Whirlwind Weekend

Well it started on Tuesday night when my sister Amy drove up from Florida for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. We then left Nashville on Wednesday morning and made the trip to Indiana together. The girls (dad was working) hung out on Wednesday night and enjoyed pizza and watched the movie "Fred Claus". Thursday morning I got to sleep in a little bit before running a Turkey Trot (5k run) in downtown Evansville. I haven't been running very much lately but that clearly needs to change...especially after consuming the amounts of food on Thanksgiving day and this weekend. It was fun as always to have all the family together and we have much to be thankful for. I didn't take too many pictures on Thanksgiving day but here are a couple:

Four Generations of Quireys: Uncle Jeff, Grandpa, Baby Lincoln, Cousin Josh

Four Generations of the girls:

Friday started early with errands and some shopping (no...I was not shopping at 4 am) and then we celebrated Amy's birthday with dinner at Los Bravos and an delicious ice cream cake from Lics.
Saturday I enjoyed sleeping in again and then I spent some time visiting with my grandparents before I drove to St. Louis to see my friend Randi and her husband Erik. Randi and I enjoyed the late afternoon...shopping of course...and then we ordered in food and watched our traditional scary movie :) It was to bed and early to rise for me as I had to drive back to Indiana to pick up Amy and then back to Nashville so Amy could continue her drive back to FL. I will say that when I left St. Louis this morning at 6 am they had about 2 inches of snow on the ground and it was still falling....it was so beautiful and definitely put me in the Christmas spirit. Sadly, that could be the only snow I see this year as we typically don't get anything in Tennessee.

I got back to Nashville around noon, ate lunch, unpacked and did laundry and have mostly just been veggin. So nice to be home and just decompress from travels, etc. This week is going to be busy and short as I'll be flying to New York City on Thursday to spend the long weekend visiting with my friend Ruthann. I can hardly wait!

You know the Holidays are close....

Can you believe that we are about to embark on another month or so of holiday festivities and traditions? Which means another new year is fast approaching but I want to know what happened to 2008?

I stopped by the grocery store last night after spin class to pick up a couple necessities like milk, cereal, paper towels and toilet paper. You can only imagine my surprise to see "Seasonal Toilet Paper"...I could do nothing but laugh out loud in the grocery isle and say "Are you serious? Really...". I guess the marketing departments have to make sure that every item is updated for the holidays but c'mon folks. Does it really matter if toilet paper has blue snowflakes on it? After all...we all know the common use of toilet paper. And so it begins....Tis the season!

Wow...

I can't believe how fast a week can actually fly by....it was just a weekend ago that I was enjoying myself in Florida and now it's already the end of another weekend. This past week was insanely busy getting everything ready for the families return and also planning and executing a birthday dinner for my bosses husband. Whew...another successful event planned and over. AND I am already in the midst of planning multiple holiday events. Tis' the season...

In the meantime I am looking forward to traveling to Indiana for the Thanksgiving break. Amy is driving up from FL on Tuesday after her class lets out and then she'll stay with me in Nashville Tuesday night...then we head to IN on Wednesday morning. Thankfully, I get "time off" staring Wednesday through Sunday...a much needed break! I can't wait to see all my family and to just enjoy some downtime!

Weekend Getaway...

Well my weekend getaway was wonderful...it's just hard to be back in Nashville where it's cold outside and the piles of work are shouting my name. It was a great time and I've posted some pics below.

I love this picture of the beach...I could stay there all day.

My friend Amy took this picture...love it
Amy chasing a seagull...we don't call her "Crazy" for nothing

We spent Saturday morning at the beach in Destin, FL and of course I had to take Amy to the infamous Donut Hole. They have the best breakfast and donuts...ever! We couldn't play long in Destin because the whole purpose of this weekend trip besides seeing my sister and other friends was to attend the wedding of Charity and Peter. My sister Amy was the Maid of Honor and was a beautiful attendant.

I have the most beautiful sister

After the wedding and reception and cleanup, a small group of us ate dinner at the Chilli's and then myself, Crazy Amy and Alabama Jen had dessert at Roberts....good times! Sunday morning came awful early and we went to church with Amy and then drove to Pensacola Beach to eat lunch at Peg Leg Pete's. I had to take Crazy Amy there since it's all things pirate and she believes herself to be a pirate :) After lunch we got our car loaded up to head back to Nashville but had to make a quick stop to see Erin's puppy Chloe...or as I like to call her Chloe-monster (like cookie monster but instead of cookies she eats socks). She is the cutest puppy ever and I love this picture of her and Amy.

