Big 3-0 Birthday Tour Stop #2: Jacktown

Round Two of my birthday celebration commenced this week. On Sunday my parents and grandparents came up for an early birthday brunch at Julep. If you've never had brunch there, I highly recommend it. It was delish! We had a great visit, and the mimosas were two-for-one. :)

Yesterday was my actual birthday, and I had an all-around wonderful day! I was greeted with this birthday poster in the lobby of our office at work. And no, those aren't my man hands. In fact, only the head is mine. Our graphic designer photoshopped it. I love it! It's very "me." Ha!

Then right before lunch I got these beautiful flowers from Katie, Neil and Frances (and Jack). So sweet!

After a day full of texts, phone calls and Facebook wall posts, we went to the Bulldog for my official birthday party. Katherine had decorated a big table outside and even bought me a party hat that said Over The Hill. Nice, huh?

It was SO NICE and fall-like outside - perfect for a birthday party! Claire even made me lemon (my fave) cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I felt so loved!

After the Bulldog, we went to McB's near the Reservoir for some karaoke. I sang a little Fleetwood Mac and called it a night about midnight. Not too bad for a Tuesday night 30th birthday celebration...

I can't let the birthday blog post go by without saying a word or two about my sweet husband. He has made this the BEST birthday. He spoils me rotten, and I love him for that! :) For my big 30th birthday present, Derek had my engagement ring/wedding ring reset, and it is absolutely beautiful. I can't stop staring at it. I'm a lucky girl to have a man that loves me this much.

I have the best family and friends anyone could ever ask for, and I'm proud to welcome my 30s. I have a feeling it will be the best decade yet!

Lights, Camera, ACTION!

Yesterday was our big filming day for "The Help." We reported to the church right next to the set bright (well, actually, not so bright) and early at 4:30 a.m. Our alarm clock actually went off at 3:15 a.m. I think that's a first. Like Derek said, I'm not quite sure if that's classified as a really early morning or a really late night.

But anyways, so we check in at 4:30 a.m. with curlers in my hair. We go straight to wardrobe to get our costumes they picked out for us and then go get changed. Derek went one way, and I went the other, and this was one of the few times I saw him for the rest of the day. Once he was ready and had gone through hair and makeup, he was taken to the set to start filming the first few scenes of the day on North State Street in Fondren. At this point, it was probably about 7:00, and I was still waiting in line for hair and makeup.

Derek played the part of a "Jacksonite" buying a car from a used car salesman at Fondren Family Used Cars, seen above. In his scene, he was talking with the salesman about the car when Emma Stone, who plays "Skeeter", drives up in her convertible.

They filmed that one scene about 10 times. He also was in another street shot where he walked across the street and his reflection was filmed in the window of a passing car. Pretty cool, huh?

Unfortunately, since we were separated for most of the day, I never had the opportunity to get a picture of Derek is his costume, but I did find a shot of him on the Jackson Free Press website. Check him out! :)

About 11 a.m. my hair and makeup was FINALLY done, and we were about to break for lunch. I snapped a few quick shots of myself while I had the chance. I think this is the ugliest dress in all of America, but maybe at least I'll stand out. Ha!

I was called out after lunch and was taken to the state capitol for my scene. I played a law librarian in the scene where Skeeter steals the Jim Crow laws from the library. In my scene, I was carrying a stack of law books from the Speaker of the House's office to the House of Representatives chamber. I was supposed to cross behind Skeeter's path as she was walking out.

It was fun! We were both very glad we did it, even though it did make for a LONG day from 4:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. We met some really interesting people, and it was really cool to see how a movie is made. Every single scene takes SO long to film, even just the little ones that you don't think about. I'll always pay attention to the people in the background, too, now that I know what it's like.

It definitely is not glamorous in any way, but it was something that we can now say we did, and who knows - we might even make it in the movie! :)

Big 3-0 Birthday Tour Stop #1: NOLA

After work on Thursday we headed down to New Orleans with our friends Drew and Kristin for an early birthday celebration for my 30th and Drew's 29th. Uncle Rusty made arrangements for us to stay in the condo next door to his just a few blocks away from the French Quarter. It was perfect!

Everything was decorated with fleur de lis signs and Mardi Gras beads... it definitely helped put us in the NOLA spirit, as you can see below...

On Friday morning we woke up early and went to eat brunch at the Camellia Grill on St. Charles, and then did some walking around uptown. We walked down Magazine Street and ended up at the original Bulldog bar. We figured since we are such "regulars" at the one in Jackson it wouldn't be a bad idea to pay homage to the original. Plus, it was nice and cool inside, which we needed after sweating in the New Orleans heat for a few hours.

