Frankly Scarlet, I Love You....And Melissa Too!

Since I have been busy all summer with my back injury, surgery, and nerve damage nonsense, I have not been able to get together with Melissa for a girl's lunch. As a matter of fact, we have not seen each other since our trip, except for when Shannon, the boys, and I get our hair done.

So, Tuesday, Melissa and I were finally able to meet for lunch. Complete, of course, with great food, lots of girl talk and several photo ops.

We decided to meet at a great little Thai restaurant in Crazyville called Bangkok Alley.



And as usual, I am chronically early to everything, so I had a few minutes by myself before Melissa got there. So, I decided to take a few pictures. First and foremost, I wanted the tens of you who read this blog to know that I managed to leave the house with matching shoes on this time. If you look closely, you will notice that both of my shoes are brown.



I was sitting on a bench just like this one while I was waiting for Melissa.



Luckily, for the tens of you reading this, Melissa got there only a few minutes after me, so I stopped taking pictures of my shoes and outdoor benches.

Once we were seated though, I took a picture of the little "waterfall pot" that we were seated next to. Isn't it cute? It had a very peaceful sound. We enjoyed sitting outside to eat, because it was such a beautiful day.



And no meal out with Melissa would be complete without our meal starting photo.



Some things will never change...Thank goodness.;)

As soon as we were seated and done with our picture taking nonsense (or at least until the food was served), Melissa surprised me with this package. Isn't it pretty? I was so tickled with the bag, that I couldn't even imagine what was inside of it.



Then when I opened it, my eyes bugged out of my head, and I'm not sure, but I think I passed out momentarily.



That sweet Melissa of mine bought me a Vera Bradley purse, in none other than my beloved Frankly Scarlet.

Isn't she beautiful?

Sigh.

I was tickled pink and red!;)

What a sweet surprise! And Tina, if you're reading this, you can rest easy my friend. You no longer have to worry about me stealing yours. (Well, you might still have to worry about your Frankly Scarlet accessories, but your purse should be safe. For now anyway.) ;)

After opening my Vera Bradley in Frankly Scarlet, it was time to eat our soup.



I know that this picture is a little blurry, but I was still breathing heavily from all of the Vera Bradley in Frankly Scarlet excitement.

If you look closely, you will probably notice that our server forgot to give us silverware.
Melissa is laughing and saying, "Spoons, spoons...spoons would be good here."



I was hoping she would ask for some, because I did not want to have to slurp the soup. As messy as I am, I would get more soup on me, than in me.

Isn't Melissa pretty? I think that is probably why our server forgot to give us silverware. It would just give him another opportunity to talk to Melissa.



I'm just saying.

Well, he did bring us silverware, and then he also brought us our spring rolls.



As I was eating mine, my eyes kept rolling back in my head.

I heart spring rolls, a lot!

And as if Vera Bradley in Frankly Scarlet, soup with spoons, and spring rolls weren't already enough....Then they brought out our main courses.

I don't remember what these dishes were called, but I can tell you this, they were delicious!

Melissa ordered all of this yummy goodness....



And I ordered all of this deliciousness that you see here.....



After gorging ourselves on great food and even better conversation, I asked Melissa if she would like to top it all off by going to Starbucks, and she said, "Yes!"

(That was music to my ears, I tell you.)

So, my blissful afternoon lunch with my sweet Melissa ended with another one of my favoritest things in the whole wide world.

A Starbucks Grande Mocha Frappuccino Light, no whip, with a dome lid, for Amy.



Sigh.

Scarlet and I are going to have to get together with Melissa a lot more often.;)

And Melissa, if you are reading this, I love you, friend! Or as Clairee Belcher says, "I love ya more than my luggage." :)

My cup runneth over.

"Friends are the sunshine of life." ~John Hay

(Not So ) Wordless Wednesday

My boys both loved Toy Story when they were little. They could not get enough of Buzz and Sheriff Woody.



So, it will be no surprise to you when I tell you that one of their fondest memories of Halloween was when they both got the chance to dress up as Sheriff Woody.

My mom made them each one of these adorable little cow skin vests like Woody wore.



Howdy, Howdy, Howdy!

Sigh.

My little sheriffs (in photo cut outs).



I entered this picture of Daniel in the Mid South's Fair baby picture contest for the "Three Year Old Boy" category, and he won First Place! He received a blue ribbon, and he and Shannon had to march in a little parade on stage at the fair.



We were so proud of our baby sheriff.;)

Sigh.

"Clothes make a statement. Costumes tell a story." ~Mason Cooley

Magazine Nonsense

For the record, I am a magazine junkie. I love, love, love, my magazines. (Especially Us Weekly, but that is for another post.)

