Thanksgiving 2015

Our Family Portrait

I am behind! I know Thanksgiving wasn't that long ago, but I still feel like I am way off on my blogging. We spent Thanksgiving in South Carolina with my inlaws again this year. Normally we rotate each year, but my mother-in-law will be away this Christmas and we really wanted to drive up to New Jersey to see my extended family and Christmas gives us more time to do that anyway! So Wednesday after work we drove down south. I was feeling pretty woozy most of Thanksgiving to be honest with you, my stomach was just not cooperative, but thankfully it never got too bad! We had a delicious meal with family and spent Black Friday in our pajamas, napping and watching the 80s rewind marathon on VH1. My sister in law has never seen any of the Back to the Future movies and that had to be rectified! We also had a delicious dinner with his grandmother (Skeetsie) and mom and sister on Friday night.

Saturday we got up early and went in to downtown Columbia, a part called Soda City, where they do a sort of street fair/marketplace type thing. I had some shrimp and grits that were pretty decent and a nutella banana crepe that was amazing.

We also walked up to the capitol building and took some pictures near the Christmas tree. All of this is pretty much just like we did last year! Except this year it was about 70something degrees!

We also made a brief stop into the Richland County library so I could look around. This place was HUGE! Three stories easily with tons of space and cool things that made me pretty jealous. The mural below was in their children's area... since I do not have a child I didn't want to be creepy and go in there but I was able to take a picture from the balcony of the floor above. They have trees! Growing in the kids room! So cool.

We ordered some wings and went home to watch the USC/Clemson rivalry game. Honestly we were worried it was going to be a slaughter (with Clemson at #1 and us having a very off season) but it was a surprisingly good game! We almost had a chance at the end but it just was not meant to be!

After the game we drove home and used Sunday to clean, grocery shop, put up some Christmas decorations, and cook for the upcoming week. It was great spending time with family and as always, way too brief!

Halloween 2015

We had a pretty busy and fun Halloween weekend this year! It kind of sneaked (snuck?) up on us but we ended up having a blast. First, on October 25th, the infamous Dup turned four years old. She celebrated with a day at the beach with Ryan and a candle lit cookie that night. The candle freaked her out a bit so we made sure to sing really fast!

The Dup turns 4!

Then we got on to Halloween weekend! On Mischief Night Ryan, my best friend Donna, and I all went to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show on base. I had seen bits and pieces before but never the entire thing. So when the base theatre had a free screening, with props encouraged, we couldn't resist! Especially since it is the 40th Anniversary. We had an absolute blast.

I loved the audience partici-(SAY IT!)-pation. We brought along most of the props allowed, including rice, toast, confetti, noise makers, flash lights, party hats (obviously), and toilet paper. At the very beginning when the rice started flying it went EVERYWHERE. When we got home that night we had rice falling out of our shoes, jeans, hair... it was nuts.

I only took one picture during the chaos, during the flashlight use.

Halloween itself I woke up early not feeling very well, but after lounging around for a few hours watching the marathon of The Librarians on TNT I started to bounce back. We went last minute shopping for costumes and I saw a bad wig that I showed Ryan. I jokingly told him he should be Donald Trump for Halloween and he instantly went with it. I decided to just buy some face paint and wrist bands and wore my good ol' Eli Manning jersey and was a football player.

 

It is kind of scary actually how good of a Donald Trump my husband was. It freaked some people out! Especially when he threw out some catch phrases like, "Make America great again!" and talked about building a wall... scary indeed.

 

Our first stop of the evening was at my co-worker's house where we watched scary movies, ate delicious homemade pizza and played Cards Against Humanity. Jennie made some delicious food and I was bummed we couldn't stay longer than we did. Ryan made plans to meet up with a friend of his so we had to bounce out earlier than I was happy with. We met up with his buddy and girlfriend and went to stop number two, the house of another friend of his. We played cornhole and had some more delicious food before making our way to my friends' house for stop number three. My friends were from the plays we did and they always have something crazy going on and it was a lot of fun. Ryan and his friend Derek tied for funniest Halloween costume too!

A full sized Donald and Eli.

Derek and Ryan ended up having to Rock Paper Scissors battle for the win of funniest costume and they had to duke it out about ten times because they kept throwing the same things!

Finally Derek won and got the fun prizes of a blow up girlfriend and a small beaker from Breaking Bad. Donna met us there too so we all had a great Halloween for sure! 

