Shop Til You Drop

This past weekend I headed down to the Coast for a Christmas shopping weekend with my college friends. We got there late Friday afternoon, ordered pizza and got our plan together for our all-day shopping extravaganza.

Saturday morning we all got ready bright and early, loaded up on carbs from Christy's delicious breakfast casserole, fixed some coffee to go and hit the road to Foley, Ala. We shopped the outlet mall from about 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. with a 20-minute lunch break at the food court. When I say we power-shopped, I'm not kidding... they had some major deals, and we totally took advantage of all of them.

After the outlet mall, we drove over to Malbus, Ala., to stop at the Eastern Shore shopping center, mainly just at World Market. I had never been in there, but I LOVED it. We ate dinner at the Original Oyster House in Spanish Fort before calling it a day and getting back to Christy's house about 9:30. We were WORN OUT!

The good news is that I got the majority of my Christmas shopping done while getting in some quality girl time with some of my besties. I'm officially in the Christmas spirit! Now where's my tree??

Customer Service

It's really sad that good, quality customer service surprises you these days. I think we all get used to expecting everything to be a hassle and for nothing to be easy. That being said, I wanted to share a little story about the good and not the bad...

A little over two years ago, we hired Integrity Restorations to reglaze our porcelain sink in our guest bathroom. The ENTIRE bathroom was that 1950s mint green - the tub, all the tile, the sink and the toilet. Overkill, for sure. We replaced the toilet, put down some new laminate tile and had the sink reglazed white. It made a huge difference and really brought the bathroom into the 21st century.

We noticed recently that part of the sink near the drain was starting to bubble up and rust. Danny with Integrity Restorations told me when they did it the first time to call if we needed it touched-up in a few years. Of course, that was never in writing. So, I emailed him last week about it and even attached photos to the email, expecting him to tell me that it would cost another arm and leg to reglaze it again and that no, there never was a warranty. His response? He'd be happy to touch it up for us, and it would only cost me a Diet Coke.

He came yesterday and reglazed it in two hours and now it looks brand new again! He did a heavier coat so hopefully this won't happen again.

If you're interested in having a sink or tub or even tile reglazed, call this company. They did a FANTASTIC job, and they stand by their word, which says a lot these days. It's just nice to be pleasantly surprised by great customer service. :)

Ah, the weekend...

We enjoyed a lovely weekend close to home, starting with a relaxing fire Friday night. I think I've said it a few times, but just in case you missed it, this is my FAVORITE time of year! I have been looking forward to evenings spent by the fire for months now. It's finally cold enough, and I'm loving every minute of it.

On Saturday morning we headed to the wedding of our neighbors across the street, Ben and Neelima. The morning ceremony was Hindu and the evening ceremony was Episcopalian. Since we had never been to a Hindu wedding, we decided we'd check it out. It was very interesting. I forgot my camera, but Neighbor Ben (another neighbor, not the groom) got some pics on his handy iPhone, so here's a glimpse.

The ceremony itself was really unique to witness, and the decorations were beautiful. After the wedding, we had brunch at Julep, then did a little shopping Saturday afternoon before going to Drew and Kristin's for our "fall" Grey-Gor dinner.

We grilled steaks and sat outside by the fire and talked about planning a camping trip to the Ozarks after the holidays. Not sure if it can beat our NOLA trip a couple of months ago, but we can sure try.

On Sunday we enjoyed an extra hour of sleep thanks to daylight savings time, then headed to Vicksburg for an afternoon of lovin from Baby Frances and Ryan Hadley, then dinner for Ryan's birthday.

The weekend went by too quickly, as usual, but I have no complaints! We're just that much closer to the holidays now. This is a four-day work week for me, so I'll welcome Monday with a smile. :)

Frankly, my dear...

I am IN LOVE with Gone With the Wind!! I started reading it a couple of weeks ago as part of my "now-I'm-in-my-30s" bucket list, and I'm on Chapter 12 (like page 215 of 1,200). Obviously I have a long way to go, but I'm thoroughly enjoying every minute of it.

