Ladies Night times Two

Sorry for my delayed posting today!  We got a few inches of snow and of course Charlotte is shut down!

I wasn't going to chance it going into work so I've been working from home and hanging out with Kevin (he has a 45 minute drive south and evidently it was even worse down there).

On Friday night I had a girls night!  We were supposed to go ice skating but it was raining so we went to Mortimer's for happy hour instead.  Then we walked over to Enso for a late sushi dinner.  Kim's hubby, Hunt also came!

Some of us stayed out later and also went to Town Tavern for $1 drafts!

On Saturday, Kevin and I tried a new place in the Elizabeth area called Kennedy's for lunch.  It was really good and something different.  Then we drove around and looked at houses forever!  Not to buy right now, just looking at different neighborhoods!

Saturday night was Jen's bachelorette party!  These are all girls I live at Avenue with.  Jen's wedding is next weekend and we're really happy for her!  We started at Basil for dinner!

Then we went to Brixx where we won 2nd place at trivia and got $50 off our tab!  Woohoo!  Dandelion was next for a little dancing!

Kevin and the guys were out on the bachelor party at the same time so we ended up meeting with some of them at Mollys. 

Yesterday we recovered from a busy weekend of late nights! 

Today, I've made a couple soups and we'll have chili later on for dinner.  Just seems right for a snow day!  ;)

Bachelor is on tonight...can't wait (although I do wish I hadn't read Reality Steve!!)!  Will definitely be switching at commercials over to the football game too!

Social Media at Work

Just wanted to say hello and thank you to my new followers!  Welcome!  :)  So glad yall are here!

So yesterday I came into work and logged on to my computer.  I work for a relatively small company that has never been very corporate.  They could basically careless what we do, so long as our work is getting done and done well.  Pretty cool, right?!

When I'm on hold on a phone or conference call I typically read Facebook or blogs.

When I'm "at lunch" I typically read Facebook or blogs.

When I need to "rest" my mind for 2 minutes, I typically read Facebook or blogs.

Pretty normal, I think!

Well not any more my friends.  My work blocked Facebook.  So crazy!  Of course, lots of folks are talking about it and evidently a bunch of sports sites were also blocked so the guys are upset.  Some folks have said something so we'll see if it goes back to normal.  I mean, hello, we are adults! 

Does your work block anything?  What do you think about it?

Trader Joe's Cookbook

Do any of you feel like you go in spells of the types of things you cook?

Sometimes I'm on a chicken kick, sometimes a mexican kick, now I'm on an anything Trader Joe's kick.

Since Kevin gave me the above cookbook for Christmas I've already tried 3 or 4 new recipes from it and they've all turned out really good!

They all took 20 minutes or less, healthy and great for leftovers.  Can't beat that!

I definitely recommend the book but I will be sharing some of those recipes over the next month or so!

Who Booked These Flights?

Evidently the week before Christmas I was in la la land! 

I booked flights back to back days before 7am in the morning when I had a late night meeting in between!

This may be blah to you but I just have to write down what I did yesterday and today.  It is THAT ridiculous.

Well let's start with Monday night at 10pm when I decided to look up what time I flew out the next morning (I thought it was my usual 8am).  Umm 6:15am from Charlotte to Laguardia (NYC) to Norfolk, VA.  2 hours earlier than usual but same route as I have done a couple times before, easy peasy (even though I think it is so silly since I can fly direct from CLT...$$$) minus the early wake up call.

Anyway....so back to yesterday (Tuesday) --

 - Got up at 4:36am (yeah I have an issue and will only wake up in times that end in 6...different story for a different day)

 - Left for the airport just before 5am for a 6:15am flight

 - Got on the flight and it just didn't leave until 6:50am...for no reason!

 - Late getting into Laguardia, therefore missed my 8:30am flight to Norfolk

 - The Club rebooked me for a 9:30am flight to Philly, then Philly to Norfolk

 - Ugh that was the best they could do and quickest I could get there so I thought wow, looks like I'll be picking up 3 segments within about 5 hours haha!

 - Get to Philly - maintenance issue on the plane...delay 45 minutes.

 - 1:30pm - got to Norfolk!  AHH!

THEN!  I got to my hotel at 9:30pm last night after my late meeting and decided I should just confirm I'm on the 9:15am flight from Norfolk to Charlotte.  Ummmmm no, 7:00am flight.  What in the world was I thinking when I booked these flights yall??????

At least I got upgraded to the front of the bus tomorrow for the short trip back to Charlotte.

I should write a book of my travels and the people met along the way.  Seriously...after 4 years of this chaos, it could be entertaining!