Needless to say that a road trip wouldnt be a road trip without crazy antics and laughable memories...especially when you've had little sleep before driving. We had to stop to get something to eat on the way home and randomly Crazy Amy had a vision at Arbys and I couldn't resist capturing the moment.

Crazy Amy grew a handlebar mustache on the way home.

Friday Travels

Well it's just barely Friday but it's very exciting to have another weekend here. And this weekend I am taking a road trip. It's a road trip with multiple purposes...I am driving to FL with my friend Crazy Amy, we are spending the weekend with my sister Amy, we are attending my friend Charity and Peter's wedding all the while seeing other friends like Alabama Jen and Robert. And the multi-tasking, organized person that I am, has a plan. A plan that will allow us to spend time with everyone mentioned above, attend the wedding, eat at my favorite breakfast place in Destin and two trips to the beach (fingers crossed). Whew...I think I'm already exhausted from my weekend!

Cloudy and Cold

That pretty much describes what it looks like outside today and dare I say "Brrrr"? That wind makes it feel a tad bit chilly....I mean it is only about 45 degrees outside. I so could have enjoyed a day spent sleeping in but that's not the case...church calls.

After church, a small group of us went to eat at Nachos, aka cheap mexican. During lunch conversation, my friend Tim and I realized we both had to make returns at the mall so we actually met there and did a little shopping...more like window shopping. I am not use to having a guy to shop with but it was kinda fun. I have to say though that I didn't realize that a boy could be as picky as a girl when it came to finding a pair of jeans. It kinda makes me giggle thinking about it. Of course, as we were walking out to leave we did get sucked to the big screen TV area to watch the last 4 minutes of the Tennessee Titans vs. Chicago Bears football game. If you haven't heard, the Titans are the only NFL team that is currently undefeated and are sitting with a record of 9-0. Tennessee is crazy about their football anyways so the talk about town keeps increasing when it comes to this team.

I enjoyed the rest of the afternoon catching up with my family via phone and then spent a relaxing evening hanging out with my friend Crazy Amy...who now has the nickname of Crazy Noodle. I started calling her Amy-doodle after our weekend trip to GA but my niece Elaysha brought to my attention that she along with her mom and my parents call Aunt Amy, Amy-doodle so I couldn't call Crazy Amy the same thing. When I asked her if she had any ideas...she said to call her Crazy Noodle (don't you love how the mind of a 7 year old works) so Crazy Amy is now Crazy Noodle :)

Sunny Saturday

Well it was nice to start off today with sunshine although it ended up being cloudy and much colder outside. Since I was in bed so early the night before I was up and at 'em around 7am but I somehow managed to enjoy another hour lazily relaxed in bed before I actually got up. So nice to not have to wake up and immediately begin the day.

I ventured out around 10 and made a run to the grocery store to buy the stuff to make an appetizer and a dessert for the Progressive dinner. Then I stopped by the post office and The Home Depot to pick out some pansies to pot once I removed the dying mum. I did some laundry, "gardening"...if you can even call it that, wrapped a wedding gift for this coming weekends trip to FL and switched out some clothes at my house. It was a very productive afternoon and before you know it, it was time to get cleaned up and go the dinner.

We started at Jame's house for appetizers and then ventured to Amy's house for dinner and then to Bri's house for dessert. We spent about an hour at each spot and had about 18 people come out so it was a good crowd. We started at 6'ish and about 9 of us lasted till about 11pm but with church the next morning it wasn't to terribly late. Here are a couple pics from Bri's place:

I can't recall who got me so tickled but obviously it was pretty funny.

Bri, Me and Crazy Amy

I have to share this...because I think it to be pretty cool. My friends Robert and Melissa have a photography company called Eppic Moments and a couple weeks ago they actually did the wedding photography for Olympic Medalist Picabo Street. So in the current issue of People Magazine (the edition with Barack Obama on the cover), two of their photo's were published for the wedding article. It's not every day you can say you know a photographer that has pictures in People.

