Stylish Blog Award!

So, I got a blog award!!  Yea, I know what you're thinking, I go weeks without posting and then when I do post, it is usually just nonsense that only I care about!!  Anyway, Ashley posted a link on my Facebook wall, "Giving you a Stylish Award" so I decided to participate.  The rules to play are as follows:

1.) I have to thank and link back to the blogger who gave me the award - so, thank you to one of my absolute favorite people, Ashley Heath!!  There are so many words to describe Ashley!  She is loyal, sincere, beautiful, stylish (hence the name of the award), kind, smart, and a devoted mother, just to name a few  :)  I've known her less than 3 years but within the first few weeks of getting to know her, I already considered her a best friend.  She is my boyfriend's sister, and I've been known to ask whether or not she will be present at a family dinner before I make my decision in attending.  I seriously *love* his family, and there is never a bad moment spent with them, but it makes things better when I know I will have two best friends present!!

2.) The next thing I have to do is share 7 things about me that most people may not know so here goes...

1 - I have a natural blonde streak in my hair.  That's right, it is natural - I have never colored my hair, not even once.  This may be qualified as two random facts but I will let it slide and keep thinking for the next six!
2 - I have a foot fetish.  If you are wearing sandals, rest assured that I will be checking out your toes.  If you are female, I expect to see them nicely manicured and painted.  No chipping polish, extremely long nails, fungus, etc.  It grosses me out and makes me want to tell you to put on closed toe shoes, but I am too nice.  I just make mental notes and probably won't look at your feet again for a few weeks.  I think it's safe to say I spent a lot of time at my aunt's nail salon while growing up!

3 - I have never had braces.  My teeth are 95% straight on their own and I am grateful.  However, they are full of fillings, but that's another post in itself about my self-diagnosed 'cancer of the mouth'.
 
4 - I was on a swim team as a child but I am embarrassed to admit it for the sole reason that as an adult, I can not dive.  I just admitted it.  You are welcome for the good laughs.

5 - I eat my cheese-toast with sugar on it.  I learned this from a fabulous friend, Hope Moore, one day after middle school at her Mema's house.  It is delicious and please don't knock it until you try it!!

6 - This weekend marks 5 years since I graduated from NC State University.  It is hard to believe that I have been in the 'real world' for that long, but I am proud to say that I had my first full time job at Johnston County DSS for 3 plus years.  I have now been with Lenoir County DSS for 2 years, and a total of 5 years with the government means I am fully vested and will always be entitled to the retirement benefits.wooooo!

7 - I am addicted to the Apple Pecan Chicken Salad from Wendy's.  One week I had eaten it 4 times in 7 days!  I highly recommend you trying this delicious meal of goodness if you haven't yet.  They even have it in a half size if you're feeling like a fatty and not "that hungry" but you just have to have it because it tastes so good (I have done this on occasion).

3.) The final thing I have to do is tag 15 recently discovered bloggers to receive this Stylish Award. This is very hard to do!  If I tagged you & you wish not to participate, no biggie.  I just tryed to think of as many people as I could that I know how to contact, who blog regularly, & blogs that I enoy reading. 

1. Shug in Boots
2. The Barker Family
3. Heir to Blair
4. chit-chatting with the Crews
5. Wades of 108
6. The Harrison Family
7. The Harrison Family
8. The Making of Mo
9.  The Asby Family
10. Souls to Squeeze
11. Southern Whimsical Grace
12. Welcome to Heardmont
13.
14.
15.

4.) The final step is to contact these people to let them know...and yes, I couldn't even think of 15! Mucho Gracias!

DBT

DBT = Drive By Truckers, aka, a band that my boyfriend adores, and I simply listen to their music to make him happy.  On April 15, six of us took a trip to Wilmington to see the band, and live it up as if we were in college again.  The trip was part of Joseph's birthday present, as well as his cousin Eric, and a special thanks to Eric's wife, Jess, at Happy Adams, for letting us know of the event.  I arranged for a great deal of a Hotel in downtown Wilmington (gotta love that Government discout), and one of my good friends provided me with her regular cab driver, as well as her new "legit limo driver who charges cheaper than a taxi".  Yes, her description was oh so true, in case you're wondering.  The girls tried to enjoy ourselves since we could really care less about the music that the band played, but I can assure you that we enjoyed watching all of the people that attended.  There were definitely some sights to be seen!!

6 people stayed in one hotel room...but rode around all night in a limo...that's rockstar status if you ask me!

Joseph & I with Eric & Jess

Please note the lady's 'shirt' at the bottom left..

Jess & myself making the most of the evening!

Doug & his Jess

DBT, thanks for a great 'show'!



DADDY & DAUGHTER

Happy Birthday to my DAD!!

There is no other person I'd rather share my last name with, my love for Eastern NC, my love for NCSU, my love for food, and the memories of my grandmother with.  I still wish you could have shared your green eyes with me, then maybe my blog name would have been better  :)

All jokes aside, I hope your day is simply fabulous, and that you know how much I appreciate you always being a part of my life, near or far.  I LOVE YOU!

*Sorry for taking a picture of a picture with my phone...I know the quality is no good but I just had to share.

my birthday one month later

I've told you once, but I feel like I need to say it everytime...I am sorry for being such a slack blogger.  This post is from my birthday, although it was late March and it is mostly pictures I just wanted to share  :)  We had dinner at The Broken Eagle downtown Kinston and then met up with more friends at the House of Wang and it was such a fun night.  I am extremely thankful for the friends and family that God has blessed me with.

Josh & Ashley Deaver..my very first best friend I can always count on.

