Awards and thank you's!

Shooo goodness, I've got some catching up to do!

I have some wonderful blog friends who have passed these awards along to me and I'd better get crackin' on answering up.

First, the shout outs.  Thanks to:
Lauran who writes at The Real Young Housewife of Southern Va. I came across her blog and we became fast friends after realizing we share the same alma mater (Old Dominion U!) and we're Virginia girls.   

Jennifer from Party of One. She nominated me for an award too a while back and I owe her a long overdue thank you!  I read her blog daily and you should too.

Valerie from Wine And Summer.  She has a superfun lifestyle blog that I also read daily.  Yes, these gals make me feel old, but age is just a number;)

Let me also say this; I love how blogging is such a fun supportive community and I love the friendships that have developed from it.  Phew, okay, let's get down to business!

Some rules:
The award is an honor bestowed from  one blogger to another to recognize their writing and give them a shout-out. It must go to an "up-and-coming" blog, with fewer than 200 followers. Thank you again to Lauran and Jennifer and Valerie! 

Of course with most Blog Awards there are rules...

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you and link them.
2. Post 11 random facts about yourself.
3. Choose 11 deserving bloggers and tag them in your post.
4. Tell them you've tagged them.
5. Answer 11 questions the tagger as asked you, and give 11 questions to the people you've tagged.
6. No tag backs.

Okay--Ready? 11 Random facts about me:

1.  I don't like facebook.  I do have an account solely because I needed it for Pinterest (HA!).  Am I old? It gives me the creeps.  I don't do it.

2.  I've lived in 5 states.  Originally from a smaaaall town in southern Virginia, I have also lived in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and now the great state of Tennessee.

3.  I was a nurse before my babies were born. If you get hit by a bus, I know what to do.

4.  I always wanted to be a blonde. I dyed my hair blonde when I lived in North Carolina but I looked weird.  Back to brunette.

5.  I'm terrified of flying.  I tremble and cry when I get on planes.  It's embarrassing but uncontrollable.

6.  I love Duke basketball.  HUGE fan.  College basketball is to me what football is to the rest of the world.  Go Devils!

7.  I'm 4.5 years older than my sweet husband.  Does that make me a cougar?

8.  My nickname is Rain Man because of my weird ability to solve puzzles in the game of Cranium.

9.  I love dressing up for Halloween!

10. Huge fan of hair bands, specifically Def Leppard and Poison.

11. I can't live without coffee or chocolate.

Eleven Questions to answer: (Hang in there friends..)

1.What is your full time occupation?
I'm a former nurse and now a stay at home mama.

2. How did you get to the place/location where you currently live?
Mr. C took a new position within his wonderful company.

3. What is one thing from your childhood you miss the most?
The lack of responsibility:) Just being carefree and worry free.

4. Do you have allergies? if so, to what?
Yes, I'm allergic to mean people.

5. What is the best feeling in the world to you?
Laughing with my family and friends; also, being near the ocean, it fills me with peace (deep, right?).

6. What kind of person were you in high school?
I was reeeaaally shy but had a great group of friends and was never late with homework, not once.

7. Are you doing what you love with your life?
Yes! I always wanted to be a mom.  Becoming a nurse certainly made me feel accomplished, but I've always wanted a family and to be a great mom.  My mother struggled for years to have children and I had a fear that it may not be easy for me either.  I feel incredibly blessed to have my boys and I appreciate every single day.

8. How would you describe your style?
I would describe my style as classic with a little flair.  I'm pretty casual and there's nothing I love more than a great t-shirt, jeans, and a scarf.  Too bad it's 600 degrees here!

9. Do you have MAC or a PC?
PC (but wouldn't I love to have an Apple..)

10. Do you follow college football? If so, who is your team?!
Oh dear, here's where I admit that I live in Tennessee and don't really follow football, what??!!!?? I can definitely appreciate team spirit and tailgating though, we're going to give those a go this fall!

11. What is your favorite season and why?
Absolutely without a doubt it's fall.  I love it because I can live in jeans, the humidity is typically gone, and I love the crisp fall air.  Love! Love love love!

One more set of questions from Valerie...

So for my 11 questions, we are going to play the "Or" game

1. Coke or Pepsi? 
Coke all the way!!

   

2. Michael Phelps or Ryan Lochte? 

Ryan Lochte, no question;)

3. Early Bird or Night Owl?

Early bird post children, night owl pre-children

4. Salty or Sweet?

Love them together!

5. Beer or Wine?

BOTH! depends on the day, most often wine but my good friends know I love me a cold beer

6. Team Edward or Team Jacob?

Team Edward 100%

7. Eric Northman or Bill Compton?

Eric Northman

8. Dogs or Cats?

Dogs

9. Heels or Flats?

oooh, I love wearing heels but am in flats most of the time!

10. Country or City?

I'm a country girl (but really love city shopping:)

11. Winter or Summer?

Summer!

NOW....here are some blogs I love to read.  If you've been nominated before, you're off the hook, just know that I like ya;)

1.  blonde ambitions ( I know you've been nominated but I had to include you my friend:)
2.  Social Sara
3.  LaLa Land
4.  A Beautiful Life
5.  Lemon Petals
6.  Catie's Chaos
7.  Welcome to Nathalieland

8.  addicted to addison

9.  Life as a Lankford
10.  The Niemeyer Nest
11.  A Happy Wife in NOLA

I'm letting you off the hook with questions; 11 fun facts is enough:)

Annnnnnd I'm officially done! There's way more information than you ever wanted to know:) Y'all have a fun Saturday.

Friday Funnies

 

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You've probably seen this all before, but I love reading e-cards on Pinterest--these make me laugh.  

