Not Impressed.

Last night, my pledge sisters and I had our monthly GNO (that's Girls Night Out) at the viewing of Sex & the City 2.  Were we impressed with this sequel?  Nope.  Was the mutual feeling that the movie was a little... shall we say... forced?  Yes.  I found myself several times throughout the movie swapping sarcastic comments to my sistas to the right and the left. 

Don't get me wrong.  I loved SATC... on television.  There's not a dating story I haven't heard from someone that doesn't remind me of one of that show's misadventures in the dating scene.  However, there's just something about seeing those four really close up on a big screen (and by that I mean, you can see every wrinkle... hey... they're not that young anymore, ok?) that doesn't do it for me. 

If you're up for some mindless fun and entertainment, by all means, go to the show.  However, don't place your bets that it will rock your world, by any means. 

For another account of the night's activities, please read Miss Wolfe's posting here. 

An Addiction and a Farewell

Have you ever been addicted to something?  Like... food?  I'm obsessed with Corn Dip.  Obsessed.  And now I thought I would share the addiction with you, because that's just the kind of friend I am.  This is Sister's recipe, and it's so easy and delicious that you'll be hooked!

Mix the following into a bowl:

(FYI...  You'll want to drain the corn before pouring it into the bowl.)

You can double it if you're really hungry serving it at a party. 

Bake for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees. 

Serve with Frito's.  Preferably the Scoop kind. 

Heaven.  On.  Earth. 

This Corn Dip was served at a "Farewell to Lee" cook-out at the home of our pals the Dudley's.  Lee is heading to Atlanta for a little change of scenery, and we will all miss our "Dupree" greatly!  Watch out Atlanta supermodels... Lee Hammonds is heading your way. 

There's Lee, in between Mr. Smith and the Dudley's.  We'll miss you Lee!

Since we can't go anywhere without our Coop, we took him along to make the acquaintance of Macy, the Dudley's new bundle of joy.  They were instantly smitten, and a new friendship was born. 

There was a little of this:

Some of this:

And a lot of this:

Friends forever. 

And... maybe... some of this:

I can't help it.  I think he's really cute, ok?  And I like him a lot. 

Fiesta Forever!

Sister's Around the House Fiesta Party was Friday night, and we had such the celebration!  What a great turnout, even with the appearance of Mother Nature's wrath earlier that day!

Gift Room Workers... I can't remember why we're laughing.  Either because we made up names for gifts if we didn't know what they were, or because Mr. Carroll hopped in the picture.  Either way, we had a blast labeling those gifts.  Best of luck Sister Bride trying to write thank you notes for them. 

Sweet Maddie Dog made an apperance at the end of the night. 

I'm keeping it real here guys. 

This is my "Mr. Smith, I'm not amused at your tactics and you need to help clean up not play with the dog" face captured by Mr. Wise.  

Attacked.

I was the victim of a bird attack today at lunch. 

In an attempt to water my hanging flowers on the front porch, I casually reached up and took one plant down.  I had noticed in the last few days a nest of some sort being built, so I'm always careful to water around it.  Actually, it's more like a hodgepodge of various grass and weeds, but I was assuming it was a bird's nest, since the other plant beside it didn't get as lucky. 

The vicious vulture, with sharp talons and easily a 100-feet wing span, came at me like a bird of war from it's hide-out in the plant.  I ducked, barely missed dropping the plant, sprayed water from the watering can all over my pants.... and screamed for dear life.  My four-legged children watching from the front door were smirking and I'm sure, laughing at me in their own special way. 

Warn your neighbors, your children, your pets.  Because this evil creature is on the loose, spreading havoc with her aerial assaults to all who may try to upkeep their hanging plants. 

You have been warned.

Sister's Bridal Tea

Sister had her Bridal Tea this past Sunday, and I (of course) took the opportunity to capture as many memories as possible.  She received so many beautiful things!  I can't wait to borrow.... 

 

Sister and Her Bridesmaids

The Smiths are having roast tonight.... our favorite!  The great thing about roast is that we can eat on it for at least 2 nights, plus lunches. 

Mr. Smith likes his with some gravy to put on his rice, so I throw the following into a Crockpot before work and cross my fingers that it tastes good in time for dinner:

• Red Potatoes (halved) and Baby Carrots on Bottom
• Roast on Top
• 2 cups water
• Worcestshire sauce
• Sprinkle Salt & Pepper
• Sprinkle Onion Powder
• Sprinkle Oregano
• 2 Bay Leaves

I'm hungry just thinking about it!  Poor Coop Dawg and Abby have to smell it cooking all day, so I think it's only fair to give them each a nibble.  I'm a fair, just mom to them like that. 