Even though we bounced around a lot it was still a blast. The extra hour of sleep definitely helped me out when the clocks went back an hour. Sunday we just did some chores and watched movies. We listened to the Giants game since it wasn't on our local channels (GOD what a game. Horrible loss.) and had Buffalo Wild Wings to go. We then watched Toy Story 3 since we've never seen it and I was a crying mess. Really Disney? An incinerator!? Come on! I know I am late on this but geeze, my poor heart.

 



Not So Wordless Wednesday

On your birthday Starbucks gives you free drinks. The Starbucks on base doesn't use the app or whatever it is with the gift card reloadable thing (you can tell I do this a lot) but they still give you a free drink. I asked for a medium and the girl behind the counter told me to live a little, it was my birthday after all, so I ended up with a passion tea lemonade the size of my head! Plus they matched my new birthday present Ray Bans my mom found on major sale somewhere. So I took a rare selfie, especially since I had my hair curled, another rarity.

On 9/11 I didn't have work, so once Ryan came home we went to the 9/11 Memorial in Jacksonville. I am ashamed to say I didn't know it existed until that day and the base Facebook page posted about it, but I am glad we went. It is a piece of steel from the Twin Towers and you can see the notes and flowers people left throughout the day. We arrived just after it rained so it was just us for awhile in the evening sunlight. It was beautiful.

Football season started and I was super excited. Now both my teams are 0-2 and I want to bang my head on the wall. Sigh.

Last weekend my parents met us for lunch in New Bern and we tried a delicious restaurant called Persimmons, which we had never been to before. It was right on the waterfront and all of their food was made from fresh, local ingredients. Check out my fried green tomatoes (with regular tomatoes, goat cheese crumbles and balsamic reduction). Oh my gracious it was heavenly.

We walked around a bit then and just enjoyed the view and showing my dad New Bern since he hasn't been before. It was pretty hot so the breeze coming off the water was much appreciated.

I finally managed to snag something from The Enchanted Brush. I was way too excited and I already wore it! I ordered it Friday, it arrived Monday, and I wore it Tuesday. One day I will own a pair of her amazing shoes... when I can afford them!!!

I am back to the "Let's guess why your digestive system doesn't work game." with a new gastroenterologist. So far I like him, we have some ideas, but until I have an attack again they cannot do as many tests as they want. I am under instructions to go to the ER during my next attack and have a CT scan and blood work done... which should be fun. When I am in attack mode I can barely move or leave the bathroom let alone get myself to the ER in time, but we shall see. I cannot seem to go more than six weeks without an attack so maybe within a month we will know more. He did decide to test me for celiac's disease with a simple blood test after my appointment. I went to the lab and I told the young HN naval guy I have deep veins, just to give him a heads up. He felt around, said he found one and was good. He then stuck the needle in said, "Oh." and promptly pulled it out again. As blood trickled down my arm he went and grabbed someone else and said, "Can you tap her, I blew out her vein." Sigh. I warned you dude. Now I have a lovely bruise on my arm. The other arm where the other lady tapped me? Not even a mark. I also have a gastric emptying test scheduled for this Friday. I sincerely hope I get some answers anyway possible at this point. I am tired of these stomach issues... it has been nearly a year now! But I like this doctor and I feel like he actually listens to me, unlike the other one, so fingers crossed.

When I visited my mom over the weekend of my birthday I got a gel manicure that lasted me a full two weeks. My nails are never long so I wanted to keep it up if I could. I went to Target and got the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Nail Polish since it was no light necessary. I really don't have the time to go get my nails done every few weeks so I was excited to try this. Sadly, it chipped in less than a day. My nails look a little extra ragged from when I removed the salon gels, but the chips weren't even in the same spots on some of my nails. So yea, kind of disappointed. I have done a touch up already and those have chipped too. Just in case you were wondering before you buy! It's a shame because the colors are gorgeous and they dry pretty quickly, but they sadly just do not last with me.

I am trying to get back to blogging regularly, so thanks for sticking with me and my random accumulation of thoughts... especially in this post in particular.

This is not a sponsored post in any way, all opinions here are my own in terms of restaurants, Etsy shops, and nail polish... just sharing what I experienced!

Turning 27

On Monday, September 8th, I turned 27.

