i *heart* ross dress for less...

I think what draws me to shopping is the ultimate BARGAIN! Since Ross Dress For Less is one of my fav stores I do have to say that this whole ultimate bargain clincher is happening a lot more than I realized it would. On that note...I have to share what I got yesterday:

I was in Ross legitimately looking for a roller carry-on/laptop bag. They didn't have what I needed and to stop myself from purchasing an (almost) unnecessary (although fabulous) new set of luggage, I decided to peruse the clothing to see what was new.

WELL, let me tell you about the find of a lifetime... (for those of us with girls larger than will fit in your average training bra) ...a button up shirt that actually buttons up!

This is the shirt (mine is even pink):

...but don't worry, it looks way hotter on me. Which I have to admit is totally to the credit of the girls.

Here's the real fun, this is a Liz Claiborne that retails for 64 BUCKS! Hello, who does this Liz person think she is? Guess how much I got it for at Ross...give up?

$16.99

That is why I totally *heart* Ross Dress For Less!

Skyline Chili...

Lately I have been craving chili. I think it mostly has to do with the rain and the nervous feeling of stalking up on canned foods for the ark, but either way I was craving chili & Frito's.

Knowing I didn't have any time to make chili I decided I would stop at the store on my way home from class tonight and get some of your average canned variety. (oh shut it...I know it's not like home made, but with my schedule you just have to deal).

I was in the isle looking at all the choices when I noticed Skyline Chili:
I remember seeing the Skyline Chili restaurants when I visited Anne and her pose up in northern Kentucky and figured if it is good enough for a restaurant devoted to it's existence, then it is worth a try.

Well tonight for dinner I prepared my chili and the only thing that can appropriately describe what I ate would be to say I had a meat and cinnamon smoothie...warm. Equally disgusting is the fact that I cannot get the taste out of my mouth, I have eaten everything I can get my hands on...it's no use.

So, for all you Ohio/Kentucky/Wherever Skyline lov'n appetites ~ you can have your stink'n chili! I can make my own meat & cinnamon smoothie anytime I want.

Oh Tanner...

A few days ago I noticed this thing sitting under my desk in the living room. I guessed it was a toy, but I just couldn't figure it out. It totally reminded me of Sid on Toy Story:

...and those toys that he created swapping out the heads of one toy for the body of another:

Then I remembered Sarah and the little humans came over a few Saturdays back and they had just had lunch. I flipped the toy over for further investigation and saw that it was indeed created for McDonald's and is more than likely Tanner's.

So I decided:

(What IS that thing?!?)

...xoxo!

I have VERY funny friends...

For those of you that live under a rock and don't know, it is raining in Georgia. A lot. It rained all night and was still raining this morning when I received the following text message from my friend Susan:

"I just finished the ark, but I can only take cute single girls over thirty :) are you in?"

Ha! Ha! Ha!

This one time at band camp...

...I was doing discovery on Google Reader today and found THIS new site to stalk. I will add it to the list on the right. Check it out.

2008 SA Conference...

This past weekend frienimies and strangers gathered in the Stone Mountain area for the 2008 Atlanta LDS Single Adult Conference. I'm not here to tell you about the conference...as it will make my cry, but I did deem myself official fotog taker at a few times during the weekend and got some extremely funny and even embarrassing pics of the group. Doesn't take much to realize why we are single.

In addition to meeting some new singledome bff's I got to hang with some bff's from the past and I had to post mug shots of my smok'n hot friends!

These smok'n caliente chicas making me look good are Malissa & Paige
What would I do without these girls?!
Sit in the ladies room and cry, that is what I would do.

These extreme hotties are sisters Betsy & Julie
...no, for the bazillionth time we are not sisters.

And not to be forgotten, posing here with Paigilicious is the ever so talented and charming Susan!
Yes, she ditched out last night right in the mid-life crisis of the dance.
Shame, shame...wish she would have taken me with her!


...and we hope you enjoyed this snippit of the singles gone wild weekend!
(ha, ha, ha, I think I just peed a little, that is freaking hilarious!)

A few weeks ago my friend Malissa invited a few of us to her uncle/cousin/relative condo in Myrtle Beach. It was the weekend before school technically started so I was all over that vacation opportunity...esp with some good girl/book/shopping/tanning time.

We LITERALLY sat by the pool, read, shopped, ate and read some more. We did manage to take a few photos so it's time for Show & Tell...wawhooo!

This is the condo. We stayed in the condo that is to the right of center, bottom floor with the lights on:

Here is the condo up close:

Heather & I outside T*Bonz at the river walk were we ate geriatric dinner (or 4:30 p.m. lunch) one day. Great photo spot, don't cha think? I know we're out of focus...can't change that!

me:

Heather (i love that shirt):

me in the vehicle:

I told you we read a lot...I mean A LOT! Can you see the books they are reading? That's TWILIGHT baby!

Heather & Malissa playing Monopoly:


Heather & Malissa in the photo spot:

Me & Malissa in the photo spot:

...oh look, without sunglasses:

the condo...again:

our view of the golf course out our back patio:

inside...

inside...

In God We Trust...

Here's your chance to let the media know where the people stand on our faith in God, as a nation. NBC is taking a poll on "In God We Trust" to stay on our American currency. Please send this to every Christian you know so they can vote on this important subject. Please do it right away, before NBC takes this off the web page.

Poll is still open so you can vote.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10103521/

Rafting the Ocoee with Chrissy...

A few weeks ago I convinced Chrissy to come river rafting with me. No, it didn't take much convincing, but she had never gone before so I had to assure her it was nothing but fun. We had a great time and documented it all on one of those uber cheesy water proof disposable cameras. Don't you love those! We both look smok'n hot in the pictures I can't believe I am about to share. Oh well...

Rafting Queens on the bus en route to our put in on the Ocoee. Thanks to our Florida buddies for acting as photogs!:

At the beginning...we were still dry, although I am not sure my helmet is on correctly, what a dork!:

Chrissy IN the Ocoee just floating along "toes & nose! toes & nose!":

Here we were stopped ahead of the rest of our group acting as Safety. Basically meaning that our guide stood up on a rock overlooking the rapid we just went through, ready to throw his rope to the next unfortunate soul that got thrown out:

Here is a shot of our entire raft (thank you guy from the other raft for acting as photog) we were hanging out just past the Olympic run waiting for the safety to bring the guy back to his raft that DID get tossed in that rapid. No, we did not know anyone else in our raft to begin with, but after risking life & limb on the Ocoee we are sure to exchange Christmas cards:

Don't you love how those pictures had to be developed at the store and scanned into the computer?! Do you know how long it has been since I had something other than a digital camera? We are talking years and years and years, I would venture to say almost 10 years even!

Hope you enjoyed that fun trip down memory lane.

Want to get off your butt and out from in front of the television? Go White Water Rafting...it is crazy fun and as long as you pay attention it is not as dangerous as it may seem. Just remember toes & nose! toes & nose!

I have been rafting with both of these rafting companies:
Rolling Thunder River Company
Wildwater Ltd.

check 'em out!

Tell me about yourself...

One of my BFF's Lisa sent this to me today. I vowed to stop sending these to my friends and instead allowed myself to put them on this here spiffy blog.

So HEAR YE HEAR YE! To all reading this blog, consider yourself lucky to not have rec'd this in your inbox and go ahead and answer it for yourself on your own bulog!