I just cannot help myself. I love to read all about starvation weight loss secrets, fashions that I will never be able to afford, exercise regimens of stick thin women, make up tips for using make up that I will never buy or wear, pictures of good hair that I want to have and proceed to torture Melissa with, not to mention all of the organizing and decluttering tips that I never end up doing.

I think that I inherited my love of magazines from my mother. She hoards loves them as well.;) (Just ask my daddy, but as I said before, that is also for another post.)

And one of the first things that my mother taught me about magazines is this:
The first thing that you do upon opening any magazine is to go through and pull out all of the ads and subscription cards.

So, when my current issue of Redbook magazine arrived last week, that is exactly what I did.



I pulled them all out. Like so.



I quickly noticed that there was a particularly thick advertisement that really stuck out in the magazine. (I tried at first to rip it out, but it would not budge.)

But then, I noticed that it had a very pretty and colorful picture on the front of the thick advertisement. It looked like this.



Then I flipped it over, and this is what it looked like on the back side.



Well, now my curiosity was beginning to get the best of me. I wondered what on earth a butterfly net had to do with Fruit of the Loom unmentionables.

So, once I was able to rip pry the pages apart, I saw this.



Pretty clever, huh?

Fruit of the Loom colorful cotton pantie-clad butterflies.

In 3D, no less.

Please feel free to just completely ignore me.

I really should try to get out more.

I'm just saying.

“I was leafing through a magazine where there was a before-and-after picture of a woman who went from a size 5 to a size 3 by liposuction. Was she serious? I've cooked bigger turkeys than her "before" picture.” ~Erma Bombeck

Grilling Goodness With Tina And Friends~ 3

It's that time again....time for "Grilling Goodness With Tina And Friends."

If you would like to join in on all the fun, click here. Tina would love everyone to come over to her blog and enjoy some "Grilling Goodness."



Now, let's get on with the questions and answers.

1. What is your least favorite aspect of Election Year?

I get tired of all of the mud slinging that goes on during an election year. And although I realize this is not very patriotic of me, I don't like all of the debates interrupting my regularly scheduled television programs. But that being said, it does give me a lot more free time to watch my Baby Girl while she is sleeping.



Sigh.

2. What is something your spouse could do to make you feel special?

Shannon makes me feel special in so many ways. For instance, he tells me that (he thinks) I'm beautiful almost every morning. When we are riding in the car together, he always reaches over and holds my hand. When he walks by me in the kitchen, he always pats me on the butt. (But don't tell him that I told you that, Mmmkay?) He is always affectionate and loving towards me, and I most of the time always feel so loved.

But I feel especially special when he smooches me up. Like this.......



I do love that man!

3. Do you complain at restaurants or do you just tip less?

We do not eat out very often, so when we do, we are just so generally tickled that we enjoy all of our meals that we eat out. But there was this one time that Shannon and I ate at Captain D's, and it did not go so well.

When they handed Shannon his fish platter, he looked down, only to discover a "hair" on his plate. A "hair" that obviously did not belong to him.

Shannon is normally not one to complain or to cause a scene, but he apparently makes an exception when there is another person's "hair" on his fish.

So, he took the food back to the counter and told the person working behind the register that he needed a "new" plate of food. And then he thought about it for half a second and also said, "And I want a NEW plate, don't just knock the hair off of that one." ;)

4. If you had it to do over again, would you choose the same wedding date you had?

Yes. We chose May 18th, because it was my daddy's birthday, and it was the first available Saturday that we could arrange everything on.



The only thing we would do differently is to remember to make my daddy his very own birthday cake. Apparently wedding cake and groom's cake don't replace one's very own birthday cake. Just ask my daddy. He will remind you of that year, after year, after year....;)

5. What kind of car do you drive?

I drive a 2001 Ford Focus.



And did I mention the best feature of my car?....It's paid for.

6. If you have siblings, are you close to them?

I have one brother. His name is John; he is twelve years younger than me. And yes, we are very close. I love him very much.



I just need you to please ignore the big zit on my chin. Thanks for your cooperation in this matter. It's really appreciated.;)

7. Do you spend the same amount of money on each child at Christmas or just buy a certain number of gifts?

When my boys were younger I used to try to spend the exact same amount of money on each of them, mostly due to my irrational the fear that either one of them would think that I loved the other one more.



(Shameless photo plug; sorry!) ;)

But now, seeing as how they are 13 and 16, we just get them want they want...within reason, of course. And since they understand most of the time that money doesn't grow on trees, they try to keep their wish lists in the same basic price range.

8. What phrase do you find yourself saying all the time?

I'm just saying is all. ;)