Happy Anniversary to Me and AB!

Four years ago today I married AB! I cannot believe it's only been four years, it seems like a lot longer and I mean that in a good way! He is definitely my better half. We are different in almost every way, I guess opposites attract, but I feel like he completes me.

We got married in Sedona, AZ. I would give anything to be back in that perfect eighty degree weather right about now! It is so beautiful there and it is now such a special place to us. I loved my wedding day, I could not stop grinning I was so happy!

For the second year in a row, AB had to be out of town on our anniversary. No biggie, we have fun things planned for the weekend :) but I wanted him to know I found another way to celebrate with him on our special day. So I sent this to him earlier today:

I thought we should be together on our 4 year anniversary so I decided to take you to lunch ;)


Here we are on our way to celebrate

At Brady Tavern


It’s hot out, you had better get a drink. I don’t want you to get overheated on this special day!

For me? These are gorgeous – thank you so much! You’re the best :)

I’m glad we could celebrate together – I love you!

For the record, he really did send me those flowers and the picture does not do them justice! I love sunflowers!! A special thank you to Alisha and Shonda for pinch hitting for my hubby today!

What Do You Think?

Inquiring minds want to know: If someone had something in their teeth would you tell them? I'm all for the honesty approach. If I notice someone has food in their teeth, lipstick out of whack, a fly open or the worst, a ninja in the rafters (aka booger in the nose) I tell them. Yes, it's awkward for you and embarrassing for them but I would want someone to tell me! Nothing is worse than realizing one of these things has happened to you and nobody bothered to tell you. This morning I picked my friend Alisha up on the way to work and thank goodness because we were still in the car when she informed me my shirt was on backwards but actually it was on inside out (even worse)! This reminded me of another wardrobe malfunction quite a few years ago when I wore two different shoes to work. Sometimes instead of drinking coffee, I smoke crack in the mornings ;) Ha! I obviously need to do a better job of doing a once over in the mirror before I leave my house!

I think the best story I have on this subject involves my friend and boss, Shonda. She once received a resume from a girl that stated she was a liaison (go between) between her sorority and the library (or something like that). The problem was she spelled liaison lesion, as in an abnormality of your skin due to disease. Shonda took it upon herself to email the girl and point out her mistake. I'm sure the girl was absolutely mortified but in my opinion it was the best thing that could have happened to her. The misspelling would have caused most people to toss the resume in the trash never giving it a second thought. Hopefully the email caused her to fix the error and get a job! This instance also earned Shonda the nickname Pontotoc County Spelling Bee Champ and I have no doubts that she probably was :)

Have you guys ever had to point out a beyond embarrassing mistake to someone or had one pointed out to you?

Happy Birthday Chris

Today is my BIL's birthday and to celebrate the occasion we had him, his lovely wife Shawnna and our two cute nieces over for dinner on Saturday.

Chris, our sweet niece Elliot and AB. Hey Elliot? Over here!

Cheese!

I never have a problem with Lilly cheesing it up for the camera!

I especially love her model poses :)

My ever present kitchen helper and I whipped out some fabulous treats for the occasion. Don't worry I scrub down the counter tops before cooking and keep her summoned to ground help only!

First up - The Pioneer Woman's Shrimpo De Gallo. Delicious! Megan from my Girl's Night group made this not too long ago and I was addicted after the first bite! Sorry I didn't get any "in-process" pics, just after the fact.

Next up Ham & Cheese Sliders. My friend Alisha came across the recipe for these here. They were a crowd pleaser and super easy!

Alisha also provided the recipe for my next two creations. She recently bought a Taste of Home magazine that featured their top rated recipes. I made many copies out of the magazine and chose to make this Potato Salad unfortunately I didn't get a pic. Again, it was easy and yummy!

For dessert I made these mini peanut butter cheesecakes. Mine don't look quite as pretty as theirs but they were still scrumptious!

