Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hey y'all!! 

I hope you all are having a wonderful Thanksgiving!! AND, I hope you all are counting your blessings and remembering the true meaning behind this holiday. :) I woke up this morning and made a mental list that seemed to last forever of all the things I am thankful for. It made me so happy... if only I would start every day off just this way.

Mike and I are spending Thanksgiving together here in Jacksonville. Its just the 2 of us this year... Well and the dog... and the cats, cant leave them out ;)

 Although we wish we could be with the fam on this holiday, just us has been VERY relaxing. We have spent the entire day in our p.j.'s = AUUUHHMAZING.

We slept in till about 10, and still managed to catch some of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Once that was over... it was turkey time. I have only made a turkey once before... and although I ended up cooking ours today with the gizzards still inside (my bad) lol... it still turned out great and really moist. (Another thing I was grateful for today)

Mike helped me prepare the turkey by injecting it with some yummy buttery spice mixture....

I did the rest... oiled up the top, s&p'd, pulled most of the stuff out of the turkey cavity, but like I said somehow I missed those DAMN gizzards... Hopefully the turkey was still okay to eat considering those darn things were still stuffed inside. I still feel okay now, so hopefully we're good.

After dinner...

My lil sister Chloe aka. my best friend, my therapist, my life coach -and my nephew River surprised me with a skype visit!!! I was so excited!! I miss Chloe so much and although I have yet to meet River in person, I miss him too! It HURTS not being able to be a bigger part of his life....  One of those negatives when you have to live far from close family. :(

Anyhow... Thank god for skype!! I at the very least get to interact a bit with him through the computer. Another thing to add to my "I am thankful for..." list.

Next month I will FINALLY get to meet the lil guy in person!! I might just have to kidnap him and take him back to North Carolina with me :) 

Today was so relaxing and definitely much needed!!

 Tomorrow... Ugh, back to my reality.

Yep, STUDYING like a mad person. 11 days till finals. YIKES!

OH, and I discovered yesterday that my 4.0 will no longer continue after this semester. I have a 91 in pre-clinic... and we are on a 7 point scale... with only one more assignment left, the highest I can make is a 92... a point shy from an A- so frustrating. But, I did my best... and I should be happy with that.

My study session will come to a screeching halt tomorrow at about 2:30 BECAUSE my HOGS (#3) Arkansas Razorbacks are playing their biggest game of the year- against the #1 team- LSU. It is going to be a TOUGH game. I'm not gonna lie, I am nervous! LSU is good (UGH, that hurts to type). To make this game even more interesting- I hate LSU with a passion. I have always hated LSU.... I have my reasons, I'll spare you because that rant could go on forever! To see them at #1 beats me up inside.

 PLLLLEEAASSEEE hogs, win tomorrow... please!!??

 Y'all have a goodnight... Oh, and for those of you that are insane aka. black Friday shoppers... good luck tomorrow and be careful! :)

Baby Showers Aren't Just For The Ladies :)

Over the weekend we hosted a guy/girl baby shower for my girlfriend Amanda and her husband Cory. In working up the plans for it, we decided to put a cookout spin to it… You know, make it more appealing to the guys…. We were a little worried that none of the guys would show up, leaving only Mike and Cory with a ton of chicks, BUT we ended up having great turn out… It was such a good time.

PLUS: I got to try out some more Pinterest ideas. Yay!

When I say I got to try out some Pinterest ideas… I really mean that practically everything about this shower was in one way or another Pinterest inspired. Thank you Pinterest! #seriously addicted

I made the tissue poms from tissue paper, and I also made the decals on the onsies. There is a one month, two month, three month… and so on. (so cute) If you are interested in trying out these ideas for yourself, you can find the tutorial for the poms here, and the printable decals here. Both were surprisingly easy to do. As for the printable decals, some printers have a setting to flip the image for iron on transfer paper, if yours doesn’t… just print off the backwards #’s.

And yet another awesome idea inspired by Pinterest…. Bubble Bath Punch. My only problem with this was that I couldn’t find blue Kool-Aid anywhere. I ended up having to go with purple which kinda defeated the bubble bath idea… looked more like dingy bath water, but it still turned out okay. The punch itself was delicious… great recipe, it can be found here. 

And as for our guest of honor… Alexis.

Yea, you can’t see her…. She’s hiding in Amanda’s belly, but we’ll see her soon! :)

And some more random shots from the party….

Amanda’s Shower VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Thank goodness for our friends letting us borrow this blow up jump house… The kidos had a blast jumping around in it. I was sort of shocked to see how this picture turned out- no one occupying it at the time. WOAH, definitely a rare moment.

As for the menu….we had tons of sweets… cake, cup cakes, pink rice crispy treats and these cute lil’ sandwiches… (the kids loved, LOVED these!)

Mini vanilla wafers with peanut butter, banana slices, and sprinkles! Here is the recipe for those.

Along with the sweets… we had barbeque chicken skewers, fruit skewers, brats, hamburgers, pasta salad, and a few various casseroles. Delicious! Mike and I have been feasting on leftovers since Saturday. Today, I finally caved and through out any sweet stuff we had left... I couldn’t quit eating it. Note to self: Never keep that stuff in the house!

Anyhow, I was so excited how everything turned out and couldn't wait to share the details with y’all. I think it was a perfect shower for Amanda, Cory, and Alexis. SUCCESS!

Well that’s it for today guys, gotta hit the books till I crash out. Hope all of you had a wonderful weekend!

CIAO