It was pretty low key, as far as birthdays go. My parents sent me Georgetown Cupcakes, flowers, and some clothes. Ryan, the smart man he is, got me gift cards to go shopping. My friend Donna got me some Coca Cola things for my Coca Cola Bathroom (a soap dispenser, a soap dish, and a cool metal tin that now holds my daily make up and hair things) and my phone blew up with well wishes from friends and family and Facebook.

So, thank you (:

I was off from work since I worked the weekend and I decided to go get my hair done. I last got partial highlights in March so after six months it was kind of driving me nuts.

 I went over to the mall and got them done... I love how they turned out but I was there nearly three hours. Bit much! But at my price I won't complain.

After I brought home some food and Ryan and I sat on the couch and watched television for a bit before we went off to spend my birthday giftcards. At Kohls I got a gorgeous red pea coat (with a hood!) since I have wanted a red coat for years. At Old Navy I got two long sleeved shirts, two tank tops, and a nice blue work shirt. At Shoe Carnival I got a gorgeous pair of grey boots that I cannot wait to wear.... so Ryan definitely did well for me for my birthday!

Then wen we went home to drop off my bags something unexpected happened....

A tornado warning! My phone started letting off a siren sound and we flicked on the television to see the red radar hovering directly over us. My husband quickly ushered the dog and I into our guest bathroom where we quickly realized we should at least look outside before we cower in the bathroom. Outside it was gray, not raining, but definitely did not look like tornado conditions. No green clouds, no rotation.... nothing! Fifteen minutes went by and the alert expired. I always thought a warning meant a funnel cloud had been spotted but the television never said one had been. Just have to keep things interesting I suppose!

Donna met Ryan and I at Ale House where I watched my Giants get their butts handed to them for their first game for the second year in a row. Sigh. At least I got a free dessert since it was my birthday!

All in all, a good, low key day. Let's hope 27 is a good year!

Ringing in the New Year

Our New Year's weekend was rather low key. After traveling for Thanksgiving and Christmas we decided to stay in town and just spend the weekend with friends. Saturday night Ben and Chelsea came over and we walked over to the bar and just had a good night letting loose. We played pool and talked and just had a good time. Sunday we recovered and Monday was New Years Eve.

Nicole invited us to her house for dinner and games and we had a blast. I tried some no heat curls to fancy myself up a little and I think they turned out pretty well! Ryan was funny since he never heard of any of the games (um, I hadn't really either!) and he kept saying he was being played. Actually by the end of the night we were three dollars up some how! Not bad considering how many games we both played and lost before we won.

We played dice games (left, right, center), golf, 99, and screw your neighbor. Nicole and Laura sang karaoke but I know better than to sing in public so I stayed at the game table!

 I was the DD for the night but I did have some champagne at midnight! Delicious!

Our New Years kiss! After watching the ball drop Ryan danced me around the living room to Frank Sinatra. Perfect.

My hand from the one game I won!

 New Years Day we went to Buffalo Wild Wings and watched the Gamecocks play in the Outback Bowl.... and they won! We sat there for about four hours watching the game and dragging out our dinner, but it was so worth it.

THE hit heard around the world! We literally jumped out of our chairs when it happened!

 Yesterday was a trip to the commissary which was absolutely heinous. I normally shop during the day and on my own and never on pay day. Between everyone checking in and then the registers all crashing the line literally went around the entire store back towards the entrance near the produce section. I took my time shopping and after Ryan checked in he came and stood in line for me while I finished up. Luckily I always do self check out so the line was a little less bad, but still pretty awful.

Now there may be a mini employment thing in the works, I will blog about it more later when I have more information.... but there is a trial run tonight! Still waiting to hear from the library.

Tomorrow I am getting my wisdom teeth out (and completely freaking out) but I assume I will be lounging in bed this weekend and not on the blog world. I hope you all had a wonderful New Years and are kicking off 2013 in the best way possible. See you all soon!

Catch Up - Thanksgiving 2012

Blogger Fail. What else is new?

Sigh.

Anyway, this year for Thanksgiving we went down to Ryan's family in South Carolina. We ate way too much delicious food, watched the Gamecocks defeat Clemson for the fourth year in a row and helped decorate for Christmas. We had a wonderful time relaxing with family and definitely need to start that diet after the holidays now...

As usual these two were no help at all on the drives and just slept :P



FOOTBALL and Wings! Perfect for a rivalry game!

I have to update again, about holiday plans and my brief stint as a TV extra, but another day. I did manage to do a guest post for A Boy, A Girl and the Marine Corps, so please read it and let me know what you think! It is my deepest post in a long while.