I also have to give a shout out to AB for helping me in the kitchen! He did quite a bit of the chopping prep for the shrimpo de gallo :) and as usual, he did quite a bit of the clean up! It was a fun night with the fam and hopefully a happy birthday for Chris!

The Bahamas

I apologize for the lengthy post but three days in the Bahamas is bound to come with a lot of commentary and pictures!

Our first stop in the Bahamas was Freeport on Grand Bahama Island. We had intentions of going to the Lucayan National Park but fate had other plans for us :) Our taxi, which had twelve people in it, ran out of gas which was a humorous situation, at least to me. For some reason I just could not stop giggling. Our taxi driver was such a cute older gentleman and I don't know, it just seemed like we were in a scene out of a romantic comedy or something. Luckily after a couple of stops we were up and running again. The other patrons of the taxi stopped at the Lucayan Beach and because of our luck and the fact the National Park was much further we decided the beach was a good stop for us too!

Upon getting to the beach, we saw this sign. AB has a good friend from college named Billy Joe so we had to take a picture!

This is a view of the ocean from the beach. The ocean was beautiful, the beach not so much. There were lots of weeds and trash! I don't understand why people do not take care of public beaches. Who can leave their trash at such a beautiful place?

The second stop was Norwegian's private island. Here is a view of the island from our room.

They recently pumped a lot of $$ into the island to make it nicer and I thought it was gorgeous! Here are some pics of the beach/ocean from the island. As you can see it was pretty crowded but we walked a little further and found an adult only beach. I could have sworn I had pictures of it, but apparently not. The water was so calm, the beach was not crowded - it was fantastic!

The third stop on the cruise was Nassau which is the Capital and largest city of the Bahamas. We all did a one day excursion at the Atlantis Resort and it was, to say the least, AMAZING!

Atlantis has everything! A water park, beaches, pools, shopping, lots of restaurants, etc. You could go there for an entire week and never leave the resort. We had so much fun! We started out at the water park and ventured on the many slides they offer.

The first slide we did was The Falls which starts with a 58' drop to the ground level then propels you up through a water roller coaster of twisting tubes. Katie made fun of me for screaming the whole time but I couldn't help it - it was scary and fun at the same time! (All of the slide pics are from the Atlantis website)

Next AB and I did the Jungle which I read just on their website geared more toward kids. We were in a line to do another slide but I chickened out and moved over to this slide. Everyone assured me it was just twists and not scary. Um well not so much for me! I felt like I was going way too fast! I was trying everything I could to slow down but the water was just rocketing me through there. AB on the other hand almost came to a complete stop twice and not realizing this, the workers let the person behind him go. As soon as he finished a girl came barreling down and smacked him in the head! Poor guy - I guess he was just too big for the slide ;)

After AB and I finished up at the kid's slide, we went and watched Katie and Tommy go down the Leap of Faith which is a 60ft almost-vertical drop into a clear tunnel submerged in a shark tank! This is the one we were in line for but can you blame me for chickening out? Yikes!

Then we separated the men from the boys and while Katie and Tommy went on to do more slides, AB and I (being the boys) headed over to the lazy river. The lazy river also had some rapids which was a lot of fun!

After we were tired of the river we headed over to the Grotto pool, one of many pools, and hung out by the waterfall.

In between all the water park action, the four of us did wander around the grounds and we also went to the two aquariums included in our day pass.

This was a pretty fountain we passed.

I think this is the largest sting ray I have ever seen

Lots of fish

The sea horses almost look fake!

Glow in the dark jelly fish

A creepy eel

A fun bridge we walked across

AB and I at Atlantis - such a fun day!

Just to prove we clean up nice - I included a picture of us at dinner that evening :)

I have to say my favorite day was our stop in Nassau at the Atlantis Resort. We had so much fun and I would definitely go back to Atlantis for a vacation, like I mentioned you would never need to leave the resort!