My parents got here last night and my boys are excited to visit with Nana and Papa!

Have fun this weekend:)

Book Review

I was afraid to put the name of this book in my blog post title in case anyone has read it--eek!  I picked up Bared to You at Costco last week because the back cover hooked me.  It was compared to Fifty Shades (which I loved) so I thought I'd give it a try.

This one kept me turning pages, BUT....it's very dirty and very crude.  If you thought Fifty Shades was bad, well, this book makes that one look tame.  I thought it was kind of a rip off of Fifty, actually, with a few character alterations.  I did a lot of eye-rolling while reading this, it was just too over the top.  The characters weren't nearly as relatable and the bad bad language was just unnecessary to the story.  So.. here's your fair warning, this is one dirty book!

I've bookmarked these to read and downloaded Seating Arrangements.

I read Where We Belong by Emily Giffin recently and loved it.

So, recommendations welcome--what are you reading?

Randomness

Here's a dress I wore for datenight.  Love green!

TJ Maxx 5 years ago; necklace Express

I found this one at Tarjay recently and I love it.  Mr. C hates long dresses but I don't care, I wear them anyway:)  I like this one because it's short enough for me to wear flats.

What is my foot doing?

Did you know you can get Kate Spade iPhone covers on Amazon for $8?  This one's headed to my doorstep.

I'm addicted to biscotti.  I may need an intervention.

I'd like a new planner.  Please don't send me hate mail but I thought the Erin Condren planner was overrated (and overpriced, gasp!).  I really just need something cute with all 31 days on one page (or on side by side pages).  If I can't see the whole month then something gets missed.  I know EC planners have that but I didn't use any of those daily breakdown pages that make the EC planner so thick.  Or the stickers.  As much as I still love stickers I didn't use a single one.  I have no time to place special stickers on special days. Good grief!  I'm changing it up for next year. Maybe Maybooks... you can design your own..

or Sarah Pinto...

I'm really going to miss the Olympic swimmers. I (along with the rest of the world) have developed a little crush on Ryan Lochte.  Attention single sister in law, find this man's number! He's cuuuuuute!

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Finally, the Nashville music scene is hot tonight--we're headed to the Ryman Auditorium, have you heard of it?  They say the acoustics are better than Carnegie Hall, no kidding.  And guess who we're seeing?

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THE WIGGLES!!!!!! Eat your hearts out!

Weekend update: Day at the fair

Saturday we met some friends at the fair and we had a little fun, can you tell?

This was Ashlyn and me getting off of the Enterprise. How funny is it that the other riders are all 12 year old boys?  When I was 15 I once rode the Enterprise 7 times in a row at Myrtle Beach Pavilion.  It was my favorite ride and boy was I proud of that record.  I'm not going to lie, riding rides at 36 is a liiiiiiittle different...I was walking sideways for a while but it was worth it!

That's Ed (Ashlyn's husband, and J, her son) watching us relive our youth.  My boys were off riding a choo choo train with daddy!

Speaking of my boys they had a blast too and rode tons of rides.  Here's Little C and J riding the superman flying thingie.  He loved it!  I can't believe I have such a big boy.

Little C is in the picture above farthest to the right.  He wasn't a big fan of the swings and I never have been either. He actually started crying when the ride started up and it was the worst feeling ever to see him scared and not be able to help him (they wouldn't let me ride with him because of my flip-flops).  (And I should mention it's the first time we've ever let him ride something like this by himself.) I wanted to tackle the ride operator and stop the thing but Mr. C calmed me down.  We all survived thankfully, my little guy settled down, and we even got a good picture out of it.  But we won't be doing that again.

The Tilt-a-whirl operator let all five of us pile into one car.  We were spinning so fast I was seriously afraid of losing my cookies.  So fun but Lordy, this one hurt me.

The boys' favorite ride by far was the kiddie coaster--looooved it! It's so fun to watch them together.  I really wish I could freeze them at these ages.

I did get one ferris wheel picture but I still want a night time one.  Hopefully I'll get another chance this week!

We ended the day with lemonade for the boys and Blue Moons for the old people.  Can't wait to go again!

Linking with some friends..

Lately + plans for the weekend

Last night I was in the mood to cook a good dinner, listen to Adele, and drink some good wine. Fault Line Sauvignon Blanc was wonderful and very pear-ish (I need to brush up on proper wine terminology; it's on my summer to-do list and I'm running out of time!). Dinner and Adele were pretty darn good too.

After dinner Mr. C and I took the boys outside and let them run around barefoot and catching fireflies. I have no pictures to show for it but it is nonetheless a sweet summer memory. Sometimes grabbing the camera ruins the moment. And last night was a good one, I didn't want to ruin it.

We have plans to go to the fair with friends this weekend. I can't wait!  I'm looking forward to it as much (probably more) than the boys are. I love me a fair!  Funnel cake, the smell of fried fair food, the tilt-a-whirl, sno-cones, winning grossly overstuffed teddy bears, oh I seriously can't wait; I love it all!  Bring it on:)

This was last year...

I'm hoping to get some fun pictures this year and to also get a good ferris wheel picture at night.  I'm in a photography rut and I've got to get out of it!  Crossing my fingers that I can talk Mr. C (who is a germophobe and does not share my love of fairs) to go twice:)

Have a fun weekend!
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Oh how Pinteresting!

Joining in the fun at thevintageapple

Here are some fave pins;

Ready for fall...

But still lovin' summer neon...

Sweet little message...

Important at my house...

Love the gray cabinets in this bathroom...

Have loved this artwork by Sugargoo Designs and may try a DIY version....

The big guy starts t-ball soon and I need to do this...

The thing about running...

15 minute donuts are always a good idea.  Thank you Pinterest:)