In my humble opinion...

Dear American Idol producers,

I know you’ve made millions from that little show you started almost a decade ago, and you’ve had quite a few stars produced from previous seasons. I’m definitely a Kelly fan, a Taylor fan, a Carrie fan and a Jordan fan. I consider myself an avid watcher, although maybe not so much an avid voter (although I wore those phone lines out when Bo was on, trust me.)

With all that said, I do not see the need to start with a Top 24 if there really are only five or six outstanding contestants with judge-proclaimed “star power.” Why not just start with the Top 6? Because then you wouldn’t have my primetime Tuesday, Wednesday and sometimes Thursday nights reserved for the next three months, that’s why.

Your show is an addiction, and although I say EVERY year that I won’t tune in to watch next season, I always do. I can’t break the habit. And whatever happened to the Idol Gives Back episode? The economy, I suppose.

In summary, I don’t know what I would do without my DVR. I can’t imagine actually having to watch your show live and not being able to fast-forward through ¾ of the two-hour stretch.

Patiently waiting on your next Grammy winner,

Elizabeth

The Happy Homebody

We thoroughly enjoyed the first of four weekends at home in a row. Especially after Mardi Gras last weekend, we were in need of some serious down time.

Friday night we had dinner and a movie with some great steaks on the grill and watched “Couples Retreat” by the fire. Saturday morning we slept in and enjoyed leisurely drinking coffee and making some cheese toast for breakfast. It was SUCH a pretty day on Saturday, so we headed out and about to do a little shopping for the house…

Three hours later we returned with an 8 x 10 Oriental rug for the living room, a smaller rug for the fireplace room/den and a new leather “king” chair and ottoman (which won’t be ready for pick-up for two weeks). We’ll be taking the smaller rug back because it just doesn’t work, but the big rug looks perfect, and I feel like we got a great deal! We’ve been talking about getting a few new pieces of furniture and doing a little rearranging for a while now, so none of it can really be considered impulse shopping. I’ll post pictures once the whole project is complete.

Saturday night we went to dinner at Olga’s with some friends. The company was great, the food not so great… I really hated it because I had heard wonderful things about it, but everyone’s dishes were cold once they got to our table… slightly disappointing to say the least. Afterwards we came back to our house to play – you guessed it – Rock Band. We’re so old and boring… Ha!

Sunday was a lazy day with a little grocery shopping and cooking thrown in. And I did make some great progress on Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea. It was sooo nice to be home for a weekend, and I’m already looking forward to Weekend At Home #2. I’m just a happy homebody, I think. :)

Spring Fever

Right now I have THE WORST case of spring fever I think I've ever had in my life. I am so sick of all the cold weather, snow days, nights below freezing, ice, etc. I'm OVER it. I'm ready for springtime, short sleeves and flip-flops.

We've scheduled a garage sale for mid-March so now we finally have a reason to clean out our closets and drawers and get rid of stuff that we decided not to sell in our last garage sale that has since just taken up space. I love garage sales... not so much getting up early, but I love to sit and watch all my stuff leave my house and go clutter someone else's house. One woman's trash is another woman's treasure, I suppose. It doesn't hurt to have a cold mimosa or bloody mary in my hand to pass the time, either. That's how we do it anyways. :)

The last garage sale we had was right before we moved from Vicksburg, and we sold a dining room table set, a couch and a loveseat. All of it went to good homes, so it was pretty rewarding to see something you've had and enjoyed for so long head off to be enjoyed by someone else. The only part I don't like is the pricing. I tend to price things a little higher (i.e., clothes never worn or worn maybe once) at like $3 or so, which I think is totally reasonable. Derek disagrees and thinks clothes should only be priced at a quarter or maybe 50 cents. Ugh... so sad.

So now we have a few weekends ahead of us with no plans except to spring clean!!! I may be sneezing for the next month straight, but at least my house will be clean and ready for sunshine and springtime. Now if I could just convince the weather to agree...

'The Big Snow' and The Big Easy

As much as we hated to leave the beauty of “The Big Snow” in Jackson on Friday, we weren’t going to let anything stop us from joining in Saints Fever down at Mardi Gras this year, not even half a foot of snow!

Here are a few pics from the snow day… it truly was unbelievable.

It was equally as cold in New Orleans this weekend without the snow. The weather people were preparing for “the coldest Mardi Gras on record” and they didn’t disappoint. Here are some pics from our weekend in the Big Easy.

Who Dat!!! Drew Brees!

