Some Things I'm Diggin'

Here are a couple of things that I have recently bought and am currently loving:

1. I think this is going to be my new shade for my nails. I have been going with OPI's You Don't Know Jacques, but I ordered this shade, Essie's Smokin' Hot, on a whim, and I love it. My dad asked me today if there was something wrong with my hands, but I think it is really cool!

2. I have been using Bare Minerals for a couple of years now, and have been really happy with it, but lately I felt like my skin was just too dry for it or something -- it seemed to just sit on top of my skin. So, I was playing around on Sephora the other day, and I found the Flawless Face kit by Laura Mercier. I have heard great things about her products, so I decided to give it a try, and I am so glad that I did. It is a combination of some great, great products, and I love the way my face looks. My only complaint is that it takes longer than the two seconds it took me to put on the Bare Minerals, but most of the time I can handle that!

3. Finally, I needed some new jeans as all of my jeans from last year are too big (yeah!!!), so I headed into GAP to try their line that I have heard people raving about. I got a couple pairs of their jeggings, and I love them. I live in them. I seriously wear them all the time. In fact, I need to go back and get a couple more pairs so that I'm not doing the laundry quite so much.

I also got a pair of GAP's Always Skinny jeans, and I am not quite as enamored with those. I am not sure if I didn't get the right size, or if I just am too in love with the jeggings to love the Always Skinnies as much, but my feelings for them are just so-so.

So, anyway, that's what I'm diggin' these days!

Upcoming

The Farmer and I are getting ready to go on a tropical vacation with my entire family. Scratch that. We are going on a tropical vacation with my entire family sans kids under the age of ten -- so my kids, my sister's kids, and my brother's daughter are not going.

Both of my grandparents turned 80 this year -- my grandfather in July and my grandmother in October -- so this trip was planned as a big celebration for them. There are 20-something of us going. It should be a really fun trip. Or, at least, my trip will be fun because I plan to have a fruity drink and book in hand at all times (much to The Farmer's chagrin, I might add).

Since we will be in tropical paradise for a week, I will be spending the week in one of these:

which is all well and good except for the fact that I just got back from NOLA where I ate my weight in things like this every day:

And, since I have been back, my exercise routine has been slim-to-none -- not for lack of trying but for lack of time.

Now, before you get all "wow, tough life, Christie!" I will tell you that there are two sad parts to this trip:

1. I mentioned that this trip is a celebration for my grandparents 80th birthdays. Well, we planned it a long time ago (last winter or early spring), and then this summer my grandfather, who I have always thought of as a young, healthy (though larger than he should be) guy, started to feel not-right. Fast forward to today, and he relies solely on an oxygen tank to breathe. It is hard for him to walk from one end of his house to another and keep his breath.

So, my grandparents aren't going. On their birthday trip. The trip would have been canceled, but the houses were rented and we couldn't get our money back, so the rest of us are still going. But, there will be a damper on the trip because we know that Nana and Granddaddy aren't there; they will be at home sitting in their chairs watching FoxNews while they should be with us.

2. The Farmer and I are going to have to be away from the kids (for the first and last time!!!) on Thanksgiving. When we first booked the trip and all the plans were laid out and the dates were set, I thought "well, it is just one day, and Thanksgiving is one of the lesser holidays, not tied to the church, etc..." but now that we are getting closer, it is making me a little bit sad.

Of course, it isn't making me sad enough to stay home, but it is making me sad.

(That sounded really bad when I just typed it out...)

I am going to miss those little boogers!!

But, all in all, I think I can muscle through it...it should be a good time, and I am so looking forward to some grown-up time!

Could I Just BE Carrie Underwood, Please?

She may not have won any awards (at least I don't think she did -- unless I just missed one), but I still wouldn't have minded being Carrie Underwood at the CMAs last night -- or really any night, for that matter. After all, she gets to change her wardrobe 52 times, each time wearing some beautiful dress such as one of these:

And her hair and makeup always look flawless. Oh, and let's not forget her shoes. I mean, really, tough life, Carrie! And she and Brad Paisley were hilarious as hosts again this year (although my favorite song is still the one from last year "Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Kanye).

Carrie's gorgeousness (is that even a word?) makes the effort that I put into myself on a daily basis -- roll out of bed, put on yoga pants, no makeup unless I'm really feeling on top of things, go with hair crazy from sleeping on it wet -- seem really, really lame.

Lame.