1. What time did you get up this morning? 8:40 something
2. Diamonds or pearls? d*i*a*m*o*n*d*s!
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Indy 4
4. What is your favorite TV show? all those crimeish drama mama shows
5. What do you usually have for breakfast? Cheerios/Bagel/Oatmeal
6. What is your middle name? Dale
7. What food do you dislike? GREEN BEANS! Katherine's don't like green beans. (also mashed potatoes w/out gravy)
8. What is your favorite CD at the moment? I got nothin!
9. What kind of car do you drive? THE WHITE PEARL! Kia Sorento
10. Favorite sandwich? Club (lightly toasted...I don't need the roof of my mouth to feel like it ate a scouring pad!)
11. What characteristic do you despise?
12. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Italy
13. Are you an organized person? I like to think so, if I had the time I would be more so.
14. Where do you want to live when you retire? I'm going for a home in the mountains/beach/Italy/Mexico/Alaska/etc.
15. What was your most recent memorable birthday? Heather...I can't remember which one was celebrated in Mexico...but that one rocked!
16. What are you going to do when you finish this? Go to Science.
17. Furthest place you are sending this? Considering that I am not actually sending it anywhere, the further location that I know who will read it is Japan. (hi Japan loves)
18. Person you expect to send it back first? Everyone will post this...it's the law.
19. When is your birthday? During the year...I can't give away too many personal details on the WWW.
20. What is your shoe size? depends on the shoes...7.5 - 8.5, but don't think I won't make a 9 work if the shoe is smok'n hot!
21. Pets? Rhett
22. Any new and exciting news? no.
23. What did you want to be when you were little? I don't want to talk about it!
24. How are you today? Doing well, thank you.
25. What is your favorite flower? ummm...roses/tulips/gerbera daisies
26. What are you listening to right now? other KSU students
27. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? end of the semester
28. What was the last thing you ate? grapes
29. Do you wish on stars? Yes!
30. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? RED
31. How is the weather right now? Sunny and HOT
32. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Brian
33. What is your favorite soft drink? Diet Coke
34. Favorite restaurant? Mexican
35. Hair color? Dark brown
36. What was your favorite toy as a child? wooden pallets
37. Summer or Winter? Winter
38. Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate
39. Coffee or tea? herbal tea
40. Do you want your friends to email you back? whatever...you know the law!
41. When was the last time you cried? When I was asked to serve in the stake Primary
42. What is under your bed? toilet paper
43. What did you do last night? Mass Communications class
44. What are you afraid of? NOTHING...I am Super Woman!
45. Salty or sweet? don't make me choose!
46. How many keys on your key ring? Too many
47. How many years at your current job? 1.5
48. Favorite day of the week? Sunday
49. Do you make friends easily? I think so. Maybe not...idk.
50. How many people will you send this to? the ENTIRE world!
51. How many will respond? the law baby...the law!
52. Who will not respond? so many...so many
53. Do you like finding out all this stuff about your friends? heck ya!

party on people!

2008 Fall Semester

It's been a few days since I posted anything and figured the first week of classes for the 2008 fall semester was reason enough.

My main focus this semester will be encouraging my professors to get their hair cut. I know, you think I'm just being funny...I'm not!

One prof weighs in at about 80 pounds soaking wet! I would also be surprised if he was a day over 21...although he said he got his Masters in Europe and has been teaching for something like 7 years. His hair looks like he dumped a bucket of water on his head and let it dry that way. Or maybe like he got a bowl cut...4 years ago. So strange. He's really artsy fartsy and also teaches photography and other classes of the sort. Which I suppose makes sense given his look. He's nice, so I can say he has that much going for him.

Another prof has hair past his shoulders - longer than my own - and it has this kinky curly way about it. You know that woman on Three Men & A Little Lady...the movie? The one that is in love with Tom Sellick and keeps sticking her hand down her shirt? Well this guy does that sort of thing but instead grabs the back of his neck at the base of his hair line and just sort of pulls at his hair with his arm bent and his elbow way up in the air. No joke, this guy asked a question and the prof answered it...all while playing with his hair just like that. I could not get the 3M&LL woman out of my head after that point.

I found his photo (right). It has to be a few years ago because his hair is easily 8 inches longer. But it's easy to see how he could be related to the 3M&LL woman...!!!

I don't like to shop...really!

I am really not a huge fan of shopping. Seriously. But there is just something about going into a familiar store (say, Ross for instance) and walking out with a bag of goodies for the same amount of money I would spend in a normal department store (say, Dillard's for instance) for just one item.

Well, yesterday I went to Ross to exchange a few tops that I had purchased in the wrong size. Well, I was able to exchange two of them, but I couldn't find the correct size in the other, so I found a few other items. I am most excited about these:

Beautiful Black Shoes!
I know what you are thinking "Don't you have enough black shoes?" and the answer is no. Really, I don't. One of my pair of black heels is sort of broken. Not quite, but too close to call for me to wear out, because I know it will break the next time I do wear them. The other pair are not like this pair...they are different!

Darling black bag...darling!

Just look at that bow...darling!


No, I do not have a black bag like this one!

And no, you are not my husband, so I do not have to justify my purchases...now that's an upside I hadn't thought about!