Joseph & I 

Mallory, my sweet little helper

Patrick & Ashley, who so graciously made it to dinner after moving into their 'temporary' house ALL day and having to take cold showers..love them.

Mom & Lisa, BFF's

SISTERS!

Andrews' men

And there you have a quick glimpse of my birthday dinner.  I was blessed with a Michael Kors watch, a Bailey's Gift Certificate, CAbi sweater, "the" Nine West nude heels I drooled over, money, a tervis tumbler, some new wine, a sassy new purple clutch, and a fabulous napkin holder.  Now I just have to get used to my new age  :)

TOOTHLESS T's

So, we are two kickball games into the season...and our record is 0-2...not something to be excited about!  It would be nice to leave the field with a win, but we will take the loss as long as we are having fun and not getting hurt.  I mention 'not getting hurt' due to a game last year that caused one of our players to loose his two front teeth.  And he didn't have a jacked up mouth either, he had pretty, pearly white, straight teeth.  You see, that's what happens when you play 'ball sports' and you don't call the ball!!  Although I never was a 'ball sport' person, that game in particular showed me the importance of teaching kids early on to claim your game!!  Who knew kickball would be so dangerous!!  Two of our guys both went full-force for the ball in the outfield and collided.  Guy #1 elbowed Guy #2 directly in the mouth.  Guy #1 ended up catching the ball and we got the out, while Guy #2 ran off the field and motioned to another teammate (who just happened to be a nursing student) to take him to the ER.  Mind you, his hand was cupped under his chin, full of blood, and his two front teeth were literally, poking out of his top lip.  If you look closely at my team picture I posted before, you might can see Guy #2's missing teeth.  He was such a good sport about it, and even came to games after that one to support our team.  He also interviewed for a full time job at Spirit Aerosystems prior to getting his implants (aka, with no front teeth) and got the job!  Guy #1 had to have stitches in his elbow, and he is still playing with us this year.  Guy #2, however, was inspiration for our new team name.  Last year, we were 'Kickin It Old School', and this year we are the 'Toothless T's'.  Guy #2 approved of our name prior to having our tee shirts made, and I can honestly say the name is starting to grow on me.  Guy #2 has not quite made it to the field this year just yet...

 

You may have noticed the term 'ball sports' above...yes, I created that myself.  I danced and cheered growing up, and attempted to play soccer once in high school.  Basically, I lasted on the soccer team for about 3 weeks, aka, long enough to get a sweet hoodie that I still wear today.  I consider cheerleading as much of a team sport as any other sport, therefore I always feel the need to identify 'ball sports' from others.  I'm not going into a lot of detail with my reasoning, because that's not the point I'm trying to make here.  The point is, this 'non-ball sports playing girl', caught an air ball and got an opposing player OUT in our second game!!  I don't know who I impressed more, my teammates or myself!!haha.

KICKBALL DEBUT

We have our first kickball game tonight!  That's right, I know you're thinking about playing kickball in elementary school on the tiny field, but I'm talking adult kickball!  This is our second year playing and I'm so excited I can't contain myself.  And by excited I mean I am ready to get out there and kick the ball as hard as I can, only for the pitcher to catch it mid-air.  Excited means that I enjoy the adrenaline rush when I am brave enough to play in the outfield, but when the ball gets anywhere near me, I look around for the closest guy on the field and allow him to show off by catching or throwing for me.  Excited means our team has better cheerleaders than any other team.  Seriously, we have 3 current high school cheerleading coaches on the team, and I think all but 1 or 2 of the other girls also cheered while in school.  We were not your average ball-sport girls.  We are also the ones who usually enjoy being the catcher!  Excited also involves huge team dinners after games that include adult beverages as our very own personal reward, win or lose.  This picture is of our team last year, "Kickin' It Old School", although some of the people have been replaced but it is mostly the same crew this year.  I highly recommend you check your local Parks & Rec. Department to see if they offer adult kickball.  It is a great spring co-ed sport for your weeknight activities!

frustration

As I've stated before, I am blocked from blogger at work.  This is very very extremely aggravating.  I got the bright idea last week that I would write an email to myself, and then I would copy/paste the email's contents from my smartphone to blogger for a new post.  During working hours.  "WHAT?", you say?  If you only knew how excited I was for my newly invented trick.  Until I got to blogger and could not paste my text!  I repeat, I could not paste my text!!  I had logged in on my phone, everything looked the same as always, and I thought it was going to be a piece of cake while I surprised my friends with a post during business hours on a day that I was working.  WRONG!!  I tried multiple times for a good 30 minutes.  FAIL.  EPIC FAIL!  So then, not only was I mad at myself for spending time doing something non-work related while at work, I was mad because I practically wasted my time in general when my plan didn't even work!!  SO, my apologies for not being a creative go-getter and keeping up with this blog-world.  I confess, I get sucked into Criminal Minds on Wednesday nights.  I can also sit and watch HGTV for hours on end.  No lie.  But I do occasionally come up with good blog topics and I apologize that I have let you all down.  I am going to try to create some scheduled posts and remember to blog on a regular basis.  I know I've said this before, but it gets frustrating when I don't have the time, can't access the site, and my home computer is antique.  OK, my computer is not really antique style like the humongous monitor I had in college, but apparently laptops 5 years ago weren't made for a million pictures and I am too scared to delete them all.  I keep telling myself this is why my computer hums to me on a regular basis, and my battery life without the power cord is literally, one minute.  Maybe one day I will do some research and make a decision on the best computer for my needs.  I hope that day is soon.  However, I think an advanced smartphone is more affordable and realistic for the near future!  Please bare with me and I hope to be back in the regular blog-world soon!