After cooling off for a bit, we headed back to the condo and then walked a couple of streets over to Frenchman Street to check out the shops and bars there, then we came home, showered and headed back Uptown for dinner at Jacque-Imo's.

We had the alligator cheesecake (above) as an appetizer, and it was great! It sounds weird, but it was more of a "savory" cheesecake, not a sweet one. It was kind of like a quiche.

Dinner was good, but we tried not to get too extremely full so we could go meet Derek's old college friend Kevin at Lucy's Bar. I had never been there but had heard a lot about it ever since Drew Brees made a surprise appearance there to celebrate after his Super Bowl win. It was a cool little bar, and we found a great table outside and had fun catching up with Kevin.

HAPPY (early) BIRTHDAY TO US!! This was right before we heard the "Go Shorty, It's Yo Birthday" song. Perfect timing!

We were a little slow-moving on Saturday morning, but we found a great little bakery on the corner near our condo called Cake Cafe for breakfast, then we were on our way to the World War II Museum. Drew and I are both history nerds, and since it was our birthday trip, we wanted to go. It was very cool! I highly recommend it. You could spend hours in there just reading everything, but I feel like we learned a lot in the three hours we were there. My inner history geek was satisfied.

The French Quarter/Jackson Square was next on our travel itenerary, so we had some beignets as a little afternoon snack at Cafe Du Monde, then just walked around and enjoyed New Orleans at its finest. There was even a wedding with a brass band playing Canon in D in front of the St. Louis Cathedral. It was beautiful!

As it got closer to 6:00 on Saturday, we had to find a place to watch the Mississippi State-LSU game, so we headed back to the Marigny Brasserie on Frenchman where we stopped on Friday to have an afternoon cocktail. Our friendly bartender from the day before, Josh, was working again, so we got a couple of rounds of free drinks and even some free "touchdown" shots for the one touchdown State scored. Nice... Here we are with our new BFF Josh in the middle. We're Facebook friends now.

When the game was over (poor State), we walked down Frenchman and found a not-so-crowded bar called Cafe Negril with a FANTASTIC funk/reggae/brass band. Very cool, no cover charge AND seats right by the stage... We had fun, as the pictures below, probably show.

We found a little hole-in-the-wall bar and grill on our way out of town on Sunday so we could eat a good po-boy before heading home to recuperate from a totally fun weekend. This is the first time we've been down to NOLA on a random weekend with no particular plans in mind. It was absolutely perfect, and now I can turn 30 with my head held high knowing that I enjoyed every single minute of my last weekend in the Big Easy as a 20-something.

Now, about that recuperating... :)

Only 101 More Days!

I have officially begun Christmas shopping!! My first purchase was actually a gift for my dad. I saw it online on sale and totally took advantage of it. Now I just need to figure out what to do with the gift until it's time to wrap it and stick it under the tree...

Let me clarify that I have NEVER been an early Christmas shopper for numerous reasons. First, I was always afraid that if I bought things here and there for people as Christmas gifts, I would either totally forget about them or end up giving the gifts as birthday presents. Not that that's a bad thing, but that defeats the purpose! Second, I like to let my "Christmas fund" savings build until the last possible minute so I that I can just go on a crazy shopping spree all at once.

There's something strangely satisfying about checking all your gifts off your list in one day, I think. Of course, it's exhausting, too. That being said, I will never ever ever do the big Black Friday shopping after Thanksgiving. You couldn't pay me to suffer through that... I am a leisurely shopper.

I have a Christmas shopping weekend to the outlet mall in Foley planned with all my college friends in November. That place is so huge that I have a feeling we'll all have our maps out and go our separate ways, but by the end of the day we should have most of our shopping done! I'm excited.

I'm counting down the days until I can set up the tree and put all the nicely wrapped gifts underneath it. I LOVE that part. Then of course there's the bit of depression that sets in after all the gifts are opened and the tree is empty again, but that comes with the territory, I suppose. Until then, I'll just keep buying gifts here and there and maybe start a "to wrap" pile in the guest bedroom.

Geez, with this much Christmas spirit I'll be pushing Mrs. Claus, Rudolph AND all the elves out of the Santa's #1 helper spot by the time it's December. :)

Birthdays, Birthdays, Birthdays

Saturday we headed to Hattiesburg to celebrate my mom's 55th birthday. I don't feel bad about putting her age on here because I could only hope to look as fabulous as she does at 55. :)

We had drinks at Mahogany Saturday afternoon, then headed to Granny's house for dinner (including my own special request for fried okra) and birthday cake. All the food was SOOO good. We even stayed up until after midnight to ring in her actual birthday on Sunday. We had a great time!