Relaxing Friday

So I like to put off work errands until Fridays so it's kind of a more relaxed day than having to work in the office although I still have to spend some time face to face with my laptop. It was a rainy fall day but thankfully the rain stopped before I left to do any errands.

I had originally planned to go camping with some friends which I really did want to do but my life has been pretty crazy busy lately and I knew this weekend would be best spent having some "down" time especially since I already have a Progressive dinner tomorrow night that our Singles Sunday School class has organized. So instead, I met up with some girlfriends around 5:00 pm where we did a little Christmas shopping at Swoosies and then we met up with another friend for cocktails & dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. It was time well spent and still allowed me to be home early. So early, that I was in bed by 8:30 and asleep by 10 pm.

Pampered PM

Oh...another busy week...will it ever slow down? Thank goodness the holidays are close because I am looking forward to some much needed downtime that includes nothing work related. I got my big project done last week and actually spent about an hour first thing Saturday morning getting it finished and dropped off in the mail. Monday was nothing too crazy but we had "book club" on Monday night. Tuesday I spent all day working downtown at the office and then went to a friends house to watch the election outcome. Then today, I got up at the crack of dawn and drove to Parsons, TN to attend a meeting on behalf of my boss along with picking up some wall art she had ordered and dropping off a bunch of dishes that I bought to stock her place settings. I got back around 4pm and spent the next hour working on my laptop and returning phone calls from the day and then hopped on the treadmill to run out some of my stress. And just in case that didn't work, I decided to indulge a little and went to Escape Day Spa and enjoyed a 25 minute eucalyptus dead sea salt soak. This spa is probably the nicest spa yet that I have visited in Nashville and I look forward to going back again. Perfect way to spend my evening any day of the week!

Room Makeover Project

So when I was in Colorado, my friend Becky had transformed her home and it totally motivated me to do the same with my bedroom. So I took to the sale sections at stores like Target (where I found my comforter and shams), splurged a little on shams at Pottery Barn and West Elm (at least I get my employee discount) and rummaged through stores like Old Time Pottery and Marshalls to find accessories. Here are a couple photos I took to show the progress:

I found this corner stand at Old Time Pottery and only paid $8.99.
My last big project is to spray paint the dresser espresso

I need some down time...

Well perhaps from my rather infrequent blogs these days, you get the sense that my life has been pretty non-stop lately...and while that means some fun things going on, it also makes me feel worn down and rather blah. I am soooo tired! And why does it always seem like it's either all or nothing...rather than a steady stream of activity...it seems like it comes in waves...like a roller coaster ride. One minute you are climbing up the hill at such a slow pace that you might be bored with nothing to do but once you hit the top and get released, well hold on to your seats because it goes by so fast that when it comes to a stop, you look back and say "Wow....let's do it again!"
This used to happen quite frequently when I lived in Colorado so perhaps I need to get better at saying "NO" to certain things just so I am not filling up every evening with something to do or someplace to go, thus allowing me to get rest and not feel so spent. This coming week is already shaping up to be like last week but I am intentionally keeping one night for "me" time and am contemplating bailing on a camping trip just so I don't over do it although I really want to go camping....what's a girl to do?

Halloween Fun

Well this was a first for me because Halloween is probably my least favorite holiday and I really have no interest in getting dressed up BUT there is no time like the present to change your ways and with an invite to my friend Stan's birthday (yes, he was born on Halloween and that explains a lot) party, I thought I would embrace the holiday. Since I don't like to dress up, I came up with the idea to be a character that would allow me to be as comfy as possible and not require any makeup....so I went to the party as Meredith Grey from Grey's Anatomy. Super easy...only had to buy a set of scrubs, add in a stethoscope and a name badge for props and your done! Perfect! Here are a bunch of pictures from the party. It was a spooktacular time!

My friends Molly, Patrick, Me, Martisca and Tim

Amy was about to be a vampire snack

But because she came as Buffy the Vampire Slayer she had her stake
Or at least we thought she could defeat the Vampire...I don't hear a heartbeat!
Molly and I both represented the medical field

Hanging out with Alisha, Amy and Jill

Even Vampires get thirsty for milkshakes...

James came as Jamie and Matt was a Wild West Marshall

Stan and Martisca came as the Addams Family