Matt - Brittney - Mary Tyler - Cooper - Annie

 Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

random and funny videos from my phone

i LOVE this video of matt trying to play "Minute to Win It" on Wii at Christmastime...




My tiny she... in bed... being spoiled..




Jordan blowing out her bday candles..to early :) at our monday night dinner celebration...

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

coming along

they're learning people... they're learning :)


Sunday, April 24, 2011

marital exchange of the day

im SO glad Cathleen is blogging yall! :) im stealing all her ideas.

Me: (sitting in the car in the driveway) Lamb, what if i just got out of the car right now and squatted on that bush and peed?
Matt: silence. smiles. bursts into laughter. Hahahaha! That's why I love you so much, baby. Because i think the SAME things all the time! Like, earlier at the restaurant I was thinking like "what if that waiter just came over here and put his butt on the table and farted? Like, right at our food??"
Me: haha!! that's weird!

i cant wait til we have children. they will probably be the quietest. shyest. sweetest. most modest little things on earth, with parents like us, who they will be TOTALLY embarrassed of! *ps i just had to google how to spell embarrass*

Thursday, April 21, 2011

one of the best purchases ive ever made


















for the love of cotton candy.. PLEASE go buy this baby from your local bath and body works. you will not be sorry!! i have been drooling all night! it smells AMAZING!!!!

i also got three super cute shirts from free people @ belk. they are having a sale that starts next wednesday so they let me shop the "presale" and i got the 20% off!! the catch: i have to pick up my purchases next thursday. so i couldnt come home and show matt my pretty things right away. but for the extra 20% off its worth the weeklong wait!

also!!! i went to the new Sephora that we FINALLY got!!!! it's inside JC Penny (how funny) but it is divine! I stayed in there for an hour sampling the perfumes and make up and left with a new NARS blush and a mini perfume from philosophy for my purse.

i hadn't smelled perfumes since christmas ya'll!! that is a long time for me!!!! some of my new faves are listed below.

Also, I included the "note pyramid" of each fragrance. It's always interesting to hear what they are and then start comparing your favorites. they usually have similar base notes. you can look up your perfume on fragrantica.com and it will tell you the notes! :)

Ange ou Demon by Givenchy ...Jamie Ball!! thanks for trying to get this to me.. i now know why you were so set on it! I hope you're still mailing me the sample bc i loved it!

top notes: mandarin, saffron, thyme
middle notes: lily, orchid, ylang-ylang
base notes: tonka bean, vanilla, brazilian rosewood, oakmoss


















Vanilla Grapefruit by Lavanila for Sephora - delicious!

notes: vanilla, patchouli, lime, grapefruit, heliotrope, bergamot











Eternal Grace by Philosophy. This is the one I got the "mini" of. My sister gave me the shampoo/body wash for my bday last year and I LOVE it so I had to get the cute little mini for my purse. If i love the perfume enough, I think this will be my "go to" summer fragrance. It's fresh, light, and feminine.

notes: bergamot, citrus, neroli, geranium, lavender, violet, passionfruit, sandalwood, musk, amber



















I've never posted my favorite men's cologne for yall... so here are my favorites, get one for your man:

Lacoste Challenge - this is their newer fragrance. love it.

top notes: tangerine, amalfi lemon, bergamot
middle notes: ginger, lavender, violet leaf
base notes: ebony wood, teak wood















Lacoste Red. I love this one, too! It's similar to the Challenge but a little more bold.

notes: patchouli, apple, cedar

















Curve by Liz Claiborne. Ok ok ok I know im going back to 7th grade with this one, but everytime I smell this I swoon like a teenage girl. A classic :)

Top Notes: lavender, juniper berries, pineapple, neroli, and lemon
Middle notes: coriander, ginger, violet, cactus, sage, bergamot, cardamom
Base notes: sandalwood, amber, musk, vetiver, cedar, mahogany, pepper



















Hugo Boss in Motion- Dear Lord. this is my absolute favorite. This is what Matt wears (because I bought it for him..he doesn't care at all what he smells like, haha) I LOVE this! Just typing this right now made me get up and go in the bathroom and get it out of his dopp kit to smell it. ahhh

Top notes: Orange, Basil, Bergamot, Violet Leaf
Middle notes: nutmeg, cinnamon, pink pepper, cardamom
Base notes: Sandalwood, Musk, Woodsy Notes, Vetiver

Sunday, April 17, 2011

sunday hymns

im copying cathleen today.