Last time I was at my parents' house I borrowed the book from their collection. There's a note from my granny inside the cover that says, "To Beth, Rick and Elizabeth - Every Southerner should read... Love, Chris," and dated 1992. I thought it might be a little hard to read, but it really hasn't been at all. The only semi-hard part is when someone is speaking in dialect, but even that is easy if you read right over it as a paragraph and not individual words.

So, in summary, I will let you know when I finish this book, which will hopefully be by the holidays. It will be a big accomplishment on my list. I have a feeling I will highly recommend it. It's kind of nice to get transported back in time by such a classic and to take a break from my girly books. It's kind of like watching a foreign film instead of a Lifetime movie. Not that there's anything wrong with Lifetime movies.... trust me. :)

Ghosts, Pumpkins, Candy and Costumes

We had a whirlwind of a Halloween weekend, starting Friday night with the Haunted Vicksburg Ghost Tour through downtown.

We rode over with Claire and Josh and bundled up for the cold, 11-block walking tour. While we didn't actually see any ghosts, we did capture a lot of "orbs" on my camera. Believe what you want, but it was spooky enough to make the tour worthwhile in my opinion.

The grave of Rev. Steven Patterson, who died of yellow fever. The orbs kind of freak me out...

1000 Main Street, the home of Rabbi Ben's ghost, according to the tour guide...

Duff Green, a beautiful B&B that once served as a hospital during the war...

On Saturday, Derek and I finally put up a few Halloween decorations and then carved some pumpkins with Baby Brady and Neighbor Ben. Actually, Derek did all the carving... it grosses me out, so I just watched and took pictures. :)

The finished products! Pretty impressive, I think...

Then it was almost time for trick-or-treaters and costumes!! After a few cute kiddos who stopped by for candy, we got dressed and ready to go. Claire and Josh (Al Capone and his flapper for the night) met us at our house to figure out our game plan.

We decided to go went to Sportsman's just down the road, and then to Shucker's (don't judge) for their big costume contest. Well, little did we know that this was no amateur night for costumes. We quickly noticed that we weren't even going to come close to winning anything there, and the place was PACKED. We stayed about an hour and a half and then headed back to Sportsman's, where Claire and Josh won second place in the costume contest. It was fun!

Sunday was a lazy day for us as we recovered from a crazy Halloween Eve. We watched scary movies all day and had one last trick-or-treater last night. It was a fabulously fun weekend, and now another Halloween has come and gone. Time to put away the candy and get ready for the turkey since Thanksgiving is just over 3 weeks away. I love holidays!

Happy Halloween!

The weather is PERFECTLY CHILLY for a great Halloween weekend!

We kicked off Derek's favorite weekend of the year by going to watch the Rocky Horror Picture Show production in Vicksburg. Our friend Olivia played Janet, and she was GREAT! We had so much fun! It honestly was one of the best community theater productions of Rocky Horror I've seen. I've actually only seen two, but this one was really good!

On tap for the rest of the weekend is a little ghost-hunting, some pumpkin-carving, some costume-preparing and a whole lot of fun! Stay tuned for the Halloween wrap-up. Don't be skeered.

First Friday Firepit of Fall

Friday night we met some friends downtown for Jacktoberfest. After cancelling the event last year, this was the return of the free "Beer, Brats and Bands" event. It was so nice outside! Even Baby Brady had a great time jamming out to the bands.

Speaking of, I think I found my new favorite band, Dirty Bourbon River Show. They were beyond awesome with their funky sound including a tuba and kazoo. I would describe their sound as "bayou funk", but Neighbor Ben said they were "Coon-ass jazz." Either way, they were a lot of fun - obviously very New Orleansish...

After Jacktoberfest, everyone came back to our house for our first firepit of the season. While it wasn't crazy cool outside, there was a slight chill in the air, so we took advantage of it and sat around the little fire. It was great!

Cheers to FALL!!