Bless you if you have read up to the end of this post!

J. Crew Sales

In my opinion, there is no reason to pay full price for J. Crew.  In fact, I never do.  Everything always goes on sale and then most times you can get an additional 20-40% off sale items!

I love the above high pencil skirt in the super 120's merino wool.  So perfect for work.

The below Dulphine Open Cardigan I received for Christmas from my parents in the Mossy Oak color.  After a price adjustment, the price went down by more than half.

These "perfect tanks" are just great for layering underneath sweaters, cardgians or other tees. 

J. Crew is mostly good quality as I've only had a couple issues over many years.  One time I had a problem with a suit skirt and I called them and they issued me a gift card right away in the amount I told them I had spent on dry cleaning and alterations.  Great customer service.

Who has given you great customer service while also giving you good deals on clothes?

Kevin's and my Christmas

Yall - I'm just so, so, so lucky!  Kevin and I just feel so fortunate to have our families, friends, work, everything...

Anyway, we had a nice time celebrating Christmas when I FINALLY got back to Charlotte last Tuesday night.  We stopped at Mac's (a BBQ place) for a quick dinner to watch the NC State bowl game (we won). 

My parents gave Kevin both Wall Street DVD's and the below Vineyard Vines crab tie.  Yes, he will be a hottie at our first wedding of 2011 in a couple of months (if I do say so myself!)!  ;) 

He has been wanting a light rain coat for a long time and I found one at Dick's Sporting Goods and knew he had to have it! 

Cowboy boots were the other highlight that I got him.  He's worn them non-stop since last week!  :)

But yall - he went crazy on me!  Ahhh!!  First of all, I LOVE how he wraps gifts. 

Step 1 - Go to my house

Step 2 - Dig out my wrapping paper and ribbon

Step 3 - Wrap paper around the box

Step 4 - Tape it wherever it looks to need tape (mostly on the corners where the entire piece comes together)

Step 5 - Tape a bow on the corner

Hilarious!  But I love the fact that he tries, ya know?!!!

He spoiled me WAY too much.  Like way too much.  He kept bugging me for a list of things so I sent it to him earlier in December.  He went all over town getting me EVERYTHING on the list....

Popcorn and puzzles - our new favorite thing these days (okay these weren't on the list).  Trader Joe's Cookbook.  Itunes card.  Essie nail polish in the little containers at J. Crew.  Aveda paddle brush.  Gold ball earrings. 

And the surprises - Spa day - massage, facial, manicure.  And the GORGEOUS rust color pearl necklace. 

But the BEST part???  The sweetest card he has ever given me.  Tears strolled down my face as I finished reading it.  The niceest card.....ahhhh.

The next night we went to a bit of a nicer dinner to finish our date day we had on Wednesday. 

Of course we went to Basil and then had a drink at Dandelion. 

So, so, so lucky!

Tomorrow, I'm off to Smithfield, Virginia (by way of Laguardia and Norfolk airports!). 

Happy Monday!  Feels good to be back in the swing of things, doesn't it?

Snow, Luminaires, Decorations, Mama's Cookin'

This is basically a wrap up post of Christmas at my parent's home in Maryland.  After this one (oh and one more to recap Kevin's and my Christmas) we'll be on to the New Year but I wanted to be sure I "documented" this!

Below is my 'across the street neighbor' (back in the day) Laura Leigh and I shoveling snow with our shovels from when we were probably 10 years old.  Too funny!  We obviously did use larger shovels last week and helped our Dad's shovel after the foot of snow!

Do y'all do luminaires in your neighborhoods or have you heard of them?  Basically a brown bag (with tops folded down an inch), sand in the bottom of it and a candle.  You space them about 6-8' apart on the street on Christmas Eve and light them when the sun goes down.

They make the streets and neighborhood look gorgeous, don't they?  In fact, my Mom kinda heads it up in our neighborhood to encourage folks to participate.  We've done it for a long time so making them on Christmas Eve is tradition.

Then we pick up the bags on Christmas Day! 

Isn't my parent's front door pretty all decorated?  Mom always does such a classy decorating job!

This is her Santa collection!  She also has a scene of carolers but I forgot to take a picture of those!

Whenever I go home, Mom always cooks lots of crab dishes since I don't get the good stuff down in Charlotte.  It's become tradition to have crab soup on Christmas Day.  It's a nice meal after too much heavy eating the night before! 

The day before I left, she made crab dip too.  YUM.  She always double the crab meat and makes sure it is jumbo lump.  Delish!

Hope yall are ready for 2011!  Cannot believe it was 68 degrees here in Charlotte today.  Hardly seems like January!