Spatulas.

First, my mom is hysterical.
Second, the story...
Mom came to visit a few weeks ago and ever since I haven't been able to find a couple of my spatulas. I am not ACCUSING her of taking them...nor do I think she actually did. It is just a little coincidental that they went missing upon her visit.
Yesterday, I got home from Knoxville and checked the mail. I found a set of spatulas from my mom. Just clear wrapped with a mailing label on them. Hysterical.
(P.S. if you didn't know, you can mail most anything as long as it isn't dangerous. It doesn't have to be in a box - just needs a label. I remember working at camp many summers ago and people had things like hula hoops and kickballs mailed to them. Awesome.)

January Birchbox!

It's January Birchbox time! I think I completely forgot to blog about last month's Birchbox - my first miss! - so I will try to do better (sorry Mom!). 

This month's box had a theme of "Go Time" and honestly my favorite part was some little postcards with pretty quotes on them that will probably make their way to being displayed at my office.

 

This is Nail Rock's sequin nail polish. it is a clear polish with a little pot of glitter that you press on your nails after you paint them. This is a full size product and retails for $6.99 which is pretty cool. However, glitter is a beast to get off your nails so this will be a special use polish for me. I did score a really interesting green color which wouldn't normally be my first choice BUT it is Girl Scout green so it will be fun to use it for a special event!

 This is the second or third time that I have gotten tea bags in my box and it is always sort of a letdown. I don't drink that much tea so I usually end up giving it to my guy but I would rather have the beauty product! Either way, Chad will enjoy it so it's OK with me...

 Of all the products I received this month, I am most excited to try this one. This is a Fekkai brand Brilliant Glossing Creme. It is a frizz tamer (that's me!) and has a teeny bit of shimmery stuff in it to make your hair shiny. You only need a pea sized amount each time you use it so this is actually a decent sized sample! This brand is well known in the hair care world so I am always excited to get something of theirs!

 This is a mascara sample from the 100% Pure company. It is pigmented by fruit so it actually smells really good. The full size is $18 which is a little more than I would spend on a regular mascara but I haven't tried this one yet because I got an awesome one for Christmas, thanks to my sister. I will definitely try it!

Finally, I think I might have saved the best for last. This brand is called Paula's Choice. At first, I was like wow....they customized this box something serious (kidding) but then I was excited to see a higher end beauty brand with my name on it! This is the Resist Ultra-light super antioxidant concentrate serum (that's a mouth full). Supposed to be great even under eyes and I am always looking for a good moisturizer that doesn't leave me greasy but does its job. Excited to try this one out!

So, there you go! January's Birchbox...great except for the tea. :)

Sushi. A post for my mother.

My mom was in town this past weekend and we had a lovely visit. I love it when she comes and we just do stuff together. Nothing special - ran errands, took a nice walk around the neighborhood, just generally hanging out. I enjoy her company. Chad had to work this weekend so I had her all to myself for a while on Saturday afternoon and it was wonderful.




Friday night we had a sushi date with Uncle J. Mom, of course, does NOT each sushi and enjoyed a salad and some veggie fried rice (which she always orders when I drag her to sushi restaurants). This visit inspired me...tomorrow we are having our monthly work potluck. They usually have a random theme - whatever the person in charge picked for the month - and tomorrow is Oriental. Sometimes we try to do all healthy versions of our favorite themed food, sometimes we don't care. Tomorrow we are supposed to bring whatever Oriental food we like to share. I like sushi. But I really like dessert.



So, I'm making sushi dessert.




Rice crispy treats on the outside.
Thinly sliced strawberries and bananas.
And homemade chocolate mousse on the inside.


You betcha. It is gonna be awesome.


I typed all this out because I was going to include pictures - since my mom won't see the goodness on Facebook or Instagram - but Blogger won't let me upload pictures at the moment. I promise, they are super cute. And I will try to add pictures later. Love you mom!

My sweet mom.

I might have talked about this before but it is absolutely worth talking about again...so I will. Pretty much ever since I moved to Chattanooga, my mom has done her best to come visit about once per month. She leaves Columbus on Friday, stops in Atlanta to see my sister, and then spends the weekend with me. We sometimes don't do much but fold laundry and watch movies but sometimes we manage to do things that are a little more exciting. Usually, over Christmas break, we both get out our calendars for the next year and go ahead and pick weekends. Sometimes they have to change as the year goes on but usually it is pretty dependable.


That being said, this weekend is mom weekend! I have a running list of things we want to do in Chattanooga - weird things to go see, places to eat that she hasn't eaten before, etc. so we are going to try to knock some of those off our list this weekend. I am excited that she will be here. Sad that Chad has to work and will miss some of it but then I get her all to myself...and that's ok too.

Bilzzard of 2014.

They kept saying that we were going to get some really bad weather. Rain turning to sleet turning to snow and temperatures in the single digits. We went over to the neighbor's house to watch Downton Abbey on Sunday night - walking over in the rain and 50 degree temperatures - and I was convinced that we weren't going to see the snowy results that they kept promising.


It did get quite cold overnight on Sunday night - the 20's or so - and we got about 47 flakes of snow. It is what I would call a "light dusting" - not even enough to cover the leaves in the yard. Seems Chattanooga was at the tail end of that huge storm system - folks south of us got about 22 flakes I hear. However, they were spot on with the temperatures. It doesn't seem to have gotten above 20 degrees today and currently the temperature (on Monday night) is a balmy 11 degrees. Overnight low is supposed to be around 7. The roads seemed to have cleared nicely today even though it never got near above freezing BUT I did get the day off for all of it so...don't read any of this as a complaint. Just reporting in about the weather. I am my father's daughter.


If you think of it, say a prayer for Chad as he drives home from the late shift at the hospital tonight. That is my only weather related concern.

The New Year.

I am sorry that it has been so long since I have posted but I think the only person that missed me was my sister. So, not sure who I am apologizing to...

December flew by. I can't believe that it is January 1, 2014. This year is going to bring some great things - some I already know about (nope, not pregnant, sorry folks... but I'll be chaperoning some girls on a SCUBA trip this summer and to Salt Lake City, Utah this fall!) and some that I am sure will come as a surprise and unexpected blessing. I don't think it will be a perfect year but I am going into it with high hopes.

Christmas holidays were great.  A few days of deep cleaning in the house - steam cleaning carpets, vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, and doing more loads of laundry than I thought possible to have 5 beds with clean sheets - brought my family up for Christmas day. I was so thrilled to have them here - all my people under one roof. It was sweet times. They all left Christmas afternoon and the house was suspiciously quiet on the 26th. Lots of reading - new Kindle!! - and a little more cleaning found us hosting Chad's family for Christmas on the 27th. A house full of loud and love our little rancher has been the past week or so!

Today brings my last day off for the Christmas break and I'll be sadly headed back to work tomorrow. Thankfully it is a 2 day week and then Chad is off this weekend for us to spend a few more days together. I have so enjoyed these days of being home but I am looking forward to getting back to the routine of daily work and gym visits.

Christmas décor to come down this weekend. Wish me luck. The house always looks so sad after being so festive for a month+. Then...finishing the bathroom is our top January priority. Happy New Year!