here are some of my FAVORITE hymns :) and by favorite i dont just mean i like them at church... i have each one of these on my iPod and listen to them, frequently :)

first up, River in Judea, good time in concert choir at Eastside. this is literally the exact same rendition and sheet music we performed. im sitting here singing along to my alto parts ...



next.. "My Jesus I Love Thee." my best friend, Megan, walked down the aisle to this song. i still cry everytime i listen to it. it's so beautiful. Also, when I was eight years old, my Papa died. Although I don't remember everything about him, I do remember how much he loved Jesus towards the end of his life. He was a diabetic and amputee (when he passed away he only had one leg) and right after he died, I always pictured him having his "glorified body" in Heaven. I had this image in my mind of him being so perfect and happy in the presence of God and the last verse in this song just reminds me of him so much. I can't wait to see you again one day, Papa! :)

"In mansions of glory and endless delight
I'll ever adore thee in heaven so bright
I'll sing with a glittering crown upon my brow
If ever I love thee, my Jesus 'tis now"



followed by my favorite from my whole life... "Come Thou Fount of Ev'ry Blessing"



This one is my current favorite, played on His radio all the time and we sing it at Newspring a lot... "Our God." All the time, in my head, i repeat "And if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us? And if our God with with us, then what can stand against?"



last but not least (and not the only one.. i have a lot more favorite hymns) but i love "In Christ Alone." and i can't listen to it without getting emotional.



Hope you all enjoy your Sunday!! :)

B

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

lose it



















So, there's this app on my iPhone called Lose It! I used it for a while when we were in Raleigh and it really worked. Last week I went to dinner with my mom and Travis and they were telling me how they were following a similar app called "My Fitness Pal" available on andriod phones. Trav has lost something like 27 lbs. following it and I think my mom's lost 4. So, I started it yesterday and I'll keep you informed on my progress.

Basically, it's a calorie counter. You enter your current weight, your goal weight, and how soon you want to reach your goal weight. You can do "I want to lose: 1/2 lb a week, 1 lb a week, 1 1/2 lbs a week, 2 lbs a week." or "I want to maintain my current weight." I started off trying to do the 2 lbs a week but its WAY too little calories/day for me to start out with.

Here's what you do: You LOG what you eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and exercise. You simply "search foods" and usually the nutrition facts are in there. they even have brand names, under the "supermarket foods" tab and also a "restaurant foods" tab.. so i can enter a "chicfila sandwich." if the food isnt in there, you just look at the nutrition label and enter in the calories. You also can "browse exercises" and choose what exercise you did that day. It then adds back the calories you burned off that day. (in other words, you can eat more if you're working out). by the end of the day, your log looks something like this:


















Anyway, try it out if you have the iPhone ... or get my fitness pal if you have an andriod :)

in other news, today was the parent meeting for cheerleading. anyone who wants to try out had to have a parent there. we had 50!! that was a great turnout compared to last years 20-something. It went really well! :) i was a lot better at "public speaking" than i thought i'd be. i'll credit that solely to my "how to avoid a shark attack" speech from public speaking ( COMM 250) @ Clemson :)

Also. last night matt went downstairs to feed the dogs and Annie wasn't coming in the dining room. Which is VERY VERY strange bc she is a food monster and she's always hungry and jumping up and down in the room when we're about to feed her. Matt went in and noticed that she looked like a whale. It took him a while to figure it out, but I'd just bought a new big bag of dog food earlier and he put it in the floor instead of up in the chair. Needless to say, my she had chewed a hole in the bottom of the bag and ate to her hearts content. So wonder she didn't blow up and die. she was HUGE!!!!!! she's in BIG trouble bc she's been on a diet and had lost 3 whole lbs (which is like me losing 20) so we were proud of her.. and now it looks like we're back at square one. here is the miserable bean...


















happy humpday!

-b

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

delicious turkey wraps

i wish i would have taken a picture!!!

i am trying to eat healthier before our family beach trip coming up in june!! after all, all this working out and personal trainer stuff isnt going to work if im not following a good diet.

so i bought lean ground turkey instead of ground beef with the intentions of making turkey tacos. while the meat was "browning" (it should be called "whitening" when its lean turkey) i changed my mind midway through.

being a STRICT recipe follower, i was a little nervous. i always have a recipe and usually follow it to a T (or tee, or tea, what is it??) lately, i've been a little more adventurous and branched off from the original recipes, but tonight was a total WHIM.

instead of taco seasonings, i added a little bit of "i can't believe its not butter," some salt and coarse black pepper, and my two favorite seasoning blends, Cavender's and Montreal Steak Seasoning. made sure the seasonings had enough time to marinate the turkey and then made wraps. On fat free tortillas (that were for the tacos), shredded cheddar, spicy ranch, and lettuce.

oh, my word. they were SO GOOD! and i was so proud of myself for making it up on a whim. quick and easy. i think i'll make them more often. if i'd have used fat free cheese and fat free ranch, each wrap would have been about 2 grams of fat, total!! however, the ones i made were only about 6 grams of fat a piece. NOT TOO SHABBY at all! :)

whip 'em up! you wont regret it!

and if you don't know what Cavender's is... i recommend you find out. I put it on everything!! chicken... vegetables (like when i make zucchini and squash), ground turkey (obviously), red potatoes that i bake in the oven, green beans! everything! it's awesome.