My mom swears by putting a roast, one Can Cream of Celery, and one Can Cream of Mushroom into a Crockpot.  That gravy's pretty delicious-in-my-belly as well. 

How do you cook your roast? 

Cocktails and Dinner Party

It's been a long weekend, folks.  A long, tiring one.  The Smith's are a little beat on this Monday morning.  We had a jam-packed weekend of wedding festivities, but had a blast in the process.

Here are some pictures from last Thursday's "Cocktails and Dinner" Party, held at the home of the Bakers.  Mrs. Baker is a BFF since kindergarten, and as you can see, did a fabulous job with this little soiree.

Me and The Hostess with Mad Party Planning Skills

The Groom (second from left) with some men of the wedding party.  That's Mr. Smith on the far right.  Isn't he cute? 

The Bride (center in cute plaid dress)

with some of her sorority sisters. 

Why does this stuff only happen to me?

So, last night I ventured to Tuscaloosa as a hostess for a "Cocktails and Dinner" festivity for the weekend nuptials of a Mr. Baxter and Miss Cramer.  Mr. Smith met me down there, and while I left the party around 9:45pm to head home to B'ham, he stayed with Coop to enjoy a golf outing today with the other men of the wedding. 

Which means, that I got home around 10:45pm to a dark house by myself.  As I unloaded the car with purse, bag, clothes, mail, etc. I made my way over to our outside trash can to drop off my empty Diet Coke can, then walked over to our back door.  No keys.  I went through the purse, the bag, the clothes, crawled back in the car and search every nook and cranny.  Still no keys.  Predicament, because they are obviously somewhere since I just drove home, but hiding from me.  In the dark... seeing that I have no flashlight. 

Retracing my steps like a practical person would, I end up at the trash can.  I open it, peer inside, and shuffle a few bags around, when I hear them clink down to the bottom.  Undaunted, I turn the trash can on its side and proceed to crawl in, head first, on all fours.  Yep.  Guys, it was not pretty.  I can only imagine what the neighbors thought.  Once keys were secured, I back out (in my party dress and wedges), covered in sticky, mysterious brown goo.  Awesome.  There are no pictures of this, for obvious reasons.

We're gearing up for another wedding weekend in Tuscaloosa!  Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend themselves, and I will be back with pictures sometime soon of the cute party last night and our wedding weekend fun.  Please remember to keep your keys securely in hand at all times, lest you find yourselves waist deep in your outside trash can with week-old trash. 

Where did the Spring weather go?

Mr. Smith and I had a delightful weekend celebrating our mothers.  After my company's Spring Picnic at Oak Mountain State Park, where the weather was gorgeous, we headed our split ways to our respective hometowns.  This seems the safest bet before munchkins come, we're thinking.  Mr. Smith took the Pooper to T-town, and I got a restful time soaking up some parental lovin' in Cullman.  Mom and I tried to lay out on Sunday afternoon after Church and lunch; however, we about froze to death.  What the heck?  Why is winter back?  Is this blackberry winter?  We decided instead to take full advantage of the Lifetime Movie Network's showcase of "motherly" films instead.  :)

Thank you Mom for everything!  For putting up with the eyerolls, kissing the boo boo's, wiping the noses & bottoms, and all the "But why's?" I threw endlessly at you. 

Mr. and Mrs. Smith at Oak Mountain State Park. 

I'm going to be completely honest and tell you that I faltered a little yesterday on the whole "No New Clothes for this Year's Wedding Season" rule.  I had to run to the Mall to pick up some make-up... hello!  That's just a necessity, right?  I had to go by several cute window displays on the way to the store.  And... confession... I stopped in one store and tried on something.  And then I looked at the price tag and almost passed out in the dressing room.  I'm resilient, though.  I straightened up, told myself to put my big girl panties on and just deal with it.  I really do think the trick to not buying clothes (or really any "stuff" for that matter) is to not go into temptation areas, such as the Mall.  You don't know that you "need" something until you see how cute the mannequins/models look in it. 

Budget Nerd Saves the Day!

