Success or Failure?

It depends on how you look at it. I decided to give up something for Lent that would really be a sacrifice but would also be beneficial to me. No, I'm not giving up alcohol or sweets... I don't drink or eat sweets on a daily basis. I do use an alarm clock on almost a daily basis, and I am a serial snoozer. I mean, there are some mornings where I hit snooze for an hour and then run around crazy so I can get to work without being too late. It's ridiculous. So, in honor of Jesus' sacrifice of Himself for us, I am giving up the snooze button. Perhaps only my husband can understand how hard this will be, but he doesn't even fully know, because I would never hit snooze as much with him in bed next to me as I do alone.

So, how's it going, you ask? Well, I didn't decide until yesterday that my Lenten sacrifice was going to be the snooze button, so today was my first test. And, I passed. Or, I failed. Or, my alarm clock failed. I'm not sure. I use my Blackberry as my alarm clock, and unless I have a morning meeting or am hitting the gym, I set it for the same time every day. I just leave it on "Weekdays Only", and I don't have to mess with it. Well, in the last two weeks, it's decided randomly that it just doesn't want to go off. So, I didn't hit the snooze button this morning, because there wasn't a snooze button to hit.

Tomorrow will be the real test, because we're going out for dinner and drinks after work to say farewell to a co-worker who is moving (back) to NYC. God give me strength... :)

Splendiferous

It was a lovely weekend in the ATL. On Friday, before I left work early due to the snow, I received a flower delivery. Now, for most married women, their first thought would be, "What a wonderful husband." For me, I was all, "Who the heck sent me flowers!?" I honestly thought they were from a vendor or something, but lo and behold, they were from my handsome hubby! He's never ever sent me flowers before, so it was a sweet surprise. I got 18 beautiful pink, red and cream roses that are now looking gorgeous in the lovely crystal vase I got from my in-laws for Christmas.

Once I got home on Friday, Matt was suffering majorly from cabin fever (he came home Thursday night since they were expecting snow all the way down into south Georgia), so we took a nice walk through our short-lived winter wonderland. Of course, my camera died a few pictures into our walk, which was a total bummer, because we got four inches of snow, and it was prettier than it was last time.

On Saturday morning, everything was frozen solid but it thawed pretty quickly. We got outside to make a snowman before everything melted. Our snowman is still there, but he now looks more like a headless, anorexic snowman.





On Saturday evening, we went to grab dinner at Nuevo Laredo (yum) with some friends before heading to the Nuclear Coyboyz (yes, with a "z") motocross event. Um, wow. The people watching was PRIME, my friends. The premise of the event was incredibly cheesy, but I did enjoy watching them do their tricks. But, can I go back to the people watching!? Holy heck. I mean, it really doesn't get much better than an event that attracts all of the best rednecks from around Atlanta. And, I say that with love, because, hello... I grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, and I'd say my brother is borderline redneck. His saving grace is that he is also a surfer. So, anyways... we got a lot of laughs and cheap thrills. After that was over, we went to a new pub near our house called Ormsby's, and we will definitely be going back. They have bocce ball, shuffleboard (the table version), pool tables, darts, and a few video games (and most importantly, NO SMOKING). Also, the drinks were fairly priced, so we've found a new hangout until we hit our midnight curfew and risk turning into pumpkins.





And, yesterday, we just laid low most of the day and watched the Daytona 500 and the Olympics. I really want to be a ski jumper or downhill skier or something. Or, I'd just really like to go skiing this year. We are seriously thinking about taking a day trip up to one of the "ski resorts" (I use that term loosely, in this case) in North Carolina this weekend, because we couldn't get our crap in gear to plan a real ski trip this year. We're itching to strap on some skis and hit the slopes!

Now we're back to another week and the world keeps turning...

I WON!!! I WON!!! I WON!!!

I won the Seda France-Lavende Provincale Toile Mini Pagoda Candle from Shop Chic Coles! I've never won a blog give away before. What a nice surprise on a Monday morning!

I have a post comin' atcha later about our lovely, random weekend which included the best people watching ever at a motocross event. I thought my hometown (Jacksonville, FL) was redneck... it's got nothing on suburban Atlanta!

It's SNOWING!

Again! Everything is white, and I am about to head home to play in it. We need a lot more before any sledding can happen, but I can see some sledding in my future tomorrow before it melts. Now, I just have to figure out what exactly I can use as a sled... baking sheet?

Hmmmm...

I haven't really had a lot to say lately. Life has been busy, to say the least. Lots of working and traveling for work and trying to make it to the gym (not as successfully as I'd hope). I did drag my butt out of bed this morning to go to the gym, even though I didn't go to sleep until pretty late, so that's good. Excuse me while I pat myself on the back. But for real, I want/need to lose 5-10 lbs and it's just not going anywhere. I've even cut back (a lot) on the beverages of an alcoholic nature to try to jump start this process, but no such luck so far. My basic rule for "dieting" is that I don't... I try to eat very healthy during the week (and very rarely drink, even when I'm at an event with alcohol) and then I can eat what I want on the weekends. That doesn't mean I binge, but if we go out to eat, I generally order what I want with only little regard for calories or fat content. So, yeah. I may have to hop on the WW train or be completely anal and follow my former trainer's meal plan (only former because we don't live near that gym any more). Working out more consistently will help too. I'm thinking about joining a Cross Fit gym in my neighborhood. We'll see!

So, other than that, life is just chugging along. I/we are trying to figure out our trips for the year. I want to do a girls trip to NYC with my mom and sister, I need to get out to Cali to visit one of my best friends, I want to go to Vegas for Miss USA, we are going to the Kentucky Derby in May with friends (so excited to buy that outfit!), and we need to plan our big vacation! Busy! We're also continuing to do work around the house, slowly but surely. I do wish we had a garage, but I love our house, and I can't wait until we remodel our kitchen and bathrooms. We're not attempting that until Matt is back home, which really can't come soon enough. I admit, I do enjoy living "alone" most of the time, but I got married because I actually wanted to live with a boy, and that boy is my husband. We only lived together full time for 4 months before he was shipped down to the booming metropolis of Tifton. I know he can't wait to be home, too! (We're hoping that happens in June or July... I'd like to note that we originally said he would not be there more than a year and it was one year as of last week).

Lastly, on a completely random note, we FINALLY watched The Hangover this weekend. Um, yeah, I was expecting it to be the funniest movie I'd ever seen. I was not impressed. It had its moments, but it was no Dumb and Dumber or Old School or even Wedding Crashers. Tigers love pepper... they hate cinnamon.

Give Away

One of my favorite design blogs is Chic Coles. Those ladies have a good eye. They recently opened up an online store called Shop Chic Coles and they are doing a give away for the Seda France Mini Pagoda Toile candle. Go check out their store and comment under the fragrance you'd like for your chance to win! I love lavendar, so that's the one I picked. It's such a relaxing scent. Go enter their give away and check out all the fun things in their store!

I can't even comprehend what a trillion is...

This is depressing.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704107204575038733246595218.html?mod=yahoo_free#project%3DBUDGET1001%26articleTabs%3Darticle

We have to figure this out. It will never happen, but I wish the politicians would drop the special interest BS and just get their heads out of their butts and work together for what is in the best interest of our country. And, I won't even go into how I think our tax system is screwed up, but let me just say that I support fair tax! Tax people on what they spend, not what they earn.