Here’s my overall summary of the weekend:

• It’s easy to get some good beads if you’re a girl standing on a cooler on the front row of the parade route… especially within arm’s reach of the floats on Valentine’s Day.
• You know you’re old when you want to leave before the end of the parade to beat traffic and make it home to bed by 9:30 p.m.
• People-watching doesn’t get any better than at Mardi Gras… in sunglasses so no one can see you staring, of course.
• Whatever city officials advocated for no public porta-potties on parade routes should be ashamed of themselves. That’s just mean.
• Do not, under any circumstances, try to cross the street in the middle of a marching band. The cops are not friendly to us “outsiders.”
• Just when you think you can’t listen to “Stand Up and Get Crunk” one more time, it’s impossible to get sick of it when you’re in the midst of the Who Dat Nation decked out in their black and gold a week after the Saints won the Super Bowl.

As for Valentine’s Day, my sweet husband surprised me with a new pair of Rainbow flip-flops and a book I’ve been wanting to read. He also treated me to dinner out at the restaurant of my choosing last night. I chose Cool Al’s burger joint. Why? Because I’m too old for Mardi Gras in New Orleans and was still recovering from it, that’s why. :)

Family Ties

Ever since Bo Bice made it to the “American Idol” finals, I have been trying to trace the family connection. Let’s face it… Bice is not a common last name, and he’s from the same general area in Alabama where all my Bices are from, and there might be a little family resemblance. Maybe the musical talent doesn’t so much run in the “family,” but still…

My cousin Gef did a little research, and the closest possibility he could come up with was that Bo might be our third cousin. Maybe, just maybe, Bo’s grandfather and my grandfather might have been first cousins, meaning Bo’s great-grandfather Bice and my great-grandfather Bice might have been brothers. That’s a lot of maybes, but I believe it. It’s my one little claim to fame, so let me have it.

Anyways, my point with this is that my Grandma called yesterday and said she met somebody at the nursing home there (she’s in Decatur, Ala.) that lives next door to Bo’s grandmother. Hello! If that’s not a small world, I don’t know what is!

I saw Bo Bice in concert at Riverfest in Vicksburg the year he was on “Idol.” I had a lot of fun – maybe a little too much fun. I vaguely remember making a bit of a scene. I’m not sure if it was because it was a great show or because I was just excited to be seeing my “cousin,” but it didn’t matter. I won’t mention how desperately I tried to get a backstage pass to meet him. I had no luck, which in hindsight was probably a good thing. He probably would have disowned me as a Bice that night.

Tonight “Idol” starts Hollywood week. I said I wasn’t going to watch it again this year, but I lied. It’s hard not to watch when it’s on two to three nights a week. I doubt anymore long-lost family members will come out of the woodwork and make it to the top 12, but you never know. I’ll be on the lookout just in case...

Part of History

This pictures says it all... Drew Brees celebrating his Super Bowl win with his baby boy. WHO DAT!!!

We had a pretty quiet weekend, and we ended it by watching the Saints make history last night in our pajamas on the couch. No crazy party at the Grey house, but we watched every single minute of the game and every single commercial. Those 3 1/2 hours of game time flew by, and then when it was over, we joined what seemed like the rest of Jackson in celebrating with fireworks in our backyard. It was a great feeling.

And now, Super Bowl MVP Drew Brees has a week to rest his arm before throwing me some BREES BEADS at Mardi Gras this weekend!!! Forget the traditional purple, green and gold... I'm wearing my black and gold!

I can't wait to get down to New Orleans, home of the Super Bowl XLIV Champions!!!

Baby Ferrell

Is a...
GIRL!!
We're so excited to meet our sweet little niece this summer!
Congratulations, Katie and Neil!!

Carnival Time

It’s getting close to Mardi Gras, and we kicked off the season Saturday night with the Krewe of Elks Carnival Ball in Hattiesburg. The limo picked us up at 6:30, and it was entirely too much fun to see everybody trying to peek through the tinted windows at the stop lights. I think they thought that maybe we were Tiger and Elin out for a rendezvous in the ‘Burg.

The theme for this year was The Roaring Twenties, and we had a great time, as usual. This was our third year to go to the ball with Granny and Pap, and it’s always a fun night. Here are a few pics…

Sweet Gran and Pap...

Derek with his friend, Emma Rose...

Granny's always royalty...

My two favorite queens, Peggy and Debbie ... I think I look like a natural in a crown. :)

Now I'm in the Mardi Gras mood!!! Two weeks to go!