good for his first time. This cracks me up... :)

We even got Granny in on the action with some Wii Bowling. Here's an action shot...

Needless to say, we had a lot of fun, and Mom and Dad loved the Wii so much that they bought one when they got back to Hattiesburg yesterday. Yes, that's right... it will be party time at the Bice house from now on. :)

Last night I went to Vicksburg for Lauchlin's 30th birthday party at the Ware House downtown. It was great! Her mom the eternal English teacher wrote a sweet poem about the day she was born and recited it with total professionalism. Here's a pic. So sweet...

And here's a pic of me with some old Vicksburg friends, Lauchlin, Olivia, Cortney and Kathleen.

And of course, knowing Lauchlin, there was karaoke involved as the night wore on. Here's Lauchstar herself singing some Britney...

It was a fun party and a great way for Lauchlin to ring in the big 3-0. Happy birthday, Lauchy!

Today has been a lazy day for me, and I've totally enjoyed it. It's breakfast-for-dinner night tonight, so I'm off to make some omelets. One busy weekend down, one more to go!

It's April already??

Wow... I don't know where the month of March went... or even February for that matter. Almost every Monday night for the past two months I've spent meeting with other volunteers to get ready for the Taste of Mississippi fundraiser for Stewpot Community Services. This year's event has now come and gone, and I can't believe another year has passed!

This was my second year to help coordinate the marketing of the event, and I totally enjoyed it. As always, I got a little stressed in the midst of it all to say the least, but it's always worth it in the end. It's just hard to fully devote yourself to a project when you work full time, but I did my best. I even started a blog about it because I'm dorky like that! But it did help spread the word, which is all that matters. :)

It's definitely for a great cause... last year the event raised $112,000 for Stewpot, and the money went to support the organization's 17 ministries for the homeless in Jackson ranging from the community kitchen where anyone can show up to eat the noon mean with no questions asked to family counseling, a job center, after-school enrichment and more. I know I sound like a I should be a spokesman for this, and in some ways, I am. I believe in what this organization does, and I'm very happy to help in any way possible.

I even recruited some friends to serve on the planning committee this year, which made a bit more fun for me, and I think they enjoyed it, too. I hope they all agree to do it again next year!

We couldn't have asked for better weather for Monday night's event. We had a great time and stuffed ourselves silly with good food. My friend Katherine even won a few things in the silent auction. It was a lot of fun! And it's always nice to see your hard work pay off in a big way.

Our marketing committee will meet next week to start working on next year's event, and the planning committee meets the week after for a post-event debriefing with suggestions for improvements for next year. And then we'll actually get our Monday nights back for a while until January, when it will all start back up again.

Phew... just thinking about it makes me tired. But I can sacrifice a couple of months' worth of Monday nights if it means being able to give and do what I can to help this charity. They do good work. I can only hope to do the same. :)