-B

Monday, April 4, 2011

our weekend and yogurt mountain

in the words of nimbus meade, "hai guyz!"

i dont even know what to write about tonight. hmm. how about just an update..

friday night, mom and i went to the stein mart 12 hr sale and i got my sweet little hubby two really nice spring shirts :) a long sleeved button down to wear for Easter and a short sleeved golf polo. then we went to this new restaurant in greenville, Harry & Jean's. It was pretty delish!! matt had to work late so i brought him home something from there. then we watched Dateline from last week that we'd tivo'd.

Saturday I had to work and then came home and took a cat nap... then Matt and I went on a date night to Adam's Bistro and Yogurt Mountain!

PS- have you BEEN to Yogurt Mountain yet???! Now i know why I see so many cars with YM stickers! OH. MY. GOSH. It is probably the best thing i've ever tasted and 90% of the frozen yogurts are fat free! I encourage you to click on the link i just posted and then check out the MENU tab. Holy toldeo.

You walk into Yogurt Mountain and get your own cup.














then you fill it up with whatever your heart desires... since it was my first time, i wanted to try a few different flavors... so i got Cake Batter, Orange Sorbet, Blue Cotton Candy, and German Chocolate Cake... i know that sounds gross, dont worry, i did NOT mix them all together! the cup was big enough to get little spurts of each. they were all AMAZING and tasted so good!!! ... so there's a whole wall of THIS ...












then toppings...














then you take your cup up to the register.. where they WEIGH it at $0.45/once. Ours cost $13 and mine was only $5... that tells you how crazy matt went. he got peanut butter and cheesecake! :) and his looked heavy! i can tell you one thing... YM is making a lot of money! Heaven knows how many kids we saw going through the line without parent supervision and PILING their cups up with all KINDS of stuff! :)

anyway, it's amazing.

then sunday we went by starbucks to get matt a coffee because he was out at home, headed to church @ newspring, stopped by costco to pick up a few things, went to subway for lunch, came home and took the dogs on a walk, watched the college basketball slam dunk contest, took a nap, did some laundry and cleaned the bathroom, and then met matt's mom at California Dreamin' for dinner. They have the BEST entree salads! Yum! We ended up staying for two hours just having great conversation. Then came home and I watched Army Wives... WHICH by the way was a great episode last night! I'm so glad I finally got on the army wives train, great show!

So we had a really fun and happy weekend!! This week i have a lot of cheerleading stuff going on. Wohoo!! Gettin' closer to tryouts people!! can't wait for cathleen and i to pick our team and get these girls to work! Have a great week!

-B

Friday, April 1, 2011

indecisive because i can be

if you haven't noticed... every night this week, i've revamped my blog. i dont know why. i have been really indecisive lately. im fine with it. :)

also, way back when i was changing our blog name, 4 or 5 different people told me my blog should be called "the nuts and bolts" ... so i am trying it out for a few days, or permanently. it kind of make sense considering my blog is pretty "nutty" and im talking about how our life works.. the nuts and bolts of it all.

i was just talking to my sister about how i feel like my blog isn't as "serious" or "deep" or "intuitive" or "well written" as a lot of you guys' are! i was feeling inadequate until she assured me that it was very entertaining and she loved that i write things exactly how i would speak them. i love reading yall's though!! suzy, i can never imagine being as eloquent as you! everything i read, that you write, i am just like... wow. its beautiful! and SO well put. im so happy for baby dover to arrive. :)

a lot of you others out there are such an encouragement to me with your posts and insights. thanks for that! i know my blog is probably not doing the same for you, but i hope that it at least adds some cheer to your day :)

this video DEFINITELY will... one of matt coworkers sent it to him the other day with the caption "this reminds me of my mother-in-law" ... i cannot stop laughing when i watch it and think of the poor guys crazy mother-in-law at thanksgiving dinner.(sidenote: thank goodness i was blessed with an AMAZING mother-in-law)



happy friday boys and girls! :)

-b