Opening Day

Today is a special day... today is a day the breeds excitement and hope... today should be deemed a city-wide holiday... for today is Cardinals Opening Day. You may remember that Chad and I were lucky enough to attend last year's opening day.
Sadly we are not in attendance this year - however we've been able to watch. I'm posting this a little late and right now we're winning 3-2 in the bottom of the eighth and Holliday just hit a homer - YAY!!!

Today was my turn to bring food in for our "fat Thursday". I decided to do a ball park theme. I brought hot dogs and nachos with cupcakes that look like baseballs (simply made cupcakes, iced them with cream cheese frosting and added some red lines) It went over REALLY well which made me happy.

So here's a wonder Cardinals season with lots of strikes for the bad guys and runs for the good guys. To a winning season and playoff dreams.

GO CARDINALS!!!!!!!!!!

The Happier Birthday Post

That last post was quite the downer wasn't it?? I really think a lot of things were bubbling inside me and Sunday they just came to a head... and sometimes the best therapy for me is writing it out and getting it off my chest. I will say it helped. And thank you for the sweet comments... they made me smile. (Christina we should get together sometime, maybe after your wedding so you aren't as stressed) On Saturday before the party I had a wonderful day with my family. My mom, grandma, aunt Ruth, and sister Lindsey went to lunch and shopping. It was so much fun, just as it was last year. Everyone tried on things and I think everyone came home with something. I came home with three new dresses (thanks to my grandma and sister) and an adorable top (thanks Ruth!!). I also came home with a haircut thanks to Ruth as well. So I'm going to show you pictures, but they are of horrible quality taken from my iphone - just trust that the dresses are so adorably fabulous. First up is the top - how cute is this? Here's a closer look at the pattern And the back (check out my eyebrow in the below pic... Chad helped clean them up and did a wonderful job!!) This is the dress my sister got me A close up of the straps And the back, I love the little peep hole The next two my grandma got me... the pink one is soo pretty, I don't think this picture does it justice - I'm wearing it today! And a close up of the fabric And finally this was my grandma's favorite dress Here's a closer up... you can see my haircut It was such a fun day, I love spending time with those ladies... and I'm really happy my sister came along!! I found a dress for her too!! On Sunday Chad and I went to my dad's house for dinner. We had Pei Wei... it was super yummy. Dad and family got me a gift card to Kohls, I will hopefully be able to find a couple of pairs of jeans that fit well. Keith also got me a picture that I blogged about awhile ago. I'm excited about getting it. I'll need to frame it and find a really good place to hang it in the house. I'm going to have at least one more birthday post... so stay tuned, and I promise it will be a happy one too!

Today is my birthday

Today is the big day and I am sad. I'm not exactly sure why I am sad, but I am. I don't think it is very good to be sad on your birthday. I think a lot of it has to do with last night.

Yesterday during the day I had a really nice day. I went shopping with my Grandma, mom, Lindsey and my aunt Ruth. (I'll write a separate happy post about that with pictures) So yesterday started out good.

Last night we were having a party for my birthday... my golden birthday... but it snowed yesterday... and not very many people showed up. It was kinda crazy that it snowed like it did. It was quite a bit... pretty unreal if you ask me...

I'm really happy the people who did show up (Jen, Carrie, Liz, her b/f Ken, Dave, his girl Christine, Keith and Sarah) but I'm sad about the people who didn't show up. I really think people used the snow as a convenient excuse not to come. Some people were coming from the north. The thing is yesterday, due to the shopping trip, I was north, south, and west yesterday. I know what the roads looked liked in those areas of the city. So I know that it was possible to come and it was a choice that people didn't. Maybe I'm setting my expectations too high, but it's things like this that make me wonder the caliber of friends I have. Honestly, I probably have my expectations too high, but I'm sad... bottom line: I really feel let down.

Chad asked who I wanted to come that didn't... honestly I don't really feel the need to name names and it's more that no one really came.

I really think this is a deeper issue than just last night. Lately I've been feeling sad about our friends, as in Chad and my friends. Some things recently have happened that have opened our eyes to who our friends are and how shit-tastic some of them have been. I sometimes wonder if Chad and I are doing something wrong, if somehow we are pushing people away. If maybe some friends think we're just that old married couple that doesn't do anything. It's true, we don't go out as much as others, but that's because we don't feel the need to drink all the time. We don't want to waste our hard earned money on booze... we have better ways to spend the money. I guess we're just having a disconnect with a lot of people we've hung around for awhile.