There's only so many times you can really be proud of flaunting your Excel budgeting OCD prowess.  This week was one of them.  Remember us going to Huntsville a couple of weekends ago for the Carroll Nuptials?  While there we went out both Friday and Saturday nights, to help boost the local economy of course.  When Mr. Smith and I usually go out, we use my credit card, because I refuse to change it over to "Smith."  Know why?  Because people like to say the name "Smith" as their name for their tab, even if that's not their real last name.  Hmmmp.  However, Friday night Mr. Smith proceeded to open a tab under his last name.  I really didn't even think twice about it, and at the end of the night, requested our receipt for budgeting purposes.  Mr. Smith rolled his eyes and handed me a very crumbled up receipt, totaling $16.39. 

Let me take a breather here and tell you that although online banking is the best thing since sliced bread, it's still important to keep your receipts until they clear on your statements.  Mr. Smith is still getting use to my constant inquiries of... "Hey!  Where's your receipt for this?" and his subsequent eyerolls. 

Which leads us back to that Friday night.  Having both receipts from Friday and Saturday nights, I reviewed our online credit card statements on Tuesday morning (because nothing ever clears until Tuesday).  Interesting enough, there were two charges for our Friday night at Humphrey's, not just our $16.39 one, but another one for about $50.  (The Saturday night one under my maiden name cleared perfectly fine...)  Stumped, I quizzed Mr. Smith.  "Did you have another tab open that I didn't know about?"  He professed his innocence and told me to ahem, calm down and wait a few days before sounding the alarm.  Which I did, I swear. 

A week went by, so this past Monday I got up the courage to call Humphrey's and demand a free tab forever at this atrocity and ask about the charge.  Let me tell you, the bartender who answered was not impressed, until I recounted with precision the 3 frosty beverages we had had, along with the correct receipt (it really does pay to have a memory like an elephant sometimes).  Now, I'm sure they get this sort of thing a lot, but maybe they're not used to dealing with a Budget Nerd.  And folks, that $50 was not accounted for in our budget for someone else's free night o' fun.  She forwarded me to the Manager, Melissa, who was very nice, yet skeptical and said she would look into it.  Melissa called me the next day and said lo and behold the signatures did not match and she would reverse the erroneous charge!  Success! 

The moral of this fun little story is to keep your receipts and watch out for yourself!  Even if your name is not "Smith" there still could be someone looking for their own free night o' fun at your expense.  And if your spouse rolls their eyes at you for doing this, hopefully you can have your own little victory day too!

Please, Cooper, help yourself to some cake.

So, tonight I decided to really overachieve as a Domestic Goddess.  After work I did our weekly grocery shopping, cooked a delicious "Brinner" (that's breakfast as dinner, y'all, a Mr. Smith fav), cleaned up, made some tuna salad for lunches, did a load of laundry, yet still felt a little bored.  Why, I know what I'll do... I said to myself... I'll make Mr. Smith a scrumptious cake!  Something to snack on all week!  What a marvelous idea! 

False.

Upon leaving the iced creation on the kitchen counter and going along my merry way, a sneaky devil dog found his merry way to my cake.  Below is the evidence of a Cake Monster  sampling about 1/4 of it, before Mr. Smith caught him on 2 legs snacking away at the counter. 

The Evidence

The Culprit

I'm pretty sure he's smirking at us. 

It's Monday? Already?

Good morning friends!  The Smiths had a busy weekend... seriously where does the time go?  The most important part of the weekend was Sister's Engagement Party in Tuscaloosa, where I spent my 2.5 hours there snapping away with my camera, capturing the memories.  I was actually called "Zap!" by a few eager people in the audience, to which I was slightly amused.  Anywho... the party was a big hit, and I think everyone had a blast. 

All 5000 of the people there. 

Yummy. 

Decoration, or suggestion as to how the bride should wear her hair on the Big Day? 

We may never know.

The Bride and Groom buttering up the Minister.

A sweet hug from Dee.

Special moment at the end of the night between the Bride and Groom.

Here I am with Sister and Mrs. Wise!

  (And fitting into that pink dress, might I add.  Special thank you to Spanx for their assistance and probably that run Thursday night that I'm still recovering from.)

Mr. Smith and I spent Sunday relaxing after a morning at Church and lunch at Cracker Barrel.  One can never go wrong with a meal at this beloved establishment.  Mr. Smith himself finished off an entire "Big Momma's Pancake Breakfast" in about 7 minutes.  It's true.  I timed him, then chastised him because it looked like I never fed him.  :) 

We spent the rest of the rainy weekend catching up on movies: Sherlock Holmes, Up in the Air, and The Time Traveler's Wife.  We are true party animals, folks.  Watch. Out.