And then I think I could probably look pretty awesome, too (although probably not quite as awesome) if I had a team of stylists and hair and makeup gurus to get me ready. But then I'd probably have to get up earlier than the gosh-awful hour of 6 am when I wake up now -- and that just ain't happenin'.

Yoga pants it is.

One decision of Carrie's I would not have made? Her husband. Someone needs to tell that man to get a haircut.

Someone else who was looking pretty gorgeous last night? Gwyneth:

(image)

Honestly I have no idea what the heck her dress looked like, but if I had legs like hers, it wouldn't matter what my dress looked like, either! I thought her voice sounded pretty darn good, too.

And, I also have to add, what other music awards show would you hear someone else get up and thank their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ by name? Go CMAs!

*All Carrie Underwood images via people.com

Halloween and Checking In

Hello there! I am still recovering from a weekend trip to New Orleans where I was visiting my good friend, Jen, for her 30th birthday. I also got to meet a bloggie friend, LSUMelanie, while I was there! I want to do a whole NOLA recap, but that will have to wait for another day.

Today, I am finally posting Halloween pics! This is the third time that I have tried to upload them, but I am finally getting to it...so here they are!

Bubba went as Batman this year. He liked finding other superheroes while he was dressed up and saying "Hey, Hero!" and then they would commence chasing each other. Boys are just so different from girls -- I just can't get over it!

Miss Priss went as Sleeping Beauty. Lately Miss Priss has gotten tall, and she is looking really grown up. I need to try the old brick-on-the-head trick or something because she is growing up too fast.

Sassy went as a flapper girl -- not that she knows what that is, but we found a really cute costume at Wal-Mart. And she looked really cute and, well, sassy in it. She doesn't have them on in any of the pictures, but her costume had these cute gloves and headband, too.

I had the hardest time getting pictures of the kids on Halloween. I guess it was because they were all crazy on sugar, but they wouldn't stand still...so I did get some pretty crazy outtakes:

And then I tried to get one of all three...and that is always interesting!

But, at least they're cute (in my humble opinion!!!)!

Mmmmm....Candy!!!!

image

The thing is, I love candy. It just isn't good for my waistline or my head (boy, will it cause some migraines!), so I just don't buy it because I don't have enough restraint to not eat it if it's in my house. I love all sorts of candy -- candy corn, Snickers, M&Ms (pretty much any kind), Nerds, Skittles, Starbursts, Twizzlers --I could go on, but this is getting kind of embarrassing...

The great thing about Halloween (and pretty much the only great thing, in my opinion -- Halloween has never been my holiday of choice -- I have never liked dressing up, never liked anything spooky -- I would rather just skip over to Thanksgiving.) is that is gives us an excuse to have candy around the house for just a little while. While I don't like what it does to the kids (sugar rushes are not. fun. for. mommies!), I do like to be able to raid their trick-or-treat bags when I need a little sugar rush myself!

So, while I am now looking forward to Thanksgiving, I am going to enjoy my Halloween sugar rush a little bit longer...while my head can still stand it and while I can still stand my kids begging for just one more piece, please?!?!

House Decision #1

The Farmer and I finally decided on a contractor. We actually decided before we left for Disney World, but we just got around to signing the contract tonight. I tell you what, if every decision during this process is like the contractor decision, then I'm just not going to have any hair by the time the darn house is finished.

This is stressful.

Luckily The Farmer took care of telling the other guy that we had not decided to go with him. I couldn't have done that.

So, now we have a contractor, and The Farmer has had some guys out on our property knocking down trees where the house is going to go. They have also been clearing the road and digging out a pond in a low spot on the property (it was either dig a pond or have a swamp when it rains, so we went with the pond option), and we will use the dirt from the pond to fill in where we need it.

I had hoped that we would be a lot further along in this process by October 27th, but I sure am glad that we are getting started. It is exciting to see work going on out there! I have some pictures on my camera that I need to upload and post, but I'm not sure you can tell much at this point!

Magic Kingdom

I had a nice, long post with words and pictures all about our day at the Magic Kingdom. However, when I hit publish, Blogger came back to me with a "bad request" error. So, now you just get pictures. You're welcome...

We took the three kids on Splash Mountain. This is how Bubba felt about it:

I wouldn't suggest taking a three year old on Splash Mountain whether he is tall enough or not! I knew as soon as we hit the first little drop and Bubba started crying that we were in for it...Daddy was saying "I told you so the entire time!"

Favorites from the day:

Miss Priss: Splash Mountain

Sassy: meeting the Disney Princesses

Bubba: Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride