Happy Birthday dear CANDY!

My fantastic friend Candy celebrates her 28th birthday today! HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANDY! I am copying MSKS on this creative alphabet birthday tribute.

Here you have it... reasons A-Z why I love this girl.

Animal lover (she has a new pet everytime I visit!)

Blogger. I am so proud of her. :)
Concert go-er! We've seen George 5 times together!
Driven. She sets her mind to something and she does it.
Encourager! She knows how to make somebody's day better!
Friend like none other
George Strait fan
Honest (sometimes she would even admit to being a little TOO honest!)
Intelligent. This girl is S.M.A.R.T
Jewel. She is the rare kind of friend. I consider myself lucky!
Kids! From Landon, to her nieces, to her students...this girl LOVES kids.
Landon's amazing mom!
Mexican food---yummy...
NOT selfish AT ALL.
Overachiever
Phone talker. I can always count on my daily chats with Candy. If we go more than a couple of days without talking, I feel lost!
Quite a role model!
Raised in Carrollton...gotta love her for that! :)
SUPPORTIVE
Teacher friend
Unbelievably organized
Venter! (not sure that's really a word--I just mean she's good at letting me VENT to her anytime!)
Wife to Chad
X-cellent cook!
"Y'all"...that's what our college professors referred to us as. They never counted us separately. All of our classes were together and we were a package deal!
Zoos! I've never known another adult who loves the zoo as much as she does! (except maybe Heather!)

I love you Candy and miss you EVERYDAY! Thank you for being my friend. I can't wait to see you!

so little time...so MUCH to post!

I don't have much time, but I feel like so much has happened since my last post! FIRST OF ALL, I got to see a couple of very dear friends this past weekend. Meredith was in town for a few days and I was fortunately able to spend a good bit of time with her while she was here (a couple of pictures were taken of us, but they are not in my possession right now. When I receive them, I will post them if they are cute). Thursday we went to Tipico and then we headed over to Jack and Emily's to watch the season premiere of The Office. Did you watch it? It as wonderful of course. Any predicitions for this season? While I am thrilled about the big proposal, I don't exactly think that it's going to be smooth sailing for those 2.

Oh and by the way, I'm still in love with Jim.

Claire was in town Friday night, so she spent the night with me and she, Mere, and I were able to spend a LITTLE time together. It's such a tease to see these friends for such short periods of time, and then have to say goodbye to them. I miss them all of the time.

The weekend ended last night with the season premiere of Desperate Housewives. Did anybody watch THAT one? I know it sounds like I'm a TV-oholic, but I promise I'm very selective with my shows. I am loyal to my shows though! As with The Office, predictions for DH this season are also welcomed.

I'm looking forward to a 4 day week this week. I'm taking off Friday, and mom and I are heading to Birmingham for the night. I plan doing a little shopping for myself and getting a jump start on Christmas shopping! My dear friend Shannon (who lives in Nashville) and her mom are joining us Friday night. I love that girl and can't wait to see her! I'm looking forward to a mother-daughter weekend!

Yay Yay YAY!

Is anybody else PUMPED about tonight?

Sidenote: I have no idea what "The Sub" is, nor do I know what this invitation is all about. I just googled around and this came up. I DO think the idea of dressing as my favorite "Office" character sounds thrilling. Who's in?

as if you don't already know all there is to know...

ABC fun...

A. Attached or single? single.

B. Best friend? I, like Anisa, have best friend from all phases of life. Childhood friends: MSKS, Claire, Mere, and Shannon. High school/college best friends: Alexa and Candy. After college best friends: Heather, Katey, Sarah, and Mandy. I'm quite blessed!

C. Cake or pie? Cake. With EXTRA icing please.
D. Day of choice? Saturdays. When I have 0 things on my to-do list.
E. Essential items? cell phone
F. Favorite color? Green
G. Gummy bears or worms? either! I love candy!
H. Hometown? Starkville, MS.
I. Favorite indulgence? mexican food
J. January or July? Those are actually 2 of my LEAST favorite months. January is too cold and July is too hot. I guess I will go with July because it's summer and I'm OUT OF SCHOOL.
K. Kids? Look at my career choice and I'll let you answer that one.
L. Life isn’t complete without? the important people in my life. And Max.
M. Marriage date? If only I were psychic....
N. Number of brothers and sisters? 2 fabulous sisters and 2 great brothers-in-law.
O. Oranges or apples? APPLES! And I prefer Granny Smith. I eat one everyday for lunch. If I don't have one with lunch, my kids notice and call me out on it.
P. Phobias? snakes and anything that will sting me.
Q. Quotes? I'm a movie quoter like no other. I don't think you want me to to go into all of my quoting tangents.
R. Reasons to smile? SEEING MEREDITH TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!
S. Season of choice? I like each for different reasons: Winter: Christmas, Spring: beautiful weather and the anticipation of school being out! Summer: NO SCHOOL but the weather is unbearable. Fall: football season, and fantastic weather.
T. Tag 5 people. I'm not tagging anybody.
U. Unknown fact about me? I DESPISE watermelon. I hate the look, smell, and taste of it. YUCK.

V. Vegetable? LOVE vegetables. Can't pick a fave.
W. Worst habit? nail-biter and worrier
X. X-ray or ultrasound? never had either one done on me.
Y. Your favorite foods? See "I".
Z. Zodiac sign? Aries

And on a slightly different subject, I have something fun for you to try. While watching Fox and Friends this morning, they shared a website that I checked out when I got to work. Have you noticed the unusual names of Sarah Pallin's children?: Willow, Trig, Track, Bristol, and Piper. Wow. Well, if you click here, you can find out what YOUR name would be if you were Sarah Pallin's child. It's entertaining. My name would be Mangle Blue Pallin. What would YOUR name be?

I love Sarah.

a sweet new baby, country music controversy, and an exciting week!

CONGRATULATIONS TO MATTHEW AND SARAH! Sweet Candice Anne was born on Friday! She was a chunky 11 lbs. 10 oz., and both she and Sarah are doing great! I can't wait to get down there and squeeze that little angel. I love her already! Isn't she a doll?

Secondly, I need your help. A dear friend of mine whose name will go unmentioned (I don't necessarily want her receiving hate mail for the comment she made), had the NERVE to tell me the other day that Vince Gill was more talented than my George Strait. WHAT? Are you kidding me? I couldn't believe she would even say such a thing in my presence. I tried to convince her that what she was saying was incorrect, but she was completely intransigent.

So, I'm asking for your help. I need you to vote on who you think has more talent. Now, I understand that not everybody is a country music fan. However, you can NOT like the music but still be able to admit when someone is talented, right? So, do me a favor and vote (poll is on the right). This needs to be settled once and for all. Thanks.

FINALLY...MEREDITH IS COMING THIS WEEK! I can hardly stand it. She's flying in tomorrow night, so it'll be mid-week before I get to see her. I absolutely can NOT wait!

Happy Monday, readers!

hmmm...

So, I am playing around and trying to make a new header for my blog. The bird is a little random I know, but I kinda like him for now, so let me be. Perhaps I will play around with it a little more later. We'll see.

Meanwhile, it's Friday, so I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Max...

Sweet Max was diagnosed with a serious case of Separation Anxiety and will now be on medication for this problem. HOPEFULLY this will help get readjusted to my schedule. Apparently he is upset with me for leaving him everyday, and his way of showing it is by becoming aggressive towards me. I guess it makes sense. And yes, I take full responsibility for my dog having to take ANXIETY MEDICATION FOR DOGS. Seriously?

Maybe it's a good thing I don't have any children.

Anyway, I appreciate you understanding how important this little guy is to me and by leaving your sweet comments of concern.

Hopefully this is an easy fix.

Have a great day!

weekend mishap

I love jogging. I exercise daily, not only for health purposes, but also as a stress relief at the end of a busy day. On the weekends, I enjoy sleeping in, eating breakfast, and going for a jog mid-morning. That's exactly what I did Saturday. There was a nice breeze, and I was feeling overly-motivated that morning. I was looking forward to my 3-mile jog. Unfortunately I am not the most graceful runner. If there's a pinecone in my path, I will trip over it. If the pavement is uneven, I will undoubtedly notice. If my shoelace even kinda, sorta becomes untied, I will fall.

I think you probably know where I'm going with this story.

The first 5 minutes of my jog was nice. I was jamming to Sugarland on my IPod, and I was feeling good. I think I was singing along to "Everyday America" when all of a sudden, I found myself on.the.ground. Total embarrassment. I quickly stand up, obviously hoping no one saw the 27 year old fall completely on the ground, and I look down at my knees. They were scraped up, much like a 5 year old's knees look after playing outside. I look around, thinking that there must have been SOMETHING that I tripped over. Nothing. I tripped over NOTHING. I probably should have gone home to doctor up my knee, but I decided to continue jogging as if nothing happened. I was just so mad about the whole thing. IT SHOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED! It's sort of become a joke with my family, as this was probably the 10th time I have fallen while running. Not even kidding.

Anyway, I continued jogging and found myself on University Drive. (I was very thankful that I didn't fall here...it was game day and University Drive was already very crowded). I did run into the Overstreets, who were enjoying breakfast at City Bagel, so of course when I stopped to say hello, I had to explain why there was blood practically dripping down my leg. Katey, being the sweet friend that she is, didn't make fun of me. I think she actually felt sorry for me a little. I love her.

So, if you're in town and you see someone jogging with knee pads, elbow pads, and maybe even a helmet, do not be alarmed.

Please don't honk though, as I may get distracted and fall yet again.

P.S. I am taking Max to the vet today to hopefully figure out what's going on with him. Say a little prayer for him if you will. I will keep you posted.

TGIF

I feel your pain, kitty.

TGIF.

one more thing for today...

Here are some pics from the game last weekend (that we won). I know you've all been on pins and needles waiting to see them. Please excuse my tardiness. :)Oh and just to clear up any confusion you may have from the comments on a previous post, I am a MISSISSIPPI STATE fan and I DO NOT LIKE OLE MISS. Any questions?

WANTED: DOG WHISPERER

Where are you Cesar Millan? You need to head down south and meet my Max.

Here's the lastest situation I've been dealing with. Any suggestions/advice that you may have will be greatly appreciated as I am at a complete loss!

I do want to preface the following by telling my readers that I love my dog. A lot. I got him 2 years ago, 2 weeks after I began living alone and he really is the best thing I've ever done for myself. He's loyal, protective, and very sweet natured and I have never regretted my decision to dig into my savings account to purchase him.

Max has become VERY aggressive lately--and I don't mean "playfully" agressive. As I've mentioned, he's very very protective of me. Some of you have witnessed what he is like around me. He doesn't want ANYONE to come near me and he follows my every step. Apparently he's not into sharing. Do I like this behavior? Of course not, but I've always felt that this was his way of demonstrating his loyalty to me. THE PROBLEM: He's becoming aggressive towards ME! This is totally new. He's always loved on me and wanted me to pick him up and cuddle. He sleeps with me at night and stays in his kennel (which is like his little home), and has never seemed to mind being in there. Over the past couple of weeks, though, sometimes when I go to pick him up, he growls and even shows his teeth! And putting him in his kennel in the mornings? That's a totally different story. Not only does he growl at me and show his teeth, but he's even snapped at me before! I don't know what to do. This has become an everyday thing to the point where I dread every morning when I have to put him in his kennel. I'm planning on visiting the vet soon and discussing this new behavior. Hopefully he can offer some assistance. I just have no clue what's brought on this new behavior.

He has such a playful, sweet natured personality, so this is totally unlike him at all.

Any dog experts out there?

I really need to become friends with Cesar.

GO STATE!

2 things make me extra happy during football season: 1. when MSU wins 2. when Ole Miss loses. We started off a little rocky with our season opener, but we pulled through Saturday!

I have cute pictures to post and I'll do so when my computer decides to cooperate. However, I couldn't resist posting the video of Henry showing his bulldog spirit! GO STATE!

Big Bag Sale!

Mad chaos is a good way to describe the Big Bag Sale at MINT! The sale started at 8 am Saturday morning. The first picture was taken around 7:30 am. The line went all the way down the sidewalk. The next picture was taken shortly after the doors opened. It was fun but oh so tiring! If you weren't there, you really missed out!

the birthday boy and dinner with my sweet pregnant friend.

Happy Birthday to my brother-in-law, Trey! I love Trey. He wears bow-ties, short shorts, and shares my love of mexican food. He also adores my sister the way she deserves and that's obviously what I like most about Trey. He and I are good friends, and we are confident that we would have been bff in high school, had we known each other (shout out to my fellow '99 grads!).

He's one cool kid.
Happy 28th Birthday Trey!

I will be sure to make fun of you in 2 years when you turn 30 a mere 6 months before me.

Secondly, I got to see Matthew and Sarah AGAIN last night! They are Louisiana evacuees, and while I'm not glad they're without electricity at their home, I AM glad they found there way to MS for a few days! Sarah is having sweet (and very big :) ) Candice on September 19, and I absolutely can't wait to meet her. Love them.

This will be a super busy weekend, but I'm looking forward to it. Be sure to head to MINT in the morning if you're in town!

(And yes, flowers STILL make me happy even if it's just a $5 bouquet that I bought for myself at Kroger.)

Have a fantastic weekend! :)