..a mini vay-cay..

So I got to spend last weekend in Knoxville, TN. Jeff had a 20 hour layover there on Saturday for work, and my cousin Jason just happens to live there! So I went down Friday to spend time with Jason, had some WONDERFUL Thai food (love me some drunken noodles!) and had a blast watching our favorite movie, Tootsie. Jeff and I spent Saturday wandering around downtown, visiting various little shops, like the Chocolate Factory (I'm female, I HAD to go!) and finding lots of outside art. Check out the yummy Bonbons we got below (Champagne, Kahlua and Tiramisu!) We had lunch at this great little cafe called The Tomato Head.

Now, dinner gets its own paragraph :) Jeff and I love love love sushi, and we eat it a LOT. Every time we visit a new city, we try to find the best place to get some. Before now, the best we've ever had is from this restaurant in Memphis... no longer :) Would you believe that the best sushi I've ever had was made by a spiky haired, big earring-wearing, chain wallet-toting American guy? :) I'm totally serious.. this kid couldn't have been older than 35, but boy does he know his stuff! He is the head sushi chef at Nama Sushi Bar. I could spend 30 minutes talking about how good it was, but you really just have to eat it to find out. If you ever do get a chance to go, I recommend the Royale roll and the Pizza roll :)

..tag happy..

So, I got tagged by Elizabeth, and I'm supposed to post 7 interesting things about me...

1. I collect sand from all over the place... Currently I think I have some from about 30 different places...

2. My absolute favorite dessert of all time is a chocolate chip cookie.

3. I like feet, and I photograph them frequently :)

4. I'm obsessed with perfume... I think maybe it's just the bottles :)

5. The one bad habit I've had since I was a little girl is biting my nails.

6. I really am a natural blonde.. it just gets a little darker every year :)

7. I have two broken thumbs, one of which will never heal.

Now I have to tag some more people (sorry!)
I choose:
daisydo
Tezra
Alina
scrappycook

..birthday happies..

Yesterday was Jeff's 29th Birthday! I have been teasing him for the last several months, saying "I can't believe you will turn 30 in January!" He just gives me that look :) Maybe that will make him feel a little better about only turning 29. I told him he was also lucky because this year is Leap Year, so therefore he gets one extra day before the big 3-0! :) As per tradition, I made him his favorite.. Red Velvet Cake. Just a night in for us.. he wanted spaghetti and a movie, so that's what we did. Sometimes it's the simple things :)

..a fuzzy happy night..

Several months ago, hubby and I made the decision to move the two "kids" outside. It was a hard decision to make, because I love my kitties very much. And they are the only ones that keep me company when Jeff is out of town working. But between the claw-sharpening on the couch by my youngest, and the shedding by my oldest, we had to put them out.

Well tonight it is supposed to get down to 14 degrees here. And the kitties just won't stay in their little incubated house that we got for them. So, for tonight, my babies are back inside :) I really have missed having Raleigh follow me around, and jumping into my lap every time I sit down. She even waits between the shower curtains for me until I'm done :) I'm sure between now and in the morning, one of them will do something that will make me glad we put them out. But for now, I'm happy they're back :)

..a happy find..

Gotta love that Target $1 Spot! I went in today looking for some Valentine goodies for the girls at work, and what did I spy in the Spring section?



The cutest little box of paper flowers! The box was adorable enough, but it contains 40 assorted little flowers in pink, white, blue and green.. it almost makes up for the manager not letting me buy that MM Advent Calendar. I don't mean she wouldn't let me have it for the Clearance price, I mean she actually took it away from me and said "This has been clearanced all the way out.. it can't be sold!" Does she not realize what can happen to someone that takes supplies away from a scrapbooker?! She should feel very lucky she still has all of her fingers after that...

..new layouts of the kids..

Ok, so not new as in "I did these today" but I decided I should put these up here. Don't ask why... just look at them and say "Aww, her kids are so cute!!" :)

..it's snowing, yay!..

It just started about an hour ago. It hasn't snowed like this in a looong time. It's even sticking, I can't believe it. I would love to have to call in to work tomorrow! Heh, yeh right. :) We live next to a field where our neighbors keep their horses, and I couldn't resist snapping some pics of them out in the snow.







And here is the backyard after a couple of hours :)



And here is Raleigh watching all the snowflakes fall :)

..off night..

A little treat for me, an "off night." That means that even though Jeff is home, he wanted Rick's BBQ for dinner (no cooking, no clean up!) and, he's playing XBox so I have free whatever time :) Plus, no work tomorrow, yay!

So far I have cleaned out my car... something that desperately needed to be done... and I've made a couple of cards. The cards are simple, but I kinda like 'em. Gonna try to do some scrapping tonight if the comp doesn't crap out on me.

..bake a little happy..

Jeff let me know that when I made dinner tonight, that HAD to include dessert. I told him I would make him whatever he wanted (within reason.. didn't want to spend 3 hours baking at 8pm, know what I mean?)

And what did he choose? Blueberry pie, made with love :)

..happy new year!..

It's 2008! I was lucky enough to get off of work and travel to work with Jeff for New Year's. We didn't do anything overly special, didn't go anywhere great, but it has become a tradition for us that when he has to work on New Year's, I go with him :)

There was one special thing though... snow! :) Ok, special to me, since we only see it here about every 4 years... and it's never a lot! So lucky me got to see inches and inches of the wonderful white stuff. We even played in it for a while.

Please excuse the quality of these pictures, as I only had my camera phone (I broke my smaller digital camera..sad day)

This first picture was taken from the plane, coming in to land in Detroit.



And this picture was the 5 inches of snow we woke up to in Kalamazoo!