So, happy birthday, Mom! So glad we could celebrate with you.

This week we'll also celebrate my father-in-law's birthday on Wednesday. Happy early birthday, Gary! We're glad you're both another year older, wiser and even more good-looking. :)

Random Thought Thursday

Not much interesting going on with us this week, so I thought I'd just share some random thoughts on my mind this morning...

• What a great few days for FOOTBALL! Both the Bulldogs and the Saints play on TV tonight, Southern Miss opens at home on Saturday and Ole Miss is in New Orleans to play Tulane. Since we can't be two places at once this weekend, we just won't be at either. But we'll definitely be there in spirit!
  
  
• Derek pulled his calf muscle yesterday during a friendly little game of whiffle ball against some co-workers. We kept it iced down and wrapped up in an Ace bandage last night. He looks pitiful when he walks. I told him he would probably be "stove up" today, and he had no idea what that meant. He thought I was making it up. According to UrbanDictionary.com, it means "to have pain or soreness on such a level that one is unable to get up or move from the couch/bed." To use it in a sentence, After that party last night, I was so stove up that I could hardly move. Glad we cleared that up.
  
  
• The interest rates are at an all-time low right now, so we decided to take advantage of it and refinance our house. Our rate dropped in half, AND we dropped the mortgage down from a 30-year to a 15-year, AND our monthly payment will still be the same. I'm a happy camper. This should pay off big time in the long run when we decide to sell in a few years. Just had to brag for a minute... I'm proud of us. :)
  
  
• We're almost done with Season 2 of True Blood. I told you we were obsessed. I have no idea what we'll do with ourselves until Season 3 comes out. Although we did just set up a wireless internet router and now have Netflix streaming through our Wii, so at least we can watch it as soon as it's released instead of having to wait for it.
  
  
• My 30th birthday is 19 days away... stay tuned for my birthday celebration summary posts. HINT: I've decided to go with 3 separate celebrations since it's the big 3-0. Clever, I know.
  

Happy Almost Friday! Gotta love four-day work weeks!

Last Weekend of Summer

Happy Labor Day! We spent a wonderful, almost-FALL-like weekend at the lake. It was so cool outside that it really felt like October. The water was actually cold, not bathwater temperature like it was a few weekends ago. It was perfect football weather for all those Bulldog fans, too.

I can't believe how fast this summer flew by. It seems like just yesterday we were getting ready for Baby Frances to make her debut into this world, and now she's 11 weeks old already!

It's hard to believe it's already September, which means my 30th birthday is just a few weeks away. Yikes... Fall is my FAVORITE time of year, so this cool weather weekend was just a tease, I'm sure. I can only hope it will last and not make it back up into the mid-90s. We'll see.

I'm sad to say goodbye to summertime, but I can't say I'm upset that it's almost fall. It's time to change my outside flower arrangement beside the door to my "autumn bundle." And that always means that the holidays are just around the corner. Maybe I'm rushing things a bit here, but I can't help myself. Bring it, fall! We'll see summer next year. :)

Hanging in There

I've been a bachelorette of sorts this week while Derek's been in Chicago for work, but he's coming home today, and I don't know who's more excited - me or the dog.

Bentley's always on high alert when he realizes he's the man of the house. He barks at everything and stays by my side until I close the bedroom door to go to sleep. I have to lock it so he won't open the door. He really does that. Anyways, I know he's got to be exhausted from playing the security guard non-stop for four days, so he's ready for his daddy to come home. It's a good thing Bentley can't drive or I'd be fighting him over the job of picking Derek up at the airport.

I've kept busy this week with plenty of "me" time. Monday night I rented a girly movie ("When In Rome" with Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel - don't waste your time) and ordered a pizza. Tuesday night I went to a Tupperware party at a co-worker's house and then headed home to watch some non-Derek DVR'd shows. Last night I met some friends for Mexican after work and then spent the rest of the evening watching "The Boy She Met Online" on the Lifetime Movie Network. Don't hate. I can't watch those things when my husband has the remote. I won't lie... I always enjoy having a few days/nights to myself when Derek goes out of town for business, but after Tuesday I was ready for Derek to come home.

We're both taking off work tomorrow to enjoy an extra long holiday weekend, and I couldn't be more thrilled! Not that we have any plans, but that's fine with me. I'll just be happy to have him home! I'll also be happy to give him back his household duties. I'm not a very good plant-waterer, mail-checker or trash-taker-outer.