I guess we really need more mature friends. Chad has begun to hang out with his motorcycle friends. They have been nice to be around... I mean they were so supportive of Chad during his surgery. They just seem more grown up and fun and can actually make and keep plans. But that's probably a topic from another day.

I really think that last night was just another nail in the coffin or something like that (I'm not feeling that creative right now) I just needed to get a lot of this off my chest. It made me cry last night and again this morning, I need to do something to get out of this funk. I need to concentrate on the fact I had some good, true friends show up. And I'm happy they did. We had a good time and honestly I like smaller get togethers anyway... I like the people that showed up and we got to play some drinking games. They made me feel special and make me happy. And so I'm going to end this post on a happy note. I'll hopefully be back later today with an even happier post about my shopping trip with family.

Another Year

Sunday is a special day for me. On Sunday I turn 27. I can NOT believe I'm finally turning 27. For some reason age 27 has always stuck out in my mind as something special. Mostly because it's my golden birthday. What's a golden birthday some people ask? A golden birthday is when you turn the same age as the day of month you were born on. So I am turning 27 on the 27th. I'm pretty sure that's why I've always looked at 27 as being something special.

But there's something weird about this birthday... for the last few months in my mind I've been 27. Had you asked me how old I was today, there's a decent chance I would say 27 without even thinking. Isn't that strange? People at my age tend to want to be younger, yet I am already making myself older?? What is wrong with me?

I think there's a reason I already feel like I'm 27. Chad and I have pretty much decided we around going to wait until we're 30 before trying to have kids (wow, that feels weird to say on here for some reason...) I'm ready to have to be at that point so I think since I turned 26 and a half I've pretty much considered myself 27 so instead of being 4 years away from having kids we are only 3 years away... is that silly or what?!?

In all reality, I can't believe I'm actually turning 27... I feel like I'm getting so old. This is a weird age, it's like in the middle of your upper 20's. The next 'milestone' is 30. It's strange, I'm starting to have friends that are in their 30's. I'm starting to consider people in their lower 30's 'my age.' That's going to be me in 3 short years. Can you believe it? I know I can't!

Coffee Table Woes

I've been on the topic of shopping a lot lately huh?

We need a new coffee table... I absolutely HATE our current coffee table. For one, it's got a huge discoloration in the center, and then it's got burn marks where someone knocked the carcoal off the hooka at one of parties. And one of the legs is about to fall off. This coffee table came back with Chad from Cuba. It was never a desirable table, but we used it until we were able to afford something we liked better. Awhile ago we replaced the couches and the entertainment center and the area rug. The coffee table is next and I am SO READY to see it go.

The problem is we cannot find something we want. Sure there are plenty of tables that would work, but the perfect table? It doesn't seem to exist. I don't think we're asking for anything too crazy. Here's what our ideal table would look like. It would be a fairly large table, I mean we have the space for it. The one I'm eyeballing (I'll show you soon) is 20" by 20". We do NOT want any glass. We want it to be dark work. Ideally it would have a shelf underneath and would have a drawer. We'd also like it to be on the taller side for a coffee table. I mean, that's not unreasonable right??

Here's the one from CSN Stores we've had our eye on:

See the dark wood finish, the drawers, the bottom shelf, the square? Swoon... the problem with this one is it's $460!!!! That just seems a little steep, no?

This past weekend Chad and I took to the streets of St. Louis and tried to find something else we liked. We ended up looking at Ashley, Weekends Only, SleepLand, and American. There are PLENTY of other stores we need to check out... but the sad fact remains... I don't think the ideal coffee table is out there in our price range. We did see a few at Ashley that would work very well, we may go back. There are plenty of other stores we should look at too... so the hunt isn't over yet, but I am sooo sooo ready to have that thing in my house and that fuglly table gone... banished to the basement.

After we find the coffee table we'll still need to find end tables which will be a whole other ordeal. We don't have much space to work with at the end of each of the ends of the couches... but those don't bother me nearly as much as that coffee table.

So here's to hoping that we find a table to we both love, that's dark woodand big with a shelf and drawer, and tall that's in our price range.... please and thank you.

Confession

When I 'fake' shop... it usually turns into actual real shopping... I know, you're not surprised. But in my defense Old Navy was running a sale that was too good to turn down... 30% off your entire order. Combine that with the fact I got a gift card to Old Navy for Christmas, I just wasn't able to turn that down... and dang, it's my birthday in a week, I'm going to buy myself something since I never ever ever do.

So would you like to see what I got? You know it includes some dresses!!

And then I got some tops too...
With the gift card and the discount I think I got a lot of stuff for the money I had to pay out of pocket. I'm excited for this stuff to arrive in the next week (hopefully before the weekend) I choose the slowest shipping so I wouldn't have to pay for it. I'm excited!! I'm super excited about the dresses. Hopefully I'll have some things to show you soon!!

Shoes

All that fake dress shopping makes me want to fake shop for some shoes too...

Let me start here... I don't shop for myself very often... I couldn't tell you the last time I bought myself a clothing item... maybe end of last year sometime... I did buy myself a hat for Jen's Birthday. I'm really not in need of any new shoes, but there are some that I've had my eye on to round out the collection.

For one I would like a pair of gray flats - Like these from Target

I also want a new pair of FitFlops. Probably in black... or brown

I REALLY like the style of these flip flops.

I also like the idea of this style of sandal, although I'm not sure how they would look with my long toes.

Another pair of shoes I would like is a nice pair of slip on sandal type of shoes... like these or these or these or these

Oh to have unlimited money supply!!

Dresses

As I stated last post I am currently in Las Vegas... well the warm weather out here has made me start thinking about how Spring is almost here back home. Spring time means warmer weather and warmer weather means I can wear dresses more without freezing my tushy off. Well... in my down time here I've started fake shopping for dresses. As is, looking on sites and finding the dresses I like and just bookmarking them or fake adding them to a cart or in this case compiling a list on my blog. Maybe I'll treat myself to a dress or use one of my gift cards from Christimas to purchase something fun. So what am I eyeballing?


Well, to tell you the truth, it's a lot of different dresses... when I'm fake shopping I like the looks of a lot of different things. In all I saw 30 dresses I saved the link to... I know a little crazy... what's even crazier is I was going to post them all... that was going to take me forever... although, let's be honest, I do have the time, I'm sitting in an airport and still have a good 2 hours before my flight leaves (I arrived really early!!)


So I'm going to try to pare down the list... I'm going to start by cutting five... be right back... okay I went from 30 to 23... although I'll admit I accidentally had some of the dresses opened multiple times...


Alright, I'm going to go through a second time and see if I can be harsh and get rid of anymore... I made one more cut... wow, I'm awful at this... my hope was to get down to 10 dresses to post a top 10 of sort... but I'm not sure that's going to happen... and since I'm having a hard time getting the pictures to post directly in this post... I blame it on a combination of the computer, the internet here and laziness...


So I'll post by link and in store and some comments about what I like...


First store is Kohl's


#1: I like this one b/c of the polka dots and the sleeves... almost like cap sleeves... it's lovely


#2: I love the scoop neckline and the pattern of the dress... I like that I could easily wear it for work


#3: I love the look of these kind of dresses... I will admit I'm not sure how good I will look in them, but I see them on girls and love the look


#4: I love that I could wear this dress for both work and casual events. I like the purple-ish color better than coral


Where did #5 go? Well, decided after I continued on that I wasn't loving this dress...


Now we've moved onto Target:


#6: I love the casual look of this dress that I could wear it out and about to run to the store or whatever... you're going to hear that comment a lot and this is why... I always want casual dresses... easy ones to throw on that I can dress up and cas down.


#7: Here's another example of the versitale dress... plus I love the crossed back


#8: And another one... I'm going to start identifying these with a (*) I love the fact it's a halter

Next up is Old Navy


#9: Long sleeves, the belt, the over-lay... swoon


#10: (*) I love the strapless... I could have multiple of these in different colors


#11: (*) I love the V-neck and the straps... another I could have multiple colors in


#12: (*) Don't you love how Old Navy has the classics... this is another one... multiple colors
please


Last but not least I headed to Zappos...


#13: I love that pink color... and the ruffles!! A bit on the pricey side...


#14: Another pink one... and it's sexy looking... again on the pricey side....


#15: I love the color and the bodice part of this dress is soo soo cute...


#16: I like the pink striped one... or the black really, I do love the crossed back


#17: The black strapless dress... and the layered bottem, very cute


#18: I like the pattern of this dress, and the fact it's strapless...


#19: I absolutely LOVE the stripes on this dress, and the how the top looks... like seriously


#20: (*) I love the polka dots and just the simple but sweet overall look


#21: I love the color purple, and the halter top... the ruffles at the top are really cute too


#22: This one is cute, I love the gray... I like the details on the strapes too.


I told you that there were a lot of them... but I figured I did all of that work, might as well have something to show for it... I'm going to turn off my computer before it dies on me.

Viva Las Vegas

That is currently where I'm sitting, in the great city of Las Vegas. I'm here with work (my job is a tough one, huh??) I'm staying at the Westin, which is about a block from the strip. It's a great location... this hotel has more of a business feel but it's so close to everything exciting.



Last night we ventured out... my co-worker and I agreed to go to a show with some faculty members. We headed out and grabbed a quick dinner inside of Bellagio. Then we headed toward the show... on the way we stoped and watched two of the Dancing Water Fountains in front of Bellagio. I've been wanting to see this for quite awhile. It did not disappoint... it was amazing. Really really amazing. I was amazing at how fluid it all was. And just how high the water shoots, up... incredible!! I could have stayed there and watched it more... maybe I will tonight. Here is the only picture I took... I really just wanted to watch instead of worrying about a good picture.

Told you it wasn't a very good picture... I think I accidentally took a picture of the edge of my finger, haha... it was an amazing thing to see though...

Anyway... then we headed to the show... what show you may ask? Well, none other than the Holly Madison Peep Show. It was really fun... I wasn't really sure what to expect, but there was singing and dancing... and boobs... but a fun time. I enjoyed it. Although I will say that I kept thinking about the plot of Showgirls... wondering if anything like that was going on behind the scenes... eh... probably not.

I'm really happy I got to go to a Vegas show. I wanted to do something Vegas-y... and last night was perfect. I haven't yet gambled... but I kinda doubt I will. I'm really don't know how to gamble (does that sound dumb??)

things

Here's some things I was searching etsy for last night... somethings I may get for myself...

Last night we were watching Red and one of the girls was wearing a flower in her hair. Makes me want a flower hair pin... like one of these (click to take you to the listing):


I was also thinking about possible art for the bathroom... when searching for that, I came across some others that maybe I could paint or might look good in another room of the house.

I really like this one for another room of the house...
Or this one...
Wouldn't this look awesome in the bathroom??
I think this one would be great in the bathroom
I think this is adorable.
I think I could paint something similar to these two...

What to you think?

Is it Spring for real?

I have been working for the government for two years now. What you may not know is my mom also works at this same location... not in the same building but we are at the same location. This allows us to go to lunch together often as well as see each other much more often.

This post isn't really about that though...

For as long as I've been on this Earth my mom has been working at this location... so it was actually pretty cool coming to work here myself. This post really isn't about that either...

One of the cool things about this location is the amount of wildlife we have around here... ok, there's isn't THAT much, but more than a normal place. Mostly we see deer and groundhogs. And that's what this post is about... groundhogs.

The groundhogs here are huge... like really big... like I didn't know groundhogs got that big big. And they are all over the place. In the summer time you can count several basking in the sun. I remember as a kid it was so much fun to come to mom's work and see groundhogs (and visit her of course). I really haven't seen groundhogs anywhere else but here. They are so cute and funny looking.

Well, yesterday I saw my first groundhog of the season. It was such a nice afternoon yesterday (and oh-em-gee a beautiful afternoon today)... and seeing that groundhog made me wonder... is it really springtime? Are we finally done with this gosh-awful winter?? All the ice and snow and wind and sleet and freezing rain and snow-magedon and cold is done and past? Could it really be??

I sure hope so, I'm really to bounce into spring and get this thing going!!

New Month

Yesterday was the first of the month... I always like the first of the month around these parts. I get a sense of joy to change the month on the calendar and look at what's upcoming.

At work I have four calendars. That's right folks... four different calendars that I use for different purposes. Some might call me crazy... but I actually look at all of them. These four calendars does NOT include my Outlook calendar that I use very regularly as well. I have a monthly calendar that I got free from the humane society, I have a yearly calendar so I can see any dates in 2011. I have a 3 month government calendar that I track programs, days off, travel, etc. And finally, I have a small calendar that I keep track of tentative program dates (since things aren't set in stone quite yet).

What I look forward to on the first of the month is changing my calendars over. Marking my days off for the next month and upcoming programs... it's fun. I'm not sure why I find it fun, but it's a whole new month ahead... starting fresh. I'm not sure why I like it. But it's always something I'm excited to do. So much so when I get to the end of the month I always think about 'cheating' and filling in the next month early. But I try to resist that urge... it's like a 'gift' each month... something to look forward to... as silly as that may sound.