The Cruise

So I thought I would do a little review of the cruise in general. This was Katie & Tommy's third cruise (I believe) but our first. Several people have asked what we thought! Just a few technical details - our cruise was four nights and we were on the Norwegian cruise line. That's our ship in the picture above. I'll be honest we were pretty anxious because if it's something you don't like, you're kind of stuck. It's not like you can switch to a better boat or leave. Also, AB gets motion sick very easily - as in he can't even look at a map when we're in the car! So I was worried this would be him throughout the entire trip!

Luckily that wasn't the case although we did have a few minor glitches. Since AB is prone to motion sickness I had my doctor prescribe us the patch. The patches are great, they are small and you place one behind your ear every three days. Ironically the patch has many side affects that mimic motion sickness itself and I ended up having a few of them so I took mine off the second day. After I took it off I felt fine. Another side affect that we both experienced was dry mouth - as in I thought my mouth was stuffed with cotton balls it was so dry! Poor AB also experienced dilated pupils so he wasn't able to read anything up close toward the end of the trip. Other than that, the patch was great for him, no motion sickness at all!

After we disembarked I experienced land sickness. I had never heard of such a thing until I googled my symptoms and found that quite a few people experience this. Basically I felt like I was still on the boat even though I was on solid ground. I constantly felt like I was moving and it made me extremely nauseous. In fact, I actually puked at the airport (sorry for the tmi but I'm just being real)! We disembarked on a Friday and the moving sensation did not cease until Tuesday. I'm happy to report I'm totally back to normal now!

I guess these are our overall thoughts on cruising - we enjoyed it, we especially enjoyed being with friends, we are definitely open to going on another one but we aren't totally in love with it. I mention the "in love" thing because there are people out there who are cruise crazy! I mean, I think that is the only type of vacation they go on. I think cruises are ideal for families and groups. Many cruise lines offer tons of kid's activities which is great because you can have adult time while your kids are taken care of and having fun. We witnessed multiple family reunions on the ship and I think a cruise is perfect for that kind of thing. There is something for everyone on and off the ship. Speaking of the ship - it is huge as you can tell by the photo below. Of course it's not hard for the two shortest people on earth to make something look tall!

It's funny how something so large can have the tiniest rooms ever! I believe the website stated they are 149 sq ft. Our room had a closet but it wasn't big enough to store our luggage so it was just out on the floor and I cannot tell you how many times AB and I tripped over it! It got humorous toward the end because it was such a regular occurrence.

I mentioned lots of kid's activities but in general the ship has a lot going on during the day and night and you can participate in as much or as little as you want. And of course there is lots of eating!! We ate in the dining room each night and I thought the food was good. It wasn't the best food I've ever eaten but it definitely wasn't terrible. I've had friends who've had terrible food on cruises and friends who've had amazing food. I'm guessing the higher end the cruise line, the better the food. I have no idea where Norwegian falls in the ranks of cruise lines but I thought our food was pretty decent :)

Katie and I on the deck one evening

AB and I on the deck one evening with some creepy guy in the background, oh wait we know him - LOL!

So those are my general thoughts on the cruise itself, our overall experience was good :)

July Birthday Celebrations Part I

I'm interrupting my vacation posts to blog about my fun evening. I have so many friends having birthdays this month! I celebrated two of them this evening with a night out at Red Rock - yummo!! Tonight we celebrated these two ladies - Daisi and Alisha. Alisha's birthday was on the 4th and Daisi's birthday is the 14th. And let me tell you these Bitches raked it in like it was Christmas! It was so much fun to watch them open all of their fun gifts :)

Shonda and Daisi

Alisha, Me and Karla

Such a fun night - love those girls!! So my side note to this post is Daisi's trunk. Hello, girl has some random stuff in there. I guess everyone has some random stuff in their trunk although I would say mine is pretty norm...jumper cables, that's it! For everyone's viewing pleasure I captured some of Daisi's random trunk treasures!


Sleeping Beauty's Brush? Or maybe Black Beauty's this thing is large!