Besides, they are from ROSS, not like they broke the bank or even came close. I mean, the bag was $14. Yes, 14 Bucks! Can't do much better than that!

Don't be a hater...you can borrow it anytime you want!

What can YOU seal with a seal a meal?

As previously mentioned John, Jamiee, Abbi & Jenna gave me a Seal-A-Meal for my birthday (yeah & thank you!) So I went to Costco and purchased some bulk items to last me through my summer hibernation.

Bagels...can you seal-a-meal bagels? Well, you can sure try!

BEFORE:
DURING:
AFTER:
AFTER & BEFORE:
(thank you Lindsay for holding the BEFORE bagel)

Ha! Ha! Ha!
No, I really had no idea that it would do THAT. Seriously.
I ate the seal-a-meal'd bagel the next morning and it still tasted like a bagel.
I did seal-a-meal the others, but I didn't suck the air out of them, I figured it was better than nothing...they will probably still be freezer burned.

So funny though...so funny!

Birthday Presents...BIG Thank you!

I know it's been a few days since my birthday, but saying thank you never has a time limit in my book. I just had to share some of the extremely cool things that I received for my birthday and what I have done with them...

Jo & Wayne gave me this cool digital photo album keychain. I am such a photo nerd this is so perfect for me!











John, Jamiee, Abbi & Jenna gave me this seal a meal, which I just have to say is great, now I won't have to borrow Mom & Dad's anymore. I have a funny post about what I did with it that will follow.










The DeMone's gave my camera a new case and it is in Heaven! I have literally carried it all over the place with me since I got it. It was perfect for my hike to Sope Creek, I just slung it around me and off we went!










One of my BFF's Heather sent me this oh so fabulous cake server disguised as a shoe! Isn't that great?!? I told her, we needed that a few wedding showers ago for all our friends. And the even funner (is that a word?) thing is that the heel comes off, so if you don't want it to look like a shoe, it doesn't have to!








Mom & Dad knew how desperately I needed a new desk. Mine was/is beautiful, it's an old antique desk I bought from another BFF Jennifer, but it is just too small for all the school & church work I have to do. Dad suggested the best idea to use a door - just a simple unfinished door like you get from Home Depot/Lowes. Mom & I went and picked it out the Saturday before my birthday and she helped me set it up with these filing cabinets I got off freecycle.org. If you can believe it (and I am sure you can) I needed to organize this mess badly and now it looks so much worse. I really need to get it together before fall semester starts...yikes!


Not pictured is my favorite make me smell good bath gel and lotion set from Susan and a beautiful dozen roses from Jamie. Wow, am I blessed!

I am trying to spread my birthday out as long as possible and my family and friends are helping me too. Anne sent my present all the way from Japan...OK, not really, but she ordered it from there and had it shipped to Mom & Dad's house...she got me a wheat grinder! Hello...a wheat grinder! How cool is that? Anyone want to make flour!?!

Another BFF April vacationed in Coast Rica for my birthday she just forgot to take me along! She did however promise me a fabulous birthday present which is on it's way to me via UPS...I am so excited, I can hardly wait!

I really hate the summer because it's so hot outside, especially here in Georgia! And I'm not a big fan of getting older, but I'm totally OK with everyone giving me presents!

Thanks everyone...love LOVE love you all very VERY very much!

I'VE GOT IT...BREAKING DAWN!

I went to Borders (yes, I chose them over B&N) and stood in line with 200 other anxious readers and I got my copy of Breaking Dawn. I am reading it now...so exciting!

BREAKING DAWN!

OK, it's finally time.

There are no more days left in the countdown, only hours, minutes and then seconds!

I can't express the excitement I feel getting ready to go to Barnes & Noble tonight to pick up my copy of Breaking Dawn...the 4th (and final) book in Stephanie Meyer's series Twilight.

I am so EXCITED!

Not Your Average White Water Pitcher...

Today I was researching my new found Google Reader (thank you Nicki) when I came across some Martha Stewart wedding blog where they had this most adorable white water pitcher posted. Isn't that the cutest thing you have ever seen, it combines my love of the sea and my love of white water pitchers! If anyone wants to buy it for me go HERE...it is only a simple $95.00, pocket change!