Sisters are one of God's best ideas

I was very blessed to have my mom, dad and my sister Amy come stay with us for Thanksgiving. They drove all night on Tuesday to surprise me at 6am on Wednesday morning, which gave us a whole extra day together!

We cooked....


And ate....

And molested a turkey....


And cuddled with puppies.....


And shopped....

And played games (I won!)....

And watched movies....

And cuddled some more with puppies....


And threw cupcakes all over the floor....


Okay, so maybe that last one wasn't on purpose, and maybe Amy didn't find it too funny, but how can you not laugh when someone drops a dozen half baked cupcakes on the floor? What else are sisters for?

Cozy

It figures. I've been eyeing new bedding for months and couldn't find a single thing I liked enough to make the change. And then the minute I buy art to match our current bedding, I find this:

{Image via The Company Store}

With some dark grey walls?

Love.

State of Mind

Loving: my new job (work at home - YAY!)

Hating: being far from the ones I love

Craving: time alone

Wanting: a pair of patent gray booties

Reading: Worth Dying For by Lee Child

Watching: Giuliana & Bill on the Style Channel (Seriously, how cute are they?)

Listening to: Taylor Swift, Sparks Fly

Looking forward to: Jacksonville next weekend!

Worried about: nothing. And loving every minute of it.

30 Before 30

In case you haven't already heard me whine about it, I'm turning 30 this year. October 15 was my half-birthday and in an effort not to enter full on freak out mode about my impending exit from my twenties, I decided to celebrate these last six months instead by accomplishing a few things I haven't quite gotten around to the last 29.5 years. Some of them will be easy, some of them will be a challenge (hello, Oprah!), and some of them will take the entire six months, so I better get cracking.

1. Try water skiing
2. Throw an '80's party
3. Try acupuncture
4. Paint a canvas for the house
5. Find the perfect shade of red lipstick
6. Have a shaving cream fight
7. Improve my photography skills
8. Visit Chicago
9. Catch up on my scrapbooks
10. See Wicked
11. Eat a fresh fig with honey and walnuts
12. Learn HTML code
13. Give serious thought to dying my hair red
14. Have a girls weekend with my college besties
15. Get in the best shape of my life (work out consistently)
16. Have boudoir shots taken
17. Visit the Indianapolis Zoo
18. Take a pole dancing class
19. Try a cuisine I've never tried before (Lebanese or Indian?)
20. Decorate our bedroom
21. Try snow boarding
22. Attend an Oprah show taping
23. Get knocked up
24. Serve in a soup kitchen or food pantry
25. Complete my dream closet
26. Do something completely impulsive
27. Kiss in the rain (or snow!)
28. Go dancing in Vegas
29. Attend at least 2 concerts
30. Learn to relax and enjoy turning 30!

I spy with my little eye.....

Something RED!

The red cups are back at Starbucks.

The trees are out at Macy's.

The peppermint mocha creamer is at the grocery store.

The lights are going up at the John Deere store (hello, how Southern does that sound?!).

The Container Store is tempting me with their holiday wrapping paper.


You know what this means, right? Christmas time is officially upon us.

And I couldn't be more excited! Who's with me?

Ring-a-ding-ding

{image via Dilbert.com}

I feel like this comic is the story of my work-life lately - spinning my wheels 8 hours a day and getting absolutely nowhere.

How is it that I can be nearly *gulp!* 30 years old and still not know what I want to be when I grow up? Three years ago I thought I had this all figured out.

Now? I'm waiting on a call for what could be my fifth job in 2 years. This was so not my plan.

Shows you what I know.

State of Mind

Loving: having a weekend at home

Hating: waiting

Craving: a trip home

Wanting: a pair of patent gray booties

Reading: The Widower's Tale by Julia Glass

Watching: the new Fall Lineup

Listening to: Jason Mraz featuring Colbie Caillat, Lucky

Looking forward to: full-on boot weather (where the heck is it?!)

Worried about: nothing. And loving every minute of it.

Coffee Lovers of the World, UNITE!

It's National Coffee Day.

I'm not sure who decides that kind of thing, but I definitely love them. And if someone could make it a national holiday, I'd love that person even more. Then I could sit in Starbucks all day long and do nothing but drink coffee and read a good book.

As it is, National Coffee Day is not yet a national holiday, so I made due by working from home and sipping coffee in my pajamas all day while I goofed off on the computer worked. Guess that will have to be good enough this year.

And I'm totally going to Starbucks for the second time today before Nate's soccer game. Gotta support National Coffee Day and all. They don't just give away national days, you know.

Dear God, Please let this be true.....

{image found here}

LOSTies rejoice!

It was reported last week that NBC is developing a new show by J.J. Abrams, creator of the epic series that we all knew and loved and lost (hee, hee, see how I did that? see?). And as if that was awesome enough, J.J. is creating the show for Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson!

Holy excitement, Batman! I might have just wet my pants a little.

The rivalry and love between Locke and Linus was one of the best parts about LOST. By the end of the series, it was clear that Terry and Michael had a bit of a bromance going on. When they dreamt aloud at several interviews of a vehicle all their own, I never dared to hope it would happen.

And now it's happening! On NBC! With J.J. Abrams!

I can't wait!

What I've been up to while I was away....

Celebrating my Grandma's birthday in Florida:




Loving on a few of my favorite people....



Eating at the Big Ice Cream Cone....



Hanging with the extended family....



Visiting my sister-in-law in New York City:

Blasting out my eardrums at the Eminem/Jay Z Home and Home concert...



Enjoying every single second with my sister-in-law.....



Singing all the words in every Jay Z song, even the bad ones (sorry, Mom!)....



Trying not to geek out when I saw Brad Goreski from The Rachel Zoe Project at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week....



Meeting celebrity dogs.....


Tasting every single Baked by Melissa flavor and not feeling a single bit guilty about it....



Taking a weekend road trip to Knoxville to cheer on the Vols:

Inviting my sister on a last minute road trip....


Making flip cup a family affair.....


Eating gator stew for dessert....


To see the rest of our month-of-vacations pictures, check out my Flickr.

Football FINALLY makes sense...

{image found here}

A guy took his blonde girlfriend to her first football game. They had great seats right behind their team's bench. After the game, he asked her how she liked the experience.

"Oh, I really liked it," she replied, "especially the tight pants and all the big muscles, but I just couldn't understand why they were killing each other over 25 cents."

Dumbfounded, her date asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well, they flipped a coin, one team got it and then for the rest of the game, all they kept screaming was: 'Get the quarter back! Get the quarter back!' I'm like...Helloooooo? It's only 25 cents!!!!"

The Neurotic Versatile Blogger

As promised, my other award from the talented (and recently promoted!) Cole.

For the Versatile Blogger award I need to tell you all 7 things about myself.

1. I always flush the toilet with my foot in public restrooms. Yes, I realize the stall door and the sink handles have just as many germs, but I can't help myself.

2. I have this obsession with headbands. I want to wear them so badly. My favorite barista at Starbucks wears one nearly every day and looks darling. I want to look darling too! Sadly for me, I've got a big fat head, so all I end up with is a big fat headache to match.

3. I currently owe $2.25 in library late fees. If I can't renew a book I'm reading, I'll just keep it until I'm finished. Bad, library patron, bad!

4. I hate it when people mispronounce the words indicative [in-dik-uh-tiv] and preferably [pref-er-uh-buh-leel . If you can't pronounce it correctly, you shouldn't be using it in a sentence.

5. After that last one, I might as well admit this one too: I love dictionary.com! More people should use it.

6. I like to keep my email organized. I have at least two dozen folders in my Yahoo account and file everything accordingly. I realize this makes me a dork. But I'm a dork who can find any email from the last 7 years.

7. When Nate's out of town, I always sleep with the bedroom door locked. I don't know why this makes me feel safer. All it really does is slow the bad guys down long enough to wake me up so that I'm fully conscious when they come to get me, but whatever. If it helps me sleep at night, that's all that really matters.

Your turn! Give me one random fact about yourself in the comments.

What a real man does....

A real man is a woman's best friend. He will never stand her up and he will never let her down.

He will reassure her when she feels insecure and comfort her after a bad day.

He will inspire her to do things she never thought she could do; to live without fear and to forget regret.

He will enable her to express her deepest emotions and give in to her most intimate desires.

He will make sure she always feels as though she's the most beautiful woman in the room and will help her be the most confident, sexy, seductive and invincible....

No, wait. Sorry. I'm thinking of wine.

That's what wine does....

Never mind.

_______________

Special thanks to my girl, Jamie, who brightened my day with this in my inbox. Who doesn't love a what wine does?

And we were afraid it was completely over...

{image found here}

Do you know what this is?!

LOST: The Complete Collection - and it comes out TODAY!

Six glorious seasons of the best.show.ever. Plus two hours of never-before-seen content, including a 12 minute mini-epilogue about Hurley and Ben's time as keepers of the island.

I want it. I want it bad.

But as Nate so helpfully pointed out - I've already seen it all. I know how it ends.

Well, yes, this is technically true. But I don't have cast and creator interviews, a mini replica of the island, a box that comes complete with black-light hidden secrets or my own personal Senet game. And did I mention the 12 minute mini-epilogue? I need to know what happened, man!

If you need to know what to get me for Christmas - this is it. Just don't expect to see me for at least 96 hours afterwards.

A scoop of chaos with a side of nuts

Cole from over at All the Small Stuff must have known I've been lacking in the blogging inspiration department lately, so she dropped some inspiration right in my lap in the form of two awards! One for today and one for later this week (you know, because I'm lazy like that).

I love the idea of 'A Daily Scoop of Chaos' - that's exactly how I feel like my life is right now! It was a roller coaster of a crazy emotional week over here. Nothing earth shattering, just a whole lot of random insanity that we were not quite prepared for. Add in the regular HOA drama and a really crummy project at work and we had a whole freaking ice cream SUNDAE worth of chaos.

What is your signature color?
Hmmm...this one is a toughie. If I'm getting dressed, I will always reach for black as my signature 'look'. If I'm decorating, it's anything in the autumnal color family. If we're talking about the color I gravitate towards like a magpie to shiny objects? That would orange, of course!

What is your most embarrassing moment?
Oh, so many to choose from, how will I ever narrow it down to one? Embarrassing stuff happens to me all the time, ya'll. Not even kidding.

My mom reminded me of this one the other day: I was 15 years old, we were living on the tropical island of Guam, and I had a babysitting job for a new family I'd not met before. As I knock on their front door for the very first time, a giant gecko (you know, like the Geico commercial?) falls from the roof of their house, straight onto my head. I, of course, start shrieking like any girl worth her soprano lungs and batting crazily at my head in an attempt to free the lizard from my hair. And just in time to see my manic fit, the mom opens the door, with the dad standing right behind her.

Hi, guys, I'm here to care for your children. So lovely to meet you.

Would you ever get anything pierced other than your ears. If so, what?
Considering I barely survived the panic attack when I got the second hole in my ears at age 12, I highly doubt it.

Are you a social butterfly or a homebody?
I am naturally very shy in large groups. Most people are shocked to hear this because I tend to speak my mind most of the time. But that's only to people I know. Although I must say, unemployment was good for one thing - it forced me to learn how to network despite my natural proclivity toward being a wallflower.

I love nothing more than staying home in my jammies with my hubby and my puppies, a great glass of wine and a good read.

Are you done having babies or do you want more?
I used to want five babies, but given our current difficulties, I've down-scaled that to three. Nate is holding steady at two. We'll see.

Are you loyal to your hairstylist or do you try every salon in town?
I've written about my allegiance to hairstylists before. I'm sad to say I've still not found someone I'm crazy about here in Indy. Luckily, I'm doing the growing out thing right now so it's more about maintaining health than maintaining a style. When I eventually grow tired of it and chop it again, chances are I'll be headed to K-town to do it. Sad, but true.

How many times have you moved in your life?
Oh my word. I don't know if I could count them all. Let's try:
Florida to Georgia at age 2
Georgia to Virginia at age 7
Virginia to South Carolina at age 10
South Carolina to Guam at age 14
Guam back to South Carolina at age 16
Sumter, SC to Due West for college x 4 years of college (which, if you think about it, is really EIGHT moves - 4 in and 4 out!)
Sumter, SC to Knoxville when we got married at age 22
Knoxville to Boston for six months at age 26
Boston to Indianapolis apartment
Indianapolis apartment to our first house at age 27

If you could plan your vacation with just you and your love where would it be?

We have so many places we'd like to go. Too bad that pesky job thing keeps getting in the way! We'd love to go back to Europe and see the places we missed the first time - Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Spain and Italy. We want to hit Australia for at least two weeks. I'm dying to go to Turks and Caicos someday.

Your turn! If you could vacation anywhere in the world, with anyone you chose, where would you go and with whom?