A large cross she apparently bought from a street vendor, have I mentioned Daisi has a soft heart? Girlfriend sorts her trash for the homeless so they don't' have to - she is awesome!

A boot - yes just one, not sure where the other one is. Same goes for the glove, just one. If you're stuck in a snow storm at least half of your body is covered!!

Ha! Ha! The randomness of her trunk cracks me up. I will tell you a little secret about Daisi, she's an amazing cook! You can check out some of her yummy recipes here.

Bienvenido a Miami

So I've been on a blogging hiatus for various reasons (#1 being I cannot download Windows Live Writer and Blogger drives me nuts!) but I'm going to try my best to not be a fair weather blogger and keep up with this blog! Lucky for you, I just got back from vacation and I have lots of content :)

Our vacation started out in Miami and I never thought I would be going down there to enjoy cooler weather. Oklahoma is experiencing quite the heat wave and it is hot hot hot! The weather in Miami was great and a nice break from what we've been experiencing!

Our first night there we partook in a South Beach Culinary Tour. It was fantastic! Click here to check out Katie's post about the tour.

The second day, while the boys lounged around the hotel, Katie and I took a Millionaire Mansion boat tour. It was lots of fun but you will have to forgive me for not remembering who each mansion belongs to, I knew I should have written it down!

Our first drive-by was Fisher Island. Fisher Island is a sustainable community off the coast of Miami Beach. The only way on and off the island is by boat or helicopter. Famous current and former residents include Andre Agassi, Boris Becker, Tom Cruise and Oprah Winfrey.

After that we moved on to Star Island as seen in the aerial photo below (obviously not mine). I think there are a total of 25 residences on the island and the tour took us by most of them.

The tour guide never mentioned who owned this house but they did point out that it had been used for some music videos. It was also rented by Usher for an MTV Music Awards after party. I really love the spiral stair case! Keep this place in mind for your next party ;)

This was the house used in the movie Scarface and to the left you can see a tiny portion of a yellow house that belongs to Rosie O'Donnell.

This house belongs to the CEO (I think) of Parker Pens. If not the CEO, something high up. I had never actually heard of Parker Pens until this tour. You learn something new every day!

Next up Gloria Estefan's property. Her house is on the left and her music studio is on the right.

To my surprise this is Vanilla Ice's house. It was my understanding that he was broke, but apparently he has been able to keep this house!

This next house was originally built for Sylvester Stalone but is now owned by Donald Pliner, the shoe designer.

I believe this house is owned by a former Miami Dolphin's player but it's one that I can't quite remember. Either way it's a pretty house.

This next one was easier to remember, especially because of all the construction. This is where Shaq used to call home. I believe it's for sale if any of you are interested in purchasing a vacation home ;)

This is Elizabeth Taylor's home, or was (R.I.P.) A beautiful home for a beautiful lady!

This is another one I cannot remember. It is HUGE! I'm thinking it might belong to a Spanish singer?

If you thought the one above was big, this next one was ginormous! It is the largest residence on the island and it seemed to go on forever. The owner founded the second pharmaceutical company in the U.S. All of the palm trees on the property were imported from South Africa for a mere $10k a piece. The picture directly below this one is just a close-up of the house. Crazy!

Next up, the home of Julio Iglesias. Better known to me as Enrique Iglesias' father. Judging by all the window coverings, I don't think anyone was home :(

These next two, I have no idea! Maybe just some average Joes working hard for their money :)

This house belongs to a German engineer who not only has the inside of the home air conditioned but also has the outside air conditioned. I have no idea how this possibly could work but I wish I had an air conditioned outside this record breaking hot summer!

This residence was at one time a popular hang out of the infamous Gangster Al Capone.

Last but not least the residence of P. Diddy, Puff Daddy, Puffy, Sean Combs...whatever you want to call him! Unfortunately he has quite a bit of vegetation growing so you couldn't see the house very well.

That sums up the boat tour. More vacation posts to come...